Tuesdays don’t require lead-ins.

• How The Onion tackles tech
• Bio-inspired construction leads us closer to transparent aluminum
• Phone Companies Refuse to Provide Data on Spy Program
• “He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon.” – Good luck with that one. Link has video.
• AT&T threatens to take its ball and go home over Connecticut TV rules – Someone pushes back on state video franchising, even if only on a technicality. The big fella’s really don’t want to talk about the nuts and bolts of this legislation, as then people will see what they are losing so that ‘video service providers’ can serve a select marketing group.

Maybe more later, I’m pretty busy.

Today’s Vocab Word: Flatulence

Morning.

• Opponents see few benefits in I.C. utility franchises – Need to look into this some more…might have to use Infovision, they have all the council meetings online.
• Violations found at U of I Hospitals – Surprised at this one.
• Study: file-sharing leads to “chart churn,” helps indie acts
• Follow up: AT&T vows to use Terms of Service for good, not censorship
• UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time – this is a pretty important ruling, watch for something similar being discussed in the US.
• Verizon, Copper, Fiber, and the Truth – a slashdot linkfest and discussion on Verizon cutting the copper upon installation of FiOS
• Driverless truck lurches out of lab

*****FOR THE IOWA CITIANS WHO READ THIS BLOG*****

Don’t have a clue on the upcoming City Council At-large primary? Don’t know the candidates or what they are offering? Then take a look at the City Channel’s video voter project, an unbiased service to the community to educate the public as to the persons running and the policies they advocate, utilizing equal time streaming video segments. I really must commend those at the City Channel for putting this wonderful resource together.

***** AND NOW BACK TO OUR NORMAL ODDNESS *****

• Pulsejets down under
• A comet loses its tail
• Congress blinds DHS’s space-borne eye of Sauron, postpones domestic spy plan
• Another follow up: Blackwater Hearings Ain’t no Superbad – A Wired correspondent’s take on the hearings yesterday. A good quote:
  

  What I found especially telling, given the consistently weak grasp of the issues, was that multiple representatives opened their remarks by talking about how Blackwater contractors protected them while on visits to Iraq. They often meant this as a compliment to the firm, and also a way of establishing their credentials on the issue. But it usually backfired, revealing a lack of simple curiosity. It showed that they’ve known about the massive use of contractors for years – they just didn’t bother to ask any questions, even when the issue was in their faces.

• All hail Tweety:

I’ll probably find more. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

You should just read them.

My Wonderful Trip To South Africa That Didn’t Happen Thanks To The TSA And Delta Airlines

Interview with Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

Not Kidding:

Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language, gets more serious scrutiny.

A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler is going. If more alarms go off, officers will “refer” the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning.

I feel ‘freer’ every day.

Via Daily Rotten

The Net Neutrality debate just got alot more interesting…

LOLLAPALOOZA WEBCAST: SPONSORED/CENSORED BY AT&T?

After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the “Blue Room” Live Lollapalooza Webcast.

When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.

Found via a DKos article, which including the following observation:

That’s right. AT&T, like other telcos who say you can “just trust them” not to censor content in the absence of mandatory net neutrality, just did exactly what everyone who’s worried about net neutrality always believe they would do.

What’d that take? About ten seconds?

For more information on net neutrality and ways you can help protect expression on the internet, click thru to Save the Internet.

More Articles:
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/08/08/pearl_jam/index.html
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6466942.html