Klint already posted the surveillance state surveys. With the U.K. and the U.S. sadly sagging on the bottom of the list of Western nations, and the top three leading with only barely-adequate privacy laws, the Western world is in a bad way. Interestingly, Eastern European states are doing much better over the years. Perhaps it’s a cyclical thing, where we’ve taken for granted the freedoms afforded to us in the past. We’re not letting them slip away and those that had to fight for theirs more recently, such as Ukraine, are pushing their governments into responsible formats.
I’ve been meaning to post these others, but have been busy till now:
Dreams: Night School
A hundred years after Freud, one man may have figured out why we dream. You’ll never think the same way about nightmares again.
via Psychology Today
Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach
When University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that within 30 minutes, older people misremembered 28 percent of the false statements as true. Three days later, they remembered 40 percent of the myths as factual.
via the Washington Post
American book publishers lobbying to get rid of libraries
Of all the dangerous and dot-complex problems that American publishers face in the near future — economic downturns, competition for leisure time, piracy — perhaps the most explosive one could be libraries. Publishers and librarians are squaring off for a battle royal over the way electronic books and journals are lent out from libraries and over what constitutes fair use of written material.
Grossly oversimplified: Publishers want to charge people to read material; librarians want to give it away.
via the Washington Post
Map of Surveillance Societies Around the World
As you can see, even with Canada topping the list personal freedoms, we’re still only barely in the middle of the list of where we could be. And our Harper Government is only sucking at the teste of Bush, so we’ll slowly be adopting more crap soon. But if this is what it takes to wake people up again, so be it. People are lazy, stupid animals. Sadly.
via Richard Florida and the Creative Class Exchange