Unpleasant "Secret Sites" and Misidentification of Criminals

This video podcast is both interesting and painful to watch but I feel like it is something people need to watch, especially conservative "law and order" types like myself.

The first half of the video will also open your eyes.  Taryn Simon provides glimpses behind the scenes at various unpleasant "secret sites" you've probably never heard of where nuclear waste is stored, where human bodies are allowed to decay to improve crime scene investigation techniques, and where the Federal Government grows marijuana for research purposes.  Also, did you know the Library of Congress puts out a braille edition of Playboy magazine?

In the second half of this video, Taryn provides a stark reminder that eyewitnesses have been wrong and victims can be wrong.  Sometimes the wrong person was sent to prison for years and exonerated later when improved DNA analysis technology became available.  Decades of lives were lost.  In one story, 13 different people identified the wrong man as being at the scene of the crime.

Check out "Taryn Simon photographs secret sites" from Ted.com.  It is also available on iTunes.

Google Putting Millions of Books Online

Google's big book case is an online article from The Economist describing Google's push to put thousands and thousands of books online.  Google's plans were challenged in a big lawsuit with a settlement to be announced next month.

 

Google has been working with the libraries of major universities all over the world to digitize obscure printed media, many of them out of print.  Google's effort will make all these works available to anyone via the internet.  However, not everyone is happy about this because of the implications for existing copyright law protecting content creators and even what to do about "orphan copyright holders" who can't be located to be paid their royalties.   

"To its opponents, it is a brazen attempt by a crafty monopolist to lock up some of the world’s most valuable intellectual property. To its fans, it is a laudable effort by a publicly minded company to unlock a treasure trove of hidden knowledge. Next month an American court will hold a hearing on an agreement, signed last year by Google and representatives of authors and publishers, to make millions of books in America searchable online. The case has stirred up passions, conflict and conspiracy theories worthy of a literary blockbuster."

 

Up to 20% of any particular book will be available for free browsing.  

 

There is a very interesting podcast on the same topic. with an interview with Paul Courant, the Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan.  Click here to get podcast from iTunes.