Houston - It's Hot!

The sleep needs of adolescents

2011-03-31T08:00:00.046-05:00

HISD is considering moving HS start times EARLIER next year (look down toward the middle). But recent research implies that high school students do better later in the day; apparently puberty shifts the 'chronotype' of adolescents to an 'evening preference'. Some districts have shown improvement in student participation and behavior with later times. Other studies have shown a correlation between sleep deficit and reduced creativity and performance.

Of course changing start times for high school students also impacts school faculty and staff, and parents and families. Students may find it difficult to have after-school jobs, long extra-curricular activities, or away-games against schools in other districts. Nevertheless, it appears that with enough planning, the overall effects can be positive for all involved.

I recommend you read the article from the March 2011 issue of "Educational Researcher." Some of the references in the article may be available online if you can't get the link above; please see below.

Black, S. (2000). A wake-up call on high-school starting times. Education Digest, 66(4), 33–38.
Blatter, K., & Cajochen, C. (2007). Circadian rhythms in cognitive performance: Methodological constraints, protocols, theoretical underpinnings. Physiology and Behavior, 90, 196–208.
Bonnet, M. H. (2000). Sleep deprivation. In W. C. Dement (Ed.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine (3rd ed., pp. 53–71). Philadelphia: Saunders.
Cajochen, C., Blatter, K., & Wallach, D. (2004). Circadian and sleep-wake dependent impact on neurobehavioral function. Psychologica Belgica, 44, 59–80.
Cajochen, C., Khalsa, S. B., Wyatt, J. K., Czeisler, C. A., & Dijk, D. J. (1999). EEG and ocular correlates of circadian melatonin phase and human performance decrements during sleep loss. American Journal of Physiology, 277, 640–649.
Carskadon, M. (1999). When worlds collide: Adolescent need for sleep versus societal demands. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(5), 348–353.
Carskadon, M. (2002). Adolescent sleep patterns: Biological, social, and psychological influences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Carskadon, M. A., & Acebo, C. (2005). Intrinsic circadian period in adolescents versus adults from forced desynchrony. Sleep, 28(Abstract supplement):A71.
Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. (1998a). School start time study. Final report summary.
Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. (1998b). School start time study. Technical report: Vol. II. Analysis of student survey data.
Chandler, M. A. (2009, January 6). Fairfax plan would delay high school start at no cost. Washington Post.
Crowley, S. J., Acebo, C., & Carskadon, M. A. (2007). Sleep, circadian rhythms, and delayed phase in adolescence. Sleep Medicine, 8, 602–612.
Dahl, R. E. (1999). The consequences of insufficient sleep for adolescents: Links between sleep and emotional regulation. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 354–359.
De Gennaro, L., Ferrara, M., Curcio, G., & Bertini, M. (2001). Visual search performance across 40 h of continuous wakefulness: Measures of speed and accuracy and relation with oculomotor performance. Physiology and Behavior, 74, 194–204.
Dement, W. C., & Vaughan, C. (1999). The promise of sleep: A pioneer in sleep medicine explores the vital connection between health, happiness, and a good night’s sleep. New York: Delacourt.
Dinges, D. F., & Kribbs, N. B. (1991). Performing while sleepy: Effects of experimentally-induced sleepiness. In T. H. Monk (Ed.), Sleep, sleepiness and performance. Human performance and cognition (pp. 97–128). Oxford, UK: John Wiley.
Edgar, D. M., Dement, W. C., & Fuller, C. A. (1993). Effect of SCN lesions on sleep in squirrel monkeys: Evidence for opponent processes in sleep–wake regulation. Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 1065–1079.
Fischer, F. M., Radosevic-Vidacek, B., Koscec, A., Teixeira, L. R., Moreno, C. R., & Lowden, A. (2008). Internal and external time conflicts in adolescents: Sleep characteristics and interventions. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2, 17–23.
Giannotti, F., Cortesi, F., Sebastiani, T., & Ottaviano, S. (2002). Circadian preference, sleep and daytime behaviour in adolescence. Journal of Sleep Research, 11, 191–199.
Kirby, M., & D’Angiulli, A. (2009). Timing (not just amount) of sleep makes the difference: Event-related potential correlates of delayed sleep phase in adolescent female students. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Kryger, M. H., Roth, T., & Dement, W. C. (Eds.). (2000). Principles and practice of sleep medicine (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Kubow, P. K., Wahlstrom, K. L., & Bemis, A. E. (1999). Starting time and school life: Reflections from educators and students. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 366–371.
May, C. P. (1999). Synchrony effects in cognition: The costs and a benefit. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 6, 142–147.
May, C. P., Hasher, L., & Foong, N. (2005). Implicit memory, age, and time of day: Paradoxical priming effects. Psychological Sciences, 16, 96–100.
Millman, R. P., Working Group on Sleepiness in Adolescents/Young Adults, & AAP Committee on Adolescence. (2005). Excessive sleepiness in adolescents and young adults: Causes, consequences, and treatment strategies. Pediatrics, 115, 1774–1786.
Mitru, G., Millrood, D. L., & Mateika, J. H. (2002). The impact of sleep on learning and behavior in adolescents. Teachers College Record, 104, 704–726.
National Sleep Foundation. (2005a). Changing school start times: Arlington, Virginia.
National Sleep Foundation. (2005b). Changing school start times: Denver, Colorado.
National Sleep Foundation. (2005c). Changing school start times: Fayette County, Kentucky.
National Sleep Foundation. (2005d). Changing school start times: Jessamine County, Kentucky.
National Sleep Foundation. (2005e). Changing school start times: Wilton, Connecticut.
National Sleep Foundation. (2006). Sleep in America Poll.
Noland, H., Price, J. H., Dake, J., & Telljohann, S. K. (2009). Adolescents’ sleep behaviors and perceptions of sleep. Journal of School Health, 79, 224–230.
Owens, J. A., Belon, K., & Moss, P. (2010). Impact of delaying school start time on adolescent sleep, mood, and behavior. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 164, 608–614.
Petros, T. V., Beckwith, B. E., & Anderson, M. (1990). Individual differences in the effects of time of day and passage difficulty on prose memory in adults. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 63–72.
Schmidt, C., Collette, F., Cajochen, C., & Peigneux, P. (2007). A time to think: Circadian rhythms in human cognition. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24, 755–789.
Taylor, D. J., Jenni, O. G., Acebo, C., & Carskadon, M. A. (2005). Sleep tendency during extended wakefulness: Insights into adolescent sleep regulation and behavior. Journal of Sleep Research, 14, 239–244.
Wahlstrom, K. (2002). Changing times: Findings from the first longitudinal study of later high school start times. NASSP Bulletin, 86(633), 3–21.
Wahlstrom, K. (2010). School start time and sleepy teens. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 164, 676–677.
W.A.K.E.: Worried About Keeping Extra-curriculars. (n.d.). Disruptions.
Wright, K. P., Jr., Gronfier, C., Duffy, J. F., & Czeisler, C. A. (2005). Intrinsic period and light intensity determine the phase relationship between melatonin and sleep in humans. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 20, 168–177.
Wrobel, G. D. (1999). The impact of school starting time on family life. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 360–364.
Yoon, C., May, C. P., & Hasher, L. (1999). Aging, circadian arousal patterns, and cognition. In D. Park & N. Schwartz (Eds.), Cognitive aging: A primer (pp. 151–170). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Distinguishing Snyder from Rosenbloom

2011-03-13T08:00:00.041-05:00

University of Houston Law Center's Professor Leslie Griffin of the Religion Rogue blog analyzes the recent Supreme Court decision in Snyder v. Phelps in the context of an earlier case, Rosenbloom v. Metromedia. Professor Griffin suggests the Court may be moving toward a Free Speech analysis suggested by Justice Brennan in Rosenbloom, which protects speech about matters of "public concern" even when it causes harm to private individuals. I believe that Chief Justice Roberts's opinion in Snyder is written in such a way that its analysis is distinguishable from Justice Brennan's.

The speech in Rosenbloom which Justice Brennan suggested was protected was about Rosenbloom himself; he was described as "a main distributor of obscene material in Philadelphia." I believe that stands in contrast to the facts considered important by the majority in Snyder. As Justice Alito points out in Part IV of his dissent, the majority first confines their analysis to the placards at the funeral, putting aside the events before and after (which included a press release and an internet "epic"). Even in that limited context, the Court had to further decide that the "predominant theme" of the speech was of public concern, since some of the signs could also reasonably be interpreted as referring to the plaintiff or his family. The result was a conclusion that the speech in Snyder wasn't really about the plaintiff at all, which I believe is how the Chief Justice could conclude that it was in the category of speech afforded the most protection by the Supreme Court. I believe this is an important distinction between Rosenbloom and Snyder; if that's true, then we may not yet know if this court might adopt Justice Brennan's reasoning in a case applied to speech either about or targeted at a private individual.

American Academy of Actuaries on Social Security

2011-03-11T08:00:00.004-06:00

Who would be in a better position than the American Academy of Actuaries to evaluate a benefit plan like Social Security? I suggest reading this report on Social Security from the Academy, which explains why a safety net program like this needs to be a defined benefit plan instead of a defined contribution plan. From the abstract:

As originally conceived, Social Security provided monthly beneﬁts for life to covered workers who ceased employment after attaining age 65. Beneﬁts were calculated by a formula based on each worker’s employment history and were payable for life, regardless of how long the worker lived or the amount of taxes paid on his or her behalf while working. Thus, there was at best an indirect relationship between taxes paid and beneﬁts received.

Plans such as this, where the beneﬁts are determined according to a formula and generally paid for life, are called deﬁned beneﬁt plans. By contrast, plans that pay beneﬁts based on amounts accumulated in an individual’s account are called deﬁned contribution plans (or individual account plans).

Much has changed since Social Security was created. The program has expanded to cover new classes of beneﬁciaries, such as spouses of retired workers, surviving spouses and other family members of deceased workers, and disabled workers and their families. Many U.S. workers have also earned beneﬁts under employer-sponsored deﬁned beneﬁt plans. These developments account, in part, for the fact that the elderly now have the lowest poverty rate among all age classes.

However, over the past 25 years, many employers have dropped sponsorship of their deﬁned beneﬁt plans in favor of deﬁned contribution plans. Many Americans are now saving for their own retirements through employer-sponsored 401(k) plans (a type of deﬁned contribution plan), individual retirement accounts, and personal savings. Some people believe that Social Security would also work better if converted, in whole or in part, to a deﬁned contribution structure.

After careful study of the issues involved, the Social Insurance Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries has concluded that the deﬁned beneﬁt structure is preferable to the deﬁned contribution structure for providing basic retirement beneﬁts under Social Security. Because of its ability to tailor beneﬁts that meet the needs of beneﬁciaries in different circumstances and its inherent risk-sharing attributes, the deﬁned beneﬁt structure is more efﬁcient at providing the ﬂoor of retirement and disability protection needed by U.S. workers, particularly those least able to supplement their Social Security beneﬁts from other income sources. This conclusion is only strengthened by the trend toward deﬁned contribution structures among employer-sponsored retirement plans, since this leaves Social Security as the only remaining deﬁned beneﬁt plan for many workers. This is not to suggest that a deﬁned contribution approach should not be a part of Social Security reform, but this committee would support it only as a supplement to the beneﬁts provided under a basic deﬁned beneﬁt program.

The cost of public education

2011-03-09T08:00:00.006-06:00

A friend has re-posted some charts from a CATO Institute article on costs associated with public education. As you can probably guess, the article has a particular point it's trying to make; I'd like to point out some things that might be helpful before you read it.

The article refers to data collected from the NCES 2009 Digest. When you notice that the number of public school employees is growing at a faster pace than the number of enrolled students, it would be helpful to know the breakdown in the increase of employees - how many are teachers, staff, administrators, etc. That's available in this table from the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) which shows that at least between 1990 and 2007 teacher salaries represent a pretty constant 61% of expenditures. Other subgroups (administration, staff, food services, transportation, etc.) keep pretty constant ratios as well.

How does this compare to private/religious school staffing at the same level? You can actually test that with this table, which shows that the number of teachers in the public sector rose 50% between 1980 and 2009 - but so did the number of teachers in private schools. The number of students has increased by roughly 26%. The net effect has been to drive down student/teacher ratios from 18.7 to 15.3 in the public sector; in the private sector the ratio went from 17.7 to 12.8.

On the bottom chart in the CATO article: As the source says: "Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools include current expenditures, interest on school debt, and capital outlays." Capital outlays include new technology, internet access, textbooks and materials, laboratories, school buildings, etc. Schools would, for example, save a huge amount of money by replacing obsolete Windows and Macintosh computers with state-of-the-art Linux machines. Table 182 confirms the graph; expenditures per pupil doubled from 1980 ($5695/student) to 2009 ($10,041/student).

But compare that to private schools: table 27 shows an increase in overall private school expenditures (in constant dollars) of 150% between 1980 (est. $20B) and 2009 (est. $50B). That compares to the public schools which increased 130% over that period, from $262B to $600B.

Does the increase in costs raise scores? chart 123 shows the scores stay pretty constant from 1992 through 2007. The overall scores for private schools are higher per grade; but that may be an effect of a self-selecting population. More interesting are the jumps from 4th to 8th grades (keeping in mind these are comparing apples to oranges to some extent, as students move around). Public schools increase the scores by 50 points over 4 years (a 1994 4th grader to a 1998 8th grader), and so do the private schools. As a percentage, the public schools raise scores 25% over the 4 years, while private schools raise them a little over 20%. That's an interesting result given the popularity of the new "value added" calculations used to assess teachers and schools.

Moving students from public schools to private schools would apparently increase the number of teachers required to maintain their low student/teacher ratio. How will that drive down the cost of education, other than by paying teachers individually less? Would increasing private school costs and lowering public school costs reduce the price of education overall - or would it instead shift the cost more directly to parents and reduce the cost to taxpayers without children? It would be a policy decision to decide if that's equitable - spreading what would essentially be the same cost over a smaller group of people.

Open source and 17 U.S.C. 203

2011-03-08T08:00:00.003-06:00

Section 203 of the US copyright statute* is an interesting provision which allows an author to terminate the right to use a work 35 years after the grant was made. There are good policy reasons behind this rule; an author may not be in an equal position to bargain with a publisher, and the value of a work may not be apparent when the grant is first made. The rule allows an author to re-negotiate for more compensation if it turns out that the right they sold (or gave away) turned out to be more valuable than initially thought.

Does this introduce any uncertainty in the rights you receive when you use free software? Do programmers and companies now need to worry that they can use free software for at most 35 years before the author has the right to tell them to stop? What about other software which builds on top of the first work - can the rug be pulled out from under them at that point, if the author decides they want to revoke the rights granted to you and instead sell the right to use software?

I believe there is little to no risk imposed by Section 203. First, 203(b)(1) specifically says that derivative works created before the revocation may continue to use the underlying work/code. This would generally protect anyone who has created any material modification of the work, or who has included it in a compilation (for example, a CDROM or other collection). A Freedom Toaster might be an example; any Linux distribution such as Debian GNU/Linux would be another.

Second, section 203(a)(4) (and 37 C.F.R. 201-10) impose strict notice requirements on an author, including, for example, a requirement that the revocation be in writing and that delivery be made by US mail or in person. These might make it expensive for a programmer to contact each grantee to revoke their rights.

The third consideration is interesting; section 203(a) states the requirement that the grant be "executed by the author." Both the GNU Public License (GPL) (section 2) and the Creative Commons licenses state that when you distribute/convey a work to someone else, the recipient is granted a license directly from the author(s); the GPL specifically states that no sub-licensing is involved. This seems to imply that an author could revoke the license to use their piece of free software as long as they comply with the rest of the provisions of section 203 and with the C.F.R. Of course, that would require an author to know exactly when you received the software; the 35 years runs from the time of the grant, which they may not know if you got the code from source other than them. Consider too: what would happen if you receive a revocation from an author and a subsequent copy of the work under the GPL? Would the terms of the GPL mean that the author has agreed to re-license the work to you, as is allowed under sections 203(b)(3)-(4)? That interpretation seems consistent with the language in the statute.

Finally, the "life cycle" of software is fairly short; it's pretty unlikely that a piece of code will remain valuable for more than 35 years. Nevertheless to remove risk entirely, it might be prudent for a recipient to document when they first receive a work under a free software license and to plan to replace the code in 35 years if it's still in use.

For all these reasons, I believe the risks to recipients of free software from provisions in section 203 are minimal, can be easily avoided, and can likely be ignored pretty safely.

*In case you were wondering: section 304 paragraphs (c) and (d) only allow authors to terminate grants prior to 1/1/1978. The first version of the GPL was in 1989, well after that date, so those provisions don't apply here. It's my assumption that 1989 is the first time a free software license was used for works in the United States.

Sticks and stones

2011-03-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

may break your bones, but names can never hurt you; the Supreme Court decision in Snyder v. Phelps reminds me of the schoolyard taunt. The opinion seems to take great care to point out that all that was analyzed was the picketing activity of Westboro Baptist Church at the funeral of Matthew Snyder; the broader context of the conflict between Snyder and Phelps, which included television and internet publications, was explicitly not discussed by the majority or the concurrence. This case involves the interaction between two different parts of the law.

The first is an area of torts law; the lower court found that the Church had intentionally inflicted emotional distress (IIED) on Albert Snyder, the father of the Marine whose funeral the Church picketed, and one of the persons targeted directly by the Church's related writings. IIED requires a jury to decide that intentional, extreme, and outrageous conduct by the defendant caused severe emotional harm to the victim. In this case, the jury in the lower court did find the behavior of the Church outrageous, and awarded Snyder damages. The right of Snyder to sue for these damages is established by the State.

The second is First Amendment jurisprudence - in this case, the right to speak freely. The Court has allowed the State to constrain that right in certain cases, on a continuum from most protected to least protected. When the government attempts to interfere with the most protected speech, the Court applies the highest level of scrutiny, and the government usually loses. In this case, the Court looked exclusively at the behavior of the Church at the funeral and decided that the picketers were in a public place, making statements of broad public concern, not ones exclusively targeted at the Snyder family. Because this falls into the category of "most protected speech" the government must show that any restriction on it is very narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest.

There are a number of things to look at in a decision like this. First, the dissent argued that the speech involved in the conflict between the Church and Snyder could reasonably be characterized as targeted when analyzed as a whole (including the television and internet postings). The majority decided that the predominant theme of the messages on the placards at the funeral were speaking to issues of broad public concern - America's tolerance of homosexuals. It's clear that what you include in the analysis will affect the outcome in a decision like this. Targeted speech of a certain kind was considered less protected in a case called Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire; that lower level of protection may have made a difference in this case.

Next, the compelling interest in this case would be the State's desire to protect its citizens from emotional attack. The Court has spoken in this area earlier in a 1988 case called Hustler Magazine v. Falwell. There the Court looked at speech that was targeted at a public figure. Despite the targeted nature of the piece, the Court decided that the State's interest in protecting the emotional well-being of a public figure could not overcome the speaker's right to create the parody in question. Had the Court in Snyder v. Phelps decided that the speech was targeted at Snyder and that Snyder was not a public figure, they might have given some guidance about the balance between the State and the speaker in this different configuration. Instead when they decided that the Church's message was of broad public concern, they put the speech into a category which the State is rarely allowed to regulate, because the Court believes the government may not interfere with the free discussion of ideas important to a politically informed citizenry.

Finally the Court addressed the issue of whether the definition of IIED was narrowly tailored enough to survive the strict scrutiny it imposed. In a statement which echoed a similar analysis in last year's United States v. Stevens, the Court reiterated that it was inappropriate to allow the over 50 jurisdictions in the United States to apply what are essentially local criteria in restricting speech. In the Federal statute at issue in the Stevens case, punishment could be imposed when the material was "illegal in the State in which the depiction is created, sold, or possessed", giving up to three different jurisdictions a chance to criminalize the video; in this case, each local jury could apply its own definition of "outrageous conduct" as described above. The majority decided that such a definition did not give enough guidance about what speech should be punished, and thus could reach even the speech in this case, which they decided was highly protected.

Although the opinion said multiple times that the decision was very limited to the facts in this case, we may be seeing a clue that IIED cases will be analyzed very strictly in future speech cases. On the other hand it may be that this analysis only implicates speech of public concern in a public forum, and that the outrageousness requirement may survive a lower level of scrutiny in different circumstances. If such a case comes up, we may see if the Court decides that some words, like sticks and stones, can hurt you, and be punished.

Infringement risks using free/libre software

2011-02-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

A recent article on the IP Info Blog outlined some potential risks for companies using free/libre software in the products they distribute. I have a quick response.

An entity which does not desire to disclose code or otherwise conform to copyleft obligations in products it distributes to others should be able to minimize their risk of infringement by interacting with GPL code using only standardized, royalty-free interfaces (such as POSIX for the Linux kernel). I don't think it would be unreasonable to invoke copyright law's merger doctrine when using header files which implement such an API; there are only so many different ways you can implement such a freely usable interface. This may be an argument Google might employ were it to be challenged for its distribution of Android (with the Apache license) on top of a modified version of Linux (which it continues to distribute under the GPLv2, as it's required to do).

Any other interaction would apparently involve a lot more risk, probably enough to convince such an entity that it should not use code covered by the GPL or some other "copyleft license" at all. I believe that result would not be incompatible with the intent of the authors who release their code under such licenses.

Judge Posner channels Roald Dahl

2011-02-02T08:00:00.001-06:00

In 2004, Neil Gaiman sued Todd McFarlane for a declaration that he was co-author of a set of characters from the Spawn series. Judge Posner wrote the opinion, in what ends up being a fairly conversational fashion. The details of copyright ownership analysis are technical, but the tone of the opinion sounds a bit like he's explaining the outcome to you over a beer.*

One of the issues in the case is whether a particular character can be copyrighted at all. Some characters are generic; others are described in detail with immediately identifiable attributes (Harry Potter's scar); and most fall somewhere in between. One of the characters in dispute was known as "Medieval Spawn," a fairly generic term; that might have been an issue, but Judge Posner points out that the Lone Ranger's name wasn't widely known (it's John Reid!), but he's a recognizable character. Most amusing is the Judge's discussion of the difference between characters in books and characters presented in visual form (comics, movies, TV, etc.). After a long passage on page 661 from The Maltese Falcon describing the detective character Sam Spade, Judge Posner says:

Even after all this, one hardly knows what Sam Spade looked like. But everyone knows what Humphrey Bogart looked like. A reader of unillustrated fiction completes the work in his mind; the reader of a comic book or the viewer of a movie is passive. That is why kids lose a lot when they don't read fiction, even when the movies and television that they watch are aesthetically superior.

Apparently the actual published opinion (not the one on Google Scholar) has a picture of each character attached, each in its own appendix. I guess they were copied with permission of both parties, or their inclusion is considered fair use.

* I'm not sure if Judge Posner drinks beer or not. It's just an expression.

Freedom of speech

2011-01-17T17:07:00.000-06:00

Justice Holmes, joined by Justice Brandeis, in his dissent in Abrams v. United States:

... But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas - that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that experiment is part of our system I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.

Justice Brandeis, joined by Justice Holmes, in his concurrence to Whitney v. California:

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties; and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that without free speech and assembly discussion would be futile; that with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law — the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. To justify suppression of free speech there must be reasonable ground to fear that serious evil will result if free speech is practiced. There must be reasonable ground to believe that the danger apprehended is imminent. There must be reasonable ground to believe that the evil to be prevented is a serious one. Every denunciation of existing law tends in some measure to increase the probability that there will be violation of it. Condonation of a breach enhances the probability. Expressions of approval add to the probability. Propagation of the criminal state of mind by teaching syndicalism increases it. Advocacy of law-breaking heightens it still further. But even advocacy of violation, however reprehensible morally, is not a justification for denying free speech where the advocacy falls short of incitement and there is nothing to indicate that the advocacy would be immediately acted on. The wide difference between advocacy and incitement, between preparation and attempt, between assembling and conspiracy, must be borne in mind. In order to support a finding of clear and present danger it must be shown either that immediate serious violence was to be expected or was advocated, or that the past conduct furnished reason to believe that such advocacy was then contemplated.
Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. To courageous, self-reliant men, with confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning applied through the processes of popular government, no danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present, unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is opportunity for full discussion. If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence. Only an emergency can justify repression. Such must be the rule if authority is to be reconciled with freedom. Such, in my opinion, is the command of the Constitution. It is therefore always open to Americans to challenge a law abridging free speech and assembly by showing that there was no emergency justifying it.

On Sarah Palin and inspiration

2011-01-10T20:13:00.001-06:00

This response to a friend's blog re-post got too long for the comment box. There are a few questions to explore:

Was Sarah Palin responsible in any way for the Giffords shooting?
What about her free speech rights?
How does this compare to Mark David Chapman reading Catcher in the Rye?

Was Sarah Palin responsible in any way for the Giffords shooting?

18 U.S.C § 2(a), which is an example of a statute criminalizing aiding and abetting a crime, reads as follows: "Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal." The key words a jury would consider in this case are probably counsels and induces. A prosecutor would work to convince a jury that Palin's writings and rhetoric convincingly counseled violence or induced it in the attacker. It's not a requirement that Palin be a necessary element; it's not necessary to prove that this attack would not have happened without Palin's contribution. A jury would just have to decide that Palin suggested or supported such an action.

Frankly, it's pretty unlikely any jury would reach that conclusion.

What about Sarah Palin's free speech rights?

The Supreme Court decided in Brandenburg v. Ohio that some violent speech is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The Court decided that States could only criminalize speech "where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." This is a high bar for a prosecutor to reach in this case. Palin's web site was not apparently inciting imminent lawless action, and I don't think a jury would find that it was likely to do so either. While the web site listed individual lawmakers by name, and included gun sights targeting their districts, there was no direct call for violence, and most reasonable visitors would likely understand by the context that this was a political "call to arms" since this was published by the Palin PAC.

However the case isn't quite that open and shut. In 2003 the Supreme Court issued a relevant decision in Virginia v. Black, a case involving a statute criminalizing cross burning. While the defendants there claimed the statute infringed their right to free speech, the Court upheld the State's right to criminalize this form of expression because it was a "true threat"; the history of cross burning made this activity less an expression and more an intimidation. Here there is no statute prohibiting a publication of individual names with violent imagery, so Palin is not violating any law. However, if there were such a law, a prosecutor defending a conviction might look for evidence that such web sites have led to violence (e.g., against abortion providers) and try to make a similar argument.

Can you compare the Giffords shooting to the death of John Lennon?

Not really; an ambitious prosecutor would point out some salient differences. In particular, Sarah Palin did mention individuals by name, and placed gun sights (a symbol associated with violence) on their specific districts; Salinger's character did not shoot anyone, and especially did not mention John Lennon or anyone remotely like him. Because of these important differences, you can't say that just because it's unreasonable to associate Salinger with Mark David Chapman, it's therefore unreasonable to say Sarah Palin influenced Jared Lee Loughner. I think it's more compelling to do the analysis of her case on its own.

More browser security

2010-11-26T08:00:00.012-06:00

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a new Firefox extension called HTTPS Everywhere. This extension will protect your online sessions (to some extent) by forcing your browser to use the more secure HTTPS protocol when an online provider makes that available. The rules apparently protect your use of Twitter, Facebook, Paypal, Wordpress, and other social and blogging networks.

If you want to use online services somewhat safely, use Firefox, with HTTPS Everywhere, Noscript, Petname, and other extensions which improve your browser security.

OurCourts is now iCivics

2010-11-19T08:00:00.002-06:00

I've written before about Justice O'Connor's OurCourts initiative which develops games and curricula for middle and high school students; the idea is to deliver lessons about the Constitution and our form of government in a more compelling fashion. My kids have pre-tested the games; but so have I, and they're pretty fun. The foundation is now called iCivics, and has expanded a bit; even if you visited them before, please check them out again, as they've added more content, especially for teachers.

Where there is injustice ...

2010-11-14T14:29:00.000-06:00

A quote from Chief Justice Earl Warren; it is apparently the epitaph on his grave stone:

"Where there is injustice, we should correct it; where there is poverty, we should eliminate it; where there is corruption, we should stamp it out; where there is violence we should punish it; where there is neglect, we should provide care; where there is war, we should restore peace; and wherever corrections are achieved we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasure."

Justice Harlan on protecting liberty with the Fourteenth Amendment

2010-11-09T08:00:00.003-06:00

Excepts from his dissent starting on page 523:

Due process has not been reduced to any formula; its content cannot be determined by reference to any code. ... The balance of which I speak is the balance from which [our country] developed as well as the traditions from which it broke. That tradition is a living thing. A decision of this Court which radically departs from it could not long survive, while a decision which builds on what has survived is likely to be sound. ...

[The character of the Constitutional protection of liberties] must be discerned from a particular provision's larger context. And inasmuch as this context is one not of words, but of history and purposes, the full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause [of the Fourteenth Amendment] cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution. This "liberty" is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints ...

It is the purposes of these guarantees and not their text, the reasons for their statement by the Framers and not the statement itself, [ ] which have led to their present status in the compendious notion of "liberty" embraced in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Each new claim to Constitutional protection must be considered against a background of Constitutional purposes, as they have been rationally perceived and historically developed. ... The decision of an apparently novel claim must depend on grounds which follow closely on well-accepted principles and criteria. The new decision must take "its place in relation to what went before and further [cut] a channel for what is to come." (citing Irvine v. California, dissent).

This sounds pretty prophetic to me.

What do your online photos reveal about you?

2010-11-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

I've written before about the fact that all your data on the internet can become public at any time, and the fact that on your phone or other devices, "apps" can be disclosing your location or other information. Another thing to be aware of is that photos that you place on the internet can leak information about you as well.

What sorts of data are available in photos? Your camera puts in statistics about the photo itself: size, resolution, color data, etc. There's also information about the camera, information about the environment (including, in some cases, GPS coordinates), and date/time stamps. Some cameras apparently even let you "tag" photos, with things like the subjects/participants.

What can this tell other people about you? Well, that flattering and innocuous picture you put up as your profile picture on Facebook might have the GPS coordinates of a bar or nightclub. A collection of your pictures, tagged with location and date information, could let people know you travel a lot to expensive locales. Tagged pictures with names help others calculate who your friends are (or other people you hang around with). Sometimes information that's stored in just one picture is no big deal, but the photos in the aggregate can paint a picture of you that you might not expect. Read the article; you should at least know what can be in the photos.

Of course, photo upload sites like Flickr and Facebook could help you by purging that information for you. As a matter of fact they typically do when they convert your uploaded photo to another format or size; however, if the original file is still available for download, the information your camera saved in there will travel with it. And of course if the site may keep the original, or the data from the original, for its own use. You may decide it's not worth the trouble to sanitize your photos before you share them - but I think you should at least be aware of this issue.

Calculus, the musical

2010-11-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

Our family went to see Calculus, the musical when they were in town a year or so ago. It's an amusing play describing Newton's route to calculus, including old tunes updated with math lyrics. Some examples include:

5 Sizes of Numbers (In the style of: The Beatles - In My Life)
The Limit’s Alright (In the style of: The Who - The Kids Are Alright)
Differentiabul (In the style of: They Might Be Giants - Istanbul(Not Constantinople))
Power Rule (In the style of : Petula Clark - Downtown)
Under The Curve (In the style of: Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Under the Bridge)
and a favorite: L’Hôpital(I have Calculus in the Heart) (In the style of : Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart)

At their web site they have some new albums for sale, and they say they're ready to come around on tour again. I'd love to figure out how to bring them to Houston, either to Rice or to a local high school. Anyone interested?

The value of being open

2010-10-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Register reports that the security on the iPhone 4 can easily be bypassed by a particular sequence of key presses. Apparently earlier iPhones suffered from a similar issue.

On a recent earnings call, Steve Jobs amusingly described Apple's iPhone as being more "open" than Google's Android operating system. If the iPhone really were in fact open at all, security problems like this would have more likely been found and fixed before they were widely distributed. End users would have been able to patch their own phones, if they wanted to, using the source code to Android itself. There are how-to articles and online support communities to help. And finally, if iPhone were really an open platform, other companies or enthusiasts could port Adobe Flash or Java to run on it.

The bottom line is you will never be able to fully trust your machine if it is running Apple software. You don't know if it's secure, and without source code you will never know if apps are stealing your data or are making transactions on your account. It's sad to hear Steve Jobs trying to claim the mantle of being "open" when it's so clear he wants to completely control the experience of every one of his customers - to their detriment, with at best an ephemeral benefit in return.

Firesheep

2010-10-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

There's a new Firefox plugin called Firesheep which helps people hack your social network accounts. Here's some information about what it does and how you can react to it.

What it does

Firesheep configures your network connection to monitor the traffic your neighbors are generating. Looking at their network traffic, the plugin can find any "cookies" transferred between your browser and the social networking site. Once it's grabbed the cookie, it can implant their cookie into your browser, giving you access to their account. Social network sites which are vulnerable include Facebook and Twitter.

When are you vulnerable?

Although the plugin sounds pretty powerful, it's only dangerous in a particular environment - one in which your machine can see the network traffic of your neighbors (and they can see yours). So if you are connected to the network via an open WiFi hot spot, you can see the traffic of other people. If you're at work but they use an old security mechanism called WEP then others can pretty easily see your network traffic; I don't think the current Firesheep plugin handles this case, but it wouldn't be too difficult to add.

Wired networks are pretty safe. Modern switches and routers keep you from seeing the traffic of other machines on the network, even on your local network segment.

What can you do to be safe?

Contact your social network vendor and insist they encrypt your entire session (not just the login sequence) via SSL. Google has already configured Gmail to do this by default. And then while you're waiting:
Don't connect to your social networking site over public networks. Don't use Twitter or Facebook at a coffee shop, or frankly even on your phone, unless you don't mind someone having access to your account. Make sure your WiFi at home has a WPA2 password configured.
Don't let it matter. Make sure no other sites will trust your credentials from your social networking site; this is an issue if you use OpenID at the other sites, and those sites trust your social network identity. You should also make sure you don't mind losing any items or value you might have stored up in a game or other application in your account, email or photographs stored there, etc.

Driving the Chevy Volt

2010-10-24T15:40:00.000-05:00

I test-drove the Chevy Volt today. I've been following the story of this car and its technology on the gm-volt.com web site for about three years now, and am excited to have the opportunity to finally see it in person.

The Volt is an electric car with a gasoline engine. It's not like the gas/electric hybrids currently available; the gas engine exists to charge the battery, not to drive the car. It's more properly known as an Extended Range Electric Vehicle. The battery will drive the car for about 40 miles before the gas engine kicks on into "charge-sustaining mode." The electric engine is still driving the car; at some higher speeds, the rotations from the gas engine help drive the car a bit, but never on its own. With a full tank of gas, the total range of the car should be about 250 miles.

The car itself was pretty nice looking; it had that new-car appeal. Under the hood there are what look like individual modules; the gas engine is in there, as well as a computer system, and containers for various fluids (brake, coolant, wiper, etc.). The back is a hatch-back, with a small open space behind the back seats; I worry a bit that things might fly forward out of there if you stop suddenly. Lifting up the "floor" of the hatch space, you see access panels for the battery terminals, and space for a charger cord. Not until later did I realize I hadn't seen the spare tire; there may be one under the vehicle.

There are four bucket seats in the car; the two seats in back are separated by what I believe is part of the T-shaped battery. The back seats fold down, to allow more cargo space. Someone remarked "that's plenty of room for camping gear!" but I thought "only if you don't take your kids with you." This is not a cargo car; it'll move groceries around, and take you and a friend to the airport, but maybe not more.

Overall, this is a practical electric car to have. It will take you around town on the electric charge, and take you on a longer trip with the gasoline engine as an extender. If you have a family, your second car should have some hauling space, and probably seat at least five. Houston won't likely have any available until next year or so; I just hope the $7500 tax break is still around when I'm ready to buy my Volt.

Update - Facebook apps leak your identity to advertisers

2010-10-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

In an update to my previous post on the danger of "apps", a researcher has found that Facebook applications leak your identity to advertisers. Any application which displays ads to you while you use it is potentially sending your identity to their advertisers.

Why does this happen? It could be sloppy programming on the part of the application (i.e. Farmville in the article), or it could be the result of the contract between the application provider and their advertisers:

Sloppy programming
Any application which displays ads by asking your browser to fetch the ad directly from the advertiser's system is running the risk that all kinds of information from your browser reaches the advertiser. A more secure way to deliver ads would be for the application to request the ad for you, then display it to you; it could then make you anonymous to the advertiser. However, advertisers may explicitly want to avoid this, which brings us to:
Contractual obligations to advertisers
Advertisers are paying the application either for each ad displayed or when a user "clicks" on the ad. An advertiser would typically want to make sure that the ads actually reach the users; if they're paying for "impressions" then they probably want to count those deliveries themselves. Therefore they're less likely to trust the application developer to count for them; instead, they'll want to identify each ad request by its unique browser/requestor.
Another consideration is that advertisers (or the ad networks that deliver the ads to the applications on their behalf) may explicitly want access to your browser so they can use cookies to track you. They therefore would not want the application to fetch the ads on your behalf; they would want your browser to make the request directly, so they can fetch and drop tracking information. In theory, this tracking information should allow you to be "semi-anonymous"; however, if it's tied to an explicit Facebook (or other social network) ID, then that anonymity vanishes.

What's the solution? Well, the easiest is: don't use "apps" in social network settings. Other solutions are a bit harder. You could use a Firefox extension to block the information from the advertisers; I don't use any so I can't personally recommend any particular one. You could configure your browser to use an anonymizer - a proxy which strips your personal information and routes your request through several machines so the web site has a harder time identifying you. Or you can run a proxy server on your local machine which modifies incoming pages and outgoing requests. You can even run a combination of all of these, so you don't have to place all your trust in any one solution.

Project proposal - please vote

2010-10-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Please check out and vote for a new proposal at Mozilla's Drumbeat site. It's project which will create an interface which will allow educators to bring together disparate teaching materials online. This should allow teachers to create curricula from content available world-wide; allow authors to contribute more easily to a global educational corpus; and allow researchers and entrepreneurs to use the materials in innovative new ways. I urge you to look through the materials and give it your vote, to help convince Mozilla to fund the proposal.

Full disclosure: I am related to the project author.

Houston ISD Magnet Program survey - admissions criteria

2010-10-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

I wrote earlier about Houston ISD's questionnaire about its magnet programs; in particular about the survey question on funding. Another such question asked about how students should be admitted to magnet programs.

The magnet programs at HISD exist both to cluster students with similar interests, skills, and abilities, and to allow students from under-performing schools to attend programs outside their HISD zone. In a perfect world, every student who wanted to attend a magnet program would; however, there are a limited number of programs, and a limited number of students the programs can admit. Therefore there needs to be some way for a program to admit a fraction of its applicants.

One thing that makes this a little more complicated is that HISD has a parallel program called "Vanguard" which targets a subset of the children who are identified as "gifted and talented." I think the idea is generally sound - it's easier to provide a centralized accelerated academic program in a small number of schools than it is to have a separate such program in each of schools. I'll address each program (Vanguard, magnet) for each grade level (elementary, middle, high school).

Elementary school

Vanguard
HISD uses a battery of tests to determine which students are identified as "gifted and talented"; within that population, a further set of tests determine which students qualify for the "Vanguard" program. I'm not sure the data convince me these second tests are effective - it's not clear that all the students chosen for the programs end up thriving in them, nor is it clear that the students excluded from such programs would not have done better as participants. If the second battery of tests does not effectively differentiate between those populations, then perhaps admission to a Vanguard program at this level should be by lottery from the pool of "gifted and talented" applicants.
Magnet
I believe most magnet programs at this level accept applicants by lottery. This seems pretty fair.

Middle school

Vanguard
At this level HISD has more data about its students, based on grades, test scores, and teacher evaluations. It may have enough information to be able to tell which students would benefit from accelerated Vanguard programs. If so, selection based on these criteria would be appropriate. If the data are not enough to be able to rank students, then perhaps a threshold to apply plus a lottery among the qualified would be better and would allow more students to participate. Some students might not thrive in such an environment and may choose to leave it; programs should actively recruit new students for open spots in 7th and 8th grades to replace them.
Magnet

High school

Vanguard
By high school, the district should have enough data to be able to determine which students will do well in a Vanguard/accelerated program. Students will also self-select at this level, since these programs will typically include an expectation that students take a decent number of IB or AP courses and exams. The pressure to have a high GPA may convince students not to attend unless they're sure they'll succeed. Therefore, at this level the schools should probably have open admissions or a lottery of all candidates who qualify based on grades and test scores.
Magnet
The Magnet schools at this level are really incredible - foreign language, performing and visual arts, science/medical, engineering, even a school with a flight program. If the program has some minimum ability requirements it should test for them (language fluency or aptitude, science/math scores or grades, performing ability, etc.) Like the Vanguard programs above, students will likely self-select at this point, so programs should probably have open admissions or a lottery among all who qualify. The assumption is that anyone applying to such a school will be interested enough to succeed if they have the skills to do so.

Since one of the goals of the magnet program is to allow students to "escape" an under-performing they're zoned to, perhaps at each level some preference should be given to an applicant who is zoned to such a school. There also, frankly, should be more magnet programs!

Houston ISD Magnet Program survey - funding magnet programs

2010-10-15T17:00:00.002-05:00

Houston ISD is conducting a survey of parents and teachers about its magnet program, sending out questionnaires and holding town hall meetings around the city. The survey they sent out asks a number of thought-provoking questions; I'm curious to know how they collate and respond to the submissions they receive. I wonder if they will hold a subsequent round of discussions so we can react to each others' responses.

One question asked how you would recommend funding the programs at magnet schools; they give three suggestions: (1) equal funding by school; (2) funding by pupil; (3) differential funding by type of program. They give only a small box for the response, so I thought I'd elaborate on my submission here:

Each paradigm has its merits and demerits.

Funding by pupil has the problem that programs with few pupils, especially starting programs, may not have enough baseline funding to hire the personnel necessary to get established.
Funding "by program type" implies differential funding - do STEM schools get more than music/arts schools? How about Vanguard/Gifted schools? Do we decide there are a small number of "types" and assign funding amounts to them? How would an innovative new "type" of program get established and funded?
Finally, while equal funding per school sounds fair, it can be attacked as providing inordinate funding to schools with small magnet populations. It might also under-fund popular programs with a large number of applicants.

Perhaps a "tiered" system makes sense. Schools with 1 - 100 magnet students would receive some baseline amount; schools with 101 - 200 get more; and perhaps a per-capita allowance for every student over 200. That might be supplemented by service-based funding for things like after-school programs, or grants of initial capital to do things like purchasing art supplies and tools, musical instruments, gymnastics or dance items, etc.

The danger of "apps"

2010-10-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

A recent study of a sample of Android apps found that they were "calling home" (sending the phone's current location to a remote web site) on a periodic basis. It was clear that the apps were not telling the user they were doing this; what was not so clear was if the users were adequately notified of this behavior when the applications were installed.

On a related front, Facebook applications can access and store your data and the data of visiting friends. The site gives you some options to suggest which data you want to share and with whom; however, keep in mind that behind the scenes the software must try to interpret your preferences in a way that keeps both you and Facebook's advertisers happy. That's not a tension that is likely to resolve in your favor.

My suggestion would be to delete any applications you don't need from your phones and social networking sites. Eventually, if you really need a phone or device which runs "apps," I'd suggest an Android, because it can be legitimately upgraded (hacked?) to reveal (and perhaps control) such data leaks. And remember, even though your location, demographic, and friend information may seem like innocuous information to be sharing, keep in mind all your data are potentially public.

Fixing weak cellular coverage

2010-09-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

Bloomberg reports that Sprint is giving away "femtocell towers" to a small number of customers who have weak reception in their homes. These towers act as local cellular stations inside your home; they transmit your calls over your internet connection back to Sprint. They therefore depend on your internet speed; if you have a slow or spotty connection, your calls will not sound very good.

If you can't get one for free, these towers seem to cost around $100 retail, with a $5 monthly charge. You can apparently set it up to route multiple numbers over your connection for an additional charge.

Houston - It's Hot!

The sleep needs of adolescents

Distinguishing Snyder from Rosenbloom

American Academy of Actuaries on Social Security

The cost of public education

Open source and 17 U.S.C. 203

Sticks and stones

Infringement risks using free/libre software

Judge Posner channels Roald Dahl

Freedom of speech

On Sarah Palin and inspiration

Was Sarah Palin responsible in any way for the Giffords shooting?

What about Sarah Palin's free speech rights?

Can you compare the Giffords shooting to the death of John Lennon?

More browser security

OurCourts is now iCivics

Where there is injustice ...

Justice Harlan on protecting liberty with the Fourteenth Amendment

What do your online photos reveal about you?

Calculus, the musical

The value of being open

Firesheep

What it does

When are you vulnerable?

What can you do to be safe?

Driving the Chevy Volt

Update - Facebook apps leak your identity to advertisers

Sloppy programming

Contractual obligations to advertisers

Project proposal - please vote

Houston ISD Magnet Program survey - admissions criteria

Elementary school

Vanguard

Magnet

Middle school

Vanguard

Magnet

High school

Vanguard

Magnet

Houston ISD Magnet Program survey - funding magnet programs

The danger of "apps"

Fixing weak cellular coverage