Wednesday, December 15, 2010
An OpEd "In Defense of Secrecy"
After using as an example a newspaper revelation of a satellite phone used by Osama bin Laden, the author takes the position that among the limitations on First Amendment rights, should be a requirement that classified information cannot be freely revealed.
Quoted from this article, is the rationale used by the author to support his contention that free speech limitation is justified:
The most common argument is that protecting information, and prosecuting offenders, is a violation of free speech. That is simply not true. The Supreme Court has never upheld First Amendment absolutism. There are legal and reasonable restrictions on what people are allowed to say, print, or broadcast. It is illegal to incite a mob to violence. It is illegal to libel others. It is illegal to make false claims in advertising about a product. It is illegal to utter profanity on broadcast television or radio. And it is, in fact, illegal to reveal information that would cause immediate harm to U.S. national security. This was uncontroversial during World War II, when sailors and their families were routinely trained that "loose lips sink ships."
More Americans Say They're Cybercrime Victims
Americans are nearly as likely to be victimized by an Internet-based crime as they are of other forms of nonviolent theft. At least that's the perceptions expressed by Americans when asked about crimes committed against themselves and their families.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Wiki hornets' nest
A Wiki hornets' nest:
Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post raises some serious conflicts arising from the recent shutdown of services by Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Master Card, and others.
There have been Denial of Service attacks on all these companies. Who should be supported as the cyber-war escalates?
Der Spiegel, among the most thoughtful of the German publications offers this contribution to the discussion.
Next, is a look at the Julian Assagne, the man in the middle of all of this.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Facebook Wrestles With Free Speech and Civility
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, likes to say that his Web site brings people together, helping to make the world a better place. But Facebook isn’t a utopia, and when it comes up short, Dave Willner tries to clean up.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Keeping Secrets WikiSafe
WASHINGTON — Can the government still keep a secret? In an age of WikiLeaks, flash drives and instant Web postings, leaks have begun to seem unstoppable.
That may be just a first impression. Sobered government officials are scrambling to stop the hemorrhage of documents, even as antisecrecy radicals are discovering that some secrets may be worth protecting after all.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
New breed launched cyber counterattack in support of WikiLeaks
Rafix was set to attack. The target was Visa.com. The weapon: a battery of personal computers ready to jam the site with millions of simultaneous log-in requests.
"FIRE at WILL, gentlemen!" Rafix wrote in an online message. "Enjoy the epic battle of glory!"
What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students
How useful are the views of public school students about their teachers?
Quite useful, according to preliminary results released on Friday from a $45 million research project that is intended to find new ways of distinguishing good teachers from bad.
Friday, December 10, 2010
VA Tech Made Fatal Errors in Shooting
Va Tech critics frustrated by report response.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Critics of how Virginia Tech handled the 2007 campus massacre said Friday they are frustrated but not surprised that the university still refuses to acknowledge mistakes, despite a federal report that concludes officials broke the law by failing to promptly warn students a gunman was on the loose.
Sorkin on Palin's Moose Kill
Aaron Sorkin takes off on the grisly kill of a Moose on Palin's awful Alaska reality show.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Cost of Inflation
Beck tells audience to ruin Thanksgiving dinner with misinformation about inflation
While advising his Fox News viewers to talk about inflation at their Thanksgiving dinners, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that the government removed food and energy prices from its measure of inflation to hide rising prices, that a survey showed economists are "worried" about inflation, and that Social Security recipients are not receiving a cost-of-living adjustment because the government "changed the calculation."
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
!st Amendment gets a bit strained
Twitter tirades test limits of freedom of speech
Joking threats expressed as tweets between friends has led them to trouble with law enforcement.
Monday, November 22, 2010
One More Barrier to Education
The Technology Monster
With all that doesn't work in the schools, now comes not a Game Changer, but a Brain Changer -- and unfortunately, not for the good
Decline and Fall of the American Empire?
American Psychosis by Chris Hedges
While I do not agree with the author in his analysis of how the culture of America is driving it to collapse, I think there is a fundamental problem in that, there will continue to be a mismatch between available jobs, the skills required to perform them, and the availability of a workforce was skills matching those required.
Our public education system has declined to the point where it is functionally useless. There is no quick and simple fix for the barriers which make it impossible for 18-year-olds to be sufficiently intellectually competent to qualify for additional training. Moreover, given the financial straits in which universities and colleges find themselves, they are little prepared to receive the many who might seek postsecondary education, and even less prepared to prepare those students who do attend to enter the workforce with the skills it requires.
Even were it the case that a skilled workforce existed, at this point there simply are not jobs regardless of the level of training possessed by individual workers. Employers have either found ways to replace workers with automation or other technology, or they simply do not have enough revenue for them to be willing to hire additional workers. The costs of health care, retirement, and other benefits have become simply so prohibitive that employers are unable to determine with certainty the productivity of additional workers.
It is without this very revenue to workers that prevents what used to be the largest contribution in tax revenue, that which came from consumer activity, from once again increasing. That lack of consumer activity is the very factor which stands in the way of producing the revenue that local governments, state governments, and the federal government all require to get the country out of the economic hole in which it finds itself.
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