The Colbert Report - September 9, 2010 - Jim Webb, Brent Cummings, Josh Bleill, John Legend

765 September 9 None Jim Webb, Brent Cummings, Josh Bleill, John Legend None 6113

Source: Wikipedia. See also: A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America

Drawing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project from Forum Network | Book Tour Podcast Podcast

Science writer and founder the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at MIT, Victor McElheny, for a look into the workings of the Human Genome Project and his new book, Drawing the Map of Life. Drawing the Map of Life is the dramatic story of the Human Genome Project from its origins, through the race to order the three billion subunits of DNA, to the surprises emerging as scientists seek to exploit the molecule of heredity. It's the first account to deal in depth with the intellectual roots of the project, the motivations that drove it, and the hype that often masked genuine triumphs. Victor McElheny offers profiles of key people, such as David Botstein, Eric Lander, Francis Collins, James Watson, Michael Hunkapiller, and Craig Venter. McElheny also shows that the Human Genome Project is a striking example of how new techniques (such as restriction enzymes and sequencing methods) often arrive first, shaping the questions scientists then ask. Drawing on years of original interviews and reporting in the inner circles of biological science, Drawing the Map of Life is the definitive, up-to-date story of today's greatest scientific quest.

Download the podcast here. This is what Salon.com had to say about the book:

But these days, the popular excitement surrounding the project has largely abated: The sequencing of the genome hasn't led to the rollout of any game-changing new drugs; we've yet to discover the genes responsible for Alzheimer's or Huntington's, among many other diseases, and the era of mass personalized medicine — in which doctors can tailor treatments to people's specific genetic code — has yet to come. But as Victor McElheny, a longtime science reporter and the founder of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, points out in his new book about the tumultuous evolution of the Human Genome Project, "Drawing the Map of Life," the widespread impact of genome sequencing is only now beginning to be felt, and a new era of genetically informed medicine is just around the corner.

Read the full Salon.com piece here. See also: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (P.S.), A Short Guide to the Human Genome, Inside the Human Genome: A Case for Non-Intelligent Design, The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the World

Charlie Rose's Tuesday, September 7, 2010 conversation with Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

CHARLIE ROSE: Tony Blair was elected prime minister of Britain three
times. In 1997 at the age of 43 he led the Labour Party to a stunning
landslide victory. He created New Labour, which made the Labour Party a
formidable force.

Blair was a centrist with a vision of a third way that focused on
social justice and free market capitalism. He forged close relationships
first with President Clinton and then with President Bush.

His most significant decision by far was supporting the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq. He has come to understand the controversy of that
decision and reaffirmed the convictions that led to it.

Since leaving office in 2007, he has led a full and engaged life. He
converted to Catholicism, he established the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to
promote interreligious dialogue. He teaches at Yale University. He is a
consultant to a number of private enterprises around the world.

Here's the full interview, and here's the transcript. See also: New Britain: My Vision Of A Young Country, Tony Blair: Prime Minister, Decision Points

An economy kept afloat by mafia cash is not just the stuff of Le Carré thrillers | Jonathan Freedland

If that sounds like the plot of a thriller, that's because it's the set-up of the new and utterly riveting John le Carré novel, Our Kind of Traitor. The Russian gangster is Dima, whose fate we follow as a rogue unit in British intelligence seeks to reel the would-be defector in to safety on England's shores.


Now here's another storyline. Leading banks around the world, desperate for cash in the financial crisis, turn to the proceeds of organised crime as "the only liquid investment capital" available, eventually absorbing the greater part of a staggering $352bn of drugs profits into the global economic system, laundering that vast sum in the process.


Sounds far-fetched, but that's no fiction. That tale was published in the Observer in December 2009, when the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime admitted that colossal piles of drugs money had kept the world financial system afloat when it looked dangerously close to collapse.

- read the Guardian article here.

The Colbert Report - September 7, 2010 - Anthony Romero

763 September 7 None Anthony Romero "It's the first day of school. Guys, do not hit on your teacher. Play it cool, let her come to you. This is The Colbert Report." 6111

Source: Wikipedia. See also: In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror

How Open Data is Used Against the Poor from Read Write Web by Marshall Kirkpatrick

Open data is all the rage these days, but is simply opening up aggregate public information for outside analysis enough to change the world for the better? A new article by Mike Gurstein, Editor of the influential Journal of Community Informatics, argues that open data may merely make the rich richer and the poor poorer, unless the "open access" paradigm is extended with what he calls "effective use." Here at ReadWriteWeb, we often write about the potential for innovation created by aggregate online and public data. Leading technology publisher Tim O'Reilly is a big, open data proponent as well (his newest conference is all about big data), but he called Gurstein's article a "sobering account of how open data is used against the poor..." "We need to think deeply about the future," O'Reilly said this afternoon.

This is an important read, and an important article to comb through for references out to other journals and other texts; this is a well established pattern of "capitalism;" we're touching on the capitalist modus operandi here. Very important. See also: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide, Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education

SPATWATCH: Michael Moore's Labor-Day Rant Against Rahm Emanuel from The Atlantic Wire by Erik Hayden

Last week's release of ex-Obama administration "car czar" Steven Rattner's book "Overhaul" came bundled with one strategically placed leak intended to drum up buzz: Rahm Emanuel saying "Fuck the UAW [United Auto Workers union]." The backlash to the throwaway line, which garnered predictable reactions from Beltway pundits, appeared to dissipate during the Labor Day weekend daze. Liberal gadfly Michael Moore, however, wasn't going to let that one slide. In an article for The Daily Beast, Moore declares a "Happy F---ing Labor Day" to you, Rahm, before railing against Obama's White House Chief of Staff in a 1,200 word expletive-filled screed. While the filmmaker admits that he "likes" Emanuel, he can't understand why Rahm would choose to target organized "working people" in such a way. "Maybe Rattner got confused because you [Rahm] drop a lot of F-bombs," Moore mused. Here are the highlights from his history lesson/tirade:

Read the full Atlantic story here.

Latest Job Numbers from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Former Congressional Budget Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and economist James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute break down the latest monthly jobs report. Plus, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio discusses his office’s new website that tracks New York’s worst landlords; author Andrew Lam on his new book, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres; and NY State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and his Democratic challenger Gustavo Rivera.

Listen to the podcast here.

A Conference For Malware Writers from Slashdot: IT by Soulskill

tsu doh nimh writes "There is a security conference being held in Mumbai later this year called MalCon, and the organizers say it's the first ever conference dedicated to the 'malcoder community.' Brian Krebs interviewed one of them and got this gem: 'Just like the concept of "ethical hacking" has helped organizations to see that hackers are not all that bad, it is time to accept that "ethical malcoding" is required to research, identify and mitigate newer malwares in a "proactive" way.' Bruce Schneier is speaking at a sister MalCon event in Pune, India two days later, and he said he doesn't agree with the organizer's premise that more malware is needed to build better security tools."

Read the full Slashdot post here. Also, check out this CNN piece on the trend of the larger nation states enforcing several security regulations about the internet.

Paul Harding: Tinkers from KQED: The Writers' Block Podcast

Paul Harding reads a passage from TINKERS, this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Download the podcast here. See also: Tinkers, By Murder's Bright Light (Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan)