openpolitics.com

Maureen Dowd: It has also now become radiantly clear that we have to drag Dick Cheney out of the dark and smog. Less Hobbes, more Locke.

So far, American foreign policy has been guided by the vice president's gloomy theories that fear and force are the best motivators in the world, that war is man's natural state and that the last great superpower has sovereign authority to do as it pleases without much consultation with subjects or other nations.

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Weblog Post: Hobbes in the 21st centery

Yesterday at the US Open, when Andy Roddick spiked his racquet after losing a point, John McEnroe commented:

At least he threw it properly, (strings first rather than frame first)

Robert Darton, author of "George Washington?s False Teeth":

The purpose of history is not to glean moral lessons from the past but to understand the human condition.

I think will have a shallow understanding of the human condition.

Prior to the 20th century, pain was much more common.

I'm interested in the penetration of information in 18th century society. What was news?

The Paris Police were extremely astute, and they were extremely interested in literature. They had a file on every major writer.

Oral Communication--Gossip and Song-- were the primary means of communication. The police listened in at cafes and compiled reports, in dialogue form

A Cosmopolitan in the 18th century was someone who did not identify with a nation but considered themselves a "world citizen"

Jefferson's phrase--"The pursuit of happiness"-- opens up the possibility of social welfare legislation.

A lot of historians are interested in the shift from Locke's "pursuit of property" to Jefferson's "pursuit of property.

Culture has the power to hold together a social and political system. Ronald Regan timed his inauguration to correspond with the superbowl kickoff. The American civil religion is on display at football game halftime shows with display of the flag.

I'm an atheist because I just couldn't get over the problem of evil, but my children have formed different beliefs, because they are free to be independent.

If content providers' interests are allowed, through DRM, to use technology to "define" how patrons can access and use information, a DRM-enforced licensing situation will not only replace copyright and its user exemptions like fair use but will affect the basic ways we interact with information.

Pamela Samuelson, professor of law and information management at the University of California?Berkeley, believes that DRM is not so much a copyright-enforcement mechanism but rather "a private governance system in which computer program code regulates which acts users are (or are not) authorized to perform."

In other words, DRM is the mechanism by which content owners in the digital realm enforce their business models. This is of course a very legitimate activity for content owners and creators.

Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. Why "Sigma"? The word is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE ? it is now the way we work ? in everything we do and in every product we design.

The Garmin Forerunner 201 ? an integrated personal training system that offers an easy-to-read display, ergonomic wristband and GPS sensor to provide users with precise data on speed, distance and pace for a variety of athletic applications.

Because the GPS sensor provides latitude, longitude and altitude data, the Forerunner 201 knows how far and how fast athletes have traveled ? and how steep of a slope they climbed on a particular run.

via Dan Miller

plPHP allows anybody who understands the PHP language to write PostgreSQL server side functions and triggers in the PHP language.

The Rino 110 is a GPS-enabled handheld that integrates radio functionality to provide two-way communications. It's waterproof, can send communications up to five miles (using GMRS channels), and can "beam" your exact location to another Rino user within a two-mile range.

Related

Weblog Entry: Geo Referenceable Phones

Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

Turn this URL:

    http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?map.x=302&map.y=156&map
    data=afbX8DbyAoesP8oMVXE9yH15Yqfri%252f0FnbmKKpfMbrjLn0o8BLJ
    1%252bTQRc5bB8ZoqtlOeDdZwlJtHLgfMIVHUWlmPWw8uDAvn6M%252bkyj2
    OhU7lZS%252fzgR6gc6Gc6UR0nFUKiKZ%252fUA1FA7i4GoxVbNUmI3sVoXm
    LsVCjdi1tcAxjLEEXFdAvuJU%252bwjYfFeWO15n%252fiFsgXNxKDxWULBF
    tyxoa65AuWb0a5SU%252ftWdT4P7e8CtC9acf37axZa%252fI2MWC7g54TPL
    6YB%252bwcKdZuh60N%252fb83BrfUSLSD%252ffK1nJ16Ma8D%252fc%253
    d&click=center

into this tinyURL:

    http://tinyurl.com/6

Steve Outing: "E-mail is a polluted medium". Because many opt-in emails subscriptions are blocked by spam filters or ignored by deluged readers, many publishers are looking for alternatives.

RSS is the best alternative to email. It takes me one-quarter the time or less than the old way of surfing Web sites and reading e-mail newsletters.