Democrats can use the Social Security issue to retake red states – And fairies and pixie dust and happiness all around.
Author Archives: Danny Silverman
Report calls No Child Left Behind “flawed, convoluted, and unconstitutional” – Its funny because that’s basically what everyone was saying before the law was passed. Instead of listening to the experts and crafting a useful bill from the start, politicians give us a load of crap and we have to wait a few years until the investigations and testimonies and reports verify what we all knew in the first place. Only then can we make a few changes to mollify the critics a bit, but no more. Meanwhile, who suffers? The children! Won’t you think of the children?!?!
Why do all the cool people have Nikon D70s? Not saying I need one, mind you.
And then the FCC was like, “what do you mean we’re going to stifle free-speech with prior restraints?” – And then what good remained of broadcast television began to melt away…
One of the freakiest pictures you will ever see – Specifically, a baby with two heads.
How the politics of Federalism shifts based on specific advantage – If you have a better chance at the federal level, you go there. If you have a better chance at the state level, you go there. Straight forward self-interest.
Publius says the Summers affair shows why politics would be better conceptualized as a quadrant – I completely agree, and would point him here. Also, this is all much more fun for me now that I have a connection with Harvard! 🙂
As the Great Firewall falls, censorship increases in China
For my internship at Berkman I’m doing a bunch of research into internet filtering in China. I’m looking into media regulation, internet infrastructure, and legal/technical frameworks for censorship. Other smart people are running tests to actually get some hard data on what types of things are censored. This is difficult because what is typically referred to as the “Great Firewall of China” is not what actually exists. When China had limited access to the internet through a few links, it was easy to impose blocks on certain pages. But as internet usage in China has expanded drastically over the past few years, and total connectivity for that country has risen to almost 80 gigabits per second through nine seperate providers using dozens of connections to various countries, the idea of sifting through and blocking that amount of data in the middle of the network is an almost impossible task. Luckily, the fine internet police in China, assisted in no small part by American and European companies, has stepped in to fill the gaps and dramatically expand the censorship web.
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Rumsfeld is a dick to Republicans, too – I’m glad he’s in charge of our military!
Wish list
I’ve just decided that I absolutely have to decorate my future apartment with posters from my favorite movies from when I was young. I was thinking about WarGames, because I saw a shirt I really want on ThinkGeek that references that movie, but then I remembered Flight of the Navigator and Explorers and Space Camp and D.A.R.Y.L.. I’ve got to get me these posters. And frame ’em. 🙂
Supreme Court to hear arguments in Grokster case – And that’s the end of Grokster, and, possibly, commercial P2P! It will be interesting to see how the Court rules on this…there is little doubt it will be on the side of the MP/RIAA, but how, and what type of compromise they reach, is an open question.
Criminals were able to access the massive ChoicePoint consumer database by posing as legitimate businesses – See how much I’m not surprised? ChoicePoint runs a massive database of consumer information, SSNs, credit reports, buying habits, etc, and sells it to businesses and the government, without asking consumers for permission. What is more interesting is that the fraud occured in October, and we’re only hearing about it now, and only California citizens whose data was accessed are being notified, because there are no legal disclosure requirements in any other state, and ChoicePoint sees no reason to tell people if they are not legally obligated to do so. Isn’t that sweet? Hey, come on, its not like having your credit report messed up causes any problems, oh no.
I (was/am/continue to be) sick
Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to announce that, in general, I’m back in action. Having mono and strep throat (at the same time) can put one a little off one’s game, as I have been, and continue to be, but while being sick was pretty yucky, I had a mild case of mono compared to stories I’ve heard tell from various people. Mono has an incubation period of 30-50 days, so I’ve actually had it for a while, but I don’t think I’ve passed it on since I haven’t really been sharing food, water, or kisses with anyone who is likely to get it. What’s great about mono, though, is that it is a herpes virus, meaning it stays with you all your life, and while it is very rare for it to strike again, carriers can become contagious just, ya know, whenever fate feels like it. For instance, a couple months after they get a new boyfriend. Just for instance. Ahem.
I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping, watching television, staring into space, etc., and not much time doing productive things like studying, reading, or going outside. I still haven’t gone shopping, and it has been several weeks…not quite sure what I’m finding to eat, but I seem to still be alive.
I feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of school I missed, to the point where I’m afraid to start catching up on readings because it feels better when I don’t know just how far behind I am, and as soon as I pick up a few syllabi I’ll see that massive list of books that I haven’t looked at yet and be very, very afraid. But Lynn gave me readings and notes on lighting, so I’m going to start with that, since its slighly less deep than Chinese philosophy, and slightly less scary than Writing for the Media.
Barlow on the loss of distance and the intimacy of voice – Internet telephony is new enough that people are still calling up others at random just to say hello. That is so cool.
Photographing American landmarks at 4 gigapixel resolution – That’s big. That’s really big.