Blacknell.net

Politics, open government, and safe streets. And the constant incursion of cycling.

Month: December 2008 Page 8 of 9

*Our* Mall

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On December 4, 2008

In DC, Politics

It’s confirmed that the Mall will be open to the public on Inauguration Day:

The Presidential Inaugural Commission announced today that the entire national mall, from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, will be open to the public on Inauguration Day. Large screens will be set up along the Mall to allow to allow those in attendance to see and hear the event.

[ . . . ]

With the mall open, there might just be room enough to accommodate everyone, but it will be tight. According to CNN, if 5 million people show up, each person would have about one square foot of ground to stand on. If you’re planning on coming to Washington for the big day, be prepared to get cozy with your neighbors!

Should be intertesting.

Who Needs Parliament? Not Canada.

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On December 4, 2008

In Politics

So says Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, desperately trying to prolong his power:

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean has granted a request from Stephen Harper to suspend Parliament until late next month, the prime minister announced on Thursday, a move that avoids a confidence vote set for Monday that could have toppled his minority government.

Perhaps George is wondering why he didn’t think of that?

(Background here.)

Creative Commons and Non-Commercial Use

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On December 4, 2008

In Distribution, Law, Society

Creative Commons is an organization dedicated to ensuring the free exchange and flow of culture by providing ease to understand and use licenses by which creators (such as you and me) can release their works.  Creators can choose to make their work freely available for any kind of use by anyone, or they can limit that use so that it must give them credit (attribution), and/or may only be used for non-commercial purposes.

On general principle, I put most of my posted work on the web – including this site – under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license.  I’m quite happy to say that people all over the world have found my work useful for their own projects.  My photos help illustrate wikipedia entries, university programs, and news stories.  All because the CC licenses made it clear and easy for others to understand that I wished them to be used for those purposes.

Occasionally, however, I’ve had some problems with others understanding the concept of “non-commercial”.  It’s not a big deal to me in terms of dashing my own hopes for commercial sales, and the exact definition of non-commercial is certainly unclear.  It does bother me greatly, however to see a business abusing the ambiguity of the CC non-commercial license clause.  That’s why I’m happy to see that the folks at Creative Commons are working on clarifying that issue.  Part of that work is surveying creators and users on exactly what *they* think non-commercial use is.  If you’re still reading, you should jump over and take the survey.  It’s for the common good.

Midweek Makeover: Please Don’t

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On December 3, 2008

In Music

A cover, by definition, offers a new take on the original work.   This is almost always interesting to me, even when it turns out that I prefer the original.  Some covers, however, leave me wondering why the second artist even bothered.  What surprises me in this case is the success that met the cover – people really dug it.  Maybe you will, too.  In a reverse from the usual order, I’ll present the cover first – The White Stripes’ 2004 take on Jolene:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE3-q-aoFZI[/youtube]

Now, I’m a fan of Jack White.  I’m a fan of gender bending.  I’m a fan of Jolene – an amazing song.  And yet that struck me as an utter disaster.   Not even close to touching Dolly’s original:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGEubdH8m0s[/youtube]

BlueCommonwealth dot . . .

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On December 3, 2008

In Politics, Virginia

Well, this is a bit awkward.  One of the projects I’ve been working on (longer than I should have been, to be sure), was a community site oriented towards all of Virginia’s Democrats.  The project started back in August – ack, has it really been that long? – and after working through a number of different community software packages, I’d settled on one and had been hoping to launch it soon.  And where would it be?  Right here, at BlueCommonwealth.org.   An excellent name, I think.

And a couple other people thought so, too.  Last night, Josh Chernila (of the soon to be closed Raising Kaine) announced BlueCommonwealth.com, essentially as the continuation of Raising Kaine.  Serves me right for both being a little slow on the development, and for not buying the .com of the name earlier this year.   Unfortunately, it didn’t serve those who have been working with me on this right at all.  My fault, and my apologies.  And I wish Josh & crew the best of luck.

Not entirely sure how I’ll be moving forward with the (almost ready) BlueCommonwealth project, from a domain/branding standpoint, but it may well turn out that there will be two BlueCommonwealths (the irony of which is . . . well, it just is.).   Any ideas are welcome and appreciated.

Saturday: Used Bike Sale to Benefit DC Community Bike Shops

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On December 2, 2008

In Cycling, DC, Virginia

From Phoenix Bikes:

On Saturday, December 6, four local, non-profit bike programs are joining forces to bring more bikes to DC streets. The programs, Phoenix Bikes, Renaissance Community Youth Bike Project, The Mount Rainier Bike Coop, and the Rockville Youth Bike Project, use bikes to help young people get active, have fun learning, and serve their communities. There’ll be 20 – 30 road, hybrid, single-speed, kids, and mountain bikes, refurbished by youth, volunteer, and staff mechanics. Best of all, proceeds go to keeping these programs and their cyclists moving. Come by the Bike Sale, running from 10am – 3 pm at Big Bear Café (1700 First St. NW, DC) to find a new ride for 2009!

If you’re looking for a solid bit of transport, this will be worth checking out.

Proof that “We Won” in Iraq?

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On December 2, 2008

In Distribution, Policy, Society

Because only the victors get to (re)write history, no?

This really isn’t complicated. President Bush was not being “blunt” or showing “candor” when he told ABC News in an interview published yesterday that his biggest regret was the failure of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Rather, he was whitewashing away his own role in the fisaco by promoting the demonstrable falsehood that there was no available evidence or information that argued against war and that he was merely fooled into invading Iraq solely by the bad intel.

The big news orgs seem eager to help Bush do this. Not a single one of their reports on the interview that we can find bothered to tell readers that there was plenty of good intel — ignored by the Bush administration — saying that Saddam wasn’t the threat Bush was claiming he was. Nor did any of them bother mentioning that the weapons inspectors in Iraq were saying the same thing — something that also went ignored.

These facts are absolutely central to understanding Bush’s efforts to falsify history in yesterday’s interview. Yet they went unmentioned in reports by Reuters, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, CNN, and The New York Times.

Or maybe losers get to write history, too.

The Queen Must Approve

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On December 2, 2008

In Politics

Looks like Canada’s Governor General – that is, Queen Elizabeth’s representative – will have some real work to do, for once.  Two of Canada’s left-leaning political parties – the NDP and Liberal Party – have come to a formal power-sharing agreement that will permit them to unseat the existing Conservative government.   They’ll do this with the help of Bloc Québécois (more of a self-leaning political party).   In order to do so, they’ll first have to win a confidence vote in Parliament, and presuming that happens, they’ll then go to the Governor General to seek her approval (on behalf of the Queen, of course) for formation of a new government.  The Governor General’s approval is, in practice, a mere formality.  But with the Conservative Party making noises about dissolving Parliament prior to the confidence vote, anything is possible, I suppose.

Excitement to the North!  Who knew?

Related: Here’s a very good background article on the mechanics – and possible problems – involved.  Note that it was written before the NDP and Liberals inked the deal.

For Your iPod: Jai Ho

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On December 2, 2008

In Music, Personal

Saw Slumdog Millionaire last week.  It was a fine enough movie – I mostly agree with the review here (particularly the well-shot high-speed travelogue bit).  But the soundtrack . . . brilliant.  Like, picked it up right after the movie brilliant.  It’s been in heavy rotation since, and I thought at least a few of you might appreciate it, too.  Here’s one of my favorite tracks:

Jai Ho – AR Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah & Mahalaxmi Iyer

Change.gov Embraces the Creative Commons

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On December 1, 2008

In Distribution, Policy, Politics

This is very encouraging:

In what can only be seen as a major coup for those of us who have been hoping that the Obama Administration would embrace a saner and more sensible thinking on questions of copyright than is the norm in Washington, Change.gov has swapped a strict copyright policy for among the liberalist of Creative Commons licenses.

And for those of you who have being playing the copyright game along at home, and are thinking “Wait, isn’t everything prepared by the Federal gov’t in the public domain already?”:

As a rather strange government-private hybrid entity, the Obama-Biden Transition Project doesn’t appear to be covered by government copyright rules which presume that what the government creates should be freely useable by the public.

I’m still not used to these flashes of sanity emanating from DC.

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