01 Aug 2006
The Real Issue With Net Neutrality

This is a real problem with lots of technical issues being discussed in Congress. They just don't get it: suggesting that Google wouldn't have a bandwidth bill if Net neutrality is enshrined in legislation is ludicrous... but I'm sure we could all find many more example of clueless Congresscritters pontificating on things they know nothing about.

TechDirt brings into focus one of the largest problems in the net neutrality debate, not the issues themselves, rather it's the people involved and the lies they like to sling. An example of this is certainly the number of lobbyists that are being looked to as 'experts' and getting their opinions published as such. One specific example was a recent piece published in the Baltimore Sun by Mike McCurry, a lobbyist working for AT&T who claimed that with new legislation working for net neutrality Google wouldn't have to pay a dime. In response, TechDirt has suggested that McCurry should swap telco bills with Google, somehow I doubt it will happen.

(link) [Slashdot]

15:48 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Mice learn tasks that may help treat human psychiatric disorders

Remember the old saying "the rats are winning the rat race"? Well, that's not true: they're getting crazy, too!

Or the researchers were offering them Froot Loops when they really wanted Cap'n Crunch ...

Mice that couldn't be dissuaded from the object of their attention by a piece of sweet, crunchy cereal may help researchers find new treatments and cures for human disorders like autism and Parkinson's disease. A psychiatric test for monitoring many human mental abnormalities has been adapted for use in mice, according to researchers at Purdue University, University of California-Davis and Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

11:41 /Humor | 1 comment | permanent link

Four Years on the Farm

It was four years ago today that we purchased our farm, which we named Hammerstead.

I really need to update our history page, as so much as changed. But it's still fun: I like to tell folks that while I'm only making a third of what I made as a software developer, I'm three times happier. So it all works out.

It's been an incredible run, so far, and I can only hope for many, many more years right here, where I belong.

10:03 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

Execution of a teenage girl

Her crime? She was raped:

Former revolutionary guard, 51-year-old Ali Darabi - a married man with children - raped her several times.

His punishment?

Darabi got just 95 lashes.

And note that this hanging was not the "drop and break your neck instantly" kind of affair:

Judge Haji Rezai took Atefah's documents to the Supreme Court himself. And at six o'clock on the morning of her execution he put the noose around her neck, before she was hoisted on a crane to her death.

This was the "dangle and stangle" kind of hanging, last seen in this country during botched lynchings.

It was all done in strict accordance with Islamic Sharia law. The case was taken all the way to Iran's highest court, and upheld.

Can anyone look me in the eye and tell me, after reading this, that Islam is a "religion of peace"? Or that Sharia law respects women?

Islam is, without a doubt, the most dangerous religion on the planet. These folks make the Inquisition look like rank amateurs in the oppression department.

The Persian people are Indo-Europeans - and although their folk religion has been utterly obliterated, and this girl was most probably completely unaware it ever existed, at the next sumble I stand in, I promise to remember Atefah Sahaaleh, as a warrior maid and a fighter for the freedom of her gender and her folk.

On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka.

(link) [BBC]

via Secular Blasphemy

09:51 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link

Cingular: Upgrade or pay

I'm not going to get hit with this: I already "upgraded" when my old TDMA phone was dropped (literally) late last year. And I absolutely despise the new phone and "service".

We had Nextel when we returned to Indiana in 2000, which was an all digital network from the beginning. It simply didn't work out here - the range is too limited. So we switched to Cingular, and were eminently happy until they forced us to go digital. Now, we have no service at home - some upgrade, huh?

Of course, since all the wireless nets are going digital, we have no choice. I've not been able to determine if it's the companies or the FCC that's behind this, but it sucks.

Biggest U.S. wireless service says $4.99-a-month fee would apply to about 4.7 million subscribers with TDMA and analog cellphones.

(link) [CNN.com]

08:40 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

US social networking ban could unfairly block some sites

Well, I'm not the only one who thinks this law is a bad idea, and apparently it's worse than I thought. According to some of the critics cited here, I could go to jail just for having comments enabled if I don't check the age of the commenter!

One way to grasp the concept of mathematical infinity is to think about human stupidity - especially in the political realm.

The US House of Representatives has voted by an overwhelming majority to ban social networking sites in schools and libraries. Critics have warned that the ban could apply to a wide variety of sites, some of them of vital educational value.

(link) [The Register]

08:35 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link