free speech online - blue ribbon campaign

Cos Texts - misc. last updated 2002-07-10

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Some of the texts I've found on the net over the years, that I think are worth reading. I'll keep adding more over time.

Nonfiction
  • Presumed Guilty The Law's Victims in the War on Drugs
    This excellent six part investigative series by the Pittsburgh Press brings to light the immense damage the War on Drugs has done to our civil rights. Related Articles:
  • The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda
  • Policing for Profit: The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda
  • Speech by Ira Glasser, ACLU national director, 6 Oct 1988. A strong defense of the ACLU in response to George Bush's "accusation" that opposing candidate Michael Dukakis was a "card carrying liberal" [ACLU member]
  • Crime and Puzzlement by John Perry Barlow.
    The Internet's Common Sense and the birth of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  • The Internet Debacle - an Alternative View, by Janis Ian - a rebuttal to the music industry, and in support of free downloading on the net.
  • John Gilmore's rant, What's Wrong With Copy Protection, in response to a question by Ron Rivest (of RSA).
  • In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists published this warning to humanity. It was signed by over 1500 scientists, including the majority of all Nobel Prize winners in the sciences.
  • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Net, a short piece by Douglas Adams written for the Sunday Times.
  • Larry Wall's keynote address at the first annual Perl Conference, on "Perl Culture"
  • Richard Stallman's essay, Why Software Should be Free. Richard Stallman is the founder of the Free Software Foundation.
  • Albert Einstein's essay, Why Socialism originally from Monthly Review, New York, May, 1949. [Re-printed in his book Ideas and Opinions]
  • John S. Quarterman's "Internet" column about why Microsoft Windows is so popular. Available at MIDS as a sample article
  • Some articles about Panama around the time of the US invasion:
  • How Television Sold the Panama Invasion - from the January-February 1990 issue of Extra! [FAIR]
  • U.S. Soldiers Harass U.S. Film Crew in Panama - from the 4 July 1990 issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian
  • Panama: Politics as Usual - the effects of the US invasion
  • An Insider's View of the Operation Rescue siege on San Jose's reproductive services clinics
  • What Happened to Kerista? (a polyfidelitous commune from the 60s that lasted into the 90s)
  • "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." A sad and cautionary tale posted by Harry H Conover on tiac.net's local newsgroup [26Apr95]
  • A entertaining rant by Mark-Jason Dominus in comp.lang.perl about checking the return values of system calls
  • List of telecom industry acronyms from Phrack volume 2 issue 20

    • Humor
  • The VAXorcist - a VMS horror story
  • does IBM have a Buddha nature? A discussion on PC MagNet, PC Magazine's online service.
  • FAA Accident Report (probably folklore)
  • A few choice oracularities from the Usenet Oracle
  • Politics Made Simple. You have two cows...
  • a classic BIFF posting
  • Ode to Spot, a poem by Lt. Commander Data
  • strfry(3D) man page
    • Also, check the humor section of my hotlist for links to other amusing stuff...

    Purity Tests
  • The original 100 question purity test.
  • The Rickett's House 100 question test.
  • The final, 500 question test
  • The post-final 1000 question test
  • A condensed 75 question test for people with really low scores. Skip all the mundane questions.
  • Just for fun, the math purity test
  • The Official MIT nerd test
  • The 500 question nerdity test
  • The Perl Purity Test version 1.01
  • A purity test in the Dr. Seuss style
    • Somewhere out there, I found an HTML version of the 500 test.

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    Cos Texts main page: [CosWeb]

    cos@cs.brandeis.edu