nprmusic:

No. words. Should. have. sent. a. poet. —Lars

Our haiku response: Now that box. Can be cleaned out.

(Source: jaymug)

A lot of young people often describe and evolve their identities online, curating them 24/7. So their relationships with others and their self-image are deeply affected by the images that they present on Facebook, Google+ and elsewhere.

— And Tumblr? [full interview here]

If you’re sitting out on the network, it’s very difficult to determine what is being said during a Skype conversation. So one way around that is to put some intrusion technology on the target’s computer. So basically you’re seeing all the keystrokes and hearing all the conversation before it becomes encrypted. There are some technologies that boast about their abilities to do this.

— On today’s Fresh Air, Bloomberg News’ reporter Ben Elgin talks about how Western companies are providing software/technology that allows repressive regimes like Syria and Iran to spy on their citizens. 

At the moment, lawyers at Facebook and Google and Microsoft have more power over the future of privacy and free expression than any king or president or Supreme Court justice. And we can’t rely simply on judges enforcing the existing Constitution to protect the values that the Framers took for granted.

— On today’s Fresh Air, legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen talks about technologies that are challenging our notions of things like personal vs. private space, freedom of speech and our own individual autonomy.

Tomorrow: how new technology is challenging our notion of Constitutional values like privacy and freedom of speech. We’ll be talking with law professor Jeffrey Rosen about technology, the future of democracy, free speech, privacy, surveillance cameras, data mining and the effect of neuroscience on the law.

Constitution of the United States of America (by The U.S. National Archives)

jaredbkeller:

Before The Aircraft Carrier: The Union Army Balloon Corp

Beginning in 1861, the Union Army had an active balloon corp. The Union Army Balloon Corp, led by presidential appointee Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, consisted of seven vessels, the largest at 32,000 cubic feet, used primarily for reconnaissance and surveilling Confederate troops. Most of these units were launched from ground bases; seaborne balloons had only been utilized once before, in 1849, when an Austrian vessel, Vulcano, launched a failed attempt to bomb Venice with manned hot air balloons.

The Union did not utilize a maritime vessel as a staging area until August of 1961. Lowe, with the assistance of fellow aeronaut John LaMountain, directed the construction of the first real aircraft carrier. The two rebuilt a coal barge, the George Washington Parke Custis, gutting the deck of its rigging to accommodate gas generators and a flight deck superstructure. TheCustis was part of its own battle group, towed by the Stepping Stone and accompanying sloop Wachusett, the gunboats Tioga and Port Royal, and the armed transport Delaware during the course of its operational lifespan.

Read the full article here.

Very cool. However. Somehow “Balloon Corps” has a less intimidating ring to it than “Air Force.”

— braiker