A Series of Tubes

So if you add Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Houser), Nathan Fillian of Firefly/Serenity, and Felicia Day of The Guild and have it directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy/Firefly) you get Dr.Horrible’s Sing along Blog.  Enjoy:

If you’ve played any world of warcraft then I would suggest checking out the guild. It is teh nerdy.

So if you didn’t already know, congress passed a bill that granted retroactive immunity to telecom companies. Basically AT&T and other phone companies were given a get out of jail free card. Voting on the bill was pretty much split with the Democrats opposing immunity and the Republicans granting immunity. The bill came up for a vote twice in the house of representatives, and 94 Democrats changed their vote. The spotlight foundation found that the legislators that changed their votes got more money from the telecom companies.

So that’s all old news since it all happened in June. The new news is that the Democratic National Convention is going on right now and Barack Obama is being officially announced as the Presidential Candidate for the Democrats. The DNC is sponsored by…AT&T.  Every tote bag that every delegate will get will have the AT&T logo on it:

Again this is old news since Glen Greenwald over at salon.com already wrote about it.  The newest news is Read more

I know I recently posted a thing about Lessig but I found another video that I thought was interesting:
http://listics.com/200808204237

Being a lawyer, Lessig does a great job of backing up the points he makes with facts and data.

If you haven’t heard yet there have been 2 firebombs set off at 2 UCSC researcher’s houses. The firebombs were set off in order to terrorize anyone doing animal research. One of the two researchers whose house was firebombed was Professor Feldheim who taught a Neuroscience course that I took. The firebomb that was set off at his house was at his front door requiring him, his wife and his child to escape out of some sort of fire ladder from a second story window.

If you have read my blog before you will note that this is not the first act from animal rights activists (I think animal rights terrorists is a more appropriate name) targeting researchers at UCSC . I’ve been pretty busy so I didn’t have the time to post this earlier or write more about it.

Yesterday there was a rally in support of the researchers and currently there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of the individuals involved.  I hope that the people behind this are stopped before they make another attempt to attack a researcher or their family.

Update:

NPR forum had a segment on the firebombings.  In it they talk to someone who agrees with the tactics used.  It is both interesting and frustrating:

It is a sad sad day for this series of tubes. The founder of the phrase a series of tubes, Senator Ted Stevens, is being charged with not disclosing gifts he received for things like house renovations and a car. Since it is easier to convict Stevens for not disclosing the “gifts” than it is for bribery, the prosecution is pushing for the easier conviction. Let us all ponder this with a song made up of sound samples from Stevens attempting to explain the internet on the Senate floor: