America is one of the nations with LEAST guarantee of privacy. We are under almost as much surveillance as people in China or Russia (at least we were during the Bush administration).

So with that in mind, when I saw the following sign posted on a building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I couldn't help thinking politicians like Anthony Weiner (and he is not alone!) needed to post this on their computer:

We all need to remember, the internet may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it sure isn't private. If you're a public figure and you want to do something you might regret later, don't do it online.

Andrew Hoppin, the New York State's Senate's Chief Information Officer has had his team pretty busy. I got an email from their Director of Onine Communications, Phillip Anderson (one of the first bloggers here at The Daily Gotham and formerly of The Albany Project) describing the project:

The new site is extremely simple, with a Google-esque single search field. One can enter a bill number, a keyword, a Senator, just about anything and it find reams of information as well as comments on ALL Senate legislation. That's not all though.

The site and search are also available by phone by simply speaking a term and even by SMS text.

Sounds not just awesome but about what the state has needed for eons. If we could only get something like this for New York City. Oh right! It took a DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR to put money into updating the state's digital infrastructure. With REPUBLICAN MAYOR BLOOMBERG? Unless that's money his company and media cronies get to pocket, keep hoping.

Read the press release after the jump:  read more »

more animals

We have a new server.

We're working out the kinks with it's configuration and more importantly pageload speed.

No, the path to the FILES folder still needs fixing. Images will still be broken for a few more hours.

We should be done with this mutha tonight.

Enjoy the LOLCat.

NowPublic is one of the fastest growing participatory news networks in the world. Time Magazine voted it last year one of the top 50 websites and The Guardian UK declared it's one of the top 5 most resourceful news sites in the world.

They have come up with a way to measure "news influence" on the web. They insinuated that traffic to one's site and/or blog is not one of the lead indicators, but how the people listed are connected to others (especially other influencers) through social media like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and others.

I honestly don't know what to makeof this list. I am at the same time amused and disturbed.

For one, Arianna Huffington comes in at #2 but I thought she lived in California, not New York City. Then there's the grand daddy of the New York blogeratti, Nick Denton, coming in at #34. Yet the most disturbing data point of this list is that I come in at #9.

Yup.

I am, as per NowPublic, one of the "top ten" news influencers in the New York new media market.  read more »

Here are more of Elizabeth Upton's student submissions to 10Questions.com. They are in the CUNY Language Immersion Program at LaGuardia Community College.

The previous videos are here.

Maria has a simple question about Iraq:

Magdalena is worried about the internet :

Elizabeth wants to know about how they will handle violence in schools:  read more »