] Bill Hicks was one of four people I had never known
] personally, but seriously mourned their passing upon
] being notified of each of their deaths. The others were
] Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, and George Harrison. When Bill
] died in February 1994, I felt as if I had lost a kindred
] spirit --- as I believe in truth just as strongly as he
] did. This was the case because Bill and I were both born
] under the sign of Sagittarius. People born under this
] sign are said to be perpetual students, and are very
] serious about honesty and truth. Sagittarians are also
] voracious readers, a subject about which Bill often
] joked.
]
]
] I had never known Bill Hicks, and likewise, I never had
] the chance to see his stand-up act, even though he was a
] friend of Bob Fiorella, a comedian who lives in my own
] city of Buffalo, New York USA. Buffalo is the type of
] city that doesn’t have that big of a night-life, and
] this is because of the perpetually depressed economy in
] our area. Because of  my own life experience, I relate
] to what he discussed in his act on a number of levels.
]
]
] Kevin Booth was Bill’s closest friend, and partner in
] many adventures. Kevin was also Bill’s producer and his
] business partner. Together, they began something called
] Sacred Cow Productions, which today, can be found at the
] website listed immediately below. Unfortunately, Bill
] died before the Internet had become a daily part of many
] of our lives --- and because of this, Bill never had the
] chance to see Sacred Cow become an online force for truth
] in comedy:

MAYBE QUARTERLY - Vol 2 / Issue 1 - Kevin Booth Talks About Bill Hicks

] "Orphan Works" probably comprise the majority of the
] record of 20th century culture. These works are still
] presumably under copyright (only works published before
] 1923 are conclusively in the public domain), but the
] copyright owner cannot be found. The default response of
] archivists, libraries, film restorers, artists, scholars,
] educators, publishers, and others is to drop copyrighted
] work unless it is clearly in the public domain. As a
] result, orphan works are not used in new creative efforts
] or made available to the public due to uncertainty over
] their copyright status, even when there is no longer
] anyone claiming copyright ownership, or the owner no
] longer has any objection to such use.
]
] The Center has submitted the following two proposals to
] the Copyright Office on Access to Orphan Works and Orphan
] Films.

Linked from Groklaw. It sounds like the copyright office for
once gets it and actually wants to *do* something about it.

Orphan Works

This matter is open for public comment until April 4th.

] In a misguided attempt to make US passports more secure,
] the US Department of State plans to put radio frequency
] identification (RFID) chips in all new passports. This
] RFID chip will contain the same information currently on
] our passports, including the passport holder's name, date
] and place of birth, passport number and photograph.
]
] In a dangerous world where Americans are targeted by
] thieves, kidnappers and terrorists, the RFID-chipped US
] passport will turn tourists into targets, and American
] business travelers will transmit their identities to
] kidnappers wherever they go, thanks to the US State
] Department.
]
] Close up, the information broadcast from the RFID chip
] can be read by anyone with an inexpensive electronic
] reader. Farther away, the RFID chip can be activated
] enough to identify the passport holder as an American.
]
] From identity theft to identity death, an RFID-chipped US
] passport means good news for the bad guys.

RFIDKills.com

] "Certainly broadcasters and cable operators have
] significant First Amendment rights, but these rights are
] not without boundaries," he wrote. "They are limited by
] law. They also should be limited by good taste."

The new FCC commissioner thinks your first amendment rights are limited by "good taste."

The New York Times - Under New Chief, F.C.C. Considers Widening Its Reach

... along with nukes, floods, asteroids, cigarette burns, etc.

Netdisaster.com - UFO's Attack MemeStreams!

] How will future historians explain it? How will they
] possibly explain why President George W. Bush decided to
] ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and chose
] instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile
] effort to undo the New Deal, by partially privatizing
] Social Security? We are, quite simply, witnessing one of
] the greatest examples of misplaced priorities in the
] history of the U.S. presidency.

NYT | Friedman: Geo-Greening by Example

] The Mac BitTorrent client with a live 3D view of your swarm

Neat!

Bits on Wheels

And now for your moment of Zen...

Mardi Gras In Iraq

] Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese have marched on their
] capital to protest Beijing's new law sanctioning the use
] of force if Taipei moves toward formal independence.

] China's annual session of parliament passed the
] anti-secession law on March 14. Beijing has claimed
] Taiwan as its own since their split at the end of the
] Chinese civil war in 1949.
]
] Thousands of tour buses from all over the island arrived
] in Taipei filled with protesters, who assembled in 10
] different areas -- each route representing one of the
] articles of the anti-secession law.
]
] The marchers then converged on the wide boulevard in
] front of the president's office. Police estimated the
] crowd at about a million, The Associated Press reported.
] Taiwan's population is 23 million.

] Protest supporters also staged demonstrations in Hong
] Kong, Los Angeles and Brussels, Belgium.

CNN.com - Massive anti-China march in Taiwan - Mar 26, 2005

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DECIUS