Lisa Tolliver On Air and Online

Impeach Or Breach! Spare Oath-Breakers No Quarter

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:18:00 -0500

TITLE: "Impeach Or Breach! Spare Oath-Breakers No Quarter."

AUTHOR/COPYRIGHT: Lisa Tolliver (1/13/2021)

To All U.S. Representatives and Senators:

You must do it. (You did not quit!)

45's glove fits*: you can't acquit.

Afraid** to play? Don't take the pay!

You kept the pay? Then, you must play.

You must impeach, or you're a leech.

You must impeach, lest oath* you breach.

Oath-breach is crime, with fines and time.

Can't do the time? Don't do that crime.

###

*5 U.S. Code § 3331.Oath of office

Source: Cornell Law School

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/3331

**https://www.rawstory.com/gop-official-fears-impeachment/?fbclid=IwAR2VVqmJalcpR0xp8JFUEqiKmJGlCX7RI0Wg-Ua3UyqTjAOndfPe-kt-7gY

DIGITAL USERS BEWARE: "Samsung Warns Customers Not to Discuss Personal Information In Front of Smart TVs" | TheWeek | Feb. 29, 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 09:11:00 -0500

Continuing the saga of apps/software/devices snooping on users.

This info is no longer breaking news, but it's worth remembering:
"Samsung Warns Customers Not to Discuss Personal Information In Front of Smart TVs" | TheWeek | Feb. 29, 2015
http://theweek.com/speedreads/538379/samsung-warns-customers-not-discuss-personal-information-front-smart-tvs

Here are the latest devices to beware of if you value your privacy:
...Amazon's Alexa/Echo product line
...Google's Home device

Articles on the subject:
https://www.google.com/search?q=echo+used+in+court&hl=en&sa=X&as_q=&nfpr=&spell=1&ved=0ahUKEwjSpY7D5pTSAhXL5SYKHdgDCEQQvwUICg

Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? Chronicles, #4 - "A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear For Spying On Your Cellphone"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 13:48:00 -0500

Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? Chronicles, #4 -

Remember when Tony Soprano said he never uses GPS, and he always used burner phones? Given he was a mafioso and all, that made sense, right? Why help the FBI track him? But in recent years, even law-abiding "civilians" should be aware of the increasing number of ways their gadgets are contributing to invasions of privacy.

"A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear For Spying On Your Cellphone"

(By Jeremy Scahill & Margot Williams (December 17, 2015) | The Intercept)

###
-->

Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? Chronicles, #3: "The walls have ears: Warrant granted for Amazon Echo recordings", "Goodbye privacy, hello 'Alexa': Amazon Echo, the home robot who hears it all", "Virtual standoff: Amazon Echo vs. Google Home"", and "Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home and how they’re always listening"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 13:04:00 -0500

Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? Chronicles, #3 -

Here's the article that inspired me to write this post:

"The walls have ears: Warrant granted for Amazon Echo recordings"

(Published time: 28 Dec, 2016 02:31, Edited time: 28 Dec, 2016 23:14; RT America)

Here's another take on Alexa's intrusion on privacy:

"Goodbye privacy, hello 'Alexa': Amazon Echo, the home robot who hears it all"

(by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Published Saturday 21 November 2015 07.07 EST; The Guardian)

We had Rory Carroll invite ‘Alexa’ aka the Echo into his home. There was helpful cooking assistance, endless facts and figures, an amusing misunderstanding – and concerns over what exactly Amazon does with all that interaction data

The privacy concerns posed by Alexa apply equally to Google Home

"Virtual standoff: Amazon Echo vs. Google Home"

(By Kim Komando , Special for USA TODAY 8:11 a.m. EST December 30, 2016)

Privacy issues

For Amazon or Google to answer your questions on demand, it has to be listening all the time. According to Amazon, when Alexa detects its wake word and glows blue, it streams "a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word" to the Amazon's servers and closes once your command has been processed. That fraction of a second gets saved along with your main command.

Google Home operates in a similar way. It constantly listens for the phrase "OK Google." Once detected, its LED lights activate and the recording is sent to Google's servers.

I wrote an entire article about how these devices are always listening and also tell you the steps to delete your recordings. Click here to learn more about this now.

Here's more on the subject, from Kommando.com

"Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home and how they’re always listening"

(By Francis Navarro, Komando.com; November 12, 2016; Komando.com)

Here's the creepy part, Amazon and Google keep an audio recording of each and every voice command you've issued to Alexa or Home in their respective servers.
Why so? Amazon claims that it keeps the recordings to improve and enhance your user experience. The Echo uses these recordings to fine tune its comprehension by creating your unique voice profile.
Google uses the voice data to make their services "faster, smarter, and more useful". This information is also used to provide a more personalized experience across all Google services.

###

ON TV: Showdown - "Hell on Wheels"' Lily Bell v. Thomas Heywood's "The Fair Maid of the West"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 3 Apr 2016 11:58:00 -0400

I've been binge-watching Hell on Wheels and am glad I came aboard. In fact, I just finished watching season 3, episode 2 ("Eminent Domain") and have decided to lay a stake: I'll add this richly textured, though occasionally flawed, antebellum western set during the Union Pacific's westward construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, to the arsenal of pop culture/mass media resources I draw from (get it?) for various projects.

Today's focus: Showdown - Hell on Wheels' Lily Bell v. Thomas Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West

In the AMC series Hell on Wheels, Thomas "Doc" Durant (a real-life character portrayed by Colm Meaney) references Thomas Heywood's English Renaissance drama, The Fair Maid of the West, or a Girl Worth Gold, Parts 1 and 2 (1631) to promote his Union Pacific Railroad, by publicizing Lily Bell* as "The Fair-haired Maiden of the West" and exaggerating the extent of the travails she endured during a Cheyenne Dog Soldiers massacre. However, though Bell actually was beautiful and blonde (and, therefore, both fair and fair-haired), had been seriously wounded by the brave who intended to kill her, had been stalked by a posse of warriors aiming to finish her off, and had to be rescued by not one, but two heroes on horseback (Joseph Black Moon and Cullen Bohannon - both of whom, like Bell, were spreading their wings beyond their socially constrained molds and finding a mis-fit with the worlds they found themselves in), the widow generally behaved more like the maiden in the first half of Heywood's drama than either the heroine in that quarto's back half or the maiden Hell on Wheels' Durant fabricated.

There's no two ways about it: Bell was avant-garde, adventurous, brave, liberated, and resourceful. She looked and acted like a lady but drove hard bargains, was sexually aggressive, didn't hesitate to slap a b* (male or female), assumed her late husband's role as chief surveyor in addition to increasing responsibilities in running the railroad, was neither a bigot nor a snob, and bested Durant when he and his wife tried to oust her from the railroad enterprise (that would have failed without Bell and her husband's contributions). Nonetheless, in the season 1 finale ("God of Chaos"), Bell granted Durant's request that she assume the fair damsel image, to garner support at the event Durant hosted to impress railroad stakeholders.

*Love the name, like that of "Sweet Polly Purebred"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fair_Maid_of_the_West
http://www.amc.com/shows/hell-on-wheels/cast-crew/lily-bell

DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE!: Jellybooks' code candy.js "is code embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read" - and such data's being collected not only by Jellybooks but by "a growing list of others"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 4 Aug 2015 04:24:00 -0400

[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Snow_White%2C_c1919_%285686351086%29.jpg]

In October 2014, I posted Lisa Tolliver On Air and Online: DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE! Adobe Digital Editions 4 Spies On Users (And They're Not the Only Ones) - Includes "Who's Reading Whom? (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)", a short horror story.

This next installment in the DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE! saga was prompted by Andrew Rhomberg's article in DBW, "What Code Is Revealing About Readers" (31 July 2015) describing (actually, boasting about and promoting) Jellybooks' code, candy.js, "code embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read", and announcing his new monthly column, Audience+Insight, that will "detail how acquiring, editing, positioning, promoting and marketing are all being reshaped by data—collected by Jellybooks and a growing list of others—about the ways consumers actually read books".

The article reminds me of the following famed stories:

The Trojan Horse, the well-known, oft-told legend from the Trojan War about the subterfuge the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war, nowadays often used in other contexts, as well
The poisoned apple the wicked stepmother gives Snow White
The forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Satan gives Eve, and that Eve shares with Adam, causing the couple's banishment from Eden and spiritual death
Poisoned candy myths

See the excerpt and link to the article below:

"What Code Is Revealing About Readers"

By: Andrew Rhomberg | July 31, 2015http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/what-code-is-revealing-about-readers/

There’s a brave new world in book publishing, and it’s being shaped by and around audience insights. Not only are publishers becoming more adept at using data to work smarter, but code and algorithms are also getting better at gathering information and executing tasks without the help of humans.

At Jellybooks, we recently developed a piece of code called candy.js, which is embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read. Penguin Random House UK was among our earliest partners in a pilot program of the technology, and the insights we gathered were fascinating. The question now becomes what story this data tells us and what impact it might have.

To explore, I’m kicking off a new monthly column called “Audience+Insight” that will detail how acquiring, editing, positioning, promoting and marketing are all being reshaped by data—collected by Jellybooks and a growing list of others—about the ways consumers actually read books.

-->

###
Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? #2

Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 3 Mar 2015 09:35:00 -0500

<br />
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss, happy birthday to you!

(March 2, 1904-September 21)

“The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

“Young cat! If you keep
Your eyes open enough,
Oh, the stuff you will learn!
The most wonderful stuff!”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

“I can read in red.
I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

“You have to be a speedy reader because there’s so so much to read.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! -->

LIBRARY STORIES: "The Library Policeman"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 3 Mar 2015 08:34:00 -0500

I can't think of Stephen King's novella, "The Library Policeman" (the third story in the 1990 collection Four Past Midnight) without thinking of Gus Hasford's Library Book Theft Charges. Or vice versa.

LIBRARY STORIES: Gus Hasford's Library Book Theft Charges

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 3 Mar 2015 08:03:00 -0500

Are you, too, a fan of Gus Hasford's novels?

The Short-Timers (1979) ISBN 0-553-23945-7
The Phantom Blooper (1990) ISBN 0-553-05718-9
A Gypsy Good Time (1992) ISBN 0-671-72917-9

Or of the award-winning film Full Metal Jacket (1987), based on Hasford's first book?

Wikipedia: Gustav haford - First novel and film
In 1978, Hasford attended the Milford Writer's Workshop and met veteran science fiction author Frederik Pohl, who was then an editor at Bantam Books. At Pohl's suggestion, Hasford submitted The Short-Timers, and Pohl promptly bought it for Bantam.^[5]
The Short-Timers became a best-seller, described in Newsweek as “The best work of fiction about the Vietnam War”.^[1] It was adapted into the 1987 feature film Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay written by Hasford, Kubrick, and screenwriter Michael Herr was nominated for an Academy Award. Hasford's actual contributions were a subject of dispute among the three, and ultimately Hasford chose to skip the Oscar ceremonies.^[1]

This story has long haunted me:

Wikipedia: Gustav Hasford - Library books theft charges

In 1988, shortly before the Oscar ceremony, Hasford was charged with theft after campus police from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, found nearly 10,000 library books in his rented storage locker. At that time, he had 87 overdue books and five years of the magazine Civil War Times checked out from the Cal Poly-SLO library; the materials were valued at over $2,000.^[6]

Hasford's book collection included books borrowed (and never returned) from dozens of libraries across the United States, and from libraries in the United Kingdom and Australia. Others were allegedly taken from the homes of acquaintances. Among them were 19th-century books on Edgar Allan Poe and the American Civil War.^[6] He had obtained borrowing privileges at Cal Poly-SLO as a California resident, but submitted a false address and Social Security number. In 1985, he had borrowed 98 books from the Sacramento, California public library, and was wanted for grand theft there.^[6]

Hasford initially denied the charges but eventually admitted possession of several hundred stolen books, and pled nolo contendere ("no contest") to possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment (of which he served three months) and promised to pay restitution from the royalties for his future works.^[6]

Hasford claimed that he wanted the books to research a never-published book on the Civil War. He described his difficulties as "a vicious attack launched against me by Moral Majority fanatics backed up by the full power of the Fascist State."^[6]

-->

30 Funniest Cartoons About eBooks and Digital Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 03:24:00 -0500

From EbookFriendly

DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE! Adobe Digital Editions 4 Spies On Users (And They're Not the Only Ones) - Includes "Who's Reading Whom? (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)", a short horror story

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 7 Oct 2014 20:17:00 -0400

Think I'm being melodramatic with the title "Digital Readers: Beware! Adobe Digital Editions 4 Spies On Users (And They're Not the Only Ones)"? Well:

I made you look! And,
Sadly, it's no joke.

As fjtorres posted today in Mobileread:

Over at the Digital Reader Blog Nate reports:

Quote:

My source told me, and I can confirm, that Adobe is tracking users in the app and uploading the data to their servers. (Adobe was contacted in advance of publication, but declined to respond.)

And just to be clear, I have seen this happen, and I can also tell you that Benjamin Daniel Mussler, the security researcher who found the security hole on Amazon.com, has also tested this at my request and saw it with his own eyes.

Adobe is gathering data on the ebooks that have been opened, which pages were read, and in what order. All of this data, including the title, publisher, and other metadata for the book is being sent to Adobe’s server in clear text.

I am not joking; Adobe is not only logging what users are doing, they’re also sending those logs to their servers in such a way that anyone running one of the servers in between can listen in and know everything,

But wait, there’s more.

Adobe isn’t just tracking what users are doing in DE4; this app was also scanning my computer, gathering the metadata from all of the ebooks sitting on my hard disk, and uploading that data to Adobe’s servers.

In. Plain. Text.

More at the source:
http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/1...comment-660086 ###

MY TAKE
.

The responses to fjtorres' above-mentioned Mobileread post, to Nate Hoffelder's article that prompted it (The Digital Reader: Adobe is Spying on Users, Collecting Data on Their eBook Libraries), and to other articles on the subject are further illuminating. Some even scary. Because ADE's not the only software to behave this way. And this kind of thing's been going on a long time.
.

Moreover, ADE and Adobe Digital IDs are used by OverDrive, which in turn partners with libraries, schools, and the SYNC YA Literature Into Your Earphones Program that lends and distributes digital content to a target audience aged 13 and up.

Think of the children!

I did.

And that's why, I found the combination of Nate's post, fjtorres' response (including his/her last three words in boldface - see above), and the additional information responders shared in the ensuing threads horrifying. Unbidden, my brain immediately riffed up the vignette posted below, in purple-colored typeface.

.

"Who's Reading Whom? (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)"
A short horror story

CHILD: Mommy, Mommmmy! I can't sleep. My books are spying on me.

MOTHER: There, there, Dear. You're just having a bad dream. Books can't spy on you.

CHILD: But...

MOTHER: Sssh, my sweet.

CHILD: But, Mother, this has been happening with ebooks since at least 2011 and 2012, and some hackers did it even earlier with Kindle books they'd corrupted. Not to mention 2010, when everybody learned Amazon was remotely uploading information about notes and highlights users made on their Kindles. And...and how 'bout those schools that use electronic versions of textbooks to spy on students as they read them?

MOTHER SITS DOWN.

CHILD: And it's not just ebooks! Way back in the olden days, at the turn of the century and again about 10 years ago, other guys whom everyone trusted got caught doing things like that with music.

     It's never going to stop! Microsoft Kinect counts the number of people in the room to make sure not too many are using it. And Netflix's use of viewer's data is applauded as a key success factor. Remember, only 11 months ago, when an LG Smart TV was caught violating a user's private files by uploading data from his USB-connected device to LG's servers? And last December, when Google removed the privacy feature that lets users prevent apps they install from from the Play Store from collecting sensitive data, like phone book information and the user's location? [Sniffle.]

MOTHER [stifling a grin]: Have you been reading "The Library Policeman"?

CHILD: Well, yes. But, Stephen King's story is just pretend. (Isn't it?)

     Like Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Pauses, frowning.)

     But this is different; it's really happening! I read about it on the Internet, so it must be true.

MOTHER: [Chuckles outright and looks relieved.] Sweetie, even if books could spy on you, why would they? Books are our friends! That's why Daddy and I, all your teachers, and the librarians, and your grandparents, aunts, and uncles give you books to read all the time.

     [Crosses to the bookshelf by the bed, and ticks off on her fingers.] Let's see: you've got hardcopy books, paperback books, textbooks, comic books, picture books, ebooks, audiobooks, See 'N Say books, puzzle books, Read to Me books, coloring books, reference books, graphic novels, periodicals... [Drones on, a la "Bubba" Blue's riffs about shrimp in Forrest Gump. Then catches herself.]

     Sorry, got carried away. Your dad and I read books all the time, too. I even keep books and an ereader next to my bed, and sometimes I fall asleep with them on my pillow.

     I find that very comforting. You should, too.

CHILD: Mommy. I'm not talking about physical books. Though those are creepy, too. Do you REALLY place them in your bed? [Grimaces melodramatically.] Bleh!

    But I'm talking about digital books. First, it was just the snoopy suppliers of ereader devices and apps (you know, like Amazon, Apple, CourseSmart, Google, Kobo, NOOK, Sony). But that creepy spying's spreading like cancer: now, the Adobe Digital Editions 4 software used for digital books is listening in. It pokes around our devices, recording activities and gathering data - much of it not even related to the ebooks we use ADE to authorize. And most of the ereader apps and software I can think of have to be registered with ADE. So Adobe knows everything...and they phone it home.

MOTHER: You mean, like ET? [Hugs and kisses kid. More chuckles.]

CHILD: [Crying.] Yes! But in a bad way.

     And on top of that, Adobe beams up user's logs to their servers in unencrypted, clear text, allowing anyone in between who can monitor network traffic to intercept that information, too! Mommy, copies of my report cards are saved on my devices. And other secret stuff, like my diary. [Sobs.]

MOTHER: No, Pumpkin. Those bad things you're worried about can never happen. That's one reason why we never download torrent files or pirated content (besides the fact that that would be stealing). And we maintain top-notch, always up-to-date security measures on all our devices.

CHILD: But Mum, I'm not talking about malware. I'm talking about the software we voluntarily download from the so-called "good guys"! The ones who authorize the software we need to borrow digital books from the library and from school...

     [Sniffles, wipes face with pajama sleeve]

...like maybe, BiblioCommons. But definitely, CourseSmart and Adobe.

MOTHER: [Smiles sympathetically.] Oh, honey. Now, I get what you're talking about. You're so clever! But they're just updating your books. And syncing across devices to enhance your reading experience. Not to worry; those are good things. Lots of apps do that. Adobe and the other developers, and the book publishers, and the ereader suppliers are just looking out for us. As they always do.

     [Thinks: "Whew! For a minute, there, I thought I'd have to give my kid a tinfoil hat!"]

CHILD: [Recoils, thinking guiltily: "What a maroon! What an ignoranomous!"]

MOTHER: [Opens arms wide.] C'mere Snookums. Let's get a nice cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows and milk. Then, maybe we'll sleep better.

CHILD: [Resignedly gives Mum a hug, then walks with her hand-in-hand into the kitchen, still hoping to convince her.]

[Sitting side-by-side on stools, at the kitchen counter.]

MOTHER: Isn't this nice? So listen, Sweetheart: with so many books in your room, and on your computer and mobile devices, you should never be afraid. The reality is: you're never, ever alone, Honey. Everywhere you go, Dick and Jane, and Spot the Dog, and all the Dr. Seuss characters, the Peanuts gang, Archie's gang, the superheros, and all the Mother Goose characters... [Starts droning again.]

CHILD: [Rolls eyes.]

MOTHER: ...are with you, always. Day and night. Everywhere you go. Every move you make. Every breath you take. Every bond you make. Every step you take. They'll be watching you. [Drones...Cue music.]

CHILD: [Screams.]

THE END.

###

Only it's not.

The end, that is.

With Adobe, it's just the beginning. We've only just begun delving into what's already beginning to smell, IMHO, like a steaming, putrid revival of what might be the type of behavior that led to the curtain's being pulled on other trusted providers of seemingly good things digital.

Moreover, as the kid in the story said, this behavior's been happening for years in digital publishing. And it's accelerating.

Nor is that behavior confined to the ebooks industry. If you can stomach the gory details, then read the content linked within the short story, linked immediately above, and linked below.

Unfortunately, as Orwellian and nightmarish as this unraveling ADE 4-gate seems in its own right, it's no bad dream we can wake up from, drink a nice cup of cocoa, and then just shake off.

Nope.

From my perspective as an avid reader (and ereader); as an academic-practitioner who teaches such courses as business strategy, ethics, and managing innovation & technology; and a non-lawyer who worked in telecom for 10 years - including Regulatory Affairs, I think ADE 4's alleged behavior seems like a real-life, 2014 mirror of the music industry's RealNetworks privacy breach of the late 1990's and Sony digital rootkit debacle of 2005.

Despite the furor this discovery about ADE 4 has raised - first at The Digital Reader, and then elsewhere - I'm sure Adobe won't back down quietly. But (thankfully), neither will such formidable protectors of users' privacy and other rights as:

The American Library Association (whose Code of Ethics states, "We protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received, and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted");
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (which is calling ADE 4 spyware);
Protectors of FERPA (the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act);
Or various other entities whose laws, policies, or rules ADE 4's behavior tramples on regulations such as the Reader Privacy Act recently passed in New Jersey and, as Nate Hoffelder writes, "similar laws passed by states like California" and overseas.

So we'd better buckle up, gentle readers. And - given Adobe's admissions about ADE 4 and the lack of clarity about ADE 3 - various people who seem to know what they're doing suggest downloading library books directly into OverDrive, reading other ebooks via apps other than ADE, and downgrading to ADE 2, if you must use ADE at all.
###

Here's the first public response I've seen so far, from Adobe:

The Register: "Adobe spies on readers: 'EVERY page you turn, EVERY book you own' leaked back to base (App sends data over the net unencrypted)". By Iain Thomson, 7 Oct 2014.

Excerpt:
We've asked Adobe for an explanation of what exactly is going on and the firm has said that it's looking into the matter. With a lot of staff currently attending the AdobeMAX conference in Los Angeles this may take some time. ®

Updated to add

Adobe says it simply has to log every page you turn to tackle piracy.

Here's the article the link above points to:

The Register: "Adobe spies on reading habits over unencrypted web because your 'privacy is important' (Is Adobe facing its Sony rootkit moment?)" By Iain Thomson, 8 Oct 2014

Hmmm.
###

Here are some others' reactions:

At ArsTechnica: "Risk Assessment / Security & Hacktivism: Adobe’s e-book reader sends your reading logs back to Adobe—in plain text. [Updated] (Digital Editions even tracks which pages you've read. It might break a New Jersey Law." By Sean Gallagher. 7 October 2014.

At The Digital Reader: "Adobe Responds to Reports of Their Spying, Offers Half Truths and Misleading Statements." By Nate Hoffelder. 7 October 2014.

At InfoDocket/Library Journal: "New and Old: Serious Reader Privacy Concerns Both Inside and Outside the Library." By Gary Price. 7 October 2014.

At the Mobileread Forum: "Adobe DE 4 spies on users". Thread begun by fjtorres. 7 October 2014.

At Network World: "Adobe Digital Editions is allegedly 'spying' by scanning PCs for any and all e-books -- even ones that have nothing to do with the app -- before uploading logs to an Adobe server." By Maria Elena. 7 October 2014.

At TechDirt: "Mis(Uses) of Technology: Is Adobe's Ebook Reader Spying On What You Read -- And What You Have On Your Computer? from the and-sending-your-data-in-cleartext-too? dept)." By Glyn Moody. Tue, Oct 7th 2014.

Here are details about what data's collected from ebooks, how it's used, and whom it's shared with:

At the Electronic Frontier Foundation: "E-Reader Privacy Chart, 2012 Edition." By the EFF. (November 29, 2012)
At the Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition."| By Cindy Cohn and Parker Higgins. November 29, 2012.
At Gigaom: "xBookShout pulls users' Kindle, Nook books onto other platforms." by Laura Hazard Owen. 10 October 2012.
At The Register: "Adobe spies on reading habits over unencrypted web because your 'privacy is important' (Is Adobe facing its Sony rootkit moment?)" By Iain Thomson. 8 Oct 2014.
- At WSJ: "Your E-Book Is Reading You" by Alexandra Alter. 19 July 2012.

Here's the latest intelligence about "ADE 4-gate", with updated information:

At CopyrightAndTechnology.com: "Adobe’s Latest E-Book Misstep: This Time, It’s Not the DRM." by Bill Rosenblatt. 10 October 2014.

Here's more about how other Internet-connected devices spy on their ~~masters~~ users.

At How-to Geek: "Smart TVs Are Stupid Why You Don't Really Want a Smart TV (Updated)." by Chris Hoffman. 11 February 2015.

###
Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? #1

June is Audiobook Month: Add "Spoken Freely Presents Summer Shorts 14" to your list of audiobook sources

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 1 Jun 2014 09:56:00 -0400

Today is June 1, the first day of June is Audiobook Month. And this is my second post on the subject. My objective here: to advise you to consider adding "Spoken Freely Presents Summer Shorts 14" to your list of audiobook sources. (I started the list here: in "LISTEN UP! June is Audiobook Month".)

Here's the first paragraph from the Spoken Freely website:

The audiobook community is giving back! Spoken Freely, a group of more than 40 professional narrators, has teamed with Going Public and Tantor Media to celebrate June is Audiobook Month (JIAM) by offering Summer Shorts ’14, an audio collection of poetry, short stories and essays. All proceeds from sales of the collection will go to ProLiteracy, a national literacy outreach and advocacy organization.

Visit the Spoken Freely/Going Public website for more details, including the release schedule and associated links.
-->

June 2014 Samsung Book Deals selections

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 1 Jun 2014 08:29:00 -0400

They're out! Here are the June 2014 Samsung Book Deals selections, from the Kindle store (in the order presented). I researched them a bit, to identify series (if any) they belong to and their genres:

Asylum Harbor (Rachel Scott, #1), by Traci Hohenstein (normally $3.99) - fiction, mystery, thriller
Last Train to Istanbul: A Novel, by Ayse Kulin (normally $4.99) - historical fiction, people and cultures, holocaust, WWII
Take Me Home (A Whisper Horse Novel), by Nancy Herkness (normally $3.99) - contemporary romance
Seven Kinds of Hell (The Fangborn Series, Book 1), by Dana Cameron (normally $4.99) - science fiction & fantasy

-->

LISTEN UP! June is Audiobook Month

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 1 Jun 2014 06:35:00 -0400

CAPTION: Mad Men's Bob Benson (arguably the wolf to Pete Campbell's Peter), listening to Frank Bettger's book, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling (1952), in Season 6/Episode 10 ("A Tale of Two Cities").

LISTEN UP!

It's June. And June is Audiobook Month. What's in your ear(phones)?

HERE'S WHAT IN MY EARPHONES:

When driving, doing mindless tasks, or just chillin' (e.g., in a hammock), I usually listen to music or talk radio - or a rerun of the perfect combination thereof: Peter Schickele's eponymous Schickele Mix (1992-2007). Occasionally, I'll also enjoy a drama, musical, or lesson. I haven't dedicated much audiobook listening time lately, but I have been stocking up, courtesy of the audiobook sources listed below.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

The first prerecorded audible story to make an indelible impact on me was Peter and the Wolf. I've still got that LP, and still get the heebie-jeebies when I hear French horns (i.e., the wolf).

There have been innumerable recordings and adaptations of Sergei Prokofiev's Op. 67 (1936), but I vividly recall studying the jacket of my family's 1960 release conducted by Leonard Bernstein, performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and produced by Columbia Records. According to Wikipedia: Peter and the Wolf, "The popularity of the group's televised Young People's Concerts made this an auspicious release."

NOT-SO-TRIVIA(L) LITERACY TRENDS:

Audiobooks are increasing in popularity and accessibility. Originally called a variety of other names (such as "phonographic books", "talking books", or "radio dramas") and delivered via phonograph records, audiotapes, and radio, "audiobooks" have been popular since the "(g)olden days" of analog media, when I was a tot and decades before then. The advent of technology has greatly expanded the options for creating, delivering, and consuming such media, and has substantially lowered the acquisition cost (oftentimes to $0.00), so it's no surprise that the distribution and popularity of audiobooks has experienced steadily increasing growth.

I envision some readers shuddering at this point, as they envision the proliferation of earphone and earbud-clad hordes listening loudly, perhaps even reciting, content in public places and in long-sacrosanct quiet zones, such as classrooms and libraries. I hear you. But...

That's a good thing. There's gold them in thar stats. The National Endowment for the Arts' study, "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" (June 2004), finds: audiobook listening is one of very few "types" of reading that is increasing general literacy.

LET'S PAUSE, REWIND, PUMP UP THE VOLUME, AND REPLAY THAT IMPORTANT POINT, SHALL WE?:

The NEA's finding (that audiobook listening is one of very few "types" of reading that is increasing general literacy) isn't just good news. It's a beacon of light in an otherwise bleak report that found horrifying national trends in the USA: accelerating declines in reading of all kinds, among all demographic groups studied; a concomitant erosion of cultural and civic participation; and the observation that "the decline in reading correlates with increased participation in a variety of electronic media, including the Internet, video games, and portable digital devices."

SO WHAT?:

Here's what: audiobooks fight fire with fire. Modern technological advances, the above-described trends, and their impacts have landed us figuratively "in Rome", gentle readers. And we know what to do when in Rome.

An exemplary program in this vein is SYNC YA Literature into Your Earphones, that...

...gives away two complete audiobook downloads–a current Young Adult title paired thematically with a Classic or Required Summer Reading title–each week to listeners ages 13+ while SYNC is in session each summer.

Titles are delivered through the OverDrive Media Console. You can prepare for the program by downloading the software to your desktop and whichever device you anticipate listening on.

SYNC is dedicated to introducing the listening experience to the young adult audience and demonstrates that Required Reading can be completed by listening.

SYNC gives away 2 FREE audiobook downloads every week each summer.

Also laudable is the Audiobook Publishers Association's "Get Caught Listening" program that inspired this post.

WHERE ELSE TO FIND AUDIOBOOKS:

There's no shortage of audiobook sources. In fact, there are so many that I've adopted a method for navigating the madness: frequenting several online communities that publish lists and discuss news, deals, freebies, and reviews of audiobooks (and ebooks). Here are my faves, listed alphabetically. If forced to pick just one, I'd select Mobileread.

Barnes and Noble's NOOK Central: NOOK Book Discussion: The Official OT Free NOOKbook summary thread
Goodreads' audiobook discussion groups.
MobileRead Forums' deals and freebies thread titled "Current Audiobook Specials" and recommendations thread titled "What are we listening to? (audiobooks)" address audiobooks from numerous sources.
Public libraries, which lend audiobook on tape as well as via streaming media. Many libraries also link to public domain audiobooks one can download, keep, or stream, free of charge. Check out MobileRead's comprehensive list of Ebook Lending Libraries.

So again, I ask..."What's in your ear(phones)?"

Memorial Day Weekend Message

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 25 May 2014 10:30:00 -0400

Greetings:

I hope all readers in the USA and Americans currently overseas are having a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

Don't forget to reserve a minute of silence at 3 pm, Monday, to pay tribute to the U.S. men and women who died during military service! Another common tradition among many American families (like mine), is to utilize this occasion to pay tribute to other loved ones who have died as well as to living servicemen and women. Visit this page to access Memorial Day Resources from the U.S. Veterans Administration.

You may or may not know I"m a Veterans History Project Official Founding Partner-NY (my firm, 360 MERIDIAN, LLC is first on the list). To that end, I'm happy to report the following relevant find this weekend: ROMVETS: Military women who have turned sword into pen (I just joined their Twitter feed). Check them out, and read their publications!

May 2014 Samsung Book Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Thu, 1 May 2014 09:02:00 -0400

They're out! Here are the May 2014 Samsung Book Deals selections, from the Kindle store (in the order presented).

Honey on Your Mind, by Maria Mumane
The Dummy Line, by Bobby Cole
Far From Perfect, by Barbara Longley
Pirates of the Outrigger Rift, by Gary Jonas & Bill D. Allen

-->

April 2014 Samsung Book Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 08:50:00 -0400

They're out! Here are the April 2014 Samsung Book Deals selections, from the Kindle store (in the order presented). As Ed Sullivan would say, this is a "really big shoe!"

This debut month's picks (presented in the order of appearance on my Samsung device):

.The Fort, by Aric Davis - current Kindle price otherwise $4.99
.Elizabeth Street, by Laurie Fabiano - current Kindle price otherwise $5.99
.Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End, by Manuel Loureiro - current Kindle price otherwise $4.99
.Bone River, by Megan Chance - current Kindle price otherwise $3.99

-->

ON TV: Summary of E!'s "20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders" (2006)

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 16:23:00 -0500

Just itemized the murders covered in the E! Entertainment Television documentary titled 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders (21 October 2006, 120 minutes), and linked each to its respective Wikipedia article. You can watch the film here, on YouTube.

20. “The Murder of Phil Hartman” (his wife Brynn shot him on May 28, 1998, and shortly afterward shot herself to death)

19. “The Case of Christian Brando” (he shot Dag Drollet on May 16, 1990)

18.”The Murder of DorothyStratten” (her estranged husband/manager Paul Snider shot her on August 14, 1980)

17. “The Menendez Murders” (Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez were shot by their sons Lyle and Erik on August 20, 1989)

16.”The Murder of Dominique Dunne” (her estranged boyfriend, John Sweeney, choked her into a coma October 30, 1982; she died November 4, 1982)

15.”The Amityville Murders” (Ronald “Butch” DeFeo, Jr. murdered his entire family November 13, 1974)

14.”The Murder of Marvin Gaye” (his father shot him to death April 1, 1984)

13.”The Murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley” (the wife of Robert Blake, who was tried and acquitted of her shooting murder of May 4, 2001; unsolved crime)

12. ”The Murder of Biggie Smalls” (shot to death March 9, 1997; unsolved crime)

11. ”The Murder of Gianni Versace” (shot to death July 15, 1997 by spree killer Andrew Cunanan)

10. ”Bob Crane” (bludgeoned to death and an electrical cord was tied around the corpse’s neck on June 29, 1978; unsolved)

9. ”The Murder of Rebecca Schaeffer” (shot to death July 18, 1989 by stalker Robert John Bardo)

8. ”The Death of Lana Clarkson” (shot to death February 3, 2003 by Phil Spector)

7. “The Wonderland Murders” (July 1, 1981, Billy DeVerell, Ron Launius, Joy Miller, and Barbara Richardson were bludgeoned to death by henchmen sent by Eddie Nash, who were let in by John Holmes; Launius' wife, Susan Launius, survived the attack but sustained debilitating injuries)

6. ”The Murder of Selena” (shot by Yolanda Saldívar March 31, 1995)

5. ”The Black Dahlia” (her body was found mutilated, drained of blood, and cut in half at the waist, January 15, 1947; unsolved)

4. ”Tupac Shakur” (shot by unknown assailants September 13, 1996)

3. ”The Murder of Former Beatle John Lennon” (Mark David Chapman shot him December 8, 1980)

2. ”The Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman” (both were knifed multiple times and struck on the back of the head June 12, 1994; Brown Simpson’s ex-husband, OJ Simpson - the prime suspect - was found not guilty in a criminal trial but in a civil trial was ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages)

1. ”The Manson Murders” (the documentary addresses only the Tate murders on August 8, 1969 and the LaBianca murders on August 9, 1969, despite other documented crimes committed by Manson Family members)

ON TV: THE WALKING DEAD, Season 3, Ep. 8 "Made to Suffer" - It's Tough to be a Bald Man, Black Male, or Blond Female in TWD's Zombie Apocalypse

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Fri, 7 Dec 2012 02:04:00 -0500

I'm enjoying this show, but love to hate some aspects of it, too. This post calls your attention to Scott Johnson's Comicbook.com post, titled "The Walking Dead: It's Tough To Be A Bald Man In A Zombie Apocalypse". I second Scott's take and (in my response, which immediately follows his post) raise him two: I think "It's Tough to be a Bald Man, Black Male, or Blond Female in TWD's Zombie Apocalypse".

ON TV: THE WALKING DEAD, Season 3, Ep. 8 "Made to Suffer" - Short Hair Does Not (always) Equal Lesbian

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Fri, 7 Dec 2012 01:42:00 -0500

I'm enjoying this show, but love to hate some aspects of it, too. This post addresses a comment made by HitFix's Alan Sepinwall, in his recap of the show's mid-season finale: THE WALKING DEAD, Season 3, Ep. 8 "Made to Suffer". Subtitle to my response: "Short Hair Does Not (always) Equal Lesbian".

@alan sepinwall: A review of "The Walking Dead"mid-season finale coming up just as soon as I make assumptions about yoursexual orientation based on your haircut...

MY RESPONSE:

Given the confluence of Axel's context, Carol's distinctive butch cut, and her past history, I don't think Axel's statement was farfetched, at all. In fact, I thought that bit was the writers' clever nod to - and attempt to intertwine - the following relevant threads. Walk with me on this:

THREAD ONE – Carol's haircut may be an artifact of the abuse she suffered from her late husband, Ed. I've thought her keeping her hair short reflects the fact that she's still in recovery. (See http://www.hairfinder.com/tips/women-cut-hair.htm). Thus, Axel may have correctly interpreted her vulnerability, but given his context, misattributed its cause.

THREAD TWO - Axel’s context is prison culture. Prison’s a place where, it’s commonly understood, most sex is not conjugal; rather, it’s same-sex and oftentimes not consensual. And for the better part of a year, Axel’s been cooped up in close confines within a prison-society-within-a prison-society run by two sociopathic predators (“Alpha” Tomas and his “Beta” Andrew), subject to no external authority, and buffered only by Big Tiny and Oscar - two Betas who seemed saner and more “civilized” (i.e., more imbued with traditional values and decency) than Tomas and Andrew. Remember, Big Tiny and Oscar’s first impulse, when Rick advised them of the apocalypse, was to phone their loved ones, and Oscar retained such domestic leanings as liking to wear house slippers of an evening.

THREAD THREE – Axel may know Rick’s group hails from Atlanta. Moreover, Atlanta may not be overly far from the prison. It’s well-known that Atlanta’s LGBT population ranks amongst the largest amongst American cities (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_village#List_of_gay_villages).

THREAD FOUR - LGBT people in prison are oftentimes targeted for abuse (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_people_in_prison). Therefore, a “veteran” prisoner (such as Axel) is likely able to recognize vulnerable individuals just as easily as he can recognize those with “Alpha” and “Beta” status (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_wolf and Side Notes 1 and 2, below). I think he correctly perceived Carol’s lingering vulnerability (she’s a recovering - but judging by her hair, not fully recovered - survivor of years of spousal abuse), but Axel misattributed the source of her vulnerability.

SIDE NOTE-1: I get the impression that Axel held “Omega” (low man on the totem pole) status in prison, as evidenced by his small physical stature, minority status as a white man among men of color, chattiness around those in charge, and quick efforts to make himself useful (by offering to tune up Daryl’s motorcycle). Oscar, on the other hand, was a “Beta”: he was physically imposing, adopted a “you’ll do whatever you’re going to do, but I’m not going to try to convince you” demeanor, and let his actions rather than words show he was useful. Andrew – although less physically imposing - was a Beta, too, under “Alpha” Tomas – who was a stone-cold predator. Oscar chose Rick over Andrew, because he recognized Rick as an Alpha as well as identified with his decency, while Andrew was only a wannabe Alpha and his sociopathology (and poor judgment) was a known quantity.

SIDE NOTE-2: Axel no longer feels like an “Omega” at the prison, where he’s surrounded by a one-legged old man, a 17-year-old girl, a baby, someone he perceives as a boy, and a slightly-built abuse [recovery] victim he’d dismissed as a lesbian. But now that Carol’s revealed she’s not gay (and thus is a suitable potential sexual partner), I’m curious about how Axel will reassess his and Carol’s rankings on the Alpha-Beta-Omega scale, and his view of Daryl – whom Axel might now begin to view as a rival when (not if) Daryl returns.

Did you know about these black prisoners of the Nazis?

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:56:00 -0400

The Holocaust (also known as the Shoah, or "catastrophe") was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II (approximately two-thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust), and five to eleven million non-Jews, including Romani, communists, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses and other political and religious "opponents" of the Nazi regime, of German and non-German ethnic origin, alike.^{(Source: Wikipedia: The Holocaust)}

I am fairly knowledgeable about the subject, but recently I read (and in some cases, re-read) several pieces about the role and fate of blacks during the Holocaust. I started by perusing the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Enyclopedia article titled: "Blacks During the Holocaust"; the Wikipedia articles: "The Holocaust: Non-Jewish: Persons of Color, "Black People in Nazi Germany", and "Racial Policy of Nazi Germany: Other non-Aryans"; and several related resources. In doing so, I came across several names and photographs that many might find unfamiliar.

For example, did you know about these black prisoners of the Nazis?

Valaida Snow (June 2, 1904^[1] – May 30, 1956), was an African-American jazz musician and entertainer.

Vestre Fængsel survivor - According to Wikipedia: "While touring through Denmark in 1941, Valaida was arrested by the Nazis and probably kept at Vestre Fængsel,^[2] a Danish prison in Copenhagen that was run by the Nazis, before being released on a prisoner exchange in May 1942.^[3] According to jazz historian Scott Yanow, "she never emotionally recovered from the experience".^["

Jean ("Johnny") Voste - born in Belgian Congo, Voste was the only black prisoner in Dachau.

Dachau survivor - he was a Belgian resistance fighter arrested in 1942 for alleged sabotage.

Josef Nassy (1904-1976) was a black expatriate American artist of Jewish descent. Nassy was living in Belgium when World War II began, and was one of about 2,000 civilians holding American passports who were confined in German internment camps during the war.

Beverloo, Laufen, and Tittmoning survivor - according to Wikipedia - "On April 14, 1942, four months after the United States entered the war, Nassy was arrested as an enemy national in German-occupied Belgium. For seven months, he was held in the Beverloo transit camp in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. He was then transferred to Germany. He spent the rest of the war at the Laufen internment camp and its subcamp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.

Throughout his three-year imprisonment, Nassy created a unique visual diary of more than 200 paintings and drawings. Many of these works depict daily life in the internment camps. Rules of the Geneva Conventions governed conditions in civilian internment camps, including Laufen and Tittmoning in Nazi Germany where Nassy was confined from 1942 to 1945. Such rules did not apply at the nearby Dachau concentration camp and other camps across German-occupied Europe. There, prisoners were brutally exploited for forced labor, and many died from exhaustion, starvation, and other harsh conditions.

For those interested in learning more, I've included links to some useful resources below.

On TV: THE CLOSER series finale recap (Thank yew!)

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:15:00 -0400

Saddened though I was to bid farewell to my favorite junk food junkie, I loved The Closer's series finale, which aired last night on TNT. Thank yew, Brenda Leigh Johnson and company.

In The Closer series finale, episode 7.21 titled "The Last Word" (2012), two men having a moonlight tryst in a secluded, wooded, cliffside section of Griffith Park witness a masked man, clad entirely in black, carrying a naked blonde's body. The trick, who's removed only his jacket at this point (with his cellphone and other personal effects in the pocket), sees this sinister scenario first and takes off running, literally leaving the kid (survival sex prostitute Rusty Beck), with his pants down. While the boy's yanking his jeans up, the trick's cellphone rings, alerting the killer that he's not alone. Rusty grabs the phone and flees, with the killer hot on his heels. The culprit catches and struggles with the teenager, who fights back valiantly, and in the process unmasks the culprit. The killer, in turn bangs Rusty in the forehead head with a shovel and shoves the kid off the cliff. Miraculously, Rusty - who (we learn) is a survivor in more ways than one - makes his way downtown and uses his john's cellphone to report the crime.

Thanks to Rusty's call, Brenda and her team find the body and use the clues found at and around the serial killer's burial ground as well as leads generated by the phone call to track down the two witnesses and other important clues. Thusly, they identify the dead girl and tentatively identify the culprit as Phillip Stroh.

Stroh is a wily attorney who Brenda and her team know is a serial killer, but - until now - he has so deftly covered his tracks that Brenda has been unable to collect the hard evidence needed to close the case. This has haunted Brenda, who has obsessed over this case for several seasons, even in nightmares that have eerily foretold her and Stroh's final encounter. Unfortunately, Brenda's zealous methods of pursuing Stroh have jeopardized her credibility on that subject and her professional standing.

And then the frantic 911 call causes Beck's, Brenda's and Brenda's real-life bogeyman's lives to collide.

To positively identify Stroh (in a manner that will hold up in court) and close her final case, Brenda must employ nontraditional means that ultimately sacrifice her job and come close to costing Beck and Brenda their lives. First, Brenda lures Stroh to reveal himself as the masked man who buried women in the park by publicizing in the media pictures of a barechested, scratched-up Beck (who left his shirt at the scene when he hastily fled for his life) wearing the serial killer's mask as a hat and phoning 911, along with the call's audio and transcripts and advisement that Sunset Boulevard is Beck's usual stroll. Stroh takes the bait, approaching Beck on the boulevard, and is hauled by Brenda's team into an investigation room at MCD. There, Brenda threatens that she has Stroh's DNA. He's too wily, however, to confess. He knows Brenda would arrest him if she had sufficient evidence, but he hasn't consented to provide a DNA sample, which - he sneers - Brenda cannot legally obtain without his consent. Clearly, he's unclear whom he's dealing with.

Eventually, MCD must cut Stroh loose. However, cocky about besting Brenda again (and perhaps still high on his latest kill), Stroh can't resist revealing he closely follows every detail of her life, and taunts Brenda about her mother's recent death. He then turns and cockily struts into the elevator (that symbolic cell signifying the ability to rise or fall at the push of a button, of life's comeuppances and downfalls).

Thank yew!

Brenda (whose quick-trigger reflexes have frequently impressed me) takes advantage of that opportunity to dive into the elevator, just before the doors lock them in alone together, and attack Stroh, obstensibly (and probably) expending the rage and frustration she has built up toward him over the years and expressing her emotional reaction to his dig about her dearly departed mother. In the process, she also calculatedly and in sangfroid draws blood and skin fragments, that she (and her friend DDA Hobbs, who offers her a new job outside of the LAPD) convince the crime lab to match against DNA taken from Stroh's mask. Of course, Brenda's attack of Stroh - in plain sight of her whole team and upward chain of command - threatens to invite (another) lawsuit, a definite reprimand, and possible dismissal from the force. But she ultimately sidesteps all of that and resigns.

That evening, after Fritz has left for Washington, D.C. to expedite the case, Stroh (who's been stalking Brenda) breaks into her house, where a homeless Beck is staying overnight. Brenda recognizes what's happened when she leaves Beck at the table to have a cry in the w.c. and discovers the window wide open, the screen removed, and a Hitchcockian breeze billowing through the bathroom curtains. (I'm not sure there actually ARE curtains, but you get the picture.) She grabs a low-tech weapon (some sort of bludgeon) and, pretending she's unaware there's a killer in her kitchen, continues talking to Beck while cautiously making her way to the that now scary room, where she left him sitting at the kitchen table (now vacant) and the purse holding her gun on the kitchen counter (which she must inevitably pass by serial killer Stroh to reach).

Sure enough, there's Stroh, all the more nightmarish-looking with his battered face and raccoon eyes that Brenda blackened in her attack, holding Beck at knifepoint. Brenda advises Beck to execute the defensive move he's found successful with dangerous johns. Beck complies, letting his body go slack and then judo flipping Stroh. With the attacker flat on his back, Brenda makes a move for her purse.

Thankfully, Beck's more than a pretty face with a pouty attitude; while Brenda goes for her bag, he tackles Stroh. But Stroh slashes the boy in the leg, temporarily incapacitating him, and then goes after Brenda.

In the ensuing scene, eerily reminiscent of Brenda's struggle with another psychopathic killer who cornered her at a boatyard machine shop (which she displayed poor judgment to enter without backup, just as she displayed poor judgment to think she and Beck would be safe at her home with Stroh on the loose, after all that's recently transpired), Brenda's able to grab her designer bag in the nick of time. Stroh's poised his huge butcher knife and is practically upon Brenda when she reaches in her purse and shoots him several times, right through the black satchel's leather bottom. (I have a similar bag, but it's too full of stuff to ever serve me as well in a pinch.)

Stroh, badly wounded and heavily bloodied, falls to the floor, with his back against the counter, unable to get up. Brenda, by now, has removed the handgun from the handbag and aimed it, two-handed, at his kill zone. Stroh - recognizing that Brenda is tempted to kill him, and hearing Beck's strident exhortations to do so - urges Brenda to instead phone 911. Brenda rationalizes that she could kill Stroh "in self defense", but the attorney-at-law counters that Beck could blow that rationalization out of the water when questioned as a witness.

Brenda doesn't heed Stroh's advice, but takes her own counsel. Scenes leading up to this one reveal that Brenda's career, conscience, and colleagues (especially Sgt. David Gabriel - note his angelic last name) are haunted by memories of the Turrell Baylor case, and so - after a tense moment of "will she or won't she?" - former Deputy Chief Johnson phones an ambulance, instead. (Brenda's character contrasts with Dr. Melfi's, in that Brenda's actions in the series finale redeem her, while Melfi - who was tempted to sic Tony Soprano on her rapist after the legal system bungled the evidence chain-of-custody and thus had to free him - would have been irredeemable had she let street justice dispatch with a criminal the legal system was inequipped to deal with) .

Stroh offers Brenda a confession, but "the closer" - who obsessed over this criminal for years - uncharacteristically does not want to hear it. Clearly, she has reached another, more important sort of closure; her mother's death and Beck's comments and life story (which she closely identifies with) have taught her to focus on the living, not the dead.

P.S. Brenda - assured that the new job she's offered as chief of the DA's Bureau of Investigation will let her bring Det. Gabriel aboard with her (as her LAPD Liaison) - accepts the position and says her goodbyes in the last few scenes. The team's parting gift is a black leather designer satchel, filled with the silver-foil-wrapped treats Brenda loves. The purse is meant to replace, as closely as possible, that bag Brenda damaged when she shot Stroh (it's now evidence, so the team couldn't inspect it too closely); the team hopes it's an acceptable substitute.

ASIDE: The filmmakers have ensured that viewers realize how important Brenda's bag is to her; she carried one everywhere, throughout the series, frequently leaving it behind and making a big deal about retrieving it. At the top of the series finale episode, she hefted it after exiting the police van that brought her to the serial killer's burial ground, and the warddrobe department ensured that the oversized black bag contrasted sharply with her short white overcoat and matched her black gloves and tall black boots, so we'd notice it as she tramped around the park.

Touched, Brenda assures the team the gift is perfect; "it's love", she says repeatedly. Clearly, it's not just the bag, and not just the treats that touch her. It's the gesture - so antithetical to the cold shoulder and rebellion that greeted Brenda when she began the job. (Beware, Captain Raydor!) And they'll see Brenda again (after she returns from Atlanta), the former Deputy Chief promises; after all, her new job is just up the block. (There's that up/down terminology, again.)

No mushy hugs or kisses in that farewell, but it's so touching, all the same, that some of those gun-toting tough guys fight back tears.

Then it's out the door and down the hall, where Brenda steps into the same elevator cell where she'd previously beaten Stroh to a pulp. There's no sign of his blood or gore now. Brenda contentedly sniffs the silver treat, much as one might enjoy the bouquet of a fine wine, and smiles, as the door shuts.

Bye-bye, Brenda Leigh! Thank yew so much.

###

P.S. Anyone else wondering if The Closer's spin-off, Major Crimes, will continue to use the down home bluesy music that goes hand in hand with Brenda Leigh's southern roots, and that is so reminiscent of another police series I enjoyed: In the Heat of the Night?

In Print: My fave quote today (from Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY)

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:37:00 -0500

Love this quote from Erik Larson's 2003 non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown Publishers, ISBN 0609608444):

"At first, most Americans believed that if an exposition honoring the deepest roots of the nation were to be held anywhere, the site should be Washington, the capital. [...] Suddenly New York and St. Louis wanted the fair. Washington laid claim to the honor on grounds it was the center of government, New York because it was the center of everything. No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck." - page 28

On TV: Tough Love: Miami: Ep. 304, "Flirting"

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 18:38:00 -0500

I'm watching a rerun of Tough Love: Miami, episode 304, titled "Flirting". I can't help but wonder: does anyone else find it ironic that the go-go dancer is named Chastity? Maybe that's her stage name and Soules, Chastity Soules' real name is undercover (like that of SIS Agent 007).

On Craigslist: this lazy-a$$ student's ad emphasizes one dangerous flaw in online education

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Tolliver) — Sat, 5 Nov 2011 04:18:00 -0400

I saw the following ad on Craigslist. It's not unlike others I've seen, some of which promise to pay a stooge to write one's papers. Is it not bad enough that so many colleges have dumbed down their curricula and grading standards? Apparently not: compounding the problem is the abuse - by many students, in my observation and that of many writers - of those online and hybrid/blended classes which lack appropriate mechanisms to prevent and detect cheating. Bleh!

The ad was posted under new york craigslist > queens > jobs > education/teaching jobs:

Compensation for taking a 100 (freshman) level online course (Queens)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 2011-11-04, 11:15AM EDT

Reply to: job-rshnr-2684846084@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me:

I am a 24 yr old college student and i need help taking 18 credits per semester, in order to accomplish my goals, and save time.

were talking about liberal art courses such as art 100, theology 100, science 100, etc. easy stuff i dont want to concern myself with and focus on my double major instead.

i will buy the materials for you

i will give you 35% up front, 35% after the midterm and the rest 30% once the course is over.

starts Jan 20th, 2012 - 1st week of may

You:

Serious Inquiries only.

Have a Bachelors Degree, resume is a plus.

have a lot of experience taking online courses

live in Queens area

agree to get me a B+ or higher

write original essays, must not plagiarize.

MUST have time, dedication, discipline to take this 4 month course!

Location: Queens

Compensation: 400$

This is a part-time job.

Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

Please, no phone calls about this job!

Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 2684846084