http://lquilter.net/blog a reality-based, fantasy-influenced journal on information, autonomy & the world Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:06:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en yaay habeas corpus. Kennedy is the difference between a conservative -- someone whose values I frequently dislike and disagree with, but who is in many ways a respectful person -- and a proto-fascist. For the right-wingers who like to throw the term "fascism" around, the core concept of fascism ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/06/13/a-good-day-for-basic-human-liberties Bill Patry was withering in his critique of the Copyright Alliance's efforts to define itself as one of the big kids. For example, Leaving aside the painfully juvenile use of © in voi©e, the math used by the Alliance challenges even the math used by the IIPA in its ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/06/10/rappy-birthday-to-the-opyright-alliance My father-in-law (in Massachusetts) was in town for his fiftieth MIT reunion -- class of 1958! He took my partner and me to a couple of events, and we noticed among the red-jacketed men a few red-jacketed women. By various accounts, there were nine to fifteen women (out ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/06/06/tech-coed Wow, after four men, a female human being's genome finally got sequenced. Go Dutch. Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 27—Geneticists at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have announced the first complete sequencing of a woman's genome. The announcement was made at Bessensap, an annual meeting bringing together scientists and the press ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/29/women-have-human-genomes-too-it-turns-out an upsetting day. so, reading the news. Farewell to the crown, farewell, the velvet gown, won't you all come tumbling down? Goodbye to the crown! (Chumbawamba, "Farewell to the Crown") Nepal votes out their monarchy and institutes a republic. Gyanendra has to vacate the palace within two weeks or face ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/28/escapist-reading-about-our-leaders Our cyberpunk future approaches: monkeys with brain implants can control robotic devices. http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/28/borg-monkey So Adam Nagourney certainly was annoying me today, but yesterday, I was way more irate at someone I don't usually hate, Tom Ashbrook, in his radio show "On Point". Granted, I was driving around in Boston traffic, trying to find parking in the over-crowded Longwood Medical Area, and did ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/16/media-annoyances-part-2-tom-ashbrook-on-point Two things annoyed me in the last 24 hours. Well, two media things. First, this morning in an article about same-sex marriage in the NYT, there was utter stupid cluelessness that led me to conclude the article must have been written by a straight person. And indeed, But then ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/16/media-annoyances Well, I loved the California same-sex marriage decision. Not just because it granted same-sex marriage, and not just because it said that the state needs to use the same term to refer to same-sex and opposite-sex unions, but because it significantly expanded Equal Protection jurisprudence. For the non-law-geeks out ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/16/gay-marriage-equal-protection-jurisprudence Following an action at my own BPL, the anti-DRM organization Defective by Design is calling for libraries to boycott products that use DRM. The Open Letter to Libraries is posted @ DBD's website, and they have also made a sample letter / template available for us to send our own letters. Link ... http://lquilter.net/blog/archives/2008/05/14/call-to-libraries-to-boycott-drm