Harshness of red marks has students seeing purple: "A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red's sense of authority but also blue's association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students.

"'The concept of purple as a replacement for red is a pretty good idea,' said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J, and author of five books on color. 'You soften the blow of red. Red is a bit over-the-top in its aggression.'"

Me thinks the meaning is getting lost along the way. Red is for mistakes. Blue is for annotations. Purple blurs the distinction, making the mistakes seem less wrong somehow. This doesn't make corrections made in purple any less valid, but sometimes you really want a color that screams out WRONG!

A new 'Bushism': We're gonna get us: "'Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,' Bush said. 'They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.'"

Truth. Things don't have to be A or B, they can be both. This was a mistake. That doesn't make it false.

Quad-City Times Newspaper Online - the Quad-Cities Home Page: "Three armed robbers sought a presidential-sized distraction Wednesday morning, hitting three Davenport banks during downtown campaign stops by President Bush and U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

"Police said the robbers might have believed traffic and crowd control at the visits would leave police shorthanded elsewhere, police said."

Tonight on "When Candidates Attack!": See Bush dis Kerry. See Kerry ask Bush to come and talk. See Bush challenge Kerry to talk, then leave town. See Kerry's bus convoy drive right past Bush's event. Meanwhile, watch robbers knock over three banks while everyone's distracted.

I don't see how this is good for our country.

US terror alert becomes political football: "If anyone is wondering why terrorism, and especially attacks at home, should have been so fully hyped on such thin evidence, it's useful to consider the news cycle.

"Last week, John Kerry did a surprisingly good job of introducing himself to the nation as a plausible replacement for Bush. Last week, a devastating car bomb claimed the lives of 68 Iraqis, just as US Secretary of State Colin Powell was in country to deliver several absurdly optimistic speeches. Christian churches in Iraq have for the first time become the targets of terrorist attacks, in which eleven lives have so far been claimed. And the infamous Abu Ghraib Military Police unit has just returned Stateside to answer charges of torture.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, last week sucked for the Bush Administration. It's no wonder, then, that a multi-city security rain dance should be choreographed - no wonder that police in paramilitary jumpsuits and helmets and boots should appear on the streets and in the subways with fully automatic weapons. It's no wonder that streets should be closed to traffic and cars stopped at random. The rest of the news is just too depressing."

Or, as Jon Stewart put it on The Daily Show, "On the subject of the convention, most observers agreed last week that it brought a newly energized Democratic party, one focused on a common goal. With the Democratic party now in the spotlight, many people are wondering, ..., yes, ..., oh, this just in, TERROR WARNING! I guess we'll have to stop talking about the Democrats."

Man falls into 6-foot septic tank, drowns
: "A 45-year-old western York County man drowned in his septic tank Tuesday in a case the county coroner called one of the most unusual he's ever investigated."

There is nothing funny about this story. When someone asks "what's the worst that could happen?" you should remember this. This is NOT how I want to go.

Florida officials: Some voting records wiped out: "A computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines, raising again the specter of election troubles in Florida, where the new technology was supposed to put an end to such problems.

"The crashes occurred in May and November of 2003, erasing information from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections, elections officials said Tuesday."

It's a valid concern, but I'm not as worried about the results disappearing after they're certified as I'd be about them disappearing before. Still, it's obvious that new isn't universally better. As we overhaul the voting systems, we will inevitably trade the old problems for new ones. If only the new ones weren't so much more frightening than the old...

Publisher peeved at political parody.: "TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic -- an icon of Americana -- by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie's unifying message. The publisher wants Jibjab to stop distribution of the flash movie.

"Of course the creators behind Jibjab don't agree.

"'We consider it a case of political satire and parody and therefore entitled to the fair use exemption of the copyright act,' said Jibjab attorney Ken Hertz."

This would be funny enough to begin with, as this is about the most obvious invocation of satire and parody possible, but it gets better. To undercut their argument comes Woody himself, with the original copyright notice:

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

Teen's Poem Not a Threat, Justices Rule: "Declaring that school safety and free speech are 'not necessarily antagonistic goals,' the California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously overturned the felony conviction of a high school student whose violence-laced poem had been deemed a criminal threat."

Thankfully, reason returns.

Even when I was in the military, the importance of free speech was recognized. There were many, many things you couldn't say in the course of your official duties unless someone asked for your opinion. As soon as that happened, you were pretty much free to say whatever you wanted. The military understood order and discipline, but also understood that the right to freely express ones opinions was one of the things we were defending. So as soon as you were asked for an opinion, you could speak freely.

A lot of people have trouble telling fantasy from reality. An overwhelming majority doesn't. This is not the tyranny of the majority, this is the majority apeasing the minority because it's politically incorrect to point out their failings. Finally, the court puts it back on track -- poetry isn't inherently threatening, no matter who feels threatened by it.

'NOTAG' tags bring flood of tickets: "Jim Cara wanted a vanity license tag that would make people laugh. But when he chose 'NOTAG' for the plate on his Suzuki Hayabusa, a sleek blue and silver motorcycle with a speedometer that reaches 220 mph, the joke backfired.

"The new tag arrived Saturday under an avalanche of Wilmington parking violations. 'All the traffic tickets say, 'Notice of violation. License number: no tag,' ' Cara said. City computers, talking to state Division of Motor Vehicles computers, had finally found an address for ticketed vehicles that lacked license tags: Cara's home in Elsmere.

"'I messed up the system so bad,' Cara said. 'I wonder if they can put me in jail or something?' He has received more than 200 violation notices. The mail carrier came twice on Saturday. Cara opened a few. They ranged from $55 to $125 for violations such as meter expirations."

Computers are stupid. They do what they're told. Sometimes programmers seem the same.

Outage reports spur national security debate: "The Federal Communications Commission believes the public outage reports, required since the early 1990s, have helped to dramatically improve network quality. But the rule applies only to landline companies, an anachronistic loophole in this age of wireless phones and voice service from the cable company. So it would make sense to expand the rule to other communications companies, right? Not so fast.

"The FCC's proposal to make that change has met with strong opposition, not only from phone companies but also from the Department of Homeland Security, which contends that the outage reports could serve as blueprints for terrorists bent on wrecking U.S. communications systems. Homeland Security wants future reports to be filed with one of its own infrastructure-monitoring bodies, the Information Sharing and Analysis Center in the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications, and kept from public analysis. That appears to put Homeland Security at odds with New York City's telecommunications department, the National League of Cities and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, which have endorsed the FCC's plan."

Another instance of secrecy where there need be none. More than any other administration in my memory, the Bush II administration classifies everything it can, and fights any attempts to declassify.

These are publicly licensed and regulated services. We have a right to this information. Could the telcos be reluctant to provide the information, and have they unleashed their lobbyists to head off sensible regulation by the FCC?

Passenger data collection plan dropped: "Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said officials had all but scrapped plans for the controversial Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II, which has come under criticism from privacy advocates and some members of Congress."

"Asked whether the program could be considered dead, Ridge jokingly gestured as if he were driving a stake through its head and said: 'Yes,' USA Today reported."

Don't bet on it staying dead, but bet on it coming back with a different name. For now, it appears they'll concentrate on the opt-in frequent traveller program.

Scientists horrified by Bush's Bad Science: "The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), in a new report, has again expressed its feeling of 'embarrassment and disgust' over the way the Bush administration uses - or misuses - science when making policy decisions. The scientists have found that the administration often ignores the recommendations of advisory panels and 'suppresses, distorts and manipulates' scientific work. In particular, the group is concerned about Bad Science affecting environment, emergency contraception and endangered species policies.

"UCS issued a previous complaint in February with 62 signatures but has amassed over 4,000 signatures for its latest report released this month. The signers include 48 Nobel laureates, 62 National Medal of Science recipients and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences."

Paranoia Goes Better With Coke: "There's a new security threat at some of the nation's military bases -- and it looks uncannily like a can of Coke. Specially rigged Coke cans, part of a summer promotion, contain cell phones and global positioning chips. That has officials at some installations worried the cans could be used to eavesdrop, and they are instituting protective measures."

Let's turn this around. Pack a hidden gps-enabled transmitter in a beverage container and smuggle them onto military bases hidden among other cans of soda.

Wait a minute. The US Government (not to mention many corporations) have facilities that don't officially exist, aren't open to the public, and aren't shown on any map. Most of these handle highly classified material. In many, mere possession of a cell phone or gps locator could get you arrested, or worse. A bevy of coke-heads converging on a covert location to offer some PFC a prize might just as easily get themselves shot.

It's a clever gimick, but also a security risk.

Florida Told to Open Voter List: "In the lawsuit, the state cited a 2001 law that protects the state's Central Voter Database from being copied. State lawmakers said the list should not be public because it would violate the state constitution's privacy clause.

But [Judge Nikki] Clark said that law was unconstitutional, and the Florida Legislature illegally passed the 2001 statute without showing any public benefit.

'The court cannot and will not speculate what the public necessity might be, nor can the court construe or imply the public necessity from the language of the statute itself,' Clark wrote. "

This rooster is no chicken: "No one is quite sure how the bird got the cockamamie idea to set up residence outside a place adorned with 'Eat Mor Chickin' signs."

"The rooster declined to comment."

2,754 gather for nude photo shoot: "Saturday between 4 and 8:30 a.m., 2,754 art lovers shed their clothes to be part of one of New York artist Spencer Tunick's installations. They set the North American record for the largest number of naked people in a photograph."

Hopefully, the record will only last until August. One more way to be alone in a crowd.

Canada's Marijuana Party sells pot seeds to finance campaign: "The party buys seeds in bulk from Canadian suppliers, including Willy Jack and Sensi Seeds, then sells packs of 10 at prices ranging from $10 (US$7.40) for nonviable 'decorative' seeds to $400 (US$296) for 'thoroughbred, Cannabis Cup-winning' varieties."

This would be more impressive if the article didn't state that they've sold "five or six packs."

Pot-Smoking Dominatrix Jumps Into Election: "'I can't believe Elections Canada allows this kind of stuff. I'm not uptight but I can see how some people would consider this to be pornographic,' one Senate employee said. 'I'm shocked, and a little aroused.' "

Honestly, I can think of worse people to represent me than a pot-smoking dominatrix.

High-tech hood put on Mequon suspect: "A man died in Mequon police custody Saturday after an officer placed a high-tech protective hood over the man's head to shield the officer from saliva, the lead investigator on the case said Tuesday.

"Sheridan was arrested Saturday evening on a drug paraphernalia possession charge when the car in which he was riding was stopped after an attendant at a Citgo gas station, 11147 N. Port Washington Road, reported that the vehicle drove off without paying for gas at 5:18 p.m."

Here is the lesson: Stealing gas could cost you your life. Do something stupid, and the cop who arrests you may do something stupid, too.

More False Information From TSA: "Delta, Continental, America West, JetBlue and Frontier Airlines secretly turned over sensitive passenger data to Transportation Security Administration contractors in the spring and summer of 2002, according to the sworn statement of acting TSA chief David Stone. In addition, two of the four largest airline reservation centers, Galileo International and Sabre, also gave sensitive passenger information, including home phone numbers, credit card numbers and health data, without disclosing the transfers to travelers or asking their permission.

"This is the third time in the past nine month that knowledge of the scope of secret information disclosures by airlines has expanded, and now six of the 10 largest airlines are known to have given data to the government secretly. Stone's disclosure also raises questions about whether TSA officials intentionally withheld information from previous inquiries by the Government Accounting Office, members of Congress and the Department of Homeland Security's chief privacy officer, Nuala O'Connor Kelly."

Let's review. The airlines broke the law by violating their own privacy policies. The TSA broke the law by repeatedly denying what they now admit, even in the face of court orders and FOIA requests. The TSA or its contractors broke the law (The Privacy Act) by compiling a secret database on Americans. It also appears that the TSA lied to the GAO and to Congress directly.

To date, none of the passengers whose data was provided to the TSA by six of the ten largest airlines and the two largest airline reservation systems have been notified that their information has illegally been transferred to the government and aggregated into a database system by contractors.