Your privacy is being eroded in a number of ways. One of which is that almost everybody these days is carrying around a tracking device, that is, a cell phone. While it’s helpful tool in criminal investigations, the potential for misuse is considerable. “Bluejacking” is an example of one of the more mischievous attacks. This following is a pretty good overview of how cell phones can be used to track your location.
Sometime in the recent past, Blogsnow was resurrected. Hooray!
Something about referring to the United State of America as the “Homeland” has always sounded a little odd, perhaps even a tad fascist. I’m not alone in this apparently. Wired’s Threat Level blog has a post today, There’s No Such Thing as the Homeland that helps put a point on it:
People who write and think of their country as the Homeland with a capital H tend to think that they can redefine torture, ignore international treaties, fund disinformation efforts to keep morale high, launch wars based on hunches and emphasize the power of the executive branch because they consider themselves the good guys who are the only ones who know what’s right for the country. They only want to protect the Homeland, don’t you see? The vocabulary is symptomatic of a rigid, nationalistic world view.
But even more apt:
There is no such thing as a Homeland. The United States is not Franco’s Spain, the National Socialist Party’s Germany, or Mussolini’s Italy. We do not face imminent destruction of our country or way of life.
The final assertion, of course, is arguable from a number of points of view. In particular, it is our reaction to terrorism that threatens our way of life.
Not terribly in depth, but here’s a list of the “Gaming’s 10 Biggest Scandals.” In other news, video games are good for you.
Opinion polls indicate that public support for impeachment is at a high point. But whether this idea runs along partisan lines is to miss the point. Bush & Cheney are the architects of a massive increase in executive powers and they achieved it long before the latest outrages, namely Cheney’s assertion that the Office of the VP is not part of the executive branch and that executive privilege universally trumps the Congress’ power to investigate. The Constitutional check to the potential despotism of the executive branch is the rarely used power of impeachment. According to John Nichols if there was ever a time to use it, that time is now, I think this quote neatly sums up what is at stake:
“On January 20th, 2009, if George Bush and Dick Cheney are not appropriately held to account this Administration will hand off a toolbox with more powers than any President has ever had, more powers than the founders could have imagined. And that box may be handed to Hillary Clinton or it may be handed to Mitt Romney or Barack Obama or someone else. But whoever gets it, one of the things we know about power is that people don’t give away the tools.” — John Nichols
For more on this see Tough Talk on Impeachment.
WFMU revives an obscure bit of Velvet Underground lore. Lou Reed got his start writing music for a pseudo-Brill Building outfit and wrote and recorded a novelty single titled “The Ostrich.” The band recorded as “The Primitives” and also featured John Cale. It basically sounds like one of VU’s goofier singles. You can listen to it here.
Are you a compulsive debtor? Check the warning signs. And get help.
I’m in the midst of reading The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. So far I’m finding it a fun read, it touches on the same themes he introduced in Fooled By Randomness, (including the reappearance of Taleb dopperganger Nero Tulip) but explores in particular the rare event and more importantly, how we humans aren’t really wired to plan for or to even consider it. I guess Taleb hasn’t met too many pessimists.
Taleb is one of those writers who is able to sustain an intimate and conversational tone even while explaining complex philosophical matters. It often feels like a hushed conversation between you and the author, the only ones in the room who aren’t foolish enough to believe they know anything. In a lot of ways, the style reminds me of Richard Feymann’s memoirs.
Taleb does spend quite a bit of time ranting about ‘the Gaussian’, which he deems an intellectual fraud. I was surprised about how he singles out this foundational statistical concept, especially his concerns about its misuse, given that I was under the impression that most ‘quants’ don’t rely too heavily on classical statistical inference in their work. Although I understand his qualms about all statistical technique, the casual and sarcastic tone of the book leads one to believe that this is more a Taleb hobbyhorse than a real argument against ‘the Gaussian.’
Nevertheless, the book ultimately has a positive message, namely that although we cannot be certain of much of anything, we can at least bask in the good fortune that has enabled us to live another day. On a lighter note, Taleb recommends that his audience ‘go to cocktail parties’ (you never know who you might meet) and cultivate serendipity in our lives.
I understand I’m about eight years too late on this, but I happened to catch a few episodes of “The Family Guy” on Adult Swim recently. I’m not terribly surprised to learn that I wasn’t missing much. I found the show tedious to get through Although the show is chock full of pop references, it never manages to be funny. The longevity of the show is puzzling given that it operates on such a lean mixture, much like that of the show “Full House.” I hate to tell you this, but “The Family Guy” is a terrible show.