Jeremy & Decius wrote:
] Presidential assassination is the new pop.

I don't like the tune.

This seems like a very large step backwards for anything that even remotely qualifies as Good Government. There isn't any way you can come at an assassination where I think its a good idea. When we went for a decapitation strike at Saddam, it was because we were initiating all out war on the country, and there is a damn good reason it did not happen until then.

My recollection of history is somewhat foggy and I've not been successful in Googling a reference, so I leave this open for correction. In regard to the construction of our own constitution, I remember a tidbit about when the impeachment process was being discussed. There was some delegate opposed to having any kind of impeachment, based on the idea that a vote should be final. Franklin made a comment along the lines of "if there is no formal impeachment process, assassination will become the formal impeachment process", and views started to suddenly change. This is not exactly the message you want to send to your constituency, regardless of who your constituency is. Not to play the "America gets this right" card, but this does show the edge of some deep logic.

Assassinations should always be treated as attacks in the entire system, not a particular candidate/party/whatever. If the public over there, or anywhere for that matter, sees it as otherwise it should be viewed as a large rip starting to occur in the fabric of all western style democracies around the globe. We have elections and courts (and art, open media, open technology, open markets, etc) so we can effect change without killing people. An attack on the head of a governmental system, is well, an attack on all governed by the system. It does not constitute a revolution, removal of consent, or anything even remotely like that, at least not a non-violent one.

In the past month, we have seen both an assassination and a bombing attack targeted on transportation used to effect elections. I seriously hope someone is paying attention and seeing this for what it may be (is?). If what my gut is telling me about this situation is right, this is very scary.

Some of the number play taking place is also disturbing. As far as the near future goes, 4/11 is Easter. There was a story in FT about simultaneous "hacker attacks". There is the current Pakistan/Afghanistan border activity. There is another story in the AP today about Al'Q claiming to have suitcase nukes. From a conspiracy theory perspective, there is a lot to work with. If you can't come up with a good conspiracy theory, right now, at this point in time, you've never tried.. Its fun stuff. Brain exercise.

Interz0ne is coming up. Last year it was on the heels of the Iraq invasion. With all this looming doom, who knows, it might be on the heels of something this year as well. Here's to hoping its a caught Bin Laden, thwarted attack, or at least something that does not suck too badly. As far as I'm concerned, nothing really seems too remote or hard to imagine these days.

I love a good conspiracy theory. As always, I'm ready for anything, smiling, and enjoying the show for whatever its worth.

PLUS!! On top of everything else, it looks like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW is bringing out its ace-in-the-hole reserved for battle term two. Bush - get ready for this - might not be an idiot. At least, that's what I think they are bringing out. Given what kind of response Dean's us-tour yelp got him at the right (or wrong) point in time, this just opens the stage for some people to get brutal.

And furthermore, taking Clinton into account, what's to say that a second term impeachment isn't going to become standard practice these days for all re-elected incumbents?

RE: Shooting raises questions, provokes conspiracy theorists

Google's new headquarters is what graduate school would be like if all the students were rich.

I like (and use) Google as much as the next guy, but I remain truly disturbed by the lack of real competition. It is not a good thing to have most of the world researching from (and even ranking themselves against) _one_ collection of facts.

In Searching We Trust

flynn23 wrote:
] am I an "IP extremist" because I want there to be NO copyright
] law?

Yes. That is just as bad.

The concept of Copyright, and Intellectual Property in general, isn't the problem. The way we use it is the problem. If we do not have IP, we cannot create markets OR commons. There would be no way to enforce standards of operation for either. If we cannot create markets for information, people who produce art will never be able to make a livelihood with any of our Internet toys. If we cannot enforce rules the of a commons, we will not be able to develop any sciences in the open.

Be careful what you ask for.

] and must everything become 'extreme'? EXTREME IP!

Because you can be on far left or the far right, and be pretty much the same thing. Unreasonable and destructive. Extremes are bad. Extremist positions are the enemy of all systems of order which respect diversity and freedom.

We know maximum IP protection is bad for innovation. Don't assume anarchy would be good either. Anarchy does not scale. We must look for balance between these two extremes.

We live in a globalized society based on law and order. Like it or not, IP is a part of that. Concepts of Intellectual Property will evolve to deal with the removal of scarcity and copy cost as primary factors in their usage. Its just going to take awhile and be an up-hill battle.

RE: InfoWorld: Lessig: Be wary of 'IP extremists':

] "These people don't tune into today's radio channels
] which are aimed at a young audience. Our service allows
] them to discover their own music," Ashcroft said.
]
] Consumers can tailor the music stream by pressing a
] button on their phone to indicate they like or dislike a
] song.
]
] "It's self-learning. The channel will adapt over time,"
] Ashcroft said, adding wireless carriers are expected to
] charge a monthly fee of between 10 to 15 euros for the
] service.
]
] Sony's service, for which it has no name yet, will work
] on advanced multimedia handsets running on the Symbian
] software system, available on phones from Nokia, Siemens
] AG, Sony Ericsson, Sendo and others.

Interesting. This was being worked on at MongoMusic back in 2000 at time of assimilation. Sony and Nokia were even the primary investors for its last round of funding. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, this means someone really does not want (or was unable) to work with Microsoft. They already put out the capitol to develop the technology they speak of here once before. Mongo's secret sauce was based on the "Sounds Like" technology, but MongoRadio did have a direct feedback mechanism for its playlist generation. MS re-implemented everything done at Mongo (it was all *nix based), and the radio player seems to exist in the Music section of MSN as "Radio Plus", however I can't use it. It requires MS as a platform.

What existed in 2000 fits the description made here. I wonder if the technology continued to be developed independently, if it would have gotten more use. I wonder if the company could have survived. Hrm..

Sony to deliver collaborative filtered music over cellphones.

] For some little girls, it's a favorite doll; for others, it's a
] dress-up set. But when Elonka Dunin of St. Charles, Missouri,
] was little, her favorite toys were puzzles.

Elonka in the press again.

Elonka in 'Woman's World' magazine

If Rumsfeld gets his way, administration hawks may soon start using special forces to attack or undermine other regimes on Washington's hit list -- without the sort of crucial public debate that preceded the war in Iraq.

This essay, by Jennifer Kibbe of the Brookings Institution, was published in the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs.

The Rise of the Shadow Warriors

The capacity to create a comprehensive digital record of work and life experiences ... will immensely influence institutional and individual behaviors, expectations, and experiences.

In the race to leave no child behind, do we risk leaving everyone behind?

... a MemeStream on every desktop ...

Reflections on the Life of the Mind in an Era of Abundance

Music was a vital part of human culture long before anyone was able to mass reproduce and sell recordings of it. And music will survive any number of upheavals in the systems for selling recordings that developed in the last century.

The Music Never Stopped | Reason

This webpage run by the California Highway Patrol has realtime information available for traffic incidents they have responded to. Most of what I've seen so far have been traffic stops, disabled vehicles, traffic hazards, etc. The type of stuff you'd expect. At the time of posting, there were a few funny things occurring in the Bay Area. Something about a bunch of chickens that escaped from a truck and were running around the road.

Map views are still under construction.

This is a very different type of police surveillance. Not the type we are used to. Its a nice change, watching them. So much for police blotters and radio scanners. This is realtime and less work.

CHP Traffic Incident Information Page

] "It was a completely internal issue," the spokesperson
] says. The problem had nothing to do with hackers or the
] security patch for MSN Messenger that Microsoft released
] earlier this week, she adds.

"We will screw up all by ourselves, thank you very much".

Hehehe.. I still remember when one of the NLUG folks renewed passport.com for them.

PCWorld.com - Outage Hits Hotmail, MSN Messenger