prediction

There are lots of polls on the election, I am linking out to any predictions that I find. Please comment if you have any others so we can review them next week:
Also see:
. American Street Electoral College Challenge
. Trading sites: Futures Betting, Iowa Electronic Markets, Tradesports

• Bush 266, Kerry 272 -- Oct 28 -- Keven Drum, Washington Weekly
  

zeros-vs-ones

John C. Dvorak -- After witnessing the latest Presidential election process, it's apparent to me that the Internet is turning into a bad dream. (e.g. Open Source Democrary is a mistake)

FreeContent

Books containing material available online for free, like the 9/11 Commission Report, are still managing to rack up good, and in some cases very impressive, sales. By Joanna Glasner.

[Via Wired News]

---

I have comented as follows:

1) I believe that most books would suffer little loss in revenue if they were available on the WEB under a modified Creative Content license, e.g.

a) Viewing from the WEB free (With anchors and links so that the WEB version can be commented on (wiki'ed) and linked out to other material.

b) Personal printing -- "Shareware license", e.g. with an "Honor" payment of the royalties to the author/publisher of the amount that they normally will get, (e.g. a few $'s)

c) Mass printing (or for profit printing) Requires a royalty payment to the author/publisher.

My thought is that most "content" as opposed to "entertainment" books will make MORE money by being WEB available. some people may read them on line or print them without paying for them, but others will see them, want to purchase hard copies, and participate in the WEB discussions, and thus may purchase the Hard Copy to have an easer to read version.

2) There is a growing list of books that are published under "Roughly" this license, Lessig's Free Culture, Gilmore's We the Medium, etc.

a) I'd love to see a site that contains the Card Catolog of these WEB available books and

b) I'd like to know the experience of the authors/publishers as to whether the WEB avalability has added to their profits or not (with as much objective info as possible)

3) My proposal is that the US publications should be published under this For Profit license and that the royalties should be used to diectly help pay for the operation of our Government, e.g. reduce our Debt/Taxes.

KerryOnIraq

John Kerry for President - Speech at New York University (47 min): "and in the war on terrorism, the President has made the wrong choice. I have a plan to make America stronger. "

Note: This also includes Video in case you want to view the speech

myth

(Democratic/Liberal, Republican/Conservative) Political Myth = A statement that is believed by a preponderance (75% or more) of one group that is provably wrong.

Note: If the statement is not provable wrong then it is not a true "Political Myth" but just a difference of opinion between groups.

. e.g. (I think)

Republican myth -- All of the newspaper recounts of the 2000 election lead to a Bush victory.

Democratic myth -- Bush "often" lies (not "only" misleads) -- for example I personally believe that many democrats believe that Bush lied about W.M.D.'s but as far as I can tell all of his statements were of the form of the 16 words, misleading perhaps? but not lies.

Thoughts? or other Political Myths?

economics

Just ran across a set of sites that discussed economics and am using theis entry to maintain them for future view:

Initial site ...
. http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/

How well do you know things that you don't really know?
If you think that's a silly question, then this quiz is for you.
. http://roughly.beasts.org/

The aim of this activity is to tell you something about your moral intuitions. It was first developed for the games and activities section of The Philosophers' Magazine web site
. http://www.philosophersmag.com/bw/games/taboo.htm

The Woolly-Thinker's Guide to Rhetoric -- Here you'll find top tips for besting your enemies. As employed by the world's best woolly-thinkers. Learn, for example: how to play the 'biological reductionist' card to maximum effect;
. http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoric.php

Neocon quiz Are you a neoconservative? Take this quiz to find out.
. http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/quiz/neoconQuiz.html

patent-wsj

In today's WSJ, LEE GOMES, writes that:

Patenting Good Ideas
Could Hurt Companies
Rather Than Aid Them
August 23, 2004; Page B1 Wall Street Journal
Send your comments to lee.gomes@wsj.com

regulations

A comment on the: Economic foundations of law
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/08/economic_founda.html#more

Regulation jutifications:

1) Regularity -- There may be some situations where the "bother" of
negotiating every Nit of a contract are not worth it.

2) Delayed danger -- It may be that a regulation is justified because it
prevents a danger that is not evident or easily known

3) Dis-Economies -- We all know this

4) Mass Production -- It may be that a regulation is justified because
it leads to a cost effective solution where as individual cost/benefits
don't

See below for more detail and add comments if you want.

dtn-problems

There may be some problems with traffic in the Down Town North area of Palo Alto, or other areas. If you want to report such problems, please follow this with a comment of the problem, and if you want, it's location, time, and a metric to used to measure the problem.

Note, there is an area for more general comments on the DTN Traffic plan

pafiber

Palo Alto is considering installing "Fiber To The Home" in the City Council meeting of July 19, 2004. There are a number of Pro's and Con's.

Links to the various sites are contained on the DTNNA/FTTH page

For those of us who feel that this would be good, it might help if we showed the city a commitment to fund the connection before the meeting.

Marvin and Alison Lee are collecting peoples names who are interested in this project and might commit to subscribing, or other possible ways of proceeding see: DTNNA/FTTH#commit

supreme

The Supreme court decided 80 cases in 2003-2004, I have generate a page with these listed, short descriptions, and a link to the previous Cato book that will porobably be updated later this year. This Blog entry is available for comments on this list, and if there is interest, specific comment areas will be added for specific cases.

dtn-traffic

Palo Alto is implementing a second (No Closure) traffic plan for the Down Town North area. Comments on this plan can be added below. Specific topics may be added as requested. (Stay tuned...)

retail-issues

Retail related Issues that can be impacted by the City of Palo Alto

There were 15 ideas presented (see) and the top 5 were identified. The public was given the opportunity to contribute their ideas and comments.

Please comment on these ideas, their priority, and any additonal ones here.

retail

Mayor's Retail Council of Palo Alto

Palo Alto's Mayor Bern Beecham has formed a "Retail Council" to discuss ways to improve the retail community in Palo Alto. Until the council sets up their own site for discussing this topic, pointing to the resources available, and allowing intercommunitcaion between the council and the citizens, this Blog entry, and the WeMatter.com/paloalto/retail WEB area can be use as a "stop-gap"

I suggest that you add the comments about the topic in general below, and there will be another entry speciffically for the issues that might be proposed.

Style

I am learing about how to use Blog as I want it to. The two styles that I am suggesting are:

. 1) Keep the title short so that it is easy to point to, generating a link:
http://wematter.blogspot.com/yyyy/mm/"Title"

. 2) Keep the posting short so that it is easy to find a post and then put the "Meat" of the posting either in the Web page pointed to by the title or in the first comment. Note: I may change the (Comments) title to a (More/Comments) field.

Palo Alto DownTown library -- Saturday Closing

Dear Downtown Library Supporter:

Of Palo Alto’s five libraries, only the Downtown Library isn’t open at all on weekends. About a year ago, the city eliminated Saturday service at both the Downtown and College Terrace libraries in a round of general budget cuts, leaving both closed all weekends. Later, the city found some additional funds and Saturday hours were restored at the College Terrace Library. Council members wanted to restore Saturday hours to the Downtown Library at the same time, but city staff noted that the branch might soon be closed altogether, and so the Council narrowly voted not to restore its Saturday hours.

Since then, great community outcry has kept the Downtown Library open, and there are no plans to close it at all. Now, we want the City Council have it open on Saturdays, just like all the others.

This wouldn’t cost much. Paula Simpson, Palo Alto’s Library Director, estimates it will need under $15,000, which comes to less than 25 cents per resident per year. That modest amount is only about 1/3 of one percent of the annual library budget, yet is likely to increase annual library visits by 2%, based on recent statistics, so it’s great value for the money.

Saturday hours will mean much better service. The Downtown area is busy nowadays, with thousands of new residents moving into housing being built on the former sites of the Palo Alto Medical Center, the Peninsula Creamery, and other old buildings. It isn’t fair that these people don’t have library services on weekends when all other parts of Palo Alto do. In fact, because the Downtown Library closes at 6 pm on the four days it currently is open, downtown residents who work elsewhere cannot get to the library at all.

Other Palo Altans come downtown on Saturdays to shop, especially at the Farmer’s Market, which is just two short blocks away from the Downtown Library. Having the library open on Saturdays gives those shoppers an enjoyable place to stop in to read or pick up books and videos and saves on driving.


Here’s how you can help:


1) Send the City Council a short letter asking them to restore Saturday hours at the Downtown Library. You can send it by post to City Council, 250 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 or by Mailto:city_council@city.palo-alto.ca.us.


2) Forward a copy of your letter to your favorite local newspaper:

The Palo Alto Daily News (Mailto:news@paloaltodailynews.com)
324 High St., Palo Alto, CA 94301

The Palo Alto Weekly (Mailto:letters@paweekly.com)
703 High St., Palo Alto, CA 94301

The San Jose Mercury News
(Mailto:letters@mercurynews.com)
750 Ridder Park Dr., San Jose CA 95190


3) Attend the June 14 City Council meeting at 7 pm to address the Council. Public comment on issues like this are the very first item on the agenda, so you won’t have to sit through a lengthy meeting.


Thanks,

. Jeff Levinsky, President
. Friends of the Palo Alto Library

Interesting Diagrams/Charts

A lot of information is available as Diagrams and charts. I have included some of the ones that seem to be good.

Note: As I am starting with those on the Blog UggaBugga it is probable that they are generally Anti bush, but hopefully as I get more contributions I can point to others to balence out the information. Any suggestions can be mailed to me, and if the anyone wants to comment on these, or if I decide not to feature them, they can be commented on here.

Univ.South News May 28-2004

I forwarded a message from University South to the DTNNA mailing list and here this is an area for comments on the information... Note: I am adding the comments that people mail to me as I did not link to this in the message.

Try to add comments

I tried to add the option to add comments

I think that this is the link to the Dashboard

The following is the link to the report of one person who returned from Guantinamo

Mirror.co.uk - MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY



Is Lou Dobbs a Communist? -- lots of graphs on UnEmployment
by Mark Thornton

Purpose, and Clay Shirky

The WeMatter.com web site: http://www.WeMatter.com is to be a hub, portal site to coordinate peoples interaction with our government. Its purpose is to allow people to

1) view recent news and issues that they consider important
2) find out more information, pro, con... on these issues
3) contribute their own opinions, facts, suggestions
4) determine how to coordinate their "influence" in pushing their position relative to their issues,
etc.

As this time the site is very thin, but I hope to see if it can be filled out enough to be useful in a few years. This blog is currently a container for thoughts and links that are related to this effort. e.g.

A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy by Clay Shirky -- a pattern I've seen over and over again in social software that supports large and long-lived groups, ... what I now think is one of the core challenges for designing large-scale social software

Associated links:

Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet Economics & Culture, Media & Community, Open Source

Link to dashboard