Secondary Screening: May 2005 Archives

May 2005 Archives

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May 24, 2005 | Full Lid

I'm currently away from my computer, visiting family and taking in some well-needed Vitamin D.

I'll be back next Tuesday, unless something super-important pops up in the meantime.

In the meantime, the best recent piece of writing I've seen is David Samuel's piece in this month's Harper's on the possible resumption of nuclear testing in America and the lost skills and stories of the folks who used to test the nation's bombs.

It's a fascinating bit of reporting, something that hasn't been found in Harper's for way too long

Posted by Ryan Singel at 07:35 PM | TrackBack

May 19, 2005 | A Blank Subpoena

As many have heard, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is looking to expand the Justice Department's authority to subpoena business records without having to get a judge's approval.

Under the proposal the DOJ could use the subpoenas for investigations into violations of 335 separate laws, though its unclear if the subpoenas are valid in cases involving citizens or green card holders. (This is hard to determine as the Senate Select Committee drafts the intelligence funding bills in secret and the provisions won't be made public until they come out of committee.)

Reuters has the most detailed story so far.

This is not the first time the Senate Select Committee has expanded administrative subpoena power.

A similar expansion happened in 2003 when the Committee expanded the reach of one kind of administrative subpoena, technically known as a National Security Letter, by expanding the definition of a financial institution. See this story for more historical details.

Also of interest, remember that in September, a federal judge barred the FBI from using National Security Letters, ruling that the gag order that accompanied the subpoena was unconstitutional. See Declan McCullagh's story here.

For more on the history of administrative subpoenas, check this recent Congressional Research Service report, hosted by the good folks at Secrecy News.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 03:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 19, 2005 | Data Report Report Card

It's long been known that commercial data records, such as those Choicepoint uses as part of its background check service, contain inaccurate or plainly incorrect information.

Linda Ackerman and Deborah Pierce, the minds behind PrivacyActivism, just released a very small study confirming this, finding that 73% of ChoicePoint's biographical reports and 67% of Acxiom's have errors.

Even more telling is that Acxiom still doesn't care about serving citizens. While Choicepoint responded to 100% of Privacy Activism's request and provided reports in an average of 19 days.

For its part, Acxiom took an average of 89 days to deliver a report when it did so. But almost half the time (45%) it failed to respond at all.

This is very consistent with my experience from last year when Acxiom took months to respond to requests and though they claimed to have responded to my request, they only did do so after repeated calls to their chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barret.

Acxiom also claims to allow you to opt out of one of their databases, but only after sending you a bevy of forms intended to tell you how stupid a decision that would be.

If you persist and send in the form, it goes to a post office box. For all I know, it just sits there, since the company sends no confirmation.

If you want to test the system yourself (costs $5 for your report from Acxiom), contact their Consumer Advocate Hotline at 1-877-774-2094 (more info here). Once you get someone on the phone, you can ask for an opt-out form or a "Reference Information Report" form.

Once that's done, start in on a couple of Russian novels so you'll have something to distract you for three months, while Acxiom bureaucrats decide when and if to fulfill your request.

I wonder if it takes that long for Acxiom to deliver your name, purchase history, social security number and family details to marketers and government agencies?

Posted by Ryan Singel at 09:15 AM | TrackBack

May 19, 2005 | First Responders Captured on Surveillance Camera

Cities are using millions of dollars in federal first responder grants to install surveillance camera networks and buy data-mining software.

Homeland security officials say the purchases fall within first-responder grant guidelines and are important tools in the war on terrorism. But privacy advocates say the technology is no deterrent to terrorism and can be used to violate civil liberties.
"Big Brother is using his extended family as surrogates to develop and implement technology that is very invasive on privacy," said former Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican and former U.S. attorney.

New York City has the largest and oldest system, with more than 7,000 public and private surveillance cameras. Baltimore, Chicago and New Orleans are installing camera surveillance networks with federal homeland security dollars.

Chicago financed its 2,250 cameras with a $5.1 million grant and is adding more cameras over the next two years with another $48 million first-responder grant. The cameras, which cost up to $60,000 each, are controlled remotely by police to zoom and rotate, and are equipped with night vision.

In 2004, homeland security funds bought $193 million worth of surveillance cameras. Similar "physical security enhancement equipment" for large cities is to be used primarily for ports, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Marc Short. "I can't imagine a more logical expenditure of funds," he said. [...]

Under a separate first-responder grant, $470,000 was awarded to North Carolina to develop facial imaging technology, which identifies people by measuring distances between points on a face. Federal officials want to use this technology for passport identification, but critics say the system won't work.

The rest of Audrey Hudson's Washington Times story is here.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 08:58 AM | TrackBack

May 17, 2005 | Yes, Some Browsers Have Hoods

The code kids are at it again.

This time they are whipping up scripts that mess with websites, but like in the old game of "I'm not touching you," there's not much websites can do since the scripts run inside the Firefox browser. They automatically give Gmail a delete button, force the browser to always use a secure site to log into Yahoo! mail, reconfigure stupid web page layouts and mash-up data from various sites to create whole new functions on websites.

My favorite: I took columnist John Udell's library script for Amazon and jiggered it around to work with the San Francisco Public Library. Now every time I look up a book on Amazon, the script will automatically search for the ISBN in the public library and post a link that says either "Hey, this book is available at the library" or "This book is due back on [date]." Udell first made this as a , but the script is cooler since it does the lookup automatically, without you having to click a button on the to launch it.

My localized version of his script can be found here. (Install notes at end of blog entry)

My story is here.

In a modern twist on the hot of old, Firefox users are pimping the web, one browser at a time.
They've added a delete button and permanent search folders to, made their browsers show only print pages of online news stories, reconfigured all the content on a popular music website and removed Reuters stories on the Michael Jackson story from online newsreader.

Simon, a computer science student in England who's a fan of Paul Graham's online essays on hacking and programming, grew frustrated with having to scroll from Graham's paragraphs to his footnotes and back again.

So, armed with a little, wrote a program that automatically generated links between the paragraphs and the footnotes. A couple of weeks later, Graham wrote to say he would soon start adding the links for everyone.

That change was made possible by, a Firefox extension that allows users to load custom scripts that modify a specific website anytime they visit it.

While is still only used by Firefox users on the bleeding edge, sees the extension as a harbinger of a change in the web's power dynamics.

" enables people to remix the web," said. "You are giving control of people's browsers back to users.

"There's always a balance between what a website designer wants people to be able to do and what they are actually doing, and Greasemonkey swings it very firmly in the direction of the user."

As a funny side note, Rael Dornfest, O'Reilly Media's CTO, pimped his own ride, forgot about it and announced on the O'Reilly blog that Google had new features.

He quickly found out that it was just Greasemonkey.

As Rael points out, extreme customization, such as Greasemonkey allows, does raise some questions about a shared Internet experience.

But then again, I think those questions are not really relevant. Google is not ABC or CBS or NBC.

In fact, none of us have ever used or will ever use the same Internet.

(Hint: if you want to change the LibraryLookup to your local library, 1) open this file in your browser then save it locally 2) open it with a text editor such as Notepad, 3) find your local library's default ISBN search string and copy it in as the new UrlPattern 4) change the name of the library 5) check the text string your library uses to say a book is in (SF uses "check shelf" to mean "available") and enter it verbatim, 5) save the file locally and 6) load it into Greasemonkey using the Tools menu)

Posted by Ryan Singel at 10:49 AM | TrackBack

May 16, 2005 | VaporPanel?

The Bush Administration has yet to name any members to a privacy and civil liberties board which was created in the fall in response to recommendations by the 9/11 commission, and a handful of Senators think the Administration is taking way too long and also being stingy.

The board is intended as a counterweight to post 9/11 security measures and the centralization of spy organizations in last fall's Intelligence bill.

Besides lacking employees and money, the board, when staffed, will also not have the power to force agencies to turn over records, though they can complain to the head of agency or to the Attorney General.

Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, along with Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman, Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, sent a letter to President Bush on Friday asking why five months have passed with no appointments and why the board has such a tiny budget.

They wrote:

In particular, please inform us of the timeline and milestones for establishing the Board, including appointing Board members, hiring an Executive Director and other staff, and securing office space. We are concerned that, as of the date of this letter, the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Board have not been nominated. We urge that this be done as quickly as possible so the Board’s important work can begin.
In addition, the Board’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2006 is only $750,000. We are concerned that this is an inadequate level of funding for the Board to carry out its broad statutory mandate. By way of comparison, the proposed budgets for other offices within the Executive Office of the President are $4 million for the Council of Economic Advisors, $24 million for the Office of Drug Control Policy, $6 million for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and $39 million for the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security’s Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, who is charged with addressing civil liberties issues facing one department, not the entire Executive Branch, has a proposed budget of $13 million.

Please provide us with details of the proposed budget for the Board and describe how the Board will set up a new office, hire the requisite staff, carry out its statutory mandates, and otherwise function effectively with this level of funding. Please inform us how many Full-Time Equivalents will be dedicated to the Board and its staff.

As the 9/11 Commission made clear, a strong and independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is a critical component of the enhanced system of checks and balances needed to protect the precious liberties that are vital to our way of life. Accordingly, we urge the White House to take the steps necessary to allow the Board to begin functioning effectively as soon as possible.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times has the story here.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 10:59 AM | TrackBack

May 13, 2005 | The Second Rule of Friday Bicycle Blogging

Lucas Brunelle is a man who's done some crazy bike hacks, including creating a very nice looking bicycle-couch.

He's also an insane bicycle videographer who uses a pair of digital video cameras mounted on his helmet to capture the insanity of Alley Cat races, which are highly illegal street races popular in messenger circles.

Check out this video of a NYC race. (Best to right click and download)

There's also a great video of street riding in San Francisco.

You can find more videos here and an explanation of how he made the films here.

Hokey Bike Blogging

For those other Friday Bicycle Bloggers who still don't understand how the system works or who are interested in a stupiddumb high-priced substitute for rolling up your pants leg, I offer a suggestion of an item for them to blog and/or put on their bicycle/tricycle: HokeySpokes

Update: This post was updated to fix some rendering problems and add the Hokey subtitle

Posted by Ryan Singel at 10:47 AM | TrackBack

May 11, 2005 | Oil Flashback

A little less than three years ago, I got paid to write for the first time.

The piece was very different from what I write about now. It's a bit personal, but it remains timely, and hopefully not too preachy. It was intended to be very tongue-in-cheek.

Anyhow, a little magazine called LiP ran the story. LiP later dissolved and then recently has come back to life. Oddly, the story was also syndicated through Alternet and ran in a couple of alt-weeklies. (Alternet never paid me for the reprints and never responded to my emails asking about the money they owed me. They still owe me $60 -- hence no link.)

Still, getting published was a rush and after it showed up on Alternet, I was interviewed, ironically as you will see, on a drivetime show in Connecticut.

Given the high price of gasoline these days, I thought it might time to reprint it here

Addicted to Oil: Confronting America's Worst Habit

It's hard to forget Robert Duvall's ode to napalm in Apocalypse Now, but most people misquote it: "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning. The smell, that gasoline smell. Smells like victory." We leave out the middle line, which is odd, given our love of gasoline.

Gasoline, like napalm, is a powerful, flammable oil distillate. We inject it into our car engines where it explodes droplet by droplet, propelling us across the surface of the planet. Its smell is intoxicatingly sweet, and when it spills on your hands, it leaves a smooth film on your fingers as it evaporates.

Gasoline is freedom, speed, pleasure and convenience in liquid form. Think of first escaping from your parents' house in a friend's car. Of how little personal effort it takes to drive to the supermarket to get a loaf of bread. Of the beauty of cross-country road trips, impromptu drag races, and backseat groping. Of the joy of screaming out the lyrics of a favorite song when it comes on the car stereo. All these pleasures owe something to gasoline.

It can also be liquid utility. Gasoline was the driving force behind the single largest public works project in history, the American Highway System, as conceived in the 1956 Interstate Highway Act. It speeds produce to market, propels kids to soccer practice, adults to their jobs, and family station wagons to Yosemite.

Not surprisingly, gas has seeped into our language: I'm running on fumes, It was a high octane football game, that's like throwing gasoline on the fire, I'll have a cup of unleaded, or I wanted to finish the project but I ran out of gas.

Gasoline's metaphorical saturation of our culture is understandable given that, after water, it's the most popular liquid in America. According to the Department of Transportation, Americans burn over 125 billion gallons of gasoline annually while driving around on the nation's roadways. That's almost 450 gallons per capita. By comparison, we only drink 7 billion gallons of beer, wine and spirits yearly.

And like alcohol, it's a fluid we try to handle with care, knowing instinctively that any liquid that actually burns can't be all good. One sniff of the stuff as a kid, perhaps while refilling the lawn mower, and you know gas isn't good for you.

Dropping the Nozzle

I quit doing gasoline a year and a half ago. I'm not talking about sniffing gas; like those kids who inhale the fumes of airplane glue. I mean I was a real addict, the kind who likes his gasoline in liquid form and by the tankful--the kind who has indignant conversations about the fluctuations in the street price of gas.

I didn't join a support group or go to a detox program. I'd been thinking about quitting for 6 or 7 years. I even went nine months in Chicago not doing it at all, but a year and a half ago, I consciously gave it up for good. Went cold turkey. Stopped buying it. Stopped using it. Clean and sober. I don't even use ethanol.

Gasoline is our country's largest addiction. Doing gasoline is a filthy, dangerous and expensive habit and worse in some ways than drinking or smoking. In fact, you can transfer warning signs on cigarette packs almost verbatim to gas pumps, like so: "Using gasoline causes lung cancer and emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy."

Consider the following statistics from the Federal Bureau of Transportation about gasoline and cars: Automobile crashes kill 43,000 Americans a year, a death toll almost as high as the total American body count in the Vietnam war. In the year 2000 alone, there were 6 million gasoline-fueled crashes in which more than 3 million Americans were injured. Of that 3 million figure, more than 130,000 were pedestrians and bicyclists.

Moreover, emissions from burning gasoline are the leading cause of smog and global warming. And according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, air pollution in cities puts city dwellers at a higher risk for lung cancer than people who live with smokers and breathe secondhand smoke.

Gasoline addiction is a public health nightmare in other ways, too. Consider drunk driving, which is, in its distilled form, just the mixing of our culture's two most powerful liquids, gasoline and alcohol. On could also argue that gasoline usage leads to automotive dependency and a sedentary lifestyle, which is closely linked to heart disease, the number one cause of death in the United States. Through tailpipe emissions, gasoline also plays a part in killer number two--cancer--and killer number four--emphysema. The fifth most common cause of death is accidents.

In drug terms, gasoline is to oil what heroin is to opium. And like opium, most oil comes from shady overseas cartels located in non-democratic countries, including ones designated as "sponsors of terrorism." Billions are spent yearly by the Pentagon to maintain a huge military presence in the Persian Gulf to protect our "national interests."

Having a gasoline habit is personally expensive too, even though gas is cheaper by the gallon than milk or spring water. MSN CarPoint estimates the cost of owning a car in Los Angeles is over $9,000 a year. The Federal Bureau of Labor estimates 18% of household income is spent on transportation, and AAA calculates driving costs to be 40 to 60 cents per mile.

Gasoline is also responsible, at least in part, for all of the following: road rage, speeding tickets, asbestos contamination of groundwater, urban decay, the Valdez oil spill, the Persian Gulf war, car alarms, erosion, Los Angeles, aromatic hydrocarbons, social alienation and parking tickets.

But we don't like to talk about our addiction. We prefer denial. We prefer to say we are stuck in a traffic jam because we don't want to admit we are the traffic jam. We bitch about traffic, parking, smog and the high cost of auto repairs but still keep using more and more. Articles and statistics about gas-guzzlers and the social costs of driving can feel like personal attacks. These are textbook reactions of an addict when confronted with his or her behavior. And if you're one of the people who feels this way, you have a lot of company.

Conservatives like William Safire don't turn their personal responsibility rhetoric loose on citizens who drive 2 miles to the grocery store for a stick of butter, instead of riding a bike there. The White House didn't condemn the recent military coup in Venezuela, because the democratically-elected government there sells gasoline to Cuba and has threatened to nationalize its oil fields. And liberals oppose oil exploration in "sensitive habitats" (as if there were any other kind) but burn gasoline by the tankful in their SUVs on the way to Whole Foods. One prominent Democratic Senator, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, (D-Md.), defended the Senate's recent vote not to raise corporate fuel economy standards and apply them to SUVs, by calling the measure an attack on "soccer moms."

Damming the Flow

Despite all this widespread denial, a growing number of people are getting wise to our culture's gasoline addiction and are learning how to wean themselves off it. In New York City, a huge percentage of the population is gas-free. The "smart growth" movement is gaining in popularity in America, and whole communities are being planned in ways that reduce gasoline addiction. Voters in San Francisco, the birthplace of the original freeway revolt, recently voted to tear down a highway overpass and replace it with a boulevard rich in housing and local businesses.

Years ago, countries in Europe realized the extent of their addiction and created social structures to help people live without gasoline--mass transit, dense mixed-use developments, and networks of bike lanes. American visitors to cities like Venice and Amsterdam and Paris come home marveling at how easy it is to get around while abroad without gasoline. And Brazil's second richest city, Curitoba, has designed a public transit system so fast and effective that 70 percent of its people use it daily, even though, percentage wise, car ownership in Curitoba is higher than any other city in the country.

Joining that growing group of Americans who have sworn off the stuff feels really good, and not just in an intellectualized "I'm saving the world by recycling my yogurt container" sort of way. My life is less stressful. I save money and I have more free time.

Like any recovering addict, I understand the allure of my former drug. In fact, I must admit, I still own a gasoline burner. Rose is a 20 year-old pick-up, a handsome little number with a bench seat, who carried me and my stuff over the Bay Bridge into the fine city of San Francisco. For almost a year after, she ferried back and forth across that same bridge to work. But I'm having a difficult time bringing myself to sell her, to sever all ties with gasoline.

You see, I was such a good user of gasoline. I once burned gasoline for 17 hours straight, going solo from Atlanta to Massachusetts to see a girl I was in love with. One year, I drove cross-country twice. For a while, I even owned a gas-guzzling 1965 V-8 Ford Mustang. In college, I daydreamed of escaping academic life by becoming a long distance trucker.

But that's all the good stuff about gasoline: the visceral rush of a heavy gas pedal on a wide-open road without the more common drag of stop-and-go traffic in rush hour. If ever a phrase needed updating, it's "rush hour." I got my first true taste of that side effect at age 21, commuting to a summer office job in Atlanta. That's when I first experienced the unique frustration of stop-and-go traffic, of being deprived of speed, momentum and velocity. But I kept using gasoline, partly because I didn't what else to do and partly because sometimes, late at night on an almost empty highway, I'd get that old feeling again.

The occasional taste of the original high is critical; it's what keeps addicts going, even when the high is mostly gone. Consider this passage from Sex, Drugs, Gambling, and Chocolate, an addiction workbook, and apply it to your own gasoline habit: "One of the ironies of addiction is that...it tends to take away from you what it gave you at first... It does not take it away entirely, or...you probably would have stopped the addiction. ... But consider whether you are now actually worse off than when you began, in precisely the areas you thought you were being benefited."

Of course, you will never see rush hour in a gas or car commercial, though you may well see it in a painkiller commercial. The collective amount of stress American gasoline addicts feel daily being frustrated in their goal of getting from A to B quickly is astronomical. You get drunk on gasoline's power as a teenager and then later you can't get that high again.

One Trip at a Time

So I quit. Except for two tankfuls I split with 5 others on a ski trip in a rented minivan, I haven't bought a drop in over a year. It's not that hard to do actually. But, like quitting smoking, you have to have a plan and know why you are doing it. So here are a few hints from an ex-addict on how to kick--or at least temper--the habit.

First of all, even after you make the decision to cut back on doing gasoline, you will still want to go places. You will feel that craving to go to your friend's house or to the donut store. While this feeling may pass if you ignore it, you may also safely give in to that urge by walking, taking public transit, or riding a bike. Despite what the television and your friends say, these options are neither un-American nor only for poor people and children.

You should figure out why you want to curb your habit. Make a list of all the expenses you pay to maintain your habit: insurance, registration fees, repairs, parking fees, tickets, and of course, gas. Think about how much less stress you will experience when not using gasoline. Then, think about which of your trips could be done on foot, bike or transit.

Then set some achievable goals, maybe 5 gasoline-free trips a week. This shouldn't be too hard, since 40 percent of all automobile trips are less than 2 miles. Reward yourself after these trips, using the money you save to buy yourself a treat. Each week, try extending the range of how far you can travel without gasoline. Tell your friends what you are planning to do and invite them along. Pride yourself on incorporating exercise into your daily life.

Have gasoline-free family ventures, biking or walking together to the video store. Become active in an organization that advocates for transit alternatives. Don't be intimidated by thinking that you have to be "pure" to join. Many activists are multi-modal travelers, sometimes taking the train and sometimes driving. Investigate whether a car-sharing program exists in your city, and join it or advocate for one to be established.

Realize that some gasoline use is structurally necessary. Some places are only accessible by freeway, are too far away or are located on dangerous roads. Don't feel guilty when you use gas, but also don't make excuses. You can carry a lot of groceries on a bike with side baskets or you can get a bike trailer. That might sound hard, but it isn't, and a lot of people do it.

For gas addicts, living in the suburbs can feel like being an alcoholic who lives in a bar. Suburban America was mostly designed by and for gasoline addicts. Mass transit, walking, and biking have all been squeezed out in the last 80 years. So if you really want to completely quit you might think about moving to a city or at least moving somewhere in the suburbs near a transit line.

Quitting gasoline, even just cutting back, isn't always easy and there will be some drawbacks. You will probably have to wait too long for an all-too-infrequent bus. But the bus or train will come, you will get there, and you can read a book on the way. And while you're en route, you'll be sitting right in the middle of one of the only viable public spaces left to us.

If you ride a bike, like I do now, gas addicts will sometimes drive by you too closely. Drunk on 89-octane fuel, drivers will forget to signal, they'll blow stoplights, and they'll break the speed limit. But you will still be safer than you were as an addict. Moreover, you will be using the most energy-efficient means of transportation ever invented, and it runs on burritos and water, not gasoline.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 10:24 PM | TrackBack

May 10, 2005 | More Real

Kim Zetter has more on the hasty sausage-making that will likely result in the passage of the Real ID Act in her story in today's Wired News.

Hundreds of civil liberties groups, immigrant support groups and government associations oppose the Real ID Act, a piece of legislation that critics say would produce a de facto national ID card, cost states millions of dollars and punish undocumented immigrants.
Yet despite widespread opposition to the bill, it passed through the House last week and is expected to easily pass through the Senate on Tuesday.

The legislation is raising questions not only about privacy and costs but about the ways in which critical legislation gets passed in Congress.

That's because lawmakers slipped the bill into a larger piece of legislation -- an $82 billion spending bill -- that authorizes funds for the Iraq war and tsunami relief, among other things, and is considered a must-pass piece of legislation.

It's not the first time Congress has slipped contentious bills into larger legislation that is almost guaranteed to pass. In 2003, Congress augmented Patriot Act surveillance powers with wording slipped into the Intelligence Authorization Act, a bill that authorized funding for intelligence agencies. [...]

The National Governors Association, the Council of State Governments and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators are among those who say the law creates unnecessary bureaucracy for drivers and imposes hardship and undue cost on state offices.

The legislation would require all drivers, including current license holders, to provide multiple documents to verify their identity before they could obtain a license or renew one. Drivers would have to provide four types of documentation, such as a photo ID, a birth certificate, proof that their Social Security number is legitimate and something that verifies the applicant's full home address, such as a utility bill. The law would then compel Department of Motor Vehicle employees to verify the documents against federal databases and store the documents and a digital photo of the card holder in a database.

"What's the clerk in Denver supposed to do when someone provides a birth certificate from Angola?" asked Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Are they supposed (to call Angola) to check the accuracy of that?"

In the meantime, privacy activist Bill Scannell's last ditch effort to derail passage of the provisions, UnrealID, had more than 10,000 people fax their senators by noon on Tuesday (EST).

Posted by Ryan Singel at 11:18 AM | TrackBack

May 10, 2005 | Fast Forward Filmmaking

On Saturday, I snagged an early morning ride to Santa Cruz to check out Cinemasports, a "competition" in which teams of filmmakers are given a list of ingredients and are sent off to make a three and a half minute film to be screened that evening.

About twenty teams, ranging from 2 man crews to 12 person posses, headed out into the streets, hills and beaches of Santa Cruz to make a movie.

Teams also contributed to the Cinemasports blog throughout the day.

Here's some of what I saw down there:

SANTA CRUZ, California -- Digital video cameras, PowerBooks and wannabe filmmakers were stress-tested on Saturday, when teams of filmmakers raced to make movies screened hours later at an international film festival.
Saturday's event was the latest from Cinemasports, which dubs itself the Iron Chef of filmmaking.

As in the cult cooking show, teams were given a short list of must-have ingredients for their movies: a close-up of a street sign, the words "spirit world" in conversation and someone stepping on something.

Teams then had a few short hours to channel adrenaline and cinema skills to write a script, scout locations, find music, shoot scenes and edit the piece into a 3 1/2-minute movie.

Just minutes into filming, Anna Fizyta found herself borrowing Kun Shin's cell phone to convince a local friend to be their bicycle stuntman, while Alex Vlacos was filming the movie's star having a conversation on a street bench with an elderly passerby and Arnaud Dressen, a Parisian in town for the competition.

Andrew Shoneberg, a market research analyst by day, hovered over Vlacos' shoulder, giving the trio acting directions.

Shin, an administrative assistant in Oakland, was the team's veteran. In his first Cinemasports adventure, he was called on to make out with a girl, wearing only his underwear. This time around his team had him edit most of the film, including the scene where he had an intimate moment with a blow-up doll behind a shopping cart.

This is Team Lost, which might have been better named Team Found, since none of the members knew each other before Saturday when they found themselves working together to make a movie in nine hours.

It is a feat that would be unimaginable in the days before digital video cameras, sleek laptops and powerful editing software. With those tools, the task is adrenaline- and ulcer-inducing.

Full story here.

There's links to a couple of films in the piece.

There's also this film about finding your true calling, from freelance writer Paige Bierma and her team.

And I got so into the whole thing, that during the down time when teams were editing, I decided to make my own film. Thing is I only had my digital camera, a Canon A70, that's meant for photos, not movies. I had just enough room for this 2 minute movie on the camera, but the video function on the camera doesn't support multiple takes or pausing the action or zooming or panning.

So here's my one take, one focal length, one person CinemaSports film for your enjoyment.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 10:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 09, 2005 | Real Reaction

Last night, I got an email from the irascible privacy activist and publicist Bill Scannell, pointing me to his newest online project, UnRealID, which lets individuals send faxes to their Senators opposing the Real ID Act.

For those unaware, on Tuesday Congress is set to approve turning state driver's licenses into a de facto national identification card. The rules, known as the Real ID Act, were folded into a supplemental appropriations bill for the troops in Iraq, despite the fact that drivers license standards were already tightened at the federal level by last year's intelligence reform bill.

Congress also never bothered to hold a hearing -- not even one in the House Judiciary Committee, which is headed up by Congressman James Sensenbrenner.

Sensenbrenner held up passage of the intelligence reform bill because the final compromise did not include the Real ID Act.

Sensenbrenner relented after Republican leaders promised to slip the language into a must-pass bill in 2005.

That's a promise they delivered on.

So I meant to blog this last night right when I got the email, but since then its been slashdotted and boing boinged and emailed and lo and behold, it looks to be Scannell's most successful campaign to date.

Less than 24 hours after launch, over 8,300 people have sent more than 16,000 faxes to their senators.

It won't likely change things, but it is a good sign that maybe the issue should have had some hearings and public debate.

There's also some rumors that the privacy community might try to take some heads, starting with Sensenbrenner's, in the '06 midterm elections over this issue.

I'm not sure I believe that will or could happen, but 16,000 faxes in less than 24 hours suggests they aren't totally nuts.

For those interested, Senator Joe Lieberman had much to say about the provisions on the Senate floor on April 20, which you can read after the jump.

I rise to speak in opposition to the House legislation known as the REAL ID Act, and to urge that it not be included in the conference report for this spending bill. Last year Congress enacted comprehensive anti-terrorism legislation, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which implemented the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Some of the most important provisions we enacted strengthen our borders against terrorist infiltration, and provide the government with new weapons in tracking terrorist travel around the globe. The Act also requires minimum federal standards to ensure that state issued drivers' licenses are always secure and reliable forms of identification.

The REAL ID Act would repeal much of our work from last year, and replace it with provisions that impose on state governments unworkable standards for drivers' licenses. The REAL ID Act also includes punitive immigration provisions that we rejected last year, and that have no place on an emergency spending bill. Do not be fooled. Our nation is safer if we implement the protections we passed just last December. We must not allow an ideological debate over immigration policy to derail initiatives vital to the war against terrorism.

Last year I was privileged to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to develop anti-terrorism and intelligence reform legislation that we can all be proud of. Among other things, the Intelligence Reform Act called for large increases in the numbers of Border Patrol agents, immigration enforcement agents, and detention beds. It strengthened consular procedures for screening visa applicants. It closed a gaping vulnerability by requiring people entering the United States at our land borders to show a passport. And it required minimum federal standards to ensure that state issued drivers' licenses are always secure and reliable forms of identification.

At the same time, I joined with my fellow conferees to ensure that the Intelligence Reform bill focused on genuine anti-terrorism measures and excluded extraneous measures. In particular, in conference we rejected a number of anti-asylum and anti-immigration provisions. The REAL ID Act simply recycles several of the controversial immigration provisions which we rejected last year. When the REAL ID Act was debated on the House floor this year many of its supporters claimed that these provisions had been recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and are essential to the war on terrorism. That is simply not the case.

Last October, the 9/11 Commissioners made clear that the immigration provisions in the House bill were irrelevant to fighting terrorism. I would like to quote from a letter the conferees received from Governor Thomas Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, a letter that reflected the unanimous view of the Commissioners. Referring to the House provisions on immigration, they said, and I quote: "We believe strongly that this bill is not the right occasion for tackling controversial immigration and law enforcement issues that go well beyond the Commission's recommendations. We note in this regard that some of these provisions have been advocated in response to Commission recommendations. They are not Commission recommendations." The Commissioners then added, and I quote again: "We believe we are better off with broad bipartisan agreement on key recommendations of the Commission in support of border security than taking up a number of controversial provisions that are more central to the question of immigration policy than they are to the question of counterterrorism."

As the Commissioners made clear, the provisions in the REAL ID Act have more to do with immigration than with national security. These are controversial provisions that need to be fully considered by our Judiciary Committee. The legislation would make it harder for refugees fleeing oppressive regimes to get asylum. That provision doesn't target terrorists because current law already states that no member of a terrorist organization can be eligible for asylum. The REAL ID Act would suspend habeas corpus review in deportation proceedings. Not since the Civil War has habeas corpus been suspended. The House bill would allow the Department of Homeland Security to waive all laws so that fences and barriers can be built on any of our land borders. There is no limitation as to what laws can be waived - environmental laws, labor laws, laws allowing property owners to be compensated for the confiscation of their land. These provisions have serious negative consequences and should be more carefully considered. I do not believe they could ever be enacted if they were carefully considered with our normal procedures.

I would also like to address the provisions in the REAL ID Act that would establish new federal standards for drivers' licenses. My colleagues no doubt remember that just last December Congress enacted standards for drivers' licenses, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission, to ensure drivers' licenses are secure and identities are verified. The standards are now being implemented through a rulemaking, in which state governments are given a seat at the table to share their expertise. These legislative standards were a great accomplishment, a result of fine work done by Senators McCain, Durbin, Collins, Alexander and other colleagues. Last year the Administration declared that the Senate's provisions were preferable to those drafted by the House, and the 9/11 Commission endorsed them.

The REAL ID Act would repeal the work Congress did last year. It would replace our provisions with much more rigid provisions from last year's House bill. The provisions are so unrealistic that states could not implement them. All Americans applying for drivers' licenses would have to wait for weeks while state DMVs tried to confirm the authenticity of paper birth certificates and other records, records filed away at county offices across the country. State governments would have no opportunity to provide input for the regulations, as they have under current law.

That's why the state government organizations think the REAL ID Act is a terrible idea. The National Governors' Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators have all announced their strong opposition to the REAL ID Act. The organizations have written to Congressional leadership that the REAL ID Act would impose requirements on state governments which, and I quote, "are beyond the current capacity of even the federal government." The state government groups have asked that the law we passed last December be given a chance to work. I ask unanimous consent that a joint letter from these four organizations be entered into the Congressional Record following the conclusion of my remarks.

When the state governments of our nation say that these drivers' license provisions are unworkable, we need to take notice. State governments have been issuing drivers' licenses for decades. They are the experts, and we will need their input and coordination if we are going to implement the drivers' license standards recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

I urge my colleagues to oppose the REAL ID Act. We must ask our Senate conferees not to allow such a controversial measure to be pushed through Congress on an emergency spending bill. The REAL ID Act contradicts our historic identity as a nation that provides haven for the oppressed. The REAL ID Act would not make us safer. It would make us less safe. It would repeal provisions enacting a central recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and it would undermine a vital counterterrorism initiative.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 05:56 PM | TrackBack

May 09, 2005 | Noah in Surveillance Wonderland

SSN pal Noah Shachtman (of DefenseTech fame) went to Chicago to get on the viewfinder side of the city's police departments' network of video cameras.

The story has been out in print in Wired magazine for a few weeks now and I've been dying to blog it, but didn't want to tease anyone with a story they couldn't read online.

Noah got superlucky and super scared I'd imagine while out on patrol and got to be part of a police chase.

Today the piece came online and here's what Noah had to say about it:

Over the winter, I spent a week and a half riding around with the police in the great city of Chicago. 2,250 spy cameras, 466,000 pieces of evidence, four suspected drug dealers, and one giant car chase later, the report I filed for Wired magazine on my trip is finally out. Here's how it starts.
On a warm afternoon on Chicago's West Side, a young African-American man leans against the wall of the One Stop Food and Liquor store at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Homan Street. His puffy black jacket is so oversize that the collar hangs halfway down his back. Thirty feet up, a camera mounted on a telephone pole swivels toward him.

Three miles away, in a bunkerlike, red granite building near Greektown, Ron Huberman watches the young man on a PC screen. "You see that guy?" asks Huberman, the 33-year-old chief of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. "He's pitching dope - you can tell. Fucker."

Nicely done, Mr. Noah.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 11:06 AM | TrackBack

May 06, 2005 | Friday Apologia

Often, but not always, I interview more people than I quote in a story. And of course, people I interview tell me much more than I'm able to put into an article.

It is a sad and true fact of my job.

This week, in writing about Amazon's text crunching, I had the pleasure of speaking with Maciej Cegłowski, a former hacker who recently quit working on search engines for the humanities to become a painter.

He even built a cool little app that maps the relations between literary characters in Russian novels.

Unfortunately, in the rush to make my deadline, I couldn't figure out how to put his nuanced comments into my story.

Though my readers are poorer for not including even a mediated version of his thoughts in my story, you can find him writing about New York City's worst pizza, over at his blog, Idle Words, which so well-written I'm embarrassed to link to it from here.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 01:13 PM | TrackBack

May 06, 2005 | Friday Bicycle Blogging

Remind me not to visit New York City anytime soon.

As loyal readers might remember, the cops there, including Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka Jr., hate cyclists. Seems now they hate freelance reporters too, according to this story (reg. req.) by Kareem Fahim and Jim Dwyer.

In one of the first arrests of the evening, a young woman who was straddling her bike and walking it out of the south end of Union Square Park was seized and personally arrested by Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka Jr.
"You're riding your bicycle on the sidewalk," Chief Smolka said. "You're under arrest."

The woman protested that she had done nothing wrong. The chief insisted that she get off her bicycle immediately, and then he tried to pull her off. The woman argued, and then other police officers, some of them wearing plainclothes, joined the chief and forcibly removed the woman from the bike.

Ride participants tried to retrieve the woman's bike and scuffled with police officers, who then arrested a second woman.

The sight of a senior chief in the Police Department struggling in a crowded public place with the woman roused the gathering of people.

Cries of "Let her go, let her go," and "fascist state" filled the air, as Chief Smolka and other officers led the woman into a van. A line of 10 motorcycles then sealed the edge of the sidewalk at the intersection of 14th Street and Union Square East. The arrested woman began to give her name in response to a question from a reporter, but only uttered one word - "Lisa" - before she was pushed into the van and the reporter was forced away from her.

Chief Smolka is the police official in charge of southern Manhattan, and oversaw many of the mass arrests made in August before and during the Republican National Convention, including more than 100 arrests of bicyclists at a Critical Mass ride that swelled to include 5,000 riders.

Cops then proceeded to handcuff and detain New York Times's freelancer Colin Moynihan.

Cyclists still managed to ride, by starting at a number of parks, not just Union Square and using cell phones to dodge cops, including a handful of undercover cops on bikes. At least that's what Lincoln Anderson's article in The Villager reported.

Earlier, Colin Moynihan, a Times reporter, was arrested after he had been standing at E. Sixth St. and Avenue A interviewing someone while covering the story. According to John Penley, an East Village activist who witnessed the event, an officer shoved Moynihan as police were clearing the corner and Moynihan asked for the officers’ badge number three times, after which a group of officers threw him on top of a police car trunk and handcuffed him.
Moynihan, who was released without any charges, declined comment.

Also in Friday Bicycle Blogging news, Adam Shostack tries to get in on the action with this post about a winning design for a bicycle that acts like a tricycle at low speeds, but like a bicycle at higher speeds.

It's a sweet little design by Scott S. Shim, a Perdue College assistant professor and students Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman, but Adam should know that the first rule of Friday Bicycle Blogging is that you do it on Friday.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 11:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 06, 2005 | Let's All Get Real IDs

Declan McCullagh has a nice little FAQ on the Real ID Act that creates a de facto national identification card (though you still have the right not to show your ID on demand (with some exceptions)). This provision, stuck in a must-pass military funding authorization bill, will in all likelihood be passed on Tuesday and quickly signed into law.

There's much to say, but I think its time to wheel out some poetry. I think this reprinting this Raymond Federman poem falls under fair use, but if not, I'm sure someone will tell me:

THE LINE

at first one could stand in line almost anywhere people didn't really mind too much if one cut in front of them though there were always some who objected when overtaken particularly those who were under the impression that they stood near the head of the line but even these people did not object too vehemently since the line was not moving very fast or for that matter often hardly moved for long periods of time and since no one could tell where it was going but people waited anyway patiently and goodhumoredly and more were coming all the time in endless processions after all it was a good line a pleasant line a decent line even though in places people allowed gaps holes in it looseness and laxness as the line weaved stretched meandered out of sight thicker here thinner there single or double file here triple even quadruple there in fact in various places it was more like a social gathering or a human press as people crowded around in circles as if preparing for a town meeting or a debate or getting set for a choir or a game after all with such little progress forward and so much time to wait people moved about the line up and down in and out casually and freely stopping along the way to chat with neighbors old friends or distant relatives cousins or uncles they had not seen in years all sorts of people with whom one had had dealings or commerce as the saying goes before joining the line but also to chat with the new acquaintances made in line as one moved about leisurely from place to place up and down for indeed the mere fact of being in line seem to create a friendly atmosphere a sense of sincere congeniality and solidarity among the liners as they were called therefore those who made a fuss when someone squeezed past them would be sneered at and even booed by those being by-passed since the line was endless in both directions and it was impossible to determine where it started where it originated and where it ended therefore it was ridiculous on the part of anyone to want to claim a legitimate place in it or insist on any priority of standing for what would be the point of declaring oneself ahead of anyone else that would certainly be futile yet some people kept moving up the line overtaking others squeezing in front of them or by-passing them but without any hurry or sense of urgency these people were merely moving up or giving themselves the impression of moving from one place in line to another nearer to the head simply for the sake of moving forward without any specific reason or purpose hoping perhaps that eventually they would be first in line a vain hope of course because the more people there were moving up the line the further away the head would be for obviously as these people squeezed in front of others the further away the head would be pushed so that in fact a step forward in this case really meant two steps backward for while certain people moved forward others moved in the opposite direction falling back in line so to speak away from the head because frankly they did not care where they stood in the line and so they would loaf about or mill around in groups in and out of the main stream forming circles to gossip or tell jokes or listen to the stories which were circulating up and down the line funny stories about what people did in line to pass the time or how others had forgotten why they came to the line and yet continued to wait simply because they had nothing else to do or how some people truly believed they knew where the line was going groups could be seen standing around laughing at the curious objects people had brought with them to the line for instance the bed on wheels on which an old man was lying in his nightgown and which he pushed along with a cane as if paddling a canoe just to keep up with the line or the little desk and chair and even a calculating machine an accountant kept lugging along so he could continue to do his numbers as he waited in line ah what dumb things people do while waiting in line one could hear muttered all over but it was the jokes especially that attracted most attention and caused the greatest hilarity one joke in particular kept being repeated up and down the line the one about the fellow who sees a funeral procession going slowly down the street with two hearses and a gentleman holding a huge muzzled dog in leash and behind them a long line of men all wearing black the puzzled onlooker asks the gentleman with the dog why are there two coffins in this ridiculous funeral oh replies the man with the dog the first coffin is my mother-in-law and the second my wife ah I see says the curious man okay but why the dog oh the dog answers the gentleman pulling at the leash he killed both of them ah exclaims the inquirer could I borrow your dog for a few hours well you better get in line mister the mourner with the mean dog retorts with a large grin on his face some of these jokes were not very funny but this one kept being told over and over because it seemed so appropriate to the situation though some people claimed they had heard it before probably those who had been in the line from the beginning and heard that joke when they first arrived for it was said that the joke was as old as the line itself and it was indeed a very old line some people had been in the line so long they could not remember when they first joined as a matter of fact the line had been going for such a long time that many died while waiting and had to be buried on the spot special crews were appointed to dig graves and perform the burial rites but there were also happy occasions on the line for instance people falling in love and getting married or children being born or birthdays and anniversaries being celebrated it was very interesting to observe how the line not only changed shape constantly but also changed mood how it fluctuated from sad to happy or vice versa and this as a result of the many activities that were going on in the line so that it could be said that the line changed moods as often as it changed shape sometimes it was joyful lively full of playfulness and other times it was sad gloomy somber anguished but in general the line was calm and uneventful simply moving along in its ordinary but disorganized fashion becoming thinner here or thicker there and usually this because someone had stopped to tell a story or a joke and a crowd had gathered or elsewhere someone had just finished telling a story or a joke and those who had been listening were now moving on or sometimes if there was a tree or a wall along the way or some other such natural or man made structure that cast a shadow on a sunny day or gave a bit of protection from the wind on a cold day or from the rain on a stormy day then people would gather under that tree or line up near that wall or huddle next to that structure and wait consequently the line would become thinner and lax in that spot lazy as it were for there was no great urgency or unnecessary impatience in the line even though arguments would sometimes flare up about nothing in particular and even occasional fist fights for no apparent reason simply that someone's foot had been stepped on and no immediate apology offered and quickly a shove would result followed by an even harder retaliatory shove and then a fist would strike someone's ribs or someone's nose and for a few moments there would be turmoil and agitation in the line until the people around the disturbers would restore a semblance of order and calmness with insistent pleas of please let's keep the line moving and gradually the line would resume its careless progress as casually as before the disturbance quickly forgotten and the disturber politely forgiven in general then one could say that it was not a bad line on the contrary a good decent honest line perhaps a bit too chaotic but nonetheless adequate a line to which people could come without apprehension and once in line without having to complain too much about being stuck there for the main concern in line was civility and generosity many had come to the line quite unprepared not having anticipated the fact that it would be a slow endless process so that waiting would be in vain just as progress would be in vain therefore they had not brought with them the essential in food and clothing to last or continue to last in line so that food drinks and clothing would be shared generously among the liners it was not unusual to see groups of people who had never met before eating from the same picnic basket or drinking from the same bottle or handing pieces of clothing or blankets to people who suffered from the cold more than others especially during the night after sundown but particular care was given to the young and the very old for there were people of all ages in the line male and female of course and of all ways of life educated and illiterate rich and poor this was apparent from the clothes and manners of certain people many races and colors were also present in line but usually these people preferred to stay together in bunches in remote parts of the line naturally there were also people of different religious beliefs this was evident from the discussions and arguments having to do with questions of morality for one of the major concerns of all the people present was the morality of the line and when disagreements occurred on this question the line would become extremely agitated though it should be noted that not all discussions had to do with morality or theology in some places people would get together to sing songs in unison while in other places someone would suddenly stand on a box to make a speech or deliver a lecture and people would gather around to listen to the speaker or argue with him there were always people ready to argue about anything for the sake of a good argument while others who did not care to listen to these impromptu speeches would shout keep the damn line moving but since no one really payed much attention to these dedicated liners they would simply by-pass those gatherings and move on but usually most people preferred the one-to-one conversation moving with the flow of the line two people would casually talk about anything in particular where one is from what one does in life talk about the family about the wife who didn't want to come to the line or talk about the children or reminisce about one's childhood in other words the usual banalities of life occasionally one could hear an intellectual discussion or a critique of the latest artistic fad but it should be stated that not everyone in line was willing to engage in conversation many preferred to remain silent facing the back of the person in front extremely serious in their waiting quietly performing their role as liners of course since the line moved extremely slowly and in no apparent direction many people would drop out if not permanently at least temporarily sometimes simply to rest along the way and watch the others in line go by or else to take a nap many could be seen stretched on the ground soundly asleep during the day and naturally at night too however there were some who complained all the time saying that it was hopeless that we will never get there but in general most people seemed resigned to the slowness and indeterminacy of the line in fact some people who had previous experience with other lines said that in spite of its disorganization and purposelessness this was a rather good pleasant line perhaps the best line they had ever joined and this because of its casualness and lack of regulations for indeed in spite of its disorder this line was remarkably smooth and easy going and as such acceptable to most though many feared that one day unexpectedly out of the blue so to speak it would be announced that everyone in line should stand in alphabetical order and this would immediately cause an incredible mess a frightful state of disorder for the commotion that would result from the fact that one would have to change place and move either forward or backward depending on the spelling of one's name would create not only chaos but irritation and anguish and consequently the line would turn ugly full of animosity as people would not hesitate to ask others with whom they had had a friendly relationship for their identification cards in order to ascertain that they were in the correct place according to the first letter of their last names and one would probably hear people shouting to others your name begins with a T get the hell back or someone would say in a somewhat embarrassed tone of voice my name starts with a B I have to move ahead of you and it would not be rare nor sunrising for some people to accuse others of lying about their names or of using false names just to be ahead of them therefore this line which had been so good and so flexible would rapidly degenerate into an angry state of mutual suspicion simply because of alphabetical ordering for there would be order now in the line oh yes indeed order unhappily

Posted by Ryan Singel at 11:00 AM | TrackBack

May 05, 2005 | Statistically Improbable Story

Amazon's got a corpus, engineers with degrees and computers with powerful processors, and as today's story in Wired News shows, they aren't afraid to use them.

Name that famous book from just these phrases: "pagan harpooneers," "stricken whale," "ivory leg." Or how about this one: "old sport."
Yes, it's Herman Melville's Moby Dick and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, respectively, but the words aren't just a game. They are Statistically Improbable Phrases, the result of a new Amazon.com feature that compares the text of hundreds of thousands of books to reveal an author's signature constructions.

The haiku-like SIPs are not the only word toys on the site. Customers can also see the 100 most common words in a book. Penny pinchers -- or those with back problems -- can check stats on how many words a volume delivers per dollar or per ounce. (Bargain hunters will love the Penguin Classics edition of War and Peace that delivers 51,707 words per dollar.)

Customers can also see how complicated the writing is (yes, post-structuralist Michel Foucault's prose is foggier than Immanuel Kant's), and how much education you need to understand a book. (To understand French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, you'll need a second Ph.D.)

While such services seem to have little value and have generated scant publicity, except from bibliophilic thrill seekers, web watchers say the madcap stats aren't just for kicks.

"(Amazon CEO) Jeff Bezos was born on numbers," said Nathan Torkington, an editor and conference coordinator for O'Reilly Media. "Before starting Amazon.com, he was a Wall Street analyst. They will be looking at this thinking, 'What can we do to drive the bottom line?' There's no way they will be regarding this as, 'We are math geeks and you will enjoy the numbers, too.'"

Really it's pretty fascinating what Amazon (and Google Scholar) might be able to pull off once their corpus includes millions of books. Hell, its pretty impressive -- all jokes aside -- what Amazon is doing with classification and phrases with the corpus they have now.

At risk of sounding too 1999, score one for the web here. This is pretty astounding. Even better is when Amazon opens an API for researchers so they can start testing natural language processing theories that are starving for books to test themselves on.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 09:22 AM | TrackBack

May 04, 2005 | You Say Its Your Birthday

The Transportation Security Administration will soon be requiring airlines, travel agents and online airline ticket sellers to ask passengers to provide their full name and date of birth when purchasing a ticket. The requirement is part of the run up to the TSA's plans to operationally test the latest version of a computerized passenger screening system, now known as "Secure Flight" (née CAPPS II).

This according to Thomas Frank's story in the USA Today.

Travelers will be encouraged - but not required - to give the personal information. Under the current system, only a last name and first initial are needed to reserve a flight.
Passengers who don't comply with the request will dramatically increase their chances of being stopped at airports for questioning or pat-downs, TSA assistant administrator Justin Oberman said. That's because their partial names are more likely to register a "hit" on terrorist watch lists.

More detailed personal information will enable security officials to distinguish innocent passengers from those who might be terrorism suspects.

"The vast majority of travelers will be willing to give their full name and date of birth," Oberman predicted.

The government's long-awaited takeover of background checks from airlines is getting a 60-day test run starting in August.

Two airlines will begin transmitting full names and birth dates of each passenger to the TSA for comparison with a terrorist watch list. The TSA expects to name the airlines within a week.

(My bet: Delta and Jetblue)

Currently, passengers need only provide a first initial and a last name to get a seat on a commercial flight.

Secure Flight will centralize the system of vetting passengers, a job that is currently done by individual airlines using ever-growing lists of people deemed suspected threats by the government.

TSA hopes that a centralized database can contain more intelligence information than the lists given to airlines, which may prevent people named David Nelson, and Ted Kennedy from getting flagged for extra screening.

No word yet on if you'll get a piece of $264 sheet cake if you fly on your birthday.

Posted by Ryan Singel at 11:00 AM | TrackBack