Tag: blockheaded

Backwards in Afghanistan

A very unpleasant reminder of just how backwards some societies are in 2009.

The Guardian reports on a law made in Afghanistan permitting men to starve their wives if sexual demands are not met. Yes, check your calendar, it really is 2009 and this kind of law really did get passed.

Another truly outrageous and sexist portion of this law is that women must get permission from their husbands to work.

Quoting the article:

“These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet [President] Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval.”

As a US resident, I supported our military aid towards the overthrow of the Taliban, the same group that blew up the Buddha statues standing for the majority of two millenia. I would like to think overthrowing the Taliban was not work our soldiers did in vain. The passing of laws like this, that would even be backwards for the 18th century much less the 21st, does nothing to add to my confidence.

Cheerleading coach extorts Facebook credentials, spreads private info

Ars Technica reports on a case very similar to the recent flap over the city of Bozeman, Montana, requiring social network login information to apply for employment (a policy since rescinded). This case involves a high school cheerleader in Mississippi which was pressured into giving her Facebook login credentials to her cheerleading coach. The teacher found a heated discussion of some of the cheerleading squad’s internal politics not intended for the coach’s–or school administrators’–prying eyes, and resulted in the student being sanctioned.

From the article:

The Student Press Law Center has more detailed account (via TechDirt) of the events, in which it reports that several other students asked for their logins simply deleted their accounts using their cell phones, preventing this sort of intrusion; the schools apparently have a filter that blocks access to its Web interface from school computers. It also suggests that the initial search of the Facebook accounts was done with the intent of finding pictures of the students smoking or drinking.

Of course, the best move for the students would have been to simply state that Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities prohibits the sharing of one’s password or other authentication info:

\6. You will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.

Please, remember this, and pass it along to friends or family members, especially younger ones who are still in high school or middle school and thus most vulnerable to having their credentials extorted.

Even if the search was simply for pictures of students being naughty, the coach or administrators could have done this using their own personal account and limited sanctions to those pictures accessible to the public. As it stands, the school administration has a nasty lawsuit on its hands, and an ex-cheerleader hopefully has a huge and well-deserved payday in exchange for unjust humiliation and disciplinary action.

Palm’s leaking mobile phone miscue

Matt Hartley writing for Lockergnome reports on a disturbing privacy problem with the Palm Pre, citing a BBC story. The detail of data being sent back to Palm is rather alarming, including user location, application usage patterns, and a list of applications installed on the phone.

Palm’s PR department, of course, responds with more spin than a Steve Mizerak masse shot. Quoting the BBC article:

Palm issued a statement about Mr Hess’ discovery and said it “offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off”.

It added: “Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience.”

“We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust,” said Palm.

Excuse me Palm, but I really think you just did exactly that. I would be willing to bet it has been intentionally made difficult to turn off the “data collecting services” you refer to.

It’s inexcusable to leak that kind of detailed data and bury it under some kind of legalese “privacy policy.” How about being honest about this and telling the user, in plain English, you’re going to do this the first time the phone is turned on?

And we wonder why Palm nearly went bankrupt. Wonder no more. At least now we know this time they’re going to sink for a good reason.

Anatomically correct, politically incorrect

I’m not too sure the outcome would be much better in my native Houston, Texas. Hope springs eternal. (And I realize the story is a bit dated, but I just now found it.)

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported and followed up on the case of a set of nude statues by artist Itzik Asher entitled Journey to the New, which depict a father, a mother, an infant, and an older child. The pieces are on display at a shopping center. The nudity is subtle, the pieces are somewhat abstract. But the anatomically correct statues are making a few parents a bit nervous, given that the shopping center is not too far from an elementary school. Quoting from the article:

“My daughter has been joking about it,” said Jeffrey Cohen, whose 6-year-old daughter attends summer camp there. “She shouldn’t be talking to me about this.”

Some, like Richard Caster, who owns the shopping center where the statues are on display, describe the work as “natural and beautiful.” Others are pressuring Caster and Asher for the prompt addition of fig leaves, or even the relocation of the statues entirely.

This is not the first attempt to censor Asher’s work: there was a prior incident in 1995 which resulted in the temporary installation of cardboard fig leaves.

The school, which is due to start classes shortly, has left the issue up to the parents to resolve with the property owner. Which is exactly what I think they should be doing; there is no reason for the school to get involved in a dispute which does not directly involve them.

As to what should become of the art display? Sooner or later the kids are going to have the “birds and the bees” talk. I remember we had our first “sex ed” talk in fifth grade; the private school I was going to at the time required parent confirmation and I was one of two kids that got to spend those hours in the library. Thankfully having to wait another year before I learned about the penis, vagina, etc. had no lasting ill effects on me. I don’t see how it would have been any worse had I learned sooner rather than later. The great artists of the Renaissance did not censor their work; I would see such censorship today as being a step backward, not forward.

Penn & Teller’s organic food gaffe

A recent Green Blog article comments on an unfortunate gaffe by Penn & Teller.

In a recent episode of their TV show with a well-known and profane title often abbreviated to the letters “B.S.” in more polite circles, Penn and Teller question a so-called “food policy analyst expert” about organic food. (Not surprisingly, the YouTube copy of the video was pulled for a copyright claim, even though it’s arguably fair use to cite a portion of it for the purposes of Green Blog’s commentary, and mine. But, that’s another rant for another day.)

They fail to mention that their so-called expert, Alex Avery, is paid by the Hudson Institute, which is essentially a right-wing lobbyist organization funded by corporations like Monsanto which have an interest in discouraging the purchase of organic foods by consumers.

As if that was not enough, Penn and Teller are members of the Cato Institute (also see Sourcewatch entry for the show), which is also considered right-wing and funded by ExxonMobil.

It is inexcusable for a high-profile act like Penn & Teller to knowingly use their fame to mislead the public. The fact that the body of their work is entertainment as opposed to journalism does little to help their credibility. Usually, someone who works in television or radio will pick one or the other and stick with it.

So yes, I call “B.S.” on Penn & Teller.