The first full day of the truce was marred by a Palestinian shooting that killed a Bulgarian construction worker on an Israeli road project near the West Bank town of Yabed. Renegade members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, loosely linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.

Posted by GeeTee at June 30, 2003 04:57 PM | TrackBack 0

"Whether he's a Russian sub captain (The Hunt for Red October) or even an English King (First Knight and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), always that baritone Highland burr remains," says the magazine in its August edition.

Posted by GeeTee at June 30, 2003 04:49 PM | TrackBack 0

Natural Resources Canada estimates Canadians used 8.1 million tonnes of paper and paperboard in 2001. Various estimates say it takes 10 to 17 trees to make a tonne of paper. Taking the median figure of 13.5 trees per tonne of paper, that's 109.35 million trees per year.

Posted by GeeTee at June 30, 2003 03:33 PM | TrackBack 0

One traditional rival to utilitarianism in moral theory is Kantianism, but Professor Williams undermined that too, and with similar weapons. Kant sought to make morality as pure and disconnected as possible from the vagaries of circumstance and individual personality. Whether an action is right or wrong was to depend solely on the principle of action that lay behind it, and in particular on whether the agent could regard that principle as one that everyone ought to follow in all possible circumstances. Professor Williams ingeniously showed how hard it is for any such insular conception of morality to survive contact with the messiness of real life. He coined the term “moral luck” to mark a fact that is incomprehensible to Kantians, but which—once he had highlighted it—came to seem undeniable: that whether or not a person's behaviour emerges as good or bad can sometimes depend on pure chance. Soldiers know that a man can become a hero partly by accident. The ancient tragedians knew that he could be undone by fate, which comes to much the same thing.

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 06:00 PM | TrackBack 0

"Things are either true or not true," he says. "It's very logical and I like that. You really see what a problem is all about, you see all its sides."

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 04:58 PM | TrackBack 0

Her career in Hollywood spanned six decades, during which she starred alongside other Hollywood greats, including Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart.

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 04:26 PM | TrackBack 0

Even with the large number of foreign troops in Kabul, most women don't feel safe. And those outside the capital must contend with warlords and their militias, who are often as harsh as the Taliban were. In warlord-dominated areas such as Herat, 700 km west of Kabul, women are not even allowed to occupy the same office space as men or to go to public places unaccompanied -- a policy that is enforced by flogging. "When women are not allowed to leave the house to go to the doctor even when they are in labour," says Meena, "how can they participate in public consultations surrounding the new constitution?"

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 04:06 PM | TrackBack 0

Interviewer: So, what gave you the idea for writing a book about (looks at book cover) eggplants?
Writer: Actually, it's about nuclear disarmament. That's a picture of a warhead.
Interviewer: So, how do you get rid of the seeds?

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 03:44 PM | TrackBack 0

A group of three business people from Ho Chi Minh City who were negotiating to buy the black bronze, which is valued on the market at around $1 million, bought a printer to produce 900 million Vietnamese dong ($58,214) to pay for the deal.

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 03:14 PM | TrackBack 0

"She is the most powerful woman in the history of the universe," quips Thomas Goldstein, a Supreme Court advocate and scholar, during a panel discussion of the court's recently concluded term.

Posted by GeeTee at June 29, 2003 02:47 PM | TrackBack 0

To be sure, a lot of important science has been conducted in orbit. For example, research on the large single crystals of silicon that are at the heart of computer chips arose from the many detailed studies of crystal growth on the space shuttle. But, in fact, experiments like these are often more efficient and yield more fruitful results when done without the involvement of astronauts.

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 08:46 PM | TrackBack 0

A man who schemed to steal satellite television signals now has something much bigger than a cable bill to pay -- a whopping $180 million restitution order on which he is to make $500 monthly payments.

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 08:36 PM | TrackBack 0

This article has almost exclusively been about rhetorical irony, which has much more fluidity and variety than situational irony. That does not mean that situational irony is entirely straightforward - often, the appearance that God or Fate was attempting to make you think one thing when another was going to happen is down to your own misreading or wilful blindness, and therefore isn't ironic at all. Furthermore, where rhetorical irony can be as simple as saying the opposite of what you mean, cosmic irony is not simply experiencing the opposite of what you thought was going to happen. For instance, if I was having a party, and I thought my dad was going to come, and he didn't, that wouldn't be ironic. If, on the other hand, I was having a party and I didn't want my dad to come, and I spent three weeks working on a brilliant cover story for why he couldn't come, and then my sister accidentally blew my cover, so I had to invite him anyway, and then, on the way here, he got run over and died - that's ironic.

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 08:34 PM | TrackBack 0

The faux Potter books are not quite parodies, but they're similar. Just as refusing 2 Live Crew permission to parody would have destroyed the market for parodies (since authors rarely parody their own works), so Rowling's campaign destroys the market for international follow-ons, since Rowling could never write a Potter book that could capture the Russian spirit the way Grotter does. Rowling is using the cudgel of international copyright not to destroy something she could have created, but to destroy something she could never create.

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 08:28 PM | TrackBack 0

Police say a number of windows on the bus which was carrying bandsmen were smashed. There are also reports that a man has been stabbed after the incident in the Carrickhill area.

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 08:09 PM | TrackBack 0

"This is not a place where there are rape-crisis centres, where there are even police to reports this to, so this is the tip of the iceberg," he said. "And many of the women and girls who are raped are being raped by members of their own tribe.... So this is about people who are roaming the countryside, literally looting and pillaging and raping with impunity."

Posted by GeeTee at June 28, 2003 01:35 PM | TrackBack 0

The present invention is directed towards a powdered dietary supplement formulation consisting essentially of a combination of freeze-dried fruits, vegetables and spices, wherein the formulation is prepared as a drink, tablet or capsule. The tablet may also be in chewable form.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 07:38 PM | TrackBack 0

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points. This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 07:13 PM | TrackBack 0

These trends don't threaten to kill TV advertising, but they're sure to change how ads are produced and sold. Today, media buyers purchase TV ad time based on program ratings and demographics. When 2 million people turn in to watch Friends on Thursday night at 8 p.m., advertisers assume 2 million people see their ad. Tomorrow's ad buyers might choose to bid higher for 30-second spots on programs such as 60 Minutes, which has an older audience less prone to channel surfing.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 07:11 PM | TrackBack 0

Ottawa has complained about the case, arguing that the U.S. had no right to deport someone carrying a Canadian passport to a third country.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 05:58 PM | TrackBack 0

It works by getting libraries to install a piece of software on a PC with a large hard disk, turning it into a cache for web pages. The program then pulls down the content of various journals that the library in question has subscribed to. If the system detects that one of its copies is damaged or missing, it asks the original publisher, or the cache of another library, to send it a fresh copy.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 04:13 PM | TrackBack 0

For the last few years, top executives from all the major record companies have been giving interviews in which they criticize consumers for doing exactly what the execs have been doing for years - getting music for free. I was “in the loop” for a couple years, when I was writing about music for a free weekly, as well as a major daily newspaper, in Los Angeles, many years ago. And I can tell you – none of these characters paid for anything, ever.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 01:41 PM | TrackBack 0

These moves reflect a growing cultural assertiveness - especially on the importance of tolerance and multiculturalism, which are enshrined in Canada's version of the Bill of Rights. The shift is increasingly putting the US and Canada - the world's biggest trading partners - on a cultural collision course.

Posted by GeeTee at June 27, 2003 01:38 PM | TrackBack 0

"There needs to be a balanced approach," says Alistair Kent, director of the Genetic Interest Group. "While this law may be necessary to protect celebrities from prying newspapers, criminalising desperate fathers trying to prove their paternity may not be the best approach."  

Posted by GeeTee at June 26, 2003 06:00 PM | TrackBack 0

"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Justice Scalia said, but added that he personally had "nothing against homosexuals".

Posted by GeeTee at June 26, 2003 05:25 PM | TrackBack 0

The music player is integrated into swimming goggles and uses bone conduction to vibrate music direct to the skull.

Posted by GeeTee at June 25, 2003 09:07 AM | TrackBack 0

Police did not name the woman, but said she died from injuries sustained last Wednesday during a protest at French measures against an Iranian opposition group. At the time, fellow activists identified her as 24-year-old Meda Hassani of Ottawa, Ont.

Posted by GeeTee at June 24, 2003 06:28 PM | TrackBack 0

The Indian Foreign Minister has said this will not affect the status of the Buddhist Dalai Lama, who leads a Tibetan government-in-exile based in the Indian town of Dharamsala.

Posted by GeeTee at June 24, 2003 04:58 PM | TrackBack 0

Professor Urton's study found there are, theoretically, seven points in the making of a khipu where the maker could make a simple choice between two possibilities, a seven-bit binary code. For instance, he or she could choose between weaving a string made of cotton or of wool, or they could weave in a "spin" or "ply" direction, or hang the pendant from the front of the primary string or from the back. In a strict seven-bit code this would give 128 permutations (two to the power of seven) but Professor Urton said because there were 24 possible colours that could be used in khipu construction, the actual permutations are 1,536 (or two to the power of six, multiplied by 24).

Posted by GeeTee at June 24, 2003 12:36 PM | TrackBack 0

Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us whose view of the universe is natural rather than supernatural; those of us who rejoice in the real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a word like "gay". You can say "I am an atheist" but at best it sounds stuffy (like "I am a homosexual") and at worst it inflames prejudice (like "I am a homosexual").

Posted by GeeTee at June 24, 2003 12:24 PM | TrackBack 0

One creature, the fangtooth, has teeth longer than its head. To avoid piercing its own brain when it shuts its mouth, the teeth fit into opposing sockets. The viperfish has a hinged head so it can cram in food, and the jowl-cheeked coffinfish has a glowing lure on its head to attract prey.

Posted by GeeTee at June 24, 2003 12:14 PM | TrackBack 0

The result, he thinks, is that slovenly language and slovenly thinking begin to feed off and reinforce each other: "[English] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." He pleads for a return to linguistic simplicity, letting "the meaning choose the words and not the other way round". Otherwise, he fears that the language of politics in particular will become an instrument not for expressing, but for concealing or preventing thought.

Posted by GeeTee at June 23, 2003 08:42 PM | TrackBack 0

"I believe the Institute's commissioning of Rambert to be an inspired choice and a testament to how the diverse areas of art and science can work together," said Baldwin. "Physics encompasses many complex areas, but I hope to incorporate a few concepts that we can all relate to, such as time, space and light."

Posted by GeeTee at June 22, 2003 12:20 PM | TrackBack 0

Critics argued that the money would have been better spent on ads promoting Toronto in other parts of North America. Tickets to the show sold out within hours, and mainly went to people who already live and work in the region, they complained.

Posted by GeeTee at June 22, 2003 10:58 AM | TrackBack 0

The prosecutors say that Mr Bursey was not in a special "free-speech zone" that was set up for protesters half a mile from the hangar. The pro-Bush people did not need to be there because they were not protesting. Mr Bursey told the cops, defiantly, that he was under the impression that the whole of America was a free-speech zone.

Posted by GeeTee at June 21, 2003 11:13 PM | TrackBack 0

Queen Margrethe announced a farewell audience, the Pope threatened to veto the move and the Canadian PM denied it - what's going on at the Canadian Embassy?

Posted by GeeTee at June 21, 2003 10:37 PM | TrackBack 0

One blast occurred near the Belgian consulate and may have been targeting a Jewish-owned restaurant. The others struck a Jewish community center, a Spanish restaurant and social club, and the Hotel Safir. They struck, in a sense, Rick's place, or what Rick's place has developed into over the years.

Posted by GeeTee at June 21, 2003 04:45 PM | TrackBack 0

...Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.

Posted by GeeTee at June 20, 2003 06:16 PM | TrackBack 0

The families that the advertisement suggests oppose teacher strikes and want help paying their mortgages don't actually vote -- or live -- in Ontario.

Posted by GeeTee at June 20, 2003 09:37 AM | TrackBack 0

She suffers no stigma and is free to marry later. She doesn't even need to divorce the dog.

Posted by GeeTee at June 19, 2003 12:09 PM | TrackBack 0

Reverend Karen Hansen of the Two Hearts Wedding Chapel in Niagara Falls is also refusing to perform same-sex ceremonies. "They can get their licences, but there is no one in Niagara Falls to perform the service -- no church and no chapel," she said, adding gay couples have few options. Justices of the peace stopped performing ceremonies in the Niagara region more than five years ago.

Posted by GeeTee at June 19, 2003 12:02 PM | TrackBack 0

The Canadian Press said Wednesday American military officials will not go ahead with charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty against Majors Harry Schmidt and William Umbach. The pilots said they thought they were being fired on and decided to retaliate -- despite orders to hold fire.

Posted by GeeTee at June 19, 2003 03:38 AM | TrackBack 0

A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently ruled that simple possession of marihuana is no longer an offence "known to law". This decision is being appealed by the federal Department of Justice, however, in the interim, Ontario courts are refusing to hear charges of possession of marihuana. While the federal government has been wrestling with the notion of decriminalizing the drug, the courts have, in effect, LEGALIZED the simple possession of cannabis in Ontario.

Posted by GeeTee at June 19, 2003 03:12 AM | TrackBack 0

A third of the American public believes U.S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. Twenty-two percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons.

Posted by GeeTee at June 17, 2003 07:16 AM | TrackBack 0

Hong Ki-doo, director of National Capital Assets within the Commerce Ministry, said, "We may soon see a shortage in the army due to the declining population and the growing demand for workers in technology fields, which will take many young people away from military service."

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 07:24 PM | TrackBack 0

2. The cheaper the motel, the greater the number of laminated information cards. The top of the TV is covered with explanations of the cable system and pay-per-view movies. The nightstand urges me to conserve water by using the same sheets during my entire stay. Four cards hang from the doorknob, none of which say Do Not Disturb No Molestar. I'm not supposed to open the door to strangers. I'm supposed to take all valuables from my car. I may want to look into getting the Nautical Mist Preferred Guest card which will garner me any number of bonus amenities, not least of which is a free USA Today outside my door each morning.

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 01:50 PM | TrackBack 0

DEAR APPLE COMPUTER: My roommate Donna is in her room right now, having sex with her boyfriend. I've moved my chair next to my door so that I can hear them better.

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 01:47 PM | TrackBack 0

The Gloucester-based computer security firm MessageLabs established that a virus which was sent to up to 1 million computer users over two days last week was the work of a spammer trying to gain access to machines to distribute ads for websites carrying incest pornography.

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 09:05 AM | TrackBack 0

SpamNet works by warning the user when he or she is defying the judgment of other users. Users have the option to accept this e-mail and override the implicit groupthink of the system. The service costs $5 a month and is geared toward users of Microsoft's Outlook information management system.

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 08:04 AM | TrackBack 0

Miss Mair cites such ideas as examples of the "management twaddle" that has encouraged employees not to work hard unless they feel that they are having a good time. She is equally dismissive of concepts such as "flexitime" which she says is an excuse to make people work until midnight and at weekends. "Team spirit", she argues, allows employees to think "someone else will do it".

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 07:11 AM | TrackBack 0

Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former colonel in the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for spying for the United States, Russian officials disclosed last week. He had been living in Maryland but was lured back to Moscow in November 2001, quietly arrested and jailed.

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 05:36 AM | TrackBack 0

The head of the Roman Catholic Church's U.S. sexual abuse oversight panel will resign his post, his spokesman said Saturday -- an ouster brought on by controversy that began last week when he publicly compared some Catholic bishops to "La Cosa Nostra."

Posted by GeeTee at June 16, 2003 05:26 AM | TrackBack 0

Homer, in the second book of the Iliad says with fine enthusiasm, "Give me masturbation or give me death." Caesar, in his Commentaries, says, "To the lonely it is company; to the forsaken it is a friend; to the aged and to the impotent it is a benefactor. They that are penniless are yet rich, in that they still have this majestic diversion." In another place this experienced observer has said, "There are times when I prefer it to sodomy."

Posted by GeeTee at June 15, 2003 05:04 PM | TrackBack 0

Below are the dialect maps, displaying what terms and pronunciations are used, and where they are used.

Posted by GeeTee at June 15, 2003 12:45 PM | TrackBack 0

There is a method to it, if no guarantee.

Posted by GeeTee at June 14, 2003 04:18 PM | TrackBack 0

On June 19, Ottawa's SAW Gallery will open Scatalogue: 30 Years of Crap in Contemporary Art. The five-week show is a multimedia interactive exhibition dedicated to excrement.

Posted by GeeTee at June 13, 2003 07:34 AM | TrackBack 0

Ontario's attorney general, Norm Sterling, promised the province will abide by the court ruling and acknowledge the marriages. Asked if Ontario would register the marriages, he replied: "Absolutely.''

Posted by GeeTee at June 12, 2003 03:32 AM | TrackBack 0

David Ahenakew, who is also an Order of Canada member, became the centre of controversy last December when he told a Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter that Adolf Hitler came to power in response to the "disease" of Jewish domination.

Posted by GeeTee at June 11, 2003 03:32 PM | TrackBack 0

If the equipment is old, it's sent to a recycler, where it's broken down into plastics, metal, and glass, sorted, and recycled here in the U.S., though some of the metal may go to a smelter in Canada. If the computer is newer and can be refurbished, we refurbish and test it, and put it back into the community where we did the recycling event. We choose two to three charities per city for these donations.

Posted by GeeTee at June 11, 2003 02:12 PM | TrackBack 0

"There is no reason why they should not simply abstain from eating meat altogether if they do not wish to eat the same meat as the rest of us."

Posted by GeeTee at June 11, 2003 04:00 AM | TrackBack 0

"The truth is, boys and girls, even if you write a lot of e-mail on the computer, you will always need to write things down on paper at some point in your life," Boell says. "The letters you write to people are beautiful, and they'll cherish them forever. Have any of you ever received an e-mail that you cherished?"

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:51 PM | TrackBack 0

Even sending secure e-mail to cleared individuals is tricky because the CIA has no searchable directory of addresses and uses old protocols that few are familiar with. Security also makes it hard for CIA staff to share intelligence information. The Agency is reluctant to post information on Intelink, a classified world wide web, because it cannot control what happens to documents once they reach that system.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:45 PM | TrackBack 0

The prefix "tele" is derived from an ancient Greek word meaning "long distance." Bob Fortier, president of InnoVisions Canada and founder of the Canadian Telework Association, took this to heart in his address on "Tele-Everything" to the attendees of the inaugural New Mobility Industry Forum in Toronto: he did it from Ottawa.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:26 PM | TrackBack 0

Police in Auburn, Wash., raided Phillips' home and confiscated 200 marijuana plants. Phillips is registered in Hawaii as a minister in the Religion of Jesus Church. He says his current so-called church is registered with Washington state as a non-profit organization, called The Center for Healing and Spiritual Renewal.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:25 PM | TrackBack 0

A note about the film was posted to the ES Reality gaming site along with a link that let people download the 70Mb file. Soon after this a short write-up and link was put on the popular Slashdot news website.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:22 PM | TrackBack 0

"This fad was related to a war that was going to be so short that it would be difficult for a Target or a Kmart to buy the product and get it into 2,000 stores before the war was over," said Dan Head, the vice president for e-commerce at SportsLine, which sold the GreatUSA cards on its site and by e-mail.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:13 PM | TrackBack 0

The company can then apply for patents on those inventions. An applicant must prove to a patent examiner in written statements and with drawings and diagrams that the invention is novel and original. But the applicant doesn't have to come up with a prototype. "You don't have to build it," Ferrell said. "You just have to conceive it. By filing a couple of patents, you essentially have co-opted the standards road map. Anybody who wants to go from G to X has to get through your toll road."

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:01 PM | TrackBack 0

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."

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 05:53 PM | TrackBack 0

Many residents of Fallujah are demanding that U.S. forces withdraw from the town. The U.S. response has been to step up patrols. Almost every day, motorists with cars battered by errant tanks or Bradley fighting vehicles show up at city hall to ask for compensation. Maj. Peter Buotte, with the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, said he instructs the Iraqis to fill out a form, which he tells them will eventually result in payment for the damage.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 06:20 AM | TrackBack 0

Pyke envisioned ships as vast and solid as icebergs. You could make the sides of your boat tens of feet thick, hundreds if you felt like it, and bullets or torpedoes would bounce away or knock off pathetically ineffectual chunks. And when a torpedo did knock a chunk away—so? You were floating in a sea of raw repair material. Given how long it took pykrete to melt, and the minimal onboard refrigeration equipment needed to stay frozen and afloat, it would be months or years before the boats exhausted their usefulness. In battle, the ice ships could put their onboard refrigeration systems to good use by spraying super-cooled water at enemy ships, icing their hatches shut, clogging their guns, and freezing hapless sailors to death.

Posted by GeeTee at June 10, 2003 04:41 AM | TrackBack 0

Now...the really bad part (as if the rest wasn't enough)...they've changed the policies of your copyright and ownership of the items on their site. They now will claim royalty-free rights to publish, display and GAIN TRADEMARK REGISTRATION for YOUR items

Posted by GeeTee at June 08, 2003 10:36 AM | TrackBack 0

“It doesn’t matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I’m doing God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many people I execute,” he told Okaz newspaper in an interview.

Posted by GeeTee at June 05, 2003 06:46 PM | TrackBack 0

In fact, the "right" kind of intelligence--call it Upper West Side smarts--is in some ways more tyrannical than the old Upper East Side, world-at-their-feet arrogance bred in "the best" prep schools three generations ago. While the Andover kids were at least taught manners and noblesse oblige, today's aspiring intelligentsia (especially in the bigger cities) too often learn that bright makes right. To wit: A jeweler I know brags that his 9-year-old son, away at overnight camp, mouths off to the counselors--"because he's so much smarter than they are." A friend can't decide whether he'd prefer his brilliant but tortured son to be happy or accomplished. A colleague's sister watches with pride and nods approvingly as her 7-year-old daughter calls me stupid for disagreeing with her memorized contention that the president has more important things to worry about--"like the economy, duh"--than Iraq.

Posted by GeeTee at June 04, 2003 02:11 PM | TrackBack 0

We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don't, the work passes into the public domain. Historical estimates would suggest 98% of works would pass into the pubilc domain after 50 years. The Act would do a great deal to reclaim a public domain.This proposal has received a great deal of support. It is now facing some important lobbyists -- opposition. We need a public way to begin to demonstrate who the lobbyists don't speak for. This is the first step. If you are an ally in at least this cause, please sign the petition. Please blog it, please email it, please spam it, please buy billboards about it --please do whatever you can. And most importantly, please help us explain its importance. There is a chance to do something significant here. But it will take a clearer, simpler voice than mine.

Posted by GeeTee at June 03, 2003 03:26 PM | TrackBack 0

So my question was, how crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice?

Posted by GeeTee at June 03, 2003 02:57 PM | TrackBack 0

Technological progress is not the only reason why spectrum markets would be a second-best solution, Mr Benkler argues. For one, they are likely to come with high transaction costs. If spectrum is priced efficiently in an increasingly dynamic wireless world, the necessary overhead in network management and metering is likely to be quite costly. Innovation could suffer as well: rights holders could ignore technological improvement just because it does not fit their business model. With spectrum as commons, anybody can innovate, as users do on the internet.

Posted by GeeTee at June 02, 2003 05:54 PM | TrackBack 0

"Thus much is saved from chance and change,
That waits for me and thee;
Thus much—how little!—from the range
Of Death and Destiny."

Posted by GeeTee at June 02, 2003 03:42 PM | TrackBack 0

The officers said a CSIS mole was part of the conspiracy and may have been told to back away from the group a few days before the 1985 explosions to ensure that CSIS would not be implicated in the deaths.

Posted by GeeTee at June 02, 2003 08:24 AM | TrackBack 0

So protective is McDonald's of the character's mystique that men who play Ronald are never to admit that they do. Ronalds in costume aren't to say who they are in civilian life. That rather annoyed Craig A. Oatten, a police chief in Michigan, when a Ronald, in full red-and-yellow regalia, got into a fender bender near Saginaw a few years ago. Asked several times, the Ronald steadfastly refused to give his name for the police report.

Posted by GeeTee at June 01, 2003 04:18 AM | TrackBack 0