as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/13/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/14/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/15/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/16/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/17/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/18/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/19/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/20/>
-------

W 5083 was just parked out back - a refridgerator on top of hte trailer with the plate - as if ince 1983 there's been a PD aspect to the minbd f-ck . . . oy . . .

as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/13/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/14/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/15/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/16/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/17/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/18/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/19/>
and <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/20/>
-------

US30ER ewent by just before 5/8/97 TH ( as in the juels thing tyler harvard of 1997) . . . and walking back - a man approached asking it (and pointing) that was kingman's pond . . . i pointed him to the police station and then noted a cement truck where the ilve got a prodict RICO 221 man was the other day - ah: and he leaving the office managers' office just as i got back to the millhaus. . .

X 8632Y (NJ) was by the place i interviewd at today - as in experiment ending for the 1998 upl;oads? and from new jersey - ah: blanton as stormy on larinda - affirmed by the charles fried/junior soprano of the building here last night . . .

so freaking much - but what's the point . . .

a lot . . .

9806 again was played up on the walk - the illegal testing to make legal, and just look at hte HU HR postings (nothing else from abt or mit):

35642 F-T 056 Area Administrator
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences Administration 10/20/2008
35640 F-T 058 Change and Client Process Manager
Faculty of Arts and Sciences FAS IT 10/20/2008
35639 F-T 060 Director of Capital Projects
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Physical Resources 10/20/2008
35638 F-T 058 Assistant Dean of Harvard College and Director of the Student Activities Office
Faculty of Arts and Sciences College Life & Student Services 10/20/2008
35636 F-T 056 Manager of Grants and Budget Analysis
JFK School of Government Executive Education 10/20/2008
35634 F-T 059 Associate Director of Major Gifts
JFK School of Government External Affairs 10/20/2008
35633 F-T 060 Director of Facilities Management & Operations
Faculty of Arts and Sciences FAS - Office of Physical Resources and Planning 10/20/2008
35632 F-T 057 Animal Research Compliance Manager
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Molecular & Cellular Biology 10/20/2008
35631 F-T 056 Special Collections Processor
Harvard Business School Knowledge and Library Services 10/20/2008
--------------

jfk school grantsd and bnudgets - and the bioengineering school needing area managers? like folks at the millhaus to sit on the victims?

oy . . .

and college student services? who better to hire to sit on the victims than the students? see previous tnries . . .

oy . . .

* * *

1643 --

just in from out for a puff to the back road here - there's a bridge over the river in back on west church street. . .

J89 417 zoomed around hte corner and sped off to the center of town, and just then the 1271 ME car from the corner of dean and west streets . . .

how odd - for i noted it - did i post it?

ah - perhaps spmething to do with the cement mixer and the RICO I've got a product man from 221 . . .

and the HU HR kennedy school and engineering school postings . . .

more affirmation? more "admissions"? for why, given the immoral and heinouse use of a human being in this manner and matter, would mansfield, like rockland, admit it's bad ethics this way . . . could it be that the john d'agostino of hte town hall here is the same john d'agostino of pelizzon fame in 1985?

and why the J89 robohuman van - with kids toys in the back . . .

oy . . .

good news - a little breathing space - i got the maine tax check and there's no penalty for hte six months delay in filing . . .

oy . .

on the way back in succession passed:

CI Z347 (as in crimonal intent the zexckhauser experiments - church committee evasive?) and then

TC 97 EP - tryler control 1997 (the dara and ari juels thing - see previous entries) experimental project?

and then 6184 MR . . . as in me and the orwellian medical resea4rch? see previous etnries . . .

and then 7308

and then 7680 KR . . .

as in the latter - I;m dfree of hte 1980 research on me? not good - for that's 28+ years back pay owed . . .

not good, not good . . .

for then 5167 JM went by - the robohuman me - records deleted homeless/medical? see rpevious entries - fits the pattern . . .

and then DQQ 3423 (OH). . . dairy queen? ah - the russian chick aspect in rocjkland maine and hal scott of hls fame . . . and then 3423 as in the 2000 harvard sponsored research on me, the number 23 approach - see previous entries . . .

7/3/2008:

3788 [Jul. 3rd, 2008|08:33 am]
Morning - a good sleep; I have been sleeping well of late . . .

some news - nothing much . . .

nytimes.com:

July 3, 2008
Judge Rejects Bush’s View on Wiretaps
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law.

The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or other entities was a “state secret” and citing the president’s constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency’s program.

But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court.

“Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.”

Judge Walker’s voice carries extra weight because all the lawsuits involving telephone companies that took part in the N.S.A. program have been consolidated and are being heard in his court.

Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer for Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the plaintiff in the case, said the legal issues Judge Walker’s ruling raised were significant. “He’s saying FISA makes the rules and the president is bound by those rules,” Mr. Eisenberg said.

A Justice Department official said the department was reviewing the opinion late Wednesday and would consider its options.

Officials at Al-Haramain say they were mistakenly given a government document revealing the N.S.A. operation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded the document back, and Judge Walker’s ruling made it more difficult for Al-Haramain to use what it claims to have seen . But he refused to throw out the lawsuit, giving the charity’s lawyers 30 days to restructure their claim. “We still have our foot in the door,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “The clock is a minute to midnight, but we’ve been there before and survived.”

The ruling comes as the Senate is overhauling the foreign intelligence law. The measure would reaffirm FISA as the exclusive means for the president to order wiretaps through court warrants, but it would also provide legal immunity to phone companies involved in the eavesdropping program. A vote could come Tuesday.

The immunity issue would not directly affect this lawsuit because Al-Haramain is suing the government, not the phone companies. But the nearly 40 other lawsuits against phone companies that Judge Walker is overseeing would almost certainly have to be dismissed if immunity is signed into law, legal analysts say.

----------------

uh huh . . .

I'm 40 or so pages into lost history - it's troubling . . .

nytimes.com:

July 3, 2008
Editorial
A Supreme Court on the Brink
In some ways, the Supreme Court term that just ended seems muddled: disturbing, highly conservative rulings on subjects like voting rights and gun control, along with important defenses of basic liberties in other areas, including the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The key to understanding the term lies in the fragility of the court’s center. Some of the most important decisions came on 5-to-4 votes — a stark reminder that the court is just one justice away from solidifying a far-right majority that would do great damage to the Constitution and the rights of ordinary Americans.

The Supreme Court abandoned its special role in protecting voting rights when it rejected a challenge to Indiana’s harshly anti-democratic voter ID law. Critics warned that the law, which bars anyone without a government-issued photo ID from voting, would disenfranchise poor people, minorities and the elderly, all of whom disproportionately lack drivers’ licenses. The critics were right. In the Indiana presidential primary, shortly after the ruling, about 12 nuns in their 80s and 90s were turned away at the polls for not having acceptable ID.

In another sharp break with its traditions, the court struck down parts of the District of Columbia’s gun-control law. After seven decades of holding that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms is tied to raising a militia, the court reversed itself and ruled that it confers on individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for personal use. The decision will no doubt add significantly to the number of Americans killed by gun violence.

Corporations fared especially well in this term. The court reduced the punitive-damages award against Exxon Mobil for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill from $2.5 billion to about $500 million, a pittance for the energy company. In the process, the court declared that in maritime cases, punitive damages should not exceed the actual damages in a case. It is a rule that foils the purposes of punitive damages: to punish and to deter bad conduct.

In the term’s most cold-hearted decision, the court endorsed Kentucky’s use of lethal injection to execute prisoners. Despite evidence that the procedure that Kentucky uses can cause excruciating pain, the court ruled that it does not violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel-and-unusual punishment. It was a squandered chance to set rules requiring that executions be carried out as humanely as possible.

There was some undeniable good news. The court came through with a critically important decision in favor of the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay. It ruled that they have habeas corpus rights: the right to challenge their confinement before a federal judge. The decision was the court’s third rebuke to the Bush administration on Guantánamo and a major win for the Constitution and the rule of law.

In a second capital punishment case, the court ruled that the death penalty cannot be imposed for the rape of a child. Horrific as that crime is, the court wisely drew a clear line and said that capital punishment can only be imposed for crimes in which the victim’s life was taken.

The court also issued several welcome rulings in favor of workers, including employees who charged that they were retaliated against for accusing their employers of discrimination. It was a reversal from last year, when the court issued a much-criticized ruling against a woman who was discriminated against in pay, baselessly deciding that she had filed her complaint too late.

In placing these rulings in the larger context of the court after two appointments by President Bush — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both dedicated members of the conservative movement — it is important to note that the Guantánamo decision was 5 to 4. Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing justice, cast the deciding vote. In other cases, like the gun-control decision, the rulings might have been more sweeping and more damaging if the conservative bloc had not needed the moderate-conservative Justice Kennedy’s vote to form a majority. One more conservative appointment would shift the balance to the far-right bloc.

If that happens, the court can be expected to push even further in a dangerous direction. It would most likely begin stripping away civil liberties, like the habeas rights vindicated in the Guantánamo case. The constitutional protection of women’s reproductive rights could be eliminated. The court might well strike down laws that protect the environment, workers’ rights and the rights of racial and religious minorities.

The court was teetering on the brink in this term. Voters should keep that firmly in mind when they go to the polls in November.

--------------------

nytimes.com:

July 3, 2008
State Finds Fund Misuse at 19 Child Care Centers
By SEWELL CHAN and CHRISTINE HAUSER
The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said on Wednesday that his office had uncovered numerous instances of child care centers in New York City misspending public funds. He said his office had referred 19 child care centers to local prosecutors for possible criminal investigation.

At a news conference in Manhattan, Mr. DiNapoli announced the results of an audit of contractors hired by the State Office of Children and Family Services to care for low-income children.

One part of the study examined a sample of 34 contracts whose contractors were supposed to create 1,545 slots for child care, but as of May 2007 they had created only 821.

Another part of the audit focused on 55 contracts that cost the state $2.9 million and found that misspending in 39 totaled nearly $1.6 million.

“A lack of effective monitoring contributed to ineffective results and misuse of funds,” the audit found, noting that the comptroller’s office had made similar findings in previous examinations of the state office.

The money for the programs came from the federal Child Care and Development Fund, which provides New York State with more than $300 million a year to arrange child care for low-income families.

In all, the audit covered 205 contracts, totaling $10.7 million, that were awarded from 1999 to 2006 to New York City child care providers.

Gladys Carrión, the commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services since January 2007, joined Mr. DiNapoli at the news conference. “These recommendations will go a long way toward assuring that past abuses are not repeated under my watch,” she said.

Ms. Carrión said her office had begun to make changes. Among other things, she said, it has created a child care services division, lowered manager workloads to allow for better monitoring, and trained employees to detect fraud.

Andrea Anthony, executive director of the Day Care Council of New York, which represents about 250 organizations that run some 340 child care programs across the city, said she was troubled by the findings.

“I was shocked,” she said in a phone interview after the news conference, which she attended. “It’s just shameful that you see a few centers that see an opportunity to be dishonest, and take it. These are bad apples, and I’m glad DiNapoli is going after the bad apples, so that all of us aren’t viewed as trying to take taxpayer dollars and misuse them.”

The 25-page audit, which included a formal response from Ms. Carrión’s office, contained several examples of what Mr. DiNapoli called exploitation of public money.

One contractor admitted that she had obtained blank invoices from suppliers and filled them in with falsified charges, and created fictitious canceled checks to obtain about $40,000 in reimbursements. Some of the money, the contractor acknowledged, went for personal expenses like a cellphone, credit-card bills and airline tickets.

Another contractor received $95,000 to create 30 slots for child care. The slots were never created; instead, some of the money was deposited in a personal checking account.

Although Mr. DiNapoli’s office identified the 19 child care centers referred to prosecutors, it declined to say what improprieties it believed they committed.

Of the 19 centers, 12 were in Brooklyn, 5 in Queens, and 1 each in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said, “We have received the comptroller’s audit and we are reviewing it.”

Telephone calls to several of the centers in Brooklyn that were referred to Mr. Hynes’s office suggested that they were out of business or had had their phones disconnected.

A person who answered the phone at one of the centers, Marie Carmen Daycare Center at 911 Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, hung up upon learning that the call was from a reporter.

At Footsteps Childcare, at 1125 Broadway in Bushwick, a manager, Monica McDonald, said she had not heard about the audit and could not immediately comment.

At a number listed for another center, Educators for Children, Youth and Families, a woman who answered the phone said the number now belonged to Public School 323. “People call all the time and say their checks bounced,” the woman said. “I tell them they are not here anymore and I have no more information.”

Ms. Anthony, of the Day Care Council, said 2 of the 19 centers referred to prosecutors were members of her association: Flatbush Haitian Center and Zion Day Care Center, both in Brooklyn. She said she did not know details of how they were managed.

Vaughan P. A. Toney, the president of a nonprofit group, Friends of Crown Heights, said it took over Flatbush Haitian’s day care programs on May 26 at the request of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services.

Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.

=========================

the author's names here are important - Chan and Hauser and Warren . . .

read on (and recall the potential; fed Warren here inRockland, the HU FAS Hauser (and hauser hall) and, of course chan . . .

from thecrimson.com:

Harvard Law School Classes Canceled Because of Threat
Bar exam review classes resumed on Tuesday after cancelations on Monday
Published On 7/2/2008 2:53:04 PM

By CLIFFORD M MARKS
Crimson Staff Writer

Summer bar review courses resumed at Harvard Law School on Tuesday after an online message board post that threatened gun violence at the Law School caused cancellations the day before.

School spokesman Michael A. Armini declined to comment on the threat or subsequent investigations, though he provided two e-mails that Law School Dean Elena Kagan sent to school community members to alert them of the threat.

A message, appearing alongside a picture of a gun and ammunition, implied that the author would attack the Law School campus on Monday, according to a screenshot of the post.

"On Monday, I am bringing my piece and his brother to class," read the post. "Elena Kagan and all those arseholes are going to pay. THEY WILL PAY ATTENTION!"

The Web address of the post, which was placed on 4chan.org, is no longer operational. But a screenshot of the original post was placed on a second online message board, AutoAdmit, where it is still accessible.

In her message to faculty and staff on Monday, Kagan said that "based on the results of the investigation to date, the Harvard police have determined that classes may resume on their regular schedule starting tomorrow."

She added that the investigation, which has been aided by federal law enforcement, was ongoing, and that Harvard police would increase their patrols in the North Yard for the time being.

Kagan urged community members not to share the e-mail with others in order to avoid publicity that might lead to "copycat threats." She said that "[t]hreats against the Harvard community and its members are not uncommon," but that she wanted to inform faculty and staff "out of an abundance of caution."

The author of the threat wrote that he or she attended Law School and that the motivation behind the message was "uppity rich bastards...subtly insulting me about being born poor and black."

Kagan shed doubt on the poster's self-identification Sunday, writing that a reference in the post to class being held Monday "indicates a lack of familiarity with HLS."

The Law School does not hold its own classes over the summer. The courses canceled Monday were run on the Law School campus by BAR/BRI, an outside bar exam preparation company.

Kagan wrote that anyone with "information that may be related to this posting (for example, any recent contact with a disturbed or angry person regarding the Law School)" should contact University police.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.

===========================

I have never advoicated violence herein, so don;t cue off this journal violently - but be aware - the rallying cry for Americans after 9/11 was vigilence . . .mine looks both ways - perhaps more: around me and up the "chain of copmmand" ass it were (see previous entries) . . .

Does this mean that folks at HLS arelooking into the kid thing?

I hope so . . .

washingtonpost.com:

Toxicity in FEMA Trailers Blamed on Cheap Materials, Low Construction Standards

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2008; A03



High levels of formaldehyde found in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina evacuees on the Gulf Coast probably resulted from cheap wood and poor ventilation in designs used by manufacturers under permissive government standards, federal scientists reported yesterday.

An analysis by researchers for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that four Katrina trailers emitted the toxic chemical at levels four to 11 times as high as those found in typical U.S. homes. The study looked at both commercially available units and ones custom-built for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2005 and 2006.

The new findings appear to confirm the role that manufacturers' practices and weak federal regulation played in the public health disaster after the August 2005 storm. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has called trailermakers to testify Wednesday.

"Manufacturers of travel trailers and the government agencies that influence their design should consider using construction materials that emit lower levels of formaldehyde as well as designs that increase outside air ventilation," said Michael McGeehin, director of the Division of Environmental Health Hazards at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which commissioned the study.

Formaldehyde, an industrial chemical used in adhesives found in wood products, can cause nasal cancer and worsens asthma and other respiratory problems. There is no binding safety standard for the chemical in U.S. homes. Under a 23-year-old rule, the government limits formaldehyde emitted by wood products only in mobile homes, which typically sit on concrete pads, not in wheeled trailers or other housing. It also does not restrict how much of that wood can be used.

Berkeley researchers said they found "exceptionally large emissions of formaldehyde" in units tested and traced the chemical's presence to extensive use of cheap, light plywood and particleboard for walls, flooring and cabinet surfaces. At the same time, trailers "are not outfitted for adequate ventilation and are tighter than would be desired for housing with such small volume," they said.

Formaldehyde was "found to be higher, sometimes much higher, than what is typically found in residential environments," they wrote. "The combination of these factors is likely to be the cause."

The CDC recommended this year that all FEMA trailer residents be moved to safer housing. The agency found that 42 percent of trailers tested in December and January had levels of formaldehyde higher than those for which it recommends a 15-minute exposure limit for workers. Residents probably experienced higher levels when trailers were new and during warm weather, the CDC said.

FEMA received 11,000 health complaints and moved more than 4,000 families. About 19,000 Katrina units remain occupied, down from about 143,000.

==================

Sis, it appears, is on her way up soon - mom's purging stuff . . . no word from Charlie Jordan on the house . . . no building inspector called yet - Terry and Cheryl know not what to do, it appears . . .

when i hike for the photo shoots, i oft have the camera tucked under the museum fleece . . . yesterday, the memory car cover poped open and it will no longer remain shut unless pressure is applied - easy to work aroud with tape or an elastic band; however, something to mull . . . perhaps just a spring malfunction in the hinge of the card cover door - I don;t know; I'm, not good with theings mechanical . . .

oh - and i think i found the HUMF's real reason for the RONNIE plate drivebys and beeps:

washingtonpost.com:

Shameful Silence
The refusal of Pr. George's corrections officers to cooperate with the investigation of an inmate's death is inexcusable.

Thursday, July 3, 2008; A16



IT IS UNSURPRISING but still infuriating that Prince George's County correctional officers have refused to cooperate with investigators looking into the death of inmate Ronnie L. White. These officers, who swore to serve the cause of justice, are preventing investigators from uncovering the circumstances of the death of Mr. White, who was strangled, according to a preliminary autopsy report. The officers, who were initially questioned by investigators because they had access to Mr. White's cell, have the right not to make self-incriminating statements. But their silence will lead many to assume the worst.

The actions of the county's correctional officers union are just as troubling. Sgt. Curtis Knowles, union president, has done little to encourage cooperation, criticizing investigators for trying to question the officers. Sgt. Knowles also failed to acknowledge that a criminal proceeding was underway, even though investigators have been clear about their intentions. The union should show better leadership by supporting efforts to uncover the truth rather than acting as defense attorney for the officers.

The investigation, which is being conducted by Maryland State Police and the FBI, wasn't going to be easy even with the cooperation of officers. Without officers' cooperation, and without any recorded evidence of wrongdoing, finding out what happened to Mr. White will be even harder. Fortunately, Prince George's officials have taken aggressive action to encourage cooperation. Yesterday, the county's head of public safety, Vernon Herron, ordered the officers to "make themselves available" to investigators and warned that they could be disciplined if they refused. One officer who had declined to cooperate reportedly met with investigators yesterday.

County officials rightly requested an independent investigation of Mr. White's death before the Prince George's Police Department could launch an internal investigation. The decision allows State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, who showed leadership in prosecuting former police officer Keith A. Washington in the shooting of two furniture deliverymen last year, to retain lead responsibility for pursuing any criminal charges. Mr. Ivey's involvement increases the likelihood that any officers who might be accused of misconduct will be prosecuted on a local level rather than in federal court. A local prosecution would produce the most credible results for many Prince George's residents.

The details of Mr. White's death are as hazy now as they were before the preliminary autopsy. It is unclear why, if Mr. White was strangled, there were no signs of a struggle, such as bruising on his neck. It is also unclear how Mr. White was strangled in a maximum-security jail cell that was under surveillance by multiple officers. And why, considering the fact that he was accused of killing a county police officer, wasn't Mr. White transferred to a jail outside Prince George's County? These are questions that state police and the FBI must attempt to answer.



more, i am sure, later. . .
link post comment




3789 [Jul. 3rd, 2008|03:00 pm]
I'm reading today - first to finish Lost History - which is kinda depressing in that the power against executive abuse a la watergate in the 1970s by the courts and the press was subverted in the 1980s a la Iran-contra and the US government role in drug trafficking . . .

but a few things - 1) the computer is fragged and I have not access to stories to e-mail to myself for posting later . . . but those that hide use this tactics . . .

anyway . . .

washingtonpost.com:

Judge Protects YouTube's Source Code, Throws Users To The Wolves

Michael Arrington
TechCrunch.com
Thursday, July 3, 2008; 2:04 AM



The ongoing Google/YouTube-Viacom litigation has now officially spilled over to users with a court order requiring Google to turn over massive amounts of user data to Viacom. If the data is actually released, the consequences could be far more serious than the 2006 AOL Search debacle.

Louis L. Stanton, the senior judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued the opinion and order, which is here (PDF).

That data includes every YouTube username, the associated IP address and the videos that user has watched on YouTube. Google will also be required to hand over copies of every video removed from Youtube for any reason (DMCA notices or user-initiated deletions). Stanton dismissed Google's argument that the order will violate user privacy, saying such privacy concerns are merely "speculative."

Meanwhile, the judge denied Viacom's request that Google turn over YouTube's source code as it could "cause catastrophic competitive harm to Google by sharing them with others who might create their own programs without making the same investment."

I can understand why Judge Stanton, who graduated from law school in 1955, may be completely and utterly clueless when it comes to online videos services. But perhaps one of his bright young clerks or interns could have told him that (1) handing over user names and a list of videos they've watched to a highly litigious copyright holder is extremely likely to result in lawsuits against those users that have watched copyrighted content on YouTube, and (2) YouTube's source code is about as valuable as the hard drive it would be delivered on, since the core Flash technology is owned by Adobe and there are countless YouTube clones out there, most of which offer higher quality video.

YouTube's core value is in it's network effect - the library of content along with its massive user base.

The privacy fallout of this ruling is spectacular. The EFF has already chimed in, noting that the order is highly likely to be in violation of federal law.

Judge Stanton doesn't seem to care much about that law, for now. And he clearly doesn't understand that far more data is being transferred than is necessary to comply with Viacom's core stated concern, which is to understand the popularity of copyright infringing v. non-infringing material. Viacom has asked for far more data than that, and there's only one use for that data: to sue individual users (or shake them down via the threat of lawsuit, which has been perfected by the RIAA) who have watched a few music videos or television shows on YouTube.

I say this with the utmost respect, but Judge Stanton is a moron. And Google simply cannot hand this data over without facing a class action lawsuit of staggering proportions.

-------------

Louis Stanton . . .

wiki[pediia.org:

Louis L. Stanton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Louis L. Stanton (born 1927 in New York City) is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Stanton received a B.A. from Yale University in 1950, a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law in 1955, and an LL.B from University of Virginia School of Law in 1955. He was nominated to the court by Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1985, to a seat vacated by Henry F. Werker, confirmed by the Senate on July 16, 1985, and received his commission on July 18, 1985. He assumed senior status on October 1, 1996.
----------------

ah - reagan iran contra years . . . oy . . .

washingtonpost.com:

The Google Ogle Defense: A Search for America's Psyche

By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2008; C01



Question: Do you think your Google habits -- your random, untethered wisps of thoughts manifested as search terms like "unexplained hives" and "Kate Beckinsale single?" -- can be bundled together to paint an accurate representation of your morality?

This was the question floating around the periphery of a recent obscenity case, in which a Florida attorney planned to argue that Google records of pornographic searches were an indication of community values.

The trial was to have begun on Tuesday; last week mainstream media speculated on its outcome. Instead, the case settled out of court with defendant Clinton Raymond McCowen -- who had also been charged with racketeering and prostitution -- agreeing to three to five years in prison.

So the viability of a Google defense remains untested, but the 21st-century psychological implications remain:

Are we what we Google?

(Dear God. Hope not.)


Our story begins online, as many lurid things do these days, with the pornographic Web site of McCowen, a Pensacola area man who produced X-rated material for Internet purchase.

Our story develops through the creativity and tech-savviness of his lawyer, Lawrence Walters.

Obscenity charges hinge on the vague concept of community standards -- whether allegedly obscene material would fall under the public's definition of decency. Walters found traditional barometers (skin flick selection in local video stores, etc.) bogus. "What we really do in our bedrooms is much different than what we admit to doing" in public, he says.

Enter Google Trends. It's a Google tool that graphically displays the day's most popular search terms, or lets users compare multiple terms' popularity over time. A few days ago in the District, for example, "Brad Pitt" was kicking the butt of "George Clooney," and everyone suddenly wanted to know about "air conditioning."

Theoretically, it's a direct line to our innermost thoughts and desires, and those of friends and neighbors.

Walters and his team used Google Trends to compare several search terms in Pensacola, one of dozens of cities for which metrics are available. A couple clicks later, and "We could show that orgies are more popular than apple pie or boating in the Pensacola area," says Walters.

Barely even a contest, really, with the blue "orgy" line on the graph soaring way above the red pie line. The graph doesn't reveal specific numbers, just comparative popularity.

Orgies: more American than apple pie.

Maybe.

Because the real trick in making use of Google search terms is figuring out how to interpret them.

Does the fact that more people Googled "pomegranate" than "watermelon" in early 2008 mean that more people were eating pomegranates?

Or does it mean that everyone was researching the wunderfood's antioxidant properties? Maybe people hate pomegranates and everyone was rushing to blog about those weird seeds.

Do more people in Pensacola really have orgies than go boating? Even though the city is on the Gulf of Mexico?

The uncertainty illustrates "the disparity between using the Web as a marketing tool and using it as a research tool," says Gary Price, a librarian and the vice president of innovation for an Internet search firm. Meaning, when someone types in "Peru," the Web surfer might be looking to visit. But the person might just want to find out the country's gross national product. We have no way of knowing.

A Google Trends defense in court assumes that every prurient Googler is interested in visiting Orgyland, rather than learning about its exports from a safe distance.

And safe distance is really Google's biggest sell. Google is where we safely learn about swinging, erotic furries, objectum-sexual (don't ask, just Google) and a whole manner of other subcultures that we don't necessarily plan to partake in, but feel compelled to research nonetheless. Because we can. Because they're there. Because we can ask our own mothers for apple pie recipes. "Orgy" might be a popular search term not because it's a popular practice, but because it's not. How do all those limbs fit together, anyway?

The Internet so easily lends itself to depravity. How we behave in public might not be how we behave in our bedrooms, but how we behave on Google doesn't seem to reflect how we behave in bedrooms either. It's more like how we behave at a drunken bachelor party in Las Vegas.

Using Google Trends to ascertain community standards? Well, that's just comparing apples and orgies.

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well . . . i'll put fantasy enhencement google searches up against kid and young adult moral destroying prostitution anyday . . .

oh - Marines, promised they'd go home, have to stay in Afghanistan a little longer - I guess the Bush League harvest there needs protection . . .



HU HR (external):

34398 F-T 056 Cataloger
Harvard College Library HCL Technical Services 07/03/2008
34397 P-T 056 Special Projects Associate
Graduate School of Education Enrollment and Student Svces. 07/03/2008
34395 F-T 060 Director of Research Computing Life Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Sciences FAS IT 07/03/2008
34394 F-T 056 Admissions and Financial Aid Officer
Faculty of Arts and Sciences College Admissions & Financial Aid 07/03/2008
34393 F-T 056 Admissions and Financial Aid Officer
Faculty of Arts and Sciences College Admissions & Financial Aid 07/03/2008
34392 F-T 056 Admissions and Financial Aid Officer
Faculty of Arts and Sciences College Admissions & Financial Aid 07/03/2008
34389 P-T 056 Sponsored Financial Analyst II
Financial Administration OSP 07/03/2008
34388 P-T 056 Sponsored Financial Analyst II
Financial Administration OSP 07/03/2008
34387 F-T 057 Client Support Liaison
University Information Systems iCommons 07/03/2008
34386 F-T 057 Client Support Liaison
University Information Systems iCommons 07/03/2008
34383 F-T 061 Director of International Advancement
Alumni Affairs and Development UDO - International Advancement 07/03/2008
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quitea lot of turnover - especially in HUMF related positions . . . hmmmmm . . . and all $50k salary offer or above . . .

more, i am sure, later . . .

I wish now I had paid more attention to things in the 1980s . . . but then again, as HUMF puppet back then, too, well . .. it was never meant to be, nor was I . . .
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