Thursday, February 10, 2005

Cites & Insights, February 2005 (Pew "State Of Blogging"). Walt Crawford's amazing library 'zine Cites & Insights is already on the February 2005 issue . . . . The Wikipedia material itself is fascinating. But I can't resist excerpting his take-down of the Pew State Of Blogging Report: Here's Pew again, once more extrapolating from 1,800 interviews to give us the precise state of the nation on internet-related issues. (Yes, 1,800 interviews chosen with appropriate tools should be enough for reasonably accurate projections, given a whole set of hard-to test assumptions.) This time it's about the blogosphere. I didn't download or read the whole report, but I did look at the summary and some comments about the study and the summary. I'm assuming here that "adults" means "age 18 and over." I'm going to repeat some of the key points in the summary, using precisely the information given, but wording them just a bit differently: 96% of U.S. adults have not created weblogs. 86% of them do not read (and, I would extrapolate, have never read) weblogs. 80% do not know what a blog is. 93% have never posted a comment or other material on blogs. During the political campaign, 95% of adults did not read political weblogs--and 97% did not read them regularly. 97-98% of U.S. adults do not use RSS aggregators or XML readers. 52% of blog creators are more than 29 years old. 58% of blog creators are not particularly well off financially, living in households with no more than $50,000 annual gross income 61% of blog creators do not have college degrees. As some readers have figured out by now, I've just provided the inverse of the claims actually made in the summary--and adjusted for the difference between 120 million adult internet users and around 222 million adults (2000 census). [Infothought] 10:02:23 PM    comment []

Judges Dissolve Ohio Vote Machine Deadline, by JOHN McCARTHY (AP). In a written opinion Tuesday, Petro said the federal law phasing out punch-card ballots allows county elections officials to choose between optical-scan machines and electronic touch-screen systems. He said Blackwell didn't have the authority to issue his directive. 1:43:04 PM    comment []

Looking at Déjà Vu for the First Time: False-familiarity experiences may fit a plausible framework. By Alan S Brown, in The Scientist. What causes this illusion of positive recognition? Unfortunately, déjà vu experiences routinely lack clues pointing to any empirically verifiable causes, so prior speculation about the experience has spanned a wide spectrum, including past lives, precognition, brain pathology, and schizophrenia. But increased research on the brain and cognition has provided four scientifically plausible frameworks for understanding how déjà vu works. The experience could be a simple neuronal misfire, a result of asynchronous message processing, the sudden recognition of something otherwise overlooked, or a misplaced association between an object remembered and a new experience. Of late, we have developed better tools to evaluate these frameworks, and the findings may offer insight into how memory works, and why, sometimes, it doesn't. 12:43:05 PM    comment []

Parents Protest Student Computer ID Tags, by Lisa Leff (AP). The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan. . . . "If this school doesn't stand up, then other schools might adopt it," Nicole Ozer, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union, warned school board members at a meeting Tuesday night. "You might be a small community, but you are one of the first communities to use this technology." The system was imposed, without parental input, by the school as a way to simplify attendance-taking and potentially reduce vandalism and improve student safety. Principal Earnie Graham hopes to eventually add bar codes to the existing ID's so that students can use them to pay for cafeteria meals and check out library books. But some parents see a system that can monitor their children's movements on campus as something straight out of Orwell. "There is a way to make kids safer without making them feel like a piece of inventory," said Michael Cantrall, one of several angry parents who complained. "Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored, and someone is always going to be watching you?" Cantrall said he told his children, in the 5th and 7th grades, not to wear the badges. He also filed a protest letter with the board and alerted the ACLU. Graham, who also serves as the superintendent of the single-school district, told the parents that their children could be disciplined for boycotting the badges - and that he doesn't understand what all their angst is about. "Sometimes when you are on the cutting edge, you get caught," Graham said, recounting the angry phone calls and notes he has received from parents. . . . "You know what it comes down to? I believe junior high students want to be stylish. This is not stylish," [Graham] said. This latest adaptation of radio frequency ID technology was developed by InCom Corp., a local company co-founded by the parent of a former Brittan student, and some parents are suspicious about the financial relationship between the school and the company. InCom plans to promote it at a national convention of school administrators next month. InCom has paid the school several thousand dollars for agreeing to the experiment, and has promised a royalty from each sale if the system takes off, said the company's co-founder, Michael Dobson, who works as a technology specialist in the town's high school. Brittan's technology aide also works part-time for InCom. 12:43:01 PM    comment []

Two from BNA News: ALBERTA PRIVACY COMMISH CRITICIZES 3 COMPANIES ON ID THEFT The Alberta privacy commissioner has issued three decisions criticizing several companies for failing to protect personal information in their possession from identity thieves. The cases, which include one against retailer Linens N' Things, arose from a tip from the Edmonton Police. Release [PDF] CT RULES WEB SURFING MAKES CONSUMER CONFUSION LIKELY BNA's Electronic Commerce & Law Report reports on Coca-Cola v. Purdy, a recent federal court from Minnesota involving trademark infringement. The court ruled that the "quick and effortless nature" of Web surfing makes it easy for consumers to be confused as to the sponsorship of a website. Article Decision [PDF] For a free trial to source of this story, visit http://www.bna.com/products/ip/eplr.htm (Edited to embed urls.) 12:42:55 PM    comment []

Open-Source Practices for Biotechnology. Researchers have devised a method of creating genetically modified crops that does not infringe on patents, and they will be making the technique available to others to use. By ANDREW POLLACK. [NYT > Science] 7:31:51 AM    comment []

And Then There Were Seven.... After five years on the job, Carly Fiorina was ousted today as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, one of only eight women CEO's among the Fortune 500 companies. Results, not gender, was said to be the bottom line reason. Her orchestration of a controversial $19 billion merger with Compac Computers never produced more than erratic returns. But it was glorious seeing her play so comfortably with the big boys and the big money. She'll no doubt be back in the game soon. (she leaves with a $21 million severance package according to Reuters News) The seven remaining female major leaguers, in case you were wondering: Mary Sammons, Rite Aid,  Eileen Scott, Pathmark Stores; Andrea Jung, Avon;  Anne Mulcahy, Xerox;  Marce Fuller, Mirant (an energy company);  Marion Sandler, Golden West Financial; Patricia Russo, Lucent Techologies. You might be aware of Meg Whitman, CEO of one of our fave companies, eBay, but her outfit hasn't cracked the Fortune 500 yet, weighing in at number 678 at the top of the year. [Girl in the Locker Room!] 7:31:29 AM    comment []

Tiny District Finds Bonanza of Pupils and Funds Online. A Web-based school in Branson, Colo., has managed to enroll nearly 1,000 students, but its academic record is mixed. By SAM DILLON. [NYT > Education] 7:30:49 AM    comment []

Putting Eyeballs on Copyright Law. Veterans of the civil rights movement convene with copyright reform activists for a screening of Eyes on the Prize. Those gathered say corporations that control copyrights should not control the dissemination of history. Katie Dean reports from Berkeley, California. [Wired News] 7:29:34 AM    comment []

Prince Charles to Marry Camilla Parker Bowles. Prince Charles said today he would marry his longtime love and Princess Diana's onetime rival in a triangle haunted by rumor and scandal. By ALAN COWELL. [NYT > International] 7:29:31 AM    comment []

COPERNICUS. ULTIMATE SCIENCE: And we're also looking into who this so-called "Copernicus" is, what with his alleged "system" and all... A quote from Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma (R), the doctor who sterilized a patient without her knowledge when she was 18, and who has said that doctors who perform abortions should get the death penalty. Meanwhile, in talking about those worthless class action lawsuits: "I immediately thought about silicone breast implants and the legal wrangling and the class-action suits off that. And I thought I would just share with you what science says today about silicone breast implants. If you have them, you're healthier than if you don't. That is what the ultimate science shows. In fact, there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and, in fact, they make you healthier." [Thanks to the ever-sensitive Womack Wire] [Gibson Blog] 7:23:42 AM    comment []