You’ll feel better after signing the petition.
NH Primary Fraud?
Two very important things: I have every confidence that the NH Primary results were correct and accurate, and, most importantly, unmolested. And, I’m also quite happy with them. But that doesn’t mean I’m not anxiously awaiting the results of the hand recount that Congressman Kucinich has requested. Conspiracy theories abound, and Diebold is a despicable […] » about 300 words
The State Of Democracy
What does it mean about the state of democracy when viral video darling Obama Girl Amber Lee Ettinger shows up in NH? And Chuck Norris too? (Chuck Norris political facts.) It probably surprises no one that Kucinich’s press secretary’s 18 year old daughter is more articulate than Amber and Chuck combined. Ugh. » about 100 words
A Nation Marketing Itself
Japan‘s The Ministry of Foreign Affairs English-language Web Japan is a bottomless trove of in-flight magazine-quality stories like ANTIBACTERIAL EPIDEMIC and J-culture-hyping love-fests like Honoring The World’s Manga Artists.
If American propaganda efforts are this bad, why do foreign governments even bother blocking them?
How Expensive Does Commercial Software Need To Get Before We Consider Open Source?
Open source software of the free as in free beer and free as in free speech variety has matured to the point that there are now strong contenders in nearly every category, though that doesn’t make them easy choices. It’s often revealing when people criticize OSS as being free as in free kittens, which is […] » about 900 words
[Insert Word Here] Is Hurting Your Network
Corporate networks are defenseless against the growing threat from instant messaging, and the government warns WiFi is insecure and easily sniffed.
Experts suggest we take precautions against the growing risk of p2p software that’s exposing sensitive documents and threatening national security.
Businesses blame security problems on their employees, their mobile devices, and other consumer technologies.
And now we have MySpace.
Gender Gaps
Connect the dots: Boys vs. girls in US colleges and too many men in East Germany.
Internet Safety
NPR : Back to School: Reading, Writing and Internet Safety
As students return to school in Virginia, there’s something new in their curriculum. Virginia is the first state to require public schools to teach Internet safety.
Not Just Hip
When a writer goes looking for young Turks (my words, not Scott’s), you should expect the story to include some brash quotes (writers are supposed to have a chip of ice in their hearts, after all). On the other hand, we’re librarians, so how brash can we be? Scott Carlson’s Young Librarians, Talkin’ ‘Bout Their […] » about 300 words
Who Owns The Network?
Note: this cross-posted item is my contribution to our Banned Books Week recognition. We’ve been pitting books against each other, hoping to illustrate that there are always (at least) two sides to every story. Most of the other books were more social or political, but I liked this pair. Wikinomics authors Don Tapscott and Anthony […] » about 300 words
Banned Books Week Dilemma
Our intention is to feature “a series of books that challenge our beliefs and test our commitment to free speech,” but on this post about Holocaust denial I found myself unwilling (and unable) to link to the free, online PDF full text of David Irving‘s Hitler’s War. And when we discovered it wasn’t in our collection (though it may have been lost/stolen, not replaced, and the record deleted), we decided not to purchase it.
Sometimes books are challenged. Sometimes they’re just not purchased.
Mullenweg on WordPress and Open Source
I wish I’d seen this from WordPress maven Matt Mullenweg before I finished My LTR on open source software for libraries. Mullenweg is brushing off some of the mystique and praise the media has been giving him, and giving an honest sense of what makes open source software work: the real story is more exciting […] » about 300 words
A Message From The Establishment To The Establishment
We must stop thinking of ourselves as a good-idea factory whose every thought has greater merit than those of our customers. Procter & Gamble doesn’t even do that.
NH’s Virtual Learning Academy
The CEO of NH’s first online-only, distance education high school expects about 700 students to enroll in its first semester, to start in January. So says a report at NHPR.
Four Years Of Music Industry Lawsuits & Madness
Marketplace reminds us the storm of RIAA lawsuits began in September 2003. In that time they’ve sued a thousands of people, and most lawyers apparently advise those caught in the madness to simply roll over and take it. But Tanya Andersen, a 41 year old disabled single mother didn’t. After years of litigation (and mounting […] » about 200 words
Closed Formats Are Bad For Libraries, Stop OOXML Now
Microsoft just won’t quit. Now they’re trying to make OOXML an ISO standard. Please help stop this. Here’s how I explained it in Open Source Software for Libraries: The state of Massachusetts in 2005 announced new IT standards that required its 80,000 employees and 173 agencies to adopt open file formats. The decision didn’t specify […] » about 300 words
Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God
The following, quoted from Daily Kos:
Accodring to Chambers, God has caused fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction.
So, you think “yeah, he’s got a point.” And you read this, and you realize “he’s flipping smart.”
Chambers says he’s tried to contact God numerous times, “Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon Defendant ( ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are’ ) has been unable to do so.”
The suit also requests that the court given the “peculiar circumstances” of this case waive personal service. It says being Omniscient, the plaintiff assumes God will have actual knowledge of the action.
The “Show of Force” Brand
A Pentagon commissioned $400,000 RAND study, Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation, concludes “the ‘force’ brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies’ competing brands.”
A Shadow Lifted, Berlin’s Smokestacks Felled
Corey and I went to Berlin to watch the stacks fall today, but bad weather, confusion, and some dud explosives conspired to leave me with no usable pictures of the event. We arrived early and lined up a perfect view of two out of three towers that were to be felled, but as the explosions […] » about 300 words
Lessons In Change From Ford Motor Company
I probably spend too much time considering competition and change management, but just as I figured I was done with it for the week, a comment from Kathryn Greenhill regarding Model Ts got me going again. Just like railroads, those “any color as long as it’s black” Model Ts looked like freedom, until General Motors […] » about 600 words
First They Ignore You, Then They Ridicule You, Then They Fight You
It’s an aside to Kathryn Greenhill’s larger point, that all this 2.0 stuff is about a shifting power to the user, but she places L2 somewhere on Ghandi’s continuum of change between ridicule and fight. The photo above (original by Monster) is in support of Greenhill’s larger point: control is shifting. Trains were once seen […] » about 200 words
Hawkish
Is Bush really so hawkish that he refuses to formally declare an end to the Korean War?
Make It Official Before He Forgets
In a development that even FOXNews couldn’t ignore, US attorney general Alberto Gonzales has resigned, he thinks.
Would Princess Diana Have Been A Blogger?
In an interview on NPR, The Diana Chronicles author Tina Brown says “Diana had represented feeling, and the end of the stiff upper lip,” but the Princess comes off sounding a bit like a harbinger of the Cluetrain. Yes it’s all about the Royals, the glamor, and her dramatic death ten years ago, but take […] » about 400 words
Castro Sued For Wrongful Death of CIA Operative, Guantanamo Bay Prisoners Taking Notes
The Bangor Daily News is reporting a Maine woman has sued Fidel Castro for her father’s death. Sherry Sullivan of Stockton Springs accuses Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, the Cuban army, and the Republic of Cuba for the wrongful death of her father, who has been missing and assumed dead since he was last seen […] » about 300 words