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“Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

–Benjamin Franklin

a fitting quote as FISA passes (with a yay vote from Obama no less - political expediency is enough to make you want to puke sometimes)

Cognitive Surplus and Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

I ran into this talk today via a post at crowdsourcing.com and was reminded of how powerful Clay’s thoughts were the first time I saw them during the Web 2.0 Expo.

According to Clay’s talk, the equivalent man power of 2,000 wikipedias a year is spent watching TV. He fittingly calls this energy a “cognitive surplus” - an extension of human boredom - and argues that we’re transitioning out of this into increased engagement via the web and related technologies.

David Cohn, a guest author at crowdsourcing.com, has some great insights regarding surplus time and how it can potentially be applied to greater ends than boredom. I’m also super interested in his project Spot.us - crowdfunded citizen journalism - more on that later as I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon since the seredipity of the web brought it to my attention.

Like David, I’ve seen the change away from passive consumption of entertainment first hand in my own father’s post-work routine; where he used to come home and camp in front of the TV to unwind, much of that time is now spent behind the computer and is unquestionably more engaged. This is happening to us all as I’ve even gotten rid of my cable box and connected a computer to the TV.

What are you going to do with the cognitive surplus that your TV time represents?

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Seymour Hersh: U.S. escalating covert ops against Iran [NPR Podcast]

Image by Marjorie Lipan via Flickr

via NPR/Fresh
Air Download Podcast [44 min 41 sec]

In Terry Gross’ interview of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh he suggests that the United States may be closer to armed conflict with Iran than previously imagined. His article, “Preparing the Battlefield,” appears in the current issue of the The New Yorker.

Stirring Up the Hornet’s Nest We Are

Terry Gross: “Seymour Hersh has broken the story of a major escalation of American covert operations in Iran designed to destabilize the country’s leadership. Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund the escalation. The President made the request in a highly classified document known as a Presidential finding which is legally required when a covert intelligence operation gets under way… Congress has approved up to $400M”

Seymour Hersh: “The goal is to provoke enough trouble and create enough chaos so the Iranian government does something aggressive in response, and then you look like you have a country in some sort of acute turmoil, and then the White House has what you call a casus belli, a reason for going in and maybe attacking the country.”

“In the article I also write that there has been a significant spike of dissent inside Iran… I can’t tell you that our operations are the cause, but it’s not an illogical inference, no one has told me that, but that’s the general assumption.”

“The strategic thinking is get this country roiling, get it going, and maybe the leadership there will make the mistake of taking armed action against [one of the dissident groups]… And maybe get the leadership of the country to start acting kinetically, with it’s own bombs and missiles and then you’ve got something going - that’s the thinking, it’s very crazy.”

TG: One of the things that surprises me about this story is that the members of congress have signed off on this … given how unpopular the Iraq war is.

SH: “…it’s going to be a Democratic year, the election looks good, and they don’t want to give the Republicans any reason to argue that the Democrats are against the war on terror…”

TG: “Do you see this as another example of the Bush admin’s attempts to expand President power?”

SH: “<chuckle> uhh… looks like a duck, walks like a duck… uhh. Are you kidding me? Of course it is. It’s totally an expansion. It’s the President of the United States saying I can send special forces troops anywhere in the world.”

TG: “The bottom line question here, in your analysis, does this bring us closer to a military strike with Iran?” (more…)

“It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq. Anyone who thinks they are going to win this election playing the Iraq or the terrorism card — one way or another — is, in my view, seriously deluded. Things have changed.”

- Thomas Friedman - Anxious in America - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Democrat controlled congress enabling Bush war with Iran?

Image via Wikipedia

Via OpenCongress.org with my thoughts in bold:

A pair of non-binding resolutions that are quickly gaining bipartisan support and sponsorship in the House and Senate call on the President to block all oil imports to Iran. As the bills themselves state, “Iran must import around 40 percent of its daily requirements for refined petroleum products,” making the sanctions a potentially effective economic incentive to keep the country from pursuing nuclear weapons capability. The problem, though, is that it would likely require an all-out naval blockade, which is widely considered an act of war.

Congress is opening up the door for Bush to start a war with Iran, albiet discretely (more…)

Ditching Cable TV: Webtv as a solution

Image by Chris Tengi via Flickr

Comcast Digital Cable, what have you done for me lately? From the poor UX to the decreasing utility of live TV, Claire and I got rid of the box, increased our bandwidth, and moved to the world of webtv. Now powered by a Mac Mini, our value per unit of tv time has gone way up.

TV on the Web

TED Talks - TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is an annual conference with the mission of discussing “ideas worth spreading.” These talks are some of the most informative, concise expressions of thinking anywhere on the web.

VBS.tv - VBS is an online broadcast network with Academy Award-nominated director Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) as their creative director. Check out Illegal LA, a docu on illegal (more…)

Mark Bittman on what’s wrong with what we eat | Video on TED.com

“In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.”

Firefox 3 | time to download

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I’ve been using the beta for a few months now - super stable, much faster, some amazing new features. Seriously, don’t wait. It will change your life.

Firefox web browser | International versions: Get Firefox in your language

Under the Radar ‘08: talk to me about Zemanta

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NEWS: I’m now working with Zemanta, an awesome tool that saves tons of time for pro bloggers and beginners alike.

More soon.