30 November 2005

Great pictures of Hudson County


Looking west on Hoboken Avenue from Baldwin Avenue, taken February 10, 1906

Here is another example of the great pictures available on the LOC site.
The pics are availible in jpg or very high resolution tiff files. For example the following is taken from the picture above.

Is Bush a Buddhist?

The Eight Pillars

22 November 2005

Jefferson and the Internet

WINDSOFCHANGE.NET post on the attempted takeover of the Internet by the UN linked to the following news article.

"Those who have supported nihilistic and disorderly freedom of expression
are beginning to see the fruits" of their efforts, [Robert] Mugabe said, adding that Zimbabwe will be "challenging the bully-boy mentality that has driven the unipolar world." . . . . "Fidel Castro, the unflinching promoter of the use of new technologies," believes "it is necessary to create a multinational democratic (institution) which administers this network of networks," said the WSIS delegate from Cuba. . . . . Too often, the Internet is used for the "propagation of falsehoods," said Mohammad Soleymani, Iran's minister of communication and information technology. . . "Changing the current Internet governance to a participatory, legitimate and accountable system under an international authority is imperative," he said. But changes proposed by Third World countries that would give them more influence are "being rejected because they are not facilities managed by the Breton Woods institution by the West's neo-colonial desires," charged Zimbabwe's Mugabe, referring to a post-World War II agreement that led to the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Diogo predicted the struggles to replace ICANN were not over, saying that "it is a matter of justice and legitimacy that all people must have a say in the way the Internet is governed." ICANN does have an international board of directors, including members from Senegal, Morocco, and Nairobi, but critics say that's not enough.



The desire of the UN to control and stifle dissent on the Internet reminds me of a quote by one of our founding fathers:

"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."

--Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1804. ME 11:33


I think it is best said like this: “The best cure for free speech is more of it”

Where does this name come from? / First Post.

This blogs name is from a section of Jersey City called the Heights, it was once called Showhank Hill and at one time had a brook of the same name. I found the name while browsing the Library of Congres American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. This collection contains many interesting pictures and drawings. I lived in the Heights at one time and it's a great and stimulating place to live.

The main purpose of this blog is to improve my writting skills and contribute something to the Internet.