Big, Bigger, Biggest Brother

Something tells me they're not just looking at US Citizens.

From today's New Scientist:

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.

Most of us enjoy the convenience and ease of doing some of our purchasing, banking, and socializing over the Internet. If we have kids who are using computers, we tell them to be careful what they put out there for the world to see, and we try to be careful about it ourselves. Still, over time, we can become pretty much nekkid as jaybirds.

Realistically, I don't  have anything that needs to be hidden from the government. We file our taxes, so they already know pretty much everything there is to know about our finances. On some level, I don't much care if they know that I bought a new yogurt maker last month. And I'd love to know what exactly they think they would learn, of any great significance, if they were to peruse the list of books I have taken out of our local library.

For some odd reason, I still have the quaint idea that the details of even my boring life should not be monitored by the government, whether it is the government in Ottawa, or the one down south. I am particularly concerned about the intersection (mebbe collaboration is a better word) of government and big business. A couple of years ago, my doctor put me on a new medication. I visited the pharmaceutical company's website, where I was exhorted and enticed to get a freebie related to treatment of my illness sent to me in the mail. All I had to do was complete a form, and my friendly Big Pharma buddies would send it right out to me.

Hummm, I think I'll pass on that one.

At least the pharmaceutical company had to ask. I wish that meant my prescription drug history was a private matter between me, my doctor, and my neighbourhood pharmacist.  But of course, it's not.

All manner of private information about me is sitting in various databases which are being sold, linked with data from other places, and digitally whirled through time and space. Twenty years ago, I was horrified to find that the politico representing my area had his staff check to see if his callers had voted and if they were members of his political party before deciding whether what they had to say was worth listening to.  All he had was voting information back then. Today, he could decide to ignore me based on an analysis of my drug store purchases.

After all, what are the chances I'll even be alive come the next election?     

 

posted by taming at 05:45 | link | comments |
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How I Spent My Night

When I started this new weblog, I swore I would not become bogged down in details. I promised myself I would use one of the pre-made templates and write my posts using the Motime blogging software.

That resolve lasted about a minute. I started innocently by getting beanish with the header. Now, three days later, I am up at 1:30 in the morning, screwing with all things screwable. It never ends. Never.

It's a more decent time of day in Italy, where Howard lives, and I swear I can hear him laughing.

 

posted by taming at 23:41 | link | comments (2)|
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How I Spent My Day

I've spent far too much time playing with all sorts of oddities, from templates to fun with coffee things. Like most hobbies, there are days when one seems to do a Rube Goldberg, finding complicated ways to accomplish that which was (previously) uncomplicated.

Today that meant creating text blocks for the Taming Coffee weblog, because everyone knows that it makes no sense at all to edit entries in Motime's great blog software when you can use an external editor and take four more steps to achieve the same look. Right? It also meant finding a much more complicated way to filter coffee.

Some background:

When I was a coffee virgin, back in the days when I used to pat myself on the back because I bought whole beans from the market and ground them in the store, I thought that coffee was just one substance, a seed, that one ground up and then mechanically combined with very hot water. OK, I had figured out that one should start with whole beans, so I was a demi-virgin.

I then discovered the French Press, and, at least from one perspective, it was all down hill from there.

Now I know that coffee is a complex substance. There are over 800 separate compounds that make up it's aroma, and that is only one part of what makes a particular coffee taste a particular way. Fast forward a bit, well, quite a bit, to today.

One of the things that really effects the taste of coffee is the amount of volatile oils that make it into the cup. The kind of filter you use plays a big part in this. The coffee maker I routinely use, the Krups Moka Brew (don't bother looking, it's been discontinued, and is hard to find these days), uses a paper filter, which does the job of keeping the grounds from entering the pot, but also traps some of the lovely oils that give depth and interest to coffee.

With some prodding from coffee friends, who were looking to improve on another coffee brewing method, I decided to see if I could make a better filter, one that would let more of the oils pass through it. After way too much reading, I decided to try something one person I knew was exploring: polyester baby wipes. Yup, baby wipes.

Now, baby wipes have mild, but aromatic, substances added to them that really don't belong in coffee. My coffee friend was washing and rinsing by hand. Hummm. I decided to take a bunch of wipes, put them in a lingerie bag, run it through my washing machine with some Oxy-Clean and then run them through again with plain hot water. Fortunately, it was laundry day.

I started with 12 wipes, which I figured would net 24 filters—filters that, because they are cloth, not paper, could be washed and used over and over again. This is the point at which people like me justify odd behaviours by telling ourselves we are saving money. The paper filters cost me about $15 a year, and one $2 package of baby wipes would last me practically forever.

Note: there is no such thing as a hobby (or obsession) that saves anyone money—ever.

After I got the baby sweetness out of the wipes, urmmm, filters, I had to cut them into the right shape. I first tried an Exacto knife. Nope, not a good experience. Then I tried a scissors we had around the house. Nope, too dull. I went out and bought a pair of pinking shears (for $20 which some might say is the end of the saving money angle, but, uh uh, not me). Only three hours after starting this project, I was actually making coffee using my baby wipe filters.

The coffee was great, and I am sure Rube is looking down on me from heaven with a big smile plastered on his kisser.

 

posted by taming at 13:59 | link | comments (1)|
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It's An Addiction

In an attempt to talk myself out of buying yet another coffee pot (it's different, really it is) I decided to take a picture of my coffee pot family. This does not include "backups".

 

posted by taming at 14:53 | link | comments (6)|
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It Calls for Coffee

Finca el Carmen is the perfect brew for reading the news. It helps to start the day with a well rounded cup when you live in a country that passes its budget accidentally and  where some of its citizens plot to behead the prime minister.

I'm itching to roast the Horse Harrar that came in the mail from Sweet Maria's the other day. Even my husband, the nasally impaired, noticed the chocolate aroma of the green beans as we opened the box.

 

posted by taming at 13:03 | link | comments (1)|
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