How Many Times Has Your Personal Information Been Exposed to Hackers? – The New York Times

Half of American adults had their personal information exposed to hackers last year alone. In a recent attack at the federal Office of Personnel Management, hackers stole the most sensitive personal data for 21.5 million people. Answer the questions below to learn which parts of your identity may have been stolen in some of the major hacking attacks over the last two years and what you can do about it. Not all attacks are included here, and many attacks go undetected, so think of your results as a minimum level of exposure. via How Many Times Has Your Personal Information Been Exposed to Hackers? – The New York Times.

Google Loosens Ties to Google Plus – The New York Times

“For many users, Google Plus accounts don’t get all that many visits. Now, Google seems to be indicating it, too, will be paying less attention to its social network.

On Monday, Google said it would move features once integrated into Google Plus out of the social network and into other Google services. Photo features have already been moved to the newly introduced Google Photos. Location-sharing will go to Google Hangouts, the company’s chat app.”

via Google Loosens Ties to Google Plus – The New York Times.

FACEBOOK ALERT

“Rather than make an app or website that is a one-stop shop, tech companies instead are introducing stables of services. Twitter has Vine, a video-sharing app, and Periscope, a live-streaming app, separate from the main Twitter platform. Facebook not only broke out photos and messaging into separate apps, but also decided to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp, direct competitors to those services, and maintain them both as yet another set of options for smartphone owners.”

Hillary Clinton Lays Out Climate Change Plan! nytimes.com|Unfortunately By TRIP GABRIEL

Bravo Hillary. This is great news. Don’t forget Tom Friedman’s idea– only allow the Keystone pipeline in exchange for a massive carbon tax. Also, it is time to raise the carbon tax as a vital and essential tool, without mentioning it, you have less of a mandate to do it. Do you really want to give Bernie Sanders the high ground, on what might be the most critical tool needed by the US and the world to mitigate climate change, backed by most economists? Shame on the two writers, Gabriel and Davenport for their ugly tone. To listen to their condescending soft-smears, the soul-less Hillary Clinton is mostly going after a voting block and a few rich donors. If you hate this amazing woman leader, go work for Fox News.

Hillary Clinton Lays Out Climate Change Plan

Focusing on an issue that resonates with Democrats, Mrs. Clinton set a goal to produce 33 percent of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2027.

nytimes.com|By TRIP GABRIEL

Push to Scale Back Sentencing Laws Gains Momentum — nytimes.com|By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Push to Scale Back Sentencing Laws Gains Momentum

After years of resistance, Congress seems poised to revise federal policy that has greatly expanded the number of Americans who are incarcerated.

nytimes.com|By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Don’t Just Close Bases at Home, Close Them Overseas – The New York Times

“WASHINGTON — THERE are signs that Congress may soon approve another series of domestic military base closings, after the Pentagon threatened earlier this month to cut nearly 90,000 jobs instead. For years, the military has been trying to save money with new rounds of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), the congressionally mandated process for shuttering underutilized domestic military installations.

The move could save billions since, by the Pentagon’s own estimate, our network of domestic bases is bloated by more than 20 percent. But Congress has resisted, since local bases mean local jobs, and votes.

BRAC, however, does not apply to the more than 700 United States bases overseas, including 174 in Germany, 113 in Japan and 83 in South Korea, as well as hundreds more in some 70 countries from Aruba to Kenya to Thailand. The military and Congress should go further by closing installations abroad. They both waste taxpayer money and undermine national security.”

via Don’t Just Close Bases at Home, Close Them Overseas – The New York Times.

Zombies Against Medicare — nytimes.com|By Paul Krugman

Zombies Against Medicare

Arguments that have already been shown to be false are still used by conservatives to attack a program that has done rather well.

nytimes.com|By Paul Krugman

A Clinton Story Fraught with Inaccuracies: How It Happened and What Next? – The New York Times

“The story certainly seemed like a blockbuster: A criminal investigation of Hillary Rodham Clinton by the Justice Department was being sought by two federal inspectors general over her email practices while secretary of state.

It’s hard to imagine a much more significant political story at this moment, given that she is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president.

The story – a Times exclusive — appeared high on the home page and the mobile app late Thursday and on Friday and then was displayed with a three-column headline on the front page in Friday’s paper. The online headline read “Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton’s Use of Email,” very similar to the one in print.

But aspects of it began to unravel soon after it first went online. The first major change was this: It wasn’t really Mrs. Clinton directly who was the focus of the request for an investigation. It was more general: whether government information was handled improperly in connection with her use of a personal email account.”

via A Clinton Story Fraught with Inaccuracies: How It Happened and What Next? – The New York Times.

It is not a secret that I greatly admire both Bill and Hillary Clinton. This story saddens me. It seems that the press does this to them so often, even the NYT.

Oliver Sacks: My Periodic Table

Most emailed at NYT for several days now. The top comments are also enchanting. Like the song by Kansas, we are only dust in the wind.

Oliver Sacks: My Periodic Table

As death nears, I am surrounding myself, as I did when I was a boy, with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity.

nytimes.com|By Oliver Sacks

The Singular Mind of Terry Tao– by Gareth Cook, NYT

I hope my college age children read this. One take away, some times it is very bright people who leave valuables behind frequently, due to absent mindedness.

The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

A prodigy grows up to become one of the greatest mathematicians in the world.

nytimes.com|By Gareth Cook

Trump Is the Poison His Party Concocted – Tim Egan, The New York Times

The adults patrolling the playpen of Republican politics are appalled that we’ve become a society where it’s O.K. to make fun of veterans, to call anyone who isn’t rich a loser, to cast an entire group of newly arrived strivers as rapists and shiftless criminals. Somewhere, we crossed a line — from our mothers’ modesty to strutting braggadocio, from dutiful decorum to smashing all the china in the room, from respecting a base set of facts to a trumpeting of willful ignorance. via Trump Is the Poison His Party Concocted – The New York Times.