It's Not Security vs. Privacy, It's Control vs. Liberty

An argument against "the false dichotomy of security and privacy" is brought up by Security Expert Bruce Schneier: The debate isn't security versus privacy. It's liberty versus control.

Since 9/11, two -- or maybe three -- things have potentially improved airline security: reinforcing the cockpit doors, passengers realizing they have to fight back and -- possibly -- sky marshals. Everything else -- all the security measures that affect privacy -- is just security theater and a waste of effort.

By the same token, many of the anti-privacy "security" measures we're seeing -- national ID cards, warrantless eavesdropping, massive data mining and so on -- do little to improve, and in some cases harm, security. And government claims of their success are either wrong, or against fake threats.

He says that security and privacy should go hand-in-hand:

If you set up the false dichotomy, of course people will choose security over privacy -- especially if you scare them first. But it's still a false dichotomy. There is no security without privacy. And liberty requires both security and privacy. The famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin reads: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." It's also true that those who would give up privacy for security are likely to end up with neither.

Read the entire article here (I got it through BoingBoing).

 

Puzzled Over the Primary Results for South Carolina

There's something I don't understand in the primary results for South Carolina. If Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich have dropped out of the presidential race:

1) Why were their names still on the ballot?

And/Or

2) Why did SC people still vote for them? Thompson got a whopping 69,000+ votes while Kucinich had about 500+. In fact, Thompson got more votes than Romney, Paul, and Giuliani.

SC voting results from CNN:

Democrats
Obama: 295,091 votes 55%
Clinton: 141,128 votes 27%
Edwards: 93,552 votes 18%
Kucinich: 551 votes 0%


Republicans
McCain: 147,283 votes 33%
Huckabee: 132,440 votes 30%
Thompson: 69,467 votes 16%
Romney: 67,132 votes 15%
Paul: 16,054 votes 4%
Giuliani: 9,494 votes 2%
Hunter: 1,048 votes 0%



P.S. I have no idea about the mechanics of voting: whether voters just tick off the ballots or write their candidate's name.

 

Reasons Why 21st Century-ers are Miserable

From Dennis, here's an article on cracked.com that talks about why modern people are "miserable".

"The problem is we've built an awesome, sprawling web of technology meant purely to let us avoid annoying people. Do all your Christmas shopping online and avoid the fat lady ramming her cart into you at Target. Spend $5,000 on a home theater system so you can see movies on a big screen without a toddler kicking the back of your seat. Hell, rent the DVD's from Netflix and you don't even have to spend the 30 seconds with the confused kid working the register at Blockbuster.

Get stuck in the waiting room at the doctor? No way we're striking up a conversation with the smelly old man in the next seat. We'll plug the iPod into our ears and have a text conversation with a friend or play our DS. Filter that annoyance right out of our world."

Read the full article here

Alright, the article specifically mentioned 7 reasons although it seems to me that some or most of them overlap. I think it makes sense overall - the encompassing idea is the importance of handling and cultivating both emotions and relationships.

However, recalling an interview with Eric Weiner by Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report made me think of perhaps another element to the explanation. Weiner was interviewed about his new book, The Geography of Bliss, where he talks about his travels and his observations of the happiest places in the world.


I remember him saying that money does buy happiness to some extent. According to him, the world average ceiling is $15,000: earning below 15 grands and increasing it to 15 will increase your happiness as well; earn at least 15 grands and more money will do little to satisfy you (I'm sure the ceiling is way higher for people in the US).



Now, I can't cite any studies as of the moment but I'm sure that there is a growing income inequality, i.e. the gap between the rich and poor is growing all over the world (the rich are becoming richer and the poor, poorer). Assuming this and Weiner's statement to be true, then the signs are pointing to a decreasing chance of happiness monetary-wise.

So that's the money-aspect that got me pondering. But wait, are we really miserable? The article said that we are "hard-wired by evolution to need to do things for people." Aren't we equipped with the mechanism to find humor and hope as well? And while there is hope, doesn't that make us overcome misery?

Lastly, am I sounding like a politician? I'm yakking about an article, putting my own spin on the issue, and talking about abstract matters.

 

"The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan

I've just finished reading Alan Greenspan's "The Age of Turbulence" and, although it took me a while to finish, I found it intelligent and interesting (this coming from someone with no Economics background). Admittedly, I had to re-read sentences and paragraphs trying to understand the unfamiliar words, terms, concepts, and explanations.

My primary inspiration in reading books is the learning that I would get in the process. In this case, I delved into such relevant a topic as global economics as well as glimpsed into the mind of the person who is perhaps best suited to talk about it in our era.

 

Cloverfield - Halfway

For all the hype that it generated since its trailer was first shown on Transformers the Movie, I think Cloverfield was underwhelming. I watched it with Jamie this afternoon and we left halfway through the movie.

I have a few nagging thoughts:

1) The actress who played "Beth" is very pretty.

2) I'm not sure if the hand-held camera filming method is really effective (by my standards and tastes) when used throughout the movie. I wasn't too impressed with both Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project (both of them used the filming method all throughout the movie) but I thought the Bourne Ultimatum is kick-@$$ (with it applying the same filming method only on fight scenes).

3) The marketers for this movie are so good to generate so much hype the past 6 months. Cloverfield's gross total in less than a week, or maybe for just a couple of days, may already surpass its overall budget.

4) Aside from "The Dark Knight", what are the movies that I should look forward to for 2008?

 

American Idol 7 - "We Are Brothers" by Renaldo Lapuz

The main reason why I watch American Idol is entertainment. This one takes the cake for the most entertaining performance so far this season: