From the Express Times:
“For the first time in 15 years, someone has formally challenged the use of a book in the Easton Area School District curriculum.
Eric Adams, a Lower Saucon Township resident and Easton Area High School graduate, said the book “Nickel and Dimed” contains objectionable material and advocates a specific political agenda with a decidedly socialist bent.”
It is worth noting that Adams does not have any children attending EAHS, but rather is a graduate of the school.
From ThreatLevel:
Sneaky cyber-thieves have made millions by fraudulently obtaining European greenhouse gas emissions allowances and reselling them. The scam has hampered trading of the credits, which are seen as an important tool in curbing climate change, in several European countries.
Click for NYT interactive chart
Oh Dear.
“The victim is to blame. Fuck the Doomed.”
http://trueslant.com/stephenwebster/2009/11/08/corporate-activism-and-you/
From HuffPo:
The LAPD has just released a new Orwellian commercial for iWatch, a program that encourages residents to spy on each other and report any “suspicious behavior” (whatever that means) to the authorities, who we’re assured will sort everything out.
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From the NYT Media Decoder Blog:
The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday.
Finland has decided that everyone should have a 1Mb internet connection, and they are eventually shooting for 100Mb for everyone. They join Estonia, France and Greece in acknowledging the internet as a right.
First domestic use of sound cannon (Long Range Acoustic Device) in Pittsburgh.
MARK FRAUENFELDER at boingboing says:
“This could have been a deleted scene from Children of Men.”
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NYT Coverage:
“police fired a sound cannon that emitted shrill beeps, causing demonstrators to cover their ears and back up, then threw tear gas canisters that released clouds of white smoke and stun grenades that exploded with sharp flashes of light.
City officials said they believed it was the first time the sound cannon had been used publicly. “Other law enforcement agencies will be watching to see how it was used,” said Nate Harper, the Pittsburgh police bureau chief. “It served its purpose well.””
Paul Graham (Noted Y-Combinator venture capitalist, programmer, etc.) argues that we have never paid for “content”, rather, we have always paid for “medium.” Publishers, he says, are literally in the business of selling paper.
In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren’t really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn’t better content cost more? [1]
A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page.The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents a page. Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper.
Link (via BoingBoing, via /.)