I love stories like this. Citizens are beginning to do what our corporate controlled government will not. As this report explains a citizen movement has arisen that Aikidos the issue: Instead of listing GMO, they list No-GMO present. It requires no law to list what you don't have in your food. It's a brilliant idea. It now depends on whether customers make a choice on that basis. If enough of us do, it ! will accomplish the same effect as the law that we have been unable to get through the corrupted Congress.
Like the untested introduction of GMOs into the food supply, we have here revealed another animal experiment — with us as the lab rates. Click through to see the graphs, which are very useful.
Even comparative moderates in the futurological sweepstakes tend to swoon when the subject is the pace of technology-led change. Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT's Center for Civic Media, argues in his new book, Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, that it is an entirely realistic goal for humans to “take control of our technologies and use them to build the world we want rather than the world we fear.” The present moment, Zuckerman asserts in his book's concluding sentence, offers “an opportunity to start the process of rewiring the world.”
In his own new book, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism, cyber-utopianism's severest and most eloquent critic, Evgeny Morozov, has dubbed such grand assertions about the mastery that we, with or without the help of intelligent machines, can exert over the future of the species the “Superhuman Condition.” (Full disclosure: I blurbed Morozov's book.)
The biggest banks have done an excellent job of delaying and undermining the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law and staving off criminal investigations into wrongdoing.
Social media, Web 2.0, the Internet of Things, mobile computing, and the expansion of sensors is allowing more information to be gathered than ever before which, coupled with Big Data analytics, offers unprecedented insight into the needs, patterns, and habits of users, citizens, and consumers.
“Every day, technological innovations are giving people around the world new opportunities to shape their own destinies. In this fascinating book, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen draw upon their unique experiences to show us a future of rising incomes, growing participation, and a genuine sense of community—if we make the right choices today.”
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States
“This is a book that defines both the nature of the new world which the internet is creating; and its challenges. It describes a technological revolution in the making. How we navigate it is a challenge for countries, communities and citizens. There are no two people better equipped to explain what it means than Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.”
Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
“Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen have produced a searching meditation on technology and world order. Even those who disagree with some of their conclusions will learn much from this thought-provoking volume.”
Big data is a resource and a tool. It is meant to inform, rather than explain; it points toward understanding, but it can still lead to misunderstanding, depending on how well it is wielded. And however dazzling the power of big data appears, its seductive glimmer must never blind us to its inherent imperfections. Rather, we must adopt this technology with an appreciation not just of its power but also of its limitations.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is increasing its budget for cyber-warfare and expanding its offensive capabilities, including the ability to blind an enemy's radar or shut down its command systems in the event of war, according to two defense officials.
In the 2014 defense budget released last week, the money allocated for cyber-operations rose to $4.7 billion, up from $3.9 billion. Much of that additional money is going into the development of offensive capabilities, usually referred to as computer network attacks, according to budget documents.
Officials say these are capabilities — including targeting military computer networks — that a commander might need in a conflict and would be used only in accordance with the law of armed conflict.
The recently-introduced Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology Act (SECURE IT), HR 1468, includes a “technical amendment” that actually would be one of the most far-reaching substantive changes to the Freedom of Information Act’s (FOIA) exemptions since 1986.
Similar to a dangerous provision that was included in the version of the bill introduced in the Senate during the last Congress, Section 107 of SECURE IT creates a new exemption to the FOIA that gives the government the authority to withhold information shared with or to the cybersecurity centers created by the bill. The bill also includes troubling language that defines any information shared with the cybersecurity centers as “voluntarily shared information” that is exempt under the FOIA and preempts any State, tribal, or local law requiring disclosure of information or records, and — in case anyone was still confused about the bill's position on public disclosure — creates a new FOIA b(3) exemption for the information.
While the anti-right-to-know language in SECURE IT is particularly bad, the provision is notably similar to cybersecurity bills like CISPA that attempt to encourage companies to share information with the federal government by giving them broad assurances that nothing they share will ever be released to the public. This approach is bad public policy: it ignores that most of the truly sensitive information companies are likely to share is already exempt under the FOIA and does not include a mechanism to weigh the public interest in disclosure of the information. Some of the information that may be shared under the bill — and therefore exempt from disclosure — could be critical for the public to ensure its safety
If the federal government really needs expanded authority to withhold information under the FOIA in order to persuade companies to share cybersecurity information, the issue should be addressed by Committee's that have expertise on public access issues: the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Judiciary. Any amendment to the FOIA, especially an amendment of this scope, should begin with careful consideration and public hearings by those Committees. It should not be a dangerously broad provision tucked into a large bill and disguised as a “technical amendment.”
I love stories like this. Citizens are beginning to do what our corporate controlled government will not. As this report explains a citizen movement has arisen that Aikidos the issue: Instead of listing GMO, they list No-GMO present. It requires no law to list what you don't have in your food. It's a brilliant idea. It now depends on whether customers make a choice on that basis. If enough of us do, it ! will accomplish the same effect as the law that we have been unable to get through the corrupted Congress.
