Subterranean Homepage News

By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros

August 8, 2003 6:50 p.m. -- (Last week's weblog)

We're all off Monday, as Rhode Island celebrates what we all still call V-J Day, although its name was long ago changed to Veterans Victory Day. Most of us don't care if it's politically incorrect, it's a summer holiday. See you Tuesday.

There's a heat wave in England: An artist entertained sunbathers by building a full-size Mini Cooper out of sand at Weymouth, Dorset. Mini UK was behind the creation. Link to this item | Comment

...The crowd was pretty diverse age-wise but also mostly white folks. The folks at my table were looking for people who spoke Spanish to do outreach at the Dominican and Puerto Rican Festivals. Lots of folks were having animated discussions about the state of the country and why we need Howard Dean, but I got the feeling that it was more "yeah, and...!" rather than debates. After all, almost everyone there showed up because we already like Dean. There was a funny moment around 7:30 where everyone's phones started chiming because the campaign sent out a text message to all of us, that was pretty cool. ...

There's more, and Bil gives a good sense of what it would be like to go to such a gathering. Bil added, in an email, "It was an excellent place for the meetup. I think 74 people RSVP'd for the Providence meetup, but I would say the actual turnout was a little under that."

The next Dean Meetup is Sept. 3. (They're held the first Wednesday of every month.) Members vote in advance on the venue. More info here.

With 421 members -- people who signed up to be notified of the meetings -- the Dean group is easily the largest local Meetup group. Other local political Meetups: Kerry in 2004 has 71 members, Kucinich in 2004 has 28, Clark in 2004 has 15. Democratic Party has 9, Bush2004 has 8, Edwards in 2004 has 7, and Gephardt in 2004, 5.

Here's a list of all the Providence Meetups. (Meaning Rhode Island Meetups.)
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Narragansett Indian Powwow this weekend: If you'd like to know more about the tribe behind the smoke shop dustup, the 328th Annual August Meeting/Green Corn Thanksgiving takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Narragansett Indian Church, Route 2 and Old Mill Road in Charlestown from 10 a.m. to dusk. More information: (401) 364-1100.
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Inside the body: Another day at the office... is blog by a medical photographer who photographs the insides of people undergoing surgery (with their signed consent). His work is extremely graphic -- gross, even -- but also compelling if you've ever wondered exactly what a working brain looks like, or what color is a tumor. In living color, of course. Here's a page of thumbnails, and a closeup of a brain.
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Wi-Fi in the sky: Satellite technology targets RV parks and marinas. At InfoWorld,

(The story says "mariners," but other versions make it clear it's marinas.)

Hughes Network Systems launched today a Wi-fi service that originates from satellites circling as high as 24,400 miles above the earth.

...The satellite service called Direcway will be sold as a backhaul solution to wireless service providers and to companies looking to offer wireless Internet service to customers in areas that traditional backhaul service providers cannot reach.

...The peak downlink is 600Kbps to 1Mbps while the uplink is 30Kbps to 80Kbps, according to Bhave. However, uplink and downlink performance is dependent on the number of simultaneous users, peak busy hours, and the quality of service that providers select.

The Hughes wholesale service uses geostationary satellites which transmit to a local provider's satellite dish connected to a Hughes terminal. The terminals in turn are connected to access points. To the end-customer with a wireless card in a laptop, the service will perform like any other Wi-Fi service.

...Service is available now with a number of pilot programs already under way at RV parks in Southern Calif.

This could bring whole new populations of low-income and elderly people online, as well as those who use their boats as cheap waterfront property and would like net access at the dock.
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Transcript of Al Gore's speech at NYU yesterday.

August 7, 2003 7:46 p.m.

Participatory journalism: Your turn! This seems to be the week the journalist bloggers hopped into Clark Kent's phone booth and came out flying.

The prolific J.D. Lasica, senior editor of Online Journalism Review, has come up with a blockbuster trio of stories that might inspire you to put down your mouse and get into citizen publishing:

• Personal Broadcasting Opens Yet Another Front for Journalists. Mitchell Crooks started it. He's the man who shot the Rodney King video. Now all sorts of people are grabbing cameras and making documentaries. From J.D.::

By night, Raven -- the name everyone uses for 47-year-old Harold Kionka -- works as a janitor, mopping the floors and cleaning the grease traps in TGIFriday's in Daytona Beach, Fla.

By day, he operates almost single-handedly a 24-hour Internet TV station, serving as owner, station manager, producer and on-air personality. Daytonabeach-live brings live coverage of events in the Florida resort town to as many as 17,000 viewers a day.

You could do this, too.

• Participatory Journalism Puts the Reader in the Driver's Seat. Projo.com's music and art sites (reg.req.) have for the last three years invited area bands to upload their tunes and given local artists a page of their own on which to answer craft-interview questions and publish photos of their work. (The links: the roster with rotating thumbnails; all artists indexed by name; upload your work -- Southern New England artists only, please.)

The music pages are cross-referenced with the local gig listings, so a band's name linked to a page with its photo and mp3s; that way readers can hear what the band sounds like before they pop for the cover at a club. (Same type of links: with thumbnails, all bands by name, upload your music -- Southern New England bands only, please.)

On Mondays, a random band is featured on the cover of projo.com along with links to bands new to the site; on Tuesdays, a random artist is highlighted.

"Your Garden Shots" was the first of many slideshows on the site created by readers who upload their photographs; it was a finalist for an "Eppy" award in 2001.

With this blog format, much more became possible. The Station Fire blog was created in large part by readers who emailed photos, links to online discussions in L.A. and music groups, names of victims not on our lists, web pages on their conditions, technical info on pyros and foam and fire safety, benefits and much more.

A year ago this week, in anticipation of proposed music royalty payments that have since knocked most web radio stations off the air, one citizen wanted to get his story out, and I yielded the blog to him:

Bernie Larivee (photo) of East Providence, an HVAC controls technician at Brown University, e-mailed me this week to introduce himself and his labor of love, a tiny net radio station called Eargazm, which boasts as many as four simultaneous listeners. Eargazm is one of many hobby radio stations threatened by the new royalty rates established by CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) of .07 cents per song per listener. Here's Bernie:

"Did you know that there's a local internet radio station that stands to be annihilated if these fees are realised?

"Formed by two college radio veterans, Eargazm webcasts 24/7 from the 'Phantom Living Room' in East Providence. ...

After the R.I. State Police raid on the Narragansett Indians' smoke shop last month, Indian activist Sheila Spencer Stover of Bunn, N.C., whose Indian name is Firehair Shining Spirit, emailed a reasoned argument for the tribe's having established a precedent for sovereignty by getting federal aid directly from FEMA after Hurricane Bob in 1990 as smiling state officials beamed with pride at the groundbreaking move.

I dug the story out of our archives and published it along with her email.

J.D. read about "Firehair" (as she signs her email) on this blog, and contacted her. She appears in this second of his three stories:

...She runs the Internet Native News and Issues List, a mailing list with 400 members, mostly native Americans. (It has no Web site. Those interested in joining may e-mail her at ItsShngsprt2@aol.com.)

...A 67-year-old single mother (she has two adopted children of Mayan background), Firehair has fair skin, blue eyes and red hair. She is a member of the Delaware/Minisink Band and counts Narragansett Indians among her ancestors. Her mailing list buzzed with activity on the days following the altercation.

"Firehair" addressed that first email to the governor, the secretary of state and to me. Today, I asked her, "Why me?"

She emailed, "I went hunting on Google for email for the ProvJournal, and for whatever reason, the link to your page is what hit me in the eye. There are NO coincidences--- it got to the right place, now, didn't it?"

"Firehair" and Bernie wrote to the blogger. You can, too. Not letters to the editor, complaints about your neighbors or your ex, but real citizen publishing.

Make it good and I'll share this page with you. Here's my email address.

What I can offer, besides a piece of our newshole, is a headline link from the cover of projo.com, a large number of readers -- this blog sits on the open Web and is syndicated to the Dallas Morning News and other Belo sites -- and the wide exposure that comes from search engines. Long after your thoughts have been published, they'll still be turning up in Google.

• What is Participatory Journalism? A survey course, full of links to sites that encourage and publish participation by readers. This blog is mentioned. (Thanks, J.D.!)

It's an important series that provides pointers to the sites breaking new ground and those breaking down the wall between we who publish and you who read. If you're interested in following J.D.'s history through these topics, he's blogged links to earlier stories here.
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More emerging Supermen of cyberjournalism: Ken Sands, head of new media at the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, oversees a passel of newsroom blogs (including one by the restaurant reviewer that seems to include thoughts on her lunches and dinners and the occasional recipe).

In an interview with Editor & Publisher headlined The Pied Piper of Blogging, Sands said, "...the electronic edition will eventually become the center of the newsroom universe, with print and television the orbiting planets." Yes! The Web lets journalists respond instantly to breaking news, without waiting for the next press run or scrambling to find video.

Speaking truth to power across the newsroom, Sands also said,

Newspapers are resistant to change despite decades of evidence that they are increasingly irrelevant. To me, a perfect example is the way many metro papers cover elections. They assign one reporter to every race, and election stories are strung together in a seemingly endless parade in the months leading up to an election. Today, the county treasurer, tomorrow the county prosecutor, the next day city council position 1, blah, blah, blah.

No one reads that crap. Even worse, it's the kind of stuff that turns people off to the newspaper entirely. And what about the 40% of people -- in our state -- who get their absentee ballots three weeks before election day? Oops.

Oops.

Finally, one more note from J.D.:

For the past few months, I've been working with new media writers/consultants Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis to produce a comprehensive report for New Directions for News on the subject of participatory journalism.

Today, the foreword, introduction and first four chapters of the seven-chapter report were posted on the NDN web site.

It's called "We Media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information."

Good stuff, but pdf can be an awkward format.
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More recall notes:

-- Riordan terminated: The Los Angeles Times reports,

Among those caught off guard by Schwarzenegger's surprise announcement was his close friend and another potential candidate, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. One of Riordan's closest advisors said the mayor thought he had an understanding that Schwarzenegger would withdraw from the race, easing Riordan's way in.

"So this is what it feels like to be mugged," the advisor said.

Also in this story: Darrell Issa, who started the whole recall rolling, will not run. Michael Huffington, whose ex-wife Arianna is running unless he does, has announced he won't.

-- Not the giant: The blogosphere seems more taken with Gary Coleman's candidacy -- with signatures gathered and filing fee paid by the Oakland (Calif.) East Bay Express than to Ahnold. Maybe this means the goofy celebrity votes -- "Hey, he's been in my living room!" -- will split? Here's the Express's coverage of its candidate: We put Gary Coleman on the Oct. 7 ballot. Seriously.

-- Alphabetical orders: Just to make things mores confusing, the alphabet will be scrambled by a lottery. It's is apparently an effort to discourage those who might change their names from, say, Russo to Arusso or even Aarusso, like some Rhode Island politicians you might remember

On Monday, California's secretary of state will hold a drawing to determine the new order of the alphabet. But there won't be just one order, which could make for an interesting hunt for your candidate on the ballot. From the National Post of Canada:

A 1975 law calls for the use of the "random alphabet technique." Next week, an official will pull the 26 letters of the alphabet out of a box one at a time to establish the order. This will also be rotated by district so different areas will have different orders.

Sleep well, California, entertainment capital of the world.
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August 6, 2003 7:16 p.m.

California may have started a movement: I'm writing before the big Ahnold ahnouncement, but Arianna Huffington is in (unless her ex is also in) with signs that read, "It's Time to Clean House" (?); Larry Flynt ('Vote for a Smut-Peddler Who Cares') is in; Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman is in ("None of the above") and so is Brian Flemming, whose slogan is, "If elected, I will resign":

In November 2002, the people of our state decided who should become governor if Gov. Gray Davis were to leave office. That person is Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante. ...

... If elected, I will immediately resign. This action will make Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante the governor of California.

... This is the entirety of my platform. I take no position on any issue other than the recall.

...Make Brian Flemming your backup plan.

It's a roiling, creative exercise in democracy out west there. Easy for me to say -- I don't have to live with the results.

But maybe I will. Mickey Kaus at Slate cites a Washington Post report that "[t[he recall appears to be captivating California's notoriously distracted voters like no other political event. Strategists in both parties say there are signs that voter turnout this fall could be enormous," and adds,

The source of the recall's appeal appears to be similar to the source of a PowerBall lottery's appeal or American Idol's appeal: Anyone can play. .... Who needs the American Candidate reality show, which would bring the American Idol model to politics.? This is a real American Candidate, and it's creating a powerful argument for lowering the filing requirements in all elections, so hundreds of citizens can run. ... The only thing really wrong with the recall (and it's probably a fatal flaw) is the lack of a runoff. ...

California may have stumbled on an alternative to backroom politics, one that needs some tweaking but actually contains a seed of hope for better government -- something the electorate has seemed short on lately.

Bonus link: Hip-Hop Song Pokes Fun at the Mad Dash for the California Governor’s Recall Race: 'Out of Work? Need a Job? Run for Office'
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How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back is a thoughtful piece by conservative black scholar John H. McWhorter at City Journal. (McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Stanford, Fellow in Public Policy at the Manhattan Institute, contributing editor at The New Republic and City Journal, and author of the controversial Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America -- and he knows hip-hop, too.)

How is it progressive to describe life as nothing but “bitches and money”? Or to tell impressionable black kids, who’d find every door open to them if they just worked hard and learned, that blowing a rival’s head off is “real”? How helpful is rap’s sexism in a community plagued by rampant illegitimacy and an excruciatingly low marriage rate?

A reaction by inner-city high school teacher Bernard Chapin (Rap Music Holds Blacks Down) is worth exploring as well:

The appeal of the gangsta life, and its accompanying rap, manufactures feelings of euphoria and power in its adolescent listeners. It tantalizes kids through a “bling, bling” future that they will never attain.

More reaction at ProperWinston, Chronic Murmuring and rapdirt.com.
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Swollen Orders Show Spam's Allure: At Wired,

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- A security flaw at a website operated by the purveyors of penis-enlargement pills has provided the world with a depressing answer to the question: Who in their right mind would buy something from a spammer?

An order log left exposed at one of Amazing Internet Products' websites revealed that, over a four-week period, some 6,000 people responded to e-mail ads and placed orders for the company's Pinacle herbal supplement. Most customers ordered two bottles of the pills at a price of $50 per bottle.

Do the math and you begin to understand why spammers are willing to put up with the wrath of spam recipients, Internet service providers and federal regulators.

... Amazing Internet pays a supplier around $5 per bottle of pills, and gives affiliates who send spam on its behalf about $10 per order, said the former associate. That leaves plenty of room for a tidy profit in the low-overhead spam business.

It's an amazing story. And there's a natural sidebar on the Web: In the fearless spirit of the best investigative journalism, Joe Miksch of Fairfield (Conn.) County Weekly tried Pinacle for 30 days.
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The 100 Worst “Groaners”: Newswriting.com tries to spike the cliches in the daily report. C'mon, I like "allegedly."
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Sikh men hit the catwalk: Here's a story you won't find in your local paper. It's from the BBC, linked by Holy Weblog!, which tracks religion in its (obviously) broadest sense. The photo below shows some of the apprentice models working out.

With their big build, turbans and beards, the Sikhs are a stark contrast to the clean shaven, lean models preferred by designers all over the globe.

But under the watchful eye of their mentor, Gurmeet Singh Gill, they hope to change the face of fashion.

The whole idea for his Sikh agency was inspired by his own rejection.

"I started this agency because I wanted my Sikh brothers to walk on the ramp in their turbans.

"Basically I was rejected by one of the leading modelling agencies in Delhi. I told them that I want to be a model, please give me a chance - but they refused me.

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Good teas and how to brew them: At Kuro5hin, with reader comments and links to much more.

I've always been a coffee drinker, so I didn't know that

Green and white teas are never infused with boiling water. Highest quality, and tenderest teas are infused with barely warm water; lower quality ones with hotter water. Blacks and Pu-Erhs are infused with boiling water. For oolongs you should use water that's slightly colder than boiling.

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August 5, 2003 5:07 p.m.

Coupon requests may cancel "do not call" requests: This comes from Snopes.com, which tracks urban legends and hoaxes.

Claim: Telemarketers are luring those who've signed up for the national "Do Not Call" list by getting them to request coupons for free products.

Status: True.

Example: This is to all of you that signed up for the "do not call" law. This week I received a card in the mail that looked alright — It said "vote for your favorite cola — Pepsi or Coke — and receive a complementary (sic) 12 pack" It didn't look suspicious — but for some reason I kept looking at it.

THEN I FOUND IT !! At the bottom of the card there is a VERY small statement. It is SO small it is hard to read—but here is what it says— By completing this form, you agree that sponsors and co-sponsors of this offer may telephone you, even if your number is found on a do not call registry or list." ...

Snopes has more on this, including,

Filling out a survey form or mailing in a completed contest entry or taking some business up on its offer of free product might be construed as establishing a business relationship with that entity, a condition that would allow that group to make un-asked-for sales pitches over the telephone despite that particular consumer's inclusion on the national "leave me alone" list.

Last night I got a call from my long-distance phone company, just at dinnertime, of course. When the caller asked how I was this evening, I told him he was disturbing me. "But we're your phone company," he said.

"I signed up for long-distance access, which doesn't mean I want to chat with you," I said. He persisted, "But we're your phone company" as though I were his long-lost birth mother. I said the magic words, "Please don't call me," and hung up.

Even if you put your number on the National Do Not Call Registry, a company with which you have an established business relationship may call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase or delivery from it, or your last payment to it, unless you ask the company not to call again.

The telemarketing calls are probably not worth a free 12-pack of soda.
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Police seek exemption from new overtime rules: There's an FOP convention in town, and Journal reporter Scott McKay breaks some news ("Thousands of police throng city" reg. req.) from its opening day about proposed changes in the proposed changes to overtime pay rules that this blog has been tracking:

Labor Secretary (Elaine) Chao sought to defuse for the FOP what has become a contentious issue between the Bush administration and labor unions: the Labor Department's proposal to drastically change overtime pay rules that unions assert would result in major overtime pay cuts to professional employees.

The AFL-CIO and most major unions have denounced the proposed change, and the issue has found its way into presidential politics. In Iowa yesterday, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential aspirant, launched an Internet-based petition drive to oppose the proposed limits on overtime pay.

Kerry said up to 8 million workers would lose overtime, including police officers and firefighters who are the first to respond in emergencies.

Unlike other unions, the FOP has been working behind-the-scenes with the Bush administration to ensure that the proposal is amended to protect law-enforcement personnel from overtime cuts, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the FOP.

"We are very confident we are going to be able to resolve these issues," Pasco said.

Chao pledged to listen "very carefully" to the FOP's concerns before the final rules are put into place.

Kerry's petition drive is at http://petition.johnkerry.com/overtime/. Here's the AP story about it.
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Snapster 2.0: This Time I Really Mean It. Robert I. Cringely at PBS.org comes back with a revised version of his plan to treat peer-to-peer file sharing like owning shares in a mutual fund.

There was a moment toward the end of last week when I was receiving an average of one e-mail message per minute about Snapster -- the plan I had described to change the music distribution business and become obscenely rich in the process. ...

... Clearly, I struck a nerve. People either loved the Snapster idea or hated it. Lawyers for the most part hated it except for lawyers from Dallas, Texas, who seemed to all want to invest in Snapster. What do they don't know that all the other lawyers do? Beats me. No wonder J.R. was shot. ...

... I acknowledge that Snapster as presented last week was a flawed concept and probably not workable, but rather than just admit I am a dork and move on, I am going to PROVE I am a dork by proposing Snapster 2.0, which I honestly believe can work. Film at 11.

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The Copyright Cage: Bars can't have TVs bigger than 55 inches. Teddy bears can't include tape decks. Girl Scouts who sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon" owe royalties. Copyright law needs to change. By Jonathan Zittrain at Legal Affairs.
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"Free Range," "Cage Free," "Organic": What's the Story? I was pleased to see this story -- the egg section of the supermarket is confusing these days. From E/The Environmental Magazine at Environmental News Network.

...As Americans become more critical of what they eat, small farmers and large-scale agribusiness have responded with a bewildering array of choices. And with the increasing variety of food products, even basics like eggs can confuse consumers.

In any reasonably enlightened grocery store, the consumer can choose between "free range," "cage-free," and "organic" eggs. One brand may be "fortified with omega-3s," while another comes from hens fed only with "natural grains." One package is simply labeled "natural." What do these different labels actually mean? And what is their significance to people with widely varying needs, such as a heart disease sufferer, a nursing mother, a vegetarian, and an animal-rights activist? And weren't eggs supposed to be bad for you anyway, being packed with fat and cholesterol?

Rebecca's Pocket is the source of the link.
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Site asks Californians to run for governor: From the San Jose Mercury News,

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur launched a Web-based campaign Sunday to derail the recall by encouraging as many Californians as possible to run for governor.

In what Stuart Vance describes as ``a denial-of-service attack on the recall,'' he and some tech buddies want to overwhelm election officials with up to 1,000 names. That could exceed the number that fits on ballots and force the Oct. 7 election to be delayed. ...

..."I'm no fan of Gray Davis,'' Vance said. But he called Republican Rep. Darrell Issa's $1.7 million contribution to the recall "a corruption of the democratic process.''

"I want to tell the Darrell Issas of the world that if they twist the system for their purposes, we the people will untwist it to stop them,'' said Vance, a former executive with TGV Software and Network Alchemy.

Vance's site is www.run-for-governor.org.
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Cookie Cooker is another way the net tunnels around obstacles. It's a free utility:

Peer-to-Peer - Other users help you: One user blocks Ads and nobody else needs to watch them. Of course with individual settings.

Exchange Cookies! Cookies are used (among other purposes) to watch your habits and behavior and create a profile on you. When you exchange cookies, somebody else surfs with your cookie and the profiles get mixed up. Your observer will be confused. Helpful Cookies can still be used.

I haven't tried this but its very existence should be a warning to heavy-handed marketers: If users feel you're coming on too strong, programmers will write ways around your intentions. The net cannot be easily harnessed.
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Teen lingo from The Source for Youth Ministry: Adults always sound goofy when they try to talk like teens, but I might just have to try this one:

whas' crackulatin'
(derived from "What's crackulating?") What is going on? How is it going? Good to see you. When greeting someone say "Whas' crackulatin'?"

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The Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products:

ACME is a worldwide leader of many manufactured goods. From its humble beginnings providing corks and flypaper to bug collectors ("Buddy's Bug Hunt/1935") to its heyday in the American Southwest supplying a certain coyote, from Ultimatum Dispatchers to Batman outfits, ACME has set the standard for excellence.

For the first time ever, information and pictures of all ACME products, specialty divisions, and services (from 1935 to 1964) are gathered here, in one convenient catalog. For more information about any ACME product, simply click on the thumbnail picture. Thanks to Warner Bros. studios and their fine animation department for advertising ACME products in their cartoons!!

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Health, Hope and Hype: Why the Media Oversells Medical 'Breakthroughs'. From recovering medical writer, in the Washington Post:

...The headline on one recent eight-page advertorial on heart disease: "From Cause to Cure." Oh, really? If there's a cure for heart disease, I'd like to know what it is.

Forgive me if I sound cynical. It's just that, as a journalist, I'm a recently reformed hope pusher myself. The medical stories I used to write always had a strong element of hope, and the same goes for the majority of the articles produced by my colleagues around the country, who collectively serve as a kind of pep squad for biomedical research and medicine.

Worth a read.

She doesn't get into those pharmaceutical commercials, though -- the ones that recite all the bad side effects in syrupy tones. But there's a bill in Massachusetts to ban them. The Boston Herald reported (Proposed drug-ad ban seen as longshot):

Massachusetts consumers would no longer hear, watch or read about the little purple pill, the wonders of Viagra or the relative merits of aspirin over ibuprofen under a bill aimed at banning drug company ads.

The far-reaching legislation would prohibit all advertising by pharmaceutical companies - a measure drug interests called a ludicrous assault on free speech rights and the free market.

Lead sponsor Kathi-Anne Reinstein (D-Revere) said she doesn't ``begrudge anyone their First Amendment rights,'' and doesn't pretend to know the legal implications of the bill.

``I'm not a lawyer but I do know the pharmaceutical industry wastes a lot of money on advertising that they could be using to bring down the cost of medications,'' she said. ``Every time you turn on the television they're telling people what kind of drug they need. I think it's ridiculous.''

Another sponsor, Rep. Colleen M. Garry (D-Dracut) acknowledged the bill is largely symbolic and stands little chance.

``But enough is enough,'' she said. ``The people who should be recommending which drug to take are the doctors. It shouldn't be based on people seeing ads all the time saying this pill will solve all their problems.''

Common sense, but the bill seems doomed.
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Dumb headline of the day: Web hookups blamed for rise in AIDS. Instead of blaming all the ways people can meet other people, how about blaming the behavior of having sex without condoms, no matter how the people hook up?

Related: Double Lives on the Down Low was the cover story in the Sunday Times magazine, a chilling report on

Rejecting a gay culture they perceive as white and effeminate, many black men have settled on a new identity, with its own vocabulary and customs and its own name: Down Low. There have always been men -- black and white -- who have had secret sexual lives with men. But the creation of an organized, underground subculture largely made up of black men who otherwise live straight lives is a phenomenon of the last decade. Many of the men at Flex tonight -- and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston -- are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ''thug'' culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.

The story also reports,

According to the Centers for Disease Control, one-third of young urban black men who have sex with men in this country are H.I.V.-positive, and 90 percent of those are unaware of their infection.

And,

DL culture has grown, in recent years, out of the shadows and developed its own contemporary institutions, for those who know where to look: Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs. Over the same period, Down Low culture has come to the attention of alarmed public health officials, some of whom regard men on the DL as an infectious bridge spreading H.I.V. to unsuspecting wives and girlfriends. In 2001, almost two-thirds of women in the United States who found out they had AIDS were black.

Scary stuff.
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Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com