The fourth part of the serial novel \”The Plant\” will
be posted on King\’s Web
site Monday. Further installments up to part 8 will be
available for $2 each, but the whole thing will still cost
you $13.00. He had said he would stop with the last
installment if people paying for the download dropped
below 75 percent. Anyone out there read it? Is it any
good?
October 2000
Where is the porn?
I was rolling on the floor after reading this column from Fayettevillenc.com. A man goes into the library searching for porn, but finds himslef at a loss as to where to start.
\”I’ve learned that when looking for something in the library, the best place to start is at the computerized directory. So I found one and began my search.
P-O-R-N-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y, I typed. Up popped an alphabetical list.
Porcupines, pork-free diet … ah, here we are, pornography. This wasn’t going to take as long as I’d thought.I clicked on the first couple of listings I came to, wrote down the catalog numbers and went a huntin’ for porn.\”
I was rolling on the floor after reading this column from Fayettevillenc.com. A man goes into the library searching for porn, but finds himslef at a loss as to where to start.
\”I’ve learned that when looking for something in the library, the best place to start is at the computerized directory. So I found one and began my search.
P-O-R-N-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y, I typed. Up popped an alphabetical list.
Porcupines, pork-free diet … ah, here we are, pornography. This wasn’t going to take as long as I’d thought.I clicked on the first couple of listings I came to, wrote down the catalog numbers and went a huntin’ for porn.\”
\”The first book I found was called “Pornography: Debating the Issues.’’ Sounded kind of interesting but a little weighty, if you know what I mean. A little too much redeeming social value for my tastes.\”
\”Near it on the shelf was a little tome called “Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women’s Rights.’’
\”That sounded real weighty. Or to put it another way: Booorrring.\”
\”Maybe this was going to be harder than I thought. I decided to change my approach. I decided to forget about the books for the moment and check out the magazines.\”
\”I scanned the racks. There was Meg Ryan on the cover of Redbook and Charlize Theron on the cover of Vogue. Both fully clothed, though.\”
\”Farther down the aisle, I found Ashley Judd on the cover of Esquire’s “Women We Love’’ issue. Now that had potential. I also picked up, when no one was looking, the “Bad Girl Issue’’ of Cosmopolitan featuring Lisa Kudrow on the cover.\”
\”I opened Esquire to the “Women We Love’’ feature. There was a picture of a partially nude Alicia Witt. But the picture was tastefully done and you couldn’t really see much. Hardly what I’d call hard-core.\”
\”Cosmo turned out to be a real bust, too. Despite the promise of the “Bad Girl Issue,’’ all I found were bizarre articles with titles like “Fab Abs — Fast’’ and “I Said Her Butt Was Too Big and She Heard Me.’’
\”I felt people were beginning to stare at me, a grown man poring over Cosmo. To reassert my masculinity, I spent the next 20 minutes thumbing through Road & Track.\”
\”I decided to go back to the books. This time, the paperbacks.\”
Americans willing to pay for edtech in schools
The DigitalDivideNetwork.org has released the results of a survey on using tax money for net access.
The survey, which polled 1900 respondents nationwide, found that over
three-quarters (76%) of those surveyed support the use of tax dollars to
train teachers to use the Internet. Additionally, 65% said they would
support the use of tax money to fund Internet access for libraries, and 60%
supported the government\’s role in bringing access to America\’s schools.
The DigitalDivideNetwork.org has released the results of a survey on using tax money for net access.
The survey, which polled 1900 respondents nationwide, found that over
three-quarters (76%) of those surveyed support the use of tax dollars to
train teachers to use the Internet. Additionally, 65% said they would
support the use of tax money to fund Internet access for libraries, and 60%
supported the government\’s role in bringing access to America\’s schools.The survey, which polled 1900 respondents nationwide, found that over
three-quarters (76%) of those surveyed support the use of tax dollars to
train teachers to use the Internet. Additionally, 65% said they would
support the use of tax money to fund Internet access for libraries, and 60%
supported the government\’s role in bringing access to America\’s schools.
\”As this survey and others have recently demonstrated, there is broad public
support for the government connecting schools and libraries to the
Internet,\” stated Andy Carvin, Senior Associate of the Benton Foundation\’s
Communications Policy Program, and a member of the Digital Media Forum.
\”There\’s also a strong recognition of the importance of funding edtech
professional development for teachers. If educators lack the skills to use
these tools, simply providing ample access to the Internet will only lead to
limited educational success.\”
Recognizing the Internet as a Key to Long-Term Personal Growth
It should come as little surprise that public support for edtech training
and wired classrooms is strong, for more and more people are going online
specifically to enhance their own skills and career opportunities. For
example, according to the DMF survey, 71% of Internet users claimed that
they had gone online for educational reasons. This percentage is a
significant increase from 1999, when only 36% of Internet users went online
for educational purposes.
Similarly, individuals give the Internet high marks when it comes to
boosting their educations and careers. When asked why people felt Internet
access was important, 71% stated the Net could enhance their educational
level, while an additional 86% claimed the Net would help their children
learn more. Additionally, 95% of respondents – 19 out of 20 people – stated
that the Internet was vital for work skills, while 88% stated they used the
Net for \”personal success.\”
\”It\’s becoming clearer than ever that people regard the Internet as a vital
instrument for lifelong learning and personal enhancement,\” Carvin
explained. \”Whether they\’re going online to take a community college course
or to explore career opportunities in a new field, citizens have embraced
the Net as a way to increase their overall quality of life.\”
\”The data shows that education and skills are two of the pillars on which
participation in the increasingly important online world are built,\” added
Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research of the Consumer Federation of America,
one of the groups participating in the DMF. \”Public support for programs
that enhance computer and Internet capabilities of people reflects this
profound understanding of the technological changes surging throughout
society.\”
Continuing Worries over Inappropriate Materials
Despite the public\’s positive regard for the Internet as an educational
tool, citizens continue to have concerns over the types of materials they
might find in cyberspace. Seventy-six percent of respondents noted that they
regarded \”inappropriate material\” as a barrier to Internet adoption, while
61% stated they worried about \”dangerous ideas\” on the Net getting in the
way of Internet use. Forty-two percent of respondents also stated that the
inability to trust the information you find online gets in the way of
Internet adoption.
These concerns could also be seen when respondents were asked whether they
would support restricting types of Internet content. Not surprisingly, 92%
agreed that schools should filter out pornography from student-accessed
Internet computers, while 79% agreed they should filter out hate speech. But
fears of inappropriate content went well beyond the schoolhouse gate: 74%
agreed that the government should ban online pornography outright, while 73%
agreed that the government should ban online hate speech. On the whole, 55%
of respondents stated that the government should exert more control over
content on the Internet.
\”It\’s a worrisome dilemma,\” said Carvin, the Benton Foundation\’s resident
specialist on education technology policy. \”The public wants to embrace the
Internet as an educational tool, but many people fear its potential to harm
young minds — to the point where they shrug off First Amendment
considerations and support aggressive governmental content restriction.
Since such restriction would be unlikely to pass constitutional muster, in
the end adults will have to recognize their role as the ultimate mediators
of their children\’s online experiences. We must equip young people with the
skills and sensibility to use the Internet responsibly and maturely, and not
rush down the perilous path of having the government become the regulators
of online content. Nor should we assume that technologies like Internet
filters will be able to do all the work of adults when it comes to guiding
young peoples\’ experiences online. Adults simply must get more involved.\”
About the Survey
The survey cited in this release was designed and conducted by Assistant
Professor Dhavan V. Shah, PhD, of the School of Journalism and Mass
Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The survey relies on
national survey data collected in February 1999 and June 2000 from the same
set of respondents to address a variety of topics, including support for
programs to increase public access to the Internet, changing patterns of
digital media access and use, the extent of the digital divide in America,
among others. Major support for this study was provided by the Digital Media
Forum, a media policy consortium established by the Ford Foundation. Members
of the Forum include the Benton Foundation, the Media Access Project, the
Center for Media Education, the Consumer Federation of America, the
Consumers Union, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Additional
support was provided by research funding from the School of Journalism and
Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as from the
Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research (Social Science
Research Grants Program and the Department of Communication, University of
California at Santa Barbara. Special thanks also to Associate Professor
Lewis Friedland of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, for serving as academic liaison to the
Digital Media Forum.
School Board Shoots Down Proposal
Click2houston.com has a story on The Santa Fe Independent School District\’s vote to ban certain books containing profanity or homosexual references. This is the dictrict that is discussing banning books with even a single word of profanity.
\”This is a school board that has succeeded once again in making me embarrassed to admit where I live and pay taxes,\” one resident of Santa Fe said to the school board.
Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixPhoenix.
Yahoo! News was one place with this.
J.K. Rowling has annouced that Book 5 will be called \”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix\”. Rowling has no deadline for the book and said it would probably
not be ready by July, as had been rumored. Two other books will be out soon “Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them\’\’ and “Quidditch
Through the Ages\’\’ – will benefit Comic Relief.
“Fantastic Beasts\’\’ is a title on the boy wizard\’s school
supply list in a previous book. The second new volume will be an
anthology of Harry\’s favorite sport, quidditch.
Famous author interviews
Wired for Books has begun to encode the Don
Swaim collection of author interviews and is making them available on the
Web in RealAudio. In the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s, most of the best of
American authors (and a few from other countries, as well) found their way
to Don Swaim\’s New York radio studio.
We expect to have several hundred of these interviews online within a year.
Now, we have interviews of Allen Ginsberg, Joseph Heller, James Jones,
Louis L\’Amour, William Manchester, and William Styron. Let us know what you
think.
Wired for Books is an educational, noncommercial project of the Ohio
University Telecommunications Center.
The conglomeration of American publishing
Feedmag has an Interview with André Schiffrin, Dave Eggers, and John Donatich on the state of publishing, and the impact emerging technologies might have upon it. They talk about how Amazon.com, ebooks, and print-on-demand will change the role of the editor, and if large corporations will change fundamentally the way we read and what books are available to us.
\”More people are literate, college educated, and book buying than ever before. We have a greater number of publishers in business, and stats released just last week revealed that independent presses produce seventy percent of the books in a U.S. market that generates more than forty billion dollars in sales annually. \”
View Porn in Library = Jail Time
Bob Cox sent in This Story from Nola.com that marks the return of Police Chief John Doyle.
Ring any bells?
He was on the now famous Dr. Laura \”Lewd Libraries\” Show. In his part of LA if you are caught viewing sexually explicit or obscene Internet sites on library computers you may be arrested, fined and jailed.
Parish President Tim Coulon called the parish\’s new Internet policies a \”great first step,\” adding that more can be done later if necessary.
I\’d be afraid of the second step, what could it be? Electric chair?
FOI flouted. MLLR BPL departments archives.
The Legendary Don Saklad writes:
\”Our regional and Massachusetts Library of Last Recourse
City of Boston Public Library Departments have denied
substantive reply. Our MLLR BPL departments have not
complied with state FOI principles.
Reply has not been made until an appeal is filed, then
reply has been delayed beyond the limit given
government authorities.
A requester is not supposed to be conditionally
required to file an appeal as a requirement for reading
the requested information.
The Legendary Don Saklad writes:
\”Our regional and Massachusetts Library of Last Recourse
City of Boston Public Library Departments have denied
substantive reply. Our MLLR BPL departments have not
complied with state FOI principles.
Reply has not been made until an appeal is filed, then
reply has been delayed beyond the limit given
government authorities.
A requester is not supposed to be conditionally
required to file an appeal as a requirement for reading
the requested information.
A requester should receive a response as soon as
practicable, without unreasonable delay and always
within ten days. See paragraph 4
http://www.state.ma.us/sec/pre/prelaw/lawover.htm
Legitimately public materials would be available more
readily if schedules, guidelines and manuals for
records and municipal archives management would be
followed.
RMU–Introduction
X-URL: http://www.state.ma.us/sec/arc/arcrmu/rmuidx.htm
Records Management Unit
Published by:
William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth
Massachusetts State Archives
220 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125
Phone 617-727-2816 | Fax 617-288-8429
Archives Home
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Programs
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Welcome to the RMU\’s web page.
We are here to assist local, state, and county
government entities create, manage, secure and
preserve the records they need to conduct business
activities and to protect the rights and
obligations of citizens and government.
The RMU is a division of the Massachusetts State
Archives, a unit within the Office of the
Secretary of State, William Francis Galvin.
The Records Management Unit (RMU) operates under
the mandates of the Supervisor of Public Records
and the Archivist of the Commonwealth to assist
government records custodians in the management of
their records.
* The Information Age
* Controlling the Records Lifecycle
* Public Record Laws
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* Help is Available
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to Destroy Records Which Have
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Last revised 3/00
Magnet Home Page of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Comments to: [email protected]
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_______________________________________________________
Guide to Problematical Library Use
http://guidetoproblematicallibraryuse.weblogs.com/stories
More on COPA
CNET News has a Story on COPA and the HR 557 bill that has made it to the house.
It includes an interview with Marvin Johnson, legislative counsel, ACLU on the legislation that will force schools and libraries that. Some have called filtering a \”No-Brainer\”, but he says filtering Violates the preceprt of the 1st ammendment. A private company is doing the censorship for the governemt, not based on anything that means anything, but can be simply due to the companies dislike for a website. The filters are clumsy and block more than they should, he says, and they also miss alot of porn. He proposes to teach how to live in this \”internet\” age, and be a wise consumor, to know good from bad, and be a cautious consumer. They have tried to work an ammendmant on this bill to provide more education for all. Remember the AFA ACLU and christian assoc have all come out against this bill. Very libreral and very conservative groups are coming out against this, it can\’t be good.
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