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Thursday, June 26 2003

Design Your Own Superhero...

... at UGO's Hero Machine.

Wednesday, June 25 2003

EPIC's "Happy Birthday" to George Orwell

EPIC - the Electronic Privacy Information Center - wishes George Orwell a happy 100th birthday in their latest newsletter, in which they "take this occasion to share some of our personal reflections on themes you brought attention to, including language, commercialism, inequality, and war."

Good observations from Philip E. Agre, David Chaum, Chris Hoofnagle, Marc Rotenberg, and others.

"Orwell explains that beggars, even though they work hard, are universally despised simply because they fail to make money. 'In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing
demanded is that it shall be profitable.' Thus, Orwell concludes, '[m]oney has become the grand test of virtue.' There can be no dignity in poverty. Dignity is precluded by the defining condition of poverty, a simple deficiency of money."

Tuesday, June 24 2003

Supreme Court Supports Affirmative Action, but not Point System

The Chronicle provides a well-written piece on the Supreme Court's decisions regarding the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies, upholding the law school's "narrowly tailored" use of race in admissions, but not the undergrad school's point system. Includes links to text of decisions, timeline, etc.

Thursday, June 19 2003

Cynthia McKinney again

MetaFilter participants talking about whether Cynthia McKinney "said"/"implied"/"suggested" George Bush "knew"/"might have known" about the September 11th attacks in advance and let them happen for political and monetary gain.

Looking at quotes direct from Ms. McKinney, it looks like she did "suggest" and "imply" that the Administration knew the attacks would occur at some point in time at some location in the United States. Under the least charitable reading, she suggests the Administration knew attacks using airlines would occur in New York sometime in September, but didn't warn the public so that certain people could make money. Under the most charitable reading, she suggests that the Administration knew attacks would occur, and didn't do a good enough job dealing with the threat; and that some other folks knew how the attacks would occur, and how they could make money off of them in advance.

Technically, the Palast article I linked to is correct that McKinney was never "quote[d]" as saying "President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war." But Palast "implies" that McKinney never said anything that would suggest she thinks that way, which is misleading.

The Metafilter discussion has references to numerous articles detailing warnings the Bush administration did get about possible terrorist attacks, before the September 11th attack happened.

My guess about McKinney is that she attributed to malice and greed what she should've attributed to mistakes made by the current Administration. Until the Bush Administration stops stonewalling on a full investigation of why the September 11th attacks succeeded, there will be people who wonder why information is being hidden.

Wednesday, June 18 2003

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia McKinney's losing her House of Representatives seat in 2002 is due, in part, to the perception that she said George Dubya Bush knew in advance that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were going to occur.

But:

"Problem is, McKinney never said it.

That’s right. The 'quote' from McKinney is a complete fabrication. A whopper, a fabulous fib, a fake, a flim-flam. Just freakin’ made up. "

Viking Kittens at the Gay Bar

Funny weird site that delivers on the promise of the web: rathergood.com.

(What's that promise? Worldwide distribution for weird, wacky, worthless crap.)

Doomsday Scenarios

A look at the various doomsday scenarios (major asteroid impact, nanobots take over the Earth, shifting magnetic poles, etc.) for how humanity might end soon, and why not to worry so much about it.

Friday, June 13 2003

Men's Journal vs. Grizzly Peak Cyclists

Huh. Men's Journal freelance article by Jason Harper prompts protests from East Bay cyclists, as it relates the author's adventures speeding and racing his car through the back roads of the East Bay, including roads favored by bicyclists.

Tuesday, June 10 2003

andreas.com on networks (of friends, website, industries...)

Not original thoughts or reporting, but Andreas has put up an easily-readable page on the behavior of networks, and how (roughly speaking) they tend to follow an 80/20 sort of distribution rather than a bell curve sort of distribution.

Sunday, June 8 2003

Impeach Bush?

Former government lawyer contemplates an impeachment of Bush, based on his "alleged" lying about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq, and the evidence the U.S. supposedly had concerning such weapons:

"To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony 'to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.'"

Wednesday, June 4 2003

LASIK Problems

Wow - LASIK horror stories. According to this article, your chances of getting bad results from LASIK - double vision, bad night vision, and long-term dry eyes, etc. - are statistically significant. Much more significant than the advertising would suggest.

That being said, my (few) friends who've had LASIK have all been very happy with the results.

Concerned about the FCC Rule changes?

Recently, the FCC made changes in its media ownership rules to allow corporations to own larger percentages of national media outlets, and larger shares of local markets. If you want to stop the homogenization and anti-competitive behavior that happened in the radio industry from happening in TV and newspapers, contact your Congressperson.

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...