Audible recently posted a free audio file of Thursday’s Bush-Kerry debate.
Tattered Cover’s Joyce Meskis Interview
Great to see Denver’s Tattered Cover expanding again (to the former prairie, now known as Highlands Ranch). Shirley Bryant interviews owner Joyce Meskis.
Russ Feingold & Tim Michels Wisconsin Senate Race Debate Notes
Links to last night’s US Senate Race Debate notes & commentary:
Additional coverage/background here.
Insecure Browsing
Andrew Chin on missed opportunities in US v Microsoft:
But freedom of contract is expressly limited by the antitrust laws. The courts therefore had authority to order Microsoft to license and distribute its software so as to offer a neutral choice of Web browser. Microsoft could easily have done so without undoing its programming innovations.
Instead, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals created a special antitrust immunity to license Windows and other “platform software” under contractual terms that destroy freedom of competition.
The security hazards that have resulted from Microsoft’s unredressed actions are serious, and already being felt. Equally serious, but perhaps less tangible, is the D.C. Circuit’s waste of judicial resources in issuing precedential opinions that fallaciously treat Microsoft’s flagship software product as consisting of lines of code rather than intellectual property rights. The courts have missed a golden opportunity to affirm the freedom to compete in the information age.
Chin is an associate professor at the UNC School of Law and a former legal extern to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the trial judge in U.S. v. Microsoft.
Related Article on Microsoft’s now dormant and flawed Internet Explorer browser. (use firefox)
Insurance Discounts for Having Trips Tracked
One car insurance company now offers discounts to drivers who allow the company to track when and how fast they drive electronically. Privacy advocates are worried that outside groups could eventually see that information.
Ed Haggar Died
Ed Haggar, who coined the term “slacks,” has died. From the Dallas Morning News obit: Mr. Haggar teamed with legendary Dallas advertising pioneer Morris Hite to coin the term “slacks,” his son said. Pants were largely known as trousers until then.
“During the war years, people tried to get more casual during the weekends, during slack time or down time,” [his son] Eddie Haggar said. “Dad and Morris Hite…came up with the name slacks.”
Shanghai American School Turns over N. Korean Refugees to the Chinese
The human rights activist website Chosun Journal has information about eight North Korean refugees who entered the Shanghai American School on Monday, Sept. 27, and were subsequently handed over to the Chinese police.
The original account is here. Full text is also continued below.
Will the U.S. media report this incident? Did the school do the right thing? Could they have done otherwise and not gotten in trouble with the Chinese authorities? Will Americans be outraged? What would you do if North Korean refugees sought asylum in your school which was clearly not on embassy grounds?
There ought to be a public discussion about what Americans living abroad who care about human rights should do in such situations, and what U.S. consulates will or won?t do to help them.
Dean on Local Politics
You need to run for office yourself,” he said. “Somebody has to take responsibility for being on the school board, on the city council ? all these offices that sometimes lead to higher things and sometimes don’t. Democracy withers unless people think ? unless people understand that they’re responsible, not their neighbor.”
X-Prize 1st Flight Today at Mojave
Kudos to Bert Rutan and company on their successful flight today. Xeni Jardin has more.
NAB Death Star
Doc Searls has been following the iPodder explosion and points to a piece in Forbes about the history of the NAB and how they are succesfully regulating satellite radio out of business. It’s going to get interesting when iPods are outlawed and assault rifles are legal.
Read more about the latest Hatch/Leahy absurdity, the Induce Act here. Will Senator Kohl also carry water for Hollywood? Kohl is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which meets to discuss the Induce Act on Thursday.
The Librarians are also against this bill…..