] CNNfn also has obtained some of Enron's accounting
] records, some of which refer to previously unreported
] market manipulation techniques called "sidewinder,"
] "Russian roulette," "ping pong" and "donkey punch."

Ha!

[ HAHA! Awesome! Enron did pretty much dpunch a lot of people... -k]

New Enron tapes deal with alleged market manipulation - Jun. 14, 2004

] WASHINGTON -- Digital radio broadcasts that bring
] CD-quality sound to the airwaves could lead to unfettered
] song copying if protections are not put in place, a
] recording-industry trade group warned on Friday.

Sigh ... here's the "broadcast flag" for digital radio...

Wired News: RIAA Moves In on Digital Radio

] In the classic 1951 film, The Man in the White Suit, Alec
] Guinness played a scientist who invents a fabric that
] never gets dirty or wears out. A chemist's pipe dream
] perhaps, but the prospect of self-cleaning clothes might
] be getting closer.

[ Sign me up for some of that! -k]

Clothes launder own fabric: Catalytic cotton chows down on dirt.

] "Synthetic biology" is the blanket term for a
] multidisciplinary attempt to identify a class of standard
] operational components that can be assembled into
] functioning molecular machines.

[ This is the stuff right here... anyone w/ interest in nano or bio tech would probably enjoy this article. Very compelling... -k]

EE Times -BioBricks to help reverse-engineer life

] Two new books deal with the critical issues arising from
] the intersection of digital technology and copyright, one
] type of intellectual property. Free Culture, by Lawrence
] Lessig, argues that large media firms are using law and
] technology to strengthen their ownership of content to
] the detriment of society. Promises to Keep, by William
] Fisher, systematically describes the challenges and
] opportunities for the entertainment industry in the
] digital world and investigates how business models may
] need to change in coming years.

[ The article isn't precisely a review as much as it is a super-executive summary of these books. What struck me is the part that discusses the latter book, which presents only three scenarios for the future of the media industries. I have to believe that there are more choices than those, because none are particularly compelling to me... -k]

spiked-culture | Article | Harnessing innovation

] House Republican leaders have tacked on to a major jobs
] bill a provision that would give religious leaders more
] freedom to engage in partisan politics without
] endangering the tax-exempt status of their churches.

[ Something to think about today... -k]

Speaker Pushes Jobs Bill Provision (washingtonpost.com)

] VisitorVille employs a graphical, urban metaphor to
] present information about customers' real-time
] Web-traffic flow. A company's entire Web presence is seen
] as an urban or suburban neighborhood, with each
] individual Web page presented as a building. The more
] visitors on a site, the taller the buildings, and the
] brighter the lights on each floor.
]
] Continuing the metaphor, visitors who have found a site
] using popular search engines arrive in the "city" on
] virtual buses emblazoned with their logos.

This is neat. Really neat. Worth looking at. Unfortunately it works by using a web-bug. Their website is slow. Really slow. I don't want to tie the performance of my site to theirs. I don't want their server holding complete logs for my website. I also don't want to pay bling bucks host their software. Nor do I want to put their bug into all of my pages. You'd think they could handle Apache logs. Apache has something like 60% of the market.

Wired News: Website Analysis Isn't a Game

[ I like TMW. Hadn't seen this one.

"I'm *more* not as bad as Saddam than you are!" Perfect. -k]

This Modern World: Defining Deviancy Down

[ Interesting commentary on what i've taken to calling the "Torture is OK!" report... -k]

Talking Points Memo

[ Decius makes some very good points here, and I'm not going to waste time repeating too much, or being as thorough...

I agree that the cross on the seal of LA county almost certainly has a religious, not historical, intent. I agree that in a perfect world, it wouldn't be on there. In this world though, it's an extremely minor issue, and not worthy of the expense, both monetary and social, of attacking.

There are greater questions of church/state separation to be dealt with, not the least of which is what happens when the majority of people *want* more religion in their government. I'm happy to be the elitist who says categorically that the majority is wrong in such a case, and that ethics can and should be separated from whatever framework of mtyhology you prefer.

Anyway, yeah, the ACLU needs to re-prioritize. And also stop sending me so much paper. Use more of my money for causes and less on sending me sheaves of action alerts and requests for more money. -k]

Seal - Los Angeles County