"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
MC Rove
Topic: Politics and Law
11:47 am EDT, Mar 29, 2007
I spent 5 minutes trying to come up with something to say about this. All I can muster is that I didn't enjoy watching it, but I couldn't pull myself away.
This spring the Las Vegas McCarren International Airport will set up large plasma screens with a motion- tracking component that lets advertisers bring pedestrians into their commercials. When you walk past a car ad, for example, the vehicle might move at the same speed you're walking. When you turn to look at the driver, he'll turn to look at you, and you'll be staring into an image of your own face.
Ryan Adams Sucks: The Music Industry's Sky is Falling!
Topic: Music
11:18 pm EDT, Mar 28, 2007
The Rev. Keith A. Gordon was one of the more interesting characters in the early '90's BBS scene in Nashville. I recently ran into him again on MySpace and he pointed me to his blog on which he has some bitting commentary about what is going on with the music industry. You should take a second to read his thoughts on last week's announcement that CD sales are down 20%. He puts the blame where I firmly believe it belongs... That the music industry has been churning out crap nobody cares about while trying to sue their future away. Also check out his website for some more interesting goodies, including music reviews. The name of his website, That Devil Music, reminds me of a short promo for WRVU 91.1 recorded in the early 90's on which Dagmar and I provided backup vocals that you still occaisonally hear on the air today in Nashville.
Fisher ponders “the question is: how often does a consumer opt to buy just one or two songs off an album rather than buy the whole thing? This phenomenon must affect the top of the music charts quite viciously.” Fisher points out that at one time, you were forced to buy a $15 CD just to get the one song that you wanted. Today, you can buy it for .99¢ or less from a digital retailer.
This, too, is the fault of the major labels.
From around 1996 or so, when the labels first crammed the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC down the throats of teenage music buyers, the fragile balance between art and commerce was skewed the wrong way. Smelling major money to be had, the labels went overboard in pushing studio-created “frankenbands,” pop tarts like Christina and Britney and pushing vacuous outfits like Creed and Third Eye Blind to the top of the charts. With predictable results, the labels taught a generation of music buyers to value the hit single above all else, and that you had to buy the album to get the one song you want. This was profitable, also, because the constant churning-and-turning of performers meant that you never had to pay higher royalties or reduce recoupable expenses for some prissy “veteran” musician.
Someone samples Steven Colbert on YouTube. Viacom files a DMCA takedown. EFF sues Viacom. Steven Colbert invites John Perry Barlow on the show to discuss it. Someone posts that video to iFilm. You'll have to click through to see it because it doesn't embed...
John Perrry Barlow: "Its kind of a metaphor of a metaphor if you know what I mean."
FBI director blames agency, not Patriot Act, for abuses
Topic: Civil Liberties
9:29 am EDT, Mar 28, 2007
FBI Director Robert Mueller pleaded with senators Tuesday not to curtail the Patriot Act that empowers the federal government to secretly obtain personal records, although a Justice Department investigator discovered that the bureau had failed to obey its requirements.
The problem wasn't the law, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee; it was the FBI.
"The statute did not cause the errors," Mueller said. "The FBI's implementation of the statute did."
This perspective is infuriating. For the millionth time, the reason we want oversight of your agent's actions isn't because we have a problem with the abstract idea that they might collect information about terrorists, its because your agents are human, and will, intentionally or unintentionally, screw it up. The statute must change because the statute can change. There is no way to change whether or not your agents are human. Why do you people continue to insist that oversight is not necessary? Oversight is obviously necessary! The powers assumed in the past few years have been based on an assumption of perfection and benevolence on the part of police which is absolutely unheard of in the history of the world. The reality is that your are going to screw it up and you are going to hire crooked people and sometimes you are going to be enforcing crooked policies passed by corrupt politicians. That is the real world. If you don't think that police surveillance needs oversight you are living in a fantasyland, and that was the problem with these rules from the beginning.
Technology Review: Could Al Qaeda Plunge England into an Internet Blackout?
Topic: Computer Security
6:59 pm EDT, Mar 27, 2007
According to an article by David Leppard, Scotland Yard has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda operatives were going to blow up Telehouse Europe, a large colocation facility in Britain that is the country's largest Internet hub. Suspects who were recently arrested had conducted reconnaissance against Telehouse and had planned to infiltrate the organization and blow it up from inside.
Part of me doesn't want to take this seriously, but in fact this would likely cause significant economic disruption...
This is where the anti terror efforts really start to screw up people's lives
Topic: Civil Liberties
2:57 pm EDT, Mar 27, 2007
Colleen Tunney-Ryan, a TransUnion spokeswoman who perhaps has memorized key sections of 'Thank You For Smoking,' says the people who order the credit reports agree not to take any action based on the reports. The idea that lenders order the reports only to ignore them makes a sort of exquisite sense that 27B cherishes.
The denied party list has never been enforced for normal domestic transactions. Some companies shipping export controlled commodities check it, but McDonalds, for example, does not face prosecution for failing to perform a DPL check before selling you a hamburger.
Much like employee drug screening this is an example of companies overzealously participating in law enforcement. The really scary part is, however, that the law is not totally clear on the fact that McDonalds isn't required to perform checks, and so as companies embrace this it could result in decisions by Commerce to start requiring it in some contexts.
The end result is that if for some reason you are a partial match, which happens all the time, you are going to find yourself facing real hassles, as the companies that are implementing this voluntarily probably aren't staffing to clear false positives efficiently. How many people named John Hernandez do you think there are in the United States. I'm guessing a lot.
A push to legalize the Sunday sale of alcohol topped a list of bills that likely died in the Georgia Legislature on Monday.
The bills including a proposed hate crimes law, plans for Confederate History Month and Gov. Sonny Perdue's effort to clarify that church groups may receive state money were not among the ones that made it onto the Senate calendar for Tuesday.
WSB's Capitol Reporter Sandra Parrish reports Tuesday is the so-called Crossover Day in the Legislature. That's the 30th day of the 40-day session and the last on which a bill may pass in one chamber to be considered by the other.
While I'm not happy that they aren't fixing Georgia's silly Sunday alcohol ordinance, there are a number of problematic bills that have been discussed on MemeStreams in the past few months which are apparently dead as of tommorow, for this year at least. If you expressed concern about one of those bills, you impacted this result.
