Voice Mail

I just got this on my voice mail.

“This is the nicest phone call you’re going to get asking you to remove your blog from the Internet.”

I’m guessing this has to do with the whole Greenlighter fiasco, which came to a conclusion last night.

Life in Rockridge

So I’m sitting here in my house with the front door open, working on the couch, and a raccoon walks in. When I stood up, it got scared off. Whoa.

Has Congress Gone Completely Insane?

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Daily Kos:

WASHINGTON Ñ Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) refused repeated requests for a roll call vote that would have put senators on the record on a resolution apologizing for past failures to pass anti-lynching laws, officials involved in the negotiations said Tuesday.

And there was disagreement Tuesday over whether Saxby Chambliss, one of Georgia’s two Republican senators, had supported the measure when it was approved Monday night.

As dozens of descendants of lynching victims watched from the Senate gallery, the resolution was adopted Monday evening under a voice vote procedure that did not require any senator’s presence.

Eighty senators, however, had signed as co-sponsors, putting themselves on record as supporting the resolution. By the time the Senate recessed Tuesday evening, five other senators had added their names as co-sponsors, leaving 15 Republicans who had not.

Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson was among the 80 sponsors listed Monday night. Chambliss’ name was added to the list of co-sponsors after the resolution was adopted, according to the Congressional Record. But his office said he had signed onto the bill as a co-sponsor before Monday’s vote.

The resolution was adopted under what is called “unanimous consent,” whereby it is adopted as long as no senator expresses opposition.

But the group that was the driving force behind the resolution had asked Frist for a formal procedure that would have required all 100 senators to vote. And the group had asked that the debate take place during “business hours” during the week, instead of Monday evening, when most senators were traveling back to the capital.

Frist declined both requests, the group’s chief counsel, Mark Planning, said Tuesday evening.

And this, from MeFi:

109th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. J. RES. 24

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 17, 2005

Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SABO, and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

`Article —

`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.’.

IP Law Weirdness

Wired News (Disclaimer: I write for Wired News) has a new reprint policy, which seems to have a weird clause in it:

Anyone is free to make one copy for personal use. This can include one photocopy, one printed copy, one email copy, or posting an HTML link (without text or photos). This includes use by a student for an academic purpose. Click on the article title above to go back to the article. From there, you can print (or use) the content as described here.

So you can make just one copy? Does making an email copy proclude the reader from making a printed copy? What happens if you link to a story on more than one webpage? Plus, short of someone printing, binding and mass producing multiple copies, how exactly does this one copy rule get enforced?

What an all-star.

In case you missed it, the idiot-of-the-week award goes to Kirk Reynolds, former PR head of the 49ers.

From the SF Chronicle, June 1, 2005:

It was meant to be funny Ñ but no one is laughing now in the San Francisco 49ers’ front office over an in-house training film that featured off- color racial jokes, lesbian porn, a spoof of gay marriage and a trio of buxom, topless blondes frolicking with team public relations director Kirk Reynolds.

The 15-minute video (see it here), some of which was filmed in the City Hall office of Mayor Gavin Newsom Ñ who comes in for a few unsubtle swipes Ñ was intended as a primer on how players should handle the media in diverse San Francisco.

Instead, it’s turned into a team embarrassment Ñ with PR man Reynolds looking for another job.

The video, said team lawyer Ed Goines, “is absolutely contradictory to the ideals and values of the San Francisco 49ers.”

Even Reynolds is conceding he pushed the envelope a bit too far.

The video, which was sent anonymously to The Chronicle, was shown to players last August during training camp in Santa Clara. It opens with Reynolds seated behind Newsom’s desk, impersonating the mayor and speaking directly into the camera about this “beautiful, diverse and tremendous city.”

“I’m going to take you through the city,” Reynolds says Ñ and what a trip it is.

First stop, Chinatown. Reynolds says the team reads everything written about the players and the organization. Then, to illustrate the point, a bespectacled, buck-toothed Chinese man in an aloha shirt (played by then-49ers trainer and martial arts expert George Chung) is asked to translate an Asian newspaper story.

Sure Ñ the man says in theatrical Asian accent. “Tim Latte (Rattay, a Niners quarterback). He feel good now. He feeling good. No plactice with the team, so most of the time he play with himself.”

More fun with FedEx

FedEx Package from Shanghai to New York:

May 11 2005

8:35 pm – Left Origin – Shanghai
8:53 pm – Pickup status – Shanghai

May 12 2005

1:57 pm – Arrived at Sort Facility – Anchorage
4:17 pm – Left Sort Facility – Anchorage
8:40 pm – Arrived at FedEx Ramp – Shanghai
9:12 pm – Left FedEx Ramp – Shanghai

What good does blurring the US Capitol do?

Someone thinks they can hide the location of the US Capitol! If you go to maps.google.com and type in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington DC, and click “Satellite” in the top right corner, follow The Mall eastward to the Capitol, the Capitol building appears blurry when everything else around it appears clear. [Mirror]

Also the White House looks flatter than the other buildings around it that have a shadow. Any ideas why someone would want to try to hide the location of the Capitol?

Looks like the “Mine-is-Bigger” Syndrome isn’t limited to the US

So now the Emiratis are getting into the game:

An artist drawing of the Burj Dubai — developers aren’t saying how high the skyscraper will top out, but observers say it will be above 2,300 feet (700 meters). AP, 4/4/05

In case you’d forgotten, our own Freedom Tower was supposed to be the tallest. But it hasn’t been built yet.

NEW YORK (CNN) — The Freedom Tower to be built at the site of the devastated World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan is still planned as the world’s tallest building, according to a revised model unveiled Friday by the architects collaborating on its design.

The tower, to be a centerpiece of the rebuilding plan for the World Trade Center site, is to rise 1,776 feet — a nod to the year the United States declared its independence. The height was originally proposed a year ago by architect Daniel Libeskind, since designated the site’s master planner.

In addition, a broadcast antenna attached to the tower is to bring the structure’s total height above 2,000 feet. CNN, 12/20/03

The Kite Runner

So I’m reading The Kite Runner and on the front of the paperback, there’s a blurb from Entertainment Weekly which reads: “A moving portrait of modern Afghanistan.”

Now I don’t read EW, but I’d be willing to be that they don’t have a Kabul bureau. And I’d also be willing to bet that the closest that any EW staffer ever got to Afghanistan was probably some place like Paris.

Modern Afghanistan indeed.