:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 5.31.2003 ::

:: Online Music report ::

From CNET News.com:
Online music on verge of revolution?
By John Borland, Evan Hansen and Mike Yamamoto

Day 3:
Free vs. fee: Underground still thrives

"You have to liken P2P to tap water," said Wayne Rosso, president of the popular Grokster peer-to-peer service. "It is always going to be there. It's free, and people are going to use it. But bottled water makers make a lot of money too."

posted by me

:: 8:34:00 PM [+] ::
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:: War & Iraq ::

From a UPI report:
U.K. dossier on Iraq weapons 'unreliable'

LONDON, May 29 -- Britain's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was rewritten on orders from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to make it look more dramatic in the months leading up to the U.S.-led war against Baghdad, a top intelligence official said Thursday.

Blair's office rejected the British Broadcasting Corp.'s report, which cited an intelligence source.

"Not one word of the dossier was not entirely the work of the intelligence agencies," it said in a statement.

An unidentified expert in Britain's intelligence network told the BBC the 50-page document contained unreliable information and was "transformed" on instructions from Blair's office in the week before its release last September, to make it "sexier."

From The Guardian UK:
Blair faces revolt as US admits doubts

Full Text: The September Dossier

posted by me

:: 10:47:00 AM [+] ::
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:: The $hit on Everest ::

From Yahoo! News:
Everest Summitters Discuss Human Waste

KATMANDU, Nepal - Men and women who have scaled Earth's loftiest height were considering the mundane matter of human waste Thursday at an environment symposium during celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Mount Everest (news - web sites) conquest.


Junko Tabei of Japan, the first woman to reach the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit, told fellow mountaineers she had calculated that over the past 50 years 1 million liters of human urine had permeated into the Lhotse Icefall, the first phase of the Everest climb.

Although the Nepal government fines each Everest climber $4,000 if they do not bring back down their trash and there are regulations about using portable toilets and containers, Tabei, 64, said she feared that "all human waste is left on the mountain."

During the years before regulations, she said, human excrement collected at the edges of the base camp. At higher elevations, it would freeze rather than deteriorate, and there is no soil in which to bury it.

posted by me

:: 10:41:00 AM [+] ::
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:: So Much for the Freelance Economy ::

From Wired
By Amit Asaravala

The nation's job market will seem even smaller for America's 25 million freelancers next month when job matchmaker Guru.com shuts its doors.

Guru Worldwide, which runs Guru.com, announced in an e-mail to its registered "gurus," or freelancers, that it would shut down on June 30.

"After serving the needs of job seekers and employers for the past four years," read the brief message, "we at Guru regret to announce that we will no longer be matching talent with employers effective June 30th, 2003." Representatives from the San Francisco company did not respond to requests for further comment.

Another recruiting software company, Unicru, bought Guru last year. As part of the acquisition, Unicru had always planned to close down Guru.com, a Unicru spokesman said. But the purchase hadn't been disclosed publicly, and the announcement surprised many in the freelance industry who had come to rely on the site for job leads.

"It caught us off guard," said Diane Connell, an independent Web designer who estimates that she and her husband obtain nearly 50 percent of their contracts with the help of Guru.com. "The only way we found out was by the e-mail notice. There wasn't any forewarning that we could see."

Connell is just one of many private contractors who feel they are running out of places to look for work. Freelance message forums are dotted with postings from individuals seeking advice on how to reel in more projects. And a handful of Guru competitors such as Ants.com and eWanted.com have already shut down because of a dearth of job postings.

The trend suggests that predictions of an economy run by freelancers -- such as those made by Daniel Pink in his book Free Agent Nation, and by MIT's Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher in their 1998 paper, "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy" -- were shortsighted.

In 2000, research firm EPIC/MRA of Lansing, Michigan, estimated that 41 percent of all Americans would be private contractors by 2010. But today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that self-employment numbers have not grown at all over the past four years.

Meanwhile, the number of available jobs continues to decline, pushing freelancers to compete for fewer projects at lower rates.

Freelancers now crowd the few remaining project marketplaces, resulting in situations like that at Emoonlighter.com, where a reported 316,000 contractors vie for jobs from just 30,000 businesses.

Hans Bukow, CEO of eWork Exchange, says he has seen IT staffing opportunities drop off by at least 50 percent since 1999. He readily admits that his company's marketplace is no longer functional because of such dips in available projects.

"There are really no jobs in the Exchange right now," said Bukow. "Sure, some people can use it to find contracts, but not in a sustainable manner."

In order to cope with the changing market, Bukow is shifting eWork's mission away from serving freelancers and more toward providing businesses with automated staffing software.

The move may further disenfranchise freelancers who say that the current buyer's market already favors businesses, but Bukow believes the shift is a necessary evolution for the industry.

The sentiment is shared by executives at Elance, a Sunnyvale, California, services procurement company that takes its name from the Malone and Laubacher paper about the e-lance economy.

"A lot of contractors don't realize that corporations have to comply with a number of restrictions on hiring," said Elance vice president Tim Reed. Software will help companies better manage those restrictions so they can open up more of their business to outsourcing.

"We will see an e-lance economy," said Reed. "It's just a matter of how quickly companies can manage the change process."

Unfortunately, for freelancers that change isn't coming quickly enough.

"There are definitely more people looking for this type of work than there are jobs available," said Connell, adding that companies are using this to their advantage to negotiate low fees for high skill sets. "It's becoming more dog-eat-dog."

posted by me

:: 9:24:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Online Music report ::

From CNET News.com:
Online music on verge of revolution?
By John Borland, Evan Hansen and Mike Yamamoto

Day 2:
Microsoft, again: Apple's old nemesis

Today, with an uncomfortable sense of deja vu, the Mac maker is facing a crossroads similar to one it encountered in the 1980s: whether to develop and promote technologies exclusively for Apple products or follow Microsoft's PC plan and work with as many partners as possible in hopes of becoming the music service used by all, regardless of software or hardware differences.

Apple has so far benefited from the music industry's reluctance to cede too much control to Microsoft. But the Mac maker will need to deal with Microsoft at some point, as a competitor or an ally, while the digital music business quickly evolves and various players begin taking sides.

posted by me

:: 8:27:00 AM [+] ::
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:: In other news... ::

Lord of the Rings musical planned for London stage
By Imogen Tilden

Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien's classic trilogy has been feted for its technical wizardry and stunning realisation of Tolkien's Middle Earth. It's also been a source of relief that no hobbit, dwarf or wizard, not even Legolas the elf, breaks into song at any point. The book itself features a cast of thousands, few of whom are human, and plays out in the deepest caves and highest mountains.

So you might wonder whether - bound by a single stage and few means of optical trickery - a theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings, and a musical at that, is not an impossible project.

Nonetheless, it was announced today that the show will receive its world premiere in London in spring 2005, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the completion of the trilogy with the publication of The Return of the King.

posted by me

:: 10:07:00 AM [+] ::
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:: War on terror has heightened insecurity, Amnesty International says ::

An AP report from The San Francisco Chronicle:

In its annual report, the international human rights organization said that human rights have been threatened, international laws have been undermined and governments have been shielded from scrutiny -- all in the cause of fighting terrorism.

"Draconian measures by democratic as well as autocratic governments to intrude and intercept, to arrest and detain suspects without trial and to deport people with no regard to their fate, weakened human rights protection of individuals as well as respect for the standards of international law," said Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary-general.

"The USA continued to detain prisoners from the war in Afghanistan in defiance of international humanitarian law, turned a blind eye to reports of torture or ill-treatment of suspects by its officials and allies, and sought to undermine the International Criminal Court through bilateral agreements. In the process, it undermined its own moral authority to speak out against human rights violations in other parts of the world.

"Action that makes people feel insecure cannot make states or societies secure. Because of the real or alleged actions of a few individuals, entire communities identified by race, religion or national origin are being viewed with suspicion. The result is growing unease and uncertainty among large sections of the population."

From The Guardian UK:
War on terror has trampled on human rights, says Amnesty

The "war on terror" has left people around the world feeling more scared than at any time since the cold war ended, Amnesty International claimed today.

The organisation's annual report also said that the fight against terrorism was being used by countries including the US and Britain as an excuse to trample on human rights.

People around the world were feeling more insecure than they had for decades despite the huge sums being spent to fight terrorism following the September 11 attacks on the US, Amnesty said.

The campaigning group's secretary-general, Irene Khan, said: "What would have been unacceptable on September 10 2001, is now becoming almost the norm."

She added: "In the name of security, politics and profit, human rights were trampled the world over by governments, armed groups and corporate activity."

posted by me

:: 9:56:00 AM [+] ::
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:: For your consideration ::

Copy Protection Is a Crime
…against humanity. Society is based on bending the rules.
By David Weinberger

We're on the verge of instituting digital rights management. What do computers do best? Obey rules. What do they do worst? Allow latitude. Why? Because computers don't know when to look the other way.

We're screwed. Not because we MP3 cowboys and cowgirls will not have to pay for content we've been "stealing." No, we're screwed because we're undercutting the basis of our shared intellectual and creative lives. For us to talk, argue, try out ideas, tear down and build up thoughts, assimilate and appropriate concepts - heck, just to be together in public - we have to grant all sorts of leeway. That's how ideas breed, how cultures get built. If any public space needs plenty of light, air, and room to play, it's the marketplace of ideas.

There are times when rules need to be imposed within that marketplace, whether they're international laws against bootleg CDs or the right of someone to sue for libel. But the fact that sometimes we resort to rules shouldn't lead us to think that they are the norm. In fact, leeway is the default and rules are the exception.

Fairness means knowing when to make exceptions. After all, applying rules equally is easy. Any bureaucrat can do it. It's far harder to know when to bend or even ignore the rules. That requires being sensitive to individual needs, understanding the larger context, balancing competing values, and forgiving transgressions when appropriate.

But in the digital world - the global marketplace of ideas made real - we're on the verge of handing amorphous, context-dependent decisions to hard-coded software incapable of applying the snicker test. This is a problem, and not one that more and better programming can fix. That would just add more rules. What we really need is to recognize that the world - online and off - is necessarily imperfect, and that it's important it stay that way.

posted by me

:: 9:48:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Blogging in the News ::

From Wired:
Blogs Opening Iranian Society?
By Michelle Delio

"Until there is a free press in Iran again, weblogs will flourish. In the last few years about 90 (pro-democracy) newspapers in Iran have been shut down. So people have turned to the Internet to get news," Derakhshan said Friday during his presentation at BlogTalk, a two-day conference on weblogs at the Danube University Krems Center for New Media in Vienna.

The conference was designed for a European audience and is focused on personal and business uses of blogs.

Just as Westerners use blogs to make contact with others and share intimate thoughts, Iranians have adopted the medium to express themselves. But online honesty often requires anonymity in Iran, where the religious police have broad powers to arrest those too eager to embrace Western ways.

posted by me

:: 9:23:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Online Music report ::

From CNET News.com:
Online music on verge of revolution
By John Borland, Evan Hansen and Mike Yamamoto
May 28, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

A generation from now, historians may look back at 2003 as a year that redefined popular music.

Although the significance of Apple Computer's recently announced iTunes music service is debatable, it underscores an undeniable trend toward bringing digital music to the masses. This three-day special report examines myriad elements of the music universe that were unthinkable only a few years ago.


Day 1:
State of the art: A medium reborn

Many in the music industry are banking on downloads and other digital services to help rescue a business that has seen a precipitous drop in the sale of albums in recent years. The industry has in part blamed that decline on the huge number of songs downloaded through file-swapping services, but many executives speak candidly about online distribution as the key to a much larger resurgence in profits.

"We all have to recognize that industry is going to get smaller before it gets larger," one senior label executive said. "The game is to take the significant expansion in overall consumption and find a way to win it back...As the industry seeks those new paradigms, it's going to have to do it in a context where it is going to shrink for a while."

How long is anyone's guess. The bitter and protracted fight against free file-swapping services such as Kazaa and Morpheus has led to a backlash against the labels, particularly among young people, and music labels are hoping to rehabilitate the idea of paying for music for the next generation.

"Music is the most important thing in a teenager's life," said Strauss Zelnick, former chief executive of BMG Entertainment. "It defines our society."

postedby me

:: 9:11:00 AM [+] ::
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:: A Walk To Remember ::

From the Cumberland Times-News:
Woman carrying complaints to president, one step at a time
Walk a 'literal interpretation' of First Amendment
By Alison Bunting

CUMBERLAND -- Jeanett Wallis didn't care about politics until she was tear-gassed by Seattle police officers during a protest at the World Trade Organization in December 1999.

“It was illegal to walk inside this radius,” she said, explaining that she didn’t do that. But she said the wind carried tear gas into her own neighborhood and the man next to her became disabled. When she reacted in anger, she said, the police sprayed her and the man with pepper spray.

After that, Wallis helped organize a rally to protest the presidential election. Now she’s walking across the country to personally carry grievances to him — any grievance that anyone cares to write down.

“It’s a literal interpretation of the First Amendment, the right to petition the government for grievances,” she said.

Wallis stopped in Cumberland on Thursday after a brief stay in Frostburg. She plans to finish her trek on the C&O Canal towpath.

With a sign attached to the back of her knapsack that says "5,000 miles on foot for democracy," many people approach her and ask questions. Several people stopped her in Frostburg, she said.

"Lots of people ask me about my dog. She’s a good contact person. "Wallis rescued the dog from a local pound before beginning her trip, naming her Jet. The dog either walks with Wallis or rides in the support car.

"I try to go to VFWs, churches, but mostly I just let people contact me."

Wallis began her walk April 1, 2001.

"The first winter I stopped. Couldn’t make it over the Rockies before winter ... and I stopped on Sept. 11."

Wallis went back to Utah on April 1, 2002, and walked through the Midwest during that winter.

She carries a parcel of letters from people she has met along the way. The letters contain grievances for the president.

"In the beginning it was about the election, reforming the election process, then, the policies of the Bush administration, environmental protection, wanting to find sustainable renewable energy resources.

“Then Sept. 11 happened. People knew it would be a huge war or a time of peace.”

Wallis pulled out a letter from a nun in Indiana, Rita Clare Gerardot, protesting the idea of war against Iraq.

"The amazing thing is, it’s mostly positive. People want to believe a politician can have a change of heart and be concerned about the people in the country," she said.

Wallis also carries a video documentary titled "This is What Democracy Looks Like." She shows it at schools, unions, and in the homes of people who take her in.

A practitioner of Buddhism, Wallis said she doesn’t belong to a political party.

Before starting her walk, Wallis was a psychiatric counselor for 12 years. Originally from Texas, she had lived in Seattle for nine years.

"I don’t think it’s going to be some benevolent politician that’s going to change things, it’s going to be people getting involved," she said.

Further details are available at the Web site.

Here's her latest Road Journal entry. Also, a press release dated today.

posted by me

:: 3:48:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Nerds by Necessity ::

From Wired:
Geeky Legal Beagles Nail Spammers
A team of tech-savvy lawyers is gunning for spammers and software companies that commit fraud and foist incomprehensible software licenses on consumers. New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer uses old laws in new ways to fight for consumers' rights. By Michelle Delio

posted by me

:: 11:02:00 PM [+] ::
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:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
Bell berates media giants for warmongering words

Martin Bell, the former BBC war correspondent and independent MP, yesterday condemned the hypocrisy of the media owners Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch, whose news organisations had led the calls for war in Iraq.

He said the proprietors had never taken the sorts of risks they had urged on British service personnel in calling for the war.

Speaking during a debate at the festival on media coverage of the war in Iraq, Mr Bell, who was a commentator for Channel 5 during the conflict, also attacked Mr Murdoch's Sky News for the amount of speculation it indulged in and for "reporting rumours as fact".

Mr Bell said: "The thing that worries me most about the coverage was its feverishness. The networks became rumour bazaars. There was spin and manipulation. Our political and military leaders also have an obligation not to deceive."

ALSO:
UN chief warns of anti-American backlash in Iraq

Next stop Tehran?
Comment: With Iraq beaten, the US is now playing the same dangerous WMD game with Iran, writes Simon Tisdall.

posted by me

:: 10:52:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Report from Cannes ::

Fade to grey
Peter Bradshaw on the films to remember (and forget)

Cannes 2003 - a place and a date that will live in infamy. This was the Cannes that shocked everyone by snubbing Lars von Trier's Dogville in favour of Elephant, Gus Van Sant's high school Columbine nightmare. Actually, it was the right decision: Elephant is an outstanding film, though it might not have fared so well in a stronger year.

posted by me

:: 10:42:00 PM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

The prime minister of Latvia, Einars Repse, announced in January the formation of an anti-"absurdity" bureau to deal with the government's excessive "foolishness" and lack of order and the "laziness" of civil servants. The agency, according to a newspaper in the capital of Riga, now receives about 10 complaints a day and has made 460 responses, including referring seven to government prosecutors. [BBC News, 5-6-03]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

Also, a notice from Chuck:

Dear Weirdo,

If you're up to date on the direction of the Internet, you'll not be surprised by the following news:

uComics.com's generous support of the free weekly mailing of the News of the Weird column is ending, and I am trying an alternative support arrangement.

The last issue will be the column of June 1. The day after that, the subscription list will be deleted.

There will be a new free product, though, called Weekly Highlights from News of the Weird, which you may sign up for by sending an e-mail (from the address to which you wish copies sent) to WeeklyWeird-request@lists.elistx.com, with the one-word message Subscribe. (You can do that right now.) (Weekly Highlights has no outside ads and will arrive in "text" for those e-mail programs that accept text-only; and your address is totally confidential.) However, Weekly Highlights has only the juiciest 7 of a column's 14 items, comes without source citations (just like the version of the column that appears in newspapers) (though sources will still be given on the NewsoftheWeird.com version of the column), and will be mailed one week behind its release date to newspapers. Despite these hardships, that will probably be sufficient for most of the lurker Weirdos. The first issue is June 14, containing items from the column of June 8.

Naturally (since I'm paying for mailing services now), there will also be a not-free version, called News of the Weird Pro Edition. (Yeah, "Pro." You know who you are.) For US$12 a year, you get a weekly version with (a) exactly what you've been getting for free, on the day of release, plus (b) summaries (and URLs, when available) of the dozen or so Most Alarming Stories of the previous 7 days (none of which will be in the current column but some of which will eventually make it into News of the Weird), plus (c) Editor's Notes (comments and follow-ups on stories from me and selected readers plus news about the "weird news community" plus, ouch, corrections and clarifications). News of the Weird / Pro also has no outside ads and will arrive in "text" for those e-mail programs that accept text-only; and your address is totally confidential.

If you'd care to partake, send me a $12 check or money order (payable to Chuck Shepherd) at P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL 33679 (print your e-mail address legibly) or order through PayPal , which accepts credit cards. (If you turn "normal" over the course of the year, or for any other reason want a refund of the unsent issues, I will promptly comply.) The first issue is June 8.

posted by me

:: 9:52:00 PM [+] ::
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:: ThinkGeek ::

Looking for new ways to get a caffeine fix? Check this out.

posted by me

:: 9:38:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The Xbox Files ::

From Canada.com:
One on one with Xbox top dog

Q. You now have PC, Internet and cell phone connectivity with the Xbox, plus Karaoke. How are you addressing security issues now that the Xbox is stepping out of the safe living room?
A. We are designing everything we are doing to provide security as a service for both player and game publisher. For example, we can sense and disable an Xbox modified with third party "modchips" and not allow it to play online.

Q. Folks have even built a Linux-Xbox computer. How can you control this?
A. Electronic hobbyists will do what they want to do...the numbers are not really that big. It’s not a commercial as much as it is an intellectual property issue and we always pursue those. If someone finds a way to cheat, we close it down and do an update so people can't anymore.

Join the Slashdot discussion.

So Bill Gates will continue to bitch-slap mod-chippers, all the while crying about his constitutional 'right' to do what he wants. Asshole.
-wfrp01 (82831)

posted by me

:: 9:35:00 PM [+] ::
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:: /. ::

Philosophy, Reality & The Matrix
"The NYT discusses The Matrix as a reflection of American society, the 'war on terror', political allegory and the impact of The Matrix on contemporary philosophy. NPR provides streaming audio conversations with Matrix thinkers, including Jake Horsley, author of 'Matrix Warrior: Being the One'; Prof. Frances Flannery Dailey on violence in the Matrix; and Prof. Greg Garrett, co-author of 'The Gospels Reloaded' and why he doesn't like the kind of hero that Neo has become. Finally, the CSM follows up its The Gospel According to Neo with an online chat transcript with Josh Burek, the author of the essay." As if that's not enough Matrix Philosophy, Here's more and still more. And just a warning, clicking on any of those links might spoil the movie for you.

posted by me

:: 5:52:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Jane, you ignorant ..." ::

From The Salt Lake Tribune:
Point/Counterpoint: Big Brother -- Make That Your Uncle Sam -- Has His Eye on All of Us

I don't know if you're a Monty Python fan, but one of the funniest bits I have ever seen was John Cleese and Eric Idle and their Government Department of Funny Walks.

That was then, this is now and I am not laughing anymore. It has come to light that the Pentagon is funding research into a system that hopes to spot terrorists by the way they walk.

posted by me

:: 5:44:00 PM [+] ::
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:: UPI Report ::

Did SARS come from outer space?

CARDIFF, England, May 22 -- A group of British scientists proposed Thursday the organism that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome might have originated in outer space.

This extraordinary theory, appearing in a letter to the May 24 issue of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, suggests, "if these bugs are coming from space, a scheme to monitor the stratosphere could be important," astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe, director of the Cardiff Center for Astrobiology, told United Press International.

Other scientists with expertise in either exobiology -- the study of possible alien life forms -- or SARS remained skeptical about Wickramasinghe's bold suggestion.

posted by me

:: 5:38:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The FCC & monopoly? ::

From remhq.com:
R.E.M. & PEARL JAM JOIN CAMPAIGN TO DELAY FCC VOTE

Washington, DC--Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam and Mike Mills of R.E.M. allied with Common Cause, MoveOn.Org, and the Future of Music Coalition in an effort to stop the Federal Communications Commission from increasing monopoly control over the nation’s airwaves. They called for a nation-wide campaign to postpone the FCC’s June 2nd decision on an unprecedented relaxation of its long-time ownership restriction rules until the American public is awarded an acceptable comment period.

The coalition’s message echoes recommendations of Democratic FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Kenneth Adelstein, two of the FCC’s five commissioners. The delayed process would allow for future public education and debate over the ruling—a ruling that would drastically change the face of radio, print, and broadcast communication, across the board.

Chellie Pingrie, President of Common Cause, expressed deep concern about the implications of the FCC vote on the future of freedom of speech and its impact on American democracy.

“Relaxing or eliminating the ownership rules will damage our democracy,” said Ms. Pingree, President of Common Cause. “Access to independent information will dwindle. And a few huge media companies are likely to ignore local news and their public responsibility.”

Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam shared his concerns from an artist’s perspective: “The more I learn about the potential changes in the business landscape brought on by further deregulation, the more feel I need to know. With one of the fundamental elements of democracy at risk, it is immensly important that more time and more information is provided to the public so they are able to fully understand and scrutinize the potential ramifications of this vote."

Mike Mills of R.E.M. expressed the implications of multinational conglomerate-controlled radio stations.

"Democracy is built on healthy competition in the marketplace of ideas. Without it, we diminish our freedom of expression," said Mills. "If the FCC gives a monopoly on all news and entertainment programming to a handful of big corporations, then we also lose the diversity of ideas that makes democracy work."

Jenny Toomey, Executive Director of the Future of Music Coalition, said that radio consolidation has historically been a failure for the American public.

“Media consolidation has reduced marketplace competition, programming diversity, public access to the airwaves, and public satisfaction,” said To o mey. “It is amazing to me that we can even consider going down the same path of ownership deregulation for TV, cable and newspapers without addressing the very basic issues that radio consolidation has raised.”

Eli Pariser, Campaign Director of MoveOn.org, outlined the massive grassroots organizing effort that has already begun, around the June 2nd decision.

“Our membership came to us because they were so worried about the implications of this decision. We launched a petition to postpone the vote, and we received 150,000 signatures in five days. We’ve never seen this kind of energy on this issue before. We’re now taking our message to Congress and to the FCC,” said Pariser. "Americans don't want a few big corporations controlling their media choices. Our voices will be heard."

Paul W. Duke, former Senior Commentator for Public Broadcasting in Washington Week in Review for 20 years, moderated the call.

Common Cause is a 200,000-member organization that works for open, accountable government and the right of all citizens to be involved in shaping the nation’s public policies. Moveon.org is one of the most effective and responsive outlets for democratic participation with a network of more than 2,000,000 online activists.

To read the petition and review background information on the FCC’s proposed rules and Common Cause’s campaign against consolidation, please visit www.commoncause.org.

For additional news coverage, please click below:

Athens Banner Herald

Denver Post

posted by me

:: 10:41:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The SPAM Wars: an update ::

From CNET News.com:
California Senate OKs antispam bill

The California State Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail advertising and allows people to sue spammers for $500 per unwanted message.

ALSO:
From Slashdot:
I, Spammer

"The Washington Post is reporting on testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation by Ronald Scelson, an eighth-grade dropout and self-taught computer programmer from Louisiana, who claims that he sends between 120 million and 180 million e-mails every 12 hours, that he can break sophisticated software filters 24 hours after they are deployed, and that he has no choice but to resort to forging the sender information in his bulk e-mail so he can be anonymous and maintain his connection to the Internet. He added that he obtained all his addresses legally and that AOL gladly sold him the company's entire customer directory which Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of AOL, did not deny." It's a tough life. Here's another story about the Senate committee meeting.

Slashdot quote of the day:
It is not every question that deserves an answer. -- Publilius Syrus

posted by me

:: 9:58:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The Future of the Web ::

From Wired:
Web 'Shaman' Fights His Demons
Tim Berners-Lee, the man who dreamed up the World Wide Web, is worried that commercial interests threaten the future of the Internet. Speaking at the International World Wide Web Conference, he offers a possible solution. Michelle Delio reports from Budapest.

posted by me

:: 9:47:00 PM [+] ::
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:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
CIA to review pre-war advice

The CIA has launched a review of intelligence assessments of Iraq's banned weapons programme and its links with al-Qaida, to see how the intelligence community's pre-war pronouncements compared with reality.

The idea of a review, which emerged yesterday from interviews with unidentified officials by the New York Times, had first been raised with the CIA last October by the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

However, the failure of US forces in Iraq to find hard evidence for repeated claims by US intelligence agencies that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction could make the review politically explosive, the New York Times said.

US contracts come under scrutiny
Reconstruction offers rich pickings, but must you be a Bush supporter to benefit? Guardian reporters investigate

Two official watchdogs are to review every contract awarded by the US government agency for international development, USAid, for reconstruction work in Iraq, the Guardian has learned.

The awards have been criticised because foreign firms are not allowed to bid, leading to allegations of a US carve-up.

The general accounting office (GAO) is due to examine how the eight contracts came to be handed out.

The award of the biggest contract, potentially worth $680m, to the Bechtel conglomerate is the most controversial. Bechtel has close ties to the Bush administration, making big donations to the Republican party and its candidates.

From The NY Times:
Senators Sharply Criticize Iraq Rebuilding Efforts

posted by me

:: 9:43:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: TIA update ::

From Wired:
Pentagon Defends Data Search Plan
By Ryan Singel

The Pentagon submitted a report to Congress on Tuesday that said the Total Information Awareness program is not the centralized spying database its critics say it is.

In fact, according to the report, the Total Information Awareness program is not even the Total Information Awareness program anymore.

Instead, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which administers the program, has changed the name to "Terrorism Information Awareness."

The agency said the original name "created in some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens," according to its website.

The 108-page report (PDF) and summary (PDF) offer details on various components of the program, which has generated controversy due to concerns about its impact on civil liberties.

The report stresses that "safeguarding the privacy and civil liberties of Americans is a bedrock principle." It also says the project is still in its early stages of development, although it revealed that the Evidence Extraction and Link Discovery project, part of TIA, has been used to analyze and find relationships in information received from interrogations of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

However, some critics of the plan were not convinced by promises to protect against abuses.

"The report is disappointing -- after more than a hundred pages, you don't know anything more about whether TIA will work or whether your civil liberties will be safe against it," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "DARPA is constantly trying to assuage privacy concerns. Their mantra is, 'We always operate within current law.'"

posted by me

:: 9:15:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: The Blair Reporter Project ::

From an AP report:

NEW YORK (May 21) - Former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair said he ''couldn't stop laughing'' when the newspaper corrected his fraudulent description of an American POW's home in West Virginia, according to excerpts of an interview with the New York Observer.

''That's my favorite, just because the description was so far off from the reality. And the way they described it in The Times story - someone read a portion of it to me - I couldn't stop laughing,'' Blair said in an interview scheduled for publication Wednesday. The newspaper made excerpts available to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

In one of his few interviews since resigning from the Times on May 1, Blair told the Observer that he ''fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism'' with his reporting.

In a brazen act of deception, Blair wrote under a dateline from Palestine, W.Va., about the family of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, a POW rescued in Iraq. He described the family's home as overlooking ''tobacco fields and cattle pastures.'' The porch overlooks no such thing and no member of the Lynch family remembers talking to Blair, the Times said in an extensive investigation into his work.

The Times found fraud, plagiarism and inaccuracies in 36 of 73 articles examined between October and April.

Newsweek has reported that Blair signed with literary agent David Vigliano to market his story for possible book and movie deals. The magazine, citing friends of the ex-reporter, also reported that Blair had sought treatment for substance abuse.

According to excerpts from the Observer, (Jayson) Blair said his deceptions stemmed from personal problems.

''I was either going to kill myself or I was going to kill the journalist persona,'' he said. ''So Jayson Blair the human being could live, Jayson Blair the journalist had to die.''

posted by me

:: 11:35:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: More B ::

Apocalypse Now & Then:
A Buffy Time-line!

posted by faklempt me

:: 1:17:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: Hush ::

Buffy creator's favorite episodes
Joss Whedon, the man behind the successful series, names everything from "Hush" to season-enders.

With each show is its original airdate, a description by Gannett News Service’s Robert Bianco and a brief explanation from Whedon. (Unless otherwise noted, the episodes were written and directed by Whedon.)

1. Innocence (Jan. 20, 1998): Every girl’s nightmare, and one of the show’s most sly yet most powerful uses of metaphor. Buffy has sex with Angel, who immediately turns into a monster. Though devastated, Buffy realizes that her mission is more important than her feelings.

Why? “It’s a mission-statement show, and one of the ones where I first found out what we could do.”

2. Once More With Feeling (Nov. 6, 2001): The musical episode, in which a demon causes everyone in Sunnydale to burst into song. The songs are comic and romantic at first, but they get darker, until, at the end, Buffy reveals that she would rather be dead. “Oklahoma!” it’s not. Whedon also wrote the well-regarded score.

Why? Whedon was given a chance to write an original musical for television, an opportunity that few series writers ever get. He loved it: “What am I going to say?”

3. Hush (Dec. 14, 1999): The (mostly) silent episode, and one of the series’ most traditionally scary. A group of floating demons, The Gentlemen, steals the voices of everyone in Sunnydale — a prelude to harvesting their hearts.

Why? See below.

4. The Body (Feb. 27, 2001): A particularly haunting episode built around the death of Buffy’s mother and the way death transforms a person into a body. Joyce’s loss is one of the few natural deaths in the series, and it provoked one of the show’s most serious episodes.

Why? On some series, “Hush” and “The Body” would exist solely to show off some gimmick. Whedon is proud of the episodes precisely because they aren’t stunts — each advanced the season’s big story and each made perfect sense in the “Buffy” universe.

5. Doppelgangland (Feb. 23, 1999): While casting a spell, Willow accidentally brings forth her alternative-universe vampire double, whom viewers first met in “The Wish.” It turns out Vampire Willow is very hot, very bad and, as Willow says, “kind of gay” — a sign of things to come.

Why? “Because one Willow is certainly not enough.”

6. The Wish (Dec. 8, 1998): Anya the Vengeance Demon grants Cordelia’s wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, creating a universe where The Master’s vampires rule. Buffy arrives and is killed by The Master. Written by Marti Noxon; directed by David Greenwalt.

Why? “Very bleak, very fun. It went to a dark place, and that’s really exciting to me. That’s where I live.”

7. Becoming, Part II (May 19, 1998): The second-season finale, as Buffy rushes to stop the soul-free Angel from destroying the world. Willow does restore Angel’s soul, but not before he opens a vortex that will suck the world into hell. The only way for Buffy to close the vortex is to kill the man she loves — which she does.

Why? “Buffy loses everything. Also, it had a sword fight. I love sword fighting.”

8. Restless (May 23, 2000): The fourth-season finale. Having saved the world again, Buffy and her friends plan to spend a peaceful evening at home. Instead, they’re sucked into a dream world where they are hunted by the First Slayer.

Why? “Most people sort of shake their heads at it. It was different, but not pointless.”

9. Conversations With Dead People (Nov. 12, 2002): Buffy, Willow and Dawn chat with the dead: Buffy with a vampire, Dawn with her mother and Willow with Tara. But Willow isn’t actually talking to a dead person at all; she’s talking to The First, the season’s “big bad.” Written by Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard; directed by Nick Marck.

Why? “I’m very fond of ‘Conversations With Dead People.’ I just thought structurally and tonally it just was very interesting and had a lot to say. And I got to write another song.”

10. Prophecy Girl (June 2, 1997): The first-season finale. Shaken by a prophecy that she will die at the hands of The Master, the series’ first “big bad,” Buffy resigns as Slayer. But when she realizes that she’s the only one who can stop The Master from taking over the world, she returns to face him — and dies. Briefly.

Why? “Because that was my first time, besides telling directors what to do, that I actually got to direct. And it was the first time I got to kill Buffy, and the first season ender, and it was the first time I realized I could take everything we did in the season and tie it in a bow.”

posted by me

:: 3:50:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: In other news... ::

From BBC News:
Buffy set for final slaying
Cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes to an end in the United States on Tuesday ...

The fantasy horror series has been a hit around the world and has made a Hollywood star of leading actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

She plays Buffy Summers, a young woman who teams up with a group of friends to kill vampires and fight evil - while they are still, on the surface, living normal lives in California.

It was based on the moderately successful 1992 film of the same name, starring Kristy Swanson.

But the darker themes in the TV series have seen it debated by academics as well as enjoyed by millions of fans.

Show creator Joss Whedon is reportedly planning further spin-offs to keep the Buffy story alive.

Gellar, who promised a "pretty spectacular" finalé in an interview in February, told Entertainment Weekly magazine she was keen to see the show go out on a high.

ALSO:
Farewell Buffy, and fangs for the memories
How did a small, blonde cheerleader with a nice line in kung-fu kicks win the hearts of a generation of writers, philosophers and academics? On behalf of the world's intellectuals, Boyd Tonkin bids adieu to Buffy

'Buffy' had much to teach us about life

Seven seasons after first kicking her way onto our televisions, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is finally pulling up stakes for good. Along with a dull, aching sadness stabbing our hearts, it's also left a gaping hellmouth in a fine night of primetime programming that includes "Smallville" and "24."

posted by me

:: 3:40:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: TIA update ::

From The San Francisco Chronicle:
Pentagon changes the name of its new anti-terror surveillance system

The Pentagon assured Congress that its planned anti-terror surveillance system will only analyze legally acquired information and changed the name of the project to help allay privacy concerns that prompted congressional restrictions.

The Total Information Awareness program now under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will henceforth be named the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

In report ordered by Congress 90 days ago, DARPA said the old name "created in some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens. That is not DoD's (Department of Defense's) intent in pursuing this program."

Rather the goal is "to protect U.S. citizens by detecting and defeating foreign terrorist threats before an attack" and the new name was chosen "to make this objective absolutely clear."

While the name changed, the description of the program being developed remained essentially the same.

ALSO:
From Wired:
A Spy Machine of DARPA's Dreams
By Noah Shachtman

It's a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector! An all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program!

The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable.

What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?

The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read.

All of this -- and more -- would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health.

This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to "trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.

Someone with access to the database could "retrieve a specific thread of past transactions, or recall an experience from a few seconds ago or from many years earlier ... by using a search-engine interface."

On the surface, the project seems like the latest in a long line of DARPA's "blue sky" research efforts, most of which never make it out of the lab. But DARPA is currently asking businesses and universities for research proposals to begin moving LifeLog forward. And some people, such as Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists, are worried.

With its controversial Total Information Awareness database project, DARPA already is planning to track all of an individual's "transactional data" -- like what we buy and who gets our e-mail.

While the parameters of the project have not yet been determined, Aftergood said he believes LifeLog could go far beyond TIA's scope, adding physical information (like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this transactional data.

posted by me

posted by me

:: 3:33:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: I Am Curious Orange ::

From The Financial Times:
Warning prompts US to raise terror alert
By Mark Huband, Security Correspondent, in Kuwait

The US on Tuesday raised its terror alert to the second highest level as officials said they had received "credible information" that more terrorist attacks were being planned against targets in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

The US, UK and German embassies and trade missions in the kingdom will be closed temporarily from Wednesday in response to intelligence reports suggesting that attacks against unspecified targets may be "imminent".

The US decision to return to an orange alert will again trigger heightened security measures at US airports, government facilities and other possible targets. Washington had previously raised the alert level before the war in Iraq, but dropped it back to yellow last month after terrorists failed to act on threats to launch attacks during the war.

Referring to signs of increased terrorist activity, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi ambassador to the US, warned on Monday there was "a high level of chatter regionally and in other interna tional spots" about possible new attacks in Saudi Arabia - or even on US soil.

ALSO:
FACT SHEET: War on Terror

posted by me

:: 3:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
Security council to discuss greater UN role in Iraq

The UN security council will today meet in a closed-door session to discuss the third draft of a resolution lifting sanctions against Iraq.

The new draft, proposed by the US, Britain and Spain, gives the UN a clearly defined role in establishing a democratic government and increases the stature of a UN envoy in Iraq.

The US is pressing for a vote on the resolution tomorrow, which looks likely to be passed.

France, Russia and China - the permanent members who opposed the US-led war in Iraq - had expressed reservations over the first draft's naming of the US and Britain as "occupying powers" and handing over control of the country's oil revenues to them.

ALSO:
Disunited nations

In the first of this week's series on global institutions, Jonathan Steele examines how the conflict in Iraq has undermined the role of the UN

Metallica is latest interrogation tactic

US military interrogators are using unorthodox musical techniques to extract information about weapons of mass destruction of fugitive Ba'athist leaders from their detainees - a fearsome mix of Metallica and Barney the Dinosaur.

The Americans have long been aware of the impact of heavy metal music on foreign miscreants. They blared Van Halen (among other artists) at the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega when he took refuge in the Vatican embassy in Panama City, and blasted similarly high-decibel music at Afghan caves where al-Qaida fighters were thought to be hiding.

Now it is reported that the combination of high-voltage rock and happy-smiley children's songs can break the will of the hardest terrorist or rogue element.

"Trust me, it works," a US "operative" told Newsweek magazine.

"In training, they forced me to listen to the Barney I Love You song for 45 minutes. I never want to go through that again."

US interrogators routinely employ "stress-and-duress" techniques, including sleep deprivation: treatment which human rights activists describe as a form of torture.

posted by me

:: 3:12:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: TIA update ::

From Wired:
Spy Plan Faces Critical Deadline

As college students across the country rush to finish their final papers, the Pentagon is preparing to turn in its final report on the Total Information Awareness project in hopes of getting a passing grade from Congress.

More than a college transcript is at stake for the program, however. Its continued existence likely will turn on the report's reception.

The report, which is due Tuesday, must outline the project's privacy implications and detail the scope of the system intended to catch terrorists by combing through Americans' travel records and credit card purchases.

In January, the Senate unanimously approved a spending bill amendment which ordered the Pentagon, the CIA and the Justice Department to report on the project to Congress. Failure to do so would cost the program its future funding.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), survived House-Senate negotiations. President Bush signed the bill Feb. 20, making Tuesday the report's deadline.

Wyden warned the Senate on March 13 not to attempt to undo the oversight requirements.

"The TIA technology will give the federal government the capability to operate the most massive domestic surveillance program in the history of our country," putting the financial, medical and other details of Americans' private lives in the hands of tens of thousands of bureaucrats, he said. "The American people have the right to know if the federal government intends to deploy this technology against them, when it will do so and how, and Congress should preserve its oversight over the program."

posted by me

:: 9:51:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: War ::

From The Guardian UK:
Iraq 'first battle of a wider US war'

The invasion of Iraq was a "single campaign in a much larger war" against the Bush administration's "axis of evil", the conference was told.
"Iraq was not a war, Iraq was a battle," said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, an American defence policy research group.

He said now that Saddam was gone, Syria had been "elevated" up the axis of evil, with Iran also in the firing line - with Israel's support - due to its nuclear programme. North Korea and Libya were also in Washington's frame, he said.

ALSO:
No weapons, no problem for Bush
Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- President Bush appears to be in no political danger from the failure to find chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq.

Democrats are reluctant to challenge Bush on any aspect of the successful war, and polls show Americans are unconcerned about weapons discoveries.

posted be my

posted by me

:: 9:42:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: The question remains... ::

Are We Safer?

Ever since the main military campaign ended in mid-April, the Bush Administration and its cheerleaders in the media have claimed that "the remarkable success" of the US war in Iraq proves its opponents were "spectacularly wrong"--even, some charge, unpatriotic. (Quoting a Washington "humorist," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld gloated, "Never have so many been so wrong about so much.") Intimidated by these allegations and the demonstration of overwhelming American military power, many critics of the war have fallen silent. Indeed, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, no doubt speaking for several of the party's fainthearted presidential candidates, has rushed to urge the "the war...not be on the ballot in 2004."

But critics of the war have no reason to regret their views. No sensible opponent doubted that the world's most powerful military could easily crush such a lesser foe. The real issue was and remains very different: Will the Iraq war increase America's national security, as the Bush Administration has always promised and now insists is already the case, or will it undermine and diminish our national security, as thoughtful critics believed?

posted by me

:: 9:35:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Bashing Bush ::

From an AP report:
Clinton Assails Bush at Commencement Talk

JACKSON, Miss. -- Former President Bill Clinton accused President Bush of spending more time fighting the war on terrorism than on domestic issues during a commencement speech at Tougaloo College.

``I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but we can't be forever strong abroad if we don't keep getting better at home,'' Clinton said Sunday to a crowd of about 8,000.

Clinton also criticized Bush's position on affirmative action and tax cuts just two days after the President formally kicked off his re-election campaign.

posted by me

:: 9:25:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: /. ::

Getting Inside Einstein's Head

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible,' Albert Einstein once remarked. Today many scientific documents and personal papers detailing the thoughts and emotions of our favorite physicist will be available at 3PM EST you can access the Einstein Archives Online. Also, Wired is running an article"

ALSO:
A Brief History of the Internet

"'Many young people around the world use the internet every day, and yet they have no memory of the history that led to the creation of the global network. Many have no understanding of how or why the internet has developed. As part of out continuing efforts to combat ignorance around the world, The Lemon is proud to present this timeline...'"

posted by me

:: 9:08:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: So weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:
The Laws of Irony Are Strictly Enforced

The CIA convened an open panel of scientists in January to discuss potential terrorist uses of life-science research, and the panel concluded that, despite the risks, openness in scientific study was absolutely crucial; in April, the CIA suppressed the panel's conclusions on openness as classified. And in March, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia accepted an award by the Cleveland City Club for his contributions to freedom of speech, which Scalia said he would be glad to accept at the club's meeting provided no television or radio coverage was allowed. [Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News, 4-2-03] [CNN, 3-19-03]
posted by me

:: 4:31:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Al Qaeda rising? UPDATE ::

From The Toronto Star:
Al Qaeda team preparing new attack on U.S., paper says

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Al Qaeda is preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001, after adopting a new operational structure which is impenetrable to U.S. intelligence, a Saudi weekly reported yesterday.

"An attack against America is inevitable," Al Majallah quotes the Islamic militant network's newly appointed spokesperson Thabet bin Qais as saying in an e-mail to the paper.

Al Qaeda has "carried out changes in its leadership and sidelined the Sept. 11, 2001 team," the paper quotes bin Qais as saying.

"Future missions have been entrusted to the new team, which is well-protected against the U.S. intelligence services. The old leadership does not know the names of any of its members."

posted by me

:: 4:16:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
Plan for Iraq handover government scrapped

US and British plans for rebuilding Iraq were descending into chaos this weekend as officials admitted they had indefinitely scrapped plans for a transitional government and Spain revealed a gaping hole in funding for reconstruction

Allied officials told leaders of the Iraqi exile community, who have flooded back to Baghdad that they had abandoned plans to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly and transitional government by the end of the month.

Instead, say opposition sources who attended a Friday meeting with Paul Bremer, the Pentagon-appointed civilian administrator in Iraq, US and British diplomats announced they would remain in charge for an undisclosed period.

ALSO:
Troops 'vandalise' ancient city of Ur

One of the greatest wonders of civilisation, and probably the world's most ancient structure - the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq - has been vandalised by American soldiers and airmen, according to aid workers in the area.

They claim that US forces have spray-painted the remains with graffiti and stolen kiln-baked bricks made millennia ago. As a result, the US military has put the archaeological treasure, which dates back 6,000 years, off-limits to its own troops. Any violations will be punishable in military courts.

Land immediately adjacent to Ur has been chosen by the Pentagon for a sprawling airfield and military base. Access is highly selective, screened and subject to military escorts, which - even if agreed - need to be arranged days or weeks in advance and carefully skirt the areas of reported damage.

There has been no official response to the allegations of vandalism - reported to The Observer by aid workers and one concerned US officer.

Ur is believed by many to be the birthplace of the prophet Abraham. It was the religious seat of the civilisation of Sumer at the dawn of the line of dynasties which ruled Mesopotamia starting about 4000 BC. Long before the rise of the Egyptian, Greek or Roman empires, it was here that the wheel was invented and the first mathematical system developed. Here, the first poetry was written, notably the epic Gilganesh, a classic of ancient literature.

posted by me

:: 3:54:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: /. ::

Self-Destructing DVD's Coming Soon

"Looks like a close cousin of everybody's favorite self-destructing video format is making a comeback. Four years after Circuit City and its Hollywood backers pulled the plug on the self-expiring DVD concept, FlexPlay Technologies has introduced the EZ-D...a 48-hour self-expiring DVD disk. The difference? This time around you don't need a special player, and "time extensions" are no longer an option. It looks like Buena Vista has already signed on to the format, so Disney, Mirimax, and all of their other companies should be using this soon. As if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like this works for music and software disks too!" Here's an older story on these technologies.

posted by me

:: 4:16:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: al Qaeda rising? ::

From The Washington Post:
Blasts Kill Dozens in Casablanca

PARIS, May 17 (Saturday) -- Four bombs exploded in the coastal city of Casablanca late Friday, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 60 others, according to news services. The blasts damaged a synagogue, a Spanish restaurant and the Belgian consulate, officials said; no U.S. sites were targeted.

The simultaneous explosions, caused by three car bombs and a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt, came after warnings by U.S. counter-terrorism officials earlier on Friday that an al Qaeda attack might be imminent, citing Africa as a possible target. They also came only days after a bombing blamed on al Qaeda killed 34 people in Saudi Arabia.

posted by me

:: 4:02:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
Campaigners count bodies to ensure US compensation

The US government is now legally obliged to account for the thousands of Iraqi civilians killed or injured in the war, and those who had their homes destroyed, and give them financial compensation

Oil boss paid $1m a year by contract bidder
America braced for criticism over rebuilding plans and claims of human rights abuse

The US-led effort to rebuild Iraq was facing more criticism yesterday after the Texan businessman installed to run the country's oil industry admitted having financial links to a company bidding for reconstruction work.

Philip Carroll acknowledged in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he could be accused of a conflict of interest because of his relationship with Fluor. The disclosure will pile more pressure on to the Bush administration for its handling of the rebuilding programme.

The secret process of awarding multi-billion-dollar contracts to reconstruction companies, many with links to the administration, has proven contentious in the US and Europe.

US police to be boosted by 6,000

Iraq's new civilian administrator yesterday promised to bring thousands more military police into the country, and to step up patrols in an attempt to control widespread looting and lawlessness.

posted by me

:: 3:59:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: From the fine trustafarians @ The Onion ::

Freed POW ALready Sick of Family

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO—Brent Dobson, a 19-year-old Army private who was reunited with his loved ones on May 8 after a harrowing two-week ordeal as a prisoner of war in Iraq, is already "sick to death" of his family, Dobson reported Monday.

"As I paced that 6x9 cell, with nothing but crumbs to eat, contaminated water to drink, and a broken piece of crockery to piss in, the thing that kept me going was thoughts of my family back home," said Dobson, pacing his 10x11 bedroom in his parents' home. "Well, after four days in this place, Iraq isn't looking quite so bad."

posted by me;)

:: 12:19:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: From the HUH? dept. ::

Police offering reward to identify anti-war protesters

posted by me

:: 12:11:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: War & Iraq ::

From The Guardian UK:
Straw retreats on finding banned weapons

Britain back-tracked on the contentious issue of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction yesterday when the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was forced to concede that hard evidence might never be uncovered.

posted by me

:: 12:06:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Penguin, Interrupted? ::

From Wired:
Unix Developer Stops Linux Sales

Commercial users and distributors of the Linux operating system could face legal action from the key patent holder of Unix, which said Wednesday it will suspend sales of its own Linux products.

SCO Group, formerly known as Caldera International, claims its intellectual property has been illegally included in all distributions of the Linux operating system.

In a press release issued late Wednesday, SCO issued a warning that all commercial users of Linux could be affected by any legal actions SCO takes to protect its intellectual property.

SCO's release also stated that "until the attendant risks with Linux are better understood and properly resolved, the company will suspend all of its future sales of the Linux operating system."

"SCO is taking this important step because there are intellectual property issues with Linux," said Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager of SCOsource, a SCO business division tasked with managing the company's intellectual property related to Unix.

"When SCO's own Unix software code is being illegally copied into Linux, we believe we have an obligation to educate commercial users of the potential liability that could rest with them for using such software to run their business," Sontag said.

SCO owns the rights to the Unix System V operating system technology, which was developed at AT&T Bell Labs in the 1960s. AT&T's Unix Systems Laboratories began development of Unix in the 1960s. AT&T sold its Unix intellectual property to Novell Networks in 1993, and Caldera International acquired the rights to it from Novell in 1995. Over the years, Caldera/SCO also acquired ownership of various patents, copyrights and core technology associated with Unix.

ALSO:
From /.:
SCO To Show Copied Code

A number of people have written this morning in regards to the latest update in the ongoing SCO dropping Linux, with word from LinuxJournal that SCO has broadened the implications of code copying. A number of analyst groups have come out, however, saying that it's fine to keep moving ahead with Linux adoption - and there's an interesting interview with SCO's General Manager of SCOSource.

SCO interview excerpt:

Q: What about SuSE and Red Hat customers and other Linux users? Could they face litigation or be affected in any way?

A: Certainly, as the evidence mounts, there could be concerns and issues for end customers. When you're talking about copyrighted materials or trade secrets being inappropriately obtained and released, even the recipients of that information have to have concerns.

posted by me
"looking for the joke with a microSCOpe"

:: 11:43:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: The digital copyright wars: an update ::

From CNET News.com:
DVD-copying case heads to court
By Lisa M. Bowman

The latest major clash between technology and copyright owners heads to federal court Thursday, where software start-up 321 Studios hopes to win a reprieve from a legal attack by film companies on its DVD-copying software.

The case, which will be heard in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, holds important consequences not only for software developers and for the motion picture industry but also for consumers, who face increasingly complex rules governing the uses of entertainment products.

Seven major movie studios are seeking to stop St. Louis-based 321 from shipping its DVD X-Copy and DVD Copy Plus programs, claiming the software violates a controversial copyright law banning the sale of products that can crack copyright protection measures.

While most DVDs include anticopying features as a shield against piracy, 321 essentially contends that consumers should be allowed to get around those measures in certain cases--for example, when they make personal back-up copies of legally purchased material.

At stake is the scope of 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which has been wielded by the entertainment industry to crack down on several technologies that make it easier to copy and distribute digital material.

Legal experts said the case is one of the more thorny DMCA showdowns because the judge is being asked to clarify something that other cases have not--whether the law prevents all circumvention or whether there are cases in which circumvention is legal.

"That's a big open issue that this will help define," said Mark Radcliffe, an intellectual property lawyer at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich. "This is one of the first tough cases" to address this issue.

posted by me

:: 11:13:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: A World w/o Bill? ::

From The Register UK:
Gartner's look at Alternatives to Microsoft

An increasing number of companies and governments are looking at non-Microsoft options, with Linux the number one threat, Gartner says.

The research firm on Tuesday combined ten separate notes into a report entitled "A Look at Alternatives to Microsoft." Among other things, it concludes that Linux and other open source software are the most popular alternatives to Microsoft software.

According to Gartner, the lure lies in the lower, and sometimes free, initial costs; the perceived freedom from lock-in with a single vendor; and the potential to help drive local IT economies. The perception of better security also drives the use of alternatives, Gartner said.

posted by me

:: 10:43:00 PM [+] ::
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:: More /. ::

Falling to Earth's Core in a Big Blob of Iron
"Um...wow. I found this idea via the BBC, (see also the Nature article), but it's really worth reading the annotated paper on the subject. (Gotta love the title.) Basically, you drill a hole in the crust, blast a big crack in it, inject a huge mass of molten iron with a little probe floating inside (made out of material which won't melt or dissolve in the iron), and let the iron mass sink to the core by gravity, carrying the probe with it. (The initial crack grows downward as the iron sinks.) As the probe falls, it sends data back using seismic signals that can be picked up with a gravitational wave observatory like LIGO, but coupled to the ground. Of course, there are enormous problems with the whole thing, but it's still cool to read about."

Imagine the course of a canoe paddled by Microsoft and SCO.
SolipsistX writes "The Seattle Times is reporting that Microsoft now says that the iLoo is not a joke. Apparently, execs killed the project after it became a laughing stock. The announcement yesterday that it was a joke was caused by miscommunication, says Microsoft. Needless to say, this does not help Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative."

posted by me

:: 8:52:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: /. ::

Media consolidation

"A few more links on the important FCC decision coming up in a few weeks (see our previous story for more). Common Cause has a good set of background information and advocacy. The Washington Post has a story about the decision, focusing on how independent television stations will be squeezed even harder. This article about ClearChannel is a useful primer about the future of mass media."

Slashdot community discussion sample:

"These media conglomarates also come with a political point of view. In a very real sense they will determine who your next president or senator will be. It's hard enough to win an election while debating and fighting against another party. These media conglomarates throw a monkey wrench into the equation by constantly slanting news and commentary to favor their favored candidates. Now only are these corporations a threat to consumers but they are a threat to democracy itself." -Malcontent (40834)

"good cartoon [yahoo.com] on the topic" -TamMan2000 (578899)

"Over the past few decades or so the U.S. Government has learned many lessons about media coverage and international dealings. The whole dynamic has changed radically from the times of journalism in say Vietnam vs the "inbedded" reporters of this recent action. General Franks and Colin Powell, whos son is pushing he deal, "Cut their teeth" commanding forces in vietnam and they relaize that tight media control is the answer to help the people accept the actions of the government. This plan is another step in narrowing and refining the information that the public sees. With top political officers havving ties to large corporations, it's hard to tell the lines in which corporate money, goverment money are drawn. Be afraid." -scrow (620374)

[This is not a private fight... anyone can join.]

/. quote of the day:
"... with liberty and justice for all ... who can afford it."

ALSO:
From the book The Media Monopoly
by Ben H. Bagdikian
Published by Beacon Press, 1997

As the communications medium the public most depends on, television has become the nation's baby-sitter, chief news source, and ever-present entertainer. When broadcasters and their corporate sponsors fail to deal seriously, fairly, and regularly with the country's urgent issues, in a very real way they are using the nation's own property to rob its citizens of the knowledge necessary to cope with their most urgent needs and challenges.

The public needs a constant reminder:

The airwaves do not belong to the broadcasters. They do not belong to the advertisers. The owners, by law, are the people of the United States.

The Media Monopoly is in its 6th Edition (Paperback - March 2000).

Excerpts are available at Amazon.

From the Publisher:
When the first edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 1983, critics called Ben Bagdikian's warnings about the chilling effects of corporate ownership and mass advertising on the nation's news "alarmist." Since then, the number of corporations controlling most of America's daily newspapers, magazines, radio, television, books, and movies has dropped from fifty to ten to six. This edition features a dramatic new preface, detailing the media landscape as we enter the twenty-first century, and includes an entirely new examination of the implications of new technologies.


From PBS.org's Frontline:
Smoke in the eye: an interview with Ben Bagdikian

Q: WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SPEAK OF THE MEDIA MONOPOLY?

Bagdikian: Well the media is increasingly owned by a few very large multinational corporations. By the media, newspapers, magazines, books, movies, television and radio. This is growing. You know, we think of as our formative picture of monopolies, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who dominated the media scene from the late 19th century when there was mass printing. But compared to those, the new media giants are a totally different magnitude, and they encompass more powerful media - radio, television for example. So that what we have is maybe anywhere from 20 to a half a dozen huge corporations who have the dominant media voice in the media absorbing world, especially in the developed world - and now, getting a foothold in the less developed world.

And that means that inevitably people who have such power see the world in a particular way. And when they have dominance, as with candy manufacturers and automobile manufacturers, the less competition there is, the more control they have on what economists would call price and quality. In cases of the media and when we're talking about the news, price is one thing, quality means how much and what kind of news will you give. And what we're seeing in the media now is a decrease in hard reporting as a proportion of the whole, and an increase of soft entertainment features - which are the least expensive to produce and the most revenue producing. Because if you look at the main section of any good newspaper, that's not where most of the ads go, because when you're in a very serious mood - your aunt has Alzheimers and you're reading about Alzheimers Disease or there's been a catastrophe someplace or there's a political development that you're very interested in - a lot of the ads, especially on especially on television, don't have much of an impact. But if you have it in the entertainment section, you are not in such a critical mood, you've having a good time. And like television commercials, they like fantasy programs. That's why even very popular serious documentaries don't make as much money, because in the midst of a documentary on the Rwandan slaughter, the ad for Pepsi saying you'll stay young forever is laughable. But in the middle of a sitcom, which is already laughable (laugh), it's just absorbed without any critical analysis. So that if you control the media, you have control over things of this sort. And now what we have in daily newspapers in the United States, we have about 15 hundred cities that have a daily paper.

And in 99 percent of those cities there is only one paper in their city of origin. And that's an enormous amount of control. They aren't all the same. Some are better than others and some are worse than others. But even the best has a degree of control over what they'll print or not print, that is greater than if they had to worry about an aggressive competitor across the street.

From The Progressive:
The 50-Year Swindle
by Ben Bagdikian

"Information is the currency of democracy." -Thomas Jefferson

posted by me

:: 8:01:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Free your mind? ::

From BBC News:
Forget sci-fi and guns - The Matrix is really about religion

The sequel to The Matrix is being keenly awaited by many of the film's fans - geeks, sci-fi addicts, as well as those who just love stylish violence. But also lining up outside cinemas will be those who see the film as a work about religion.

In a quiet moment in The Matrix, our hero Neo talks with one of his new crewmates, Cypher. Neo is still getting used to the news that all he ever knew was an illusion fed into his head by the computers who now enslave humanity, and that according to the leader Morpheus he is The One destined to deliver us.

"Did he tell you why you're here?" asks Cypher.

Neo nods.

"Jesus! What a mindjob! So you're here to save the world."

It turns out that Cypher is right on all three counts. Yes, Neo has to save humankind. Yes, it is a job for the mind over computer-simulated matter. And yes, he is Jesus.

In most Hollywood movies it would be ridiculous to pick out hidden meanings in such throwaway lines. But The Matrix is not most Hollywood movies. Dazzled by the stupendous effects, the sci-fi story, the kung fu and the "guns, lots of guns", it is easy to miss the fact that The Matrix is also a spiritual film, saturated with religious symbolism.

Neo's mission, foretold by prophets, is to reveal the truth that will set humankind free. And if that's not messianic enough for you, he gives his life for others and then rises from the dead more powerful than ever.

[Neo could be as cool as Buffy! ;]

posted by me

:: 7:41:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Al Quaida Strikes Again? ::

From The Guardian UK:
Riyadh blasts: death toll 'rises to 34'

Around 2,000 Saudi civil defence workers searched for evidence of the attackers' identities and methods. Investigators wearing surgical gloves sifted through the rubble at the al-Hamra compound in north-eastern Riyadh, where one of the three car bombs left a crater six metres wide and one metre deep.

FBI director Robert Mueller said that a team of agents would leave for Saudi Arabia today to help the authorities, who lost track of 19 al-Quaida suspects last week after a shootout in the capital.

In pictures: terror in Riyadh

Interactive: terror attacks since 9/11

posted by me

:: 7:19:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: He's back ::

Terminator 3 trailer

posted by me

:: 10:31:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Virus warning ::

From Wired:
Fizzer Virus Uses Kazaa to Spread

LOS ANGELES -- A new and complex computer virus called "Fizzer" spread rapidly across the Internet on Monday, infecting computers around the world via e-mail and the file-swapping service Kazaa, computer security experts said.

Businesses in Asia were the first to report the attack, followed by reports of tens of thousands of infections in Europe, and experts were expecting more cases in North America.

Fizzer appears as an e-mail with an attention-grabbing subject line that is activated once a user opens an attached file.

From there, it infects the shared files folder for Kazaa, the popular program that lets users swap songs and files anonymously over the Internet.

OTHER Wired reports:
Spammers, Reveal Thyselves!

A new antispam bill may require e-mail marketers to make known their physical and e-mail addresses. Expected to pass, the bill could send deceptive spammers to prison and impose hefty finds. But consumer advocates say it could increase spam as we know it.

To Err Is Creative in Net Art

To Dirk Paesmans and Joan Heemskerk, two artists whose medium is the Internet, HTML mistakes are a thing of beauty.

While other Web programmers seek to iron out the glitches in their code, Paesmans and Heemskerk intentionally replicate them. It's how they make their art.

The husband-and-wife team -- known collectively as "Jodi" -- is at the vanguard of a group of creative types called online artists, who use and sometimes misuse the technology of the Internet to create their works.

What some might see as a confused jumble of overlapping text and graphics, the result of faulty coding entered by a programming novice, the duo sees as art.

"We are not good coders, or good programmers -- we are not geeks," said Paesmans. "Many people may think that, but it is curiosity, the discovery of how the thing was made," that drives the artwork.

Designs by Paesmans and Heemskerk are currently exhibited at Eyebeam, a chic art gallery in New York City.

A work called e-poltergeist, by Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead, generates an endless cycle of search engine results and banner ads when the user launches it from his Web browser. The only way to stop the flow of data is to shut down the computer.

posted by me

:: 10:22:00 PM [+] ::
...