The Sacramento Bee is running a four-part series this week asking whether the Patriot Act and its hoped-for successor legislation goes too far towards limiting civil liberties. The paper gives some examples: Two middle-aged peace activists from San Francisco find themselves singled out by authorities as they try to board a flight to Boston for …
Unless you were really paying attention, you aren’t going to recognize today’s musical selection: Chi Coltrane. She wrote her own songs and accompanied herself on piano, but she was way beyond the average pianist. In 1972 she had a top 20 hit with her first single, “Thunder and Lightning,” the first track on this album. …
The AIDS work of Marie Stopes (see below) as a member of the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium has now been observed by Nick Kristof of the NYT. His opinion is that it’s doing work the Bush Administration would admire, if it bothered to look. It’s true that Marie Stopes International operates in China — …
There’s a new virus out there masquerading as a Microsoft update. I think I got this one this morning, and it looks legit. I can see how the less suspicious might be fooled; it even has a purported text file attachment with the name of my virus protection software in the filename. Be careful out …
“Linquistic Liberationists” Dan Gillmor and Dave Weinberger have launched a new project to “build a collective lexicon that ‘the people’ believe have been hijacked. Anyone is free to contribute.” The site is called Word Pirates. (Note: this is separate and distinct from today’s exhortation to Talk Like a Pirate!) Anyway, it looks like one of …
Do you suppose Arthur Conan Doyle knew about this, but he got the geography wrong? Anyone wanna give me odds that a new pastiche will soon be in the works using this discovery as a basis for the storyline?
He said he empathizes with those who have lost jobs but that there’s no turning back. “The genie’s out of the bottle on offshore outsourcing,” he said, adding that 3 percent to 4 percent of IT budgets nationally are already earmarked for foreign labor. It’s up to the government, not businesses, to handle the fallout …
This story made me think of this song. Here’s the chorus: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be “deportees.”
Plus ?a change, plus c’est la m?me chose: college textbook prices induce sticker shock. I can see why: $118 for a financial accounting book? Why, back in my day…the price was probably about $35. Here’s a sample of that opportunity cost I spoke of below: NIH funding is flat after inflation. Yo, coffee drinkers: Georgia …
Everyone knows who Paul Krugman is, right? The economist who writes a twice-a-week opinion column for the NYT? CalPundit went to a book-signing affair in Del Mar over the weekend and snagged an interview with the man. I don’t care what your particular political leanings are, you should read it. It will give you a …