"In focus groups, the biggest thing they said to us was it made them safer, because if you are in a public space you know someone's watching."

The parade of horrors presented nightly by sensationalistic local television news has scared a certain segment of the population from leaving their living rooms, and its warm, glowing advertisement display. Now these people, the most paranoid in our society, have been armed with the power to spy on the actions of the rest of us and report those activities to the police! I'm sure its thrilling to think that from the comfort of their couches they can participate in law enforcement! This is how you build a network of informers and snitches!

Home snoop CCTV more popular than Big Brother | The Register

Just 10 years ago, the proposed merger of SABMiller and Molson Coors into MillerCoors would have worried craft brewers. Back then, "American beer" was thought of as a cheap product with very little beer flavor.

Today the United States has by far the most exciting beer culture in the world, and America's 1,500 craft brewers are undaunted by the prospect of a juggernaut that would have more than 30 percent of the domestic market. The age of American industrial brewing is over.
...
Now Americans are moving away from spongy industrial bread, watery coffee, plasticized "cheese" and other wonders of modern food science. The top maker of white supermarket bread went bankrupt a few years ago.

ubernoir says:
just as France turns more American
let's celebrate something French
quality of life

I'll drink to that!

Don't fear Big Beer - International Herald Tribune

Talking to my daughter about search engines and the necessity for a 10-year-old to question texts online led me to think that computer literacy programs that left out critical thinking were missing an important point. But I discovered when I talked to teachers in my local schools that "critical thinking" is regarded by some as a plot to incite children to question authority. At that point, I saw education - the means by which young people learn the skills necessary to succeed in their place and time - as diverging from schooling.

See also these posts from the archive:

If indeed the Web and microprocessors have brought us to the doorstep of a Marshall McLuhan-meets-Milton Friedman world of individual choice as a personal ideology, then record companies, newspapers and old TV networks aren't the only empires at risk. Public-school systems run by static teachers unions may find themselves abandoned by young parents, "accessing" K-8 education in unforeseen ways.

Don't use the word "fun" to describe what will go on in the Game School, a proposed New York City public school that will use "game design and game-inspired methods" to educate sixth through 12th graders.

The school day should be split in two. The first half is what you might call a required, common curriculum, taught by schools. The second half is an individual curriculum in which many outside organizations take part -- work organizations, community organizations. These activities may be organized by the school, but they may or may not take place in school. The school becomes a kind of broker for learning.

"We must allow our students to ask why, not just keep on telling them how."

Homeland security efforts through magnet safe haven programs are a significant part of our Nation's effort to achieve victory in the war on terror and help to ensure equal martyrdom opportunities for all terrorists.

The 75 students in the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness magnet program will study cybersecurity and geospatial intelligence, respond to mock terror attacks, and receive limited security clearances at the nearby Army chemical warfare lab. Students will choose one of three specialized tracks: information and communication technology, criminal justice and law enforcement, or "homeland security science." David Volrath, executive director of secondary education for Harford County Public Schools, says the school also hopes to offer "Arabic or some other nontraditional, Third World-type language." "The school's built around the marketplace that surrounds the defense industry, but the program's not involved in war or peace. Still, there are some realities about good guys and bad guys that will surely be discussed."

Howard Rheingold, on schooling

skullaria wrote:
Maybe in a world 60 years ago witches were fictional characters, but today there is a large group of people who claim ownership of that term (many of whom I call friend.)

I recall when I was in high school we wrote a play which contained the words "that sucks!" We performed the play for students and parents, who mostly seemed to enjoy it. The next morning we were informed that the school had received widespread complaints from parents about references to oral sex in our play. We had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Someone literally had to spell it out for us. In retrospect I'm still not sure their outrage makes any sense. It seems more likely that the use of the word "sucks" in a disparaging way is more likely a product of the old expression "sucks eggs" than a reference to oral sex.

For a more clear example, consider the fact that in Italy, giving someone the "thumbs up" literally means the same thing that giving someone "the finger" means here. If you go to Italy, and you are not aware of this, and you give someone the "thumbs up," are you guilty of attempting to offend them? Obviously not.

That fact that you've misinterpreted my words and also taken offense at them does not make me guilty of being offensive. If I did not intend to offend you, then what I said was not offensive. The offense occured in your mind and not in my expression. Someone who has never heard of Wicca (which is, frankly, nearly everyone) cannot possibly be thought guilty of a hate crime for hanging a witch. Such offense is just as ridiculous as conservative christians who oppose the celebration of halloween because they argue that it promotes witchcraft! Halloween is a game for children. Its not serious, and it is silly to take it seriously.

RE: Halloween decoration or hate crime?

Photographic Artist Chris Jordan turns the statistics of consumerism into palpable images in his new photo series.

Please watch this video. From an artistic standpoint, it's irrelevant and the quality of the video belies what the actual work must provoke in person. The statement that it is making, which is what art is really for, is what is important. The last 60 seconds of the video is the most profound, but the whole thing must be watched in order for that last bit to resonate roundly.

Chris Jordan has been posted to MemeStreams before.

Bill Moyers Journal - Chris Jordan

To be sure, time marches on.

Yet for many Californians, the looming demise of the "time lady," as she's come to be known, marks the end of a more genteel era, when we all had time to share.

Following the thread:

The (somewhat dubious) prime symbol of academic knowledge, and more-or-less exclusively masculine educational attainments, was the Classical languages Greek and Latin, to which a great deal of time was devoted in "genteel" boys' education, but which few women studied.

The sheer amount of sewing done by gentlewomen in those days sometimes takes us moderns aback, but it would probably generally be a mistake to view it either as merely constant joyless toiling, or as young ladies turning out highly embroidered ornamental knicknacks to show off their elegant but meaningless accomplishments. Sewing was something to do (during the long hours at home) that often had great practical utility, and that wasn't greatly mentally taxing, and could be done sitting down while engaging in light conversation, or listening to a novel being read.

For women of the "genteel" classes the goal of non-domestic education was thus often the acquisition of "accomplishments", such as the ability to draw, sing, play music, or speak modern (i.e. non-Classical) languages (generally French and Italian). Though it was not usually stated with such open cynicism, the purpose of such accomplishments was often only to attract a husband; so that these skills then tended to be neglected after marriage.

Time of day calling it quits at AT&T

For a minute or so, it's just Coles being a good samaritan, trying to stop a potentially violent confrontation and demanding that one of the men who picks up a rock put it down. It's already extremely tense by the time that someone starts pointing at the masked protestors and chanting "policier!" Coles demands that the men take off their masks, and the majority of the crowd join him––some even reach for the bandannas themselves––and accuse the masked men of being cops, police provocateurs hired to start a riot. When Coles actually looks at one of the men dead-on and says, "you're a police officer," the masked men all freeze, seemingly dumb-struck. And then they kind of start being aggressive again, until a little over two minutes in, when there's the weirdest police takedown you'll probably ever see.

Interesting video... I nearly posted it yesterday. If you were a protestor holding a rock, which is clearly a violent jesture, would you walk toward the police line for protection when the crowd starts chanting at you, still holding the rock? Don't miss the picture where the "protestors" and police are all wearing the same boots. These kinds of accusations are made often but I've never seen such clear evidence. Fortunately the mainstream press in Canada appears to be picking up on it.

Just remember that authorities never abuse power, which is why we don't need checks and balances. Checks and balances kill Americans.

Torontoist: Bon Cop, Bad Cop

The closest Young comes to explaining to me why he created Cryptome is this: "I'm a pretty fucking angry guy." He describes it as a public education project. But for every hard data point he offers, there's the ever-present admonishment that secrecy corrupts everything. "We caution people, don't believe anything we publish," he says. "We're totally untrustworthy. We may be a sting operation, we may be working for the Feds. If you trust us, you're stupid." It's like a nihilist art project: Provide your readers with more than 40,000 files of data the government doesn't want you to have, data that exposes the lies of the powerful, and then remind them that you can never, ever know for sure who is lying.

Radar Online : Inside Cryptome, the website the CIA doesn't want you to see

The Department of Homeland Security is hoping to overcome that limitation by automating the identification of individuals whose behavior suggests they pose a threat via a program dubbed "Hostile Intent."

Pretty soon the "Thought Police" will be able to arrest you for a "Thought Crime".

The software is pretty cool. So is the mood driven PONG. [ Video Link ]

But the spectrum of human emotion can not be lumped into a few categories.

Donnie: Life isn't that simple. I mean who cares if Ling Ling returns the wallet and keeps the money? It has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!

Homeland Security tests automated 'Hostile Intent' detector

KH:

We do not publicize how often the no-fly system stops people you would not want on your flight. Several times a week would low-ball it.

Almost 20,000 False Positives:

The Justice Department's proposed budget for 2008 reveals for the first time how often names match against the database, reporting that there were 19,967 "positive matches" in 2006.

19,967 / 52 = 383.9
What that really translates to approximately 350 people per week inconvenienced. If they were arrested, deported, or their plot foiled we would of heard about it in the news.

But remeber what KH said about why they use the no-fly list:

Because it works.

Schneier on Security: Conversation with Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator (Part 3)