What Hainey was telling me, in essence, is that you're a fool now to think that Atlanta is any place at all to launch a tech company. He tried it, he succeeded for a time, but he had to give it up, because he was too far from the action. And the action isn't here.

Something about Atlanta and Munich?

Dana Blankenhorn: Georgia Tech Scandal

Clearly, to adhere to our style rules, F.D.R. should have said “that.” This is a restrictive clause defining the “date” we’re talking about. (In fact, the Columbia World of Quotations, among other sources, renders the quote incorrectly online, substituting “that.”)

Perhaps Roosevelt thought, as many writers and speakers seem to do, that “which” sounded more elevated or powerful. Or perhaps he was influenced by British usage, which often employs “which” in restrictive clauses. In any case, we’re prepared to allow an exception here.

I've been hounded by Microsoft Word about this "grammatical error" for years. I had no idea it was a British vs. American English thing. IMHO, some sentences just sound better with which rather than that. Some sentences sound better the other way. I guess most Americans religiously use that?

Simplify, Simplify - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.

Yeesh!

cbs2chicago.com - Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Arrested By Federal Agents

The ballot images can then be posted on the internet for the public to examine and conduct independent recounts.

Excellent. This is something I've wanted to see for years.

Unique Transparency Program Uncovers Problems with Voting Software | Threat Level from Wired.com

This campaign began when the death of Seetha Vemireddy, a 17 year-old bonded slave at a restaurant in Berkeley, CA, came to the attention of professor David Batstone. By learning to recognize forced labor and report it, you can help people like Seetha gain their freedom. SlaveryMap was created for this purpose.

SlaveryMap

so we'll be taking your money anyway...

Just click through.

You wouldn't buy our shitty cars...

More on Clean Feed.

Because of the Internet Watch Foundation blacklisting, British internet service providers are currently redirecting Wikipedia traffic to a proxy server.

The technical architecture of the British censorship filter directs all traffic to "suspicious IPs" through a proxy server, so now all wikipedia traffic from the UK is being proxied, which breaks Wikipedia's twit filters.

When British editors log in via that proxy server, Wikipedia’s systems cannot verify their unique IP addresses, and is blocking most access to British editors because it cannot adequately verify them.

Um, passwords?
The censors have put out a press release defending their actions.

"As with all child sexual abuse reports received by our hotline analysts, the image was assessed according to the U.K. Sentencing Guidelines Council. The content was considered to be a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18," the IWF said in a statement.

Apparently they also called the British police, and "international partners" who presumably include American entities, who might have also informed American police, which begs the question: Will U.S. Law Enforcement raid Wikipedia? Will they go through the logs and raid everyone who has viewed this Wikipedia page?

"Do we need to worry the police will come and confiscate our record collections?" asked David Gerard, a Wikipedia editor in London.

Good question! Think it can't happen? Guess what? It gets worse. Way worse.

In a WND poll related to the story, the No. 1 response, at more than 47 percent, had readers saying Wikipedia is clearly violating U.S. obscenity laws and should face prosecution.

Oh, and BTW, its not just the picture that was banned:

Wikipedia declined to remove the album cover. "We are particularly displeased that the IWF chose to censor not solely the image, but also the explanatory article text which described and contextualized the controversy surrounding the image, in a neutral and educational fashion," the foundation said in a statement.

Wikipedia Blocks British Editors Amid Censorship Flap | Threat Level from Wired.com

There's only one girl. Hope we get to meet the other one soon

[sigh]. So so true.

"The Ratio" THE GTGs, Georgia Tech's gtg491y & gtg562h

Report here.

In particular note recommendation 17, in which the government is encouraged to enable drivers licenses or national ID cards to work online. The words "consistent with privacy and civil liberties" are thrown in there, but I think this development, and the massive civil liberties battles that will be associated with it, are inevitable. Its kind of like watching the birth of skynet.

RE: U.S. Is Losing Global Cyberwar, Commission Says - BusinessWeek

Truly productive invention requires the meeting of minds from myriad perspectives, even if the innovators themselves don’t always realize it.

Unboxed - For Innovators, There Is Brainpower in Numbers - NYTimes.com