LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Censorship interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:56:25 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship_as_a_Barbed_Wire_Fence_-_Free_Online_Library Free Online Library: Censorship as a Barbed Wire Fence by "Advertising, marketing, public relations community"; (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:00:37 +0100 868488 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship_At_The_School_Board_Level_Will_Make_Forgetters_--- Yolen (2005) argued, "Censorship-in the classroom, in the library, at the school board level-will make forgetters of us all." Teachers can see censo (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:00:30 +0100 868119 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/nadine-gordimer-fighting-censorship Twenty years after helping defeat apartheid, the eminent writer is fighting government plans to muzzle South Africa's media'Where do you get your energy from?," I ask Nadine Gordimer, Nobel laureate and lifelong fighter for freedom. This is probably a naff, ageist question, and I wonder how the 86-year-old, who has a reputation for intellectual rigour bordering on fierceness, will react. Happily, she is not insulted. "Who knows where you get it from?" she says. "You must muster your resources and do what you have to do."What she feels she has to do at the moment is oppose the South African government's draconian proposals to muzzle the media. A new protection of information bill and media tribunal are seen by critics as the greatest threat to press freedom since the apartheid era.If passed, the measures would allow the government to ban the publication of material deemed detrimental to "the survival and security of the state". The catch-all phrase "national interest" would allow it to close down discussion of any topic which threatened to embarrass those in power. It is these proposals which have led Gordimer to don her campaigning armour once more, and go into battle against a government she believes may be about to reverse the democratic gains of the last two decades.With her fellow writer André Brink, she has drawn up a petition which has so far gathered eminent names such as award-winning novelist JM Coetzee, academic and writer Njabulo Ndebele, and actor and playwright John Kani. The petition will be formally presented to South Africa's president Jacob Zuma this week, and Gordimer hopes that writers will be able to join with South Africa's bar council and media organisations to build concerted opposition to the proposals. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:59:06 +0100 868035 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/31/turkey-museums-art-pamuk-gibbons A quiet war is under way among Turkey's richest families to assemble the best and most expensive art collectionsA tank revs up, its cannon jolting from side to side on Istanbul's equivalent of Oxford Street or Fifth Avenue. Two women in Kurdish headscarves stand before it, drawing their grandchildren to them as a crowd pushes up behind. This is no Turkish Tiananmen, though this street has witnessed a coup, or an attempt at one, every decade since the 1960s. The women are laughing. The tank is inflatable – and plops down like a balloon as quickly as it reared itself up in the window of the city's newest art gallery. Everyone outside Arter on Istiklal Caddesi gets the joke.Turks vote this month on changes to the constitution that will make it difficult for the generals to interfere in politics. Not so long ago this was unthinkable. Turkey has changed radically in the past decade, and nowhere has that change been more marked that in the arts. Years of stagnation and censorship have given way to Orhan Pamuk's Nobel prize for literature and a new wave of highly distinctive film-makers led by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Fatih Akin and Semih Kaplanoglu winning at Cannes, Berlin and Venice. But the change has been most felt in visual arts.When Istanbul Modern opened on the Karaköy docks five years ago, Europe's biggest city – 17 million and counting – was a cultural desert. This year it is European Capital of Culture and witness to an explosion of private museum building not seen since the days of Andrew Carnegie.It is as if an undeclared war is going on among Turkey's richest families, each intent on assembling the best and most expensive collections of art. Such has been the competition since the Eczacibasi family opened its chequebook for Istanbul Modern that the city now has two- and three-museum families. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:00:45 +0100 867837 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=EFG_Tackles_Banned_Books_amp_Censorship__Eve39s_Fan_Garden Should they carry the titles in the library? Should they be featured in the classroom? Should students have a choice of books to read? This week we w (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:00:31 +0100 867727 http://www.lisnews.org/san_jose_lesbians_and_feminists_mourn_loss_sisterspirit San Jose Lesbian and feminists mourn loss of Sisterspirit Bookstore beloved of Lesbian and feminists to close. Online bookstores and the acceptance of Gay literature in chain bookstores are blamed. (Sorry to censor, but this site's spam filter wouldn't accept this submission otherwise.) (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:23:20 +0100 868606 http://lisnews.org/san_jose_lesbians_and_feminists_mourn_loss_sisterspirit San Jose Lesbian and feminists mourn loss of Sisterspirit Bookstore beloved of Lesbian and feminists to close. Online bookstores and the acceptance of Gay literature in chain bookstores are blamed. (Sorry to censor, but this site's spam filter wouldn't accept this submission otherwise.) (Source: LISNews.org) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:23:20 +0100 867824 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=A_humbling_experience_in_Humble_%AB_Rant_Roulette That is a form of censorship as damaging and inexcusable as setting fire to a library. Indeed, popularity does not come without its price. It's a les (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:00:26 +0100 867355 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=David_DeGraw_Discusses_Net_Neutrality_and_Google_News_Censorship_--- Google Scholar and More: New Google Applications and Tools for Libraries and Library UsersIn only a few years, Google has become an authoritative pro (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:00:40 +0100 866676 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/27/nostalgia-and-the-internet/ The current spate of stories concerning nations trying to limit the use of Blackberries,  when combined with the recently floated ‘net neutrality’ agreement between Verizon and Google, is emblematic of the continuing  invasion of the world of telecommunication by the world of governmental and corporate power. Almost two decades ago, I was on a panel with Professor Marge Shultz of the Berkeley Law School faculty, who made a remark that I have never forgotten. Professor Shultz opined that, Our ability to make advances in technology is outpacing our ability to understand how such progress fits in with law and politics at an increasing rate. Some serious political decisions about basic values will be forced upon us. The technology will be ready, human beings will not. The Internet is a great, sprawling wonder. No one really planned it — a series of actions, some logical, some the expression of brilliant individual creativity both by institutions and humans — brought it into being. There was no instruction manual, no carefully considered plan for implementation and growth. David Post wrote a lovely book this year, In Search of Jefferson’s Moose, which explains, in readable prose, one version of how it came to be. Post uses the device of comparing Thomas Jefferson’s views on democracy with the ideal of a democratic cyberspace. One lesson I take from Professor Posts’s book, is that the Internet was developed and controlled by people who were technologists. The goal was to design a system that worked, one that delivered information as cleanly as possible. There was to be no responsibility for the content. The Internet was a highway, what traveled along its pathway was not its business. Given the restraint and purity of the vision, it is stunning how much revolved around individuals, information zealots who chose to rein in their own power.  Another dusty memory pops up. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:00:09 +0100 867045 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Games_On_Net_File_Library__The_Most_Common_Question_Penn_Gets_--- Games On Net File Library :: The Most Common Question Penn Gets - Bullshit Censored! - Penn Point - pennpoint--0055--bullshitcensored--hd.h264.mp4. (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:00:37 +0100 866148 http://www.cla-net.org/weblog/2010/08/pornography_sol.php Public Access Computers One evening in 2010 in a small family-oriented library where I work as a part-time Reference Librarian, I found myself questioning what I should do. A parent came to me for assistance. She quietly stepped up to the reference desk, and so as not to be overheard, she whispered to me that a man using one of the public access computers was seated next to her 9-year-old child, and he was browsing what looked like child pornography on the next cubicle. Yes, it happened. I was stunned. I wondered could this man possibly be so bold (or desperate enough) to be viewing child pornography in a public library filled with juveniles and their parents researching CA Missions? I was the only librarian on duty. I had to think, assess the situation, confirm the information, act quickly, discreetly, and ethically to solve this dilemma. What should I do? What would you do? What library principles should librarians and library professionals obey in a similar situation? What resources and tools does the American Library Association (ALA) provide to help us? I am certain that I am not the first, and sadly, I am nor the last librarian that will encounter a similar situation. First of all, without corroborating the alleged claim, I must admit that my reaction was not only judgmental; it was also wrong, and unprofessional. Thus, I am writing about my predicament because, in retrospect, I know that I did not act as professionally as I could have, and as a life-long learner and graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University, I must remember to apply what I have learned. Librarianship has multiple resources that provide librarians and library professionals the guidelines and tools we need to deal with and resolve any problem. ... Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:40:56 +0100 867935 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=ENOUGH_ROOM_Institutionalized_Censorship Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population- we'd all (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:00:29 +0100 864993 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=more_american_soldiers_killed_in_afghanistan Internet Censorship: Content-Control Software, History of Wikipedia, Project Chanology, Criticism of Facebook, Wikileaks, Adnan OktarPurchase include (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:00:28 +0100 865012 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Assisted_suicide_Voluntary_Euthanasia_Peaceful_Pill_Handbook_--- Toronto Public Library Censors Australian Euthanasia Workshop. As their Facebook entry reports, Toronto Public Library is the world's busiest urban p (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:00:39 +0100 865029 http://www.lisnews.org/texas_teen_lit_festival_will_be_minus_several_authors UPDATE According to the Houston Observer, the scheduled festival has BEEN CANCELLED in its entirely, due to the number of participants who have chosen not to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Teen Lit Fest in Humble is a huge deal for renowned writers of young adult fiction and the kids they're writing for. Which is why it's a huge deal that half of the authors have dropped out of the January 2011 festival. It all started when an Humble ISD librarian complained to some influential parents about New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, who was scheduled to appear at the festival. (Hopkins writes about cheery subjects like drug addiction, suicide, and religious intolerance.) Houston Press reports. Those parents then allegedly bent the ear of Superintendent Guy Sconzo, who ordered another librarian to uninvite Hopkins -- even though she had already appeared at two of the festivals Humble-area high schools, without causing any of the teenagers to slit their wrists, become pregnant, or turn to prostitution to subsidize chronic substance-abuse problems. When fellow writer and invitee Pete Hautman heard about it, he decided to drop out of the festival, and, according to his blog three more writers have dropped out -- Melissa de la Cruz, Tara Lynn Childs and Matt de la Pena. More on this story from Galley Cat and entries from author Ellen Hopkins Live Journal. The Lit Festival's Facebook page appears to have been pulled. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:12:44 +0100 865590 http://lisnews.org/texas_teen_lit_festival_will_be_minus_several_authors UPDATE According to the Houston Observer, the scheduled festival has BEEN CANCELLED in its entirely, due to the number of participants who have chosen not to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Teen Lit Fest in Humble is a huge deal for renowned writers of young adult fiction and the kids they're writing for. Which is why it's a huge deal that half of the authors have dropped out of the January 2011 festival. It all started when an Humble ISD librarian complained to some influential parents about New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, who was scheduled to appear at the festival. (Hopkins writes about cheery subjects like drug addiction, suicide, and religious intolerance.) Houston Press reports. Those parents then allegedly bent the ear of Superintendent Guy Sconzo, who ordered another librarian to uninvite Hopkins -- even though she had already appeared at two of the festivals Humble-area high schools, without causing any of the teenagers to slit their wrists, become pregnant, or turn to prostitution to subsidize chronic substance-abuse problems. When fellow writer and invitee Pete Hautman heard about it, he decided to drop out of the festival, and, according to his blog three more writers have dropped out -- Melissa de la Cruz, Tara Lynn Childs and Matt de la Pena. More on this story from Galley Cat and entries from author Ellen Hopkins Live Journal. The Lit Festival's Facebook page appears to have been pulled. (Source: LISNews.org) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:12:44 +0100 865307 http://www.lisnews.org/banned_book_be_read_show_new_jersey Critics of a decision to pull a gay-themed book from two local libraries will stage a protest this weekend -- by reading aloud from the controversial work. Sunday's free show at a Cinnaminson theater marks the South Jersey debut of a theater group that supports the book, "Revolutionary Voices" an anthology of first-person pieces by gay youths. Brandon Monokian, a 23-year-old actor-director from Passaic County, formed the group after the book was ordered removed in May from the library at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly. That decision followed a citizen's complaint over the book's sexual content. "Revolutionary Voices," which won an award when it was published in 1990, also was removed this spring from the Burlington County Library. "This book is a valuable resource to youths who might have questions about their lives, and the fact that a small group of people could have it banned is upsetting," said Monokian, a Lumberton native and a 2005 graduate of Rancocas Valley. Here's an editorial from the South Brunswick Post in response to the book having been removed from both school and public libraries. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:54:41 +0100 865598 http://lisnews.org/banned_book_be_read_show_new_jersey Critics of a decision to pull a gay-themed book from two local libraries will stage a protest this weekend -- by reading aloud from the controversial work. Sunday's free show at a Cinnaminson theater marks the South Jersey debut of a theater group that supports the book, "Revolutionary Voices" an anthology of first-person pieces by gay youths. Brandon Monokian, a 23-year-old actor-director from Passaic County, formed the group after the book was ordered removed in May from the library at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly. That decision followed a citizen's complaint over the book's sexual content. "Revolutionary Voices," which won an award when it was published in 1990, also was removed this spring from the Burlington County Library. "This book is a valuable resource to youths who might have questions about their lives, and the fact that a small group of people could have it banned is upsetting," said Monokian, a Lumberton native and a 2005 graduate of Rancocas Valley. Here's an editorial from the South Brunswick Post in response to the book having been removed from both school and public libraries. (Source: LISNews.org) Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:54:41 +0100 865315 http://newpagesblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/ellen-hopkins-uninvited.html After being asked (a second time) to speak at the Teen Lit conference in Humble, TX - Ellen Hopkins (author of seven young adult novels) was "uninvited" to present. Numerous fellow authors (Pete Hautman, Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Peña, and Tera Lynn Childs) then declined to attend, standing united against censorship. (Source: NewPages Blog) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866570 http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/here-we-go-again-another-instance-of.html When I first saw the title of this post at Bookshelves of Doom-- "There is BIG trouble a'brewing in Humble, Texas"-- I knew I had to look it over. I pretty much had the reaction of "now what are the locals making a fuss about?" When I went over, and I read some of the links provided, I was able to say, "no big surprise." This is Texas, known for its intolerance when it comes to literacy and reading. The Bookninja, who mentioned the story simply had this comment to say: "People, it’s Texas… Why do you think?" I think that little snarky remark says it all. Now some Texans may want to say that not all their brethren behave that way, but overall the state is developing quite the reputation for being anti-education and anti-reading among other things. That a school librarian was instrumental in mobilizing three or four parents who think their will has to be imposed on everybody else did not surprise me that much either. I've had to deal with librarians who are, to put it politely, less than enlightened. The point I am trying to make is that when something like what is happening in Humble, TX comes out, I am not really surprised anymore. If anything, it does make me just a bit more ashamed that I live in Texas, a state that supposedly prides itself on its hospitality, friendliness, the fact that people are independent and self-reliant, not to mention its scenery. That the state has become yet another right wing sanctuary does create some concern.So, what is the issue? According to School Library Journal, which is linked in BoD above, "A handful of YA authors who were scheduled to attend the Humble ISD Libraries' Teen Lit Festival in Texas this January won't be going after all. Organizers uninvited writer Ellen Hopkins--and most of her fellow presenters withdrew to protest the censorship. ... Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866060 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/uyQRrwQXyuY/how-would-you-advance-online-free.html Cross-posted on the YouTube blog. There seems to be no hotter topic for discussion among Internet watchers these days than concerns over online free expression -- from the role of bloggers in advancing democratic movements, to sophisticated government censorship, to debates over how best to balance transparency with national security concerns. YouTube, Google and the Central European University will make our own contribution to the conversation at a major international conference we’re hosting in Budapest from September 20-22. We've invited grassroots activists, bloggers and vloggers from five continents, as well as representatives from NGOs, academia, industry and government to begin a long-term discussion about these issues and to form international working groups to promote practical change. But a conversation about online free expression would be nothing without contributions from you. From election protests to government whistleblowing to grassroots advocacy, we’ve seen YouTube users upload, watch and share stories that would’ve never received global attention before the Internet era. That's why we're inviting you to submit your own video that answers this question: "What's the biggest barrier to free expression on the Internet, and what would you do to overcome it?" You can go to our Moderator series here to submit ideas and videos and/or to vote on your favorite contributions from others around the world. Please participate by September 7, and we’ll showcase many of your responses at the conference in Budapest later in the month. We’ll also offer highlights from the dialogue on CitizenTube. Posted by Bob Boorstin, Public Policy, and Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics (Source: Official Google Blog) Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866224 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Box_Turtle_Bulletin_-_Advocates_Protest_NJ_Library_Censorship_with_--- Advocates Protest NJ Library Censorship with Public Reading. Jim Burroway. August 4th, 2010. In a follow-up to last week's story about the Burlington (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:00:35 +0100 864697 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Edmonton_911Truth_Censorship_of_a_major_911_Truth_figure_at_--- George W. Bush was speaking at the Shaw Conference center a few blocks away, But the good folks at Edmonton 911 Truth and Edmonton Small Press were p (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:00:28 +0100 864447 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Fire_Gail_Sweet_Censorship_in_a_New_Jersey_Library__Alone_and_--- Gail Sweet, Director of the Burlington County Library System, is apparently guilty of that most vile of library crimes: censorship. A New Jersey publ (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:00:39 +0100 864463 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Fighting_the_Censor_The_State_of_Censorship_in_Connecticut_Public_--- When considering the topic for my Masterâ ™s thesis, I knew one topic would be of utmost interest: censorship in Connecticut public libraries.Â... (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:00:33 +0100 864474 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=SafeLibraries_Et_tu_Mary_Minow_Then_Fall_Gail_Sweet I may have some sway as I am viewed as a "library watchdog," etc. My web site has been considered by Agence France-Presse as "a clearing house for in (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:00:21 +0100 864004 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=WILL_UNWOUND_190_ldquoMary_Jo_GodwinhellipLibrary_Herordquo_by_Will_Manley_--- and thank her directly for the courage she showed 20 years ago in sacrificing everything she had earned professionally to face down the scourge of ce (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:00:31 +0100 863726 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/01/observer-editorial-sex-writers If there's one thing worse than a lousy lover, it is a lousy describer of the act of loveWhy have writers retreated from the bedroom? Andrew Motion, Man Booker prize judge, believes the absence of lust in this year's crop of novels is because these days authors live in fear of appearing on the shortlist for that other annual literary gong, the Bad Sex Award.Certainly nowhere is a writer more exposed than in his description of the "grinding Hound" in his trousers (Norman Mailer) or the '"demon eel thrashing in his loins" (Paul Theroux). If there is one thing worse than a lousy lover, it is undoubtedly a lousy describer of the act of love.So maybe Motion is on to something – embarrassment now achieves what censorship used to, and the wise novelist makes his excuses and leaves well before any compromising situation can develop.Perhaps though, the answer is even more simple: just as Eskimos ultimately have a finite number of words for snow maybe, in our sex-obsessed culture, the lexicon of desire has reached its limits. How do I love thee? Even Shakespeare would have given up counting the ways sooner or later.Sexguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:11:01 +0100 863667 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/sex-british-novel-chatterley Fifty years after the Lady Chatterley obscenity trial gave novelists total freedom to explore love and lust, many are finding their sexual imaginations flaggingAndrew Motion, the former poet laureate, had the unenviable task of reading through 138 novels to help determine the longlist for this year's Booker prize, announced last week. Among his conclusions about the state of the British (and Commonwealth) novel was that no one was writing much about sex any more.He had a theory to explain this. "It's as if they were paranoid about being nominated for the Bad Sex Award," he said, referring to the Literary Review's annual giggle at the most purple description of carnality in the year's fiction. Motion, caricatured during his time in the laureateship as "Pelvic Motion" by the Daily Mail, noted with dismay that "there were a lot of people writing about taking drugs, as if that was a substitute for sex".Motion's remarks come almost exactly 50 years after the Lady Chatterley obscenity trial, covered for this newspaper by Kenneth Tynan, who characterised the celebrated battle for the authorial right to take up residence in the bedroom without the interference of the state as a battle between "life and death". Life was DH Lawrence's thrusting prose, death was the Macmillan government's case that such "filth" was not something "you would wish your wife, or servants to read".From the courtroom Tynan established the "crucial incident" of the trial in the following terms: "It occurred on the third morning during the testimony of Richard Hoggart," he observed, "who had called Lawrence's novel 'puritanical'. Mr Hoggart is a short, dark, young Midlands teacher of immense scholarship and fierce integrity. ... Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:05:07 +0100 863679 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Are_you_there_youth_It39s_me_Nikki-_quotThe_father_dog_and_the_--- If you want more info on the anti-censorship movement, check out Freedom to Read Foundation, started by the American Library Association. You can als (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:00:34 +0100 863561 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/jul/31/melodrama-national-theatre-southbank-cutouts The National Theatre is reviving the toy theatres popular in the 19th century to stage melodramas on an epic scale. Vera Rule, who adapted the old scripts, explains their historyMelodrama was first created in the 1790s. Technically, it was drama with music (melos), a novel background accompaniment that led emotion and mood as a score does in modern movies, but the name soon designated a new form of theatre, a fusion of high intentions and low entertainment into pop Romanticism.Before that, only legitimate royal theatres had been licensed in European capitals to stage proper drama, with censor-vetted dialogue, before persons of quality. All other attractions, for example, fairground booths (such as Richardson's tent, where Edmund Kean learned his business in the flare of vats of burning fat), had to find amusements that didn't infringe the regulations – song, ballet, mime, rope-dancing, stilt-walking, fights or animal acts. London audiences – straying gentry, relaxing workmen and trade families – began to take short walks out of town to experimental venues, the closest being beyond the south bank of the Thames. To London Bridge was added Westminster Bridge in 1750; then Blackfriars, 1769, and Waterloo, 1817, and on the other side of them were pleasure places, such as Philip Astley's enclosure, where he gave displays of horsemanship and later upgraded it to an "amphitheatre", with circus acts. The name "circus", however, was the property of Astley's rival, Charles Dibdin, who adapted a riding school into the Royal Circus, which evolved through burnings down and buildings up into the Surrey Theatre. A third transpontine house, the Royal Coburg (still with us as the Old Vic) was added later.The paying bums on their multiplying seats demanded spectacular scenery made visible by lighting improvements (reliable oil lamps, then gas) and special effects: trapdoors, projections and fireworks. ... Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:06:19 +0100 863505 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6277 BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * Wendy Seltzer, "Jailbreaking Copyright's Scope." * Facebook caper? Jonathan Zittrain holsters his pitchfork. * Facebook privacy settings? danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai ask, "Who cares?" * Peace on Facebook? Ethan Zuckerman tries to do the math. * Dan Gillmor's initial comments on the WikiLeaks "Afghanistan diary." * Weekly Global Voices: "Côte d'Ivoire: Journalists accused of document theft are freed" * Herdict on court-ordered filtering in Russia. * CMLP on the FTC's defense of its Blogger Endorsement Guidelines. * Radio Berkman 160: "Business, Meet Web" * Doc Searls' belated eulogy for Ricochet. * David Weinberger imagines a software-defined radio future. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The full buzz. "A bit late for the rule’s “triennial” cycle, the Librarian of Congress has released the sec 1201(a)(1)(C) exceptions from the prohibitions on circumventing copyright access controls. For the next three years, people will not be ” circumventing” if they “jailbreak” or unlock their smartphones, remix short portions of motion pictures on DVD (if they are college and university professors or media students, documentary filmmakers, or non-commercial video-makers), research the security of videogames, get balky obsolete dongled programs to work, or make an ebook read-aloud. (I wrote about the hearings more than a year ago, when the movie studios demoed camcording a movie — that didn’t work to stop the exemption. ... Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:25:00 +0100 863531 http://www.lisnews.org/google_search_engine_blocked_china Google said it was the first time the site had been blocked since March. Full story in the NYT: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/google-search-engine-is-blocked-in-china/?ref=techn... (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:17:01 +0100 863826 http://lisnews.org/google_search_engine_blocked_china Google said it was the first time the site had been blocked since March. Full story in the NYT: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/google-search-engine-is-blocked-in-china/?ref=techn... (Source: LISNews.org) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:17:01 +0100 863425 http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/30/singapore-british-author-alan-shadrake The trial of Alan Shadrake for criticising the death penalty has damaged Singapore's standingSingapore's long-serving administration has won some time to ponder how it will deal with yet another self-inflicted blow to its global branding.The reprieve came as a Singapore court today postponed a case against the British author Alan Shadrake for three weeks.Shadrake, 75, faces contempt of court charges, after Singapore's Media Development Authority lodged a police report on 16 July against his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which criticises the application of the death penalty. Published in neighbouring Malaysia, the book has sparked a criminal defamation investigation against the author in Singapore.Shadrake rejected an offer of mitigation in exchange for an apology at today's contempt of court hearing and said he would fight on. This means more reputation damage is in store for the People's Action Party administration in the weeks ahead.Local groups and international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders have criticised the decision to prosecute the author.News agencies, websites, blogs and social network sites are carrying news about the case around the globe and putting a sharp focus on censorship in Singapore.The Shadrake affair comes as a Malaysian, Yong Vui Kong, faces execution next month for a drug-related offence committed when he was 19. The Malaysian foreign ministry, under pressure from the public, has written to the Singapore government to plead clemency for Yong, now 22.Meanwhile, the British embassy in Singapore has chosen to play the Shadrake affair low key, opting to give the author quiet support without issuing public statements.The timing of the two incidents has regalvanised a small group of activists and bloggers. ... Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:14:25 +0100 863352 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=MadChatter I was also active in the Wisconsin Library Association and librarians from around the state were contacting the principal with their concerns. I was (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:00:35 +0100 863255 http://www.teleread.com/2010/07/29/copyright-monopoly-and-misconceptions/ Copyright is one of the legal theories that tends to come up most often in connection with e-books. The ease of copying digital data, coupled with laws against breaking decryption on that data, have generated a controversy that has been going on for at least twelve years now and shows no signs of stopping. Yet there are quite a few misconceptions about copyright that tend to persist, and it’s time to try to clear some of them up. (Again.) Copyright is a monopoly. By which I don’t mean to say that publishing is a monopoly, though some people might still look askance at the Big Six or Agency Five with that point of view in terms of the recent Agency Pricing controversy. No, copyright itself is a monopoly—a government-granted monopoly over the publishing of certain works. “But we own those works,” copyright holders might protest. “Of course we have a ‘monopoly’ over them!” They might find this to be obvious, in much the same way people poked fun at Amazon’s strangely-worded “capitulation” to Macmillan in the first few days after Amazon yanked Macmillan’s print titles. But as much as people snorted at Amazon’s complaint that Macmillan had a “monopoly over their own titles,” it does have that monopoly—but only because, thanks to copyright law, the government says that Macmillan is the only one with the rights to publish those particular works, due to its agreement with the original copyright holders (the authors). Likewise, copyright holders only “own” their works because the government says they do, not from any property inherent in the works themselves. If it weren’t for those laws, anyone could publish anything with impunity. (As US publishers did with foreign authors’ books, in the 19th century when the US didn’t recognize other nations’ copyrights. ... Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:57:07 +0100 863297 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/d7dUf8DsXMM/ Copyright is one of the legal theories that tends to come up most often in connection with e-books. The ease of copying digital data, coupled with laws against breaking decryption on that data, have generated a controversy that has been going on for at least twelve years now and shows no signs of stopping. Yet there are quite a few misconceptions about copyright that tend to persist, and it’s time to try to clear some of them up. (Again.) Copyright is a monopoly. By which I don’t mean to say that publishing is a monopoly, though some people might still look askance at the Big Six or Agency Five with that point of view in terms of the recent Agency Pricing controversy. No, copyright itself is a monopoly—a government-granted monopoly over the publishing of certain works. “But we own those works,” copyright holders might protest. “Of course we have a ‘monopoly’ over them!” They might find this to be obvious, in much the same way people poked fun at Amazon’s strangely-worded “capitulation” to Macmillan in the first few days after Amazon yanked Macmillan’s print titles. But as much as people snorted at Amazon’s complaint that Macmillan had a “monopoly over their own titles,” it does have that monopoly—but only because, thanks to copyright law, the government says that Macmillan is the only one with the rights to publish those particular works, due to its agreement with the original copyright holders (the authors). Likewise, copyright holders only “own” their works because the government says they do, not from any property inherent in the works themselves. If it weren’t for those laws, anyone could publish anything with impunity. (As US publishers did with foreign authors’ books, in the 19th century when the US didn’t recognize other nations’ copyrights. ... Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:57:07 +0100 863229 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Box_Turtle_Bulletin_-_NJ_Library_Removes_LGBT_Book_Calling_It_--- A key player in circumventing the formal process appears to be Patrick Delany, a member of the library commission. He has also been identified by the (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:00:56 +0100 863036 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=39Yes_Men39_Use_BitTorrent_To_Avoid_Censorship_-_Infoshop_News 'Yes Men' Use BitTorrent To Avoid Censorship. Authored by: Admin on Monday, July 26 2010 @ 06:26 PM UTC. I'm hoping to dig some stuff out and give to (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:00:39 +0100 862871 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/JTHsaeRRJHM/ It seems as though Apple has been doing this sort of thing so often that it’s hard to call it “news” anymore, but a Telegraph article reports that four erotica titles mysteriously vanished from the iBookstore best-seller chart after The Times asked how the chart was compiled. Erotica titles have been among the e-book industry’s best-sellers ever since they were being read on 160×160 LCD Palm Pilot screens. Philip Stone, charts editor for The Bookseller magazine, told The Times: “The embarrassment factor of being caught reading something like that in print is not there. If it’s on your iPad then no one can tell what you’re reading. You could be reading Plato.” In February, Apple purged over 5,000 explicit apps from its app store, under a pretext of not wanting that kind of content in its walled garden. This led to some speculation on how the company would treat e-book erotica. I guess now we know. (Found via The Bookseller.) Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:27:30 +0100 862558 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Infowars-com_Censored_in_Greece_%AB_Truthwillrise39s_Weblog "Prisonplanet.com is still accessible, but it's only a matter of time before the Greek censors notice attention has shifted to that website, and move (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:00:23 +0100 862584 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/26/poetry-usa Key figure in the US 1960s countercultureTuli Kupferberg, who has died aged 86 after a long illness, was a key figure in the US countercultural campaign of the 1960s. As a publisher, poet, pacifist, singer and songwriter, he used his talents for writing and humour to attack the perceived repressions of his nation and its escalating military activities in south-east Asia.As part of that anti-war strategy, Kupferberg combined Beat writing sensibilities, folk whimsy and electric rock'n'roll in the Fugs, the band that he formed in 1964 with fellow activist Ed Sanders. The group took their name from the toned-down expletive that Norman Mailer had been forced to adopt in his 1948 novel The Naked and the Dead to sidestep the true language of the Pacific front.Born in New York and later a student at the city's Brooklyn College, Kupferberg got a job as a medical librarian, but submitted poetry and prose to publications including the Village Voice. He would go on to create poetry magazines of his own and one of them, Birth, founded in 1958, provided a home to work by numerous Beat writers of reputation – Diane DiPrima and Allen Ginsberg included. By then, Kupferberg had already been mythologised as part of the bohemian Greenwich Village community. He was the celebrated character, mentioned in Ginsberg's long poem of 1956, Howl, who "jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually happened and walked away unknown and forgotten".At a time when youth appeared to be ascribed a value above any material commodity, Kupferberg, who was already into his 40s, crept under the demographic radar to become a part of that frenetic scene which took on the establishment and its increasingly discredited politics. ... Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:38:02 +0100 862347 http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-bows-to-chinas-censorship-demands-20100721-10jx5.html (Source: Library Link of the Day) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0100 862225 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=MM_ROMANCE_NOVELS_--_Gay_censorship_--_the_slippery_slope_to_gay_--- Loeb Classical Library. 1921. 544. NEW COMPLETE WORKS OF JOSEPHUS, THE. Maier, Paul L. (Commentary). Kregel Academic & Professional. 1999. Grand Rapi (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:00:26 +0100 862261 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Zombies_censorship_and_forbidden_films_%AB_Arts__State_Library_of_--- For a deeper understanding of the history of controversial film cuts and exhibitions this side of the globe, Film censorship in Australia, available (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:00:28 +0100 862055 http://www.lisnews.org/new_jersey_aclu_open_records_requests_show_book_removal_decisions_history New Jersey ACLU open records requests show book removal decisions history The New Jersey ACLU filed an open records request and uncovered some email documents at libraries that have removed Revolutionary Voices from their shelves. An active censorship campaign is underway in New Jersey, to remove a book entitled Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie, an anthology of literature and art recommended by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Alliance. A conservative group told the Philadelphia Inquirer l that the book, which contains some sexually explicit material, is "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate.” (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:20:04 +0100 862107 http://lisnews.org/new_jersey_aclu_open_records_requests_show_book_removal_decisions_history New Jersey ACLU open records requests show book removal decisions history The New Jersey ACLU filed an open records request and uncovered some email documents at libraries that have removed Revolutionary Voices from their shelves. An active censorship campaign is underway in New Jersey, to remove a book entitled Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie, an anthology of literature and art recommended by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Alliance. A conservative group told the Philadelphia Inquirer l that the book, which contains some sexually explicit material, is "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate.” (Source: LISNews.org) Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:20:04 +0100 861942 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Marshall_Missouri_ndash_Wikipedia_the_free_encyclope__03watchs177 [edit] Censorship debateIn October 2006, a resident of Marshall attempted to have the graphic novels Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Blankets by Craig (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:00:28 +0100 861838 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/jul/24/david-baddiel-from-standup-to-saul-bellow He's traded the one-liners for novels and screenplays, but while he can't stop telling jokes – about being a Jew or a bloke – writing has helped him find peaceSay what you like about David Baddiel but you can't say he's lacking in ambition. Take the novel to which he's currently putting the finishing touches. "It was sort of inspired, a bit, by the death of Saul Bellow. And the character is a kind of slightly deliberately absurd, um …" – a pause, a testing of the water to see if he can get away with such a long word and not sound too pretentious – "concatenation of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Updike, Norman Mailer, Arthur Koestler."The Death of Eli Gold is "about the idea of the Great Man, and how I think that is dying. That notion of men who could live their lives in the most brutal way possible, especially towards women – also children, to some extent – because their greatness excused everything. A way of living life, in which, essentially, greatness allows your dick to do what it likes"; a way of living in which being able to have sex with whoever you want becomes, he says, paraphrasing a line from a review of Updike by David Foster Wallace, the cure for existential despair. "Men now can't live like that, which I think is a good thing, but the cost of it is that I think unalloyed greatness is gone in our culture. So the book is about those blokes, and that type of masculinity."This kind of masculinity is an abiding preoccupation of those literary greats he sees as enacting it, and for Baddiel: throughout his career he has poked and prodded and laughed at or with the idea of a grubby, defiant sort of post-feminist masculinity. ... Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:00:44 +0100 861920 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/24/tom-mccarthy-futurists-novels-technology Writers have long been fascinated by machinery – what it gives and what it takes away. Tom McCarthy, whose experimental work has been hailed as the future of fiction, charts literature's complicated relationship with technology, at once beautiful and menacingThere's a scene in Don Quixote where the deluded would-be knight is listening to fulling mills. This is not the famous windmill scene: in that one, the machines are clearly visible; this one, by contrast, takes place in pitch-black night. Quixote, struck by the mills' rhythmic metallic clankings, persuades himself that they are the half-articulated groans and snarls of monsters. He's wrong, of course: they're mills. But then again, perhaps, in the way madmen sometimes are, he's right. Just maybe, in the looping chains of broken syllables, the clashing metre of compounded phonemes, he's picking up a message, a weak signal slowly forming in time's static: an announcement, for those astute enough to hear, of a monstrous age of mechanised industry lurking in the night of the future.For centuries, literature has been haunted by technology. When Blake shudders in fearful awe before the tiger, don't be fooled into thinking that he's contemplating nature. What the animal, a product of "hammer", "chain", "furnace" and "anvil", really represents is the industrial revolution. Blake, like Quixote, grappled with dark satanic mills. His contemporary Mary Shelley also created monsters from machines: her Frankenstein, our culture's most enduring parable of technology gone haywire, was written largely in response to the replacement of human textile workers with automated looms, and the subsequent torching of cotton mills by Luddite armies of the newly unemployed. Mills again: perhaps it's no coincidence that they crop up so often. ... Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:06:19 +0100 861752 http://blog.librarylaw.com/files/rancocasvhspluscommentary.pdf The New Jersey ACLU filed an open records request and uncovered some email documents at libraries that have removed Revolutionary Voices from their shelves.An active censorship campaign is underway in New Jersey, to remove a book entitled Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie, an anthology of literature and art recommended by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Alliance. A conservative group told the Philadelphia Inquirer l that the book, which contains some sexually explicit material, is "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate.” The book has been removed from two libraries. The Rancocas Valley Regional High School received a formal challenge, convened a review committee pursuant to its established policies, and voted to take the book off its shelves.  The challenge at the high school attracted international attention. http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/05/10/13897071.html, and the local chapter of the ACLU investigated. The ACLU found that a public library had also received an informal complaint from the same individual, that staff recommended removal, and that the library commission also voted to remove the title. In contrast, the library did not appear to follow its own policies for handling challenges of controversial materials. The open records documents (see below) show that the reasoning for taking the book off the shelves is because it is "child pornography." The ACLU has asked other regional libraries whether they have similarly removed the volume from their collections and, if so, whether they followed their deselection policies. A second school library is missing the title, and at present is not replacing it. The take-home message for libraries, especially public institutions, is that book removal policies are immensely important. ... Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:50:38 +0100 862150 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Emerald__Library_Review__Selection_or_censorship_libraries_and_--- ... the critical aspects and the differences between selection and censorship. Emphasizes the importance of having and following board-approved poli (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 861698 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Term_Paper_on_Miedia_Censorship__EssayDepot-com Censorship In Public Schools: Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, which was the first school library censorship case to reach the Supreme (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 861423 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Drugs_Death_Censorship_and_Singapore_Bryan_Caplan__EconLog_--- All opinions expressed on EconLog reflect those of the author or individual commenters, and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of th (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 861154 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=The_Little_Big_Picture_Fahrenheit_451_Harry_Potter_Green_Day_--- I didn't even read HP back then, but the calls to ban it from my local library bothered me. When I was a little older, about 11, I think, my mom had (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 860870 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Newspapers_in_Libraries__Librarians_who_LibraryThing__LibraryThing Censorship is a huge issue in the US library community and I suspect everywhere else that claims to be a "free" society. Not including a particular p (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 860688 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/singapore-british-arrest-alan-shadrake Alan Shadrake held for alleged criminal defamation and other offences after visiting Singapore for book launchA veteran British journalist and author promoting his book on the death penalty in Singapore was arrested in the country today for alleged criminal defamation and other offences.Alan Shadrake's arrest came two days after Singapore's Media Development Authority lodged a police report. The Foreign Office in London said it was seeking more information from local authorities.The 75-year-old's latest book, Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock, contains accounts of high-profile cases in Singapore involving the use of the death penalty, and includes interviews with a former executioner, Darshan Singh. Published by a Malaysian company, the book was first released in Malaysia.Death penalty opponents who helped to organise the Singapore launch were told by police that no bail had yet been set for Shadrake, whose passport has been impounded.Last week one of Singapore's biggest book retailers, Kinokuniya, withdrew the book from its shelves after it was contacted by the Media Development Authority, which controls censorship in Singapore, according to the Asian Correspondent website.In publicity material for the book, Margaret John, from Amnesty International Canada, described it as "a timely contribution to growing criticism of Singapore's shameful use of the death penalty".Shadrake attracted the attention of authorities in Singapore in 2005 when he revealed the identity of Singh shortly before he executed an Australian drug trafficker, Nguyen Van Tuong. The case, a cause célèbre in Australia, led to friction between the Australian and Singaporean governments.Singapore has a reputation for taking tough legal action against what it sees as unfair criticism. In March last year a judge found a Wall Street Journal senior editor, Melanie Kirkpatrick, in contempt of court for allegedly impugning the independence of Singapore's judiciary. ... Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:20:20 +0100 860537 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Line_Upon_Line_Census_Consensus_and_Censorship Several of Dr. Ketchum's books are in my library, and I find a common denominator throughout. He is very thorough in his research and in his writing. (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:00:28 +0100 860491 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/18/peter-mandelson-third-man-memoirs His memoirs reveal a Machiavelli who usually succeeded only in doing himself inIn the film noir starring Orson Welles from which the title of this book is stolen, the action takes place in Vienna and "The Third Man" is a criminal schemer who betrays his friends and operates in the sewers before coming to a deservedly bad end. By choosing this title, the publishers have tricked the author and are trying to dupe the public by suggesting that Peter Mandelson is just the same as Harry Lime. This book is not set in Vienna.Many fabrications have been spun around him over the years, myths that were created by both journalists and himself. The most fabulously overblown was his reputation as a brilliant sorcerer, "the Prince of Darkness", that soubriquet he once claimed to loathe but then embraced as a tribute to his skill with the dark arts. For sure, he tried to manipulate. His opening line is a sort of boast that he "once embodied New Labour's reputation for spin and control freakery". He was a plotter, but a rather useless one. This Machiavelli usually succeeded only at doing in himself. Without quite being conscious of it, this book depicts a great schemer for whom nothing went to plan.The original goal, one seeded in childhood, was to be a respected politician of the first rank. The most authentic section of an often untrustworthy book is the second chapter. It tells the story of his upbringing in Hampstead Garden Suburb in the presence of great men. Tony Blair once said he was not born into the Labour party; he chose it. With Peter Mandelson, it was the other way round. He was not only born into the tribe, his veins ran with the blood of Labour royalty. His mother's father was Herbert Morrison, home secretary in Churchill's wartime cabinet, and later deputy prime minister and foreign secretary in the post-war Labour government. Harold and Mary Wilson were near neighbours. ... Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:05:44 +0100 860273 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Interesting_but_not_too_Interesting---_Censorship started flipping through one of the books I recently picked up at the library and found that some kind (read: crazy) soul had carefully cut out mini (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:00:26 +0100 860243 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Playwrights_Define_Censorship__American_Libraries_Magazine The alliance of 50 national nonprofit organizations, including the American Library Association, is united in the conviction that freedom of thought, (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:00:24 +0100 859955 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=What_is_the_freest_country_for_literature__Home_Aid_Blog Also I don't think it's America because 1984 has been pulled from my public library shelf and there are some others that are not there too. Also the (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 859688 http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/e324584c-b565-4896-b8b3-610715bc0e54/1/doc/06-1760-ag_opn2.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/e324584c-b565-4896-b8b3-610715bc0e54/1/hilite/ Quick interview with Newton Minow, who joined an amicus brief on behalf of the broadcasters against the FCC. Minow is a former chair of the FCC. Mary Minow:   What inspired you to join the brief in the case of Fox Television et al v. Federal Communications Commission? Newton Minow:  Henry Geller, who is an expert in these matters and who served at the FCC as General Counsel when I was there, called my attention to this case. I respect his judgment and I studied it. I concluded that the FCC went too far. When it made a rule against fleeting expletives, that is, spontaneous unrehearsed live statements, I thought they’d gone much too far. Mary Minow: Did you have any hesitation in going against the Commission that you  chaired under President Kennedy? Newton Minow: Yes I did. This rule was put in years ago when Michael Powell was Chair of the FCC, under George W. Bush.  For this amicus, a group of former FCC commissioners and staff joined together. We were Democrats, Republicans, a diverse group. All had the interest in changing this law. We said at the beginning of the brief that we all had different views, but on this one subject we all agreed.  I, myself, was particularly offended with the FCC fined a PBS station for a respected drama, for what it considered bad language. ["The Blues: Godfathers and Sons," a documentary by filmmaker Martin Scorsese that contained profanity.] Mary Minow: You are a crusader for decency in television when it comes to children. [Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television and the First Amendment, coauthored with Craig LaMay] Yet you joined the side against the FCC, which was trying to shield children. How do you explain that? Newton Minow:  I want two things. I want children to be protected, and I also want the First Amendment. ... Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:16:38 +0100 860438 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/14/google-roundup-google-maps-in-british-columbia-digital-humanities-grants-new-fiber-for-communities-site-and-more/ + Google Earth and Maps: As You Consider Giving Away Your Authoritative Data… A story from British Columbia. (via Adena Schutzberg at All Points Blog) + Google Confronts Map Censorship (via Information Week) + Google and the Digital Humanities (via Inside Higher Ed) $479,000 Divided Between 12 Proposals. A list of the winning proposals and more background in this Google Research Blog Post. + How To: Install Google Web Apps in Google Chrome (via Google Operating System) + comScore: Google Loses Search Share to Yahoo, Microsoft’s Bing (via PCMag.com) + Google is trying out multiple account sign in for some users + Google Launches ‘Fiber for Communities’ Site (via PCMag.com) (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:02:34 +0100 859680 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Official_U-S-W-G-O-_Blog_Aussie_Net_Censorship_Filter_On_Backburner "Under Australia's existing classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies; it is not on library shelves. You cannot watch (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:00:34 +0100 859380 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Bulgaria_Online_library_smashed_by_police-TorrentFreak_%AB_FACT_--- FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand. กลุ่มเสรีภาพต่อต้านการเซ็นเซอร์แห่งประเทศไทย ... Chitanka.info was an online library that indexed both lo (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:00:22 +0100 858997 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/np0NKinsRxI/ We’ve covered the saga of David Carnoy’s self-published novel Knife Music quite a bit over the last couple of years. One of the first controversial instances of “app store censorship”, the book was originally rejected from the app store due to a single instance of “the f-word” until Carnoy replaced the word and resubmitted it. More recently, an iPhone appbook containing the first half of the book was released with the obscenity intact, as a sample for the professionally-published hardcover which is coming out soon. Now Carnoy has an essay on Publishing Perspectives talking about his experiences with the book and his decision to self-publish. He writes that the controversy of Apple’s rejection, followed by the second controversy of the heat he took for his self-censorship, helped considerably. [T]he app shot to #7 in the free book apps category, right after the Bible. It was doing 1,000 downloads a week. And what that did was create awareness for the book. Yes, I sold a decent amount of paperbacks (about 1,000 in four and half months) but I was doing better with the Kindle version, which I priced at $3.99. I think that’s a perfect price for newbie authors. I was selling close to 400 Kindle books a month and hit number #1 in the legal thriller category. Remember, this was in the early days of the device (early 2009), when not as many people had them and Grisham wasn’t available digitally. Carnoy thinks that appbooks will slowly disappear now that iBooks has arrived, but thinks they still make sense for multimedia books such as children’s books or graphic novels. He did an app consisting of the first half of the book as a workaround because iBooks, Kindle, and Nook would not allow posting samples as lengthy as he wanted for his book. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:58:13 +0100 858960 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=BF77008_Library_wars_1_Love_and_War In response the Provincial Governments created the Library Forces to fight the censorship and protect their libraries. In this near future Manga the (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:00:23 +0100 858793 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/rnHIW8C8o-k/3024-googles-china-victory.html China renews Google’s licence for operating in mainland China. When Google decided to give the Chinese authorities an ultimatum by stopping censoring Chinese search results, many observers thought they were mad. It looked like they were abandoning the world biggest market. Google must have known that the Chinese Communist Party will not give up on censorship. This is, after all, partly what keeps them in power. We guess Google knew as much. But the Chinese hacker attack on Google’s servers told them that they had to draw the line somewhere, and for the “Do no evil” company all this censorship was damaging for both morale and image. So when the Chinese refused to give in, they redirected the google.cn search engine to the Hong Kong version of Google. Hong Kong is outside the normal Chinese jurisdiction, due to its colonial past. Google now risked losing the google.cn domain altogether. As the Financial Times says: “Without the licence, it seemed likely Google would end up closing all its operations in China.” Google reached out a hand. It stopped redirecting search results directly. Instead it put up a separate page, where mainland China users had to click on a link to get to the Hong Kong results. This didn’t make much of a difference in real terms. Google continued to lead Chinese searchers to uncensored results in Hong Kong, but it gave the Chinese authorities a way to save face. The Chinese took it. Google’s licence and Chinese domain name has been renewed. Google can still market many of its services in China. This especially applies to non-search products and services, like the Chrome OS and the Android mobile phone operating system. For the Chinese a complete Google withdrawal would be a publicity disaster. The country is trying actively to attract foreign high tech companies. ... Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:52:13 +0100 859615 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Library_fines_are_the_least_of_her_problems_hellip_Toshokan_Sensou_--- In the midst of this seemingly dark setting, we meet Iku Kasahara, a young girl who was inspired to join the resistance against censorship by an expe (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:00:27 +0100 858570 http://infobib.de/blog/2010/07/11/geheimwissenschaft-astronomie/ Einen spannenden Fall von fehlgeschlagener Geheimnistuerei hat Jean-Claude Bradley im Blog Useful Chemistry beschrieben, die er wiederum Alan Boyles Buch The case for Pluto entnahm. Hintergrund ist die Entdeckung des Zwergplaneten Haumea. Die Kurzfassung der Geschichte ist in Wikipedia dokumentiert: Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo und David Rabinowitz vom California Institute of Technology fanden das Objekt am 28. Dezember 2004 am Palomar-Observatorium. Die Arbeitsgruppe um Mike Brown benutzte für das Objekt die inoffizielle Arbeitsbezeichnung „Santa“. Wegen der Veröffentlichung der Entdeckung von Haumea (ex. 2003 EL61) durch die spanischen Astronomen gab die Gruppe um Brown die Entdeckung der beiden noch größeren transneptunischen Objekte (136199) Eris (ex. 2003 UB313, Xena) und (136472) Makemake (ex. 2005 FY9) nur wenige Stunden später auf einer Pressekonferenz bekannt. Brown und seine Gruppe erkannten zunächst Ortiz et al. als Erstentdecker von (136108) Haumea an, bis sich herausstellte, dass Ortiz et al. auf öffentlich im Internet zugängliche Teleskop-Logdaten der Gruppe um Brown zugegriffen hatte, bevor die Gruppe um Ortiz die Entdeckung bekannt machte. Während der Vorwurf im Raum stand, dass die spanische Gruppe das Objekt erst mit Hilfe dieser Daten auf ihren Aufnahmen aus dem Jahr 2003 aufgefunden hat, beteuerte Ortiz, nur überprüft zu haben, ob es sich bei dem unter dem Arbeitsnamen K40506A angekündigten Objekt von Brown et. al. um den gleichen Himmelskörper gehandelt habe, den seine Gruppe unabhängig davon gefunden hatte. Browns Gruppe warf daraufhin der Gruppe um Ortiz einen Verstoß gegen die Regeln der Wissenschaftsethik vor und verlangte vom Minor Planet Center (MPC), Ortiz et al. den Status der Erstentdecker abzuerkennen. ... Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:00:47 +0100 858881 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Song_of_Solomon_Prevails_in_Franklin_Township_%AB_Blogging_Censorship National Coalition Against Censorship: Joshua Olesker and Joan Bertin…You are the best! This organization has worked with me from very early in the p (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 10 Jul 2010 07:00:23 +0100 858351 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/07/09/weeklings-i-mean-monthlings-from-first-editions-to-e-readers-to-fox-news-chicago/ It’s been so long since I wrote a Weeklings that this is really a Monthlings–and that’s being charitable. Here are a few of the things I’ve read recently that have lodged in my brain…due to the length of this post, I have introduced subject headings. First Editions Much as I covet first editions, I only own a few of them, none of them particularly valuable. So I can really appreciate Christopher Howse when he writes that “Collecting First Editions Is a Kind of Madness” (Telegraph): That is another symptom of book madness: valuable copies are the ones nobody has read. It is like taking your shoes off when it rains. Nothing spoils a book like reading it. Ralph Gardner Jr., however, sees little harm in “Reaching for That First-Edition High” (Wall Street Journal): If I took the same interest in controlled substances that I do in books, I’d probably be in some 12-step program. Fortunately, while books are habit-forming they remain legal and there’s no evidence, no matter how musty, that they’re bad for the health. The iPad and Other E-Readers I read far too many stories about the iPad and so I must include a few here. But first, a brief article about my very favorite technological medium, the LP. Seems “a very brave or very stupid young man” is releasing audiobooks on vinyl (”Books on Vinyl Records: Alive to the Pleasures of Rabbiting On,” by Sukhdev Sandhu, Telegraph). Says the young man: “The MP3 has an alien digital gloss. It’s streamlined, corporate, like a mainline train station. Listening to a short story on vinyl is the purest antidote to that. It’s more immersive. It heightens engagement.”   All right, on to the iPad. A poorly headlined article reports that, according to a recent study, “Reading on tablet is slower vs. printed book” (MSNBC.com). ... Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:45:16 +0100 858661 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/09/china-googles-license-to-opearate-renewed/ From a BBC Post: “We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP (internet content provider) licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China,” Google’s lawyer David Drummond said an e-mailed statement. More from Bloomberg/BusinessWeek Google risked getting expelled from the world’s largest Internet market after the government objected to the practice that was adopted in March. The operator of the world’s most-used search engine earlier said in January it was no longer willing to comply with Chinese government regulations for Web sites to self-censor content. [Clip] Google said last week it added a link to its unfiltered Hong Kong site on the google.cn homepage, instead of directing users automatically, and submitted a revised license application to the government based on the practice. That allows the company to “stay true” to a commitment not to self-censor search results in China while adhering to local law, Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said at the time. [Snip] Google’s market share in China fell to 30.9 percent in the first quarter from 35.6 percent three months prior, according to data from research firm Analysys International. Baidu’s share increased to a record 64 percent from 58.4 percent, according to Analysys. Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch estimated in April Google would generate $160 million in sales this year from China. That’s less than 1 percent of the company’s projected total revenue this year, according to the average of 29 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. It earned sales of about $335 million from China in 2009, according to Analysys. Access the Complete Article from Bloomberg/Newsweek See Also: A New Ten Item Roundup of Google News Posted Thursday Night (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:57:04 +0100 858211 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=MOS_DEF_ON_REAL_TIME_WIT_BILL_MAHER__NewShid And how does "tcetcetc, censorship etcetcetc" constitute some kind of counter argument? Does the library censor CNN or ABC or FOX news websites from (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:00:29 +0100 858044 http://infobib.de/blog/2010/07/08/mobile-web-apps-statt-nativer-apps-fur-smartphones/ Chris Cameron erläutert bei ReadWriteWeb, warum es attraktiver ist, Web-Dienste zu entwickeln statt Apps für spezielle Plattformen (z.B. Android oder iOS). The first is the simplicity of the coding itself. [...] Developers can use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create Web apps instead of learning new languages to code native applications. Schon die Programmierung wird für viele Bibliotheken ein KO-Kriterium sein, dass plattformspezifische Apps fast unmöglich macht. Secondly [...], the mobile Web market is much larger than native applications markets. Kurz: Welche Plattform auch immer, ins Web kann man auf allen. Also viele Fliegen mit einer Klappe. The third and possibly most important reason developers should be attracted to mobile Web apps is that the Web is an open platform. Developers don’t have to spend weeks on an application only to see it rejected for increasingly strange reasons. Steve Jobs can’t censor the Web like he can the iPhone, and there is no waiting for applications to be approved. Für mich persönlich ausschlaggebend, für Bibliotheken vielleicht nicht. Wobei es durchaus denkbar ist, dass die eine oder andere Bibliothek Inhalte anbieten könnte, die im Jobschen Sinne moralisch zweifelhaft sind. (Source: Infobib) Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:05:35 +0100 858883 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Militant_Libertarian_-_Internet_Censorship_A_Litmus_Test_for_Freedom In a statement e-mailed to Time Magazine, Stephen Conroy's office defended its actions by writing, "Under Australia's existing [laws] this material i (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:00:34 +0100 857781 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Google_applies_to_keep_Chinese_license_but_censorship_stalemate_--- Google applies to keep Chinese license, but censorship stalemate remains. Google's move Tuesday to assuage China by severing a direct Internet link (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:00:24 +0100 857563 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Internet_censorship_gathers_pace_%AB_Case_about_Bird_Flu Internet censorship is expanding by stealth across numerous private and public network hubs. We routinely receive emails from visitors alarmed at the (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:00:49 +0100 857422 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Melbourne_Rally_Against_Internet_Censorship_AUS_ACMA_Blacklist_--- Sorry to those who were missed" Dan aka Free Internet Protest Australia Location: State Library Victoria Date: Saturday December 13th 2008 (this is t (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:00:30 +0100 857131 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=ENOUGH_ROOM_Obama_Regime_Censoring_News Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population- we'd all (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:00:27 +0100 856956 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=My_Library_Lady_Gutman_on_Censorship We can't keep kids from growing up by censoring what they read. We are the safe haven--the school library--where they go to find information and trus (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:00:23 +0100 856736 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6237 BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * David Weinberger live-blogs Lewis Hyde's talk on a durable commons. * Harry Lewis hears alarm bells in Golan v. Holder. * Future of the Internet rounds up the week's developments. * OpenNet Initiative on Afghanistan's Internet filtering. * Doc Searls is having mobile phone trouble, in France. * Dan Gillmor finds Google retreating in China. * Christian Sandvig, "STS insider," struggles with his theoretical contribution. * CMLP sees Net exceptionalism in Viacom v. YouTube. * Weekly Global Voices: "Angola: Once Upon a Time in Roque Santeiro" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The full buzz. "Lewis Hyde is giving a Berkman talk on his new book, Common as Air (Aug 17). He says a commons is a social regime for managing some collectively held resource. The idea comes from the idea of shared property. They worked because they were stinted: ruled for limited use, e.g., you can take wood from trees but only up to a certain height, you could pasture only a limited number of cattle and only if you’re a land owner. So, if you were thinking about cultural commons today, how would you stint them? And, there were limits on people’s ability to take land out of the commons. commoners had the right to take down encroachments, which they would do in the yearly “beating the bounds”; it was a social affair. As early as 1217, there were laws granting the right to tear down encroachments." From David Weinberger's blog post [berkman] Lewis Hyde on preserving commons "A federal appeals court has handed down a worrisome decision in the case of Golan v. Holder et al... ... Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:00:00 +0100 856573 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=We_Love_Arts_Dana_Ellyn_BANNED_-_We_Love_DC The exhibit opened to coincide with the American Library Association's annual conference, and it's worth taking a look at their list of the frequentl (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:00:26 +0100 856430 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=The_paper_that_Anne_Tolley_censored_%AB_The_Standard As Ed Murrow was fond of saying: The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. . . . especially when elected represe (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:00:28 +0100 856162 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=The_Fiske_Report__In_the_Library_with_the_Lead_Pipe From 1956 to 1958, Marjorie Fiske conducted a study of book selection and censorship practices in California. The fear generated during the McCarthy (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:00:28 +0100 855853 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Firestation_Print_Studio_Banned_Books_in_Australia_-_art_and_book_--- Developed in conjunction with a forthcoming conference being held in Melbourne on censorship, Baillieu Library is co-exhibiting artwork and artist bo (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:00:34 +0100 855713 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Internet_Censorship_Report_ndash_woorkup-com Because google doesn't load that library for Iranian to prevent iranian intent users from making Nuclear weapons i guess! how an iranian internet use (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:00:23 +0100 855399 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/tqpR1v_my4w/update-on-china.html Ever since we launched Google.cn, our search engine for mainland Chinese users, we have done our best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law. This has not always been an easy balance to strike, especially since our January announcement that we were no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn.We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google. However, it’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable—and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it’s up for renewal on June 30). Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn—so Google would effectively go dark in China.That’s a prospect dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives, and instead of automatically redirecting all our users, we have started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk—where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering. This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.Over the next few days we’ll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page—and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach.As a company we aspire to make information available to users everywhere, including China. It’s why we have worked so hard to keep Google. ... Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 856114 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/WZS8puyNEBE/ Remember the stories we ran in 2008  and 2009 about author David Carnoy’s novel Knife Music, whose appbook Apple rejected from the app store for dropping the f-bomb? He ended up removing the offending language and resubmitting it to gain approval. Gizmodo reports that a new appbook of (the first half of) the novel, which has since been acquired by a Penguin-distributed publisher, has gone on sale with the four-letter language entirely intact. Gizmodo wonders whether this means that Apple is loosening up its censorship lockdown. I’m a bit more pessimistic than that. I’d say it just means that the appbook was reviewed by different people than the ones who looked at it the first time. Who knows, if Carnoy had waited a week or so and then resubmitted the original appbook with no changes, rather than self-censoring to make it into the store, it might have gone through with no problems. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:23:27 +0100 855381 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=The_Effects_of_War-Time_Censorship_on_Historical_Sources_%AB_North_--- The Effects of War-Time Censorship on Historical Sources regarding the North Strand Bombing 1941′ A talk by Kevin O'Connor at the North Strand Bombin (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:00:34 +0100 855228 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Times_Censorship_front_shocked_at_Labour_MP39s_comments It took this opportunity to call for bipartisan collaboration amongst MPs who had civil liberties at heart in order to modernise the country's laws (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:00:29 +0100 854976 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=It39s_not_about_the_children_ldquoRevolutionary_Voicesrdquo_pulled_from_--- It's not about the children: "Revolutionary Voices" pulled from public library. By Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship. We were gratif (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:00:24 +0100 854982 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/26/imperial-bedrooms-bret-easton-ellis Mark Lawson enjoys a midlife sequel to Bret Easton Ellis's debutGraham Greene liked to claim that he had once entered a magazine competition inviting Greenian parodies and finished second. And you suspect that, if the Guardian's John Crace happened to be incapacitated while writing a spoof of Bret Easton Ellis's Imperial Bedrooms, the novelist himself could easily step in, although the result might be considered a little self-conscious.Certainly, few writers can have combined such distinctive literary mannerisms with such a strong awareness of their own effects. And, in his latest work of fiction, the sense of signature is increased by the fact that the book is a return to an earlier world: Imperial Bedrooms, his seventh novel, is a sequel, quarter of a century on, to his bravura 1985 debut, Less than Zero.The tone of Less Than Zero was a zombified monologue, in which the narrator, a young, rich brat called Clay, described encounters with sex, drugs and violence in an affectless present-tense: "I'm sitting in my pyschiatrist's office the next day, coming off from coke, sneezing blood." This was a voice so strange and strong – depravities recited in the manner of a shopping list – that it immediately invited pastiche, some of it by Easton Ellis himself, who took casual amorality perhaps as far as it could go in American Psycho, an apologia by a serial killer which the original publisher declined to print.In Imperial Bedrooms, Clay has doubled in age but voice-recognition software would have little trouble picking up his tense present: "We sit in my office naked, buzzed on champagne, while she shows me pics from a Calvin Klein show." He occasionally seems, though, to have developed the syntactical ability to look back: "They had made a movie about us," the book begins. ... Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:05:20 +0100 854930 http://www.comarmsblog.com/2010/06/friday-fun-censorship.html A very serious issue!  (They're very stern; they've blurred out the nautical bits.) For more punny pictures, check out http://somuchpun.com (Source: CARL Book Beacon) Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:11:00 +0100 854747 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=LIBeRARY_Censorship_The_Gay_amp_Lesbian_Fund_for_CO_amp_Douglas_--- This new video features my boss, Douglas County Libraries Director Jamie LaRue, and Robert Sullivan, a generous donor who has made the recent childre (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:00:22 +0100 854716 http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001451.html My old .XXX domain Guardian column started out "The idea of a ".xxx" web suffix for porn sites is the internet's vampire: it seems nothing can kill it.". And it's risen again, where it'll suck not blood, but money. A point I've repeated made, to no avail, is almost nobody wants it except the people trying to profit from it. As I put it: "... if everyone from civil libertarians and censors to adult industry webmasters says .xxx is a bad idea then maybe we can all agree it's a bad idea ..." "money quote" (literally and pun intended): Lawley said he thinks the new address could easily attract at least 500,000 sites, making it — after ".mobi" — the second biggest sponsored top-level domain name. He expects to make $30 million a year in revenue by selling each .xxx site for $60 — and pledges to donate $10 from each sale to child protection initiatives via a nonprofit he has set up. Value-add, so this post is not just an echo of the news - there's a "Full summary and analysis of dot-xxx comment period" on the blog of the XXX-domain registry, for example detailing all the campaigns which took place. (Source: Infothought) Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 854836 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Manga_Review_Library_Wars_Love_amp_War_Volume_One_by_hiro_Arikawa_--- In order to combat the aggressive forces of censorship, the library created an elite defense force whose job it is to enforce the library law and pro (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:00:28 +0100 854447