Paul Murray's weblog, with news you may have missed and my $0.02 worth on a number of topics.

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
- Art Buchwald

I bet you don't have a friend who's an acupuncturist

E-mail me: pmurray [at] despammed.com

Happy birthday to www.paulmurray.net. One year ago today, I posted my first news stories and comments. You can still find them here, but you have to look on the July 2001 page. They are dated manually, as I had not yet discovered Blogger.

Having reached this epochal date, there are a few things I'd like to say. Unfortunately, I don't have time right now because I'm working all weekend. I hope to have a chance over the upcoming holiday. But I wanted to mention it on the actual anniversary date.
posted by Paul Murray at 7:17 PM | permanent link |

Ethical/legal question for you. Someone sabotages someone else's computer network. That's illegal, right?

Not if the recording industry gets its way, and the network in question is used to share copyrighted files.

U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) has introduced a bill that would make it legal for copyright owners to interfere with P2P (peer-to-peer) networks. As he expressed it, "Copyright owners could employ a variety of technological tools to prevent the illegal distribution of copyrighted works over a P2P network - tools such as interdiction, decoys, redirection, file-blocking, and spoofs." He goes on that this would be narrowly defined, not to cause physical damage, etc. Uh-huh.

It's come to this. The entertainment industry wants to legalize computer sabotage to protect its profits. Is this really a precedent we want to establish?
posted by Paul Murray at 10:00 PM | permanent link |

Stupidity from a surprising source. National Public Radio (NPR) requires that anyone wanting to link to any page of their web site obtain written permission first. Some pinhead advisor probably convinced them this was important. Clueless morons. Imagine if everyone did this; the web would have zero value. They are being roasted for this by bloggers all over the net; let's hope the public humiliation teaches them (and others) something. (And no, I didn't ask permission either -- as Cory Doctorow said, what are they gonna do, repossess my tote bag?)(via Boing Boing)

Update: Wired News article (and a sarcastic commentary) with some lame responses from NPR... which Cory Doctorow promptly demolishes.
posted by Paul Murray at 12:37 AM | permanent link |

I used to be disgusted, now I'm just amused. I ran across a crude hatchet job by the Palo Alto Daily News (don't bother going there -- to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there isn't any there there) recently. I don't know anything about this newspaper, but if it has any delusions of being a real newspaper, someone should be embarrassed.

National Security Advisor and Stanford alum Condoleeza Rice delivered the keynote address at this year's commencement. While I wasn't there, I can confidently assume that it wasn't like the paper reported it, as described by Howard Mortman.
posted by Paul Murray at 6:27 PM | permanent link |

A Republican Senate, courtesy of the same people who brought you President George W. Bush. The Green Party is fielding a candidate against Minnesota's Sen. Paul Wellstone -- perhaps one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate -- this despite the fact that he will be in a tight race with Republican challenger Norm Coleman this fall. The Green Party candidate could very well draw enough votes from Wellstone to throw the race to Coleman. You have to read this column to appreciate the stupidity. (via Metafilter)

Heaven save us from ideological purists, be they from the right or left, who would rather have their opponent win than to compromise their precious principles, and to whom "the art of compromise" is obscene.
posted by Paul Murray at 1:23 PM | permanent link |

Dubya knows what we're thinking -- just ask him. Yet another reason the White House hates Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank.
posted by Paul Murray at 5:33 PM | permanent link |

Of course there's a catch. The good news: experts think it's possible for humans to live significantly longer. The bad news: they have to eat less in order to do it. A lot less -- 30% less than the USDA's recommended caloric intake, which most Americans greatly exceed. Read more from today's Wall Street Journal.
posted by Paul Murray at 4:33 PM | permanent link |