Comparing Repub Leaders-In-Waiting On Health and Civil Rights Issues

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Frist and Nickles — is this the best the Repubs can do for Senate leadership? I say, keep trying Shrub…
I had my first experience with Google Answers over the weekend.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how Google Answers could be used for the public good: considering all of its answers are made public and searchable. This means, when one of us pays $10 or $20 to have a question answered, we can all benefit from the results.
So I thought I would try a little experiment, and signed up for the Google Answer service.
I haven’t send Google Answers my feedback yet — what do you think of its answer?
Saturday evening, at 10:25 PM (on 12/21/02) I submitted this question:

Of the top four contenders for Republican Senate Majority Leader, which have
the worst voting record on civil rights? (With specific examples.)

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Lessig, Barlow, Valenti at Creative Commons Launch

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I’ll be putting up a movie every day this week: Lawrence Lessig, John Perry Barlow and Jack Valenti today, DJ Spooky Tomorrow, Brewster Khale and (mini-brewster), Craig Newmark, Aaron Swartz and Vicki Bennett as the week goes on…
(Lower resolultion versions available now.)
First Part of Larry’s speech (92.4 MB)
John Perry Barlow and Jack Valenti speeches (75.2 MB)
Second Part of Larry’s speech (78.6 MB)

Videos Of Creative Commons Launch Up Soon

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I’ll be posting video of all the presentations from last Monday’s launch, one a day, starting Monday… (Update 12/31/02 – This stuff is all availablel now on my video index.)
I’m going to start with QuickTimes and then am happy to convert other formats from there on request.
I’ll be storing all of this at the Internet Archive, so I’m happy to generate as many formats as needed to make the footage viewable on all platforms and systems.
Write me with your suggestions/technical requirements at: lisarein@finetuning.com.

O’Brien Speaks Out On The Complexities of INS Administriva

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Danny O’Brien explains how complicated the INS paperwork can be.

When I say, “in the midst of”, let me tell you what that involves. I’m on my third attempt to have the documentation even processed. Twice it’s been sent back because of a filing error on my part. This is not surprising: the documentation needed to even apply for permanent residency is so vast, and so often changed, that even with the best explanations in the world, there are dozens of ambiguities. And the explanations are not the best in the world. INS requirements differ from office to office: official Website explanations contradict one another. This is hard. Here’s the first step in my application process (picture of all of his paperwork here).

Partial Transcripts from ElcomSoft Trial Now Available

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Cryptome has made a number of transcripts from the trial available.
Looks like I got most of it right in my accounts! (Give or take a few words!) Cool!
I’ll be doing a comparison later. (Later….later…….so much to do…)
I’ll also be creating another category for “Comprehensive Coverage” of the ElcomSoft Trial.
(Delays…always delays….)

Brilliant New Technique Temporarily Removes Affected Organ, Nukes It, And Pops It Back In

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Out-of-body operation banishes tumours
By Sergio Pistoi for New Scientist.

Instead the surgeons decided to remove the entire liver. The organ was placed in a Teflon bag that neutrons can pass through and taken to a research reactor nearby, where it was irradiated with neutrons. It was then re-implanted, just as in a normal liver transplant operation.
“By explanting the organ, we could give a high and uniform dose to all the liver, which is impossible to obtain inside the body without serious risk to the patient,” says Tazio Pinelli, a physicist who coordinated the work together with liver surgeon Aris Zonta.
“It was a bold stroke and has stirred the interest of many in the field,” says Paul Busse, a neutron radiology expert at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
The technique has been dubbed TAORMINA after the Italian for “advanced treatment of organs by means of neutron irradiation and autotransplant”. But with only one person treated so far, it is too early to judge how safe and effective it is.

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More On How The Jury Decided

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Software firm acquitted in first digital copyright law case
By Howard Mintz for the Arizona Daily Star.

The jury, however, sided with ElcomSoft, which maintained since the case broke into the public spotlight last year that it believed it was marketing a legal product and was unaware that it was violating the DMCA. Jurors said after the verdict that the government failed to prove that ElcomSoft willfully intended to violate U.S. copyright laws, the high standard required to obtain a conviction under the 4-year-old copyright act…
Dennis Strader, the jury foreman, noted that ElcomSoft openly sold its software, taking no steps to conceal its conduct before being warned of problems by Adobe. Strader added that some jurors were concerned about the scope of the law and whether it curtailed the “fair use” of material simply because it was electronic.
“Under the eBook formats, you have no rights at all, and the jury had trouble with that concept,” Strader said.

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BusinessWeek On The ElcomSoft Case

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This is a great article except for the (often incorrectly reported) part about Dmitry testifying “against his former employer.”
The facts are: 1) ElcomSoft is Dmitry’s current employer, and 2) He didn’t do anything against anyone; He just testified. Here’s the story on that issue.

Digital Copyright: A Law Defanged?
Cyberlibertarians who denounced the feds’ prosecution of a Russian programmer have their victory, but not the precedent they really need
By Alex Salkever for BusinessWeek Online.

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Time Gives Lott’s Ousting Credit to Bloggers!

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If Lott didn’t see the storm coming, it was in part because it was so slow in building. The papers did not make note of his comments until days after he had made them. But the stillness was broken by the hum of Internet “bloggers” who were posting their outrage and compiling rap sheets of Lott’s earlier comments.

Tripped Up By History
G.O.P. leader Trent Lott’s remarks on race raise a storm and a hot question: Have Republicans really outgrown their past?
By Dan Goodgame and Karen Tumulty for Time.

Bush Administration Preparing To Spy On Internet Users

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Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet
By John Markoff and John Schwartz for the NY Times.

Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer who represents some of the nation’s largest Internet providers, said, “Internet service providers are concerned about the privacy implications of this as well as liability,” since providing access to live feeds of network activity could be interpreted as a wiretap or as the “pen register” and “trap and trace” systems used on phones without a judicial order.
Mr. Baker said the issue would need to be resolved before the proposal could move forward.
Tiffany Olson, the deputy chief of staff for the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, said yesterday that the proposal, which includes a national network operations center, was still in flux. She said the proposed methods did not necessarily require gathering data that would allow monitoring at an individual user level.

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