Oh well

• “How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street” by Chris Moody (Yahoo! News; 2011.12.01) – http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-being-taught-talk-occupy-wall-street-133707949.html
• “The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy” by Naomi Wolf (The Guardian; 2011.11.25) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
  • The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality
  • DHS coordinated violent attack on Occupy Wall Street protests in 18 cities.
  • The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online “What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
    • The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.
    • No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
    • No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
• “Reporters Meet the Fists of the Law” by Michael Powell (The New Yrk Times; 2011.11.21) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nyregion/nypd-stops-reporters-with-badges-and-fists.html
• “Poet-Bashing Police” by Robert Hass (The New Yoirk Times; 2011.11.19) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/at-occupy-berkeley-beat-poets-has-new-meaning.html
• “Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters” (AlterNet; 2011.11.19) – http://www.alternet.org/story/153134/caught_on_camera:_10_shockingly_violent_police_assaults_on_occupy_protesters/
  Probably 97 percent of police act professionally toward protesters. But the other 3 percent are armed and dangerous, and know that they’re unlikely to be held accountable.
• “Retired NY Supreme Court Justice Karen Smith Roughed up by Cops for Intervening in Brutal Beating of ‘Occupy’ Protester’s Mom” (Moral Low Ground blog; 2011.11.17) – http://morallowground.com/2011/11/17/retired-ny-supreme-court-justice-karen-smith-roughed-up-by-cops-for-intervening-in-brutal-beating-of-occupy-protesters-mom/
• “Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest” (Washington’s Blog; 2011.11.16) – http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/homeland-security-coordinated-18-city-police-crackdown-on-occupy-protest.html
  Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today.
• “Did Mayors, DHS Coordinate Occupy Attacks?” by Allison Kilkenny (In These Times; 2011.11.16) – http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12303/mayors_dhs_coordinated_occupy_attacks/
• “Raids on OWS coordinated with Obama’s FBI, Homeland Security & others” (News from Undeground; 2011.11.15) – http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/11/raids-on-ows-coordinated-with-obamas-fbi-homeland-security-others/
• “Journalists obstructed from covering OWS protests” (CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists]; 2011.11.15) – http://www.cpj.org/2011/11/journalists-obstructed-from-covering-ows-protests.php

Life writing

• “The Life Reports” by David Brooks (New York Times; 2011.11.24) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/opinion/the-life-reports.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

Books

• “The Authobiographical Consciousness of Aging” by Edmund Sherman (Morris Publishing 2000; ISBN 0-9701446-0-1′ LCCCN 00-91343)
  • this book is out of the print
• “For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History” by Charley Kempthorne (Boynton/Cook; 1996; ISBN-10: 0867093811; ISBN-13: 978-0867093810)- http://www.amazon.com/All-Time-Complete-Writing-History/dp/0867093811/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322280896&sr=8-1
  • review: [DEARMYRTLE-L] BookShelf: For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History (1999.03.02) – http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/DEARMYRTLE/1999-03/0920384853

Sites, People

• Charley Kempthorne’s “The LifeStory Institute” – http://www.thelifestoryinstitute.com/LifeStoryMagazine.html
• Capturing Memory site – http://www.capturingmemories.com/reading.html

Implementations of programming languages in other programming languages

• BicaVM – Javascript implementation of JVM – https://github.com/nurv/BicaVM
  This project is an implementation of a JVM in JavaScript. At the moment it runs Java code, but is more like a proof of concept than a real JVM. A lot of work is required to make this JVM run Java code
  (including writing an entire runtime enviroment).
  BicaVM can interpret a big chunk of the JVM’s bytecode (probably around 60%). However, it is wildy incomplete. It has a JNI interface that maps to JavaScript functions. It has no JIT compilation.
  • “BicaVM: JVM in JavaScript – Why?” by Artur Ventura (Surf The Edge blog; 2011.11.20) – http://www.surf-the-edge.com/2011/11/15/bicavm-jvm-in-javascript-why/
  • “JavaScript JVM Runs Java” (SlashDot; 2011.11.21) – http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/11/21/0454254/javascript-jvm-runs-java
  • article – “JavaScript JVM runs Java” by Mike James – http://www.i-programmer.info/news/167-javascript/3360-javascript-jvm-runs-java.html
• “JSava: a Java bytecode interpreter in JavaScript” (at “Things I’ll Forget In A Month”) – http://blog.zortrium.net/archives/96

Firefox GUI inside Firefox data frame

This is a fun stuff. One can open another instance of FireFox GUI inside the browser area where content of web pages is displayed.

Source: “JavaScript JVM Runs Java” (SlashDot; 2011.11.21) – http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/11/21/0454254/javascript-jvm-runs-java

Reality of wave function in quantum mechanics

• “Quantum theorem shakes foundations” by Eugenie Samuel Reich (Nature; 2011.11.17) – http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-theorem-shakes-foundations-1.9392
  • The wavefunction is a real physical object after all, say researchers.
• “The quantum state cannot be interpreted statistically” by Matthew F. Pusey, Jonathan Barrett, Terry Rudolph (arXiv; 2011.11.14) – http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1111.3328

Asperger’s syndrome, Autism, ASD

• Collection of Autism related articles at Nature – http://www.nature.com/news/specials/autism/index.html
• “Special issue on neuroscience: The autism enigma” (Nature, 2011.11.02) – http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111102/full/479021a.html – Published online 2 November 2011 | Nature 479, 21 (2011) | doi:10.1038/479021a
  • “The prevalence puzzle: Autism counts” by Karen Weintraub (Nature; 2011.11.02) – http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111102/full/479022a.html
    Shifting diagnoses and heightened awareness explain only part of the apparent rise in autism. Scientists are struggling to explain the rest.
  • “Scientists and autism: When geeks meet” by Lizzie Buchen (Nature; 2011.11.02) – http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111102/full/479025a.html
    Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen thinks scientists and engineers could be more likely to have a child with autism. Some researchers say the proof isn’t there.
  • “Changing perceptions: The power of autism” by Laurent Mottron (Nature; 2011.11.02) – http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7371/full/479033a.html
    Recent data — and personal experience — suggest that autism can be an advantage in some spheres, including science, says Laurent Mottron.
    
  • “Autism’s fight for facts: A voice for science” by Meredith Wadman – http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111102/full/479028a.html
    Convinced by the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, Alison Singer started a research foundation that pledges to put science first.
  • “The mind’s tangled web” (Nature 279, 5; 2011.11.02) – http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7371/full/479005a.html>
    Efforts to elucidate how genes and the environment shape the development of autism, although making progress, still fall far short of their goal.
• “Autism in a mouse” (Nature 478, 9; 2011.10.06) – http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7367/full/478009c.html
• “Autism linked to hundreds of spontaneous genetic mutations” by Heidi Ledford (Nature; 2011.06.09)
  Analysis suggests that girls are partially shielded from effects of the changes.
• “Hopes grow over potential autism treatment” by Daniel Cressey (Nature; 2010.02.16) – http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100216/full/news.2010.73.html
  Oxytocin hormone shown to improve social interaction.
• ARC (Autism Research Center) – http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/
  • Downloadable Tests – http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc_tests
  • Professor Simon Baron-Cohen – http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/people_Baron-Cohen

New Facebook machinations

• Facebook Privacy section at EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) – http://epic.org/privacy/facebook/
  • Facebook and the Facial Identification of Users – http://epic.org/privacy/facebook/facebook_and_facial_recognitio.html
• “Facebook to alter privacy practices following FTC ruling” by Greg Masters (SC Magazine; 2011.11.29) – http://www.scmagazineus.com/facebook-to-alter-privacy-practices-following-ftc-ruling/article/217775/
  • Users were deceived by Facebook, and now the social media giant is paying the price.
  • “Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users,” Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC, said in a statement. “Facebook’s innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy.”
  • The FTC charges chronicle a number of misleading or untrue assertions about privacy that Facebook made, but did not keep, including: not warning users when a change to its “Friend List” allowed private information to be exposed; stating that third-party apps would not access personal information beyond what they needed to operate; claiming that the “Verified Apps” program certified the security of participating apps; promising users it would not share personal data with advertisers; and insisting that it complied with the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor Framework that governs data transfer between the United States and certain European nations.
• “Facebook Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers By Failing To Keep Privacy Promises” (FTC; 2011.11.29) – http://ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm
  • In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn’t warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance.
  • Facebook represented that third-party apps that users’ installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users’ personal data – data the apps didn’t need.
  • Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with “Friends Only.” In fact, selecting “Friends Only” did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.
  • Facebook had a “Verified Apps” program & claimed it certified the security of participating apps. It didn’t.
  • Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did.
  • Facebook claimed that when users deactivated or deleted their accounts, their photos and videos would be inaccessible. But Facebook allowed access to the content, even after users had deactivated or deleted their accounts.
  • Facebook claimed that it complied with the U.S.- EU Safe Harbor Framework that governs data transfer between the U.S. and the European Union. It didn’t.
• “24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook” by Kim Cameron (Identity Weblog; 2011.10.13) – http://www.identityblog.com/?p=1201/li>
• Europe vs Facebook – http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/en.html
  • Facebook’s Data Pool – http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Data_Pool/data_pool.html#Target
  • europe-v-facebook.org YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/europevfacebook#p/c/8ED10AB2E76CD62E
• “Facebook Ireland accused of creating ‘shadow profiles’ on users, nonusers” by Laura Locke (CNet; 2011.10.21) – http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20123919-93/facebook-ireland-accused-of-creating-shadow-profiles-on-users-nonusers/
• “Facebook Patent to Track Users Even When They are Not Logged In to Facebook” by Bruce Scheier (2011.10.24)- http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/10/facebook_patent.html

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Related here: Facebook privacy? What Facebook privacy? – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/facebook-privacy-what-facebook-privacy/ | Facebook foolies – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/facebook-foolies/ | Unending stream of Facebook privacy news – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/unending-stream-of-facebook-privacy-news/ | More Facebook news – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/more-facebook-news/ | Facebook monkeying again with user trust model – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/facebook-monkeying-again-with-user-trust-model/ | Scan for your Facebook privacy – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/i-want-you-to-scan-for-facebook-privacy/ | Facebook leaks users IDs to advertisers – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/facebook-leaks-user-ids-to-advertisers/ | Facebook mulls U-turn on privacy – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/facebook-mulls-u-turn-on-privacy/ | Mark Zuckerberg’s birthday present: Facebook in crisis – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/mark-zuckerbergs-birthday-present-facebook-in-crisis/ | Temptest in a teapot – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/1202/

Aging

• “‘I’ve never seen anything like it’: Scientists halt ageing in mice by purging old cells” by Simon Tomlinson (Mail Online; 2011.11.03) – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2057113/Ive-seen-like-Purging-old-cells-stops-aging-mice.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

  • Scientists combat onset of wrinkles, muscle wastage and cataracts
  • Mice were genetically engineered to kill off rogue cells
  • Opens new opportunities for treatment in humans
  • Expert: ‘People used to see aging as a rusting nail — there’s nothing you can do about it. But we now know those processes can be meddled with.’

• “‘Forever young’ drug that lets you grow old gracefully could soon be reality” by Fiona Macrae (Mail Online; 2011.11.02) – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2056433/Forever-young-drug-allows-people-grow-old-gracefully-soon-reality.html
  Scientists have found a way to slow cell growth