celebrity

This is a random mood construction I wrote after biking along the bay...

The wind tore through the land, causing the million golden, fibers of grass to murmur in gossip. Seagulls hung lazily in the air, craning their necks into the wind, attempting to get ahead of the others. The water rippled, insistently swimming in circles, consuming the algae on the rock-lumped shore.

The hills in the distance slouched in their balcony seats, squinting at the sun as it hung low in the west. The slouching was necessary to avoid the cheese-slice railing of the power lines, long wires segregating the hazy picture into sea and sky.

Alongside the insistent murmurs of the whispering grass stalks, an asphalt carpet rolled out, marking a path for celebrities and holding back the landscape from getting in the way. This swervy pavementrain conducts many elite passengers between venues, allowing a voyeuristic view into the dangerous wild; a view without the bane of submitting to the whispering mass of conspiracy amidst the shores of the bay.

And then: the paparazzi.

small victory for privacy

"A U.S. appeals court in Ohio has ruled that e-mail messages stored on Internet servers are protected by the Constitution as are telephone conversations and that a federal law permitting warrantless secret searches of e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment."

"ISPs, the ruling states, have 'mere custody' over the e-mail and subpoenaing them 'is insufficient to trump the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.'"

"[David Rivkin] said that, even given the expectation of privacy, the context of the effort to access the data -- whether it was part of a criminal case or an intelligence-gathering effort, for instance -- had to be considered."

Link

id theif pursuit

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article about an ID-theft victim chasing her ID's thief. The story reads like a great chase scene in a novel! The victim chases the thief for about forty-five minutes through down-town San Francisco.

She didn't really know what she would do if she caught Nelson. "She was a big girl," Lodrick recalled. She told the 911 operator she felt a little scared. The operator said: "If you in any way feel threatened, do not continue the pursuit."

Lodrick told the operator: "No, I'm OK."

San Francisco Chronicle Article

the internet is a reflection of self

"The Internet, this place intended for sharing information, has become a place where we go to confirm beliefs we already have."
(on "I read it on the Internet")

"I'm not suggesting we put anonymous bloggers, or anonymous posters in jail..."
(on improving accountability online by jailing originators of anonymous data)

-- Andrew Keen