A story over at DefenseTech is reporting that four years after the September 11th attacks and during a time when US personnel are involved in armed action on the ground in Arabic speaking states, the military still doesn’t have a plan to train their soldiers in the language. It seems the Pentagon can spend bazilions […] » about 300 words
This post is about a couple of things. First, it seems Cory Doctorow has issued DMCA takedown notice to the folks at BoringBoring.org for their parody of Doctorow’s BoingBoing. What nobody knew at the time is that Gakker has also been on the scene, Doing Doctorow parodies, and all. Which is where thing 2™ comes […] » about 400 words
Blogger Mark Cuban listened politely to RIAA chief Mitch Bainwol stumble into the logically fallacious argument that: it was obvious that illegal downloads were hurting music sales. It was obvious because the advent of file sharing coincided with a decrease in music sales. Therefore A lead to B. (I’m quoting Cuban, who’s parapharsing from » about 400 words
A Mainichi Daily Times story announced today sales of energy-efficient Japanese cars soar in U.S. Toyota and Nissan both saw 12% sales growth, with Toyota’s Prius sales jumping to 260% their numbers from a year ago. Honda, which usually wears the energy efficiency leader’s hat, saw a nearly 7% increase in sales. Ever prideful, MDN […] » about 300 words
I cannot say it any better than it was said in today’s issue of EFFector: The US State Department is pushing for what may be the most misguided and dangerous travel “security” plan ever proposed: putting insecure radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips in all new US passports. These chips would broadcast your name, date of birth, […] » about 500 words
Texas executes a lot of people. During the years 1995 through 2000, Texas executed 152 inmates, making then governor Georg W. Bush the killingest governor in history. A March 1998 Amnesty International report titled The Death Penalty in Texas: Lethal Injustice notes that “public support for the death penalty in Texas remains strong,” and a […] » about 900 words
I’m not sure I could say it any better than David Rothman did when he went off topic over at TeleRead to make note of some important issues related to the Terri Schiavo matter. Rothman points at the bigger issue, but doesn’t come out and say it: all life concludes with death; indeed, the leading […] » about 300 words
I’ve failed to live up to my potential this week. I’ve wasted a lot of time on stories about useless video cameras, home theater, whining about my kitchen remodeling, and lamenting some lost stories when I should have been paying attention to SXSW, ETech, copyright issues, and Sunshine Week. Please accept my Johnny-come-lately mea culpa […] » about 300 words
It turns out that the Quicken website is full of legal tips and advice. What caught my eye was a description of implied warranties. Implied warranties don’t come from anything a seller says or does. They arise automatically when a product is sold. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, there are two kinds of implied warranties: […] » about 400 words
The are few things as joyus as the excitement of discovery, so it was a great pleasure to learn that Stay Free! Magazine has a new blog: Stay Free! Daily. The blog has a number of stories about intellectual freedom and copyright oppression that resonated with me. Take a look at Silent Disobedience, Christo’s policy […] » about 500 words
I first learned of Wei Hui and her first book Shanghai Baby on NPR a few years ago. According to the story, Wei Hui is among a “group of young, attractive women known as the ‘beautiful writers’ churning out novels that graphically describe the hedonism of modern urban China.” Wei Hui’s book was so controversial […] » about 300 words
AlterNet had a good line of stories this weekend to round up the old year and ring in the new. I’m running a little late on such things here at MaisonBisson, so let me just quote from theirs instead. — – — Daniel Kurtzman’s list of The 25 Dumbest Quotes of 2004 includes this doozy […] » about 600 words
I posted a story about a tour through Chernobyl a few weeks ago. The story still gets a lot of hits, and somebody pointed out a few related Wikipedia links about the accident, the ghost town, and the controversy about Elena Filatova, the author of everybody’s favorite online Chernobyl tour story.
Separately, Peace.ca reminds us about the dangers of war, nuclear contamination, and more.
AlterNet ran an interesting story about Gary Webb‘s recent suicide and the events that may have led to it. Webb was the 49-year-old former Pulitzer-winning reporter who in 1996, while working for the San Jose Mercury News, touched off a national debate with a three-part series that linked the CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan Contras to a crack-dealing […] » about 400 words
I’ve got a backlog o stories to post here, including this old one about broadcast programming complaints to the FCC. The FCC reports that it received a mere 350 complaints in 2000, but 240,000 in 2003. So what can account for the nearly 700-X increase? The FCC did some homework on the matter:
According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 — 99.8 percent — were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group. This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified. Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints-aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS- were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1.
ArsTechnica‘s coverage of the story is worth looking into if you haven’t seen this covered elsewhere already.
Sometimes a story will popup as a clear reminder that the world is not always as it seems. I will admit both surprise and amusement when I found that Foster’s Daily Democrat reported Saturday on the content of a federal indictment of a Kittery, Maine, health club. Geography lesson: Foster’s covers New Hampshire’s seacoast — […] » about 700 words
Katherine Merrow, Senior Research Associate at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies recently released a study on Teen Drug Use and Juvenile Crime in NH. The following is quoted from the study’s executive summary: Two recent surveys indicate that New Hampshire teens use drugs at rates significantly higher than their national counterparts. One […] » about 400 words
Gizmodo was excited enough about the Draplin and Coudal SHHH cards: Two designers have made these warning cards for obnoxious cell phone users, available in convenient PDF download-and-cut-out form. It’s a good way to make it clear to people they’re talking too loudly, and a good way to eventually get into a good, American fist-fight. […] » about 200 words
lquilter.net pointed me to an interesting entry at NewDonkey: The Christian Right and the Sanctity of Marriage As we all know, the Christian Right has now made defense of the institution of marriage, as defined as a union of a man and woman, not only its top political priority, but the very touchstone of Christian […] » about 400 words
DefenseTech reported today that “Russia is leaning more and more on its nuclear weapons, as its conventional military falls into the toilet.” Elsewhere at DefenseTech today was a link to ArmsControlWonk, which leads to news that the US isn’t working with the IAEA. This isn’t good. The AP, via DefenseTech is reporting Speaking at a […] » about 700 words
I’ve been reading the archives at lquilter.net, where I stumbled across this amusing yet scary entry: …On the First Amendment side of things, Wired has a great new story explaining how recent Senate Commerce Committee, Science, Technology & Space Subcommittee hearings have shown that Internet porn is the worst scourge this nation has seen since […] » about 300 words
Cliff over at Spiralbound.net posted the video of Bush flipping the bird. It’s not as exciting as I’d hoped, but it’s on video.
Then there’s the Dubya Movie. It’s a fantastic mashup of old Don Kotts movies, but that’s already giving too much away. Go watch it, you’ll laugh.
LQ wrote at lquilter.net about looming challenges to federalism i’ll be interested to see how the conservative, pro-federalism, pro-states’ rights, GOP-run government (and the conservative intelligentsia which carries their theoretical water) handles some of the upcoming challenges to federalism: medical marijuana laws state & regional initiatives on global warming: for isntance, California’s mandatory cap on […] » about 500 words
fallujapictures (soon to be at falljuahinpictures.com) posts pictures too sad or scary to appear in most newspapers or even on this site.
Democratic Underground published a May 5 2004 story about Bush administration efforts to replace the national archivist. the national archivist is the keeper of the nation’s records – the archives. The National Archives control what information gets released to the public – and what does not. With so much power over how what history we […] » about 1600 words