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Take a look at this satirical piece written by H.L. Mencken, titled, a New Deal Constitution (Kipa-Tip Adam A). This must be the Constitutional Moment Bruce Ackerman keeps talking about.

PREAMBLE

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish social justice, draw the fangs of privilege, effect the redistribution of property, remove the burden of liberty from ourselves and our posterity, and insure the continuance of the New Deal, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

ARTICLE I

The Executive

All governmental power of whatever sort shall be vested in a President of the United States. He shall hold office during a series of terms of four years each, and shall take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will (in so far as I deem it feasible and convenient) faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will (to the best of my recollection and in the light of experiment and second thought) carry out the pledges made by me during my campaign for election (or such of them as I may select).”

The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, and of the militia, Boy Scouts, C.I.O., People’s Front, and other armed forces of the nation.

The President shall have the power: To lay and collect taxes, and to expend the income of the United States in such manner as he may deem to be to their or his advantage;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States, and to provide for its repayment on such terms as he may fix;

To regulate all commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and within them; to license all persons engaged or proposing to engage in business; to regulate their affairs; to limit their profits by proclamation from time to time; and to fix wages, prices and hours of work;

To coin money, regulate the content and value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to amend or repudiate any contract requiring the payment by the United States, or by any private person, of coin of a given weight or fineness;

To repeal or amend, in his discretion, any so-called natural law, including Gresham’s law, the law of diminishing returns, and the law of gravitation.

The President shall be assisted by a Cabinet of eight or more persons, whose duties shall be to make speeches whenever so instructed and to expend the public funds in such manner as to guarantee the President’s continuance in office.

The President may establish such executive agencies as he deems necessary, and clothe them with such powers as he sees fit. No person shall be a member to any such bureau who has had any practical experience of the matters he is appointed to deal with.

One of the members of the Cabinet shall be an Attorney General. It shall be his duty to provide legal opinions certifying to the constitutionality of all measures undertaken by the President, and to gather evidence of the senility of judges.

ARTICLE II

The Legislature

The legislature of the United States shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Every bill shall be prepared under the direction of the President, and transmitted to the two Houses at his order by their presiding officers. No member shall propose any amendment to a bill without permission in writing from the President or one of his authorized agents. In case any member shall doubt the wisdom of a bill he may apply to the President for light upon it, and thereafter he shall be counted as voting aye. In all cases a majority of members shall be counted as voting aye.

Both Houses may appoint special committees to investigate the business practices, political views, and private lives of any persons known to be inimical to the President; and such committees shall publish at public cost any evidence discovered that appears to be damaging to the persons investigated.

Members of both Houses shall be agents of the President in the distribution of public offices, federal appropriations, and other gratuities in their several states, and shall be rewarded in ratio to their fidelity to his ideals and commands.

ARTICLE III

The Judiciary

The judges of the Supreme Court and of all inferior courts shall be appointed by the President, and shall hold their offices until he determines by proclamation that they have become senile. The number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court shall be prescribed by the President, and may be changed at his discretion. All decisions of the Supreme Court shall be unanimous.

The jurisdiction and powers of all courts shall he determined by the President. No act that he has approved shall be declared unconstitutional by any court. [MY FAVORITE PROVISION!]

ARTICLE IV

Bill of Rights

There shall be complete freedom of speech and of the press – subject to such regulations as the President or his agents may from time to time promulgate.

The freedom of communication by radio shall not be abridged; but the President and such persons as he may designate shall have the first call on the time of all stations.

In disputes between capital and labor, all the arbitrators shall be representatives of labor.

Every person whose annual income fans below a minimum to be fixed by the President shall receive from the public funds an amount sufficient to bring it up to that minimum.

No labor union shall be incorporated and no officer or member thereof shall be accountable for loss of life or damage to person or property during a strike.

All powers not delegated herein to the President are reserved to him, to be used at his discretion.

This really does not surprise me. Who is John Galt?

Definitely take a look at this brilliant piece at Engadget about the evolution of the Blackberry.

The Blackberry has changed my life in ways I could not have imagined a decade ago. I have owned several of the models in the blackbery evolutionary trail, and I am astounded how far they have come. I can run my entire enterprise from my blackberry wherever I am. I can’t wait to see what my Blackberry in 2019 looks like.

In case you were wondering, it is narrated by Chip Mellor.

From New Scientist (H/T Gizmodo):

Now researchers from Microsoft’s labs in Cairo, Egypt, have developed a way to combine the video from multiple phones capturing views of the same scene into larger, more detailed footage to be broadcast live online.

When two or more phones with the software start streaming video, they synchronise their clocks with the server, which then uses timestamps on the footage to align video frames in time. Then image-recognition technology gauges how footage physically overlaps: features such as edges and corners are used to find areas that match, before the images are blended to create a wider view of the scene. The method used and end result are much like those of software that stitches multiple photos of, say, a landscape, into a larger image.

With this technology,  if two or more people start streaming video of an event with their cell phones, Microsoft can stitch together the images, and generate a 360 degree panorama film in real time.

Bhaskar Roy, co-founder of Qik, says this kind of technology has the potential to enhance services like his own. “Think of somewhere where there will be a lot of people capturing video on phones, like a sporting or breaking news event,” he says. “This could bring us closer to experiencing it in 360 degrees from our desk.”

I previously blogged about researchers at Georgia Tech incorporating streaming video into Google Maps.

Putting these technologies together paints a bleak picture for the future. As I wrote in Omniveillance (p.3 40):

Although the current version of Street View is limited to pre-recorded still photographs, future technology will allow real-time streaming video feeds of everything occurring in public. Immersive Media, the company that provides the surveillance apparatus for Google, has not stopped its research at still photographs. Currently in its laboratories it is developing what it calls “Immersive 360° Video” or “Spherical Video.”159 Rather than just taking still shots of specific locations, the technology can record interactive and navigable 360-degree videos.160 This capability allows a user to watch a video from multiple camera angles.161 These omens ominously bear on the value of Street View, and create a scary image of what Google could do. Because there is no viable right to privacy in public, and because Google seeks to create a visual map of the planet, there is nothing preventing Google or any other company from installing such video cameras with tagging capabilities on the rooftops of private business throughout America. This vision of the future poses serious issues and conjures up an Orwellian nightmare.162

In an earlier draft of the Article, I think I mentioned the possibility of cell phone cameras uploading video of public events. I don’t recall why I cut this section out, but in hindsight, it was quite prescient.