Domain: motherjones.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to motherjones.com.
Comments · 941
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what I read.
Linux Journal (subscription)
Linux Magazine
Wax Poetics (subscription)
2600 meaning to get subscription
sysadmin (subscription)
Ready Made (subscription)
Wired (only purchased in airports)
Mother Jones (off the rack, when the cover grabs me)
Stay Free! (subscription)
Future Music almost every month
And I buy about a dozen random magazines a month, news, music making -
Re:Already needs an upgrade.
Bill Gates' home address:
1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039
Dick Cheney's driver's license number
George Bush's arrest record
Ken Lay's bank balance: $0 -
Like the with the BSA
Microsoft are by many considered the driving force behind the BSA, who seems to have co-authored the software patents directive of the European Commission.
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If you hate blogs
Then you might find this interesting:
The Connection's AntiBlog episode
The Mother Jones article
Its mostly on political blogging. I listened to it earlier today, but did not have enough time to do a quality article submission.
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Union Busters
Mother Jones has an interesting article that provides some background on the labor problems at Plum Island. It appears that the contractor, LB&B Associates, with USDA assistance, is trying to destroy the union.
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Union Busters
Mother Jones has an interesting article that provides some background on the labor problems at Plum Island. It appears that the contractor, LB&B Associates, with USDA assistance, is trying to destroy the union.
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Re:Why does this surprise me it is in California?
Ummm, I have to disagree with you here. Having lived in California in the past and having lived in New Jersey for the last 6 months, there's not much that will make New Jersey look good. New Jersey had "Green Rabbits" for Christ's sake.
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Russia?
Don't worry, USA has that feature too.
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Re:Who to believe?
if you want to understand bush a bit better, read this
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They have been
For the last two years, all kinds of "liberal" media have been warning you about the attack against our rights and the constitution by Bush, Ashcroft, and the rest the crew. You ignored it. You watched Fox News, and CNN, and The Bachelor, and listened to Bill Reilly and Rush.
Try reading some back issues of The Nation or Mother Jones. Or browse Alter Net. Or even the New York Times, for gosh sakes.
Not that any of the above should be read alone, either. Read the Wall Street Journal, and/or The Economist, or whatever other "conservative" paper/magazine you prefer.
But you can't blame it on any of them. The story is out there. You just didn't bother to pay attention.
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Re:The Issue
Yeah, we see how well the 'vote with your dollars' strategy works. Think Cracker Barrel. Think Abercrombie and Fitch.
Or for that matter, think of the RIAA and the MPAA - how many of us actually don't purchase their products based on their practices? How much of a dent has it really made? Obviously not enough to make a difference in how they act - and they've probably pissed off way more people through their actions than would be pissed off at some racial/sexual/genetic slighting.
I'm all for spending money to support - or not support - companies who hold positions I agree or disagree with, but the damage that can be done through discrimination based on genetics may not be undone through just purchasing power. -
Blatant example of review Frod
Has anyone heard of other stories of manufacturers being deceptive so that they could get better reviews?"
Well, how about this?
Search for the word 'Canada' to get to the falsification bit. Yes, this is a very old example, and no, it's not computer-related, but it still seems pretty relevant. -
Re:Yep. John Lott's a liar, too.Oh, so you're citing John Lott for your "guns reduce crime" statistics. according to this article
Earlier this year, Lott found himself facing serious criticism of his professional ethics. Pressed by critics, he failed to produce evidence of the existence of a survey -- which supposedly found that "98 percent of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack" -- that he claimed to have conducted in the second edition of "More Guns, Less Crime". Lott then made matters even worse by posing as a former student, "Mary Rosh," and using the alias to attack his critics and defend his work online. When an Internet blogger exposed the ruse, the scientific community was outraged. Lott had created a "false identity for a scholar," charged Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy. "In most circles, this goes down as fraud."
Now of course Lott's fraud doesn't prove his conclusions are false; it only proves he's a liar an has no evidence for the conclusions drawn from that study. As for Lott & Mustard's famous 1997 paper, these folks found that small changes in Lott's model erase any influence of right-to-carry laws.And according to Ayres and Donohue who extended Lott's data through later years, Lott mostly managed to discover the start and end of the crack epidemic -- Crime rose and dropped just as much in urban areas without any changes in right-to-carry laws.
So you've answered my second question, and I thank you. You do have research to back up your claims; it's not good research, but at least it is research. Now how about getting rid of your straw man and dealing with what Clark actually said rather than what you find easy to argue against?
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Re:Loaded
Also, it's an Internet poll
Sounds more like it's a push poll. That is, a poll designed more to push the "pollee" in a specific direction as opposed to trying to get an unbiased opinion.
here's another example. -
Re:Where is Alan Cox in all of this?
USA is the land of the free just look we keep all out criminals in jail.
Around the world Nations with highest incarceration rates per 100,000 residents
1. USA 702
2. Russia 635
3. Cayman Islands 600
4. Belarus 577
5. Kazakhstan 494
WE'RE #1! Source -
Re:The system is not the biggest problem
One insane analogy deserves another:
I would say that blaming the drive-thru for receiving a third degree burn from a coffee is closer to blaming Ford because somebody rear-ended you in the drive thru and your car erupted in a ball of fire.
Extreme? Hey, in both cases, you knew what you were getting yourself into. Competant drivers don't get rear-ended and competant coffee drinkers don't spill their coffee. http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/SO77/dowi
e .html -
Re:Never underestimate the bandwidth of the USPS
Really, you should never underestimate the bandwidth of a CD or whatever sent through the USPS or a 1976 Pinto. The 1976 Pinto makes broadband look like a joke.
Any reason for choosing Ford's infamous deathtrap over another car, or is there some kind of sick joke about CD-burners in there? -
75% Of The Public Opposed H-1B TooIf 75% of the public opposed H-1B expansions and only one congressman voted with the public, how sure are you this legislation is going to go down in flames?
The Homeland Security system does seem to be heading toward the sort of exceedingly low-wage system of "employment" so desired by the folks who brought us H-1B -- and the felonization of P2P file systems is exactly in line with the rest of the war of terror on the population committed routinely by the folks who call the tunes.
Even slaves get food, shelter, clothing and medical care -- which is more than a lot of tech workers are getting these days.
Someone will figure out that slavery is a superior system to the current con-game and also figure out a way to use the military against their own populations to enforce it. I think its already started in privatized prisons and their prisoner-labor programs and the exploding rate of incarceration in the Unted States -- however they really do have to figure out what to do about the prisoner rape problem before they can be considered good massah's by computer nerds who will then work not for money but for privileges in the system.
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Re:Dean is actually a moderate.
Well there's the obvious invasion of Yugoslavia and installing a US friendly leader who dissolved the country into Serbia and Montenegro, and was then promptly assassinated.
But there's also the enforcing of murderous sanctions that were, up until the second Iraq invasion a few months ago, killing 5000 children each month (UN and WHO numbers). And the bombings in the illegally enforced no-fly zones which included the bombing and killing of dangerous and deadly sheep.
Of course there's also helping turkey massacre 30,000 kurds. Giving the draconian and terrorist government of Colombia billions in military aid. Increasing weapons sales to Indonesia and trying to cover for them, and delay the UN in acting to stop the massacre in East Timor.
'course I don't know if any of that stuff is as bad as getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky is ugly! -
Re:Dean is actually a moderate.
Well there's the obvious invasion of Yugoslavia and installing a US friendly leader who dissolved the country into Serbia and Montenegro, and was then promptly assassinated.
But there's also the enforcing of murderous sanctions that were, up until the second Iraq invasion a few months ago, killing 5000 children each month (UN and WHO numbers). And the bombings in the illegally enforced no-fly zones which included the bombing and killing of dangerous and deadly sheep.
Of course there's also helping turkey massacre 30,000 kurds. Giving the draconian and terrorist government of Colombia billions in military aid. Increasing weapons sales to Indonesia and trying to cover for them, and delay the UN in acting to stop the massacre in East Timor.
'course I don't know if any of that stuff is as bad as getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky is ugly! -
Re:Don't like it?Yeah. Run a business like these guys, for instance, and you'll not only reap great rewards for yourself, but you'll bring down a bank or two. These sort of scams have cost taxpayers billions in bailouts, and the few who reap their benefits typically walk away with no liability, and all the yachts they can eat.
The reality is that THE RICH GET MORE OF YOUR WAGE-EARNED TAXES DOLLARS THAN THE POOR.
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Re:Why would he do that?Oh... such famous actors as Spielberg, Moore *spit* *spit* *spit* and Katzenberg?
Stephen L. Bing, and Alan F. Horn,President & CEO, Warner Bros.?Please name TWO major republican supporters in Hollywood, excepting Arnie? Tow major financial contributors to them? -DVK
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Re:Why would he do that?Oh... such famous actors as Spielberg, Moore *spit* *spit* *spit* and Katzenberg?
Stephen L. Bing, and Alan F. Horn,President & CEO, Warner Bros.?Please name TWO major republican supporters in Hollywood, excepting Arnie? Tow major financial contributors to them? -DVK
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Even Slaves Get Food, Shelter and ClothingIs there a country were people will work for free?
Yes. They're doing it now. But not for long.
Even slaves get food, shelter, clothing and medical care -- which is more than a lot of tech workers are getting these days.
Someone will figure out that slavery is a superior system to the current con-game and also figure out a way to use the military against their own populations to enforce it. I think its already started in privatized prisons and their prisoner-labor programs and the exploding rate of incarceration in the Unted States -- however they really do have to figure out what to do about the prisoner rape problem before they can be considered good massah's.
There are alternatives of course, but they require revolution.
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Re:Well...
The denail of suffrage was based on "erroneously" expunging about thousands black voters from the Florida voting rolls. The management of FLA voter lists was outsourced to a Republican-owned corporation, and administered by Republican officials. Oh, and lets not forget the sheriffs setting up "traffic safety checkpoints" in some predominately black counties--WTF is a traffic safety checkpoint, and when was the last non-election day they occurred?
But don't take my word for it, try here: here: and here: -
Re:Too bad...
Ford knew exactly what it was doing when it released the Pinto--by their calculations, it was cheaper to deal with the estimated 180 wrongful-death suits and 180 damage suits annually than make an $11 fix to prevent those deaths and burns from occuring. It's a long article, but a lot of really good (where by "good" I mean "frightening and disheartening") information can be found here: http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/SO77/dowi
e .html. -
Re:Too bad...[OT]Some quick research using google shows that:
Ford engineers discovered in pre-production crash tests that rear-end collisions would rupture the Pinto's fuel system extremely easily.
-MotherJones
So it wasn't even to where they would have a beta test phase yet. -
Re:Environmentalist = Communist in Drag
While I should know better than to get into this, it really pisses me off when people damn others for making huge, sweeping generalizations while making huge, sweeping generalizations themselves.
"True environmentalists" don't believe in taking people's rights away, no. News flash. You don't have a right to pollute the river that flows past your property because that river then flows past my property. You ever hear the old Libertarian maxim, "your right to swing your nose ends at my face?" It applies to the environment, too. You don't have a right to do things with your property that affect my property, or anyone else's.
Water and air are a common good that cannot be owned by anyone. This ain't communist propaganda. It's fucking common sense, people. And it means that sometimes as a property owner your rights are going to be curtailed. Deal with it. I support gun rights, but they don't include a right to fire your gun without paying attention to where you're pointing it.
And, no, companies not wanting to clean up their act is not hogwash. Companies want to spend as little as they can and charge the highest prices they can. This isn't because they're evil, it's because they're trying to increase their capital. Hello! That's why it's called capitalism. Not all companies are responsible citizens. Some of them will do exactly the same calculation Ford made with the Pinto: balance the cost of expected fines and lawsuits from doing things sleazily against the cost of doing things the right way, and doing things sleazily if it's a lower expense. They can do this because when they're caught, they can apologize profusely and know that they will have lots of defenders saying thing like: "The presidents of these companies are pople like you and I."
Furthermore, people with your attitude seem to be really hep on bashing environmental groups for having "vested interests" in scaring people. You never once seem to be willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, corporations making billions of dollars on practices those environmental groups are criticizing could have a vested interest in making sure that you dismiss the environmentalists as kooks. Individual donations to the Center for Science in the Public Interest make it a scare group, but the blatant industry backing of JunkScience.com couldn't possibly influence their reporting, right? Check.
Funny, to me being about individual rights has nothing to do with promoting corporations and bashing government any more than it does to do with bashing corporations and promoting government. Many libertarians have figured that out. Have you?
Scientists who aren't on Exxon's payroll aren't arguing about whether the temperature's rising, and they're not even arguing about whether humans are having an effect--the debate has moved to what effect we are having, and how to control it. If you think this is just the province of Greenpeace kids hanging signs from smokestacks, congratulations! The industry is keeping you in the '80s. This debate isn't going on in Granola Crunch Quarterly anymore, it's going on in Nature.
Wake up. By and large environmentalists are not out to send us into the dark ages or to create a happy Marxist utopia. They're out to make us think about the resources we use and to convice us that we should use less, even if using less is going to be inconvenient. And, yes, using less might mean some industries have to change. It's happened before. Why is it so horrific to consider that it might have to happen again?
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Roadmap for War on Iraq
Roadmap for War on Iraq and the New American Empire brought to by:
Elliott Abrams , Gary Bauer
William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush
Dick Cheney , Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky
Steve Forbes , Aaron Friedberg
Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney
Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby
Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle
Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen
Donald Rumsfeld , Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz
xyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzyxyzzy -
Re:I thought about it, and you know what?
Truth in advertising laws.
Restrictions on how/when/where some businesses can advertise. (Tobacco/Alcohol)
Nike v. Kasky
It's not as clear-cut as you make it sound. -
Re:This concerns me greatly.
"I see this software and I find myself very afraid. It neatly packages up a military grade cryptographic communications solution and makes it freely available to the public."
As opposed to the people who package up miltary-grade firearms and make them freely available to the public?
Or indeed, to Iran, China, Iraq, Indonesia, and others... -
Re:Prison labor
Tell that to Beverly Davis. Her admirer, a processor for Metromail who was behind bars, wrote that he wanted "to be there to rub in your Neutrogena". This from processing the coupon forms where people swap their purchasing habits for coupons.
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Not really.
Not too much of a stretch. Microsoft has been a major contributor to the BSA since its inception. It harasses companies based on rumors of software non-compliance co-opting US Marshalls to act as a the gestapo. It is also growing power and influence worldwide.
Read this interview with Gates himself for more insight on Microsoft and the BSA.
To sum it all up, the BSA *is* Microsoft. -
Re:So, what's life like in Canada?It is getting bad in Canada too. Mostly for reasons of trade the Canadian government finds it necesarry to follow the US lead (here and here).
There is still dissent left in Canada. As Barlow quoted the Navajo "It's impossible to awaken a man who is pretending to be asleep." Canada has yet to pretend to be asleep, but for how long can Canadians afford to be awake?
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Re:Neato
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Aimee Mann interview at motherjones.comThere's an interview with Aimee Mann at motherjones.com where she describes her experiences at major record labels and as an indie artist. Interestingly, she says that she has sold more albums as an indie than she did while signed with major labels.
She's also established her own label, United Musicians which "is founded on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created and that this ownership is the basis for artistic strength and true independence. United Musicians Artists have their own labels under the United Musicians banner and retain all rights of ownership to their work. By uniting and sharing resources, United Musicians Artists have a stronger organizational base from which to build and flourish in their independence."
Also in the interview, she says that "I don't believe in asking people to spend $15 on something they've never heard before. That's just unreasonable. And radio's so difficult in this country that that's not really an option." (Her latest album is streamed in its entirety from her website.)
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Aimee Mann interview at motherjones.comThere's an interview with Aimee Mann at motherjones.com where she describes her experiences at major record labels and as an indie artist. Interestingly, she says that she has sold more albums as an indie than she did while signed with major labels.
She's also established her own label, United Musicians which "is founded on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created and that this ownership is the basis for artistic strength and true independence. United Musicians Artists have their own labels under the United Musicians banner and retain all rights of ownership to their work. By uniting and sharing resources, United Musicians Artists have a stronger organizational base from which to build and flourish in their independence."
Also in the interview, she says that "I don't believe in asking people to spend $15 on something they've never heard before. That's just unreasonable. And radio's so difficult in this country that that's not really an option." (Her latest album is streamed in its entirety from her website.)
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Article on the Algebra ProjectBob Moses worked in the civil rights movement in the 60s and he's teaching algebra now, as reported in this Mother Jones article.
Moses believes that mastering algebra, preferably by the eighth grade, is the modern-day equivalent of the right to vote because it represents a dividing line between having -- or not having -- a chance in life. ''In the 1960s, we opened up political access,'' he says. ''The most important social problem affecting people of color today is economic access, and this depends crucially on math and science literacy, because the American economy is now based on knowledge and technology, not labor.''
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Re:Postal workers spying?Yep - I read this story in a Canadian newspaper. In one of Bush's speeches a few months ago he called on trade workers to keep their eyes open while they went about their daily business.
While I can't remember much about it, it was called operation TIPS.... here's the first article I found on it:
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/feature
s /news/tips.htmlAre you really surprised that Bush would call for something like that?
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If they aren't worried about IP suits, they should
Since I remembered the lawsuit by Monsanto, I entered into Google:
farmer sued genetically corn patented
And these articles came forth:
The farmer's page
Article"
Another
Another
Tale of the Absurd
Monsano wins
Commentary
and on...
and on...
Comment
Good ol' Mother Jones
Y'all see, there is a damned good chance that such corn will contaminate the other crops, and then Monsanto or whomever will own their souls. Or GNP, whatever works.
I'm surprised that the Canadian case isn't common knowledge. Then again, it wasn't exactly Evening News material for the U.S. No network news department head wants to seem "liberal" nowadays, which translates to "damned few stories critical of corporations" (balance), which of course is not connected to trying to please conservative corporate owners who have become quite.... proactive in their news departments of late.
The submitter of the item is correct in identifying IP lawsuit threats as an important datum in the decision to decline the food, even if the article cited doesn't make a point of it. An informed person would already know about the enormous lawsuit potential, and add that to the stack. -
Mother Jones on the BSAThere's an interesting old Mother Jones article about the BSA, its tactics, and its relationship to the MS mother ship:
Excerpt:
But instead of waiting for a ruling on the case, the BSA abruptly dropped the suit in the fall of 1997. The BSA receives funding from most of the top software companies but appears to be most heavily funded by Microsoft. And, according to Antel's information technology manager, Ricardo Tascenho, the company settled the matter by signing a "special agreement" with Microsoft to replace all of its software with Microsoft products.
The BSA's lawyer in Uruguay, Eduardo DeFreitas, supports Tascenho's story: "Microsoft told me to stop working on the case because they would write an agreement with Antel." DeFreitas says Microsoft's Uruguay manager, Tomas Blatt, instructed him to drop the suit so that Microsoft could "work out a deal for the future."
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Re:Typical Michael...Time for Him to Go
How about some historical examples to bolster Michael's claim.
What many of the hard-core groups such as the ACLU and the EFF fear is a return to the days of COINTELPRO when the FBI (with the cooperation of the CIA) used it's vast powers to spy on Americans. And to discredit any political group outside of the mainstream. One noteable target was Dr. Martin Luther King. To quote from the Church Commission's report:
"The FBI collected information about Dr. King's plans and activities through an extensive surveillance program, employing nearly every intelligence-gathering technique at the Bureau's disposal. Wiretaps, which were initially approved by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were maintained on Dr. King's home telephone from October 1963 until mid-1965; the SCLC headquarter's telephones were covered by wiretaps for an even longer period. Phones in the homes and offices of some of Dr. King's close advisers were also wiretapped. The FBI has acknowledged 16 occasions on which microphones were hidden in Dr. King's hotel and motel rooms in an "attempt" to obtain information about the "private activities of King and his advisers" for use to "completely discredit" them. " [My Emphasis]
And:The FBI sought to influence universities to withhold honorary degrees from Dr. King. Attempts were made to prevent the publication of articles favorable to Dr. King and to find "friendly" news sources that would print unfavorable articles. The FBI offered to play for reporters tape recordings allegedly made from microphone surveillance of Dr. King's hotel rooms.
The above quotes are from the final report of the Church Committee (see also Here), a congressional committee set up to investigate the FBI's abuses of power. Out of this investigation arose many of the restrictions that Bush, Ashcroft, and Co. are overturning. These changes and the arguments for them have received opposition from longtime FBI members:
"I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now, been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mis-characterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons..."
"Several prominent FBI alumni also blasted Ashcroft's cast-a-wide-net approach to the terrorism investigation, which led to the detention of some 1,200 people, only a dozen of them suspected of having any links with Al Qaeda. The mass arrests were part of a fundamental shift in the bureau's strategy. In the past, the FBI would identify suspected terrorists, move to forestall any immediate threat of violence, then watch the suspects in hopes of cracking an entire cell. Ashcroft's approach, the critics noted, might jeopardize the kinds of investigations that had prevented previous attacks. "We used good investigative techniques and lawful techniques," warned Reagan-era FBI director William Webster, "and we did it without all the suggestion that we are going to jump all over people's private lives."..."
The first is from a recent Memo by Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel for the FBI Coleen M. Rowley via Time Magazine. The Second is from a Mother Jones article on John Ashcroft here. Note that the Mother Jones article (which discusses these changes) is several months old.This is what people (quite rightly) fear and what we should be striving against. This is what Prompted Emmanuel Goldstein (editor of 2600) to devote his editorial in the most recent issue to a call to arms against such governance. This is a serious issue and the note that Michael Struck was just right. The FBI stated that carnivore will never collect the wrong information Yet we have admissions of the opposite (see here). In the light of all of this, can you really say that he is wrong?
As always you can contact the ACLU for more.
For some fun side-reading see:
- Amnesty International's 2002 report on the U.S.A.
- NYC Indymedia
- The San Francisco Chronicle
- And, The Register
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Science Knowledge, Math Literacy (Numeracy)My gosh, how many years has it been since I read a column in PC Magazine, probably in 1985, urging an emphasis on "numeracy" as a special focus along with "literacy" ??
Just last week, I read an article in Mother Jones magazine about Robert Moses, a 60's civil rights leader who now is strongly advocating better math education for minorities, both through his own actions teaching in a Mississippi school (he commutes weekly from his Massachusetts home, bless those dedicated liberals), and in his book, Radical Literacy . (I just ordered the book, ISBN 080703127, but haven't got it yet.)
I absolutely agree that math and science education should be a stronger emphasis in schools (math is probably more important than science, but they each fuel the other). And clearly, inner-city schools, and other poor schools, provide lousy education, especially in math and science. And as the survey cited here demonstrates, that lousy education shows.
Here in Pleasanton, California, a wealthy suburb, my Rotary Club awards prizes each month to a "student of the month." I'm amazed each month that these kids all take multiple AP classes (sometimes five or six) and have GPAs of 4.15 or 4.25. When I went to school, even taking AP Calculus, it was mathematically impossible to have a GPA greater than 4.0 -- speaking of "math literacy". But what about the many inner-city students who never graduate from high school, and lack even the basic math skills required to work at a cash register? (Ask your local McDonald's manager how they work around the lack of functional literacy and math skills.)
Another book plug: I just finished the book And Still We Rise , a reporter's account of a year in an AP English classroom in South Central Los Angeles. It's a remarkable book that left me feeling hopeful (unlike most books in this genre, which leave me frightened and numb). But alas, that book focuses only on just a few dozen surviving geniuses, and not thousands of their peers whose best efforts could not overcome the cruel challenges of the inner-city school environment.
Finally, I read an article in yesterday's newspaper (the Valley Herald), recounting a new bill by my local state legislator, who wants to exempt more new teachers from needing teaching credentials. The bill's stated intent is to allow more skilled professionals to teach, but I suspect the real goal is to circumvent teaching standards and put more lower-cost teachers into classrooms without adequate training.
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Re:ITMS (It's the Market, Stupid!)Normally I wouldn't bother replying to someone who considers me stupid for having a different opinion but WTF...
From an article on solar power:
"...By the late 1970s, Exxon, Mobil, Arco, and other oil companies had bought out many patents for the photovoltaic cells that collect sunlight and convert it to electricity, prompting consumer watchdogs like Ralph Nader to sound the alarm that companies with vested interests in "hard" energy were in position to smother "soft" innovations. An investigation by the Center for Renewable Resources, an environmental advocacy group, found no evidence of a systematic oil industry effort to suppress solar power, but those involved in the alternative energy movement knew the energy industry was worried about the sun's potential..."
http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MA00/solar . tml
Tell me that Big Oil wasn't trying to stifle anything...
From the same article:
"Even after the oil crisis, most federal research targeted nonrenewable energy sources. According to a recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service, 77 cents of every energy research dollar from 1973 to 1997 went to nuclear and fossil fuels. Only 14 cents went to alternative energy, and the remaining 9 cents supported energy conservation."
Another article states:
"Despite being relegated to the back burner by both government and industry, small-scale technologies are viable and continue to develop."
Read more...
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1992
/ 04/mm0492_07.html.
"Although many congressional leaders are now calling for immediate action to reduce gasoline prices, they have blocked efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce oil consumption. In the last two years, Congress has significantly under-funded the Administration's proposals to:
- Fund research for energy conservation, solar and renewable energy, by 20% less than requested in FY 2000,or $273 million for FY' '99 and 2000;
- Provide tax efficient vehicles and other products, the use of renewable energy, and clean renewable electricity production, by 98% less than requested in FY 2000, and by 100% less than in FY '99, when Congress provided no funding. Those decreases represent $7.1 billion for the two years, and;
There was an effort made in the Senate last year led by Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-VT) to add $62 million to solar and renewable energy programs, but it was defeated."
http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/crudebe havior.asp
I could supply more but I don't want to do anymore research for you.
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Re:It means we better get going on SDI.Now, if they just could convince China to equip their rockets with C-band transponders, too, this would be a tremendious step forward. (Of course, it is still a technical achievement, just not such a great one as Lockhead it wants to be.)
Maybe have a look at a (probably little outdated) article by Bob Harris.
Especially the quote from the "Interagency Intelligence Assessment of Possible Soviet Responses to the US Strategic Defense Initiative" report (1983) about the feasibility of SDI (now BMD) is worth noticing.
To preempt a 9/11 statement, the report of the National Intelligence Council "Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States Through 2015" considers "non-missle delivery options" more likely.
To quote Mr. Harris interpretation of the report:
Think about it: pretend you're a crazed dictator hell-bent to wipe out Pittsburgh. (Nothing personal, guys. Actually, there are people in Pittsburgh I love very much. Just making a point.) Are you gonna spend all your cash on a big-ass missile system that takes years to develop -- thereby all but guaranteeing satellite detection and a pre-emptive attack from the U.S. -- and which in any case leaves your fingerprints all over the attack, guaranteeing your subsequent annihilation? Or are you gonna just have a few guys smuggle the bomb parts into Canada, drive it over at Niagara Falls in the back of a VW minibus, and then simply pull the trigger on Three Rivers Stadium?
(The stadium, by the way, can go, as far as I'm concerned.)
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Other underhanded BSA tacticsThe BSA engages in lots of manipulation and such that I think is under-reported in the mainstream press. As I posted in the previous Slashdot article "A Look Inside the BSA", there are countries where the local BSA office is little more than a field office for Microsoft sales.
Don't take my word for it. Instead read this article from a couple years ago in Mother Jones magazine. It talks about how BSA offices end up pushing licenses for MS products even on companies that weren't illegally using them, but in fact were using other (competing) products.
For fairness, here is a link to a follow up letters column that disputes some of the facts in the article.
Quite an eye-opener.
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Other underhanded BSA tacticsThe BSA engages in lots of manipulation and such that I think is under-reported in the mainstream press. As I posted in the previous Slashdot article "A Look Inside the BSA", there are countries where the local BSA office is little more than a field office for Microsoft sales.
Don't take my word for it. Instead read this article from a couple years ago in Mother Jones magazine. It talks about how BSA offices end up pushing licenses for MS products even on companies that weren't illegally using them, but in fact were using other (competing) products.
For fairness, here is a link to a follow up letters column that disputes some of the facts in the article.
Quite an eye-opener.
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Other underhanded BSA tacticsThe BSA engages in lots of manipulation and such that I think is under-reported in the mainstream press. As I posted in the previous Slashdot article "A Look Inside the BSA", there are countries where the local BSA office is little more than a field office for Microsoft sales.
Don't take my word for it. Instead read this article from a couple years ago in Mother Jones magazine. It talks about how BSA offices end up pushing licenses for MS products even on companies that weren't illegally using them, but in fact were using other (competing) products.
For fairness, here is a link to a follow up letters column that disputes some of the facts in the article.
Quite an eye-opener.
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Re:Embarassed to be from Georgia
It's stupidity that leads to violence. Since this state is chock full of stupid people it might explain the high violent crime rate.
Georgia's not so bad. It ranks 18th in per capita spending on education (2000) and 5th in the growth of education spending (1980-2000).
In contrast, New Hampshire is near the bottom in per capita spending on education and also near the bottom for the rate of incarceration.
It's true that Minnesota has the highest per capita spending on education and the lowest rate of incarceration. However, there is only a rough correlation between education spending and the crime rate.
In any case, there are better reasons to spend money on education than to fight crime.
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Re:trust
two words: Ford Pinto. Ford was harmed for years after the public lost trust in Ford due to the Pinto.
For those who might not know. The Ford Pinto was a cheap poorly designed car of the 70s that had a nasty tendancy to burst into flames when struck from behind in minor collisions. Ford execs knew of this problem but decided against a recall as the cost was greater then the cost of a few lawsuits. see the internal Frod memo and more information