Rural America is creating its own internet infrastructure

It's easy to think of the US as a modern country, but it doesn't take much to think you've been hurled back into the dark ages - in terms of internet connectivity. But that's ok, as people are taking matters into their own hands and fixing the problem on their own.

Europe competes for 2nd place after "America First"

Donald Trump's America First has become a source of inspiration for countless other countries wanting to be... second.

191 million US voters records exposed on the internet

If you're a US citizen and voted this century, it's highly likely your data is out there in the wild for anyone to see.

Most common languages in the USA

The USA is home to a vast array of people and cultures from all around the world. But you'll be surprised to know which are the most common languages spoken in each state.

Sure, let's get english and spanish out of the way, as those are always on the top spots. But when you look at the third most spoken language across the country, you're in for a surprise. I'm not too surprised to se Portuguese as the 3rd most spoken language in Massachusetts and Rhode Island (though I also expected to see it in New Jersey), but I had no idea we'd have Vietnamese in Texas and Washington, and Tagalog in California and Nevada (that's a language mostly speaking by the filipino people), or Russin in Oregon. German takes the lead in most of the central US, with Arabic winning in Michigan and Chinese in New York.

Did you have any idea these languages would be so widely popular in the USA?

NSA is Watching You

I suspected that the reports that indicated that the NSA had/have access to every call you make, to whom, when, where, and for how long, would be just the tip of the iceberg... and indeed, we now find out that the NSA is tracking each and every move you make throughout the internet. And the implications are still to broad for us to imagine how much this revelation will impact internet service.

Basically PRISM is a system that gives the NSA access to every email, photo, video, message, that goes through services like Google, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook and others.

Even though those companies refute those allegations and the White House says this is an essential tool for national security - that shouldn't even be discussed publicly as it will help its enemies evade such system - and that is intended to spy foreign users alone even though... everyone ends up in the mix.

Basically, it's they say: "trust us we'll only do the right thing with everything we get from every single one of you."

I can't say I'm surprised. Decades ago there were rumors that the NSA had systems listening in to every phone conversation, doing voice recognition in a time the general public didn't even know that was possible, and flagging calls with certain keyword combinations such as "bomb, white house, assassination, president", and so on.

If they could do that back then... imagine what they0ll be able to do now. I can even imagine something like the amazing Facebook graph search, where you can easily query things like: "friends of friends, with ages between 20 and 40, living in New York and like cats"; but applied to the much broader data they're gathering. "Find terrorists, having bought bombs in the past 24h, and instagraming their likely targets".


Jokes aside, the key point is that now that such system is out in the open, there's no going back. How do you feel your government spying on you, with the excuse that they need to do it to catch some hypothetical terrorists (that by now will surely know how to use encrypted and other hidden communication methods, such as embedding messages in photos or the like)?

Is it really acceptable to allow a government to trample your most basic privacy rights with the excuse they're fighting for the freedom that should allow you to have those rights in the first place?

Guess each one will have to figure that by themselves.

One Dot One Person Map (in the USA)

Ever wondered how people were spread around in the USA? Well, now we can see it thanks to this amazing interactive map that plots one geo-referenced dot for each person in the USA, according to the 2010 US Census.

This means that you'll be looking at 308,450,225 dots - one for each person in the US. And, it clearly shows us just how much of the territory is mostly... free from people (if you don't want neighbors, you'll know where to move next!)

There's also some technical info about all this was made, using Python, Processing, and the Google Maps API (and a 17GB csv file with all the data that was plotted on the map, that took nearly 12h to sort.)

[via Boing boing]

Dollar ReDe$ign Project

Tired of looking at the same old dollar bills? What if currency could be rejuvenated and made a bit more modern - although not forgetting the American heritage?

That's the goal of the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.

The Dowling | Duncan winning proposition shows us new dollar bills with a vertical design (we actually do handle bills in vertical mode more than horizontally), each note has the same width but varies height according to its value and has its own distinctive color.

Also, each note motif is closely related to its actual value:

• $1 - Obama, the 1st Afro-american President
• $5 - The 5 biggest native american Tribes
• $10 - The 10 first amendments of the USA Bill of Rights
• $20 - 20th century events in the USA
• $50 - the 50 states (although they're actually more...)
• $100 - the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt, to which every new President achievements are now compared.

A nice approach... but which will never see the light of day (highly unlikely).

Obama-Mobile Cadillac One

At last, the soon-to-be american president Obama will finally have a car Batman would be jealous of, and that even Jack Bauer would be proud.

Beside 8in thick doors, it can withstand rocket impacts and is completely sealed from the exterior to prevent any contamination to the inside in case of bio-attacks.

And at 8mpg, you can't say it isn't ecological enough (for such a "tank") - though I'd expect its next generation to be an hybrid, fully electric, or hydrogen powered vehicle to keep up with a greener world. ;)

Obama Wins

It isn't exactly a secret - in fact, it's quite the opposite - but I think he deserves a mention here anyway.

I sicerely hope Barack Obama's victory in USA to mark the beginning of a new age in stability, rationality, and humanity. One that can recover from the politics of fear implemented in the past years.

... and who knows? Barack's energy might even be enough to change things in this side of the Atlantic as well, and change the abuses we're experiencing in our own countries - with powerful conglomerates constantly riding above the laws, and doing whatever they want.
(Such as banks that just last year were announcing record profits, and are now begging for Government'smoney to stay afloat... our money!)