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lessig:

(Some will say this is not the time. I disagree. This is the time when every mixed emotion needs to find voice.)

Since his arrest in January, 2011, I have known more about the events that began this spiral than I have wanted to know. Aaron consulted me as a friend and lawyer. He…

So gut-wrenching. I’m speechless…

infoneer-pulse:

If you head to McDonald’s in the U.K. you might hear an new question coming from behind the counter: Would you like a book with those fries? That’s right, move over cheap toys, pint sized British consumers of McDonald’s Happy Meals will now get a book instead. The fast food giant has partnered with publisher Dorling Kindersley and bookseller WH Smith and plans to distribute over 15 million books to kids over the next two years. The move makes McDonald’s the largest book distributor in the U.K.

Kids will get a combination of fiction and nonfiction texts, including texts on science and technology topics. And, along with the book that comes with the Happy Meal, kids will get a certificate they exchange for a book at their local WH Smith bookstore.

» via GOOD

Such an exceptional idea! :) the world needs to stop and take notice with less of our kids reading than ever before!

infoneer-pulse:

A California proposition that passed overwhelmingly in the fall would have forced registered sex offenders to hand over a huge amount of information about their online lives. Now, that proposition has been put on hold because of a preliminary injunction from a San Francisco federal judge, who says that the new law is just too wide-ranging and could violate the constitutional rights of offenders.

The challenge to the law was filed the day after the election day by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU on behalf of two of California’s nearly 74,000 registered sex offenders. One was convicted in 1986 and the other in 1993, for unspecified offenses that aren’t related to the Internet in any way. The ACLU has noted that some people are registered offenders for very old, misdemeanor offenses such as indecent exposure and don’t warrant the kind of intense surveillance called for in Proposition 35.

The law would have required far-reaching surveillance of registered sex offenders. For instance, they would have had to disclose all of their online “identifiers,” including e-mail addresses, usernames for any online services, and social media monikers. It would have made anonymous online speech for that population essentially impossible.

» via ars technica

With technology growing faster than human behaviour, perhaps the need to be a bit more specific in the offenses justifying being put on the register is required. We must keep up with technology or human race will be in catastrophic disarray