CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-06-19 22:43:59 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

While officials in Brazil have announced that Sao Paulo will suspend planned increase in public transportation fares after widespread protests, the aims of the Brazilian people on the streets appears to have widened to dissatisfaction with corruption and inequality. 

2013-06-19 22:49:07 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

David Simon's response: http://davidsimon.com/the-nigger-wake-up-call/ to Maciej Ceglowski: https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/06/persuading_david_simon/ Eloquent writing brimming over with passion & fiery indignation.

2013-06-19 18:48:54 (18 comments, 2 reshares, 31 +1s)

Shouts of "abolish the IRS!" at a Tea Party rally on the U.S. Capitol lawn. 1st Amendment rights in action.

2013-06-19 14:57:34 (8 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Does it really? 

2013-06-18 22:48:04 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

R U up? Haz $ 4 Uncle Sam?
http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/06/18/usgao-bitcoin-taxes/@USGAO to host online chat about taxes & #Bitcoin

2013-06-18 20:53:09 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

We need a "fixer" movement, not just a maker movement, argues +Clive Thompson 
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/qq_thompson/

Given all of our broken devices and issue regarding e-cycling, it's hard not to agree. 

Hat tip +David Brin 

2013-06-18 19:51:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

+Google  has filed suit, asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to release gag orders regarding data requests. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-challenges-us-gag-order-citing-first-amendment/2013/06/18/96835c72-d832-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

The search engine giant is arguing that such orders abridge First Amendments rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

2013-06-18 18:21:00 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

After years of trying to get the IRS to open up nonprofit data, +Carl Malamud has now sued them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/18/how-the-irs-keeps-the-4-3-trillion-nonprofit-world-secret/

2013-06-18 16:59:49 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

This story made me happy and inspired, all at once. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/18/191279201/3-d-printer-brings-dexterity-to-children-with-no-fingers

2013-06-18 16:56:19 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 10 +1s)

Tens of thousands of Brazilians out on the streets, protesting poor public services, police violence and government corruption.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/world/americas/brazilian-leaders-brace-for-more-protests.html

According to a report from Reuters, the protests have mostly been organized using social media.

2013-06-18 14:53:17 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 17 +1s)

Russell Brand as media critic. Funny and biting, as British comics tend to be.

2013-06-18 04:18:27 (6 comments, 7 reshares, 53 +1s)

Change Agents, going (difficult) places. 

https://plus.google.com/u/0/100641053530204604051/posts/3QqGcBbyZs8

2013-06-18 03:02:42 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Watching the Charlie Rose Show interview with President Obama. Interesting to see +The White House  tweet a link to a PBS station finder: http://www.pbs.org/about/faq/station-finder/ 

First question is on elections on Iran. To come: Syria and NSA surveillance.

2013-06-17 22:34:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The new normal: Federal progress on open government matched by continued secrecy

"Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, says the U.S. has both the most open government in the world and arguably the most closed. Daily it publishes an unmatched avalanche of information. But daily its national security secrets also grow by staggering amounts."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Glasnost-on-the-Potomac-under-Obama-Not-quite-4603419.php

2013-06-17 22:22:36 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

Put your mathematics skills to work protecting the country! Apply to job number 1029156 at www.nsa.gov/careers.

2013-06-17 18:27:12 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

"the more people bike in a community, the less likely they are to collide with motorists"-David Vlahov http://nyti.ms/19sWyUZ

#cycling   #bikesharing  

2013-06-16 19:28:05 (16 comments, 43 reshares, 188 +1s)

Awww Jango was a good dad.  #StarWars Happy #FathersDay to all the dad's out there!

2013-06-16 11:08:58 (4 comments, 10 reshares, 44 +1s)

Google has been experimenting with providing internet access via high-altitude (~80,000 feet) balloons. This could provide fast bandwidth to lots of parts of the world that don't have it. The latency would be much better than satellites, because the balloons are only ~15 miles up, while a satellite in geostationary orbit is 22,000+ miles up.

See +Steven Levy 's story for Wired below, or follow +Project Loon for more info!

2013-06-14 20:16:38 (38 comments, 1 reshares, 173 +1s)

Proud papa

2013-06-14 15:40:47 (41 comments, 1 reshares, 152 +1s)

I'm delighted to introduce you all to Allegra Howard. She's gorgeous -- and quite a bouncing baby girl, at 8 pounds and 12 ounces.

Both mother & daughter are resting and in fabulous health. I'm ecstatic.
#helloworld

2013-06-14 13:15:03 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Looks like Father's Day is going to come early in my household.

2013-06-14 12:07:01 (10 comments, 7 reshares, 31 +1s)

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of companies are working closely with national security agencies, providing sensitive information and receiving access to classified intelligence in return. | http://bloom.bg/14zUlDh

(Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)

2013-06-13 15:56:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

"The press has a major role to play in fostering the debate on transparency that the nation needs"-Dan Froomkin http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/the_case_for_a_secrecy_beat.php?page=all

It occurrs to me that a "secrecy beat" would have a lot in common with an open government beat.

2013-06-13 16:25:11 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

“Supreme Court Rules Human Genes May Not Be Patented”-+The New York Times  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/us/supreme-court-rules-human-genes-may-not-be-patented.html Decision: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-398_8njq.pdf Huzzah!

2013-06-13 03:25:40 (6 comments, 8 reshares, 60 +1s)

Even if you’re a fan of animated gifs—say you were the first to email your friends the slow loris very slowly eating a rice ball (goo.gl/KDDX1)—you may not know that the origins of animation go as far back as 1879 and Eadweard Muybridge’s “zoopraxiscope” (see our doodle homage to Muybridge: goo.gl/PGQW3). Gifs have been around since 1987 and have become the de facto standard for short animations on the web, from pony glitter text (goo.gl/iZoEZ) to grumpy cat memes (goo.gl/bC9um).

Starting today, there’s an easier way to unearth those gems: when you do an image search, click on “Search tools” below the search box, then select “Animated” under the “Any type” dropdown box.

We’ve also added a second handy filter: if you’re after the perfect picture of Easter basket clipart (goo.gl/XutAa) but must have one with a transparent background, simply select“Transparent” under the “Any ... more »

2013-06-12 23:36:46 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Pew: "The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, conducted June 6-9 among 1,004 adults, finds no indications that last week’s revelations of the government’s collection of phone records and internet data have altered fundamental public views about the tradeoff between investigating possible terrorism and protecting personal privacy."
http://www.people-press.org/2013/06/10/majority-views-nsa-phone-tracking-as-acceptable-anti-terror-tactic/

How do you feel about it today?

2013-06-12 15:28:45 (2 comments, 12 reshares, 18 +1s)

Watching +Hadi Partovi talk about the importance -- and dearth - of computer science for young people. Code.org, the nonprofit he founded, released this video today; it's full of outakes from a previous video that went massively viral. (I saw it played in Jamaica.)
Code - the new literacy

More context on Code.org here: http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/27/how-code-org-is-promoting-an-agenda-of-diversity-equality-in-the-tech-world/

In the video, +Mark Zuckerberg  says that in the future, programming will be as important a skill as reading and writing. 

Agree?

2013-06-12 14:06:40 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 31 +1s)

Good morning! Programming note: I'm at #FedTalks today: http://fedscoop.com/events/fedtalks2013/ NSA CTO talking now.

If you're interested in what the NSA is doing with 'big data', read +Sean Gallagher : http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/what-the-nsa-can-do-with-big-data/

2013-06-12 01:53:42 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 51 +1s)

Beyond darkness, beyond desolation, lies the greatest danger of all...

Watch the exclusive teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

2013-06-11 20:57:26 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Earlier today, +Google asked the FBI & the Department of Justice to let them tell the public about the FISA requests the company receives. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/technology/google-asks-to-reveal-details-about-classified-requests.html

This afternoon, Facebook followed suit with this statement by the social networking giant's general counsel, Ted Ullyot:

"As Mark said last week, we strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. In the past, we have questioned the value of releasing a transparency report that, because of exactly these types of government restrictions on disclosure, is necessarily incomplete and therefore potentially misleading to users. We would welcome the opportunity to provide a transparency report that allows us to share with those who use Facebook around the world a... more »

2013-06-11 20:18:54 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 33 +1s)

A riveting view

Cycled down to Jones Point Park, south of Alexandria. The park service has done a great job with improving the park, from basketball courts to playgrounds to fishing piers and historical placards: http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/planyourvisit/jonespoint.htm

Glad I made the most of a scarce opportunity to get a long ride. Feels glorious to get out into the sun.

2013-06-11 19:12:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Feds Are Seeking Input on Future #HealthIT Regulations

On May 30, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) Workgroup, the newly formed advisory body jointly administered by the FDA, ONC, and FCC, published a Request for Comments on potential considerations for the development of recommendations on an appropriate, risk-based regulatory framework for health IT and mobile medical applications. This is an opportunity to help shape the framework for health information technology regulations.

2013-06-11 18:26:55 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Confronted by a gnarly inbox, I've been clicking "unsubscribe" for a month now. Remarkably, it's actually made a dent, at least with respect to mailing lists, notifications and assorted social networking bacn. What strategies do you adopt to make your inbox manageable and ensure that messages you really want to see are clear when you log in?

2013-06-11 17:56:08 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

+Google  has asked the FBI & The Justice Department for permission to publish FISA requests http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/asking-us-government-to-allow-google-to.html 

To do so would give Google's transparency report truth. 

2013-06-11 17:19:49 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 15 +1s)

A broad coalition of organizations that support and defend civil liberties has sent a letter to the U.S. Congress expressing concern regarding secret spying by the NSA: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/86-civil-liberties-groups-and-internet-companies-demand-end-nsa-spying

"This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy."

New online, for those who wish to join their voices to a petition: http://StopWatching.us.

2013-06-10 21:53:43 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

So, Hillary Clinton joined Twitter, further fueling speculation regarding her plans for 2016. So far, however, she's just following Clintons there. In this post, I suggest 9 other accounts that would immediately make Twitter more interesting to her. http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/06/10/9-suggested-follows-for-hillaryclinton-on-government-statecraft-foreign-affairs/

Of course, her mileage may vary. :)

(No word on any plans to join Google+, just yet.)

2013-06-10 16:34:46 (11 comments, 3 reshares, 11 +1s)

What was new in the disclosure of the FISA court order to Verizon last week? See if this pull quote from the New Republic helps:

"…until the Guardian story, it was not clear to the public that the government and the court had read the words “tangible things” and “relevant” so broadly as to permit the bulk pre-collection of records—including in particular “telephony metadata,” which includes all the non-content information pertaining to phone calls, such as the numbers involved and the physical location of the phones as indicated by the cell towers—much less that the government had been collecting such data for all calls within the United States and doing so for the past seven years, according to the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee.

This revelation is important for two interrelated reasons. First, it is simply different and grander in scope andscale from anythi... more »

2013-06-09 19:19:51 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 29 +1s)

Edward Snowden, a 29-year old native of North Carolina, has come forward as the source of the NSA leaks. The former CIA contractor and NSA worker is now in Hong Kong. He may well to enter history as one of the most consequential whistleblowers.

"I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in," he said. "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."

The Guardian filmed an arresting video of him, explaining why he did this, in his own words:
http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance?CMP=twt_gu

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public... more »

2013-06-09 15:49:29 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

In 2011, I was a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute, where I talked with a workshop full of journalists about working within a networked environment for news. As I put together my talk, I distilled the lessons I’d learned from my experiences covering tech and the open government initiative that would affect the success of any audience relationship and posted them onto Google+. The link below is to an adapted and updated version of those insights:
http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/06/09/12-lessons-about-social-media-politics-networked-journalism/

2013-06-09 02:48:49 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

So, David Simon weighed in on the week's news. http://davidsimon.com/we-are-shocked-shocked/

Not surprisingly, he explored the controversy in the context of Baltimore police, phone taps, surveillance of the drug trade and civil liberties, topics he knows well.

"It's all in the game."

2013-06-09 00:40:37 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 11 +1s)

The NSA declassified more info.

Kim Zetter, writing in Wired & adding context on what it means: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/prism-faq/ …comes out and wrote that the Washington Post & Guardian stories contained inaccuracies.

We'll see.

“PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program”-ODNI. PDF of NSA FAQ: http://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Facts%20on%20the%20Collection%20of%20Intelligence%20Pursuant%20to%20Section%20702.pdf

2013-06-08 17:30:06 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 31 +1s)

The last 72 hours have demonstrated 3 notable realities:

1) We still don't know enough about how the NSA is surveilling us using data from tech companies and telecommunications providers
2) Congress is substantially at fault for that secrecy, along with the continued secrecy around the extent and oversight surveillance state that persists in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government
3) The people circling me here are able to comment upon both of those issues, along with healthcare,  passionately and occasionally intemperately.  

Thank you for #3, folks. Good example of all of the ghosts in this "ghost town" participating meaningful.

2013-06-08 17:00:28 (8 comments, 10 reshares, 22 +1s)

+Declan McCullagh  is one of the best tech policy reporters in the U.S.A.. Here, his sources refute some of the reporting of the Washington Post and the Guardian, with respect to the NSA having "direct access" to the data at Google, Facebook or other companies  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57588337-38/no-evidence-of-nsas-direct-access-to-tech-companies/

Instead, there appears to be another (legal) process going on, as outlined by Claire Cain Miller at the New York Times last night: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/technology/tech-companies-bristling-concede-to-government-surveillance-efforts.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&

Today, Google Chief Legal Officer +David Drummond pushed back on the NYT reporting: "We cannot say this more clearly—the government does not have access to Google servers—not directly, or via a back door, or a so-called drop box. Norhave w... more »

2013-06-08 16:03:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

I typically drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day and then switch to green tea. Turns out, that may have significant health benefits. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/this-is-your-brain-on-coffee/

2013-06-08 15:54:40 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

I have a tremendous number of thoughts about the various revelations about the NSA's domestic espionage programs revealed this week. But first and foremost, I wanted to share this message from +Larry Page and our Chief Legal Officer +David Drummond. Google had no involvement in the PRISM program and the first we heard of it was when Greenwald's article hit the press.

I'm not sure what the details of this PRISM program are, but I can tell you that the only way in which Google reveals information about users are when we receive lawful, specific orders about individuals -- things like search warrants. And we continue to stand firm against any attempts to do so broadly or without genuine, individualized suspicion, and publicize the results as much as possible in our Transparency Report. Having seen much of the internals of how we do this, I can tell you that it is a point of pride, both... more »

2013-06-08 02:19:07 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 12 +1s)

Tech “companies were essentially asked to erect a locked mailbox & give the government the key”- Claire Cain Miller outlines how the NSA is obtaining data in the +The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/technology/tech-companies-bristling-concede-to-government-surveillance-efforts.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all #FISA

2013-06-07 22:14:07 (11 comments, 3 reshares, 20 +1s)

+Google's "WTF" on PRISM

+David Drummond & +Larry Page say that what's been reported with respect to NSA access to Google data is, to use my own term, poppycock.

"First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.

Second, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. Press reports that suggest that Google is providing open-ended access to our users’ data are false, period. Until this week’s reports, we had neverheard of the br... more »

2013-06-07 15:39:14 (25 comments, 5 reshares, 17 +1s)

Interesting use of Tumblr by +The White House  where they're asking people to submit their stories about how the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) has affected them: http://whathasobamacaredoneformelately.tumblr.com/

This kind of user-submitted content strategy was a feature of the campaign and has been part of how the @WhiteHouse uses Twitter but has not, to my knowledge, been used by the folks tumbling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue before. 

Here's more context for the White House's entrance onto Tumblr this spring: http://digiphile.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/the-white-house-is-tumbling-further-into-new-media/

2013-06-07 15:32:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

New online: my interview with the United Kingdom's Secretary of Health, MP Jeremy Hunt: http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/06/07/nhs-ehr-health-data-rights/

"Basically, I have given an instruction that everyone should be able to access their own health record online before the next general election, which means that I will be accountable for delivering that promise," said Hunt. "There’s no wiggle room for me. That’s a big change, and it’s also a big change for the system because, basically, it means that every hospital and every general practitioner has to get used to the idea that the data they write about patients will be able to be accessed by patients. It’s a small but very significant first step."

2013-06-07 14:25:54 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

I read all of +Farhad Manjoo's article: 
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.single.html

Statistically, most of you won't. As a reader and person who has spent two decades online, I don't find it unsurprising.  As a writer, I find this depressing. What about you?