The Agency, President Obama, And Members Of Congress Have All Said NSA Spying Programs Have Thwarted

More Congressional Fail: Elected Officials Think They Are Underpaid

(follow-up to Huffington Post piece-- read comments!)

absolutely outrageous...  

From the Snowden, Poitras, Greenwald AMA on reddit

SuddenlySnowden EDWARD SNOWDEN 3499 points 2 hours ago*

"What's the best way to make NSA spying an issue in the 2016 Presidential Election? It seems like while it was a big deal in 2013, ISIS and other events have put it on the back burner for now in the media and general public. What are your ideas for how to bring it back to the forefront?" (masondog13)

Snowden's reply:

"This is a good question, and there are some good traditional answers here. Organizing is important. Activism is important.

At the same time, we should remember that governments don't often reform themselves. One of the arguments in a book I read recently (Bruce Schneier, "Data and Goliath"), is that perfect enforcement of the law sounds like a good thing, but that may not always be the case. The end of crime sounds pretty compelling, right, so how can that be?

Well, when we look back on history, the progress of Western civilization and human rights is actually founded on the violation of law. America was of course born out of a violent revolution that was an outrageous treason against the crown and established order of the day. History shows that the righting of historical wrongs is often born from acts of unrepentant criminality. Slavery. The protection of persecuted Jews.

But even on less extremist topics, we can find similar examples. How about the prohibition of alcohol? Gay marriage? Marijuana?

Where would we be today if the government, enjoying powers of perfect surveillance and enforcement, had -- entirely within the law -- rounded up, imprisoned, and shamed all of these lawbreakers?

Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren't just ceding control of our rights to government, but our agency in determing thour futures.

How does this relate to politics? Well, I suspect that governments today are more concerned with the loss of their ability to control and regulate the behavior of their citizens than they are with their citizens' discontent.

How do we make that work for us? We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.

You can see the beginnings of this dynamic today in the statements of government officials complaining about the adoption of encryption by major technology providers. The idea here isn't to fling ourselves into anarchy and do away with government, but to remind the government that there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed, and that as the progress of science increasingly empowers communities and individuals, there will be more and more areas of our lives where -- if government insists on behaving poorly and with a callous disregard for the citizen -- we can find ways to reduce or remove their powers on a new -- and permanent -- basis.

Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.

We haven't had to think about that much in the last few decades because quality of life has been increasing across almost all measures in a significant way, and that has led to a comfortable complacency. But here and there throughout history, we'll occasionally come across these periods where governments think more about what they "can" do rather than what they "should" do, and what is lawful will become increasingly distinct from what is moral.

In such times, we'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it toward just ends."

Visit to the MET 12/27/18

Going to the MET with a friend tomorrow, my list of things to check out...

SPECIFIC ITEMS

Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children by Bernini (sculpture)

Viewpoint:  “The action unfolds as you encircle the piece.”  Very cool, one of the things that I like about his sculpture of Daphne and Apollo is that as you walk around the sculpture story is brought to life, action is given form.  

I’m excited that I’m going to get a chance to see one of his works in NYC. 

Aside from Daphne and Apollo at Villa Borghese, my other favorite Bernini pieces I saw in Rome:  Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi nella Piazza Navona, St. Peter's colonade, the angels on the Ponte Sant'Angelo, Ecstasy of St Teresa in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria

The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio (painting)

I am also excited that I will be able to see one of Caravaggio’s works at the Met.  Caravaggio is best known for his technique of chiaroscuro.  I saw many of his paintings in Italy:  the works in Cappella Contarelli in the church San Luigi dei Francesi on the theme of St. Matthew, David with the Head of Goliath and Saint Jerome Writing in Villa Borghese

If there’s time, I’d like to see paintings by Velázquez, Goya (or this one) and El Greco and some works by Rodin (or the Hand of Rodin, Study for Obsession, Pygmalion and Galatea or The Hand of God)

EXHIBITS

Dutch Masterpieces

- The Disillusioned Medea - Curiosity - Young Woman with a Water Pitcher

Everything is Connected:  Art and Conspiracy

And then depending on what my guide is interested in viewing, perhaps something from one of these exhibits?

Dangerous Beauty:  Medusa in Classical Art Relative Values:  The Cost of Art in the Northern Renaissance Celebrating Tintoretto:  Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings The Poetry of Nature:  Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection Children to Immortals:  Figural Representations in Chinese Art Streams and Mountains without End:  Landscape Traditions of China Epic Abstraction

Links to exhibits on the Met website with information and digital resources

twenty years of edtech

Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums. Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make somebody smile while they're having a piss.

DR: Diminished Reality

XR technologies [Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR)] have been called the internet of experience or empathy as opposed to the World Wide Web being the internet of information. Well now there's a new game in town.

"You already own a device with this terrifying/ magical technology built-in: noise cancelling headphones. Unlike augmented reality, where your real-world environment is digitally enhanced with visual elements, sounds or other sensory inputs, diminished reality takes your unwanted stimuli away. Soon, wearable devices will let you block sounds, sights, and even smells from your everyday existence."

Future Today Institute, Issue 201

For someone who is hypersensitive to outside stimuli, devices like noise cancelling headphones are a godsend. I never leave home without them. But as helpful as this technology can be, just as with any tool there is a potential downside too.

Explore this up and coming trend

The manager and the moron

But this situation of linear movement is rapidly changing in every respect. And the greatest change is one that our Rip Van Winkle economist, looking only at the figures, wouldn’t even notice: In the past 20 years we have created a brand-new form of capital, a brand-new resource, namely knowledge.

Up until 1900, any society in the world would have done just as well as it did without men of knowledge. We may have needed lawyers to defend criminals and doctors to write death certificates, but the criminals would have done almost as well without the lawyers, and the patients without the doctors. We needed teachers to teach other ornaments of society, but this too was largely decoration. The world prided itself on men of knowledge, but it didn’t need them to keep the society running.

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

My favorite links about Carl:

Carl Sagan’s last interview with Charlie Rose (Full Interview) Carl Sagan Tribute Series (working my way through list) Neil deGrasse Tyson - Carl Sagan Experience LOVE THIS Symphony of Science - ‘We Are All Connected’ (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye) Why Carl Sagan is Truly Irreplaceable Lessons of Immortality and Mortality From My Father, Carl Sagan

via my weebly page

 For more great Carl Sagan content, visit the Carl Sagan Wakelet

U.S. spy agency predicts a very transhuman future by 2030

The National Intelligence Council has just released its much anticipated forecasting report, a 140-page document that outlines major trends and technological developments we should expect in the next 20 years. Among their many predictions, the NIC foresees the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a growing middle class that will increasingly challenge governments, and ongoing shortages in water, food and energy. But they also envision a future in which humans have been significantly modified by their technologies — what will herald the dawn of the transhuman era.

Global Trends 2030 Full Report

GT2030 Blog