data at Brave New Films

How "Bots" Control Your Life - Daniel Suarez

2008-11-19T02:47:41Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Businessman, author, and programmer Daniel Suarez (aka Leinad Zaurus) examines the increasing importance of automated "bots" to everyday society.

-----

Businessman, author, and programmer Daniel Suarez (aka Leinad Zaurus) discusses the increasingly important role of AI "bots" in our society. He argues that because of our growing reliance on them, along with their increasing complexity and the vast amounts of data they have access to, they are becoming a threat to human autonomy.

An avid gamer and technologist, Daniel Suarez (aka Leinad Zeraus) is a senior IT consultant to Fortune 1000 companies. He has designed enterprise software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries. Daemon is his first novel.

Watch the video

John McCain vs. The Polls

2008-11-03T10:56:11Z

John McCain on NBC's Meet the Press, October 27, 2008

Watch the video

The Most Accurate and Up-to-Date Immigration-Related Data

2008-10-21T11:08:39Z

The Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington D.C. has released a pocket guide for the public on how to find the most accurate and updated immigration-related data from governmental and non-governmental sources.

You can download it here.

Do note the absence of data from sources like Numbers USA, FAIR and CIS (Center for Immigration Studies) that are highly partisan and anti-immigrant. The SPLC has in fact, noted the racist origins of these groups, linking them to a white supremacist, John Tanton. A great chart showing the six degrees of separatists is here.

For more information on John Tanton and the nativist hate wave connection, click here.

P.S. Lou Dobbs is also not a credible source of data.

Special Report: How the World Views the U.S. Election

2008-11-19T04:25:30Z

Gallup analysts explore the sentiments of the worlds citizens regarding the U.S. presidential election and explain why many dont voice an opinion.

Watch the video

Authors@Google: Stephen Baker

2008-11-19T02:47:18Z

The Authors@Google program welcomed Stephen Baker to Google's New York office to discuss his book, "The Numerati".

"In this captivating exploration of digital nosiness, business reporter Baker spotlights a new breed of entrepreneurial mathematicians (the numerati) engaged in harnessing the avalanche of private data individuals provide when they use a credit card, donate to a cause, surf the Internet—or even make a phone call. According to the author, these crumbs of personal information—buying habits or preferences—are being culled by the numerati to radically transform, and customize, everyday experiences; supermarket smart carts will soon greet shoppers by name, guide them to their favorite foods, tempting them with discounts only on items they like; candidates will be able to tailor their messages to specific voters; sensors in homes or even implanted in bodies themselves will report early warnings of medical problems (have you noticed Grandpa has been walking slower?), predict an increased risk of disease in the future or adjust a drug for a single individual. An intriguing but disquieting look at a not too distant future when our thoughts will remain private, but computers will disclose our tastes, opinions, habits and quirks to curious parties, not all of whom have our best interests at heart."

This event took place on September 16, 2008.

Watch the video

The Daily Left - October 13th, 2008

2008-11-19T02:48:58Z

Palin Abused Power - What's Next?; Democrats Headed Towards Landslide Victories; Data Pins Housing Crisis Blame on GOP; North Korea Off US Terror List; UK Bails Out Major Banks; National Debt Clock Runs Out of Numbers; Cartoon by Matt Filipowicz

Watch the video

Re: Utah Saints Something Good '08 : Download OUT NOW!!

2008-10-31T15:30:50Z

Video Cam Direct Upload

Watch the video

The ID Divide - HIGHLIGHTS

2008-10-22T14:53:18Z

http://www.americanprogress.org/pressroom/releases/2008/06/ID_Divide_Release.html

This spring, 12 nuns were turned away from voting booths during the Indiana presidential primary because they lacked state identification (none of them drove). This was a stark reminder that the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld Indiana's voter ID law poses lasting consequences for our democracy.

This issue of voter identification is just one of the identification issues addressed in a major new report by Cassandra Butts and Peter Swire: "The ID Divide: Addressing Problems of Identification and Authentication in American Society." Much like the "digital divide," the ID Divide is an easily overlooked but vital reality that affects many in our country. Over 20 million adult citizens lack government-issued photo ID, while victims of identity theft and those put on watch lists also fall on the wrong side of the divide. Badly-designed new ID programs, furthermore, may well impose large costs on ordinary citizens, including raising the risk of identity theft.

The report stems from the Progressive Identity Project, which included experts in the many areas affected by identification issues: national and homeland security, immigration, voting rights, electronic health records, computer security, and privacy and civil liberties. The report proposes six new Progressive Principles for Identification, and sets forth a comprehensive approach for how the next administration should address issues of identification and authentication.

Featured Panelists:
Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute
Bruce Schneier, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, BT Counterpane
Peter P. Swire, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; C. William O'Neill Professor at the Moritz College of Law of the Ohio State University
Tova A. Wang, Vice President for Research, Common Cause

Moderated by:
Cassandra Q. Butts, Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy, Center for American Progress

Watch the video

BushCo hiding something? Shocking. This time it's economic data.

2008-02-15T12:58:09Z

What's today, Friday? Then the Bush administration must be covering something up:

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.
The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:
This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department’s Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself–say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau’s site–is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.
Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March 1.

But that's not all, boys and girls! Not only are they introducing their little game of Hide and Seek, this game, this very game, will cost us money... that we don't have.

Economic Indicators is particularly useful because people can sign up to receive e-mails as soon as new economic data across government agencies becomes available. While the data will still be available online at various federal websites, it will be less readily accessible to members of the public.
In its e-mail announcement on the closing of Economic Indicators, the Department of Commerce acknowledged the “inconvenience” and offered “a free quarterly subscription to STAT-USA®/Internet™” instead. Once this temporary subscription runs out, however, the public will be forced to pay a fee. So not only will economic data be more hidden, it will also cost money.
It’s ironic that the Economic and Statistics Administration is facing “budgetary contraints,” considering Bush recently submitted a record $3.1 trillion budget to Congress for FY ‘09.

That is ironic!

UPDATE: Steve Benen has compiled other examples of the Bush administration hiding inconvenient data.

Jeffrey Rosen - Is Privacy Dead?

2008-10-17T21:31:20Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

George Washington University law professor Jeffrey Rosen discusses the challenges technology presents to conventional notions of privacy and civil liberties.

-----

"Privacy is Dead. Long Live Privacy?" at the 2007 Battle of Ideas conference hosted by the Institute of Ideas.

New technology seems to have changed the meaning of privacy, affording individuals the possibility of sharing details of their hitherto private lives in unprecedented ways, from personal blogs to picture sharing and even 'social bookmarking'. For many of us, divulging intimate details of our private lives via social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook has become the norm. But information and communication technologies have also facilitated surveillance and data gathering by government and big businesses. While in some contexts we seem so ready to give up our privacy, in others we seem increasingly anxious to protect it.

To what extent are new technologies responsible for the death of privacy? Are privacy concerns simply technophobic, or are we right to worry about a loss of control over personal information? Have new technologies and our enthusiastic adoption of them actually transformed our notions of public and private, and blown apart the wall dividing the two? Why do we worry about Tesco monitoring what we buy, when, according to Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy: 'You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it'? - Institute of Ideas

Jeffrey Rosen is a professor of law at George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic. A widely read legal commentator, his most recent book is "The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America," a companion book to the PBS series on the Supreme Court. He is also the author of "The Most Democratic Branch," "The Naked Crowd," and "The Unwanted Gaze."

Watch the video