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Stories and comments across the archive that link to thislife.org.

Comments · 156

  1. Habeas corpus cannot be suspended for only some by benhocking · · Score: 1 · on White House E-mail Scandal Widens

    Illegal enemy combatants do not get habeas corpus, any more than POWs do.

    And, without habeas corpus, how do you prove you're not an enemy combatant (or even challenge the claim)? How do you prove you're a US citizen without habeas corpus? You do realize that many of the people in Gitmo are there because their enemies turned them in to kill two birds with one stone - first, they got rid of someone they don't like and second, they got a reward from the US government for turning in a terrorist.

  2. Re: No. by anagama · · Score: 1 · on The Unauthorized State-Owned Chinese Disneyland

    Actually, Cambodia has good work conditions compared to its neighbors. There was a story on "This American Life" a couple years ago which was quite interesting: http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1 109

    See the part "Act Two. Dreams of Distant Factories."

  3. "Quiz Show" on "This American Life" (NPR) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on CS Programs Changing to Attract Women Students
    [eln wrote:]

    It's not only a bad idea, it's insulting. They think that dumbing down the programming component is necessary to attract women? What does that say about the women that are already in CS? Are they to be applauded for working so hard to overcome the inherent deficiencies of their sex? Are women in CS just talking dogs (no one cares if they're good at what they do, people are just amazed they can do it at all)?

    If some people find CS too hard to do, then fine. Let them either do something else or, if they're passionate enough, work harder at it. Dumbing down the curriculum is not the answer to anything. The only thing this will accomplish will to put even more ill-qualified people out in the workforce and further accelerate the USA's decline in technological leadership.


    National Public Radio (NPR) has a radio program entitled "This American Life". On February 16, 2007, they broadcast an interesting episode entitled "Quiz Show", which you can find at http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Archive.aspx. (Click on the speaker icon to the right of the entry on that page to listen to it).

    The third story (beginning at 46:36 minutes into the program) is about a real-life trivia quiz show that was broadcast by the Oxygen Network, which is a network entirely geared towards women. One of the writers for the quiz show, a woman, thought it would be a perfect forum for showcasing the intelligence of girls as a role models for other young girls.

    The results were...a disaster.

    In the end, they had to resort to "dumbing down" the show's questions...listen for yourself, it's actually kind of funny.

    Whenever I hear the issues of "gender inequality" being raised up, I have to wonder who is raising the issue, and why. Typically, it is female faculty or female employees who don't want to be the only females in their department/division, and who may be trying to use the argument for their own promotion (eg "there aren't enough female faculty, so make me a faculty member", or "there aren't enough female managers, so make me a female manager".) Indirectly, there is a theory that in excellent companies, "Grade A people hire Grade A people", but in bad companies "Grade B people hire Grade C people". In other words, managers who are not very competent tend to hire people less competent so that they will be easier to manage from an ego-point-of-view, rather than a results-point-of-view. Is that the underlying reason that these "issues" (which are really non-issues) keep surfacing?

    Somebody posted earlier that they had intereviewed girls as programmers at Amazon.com, and in something like two cases, both of the hired were from Asia, either Chinese (east Asia) or Indian (south Asia), and wondered if it was due to "culture" and how that culture treated women with regard to science and engineering. However, people who make that argument forget that the people who emigrate to the United States are already an extremely small minority within their own enormous populations (China has 1.3 billion people, India has about 1.1 billion).

  4. Other good show: This American Life by jdmonin · · Score: 1 · on NPR Takes First Step To Fight Internet Royalties

    I think one of their best is This American Life, a weekly show of snapshots of interesting events of everyday people. Their site has a pretty good description of each show, and you can download the most recent as a good old MP3.

  5. Re:Sue 'em if you can't compete! by thefirelane · · Score: 1 · on NPR Finds XM's Achilles Heel

    Firstly, NPR has some amazing stuff. I dare you to listen to the most recent halloween episode of this.

    Secondly, if a competitor is violating the law, what is wrong with suing? Were you equally as angry at competitors who went after MS for anti-trust allegations (which turned out to be true).

  6. Re:I for one.... by Perp+Atuitie · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Testosterone Tumbling in American Males

    Not a study, but some interesting stories about testosterone and the lack of it as told by those who lived through some heavy changes. A This American Life radio broadcast you can listen to here.

  7. Habeas Schmaebeas by jonathan_95060 · · Score: 1 · on The NSA Knows Who You've Called

    Speaking of the end of the rule of Law, check out This American Life's Habeus Schmaebeus show.

  8. Re:How would he like it.... by anagama · · Score: 1 · on Alleged British Hacker Fears Guantanamo

    Not really of special interest unless you count buying people from unscrupulous individuals with an axe to grind against someone they dislike.

    Habeas Schmabeas (link to rm stream) from This American Life. The summary is in the 2006 archives. Of particular interest is the story at the end about England's foray into the same thing Bush did at Gitmo, as well as the perspective on Puritan terrorism in England.

  9. Re:How would he like it.... by anagama · · Score: 1 · on Alleged British Hacker Fears Guantanamo

    Not really of special interest unless you count buying people from unscrupulous individuals with an axe to grind against someone they dislike.

    Habeas Schmabeas (link to rm stream) from This American Life. The summary is in the 2006 archives. Of particular interest is the story at the end about England's foray into the same thing Bush did at Gitmo, as well as the perspective on Puritan terrorism in England.

  10. Damn it! by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 1 · on IRS Compels PayPal to Release Info

    Damn it! Well where the hell am I supposed to keep my money hidden now? Guess I'll have to move those accounts to Nauru.

    -Grey

  11. This American Life & Car Talk by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting · on NPR & The Modern Media Distribution

    I grew up in Minnesota where the land is flat and it would take me three and half hours to drive between my parent's house and the University of Minnesota. My car was a complete junker and therefore wasn't worth the two hundred or so dollars it would take to equip it with a CD player. So instead, I listened to the many programs that NPR and MPR had to offer.

    Two of my absolute favorites were This American Life and Car Talk. Oftentimes, I would find myself in a parking lot listening to Ira Glass as the episode he was doing had me hooked and I couldn't even get out of my car to buy groceries.

    My senior year of college found me looking up TAL episodes online and using Total Recorder to compress the Real Audio feeds directly to MP3. Was I stealing from TAL? I didn't really feel like it, I was a poor college student and I had heard the program on the radio--I just wanted it on my computer to listen to it time after time.

    I'll never forget the time I heard the two part series of Come Back to Afghanistan and it's sequel. What really happened and is happening in Afghanistan never hit home until I heard it through the voice of a young teenager named Hyder Akbar.

    I have made a few contributions to NPR since I've graduated but I can see where they'd be strapped financially. I think NPR could take advantage of the modern media formats that all of us seek. I have purchased Car Talk CDs and I'd purchase TAL CDs too. Even more importantly, I'd be more than willing to pay a dollar through iTunes or Napster or whatever service you choose to have a random episode of TAL or Car Talk on my MP3 player. They seem to have the audio book version of Poultry Slam but not every episode, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't have any kind of service to check on hand.

  12. This American Life & Car Talk by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting · on NPR & The Modern Media Distribution

    I grew up in Minnesota where the land is flat and it would take me three and half hours to drive between my parent's house and the University of Minnesota. My car was a complete junker and therefore wasn't worth the two hundred or so dollars it would take to equip it with a CD player. So instead, I listened to the many programs that NPR and MPR had to offer.

    Two of my absolute favorites were This American Life and Car Talk. Oftentimes, I would find myself in a parking lot listening to Ira Glass as the episode he was doing had me hooked and I couldn't even get out of my car to buy groceries.

    My senior year of college found me looking up TAL episodes online and using Total Recorder to compress the Real Audio feeds directly to MP3. Was I stealing from TAL? I didn't really feel like it, I was a poor college student and I had heard the program on the radio--I just wanted it on my computer to listen to it time after time.

    I'll never forget the time I heard the two part series of Come Back to Afghanistan and it's sequel. What really happened and is happening in Afghanistan never hit home until I heard it through the voice of a young teenager named Hyder Akbar.

    I have made a few contributions to NPR since I've graduated but I can see where they'd be strapped financially. I think NPR could take advantage of the modern media formats that all of us seek. I have purchased Car Talk CDs and I'd purchase TAL CDs too. Even more importantly, I'd be more than willing to pay a dollar through iTunes or Napster or whatever service you choose to have a random episode of TAL or Car Talk on my MP3 player. They seem to have the audio book version of Poultry Slam but not every episode, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't have any kind of service to check on hand.

  13. This American Life & Car Talk by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting · on NPR & The Modern Media Distribution

    I grew up in Minnesota where the land is flat and it would take me three and half hours to drive between my parent's house and the University of Minnesota. My car was a complete junker and therefore wasn't worth the two hundred or so dollars it would take to equip it with a CD player. So instead, I listened to the many programs that NPR and MPR had to offer.

    Two of my absolute favorites were This American Life and Car Talk. Oftentimes, I would find myself in a parking lot listening to Ira Glass as the episode he was doing had me hooked and I couldn't even get out of my car to buy groceries.

    My senior year of college found me looking up TAL episodes online and using Total Recorder to compress the Real Audio feeds directly to MP3. Was I stealing from TAL? I didn't really feel like it, I was a poor college student and I had heard the program on the radio--I just wanted it on my computer to listen to it time after time.

    I'll never forget the time I heard the two part series of Come Back to Afghanistan and it's sequel. What really happened and is happening in Afghanistan never hit home until I heard it through the voice of a young teenager named Hyder Akbar.

    I have made a few contributions to NPR since I've graduated but I can see where they'd be strapped financially. I think NPR could take advantage of the modern media formats that all of us seek. I have purchased Car Talk CDs and I'd purchase TAL CDs too. Even more importantly, I'd be more than willing to pay a dollar through iTunes or Napster or whatever service you choose to have a random episode of TAL or Car Talk on my MP3 player. They seem to have the audio book version of Poultry Slam but not every episode, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't have any kind of service to check on hand.

  14. NPR on Audible by tfinniga · · Score: 4, Informative · on Podcasting Goes Pay-to-Play

    You've been able to subscribe to NPR podcasts on Audible for quite a while - before the term podcast was widespread anyway. Recently, a few good ones like "Wait wait, don't tell me" have become free via sponsors, while others like "This American Life" are still only available for download for a fee (streaming is free).

  15. Community of Crackpots by americanatavist · · Score: 1 · on No Time Travel, Sorry

    I'm sure many of you agree that Louis Savain is just one of many crackpots that have just enough information to be completely wrong in a more spectacular way than the average person. There was a very relevant story from the NPR show This American Life. It's about people like Mr. Savain who have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. You can find the show archive at http://www.thislife.org/pages/archives/archive05.h tml. The episode concerned is #293 "A Little Bit of Knowledge".

  16. 100% honesty by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Brain Scans to Identify Liars?

    Last summer, there was as a piece on This American Life about a man going through a lie detector test as part of the process of obtaining a security clearance. Everything went fine until they started asking about child pornography. The guy freely admitted that he looked at porn, but he conceded that at some point, inadvertently during one of his porn viewing sessions there might have been an under aged person in one of the pictures. He didn't know for sure either way, but since he suspected that it was probable that in all the pornographic pictures he's seen an underage person was present at some point, he couldn't answer the question "Have you ever looked at child pornography?" with a definite "no", and in the end received no clearance and had answered questions in such a way that made him out to be a pedophile, despite the fact that the worst thing he did was look at porn too much.

    The problem with a purely 100% accurate 'truth telling' system is that it's too easy to neglect to measure intent or look at grey areas, especially when one freely admits to a minor infringement of the law or policy which put them inadvertently in a worst position. For example, in my younger days, from 1992 to 1996 I used to smoke marijuana on a pretty regular basis. I don't think it's a bad thing, and even though I don't do it anymore (I just don't feel like it) I have no issues with telling anyone who asks about it. Despite it being against the law, I don't see it any more dangerous then exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph or jaywalking.

    However, nearly 7 years ago I returned to my apartment one night from a particularly difficult day at work. One of my neighbors offered me a pipe of what I assumed was marijuana, which I accepted. I took a long draw on it, and noticed it didn't taste anything like what I was used to (and for that matter, didn't look right burning in the bowl). I said to my neighbor 'this is some really weird weed', to which he replied 'It's not weed, it's crack'. I don't even know if it got me 'high', I was so pissed off. I spent the next 4 or 5 hours in a fit of rage walking around the block. I never spoke to that neighbor again. To me, this was a big deal.

    And now, if somebody put me through any 'truth' machine, and asked me about drug use, I'd have to say that I have, in fact, smoked crack. A device like this combined with specifically directed questions could easily paint me as a real junky, even though I'm not and I have some pretty strong feelings about the harder, more dangerous drugs like cocaine or heroin, and even though I haven't smoked (nor have desired to smoke) marijuana in over two years.

    I would hope, though suspect that it won't come to pass, that certain measures would be put in place that would look at intent or degree before reaching a conclusion. If I was asked 'have you ever stolen anything', the answer would be yes. 26 years ago, when I was 5 years old, I took a matchbox car from a local supermarket without paying for it. I still feel guilty about it, and haven't stolen anything since. If absolutes were used and I was obliged to be completely honest, I'd end up being thief in addition to being a junky.

    No man or woman is compleatly without sin, and without looking at intent a machine like this could be used to make anyone look like a monster.

  17. Re:When did you start attending church? by prell · · Score: 1 · on Federal Judge Rules Against Intelligent Design

    I agree. I found it very hard to give up christianity, but I have to say it was mostly out of fear of going to hell (and it can't be any easier now, with people who don't believe in hell being labeled heretics). Few things in life can be said to be free of influence (which is why you must be mindful, which is one reason I'm Buddhist, and incidentally, Buddhism requires little or no beliefs other than faith in the goodness of your teacher and the teachings). People "think" or "believe," without ever really having made a conscious choice to do so. I think that's bad, and I worry about that when it comes time to raise kids.

  18. Re:Car talk by Paul+Slocum · · Score: 1 · on Network TV Downloadable Via iTunes

    And you can easily convert it to an mp3 with Total Recorder.

    I tried buying a subscription to This American Life through audible.com, but the quality was like bad AM radio (when it was advertised as FM quality) and it was DRM'd so I had to use Total Recorder anyway to get it to work on my mp3 player. I found that the free RealPlayer stream was actually significantly better quality than the audible.com version! So I donate my money directly to TAL, rip from their RealPlayer streams, and cut out the middle man.

  19. TAL by CGP314 · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Where New Tech Should Libraries Try Next?

    Rock Concerts!


    -Colin

  20. EFF makes me happy. by E14577441 · · Score: 0 · on EFF Weighs in on Computer Privacy Case

    The EFF is a light in a dark wilderness. How amazing that a group of people so talented, experienced, and dedicated to digital liberty can come together and accomplish so much. Episode #74 of This American Life features EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow's touching account of a romance that blossomed between him and a wonderful woman he met at a convention. (Computer geeks take heed... play this story for a girl you fancy and see if it softens her heart.)

  21. EFF makes me happy. by E14577441 · · Score: 0 · on EFF Weighs in on Computer Privacy Case

    The EFF is a light in a dark wilderness. How amazing that a group of people so talented, experienced, and dedicated to digital liberty can come together and accomplish so much. Episode #74 of This American Life features EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow's touching account of a romance that blossomed between him and a wonderful woman he met at a convention. (Computer geeks take heed... play this story for a girl you fancy and see if it softens her heart.)

  22. Re:nothing's better.. by odano · · Score: 1 · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    Not What I Meant and Arms Trader are really good stories related to post 9/11 terrorism investigations.

  23. Re:nothing's better.. by odano · · Score: 1 · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    Not What I Meant and Arms Trader are really good stories related to post 9/11 terrorism investigations.

  24. A few suggestions. by munpfazy · · Score: 1 · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    The Jean Shepherd Archive has hundreds of hours of unrestricted downloadable audio collected by fans over the years:
    http://shep-archives.com/

    Some other sources of unrestricted material:

    Transom public radio workshop/showcase:
    http://www.transom.org/

    Archive.org has some good audio.
    http://www.archive.org/

    Benjamin Walker's site:
    http://toeradio.org/

    Cook'd and Bomb'd - Chris Morris site. Hunt around for mirrors that have archived radio programs. (The Blue Jam series is my personal favorite.)
    http://chilled.cream.org/

    If you don't mind downloading material that's not supposed to be available for download (most easily done using mplayer, I find), then there are plenty of radio offerings. I'm a public radio junkie, and usually stock up on a few dozen shows before taking a long trip. Among my favorites:

    Joe Frank. The greatest radio artist in the history of, well, radio artistry. (Subscription costs $10/mo, but is well worth it.)
    http://joefrank.com/

    This American Life. (free)
    http://thislife.org/

    Fresh Air. (free, but a pain in the ass to navigate)
    http://freshair.npr.org/

  25. Re:nothing's better.. by cjsnell · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?


    Oh, and how can I forget? Should I Stay or Should I Go?, the story of two Apple Computer employees who are laid off when their project is cancelled but continue to show up to work everyday, sneaking in the door and hiding out in unused conference rooms, in order to complete their project.

  26. Re:nothing's better.. by cjsnell · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?


    The parent poster beat me to it. I highly recommend episodes of T.A.L. Depending on what OS you run, there are many options for transcoding these to MP3.

    Here are some of my favorite episodes:

    Telephone - Dad suspects that his child is using drugs. He secretly taps his son's phone line and is amazed at what he hears.

    The Middle of Nowhere - The chronicle of a T.A.L. producer's fight with MCI to get a $950 overcharge reversed. Plus, the tiny island nation of Nauru and it's nefarious global reach.

    Teenage Embed, Part 1 and Teenage Embed, Part 2. A Californian teenager of Afghan heritage travels to Afghanistan with his dad, who works for President Hamid Karzai. Fascinating.

    Somewhere in the Arabian Sea - A week aboard the US aircraft carrier, USS John C. Stennis, during Operation Enduring Freedom.

    The First Day - Itenerant pot-scrubber, "Dishwasher Pete", takes a job aboard an offshore drilling platform and prepares for the worst.

    Backed Into a Corner - Quizno's employee runs store for a month after the owners vanish. Also, a great story about a truck driver who cannot read.

  27. Re:This American Life by JeffHunt · · Score: 1 · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    You can download RealAudio episodes of This American Life for free, from http://www.thislife.org/

  28. nothing's better.. by thefirelane · · Score: 2, Informative · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    Anyone who's heard at least one episode knows the best answer:

    This American Life

    There are episodes available on iTunes (too expensive though), and free real episodes on their site which could be converted. Listen to some of their best, it is the greatest thing there is for long drives

  29. This American Life by sneakers563 · · Score: 4, Informative · on Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

    My favorite "story" radio show is This American Life. You can download the shows from Audible for a fee, or, if you're using Linux, you could use something like VSound to get them for free.

  30. Re:Bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Ethanol More Trouble Than It's Worth?

    There was an excellent program about ADM's price fixing case. This American Life http://thislife.org/pages/descriptions/00/168.html

  31. Re:Bah by RoscoP · · Score: 1 · on Ethanol More Trouble Than It's Worth?

    There is even an American Life episode about the informant that helped bust ADM. http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/00/168. html

  32. Re:Bah by bobdinkel · · Score: 3, Informative · on Ethanol More Trouble Than It's Worth?

    There was also a really insteresting story involving ADM corruption on This American Life. Worth checking out.

  33. But you really CAN become a superhero by bratboy · · Score: 1 · on How to Become A Real-World Superhero
    Just check out the "Superpowers" episode (#178) at This American Life, and you'll see that it actually IS within your reach. This is one of their best episodes of all time.

    daniel

  34. Real Life Superhero by bartle · · Score: 4, Interesting · on How to Become A Real-World Superhero
    Anyone who's interested in whether it would actually be possible to become a superhero would probably enjoy this episode of This American Life.

    The second act discusses the life of a woman who named herself Zora and decided to, from an early age, learn all the skills needed to become a comic book style superhero. She achieves her goals but then learns that there are very few job opportunities that require all the skills that she now possesses. It's well worth listening to.

  35. Re:Not everyone has (or wants) a cell phone by sneakers563 · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Bill Gates: Cellphone will Beat iPod
    I totally agree with you wrt the accessibility thing.

    However, the real problem with not having a cell phone is that (in the US, anyway) everyone assumes you have a cell phone, and so fewer and fewer pay phones are available anymore. Your six odd years sans-breakdown aside (don't know the driving age in Canada), there *will* be times when you need to get in touch with someone.

    For example, what if you find yourself trapped upside down in your car?

  36. Nothing New by spamguy · · Score: 1 · on Joke-e-oke Makes You a Comedian
    This, in my understanding, is nothing new. As in, they existed c. 1991. A This American Life episode featured comic routines on Karaoke machines. The episode in question can be listened to here...go to Act One.

    The routines available for play were collecting dust, with jokes so obsolete they were sometimes offensive. This segment is worth a listen just to hear the narrator crash and burn as he kills his routine.

  37. It's been done by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3, Informative · on Joke-e-oke Makes You a Comedian

    Listen to the second segment from this This American Life show for a good illustration of what can go wrong.

  38. This American Life, KCRW by UniAce · · Score: 1 · on Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute?
    "This American Life" is an excellent program distributed by Public Radio International. Episodes can be downloaded (for a cost) at Audible.com.

    Local Los Angeles radio station KCRW does podcasting now, and they've got some great in-house shows, like "Left, Right, and Center," and "To the Point with Warren Olney."

  39. NPR! by bhorling · · Score: 1 · on Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute?

    NPR has lots of great shows online. You can grab them with a stream ripper or similar (if you use a Mac, Audio Hijack works). In particular, I'd recommend Talk of the Nation: Science Friday and This American Life.

  40. Public Radio International's lineup of shows by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Informative · on Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute?

    Check out the offerings distributed by Public Radio International. The archives of many of their shows are available to listen to for free. Specifically, check out This American Life , To the Best of Our Knowledge , and Sound & Spirit . If you're able to record these shows from the archives (using some sort of scheduled stream-ripper like iRecordMusic or WireTap Pro), or purchase them (through Audible or ITMS), they can make an hour-long commute feel like mere minutes.

    And for your Monday morning commute, make sure you've got the latest installment of Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! , the NPR news quiz.

  41. Any low bandwidth realaudio can be streamed by petree · · Score: 2, Informative · on Virgin Radio Launches 3G Radio Service

    This sounds like a lot of hype for something that's out there for symbian phone owners already. With an unlimited data plan in hand, download RealOne for Symbian, find your favorite station that streams using RealAudio (BBC has more than a dozen plus world service in 43 languages) and go.

    My favorite is listening to This American Life...I'll be honest, my Nokia 3650 only supports 16khz/8bit/mono, but it's certainly listenable...if only I had an adapter between the the headset port and a 1/8" jack, then I could use it with my car stereo.

  42. Re:What I'd prefer anyway is PodCasting via iTunes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Sirius Confirms iPod Satellite Talks

    Some radio programs do this.. Phil Hendrie for a monthly fee gives you access to all his shows.

    You can download the latest one for free as an mp3, real, or WMA

    I also download This American Life with HiDownload and then RM to MP3 ripper

  43. Re:No idea by anagama · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Real Pays For Legal MP3 Playback On Linux


    I'll admit to being a Real skeptic, but ... I use RP10 for one purpose: This American Life. Despite being a skeptic, I must say that RP10 takes up little screen space, has nice controls, and I've never been subjected to any ads.

  44. EFF makes me happy. by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Interesting · on EFF Promotes Freenet-like System Tor

    The EFF is a light in a dark wilderness. How amazing that a group of people so talented, experienced, and dedicated to digital liberty can come together and accomplish so much. Episode #74 of This American Life features EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow's touching account of a romance that blossomed between him and a wonderful woman he met at a convention. (Computer geeks take heed... play this story for a girl you fancy and see if it softens her heart.)

  45. EFF makes me happy. by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Interesting · on EFF Promotes Freenet-like System Tor

    The EFF is a light in a dark wilderness. How amazing that a group of people so talented, experienced, and dedicated to digital liberty can come together and accomplish so much. Episode #74 of This American Life features EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow's touching account of a romance that blossomed between him and a wonderful woman he met at a convention. (Computer geeks take heed... play this story for a girl you fancy and see if it softens her heart.)

  46. How do you know? by waldoj · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Buggy Voting Machines

    Folks its time to move on. George Bush did not win because of some evil Diebold exec or magical vote changing election booths. He won because over 61 million Americans pulled the lever for him.

    Erm. How do you know that? I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with you, I'd just like to know what special information that you have access to that, say, the New York Times doesn't? If you've got some sort of audit logs from all of the voting machines, please, by all means, share with the GAO.

    This election was a mess not because of evil Republican voting machines but because people were paid (some in crack) to register voters which brought in fraudulent voter registrations.

    I call bullshit. There two -- two -- known incidents of people being registered fraudulently, according to the Republican National Committee Vote Fraud group. (Listen to This American Life's November 1 episode, "Swing Set," Act 2, which is 21:10 into the episode.) Not only were both of these committed by petty criminals paid by the registrant to sign up voters (that is, it was not systemic, just a pair of dopes), but it doesn't matter, since there is, in fact, no way for Mary Poppins to show up and vote. The other case was a Colorado man who registered 35 times. He can only vote once, as you can imagine, so, again, it doesn't matter.

    Your implication that there is any parity between two isolated incidents of greedy workers signing up people wrongly and the massive, jail-time-yielding Republican work to suppress the vote or, worse still, systemic Diebold/ES&S fraud is well beyond ludicrous; it is, simply, stupid, and I am embarrassed on your behalf, because it seems that you don't have the good sense to be embarrassed for yourself.

    -Waldo Jaquith

  47. Re:Online version by oakbox · · Score: 1 · on Australian Counter Strike Shooters

    There isn't really a good 'automatic' interpretation of what the results mean. (Actually, there is, but the Non Disclosure Agreement I had to sign forbids me from mentioning that there IS a good expert system). I can tell you that 18 statements are broken down into 2 groups of nines are broken into 3 groups of 3.

    The 3 'Axis' looked at by the tests are 'Intrinsic', 'Extrinisic', and 'Systemic'. And then it looks at the combinations. "I-E", "I-I", "I-S", "E-I","E-E","E-S" ...

    You get information from the test by seeing how the candidate's ordering of the 18 statements varies from the 'Real' ordering of the 18 statements. You see which statements were moved, how far, and in what direction. Based on that, you can tell which parts of a person's value system is unbalanced. The unbalance might be very minimal (you're mostly normal, move along), the unbalance might be substantial but symmetric (your values might be off the norm, but they are structured in a sensible logical way), the unbalance might be substantial and unstructured (which probably means that you don't see the appropriate relationships between action and results).

    Because the test is divided into three areas, the results talk about balance, symmetry, and values in all of the areas and how those areas relate with each other. AND THAT'S JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE of what information you can get out of these things. Hartman won a Nobel Prize for this work (I think in '73) and the people who specialize in this work (Axiological Theory) are still discovering things that the tests are saying. It's fascinating stuff, but super complex. I've been programming a system around this for 3 years and I still don't *understand* a lot of this information.

    Oh! I just remembered that there was a piece about Hartman on the radio program This American Life in the spring of 2003, I think.

  48. ThisLife.org's coverage of voter fraud by The+I+Shing · · Score: 1 · on Election Day Discussion

    They do cover both sides but the coverage is heavily tilted against Republicans.

    ThisLife.org

    Click on the RealAudio icon in the bluish box entitled In this show, a This American Life Special Report: Vote Fraud.

  49. Listen to a story of Mayor Harold Washington by Wohali · · Score: 0, Flamebait · on Chicago Pondering Huge Camera Network

    Perhaps one of the most beautiful programs to come out of NPR, This American Life did a fantastic bit about how people of all backgrounds in Chicago reacted to former Mayor Harold Washington.

    Read & listen to the program at http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/97/84.h tml

    My father was on duty at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital ER when he came in on a stretcher; apparently, he was DOA, there was no obvious foul play. He'd been sick for years. Too bad, the guy really got things done. "Even though he was black." (Listen to the program.)

  50. I'm from the Private Sector, and I'm here to help by pancake_lover · · Score: 5, Informative · on Networking in the Danger Zone?

    This American Life (on NPR) ran a pretty good documentary on this subject a few weeks back. It's available in Realaudio format on the web. It's an hour long though. The archive page is Here. Or go to the audio directly.