This sounds like tool DRM. Get Cory Doctrow in here stat.

Oh great. Next thing you know we will be eating seed-free fruit.

If enough people misappropriate the term "beg the question" when they mean "raise the question," then it actually does mean "raise the question." This is how English has always evolved, and will continue to do so long irregardless of our protests.

Scrambling an innocuous comment like the one I made above is pretty lame. It's especially lame considering how many posts Cory Doctrow makes per day about various freedoms on the internet being compromised.

ths ws n frk ystrdy. 'm gng t strt sndng y gys stff frm thr nd hvng y lnk t my rsm t.

And a careful reading of the Nature release shows just how much Nature actually cares about making papers freely available:

For many years, a more generous arrangement has been made for papers reporting full genome sequences...These papers are freely accessible on NPG's website from the moment of publication. This recognizes a consistent character of 'genome' papers: they represent the completion of a key and fundamental research resource, describing and reflecting on what has been revealed but not usually providing insights into mechanism. Although some papers in other disciplines might also be characterized in this way, the fundamental character of the genome has led NPG to make a systematic exception.

So they have made a systematic exception based on the unique aspect of these papers -- that they describe something, but don't reveal insight.

As with most of these "open source" science publication stories, there is not a given example of what difference this will make. Are there really guys sitting in their garage working on human genetics who are a Nature article away from making a breakthrough? It would be one thing if all publications everywhere were free, but for all essential purposes, what Nature has done benefits their PR department and nothing else. Maybe some high school teacher can now pass out a paper that no one will understand.

You can't say there were dinosaurs when you never saw them. Somebody actually saw Adam and Eve. No one ever saw a Tyrannosaurus rex.

I'm not in favor of national databases by a long shot, but it would really help to get people to sign the petition if the arguments "against" were a little bit clearer and more specific. Instead the post says, "but the plan is that practitioners will be able to contact each other to share information," which is probably the exact same argument that the people who are "for" are using.

Enoch_Root: I agree w/what you are saying. My only point was that we should be careful to look at ourselves before we (rightfully) condemn what has happened in Sudan. What would happen here? Obviously not lashing. No jail time. But loss of job? Probably a law suit? Probably both, and even the strong possibility of being blacklisted from public schools. And there would likely be the threat of physical attack (ask the judge in the Dover intelligent design school board case). In Britain, it appears that there is actually laws on the books which could be used to prosecute the lady. And although it appears the law is almost dead in the water there, a group is using the law to try to sue the BBC for airing a musical about Jerry Springer.?!

This might also be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law_in_the_United_Kingdom

Although it looks like the last time it was seriously enforced was in the late 1970's when two men were fined, and one was sentenced for publishing a poem, The Love that Dares to Speak its Name.

Please tell me you are joking? They make sex toys in the shape of the cross here and Andres Serrano does not seem to have been lashed or jailed by anyone for Piss Christ to mention a couple examples.

Neither of those people teach in schools though.

A quick search on google reveals:
Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal

I'm sure there are plenty more. We may not lash or jail people here, but you are naive if you think you can get away with blasphemy in this country without facing serious problems.

Unlike Sudan, we in America have no laws against blasphemy. However, I am certain that this woman would face at least as hard of a time in the US if she named a teddy bear Jesus.

Some New Yorker cartoonist was on this week and said that one of his cartoons was placed in the caption contest in the back of the issue. The winning caption was the exact same caption that he came up with. In the case above, the cartoon is captionless, but the joke (or the caption) can be thought of independent of the art.

This show seems pretty cool, but I'm a little disconcerted by the blatant corporate sponsorship of a show on PBS. I realize that The News Hour is heavily subsidized by ADM, but it's not as though the show is called The ADM News Hour. Well at least Wired is owned by Conde Naste which is on the nicer side of corporations.

It is sad that this kid asked good questions (well, two good questions), the most important of which (voting fraud in 2004) is still not being properly addressed.

I'm sorry, but this is not a news story. I have been attacked by birds four times now. Once skateboarding, twice while running, and once while waiting for the bus. They usually just kind of brush up against your head, but it is scary no matter what.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think it is a good thing you aren't allowed to bring circuit boards or resistors or whatever it was this guy was trying to bring. Send it in the mail.