text:
A letter on Free Speech and the Right to be Forgotten
An unpublished letter to New Yorker magazine, August 2015.
Kelefa Sanneh ("The Hell You Say", Aug 10 & 17) poses a question close to the heart of society's analog-to-digital conversion: What is speech?
Internet policy makers worldwide are struggling with a recent European Court of Justice decision which grants some rights to individuals to have search engines like Google block results that are inaccurate, irrelevant or out of date. Colloquially known as the "Right To Be Forgotten" (RTBF), the ruling has raised the ire of many Americans in particular, who typically frame it as yet another attack on free speech. Better defined as a right to be de-listed, RTBF makes search providers consider the impact on individuals of search algorithms, alongside their commercial interests. For there should be no doubt – search is very big business. Google and its competitors use search to get to know people, so they can sell better advertising.
Search results are categorically not the sort of text which contributes to "democratic deliberation". Free speech may be many things but surely not the mechanical by-products of advertising processes. To protect search results as such mocks the First Amendment.
Some of my other RTBF thoughts:
- Search is not a passive reproduction; Google makes the public domain public.
- Google's deeply divided Advisory Council was strangely silent on the business nature of search.
- Search results are a special form of Big Data, and not the sort of thing that counts as speech.
On "Trust Frameworks"
The Australian government's new Digital Transformation Office (DTO) is a welcome initiative, and builds on a generally strong e-government program of many years standing.
But I'm a little anxious about one plank of the DTO mission: the development of a "Trusted Digital Identity Framework".
We've had several attempts at this sort of thing over many years, and we really need a fresh approach next time around.
I hope we don't re-hash the same old hopes for "trust" and "identity" as we have for over 15 years. The real issues can be expressed more precisely. How do we get reliable signals about the people and entities we're trying to deal with online? How do we equip individuals to be able to show relevant signals about themselves, sufficient to get something done online? What are the roles of governments and markets in all this?
Frankly, I loathe the term "Trust Framework"! Trust is hugely distracting if not irrelevant. And we already have frameworks in spades.
Digital Disruption - Melbourne
Ray Wang tells us now that writing a book and launching a company are incredibly fulfilling things to do - but ideally, not at the same time. He thought it would take a year to write "Disrupting Digital Business", but since it overlapped with building Constellation Research, it took three! But at the same time, his book is all the richer for that experience.
Ray is on a world-wide book tour (tweeting under the hash tag #cxotour). I was thrilled to participate in the Melbourne leg last week. We convened a dinner at Melbourne restaurant The Deck and were joined by a good cross section of Australian private and public sector businesses. There were current and recent executives from Energy Australia, Rio Tinto, the Victorian Government and Australia Post among others, plus the founders of several exciting local start-ups. And we were lucky to have special guests Brian Katz and Ben Robbins - two renowned mobility gurus.
The format for all the launch events has one or two topical short speeches from Constellation analysts and Associates, and a fireside chat by Ray. In Melbourne, we were joined by two of Australia's deep digital economy experts, Gavin Heaton and Joanne Jacobs. Gavin got us going on the night, surveying the importance of innovation, and the double edged opportunities and threats of digital disruption.
Then Ray spoke off-the-cuff about his book, summarising years of technology research and analysis, and the a great many cases of business disruption, old and new. Ray has an encyclopedic grasp of tech-driven successes and failures going back decades, yet his presentations are always up-to-the-minute and full of practical can-do calls to action. He's hugely engaging, and having him on a small stage for a change lets him have a real conversation with the audience.
Speaking with no notes and PowerPoint-free, Ray ranged across all sorts of disruptions in all sorts of sectors, including:
- Sony's double cassette Walkman (which Ray argues playfully was their "last innovation")
- Coca Cola going digital, and the speculative "ten cent sip"
- the real lesson of the iPhone: geeks spend time arguing about whether Apple's technology is original or appropriated, when the point is their phone disrupted 20 or more other business models
- the contrasting Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A380 mega jumbo - radically different ways to maximise the one thing that matters to airlines: dollars per passenger-miles, and
- Uber, which observers don't always fully comprehend as a rich mix of mobility, cloud and Big Data.
And I closed the scheduled part of the evening with a provocation on privacy. I asked the group to think about what it means to call any online business practice "creepy". Have community norms and standards really changed in the move online? What's worse: government surveillance for political ends, or private sector surveillance for profit? If we pay for free online services with our personal information, do regular consumers understand the bargain? And if cynics have been asking "Is Privacy Dead?" for over 100 years, doesn't it mean the question is purely rhetorical? Who amongst us truly wants privacy to be over?!
The discussion quickly attained a life of its own - muscular, but civilized. And it provided ample proof that whatever you think about privacy, it is complicated and surprising, and definitely disruptive! (For people who want to dig further into the paradoxes of modern digital privacy, Ray and I recently recorded a nice long chat about it).
Here are some of the Digital Disruption tour dates coming up:
Posted in Social Media, Privacy, Internet, Constellation Research, Cloud, Big Data
The Google Advisory Council
In May 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that under European law, people have the right to have certain information about them delisted from search engine results. The ECJ ruling was called the "Right to be Forgotten", despite it having little to do with forgetting (c'est la vie). Shortened as RTBF, it is also referred to more clinically as the "Right to be Delisted" (or simply as "Google Spain" because that was one of the parties in the court action). Within just a few months, the RTBF has triggered conferences, public debates, and a TEDx talk.
Google itself did two things very quickly in response to the RTBF ruling. First, it mobilised a major team to process delisting requests. This is no mean feat -- over 200,000 requests have been received to date; see Google's transparency report. However it's not surprising they got going so quickly as they already have well-practiced processes for take-down notices for copyright and unlawful material.
Secondly, the company convened an Advisory Council of independent experts to formulate strategies for balancing the competing rights and interests bound up in RTBF. The Advisory Council delivered its report in January; it's available online here.
I declare I'm a strong supporter of RTBF. I've written about it here and here, and participated in an IEEE online seminar. I was impressed by the intellectual and eclectic make-up of the Council, which includes a past European Justice Minister, law professors, and a philosopher. And I do appreciate that the issues are highly complex. So I had high expectations of the Council's report.
Yet I found it quite barren.
Recap - the basics of RTBF
EU Justice Commissioner Martine Reicherts in a speech last August gave a clear explanation of the scope of the ECJ ruling, and acknowledged its nuances. Her speech should be required reading. Reicherts summed up the situation thus:
- What did the Court actually say on the right to be forgotten? It said that individuals have the right to ask companies operating search engines to remove links with personal information about them – under certain conditions - when information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant, outdated or excessive for the purposes of data processing. The Court explicitly ruled that the right to be forgotten is not absolute, but that it will always need to be balanced against other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media – which, by the way, are not absolute rights either.
High tension
Everyone concerned acknowledges there are tensions in the RTBF ruling. The Google Advisory Council Report mentions these tensions (in Section 3) but sadly spends no time critically exploring them. In truth, all privacy involves conflicting requirements, and to that extent, many features of RTBF have been seen before. At p5, the Report mentions that "the [RTBF] Ruling invokes a data subject's right to object to, and require cessation of, the processing of data about himself or herself" (emphasis added); the reader may conclude, as I have, that the computing of search results by a search engine is just another form of data processing.
One of the most important RTBF talking points is whether it's fair that Google is made to adjudicate delisting requests. I have some sympathies for Google here, and yet this is not an entirely novel situation in privacy. A standard feature of international principles-based privacy regimes is the right of individuals to have erroneous personal data corrected (this is, for example, OECD Privacy Principle No. 7 - Individual Participation, and Australian Privacy Principle No. 13 - Correction of Personal Information). And at the top of p5, the Council Report cites the right to have errors rectified. So it is standard practice that a data custodian must have means for processing access and correction requests. Privacy regimes expect there to be dispute resolution mechanisms too, operated by the company concerned. None of this is new. What seems to be new to some stakeholders is the idea that the results of a search engine is just another type of data processing.
A little rushed
The Council explains in the Introduction to the Report that it had to work "on an accelerated timeline, given the urgency with which Google had to begin complying with the Ruling once handed down". I am afraid that the Report shows signs of being a little rushed.
- There are several spelling errors.
- The contributions from non English speakers could have done with some editing.
- Less trivially, many of the footnotes need editing; it's not always clear how a person's footnoted quote supports the text.
- More importantly, the Advisory Council surely operated with Terms of Reference, yet there is no clear explanation of what those were. At the end of the introduction, we're told the group was "convened to advise on criteria that Google should use in striking a balance, such as what role the data subject plays in public life, or whether the information is outdated or no longer relevant. We also considered the best process and inputs to Google's decision making, including input from the original publishers of information at issue, as potentially important aspects of the balancing exercise." I'm surprised there is not a more complete and definitive description of the mission.
- It's not actually clear what sort of search we're all talking about. Not until p7 of the Report does the qualified phrase "name-based search" first appear. Are there other types of search for which the RTBF does not apply?
- Above all, it's not clear that the Council has reached a proper conclusion. The Report makes a number of suggestions in passing, and there is a collection of "ideas" at the back for improving the adjudication process, but there is no cogent set of recommendations. That may be because the Council didn't actually reach consensus.
And that's one of the most surprising things about the whole exercise. Of the eight independent Council members, five of them wrote "dissenting opinions". The work of an expert advisory committee is not normally framed as a court-like determination, from which members might dissent. And even if it was, to have the majority of members "dissent" casts doubt on the completeness or even the constitution of the process. Is there anything definite to be dissented from?
Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder and chair, was especially strident in his individual views at the back of the Report. He referred to "publishers whose works are being suppressed" (p27 of the Report), and railed against the report itself, calling its recommendation "deeply flawed due to the law itself being deeply flawed". Can he mean the entire Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and European Convention on Human Rights? Perhaps Wales is the sort of person that denies there are any nuances in privacy, because "suppressed" is an exaggeration if we accept that RTBF doesn't cause anything to be forgotten. In my view, it poisons the entire effort when unqualified insults are allowed to be hurled at the law. If Wales thinks so little of the foundation of both the ECJ ruling and the Advisory Council, he might have declined to take part.
A little hollow
Strangely, the Council's Report is altogether silent on the nature of search. It's such a huge part of their business that I have to think the strength of Google's objection to RTBF is energised by some threat it perceives to its famously secret algorithms.
The Google business was founded on its superior Page Rank search method, and the company has spent fantastic funds on R&D, allowing it to keep a competitive edge for a very long time. And the R&D continues. Curiously, just as everyone is debating RTBF, Google researchers published a paper about a new "knowledge based" approach to evaluating web pages. Surely if page ranking was less arbitrary and more transparent, a lot of the heat would come out of RTBF.
Of all the interests to balance in RTBF, Google's business objectives are actually a legitimate part of the mix. Google provides marvelous free services in exchange for data about its users which it converts into revenue, predominantly through advertising. It's a value exchange, and it need not be bad for privacy. A key component of privacy is transparency: people have a right to know what personal information about them is collected, and why. The RTBF analysis seems a little hollow without frank discussion of what everyone gets out of running a search engine.
Further reading
- The European Court of Justice Right to be Forgotten ruling.
- Academic commentary compiled by Julia Powles and Rebekah Larsen from Cambridge University.
- "Knowledge-Based Trust: Estimating the Trustworthiness of Web Sources" by Xin Luna Dong et al, Google.
- My analysis of search and free speech, "Free search, a misnomer"
- My analysis of search as a Big Data process, "The rite to be forgotten".
Posted in Social Media, Privacy, Internet, Big Data
Free search.
Search engines are wondrous things. I myself use Google search umpteen times a day. I don't think I could work or play without it anymore. And yet I am a strong supporter of the contentious "Right to be Forgotten". The "RTBF" is hotly contested, and I am the first to admit it's a messy business. For one thing, it's not ideal that Google itself is required for now to adjudicate RTBF requests in Europe. But we have to accept that all of privacy is contestable. The balance of rights to privacy and rights to access information is tricky. RTBF has a long way to go, and I sense that European jurors and regulators are open and honest about this.
One of the starkest RTBF debating points is free speech. Does allowing individuals to have irrelevant, inaccurate and/or outdated search results blocked represent censorship? Is it an assault on free speech? There is surely a technical-legal question about whether the output of an algorithm represents "free speech", and as far as I can see, that question remains open. Am I the only commentator suprised by this legal blind spot? I have to say that such uncertainty destabilises a great deal of the RTBF dispute.
I am not a lawyer, but I have a strong sense that search outputs are not the sort of thing that constitutes speech. Let's bear in mind what web search is all about.
Google search is core to its multi-billion dollar advertising business. Search results are not unfiltered replicas of things found in the public domain, but rather the subtle outcome of complex Big Data processes. Google's proprietary search algorithm is famously secret, but we do know how sensitive it is to context. Most people will have noticed that search results change day by day and from place to place. But why is this?
When we enter search parameters, the result we get is actually Google's guess about what we are really looking for. Google in effect forms a hypothesis, drawing on much more than the express parameters, including our search history, browsing history, location and so on. And in all likelihood, search is influenced by the many other things Google gleans from the way we use its other properties -- gmail, maps, YouTube, hangouts and Google+ -- which are all linked now under one master data usage policy.
And here's the really clever thing about search. Google monitors how well it's predicting our real or underlying concerns. It uses a range of signals and metrics, to assess what we do with search results, and it continuously refines those processes. This is what Google really gets out of search: deep understanding of what its users are interested in, and how they are likely to respond to targeted advertising. Each search result is a little test of Google's Artificial Intelligence, which, as some like to say, is getting to know us better than we know ourselves.
As important as they are, it seems to me that search results are really just a by-product of a gigantic information business. They are nothing like free speech.
Obama's Cybersecurity Summit
The White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection was hosted at Stanford University on Friday February 13. I followed the event from Sydney, via the live webcast.
It would be naive to expect the White House Cybersecurity Summit to have been less political. President Obama and his colleagues were in their comfort zone, talking up America's recent economic turnaround, and framing their recent wins squarely within Silicon Valley where the summit took place. With a few exceptions, the first two hours was more about green energy, jobs and manufacturing than cyber security. It was a lot like a lost episode of The West Wing.
The exceptions were important. Some speakers really nailed some security issues. I especially liked the morning contributions from Intel President Renee James and MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga. James highlighted that Intel has worked for 10 years to improve "the baseline of computing security", making her one of the few speakers to get anywhere near the inherent insecurity of our cyber infrastructure. The truth is that cyberspace is built on weak foundations; the software development practices and operating systems that bear the economy today were not built for the job. For mine, the Summit was too much about military/intelligence themed information sharing, and not enough about why our systems are so precarious. I know it's a dry subject but if they're serious about security, policy makers really have to engage with software quality and reliability, instead of thrilling to kids learning to code. Software development practices are to blame for many of our problems; more on software failures here.
Ajay Banga was one of several speakers to urge the end of passwords. He summed up the authentication problem very nicely: "Stop making us remember things in order to prove who we are". He touched on MasterCard's exploration of continuous authentication bracelets and biometrics (more news of which coincidentally came out today). It's important however that policy makers' understanding of digital infrastructure resilience, cybercrime and cyber terrorism isn't skewed by everyone's favourite security topic - customer authentication. Yes, it's in need of repair, yet authentication is not to blame for the vast majority of breaches. Mom and Pop struggle with passwords and they deserve better, but the vast majority of stolen personal data is lifted by organised criminals en masse from poorly secured back-end databases. Replacing customer passwords or giving everyone biometrics is not going to solve the breach epidemic.
Banga also indicated that the Information Highway should be more like road infrastructure. He highlighted that national routes are regulated, drivers are licensed, there are rules of the road, standardised signs, and enforcement. All these infrastructure arrangements leave plenty of room for innovation in car design, but it's accepted that "all cars have four wheels".
Tim Cook was then the warm-up act before Obama. Many on Twitter unkindly branded Cook's speech as an ad for Apple, paid for by the White House, but I'll accentuate the positives. Cook continues to campaign against business models that monetize personal data. He repeated his promise made after the ApplePay launch that they will not exploit the data they have on their customers. He put privacy before security in everything he said.
Cook painted a vision where digital wallets hold your passport, driver license and other personal documents, under the user's sole control, and without trading security for convenience. I trust that he's got the mobile phone Secure Element in mind; until we can sort out cybersecurity at large, I can't support the counter trend towards cloud-based wallets. The world's strongest banks still can't guarantee to keep credit card numbers safe, so we're hardly ready to put our entire identities in the cloud.
In his speech, President Obama reiterated his recent legislative agenda for information sharing, uniform breach notification, student digital privacy, and a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. He stressed the need for private-public partnership and cybersecurity responsibility to be shared between government and business. He reiterated the new Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. And as flagged just before the summit, the president signed an Executive Order that will establish cyber threat information sharing "hubs" and standards to foster sharing while protecting privacy.
Obama told the audience that cybersecurity "is not an ideological issue". Of course that message was actually for Congress which is deliberating over his cyber legislation. But let's take a moment to think about how ideology really does permeate this arena. Three quasi-religious disputes come to mind immediately:
- Free speech trumps privacy. The ideals of free speech have been interpreted in the US in such a way that makes broad-based privacy law intractable. The US is one of only two major nations now without a general data protection statute (the other is China). It seems this impasse is rarely questioned anymore by either side of the privacy debate, but perhaps the scope of the First Amendment has been allowed to creep out too far, for now free speech rights are in effect being granted even to computers. Look at the controversy over the "Right to be Forgotten" (RTBF), where Google is being asked to remove certain personal search results if they are irrelevant, old and inaccurate. Jimmy Wales claims this requirement harms "our most fundamental rights of expression and privacy". But we're not talking about speech here, or even historical records, but rather the output of a computer algorithm, and a secret algorithm at that, operated in the service of an advertising business. The vociferous attacks on RTBF are very ideological indeed.
- "Innovation" trumps privacy. It's become an unexamined mantra that digital businesses require unfettered access to information. I don't dispute that some of the world's richest ever men, and some of the world's most powerful ever corporations have relied upon the raw data that exudes from the Internet. It's just like the riches uncovered by the black gold rush on the 1800s. But it's an ideological jump to extrapolate that all cyber innovation or digital entrepreneurship must continue the same way. Rampant data mining is laying waste to consumer confidence and trust in the Internet. Some reasonable degree of consumer rights regulation seems inevitable, and just, if we are to avert a digital Tragedy of the Commons.
- National Security trumps privacy. I am a rare privacy advocate who actually agrees that the privacy-security equilibrium needs to be adjusted. I believe the world has changed since some of our foundational values were codified, and civil liberties are just one desirable property of a very complicated social system. However, I call out one dimensional ideology when national security enthusiasts assert that privacy has to take a back seat. There are ways to explore a measured re-calibration of privacy, to maintain proportionality, respect and trust.
President Obama described the modern technological world as a "magnificent cathedral" and he made an appeal to "values embedded in the architecture of the system". We should look critically at whether the values of entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness embedded in the way digital business is done in America could be adjusted a little, to help restore the self-control and confidence that consumers keep telling us is evaporating online.
Posted in Trust, Software engineering, Security, Internet
Suspension of Disbelief and digital safety
If the digital economy is really the economy then it's high time we moved beyond hoping that we can simply train users to be safe online. Is the real economy only for heros who can protect themselves in the jungle, writing their own code. As if they're carrying their own guns? Or do we as a community build structures and standards and insist on technologies that work for all?
For most people, the World Wide Web experience still a lot like watching cartoons on TV. The human-machine interface is almost the same. The images and actions are just as synthetic; crucially, nothing on a web browser is real. Almost anything goes -- just as the Roadrunner defies gravity in besting Coyote, there are no laws of physics that temper the way one bit of multimedia leads to the next. Yes, there is a modicum of user feedback in the way we direct some of the action when browsing and e-shopping, but it's quite illusory; for the most part all we're really doing is flicking channels across a billion pages.
It's the suspension of disbelief when browsing that lies at the heart of many of the safety problems we're now seeing. Inevitably we lose our bearings in the totally synthetic World Wide Web. We don't even realise it, we're taken in by a virtual reality, and we become captive to social engineering.
But I don't think it's possible to tackle online safety by merely countering users' credulity. Education is not the silver bullet, because the Internet is really so technologically complex and abstract that it lies beyond the comprehension of most lay people.
Using the Internet 'safely' today requires deep technical skills, comparable to the level of expertise needed to operate an automobile circa 1900. Back then you needed to be able to do all your own mechanics [roughly akin to the mysteries of maintaining anti-virus software], look after the engine [i.e. configure the operating system and firewall], navigate the chaotic emerging road network [there's yet no trusted directory for the Internet, nor any road rules], and even figure out how to fuel the contraption [consumer IT supply chains is about as primitive as the gasoline industry was 100 years ago]. The analogy with the early car industry becomes especially sharp for me when I hear utopian open source proponents argue that writing ones own software is the best way to be safe online.
The Internet is so critical (I'd have thought this was needless to say) that we need ways of working online that don't require us to all be DIY experts.
I wrote a first draft of this blog six years ago, and at that time I called for patience in building digital literacy and sophistication. "It took decades for safe car and road technologies to evolve, and the Internet is still really in its infancy" I said in 2009. But I'm less relaxed about his now, on the brink of the Internet of Things. It's great that the policy makers like the US FTC are calling on connected device makers to build in security and privacy, but I suspect the Internet of Things will require the same degree of activist oversight and regulation as does the auto industry, for the sake of public order and the economy. Do we have the appetite to temper breakneck innovation with safety rules?
Making cyber safe like cars
This is an updated version of arguments made in Lockstep's submission to the 2009 Cyber Crime Inquiry by the Australian federal government.
In stark contrast to other fields, cyber safety policy is almost exclusively preoccupied with user education. It's really an obsession. Governments and industry groups churn out volumes of well-meaning and technically reasonable security advice, but for the average user, this material is overwhelming. There is a subtle implication that security is for experts, and that the Internet isn't safe unless you go to extremes. Moreover, even if consumers do their very best online, their personal details can still be taken over in massive criminal raids on databases that hardly anyone even know exist.
Too much onus is put on regular users protecting themselves online, and this blinds us to potential answers to cybercrime. In other walks of life, we accept a balanced approach to safety, and governments are less reluctant to impose standards than they are on the Internet. Road safety for instance rests evenly on enforceable road rules, car technology innovation, certified automotive products, mandatory quality standards, traffic management systems, and driver training and licensing. Education alone would be nearly worthless.
Around cybercrime we have a bizarre allergy to technology. We often hear that 'Preventing data breaches not a technology issue' which may be politically correct but it's faintly ridiculous. Nobody would ever say that preventing car crashes is 'not a technology issue'.
Credit card fraud and ID theft in general are in dire need of concerted technological responses. Consider that our Card Not Present (CNP) payments processing arrangements were developed many years ago for mail orders and telephone orders. It was perfectly natural to co-opt the same processes when the Internet arose, since it seemed simply to be just another communications medium. But the Internet turned out to be more than an extra channel: it connects everyone to everything, around the clock.
The Internet has given criminals x-ray vision into peoples' banking details, and perfect digital disguises with which to defraud online merchants. There are opportunities for crime now that are both quantitatively and qualitatively radically different from what went before. In particular, because identity data is available by the terabyte and digital systems cannot tell copies from originals, identity takeover is child's play.
You don't even need to have ever shopped online to run foul of CNP fraud. Most stolen credit card numbers are obtained en masse by criminals breaking into obscure backend databases. These attacks go on behind the scenes, out of sight of even the most careful online customers.
So the standard cyber security advice misses the point. Consumers are told earnestly to look out for the "HTTPS" padlock that purportedly marks a site as secure, to have a firewall, to keep their PCs "patched" and their anti-virus up to date, to only shop online at reputable merchants, and to avoid suspicious looking sites (as if cyber criminals aren't sufficiently organised to replicate legitimate sites in their entirety). But none of this advice touches on the problem of coordinated massive heists of identity data.
Merchants are on the hook for unwieldy and increasingly futile security overheads. When a business wishes to accept credit card payments, it's straightforward in the real world to install a piece of bank-approved terminal equipment. But to process credit cards online, shopkeepers have to sign up to onerous PCI-DSS requirements that in effect require even small business owners to become IT security specialists. But to what end? No audit regime will ever stop organised crime. To stem identity theft, we need to make stolen IDs less valuable.
All this points to urgent public policy matters for governments and banks. It is not enough to put the onus on individuals to guard against ad hoc attacks on their credit cards. Systemic changes and technological innovation are needed to render stolen personal data useless to thieves. It's not that the whole payments processing system is broken; rather, it is vulnerable at just one point where stolen digital identities can be abused.
Digital identities are the keys to our personal kingdoms. As such they really need to be treated as seriously as car keys, which have become very high tech indeed. Modern car keys cannot be duplicated at a suburban locksmith. It's possible you've come across office and filing cabinet keys that carry government security certifications. And we never use the same keys for our homes and offices; we wouldn't even consider it (which points to the basic weirdness in Single Sign On and identity federation).
In stark contrast to car keys, almost no attention is paid to the pedigree of digital identities. Technology neutrality has bred a bewildering array of ad hoc authentication methods, including SMS messages, one time password generators, password calculators, grid cards and picture passwords; at the same time we've done nothing at all to inhibit the re-use of stolen IDs.
It's high time government and industry got working together on a uniform and universal set of smart identity tools to properly protect consumers online.
Stay tuned for more of my thoughts on identity safety, inspired by recent news that health identifiers may be back on the table in the gigantic U.S. e-health system. The security and privacy issues are large but the cyber safety technology is at hand!
Posted in Fraud, Identity, Internet, Payments, Privacy, Security
The State of the State of Privacy
Constellation Research analysts are wrapping up a very busy 2014 with a series of "State of the State" reports. For my part I've looked at the state of privacy, which I feel is entering its adolescent stage.
Here's a summary.
1. Consumers have not given up privacy - they've been tricked out of it.
The impression is easily formed that people just don't care about privacy anymore, but in fact people are increasingly frustrated with privacy invasions. They're tired of social networks mining users' personal lives; they are dismayed that video game developers can raid a phone's contact lists with impunity; they are shocked by the deviousness of Target analyzing women's shopping histories to detect pregnant customers; and they are revolted by the way magnates help themselves to operational data like Uber's passenger movements for fun or allegedly for harassment – just because they can.
2. Private sector surveillance is overshadowed by government intrusion, but is arguably just as bad.
Edward Snowden's revelations of a massive military-industrial surveillance effort were of course shocking, but they should not steal all the privacy limelight. In parallel with and well ahead of government spy programs, the big OSNs and search engine companies have been gathering breathtaking amounts of data, all in the interests of targeted advertising. These data stores have come to the attention of the FBI and CIA who must be delighted that someone else has done so much of their spying for them. These businesses boast that they know us better than we know ourselves. That's chilling. We need to break through into a post-Snowden world.
3. The U.S. is the Canary Islands of privacy.
The United States remains the only major economy without broad-based information privacy laws. There are almost no restraints on what American businesses may do with personal information they collect from their customers, or synthesize from their operations. In the rest of the world, most organizations must restrict their collection of data, limit the repurposing of data, and disclose their data handling practices in full. Individuals may want to move closer to European-style privacy protection, while many corporations prefer the freedom they have in America to hang on to any data they like while they figure out how to make money out of it. Digital companies like to call this "innovation" and grandiose claims are made about its criticality for the American economy, but many consumers would prefer the sort of innovation that respects their privacy while delivering value-for-data.
4. Privacy is more about politics than technology.
Privacy can be seen as a power play between individual rights and the interests of governments and businesses. Most of us actually want businesses to know quite a lot about us, but we expect them to respect what they know and to be restrained in how they use it. Privacy is less about what organizations do with information than what they choose not to do with it. Hence, privacy cannot be a technology issue. It is not about keeping things secret but rather, keeping them close. Privacy is actually the protection we need when things are not secret.
5. Land grab for "public" data accelerates.
6. Data literacy will be key to digital safety.
Computer literacy is one thing, but data literacy is different and less tangible. We have strong privacy intuitions that have evolved over centuries but in cyberspace we lose our bearings. We don't have the familiar social cues when we go online, so now we need to develop new ones. And we need to build up a common understanding of how data flows in the digital economy. Today we train kids in financial literacy to engender a first-hand sense of how commerce works; data literacy may become even more important as a life skill. It's more than being able to work an operating system, a device and umpteen apps. It means having meaningful mental models of what goes on in computers. Without understanding this, we can't construct effective privacy policies or privacy labeling.
7. Privacy will get worse before it gets better.
Privacy is messy, even where data protection rules are well entrenched. Consider the controversial Right To Be Forgotten in Europe, which requires search engine operators to provide a mechanism for individuals to request removal of old, inaccurate and harmful reports from results. The new rule has been derived from existing privacy principles, which treat the results of search algorithms as a form of synthesis rather than a purely objective account of history, and therefore hold the search companies partly responsible for the offense their processes might produce. Yet, there are plenty of unintended consequences, and collisions with other jurisprudence. The sometimes urgent development of new protections for old civil rights is never plain sailing.
My report "Privacy Enters Adolescence" can be downloaded here. It expands on the points above, and sets out recommendations for improving awareness of how Personal Data flows in the digital economy, negotiating better deals in the data-for-value bargain, the conduct of Privacy Impact Assessments, and developing a "Privacy Bill of Rights".
Posted in Social Networking, Social Media, Internet, Constellation Research, Big Data
Too smart?
An Engadget report today, "Hangouts eavesdrops on your chats to offer 'smart suggestions'" describes a new "spy/valet" feature being added to Google's popular video chat tool.
- "Google's Hangouts is gaining a handy, but slightly creepy new feature today. The popular chat app will now act as a digital spy-slash-valet by eavesdropping on your conversations to offer 'smart suggestions.' For instance, if a pal asks 'where are you?' it'll immediately prompt you to share your location, then open a map so you can pin it precisely."
It's sad that this sort of thing still gets meekly labeled as "creepy". The privacy implications are serious and pretty easy to see.
Google is evidently processing the text of Hangouts as they fly through their system, extracting linguistic cues, interpreting what's being said using Artificial Intelligence, extracting new meaning and insights, and offering suggestions.
We need some clarification about whether any covert tests of this technology have been undertaken during the R&D phase. A company obviously doesn't launch a new product like this without a lot of research, feasibility testing, prototyping and testing. Serious work on 'smart suggestions' would not start without first testing how it works in real life. So I wonder if any of this evaluation was done covertly on live data? Are Google researchers routinely eavesdropping on hangouts to develop the 'smart suggestions' technology?
If so, is such data usage covered by their Privacy Policy (you know, under the usual "in order to improve our service" justification)? And is usage sanctioned internationally in the stricter privacy regimes?
Many people have said to me I'm jumping the gun, and that Google would probably test the new Hangouts feature on its own employees. Perhaps, but given that scanning gmails is situation normal for Google, and they have a "privacy" culture that joins up all their business units so that data may be re-purposed almsot without limit, I feel sure that running AI algorithms on text without telling people would be par for the course.
In development and in operation, we need to know what steps are taken to protect the privacy of hangout data. What personally identifiable data and metadata is retained for other purposes? Who inside Google is granted access to the data and especially the synthtised insights? How long does any secondary usage persist for? Are particularly sensitive matters (like health data, financial details, corporate intellectual property etc.) filtered out?
This is well beyond "creepy". Hangouts and similar video chat are certainly wonderdful technologies. We're using them routinely for teaching, education, video conferencing, collaboration and consultation. The tools may become entrenched in corporate meetings, telecommuting, healthcare and the professions. But if I am talking with my doctor, or discussing patents with my legal team, or having a clandestine chat with a lover, I clearly do not want any unsolicited contributions from the service provider. More fundamentally, I want assurance that no machine is ever tapping into these sorts of communications, running AI algorithms, and creating new insights. If I'm wrong about covert testing on live data, then Google could do what Apple did and publish an Open Letter clarifying their data usage practices and strategies.
Come to think of it, if Google is running natural language processing algorithms over the Hangouts stream, might they be augmenting their gmail scanning the same way? Their business model is to extract insights about users from any data they get their hands on. Until now it's been a crude business of picking out keywords and using them to profile users' interests and feed targeted advertising. But what if they could get deeper information about us through AI? Is there any sign from their historical business practices that Google would not do this? And what if they can extract sensitive information like mental health indications? Even with good intent and transarency, predicting healthcare from social media is highly problematic as shown by the "Samaritans Radar" experience.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the new frontiers. Hot on the heels of the successes of IBM Watson, we're seeing Natural Language Processing and analytics rapidly penetrate business and now consumer applications. Commentators are alternately telling us that AI will end humanity, and not to worry about it. For now, I call on people to simply think clearly through the implications, such as for privacy. If AI programs are clever enough to draw deep insights about us from what we say, then the "datapreneurs" in charge of those algorithms need to remember they are just as accountable for privacy as if they have asked us reveal all by filling out a questionnaire.
Posted in Social Networking, Social Media, Privacy, Internet, Big Data


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Great refresher article for everyone developing and maintaining code. It shines the light on why we do certain things, and reminds us to keep these principles in mind.
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Thank you for your interest speaking at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), which will be held March 23-25, 2016 in San Jose, CA!
The breakout session proposal process will begin on May 18, 2015.
Here are some tips and deadlines.
Who comes to the NTC, and what do they want from the experience?
What conference tracks are offered at the NTC?
When can I submit a proposal?
Who can submit a proposal? What kind of session will I lead I if my proposal is accepted?
Can I propose a keynote address or an Ignite talk?
Can I propose a session if I don't want to lead it?
What are the guidelines for breakout proposals?
What are the guidelines and notification timeline?
What happens next?
I'm ready! Where do I submit my proposal?
Who comes to the NTC, and what do they want from the experience?
Here are some takeaways from a survey we conducted after the 2014 conference:
- 58% of respondents identified as nonprofit managers or directors, 17% coordinator/associate level, 17% as executives, and 8% as other.
- More than 63% describe their level of tech adoption in relation to other colleagues as journey level (knowledgeable and experienced in a few areas), 34% as apprentice (have some knowledge/experience in a specific area), and about 3% as novices (new to it all).
- What topics did they hope to learn about? 52% identified communications as being a core interest area and 42% named IT as their priority, followed by leadership (34%) and fundraising (30%).
- 59% mentioned a preference for sessions featuring technical how-tos, 52% wanted to focus on programmatic uses of technology, and 40% requested content about management strategy.
What conference tracks are offered at the NTC?
Based on feedback from past attendees, we don't organize the conference by track. But we do try to create a programming lineup that represents a healthy balance of sessions touching on the following themes:
- Communications and Digital Strategy: These sessions focus on ideas and examples to help spread the word about your work and build and strengthen relationships with your community. In these sessions, participants should have a chance to learn about successful (and failed) efforts to integrate new communications technologies and tactics while also receiving tangible guidance and inspiration for their own communications programs.
- Fundraising: These sessions are designed to help attendees learn about such topics as: Which fundraising technologies are working (and not working); how to evaluate and select fundraising tools and CRM systems; best practices in using and supporting fundraising tools and systems; and new ideas and trends
- IT Staff: These sessions are for staff and consultants who manage and support technology infrastructure. This is a resource-sharing track for all nonprofit techies, so no matter how they arrived at their roles, participants are looking to share success stories and challenges, voice concerns, and glean wisdom from one another.
- Leadership: What role does technology play in our organizations? How can NTC attendees help their organizations reach that vision? What frameworks will help them make smart tech decisions and manage change? Participants in these sessions should have a chance to grapple with these questions and more.
- Program: These sessions are designed for individuals on the front lines, serving their communities. Introduce them to some of today's cutting edge applications or methodologies—from location-based services to effective strategies for tracking and using data for organizational impact—and help them better understand how technology can increase not only their efficiency, but also their effectiveness.
Session proposals will be accepted from May 18- June 26, 2015. NTEN will notify all session leads of acceptance or nonacceptance by September 28, 2015, via email.
Return to Top
Who can submit a proposal? What kind of session will I lead if my proposal is accepted?
Everyone is encouraged to submit a proposal. You can even submit an idea for a session that you don't personally want or feel qualified to lead. (Please see "Can I propose a session I don't want to lead?" below.) If accepted, your session will be one of our 90 minute NTC breakout sessions, which make up the bulk of the conference. We look for a range of session formats that provide all different types of opportunities for participants to learn about strategies, tactics, tools, research, and fundamentals in nonprofit technology. These sessions are noncommercial and must meet either educational or professional development needs of NTC attendees.
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Can I propose a keynote address or an Ignite talk?
Thanks for your interest! Our plenary sessions—the daily keynotes which are scheduled without conflicting breakouts—are by invitation only. If you're interested in submitting an Ignite talk proposal for the opening plenary, please stay tuned to the conference site for more details.
Return to Top
Can I propose a session if I don't want to lead it?
Absolutely. We want to select topics that will be relevant to all attendees, and we can't do that without your suggestions! Simply submit a proposal and indicate that you don't want to present the session yourself.
Return to Top
What are the guidelines for breakout proposals?
Speaker proposals
Individuals will not be selected to speak on more than two panels during any given year.
- Do not submit a proposal unless you can present your session any time during the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Sessions will be scheduled throughout the three days at NTEN's discretion depending on space logistics and themes represented. We make exceptions for religious considerations if they are communicated in writing along with your session proposal or at least three months prior to the first day of the NTC.
- Unless you make a very strong case for an exception, all sessions are limited to a total of three presenters (or three presenters plus a moderator, in the case of a panel discussion). Please be aware that all presenters must register and pay the speaker rate of $429 to attend the NTC.
- You may submit a proposal without co-presenter(s) in mind, in which case NTEN and our Steering Committee may work with you to match you with appropriate co-presenters.
Speaker registration
- All presenters must pay a discounted conference registration fee of $429 and have a registration badge. (We do have some scholarships and volunteer opportunities available but these are not guaranteed to speakers.)
- With the exception of invited keynote speakers, NTEN cannot pay an honorarium or expenses for anyone presenting at the conference.
- In unique circumstances we are able to off a free "session-only" registration for speakers who are only participating in thier session and no other aspects of the conference.
Session descriptions and guidelines
- You may submit up to four proposals per organization.
- In order to showcase the diversity in our sector, NTEN only allows each individual speaker and/or organization to appear on two sessions max.
- NTEN reserves the right to edit session titles and descriptions as well as presenter bios.
- As you fill out the form, think about the kind of description that would lure you to attend a session.
- Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, and quotations, and write in complete sentences.
- Describe specific presentation techniques that you plan to use, such as interactive, lecture, or multimedia.
- Explain what you would do in the session and what the participants can expect to leave with. Will you distribute handouts, for example? Provide templates? Nothing extra is required; it's just helpful to know.
- Be aware of the A/V equipment we can provide, and whether you will require and cover the cost of additional A/V equipment. The standard room set includes LCD projector, computer table, two wired mics, a screen, and a patch to house sound if available. Additional A/V, including white boards, flip charts, or markers, is optional and available for rental through the venue only at speaker's expense, or you may bring your own.
- If your presentation serves a bilingual community, please provide us with a translation. Presentations can be delivered bilingually or in English.
- By submitting a session, you agree to be responsible for meeting deadlines set by NTEN staff as well as recommending a replacement should you develop a scheduling conflict. Cancellation of sessions may occur if deadlines are not respected.
- Unless you indicate otherwise, we will fulfill noncommercial requests for your name and contact information from attendees/community members who wish to reach you.
- Persons presenting at NTEN conferences or related programs are expected to use material and language that do not discriminate against anyone, including on the basis of gender identity and/or expression, race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, physical ability, family status, sexual orientation, location, or language.
What are the review guidelines and notification timeline?
- NTEN does not accept attachments or additional documentation to support the submission provided.
- You must submit a proposal via this form by the deadline to be considered. No email or phone submissions will be accepted.
What the selection committee is looking for
All proposals for breakout sessions submitted for our Nonprofit Technology Conference are reviewed and rated by the members of the Nonprofit Technology Conference Steering Committee. Questions reviewers will ask when evaluating proposals include:
- Is proposal content of current interest or an emerging topic?
- Has proposal content been implemented?
- Is the proposal an innovative solution, or does it offer a fresh treatment?
- Does the proposal address or support solving significant problems in nonprofit technology?
- Is the outcome or takeaway clearly defined so that the audience clearly knows what they're leaving with?
- Does the session designer/speaker have expertise in this topic?
Timeline for proposal review and notifications
Please keep in mind that we receive more than 600 proposals for the NTC last year and accept around 100-130.
- May 18, 2015: Submission proposal system opens
- June 26, 2015: Submission proposal system closes
- June 27-July 7, 2015: NTEN prepares and populates the community voting platform
- July 8-July 31, 2015: Community voting
- August 3-August 21, 2015: Steering Committee & staff review
- August 24-September 25, 2015: Conference agenda development
- September 28, 2015: All notifications are sent to to submission authors. You will receive this notification via the email address you provide when you submit your proposal.
Starting on September 28, 2015 you will have received notification about the status of your proposal. If not, please contact the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference staff. Once you determine your status, here's what happens next:
If your proposal is accepted:
You're now officially a presenter. Congrats! Start booking your travel to San Jose if you aren't local, and bookmark our Speaker Resources.
If your proposal is not accepted:
The staff, community, and Steering Committee always face a difficult task in deciding which proposals are accepted and which are not, and the process is extremely competitive. We really appreciate your time and effort, and hope you will still join us at the NTC for three terrific days of learning and networking.
I'm ready! Where do I submit my proposal?
You can submit your proposal by visiting the our proposal platform here.


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Terry Smith on the contemporary
There's no doubt that new technologies are changing the way we present ourselves in the world. The new ways of carrying, sending and storing images are changing ideas about what art is and where it can exist; a movie made on a smart phone for example. The trends are hard to ignore, even though as art historian Terry Smith points out, more than 70 per cent of the world's population is without internet access.
In his latest book, Contemporary Art, World Currents, Terry Smith is looking at the ways artists are leading and/or responding to these changes. But he's also interested in how the work of the individual, which might deal with very a specific local idea or issue, is mirrored and understood in many other parts of the world.
Contemporary Art, World Currents plots major changes in the visual arts since the 1980s. The Australian edition of the book has a cover image of a performance work by Tracey Rose, made in 2001 and inspired by Rodin's The Kiss. But for the American version, the publishers substituted it for a picture of a Richard Serra sculpture.
- Terry Smith
- Andrew Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Pittsburgh
- Title
- Contemporary Art World Currents
- Author
- Terry Smith
- Publisher
- Laurence King
- Researcher
- Debra McCoy
Comments (1)
Terry Smith :
03 Nov 2011 2:23:47pm
Allow me to correct a mis-statement re. recent inventive forms of documentary film. I mentioned director Wim Wenders when I actually had in mind Werner Herzog, whose Cave of Forgotten Dreams; I have recently seen (twice) and whose Encounters at the End of the World; I enjoyed at the Sydney Film Festival in 2008.
Best wishes
Terry Smith


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U.S. Navy Cpt. E. Royce Williams (Ret.) single-handedly shot down four Russian fighters, a record-breaking feat never recognized or even known until recently. NBC 7's Matt Rascon has the story.
Speakers at the workshop discussed how to file claims, navigate veterans' medical centers and what survivors should expect. NBC 7's Liberty Zabala reports.
A group of armed robbers, suspected in a series of muggings in the El Cajon and La Mesa area, are wanted for terrorizing people in the East County. NBC 7's Omari Fleming reports.
A woman in her early 20s was killed when a duck boat collided with her motorized scooter in Boston.
Two cars were mangled in a head-on crash in the College Area overnight. Police believe the collision was DUI-related. No one was seriously hurt. NBC 7's Regina Ruiz reports.
A motorcyclist was killed in a crash with a DUI suspect on southbound I-5 at Poinsettia in Carlsbad. NBC 7's Omari Fleming reports.


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Rhode Island - CHECK.
Norway - CHECK.
I'm afraid the list of places I want to visit, thanks to this thread, is hopelessly long!
Doohikie, you're a better man than I if you can wait to get back on the bike as long as the doctor tells you to!
Rhode Island - CHECK.
Norway - CHECK.
I'm afraid the list of places I want to visit, thanks to this thread, is hopelessly long!
Doohikie, you're a better man than I if you can wait to get back on the bike as long as the doctor tells you to!
I drove east again today to get away from the rain. Today I decided to give the CCRT a try. 45 miles roundtrip
This was my favorite section of the CCRT:
Nanskaket Creek in Orleans
Last edited by JJScaliger; 05-09-13 at 05:57 PM.
Rode to work today, as usual. Forecast was for falling temperatures and rain in the afternoon, so I packed my rain gear. Sure 'nuff, raining when I got out of work. Opened the bag with my rain gear, found the rain pants -- BUT NO JACKET!!?? Rode home with nice dry legs and found the rain jacket hanging on its hook in the garage. Seems it was warm enough in the morning I decided to forego the jacket, but forgot to stuff it in the bag with the pants...
...some people call it a sling blade.
Due to a mixup yesterday, I ended up on a 40-miler with the carbon cowboys instead of drrobwave and his Soma Stanyan.
I'd intended to show him the Y-Foil, so I rode it to his house, then back to the correct rendezvous, then back to his house (where we picked up a neighbor) and then out into the void.
The Y-Foil has 3-spoke Nimbus wheels. They make a sound somewhat like a whispered helicopter. The bike also has no seat tube. All around me were Tarmacs, Madones, a high end Raleigh, all full carbons and all the wheels were aftermarket and aero. For the first time, people came by and said "very cool bike." That group simply doesn't discuss bikes, unless they want me to fix something. They never, ever comment on my steel bikes, and since they generally go hard and fast and long, I'm not often with them.
To give you an idea of their level: they often ride two abreast at the very front, because for some of them, the pace line at 20mph is only a workout if they're pulling. Let's just say I had plenty of time to listen to their incredibly noisy modern rear hubs.
I stayed with the pace, especially when climbing, until the last breakaway, when I punted and chatted with a guy while we dropped to a more humane pace and caught up an the next stop sign. The main 4 almost never let anyone else pull; perhaps it's too hard to go slow when you're that fast. I did not insist. I was feeling good until the end, when we were all chatting, and one guy said "I need to come and see your Eddy Merckx." That got one guy's attention, when he said "what are they, about $8K?" As soon as I said, "no, no, it's a Corsa Extra, 1985," I could see any and all interest evaporate. Poof. It was pretty funny, but you had to be there.
One guy had some poor Looks, delta models the "Arc" models that are loosey goosey. I had him stop by and pick up some extra red Look Carbons I had on hand. He looked at the Paramount, Eddy Merckx, and the Cinelli, and I could tell by his blank look that they were simply old steel bikes to him. That was kind of funny, too.
It's kind of fun to be riding a bike like a Y-Foil, and wishing the whole time I was on one of the steel classics. I'm sure it was exactly the opposite of how the rest of the group would feel.
Garmin says 19.7 for the 40-mile trip. Just under 2 hours, so I suppose that's right. I won't be able to replicate that, I'm sure, for a while. Hell, probably never. It was a 2-margarita recovery, and I may have to extend that a couple of days....
And I'm just fine with it. Gimme some lugs and the extra time, I'm happy.
Robbie ♪♫♪...☻
Who drummed for Thoreau?
1985 Raleigh Competition (Racing USA Series)
1987 Bridgestone Radac (aluminum) frankenbike
1988 Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Master (steel)
1989 Centurion Carbon-R (carbon)
RT, nice story about the Y-Foil. Or whatever it was. I don't think I'd enjoy a ride like that!
DB, I agree about the beer.
I'm having my beer now. Just got in from my commute. Round trip by bike a shade under 26 miles. The far end is by bike, the middle end is by train, the near end is by car. I wish it was all by bike.
Real cyclists use toe clips.
With great bikes comes great responsibility.
Robbie ♪♫♪...☻
Who drummed for Thoreau?
1985 Raleigh Competition (Racing USA Series)
1987 Bridgestone Radac (aluminum) frankenbike
1988 Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Master (steel)
1989 Centurion Carbon-R (carbon)
Short day at work today, leaving after 5 hours. The weather outside is beautiful. I email a friend and ask " Wanna go for a ride? The Mountain is calling me". Ty says yes so there it is. A ride after work in the Mt. Rainier National Park.
We had no idea how far we were going to get. We had to stop here where the snowplows had stopped their progress for the day. We rode only about 25 miles today but it was great. Warm weather, Roads closed to car traffic and I got a chance to catch up with a friend I hadn't ridden with since last year.
I got mine roadworthy and rode it around the neighborhood. Don't knock it :-D
Fabulous pics.
Looks like a great ride.
Agree, my legs would have fell off after those climbs. nice pics, thanks for sharing.
"My biggest fear is that when I die my wife will sell my bicycles for what I told her they cost."
Get on your bikes and ride!
Just another day at the office, northbend?
Real cyclists use toe clips.
With great bikes comes great responsibility.
When the roads open up in the mtns in the spring and there's good weather you have to be willing to drop everything and go. It's a bit like powder skiing in that way.
Note to self: things I must do....
Go to North Bend, WA, bring bike!
You meet the nicest people on two wheels!"
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." ~Albert Einstein
My sweetie and I managed 35.3 miles on the tandem today. Strong winds, humid air threatening rain but only spitting a little. Lunch was, shall we say, an adventure in keeping food on the table, what with the wind blowing off the pond.
Real cyclists use toe clips.
With great bikes comes great responsibility.
Northbend, those pictures are breathtaking!
As are yours, JJS. Thank you.
WNG, if you ever get out this way I would be thrilled to show you around.
Something a little more mundane today. 5 hours riding in the upper and lower valleys today..
Remlingers is open for the summer. I picked up some freezer jam
I stayed off the beaten path as much as possible without repeating myself
The rain is supposed to return tonight. No ride planned for tomorrow
Dang , you're livin right Northbend.
Debugging the Paramount today. Rode to Starbucks and to the CVS for dryer sheets. Traded out the Brooks B17 for an Avocet - the one that was on the bike when I got it.
This was my second go at using this Brooks B17 - I had it on my MTB for a while, and this seemed like a better style match. But it just doesn't fit me. The Avocet fits fine and seems to be in good shape for being a 30yo plastic saddle. All I know is it says "Touring" on it.
The Campagnolo seat post is infuriating.
All that accomplished, I rode it to Nimbus Flat, about an 11 mile round trip and more or less my route to work. The gearing was indeed a challenge at the steepest part but it wasn't as bad as I feared. The efficiency of the bike compared to my MTB-with-slicks makes up for it. It's not as fast as the little Cannondale CAAD? that I had a few years ago, probably mostly down to tires. It included about a mile each way of gravel road on which the 32mm Paselas did fine.
I'm having fun.


text:
Understanding China: Pride & Policy
Kuhn, Robert Lawrence, Chief Executive (U.S.)
'You stupid American," my Chinese friend scolded me. "You insult China, and you offend me!"
I was shocked, speechless. I had thought that what I had just said, in complete privacy on a remote hilltop outside of Beijing, would please this intellectual, and he would praise me for saying it. The year was 1992, and it was my first deep lesson about China.
I had arrived in China for the first time in February 1989, six weeks before students began gathering in Tiananmen Square, but it would be years before I would begin to understand what was really going on here. After the tragic events of June 4, 1 did not return to China for 15 months, and when I did go back it was still a time of repressed freedoms such that when people in Beijing wanted to talk politics, they would leave their offices or homes and walk around in the open air or drive around in moving cars.
That's what made Professor Xu, as I shall call my friend, stand out. I couldn't recall him having said anything complimentary about China's political or economic system, and so I felt secure, on that remote hilltop, in applauding the U.S. action in preventing the 2000 Olympics from being held in Beijing, punishing the Chinese government for its armed response in Tiananmen Square. Professor Xu and 1 were alone, and I expected his hearty support of America's blackball.
And that was when he lambasted me with his "You-stupid-American" rebuke, a verbal stinging I shall never forget. It was a searing tutorial of what really counts in China. Don't let the criticisms fool you. Patriotism trumps all. The pride of the Chinese people-pride in their country, heritage, history, economic power, and personal and social freedoms, their growing international importance, and yes, their growing military strength- is a fundamental characteristic of China that one encounters over and over and over again.
Fast forward to early 2008. The pride of the Chinese people assumes a different form, as the Olympic Torch Relay is interrupted in city after city by highly visible protests triggered by the unrest in Tibet. Then came the backlash: Chinese citizens were infuriated by what they deemed to be the hijacking of the Olympics for political purposes; indeed for embarrassing China. Chinese chat rooms ignited spontaneously, heated by the incandescent fury of national pride.
One of the torchbearers in the Paris leg, a 27-year-old amputee and Paralympics fencer named Jin Jing, became a national hero when she was assaulted by protestors. Defend- ing the Olympic flame from her wheelchair, she was bruised and scraped when protesters tried to extinguish the torch. "I felt no pain from the scratches and injury on my right leg," she said. "I would die to protect the torch." Hailed by the Chinese media as the "Smiling Angel in Wheelchair," Jin Jing found her images splashed across front pages all over China and when she returned to Beijing, she was treated to a hero's welcome.
The Power of Pride
Chinese pride invites itself into diverse policy debates. Rarely does it dominate and determine decisions, but often it affects and influences them. Consider China's spaceflight programs, including the Shenzhou manned spacecraft and lunar missions, both an apparent luxury in a country still fighting vast poverty, but both enthusiastically supported by an overwhelming majority of the people.
Why? Pride. Consider also the longstanding internal debate at the highest levels of the Chinese government during the final decade of the last century over whether to seek admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the contesting views pitted the economic benefits of foreign investment against the heightened competitive pressure from foreign companies, an underlying motivation, though it was rarely voiced, was that China belongs in the WTO because China is a great nation and must be counted as a world power.
Pride expresses the visceral feelings of a people whose civilization of culture and technology led the world for centuries, only to be humiliated and oppressed by foreign invaders and stymied and scourged by domestic tyrants. …


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An employee of the Christie's auction house poses for photographs with a 1958 prototype integrated circuit mounted on glass designed by Nobel Prize Physics winner Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments, at premises of the auction house in London, Friday, May 23, 2014. The prototype microchip, a historical contribution to the modern computing era, is estimated to fetch between $1,000,000 and $2,000,0000 (593,710 to 1,187,420 pounds and 733,665 to 1,467,330 euro) at a June 19 sale in New York. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) ORG XMIT: LMD101
Twitter mastermind buzzed with $390M haircut
Square shares are falling. Twitter stock is down 38% this year. All this is shaving the net worth of the CEO of both companies – Jack Dorsey – by $390 million. Read more about the big declines (…)
Futures lower after disappointing jobs report
U.S. stock futures were lower Friday, ahead of a U.S. jobs report that may influence interest rate decisions and the value of the U.S. dollar.
Futures higher as investors await U.S. jobs report
U.S. stock futures were higher Thursday, as investors awaited a key U.S. jobs report following a batch of mixed economic data.
Futures lower, global stocks fall amid economy fears
U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday and global markets mostly fell after weaker Chinese manufacturing and a cut in Europe's growth outlook fueled fears about the global economy.
U.S. futures lower, global stocks mixed
U.S. stock futures were lower Tuesday, while global markets were mixed.
U.S. futures rise as Japan swoon continues
Major market index futures were mixed ahead of the first day of regular trading in May, while Japanese stocks continue to weigh down the Asian markets.
U.S. stock futures flat
Wall Street stock futures were flat Friday while Asian markets traded mixed. Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 stock futures showed little enthusiasm. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.3% and the (…)


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A family-run multi-channel retailer selling 0000s of exciting products worldwide from Maldon, Essex.
Well done Andy Murray!
Brilliant all day breakfast, and for only £5.60! Cafe closed on Wednesdays and Fridays though
Hi Everyone. The fabulous YOKO DESIGN products are now in-stock and ready to buy! Innovative, fashionable and very practical. More details on this brilliant brand coming soon. Have a nice weekend! Read more
Today's tip is to continue supporting Team GB in their excellent Olympic efforts! Fantastic games so far and fantastic performance from the Brits! Please keep it up!
Certainly not your average shop, this place sells so much stuff, hence the name. Garden centre at the back and a cafe on the first floor. This is a proper old-school shop so definitely worth a visit.
Another great shop in Maldon High Street. Old fashioned shop, friendly service and loads and loads of different products - a real one-off! Read more


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O.C. autism awareness event this weekend
The annual Walk Now for Autism Speaks takes place Saturday at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, with more than 7,000 families expected to attend.
The event raises funds and awareness to support research into a developmental disorder that affects 1 in every 100 children in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent study published in the October edition of Pediatrics magazine cited a parent-reported autism rate of 1 in 91 American children and 1 in 58 boys.
Last year, Orange County's Walk Now for Autism Speaks raised more than $375,000.
There is no registration fee for the walk, but participants are encouraged to raise $150 in order to receive a commemorative T-shirt. On-site registration starts at 8 a.m. at the stadium, 2000 Gene Autry Way, Anaheim. Opening ceremonies are at 9:30 a.m. and the walk begins at 10 a.m. Walkers will be able to see themselves on the jumbo screen once inside the stadium.
The event will include an autism-focused community resource fair and a kids' zone with bounce houses, video game truck, face painting, balloon artists and more.
For more information, go to walknowforautism.org/orangecounty or call 323-297-4769.
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Celestia and Luna print for Trotcon, FiestaEquestria, and BronyCon
Looks great
This is lovely
Nothing better than skinny dipping with your sibling!
How Luna's Micro Comic Should of Ended
Something in Celestia's face screams "imminent betrayal."
I love their hair!
I like Luna and Celestia and luna pictures because they are so cute together.
honk honk
This is beautiful!
Such splendid artwork of the two most powerful sisters in Equestria!
So cute.
So cute.
love it and cool!
A kind of warm feeling and touching ,
but it is beautiful.
but it is beautiful.
This reminds me of the Pastoral sequence in Disney's Fantasia.
Glad there havin fun and took a day off which is even better i have freaking school to deal with.
wha, that water looks so amazing. its so crystally like
Amazing job. Great work on the water and reflections. What's up?
And within five seconds, the taker of this picture was on the run from a pair of very angry guards!
Urgh wish i would have bought this one when i saw you at Fiesta.... Kicking myself in back now. Ah well... Perhaps next time!
What a awesome piece.
I love to see them together as caring sisters.
I love to see them together as caring sisters.
beautiful picture
wonderful coloring and detail
wonderful coloring and detail
Aww quite lovely scene!! ^_^ look forward to seeing your at at bronycon! c:
This is a few, sorry but, a few sexy
I'm honestly disappointed that I don't get to see a whole lot of art with the Royal Sisters as sisters rather than royalty. This is lovely work and offers a perspective that a lot of people seem to forget.
amazing !! i love their manes and wings, plus their expressions are adorable. ;u; ♥
Nice how playful they are together. I also like Luna's big wings, they are awesome!
They're so beaitful!
Amazing job
Sisterly love is beautiful
Love it
This is beautiful :3
Sooooooo beautifull Princess art.
so this is what they look like when there not being royal all day soo adorable they look like best of friends
Would you look at that, a picture of the royal sisters where the both of them aren't in disagreement and actually look content with one another's presence.
I know right! it's amazing
So beautiful and relaxing !
( ] >
( ] >
Look at it side-ways
( ] >
( ] >
Look at it side-ways
Nice!!! Looks really wonderful!!!
I love the way you portrait Royal Pony Sisters!
Cool and lovely!
I love the way you portrait Royal Pony Sisters!
Cool and lovely!
Wow ! So beautiful... <3
*drools in me yogurt*
*drools in me yogurt*
Such a lovely picture.
o.o its like seeing them in the wild
thats freaking awsome
thats freaking awsome


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James Elmer Curry, 92 years, passed to Heaven on Jan. 1, 2013 at Heart of the Ozarks Healthcare, Ava, Mo. Jim was born Aug. 15, 1920 in Douglas County, Mo. to J.E. (Elmer) and Esther (Curnutt) Curry. He graduated from ...Read More »
Ray Boyd Daniel Joseph Hicks, 32
Ray Boyd Daniel Joseph Hicks, 32, of Ava, Mo., passed away on Jan. 1, 2013 due to injuries sustained in a vehicle accident. He was born on Jan. 21, 1980 in Tecumseh, Neb., the son of Ray Boyd Hicks and ...Read More »
Thomas R. Winchell, 77
Thomas R. Winchell, 77 years, passed away on Jan. 3, 2013 at his home in Ava, Mo., with his wife by his side. Thomas was born April 25, 1935 in Joliet, Ill., to Robert and Bessie (Brooke) Winchell. Thomas lived ...Read More »
Lawrence Thompson, 91
Lawrence Thompson, 91, gained his heavenly reward on Jan. 5, 2013. He was born Dec. 8, 1921, to James Autie and Martha (VanHouden) Thompson. He proudly served his country as a US Army medic in World War II from 1942 ...Read More »
Vada Mildred Smith, 91
Funeral services for Vada Smith were held at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 7, 2013 in the Clinkingbeard Funeral Home chapel in Gainesville, Mo. A visitation was held by the family on Sunday, Jan. 6 at Mrs. Smith's home near Thornfield, ...Read More »
Francis (Dick) Richards, 79
Francis J. (Dick) Richards, 79, of Ava, departed this life Jan. 6, 2013, at his home near Rome, Mo. He was born Feb. 15, 1933 near Rome, Mo. A visitation was hosted in the Ava Family Funeral Home Chapel on ...Read More »
Irene J. Oates, 91
Irene J. Oates, 91, passed away on Dec. 21, 2012, at home in Porterville, Calif. The daughter of Jessie and Clifford Paddleford, she was born in Ava, Mo., Jan. 4, 1921. In 1944 she married Paul I. Oates, who preceded ...Read More »
David Miller, 60
David Miller, 60 years, 2 months, and 24 days old, passed to heaven on Jan. 8, 2013 at his home in Ava. David was born Oct. 15, 1952 in Springfield, Mo., to Bobby Joe and Patricia (Wood) Miller. He graduated ...Read More »
Evelyn F. Holman, 97
Evelyn F. Holman, 97, of Lebanon, died Thursday, Jan. 3, in Mercy Villa, in Springfield. Mrs. Holman was a former resident of Ava, living here when her husband, Marcus E. Holman, was county agent with the University of Missouri Extension. ...Read More »
Flora Jane Anderson, 77
Flora Jane Anderson, 77 years, passed away to her Heavenly home on Dec. 28, 2012 at Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Mo. Flora was born July 5, 1935 in Ava, Mo., to Leon and Golda (Klineline) Anderson. She was a ...Read More »


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Reviews of new tracks from Lil Wayne, Paramore and more
There is some mighty foul language in this week's new singles on iTunes, primarily from Lil Wayne (surprise, surprise). I've got a rundown of reviews below, and have embedded videos from YouTube where possible, but by all means, do not play the Wayne, Ferg or Fabolous tracks at work.
Lil Wayne »Read Full Blog Post
Milwaukee Opera Theatre, Genghis Barbie rock the art song
Audiences at opera singers' recitals do not, customarily, pump their arms and cheer. Of course, singers at said recitals don't usually perform tunes by Queen and Guns N' Roses flanked by a quartet of female horn players, either.
Saturday evening's Milwaukee Opera Theatre presentation of Andrew Wilkowske in "Guns N' Rosenkavalier," directed by John Glover at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, was a riot of rule-breaking, genre-bending tunes from the worlds of art song and rock. »Read Full Article


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An ultra-lightweight vehicle will built around a 3D-printed skeleton frame.
Nanomaterial innovators take to Kickstarter to raise funds.
From mushrooms to milks, materials scientists are finding innovative solutions to reducing pollution, waste and carbon emissions.
A boat neck sweater made of warm wool and woven in diamond twill was recovered from a Norwegian glacier.


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Results from Friday, Nov. 30
Girls Basketball-Annandale 72 Rockford 47, Kimball 65 Milaca 5301 Dec 12
Local News, Multimedia, Sports - The Local Connection
Wheeler Dealer
Girls Basketball-Annandale 72 Rockford 47, Kimball 65 Milaca 5301 Dec 12
Girls BB-Rockford at Annandale-Girls BB-SESM at Sibley East, Girls BB-HLWW at WM30 Nov 12
Girls Basketball-Chanhassen 72 Waconia 57, DC 53 Rocori 3830 Nov 12
Some local competitors were named this week to the Associated Press All State Football Team. The players include: Hutchinson DE Shaun Schindler – All State First Team GSL Safety Ethan Maass – All State Second …29 Nov 12
Girls BB-Rocori at DC, Girls BB-GSL at Jordan29 Nov 12
Mens College BB- Crown College 56 MN Crookston 55 Womens College BB- Wisconsin Stout 106 Crown 5129 Nov 12
The Minnesota Football Coaches Association has honored 5 area teams and 5 individuals for their academic achievements. The Assocation gave out Gold Academic team awards to BOLD, Litchfield, Glencoe Silver Lake, and Dassel Cokato…plus they …28 Nov 12
Check out our Sports Broadcast Schedule! From the Twins, Wild, and Vikings to your local High Schools or Amateur Baseball teams, we've got you covered right here!


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The soft contact lens market rebounded in calendar year fourth quarter to 5% to provision at 7%. Key takeaways from today's call we again put up great results with strong revenue growth, good margins, favorable impact from lowering interest expense with solid bottom line. Biofinity global rollout continues with Biofinity Sphere in Japan and Biofinity Multifocal in the United States and Europe. This work horse sealed 40% constant currency growth in our silicone hydrogel family Biofinity and Avaira.During the quarter, given the strength of our balance sheet and free cash flow $200 million on an annualized basis we announced the share repurchase program of up to $150 million. We in fact executed on part of the plan buying 666,000 shares for $46 million in a transaction that was $0.01 accretive for the quarter and will be $0.05 accretive for the fiscal year. I will continue to put solid results in free cash flow we continue to invest. Our sales force expansion, marketing and R&D expenses are up in the 17% to 18% range.
The Cooper's CEO Discusses F1Q2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
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You exercise your body to stay physically in shape, so why shouldn't you exercise your brain to stay mentally fit? With these daily exercises you will learn how to flex your mind, improve your creativity and boost your memory. As with any exercise, repetition is necessary for you to see improvement, so pick your favorite exercises from our daily suggestions and repeat them as desired. Try to do some mentalrobics every single day!
In Dr Stephen Laberge's book, "Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life", he introduces the idea of lucid dreaming and gives advice and techniques for achieving it. Dr Stephen Laberge is considered the pioneer of lucid dreaming and has conducted more than 20 years of research on the topic at Stanford University.
See this book at Amazon.com
noun :: The fit, attack, or exacerbation, of a disease that occurs at intervals, or has decided remissions or intermissions.
noun :: Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit.
"And as they obeyed, Michael strained backward in a paroxysm of rage, making fierce short jumps to the end of the tether as he snarled and growled with utmost fierceness at the steward." --London, Jack
We have already learned how the phonetic mnemonic system can be used to remember playing cards. Once you learn this, here is an interesting trick that you can perform for your friends and family.
The Missing Card
Ask someone to remove one card from the deck. You are going to look through the deck once and then tell them the missing card. As you are looking through the deck you need to modify each card keyword as you come to it. Form a mental association with this modification. For example, the keyword for the 8 of clubs is 'cave'. You could picture the roof of a cave caving in. The keyword for the 4 of hearts is 'hair'. You could picture your friend with his hair on fire. Once you have looked through the deck and modified each keyword, run through the deck in your mind. The one keyword that has not been modified represents the card that was removed.


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All Comments (3)
bogus bullshit!
Seriously...I looks like they photoshopped the movie in those parts... lol
why does she pretend to lick his asshole? wtf


text: OXFORD Tonight at 7:30, 6 On The Square (6OTS) is proud to welcome back the nationally touring band, Beaucoup Blue. David and Adrian Mowry are Beaucoup Blue, a Philadelphia based father and son, Americana duo. Theyre a Billboard Magazine World Song Contest Grand Prize Winner and top 40 on the AMA Radio Chart. They mesh together their blues roots with traditional and contemporary styles to perform their own brand of bluesy Americana music with an original and relevant edge.


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In addition to credit cards, we also accept Paypal.
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You'll be an absolute ball of energy with the FuelBelt® Sprint Palm Holder backing you up. With an ergonomic construction and an adjustable, padded handstrap, this water bottle provides a comfortable-to-hold fit.
Great water bottle
Absolutely love this bottle. It's the first one I've bought and it works great!! Love the little zip up compartment for my energy beans. The bottle isn't bulkly and fits perfectly in my hand.
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Fuelbelt was founded in 1998 by Vinu Malik, a 32-time Ironman Competition finisher. Believing strongly in the importance of hydration to athletic performance, he sought to provide a comfortable, reliable, and convenient way for athletes to stay hydrated. Malik remains the company's CEO more than a decade later, and Fuelbelt has gained tremendous popularity among endurance athletes.
The Helium hydration belt features a breathable waistband that's ergonomically designed for a light, comfortable fit. It can hold up to four 8-ounce water bottles for easy access during a workout or competition. The Helium has been put to the test at some of the world's toughest endurance events, making it a proven hydration tool for runners, cyclists, Ironman competitors, and triathletes.
Fuelbelt gear has been used by champions and podium finishers at dozens of endurance events in recent years. As a result, the company's collection continues to be the best-selling hydration belt and fuel belt in the world. Fuelbelt has been named among the fastest-growing U.S. companies by Inc. Magazine for four straight years. Today, there are more Fuelbelt products at the top running events, marathons, and triathlons than any other brand of hydration belt or pack hydration.
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Auke Lootsma is UNDP Country Director in Rwanda.
UNDP brings the Social Good Summit to Rwanda | Auke Lootsma
19 Sep 2013
The Social Good Summit is a three-day conference where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions. Last year, people gathered in nearly 300 cities and 150 countries to discuss how to make progress on local and global challenges.
We at UNDP in Rwanda will be part of the bigger conversation about the challenges of the next generation, and how we can address them now.
In Kigali on 23 September, we will investigate how key individuals in our country are already pioneering technological innovations to engineer social change that will leave lasting impacts. Young Rwandan entrepreneurs from different walks of life who are an inspiration to the nation will talk about their achievements and how organizations big and small can work together with individuals and national and world leaders to maximize their footprint.
As in many African countries, Rwanda's youth population has boomed (65 percent of Rwandans are below 35 years of age). The Kigali Social Good Summit offers a unique opportunity to discuss how technological innovations, social media and entrepreneurship can inspire this youth population to support Rwanda's development.
UNDP Rwanda invited four reputable universities in Rwanda to a live-streamed meet up to connect with the panel and each other, discussing how technology and social media can positively impact the issues important to them.
UNDP Rwanda, as part of the One UN, is striving to partner with people at all levels of Rwanda's society to drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves everyone's quality of life and offers opportunities for young Rwandans to be gainfully employed.
Get involved now by participating in our Facebook discussion, tweeting using #socialgoodRW and following the debate live on 23 September from 5 to 7 p.m. (Kigali time).
Talk to us: What should be done in order to facilitate skills development for young people in an increasingly digitalized world?
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