June 2008

District of Columbia et al. v. Heller: Supreme Court Establishes an Individual Right to Bear Arms

The full text is available now in paperback at the link above.

Inside Google Book Search: U.S. copyright renewal records available for download

Thanks to the efforts of Google software engineer Jarkko Hietaniemi, we’ve gathered the records from both sources, massaged them a bit for easier parsing, and combined them into a single XML file available for download here.

So where’s the search engine?

wfzimmerman's review: "Still the best book on the topic, and unlikely ever to be surpassed."
Harper & Row

wfzimmerman's review: "I have a copy of this in my garage next to my weights and am relying on it as a guide for my exercise program."
Rodale Books (2007), Edition: 1, Paperback, 288 pages

Technology is an invaluable tool for addressing some of these challenges. In a recent example, a team of Google engineers dedicated their 20 percent time over the last year and a half to build cutting-edge software for NCMEC that uses image and video recognition technology to help NCMEC analysts more effectively sort and review incoming reports of child exploitation.

These guys get my “hero” tag for putting their time into this project.

wfzimmerman's review: "A birthday gift from Kelsey."
Penguin Press HC, The (2008), Hardcover, 352 pages

I’d love to buy this!

Terry Pratchett Nation - Signed UK Proof - eBay item 200229088237 end time Jun-10-08 12:30:00 PDT
Nation

by Terry Pratchett

This auction is for an uncorrected, unread and brand new UK proof of Nation.
This is Terry Pratchetts latest, non Discworld, novel which is due for publication in September 2008.

Further more, Terry will sign and dedicate the book to the lucky winner

This is an absolutely unique opportunity to own a fantastic piece of Terry Pratchett memorabilia.

All proceeds from the sale of this proof will be donated to the RICE Centre in Bath.

“Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. Hes also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire. Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. Shes certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ships parrot. As it happens, they are not alone for long.Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation.”

Payment must be made within 5 days.
We accept payment by PayPal or UK cheques only.

Thanks for looking and happy bidding

Memo From Prague - 3 Czech Friends, Cast as Heroes and as Murderers - NYTimes.com

In October of that year, the five men battled their way across the Iron Curtain heading for the American sector of a divided Berlin. They wanted to join American troops in what they thought would be a global conflagration between Western democracies and Soviet Communism.

To get there, the five — the brothers Josef and Ctirad Masin and their childhood friends Milan Paumer, Zbynek Janata and Vaclav Sveda — hijacked cars, stole submachine guns, drugged adversaries with chloroform, broke into police stations and killed six people, including a police officer whose throat was slit with a Boy Scout knife.

The journey that they thought would take five days took four weeks, and they braved starvation, frostbite and bullet wounds. Three of the men eventually reached West Berlin, where they were debriefed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Then they joined the United States Army in hopes of liberating communist Czechoslovakia. The other two — Mr. Janata and Mr. Sveda — were captured by the East German police and executed.

The current Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, a liberal, decided in March to honor the three survivors as heroes, no doubt expecting some controversy in a nation still grappling with its Communist past. But the government was not prepared for a searing debate that encapsulated all the ambivalence associated with the country’s recent history

Heroes.

Official Google Blog
We’re very excited to tell you that real-time quotes on NASDAQ securities are now available on Google Finance. This is an important (and way overdue) development for everyone who consumes financial information. Historically, real-time stock data was not freely and widely accessible. Either buried behind subscription walls or brokerage sites, consumers typically had to live with 15 or 20 minute price delays. In the world of finance, time is indeed money, and it’s critical to have timely and accurate data.

This is decidedly non-evil.  But don’t let the information go to your head!  Day trading  will kill you with the commission fees.