] RIAA agents, backed up by police, have started to raid
] Midwestern record stores that carry DJ mixes. On
] September 23, Berry's Music in Indianapolis, Indiana, was
] raided; according to proprietor Alan Berry, police
] confiscated $10,000 worth of mix discs by the likes of DJ
] World and DJ Paul Bunyan. "The record labels want the
] independent record stores out of the business," Berry
] says.
] City%u2014it's consolidation, just like any other
] industry. The RIAA knows that mixes are an integral part
] of urban stores' culture and profit margin. By
] eliminating them, they can eliminate a lot of indie
] stores."

RIAA raiding small music stores for selling DJ mix CDs

] Crocker's questions, along with queries from Ram Mohan of
] Afilias, a domain name registrar, prompted an angry
] reaction from VeriSign representatives.
]
] Gomes said: "I'm utterly clueless about how what we've
] been talking about for the last few minutes has to do
] with security and stability"--the ICANN committee's
] mandate.
]
] Larson suggested that "you guys don't think consumers
] are relevant" and that committee members were unduly
] focused on the travails of network operators affected by
] the Site Finder changes.
]
] "We're going to have to stop this discussion and turn to
] a different venue," Larson said.

An extremely disjointed view into today's ICANN hearing, but this is the only coverage I've found. Expect more in the AM.

News: VeriSign to revive redirect service (fnord!)

] The primary intended use for this is to allow
] identifiable participants in the domain name system to
] vote on matters that affect the whole domain name system
] in an easy (and easily-verifiable) fashion. The method
] for voting is specifying a string in the whois data for a
] domain name.

I beleive that the primary problem with the DNS that has lead to the present difficulties with Verisign, as well as previous difficulties, and future difficulties as well, is that the regulatory body which controls the DNS, ICANN, does not have democratic legitimacy. ICANN attempted to enable open elections, but this process fell apart for various reasons. A former roommate of mine (for a short period of time) wrote this essay at circleid on the subject. I'd like to know what people think.

A Voting System for Internet by Domain Name Owners - Part I

] There is currently a healthy robust competitive market
] for expired domains. The WLS seeks to kill the entire
] market and allow a system devised by Network Solutions to
] decide who gets every name, and allows them to charge
] domain consumers exorbitantly for the privelege of using
] their monopoly.

Another reason to hate Verisign

] The report finds that the introduction of cameras
] actually interrupted a downward trend in UK accidents.
] "If the 1966-93 trend line had continued until 2001 there
] would have been 825 fewer fatalities in that year than were
] actually recorded."

Cameras do not replace police. Cameras look for speeders. Police look for people who aren't paying attention.

[Politech] New study says speed cameras don't work [priv]

] The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ
] leveled to every understanding and too plain to need
] explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with
] which they might build up an artificial system which might,
] from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give
] employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power,
] and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips
] of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but
] thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms
] engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense
] can never be explained." -Thomas Jefferson

A very interesting and angry discussion on Slashdot about the Pledge case. Thought I'd bring it over here and see what people have to say. CNN's take is rather propagandist. In general, I find this subject to be messy. I think its obvious why the words "under god" have been added to the pledge, and I think its obvious that it was illegal to do it. However, three generations have now been raised bleating those words out every morning in a practice that I objected to as a child simply because it is the most obvious sort of brainwashing. Those people are no more likely to be able to look critically and rationally upon the words of their pledge then a Frenchman is to discard his native tongue. Could we not start by having schools which do not include these words in the pledge, or better yet, to not pledge at all? Does it make sense to confront America with its most ingrained irrational convictions directly? Is this going to be productive?

Slashdot | Supreme Court Will Hear Pledge of Allegiance Case

] China's first piloted spacecraft has entered the outer
] space, and Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei is now the first
] Chinese astronaut in space in the world's 241st manned
] space mission.

] At around 9:10, Shenzhou-5 moved into the
] preset orbit, indicating success of China's endeavor to
] hurl a piloted space vehicle of its own into the orbit.

] In the meantime, The Yuanwang-1 measuring vessel has
] been monitoring the target over the Pacific Ocean; and
] the Beijing Space Command and Control Center ordered
] the craft to open up the solar panels.

Of course, it ain't over till the dude is back on the ground.

:: Xinhuanet - English :: China's first manned spacecraft in orbit

Theoretical conversation between mikhail simkin and his thesis advisor:

advisor: So how's your research going?

mikhail: Yeah I'm not really "motivated", I sorta want to just sit on my ass and surf the net.

advisor: You can't just waste time searching for useless crap on the internet, this is UCLA dept of Electrical Engineering. You'd better have a publishable paper the next time I see you.

mikhail: crap...

[cond-mat/0310049] Theory of Aces: Fame by chance or merit?

] In an e-mail to ABCNEWS today, the commander of the
] battalion, Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, said the
] "letter-writing initiative" was all his idea.

Spin, spin, spin....

Army Lt. Col. takes credit for astroturf

Visitors to CEATEC 2003 (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) met Morph3, a human-like robot about 30-centimetres tall developed by researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. It can perform back flips and karate moves thanks to 138 pressure sensors, 30 different onboard motors and 14 computer processors.

Martial arts robots hit Asian tech fair