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| There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs. |
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Defending Phone Competition |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
9:13 am EDT, Jun 4, 2004 |
I'm glad to see NYT interested in telecom, but ... Local phone rates across the nation may soon soar if the Bush administration fails to come to the defense of FCC rules aimed at promoting competition. What? Local telcos would be crazy to raise rates, as long as they have a desire to stay afloat. Higher prices would only hasten the departure of their already shrinking customer base. Of course, if the government continues to allow failed telcos to "reorganize" under Chapter 11, they have every incentive to collapse under their own weight and emerge, debt-free, to continue beating each other senseless in the marketplace. The Savvis purchase of C&W assets, and the MCI restructuring, among others, are reigniting the telecom death spiral. If the NYT is looking for a telecom hobbyhorse, this should be it. Some 20 million American households no longer rely on the local phone company for local service. The Baby Bells now argue, prematurely, that the current regulatory arrangement is no longer needed because new technologies like wireless and cable telephony offer plenty of competition. They also argue that lease rates set by some state regulators are so low they are being asked to subsidize competitors, a claim belied by their strong financial performance. Strong financial performance? Citations, please! Any evidence suggesting "strength" should receive the most stringent scrutiny. And it's not meaningful to look at wireline voice in isolation. The dwindling profits in this sector are the only support beam propping up an entire industry at risk of collapse. Defending Phone Competition |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
8:56 am EDT, Jun 4, 2004 |
Former national security advisor Anthony Lake examines major security threats facing the United States at the start of the 21st century: biological terrorism, cybercrime, the perils of peacekeeping, and so on. Each of the scenarios he describes in Six Nightmares begins with a fictional introduction to the topic; one, for instance, is a transcript of a conversation between the presidents of the United States and South Korea, discussing a civil war in North Korea and worrying about what China intends. The best parts of the book read like a memoir. Lake served under President Clinton for four years before he was nominated to head the CIA. When it became clear the GOP-controlled Senate was not likely to confirm him, Lake withdrew his name. This is the book I was talking about. I don't necessarily recommend it for your library, but it's worth a look. Most of the Amazon reviewers are highly critical of it and Lake. While I do recall parts of it reading like a made-for-television movie, it shows that the "hype" around these worst-case scenarios was not of Tenet's making. 6 Nightmares |
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| Topic: Current Events |
8:49 am EDT, Jun 4, 2004 |
It either bungled or hyped its analysis of Iraq to spin fanciful threats from chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, threats that President Bush used to justify the invasion. Clinton's national security advisor, Anthony Lake, wrote a book on the subject. It utterly missed the dismal state Iraq was in and the strength of the insurgency that Americans would face after the fall of Baghdad. This is true, at least in terms of what we see in the public record, but these failures are complex, and many factors are involved. Tenet was not responsible for the post-Cold War HUMINT problems; our assets were gone before he took the top post. (He may have been on the Hill at the time.) While Bill Clinton was president, Mr. Tenet's team was stunned when India, a close ally, conducted nuclear tests. American intelligence did spot Pakistan's undisguised preparations for testing its own bomb. This is a fair criticism. Now we know that a Pakistani rocket scientist had been peddling nuclear technology all over the world for years, possibly with government sanction, without the CIA noticing. That seems like an unfair characterization. Just because they didn't ring up the NYT doesn't mean they didn't "notice." Failure to obtain advance knowledge of the tests does not directly translate into the kind of "blindness" about programs and technologies suggested here. ... "personal reasons" ... It's easy to sympathize ... Whether the resignation was voluntary or forced, the timing was terrible. This is, at least, slightly hypocritical. If you honestly sympathize with him, let him go. Better for him to depart now, intact, and be able to help with the reforms next year, than to wear him down to nothing just to have a convenient punching bag. Instead of engaging in a partisan confirmation brawl, the White House and Congress could spend the summer on these issues, and present the winner of the election with the chance to name an intelligence director who has the personal stature, political mandate and, ideally, added authority to institute some real reform. Agreed. Most of the Congressional commentary I heard yesterday was on the mark. Very few were taking cheap shots -- but there were definitely a few in that mode -- and many appeared ready to put some serious reform ideas into play. George Tenet Resigns |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
9:37 am EDT, Jun 2, 2004 |
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday named Accenture as the prime contractor for a multibillion-dollar project aimed at creating a "virtual border" around the country to head off would-be terrorists entering the United States. <consultantese> "We view this as a business transformation and we're talking about changing business processes," said Eric Stange, Accenture's program manager for the project. "We're looking at the human dimension as well as the technology dimension." Part of our approach is to continually assess technology innovations. For a 10-year contract that's a generation or two of technology, and biometrics is a very hot area." </consultantese> In case you were getting jealous of certain other unnamed nations, now you, too, can have your very own. But is it a virtual "security fence" or a "virtual security" fence? Hrm. Virtual Security Fence? |
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US Military Personnel Attacked in Saudi Capital |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
9:27 am EDT, Jun 2, 2004 |
In Taif, 465 miles southwest of Riyadh and just south of the holy city of Mecca, two militants opened fire from their car at a security checkpoint Tuesday evening. Saudi police killed the two. A security official identified one of the dead as Abdul Rahman Mohammed Yazji, No. 25 on a list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted militants. One of the two men was disguised as a woman. And only days ago, you were laughing about the FBI's warning! US Military Personnel Attacked in Saudi Capital |
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Large Study on Mental Illness Finds Global Prevalence |
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| Topic: Health and Wellness |
9:22 am EDT, Jun 2, 2004 |
Preliminary results from the world's largest survey on mental health indicate that mental illness is widespread and undertreated. 9 to 17 percent of those interviewed had had some episode of mental illness in the last year. "The level of role impairment we found to be associated with serious mental disorders was staggering." About 26 percent of Americans were judged to have mental illness, compared with only 4 percent of the residents of Shanghai and 5 percent of Nigerians. "It sounds like Nigeria is a paradise." In China, for instance, no word distinguishes depression from sadness. Large Study on Mental Illness Finds Global Prevalence |
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Canadian Studio Plans to Distribute Moore's 9/11 Film |
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| Topic: Documentary |
9:17 am EDT, Jun 2, 2004 |
The independent studio Lions Gate Films will distribute Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11." It will be released on June 25 in about 1,000 theaters. Coming soon to a theater new you ... Canadian Studio Plans to Distribute Moore's 9/11 Film |
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| Topic: Society |
9:15 am EDT, Jun 2, 2004 |
Las Vegas is at the center of a population boom that has transformed the American desert over the last three decades. This series will examine what a few typical dreamers have found in this place of unmatched opportunity and extreme dysfunction. In the Las Vegas stripping world, the work can be a springboard to something better or an abyss of drugs, alcohol and prostitution. The Lure of Las Vegas |
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Notes from a Noteworthy Newcomer |
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| Topic: Using MemeStreams |
10:31 pm EDT, Jun 1, 2004 |
As a "new" user on MemeStreams, a few comments. It's hard to tell whether my blog is being read, but my memes are just not generating replies or re-recommendations, or if I'm just being ignored / not seen by the other users. There is a lack of feedback about what's happening. I can't 'see' site activity unless other users post entries of their own, and even then that doesn't necessarily correlate with a visit to the front page or the agent. At the outset, I might be satisfied with just some click-throughs, even if I'm not garnering recommendations just yet. But I can't tell. After 39 straight posts with no response of any kind, a person can start to get discouraged. Whether 7 responses to 58 posts (12%) is a "good" feedback ratio is perhaps a matter for debate. I note that most "regular" users enjoy substantially higher feedback ratios. Although it only took a few days for me to get four of the top ten MemeStreams users into my "audience" graph, I can't really tell how meaningful this is. Below a certain threshold, being in a user's agent table is of marginal value, because there are so many total posts that mine never rise to the top, except on the slowest of days. (Back to "slow days" in a minute.) If "community" is supposed to be an attribute of MemeStreams which separates it from a run-of-the-mill blog-hosting service, feedback for new entrants seems like a nice thing to have. (Should MemeStreams have a welcome wagon? Would it improve retention? Can it be institutionalized, like a jury duty kind of thing?) I don't think regular users spend much time on the front page, which means that new users end up at the very bottom of a very long list in the agent. Especially as volume goes up on the system, it will be very hard for a new user to "break in." One possible "break in" strategy is to go around the site, re-recommending memes previously posted by others -- particularly the ones that rank highest in each topic area. (As a new user, am I "supposed" to do this?) If I'm new to the system, but already know a lot of people with blogs here, it's hard to get myself established. I have to spend a lot of time teaching the agent over a period of time, and quickly re-posting a bunch of old stuff in my friends' blogs to 'teach' the agent is unlikely to win me many new friends, because I'll appear to be completely "out of the loop" on things. If new users flood in, it may be particularly difficult to sort out the please-ignore-me-I'm-just-training-my-agent memes from the truly new stuff. Basically, because all of the training is "on line", in the AI sense, there is no quick-start mechanism which does not have ripple effects. If my MemeStreams friends wanted to train their agents to rank me highly without waiting for this to happen 'naturally', they'd likely have to bias their response to my initial blog entries, which would create a ripple of these memes across my friends' social networks. This mig... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ] |
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
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| Topic: Movies |
9:48 am EDT, Jun 1, 2004 |
This entire film could be viewed as a story of the telecom industry, but two scenes in particular come to mind today. FATHER: Please! Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who. We are here today to witness the union of two young people in the joyful bond of the holy wedlock. Unfortunately, one of them, my son Herbert, has just fallen to his death. GUESTS: Oh! Oh no! FATHER: But I don't want to think I've not lost a son, so much as... gained a daughter! [clap clap clap] For, since the tragic death of her father-- GUEST #2: He's not quite dead! FATHER: Since the near fatal wounding of her father-- GUEST #2: He's getting better! FATHER: For, since her own father, who, when he seemed about to recover, suddenly felt the icy hand of death upon him. BRIDE'S FATHER: Uugh! GUEST #2: Oh, he's died! ------------- LAUNCELOT: We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril. GALAHAD: I don't think I was. LAUNCELOT: Yes you were. You were in terrible peril. GALAHAD: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril. LAUNCELOT: No, it's too perilous. GALAHAD: Look, it's my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can. LAUNCELOT: No, we've got to find the Holy Grail. Come on! GALAHAD: Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril? LAUNCELOT: No. It's unhealthy. GALAHAD: I bet you're gay. LAUNCELOT: No I'm not. Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
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