Thanks to Wikicommons.

Twinkle, twinkle MANY stars? There may be more than THREE times as many stars in the heavens than previously thought.

Enough is enough. Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has had it up to here with his nuclear scientists being killed.

SNOW DAY!!!! Northern Europe hampered by blizzards and low temperatures.

It can be hard to keep a secret.

This is especially true when you’re the most powerful nation in the world… and have people dedicated to unearthing the skeletons (and other things) in your closet.

Last week, the website Wikileaks released 250,000 classified US diplomatic documents to the world. This is in follow up to past document releases including classified military documents on Iraq and Afghanistan.

As is to be expected the US government is not amused, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the release a

a very irresponsible, thoughtless act that put at risk the lives of innocent people all over the world

Agreeing with Clinton, Joe Klein, over at Time’s Swampland, noting that

If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of a leaked cable, this entire, anarchic exercise in “freedom” stands as a human disaster. Assange is a criminal. He’s the one who should be in jail.

Some however see positive aspects of the documents release.  Digby defends Wikileaks noting

There are times when it’s necessary that the powerful be shown that there are checks on its behavior, particularly when the systems normally designed to do that are breaking down.

And finally, some surprisingly don’t seemed so worried.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates thinks that the leaks will cause little change to American diplomacy as

governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.

Perhaps a more interesting takeaway is looking at the future of government secrets.  At Democracy in America, W.W. notes that we should expect more unearthing of secrets because

Just as technology has made it easier for governments and corporations to snoop ever more invasively into the private lives of individuals, it has also made it easier for individuals, working alone or together, to root through and make off with the secret files of governments and corporations.

In the future of Facebook, Wikileaks, and Twitter we wonder what is the future of secrets.  Is a new era of government openness upon us or will diplomatic relations grind to a halt?  Is Wikileaks the hero, the villain, or the inevitable?

Today the FTC released a preliminary staff report that proposes a “do not track” mechanism allowing consumers to opt out of data collection on online searching and browsing activities. The FTC report says that industry self-regulation efforts on privacy have been “too slow, and up to now have failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”

“To reduce the burden on consumers and ensure basic privacy protections, the report first recommends that “companies should adopt a ‘privacy by design’ approach by building privacy protections into their everyday business practices.” Such protections include reasonable security for consumer data, limited collection and retention of such data, and reasonable procedures to promote data accuracy. … Second, the report states, consumers should be presented with choice about collection and sharing of their data at the time and in the context in which they are making decisions – not after having to read long, complicated disclosures that they often cannot find. … One method of simplified choice the FTC staff recommends is a “Do Not Track” mechanism governing the collection of information about consumer’s Internet activity to deliver targeted advertisements and for other purposes. Consumers and industry both support increased transparency and choice for this largely invisible practice. The Commission recommends a simple, easy to use choice mechanism for consumers to opt out of the collection of information about their Internet behavior for targeted ads. The most practical method would probably involve the placement of a persistent setting, similar to a cookie, on the consumer’s browser signaling the consumer’s choices about being tracked and receiving targeted ads.”

The full text of the 120-page report, Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change — a proposed framework ofr businesses and policymakers is available online.