Psychiatrist’s Apology Stands Out From Typical Scientific Regrets; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/18/12

Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education; Psychiatrist’s Apology Stands Out From Typical Scientific Regrets:

"Dr. Spitzer, on the other hand, has a keen awareness of the larger effects of his work. His study was taken up by anti-homosexual activists and therapists who said they could “cure” patients of their sexual orientation. (Mr. Arana, the American Prospect journalist and a gay man, spent years in such therapy.) Dr. Spitzer also apologized to those patients. He said he did not start the study to show that homosexuality could be done away with. He did it, rather, to debunk the claim that “reparative therapy” was completely ineffective in changing sexual orientation.

But he did so with bad science. He interviewed 200 people who said they used to be gay, and asked them if therapy helped them make the switch. There was, he now says, no way to determine if they were telling the truth, and no comparison group of people who didn’t undergo therapy. And there was no replication of the study. It didn’t validate anti-gay therapy for most scientists, but it did give ammunition to anti-gay groups. So he asked Mr. Arana to print his retraction. Dr. Spitzer wants not only to set the research record straight, but correct a mistaken cultural idea.

Bad science then, but few could say a bad scientist now."

Ex-Rutgers student webcam spy sentenced to 30 days in jail; ArsTechnica.com, 5/21/12

Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica.com; Ex-Rutgers student webcam spy sentenced to 30 days in jail:

"Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student who was convicted in March of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge."

Wikipedia Kills Page Linking Obama Slogan to Socialist Movement; New York Times, 5/8/12

Noam Cohen, New York Times; Wikipedia Kills Page Linking Obama Slogan to Socialist Movement:

"After a debate among readers who also cast votes on the issue, the Wikipedia administrator essentially killed the page by having it redirect to the general article on the Obama-Biden presidential campaign; all that is left of the original article is the simple statement: “On April 30, 2012, the campaign announced that its slogan would be ‘Forward.’”"

In the Undoing of a C.E.O., a Puzzle; New York Times, 5/18/12

James B. Stewart, New York Times; In the Undoing of a C.E.O., a Puzzle:

"Mr. Thompson now joins a lengthy and puzzling list of prominent people who have embroidered or falsified their résumés and were felled for doing so, including a former Notre Dame football coach, chief executives of RadioShack and Bausch & Lomb, a director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and an MIT admissions director.

While the Yahoo matter remains under investigation, how and why Mr. Thompson’s résumé came to reflect the false claim that he had a degree in computer science remains a mystery. If it wants to solve it, Yahoo may need to add a psychologist to its investigative team."

Yahoo’s Chief Said to Tell Executives He Did Not Submit a Résumé; New York Times, 5/10/12

Michael J. De La Merced, New York Times; Yahoo’s Chief Said to Tell Executives He Did Not Submit a Résumé:

"Yahoo‘s embattled chief executive, Scott Thompson, told the company’s senior management on Thursday that he never submitted a résumé or falsified his academic credentials, a person briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Thompson’s comments are the latest in an effort to quell the firestorm of controversy surrounding his credentials."

Third Point Demands Records From Yahoo’s C.E.O. Search; New York Times, 5/7/12

Michael J. De La Merced, New York Times; Third Point Demands Records From Yahoo’s C.E.O. Search:

"Third Point sent Yahoo a request for records relating to its selection of Scott Thompson, a former eBay executive, as its chief executive, after the besieged technology company admitted that it had misstated its leader’s academic credentials.

The request follows Yahoo’s admission, after prodding by the activist hedge fund, that while Mr. Thompson’s official biography said that he had earned degrees in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College, in reality he held only the former.

Yahoo also conceded that the director in charge of finding and hiring Mr. Thompson, Patti Hart, also had factual errors in the description of her academic record."

Loeb Accuses Yahoo Officials of Résumé Padding; New York Times, 5/3/12

Kevin Roose, New York Times; Loeb Accuses Yahoo Officials of Résumé Padding:

"In a letter sent to Yahoo’s board on Thursday, Mr. Loeb, the founder of the hedge fund Third Point, said that Yahoo’s chief executive, Scott Thompson, had falsified his résumé to include a degree in computer science that Mr. Thompson never earned.

Mr. Thompson, who was appointed to head Yahoo in January, has a “bachelor’s in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College,” according to his official biography on Yahoo’s Web site.

But according to Mr. Loeb’s letter, Mr. Thompson’s credentials don’t mesh with information listed on other online sites – a discrepancy that led Mr. Loeb to do some digging. A representative of Stonehill College, Mr. Loeb wrote, told Third Point that Mr. Thompson had graduated with a degree in accounting only, and that the school did not even award degrees in computer science until 1983 – “four years after Mr. Thompson graduated.”"

Woman Donates Kidney for Boss; Boss Fires Her; Fair?; YahooNews.com, 4/23/12

Isa-Lee Wolf, YahooNews.com; Woman Donates Kidney for Boss; Boss Fires Her; Fair? : "Should the law allow a boss to ask an employee for something as staggering as an organ? As with any relationship based in a power dynamic, the request alone feels like it holds implications: Donate an organ or you don't have a job. And what about job security once the organ has been donated? While the legality of Stevens' firing is layered, the morality seems far more clear. Then again, should donating an organ to your boss grant an employee blanket job security?"

On Tribal Lands, Digital Divide Brings New Form Of Isolation; HuffingtonPost.com, 4/20/12

HuffingtonPost.com; On Tribal Lands, Digital Divide Brings New Form Of Isolation: "Native Americans have long experienced disconnection from the rest of the country -- their reservations are generally placed on remote lands with little economic potential, separated from modern-day markets for goods, as well as higher education and health care. The dawn of the Internet was supposed to bridge this gap, according to the promises of prominent public officials. Fiber optics cables along with satellite and wireless links would deliver the benefits of modernity to reservations, helping lift Native American communities out of isolation and poverty. But the rise of the web as an essential platform in American life has instead reinforced the distance for the simple reason that most Native Americans have little access to the online world. Less than 10 percent of homes on tribal lands have broadband Internet service -- a rate that is lower than in some developing countries. By contrast, more than half of African Americans and Hispanics and about three-fourths of whites have high-speed access at home, according to the Department of Commerce."

Rochester’s ridiculous banned book controversy; Salon.com, 3/20/12

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com; Rochester’s ridiculous banned book controversy:

"One of the American Library Association’s most challenged books of the last decade has disappeared from yet another library. It’s a tome that topped the ALA’s list last year, and has made waves ever since its publication. Yet the book that so concerned a Rochester-area parent that the public school system there yanked it earlier this month wasn’t Lauren Myracle’s gritty, haunting “Shine.” It wasn’t Suzanne Collins’ intense, violent Mockingjay series. It was a picture book about a penguin family. Hide your kids!...

The district will hold a full public hearing on whether the book should stay or go on April 10. But it’s an encouraging sign that locals are now interested enough in the book – and the subject matter it addresses with tenderness and sensitivity – to get it wait-listed at the public library."

The Delhi child servant scandal that has outraged India; Guardian, 4/7/12

Gethin Chamberlain, Guardian; The Delhi child servant scandal that has outraged India:

"The outcry over the Delhi maid was encouraging, said Ribhu, in that it opened people's eyes to the reality of what is going on. But he is not getting too excited about the arrests. They were, he said, an anomaly in a country where many people simply do not understand that using children as servants is wrong."Recently, I was in a mall where I saw a couple with a 10- or 11-year-old girl taking care of their baby while they were eating. When I confronted them, the lady replied that: 'She is in such a good condition here – she would starve to death in her village. Who will go feed her there? And she has even been taught English'," he said. "When I asked her if she realised that she was committing a crime, she replied that the girl was being kept just like her own daughter and she is 'even brought to the mall … can anyone in her village even dream of such a luxury, of going to the mall?' "I explained as nicely as possible to her husband that if I were to call the police to their house, they would be arrested, and if the girl was 'like their daughter', why was she not eating with them at the same table? And he had no answer.""

Panel Says Flu Research Is Safe to Publish; New York Times, 3/30/12

Denise Grady, New York Times; Panel Says Flu Research Is Safe to Publish:

"After a public furor over experiments that made a dangerous flu virus more contagious, a panel of scientific advisers reversed itself on Friday and recommended that full details of the research be published in scientific journals.

Dr. Paul Keim, acting chairman of the panel, said the new manuscripts made it clear that the experiments were not as dangerous as they originally appeared to be and that the benefits of the research were greater. The benefits come from information that can be used to help predict which flu viruses circulating in the environment may be developing pandemic potential."

[Op-Ed] When Stealing Isn’t Stealing; New York Times, 3/28/12

[Op-Ed] Stuart P. Green, New York Times; When Stealing Isn’t Stealing:

"The problem is that most people simply don’t buy the claim that illegally downloading a song or video from the Internet really is like stealing a car. According to a range of empirical studies, including one conducted by me and my social psychologist collaborator, Matthew Kugler, lay observers draw a sharp moral distinction between file sharing and genuine theft, even when the value of the property is the same."

Tracking Twitter, Raising Red Flags; New York Times, 3/30/12

Pete Thamel, New York Times; Tracking Twitter, Raising Red Flags:

"“Every school, we work to customize their keyword list,” said Sam Carnahan, the chief executive of Varsity Monitor, which has offices in Seattle and New York and also provides educational programs to universities. “We look for things that could damage the school’s brand and anything related to their eligibility.”

Yet what may look to some like a business opportunity, and to universities and their athletic departments like due diligence, appears to others to be an invasion of privacy.

“I think it’s violating the Constitution to have someone give up their password or user name,” said Ronald N. Young, a Maryland state senator who has sponsored a bill that would make it harder for universities to monitor their athletes online. “It’s like reading their mail or listening to their phone calls.”"

David Vitter Undermined Public Trust, Senate Ethics Panel Rules; HuffingtonPost.com, 3/30/12

Larry Margasak, HuffingtonPost.com; David Vitter Undermined Public Trust, Senate Ethics Panel Rules:

"Sen. David Vitter undermined public trust when he blocked a raise for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unless he issued more deep-water exploratory drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill, the Senate ethics committee said in a letter released Friday.

The committee called the Louisiana Republican's actions unprecedented but spared him charges of rules violations because no guidance had been issued on such a tactic."

Amazon Web Services’ Big Free Genetic Database; New York Times, 3/29/12

Quentin Hardy, New York Times; Amazon Web Services’ Big Free Genetic Database:

"Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, will store for public use the entire contents of the National Institutes of Health’s 1000 Genomes Project, a survey of genetic information from 1,700 individuals that is some 200 terabytes in size. Anyone can access the information for free, and there is no requirement to share any research results.

Amazon is incurring significant costs here, and providing a useful service: While the government data would commonly be accessible by anyone, downloading and storing this sequenced DNA information is a long and expensive process."

Nelson Mandela archive launches digital treasure trove; Guardian, 3/27/12

David Smith, Guardian; Nelson Mandela archive launches digital treasure trove:

"Ndileka [mandela] rejected suggestions that the publication of the 93-year-old's papers to a global audience could be an invasion of his privacy. "Madiba has always been portrayed as a political figure. It's time people knew him as a man with aunts and uncles and other family members. Not only he suffered, but his family suffered too."...

The head of its memory programme, Verne Harris, said: "We avoid bothering Madiba these days, but we discussed with him over several years the issues of public access to these materials.""

'Social-Media Blasphemy'; Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/25/12

Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; 'Social-Media Blasphemy' :

"...Mr. Terry has decided to take action, protesting the ethos of Facebook by literally rewiring the service. Or at least, adding the ability to declare "enemies."

"It's social-media blasphemy, in that we're suggesting that you share differences you have with people and share things that you don't like instead of what you do like," he told me last week. "I think social media needs some disruption. It needs its shot of Johnny Rotten."

Here's what he's done. Last month he and a student released a Facebook plug-in called EnemyGraph, which users can install free and name their enemies, which then show up in their profiles. "We're using 'enemy' in the same loose way that Facebook uses 'friends,'" Mr. Terry explained. "It really just means something you have an issue with."

Justices Send Back Gene Case; New York Times, 3/26/12

Andrew Pollack, New York Times; Justices Send Back Gene Case:

"The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an appeals court to reconsider its decision to uphold patents held by Myriad Genetics on two genes associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The appeals court was told to take another look at the case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that a certain diagnostic test was not eligible for patents because it was a simple application of a law of nature.

The case, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, No. 11-725, is being closely watched because it involves the ethically charged but commercially important question of whether genes can be patented."

U.S. Agency Seeks Tougher Consumer Privacy Rules; New York Times, 3/26/12

Tanzina Vega and Edward Wyatt, New York Times; U.S. Agency Seeks Tougher Consumer Privacy Rules:

"[T]he Federal Trade Commission, called on Congress to enact legislation regulating so-called data brokers, which compile and trade a wide range of personal and financial data about millions of consumers from online and offline sources. The legislation would give consumers access to information collected about them and allow them to correct and update such data.

The agency also sent a cautionary signal to technology and advertising companies regarding a “Do Not Track” mechanism that allows consumers to opt out of having their online behavior monitored and shared. It warned that if companies did not voluntarily provide a satisfactory Do Not Track option, it would support additional laws that mandate it.

School District Told to Replace Web Filter Blocking Pro-Gay Sites; New York Times, 3/26/12

Michael Winerip, New York Times; School District Told to Replace Web Filter Blocking Pro-Gay Sites:

"The way it worked: the URLBlacklist filter classified gay organizations in the “sexuality” category. The sexuality filter also screened out pornography. As a result, when URLBlacklist filtered pornography, it also filtered Web sites supportive of gay causes.

On the other hand, antigay Web sites were typically classified under “religion” or not categorized at all and so were allowed through the filter."

After Cheating Scandal, SAT and ACT Will Tighten Testing Security; New York Times, 3/27/12

James Barron, New York Times; After Cheating Scandal, SAT and ACT Will Tighten Testing Security:

"Stung by a cheating scandal involving dozens of Long Island high school students, the SAT and ACT college entrance exams will now require students to upload photos when they sign up for the exams, and officials will check that image against the photo identification the students present when they arrive to take the test, the Nassau County district attorney said Tuesday...

The new rules apply nationwide, and the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, said in a statement that they would take effect in the fall."

The Story of a Suicide; New Yorker, 2/6/12

Ian Parker, New Yorker; The Story of a Suicide:

"On September 28th, the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office charged Ravi and Wei with invasion of privacy for the momentary viewing on September 19th. Ravi alone was charged for an attempted viewing on September 21st. Even if one doubts that these charges would have been brought if Clementi had not died, or questions that men are revealing “sexual parts” by removing their shirts, the charges made some legal sense: Ravi and Wei had admitted seeing the video images. But to some an “invasion of privacy” charge seemed insufficient; Equality Forum, a national gay-rights organization, released a statement that called the actions of Ravi and Wei “shocking, malicious, and heinous,” and urged “the prosecutor to file murder by reckless manslaughter charges.” Paula Dow, then New Jersey’s Attorney General, said, “Sometimes the laws don’t always adequately address the situation. That may come to pass here.” Bruce J. Kaplan, the Middlesex County prosecutor, announced, “We will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident.”

In April, 2011, a grand jury indicted Ravi on fifteen counts, including two charges of second-degree bias intimidation. Two weeks later, Wei made a deal with prosecutors: the charges against her would be dropped if she agreed to attend counselling, serve three hundred hours of community service, and testify against Ravi, if called. Before the end of May, Ravi was offered a plea bargain for a three-to-five-year sentence; he rejected it. A second offer was made in December: no jail time, an effort to protect him against deportation, and six hundred hours of community service. This, too, was rejected. “You want to know why?” Steven Altman, Ravi’s lawyer, said to reporters, outside the courthouse, on December 9th. “Simple answer, simple principle of law, simple principle of life: he’s innocent.” Ravi’s trial, starting a week before his twentieth birthday, is expected to last a month."

Rutgers Verdict Repudiates Notion of Youth as Defense; New York Times, 3/17/12

William Glaberson, New York Times; Rutgers Verdict Repudiates Notion of Youth as Defense:

"[T]he jerky-kid defense failed miserably on Friday with the conviction of Mr. Ravi in a New Jersey court on bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and other charges. Lawyers said the conviction gave new potential to hate-crimes prosecutions for cyberbullying and digital spying largely because it seemed to repudiate the notion that youth was a defense.

“The debate in this case was, Was this a stupid college prank or criminal intimidation? And the jury gave a clear answer,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a gender law expert at Columbia Law School.

Lawyers said the verdict would encourage other hate-crime prosecutions involving young defendants...

Ms. Goldberg, the Columbia law professor, said the prosecution had posed an important challenge to the sense in many schools and colleges that youthfulness provided a kind of immunity for activities and speech in the online world. She said many students seemed to believe the ideas put forth by Mr. Ravi’s defense, that being a kid meant there were few limits to how offensive they might be when using digital devices.

“This reinforces that social media can cause great harm and that its misuse can be criminal,” Ms. Goldberg said. She said she expected that the lessons of the courtroom conviction would probably be studied broadly, including in discussions at college orientations across the country in the fall."

Mike Daisey Admits To 'Shortcuts' With 'Apple Factory' Story Pulled From This American Life; HuffingtonPost.com, 3/17/12

HuffingtonPost.com; Mike Daisey Admits To 'Shortcuts' With 'Apple Factory' Story Pulled From This American Life:

"The firestorm started after Ira Glass, the host of the popular public radio show "This American Life," aired an interview in which Daisey acknowledged some claims in his one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" weren't true, and Glass said he couldn't vouch for the truth of a Jan. 6 broadcast based on the show.

The New York Times, The Associated Press and dozens of other media and entertainment outlets, from MSNBC to Bill Maher's show on HBO, also were misled.

The revelations are unlikely to halt scrutiny of Chinese factories that make Apple products since news outlets including the Times have reported dangerous working conditions there, including explosions inside iPad plants where four people were killed and 77 were injured."

[Editorial] Books Without Borders; New York Times, 3/15/12

[Editorial]; New York Times; Books Without Borders:

"Mr. Diaz is the impresario behind an inspiring act of indignation and cultural pride. His bus-and-car caravan is “smuggling” books by Latino authors into Arizona. It’s a response to an educational mugging by right-wing politicians, who enacted a state law in 2010 outlawing curriculums that “advocate ethnic solidarity,” among other imagined evils. That led to the banning of Mexican-American studies in Tucson’s public schools last year."

Defendant in Rutgers Spying Case Guilty of Hate Crimes; New York Times, 3/16/12

New York Times; Defendant in Rutgers Spying Case Guilty of Hate Crimes:

"A former Rutgers University student was convicted on Friday on all 15 charges he had faced for using a webcam to spy on his roommate having sex with another man, a verdict poised to broaden the definition of hate crimes in an era when laws have not kept up with evolving technology.

“It’s a watershed moment, because it says youth is not immunity,” said Marcellus A. McRae, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice."

Worker Who Hid Lottery Win Must Share $38.5 Million Prize; New York Times, 3/14/12

James Barron and Tim Stelloh, New York Times; Worker Who Hid Lottery Win Must Share $38.5 Million Prize:

"The verdict did not surprise people at the convenience store in Union, N.J., where Mr. Lopes bought the ticket. One customer at the store, a BuyRite in 2009 that is now the Magie Mart Food Store and Deli, said it had reinforced his approach:

“I play by myself because I don’t trust people,” said the man, who would give his name only as Sean, explaining that he regularly played Mega Millions and other games. “Am I shocked he tried to keep the money for himself? No. It’s human nature.”"

Public Exit From Goldman Raises Doubt Over a New Ethic; New York Times, 3/14/12

Nelson Schwartz, New York Times; Public Exit From Goldman Raises Doubt Over a New Ethic:

"Behind closed doors, it is a conversation that has been taking place with increasing urgency on Wall Street in recent years: making money is good, but is making more money always better, even if it comes at the expense of clients?

That question is now out in the open, exposed anew by an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on Wednesday by Greg Smith of Goldman Sachs. It could re-ignite public suspicion that the culture of Wall Street has swung so sharply to the short-term side of the ledger that clients have not been coming in first, or even second, but dead last."

[Op-Ed] Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs; New York Times, 3/14/12

[Op-Ed] Greg Smith, New York Times; Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs:

"I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer."

Lawyers Give Final Presentations in Dorm Spying Case; New York Times, 3/13/12

Kate Zernike, New York Times; Lawyers Give Final Presentations in Dorm Spying Case:

"Mr. Altman and the prosecution were making their final presentations to a jury before it considers the charges against Mr. Ravi, which include invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, and trying to cover up his actions by tampering with evidence and a witness. He is not charged in the death of Mr. Clementi, who was 18 when he jumped from the George Washington Bridge in 2010.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense mentioned his suicide, three days after Mr. Ravi viewed him on a webcam, in its summation. But it has in many ways defined the case, which has attracted international attention as a symbol of the struggles facing gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers."

[Editorial] A Way Forward on Judicial Ethics; New York Times, 3/11/12

[Editorial] New York Times; A Way Forward on Judicial Ethics:

"Last Tuesday, an alliance of government watchdog groups delivered 100,000 signatures to the Supreme Court along with a letter from hundreds of law professors calling on the justices to voluntarily adopt the code of conduct that applies to all other federal judges and to reform how they handle requests for recusals."

Google's Safari Tracking Debacle: Reality Check; PC World, 2/17/12

Ian Paul, PC World; Google's Safari Tracking Debacle: Reality Check:

"Google reportedly breached the privacy of millions of Apple Safari users by fooling the web browser into accepting tracking cookies it normally wouldn't take. Google, however, says this is an unhappy accident and that Google never intended to track its users in this manner.

It's a classic case of he said, she said. Here's what's going on."

Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released; New York Times, 2/17/12

Denise Grady, New York Times; Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released:

"The full details of recent experiments that made a deadly flu virus more contagious will be published, probably within a few months, despite recommendations by the United States that some information be kept secret for fear that terrorists could use it to start epidemics."

Split Board Backs Kean University’s Leader, Under Fire for Résumé; New York Times, 2/15/12

Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times; Split Board Backs Kean University’s Leader, Under Fire for Résumé:

"Resisting mounting pressure from professors to fire the president of Kean University, Dawood Farahi, the deeply divided board of trustees voted on Wednesday night to keep him, dismissing allegations that he had falsified his academic credentials as no more than evidence of “carelessness.”"

[Editorial] Congress Moves on Ethics; New York Times, 2/3/12

[Editorial] New York Times; Congress Moves on Ethics:

"The measure, passed by a 96-to-3 vote, seemed imperiled even the day before by a barrage of extraneous amendments to the bill. Perhaps realizing that their feeble standing with the public would only grow worse by blocking an ethics bill, senators went all-out in a bipartisan competition to go beyond the ban. They voted to open lawmakers’ market transactions to monthly online reporting; to disclose their personal home mortgage details; and to include thousands of ranking executive branch workers in this overdue transparency."

[Op-Ed] Don’t Censor Influenza Research; New York Times, 2/1/12

[Op-Ed] Howard Markel, New York Times; Don’t Censor Influenza Research:

"The censorship of influenza research will do little to prevent its misuse by evildoers — and it may well hinder our ability to stop influenza outbreaks, whether natural or otherwise, when they do occur.

In this case, censorship is too little, too late. The data generated by one of the research teams was already presented at a conference in Malta in September, where copies of the paper were distributed. But even if the data weren’t already available, the key details could likely be inferred from other information that is already available."

Senate Approves Ban on Insider Trading by Congress; New York Times, 2/2/12

Robert Pear, New York Times; Senate Approves Ban on Insider Trading by Congress:

"The Senate passed a sweeping new ethics bill on Thursday that would ban insider trading by members of Congress and require prompt disclosure of stock transactions by lawmakers and by thousands of officials in the executive branch of government.

The 96-to-3 vote followed three days of impassioned debate in which senators tried to outdo one another in proclaiming their support for ethics in government."

Gaming the College Rankings; New York Times, 1/31/12

Richard Perez-Pena and Daniel E. Slotnik, New York Times; Gaming the College Rankings:

"[S]everal colleges in recent years have been caught gaming the system — in particular, the avidly watched U.S. News & World Report rankings — by twisting the meanings of rules, cherry-picking data or just lying.

In one recent example, Iona College in New Rochelle, north of New York City, acknowledged last fall that its employees had lied for years not only about test scores, but also about graduation rates, freshman retention, student-faculty ratio, acceptance rates and alumni giving."

College Says It Exaggerated SAT Figures for Ratings; New York Times, 1/30/12

Daniel E. Slotnik and Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times; College Says It Exaggerated SAT Figures for Ratings:

"Claremont McKenna College, a small, prestigious California school, said Monday that for the past six years, it has submitted false SAT scores to publications like U.S. News & World Report that use the data in widely followed college rankings."

Censoring of Tweets Sets Off #Outrage; New York Times, 1/27/12

Somini Sengupta, New York Times; Censoring of Tweets Sets Off #Outrage:

"[T]his week, in a sort of coming-of-age moment, Twitter announced that upon request, it would block certain messages in countries where they were deemed illegal. The move immediately prompted outcry, argument and even calls for a boycott from some users.

Twitter in turn sought to explain that this was the best way to comply with the laws of different countries. And the whole episode, swiftly amplified worldwide through Twitter itself, offered a telling glimpse into what happens when a scrappy Internet start-up tries to become a multinational business...

The announcement signals the choice that a service like Twitter has to make about its own existence: Should it be more of a free-speech tool that can be used in defiance of governments, as happened during the Arab Spring protests, or a commercial venture that necessarily must obey the laws of the lands where it seeks to attract customers and eventually make money?"

New Romney Ad Focuses on Gingrich’s Ethics Violation; New York Times, 1/26/12

Jim Rutenberg, New York Times; New Romney Ad Focuses on Gingrich’s Ethics Violation:

"Moving on to Phase 2 of its aggressive campaign to stop Newt Gingrich’s momentum before the primary here on Tuesday, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is beginning to show a new, bruising advertisement focusing on the Congressional ethics finding against Mr. Gingrich in the 1990s."

Scientist Plays Down Danger of Flu Strain; New York Times, 1/25/12

Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times; Scientist Plays Down Danger of Flu Strain:

"...[A] flu expert who serves on an American scientific advisory panel that looked at both Dr. Fouchier’s work and Dr. Kawaoka’s said the panel still believed key details should be censored from both papers before they are published to keep terrorists or rogue scientists from being to replicate the work, since the gene-manipulation techniques and intermediate mutations are as potentially dangerous as the end products.

Some scientists believe that Dr. Fouchier created what is potentially the most lethal virus in history — a flu that would transmit through a sneeze and kill more than 50 percent of those who caught it. That has led to calls for restrictions. Some — including the editorial board of The New York Times — have argued that the virus stocks should be destroyed; others want the virus restricted to a small number of laboratories with the highest biosecurity levels."

[Editorial] A Wisconsin Judge’s Refusal to Recuse; New York Times, 1/24/12

[Editorial] New York Times; A Wisconsin Judge’s Refusal to Recuse:

"Justice Michael Gableman of the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced last week that he will not retroactively recuse himself by taking back his vote in one of the court’s highly divisive recent cases. The decision is indefensible...

To regain the public’s trust, the court must disqualify him if he does not face up to his impropriety and recuse himself."

[Slideshow] Ten Surprisingly Banned Books; HuffingtonPost.com, 1/20/12

[Slideshow] HuffingtonPost.com; Ten Surprisingly Banned Books:

"Not that we’d ever advocate censorship, but some banned books you look at and think: yeah, I see why that’s ruffled a few feathers.

Salman Rushdie’s religiously provocative Satanic Verses is still being kept out of India – as is its author. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was kicked out of France for two years in 1956 for a storyline that involved sex with a 12-year-old. And you can see why Walt Whitman’s poetry was considered a bit saucy for its day.

But the books on this list should come as much more of surprise. From beloved children’s classics to bestsellers you can’t go through an airport lounge without tripping over, these surprisingly banned books have all, for a variety of surprising reasons, been outlawed."

Who Gets to See Published Research?; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/22/12

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; Who Gets to See Published Research? :

"The battle over public access to federally financed research is heating up again. The basic question is this: When taxpayers help pay for scholarly research, should those taxpayers get to see the results in the form of free access to the resulting journal articles?...

In Congress, meanwhile, U.S. Reps. Darrell E. Issa, a Republican of California, and Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat of New York, introduced the Research Works Act (HR 3699) last month. The bill would forbid federal agencies to do anything that would result in the sharing of privately published research—even if that research is done with the help of taxpayer dollars—unless the publisher of the work agrees first. That would spell the end of policies such as the National Institutes of Health's public-access mandate, which requires that the results of federally supported research be made publicly available via its PubMed Central database within 12 months of publication."

Google overhauls its privacy policies; San Jose Mercury News, 1/24/12

Mike Swift, San Jose Mercury News; Google overhauls its privacy policies:

"Google (GOOG) on Tuesday said it would consolidate and simplify its large litter of privacy policies into a single umbrella statement, reflecting the company's plan to increasingly meld what were once separate services into a single experience.

But while the Internet giant is following a course recommended by many privacy advocates, it's unclear whether the new effort will find broad support among privacy advocates.

Google said it would consolidate more than 60 separate privacy policies into one, describing how Google collects and uses data from and about its hundreds of millions of users. The change cuts by more than 80 percent the number of words consumers will have to read. The company plans to put its new privacy policy into effect March 1."

Why Supreme Court's GPS ruling will improve your privacy rights; CNet, 1/23/12

Declan McCullagh, CNet; Why Supreme Court's GPS ruling will improve your privacy rights:

"This morning's unanimous ruling (PDF) says the customary law enforcement practice of installing GPS trackers without judicial approval--which has become more common as prices have fallen--violates Americans' Fourth Amendment rights to be free from warrantless searches.

That reasoning suggests police also need to obtain warrants before tracking the locations of cell phones and mobile devices, another contentious topic currently before the courts, said Greg Nojeim, an attorney at the Center for Democracy and Technology."

Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu; New York Times, 1/20/12

Denise Grady, New York Times; Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu:

"The scientists who altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have agreed to suspend their research for 60 days to give other international experts time to discuss the work and determine how it can proceed without putting the world at risk of a potentially catastrophic pandemic.

Suspensions of biomedical research are almost unheard of; the only other one in the United States was a moratorium from 1974 to 1976 on some types of recombinant DNA research, because of safety concerns.

A letter explaining the flu decision is being published in two scientific journals, Science and Nature, which also plan to publish reports on the research, but in a redacted form, omitting details that would let other researchers copy the experiments."

I Disclose ... Nothing; New York Times, 1/21/12

Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times; I Disclose ... Nothing:

"IN New York and a growing number of American cities, diners are encountering sanitary grades in restaurants’ windows — A, B or C. That system is an example of helpful disclosure, researchers say: information that is simple and comprehensible, important to recipients and easily acted upon. I recently chose between outwardly identical Japanese noodle shops on East Ninth Street in Manhattan based on the system, walking into the A rather than the B.

But as greater disclosure has become the go-to solution for a wide range of problems — from unethical campaign financing to rising corporate carbon emissions — it has often delivered lackluster results, researchers say.

Just last week, the Obama administration announced plans to require drug companies to disclose a wide variety of payments and gifts to doctors, from speaking fees to the purchase of breakfasts for office staffs, in the hope of reducing commercial influence on prescribing practices. President Obama has promised to run the most open, transparent administration in history. But is more disclosure the solution?"