] In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence
] extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or
] be outed, later if not sooner. This is something I would
] bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and
] corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you
] out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of
] transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you
] will be seen to have done that which you did.

William Gibson on Orwell.

NY Times | The Road to Oceania

] Foul play was immediately suspected as having a role in
] Lee's passing. Chow appeared on television to try to
] settle the public furor that quickly developed. He
] explained what happened, omitting only the fact that Lee
] had not died at home. The press soon uncovered the truth,
] however, and demanded to know what Chow was trying to
] cover up. R.D. Teare, a professor of forensic medicine at
] the University of London who had overseen more than
] 90,000 autopsies, was called in and declared that it was
] basically impossible for the cannabis to be a factor in
] Lee's death. In Teare's opinion, the edema was caused by
] hypersensitivity to either meprobamate or aspirin, or a
] combination of both. His view was accepted by
] authorities, and a determination of "misadventure" was
] stamped on Lee's death.

Watched Dragon, hadda check this out.

The Mystery of Bruce Lee's Death

] Sometimes you run across stories that leave you
] scratching your head. Well, we have just such a tale, one
] you might just have to see to believe. And, it's all
] about an Oklahoma City dog. But this is no ordinary dog.
]
] "She eats a lot and she plays. She's really spoiled,"
] said her owner, Laura Stringfellow.
]
] Meet Faith. All dog. Except for one thing.
]
]
] "She's very incredible," Stringfellow said.
]
]
] Faith walks upright, like a human.

OOOOOH. Good shit. I would pay for one of these. Which gene is it again that governs segmentation and limb development? If you can make a fish glow... why not make a 2 legged dog? I want.

A dog tale deserving of a 'standing' ovation

] Battlefield: Pirates' controls and gameplay are a little
] different, so to get the most out of the experience,
] please read the section on "The Units" because you may
] want to remap some keys, and optionally also "strategies"
] to get that edge on your rival pirates.
]
] Please be aware that this mod is probably a little
] different than what you're used to. Pirates hate being on
] land, they hate being in the air, and they hate
] newfangled contraptions.
]
] If you're looking for another mod full of running and
] gunning, dive-bombing, and blasting away with tanks, this
] probably isn't for you.
]
] If you get excited about the idea of sailing uncharted
] waters, searching the fog for rival ships, and
] maneuvering into the perfect position to lay iron unto
] your enemy before he can do the same to you, then you've
] come to the right place.

All you Battlefield 1942 players that are tired of the original, and the popular Desert Combat mod... this looks promising.

BF Pirates

] The Medtronic was originally developed as a tool for
] brain surgery: by stimulating or slowing down specific
] regions of the brain, it allowed doctors to monitor the
] effects of surgery in real time. But it also produced,
] they noted, strange and unexpected effects on patients'
] mental functions: one minute they would lose the ability
] to speak, another minute they would speak easily but
] would make odd linguistic errors and so on. A number of
] researchers started to look into the possibilities, but
] one in particular intrigued Snyder: that people
] undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS,
] could suddenly exhibit savant intelligence -- those
] isolated pockets of geniuslike mental ability that most
] often appear in autistic people.

Weird ...

Savant for a Day

] Artist representatives say a singles-oriented model means
] a significant hit to the bottom line. Instead of divvying
] the spoils of a $12-$18 CD sale, labels, artists and
] songwriters are vying for nickels and dimes from 99 cent
] downloads. For artists who write their own material, the
] impact is even more substantial: Rather than collecting
] songwriting royalties on as many as 14 tracks, plus an
] artist royalty on the album sale, payment is being parsed
] on a per-track basis.

Wait a fucking minute... I thought that most artists got more like $1.20 to $1.80 per CD, and not $12-$18.

BILLBOARD: Artists opposed to online music stores

] Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright
] issues with the suggestion that technology should be
] developed to remotely destroy the computers of people who
] illegally download music from the Net.

] The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript
] menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software
] company based in the United Kingdom. The
] copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on
] Hatch's website.
]
] "It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs
] Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those
] comments he made."

] A spokesman in Hatch's office responded, "That's ironic"
] before declining to put Wired News in contact with the
] site's webmaster. He deferred comment on the senator's
] statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which did
] not return calls.

Wired News: Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?

E2 wrote:
] Right on Rattle, I think this might be a hint at something:
]
] ] ] And creeps gossiping about celebrities in
] ] ] the crudest of ways.
]
] Perhaps ol' billy dosn't like people talking when he can't
] interrupt them/change the subject/commercial break/ etc.

The man is a master of crafting a skewed argument.. Take this snippit for a few examples:

] In truth, The Chronicle's story [is] small stuff compared
] to other Internet sins. The child molestation people have
] now figured out a way to chat about their crimes without
] being charged with obscenity. And the Supreme Court
] actually helped these people by ruling that virtual child
] porn, computerized images of kids being raped, are legal,
] an extension of free speech.

First off, The Chronicle is the newspaper with the largest readership in Northern California.. Yet, this article is an attack on the Internet. This is clearly because the damage to Bill did not come from the Chronicle article, but rather the discussion about the Chronicle article on the net. "So which is the bigger threat to America? The big companies or the criminals at the computer? Interesting question." Indeed. Discussion can be dangerous. But in the context of that quote, I think its Bill's America that is threatened, not mine. Anyway, onward.

Next, he ties in child molesters, and later in the article, NAMBLA. Everyone hates child molesters. He makes it related, not because its particulary relevant, but because it creates an emotion reaction in the reader/listner/watcher which brings them closer to O'Reilly.

And then with the virtual child pron thing, he again breezes over any free speech implications. The Supreme Cout did not help child pornographers, they protected free speech. That court case would have been a very dangerous precident. Bill is an educated man, he likely sees this. But he also sees his large soccer-mom viewership, and in order to keep them glued to the TV, he needs that emotional reaction. Its in his best interest to be closer to that viewership then to the truth. He wants angry people behind him. If you watch his show enough, it becomes very clear that he panders to his viewship, while keeping them angry at all times about some topic where he can easily keep up the appearence of having the moral high ground. It appears to be his "forumla"..

This all supports the assumption that the root of the problem is an issue with control of the discussion forum. You see, its easy to air feedback when you can pick and choose. You get to narrow it down to the dominate viewpoints, and pick the ones that are small enough to read in 10 seconds and display on the TV.. You can keep it simple, and never address any of the hard parts of the topic.. You can keep it emotional. You can put the comments in an order where they address each other in a way that supports your views. Its funny.. Somehow, the comments that oppose Bill's views always seem to be badly written, and easy to confront. It seems to be Bill's style to pick at least one every day that says "You will never air this".. He likes to appear to be an open forum, yet he spews un-American dribble like this, and manages to do it in a creative enough mannor to get his audience to buy it lock, stock, and barrel..

I say again, this man is really dangerous.

RE: FOXNews.com | Bill O'Reilly still an idiot

] The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
] said Tuesday he favors developing new
] technology to remotely destroy the computers of people
] who illegally download music from the Internet.

] "I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging
] someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach
] somebody about copyrights."

] Kerr predicted it was "extremely unlikely" for Congress
] to approve a hacking exemption for copyright owners,
] partly because of risks of collateral damage when
] innocent users might be wrongly targeted.
]
] "It wouldn't work," Kerr said. "There's no way of
] limiting the damage."

Not too worried about this.. I can't see this happening. Not only for technical reasons, but straight out legal ones. The court system exists to mediate disputes between parties. Aggrieved parties are not allowed to take actions into their own hands, their only option is to take their dispute into the court system. If they do not, they are commiting a crime themselves. Its the basis of our legal system's existance. If congress passes a law allowing our media masters to destroy our computers, it would be admitting failure of the legal system to tackle these problems and set an extrememly dangerous precident. Granted, it is pretty shocking that this has been suggested as an option at all, by someone who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And then there is the whole collateral damage angle. It dose not have the signifigance of the above, but it will likely be the reason this idea gets aborted before it grows arms. It would give consumers what they need to bring the dispute back into the legal system, only with the upper hand and the ability to address the above in the courts, which the courts would most defintally agree with.

I'm not a lawyer, so my understanding of how the law works in this situation may be completely flawed.. But I am pretty sure that this is not something to worry about much.

Yahoo! News - Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading

] CAPPS II testing has ceased pending the implementation of
] a privacy policy, according to officials at the highest
] levels of the Department of Homeland Security. They've
] even stopped all internal testing of the system until
] changes are made to the Federal Register that tell us,
] the American people, what they're doing and how it will
] impact our constitutional rights and freedoms.

CAPPS II Shutdown pending privacy overhaul