"I imagined if I'd assume the responsibility for unleashing the third World War — and I said, no, I wouldn't."

Ever heard of Stanislav Petrov? Nearly 22 years ago, his job was to watch a screen for signs of an American attack on the Soviet Union, and press a big red button to launch a nuclear counterstrike if necessary. Late one night, the screen lit up. But Petrov didn't push the button.

[spotted at dashes.com]

Just one of the reasons the Boy Scouts continue to bar gays and atheists from their organization is a misguided belief that this somehow keeps kids safe. So I'm interested to learn from an article [registration required — sorry] in the Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Douglas Smith, the Scouting official who pleaded guilty today to charges of possessing and distributing child porn, was "a churchgoing, happily married man and father of three grown children."

You like your iPod? You dig that part of 21st Century life is a neverending stream of new and exciting gadgets? Salon's Andrew Leonard has a fantastic piece up about why the Grokster case — argued before the Supreme Court yesterday — is so damned important. Edward Felten, a Princeton prof who's no stranger to this and related issues, notes a brief real-world example of the future that awaits us if this decision goes the wrong way. If the court fails to, uh, grok what's at stake here, you can kiss certain kinds of innovation good-bye, and you'll have the big entertainment companies to thank.

It's interesting to note that in arguments yesterday, one idea that got kicked around was that business models might be useful in determining whether a new technology is legal. If that's the way the court goes, what will it mean for new technologies offered up by geeks for free, absent any business model at all?

Not since the war started has there been a story in the news that has upset and angered me as much as the goings-on revolving around poor Terri Schiavo. I'm not going to offer my own rant here; instead, I'll link to three truly fine takes on the situation, all spot-on, all worth reading: Jon Carroll, Dahlia Lithwick, Get Your War On.

Unbelievably, the Wall Street Journal tackles this topic.

"It was never meant to be yelled at a cool concert — it was meant to be yelled at someone really lame," he says. "If you're going to yell 'Freebird,' yell 'Freebird' at a Jim Nabors concert."

[spotted at The Morning News]

It is only mid-March (beware the Ides tomorrow, yo!) and yet it is sunny and warm outside. Pollen.com reports that the pollen levels are through the roof 'round these parts, and the wind is blowing like mad today, stirring all that shit up. I have a terrible case of the sneezles. I think I need one of these.

Ya still think our compassionate-conservative Republican majority has the interests of average Americans in mind? Have you heard about the bankruptcy bill that just passed the Senate and will now certainly pass the House? No? Pay attention.

[link updated to one that doesn't require login; sorry about that!]

Many of my geek friends chastise me for my love of certain pat phrases about technology, like "the Internet changes everything" and "information wants to be free." Thing of it is, these two in particular keep proving themselves true over and over again.

Case in point: Fiona Apple's new album, Extraordinary Machine. Or perhaps I shouldn't call it "new," since work on it apparently wrapped up more than two years ago. But then Fiona's label, Sony, decided that none of her new work was radio-friendly, and thus they refused to spend money publishing and promoting the work. So Extraordinary Machine has sat collecting dust.

Some Fiona fans have been working on a grassroots effort to get Sony to release the material, but in the past week, something else has happened. All the music in question has been leaked — a lot of it going out over the airwaves of KNDD 107.7 in Seattle, apparently — and now you can grab your own complete copy of Extraordinary Machine online: Just ask your favorite Torrent search engine where to go. (Here's a link that works for now.)

Information wants to be free, and in the digital age, music is just another form of information. And yes, the Internet changes everything: It can even make the art-hostile decisions of a moneygrubbing megacorp irrelevant.

[How's the album? So far, sounds like stuff Fiona fans like me will enjoy...]

An 18-year-old high school junior has been in jail since Tuesday for having written a story about zombies taking over a high school.

"Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

Take note, now: "Anytime you ... possess matter involving a school or function" Kentucky says that's a felony. I'm not sure I even know what that means. If I possess a pencil stamped George Rogers Clark High School, am I headed to the big house? I don't know. It's not like I needed another reason to stay the fuck out of Kentucky, but crikey. Paralyzed by the fear of school shootings and the fear of terrorism, it seems a large number of Americans have simply lost their minds. And apparently they can arrest and lock up those of us who haven't.

It's been a while since I've encountered a photoblog that stopped me in my tracks. The images of Hong Kong appearing at overshadowed have me totally mesmerized. The city, bathed in artificial light on a foggy night, looks like a cleaner, saner version of Blade Runner's "Los Angeles 2019." And the subway shots! Don't even get me started about the subway shots!

[thanks to the_lucky_duck for the link]