Thursday, 4 September 2003

Regarding the Real Map of Europe I tried to pronounce all of the names and failed miserably.... 11:42:05 PM    comment []; Built like a truck - is that a good thing? Would you want a guitar like that? Man, that thing sure is ugly. Next they will build a Hooters guitar, I am sure. Gibson has gone from a venerable brand to........well, I better not say.... Thanks to Chuck D! 9:21:54 PM    comment []; Real map of Europe Geoff Cohen has been ranting entertainingly in his blog about something he calls "real maps." It's been long known that maps are distortive -- canonically, they're not the territory -- and out of proportion --the way that the mapmaker accounts for the Earth's curvature can be intensely political, as can the decision as to where the lateral boundaries of the map occur. But Geoff's after a simpler form of "real map" -- he wants a map "with the actual names of countries on it. If you look at a typical American-produced map, it's full of countries with names like "Germany" and "India" and "Greece" and "China" and "Japan" and "Hungary" and "Egypt," etc. etc. etc. You might not think that's strange, but the fact is that there are no such countries. Sure, we in the English speaking world may have been calling certain countries by those names, but it's not what the people who live there call them. This is ridiculous. It's time to get rid of at least one vestige of colonialism and produce an accurate map." He's gone ahead and produced a real map of Europe. It's nice. I'm going to print it out and hang it up in my bathroom, near my shower-curtain that has a map of the world on it. [BoingBoing] Here is a funny tidbit: In Italian there are two places called Monaco: the tiny country in France and the city in Bavaria called München in German and Munich in English.....go figure.... 8:36:48 PM    comment []; Library Association shares RIAA's lawfirm The Library Journal reports that the American Library Association law-firm is also representing the RIAA in its racketeering putsch to destroy the American justice system in the name of defending copyright. The ALA is thinking about getting new counsel on the ground that destroying culture constitutes a conflict on interest when you're meant to be representing the guardians of human knowledge: The American Library Association (ALA) is investigating whether its relationship with law firm Jenner & Block is a conflict of interest, as the firm has represented the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its recent efforts to gather the names of those suspected of illegal file-sharing. In a letter to ALA executive director Keith Fiels, Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA's Washington Office, said that the office has grown "very uncomfortable" with Jenner & Block's legal activities on behalf of the RIAA. ALA is seeking a letter from the firm setting forth how it would handle any potential conflict. [BoingBoing] Good for them. Kudos to the ALA. 8:33:05 PM    comment []; mytinygarden.com Jay's been giving his small garden some "urgent attention" with camera in hand. His site, which is literally full of bugs, features great macro photography. Not only that, but Jay's use of Flash to present his collection of shots is done quite well. Interesting information accompanies the photos and overall, this is one of the more engaging sites I've encountered in a while. Fly, walk, or crawl to get there, but do check it out! [jenett.radio] These photos make flies look like amazing mythical beasts. Beautiful photography! 8:26:02 PM    comment []; Electronic Voting: Your Worst NIghtmares Following an embarrassing leak of its proprietary software over a file transfer protocol site last January, the inner workings of Diebold Election Systems have again been laid bare. A hacker has come forward with evidence that he broke the security of a private Web server operated by the embattled e-vote vendor, and made off last spring with Diebold's internal discussion-list archives, a software bug database and more software. via [Slashdot] 8:10:10 PM    comment []; Italian spammers face jail Senders of unsolicited junk e-mails in Italy face up to three years in jail, after a ruling by a privacy watchdog. [BBC News] 8:03:06 PM    comment []; Sars-like viruses found in China Fears that animals carrying Sars-like viruses could trigger another outbreak are heightened by a testing programme. [BBC News] 8:02:26 PM    comment []; Was Computer Search Illegal? The recording industry violated a New York woman's constitutional rights by searching her computer for illegal music, the woman's lawyers say. The RIAA's lawyers disagree, setting the stage for a lot of lawyers to make a lot of money. [Wired News] 7:16:16 PM    comment []; Court Blocks FCC Media Regs U.S. federal court judges grant a stay order that prevents the new Federal Communications Commission media ownership rules from taking effect. The ruling marks the latest skirmish in the battle over media market reforms. [Wired News] 7:15:37 PM    comment []; Drawing 49 6:56:10 PM    comment []; Noise 21 6:55:44 PM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 25.09.03; 8:23:48.