Sunday, May 14, 2006

EFF Was on Snooping Beat Early. As America absorbs the implications of the government uber-snooping on all of us, discussed in Thursday's USA Today story, it's worth remembering -- as the San Jose Mercury News did today -- that the Electronic Frontier Foundation was on the case a while back. The Merc notes: It's not just phone calls, it's e-mail, too, according to a lawsuit that accuses AT&T of turning over vast amounts of domestic phone and Internet traffic to the National Security Agency. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public-interest ``digital rights' group with headquarters in San Francisco, said Thursday's report in USA Today on an alleged massive telephone-monitoring program appears to confirm allegations made in its lawsuit against AT&T. That class-action lawsuit, filed Jan. 31 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleges that the phone company lets the NSA scoop up voluminous phone and e-mail traffic at AT&T telecommunications centers. The EFF deserves our thanks. And it's now vital for Big Media to do MUCH more reporting on this outrageous abridgement of our civil liberties. I won't hold my breath, however. [Backfence.com: Dan Gillmor's Blog] 11:11:32 AM    comment []

Dance Dance Revolution, the CBS TV series. DDR will soon become a Saturday morning television series on CBS: In "Dance Revolution", 'tweens' and teens bring their freshest moves to this sensational new dance competition where teams of dancers display their innovative routines. Hosted by the charismatic "Dance Revolution" house band, kid-friendly judges determine the winners as the dancers perform their routines to the cool sounds of the band. "Dance Revolution" will also offer onscreen visuals that constantly encourage viewer participation by demonstrating specific dance moves and steps. Link (Thanks, Chester!) Previous BoingBoing posts about Dance Dance Revolution: Link. [Boing Boing] 11:11:13 AM    comment []

remix. Blender: 500 Greatest Songs Written Since You Were Born | Rolling Stone: Most Excellent Songs Of Every Year Since 1967. MySpace, the music video. The Lloyd Dobler moment for a new generation, from The Office finale: Jim says "I'm in love with you." Response: "What are you doing?" LoveLines is an interesting little interface. Compare Kurt Anderson's good essay on plagiarism from last week with Malcolm Gladwell's equally good essay on plagiarism from last year. MLA Maps. [Fimoculous.com] 11:08:04 AM    comment []

Embarrassment around the world.. "Google lifted the veil this week on one of its best-kept secrets: which nations search for what,"this IHT article says."Who looks up democracy most avidly?Who seeks out Allah or Christ most faithfully?Who types in "drugs" or "sex" most frequently?No country's secrets are spared.Pakistanis look up "Danish cartoons" more avidly than anyone,according to Google.They also lead the rankings for "sex" - with their neighbor and nuclear rival India seldom far behind."In Pakistani society, sex is a taboo,"said Fatima Idrees,a project manager at the Pakistani affiliate of the Gallup International polling agency,adding that "curiosity and availability of the Internet may cause such behavior."The site introduced Thursday, Google Trends, measures how often particular phrases are searched for from computers in individual countries and cities. It short-lists the places with the highest absolute number of searches for, say, "cat food." Then it picks the top 10 or so based on which places look up "cat food" much more than they do other things - for instance, "dog food."The Google Trends site is likely to generate a mix of consternation,embarrassment and laughter around the world. While Google emphasizes that its efforts to protect individuals' privacy, the new site does nothing to protect the collective privacy of nations,if such a thing exists,the right of the British to conceal that they look up "handcuffs" most often,or the right of China's leaders to hide that Mandarin ranks second only to English as the language used to look up "democracy,"or the right of other officials to hide that Arabic-speaking users rarely look up "democracy"."This is a fascinating project, effortlessly offering a glimpse into regional and cultural habits and differences that is otherwise nearly impossible to reproduce,"said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University". A nation's interests?Google tells all [Smart Mobs] 10:54:15 AM    comment []

Connecticut: A Free Ride at Yale? Where Do I Sign Up?. The admission process for the Yale School of Music just got twice as selective after it announced an anonymous gift that would enable all of its students to attend for free. By BRIAN WISE. [NYT > Education] 10:47:01 AM    comment []

DOJ moves in dark of night to quash EFF wiretapping lawsuit.  Kurt sez, "Early Saturday morning, in the darkest hours of the night, the Department of Justice made good its threat to file a motion to dismiss our class-action lawsuit against AT&T, contending that AT&T's collaboration with the NSA's massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications (which violates the law and the privacy of its customers)--despite being front page news throughout the United States and the subject of government press conferences and Congressional hearings--is a state secret. The motion was accompanied by declarations by Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, Director, National Security Agency and John D. Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence. We will vigorously oppose this motion. Donate to EFF and help stop the illegal spying!" Link (Thanks, Kurt!) [Boing Boing] 10:46:51 AM    comment []

(Two of the several) Roland's Sunday Smart Trends #110. Social Networks Attract Nearly Half Of All Web Users The top 10 [social-networking] sites collectively grew 47 percent in the United States from the same month a year ago to 68.8 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The sites reached 45 percent of active Web users. Source: Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb News, May 12, 2006 Endline: The Glue Gun and Other Sticky Stories Tracking technology is getting cheaper and easier to implement every day. As a result, separating truth from science fiction is getting more difficult. See if you can tell which of these stories are the real deal and which are gags. Source: Chris Lindquist, CIO Magazine, May 15, 2006 Issue [Smart Mobs] 10:42:08 AM    comment []

what we blog, email and search for. Jason Kottke notes the difference between the New York Times most blogged and most emailed articles - the most blogged is far more political than the most emailed. Interesting, the top searches readers have done at the New York times are closer to the blogged stories. And Colbert’s up near the top - just as he was on Technorati after his speech to Bush that was all but ignored in mainstream media - at first. Honestly, if The Colbert Report and The Daily Show were broadcast here, instead of just soap operas and harmlessly funny talkshows like Letterman, Norwegians rather un-nuanced and media-driven view of the USA couldn’t help but change radically. Whoever’s in charge of the US’s image abroad should get on to it. [jill/txt] 10:41:04 AM    comment []

Iran Amenable to Limited Nuclear Talks [Washington Post: Top News] 10:40:53 AM    comment []

The week in Iran. Doctorzin @ Regime Change Iran has a roundup of all major events regarding Iran during this past week. [Pajamas Media] 10:32:25 AM    comment []