Could Apple win the eBook trial because it uses Macs?

Least Surprising Tidbit From Apple-DOJ E-Book Trial
[Via Daring Fireball]

Brian X. Chen, reporting for the NYT from the e-book price-fixing trial:

Both parties showed their evidence on a projector screen. Apple’s legal team used a MacBook to shuffle between evidence documents, stacking them side by side in split screens and zooming in on specific paragraphs.

In contrast, the Justice Department’s lawyers could show only one piece of evidence at a time. One video that Mr. Buterman played as evidence failed to produce the audio commentary needed to make his point.

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An interesting comment. The Mac when your presentation absolutely has to work.

I expect some day the NFL may ban people from their stadiums for safety reasons

by vtravelled.com

NFL Banning Bags, Purses, Fanny Packs, Seat Cushions From Stadiums
[Via The Consumerist]

For the last couple years, the NFL has been trying to get people into stadiums, especially in markets where seats are available but it’s easier and cheaper to sit at home and watch the game on a huge HDTV with surround sound (and no one spilling beer or throwing batteries at you). But the league’s latest move seems intent on keeping people away from stadiums and in the non-invasive comfort of their homes.

The NFL announced yesterday that all league stadiums will ban basically any sort of bag one might consider bringing to a game. This includes purses — though very small, clutch purses would be allowed — backpacks, shoulder bags, computer bags, camera bags, briefcases, coolers, and fanny packs. Oh — and seat cushions too. So your butt will be cold and sore because the NFL has decided, “the large size and because the way seat cushions are constructed would allow them to be used to conceal a potential explosive device.”

Insert your own explosive gas/seat cushion joke here.

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So the NFL does not want people to bring in anything to a stadium. It is becoming as bad as the TSA.

When do full body searches arrive?

It costs almost as much  to attend a football game as it does to fly. We may have to travel but not to see a football game in person.

Continuing the NFL’s logic, why have people at the stadium at all? It is safer just to have the players.

“Drones” – the high concept movie that might be too close for comfort.

by Don McCullough

My Drone Book/Movie (If I wrote one)
[Via Global Guerrillas]

If I did write a near future, CGI thriller about drones, here’s my back of the envelope sketch of the plot. It’s definitely a movie plot, and not real.  That means it is meant to be over the top.

If you aren’t interested in an autonomous weapons disaster story, please disregard.

________________

Start.  An Israeli drone hunter/killer op, run out of a converted trailer in the desert.  Drone IDs a target in urban area.  At risk of losing target, the drone “tags” target (microdots).  Target disappears inside building, and begins to into large, sprawling tenement, doesn’t emerge.  Call in “mother hen” delivery system full of “chick” ground drones for search and destroy mission inside the complex.  They are flown in, inserted, and enter the complex.  Target is IDed several floors/walls away but appears to be on the run and deploying counter-measures to spoof ground drones.  

Target is intermittent and numerous ghosts appear intermittently.  All are moving.  The ground drones swarm, moving in a pattern that would encircle the target within the complex.   Probability calculation for primary target is over threshold (80%), so the order is given to swarm to go lethal.  Moments later the target drops a series of effective counter measures and blows through a wall into a corridor that allows a fast transient out of area.  Comms with the swarm is lost.  Since the swarm already has the green light on the target (not uncommon, but frustrating in the terminal phase of a misison), it continues on mission.  Drones, confused by the new counter-measures and out of comms with the team, begin to see targets everywhere.  They clear an entire tenement of 1000 + people, exit the complex and depart.  

News emerges on social media feeds.  Wireless and Internet nodes are brought down in area to slow media upload.  To hide the mission failure, a drone is called in to blow up the evidence.  Explosion trumps other info.  The incident is lost in the noise within a couple of days.

Few people know about this logic flaw.  No lesson learned.

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The rest of the idea is a pretty sweet  action movie, demonstrating both a world in the panopticon, where security ‘requires’ autonomous drones in urban settings, and one with rampant mobile communication, hacking etc.

The scary thing is that drones do not only have to be in the air. Ground drones will probably be the most ubiquitous in a city. Easier to hide.

I wonder if Faraday cages will be illegal? In an authoritarian future, they would seem to be perceived as only of use to terrorists. So booster bags could become more important for protection.

Nice demonstration of how our fear of terror creates a terrifying world. I’d pay to see this movie.

Google is not making any friends at the ITC

by Anamorphic Mike

ITC calls for import ban against Samsung, rejects Google’s flip-flop arguments
[Via AppleInsider]

The US International Trade Commission’s Office of Unfair Import Investigations (OUII) has recommended an import ban against Samsung’s Android devices infringing upon four Apple patents, rejecting contradictory, flawed arguments by Google.

 

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Wow. Google’s lawyers really got smacked down, and they were just bystanders to the case between Samsung and Apple. It’s not good to tick off the judges, even if you are right. 

Which does not appear to be the case here, which is why they got smacked down so hard.

Huff Post discusses ARKYD, the People’s Satellite

Planetary Resources Kickstarter Wants Your Help Finding Alien Planets
[Via Huffington Post]

Ever wanted to visit an alien planet? The technology to “boldly go where no man has gone before” may not be here yet, but one cutting edge company wants to offer average citizens what it hopes is a close second – the opportunity to join the search for alien worlds.

[More]

Now begins the final push. We are really close to the goal but there are many things in the pipeline. Check out the video contest. Or the great stretch goals.

There are also special things for special milestones, such as getting 10,000 supporters. This is a big one.

Having a large base of supporters is probably more important than how much total money is raised. These are people who really, really care.

How about becoming one of them? Your children, grandchildren, friends and even the people you only see in the grocery store will be thankful.

Starting the final push for ARKYD

This is the end of the slow time for any Kickstarter project. I’ll be making a pest of myself the  next couple of weeks.

I apologize in advance but this is something I not only really believe in, it is helping me understand a ton of stuff – about space, its future, about crowdfunding – all while I connect with a lot of really exciting people.

You all know how ‘manic’ I get when excited, You will just have to deal with it the next few weeks ;-)

Consequence of climate change – people cannot afford insurance

by Pam_Andrade

After Sandy, a dire choice: Lift home or face sky-high insurance, but many can’t afford either  
[Via | StarTribune.com]

George Kasimos has almost finished repairing flood damage to his waterfront home, but his Superstorm Sandy nightmare is far from over.

Like thousands of others in the hardest-hit coastal stretches of New Jersey and New York, his life is in limbo as he waits to see if tough new coastal rebuilding rules make it just too expensive for him to stay.

That’s because the federal government’s newly released advisory flood maps have put his Toms River home in the most vulnerable area — the “velocity zone.” If that sticks, he’d have to jack his house up 14 feet on stilts at a cost of $150,000 or face up to $30,000 a year in flood insurance premiums.

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Why a loaded die is like climate change. Climate change is shifting the odds, resulting in huge financial effects. Do we decide that our whole society – which is responsible for climate change – helps pay for these effects or do we just leave those who happen to be on the losing end of the die toss to bear the brunt?

Higher sea waters mean that flood plains near the coast will change. This means that hones that used to stand outside the need for flood insurance are now inside. And the increased odds bring larger insurance premiums.

Which means that they now have two options: lift their homes on stilts above the flood level or pay for huge increases in flood insurance premiums.

If you chose to build in a flood plain, you go into it knowing the consequences. But when a flood plain moves into you, it can be devastating.

A simple home elevation can cost $60,000. Insurance premiums could be increased $30,000 a year. Government hel – help from all of us – is being constricted due to concerns abut the debt.

Many people are in denial:

They think Sandy was a fluke, a storm to end all storms, the kind they won’t ever see again. And they’re preparing to do battle with the government for the right to continue living just as they have for generations — in low-lying abodes that were never built to endure storms, let alone the fierce hurricanes of the 21st century.

But sea levels continue to rise. And it appears that current weather changes may drive more hurricanes up the eastern seaboard than into the Gulf. This will happen again.

And  while America has decided that it can help rebuild homes damaged by storms like this it has also decided to greatly reduce Federal subsidies for flood insurance, even for people who have the misfortune to now live where rising sea levels can reach them. 

We mandated higher premiums for those in a flood plain, shortened the revision times for determining where flood plains exist and removed lower rates that were grandfathered in. Now if the flood plain increases due to climate change, many people are just on their own. We decided that helping those hurt by increasing climate change was not as important as lowering the debt.

So many people living in what had been dry areas of the coast face some horrible options, including simply walking away from their homes because they cannot afford to pay for them anymore and no one will pay for the huge insurance premiums. Entire areas may soon be ghost towns because few can afford to live there.

The insurance companies know about climate change. That is why the rates are going up. Our attitude seems to be to just let those people who, through no fault of their own now live in a flood plain, to bear the full brunt of this change. One that will get larger as we move forward in this century.

I believe that since we are all responsible, we should all pay. But some Americans believe that only the unlucky should have to pay.

Members of Congress – both Republican and Democrat, in the House and in the Senate – are trying to fix this problem, introducing legislation that would ameliorate some of these huge insurance changes now affecting millions by making us all become part of the solution. And some of our conservative Americans want to keep things as they are, letting the unlucky deal with it.

Do we come together to help everyone or do we let the unlucky fend for themselves?

We need to make sure we have a very good conversation here because it will happen again and it will get worse. This can not be ignored or denied.

 

Denialism knows no political boundaries

by TRF_Mr_Hyde

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Anti-Vaxxer
[Via Bad Astronomy]

The Kennedy family name is laden with history and brings to mind a definite set of characteristics: glamor, power, intelligence, wealth, influence. Kennedys have had their name on a president, numerous senators, representatives, ambassadors, and other high office holders.

The Kennedy dynasty, if you wish to call it that, has seen its share of triumphs and disasters, of course. I need not go into detail; scores of books have been written about them, from putting humans on the Moon and the championing of civil rights to personal tragedies of assassination, death, scandal, and more.

Most of these issues are in the past. But there is an ongoing problem associated with a Kennedy, one I consider extremely troubling. Specifically it’s with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an attorney, a radio host, and an environmental activist.

He is also, as it happens, a full-blown anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist.

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Read the whole article. Robert Kennedy, Jr. really does a disservice to us all by espousing conspiracy theories every bit as wacky as climate change denialists.

Apparently all the facts are actually presented by fraudulent  scientists working in concert with the government to lie to all of us. Amazing how they both resort to the same conspiracy when facts no longer match their views.

They present their denialism as facts and facts as lies. We need less of them.

Faking covers of Time Magazine to support denialism

The 1970s Ice Age Myth and Time Magazine Covers – by David Kirtley
[Via Greg Laden's Blog]

This is a guest post by David Kirtley. David originally posted this as a Google Doc, and I’m reproducing his work here with his permission. Just the other day I was speaking to a climate change skeptic who made mention of an old Time or Newsweek (he was not sure) article that talked about fears of a coming ice age.

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Here is the image going around:

The cover on the left is faked. Here is the original:

Checking all the issues from the 70s reveals no cover talking about a coming Ice Age. There were some articles inside thaty discussed the possibility of an Ice Age along with articels discussing possible warming. That was the state of knowledge then,

We are about 40 years on now. The science is no longer divided. We are not entering an Ice Age and the world is warming.

The only ‘facts’ that denialists have are fake magazine covers.

 

Now that police can take our DNA when arrested, will brain scans be far behind?

 by twitchcraft

The fMRI As Lie Detector
[Via Big Think]

At a panel discussion at last week’s World Science Festival, scientists and legal experts met to discuss the implication of putting “brains on trial.” According to Stanford neuroscientist Anthony Wagner, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans are now able to detect a lie with between 70 and 90 percent accuracy because of their ability to record changes in specific parts of the brain.

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Not that the Supreme Court has said that the government can collect DNA from people who have not been charged with a crime, much less been convicted, how long before fMRI scans are required.

I’m sure the accuracy will improve. The price will come down. Portable versions are being produced that will allow, I am sure, a police department to have on hand a device when interrogating a suspect.

It is less invasive than a DNA swab. So what happens to our rights when we can be scanned against our will and our own brain can be used against us?

“Members of the jury, the brain scan shows definitively that the accused is guilty.”

It is coming, if things continue on this path. 

No official facial recognition apps for Google Glass – “at this time”

by sndrv

Google forbids facial recognition apps on Glass in the name of privacy
[Via Ars Technica]

If you run into a complete stranger wearing Google Glass, that person might take your picture with just a wink. But rest assured that Glass probably won’t be able to tell its wearer your name, date of birth, and turn-offs.

In a Google+ post Friday, the Project Glass team noted that “many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass.” For now, Google is playing it safe on facial recognition. “As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place,” Google said. “With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.”

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Of course, this just means that Google will not officially be responsible – to many lawsuits I guess. But since Google Glass is extremely hackable – there are already ways to turn off the recording light or to control things by a wink –  this will not really do much.

In fact, it might be nice to have facial recognition tied to my contact list, allowing my memory to be refreshed without embarrassment. And since Google already has a lot of such access – personal photos, etc. – it does seem like in their wheelhouse.

But at the moment, no such official app. Lots of unofficial apps I expect.

Those that want to (ab)use Google Glass will be able to with little problem. And Google can change their view at any time.

Successful Entrepreneurs are fed-up oldsters not young hipsters?

by aussiegall

Most Successful Entrepreneurs Aren’t Young and Inspired. They’re Old and Fed Up.
[Via Big Think]

How does one become an entrepreneur, especially if you’re 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old?  There’s a secret.  The secret isn’t talked about much.  In Silicon Valley where I live and come from we like to think of all these start-ups as coming from people leaving Stanford, being enlightened, being inspired.  In fact, that’s a myth.

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Nice idea but I would prefer more data. Because I am old and fed-up.

Planetary Resources Vanguards. Priceless!

The Vanguard – helping explore space, one step at a time.

I am having a kick and a half working with the Vanguard. Got to listen to a Google + Hangout with Bill Nye, Ed Lu, Peter Diamandis, Jose Luis Galache, Lori Garver and hosted by  Cristin Dorgelo.

Here that is:

So much energy from so many people. We can do this.

Updates: Information about asteroid prospecting

UPDATE: The pictures are huge so I just have a link to make loading the page easier.

Here are a few infographics regarding Planetary Resources and asteroids. More fun than prospecting for gold in Alaska.

The Space Economy

What the asteroids are made of

How to prospect

Helping launch a public satellite

The ARKYD satellite

I’m helping Planetary Resources with a new project called ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone at Kickstarter.

They will launch the first public satellite, one that can be controlled by you and me. One way is for the satellite to take a picture for you. You can upload a selfie (or some other picture) to the satellite. There is a monitor and a camera, placed to it can take a picture of the Earth in the background.

So you can get a documented picture of your choice taken by a satellite you helped pay for.

Other levels allow you to control what  to take a picture of  as well as sponsor classrooms in their explorations.

They need to raise $1 million over the next 30 days. So far, they have raised over $125,000 with more than1000 supporters.

Become part of the new frontier.