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By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
June 13, 2003 6.08 p.m. -- (Previous
edition of this weblog)
Movies,
porn found on Midshipmen's computers: Back in November,
our former Journal colleague Ariel Sabar, now writing for the Baltimore
Sun, broke this story about the Naval Academy's seizure of midshipmen's
computers in response to a letter from RIAA accusing the Annapolis students
of illegally sharing files: (Sorry, the story has slipped into the no
man's land of the Sun's paid archives; below is a snippet I blogged then):
The Naval Academy has seized the desktop computers of almost 100 midshipmen
as part of an internal probe into whether students at the military college
are using the Internet to illegally download copyrighted movies, music
and software, a source said yesterday.
Academy officials confiscated the computers while midshipmen were
in class Thursday, a month after entertainment industry groups sent
a letter to colleges and universities nationwide, including the academy,
requesting a crackdown on Internet piracy.
Ariel emailed yesterday to point to the story coming today. Here it is:
It was one of the Naval Academy's most closely kept secrets - how
the school planned to deal with the discovery that nearly 100 midshipmen
were using a military Internet line to swap music and movies illegally.
The superintendent, Vice Adm. Richard J. Naughton, warned a small group
of senior leaders that if so much as a word leaked out, "I will
kill you," according to a Navy investigation into Naughton's leadership
style that led to his resignation last week.
So just what sort of material knocked the school's Internet connection
to its knees last fall?
Documents obtained by The Sun through the Freedom of Information Act
show what investigators found on midshipmen's computers:
# Episodes of The Simpsons, Seinfeld and Jeopardy.
# Movies such as Black Hawk Down, A Few Good Men, Shrek, Harry Potter
and Not Another Teen Movie.
# An encyclopedic collection of pornographic videos.
# BMW commercials.
# Video games such as Age of Empires, Need for Speed, Motocross Madness
and Delta Force 2.
# A television clip described cryptically as "Jlo at the Grammys."
... The records show that midshipmen used 17 peer-to-peer file-trading
programs, including Aimster, BearShare, Morpheus, KaZaA, NeoNapster,
Shareaza, SongSpy and SwapNut.
The records also reveal for the first time that 36 of the seized computers
contained pornographic movies. They also highlight the sheer number
of media files midshipmen had amassed. One mid's computer contained
2,253 music recordings and 2,289 game files. Another computer held 227
pornographic videos.
One computer was found to harbor seven pornographic videos, eight music
videos, 25 music files and an episode of The Muppet Show. Another
had four episodes of Friends and a copy of Jackass: The Movie.
Go read the whole thing before it, too, vanishes into the dark night
of the Sun.
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Copyright
conundrum at PBS' Online
NewsHour:
Is downloading copyrighted music tantamount to stealing? Lawrence
Lessig, an expert on Internet law from Stanford University's Law
School, and Matt Oppenheim,
senior vice president of business and legal affairs for the Recording
Industry Association of America, answer your questions about this heated
debate.
The questions asked in the forum run along the left side of this link,
so you can skip to any issue that particularly interests you.
Also related: Postcard
for the Public Domain at Cabinet
Magazine, and arts and culture quarterly.
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Contemporary
Folk Art from the Deep South: Splendid weekend eye candy. Among
the artists represented here is Howard Finster:
 Howard
Finster was a preacher for 45 years until one day in 1976, he saw a
vision of a face in the fingerprints on his thumb. The face spoke to
him, he said, insisting that he paint 5,000 works of sacred art. Thus
he began his paintings, usually on jigsawed figures ranging from Elvis,
Leonardo de Vinci, model-T's and Coca Cola shrines, to self portraits
with messages written in bright colors. Each finished piece was stamped
with its number on the back and the time it was completed.
Finster also filled-in a two-and-a-half-acre swamp by himself. He then
spent years making poetry out of rubbish, weaving his vision amid a
jungle of berries and fruit. "One night I asked what I had preached
on that morning and everybody forgot my message," he said. "And
that's why I decided to build my garden, so they can't forget."
Finster has appeared on the Tonight Show, illustrated album covers
for R.E.M. and Talking Heads, and has been featured on the cover of
Time Magazine.
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No
smoking outdoors in NYC? From the New York Daily News,
Kim Phann and a buddy had stepped out of Sha's Big Time on Friday night
to smoke a butt when a cop slapped them with a pair of summonses.
The charge: "loitering in front of business."
But Phann and Bruce Rosaro, 27, weren't just hanging outside the Bronx
barbershop. They work there.
"We can't smoke inside because it's against the law," Phann,
23, told the Daily News. "What are we supposed to do? Go home to
have a cigarette?"
It was 7 p.m., and Phann, who has been a barber at Sha's for two months,
still had one more haircut to go before calling it a night.
But before he was able to get back to work, a police wagon turned the
corner and slowed to a stop outside Sha's, at 935 N. Morris Park Ave.,
near Fowler Ave.
"Let me see some IDs," a cop told Phann and Rosaro, who said
they quickly whipped out their driver's licenses.
Next thing he knew, Phann had the pink summons slip in his hand.
"Blame it on Bloomberg," they said the cop told them before
driving away. ...
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More song titles: In response to yesterday's
request for your original country song titles, reader N. Wright sent a
good one: "I Had All the Angles, And She Had All the Curves."
Link
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June 12, 2003 6:30 p.m.
Playing catchup again, after having been in Washington till today.
Here's a brief blog on a very busy day.
All-Time
Best of the.... Worst Country Song Titles: They're in alphabetical
order, so we don't fight about position.
Some are word play: I Gave Her My Heart And A Diamond And She Clubbed
Me With A Spade.
Some are just whacked: Legendary Chicken Fairy.
Some ring really true: I Wanted You To Leave Until You Left Me. A
variation: If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?
I wrote a country song once. The title was Some Men Are Hard on Women
Like Kids Are Hard on Shoes. How about you? If you have a title, send
it along. We could use a little levity.
Link
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 Public
Lettering: A Walk in Central London is a treat for anyone interested
in type styles and signage.
There are many little photos at the bottom of the text in each category
-- they're easy to miss, so I'm pointing them out.
I love this 1915 mosaic at right in the foyer of the Maida Vale underground
(subway).
Link
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Bill
Moyers: This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It
On.
This is the text of his speech to the Take
Back America conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s
Future, June 4, in Washington, D.C.
After a history lesson that swoops from the Founding Fathers through
the robber barons and more deeply into progressivism, Moyers lands here,
today:
What will it take to get back in the fight? Understanding the real
interests and deep opinions of the American people is the first thing.
And what are those? That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio
statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute
to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty
in old age without that help. That tax evasion is not a form of conserving
investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the
country. That income inequality is not a sign of freedom-of-opportunity
at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that
some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's
a sign that opportunity is less than equal. That self-interest is a
great motivator for production and progress, but is amoral unless contained
within the framework of community. That the rich have the right to buy
more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos,
but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else.
That public services, when privatized, serve only those who can afford
them and weaken the sense that we all rise and fall together as "one
nation, indivisible." That concentration in the production of goods
may sometimes be useful and efficient, but monopoly over the dissemination
of ideas is evil. That prosperity requires good wages and benefits for
workers. And that our nation can no more survive as half democracy and
half oligarchy than it could survive "half slave and half free"
– and that keeping it from becoming all oligarchy is steady work
– our work.
Good stuff.
More tomorrow, when I get through the 2,449 emails awaiting me.
Link
to this item | Comment
Playing catchup again, after having been in Washington till today.
Here's a brief blog on a very busy day.
June 12, 2003 6:30 p.m. - (Previous
edition of this weblog)
All-Time
Best of the.... Worst Country Song Titles: They're in alphabetical
order, so we don't fight about position.
Some are word play: I Gave Her My Heart And A Diamond And She Clubbed
Me With A Spade.
Some are just whacked: Legendary Chicken Fairy.
Some ring really true: I Wanted You To Leave Until You Left Me. A
variation: If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?
I wrote a country song once. The title was Some Men Are Hard on Women
Like Kids Are Hard on Shoes. How about you? If you have a title, send
it along. We could use a little levity.
Public
Lettering: A Walk in Central London is a treat for anyone interested
in type styles and signage.
There are many little photos at the bottom of the text in each category
-- they're easy to miss, so I'm pointing them out.
I love this 1915 mosaic at right in the foyer of the Maida Vale underground
(subway).
Bill
Moyers: This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It
On.
This is the text of his speech to the Take
Back America conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s
Future, June 4, in Washington, D.C.
After a history lesson that swoops from the Founding Fathers through
the robber barons and more deeply into progressivism, Moyers lands here,
today:
What will it take to get back in the fight? Understanding the real
interests and deep opinions of the American people is the first thing.
And what are those? That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio
statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute
to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty
in old age without that help. That tax evasion is not a form of conserving
investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the
country. That income inequality is not a sign of freedom-of-opportunity
at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that
some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's
a sign that opportunity is less than equal. That self-interest is a
great motivator for production and progress, but is amoral unless contained
within the framework of community. That the rich have the right to buy
more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos,
but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else.
That public services, when privatized, serve only those who can afford
them and weaken the sense that we all rise and fall together as "one
nation, indivisible." That concentration in the production of goods
may sometimes be useful and efficient, but monopoly over the dissemination
of ideas is evil. That prosperity requires good wages and benefits for
workers. And that our nation can no more survive as half democracy and
half oligarchy than it could survive "half slave and half free"
– and that keeping it from becoming all oligarchy is steady work
– our work.
Good stuff.
More tomorrow, when I get through the 2,449 emails awaiting me.
Link
to this item | Comment
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Public
Lettering: A Walk in Central London