LinkedIn Launches Lawsuit Against Unknown Hacker Defendants

I know very little about American law and jurisprudence. My sketchy understanding suggests that a court case involves a named plaintiff and a defendant. (One exception is the concept of unindicted co-conspirators, first made famous during the Nixon Administration.) Today's twist from the land of the "rule of law" comes from (surprise) Silicon Valley. According to a Bloomberg News report picked up by siliconvalley.com, LinkedIn has initiated a lawsuit against unknown hackers. The suit alleges that the computer pirates created thousands of fake profiles, from which they scraped data from legit profiles.

One curiosity in the case in the connection to Amazon.com. The complaint charges the defendants "accessed LinkedIn using a cloud computer platform offered by Amazon Web Services." The report notes LinkedIn's intention to serve subpoenas on the AWS service, even though Amazon is not named as a defendant. It's an ironic position for the "world's largest retail company," don't you think? (In fairness, Amazon.com has always claimed it's a tech company.)

It's not everyday a subpoena is sent to an unknown counterpart via electronic communication. What's truly baffling in the Bloomberg News report is that no one thought generating subpoenas to unknown recipients was odd, unusual, or noteworthy. Is this really just another day at the Silicon Valley ranch?

TSA Kids Website Includes Children's Cartoon, Coloring Pages

Image: engadget.com and Getty Images

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, the Transportation Security Administration has recently released a "TSA Kids" website. Its purpose is presumably to educate and entertain children on the virtues of airport security. I don't know how many kids will cozy up to the Federales' animated stories about suitcase searches and ID checks. However, the TSA is nothing if not hopeful: its website offers "printable coloring pages, including one of an airport scanner and an X-ray machine..."

Alleged DC Charter School Scam: Who Says There's No Money in Education?

The mantra about how "there's no money in education" keeps encountering inconvenient details which question the chant's veracity. Elements of the for-profit world, which has eyed the taxpayer funded education funding as so many chickens to be plucked, has entered the K-12 school arena. Its alliances with politicians, "committed" millionaires, and dim media reporting (The Today Show, come on down) offer formidable clout, especially against a fragmented collection of interested parties, such as local interest groups like the characteristic school district PTO.

According to a report in The Washington Post, attorneys for the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General have filed new allegations against a local charter school enterprise. The filing claims corporate officers of Options Charter Public School (OCPS) "diverted more than $3 million from the Northeast Washington school for at-risk teens to companies they founded." The brief noted a parade of self-dealing including a school bus "ridership bonus" of $100,000.

J.C. Hayward
(Image: wusa9.com)

The accused apparently owned a firm called Exceptional Education Services (EES), which effectively served as a shell company designed as a collection device for skimmed funds. One key player in the OCPS/EES scheme was J.C. Hayward, a very visible DC television personality who happened to be board chair and part-owner of EES. The TV talking head's attorney has claimed his client had no knowledge of any illegal activity. That's a curious claim for someone deeply connected to DC's power structure and is presumably worldly wise.

LAUSD students using iPads
(Image: ktla.com)

The larger issue in this story goes beyond a cautionary tale of local corruption. The K-12 education "reformers" have made a case that strong CEO-style business management and teacher "accountability" would lead to improved K-12 education. All of this would be accomplished through increased online content, data-driven teaching and supervision, and relentless testing. The goal of redirecting the flow of public funds to private gain goes unstated. Meanwhile, the imperative to make technology and its products a key educational tool has gone forward without any serious vetting.The stampede into gadget purchases has led to some troubling situations, such as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchasing hundreds of thousands of iPads at consumer market rates. At the same time, LAUSD did not buy keyboards for the devices. Oops...that would be "an extra expense," which the school district had to add on after the fact. Software? Well, various programs were sold as a three-year lease, after which LAUSD would have nothing to show for its rental costs.


Where was the strong CEO management in the LA and DC episodes? How did these initiatives advance the cause of K-12 education "reform"? Where was the senior management accountability? Where was the "community input" reformers are so keen to advance as one of their positive developments?

Image: mainepressherald.com

Bottom line: who says there is no money in K-12 education? The record suggests there's plenty of gold in the K-12 hills, and it's being mined now. The fact that the gold is taxpayer money, largely committed without genuine transparency or community participation is kept largely quiet. (Cory Booker and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg's money to the Newark, New Jersey schools comes to mind as Exhibit A. It took a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain any useful information about this situation.) The understanding of the profit motive in the K-12 world could illuminate inconvenient details, the knowledge of which would interfere with profitable revenue streams that could continue for a generation. Now, who would want that situation brought to light?

Some Surprises From a Glimpse Into a Texas "Bookless Library"

Bexar County, Texas officials
announcing in January, 2013 plans
to build a "bookless library"
(Image: bexarlibrary.org)

An Associated Press story picked up in today's Mercury News reported on a "bookless" library in Bexar County, Texas and its principal city, San Antonio. What's meant by "bookless" isn't the same as "contentless." It's all about digital delivery and the presumed window into a library's not-so-distant future, brought to a presumably grateful population by high tech and its enablers. The Texas library staff's ironic aping of Apple employee outfits and assumed "helpful" behavior was not lost on the AP reporter. Neither was the opening of a "bookless" library in a downscale neighborhood where few people can afford Silicon Valley's "must have" gadgets and for-pay content.

What went unobserved was the quality of the library's collection, the "content" patrons wanted, and the materials unavailable at the "bookless" facility. Intriguingly, the removal of shelves was discussed as something of a positive feature. The AP story notes that a "bookless" library is cheaper to build and maintain than its Carnegie predecessors. And there would be no more silly fines, disfigured books, or wait times for an item.

The AP writer did not explore a print book's still-potent ability to elude control. A print book lacks traceable keystrokes, trackable "friends," searchable history. A printed book can be passed to others without a record of its antecedent readers. Those qualities make a printed book potentially "disruptive" and politically destabilizing. Far from being "old school," printed materials encourage independent, even revolutionary perspectives in tune with today's yearning for liberty.

Yes, "content yearns to be free" -- just not in the form tech's high priests envisioned. There's some pleasure to be taken from that ironic outcome and, more importantly, action undertaken with a printed book's advantages in mind.

Message in Bottle Gets Reply Two Decades Later

Twenty-three years ago, a 10-year-old British girl put a message in a bottle. She tossed her hope into the North Sea and presumably didn't think too hard about it. Much to her surprise, the now 33-year-old  woman received a reply, along with her original message. The BBC report on this event notes that the bottle washed up on a Netherlands beach. The Dutch couple who found the bottle wrote to the British message writer.

I suppose the moral of the story is patience. Waiting more than two decades for an answer is a long time. Even Ulysses didn't have to wait that long to return to Ithaka.

First Days and First Ideas

I experienced today what many people know when they intend to create something. Call it "the blank slate" syndrome. Essentially, the phrase alludes to facing an empty computer screen, a pure canvas, a score without notes. Suddenly, nothing happens. Ideas wander around one's mind like so many sparrows around an unfortunate tree. What's the first word? What's the initial idea? What are those first strokes, lead sounds, or initial framing?

When nothing happens, it's rarely a good feeling. I'm typically a counterpuncher in the world of ideas, and the absence of a motivating concept often leaves me unable to sensibly act. That realization struck me hard today, and called for a reconsideration of how to proceed. I know some writers who reach into the well of their memoirs, but that approach always seemed limited to the extent of the writer's experience and awareness.

Magnifying this sense is New Year's Day, a time of well-intentioned resolutions and splendid illusions. I shy away from New Year's promises; I do harbor plenty of illusions, but I do try to manage them. Still, today is as good a day as any to change from counterpunching to leading.

A.J. Liebling
(Image: nytimes.com)

I suppose the boxing metaphors are on my mind, as I recently finished reading A.J. Liebling's The Sweet Science. The late New Yorker writer wrote a splendid collection of stories in which his journalistic skill, wonderful voice, and enthusiasm for boxing shine. Sometimes, reading a strong book makes facing a blank page worth pursuing on first days, and days thereafter.

Obama Administration Lobbies Against NYC School Boss Candidate

Joshua Starr
(Image: montgomeryschoolsmd.org)

According to a report in today's Washington Post, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan actively spoke against a candidate being considered for New York City's education chancellor. Duncan's target was Joshua Starr, currently serving as school superintendent in the affluent DC suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland.

Starr's offense was to dare criticize aspects of the Obama-Duncan education agenda, notably the use of standardized tests to evaluate an instructor's "value." He also called for a three-year break from high-stakes standardized exams. This moratorium strikes at the heart of the data-driven agenda Duncan and Obama have believed essential to so-called "education reform."

As the Post story noted, a Cabinet-level official very rarely intervenes in a local school district matter. However, a characteristic of the Obama and Duncan regimes is their thin skins when facing criticism. Their arrogant belief is that they are the smartest people in the room. As a consequence, they typically ignore contrary opinions and simply do what they want. (Obama's inability to touch voters' hearts is connected to this behavioral outlook.) Duncan's presumed torpedo sank Starr's chances, even though New York City mayor DiBlasio shares some of Starr's profound reservations about the education "reformers'" questionable assertions.

As Anthony Hopkins, playing Richard Nixon in the eponymous film, said: "Presidents don't threaten. They don't have to."

France Contemplates Smartphone Tax to Subsidize Gallic Culture

Image: tech2.in.com

European nations have historically subsidized their arts institutions. In the modern era, those funds typically come from tax revenues. That scenario includes the French film industry, currently under siege from America's stunningly successful export of Hollywood entertainment. The French government believes its homegrown cultural talent needs additional sources of revenue to maintain its artistic independence, Gallic identity, and, presumably, highbrow quality.

To that end, the Hollande administration is considering placing a one-percent tax on smartphones and other electronic gadgets "capable of accessing movies, music, and other content," according to a story in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Tech companies such as Google have opposed the proposed tax scheme. One suspects that warming up in high tech's legal/PR bullpen is the argument frequently appearing in the United States: taxation would "stifle innovation." Of course, high tech's thin, unsubstantiated perspective pivots on the notion that the forces creating the alleged innovation should not be interrupted from doing God's work.

What goes unstated is that France's suggested one-percent skimming of gadget transaction prices means high tech firms won't see that money. Hey, doesn't Paris understand that God's work is expensive?

Wall Street's Entry Into Residential Rental Market "Might Not End Well"

When the Great Recession struck the nation with full fury, the residential housing market suffered some serious blows. The most significant damage was done in the low-end residential segment, where strung out owners found themselves staring at foreclosure. At the time, the reigning thought was that foreclosures would depress housing prices. That event did not happen, with certain exceptions. What stemmed the foreclosure tsunami was Wall Street intervention. No, this was not done for the benefit of the Republic. Rather, sharp-eyed financiers saw an opportunity to buy low and, presumably, sell high at some point down the road. In the meantime, Wall Street firms such as Blackstone became landlords. The irony, as Prashant Gopal points out in a thoughtful Bloomberg opinion piece, is that the foreclosed owners have often become rent paying tenants.

Image: daytondailynews.com

The deal for Wall Street is a sweet one, as firms such as Blackstone have access to Federal Reserve funds at a rate roughly half of what mere mortals pay for a routine home mortgage. The chutzpah does not end there. Another Bloomberg article notes how Magnetar Capital, an Illinois-based alternative asset manager that's a new player in the foreclosed residential rental world, demanded a tax rollback on the foreclosed properties it recently purchased in Huber Heights, Ohio. Magnetar real estate representatives promised the money would be used to spruce up the acquired properties. Of course, unstated was that the "improvements" would benefit Magnetar rather than Huber Heights' neediest citizens.

Placing much faith in the promises of indifferent, Olympian financial firms does not seem a way for a community to survive, never mind thrive. Should one trust Magnetar's promises? The Bloomberg report on Dayton noted that

In 2006 and 2007, Magnetar helped banks create complex securities backed by risky mortgages. At the same time, the hedge fund [Magnetar] made bets that would profit if the homeowners defaulted. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the deals after housing imploded and has fined some of the banks involved. The government hasn't filed a complaint against Magnetar.

The notion that one should trust the lofty sentiments of a hedge fund that created dodgy mortgage-backed securities and bet against them seems downright stupid. The reality is that the Huber Heights tenants' financial assets are essentially being strip mined. Meanwhile, this dark scenario is being played out against a steady drumbeat of  economic "recovery" assertions from East Coast major media players, DC politicians, and Wall Street spokespeople. A glance at Huber Heights' new tenant class strongly argues otherwise.