NYTimes - Blogs and Employers

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Check this out. As the article rightly points out, lots of people tend to confuse "right to blog" with "right to blog without negative consequences." In the U.S., First Amendment rights protect citizens from prior restraint. But they don't provide for consequence-free publishing.

Cases are usually pretty clear cut when dissemination of confidential information is involved or when "at will" employment is the norm. Bloggers have a right to post about their companies, but employers have the right to discontinue their employment.

Personally, I'd encourage any employees of Underscore to blog. But they'd have to understand some basic ground rules first, like restrictions on confidential information and things like that. But not all companies take kindly to being written about by their own employees.

In the age of citizen publishing, it probably makes sense for companies to provide policies and guidelines concerning publishing projects outside the office. At least that would head off most potential problems or misunderstandings.

I'm Ambidextrous!

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Even though I'm predominantly a righty, there are certain things I can do left-handed or ambidextrously. For instance, I ride a skateboard or surfboard left-handed. My Dad tried to make a switch-hitter out of me when I was a little kid, but I remember it felt really weird to bat left-handed in baseball and I really wasn't able to do it well. On Sunday, I figured out that shooting is on the list of stuff I can do from both sides of the plate. Dan recently got a new shotgun in a left-handed model, so I tried shooting it lefty to avoid having the shells eject across my face. Turns out that after a few tries, I got the hang of it and can now hit triples without too much difficulty.

So when Dan and I were shooting Sunday afternoon, I was switching it up quite a bit and trying to hit targets from both right- and left-handed stances. Why? I dunno - maybe it'll prep me for the day when the radioactive zombies gnaw my right arm off and I have to fend for myself with my left. Who knows?

Finally, Some Oil-For-Food Indictments

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Here's the article in Newsday. Finally, some action on this. But I've got questions...

1) What's this about an "unnamed UN official?" I assume it's because of an ongoing investigation that he hasn't been identified, but let's not compromise with any guilty parties. This whole thing is too offensive to let people involved cop pleas or keep their names out of the press.

2) Who is the "former U.S. Government Official?" See above.

3) Why does Park face only five years? Seems light to me, especially since this isn't the first time he has engaged in this kind of behavior.

Keep going, fellas. Let's see some more indictments in the coming months. And, just as importantly, let's see some recovered funds as well.