Friday, May 05, 2006

cats?. Forget the footnotes » Blog Archive » how to run an academic department: This is of course exactly as it should be. Academics must be cats, independent-minded and uncontrollable. They should all go off in their own respective directions looking for adventure or trouble. This is why they are academics rather than, say, accountants. Or differently put, the ones who are too easily controlled are rarely proper academics. They’ll never have an original thought in their lives and they’ll contribute nothing but boredom to what they take to be ‘the profession.’ ‘Thou shalt not do as the Dean pleases …’ perhaps cats… but i think falling snow is more appropriate, ever try go direct 10000 snowflakes that are still in the air? [Too many topics, too little time.] 9:26:32 PM    comment []

An Organ Recital for the Very, Very Patient [New York Times: International News] 9:24:40 PM    comment []

37 versions of Stairway to Heaven, incl SCTV meta .... 37 versions of Stairway to Heaven, incl SCTV meta (WFMU w/mp3s) [robot wisdom weblog] 9:20:07 PM    comment []

Cryptography Rap. The rapper MC Plus+ has written a song about cryptography, "Alice and Bob." It mentions DES, AES, Blowfish, RSA, SHA-1, and more. And me! [Schneier on Security] 6:45:58 PM    comment []

Sterling hits new high against US dollar. Business: Sterling hits a new high for the year against the US dollar as disappointing employment data from America gave traders an excuse to sell. [Guardian Unlimited] What does it say about me that I first thought this was a reference to Bruce? 6:45:51 PM    comment []

Update on Colbert video flap: it's on Google, with CSPAN consent. The much-blogged video of Stephen Colbert's searing presidential roast was yanked from popular video-sharing site YouTube this week, after CSPAN complained of copyright infringement. Today, I learned that the clip has now popped up on Google Video -- evidently, with CSPAN's consent. Huh? This makes no sense. I asked Google for an explanation, and a spokesperson replied to BoingBoing: Google Video enables content providers of all sizes to submit videos to Google Video, as long as the user owns the necessary rights (including copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity, and any other relevant rights for the user's content). This is the case with the "Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner" on Google Video. Google is always interested in making relevant content available to users - in line with our mission to make all of the world's information universally accessible. Like other content providers we work with, C-SPAN wanted to be able to air its content in its complete context and in line with their copyright policies. Google Video allows upload of all content that meets our stated polices - regardless of length - and that made the availability of this particular segment possible. Link to copy on Google Video (Thanks, Glenn Otis Brown!). It's still available all over the place on blogs, USENET groups, and via BitTorrent (all of those methods = without permission), and via CSPAN's own website. I still don't understand why CSPAN won't let YouTube users upload copies to that service, but it does appear to be well within their rights to make that decision. Previously: - Why was Colbert press corps video removed from YouTube? [Boing Boing] 6:39:49 PM    comment []

Strange Tale of Dialing for Dollars Leads to a Prominent Ex-President's Cellphone, by Paul Fain, CHE (subscription may be required). The soon-to-be-open job of chancellor at the University of Maine System is already drawing interest. In fact, someone calling from the cellphone of a former college president, Evan S. Dobelle, appears to have impersonated an intern at The Chronicle to ask a Maine official about the departing chancellor's compensation. The system's office of external affairs got a call this week from "Scott Northfield," who claimed to be an intern for The Chronicle working on a survey of executive compensation. The caller wanted details on the salary and benefits earned by Joseph W. Westphal, who announced two weeks ago that he would step down as chancellor at the end of June (Chronicle News Blog, April 19). The Maine official who spoke with the caller did not have the information on hand and offered to call back. However, the phone number the caller left, which had a Washington, D.C., area code, proved bogus, and no Scott Northfield works at The Chronicle. The university's caller-ID records led to a different number: a cellphone in Springfield, Mass., that, when dialed by a Chronicle reporter, was answered by Mr. Dobelle, a former president of the University of Hawaii System. He was fired by Hawaii in 2004, but the firing was subsequently rescinded in return for his resignation and the university's payment of a mediated settlement of $1.6-million (The Chronicle, August 2, 2004). Now he is president of the New England Board of Higher Education. According to the story, when called by the Chronicle, Dobelle said it was an amazing coincidence: he too got a call from someone purporting to be a Chronicle intern. There must have been some confusion at Maine about his efforts to help the supposed intern out. 1:39:07 PM    comment []

Regarding Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, since the public discourse has lamely veered off the road into the "was he funny or not" ditch, someone took screen captures of every audience reaction shot. Then ... circled people that didn't seem to enjoy it. There aren't that many of them, actually. Check out the slide show. 1:39:00 PM    comment []