Sunday, October 04, 2015

Kafka's Cockroach: Brave New World of Spying

At some point over the course of this antipodean weekend you’re going to have an argument with someone about whether to put the clocks forward one hour, or back one hour. Despite a university degree and years of having to endure this mind-baffling time travel, every year it’s the same; if it’s lighter later, is it earlier sooner, or later earlier?

Police Program Aims to Pinpoint Those Most Likely to Commit Crimes New York Times “Pre-crime/Thought-crime.”

The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature...

In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health. The Coddling of the American Mind

A Perfect Day For Bombing: Russian TV Forecasts Favorable Weather For Syria Strikes http://bit.ly/1VznQ4S 

A team of scientists at the Kaliningrad-based Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University has unveiled [Russian] the smallest cockroach robot ever which will be tasked with hunting out victims trapped under debris.
Russian scientists create cockroach spy robot The Stack

pretty beetle

U.S. and China establish cyber working group with Cold War-esque ‘hotline’ DailyDot

The Windows 10 privacy debacle: Five big issues to consider TechRepublic
“No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”


Social Norms and Legal Design – Bruno Deffains and Claude Fluety. This version, September 2015.
“We compare fault-based and strict liability offences in law enforcement when behavior is influenced by informal prosocial norms of conduct. Fault tends to be more effective than strict liability in harnessing social or self-image concerns


American politicians are now eager to disown a failed criminal-justice system that’s left the U.S. with the largest incarcerated population in the world. But they've failed to reckon with history. Fifty years after Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report “The Negro Family” tragically helped create this system, it's time to reclaim his original intent The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration