Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Ten Little Indians Will Go On, Under A Different Name

I blogged about this fiasco earlier in the week, and it looks like there is a victory here for intelligence and common sense. Lakota East High School had canceled its production of Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians because of an uproar over the original title of the book the play is based on. That original title in 1939 was 10 Little N............ Yep. the N-word.

Of course that title was changed awhile ago, to 10 Little Indians. It was also changed again later in its publishing history to And Then There Were None. That last title is what the kids at LES will perform under when the present the play.

Kudos to those who actually made something sensible out of this mess.

Technorati Tags: Agatha Christie,Lakota East High School,10 Little Indians,And Then There Were None,Racism

UK Looses Data On Almost Half Its Population

Wow. Apparently this happened over the Thanksgiving Day holiday but I just heard about it on The Red Tape Chronicles. What is being called the worst data loss in the Information Age happened in the UK when hard drives containing data on families that receive a government child benefit were lost. It gets better, or worse depending on how you look at it. The data also contained bank account numbers. The disks were apparently lost in transit. Records on over 25 million were lost.

Ouch.

Google Tosses Hat In The Ring For Wireless Spectrum Auction

I'm glad to see this. Google has moved the ball down the field again, after playing strong offense on this already. With earlier announcements that they might enter the FCC auction for the 700Mhz radio spectrum and placing some conditions on their participation, Google opened up a conversation on the future of how we all communicate. That move was significant. Declaring today that they would officially enter the auction is probably even more so. While I'm certainly no mind reader, I happen to believe Google's heart is in the right place on this, and their desires to see things opened up will indeed benefit consumers tremendously.

We've watched things shift and change a bit already since this process kicked off in earnest. Let's hope we see more of it.

Brave Blogging from a Friend

Loren Heiny is one of those friends I've never met in person. He's had quite a challenge this year battling cancer. He's blogged bravely about it here. You're the man, Loren.

Google Thinks Spammers Are Giving Up

Google thinks spammers might be giving up. The basis is that the spam being sent and received seems to be reaching a lull, at oh, something like 10 billion a day. Filtering and other methods do improve things, but if things are slowing down, I believe it is because it just isn't as lucrative, or other fields are more lucrative. But I don't believe it is slowing down in reality. Probably just become old, not sexy news.

Yawn. AT&T CEO Says 3G iPhone Next Year

The Intertubes are abuzz with news that AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, stated that there would be a 3G iPhone next year. Show of hands. Anyone not expecting that? I think Steve Jobs said something to that effect earlier this fall. News that isn't news.

Technorati Tags: iPhone,Apple,Randall Stephenson,AT&T

The Republican YouTube Debate: Sad, Sad, Sad

I'm not sure what to do but scratch my head. I'm sitting at home tonight with a bad bout of laryngitis so I thought I'd watch the Republican Debate. Wow. This is the saddest commentary on everything that is wrong with our electoral process that I could possibly imagine. Not only were all of the candidates all decidedly horrible in their answers, with the possible exception of John McCain. The questions chosen and the format were both lower in value than a flea circus. CNN should be ashamed. American should be ashamed. But I'm guessing most of the front runners in the campaign are just grateful that it is over.  If I didn't know better I'd say this was a parody.

Embarrassing.

Technorati Tags: CNN,YouTube,Republican Debate

Chris Pirillo Does The 12 Days of Christmas Geek Style

Oh, my.

Yet More Self-Serving Political Correctness

I hate it when this stuff happens. Lakota East High School canceled the upcoming production of Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians because at when it was originally published, in 1939, the novel the play is based on used the N-word instead of Indians in the title. Give me a break.

The object lesson here that some seem to have missed is that the name of the novel, and thus the play, was changed eons ago, when more intelligent heads prevailed.

Interesting that the article seems to make the guy who led the protest out to be on the make. Dame Agatha wouldn't have seen any mystery in that.

What a country.

Via The Cincinnati Enquirer

Time To Start Turning Some New Corners

Well, I'm turning a new corner here shortly. I just ordered an iMac. Been thinking about this for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge. The 20inch screen at 2.4GHz should be here next week. So, it should be an interesting set of new adventures coming my way. I don't think this will be the last change coming in the next few months either.

Technorati Tags: Apple,iMac