If a false entry in a database leads to a unconstitutional police search that reveals illegal drugs, does the government get to hold it against you?

That's the question the Supreme Court will tackle on Tuesday in a case civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center argue will have broad implications in a world where we are constantly being evaluated against databases and watch lists that are riddled with frustratingly persistent errors.

"In these interlinked databases, one error can spread like a disease, infecting every system it touches and condemning the individual to whom this error refers to suffer substantial delay, harassment, and improper arrest," EPIC director Marc Rotenberg argued in a friend of the court brief (.pdf).

Supremes Mull Whether Bad Databases Make for Illegal Searches | Threat Level

Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report with the slightly menacing promise to "deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind." Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year.

MemeStreams readership has hovered between a fifth and a half of that figure for years and we don't really make any money from our ads. Two to Five times squat is still squat. I figure you've got to have an order of magnitude more people in order to actually make money... This figure isn't just skewed by the amount of money those $200,000 plus blogs are making, its also skewed by the size of their readership. 100,000 to 100,000,000 is not a very useful range. Lies, damn lies, and statistics...

How do bloggers make money? - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine

They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on.... The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury secretary.

...

The same genius, Hank Paulson, that helped us to get into this, and has utterly failed to see this coming until it was all but on top of is, is trying to get us out.

Paulson was an architect of the crisis

American Memory is a new and compelling DVD coming from Skinny Puppy later this year. It took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on, but that didn't detract from this hypnotic and ultimately forceful piece.

American Memory - Boing Boing

Teaser-rate loans allowed folks who otherwise could never have afforded to own a home to buy one, at least until the rate reset.

It’s not hard to predict what happens when rates reset. All of a sudden, buyers who have been paying $1,000 per month face monthly payments of $4,000. Many, perhaps most, go into default.

The possibility that this would become a major problem became apparent as early as 2005.

We've been saying that, too.

At least $500 billion more of teaser-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset over the next several years. In all likelihood, they too will go into default and become toxic waste. Nothing in Mr. Paulson’s original proposal was intended to do anything about this next $500 billion installment – or, indeed, to prevent lenders from making more teaser-rate mortgages in the future.

Is it reasonable to prohibit teaser rates on mortgages by law? Is there anyone out there with graphics of what the future resets look like and how far through the process we are? Apparently last December they slowed the rate of resets.

Understanding Tax: 7 The Financial Crisis: What Went Wrong?

This particular bit of partisanship would be easy to ignore if it was only coming out of the mouths of pundits, but we're actually hearing legislators calling for the repeal of the CRA.

There are too many people who are trying to duck responsibility for the current mess, and seeking to place blame elsewhere. I find this to be terribly important, as we seek to repair the damage amidst an economic crisis. Rather than objectively evaluate the present crisis in an attempt to craft an appropriate response, the partisan hacks are trying to obscure the causes of the current situation. Like burglars trying to destroy the surveillance tape, they are all too aware of their role in the present debacle.

Shame on them for their foolishness or cowardice.

The Big Picture | Misunderstanding Credit and Housing Crises: Blaming the CRA, GSEs

If you think that Congress is having a tough time nailing down the terms of a $700-billion bailout because of high-minded concerns about fairness, proper use of taxpayer funds or regulatory oversight, think again.

So, for example, Rose City Archery, an Oregon company that makes bows and arrows for kids, might be the beneficiary of a provision inserted by Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith to end a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows.

If you're worried that the whole bailout might be a big scam, well, this certainly doesn't help.

They haven't even signed it yet and the pigs are already at the trough!

I thought this was interesting -- it fits with Jared Diamond's argument about malaria.

The researchers compared that sample with modern strains to determine its mutation rate. Then they matched that rate with the 1959 sample, tracing their common ancestor to between 1884 and 1924.

The researchers surmised that the creation of colonial cities around the turn of the century was the catalyst that allowed the virus to take hold.

Jim Moore, an anthropologist at UC San Diego who was not associated with the study, said the fact that the virus could have spread unnoticed for decades is no surprise, given the mortality rates in Africa during the colonial period.

"The conditions then were horrendous in terms of how Africans were treated," he said. "People dying of AIDS would have been part of the background."

HIV dates back to around 1900, study shows - Los Angeles Times

The so-called Travelers' Privacy Protection Act, introduced in the Senate by Democratic Senators Russ Feingold (WI) and Maria Cantwell (WA) on Monday, would roll back portions of the current policy, which gives border agents the right to search or seize anyone's laptop as if it were just another piece of luggage.

Bill Proposes Privacy for Americans' Laptops at Border | Threat Level from Wired.com

Princeton economists review recent events on Wall Street and assess the implications for the economy and public policy.

If you are short on time, you might consider skipping to Krugman at 50:00...

YouTube - Crisis on Wall Street - Gold Star