Friday, May 21, 2004
Privacy is finally dead
You’re not paranoid. They do know where you live, and they are coming to get you. To prove it, Reason magazine gave its 40,000 readers a personalised front cover on this week’s edition which contained their own name, along with an aerial photo of their home circled in red.
The magazine also told the individual readers of such details as their average commuting time, the percentage of neighbours who have college degrees, and how many children are cared for by their grandparents.
The scary thing is that all this information – and more – is freely available to those who know how to go looking for it.
“Living in a database nation definitely raises innumerable privacy concerns and we don’t want to evolve into a police state,� editor Nick Gillespie says. “But these databases also make life easier and more prosperous. I'm not particularly worried about a grocery store knowing my purchasing records because what are they really going to do with that information except try to get me back into their store by giving me more stuff for less money? We may have kissed privacy goodbye—and good riddance, too.�
Well, if that makes Gillespie happy, it appals me. We are getting scarily close to the world of Big Brother (1984) or The Matrix.
And lest you think that is just America, in Britain the number of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) monitoring the streets has quadrupled in the past three years to four million. Britain has also just announced plans for a compulsory identity card scheme that will give police powers to stop and check people against a biometric database. People will be scanned on the spot and the results compared with national fingerprint or iris records.
You’re not paranoid. They do know where you live, and they are coming to get you. To prove it, Reason magazine gave its 40,000 readers a personalised front cover on this week’s edition which contained their own name, along with an aerial photo of their home circled in red.
The magazine also told the individual readers of such details as their average commuting time, the percentage of neighbours who have college degrees, and how many children are cared for by their grandparents.
The scary thing is that all this information – and more – is freely available to those who know how to go looking for it.
“Living in a database nation definitely raises innumerable privacy concerns and we don’t want to evolve into a police state,� editor Nick Gillespie says. “But these databases also make life easier and more prosperous. I'm not particularly worried about a grocery store knowing my purchasing records because what are they really going to do with that information except try to get me back into their store by giving me more stuff for less money? We may have kissed privacy goodbye—and good riddance, too.�
Well, if that makes Gillespie happy, it appals me. We are getting scarily close to the world of Big Brother (1984) or The Matrix.
And lest you think that is just America, in Britain the number of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) monitoring the streets has quadrupled in the past three years to four million. Britain has also just announced plans for a compulsory identity card scheme that will give police powers to stop and check people against a biometric database. People will be scanned on the spot and the results compared with national fingerprint or iris records.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
A Rugby rant
If you are not a Rugby fanatic, you can skip this post! (I know that Rugby, or even my thoughts on it, are not hugely significant in the great thingyness of the universe, but sometimes it's fun just to pontificate.)
Nailing my colours to the mast, straight up: I would love to see the Crusaders beat the Brumbies in Saturday night's Super 12 final, but it's not going to happen. (Actually, I would have loved even more to see the Chiefs in the final - but then, I have a soft spot for the underdog.) Here's why I think the Brumbies will win, and probably why the Aussies will win the Tri-Nations later in the season.
1. The Crusaders have not been consistent this season. Apart from one bad lapse (ironically, against the Crusaders), the Brumbies have been consistent.
2. Many of the Crusaders' wins have been downright lucky. On several crucial occasions, opposition players have spilled the ball metres from the goal line, denying themselves a deserved victory.
3. More importantly, the structure of the Crusaders game is a recipe for defeat. My Dad (who was an All Black trialist, true) said all his life there are 2 golden rules in Rugby: You have to be moving at speed when you receive the ball; and don't pass to someone who is in a worse position than yourself. Last Saturday, the Crusaders backs were consistently flat-footed when they received the ball, while the Stormers were nearly always moving at pace. Consequently, the Stormers broke the line of defence more consistently. The Crusaders (and Carlos Spencer is even more guilty of this) were ballooning passes to each other most of the game, giving the opposition time to get up in their faces, and increasing the potential for intercepts. It was noticeable that the Crusaders only started to gain an edge when they began using short, flat passes.
4. The Crusaders had no answer to the Stormers' frequent use of the chip through. It constantly pushed them back on their own 22, and it was only Stormers mistakes which kept them from finishing off. Why NZ teams don't use the chip through more often in the face of flat defence I cannot fathom. Larcombe is very accomplished at it. Expect to see the Crusaders on the back foot once again - but don't expect to see the Brumbies fumble at the finish.
5. We won't even talk about the number of times we fail to secure the ball from the opposition kick-off, or our own lineouts.
Sure, the Crusaders are very clinical, and remarkably composed under pressure. But you have to be clinical about the right things.
Here endeth the lesson!
If you are not a Rugby fanatic, you can skip this post! (I know that Rugby, or even my thoughts on it, are not hugely significant in the great thingyness of the universe, but sometimes it's fun just to pontificate.)
Nailing my colours to the mast, straight up: I would love to see the Crusaders beat the Brumbies in Saturday night's Super 12 final, but it's not going to happen. (Actually, I would have loved even more to see the Chiefs in the final - but then, I have a soft spot for the underdog.) Here's why I think the Brumbies will win, and probably why the Aussies will win the Tri-Nations later in the season.
1. The Crusaders have not been consistent this season. Apart from one bad lapse (ironically, against the Crusaders), the Brumbies have been consistent.
2. Many of the Crusaders' wins have been downright lucky. On several crucial occasions, opposition players have spilled the ball metres from the goal line, denying themselves a deserved victory.
3. More importantly, the structure of the Crusaders game is a recipe for defeat. My Dad (who was an All Black trialist, true) said all his life there are 2 golden rules in Rugby: You have to be moving at speed when you receive the ball; and don't pass to someone who is in a worse position than yourself. Last Saturday, the Crusaders backs were consistently flat-footed when they received the ball, while the Stormers were nearly always moving at pace. Consequently, the Stormers broke the line of defence more consistently. The Crusaders (and Carlos Spencer is even more guilty of this) were ballooning passes to each other most of the game, giving the opposition time to get up in their faces, and increasing the potential for intercepts. It was noticeable that the Crusaders only started to gain an edge when they began using short, flat passes.
4. The Crusaders had no answer to the Stormers' frequent use of the chip through. It constantly pushed them back on their own 22, and it was only Stormers mistakes which kept them from finishing off. Why NZ teams don't use the chip through more often in the face of flat defence I cannot fathom. Larcombe is very accomplished at it. Expect to see the Crusaders on the back foot once again - but don't expect to see the Brumbies fumble at the finish.
5. We won't even talk about the number of times we fail to secure the ball from the opposition kick-off, or our own lineouts.
Sure, the Crusaders are very clinical, and remarkably composed under pressure. But you have to be clinical about the right things.
Here endeth the lesson!
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Whew, what a day!
There are days when I trawl the Web, and nothing of any significance seems to be happening. And then there are days when I am overwhelmed. Today was one of the latter. Way too much information!! Here’s a sampler of the headlines (mostly without comment):
By edict of its Supreme Judicial Court, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began today to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
This is no minor change. As Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation says, "It does not expand marriage, but alters its core meaning." To so redefine marriage is to "sever the institution from its nature and purpose." Spalding does an excellent job of piecing together how this has all come about.
How long these “marriages� will last only time will tell. But the evidence from Sweden is not encouraging. A study there found that gay male couples were 1.5 times as likely (or 50 percent more likely) to divorce as married opposite-sex couples, while lesbian couples were 2.67 times as likely (167 percent more likely) to divorce as opposite-sex married couples over a similar period of time.
While the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in New Zealand have been moving closer towards fully accepting homosexual ministers, the Methodist Church in the USA has ruled that active homosexuals, as determined by a church court, may not serve in pastoral leadership within the United Methodist Church.
Transexuals will be able to compete at the Olympics if they have had appropriate surgery and are legally recognised as members of their new sex, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said today. The rule will cover both male-to-female and female-to-male cases and will be in place before the Athens Games in August.
Can you believe it, the Law Society has finally decided that maybe it’s not a particularly good look when a successful defence lawyer hosts the jury that acquitted his client to a jolly old knees-up afterwards. One presumes he didn’t issue the invitations before the 12 men good and true retired to consider their verdict.
The head judge of the Youth Court is suggesting that young lawbreakers should be removed from the care of Child, Youth and Family and put into the charge of a new Youth Justice department. A separate government department specialising in youth justice would be better resourced and more focused, Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said. (Why, when we run up against a problem, do we have to create yet another government department to solve it???)
Some MPs are questioning the decision to lower the drinking age to 18 as new figures show more drunk teen drivers are killing others on our roads.
But staying off the hard stuff may be just as dangerous to your health. Carbonated drinks (eg, Coca Cola) may raise the risk of esophageal cancer, a usually fatal disease, researchers reported on Monday.
If you want to take your solace in music, you could be in danger of losing everything there, too. CD rot is being discovered in early CDs, as the aluminium layer corrodes. Those “lifetime� recordings are anything but. I have also heard that the ink from felt pens will corrode the CD (for those of you who have a large collection of “otherwise obtained� and home-burned CDs).
Former All Black Craig Dowd says the Super 12 is a bore. I’ve certainly been finding it a lot easier to not watch this year. Graham Henry would do well to listen to Dowd’s reasons why New Zealand Rugby teams are not doing so well this year. If the Crusaders are to beat the Brumbies in the final on Saturday, they will have to make some big changes to the way they run the game.
Since the middle of the last century a debate has been raging about what’s there in the dark places of the universe, those vast areas of blackness that account for the great bulk of the gravitational force of the universe. That something is in there, they have no doubt. But just what that something is, no sound scientific conclusions have yet been reached. More and more scientists are using the terms, “dark matter� and “dark force,� to describe the gravitational force that keeps the cosmos from flying apart. There isn’t enough visible mass in the universe – planets, stars, comets, dust, and all the rest – to create gravitational attraction strong enough to maintain the integrity and operation of the whole. T.M. Moore finds that when physicists begin talking about this “dark matter�, they can sound downright religious.
To end on a light note, we had a debate around the morning tea table in our office yesterday about what the initials “MG� (as in sports cars) stand for. I didn’t know. The answer is very mundane – but it might win you a trivial pursuit game some time.
There are days when I trawl the Web, and nothing of any significance seems to be happening. And then there are days when I am overwhelmed. Today was one of the latter. Way too much information!! Here’s a sampler of the headlines (mostly without comment):
By edict of its Supreme Judicial Court, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began today to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
This is no minor change. As Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation says, "It does not expand marriage, but alters its core meaning." To so redefine marriage is to "sever the institution from its nature and purpose." Spalding does an excellent job of piecing together how this has all come about.
How long these “marriages� will last only time will tell. But the evidence from Sweden is not encouraging. A study there found that gay male couples were 1.5 times as likely (or 50 percent more likely) to divorce as married opposite-sex couples, while lesbian couples were 2.67 times as likely (167 percent more likely) to divorce as opposite-sex married couples over a similar period of time.
While the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in New Zealand have been moving closer towards fully accepting homosexual ministers, the Methodist Church in the USA has ruled that active homosexuals, as determined by a church court, may not serve in pastoral leadership within the United Methodist Church.
Transexuals will be able to compete at the Olympics if they have had appropriate surgery and are legally recognised as members of their new sex, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said today. The rule will cover both male-to-female and female-to-male cases and will be in place before the Athens Games in August.
Can you believe it, the Law Society has finally decided that maybe it’s not a particularly good look when a successful defence lawyer hosts the jury that acquitted his client to a jolly old knees-up afterwards. One presumes he didn’t issue the invitations before the 12 men good and true retired to consider their verdict.
The head judge of the Youth Court is suggesting that young lawbreakers should be removed from the care of Child, Youth and Family and put into the charge of a new Youth Justice department. A separate government department specialising in youth justice would be better resourced and more focused, Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said. (Why, when we run up against a problem, do we have to create yet another government department to solve it???)
Some MPs are questioning the decision to lower the drinking age to 18 as new figures show more drunk teen drivers are killing others on our roads.
But staying off the hard stuff may be just as dangerous to your health. Carbonated drinks (eg, Coca Cola) may raise the risk of esophageal cancer, a usually fatal disease, researchers reported on Monday.
If you want to take your solace in music, you could be in danger of losing everything there, too. CD rot is being discovered in early CDs, as the aluminium layer corrodes. Those “lifetime� recordings are anything but. I have also heard that the ink from felt pens will corrode the CD (for those of you who have a large collection of “otherwise obtained� and home-burned CDs).
Former All Black Craig Dowd says the Super 12 is a bore. I’ve certainly been finding it a lot easier to not watch this year. Graham Henry would do well to listen to Dowd’s reasons why New Zealand Rugby teams are not doing so well this year. If the Crusaders are to beat the Brumbies in the final on Saturday, they will have to make some big changes to the way they run the game.
Since the middle of the last century a debate has been raging about what’s there in the dark places of the universe, those vast areas of blackness that account for the great bulk of the gravitational force of the universe. That something is in there, they have no doubt. But just what that something is, no sound scientific conclusions have yet been reached. More and more scientists are using the terms, “dark matter� and “dark force,� to describe the gravitational force that keeps the cosmos from flying apart. There isn’t enough visible mass in the universe – planets, stars, comets, dust, and all the rest – to create gravitational attraction strong enough to maintain the integrity and operation of the whole. T.M. Moore finds that when physicists begin talking about this “dark matter�, they can sound downright religious.
To end on a light note, we had a debate around the morning tea table in our office yesterday about what the initials “MG� (as in sports cars) stand for. I didn’t know. The answer is very mundane – but it might win you a trivial pursuit game some time.
Monday, May 17, 2004
Ring out them bells!
There’s some good news on the marriage front. Statistics NZ says 2003 saw the greatest number of marriages since 1991, 21,420. That was 3-and-a-half percent more than the previous year. The marriage rate has stayed stable for several years now – 14 out of every 1,000 eligible not-marrieds.
While it’s encouraging that marriage is still fashionable (according to the 2001 Census, for every hundred people in a relationship, 80 were married), we have still fallen a long way since the peak marrying year of 1971, when 45 out of every 1,000 eligibles rushed to the altar.
Balanced against this, however, are some sobering figures which show that between June 2001 and June 2003, sole parent families with dependent children outgrew two-parent families, not only in percentage terms but in absolute numbers.
Lindsay Mitchell, a petitioner for a review of the DPB, says according to the New Zealand Income Survey, produced by Statistics NZ, single parent families grew by 12,600 or nine percent. Two-parent families grew by only 11,000 or three percent.
"This trend is very bad news,� says Mitchell. “When marriages fail or parents reject each other it is a cost to all of society. Children from one parent families are more likely to live in poverty or be on welfare. They are more likely to exhibit negative outcomes."
There’s some good news on the marriage front. Statistics NZ says 2003 saw the greatest number of marriages since 1991, 21,420. That was 3-and-a-half percent more than the previous year. The marriage rate has stayed stable for several years now – 14 out of every 1,000 eligible not-marrieds.
While it’s encouraging that marriage is still fashionable (according to the 2001 Census, for every hundred people in a relationship, 80 were married), we have still fallen a long way since the peak marrying year of 1971, when 45 out of every 1,000 eligibles rushed to the altar.
Balanced against this, however, are some sobering figures which show that between June 2001 and June 2003, sole parent families with dependent children outgrew two-parent families, not only in percentage terms but in absolute numbers.
Lindsay Mitchell, a petitioner for a review of the DPB, says according to the New Zealand Income Survey, produced by Statistics NZ, single parent families grew by 12,600 or nine percent. Two-parent families grew by only 11,000 or three percent.
"This trend is very bad news,� says Mitchell. “When marriages fail or parents reject each other it is a cost to all of society. Children from one parent families are more likely to live in poverty or be on welfare. They are more likely to exhibit negative outcomes."
