Gutzon Borglum, a member of the Freemasons and the sculptor responsible for Stone Mountain, wanted his defining work, Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota, to be a much bigger undertaking than it ended up being anyway. Finished by Borglum’s son, Lincoln, Mount Rushmore as it stands today, with the heads of presidents (from left to right) Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln, carved into a granite rock face, took about 14 years to complete. Original plans called for the sculpture, which attracts about two million tourists annually, to depict the four presidents from head to waist, but the project was cut short when money ran out. All told, the entire project cost nearly $1 million.
What Does Your Phone Know About You? More Than You Think
May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Figuring that I’ve got nothing to hide or steal, I’d always privileged convenience over any privacy and security protocols. Not anymore.
I plugged my phone into my computer and opened an application called Lantern, a forensics program for investigating iPhones and iPads. Ten minutes later, I’m staring at everything my iPhone knows about me. About 14,000 text messages, 1,350 words in my personal dictionary, 1,450 Facebook contacts, tens of thousands of locations pings, every website I’ve ever visited, what locations I’ve mapped, my emails going back a month, my photos with geolocation data attached and how many times I checked my email on March 24 or any day for that matter. Want to reconstruct a night? Lantern has a time line that combines all my communications and photos in one neat interface. While most of it is invisible during normal operations, there is a record of every single thing I’ve done with this phone, which also happens to form a pretty good record of my life.
Figuring that I’ve got nothing to hide or steal, I’d always privileged convenience over any privacy and security protocols. Not anymore. Immediately after trying out Lantern, I enabled the iPhone’s passcode and set it to erase all data on the phone after 10 failed attempts. This thing remembers more about where I’ve been and what I’ve said than I do, and I’m damn sure I don’t want it falling into anyone’s hands.
by contributors@theatlantic.com (Alexis Madrigal), On Monday April 25, 2011, 10:33 am EDT
Inflation diet: same price, less product
May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Economists are worried not only about inflation, but also deflation, and now it appears U.S. consumers need to worry too.
While prices for many goods are rising, in cases where prices are steady, the packaging frequently is smaller. It’s an unmistakable trend for grocery shoppers these days: every other package seemingly has a “great new look” for the “same great price.”
The problem is that the new look is a few ounces smaller than the old packaging. Or there has been some other creative way to have shoppers pay the same money as always without recognizing that they are bringing less home.
Barring a change in the way packaging is regulated, consumers need to change habits — or at least be more attentive — in order to make their dollars go farther and minimize the effects of this cost-inflation/product-deflation cycle.
By Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch
You want a drink? Give us your fingerprints.
May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
THOUSANDS of clubbers and pub patrons are being forced to submit to fingerprint and photographic scans to enter popular venues, seemingly unaware of the ramifications of handing over their identity.
Biometric scanners, once the domain of James Bond movies, are flooding the pub market as the fix-all solution to violence and antisocial behaviour. The pubs are exerting more power than the police or airport security by demanding photos, fingerprints and ID. Police can only do it if they suspect someone of committing a crime and they must destroy the data if the person is not charged or found not guilty.
Yet one company boasts that the sensitive information collected about patrons can be kept for years and shared with other venues in the country – in what appears to be a breach of privacy laws.
by Natalie O’Brien and Eamonn Duff January 30, 2011
How Tampa Bay Lightning fan outwitted petty HOA over playoff sign
May 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Steven Paul, 28, is a Tampa Bay Lightning season ticket holder who’s justifiably excited with his team in the Eastern Conference finals, eight wins away from the Stanley Cup.
Like many other Bolts supporters, he flaunted that enthusiasm within his community. That is, until his Home Owner’s Association crushed his freedom of expression like an over-reactive parent.
But Steven Paul is a hockey fan, which means he’s both incredibly cynical and incredibly stubborn about his passions. So he got a little creative in his battle with the draconian rules of his neighborhood HOA — and appears to have won.
Back in April, before the Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference playoffs, Paul decided he wanted to make his neighbors aware of his fervor for the team.
When the Lightning clinched a playoff spot, they gave fans a playoff preparation package that included a T-shirt, stickers and a sign made for display on one’s front yard, like a political placard.
Paul placed his white “GO BOLTS” sign on his lawn on a Saturday.
On Wednesday of the following week, he received this from his HOA:
“Whoever it is that has too much time on their hands took a picture on Monday, turned it in and then I got the letter that said, ‘No signs allowed except for security signs,'” said Paul, who shared the story and the letter with the Reddit hockey community, where he’s an active member.
His HOA limits lawn signs to ones that provide free advertising for alert others that the house is protected by some kind of alarm system or security service.
“I was pissed. I was infuriated,” recalled Paul, “and then I was like, ‘OK, fine. If we can only have security signs, then I’ll make it a security sign. Full Story Here
