Inevitable
First
Lawsuit Over NSA Phone Scandal Targets Obama, Verizon
The first of what likely will be many
lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the NSA’s dragnet
phone surveillance program was lodged Sunday, declaring the newly
disclosed spy operation an “outrageous breach of privacy.”
The suit
names Larry Klayman, the former chairman of Judicial Watch, and two
others who say the government has illegally spied on their Verizon
accounts. The spy program, Klayman’s suit in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia claims, “violates the U.S.
Constitution and also federal laws, including, but not limited to,
the outrageous breach of privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of
association, and the due process rights of American citizens.”
(Related)
The
Majority of Americans Still Don't Care About the NSA Spying on Them
A bit of good news for the 265 sitting
members of Congress who voted
to extend the legislation that the NSA claims as its mandate to
collect phone data: the majority of Americans don't care. Pew
Research today released
a poll suggesting that 56 percent of the country thinks doing
just that is just fine.
Because some days that aluminium foil
hat just isn't enough.
I’m already seeing a bunch of ”how
you can protect yourself” posts and articles in the wake of the NSA
disclosures last week. Here’s one by Ryan Gallagher:
First, instead of
browsing the internet in a way that reveals your IP address, you can
mask your identity by using an anonymising tool such as Tor
or by connecting to the web using a Virtual
Private Network, or VPN.
Additionally, you
can avoid Google search by using an alternative such as Ixquick,
which has solid privacy
credentials and says it does not log any IP addresses or search
terms or share information with third parties.
Read more on The
Age.
Completely unrelated...
Ye Olde Data Analysis...
Using
Metadata to Find Paul Revere
Well considered economic theory or
“We're the government and we'll do whatever we want.” (They did
ask the banks to write down the value of these homes, but that would
reduce bonuses. This way, the banks won't have the loans on their
balance sheets.)
Using
Eminent Domain to Address Underwater Mortgage Debt
“With more than 11 million homes
still “underwater,” the mortgage debt overhang caused by the
housing bubble remains an impediment to economic growth and a burden
on communities across the country. One possible solution to this
problem is for state and municipal governments to use their eminent
domain authority to purchase and restructure underwater mortgages.
This novel solution is proposed in a new report from the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. Many analysts agree that principal
reductions are the best way to assist underwater homeowners—those
who owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. Such
write-downs can be difficult to achieve, however, when the underlying
mortgages are securitized and held by private-label securitization
trusts. Specifically, such loans are subject to pooling and
servicing agreements that require collective action by a large
majority of security holders before a loan can be modified. As a
result, carrying out write-downs is challenging and sometimes
impossible. In Paying
Paul and Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain Solution for Underwater
Mortgage Debt, author Robert Hockett argues that one possible way
to sidestep this problem is by having governments buy and restructure
underwater mortgages. By utilizing their eminent domain authority,
state and municipal governments could bypass the coordination
problems posed by the pooling and servicing agreements. They could
then reduce the principal on underwater loans, lowering the amount
owed by borrowers and thereby reducing the risk of default. The
report includes details about the mechanics of such a program,
including suggestions on how to finance the purchases and a
discussion of the legal basis for invoking the eminent domain power.
The author also addresses how to handle potential challenges, such as
the existence of a second lien. “
Perspective:
Pew
– Tablet Ownership
“For the first time, a third (34%) of
American adults ages 18 and older own
a tablet computer like an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus,
or Kindle Fire—almost twice as many as the 18% who
owned a tablet a year ago.
Demographic groups most likely to own
tablets include:
- Those living in households earning at least $75,000 per year (56%), compared with lower income brackets
- Adults ages 35-44 (49%), compared with younger and older adults
- College graduates (49%), compared with adults with lower levels of education
“One of the things that is especially
interesting about tablet adoption compared to some of the patterns of
other devices we’ve studied is how these technologies’ growth has
played out between different age groups,” Research Analyst Kathryn
Zickuhr said. “With smartphones,
for instance, we’ve seen a very strong correlation with age where
most younger adults own smartphones, regardless of income level. But
when it comes to tablets, adults in their thirties and forties are
now significantly more likely than any other age group to own this
device.”
Perspective: Is this what the Census
Bureau does on off years?
Census
Bureau Report Details Rising Internet Use and Shows Impact of
Smartphones on Digital Divide
“While disparities
in Internet use persist among racial and ethnic groups, smartphones
appear to be helping to bridge the digital divide, according to a
report issued today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The findings are part
of the latest Census Bureau report, Computer
and Internet Use in the United States: 2011, which provides
analysis of computer and Internet use for households and individuals.
The information comes from data collected as part of the Current
Population Survey’s 2011 Computer and Internet Use Supplement,
which was sponsored and funded by the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA). The report also features a table
that places users along a “connectivity continuum” and shows that
a sizeable percentage of Internet users now make
their online connections both inside and outside the home and from
multiple devices.”
For my tech students...
… Sometimes when I don’t feel
like reading, I switch on the browser and catch the best
of technology in videos. There are some pretty good YouTube
channels on technology there in that last link. But that’s not the
complete barrel. Here are ten [I count 8 Bob]
more technology video websites if you like to catch the latest that’s
happening in the world of bits and bytes.
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