Friday, May 20, 2005

Rehnquist, Alice Cooper Awarded Same Honor Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has another degree , and what presumably is his first connection to rocker Alice Cooper.   (via topix.net) 11:37:26 PM    comment []

Up Against the Plastic Wall. A little-known quirk in the credit reporting system may be holding down the credit scores of millions of Americans. By ERIC DASH. [NYT > Business] 11:28:42 PM    comment []

Intellectual Property Justice League (Ernest Miller). Copyfighters may want to visit the IP Justice League of America, "celebrating the only comic book of international super-star INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY super heroes!" Not much there yet, except some Warhol-esque portraits that rollover to declare: Eblen Moglen - "Batman" Larry Lessig - "Superman" John Gilmore - "Green Lantern" Robin Gross - "Wonder Woman" Richard Stallman - "The Martian" Ed Felten - "The Flash" And the following: Can the IP Justice League save Wil Wheaton from super-villain Jack Valenti? Will they defeat his evil army of psycho culture pirates!? Whose side is Avril Lavigne REALLY on?? I guess we'll just have to stay tuned to the same IP Justice League Channel, same IP Justice League time for more. How about an RSS feed instead, so I know when it is updated? (And would this group actually call themselves the Intellectual Property League? Wouldn't they use some other term?) via BoingBoing [Copyfight] 6:15:43 PM    comment []

Three Benton Headlines: A DIFFERENT RECEPTION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING "Liberal advocacy journalism." "Liberal media bias." "Liberalism is too prominent on public TV, radio news and talk programs while conservative ideas are marginalized." -- "This is not a controversy that I brought to public broadcasting," contends Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson . "There is an element within public broadcasting that brought this controversy on itself." Pressed repeatedly for examples of public broadcasting bias, Tomlinson cited only one program that he found objectionable: Moyers's show, "Now." Tomlinson and CPB have relatively limited direct influence over what's seen and heard on PBS and NPR. CPB cannot, for example, force either service to air a program the agency underwrites. The agency provides less than 10 percent of PBS's annual budget and less than 1 percent of NPR's. But CPB is a vital source of funding for the larger public broadcasting system. Its grants to public radio and TV stations find their way back to NPR and PBS in the form of station programming fees. One public television station manager, Bill Reed, president and CEO of KCPT-TV in Kansas City, Mo., late last week sent a letter to Tomlinson that was widely distributed among station managers. It said, in part, "For you and members of the CPB board to go on this sad, ridiculous witch hunt at a time when we should be standing together to make sure that public broadcasting is funded adequately is a betrayal of your responsibilities as a board member. You and those board members who support you should be sacked." [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi] (requires registration) PUBLIC BROADCASTING CZAR MAY NOT BE The investigation of CPB Board Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson may have traction. Tomlinson hired Mary Catherine Andrews, former director of the Office of Global Communications at the White House, to write a set of guidelines for CPB's two new ombudsmen to use when monitoring political content on PBS. The problem is that Andrews was still on staff at the White House when she wrote the rules. This may violate Section 398 of the of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which bars federal employees from engaging in any "direction, supervision or control over public telecommunications." In addition, Tomlinson is the chair of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, the panel that oversees all federally-sponsored broadcasting agencies, such as Voice of America. As almost all of the media coverage of the CPB case has failed to mention, in his role at the BBG, Tomlinson himself is a "federal employee" -- yet he is explicitly trying to direct, shape, mold and supervise public telecommunications in his role at the CPB. [SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Paul McLeary] * Tomlinson used Diane Rehm interview to further distort his actions as CPB chairman * Kondracke baselessly claimed that CPB appointed a "liberal" ombudsman Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke claimed that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), appointed a "liberal ombudsman and a conservative ombudsman" to monitor response to public television and radio broadcasts. Kondracke was referring to recent appointees Ken Bode and William Schulz, respectively. But while Schulz is clearly a conservative, Media Matters for America has previously noted that Bode is hardly a liberal. A former NBC national political correspondent and former CNN senior political analyst, Bode is an adjunct fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. * Hands Off NPR and PBS * Save PBS from partisan operatives CARTOON RAISES BAR ON KIDS TV After consulting with parents, Cartoon Network will put parent-targeted subtitles, dubbed "Mommy Bars," on its new Tickle U preschool block of shows as part of a media curriculum pitching humor as an aid to childhood development. The idea is to aid co-viewing by parents and children, providing "research on humor and preschoolers packaged as fun commentary for the adults." The subtitles will also provide information on "cues for show content and length," so those co-viewing moms will know how much time they have to grab a cup of coffee, put in a load of laundry, or do something other than co-view. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] 9:45:25 AM    comment []

Backpack "safe" can be locked to a lamppost [bOing bOing] 7:26:08 AM    comment []

Iraqi Government, in Statement With Iran, Admits Fault for 1980's War. The Iraqi government publicly acknowledged for the first time that Iraq was the aggressor in 1980 when it touched off an eight-year war with Iran. By SABRINA TAVERNISE. [NYT > International] 7:25:38 AM    comment []

BitTorrent Improved. Bram Cohen, creator of the amazing BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing system, has improved on the original with trackerless software. What does this mean? Basically, it's easier to use. BitTorrent works by uploading content as it's downloading. In effect, your computer becomes a "server," dishing out data to other people who are seeking the same file. It used to be pretty complicated for average folks to make files available, and now it'll be much simpler. "It's one less step to set up a new torrent, and that's the most difficult step for most non-technical users," Cohen tells me in an e-mail. "The old way still works, and is recommended for anyone who has the setup for it. It gets better reliability and allows for better statistics collection." Good stuff... [Dan Gillmor's blog] 7:25:34 AM    comment []

Stem Cells Made to Order. Korean scientists derive disease-specific stem cells from cloned human embryos, bringing stem-cell transplantation therapy closer to reality. Could the advance spur pro-cloning legislation? By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News] Koreans Report Ease in Cloning for Stem Cells. Producing human embryos through cloning, and then extracting their stem cells, is one of the great hopes of the stem cell field. By GINA KOLATA. [NYT > Science] 7:22:27 AM    comment []

Netflix & Walmart: The Morning After. So, now that we've had some time to think about it, how do you feel about the Netflix & Walmart partnership? I know some people really dislike Walmart for a variety of reasons, but do you dislike them enough to quit? Do you think this will help Netflix? Will it hurt their ability to work with Amazon? Will Walmart buy Netflix? What do you think?... [Hacking NetFlix] 7:22:03 AM    comment []

Wright Hopes to Spore Another Hit. Genius game designer Will Wright gives an exclusive E3 interview about his next game, Spore. A Q&A with the great innovator by Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News] 7:21:34 AM    comment []