Over dinner a few weeks ago, the novelist Lawrence Naumoff told a troubling story. He asked students in his introduction to creative writing course at UNC-Chapel Hill if they had read Jack Kerouac. Nobody raised a hand. Then he asked if anyone had ever heard of Jack Kerouac. More blank expressions.

"I guess I've always known that many students are just taking my course to get a requirement out of the way," Naumoff said.

In our increasingly complex world, the amount of information required to master any particular discipline -- e.g. computers, life insurance, medicine -- has expanded geometrically. We are forced to become specialists, people who know more and more about less and less.

In this frightening new world, students do not turn to universities for mind expansion but vocational training.

When was the last time you met anyone who was ashamed because they didn't know something?

Lack of curiosity is curious

A Miami resident has bought a virtual space station for $100,000 and wants to turn it into a cross between Jurassic Park and a disco.

Whoa. Turn your habit into cash.

CNN.com - Virtual property yields $100,000 - Nov 10, 2005

One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings. In Architecture of Density, Wolf investigates these vibrant city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the buildings' facades.

These are amazing photographs. I wish I could go to the exhibition.

MICHAEL WOLF

Robert Petrick searched for the words "neck," "snap," "break" and "hold" on an Internet search engine before his wife died, according to prosecutors Wednesday... Investigators continue to find new evidence on computers seized from Robert Petrick's home that prosecutors say support their arguments that Petrick killed his wife.The Google search was the latest in recently discovered evidence found in the 100 million pages of content removed from computers.

I've been predicting for quite some time that Google's "save everything forever" policy will turn them into a treasure trove for prosecutors. While this case doesn't involve a Google subpoena, the idea does not seem far removed. Subpoenas are easier to get then the sort of search warrant executed in this case. Most of the Slashdot commentators miss the point. The point is that this stuff is evidence of someone's thought processes that can be relevant to a trial. Its use will expand.

If a national security letter could be used to obtain all of Google's records, and the police where prepared to manage that amount of data, and the policies allowed them to retain the data and reuse it elsewhere, the impact of that could be quite similar to having police doing background checks on any questionable search term. I do think this is an unlikely scenario. It would be more likely to bring the NSL house of cards crashing down then to succeed. But even without this, once people realize that their search history is legally discoverable its going to have a big chilling effect on how they use the Internet.

Slashdot | Google Searches Used in Murder Trial?

The U.S. is making apocalyptic predictions of what the U.N. would do if given control. Those predictions are probably optimistic; U.N. control would be a disaster. But there is a third way, as Mr. Gore might say. That alternative doesn't serve the interests of either the U.S. government, which enjoys the control it currently exercises, or its critics, who would much prefer to do their censoring under a multilateral umbrella. But if the U.S. continues its Internet brinkmanship, the third way will become not only likely, but inevitable.

That alternative is a fragmented Internet, without a single "root file" that describes the locations of everything on the Net. The U.S. government has led many to believe that this is equivalent to dismantling the Internet itself. But it is bluffing.

Would it be better if countries that want to muck around with the Net just didn't? Sure. But they do want to, and they will, and it would be far better, in the long run, if they did so on their own, without a U.N. agency to corrupt or give them shelter. It's time to drop the apocalyptic rhetoric about a split root file and start looking beyond the age of a U.S.-dominated Internet. Breaking up is hard to do, but in this case, the alternative would be worse.

WSJ.com - Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at DHS, did not cite Sony by name in his remarks Thursday but described industry efforts to install hidden files on consumers' computers.
"It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property, it's not your computer," Baker said at a trade conference on piracy. "And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days."

Sony to Suspend Making Antipiracy CDs - Yahoo! News

We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

Tin Foil Hats a government conspiracy!

Rove also denounced last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roper v. Simmons in which five justices ruled that convicted murderers under the age of 18 could not be put to death. Rove noted that 20 states allowed capital punishment for those under 18 and argued that the high court was depriving those states of the right to self-government.

Minors can't vote and they don't have much money and they don't really read the paper anyway, so the papers run sensationalistic stories on youth crime because it speaks to their target market. Local corrupt politicians want to speak to that market too, so they pass laws cracking down on young people and especially young criminals. They crack down and crack down and crack down, year after year although it really doesn't have any effect. It makes good press. It keeps people elected.
Karl Rove wants to electocute people who are too "immature" to buy a beer or vote in an election or be outside after 11PM. When Breyer mentioned the fact that we're one of the only places left in the world that does this he was simply trying to prove that he isn't crazy. However, I view this in a slightly different light. I think this is one area in which the United States, up until Roper, could be viewed as primitive and backward. There is a reason that everyone else on the planet thinks this is immoral. It IS immoral. It is a brutal and primitive practice that most societies have outgrown. By leading the charge back to this Rove bares the banner of immorality.
When the federalist society talks about "limited government" what they mean is "limited (federal) government." The fact that the "federal" part is silent is the big lie of the right. They don't want individual liberty. They want unlimited state government, so their networks of old boys who are too corrupt or too stupid to make it on a federal level can oppress the crap out of people back home without any interference from those damn feds.

Rove re-emerges at conservative lawyers' group - Tom Curry - MSNBC.com

25 Above Water is an online art sale/exhibition to benefit Hurricanes Katrina Rita relief and recovery efforts, with proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

25 Above Water

Explore the dark and comedic side of graffiti at the excellent picturesofwalls.com
Sad and not sad at once, sadly.

Pictures of Walls