Wednesday, December 11, 2002

A Rehnquist Under Scrutiny: Did Janet Rehnquist, daughter of the Chief Justice, mismanage her office? By Michael Weisskopf and Viveca Novak, in Time. Sunday, Dec. 08, 2002 Few political appointees are as well connected as Janet Rehnquist. A former White House staff member for the first President Bush, she's the daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist— whose Supreme Court ensured there would be a second President Bush. No surprise that 16 months ago, she got a job as inspector general at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. But her connections may be wearing thin. The General Accounting Office (GAO) began an investigation in October into charges that she has mismanaged the office. Among the allegations: that she forced out a number of senior career staff members, improperly kept a gun in her office and ran up questionable travel bills. She is also under fire for delaying an audit of a Florida pension fund at the request of a top aide to Governor Jeb Bush. Now, sources tell TIME, GAO investigators have discovered that documents potentially important to the inquiry have been shredded. The investigators are focusing on the possible destruction of notes, e-mails and memos written by top officials in Rehnquist's office. Rehnquist has denied that anything of significance was shredded, but the discovery prompted Rehnquist's general counsel to pen a Thanksgiving-week e-mail urging HHS staff to stop shredding. 10:10:04 PM    comment []

A year ago on the other blog: Soaking Up Attention: SpongeBob SquarePants, indomitable invertebrate, floats to the top of the sea of kids' programming by James Poniewozik, Time. The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, the Clipper Chip, and the Constitution, by A. Michael Froomkin (143 U. Penn. L. Rev. 709 (1995)). Zi Hackademy raising eyebrows in Paris By Nanette van de Laan, Christian Science Monitor. Google offers 20-year Usenet Archive ''Recent events'' John Ashcroft used to oppose secret evidence. See this Islamic Institute Brief from January, supporting Ashcroft's confirmation in light of his support for the Secret Evidence Repeal Act of 2000. >From Midtown Baltimore, an Afghan Restaurateur Fights Against the Taliban, and for His Compatriots, by Brennen Jensen, Baltimore City Paper. The women behind the women of Afghanistan: Hena Efat was smuggled into the Afghan Women's Summit; her plan is to go home and fight some more. By Janelle Brown, in Salon. A Compilation of Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax, by Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists. How my friend outwitted the mullahs: Ahmed Rashid tells the inside story of how the new Afghan leader Hamid Karzai joined the 'heavyweights' and engineered the downfall of the Taliban. Working with the CIA, by Garrett Jones, in Parameters. Kabul Deal Promotes Regional Stability? Relations between Pakistan and Iran could improve as a direct result of the Afghan government accord. By Ali Ashrafi. Microsoft Sarah, 15, sticks it to Bill Gates in BBC interview, by John Lettice, The Register. Microsoft Revises Private-Lawsuit Offer, by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post. Revealing the Microsoft Windows Source Code, by Shubha Ghosh, Georgia State University College of Law, at GigaLaw.com. Other matters Debating the Demise of NYUonline: Did the venture go under because of the changing economy or bad decisions? By Scott Carlson and Dan Carnevale, CHE. (What? Nobody suspects there's little profit in such a venture?) Laissez Not Fair, by Paul Krugman, NYT Op-Ed. Why did the same people tend to admire Enron and Argentina? Because in their different ways, both the company and the country tried to turn back the clock to 1913. Both were experiments testing the libertarian credo: that the great expansion in government's role between the two world wars was unwarranted. Both were supposed to demonstrate that government activism is unnecessary, and that radical laissez-faire works. Companies need to be kept in check, by Dan Gillmor, Mercury News. I didn't remark on it at the time, but not because I don't care. Rest In Peace, George Harrison. And life flows on: Rather than exploit his fame, George Harrison held fast to his convictions -- and complained about the taxes. By Ira Robbins, in Salon. Roger Ebert's remembrance of John Lennon, 1940-1980 An Old Enemy, Smoking, Hangs Tough, by Jane E. Brody (NYT). The obituaries all said that George Harrison died of cancer. But, in fact, what killed Mr. Harrison was smoking. "Shrinking the Cat" by Sue Hubbell: Even before humanity knew about genes, we were fiddling around with genetic engineering. So why get bent out of shape about it now? By Charles Taylor, Salon Books. World Map of Lightening Activity. [L]ightning very rarely occurs at sea and is almost never seen at the Earth's poles. Re-envisioning the Ph.D. at the University of Washington. 8:09:26 PM    comment []

Absa [Bank] Scraps Last Free Internet Access -- ITWeb (Johannesburg). After providing the free Internet access service for over two years, the changing Internet environment has forced Absa to move towards offering the paid-for subscription based service only. Therefore, after 31 March 2003, Absa will no longer provide the free Internet access service. Dave Donkin, group executive of e-business and information management, says the R39 subscription is essentially a break-even cost and has been kept as low as possible to give as many people as possible access to Absa's e-banking services. At its peak, the service reportedly had around 250,000 users, prompting the market and analysts to speculate that the model was not sustainable. Analysts predicted that it was only a matter of time before the service became unworkable. . . . Donkin says the free access gave about 56,000 South Africans Internet access for the first time . . . . R39/month = USD4.39/month, according to Benton Headlines, my source for this item. 3:08:38 PM    comment []

And, I see, I neglected to say, R.I.P, Ivan Illich. Ivan Illich, 76, Philosopher Who Challenged Status Quo, Is Dead (NYT obit by Douglas Martin). 2:08:32 PM    comment []

Potential release of teacher evaluations becomes heated topic, by Tori Toth, The Pace (University) Press. 2:08:29 PM    comment []

Study: Web Filters Block Health Information, by Ellen Edwards, Washington Post. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's report is titled, "See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information." Results were published in the December 11 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers looked at six of the most widely used filters, testing them against about 3,500 Web sites. They found that when filters were at their least restrictive setting, all but 1.4 percent of health information was accessible. That level of filtering also blocked 87 percent of pornography sites. But when filters were at the most restrictive setting they blocked 24 percent of health information sites and blocked only marginally more pornography sites, 91 percent. . . . Caroline Richardson, a Veterans Administration health investigator at the University of Michigan and an author of the study, calls online access to health information a "dramatic revolution." "In my [medical] practice more adolescents are turning to the Internet than they are to adults," she said. Yesterday at a news conference at the National Press Club to announce the study results, Richardson described a 15-year-old boy who found himself sleeping far more than normal. He went to the Internet to look for possible reasons, found information on depression and came to see her for help. It turned out that he was indeed severely depressed, she said. Researchers tested four categories of search terms: health topics unrelated to sex, such as the drug Ecstasy and alcohol; health topics involving "sexual" body parts, such as breast cancer, jock itch and yeast infection; health topics related to sex, including condoms and pregnancy; and controversial health topics, such as the abortion pill RU486 and date rape. For the search term "depression," for example, the least restrictive filter parameters blocked no Web sites, but the most restrictive blocked 11.2 percent. For the term "gay," the least restrictive blocked 11.1 percent of the sites and the most restrictive blocked 59.9 percent. For "condoms," the percentage of sites blocked was 9.9 (least restrictive) and 55.4 (most restrictive). 12:08:19 PM    comment []

More commentary on interpreting Lott's remarks at Thurmond's birthday party -- were they racist and did they repudiate integration? Daniel notes: The Tribune story also includes a new statement from Lott: "My comments were not an endorsement of [Thurmond's] positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life." Now click on the C-SPAN video and go to time index 32:01 and see what he actually said -- how could his statement not be an endorsement of Thurmond's positions of over 50 years ago? 12:08:16 PM    comment []

Apropos of the HESSLA referred to earlier, Linux Journal has Manifestation of Assent: Some considerations and guidelines for creating software licenses that are enforceable. By Lawrence Rosen. (thanks, Danny!) 12:08:13 PM    comment []

Thinking about the virtues of working with Open Source software, but unsure whether the software you want will be available? Worried that the transition will be too disorienting? Just curious about what's going on in Open Sourceland? The OpenCD is a collection of high-quality Open Source Software. All of the programs on the disc run under Windows; the disc is intended to be an Open Source showcase. New users can try out Open Source software in the comfort of their own, familiar operating system, rather than having to take the drastic step of reformatting their hard drive to install Linux. Currently, the disc is aimed solidly at non-techies. The primary audience is expected to consist mostly of people who use computers regularly for their work, but are not power users. 12:08:10 PM    comment []

Richard Smith, via politech: It looks like members of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) development team at DARPA don't like the lime-light. All of their bio's were removed from the Information Awareness Office Web site (http://www.darpa.mil/iao/) sometime during the past couple of weeks. However the Google cache still had all of the bio's cached, so I have put copies on my Web site at this URL: http://www.computerbytesman.com/tia/index.htm 11:08:07 AM    comment []

Justice through software licensing? It's the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA). In contrast with more-traditional "free" or "open-source" software licenses, The HESSLA contains some novel terms unique to the history of information technology. These enhanced terms are designed to promote a broad range of human rights worldwide, as well as to empower end-users to seek new and additional remedies against human-rights violations by governments and governmental officials. Hacktivismo has sought to preserve, to the maximum degree, the primary advantages of 'free' and 'open-source' software, said Eric Grimm, an attorney with CyberBrief, PLC, who assisted Hacktivismo with drafting the license. These advantages include ease of customization, the ability of any end-user to redistribute the software to friends and colleagues without paying any license fees, transparency, and enabling collaboration among volunteer and commercial developers worldwide. The license enables both Hacktivismo and its end-users to go to court if someone tries to use the software in a malicious manner, or to introduce harmful changes into the software. It also contains more robust language than has previously been used to maximize enforcement against governments around the world. The HESSLA explicitly prohibits anybody from introducing "spy-ware, surveillance technology, or other undesirable code into modified versions of HESSLA-licensed programs. Additionally, the license prohibits any use of the software by any government that has any policy or practice of violating human rights. The most novel innovation in the license distributes enforcement power instead of concentrating it in Hacktivismo's hands. If a private citizen happens to violate the license, then Hacktivismo is in charge of enforcement. But the situation is different if the violation is by a government or a governmental official. When Governments subvert human rights, and try to use Hactivismo-licensed software as part of any aspect of such a project, then the license empowers end-users act as enforcers too. Full text of the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement http://hacktivismo.com/ http://cultdeadcow.com/ 11:08:04 AM    comment []

Great conference idea, on DaveNet: Weblogs in Meatspace 11:08:01 AM    comment []

The U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs commissioned fifteen distinguished authors to address the question, In what sense do you see yourself as an American writer? Their essays have been compiled into a book being distributed via U.S. embassies abroad but, by law, not in the United States. Luckily, WRITERS ON AMERICA is available online. The contents: Introduction Elmaz Abinader Just off Main Street Julia Alvarez I, Too, Sing América Sven Birkerts The Compulsory Power of American Dreams Robert Olen Butler A Postcard from America Michael Chabon Maps and Legends Billy Collins What's American About American Poetry? Robert Creeley America's American David Herbert Donald On Being an American Historian Richard Ford How Does Being an American Inform What I Write? Linda Hogan For Life's Sake Mark Jacobs Both Sides of the Border Charles Johnson An American Milk Bottle Bharati Mukherjee On Being an American Writer Naomi Shihab Nye This Crutch That I Love Robert Pinsky A Provincial Sense of Time 4:06:03 AM    comment []

Why People Do and Don't Wear Active Badges: A Case Study (1996 -- PDF) 3:05:54 AM    comment []

Document s: Donors promised political access: Memos released by supporters of new campaign law (AP). As you recall in our conversation some weeks ago, you agreed to upgrade your Team 100 membership to the Regent program ($250,000) when the merger was approved, Republican Party fund-raiser Mel Sembler wrote in 2000 to the chief of the now-bankrupt Global Crossing telecommunications company, which had already given $100,000. Thankfully this has now been approved, so I am taking the liberty of enclosing an invoice for the additional upgrade, Sembler added in one of dozens of fund-raising memos the political parties turned over to a court hearing the first legal challenge of the nation's new campaign finance law. All very businesslike, isn't it? There's much, much more -- on both sides of the aisle -- in the documents now released. 12:05:26 AM    comment []