New report on censorware

From “LisNews” for 5/17/06:

"…The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) , requires censorware in most schools and libraries for adults and minors alike. A new report from the Free Expression Policy Project <http://www.fepproject.org/>  at the Brennan Center for Justice explains the effects of CIPA and then analyzes nearly 100 tests and studies that demonstrate how filters operate as censorship tools. "Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report" concludes: Although some may say that the debate is over and that filters are now a fact of life, it is never too late to rethink bad policy choices.

(Thanks to Nancy Walton at the Minnesota Department of Education for this.)

Have a wonderful, filter-free weekend. 

If you are going to insult someone...

A teacher  once admonished me for swearing by saying that profanity is simply a sign of a deficient vocabulary. I thought of that teacher when I read Garrison Keillor's column in today's paper. His best paragraph needed not a single bit of profanity because of his well-developed vocabulary...

Having been called names, one looks back at one's own angry outbursts over the years, and I recall having once referred to Republicans as "hairy-backed swamp developers, fundamentalist bullies, freelance racists, hobby cops, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, marsupial moms and aluminum-siding salesmen, misanthropic frat boys, ninja dittoheads, shrieking midgets, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, pill pushers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, the grand pooh-bahs of Percodan, mouth breathers, testosterone junkies and brownshirts in pinstripes." I look at those words now, and "cat stranglers" seems excessive to me. The number of cat stranglers in the ranks of the Republican Party is surely low, and that reference was hurtful to Republicans and to cat owners. I feel sheepish about it.  "PROTESTANTS UNITE! A CALL TO ACTION," Mankato Free Press, May 18, 2006.

I like both the style and the sentiment. And just imagine how much fun Keillor had writing it. He is, in my opinion, the closest thing to Twain, Menken or Thurber writing today.  Quite a few of his weekly columns can be found here.

Flattening world - yet again

These sorts of e-mails STILL just blow me away...

To, Mr  Doug Johnson
Respected Sir,

Please allow me to introduce myself as a Research Associate with a prestigious non-profit Business Education based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. We are dedicated to the cause of educative processes in Business Management, and are engaged in the activity of publishing reference material on contemporary topics in management studies.
 
Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) is a not-for-profit organization established to impart quality education in management and finance. ICFAI Business School (IBS), originally sponsored by ICFAI in 1994, is a constituent of the ICFAI University. Headquartered at Hyderabad with Twelve Centers spread across the country, IBS is committed to promote quality education, research, training and consultancy in Management discipline. In its endeavor to keep pace with the changing trends and new developments, IBS has been instrumental in the development of new and innovative PG level Programs on a two year full-time basis to focus on specific key areas of business.
 
As part of this initiative, the IBS Centre at Bangalore has established the Centre for Academic Excellence for raising the standards of knowledge creation and dissemination through research and publication in the area of Business Management. It caters to the information needs of students, teachers and practitioners of management. Our publications are priced to recover the cost of editing, printing and distribution and not for making profits. Any surplus over and above the costs is included in the publication/academic pool for the above referred objectives only. Further details about our books are available on our website at http://www.icfaipress.org/books. <http://www.icfaipress.org/books> 
 
I have just read through a few of your articles/writings and have found all of them absolutely fascinating. I am of the opinion that these articles will render themselves as excellent material for our students.
 
May we please request your kind permission to reprint the article titled  "The knowledge worker redux" co-authored  in one of our forthcoming publication on The Complexities of Managing Knowledge Workers. We will acknowledge the source with due respect as per your suggestion. Do provide us with your postal address so that we can send you a copy of the book as soon it is published. 
 
I look forward to an early and positive response from your office in this matter.
 
Thanking You,
Yours truly
 
Thanking you in advance,
Yours sincerely,
Shilpa B
Research Associate
ICFAI Business School, Centre for Academic Excellence
Annex III, 63/A, 13th cross, 6th main
J.P Nagar 3rd phase
Bangalore-5600078   India
Tel: 080-26493697
Fax: Fax: 91- 080 - 26493696
Web: www.ibsindia.org <http://www.icfaipress.org/books>

 So when all the jobs are gone in the U.S., does this mean I may have an "in" in Bangalore?