Monthly Archives: February 2014

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Study Shockingly Suggests Internet Trolls May Not Be Very Nice Or Particularly Mentally Healthy In Real Life

A new study from the University of Manitoba has shockingly claimed to have found that the Internet trolls we all know or love so well may not be very nice — or particularly mentally healthy — individuals in real life. The study tried to explore whether or not Internet trolls fell into the so called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others). The study (mostly survey, really) claims to have found:

“… correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.”

It’s worth noting that the survey found, by and large, that most people online are perfectly reasonable and decent human beings. At the very least they’re just quiet lurkers:

“To be sure, only 5.6 percent of survey respondents actually specified that they enjoyed “trolling.” By contrast, 41.3 percent of Internet users were “non-commenters,” meaning they didn’t like engaging online at all. So trolls are, as has often been suspected, a minority of online commenters, and an even smaller minority of overall Internet users.”

The study appears to rely heavily on subjects pulled from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who may not be a good control representative of what constitutes normal behavior, either online or off. The study also appears to be rather heavily reliant on simply asking people if they liked to be jerks on the Internet — which if I were an Internet troll, I’m not sure I’d answer correctly. Reading their analysis and methodology, it’s not clear to me if the researchers did (or could) calculate how anonymity can turn a relatively normal person into a blathering jackass (as this classic Penny Arcade comic illustrates in deep scientific detail).

Is somebody necessarily a sadist offline because anonymity turns them into a jerk when they’re online? Isn’t it possible that people act worse online because the sense of anonymity gives them the belief they’re free from repercussion and can therefore experiment with darker, but not necessarily dominant, aspects of their personality they’d fear to explore offline? Wouldn’t that especially be true of children, who may express anger at their lack of power through online rage, but develop into perfectly normal people as they age?

You can dig through the full methodology yourself, assuming you’re smart enough, professor. Those shoes make you look fat. I’d also like to point out that the Beatles sucked, Internet Explorer is the vastly superior browser, the RIAA makes a lot of solid points based on sound scientific data, the Comcast merger will help cure cancer and save puppies, and my little sister is much better than you are at this game, bro.

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Houston Issues ‘Cease-And-Desist’ To Uber To Stop Houston Residents From Communicating With Their Government

We’ve covered for a while now how Uber — the mobile phone-enabled car/taxi ordering service — has run up against a bunch of obsolete laws in various cities, often leading to bizarre rebuttals from municipal officials. Uber quickly realized that each ridiculous response from a city government was something of a marketing opportunity to introduce itself to new cities. You would think, by now, city officials would learn that the proper thing to do is figure out how to work with Uber to provide better transportation for their citizenry, rather than immediately bowing to demands from taxi/limo companies who fear potential competition.

However, the response from Houston may be the most bizarre of all. Uber had set up a petition for Houston residents, emailing city officials of their support for allowing Uber in that city. In response to this, the city of Houston issued a cease-and-desist, effectively telling Uber to stop asking Houston residents to contact their own elected government about this issues any more.

From: Feldman, David M. – LGL Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 8:46 AM
To: Miller, Robert
Subject: Uber Cease and Desist

Robert – Please consider this as a formal demand that your client, Uber, cease and desist from transmitting or aiding in the transmission of form e-mails to City officials regarding the adoption of an ordinance to accommodate their enterprise. Despite my informal request to you by telephone on Monday, the excessive number of e-mails has gone unabated, to the point that it has become harassing in nature and arguably unlawful. Failure to cease and desist will be met with appropriate action by the City.

David M. Feldman
City Attorney
City of Houston

It’s ridiculous for Feldman to argue that citizens contacting their own elected officials is a form of harassment and somehow illegal. And, of course, the end result of this is that it just drives that much more attention to the issue (and probably even more emails).

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Band Whose Label Threatened Larry Lessig Comes Out Strongly In Favor Of Fair Use

In the wake of Liberation Music settling with Larry Lessig over its direct threat to sue him for clear fair use, the band whose music was involved in the dispute, Phoenix, has put out a strong statement in favor of fair use. Not only have they posted L… Continue reading

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DailyDirt: Is It Safe To Eat That?

The global food supply chain is significantly more complicated than it was a few generations ago. Some of it is due to technological progress, but sometimes it’s due to greed and/or pollution. Eliminating waste and making food processes as efficient as possible sounds like a admirable goal, but the food products created at the end of the day should be appetizing… and, more importantly, safe to eat. If you’re not too squeamish, check out these links on food that might churn your stomach.

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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Dash-Cam Revelations In NJ Show Again The Importance Of Video As Evidence In Police Abuse

Several weeks ago, Tim Cushing wrote about a case in New Jersey featuring an officer accused of abusing a cyclist who failed to engage his dash-cam during the incident. As noted in the piece, the value of having optional tape of any incident occurring… Continue reading

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USTR Promises Congress TPP Will Have Strong Environmental Protections; Then Immediately Denies Saying That

Back in January, you may recall that Wikileaks helped leak out the TPP’s environmental chapter. It showed fairly weak efforts to protect the environment, many of which appeared to be there more for show than anything else. While it did reveal that the US had been negotiating for greater environmental protections, it also revealed that it was somewhat alone in that position, leading many to believe that any final agreement is likely to be even weaker than what’s currently in the chapter. In response to this, the USTR put out what appeared to be a fairly strong statement that it won’t accept weak environmental protections in the TPP.

However, over at Huffington Post, Zach Carter notes that USTR Michael Froman isn’t convincing anyone in Congress, because he’s doing what he’s always done best: talking out of both sides of his mouth, first promising strong environmental protections, then denying he ever said any such thing:

“Ambassador Froman was asked on I think it was four different areas, and each time he said it was absolutely non-negotiable from a U.S. standpoint,” [Rep. Mark] Pocan told The Huffington Post. “So then at the end, I listed those four areas to make sure I had the U.S. position right. And he said again it was non-negotiable. And then right after that, Lloyd Doggett got up and said, ‘So does that mean that if we give you fast track, you won’t send us a deal that doesn’t have that stuff in it?’ And right off the bat, the answer was, ‘I didn’t say that.’ And to me, non-negotiable is, you know, non-negotiable.”

And, of course, one of those four key areas was strong environmental protections.

“Froman said we’re not gonna sign it unless there’s an enforceable environmental chapter,” another attendee told HuffPost. “And Doggett says, ‘What does that mean? … If we give you fast track, you’re not gonna come back with a deal that doesn’t have an enforceable environmental chapter?’ Then Froman says very emphatically, ‘I can’t speak for the president. All I can tell you is we’re working as hard as we can to get an enforceable chapter in there.'”

Except that, as USTR, it’s kind of Froman’s job to speak for the President on this issue.

But, even more to the point is that this highlights (yet again) how the USTR is flat out lying about fast track (also known as “trade promotion authority”). As we’ve pointed out, Fast Track gets Congress to abdicate its (Constitutionally-granted) powers to regulate international commerce, by denying it the ability to actually explore what’s in these agreements. Instead, fast track more or less gives the USTR a form of “pre-approval” to come back with a final agreement, such that Congress can only give the total thing a yes or no vote.

The USTR has attempted, ridiculously, to mischaracterize fast track authority as the opposite, pretending that it allows Congress to set the parameters for what the USTR must negotiate. Yet, here it’s pretty damn obvious that’s not the case at all. These members of Congress are asking about environmental protections, and are being told its “non-negotiable” — suggesting that the USTR understands Congress’ intent here. Yet, when pressed specifically on whether, if given fast track, he is guaranteeing those proposals will be in the final TPP, Froman immediately pretends he said no such thing.

And while some may argue he can’t promise that because he’s only one of many parties involved in the negotiation, that very point highlights why fast track authority is totally inappropriate. Congress can’t give up its sole authority in regulating international trade, based on a weak promise from the administration that it will try its best to get them what they want.

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Basics of CSS Blend Modes

Bennett Feely has been doing a good job of showing people the glory of CSS blend modes. There are lots of designerly effects that we’re used to seeing in static designs (thanks to Photoshop) that we don’t see on the web much, with dynamic content. But that will change as CSS blend modes get more support. I’d like to look at the different ways of doing it, since it’s not exactly cut and dry.

CSS Multiple Backgrounds Blend Modes


Basics of CSS Blend Modes is a post from CSS-Tricks

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Label Threatening Larry Lessig With Insane Infringement Claim Over Fair Use Video Caves In, Pays Up

Last summer, we wrote about what appeared to be a suicidal Australian record label, Liberation Music, which issued a DMCA claim (after first having a disputed ContentID claim) on a classic presentation by famed professor (and copyright/fair use expert)… Continue reading

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UPDATED: Google Files Emergency Motion To Stop Censorship Ruling Over ‘Innocence Of Muslims’, Is Denied

Update: And… the motion has been denied with little explanation (pdf link). We’ll bring more analysis if/when we get more information.

As was fully expected, Google has quickly filed an “emergency motion for a stay” on the horrific 9th Circuit ruling that the company needed to take down all copies of the Innocence of Muslims film and block it from being re-uploaded anywhere. Google has made it clear that it will fight this decision, starting with asking the 9th Circuit for an en banc rehearing (appeals court cases are normally heard with 3 judges — an en banc hearing, if the court agrees to hear it — includes a larger slate of judges (in the 9th Circuit, it is almost always 11 judges, though in theory it could be all 29).

Appeals courts don’t often grant requests for en banc hearings and, as such, often don’t grant stays (basically holding off enforcing the order). However, with this case generating so much attention (and condemnation), hopefully enough of the judges in the 9th Circuit agree that it’s worth rethinking Judge Kozinski’s order.

Google’s motion lays out the basic argument, highlighting that the ruling simply invents new law and ignores precedents that the court is bound by. It also highlights how the ruling seems to get some rather basic issues flat out wrong. Furthermore, it highlights that there is real harm from the censorship imposed by the ruling, while leaving the video up for a little more time is unlikely to create any additional harm (if it ever created any harm in the first place).

The panel majority’s takedown order contravenes Circuit law by imposing a mandatory injunction—an injunction gagging speech, no less—even though the majority found the merits “fairly debatable.” … The majority’s novel copyright analysis is wrong on several fronts, creates splits in the Ninth Circuit, and will produce devastating effects: Under the panel’s rule, minor players in everything from Hollywood films to home videos can wrest control of those works from their creators, and service providers like YouTube will lack the ability to determine who has a valid copyright claim. And absent a stay, Google, YouTube, and the public face irreparable harm because the panel’s order will gag their speech and limit access to newsworthy documents—categorically irreparable injuries.

The full filing certainly highlights the likely arguments that Google is hoping to make should the court agree to an en banc hearing or, barring that, in an attempt to get the Supreme Court to hear the case.

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Google Files Emergency Motion To Stop Censorship Ruling Over ‘Innocence Of Muslims’

As was fully expected, Google has quickly filed an “emergency motion for a stay” on the horrific 9th Circuit ruling that the company needed to take down all copies of the Innocence of Muslims film and block it from being re-uploaded anywhere. Google has made it clear that it will fight this decision, starting with asking the 9th Circuit for an en banc rehearing (appeals court cases are normally heard with 3 judges — an en banc hearing, if the court agrees to hear it — includes a larger slate of judges (in the 9th Circuit, it is almost always 11 judges, though in theory it could be all 29).

Appeals courts don’t often grant requests for en banc hearings and, as such, often don’t grant stays (basically holding off enforcing the order). However, with this case generating so much attention (and condemnation), hopefully enough of the judges in the 9th Circuit agree that it’s worth rethinking Judge Kozinski’s order.

Google’s motion lays out the basic argument, highlighting that the ruling simply invents new law and ignores precedents that the court is bound by. It also highlights how the ruling seems to get some rather basic issues flat out wrong. Furthermore, it highlights that there is real harm from the censorship imposed by the ruling, while leaving the video up for a little more time is unlikely to create any additional harm (if it ever created any harm in the first place).

The panel majority’s takedown order contravenes Circuit law by imposing a mandatory injunction—an injunction gagging speech, no less—even though the majority found the merits “fairly debatable.” … The majority’s novel copyright analysis is wrong on several fronts, creates splits in the Ninth Circuit, and will produce devastating effects: Under the panel’s rule, minor players in everything from Hollywood films to home videos can wrest control of those works from their creators, and service providers like YouTube will lack the ability to determine who has a valid copyright claim. And absent a stay, Google, YouTube, and the public face irreparable harm because the panel’s order will gag their speech and limit access to newsworthy documents—categorically irreparable injuries.

The full filing certainly highlights the likely arguments that Google is hoping to make should the court agree to an en banc hearing or, barring that, in an attempt to get the Supreme Court to hear the case.

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