...because...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080204065826740

Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Monday, February 04 2008 @ 07:08 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.

Source - Chronicles of Dissent

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017380.html

February 03, 2008

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet

Solove, Daniel J., "The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet". The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, Daniel J. Solove, Yale University Press, October 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1019177

• "Solove explores how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cyber mobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Longstanding notions of privacy need review: unless we establish a balance among privacy, free speech, and anonymity, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free."

• AFP: Reputation managers step in against Internet thugs

Perhaps in the next administration?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080204070616813

Abracadabra! Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish

Monday, February 04 2008 @ 07:09 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Fed. Govt.

The Bush administration has failed to nominate any candidates to a newly empowered privacy and civil-liberties commission. This leaves the board without any members, even as Congress prepares to give the Bush administration extraordinary powers to wiretap without warrants inside the United States.

Source - Wired.com

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action, Mr Bond. - Auric Goldfinger

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/04/0158249&from=rss

Fourth Undersea Cable Taken Offline In Less Than a Week

Posted by Zonk on Monday February 04, @12:36AM from the bad-week-to-be-a-backbone-cable dept. Communications Networking Hardware

An anonymous reader writes An anonymous reader writes "Another undersea cable was taken offline on Friday, this one connecting Qatar and UAE. 'The [outage] caused major problems for internet users in Qatar over the weekend, but Qtel's loss of capacity has been kept below 40% thanks to what the telecom said was a large number of alternative routes for transmission. It is not yet clear how badly telecom and internet services have been affected in the UAE.' In related news it's been confirmed that the two cables near Egypt were not cut by ship anchors."

Update: 02/04 07:13 GMT by Z : A commenter notes that despite the language in the article indicated a break or malfunction, the cable wasn't cut. It was taken offline due to power issues.

Research: A meta-site for Field Guides. (Every niche has its expert, the trick is finding one when you need one.

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix/fieldguides/main.htm

International Field Guides

This site merges the book A Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North America by Diane Schmidt, Biology Librarian at the University of Illinois, and its companion Web site International Field Guides.

Humor (Please don't take this seriously. God knows I don't take Hillary seriously.)

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Clinton_suggests_tapping_wages_to_pay_for_healthcare

Clinton suggests tapping wages to pay for healthcare

news.yahoo.com — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance [but refused to call in mandatory! Bob] to achieve coverage for all Americans. The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080203/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_rdp;_ylt=AreQ9GL0Bon12cF85fwJDgGs0NUE