Saturday, October 22, 2005

The Passive-Aggressive Workplace. DOES this sound like where you work: Most people pay only lip service to orders from on high, knowing there are rarely unpleasant consequences. By PAUL B. BROWN. [NYT > Business] 10:40:24 PM    comment []

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. A U.S. order aimed at facillitating court- ordered monitoring of internet activity could cost billions, opponents say. By SAM DILLON and STEPHEN LABATON. [NYT > Technology] 10:34:57 PM    comment []

Spinners and bloggers. The M.I.T communications forum held on Oct 20 "Spinners and bloggers: political communications in the digital age."From the site."For decades, perhaps for as long as independent newspapers have existed, political operatives have used "spin" to shape the way the news media respond to candidates and their policies. Spin can be understood as a kind of top-down power that depends on the social network linking political leaders and the news media. Some have argued that weblogs or blogs have emerged in recent years to disrupt this culture of spin. They see blogging as a grassroots movement that also tries to shape or control public perceptions of important events and issues. Others have claimed that the blogosphere has merely enhanced the influence of traditional interest groups, giving ideologues of the left and the right even more power to “spin” the world as they wish to see it. How can we understand the interplay between spin and blogs? How do each shape, some would say manipulate public opinion? How are each subject to abuse? Is the culture of spin and blogging contributing to the polarization of American political discourse?"An audio recording of Spinners and Bloggers is now available. spinners and bloggers: political communications in the digital age [Smart Mobs] 10:34:48 PM    comment []

The Road to College Is Becoming Clogged With Limousines. The Road to College. By HUBERT B. HERRING. [NYT > Business] 10:32:45 PM    comment []

Ray Tomlinson and the '@' symbol. The Official Google blog says "it's difficult to pin down the exact origin of email, but in October 1971, an engineer named Ray Tomlinson chose the '@' symbol for email addresses and wrote software to send the first network email". Guess what just turned 34? [Smart Mobs] 7:48:22 AM    comment []

more competition in the copyright watch market. A lot of smart IP sorts have started a blog about copyright. The title says it all: Copyrightwatch.ca: Debunking copyright myths, one post at a time. Myths or not, there's lots of very thoughtful stuff there. [Lessig Blog] 7:48:08 AM    comment []

Special Counsel Dot Gov. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald today opened a website (still "under construction," no doubt).  As soon as the Special Counsel indicts or announces he will not, the Wilsons are expected to file a civil action.  A subpoena of President Bush should follow in due course--easy to justify given press reports like this in the Los Angeles Times: "[Libby] urged the White House to mount an aggressive public campaign against him [Wilson], former aides say."  (Urged the who?  And what did who do?)  The President enjoys absolute immunity from suit for official acts committed during his term of office.  Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982).  But his staff enjoy only a qualified or "good faith" immunity.  Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982).  A directive from the President would be relevant to establishing a defense of good faith immunity, bringing it easily within what Justice Scalia has called "the notoriously broad discovery powers of our courts."  That the President must comply with a subpoena duces tecum ("bring the thing"--e.g. the White House tapes in the Watergate probe) issuing from a criminal investigation was established in U.S. v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974).  That the President may be compelled to give sworn testimony in a civil suit in which he is a fact witness is settled, I think, by reading U.S. v. Nixon together with Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)--but the issue is not beyond argument.  (Thanks to Tad Brennan for correcting an earlier post: I was preoccupied with completing an important questionnaire.) [Leiter Reports: Guest Blogger William Edmundson Oct. 17-23] 7:42:07 AM    comment []

Hospital Refuses to Hand Over Newborn. On Foxnews: U.S. & World [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 7:40:43 AM    comment []

Dave: Wired News takes a look at Memorandum. Of course I discovered the article on Memorandum, which tempts me not to point to it, unless I have something to say. Now having said it, I can stop, because no doubt Memeorandum will link to this witless and information-less post and at the same time will move the Wired News article up the ladder. Meanwhile, my ultra-witty keynote, above, which has only been linked to by TechCrunch (calling it The Flickr of Keynotes), didn't make the grade on Memeorandum at all. I could have sent out emails asking for links and it probably would have shown up, but that seems really tacky. One more thing, people complain the site is too ugly, and there should be a sports version, I have another complaint. The name has too many syllables and it's hard to remember how to spell it, and it's too long, and screws up word-wrap on my posts. 7:40:42 AM    comment []

Say It Under Oath, Steve. CNET: Ballmer: Trusting Vista, battling Google. "I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life," Microsoft's CEO said in a morning keynote at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo here. Ballmer was responding to a comment regarding well-publicized testimony by a former employee that Ballmer had tossed furniture and vowed to "kill Google" when informed of the employee's decision to leave Microsoft for Google. Just a reminder that the former employee made this charge when he was under oath -- that is, under threat of a perjury charge if he was lying -- while Ballmer continues to deny it in unsworn "testimony" like this. For now, credibility rests with the guy who was under oath. [Dan Gillmor's blog] 7:40:03 AM    comment []