Micro Cliff Notes
via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan by Andrew Sullivan on 6/25/08

Literary classics in three lines or less. An example:

Paradise Lost

ADAM: Paradise has arbitrary dietary restrictions?

DEVIL: They’re really more like guidelines.

GOD: Incorrect.

Things you can do from here:

* Subscribe to The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan using Google Reader
* Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 7:08 AM
To: wayneandwax

fabulous
what does it mean
–

To: Charles Nesson

it’s a piece in mcsweeney’s — a humorous attempt to sum up classic works in 3 lines or fewer — thought you guys would appreciate the milton one
———-

To: wayne marshall , Fern Nesson

yes, but what is the message:

Hmm. I think it’s mainly a joke, but if you want to get all hermeneutical — though this is probably obvious — I’d say that this gloss on “Paradise Lost” makes light of the existential/ethical question posed to Adam by the apple by couching it in the banal regulatory language of the present day (”dietary restrictions”); it distorts as it makes funny/cunning Lucifer’s intervention in the Garden; and it reduces God’s reasons for keeping humans ignorant to a laconic retort. In a sense, it seems to dismiss all of the psychodrama that makes the work so great, but then again, it manages to express some of these characters’ essential characteristics, despite the great brevity.

Or were you asking something else?

w

–

——
when appropriate (in my judgment) to an open project and not sensitive (in my judgment) in terms of privacy, i may post email to my blog. all privacy requests respected.

Robert Darnton on Rhetorical Poker and the future of research library

#
The Library in the New Age - The New York Review of Books
“I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable.”
(tags: internet information tech books digital culture library history)

I used to be a newspaper reporter myself. I got my basic training as a college kid covering police headquarters in Newark in 1959. Although I had worked on school newspapers, I did not know what news was—that is, what events would make a story and what combination of words would make it into print after passing muster with the night city editor. When events reached headquarters, they normally took the form of “squeal sheets” or typed reports of calls received at the central switchboard. Squeal sheets concerned everything from stray dogs to murders, and they accumulated at a rate of a dozen every half hour. My job was to collect them from a lieutenant on the second floor, go through them for anything that might be news, and announce the potential news to the veteran reporters from a dozen papers playing poker in the press room on the ground floor. The poker game acted as a filter for the news. One of the reporters would say if something I selected would be worth checking out. I did the checking, usually by phone calls to key offices like the homicide squad. If the information was good enough, I would tell the poker game, whose members would phone it in to their city desks. But it had to be really good—that is, what ordinary people would consider bad—to warrant interrupting the never-ending game. Poker was everyone’s main interest—everyone but me: I could not afford to play (cards cost a dollar ante, a lot of money in those days), and I needed to develop a nose for news.

***

the Electronic Enlightenment, a project sponsored by the Voltaire Foundation of Oxford. By digitizing the correspondence of Voltaire, Rousseau, Franklin, and Jefferson—about two hundred volumes in superb, scholarly editions —it will, in effect, recreate the transatlantic republic of letters from the eighteenth century. The letters of many other philosophers, from Locke and Bayle to Bentham and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, will be integrated into this database, so that scholars will be able to trace references to individuals, books, and ideas throughout the entire network of correspondence that undergirded the Enlightenment.

what of the enlightenment of the internet.
what should a great research library archive?

at fort augusta we made a wish list, simple things, like construction paper and ink and better machines and an fm transmitter

kevin is expanding unchained from one to two hours. gpsts is signing on as a sponsor.

berkman center is sponsoring an audio book SSET reading group for officers and inmates on FREE FM.

i’d like a spiffy ad for gpsts to air on jamaica radio in the first instance
in second instance in second life in video form

i’d like a spiffy ad not for internet and society, global voices

***
here are camella & kevin doing radio

***
This is an open letter to the prime minister:
I have a suggestion in response to the Observer’s May 30 front-page story, “Do something!” Express the true identity of Jamaica by undertaking a cyber campaign to legalise marijuana in Jamaica.

Here is my suggested cyberstrategy:
(1) Recognise that Jamaica is legally obligated under its devolution from England to honour England’s treaty obligations.

(2) Recognise that England formed a treaty obligation to the Maroons to allow them their lives and their freedom in the mountains in exchange for their commitment to become the slave police.

(3) Recognise that freedom in the mountains includes liberty to grow and use the herbs of the earth, including ganja.

Legally speaking, this means that Jamaica as a sovereign nation, and you as its prime minister, are obliged to respect the liberty of the Maroons to grow and use ganja.

But “legally speaking” fails to take into account the reality of political opposition. Were you simply to recognise this legal treaty right of the Maroons, you would meet opposition from prohibitionists in Jamaica and incur the wrath of the United States of America. A further strategy is needed to raise public consciousness in a manner calculated to win popular support of both the Jamaican and American people.

(4) Recognise that we are all Maroons. Seek a legal declaration of rights and obligations under the treaty of the Maroons from the Privy Council. Bring the issue to the attention of Jamaica and the rest of the world.

(5) Conduct a digital referendum of the people of Jamaica and America and the world on the issue: “Should the United States of America use its power to prevent Jamaica from recognising the freedom of its people to grow and use marijuana?”

(6) Exercise your executive authority to stop all active enforcement of ganja laws in Jamaica pending a decision from the Privy Council. Explain this action and campaign to enhance Jamaica’s place in the world and lessen crime at home.

Charles Nesson
nesson@gmail.com

i want to thank everybody for coming here today and especially the people who were here from the beginning

eric wiseman
tom smuts
dave marglin
jon zittrain
john perry barlow
larry lessig
alex and wendy
myles berkman
fern and eric saltzman

we are here to talk about the future of the net.

my vision of the future of the net is the same as the vision i enunciated ten years ago.

cyberspace is an integrated media realm of stories told and shared by digitally connected and enabled hearts and minds.
WE are the Future of the Internet. We have good stories to live and to tell.
let us make our stories represent our values of
open code
open access
open talk
open education
let’s bridge the digital divide
let’s build the commons of the net

OK OBAMA - Now You Have a GAME!

give thanks with a grateful heart

respect and thanks to Jamaica Correctional Comissioner Richard Reese and his team

speaker-dimasi.mp3

One Constitutional right, the right to bear arms, has been rudely treated by the Supreme Court, judging from Miller v. United States, a 1939 case that is being (indirectly) reviewed in the argument over Washington D.C.’s handgun ban. Now, I think I have a way out of this one, I call it Positively Scalian. I call it Scalia on Steroids. I call it Originalism with a Vengeance.

Here it is: what did “arms” mean in the 1780’s? Smooth-bore muskets, flintlock pistols, swords, and small cannon. PERMITTED!!!!

Machine guns, atomic bombs, nerve gas, rifles, SUBJECT TO REASONABLE REGULATION!!!

I like the seamlessness of this interpretation with the rest of the text: “A well-regulated militia,being necessary to the security of a free state….” Yes! There are Indians threatening our little settlement, and, if not Indians, then teenagers with too much bass blasting rap music all wide and around: Summon the militia and FIRE AT WILL.

And not just Will. Fire at Frankie, Jesus, and Tyrone, too. For wearing their britches too low, and other unspeakable breaches of taste.

Finally, Former First Lady Hillary Clinton ducked sniper fire in Bosnia, or didn’t, as the case may be. This resume-padding has gotten somewhat out of hand. Her confusion is understandable. When she first came to Arkansaw, we played a trick on her we like to play on all dumb Yankees, we took her snipe hunting.

Damn if she didn’t come home with a big one in her bag.

###
hey matt - are u a poker player

From: Quinn, Katie (HOU)
Date: Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 6:10 PM
To: nesson@law.harvard.edu
Cc: mharding@law.harvard.edu

Good Afternoon Professor Nesson,
When we last spoke I had promised to send you dates that work for a luncheon with Speaker DiMasi. I apologize for the delay in my response. I do have an opening ion Friday, March 14 at 1pm. Please advise if that time works for you.
Sincerely,
Katie

Katie Quinn
Special Assistant to the Speaker
Office of Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi
Massachusetts House of Representatives
Room 356, State House
Boston, MA 02133
(617) 722-2500

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:30 PM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

yes, thank you. shall i appear at his office at that time.
–
when appropriate (in my judgment) to an open project and not sensitive (in my judgment) in terms of privacy, i may post email to my blog. all privacy requests respected. ———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:35 PM
To: Jonathan Cohen

fyi
———-
From: Quinn, Katie (HOU)
Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:40 PM
To: Charles Nesson

I will be in touch with you the week before with a location.
Regards
Katie

From: Charles Nesson [mailto:nesson@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:31 PM
To: Quinn, Katie (HOU)
Subject: Re: Lunch with Speaker DiMasi

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:30 AM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

may i confirm
———-
From: Quinn, Katie (HOU)
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:54 AM
To: Charles Nesson

Professor Nesson, I was just going to e-mail you shortly. I have to reschedule lunch tomorrow. I am looking at Friday, March 28th or Friday April 11th for lunch. Please advise if either of these days work for you. Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Katie Q
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:31 AM

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 12:01 PM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

too bad
i had wanted to talk with the speaker about the oped i’m expecting the globe to publish tomorrow (attached) and to brief him on the March 18 Don’t Criminalize Online Poker Rally, which i expect will bring out a lot of young people in “how crazy is that?” t-shirts. that was to be for openers.
march 28
———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 12:02 PM
To: Joe Finder

fyi

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 12:04 PM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

with attachment
:
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 12:08 PM
To: Charles Nesson

Professor Nesson, I will put this article in front of the Speaker today and deliver the additional portion of your message. I will be in touch,
Thanks,
Katie

Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:05 PM
To: Quinn, Katie (HOU)
Subject: Lunch with Speaker DiMasi

———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 12:16 PM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

thank you
:
Date: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 6:02 AM
To: “Quinn, Katie (HOU)”

i am hoping not to be disappointed again in confirming a lunch date with speaker dimasi

i hope he will be amused and intrigued by this video

http://mackie.popcha.com/GPSTS/ShowdownE1/
–

###

patrick opened with the his casino bill
dimasi calls him on his numbers for dollars and jobs
full of bullshit made of near thin air

tune in march 28

here’s audio of an exchange with deval just before he testified at the statehouse hearing in which he identifies the attorney general as the immediate force behind the criminalization of online poker in his bill — and says he does not stand behind it and would welcome an amendment taking that provision out!
hello-deval-did-you-get-my-letter.mp3

here’s audio leading up to the exchange with deval
gardner-auditorium-is-packed.mp3

Hi. i’m Charlie Nesson, law professor at Harvard. founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. We are a leading center of thought on the highest and best uses of internet technology. i am also founder and president of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, gpsts.org.

Buried in Governor Patrick’s resort casino bill is a provision making criminals of those who play poker online, threatening two years in prison and $25,000 fine. To some it may seem trivial in light of the jobs and money issues at stake here to be concerned about making thousands of Massachusetts residents criminals.

i ask you to take just a few minutes here to focus on it. A larger issue of good government is at stake. i have been trying unsuccessfully for months to determine who put this criminalization provision into the bill. As of this morning i now finally have it from the Governor himself that this criminalization provision was inserted in the bill at the behest of the Attorney General, Martha Coakley, and – this is news! — the Governor will not now stand behind it.

Is Martha Coakley behind this criminalization provision? Will she come forward and discuss the wanton damage her provision would impose?

i believe education will prove to be the internet’s highest and best use. i speak for the potential use in online education of learning and teaching through mastery of strategic games, from tic tac toe through checkers and chess to poker with lessons along the way about logic and life. Instead of criminalizing online poker, i ask the legislature to recognize poker as among the most sophisticated of strategic games, and to acknowledge its potential power as a teaching tool, and to open to the possibility of embracing online poker with facilitating regulation. This could bring to Massachusetts a multi-billion dollar industry and significant revenue for the state.

The Governor’s bill as it stands is fatally defective, any way you look at it, whether from the standpoint of poker players, or from a good government perspective, or from the viewpoint of those of us who would like to see Massachusetts become a leader in online education and a home for internet communities.

###

Forwarded conversation
Subject: criminalizing poker
————————

From: Charles Nesson
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 2:10 PM
To: office@marthacoakley.com

dear martha coakley

i understand from governor patrick that the provision criminalizing online wagering that was in the governor’s casino bill was put in the bill at your behest. if this is the case, may i come and speak with you about this. i see this same provision now included in the track bill recently submitted.

criminalizing online wagering is a bad idea for many reasons, but my personal and primary objection to this blunderbuss criminalization approach is that it sweeps in online poker. This makes the online education program and environment i am developing as the major objective of my work criminal and impossible.

I am the founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. open access open education is its mission. I lead a research initiative i call cyberone to find means and method for using the internet for education in a manner that is open, free, rigorous, scalable, and fun. I am founder and president of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, gpsts.org. its mission is to find a positive business plan to support open education in an open net. I am excited, as are significant others, about the prospect of developing and offering an open online curriculum grounded in the teaching of strategic games, starting with tic tac toe. games progress from simple to complex. tic tac toe, lines-and-dots, connect 4, checkers, chess, poker.

The blunderbuss approach of criminalizing online wagering fails to distinguish between wagering on lotteries (games of chance played against the house at pre-set losing odds) and wagering on games of skill (like poker, played against other players and requiring assessment of risk and strategic management of resources).

I have been concerned about this from the time the governor first introduced his resort casino bill with the criminalization provision buried in it, and have been attempting ever since to track down its backer so that I might make my case and get it changed. My efforts included inquiries to the govenor’s staff (stan mcgee), Las Vegas Sands (Sheldon Adelson), Harrah’s (Gary Loveman), a lobbyist for Suffolk Downs, all of whom denied knowledge of how it got in there and who was backing it. Only when I spoke with the governor himself at the recent hearing did I learn that the impetus for “clarifying the law” with this provision had come from you.

Would you be willing to meet and talk with me about this.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/berkmanat10/Open_Education_and_the_Future_of_University

sincerely

charles nesson

–
——
when appropriate (in my judgment) to an open project and not sensitive (in my judgment) in terms of privacy, i may post email to my blog. all privacy requests respected. ———-