Nixon Library Opens a Door Some Would Prefer Left Closed; New York Times, 3/31/11

Adam Nagourney, New York Times; Nixon Library Opens a Door Some Would Prefer Left Closed:

"The unveiling ended a nearly yearlong struggle between national archivists and the Richard Nixon Foundation, a group of Nixon loyalists who controlled the former president’s papers until ceding them to the National Archives four years ago. The fight was over how to portray the scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation."

Google's FTC Settlement Over Privacy Breach Makes History; HuffingtonPost.com, 3/30/11

Bianca Bosker, HuffingtonPost.com; Google's FTC Settlement Over Privacy Breach Makes History:

"Google's settlement is unprecedented, not only because it marks the first time the FTC has accused a company of violating privacy rules spelled out under the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework, but also because it is the first settlement requiring a company to institute a "comprehensive privacy program" as part of the agreement, according to the FTC.

Google will also have to submit to regular, independent privacy audits once every two years for the next 20 years and will be required to obtain "affirmative consent" from users before changing how it shares their personal data with third parties."

Nickelodeon launches anti-bullying campaign; Associated Press, 3/28/11

David Bauder, Associated Press; Nickelodeon launches anti-bullying campaign:

"Half of young people ages 14-24 said they had been the victim of cyberbullying, according to a survey conducted in late 2009 for The Associated Press and MTV."

Doctors Should Ask Kids: Are You On Facebook?; NPR, 3/28/11

NPR; Doctors Should Ask Kids: Are You On Facebook? :

"If the pediatrician wants to know if your kids are on Facebook, it's not because she wants to friend them.

The question about Facebook, and other queries about a child's life online, should be part of the medical history doctors take of kids in the age of social media, according to recommendations just out from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents should find out, too."

Ethical Quandary for Social Sites; New York Times, 3/27/11

Jennifer Preston, New York Times; Ethical Quandary for Social Sites:

"Ebele Okobi-Harris, the director of the business and human rights program at Yahoo, which owns Flickr, said that the case involving Mr. el-Hamalawy’s photos illustrated the challenges of balancing the existing rules and terms of service for users with the new ways that activists are using these tools.

“Flickr was set up as a community for people who love photography to share their photographs,” she said."

It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know; New York Times, 3/26/11

Noam Cohen, New York Times; It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know:

"In the United States, telecommunication companies do not have to report precisely what material they collect, said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who specializes in privacy. He added that based on court cases he could say that “they store more of it and it is becoming more precise.”

“Phones have become a necessary part of modern life,” he said, objecting to the idea that “you have to hand over your personal privacy to be part of the 21st century.”"

A Girl’s Nude Photo, and Altered Lives; New York Times, 3/26/11

Jan Hoffman, New York Times; A Girl’s Nude Photo, and Altered Lives:

"Around the country, law enforcement officials and educators are struggling with how to confront minors who “sext,” an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another.

But adults face a hard truth. For teenagers, who have ready access to technology and are growing up in a culture that celebrates body flaunting, sexting is laughably easy, unremarkable and even compelling: the primary reason teenagers sext is to look cool and sexy to someone they find attractive."

Paper Admits to Plagiarism by Reporter; New York Times, 3/16/11

Tanzina Vega, New York Times; Paper Admits to Plagiarism by Reporter:

"The Washington Post published an editor’s note on its Web site Wednesday apologizing for two articles by a longtime Post reporter who used material from The Arizona Republic without crediting that newspaper or citing it as a source."

"Huckleberry Finn" and the N-word debate; CBS 60 Minutes, 3/18/11

CBS 60 Minutes; "Huckleberry Finn" and the N-word debate:

""Are you censoring Twain?" correspondent Byron Pitts asked Randall Williams, co-owner and editor of NewSouth Books, publishers of the sanitized edition of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn that replaces the N-word with the word "slave."...

It's aimed at schools that already ban the book, though no one knows how many have. Williams says they are not trying replace Twain's original, N-word included.

"If you can have the discussion and you're comfortable havin' the discussion, have it. Have it with it in there. But if you're not comfortable with that, then here's an alternative for you to use. And I would argue to you that it's still powerful," Williams said.""

Gains, and Drawbacks, for Female Professors; New York Times, 3/21/11

Kate Zernike, New York Times; Gains, and Drawbacks, for Female Professors:

"Despite an effort to educate colleagues about bias in letters of recommendation for tenure, those for men tend to focus on intellect while those for women dwell on temperament.

“To women in my generation, these residual issues can sound small because we see so much progress,” said Nancy H. Hopkins, a molecular biologist who instigated the first report. “But they’re not small; they still create an unequal playing field for women — not just at universities, and certainly not just at M.I.T. And they’re harder to change because they are a reflection of where women stand in society.”"

[Editorial] A New Internet Privacy Law?; New York Times, 3/18/11

[Editorial] New York Times; A New Internet Privacy Law? :

"This week, the Obama administration called for legislation to protect consumers’ privacy. In the Senate, John Kerry is trying to draft a privacy bill of rights with the across-the-aisle support of John McCain."

[Podcast] Tracing The 'Immortal' Cells Of Henrietta Lacks; NPR's Fresh Air, 3/18/11

[Podcast] [Interview originally broadcast on February 2, 2010.] NPR's Fresh Air; Tracing The 'Immortal' Cells Of Henrietta Lacks:

"For the past 60 years Lacks' cells have been cultured and used in experiments ranging from determining the long-term effects of radiation to testing the live polio vaccine. Her cells were commercialized and have generated millions of dollars in profit for the medical researchers who patented her tissue.

Lacks' family, however, didn't know the cell cultures existed until more than 20 years after her death."

Corbett ignores opinion polls on taxes and budget cuts; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/18/11

Luara Olson and Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Corbett ignores opinion polls on taxes and budget cuts:

"Scranton architect Michele Dempsey suggested that a tax could help pay for unforeseen problems caused by drilling.

"Where is the accountability if and when something goes wrong? If something should go awry, where is the accountability?" she asked."

[Editorial] The U.C.L.A. Video; New York Times, 3/17/11

[Editorial] New York Times; The U.C.L.A. Video:

"Universities have long wrestled with this issue, with many adopting hate-speech codes that punish speech victimizing minorities and women...

The codes are useful tools against real harassment, but they should not be used to abridge the principle of free speech. That would be a far greater threat to education and to a strong democracy."

U.C.L.A. Student’s Video Rant Against Asians Fuels Firestorm; New York Times, 3/15/11

Ian Lovett, New York Times; U.C.L.A. Student’s Video Rant Against Asians Fuels Firestorm:

"Robert Hernandez, a professor of Internet journalism at the University of Southern California, said Ms. Wallace’s story served as a reminder of the need to be aware of your “digital footprint” in the Internet age. “People feel a false sense of privacy on the Internet that isn’t there,” he said."

Facebook Users Who Are Under Age Raise Concerns; New York Times, 3/11/11

Matt Richtel and Miguel Helft, New York Times; Facebook Users Who Are Under Age Raise Concerns:

"Victoria’s father, Brian Lai, an airline mechanic, said young people “have to have experience using the Internet. It’s the future.” He said Victoria told him she was going onto the sites, and he told her: “It’s not good to lie, but you can make an exception.”

Jerry Ng, Victoria’s 14-year-old cousin, agreed. “It’s one thing to lie to a person,” he said. “But this is lying to a computer.”"

[Press Release] Restrictions on library e-book lending threaten access to information; American Library Association (ALA), 3/14/11

[Press Release] American Library Association (ALA); Restrictions on library e-book lending threaten access to information:

"As libraries cope with stagnant or decreased budgets, the recent decision by publisher HarperCollins to restrict the lending of e-books to a limited number of circulations per copy threatens libraries’ ability to provide their users with access to information...

The Equitable Access to Electronic Information Task Force (EQUACC) and the ALA will soon launch a website dedicated to developing a model for e-book lending."

In Germany, Uproar Over a Doctoral Thesis; New York Times, 3/14/11

Michael Kimmelman, New York Times; In Germany, Uproar Over a Doctoral Thesis:

"...Mr. Guttenberg’s crime doesn’t seem so bad to many in a generation of samplers and aggregators. Last year a teenage German author, Helene Hegemann, published a novel that became a finalist for the Leipzig Book Fair prize, despite plagiarism charges against her...

The widespread expectation now is that Mr. Guttenberg, whose popularity has not dimmed but increased, according to the latest polls, will retreat for a while, and, like Mr. Clinton, after an obligatory period of remorse, come back. First he will have to contend with prosecutors, who the other day announced they had opened an investigation. Plagiarism entails breach of copyright crimes here."

Defense Minister Guttenberg Resigns; Spiegel International, 3/1/11

Spiegel International; Defense Minister Guttenberg Resigns:

"By the end of last week, it had become clear that Guttenberg's dissertation contained dozens of passages that had been copied word-for-word from previously published works without adequate citation. He also included several pages from research notes he requested from parliamentary research assistants. It is not allowed for parliamentarians to use Bundestag research assistants for private business."

Facebook is rewriting its privacy policy; San Jose Mercury News via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/13/11

Mike Swift, San Jose Mercury News via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Facebook is rewriting its privacy policy:

"Facebook's intent to simplify its privacy disclosures, and to create interactive software tools to allow users to see how Facebook and application developers access their data, has drawn praise from some privacy advocates. But, "until Facebook tells its 600 million members what it tells its major advertisers and marketing partners -- on how to configure its system to generate data and other desired ad responses -- it is failing to protect user privacy," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "We intend to push the FTC and Congress to force Facebook to come clean about its data privacy practices.""

A $20 Loan, a Facebook Quarrel and a Fatal Stabbing; New York Times, 3/1/11

Al Baker and Tim Stelloh, New York Times; A $20 Loan, a Facebook Quarrel and a Fatal Stabbing:

"The war of words escalated over Facebook. In capital letters, at 8:52 p.m., Ms. Richards said that she would have the last laugh. Ms. Henriques replied within seconds: “We will see.”...

“Like so many things these days, elements of this case emerged on Facebook,” Mr. Browne said.

To the victim’s relatives, it seemed unreal that the Facebook entries could foreshadow such violence. In fact, Ms. Richards did not consider the exchange she had with Ms. Henriques serious, said her sister, Schneiqua Henry, 20.

“She didn’t pay it any mind,” Ms. Henry said. “She thought it was just another argument.”"

Internet Cheating Scandal Shakes Japan Universities; New York Times, 3/1/11

Martin Fackler, New York Times; Internet Cheating Scandal Shakes Japan Universities:

"While it is unclear whether more than one person was involved, the episode has become a national scandal, raising questions about how to monitor the grueling exams, the main route to success in Japan, in an era of smartphones and instant Internet access.

It also touched a nerve in a proudly egalitarian nation that has struggled to come to terms with its growing economic and social inequalities. Many here are wondering aloud whether admission to top universities — a ticket to a top corporate or government job — remains as merit-based as it used to be, or whether some young people are unfairly getting a leg up, in this case from misuse of new technologies."

Plagiarism in Dissertation Costs German Defense Minister His Job; New York Times, 3/1/11

Judy Dempsey, New York Times; Plagiarism in Dissertation Costs German Defense Minister His Job:

"The University of Bayreuth, which conferred the doctorate in 2007, revoked Mr. Guttenberg’s academic title, saying he had “seriously violated” the institution’s standards.

Conservatives had hoped that his apology would quell the controversy, but last weekend more than 20,000 scholars from Germany and other parts of Europe sent an open letter to the Chancellery saying that Mrs. Merkel’s continuing support of Mr. Guttenberg was a “mockery” of all those who “contribute to scientific advancement in an honest manner.”

“If the protection of ideas is no longer an important value in our society, then we are gambling away our future,” the statement said."

Where Freedom of Expression Runs Headlong Into the Impulse to Censor; New York Times, 2/28/11

Clyde Haberman, New York Times; Where Freedom of Expression Runs Headlong Into the Impulse to Censor:

"“The principle of free speech is easy when the speech is something that’s popular and noncontroversial,” Mr. Siegel said. “The real test is when you disagree with the content of the speech and you still defend the right of someone to articulate the message.”"

Mickey Mouse's dark side; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/27/11

Greg Victor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Mickey Mouse's dark side:

"Charles Kenney in Foreign Policy says that "behind its facade of global goodwill, Disney is playing the evil stepmother to the developing world's entrepreneurial Cinderellas."...

This prevents others from adapting works of art and, writes Mr. Kenney, "If these extreme copyright and patent claims were effectively enforced, ... developing countries would owe Western companies $20 billion a year in royalties -- a transfer of wealth so dramatic that even the Vatican recently raised concerns about the 'excessive zeal' of today's intellectual-property bullies.""

Police expect arrests soon in 'Beaver Hoez' Facebook investigation; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/25/11

Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Police expect arrests soon in 'Beaver Hoez' Facebook investigation:

"With the search warrants, Trooper Roth said investigators eventually will trace who created the page and who posted the crude responses on it.

"Everything on the Internet is trackable," he said. "It will be tracked by who did what. They will know."

And when they do, he said, someone will probably end up charged, most likely with harassment by communication, a misdemeanor."

Facebook page draws police scrutiny for cyberbullying; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/24/11

Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Facebook page draws police scrutiny for cyberbullying:

"Sometime in the past few days, Pennsylvania State Police said a Facebook user created an online forum on the social networking site titled "Beaver County Hoez...

It's unclear what charges may be filed, though troopers characterized the incident as cyber bullying/harassment."

[Editorial] Roberts' rules?: The chief justice should insist on an ethics code; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/25/11

[Editorial] Roberts' rules?: The chief justice should insist on an ethics code:

"Now a group of more than 100 law professors have appealed to Congress to extend to the Supreme Court an ethical code of conduct that applies to lesser courts."

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet; Free Webinar via Educause

Free Webinar via Educause: March 2, 2011 1:00 p.m. ET; The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet:

"In this talk, Daniel J. Solove discusses how gossip and rumor on the Internet are affecting the lives of school students in some profound and troubling ways.

Teeming with chat rooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there’s a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives—often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false—will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look.

People—especially teenagers and college students—are increasingly spilling their most personal secrets as well as intimate details about their families and friends, in blogs and on social networking sites. In a world where anyone can publish any thought to a worldwide audience, how should we balance privacy and free speech? How should the law protect people when harmful gossip and rumors are spread about them on the Internet?

Daniel Solove is the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School and the founder of TeachPrivacy, a company that helps schools develop a comprehensive privacy program."

Hollywood Property Values; New York Times, 2/20/11

Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, New York Times; Hollywood Property Values:

"The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage — “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “The Little Mermaid.” Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention. For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism — innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress. Like 3-D."

Stars and Sewers; New York Times, 2/20/11

Maureen Dowd, New York Times; Stars and Sewers:

"Online anonymity has created what the computer scientist Jaron Lanier calls a “culture of sadism.”...

Evgeny Morozov, author of “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom,” told me Twitter creates a false intimacy and can “bring out the worst in people."...

Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” says technology amplifies everything, good instincts and base. While technology is amoral, he said, our brains may be rewired in disturbing ways.

“Researchers say that we need to be quiet and attentive if we want to tap into our deeper emotions,” he said. “If we’re constantly interrupted and distracted, we kind of short-circuit our empathy. If you dampen empathy and you encourage the immediate expression of whatever is in your mind, you get a lot of nastiness that wouldn’t have occurred before.”"

[Podcast] The Personal Impact of the Web; NPR's On the Media, 2/18/11

[Podcast] NPR's On the Media; The Personal Impact of the Web:

"This week On the Media brings you a version of our first ever live show - a look at the internet and how it's changing us. First up, what is the net doing to as individuals? Does it make us better and more connected to each other? Or does it degrade our real life social connections and leave us at the mercy of long distance bullies? Bob and Brooke hash it out, with help from psychologist Sherry Turkle, writer Conor Friedersdorf, and net researcher Lee Rainie."

The human race needs elephant mothers, not tiger mothers; Guardian, 2/13/11

Peter Singer, Guardian; The human race needs elephant mothers, not tiger mothers:

"We should aim for our children to be good people, and to live ethical lives that manifest concern for others as well as for themselves. This approach to childrearing is not unrelated to happiness: there is abundant evidence that those who are generous and kind are more content with their lives than those who are not. But it is also an important goal in its own right.

Tigers lead solitary lives, except for mothers with their cubs. We, by contrast, are social animals. So are elephants, and elephant mothers do not focus only on the wellbeing of their own offspring. Together, they protect and take care of all the young in their herd, running a kind of daycare centre."

Digital Age Is Slow to Arrive in Rural America; New York Times, 2/18/11

Kim Severson, New York Times; Digital Age Is Slow to Arrive in Rural America:

"As the world embraces its digital age — two billion people now use the Internet regularly — the line delineating two Americas has become more broadly drawn. There are those who have reliable, fast access to the Internet, and those, like about half of the 27,867 people here in Clarke County, who do not."

Egypt's revolt met with wide support, censorship; Associated Press, 2/12/11

Associated Press; Egypt's revolt met with wide support, censorship:

"From London to Gaza City to Seoul, the world was savoring the spectacular fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, with demonstrators rallying in the thousands Saturday in cities across the world. But other authoritarian regimes weren't celebrating — and some were trying to censor the news.

In China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly stamps out dissent, terse media reports downplayed the large-scale pro-democracy protests in Egypt that forced Mubarak from power and instead emphasized the country's disorder and lawlessness.

In oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, where coup leader Teodoro Obiang has been in power since 1979, state-controlled media was ordered to stop reporting about Egypt altogether, according to African news site afrol.com.

Nearly everywhere else, newspapers congratulated Egypt's revolution, with many headlines carrying the word: "Finally.""

The Order of Things: What college rankings really tell us; New Yorker, 2/14/11

Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker; The Order of Things: What college rankings really tell us:

"There are schools that provide a good legal education at a decent price, and, by choosing not to include tuition as a variable, U.S. News has effectively penalized those schools for trying to provide value for the tuition dollar. The U.S. News ranking turns out to be full of these kinds of implicit ideological choices. It gives twice as much weight to selectivity as it does to efficacy. It favors the Yale model over the Penn State model, which means that the Yales of the world will always succeed at the U.S. News rankings because the U.S. News system is designed to reward Yale-ness. At a time when American higher education is facing a crisis of accessibility and affordability, we have adopted a de-facto standard of college quality that is uninterested in both of those factors."

Free love's antidote: On the Pitt campus, it should have been free speech; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/12/11

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Free love's antidote: On the Pitt campus, it should have been free speech:

"University of Pittsburgh student Joseph Petrich wanted to advocate for chastity now, only to be told by university officialdom that he and his group had to leave."

Ethics Watchdog Targets Congressional Sleepovers; AP via NPR, 2/10/11

AP via NPR; Ethics Watchdog Targets Congressional Sleepovers:

"A Washington ethics watchdog says it's time for Congress to crack down on lawmakers who sleep in their offices rather than pay for a place to live.

Reacting to a surge in congressmen bunking down in their work spaces, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wants the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether the politicians are getting an unfair tax break and violating their own rules by making personal use of public resources."

[Podcast] Professors Differ On Ethics Of Using WikiLeaks Cables; NPR's Morning Edition, 2/7/11

[Podcast] Jessica Deahl, NPR's Morning Edition; Professors Differ On Ethics Of Using WikiLeaks Cables:

"The WikiLeaks cable dump is almost universally considered a scholar's treasure trove. But, there is a debate within the academic community over the ethics of using the classified dispatches in the classroom."

The Ethics of Free Cellphone Calls; New York Times, 2/10/11

David Pogue, New York Times; The Ethics of Free Cellphone Calls:

"Now, you know my feelings about cellphone companies. I think they’re prone to egregious greed and gouging. They charge both the sender and the recipient of each text message. They don’t lower our monthly bills once our subsidized phone is paid off (except T-Mobile).

Nevertheless, this way of fighting back is cheating...

Your HONEST customer,

David"

Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers; New York Times, 2/10/11

Susan Saulny, New York Times; Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers:

"The chameleon-like quality of Ms. López-Mullins’s racial and ethnic identification might seem trivial except that statistics on ethnicity and race are used for many important purposes. These include assessing disparities in health, education, employment and housing, enforcing civil rights protections, and deciding who might qualify for special consideration as members of underrepresented minority groups."

Teachers’ Colleges Upset By Plan to Grade Them; New York Times, 2/9/11

Trip Gabriel, New York Times; Teachers’ Colleges Upset By Plan to Grade Them:

"...U.S. News & World Report is planning to give A through F grades to more than 1,000 teachers’ colleges, and many of the schools are unhappy, marching to the principal’s office to complain the system is unfair.

Numerous education school deans have protested that the ratings program’s methodology is flawed since the program was announced last month. In a letter last week, officials from 35 leading education colleges and graduate schools — including Columbia, Harvard, Michigan State and Vanderbilt — denounced an “implied coercion” if they do not cooperate with the ratings."

[Editorial] The Disappearing Ethics Act; New York Times, 2/5/11

[Editorial] New York Times; The Disappearing Ethics Act:

"In a woeful signal to the new Congress, the House ethics committee has decided that when it comes to money and ethics, money nearly always wins."

Wary of Egypt Unrest, China Censors Web; New York Times, 2/1/11

Edward Wong and David Barboza, New York Times; Wary of Egypt Unrest, China Censors Web:

"Sina.com and Netease.com — two of the nation’s biggest online portals — blocked keyword searches of the word “Egypt,” though the mass protests were being discussed on some Internet chat rooms on Monday. Searching for “Egypt” has also been blocked on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Censoring the Internet is not the only approach. The Chinese government has also tried to get out ahead of the discussion, framing the Egyptian protests in a few editorials and articles in state-controlled news publications as a chaotic affair that embodies the pitfalls of trying to plant democracy in countries that are not quite ready for it — a line China’s leaders have long held."

Connecticut Library To Show 'Sicko' After All; Library Journal, 1/26/11

Library Journal; Connecticut Library To Show 'Sicko' After All:

"Dutcher said he would attempt to "balance" the films that are shown, as the critics have demanded, but that Sicko had to be shown; he said also that he had assurances from Coppler that library policy and the management of the library would not change, and that as director he maintained the authority to make decisions about programming at the library...

Some have said seeking balance could create a trap of false equivalencies (do you "balance" Schindler's List with a holocaust denier?), but Dutcher said if that arose he would deal with it.

"One of the things that really influenced me was the television programs where everybody has to yell at everyone else and nobody gets anywhere because nobody listens to one another. People ask, 'Why can't we sit down and work it out?' and that's the method we are attempting here," he said."

New Partners in the Plagiarism-Detection Business; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/26/11

Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education; New Partners in the Plagiarism-Detection Business:

"The latter runs essays through a database of Internet content, journals, books, and previously submitted writing. It then provides a report listing the number—and type—of matches that might indicate all sorts of word-recycling. In one study Turnitin for Admissions reviewed 450,000 personal statements and found that 36 percent contained a significant amount of matching text (more than 10 percent). Those matches tended to come from Web sites offering “sample” personal statements. Other tests have found questionable similarities among 8 to 20 percent of applications...

“A lot of jaws are dropping,” Mr. Lorton said of admissions officials surprised by the levels of matching they’ve seen. “There are people seeking an advanced degree at the most selective institutions who can’t even write their own personal statements.”"

Republican Congressman Proposes Tracking Freedom of Information Act Requests; New York Times, 1/29/11

Eric Lipton, New York Times; Republican Congressman Proposes Tracking Freedom of Information Act Requests:

"But his extraordinary request worries some civil libertarians. It “just seems sort of creepy that one person in the government could track who is looking into what and what kinds of questions they are asking,” said David Cuillier, a University of Arizona journalism professor and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee at the Society of Professional Journalists. “It is an easy way to target people who he might think are up to no good.”...

Yearly, the federal government receives about 600,000 FOIA requests, as they are called, a vast majority from corporate executives seeking information on competitors that might do business with the government. A much smaller number comes from civil libertarians, private citizens, whistle-blowers or journalists seeking information on otherwise secret government operations."

House Ethics Committee Clears 3 of Conflict of Interest; New York Times, 1/27/11

Eric Lipton, New York Times; House Ethics Committee Clears 3 of Conflict of Interest:

"The House ethics committee, in one of its first official acts since the start of the new Congress, dismissed cases involving three members accused of creating an appearance of a conflict by holding fund-raising events with financial industry executives and lobbyists in the days before major votes on legislation revamping the nation’s financial regulations.

The decision came as a relief to lawmakers. If the ethics committee had found violations, ground rules for fund-raising would have radically changed in Washington, where popular restaurants and bars around Capitol Hill sometimes host two or three events each night."

High Price for India’s Information Law; New York Times, 1/23/11

Lydia Polgreen, New York Times; High Price for India’s Information Law:

"Mr. Jethwa was one of millions of Indians who had embraced the country’s five-year-old Right to Information Act, which allows citizens to demand almost any government information. People use the law to stop petty corruption and to solve their most basic problems, like getting access to subsidized food for the poor or a government pension without having to pay a bribe, or determining whether government doctors and teachers are actually showing up for work.

But activists like Mr. Jethwa who have tried to push such disclosures further — making pointed inquiries at the dangerous intersection of high-stakes business and power politics — have paid a heavy price. Perhaps a dozen have been killed since 2005, when the law was enacted, and countless others have been beaten and harassed."

G.O.P. Grants Reprieve to House Ethics Office; New York Times,

Ron Nixon,New York Times; G.O.P. Grants Reprieve to House Ethics Office:

"Before the 2010 midterm elections, speculation was rampant that if the Republicans took over the House, they would kill the fledgling Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body that investigates complaints of misbehavior."