Slashdot Mirror

You remind me of this. And maybe everyone should walk around with a GPS recorder everyday, so that we know where you went. Oh - you're opposed? You must have something to hide! Are you a terrorist?

As the police rely on DNA more and more, they stop performing thorough criminal investigations. And it is a slippery slope: do you start using DNA evidence to catch the guy who's only crime was to spit gum on the street? If this doesn't give you pause, then I hope you enjoy the fruits of such an environment.

So basically you're saying 28 Days Later is Alf on the big screen?

The angry, disrespectful Bill Gates is the real Bill Gates. He once threw a tantrum in front of several Time Magazine editors, who reported it in the next issue of the magazine. There were stories in many publications giving examples of VERY immature behavior.

However, Mr. Gates was persuaded to hire Waggener Edstrom, a public relations company. Pam Edstrom helped him create a new image. Pam somehow got Mr. Gates to take showers, wear good clothes, and stop having public tantrums. She arranged carefully scripted interviews, so that Mr. Gates' real self is never seen now.

Waggener Edstrom is in Portland, Oregon, USA, and a local newspaper, Willamette Week, reported the Gates-Edstrom connection. However, the article is available as a paper copy only.

Public relations firms are extremely successful at influencing media companies. There is a reference to this in a Willamette Week story in which someone suggested that Pam Edstrom heavily influenced the Oregonian newspaper not to print stories that Microsoft pays no taxes. (Search for "Edstrom".)

The angry, disrespectful Bill Gates is the real Bill Gates. He once threw a tantrum in front of several Time Magazine editors, who reported it in the next issue of the magazine. There were stories in many publications giving examples of VERY immature behavior.

However, Mr. Gates was persuaded to hire Waggener Edstrom, a public relations company. Pam Edstrom helped him create a new image. Pam somehow got Mr. Gates to take showers, wear good clothes, and stop having public tantrums. She arranged carefully scripted interviews, so that Mr. Gates' real self is never seen now.

Waggener Edstrom is in Portland, Oregon, USA, and a local newspaper, Willamette Week, reported the Gates-Edstrom connection. However, the article is available as a paper copy only.

Public relations firms are extremely successful at influencing media companies. There is a reference to this in a Willamette Week story in which someone suggested that Pam Edstrom heavily influenced the Oregonian newspaper not to print stories that Microsoft pays no taxes. (Search for "Edstrom".)

Just found the news article, still no luck with the story on slashdot

Williamette Week has posted a followup story Garbage Chronicles.

In short:

• The Mayor has not commented further on her threat of legal action
• There was a ruling in Oregon, currently under appeal, that garbage is not public property
• Santa bought the Multnomah County DA a shredder for Christmas. He agrees "that dumpster-diving can be a gold mine"
• The police chief has reaffirmed "that none of us should have an expectation of privacy when we put out our trash"

If police cameras watch us, shouldn't we be able to watch police stations?

It's perfectly reasonable to question how many people will ever read these blogs (aside from those who are already fully on board the movement). It may be preaching to the choir, but it could also be used as an effective alert system to get "the choir" quickly to the site of illegal action.

I'm sure their will also be a couple members of the more mainstream alternative media (folks like Willamette Week, or even Harper's) who will spread some of the better stuff to the general public.

Possibly a poor choice of examples. Anheuser-Busch actually does claim to have exclusive rights to use the word words "king" and "kings" when referring to beer in the United States. They smacked-down a beer store in Oregon this year for using the phrase "Beer of Kings" in a advertisement. As the market owner puts it in the article, "Basically, she [AB's rep] told me that anything to do with beer and kings, they owned".

(In Europe, "Beer of Kings" is actually the centuries-old slogan of Budjovick Budvar N.P, the Czech brewery that Anheuser-Busch stole the name from in 1876. Budvar didn't officially give AB permission until 1911, meaning Anheuser-Busch built its empire on trademark infringement. It's a small irony, but a painful one.)

She muddled the definition of censorship somewhat, saying that "[s]ome critics confuse censorship, which is imposed by the government, with technology that a family or school can choose to use and then set to implement an individual policy." Our school system isn't a part of the government?

To censor, according to my dictionary, is "to examine an expurgate". Expurgate, in turn, means "to remove obscene, objectionable, or erroneous material from prior to publication."

Generally only a government has the power to do this (by passing laws making a things illegal). One store refusing to carry a certain magazine does NOT count as censorship, even if some liberal media wants to call it that. Neither, I would argue, does a library refusing to allow certain websites.

It's still not a good idea, but I, personally, don't think it's the same as censorship. The information is still allowed to exist; you just have to go through alternate means to see it.