senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter

rumours and speculations

• ip idiocy link of the day: europe vs. google
  
  
ok, so here's a chance for the keepers of our culture, namely libraries and museums, to get their collections in front of a huge global audience so that everyone will be able to share in this cultural wealth, and it's being held up by *copyright* concerns ? give me a break !! with digital technology allowing access without impeding preservation, libraries and museums should be the first to champion this vision, even if it is enabled by a corporate beast. it's way better than leaving materials in a dusty alcove waiting for attention from some itinerant researcher who just happens to know which codec to use to retrieve a particular folio.

idea *PLUS* execution

• ip idiocy link of the day: how to rate 'brilliant' ideas
  
  
i like the philosophy of this short piece (mostly extracted from someone else's blog post) which emphasizes that the value of an idea is not the idea itself, but the idea combined with its successful execution in a service or product. if the intellectual property regime actually stimulated and rewarded this combination of idea and execution, then its seemingly arbitrary allocations of wealth would be much more palatable.

mental face-offs

• link of the day: how the white house press corps drops the ball
  
  
well, one way is by letting stuff like this chilling exchange pass without challenge:

JAPANESE JOURNALIST: Thank you.  I 
was born and raised in Hiroshima,
Japan.  (Inaudible).  And August 6th 
(the anniversary of the bombing of
Hiroshima) is coming again ...I 
believe the use of automatic weapons
during World War II was cruel and 
(inaudible), against international 
law ... So in the history of human 
beings, losers cannot say anything, 
winners make history as they like.

McCLELLAN: Is there a question?

Yes. Sixty years have passed ... 
I would not necessarily ask, recommend
President Bush or someone say someone 
should apologize, but I believe some
statement or comment is needed...

McCLELLAN: I understand.  I think 
I'll leave the history to historians. 
I mean, we're all well aware of the 
history.  But the president is focused 
on the future, and we do have a great 
relationship with Japan.  The president
has a good friend in Prime Minister 
Koizumi.

This is an example of how freedom leads 
to peace, because 60 years ago, as you 
pointed out, and the president often 
points out, we were enemies.  Today 
we're working together to advance 
freedom in places like the broader 
Middle East, and what we're doing is 
laying the foundation of peace for our 
grandchildren and our -- for our 
children and our grandchildren.  And I 
think that's important, to remember the 
past, but to look to the future and how 
we can continue to build upon the great
relationship that we have.

miyazaki strikes gold again

links of the day: cary tennis is the resident advice columnist at salon.com. here are a few recent gems:


• on life ambition:

  I instinctively recoil at the notion 
  that life is a struggle toward an end or 
  a goal and that if we simply have a good 
  strategy and execute it properly we can 
  attain our goal and voila that's success!  
  I don't go for that.  I prefer the 
  open-ended adventure model, in which we 
  are drawn to activities and locales and 
  so we arrange our lives so we can do 
  these activities and be near these 
  locales; but there is no commencement 
  exercise at the conclusion of our 
  curriculum.  There is only the 
  contentment of knowing we are in the 
  right place doing what we ought to be 
  doing.
  

• on choosing mates:

  In an intimate relationship, everything 
  is connected.  At least that's what I 
  think.  We choose people for their 
  positive traits, but we also choose their 
  dark side.  There are many kinds of dark 
  sides -- there is the dark side of a 
  person that is emotionally dead, 
  tragically wounded, that is exuberant and 
  power-hungry, narcissistic, hateful, etc. 
  Why should it be only the positive traits 
  we choose?  While we consciously choose 
  the bright smile and the record of 
  achievement, our dark side is meanwhile 
  choosing the history of abuse or the 
  uncontrollable ego.  Good citizens that we 
  are, we name these attributes "faults."  
  But the dark side likes them.  It is 
  mirrored by them.  It finds connection.  
  It is perhaps even healed by them.  They 
  remind us of something long forgotten; we 
  feel comfortable with them, like with a 
  family member.  Out of all possible kinds 
  of darkness, we choose a darkness that we 
  know, a darkness we can get around in.
  

friday flowering

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