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And, in the case of the Big Dig, buggy. :)

Maybe the laptop thief was actually the same wiley hacker at Harvard Business School.

"We live in an open society in which the concept of widespread knowledge is embraced as a goal of governance,"

Maybe in the overall big picture that is true but in the current political environment that statement is most certainly not true.

The current administration has done and continues to do everything in its power to suppress the flow of knowledge and information. Witness the recent suppression of an EPA-funded study conducted by Harvard which found that the recent changes to rules regarding mercury emissions from U.S. power plants would have health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA said it would .

Why the difference? Because according to the EPA and the Bush administration, more stringent controls would cost too much to industry compared to the public health benefit. Thus the analysis was stripped from the final report even though the findings of the analysis were used in a briefing by the EPA to the Washington Post on February 2nd.

Even outside the administration the flow of knowledge is under attack. Witness the current effort by the Florida legislature to pass legislation which would allow students to sue professors who the students claim were punishing the students for their beliefs. Included would be a situation when a professor challenges a student to explain their theories by using the Socratic method. In other words, simply state you have a belief but you don't have to provide any evidence or rationale to support this belief.

Let us not forget the fiasco in my home state where Intelligent Design is being taught alongside Darwinian Evolution as a valid scientfic theory.

Along those same lines, this very site posted a story yesterday about some IMAX theaters not showing a film because it contained references to evolution.

While Kahles overall sentiment is correct the current political environment is not conducive to the flow of knowledge and won't be for a fairly substantial time.

What happens if mass testing becomes "routine" throughout the US? The fair and proper terms for the disposal of DNA samples of vindicated people is going to become a big, big thing. And please, don't give me "if you're innocent you have nothing to fear". DNA evidence can easily be altered or corrupted within the first few hours of collection. Especially if you have a sample already in hand. A very uncommon thing today but who can say about tomorrow.

We all know the answer to these questions:

Will the DNA sample of a vindicated person be disposed of after the trial, after all appeals or never? Never

Will the refusal to voluntarily give a DNA sample subject you to further scrutiny than a similar person who willingly submits? Yes

Will employers someday within the next ten years require a DNA sample for employment, similar to how most major retail chains require a test for legel and illegal drug use (Like Wal-Mart or Home Depot)? Yes

Will the US Congress do anything to protect the rights of the individual into this intrusion into one's privacy? No

Welcome to the New Amerika. Please leave your quaint notions of personal freedom at the border.

Here and Now : Truro DNA Case - 1/12/2005
Boston.com / News / Local / DNA testing troubles some in Truro
CBS News ACLU Slams Mass DNA Collection
USATODAY.com - ACLU seeks end to Mass. DNA collections
Cape Cod Times article: "New England town abuzz over DNA dragnet"

I have been watching the news lately and is what they have been telling me to believe is wrong with America.

If you watched the news lately you would know that your lack of a right of a feeding tube is the most dangerous thing in America. The President even flew back a week early to sign the bill into law to secure you right, Not to mention Congress having a late session. You need to get your head screwed on straight, and look at the important things in life and stop listening to Science. Science is too busy messing with something called FACTS.

I have been watching the news lately and is what they have been telling me to believe is wrong with America.

If you watched the news lately you would know that your lack of a right of a feeding tube is the most dangerous thing in America. The President even flew back a week early to sign the bill into law to secure you right, Not to mention Congress having a late session. You need to get your head screwed on straight, and look at the important things in life and stop listening to Science. Science is too busy messing with something called FACTS.

Note that this article is not about the Gratis Networks freeipod offer, which was the first and most well-known, but about one of their more sleazy imitators. Here's another article that compares and contrasts a sleazy imitator to the original Gratis Networks.

Gratis Networks just requires you to do one single promotional offer--and get several of your friends to do the same. Unlike the fraudulent con game that most people are referring to when they say "pyramid scheme" (you know, the "send five bucks to everyone on this list and then add your name" type thing) no money changes hands between you, Gratis, or your referrals; the money is paid from the advertisers to Gratis. Click the link in my signature to find more info. It's legit. Granted, you're going to receive a lot of spam to the address you sign up for with, but that's what easily-available GMail addresses or disposable email address services like SpamGourmet are for.

Oh, and FYI, I received my free 20 gig iPod several months ago, and just got my free 27" Sony flatscreen TV last night. And I only need six more completed referrals to get my free Mac Mini...

If it is civil, there's nothing that says you can't file a countersuit, no? And the whole preponderance of evidence bit does cut both ways doesn't it? To date, they have sued a dead woman, a Mac using grandmother for downloading hardcore rap on Kazaa, and a college professor for uploading his work on radio-selected quasars to his ftp host. That seems like a pretty good preponderance of evidence that their tracking and logging is sloppy and error prone.

The first thing I did was think "yeah, this could be a really cool way to compare news bias..."

So I added two sections side by side: one from the UK "World News" section, and the other from the US "World News" section.

Top stories in the UK World News were

• Israeli troops kill Palestinian in raid; death may upset truce
• Gunmen kill two police chiefs and two other Iraqis in Baghdad

and yet neither story was mentioned on the US side. The top story in the US world news was:

• How the tide turned against Tung

Does this mean that as an advertising company, Google could be in danger of falling prey to the advertising pressures that rule the traditional US news media? Draw your own conclusions, I guess....

• Clark [dean of Harvard Business School] said that rejected applicants won't be barred from reapplying in future years, but he said admissions officials would weigh the hacking incident in considering such applications. Only students expelled from the school are prohibited from reapplying, he said.
  
  As to the possibility of applicants sending apologies, something discussed on message boards over the weekend, Clark said: ''Whether apologies or other stuff happens, that is certainly something people can do. It may help them come to grips with what has happened. But for this year, and for now, our statement is very clear."

• One admissions consultant, Sanford Kreisberg of Cambridge Essay Service, which helps students apply to elite US business schools, said he thought Harvard was overreacting.
  
  ''What they did was stupid, but that's all it was," Kreisberg said. ''This seems needlessly harsh and rigid. I think it's inflexible, and it's wrong, and it doesn't treat individual circumstances."
  
  Kreisberg said some applicants may had [sic] inadvertently tried to access the files, without realizing they were looking for confidential information, after they were e-mailed directions from other students who had copied them from the BusinessWeek message board.

Based upon what the U.S. Patent Office has done with This patent, any patent that infringes on human rights (I.E. Liberty) will be denied. So, nah, breathing air, won't be allowed to be patented.

Right, and that's why two republican lawmakers want to apply broadcast TV standards to cable TV. Here are some links to the articles.

• Lawmakers Press for Decency Limits on Pay TV, Radio
• Cable, satellite next in line for indecency fines?

In short, the Republican agenda is all about enforcing their morals. If it takes bigger government and more regulation, so be it.

By the way, adult fare on cable is pretty lame. However I guess people who are offended by bare body parts would get upset with it.

Note: To all you fervent religious people, I respect your beliefs. However if you want to go live in a theocracy, then move to Iran, reinstate the Taliban, move to Israel, or start a Christian theocracy.

Let those of us who believe morality requires free will alone.

The details are dribbling out. The Boston Globe is reporting that five tapes were lost, two which have government employee data. So what was on the other three? http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/02 /27/bank_data_loss_may_affect_60_officials/

If you check the Boston.com article that's been posted by another user, you'll see that "Think Computer" was demanding payment to tell them about this bug. This sounds a little bit like extortion, don't you think? What gets even more interesting, is that I recognized this guy from an earlier story on Slashdot. He wrote a rambling, alarmist "whitepaper" about how unsecure WiFi was in the Boston subway. Furthermore, searching Massachusetts business filings doesn't show that any "Think Computer" corporate entity exists.

I believe that this is just some young kid who desperatly wants for himself to be seen as some sort of security expert. His techniques are highly unprofessional and insulting to those of us in the industry who do, in fact, have a clue as to how IT consulting works.

There is a more in-depth article about this at the Boston Globe.
First ChoicePoint now this? How long until a major government database like one from the IRS gets hacked and information on almost every US citizen is available? Scary thought.
- Cary
--Fairfax Underground: Where Fairfax County comes out to play

I'm skeptical about how much Dean will be able to do, but he can't possibly be worse for the Democrats than Terry McAuliffe.

The Boston Globe had some bits to say regarding Dean:

"I'll pretty much be living in red states in the South and West for quite a while," Dean told reporters after he was elected to the post on a voice vote. "The way to get people not to be skeptical about you is to show up and say what you think." ...

"If we want to win nationally, we have to start by winning locally," said Dean, who repeated his pledge to rebuild party organizations in each state. "We can't run an 18-state strategy and expect to win. This party's strength does not come from consultants down, it comes from the grass roots up." ...

In a news conference after his speech, Dean said he planned to reach out to evangelicals, a bloc of voters that forms the core of Republican support. "We are definitely going to do religious outreach," said Dean, whose recent speeches routinely cite an example of a conservative evangelical who now supports him because of his support for expanded healthcare.

If I understand correctly the attention to local politics is a significant shift in DNC policy, which has in the past decade had a tendency to almost completely ignore local and state campaigns, focusing almost entirely on failed bids for the presidency. I have my fingers crossed that the Democrats will take up the nigh-forgotten banner of "States' Rights," which the Republicans seem to have dropped like a lead brick (particularly when it comes to things like gay marriage, euthanasia, abortion, and medical marijuana).

Also, I'm curious to see if Dean's grassroots approach can actually manage to reach beyond those who are already True Believers. Before, it just seemed to basically be Dean supporters (including myself) telling each other how much they hated Bush, which would get them riled up, which would have the end result of them telling each other how much they hated Bush.

Err, sorry, I was factually inaccurate. When I said "First Amendment" I meant "Journalistic Integrity". Those are two distinct concepts.

"North Korea is selling nuclear technology around the world. What could threaten us more than that?"

That was Pakistan. Huge scandal, physicist sold nuke tech around the world, got pardoned last year?

I agree with your assessment of Pakistan. I lost faith with the Bush Administration when they claimed they would "make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them" and then proceeded to do exactly that when the mujuheddin crossed into Waziristan after Tora Bora. However, there is mounting evidence that North Korea is, indeed, spreading nuclear technology around the world.

Here's some info about Poland's motivations:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/ 19/in_poland_support_for_us_on_iraq_seen_as_unappr eciated/

The UI is definitely slick, but it definitely has some quirks, some annoying. Some random observations:

• The maps seem to be three dimensional. Look at the map of a complicated highway interchange and you'll see that it seems to get the over / under ramps correct. (For example, look at this map & zoom all the way in -- it pretty accurately reflects a complicated, braided set of onramps & offramps).
• On the other hand, it's not completely three dimensional: while the map has surprisingly current data for Boston's Big Dig, for example, it doesn't actually illustrate the points at which the roadway goes underground. Considering that some of these tunnels have surface roads over them, or will in the future if they don't already, finding a way to denote a tunnel seems important.
• It doesn't show one way streets! This is absolutely essential, especially in urban areas where a lattice of one-way streets can force you to take convoluted routes to follow the seemingly simple paths you could have taken if all the streets were bidirectional. A map service that can't show this data is much less useful than one that does. (That said, the trip planner does seem to show routes with an awareness of one-way streets, and will plot different to & from directions accordingly. So they do have the data, and they do use it where it matters, but they aren't making it visible in the interface. This may have been a deliberate attempt to constrain against information overload, but in this case I think the user really does need that data visible, at least optionally.)
• While the UI is nice and responsive in a way few other web sites are, it has some idiosynchroncies. For example, if I search to a map, then scroll somewhere else, then go to a different browser tab, it sometimes snaps back to the original search when I come back, rather than whatever I was looking at. If I do a new search, it scrolls to the new location from the old one; while this looks cool and may be the desired result if I'm thinking about directions, other times I may be thinking of a completely new & discrete search, and don't want to treat the two searches as a set -- some kind of "new search" option would be good. (This last one is subtle to describe, but kind of annoying once you pick up on it -- it's definitely useful, but maybe a little too helpful, ya know?)
• I like the way it dynamically fills up the current browser window size: note the way the map is always just a bit shorter than the current view is tall. If you resize, the page will start scrolling or have a white margin on the bottom, but will quickly redraw to match the new geometry. Clever.
• The overlay of local data seems much more polished than it was with last year's Google Local. Maybe this will mean abandoning Google Local as a separate entity and incorporating its functionality into Google Maps -- they're already most of the way along to doing exactly this.
• As widely requested, non-US/Canada data would be nice, but I'm sure such things are on the way. Moreover, Google already pulls interesting geolocation tricks, such that a request for google.com from an internet cafe in, say, Switzerland, will automatically and transparently redirect you to google.ch. Likewise, a search for http://news.google.com will redirect you to http://news.google.com/news?ned=de_ch&hl=de. I'm sure that once this gets going, Google Maps will also automatically send visitors into a mapping application that is relevant to their location.

Wish list items:

• Realtime traffic data would be nice, the way

So, from your argument, you are in favor of lifting all age restrictions to all goods. Children should be allowed to purchase guns, knives, alcohol, cigarettes, and medications. Oh, and children should be able to drive as well, no matter their age. After all, their parents will be with them at every moment and stop them from purchasing any goods or partaking in any activities in which they do not approve.

One thing you seem to be forgetting is that a parent will not be with their child every minute of every day. How would you have felt, growing up, if you had had direct handholding up until you were 18? Even if the adult is awake every moment of every day, sometimes children might get creative on when they decide to undertake certain activities. Witness this story: http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/02/08 /4_year_old_mich_boy_drives_mothers_car/
What should the woman have done that wouldn't have been a fire hazard? Not slept? And yet, by your reasoning, the police officer who brought the child should not have intervened because the government shouldn't be getting involved in the raising of a child.

What do I have to do to get some love around here?

It is, in my view, inevitable that no matter what your starting conditions are, the socio-economic progress will lead to convergence of all systems to communism, a more advanced one than traditional capitalism or (horror!) information society.

Many people still don't realise it, but our world is changing. And it doesn't take a genius to understand where we are going. Combine MIT's 'Fab Labs' (not the implementation, the idea), nanotechnology and sharing and you get sharing for physical goods. Add to that AI and robotics and you don't even need to share, because everyone basically has everything he needs. Which is, in very simple terms, what communism is about.

In about 5-10 years it will be possible to have personal manufacturing plants - first for some limited classes of products, then for pretty much everything. That would bring sharing of designs, often "illegal", but always beneficial to people. It is likely to be combined with open source leading to even more efficiency and choice.

Then in about 15-20 years robots will become a very significant part of the workforce, with construction robots, transportation robots, loading/unloading and various other robots. Not sure how it will work out, but clearly this will lead to 1) greater wealth for some and 2) demand to do something so that even the unemployed people could share the wealth. It might be possible that robots could be produced using personal manufacturing plants, in that case the capitalist economy will quickly collapse, as capital (robots) will become in a sense free (there still be energy and resources issues). That might be when the new communism, finally succeeds.

Finally, in 20-30 years nanotechnology will succeed in producing its Holy Grail - the universal assembler. This would bring sharing to its ultimate triumph, as information would finally be the only thing of value and at the same time the information will finish becoming free, in the process freeing us, the humans. This will also end the short communist era, as we humans quickly become self-sufficient. That would be the culmination of the new communism, which will then gradually disappear, as humans move into posthuman state.

In 2030 our current debates about sharing and whether it's stealing or not will probably seem rather funny.

Zero profit at Google?

Are you mad or just misinformed?

We are the richest country in the world, hence we are the ones holding the burden of most drug development. Granted, I agree that things are becoming disproportional with regard to what other countries of similar statue to the US pay for drugs and vaccines, and a lot of it is based on drug company profits, but the price of drugs that are sent to African nations is not part of the problem. Most US drug makers would love if conditions in Africa were cleaned up so they wouldn't have to worry about "ethical pricing" any more. Even if the drugs were made by a generic company (which would likely compromise quality), the overall cost of treatment of something like AIDS wouldn't change signifigantly.

The Boston Globe coverage is much more detailed.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl es/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/

I went to a talk at Google for Women, where a visiting engineer from MIT told us the trick to keeping family life is to outsource the other stuff. Ah ha, that's what's going to happen to my laundry and house cleaning.
No one, man nor woman can maintain a sane life doing 80 hrs a week without having some of the little stuff done by someone else.

And rather conveniently, this was /.ed earlier today :).

Oh?

"The US military admitted for the first time yesterday that one of the prisoners whom the Bush administration has held without charges for more than two years at Guantanamo Bay was never an Al Qaeda or Taliban fighter and should be immediately released from the interrogation camp"
- The Boston Globe

Yes, it's unfortunate, but it's a reality that war is a terrible thing. And, while these terrorists are locked away at Gitmo, they aren't in Afghanistan training to hijack planes or shooting at the US Military.

I think you're missing the point, which is that if the only difference that we can think of between American pilots of WWII and terrorists today is the clothes that they happen to be wearing, we have a very big problem.

Some of those efforts are legitimately aimed at making sure a proprietary code base isn't inappropriately using open source code. But it doesn't take much tweaking to try and make OSS look like some kind of virus. An image based on ignorance, but when has MSFT ever hesitated to promote an uneducated view when it suits them?

They're really turning into a sad, pathetic company. It's bad enough they produce bloated, insecure, DRM crippled, overpriced software, but to magnify it by being such low class PR whore is just embarrassing.

MSFT is living proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

This is a really big deal for the newspaper industry.

Consider:

The main source of revenue for newspapers (and some magazines) are subscriptions (which generally cover only maybe 20% of the cost of publication), mass market advertisements, and classified ads. Of these, classified ads are by far the most profitable and desirable: [a] they are very cheap to operate (the customers provide and even pay for all the content), and [b] they are the one form of advertisement that people want to see.

Think about that: all other forms of advertising are a nuisance that people go out of their way to ignore (witness TiVo, banner ad blockers, the ritual shaking of new magazines over recycle bins to drop all the inserts, etc), but sometimes, when a person is ready to buy something -- particularly something big -- they'll buy a whole newspaper or magazine just to pore over the real estate listings, or the automotove listings, or the ads in a photography magazine or the old "Computer Shopper", etc.

Most of the time, people hate ads, but sometimes, we want them so badly that we're willing to pay for them. The newspaper industry has been using this tendency to subsidize their business model for over a century now. They know full well that Craigslist is a threat to that model.

Consider:

About a year ago, NPR ran a piece on Craigslist. In this piece, they talked about the site, and how profitable it is, and how they manage this by using job listings for the San Francisco area to subsidize all their operating expenses still leaving a lot left over as profit. For this piece, NPR interviewed Lisa DeSisto, general manager of the Boston Globe's website, Boston.com, by way of comparing Craigslist to more traditional publications. The reporter claimed that DeSisto sees Craigslist as creating a new market for people that want to sell small things but don't want to pay for a traditional ad; for the soundbite in the piece, she says that "anyone who brings buyers and sellers is a threat, so yes, we absolutely view them as a threat". An honest remark, but a bland one.

A few weeks after that piece ran, I saw DeSisto, and mentioned having heard her on the radio recently. "Oh, that Craigslist thing? Yeah, they are going to kick our asses."

Much more direct and honest, eh?

But it's not just Boston.com, or the newspapers in San Francisco that the current piece talks about -- it's every market that Craigslist or someone like them goes into. Newspaper revenues have been going steadily downward for 20 or 30 years, and they're scrambling to keep up with the drain. They've more or less made their peace with the web, as it's still basically what they were doing all along, and the fact that you're reading their ads and their articles on a screen instead of a sheet of paper isn't all that important to them. But sites like Craigslist suggest that things are going to be much harder for them than they may have realized five or ten years ago: these sites may be able to keep their audience, but their ability to monetize that audience with classified ads is evaporating, compounding the decades-long slump in revenues from subscriptions and not offset by other forms of advertisement. If there is a way out of this, it doesn't seem to be obvious to anybody yet...

Notes:

• I used to work for Boston.com. Adjust salt intake accordingly.
• Some of Douglas Adams's essays touched on these topics nicely, in particular, What Have We Got To Lose?:

  "Over the last few years I've regularly been cornered by nervous publishers or broadcasters or journalists or film makers and asked about how I think computers will affect their various industries. For a long time most of them were desperately hoping for an answer that translated roughly into 'not very much'. ('People like the smell of

Attending church just makes them look like bigotted idiots. Look at what the church does.

After attending Trinity Christian Academy from kindergarten,making good grades, doing well in every way, and paying a lot in tuition to go to private school, the school kicked him out just before graduation because they found out he was gay. That's your christian values.

Of course, the catholics are no better. They have long supported priests who sexually abused children.

Surely I don't need to link to information about Muslim churches which support terrorism. (Though it wouldn't take long with Google to find a link.)

Religion is about money, power, and control. When people try to pretend that going to church makes them better people, I know that what they mean is "We are better than scum like you, you will burn in hell, so you better do things our way".

All churches are evil. (Sorry mom - it's true. Yours is no exception.)

I was rasied in a heavily baptist town, by religious parents. Luckily, I got over it.

Yeah, everyone's sick and tired of iPods already.

To start, MIT's research on the project would be investigated for research fraud if the Pentagon hadn't classified the data.

If this scenario were to play out, I doubt they'd bother trucking it inland. It would be much, much easier to put it in a shipping container and detonate it in the harbor. The feds are aware of this scenario, and they are working to secure the ports, but they're not spending nearly enough.

IMO, this is a low probability scenario because fission nukes are still hard to obtain, and there are still plenty of low-tech ways to cause mayhem. I'm worried more about the 4 liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker offloading stations in the U.S. Worse case scenario is a total spill resulting in a suffocating gas cloud drifting onto the city killing tens of thousands. And these clowns want to build more of them off the coast of Boston and southern California.

[quote]Boston Globe: Nov. 8, 2004.

A long-awaited federal report on the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound says the project would do little or no harm to fish, birds, and the surrounding seafloor, and would not drive down local property values -- all key findings as Cape Wind Associates seeks final approval to start construction next year.

The 4,000-page draft environmental impact statement by the Army Corps of Engineers will be formally released tomorrow. But a detailed 26-page executive summary obtained by the Globe seems to undercut opponents' arguments that the 130-turbine wind farm would cause deep, lasting damage to the environment.

Specifically, the draft says the estimated 420-foot-tall turbines could kill as many as 364 birds per year -- about one a day -- but notes that number is unlikely to affect endangered species or specific populations of birds. In predicting the project's impact on shellfish and fish populations -- a concern of environmentalists as well as fishermen -- the report says any effects would probably be felt only during construction.[/quote]

I can't say I've done some detailed search on this, but I'm pretty suspicious of the bird deaths specifically because VIRTUALLY EVERY article critisizing bird deaths brings up Altamont Pass, which is only one of many wind farms across the country/world. Moreover, it uses old, outdated turbines that spin much faster than modern turbines.

Coal kills a lot of birds too. There is no free energy source -- in financial or environmental effects.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

As for exit polls, often brought up in the context of electronic voting, here is one expert's view:

I think the important thing about exit polls is they show us why people won and the dynamics of the race. The mistake most people make is they see polls as a horse-race, but they are actually the explanation of what happened.

The polls may have been wrong about who won, but they were right about explaining why people voted the way they did. If you don't have polls, you allow the elites and candidates to interpret the elections in their own interest. Polls, in many ways, are crucial to democracy.

If you look at previous elections, you can see that exit polls are always different the day after the election. Exit polls ultimately are always right, though they are never right originally. This is because polls have to be weighted with the actual vote to be completely accurate. The vote, of course, can't be factored in until the election is completed. If the exit polls are not "corrected" in this way, then the analysis of the election will always be flawed. So after the polls have closed, exit poll

Clicky

What? Boston's not part of the US anymore??

And that outcome has sucked Of course none of the war supporters like to bring up that this war was sold on an easy win

We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators - Dick Cheney

The working link is actually http://www.boston.com/ae/games/articles/2004/11/22 /half_life_sequel_enters_exciting_new_territory?mo de=PF. And I agree with the other reply that the reviews don't seem that similar.

'Half-Life' sequelenters excitingnew territory [sic - yes, they left out those spaces]

They seem quite distinct to me.

I stopped reading this review and said to myself, "hmm, oh, wait, no, I didn't read this before". Why? Because I read a Boston Globe review that sounds just like this one. And why were they released on the same day?

Call me paranoid, but "reviewers" have been well known to post little more than regurgitated sample-reviews by companies for years, and this smacks of the same. If anyone else notices rather similar reviews in their regional paper, feel free to post a reply.

you're off by a 0 - the actual number is 8.18 trillion

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

A frequent charge levied after the 2000 election was voter disenfranchisement and ballot spoilage due, in large part, to antiquated, malfunctioning, or broken mechanical voting equipment. Legislation was introduced guaranteeing a minimum standard for the equipment and processes associated with voting in all jurisdictions. Since we are living in the 21st century, electronic systems were specified. $3.9 billion was set aside under HAVA to replace all mechanical punch card systems with electronic systems by 1 January, 2006. The goal is to ensure a consistency and fairness in the appearance and operation of the voting systems, both for voters and local election officials.

After the 2000 presidential election, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA):

To establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for

But how will they pay their public debt that's now going towards 8 trillion dollars? Oh yeah. Inflation will just keep on taking your money's value from you. But it doesn't matter because taxes are down, so the government must be being responsible, right?

'Item not to be used by uncertified members of Boston Police Department.

We're supposed to miss a gay Egyptian terrorist? Jeff Jacoby was right when he called Arafat a monster.

READ THIS

If you can still have any respect for Arafat after reading that, I have NO respect for you.

You may not have caught this, but the courts have changed their opinion on the matter, at least as it relates to using the music in new commercial works.

After De La Sould was sued by The Turtles in 1989 all recognizable samples had to be cleared (ie rights to use them had to be obtained).
This year, Sept. 7, there was a new ruling regarding NWA's use of a two second Funkadelic clip in the song "100 Miles and Running".

A lower court said that the sampling "did not rise to the level of legally cognizable appropriation." The federal appeals court, however, has this to say, "If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you `lift' or `sample' something less than the whole? Our answer is negative,"..."Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way."

To help point out the extreme absurdity of the notion that this is not stifling creativity, someone put up a website and requested submissions of songs made entirely of the two-second sample. There are currently 177 examples . But of course, that's not creativity...

You can check a few other high (and relatively high) profile sites that run on Zope:

• NASA's Maestro
• AARP
• Boston.com
• Saugus.net
• Many others that don't immediately come to mind...

Zope is also part of Massachusetts' "Open Source Trough" and will quite likely eventually power the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts' site at www.state.ma.us.