Would you have preferred not to have read that?

ok, akin's not invited.

Avoid Friendster and its clones, warns security expert

Computer users who value their privacy should stay clear of 'social networking' websites, and should warn their friends away too, according to a distinguished Australian security professional. And for good-measure, the rash of new websites - with names apparently inspired by artificial food preservatives such as Ryze, Plaxo and Orkut - make a mockery of existing data protection legislation. "In general, people would be well-advised firstly to stay well clear of all address-book and 'social networking systems', and secondly to prevail upon their friends, colleagues and acquaintances that they should avoid making any data about them available to service-operators like Plaxo," says Professor Roger Clarke, a visiting professor at the Australian National University. Clarke has studied the leading contenders, of which the most famous is the revenue-free Friendster, and concluded that not only do they lack a basic understanding of privacy concerns, but they are not likely to either. Clarke describes the opt-in data harvesting as "disturbing" - a self-evident observation to anyone outside the self-referential Silicon Valley bubble from which many of these services have arisen - but not a concern to the creators. The 'social network' sites present opportunities for ruthless marketroids and stalkers. Plaxo, the most notorious example Clarke cites, encouraged users to upload their entire address books to the servers. "Every IP-address, every email, and every social-network relationship that arises appears to be entirely free of any express contractual constraints." But Plaxo goes further by offering a weasel-worded privacy'guarantee'. Plaxo states: 'We respect the privacy of your contacts and maintain a strict policy of not sharing their contact information (received as a result of responding to your update requests) with other Plaxo users who are asking for this information.' But Clarke notes, "the emphasised words appear to exclude the data that is provided by the user when they upload their address-book, and hence the undertaking does not apply to the data about other people that users gift to the company. This assurance falls desperately far short of real privacy protection." The faddish websites also offer opportunities to be wrongly accused of nefarious activity. "Social networks are a primary way in which suspicion is generated about individuals. Acquaintances of terrorists, terrorism suspects, terrorism financiers, terrorist supporters and terrorist sympathisers are at risk of being allocated into a grey zone of terrorist associates. A tag of that kind is potentially as harmful to a person as have been negative categorisations made in previous contexts, such as 'etranger', 'subversive' and 'unamerican'," Clarke notes. [...] The Register Party poopin pundit or particularly prescient person?....hmmmmmmm!

Ken Meier invites you to join his network of personal friends at orkut.com. orkut is a community of friends and trusted acquaintances that connects individuals through a social network that grows person by person. With orkut, you can catch up with old friends, make new acquaintances through people you trust, and maybe even find that certain someone you've been looking for everywhere. orkut helps you organize and attend events, join communities that share your interests, and find partners to participate in the activities you most enjoy. * * * If you're already an orkut member, make sure that the email address at which you received this note is entered into your orkut profile. That way, you'll automatically be connected to all of your friends. This invitation was sent to BLOGDIAL on behalf of Ken Meier. * * * Just send me [jkmeier at uchicago dot edu] your email address and I'll invite you. For the uninitiated, orkut is like Friendster, only better. Who's on orkut already?

Category: Race/Ethnicity Subject: White people and the sea Question: Why do white people swim in the ocean when they know dangerous sea creatures lurk in there and it can kill them? POSTED 1/4/2004 Polly S., Thurmond, KS, United States, Female, Mesg ID 14200494719 [...] Oh dear that place is FULL of Trolls!!!!

Y? The National Forum on People's Differences

The 900 Club

happy v-day, blogdialians!

For those that like newsreaders (not the ones on TV, since none of you watch TV) here is our xml feed.

In the United States, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 retroactively extended the duration of copyright from the life of author plus fifty years to the life of the author plus seventy years, in the case of individual works, and from seventy-five years to ninety-five years in the case of works of corporate authorship and works first published before January 1, 1978. Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works states are required to provide copyright protection for a term of the life of the author plus fifty years. However, the convention permitted parties to provide for a longer term of protection, and between 1993 and 1996, the European Union provided protection for a term of the author's life plus seventy years (see Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection). The United States, however, only provided for the minimum required by the convention. As a result, many literary works, movies and fictional characters, which were quite profitable for the copyright owners, were threatened with soon passing into the public domain. This included several characters owned by the Walt Disney Company; without the act, Mickey Mouse would have entered the public domain between 2000 and 2004 when early short films such as Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy were due to reach the end of the 75-year copyright term. Copyright owners successfully lobbied Congress for an extension of copyright, to provide for the same term of protection as exists in Europe. Hence both houses of the United States Congress passed the act as Public Law 105-298 with a voice vote, making it impossible to determine who voted for the act and who voted against it, and passed it during both the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and the Kosovo War, ensuring that the act would get little coverage from the mainstream media. As a consequence of the act, no copyrighted works will enter into public domain due to term expiration in the United States until January 1, 2019, when all works created in 1923 will enter into public domain. In addition to Disney, Sonny Bono's widow and Congressional successor Mary Bono and the estate of George Gershwin supported the act. Mary Bono, speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, noted that "Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever", but that since she was "informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution", Congress might consider Jack Valenti's proposal of a copyright term of "forever less one day". Proponents of the Bono Act argue that it is necessary given that life expectancy has risen dramatically since Congress passed the original Copyright Act of 1790, that a difference in copyright terms between the United States and Europe would negatively affect the international operations of the entertainment industry, and that some works would be created under perpetual copyright that would never be created under time-limited copyright. They also claim that Congress has the power to pass whatever copyright term it wants because the language "To promote the progress of science and useful arts" in the United States Constitution is not a substantive limitation on the powers of Congress, leaving only the restriction that copyrights may only be for a "limited time". Given this interpretation, a million years would still be a valid "limited time" under the letter of the Constitution. Opponents of the Bono Act consider the legislation to be little more than corporate welfare and have tried (and failed) to challenge its constitutionality, claiming that such an act is not "necessary and proper" to achieve the purpose of "promot[ing] the progress of science and useful arts". They point out that the Tenth Amendment limits the powers that a treaty can grant to Congress. More directly, they see two successive extensions of approximately 20 years each (the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Bono Act) as the beginning of a "slippery slope" toward a perpetual copyright term that violates the spirit of the "for limited times" language of the United States Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8. They question the proponents' life expectancy argument, pointing out that the copyright term under the 1790 act lasted only twenty-eight years, that life expectancies have not risen threefold since 1790 (ignoring infant mortality, they have increased barely ten years), and that even though terms of patents have not been extended in parallel, patents adequately reward investment in the field with only a twenty-year term. They also question the proponents' "works would not be created" argument by pointing out proponents' hidden assumption that the goal is to create all works, whereas the authors of the United States Constitution considered the goal "to promote the progress of science and useful arts." In fact, some works created under time-limited copyright would not be created under perpetual copyright because the creator of a distantly derivative work does not have the money to purchase a license from the owner of copyright in the original work, or the individual or privately held owner of copyright in the original work might refuse to license a use at any price (though a refusal to license may trigger a fair use safety valve). One can thus argue that a rich public domain is necessary for artistic creation. For example, the works of Shakespeare and the Greek myths have been the basis for much of Neil Gaiman's writing, which might well not have been created if they were still under copyright. Recent works that have entered the popular culture, and for which copyright is arguably not appropriate, include the novels that created Frankenstein and Dracula, both originating in the 19th century. Most of the holy writings of major religions are also in the public domain, which allows them to be adapted. If the Roman Catholic Church had a perpetual copyright on the letters of Paul of Tarsus, it could have refused to license them for translation or for use by other churches. [...] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act Now. Imagine for yourself, a world in the future, where a decendent of Bill Gates has managed to buy up all the stock libraries and collections of photographs created since the first photograph in the 1800's, all of which are copyrighted forever thanks to another, final amendment to the copyright laws. One man, one company will have total control over every photo ever taken, when in fact, many millions of photographs would have fallen into the public domain had corporate bought legislation not been allowed to be put into the law. The benefit to the citezenry of works falling into the public domain is well understood. The choice presented to us is do we want to live in a world where all of the collected works of every artist belongs to one company, like a modern version of the Soviet era Melodia, or do we want to live in a world where after having plenty of time to exploit her work, an artist then serves humanity after she is dead. Patents last 20 years. If they did not, everythying you buy would cost more because a patent gobbling monster corporation would be imposing a fee for every object that is manufactured; imagine the case for a walkman in a world where patents never expire, you would have to pay a small amount of money for each innovation in your walkman. For example: Magnetic heads hinges, pulley, capstans, pinch rollers, rubber grommets, casette spokes, anodizing metal, integrated circuits, volume slider, lcd display, and anything else that is an original patented idea that was incorporated into the walkman. The price would at least double. As it says above, imagine if writers had to pay a royalty ever time they borrowed or enhanced an idea from an out of copyright book. It would mean that many works simply would not be made, and of course, this is completely separate from the horrible situation of a single company controlling all of western culture for its own profit. There is nothing wrong with profit. There is nothing wrong with owning property. What is wrong however is the relinquishing of your responsibility to future generations, and the accumulation of the control of culture in one persons hands. The founding fathers understood this responsibility and wrote the copyright laws accordingly. I say that you should not be made to forfeit your property because the word forfeit means something very specific, which is different to allowing your work to fall into the public domain. Forfeiture means : # Something surrendered or subject to surrender as punishment for a crime, an offense, an error, or a breach of contract. # To surrender, be deprived of, or give up the right to on account of a crime, an offense, an error, or a breach of contract. Which means that the state is forcibly taking something away from you. When a person creates a work it is immediately protected by copyright, and furthermore the person knows in advance that this copyright is subject to a fixed term that will end when the author is dead, plud 75 years. If they do not accept this, then they have the option of not releasing the work (keeping it secret). Most civilized people accept these terms, this contract with humanity, however, there are people wo do not, and these are the people who want to extend copyright to a term not less than eternity. They are a small number of "corporate scum" who cannot stomach that some of their works will fall out of control. Think about it; Disney is a company old enough for this to actually matter. They have mead billions off of the work of Walt Disney, and now, it (should have been) time to let Mickey Mouse go, and concentrate on making the new characters for the new generation of animation lovers. Nintendo's Mario is more recognisable than Mickey Mouse. This proves that it is possible for a company to develop characters that can superceed the popularity of a brand as powerful as "the mouse". The question is for Disney, "why should we bother making new characters when we can sell Mickey Mouse for eternity?". And then the quesion is, is the world better off with companies making new characters, finding Nemo, Legend of Zelda, Masters of the Universe, Dragonball, or would we prefer one giant entertainment company controlling all characters art and creativitiy, selling it back to us again and again until the end of time without ever making a single new thing? The answer is obvious; its better for everyone if copyright expires after a fixed term, so that people can benefit from expired works, companies dont get lazy, and creativity remains a dynamic, cross fertilizing, self iterating engine, working for the benefit of the people who create and the public.

# What have you proposed? We have proposed a tiny fee designed to move unused copyrighted work into the public domain. # How would it the [renewal fee] test work? The [renewal fee] test is a renewal fee proposal that will help shift works no longer being commercially exploited by anyone into the public domain. Here's how: fifty years after a copyrighted work was published, a copyright owner would have to pay a tiny renewal fee, a requirement which serves as a test by the government to see if the copyrighted work is commercially viable or otherwise important to the copyright holder. That renewal fee could be as low as $1. If the copyright owner does not pay that renewal fee for three years in a row, then the copyright would be forfeited to the public domain. If the renewal fee were paid, then the form would require the listing of a copyright agent--a person charged with receiving requests about that copyright. The Copyright Office would then make the listing of renewal fees paid, and copyright agents, available free of charge on their website. [...] http://eldred.cc/ea_faq.html This instantly strikes me as wrong, since the government should never have the ability to make you forfeit your property. Copyrighted works should fall into the public domain after a pre set amount of time, which by the way, should not be extended every generation.

Tower Records filed chaper 11 today. Its being widely reported that part of the reason for this is "internet downloading" where actually, the real reasons are to do with the picture above....get me?

COPE

History In 1968, civic politics in Vancouver changed forever. During the previous 30 years, one party had dominated council, school board and park board. Each election the backroom power brokers of the Liberal and Conservative (and later Social Credit) parties would get together with the boys from B.C. Electric, CPR, the Vancouver Board of Trade and some of the big corporate law firms, and decide who they would run on the Non-Partisan Association slate. Their agenda was simple: keep the 'socialists' out of city hall and make the world safe for developers. They had the money, the organizational power and the ear of the mainstream press to ensure that most of their candidates would be elected. "COPE brought genuine competitive politics to Vancouver for the first time: a different vision of the city and policies that promoted the interests of the people who live in the city and not those of the developers who look at the city as a giant mechano set to be torn down and rebuilt whenever the profit incentives were large enough." -Donald Gutstein Communications Department, Simon Fraser University Introduction, 1968-1993 COPE, Working for Vancouver COPE is part of a proud tradition of citizen groups, labour unions, socialist parties, and other reform organizations determined to elect progressive representatives to civic office. [...] COPE

I had mentioned earlier about the COPE party in Vancouver, they were elected with an overwhelming majority into municipal government. Their volunteers were quite amazing. I was called 4 times prior to the election: the first was two weeks before election day, to confirm that I was registered (also to discuss COPE platform/issues/etc); the second was 4 days before election day, to confirm I knew where my polling station was, and if I had decided on a candidate; the third was the day before election day, to confirm all of the above and encourage that I go out and vote; the fourth was on election day, to remind me where the polling station was and when it closed. I have never had that kind of attention from a political party before, and living in a lower income neighbourhood, you don't expect it. What worked was the person to person effort, and I highly suggest that if the people of USA want to change their government, they should get out and personally support the party they are interested in.

"Do-re-mi is in the public domain until you make a melody and turn it into a song and copyright it,'' Choudhury said. "The English language is public domain but if you write a book, on any subject, you get a copyright." yoga copyrights??? I have not been to a Bikram's class, and now, I will never go. You don't sue people to respect your practise, you earn it. I always felt there was something funny about Bikrams, the sexy/sweaty/suffering yoga, it did not ring true. This story is not surprising.

15 out of 20 That was a strange test. I was judging myself throught the whole thing.

Powers of ten with a purpose: http://www.lcurve.org/

http://www.kadmium.net/kadmium/calpico/index.php

"pays adventurist "

Have you heard this before? Most of the cameras on the busses in London are fakes! http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=95806&cid=8211282

heh, found that whilst looking for something to link the word "extortion" to, which of course the immoral unfathomable and very stupid blockade of Cuba is not. The blockade of Cuba is pure evil, of which extortion is only a subset. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/

No one should be untraceable and no one should be untouchable. And this (how did I manage to leave this out?!) is the polar opposite of what is right. EVERYONE should be untracable and NO ONE should be touchable.

trafficking in drugs "Drugs" shouldnt be illegal. Thats not a real crime. trafficking in people, WHY do people want to move from one place to another so desperately? Solve that problem. And here is a free clue, it has NOTHING to do with a new agency. engaging in fraud and extortion. A new, made up agency wont stop this. Police can handle it. They control criminal empires that reach from the other side of the world to the dealer on the street corner. No. The people "blind melon" is talking about are not really criminals, but are merely entrepreneurs providing services, in this case, getting around immigration rules and supplying dope for dopers. During prohibition, people who brewed and sold beer were "criminals". Clearly that is bullshit, and the "criminals" who sell "drugs" are exactly the same as prohibition era still runners and speakeasy owners. That era even saw the same sort of propaganda that we are subjected to today; police raiding bars and smashing up barrels of beer; exactly the same as watching COPS where they use handheld battering rams to shut down crackhouses. Same shit different day. In reality, the only thing on a street corner is Dumbass Plonkert prostituting his police state booty agenda. What an IDIOT and SHAME on the UK papers for simply regurgitating the home orifice's press releases without tearing them apart in the same breath, like MSNBC and all the american media seems to be doing with dumbyas TV spectacular. "Yeah".

The Guardian/Observer tech-illiterates strike again: ********* *BEGIN ENCRYPTED or SIGNED PART* ********* Thanks to George Danezis for this story ... it starts off sensible enough -- people have known for some time that most unlawful copies of movies are generated by insiders; and there was an academic paper on this last year Simon Byers, Lorrie Cranor, Eric Cronin, Dave Kormann, and Patrick McDaniel. Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in the Movie Production and Distribution Process. In Proceedings of the 2003 ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management, October 27, 2003, Washington, DC. [Paper also presented at The 31st Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy, September 19-21, 2003, Arlington, VA.] http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/drm03.html so it wasn't a surprise when the FBI managed to catch someone at it. However the story then manages to link in almost every horseman of the infocalypse ... drugs, people smuggling, terrorists, the Russian Mafia and after that it just gets silly "Scientists have now developed an experimental program that can download a DVD quality movie in five seconds." which will be a reference to very high speed Internet technology (hardware, not software) that won't be in a home near you any time soon! It's in a paragraph quoting DK Matai from mi2g, who will know better than that, and presumably did't actually say the self-contradictory "The internet is perfect for them because it allows total anonymity and limited traceability." Finally, you will note that the sub-editor has gone for "Pirates" in the headline, despite limited links between the story and those who take over shipping, mainly in the waters off Indonesia. still ... judge for yourself -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1143457,00.html Pirates loot the film and music giants' coffers Organised crime is running the multi-billion dollar counterfeit trade - and it's not just Hollywood that will suffer. Jamie Doward reports on the fight against the bootleggers Sunday February 8, 2004 The Observer Suddenly, Hollywood is having to confront the sort of nightmare scenario usually found only in movie scripts: its greatest enemy may lie within. For years Tinseltown has urged everyone from George Bush to Vladimir Putin to clamp down on movie pirates, but now it has emerged that Hollywood's Public Enemy No 1 was an insider who could have inflicted millions of dollars worth of damage on the only industry in America that - for now, at least - has a surplus balance of trade with every country in the world. When FBI agents swooped on the Chicago home of Russell Sprague a few days ago they uncovered a cinematic treasure trove which has raised alarming questions over possible links between the movie industry and sophisticated pirating networks. ... etc -- "Nothing seems the same Still you never see the change from day to day And no-one notices the customs slip away" ********** *END ENCRYPTED or SIGNED PART* **********

GW Bush presides over the worst administration that I have witnessed in my entire voting carrier. He is worse than Johnson, Nixon, or Reagan. His moral authority sinks lower than the sex-scandal-ridden Clinton. He lies, obfuscates and promotes favoritism to "corporate citizens" over "real citizens." His cowboy attitudes and go-it-alone mentality have little or nothing to do with representing his countrymen. Everything about GW Bush reeks of elitism and cronyism. His policies are geared to benefit corporate interests. [...] http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/29343/view

http://www.wiredsafety.org/ best favicon.ico yet....

"See, free societies are societies that don't develop weapons of mass terror and don't blackmail the world." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618

Colin Powell says Iraq arms furore gets on his nerves: Secretary of State Colin Powell has accused critics of politicising the United States' failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and said it is getting on his nerves. [...] reuters

I scored 11 correct out of 20 on this test.

It is also known that the operation caused significant disquiet in the intelligence community on both sides of the Atlantic. [...] But they did it anyway. Pepto Bismol. Well wadyaknow? The stuff works!

THOUSANDS of Web sites are putting Playboy magazine's pictures on the Internet - free. And Randy Nicolau, the president of Playboy.com, is loving it. "It's direct marketing at its finest," he said. Let the music industry sue those who share files, and let Hollywood push for tough laws and regulations to curb movie copying. Playboy, like many companies that provide access to virtual flesh and naughtiness, is turning online freeloaders into subscribers by giving away pictures to other sites that, in turn, drive visitors right back to Playboy.com. When Mr. Nicolau is asked whether he thinks that the entertainment industry is making a mistake by taking a different approach, he replies: "I haven't spent much time thinking about it. It's like asking Henry Ford, 'What were the buggy-whip guys doing wrong?' '' [...] New York Times

it is not currently lawful to demand fingerprints from all arriving passengers in order to detect the tiny minority of illegal entrants. All actions must be shown to be proportionate. Over the last few years, UK government has extended the powers of its various agencies in the area of biometrics through the passing of new Acts or Parliament: . Immigration Act, 1971 . Immigration and Asylum Act, 1999 . Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act, 2002 Traditionally, the House of Lords is resistant to the collection of data on individuals and such highly detailed consideration of biometric identification across multiple Acts of Parliament indicates the expected significance of biometrics in the future. The wording of the latest act does not refer to `biometrics', but rather talks about collecting `external physical characteristics' and makes special mention of the eye, stating that collection of data from the iris and the retina should also be allowed. It is interesting to note that should the government decide they wish to make routine use of other `internal' biometrics such as DNA, further changes in legislation will be necessary. [...] http://www.afb.org.uk/downloads/CHyp/TwoFingers.pdf

Resistance in the UK

This is the first government legislation since the Poll Tax which will affect everyone. It will require everyone to register, and which will initially have the most impact on marginal groups (who need benefits, NHS, work on the sly, are criminalised, asylum seekers, activists etc). Defy-ID is an (emerging!) adhoc network of groups and individuals prepared to actively resist the introduction of a national identity card scheme in the United Kingdom as part of resistance to a Big Brother state. Tactics of resistance might include - Non-cooperation - Sabotage - Creating support networks for cardless people [...] http://www.defy-id.org.uk/index.htm

Sometimes upgrading to a newer version can be a good thing. Other times, your computer may not be compatible with the new version, the new version is bloated, or all the good options are no longer available. OldVersion.com has been supplying the online community with old versions of various programs since 2001. The service is utilized by thousands of users every day and has been featured in newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and television. OldVersion.com has several objectives. One is to discourage the use of spyware by software companies. Also known as adware, these hidden programs come bundled with certain applications and secretly transmit user information via the Internet to advertisers. A possible way to avoid spyware is to download an old version of a program. By using OldVersion.com, you can get the clean old versions of programs as well as show the industry your dissatisfaction with these types of business practices. Another goal is to assist computer users who are unable to continually upgrade their computer. Those who find that their machine is not able to run the latest version of a certain application have no choice but to use to an old version of the program. Unfortunately, the vast majority of software companies do not offer this opportunity to their clients. We are doing our small part to help bridge the digital divide by allowing everyone to enjoy the same software regardless of their hardware. [...] http://www.oldversion.com/

Phil/Fingerprint Chuck Close Unfortunately you cannot see each print in this reproduction. The actual size is 93 x 69". The effect, when you stand across the room, is a sharp realistic image. As you move in, the lines become softened, blurry, and the delicate quality of this portrait is revealed. I had originally looked at this work with ideas of the artist's hand, and the reaction to minimalism, but now it takes on a whole other meaning under the context of mandatory fingerprinting. A reminder of humanity, I think.

fingeprinting: its not just for criminals anymore

His father criticised him for not getting up early in the morning. He replied that, "the day was long enough to do nohthing".

The fallout over Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's racy Super Bowl halftime performance continues, as a Tennessee woman has filed suit against the pair as well as halftime show producer MTV, broadcaster CBS and parent company Viacom. Knoxville native Terri Carlin filed a proposed class action lawsuit in a U.S. District Court on Wednesday, charging the accused with causing her and "millions of others" to "suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury." The suit reportedly seeks billions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19299

Fascinating! that link is from The Great Satan's Phamacist; is there a choice being offered to patients in the UK who want to have their children vaccinated? Of particular interest, the Mumps vaccine, mercury free. Preservatives are used so that these vaccines have a long shelf life; are there any suppliers in the UK of "fresh" vaccines? In the USA I remember that there were "Chicken Pox Parties" where parents arranged for their children to contract Chicken Pox naturally from contagious children. That way, they could control when they got it and of course, since its the real thing in confers real immunity for life. That would be the most "fresh" of all.

Ya pays ya money, ya takes ya choice. Ahhh, if only that were true! The TRUTH is you pay your money, and take what you are given. If we all had a choice in this matter, there would be no problem at all; we would all simply choose to inbible only the thimerosal-free vaccines, and in the combinations that we felt were safe. Yes, felt. If YPYM&YTYC were the case, there would be no cause for debate (except amongst diligent researchers) the public would be able to choose what they wanted from a range of options, just like the people who pay for their health care get to choose.

Musician Mike Batt had paid a six-figure sum to settle a bizarre dispute over who owns copyright to a silent musical work. Batt, who had a number of hits in the 70s with UK children's characters The Wombles, was accused of plagiarism by the publishers of the late US composer John Cage, after placing a silent track on his latest album, Classical Graffiti which was credited to himself and Cage. Cage's own silent composition, 4'33", was originally released in 1952. Batt has now agreed to pay an undisclosed six-figure sum to the John Cage Trust by way of an out-of-court settlement. [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2276621.stm

An elegant web-based project management and client extranet tool for creative services firms. Web-based project management the way it should be * Easy setup � 10 seconds to a new project * Blog simplicity � Posting project updates couldn't be easier * Simple scheduling � What's due, when it's due, who's responsible * To-do lists � Make sure all the little things get done * Web-based and hosted � No install or IT staff required * Useful technology � RSS feeds and Apple iCal integration * Feature focused, not feature laden � All wheat, no chaff http://www.basecamphq.com/ I like it.

I'm envious of your IQ of 37. Defensive design for the web...I'd LOVE to read this.

DUDE.

Mac Jihadia in full attack mode

Andy said his e-mail inbox quickly filled to capacity, with more than 1,300 messages, and an unknown number bounced. The mail he did receive was full of nice, kind thoughts like death threats, insults and all kinds of colorful invective. "I hope your PC blows up and leaves your miserable face disfigured forever," read one. "You will surely burn in hell for an eternity for this one." Another said Andy should be hung by his testicles and set on fire. "Turning a perfectly good dual G5 into a crappy PC was the ticket that got you to hell," wrote another, citing the common eternal damnation theme. "And if you were in front of me I'd pop a corn-born Teflon bullet from my Glock in your fucking face." [...] http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,62157,00.html

New Research Suggests Link Between Vaccine Ingredients and Autism, ADHD

Send us a report from there, on everything. Do it one night when you arent having a rock & roll trashed hotel moment!!!! One thing is for sure; Uncle Sam knows you are coming.

Gallery of Computation | generative artifacts

Strange, alex. I spent a good part of yesterday looking at this guy's work. Some of the most stellar flash animation I have ever seen. And all using advanced mathematical concepts: iterative systems, lorenz attractors, mandlebrot sets, recursive systems, &c. Jared Tarbell is his name and he has a site here as well as the one that Alex posted today. Some more, older, but no less mind-beding animations here.

Re. Mr. Alun Kirby's last brilliant post: A perfect declaration of intent. A meaningful, well put question. A wish. A priceless quote. That my friends is the voice of a REAL MAN.

Interesting read... Yes yes, but what do you THINK about it?

A concentration camp is a large detention centre for political opponents, specific ethnic or religious groups, or other groups of people. Some concentration camps are designed for the extermination of the interned (extermination camps), or to engage them in forced labor (labor camps), while others are designed merely for confinement. The term is most likely to be applied when those interned are civilians and are selected by their conformance to broad criteria without judicial process, as opposed to their being judged as individuals. In the English-speaking world, the term "concentration camp" was first used during the Boer War to describe camps in which thousands of Boer civilians, and black workers from their farms, died as a result of diseases due to hunger, thirst, and bad sanitation. The term concentration camp was coined at this time to signify the "concentration" of a large number of people in one place, and was used to describe both the camps in South Africa and those established to support a similar anti-insurgency campaign in Cuba at roughly the same time (see below). Over the course of the twentieth century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the authority of the state became more common and reached an horrific climax with the practice of genocide in the death camps of the Nazi regime in Germany and the Gulag of the Stalinist regime of Soviet. As a result of this trend, the term concentration camp carries many of the connotations of extermination camp and is sometimes used synonymously. In technical discussion, however, it is important to understand that a concentration camp is not, by definition, a Nazi- or Soviet-style death camp. What follows is a brief history of concentration camps established by various countries and regimes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp

Search engine Lycos said the brief flash of flesh had become the most searched for event in its history, even beating searches for 11 September. "On Monday, Janet Jackson and the half-time show received 60 times as many searches as the Paris Hilton sex tape and 80 times as many searches as Britney Spears," said Aaron Schatz, who compiles a daily list of top search phrases for Lycos. "Prior to this week, the most-searched event in the history of The Lycos 50 over a one-day period was the September 11 attack on America," he added. "Jackson's half-time exposure also far surpasses the other top stories we've tracked on The Lycos 50." [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3461459.stm

The BBC "journalist" who wrote that trash is a well established idiot/troll. He was a made man by being in the right place at the right time on 911.

Battersea powerstation...transformed.

123 words. Not enough. BUT, such a cool post that....

Barrie, no TV, even on Mondays? It's Cold Pension Plan

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics: * 29 have been accused of spousal abuse * 7 have been arrested for fraud * 19 have been accused of writing bad checks * 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses * 3 have done time for assault * 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit * 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges * 8 have been arrested for shoplifting * 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits * 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year Can you guess which organization this is? It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

YOU HAVE THREE HOURS LEFT. WILL YOU FAIL IT?

in 200 words, analyze this link. you have 12 hours. i smell bad.

--- To: declan@well.com, gnu@new.toad.com Subject: AAMVA National ID Forum, Feb 26-29 Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 18:33:09 -0800 From: John Gilmore They call it the "2004 Driver Licensing and Identification Security Forum". But what it really is about is making "one individual, one document, one database record" -- in other words, one national ID per person in the US, that happens to be issued by the US states (and Canadian provinces and Mexican states). Join the bureaucrats who are plotting to make this happen, in scenic Houston, Feb 26-29. (Don't forget to show your ID to travel there, and also to check in to the Westin Galleria, "of course". That requirement is why I won't be there; I'm under regional arrest because I refuse to get, or show, such an ID.) Feb 29th is specially set aside as "Canada Day" for dealing with how Canadian provinces are going to issue these coordinated "US National IDs". http://www.aamva.org/events/mnu_evt2004IDSecuritySummit.asp (Meeting Contact: Lucia Osterbind, +1 703 522 4200) This AAMVA project is a multi-year effort that started before 9/11 but accelerated afterward, in a misguided attempt to categorize and file every person on the continent so we'll then know all the "good guys" from the "bad guys" and can merely lock up all the bad guys and then we'll feel safe. The bills that authorize and enable this cross-state collaboration are due to be introduced in state legislatures STARTING NOW, and need active opposition from local privacy groups. But first, you need information about what they're up to -- so attend. Privacy activists and journalists should converge on this conference, to find out what's really happening, and to ask them if they've lost their minds. Curiously, the scheme is being perpetrated by middle level bureaucrats in state motor vehicle agencies, who actually think they are doing good for the world by tracking every citizen from the cradle to the grave. Privacy activists have been absent from their deliberations for years. Neither their bosses the Governors, nor their own legislatures, know what they are up to. (The Feds are in it up to their armpits, of course, but only as "advisors".) John Gilmore _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) [...] "ask them if they've lost their minds." Thats like asking the sun if its hot. This man is the sort of man that I am talking about; he refuses point blank to cooperate with immoral regulations and legislation, and not only that, he is willing to suffer personally for it. Heroic behaviour of the sort that if 50% of people did it, we would have no problems at all. Not a single american that I have spoken to about this ID card business has managed to give me a coherent answer about how they are going to confront a world where (theoretically) everyone but them on this planet is biometrically ID'd. Are they going to accept ID cards internally and conform with the rest of the world, OR are they going to allow themselvs to be scanned when tens of millions of them travel to other countries??

Ginsberg and Burroughs and Black Dog: http://www.dogsquad.co.uk/ The best are still the best!

Wrong premise. are you saying that the mass killing and exodus from the UK has been no effect on the character of the population? The point is about a basic philosophical choice, not a physical capability. It also assumes that those killed in WWI would object to ID cards. People who are ready to die for freedom are more likely to object to it being taken away by a beaurocracy run amok. Thats a reasonable assumption I think. This may be contested, in that these include, in vast numbers, those willing to die 'for King and country', to follow orders. These people had a capacity to believe in something; they were the same generation which included the Bolsheviks, not the sheeplike cannon fodder that you describe, but people who had enough imagination to make a revolution happen. This was done without TV, or any sort of mass media programming - word of mouth, people making speeches in the street and in drinking houses. That is almost unimaginable today. It could be argued that these are exactly the same kind of unquestioning slaughter fodder as those now choosing Sky TV and interactive pop programmes over interactive debate about their civil rights. No chance. They are the people who today TURN OFF the TV. Some of them blog here! The suggestion that all the ideas may have died also may be false. I didnt say that. I said that the Futurists that died took the potential for their new creations with them to the grave. That is a fact. Of a million men, how many have genius worthy of immortal recognition? Recognition we dont care about, and all we need is one genius in a million to completely change the world forever. Hardly anyone has heard of Claude Shannon, yet he is the architect of the modern age. The numbers, whilst sickening, do not destroy a country. In particular, they do not destroy the basis of that country's beliefs and personal values. A countrys beliefs dont live in its soil; they live in the hearts of men. Take away the people with the capacity to keep an ideal in their hearts, and the nation withers away. Neither does a nations ideals live in a book or a piece of paper. Look how the Americans are dismantleing their country, in spite of a written constitution. Their hearts are as sieves when it comes to ideals. Thats why that country is on its knees. There are other, more insidious reasons for voter apathy and political withdrawal in the populus. I cite Rupert Murdoch, the pandemic proliferation of soporific television, and the basic ease with which one can slip through modern life un-noticed as principle generating factors of a feeling of a personal 'lack of worth' in current society which results in a general groan of 'why bother'. I just dont buy this at all. TV doesnt make people stupid; people are born stupid, or are born smart and dont get a good education. Murdoch cannnot be blamed for our current troubles - he sells the papers people want. When public opinion goes against his papers, he changes tack; look at the Frank Bruno affair for an example. Real people cannot be brainwashed by TV, and certainly would not be able to be brainwashed by todays completely dumbed down TV. Speaking of which, have you watched "Horizon" lately? I tried to the other day, and it was so profoundly dumb that I couldnt watch it. Infantilism to the extreme. Simple ideas explained monosylabically, monotonously, with firework special effects replacing all substance. TV is bollocks. I watch the news to laugh at it. I watch the comedy to cry and look at classic movies to think WTF happened? TV cant make real people do things. If anyone here has ever bought somehting that they saw on TV, I would be very surprised indeed, for that would mean.... i cant even say the words!

There used to be a site called "Project Barkley" that had extraordinary "Celebrity Facials". It seems to be offline. They were completely extreme.

This: 数年前、Irdialっていうマリオペイントだけで作った曲をアナログで出したりしてた かなり頭のおかしそうなエレクトロ？のレーベルがあったんですが 今もまだ健在なんでしょうか？知ってる人いたら教えてください。 「小水月」 自分とこのブースほったらかしても買いに行きたい。。 雪さん。。 Means this: Several years ago, the Irdial っ て it puts out the tune which was made with just マリオペイント which is said with analog and/or is rather the head strangely so electro-? The label met, it is, but even now still it probably is healthy what? Knowing, when the る person it is please teach. "Small water month" by your this booth you neglecting, we would like to go to buying. . Snow. . A result from Altavista

Hmmm that wildcard on google brings up some really interesting results...went to look at Altavista again, and My word, its Image Search really rocks; looks like it goes into the link tree and pulls the images out...clever.

http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127996&liFlavourID=1 IT Management: Politics & Law by Bill Goodwin Tuesday 3 February 2004 Passport Service paves way for ID cards The government is planning to recruit 10,000 volunteers to have fingerprint and iris scans to test whether biometric technology will be an economical option for ID cards... Some 2,000 of the volunteers will be selected to provided a representative sample of the UK population, 1,000 will be taken from groups representing people with disabilities and 7,000 will be selected randomly from people near the four test sites. The booths will be at Newcastle town hall, a DVLA site, a post office and a passport office. The passport office will also test a mobile scanner to record the biometric signatures of elderly or disable people who may not be able to visit a testing centre[...] YOU SEE!!!!

How We Are Fighting the War on Terrorism: IDs and the illusion of security

In recent years there has been an increased use of identification checks as a security measure. Airlines always demand photo IDs, and hotels increasingly do so. They're often required for admittance into government buildings, and sometimes even hospitals. Everywhere, it seems, someone is checking IDs. The ostensible reason is that ID checks make us all safer, but that's just not so. In most cases, identification has very little to do with security. Let's debunk the myths: First, verifying that someone has a photo ID is a completely useless security measure. All the Sept. 11 terrorists had photo IDs. Some of the IDs were real. Some were fake. Some were real IDs in fake names, bought from a crooked DMV employee in Virginia for $1,000 each. Fake driver's licenses for all 50 states, good enough to fool anyone who isn't paying close attention, are available on the Internet. Or if you don't want to buy IDs online, just ask any teenager where to get a fake ID. Harder-to-forge IDs only help marginally, because the problem is not making sure the ID is valid. This is the second myth of ID checks: that identification combined with profiling can be an indicator of intention. Our goal is to somehow identify the few bad guys scattered in the sea of good guys. In an ideal world, what we would want is some kind of ID that denotes intention. We'd want all terrorists to carry a card that says "evildoer" and everyone else to carry a card that said "honest person who won't try to hijack or blow up anything." Then, security would be easy. We would just look at people's IDs and, if they were evildoers, we wouldn't let them on the airplane or into the building. This is, of course, ridiculous, so we rely on identity as a substitute. In theory, if we know who you are, and if we have enough information about you, we can somehow predict whether you're likely to be an evildoer. This is the basis behind CAPPS-2, the government's new airline passenger profiling system. People are divided into two categories based on various criteria: the traveler's address, credit history and police and tax records; flight origin and destination; whether the ticket was purchased by cash, check or credit card; whether the ticket is one way or round trip; whether the traveler is alone or with a larger party; how frequently the traveler flies; and how long before departure the ticket was purchased. Profiling has two very dangerous failure modes. The first one is obvious. Profiling's intent is to divide people into two categories: people who may be evildoers and need to be screened more carefully, and people who are less likely to be evildoers and can be screened less carefully. But any such system will create a third, and very dangerous, category: evildoers who don't fit the profile. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammed and many of the Sept. 11 terrorists had no previous links to terrorism. The Unabomber taught mathematics at UC Berkeley. The Palestinians have demonstrated that they can recruit suicide bombers with no previous record of anti-Israeli activities. Even the Sept. 11 hijackers went out of their way to establish a normal-looking profile; frequent-flier numbers, a history of first-class travel and so on. Evildoers can also engage in identity theft, and steal the identity -- and profile -- of an honest person. Profiling can result in less security by giving certain people an easy way to skirt security. There's another, even more dangerous, failure mode for these systems: honest people who fit the evildoer profile. Because evildoers are so rare, almost everyone who fits the profile will turn out to be a false alarm. This not only wastes investigative resources that might be better spent elsewhere, but it causes grave harm to those innocents who fit the profile. Whether it's something as simple as "driving while black" or "flying while Arab," or something more complicated such as taking scuba lessons or protesting the Bush administration, profiling harms society because it causes us all to live in fear...not from the evildoers, but from the police. Security is a trade-off; we have to weigh the security we get against the price we pay for it. Better trade-offs are to spend money on intelligence and analysis, investigation and making ourselves less of a pariah on the world stage. And to spend money on the other, nonterrorist security issues that affect far more Americans every year. Identification and profiling don't provide very good security, and they do so at an enormous cost. Dropping ID checks completely, and engaging in random screening where appropriate, is a far better security trade-off. People who know they're being watched, and that their innocent actions can result in police scrutiny, are people who become scared to step out of line. They know that they can be put on a "bad list" at any time. People living in this kind of society are not free, despite any illusionary security they receive. It's contrary to all the ideals that went into founding the United States. Bruce Schneier, CTO of Counterpane Internet Security in Cupertino, is the author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World" (Copernicus Books, 2003). SF Gate

[...] Note also that the current enthusiasm for profiling, the idea being to identify possible threats from people who aren't known, and have no record, absolutely requires broad data capture, use and retention. Course we've got to compile records on people who're innocent - otherwise, how could we confirm they're innocent? http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35314.html

In no less than 200 words: Who is Ken Meier? You have 12 hours.

- the costs of war were staggering: * in manpower, a large portion of an entire generation of males perished and left a generation of females without mates. * the males lost tended to be the best; recruiting involved screening out the weak and unfit who were left home. Thus, modern war worked exactly opposite to the theories of the social Darwinists (unfortunately, the Nazis and fascists generally failed to learn that lesson & continued to preach social darwinism in the interwar period). [...] http://husky1.stmarys.ca/~wmills/course203/11_Impm_WW1.html You dont have to be a geneticist or an adherent of Eugenics to understand that if you remove one million of your strongest men from a generation, the next generation will be affected. Take the example of the futurists that were killed in WW1; just imagine if they had survived and continued to leave their ideas for us - who knows what they would have been able to come with, and those are just the people that we know about imagine all of the other geniuses, inspired men and all around good guys who were slaughtered, their influence erased from future history forever. Its impossible to say that Great Britian would not be better off had that war not taken place. I am of course, completely ignoring the other effects of not having fought "the war to end all wars".....

My Cat Hates You me-ow!

there is no decision Choice is the act of deciding on one course or another. MANY people deliberately choose to do the "wrong" thing, just because its wrong. But you know this!

The Complete Bushisms - Updated frequently. By Jacob Weisberg choice.

I choose to stand IN with driving on the left side of the road only. (To give an absurd example) I choose OUT of supporting ID cards. Yes indeed, but the specific question is would you refuse, point blank, to be issued one and carry one. Hence, do I object to all government/law/societal pressures as an infringement on my liberty? (OUT here may be living in a cave. Or squatting, and resorting to what IN-ers define as theft, bartering and self-sufficiency to obtain food, clothing etc.) Once again, you should not have to give up anything at all in order to be O.U.T. and neither should you have to move, quit your job or do anything else to get O.U.T. Or do I object to aspects, according to my conscience? OUT here may be as little as having no TV, or simply refusing to pay a licence fee, for example. In the case of the TV licence, you simply do what the man who destroyed ID cards did; get a TV, watch it, and refuse to comply. Its in your house, it belongs to you; "why on earth should you have to pay to recieve programming on it? If the BBC wants people to pay for their programming, they should encrypt it like Sky do." That is the argument. Ill give you an example of a whole bunch of people in France who need to get O.U.T. The female true believers want to cover their heads in the state schools. The state says and emphatic "Non". "OK, we get O.U.T." Should be the reply. They should go and set up their own schools, and attend them en masse. They should set them up with the money that they used to pay to the revolutionary government of France. THEN we will see how important it is to or to not cover your head in school. Huit Million people all getting O.U.T. and separating themselvs completely from the state, in every way and on every level. "I dont care what planet you are from; thats gotta hurt"

let's hear why At a wild guess, three hundred years of: Transportation and then emigration to Australia. Emigration to America. World War 1. Keep violently pruning a population in this way, wtf else is going to be left but a bunch of flower eating Eloi? Didnt take too long did it?!

Long Live North Korean Cunnilingus!

Now that ive got a minure (yes, MINURE): Mine, for consideration: This does not take Crowley's writing literally, although that would be possible. In current climes, OUT in the world, OUT of my present situation would be, at many destinations, to run from one IN to another which differed only in decor*. it is unacceptable that you or anyone else should give up your property to live in another jurisdiction simply because your local government has lost all moral authority. You need to stay put AND get what you want, which is what is right. I do not accept OUT to be a withdrawal from IN, away into solitude, isolation. This is not OUT. This is denial and cowardice. Agreed, though cowardice is a difficult slur to use. If you know for sure that you are going to be destroyed for standing up and being counted, and that when the count comes the total will be one, are you a coward for saying ?I?m O.U.T. of here?? I think not. There may come a point where all the people left alive are literally worthless, and then the only way O.U.T will be to leave them to their fate, OR if you are immoral, buy some sh(e)ar(e)s. There are several stages to OUT. OUT is, firstly, a philosophical step. An understanding, an acceptance even. True. It's Resignation. Becoming resigned to the inescapable conclusion that you cannot have anything more to do with the irrational, snowballing mess that is democracy. OUT is, having taken the philosphical step, something which must be defined individually. True only in that how much you are prepared to take is up to you. You are not O.U.T just because you have made the decision. O.U.T is a verb. This may depend on how far IN one judges oneself to be, and how far OUT one wishes to get. There is only "in" and O.U.T. There is no "IN". You can EITHER be in OR O.U.T. Where the line is is up to you, though if you are co-operating you are in, for SURE. You can test this objectively. Read the rules. Of course, IN and OUT may be regarded as absolutes, but one then suffers an even harder task. One may break down specific aspects of one's life and behaviour into IN and OUT in each case, and work by this method. We are only talking about one thing basically, which is true across all people in A Bad Country®. There is no avoiding it, no two ways about it: WILL you or WONT you allow yourself to be forcibly fingerprinted. For example. For brevity, and to avoid case studies, I conclude by emphasising the individual nature of the definition of the two states, and by reminding the reader that it is only against one's own conscience and values, and only within one's heart, that IN and OUT are of any value whatsoever. No. There IS right and wrong, and it is not individual, especially when it concerns acts of the state against the person. By all means, you can kill yourself, have someone kill you, do what ever you want with your own property and your own body, but when THE STATE says what you can and cannot do, where you can and cannot go without their permission, a real tangible wrong is committed, and this is specifically what I am talking about, and is what specifically this man took action on by refusing to carry an ID card in his own country. If the UK were populated with men like this, real, red blooded men instead of the weak, milk blooded, weak minded worms that we have today, this proposal would never have even been thought of as a doable idea.

I have considered VSO posts. I still consider them, MSF and others. While they would be OUT, they are affected by the IN. You can get O.U.T. whilst staying put. More on this later.

I laughed: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/2/171117/8823

10. Do ID cards facilitate discrimination? Yes. The success of ID cards as a means of fighting crime or illegal immigration will depend on a discriminatory checking procedure which will target minorities. The irony of the ID card option is that it invites discrimination by definition. Discriminatory practices are an inherent part of the function of an ID card. Without this discrimination, police would be required to conduct random checks, which in turn, would be politically unacceptable. All discrimination is based on one of two conditions : situational or sectoral. Situational discrimination targets people in unusual circumstances. i.e. walking at night, visiting certain areas, attending certain functions or activities, or behaving in an abnormal fashion. Sectoral discrimination targets people having certain characteristics i.e. blacks, youths, skinheads, motor cycle riders or the homeless. ID cards containing religious or ethnic information make it possible to carry this discrimination a step further. Several developed nations have been accused of conducting discriminatory practices using ID cards. The Government of Japan recently came under fire from the United Nations Human Rights Committee for this practice. The Committee had expressed concern that Japan had passed a law requiring that foreign residents must carry identification cards at all times. The 18-member panel examined human rights issues in Japan in accordance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Japan ratified the covenant in 1979. The Alien Registration Law, ``the Committee complained in its report, is not consistent with the covenant''. Ironically, the Parliaments of several European nations, including France and Holland, have accepted a law introducing the obligation to identify oneself in numerous situations including, for instance, at work, at football stadiums, on public transport an in banks. While the card is voluntary in name, it is in effect a compulsory instrument that will be carried at all times by Dutch citizens. Moreover, foreigners can always be asked to identify themselves to authorities at any moment and in any circumstance. French police have been accused of overzealous use of the ID card against blacks, and particularly against Algerians. Greek authorities have been accused of using data on religious affiliation on its national card to discriminate against people who are not Greek Orthodox. [...] http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/idcard/idcard_faq.html Its amazing; in the UK THERE ARE NO ID CARDS. This means that we dont suffer the mass degradations and violations that all these other countries do. And yet, a blind man wants to subject us all to these scanalous and absurd cards, and no one is saying anything about it! They will march in the street to stop foxhunting, but not to stop ID cards. They will throw themselvs in front of 18 wheel trucks to stop the Veal trade... They will break into laboratories to sabotage experiments..... They will climb Big Ben to stop oil spills.... They will march to save the people of another country.... But for themselvs...NOTHING. Thats not very smart people of the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. Only individuals own the Copyright to their Biometrics and DNA We assert that only we, as individuals, have ownership and Copyright (under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act) over any digital or analog copies or extracts of copies of our so called Biometric identifiers, including DNA samples, fingerprints, photographs (using any wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum) of any parts of us, including iris scans, retina scans, facial recognition, gait recognition, voice recognition etc. Any use of such personally identifiable data requires our explicit permission to be held or processed under the Data Protection Act. [...] http://www.spy.org.uk/cgi-bin/idcards.pl#central

doing the searches The M|5 ers normal day: Get on train from suburbia. Get tube to Vauxhall. Get into Cake House. Make tea. Scrounge internet for dossier to plagarize. Make tea. Attend meeting. Make tea. Draft draconian legislation for that blind dumbass. Have lunh (with tea). Read the Guardian. Plan holiday with Lastminute.com. Have tea. Read emails. Go to underground. Get train. Arrive home. Now. Maybe if these people got off of their asses and TRACKED THE "BAD GUYS" DIRECTLY they wouldnt have to destroy everyones liberty in a perpetual nationwide fishing expidition; honestly, they really need to get out of Stella Rimingtons Cake House by the Thames and do some on the ground tracking of individual bad guys, and NOT create these Orwellian control systems that hurt the people that they are sworn to protect. Protecting the liberties of the citizen against the state makes sense, if only on a selfish level. To track hundreds of bad guys abroad they will need to increase their infrastructure by an order of magnitude. This means more jobs, more burocracy, more of everything that gives these people an orgasm; and the innocent public gets to stay free, in the sort of United Kingdom that, despite its problems, is one of the better places to live on this planet. This is precisely the job that the security services used to do, and do well. Track "problem individuals" on a case by basis, whilst the ordinary citizen remains at liberty to live out her life responsibly and free from surveillance. The only reason why these insane systems are being brought in is because the companies that sell the software and hardware are corrupting every branch of Government. All of the measures that are being introduced are simply not needed. The false need is being manufactured in order to sell the systems; a cause is being found. If they go through with it, the real people will get O.U.T.

Which one is it? Is DOWNLOADING Communism, or is DRM Communism??!?!? http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35291.html

Featured Resources Cornelius Cardew, "Stockhausen Serves Imperialism and other articles" (1974) Pablo Picasso, "A Picasso Sampler: excerpts from The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, & Other Poems" (1935-59) Salvador Dali, "Conversations with Dali" (1965) Dial-A-Poem Poets: "Sugar, Alcohol, & Meat" (1980) Robert Whitman: Cellphone Piece (2002) Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner - BBC Radio Works 1998-2002 Philip Guston's "Poor Richard" Fluxus Anthology - 30th Anniversary 1962-92 (MP3) The UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing [...] http://www.ubu.com/ OMG IT WORKED!!!!!! My trans dimensional travel chamber is a sucess! The text above proves that there are indeed an infinite number of multiverses that are almost identical to (y)our own universe, down to the atomic level. This universe is slighty different to my universe; all it would take to create this difference is a single atom being in a different place billions of years ago to produce very subtle yet profound dissimilarities. It's rather like the butterfly effect, where the smallest perturbation can cause a tornado via a cumulative effect. Now, I shall return to my own universe, where this blog post does'nt exist, but where there is another BLOGDIAL waiting for me to exclaim my sucess. Your universe is very curious, and I would dearly love to stay here and explore it, but.... I have a Nobel Prize to collect!

He took advantage of a flaw in the lab's authentication system and used the company's network bandwidth to download and store hundreds of gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files. [...] OMG/BBC

A Well-Imagined Star

BBC NEWS | Americas | US father names son 'Version 2.0'

The man who was running the parody BBC page has taken it down, leaving a messae: "Hello, If you were looking for the spoof BBC page, it has had to be taken down for legal reasons." "MEME deletion... a sad hour. :'-(" is the title of the page. Hmmmm Parody is protected speech, so thats no excuse. Maybe he was getting so hammered that it was costing him a fortune? What is for sure, is that if anyone wrote him a cease and desist letter, he should not have immediately taken it down, but rather should have reported the event to Chilling Effects. to see what the true position is.

On that Metamute site, there is the following attribution: Adaptation by PutPut.

"There were only two options. Either I stopped using computers or I help everybody to escape. I chose the latter,'' he said. File under "why we love Richard Stallman" http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/01/stories/2004020104231000.htm

One of these brats has synesthesia. It would be interesting to see if these journalists could come up with an article like this that wasnt spoon fed to them by a PR trying to sell a movie.

http://www.tokidoki.it/pages/main.html?left=71&top=67 http://thomasbarwick.com/ uh oh, looks like someone has been overwhelmingly inspired by Mr. Thomas Barwick, and he isnt as good an artist as TB, thats for sure.

Thom Yorke's article is Number 20 at Daypop and rising. See the misery spread. Spread misery spread! You know the rest!

Because Scoble's right. If you buy Apple Music or if you buy Microsoft Music, you're screwed if you want to do something with that music that Apple or Microsoft doesn't like. Copyright law has never said that the guy who makes the records gets to tell you what kind of record player you can use. If Scoble and his employer want to offer a product with "features" that their customers want, those features should reflect what their customers want: No Windows user rolled out of bed this morning and said, "I wish there was a way that I could get Microsoft to deliver me tools that allow me to do less with the music I buy." [...] Mr Boing Boing has a lucid moment.

Tune Recycler

With the Tune Recycler, you can send us your unwanted iTunes bottlecap codes and we'll use them to support independent music. Easy for you, and good for musicians. What did you really win under that cap? Pepsi is giving away 100 million iTunes songs under Pepsi bottlecaps. For some people, winning an "iTune" when they open their Pepsi might be exhilarating. But if you aren't one of those excitable few, we understand-- you didn't exactly win the lottery. Most people who drink Pepsi don't use iTunes, so winning a single song means you won a chance to spend 20 minutes downloading, installing, and signing up for a music service that will cost a lot more than your Pepsi habit. USA Today reported that Pepsi expects only 10-20% of all caps to be redeemed. That means 80-90 million of them will end up in the trash. An Opportunity for Independent Music A winning Pepsi cap isn't just a song, it's a chance to send Pepsi's 99 cents somewhere good. When a cap is redeemed, Pepsi pays Apple 99 cents for the song, and Apple passes along 65 cents to a record label. Unfortunately, most of the music on iTunes is put out by one of the 5 major record labels, and their business practices are highly suspect. When you buy an iTunes song from a major label, there's a good chance the artist won't see a penny, because they're still recouping. If the artist does get a cut, it's only about 10 cents from the 99 cents you paid. But we can do better! Don't throw away that cap, recycle it! When you submit a winning Pepsi code to the Tune Recycler, we'll redeem it for music from honest, independent labels. There are a few great independent labels in the iTunes store that give their musicians up to 40-50 cents, right from the first sale. When you use the Tune Recycler, you know that no money is going to support price fixing, payola, or lawsuits against families with children--and most importantly, the money goes to a musician. That way, you don't have to sign up with iTunes to get one song, but you can still put that cap to use. [...] http://tunerecycler.com/ Buy sugared water to give away access to drm sucking record labels. Its all sticky, syrupy and disgusting! However, these people are cool: "I thought you guys didn’t like iTunes. Why are you doing this project? Downhill Battle is not a big fan of the iTunes Music Store, as you may know if you’ve seen our web page, iTunes iSbogus. Our biggest problem with the store is that it helps perpetuate the major record labels’ domination of the music business, which is bad for musicians, fans, and music. The internet has enormous potential to cut out the middleman and get more money to artists. iTunes fails to live up to that potential. [...] And there are some cool links on this site: What is RIAA Radar? The RIAA Radar is a tool that music consumers can use to easily and instantly distinguish whether an album was released by a member of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ and: RIAA Radar: RIAA Family Tree The index of record label ownership and connections (including aliases found in Amazon.com's data.) Please send any corrections or additions to [...] http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/tree.asp ********************************** Now these people are an example of what I mean when I talk about seeing a problem, thinking about it and then DOING SOMETHING. In this case, we have some very creative people using the greatest tool ever made to its maximum potential. They are awesome. By putting together this site, you can make sure that all your purchases are free from RIAA contamination. What would be a brilliant addition to this is a Konfabulator widget that checks your iTunes purchase against their database so that when people want to buy from iTunes, and there are many of these sadly, they can at least make a clean(er) purchase. Now, I have spoken before about the power that the RIAA has as a lobbying force, and how a powerful counter force could be created by gathering the other 80% of copyrights that are not represented by them, under a new democratic umbrella organization that collects and distributes royalties via the internet. It is people like this who will create this colossal project and make it work. These people will effect change, not the impotent loosers who lobby congress with cap in hand crying about the RIAA. They know who they are.

That article by Thom Yorke is symptomatic of what is wrong with Great Britain. Tom Yorke (the singer of Radiohead) wants to live in a country where the BBC and the government can be implicitly trusted to do the right thing; where when someone gets caught violating international law for invading a country they get up and apologise...and then resign. Well I�m sorry to report Tom, that country hasn�t existed since before you were born, in fact it never existed at all. His article is a lollypop item. Its something that the people in control can use to show that the media is open, that anyone can say anything, that democracy and freedom of speech are alive and well in the UK and "shouldn�t you be glad that you live in a democracy like this". Well that�s bullshit. The BBC has just taken a kosh over the head, for reporting something. Writing articles like Thom Yorke's only serve the purposes of warmongers. More on that another time. The most irksome problem with this article is that it is literally simian in character. Monkeys can use tools. They have a culture, yet when it rains, they sit still and get wet instead of moving to the shelter of trees just a few feet away. This "simian thinking" is what Thom Yorke has demonstrated with his article, which will be read by millions of people. Asking questions about this absurd and irrelevant report will change nothing and it is change, on a profound level, that is needed now more than ever, not childish question asking, "boo hooo why did the BBC bosses have to resign mommy? It�s not FAIR!!!". Ben Cohen of Ben & Gerry�s ice cream is an example of a real human being taking the sort of action that is required to fix problems. He has intelligently thought about the problem that he wants to address, laid out a plan, and is now gathering people to make it happen. Thom Yorke on the other hand is an example of a monkey. "Why is it raining on my head, and why is my fur now all wet?" is the question he has just asked. What he has failed to do, is ask the most fundamental and simple of questions, "what are we going to do about this". The answer being in the case of rain, "Lets take shelter before we get soaked boys!" From the article: "It has left everybody I know shaking their heads in disbelief and anger. Such a performance should make us all deeply nervous about the future of Britain." You and everyone you know are a part of the problem if that is all you feel about the illegal invasion of Iraq. What you feel about this report is meaningless, both to great Britain and to the people of Iraq. If you dont ask the first question, "what are we going to do?" then you cannot take the first step to solving the problem. Allow me to instruct you. You and all the people you know need to stop wasting your time being angry, and start planning to do something that will fix this problem of your out of control government once and for all. If you are not thinking like this, if you are not planning some action, if you are not taking action once the solution has been presented to you, you are literally contributing to the problem. Now, there are some people (many of them artists) that thrive on misery and negativity. Solving problems is against their nature, since they use that negative muse to inform and fuel their art. Perhaps you DON�T want to solve these problems so that you can continue to come up with titles for your CDs? Yes, that was a low blow. Let�s assume that this is not the case and that you are indeed, honest. You need to think hard about the whole process of war, from its beginning to its execution. You and your "rock group" are in that process, on a profound level. If you remove yourselves from that process, the war machine collapses completely. I have spoken about this before; until you and everyone you know are willing to remove yourself from sham democracy, war and all the despicable lies surrounding it will continue forever, and you will have no one but yourselves to blame for it. You say that this country is "godforsaken" that�s just a blasphemous lie. Its been forsaken by people like you, who cannot put a string of logical thought together that is long enough to tie down and solve a simple problem. You were given an article in The Guardian to write about this mess. You completely wasted an opportunity to put a powerful meme into the consciousness of millions of people; an idea of how the war machine can be put to death. What do we get instead? A useless cry-baby screed that ends with a link to your own website. This country has been forsaken by the thinkers and the doers and the intelligent action takers. If this country had 10 people like Ben Cohen there would at the very least be a large voice taking pure common sense and logic. Instead we have to suffer whining singers, sellers of makeup calling for yet more absolutely useless public inquiries and a sheep like public that is more than happy to fuel the war machine ad infinitum, whilst being absolutely disenchanted with government, and democracy itself. The public is ripe for fundamental and permanent change, so that they get the benefit of their own work and world. They understand that the invasion of Iraq was illegal wrong and immoral. All they need are the instructions telling them what to do so that it won�t ever happen again. Your article could have been the spark that set it into motion. You failed miserably. These three things are true: You wasted this opportunity. You play in the country that is under a boycott for warmongering. You and your "rock Group" are a part of the problem.

The most famous man from Vancover at the time in the danish papers Famous? No the most famous person from Vancouver is Sarah MacLaughlin. (sarcasm) The man you are speaking of is vile and horrid. I did not think him worthy of a Blogdial post. And it is those examples that make me think that capital punishment should be practised. They found another one a few weeks ago. I am frightened that there are more. What a neighbourhood! Mary have you been there? is it really like in this article?? What can I tell you? Yes, it is like that. Yes, I have been there. I ride my bike through there to get downtown. I was at an art gallery there a few weeks ago. I used to go to school there. I have friends that live in the neighbourhood. Some streets are worse than others. It is terribly sad. Heroin is a huge problem in Vancouver. The city recently opened a safe injection site, one part of a plan, but the funding for the other parts (detox centers, education, etc) has not materialized. So you can shoot up, but you can't get immediate help if you want to get clean. Advocates for the women in the sex trade tried to get a law passed so the women could legally work from their homes, which would at least get them off the streets, and people freaked out. They couldn't deal with the implications, so the women are still on the streets. At least the police don't attend overdose calls anymore, only the paramedics go, so the idea that addiction is a crime is slowly being changed. COPE was elected into municipal government, and much of their mandate is to work on the issues with the people of the lower east side, instead of pushing them off the streets and into another area of town. It is going to take a long time to bring some kind of balance back. But I have never heard it called Low Track before. I was quite appalled by the tone of that article.