"As of this writing, further details along with the chain-of-evidence is still being established by journalists, security experts and the FBI. (By the way, before anyone kneejerks to the “crazy conspiracy theory” conclusion, it’s worth noting that everyone from the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, to A-list reporter Richard Engel, along with The Daily Beast, ABC News, NBC News, Yahoo! News, Slate, TPM, Vice and The Washington Post have been uncovering new and frightening aspects of this story going back to June and culminating with the past 48 hours.) According to investigative journalists at Vice’s “Motherboard,” in particular, a security firm hired by the DNC discovered the existence of “two sophisticated adversaries” that had infiltrated the Democratic Party’s internal email network. Known as “APT 28″ and “APT 29,” the handles are used by both the Russian intelligence service, the FSB (formerly the KGB) and the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. Later, using a front handle known as the aforementioned “Guccifer 2.0,” the agencies announced back in June that it had given Wikileaks “thousands of files and mails.” Regarding the content of some of the emails, bear this in mind: according to conservative author and former NSA analyst, John Schindler, who, by the way, is no fan of Hillary Clinton, part of the FSB’s tradecraft is to fabricate intelligence and toss it into a cocktail of legitimate documents. In other words, it’s fair to speculate, based on Russia’s modus operandi, that the questionable emails were doctored, if not manufactured for impact, while exculpatory emails might’ve been scrubbed from the tranche. We have to question everything here, given the tenacity of Putin’s propaganda efforts... One last thing: if you’re only looking at this story as an internal DNC scandal, you’re missing the despotic forest for the trees. We can’t emphasize enough: this story is bigger than Bernie or Hillary. It’s bigger than Trump. It speaks directly to the sovereignty of our electoral process. The sooner it’s treated this way, the better off we’ll be."
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Bigger than Watergate: The Russian-orchestrated DNC email hack places our national sovereignty at stake; Salon, 7/27/16
Bob Cesca, Salon; Bigger than Watergate: The Russian-orchestrated DNC email hack places our national sovereignty at stake:
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
The DNC Hack Is Watergate, but Worse; Slate, 7/26/16
Franklin Foer, Slate; The DNC Hack Is Watergate, but Worse:
"What’s galling about the WikiLeaks dump is the way in which the organization has blurred the distinction between leaks and hacks. Leaks are an important tool of journalism and accountability. When an insider uncovers malfeasance, he brings information to the public in order to stop the wrongdoing. That’s not what happened here. The better analogy for these hacks is Watergate. To help win an election, the Russians broke into the virtual headquarters of the Democratic Party. The hackers installed the cyber-version of the bugging equipment that Nixon’s goons used—sitting on the DNC computers for a year, eavesdropping on everything, collecting as many scraps as possible. This is trespassing, it’s thievery, it’s a breathtaking transgression of privacy. It falls into that classic genre, the dirty trick. Yet that term feels too innocent to describe the offense. Nixon’s dirty tricksters didn’t mindlessly expose the private data of low-level staff."
Michelle Obama delivers a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton; Washington Post, 7/25/16
Krissah Thompson and Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post; Michelle Obama delivers a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton:
"Obama did not mention Donald Trump by name, but she had a pointed critique of the Republican nominee. “When you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady and measured and well informed," Obama said... “When they go low, we go high,” she said, repeating a mantra she heard as a child. She delivered a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton — touting her “lifelong devotion to our nation’s children -- not just her own daughter – who she has raised to perfection, but every child who needs a champion.”... "“When I think about the kind of president I want for my girls and for all children, that’s who I want,” Obama added. “I want someone with the proven strength to persevere. Someone who knows this job and takes it seriously. Someone who understands that the issues that a president tackles are not black or white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters.”... “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I’ve watched my daughters, two beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States,” she said."
Democrats And Republicans Agree: Michelle Obama Absolutely Nailed It; Huffington Post, 7/26/16
Ed Mazza, Huffington Post; Democrats And Republicans Agree: Michelle Obama Absolutely Nailed It:
"First Lady Michelle Obama won praise for giving a stirring and optimistic speech in which she managed to attack Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump without once mentioning his name. Praise for the speech came from across the political spectrum..."
China seeks to eradicate 'vile effect' of independent journalism; Guardian, 7/25/16
Tom Phillips, Guardian; China seeks to eradicate 'vile effect' of independent journalism:
"Top Chinese internet portals had been forbidden from producing original reporting on politically sensitive topics in what experts say is the latest step in President Xi Jinping’s battle to bring Chinese journalism under control. Citing a CAC official, the Global Times, a Beijing-controlled tabloid, said online portals were permitted to publish stories on “social and political issues” only if they had been sourced from government-controlled news agencies... Wen Tao, a Chinese journalist who worked for one of the current affairs services that has been closed down, told the New York Times censors would find it hard to completely control the production of news. “The flow of information cannot be stopped – it’s like a flood,” he said."
Monday, July 25, 2016
The gift of privacy: How Edward Snowden changed the way I parent; Salon, 7/24/16
Annie H. Hartnett, Salon; The gift of privacy: How Edward Snowden changed the way I parent:
"While the conversation between these three thought leaders fascinated me, it was the remarks of 33-year-old Snowden that affected me most profoundly. “Privacy,” he asserted, “is the right to self…. Privacy is the right to a free mind.” He went on to explain that “privacy is what allows us to determine our beliefs without being influenced by others, subject to peer pressure, or judged before those beliefs are fully formed. Without privacy,” he added “at no time are you permitted to have a space that is only just for you.” Consider that statement for a moment: “Without privacy, at no time are you permitted to have a space that is only just for you.” Greenwald reinforced this idea when he explained that people secure their homes and rooms with locks and their email and social media with passwords in part “to ensure that there is a place they can go in the world to think and reason and explore without the judgmental eyes of other people being cast upon them.… When we lose privacy,” he went on, “we lose a really critical part of what it means to be an independent and free individual.”"
How Trump attacks the media, and why that distorts reality; New York Times, 7/24/16
Margaret Sullivan, New York Times; How Trump attacks the media, and why that distorts reality:
"In this presidential race, falsehoods by both candidates aren’t hard to find. And yes, both candidates deserve to be called out — consistently, clearly, determinedly. But they aren’t close to equal. The nonpartisan PolitiFact project found that Trump’s untruths during the campaign have far outpaced Clinton’s. When it checked questionable statements, it rated 60 percent of Trump’s as false, as opposed to 13 percent of Clinton’s. Trump’s charge that the mainstream media has hidden Clinton’s misdeeds — or “edited out” the truth from news reports — is another one of his falsehoods. There’s no more evidence of this than of the “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheering 9/11 in Jersey City — or of his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq."
Trump and the End of Truth; New York Times, 7/25/16
Roger Cohen, New York Times; Trump and the End of Truth:
"Facts are now a quaint hangover from a time of rational discourse, little annoyances easily upended. Volume trumps reality, as Roger Ailes understood at Fox News, before a downfall that coincided with the apotheosis of his post-factual world. A red-faced bully, adept in the choreography of collective hysteria, arises. He promises that he alone can set things right. He is the voice. He stands against a great tide of menace, from ISIS to immigrants, and only he understands the vast dimensions of the danger. We have been here before. Fascism was a backlash against dysfunctional democracies. It invited belief in the leadership of the strongman against enemies within and without. Its currency was untruth and its culmination bloody unreason. It was decried and dismissed by those it would devour. It is inevitable, given what he represents, that Trump looks to Putin. Orwell again: “Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.”"
Hong Kong book fair subdued after bookseller disappearances; Guardian, 7/25/16
Ilaria Maria Sala. Guardian; Hong Kong book fair subdued after bookseller disappearances:
"The controls on travellers have been strengthened, and many who came to Hong Kong to buy books censored in mainland China have stopped buying them, as they may get into trouble at the border.”... What has befallen the five booksellers has cast a heavy pall across the industry in Hong Kong. “We now have problems at both ends of the book chain”, says Bao Pu, of New Century Press, a publishing house known for high-quality political works banned on the mainland. “Printers are not willing to print politically sensitive books, throughout the Hong Kong printing industry. This is a very serious situation. The printers are deciding what can be read. At the other end of the chain there are the bookstores, and most of them will no longer sell this kind of book because it is considered dangerous. “Also, you see fewer political books because in this situation, we publish less. I think that Hong Kong is no longer a place that supports independent publishing, since the Causeway Bay Books event [when Gui Minhai was arrested].”"
Justices Show How Disclosing Revisions Offers (Confers?) Benefits; New York Times, 7/25/16
Adam Liptak, New York Times; Justices Show How Disclosing Revisions Offers (Confers?) Benefits:
"Public notice of these corrections is welcome progress from a court that is often resistant to change. There is little chance, for instance, that the court will allow camera coverage of its arguments anytime soon. The court continues to release audio recordings of arguments only at the end of the week, though it could easily provide them right away. Gabe Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court, a group that has called for more openness, said the court should work harder to let Americans understand its work. “Before 2014, few people knew that the Supreme Court was changing opinions after their release, but once this policy gained notoriety, the court made a simple fix to great praise,” Mr. Roth said. “A little dose of transparency, it seems, can go a long way, so there is no reason why the trend should not continue with swifter access to oral argument audio, online explanations of recusals and a high court webpage to which the justices’ financial disclosure reports may be uploaded.”"
Sunday, July 24, 2016
"How Do We Unwatch That?; Doonesbury, Go Comics, 7/24/16
Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury, Go Comics:
"How Do We Unwatch That?"
Ethics agency says HUD chief Castro violated Hatch Act; Politico, 7/18/16
Josh Gerstein, Politico; Ethics agency says HUD chief Castro violated Hatch Act:
"Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro violated a federal law against politicking on the job earlier this year when he fielded a journalist's questions about the presidential race and his own chances of being chosen as Hillary Clinton's running mate, a federal ethics watchdog agency has found. The Office of Special Counsel determined that Castro ran afoul of the Hatch Act during his April 4, 2016, interview with Yahoo News anchor Katie Couric, even though he stressed that he was answering her political questions in his personal capacity."
As Pick for No. 2, Tim Kaine Sees Gifts Come Under Scrutiny; New York Times, 7/24/16
Eric Lipton and Steve Eder, New York Times; As Pick for No. 2, Tim Kaine Sees Gifts Come Under Scrutiny:
"Under Virginia’s lax ethics rules at the time, the gifts, which had a total value of more than $160,000, were all legal as long as they were disclosed. But with Mr. Kaine’s selection on Friday as Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate, the gifts he received in the four years he served as Virginia’s chief executive and his time as lieutenant governor before that are certain to be cited by his Republican critics as a sign that Mr. Kaine, who is now a United States senator, is not as squeaky clean as he portrays himself... After he was elected to the Senate, Mr. Kaine publicly urged the Virginia legislature to tighten state ethics laws, saying he had concluded that the more stringent rules in Congress were appropriate. “The new year presents a superb opportunity to fix a major Virginia weakness: our lax ethical laws,” he wrote in an op-ed article published on Dec. 31, 2013, in The Washington Post. “Gifts to elected officials can create a subconscious sense of gratitude in even the most upright public servants.”"
The Dark Knight; New York Times, 7/22/16
David Brooks, New York Times; The Dark Knight:
"Finally, a law-and-order campaign calls upon the authoritarian personality traits that Donald Trump undoubtedly possesses. The G.O.P. used to be a party that aspired to a biblical ethic of private charity, graciousness, humility and faithfulness. Mitt Romney’s convention was lifted by stories of his kindness and personal mentorship. Trump has replaced biblical commitments with a gladiator ethos. Everything is oriented around conquest, success, supremacy and domination. This was the Lock Her Up convention. A law-and-order campaign doesn’t ask voters to like Trump and the Republicans any more than they liked Richard Nixon in 1968... This is less a party than a personality cult. Law and order is a strange theme for a candidate who radiates conflict and disorder. Some rich children are careless that way; they break things and other people have to clean up the mess."
Donald Trump’s RNC Speech Was a Terrifying Display of Nightmarish Authoritarianism; Reason, 7/22/16
Peter Suderman, Reason; Donald Trump’s RNC Speech Was a Terrifying Display of Nightmarish Authoritarianism:
"It was a relentlessly grim and gloomy picture of America, built on thinly disguised racial distrust and paranoia. It was a portrait that was also essentially false. Violent crime has been steadily falling for more than two decades. Immigrants are less prone to criminality than native-born Americans. But portraying America in such a dark light let Trump cast himself as the nation's dark hero, a kind of billionaire-businessman fixer, unbound by rules or expectations of decorum—President Batman, the only one with the guts and the will to fight for the people. Trump did not invoke superpowers, of course, but he might as well have; he had no other ideas or solutions to offer... Trump's entire speech was packed with threats and power grabs, details be damned. It was a speech about how government should be made bigger and stronger and given more authority over every part of American life, and government, in most cases, simply meant Donald Trump himself. It was an argument for unlimited government under a single man, for rule by Trump's whim. He sounded less like he was running for president and more like he was campaigning to be an American despot."
Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as DNC chair as email scandal rocks Democrats; Guardian, 7/24/16
Dan Roberts, Ben Jacobs, Alan Yuhas, Guardian; Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as DNC chair as email scandal rocks Democrats:
"The most explosive new revelation from the Wikileaks release was an official’s suggestion that Sanders’ religious faith, or lack thereof, could be flagged as a way to dissuade voters from backing him in Bible belt states. “I think I read he is an atheist,” the DNC chief financial officer, Brad Marshall, wrote in one email. “This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.” Sanders, who is Jewish, spoke little of religion during the primary, but the sight of a supposedly neutral body apparently seeking to weaken one of its own party candidates caused particular anger among progressives. Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida who is herself Jewish, is not thought to have been directly involved in this email exchange, but she was seen in other messages writing dismissively of the Sanders campaign."
Donald Trump reminds me of Vladimir Putin — and that is terrifying; Washington Post, 7/23/16
Garry Kasparov, Washington Post; Donald Trump reminds me of Vladimir Putin — and that is terrifying:
"It is painful to admit, but Putin was elected in a relatively fair election in 2000. He steadily dismantled Russia’s fragile democracy and succeeded in turning Russians against each other and against the world. It turns out you can go quite far in a democracy by convincing a majority that they are threatened by a minority, and that only you can protect them. The final and most worrying similarity between Putin and Trump is that so many are unwilling to believe that someone like Trump could ever become the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed to great jubilation, we never would have believed that a former KGB agent would become the president of Russia just nine years later. The moral: Be careful whom you vote for, it could be the last election you ever have."
At 75, Wonder Woman Lassos In A New Generation With An Ageless Fight; NPR, 7/24/16
Petra Mayer, NPR; At 75, Wonder Woman Lassos In A New Generation With An Ageless Fight:
"Arriving on comics pages just as the horrors of World War II were descending, Wonder Woman would rise above male aggression — she almost never kills — and she would leave her home on Paradise Island to fight for America, described in her comics as "the last citadel of democracy and of equal rights for women!" "She really is the first superhero humanitarian," says Jim Lee, the co-publisher of DC Comics and a former Wonder Woman artist himself. He says Wonder Woman's lasted so long partly because of good timing — she was just one of the first female superheroes. But also, he says, "It is an interesting, unique tale of someone who is basically giving up a life of comfort to take on conflict and to be a crusader for justice and peace. And I think those are the things that give characters their longevity.""
Uncle Sam Wants You — Or at Least Your Genetic and Lifestyle Information; New York Times, 7/23/16
Robert Pear, New York Times; Uncle Sam Wants You — Or at Least Your Genetic and Lifestyle Information:
"People can sign up through academic medical centers at Columbia University, Northwestern University in Illinois, the University of Arizona and the University of Pittsburgh, each of which is working with local partners. Columbia, for example, is collaborating with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Harlem Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine. Participants will be recruited to reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the nation. To help achieve that goal, officials have enlisted community health centers, where more than 90 percent of patients have annual incomes less than twice the poverty level (less than $23,760 for an individual). About one-third of health center patients are Latinos, and about one-fourth are African-Americans. Officials said they wanted patients to be partners in the research, not just “human subjects.” To that end, patients will have access to all the information about themselves, including laboratory and genetic test results. Doctors could eventually use the data to shape treatment for an individual patient, rather than using standard treatments that may not work for everyone. Patients will help guide the research, sitting on its steering committee and advisory board."
Canadian Lawyer Uncovers a Doping Scheme, and Russian Anger; New York Times, 7/22/16
Dan Levin, New York Times; Canadian Lawyer Uncovers a Doping Scheme, and Russian Anger:
"Mr. McLaren, 70, seems well equipped for the challenge. A respected lawyer from London, Ontario, he has spent much of the last 15 years focused on ethics in sport as an arbitrator in five Olympic Games and through his involvement in many sports inquiries and disputes. These include a watershed doping investigation of Major League Baseball, which resulted in what became known as the Mitchell report, and one last year for the antidoping agency that found systemic use of performance-enhancing drugs by Russian athletes in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. “That’s why they chose me,” he said in an interview this week. “It takes a lot of experience to know how to conduct these types of investigations, to know what to look for.” Despite his international reputation, Mr. McLaren is far more used to being surrounded by his students, known as “McLarenites,” at the law school of Western University in London, where he teaches courses on business, sport and banking law. In interviews, Mr. McLaren’s colleagues described him as a dogged and ethical lawyer skilled at leveraging decades of legal experience and jurisprudence in the sometimes messy realm of athletics, whether it is resolving doping disputes as a member of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, deciding cases involving cyclists and kayakers for the Sport Dispute Resolution Center of Canada or investigating accusations on behalf of the antidoping agency."
Saturday, July 23, 2016
DONALD TRUMP’S GHOSTWRITER TELLS ALL; New Yorker, 7/25/16
Jane Mayer, New Yorker; DONALD TRUMP’S GHOSTWRITER TELLS ALL:
"Schwartz thought about publishing an article describing his reservations about Trump, but he hesitated, knowing that, since he’d cashed in on the flattering “Art of the Deal,” his credibility and his motives would be seen as suspect. Yet watching the campaign was excruciating. Schwartz decided that if he kept mum and Trump was elected he’d never forgive himself. In June, he agreed to break his silence and give his first candid interview about the Trump he got to know while acting as his Boswell. “I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.” If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.”"
Make America Hate Again; New York Times, 7/22/16
Timothy Egan, New York times; Make America Hate Again:
"Starting on night one, when Republicans chose to manipulate the grief-deranged mother of a terrorist victim, the build-up to the hanging of Hillary Clinton was never subtle. Imagine if one party had exploited a widow of one of the 241 service members killed in the 1983 suicide bombing of Americans in Beirut — the deadliest single attack on marines since World War II — as a stick against Ronald Reagan, whose administrative negligence was much to blame. You can’t imagine. Because nothing about this Republican Party, whose leader now stands ready to repudiate nearly 70 years of security for our European allies under an “America First” banner, even remotely resembles the Grand Old Party of before. You could not find a City on a Hill, a single Point of Light, no Morning in America. Only doom, dystopia, dread, darkness — and a bumper-sticker solution to restoring greatness. The man who couldn’t manage his own convention, the creator of a “university” built on fraud, bet his shot at the top job in the world on a panicked public and collective amnesia of his serial misdeeds. “I will restore law and order to our country, believe me, believe me,” he said. And the instigator of four corporate bankruptcies, the man who stiffed plumbers and carpenters, the failed casino owner, promised to use his dark arts to “make our country rich again.”"
Why Libraries Are Everywhere in the Czech Republic; New York Times, 7/21/16
Hana de Goeij, New York Times; Why Libraries Are Everywhere in the Czech Republic:
"Why so many Czech libraries? Well, for decades they were mandatory — every community, from a big city down to a tiny village, was required by law to have one. The law was enacted in 1919, soon after Czechoslovakia emerged as an independent country. The idea was to promote universal literacy and education after the country was free of the German-speaking Austro-Hungarian Empire. And it worked. “Czechs developed a strong reading habit, and even today, those who visit libraries buy more books — 11 a year, on average — than others,” said Vit Richter, director of the Librarianship Institute of the Czech National Library. The library law survived the German occupation, the communist era and even the breakup with Slovakia in the early 1990s. What it couldn’t survive, in the end, was budgetary pressure."
EFF sues US government, saying copyright rules on DRM are unconstitutional; Ars Technica, 7/22/16
Joe Mullin, Ars Technica; EFF sues US government, saying copyright rules on DRM are unconstitutional:
""Section 1201 is a draconian and unnecessary restriction on speech and the time has come to set it aside," writes EFF staff attorney Kit Walsh in a blog post announcing the lawsuit. "The future of cultural participation and software-related research depends on it." "[C]opyright law shouldn’t be casting a legal shadow over activities as basic as popping the hood of your own car, offering commentary on a shared piece of culture (and helping others do so), and testing security infrastructure," writes EFF's Parker Higgins, in a separate post explaining the effects that Section 1201 has on scholars, artists, and activists. "It’s time for the courts to revisit Section 1201, and fix Congress’s constitutional mistake.""
Fox After Ailes; Slate, 7/22/16
Isaac Chotiner, Slate; Fox After Ailes:
"Gabriel Sherman, a reporter for New York magazine and author of a decidedly unauthorized biography of Ailes, has broken the lion’s share of news about Ailes’ conduct and the subsequent News Corp. investigation. I spoke by phone with Sherman after Ailes’ departure. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed the Murdoch family’s internal debates, Donald Trump’s relationship with Roger Ailes, and the future of the network... "Many people see Fox News as a cynical production of people who know better. But you seem to be saying that people believe in what they are doing or their leader. Maybe those aren’t exclusive— No, they aren’t mutually exclusive. The culture of sexual harassment is widely known at Fox News. The whole idea that it is a family values network is incredibly cynical, and everyone knows that. But the fear and psychological control that Ailes had over his employees—if he says the sky is green and not blue, even very intelligent people, maybe even liberals, tend to start believing it. He has this charismatic, cultlike power to shape a corporation in his image. And that’s why Fox, whatever it becomes, is going to be very different. There is no executive in American media and politics who has that charisma and that ruthlessness, and, as these allegations have shown, the kind of darkness of his mind to control women and people. Do you think the Murdochs were aware of the culture as it pertained to sexual harassment? Rupert Murdoch, based on what we know publicly, was clearly aware of the culture at Fox News: In 2004, Bill O’Reilly was accused by a former producer, Andrea Mackris, of sexual harassment in the whole loofah scandal. Fox’s biggest host at that point was exposed."
The fall of Roger Ailes: He made Fox his ‘locker room’ — and now women are telling their stories; Washington Post, 7/22/16
Manuel Roig-Franzia, Scott Higham, Paul Farhi and Krissah Thompson, Washington Post; The fall of Roger Ailes: He made Fox his ‘locker room’ — and now women are telling their stories:
"“Boorish behavior is Murdoch company behavior — boorish behavior as defined by tough-guy behavior,” Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff said in an interview. “The tough-guy behavior sometimes intersects with sexual harassment, and this is very strong within the organization.” In a statement Thursday announcing Ailes’s resignation (which made no mention of the claims against Ailes), Lachlan and James Murdoch said: “We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect. We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company.”"
Study: The Digital Divide Between Latinos And Whites Is Shrinking; NPR, 7/22/16
Ericka Cruz Guevarra, NPR; Study: The Digital Divide Between Latinos And Whites Is Shrinking:
"After years of lagging behind other ethnic groups when it comes to accessing the Internet, the "digital divide" between Latinos and whites is now at its narrowest point since 2009. A new study from the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of Latino adults who report using the Internet increased from 64 percent to 84 percent between 2009 and 2015, a faster growth rate than that of whites going online in the same period (80 percent to 89 percent). As a result, the gap in Internet use between Latinos and whites shrank from 16 percentage points in 2009 to just 5 points in 2015."
Turns Out, Fighting Fat Shaming And Racist Trolls Is Also A Ghostbuster's Job; NPR, 7/22/16
Tanya Ballard Brown, NPR; Turns Out, Fighting Fat Shaming And Racist Trolls Is Also A Ghostbuster's Job:
"I don't know what makes trolls attack so viciously on social media. Is it that they don't like it that some women — in this case a 6-ft.-tall, larger than size zero dark-skinned black woman — are confident and comfortable with themselves? Who knows, but now that Leslie has returned and is once again engaging on social media with her fans, maybe she can reach out to help some of the women who aren't comedians or actors in summer blockbuster movies navigate troll attacks."
Trump Rehashes JFK Conspiracy Theory Linking Ted Cruz’s Father To Lee Harvey Oswald; Huffington Post, 7/22/16
Matt Ferner, Huffington Post; Trump Rehashes JFK Conspiracy Theory Linking Ted Cruz’s Father To Lee Harvey Oswald:
"At a televised speech Friday, and less than 24 hours after Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, the reality television personality breathed new life into a conspiracy theory that Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was an associate of President John F. Kennedy’s assassin. “His father. I don’t know his father, I met him once,” Trump began, referencing Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz. “I think he’s a lovely guy. I think he’s a lovely guy. All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast.”"
Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy; Washington Post, 7/22/16
Editorial Board, Washington Post; Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy:
"Most alarming is Mr. Trump’s contempt for the Constitution and the unwritten democratic norms upon which our system depends. He doesn’t know what is in the nation’s founding document. When asked by a member of Congress about Article I, which enumerates congressional powers, the candidate responded, “I am going to abide by the Constitution whether it’s number 1, number 2, number 12, number 9.” The charter has seven articles. Worse, he doesn’t seem to care about its limitations on executive power. He has threatened that those who criticize him will suffer when he is president. He has vowed to torture suspected terrorists and bomb their innocent relatives, no matter the illegality of either act. He has vowed to constrict the independent press. He went after a judge whose rulings angered him, exacerbating his contempt for the independence of the judiciary by insisting that the judge should be disqualified because of his Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump has encouraged and celebrated violence at his rallies. The U.S. democratic system is strong and has proved resilient when it has been tested before. We have faith in it. But to elect Mr. Trump would be to knowingly subject it to threat."
By Russian Standards, Melania Trump Would Be a Plagiarism Amateur; New York Times, 7/22/16
Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times; By Russian Standards, Melania Trump Would Be a Plagiarism Amateur:
"A study published in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta found that out of 450 members of Parliament, about 200 claimed advanced degrees and at least 49 had been accused of plagiarism, including the speaker. (He denied it.) Dissernet started work in 2013 after a political appointee with a limited academic record was tapped to lead a prestigious mathematics school. Academics began pouring over his history dissertation line by line, which inspired Mr. Rostovtsev to write software to automate the process. The Dissernet group knew that an electronic synopsis of every doctoral thesis was posted online in Russia. Its software selects a thesis and compares it with all others in the system. If there is more than a 50 percent overlap, the computer flags the material and a volunteer compares both full works manually. The software makes comparisons 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a band of about 50 volunteers does the rest. The results are published on Dissernet.org."
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Can Big Data Help Head Off Police Misconduct?; NPR, 7/19/16
NPR Staff; Can Big Data Help Head Off Police Misconduct? :
"Big Data has been considered an essential tool for tech companies and political campaigns. Now, someone who has handled data analytics at the highest levels in both of those worlds sees promise for it in policing, education and city services. For example, data can show that a police officer who has been under stress after responding to cases of domestic abuse or suicide may be at higher risk of a negative interaction with the public, data scientist Rayid Ghani says. Ghani, the chief data scientist for President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, is now director of the Center for Data Science and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He spoke to NPR's Ari Shapiro about finding ways to use data analytics in fields where it's not so common, like policing and city services."
In praising Trump, Mike Pence pushes an imaginary and corrupt narrative; Washington Post, 7/21/16
Michael Gerson, Washington Post; In praising Trump, Mike Pence pushes an imaginary and corrupt narrative:
"The reputation of any politician close to Trump will eventually be ruined. But it is particularly sad when good and decent people vouch for Trump’s character, knowing almost nothing about him. They surely believe that they can guide and shape a political novice in helpful and positive ways. There is no evidence of this — no proof that Trump is willing to internalize good advice. In fact, the best of the Republican Party is being exploited. And such politicians are viewed as weak (see Trump’s announcement of Pence) by a candidate with contempt for weakness. The only politician who will be proud of what he did on Wednesday evening is Ted Cruz, who refused to endorse. He may have been booed on the floor, but I imagine he slept well. And he won’t be ashamed to recount that night to his children and grandchildren. In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell said: “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” The construction of an imaginary narrative of virtue and insight around Donald Trump is a form of political corruption, no matter how skilled or well-intentioned the effort. “In our time,” said Orwell, “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” A fitting epitaph for the 2016 Republican convention."
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
An appeal to Mike Pence: Leave your anti-LGBT views behind; Washington Post, 7/20/16
Chrys P. Kefalas, Washington Post; An appeal to Mike Pence: Leave your anti-LGBT views behind:
"Pence’s vice-presidential nomination, and this Republican convention, make it seem like it was so long ago when leading Republicans such as Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, among others, joined former vice president Dick Cheney and former George W. Bush administration solicitor general Ted Olson in embracing marriage equality. But it wasn’t. Progress, however, is full of setbacks and false starts. But Pence can still do a lot to turn the page — and take an important step to making the Republican Party great again by renewing the legacy of Lincoln, disavowing his old thinking and embracing a future of inclusion."
Banning Leslie Jones’s trolls won’t change a thing — hate is still the norm online; Washington Post, 7/20/16
Mikki Kendall, Washington Post; Banning Leslie Jones’s trolls won’t change a thing — hate is still the norm online:
"This is not just a matter of speech, despite the persistent notion that online harassment is easy to escape because in theory you can close the tab or turn off the computer. Online harassment spilled offline years ago. Harassers may imitate a deceased parent, contact employers in an attempt get a target fired or track someone down and drive them from their home. The last is often accomplished via SWATting, a tactic where a harasser files phony reports alleging a hostage situation or something similar so that police will in theory send the SWAT team into their target’s home. Can we really claim that the trolls are outside the norm when the norm dismisses their behavior or even supports it on flimsy free speech grounds? After all, the people behind those keyboards sending hateful messages and imagery can vote. They can work on political campaigns; they can run for election. Ignoring bigots in our midst and failing to take them seriously can have a negative impact on everyone. People like Yiannopoulos and his supporters are the symptom, but the real disease is the way that bigotry is being normalized as something harmless. It’s not. Some of the world’s darkest moments have happened because hate of “the other” spread like wildfire and stripped people of empathy, reason or basic human decency."
The significance of CNN’s Chris Cuomo dropping the ‘L’ word (lying) on Trump’s campaign chairman; Washington Post, 7/20/16
Callum Borchers, Washington Post; The significance of CNN’s Chris Cuomo dropping the ‘L’ word (lying) on Trump’s campaign chairman:
"The Trump campaign's refusal to admit obvious plagiarism undermines the Republican presidential nominee's credibility, as he attacks Clinton for dishonesty. And Trump's general unwillingness to acknowledge mistakes raises questions about how he would handle missteps as president. That's why a seemingly small issue like borrowing language from a Michelle Obama speech matters in the election — and why Cuomo and the rest of the press won't just let it go. Cuomo's unvarnished assertion that Manafort "keep[s] lying" matters, too, because mainstream journalists have been so reluctant to attach variations of the word "lie" to the Trump campaign. Reporters have mostly stuck with less-loaded terms such as "factual inaccuracies," or "false statements." Word choice is significant because "lie" suggests intent; calling a statement "false" or "inaccurate" leaves open the possibility that the speaker got it wrong but didn't mean to."
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Melania Trump Plagiarized Her Convention Speech From Michelle Obama; Huffington Post, 7/19/16
Christina Wilkie, Huffington Post; Melania Trump Plagiarized Her Convention Speech From Michelle Obama:
"Trump communications adviser Jason Miller, in a response early Tuesday, acknowledged that Melania Trump plagiarized “fragments” of her speech and referred to a “team of writers,” essentially refuting her claim that she wrote the speech. “In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking,” Miller said in a statement. “Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.”"
Monday, July 18, 2016
Zika Data From the Lab, and Right to the Web; New York Times, 7/18/16
Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times; Zika Data From the Lab, and Right to the Web:
"Dr. O’Connor’s decision was the most radical manifestation of a trend already underway. In early February, more than 30 of the most prominent academic journals, research institutions and research funders signed a “Statement on Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies” in which the journals agreed to make all articles about the Zika virus available free instead of charging their subscription fees, which can be hundreds of dollars. The journals also agreed to consider articles that had first been posted for comment on public forums like bioRxiv, which is hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. The funders agreed to make everyone receiving their money share data as widely as possible... “I never planned to be an evangelist,” he said. “I was happy toiling in anonymity, so this is a surreal experience. We all grew up in the same system: You do a study, you submit it to a journal, and your place in the hierarchy depends on the quality of the journal it appears in.” “If it’s all you’ve known, you assume it’s the right way. But if you’ve got data that can contribute to the public health response during an epidemic — is it really yours to hang onto?”"
Both Sides Now?; New York Times, 7/18/16
Paul Krugman, New York Times; Both Sides Now? :
"And in the last few days we’ve seen a spectacular demonstration of bothsidesism in action: an op-ed article from the incoming and outgoing heads of the White House Correspondents’ Association, with the headline “Trump, Clinton both threaten free press.” How so? Well, Mr. Trump has selectively banned news organizations he considers hostile; he has also, although the op-ed didn’t mention it, attacked both those organizations and individual reporters, and refused to condemn supporters who, for example, have harassed reporters with anti-Semitic insults. Meanwhile, while Mrs. Clinton hasn’t done any of these things, and has a staff that readily responds to fact-checking questions, she doesn’t like to hold press conferences. Equivalence! Stung by criticism, the authors of the op-ed issued a statement denying that they had engaged in “false equivalency” — I guess saying that the candidates are acting “similarly” doesn’t mean saying that they are acting similarly. And they once again refused to indicate which candidate was behaving worse. As I said, bothsidesism isn’t new, and it has always been an evasion of responsibility. But taking the position that “both sides do it” now, in the face of this campaign and this candidate, is an act of mind-boggling irresponsibility."
Are MOOCs Forever?; Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/14/16
[Podcast and Transcript] Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; Are MOOCs Forever? :
"Think back to the early days of MOOCs. Professors at Stanford and Harvard and other places were suddenly teaching really big classes, free. Hundreds of thousands of students at once were in those courses. It was an unprecedented giveaway of what had traditionally been the most expensive education in the world. Back then, I met several students who were binging on the courses the way you might binge-watch a season of your favorite show on Netflix. They took as many courses as they possibly could, powering through and finishing as many as 30 courses in a year. When I asked why they were in such a hurry, the most popular reason was that they thought it was all too good to last. As one of those binging students told me, "I’m just afraid this whole thing might end soon." Surely, universities would change their mind about this, or the start-ups working with colleges might lock things up. Fast forward to last month, when Coursera did something that stirred up all of those concerns again. On June 30 the company deleted hundreds of its earliest courses, as part of a shift to a new software platform. Reaction, as you might expect, was negative on social media and blogs. One programmer called it cultural vandalism... Hello, and welcome to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Re:Learning Podcast. I’m Jeff Young, and I recently had the chance to talk with Daphne Koller, a co-founder of Coursera, about those issues."
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Boris Johnson ‘lied a lot,’ says French foreign minister; Washington Post, 7/14/16
Michael Birnbaum and Griff Witte, Washington Post; Boris Johnson ‘lied a lot,’ says French foreign minister:
"Britain’s new top diplomat, Boris Johnson, swept into office Thursday on a cloud of acrimony, amid worldwide disbelief that the irreverent campaigner for a British break from the European Union will now be his nation’s main voice abroad. From composing a dirty limerick about the Turkish president and a goat to comparing the E.U. to Hitler and calling Hillary Clinton a “sadistic nurse,” the mop-haired Johnson spared few world leaders in his previous career as the devil-may-care mayor of London. This time, he was on the receiving end: France’s foreign minister declared that the “leave” campaigner had “lied a lot,” and Germany’s top diplomat called him “irresponsible.” The unusually sharp rhetoric from Johnson’s new peers reflected the degree to which he has alienated Britain’s global partners and the challenges he faces as he takes part in his nation’s divorce from the E.U. From Washington to Paris and Berlin to Ankara, leaders uttered bitter cries of surprise at the appointment of a man who has reveled in dishing offense, not making friends. Critics said Britain appears to be taking further steps to disengage from the world."
What Ethics Should Guide the Use of Robots in Policing?; New York Times, 7/14/16
Room for Debate, New York Times; What Ethics Should Guide the Use of Robots in Policing? :
"The decision by Dallas police to deploy a robot to kill the man who shot and killed five officers last week appears to be unprecedented. Though the police chief said other options would have exposed officers to grave danger, the move fomented debate around the militarization of police and the ethical implications of remote-controlled use of force. What considerations should guide the use of robots in policing?"
Justice department 'uses aged computer system to frustrate Foia requests'; Guardian, 7/16/16
Sam Thielman, Guardian; Justice department 'uses aged computer system to frustrate Foia requests' :
"A new lawsuit alleges that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) intentionally conducts inadequate searches of its records using a decades-old computer system when queried by citizens looking for records that should be available to the public. Freedom of Information Act (Foia) researcher Ryan Shapiro alleges “failure by design” in the DoJ’s protocols for responding to public requests. The Foia law states that agencies must “make reasonable efforts to search for the records in electronic form or format”."... Not only are the records indexed by ACS allegedly inadequate, Shapiro told the Guardian, but the FBI refuses to search the full text of those records as a matter of policy. When few or no records are returned, Shapiro said, the FBI effectively responds “sorry, we tried” without making use of the much more sophisticated search tools at the disposal of internal requestors. “The FBI’s assertion is akin to suggesting that a search of a limited and arbitrarily produced card catalogue at a vast library is as likely to locate book pages containing a specified search term as a full text search of database containing digitized versions of all the books in that library,” Shapiro said.
Presidents need to be able to do nothing. Donald Trump can’t do it.; Washington Post, 7/15/16
J. Peter Scoblic, Washington Post; Presidents need to be able to do nothing. Donald Trump can’t do it. :
"In crises, there is enormous pressure to act — a “plunge toward action,” as historians Richard Neustadt and Ernest May have written. Yet smart leadership demands self-control. Presidential history is replete with examples of judicious inaction... The presidency may be a bully pulpit, but that makes it all the more imperative that its occupant knows how to keep his mouth shut and his powder dry. Trump rarely has shown such discipline — in his campaign statements or his business ventures. During his presidential run, he has lurched from one angry outburst to the next, attacking anyone who dares criticize him, childishly belittling his opponents and excommunicating news organizations (including The Washington Post) that don’t sufficiently flatter him. He is so reflexively combative that, according to Fox News’s Howard Kurtz, his staff has stopped presenting him with interview requests to reduce the “risk of the candidate making mistakes or fanning minor controversies.”"
Saturday, July 16, 2016
"Jail for Self-Publishing Novels"; Bizarro, 7/16/16
Dan Piraro, Bizzaro:
"Jail for Self-Publishing Novels"
Friday, July 15, 2016
Drones and M&M’s Help Vaccinate Endangered Ferrets; Future Tense via Slate, 7/14/16
Matt Miller, Future Tense via Slate; Drones and M&M’s Help Vaccinate Endangered Ferrets:
[Kip Currier: Following on the heels of the Facebook story below, another positive application of technology: specifically, the ingenius use of drones (much in the press over the past few years as a technology deployed for military/national security/reconnaissance purposes) in an 11th hour rescue of highly endangered North American black-footed ferrets from extinction in the wild.]
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just announced a plan (h/t the Verge) to save wild ferrets in the Great Plains region using brilliant combination of drones and M&M’s candy. Endangered since 1967 and thought to be extinct twice, the black-footed ferret is one the rarest mammals in North America—just 300 are thought to live in the wild. According to the FWS, the “primary obstacle” to this species’ recovery is its susceptibility to a virus called the Sylvatic plague, similar to the bubonic plague in humans. That’s where the drones come in. To protect the ferrets from the plague, they need to be vaccinated. But tracking down wild animals is tough, which is why the FWS has partnered with private contractors to develop a vaccination delivery system in which unmanned aerial systems (aka drones) will fly above the ferrets’ territory in northeastern Montana and drop M&M’s candies coated with the vaccine in the area. Strangely, it won’t be the ferrets eating the vaccine candy. Prairie dogs, which make up more than 90 percent of the ferrets’ diet and are thought to be the main source of infection for the ferrets, are the intended targets of the treats."
Facebook Reunites Family With Baby Boy Missing In Nice Terror Attack; Huffington Post, 7/15/16
Lee Moran, Huffington Post; Facebook Reunites Family With Baby Boy Missing In Nice Terror Attack:
[Kip Currier: It was timely seeing this story today, in the wake of the horrific Bastille Day terror attack in Nice, France yesterday. A trainer at my gym this morning ruefully said that he was starting to think social media may be being used for more bad purposes than good ones. This story reminds us that technology, specifically digital age tech, has positive applications too.]
"A baby boy who went missing Thursday amid the carnage in Nice, France, was reunited with his family the next day after Facebook posts appealing for help in finding him went viral... The pastor described the turn of events as “a miracle” and hailed the power of social media in helping reunite the boy with his family. “Social media has been used for a lot of bad things as well,” she said, “but I really believe that technology can be good and used to share hope and to encourage people during this very traumatic time.”"
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