widdershins

Information warfare

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that this blog or any other of the blogs you read has been perpetrated by the US Dept of Defense in an effort to control or otherwise influence public perception. Have a nice day.

In the News

• A lost couple in the snow wandered around Omaha, freezing to death. Repeated cell calls to 911 didn't save them; they were delirious and hallucinating in the cold and tragically could not correctly identify their location.


• Photos of The Gates in Central Park by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 02/2005


• CNN News executive Eason Jordan's resigned after saying at Davos that he knew of 12 journalists who had died in Iraq because they had been targeted by US troops. Did he mean that US troops picked them out and killed them deliberately, or did he mean that they were the victims of friendly fire, and that they were not sufficiently protected or identified on the battlefield?


• Not just real journalists get in trouble for what they say or do on their ill-considered personal time. Talon News "correspondent" Jeff Gannon (nom de plume of one James Guckert), a Republican shill at many White House press conferences, was recently outed by bloggers as being associated with various gay porn and male prostitution websites, and as a result has quit.


• The U.S. House of Representatives (our American Taliban) passed the Real ID Act which would mandate digital electronic elements in state-issued IDs used for travel on planes or trains or entry into federal buildings, in other words, a back-door attempt to have a national electronic ID. We'll see how it does in the Senate, but passage is likely.

State of the Disunion

By happenstance I had the misfortune of watching Dubya's SOTU address this week. Aside from the very creepy feeling that I was watching a 60s paranoid parody of evil old men taking control of the US govt and then smirking about it openly, there were two particularly freaky moments. First, was the reprehensible parading of this neocon expat Iraqi shill -- who was that Iraqi woman in the balcony?

And then there was that bizarre Don Corleone (or was it more Judas Iscariot? -- forbid the thought) moment when GWB took Joe Lieberman's head in both hands and drew it close, as if for a long, loving, deep man-kiss.

I would just like to point out that these things do not happen by accident.

A message from Herbie

GSM phone locking

One of the things about GSM phones in the US that totally stinks is that the carriers lock the phones so that you can't use them with other companies' networks. It should be possible to just pop in another SIM card to use another carrier, and in other countries, it is. But what some of these lowlife outfits do is, without telling you that they've crippled the phone, they sell you a phone you cannot use with any other carrier. The phone is bundled with their service, with an annoyingly long contract term, in order to keep you using their network (and sending them revenue) as long as possible. It's as if they think that large corporations have a natural right to bilk you out of money by any means they can. Poppycock!

It is possible to buy unlocked GSM phones here, but: you have to track down someone on the web selling it, usually; you wind up paying full list price for the phone; and you can't use it on any of the domestic carriers' networks without buying another phone and switching the SIM cards!

The difficulty of unlocking one of these phones varies from make to make. With some manufacturers' phones, it's fairly simple if you know the trick, and with some it requires use of additional hardware. In any event, it is not an operation prospective purchasers are informed about, which is I think the crux of the matter.

Consumer watchdog group The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights has brought suit in California against T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, and Cingular about this fraudulent business practice. A pdf of the complaint is online. The more visibility and outrage brought against this reprehensible fraud and restraint of trade, the better.

[via boingboing]

Quick links

OK, I've been MIA for a month, busy with work, trip to NYC for WWW2004....

Good stuff gets added into the sideblog via furl, but here are some recommended links I've run across lately:

The Wave's 10 Best Internet Fads

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 trailer

Trailer for the first Lemony Snicket movie, A Series of Unfortunate Events

In 1971, Stanford psychology researchers found out that randomly selected, untrained, mostly unsupervised prison guards quickly turn extremely sadistic in what is now known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 2003-2004, the US Army in Iraq seems to have confirmed the research.

Why Pres. Bush and VP Cheney have hired private criminal defense lawyers regarding the Plame grand jury.

Decrease your Erdös number

Mathematicians measure their Erdös number by the chain of research collaborations back to legendary Hungarian-born mathematician Paul Erdös. Someone who collaborated with someone who collaborated with Erdös has an Erdös number of 2, for example. Now, on Ebay, you can bid on the opportunity to collaborate with someone with an Erdös number of 4, and thus get for yourself an Erdös number of 5. [via Anil Dash]

Back in the pre-web days, your Kibo number indicated the chain of email correspondence back to Usenet legend James "Kibo" Parry. My Kibo number is 1. Maybe I should auction off decreasing your Kibo number to 2?

AWOL

Signed up to defend your country, then found out you're being shipped off to an invasion in clear violation of international law? Deserting to Canada might be an option; that's what Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey did. It's unclear to me how this makes sense from a volunteer and not a draftee. Clearly, the course they've chosen is not without risks and consequences. It's even unclear whether Canada will grant them refugee status or extradite them (in which case they would most likely serve 5-10 years military detention, but could be eligible for the death penalty). Whether you agree with them or not, the situation is troubling.

[via MetaFilter]

John Kerry, closet francophone

Apparently, according to the New Yorker, John Kerry speaks French fluently but hides the fact in public. As Geoff Pullum notes, America's determination to linguistic isolationism is very strong. It's shameful that a multilingual ability would be an impediment to getting elected.

Watching Justice

George Soros's Open Society Institute has started up the Watching Justice web site to report on the doings of the US Justice Department, drawing on a list of watchdog sources that it openly shares. The degree of commitment to transparency is inspirational and badly needed. And, naturally, the web site uses a blog-style format because it's an excellent format for regularly updating an interested community. Now they need to add RSS and Atom feeds. [via MetaFilter]

And why should transparency in government matter? As Matt Welch wrote recently:

Above all, Bush's attitude toward sensitive information has remained consistent from his pre-9/11 behavior: Transparency is overrated, secrecy is a virtue, and post-Watergate reforms curtailing the government's ability to snoop, prosecute and act freely are a serious obstacle to protecting the country.

These beliefs don't make him venal, just wrong. History has shown that a government that acts without the checks and balances of scrutiny is a government that abuses its power. Secrecy is often just another word for "it would be embarrassing for me if you saw that." And transparent examination and debate, however untidy, unlocks the genius of distributed, free-flowing intelligence—one of America's biggest competitive advantages—and gives citizens their deserved seat at the decision-making table.