The city of Bozeman, Montana, is requesting that potential employees hand over the login credentials for any social networking sites they frequent. It seems to me that this idea is just plain wrong on so many levels, but also an invasion of privacy of all third parties that have granted privileges to particular individuals.

"Spoof paper accepted by peer-reviewed' journal" (2009-06-11, New Scientist) gives some details about Philip Davis (assisted by a member of the New Eng J Med publishing team), who had a computer-generated "research" paper accepted for publication (providing $800 was deposited in a middle-eastern tax haven by the author).

One of the strengths of the copyright system is the acknowledgement that although authors have rights to their work, others can use copyrighted work when it falls within the boundaries of Fair Use. With the growth of international online educational opportunities, Fair Use should be reevaluated. Until the Fair Use doctrine truly incorporates the educational uses needed for Open Education, traditional copyright hinders the development of equal access.

Most people make most of their decisions in the hope of achieving the best outcome -- but because the amount of social, economic and cultural data to be parsed is too huge for most people to survey, many decisions come out pretty eccentric. "Our brains work like big coincidence detectors and use improbable coincidences to make decisions about what is real," as psychologist Tom Stafford explained. If a coincidence is neither big enough nor improbable enough, it may not register at all. MMR is a good example.

There's some buzz about Major Garrett's "What took you so long" question to President Obama today. The question was in reference to the President's toughening attitude toward Iran since Friday. If you listen to Garrett's entire question, it doesn't appear disrespectful. Most people won't know that, however, since the media isn't reporting it accurately.

The Commission assures the public that it continues to actively work with broadcast licensees, the Minister of Information, the Media Association of Jamaica, the Jamaica Association of Community Cable Operators, the Entertainment Fraternity and other stakeholders to bring a halt to the deluge of inappropriate content on the airwaves. The Commission has examined a number of songs, popularly referred to as "daggering songs." "Daggering" is a colloquial term or phrase used in dancehall culture as a reference to hardcore sex or what is popularly referred to as "dry" sex, or the activities of persons engaged in the public simulation of various sexual acts and positions.

There are so many people who call themselves free marketeers, or liberals, or libertarians that one has to always be careful about "alliances of convenience" -- consistency matters, and most people I know and read -- myself included -- are very inconsistent.

Economists from time immemorial have questioned and researched why some nations have been able to grow wealth and some have not. Transforming an underdeveloped economy to a developed economy requires long term strategic mapping as well as a huge amount of capital outlay.

Our health care system is notoriously inefficient. Spending is too high, while quality is too low. Some patients undergo expensive treatments that provide little or no benefit. At the same time, other patients don't receive some inexpensive treatments that could materially improve their health.

The American ran a really great article last week on some recent demographic shifts in America's biggest cities (esp. New York). Joel Kotkin documents how urban areas have increasingly transformed into playgrounds where an elite class entertains themselves, where the middle-class (and almost anyone with kids) can barely afford to hang around.

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