{"id":3587,"date":"2009-09-28T18:30:34","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T22:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3587"},"modified":"2009-09-28T15:20:44","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T19:20:44","slug":"monday-various-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3587","title":{"rendered":"Monday various"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"> <\/font><\/p>\n<ul>     <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/p>\n<li>Rats. Terry Jones, of <em>Monty Python<\/em> fame will be teaching <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yesand.thepit-nyc.com\/classes#ComedyWritingTerryJones\">a one-day comedy writing seminar<\/a> in Manhattan next month. Noted <em>Python<\/em> biographer Kim &#8220;Howard&#8221; Johnson will also be on hand to interview him. But it&#8217;s the day after my sister&#8217;s wedding, and I of course already have plans. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=1511\">I did get to see Michael Palin<\/a> several years ago, but this sounded like an interesting (if considerably more expensive) event. Even if I must admit I&#8217;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2827\">not always been the biggest fan<\/a> of Mr. Jones&#8217; solo work. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsfromme.com\/\" title=\"Mark Evanier\">via<\/a>]<\/li>\n<p><\/font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/p>\n<li>On the lie that is <em>CSI<\/em>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/technology\/military_law\/4325774.html\">The Shaky Science Behind Forensics<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Forensic science was not developed by scientists. It was mostly created by cops, who were guided by little more than common sense. And as hundreds of criminal cases begin to unravel, many established forensic practices are coming under fire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Eye-opening and more than a little frightening. [<a href=\"http:\/\/gerrycanavan.blogspot.com\/\" title=\"Gerry Canavan\">via<\/a>] <\/font><\/li>\n<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/p>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/us_and_americas\/article6801213.ece\">Vogue model Liskula Cohen wins right to unmask offensive blogger<\/a>. I have to agree <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookninja.com\/?p=5828\">with Bookninja<\/a> that his sets a potentially troubling precedent &#8212; not least of all because the defamation seems to have been relatively very minor. I don&#8217;t know the exact particulars of the offending blog, but&#8230;well, obviously nobody wants to be called a skank, and it <em>is<\/em> offensive, but for someone in the public eye, it would seem to come with the territory. Perhaps the vitriol aimed at Cohen went beyond that, but there is a significant difference between name-calling and character assassination, between being mean to someone and spreading lies that defame their character and impede their livelihood. And Cohen apparently isn&#8217;t even going to bring a defamation suit against the unmasked blogger. Now that she knows who it is, she&#8217;s perfectly willing to let bygones be bygones. Which I guess is big of her, but why couldn&#8217;t she have done that when it was just anonymous dickhead making fun of her? Why couldn&#8217;t she have sued (or, better, just politely asked) Google to remove the offending material?<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"> <\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">And, unless I&#8217;m missing something, can&#8217;t you easily sign up for Blogger <em>anonymously<\/em>? It&#8217;s a free service, so if you give Google a fake name and contact information, what good does unmasking do? <\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">  <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/li>\n<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/p>\n<li>Or maybe not. Ever wonder <a href=\"http:\/\/whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com\/\">What the Internet Knows About You<\/a>? [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.waxy.org\/links\" title=\"Waxy.org Links\">via<\/a>]<\/li>\n<p><\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/p>\n<li>And finally, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsfromme.com\/archives\/2009_09_18.html#017746\">Mark Evanier on health care<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>I have nothing against corporate profits. The heart of this nation&#8217;s economy depends on businesses being able to amass moola. But when human lives are concerned, couldn&#8217;t that be close to an equal consideration? It doesn&#8217;t even have to be more vital than making sure some corporations have their best year ever. Couldn&#8217;t it just be, you know, almost as important?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\"><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rats. Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame will be teaching a one-day comedy writing seminar in Manhattan next month. Noted Python biographer Kim &#8220;Howard&#8221; Johnson will also be on hand to interview him. But it&#8217;s the day after my sister&#8217;s wedding, and I of course already have plans. I did get to see Michael Palin &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3587\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[68,5,27,23,54,6,38,10,12],"class_list":["post-3587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-google","tag-health","tag-internet","tag-monty-python","tag-new-york","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-various","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}