Pandora Slashdotted I got in on the beta some time ago. I had been listening to Yahoo Launchcast but it was always nudging you to interact with it or it would cut the stream. Then the boycott of Yahoo came up and Pandora has been the replacement.

Some of the alternate music offered is alright, some not so. But it does work to expand your listening.  ¶ 11/30/2005 12:41:00 AM 0 comments

  Newspaper websites- deja vu all over again Looking like an evening paper is a good thing because... there are so many evening papers still around?  ¶ 11/28/2005 06:55:00 PM 0 comments

  Booyahoo!- CRS Report CRS report (via the freedom loving folks at FAS) concerning The Global Internet Freedom Act (HR 48, 108th Congress) that was introduced two years ago.

Blazing the trail of freedom with lightening speed in our digital world. The report, conveniently enough, tends to focus on China. I'd say that is somewhat of a deliberate oversight. I also say that it will diminish the effect of any effort.

It seems that the Chinese online community looks askance at any posturing that seems to be meant to simply impugn or embarrass the Chinese government. They don't want to be pawns in the geopolitical struggles.

One of the easiest ways to move in a fair-handed direction would be to begin with sanctions against American companies that support totalitarian internet controls anywhere in the world. By starting our efforts at home, that would send the message that we will live by what we say.

Update: I forgot to mention that Google, the fine folks that host this blog, are also running-dogs of the counter-revolutionaries.  ¶ 11/28/2005 04:32:00 PM 0 comments

  Egypt- A long time comin'... The sociopolitical situation in the Mideast has been a long time in the making. The change to more democratic means of governance is going to take some time. That process isn't gonna be neat and pretty.

Now would be a good time to live up to our image as a shining example of social and political justice. As in a secular society.  ¶ 11/28/2005 02:41:00 AM 0 comments

  Story idea Previous post led me to what seems like a rich story idea; Haile Selassi's visit to Jamaica.  ¶ 11/27/2005 02:52:00 PM 0 comments

  Church of the skeptic About this thing that the King never did drugs; Rastafarians have a different take on it.  ¶ 11/27/2005 02:52:00 PM 0 comments

  It's science, you mo-mo's What a huge waste of time and money. What's next, the unified field theories?

For hundreds of years, science and religion have endeavored in separate areas of inquiry in western civilization. It's worked pretty well here.  ¶ 11/26/2005 07:24:00 PM 0 comments

  Time to shift the debate Kinsley has gotten some unfair kicks in recent months but he continues to produce some of the more sane commentary.

There is little left for those fighting in Iraq other than a tragic heroism.  ¶ 11/26/2005 12:23:00 PM 0 comments

  Alito not to be an easy nomination to SCOTUS The ethics question stings and there is some reasonable doubt. Events have made it open season.  ¶ 11/26/2005 02:16:00 AM 0 comments

  Lazy, boneheaded reluctance to consider another financial model I touched on this point earlier. The more efficient dissemination of scientific research is going to mean a whole lot more to humanity than blog de boudoir.  ¶ 11/26/2005 12:59:00 AM 0 comments

  Ledeen looks to weasel out on the ignoble lie Yes, nothing succeeds like success. And having what appears to be one miserable morass of a failure on our hands, Mr Ledeen wishes to separate himself from the effort by pointing to the failure of the administration to adopt his grand strategic talking points. If only they had done such, we would not be in the difficult position of having to win this war to prove him right.

Neocon reliance on spin and deception seems to blind them to the need for practical, real world thought and planning needed in accomplishing such a grandiose scheme. There were a few generals that got the bum's rush when they attempted to point out some of the uncomfortable exigencies of that upon which Bushco was about to embark. I think those matters that the generals were concerned with had much greater bearing on where we find ourselves now rather than the intemperate selection of debating points.

The only way the neocons could have been any more Stalinistic in their handling of the approach of war would have been to put a bullet in the back of the head of the aforementioned generals. There was a much greater effort to lie (by obfuscation if nothing else), punish and sweep aside any that were not in lockstep with the scheme rather than to engage in any kind of open debate in this country.

No, I imagine that today would have been a much different day had there been a completely honest reconciliation of the intelligence and the concerns of our military planners.  ¶ 11/25/2005 10:13:00 PM 0 comments

  This from Fox? Frost in other unlikely places probable   ¶ 11/25/2005 02:25:00 PM 0 comments

  Previewseek- does what it says Not ready to comment on the overall search quality but it looks like it's in the ballpark.  ¶ 11/25/2005 01:15:00 PM 0 comments

  Ex-FEMA head ready to help Too funny. Who is going to hire him with his record?  ¶ 11/25/2005 01:52:00 AM 0 comments

  The elephant in the chat room

"Hence the many Chinese bloggers, who we shall not link to here for obvious reasons, who have given slightly-gnomic posts along the lines of 'I'm not saying whether there's censorship in China or not - but if there were, I wouldn't want to be the first person to announce it on a world platform'."

  ¶ 11/25/2005 12:58:00 AM 0 comments

  Loadin' up Cheney Maybe they're loading him up with this baggage so he takes it with him when he exits.

Though my first choice is that it is a variation on a Mutt and Jeff routine.  ¶ 11/25/2005 12:07:00 AM 0 comments

  On the parody of farce I just made it around to reading Lehmann's piece on American political fiction. I believe he is channeling the current state of political affairs in this country.  ¶ 11/24/2005 11:45:00 PM 0 comments

  Future Mrs. Limbaugh keeps Cheney from finally nuking CNN Ms. Malkin had a bag of marshmallows ready.  ¶ 11/24/2005 08:53:00 PM 0 comments

  Near miss on that myself   ¶ 11/24/2005 08:11:00 PM 0 comments

  Link spam ambush DC Media Girl is cool, it's the first comment on this post. I've gotten hit with this a few times. Another reason to carefully moderate comments.  ¶ 11/24/2005 07:25:00 PM 0 comments

  And now, Craigslist with the news This is getting some play with the "another bad thing for newspapers" tag. We'll see.

I've got my doubts as to how the unpaid newsperson model will work. PJM is a good example of how even the hacks want to get paid for this.  ¶ 11/24/2005 06:58:00 PM 0 comments

  Shrub musta just forgot about this one   ¶ 11/23/2005 02:01:00 PM 0 comments

  Self-proclaimed similarities to a jackass The Right dances around trying to rationalize, for "pragmatic" reasons, an exemption for something we're not doing. We're here via the Insta-Echo chamber.

Really short on moral authority, but not words, he drags out Tancredo's dumb-ass proposal for bombing Moslem holy places. Never mind that it would accomplish little besides really pissin' off the rest of the Moslem world that is either neutral (by inaction) or favorable to our position: As their witless leader says, "bring 'em on". Lotsa pragmatism there, huh Sparky? All this because he doesn't want morals to get in the way of intellectual consideration of things. As much as they would like to give this a veneer of respectability or authority, it has all the deliberative weight of the morally arrogant, over-intellectualized ruminating of Leopold and Loeb.

Or is just that the thought of testicles wired up to electrodes turns you on, Sparky?  ¶ 11/23/2005 09:26:00 AM 2 comments

  Rent-a-thug in China Follow the link to the earlier story. It deals with the incident in which some sensationalistic reporting by the Guardian somewhat undermined the credibility of these reports. The central Communist government is, intentionally or not, backing the heavy-handed play of local officials by taking a 'nothing-to-see-here' response.  ¶ 11/23/2005 08:52:00 AM 0 comments

  Needed help not a conviction   ¶ 11/23/2005 07:22:00 AM 0 comments

  Roll over... uh, half of Congress? Scanlon has copped a plea and will be cooperating with the Fed's.  ¶ 11/23/2005 07:14:00 AM 0 comments

  Repug assault on habeas One more stupid thing these nazi bastards are tryin' to do.

I smell big political troubles for the Repugs and see a declining influence for them. Every one of these desperate acts has the smell of last ditch effort made while they can still pull it off. Let's hurry up and send these idiots home before they do any more damage. It is a sad fact that once the government grabs a power they hate to let it go.  ¶ 11/23/2005 06:50:00 AM 0 comments

  TPM Investigates I had read Josh was doing this and now it is getting some play. Scrappy is the way it's being described. Let's talk the big money involved in trying to do the in-depth investigative reporting usually required for probing corruption. That's supposed to be one of the saving graces of the big news org's.

Or you can sit around and wait for half of Washington to call in to rat out the other half. You might have to buy lunch.  ¶ 11/22/2005 01:02:00 PM 0 comments

  "...casual and offhand..." leak Of course I had to get this from Fox. Woodward appears to be flacking for his Bushco handlers in what can only be assumed to be some Fourth Estate variant of the Helsinki syndrome.

Bob, the mode of a perhaps staged delivery cannot mask the intent of an administration wide whispering campaign. It seems that a number of high administration officials were making the same offhand remarks to quite a number of different journalists.

There is something that exists between people that share a secret. That feeling of being on the inside sometimes seems empowering. Very little else is common to the Miller and Woodward cases except this issue of why that sharing exists. And in their defense, it should be said that quite a bit of confusion exists in the Washington press corp about those secret relationships.

I've always felt that the driving curiosity of a journalist's ego driven search for truth was dealt with in simple, cliched ways that belied serious ethical consequences. I've said it before and will probably say it many times over because it strikes me as a philosophical certainty: The search for truth is never passive or neutral. Just make sure you carry it through to truth revealed.  ¶ 11/22/2005 07:52:00 AM 0 comments

  Works for me Saves a fair amount of time. Next, the creme de la...  ¶ 11/22/2005 12:41:00 AM 0 comments

  Archangel (Charitable?) Corp. I just got off the phone with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. Archangel is not registered as a non-profit in the state. The proceeds from his book and, according to one web page, his career are now devoted to this non-profit work. I first caught wind of it after one of John Giduck's (president of Archangel) seminars in Colorado Springs.

More to come.  ¶ 11/21/2005 04:00:00 PM 0 comments

  Confused loyalties all around Of the few things Greenberg got right, the attempts by Bushco to shut down the press in this country underlies everything he writes about. And I have to give credit to Bushco for recognizing the weaknesses necessary to working their magic.  ¶ 11/21/2005 12:55:00 PM 0 comments

  The "Noble Lie"   ¶ 11/21/2005 11:33:00 AM 0 comments

  Press Leadership Somewhat as this writer, I use "press" as a general encompassing term for the information gathering and disseminating operations of a number of media types. In their earlier forms, they were thought to be the instruments of democratic enlightenment. Our information society has now changed and imbued them with a slavish pursuit of target demographics. The forces of the marketplace of ideas (that were to assure their social honesty and loyalty) seem to be driving out the new ideas that vibrant, enduring cultures require. This is a failing that has no liberal or conservative bias.

The richness the press enjoys (financial and social) cannot become an excuse to forsake the leadership role that it must undertake.  ¶ 11/21/2005 08:58:00 AM 0 comments

  Stained Glass Bluegrass Filling in for WWOZ's gospel program. Very different but nice.  ¶ 11/20/2005 11:18:00 AM 0 comments

  Dynamic Babes   ¶ 11/18/2005 10:09:00 PM 0 comments

  Deadly for Journalists U.S. forces have reportedly killed 13 journalists and have 5 in indefinite detention.  ¶ 11/18/2005 04:57:00 PM 0 comments

  9/11 Commission- Were they really tryin'? Freeh says Able Danger da bomb!  ¶ 11/17/2005 09:34:00 PM 0 comments

  Bobby, I guess we hardly knew ya This isn't good, but I guess it's what happens when your ego becomes so large that you forget how you got there. I was pretty well along the way towards entering j-school when Woodstein cinched the deal. Oh well, one more hero down the tubes.

Ben Bradlee and Bob Woodward are still tight enough to get Bradlee to make a defense for his boy but it wasn't enough to deflect all the justifiable criticism. Woodward hitting the talk-show circuit with trash-talk for Fitzgerald, while he hadn't revealed that he was in the thick of the story, lessens his credibility considerably. It's the one thing that sticks, no matter what else happens.  ¶ 11/17/2005 06:28:00 PM 0 comments

  Snowman next best to Gucci? As he's pimpin' his tee, Young Jeezy says;

"You gotta understand what it symbolizes," he explained. "It symbolizes a young hustler. If a cat goes and gets fresh, hits the club or goes to an event and he has a Snowman shirt on, it's almost like a white tee. You can throw on a white tee and G your way through the party. You might have a Snowman shirt on and it's all good. Everybody can't afford the Gucci and everything. It's the next best thing, the Snowman."Snowman is a cool dude," he continued. "He's a gangsta too. There's a Snowman in every 'hood, several Snowmen in the 'hood. You gotta be that dude to look up to with the car and the girl. Whatever you do, be the best at it, because that's what the Snowman is going to do."

Even a thug has feelings. For his wallet.  ¶ 11/17/2005 05:54:00 PM 0 comments

  Happy outcome ICANN remains in control.  ¶ 11/17/2005 12:26:00 AM 0 comments

  WWOZ from New Orleans My favorite station is back with a limited broadcast schedule; still no Brother Jess Sunday morning gospel.  ¶ 11/15/2005 09:17:00 PM 0 comments

  Swill Boat 1 The article makes the Fonda/Kerry connection.  ¶ 11/15/2005 08:32:00 PM 0 comments

  Has news lost value? I don't pay the inflated price for the equally inflated egos of the NYTimes. But that doesn't mean that news has lost all value to me.

The news business is changing its delivery behind the technological advances that make it possible. So-called cross platform content will mean that newspapers find themselves in competition with television. Fundamental changes are occurring that will require the business model to change or these outlets will vanish completely. As it is now, a lot of what we consider to be the distinguishing marks will surely disappear.

I believe the current pricing uncertainty is an outgrowth of intense competition in a new market arena.  ¶ 11/15/2005 05:37:00 PM 0 comments

  But Cheney's stock did well   ¶ 11/15/2005 05:16:00 PM 0 comments

  Prison story so right I hope Howie is paying attention to this one (well, I know he's talkin' about it). This is how it is suppose to work.

These things pretty much require a case by case judgment being made. The single greatest harm, in this one, could only fall on BushCo's political fortunes (nobody was gonna storm the prisons in Poland). The negative propaganda impact of this was far outweighed by the need for the American people to put an end to torture.  ¶ 11/14/2005 06:29:00 PM 0 comments

  Kurtz at bat for the status quo First, Howie, let's make it perfectly clear that Franklin wasn't convicted for passing secrets to news folk. He had a sneaky-ass agenda (another similarity to the Plame case) that could reasonably be said to anticipate that happening as a result of conveying information to the principal recipients. But it was only one part of his distribution stream.

And so it is for Rosen and Weissman: If their main concern was an addition to news then an outcry would be in order. The prosecutor evidencing their discussions with a journalist is only used to support the prosecution of a much larger distribution network. That's the rub.

The fastest way to dilute the chance of any real protection for journalists is when every sneaky-ass loudmouth crys "freedom of the press ".  ¶ 11/14/2005 06:01:00 PM 0 comments

  Tactical Missionaries- Spreadin' the Love This organization has come up on the radar. John Giduck, president of Archangel, is pimping a book and has a series of seminars that are surrounded by confusion about his history.

This Newsweek article talks about some of Giduck's activities in Sudan, 2003. According to the article, Giduck had a stated purpose to "redeem" slaves while he was advising on betterment of troops of the rebels of the SPLM.

Archangel is a 501(c) (3) organization meaning it is tax-exempt and donations are tax-deductible. Archangel and Giduck's not tax-exempt concerns co-sponser events. On the org's site Giduck's book is featured and he is listed as having the highest level certification in homeland security. That certification is given by another organization where he sits on an executive advisory board. The certification is listed in the credentials of a number of members on that board.

It seems that in the world we're livin' in, there isn't any fear and death somewhere that somebody can't be makin' money on while doin' the Lord's work. We're gonna be sniffin' around this. More to come.  ¶ 11/13/2005 12:16:00 PM 0 comments

  Catholics vs Robertson (alt text- how many angels can dance on Robertson's pinhead?) I like to hit the high (low) points of the religious right but was gonna leave this one alone, well, because everyone would just get sick of having so much Robertson supplied material. But then it struck me that this was another indicator of the coming religious war between the Catholics and the evangelicals.

The Dover school board was voted out. They are the idiots that wanted to teach Intelligent Design in the schools, thus once again reaffirming my faith in the American voter. They may not get it right every time, but eventually they seem to meander over to the right side of things. This decision is completely in keeping with Catholic thinking on this matter, as recently emphasized by the Pope.

But to Robertson it was the same as the abandonment of god and god should treat the good citizens of Dover similarly. He didn't say that god could stay for the Catholics, no, just get out of town for everyone. This high profile instance was not the kind of defeat god wants the religious right to endure.

And if you think my prediction of a religious war between the Catholics and the evangelicals is off, well, keep in mind that this is just one of many differences between them. And that the fastest growing segment of our population, Hispanic, is predominantly Catholic.  ¶ 11/12/2005 08:16:00 PM 2 comments

  Political courage; late is better than never The Nation can look forward to a lot of flack if it continues to stand behind this position. I applaud them for making the stand. But...

I knew when we embarked on this adventure what the President had set out to do had little chance of success. I also knew that once started, there were entanglements that would be hard to break. Bluntly, it would be a shit-storm that would be hard to put back in the box. The chances of Iraq surviving as a single political entity at this point are next to nil. We probably should give up any hope of maintaining this and adjust our strategies accordingly.

That being said, we now have to look at what will be left on the field when we withdraw. As hard as it might be for the neocons to swallow, we're going to have to work with the EU to check Iran. This is much more palatable, at least to the rational, than the Ledeen option of invading Iran.

Turkey and Israel, good allies they may have been, must adjust themselves to new political realities. The Kurds will get a piece of Iraq and Jerusalem is home to more than just the Jews.  ¶ 11/12/2005 04:17:00 PM 0 comments

  Lameness all around The war drums were beating long before Congress received the intel and being the cowardly politicians they are, Congress was AWOL on providing the resistance they should have.

The President (and his neocons) need to go. But when political justice is being handed out by the voters I hope they don't forget both parties failed them.  ¶ 11/12/2005 04:09:00 PM 2 comments

  Slashdot- man bites guard dog   ¶ 11/11/2005 10:54:00 PM 0 comments

  Chalabi around I wonder if Judy Miller has a date with him while he's in town. Condi won't even be photographed with him.  ¶ 11/10/2005 10:23:00 PM 0 comments

  Anina, call me I've watched all the Cringely webcasts to date finding each one interesting for different reasons. Anina, the WAP queen, wasn't what I would have normally expected out of the show but was still kinda cool and did a fair job of expanding the scope of the show. I've written before on the forecasts of the mobile/cell phone replacing the computer; this episode was a dip of the toes in that stream.

Anina is a 23 year old fashion model (For my money, she looked better on Cringely than 90% of the images on her site; we're talking cute and smart). She had just about completely won my heart when fashion model fluff began to creep into the interview. But she should still call. Woof.  ¶ 11/10/2005 09:48:00 PM 2 comments

  Goofy Day in Kansas I imagine there will be significant differences between school districts in how they handle the recommendation to teach creative design. It will be particularly interesting to see how it is handled in Lawrence, Emporia (both big university towns) and in the KC metro area.  ¶ 11/09/2005 09:42:00 PM 0 comments

  Flip side of classified disclosures Let's see how this runs out. It has been revealed (appropriate choice of words considering the reaction) that the CIA is using old Commie prisons to torture captives. This is now being referred to the Justice Department for investigation of criminal disclosure of classified material.

If they prosecute on this and not the Plame matter, something is really wrong. The greatest harm to the CIA and its renditions that could come from this would be the rejection of this policy by the American people. And that would be their natural duty.  ¶ 11/08/2005 09:21:00 PM 0 comments

  IHT notices the efforts of RSF Cool follow-up on yesterday's press release from the RSF. Bottom line is that the only way to effect the likes of Yahoo and Cisco for what they do in China is at the bottom line.  ¶ 11/08/2005 03:58:00 PM 0 comments

  God is on their side- or else   ¶ 11/07/2005 10:55:00 PM 0 comments

  Rational insecurity letters WaPo on what the fascists are doing. Yea, librarians!  ¶ 11/07/2005 04:55:00 PM 0 comments

  Reporters Without Borders- Press Release INTERNET UNDER SURVEILLANCE

"Investment funds and analysts to monitor what Internet firms do in repressive countries
At the initiative of Reporters Without Borders, 25 US, Canadian, Australian and European investment funds managing around 21 billion dollars in assets said they are committed to online freedom of expression in a joint statement issued a news conference today in New York. As part of their commitment, they are undertaking to monitor the activities of Internet sector companies in repressive countries. The statement is above all targeted at companies such as Yahoo!, Cisco Systems and Microsoft that help the Chinese authorities censor the Internet or operate online surveillance systems.
Background:
Reporters Without Borders has on several occasions condemned the ethical lapses displayed by certain Internet sector companies when operating in repressive countries. The organisation wrote to Yahoo! in July 2002 asking it to explain why it helps Chinese government agencies responsible for censorship. The California-based corporation has for years agreed to censor the Chinese version of its search engine so that, for example, searches for such word strings as "Falungong" or "human rights in China" will display content from official sources only. Reporters Without Borders also tried to get in contact with Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Microsoft in December 2003 in the hope of being able to talk about the consequences of their activities for freedom of expression. Our letters received no reply.
As a result, the organisation investigated other ways of getting its views across. It got in touch with investment funds which are existing or potential shareholders in these companies. Boston Common Asset Management, a US investment company that practices Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), agreed right away to look at the issue. It was joined soon afterwards by Domini Social Investment. These two investment companies began by writing to Cisco Systems chief executive John Chambers to request more transparency about the type of equipment and training programmes his company has sold to China in the past 10 years. Many statements and documents indicate that Cisco Systems has provided the Chinese police with technology that allows it to censor the Internet and monitor people while online. But this request was also ignored. Boston Common and Domini then decided to draw up a shareholder resolution in which they reiterate they request for information about Cisco's activities in countries that are known to flout freedom of expression. This resolution will be voted on at the next general meeting of the company's shareholders on 15 November.
While pleased with this initiative, Reporters Without Borders wanted to go further and get other investment firms and business analysts to take a stand on the issue. So, together with Boston Common and Domini, it drafted a "Joint Statement on Freedom of Expression and the Internet." The signatories affirm that respect for free expression is one of the criteria they will take into account when deciding where to invest. They add that they will step up their monitoring of Internet sector companies whose business activities have an impact on the free flow of information online. And they also undertake to support resolutions favouring free expression that are presented at shareholders' meetings.
The statement has already been signed by 25 investment firms managing some 21 billion dollars in assets. Reporters Without Borders hopes that other investment companies will join this initiative, especially traditional funds that do no specialise in ethical investing. The organisation meanwhile deplores the lack of interest shown by European socially responsible investment companies, of which so far only one has agreed to sign.
Reporters Without Borders points out that this statement is not just targeted at Yahoo!, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. There has been a great deal of comment of late about such cases as the Chinese journalist, Shi Tao, who got a 10-year prison sentence on the basis of information supplied by Yahoo!, and Microsoft's agreeing to censor the Chinese version of its MSN Spaces blog tool. But other companies participate in online censorship and surveillance in China. Google, for example, decided in July 2004 to exclude any "subversive" website from the Chinese version of its news search engine.
Finally, this statement's scope is not limited to just China. It could, for example, also apply to Fortinet, the company that installed Internet filters for the Burmese junta, or Secure Computing, which did the same in Tunisia.
For more information on online free expression, go to: www.internet.rsf.org"  ¶ 11/07/2005 04:00:00 PM 0 comments

  E&P- another smoking gun? This is another reference to what a close reading of the record will show is a recurring theme. Along with the questionable claims that this war was based on, the intelligence community was also providing good reason to question the wild stories. For instance, half the people in Washington knew Chalabi was full of a lot of things including self-interest.

This story is now being tied to Reid's action in the Senate the other day. I didn't think much about it, figured it was largely related to polls and a perceived opportunity. I now think that I should have known there was more to it by the vociferous response from the right wing's echo chamber.  ¶ 11/06/2005 04:44:00 PM 0 comments

  Google video with French and dispossessed themes Interesting video about Romas in the suburbs of Belgrade putting old French made Dyana automobiles to work recycling.  ¶ 11/06/2005 12:48:00 PM 0 comments

  Latest scare- the Muslim street explodes in France From an American perspective, the French have some cultural and social aspects that kinda make them, well, jerks. The undeserved reputation for tolerance was largely earned by the boheme and economic exploitation. Economic difficulties are now bringing some long simmering problems to the surface.

Hugh Hewitt gives Mark Steyn a platform to tell us that the problems in the suburbs of Paris are now the latest version of the gates of Vienna. Swarthy people with dark purposes are loose in the City of Light.

Okay, Chicken Little pandemic.  ¶ 11/06/2005 11:20:00 AM 0 comments

  Web 2.0; Kumbayah, not I finally got around to reading this piece by Nick Carr: spot on. I've been somewhat skeptical of the hype surrounding knowledge aggregation. Oh, I think knowledge is a good thing, I just don't know if it will follow a higher path on the Web.

I linked to a post about this site for physicists as being an example of how Web technologies will further human knowledge. But it will operate largely outside the Jeff Jarvis concept of the blogoshere.

Human nature what it is, I'm lost as to how the long tail of individualization will bring an epiphany. I think the fragmented desires will be overcome by greater economic forces.  ¶ 11/05/2005 07:14:00 PM 0 comments

  Close barn door after... Ethics briefings aren't gonna help. There is a fundamental belief that they are exempt from these considerations. Besides, if all the bible-thumpin' spew hasn't done anything, what's this gonna do?  ¶ 11/05/2005 05:47:00 PM 0 comments

  There's a cancer on the presidency And that very non-benign mass is Cheney.  ¶ 11/05/2005 11:05:00 AM 0 comments

  Righteous idiocy has reached critical mass A life saving cervical cancer vaccine is being opposed because it protects against an STD and might send a message that premarital sex is okay.

I'm blown away. Stuff just keeps gettin' more ridiculous every day. I can't believe these people.  ¶ 11/04/2005 10:15:00 PM 0 comments

  Phish-mail: a response Again, just forwarding a copy of the phishing attempt with the masked link in the email was enough to get these guys to shut down the domain. I use dnsstuff.com (IPWHOIS) to find the hosting information. This is a fairly effective way for everyone to do something about this problem with just a few clicks and a little bit of typing.

Just doin' my part to make the internet a safer place for all of us. Thanks guys.  ¶ 11/04/2005 03:03:00 AM 0 comments

  If the blogger bill is passed... How long before it is hacked?

My guess is the next election cycle and the hack will be more damaging to the role of blogs than splogs have been.  ¶ 11/02/2005 11:02:00 PM 0 comments

  Rummy on the make with Tamiflu Not wanting Cheney to be the only one profiting from this administration's scares, Rummy stands to make some big bucks from the bird-flu panic.

Probably just a coincidence, yeah, that's it.  ¶ 11/01/2005 11:03:00 PM 0 comments

  Miller's assist Let's face it, Miller and the administration had some issues in common.  ¶ 11/01/2005 04:51:00 PM 0 comments