RIP Aaron
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 19:59"Some days it seemed like all there was was gray". With those words, Aaron Swartz started off a blog post about his relationship with Quinn Norton. This morning, I started off my blog post about driving to a funeral with, "It was a grey January morning as I climbed into my black 1997 Nissan Altima and headed north".
It seems appropriate that my RSS feed is full of posts about Aaron Swartz who help with the creation of RSS. The posts are by some of the bloggers I respect most, David Weinberger, Ethan Zuckerman, and Larry Lessig to name a few.
I don't have stories of meeting Aaron when he was 14 or of him staying at my house at some point. I'm not sure if I ever met him, but given our mutual friends and mutual interests, I suspect we probably met somewhere along the way.
Yet Aaron's death hits me hard. Perhaps it is because of the recent death of my mother and of my cousin. Perhaps it is because now, more than ever, we need people like Aaron fighting for open access to information on the internet, in the courts and in our government.
There is not much more to say than I am so sad.
I Know This Much is True, This is Bayt, We are Stardust.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 09:37It was a grey January morning as I climbed into my black 1997 Nissan Altima and headed north; warmer and damper that it should be at this time of the year. It was a Friday morning of a very busy week. Too many nights I had been out late at meetings and up early the next morning for more meetings.
On a good day, the lack of sleep would left me a little more distracted than normal, but with so much going on in my mind from all the meetings, and with the day ahead of me, I was even more distracted than normal. I left a little later than I would have left if I were heading to the office, but still it was very close to the morning commute. I left the radio off to ruminate, to work on composing various blog posts and emails in my mind. I reached for the silver travel mug, full of black decaf coffee. In the coffee cup holders were various receipts, my cellphone, but not the travel mug.
On one trip, even more momentous than this trip, I had left a coffee cup on top of the car. It had stayed up there for miles, several of which were on the parkway. I was on the parkway again, and I listened for by travel mug sliding around on the roof. It was a different shape and if I had driven off with it on the roof, it would probably be laying in the driveway back home. More likely, it was on the coffee table in the living room.
I had about a quarter of a tank of gas and thought about the best place to get gas, and perhaps a cup of coffee. I knew that the further north I got, the less expensive gas was likely to be. I wanted coffee, but just a little, not enough so that I would shift uncomfortably in my seat at the funeral home during the service.
In Greenfield, the GPS on my cellphone said to head north. I knew that the funeral home was to the east, but the best gas station was to the west. I headed west, filled up the tank, got a small cup of black decaf, and then headed east on the slower and more direct route. This was through town and would bring back more memories.
At one point on my blog, I retraced some of William Least Heat Moon's travels using Google Maps, and any blog posts or news stories I could find to create a Virtual Blue Highway. The feeling of blue highways came back to me. There was the music store where my folks had bought me my first clarinet. Down this street was the funeral home where we paid our final respects to one of my aunts. Up this street was a toy store we would sometimes stop at on my way to that aunt's house. I passed a neighborhood where cousins used to live. I saw some of the fancy old buildings, now deteriorating, along the way that had always caught my imagination on my trips to visit relatives.
Heading east on the Mohawk trail, I drove through Gill, past Turner's Falls; another important childhood memory. The words of Wally Lamb came to me, "I know this much is true". I felt as if I was accessing some fundamental truth about myself. I passed the road that headed up to another late aunt's house, past the church where we said our final goodbyes to her, not far from the farm my mother grew up on.
I crossed the French King Bridge. There was no traffic in the middle of this dreary morning. I slowed down so I could get a good view up the Connecticut River. There was the rock in the middle of the river that I had heard stories of my aunts and uncles swimming out to during warm summer days of their childhood.
This is bayt. This is home; not just home as in some suburban dwelling we return to after a long hard day at work, but ancestral homeland; patterns of life inherited; thought patterns, patterns of DNA.
Two months ago was my mother's memorial service in the town I grew up in. We had a nor'easter that prevented me from making it, but many friends and relatives were there. This morning, I was going to the funeral service for her niece, my cousin. I first heard about my cousin's illness during the planning for my mother's memorial. As I traveled the final miles to the funeral home I wondered who would be there.
I was traveling alone. My wife had to work. My daughters had school. My sister would be there, as would various cousins. My mother would not be there, to explain, in her shaking voice who each person was or how they were related.
How are we all related? We are all stardust. Hydrogen atoms fused together with others in stellar reactors lightyears and centuries away, making heavier elements, stardust, which became the building blocks of who we are. Some of these atoms combined into molecules, combined into living cells, passed on from my mother to me. The cells have died, the molecules have moved on, but the patterns remain, in our neurons, in our DNA.
These are the patterns of the lives of my relatives that worked in the tool shops and paper mills in the Connecticut River Valley. My ancestors settled here, having come from the Canadian coast, and stopping along the way in different New England towns.
Northfield, Orange, Athol, Millers Falls, Turners Falls, Lake Pleasant; it is not these towns themselves, but something they represent; hard work mingled with joyful recreation, melded together with compassion for neighbors. It is what makes up our lives, and what we remember when we gather to say our final goodbyes.
The funeral was familiar. The same comfortable words, the same friends and relatives, the same motions. The cemetery was where my aunt and uncle are buried. The reception was at the same community center that hosted the reception after my aunt's funeral, and the family stories told by the surviving cousins were similar stories as have been told at funeral receptions for decades.
I know this much is true, this is bayt, we are stardust.
Rest In Peace, Cousin Linda
The Cousins
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/11/2013 - 19:55When I think about 'The Cousins', I usually think about my wife's brother's three daughters. They are about the same age as my daughter and are the cousins that she sees most frequently. She has other cousins, but doesn't see them so often. We've also talked about first cousins once removed, second cousins and other variations.
Yet today, I was thinking about a different set of cousins; my mothers nieces and nephews. Back in October, my mother died. She was the youngest amongst her siblings and was the last to go. The sons and daughters of Vivian and Dorothy have all passed away. Now, the next generation needs to find ways to stay together.
When my mother died, we learned that my cousin Linda was quite ill. Last week, she passed away, and today we gathered to pay our last respects. The reception after the funeral was the same community club where we had gathered about eight years earlier when Linda's mother had passed away.
With my mother being the youngest in her family, my sister and I are the youngest of the cousins. Linda was ten years older than I and so there wasn't the same sort of connection that Fiona has with her cousins. I remember the trips to Uncle Bud's house when I was young. They had big black labradors and a snow mobile. It wasn't until family reunions much later that I started to get to know Linda better. Much of our connection was around dogs. In her final years, she had a spectacular silver labrador named Lucky; they were lucky to have each other.
At the reception, the cousins were more reflective, reminiscent. We talked about family history and genealogy. We remembered tidbits from family gatherings and artifacts from our childhoods together that still hold special meaning.
There were jokes about having to stop meeting like this (at funerals), references to Harold and Maude, and promises to get together soon. Perhaps most important was the recognition that there is something more that shared ancestry or DNA that makes us cousins.
Concerning the Livestock Taken from Woodbridge Animal Control
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 23:01For the past several years, I've been involved with animal rescue, as well as with writing about conflicts between animal rescue organizations, animal control officers and the police departments they are part of. I was very upset to learn about the livestock that were taken from the Woodbridge Animal control and placed at a local farm.
For background, read the two articles from the New Haven Register, Woodbridge cops take heat for removing livestock from animal shelter and Woodbridge police tell their side of livestock story
Let's try to read between the lines of the two stories to get a clearer understanding of what may have happened.
"Tuesday morning, the police placed 21 animals at a Seymour Road farm. The livestock had been kept at the Bradley Road animal shelter between six and 10 months."...
"“They knew Sgt. (Ed) Thomas was looking to move these animals,” Stuart said Tuesday. Thomas directly oversees operation of the animal shelter, which serves Bethany, Derby and Woodbridge. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday and was out of the office Wednesday."...
"Animal Control Officers Karen Lombardi and Paul Neidmann have said they were caught completely off guard by the officers showing up at the facility and announcing they were removing the animals."
The way this reads to me is that Sgt. Thomas was looking to move these animals potentially for quite a while. Yet Animal Control Officers Lombardi and Neidmann who were in regular contact with the animals and people interested in the animals did not believe that this was an appropriate time for the animals to be moved. Sgt. Thomas pulled rank, with the support of his superiors and acted in a way that was not in the best interest of the animals. This would make Asst. Police Chief Stuart's statement about the animal control officers knowing that Sgt. Thomas was looking to move the animals also fit with their statements about being caught completely off guard.
The fact that Sgt. Thomas could not be reached for comment on Tuesday and was out of the office on Wednesday makes me all the more suspicious of his actions. If he was honestly acting in the best interest of the animals and of the town, he should have made himself available and explained why his actions were better for the animals than what the animal control officers believed.
“I have adopted many animals from there, including chickens, and every time, even though they know me, I had to fill out an adoption application. Why wasn’t that done for more than 20 animals?” she asked….
Several residents raised concerns that the animals were not adopted legally, which would include filling out forms. But Thomas said livestock are not adopted, they are simply placed, and no forms are required….
Thomas said paperwork is only required by the state for the adoption of cats and dogs….
Ray Connors, supervisor of the Animal Control Division of the state Department of Agriculture, confirmed there is no required paperwork for livestock…
He said there should be something in writing concerning the animals’ new owners….
Thomas said Woodbridge police have recorded the new owner’s contact information….
The way I read this is that it is not a requirement of State Law that when animals other than cats or dogs are adopted that paperwork be filled out. That doesn't mean that it isn't a best practice that the Animal Control Officers in Woodbridge has followed and should continue to follow. Again, it seems like Officer Thomas was acting within the letter of the law, but not in the best interest of the animals or of the town.
This raises another issue that should be considered. There seems to be this view that 'livestock' are some how less of a pet than cats or dogs. Yet, with more and more people having pot bellied pigs, pygmy goats, miniature donkeys and other 'livestock' as pets, this needs to be reconsidered. Perhaps the State Laws need to be changed to reflect changes in the nature of pet ownership in our state. Lacking that, clear policies agreed upon by the Animal Control Officers, the Police Commission and the Board of Selectman should be made available which recognize that 'livestock' often are pets and should be afforded similar protections.
This brings up another problem with some of the police response.
Officer Rich Monaco said the farm’s owners can “absolutely care for the animals.” He said police visited the farm before and after the animals were relocated.
“This farm is an animal’s dream,” Monaco said. “These animals have a good home. They went from a temporary shelter environment to their more natural environment.”
If you are thinking of a pot bellied pig as a farm animal, that might be right. If you are not paying attention to any specific health needs of the animals, that might be correct. However, if you are thinking about pets that need special care, this may be the furthest thing from the truth.
This gets to my penultimate point.
Police said their general orders require animal control officers to find homes for all animals, including livestock, “as soon as practicable.”
From all that I can see, the decision of when it is practicable should be made by Animal Control Officers and not by bureaucrats with an ax to grind acting arbitrarily and capriciously.
Because of all of this, and in light of
Sheehy has the power to order the livestock returned to the animal shelter, but he said Thursday he plans to attend today’s police commission meeting with an open mind.
I have called First Selectman Sheehy asked him to order the livestock returned to the animal shelter. In addition, I strongly encourage the Police Commission to carefully consider if Sgt. Thomas has acted in the best interest of the town and of the animals, and if there is doubt about that, to find a chain of command for the Animal Control Officers that will better serve the town, its citizens and its animals.
Due Process and Alleged Copyright Infringement
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 10:19Recently, there have been several articles about a suit brought by Capitol Records against Vimeo. Billboard’s article, Big Record Labels Push Copyright Claims Against Vimeo talks about a recent decision in the Second Circuit
that an ISP had to have actual knowledge of specific infringements through takedown notices or something else before being required to remove copyright material expeditiously
MediaPost’s article, Vimeo Argues Safe Harbor Protection In Copyright Case goes to talk about whether the alleged infringements are in fact infringements or are “fair use”.
I think this brings up an important point. How does an ISP have “actual knowledge of specific infringements”? Is an allegation of infringement by copyright holder in a takedown notice sufficient? Should the creator of the derivative work be afforded due process in determining whether or not their work is in fact an infringement or is fair use?
I commented on the MediaPost article,
I applaud Vimeo for supporting due process and I hope an important precedent can be established in this case. As I understand the safe harbor law, when a company knows about an infringement, they need to take down the offending content. Unfortunately, many companies take down content, not when they know that it is infringing, but simply when someone alleges that it is infringing. By respecting due process, web platforms should wait to take down alleged infringing content until after it has been determined in the courts to in fact be infringing. Whether or not lip dubbing is fair use, Vimeo cannot know that the alleged infringing content is in fact infringing content until a judge rules on it. If all web platforms would be so responsible and wait until infringements are ruled upon in the courts, it would significantly deter the reckless allegations of many copyright holders.
Thoughts?
