IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the...

Dear all, On July 1, World Have Your Say had a show asking: Does patriotism poison politics? One guest was Roger Neil from the National Museum of Patriotism . The host asked him to define patriotism. Roger's answer is only somewhat coherent: it reminds me of Stephen Colbert. I edited together his response into a 2:30 .mp3: WHYS-Patriotism.mp3 . (The full, unedited show can be found at bbc...

Happy Canada day!

Maher Arar is a wireless network consultant out of Montreal, Quebec. He took a trip from Zurich back home to Montreal on September 26, 2002. His trip had a stopover at JFK airport in New York City. To make a long story short, the United States rendered him to Syria, where he was tortured for ten months. He has had several lawsuits against the extraordinary rendition. According to the New York...

On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court released their decision on District of Columbia v. Heller . Dozens of summaries exist, but the original decision is the best source. I promised a summary of the decision, and to open discussion. Before I write further, know that every summary shows the biases, knowledge, and ignorance of the person doing the summary. Please let me know what important information...

Dear all, The people staying at Marketa's are somewhat mixed -- but in one way, very similar. They're mixed in where they come from: one younger couple is from Portland, OR; a mother with two children is from Greece; an older couple is from Lucerne, Switzerland; and another older couple is from Seattle, and a trio is from the Netherlands. However, when I asked how they heard about Marketa's, they...

Cody's Books is closed.

Dear all, I want to share a few words about The Moore Hotel . As far as hotels go, it is about a one-and-a-half-star hotel. The rooms are clean and large, and they provide a bed, a bath, and a sink. Wireless was available in the lobby and near the elevator on the sixth floor. That's it. The reason to stay there is not for the rooms, but for the people. The other travelers came from all over the...

Dear all, Today was the last day of the SLA convention. Everything's winding down. At 10:30, Eli loaned me her badge so that, for the first time, I could enter the "Info-Expo" (their equivalent of the dealers' den.) It would close at 12:00. Many dealers were closing down early. Few had books about mathematics, statistics, or computer science -- but many had catalogues of books that were coming...

Dear all, The morning session about LOCKSS went extremely well. The presentation went well; I got many notes about ways that LOCKSS might move forward. I went to a coffee shop, wrote a summary of the presentation, and passed it on to LOCKSS. Eli and I wanted protein for lunch, so we did what we rarely do on vacation: visited a chain. Todai. Japanese buffet. Yum. Then... it happened. When I...