Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

McCain Votes Against Banning Waterboarding

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Maverick Fails The Test: McCain Votes Against Waterboarding Ban.

He was against torture before he voted for it.

Posted in Politics: McCain, Torture | 6 Comments

Spore: First-Ever “Massively Online Singleplayer Game”

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Interesting pre-review of the long-awaited Spore, due out in stores in September. bit-tech.net | Spore: Hands-on Preview – Pollinated Content.

Most interesting comment:

one of the coolest and most interesting things about the game on both a technical and casual level [is] the [Pollination] system by which Spore is creating a whole new genre — Massively Online Singleplayer.

Yeah, that seems like a contradiction. Bear with us and let us explain.

Every time a player starts a game in Spore they're given a new planet. The planet is the same every time and serves as little more than a blank slate for the creatures to play on.

Except, it isn't always the same and, although the landscape is always basically the same, the types of other animals and vegetation are actually sourced from other Spore players. Their content spills over into your game to keep things fun and perpetually new but, in order to accommodate to casual gamers and those who don't actually want to play multiplayer, those players aren't actually in control of their content.

Posted in Virtual Worlds | Comments Off on Spore: First-Ever “Massively Online Singleplayer Game”

UK Considers Trying Criminal Case Without Jury

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

In what can only be described as a close shave for civil rights, an English Judge has rebuffed an attempt by the UK government to get him to exercise for the first time the statutory power to try a criminal case without a jury.

Details of the request are at Judge may sit alone in drugs case deemed too dangerous for a jury. England long ago dispensed with the civil jury for the large majority of cases (libel being one notorious exception) and the Brown government is apparently contemplating using the Parliament Act 1949 to force through a law allowing the most complex fraud cases to be tried without a jury.

The power to waive a jury in criminal cases is relatively new and so far never used. And, it appears, despite the prosecution's request, this time the UK has dodged the bullet:

A judge has rejected the first attempt in England and Wales to hold a big criminal trial without a jury. Prosecution lawyers applied for the case to be tried by a judge alone because of fears that jurors could intimidated or bribed. The judge ruled that steps could be put in place to ensure the jury was protected, and that he could still discharge the jury and hear the case if evidence of tampering emerged.

Posted in UK | 3 Comments

Herald Article on Annette Taddeo Online

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

In South Florida Democrats Field Strong Congressional Candidates I noted that the Herald's print article on Annette Taddeo didn't seem to be on the web site.

It's up now — perhaps because I wrote in asking what happened to it? — as Ros-Lehtinen latest to face a challenger.

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Herald Article on Annette Taddeo Online

Sen. Bill Nelson Prefers Telcos to Constituents

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

When I called Senator Bill Nelson's office last week, the guy on the phone assured me that Nelson would vote with Senator Dodd to eliminate telco immunity from the FISA bill. [Update: I relied on that call for this post on Feb. 1.]

That turns out to be false.

Like many of his Senate colleagues, Sen. Bill Nelson sold us out to the telcos. See the full Vote on the Dodd Amendment.

I vaguely get the politics of cowardice, although you can be damn sure I won't forget this vote (or the vote for torture, either). But I sure don't get the politics of lying to constituents.

Posted in Civil Liberties | 5 Comments

McCain vs. the YouTube Generation

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

In what likely will be my only decent piece of political prognostication this electoral cycle, back in November 2006 I predicted that John McCain would be undone by YouTube, saying “it's interesting to see just how out of touch with modern realities the increasingly aging McCain seems to be. Pre-YouTube it might have been possible to campaign out of both sides of one's mouth, but that approach is in the dustbin of history now.”

The media will let you run away from what you say in the primaries. YouTube will not. Yesterday I posted a masterly example of what McCain is in for. Here's another, hot on its heels, that's almost as good, YouTube – John McCain: No, You Can't.

In the competition between the YouTube generation and a 71-year-old with a penchant for gaffes and the occasional doubletalk, don't bet on the get-off-my-lawn guy.

Posted in Politics: McCain | 2 Comments