Imagine you hired a detective to eavesdrop on someone. He might plant a bug in their office. He might tap their phone. He might open their mail. The result would be the details of that person’s communications. That’s the "data."
Now imagine you hired that same detective to surveil that person. The result would be details of what he did: where he went, who he talked to, what he looked at, what he purchased — how he spent his day. That’s all metadata.
When the government collects metadata on people, the government puts them under surveillance. When the government collects metadata on the entire country, they put everyone under surveillance. When Google does it, they do the same thing. Metadata equals surveillance; it’s that simple.
Quotes
As Quothed. Don’t try these at home.
Is Everybody Unhappy?
Somewhere in the middle is a reasonable compromise (identified by a choice that makes everyone equally unhappy).
Steven Novella
From a discussion of gender.
JAQing Off
Don’t presume that your questions are weaknesses in the theory rather than weaknesses in your own understanding.
Steven Novella
From an article on Creationism & JAQing off.
It’s The Same Old Song
What a beautiful, uplifting, transcendent idea. Let’s use it to kill some folk! – All Religious History
Joss Whedon
Justice
Believe in social justice and are too poor, it’s envy; too rich, hypocrisy; too young, naivety; too old, a dinosaur.
Owen Jones
The Correct Choice
I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
Douglas Adams
The Salmon Of Doubt
2002
Heroes
"Of course I do not regret the Bond days," he once remarked. "I regret that sadly heroes in general are depicted with guns in their hands, and to tell the truth I have always hated guns and what they represent."
Roger Moore who died yesterday
My Decision
I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead.
Kurt Vonnegut
1999
Not A Bad Effort
I’ve got a cell phone, a pocket organiser, a beeper, a calculator, a digital camera, a pocket tape recorder, a music player, and somewhere around here, I used to have a colour television.
Sometime in the next few years, all of those devices are going to meld into one. It will be a box less than an inch thick and smaller than a deck of cards. (The size will be determined by what’s convenient to hold, not by the technology inside).
The box will have a high-res colour screen, a microphone, a plug for a headset or earphones, a camera lens, wireless connectivity, cell phone and beeper functions, a television and radio receiver, a digital recorder, and it will have enough processing power and memory to function as a desktop system. It will be able to dock with a keyboard and full size monitor. Oh yes, and it will handle email as well.
Most important of all, it will have both speech recognition and speech synthesis. It will listen and respond in English or whatever language you need, and yes it will be a translator too. It will be an agent, going out and doing cyber errands for you. For instance, I need a Japanese restart in Tulsa, near the Ramada Inn. Book a reservation and arrange transportation.
If there’s no Japanese restaurant, try for Italian. Or voicemail Bob as follows: ‘Bob, we accept your offer, but we’ll need a draft of the deal memo by the 15th. Let me know if that’s a problem.’
I call this device a Personal Information Telecommunications Agent, or Pita for short. The acronym also can stand for Pain in the Ass, which it is equally likely to be, because having all that connectivity is going to destroy what’s left of everyone’s privacy.
David Gerrold 1999
As Rainbow Prophesied
The slide from a pluralist democracy to an elected dictatorship or a right wing plutocracy is full of moments when sensible people say this could not possibly happen here.
Simon Wren-Lewis – Mainly Macro