Tag: New York Times

Ring Doorbell Camera

Police Surveillance Technology

 In the New York Times, Emily Keegin offered Welcome to My Museum of America. She put together “a collection of 25 objects that reveal something special about us.” Along with the $4.99 Costco Rotisserie Chicken, the Plastic Lawn Flamingo, and Personal Injury Lawyer Advertisements (for sure), she offered up the Ring Doorbell Camera.

“Have we always been so scared of strangers? And when did we, as a country supposedly built on individual liberties, become so enthusiastic about Big Brother-style surveillance? Maybe we are still haunted by the ghost of Michael Wigglesworth and the Massachusetts Puritans who looked out from their chapels and saw only ‘a waste of howling wilderness.’ Maybe we still believe that safety can be found only beneath the eye of a benevolent and omniscient lord. The Puritans had God. We have Jeff Bezos. In a nation plagued by loneliness, perhaps it’s time to start answering the door.”

My wife and I had a couple of passing conversations about them. She thought that if we had had one, we would have captured the late Nick, the absentee landlord of the property next door, when he damaged my wife’s car more than once. But my discomfort was great.

Mass surveillance

And it got worse when I saw Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s segment on Police Surveillance Technology. “In recent years, the prevalence of local mass surveillance systems has exploded thanks to cheaper technology and increased funding from the federal government. And this all tends to get presented as a boon to public safety. Local news loves to cover cities’ real-time crime centers…

“Here’s one in Cooper City, Florida. And in that story, the town’s then mayor offered this upbeat assessment. ‘Everyone is being watched. And if you’re doing nothing wrong, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, but when you’re doing something wrong, we’re going to find out. We’re going to have the wherewithal to come and get you. We’ve got essentially Big Brother on steroids.'”
Oliver got into how the technology is used as a “digital form of stop and frisk, ” often hooked into surveillance cameras. “Increasingly, they’re able to use those owned by private businesses or homeowners. There are an estimated 85 million in this country, and police now routinely request access to them.”

Oliver has also noted the technological shortcomings.  “The way Shot Spotter works is it basically sets up microphones all over a city, which alert police if they sense a loud noise that could be a gunshot… Unfortunately, the technology seems nowhere near as good as you’d want it to be for that kind of response. An AP investigation found the systems can miss live gunfire right under their microphones or misclassify the sounds of fireworks as gunshots. While other reports found Spotter being activated by cars backfiring or even people using a nail gun.”

ALPRs
“And there is a similar issue with… automated license plate readers or ALPRs. And cops will claim that they’re a way to find stolen cars or those engaged in suspicious activity.
“The most popular are made by a company called Flock. And here is how they work. Flock license plate readers don’t just scan tags looking for stolen cars or vehicles on a hot list. The cameras take a photo of every car that passes, stamped with the precise time and location. The more cameras you pass, the clearer the picture of your movements. All of that data is saved in a database for 30 days, shared with connected police departments, allowing the government to go back in time to see where your car was and when. No warrant required, whether you’re suspected of a crime or not.
“A randomized trial in Vallejo, California, found that 37% of all ALPR hits from fixed readers like those attached to a street light, and 35% from mobile ALPRs, like those on cop cars, were misreads, which is an astonishingly high error rate. And that has had real consequences.”
CBS News has had several stories like this one in several jurisdictions: Privacy groups raise red flags over police misuse of Flock cameras, usually for personal use. The Oliver story touches on that as well.  Common Cause is advocating to tell Congress: Defund Flock’s surveillance cameras nationwide.
From the NYT: Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t. “In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.”
Atlas of Surveillance
Oliver pointed to the Atlas of Surveillance, Documenting Police Tech in Our Communities with Open Source Research. It shows Albany County, NY using Flock, and the state using other technologies.
Oliver: “It is worth remembering, even when these systems work perfectly, they can still be wildly invasive. Cameras and license plate readers can track your movements wherever you go, which means they could find out if you, say, attended a protest or visited an abortion clinic.” 
“And some departments can then use all the data fed into them to engage in our final and maybe dumbest use of this tech. It’s called predictive policing. Basically using all that data to figure out which areas or individuals might be likely sources of crime.
“Shot Spotter and license plate readers are disproportionately used in communities of color. And cameras are often associated with
You should watch the whole thing. It may have you think differently about your Ring Camera. I’ll pass, thank you.

NYT Connections keeps us together

27 years

I’m working on the premise that the New York Times Connections keeps us together. I mean my wife and me.

Here’s Connections’ answers for April 25: —

  • Body coverings: ENAMEL, HAIR, NAIL, SKIN
  • Masses, in idioms: CROWD, HAYSTACK, MILLION, OCEAN
  • Old-timey slang for law enforcement: COPPER, DICK, FLATFOOT, GUMSHOE
  • Starting with synonyms for “Throw”: CAST IRON, CHUCK E. CHEESE, HURLY-BURLY, PITCHFORK

On this particular puzzle, my wife found most of the first category, and we split the second. I got the third, because I’m old. She saw the fourth.

We see different things, and that works to our advantage. We usually get a reverse rainbow, identifying the hardest one first, mostly avoiding the ruses.

Likewise, when we do the New York Times news quiz each week, I’ll either know or remember the sports stuff. She reads a daily NYT summary and picks up tidbits that my sifting through various sources doesn’t catch, and vice versa.

So I know when she calls my name in the morning after daybreak, she’s asking for the time.

We’re more likely to do schtick together in the a.m. You know, the usual intentional malaprops. “Sam and Janet Evening” (Some Enchanted Evening), e.g., I could ask my wife for more groanworthy examples, usually generated by the situation, but the wordplay wouldn’t make sense to most people anyway.

The Zen of departure

I have finally recontextualized the departure thing. You know: she says either we’re leaving an event now, or a time certain. And then we don’t, almost as a result of her talking to someone. For a time, I saw it was a violation of a contract that SHE had initiated. “We should leave at 12:30,” and then we don’t.

I used to have a conversation with someone, but then she thought we couldn’t depart because of it. No, no – I’m just utilizing the time.

So now, I just sit quietly. If I have something to read (a newspaper, a magazine), I’ll do that. Otherwise, I’ve gotten quite proficient playing backgammon, hearts, and pinochle on the phone. I realize that she NEEDS to have those conversations, even when they’re unplanned, and that they put her own schedule off-kilter.

My wife’s calendar is very full. Her work schedule, ostensibly part-time (HA!), is extremely busy. She has a bunch of stuff involving her mother’s finances she has to deal with; my MIL’s mail now comes to our house. I generally sort out the solicitations, but there is still a slew of bills and other financial items for her to deal with.

Then we’ve been dealing with the Daughter’s art show and upcoming graduation. My wife was the magician who figured out how to pay for those four years of our child’s education.

So, it’s all good. 27 years. Who woulda thunk it?

The picture is of us with our only child. I used it for my blog 18 years ago, so it’s recycled. As NBC-TV ads used to note, “It’s new to you.”

Greatest Living American Songwriters?

More than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics

As a sucker for music lists, you might think I would glom onto the New York Times’ Greatest Living American Songwriters. Well, no. It is because I feel desperately unqualified compared with “More than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics [who] weighed in on who defines the new American songbook.”

Sure, there were people I put on my Top 10 or so: Lucinda Williams (I have at least a half dozen of her albums), Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Dolly Parton, Brian and Eddie Holland, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, and Willie Nelson. But most of them began in the 1960s, give or take.

This is the unranked list.

I have a greatest hits collection of Mariah Carey, whose music performances… well, I’m not her biggest fan. Interesting that she’s been nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thrice, never came in the top 7 in fan vote, showing 8th in 2024, 9th in 2025, and 10th in 2026, AND was not inducted.

 

But I don’t feel I know the work of most of the others enough to say. I have two Taylor Swift albums (one given to me), and one album each by Fiona Apple, Babyface, Outkast, and Kendrick Lamar. 
Cornpone

This is factually correct, of course. Some of the folks who came to mind – Barry Mann (Cynthia Weil has passed),  Jeff Barry (sans the late Ellie Greenwich), even Carole King (without the late Gerry Goffin) -I mused on this point.

 

Also, he eviscerates Diane Warren as being a “dreck-peddling hired gun.” Ouch, though her material doesn’t generally send me.
Great choices

In any case, he had two people on his ACTIVE list, Jonathan Richman and especially Todd Rundgren, who are clearly worthy; I say especially Todd because I have more Nazz/Utopia/et al. And he rightly has Dolly Parton and Paul Simon, who also made the survey list. It is very likely that I own more Simon than any living American songwriter. The others I don’t know well enough, other than Eric’s love for Buggy Jive.

 

In his INACTIVE list, he rightly notes Neil Diamond, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, and Mark Mothersbaugh/Gerald V. Casale.

 

As for the fans, some folks couldn’t seem to understand the title. The songwriters had to be American and alive.

 

I saw some interesting choices: Billy Joe Armstrong, REM, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Chrissy Hynde, George Clinton, James Taylor, Madonna, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Al Green, Dwight Yoakam, Jimmy Webb, David Byrne, and Billy Joel. I do own songs by all of them.

 

If I were to pick one, it’d probably be Randy Newman. Yeah, he’s doing more soundtracks than standard albums.  But I didn’t purchase his first album until COVID. So I continue to experience him.
Rick Beato: The NYT “Greatest Songwriters” List is an Absolute Disaster

Reply to My Texts?

can I FIND my cellphone?

In the Social Q’s column of the New York Times for March 18 was a piece titled My Relative Takes Forever to Reply to My Texts. What Can I Do? The subhead: Stung by a family member’s laggardly response times, a reader considers confronting the issue head-on: “Do you make all your friends wait like this?”

I thought it was an absurd question. The response, in part: “Here’s my view, along with a suggestion: Sending texts to people does not obligate them to respond on our timetable. Still, I know that mismatched feelings of closeness can be hurtful in relationships. If that’s your concern here, stop sending idle texts and suggest an activity in real life: a dinner date or a walk in the park. Because it’s shared experiences that make us closer — not keystrokes.”

This reader response, I thought, was the usual rule of thumb: Not all texts are the same. Some require an immediate answer: “Where are you? We were supposed to meet here 10 minutes ago.” Some do not: ” I am having a wonderful day gardening – it’s gorgeous out. (and so on for a full paragraph).” The whole point of texting is that a reply can be quick or not, depending on the circumstances. Let it go.

Another reader comment: My cellphone is for my convenience, not anybody else’s. I’ll get around to texting you back when I deem it sufficiently important. Plus, the older I get, the harder it is to text on that tiny little screen without a zillion typos. Which, again, because I am old, I am compelled to correct before sending. This is definitely true. I hate the physical act of texting, as I tend to hit two keys at once. At least, I’ve (mostly) figured out the jargon.

Generational

This reader comment is dead on: Believe it or not, there are those of us who came of age in the pre-cellphone age for whom texting is not a primary form of communication. We get around to reading and responding to texts when we get to them. I’m 75; I have a landline, and sometimes I don’t check my cellphone (when I can find it) for texts for days on end, which I admit can be a problem at times, but that’s simply the way it is.

Even in my generation, I was not an “early adopter.” We too have a landline, in part so that  I can call and FIND my cellphone. I DON’T go days on end, but it might be for hours.

I’ve chosen to treat my cellphone like a regular phone. If I’m involved with something else, including downtime, I don’t answer or respond. I’m in full resistance to the distraction economy.

One of the things I used to do was look at my phone as soon as I got up in the morning in my office upstairs. Then my wife’s charger went on the fritz. So now my wife and I both charge our phones on a device with multiple charger ports that I bought for our 2023 trip to France. It’s downstairs. This is SO much better for my mental health.

There were hundreds more comments, but these hit the spot.

In the comic strip ZITS, there was a two-day stretch on March 25 and 26 about Jeremy, the 15-year-old protagonist, getting upset that his friend Hector wasn’t replying to his texts. It felt about right.

I see my cellphone as a tool, not an extension of myself, to be used at my discretion. But you may have a different relationship with your cellphone. 

The broader issue

In the New York Times essay, No Wonder You Can’t Concentrate, Cal Newport addresses my broader concerns. Here’s just one paragraph:

Many of these declines in cognitive skills became notable starting in the mid-2010s, exactly the period when smartphones became ubiquitous and the digital attention economy exploded in size. An increasing amount of research implies that this timing is no coincidence. A meta-analysis released last fall showed that consuming short-form video content, as delivered by apps like TikTok and Instagram, is associated with poorer cognition and reduced attention, and the results of a clever experiment from 2023 found that the mere presence of participants’ smartphones in a room significantly reduced their ability to concentrate.

I find that my phone being off, downstairs, or, recently, “accidentally” left at home has created a level of relaxation I had not experienced in a while. 

So I WILL text you back eventually. Probably, assuming you are not spam, which you often are tracked as being.

 

“Quote a song lyric that sums up your year”

You know that end-of-the-year quiz I do? This one question is taking up too much space.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

It would be easy to stick previous years’ songs on the list.

Logical Song by Supertramp

I said, Now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radicalA liberal, oh, fanatical, criminalOh, won’t you sign up your name? We’d like to feel you’re acceptableRespectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable

Monster by Steppenwolf

America, where are you now
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

Virtually all of Elephant Talk by King Crimson

And especially The Trouble With Normal by Bruce Coburn

The trouble with normal is that it always gets worse 

Resistance?

Then I saw a HeatherCox Richardson video from August 7 titled Forms of Resistance and Reasons to Believe It’s Working. From about three minutes in, she said: 

Those sorts of ways of recognizing quietly, of making a statement quietly, matter because people hear them and recognize that they are not alone.

Do you hear the people sing?Singing a song of angry men?It is the music of a peopleWho will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heartEchoes the beating of the drumsThere is a life about to startWhen tomorrow comes
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?Beyond the barricadeIs there a world you long to see?Then join in the fightThat will give you the right to be free
Related

That was set in France in the first third of the 19th century. Here’s a song set in France, slightly earlier.  Marat-Sade as sung by Judy Collins:

Marat, we’re poor and the poor stay poor

Marat, don’t make us wait any more

We want our rights, and we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now 

That brought to mind another tune sung by Judy Collins, Democracy, written by Leonard Cohen. The penultimate verse:
It’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here – the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A 

Another song I thought of was (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing by Heaven 17. As I recall, someone with the band or the label thought it was a bit overboard to say about Ronald Reagan. I’m not litigating that, but in a 2025 performance, the band said the song was more relevant now than then. And it has a great beat.

Have you heard it on the news about this fascist groove thang

Evil men with racist views spreading all across the land

Don’t just sit there on your ass, unlock that funky chain dance

Brothers, sisters, shoot your best. We don’t need this fascist groove thang

NYT

On July 1, Jon Pareles put together a list for the New York Times 

Tracy Chapman, Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution
The Isley Brothers, Fight the Power, Pts. 1 and 2
Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Michael Franti & Spearhead, Yell Fire!
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Get Up, Stand Up
Mavis Staples, Eyes On The Prize
Patti Smith, People Have the Power
Björk, Declare Independence
Rage Against the Machine, Know Your Enemy
Antibalas, Uprising

I know I own the ones I linked to. That Isley Brothers couplet has been running through my head even before the list was published:

 When I rolled with the punches

I got knocked on the groundWith all this bullsh#t going down

 

I can’t forget American Idiot by Green Day, which came out in 2004 in response to the knee-jerk reaction to the stupidity of that time. 

Don’t wanna be an American idiotOne nation controlled by the mediaInformation age of hysteriaIt’s calling out to idiot America

Welcome to a new kind of tensionAll across the alienationWhere everything isn’t meant to be okayIn television dreams of tomorrowWe’re not the ones who’re meant to followFor that’s enough to argue

 

The chorus of Tubthumping by Chumbawamba runs through my head a LOT, over and over:

I get knocked down

But I get up againYou’re never gonna keep me down
But the winner

I just saw the 2025 video for the Dropkick Murphys’  Who Will Stand For Us? I’m not a “you must watch” guy, but please watch.  Lyrics

Who’ll stand with us?Don’t tell us everything is fineWho’ll stand with us?Because this treatment is a crimeThe working people fuel the engineWhile you yank the chainWe fight the wars and build the buildingsFor someone else’s gain
So, tell me, who will stand with us?
And as time rolls on, not a single thing has changedAnd the wealth gap’s only grown as we all point to blameWe’re at the throats of one another, though we share a single fateAnd the golden few laugh on and on as we all take the bait
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