by Rhona Mahony. In three weeks, Americans will elect a new President, They’ll also elect new Senators, Congressional representatives, and many state and local officials. Voters in six U.S. states, though, will vote on “direct-recording” electronic (DRE) machines that produce no paper print-out that can be used to double check the accuracy of the machine. Voters in 29 other states may get a paper print-out but, like those in the paperless states, will have no way of knowing how error-prone or easy to manipulate their DRE voting machine is. (See VerifiedVoting.org.) Independent tests of voting machines–done outside the closed labs of the manufacturers–have not been encouraging. Last year, Debra Bowen, California’s Secretary of State, asked computer scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, to help her staff do a “Top-to-Bottom Review” of many of the voting machines that we have been using in California. The result? Ms. Bowen’s team found that machines from Diebold (now Premier Election), Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia were so inaccurate or so insecure or both, that they have “decertified” the machines. If you don’t live in California, you may find yourself looking at one of those duds on November 4.

Better Security with Transparent Software

Should we throw our votes into a black hole? Should we let vote-stealers snicker at us? There may be a better way.

Computer engineer Alan Dechert and his colleagues are offering a system that they call “Open Voting.” It prints out a paper ballot that the voter can read over herself. The ballot has a bar code Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. When I was a child, back in the late Renaissance, I often saw drawings of three monkeys: one covering its eyes, one covering its ears, the third covering its mouth. The monkeys illustrated an ancient proverb, of surprisingly murky origin. They advised us that to stay pure and safe, we should see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. I am pure and safe enough. I prefer these monkeys:

Thanks to Bruce Kitess for his photo.

by Rhona Mahony. The Better World Club (BW) is a new, do-gooder auto club. One co-founder, Mitch Rofsky, worked long ago for Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen. The other, Todd Silverman, started a big, successful travel agency. They believe in “socially responsible” business. They are the “eco-friendly” seller of towing assistance, travel advice, and insurance.

All I want from an auto club, though, is the telephone number of the nearest tow-truck operator when my car breaks down far from home. Soon, it seems to me, I won’t need to pay an auto club anything for that number. With a smart phone, and wider cell phone coverage, I’ll be able to get it from the Web even when I’m stuck in a lonely, Mojave Desert breakdown lane, watching the tumbleweed roll past the vultures sitting closer and closer ’round my dented Volvo station wagon….

I proposed, then, in an email to the Better World Club that they give away the phone numbers of their tow truck operators and networks of operators. Look ahead! Panache! Alas, I was disappointed.
Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. See the EV Finder. It lists cars, trucks, motorcycles, and three-wheelers. They include new vehicles, used vehicles, and hobbyists’ conversions. There are many more electric vehicles on sale today than most people know.

See Plug In America for lots of general information and recent news about electric vehicles.

by Rhona Mahony. The photos of people in the Caribbean and the Mississippi Delta suffering the aftermath of this month’s hurricanes are miserable. Climate scientists tell us to get used to it. They say that unpleasant weather is going to afflict us all more often: hurricanes, floods, and hot spells. Earthquakes are what I need to worry about. I live in central California, five miles from the San Andreas Fault. Its occasional rumbles sway my house. The Big One–when not whether–will be a hair-raising mess.

The best source of practical information about preparing for disasters that I know about is the book, When All Hell Breaks Loose, by Cody Lundin. Cody runs an outdoor survival school in Arizona. His book describes ways to keep safely warm or safely cool, store or find drinking water, get enough to eat, and find a substitute for the flush toilet that no longer flushes. He has tested every method himself. Every tool and technique comes with a photograph or drawing. I’ve taken classes with him. He is exceptionally experienced.
Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. Yes, the photos here are jagged and pixelated. I think that I have figured out how to do better. My new digital camera creates a huge file for each photo: seven megapixels. I’m going to try converting to RGB color and reducing the file size in increments, rather than all at once, to 25 to 50 kilobytes. See what you think of the photos posted here after today.

by Rhona Mahony. Today, September 8, is International Literacy Day. Cliff Schmidt would like to make every day literacy day for the one billion poorest people in the world who not only scrape by on less than $2 a day but who also, for the most part, do not know how to read. Not knowing how to read keeps poor people poor. His team of engineers has developed a handheld digital audio player and recorder. It will cost the user $5. So far, however, it costs Schmidt’s non-profit organization, Literacy Bridge, about $160 to make one. He needs to raise money to send 100 Talking Books to the Upper West Region of Ghana, to the villagers who will test them in November. Their experience and comments will help Schmidt refine the device. Big foundations are willing to consider supporting Literacy Bridge only after the field test in Ghana. After getting financing, Schmidt will be able to begin large-scale manufacturing, bring down his costs per unit, and sell millions of Talking Books in Africa, India, and beyond. A small donation to Literacy Bridge now might make a bigger difference than a donation to an established project.
Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. This Saturday, September 6, the Silicon Valley chapter of the Electric Auto Association (EAA) showed off scores of innovative, all-electric vehicles in Palo Alto, California. Companies brought their electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, and electrically-assisted bicycles. We could also take turns driving them around a test track in the Palo Alto High School parking lot. The biggest thrill was how sleek and colorful the cars were. The designers have a terrific sense of form and color. The second thrill was that these vehicles really were silent. It was eerie. It was a joy to see them rolling and to not hear them. The lesson that I learned was that there are many, many more electric vehicles on sale now than I have been hearing about. A little digging will reveal lots of options. A good place to start: the EAA’s Web site and its monthly newsletter.
Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. Barbara Olshansky, a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, spoke at Stanford on May 29 to describe her work on behalf of people who have been imprisoned as suspects in the "War on Terror." She did not hide her passion under a formal suit or polite legal terms. She wore her black, tightly frizzy hair long. Her red, Cat Woman eyeglasses had sparkley sequins. At times her eyes teared up, at others her voice cracked. Her colleague on the speakers’ panel, Marc Falkoff, described her as a force of nature. Yes! A ball of fire!

That night, Olshansky didn’t want to talk about Guantanamo. We know about Guantanamo. The domestic fuss, the international scandal, and the dismay of allied governments have worn down the Bush Administration. Now everyone, even President Bush, wants to close it. Olshansky was worried about the other prisons, places less famous and places completely secret, where a still unknown number of people are locked up without being charged, without access to a lawyer, and without trial.

Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony. Marc Falkoff came to Stanford University last week, on May 29, to describe his Guantanamo clients. Like his colleague on the speakers’ panel, Anant Raut, he wore a fine suit and looked like a prudent member of the legal establishment. He is now a professor at Northern Illinois University’s law school. When he began to work for Guantanamo prisoners, he worked at an expensive law firm, Covington & Burling. I learned something immediately: Covington represented Fred Korematsu, the Japanese-American man whose internment during World War II was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1944 in Korematsu vs. United States. Continue reading →