] Former Vice President Al Gore and partners have renamed
] their upcoming youth-oriented TV network and set Aug. 1
] as its launch date.
]
] The venture, formerly called INdTV, will be called
] Current.tv, it was announced on Monday. The 24-hour
] network will target an 18- to 34-year-old audience and
] offer short-form content--15-second to five-minute
] segments--to be contributed by viewers.
]
] Think of it as a big video blog that you don't need a
] computer to watch. Gore said he is aiming to bring
] interactivity to the TV set.
]
] "The Internet opened a floodgate for young people whose
] passions are finally being heard, but TV hasn't followed
] suit," Gore, the network's chairman, said in a statement.
] "We intend to change that with Current, giving those who
] crave the empowerment of the Web the same opportunity for
] expression on television."

According to Reuters, Current has also made some deal with Google that will allow them to present data on web trends a la Google's Zeitgeist reports.

Gore's TV network gets new name, launch date | CNET News.com

] The Federal Communications Commission announced Friday
] that states cannot require regional phone companies to
] sell high-speed Internet service as a stand-alone
] product.

Voip development has been held back for a few years. This makes the market dull, which makes you poorer.

FCC: Phone companies don't have to sell DSL as a stand-alone product - 03/27/05

The following poem was written by Karol Wojtyla when he was in his 20's, during the war. It was a time when friends, colleagues, and teachers were being shipped off to concentration camps. His father, who he was extremely close to, had recently passed away. Karol had escaped imprisonment and death at the hands of the Germans several times by this point, and was working in the inhuman conditions of a rock quarry to avoid deportation. This poem recounts when a fellow worker standing next to him was killed. Several miles away, untold numbers of people were being put to death in bulk at Auschwitz. Several years later, he would enter the priesthood.

The Quarry

He wasn't alone.
His muscles grew into the flesh of the crowd, energy their pulse,
As long as they held a hammer, as long as his feet felt the ground.
And a stone smashed his temples and cut through his heart's chamber.
They took his body and walked in a silent line
Toil still lingered about him, a sense of wrong.
They wore gray blouses, boots ankle-deep in mud.
In this, they showed the end.
How violently his time halted: the pointers on the low voltage dials jerked, then dropped to zero again.
White stone now within him, eating into his being, taking over enough of him to turn him into stone.
Who will lift up that stone, unfurl his thoughts again under the cracked temples?
So plaster cracks on the wall.
They laid him down, his back on a sheet of gravel.
His wife came, worn out with worry; his son returned from school
Should his anger now flow into the anger of others?
It was maturing in him through his own truth and love
Should he be used by those who came after, deprived of substance, unique and deeply his own?
The stones on the move again; a wagon bruising the flowers.
Again the electric current cuts deep into the walls.
But the man has taken with him the world's inner structure, where the greater the anger, the higher the explosion of love.

The Quarry, by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II)

] Many provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act will expire at the
] end of 2005. This forum is devoted to civil and informed
] debate about these provisions and whether they should be
] renewed, as well as a few other issues that are likely to
] be part of the renewal debate in 2005. We have an
] all-star cast of contributors, each of whom has agreed to
] an exchange of at least four comments on each provision.
] To see the full debate on any provision, just click on
] the link listed below.

Dialog about the Patriot Act's renewal is going to start heating up in the next few weeks.

Patriot Act - The Debates

] Congratulations, you have cancer! Your life is about to
] turn upside down. It causes a lot of stress, and many
] patients crash and burn horribly. Chemotherapy can save
] your life, but in the process it'll make you feel like
] you've been run over by a Hummer. Alternately, your
] doctors may choose to irradiate you in one of several
] ways, which is not altogether unlike being shoved into a
] microwave oven on "high" for a few minutes. Your
] medications probably won't make you feel better, so do
] yourself a favor and buy some weed. Get used to needles;
] you're going to be poked with a lot of them. Be strong,
] and you might live. Good luck!

I just got news yesterday that a good friend of mine has been diagnosed with lung cancer. He is going to be undergoing surgery to remove a tumor soon. The blues is in full effect.

It was good to read this and see that John is winning his war.. I hope my friend Rick wins his.

John's War with Melanoma

] Rocker Neil Young was treated for a "dangerous brain
] aneurysm" this week but is expected to make a full
] recovery, his agent said Friday.
]
] "The procedure corrected the problem and has been
] characterized as a complete success with a total
] recovery. And resumption of normal activities by the
] 59-year-old rock legend is predicted for the near
] future," agent Bob Merlis said in a statement.

] A neurologist gave Young an MRI scan, discovered
] the aneurysm and scheduled the procedure for this
] week. Young traveled to Nashville for recording work
] before returning to New York for the procedure.

Phew! Close one there. Neil's heart of gold is still ticking..

CNN.com - Neil Young treated for 'dangerous' aneurysm - Apr 1, 2005

] The study authors looked at what happened in the brains
] of both players during 10 rounds of the game.
]
] They found the extent to which the players trusted each
] other with their money depended on the recent history of
] the exchange.
]
] Activity in the caudate nucleus was greatest when the
] investor repaid generosity with generosity and most
] subdued when the investor repaid generosity with
] stinginess.
]
] According to the researchers, this suggested that the
] caudate nucleus receives or computes information about
] both the fairness of a social partner's decision and the
] intention to repay that decision with trust.
]
] As the game went on, brain scan signs of the trustee's
] intention to "trust" or "not to trust" the investor began
] before the investor revealed whether were going to
] increase their investment or not.

Pretty cool. Don't count on us to incorporate brain scans into the MemeStreams Reputation System though..

] His team is also investigating whether trust differs
] across nationalities, comparing German volunteers
] with volunteers from China.

Someone has been reading Fukuyama.

BBC | Scan 'shows if people trust you'

Click through for an extremely good breakdown of how CherryOS stole Open Source code for their project.

You can try to steal GPL code, but you will be caught.

RE: Advanced binary analysis of CherryOS: proof of theft

] On balance, not quite as bad a day for Grokster as I
] think a lot of people were expecting. Not a sure (or
] even a probable) victory for them by any means, but the
] Court did seem quite attuned to the effects on innovation
] of whatever liability rule it ultimately adopts.

Lawyer on the Grokster hearing

] A friend who relocated to California from NY said she
] missed hearing all the odd variety of music that was
] played around the office here. "I miss hearing what
] you all are listening to," she wrote. This "radio"?
] is my response. It will stream for a few hours and then
] it will recycle. Maybe it will run longer in the future.
] The artists played here are respectful of one another and
] gunplay is forbidden. Click on the player button below
] - a popup window will appear and the stream will begin.
] As songs play they will be identified, along with the
] artist - so if you like something you can see what and
] who it is. The song list will be updated periodically
] (how long is that really, in Earth time? Well, it depends
] on my listening habits.) As it reflects what I'm
] listening to, some songs will hang around longer while
] others will get dumped and replaced quickly.
]
] Like many people, I listen to a wide variety of music,
] and some of it is, ahem, more appropriate at certain
] times of day than others. We here are not responsible for
] adverse affects from playing the wrong music at the wrong
] time. Hope some of this is enjoyable.
]
] - DB

Radio DavidByrne.com