Daily Archives: November 24, 2003

Am I The Weakest Link?

Posted on November 24, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Slashdot | Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge (quoting the Washington Post's On the Web, Research Work Proves Ephemeral). It's true that linkrot is a serious problem. It's also true that archive.org is only a partial solution since it doesn't get anything and some big content providers — like the Washington Post — block it.

Is the only solution to make (copyright busting?) offline copies of everything? If so, where's the tool that will automate that for me, and — more importantly — index all that content on my drive, disk, or tape?

Posted in Internet | 5 Comments

Democracy Be Damned: Fla Pols Won’t Fund Small Classes

Posted on November 24, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The voters of Florida made it clear they want small class sizes in Florida primary schools, passing a state constituional amendment mandating shrinking class sizes over a ten-year period. Then the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, future presidential candidate, made it clear that he intends to subvert the voters' will because nothing, not even children or democracy, is worth raising taxes for.

Now comes the the Republican leadership in the legislature to say that they just won't even try to pay for small classes, because, really, what's the point in doing that unless the voters again make it clear that they really meant what they said. Better first to try to get the voters to repeal the constitutional amendment in the hopes it will all blow over. King says state can't pay for smaller classes. And, hey, lets make the next vote in a special election in August, when turnout in South Florida is likely to be at its lowest! “The people have to speak,” one of the legislative leaders said…ignoring the fact that they already did.

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