Run, Lessig, Run

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My OpEd piece about Larry Lessig’s bid for the Democratic nomination:

Intellectually, he is always seeking ways to turn the adversary’s strengths against him. His first idea was to harness the Citizens United judgment to create a new “super PAC” (a type of political action committee) – Mayday.US – that would support politicians who campaigned against corporate interests. The PAC raised nearly $11m in 2014, but its plan of electing candidates friendly to campaign-finance reform turned out to be, at best, an honourable failure.

Last month, Lessig came up with a new idea: that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election if he could raise $1m by tomorrow. He added an original twist. If nominated, he would run on a single, overriding issue: getting a single bill – the Citizen Equality Act – through Congress. And if he were elected, once that was done, he would resign, enabling the vice president to become the next president.

Sounds daft? Sure. The probability of a Lessig presidency is lower than that of a Trump one. But it’s another neat hack. And as a way of raising the profile of the key issue in American politics, it has a touch of genius. We could use that kind of thinking over here. Run, Lessig, run.

Read on.

UPDATE He passed the $1m mark.

Two cheers for Google?

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This morning’s Observer column:

You know the problem: you’re on a train and suddenly realise you need some information that is available on the net. So you pull out your smartphone and type a web address into the search box. The server responds, the page you want begins to load and then suddenly there’s a big box obscuring the content. The box tells you that you’d be much better off downloading the company’s app. Inducements include the possibility that you might get a better rate by booking via the app than via the boring old website. Sometimes the “close” button that will enable you to get rid of this intrusion is obvious, but sometimes it’s hard to find on a small screen. In the meantime, the train has just gone into a tunnel and you’ve lost your internet connection.

Welcome to the world of “app-install interstitials”. They are, IMHO, a pain in the butt. On the scale of web annoyances, they rate just below pop-up ads and those display ads placed by companies that covertly monitor your browsing. But now it transpires that Google doesn’t like these interstitials either and has announced that henceforth it will be downgrading in its search results any mobile-oriented web pages that produce interstitials…

Read on.

Refugees: back to the Middle Ages

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Regugees-page_pic

Some of the photographs coming out of Turkey and Hungary at the moment are as striking as some of the pictures that emerged from the Vietnam war. My eye was caught by this NYT front page, for example.

Just look at the detail:

Refugees_detail

Not only is it ‘painterly’ in its texture, but it could be part of one of those allegorical paintings from the 1650s. Except that it’s much more moving. These are not creatures from a long-distant past, but our fellow-humans.

The printer’s art

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HCB_print

This astonishing illustration comes from Sarah Coleman’s lovely essay on the vanishing art of analog printing and the artistry of Pablo Inirio, who is the Master Drkroom Printer at Magnum Photos in New York.

Two things are striking about the print. The first is the detailed mark-up: the numbers indicate the amount of dodging, shading or burning the printer had to do to get the best out of the image. The second is how near Cartier-Bresson got to Martin Luther King on that memorable day. Note also the expression on his face. He’s carefully assessing King as a photographic subject.

I always found printing difficult. Now I know why: it’s a serious art and I never mastered it.

Lessig for President?

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I never thought I’d have a friend who contemplated running for President of the United States, but that’s exactly what Larry Lessig is contemplating. And if his Kickstarter fund reaches a $1m in pledges by Labor Day (next Monday), he’ll do it. As ever with Larry, it’s based on an ingenious idea for hacking the dysfunctional political system that is crippling America. (He did the same thing with Creative Commons — i.e. to use the system [in this case copyright law] to give people a legal way of sharing creative work while retaining as many [or as few] rights as they wished.)

This (long) interview gives him the space to explain his Presidential idea.

Worth watching in full. But make some coffee first.

Footnote Just checked (Friday 19:25 UK time) and the pledges now stand at $854,712. He’s going to get there, goddammit.

Quote of the Day

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“Now I don’t want anything. Even if you give me all the countries in the world, I don’t want them. What was precious is gone.”

Abdullah Kurdi, the Syrian Kurd whose wife and two young sons drowned as they tried to cross from Turkey to Greece in a rubber raft.

Britain’s hypnotic monarchy

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Nice column by Polly Toynbee asking why people are still so in thrall to the monarchy.

Maybe Shakespeare is partly to blame. The history of our monarchs is so profoundly embedded in us by our greatest writer that his plays on the rise and fall of kings elevates them in our minds, adding cultural depth and meaning to the absurdity of monarchy.

What an irony that the royal family itself seems devoid of cultural enthusiasm, preferring polo, corgis and shooting. But then, if centuries of privileged breeding and education produce dunderheads and philistines, that proves talent is genetically random, not inherited. A meritocracy would send the likes of Prince Andrew into the tender clutches of Iain Duncan Smith.

Potholes on the road to the self-driving future

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This morning’s Observer column:

Somehow I think it’s going to take quite a while to get to self-driving nirvana. For one thing, autonomous vehicles require digital mapping that is an order of magnitude more detailed than anything in Google Streetview. Secondly, those maps need to be continually updated, because even an unexpected new mini-roundabout might confuse the vehicle and cause an accident.

Accidents, whether caused by human error or unpredictable road conditions, are an unfortunate reality of modern transportation. One moment of distraction or an unmarked hazard can lead to serious consequences for everyone involved. That’s why navigating the legal aftermath of a collision isn’t something to be taken lightly—because often, the circumstances surrounding an incident are more complex than they appear at first glance.

In situations where liability is unclear or multiple parties may be at fault, having an experienced legal team becomes crucial. That’s where Gammill Law comes into play—known for cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of what actually happened. They understand that each case requires a meticulous approach, from analyzing traffic patterns to reviewing maintenance records and driver behavior, all to ensure the right party is held accountable.

Accidents don’t just happen on highways—they can occur anywhere, from parking lots and pedestrian crossings to workplaces and construction zones. Whether it’s a car crash, a slip and fall, or an injury due to faulty equipment, the consequences can be just as devastating, and the legal process just as complex. That’s why having the right legal support from the very beginning is vital to protecting your rights and ensuring you don’t get lost in a system that often favors larger entities with deeper pockets.

George Pearson Law stands out for its unwavering commitment to digging deep into every detail, ensuring no stone is left unturned when building a case. They know that the real story behind an accident isn’t always obvious, and they work closely with clients to piece together facts that might otherwise be overlooked. From medical documentation to eyewitness accounts and expert testimony, having a skilled team ensures your side is represented clearly and powerfully. When an accident disrupts your life, you deserve a legal advocate who takes your situation seriously and fights to make things right.

Accidents involving trucks can be especially complex due to the scale of the vehicles involved and the potential for severe injuries. In cases where a truck accident occurs, determining liability often requires an understanding of multiple factors, from the driver’s actions to the condition of the vehicle and the maintenance history. The Kansas Truck Accident Lawyer is an expert in handling these types of cases, where the stakes are higher, and the consequences can be life-altering. In these instances, having a lawyer who understands the intricacies of both state and federal trucking regulations can make all the difference in the outcome of your case.

Trucking companies are often well-resourced and backed by legal teams, which can make it difficult for victims to get the compensation they deserve. Whether it’s a collision with a commercial truck or a crash caused by negligent truck driver behavior, it’s essential to have an attorney who can investigate every angle of the case.

But the biggest obstacle might come from what supposedly kept Harold Macmillan awake at nights – “events, dear boy, events”. Driving in Devon last weekend, I came on a number of temporary traffic lights at roadworks, and wondered how an autonomous vehicle would cope with them. After all, they would not appear on its digital map; and although it would be programmed to look for a red light in a standard position at a junction, it might not “see” a temporary one.

Devon is a ravishing county, but it has one quirk from the motorist’s point of view: it has lots of extremely narrow lanes, most of which have high hedges growing on either side. There are occasional passing places which allow two vehicles to edge past one another. This is fine until a procession of three or four vehicles meets another procession of several cars stuck behind a truck, at which point the only way to reach a solution involves a good deal of human-to-human negotiation. This is something that even the dumbest human is good at, but which will lie beyond the capability of even the smartest machine for some time to come…

Read on.

Privacy – and networked hypocrisy – begins at home

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I’ve been arguing for years that the Internet holds up a mirror to human nature. And much of what we see in that mirror isn’t flattering. But that doesn’t stop us blaming the mirror rather than addressing the awkward questions that our reflected behaviour reveals. The result is stinking hypocrisy. Evan Selinger makes this point forcefully in the CS Monitor today:

When people lament that privacy is dead or dying, they typically point fingers outwards, saying that government and corporate surveillance deserve all the blame. But as recent events highlight, our urge for online voyeurism plays an important role in the erosion of privacy.

As the Ashley Madison hack had the Internet gawking over details of the possible infidelity of its members, another lurid tragedy was going viral thanks to a woman live tweeting the breakup of a couple sitting next to her on an airplane. Both are examples of people succumbing to their baser instincts and failing to look away when when someone’s personal life is spilled online.

But until we can resist those urges, stop from clicking those articles, and trolling the databases hackers’ victims, we are just encouraging other hackers with an ax to grind, digital eavesdroppers, and snoopers to uncover our private moments and publishing them for the world to see. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ve hit that point of maturity in our collective Internet evolution.

Spot on. For chapter and verse see Jon Ronson’s terrific book — So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.