Entries from March 2005The Posts You Asked For

“I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected.” — George W. Bush
1533 as of today, in case you’re interested.
Oh, and more than 100,000 — but those don’t count.
Oh, and 153, going back a few years.

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In the Grokster case, a lot of the entertainment industry’s argument seems to hinge on the idea that the companies making P2P software are profiting from piracy — that they encourage (or “induce”) lawbreakers in order to make money.
An article on InternetNews.com suggested that if the Court makes a ruling on the Grokster case and [...]

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I was interviewing John Feehery, executive VP for the Motion Picture Association of America, for a story on Rep. Rick Boucher’s proposed Digital Media Consumer Rights Act.
If passed, the DMCRA will make it legal to A) copy your digital content for legitimate (i.e., non-piracy) purposes, and B) create products to allow that copying if such [...]

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Back in November 2003 I posted some progressive photos of Michael Jackson — photos showing him as a young kid, a young man, and currently.
Here’s an update.

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I was surprised when I went once to The Ohio State University Medical Center Hospital and saw a sign that read something like, “If your child has chicken pox, please inform the admissions desk.”
I thought, Chicken pox? There’s a vaccine. Why would any kid have chicken pox? It’s like having measles. Maybe a couple of [...]

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A local school board got pretty upset at a reporter because he dared to talk to people in places other than where he was authorized to.
The Martinsville Daily quotes the Henry County Schools news release as saying, among other things, that Hays Burchfield, a reporter at the Martinsville Bulletin, “was at Bassett High School talking [...]

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Hug a copy editor today. :)

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Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta is an incredibly good novel. It’s a graphic novel — a large, adult comic if you will.
You should read it.
You should read it because it’s being made into a movie, and chances are that movie will be a terrible adaptation. (I am constantly reminded of the awful Starship Troopers.)
Dorian Wright [...]

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From a AP story on teen cell-phone use:
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — There were two things 11-year-old Patty Wiegner really, really, really wanted for Christmas. One was a furry, playful dog that’s now filling her parents’ home with the sound of barking. The other gift makes a different kind of noise — it has a ring [...]

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I think it’s time to accept that Terri Schiavo is probably going to die, as the latest of seven years’ worth of court decisions refused to order her feeding tube be reinserted.
Let’s not get into the arguments over whether her husband or her parents were right, or whether or not Congress should have interfered.
Once the [...]

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From a CNN story on recycling sweat and urine into potable water, comes this must-appeal-to-worldwide-audience paragraph:
Bottles of fresh water cost as much as U.S. $0.39 (euro0.29) a liter (U.S. $1.50; euro1.13, a gallon). Each weighs 3.6 kilos (8 pounds), so the fees skyrocket when they’re transported across the planet — let alone beyond the stratosphere.
Whoosh!

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Interesting bit of info: A couple of days ago, you could have used Accurint (owned by Lexis-Nexis) to find someone’s Social Security number. Now it only provides the first five digits.
Obviously this is related to privacy concerns in general, and to the ChoicePoint fiasco in particular. And SS numbers are still public information, so there [...]

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You know a series of books has gone too far when the following comes out. (It was on the newsroom giveaway shelf, apparently sent by the publisher for our review)

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My new camera is on its way via UPS. Obviously I can track it, but the only info I have is:

9:07 A.M. SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV, US DEPARTURE SCAN

South Charleston is about three hours from here, so it may arrive today. But who knows how many stops the truck has to make, plus [...]

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Referring to the Terri Schiavo case, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, “We ought to err on the side of life.”
Good. So, while Congress and the President are available, perhaps they can pass a law banning the death penalty.

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It’s as if the news media is clueless when it comes to economics. A CNN story (and I’m sure there will be plenty of similar ones) says:
ATLANTA (CNN) – The average price of a gallon of self-serve, regular gasoline shot up nearly 13 cents over the past two weeks, to a record $2.10, a national [...]

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So Orrin Hatch, the Utah Senator who is so in the pocket of the music and motion picture industries that he once suggested remotely destroying the computers of people suspected of pirating music is now head of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.
How nice. Expect more restrictions on how you can use the [...]

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Doing a little research into how area codes and phone numbers are assigned, I was reading about the North American Numbering Plan, which is what determines which states and cities and parts of cities get which area codes.
One fun thing I discovered is that we’re likely to be converting to four-digit area codes in the [...]

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…goes to Suzanne Wardle, an intern here at the paper.
We were reading the blurb on the back of a book.
It made me laugh out loud, quoth one reviewer, And I never laugh out loud.
“Well,” said Suzanne, “we know he’s a liar.”

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Since blogs got into the mainstream consciousness, the question, “Are bloggers journalists?” has popped up a lot. It’s being asked recently thanks to Apple’s winning the first round in a lawsuit against “online reporters” it claims posted stolen company secrets. (Yes, this is an oversimplification.)
Are these bloggers journalists? Are any bloggers? Are all bloggers? Where [...]

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