Archives for August 2004

Scrap Electoral College, Says New York Times

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States should abolish its electoral college because it creates the possibility that the president will be a candidate who loses the popular vote, the New York Times said on Sunday.

The electoral college “thwarts the will of the majority, distorts presidential campaigning and has the potential to produce a true constitutional crisis,” the paper said in an editorial.

In the last presidential election in 2000, Republican George W. Bush won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore (news – web sites) by more than 500,000 votes.

“Most people realized then for the first time that we have a system in which the president is chosen not by the voters themselves, but by 538 electors,” the editorial said. “It’s a ridiculous setup.”

The paper, one of the most respected in the United States, said “there should be a bipartisan movement for direct election of the president.”

“The main problem with the electoral college is that it builds into every election the possibility, which has been a reality three times since the Civil War, that the president will be a candidate who lost the popular vote,” the editorial said.

It said the system unfairly favored small states, which were awarded a minimum of three electoral votes regardless of how many residents they had.

“The majority does not rule, and every vote is not equal — those are reasons enough to scrap the system,” the Times said.

It cited other factors: “A few swing states take on oversized importance, leading candidates to focus their attention, money and promises on a small slice of the electorate.

“We are hearing far more this year about the issue of storing hazardous waste at Yucca Mountain, an important one for Nevada’s 2.2 million residents, than about securing ports against terrorism, a vital concern for 19.2 million New Yorkers.”

So, who has some thoughts to share on this topic? Bueller, Bueller, Bueller….

Alaska Brown Bears Gather for Salmon Feast

Sat Aug 28, 9:15 PM ET

By MARY PEMBERTON, Associated Press Writer

McNEIL RIVER, Alaska – Each summer, the falls at McNeil River turn into a mosh pit of bears. Instead of thumping music, it’s the sound of salmon slapping their way up the falls at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary that sends the bears into a fishing frenzy.

This summer, an exclusive group of 257 people was allowed into the 114,400-acre state sanctuary in an extraordinary opportunity to see close up one of the most feared predators on the planet.

“It is just awesome,” said Uleta Clark, of Upper Kenai, whose name was selected by lottery to visit the sanctuary. “You aren’t going to see this anywhere else.”

That sounds so cool. I’d love to see it.

I thought it fitting to pay tribute.

In all three major team sports fielded by the U.S. in these 2004 Games, the women won gold medals.



In none of those sports did the U.S. men do the same.



American women here reminded us of a truth that has been lost all across America, somewhere between two-handed touch and six-year contracts, between T-ball and beanball.There is no “my” in team. There is no “buy” in team.



From softball players carrying their coach, to soccer players carrying a farewell message, to basketball players carrying each other.



From Lisa Fernandez’s dugout meetings, to Julie Foudy’s midfield pleadings, to Dawn Staley’s sideline chats.



“For so many years, women in our country have been only too happy to play for the approval of applause,” said Vivian Stringer, U.S. assistant basketball coach. “Money-wise, they have made peanuts, so they play to make people happy, working hard and doing it the right way.”

MUNICH (Reuters) – Virtually the entire risk of heart attack can be predicted and the impact of factors causing attacks is the same whether you live in a rich country or a poor one, a global study released Sunday showed.

Results of the study of more than 29,000 people in 52 countries, released at a meeting of the European Cardiology Society, showed that two factors alone — an abnormal ratio of bad to good cholesterol and smoking — were responsible for two-thirds of the global risk of heart attack.

Other risk factors were high blood pressure, diabetes, abdominal obesity, stress, a lack of daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, and lack of daily exercise.

Drinking small amounts of alcohol regularly was found to reduce risk slightly.

“This convincingly shows that 90 percent of the global risk of heart disease is predictable,” researcher Salim Yusuf, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, told a news conference.

It is kind of crazy to think about how many things people knowingly do that are unhealthy for them. Is it denial or something else that makes us ignore what should be common sense. Maybe it is because there are so many exceptions to the rule.

Question: Is “deep linking” illegal?

Answer: “Deep linking” refers to the creation of hyperlinks to a page other than a website’s homepage. For example, instead of pointing a link at http://www.chillingeffects.org, this site’s “homepage,” another site might link directly to the linking FAQ at http://www.chillingeffects.org/linking/faq .

Some website owners complain that deep links “steal” traffic to their homepages or disrupt the intended flow of their websites. In particular, Ticketmaster has argued that other sites should not be permitted to send browsers directly to Ticketmaster event listings. Ticketmaster settled its claim against Microsoft and lost a suit against Tickets.com over deep linking.

From Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com opinion:Further, hyperlinking does not itself involve a violation of the Copyright Act (whatever it may do for other claims) since no copying is involved. The customer is automatically transferred to the particular genuine web page of the original author. There is no deception in what is happening. This is analogous to using a library’s card index to get reference to particular items, albeit faster and more efficiently.

So far, courts have found that deep links to web pages were neither a copyright infringement nor a trespass.

Maintained by Electronic Frontier Foundation