Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 22:59 - Category: Unfiled ;
Whoa dude, you mean it isn’t?
‘Americans ignorant of their UK kinsfolk’.
Most Americans are so ignorant of their kinsfolk in Britain they believe the United Kingdom is a country “somewhere” in the Middle East, according to the tourism minister, Kim Howells.
Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 10:29 - Category: Unfiled ;
Are paper ballots more secure?
Some experts think so, as electonic voting has little or no audit trail.
Critics of so-called direct recording electronic, or DRE, voting machines, most of which employ touch screens, are particularly concerned about the lack of a paper trail. Although the most widely used DRE machines can at day’s end print out at a record of ballots cast, detractors say this is insufficient.
“In the absence of any significant audit trails, you have no knowledge whatsoever as to what goes on inside the systems,” he said. “In the pandemonium to get rid of punch cards, it’s in effect created a worse problem.”
A reader emailed us about Vote Watch (also mentioned in the article), which has detailed posting on voting irregularities from the recent elections, It is not reassuring reading.
Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 10:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
The UnGoogleables.
For those deep geek types among us who enjoy Googling.
“A few days ago, I posted the question: What do you call people who don’t show up on a Google search? I.E. what’s the name for the category of person who doesn’t generate even a single page hit?…”
I vote for the proposed “ungoogleables.”
“The point being, you have to avoid doing and being an awful lot of things to stay off of Google. Though the number of North Americans who don’t appear on Google is probably still quite big, it’s diminishing every day.
Will there be people who try as hard as possible not to be Googleable?… [The Shifted Librarian]
Ah, but this conversation misses a huge category of the unGoogleables. People like me with common names, Google “Bob Morris” and you will discover great multitudes of us. In fact, I am not listed in first few pages (sob). So, there’s no way to accurately Google me, as there are too many of me.
Does that make me antiUnGoogleable, and thus, UnGoogleable?
Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 00:14 - Category: Unfiled ;
School of America’s protest draws 10,000
This “school” is where our Army teaches South American military how to torture and run death squads. Real stomach-turning stuff.
The authorities keep giving grotesquely long prison sentences to protestors, yet the demonstrations grow larger each year. Full details on last weekend’s protest from Atlanta IndyMedia.
Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Leftie about to win election in Ecuador
Ecuador will hold elections this Sunday and Narco News, yet again, is alone in reporting important news.
The latest poll shows that Colonel Lucio Gutiérrez, opponent of Plan Colombia, the surprise candidate (you heard it here first) supported by the poor, the indigenous and the workers, leads banana mogul Alvaro Noboa - the richest man in Ecuador, according to the Forbes list - by a margin of 56% to 20%… but nary a word in the United States “press,” and, frankly, the Commercial Media in Ecuador seems to be boycotting serious coverage of their country’s presidential election as well… There’s almost no news being reported.
Well, kind readers, in fact there is plenty of news… And Gómez is on the scene, and will report to you the countdown to election day next Sunday, and he’ll count the votes as well… While the corrupted NY Times correspondent Juan Forero tries to destabilize Venezuela while reporting from Peru… ¡Pendejo!… Once again, the corrupted big boys miss the story while the little website that could puts our pedal to the metal and gets to work!
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Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 00:04 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ Nov 19th 2002 00:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
New Times, old games
LA used to have two alternate newspapers, the LA Weekly and New Times, both owned by chains. Recently, in a cynical deal, each agreed to exit a particular market, leaving it for the other. Now the feds are investigating.
Phoenix-based New Times Media agreed to shut down its 6-year-old Los Angeles paper in exchange for more than $8 million, ceding its Southern California niche to the L.A. Weekly, which is owned by New York-based Village Voice Media. The latter also agreed to close its Cleveland Free Times in return for a much smaller cash payment from New Times, which continues to publish its Cleveland Scene.
A friend observes:
It’s so obvious why Ashcroft is bringing suit against the parent companies fo the LA Weekly and the New Times — if they are found guilty of rackateering, the fines according to the LA Times will be astronomical. What the LA Times didn’t say is they are so high as to bankrupt both companies. And there goes the major advertising media for the sex trade, and the alternative voice of reporting. Both gone, and the government financially richer. A win-win-win situation, it seems to me.
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