openpolitics.com

Iranian Blogger Photos

Previously, I noted that Iran has many bloggers.

Now we have pictures:

Patriobfuscate

Word for the day:

1. To mask one's goals with "patriotism"; and
2. To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand: "A great effort was made... to obscure or obfuscate the truth."

OPML: Googlish Directories

Dave Winer's been promoting OPML for a while now. He said it's the googlish way to do directories. I thought it was a cool idea but I didn't see tools or applications.

Now, SharpReader allows me to save my rss subscriptions as a file. Aaron Swartz has a description of his Subscription Syndication Script. It references Joshua Allen's OPML and XSLT page.

I have a feeling we'll being hearing more about OPML.

Greenspan and the IP Calculation Debate

Many took Alan Greenspan's comments about the role of law in shaping markets as a caution against overextending intellectual property rights.

I'm promoting a "Calculation Debate" for the Information Age. Greenspan's cautious endorsement can only help.

Related

• BBC: Greenspan mulls patent problems
• Slashdot: Greenspan Examines the Economics of IP

Fragments of Vision

World of Ends got a lot of links a few weeks ago but today I was reminided how foundational the idea of "centrality" is to our world view. We all want to avoid being "marginalized"-- relagated to the periphery. Disconnected. Irrelevant.

Bloggers have words to describe this quest for status:

• "A-List"
• "PageRank"
• "Googlewashing"

Weblogs don't change power laws. Everyone has a voice, but don't expect to be heard right away. I can imagine the Dave Winer's frustration writing about weblogs for years before he got much attention. On the scale of history, 5 or 10 years is a revolution, but to the individual, revolutions can still feel like an eternity.

One of the advantages weblogs have in promoting a cause is the ability to archive fragments of vision. These fragements may go unnoticed for a while, but eventually they'll start to pile up. Some of them will be too abstract or unactionable, but by constantly refering back to these fragements, you could can build something large, one day at a time.

Torture Subcontractors

Human Rights Watch published an article a few weeks ago about suspicions that the US government is using torture in its war against terrorism, even as it condemns it in Iraq. They quote an "unnamed American Official":

"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job"

-Washington Post [12-26-2002]

Previously, Bush didn't make distinctions:

We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who support them. #

But when it comes to torture, the US is willing to employ torture subcontractors in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco:

"We don't kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them."

-Washington Post [12-26-2002]

Related

• Washington Post: U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations
• The Guardian: CIA accused of torture at Bagram base
• HRW: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects

Follow_up

• HRW: DOD Disavows Torture but does not deny charges
• Washington Post: Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects to Nations That Might Torture Them [9-30-2004]
• New Yorker: Outsourcing Torture
• Soverign Immunity and Torture