senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter

me am a journalist now ?

• link of the day: a 3-judge california state appeals panel has decided that bloggers fall under the state's reporter shield. the blogging chain back to the source is: slaw which credits somewhat frank which links to the original wired article that hosts a link to the pdf of the judgement.
  
  

  [p.36] The shield law is intended to 
  protect the gathering and dissemination 
  of news, and that is what petitioners 
  did here.  We can think of no workable 
  test or principle that would distinguish 
  "legitimate" from "illegitimate" news.  
  Any attempt by courts to draw such a 
  distinction would imperil a fundamental 
  purpose of the First Amendment, which is 
  to identify the best, most important, and 
  most valuable ideas not by any sociological 
  or economic formula, rule of law, or process 
  of government, but through the rough and 
  tumble competition of the memetic marketplace.
  
  ...
  
  [p.39] We can think of no reason to doubt 
  that the operator of a public Web site is a 
  "publisher" for purposes of this language; 
  the primary and core meaning of “to publish” 
  is "[t]o make publicly or generally known; 
  to declare or report openly or publicly; 
  to announce; to tell or noise abroad; also, 
  to propagate, disseminate (a creed or
  system)."
  

  i predict that the big media lobbyists will now swarm on california legislators to try to get them to re-word the law's language so that bloggers become explicitly excluded :(
  
  

scintillating soundtrack selections

1. Laserman [Black Rain] - Ryuichi Sakamoto



2. Tuesday Morning [Blown Away] - The Pogues
3. Here's Where the Story Ends [Blown Away] - The Sundays
4. Darling Today [Blown Away] - The Jayhawks



5. this is the life [Dangerous Minds] - Wendy & Lisa
6. Alright [Clueless] - Supergrass
7. Happiness [Brain Candy] - Matthew Sweet



8. Having an Average Weekend [Brain Candy] - Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
9. Blister in the Sun [Grosse Pointe Blank] - Violent Femmes
10. Leaders and Followers [Clerks] - Bad Religion



11. Love Song for a Vampire [Bram Stoker's Dracula] - Annie Lennox
12. Floundering [Floundering] - Stan Ridgway
13. You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart [In the Name of the Father] - Sinead O'Connor



14. Before Today [The Saint] - Everything But the Girl
15. Cherchez La Femme [More Monty (The Full Monty)] - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
16. Love Train [Last Days of Disco] - The O'Jays



17. I Love the Nightlife [Last Days of Disco] - India and Nuyorican Soul
18. Faith [The Insider] - Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke
19. While the Earth Sleeps [Strange Days] - Peter Gabriel and Deep Forest



20. Baby Mine [Stay Awake ! (Dumbo)] - Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was)

devoured adaptations

• link of the day: shaun huston comments on the alan moore 'v for vendetta' film vs. graphic novel controversy for popmatters:
  
  

  The film version of V for Vendetta may 
  be less than faithful to Alan Moore's 
  comic and his sense of authorship, but 
  it is faithful to the political world 
  in which it was created.  In that sense, 
  rather than killing the text, the 
  Wachowski's have given it new life and 
  relevance.
  

this black hole of information

spending friday evening online

when the stars align themselves ...