The fate of the agency is no minor matter to intelligence professionals who have spent their careers trying to serve both presidents and the nation; all know that these two masters are often at odds. There is no easy way to reconcile these divided loyalties. But there are good reasons for trying to understand what has now brought the stresses to the breaking point.

Secret Intelligence and the 'War on Terror'

] NewsKnowledge and The Hive Group have joined forces to
] bring you News Maps, visual maps of the NewsIsFree
] headline database. News Maps allow you to quickly scan
] dozens of news articles and instantly understand what's
] being reported all over the world.
]
] Each square in the News Map is an article. You can obtain
] additional detail on each article by moving your mouse
] over it. You can read an article by clicking on it.
]
] The Hive Group's Honeycomb algorithm organizes news
] headlines by source. Size and Color information indicate
] article age and popularity (described below). You can
] easily filter and rearrange you results to view articles
] that meet certain criteria, or that contain certain text.

Very cool!

NewsIsFree: NewsMaps - in collaboration with The Hive Group

Anonymous explains why he quit.

The Central Intelligence Agency is the best place to work in the United States. I left it with deep regret and a great sense of personal loss.

Senior White House officials repeatedly refused to act on sound intelligence.

It may be worth pausing the intelligence reform process long enough to determine what role personal failure, bureaucratic warfare, and a lack of moral courage played in getting the United States to 9/11.

(I spy with my little eye a possible way to cross-site script using the LA Times)

Why I Resigned From the CIA

] The witness, 22-year-old Chris Couch, said he was
] standing about 30 feet away from the stage when he
] noticed a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and hockey
] jersey walk up to the stage, followed by a bouncer and
] another club employee.
]
] The man in the jersey climbed onto the stage, started
] yelling and shot the guitarist five or six times at close
] range, Couch said. He said the gunman also shot a bouncer
] who pulled him off the musician.
]
] Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Brent Mull said that after
] shooting at members of the band, the gunman fired into
] the crowd. Mull said a police officer who arrived shortly
] after the shooting began shot and killed the gunman.

Four people are dead, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it. One of the guitar greats part of the band that made "hostile" and "our style" synonymous for many a headbanger has been lost. R.I.P.

Go play Pantera's version of Planet Caravan.

Dimebag Darrell Killed In Concert Shooting

Apple, Ebay, you, and the numeral two continue to do that thing that they do.

] "I don't see anything and if (Negativland) is not making
] a stink about it, then there's no problem," Hervey said.
] Negativland could presumably complain that its pictures
] are being used without permission.
]
] "We always have to be careful when people invoke
] intellectual-property rights in order to stop things that
] have nothing to do with IP," said Fred von Lohmann,
] senior IP attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
] "I'm a little surprised that Apple would complain but I'm
] doubly surprised that eBay would remove the auction."

Wired News: EBay Negative on Negativland IPod

] U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show
] up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates
] fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of
] homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

Unacceptable.

Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters - (United Press International)

] If there were a Luther for the internet, he might post
] (presumably on his blog, rather than on a church door)
] some set of theses that seemed to him self-evident but
] that few involved in the church of the day were
] previously prepared to utter. With apologies to the real
] Luther, they might look something like the following:
]
] In the Name of Jon Postel.

The comments in this essay are good, although I do not feel they qualify as justification for services that are far from then edge in nature like Sitefinder. Aside from only several points that could be used very effectively out of a context, I don't think it supported a pro-Sitefinder argument well at all.

Well written fodder. Makes good points, but does so in a real loaded way. As a defense for say new TLDs with different ways of handling things, fine. Justification for significant changes to the way .com/.net work, its well written troll bait.

(I still think that function should be handled by the client, and that it is harmful if done as a DNS wildcard. I also believe that even if ICANN was not there, it still would have been fought off successfully by the Internet community.)

Susan Crawford blog :: Time for Reformation of the Internet

] The ability to have a presence should of course be
] available to anyone; but the ability to act in cyberspace
] - for example, to collect someone's personal
] information or their money - should be accompanied
] by some accountability.

Esther Dyson's take on how to solve the phishing problems. Be sure to read the comments. Tom makes an appearance pointing out that what begins with the DNS system and the location bar, might end with SSL certificates, and better handling of the elements (UI and otherwise) surrounding their usage and certification.

The Accountable Net: Who Should Be Accountable?

Eight out of the fifteen members of Bush's cabinet have resigned since the election. So much for staying the course. Bush may have survived the election, but his administration doesn't appear to have survived the first term..

] In 1991, the experimental sound collage band Negativland
] released a single called "U2"?, which extensively
] sampled both U2's hit single "I Still Haven't Found
] What I'm Looking For"? and colorful studio recordings
] of Top 40 disc jockey Casey Kasem. This offbeat recording
] would have languished in obscurity if weren't for
] Island Records, U2's record label, which decided to sue
] Negativland and their independent label SST Records for
] deceptive packaging and copyright infringement. After a
] protracted legal battle, Negativland's legal funds were
] exhausted and they settled out of court. Today, it is
] illegal to produce the "U2" single in the United
] States. (U2, on the other hand, would go on to use
] unauthorized samples of appropriated satellite video in
] their Zoo TV tour.)
]
] Now you can commemorate this ignoble episode in
] intellectual property history with iPod U2 vs.
] Negativland Special Edition. From its packaging to its
] pre-installed content, this unauthorized iPod
] modification is an artful mash-up of the forces of
] corporate megarock and obscure experimental music, and a
] provocative symbol of the ongoing struggle between those
] who would confine culture and those who would free it.

You and the numeral two versus unauthorized rebranding.

eBay | Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition