Search Engine Rankings And Impact on Electoral Processes

Craig Timberg
(photo: Google Images)

An opinion piece by Washington Post technology writer Craig Timberg raised interesting, yet very troubling questions about our understanding of and relationship with information search engines.

Timberg used an experiment conducted by psychologist Robert Epstein as a context for his WaPo piece. Epstein's idea was to explore whether doctored search results would impact users' perceptions of political candidates, thus implicitly shaping how an election might result. In simplistic terms, a search engine firm motivated to promote a specific candidate or slate of candidates could place favorable items at the top of a specific search heap. Given that an increasing number of users obtain critical information from search results, rather than from, say, TV news, this finding has disturbing repercussions for a democratic society. The findings suggested that, in a world where ranking is king and "truth" does not compute, the search engine's choice had a decided advantage in the battlefield of influence. The search engine's preferred candidate or slate stood a far better chance of winning.

Neither Timberg nor Epstein accuse any search engine enterprise of cooking results for political gain. However, Epstein acknowledged he once had a public spat with Google, a fact noted in Timberg's story. Google, which Timberg contacted for comment on his WaPo story, strenuously asserted its "agnostic" approach to its algorithmic presentation of the "truth." One curious notion presented in the article was the concept that search results may be protected by the First Amendment. In a different industry, some Wall Street ratings firms hid behind the First Amendment when their outrageous AAA appraisals of subprime mortgage investment vehicles dissolved during the 2007-2008 financial disaster.

Image: slate.com

The assertion of "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" approach for search engine firms is a tricky area. Not so long ago, as Wired and other sources noted, Google navigated litigation that asserted the search firm provided search results that favored itself or its advertisers over firms that did not pony up for Google's advertising programs. While search engine firms advocate open access to information, they jealously guard their own proprietary secret sauces. Consumers and institutions simply have to take the word of Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engine information providers that they know what's best for you. It is fair to say they work very hard at understanding what you might want. However, they're reluctant to share that knowledge in an open dialogue. It's the secrecy that breeds suspicion. Does that sound like a sound formula for a democratic society?

US Supreme Court Justice's Credit Card Hacked

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
(photo: Fox News)

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts found out the hard way that hacking has no legal bounds. According to a Washington Post story, the lead Supreme was informed at a DC Starbucks that his credit card was compromised. Ironically, the episode occurred the first day of hearings on California's Proposition 8, the so-called "same-sex marriage" issue.

Harvard Expert Asserts Iraq-Afghan Wars Will Be Most Expensive in US History

Former President George W. Bush
(photo: Fox News)

Remember "Mission Accomplished"? In what seems a lifetime ago, then-President George W. Bush landed a plane onto an aircraft carrier and made his now infamous declaration about the Iraq conflict. The mission turned out to be a disaster. It also became something of a financial albatross for the United States.

The weight of that dead bird was recently estimated by a Harvard University public policy professor. Her cost estimate of the Iraq conflict, combined with Afghanistan military operations, ranges from four trillion to six trillion dollars when all is said and done. Her findings were reported in an article in today's Los Angeles Times.

Other estimates are "merely" two trillion dollars, with $262 billion "in interest on the resulting debt." Whatever one's opinion of America's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the notion that the conflicts could be paid without raising revenue for them was absurd and deeply dishonest. Conservatives, who believed a tax cut could be managed during a major military conflict, should take a hard look in the mirror for foisting such a damaging fiction on the public during the Bush-Cheney era. To this day, the right-wing remains in profound denial over the Iraq-Afghanistan wars and the cancerous corruption they spawned. Their mission, far from accomplished, seems as nearly bankrupt as our nation really and truly is. That's a shame.

Amazon Swallows Up Goodreads

Is Amazon your friend?
(image: janefriedman.com)

With the ink barely dry on the Amazon-CIA contract, the Seattle-based tech colossus has purchased the social media book site Goodreads, according to a report in today's Financial Times. The FT report did not cite a purchase price, or other acquisition details. As is Amazon's characteristic practice, the deal announcement was made via a statement. This Amazon tactic is intended to keep the media at arm's length, so that pesky questions are never acknowledged and Amazon can keep an iron grip on its message.

Goodreads was founded and owned by Otis Chandler, the grandson of the eponymous Chandler who was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. (A fascinating piece on the investment side of Goodreads appears courtesy of Wade Roush's interview with its two venture capital investors. The story appears in xconomy.com.)

The tale of the tape is that Chandler the Youngest saw opportunity to link books and readers together. While that assertion may be accurate, his larger intention was to build a successful tech company. What many of Goodreads' bibliophiles did not realize was that the site essentially was a data collection machine. In that sense, it fit neatly into Amazon's business model. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, has consistently maintained to anyone who would listen that his company has always been first and foremost a tech enterprise.

Amazon's sense of timing was exquisite. The story was reported in the late afternoon hours prior to Good Friday. The markets happen to be closed on Good Friday, and many people have been celebrating the Passover and Easter holidays. The slow news cycle was a made-to-order event for the Amazon coup.

Of course, the Obama Administration's pro-Amazon Department of Justice has not made any comment on Goodreads' annexation into Jeff Bezos' expanding tech empire.

Report: Chicago Cubs Worth One Billion Dollars

Wrigley Field
(photo: Major League Baseball)

Big-league baseball's opening games are less than two weeks away. Among the teams that don't have a realistic chance of winning the World Series is the Chicago Cubs. That's hardly news, as the Cubbies have been a bad team more often than not. Usually, fans don't back a loser. The Cubs are a very notable exception to that dictum. Games at Wrigley Field, the Cubs' home ball park, are typically standing-room only affairs. The club has a national following that almost certainly loves despair. Cub merchandise sells steadily.

Just how lucrative is the Cub franchise? The Chicago Tribune cited a recent Forbes article which claimed Chicago's National League team was worth $1 billion. That's fourth highest on the MLB value list, behind the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox. The piece also asserted that the Cubs were the majors' most profitable enterprise, although that might not be to the Cub management's credit. Baseball's accounting might be even more creative than Hollywood's bookkeeping. However, the Cubs' record over the years doesn't lie: the team stinks.

Dionne Warwick Sings Bankruptcy Song to IRS

Dionne Warwick, whose music has consistently sold since her debut in the 1960s, filed for Chapter Seven bankruptcy this week. It turns out the singer owed the IRS over a million dollars in back taxes. According to an article in Rolling Stone, Warwick tried to pay what the feds were due. However, penalties and interest foiled her efforts to set the books straight with Uncle Sam and, presumably, state government tax authorities.

The 72-year-old Warwick can now move forward financially, although her credit score is probably shattered for the remainder of her days. Don't be surprised if Dionne makes a lot of personal appearances, so that she can make her reported $20,000 per month "living expenses."

Student Loan Write-Offs Hit $3 Billion -- And Counting -- in 2013

While the drumbeat of "our economy is getting better and better every day" keeps pounding, the reality of the situation is something else. A Reuters story in today's Chicago Tribune noted that student loan write-offs for the first two months of 2013 reached $3 billion. That's a lot of money, even by contemporary standards of wealth measurement.

In case you're keeping score at home, the overall student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion in 2011. That seems like a lot of risk. The old saw that says "If you piled the debt, it would surpass the height of ____________" applies here; in fact, one could fill in the blank with "a college administration building" and conceptually be on target. Meanwhile, the corrupt American university system continues to raise its tuition and fees well beyond any level close to the official inflation guidelines.

Teen App Makers, Smart Phones, and Social Class

Mike Cassidy
(photo: Google Plus)

An article by Mercury News business columnist Mike Cassidy in today's siliconvalley.com explores what's going on for some teenaged app creators. The story's theme is that teens now consider smart phones as the ne plus ultra platform for their inventions. App development also provides access into basic programming, the knowledge of which tech's high priests have insisted is among the world's essential ambitions. Recently, according to a KQED story, some Northern California elementary schools offer class time for learning basic programming language. (No comment was added about helping this new generation become articulate in the English language.)

Teen app developers theoretically can come from all walks of life. In order to create apps, they do need access to a reasonably current computer and, of course, a smart phone. Those criteria immediately separate the haves from the have-nots. Teens from poor or rural backgrounds are far less likely to have this equipment than their suburban or prosperous urban peers. Kids from city neighborhoods without supermarkets (a useful definition of "ghetto") might have a smart phone. A computer? Maybe not.

Further, teens from areas such as tech-savvy Milpitas (the town mentioned in Cassidy's article) have far greater opportunity to connect with live human beings associated with the tech biz. While the proposition of online peer learning is a slam dunk concept for app development, the process is far more efficient when people interact in such quaint ways as face-to-face meetings.

The one depressing note in Cassidy's piece is a Milpitas high school teacher's observation about what teens find inspiring. "You could say for them that the movie 'The Social Network' was for them what 'Easy Rider' was for an earlier generation...It was just like a way to live." For teens who dream of emulating Mark Zuckerberg's college drop-out career path, beware of what you wish for. The "Facebook movie" depicts a world where emasculated privacy, a disdain for ethics, ruthless financial gatekeepers, corrupt elitism, and a boy's club atmosphere are considered generators of the greatest possible good for individuals and for society.

The Social Network skewers those who celebrate these presumably undesirable qualities. However, teens are supposedly enamored of the "empowerment" tech's young zillionaires embody. We've come a long way -- and not a useful or good way -- from Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper rebelling against a fucked up society.

GOP Scores TKO in Fight Over Obama Court Nominee

While President Obama went on the road to break matzoh with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu this week, his administration's judicial branch power game suffered a home field setback.

Caitlin Halligan
(photo: Washington Post)

The GOP won a significant victory this week, when Obama's candidate for the D.C. Circuit Court withdrew her nomination. The nominee, Caitlin Halligan, could not overcome the determined resistance of Republican senators, one of whom alleged she harbored opposition to gun manufacturers. Apparently, the gun lobby's animosity and Halligan's liberal political perspectives constituted sufficient reasons to torpedo a seasoned jurist who had clerked with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

The D.C. Circuit Court is a big deal in the judicial branch's pecking order. According to the Los Angeles Times' report on Halligan's withdrawal, President Obama himself noted that "the D.C. Circuit is considered the nation's second-highest court..." Chief Justice John Roberts had served on that court. Many years ago, the Republicans shrewdly made their play to put a vise grip on the judicial system. While complaining about allegedly "activist" liberal jurists, the GOP put its soldiers into important posts such as the D.C. Circuit. As a consequence, conservative activists have stamped their perspectives on nearly all aspects of law. The rulings matter, and have ripple effects that remain, in some cases, for decades.

The timing of the Halligan withdrawal is not a coincidence. The president is out of the country. Saturday is the day bad news gets "managed." The Easter-Passover holidays are nearly upon us. For casual observers, the Halligan incident will pass with little comment or reflection. However, the insiders know the score. For better or worse, the Halligan defeat was a right-wing victory.

Chinua Achebe -- RIP

Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian writer best known for his pathfinding novel Things Fall Apart, died this week at age 82. The obit in the online edition of the BBC provides a useful overview of his literary output, political activities, and global impact.

Chinua Achebe (left) with Nelson Mandela
(photo: BBC)

Achebe's work is often found in high school curricula in the United States. That was not the case for me. I first encountered Achebe's prose when I was a raw freshman at the University of Wisconsin. At that time, I thoughtlessly registered for a class in African literature. That mindless choice turned out to be one of the best intellectual encounters I experienced in any academic setting. The professor, Harold Scheub, was a very adept collector of oral stories. He walked -- yes, walked -- through South Africa, recording storytellers speaking what I discovered was the very beautiful Xhosa language. He accomplished this feat during the height of apartheid -- a tall order for a Caucasian carrying a tape recorder and a backpack. He also showed slides (those were the days!) of South African landscapes that entirely projected the country's marvelous physical setting. The professor, through the works he explored, opened my eyes to a world of thinking. His imagination and rigor changed my intellectual development in profound, beneficial ways.

Cover of First UK Edition

The class consisted of quite a number of purposeful graduate students, a few undergrads who had an affinity or compelling academic interest in the subject, and me. In addition to a thick course packet and a fascinating collection of African folktales, the required reading list for the semester included fourteen novels. One of them was Things Fall Apart. I had never heard of it prior to that class. I enjoyed the book, but its larger lessons were lost on me at the time. However, over the years, I kept seeing Achebe's masterpiece around and eventually understood its significance in world literature.

Achebe's life and work stand as potent reminders of how "engaged" writers impact our world. One may encounter a book by accident, as I did with Things Fall Apart, but continue to be touched decades later by its tone, its perspective, its characters, its message, its mysterious magic.

Report: Amazon Lands Contract to House CIA Data

Here's something to think about as you cozy up to your Kindle Reader: Amazon may soon be a CIA contractor.

As reported originally in Federal Computer Weekly and picked up by the LA Times and The Christian Science Monitor, Amazon Web Services has landed a $600 million deal to provide a cloud-computing "solution" for the intelligence service The two entities may be a perfect match, as both share a penchant for secrecy and a lust for data. The CIA at least has to undergo Congressional oversight, something Amazon often dodges artfully.

Both Amazon and the CIA also prefer storing data indefinitely. The CIA's CIO, Gus Hunt, recently told a tech-heavy gathering in New York that "connecting the dots" in intelligence gathering required the CIA to "collect everything and hang on to it forever." Amazon's M.O. is essentially the same as the spooks' approach to everyday business, except that Big A's clients and prospects offer up their data without question. The CIA just takes.

For some time, the Obama Administration has been cozy with Amazon. The Obama re-election campaign's successful use of "big data" showed the president's awareness of this tool's scope and reach. For some time, I've wondered why the Department of Justice would go out of its way to conduct investigations whose principal commercial beneficiary was unquestionably Amazon.  Of course, Amazon has the data capacity to make many things happen, even for an institution with unique needs, such as the CIA. Perhaps the calculation was that it would be best to keep Big A happy, and keep it on your side. Maybe some top-secret data business could be "accommodated" by the secretive Seattle-based firm. (Keep in mind that Amazon chief Jeff Bezos' "Blue Origin" project is building a rocket for manned space flight.)

Oh yes, for the record, neither the CIA nor Amazon would comment to the media on the reported cloud-computing contract.

US Senators Cite Drone Threat to Privacy

Interior of a drone

A bipartisan group of US senators expressed profound concern today that the wide-open, domestic use of drones signifies a potentially dangerous erosion of privacy rights.

According to an article in today's Los Angeles Times, "So far, no privacy policy defines how long government authorities may keep video and other data collected by the drones, how it can be used or whether it can be shared with other government agencies or the public."

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed their deep concern over unregulated drone activity and its impact on privacy. Their hearings on this issue have assumed greater urgency as the drone industry has undertaken something of a full-court press to sell its products in the US market. Their potential clients extend well beyond natural surveillance constituencies, such as law enforcement agencies. As the LA Times report noted, "Congress has mandated the FAA to open U.S. airspace to commercial drone traffic by September 2015..."

Real estate firms, "data aggregators," and traffic reporting services are among those enterprise categories keenly interested in obtaining the Sons of Predator. Unstated are the darker uses of drones, such as private investigation businesses and tabloid publications, which would presumably be legal. Would the First Amendment cover their activities?

French Minister Probing Tax Fraud Has Secret Swiss Bank Account

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department, European Division"

Jerome Cahuzac
(photo: Paris Match)

Jerome Cahuzac, the French budget minister whose responsibilities included investigating tax fraud, resigned today. According to a report noted in the financial blog zerohedge.com, it turns out M. Cahuzac possesses a Swiss bank account. In and of itself, that's not a crime. However, when the account is secret, and you're investigating people who also have hush-hush bank accounts outside the land of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, you invite...how can I put this...skepticism. In this case, it's Gallic-style skepticism. Since that's rarely for the faint of heart, M. Cahuzac decided it was time to bid adieu to French President Francois Hollande's increasingly unpopular administration.

For a Parisian perspective on l'affaire Cahuzac, read Le Monde's story on the affair, which includes the former minister's declaration of innocence. If you're in the mood for a second helping of scandal, dig into the French newspaper Liberation's version of events.

Report: $138 Billion to Private Contractors During Iraq Occupation

Among the outrages of the American occupation of Iraq (don't kid yourself with any reference to a "coalition") was the scale of the monetary corruption. The principal beneficiaries of the financial largesse were various contractors. Notable among them was KBR, a former subsidiary of Dick Cheney's Halliburton.

US Senator Claire McCaskill
(photo: Wikipedia)

Thanks to the efforts of US Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and others, some of the truth about the shameful corruption is coming to light. According to a story in today's Financial Times, contractors who performed services in Iraq received at least $138 billion over the past ten years. (Many observers consider that figure a low estimate.) Nearly 30% of that money went to KBR, which supplied food and water for US troops. That's a lot of freeze-dried horse meat.

American conservatives, to their enduring shame, have never spoken out against the Bush-Cheney era corruption. They were on their heels from the start. Witness Neo-Con Paul Wolfowitz's 2003 comment that "we are dealing with a country (Iraq) that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." This fiscal disaster was compounded by the moral nightmare that Abu Ghraib epitomized and intellectual gangsters such as Wolfowitz enabled.

To this day, Americans largely don't want to face what happened in Iraq. They also don't have any inclination to confront the corruption that led to the financial collapse in 2007-2008. Today's ridiculous settlement between the Federal government and Citigroup over the firm's misrepresentation of subprime investments is merely the most recent, sorry exhibit.  Therefore, it's not surprising that the story about Iraq and the contractors appeared in a British newspaper. Americans, except for Claire McCaskill and some few intrepid others, just won't go there.

NYC Playground Hoops Stories from My Vault

My blog post about the passing of New York City high school basketball coach Jack Curran led me to reconsider other hoop experiences in the big city.

My parents and I moved to Queens when I was entering my teen years. Our apartment included a view of a junior high school and its adjacent playground. That gave me a somewhat distant vantage point to watch some of the City's best ballplayers compete against one another. I don't know why this particular playground, in the heart of a middle-class neighborhood, was the chosen ground. Two ideas come to mind: (1) The basketball courts were within walking distance of the subway, New York's transportation lifeblood; (2) Gangs were not contesting this particular turf.

The games were typically held on Sunday mornings, starting around seven o'clock. The level of play bordered on superb, with an emphasis on moves to the hoop. Jump shots were something of a last resort. While the players were mostly teenagers, these Sunday morning affairs were a man's game. Competition and testing one's opponent formed the fulcrum of these contests. I suppose somebody kept score, but the final tally wasn't the point.

West 4th Street Courts
(Old School photo: nycgovparks.org/parks)

Basketball for serious adult playground legends didn't take place in my neighborhood. That happened elsewhere. My one window into that world was the West Fourth Street playground in the City. This constantly active scene bordered on Sixth Avenue and sat adjacent to the subway station that was the gateway to Greenwich Village. West Fourth's Showtime atmosphere was just as much fun for spectators as for the players. Some urban hoop legends played here, but I didn't know who they were. The games, at their best, were intensely spirited affairs where, on occasion, wagers were placed. This was also the land of night basketball; it didn't threaten anyone except those hostile to earthy urban lifestyles. When I watched these games, I felt at one with the City, just as much as when I saw boats sail under the Brooklyn Bridge at night.

Jack Curran, NYC High School Hoops Pontiff -- RIP

Jack Curran
(Illustration: molloy.org)

Jack Curran, who coached high school basketball and baseball in New York City for over a half-century, passed away earlier this week.

The late coach's prominence can be measured by his obit on the lead sports page of The New York Times, a Lenn Robbins column in The New York Post that recalled Curran's life and career, a Wall Street Journal notice, and an Associated Press story that the Long Island-centric newspaper Newsday ran. The piece I found touching was New York Post beat writer Zach Braziller's heartfelt, self-deprecating remembrance of "Mr. Curran." Not bad for a high school coach.

The obits demonstrate just how profoundly Curran's story links with Gotham's close relationship with basketball. He coached a number of future NBA stars, notably Kenny Anderson, Kevin Joyce, Kenny Smith, and Brian Winters. Curran's former players also included some who later became hoop coaches. He also was well known in the college game, with basketball deities such as Dean Smith among the people Curran could (and did) call, get his call answered, his request acknowledged and usually addressed.

Curran was a significant locus of the New York Catholic basketball coaching crowd, which over the years featured, among others, Lou Carnesecca, Frank McGuire, Rick Pitino, Bob Hurley (New Jersey's version of Curran), Billy Donovan, and (my favorite by far) Al McGuire. (For a thoughtful, splendidly written insight into this world, read David Halberstam's "He Got a Shot in the NBA, and It Went In," from the collection Everything They Had: Sports Writing from David Halberstam.) Most of their action was spawned in the Northeast, with some outposts, such as Al McGuire's Marquette teams, in the Midwest. New York was this world's heart and soul; Curran lived and breathed that atmosphere. Sometimes, his high school team -- the Archbishop Molloy Stanners -- played in Madison Square Garden. Yes, it was a big deal.

Archbishop Molly HS
(photo: Wikipedia)

The Stanner coach's office at Molloy was not far from the track and field section of the locker room. I was a shot putter through most of my Molloy high school years. (In case you're wondering, I sucked at shot put.) Curran kept to his world, although he often acted as if the track team, which had won many more team championships than his basketball squads had, was an annoying swarm of gnats. The track team's head coach at the time was Frank Rienzo, who eventually became Georgetown's athletic director. He did not tolerate fools and he was bluntly outspoken on matters athletic, political, or personal. For the record, I never witnessed any banter between the legendary basketball coach and the proud, accomplished track boss. Ever.

During the spring athletic season, Molloy's pole vaulters, shot putters, discus hurlers, and javelin throwers practiced inside the track oval. The baseball team, which Curran coached, sometimes practiced in the oval, probably on a shared schedule. Well, one day, Curran and his squad came out with bats and balls and made a move to practice inside the oval, in what seemed an apparent and arrogant violation of the coaches' agreement. The field teams were conducted by a mild-mannered Marist brother from the same Grace family that owned W.R. Grace. When he saw what was coming our way, the man of Christ summoned Mike, the best we had with a spear. "Mike," our coach said, "I want you to practice for distance now." Mike took the hint and let fly.

Now, why anyone would let a teenage boy hurl metal spears around an infield still unnerves me. I'm not alone in that thought: it only took one javelin toss for Curran to get the message. The baseball team quickly retreated from the track area. For the pontiff of New York high school sports, it was a humbling moment, and one that to this day I remember fondly.

Feds Extend Spy Probes Into Citizens' Banking Data

For some time, the privacy rights of Americans has been depicted as a "fringe" issue. Its strongest advocates have tended to be connected to the Tea Party or to the Occupy movement. The Occupy crowd found out just how quickly their privacy wasn't worth a damn. What really mattered was social control and the perpetuation of a fraudulent sense of class harmony, notably in the supposedly liberal bastion of New York City.

The Obama Administration has been something less than progressive regarding privacy rights. The federal government's ambivalence comes across in matters of "national security," the boundaries of which remain as ill-defined as the more remote areas of the Mexico-US border. The basic notion appears to be that just about anything in one's personal life is fair game to investigate, collect, and keep indefinitely. Anything labeled "national security" trumps due process.

This disturbing trend is only gathering momentum. A Reuters story picked up (ironically) in today's Chicago Tribune claims the Obama Administration is creating a plan that would allow US spy agencies "full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country..."

The Big Brotherish scheme is unsurprisingly cloaked in national security imperatives. The idea is to follow the money and snag the forces of evil. This is hardly a novel idea. The question isn't whether the proposed snooping will be effective; the doubt stems from the plan's erosion of fundamental democratic rights. Relying on a government's good intentions, from those who think they know what's best, is a dangerous road for a democracy to travel.

Tech, Pharma Firms Lead Overseas Cash Stash Race

Mitt Romney (upper right) and
an Offshore Island Haven for Large Bank Accounts
(photos: Vanity Fair)

The next time you use a smartphone or a laptop computer, think about where your payment for these gadgets lands. The corner bank? No. A regional financial services firm? Nah. One of the New York money center banks? Well, yes and no. The nyet part involves the domicile of the funds. Major tech firms, including Apple and Microsoft, are hoarding billions in overseas bank accounts, principally to avoid US taxation. The si, si answer comes from the banks that have corporate headquarters or a significant presence in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

According to a Reuters article picked up by siliconvalley.com, the five leading cash stashers include the two tech rivals already mentioned, along with Big Pharma stalwarts Merck and Pfizer and old pal Google. The situation gets me so upset that I want to call someone on my smartphone and....hmmm, that won't do. OK, I'll go to my laptop and I send an e-mail....oh, that's a problem, too. I've got it! I'll call some firm's corporate headquarters. Since I don't have those numbers in my speed dial (there's that pesky cell phone again!), I'll look them up in.....uhhhh, Google. Well, that won't do. The whole thing is so upsetting that I'm getting a headache. Dammit! All my relief meds are either made by one of the Big Pharma firms!

So then I decided to eat to forget my problems. I took out a frozen burger. As I looked at it, I realized the possibility of the patty including a percentage of horse meat gave me the heebie jeebies. I went to bed hungry, with a headache, and wondering if my gadgets were tracking my every move and my every move.

Call it a taxing situation.

Financial Media Star Jumps to Morgan Stanley

Gary Kaminsky
(photo: CNBC)

Gary Kaminksy, CNBC's capital markets editor, is reported to be preparing to move to financial titan Morgan Stanley. The CNBC talking head will become a different sort of head -- the vice chairman of MS' brokerage department. Kaminsky does have prior, high-level finance experience, so the move is something more than just window dressing. The entire story is noted in the financial blog zerohedge.com.

What's novel about this story is its parallels to the Beltway style of careerism, in which public service and private labor become a very profitable, and power-centric, ballet. Kaminsky's move suggests Wall Street and big-league media have become dance partners similar to its DC cousins. The consequences of major league finance becoming intertwined with message distributors such as Comcast are bleak ones for a public longing for "objective" news.

Jeff Bezos Flies Solo on Phone Patent Application

Most of us are familiar with Jeff Bezos as Amazon's caudillo. It turns out Mr. B. also has a touch of the inventor in him.

A report in geekwire.com noted that Bezos applied for a patent involving smartphones and information sharing via audio signals. The current standard, known as "bumping," would presumably be the target of Bezos' proposed "innovation."

What's remarkable is that the Amazon CEO has enough time on his hands to tinker in the lab. Perhaps that explains why he rarely talks to the media, shareholders, or (heaven help us) Amazon customers.

In case you're wondering, Bezos is the sole inventor listed on the patent application. Well, at least one can't accuse the caudillo of false modesty.

Maryland to Open State Park Honoring Ex-Slave Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery at age 27, helped others in bondage flee to freedom via the Underground Railroad. To honor her achievements and her historical legacy, the state of Maryland has just broken ground on a new state park in her honor. According to a Reuters story published in today's Chicago Tribune, the construction of the park commemorates the centennial of Tubman's passing.

"The house," the article noted, "coincides with the opening of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a 125-mile drive with more than 30 historical stops related to Tubman's early life and the Underground Railroad."

Guess Who Dominates Upcoming "Dot Book" Domain Auction?

Once upon a time, the Internet was a place where paywalls did not exist, where activity tracking profoundly violated individual rights and online privacy, and where obtaining domain names required a brief registration and maybe a couple of bucks.

That "Internet Spring," with its enticing promise, is long gone. The Internet now increasingly functions as a "monetization" arena, with profit often characterized as the greatest possible good human activity can produce. A prime example of this degradation of the Internet is ICANN's (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) current auction of the "dot book" (.book) domain name.

According to a piece in mediabistro.com, the market for .book is sizzling. One contender for the domain is Amazon, which is bidding to own the entire domain. No sharing, which is in keeping with the Seattle firm's M.O. Another player is Google, which went to some lengths to obscure its interest in the auction. A surprise entry is Bowker, the firm that provides ISBN numbers and other data for the book biz.

For better or worse, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) has publicly objected to Amazon's Darth Vader-style grasp for dominance. Apparently, AAP wasn't quite as concerned with the folks from Mountain Valley, California. The organization didn't seem to mind Bowker's desire to seize the domain day, either. Keep in mind publishers work closely with Bowker. The Big Five and the other members of publishing's solar system may not be so strongly motivated to challenge the provider of the industry's data lifeblood.

Amazon, for those of you keeping score at home, prefers to use its own data management system. They don't want Bowker, or anyone else, for that matter, to intrude on its data juggernaut. As in old movies in which secret police play a prominent role, Amazon only needs your information. Content may yearn to be free, but data cries out for control.

PS. A March 24, 2013 article in the Financial Times follows up on this topic and provides a brief summary of the stakes for trademark holders in the domain auction scenario.

Spain to Sephardic Jews: Please Return

Map from Sephardic Women's Seminary

According to a story in today's online editions of the BBC, Spanish government authorities have encouraged Sephardic Jews to return to Espana. The news seems incredible. Over the centuries, Spain's relentless, officially sanctioned anti-Semitism drove Jews out of Spain, hideously murdered thousands in the name of religious purity, and publicly demonized Jewish religious practices. What a difference a millenium makes, eh?

The BBC report notes how some Sephards or possible Sephards found Madrid's current initiative an exciting event. Considerable efforts have been made for people to establish appropriate Sephardic credentials, and thus qualify for Spanish citizenship. The article also observed the difficulties some have experienced in establishing their Sephardic Jewish heritage. All in all, it seems like a profound amount of work and psychological adjustment to "return" to Spain. How many will resettle in the land of their Sephardic ancestors? Hard to believe the number will be a large one. However, the Spanish government's gesture is the right one to make, even if it is more rhetorical than practical. We have to start someplace.