SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 — Breaking with centuries of winemaking tradition, Bay Area vintners are starting to pull the plug on corks, hoping screw-on tops end cork-related spoilage.
A GROWING NUMBER of California wineries from Oakville to Santa Cruz are starting to seal even vintages selling at up to $100 a bottle with a screw cap, something long associated solely with cheap jug wines. Vintners are frustrated at the moldy smell and taste caused by “cork taint” — but they are also worried that tradition-minded customers may flip their lids.
Cork taint, as it is known in the industry, ruins a bottle of wine. It also means the winery may lose a customer, no small risk at a time when producers are trying to sell an abundance of California wines in a slow economy flooded by inexpensive imports.
“This is about making sure wine in the glass is as good as it can be,” said Terry Adams, winemaker for Sonoma-Cutrer Winery.

Winemakers pop corks; say screw it

"Nearly 60 percent of Web surfers polled by ChangeWave, an investment and research firm whose clients include hedge funds, said Tuesday they planned to leave America Online for another Internet service. "

Wow... Its not doubt that AOL's network is oversubscribed. I must say I had no idea how baddly AOL was about to get punished for this. I was under the impression that AOL users simply didn't know why their internet experience was poor.

Note: Apparently only 402 people took place in this survey, and no information is given about error margins.

Users Still Think It's AO-Hell

With little fanfare or explanation, the Library of Congress has rejected the CARP (crap?) determination. And there was much rejoicing... (More information is due out June 20th.)

CARP rejected

"We must learn from those errors and get it right this time. We need a domestic intelligence capability. Every major power in the world has one, most with too much power. Britain's M.I.5 and France's Renseignements Generaux can open mail and tap phones at will. (Many in Washington believe that one reason so many terrorists operated out of Germany is that -- fearful of creating another Gestapo -- it has a weak internal security agency.) In an age of terrorism, when the enemy will often be operating inside America, we can't remain blindfolded."

Its only a matter of time before a cure like this becomes worse then the disease. The FBI does not have to wait for a crime to occur inorder to investigate. They DO have to have reason to suspect that crime may occur. What this article asks for is a organization that can spy on you just because they don't like your politics.

The reason this isn't done has nothing to do with the way the FBI works. The reason this isn't done is because its not constitutional. If everyone else is jumping off of a cliff are you going to do it too?

washingtonpost.com: Spying at Home

... Fukuyama told Salon why he thinks that the right to be cloned and to tinker with our offspring's genes aren't liberties that we should all enjoy, and what should be done to restrain the onrush of biotechnology.

This appears to be more oriented toward concerns about actions rather then concerns about thoughts. Therefore I find it more reasonable.

Salon.com Technology | Clone free

A new breed of interactive TV commercial debuts today, aimed at the people most likely to skip them.

Watch my ad, please!

Ad Wizard: Hey! I noticed that no one is using video-on-demand to deliver real content, and no one wants to watch ads. The two must be made for each other! Let's use VOD to deliver ads! Isn't that a great idea?

Los Angeles Times: New Ad Campaign Aimed at TiVo Owners

urn:sha1:RMUVHIRSGUU3VU7FJWRAKW3YWG2S2RFB"

This is awesome. I explained this concept to Jeremy about 6 months ago. Its whats needed to allow MemeStreams to be used to access and recommend p2p content. Glad I don't have to do it myself. :) Only issue is that they are looking for browser implementation. They can't rely on browsers. They need to build a driver that sits on top of your ethernet driver, looks for these urns, and modifies the access method appropriately...

HTTP Extensions for a Content-Addressable Web

"Ever wonder if Mike is still a homicidal child-molesting manic? Sign on to our system and find the ex-cons lurking about your neighborhood. Pay for premium access and probe for perps in the databases of the entire U.S. Penal System. Get your old gang together for one last heist!"

InMates.com - Find your ol' prison buddies

"...And viddy films I would. Where I was taken to, brothers, was like no cine I'd been in before. I was bound up in a straight-jacket and my gulliver was strapped to a headrest with like wires running away from it. Then they clamped like lidlocks on my eyes so I could not shut them no matter how hard I tried. It seemed a bit crazy to me, but I let them get on with what they wanted to get on with. If I was to be a free young malchick in a fortnight's time, I would put up with much in the meantime, my brothers...
-- Alex, from A Clockwork Orange"

LawMeme replies to the Jamie Kellner (CEO of Turner) interview which previously appeared on MemeStreams. Good stuff...

LawMeme: Legal Bricolage for a Technological Age - Top Ten New Copyright Crimes

LONDON, May 20 — Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music’s elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Copy-proof CDs foiled by a marker