||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CYBER NOTES
CORY DOCTOROW, BOING BOING - Michael Ayers, the chairman of the AACS-LA
(the organization that sent hundreds of legal threats to websites that
published the random 16-byte number that represented one of the keys for
cracking the copy-prevention on HD-DVDs) has given an interview to the
BBC in which he vows to use technical and legal means to shut down the
802,000+ websites that have reproduced the key. Michael says that this
doesn't impact free speech -- that it's possible to discuss the crack
and DRM in general without reproducing the key. I think he's wrong. I
just taught a class at USC where we talked about this crack as part of
our coursework, and part of my lesson was talking about the ease with
which this information can be retrieved and spread -- and how that makes
anti-copying systems futile. For my students, seeing just how little
information was needed to undo the AACS scheme was critical to
understanding its fragility. Indeed, one of my students posted this key
to the class blog to show his fellow students how trivial this was,
prompting AACS to threaten me with legal action as well. . . The
companies that made AACS spent millions and years at it. The hackers who
broke it did so in days, for laughs, for free. More people now know how
to crack HD-DVD than own an HD-DVD player.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/04/aacs_vows_to_fight_p.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GOVERNMENT
AL KAMEN, WASHINGTON POST - From humble beginnings at the start of the
Reagan administration, the chief-of-staff function has "spread downward
in the bureaucracy to where [there] is now a chief of staff to an
assistant assistant secretary," according to New York University
professor Paul Light. The various deputy chiefs "are there to make the
chief look better," Light said. There are deputy chiefs of staff to
assistant secretaries and a chief of staff to an associate deputy
assistant secretary, he said. . . There are 14 Cabinet department chiefs
of staff, and 13 of those have deputy chiefs. There are seven chiefs of
staff to undersecretaries. There are 10 departments with chiefs of staff
to an assistant secretary, and four of those have a deputy chief of
staff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302144.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LA POLICE RIOT
ON OUR MAIN PAGE today is a photo of Carl Stein, longtime cameraman for
Los Angeles television station KCAL, struggling and in pain on the
ground after having been beaten by LAPD officers. Reports Boing Boing:
"Anonymous friend of Carl Stein tells Boing Boing, 'He spoke to the
photo editor at [one major US newspaper which ran this photo] the day of
the incident and explained that the photo depicted the cops beating him
to the ground. Interestingly, when the paper went to press, the caption
reads that the cops are helping him to get up.'"
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/03/bratton_lapd_attacks.html
VIDEO OF CAMERMAN BEING ABUSED BY COPS
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/02/immigrant-march-disrupted-by-police/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HEALTH & SCIENCE
KELLY BURKE, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - "When we're done, tap water will
be relegated to showers and washing dishes." The messianic ambitions of
Gatorade's former American president came a step closer to being
realized in Australia this week, with the launch of a "world first"
sports drink targeting children under 13. But the product has not
impressed nutritionists and dentists, who say the sugary acidic
beverages are contributing to childhood obesity and poor dental hygiene.
Of perhaps even greater concern is the way Gatorade Active Under13s is
being promoted as an alternative to water, with claims by the
manufacturer that its product is more effective at rehydrating children
after sport. The Australian Dental Association said Gatorade's first
foray into the "tween" market was particularly disappointing, given
executives from the company had made verbal assurances to the
association little more than a year ago that children were not a prime
market for its sports drinks.
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2007/05/02/1177788228087.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CIVIL LIBERTIES
WALL STREET JOURNAL - Sentencing Commission recommends easing penalties
for crack cocaine. The proposal, which becomes law automatically unless
Congress opposes it, could lower new sentences for crack by 25% but
wouldn't be retroactive.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OUTLYING PRECINCTS
HILLARY CLINTON got media mileage out of her plan to require a vote on
deauthorizing the war in Iraq. The thing the media forgot to tell you -
Chris Matthews being the exception - was that it wasn't her idea. Both
Joe Biden and Bill Richardson proposed some months back but the media
didn't pay any attention. Here, for example, is what Biden said in
February: "The best next step is to revisit the authorization Congress
granted the President in 2002 to use force in Iraq. That's exactly what
I'm doing. . . I am working on legislation to repeal that authorization
and replace it with a much narrower mission statement for our troops in
Iraq." Richardson went further, calling for all troops to be out by the
end of this year.
FOX IS PLANNING TO DROP MOST of the GOP candidates from its May 15
debate. One of the problems is that among the deleted would be Ron Paul
who, according to 72,000 visitors to the MSNBC web site, was the one who
in the last debate was valued the highest and disliked the least. Ron
Paul may just squeak in if he can get 2% in a poll.
THE CAUCUS, NY TIMES - When asked his favorite novel in an interview
shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to
"Battlefield Earth," a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a
Scientologist. A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney's
favorite novels. "I'm not in favor of his religion by any means," Mr.
Romney, a Mormon, said. "But he wrote a book called 'Battlefield Earth'
that was a very fun science-fiction book." Asked about his favorite
book, Mr. Romney cited the Bible.
OBAMA'S SHIFTING VIEWS ON ISRAEL
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p01s03-uspo.htm
ACCORDING TO THEIR answers at the GOP presidential debate. The following
candidates don't believe in evolution: Tancredo, Brownback and Huckabee
HOW OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN HURT ITSELF WITH ITS MY SPACE HUSTLE
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/05/barack-obama-myspace-friend-race-08.php
ECOLOGY
TERRY MACALISTER, GUARDIAN - The average nuclear power station is four
years behind schedule and runs three times over-budget, a new report out
today says. The Economics of Nuclear Power, commissioned by Greenpeace
concludes that atomic power has been historically linked with high
subsidies, complex technology and safety concerns, leaving it a
"dangerous distraction" to finding better ways of tackling global
warming. . . A review of nuclear construction in the US shows that 75
reactors were predicted to cost $45bn but the actual cost was closer to
$145bn. More recently, in India, completion costs for the last ten
reactors have been 300% over budget. The report also quotes details from
the World Energy Council showing that construction times for the
industry were rising from 66 months in the mid-1970s to 116 months -
nearly ten years - for completions between 1995 and 2000.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2071223,00.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PALFREY AFFAIR
ABC NEWS BLOTTER - Some of the most in-demand women working for the
"D.C. Madam" were in their 50s, according to the woman at the center of
the scandal. "There was never an age limit. I hired women well into
their 50s," Deborah Jeane Palfrey told ABC News. "They were some of the
most popular women on staff.". . . From career professionals to
graduate students, most women who came to Palfrey to work did so because
they needed money -- to pay off credit card debt, cover school loans or
pay tuition fees, according to Palfrey. . . "Many of these girls were a
lot of talk and no action -- as most people seem to be from time to
time," Palfrey said. Many applicants would initially be very willing,
but when they went on their first appointment "they just freeze and they
think, 'I don't know if I can do this.'". . . "It was very boring,
mostly," Palfrey told ABC News. "Very 'Groundhog Day,' the same thing
over and over and over and over, and over. For me, anyway.". . . For
their part, the clients were typically decent to Palfrey's women, she
said. "I had many gals tell me that their boyfriends treated them, oh,
just purely awful. And they would go to many of these appointments, and
the man would have roses waiting for them. And nobody had ever given
them roses before.". . . "I think I empowered a lot of women. I got a
lot of women through graduate school. I think the people that used the
service were by and large quite pleased."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/
INDICATORS
HAYA EL NASSER, USA TODAY - The share of Americans who identify
themselves as multiracial has shrunk this decade, an unexpected trend in
an increasingly diverse nation. About 1.9% of the people checked off
more than one race in a 2005 Census Bureau survey of 3 million
households, a meaningful decline from two surveys in 2000. "There's no
overall explanation" for the drop, says Reynolds Farley, a research
scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research
who analyzed the trend. . . Mixed-race Americans lobbied the government
to stop requiring people to choose one race category on Census and other
federal forms. The 2000 Census for the first time allowed people to
check more than one race. About 2.4%, or 6.8 million people, did so in
the full Census. The numbers were likely to rise as more children were
born to mixed-race parents and multiracial organizations sprouted on
college campuses. The opposite happened.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-04-multiracial_N.htm?csp=34
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE MIX
DIRELAND - American soldiers were present in a Baghdad police
interrogation center where a key Iraqi gay activist was brutally
tortured after he was arrested this past Sunday. The police shook down
the activist's family for ransom money and so he managed to escape to
tell his tale -- even though the anti-gay death squads of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's armed branch, the Badr
Corps, have now been integrated into the Interior Ministry with full
police powers.
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2007/05/iraqi_gay_activ.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DON IMUS CASE
AP - A lawyer for Don Imus said Friday that the former radio host's
bosses could have edited the on-air comments that got him fired—and the
fact that they didn't meant they saw his remarks as routine for his
often provocative show. CBS Radio and MSNBC had delay buttons, but
didn't use them when Imus made racist and sexist comments about the
Rutgers women's basketball team, lawyer Martin Garbus said on ABC's
"Good Morning America." "That means CBS and MSNBC both knew the language
that was going out, and both knew the language complied with (Imus')
contract. . . It was consistent with many of the things he had done,"
Garbus said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OTJCE80&show_article=1
AP - Radio host Don Imus is going to sue CBS for $120 million, according
to a draft copy of the complaint obtained by ABC News' Law & Justice
Unit. The suit is expected to be filed next week. A draft copy of Imus's
lawsuit says that the network expected him to be controversial and
irreverent under the terms of his contract. And he claims Imus's show
was on a five second delay that allowed the network to censor him if
they wanted. The draft points out that Imus wasn't fired for two weeks
after the remarks were made.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3135895
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CYBER NOTES
CORY DOCTOROW, BOING BOING - Michael Ayers, the chairman of the AACS-LA
(the organization that sent hundreds of legal threats to websites that
published the random 16-byte number that represented one of the keys for
cracking the copy-prevention on HD-DVDs) has given an interview to the
BBC in which he vows to use technical and legal means to shut down the
802,000+ websites that have reproduced the key. Michael says that this
doesn't impact free speech -- that it's possible to discuss the crack
and DRM in general without reproducing the key. I think he's wrong. I
just taught a class at USC where we talked about this crack as part of
our coursework, and part of my lesson was talking about the ease with
which this information can be retrieved and spread -- and how that makes
anti-copying systems futile. For my students, seeing just how little
information was needed to undo the AACS scheme was critical to
understanding its fragility. Indeed, one of my students posted this key
to the class blog to show his fellow students how trivial this was,
prompting AACS to threaten me with legal action as well. . . The
companies that made AACS spent millions and years at it. The hackers who
broke it did so in days, for laughs, for free. More people now know how
to crack HD-DVD than own an HD-DVD player.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/04/aacs_vows_to_fight_p.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GOVERNMENT
AL KAMEN, WASHINGTON POST - From humble beginnings at the start of the
Reagan administration, the chief-of-staff function has "spread downward
in the bureaucracy to where [there] is now a chief of staff to an
assistant assistant secretary," according to New York University
professor Paul Light. The various deputy chiefs "are there to make the
chief look better," Light said. There are deputy chiefs of staff to
assistant secretaries and a chief of staff to an associate deputy
assistant secretary, he said. . . There are 14 Cabinet department chiefs
of staff, and 13 of those have deputy chiefs. There are seven chiefs of
staff to undersecretaries. There are 10 departments with chiefs of staff
to an assistant secretary, and four of those have a deputy chief of
staff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302144.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LA POLICE RIOT
ON OUR MAIN PAGE today is a photo of Carl Stein, longtime cameraman for
Los Angeles television station KCAL, struggling and in pain on the
ground after having been beaten by LAPD officers. Reports Boing Boing:
"Anonymous friend of Carl Stein tells Boing Boing, 'He spoke to the
photo editor at [one major US newspaper which ran this photo] the day of
the incident and explained that the photo depicted the cops beating him
to the ground. Interestingly, when the paper went to press, the caption
reads that the cops are helping him to get up.'"
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/03/bratton_lapd_attacks.html
VIDEO OF CAMERMAN BEING ABUSED BY COPS
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/02/immigrant-march-disrupted-by-police/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HEALTH & SCIENCE
KELLY BURKE, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - "When we're done, tap water will
be relegated to showers and washing dishes." The messianic ambitions of
Gatorade's former American president came a step closer to being
realized in Australia this week, with the launch of a "world first"
sports drink targeting children under 13. But the product has not
impressed nutritionists and dentists, who say the sugary acidic
beverages are contributing to childhood obesity and poor dental hygiene.
Of perhaps even greater concern is the way Gatorade Active Under13s is
being promoted as an alternative to water, with claims by the
manufacturer that its product is more effective at rehydrating children
after sport. The Australian Dental Association said Gatorade's first
foray into the "tween" market was particularly disappointing, given
executives from the company had made verbal assurances to the
association little more than a year ago that children were not a prime
market for its sports drinks.
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2007/05/02/1177788228087.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CIVIL LIBERTIES
WALL STREET JOURNAL - Sentencing Commission recommends easing penalties
for crack cocaine. The proposal, which becomes law automatically unless
Congress opposes it, could lower new sentences for crack by 25% but
wouldn't be retroactive.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OUTLYING PRECINCTS
HILLARY CLINTON got media mileage out of her plan to require a vote on
deauthorizing the war in Iraq. The thing the media forgot to tell you -
Chris Matthews being the exception - was that it wasn't her idea. Both
Joe Biden and Bill Richardson proposed some months back but the media
didn't pay any attention. Here, for example, is what Biden said in
February: "The best next step is to revisit the authorization Congress
granted the President in 2002 to use force in Iraq. That's exactly what
I'm doing. . . I am working on legislation to repeal that authorization
and replace it with a much narrower mission statement for our troops in
Iraq." Richardson went further, calling for all troops to be out by the
end of this year.
FOX IS PLANNING TO DROP MOST of the GOP candidates from its May 15
debate. One of the problems is that among the deleted would be Ron Paul
who, according to 72,000 visitors to the MSNBC web site, was the one who
in the last debate was valued the highest and disliked the least. Ron
Paul may just squeak in if he can get 2% in a poll.
THE CAUCUS, NY TIMES - When asked his favorite novel in an interview
shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to
"Battlefield Earth," a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a
Scientologist. A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney's
favorite novels. "I'm not in favor of his religion by any means," Mr.
Romney, a Mormon, said. "But he wrote a book called 'Battlefield Earth'
that was a very fun science-fiction book." Asked about his favorite
book, Mr. Romney cited the Bible.
OBAMA'S SHIFTING VIEWS ON ISRAEL
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p01s03-uspo.htm
ACCORDING TO THEIR answers at the GOP presidential debate. The following
candidates don't believe in evolution: Tancredo, Brownback and Huckabee
HOW OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN HURT ITSELF WITH ITS MY SPACE HUSTLE
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/05/barack-obama-myspace-friend-race-08.php
ECOLOGY
TERRY MACALISTER, GUARDIAN - The average nuclear power station is four
years behind schedule and runs three times over-budget, a new report out
today says. The Economics of Nuclear Power, commissioned by Greenpeace
concludes that atomic power has been historically linked with high
subsidies, complex technology and safety concerns, leaving it a
"dangerous distraction" to finding better ways of tackling global
warming. . . A review of nuclear construction in the US shows that 75
reactors were predicted to cost $45bn but the actual cost was closer to
$145bn. More recently, in India, completion costs for the last ten
reactors have been 300% over budget. The report also quotes details from
the World Energy Council showing that construction times for the
industry were rising from 66 months in the mid-1970s to 116 months -
nearly ten years - for completions between 1995 and 2000.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2071223,00.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PALFREY AFFAIR
ABC NEWS BLOTTER - Some of the most in-demand women working for the
"D.C. Madam" were in their 50s, according to the woman at the center of
the scandal. "There was never an age limit. I hired women well into
their 50s," Deborah Jeane Palfrey told ABC News. "They were some of the
most popular women on staff.". . . From career professionals to
graduate students, most women who came to Palfrey to work did so because
they needed money -- to pay off credit card debt, cover school loans or
pay tuition fees, according to Palfrey. . . "Many of these girls were a
lot of talk and no action -- as most people seem to be from time to
time," Palfrey said. Many applicants would initially be very willing,
but when they went on their first appointment "they just freeze and they
think, 'I don't know if I can do this.'". . . "It was very boring,
mostly," Palfrey told ABC News. "Very 'Groundhog Day,' the same thing
over and over and over and over, and over. For me, anyway.". . . For
their part, the clients were typically decent to Palfrey's women, she
said. "I had many gals tell me that their boyfriends treated them, oh,
just purely awful. And they would go to many of these appointments, and
the man would have roses waiting for them. And nobody had ever given
them roses before.". . . "I think I empowered a lot of women. I got a
lot of women through graduate school. I think the people that used the
service were by and large quite pleased."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/
INDICATORS
HAYA EL NASSER, USA TODAY - The share of Americans who identify
themselves as multiracial has shrunk this decade, an unexpected trend in
an increasingly diverse nation. About 1.9% of the people checked off
more than one race in a 2005 Census Bureau survey of 3 million
households, a meaningful decline from two surveys in 2000. "There's no
overall explanation" for the drop, says Reynolds Farley, a research
scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research
who analyzed the trend. . . Mixed-race Americans lobbied the government
to stop requiring people to choose one race category on Census and other
federal forms. The 2000 Census for the first time allowed people to
check more than one race. About 2.4%, or 6.8 million people, did so in
the full Census. The numbers were likely to rise as more children were
born to mixed-race parents and multiracial organizations sprouted on
college campuses. The opposite happened.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-04-multiracial_N.htm?csp=34
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE MIX
DIRELAND - American soldiers were present in a Baghdad police
interrogation center where a key Iraqi gay activist was brutally
tortured after he was arrested this past Sunday. The police shook down
the activist's family for ransom money and so he managed to escape to
tell his tale -- even though the anti-gay death squads of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's armed branch, the Badr
Corps, have now been integrated into the Interior Ministry with full
police powers.
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2007/05/iraqi_gay_activ.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DON IMUS CASE
AP - A lawyer for Don Imus said Friday that the former radio host's
bosses could have edited the on-air comments that got him fired—and the
fact that they didn't meant they saw his remarks as routine for his
often provocative show. CBS Radio and MSNBC had delay buttons, but
didn't use them when Imus made racist and sexist comments about the
Rutgers women's basketball team, lawyer Martin Garbus said on ABC's
"Good Morning America." "That means CBS and MSNBC both knew the language
that was going out, and both knew the language complied with (Imus')
contract. . . It was consistent with many of the things he had done,"
Garbus said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OTJCE80&show_article=1
AP - Radio host Don Imus is going to sue CBS for $120 million, according
to a draft copy of the complaint obtained by ABC News' Law & Justice
Unit. The suit is expected to be filed next week. A draft copy of Imus's
lawsuit says that the network expected him to be controversial and
irreverent under the terms of his contract. And he claims Imus's show
was on a five second delay that allowed the network to censor him if
they wanted. The draft points out that Imus wasn't fired for two weeks
after the remarks were made.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3135895
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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