No laptops across borders

by AMagill
Electronic Search and Seziure at the Border:
[Via Group News Blog]

So, any laptop entering the US can be confiscated, held for several weeks, and completely copied, all because a Customs Agent wants to. I would figure a lot of businesses are going to be very unhappy with this approach. As GNB says:

As of April, Customs can take every electronic device you have.

US News and World Reports

Returning from a vacation to Germany in February, freelance journalist Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Agents searched his luggage, he said, “then they told me that they were impounding my laptop.”

Shaken by the encounter, Hogan examined his bags and found the agents had also inspected the memory card from his camera. “It was fortunate that I didn’t use [the laptop] for work,” he said, “or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their information.” When customs offered to return the computer nearly two weeks later, Hogan had it shipped to his lawyer.

How common Hogan’s experience is remains unclear. But an April ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Protection, does have full authority to search any electronic devices without suspicion in the same way that it can inspect briefcases.

But congressional investigators say that copies of drives are sometimes made, meaning customs could be duplicating corporate secrets, legal and financial data, personal E-mails and photographs, along with stored passwords for accounts with companies ranging from Netflix to Bank of America.

The practice of storing and duplicating material might be something that both opponents and supporters of seizure could agree to regulate, says Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, an otherwise staunch supporter of customs’ authority. Larry Cunningham, an assistant district attorney from New York, told the hearing: “I am aware of no authority that would permit the government, without probable cause to believe it contains contraband, to keep a person’s laptop or to copy the contents of its files.”

Customs insists that terrorism and child pornography are sufficient justification for electronics searches. And even civil libertarians agree it makes sense for customs to search luggage, which could pose immediate dangers to aircraft and passengers. But, says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, “customs officials do not go through briefcases to review and copy paper business records or personal diaries, which is apparently what they are now doing in digital form. These pda’s don’t have bombs in them.”

Customs doesn’t make copies of the files in your briefcase. For them to copy the files on your computer is to turn over one’s life to the government.

How are you supposed to get any work done? And can Customs hold your briefcase for a couple of weeks and copy everything in it? This seems like way beyond unreasonable search and seizure. It also seems really open to abuse. Corporate espionage got a lot more interesting, I guess. I would expect businessman to be a little worried about this.

Technorati Tags: Government

Who is pollinating whom?

Sweet Nothings Versus Honeyed Incentives:
[Via Firedoglake]

Photo via Stuck In Customs.

Firedoglake puts it all together. Colony Collapse Disorder is worrying because there is very little research to really determine how bad the problem is.

Most plants native to America do not require honey bees for pollination, since the honeybee is an introduced species. However, many of our crop plants need the bee because it allows us to stage large numbers of pollinators at a single time for our agricultural crops. So loss in the number of bees for commercial use could be devastating.

Again, like climate change, the worst case scenario is horrible but in this case, the research is meager in comparison. But there are some interesting developments.

Here are some quotes from Firedoglake:

A reader recently sent me an article on the deepening problems with hive collapse and honeybees:

A record 36 percent of U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost to mysterious causes so far this year and worse may be yet to come, experts told a congressional panel Thursday.

The year’s bee colony losses are about twice the usual seen following a typical winter, scientists warn. Despite ambitious new research efforts, the causes remain a mystery….

So, how much research is being done? Not enough. This is what shook me:

So far, Agricultural Research Service Administrator Edward Knipling told the House panel, scientists believe that “various stresses” — such as parasites, pathogens and pesticides — can build up in a bee colony and cause its demise. Some research has specifically identified a particular virus, called the Israeli acute paralysis virus, which is closely associated with colony collapse.

Meanwhile, there isn’t enough money to probe all the pollen and bee samples that researchers have collected, said Penn State University senior extension associate Maryann Frazier.

There are some 2,000 samples on shelves waiting to be analyzed by the federal government for $200 a pop, she said.

“The bee research community is quite small,” she said. “The research and money has been very minimal. What we need is more manpower to tackle this.”

Further illustrating how political pollination works, Pien and bee-friendly representatives hosted a Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday that lured participants with lots of free Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream cups. Dozens of congressional staffers fluttered by for a quick taste. Haagen-Dazs has retained a D.C.-based public relations firm to help make its case, while the American Honey Producers Association paid the lobbying firm Winston and Strawn $860,000 in the last two years, records show.

The article states that the farming bill that was just approved over President Bush’s veto authorizes $20 million for bee-related research but does not guarantee that it will actually be spent. The President decides that. So, Haagen-Dazs has said it will provide $250,000 for research. That should just about pay for the testing of the 2000 samples. A lot more will need to be done as well before we can determine just how bad this could get.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Science

Clash of mediums

by kla4067

My mom sent me this article from the Houston Chronicle and it took me off on a fun journey through a mash-up of old media and new media. First my rant.

This article actually ticked me off, not for the content but for the way it was presented. So many newspapers just shovel their print versions onto the internet without seeing it is a new medium with its own needs and logic. Online is a conversation while print is a monolog (although LTEs simulate a dialog, just not a very effective one.)

Why is there not a single link to any of these videos? Why is there not a single link in the article to anything? It is as if a TV program consisted of simply filming a radio broadcast, microphones , sound effects man and all.

If I am going to read something online, make the content fit the medium and put in links.

So I went and googled the author. Turns out the original LA Times article does actually have the links, even to the video referenced in the article, indicating it gets the medium. But then I looked closer and found out that the reason it has links is because it’s a blog.

Yep, the Houston Chronicle published an article from a blog from the LA Times. But it was presented as if it was just a regular newspaper article, not something written for a different medium (Think a TV show that just showed us the pages from the screenplay, not the movie itself.).

No wonder the article read so different than normal. I originally thought the guy was condescending because he was someone who did not get it. No, it is from a blog where he can be condescending because It’s a blog. And a fun one to read.

Turns out that this LA TImes writer, David Sarno, whose beat is ‘ Internet culture and online entertainment,’ produces articles with lots of personality and snark. That is what is often expected with an online blog. Because there can be lots of comments to add balance. He writes with a personal viewpoint but one that invites a reaction, which can easily be seen in the comments provided.

This blog is a great example of the online medium, and how it often differs from print. It is a conversation between people, not an authority telling us what is happening.

He can be a little snarky, have his soapbox to write with a personal point of view, with opinions that may provoke. But he also provides a soapbox for anyone else who wants to add to the conversation. He is not afraid of the response from his readers and actually uses them to help write other posts.

In fact, this article is only the latest is a series of Fred posts, all adding to the conversation. The first initially brings up Fred and talks about how the author does not understand his popularity. Couple of commenters add context.

The next is a few days later, where the author tried to base the popularity not on creativity but on marketing from a company. This idea was shot down by commenters. Thus the latest article, which now adds much more depth and backstory. It really enhances the conversation, even though there are several items of controversy that the commenters bring up..

It is obvious from these conversations that the author does not get the humor nor understand it. That is a personal issue for any type of humor. But several of his commenters do get the humor and their context is available to all. Thus a conversation which we will continue as we discover just how commercial or how creative Lucas is going to be now that he has begun to find success in Hollywood. This is how online conversations work and why the medium is different than print.

Obviously the Houston Chronicle does not get this. It is like it quoted just part of a conversation from a dinner party, totally out of context. No wonder it sounded kind of off.

I wonder if the Houston Chronicle realized this or if it even cares? Just another indication that it does not really understand the online medium?

So, I went to watch the videos. I found them pretty funny.

You know, I wrote a long rant about how wrong the author of the piece was, but I deleted that and will simply put quote a commenter to the blog:

I agree with commenter Misty who said Fred doesn’t have to appeal only to kids. In my case (60 years old), I think his show is the best thing on YouTube and I can’t get enough of him. I think if one has performed on stage or in film (as I have), or have directed (as I have), you can’t help but notice and appreciate what kind of a talent Lucas Cruikshank is…and his “numbers” or “stats” definitely demonstrate that, too. You can’t sneeze at viewer numbers in the several millions. If people (adults) stand by with shrugged shoulders and “just don’t get it,” that’s their problem. Just because you get older doesn’t mean you suddenly forget human issues such as insecurity about your body (you should see mine for God’s sake) or wish someone hot would return your affections or you want to have a better relationship with your father, and so on…all issues Fred has touched on, plus many more. Also, there is an immensely sweet human being inside there, with touching hopes and dreams coupled with ruthless disappointments, and yet always there is that infectious optimism and willingness to keep on trying (which I HOPE isn’t limited to youth). I’m sorry, I don’t want to ruin Fred by dissecting him, but only the insensitive would think he is nothing but a speeded up chipmunk voice and something only computer literate kids would understand. And what makes you think adults aren’t computer literate? I’ve been on-line since before the Internet was even fully created and had one of the very first desktop computers ever made. Computers have been part of my life ever since the punch-card and reel-to-reel batch processing days…and how hard is it to keep up, really? It’s hard only for a mind that stagnates, but I think that Fred has a remedy for what ails ya.

While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (neither is George Carlin but he could be incredibly funny), I found it pretty amusing and creative (laughed out loud a couple of times). “My mom says that if you are mad at someone, just sue them” said with all the obvious sincerity of a 6 year old who is left with way too much time on their hands by a single Mom who is out partying too much. Fred is the only person you ever see in his world and after watching a few of the videos, the humor obviously covers some real pathos in the character.

Lucas is actually a pretty expressive actor, one of those people who can twist his face into the emotion he is trying to display. He really ’sells’ the character in ways that are very real and affecting.

When Gilda Radner did the same thing on SNL, it was viewed as a classic. Is this humor that can only be enjoyed by young people? Gilda did not think so and neither do I.

Or is it only unfunny when a 14 year old does it. Heck, several of Lucas’ sketches are better than anything SNL has done for years and he is only 14!!! A 14 year old that is watched by more people than watch most TV shows. A 14 year old from Nebraska who gets the attention of Hollywood. How does that happen and how does that change things?

Spielberg at this age was making home movies in his backyard. You can bet that if youtube was available, they would have been up there. Would this blogger have liked them? Perhaps not but that is not important here.

He allows a platform for those that agree or disagree with him to have a voice. That is how he is a different sort of journalist. This is how the medium is different than the newspaper. It is why I have added his blog to my newsfeeds. He is a journalist who not only is an interesting writer but he gets the new medium.

It fosters conversations, that provide context that lead to richer information transfer.

Technorati Tags: Social media, Web 2.0