Cory Doctorow, at Boing Boing has some interesting things to say about copyright. Among them:

Copyright is a system for regulating technology -- it regulates technologies used to make and distribute copies. We have lots of technology regulation in the world: there are rules that govern the operation of automobiles and rules that govern the marketing of electrical appliances. This isn't per se wrong.

But when the 20 horsepower locomotive was invented, the blacksmiths weren't able to successfully lobby to have 80 horseshoes welded to each engine, despite the rule that said that every 'horse' used for transport needed four shoes. When you invent a railroad, you need railroad-rules for it, not horse-and-buggy rules. The facts that the railroad doesn't need shoes, or oats, or curry-combs don't reflect bugs in railroading: they are the feautres of railroading.

The Internet has one overarching feature that makes it superior to the technologies that preceded it: it can copy arbitrary blobs of data from one place to another at virtually no cost, in virutally no time, with virtually no control. This is not a bug. This is what the Internet is supposed to do.

I should really find a new news site to check; CNN is just too dumb.

Their current survey is "Do you think the job market is improving?" (54% say "No"). Their current "Business" headlines are:

• Is the job market back?
• SBC plans to cut 10,000 jobs

The wife went out of town for the weekend, so I'm gonna eat myself into a stupor. The 16oz ribeye is up first.

Andy Richter tells a story:

A priest has been summoned for a meeting with the archbishop. He's ushered into the archbishop's office, and the archbishop tells him that there's a conference at the Vatican the next week, and that he wants him to go there and represent their archdiocese at the conference. He also tells him that he's going to get to meet the pope. So the priest is very excited and honored, and the next week, he flies to Rome. When he gets there, he goes and rents a car and starts driving to the Vatican. He's driving along a deserted stretch of autostrada when a unicorn comes bounding out of the woods, and -BAM!- the priest smashes his car right into the unicorn. The dazed priest slowly gets out of the mangled Fiat and goes over to where the unicorn's lying. He stands there for a second in disbelief, marveling at the beauty of the dying creature. Then he notices that it seems as if the unicorn is trying to speak, so he gets down and cradles its head in his arms and leans in to listen. The unicorn turns his eyes toward the priest and, with his dying breath, says, 'All my life, I never got to do what I wanted.'

Aureole

See also, hagiography, beatification

A.P. photo from front page of CNN.com.

Well, that's that. I had hoped for the other guy to win, but as 1/165,000,000^th of the voting public and 1/3,500,000^th of a state that was gonna go to Bush no matter what, I guess it really doesn't matter what I'd hoped.

The growing-more-idiotic-by-the-day CNN tells us:

Just over half -- 51 percent -- of respondents said they were pleased with the outcome of the presidential election

I suppose that would be a surprise if Bush didn't get 51% of the popular vote.

On the bright side, it seems only fair that Bush and his party be forced to clean up the messes they've made. And yet, I have no confidence that they can or will; and worse, the election gives them no incentive to. They've been rewarded for the mistakes they've made, and encouraged to make more.

And I feel bad for Robyn Hitchcock, who told the crowd Monday night at the Cat's Cradle that "the world thanks you for making the right decision." That was when things were looking up. Now I guess the world will have to un-thank us.

Not much of a skyline, and you can't see the ocean. But, I like the color of the sky.

Don't know that there's much else to add: MSNBC.

If you're a single Kerry fan, and find yourself unable to stay in the country should Bush win, maybe you should check out MarryAnAmerican. "No good American will be left behind!"