Check out Robert McChesney.com. You’ll find a collection of his works on media, politics and communication theory. His weekly radio show, “Media Matters” is archived on the site so you can stream audio interviews with folks like Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine, Amy Goodman, producer and co-host of Democracy Now, and Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner. Good stuff.
Free Press : media reform through outreach, activism, advocacy and networking
Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector. There is much information of interest on this site, including background and history of media regulation, as well as links to interested organizations and resources regarding media ownership.
A new Flash movie describing the Creative Commons has just come out. View it, download it, share it, mix it, create new culture! It’s … Reticulum Rex.
Here’s a new search engine from Australia: Mooter - Web Search. Interesting, it clusters relevant results visually. try it out and let me know.
Truly rediculous! The real world gets more like the Onion every day. FBI urges police to watch for people carrying almanacs. The best thing that could come out of this is for subscriptions to the OFA to shoot through the roof.
“The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.”
John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and writer of the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace is now in the blogosphere and can be visited at BarlowFriendz. Check him out!
In a letter to LOC’s James illington, several Senators urge the Library of Congress to increase the amount of information available for public access on its Thomas Web site. They deemed THOMAS “insufficient as a portal to the Congress of the United States.” Also see the Project on Government Oversight (POGO, what a great acronym!) for a comparison of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the Legislative Information System (LIS).
[Thanks LISNews!]
San Antonio Current.
“WITH A WHISPER, NOT A BANG”
By David Martin. December 24, 2003.
President George W. Bush signed into law the
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004
on a Saturday, the day Saddam Hussein was captured.
Tucked away in this law are new executive powers that expand the so-called P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act.
By signing the bill on the day of Hussein’s capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don’t suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.
See also House Members Criticize 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act.
Guardian Unlimited Books: The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick by Peter Lamont
reviewed by Michael Holland,
Sunday December 28, 2003.
In an age of altered photos, malleable news, and disappearing web sites, this story about the how people believe in things that are simply not true is timely.
In essence, Lamont entertains us with lessons in how history can be invented. Using the example of the fabled Indian rope trick, Lamont aims to show, and largely succeeds, how people will believe a thing is true, despite all rational evidence to the contrary, indeed despite outright denials of its existence, if it is repeated that it is true often enough.
Why Machines Should Fear
By W. Wayt Gibbs. Scientific American January 2004 issue.
“Once a curmudgeonly champion of “usable” design, cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman argues that future machines will need emotions to be truly dependable.”
Norman’s new book, Emotional Design is due out in January from Basic Books.