Even twits should be paranoid.
During the second half of 2012,
Twitter received 1,009 requests for user information on 1,433
accounts. 815 of those requests (81%) were from the U.S. and related
to information on 1,145 user accounts. Sixty percent of the U.S.
requests were by subpoena, 11% involved a court order, 19% involved a
search warrant, and 10% were reported as “other.”
You can read more of their report here.
Do follow the link to additional info on the U.S.
requests, where Twitter also provides stats on the breakdown of
cases where users were notified or not notified.
Not sure there is much new here.
From the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence:
In the interest of
increased transparency, the Director of National Intelligence has
authorized the declassification and public release of the attached
documents pertaining to the collection of telephone metadata pursuant
to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. DNI Clapper has determined that
the release of these documents is in the public interest.
For questions
related to information contained in these documents, please contact
the Public Affairs office at the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence at (703) 275-3700.
For my CJ students.
CREW
– U.S. Code now available for bulk download
News
release: “Earlier today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced
that the US Code is now available for bulk download in XML. This
seemingly technical announcement must be understood as a bigger win
for transparency than it would initially appear. What the House
leadership is doing (in a bipartisan fashion, no less) is empowering
the American people to better understand the law. Congress
is publishing
the law online, in real time, and in formats that web developers
can refashion into tools that empower everyone to understand the
rules that govern our country. This is a milestone in a
multi-year effort signaled by a 2011
policy shift announced by the Speaker and Majority Leader that
called for “all House stakeholders to work together on publicly
releasing the House’s legislative data in machine-readable
formats.” Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Mike Honda (D-CA) led
earlier efforts (and lent their support to these efforts) to release
legislative data online, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been a
consistent
advocate as well. (Also see this statement
on today’s release by Committee on House Administration Chair
Candice Miller (R-MI), whose committee has been an ally in these
transparency efforts.)”
Perspective: Has AT&T just become
irrelevant? Google takes ove all 10 billion Starbucks!
At
Starbucks, AT&T is out and Google is in for Wi-Fi
… Starbucks said that Google, in
conjunction with Level 3 Communications, will now be providing Wi-Fi
service in Starbucks' U.S. locations that's up to 10 times faster
than the current service powered by AT&T.
Delicious! (Perhaps you could run a
Denver page?)
New
Zagat website is free
Google
Official Blog: “[July 29, 2013 we launched] a new Zagat website
and mobile app for Android
and iPhone
that puts the very best restaurants and nightspots right at your
fingertips. And for the first time, our trusted Zagat ratings
and reviews are available for free with no registration required.
The new Zagat features the latest news and video content from our
expert local editors, curated lists (think “10
Hidden Restaurant Gardens Around DC”), powerful search and
map-based browsing to help you find the local gems.”
For my programming students.
- Just follow the simple steps to compile and execute any of your favorites programming languages online using your favorite browser and without having any setup on your local machine. Select the programming language you want to write, write it in the text editor provided, then click the button to see your output. It’s neat, tidy and free.
(Related) This might be useful in some
of my math classes.
Lessons
in Computational Thinking
Google offers dozens
of lessons for exploring computational thinking through the use
of Python programming. Now if you're wondering, "what the heck
is Python programming?" don't worry, I wondered the same thing.
Part of the Computational
Thinking resources provided by Google are lessons for teachers
who don't have any programming experience and or don't teach in a 1:1
setting.
Google's Computational
Thinking Lessons place a heavy emphasis on math and science, but
there lessons appropriate for use in the humanities too.
Applications
for Education
As Google states in their Teacher's
Guide Introduction to Python, the reason for using Python
programming in these lessons is, "A computer program gives
students the opportunity to directly apply the algorithms they learn
in class and provides them with a tangible reason for using variables
rather than specific numbers in math."
Better late than never..
… The
USA Today reports that members of the House Education
Committee are on the receiving end of a upswing in campaign
donations from for-profit universities. (And in related news,
committee members have put forward the “Supporting Academic Freedom
through Regulatory Relief Act,” which will stop the Obama
Administration from cutting off federal aid to schools with high
graduate debt and low repayment ratios.) [So that's
what the fuss was about? Campaign contributions? Bob]
… Google announced
it has partnered with Pearson, Wiley,
Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and
Cengage Learning and will be bringing textbooks to
its Google Play store next month. Wheeee. [The
announcement says, “...so students will be able to purchase and
rent their textbooks for their Android devices and for reading on the
web.” Bob]
… 7
Indian Institutes of
Technology and a number of IT firms, including
Infosys and Cognizant, are teaming
up to offer MOOCs.
… Digital textbook provider
Coursesmart
has released
its annual survey on digital textbooks and devices is out. Among
the findings: 99% of students surveyed own at least one digital
device, with 68% saying they use 3 or more devices every day.
79% of those surveyed say they’re using a digital textbook,
up from 63% in 2011. More thoughts on the survey via
The Digital Reader’s Nate Hoffelder.
Dilbert explains
how to deal with a poor satisfaction survey.
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