Links 7/27/11

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Dan Froomkin has a great article about the role that financial speculation plays in driving up gasoline prices*. Keep in mind that even Goldman Sachs, the largest oil trader, admits that speculation drives up oil prices. But what really disgusting is how this speculation-based rise in prices…
Some fiddling while Rome burns. That is, links for you. Science: FFS: TVC's new NIH boogeyman - CHINA Friday Weird Science: Knights in Shining Armor, Not as sexy as you might think How Greedy Corporations Are Destroying America's Status as 'Innovation Nation' A quick dive into the protist world (…
I didn't blog about the debt ceiling becauseâ¦Â ugh. The idea that the Republican party would hold the country, and indeed the world economy, hostage is unimaginably awful. The idea that, in the midst of a recession barely worse than the Great Depression, we're talking about cutting government…
Today is my birthday! And although I won't get the birthday spectacular that PZ did, I share my birthday with some magnificent company, Strauss, Ehrlich, Jones, Einstein, Jones, and Crystal.  Peter decided to get me riled up for the ol' b-day by sending a link to a website of the utmost stupidity…

Actually, the linked article "How a 1995 court case kept the newspaper industry from competing online" quite clearly says the opposite. The 1995 Prodigy case held Prodigy responsible for libel because they hired people to monitor online forums, and somewhere, somewhen, someone said something false and defamatory about a company in one of those forums, and what a surprise, the online monitor didn't know one way or the other. Congress in 1996 then granted an explicit exception to this--the yahoo who made things up remained responsible--but the newspapers for the most part were quite happy to let others develop and monetize moderated or semimoderated online communities. The court case in 1995 affected everyone online the same, and the 1996 law ditto. No court forced the newspapers to stick to the horse-and-buggy.

By william e emba (not verified) on 27 Jul 2011 #permalink