Here we go again!

The First 5-in-1 Vaccine 5-disease protection* For the primary series, one injection at 2, 4, and 6 months of age, in infants born of HBsAg-negative mothers,? [1] to protect against: Diphtheria Tetanus Pertussis Hepatitis B Polio Up to 6 Fewer Injections May reduce infant pain and discomfort associated with multiple injections May reduce parent anxiety Saves time, space, and effort Proven Immunogenicity Antibody responses similar to separately administered vaccines [1] Proven Safety Proven safe in 12 clinical trials worldwide, in which 20,739 doses of PEDIARIX were administered to 7,028 infants *PEDIARIX is indicated only for primary series. It is not indicated for use as a booster dose. ? Combination vaccines containing hepatitis B antigen may be used to complete the hepatitis B vaccination series following a birth dose of monovalent hepatitis B vaccine in infants born of HBsAg-negative mothers beginning as early as 6 weeks of age.[1] In clinical studies, adverse events in infants receiving PEDIARIX included injection-site reactions (pain, redness, or swelling), fever and fussiness. Administration of PEDIARIX was associated with higher rates of fever relative to separately administered vaccines (see Adverse Reactions section of the package insert). PEDIARIX is contraindicated in infants with known hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine including yeast, neomycin, and polymyxin B. As with any vaccine, vaccination with PEDIARIX may not protect 100% of susceptible individuals. PEDIARIX and Safety Tip-Lok are trademarks and Engerix-B, Havrix, Infanrix, MALARONE and Tip-Lok are registered trademarks of GlaxoSmithKline. BD, BD Logo and SafetyGlide are trademarks of Becton, Dickinson and Company.
Important Safety information ENGERIX-B, HAVRIX and TWINRIX are generally well tolerated. In ENGERIX-B clinical trials, the most commonly reported adverse events included injection-site soreness, fatigue, fever, and erythema and swelling at the injection site. In HAVRIX clinical trials, the most commonly reported adverse events were injection-site soreness and headache. In TWINRIX clinical trials, the most common adverse events included soreness at the injection site, headache and fatigue. As with all vaccines, rare adverse events may occur and expanded commercial use could reveal rare adverse events not observed in clinical trials. ENGERIX-B, HAVRIX and TWINRIX are contraindicated in people with known hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine. HAVRIX and TWINRIX are contraindicated in people with known hypersensitivity to neomycin. ENGERIX-B and TWINRIX are contraindicated in people with known hypersensitivity to yeast. In clinical studies, adverse events included injection-site reactions (pain, redness, or swelling), fever and fussiness for PEDIARIX and INFANRIX, and drowsiness for INFANRIX. As with other vaccines, rare adverse events may occur. Administration with PEDIARIX was associated with higher rates of fever relative to separately administered vaccines (see Adverse Reactions section of the package insert). PEDIARIX and INFANRIX are contraindicated in people with known hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine, including yeast, neomycin, and polymyxin B in PEDIARIX. As with any vaccine, vaccination may not protect 100% of susceptible individuals.

I saw a piece on this a few days ago on ITV, and now it is the headline story at BBQ The lies have of course, started immediately:

Why has it been introduced?

The reason for the change is to do with polio. A campaign by the World Health Organization to eradicate polio has been so effective that the risk of catching this disease in the UK is minimal.

For this reason, the Department of Health decided to switch to the dead or inactivated version of the vaccine, which cannot cause polio.

The REAL reason it is being introduced is of course, given at the GSK website, as quoted above:

Saves time, space, and effort

And this is the clincher:

How common are these diseases?

Among people of all ages in England and Wales in 2002 there were 21 reported cases of diphtheria, four of tetanus, four deaths from and 883 cases of whooping cough, 269 cases of Hib and no cases of polio.

Wether or not these low occurance rates are to do with vaccination campaigns is not the point; we are talking about distributing a new concoction that has a higer risk than the previously used administration methods; ie one at a time. Vaccination should be about eliminating disease, not about "saving time, space, and effort". If the current range of injections are working very well, and by the above figures, they clearly are, then WHY ON EARTH would you want to change this now, when the diseases are almost eradicated?! You know the answer! Also, it has to be said that if your child is allergic, which is increasingly more common these days, it is more likely that an allergic reaction will be suffered with this new jab, and then of course, since there are 5 in 1, you will not know which component caused the reaction. This goes against all common sense, but of course, it has NOTHING to do with common sense or the health of individuals. It is about "saving time, space, and effort" and of course, MONEY.

The government has announced plans for a new combined jab for babies.

The BBQ title is, to say the least, innacurate. It should read more like:

GSK wins contract to sell millions of 5 in 1 Vaccination "Pediarix" to the NHS

There. That wasnt so hard was it?

The Propaganda War Continues

This is a pure BBC propaganda piece, as usual, unattributed, and completely biased:

"Making consumers aware of the true nature of intellectual property crime is vital," he said, "there is very little distinction between piracy and the actions of a burglar who steals property from a house."

The survey suggests that education can do more to stem the popularity of pirated goods.

Some 85% of those questioned said they would be less likely to buy pirated goods if they knew the range of crimes, such as drug smuggling and human trafficking, they were used to potentially fund.

Almost half of those questioned, 45%, said fines equal to double the value of the pirated goods they bought were needed to stop them buying them. [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3541758.stm

It repeats the lie that pirating is the same as downloading and sharing music files, and then connects the two to "drug smuggling and human trafficking". Oddly, "terrorism" is left off of the list. Oh yes that is a FAST line not a BSA line, and they are the ones who planted this piece which the BBC has unritically regurgitated.

Indestructible

How is a LifeGem Created ?

High-quality created diamonds have been present for many years. These diamonds are created by placing carbon, the primary element of all diamonds, in conditions that recreate the forces of earth. We are merely choosing an exact carbon source to create a beautiful and meaningful memorial for you and your family.

In summary, here is how we create your LifeGem...

Step 1. Collection

We receive your loved one's cremated remains into our care. They are assigned a unique sixteen-digit identification number which stays with them right through the process. Each set of remains is individually packaged and sent by secure courier to the LifeGem office in America.

Step 2. Purification

The cremated remains are heated to extremely high temperatures under special conditions. During this phase, the carbon in the ashes coalesces with the natural carbon used in the diamond growth process, allowing the carbon from the deceased to be removed intact from the provided ash remains. While removing the existing ash, this process converts the carbon to graphite with unique characteristics and elements that will create a one-of-a-kind LifeGem diamond like no other in this world.

Step 3. Creation

To create your LifeGem, we now place this graphite in one of our unique diamond presses replicating the awesome forces of nature - heat and pressure. The longer the press time, the larger the rough diamond crystal that results.

Step 4. Certification

Finally, our skilled diamond cutters facet your LifeGem diamond according to your wishes, laser etch the girdle, and certify it for authenticity.

A diamond that takes millions of years to occur naturally can now be created from the carbon of your loved one in about eighteen weeks.

Round Cut

Radiant Cut

Princess Cut

Staggering, quasimaginable Turnaround

SA apartheid party will join ANC

Nelson Mandela's ANC was outlawed by the NP during apartheid

The party that legalised apartheid in South Africa has paved the way for its extinction by joining the party that battled the racist system.

The New National Party plans to fight future elections under the banner of the ruling African National Congress.

As the National Party, it introduced apartheid after it came to power in 1948, denying black South Africans the right to vote.

The NNP will shut down in September next year.

The party's leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said he planned to join the ANC in the coming weeks and urged fellow party members to do the same.

South African President Thabo Mbeki welcomed the decision of the NNP to join his party.

He said he could not think of another instance where a party of oppression had admitted defeat and joined those whom it had oppressed.

Representatives of both parties are reported to be planning a joint national tour to help convince NNP members to make the change.

When it was in government, the National Party had a policy of reserving the best land for whites and entrenched a host of regulations designed to protect white privilege.

This included preserving white only beaches, benches and restaurants.

It lost power to the ANC in the country's first truly democratic election in 1994. [...]

As if anyone needed further proof, anything at all is possible.

Those who are old enough to know what an immovable object Aparthied seemed to be can testify that no one believed they would see a new South Africa in their lifetime and yet, Nelson Mandela was not only released from jail, he became president of South Africa - a chain of events that everyone dreamed about but never expected to actually see come to pass, all of this no thanks to the likes of Dick Cheney.

Which neatly brings us to the present day. Anyone who thinks that this false "war on terror" and the emerging police state cannot be turned around 180� is simply wrong. Everything that is happening now that we hate, just as we hated Apartheid, can be reversed; and not just to a point that is better than nothing, but to a dream-like optimum outcome, where we get everything that we want, and some amazing good things that we never counted on, like the subsuming of the NNP into the ANC, by choice.

We have to work on getting what we want. We have to do revolutionary things. We have to think, and then act.

Look at Google's IPO, and the effect it is having on Wall Street. This is an example of two people thinking, and acting and causing waves of disruptive change, instead of simply taking the money and running. This is a profound thing that they are doing - many people are thinking about how to set up and maintain stock markets that are less volatile and centered on long term investment for the good of people. Google are thinking about this, and are fulfilling the promise that they made in their SEC filing.

Everyone has the power, indivudually, to destroy any bad government or bad government decision. If you think ID Cards/biometrics are bad, refuse to accept them; organize groups or join existing groups to educate people about why they should refuse to accept them. If a racist government can be brought down without a shot being fired in a country that is as close to paradise as you can get on earth, then comparatively smaller things like these can be wiped out in a matter of months. The Australian ID card defeat is a perfect example.

The UK and the USA can be changed into places of peace and real freedom. You dont even have to have a good imagination to be able to see it happening. It is going to take the ability to say "No" in unison. Can you do that?

Moral Mapping

British schools are getting indoctrination in copyright, at the order of EMI and the like:

'Stealing songs is wrong' lessons head for UK schools

By John Lettice

Published Thursday 5th August 2004 16:30 GMT

At the beginning of last month the British Government launched a "Music Manifesto" to promote music in schools. But already this typically Blairite bundle of good intentions is being hijacked (with not a little cooperation from the minders in Whitehall) in order to inflict copyright lessons on schoolchildren, from pre-school onwards.

The launch itself produced a small fissure in the musical community, with composer Julian Lloyd Webber amongst others boycotting it on the basis that the manifesto didn't actually come in with any funding for activities and instruments. And at the launch EMI commented: "We would like to see schools teaching copyright awareness so that pupils understand its importance not only to those contemplating music as a career, but to society generally" (both these reported here).

EMI, one of the manifesto's founding signatories, is a singularly appropriate sponsor of this particular spin on music for kids - not a lot of pigopolists have classic songs specifically about them. But other grinding axes can be heard.

A half-day seminar on copyright education took place two weeks ago, and there the Times Educational Supplement reports that "Estelle Morris, the arts minister [she gave the keynote], education and music industry professionals expressed concern that children were increasingly downloading illegally copied material from the Internet." And according to The Guardian EMI is planning a conference for teachers, and "working on lesson plans to explain copyright properly." [...] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/05/uk_school_copyright_lessons/

You cant dissuade people that shooting Heroin is wrong just by getting them to repeat "Just Say No" so what on earh makes them think that by spinning a lie in a classroom will make people "understand" that downloading songs is "wrong"?:

Seltzer might be considerably less concerned had she sat in on a recent lesson at Commerce Middle School in a working-class neighborhood of Yonkers, New York. As in Santa Clarita, the kids here read their stock responses, but unlike their Californian counterparts, they do it in a sullen monotone, as if reciting some musty poem. Only the computer user, an animated wiseass in baggy jeans, delivers a passionate response. "It's not hurting anybody. I'm not selling it. I'm using it in my home." The other kids nod energetically at this, and hands shoot up throughout the room. One boy says, "If the computer user is just downloading music, how are the carpenters who work on movie sets being hurt?" The other students regard this as irrefutable logic, and a chorus of "mm-hmm" and "that's right" fills the room.

A confident, articulate girl in cornrows and too-tight jeans speaks up. "Look, you preview what's on the CD, and if you like it, you go out and buy the CD because you get a booklet and, like, extra stuff with it." This, whether she knows it or not, is exactly the argument that the major music labels are hearing from many of their own consultants.

As the class winds down, several kids say that downloading files from Kazaa is no different than borrowing a library book. "After you get it, you're just going to delete it anyway," a boy says. JA volunteer Evan Snyder, who's good with the kids, gets a crafty look on his face. "How is that different from me just borrowing a Ferrari from the dealership and just passing it around to my friends?"

The girl in the cornrows snaps back, "Well, that's fine! You're borrowing it! As long as you give it back." [...] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/mpaa.html

And of course the smartest ones will quote Jeffersons words about candles and lights. Damn those founding fathers and their revolutionary thoughts to hell!!!!! This is more like the thought process to teach: From http://www.lnreview.co.uk/ Its a little "cheeking tounges"; all the endpoints should be "rip" with some being "rip&buy" or "rip&tip" (mine! mine! mine! down! down! down!), in any case if you want to teach morality to young people, teach them how to think morally. The Problem is, when you teach people how to think, they can end up thinking and doing what they want to do and not what you want them to do, and they will be armed and able to quietly argue you to dust. And Blair/Bush USUK is not about that is it? But you know this.

A Backlash?!

Passport ID Technology Has High Error Rate By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 6, 2004; Page A01 The State Department is moving ahead with a plan to implant electronic identification chips in U.S. passports that will allow computer matching of facial characteristics, despite warnings that the technology is prone to a high rate of error. Federal researchers, academics, industry experts and some privacy advocates say the government should instead use more-reliable fingerprints to help thwart potential terrorists. The enhanced U.S. passports, scheduled to be issued next spring for people obtaining new or renewed passports, will be the first to include what is known as biometric information. Such data, which can be a fingerprint, a picture of parts of eyes or of facial characteristics, is used to verify identity and help prevent forgery. Under State Department specifications finalized this month for companies to bid on the new system, a chip woven into the cover of the passport would contain a digital photograph of the traveler's face. That photo could then be compared with an image of the traveler taken at the passport control station, and also matched against photos of people on government watch lists. The department chose face recognition to be consistent with standards being adopted by other nations, officials said. Those who drafted the standards reasoned that travelers are accustomed to submitting photographs and would find giving fingerprints to be intrusive. But federal researchers who have tested face-recognition technology say its error rate is unacceptably high -- up to 50 percent if photographs are taken without proper lighting. They say the error rate is far lower for fingerprints, which could be added to the chip without violating the international standard. The new system would differ from U.S. requirements for many foreign travelers, who are fingerprinted when they apply for visas to visit the United States. The visitors then have their fingers scanned when they enter the country to compare against the data on the visa. Similar requirements are to be imposed for travelers from countries whose citizens do not need visas to come to the United States, who will be fingerprinted when they arrive in the country. "I don't think there's a debate," said Charles L. Wilson, who supervises biometric testing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the Commerce Department. "Fingerprints are much better." The concerns come at a time of heightened terrorism alerts and urgent calls for changes in national security from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Among its many recommendations were quick adoption of biometric passports and more secure drivers' licenses, though the commission did not specify which type of data should be used. Last weekend, government sources told The Washington Post that a South African woman was under investigation for possible terrorist connections after she apparently walked or swam across the Mexico-U.S. border last month. The South African passport she presented to authorities at McAllen-Miller International Airport in Texas appeared to have been altered, the sources said, leading to her detention. The State Department settled on face recognition as the biometric to comply with specifications set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a Montreal-based standards agency affiliated with the United Nations. In seeking to have countries use one common biometric to aid anti-terrorism efforts, the international group designated face recognition two years ago in part because it would be easiest for most countries to implement and it was deemed the least likely to raise privacy concerns. "Facial photographs do not disclose information that the person does not routinely disclose to the general public," the group said in a final technical report issued in May. "The photograph . . . is already socially and culturally accepted internationally." [...] Murphy declined to comment on the State Department's decision not to include fingerprint data in the passports. Some said the government feared a potential backlash. "The simple answer is that they don't want to put in a fingerprint biometric because they don't want to deal with the political recriminations" said Robert D. Atkinson, a member of a national security task force at the nonprofit Markle Foundation, which studies digital issues. Atkinson also heads the Progressive Policy Institute, a part of the Democratic Leadership Council. Privacy advocates argue that taking fingerprints is no more invasive than face recognition, and certainly not more than other Bush administration initiatives launched since Sept. 11, 2001, that have sought to link databases of buying habits, bank accounts and other personal information to try to predict terrorist activity. The fingerprint data could be placed on the passport chip but not saved in a database, they said, removing the concern over a central government repository. The data on the chip is simply matched against a finger scan when the traveler arrives at the passport control station. "My passport belongs to me," said Ian "Gus" Hosein, a senior fellow at Privacy International, a Britain-based advocacy group. "They should not be using this as a back door to international databases." [...] Washington Post

Astonishing; which "privacy advocates" in particular are saying that fingerprinting is no more invasive than photographs? Firstly, the way fingerprints are made is more invasive, because it involved physically touching a scanner. By that definition alone, it is more invasive. There. I said it twice. And look at this line:

The fingerprint data could be placed on the passport chip but not saved in a database

So, they are going to set up systems to capture this accurate data, and not store it? When has a government EVER voluntarily done this? ISLAND uses a variant of this system but it is designed to protect peoples rights, whereas government documents exist to curtail and or control your rights. There is no way, that this initiative will happen in this way at the initiation of a government department. That is a safe bet, and if I were to make this bet, it would be one that I would be happy to loose. Photographs are acceptable, Fingerprints are not. Photographs are OK because they are there to be read by a HUMAN not a MACHINE. Quickly verifying a fingerprint can only be done by a computer, and humans should not submit themselvs to machines to prove their identity. As I said before, the only thing that needs to be verified is wether the passport has been tampered with or not. You do not need fingerprints to do this, nor do you need centralized databases or unreliable facial recognition software. Cryptographically signed photographs are 100% reliable as a means to authenticate the origin of a signature / signer. This is all that a passport needs. This strange article goes on to repeat the myth that new measures are needed to help prevent "terrorism". To repeat for the benefit of people who have trouble with this, no biometric, no identity measure of any kind will prevent another attack. People with legitimate access and idnetity papers will commit new atrocities. Making everyone submit to this virtual gaol of unsmiling faces is not going to prevent or even delay the inevitable. Only withdrawing from the pointless expansionist, adventurist and insane policy of meddling in other countries affairs will put an end to this "threat". As for the "my passport belongs to me" line by Gus Hosein, dream on Gus. American passports state explicitly that they are the property of the american government:

In most European countries, the passport belongs to the citizen, who has a right to travel to any country that will accept him or her. The only exception is that passports may have to be temporarily surrendered by people on bail and awaiting trial if there is a risk that they might abscond. The situation is different in some countries such as the United States (where only about a quarter of citizens have a passport anyway) which hold that the passport is state property which may be withdrawn at any time. A United States passport reads "U.S. Government Property: This passport is the property of the United States Government. Upon demand made by an authorized representative of the United States Government, it must be surrendered." Other countries with such policies include Thailand and Malaysia. Prominent people with left-wing views, such as Paul Robeson, had once been prevented from traveling abroad by this method by the US government. However, the US Supreme Court held in the 1958 Kent v. Dulles case that the right to travel was an inherent right which could not be denied to American citizens. From Here

"Most European countries" does not include the UK, where the passports clearly state that, "This passport remains the property of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and may be withdrawn at any time". So, it seems that we have to create a new, independent passport issuing authority, that issues tamper evident documents that once purchased, belong absolutely to the person to whom the document was issued. We then have to get all countries that are not involved witht this insane "war on $you_name_it" to accept them as proof of identity, so that we can travel freely on these documents. The nationality aspect of passports is used to control economic migration; this is why you dont need a visa to travel inside "safe" countries if you have a passport from the right country. You are assumed to be rich enought to enter just by having the correct paperwork. Obviously we have to deal with this problem; Visa requirements for these new passports is the obvious first way to address it, but what is more interesting about this idea is the potential for reputation based documentation to replace national reputations as a way to control the huge flow of people all over the world. If you buy one of these ISLAND passports, and you begin travelling on it, obeying your restrictions and building up a record of good travel behaviour, this can all be stored on the document so that when you want to travel, your reputation as being a good risk can speed your visa applications or even gain you an instant waiver status. Your passport would have the same reputation as, say, a French passport; you dont need a visa to go to most places on it, simply becasue its French, or in the ISLAND case, because your reputation is so good. Whatever the final shape of such a class of documents takes, it is clear that we can no longer have documents issued to us by governments, and rely on these as our sole means of identification for travel. Before anyone mentions it, a driving licence should be administered by government, but they should not be dual use documents; they should exist only to prove that you have the training to be able to drive, and nothing more. The right to travel however, has nothing to do with training. You have the right to travel, or you are a prisoner. It is as simple as that. If any government can restrict your movements by withdrawing a document, you are a prisoner of that government. Period. By removing state issued passports from the international travel equation, people become more free instantly. Some thoughts:

• These new passports would need to be goverened by treaties.
• These treaties would only come about as a consequence of a total a collapse of the present government controlled passport systems in each country, after a mass refusal to travel or submit to the new passport regulations.
• This independent body that issues documents; it should not be a single body at all, but should be a technological framework that certified professional people can use to issue documents. This would mean doctors, solicitors and other trustworthy people.
• These new passports would not give you the right to travel; you already have that at birth. They would instead, be a key to entering another jurisdiction, so that you satisfied the requirements of that jurisdiction. Obviously, coutries wanting to take advantage of the skills and tourism trade from other countries would need to think carefully about how they are going to address these new documents.

Some stuff to read: He burned his passport! Way, Way ahead of the game are World Service:

The World Passport represents the inalienable human right of freedom of travel on planet Earth. Therefore it is premised on the fundamental oneness or unity of the human community. In modern times, the passport has become a symbol of national sovereignty and control by each nation-state. That control works both for citizens within a nation and all others outside. All nations thus collude in the system of control of travel rather than its freedom. If freedom of travel is one of the essential marks of the liberated human being, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then the very acceptance of a national passport is the mark of the slave, serf or subject. The World Passport is therefore a meaningful symbol and sometimes powerful tool for the implementation of the fundamental human right of freedom of travel. By its very existence it challenges the exclusive assumption of sovereignty of the nation-state system. It is designed however to conform to nation-state requirements for travel documents. It does not, however, indicate the nationality of its bearer, only his/her birthplace. It is therefore a neutral, apolitical document of identity and potential travel document. A passport gains credibility only by its acceptance by authorities other than the issuing agent. The World Passport in this respect has a track record of over 40 years acceptance since it was first issued. Today over 150 countries have visaed it on a case-by-case basis. In short, the World Passport represents the one world we all live in and on. No one has the right to tell you you can't move freely on your natural birthplace! So don't leave home without one! [...]

LEGAL VALIDITY AND USAGE OF WSA DOCUMENTS: The de jure (official) and de facto (case-by-case) acceptance of the WSA passport is the world customary law basis for the passport. The customary law validity derives from the acceptance or recognition of the passport by governmental entities. Yet even if no nation-state had ever recognized the validity of the passport, the WSA passport still would be valid based on Article 13, Sections (1) and (2), of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations adopted and proclaimed on December 10, 1948. Article 13(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state," and Article 13(2) states: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including [one's] own, and to return to [one's] country." The passport also derives its world human rights law basis from documents that further support the right to freedom of travel such as the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as other regional and multilateral agreements. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world have used their WSA passport to claim their right to travel and for identification. Whether or not a consular official at an embassy recognizes your WSA passport does not determine the validity of the document. The fact that the WSA passport has been accepted de jure (officially) by 6 countries (Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mauritania, Tanzania, Togo, and Zambia) and has been accepted on a de facto (case-by- case) basis by more than 150 countries establishes the validity of the World Service Authority passport. It must be understood that, simply because a country has granted de facto recognition in the past, there is no guarantee that you will get a visa from said country. The particular national official (whose nation-state one is trying to enter) often has sole discretion regarding whether or not a visa is granted. Therefore, because national immigration and border controls are arbitrary and discriminatory and, thereby, in violation of the UDHR, you must assertively demand that governments recognize your rights. The WSA passport differs from national passports because the WSA passport identifies the bearer as a human being rather than as a national subject. Despite the fact that all Member-States of the United Nations are obligated to uphold and respect human rights (Articles 55 & 56, UN Charter), all violate them in practice by virtue of their national exclusivity. Therefore, although everyone has the right to travel anywhere in the world, there is no guarantee that the nation-states will uphold this right. Thus, the WSA passport is a tool to help facilitate the realization of human rights -- specifically, the right to travel. The WSA focuses on the right to travel because it is often the basis for the attainment of other rights, such as freedom from torture, persecution, arbitrary imprisonment, and discrimination, as well as the right to due process. It is our advice to all WSA passport holders that, instead of first trying to get visas from difficult-to-enter countries such as the United States, you first try to obtain a visa from a country that has granted de jure (official) acceptance: Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mauritania, Tanzania, Togo or Zambia. Obtaining a visa does not obligate you to visit that country. However, the fact that you have obtained visas from any country gives immediate credibility to the passport in the eyes of officials from other more difficult-to-enter countries.

Judge Dredd Says

So there you go. No, that is a slogan, not a quote from a statute.

The voice of reason

Grins banned from passport pics

Big smiles and face coverings are banned Travellers have been ordered not to look too happy in their passport photographs to avoid confusing facial recognition scanners.

Toothy, open mouthed grins are being outlawed from the tiny 35mm by 45mm photographs because they will throw off scanners used at airports.

Long fringes and head coverings, are also banned, under the new regulations along with dummies in babies' mouths.

The new type of passports are being introduced in a bid to fight terrorism.

Closed-mouth smiles are still allowed

<> A Home Office spokesman said: "When the mouth is open it can make it difficult for facial recognition technology to work effectively." But blurred snaps are out

The machines work by matching key points on the holder's face, such as the mouth and eyes, with the photograph.

It's simple; if these new computer systems can't do the job properly, let alone as well as a human can already do it, then they're not ready and should not be used yet. Why should we change our behaviour to compensate for an inadequate, unnecessary and expensive computer system? Duncan Corps, Knebworth, England [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3541444.stm An intelligent comment on this BBC story, but the question is completely wrong; what you NEEDED to ask is, "how our disobedience in the matter of this absurd measure going to take shape?". Here is a question for you; are you allowed to exit this country without a passport? If the answer is "yes", then what happens to you at the place where you arrive (will they allow you to enter without a passport or not) is your business. If you are NOT allowed to leave the UK without a passport, then this really is a prison, is it not? No one should be forced to carry a rights infringing document as a prerequisite to travel. If the government says that you have to have a DNA sample embedded in your passport, otherwise you will not be able to travel, will you obey that order as well? Where will you draw the line?

Blogrolling

Blogroll BLOGDIAL

RFID / Loyalty card disseminating

Scandal: The RFID Tag Hidden in METRO's Loyalty Card

---

Background 22 million Germans reportedly carry a "Payback" loyalty card, which they scan at participating retailers to accumulate cash back rewards and qualify for discounts. What 10,000 of these consumers do not know is that the Payback cards they picked up at the METRO Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany contain more than just the promise of rewards -- they also carry hidden RFID remote tracking chips. Superficially, the cards look like any other plastic card a shopper might carry in his or her wallet. There is no visual cue that the card can respond to radio waves and transmit a shopper's identity -- right through a closed purse or backpack -- to reader devices 3 to 5 feet away.

---

Back of Card

---

X-Ray Confirms the Embedded Tag

Below is an x-ray scan of the Payback Extra Future card. Note the antenna running along its edge, linked to an RFID computer chip which contains unique customer information. (Image courtesy of German privacy organizaton FoeBuD.)

(Click for larger image)

---

No Mention of RFID in Card During my Tour

I discovered the RFID tag hidden in METRO's loyalty card entirely by accident, just one day after I toured the METRO Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany, accompanied by members of German privacy organization FoeBuD. During that tour, three METRO executives spent several hours showing us "every detail" of the store's use of RFID, including RFID shelves, RFID tags on products, RFID in the back of the store, and RFID information and "deactivation" kiosks. They claimed they were being entirely open with us, revealing every detail of their grand retail experiment.

But they never once mentioned the RFID tag in their loyalty cards. [...]

http://www.nocards.org/ http://www.spychips.com/

Rothkamm

This is the beginning of the digital age. Computers are not instruments. By definition, they are general purpose machines of the empirical world and their nature changes according to the instructions given. The series of instructions, the algorithm, determines the machine or what the machine is. The algorithm can exist in abstracto - in a world of transcendental ideas without machines. However, it can only execute in hardware, not apart from it. At the moment of execution the algorithm changes the nature of the general purpose machine to a special purpose machine, gives concrete evidence of a transcendental idea, and manifests itself in the empirical world of time and space. This change of general purpose to special purpose is the instrument, the manifestation of a transcendental idea. Implicitly, instruments are defined by limitations. Limitations clearly shape the instrument and dialectically, the more limited the instrument is, the more it expresses the idea. This is the reason for aesthetics to emerge, because they are born at the moment the special purpose machine executes very particular instructions. Aesthetics are particularities in the empirical world and it is only because of their particularity that they are capable of cosmological manifestation as they are absolute expressions in a world that is limited to time and space. Aesthetics are therefore bound to the machine. What we listen to is the instrumental machine. What we listen to is the Digital-to-Analog Converter. What we listen to is what the machine is. It is the algorithm that enables us to move with absolute freedom through the empirical world of the machine as if at play without purpose and with cosmological ideas in mind; that is, free improvisation that is free from free improvisation. If we suppose a purpose it is our liberation through the instrument. This is our play with, or our intuition of, the machine as an instrument of transcendence to the cosmological idea - as instruments are spacecrafts, vehicles to manifest the reaches of the cosmological ideas.

http://rothkamm.com

President Signs Defense Bill

President Signs Defense Bill: " Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Banksy Unveiled : 4th August 2004

Banksy Unveiled : 4th August 2004

card #s

Oh ...... WOW!!!! frightening. how very, very frightening.

"BBQ" I Love it!

BBQing your citizen flesh:

The BBC sees its audience as citizens who have the right to independent and impartial information.

When a BBC correspondent reports a story, the aim is to provide an insight based on evidence and on professional judgement - uncluttered by commercial interest or the need to support a particuar proprietor or ideology.

Journalistic judgements

We should not be driven by what other media organsiations are saying about a story. Nor should we assess a story's importance by measuring the prominence it is given elsewhere.

We need to work out for ourselves what matters and what is just spin, public relations or chaff.

It is the BBC's job to look at news with a fresh pair of eyes - and not to be driven by the agendas and interests of newspapers, pressure groups, political parties or governments.

Sometimes we ask questions or make journalistic judgements that upset people who themselves have strong views and a keen interest in a particular story. But we cannot aim only to please and divert.

We should not be frightened of controversy - but we should always be alert to the dangers of glibness, to the idea that every problem has a simple solution.

So above all we need to be inquiring and open-minded - unafraid to surprise our audiences with a view of a story that is different - and always looking for a wide range of evidence and opinion. [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/aboutbbcnews/hi/editorial_policy/default.stm

I feel a t-shirt coming on.....

Its so obvious!!!!

Oh ...... WOW!!!!

Reaction to the article

What do I think of the article? kind of makes you out to be pretty strange/fanatical, though, don't you think? "in comparison with what?" as the song goes. i bet there were loads more excellent soundbytes that probably didn't get used...? It has the essential thrust and near entirety of what we discussed over three days of calls. This article did not distort anything that I said, and I have to concede that its sometimes useful to give some kind of portrait of the people behind a fascinating project, though my first reaction is to try and remove myself from the picture. Obviously in the hands of an excellent writer, the personality involved does not get in the way of the subject. This is an insightful piece; its one of the best ever articles on TCP.

Mutato speech

Casale, who writes a column that is sharply critical of the United States? lifestyle on the band?s Web site, says the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, provided an opportunity for conservatives to advance an agenda on a populace unprepared to question its propriety. ?We?ve got a spoon-fed manipulation of fear by mass media that makes Joe McCarthy look like kindergarten,? he says. ?The world is being held hostage by fundamentalist Christians, fundamentalist Jews and fundamentalist Muslims. ?People live in fear every day, and you know what happens when you live in fear. You?ve got somebody saying, ?I?ll make you safe. Just give up your rights.? People are so stupid they bought it. ?Devo has always been anti-stupidity,? Casale says. ?You?ve got people that don?t even know how to process information, that don?t even know how to evaluate the truth of what?s being said. ?Being informed is looked upon as being suspect. It?s cool not to know anything.? [...] From the Blog written by Mr. Casale read it hereish. Its true. The watchword of the final generation of real people was "Anarchy" and "No Future". Now "Whatever" is the all pervasive thought and impulse that we hear from the mouths of the "the most dissapointing". It is said with a resigned shrug of the shoulders, an ingrained and perpetual inertia, absorbing everything you throw at them, no matter how spectacular, threatening or outrageous.

An interesting writer approaches

I?ve had the good luck recently to be able to put together two excellent quotes which perfectly illustrate the "cosmic" dimension of radio interference. The first came courtesy of my good friend Jon Dale. It?s a snippet from a wholly engrossing interview with one Don Bolles, former drummer with LA?s legendary Germs, and owner of the most extraordinary collection of Avant-Garde records I?ve ever come across. Dale brought Bolles to my attention because he owns a very healthy amount of "The Silver Records" (see the Me! Me! Me! Section on the links bar). Here is Bolles on shortwave radio:

"?around ?67, I started liking the shortwave stuff I was getting because it was just insane, amazing music- it sounded better than any music I heard anywhere. It had reverb all over it from bouncing around the ionosphere and it would echo and do all this amazing stuff, and you knew there was something going on there that wasn?t part of some kind of hideous marketing agenda."

Which makes the perfect twin with this comment from Jah Wobble:

"When I was a teenager I was drawn to listening to shortwave radio oscillations, primarily as a means of helping me sleep. I liked the very deep, naturally phased oscillations. Thanks to subharmonics these oscillations are inherently musical. As the frequencies drifted, ghostlike voices would appear, making a collage- sometimes Voice of America, baseball results, etc, or perhaps a Radio Moscow English language broadcast, boasting about the forthcoming grain harvests. However on one memorable occasion it wasn?t Cold War ideology I picked up; it was the voice of heaven: Oum Kalsoum. I had inadvertantly tuned in to Radio Cairo and Radio Tehran. I still think that all music sounds better imbued with shortwave radio phasing. I remember 1979 being a great year for shortwave radio oscillations. This is due to their link with sunspot activity, which peaks and declines every 11 years or so."

Amazing stuff innit! There?s a third element to this which is Robert Wyatt?s relationship with shortwave radio. Before the days of easily attainable World music, heads like Wyatt would tune into the radio stations of the Middle East and North Africa with their crystal sets.

I once met Jah Wobble in my local swimming-pool, he swims an excellent very powerful breast-stroke. When he was languishing in the shallow-end I greeted him and admitted to being a fan of his music. He seemed unfazed, was cheery took the compliment well. A few weeks later I greeted him in the baths again, slightly paranoid that he might think I was trying to pick him up, and he ignored me, even when I spoke quite loudly. It occurred to me that it was possible that he might be a bit deaf. Here Wobble again on his ill-spent youth:

[...] http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000123.html emailed just now.....

blogdial

blogdial: we [have] the best [editor] or blogdial: your ignorance makes us ill and angry

sorry?

no, i was just curious. are you talking to me josh? because its a good article...i'm just saying it seems like reading the piece akin wrote for subsystence is way more informative in many ways. i think its great that the conet project is getting so much attention, i just think its silly to focus on how it takes a 'fanatic' to document the stations (mmm, obvious?)...how about talking more about the stations themselves? i don't know. sorry for being vague.

akin article

akin: how do you feel about this wash post article? curious for your opinion... seems fairly 'comprehensive' overall, kind of makes you out to be pretty strange/fanatical, though, don't you think? (not that that is a bad thing necessarily) and why the decision to include a photo? i think that's probably the first photo of you on this internet thing ever! i bet there were loads more excellent soundbytes that probably didn't get used...?

Happy BC Day

Rude!

Said the flapper with a sob...

History repeats itself

Here's a related message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-05010.html

And this disclosure may provide another reason to refuse to answer any
questions in the census not authorized by the U.S. Constitution:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01001.html

-Declan

---


        DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OBTAINED
       DATA ON ARAB AMERICANS FROM CENSUS BUREAU

                -----------------------

   Documents Obtained under Freedom of Information Act
        Raise Questions About Use of Census Data

                -----------------------

       EPIC Calls for Congressional Investigation


WASHINGTON, DC - The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a
public interest organization in Washington DC, has obtained
documents revealing that the Census Bureau provided the Department
of Homeland Security statistical data on people who identified
themselves on the 2000 census as being of Arab ancestry. The special
tabulations were prepared specifically for the law enforcement
agency. There is no indication that the Department of Homeland
Security requested similar information about any other ethnic groups.

One tabulation shows cities with 1,000 or more people who indicated
they are of Arab ancestry. For each city, the tabulation provides
total population, population of Arab ancestry, and percent of the
total population that is of Arab ancestry.

A second tabulation, more than a thousand pages in length, shows the
number of census responses indicating Arab ancestry in certain zip
codes throughout the United States.  The responses are subdivided
into Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian,
Syrian, Arab/Arabic, and Other Arab.

The tabulations apparently contain information about United States
citizens, as well as individuals of Arab descent whose families have
lived in the United States for generations.

The heavily redacted documents show that in April 2004, a Census
Bureau analyst e-mailed a Department of Homeland Security official
and said, "You got a file of Arab ancestry information by ZIP Code
Tabulation Area from me last December (2003).  My superiors are now
asking questions about the usage of that data, given the sensitivity
of different data requests we have received about the Arab
population."

The same day, a Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border
Protection official e-mailed the analyst to explain, "At U.S.
International airports, U.S. Customs posts signage informing various
nationalities of the U.S. Customs regulations to report currency
brought into the US upon entry . . . .  My reason for asking for
U.S. demographic data is to aid the Outbound Passenger Program
Officer in identifying which language of signage, based on U.S.
ethnic nationality population, would be best to post at the major
International airports."

During World War II, the Census Bureau provided statistical
information to help the War Department round up more than 120,000
innocent Japanese Americans and confine them to internment camps.

EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said today, "the Department
of Homeland Security has compromised the mission of the Census
Bureau with this improper request for information about Arab
Americans.  The census requires the trust and cooperation of the
American public."

EPIC Staff Counsel Marcia Hofmann said, "The Census Bureau should
not become one-stop shopping for law enforcement agencies. It's time
for Congress to step in and make sure this is not repeated."

ABOUT EPIC

EPIC is a recognized leader in the use of the Freedom of
Information Act to obtain information about government policy on
emerging issues.  In the past year, EPIC's Freedom of Information
work resulted in significant disclosures about the Total
Information Awareness program, passenger screening developments,
and the growing number of privacy complaints that consumers have
sent to federal agencies.  These documents have been the subject of
Congressional hearings and news reports across the country.

The documents obtained by EPIC from the Census Bureau are
available at:

http://www.epic.org/privacy/census/foia/default.html

For more information about census privacy, see EPIC's Census
Privacy Page:

http://www.epic.org/privacy/census/default.html
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

Now you have yet another example of why people do not fill out Census forms. You would have to be pretty stupid to fill one out after reading about the times they have used Census data to round up people. We dont have to look at the obvious hot potato European examples, this one will do fine. and this guy has it right.

FLATTERY_01

At first glance, it sounds like it would be the most absolutely boring thing ever, wow, let's just all go lay around, y-a-w-n, but sometime in your second or third hour, when you're totally relaxed, and the DJ is strumming your senses like a genital, you look around and realize, yep, they?re right, this is absolutely perfect: the peak of civilization, like a big ol? harem of pure luxury, just basking in the fact that you can. There?s just something indescribable about dreaming in a room with others. Magik Carpet on a stick, hang on tight, maybe it'll help. I attended a couple of the mentioned Cloudwatch parties in 1997 and was most definately split wide open in the most gente of possible ways. I had never experienced something like Loveless washing over dozing bodies, a dreamy woman's voice lulling us all into hearing those distant bop piano notes s - l - o - w - e - d down to bassy swells. Recommended if you are in the Balitmore area this weekend...

iRecordMusic

iRecordMusic I don't know if this has been posted yet, but it's a cool little app.

wang eruption

Bobby Wang, violin virtuoso, does a note-for-note rendition of the famous solo from 'Eruption' by Eddie Van Halen. http://www.bobbyyang.com/video/750kb.htm

Unreal life: Polychaetes

The polychaete Autolytus pachycerus from algal mats on rocks in the intertidal region at Bondi Beach. This animal buds off smaller individuals that fill with sperm or eggs and swim away to spawn with other 'epitokes'. For more information on annelids and polychaetes see the the links below: Photo of Autolytus by G.Rouse http://www.ees.adelaide.edu.au/people/enviro/gregr/index.html

Polychaetes

Gregory Rouse, School of Environmental Biology, University of Adelaide and South Australian Museum, Adelaide, and Fredrik Pleijel, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris Price: �125.00 (cased + printed jckt) 0-19-850608-2 Publication date: 11 October 2001 362 pages, 16 pp full colour plates, numerous halftones and line drawings, 276x219

• 'This introductory section is succeeded by the detailed comparisons, which are not only excellently illustrated but complemented by a handsome set of colour pictures.' -Geological Magazine
• 'Whilst the core of the book is systematic, the overview at the beginning of the book is concise and invaluable.' -Geological Magazine
• 'In this magnificent volume Greg Rouse and Fredrik Pleijel present a masterly, fascinating and encyclopaedic summary on this important group of animals.' -Geological Magazine
• '[This book] is very well presented, with a swag of coloured photographs taken of live animals, some lovely micrographs of this amazing group of animals and line drawings for each family.' -Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
• 'A book of this nature was clearly an enormous undertaking, and the authors are to be congratulated on the final product ... will be of immense value to anyone intending to study, or currently investigating, Africa's rich polychaete fauna.' -African Zoology
• '... chapters are informative and are excellent as a quick reference for information on any taxon. If more detail is needed, readers will find the text well referenced.' -African Zoology

Rouse provides unprecedented coverage of polychaete diversity. Lavishly illustrated, including colour plates, the beauty and variety of polychaetes has nowhere been better shown.

http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-850608-2

Osedax

Osedax or Osedax

Its beautiful

http://www.juno.co.uk/

Oh you didnt know

bladder control If there is one thing they are expert at, its taking the piss. BYKT!