February 2011
28 posts
“The triviality of US Mideast policy: The US’s entire frame of reference in...”
– Insightful commentary by former CIA man Robert Grenier on Al Jazeera.
U.S. pours $2 bn a year into Egypt, mostly into... →
Nice breakdown of how much goes where from ProPublica.org.
January 2011
89 posts
“New Facebook feature commercially exploits users: There is a difference between...”
– Larry Magid on GMSV about how Facebook’s new ad scheme exploits users.
“Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. - including Ohio, Vermont and...”
– Ryan Grim on Huff Post about the sad state of news in the U.S. But you can watch their excellent live stream here.
“So racism against Arabs is shutting down the American mind once again. And all...”
– Philip Weiss in Salon.com
Digital Privacy Day: Time to shut down your... →
Reuters reports that U.S. courts are allowing private posts to be used in litigation. Wonderful! So do yourself a favor on FB: hit deactivate AND delete.
WikiLeaks schism cont'd: OpenLeaks site launches. →
Al Jazeera -- the best source to stay in the loop... →
Very good and quick digest of social media nuggets on Storify.
Wired and wireless broadband in India, the next... →
emergentfutures:
While mobile communication (voice+text) has seen incredible growth in India, broadband connectivity hasn’t been taken as seriously. Last year, India announced a National Broadband Plan with the intention of connecting close to 160 million households compared to an estimated 10.3 Million connections as of now.
Angry man Olbermann now does "FOK News" →
From Qantas to Apple -- I see plenty of business... →
Great piece on City of Sound about Qantas using NFC technology to expedite check-in and baggage handling. Makes me wonder what the so-called U.S. pundits understand about the global mobile and e-commerce market when they predict that Apple’s forthcoming NFC eco-system will fail. Quite to the contrary, the iWand will augment and replace many a wallet.
22% of online Americans used social networking or... →
Left and right, divided we post and tweet, says the latest Pew report: “Some 22% of online adults used Twitter or social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace in the months leading up to the November, 2010 elections to connect to the campaign or the election itself.
In contrast to the 2008 race—in which Democratic voters led the way in their use of online social networks for...
Fast and easy search through the WikiLeaks cables →
Tip of the hat to colleagues in Germany and the Netherlands! Cable Search “is aimed at reporters and an initiative of the soon to be launched European Centre of Computer Assisted Research and the Dutch-Flemish association for investigative journalists VVOJ.”
It even lets you set up alerts for keywords and digests as new cables come out.
WatchA long video at 1:48, but worth watching or listening to. Great panel deliberating the relevance of WikiLeaks, including what Daniel Ellsberg has to say about the FBI “lusting after” the chance to feed at the Facebook data trough.
How Facebook sells you out, piece by piece, step... →
Seattle start-up Rel8tion will offer the network another piece in the puzzle of permanent tracking with an incessant ad barrage.
RWW has an eerily apt description of what you are in for thanks to vanity sharing:
“A scene from the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise, shows a future where holographic images pitch you personalized deals as you enter a store; one, coincidentally, from The...
Here is where you should leak your secret dox: NYT... →
Copycat moves as a backhanded compliment from the established players. Traditional media takes a page from WikiLeaks (via GigaOm).
Behavioral economics hits the gym →
Two Harvard scientists have come up with a new twist on pricing for fitness clubs: pay less if you work out, pay more if you don’t.
pernillet:
NYTimes: Twitter’s Advertising Plan Could Be Paying Off http://nyti.ms/hWe3DX
TED Talks remixed →
Think, clap, jam! Handy overview at NPR´s Planet Money blog how the brainy lectures and be turned into groovy clips.
“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love...”
– Lisa St. Aubin de Terán (via kari-shma)
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Founding Fathers would have hated your...”
– Bill Maher on the teabaggers (via Raw Story).
Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With... →
Do you need another reason to plug that data sinkhole called Facebook? Here it is, via Red Write Web.
“A FOIA request from the ACLU revealed that in the 18-month period beginning...”
– (via Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com)
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t...”
– John Waters (via euphoriaaaa)
Climate Change Speeds up the Doomsday Clock →
Too bad a large part of the U.S. Congress cannot tell time.
This from the BBC: “Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilisation have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.
As a result, the group has moved the minute hand on its famous “Doomsday Clock” two minutes closer to midnight.”
“We are of the opinion that the public sector has the primary responsibility for...”
– EU report “The New Renaissance” (PDF) warns of leaving digitization of cultural heritage to private players (via RRW).
FAIR on "Violent Media Rhetoric: Beyond Tucson" →
The wages of swining the evil Krauthammer:
“The discussion of violent and paranoid rhetoric in the media is long overdue, whether or not it is ever determined that accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner was somehow influenced or motivated by such rhetoric. Before the shooting, there had been a remarkable surge of politically motivated violence (FAIR Blog, 1/12/11). Despite media efforts...
“This is America, the democracy, the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly,...”
– The unnamed Russian reporter asking this question at a White House press conference has a good point… (via KQED)
How the American commuter gets railroaded →
Who needs modern transit and high-speed rail if we can drive huge cars?
“The terrible time we have with the Washington DC Metro is symptomatic of bad attitudes to public transportation in the US.” (via The Guardian)
If you come to the U.S., better leave your... →
Wikileaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum detained and searched (again) by US agents. (via boing boing)
“1. Establish procedures for the collection and archiving from all military...”
– Request permission to spit, Sir!
A MITRE report on the “$100 Genome,” compiled for the Pentagon, complete with recommendations what the military can do with a vast DNA database (via FAS.org)
NYT and its iPad app: It depends on what you mean... →
Interesting drill down into the use of the NYT app for the iPad:
“Our iPad readership is highest at the beginning and end of the day, much like print readership, which supports nicely our readership on other platforms such as mobile and the Web site.”
The Times’ findings support earlier research that has found the iPad is not a mobile device, but rather one that is portable and shared...
The deadly toll of U.S. domestic small-scale... →
Nicholas D. Kristof has it right:
“To protect the public, we regulate cars and toys, medicines and mutual funds. So, simply as a public health matter, shouldn’t we take steps to reduce the toll from our domestic arms industry?
Just since the killings in Tucson, another 320 or so Americans have been killed by guns — anonymously, with barely a whisker of attention. By tomorrow it’ll be 400...
nprfreshair:
Audio for Terry’s interview with...
WatchLeave it to Jon Stewart and John Oliver to put the iPhone Verizon hook-up into perspective.
“I think people will end up concluding that at least some of the intensity of the...”
– Scientists see climate change link to Australian floods
