via youtube.com
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
WKUK – The pledge of allegiance
via youtube.com
Now come and get your Ritalin.
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Dan Kennedy – "From Bush to Obama, the snooping goes on"
Remember section 215?
It was a notorious provision of the USA Patriot Act, renewed on Thursday, that allowed the government to snoop on what library books you'd borrowed, what videos you'd rented, your medical records – anything, really, if investigators thought it might have something to do with terrorism, no matter how tangential.
I wrote about it for the Boston Phoenix in 2003, as an example of the then budding excesses of the Bush-Cheney years.
Well, section 215 is back – not that it ever went away. Charlie Savage reports in Friday's New York Times that two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, have accused the Obama administration of using Section 215 for purposes not intended by Congress. Russ Feingold, then a Democratic senator for Wisconsin, raised similar alarms in 2009.
The senators know what the White House is up to because they were privy to secret testimony. But under Senate rules, they can't reveal what they learned. Thus they have demanded that the White House come clean with the public. "Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out," Udall is quoted as saying.
Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute recently described section 215 in an interview with Salon, so:
"It allows investigators to get an order from the FISA court permitting them to compel the production of any tangible thing that is relevant to an investigation. It's pretty unlimited in scope. Any record or other thing that pertains to a suspected agent of a foreign power or someone in contact with them is under the law considered to be 'presumptively relevant'. That means the judge has no discretion to deny such requests. The records don't have to belong to anyone who is thought to be guilty of anything."
FISA, you may recall, is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. At the height of the Bush years, the White House didn't even bother with the niceties of going to a FISA court before ordering wiretaps. But as Sanchez notes, the FISA provision isn't much more than a figleaf, anyway.
Which reminds me: the Obama justice department recently issued a subpoena ordering James Risen, one of the New York Times reporters who broke the story about the Bush administration's secret wiretaps, to reveal his confidential sources.
President Obama's approach to civil liberties has been similar to that of his predecessors: for them, when convenient; against them, when upholding our rights would interfere with his exercise of untrammelled executive power. Last year, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero pronounced himself "disgusted" with Obama's civil rights record.
via guardian.co.uk
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We are the new Roman Empire
Back to the television in the airport. On the news are sound bites from a speech by the president of the United States. He's on the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming victory in a recent military effort. Not only was the mission accomplished, according to the leader of the world's only superpower, but American forces are now occupying this Middle Eastern country until peace can be fully realized within its borders.
This puts a Christian in an awkward place.
Because Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day.
The Roman Empire, which put Jesus on an execution stake, insisted that it was bringing peace to the world through its massive military might, and anybody who didn't see it this way just might be put on a cross. Emperor Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire, was considered the "Son of God," the "Prince of Peace," and one of his propaganda slogans was "peace through victory."
The insistence of the first Christians was that through this resurrected Jesus Christ, God has made peace with the world. Not through weapons of war but through a naked, bleeding man hanging dead on an execution stake. A Roman execution stake. Another of Caesar's favorite propaganda slogans was "Caesar is Lord." The first Christians often said "Jesus is Lord." For them, Jesus was another way, a better way, a way that made the world better through sacrificial love, not coercive violence.
So when the commander in chief of the most powerful armed forces humanity has ever seen quotes the prophet Isaiah from the Bible in celebration of military victory, we must ask, Is this what Isaiah had in mind?
A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.
Bell, Rob, and Don Golden. "Introduction: Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves." Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. E-book.
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Friday, May 27, 2011
Department of Defense paper proposes national security via a culture of restraint
An SAIC analyst has written a paper (PDF) calling for the "stigmatization" of the "unattractive" types who tend to discuss government secrets in public. The plan, described in the Naval Postgraduate School Homeland Security Affairs journal, is to promote self-censorship as a "civic duty." Who needs to censor themselves? Amateur enthusiasts who describe satellite orbits; scientists who describe threats to the food supply; graduate students mapping the internet; the Government Accountability Office, which publishes failure reports on the T.S.A.; the U.S. Geologic Survey, which publishes surface water information; the New York Times; TV shows; journalism websites; anti-secrecy websites; and even security author Bruce Schneier, to name a few.
via yro.slashdot.org
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Airline bankruptcy
Just wait until the airlines go broke and start canceling flights in mid air: "We're sorry, but American Airlines has declared bankruptcy, and the flight crew is parachuting to the ground. Thank you for falling with American Air."
via reddit.com
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Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Helicopters in Vietnam
"Sometimes the chopper you were riding in would top a hill and all the ground in front of you as far as the next hill would be charred and pitted and still smoking, and something between your chest and your stomach would turn over." (Dispatches, 10)
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Genuine love and respect only things holding relationship together
According to friends of Brian and Stacey Stockton, the couple's 30-year marriage is currently hanging by a thread, with only their profound love and mutual respect for one another keeping them together. "If they don't get a divorce soon, I'd be surprised, because at this point all they've really got to go on is their deep, abiding trust, strong sense of commitment, and willingness to compromise," neighbor Vince Cafferty told reporters Sunday, adding that the only thing preventing the couple from separating is the fact that they've acted as beacons of support and affection for each other from the moment they first met. "Marriages like that—built on empathy, a rock-solid belief system, and undying devotion—simply can't last. There's just nothing there." Cafferty added that he thinks the Stocktons are only staying together for their kids, who went away to college years ago, have recently gotten married, and now use their parents' relationship as a model for their own.
via theonion.com
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Monday, May 23, 2011
High-mileage palindrome
Our 2001 Yukon XL's gone 180,000 miles in ten years. We put 36,000 on it in the first year. Polk County, we do not miss you.
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Thursday, May 19, 2011
On nostalgia
"Upset by two nostalgias facing each other like two mirrors, he lost his marvelous sense of unreality and he ended up recommending to all of them that they leave Macondo, that they forget everything he had taught them about the world and the human heart, that they shit on Horace, and that wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end." (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 402-03)
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Family axle
"There was no mystery in the heart of a BuendÃa that was impenetrable for her because a century of cards and experience had taught her that the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle." (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 396)
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Field of violets
"Gaston was not only a fierce lover, with endless wisdom and imagination, but he was also, perhaps, the first man in the history of the species who had made an emergency landing and had come close to killing himself and his sweetheart simply to make love in a field of violets." (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 381)
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Congress makes deal to renew the PATRIOT Act for four more years
A four-year extension to the highly controversial Patriot Act is set to be rushed through in the coming week. Techdirt has its usual trenchant critique. I hope it's not unpatriotic to raise doubts about "one of the critical tools the intelligence community has to keep America safe."
But we killed bin Laden, right?
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The English encyclopedia
"Aureliano Segundo remembered then the English encyclopedia that no one had since touched in Meme's room. He began to show the children the pictures, especially those of animals, and later on the maps and photographs of remote countries and famous people. Since he did not know any English and could identify only the most famous cities and people, he would invent names and legends to satisfy the children's insatiable curiosity." (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 318)
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Really damp air.
"The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms." (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 316)
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Groklaw torch handed to Mark Webbink
A month ago we read a Eulogy for Groklaw, but now PJ has announced that Groklaw will not be shutting down. Instead, it is now Mark Webbink's Groklaw 2.0. If you don't know who he is, Webbink is a member of the board of the SFLC and was General Counsel at Red Hat. Legal FLOSS news will continue to flow.
I never read Groklaw, even though I was around when it got started, but when I saw the news last month that P.J. was shutting it down, I couldn't help but wonder, why not hand it over to someone with the same goals?
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An IP address for every lightbulb?
Yesterday NXP and Green Wave Reality announced to the world that they plan to give every lightbulb an IPv6 address. Hot on the heels of Google's 900 MHz announcement, Green Wave Reality already has iPhone-, Android-, and Web-based support. Looks like the lighting wars have started.
The question here is, Why?
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Gliese 581d confirmed as "habitable" exoplanet
A rocky world orbiting a nearby star was confirmed (PDF) as the first planet outside our solar system to meet key requirements for sustaining life.
This is pretty sweet. I can't wait to go there in a hundred years.
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Monday, May 16, 2011
House gets ready to vote on new worldwide war
As we blogged last week, a hugely important provision for Congress to authorize a new worldwide war has been tucked away inside the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill was marked up by members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) last Wednesday that spilled over into Thursday morning.
A couple of minutes past midnight, Rep. John Garamendi (D–CA) offered an amendment to strike Sec. 1034—the new authorization for worldwide war provision—from the NDAA. Visibly angry that such a large sweeping provision had not yet had any public hearing whatsoever, he vigorously characterized it as a very broad declaration of war.
Rep. Garamendi was very concerned by the limitless geographic boundaries of the provision. Essentially, it would enable the U.S. to use military force anywhere in the world—including within the U.S.—in search of terrorists.
He also alluded to the idea that the HASC might not have proper jurisdiction over such a provision in the first place, suggesting that it would be an issue for the House Foreign Affairs Committee to take up. Clearly, he was beyond troubled by the fact that this markup was the very first time either committee has discussed the provision.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R–TX) was the only member to speak in support of Sec. 1034 of the NDAA. Interestingly enough he didn't reply to the declaration of war charge by Rep. Garamendi.
In defense of Sec. 1034, and in opposition of the amendment, Rep. Thornberry said the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2001 was hastily written and it is no longer responsive to the threat Americans face from terrorists today. He said the provision in the NDAA updates the 2001 AUMF and it is an especially good time to address it in light of the capturing and killing of Osama bin Laden.
Debate on the Rep. Garamendi's amendment ended when he withdrew it, and declared that he plans to introduce it again on the House floor where he expects a fully engaged debate.
So, while a new authorization for worldwide war has had its first public debate, it unfortunately only lasted a hair over 10 minutes and occurred after midnight.
Though it is a very troubling expansion of war authority, it has been lingering for more than three years as a "sleeper provision," and it is finally getting the attention of some members of Congress. We hope that further debate in Congress in the weeks ahead will allow for a more in-depth examination of unchecked authority to wage worldwide war, and what the outcomes of such a provision will yield.
Stay engaged — you can help now by telling your representative to oppose any new and expanded war authority. The debate over the NDAA and its multitude of amendments will begin the week of May 23, and we suspect it will be a lively one.
via aclu.org
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Sunday, May 15, 2011
Connecticut bill would require police to tape interrogations
Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that requires certain police interrogations to be videotaped. The General Assembly's Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote Monday on the proposal, which affects people accused of a capital felony or a class A or B felony. Under the bill, any statement made during a police interrogation "at a place of detention" would not be admissible as evidence in a criminal proceeding if it there is no audiovisual recording of the comments. The recording cannot be intentionally altered.
Supporters of the bill say it's needed to protect people who falsely confess to a crime, but the Division of Criminal Justice and the state police oppose the bill. They raised concerns about the expense involved and how it could hinder interrogation techniques.
via courant.com
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Telehack recreates the internet of twenty-five years ago
Telehack.com has meticulously recreated the internet as it appeared to a command-line user over a quarter-century ago. Drawing on material from Jason Scott's TextFiles.com, the text-only world of the 1980s appears right in your browser. If you want to show somebody what the Arpanet—you didn't call it the "internet" until the late '80s—looked like, this is it.
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New bill would require U.S. ISPs to retain user information
The House Judiciary Committee, lead by Rep. Lamar Smith, is preparing a bill which would require internet service providers to retain information about their users to aid in criminal investigations. This particular bill would be a smaller part of a large measure to strengthen sanctions against acts such as child pornography. The most interesting part of this bill however is not who it targets but rather who it does not. The bill would make wireless companies exempt from the requirement to store user data.
Declan McCullagh gives a fuller report at CNET. Update (05/14/2011 00:35 GMT by T): Note that Smith has yet to release the text of the current bill, but it seems an easy bet it will have much in common with his similar-sounding legislative push in 2007, which resulted in the unsuccessful SAFETY Act of 2009.
via yro.slashdot.org
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Zediva fights back against MPAA
When Zediva burst onto the streaming scene earlier this year by managing to do something nobody else was doing. Navigating around the copyright law, they found a way to stream rental movies not currently available on other services, because they were still inside the DVD sales window, and filled a role not currently part of the competitions' services. The service grants a rental of the physical movie to the user, who is then able to stream it over the internet, usually with the option to re-rent after having played the movie. By having it be a rental service, Zediva was able to avoid some of the legalese associated with streaming movies outside of that sales window. Needless to say, the MPAA was not pleased. But instead of making nice with the MPAA, Zediva has decided to fight back in the form of expensive legal heavy-hitters from "elite San Francisco law firm Durie Tangri," which has forced the MPAA to hire their own team of expensive legal ninjas. Zediva argues what most technologically informed people would argue when looking at this service—that they are essentially a rental service who are renting physical media, and providing the DVD player and a very long cable to the renter's TV.
via yro.slashdot.org
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TSA pats down a baby
Is there anything cuter than baby milestones? Baby's first steps. Baby's first word. And now, baby's first TSA patdown. "Well," writes Anna North, "it finally happened. Airport security officers gave a pat-down to a baby.' A post on the TSA blog defended the move: "The child's stroller alarmed during explosives screening. Our officers followed proper current screening procedures by screening the family after the alarm . . . . The [eight-month-old] child in the photo was simply receiving a modified pat-down." Hey, at least they didn't make a federal case of the four ounces of liquid found in the little tyke's Pampers.
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Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Android Honeycomb will not be open-sourced
At the ongoing Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Google today officially announced the next version of Android, named Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as Android 3.1, an "incremental platform release" of Honeycomb. In an effort to understand the landscape for developers, Andy Rubin was asked if, since Ice Cream Sandwich would be open, Android 3.0 and/or 3.1 will be granted the same courtesy. Rubin answered definitively in the negative. Honeycomb on its own would not be open, because its phone functionality is very broken. Ice Cream Sandwich will take all of the Honeycomb functionality and open-source it alongside code that is much more universally friendly.
That doesn't give me much confidence if Google is so damn ashamed of their code that they want to hide it from people for as long as they possibly can.
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No more cash?!
Planning on driving the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade? Fine, but you can't pay the tolls in cash.
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Monday, May 9, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
A $25 PC on a USB stick
Game developer David Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has an HDMI port on one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into an HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port, giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25. The hardware being offered is no slouch either. It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES 2.0, allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed. We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions, but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional computer to play with as soon as it's plugged in. All that, and it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain.
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Sony offers free identity-theft monitoring
A few weeks after having the PlayStation Network hacked, and apologizing to users for the breach, Sony is offering $1 million in identity theft protection for users who sign up before June 18th. The protection is being offered through Debix and is called AllClear ID Plus. This appears to be some kind of custom plan especially for Sony, as their normal offerings are called AllClear ID Free and AllClear ID Pro.
Good news, everyone!
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Thursday, May 5, 2011
On comedy.
Comedy is just a funny way of being serious.
via reddit.com
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Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Don Ross – "Klimbim"
via youtube.com
Mellow acoustic guitar music. It's great. Don Ross kicks ass and takes names all day long.
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