Planning to overthrow the US Government? If yes, and you live in South Carolina, you must pay a five-dollar subversive registration fee. (Via BoingBoing, Via The Agitator)

Today I received an email inviting me to a webinar on OMEKA, a web based platform for all kinds of collections created by the Center For History & New Media. This sounds pretty great and I definitely am going to read up on this, if not try to watch the…

original story here ‘people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen’. “According to an iReport by Chrisopher Pagan: “On November 14 the body of a gay 19 year old was found a few miles away from the town in which he was residing…

The Banned Librarian has put together a clear concise guide to both current issues surrounding the Patriot Act, and the sections that are scheduled to sunset in December of 2009. It includes: HISTORY & BACKGROUND The PATRIOT Act Itself Treatises on the Law Helpful Articles Oversight & Watchdog Reports Prior…

For over a year a prison in Virginia segregated women they perceived as masculine or butch (those with short hair or ‘baggy clothes’), in order to separate them from their ‘girlfriends’. The Associated Press and civil rights advocates questioned the practice, with the warden stating that no such move was…

I first heard this on NPR and then was reminded by the Provisions Library Blog (which is excellent). The White House has created a new office, one of Social Innovation & Civic Participation, and has named Sonal Shah, who was in charge of global development at Google, as the lead….

I’m sad that I found out about this through Boing Boing, but I am so glad that they posted on this. Paul Williams is a terrific writer who I was lucky enough to meet many years ago. A champion of the then booming and vibrant San Diego music scene, Paul…

–Mr Kambaksh was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death last year for circulating an essay on women’s rights which questioned verses in the Koran. It later emerged he was convicted by three mullahs, in secret, without access to a lawyer. The sentence was commuted to 20 years on…

Unless you have been reading this blog for at least five years, you may not know much of the history behind it. It was started many years ago (8? 10? More? I honestly can’t remember) by some friends of mine as a grand experiment. The experiment concerned fair use, music,…

From the Union Librarian More than 40 major British companies face legal action for allegedly buying secret personal data about thousands of workers they wanted to vet before employing them. The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, will today publish a list of the companies he believes may have broken data protection…