International experts worried about U.S.-based Internet racism

‘Experts at a U.N. meeting Wednesday said Wednesday that the United States could

do more to curb the use of the Internet for racist material while upholding freedom of speech.

“New forms of communications technology such as the Internet are being used to support the dissemination of racial hatred,” Mary Robinson, the U.N.

High Commissioner for Human Rights, told participants in a three-day seminar on racism.

Speakers noted the legal challenges of controlling Internet content in, and originating from, the United States, where the First Amendment of the

constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

There are an estimated 250 to 400 self-proclaimed hate groups in the United States with their own Web sites.’

NPR’s Instrumental Bits Become an Online Music Show

“Although NPR makes some of its on-air shows available on

demand through its Web site, the leap by a major radio

organization into Internet-only programming helps validate

the concept of using the Web to “narrowcast” to a smaller

listener base. The eclectic material heard on “All Songs

Considered” might have limited appeal among NPR’s 600

member stations, which can be as rigidly formatted as their

commercial counterparts. Yet the show can still reach an

audience by going online.”

A High-End Top 30 List: Myths About Nietzsche: review of Robert Solomon and Kathleen Higgins’ new book this “most popular philosopher of the 21st century.” [New York Times]

International experts worried about U.S.-based Internet racism

‘Experts at a U.N. meeting Wednesday said Wednesday that the United States could

do more to curb the use of the Internet for racist material while upholding freedom of speech.

“New forms of communications technology such as the Internet are being used to support the dissemination of racial hatred,” Mary Robinson, the U.N.

High Commissioner for Human Rights, told participants in a three-day seminar on racism.

Speakers noted the legal challenges of controlling Internet content in, and originating from, the United States, where the First Amendment of the

constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

There are an estimated 250 to 400 self-proclaimed hate groups in the United States with their own Web sites.’

NPR’s Instrumental Bits Become an Online Music Show

“Although NPR makes some of its on-air shows available on

demand through its Web site, the leap by a major radio

organization into Internet-only programming helps validate

the concept of using the Web to “narrowcast” to a smaller

listener base. The eclectic material heard on “All Songs

Considered” might have limited appeal among NPR’s 600

member stations, which can be as rigidly formatted as their

commercial counterparts. Yet the show can still reach an

audience by going online.”

A High-End Top 30 List: Myths About Nietzsche: review of Robert Solomon and Kathleen Higgins’ new book this “most popular philosopher of the 21st century.” [New York Times]

BBC News | EUROPE | Pinochet ‘brain damaged’: The Spanish press

and ABC reportedly have extracts from the crucial medical report

into the former Chilean dictator’s health which prompted British Home Sec’y Jack Straw to say he intends to allow him to return home. Pinochet, who has diabetes and a pacemaker and has reportedly suffered two recent strokes, is said to have extensive frontal and temporal lobe dysfunction from progressive cerebro-vascular injury. A medical analysis in lay terms explains this.

The Peculiar Practice of Dr. John Ronald Brown: The story of a California back-alley surgeon convicted of murder after his patient died in the aftermath of the amputation of his healthy leg on demand, apparently to gratify the patient’s bizarre sexual fetish. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of this graphic and disturbing story.

Music lovers ‘have fish to thank’: Researchers suggest that a vestigial part of the vestibular system passed on evolutionarily from fish to humans, and without significance to normal hearing, is sensitive to loud sounds at the frequencies that predominate in music. We may have fish to thank for the pleasure we experience in listening to loud music.