Fourteen out of Fourteen?

Reader-Submitted: Bush "Pioneer" Causes Blackout. The President of the Ohio company that caused this week's massive power failure is a major Republican donor, a Bush "pioneer," and also a member of Bush's transition energy team. Coincidence? [Morons Dot Org]

Always follow the money. Favoring corporations to the detriment of citizens is number 9 on the list of 14 common threads found in fascist governments. The article certainly makes for interesting reading and a nice jump-off point for a discussion of the current state of politics in the US [grin].  11:38:50 PM    

How do we stand for that?

Lessons in How to Lie About Iraq... (Brian Eno). Lessons in How to Lie About Iraq... (Brian Eno) [Common Dreams]

I think that the movie Wag The Dog will be as revealing of the failures of American democracy - when public opinion can be cynically manipulated - as Animal Farm was of failures of communism. Both lead to fascist states. When the people are prevented from seeing the workings of their elected officials, when they are lied to and misled about government policy, when obfuscation is a reason for promotion rather than removal, when the name given to a program is more important than how much money is actually appropriated, then democracy is, at best, ill-served and, at worst, destroyed.

I expect that these times will be looked at 50 years hence with the same sort of 'How could they stand for that?' that most of us feel when we find out that many African-Americans could not travel freely in the early half of the last century or had to enter a movie theatre through a separate entrance or had to use a separate water fountain. We can look at the photos documenting this. The ability of any citizen to freely travel this country or to get a bite to eat where they wish is really only 40 years old or so. 'How did they stand for that?' Worlds change and I feel that the approach taken by the neocons will be a loser in the long run. It is how much damage that can be done in the short run that scares me.  10:39:04 PM    

SCO's proof bogus, Linux advocate says. LAS VEGAS -- The first publicly released sample that The SCO Group Inc. claims was improperly added to the Linux source code has every right to be in Linux, according to open-source advocate Bruce Perens. [InfoWorld: Top News]

I love it. The only sample of disputed code that has made it out not under a Non-Disclosure Agreement and it is easily shown to be perfectly fine with no infringement. SCO will only let people see the code if they sign an NDA. But if you do, you can't go around showing how bogus their claims might be. They have not let people see what sections of the code belong to them. Probably because too much of it would be shown to be as weak as this one was. I love it when their response is 'It's his word against ours.' Sounds like a good scam if you can make people pay for a license they really do not need. Must be some very sharp lawyers (of the parasitic variety) involved.  9:37:24 PM    

School should not start until 9

Snack breakfasts slow the brain. Children who miss proper breakfasts in favour of sugary snacks end up with the reaction times of pensioners, say researchers. [BBC News | Health | World Edition]

Well, I have a son who is like his mother - he does not want to eat a normal breakfast until about 9 AM. School starts much earlier than that so getting anything into his system is difficult. An Eggo and some milk is about it most days, if I am llucky, since he is barely functional until he wakes up. I, on the other hand, love big breakfasts and wake up pretty fast. I wonder if that is linked in any way?  9:29:50 PM    

Experts probe 'milder Sars'. A mild illness which has swept through a nursing home in Canada may have been caused by a new version of the Sars virus. [BBC News | Health | World Edition]

Waiting to find out if it is a mutated form of the SARS coronavirus. Keep an eye out for the news. If it is, then we may gain some clues very rapidly to why SARS is so deadly and this form is not.  9:25:07 PM    

Dirty Secrets [TOMPAINE.com - Features]"QB

We just had to put up with more photo ops for Bush, as he pushed his wonderful environmental record up here. This article puts his administration's cynical approach to the environment into perspective.  9:21:29 PM    

Despite mixed lab record, biometrics boosters say technology is ready. San Francisco Chronicle Aug 23 2003 12:40PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

U.S. demanding biometric technology in passports, world may not be ready. San Francisco Chronicle Aug 23 2003 12:40PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

This two items point out a potential time bomb in world travel that has about a year to explode. Let's see, we have 400 million immigration inspections a year. Combining facial recognition and fingerprints gets us 90 percent success rate, leavinga 10 percent failute. Ten percent of 40 million people who be subject to a more detailed inspection, whatever that is. And they think this will onladd a few seconds to the immigration process! I love the fact that the US is mandating this for everyone else but may not make the deadline for its own passports. The billions of dollars to pay for this technology, that can be overcome with a beard or a bandage, could be better spent on many other areas that would actually provide some real protection, like a better power grid, for example.  8:56:36 PM    

Palm, Others May Violate Patent On Credit Card Sized Devices. Yet another example of anti-innovation patent decisions. A holding company named E-Pass has a patent for a "credit card-sized computer" that holds secure information. How is that possibly patentable? I have no idea. Basically, it's a patent for the idea that computers will get smaller and still be able to do what bigger computers do. That's not non-obvious at all. The patent holder brought suit against 3Com when they owned Palm - but it was thrown on because the Palm device is larger than a credit card. Now, an appeals judge has ruled that the Palm and other handhelds are covered by the patent. Actually, I agree that the patent shouldn't be based on the "size" of the device. Basically, as long as you kept the device any size other than credit card-sized you would be okay. However, the patent itself seems ridiculous. And, once again, it's being held by a company that isn't actually trying to do anything or innovate - but just to sue everyone they possibly can. [Techdirt]

Another example of how patents just do not work well with high tech. Similar things are seen in biotech. How in the world can you patent a gene sequence? Many times we were prevented by the legal guys from trying to identify a receptor protein because someone else MIGHT have submitted a patent for the cytokine that bound to the receptor. We did not know if there was a patent or whether it would toun out to be valid. We were not working on the cytokine but in the protein that binds it. But patent law was being used to prevent us from touching anything that might involve the cytokine in any way. And you can patent just parts of genes now. I expect patent lawyers to make a lot of money until this gets sorted out.  8:25:14 PM