] Brains are best
]
] Reassuringly, both sexes seem to understand that
] beauty is fleeting and brains last longer. Just under 79
] percent of men -- and 72 percent of women -- said
] they would rather their mate have a high IQ than a
] perfect body.

Mensans of the world Untie!

Sex and body image survey

] bill that Congress recently passed setting up a national
] alert system for child abductions includes provisions
] that have created an uproar among federal judges and
] legal scholars because they limit judicial discretion in
] sentencing criminals.

This is seriously bad news!

Crime Bill Would Curb Judges' Powers

] Since 1992, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the
] Protection of Free Expression has celebrated the birth
] and ideals of its namesake by calling attention to those
] who in the past year forgot or disregarded Mr.
] Jefferson's admonition that freedom of speech "cannot be
] limited without being lost."
]
]
] Announced on or near April 13 -- the anniversary of the
] birth of Thomas Jefferson -- the Jefferson Muzzles are
] awarded as a means to draw national attention to
] abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same
] time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the
] First Amendment. Because the importance and value of free
] expression extend far beyond the First Amendment's limit
] on government censorship, acts of private censorship are
] not spared consideration for the dubious honor of
] receiving a Muzzle.
]
]
] Unfortunately, each year the finalists for the Jefferson
] Muzzles have emerged from an alarmingly large group of
] candidates. For each recipient, a dozen could have been
] substituted. Further, an examination of previous
] Jefferson Muzzle recipients reveals that the disregard of
] First Amendment principles is not the byproduct of a
] particular political outlook but rather that threats to
] free expression come from all over the political
] spectrum.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

] Oil has held the United States hostage for a century, but the
] nation can be energy-independent in 10 years. Here's a five-point
] plan to reshape the economy.

Wired 11.04: How Hydrogen Can Save America

Interz0ne talk censored due to DMCA notice (blogging from the sequestered talk (which is instead a discussion about what occured)).

(Rattle here blogging live from my talk.. There is a reason I have been going around all day chanting "Chilling Effects" in ominous tones..)

Interz0ne: Cease and Desist Letter - 20030411

] The days following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
] were dark days of the American spirit. Unable to strike
] back effectively against the Japanese Empire, Americans
] in the Western states lashed out at fellow citizens and
] resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.
]
] Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on
] February 19, 1942, was the instrument that allowed
] military commanders to designate areas "from which any or
] all persons may be excluded." Under this order all
] Japanese and Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed
] from Western coastal regions to guarded camps in the
] interior. Former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, who
] represented the Department of Justice in the
] "relocation," writes in the Epilogue to this book:
]
] The truth is -- as this deplorable experience proves --
] that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of
] themselves...Despite the uneqivocal language of the
] Constitution of the United States that the writ of habeas
] corpus shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth
] Amendment's command that no person shall be deprived of
] life, liberty or property without due process of law,
] both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by
] military action under Executive Order 9066...

I plan on ordering this book - as I fear it could happen again here in the 21st century.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese

Elections are not necessarily synonymous with constitutional liberalism. Democracy is flourishing; liberty is not.

Fareed Zakaria has a new book entitled, "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad." I've linked here to the NYT review. This book has received praise from Peter Jennings, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Holbrooke, Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, Nicholas Lemann, and others.

Fareed's book tour will be in SF on April 21, LA on April 22, Boston on May 1, and elsewhere on other dates.

Here's Your Vote; Liberty Can Wait

] "There is no plausibly protected constitutional interest
] that...outweighs N2H2's right to protect its copyrighted
] property from an invasive and destructive trespass," U.S.
] District Judge Richard Sterns wrote.

Reverse Engineering is illegal.
DMCA 1 Future of Humanity 0

ACLU loses digital copyright battle | CNET News.com

] It has been stated by your office that this is "a bump in
] the road" between the RIAA and Michigan Tech, and that we
] will move on from here. It is unfortunate that you choose
] to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a
] bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan
] Technological University.
]
] Taking all of this into consideration, we realize the
] seriousness of the allegations against Mr. Nievelt and
] will cooperate fully in resolving this matter.

(Decius's Comments)

This is from a day ago, but I think its really important.

1. The RIAA must be laughing its ass off about this letter. He says "this is not a bump in the road" and then he agrees to cooperate fully. Obviously MTU is either unable or unwilling to create any real pain for the RIAA. I would have provided my legal department for the defense and stopped all the measures that I had taken on their behest.

2. The RIAA has no moral character. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. (People seem have forgotten much of this in the past few years, but trust is the basis of business, and strong moral character is a pre-requisite for trust.) These are not good people, do not trust them.

3. What the RIAA is sueing here are campus SEARCH ENGINES. They are not just for MP3s. They weren't built with MP3s in mind. These are for anyfile. There are lots and lots of non-infringing uses. With the proper legal defense, the RIAA will loose these cases. Much like Felton, they may have stepped on another grenade. (Without proper legal defense it will be ILLEGAL to run a search engine on a campus, which is an intolerable result, frankly.)

Michigan Tech Media Relations Story#95 - President Responds to RIAA Suit

] The Bush administration's attitude, assisted by a
] Congress that long since abandoned any commitment to
] liberty, is that government has the right to know
] absolutely everything about you and that government can
] violate your fundamental rights with impunity as long as
] the cause is deemed worthy.
]
] You, on the other hand, have absolutely no right to know
] what the government is doing in your name and with your
] money, unless the information is deemed harmless by
] people who have every motive to cover up misdeeds.

Dan Gillmore on the glum outlook at CFP.

Mercury News | 04/06/2003 | Why we may never regain the liberties that we've lost