Sunday, April 27, 2014

Break it into as many tiny and contentious pieces as possible so it is no threat and won't qualify for NATO.
What Russia Might Gain From A Decentralized Ukraine
Ukraine's interim government is facing major obstacles: a separatist uprising in the east of the country, an economy in tatters and a presidential election next month.
But the leadership is also facing a longer-term challenge, one that will shape the future of the country: the creation of a new constitution.
The task will be complicated by pressure from Russia, which has already made clear what kind of constitution it thinks Ukraine should have. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, laid out Russia's position in an interview last month.
"They should start agreeing on a federation, where each region has broad authority over its language, education, economic and cultural ties with neighboring countries," Lavrov said.
What Lavrov seemed to be outlining is a country whose regions have such broad authority that they can even control a certain amount of foreign policy. Other Russian statements have specified that Ukraine's constitution should keep the country neutral so it can't join NATO, and that the nation should declare Russian to be an official state language.


If you want to remain anonymous, you must be a foreigner! (Perhaps even a terrorist!)
Hulu Begins to Block VPNs from Accessing Streaming Content
… According to a report from TorrentFreak, Hulu is starting to block VPN services from accessing its content. The service has allegedly concocted up a giant "block list" of IP addresses used by a number of common VPN services. If it detects that your alleged IP addresses is one of those, you get a lovely interstitial message when trying to access Hulu's content:
"Based on your IP-address, we noticed that you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you're in the U.S. you'll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu," the message reads.


It is possible to anonymize all that data (medical, behavioral, etc.)
Phil Lee writes:
Earlier this week, the Article 29 Working Party published its Opinion 05/2014 on Anonymisation Techniques. The opinion describes (in quite some technical detail) the different anonymisation techniques available to data controllers, their relative values, and makes some good practice suggestions – noting that “Once a dataset is truly anonymised and individuals are no longer identifiable, European data protection law no longer applies“.
This is a very significant point – data, once truly anonymised, is no longer subject to European data protection law.
Read more on Field Fisher Waterhouse.


Perspective.
The Amazon Deal With HBO
The recently announced deal between Amazon and HBO in which Amazon will offer to its Amazon Primes customers much of HBO’s classic programming should be examined for its long-term implications. Are there any businesses that are liable to get hurt?
... What companies will this trend put out of business?
  1. Cable TV companies, which will be reduced to being broadband Internet service providers as people cut the cord to get programming from alternative sources on the Internet.
  2. Broadcast TV networks, which will be reduced to being just owners of a bunch of TV stations as people realize they can get most of the TV programming they like from HULU or direct on the Internet from content providers such as Disney, which recently made a deal with the Dish Network to provide its programming, including ABC and ESPN , over the Internet to mobile devices.
  3. Aereo, assuming it wins its case in the Supreme Court. Aereo will be put out of business because TV stations will stream their programming to mobile devices free and sell advertising in the stream. Three weeks ago eight TV station groups announced a joint venture, named Pearl, which will deliver interactive TV content to LG smart television sets in three markets.

(Related) I've always wanted a problem like this!
Jeff Bezos Loses $2.8 Billion In A Day


For my students. A Mac App. Think of it as a text-to-PowerPoint generator.
– is a new, simple way to create presentations. Open your favourite text editor, write down your thoughts and Deckset will turn them into beautiful presentations. Focus on your ideas, not on designing slides. Deckset comes with eight amazing-looking themes that are designed to work for any audience, whether it’s a business meeting or a tech conference.


For my fellow professors (and a few students) – It can't hurt to keep reminding everyone that “There's an App (or program) for that!”
… Created by NJ Superintendent Scott Rocco, this list is chock-full of tons of different apps that can fill out just about every category of Bloom’s Taxonomy. It includes the name of the tool, what level of Bloom’s Taxonomy it addresses, where you can find it, what it does, and last but definitely not least, how you’ve been using it in your classroom. As of this writing, there are 83 tools in the list.
So go on- check it out! It is a Google Doc, so it is easily editable so that you can all add your favorite tools to the list!


Once again I've managed to stay off this list. (Would you want to be on a list where Al Gore is number one?) It amazes me how many names I recognize, and how few of their ideas I think impact global thought.
Global Thought Leaders 2013
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on April 26, 2014
“Who are the thought leaders shaping today’s discourse on the future of society and the economy? Whose ideas are defining and changing our lives? Where is the impetus for innovation and social change coming from? Working together with Peter Gloor, GDI now presents the second “Global Thought Leader Map“, and the resulting “influence rank”, which may prove to be an effective tool for measuring the influence of the world’s most important thinkers.”


Interesting (and poorly referenced) statistics. And an infographic...
How Is Technology Affecting Kids?
  • 73% of parents say they’d like to limit their child’s TV watching
  • Kids spend about 110 minutes per day watching TV, and a little over 90 minutes watching DVDs or movies


No comments: