How much is that Congress in the Window?

Paladine has compiled a history of lobbying costs of the MPAA and RIAA in Congress.  The amount that the Sony Companies spent is interesting as well.


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A god in hand is worth two in the bush. - Aaron

Pharyngula

 Something to comtemplate on this Independence Day




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An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Nailed...

Robert Cringely's interpetation of Bob Frankston's article on Net Neutrality really opened my eyes.  He exposes the entire Modus Operandi of the telecom industry and why it is bad for the Internet.  Give Cringe's article a read, you'll be glad you did!

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The goal of the works of a genius' existance lies only in itself.

Qoute by Robert Heinlein

As seen on AlterSlash

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years , the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

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A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Chinese Proverb

New SciTech Watch Column: GovTrack

My new column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a look at the GovTrack web site that collects information on both houses of Congress and makes it available via email and RSS.

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...the myth of socialism is far stronger than the reality of capitalism. That is because capitalism is not really an ism at all. It is what people do if you leave them alone.
Arnold Beichmen, Hoover Institute Fellow  

Technorati Tags: Congress, GovTrack, Bill, Vote

New SciTech Watch Column: Indy Racing Tech

My new column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a look at some of the technologies used in the Indy Racing League's cars and tracks.

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You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long. - Boris Yeltsin 

Technorati Tags: IRL, Auto Racing, Indianapolis 500, Racing Technology

Operating the planet like a business in liquidation

Excellent review of the Wired Town Hall on the Climate Crisis. Good points and I'm, looking forward to the film!




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You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. - Beverly Sills

American Taliban, Redux

The War On Sex By Cristina Page, TomPaine.com Posted on May 18, 2006, Printed on May 18, 2006 http://www.alternet.org/story/36371/ The architects of the South Dakota ban on abortion have a bold plan for our country. Certainly, they have already given a jolt to the majority of Americans, or at least the 66 percent who want Roe v. Wade to remain law of the land. But there's a great deal more the American public should know about these legislative campaigners. Especially since there's a lot more of their agenda they hope to realize. They have a plan for you, and if you are anything like the 85 percent of American couples who have sex once a week, you're not going to like it. The pro-life groups who are the most committed to ending legal abortion -- and gotten the furthest in their goals -- are also leading campaigns against the only proven ways to prevent abortion: contraception. Shocking as it may be, there is not one pro-life organization in the United States that supports the use of contraception. Instead the pro-life movement is the constant opponent of every single effort to provide Americans with the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancies. If the South Dakota ban is upheld and Roe v. Wade is toppled, it's safe to say the pro-life movement is not going to send out a brigade to furnish Americans with the most effective contraceptives. In fact, pro-life groups' most recent activities suggest the exact opposite. Take Leslee Unruh, the South Dakota native considered the primary force behind the near-total ban on abortion in her state. Unruh is, in many ways, the perfect representative of the modern pro-life movement. She is lauded in pro-life circles as the president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, a group that promotes abstinence-until-marriage. Under Unruh's leadership, the Abstinence Clearinghouse has spearheaded campaigns to stop people from using the condom. On the organization's website, supporters of family planning are derided as the "safe sex cartel" and "condom-pushers." Her medical advisory board consists of physicians who pledge not to prescribe contraception to sexually active teens. The group's new project, "Abstinence Africa," discourages condom use in African countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho where, on average, one in three adults is infected with HIV. Unruh and her pro-life colleagues have moved beyond attacking the condom, too. For example, when pharmacists refuse to fill birth control prescriptions, the pro-life movement has responded with a favorite tactic: it has moved aggressively to welcome their deeds as acts of "conscience." The movement has helped pass laws allowing pharmacists to refuse on moral or religious grounds to fill birth control prescriptions in South Dakota -- no surprise there -- as well as Arkansas and Mississippi. Additionally another 19 states have moved to protect anyone who decides to stand in the way of a woman getting birth control; this conceivably includes cashiers who could choose to refuse to ring up your prescription. Over the past decade, pro-choice groups have tried to get contraception covered by health insurers as a sensible way to stop unintended pregnancies. Nearly every time, these initiatives have provoked intense battles in state legislatures. Right to Life chapters in Ohio, Delaware, Illinois, Oregon, Wisconsin, Nevada and Missouri all fought against state legislation to get birth control covered. Year after year the Pro-Life Caucus of Congress defeats federal legislation to require health insurers to pay for birth control. President Bush has complied with almost all the requests of his pro-life, anti-contraception base. He's attempted to revoke contraception benefits to federal employees, slashed U.S. foreign aid programs that distribute birth control and appointed anti-contraception ideologues to the expert panels charged with approving new contraception methods. He's also appointed an abstinence-only-until-marriage crusader to direct the Title X program which delivers contraception to the nation's poor -- the majority of Title X clients are not married. It should come as no surprise that Title X's funding has remained flat, while its clientele has swelled. What's also not surprising is that the abortion rate among the most indigent in our country has been increasing. Today, pro-life groups in the United States are reclassifying the most common contraception methods, including the birth control pill, the patch, the IUD, and the Depo-Provera shot, as "abortifacients" by claiming, with no scientific backing, that they cause abortions. The American Life League explained, "We have been working to prove that prescription contraceptives have nothing to do with woman's health and well-being but are recreational drugs that prevent fertilization and abort children." Some groups will use legal means to put pressure on candidates to adopt their anti-contraception view. For example, Northern Kentucky Right to Life will only endorse candidates who believe the use of the standard birth control pill constitutes abortion. While the more extreme side of the pro-life movement hasn't yet advocated violence against those that distribute birth control, they do agree with the concept of "contraception=abortion." Most chillingly, Army of God, a pro-life organization that honors those who murder abortion providers as "heroes," also classifies birth control as an abortion method. On the "Birth Control is Evil" section of their website, they explain, quite threateningly, "Birth control is evil and a sin. Birth control is anti-baby and anti-child…Why would you stop your own child from being conceived or born? What kind of human being are you?" Cloaked in the heated rhetoric of the abortion debate, an entirely new pro-life agenda is taking shape. Most Americans don't know about this yet. But the Right to Life movement, which is now rewriting the country's laws on abortion -- of which South Dakota is clearly just a first target -- has a broader and, for most of us, a disturbing plan. If this powerful movement succeeds, Americans will require safe abortion services more than ever. Cristina Page is vice president of the Institute for Reproductive Health Access at NARAL Pro-Choice New York, and the author of 'How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America' (Perseus Books, 2006). © 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/36371/

SciTech Watch: Venus Express

My new column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a look at the new space probe to Venus: Venus Express.

>JjV<
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A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. - Chinese Proverb

Technorati Tags: Venus Express, Venus,Magellan,ESA

American Taliban

Anyone who thinks that religious zealotry is only in other countries need only take a look at this CNN report to realize that America is rapidly spiraling down the same sewer pipe.  America was founded by people seeking freedom from religious persecution, but now it seems if you don't have the right religion or perceived morals your are unwelcome in BLACK JACK, Missouri.


I wonder if cities can afford to scare away tax payers with this kind of behavior?

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If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything. - Fred Menger

Technorati Tags:
American Taliban, Religious Zealot,Freedom of Religion,Marriage

New SciTech Watch Column: Regenesis

My new column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a look at the SciFi TV show Regenesis.

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In shallow waters, shrimps make fools of dragons. Chinese Proverb

Technorati Tags : Science Fiction, Regenesis, NorBAC, Biotechnology

EFF's Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T

Click the image below to view information on the suit on the EFF web site.



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A top-secret government study indicates that we wouldn't be any worse off if we let the economists predict the weather and the meteorologists predict the economy. - Paul Harwitz

Consumer Electronics Association slams RIAA

SciTech Watch Column - Podcasting: What’s On

My new SciTech Watch column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a look at what kind of content you can find in the world of Podcasting.

>JjV<
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They're called "pearls of wisdom" because where most people are concerned, they're so rare.

Technorati Tags : Podcast, Playlist, Podsafe, Podcast Directory

Desperation

Jim Kunstler has been warning about the effects of this Oil foolishness for quite a while now.  He warns about the effect high gasoline and crude oil prices on America's drive-everywhere lifestyle

Check out his post today....

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Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. - Arthur C Clarke

Technorati Tags: Kunstler, oil prices, gasoline prices, economy, clusterfuck

Chinese Linux Mini-PC Cheaper than a copy of XP

Found on LinuxDevices.com

Chinese $150 Linux mini-PC races OLPC to market


Apr. 21, 2006


A
Chinese company is touting an inexpensive Linux-based computer as a way
to close the "digital divide." YellowSheepRiver's $150 "Municator"
appears to be available now, with a three-month leadtime, suggesting it
could reach market well ahead of MIT's $100 "One Laptop Per Child"
(OLPC) device.

(Click for larger view of the Municator)

The OLPC project was announced last fall, with laptop manufacturer Quanta Computer of Taiwan stepping forward to offer its manufacturing services shortly afterward. However, no specific delivery commitments appear to have been reached.

Additionally, the performance potential of the OLPC's $100 laptop design has drawn taunts from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, as well as Intel Chairman Craig Barret, who called the design a "$100 gadget."
If the Municator lives up to YellowSheepRiver's promise of Pentium
III-like performance, the Chinese device could enjoy a performance
edge, in addition to its apparent time-to-market lead.

Chinese chips inside

YellowSheepRiver
says it saved cost in its Municator YSR-639 design by sourcing the CPU,
RAM, and other key chips from Chinese companies. China is now the
world's third-largest producer of new semiconductor designs, according to research firm iSuppli.

According to YellowSheepRiver, the Municator is based on a 64-bit Godson-2 CPU from BLX Semiconductor. The Godson-2 chip, codenamed "Dragon," uses an instruction set based on the MIPS architecture; however, BLX is not a MIPS licensee. The Microprocessor Report suggested last summer that BLX could face legal challenges from MIPS if its chips reach the U.S., although some other sources
suggest that the Godson chips do not include patented portions of the
MIPS ISA (instruction set architecture), such as unaligned 32-bit
load/store support.

SGI's O2 (Click to enlarge)

The
Municator's Godson-2 processor offers performance similar to a Pentium
III, YellowRiver claims; however, a more useful comparison might be to
MIPS's four-way superscalar R10000 processor, which shipped in 1995,
and powered Silicon Graphics Unix workstations such as the O2, pictured
at right. The Godson-2 also has a four-way superscalar design.

The
Godson-2 chips in YellowSheepRiver's YSR-639 are clocked at 400MHz or
600MHz. They connect to a Marvel MV64420-BDM1C133 northbridge via a
133MHz FSB (front-side bus). The Marvel northbridge supports DDR RAM at
166MHz, via an SODIMM slot, and offers a 32-bit, 33MHz PCI bus. A VIA
VT82C686B southbridge with 133/100/66MHz ATA bus completes the chipset.


YellowSheepRiver says it hopes one day to use an "SoC"
(system-on-chip) version of the Godson-2 chipset that will integrate
the processor and northbridge into a single chip, and save additional
cost and power.

Other features

The OLPC design
eschews a hard drive, to keep cost down, but has an LCD display. The
Municator, in contrast, offers an S-video port, in order to support
television displays, and comes with a 40GB external USB drive. The
Municator also has rear-mounted IDE and power connectors that support
the attachment of optional optical drives.

Other interfaces,
according to YellowSheepRiver, include four front-mounted USB 2.0
ports, IrDA, and audio I/O. Additional rear-mounted interfaces include
S-video, VGA, 10/100 Ethernet, serial, PS/2 keyboard/mouse, and IDE.

The
Municator measures 7 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches (180 x 145 x 37mm), and weighs
one pound, six ounces (0.65kg). It requires five amps of 12-volt power,
and comes with a 45-watt auto-sensing 110/220 adapter. A lithium-ion
battery pack is optionally available. Other options include WiFi and a
modem.

The Municator runs "Thinix 3.0," a Linux variant that
features support for user interfaces based on a keyboard, mouse, or
both, according to YellowSheepRiver. Thinix is based on RPLinux, a distribution created by the China Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion (CSIP).

Availability

YellowSheepRiver
says orders for its "Fitness Computer," possibly a codename for the
YSR-639, can begin production within three months of order confirmation.

A video demonstrating the Municator is available here.

---

New SciTech Watch Column - Exercise & Lactic Acid

My new SciTech Watch column is up over at Blogcritics. Its a review of new research on the role of Lactic acid in exercising muscles.

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Reality is for people who can't handle drugs.

Technorati Tags : Lactic Acid, Mitochondria, Metabolism, Muscle

Google Tribute Trouble

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Nothing will dispel enthusiasm like a small admission fee.

Save the Internet

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The wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool does from his friends. - Chinese Proverb

Good article on improving our national broadband infrastructure......


Government Technology

We Need a National Infrastructure Initiative

By John Eger

Apr 19, 2006

The United States, developer of the Internet, inventor of the first PC, the silicon wafer, the pen-based computer etc, is now 12th in the world in using broadband communication, according to the latest report out of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a government think tank in Paris to which almost all developing countries belong.

Although we still have the largest number of users connected to the Internet -- some 49 million according to the report -- we are 12th in terms of broadband penetration. While "broadband" itself is a term not well defined, it is several times faster in most countries like South Korea and Japan than in the US. South Korea, which has been the leader for many years, was topped this year by Iceland. With only 78,000 subscribers, they are number one because of their per capita penetration of broadband which is 26.7 percent versus Korea's 25.4 percent. The U.S. is 16.8 percent.

Quite understandably there is concern across America about the U.S.'s low ranking by the OECD and as a result of similar studies by the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union, where the U.S. is ranked even lower on the totem pole. Having the 21st century infrastructure -- broadband and wireless communications links connected to every home, office and school and through the Web to billions of others -- is considered to be vital to the success of every region's, every nation's, every community's vibrancy in the new economy.

Currently in the U.S., there is perceived to be a nationwide struggle for dominance between the traditional telephone carriers providing both DSL, and in some cases fiber communications to the pedestals -- rarely to the home -- versus cable modems provided by the cable television industry. The electric utilities have been experimenting with broadband over power lines, but other than a handful of experiments across the country, nothing akin to a real alternative additional market competitor is in sight.

Satellite companies are offering an Internet alternative at varying speeds, and pose a possible challenge to the existing cable and Telco monopolies. But this competitive arrangement is not getting us as a nation where we ought to be going.

There is a strong and growing desire on the part of cities and communities across America to help shape their own basic communications infrastructure for the 21st century. Many believe that like waterways, railroads and highways of the past, robust information highways are essential to keep cities from becoming the ghost towns of the 21st century.

While the cable and Telco monopolies in many states have blocked municipal authorities from providing fiber as an alternative, half of the cities -- according to a recent report -- are exploring wireless alternatives. This appears to be a loophole in the fight for broadband, and many cities are taking so-called Wi-Fi technology and deploying it in "hot spots" particularly downtowns, in order to get some advantage.

Companies like Intel, Cisco and even Google have recently expressed strong interest in helping to provide broadband wireless infrastructure directly to the cities and are looking for partnerships at the municipal level. Municipalities meanwhile, representing the largest users in most communities, having no real expertise in these areas, are anxious to have partners who can show them the way.

There is a great deal of doubt about the right technology for such broadband infrastructures be they wired or wireless. How much broadband is enough broadband? And is that upstream or downstream? More importantly, perhaps, what makes economic sense? How best to roll out such a system in a community?

Equally important, should a community pursue a wireless alternative when most of us believe both wired and wireless will be necessary? If we need to use technology as a transforming tool for e-commerce, e-government, e-health -- e-everything as we move along the pathway to becoming a 21st century smart community -- don't we need both and maybe more to create a robust community-wide information infrastructure?

While the U.S. continues its downward slide one must ask, what is it about South Korea and Finland? What do they see that we don't? Why have they been able to move so quickly and provide broadband in such quantity?

FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin told the Wall Street Journal recently that the low population density of Korea made it highly unfair to compare it to the U.S. It is true that the capital city of Seoul -- which itself accounts for a quarter of the approximately 50 million population of Korea -- is chock-a-block with high rises, making broadband communications much easier than in a country as dispersed as the U.S. But this experience is dissimilar to that of Iceland, Norway or Sweden, which have even lower population densities than the U.S. So density itself may not be the advantage that South Korea has. South Korea and Iceland, moreover, provide broadband in some cases eight times faster than the U.S.

What does seem to be common in South Korea and Iceland however is that both countries recognize that such infrastructure means the difference between success and mere survival in the new economy. Both countries therefore have adopted "goals", and benchmarks to reach those goals. Both have adopted long-range plans to transform their countries using technology.

There is a strong desire on the part of national governments to achieve penetration rates and service levels in a matter of months and years. These metrics and longer-range goals and are well understood by all the providers and consumer community. Government meets regularly with the private sector to help set those goals and importantly, works with communities and providers to meet them. It has laid out billions of dollars to provide a high-speed backbone to link government and public institutions and additional billions and incentives to provide similar service to so-called rural areas. It is true that the U.S., after all, created the Internet, and has made an attempt to provide some incentives to our rural areas, but nothing of the order or magnitude of South Korea, Iceland or other leading broadband countries.

All this calls for unique federal, state and local action. Perhaps something akin to the 1987 Advanced Television Advisory Committee (ATC) should be established. The ATC was created by the FCC to help develop high-definition television standards for use by broadcast, cable, satellite and importantly, computer and software industries, and to create some guidelines for advanced television usage for entertainment, health care, education or government. It was clear that there were standards to be set and goals to be established. America was behind Japan, which had already spent several billion dollars establishing its standard -- albeit, an analog one.

Within a few years this committee -- well represented by all the players and consumers alike -- produced meaningful guidelines for the FCC. We are today in a similar position. We are behind the rest of the world in a field in which we must lead. Our nation depends heavily upon the production use and transfer of knowledge-based products and services. We have pretty much lost our manufacturing capacity.

Now that the world is flat, as author Thomas Friedman says, we are seeing more and more of our high tech and biotech goods and services being outsourced. This however is only a symptom of the larger global economy. Increasingly other countries will be developing their own high tech goods and services.

For us to compete, for us to survive, we must develop the infrastructure of the 21st century much faster than we have been, and incentivize whole communities to begin using these new infrastructures to begin transforming their communities to compete in this new global economy. We must assure our cities that they can and should plan on building their information highways, in partnership with existing providers, and help them by clearing away the regulatory hurdles and logistical doubts. We need to set the standards for interconnection, and encourage alliances and partnerships as needed. We must develop a new deregulatory framework to promote broadband deployment and continued innovation. We must in short, establish and sustain a National Infrastructure Initiative to get our country back on track.

John M. Eger, a telecommunications lawyer, and Van Deerlin Professor of Communications and Public Policy at San Diego State University, was also director the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy.

John Eger


Technorati Tags: National Infrastructure, Broadband, Telecommunication