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 Thursday, June 26, 2003
Are you David Nelson? 'It seems that a glitch in US airport security is causing headaches for men named "David Nelson." For some unknown reason (supposedly if "they" discussed the matter it would breach security) security computers give a "no fly" or "potential terrorist" warning whenever someone named David Nelson attempts to board an airliner. My favorite workaround: (David Nelson) was stopped in February while flying with his family to Florida for a cruise. The airlines solved the problem for the return trip by making a simple name change. Nelson David passed through security without a hitch.' [kuro5hin.org] [Universal Rule]
So, if a terrorist wantes to get around the US, all he needs to do is use the name David Nelson, right? Since every airport knows that this is a database glitch, they will simply let him through. This is the problme with relying on databases so much. They get corrupted and then people juts ignore them. 11:23:15 PM 
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Lessig/Eldred Bill Seeks To Loosen Copyright Law's Grip. Okay, I've been proven wrong. With all the hype that went into Larry Lessig's petition to change copyright law, I thought most politicians would see it as a bunch of geeks protesting nothing. However, today, Lessig-friendly Congressional representatives Zoe Lofgren and John Doolittle have (extraordinarily quickly) introduced exactly the legislation Lessig wanted. I'm impressed and happy to be wrong in this instance. The bill is called the Public Domain Enhancement Act and will require anyone who owns a copyright that is over 50 years old to pay a $1 fee, to avoid having it fall into the public domain. If the owner fails to pay the fee, the works go into the public domain. This means that Disney can pay out a buck, and keep control of Mickey Mouse, but the majority of other works that received copyrights back then, which are now out of print or out of circulation completely, would enter the public domain. The more I think about this law, the more sense it makes (I wasn't so sure at first, I'll admit). The only one in the article here who complains is (of course) the MPAA, who has clearly misunderstood the bill. They say that it will actually harm consumers, because any works that fall into the public domain no one has any incentive to do anything with them. Yeah, you can't make a dime off of Shakespeare any more, can you? Oh wait, how many movies in the last few years were simply remakes of Shakespearian stories? Anyway, the point is that the works that would fall into the public domain are ones that no one is promoting anyway - so to suggest that this law makes them less likely to be promoted is ridiculous.
[Techdirt]
This is good news. At least it got introduced. I'll be ecstatic if it gets further and ever becomes law. It is just too common-sensical to actually make it through our current governmental makeup. 10:59:28 PM
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Winning Value Proposition. Fortune writes about six steps to boost business - by focussing on what customers want. Simple lessons that we tend to overlook many times.
Step 1: Figure out the needs of your most profitable customers
Step 2: Get creative
Step 3: Test and verify your hypotheses
Step 4: Tell customers how great your value propositions are
Step 5: Apply the best value propositions on a large scale
Step 6: Begin anew
[E M E R G I C . o r g]"QB
Something to remeber, if I am to get clients. 10:42:12 PM
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I read Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit because in many ways it demonstares the disconnect between many of today's problems and the standard political spectrum we try to put people into. Glenn is much more conservative than I but we have some substantial overlap in our opinions, particularly on the approach of government to new technologies. He links here to a scary article that details the Secret Service's approach to Free Speech. If you agree with the President, you get to stand next to him. If you simply hold a sign up protesting his policies, you have to move to a special zone far away from him. If not, you can be charged with a Federal offense. Not for screaming at the President or creating a fuss in any way. Simply because the content of your poster is 'wrong'. And this man will not be able to get a jury trial! Unbelievable. You know the Supreme Court will eventually stop this but in the meantime, the Secret Service will be able intimidate anyone who might want to voice an opposing viewpoint. This does not really make the President any safer and only reduces our Constitutional rights further. I expect that a lot of people will now test this policy. 7:53:06 AM
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In the same press release announcing its new TV sp .... In the same press release announcing its new TV spot, PLoS announces that Representative Martin O. Sabo (D-MN) "is drafting legislation that would put publications describing research substantially funded by taxpayer dollars into the public domain." Quoting Sabo: "This is a good idea whose time is overdue. We only progress as a society when research is available to all of our best minds at any time. Citizens should have access to publicly-funded research anytime." I'll report more details on this legislation as I learn them. So far, Sabo's web site is silent on the subject. [FOS News]
This is a great idea but I have a hard time seeing it passed. The copyright holders, in this case the journals since they almost all require the authors to give up copyrights as a condition for publication, will put up a huge fight. 7:23:00 AM
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No Justice in the World. I have been to the corner of Moose and Squirrel Streets in Banff, Alberta, Canada. I was distressed and desolated to find that there was no sign of the International Headquarters of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club there.
Clearly there is no justice in this world. [Semi-Daily Journal]
Perhaps in Frostbite Falls? 12:19:50 AM
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Law Experts Say Terror Trial Rules Unfair. Many legal experts have declared that the rules for proposed military tribunals are unfair and stacked in favor of the prosecution. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Wolfowitz to be in Charge of Military Tribunals. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz will be in charge of military tribunals, CNN reports. Rumsfeld has delegated his authority. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Enemy Combatant Charge Marks Policy Change. The Bush Administration's decision to drop a federal criminal action against Qatari student Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri one month before his trial, and transfer him to military custody in a South Carolina brig where he awaits a decision as to whether he will be tried in a military tribunal proceeding, marks a change in Administration polic, according to Administrative officials and experts. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
The executive branch determines who is an enemy combantant, then gets to use rules of its own making, rules that go against hundreds of years of common law, in order to get the verdict it wants. It can do this any time it choses. even though the government has said it is unethical to threaten someone with enemy combatant status in order to get a plea, we still have senior FBI officials bringing it up. Fear IS the mind killer. Without checks and balances, what is to stop this before abuses occur? Without outside review, how are we to know what is really happening? This is begining to look more and more like Animal Farm. 12:09:22 AM
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Community, creativity, and the metaphors of political life. Over the past few days I?ve had acute experiences of community?both positive and negative. To me community starts with individual relationships. Community is when love flows, and we are able to share our differences with humor and acceptance. We see?no, we feel, the essential goodness and lovableness of the other person. There is a virtuous cycle in this sort of community. Acceptance and humor allows each of us to manifest our inner artist, our creative, humorous, high selves. This in turn feeds the sense of play and adventure and satisfaction in community?in being together. And unleashes even more love and acceptance and delight. ... [Jim Moore's cybernetics, politics, emergence, etc.]
Read all of Jim's long missive. While not exactly a manifesto of another approach, it is reaching for the same result. The Republican/strict parent:Democrat/nurturing parent dichotomy is failing to solve the country's problems. Neither is very effective in a world of rapid change. We may figure this out yet. 12:00:13 AM
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