Thursday, June 24, 2004

CauseNET - E-mail From Common Cause on Media Concentration CauseNET for June 24, 2004 With the help of all of you who care deeply about diverse and dynamic media in America, we have landed a decisive blow in beating back the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A federal court on Thursday ordered the FCC to redo many of the controversial media ownership rules it passed last June. In addition, the court strongly criticized the agency's methods for arriving at its conclusions in justifying increased media concentration. Under the ruling, the FCC will have to revisit the legal framework it operated under, and begin its deliberations anew. We will work to encourage the FCC to conduct a more public and inclusive process than it did last June as it considers any new rule changes. Last year, the FCC held only one official public hearing in Richmond, Virginia and did not make public the proposed rule changes until shortly before it voted on them. The public had very little time to review the rules and provide input. The court's decision offers a stinging rebuke to the FCC's disregard for public participation in the rulemaking process, and underscores the importance of true media diversity. It also gives us another chance to work for real reform and to oppose media concentration as the FCC reconsiders its ruling under the court?s new direction. Earlier this week, in another victory for media reform, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) won approval for an amendment to a defense authorization bill that would completely repeal the June 2nd rules. Common Cause and other reform groups will be working to make sure that the amendment is not stripped out of the defense department authorization bill when the House and Senate meet in conference to resolve the difference on their respective defense bills. Thanks to all of you for your hard work. This is a big victory! Special thanks and congratulations to our colleagues at the Media Access Project (MAP) who led the court battle! And please forward this great news to friends and family! 7:47:44 PM

Bountiful RSS Syndication Intro to RSS. Here's a great introduction to RSS. Covers RSS, feed readers, and how to find a feed. [Sun Bloggers] 7:37:16 PM

Leonardo The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Finishing out the happenstance grouping, another recently inaugurated page-a-day'er is The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. It's actually geared more to RSS readers, but on the web, you can begin at Page 1, for a start. [Irregular Orbit] 7:24:05 PM

Is it True? CEO's for Kerry??? Iacocca ditches Bush for Kerry [Salon.com] 7:21:04 PM

Hanging With the Tragically Hip Hanging with The Tragically Hip. Last night I had the privilege of seeing the Hip play at the Whiskey club in Calgary. They are doing a small club tour across Canada to launch their new album, In Between Evolution. Pics can be found here [ note: This is my wife's website. It uses SiteMesh to paint all the standard headers, footers, etc. - but it messes up the formatting a bit] This was also my first chance to try out my new toy, a Fuji S7000 digital camera. Given the dark lighting, I was pretty happy with the results. The hip have a pretty cool attitude towards making bootleg tapes (for some concerts they even let fans bring in mike stands). Because the new album was not yet released they didnt want video cameras, but security was pretty lax and you probably could have gotten away with it. The new songs are great, and I think hip fans will be pleased. Gord plays a lot of acoustic guitar on the new stuff (he seems to be doing more of this lately). Of course the real fun is watching him dance like a possessed rag doll. They played a good mix of old time favorites as well, including: New Orleans Gift Shop Courage Music@Work Nautical Disaster (my all time favorite) It's a good life if you don't weaken Silver Jet 100th Meridian Locked in the Trunk of a Car Two Thumbs way up! [Sun Bloggers] 6:41:31 PM

Michael Graves An elite architect thrives on a common touch. PRINCETON, N.J. -- Michael Graves has designed everything from the scaffolding on the Washington Monument to the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel. But, in the non-architectural world, he's probably best known as the man who democratized design. [Boston Globe -- Living / Arts News] 7:23:57 AM