Private No More.

The New York Times reports that “The Justice Department is demanding that at least six hospitals … turn over hundreds of patient medical records on certain abortions performed there.” This is necessary, they claim, in order to defend the new prohibition on “partial birth” abortions. This is bad enough, since as David Seldin, a spokesman for Naral Pro-Choice America, puts it: “This notion of John Ashcroft poring over medical records in a fairly unprecedented type of fishing expedition is exactly the type of privacy invasion that worries people.”

But the real news comes in paragraph 15, where we learn that the Justice Department argued that in light of “modern medical practice” and the growth of third party insurers, “individuals no longer possess a reasonable expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential.”

[Crooked Timber]

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no longer possess a reasonable expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential….. oh well… it isn't that important is it? unless well they raise insurance rates or fail to give us medical service… hmmm, hmmm?

Virtual Friends in Virtual SpacesThe Orkut communi …. Virtual Friends in Virtual Spaces
The Orkut community continues to grow with many academics and researchers that I am familiar with. I tend to look at other people's friends to see who is on Orkut, and I came across a “person” called Gollum, complete with a LOTR picture. I was amused – but truly fascinated by the number of friends this virtual person had.

Lisbeth makes some interesting comments about Gollum and how he even wrote a testimonial about her. Fictional characters are not allowed on Orkut – though I would argue that some of the profiles that people post can be deemed as fiction. I mean, we are presenting our physical selves in a certain way in the virtual world – aren't we all ficticious to a point? What is real and what is imaginary? Which self are we presenting?

Torill notes that Gollum has been removed from Orkut: “He was active, had a sense of humour and a lot of friends, what more does a person need to be real?” Very true. If we are presenting ourselves with a pseudonym – isn't that fake/pretend as well ? There is a real/physical person behind Gollum – where is that person? Will the real Gollum please stand up?
[Netwoman]

The Register: Why wireless will end 'piracy' and doom DRM and TCPA – Jim Griffin. OK, so he likes compulsory licensing, but what's that got to do with wireless? This quote is great: “It costs $20,000 to fill an iPod from iTunes Music Store. Quite simply, no one looks at a 40 GB iPod and thinks, 'it will cost me $20,000 to fill it'. It's a polite fiction. It's a looking the other way. We pretend there's monetization, but there isn't.” [Hack the Planet]

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the hidden facts of information are coming out…… informaiton is alot smaller than you think it is.

the judge did the right thing. ashcroft, et. al. once again demonstrate a profound lack of judgement about civil rights such as privacy.

the current political economic strategy of the cheney-bush administration seems to be increase public debt to extreme proporttions until the electorate are left with two choices, cut back major government programs or cancel the debt. either one of these options will be ruinous to the average american because they will have to pick up the cost of the program personally within a market system, or people who invest in government bonds will more or less get bankrupted, which will throw a huge burden on the rest of american's to support a huge growth of the number of impoverished.