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The best stories of the day, chosen by you.
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PATRIOT Act Quietly Expanded (MLP)
By templurkeracct
Wed Nov 26th, 2003 at 10:57:58 PM EST
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From the linked article:
Congress approved a bill on Friday that expands the reach of the Patriot Act, reduces oversight of the FBI and intelligence agencies and, according to critics shifts the balance of power away from the legislature and the courts.
A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of business -- everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay -- without first seeking approval from a judge.
Full Story (26 comments, 163 words in story)
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The 1804 Australian Rebellion and Battle of Vinegar Hill (Culture)
By cam
Sun Nov 23rd, 2003 at 03:34:37 AM EST
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In the late seventeenth century England was faced with a burgeoning prison population and civil unrest in Ireland. The English response to these issues was to create a penal colony in the Pacific where the criminals and political prisoners could be deported. The New South Wales colony found itself having to deal with experienced Irish rebels who were unwavering in their contempt for English authority. The Irish, English and Scottish convicts all shared arbitrary treatment at the hands of the Colonial Authorities. They were also united in their desire to go home.
There was only one successful large-scale convict rebellion in Australia's colonial past. This was the rebellion of 1804 that led to the "Battle of Vinegar Hill" in Sydney's north western suburbs. The New South Wales Corps had marched all night and most of the next morning from Sydney in order to catch the rebels outside of Rouse Hill. A short battle was fought which ended the rebellion.
The 1804 rebellion is relatively unknown in popular Australian history. It was not until recently that Australians have had any sympathy for Australia's convict history. This unwillingness to revisit the convict component of Australian history has led to the location of the battle being lost in time and attempts to determine its location still leave doubt. While there is a sculpture at Castlebrook Cemetery commemorating the battle, there remains debate as to where the battle actually occurred.
Full Story (51 comments, 8795 words in story)
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Vivendi to Destroy MP3.com archive (MLP)
By the scooter king
Fri Nov 21st, 2003 at 05:00:22 PM EST
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Vivendi Universal recently sold the MP3.com domain to CNET. That in and of itself is a yawner. MP3.com doesn't really fit the Vivendi profit model, so it's understandable that they're dumping it.
Why this matters is they're not selling the archive, containing more than a million songs by 250,000 artists. As of December 3rd, they're destroying it.
Full Story (78 comments, 222 words in story)
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The Golden Ruler (Politics)
By jjayson
Thu Nov 20th, 2003 at 03:17:29 PM EST
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In the last 35 years, the world has experienced an unprecedented period of global inflation. From 1792 to 1915, the cost of a bag of groceries in America went unchanged, but from 1973 to 1982, the dollar lost over half of its buying power at the store counter. Since then, the dollar has shed another half of its remaining value when buying that same bag of groceries. Not to be outdone, the UK walked a similar path. From 1795 to 1910, prices didn't budge, but since 1973, the pound has lost almost nine tenths of its retail muscle. What is going on?
Full Story (261 comments, 3035 words in story)
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Captain Ledford, where are you now? (Meta)
By tiamat
Wed Nov 19th, 2003 at 11:08:26 AM EST
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From Sun Feb 18th, 2001 to Sat Mar 23rd, 2002 Kuro5hin was host to an anonymous author who chose the nom de plume of Captain Ledford. This author serialized a set of stories in the K5 diary section that remain to this date as some of the best fiction K5 has ever seen.
With the advent of the K5 fiction section I thought it would be befitting to bring back to the foreground these stories, so that they could be seen by the wider K5 audience.
I am not Captain Ledford, nor was I able to get in touch with him or her. But I am a big fan.
Full Story (69 comments, 909 words in story)
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Jonestown: Armageddon Writ Small (Op-Ed)
By baron samedi
Wed Nov 19th, 2003 at 05:02:30 AM EST
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If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can't help but notice that November 18, 2003 is the 25th anniversary of what has come to be known as the "Jonestown Massacre".
There's a excellent description of the events that unfolded that day in Guyana. Today, as they do every year, survivors and families of victims gather to commemorate their loss.
I was six going on seven years old when it happened.
Full Story (117 comments, 883 words in story)
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Top Ten Internet Fads (Culture)
By Frozen North
Sat Nov 15th, 2003 at 05:09:15 PM EST
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At the risk of sounding much older than I really am, I've been on the Internet since 1987. In that time, I've seen a number of Internet fads come and go. Some were excesses of the bubble years, but others weren't.
A fad, for purposes of this article, is an idea or technology which is briefly popular, but can't outlast its own novelty value. Once people get over the newness of it all, there isn't really anything special left. Here are the ten which stand out most in my mind.
Full Story (261 comments, 2381 words in story)
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Perfect Solar Storm Brewing? (MLP)
By kpaul
Thu Nov 13th, 2003 at 11:44:37 PM EST
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What's up with the Sun? Scientists are usually fairly reliable with predicting solar activity. We're supposed to be in the second waning period of an 11-year solar cycle. Instead of decreasing, though, the activity on the gaseous giant around a million times the size of planet Earth is increasing.
Solar flares are currently measured with three classes using a logarithmic scale; C-class (little no no effect on Earth), M-class (medium strength) and X-class. The latter and strongest class of solar flare ranges in intensity from X1 to X20. One of the biggest solar flares occured in 1859. An X18 class in March of 1989 was the second largest. That is, until the last couple of months.
After building up in October with an X18 magnitude solar flare, on November 4, we witnessed the largest solar flare since we've been studying them closely. The coronal ejection temporarily blinded the machines taking the images. Using the amount of time that the satellites were out of commission, scientists are now estimating a magnitude anywhere from X27 to X40+.
Full Story (169 comments, 1243 words in story)
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The Myths of Children (MLP)
By bovineaquarium
Thu Nov 13th, 2003 at 04:33:20 AM EST
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The homeless children of Miami have developed an interesting and amazing belief system, which brings them hope and the ability to understand the world and the circumstances they exist in. This story, as written by Lynda Edwards for the Miami New Times gives an insightful and at times, beautiful look into the folklore and tales of the children.
"To homeless children sleeping on the street, neon is as comforting as a night-light. Angels love colored light too. After nightfall in downtown Miami, they nibble on the NationsBank building -- always drenched in a green, pink, or golden glow. "They eat light so they can fly," eight-year-old Andre tells the children sitting on the patio of the Salvation Army's emergency shelter on NW 38th Street. Andre explains that the angels hide in the building while they study battle maps. "There's a lot of killing going on in Miami," he says. "You want to fight, want to learn how to live, you got to learn the secret stories." The small group listens intently to these tales told by homeless children in shelters. "
Full Story (182 comments, 558 words in story)
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