Thursday, June 19, 2003
I was involved in this bit of fun on Tuesday: Flash Mob in Manhattan: an inexplicable gathering of people in a public place.
Yours Truly in the blue shirt on the left:
and in the front right:
some confused rug salesmen:
and in the front right:
some confused rug salesmen:
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican representing Utah, asked technology chiefs about whether they could develop ways to damage or destroy the computers hearing in Washington on Tuesday.
Ive been looking at these recently:
http://www.em411.com/review-software_show.php?software_id=65
EM411.COM - Electronic Music 411
http://www.midiman.com/products/m-audio/duo.php
M-Audio USB Audiosport Duo
http://www.echoaudio.com/
Echo Digital Audio - Makers of Mona, Layla, Gina, Mia multitrack recorders
http://www.digitalaudio.com/index.html
Digital Audio Labs is the maker of the CardDeluxe, a professional 24/96 soundcard for Windows PCs.
http://www.rme-audio.de/english/index.htm
RME - Mainpage
Taking a page out of the Neocon playbook
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet... During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws. "No one is interested in destroying anyone's computer," replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to disrupt music downloads. One technique deliberately downloads pirated material very slowly so other users can't. "I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." The senator, a composer who earned $18,000 last year in song writing royalties, acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, "then destroy their computer..." Sen. Patrick Leahy, the committee's senior Democrat, later said the problem is serious but called Hatch's idea too drastic a remedy to be considered. "The rights of copyright holders need to be protected, but some Draconian remedies that have been suggested would create more problems than they would solve," Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement. "We need to work together to find the right answers, and this is not one of them..." Yahoo News
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
I use the mini version of these to listen to music from the 'puter. Astonishing sound.
For real music, I have a Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, currently running a k19 cartridge, some Quad amplification, Nakamichi tape deck, two professional walkmans, one original walkman. Lowe short wave radio with hand cut antenna.
I dont use DAT machines, Mini Discs or any of that bullshit. I dont listen to CDs. I rip and burn them and listen to all digital off of the 'puter.
I've wondered this before, but that Perfect Sound Forever site and the subsequent posts about vinyl have brought it to the shores of my mind again: What kind of music listening setups do you blogdialians use? We've talked gear-tech in other facets of culture (specifically computer hardware, music making devices and photographic cameras come to mind), but never broached the subject of how we listen to music.
The size, the packaging, the weight, the colour, the feel of the needle dropping into the groove...
The sound... :]
Beautyon (No02) is not music, but is a type of "Fine Art Noise", made by and exclusively for digital as it works right now.
$deutche_gramophon_classical_lp is however, music, and can only be properly reproduced correctly if the conditions and setup are right. Once you have experienced it, you will never want to go back...
Here's the bad part about liking tubes, just as it's the bad part about preferring LP's to CD's. The above quote is from Howard Ferstler, a rather pedestrian freelance audio reviewer who simply refuses to accept why some people prefer the sound of LP's and tubed amplifiers. A lot of people, basically the crowd that believes in measurements more than their own ears, will try to tell you tube amplifiers distort the sound, and they're mostly right. Remember back in the '70's, when there was a "total harmonic distortion" war between the Japanese receiver manufacturers? First there was less than .01% THD. Then it was .001. Then there was .0001. So after a while, it was safe to assume that total harmonic distortion went the way of polio and the Chevy Vega. Well, I've seen tube amps with ONE PERCENT total harmonic distortion. That's well into what's easily audible to most people. And I'm not sure, but I think I remember some audio reviewer freaking out over the 3% THD he measured on a fairly recent model of tube amp. What the techies are trying to tell us is that digital music sources played back on modern, efficient solid-state amps are accurate and without distortion, and that we must admit that the distortion itself is what the lovers of LP's and tube amplification are attracted to. And I have to admit that that makes some sense.
But what seems to be alien to most of these individuals is that this is all about subjective preferences. Who cares if there's more distortion, more pops and ticks, more speed variations, more wow and flutter and rumble, if the music we are hearing sounds just like real, live musical performances? And that's what every lover of the sound of LP's, and every lover of the sound of tube amps, will say to explain this preference, that music played on LP's and/or tube amplification simply sounds like real music, instead of some supercharged and sanitized digital version of the same. It's a fairly passionate debate in the audio world, perhaps the biggest issue in music reproduction, next to trying to make money off the downloading of music into people's computers. [...]
Remember when you were a teenager, listening and discovering what your musical tastes were? Remember how easily music would pull you in and make you forget about the rest of the world? Well, with tube amps, I find hitting those same epiphanies is just as easily accomplished as it used to be.[...]
http://www.furious.com/perfect/vinyl38.html
The Opening Salvo
The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Economic murder-suicide By Richard W. Rahn THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published June 12, 2003 On June 3, 2003, the European Commission adopted measures to "tackle harmful tax competition." If the term "harmful tax competition" sounds to you like an oxymoron, you are thinking clearly. The EU's measures are designed to make it easier for them to tax savings but, in reality, will largely destroy the small amount of remaining legal savings by EU citizens. Because of confiscatory levels of taxation, many of those who reside in the EU have moved their savings to the United States and other relatively low tax jurisdictions. For the last several years, many economic scholars and public policy organizations have warned the EU that attempts to reach beyond their borders to tax this so-called flight capital would end in disaster. To understand the problem, assume you are a citizen of France. You save $1,000 and receive an interest payment of $60 (6 percent). Inflation is 3 percent, so your real interest earnings are only $30. However, you must pay a 59.7 percent tax, or $35.82, on the $60 of interest, plus the $30 inflation tax. (Remember, inflation is caused by government producing too much money.) This leaves you a net loss of almost $6 on each $1,000 saved. (In those EU countries where inflation is 3 percent or more and maximum tax rates are 50 percent or more, many savers have effective tax rates on interest of more than 100 percent.) People quickly figure out they are worse off rather than better off by saving; hence, they either move their savings out of the country to a more tax-friendly jurisdiction or stop saving. The EU will receive virtually no increase in tax revenue from these new measures. They will only succeed in driving their citizens to find legal or illegal loopholes. Any reduction in savings rates in the EU will be a disaster. Most of the EU countries are suffering from very low birthrates and rapidly aging populations, plus increasing demands for welfare, medical and retirement benefits. Without high levels of saving, there is no way these benefit payments can be met. It is bad enough that the EU is imposing such measures on its own citizens, but the EU is attempting to go even further by imposing it on non-EU members such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and dependent and associated territories of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, for which it will be economic death. The EU has even had the audacity to try to get the U.S. to go along with this unsavory scheme (some former Clinton administration officials and Treasury bureaucrats thought this was a good idea). The EU bureaucrats realize that if they don't get most of the world to go along with their scam, it will not work. The real world fact is, of course, it will not work no matter what they do. To sell the scam, the EU had to agree to many loopholes, in part so the lawyers and accountants could still sell tax shelters to their well-off clients. The EU has virtually no chance of getting China-controlled Hong Kong, and some other non-EU-controlled jurisdictions to go along. Hence, the real criminal and terrorist money will no longer be in countries where legitimate law enforcement forces of the Western nations can monitor what is happening. How could the EU come up with and sell such an awful idea? The political leaders and bureaucrats of "old Europe" had a problem. In their lust for power and control, they were killing their economies through excessive taxation and regulation. It is often difficult for many people to move from the prison of tax oppressive regimes, but not so financial capital, which could flee by electronic means overnight. Old-fashioned capital controls had both failed and fallen into economic disrepute, so the idea of "harmful tax competition" was suddenly born. Most people understand that when businessmen get together to limit competition, the public interest is rarely served, and the same is true of government bureaucrats. EU officials convinced their bureaucratic lackeys at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop the concept of "harmful tax competition" to justify trying to force all of the world's countries to jack up their tax rates to French-like levels. More objective and competent economists have clearly demonstrated that the concept of "harmful tax competition" is without intellectual merit, particularly given that most countries have taxes far above the revenue and growth maximizing rates, so tax competition can only be beneficial. However, these destructive measures have given the U.S. an opportunity to challenge the failed European economic model in a very public way. Our government leaders should make it clear that the U.S. wants foreign capital and is willing to provide it with strong legal protections and lower tax rates. The U.S. has just lowered taxes on capital with the capital gains and dividend rate cuts. Our government should also state that we will not be party to any blanket financial information-sharing schemes designed to milk the world's savers. We should go further and say that any of the associated political jurisdictions of the European countries that wish to declare independence from their European overlords, rather than see their economies destroyed, will have the necessary support of the U.S. Such a policy is clearly in our own self-interest because most of the money that flows through low tax jurisdictions comes from Europe and Latin America and is invested in the U.S. Also, if we allow the Europeans to destroy the economies of the low-tax jurisdictions, the U.S., not Europe, is going to face a new and major refugee problem. In the 1770s, a certain European nation tried to stuff a destructive tax regime down the throats of the American Colonies. We certainly ought not to let Europe try this gambit on us and our friends again, 230 years later. Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute.
Monday, June 16, 2003
Ive had about 7 gameboys (original[3], original clear, original yellow, pocket[2]) and have 40 games. I "specialized" in Puzzle games.
All of my GB tales are to do with high scores or endurance; Qix, Tetris, DrX Mario, beating othello on the expert level, finishing japanese import RPGs in japanese...the usual stuff.
There has been some great music on GB...I have always wondered who did the music for the Natsume games; that dude was a genius.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-1017333.html
Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet
By Declan McCullagh
June 16, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
One of the finest days in Internet law dawned on June 12, 1996, when
U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell wrote an opinion that was
remarkable for its clarity and prescience. At the time, Dalzell was
serving on a three-judge panel that rejected the absurd Communications
Decency Act as a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free
expression.
Dalzell recognized that the U.S. government's true fear of the
Internet was not indecency or obscenity, but hypothetical worries
about how "too much speech occurs in that medium." Dalzell and
eventually the Supreme Court realized that the best way to foster the
soon-to-be spectacular growth of the Internet was to reduce government
regulation--not to increase it.
Unfortunately, Europeans still haven't quite figured that out. The
Council of Europe--an influential quasi-governmental body that drafts
conventions and treaties--is meeting on Monday to finalize a proposal
that veers in exactly the opposite direction. (It boasts 45 member
states in Europe, with the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico
participating as non-voting members. Its budget is about $200 million
a year, paid for by member governments.)
The all-but-final proposal draft says that Internet news
organizations, individual Web sites, moderated mailing lists and even
Web logs (or "blogs"), must offer a "right of reply" to those whom an
organization criticizes.
With clinical precision, the council's bureaucracy had decided exactly
what would be required. Some excerpts from its proposal:
o "The reply should be made publicly available in a prominent place
for a period of time (that) is at least equal to the period of time
during which the contested information was publicly available, but, in
any case, no less than for 24 hours."
o Hyperlinking to a reply is acceptable. "It may be considered
sufficient to publish (the reply) or make available a link to it" from
the spot of the original mention.
o "So long as the contested information is available online, the
reply should be attached to it, for example through a clearly visible
link."
o Long replies are fine. "There should be flexibility regarding the
length of the reply, since there are (fewer) capacity limits for
content than (there are) in off-line media."
[...remainder snipped...]
For many people, its bullshit like this that is the true reason why we are so pissed off with the USA. Europeans are so dumb when it comes to the rights of the individual, that they may as well be talking about pigs as humans when they legislate.
America was always the place where this sort of thing could not wash. Ashcroft/Bush/Cheney & co ruined it all in a short number of years, and now there is basically no where left to turn to.
This is the TRUE tragedy. Sad, aweful and repulsive in every way possible, and some ways that are impossible.
MI6 'asked Football Association to act as Cold War spies'
By Kim Sengupta
Independent 16 June 2003
^
^
EAVESDROPPERS LISTEN IN ON MOBILE CALLS
With the explosion in the use of mobile telephones, GCHQ, the Government's
eavesdropping centre, and its American counterparts have had to initiate
new ways of tracking conversations.
A national mobile telephone system is made up of a series of stations and
once a handset is switched on it automatically searches for the base
station with the strongest signal. The base stations are controlled by a
Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) and GCHQ can track a caller up to
a distance of about 12 miles - the usual catchment area of a station.
In The Spying Game, the author, Michael Smith, says that even if no
conversation takes place, the intelligence services can hear what is being
said at a telephone's immediate vicinity as long as it is switched on.
The National Security Agency in the United States and GCHQ have also
perfected ways of breaking the encryption systems of the mobile telephones.
In a process known as Meaconing an intercepting device can in effect take
control of a mobile telephone's signals. Calls are then channelled through
a counterfeit station, which allows the eavesdroppers to listen in without
the targets knowing what is happening.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=415854
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Message from the Hopi, People of Peace:
You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go
back and tell them that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living? What are you doing?
What are your relationships? Are you in right relation?
Where is your water? Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth. Create your community.
Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and so swift that
there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination. The Elders say we must let go of the
shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our
heads above water. See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all,
ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey,
comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that
we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
-The Elders, Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi
Police will ru(i)n internet after terrorist attack
David Leppard WIDE-RANGING powers to enable the police to run the internet and the rest of Britain�s information superhighway in the event of a terrorist attack will be unveiled this week. The Civil Contingencies Bill will seek to modernise Britain�s response to national emergencies by protecting the country from attacks on the infrastructure including the �electronic network� and the water, electricity and telephone systems. Airlines, the transport network, town halls and the postal service could also come under police direction in the event of a national disaster. The bill, to be unveiled by Douglas Alexander, a senior Cabinet Office minister, this Thursday will give ministers powers to issue orders to internet service providers and those utilities that rely on the web. It will also lay down new rules to ensure that all local authorities have audited plans to deal with potential threats. Senior officers will have powers to enlist any member of the public to help civil defence staff. They will be able to commandeer equipment and buildings, for which the owners will receive financial compensation. However, in a move designed to allay fears that the bill could pave the way for regional police states, ministers have decided against giving the police powers to run the BBC. The police already have extensive authority to control some parts of the national infrastructure and order rapid evacuation of large areas, such as city centres. But ministers say the existing 1920 Emergency Powers Act is out of date. �The bill will recognise the new scale of threat by widening the definition of what an emergency is,� said one Whitehall source. �We are concerned that people might try to target the City or the information network and the internet. �A serious attack to stop information being circulated through the internet and electronic highway was not envisaged by the original act. The new bill will allow police to take on special legislative measures to deal with the threat.� A draft version of the bill proposes that ministers will be able to invoke regional or local states of emergency with any situation that �causes or may cause serious harm to the welfare of the public�. These range from an accident involving motor traffic, flooding or an environmental disaster to a biological, chemical or nuclear dirty bomb attack. Officials yesterday played down the suggestion that the bill would give police draconian new powers but pointed out it would allow the powers to be used in wider areas. �The bill is about timely modernisation, about bringing things up to the 21st century,� said one insider. �Computer networks, water, electricity and gas utilities could all be targets and obviously that has big knock-on effects. �The more we get information online, the more people have broadband, the more that hospitals and electricity generators rely on the internet and electronic information.� Firemen as well as police will be able to cordon off streets to remove or contain people in the event of a major terrorist attack. Those impeding a police officer or civil contingency force soldier will face big fines or could be restrained by force. The Times
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Friday, June 13, 2003
Alex, I have been in one of those vehicles. On New Year's eve, a friend rented it. We were quite amazed. The ceiling was mirrored, and there were many tiny blue lights. I believe there was champagne too, and the inevitable we-have-to-stop-for-money-and-cigarettes trip, with 12 people. Fun!
I wish I had more money. Which sounds shallow, but I do. My grandparents sold their house, and are moving in two weeks. I have known for a while, but it is this particular week that the emotional self decided she needed some attention. God damn it hurts. I am happy that they are moving somewhere safer for them, they are getting old and living on the island is too far away. But the house! I wish I could buy the house. I have known this place all of my life, so many memories, spirits there ... I am continually amazed at how all at once we can be squeezed by grief. And this is one of those times, if I had some money, I wouldn't be crying over a loss, things would just be shifting. There would be a different configuration to this. Ah well, can't fight it, just have to feel it ...
SAN JOSE, Calif. � May 19, 2003 (NASDAQ: ADBE) � Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced an agreement to acquire the technology assets of Syntrillium Software, a leader in digital audio tools. Syntrillium's flagship product, Cool Edit Pro, will join the company's existing line of professional digital video products that include Adobe� Premiere�, Adobe After Effects�, Adobe Encore� DVD and Adobe Photoshop�.
nizzle
"sheh-zul" Click once to rate this definition: (votes: 110)
History-derived from Snoop Doggy Dizzle
1.a substitution for the sylables at the ends of various words.(commonly used to get a laugh out of your drunk friends while shooting pool at one's girlfriend's house.
Ex.1-(Without "izzle") "Rack up the balls and lets shoot some pool."
(With "izzle") "Rizzle up the bizzles and lizzle sizzle some pizzle.
Ex.2-(Without "izzle") "I really need to take a piss very badly."
(With "izzle") "I rizzle nizzle to tizzle a pizzle vizzle bizzle.
Urban Dictionary
An astonished shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, said: "To remake constitutions on the hoof, on the basis of personnel changes within the cabinet, is the height of irresponsibility. To announce it in a press release at 5.45pm on a Thursday evening is nothing short of a disgrace."[...]
The Guardian
How is it that a single government can, without consulting anyone, eviscerate the british constitution without consultation with anyone???
Bizarre.
Is downloading copyrighted music tantamount to stealing?
Lawrence Lessig, an expert on Internet law from Stanford University's Law School, and Matt Oppenheim, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America, answer your questions about the debate over digital copyrights.
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Egypian Singer not censored by Mr Madkur Thabet and his peace preserving sissor clacking office of jackasses.
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Egypt bans US blockbuster movie Matrix Reloaded
Wed Jun 11, 1:03 PM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - The Hollywhood science fiction hit movie Matrix Reloaded has been banned in Egypt for threatening to offend traditional religious views on the creation of humankind, the chief censor revealed.
The director of artistic censorship, Madkur Thabet, said that "despite its excellent technical level, the film was banned because it deals with subjects like human existence and creation.
"And these are questions linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in," Thabet added. "These questions have in the past provoked crises and tension."
He said the decision was taken by a "committee of university professors and cinema experts."
In addition, he said, "the film has too many scenes of violence at a time when we are trying to fight this phenomenon." [...]
Yahoo News
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
I always liked Agfa colour film, it had a lovely cyan punch in the blues.
I only wear a watch when I am touring, so I can sync with the other docents. Otherwise, I tend to lose them. And there always seems to be a clock around if I need one. And of course, the sun. :}
Favorites:
Denman Island Chocolate and/or Dutch Girl Chocolate
Le Casa Gelato
Nature's Path Heritage Flakes
Amore Organic Raw Buffalo for the fur monster.
H20
hmmm im not talking about our access logs, but the list of people who followed a link to us from another page, that link appearing somewhere in the iaea site:
i grepped our access logs for ieaa, and:
62.163.108.206 - - [31/Mar/2003:14:42:11 +0100] "GET /RIVNDL3.PDF HTTP/1.0" 200 342115 "http://www.iaea.org" "Mozilla/3.0 (compatible)"
62.163.108.206 - - [08/Jun/2003:19:32:02 +0100] "GET /RIVNDL3.PDF HTTP/1.0" 200 342115 "http://www.iaea.org" "Mozilla/3.0 (compatible)"
62.163.108.206 - - [10/Jun/2003:09:02:44 +0100] "GET /RIVNDL3.PDF HTTP/1.0" 200 342115 "http://www.iaea.org" "Mozilla/3.0 (compatible)"
hmmmmm
I will stick to any brand that provides the right quality price ratio.
I dont eat any chocolate that comes out of a factory, for example, not even Lindt, the best of the factory made chocolate.
I love Polaroid film; but I dont buy it because of the brand, but because what it is is excellent. If it suddenly became a poor quality product, I wouldnt touch it again. The same goes for SONY. The Professional Walkman, of which i have two, is superb, but I would not touch one of their portable digital music devices because they are pure evil.
You are only as good as your last product; I am the most disloyal of brand loyalists.
In Japan there are certain things one does not do because they are thought to cause bad luck. A few examples are:
* The number four:
The number four is considered inauspicious because it is pronounced the same as the word for death (shi). Therefore, one should not make presents that consit of four pieces, etc. In some hotels and hospitals the room number four is skipped.
* Stick chopsticks into the rice:
Do not stick your chopsicks into your food generally, but especially not into rice, because only at funerals, chopsticks are stuck into the rice which is put onto the altar.
* Give food from chopstick to chopstick:
This is only done with the bones of the cremated body at funerals.
* Sleeping towards the North:
Do not sleep towards the North beacause bodies are laid down like that.
* Funeral Car:
If a funeral car passes you should hide your thumb.
* Cut nails at night:
If you cut your nails at night, you will not be with your parents when they die.
* Lie down after eating:
If you lie down immedeately after eating, you will become a cow.
* Whistle in the night:
If you whistle in the night, a snake will come to you.
* Black cat:
There are also some imported superstitions such as the believe that black cats crossing the street in front of you cause bad luck.
Monday, June 09, 2003
i don't agree that tolls are the answer ...
the UK doesnt have wide experience of toll booths, they work, do not interupt the flow of trafic significantly they are simple to install and operate, and dont violate your rights.
This sattelite system is being proposed because some shlumberger type of company made a presentation to HMG showing how it can be done. Just because it can be done, doesnt mean that it should be done.
any anxiety generated by fear of having my whereabouts known at all times would be considerably less than the stress generated by countless bottlenecks caused by excessive tolling
just as the congestion charge removes cars from the roads, toll booths no only take money from drivers, but prevent drivers from getting on the road in the first place which is the whole point.
... anyway, with the demise of cash, tolls would have to be paid for using plastic which would contain details that can be traced ...
[child_whine_voice]Anthonyyyyyyyyy!!!![/child_whine_voice]
"they are already halfway up your ass, so why not push it all the way in?"
No No No!
Sunday, June 08, 2003
School run tolls to cut roads chaos
Satellite tracking plan to charge all rush-hour drivers
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday June 8, 2003
The Observer
Drivers are facing the biggest revolution in the history of British motoring with charges for using crowded roads during the school run and 'rush hour' tolls for commuters as part of sweeping new plans to ease congestion.
In a move that will infuriate some motorists and delight environmentalists, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling wants cars to be fitted with a satellite tracking device to clock journeys, with drivers subsequently billed for their travel, as part of controversial proposals to end the roads crisis.
Commuters, school-run parents and motorway users would bear the brunt of a variable system, where charges would be highest for rush-hour travel and for using the most congested roads. But the Government is likely to scrap car tax or cut petrol tax when the charges are introduced, as a sweetener to avoid a backlash from motorists.
In his first public foray into the debate, Darling told The Observer there could be serious civil liberties implications in monitoring the movements of 24 million drivers nationwide by satellite. [...]
The Guardian
This is, of course, total bullshit. You do not need sattelite tracking to charge cars to use a road, you need TOLL BOOTHS.
You pay with cash at a toll booth, no one knows who you are or where you are going, the congestion charge is taken, and no civil liberty abusing system is created for a future govt to abuse.
As for stopping the school run, and charging on roads too small to have a toll, you simply increase the tax you have to pay on a car depending on where you live. If you live in central london, it costs 3650 per year to operate a car. Period. If you want to drive into london, it costs you 10, and this is for ALL of london not just the center.
You pay with cash at a toll booth, no one knows who you are or where you are going, the congestion charge is taken, and no civil liberty abusing system is created for a future govt to abuse.
As for stopping the school run, and charging on roads too small to have a toll, you simply increase the tax you have to pay on a car depending on where you live. If you live in central london, it costs 3650 per year to operate a car. Period. If you want to drive into london, it costs you 10, and this is for ALL of london not just the center.
Saturday, June 07, 2003
Herman Blume! Your twin sons are morons, your wife flaunts her
infidelity in your face, you've been sued for
divorce, and it doesn't seem like much else
could go wrong. While you are a nice enough
guy, you still have some issues to work out.
Like how you hate yourself. Keep your chin up,
and in the future try to avoid getting mixed up
with more-than-just-weird 15 year olds.
The painfully obvious (but hopefully amusing) 'Which Rushmore character are you?' quiz
brought to you by Quizilla
While I don't have any lists of WASTE networks, I do have a lot of resources as I spent the better half of a day researching the topic.
Mailing Lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waste-discuss/ (42 members)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waste_email/ (4 members)
Sites (with links to others):
http://www.northarc.com/waste_web/
http://grazzy.mjoelkbar.net/waste/
Forums:
http://waste.kicks-ass.net/forums/index.php
http://www.northarc.com/waste_web/forums/
http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=10940 (Thread)
Slashdot Threads:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/29/0140241&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=93
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/31/1259206&mode=thread&tid=120&tid=126&tid=187&tid=95
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/04/169214&mode=thread&tid=120&tid=187
Mirrors (of the pulled Nullsoft Site / Waste Program Setup & Source):
http://waste.2mbit.com/index.html (Index of Mirrors)
http://johnli.vort-x.net/waste/mirrors.txt (List of Mirrors & What They Have On Them)
Project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/waste
Justin Frankel (Founder of Nullsoft, and subsequently Waste):
http://www.1014.org/
Friday, June 06, 2003
How strange. My 20AC t-shirt just arrived yesterday at the post office. And it will be a gorgeous weekend, so I will wear it everywhere. You are putting us in a difficult position, Akin, taking down your merch. My first thought is to buy all of your items I've been wanting, but that's more of my $$ towards blood.
And even stranger, the theme of women's equality has been coming up the past few days. I was touring a bunch of kids around the gallery yesterday, they were 11, teaching them how to look (awakening consciousness?) at Emily Carr's paintings. Emily Carr was an unusual person, she decided early in her life to make art instead of the more traditional role of wife and mother (this is the early 20th century, Victorian times). She spent a lot of her life travelling alone through the coast of BC, painting totem poles and the forest. I could see the looks of confusion on the girls' faces especially, why would it be strange for a women to paint outside? Or to not get married? They are not aware of the history, that these freedoms we enjoy, they have not always been.
And yet, still sexism. One of my friends, over dinner, telling me of office politics, that there is the rumor that people (men) follow her deadlines only because they all want to please her because they are attracted to her. And she is so hurt, because she works damn hard, she is terribly smart, and also incredibly beautiful. And it is used as a weapon to undermine her confidence (which I am wondering now if that rumor came from a woman? we can be so cruel to our sisters). Meanwhile tapping on a glass ceiling ... I told her to start looking for something else, there are more equal places of work, where they will recognize her brilliance, these are small people, and why should she constantly clean her psyche of their small perceptions?
I could go for hours on this ... must work. Happy Friday!
One consequence is that consumers are more alert to influences than ever before. It doesn't take a professional music critic to spot the Faint's debt to Duran Duran and Gary Numan. Andrew Male, deputy editor of Mojo magazine, says: "Previously the whole idea was to find a record that nobody knew about, rip it off, then everyone would think it was original. But now that's harder to do, because everyone knows about everything."
The Guardian
Hmmmm with a more vicious slant it could have been something that I wrote when I first started irdial-list. Check out the list of groups at the end!
A ticket to a blood music festival:
Huh? Because it's on American soil I presume? Anyway it's been postponed no?
Sigur R�s are/were playing. If you're serious about this American boycott you should start promoting it, especially with bands. Sigur R�s and a lot of other bands on that line up are staunchly anti war. If you can get backing and publicity then you really have hit on something.
It needs to spread world wide, quickly, to be effective.
If no one knows, it won't work. If a bear shits in the wood, does anyone smell it?
If a bomb drops in Iran, does it explode/kill/make a noise? That�s the right question.
I have been discussing AC10 with someone, and cleaned up the website considerably. It has not been launched yet, while we think about it, tweak it, so far, in private.
Don't do anything that relies on media cooperation
Hmm... That's a tough one.
Did you not see how the media distorted the 2m march? If we trust journalists to tell the truth about this (which they have a mandate not to do) then we are setting ourselves up to fail. The anti apartheid movement didn�t have ubiquitous email and weblogs to spread their message; it was done person to person, with leafleting and talking. It worked. Now, with the tools that we have to hand we should be able to mobilize an incredibly huge force, like the stopwar people did (a few people in a room with some PCs).
Also, I am doing some work for Americans. These people are my friends. They run an independent record label, and work with other equally independent labels across the globe. They too are anti war, in fact I believe one of them was arrested on an anti war demonstration in New York. Should I not work for them? How can they go on running a business, supporting themselves, their families and independent music and still live in America.
When the cultural boycott of South Africa was running, no one with any morals would play there. As you can see in my earlier post, artists specifically forbade the performance of their works in SA. Michelle Shocked sued a company for breaching that part of her contract. The whole point of a cultural boycott (which includes sport and science as well as the arts) is that the people of the boycotted country as well as the government are sent the clearest message that they cannot continue to behave in the way that they are behaving, that what they are doing is wrong, and that it has to be stopped. Playing a music concert in America explicitly shows that you are FOR its policies, for if you were not, you would never play a concert there.
As for them being your friends, I have friends there too, and family. No one wants to have to do this, in the same way that no one wants war, but there is no alternative, since petitioning, lobbying, diplomacy and demonstrating are proven useless.
Should you work with them? If working with them means that you are financing the war machine, what do you think the answer should be? If they are not using their money to finance the war machine, then that is another story. For certain, if someone that I know is in the USA and is refusing to feed the war machine, then I can deal with them in every way.
On this subject, I am about to nuke all the caf� press stuff that we have set up. This is unfortunate for us; it�s a great service, but at the end of the day, I can�t use it and still be practicing what I preach; I know for a fact that they support the war machine, and until I hear from them that they do not, I am duty bound not to let them take our property, manufacture it and then use a part of the proceeds feed the war machine.
Although I support the core issues with 20AC there are specifics I'm not sure on. I want to know the answers to my questions, or at least, know where to look for these answers.
If the answers are not on the page we have created, then we have not got it right. Your question will go into the FAQ.
For your own personal education, you for sure should read up on the cultural boycott of South Africa. This boycott was extremely effective in shaming South Africa into becoming a civilized part of the family of nations. Incredibly, it happened twenty years ago.
Huh? Because it's on American soil I presume?
SOME IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MOVEMENT FOR A CULTURAL BOYCOTT AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA
[Note by the United Nations Centre against Apartheid, 1983]
The cultural boycott of South Africa became an important aspect of the anti-apartheid movement in 1961 when the British Musicians Union adopted a policy decision that its members should not perform in South Africa as long as apartheid exists.
In 1963, forty-five prominent British playwrights signed a Declaration announcing that they had instructed their agents to insert a clause in all future contracts automatically refusing performing rights in any theatre "where discrimination is made among audiences on grounds of colour." Subsequently, the Declaration received adherence from many playwrights in other countries.
The boycott in the United Kingdom was encouraged in 1964 when Marlon Brando, on a visit to London, took part in a vigil outside the South African Embassy for the release of South African political prisoners and launched an appeal to actors, producers, directors and script-writers to write a clause into all future contracts forbidding the screening of their films before segregated audiences.
Also in 1964, the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement promoted a declaration signed by 28 Irish playwrights that they would not permit their work to be performed before segregated audiences in South Africa.
In 1965, the British Screenwriters Guild called for a ban on the distribution of British films in South Africa. The British Actors� Union, Equity, invited individual members to sign a declaration pledging not to work in South Africa: it was signed by many of Britain�s most prominent actors. [...]
anc.org.za
We have to repeat these things again and again, so that the history is not forgotten. It was twenty years ago, so you will not remember "aint gonna play sun city" and the ferocity of the cultural boycott.
Someone asked me this in an email (about the Vagina Power shirts & stuff):
> She saw 'Vagina Power' and asked why there was no Cock Power.
"Cock Power" is everywhere; it has been there for thousands of years. Even today, "les femmes" get paid less money for same job that men do, across the board. If I were a female, I would not put up with it for one second. If I were a female, I would not let a parliament or congress of men legislate to what extent I can control my body (reproduction). If I were a woman, I would demand and express total Vagina Power.
The way women are mistreated in the west is a scandal. From the way childbirth is mechanized and dehumanized by men, who have deliberately set out to destroy midwifery, to their not even having the vote until recently, women have been mistreated and systematically undermined in a way and on a scale equalled only by man's treatment of farm animals. Its wrong, its unnaceptable, I wouldnt take it, hence, Vagina Power!
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Not really into WEEN anymore ... but this made me laugh.
--
from WEEN.com:
Where'd The Cheese Go?
Earlier in 2002 we were hired by the largest advertising firm in the country to write music for a Pizza Hut commercial. Pizza Hut had hired them to come up with a whole new image to promote their new Pizza, "The Insider" which had all the cheese inside the crust. In keeping in line with their new cutting edge image, the agency hired Ween to do the music, and we delivered in a big way. Unfortunately, they didn't like a single piece of the 6 tunes we submitted and they had us rewriting the song every day for a couple of weeks before they hired someone else. In my opinion, it is one of the best tunes we wrote all last year. Click on the links below to hear our 2 masterpieces.
http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/ween/ween_new/cheese.mp3
,http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/ween/ween_new/cheese2.mp3
[...]Home Office ministers however have shown worrying signs of tidying up in odd ways. In April minister Beverley Hughes told the Commons that 2,000 responses had been received, a number which is of the order of the 1,500 Falconer prepared earlier, and which therefore sounds strangely like a consultation in which 6,000 or so online responses have been miraculously disappeared. Simon Davies of Privacy International made enquiries about this, and made an Open Government request for statistics and related information concerning the consultation. Yesterday, however, Davies says a Home Office official told him this request had been rejected.
Davies further claims that Privacy International had previously been "informally notified by Home Office officials that a decision had been made to 'collapse' the 6,000 responses into one or two by treating them as a single petition." Which might explain how 8,000 could become 2,000, and how Beverley Hughes could be happily giving Parliament the lower figure several months after the 6,000 were submitted.
The Home Office claims the Open Government request was rejected owing to a question submitted by Anne McIntosh MP asking the number and preferences of responses sent via stand.org. The existence of this question, they argue, means provide Privacy International with the information would be a breach of Parliamentary procedure. Davies disputes this, and in any event they don't seem to have given McIntosh any numbers yet either. [...]
The Register
The computer industry is threatened by a wild west-style land grab. The biggest, richest players are being assisted by governments to take unassailable exclusive control of the ideas that programmers combine to make a program.
Our society is becoming more dependent on information technology. At the same time, centralised control over and ownership of the information technology field is increasing, and mega-corporations with law-given dominion over our computers could take away our freedoms and democracy. With an effective monopoly on modern software, the largest grabbers of the "land" will have control over what we can ask our computers to do, and control over production and distribution of information on the net, through monopolies that the EU plans to give them.
The monopolies are patents that restrict use of these software ideas. We call them "software patents" because they restrict what we programmers can make software do. How do these monopolies work?
If you wish to use your computer as a word processor, it must follow instructions that tell it how to act like a word processor. This is analogous to instructions found on a musical score, which tell an orchestra how to play a symphony. The instructions are not simple. They are made up of thousands of smaller instructions, much like sequences of notes and chords. A symphonic score embodies hundreds of musical ideas, and a computer program uses hundreds or thousands of software ideas. Since each idea is abstract, there are often different ways to describe it: thus, some ideas can be patented in multiple ways.
The US, which has had software patents since the 1980s, shows what this can do to the development of everyday software. For example, in the US there are 39 monopoly claims over a standard way of showing video using software (the MPeg 2 format).
Since a single piece of software can embody thousands of ideas together, and those ideas are arbitrary in scope and abstract in nature, writing software will only be worthwhile for those who are rich and have a large software monopoly portfolio: those with the war chest and clout to fight off claims that might otherwise sink a business. In the US, the average cost of defending against an invalid patent claim is $1.5m. The courts favour the wealthy, so even when a small business gets a few patents, it will find them useless. [...]
The Guardian
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Ive been trying to run waste with a blogdialler for two days, and have had no joy yet; I cant connect to him and he cannot connect to me, thoug we can connect with ourselvs perfectly. Im not sure what we are doing wrong: anyone want to try waste with me email me!
As for waste compiling on OSX, AFAIK the only released version is for Windoze, though no doubt several people are porting it to every platform.
I do not rule out the possibility that much of humankind have some "desire" (?) to allow themselves to be crippled.
"Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered; where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. So the perfect world we dreamed, but your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why The Matrix was redesigned to this...the peak of your civilization."
What does this mean?
That you are psychic, without a doubt.
Splitting things into sub/conscious is a simplification I am not prepared to accept. We are whole.
What is it that does the observing when you are dreaming? It is not your concious mind, but is something else. It is this something else that is the real you, the self, which is a separate entity from your thoughts.
Just before I go to bed tonight I'm going to start uploading my latest album mp3s, you'll find them on the discogrpahy page. Due my slow connection it'll probably take a few hours though. While on the subject of free music, check out Irdial. They've made their entire catalogue free to download. A goldmine if you're into something a bit different in the electronic and experimental fields.
http://www.danbrusca.com/blog0304.shtml
CURRENT TOP 10
* Aqua Regia: Directory Inquiries (Irdial)
* Autechre: The Cavity Job EP (Hardcore)
* Kettel: Days For Bennet (KracFive)
* Condor: Big One (Namack)
* DINbOT: The Beastie Bop (White/Mash-Up)
* Parlour: Googler (Temporary Residence)
* Baboon: Secret Robot Control (Wind Up)
* Sonna: Smile And.. (Temporary Residence)
* Dizzee Rascal: We Ain't Havin It (White Label)
* Various Artists: Superlongevity 2 (Perlon)
http://www.shinerclay.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
A Theory of Everything
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
As President Bush meets other world leaders this weekend, and tries to patch things up between America and the rest of the planet, I find myself looking back and asking: What's been going on here? After 9/11 people wondered, "Why do they hate us?" speaking of the Muslim world. After the Iraq war debate, the question has grown into, "Why does everybody else hate us?"
I've sketched out my own answer, which I modestly call "A Brief Theory of Everything." I offer it here, even more briefly, in hopes that people will write in with comments or catcalls so I can continue to refine it, turn it into a quick book and pay my daughter's college tuition. Here goes:
During the 1990's, America became exponentially more powerful � economically, militarily and technologically � than any other country in the world, if not in history. Broadly speaking, this was because the collapse of the Soviet empire, and the alternative to free-market capitalism, coincided with the Internet-technology revolution in America. The net effect was that U.S. power, culture and economic ideas about how society should be organized became so dominant (a dominance magnified through globalization) that America began to touch people's lives around the planet � "more than their own governments," as a Pakistani diplomat once said to me. Yes, we began to touch people's lives � directly or indirectly � more than their own governments.
As people realized this, they began to organize against it in a very inchoate manner. The first manifestation of that was the 1999 Seattle protest,
What protest was that? Typically, you think that everyone in the world concentrates on what is happening in the USA, I assure you that this is not the case, and whenever it is the case, it is not for lack of something else to look at, but because we want to make sure that bombs are not about to drom on our heads unnanounced.
which triggered a global movement.
So it, like everything else in the world, started in America. Riiiiiiiight.
Seattle had its idiot side, but what the serious protesters there were saying was: "You, America, are now touching my life more than my own government.
Were these american protesters in seattle. or non american protesters? Are you saying that the hundreds of millions of people outside the usa all sent representatives to protest I-dont-know-what in seattle. Honestly!
You are touching it by how your culture seeps into mine, by how your technologies are speeding up change in all aspects of my life, and by how your economic rules have been `imposed' on me.
That you put the word imposed in qoutes is telling. Its part of what you dont understand about why the world now hates america. america is now freezing the money of people in other countries by confiscating the sums from banks that have correspondent branches in the USA. This one of the more outrageous and recent impositions on the people and economies of other countries. There are many examples. Perhaps you should do some homework and look them up.
I want to have a vote on how your power is exercised, because it's a force now shaping my life."
By the sound of this, americans were protesting something in america. No outsider would be demanding a vote in the us system. Clear thinkig is good for everyone; try it.
Why didn't nations organize militarily against the U.S.?
Now this is the extraordinary part; only an american would imagine that a military response is appropriate when a country is faced with the economic sucess of another nation. How completely absurd that you would think such a thing. But it has to be said that in the light of your country's recent behaviour, it is not in the slightest bit surprising. You americans think that the military response is the answer to everything; the first option that you go for before all others. Someone is growing Marijuana or Poppies in another country; bomb the fields. It is totally repulsive and barbaric, and shocking to us in the civilized world, that you could write such a thing seriously.
Astonishing!
Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas That Conquered the World," answers: "One prominent international relations school � the realists � argues that when a hegemonic power, such as America, emerges in the global system other countries will naturally gang up against it. But because the world basically understands that America is a benign hegemon, the ganging up does not take the shape of warfare. Instead, it is an effort to Gulliverize America, an attempt to tie it down, using the rules of the World Trade Organization or U.N. � and in so doing demanding a vote on how American power is used."
OR the WTO and the international court of justice, the UN and the other international treaties and organizations written and formed by civilized men could just be trying to create a more equitable world. This never occurs to americans, because they are drunk with power, delusional, insular and eager as a forest fire to spread their poison, in every sense of the world, all over the world.
There is another reason for this nonmilitary response. America's emergence as the hyperpower is happening in the age of globalization, when economies have become so intertwined that China, Russia, France or any other rivals cannot hit the U.S. without wrecking their own economies.
Everywhere is boycotting USA goods and the dollar itself, from the poorest student in Bangalore to George Soros. Lets see what happens.
The only people who use violence are rogues or nonstate actors with no stakes in the system, such as Osama bin Laden. Basically, he is in a civil war with the Saudi ruling family. But, he says to himself, "The Saudi rulers are insignificant. To destroy them you have to hit the hegemonic power that props them up � America."
Once again, an astounding piece of ignorance. What OBL wants is very simple. He has said this time and time again. In writing. What he (and a billion other) want is simple. No one hates america because you have great riches, or your much vaunted "Freedom" (which you all seem eager to throw away at the drop of a hat). Get over it. america is hated because it is doing wrong all over the world, and has done so for decades. Everyone is fed up with you. Enough is enough.
Hence, 9/11. This is where the story really gets interesting. Because suddenly, Puff the Magic Dragon � a benign U.S. hegemon touching everyone economically and culturally � turns into Godzilla, a wounded, angry, raging beast touching people militarily.
Suddenly??? Vietnam, Korea, and the endless list of countries where you have assasinated, murdered, invaded, corrupted, propped dictators and sold deadly arms? THIS is why everyone hates you; you publicly deny that you have done evil for generations, as if none of us remember recent history like your drug addled countrymen. Despicable, dreadful, immoral, inhumane and utterly bad; that sums you up.
Now, people become really frightened of us, a mood reinforced by the Bush team's unilateralism.
we are not frightened, we are sickened.
With one swipe of our paw we smash the Taliban.
You utterly foolish man, Taliban 2 is just over the horizon, and they will be even more deadly to you. No doubt, your CIA is funding its creation right now like it funded the creation of the first Taleban.
Then we turn to Iraq. Then the rest of the world says, "Holy cow! Now we really want a vote over how your power is used." That is what the whole Iraq debate was about.
Once again, you are completely and insanely wrong. The Iraq "debate" was a simple matter of facts and international law, something with which americans do not concern themselvs.
People understood Iraq was a war of choice that would affect them, so they wanted to be part of the choosing. We said, sorry, you don't pay, you don't play.
Oh dear, this childish rhyming language, as infuriating as it is sad. "First to go, last to know" (from the vietnam era). People with such a poor command of english should not be writing for the New York Times...one would have thought.
"Where we are now," says Nayan Chanda, publications director at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization (whose Web site yaleglobal .yale.edu is full of valuable nuggets), "is that you have this sullen anger out in the world at America. Because people realize they are not going to get a vote over American power, they cannot do anything about it, but they will be affected by it."
This "sullen anger" is going to be the death of you. One way or another, you will be tamed, boxed in and rendered harmless. You are now, officailly, the skunk of the world, that title formerly held by South Africa. And the world knows what to do with a skunk.
Finding a stable way to manage this situation will be critical to managing America's relations with the rest of the globe. Any ideas?
Boycott america.
Let's hear 'em: thfrie@nytimes.com
but none of you seem to be able to LISTEN!
NYT
A: Yes dumb dumb! I already explain this at beginning. Why you too lazy to read first before you ask obvious question like this? People on Internet not very smart.:
http://www.origamiboulder.com/
Don't forget to remind them that your unit emits ZERO harmful, cancer causing, RF (radio frequency) signals. And, even though it arrived without a manual, you have mastered it!:
http://www.thedaily.com/paperpalm.html
Monday, June 02, 2003
Gracious me, this can be filed under "One that slipped by"; it is now a crime (has been for three years) to:
"Wear(ing) any item to dress in support of a proscribed organisation"
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/cm030522/text/30522w31.htm#30522w31.html_sbhd3
Which means that its a crime to wear a $terrorist_organization t-shirt! This must be a violation of many many acts protecting free speech.
US 'is an empire in denial'
Historian accuses Washington of failing to face the facts Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent Monday June 2, 2003 The Guardian The United States is a "danger to the world" because of its denial that it is a military and economic empire, according to Niall Ferguson, historian and new-found darling of the American right. Prof Ferguson is author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, the book whose tie-in TV series controversially concentrated on the liberalising latter days of the British empire. He said that America's refusal to admit to "what it was" meant it risked never learning the lessons of British expansionism. "The United States is the empire that dare not speak its name. It is an empire in denial, and US denial of this poses a real danger to the world. An empire that doesn't recognise its own power is a dangerous one." [...] He told his audience that, with military bases in three-quarters of the countries of the world, and 31% of all wealth, America made the British empire at its zenith in 1920, when a quarter of the globe was pink, look "like a half-baked thing".[...] The Guardian
Fiscal Trail Blazer: Colorado�s Taxpayer Bill of Rights is leading the way
by Michael New November 6, 2002 Michael J. New is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. During the 1990s conservatives and libertarians won some of their most impressive victories at the state level. Some of these achievements have received a great deal of attention. Indeed, individuals such as Ward Connerly, Ron Unz, and Clint Bolick deserve a great deal of recognition for their respective efforts to repeal racial preferences, end bilingual education, and defend school vouchers. However, other important victories have received scant coverage. One such example is the passage of the Colorado Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR), which celebrated its tenth anniversary on Sunday. TABOR possesses two features which have generated a great deal of tax relief for Colorado residents during the past decade. First, TABOR places a tight cap on all state expenditures, limiting increases in per capita state expenditures to the inflation rate. Second, it mandates immediate refunds of all surplus revenues. As a result, when the state collects revenues above the limit set by TABOR, Colorado taxpayers are entitled to a rebate. Overall, between 1997 and 2002, Colorado has reduced taxes more than any other state, issuing annual tax rebates that have totaled more than $3.2 billion. Even before it was enacted, Colorado Democrats sensed and feared TABOR's potency. In fact, during the 1992 campaign Governor Roy Romer repeatedly denounced TABOR, saying that defeating TABOR was the "moral equivalent of defeating the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge." He personally attacked TABOR's author Douglas Bruce, calling him "a terrorist who would lob a hand grenade into a schoolyard full of children." Finally, Romer predicted that TABOR would result in an economic Armageddon and warned that the Colorado border would have to be posted with signs reading "Colorado is closed for business." However, since 1992, nothing of the sort has happened. In fact, Colorado's economy has been exceptionally strong. Between 1995 and 2000 Colorado ranks first among all states in gross state product growth and second in personal income growth. Furthermore, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Colorado was one of only five states that did not run a deficit during fiscal 2002. In addition to providing tax relief and fostering economic growth, TABOR has also forced Colorado residents to see the costs inherent in government programs. In other states, residents often support higher government spending because they can see the benefits of a particular program, but remain blissfully unaware of the costs that they and other taxpayers will be forced to bear. [...] Cato org
Proposition 13 looms large after quarter century
Property tax limits seen as key factor in evolution of California's economy By JAMES RAMAGE/Staff Writer Sunday, June 1, 2003 VICTORVILLE -- Everyone in California had something to say about Proposition 13 in 1978, the year it was enacted. Twenty-five years later, they still do. The landmark initiative capped property tax rates in California at 1 percent and rolled back property values for tax purposes to 1975-76 levels, according to a California Budget Project 2002 report. What this meant to California, wrote Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, was cutting the state's property taxes by 30 percent and ushering in the 1980s boom in economic growth and jobs. But Proposition 13 was also blamed for the deterioration of California's schools, libraries and municipal services. Some argued, according to Moore, that the initiative's cumulative effect was the decline in jobs and family incomes in the early 1990s. For High Desert residents who remember its passage, many regard the initiative fondly. For its part, Victorville is a "no-property-tax-city," according to Victorville City Councilman Mike Rothschild. "I consider Proposition 13 the most important tax limitation ever put on California government," said Rothschild. "It's the only carrot we have for businesses in the state." "I was one of the many people who voted for it, who supported it," said Bill Porter, of Porter Real Estate. "I still support it." Porter added that, even though it put some restrictions on cities' abilities to raise taxes, many found ways to continue to generate revenue via assessment fees. For some, like fellow Victorville Councilman Rudy Cabriales, the effects of Proposition 13 have been varied. The tax base level in 1978 was too low, he said, to support the Victorville Fire Department, where Cabriales served as chief from 1976 to 1997. As a result, he said, the city's general fund has largely had to support it since 1978. Conversely, Cabriales acknowledged, it compelled the city's government to be more creative and organized. "It's forced us as politicians to work together to make smarter budget decisions," he said, "and be more efficient." Desert Despatch and Google
Sunday, June 01, 2003
Lest we forget, read this.
Now, Ted Turner says this:
[...]
Nor does this trend bode well for new ideas in our democracy -- ideas that come only from diverse news and vigorous reporting. Under the new rules, there will be more consolidation and more news sharing. That means laying off reporters or, in other words, downsizing the workforce that helps us see our problems and makes us think about solutions. Even more troubling are the warning signs that large media corporations -- with massive market power -- could abuse that power by slanting news coverage in ways that serve their political or financial interests. There is always the danger that news organizations can push positive stories to gain friends in government, or unleash negative stories on artists, activists or politicians who cross them, or tell their audiences only the news that confirms entrenched views. But the danger is greater when there are no competitors to air the side of the story the corporation wants to ignore.[...]
From the Washington Post
The FCC is going to make this decision. Colin Powel's son runs the FCC.
One point of access to control the news of the entire USA? Its washingtons wet dream, and its about to come true. All dissent will be obliterated. If you make music that is against the grain, or even say something like the Dixie Chicks, then you will be erased from the present and erased from history, just like John Lennon's "Imagine" dissapeard from the radio in the USA, at the command of a single person at a single company.
And no, this is not a bad dream, and NO you cannot wake up!
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