Discourse.net: On the fringes of the public sphere:
Nine months later, the threat level has been lowered, and Ridge, speaking at a news conference last week, said there is no evidence of a plot to disrupt President Bush’s inauguration. Previous warnings, Ridge explained, stemmed from threat reports tied to the elections — not to the inauguration more than two months later.

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lying and manipulation. there was terrorists at the polls though, with terror devices such as rigged voting machines, intentional miscounts and scare tactics…..

Ethiopian Distance Learning:
Andrew Heavens has a short but interesting blip on his blog ‘Meskel Square’ about this Ethiopian classroom’s distance learning set-up, consisting of a satellite dish picking up Digital Video Broadcasts (DVB) from Addis Ababa that then outputs to a generously-sized Samsung plasma screen television. The schools next step is to get online using a satellite connection—cool stuff.
The shock of the new [MeskelSquare]

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if they didn’t use the plasma screen….. this would be so much less expensive.

Some MAN needs to calculate the rotational velocity of MLK’s corpse, immediately!:

<—–snip—->

I also don’t think that last attempt to salvage his thesis by comparing the possession of a pair of X chromosomes to a heritable, organic brain disorder does him any credit. I’m hoping a cabal of strong, smart Harvard women is going to rise up and fire his dumb, hairy scrotum.

(via Feministing)

i agree.

How Nerdy Are You???:

UNESCO conference on freedom of ….:
UNESCO conference on freedom of.

I really have to go to this UNESCO conference on Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace which will be held in UNESCO headquarters in Paris, on 3-4 February.

At least to embarrass the Iranian delegation which will be arrogant enough to take part in such conference, even with its horrible record of freedom of speech in Cyberspace, and also to inform the UN and its members about the vast and heavy Net censorship in Iran. (I’m even prepared to do this trip on my own expense, if no other funding can I find.)

Since my Canadian citizenship is still in the process, I have to use my invaluable Iranian passport — again — and to apply for a Type C Scheme Visa. But I worry issuing the VIsa takes longer than February 2nd and I miss the whole thing.

So does anyone know someone who might be of help, especially in the French councilor in Toronto or in the Embassy in Ottawa?

[Editor: Myself (English)]

this seems like it could be interesting… of course the problem is that because of the means of access to cyberspace, namely implicit or explicit contract, and that usually in those contracts there are limits to the freedom, because you can contract away your ‘freedom of expression and/or speech”.

Did Justice Clarence Thomas Really Say It?:

As Atrios and Ignatz say, if this is true, it’s a very big deal: An Alabama SC justice claims, according to a Birmingham News reporter, that Clarence Thomas told him: [A] judge should be evaluated by whether he faithfully upholds…

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supreme court justices have one job to hear cases of the court and in that job they do not reference their personal opinion or beliefs, they

reference the constitution, case law, and its interpretation. many people confuse some references to god and interpretation in the constitution, let me assure you… the constitution does not mention god at all, and few if any other documents in u.s. history do in any sense other than in the universalist sense of people likeThomas Jefferson

and Joseph Priestley

Literary tests for a digital world:
The Information and Communications Technology literacy assessment is intended to measure students’ ability to manage exercises like sorting e-mail messages.
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is this something we really want measured by testing?

Ethics for the Robot Age:
Jordan Pollack argues that the ethical questions surrounding robotics &#138;&#138; should robots carry weapons, how closely should humans and robots be integrated, etc. &#138;&#138; should receive much more attention now before the robot revolution hits.

interesting…. some of the questions are central to our consideration of what constitutes an ethical subject, combined with our notions of control.

Ethics for the Robot Age:
Jordan Pollack argues that the ethical questions surrounding robotics &#138;&#138; should robots carry weapons, how closely should humans and robots be integrated, etc. &#138;&#138; should receive much more attention now before the robot revolution hits.

interesting…. some of the questions are central to our consideration of what constitutes an ethical subject, combined with our notions of control.

Google comfort button : ‘The infamous “I…:
Google comfort button: ‘The infamous “I feel lucky” is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.’ [via visakopu.net]

This is very interesting…. it seems to me to be sort of like when you walk down the street and something is missing, like a store closed, or perhaps they moved the newspaper machines or something, just something ‘not quite right’.