Friday, October 28, 2005

U.S. Cell Phone Tracking Clipped. Judges reject Bush administration arguments that law enforcement should be able to use cell phone signals to track users' movements, ruling that the feds first need 'probable cause' to believe someone's committed a crime. By Ryan Singel. [Wired News] 7:16:25 AM    comment []

bravo Microsoft. It is a common (and very good complaint) that there are too many free and open source software licenses. Multiplicity weakens interoperability. Interoperability of innovation is key. For sometime, Microsoft has been playing in this community. Its "Shared Source Initiative" has given at least some access to important Microsoft code. Last week, Microsoft made a major announcement that will benefit the ecology of free and open source software licenses significantly. As described here, Microsoft has abandoned a ton of licenses, focusing its efforts on just three core licenses. Two of these three licenses -- the MS-Community License (MS-CL), and the MS-Permissive License (MS-PL) are technically "free" licenses under the FSF's definition of free. The third MS-Reference License (MS-RL) is a view-only license, not quite free, but valuable nonetheless. This is fantastic news, reinforcing an ecology of free licenses. [Lessig Blog] 7:13:27 AM    comment []

Kansas Fight on Evolution Escalates. Two science organizations have denied the Kansas Board of Education permission to use their materials because of the board's critical approach to evolution. By JODI WILGOREN. [NYT > Science] 7:13:15 AM    comment []

Beautiful post by Robin on Joan Baez: It's All Come Back Too Clearly. 7:13:10 AM    comment []

Protest on College Severance Deal. American University campus leaders called on Thursday for fellow students to lobby Congress to replace the board of trustees. By MICHAEL JANOFSKY. [NYT > Education] 7:09:27 AM    comment []

The Mystery of the Green Menace. It's been celebrated as a muse and banned as a poison. Now an obsessed microbiologist has cracked the code for absinthe -- and distilled his own. By Brian Ashcraft of Wired magazine. [Wired News] 7:09:03 AM    comment []

M.I.T. Dismisses a Researcher, Saying He Fabricated Some Data. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that it had dismissed an immunology researcher at its Center for Cancer Research, saying he fabricated and falsified data. By THE NEW YORK TIMES. [NYT > Education] 7:08:46 AM    comment []