When I’m with a boy I like, it’s hard for me to say anything cool, or witty — or at all. I can usually make a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away.
— Willow, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth‘
Reclaiming the Public Domain
Back in January, I (and many other people) were appalled at the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Sonny Bono Act, extending copyrights and essentially preventing anything from entering the public domain.
This morning, Kirsten pointed out that Prof. Larry Lessig (who had been arguing against the Sonny Bono Law) is still working on finding a solution that will both allow Disney (one of the primary lobbyists for the copyright extention) to keep control over Mickey Mouse, and would allow the majority of works to enter the public domain after a limited time period.
The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has been published, the copyright owner must pay a \$1 maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee, then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain after just 50 years. They could keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them. But we would get a public domain.
At the moment, the proposal is ready to go, but Mr. Lessig is in need of a congressperson willing to present the bill. In that vein, he is asking everyone with an interest in this case to write their Representative and Senators to ask for their help.
Jason Buberel has posted a sample letter that can be used, and Prof. Lessig is keeping track of the work at The Eric Eldred Act.
Hopefully, with a little work, we can see our way to a compromise that satisfies the media conglomerates, and yet still allows more and more work to find its way into the public domain for all of us to have access to.
Bush's hydrogen plan
According to this Kalilly post, Bush has figured out how to seem environmentally conscious while still screwing over the planet.
You may remember Dumbya’s big “hydrogen car” plan in his proposed budget at some couple of billion or so bucks. Many said, Huh? Well, get ready to huh again.
Now there are basically 2 ways to get hydrogen: from water and from hydrocarbons. The former leaves behind oxygen, the latter carbon. Which method does the Dumbya plan focus on? Why the hydrocarbon one, silly. Why? Because the basic hydrocarbons to be used are FOSSIL FUELS!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means precisely no difference in our basic approach since we’d still be totally dependent on fossil fuels. Why would he choose that approach? Can you say Halliburton? Can you say Oil. Can you say Iraq?
The source for this isn’t linked, but was apparently on NPR at some point. Can anyone track this down?
Patron Saint of…
There’s a good chance that dad knows that Francis Xavier is the patron saint of the archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana. He might even know that Therese of Lisieux is the patron saint of the diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska.
But I’d bet that even Dad would be hard pressed to come up with the patron saint of goitres (Blaise), the fear of night (Giles), or sheep (Drogo).
And if that’s not enough, the Patron Saints Index has many, many, many more.
(via MeFi)
Geeze, that's a big-ass cube.
Ever tried to visualize the number one trillion? It’s not easy to do — the number is so big, it’s really difficult to wrap your head around.
1,000,000,000,000
That’s a lot of zeroes. Thankfully, we’ve got places like the MegaPenny project to help us out — it turns out that one trillion pennies would form a cube 273 feet to a side. That’s roughly half the height of the Washington Monument. The cube would weigh approximately 3,125,000 pounds.
Now, just to boggle your mind a bit further: multiply that cube by 100 times, and you’d have the number of pennies that the Department of Defense can’t account for.
The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending \$640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn’t account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes.
[…]
Though Defense has long been notorious for waste, recent government reports suggest the Pentagon’s money management woes have reached astronomical proportions. A study by the Defense Department’s inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn’t properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.
And before the Iraq war, when military leaders were scrambling to find enough chemical and biological warfare suits to protect U.S. troops, the department was caught selling these suits as surplus on the Internet “for pennies on the dollar,” a GAO official said.
As Prairie so eloquently put earlier (and therefore contributed the title for this post) — that’s a big-ass cube.
(via MeFi)
Water shutoff
Oh, this is good — our building has a 30-day shutoff notice from the water utility posted on the front door.
Not one of the tenants. The building. In other words, the leasing agency for the building hasn’t paid the water bill for long enough that under normal circumstances, it would be shut off, but as this is an apartment building, we’re given an extra 30 days to see if something can be worked out.
I’m thrilled about this one.
Update: Even better — I just tried calling the offices of Kauri Investments, our leasing agency, and couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone, not even a receptionist. Better and better…
Update: The following is the text of an e-mail I just sent to the sole Kauri employee with an easily accessible e-mail address on the Kauri website, after my failure in contacting anyone by phone.
From: Woody Hanscom
Date: Mon May 19, 2003 12:23:18 US/Pacific
To: kenta@kauri.com
Cc: parkseneca@speakeasy.net
Subject: Park Seneca Apts. water shutoff?Kent –
I’m neither an investor nor a real estate professional, however I was unable either to reach anyone (even a receptionist) by calling the Kauri offices, and yours was the only e-mail I found for anyone at Kauri on the Kauri website. I do hope that this isn’t too much of an intrusion. I’m cc:ing this message to parkseneca@speakeasy.net, though I’m not currently sure who checks that e-mail account as it was set up under Melvin Kelly’s name, but he is no longer the building manager.
I am a resident of the Park Seneca Apartments, in unit 405, and this morning I found a notice posted on the front door of the apartment building alerting us to the fact that due to delinquent payments, we face having our water shut off in 30 days. I hope you’ll understand that I find this to be a fairly major concern. While I have fallen behind on bills from time to time in my life, when I do so, that affects only myself – not a 50-some unit apartment building.
In the year that I have lived here at the Park Seneca Apartments, I have had to cope with an elevator that seems to be broken more often than not, a renovation that seemed to drag on forever, with constantly shifting reports on when various services would be turned on or off, months without on-site laundry services, and a few weeks surrounding the replacement of the water heater when there was little to no hot water at all in the building. I have watched as many of my fellow tenants, equally or more disgusted with the difficulties encountered during the renovations, moved out. I chose to stay on, as I do enjoy the location of the building, its proximity to downtown and Capitol Hill, and as I haven’t wanted to deal with the hassles of trying to find another apartment and moving (not to mention attempting to move without the benefit of a working elevator). However, instances such as this shutoff notice go a long way to making me question the wisdom of continuing my residence here.
I sincerely hope that the current situation with the water bills will be resolved soon, and I (and my fellow tenants) will not have to deal with the severe inconvenience of not having water next month. My intent at this point is to continue living here, for all of the reasons previously stated. I did, however, feel that it was worthwhile to raise my concerns with the conditions I have been living with, in the hope that difficulties such as this will not be a concern in the future.
Sincerely,
Michael “Woody” Hanscom
Who knows if it’ll do much good, but hey, I feel (a little) better.
Getting personal
An interesting article in the NYT today about the pros and cons of getting personal with weblogs, something I occasionally struggle with. My site tends to be somewhat dry much of the time, but while I occasionally toy with the idea, I’ve never been too sure if I want to “open up” more in such a public medium.
I’m not likely to make a dramatic shift in the tone of this weblog — I’m naturally fairly private and reserved, and not likely to go into any sort of no-holds-barred expose — but there are definitely times I consider broadening the scope of what I write about. Maybe I’ll head that direction at some point, maybe I won’t, I’m not too sure. It bears consideration, however.
Of course, since I just edited this post three times, and almost deleted it, things may stay just as they are. ;)
(via Paulo)
Ari Fleischer resigns
Can’t say I’m dissapointed to read this…
“I informed President Bush last week that after 21 years of doing nothing but government and politics…that I have decided that my time has come to leave the White House. And I will leave later this summer, most likely in July,” Fleischer said.
…I just wish the article wasn’t so frustratingly brief. What prompted this?
(via Atrios)
[Update:]{.underline}
There are a few more details in this CNN article, including this somewhat bizarre little piece of information:
He notified Bush of his decision Friday. The president ended the conversation “by kissing me on the head,” the spokesman said.
So…was this kiss a benediction of some sort? Does Bush now think he’s the Pope? Or maybe just Godfather Coreleone? (Snarky, non-PC possibility — which head? Could we have a scandal to put Clinton/Lewinsky to shame?) It just seems odd to me, behaviour more fitting of a religious figure than a political appointee. But then, given Bush’s conservative religious leanings, maybe it’s not that much of a surprise.
ACLU report on post 9/11 suppression of dissent
I haven’t read this yet (it’s pushing 2am, and bed is sounding better and better all the time), but the ACLU has released a report on the suppression of dissent in the US since Sept. 11^th^, 2001.
The 18-page report finds that dissent since 9/11 has taken three principal forms: mass protests and rallies, messages on signs or clothing, and other acts of defiance by communities and individuals. These have ranged from silent vigils in parks to the passage of resolutions in more than 100 communities across the country protesting federal measures that violate civil liberties.
Police have beaten and maced protestors in Missouri, charged on horseback into crowds of demonstrators in New York, fired on demonstrators in California, and helped FBI agents to spy on professors and students at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, the ACLU report said.
Attorney General Ashcroft’s Justice Department has further asserted the right to seize protesters’ assets and deport immigrants under anti-terrorism statutes rushed through Congress after the attacks, and debated whether to revoke U.S. citizenship in some cases.
The press release and the full report are both available online.
(via Brooke Biggs)
Howard Dean interview
There’s a good interview with Howard Dean over at LiberalOasis. Dean continues to talk a very good line — I only hope that if elected, he follows through. So far, I’ve yet to see anything to convince me he wouldn’t, but it’s quite hard to tell at this point.
While I quite honestly didn’t realize that this was much of an issue right now, I liked his response to a question about the legalization of medical marijuana:
LO: In Vermont, you opposed a bill that would have given terminally ill patients access to medicinal marijuana.
What was your rationale? As President, would you direct the FDA to objectively address this issue?
HD: My opposition to medical marijuana is based on science, not based on ideology.
More specifically, I don’t think we should single out a particular drug for approval through political means when we approve other drugs through scientific means.
When I’m President, I will require the FDA to evaluate marijuana with a double blind study with the same kinds of scientific protocols that every other drug goes through.
I’m certainly willing to abide by what the FDA says.
(via Kevin Drum)