Pito’s Blog

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Who said “your TSA don’t dance and your USPTO don’t rock and roll?” (One free copy of BlogBridge for all of you who get the reference without using Wikipedia)

Here are two cool examples. First up, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) now has a blog that seems to be much more than a bunch of pre-digested PR drivel, but instead posts from actual people with actual knowledge about TSA and their mission.

From their blurb:

“This blog is sponsored by the Transportation Security Administration to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process.” (from The Evolution of Security)

By the way, a plea: please name your blogs in a way that it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what it is. How about calling it the TSA Blog? Duh.

But it is quite interesting, for example, from a few days ago:

“Saturday morning, a Transportation Security Officer working the x-ray machine saw two razor blades in what appeared to be a book in someone’s carry-on bag. During the bag check, the razor blades were found inside the pages of a Bible, and bag belonged to… a priest. Can’t make this stuff up.” (from Saturday Morning, Strange But True…”)

This blog and the way it is being written is a Very Good Idea. I just hope that the politicians don’t grab hold of it and turn it into another propaganda portal.

So that was the dance part, here’s the rock and roll.

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has created a very cool site to allow peer input about patents that are being sought. From their blurb:

“Peer-to-Patent opens the patent examination process to public participation for the first time. Become part of this historic pilot program. Help the USPTO find the information relevant to assessing the claims of pending patent applications. Become a community reviewer and improve the quality of patents.”

So this is kind of a social network to assist the patent office in filtering out bad patents more effectively, something that they have failed to do often and have been heavily criticized for.

The cool thing is that they seem to have thought this through quite well. Particularly the way peer input is used or not used as part of the patent review process seems to protect against competitors trying to somehow manipulate the process. And the site is attractive, sensible in its design, incorporates video and tutorials etc. A thoroughly modern effort. And a valuable service. Kudos!

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Came across this interesting article. You may agree or not, but it’s definitely interesting:

“So now the process can be fully diagrammed, and the cast of characters is stunning. The torture system involves the operations division of the CIA on the implementation side. They rely heavily on contractors, it seems, in torturing people. And a special role is apparently played by a couple of psychologists. (from Harper’s Magazine)

p.s. Happy Valentine’s Day

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People wring their hands about the possibility of having Bill Clinton back in the white house as the first ever First Spouse, working mano-a-mano with Hillary. I like Bill Clinton a lot - I did when he was president and I still do. Yet I can understand the misgivings.

In today’s New York times:

“Which raises an important matter. Do we really want a plural presidency?

This is not a new question. It was intensely debated in the convention that formulated our Constitution. The Virginia Plan for the new document submitted by Edmund Randolph and the New Jersey Plan submitted by William Paterson left open the number of officers to hold the executive power.” (from “Two Presidents are worse than one”)

But the section about Dick Cheney brought an even crazier scenario to mind.

What if Hillary is elected and picks Bill as ……………. VICE PRESIDENT?

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This is what a discontinuity in a graph looks like

That’s the stock market from yesterday to today.

The discontinuity is this morning before we heard of the Fed’s “Shock and Awe” move, lowering the prime rate by 3/4 percent.

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Just check out this well argued, detailed piece, “Wake up to the dangers of a deepening crisis”, by Lawrence Summers:

“Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the subprime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth. This is still a possible outcome but no longer the preponderant probability.

Even if necessary changes in policy are implemented, the odds now favour a US recession that slows growth significantly on a global basis. Without stronger policy responses than have been observed to date, moreover, there is the risk that the adverse impacts will be felt for the rest of this decade and beyond.” (from Financial Times)

This gloom and doom view is echoed by much of the commentary I’ve come across over the last month, for example, this from today’s New York Times, “Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis”:

“The bottom line is that policy makers left the financial industry free to innovate — and what it did was to innovate itself, and the rest of us, into a big, nasty mess.” (from Paul Krugman in the New York Times.)

You be the judge. I’m calling my broker

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Very interesting article in the New York Times discussing whether the death penalty saves lives,

“According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades. ” (from the New York Times)

It seems to me that there’s a key flaw in that study and analysis.

Let’s say there’s a correlation between the number of executions and the crime rate. What if we randomly selected people to be executed in each district, no matter whether they were guilty of a crime or not. Would that also deter crime and ’save lives’? These studies imply that they would. It goes to the heart of one of the key arguments against capital punishment, which is the equal application of the law. (There are two additional really strong arguments against it.)

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A really interesting article for anyone interested in social networks and their role and impact in our society.

“… I want to take a moment to make a meta point here. I have been traipsing through the country talking to teens and I’ve been seeing this transition for the past 6-9 months but I’m having a hard time putting into words.

Americans aren’t so good at talking about class and I’m definitely feeling that discomfort. It’s sticky, it’s uncomfortable, and to top it off, we don’t have the language for marking class in a meaningful way. So this piece is intentionally descriptive, but in being so, it’s also hugely problematic.

I don’t have the language to get at what I want to say, but I decided it needed to be said anyhow. I wish I could just put numbers in front of it all and be done with it, but instead, I’m going to face the stickiness and see if I can get my thoughts across. Hopefully it works….” (from Danah Boyd,  Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace)

Danah’s Boyd’s disclaimer alone is thought provoking enough to get me to read the whole article about Myspace and Facebook.

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I wrote this really simple introduction to locating and following news and current affairs blogs. Check it out, you might find it interesting.

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I haven’t seen anyone pointing to this article about TechCrunch and Professor Arrington, but it’s very interesting. I remember when it was first starting and how he would write an unbelievable number of interesting and useful reviews about new products. Mike Arrington was a machine! Say what you will about him, TechCrunch is the labor of some extremely hard work:

“Of course, Arrington’s success is about more than partying like a frat boy and schmoozing like a Hollywood agent at a cast party. With the exception of a three-week vacation (during which he worked half-time) at the end of 2006, he says he has worked every day for two years straight.

He gets up at about 10 or 11 am, is at his desk 10 seconds later, and tends to the business side of his operation until early evening, seeing entrepreneurs, doing phone interviews, tracking the news of the day, and writing posts. He’s often at parties or other events until 10. It’s typically not until 10 or 11 pm, when things quiet down, that he has time to think and write more thoughtful, analytical blog entries. “I’ve actually cut back,” he says. ” from TecCrunch Blogger Michael Arrington Can Generate Buzz

Learn all about TechCrunch and Michael Arrington

Technorati Tags: techcrunch arrington

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You know that I follow what’s going on in Venezuela. Here’s an interesting article from the Washington Post about the latest developments:

“For years defenders of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have harped on what they described as the domination of the country’s independent media by his opponents — proof, it was said, that Ch?vez was no dictator. Two weeks from today that argument will lose all credibility. By then, Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, Venezuela’s most popular television network, will almost certainly be off the air — on Chavez’s personal order.” (from Dead Air in Caracas - Washington Post)

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