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Wednesday, April 30 2003

Music Artists to FCC: Stop Deregulating

A bunch of major musicians have written an open letter to the FCC, asking them not to continue deregulating the radio industry. Signers include Tom Petty, DJ Spooky, Don Henley, and Michael Stipe.

Friday, April 25 2003

Can Corporations Lie in Advertising?

A column at TomPaine.com details what's at stake in the Supreme Court case in which Nike is being sued for lying about their corporate practices, as they relate to the use of sweatshop labor.

Technologists Against Electronic Voting

Fearing that the widespread purchase and use of electronic voting systems - which have nice user interfaces for the voters, but (in their present form) generally are unreliable and don't provide a means for verifying that results aren't tampered with - could lead to the hijacking of elections across the U.S. (and world), computer scientist David Dill is organizing resistance to such systems.

MoveOn

MoveOn.org is a web-based activist network using the Internet to organize people dissatisfied with the way the Bush administration is handling foreign policy, environmental issues, etc., and the way the corporate-owned media tilts in Dubya's favor.

Wish you could do something about the way our country is heading? They've started several interesting projects:

MoveOn Media Corps: when MoveOn contacts you (and thousands of your Internet friends) about specific instances of biased media coverage of the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, write to the perpetrators to let 'em know how you feel.

support OxFam, an international relief organization hoping to stave off starvation and other consequences of war in Iraq.

Work together to oust Bush in 2004.

Thursday, April 24 2003

NetFlix Maybe Not Such a Good Deal

Slashdot links to someone who analyzed how fast he could get DVDs through various Netflix accounts. According to his analysis, though Netflix advertises unlimited DVDs per month for a fixed price (but you only get to hold X at a time), the more DVDs you rent from them, the slower they'll send you DVDs and the more likely you'll be told that the DVD you want is unavailable.

And we just got a DVD player too... guess we'll keep going to the neighborhood video store.

Thursday, April 17 2003

De Genova on "a million Mogadishus"

The Columbia Daily Spectator has a letter to the editor from Nicholas De Genova, the Columbia professor who was quoted as stating that he hopes for a million Mogadishus, and the Chronicle of Higher Education has an inteerview with him (registration required). What he seems to have wanted to say is that he hopes for the failure of American imperialism, and goes on to say:

"Q. Just so we're clear: Do you welcome or wish for the deaths of American soldiers?

A. No, precisely not. That's one of the reasons I am against the war. I am against the war because people like George Bush and his war cabinet are invested in needlessly wasting the lives of people who have absolutely no interest in perpetrating this war and should not be there. And any responsibility for the loss of their lives will rest in the hands of the warmakers on the side of the U.S."

Tuesday, April 15 2003

How we make friends

Funny quote from an otherwise unremarkable article:

"Contrary to the saying, we don't choose our friends at all. If my experience is anything to go by, we fall in with them against our better judgement."

A List Apart used to have an interesting line associated with it, something along the lines of "You'll make friends who will only betray you in the end."

Saturday, April 12 2003

Emotion Eric

Silly photos of a guy portraying emotions. Be sure to see the out-of-body experience "emotion."

Friday, April 11 2003

The Drug War in Tulia, Texas: 39 Wrongfully-Convicted-Prisoners Freed

Both TomPaine.com and Arianna Huffington have stories on this: in July 1999, on the say-so of a single corrupt undercover officer, 46 people (including 39 of the town's 400 African-Americans) were arrested on drug charges. No evidence was ever found that these people committed any crimes; it was just their word against the officer's, and in each case, the officer - who former coworkers described as "dishonest, untrustworthy, and a racist" - was given the benefit of the doubt.

How did this happen?

"'The Panhandle task force,' says Credico, 'was the beneficiary of Coleman's lies. The more busts he made and the more convictions he helped win, the more federal grant money the task force received.'"

Country-wide, according to Arianna:

"The damning fact is that while blacks make up 13 percent of drug users, they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 55 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison."

Thursday, April 10 2003

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

My alma mater's Center for the Study of Language and Information has a collaborative encyclopedia online - explaining everything you'd want to know about various aspects of philosophy. In words simple enough for a non-Philosophy major like me.

Tuesday, April 8 2003

Hot Yoga

Salon.com has a little expose on Bikram Choudhury's attempts to strong-arm teachers of his yoga style into changing the names of their studios and paying him annual fees on his "copyrighted" series of yoga poses.

Hopefully Iyengar yoga (which I take) won't face similar problems...

Sunday, April 6 2003

Why Your Wife Won't Have Sex With You

A (somewhat) new blog from a Salon reader, an admitted formerly frigid wife - Why Your Wife Won't Have Sex With You:

Introduction Disgust Discomfort Distraction Insecurity

Friday, April 4 2003

Boston Symphony Orchestra Online Conservatory

Interested in classical music, but don't know much about what you hear? A Northeastern professor and students have built a neat lil website focusing on music from four classical composers: Dmitri Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, John Cage, and Tan Dun. Chock-full of information and interactive features.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article about the making of the site.

Thursday, April 3 2003

Madonna's "American Life" video

Salon.com has Madonna's American Life video, the one that she decided not to release so as not to offend our troops. It's not all that incendiary, after all. She does toss a grenade (which doesn't explode) into a Bush lookalike's lap, but other than that, it's just dancing and singing in military uniforms.

MTV interviewed her about the making of the video.

Smart Heuristics (Quick & Effective Mental Shortcuts) with Gerd Gigerenzer

In Edge 113, a discussion of

"...the study of fast and frugal decision-making, that is, the study of smart heuristics people actually use to make good decisions. In order to make good decisions in an uncertain world, one sometimes has to ignore information. The art is knowing what one doesn’t have to know."

Drawing from examples in medical testing (if a woman tests positive on her mammogram, what are her chances of having breast cancer?), choosing a mate (spending the time to figure out exactly what you want before committing may mean you lose your chance), stock picking, etc.

Infinite Matrix soliciting funds

The Infinite Matrix, a science-fiction webzine featuring regular input from Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick and others, is solicting funds; they say they want $5000 to continue publishing. I guess it's not enough to make a living, but enough to keep the site up and the stories coming.

Haven't read much on the site except Jenna and Me, about the author's alter ego getting tangled up with Dubya, Jenna, and mind-control experiments.

Tuesday, April 1 2003

San Francisco Restaurant Health Violations

The city of San Francisco maintains an online database of health violations at restaurants.

Petition to Require the FBI to Maintain Accurate Criminal Records

The Electronic Privacy Information Center is asking for signatures on a petition to require the FBI to try to keep its National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database accurate.

California Do Not Call List

California is taking pre-registrations for the national do-not-call list, which will (theoretically) prevent you from getting calls from telemarketers (except charitable organizations, politicians, businesses smaller than 5 people, etc.) If telemarketers call anyone on the list after October 1 2003, they'll be fined $11,000 per call. (Barring industry attempts to derail implementation of the list.)

Church and State and Army

According to ABC News Online (Australian edition), soldiers in Iraq are being encouraged to make specific, daily prayers for George Bush.

Examples include:

"Sunday's is 'Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding'.

"Monday's reads 'Pray that the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is right regardless of critics'."

I'm all for soldiers praying; but for their own lives and those of their comrades, and for the hope that the conflict that they're in will soon be over. But apparently they're being asked to pray that (1) Bush not try to understand what he's doing, and that (2) he ignore all criticism. The former prayer seems pointless (i.e., redundant); the second, self-defeating for the soldiers.

And apparently the House has approved a national day of prayer and fasting for people to reflect on what's happening in their daily lives and to the nation in this time of war. There are people protesting on the sidewalks of San Francisco every day, praying about this, and without any guidance from Congress.

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

Politics

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...