“The point was to see if there was any type of a threat to campus or public safety due to the nature of the information being sought, ” said Mark Rich, a special agent in the FBI San Antonio field office. “I don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that a records request was made. It was what the request involved.”
don’t ask for the wrong thing in the right country…
Miller said the agents wanted to know everything from his major to why he wears long hair.
They asked, how did he know open records laws? How did he know about campus tunnel systems? Did he ever think of joining UT Watch or filing a lawsuit through the American Civil Liberties Union?
i knew i was up to no good
posted by roj at 8:12 pm
from the university of washington, i direct your attention to knowitall.
To address the problem of accumulating large collections of facts, we are developing KnowItAll — a domain-independent system that extracts massive amounts of information from the web in an automated, open-ended manner.
web-scraper fact-aggregator widget, with funding from google and darpa.
of course, what they don’t address in the papers and website is the huge amount of misinformation, disinformation and outright garbage that is harbored on the web… a problem for another day, perhaps.
posted by roj at 4:11 am
“Maybe life is just about coming to understand it and being at peace with what you have been given.”
posted by roj at 3:48 am
the story [via slashdot]
Koster has taken to copying his CDs on his computer to extend the life of the recordings. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to figure out how long those recordable CDs will work.
careful, that might be a license violation… better consult your friendly neighborhood lawyer before your cd’s rot.
posted by roj at 3:25 am
bush didn’t start it, and you might say he’s not very good at it, or even that we don’t know if he’s ‘sorry’ about the whole torturing-prisoners thing or that pictures of torturing prisoners ‘escaped.’ in any case, the very concept of an apology, so alien to the bush administration, seems to be… almost epidemic at the moment. if you ask google news right now about the word ‘apology’ you get “about 10,200” hits.
there’s the bush sorta-apology, of course… and….
Judge accepts apology for killer’s outburst
US apology for Barbados blunder
AIB offers apology to customers for €14m overcharge
‘Denver Post’ Column Stirs Controversy, Apology
Gogarty welcomes Sisters of Mercy apology over abuse
Linn makes apology for mistakes as county chief
BAE chief’s outburst leads to apology offer
Zook brings jokes, apology
Senate Accepts Wabara’s Apology
‘Aging sex kitten community’ wins apology
even the axis of evil is getting in on the act….
N Korea’s Kim criticized at home for apology to Japan
and thousands (apparently) more… so i have to ask… is this apology thing catching on? is there a rash of responsibility spreading around the planet? or is it just good political cover for everyone to apologize all at once and get back to the business of being justified and righteous?
are these sincere apologies? any one?
posted by roj at 1:55 am
the news is that corporate disney has barred subsidiary miramax from distributing moore’s overtly anti-bush film farenheit 911. i’m thinking this is a huge mistake.
i’m just guessing this is a really bad business decision that could, maybe, just demonstrate that “film distributors” are becoming a bit redundant.
moore’s got an agenda, wether you agree with it or not, and i’m guessing he’s more interested in getting his film into people’s eyeballs before the election than he is into counting the ticket drop on opening weekend.
now that it’s made the news, how long will it take for someone to “leak” the film? i imagine it’ll find a legitimate distributor and an illegitimate one as well.
and maybe moore’s next film will feature a mouse…
posted by roj at 11:43 pm
posted by roj at 11:08 pm
i’d like to discover some new music…. lots of new music, actually. but i’m looking for a particular kind of music…. celebration music.
so, from all the faithful meta-roj blog readers, i want your opinions. i want your filters. what i want to discover is music of celebration from around the world, and to avoid american pop music. send me your thoughts on the music that makes you think “man, that’s a happy song” when you hear it… the music traditionally played at weddings from some far-flung culture that i don’t know well… the chanting… the drumming… the rhythm that moves people to joy…. the music that makes people feel good, get happy and maybe even dance. the theme is celebration, the world is my oyster, so please fill my ears…. point me to your favorites.
(bonus points if it’s cc-licensed or if i can actually get in touch with the creator)
posted by roj at 1:08 am
coming to you in a few hours, a group of some 50 (or more) former united states diplomats have picked up the pen where their british colleagues left off.
think what you will about the potential motives, i applaud these people for speaking.
posted by roj at 12:06 am