Fairness vs. Freedom: Is Politics Going Back to the 1970s?

Nate Silver wrote Fairness vs. Freedom: Is Politics Going Back to the 1970s?.

"The usage of the terms can also be thought of as a proxy for where the parties align on on the left-right spectrum. Like other measures of partisan activity, this one shows that Republicans have shifted somewhat further away from the center and have therefore been somewhat more responsible for the increasing divide between the parties. However, Democrats have also been moving to the left.

In general, I’m in agreement with Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein, that political commentators and journalists have been too slow to talk about the Republican Party’s rightward shift. It also seems plausible to me, however, that we could see an increasingly sharp shift toward the left in the Democratic Party in the coming years, particularly if Hillary Clinton is not its nominee in 2016."

Photos of the Week: 5/3-5/9

In Focus presents Photos of the Week: 5/3-5/9 "Feedback from last week was generally positive, so I'll be continuing to present a weekly wrap-up of photos every Friday (unless there's a strong, timely photo story, when I might skip a week). Your feedback remains welcome, let me know what you think in the comments below, or elsewhere, thanks. Today's collection of photos from the past seven days features wayward caribou on the Yukon River, a collection of Terracotta Daughters, unrest in Ukraine, a performance by the Lords of Lightning, earthquake damage in Thailand, and much more. [35 photos]"

Great stuff in here.

We've Finally Found Our Sun's Long-Lost Sister

io9 writes We've Finally Found Our Sun's Long-Lost Sister "For the first time ever, astronomers have identified a star that emerged from the same cloud of dust and gas as our own. "

The star, HD 162826, was identified by Ivan Ramirez and his team at the University of Texas at Austin. It's located 110 light-years away in the constellation Hercules, is about 15% more massive than our sun, and is not visible to the naked eye.

Ramirez's team was able to match this star to our own by following up on 30 possible candidates. The astronomers used high-resolution spectroscopy to get a better understanding of the chemical make-up of these stars. In addition, they analyzed the orbits of these candidates, namely where they have been and where they are going in the paths around the center of the Milky Way.

Both the chemical analysis and orbital calculations narrowed the field of candidates to just one: HD 162826.

This particular star, which has been studied for the better part of 15 years, does not appear to have any massive planets orbiting close to it (so-called hot jupiters). Nor does a Jupiter-like planet reside at the farthest reaches of this solar system. But studies to date have not ruled out the presence of smaller terrestrial planets. According to Ramirez, there is a chance, "small, but not zero," that these solar sibling stars could host planets that harbor life.

ISEE-3 Might Be Saved

Three months ago I wrote about The 8-Track of Space Craft. The ISEE-3 spacecraft was launched in 1978 and is returning to earth but we no longer have the equipment to even communicate with it let alone rescue it.

And now Spaceref writes , Ettus Research Expertise Helps Rescue An Aging Satellite For Science

"ISEE-3 will be returning to Earth orbit in August of this year after having circled the sun for nearly four decades. SpaceRef Interactive, Skycorp, and Space College have joined forces to rescue the spacecraft, put it back into orbit near Earth, and use it for scientific research and STEM education."

"Skycorp's CEO Dennis Wingo said "NASA does not have the old hardware to talk to the spacecraft anymore. A device akin to an old dialup modem is needed. Since the schedule to do this is so short, using a traditional development approach is impossible. With the continuing advances in technology for software-defined radios what was once impossible is now merely difficult. Shortly after meeting the Ettus Research team they managed to put something together in days that would have taken months to do just a few years ago. This led us to chose Ettus Research to lead the development of the software radio we needed. Without the expertise, cooperative spirit, and a can-do attitude of the Ettus team this task would have been far more difficult - if not impossible.""

House Committee axes NSA bulk phone metadata collection

Ars Technica reports House Committee axes NSA bulk phone metadata collection "A House committee on Wednesday unanimously voted to end the National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata collection program. The vote by the House Judiciary Committee was 32-0. The measure moves to the full House, where its passage is uncertain."

That seems good.

Your Broadband Company May Be Holding Your Internet Access Hostage

In Your Broadband Company May Be Holding Your Internet Access Hostage Time explains Level 3's recent complaint.

"The big broadband providers “are deliberately harming the service they deliver to their paying customers,” writes Mark Taylor, Level 3′s VP of Content and Media, in a blog post on Monday, who argued that their near-monopoly in local markets was the main factor allowing them to get away with it. “They are not allowing us to fulfill the requests their customers make for content.”"

"Check out the stats: Level 3 currently has 51 peers. It has congested connections with 12 of them. It’s sharing the cost of fixing six of those. Of the remaining six congested connections where the peer is refusing to share the cost of maintenance, five of them are in the U.S. and one is in Europe, and all of them operate as near- or total local monopolies."

Meanwhile, Brian Fung writes Google, Netflix lead nearly 150 tech companies in protest of FCC net neutrality plan. "In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, the companies asked federal regulators to reconsider a proposal that critics fear would allow Internet providers to charge for faster, better access to consumers. The list includes Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, along with dozens of other firms that called the prospect of paid fast lanes 'a threat to the Internet.'"

SCOTUS Debates: Can Police Search Your Cellphone

Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments in Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie which involve to what extent can police search the cell phone of someone arrested without a warrant. Amy Howe in SCOTUSblog explains, A whole new world: Today’s oral arguments in Plain English.

"Going into the oral argument, both California and the federal government told the Court that, whenever police make an arrest, cellphones should be fair game for a search for all of the same reasons that police can search, for example, the arrestee’s wallet without a warrant.  But it’s hard to see five Justices voting in support of that rule, given the widespread skepticism that the argument met on the Court.  Justice Elena Kagan was one of the most vocal opponents of such a rule, telling California Solicitor General Edward DuMont that, following his logic, an arrest for a minor offense like driving without a seatbelt would allow police to look at every single e-mail on the arrestee’s phone, along with his bank records, medical data, calendar, and GPS data.  That, she suggested, ‘strikes me as a very different kind of world’ from looking at someone’s billfold, given that ‘people carry their entire lives on cellphones.’  Justice Antonin Scalia later echoed this idea, calling it ‘absurd’ that police should be able to search someone’s iPhone for that kind of minor offense.  Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom many often regard as a key vote on the Court, expressed concerns as well, telling Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Michael Dreeben (who argued on behalf of the federal government in both cases today) that ‘we are living in a new world,’ in which someone arrested for a minor crime has her ‘whole life on [her] phone’ and asking whether Dreeben could suggest some limits on the potentially broad sweep of the government’s rule.

But even if California and the federal government seem unlikely to win outright, the chances that the Court will require police officers to get a warrant whenever they want to search an arrestee’s phone appear even slimmer.  Although (as the previous paragraph indicates) virtually all of the Justices were keenly aware that cellphones are unique insofar as they contain large amounts of personal information, they were equally mindful that – as Justice Kennedy observed – criminals also rely on cellphones to facilitate their dirty work.  And the Justices may be reluctant to hamstring efforts by law enforcement officials to fight and investigate crime.  Dreeben seized on this concern, repeatedly pushing back against the suggestion that police could always go get a warrant and then search the phone once they obtained it.  He spent much of his half-hour at the lectern during the Wurie argument describing the benefits that could come from an immediate search of a cellphone – such as learning of a plan by the arrestee’s confederates to ambush police – and warning the Court that, if police have to delay a search to go get a warrant, sophisticated encryption technology can kick in and make the data on the phone ‘useless,’ possibly for months."

The Man Who Literally Built Star Wars

Esquire interviews The Man Who Literally Built Star Wars "The garbage compactor was also pretty hard, because I knew I had actors in there and the walls had to come in, and they had to be in dirty water and I had to get stuff that would be light enough so it wouldn't hurt them but also not bobbing around. That was a difficult one."

Inventing a Failure

Paul Krugman on Inventing a Failure

"This is a problem for Republicans, who have bet the ranch on the proposition that health reform is an unfixable failure... How can they respond to good news? Well, they could graciously admit that they were wrong, and offer constructive suggestions about how to make the law work even better...No, they have in fact continued to do what they’ve been doing ever since the news on Obamacare started turning positive: sling as much mud as possible at health reform, in the hope that some of it sticks. Premiums were soaring, they declared, when they have actually come in below projections. Millions of people were losing coverage, they insisted, when the great bulk of those whose policies were canceled simply replaced them with new policies. The Obama administration was cooking the books, they cried (projection, anyone?). And, of course, they keep peddling horror stories about people suffering terribly from Obamacare, not one of which has actually withstood scrutiny."

"Now comes the latest claim — that many of the people who signed up for insurance aren’t actually paying their premiums...But the survey was rigged. (Are you surprised?) It asked insurers how many enrollees had paid their first premium; it ignored the fact that the first premium wasn’t even due for the millions of people who signed up for insurance after March 15."

It's really stunning to me that there is no political price to be paid for these kinds of stunts. I get that Fox will report this, but even by their worldview shouldn't every other news outlet be calling them out for this kind of tactic?

The Supreme Court will defend your right to free speech if it agrees with you?

Vox wrote The Supreme Court will defend your right to free speech if it agrees with you

"The study, by Professors Lee Epstein, Christopher Parker, and Jeffrey Segal, found that conservative justices were more likely to protect the speech of conservatives, and liberals were more likely to do so for liberal speakers. 'Justices are opportunistic free speechers,' the authors write. 'They are willing to turn back regulation of expression when the expression conforms to their values and uphold it when the expression and their preferences collide.'"

It took me a while to figure out this chart (even though there are only 4 data points).

Vox says "The chart shows that, in general, conservative justices are less likely to defend free speech than liberal ones — conservatives defend it in one-third of cases, and liberals defend it in about two-thirds. But justices from either group are much more likely to defend the speech of ideologically similar speakers, and less likely to defend the speech of ideological opponents."

My interpretation is different. To me, liberals like free speech, a little less if it's conservative, and conservatives don't' like free speech, and if you're a liberal, you're practically not allowed to speak at all (just 1/10 of the time).

40 Maps That Explain The Middle East

Vox wrote 40 Maps That Explain The Middle East "Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today." There's a lot here to digest.

Making a 7' Lego Serenity

brickfrenzy posted, "I had the opportunity to rebuild my Lego Serenity, and as I did so I decided to make a time-lapse video of it. This was filmed over the course of about 14 months and encompasses 4166 individual images, taken at 60 second intervals, plus detail images from the first build." Only thing I wonder is where are the blueprints?

Congress is clueless on technology — and just voted to keep it that way

Vox writes Congress is clueless on technology — and just voted to keep it that way

"It would be nice if Congress had some technical experts on staff to analyze proposed legislation and advise members about its technical implications. And in fact, Congress did have an agency like that, called the Office of Technology Assessment, until Newt Gingrich zeroed out its funding in 1995.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), one of the few members of Congress with scientific training, wants to change that. Yesterday he introduced an amendment that would have allocated funds to re-start the agency. But it was defeated in a 164-248 vote."

Can Hackers Really Manipulate Traffic Lights Like You’ve Seen in the Movies?

Can Hackers Really Manipulate Traffic Lights Like You’ve Seen in the Movies? Yup.

"The hack doesn’t target the traffic lights directly but rather sensors embedded in streets that feed data to traffic control systems, said Cesar Cerrudo, an Argentinian security researcher with IOActive who examined the systems and plans to present his findings at the upcoming Infiltrate conference in Florida."

"The sensors use a proprietary protocol designed by the vendor — called the Sensys NanoPower protocol — that operates similar to Zigbee. But the systems lack basic security protections — such as data encryption and authentication — allowing the data to be monitored or, theoretically, replaced with false information."

Why Doctors Still Use Pen and Paper

James Fallows of The Atlantic spoke with David Blumenthal about Why Doctors Still Use Pen and Paper.

"The health-care system is one of the most technology-dependent parts of the American economy, and one of the most primitive. Every patient knows, and dreads, the first stage of any doctor visit: sitting down with a clipboard and filling out forms by hand. David Blumenthal, a physician and former Harvard Medical School professor, was from 2009 to 2011 the national coordinator for health information technology, in charge of modernizing the nation’s medical-records systems. He now directs The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that conducts health-policy research. Here, he talks about why progress has been so slow, and when and how that might change."

From the patient’s perspective, this is a no-brainer. The benefits are substantial. But from the provider’s perspective, there are substantial costs in setting up and using the systems. Until now, providers haven’t recovered those costs, either in payment or in increased satisfaction, or in any other way. Ultimately, there are of course benefits to the professional as well. It’s beyond question that you become a better physician, a better nurse, a better manager when you have the digital data at your fingertips. But the costs are considerable, and they have fallen on people who have no economic incentive to make the transition. The benefits of a more efficient practice largely accrue to people paying the bills. The way economists would describe this is that the medical marketplace is broken.

Afterwards he posted various responses he got from readers, But Seriously Now, Why Do Doctors Still Make You Fill Out Forms on Clipboards?.

State of the iPad

Jared Sinclair wrote Giving Up On The iPad which isn't an accurate title for the essay.

"A typical customer’s iPhone is put to work in all its capacity, while her iPad is relegated to only one or two niche uses. An iPhone is a phone, a flashlight, a GPS navigator, a camera, etc. An iPad can be most of those things, but in practice it gets stuck being just one or two of them."

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad he said that this new category must be far better at some tasks than a phone or a computer to have a reason to exist. Sinclair makes the point that a mac (or PC) is best for work and power computing while an iPhone is best for taking pictures, social media, and GPS and that it's not clear what an iPad is best at. He says customers use it for reading, videos, gaming, education, and some niche professional tools. I'm not sure why those uses aren't enough. Jobs said it's best for surfing but he also said "it's a dream to type on".

With the latest quarterly report showing little if any iPad growth, Jean-Louis Gassée wrote The iPad Is a Tease. "I see the lull in iPad sales as a coming down to reality after unrealistic expectations, a realization that iPads aren’t as ready to replace PCs as many initially hoped."

Ben Thompson says Don't Give Up on the iPad. "But I’m much less sure about other “features” that geeks are clamoring for, like multiple windows and access to the file system. It’s the absence of these features that makes the iPad so accessible to so many who have never felt comfortable with traditional computers; there is always a cost to complexity. Moreover, for those geeks clamoring for Mac features, why not just use a Mac? It was built explicitly with multi-windows, access to the file system, and a WIMP interface in mind, and the Mac hardware line right now is absolutely fantastic (and will be even better if WWDC features a Retina MacBook Air). Let the iPad be the computer for those for whom computers are too much, even if this population by definition isn’t likely to upgrade frequently."

My iPad has never replaced my computer but it let me change from a laptop to a desktop. The iPad meets my portable needs (which aren't that extensive). It also meets my couch and airplane needs. I would much rather read on my iPad than on my mac or my iPhone. If you don't already use a computer, it's clearly a reasonable gateway device.

The reason geeks want the file system exposed is because they want it to be easier for apps to share data. That's one way the problem is addressed on computers, but it also makes them more complicated and less secure. The limitations in how apps can communicate with each other is one of the major reasons why there isn't malware on iOS. Maybe Apple can solve the sharing problem in some more secure way, we'll have to wait and see.

The productivity issue really comes down to ease of input. The iPad is already the portable TV screen from 2001: A Space Odyssey, if it could replace a legal pad it would be a big win. We're used to typing on computers and typing on an iPad isn't great. I think it's better than on an iPhone but many people are far more comfortable with thumb typing than I am. I'd really like to see a good stylus input system, the best I've seen so far is Notes Plus. I don't use it much but it's easy to see how it could evolve into something seamless (possibly requiring better hardware).

Certainly Apple is trying to do a lot with Siri. Voice input is interesting but works best when you're alone. Siri has only been on the iPad for 2 years and I still have an iPad 2 so can't use it. I'm using it more and more on the iPhone but I don't yet see doing lots of dictation to an iPad app.

It's still a great device for consumption (books, surfing, video, games, casual communications, etc.) and I think that's fine for now.

America's Nuclear Arsenal Still Runs Off Floppy Disks

America's Nuclear Arsenal Still Runs Off Floppy Disks "America just got a reminder that its nuclear arsenal is old and getting older. On last night's 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl met two ‘missileers’ charged with watching over and controlling Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles in Wyoming, and the control room was not what Stahl—or I—expected: There's no ‘big button,’ but there are floppy disks."

Crazy. Even the documentation on how to maintain the systems is disappearing. “Specifically, film media and microfiche are being lost due to degradation, and radiographs are beginning to stick together, causing extensive damage and making the data unrecoverable.”

The Great Works of Software

Paul Ford wrote in The Message about The Great Works of Software. "Is it possible to propose a software canon? To enumerate great works of software that are deeply influential—that changed the nature of the code that followed?"

He picked five: MS Office, Photoshop, Pac-Man, Unix and Emacs. Any such list is kind of arbitrary and only useful if its explanations are entertaining which I think these are.

After Comcast, Netflix signs traffic deal with Verizon

I haven't noticed much troubles with Netflix and my FiOS service, but I guess it's going to get better, After Comcast, Netflix signs traffic deal with Verizon. Not unexpected but also kind of depressing.

How I used Heartbleed to steal a site’s private crypto key

Robin Xu writes in Ars Technica in some technical depth How I used Heartbleed to steal a site’s private crypto key. For programming geeks only.

Why Oklahoma tried to execute a man with a secret, untested mix of chemicals

Vox explains Why Oklahoma tried to execute a man with a secret, untested mix of chemicals.

"Oklahoma was using the experimental formula because pharmaceutical companies increasingly refuse to supply "safe" lethal injection chemicals. That's left capital punishment states to choose between executing inmates under dangerous conditions or not executing them at all. Many states have chosen to go ahead, and some have adopted secrecy laws that shield the chemical compounds used for the executions."

"The key chemical in lethal injections is sodium thiopental, originally invented as an anesthetic. But US manufacturers of the drug have been increasingly refusing to sell it, either out of opposition to the death penalty or concern about association with executions. In 2011, the last US supplier, a company called Hospira, stopped making it. Later that year, the European Union announced an export ban on sodium thiopental, in pursuit of its official goal of "universal abolition" of the death penalty"

I wonder why they don't use the same medications that are used in Oregon and Washington for right-to-die prescriptions. Maybe it's the same drug and it's sale is limited based on intended usage?

SuperPAC to end all SuperPacs

Lawrence Lessig has launched MayOne.us, a SuperPAC to end all SuperPacs. They're raising money Kickstarter-style to make campaign funding a central issue in 5 congressional races in 2014 with more to come in 2016. They're trying to raise $1 million in May and then $5 million in June, both of which will be matched. 100% of the funds raised will go to the cause, all overhead is covered.

"Any candidate for Congress who has pledged to co-sponsor one of these reforms will be safe from the Mayday PAC. At this point, we will only target candidates who have not committed to co-sponsoring fundamental reform."

Here's the plan in Larry's own words:

How One Woman Hid Her Pregnancy From Big Data

How One Woman Hid Her Pregnancy From Big Data

"First, Vertesi made sure there were absolutely no mentions of her pregnancy on social media, which is one of the biggest ways marketers collect information. She called and emailed family directly to tell them the good news, while also asking them not to put anything on Facebook. She even unfriended her uncle after he sent a congratulatory Facebook message.

She also made sure to only use cash when buying anything related to her pregnancy, so no information could be shared through her credit cards or store-loyalty cards. For items she did want to buy online, Vertesi created an Amazon account linked to an email address on a personal server, had all packages delivered to a local locker and made sure only to use Amazon gift cards she bought with cash."

"Genius, right? But not exactly foolproof. Vertesi said that by dodging advertising and traditional forms of consumerism, her activity raised a lot of red flags. When her husband tried to buy $500 worth of Amazon gift cards with cash in order to get a stroller, a notice at the Rite Aid counter said the company had a legal obligation to report excessive transactions to the authorities. "Those kinds of activities, when you take them in the aggregate ... are exactly the kinds of things that tag you as likely engaging in criminal activity, as opposed to just having a baby," she said."

How Are Main Street Republicans Doing?

Unless you work as a pollster I think it's too early to be studying Who Will Win The Senate?. Looking at the presidential race, before we even have candidates seems premature too. Ben Highton thinks A big Electoral College advantage for the Democrats is looming and that there's a 80-something percent chance they'll win the presidency in 2016. Harry Enten says Democrats Shouldn’t Count on an Electoral College Edge in 2016. "An Electoral College advantage is often taken as a sign of a structural advantage, but for the most part, it’s been cyclical. The Democratic edge in 2008 and 2012 may be more due to randomness than demographics." Highton went back to 1992 and Enten back to 1900. I'm not sure which is more relevant.

But there is a trend that seems interesting to look at, how is the Republican party doing with its tea party faction.

538 reports, GOP Establishment Looks Set to Win a Bunch of Senate Primaries "Establishment Republicans look to be in good shape in many states where a more conservative candidate could cost the party a seat." They cite Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, both Carolinas, Tennessee and Texas. Politico reports on How Lindsey Graham outmaneuvered the tea party.

Kevin Drum writes John Boehner Speaks Up For Main Street Republicanism "This is all about pragmatism, a cri de coeur against the Foxification of the Republican Party. And I guess it means one of two things. Either Boehner doesn't really care much about holding onto his leadership position anymore, or else he's sensed that there's a burgeoning Main Street backlash against the radicalism of the tea party wing of the modern GOP."

The Washington Post says Tea Party PACs reap money for midterms, but spend little on candidates. "Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation...Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating." Maybe they're saving their money for later or spending in different ways (as they suggest) but we'll see if there's a different concentration of power than in any other political organization.

The New Abolitionism

A few years ago Bill McKibben wrote in Rolling Stone, Global Warming's Terrifying New Math. It makes the point that to avoid climate change catastrophe we can only release 565 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere but energy companies have 2795 gigatons in proven reserves. So the climate movement must convince energy companies to not use 80% of their assets.

Information Is Beautiful has a graphic on this based around the year 2000. How Many Gigatons of CO2?.

A couple of week ago Chris Hayes wrote in The Nation, The New Abolitionism. While all this is difficult to estimate, he placed the value of that 80% at $20 trillion and to be conservative cuts that in half. Then he tries to find an analogy. "The last time in American history that some powerful set of interests relinquished its claim on $10 trillion of wealth was in 1865—and then only after four years and more than 600,000 lives lost in the bloodiest, most horrific war we’ve ever fought." What follows is a history of the economics leading to the civil war and a description of our current state of fossil fuel extraction boom.

Matt Karp has a nice followup in Jacobin, A Second Civil War saying the analogy works even better than Hayes thinks. "The issue, in other words, is not the $10 trillion in potential fossil fuel wealth that must be forfeited, but the principle at stake in its forfeit. Without some larger challenge to the current configuration of power and ideas, we are just asking our masters, politely, if they will agree to commit suicide. We shouldn’t be surprised when they decline the offer."