Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Freeze! WYD? Don’t you dare LOL!

September 4, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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It’s always fascinating to consider the ways new technologies are simultaneously helping and hurting us. Some disturbing evidence on the negative side of the equation could be found buried in an Associated Press story over the weekend, which looked at a series of recent incidents in which Los Angeles police officers have been accused of using excessive force. The article quotes Richard Weinblatt, a former police chief and police consultant who is a dean at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. He said police academy trainers have noticed that “younger cadets, who grew up communicating ... Read More

More like this: The 101
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WikiLeaks Has Not Ushered in New Era of Transparency

March 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Many breathless things have been written and said about WikiLeaks since the organization first released that startling video in 2010 of an Army helicopter over Baghdad firing on civilians. The site went on to drop hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic and defense documents that year. Amid all that raw data, WikiLeaks’ supporters and media theorists on multiple continents suggested we were now entering a new era of transparency — one in which secrecy might be dead. “All of this,” concludes legal scholar Alasdair Roberts in a new paper, “is vastly overwrought.” Roberts, ... Read More

More like this: Politics, The Idea Lobby
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Automotive Technology: Convenience vs. Privacy

March 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

The Chevrolet Vega of 1975 came equipped with an electronic control unit underneath the hood. Through a network of sensors this unit monitored the vehicle’s essential systems: throttle position, idle speed, coolant temperature and most importantly, the fuel injection system — a first for an American car. The device synthesized the data and adjusted these systems to achieve maximum efficiency. It functioned inconspicuously—no dashboard touch screen or “driver interface” — and it was purely self-contained. Neither the control unit nor the Vega communicated with the outside ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
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Researchers Examine Life Without Cellphones

May 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Late one night in early December, my cellphone died. I started the ludicrous dance of attempted resuscitation: stroking the blank face, wiggling the charger, holding the power button for long, pleading seconds. In frustration, I hurled it down with all my might — albeit onto the bed, where it would sustain no real damage. And then, close to tears, I suddenly wondered: Did I need it that badly? In an age when 90 percent of young adults cuddle up with their phones and 1 in 4 American homes no longer have a landline, cellphones are beyond ubiquitous. But with potential side effects of ... Read More

More like this: Culture
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Eyes Wide Open But Algorithms Wide Shut?

November 5, 2009 • By • 1 Comment

Adobe hosted a one-day conference in Washington this week capping off an extravagant PR campaign — complete with billboards throughout the D.C. metro system and animated ads all over most local news Web sites — touting the idea that its tools help "open up government." Barack Obama pledged to make bureaucracy more transparent, and the software provider wants to point out that its products will make this possible. The premise seems reasonable enough: Most technological neophytes at least know how to open a PDF. Government currently publishes everything from IRS forms to pages of the ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics, Politics, The Idea Lobby
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