While it's fascinating to consider this story in the context of the period following the Cuban missile crisis, it's even more important today. Considering the right-wing leanings of so many in the military, and the vehement opposition to the current president by so many Americans, a similar plot today is not entirely beyond the realm of possibility.

We must remain just as vigilant of our "friends" as we are of our enemies. 

The late president has become an icon to the far-right in the years since leaving office, but much of what they claim to love about him is total bullshit.

Apps like +Flipboard and +Currents present content in a very pretty format, but to varying degrees, they are designed to present curated content, particularly Flipboard. I like to use sources like Google+, Twitter and sometimes even FB to to discover stuff that I might not otherwise see. 

However, I also like to fave rapid, unfiltered access to large quantities of material so that I can find and curate myself and a straight-up RSS reader is by far the best way to do that. Admittedly not everyone wants to do that, but for those of us that do, we should have the option. If Google is going to take away that option, hopefully others will step up and provide a similarly clean interface to RSS.

Reshared post from +Mike Elgan

Why they want to take control away from you.

The Internet freaked out this week after Google announced the closure of its cloud-based RSS reader, Google Reader.

What Google Reader and RSS fans fear is not the loss of a good service and a great format. They fear the loss of control. They fear a future in which decisions about what they see, watch, read and listen to are determined by secret algorithms and the whims of the social media masses.

It's not an unreasonable fear: The taking away of control from the user is the way the whole industry is going. 

Here's why: 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9237636/More_innovation_means_less_control._Is_that_bad_

Over the last couple of decades a number of automakers have transitioned from using real names on their products to often inscrutable alphanumeric nomenclature. This is particularly prevalent in the premium segments with brands like Lincoln dropping names like Continental, Zephyr and Town Car in favor of MKS, MKZ and MKT. This year, +Infiniti announced a transition from it's earlier scheme where each model line had it's own letter such as G, M and EX combined with a number that represented the engine size to a system where all cars are Q with all SUVs being QX each followed by a seemingly random number. 

Ever since Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007, it has been involved in a series of legal disputes over both that name and later the iPad. The problem is that by using a derivative of a real word, it's very difficult to find something that hasn't already been used somewhere. The word's iPhone and iPad had already been used but Apple in their usual arrogant approach pressed ahead and used the names anyway. In most cases they ended up having to reach licensing agreements to use the names, but this is exactly what automakers want to avoid. 

We may not like ridiculous alphanumeric nomenclature, but I suspect we'll have to learn to live with it. 

A federal judge today declared national security letters illegal and banned them. Let's hope this hold up under appeals but unfortunately I'm not too hopeful. 

Reshared post from +Jonathan Askin

BLIP students and I are launching www.firsttodisclose.org today (in advance of America's move tomorrow, March 16, from a “first-to-invent” to a “first-to-file” patent regime).  www.BLIPclinic.org blog

Our objective is to provide a platform for small innovators to post their ideas for the world before a well-heeled enterprise can file a patent on the same idea with the Patent Office.  One consequence of the move from “first to invent” to “first to file” is that it will likely be difficult for small inventors to beat larger enterprises to the patent office with their innovations.  First-to-Disclose is an effort to counterbalance the burden imposed on small inventors.  Info is available at www.firsttodisclose.org

We’ll likely get some minor attention from the patent law community, but I hope the positive ramifications will resonate for years.