One of my favorite non-fiction reads is Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage by William Rathje. This guy posts a bit of trash on the web every day.

My oh my- I need to take a look at these gems of freakish video somewhere with a fast connection and no easily-spooked co-workers.

The Geisha asobi blog, in English, in Japan- very interesting!

The redirects for www.forcedperspective.org appear to be fully functional once again, thanks to the kind folks at junkie.tv.

A (short) profile in The Stranger on a vocal advocate of the Harm Reduction school of thought on the drug war mentions that King County, WA, govenment officials are fairly accepting of this philosophy (as is the local ACLU)- who knew? On other legal fronts, this week’s Last Days column has updates on the fight for legalized sodomy in Texas.

Depending on how your bookmarks are set, you may have been having trouble getting to this site over the last few days. We at FP apologize for any inconvenience and are working to rectify the situation. Of course, if you’re still having trouble, the probability that you’re reading this is pretty low.

I read the executive summary, and was fascinated on the differing rates at which certain health web sites were filtered. Breast cancer, that favorite example of useful information that is filtered proffered by the anti-filter crew, had the lowest rate of being “accidentally” filtered in its category. Perhaps even because it had been a favorite example. Jock itch and yeast infections were filtered at a much higher rate. Among the highest rate of non-sex-education related health topics that were filtered? Breast pumps. Insert your own joke here.

In the category of actual health information with some sexual content, but not qualifying as pornography, that was most filtered: information on gay health. Unfortunately, most people are under the impression that the filters used in schools and libraries filter only pornography, and only what your average mostly rational person would consider pornographic. In truth, the vast majority of filters use a much broader brush, including many “controversial” topics that don’t directly involve naked cavorting. This means that even if these filters get better at what they are supposed to do, this will still result in children and teenagers being kept from information they need on sexual orientation, among other things

The Kaiser Family Foundation released the results of a study yesterday, concluding “Internet filters most frequently used by schools and libraries can effectively block pornography without significantly impeding access to online health information – but only if they aren’t set at their most restrictive levels. As filters are set at higher levels they block access to a substantial amount of health information, with only a minimal increase in blocked pornographic content.” Reuters summarizes this with Web Filters Block Some Health Sites, Study Says, while the moronic and evil Concerned Women for America conclude CWA Says ‘Kaiser Study Confirms Unfiltered Truth: Internet Filters Know It When They See It’ and N2H2 (a filtering company here in (the) lovely (greater) Seattle (area)) proclaims Internet Filtering Scores Major Victory in Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Apparently 87% blocking (a solid B when I was in school) constitutes a “major victory.” The (PDF) list of example blocked sites is fascinating.

From a public radio station (so no ads!), the Retro Cocktail Hour– actually two hours of swanky tunes with ample archives for those of us who forget to tune in on time!

I’m frequently suspicious of news stories that confirm my worst suspicions of people, but the absolute worst generalizations about SUV drivers come from the marketing companies that help sell them and the people who design them. The book that the article is based on has a 47 person waiting list, though I don’t know if I care that much to bolster my beliefs.