FTC Member's "Reclaim Your Name" Campaign

Julie Brill
(Image: law.columbia.edu)

FTC member Julie Brill has shown plenty of chutzpah in her efforts to start a campaign on behalf of an individual's right to their own data. It's been a lonely fight, with very powerful forces aligned to stop any such movement in its tracks. The New York Times showed Ms. Brill a little love by running a brief story about her efforts on behalf of citizens and privacy rights.

Data rights are a dicey issue that the tech world, the "wired" media, and online-dependent businesses really doesn't like to discuss. Brill deserves credit for trying to shine a light on practices many enterprises would prefer kept in the shadows and its suckers in the dark.

Commodities Wizard Marc Rich -- RIP

Marc Rich
(Image: money.cnn.com)

Marc Rich, a dynamic figure of change in the often secretive, always ruthless commodities industry, passed away this week in his adopted country, Switzerland. He lived in exile from the United States since 1983, when then-US prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani indicted Rich and his business associate Pinky Green. As Rich's obituary in the Financial Times noted, both of the accused were later pardoned by former President Bill Clinton, at some public relations cost to POTUS #42.

Rich was greatly respected by his business peers, and those he mentored. Among them was Ivan Glasenberg, the current boss at Glencore. In a commercial world where praise is seldom uttered with sincerity, the level of CEO personalities and the tenor of their admiration was most striking.

Perhaps Rich's most generous endeavors were on behalf of Israel. The commodities wiz never forgot he and his family fled Europe and emigrated to the United States during the height of the Nazi plague. He donated plenty of money to Israel and causes associated with the Jewish state. It's fitting he'll be buried in Tel Aviv, a man with an Israeli passport, as well as those of two other nations, neither of which is the United States.

LA Cabbies Protest Ride-Sharing Apps

Taxi driver protest in Los Angeles
Image: AP, as posted in news.yahoo.com

Once upon a time, taxi cab drivers would have conducted protests against what they perceived as low fares, unfair law enforcement, or unpopular regulations. Well, our data-driven nightmare has created a new front against which taxi drivers find themselves fighting: They're struggling against an app onslaught threatening their livelihoods.

Apps? Well, yes. Instead of something quaint like a phone call or hailing a cab on the street, an increasing number of people use apps to "share" a ride from the like-minded. Apps are the bloodstream for ride-sharing enterprises, such as Lyft, Sidecar, and UberX. The success of these businesses has riled Los Angeles cabbies to the point of public protest. According to an Associated Press story appearing in siliconvalley.com, taxi drivers in the City of Angels "staged a noisy protest" over the businesses using smartphone-capable apps to muscle into the cabbies' turf.

The city bureaucracy issued cease-and-desist orders to the ride-sharing firms earlier this week. So far, the affected businesses have turned up their collective noses, claiming they are only answerable to the Caesars in California's state capital, Sacramento.

Hackathon Aimed to Promote Meat Production

Image: sustainabletable.org

In a comic twist, Stanford University recently served as the venue for a hackathon intended to promote meat production. According to a story in siliconvalley.com, around 200 presumably carnivorous code writers and hackers gathered to cook up new ways to drive the sustainable production of red and white animal flesh.

The idea, asserted an event organizer, was to level the playing field between big meat's players and their small meat counterparts.

I hope the ambitious app developers ate before the event. There was no mention in the story whether participants were fed, although some were paid something more than peanuts for the rights to their creations.

Trio Instrumental in Genetically Modified Food Development Win World Food Prize

Do you knowingly and willingly consume genetically modified food? Whatever one's position on that proposition, agribusiness heavyweights have relentlessly promoted the virtues of scientifically altered crops. Since some of the United States' principal exports are agricultural, such as corn and soybeans, the controversy over GM food becomes important to American national interests.

As Beijing discovered when a Chinese firm made an offer to acquire US pork producer Smithfield, corporate agriculture has many, many friends in Congress who see a security parallel between agribusiness and our country's defense. (No jokes about Congressional pork, please.)

Image: worldfoodprize.org

A few days ago, the State Department and the World Food Prize Foundation announced the winner of -- you guessed it -- the World Food Prize (WFP). As a Mother Jones piece notes, the foundation's funders include major nonprofit players, the state of Iowa (ok, I would not have guessed that one right away) and agribusiness interests. Winners in recent years tend to reflect the idea that bigger is better, that data-driven approaches to yield management are sacrosanct, and that technocrats, MBA suits, and scientists know more about farming than family or community-based farmers.

This year's WFP winners, according to the New York Times, include Robert Fraley, Monsanto's chief technology officer and strident advocate of the benefits of genetically modified food. The two other co-winners are scientists instrumental in developing GM food and genetically modified organisms.

If you eating a meal, having a beverage, or grabbing an energy-boosting snack, ask yourself whether you're consuming something based on plants the ancient Chinese, Pharaonic Egyptians, or pre-Columbian native Americans would have recognized, or something dreamed up by a team of self-assured scientists in a closely guarded laboratory.

Bon appetit!

"Black Athena" Scholar Martin Bernal -- RIP

Cambridge-trained scholar Martin Bernal, whose work Black Athena stirred American higher education's culture wars, passed away recently in the United Kingdom at age 76. His obituary appeared in today's New York Times.

Image: controversialhistory.blogspot.com

Bernal's not entirely original thesis was that African and Phoenician peoples influenced the glory that ultimately was Greece. His concepts were based on, among other things, the works of Plato and Herodotus. What was unique was his assertion that 19th century racist historians expunged the non-European impact on ancient Hellas.

What's most interesting about Bernal's career was his specialty -- Chinese political history. He taught the subject at Cornell for over two decades.

Bernal's relationship with elite educational institutions was hardly accidental. Similar to a number of British intellectuals, Bernal's parents were also connected to the UK's top univerisities and produced distinguished works in their respective fields. Bernal's grandfather, according to the Times, was a notable Egyptologist.

Investigative Reporter Michael Hastings Dies In Spectacular LA Car Crash

Michael Hastings
(photo: motherjones.com)

In 2010, reporter Michael Hastings wrote a piece for Rolling Stone about General Stanley McChrystal, who led American forces in Afghanistan at the time. The profile included some of the general's unflattering opinions about President Obama and some of the administration's key staff members. Needless to say, the U.S. commander-in-chief was displeased and General McChrystal quickly became the former leader of American forces in Afghanistan.

Hastings, as investigative reporters know only too well, worked in a rough neighborhood. I'm not referring to the Taliban. The forces Hastings' Rolling Stone article pissed off were formidable ones, with long personal and institutional memories. Payback in some form seemed possible.

It cannot be proven, at least not today, that Hastings' passing earlier this week at age 33 had some connection to the elements the reporter was willing to bring to light. However, his death, the result of a dreadfully fiery, one-car accident in Los Angeles' upscale Hancock Park neighborhood, remains a deeply disturbing, very suspicious incident.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Hastings was recently on the trail of another hot story. This one involved Jill Kelley's lawsuit against the Department of Defense and the FBI. Ms. Kelley was mixed up in the sex scandal that brought down then-CIA director David Petraeus. Ironically, President Obama had designated Petraeus as McChrystal's replacement as the leader of America's legions in Afghanistan.

PS. The New York Times' obituary of Hastings includes what his wife viewed as the newspaper's significant mischaracterizations of his work. The story, as relayed in mediate.com, is an interesting one, and begins to shed light where some prefer shadows and darkness.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Sells DC Townhouse

DSK, as Mr. Strauss-Kahn was
often known in happier days

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn? The man who would have been king, or at least president, of France, fell off the political map after his controversial sexual escapades became a media feeding frenzy. Now he's washed up, finished, kaput. Unsurprisingly, he recently sold his Georgetown residence at a loss, according to a story in The Washington Post. What's even less surprising is the lack of public sympathy for the former International Monetary Fund boss.

Designers Dolce and Gabbana Face Italian Jail Term

Dolce + Gabbana
(photo: nenamushan.blogspot.com)

One of the great Italian sports is tax evasion. People from all walks of life, from all regions, from all political persuasions, take part in this endeavor. The national government's revenue arm chases tax dodgers, with a preference for high-profile cases. Sophia Loren, for example, lost a tax battle; as a consequence, she lived in exile for a number of years until Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti rendered an appropriate sum unto the modern-day Roman Caesars.

The government's current celebrity scalps belong to the designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. According to a BBC report, a court recently found the pair guilty of tax avoidance. They were sentenced to over one year in prison, pending appeal.

The Italian judicial process strikes natives and stranieri alike as byzantine and unfathomable. This puzzlement includes the appeals, in which D+G currently find themselves. It could be years before the case reaches a truly final verdict. Dolce and Gabbana may discover it prudent to follow the familiar path of fashionable exile that Loren, Ponti, and many others traveled nearly a half-century ago.

Russia and Yanks Create Hotline to Thwart Cyberwar

The Prez and Mr. Putin comparing notes
during the G-8 Summit in Ireland this week.
(photo: voanews.com)

In what now seems like ancient history, the former Soviet Union and the United States created a "hotline" to prevent unintended nuclear conflict. Once Mr. Gorbachev tore down the Berlin Wall, the need for the hotline appeared less urgent. However, a new generation in the Kremlin and in the White House has concluded that the hotline remains a very useful tool in the prevention of "miscalculation." To that end, Barack Hussein Obama and Vladimir Putin agreed to open a direct phone line to address cyber issues that could be misinterpreted as hostile acts originating from either nation.

The story, initially appearing in Ars Technica, was later posted in theverge.com. 

Copyright Litigation Filed Over "Happy Birthday" Song

Millions of Britons probably missed the
Warner-Chappell memo about copyright protection
for Happy Birthday to You.  

Believe it or not, the song Happy Birthday to You has been subject to copyright protection for decades. I'm willing to guess that the millions of people who've blown out birthday candles never imagined themselves a beloved lyric away from a cease and desist notice.

According to an Associated Press story reprinted in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's online edition, two firms are about to enter a courtroom battle over rights to the song. The defendant is LA-based Warner/Chappell Music Inc., which represents a stable of musicians, including Aretha Franklin and Madonna. The firm, a division of Warner Music, also owns rights to the song Winter Wonderland. 

Second City Co-Founder Bernie Sahlins -- RIP

Bernie Sahlins
(photo: timeoutchicago.com)

Bernie Sahlins, whose Second City club established a generation of TV comedians, passed away in his native Chicago at age 90. His obit appeared in today's Chicago Tribune.

The club owner and impresario was a driving force in making the Windy City a spawning area for imaginative, live comedy. Many acts pursued improvisational routines, which sharpened their skills for live television efforts such as Saturday Night Live. Sahlins' "Second City" space nurtured John Belushi, Dan Akyroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and other creative talents. Hopefully, the living will remember Sahlins with fondness.

Eva Longoria's Public Political Push

Eva Longoria (second left, next to Bill Clinton)
at recent Clinton Global Initiative event, Chicago
(photo: bigstory.ap.org)

Eva Longoria pushes live gender and social boundaries in order to generate a foundation for progress. Her recent appearance at the Clinton Global Initative, noted in an online sfgate.com story, continued her advance into the upper echelons of Democratic Party policy and fundraising.

Longoria came up the hard way and has never forgotten it. She advocates for women and Latin issues in general. She puts her money where her political mouth is. She works hard for the causes she's advocating. And yes, she still keeps an active acting schedule.

She's come a long way from Desperate Housewives. More power to her.

Two Boston Parking Spaces Sell For More Than a Half-Million Dollars

Two Boston parking spaces that sold for $500K-plus
(photo: bostonglobe.com)

Bostonian Lisa Blumenthal had a parking issue. She needed some extra spaces for her friends and domestic help. What's a girl to do? Well, Blumenthal came up with a $560,000 solution: she purchased two parking spaces with the half-million-plus she had waiting for something to do.

If you want to read the story, today's online BBC report provides details.

Italy's Fascist-era "Gay Island" Recalled

Among the 20th Century European fascism's many repellent aspects was its persecution, imprisonment, and murder of those attracted to others of the same sex. Recently, according to a BBC report, a group of gay, lesbian, and transgender rights activists visited Italy's Tremiti Islands to publicly recall the Mussolini regime's banishment of gay men.

The Tremiti Islands, as they appear today.
(photo: wikipedia.com)

These Adriatic islands were, during the Fascist era, essentially a prison to which gay men were exiled. The Tremiti, during that time, were rather inhospitable and about as disconnected from the mainland as Alcatraz is from San Francisco. Many of the Tremiti Island gays were Sicilians who, once publicly fingered for their sexual preference, were ruined and their families forced to endure social disgrace.

The regime used banishment as a psychological tool to isolate and break the spirit of those it considered undesirable. (Carlo Levi's outstanding memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli offers a moving rendition of an intellectual dispatched to a particularly bleak southern Italian mountain town.) Ironically, as the BBC story observed, the creation of an exclusively gay prison population led to a surprising sense of freedom among many of the inmates.

None of the Tremiti prisoners are alive today to relate their experiences. To prevent an act of historical amnesia, Italian LGBT activists visited the islands and placed a plaque to acknowledge the Sicilian gays' shameful exile. The activists also pointed out that the country's gay, lesbian, and transgender communities continue to experience de facto discrimination and stigmatization. In some ways, Italy's LGBT population is still sentenced to live on psychological and social islands, removed from a mainland life. That isolation is just as repugnant now as it was during the height of Benito Mussolini's power.

Facebook Opens Server Farm in Sweden

Facebook's server farm in Sweden
(photo: facebook.com)

With an exquisitely ironic sense of timing, Facebook today began processing data from a new server farm outside the United States. The opening comes on the heels of Facebook's first public meeting for its equity shareholders, and revelations suggesting Facebook cooperated in the American security state's data sweeps. (How many "likes" did the NSA get today, eh?)

According to a story in siliconvalley.com, Facebook's Swedish server farm is located on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Mark Zuckerberg's version of Green Acres happens to be near major hydroelectric dams, an essential need for energy-hungry servers. Sweden's northern reaches also happen to be chilly, and high performance servers require constant, cool temperatures to run at maximum efficiency.

The siliconvalley.com piece noted some Swedes questioning their Facebook data's privacy. European laws tend to be far more restrictive than American regulations regarding data privacy. The Swedes may have reason to worry. One critic claimed that the data Facebook collects in Sweden is "mirrored" on US-based servers. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we have a more definitive sense of just how private American data is.

Eyes Wide Shut for "Five Eyes" Intelligence Alliance

Edward Snowden
(photo: csmonitor.com)

Edward Snowden's revelations about the depth and breadth of American electronic intelligence gathering did result, among many other things, in light being shed on something called "Five Eyes."

The name is not wacky spook code for a Jason Bourne-style escapade. Instead, it refers to a quintet of Anglo-Saxon nations who share intelligence. Those countries and their respective spy services represent, according to a Financial Times piece, "the hidden core of the western alliance."

The FT article notes that the Five Eyes "global system tracks everyone and everything...Geographically diverse, the five countries have built the kind of deep institutional links and technical capabilities that China can only dream about."

The Five Eyes membership did not desire any light shone on their activities. Their preference was for those they presumably protect and serve to, in Stanley Kubrick's phrase, keep their "eyes wide shut." Snowden's actions helped the blind see. Whether or not they liked what they saw was quite another question.

IBM Protests Amazon-CIA Deal

Image source redacted
(Just kidding!)

It's rarely a good idea to wake up a sleeping giant. However, it appears Amazon's deal to provide data services for the Central Intelligence Agency has provoked computer and data titan IBM into action.

Big Blue, as IBM used to be known in what now seems like ancient digital history, launched a successful protest of the Amazon-CIA deal. According to the tech reporting site the register.com, IBM got the feds' General Accounting Office (GAO) into the act. Like any worthy Captain Reynaud, the GAO found reasons to compel reconsideration of the CIA agreement. (It's worth comparing notes on this story. To that end, read federaltimes.com's version of events. The site is owned by the Gannett media chain.)

Amazon's muscling into lucrative, long-term, no-questions-asked federal contracts clearly alarmed the relatively Old School corporate suite at IBM. What Amazon might not have fully considered was IBM's friends. And their friends also have friends. As the Donald Sutherland spook character in the movie JFK noted, "They fight back -- their way."

Image: forbes.com

Theregister.com post noted that IBM's protest comes at a most inconvenient time for Jeff Bezos' tech empire. Amazon may soon be tarred in the intelligence mining scandal, as Dropbox, which uses Amazon Web Services (AWS), may be fingered as another participant in the NSA data sweep.

The choicest part of theregister.com's post is its quote from the Amazon statement on the contract issue: "Providing true cloud computing services to the intelligence community requires a transformative approach with superior technology. The CIA selected AWS based on its superior technological platform..."

Number of American Households Receiving Foodstamps Hits All-Time High

While the feds, the Fortune 500 business community, the real estate industry, and their media enablers beat the economic recovery drum, voiceless Americans have another story to tell. According to a post in the financial blog zerohedge.com, the USDA's most recent data on foodstamps showed a 170,000 increase in individual recipients. Further, the number of Americans receiving foodstamps has reached "an all-time high."

Does this sound like a "recovery" to you?

For more perspective on the asymmetrical aspect to the trumpeted "recovery," read a Mercury News feature story on Bay Area families disconnected to Silicon Valley's current gold rush. Of course, these barely franchised families and individuals are not selling aggregated personal information, providing the NSA with Internet and phone call data without legitimate user consent, or having off-camera negotiations with our first Big Data president. They're just, as Mitt Romney so inelegantly put it, "takers."

Meanwhile, the "makers" are very much on the make.

The Tejana Musician Lydia Mendoza

Lydia Mendoza stamp
(Image: USPS.com)

A visit to my local post office led to discover a musician I did not know until today. It all started with a need to purchase first-class stamps. I typically use them for bill payments. I had bills due and precious few stamps in the house, so I went to the PO. I like to buy a mix of small-sized and larger dimension items. Among the latter, available stamps were an edition honoring the late Tejana singer Lydia Mendoza.

I was entirely unfamiliar with her music and her background. Once I returned home, I listened to samples of her songs. I liked them enough to purchase Arhoolie Records' La Alondra de la Frontera con Orquesta Falcon. The simple, heartfelt tunes fit my mood, and I thought the musicianship was more than capable.

Some days, one just gets lucky, and today was one of those days for me. I enjoyed the accidental moment that led me to explore Lydia Mendoza's music. Even better, I appreciated discovering her many late life accolades, including the National Medal of Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Texas Medal of Arts. And I have the Tejana singer's music, proof that lyrical beauty does not require algorithmic wizardry, Madison Avenue hype, or Hollywood glamor.

Oh, yeah, I like the stamps, too.

Southern California Nuke Plant To Permanently Close

San Onofre nuclear power plant,
with Interstate 5 in the middleground
(photo: eastcountymagazine.org)

A long time ago, I drove from Los Angeles to San Diego along Interstate 5. The busy intercity route parallels the Pacific Ocean for a considerable stretch. Along the way, some ominous structures broke the view between the busy highway and the nearby sea. I later discovered they were the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

It seemed a matter of poor judgment that atomic materials were located in a known earthquake zone such as southern California's coastal region. Yet, nuclear power's advocates have rarely shied away from locating the tangible results of their Faustian bargains in seismically active areas. When things go wrong, as they did in Fukushima last year, the catastrophe becomes bad news that only gets worse.

Even though I live at the opposite end of the continent from SoCal, I felt a sense of relief when today's Financial Times reported San Onofre will be "retired." In other words, this Frankenstein of an electrical generation plant will be closed once and for all. The good news? The plant has been shuttered since January 2012. Apparently, other means of creating and delivering energy to the region have, thankfully, been found.

Amazon, Google Sweat During Apple-DOJ Trial

Lost in the flash blast of the NSA data mining revelations was today's Apple-DOJ court case highlights. Witnesses included Google's director of strategic partnerships, whose testimony was cut to ribbons by Apple's lead attorney, according to a story in theverge.com. Today's star, however, was Amazon vice president for Kindle content Russ Grandinetti. Many observers were especially keen to hear what a typically "no comment" senior management Amazon official would say under oath. Also, there was more than a little suspicion about the Seattle company's motives, as this Obama administration darling was widely viewed as the stimulant for the antitrust complaint.

Amazon VP Russ Grandinetti
(photo: engadget.com)

Grandinetti answered all questions except one -- the key one. According to a report that appeared in macdailynews.com, the Amazon VP said he was not "'comfortable discussing the contents of a January 24, 2010 meeting held in Amazon boss' Jeff Bezos' Seattle boathouse. He quickly went from uncomfortable to silent: "Although Grandinetti wouldn't say anything about the meeting in Bezos' boathouse -- not even if Bezos attended it -- documents presented into evidence showed that the next day, Jan. 25, Amazon began developing its own terms for an agency contract. Those terms, as it turns out, were remarkably similar to the ones Apple was negotiating with the publishers...Those terms are among the ones the government has characterized in Apple's contracts as part of an illegal scheme to fix prices."

Jeff Bezos' boathouse
(photo: forbes.com)

One can imagine why Grandinetti was "not comfortable." Had he acknowledged Bezos' attendance, that assertion would have implied the Amazon capo's involvement in this critical meeting. Well, maybe Bezos is the kind of secretive billionaire who indulges his employees and lets them have Sunday meetings at his private boathouse, since Jeff wasn't using it. (Of course, we have to take Bezos' absence on faith, don't we?)  Maybe Bezos will give Russ and friends the keys to his automobiles, a way into the kitchen in case they're hungry, a change of clothes for a swim. Are you buying this story?

Whose idea was to have the meeting at the Amazon CEO's boathouse?

Google Glasses Banned from Atlantic City Casinos

Image: techisdom.com

Casino operators, working hard to stay a step ahead of gambling's legion of aspiring and active cheaters, have targeted Google Glasses as verboten in their establishments. The latest casino oasis to ban the trend-setting specs is Atlantic City. According to a story that originally appeared in The Press of Atlantic City and picked up by siliconvalley.com, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement invoked the ban earlier this week. Why it took this collection of Captain Reynauds until now to discover Google Glasses' potential for unfair gambling advantage is something of a mystery.

Maybe someone put in a timely phone call to the faceless Trenton bureaucrats who represent New Jersey taxpayers. "'Even if (Google Glasses) had not been used for cheating," Gaming Enforcement Division director David Rebuck wrote in a memo to AC casinos, "...'their presence at a gaming table would lead to the perception that something untoward could be occurring, thereby undermining public confidence in the integrity of gaming."

Something "untoward"? In an Atlantic City casino? Perish the thought!

Bob Fletcher, Who Saved Farms of Japanese-Americans During World War II -- RIP

Bob Fletcher
(photo: Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee)

Bob Fletcher, who passed away recently in California at age 101, performed heroics during World War II that should make all people proud. His guts did not take place on a battlefield, but in the Golden State's agricultural fields. According to Fletcher's obituary in the Sacramento Bee, he quit his position as a state agricultural inspector to save farms of Japanese-Americans who were forced into internment camps. He maintained ninety acres on behalf of three imprisoned families until the end of the war. Fletcher returned the farms to their rightful owners, a fate not always shared by other Japanese-Americans.

Fletcher is survived by his wife of 67 years, a son, and a collection of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

NY Hilton to Eliminate Room Service

The New York Hilton
(photo: wikipedia.com)

According to a Reuters story in today's New York Times, the New York Hilton intends to KO its room service feature. The massive hotel chain has asserted the elimination of room service would improve the property's profits.

It's hard to imagine the New York Hilton -- or any major hotel -- losing money on room service. A look at a typical room service menu often reveals outrageous prices for the simplest dishes. Twenty dollars for eggs, toast, juice, and coffee is not unusual. The absurd pricing, designed for expense account travelers, has simply run aground as businesses tighten their spending. However, there are times room service makes sense for a customer. To take that option away, and compel hotel guests to trudge to the lobby for "gourmet take-out," as the New York Hilton intends, cheapens the brand and the experience of staying at a "name" hotel.

The Hilton should go back to drawing board, keep room service, and identify more sensible, customer-friendly ways to increase the hotel's profit margin.

A Brooklyn Restaurant Deconstructs Regional Dishes to Create "Stateless" Cuisine

My wife Amy and I recently dined at a Brooklyn restaurant in tune with the establishment's hipster neighborhood's atmosphere. The Mexican-Thai hybrid, small plate menu included some excellent, imaginative dishes and a roster of sipping tequilas and mezcals. However, while we were dining, a question kept gnawing at me. The various offerings were concepts based upon an independent approach to ingredients rather than one anchored in national, regional, or local cooking. In effect, the restaurant provided stateless cuisine, in which its Mexican and Thai elements were deconstructed and transformed into something quite different from preparations one could reasonably expect to find in, say, Oaxaca or Chiang Mai.

Why stateless? Well, the restaurant's food was disengaged from the psychological and practical motivations that form the foundations of those countries' respective cuisines. What my wife and I enjoyed at the Brooklyn restaurant struck us as unconnected to either country's homestyle cooking, vendor food, or even their internationalized dishes. The people in those nations are disinclined to fiddle with their traditional fare. Their food is the equivalent of their culinary passport, with the name of their country proudly embossed in gold on the document's front cover.

Stateless cuisine, on the other hand, abhors passports. It demands an identity that defies borders and appeals to worldly tastes. In that way, the kitchen wizards at the Brooklyn restaurant share the perspective of those super-rich characterized as "stateless." The term, in this case, means these golden few simply live where they please, have assets where needed, and feel disinclined to anchor their outlook and preferences to a particular region.

Like it or not, we now live in a world where soulless data is often the ultimate, border-free currency. The super-rich are among those riding this conceptual wave. Unconsciously, our tastes (and those of the super-rich) drift into tangible manifestations of this reality. It's not difficult to  envision how the shifting of formerly anchored culinary choices into a suggestion of those sensibilities leads to the development of a supra-national dish --"stateless" cuisine. This food, and its reflection of an unarticulated zeitgeist, seems a smooth fit for the self-conscious hipster community where the Brooklyn restaurant was located. You didn't have to be super-rich to dine there; you just had to engage with an outlook that is at once curious, borderless, confidently self-contained, and disconnected from historical and social context.

Wall Street vs. Bloomberg News

Bloomberg Terminal
(photo: wikipedia.com)

Recently, Bloomberg News acknowledged that some of its reporters used sensitive and presumably restricted data from the eponymous terminals in their journalistic pursuits. Bloomberg terminals, if you're unfamiliar with them, provide essential financial data and are vitually de rigueur on Wall Street. The price of entry into the world of Bloomberg terminals is $20,000 per year. No exceptions, including the Street's giants, as today's New York Times article on the Bloomberg News-Wall Street snafu observed.

The Times' story, released on a slow news Saturday, is a curious one. A key player, if the article is to be taken at face value, is a Goldman Sachs PR exec and managing director named Jake Siewert. His resume includes a stint as an aide to former Treasury secretary Tim Geithner during the Obama administration. He was also White House press secretary during the Clinton Administration. Siewert called his JP Morgan counterpart and they began comparing notes about Bloomberg News leads and activities that aroused suspicions regarding their origin.

Jake Siewert
(photo: The New York Post)

An upset Goldman began to, as the phrase goes, "look into the matter." Keep in mind this is the same firm that employed Chelsea Clinton's husband. Let's just say Goldman, unflatteringly known as "the squid," has many friends in the public, private, and shadow sectors. JP Morgan, meanwhile, was in the middle of Jamie Diamon's very visible fight to retain both his chairmanship and CEO status at the firm. Keeping the media in line, especially a snoopy Bloomberg News, would be in JP Morgan's interest. There's nothing quite like a scandal over news coverage techniques to temporarily diminish a news organization's sharper edges. All Diamon needed was a little time and a little less media curiosity.

According to the Times piece, Siewert or others associated with Goldman Sachs contacted former Bloomberg News reporters for confirmation regarding surreptitious news gathering activity on the Bloomberg terminals. Intriguingly, the anonymous reporters cited in the story worked for Bloomberg News competitor The Wall Street Journal. Now, you'll get extra credit if you can guess which media platform broke the Bloomberg News-Wall Street story. If you said The New York Post, you would be correct. If you're keeping score at home, Rupert Murdoch owns both the Journal and the Post.

Mark DeCambre
(photo: twitter.com)

Among the coincidences in this tale is Post reporter Mark DeCambre's role in the affair. He filed a piece on Goldman's hiring of Siewert in November, 2012, which highlighted his potential fast track path to managing partner (roughly equivalent to landing a place in Wall Street's Olympus). According to today's Times article, he also broke the story about the Bloomberg News-Goldman Sachs flap.

Bloomberg News eventually issued something of a half-hearted mea culpa for its journalistic faux pas. Whether Bloomberg has offered a deal on yearly rates for its terminals was not noted.