One expert says the administration is operating drones with a "kill-not-capture" policy, adding that you don’t get intelligence from those killed. But there’s also a human toll — from the pilots who remotely operate the drones to those people who live in the areas that are targeted.
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/05/181403067/the-hidden-cost-of-the-drone-program
Statistical analyst Nate Silver says humility is key to making accurate predictions. Silver, who writes the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog, has just written a new book called The Signal and the Noise.
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162594751/signal-and-noise-prediction-as-art-and-science
Tagged with npr statistics science politics book:author=nate silver
The history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including Philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss game theory, the mathematical study of decision-making. Some of the games studied in game theory have become well known outside academia - they include the Prisoner’s Dilemma, an intriguing scenario popularised in novels and films. Today game theory is seen as an important tool in evolutionary biology, economics, computing and philosophy. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick; Andrew Colman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leicester and Richard Bradley, Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tagged with bbc in our time game theory psychology economics politics
Many commentators have debated whether the Internet is ultimately a force for freedom of expression and political liberation, or for alienation, and repression.
Rebecca MacKinnon moves the debate about the Internet’s political impact to a new level. It is time, she says, to stop arguing over whether the Internet empowers individuals and societies, and address the more fundamental and urgent question of how technology should be structured and governed to support the rights and liberties of all the world’s Internet users.
Drawing upon two decades of experience as an international journalist, co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices, Chinese Internet censorship expert, and Internet freedom activist, MacKinnon offers a framework for concerned citizens to understand the complex and often hidden power dynamics amongst governments, corporations, and citizens in cyberspace. She warns that a convergence of unchecked government actions and unaccountable company practices threatens the future of democracy and human rights around the world.
Rebecca MacKinnon visits the RSA to give us a call to action: Our freedom in the Internet age depends on whether we defend our rights on digital platforms and networks in the same way that people fight for their rights and accountable governance in physical communities and nations. It is time to stop thinking of ourselves as passive “users” of technology and instead act like citizens of the Internet – as netizens – and take ownership and responsibility for our digital future.
Chair: Aleks Krotoski, academic, journalist and host of the Guardian’s Tech Weekly
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2012/the-consent-of-the-networked
In the 2011 Vancouver Human Rights Lecture, Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, looks at the "cute cat" theory of internet activism, and how it helps explain the Arab Spring. He discusses how activists around the world are turning to social media tools which are extremely powerful, easy to use and difficult for governments to censor. The Vancouver Human Rights Lecture is co-sponsored by the UBC Continuing Studies, the Laurier Institution, and Yahoo.
Tagged with human rights arab spring internet technology lolcats politics activism
The Senate has again rejected proposals to extend the payroll tax holiday through next year, with Republicans objecting to using a "millionaires surtax" to pay for it. NPR tried to find millionaires who also object — but with little success.
The sketches at the end are by David Lovesy & Brian Two
http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2011/08/05/episode-96-5th-august-2011/
Tagged with pod delusion science news politics
Al Franken Senator US Senate Senator Al Franken was born on May 21, 1951, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He graduated from Harvard in 1973, where he met his wife Franni. They’ve been married for 33 years, and have two children: daughter Thomasin, 28, and son Joe, 24. Al spent the last 37 years as a comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host and has taken part in seven USO tours, visiting our troops overseas in Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo and Uzbekistan - as well as visiting Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait four times. In 2008, Al was elected to the Senate as a member of the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party from Minnesota, and was sworn in July of 2009 following a statewide hand recount. He currently sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee; the Judiciary Committee; the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. Al is a long-time advocate for affordable, accessible health care, an economy that works for our middle class, the protection of a secure retirement, the promise of a 21st century education for our kids, and the creation of a green economy that creates jobs and improves our environment.
Years ago I did my own called Morning Coffee Notes.
Today, I did a 1/2 hour podcast in the coffeenotes thread.
It’s about WikiLeaks, Wired, Salon and the freedom of the Internet.
New actors, same story!
From http://scripting.com/stories/2010/12/31/daveDoesPodcast.html
Tagged with dave winer wikileaks wired salon internet technology politics
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will remain in a London prison until a British court takes up a Swedish request for extradition for questioning on sexual crime allegations. An international group of former intelligence officers and ex-government officials have released a statement in support of Assange. We speak to one of the signatories, Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War in 1971. "If I released the Pentagon Papers today, the same rhetoric and the same calls would be made about me," Ellsberg says. "I would be called not only a traitor—which I was then, which was false and slanderous—but I would be called a terrorist… Assange and Bradley Manning are no more terrorists than I am."
From http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/10/whistleblower_daniel_ellsberg_julian_assange_is
Tagged with wikileaks politics daniel ellsberg
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