Water torture

Thank heavens there are SOME people who have some sense, and have made this very important pledge. I know lots of people who have gone to the USA, who mention nothing about being fingerprinted upon their return, and when asked about it, have nothing to say. Maybe they are responding like shamed people who don't like to talk about a humiliation happened to them. When someone makes a pledge like this, it has tremendous signifigance. When decent people have had enough, when there are lots of them, the effect is overwhelmingly powerful, and just the sort of thing that we want. It is the individual refusing to pay and play, the individual raindrop with all of her siblings that can wash away a whole village in an hour. The poll tax died because of it, USVISIT can be destroyed by it. Violence against middle east countries can be permanently derailed by it. All it takes is the will to say 'no', and the reasoning to be communicated between people on a personal level. Sadly, many of the people I know don't value their dignity...but this is about more than dignity. This is about not putting your hand into a fire after you have been warned that fire is hot and will burn you. I for one am not willing to wait 70 years like the Soviets did just to be able to read books listen to music, travel freely and make phone calls. Im not willing to sit around and take the sort of crap that Bliar and his filty dogs want to dish out. Now we hear that they are planning to randomly search people going onto the underground. If the dare do this, I will boycott London Transport. It is not acceptable that decent people should jump through these hoops at the behest of iinsane men. Searching people on the underground is pointless and vile, and London Underground should be punished by a mass stay away should they dare try and impliment such a thing. You might grumble that such a pledge is without power, but that would be a (nother) failure of your imagination. Your refusal to move is the most powerful nonweapon you have at your disposal. Coupled with millions of others spontaneously coalescing into a no deluge, what we want becomes what we get; the washing away of all the bad stuff.

Bringing it home.

On a previous trip to the US, my parents found upon their return that several small holes had been drilled into their hard cases, and no apology or even recognition of the fact given. A previous trip? So they have been done over twice? People must say no. The easiest way to do this is not to travel to the US. Do not trade with the US, do not give them your business. Money is the only language these people understand. There are plenty of other places in the world to visit, where you will be welcomed as a guest rather than as a potential felon. You forgot to mention that their credit card details, home address, iteniary, name, etc were forwarded to uncle sham before they ever boarded the plane. People just don't care about being mistreated; they only want convenience and fun. Your parents changed the locks on their cases to accomodate the us government. This is the exact opposite of the sort of behaviour that we need. Yesterday, old men marched to remember their fallen colleagues. The narators all talked about how they sacrificed their lives for peace. I seem to remember in previous years that the narrators spoke of how these fallen men sacrificed thier lives for freedom. Hmmm when did this all change?! But I go 'OT'. You can tell people until you are blue in the face about this and they will not listen. Even when it happens to them, they are more than willing to go for another taste. This is the sort of world we are living in, and anyone that participates in it by going on holiday to these terrible places or supporting 'democracy' are guilty of keeping the sham going. Is it not strange how it hurts more when it happens to someone you know? This is part of the problem, not only with the absurd USVISIT, but with anything that involves someone else getting hurt. The number of bombs that have gone off all over the world since the small time events that happened in London have been many. Over one hundred people have been killed, and yet, there is no sympathy for them, no bowing of heads no speeches or special dates dedicated to them....why? Because they are 'not us', and people do not have the capacity to empathize with anyone that is not dying right in front of their eyes. This works on any scale. Someone else is being abused by USVISIT, a grumble. When its someone you know, when you can see the broken locks yourself, when the holes are in the suitcases of someone you know, well, then its a different story...a real story, something to get mad at. People blown to pieces by the us airforce in Iraq; ' a necessary loss' or 'collateral damage'. 50 people blown up in London, its reason to dismantle 1000 years of civil liberties on the spot. The same goes for the 29,000 people who have been stopped under the new 'anti-terror' legislation. Not a peep from anyone about it. That silence is, to me, even more disturbing than the stops themselvs. Its exactly this sort of silence that allowed people to be rounded up and incinerated en masse. Everyone is too quiet, too obedient and frankly, too stupid for my tastes.

The cracks finally begin to show

such fools. I hope that now, after the 'humiliating defeat' over the 90 days outrage that the upper house shows some bottle and throws out the ID cards bill in its entirety. Amazingly Bliar, the (wannabe) master of deception, said today:

Bliar says MPs are out of touch

Tony Blair reaction

Tony Blair has accused some MPs of being out of touch with the public and of failing to face the terror threat.

Mr Blair met his Cabinet after a vote on anti-terror plans brought his first Commons defeat as prime minister.

He told ministers there was a "worrying gap between parts of Parliament and the reality of the terrorist threat and public opinion".

MPs on Wednesday rejected plans to allow police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

The plans were defeated by 31 votes, with 49 Labour MPs rebelling against the government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4423678.stm

[...] for the thousandth time, wtf? When two million marched in an unprecedented parade of discontent with government policy, Bliar and almost every single MP IGNORED public opinion AGAINST the invasion of Iraq, and did it anyway. The worrying gap between the cause for the invasion and THE FACTS are what the public are concerned about, and the causal relationship between that illegal immoral invasion and the 'terrorist threat' are what the public are concerned about. Bliar harped on ad nauseum about how 'he made a decision to go to war and you either agree with it or not' etc etc, but now that a 'decision' and a 'determination' and an outcome has been made that is different to the one that he wants all of a sudden its accusations of being 'out of touch'. What a pile of steaming bullshit. This is a blantant, and I MEAN blantant example of the hypocricy that is the absolute nature of Bliar, the most venal prime minister ever to grace the lower house.

The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris

In it's entirety, a must read article, a prescient prediction written by Theodore Dalrymple for CITY Journal in the Autumn of 2002. Any of you, read it all now or again: The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris.

The Last of England

Many years ago, it seems like a lifetime - and in some countries with populations that have a short life expectancy, it would be a lifetime - I knew some truely brilliant people. They made me laugh more than I had ever laughed in my life, and I have never laughed so much since. It was revealed to me this morning that one of these priceless men has a blog!

Mort pour rien

Mort pour rien - Dead for nothing

Bouna et Zaid

Members of Paris’s African community have been rioting in the streets of Paris for the past 9 days. The riots were triggered by the death of two youths of African decent, Bouna Traore, aged 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, were electrocuted at an electricity sub-station in Clichy-sous-Bois as they ran from the police. A third youth who escaped death, said they panicked and ran because they found themselves near the scene of a break-in incident where police began to arrive. The police of course deny any involvement in the boys death. It should be noted that these young people are not immigrants. Their grandparents and possibly their parents are but they are born in France and are French citizens. Constantly referring to them as "immigrants" is a problem in itself and reinforces their exclusion from mainstream French society.

The boys did not have criminal records nor were they known to the police so why did they run. The explanation given in Indymedia Paris by Laurent Levy is very plausible given the appalling racist record of the French police. They knew what would happen to them if they were stopped for an ID check. They would risk being detained and spending several hours being humiliated at the police station - you do not have to have much of an imagination to know the kind of taunts the boys would be subjected to. It was late and they wanted to get home where they were expected by their families. Levy also asks why the Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy had to say that this drama took place after a burglary attempt implying the boys were invovled or boys "like them" ie Africans and Arabs. [...]

http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/

My emphasis. Do I need to spell it out? Britain is next for this type of outbreak, should all the correct conditions be met; ID cards, profiling, mass stop and search of individuals....

Notice how the BBQ is spinning this; the sympathetic language that is being used to explain and justify these riots compared to the unsympathetic language used to describe the 'insurgents' in Bhagdad. In france they saying that,"... the riots are an outpouring of anger caused by many years of living as France's second class citizens", wheras in Iraq the insurgents are just 'terrorists'.

Think about this; if a single explosion destroyed 4500 cars, it would be a huge international event. Spread out over 11 days, its a rolling national crisis for the government, barely registering in foreign news. This should be a huge revelation to all those wannabe self immolators. Nationwide riots, distributed disruption, molotov cocktails; these are all far more effective at damaging governments than doing single event outrages.

A single event outrage produces massive psychological shockwaves but they also bolster the very governments that the perpetrators want to damage, simultaneously giving these very same governments carte blanche to make whatever new and bad law they want which represses everyone.

Rolling destruction, nightly riots, like burning peat is harder to control, effective at discrediting and disrupting authority and, up till now, not associated with 'terrorism', even though its the very 'same' people who are doing the work.

Britain, you have been warned!

Not the answer

Mehmet Altun, 15

The police come and hassle us all the time. They ask us for our papers 10 times a day.

They treat us like delinquents - especially [Interior Minister Nicolas] Sarkozy. That's not the answer.

It would be good to have youth clubs and other places to go - then there would be less trouble.

It's not good to burn cars but that's one way of getting attention, so people can come and solve our problems. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/0l/6.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4411192.stm

My emphasis.

If the British are STUPID enough to introduce ID cards here, this will be the inevitable result; riots sparked by the useless "routine checks" triggered purely by "race".

This is a PROMISE not a threat.

pipes

I've been enjoying the vocal musings of Feist of late ... she has a lovely voice. In concert a few weeks back, she sang songs alone, with a sampler, and created some beautiful harmonies, looping her voice and her guitar in layers. She makes the pouring rain at least bearable.

Cool stuff for the weekend

Stuff thats just too cool: Salling Clicker: http://www.salling.com/Clicker/mac/ When you combine that with Front Row on your mac, you get this. Which is very very cool indeed. And related... A new phrase to take over the world, to be said in response WHENEVER someone has computer problems AND is running Windoze: "First of all, why on earth are you running windows?" You can then solve their problem. Or not.

OBEX

12/08/2005 9:35:21 pm  No more devices found
17/08/2005 5:18:48 pm  Dark Knight - Found device
17/08/2005 5:19:56 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
17/08/2005 5:20:49 pm  Cynth - Found device
17/08/2005 8:30:48 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
17/08/2005 8:31:46 pm   - Found device
29/08/2005 8:07:10 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
29/08/2005 8:07:23 pm  No more devices found
29/08/2005 8:07:27 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
29/08/2005 8:13:50 pm  M@ - Found device
29/08/2005 8:13:53 pm  Keyur - Found device
29/08/2005 8:43:20 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
29/08/2005 8:43:20 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
29/08/2005 10:08:11 pm  easy veezy - Found device
29/08/2005 10:08:24 pm  No more devices found
30/08/2005 12:17:57 pm  No more devices found
30/08/2005 4:30:33 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:10:15 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:35 pm  Nokia 8800 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:53 pm   - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:53 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:11:01 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:11:02 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:13:31 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:13:40 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:13:53 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:13:54 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:24:43 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:24:56 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:46:56 pm  fuck u. - Found device
26/09/2005 2:46:57 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 3:11:51 pm  D750i Marthijn - Found device
26/09/2005 3:11:52 pm  No more devices found
31/10/2005 5:25:18 pm  Nokia 6230 - Found device
31/10/2005 5:25:29 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:27:12 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:27:16 pm  No more devices found
31/10/2005 5:31:46 pm  Nokia 6230 - Found device
31/10/2005 5:34:39 pm  fat bastard - Found device
31/10/2005 5:34:50 pm  (BIG MAN) - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:04 pm  Miss B.Haven - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:12 pm  Maniak - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:29 pm  lauren - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:32 pm  K750i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:37:39 pm   - Found device
31/10/2005 5:38:50 pm  Timeout...
31/10/2005 5:40:10 pm  K750i - OBEX Put
31/10/2005 5:40:11 pm  K750i - Bluejacked!
01/11/2005 2:17:40 pm  Charlotte - Found device
01/11/2005 2:17:53 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 2:19:49 pm  entrance - Found device
01/11/2005 2:19:50 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 2:55:23 pm  Melanie - Found device
01/11/2005 2:55:26 pm  Bennyboy - Found device
01/11/2005 2:56:02 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
01/11/2005 6:44:50 pm  P910i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:44:50 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 6:45:32 pm  P910i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:45:36 pm  Rob 6310i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:45:58 pm  spv - Found device
01/11/2005 6:46:05 pm  T610 - Found device
01/11/2005 6:54:30 pm  Fuel - Found device
01/11/2005 6:54:35 pm  Mark - Found device
01/11/2005 6:55:31 pm   - Found device
01/11/2005 6:56:13 pm  Mark - OBEX Put
01/11/2005 7:09:50 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:09:51 pm  BT GPS - Found device
01/11/2005 7:10:11 pm  Mahatma - Found device
01/11/2005 7:10:13 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 7:12:46 pm  Timeout...
01/11/2005 7:14:56 pm  Bik5 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:15:05 pm  Linda - Found device
01/11/2005 7:15:11 pm  Nokia 6820 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:17:34 pm  Cby2 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:18:08 pm   - Found device
02/11/2005 2:53:51 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:30 pm  Nokia 6822 - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:33 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:34 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:01:43 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
02/11/2005 3:01:51 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 3:02:04 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:18:41 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 3:19:14 pm  Nokia 6600 - Found device
02/11/2005 3:19:14 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:19:17 pm  Nokia 6310i - OBEX Put
02/11/2005 4:41:23 pm  Pocket_PCJKM - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:23 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:26 pm  Monkey nuts - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:26 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 4:42:18 pm  Monkey nuts - OBEX search error -6410
02/11/2005 4:43:42 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:43 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:50 pm  GAVINGELAPUK - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:55 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:08 pm  HUNKY MAN - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:14 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:35 pm  Owl - Found device
02/11/2005 5:00:52 pm  Telford - Found device
02/11/2005 5:00:59 pm  Cesar - Found device
02/11/2005 5:01:00 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
02/11/2005 5:01:46 pm  Cesar - OBEX Put
02/11/2005 5:21:08 pm  Il Quesso - Found device
02/11/2005 5:21:21 pm  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:34:26 am  Nick Ward - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:26 am  Thilaka - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:29 am  Stephan's Nokia - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:42 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:34:45 am  Nick Ward - OBEX Put
03/11/2005 8:34:46 am  Nick Ward - Bluejacked!
03/11/2005 8:36:44 am  Stephan's Nokia - Found device
03/11/2005 8:36:44 am  Thilaka - Found device
03/11/2005 8:36:54 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:37:56 am  Timeout...
03/11/2005 8:38:02 am  Thilaka - OBEX search error -6410
03/11/2005 8:48:19 am  70-1 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:31 am  T610 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:34 am  Stefano - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:50 am  NOokia 6310i - Found device
03/11/2005 8:54:12 am  Nokia 8800 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:54:13 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:54:16 am  T610 - OBEX Put
03/11/2005 8:56:14 am  T610 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:17 am  Stefano - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:21 am  Nokia 6230ivec - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:34 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:57:36 am  Timeout...
03/11/2005 9:01:25 am  Steve - Found device
03/11/2005 9:01:38 am  Nokia 6230i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:13:14 am  Paul - Found device
03/11/2005 9:13:14 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 9:13:26 am  Paul - OBEX search error -6312
03/11/2005 9:13:28 am  Paul - OBEX search error -6410
03/11/2005 9:33:13 am  Nokia 6230i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:33:19 am  Lincoln Brown - Found device
03/11/2005 9:33:30 am  K600i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:34:11 am   - Found device
03/11/2005 9:34:11 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 9:34:39 am  Nokia 6230i - OBEX connect failure -36

Light Lords of Common Sense

The House of Lords last night gave the ID cards bill its second reading and moved it to committee stage. Here are some choice quotes from the debate, with some questions from me (Ian Brown of FIPR). Baroness Scotland: "the identity card scheme is first and foremost to provide individuals with a convenient method of proving their identity" -- so why will we be forced to get one? Baroness Anelay: "I thank the Minister for setting out the Government's case with such care and charm that, for one passing moment, it could seem the most reasonable thing in the world to believe that they were doing us all a big favour by bringing forward this Bill. But that moment passes rapidly and we return to reality." Lord Phillips: "What none of us wants—even the Government, I think—is a slippery slope, at the bottom of which broods an over-mighty state, where the privacy of the citizen is largely figmentary, the whole culture of freedom is undermined and the managerialist and corporatist values that now seem to dominate the public as well as private realms triumph." Lord Waddington: "In one case in 1951, Lord Goddard castigated the police for using powers passed to safeguard national security to require motorists to produce identity cards as a matter of routine whenever they were stopped on the road for whatever reason. In another case, two girls minded to spend the night in a hotel with men friends registered in false names and were prosecuted—mark you, prosecuted under a measure passed for reasons of national security. I do not think that anyone in the House today would be brave enough to say that under this scheme, such abuse would not take place... I do not argue that no national identification scheme could ever be justified, but when the Government present to Parliament a Bill that gives the Secretary of State power to make no less than 61 statutory instruments; when they ask for enormously wide powers to collect and store on a national identity register information about every person in the land and then allow that information to be accessed by a wide range of public bodies; when they seek power to require the citizen to have a card and to pay the cost of getting it, and keeping it up to date, it is surely up to the Government to show not just that some benefit may come of it all, but that the scheme is absolutely necessary to meet the threat that the country faces and that the cost in terms of individual liberty and money is absolutely justified. So far, the Government have done nothing of the sort." Lord Holme: "this Bill fundamentally adjusts the relationship between the citizen and the state. How could it be otherwise when it will put the state in possession of an unprecedented, consolidated file of information about every individual which it did not have before?" Lord Thomas: "The noble Lord, Lord Giddens, made huge claims for identity cards. They were apparently the answer to globalised crime, and would prevent terrorism, forgery and fraud. It seemed rather like saying that the possession of a driving licence would prevent road traffic offences... It is said that the Bill will protect my identity. I think that it hands over the control of my identity to a central government database. As my noble friend Lord Holme put it, it puts my identity at the disposal of the state. It is not just the basic information that will be on the database; it will be cross-referenced by numbers to my medical records, tax records, work records and—if I have them—criminal records. The history of this country is a struggle against authoritarian regimes such as those of Napoleon and Hitler, and against collective societies for individual freedom. Knowing the history of the party represented opposite, it strikes me as strange that it should set about creating an instrument that may be manipulated in future for authoritarian reasons. Knowledge is power, and we are putting power in the hands of a government who may in future have the most malign intentions... Surely a balance has to be struck. As a criminal practitioner, I do not see how the identity card will solve crime, dispose of terrorism and all the other things that are claimed for it. That is rubbish." Lord Bhattacharrya: "As a technologist, I have no doubt whatever about the security of the system... We must also remember that we are talking about an IT system and we must have an unprecedented level of security. It can be designed in such a way as to prevent failure and attacks in all forms" -- I would have hoped a technologist would pay more attention to the available evidence, such as the high failure rates found by the government's own studies. He obviously doesn't know much about computer security either if he thinks such high-value systems can be designed in a way to prevent all failures and attacks. However, his one insightful comment is that "I can see that there would be pressure to include on a successful identity system key medical questions, prescriptions, medical reports and, as we move towards genetic fingerprinting, our DNA." Lord Campbell-Savours: "why not let the public decide by giving them the option of offering DNA data for inclusion? Millions would volunteer. Some might say that it would be the wrong millions, but with a foot in the door it would soon become mandatory as part of the long-term exercise that we are engaged in." The Earl of Northesk: "there is a palpable sense in which the Government now perceive their responsibility to be to rule, rather than govern, us. The distinction is not merely semantic. I hold to the conviction that governments—all governments of whatever political hue—should be servants of the people. Yet the Bill will do much to deliver the reverse. It will move us inexorably towards being servants of the state. Bluntly, I am unconvinced, given the marginal nature of the potential benefits on offer, that this is a bargain that we should knowingly or willingly enter into." Lord Mayhew: "the devil does not inhabit merely the detail; he resides in many mansions, and from these he must be evicted by the processes at which this House excels. If he cannot be, the Bill deserves to fail. For example, there is the extraordinary feature that in no fewer than 60 instances the Secretary of State is given power to effect substantial legislative changes. This is virtually a skeletal enabling Bill, and I look forward with interest to see what the Select Committee has to say about it. These instances must be drastically reduced." Baroness Kennedy: "Even if the system of ID cards is really robust, the most that it will do is limit the use of forgeries to those with the funds: terrorists, foreign governments, high-end criminals such as fraudsters, gun-runners and drug importers—precisely the people of whom the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, has spoken. So those people will have no difficulty in forging or in obtaining forged documents. They will be unaffected by the system... What is misunderstood is the fundamental way in which identity cards change the relationship between the citizen and the state catastrophically and permanently. You will have to ask yourselves why most of the rest of Europe has at some time or another succumbed to fascism but we have not. Was that just luck? Was that something to do with the plucky British personality? No, the reason we are as a people the way we are is that we have had institutions and law built on an inherent scepticism of the state. And a good thing, too... My noble friend Lord Giddens said that the assertion of identity was a mechanism of freedom. A requirement to assert your identity is a mechanism of oppression, and that is why so many people in this country, when it is explained to them, will feel affronted by the idea that we are going to be the first common law country to carry identity cards." Baroness Seccombe: "I have seen many things in my time in politics, but I never thought that I would see the day when a Labour Government were made to look illiberal by Lord Goddard. Doubtless, the noble Baroness, when she next dines with her legal chums and remembers happier days when she had justice and liberty blowing wind in her sails rather than battling against her on Bill after Bill, will reflect on that... We need to know far more about the cost of this plan. There is too much creative accounting; too much laying off of expenses that would not otherwise have been incurred as if they had nothing in the world to do with the ID card scheme. Why otherwise are we going far beyond the level of biometrics in passports required by other nations?... The purpose of all this, as so many noble Lords have said, should be the first thing we get to probe in Committee. It will help us all to know that there is more reason for the freest country in the world building the world's most elaborate system of state registration of identity than a personal passion of one politician whose political life is ebbing away." http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ianbrown?id=7

Really Rather Odd

Curious Finns clamor for tax files

HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) -- Care to find out what your neighbor earned last year, or how much your partner really has stashed in the bank? In Finland you can -- and a lot of people did on Wednesday.

Every November when the Nordic nation's tax records of the previous year become public, Finns indulge on a massive scale in satisfying their curiosity about each other's finances.

Newspapers were crammed with lists of the wealthiest and highest-earning men and women in 2004.

Veroporssi, a private firm which offers income details on everyone in Finland via mobile text message, said it was its busiest day of the year and had no time to comment.

Iltalehti tabloid devoted a 24-page supplement to juicy details on which celebrity earned what, while sports stars like Formula 1's Kimi Raikkonen and Liverpool footballer Sami Hyypia, who escape one of the world's highest tax takes by living abroad, were highlighted for being "zero-income millionaires."

"People have always been interested in taxation, because in Finland you don't talk about your income, it's considered very vulgar, and even more impolite is to ask what someone earns," said Reijo Ruokanen, managing editor of Iltalehti.

"This is your chance to see if you're keeping up with the Joneses."

In a country where keeping your head down and not sticking out has traditionally been considered a virtue, the tax and income publication is a chance to brag a bit, Ruokanen said.

"A lot of them don't like it when we publish their names, but for some it's a way to be known as wealthy people without having to say so for themselves."

So who's the richest man of the republic?

Aatos Erkko, the main owner of media house SanomaWSOY, topped the list with a personal fortune of 192 million euros ($230 million), while Olli Riikala, an executive of U.S. General Electric, was the top wage earner, making 5.3 million euros. [...]

Snarfed from CNN.

I wonder from whence such an idea comes....very odd.

Rootkittie kittie

There's been some recent developments in digital rights management systems (DRM) that have security implications. Some DRM systems have started to use rootkit technology. Rootkits are normally associated with malware but in this case a rootkit is used to enforce the copy control policies of audio CDs! Read: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

RUIS

Beloved fellow freak,

Ruis is a small 12page newspaper that focusses on the margin of pop music. The newspaper is available for free in specialised record stores and cultural centres and has a print run of 2000 copies. It's funded and edited by the belgian promotor (K-RAA-K)3.

Once in a while we'll update you with the content and reviews so you'll stay informed.


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CONTENT RUIS 11,  SEPTEMBER 2005
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ARTICLES:
- Esther Venrooy
- Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Mote)
- Ultralyd
- Minimalisme overview

REVIEWS:
- FRANK WRIGHT D The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings 2cd (ESP-Disk)
- JESES WITH ME D Jesus With Me cd  (Psycho-Path)
- CHARLOTTEFIELD D How Long Are You Staying cd  (FatCat)
- SHARKS AND SEALS D It used to be knobs and machines now it's numbers and light cd (Brilliante)
- BRENDON ANDEREGG D Falling Air cd (Psycho-Path)
- THE OSLO DEADTRASH PROJECT  - Headpixel Data cd (Carte Postale)
- THE SPHERICAL MINDS D Fern cd (Carte Postale)
- HAIR POLICE D Drawn Dead cd (Hanson)
- UNSTABLE ENSEMBLE D Embers
- COLD BLEAK HEAT - It's magnificent, but it isn't war
- PHILIP GAYLE D The Mommy Row (Family Vineyard)
- HANGEDUP - Clatter for control cd (constellation)
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS - Bodies and minds (fargo)

download at http://www.kraak.net/ruis/ruis_2005_09.pdf


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CONTENT RUIS 12,  OCTOBER 2005
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ARTICLES:
- Ignatz
- Daud Khan
- Mimeo
- Yannis Kyriakides


REVIEWS:
- Animal Collective D Feels CD (Fat Cat)
- Ed Askew D Ask the Unicorn CD
- Sun Ra D Nothing Is CD (Esp-Disk)
- Vashti Bunyan D Lookaftering CD (Fat Cat)
- The Golden Oaks & Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood cd (Time-Lag Records)
- Holy Kiss D Back To Colma 7Ó (Release The Bats)
- Other Peoples Children - Inevitable Shit cd (Audiobot)
- Paavoharju - YhŠ HŠmŠrŠŠ CD (fonal)
- Psi D Artificially Retarded Soul Care Operators CD (evolving Ear)
- Songs of Green Pheasant CD (Fat Cat)
- Swann Danger 10Ó (Release The Bats)
- Mike Tamburo DBeating of the Rewound CD (Music Fellowship)
- Richard YoungsD The Naive Shaman CD (Jagjaguwar)

download at http://www.kraak.net/ruis/ruis_2005_10.pdf


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CONTENT RUIS 13,  NOVEMBER 2005
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ARTICLES:
- Raster-Noton
- Droon & Sickboy double interview
- Jandek
- Greg Malcolm
- Kemialliset YstŠvŠt
- Black Performance Hart

REVIEWS:
- The Skygreen Leopards D Jehova Surrender CDEP (Jagjaguwar)
- Secret Mommy D Very Rec cd (Ache)
- Books on Tape D Dinosaur Dinosaur cd (Alien8)
- Sunn O))) D Black1 cd (Southern Lord)
- Spasm / Building Transmissions lp (eigen beheer)
- Gary Higgins D Red Hash (Drag City)

download at http://www.kraak.net/ruis/ruis_2005_11.pdf


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CONTENT RUIS 14,  DECEMBER 2005
reservation advertisement deadline : 1 november!
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- Mountains and the Apestaartje label
- Psychic paramounts
- Poesie sonore
- Mouthus
- Invisible pyramid
...
`

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----> DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT RUIS WITH AN ADVERTISEMENT ? <----
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1/1 (200mmx280mm) 250EUR
1/2 (85mmx250mm) 160EUR
1/4 (85mmx122mm) 90EUR
! discount with subscription

(K-RAA-K)3 vzw
c/o RUIS
Scheldestraat 169
9040 Gent
BELGIUM

tel: 09/21 99 143

----> PRINT RUN <----
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----> DISTRIBUTED FOR FREE AT (updated) <----

Aalst: KC Netwerk // Antwerpen: Freaks End Future, Brabo, CC Luchtbal // Brugge: Republiek // Brussel: Le Bonheur, Music Mania, Recyclart, AB, Beurs, Cinema Nova, Bolle Books, Lab[au] // Diksmuide: 4AD // Genk : TOR // Gent: Vynilla, Music Mania, Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Use-it, Logos // Hasselt: Kunstencentrum Belgie, JJ Records // Kortrijk: Limelight // Leuven: JJ Records, Stuk Kunstencentrum vzw, Bibliotheek Tweebronnen // Mechelen: kc nOna // Opwijk : Nijdrop

Not even for money!

Hi-tech Cassandras foresee trouble with ID cards Labour's ID card scheme could be an expensive way of creating new security problems - and that's according to people likely to benefit from it, writes Mark Tran Friday October 21, 2005 Technology companies stand to benefit from the government's plans for a national identity card - but they have turned out to be the unexpected Cassandras of the scheme.

A growing number of hi-tech firms say that far from improving security or cutting down fraud, the cards could actually create security risks. The warning comes as the government's contentious ID cards bill this week cleared the Commons - albeit with the government's majority slashed to its lowest margin since the election.

---

---

"A national ID card for the UK is overly ambitious, extremely expensive and will not be a panacea against terrorism or fraud, although it will make a company like mine very happy," said Roberto Tavano, a biometrics specialist for Unisys, a US technology company that has worked on national identity schemes in South Africa and Malaysia.

Unisys, a company with experience in producing ID cards, is expected to be among the companies bidding for tenders if the government gets its way on ID cards in parliament, yet it is critical of the scheme. And it is not alone.

Earlier this week, Microsoft warned that the ID card posed a huge security risk that could increase the likelihood of confidential personal information falling into the hands of hackers and criminals.

Jerry Fishenden, national technology officer of Microsoft UK, told the website silicon.com: "I have concerns with the current architecture and the way it looks at aggregating so much personal information and biometrics in a single place.

"There are better ways of doing this. Even the biometrics industry says it is better to have biometrics stored locally."

While Microsoft underlined the allure of confidential information to criminals, Unisys has pointed to the technological hurdles. Unisys says a central database would be out of date as soon as it was set up and would be hugely expensive to update. [...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,12498,1597733,00.html

And yet, in spite of all of this, twenty five people was all it took to decide that the entire country should be subjected to this nonsense. Not twenty five nor twenty five thousand should have the right to enslave a single human being simply because they held a ballot.

And where was the Guardian campaign to put this bill down? Where was the petition printed in its pages? Even if such things do nothing, the gesture would have been welcome. Clearly, everyone has the absolute right to refuse to register in this system. It is something so dangerous, so wrong and concieved in a delusional stupor that even the CONTRACTORS WHO STAND TO BENEFIT say that it simply will not work. Honestly, in this world where money is God, even those whose sole motivation is money and the capturing of lucrative contracts are saying its no good...have you ever seen anything like this before?! Now its up to the lords to return sanity and reject this bad business....but...how many of them have the computer literacy to understand why its so bad; the immorality of it should be enough, but then, when has that ever been enough?

The Horror.....The Horror

Some have questioned why we republish explicit images of war Some have questioned why we republish explicit, even gruesome, images of wartime violence. One only need look back to World War II when most images of dead soldiers were censored by the government, and no cameras were allowed on the battlefield. Such whitewashing of the truth is at odds with the First Amendment freedoms that this country enjoys. These soldiers fought to preserve our freedoms, and the truth has a way of coming out. As Time Magazine said when it published the first wartime casualty photos of 3 dead soldiers on a beach in New Guinea being washed up in the tide: "Dead men have indeed died in vain if live men refuse to look at them." We agree. -NowThatsFuckedUp.com

http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/ftopic4178.html&start=0 Now imagine that those dead people were British. And that link, surprisingly, has some really terrible accounts on it. It is the only site with the entire Googled phrase on it.....hmmmmm:

Snake's Oil

During the 1980s two-thirds of Somalia was divided among Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Philips oil. Thanks to pro-US military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Between 1977 and 1989 the US supported Barre at $100 million a year for economic and military aid. Barre was overthrown in January 1991. Daddy Bush, then VP was on hand to officially open the Texas-based Hunt Oil Corporation's refinery in Yemen in April 1986. In his speech, which concluded a 10-day Middle East tour, Bush stressed “the growing strategic importance to the West of developing crude oil sources in the region." (Boy Bush also smiles at Texas Hunt Oil, appointing James Oberwetter as Saudi ambassador.) As usual, when the locals finally tossed out the US dictator, the US entered to bring democracy, freedom, peace, and stability - yawn. Hollywood and the media glamorized the Daddy Bush fiasco with "Blackhawk Down" and portrayed Somalis as murdering Black warlords incapable of running their own country and too stupid to accept US and UN kindness. Another quest for oil sold as a humanitarian relief mission to feed the hungry, who starve thanks to US and its dictators (famines are government related, not due to drought, etc). A bungled Bushcapade becomes an American war story with heroes. Body count 18 us, 1000 them. And Clinton can take the blame since he called off the quest. (Blackhawk Down, from uber producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who seems to produce much of our heartwarming propaganda these days.) UN Peacekeepers in Somalia, roasting a child. As the oil grab under the guise of feeding the poor didn't work we now have the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (think tank) providing cover and warning Somalia is "a logistic centre for al-Qaeda." The consequences are serious, since the terrorists are still at large thanks to the protection given to them by ordinary Somalis, the ICG report concludes. Boy Bush froze assets November 2001 of Al-Barakaat Bank, Mogadishu; through which 80 percent of Somalis receive funds from family members working outside Somalia. Breathtaking isn't it that the US knew in less than 60 days after 9/11 where gobs of terrorists banked but can't trace anthrax letters or those 9/11 put options on stocks? Since "them" ordinary Somalis wouldn't accept US empire with rice packets from Daddy Bush, "them" will have to be killed as terrorists in the "Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Step right up, buy it here. Benevolent oily white folks have to SAVE the world, again and again. [...]

http://kateablog.blogspot.com/ This is one blog we need to read regularly.

The Lion of the Destert!

This shameful farce isn't even victor's justice. It is a Soviet show trial. Because he was removed unjustly, Saddam Hussein is still the rightful ruler of Iraq. We had no right to invade Iraq, no right to continue occupying Iraq and no right to put the leader of a sovereign nation on trial. His alleged crimes are irrelevant. We cannot arbitrarily invade countries and try their leaders. Tom, Cambridge [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4354302.stm The 'Lion of the Destert' refuses to acknowledge the authority of the kangaroo court set up to legitimise his execution:

"Have you ever been a judge before?" Saddam said. [...]

Even 'Tom' from Cambridge can see through this sham trial. Predictably, the commenters from BBC Arabic are all foaming at the mough baying for his blood. Ho hum.

Amid some verbal sparring with the judge, the former Iraqi leader stated: "I preserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq. I do not recognise the body that has authorised you and I don't recognise this aggression. [...]

What he did, whatever that was, is nothing compared to the millions who were systematically slaughtered by Murder Inc and its wholley owned subsidiary. If he should go on trial, then so should those who pulled the trigger on Iraq's millions of dead.

Promession

Freeze-drying touted as new green burial FIONA MACGREGOR DEAD bodies could be freeze-dried, shaken to a fine powder and used as compost under proposals to introduce a new, more eco-friendly method of corpse disposal to the UK.

The process, which is known as promession, has been developed in Sweden and aims to address the shortage of burial spaces and reduce the mercury pollution created by dental fillings during cremation.

The Scottish Executive said last night that promession could be considered in its current review of burial and cremation legislation, after councillors in England revealed they were looking at adopting the procedure.

It involves freezing the coffin and body to -18C before lowering them into liquid nitrogen at -196C, which leaves them extremely brittle.

A vibrating pad is used to reduce the remains to a powder and a magnetic field then removes all traces of mercury and other metal residues from fillings or hip replacements.

The remains are then put into a biodegradable coffin made from vegetable matter and buried in a shallow grave, where they will be absorbed into the earth within six to 12 months.

Loved ones could plant a tree or shrub on top of the grave, to absorb nutrients from the remains, supporters of the promession system suggest.

The cost of the process is expected to be similar to that for a cremation - around one-third of the price of a grave plot and traditional burial. [...]

"Since it would not be covered by cremation law, I don't see why it shouldn't happen, as long as it is not offending against public health or local government regulations. Sooner or later we're going to have to stop burying people because all the space will be taken up. [...]

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=2086492005 Soylent Green!

A thick dumb elephant

Clarke pledges ID card data will be limited
to information on passports

Alan Travis Home affairs editor
Tuesday October 18, 2005
The Guardian

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, will today guarantee that the personal
details contained on the national identity card will not go beyond those
currently held on passports.   He is to announce that he will write the
guarantee into the legislation which passes through its final stages in the
Commons today.

The bill specifies that only name, date and place of birth, gender,
address, nationality and immigration status can be recorded on the ID
database. To guard against "function creep" the home secretary has promised
that fresh primary legislation will have to be introduced if extra personal
details such as health records, criminal records or other background
information were to be added.

The guarantee will even extend to a ban on the inclusion of any numbers
that could lead to sensitive personal details being disclosed.
These include a personal code for the police national computer or an NHS
number which might enable a cross-check to be made with medical records.

Mr Clarke will also promise that everyone will be able to access their
entry on the national ID card database and see which organisations had been
verifying their identity.

At the same time ministers will table new government amendments to ensure
that those who access the national ID cards register will not be able to
tell who has a criminal record logged on the police national computer.

The home secretary is also to announce new powers to punish those who
tamper with the cards during their manufacture...

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1594645,00.html

Now lets look at this carefully:

Mr Clarke will also promise that everyone will be able to access their
entry on the national ID card database and see which organisations had
been verifying their identity.

You stupid elephant eared pig. In order for everyone to be able to see who has been checking their identity, the NIR will have to store more than just your passport details; it will also have to store a record of everyone who has accessed your details. Wether or not this is held on the same database table as your details or a machine called 'NIR' is irrelevant; that informaton has to be stored in order for you to be able to retrieve it, and if YOU can retrieve it, ANYONE ELSE can retrieve it also, and find out who has been checking you out. Does he REALLY think that everyone is so STUPID?!

The guarantee will even extend to a ban on the inclusion of any numbers
that could lead to sensitive personal details being disclosed.

You computer illiterate accessory to murder. This will not stop anyone setting up a third party database where unique hashes of the NIR records have been used to create unique numbers. By default, a central database will assign a unique number to each person that the system owners will have access to. Anyone who thinks this will not happen is simply wrong. Also, does he think that each card will not have a serial number? Does he think that this number will not be available to the scanners that will be reading these cards?

...home secretary has promised that fresh primary legislation will have
to be introduced if extra personal details such as health records,
 criminal records or other background information were to be added.

He has not promised that fresh legislation would NOT be introduced, only that it would NEED to be introduced. He might be caught with his pants down like that bastard blunket, and then we will have a new home secretary who will inevitably pass that legislation, which will read that, "any and all data needed for law enforcement shall be enterable on the NIR". And that will be the end of the matter. It is most important that this skeleton system not be introduced in the first place so that later governments with more spine can hang flesh on the systsem. This is pretty obvious. It means not registering in the system if they pass the legislation, and making sure that everyone you know knows you won't be doing it and why. Pledges from the New Labour Murder Cabal...very funny!

Royal Society Issues IP Charter

Re:Fatalism

(Score:4, Insightful)

by QuantumG (50515) <qg@biodome.org> on Mon October 17, 12:52 AM (#13806345) (http://rtfm.insomnia.org/~qg/tcpsafe/ | Last Journal: Sat August 27, 03:14 PM)

Peaceful protest no longer works. Violent protest no longer works. A military coup won't work. So what's left? Campaign contributions. The only way to influence politics is with money. Therefore the people who influence politics to get money are the ones who will be able to influence politics the most with money. No, the only way to get out of the copyright mess we are in now is to educate the public. At present they still have the right to choose to use works that are freely licensed over works that are not. When the public stops paying the copyright cartel their political influence will fade and then maybe we'll have a brief chance to get rid of these crazy laws. [...] http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/2156221&tid=99&tid=17 Like the fresh smell of manure on a Somerset morning in Autumn.

The Man Machine

'Machines' Mr Cameron, who has previously backed the relaxation of drug laws, was first asked at a fringe meeting at this month's Conservative party conference if he had ever taken drugs himself. The 39-year-old shadow education secretary told the meeting he had had a "typical student experience", adding later in a television interview: "I did lots of things before I came into politics which I shouldn't have done. We all did." But the question has refused to go away after leadership rivals Liam Fox and Ken Clarke both confirmed they had never taken Class A drugs. Tackled about the issue again on Thursday's Question Time, Mr Cameron said: "I'm allowed to have had a private life before politics in which we make mistakes and we do things that we should not and we are all human and we err and stray". He said it would be sad to have politicians who were "just machines". "I didn't spend the early years of my life thinking: 'I better not do anything because one day I might be a politician' because I didn't know I was going to be a politician'. "And I haven't answered the question about drugs because I think that's all in the past and I don't think you have to answer it," he added. [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4340328.stm My emphasis. Hmmm; if he had known that he was going to be a politician, would he have not dropped that tab of acid? So. This man cannot possibly be FOR ID cards and the NIR, because if these things are brought into being, no one will have the sort of privacy that he is steadfastly claiming for himself. He is like those journalists that believe that freedom of speech is only for journalists and not the 'ordinary man'. As far as I am concerned, it would be 'sad' if everyone in britain were 'just machines', to hell with the politicians! Everyone in the UK should not have to think "I had better not do anything wrong, like buying too much wine this weekend, because one day I might want a job and my would-be employer might see a record of booze buying that he might or might not think is over the top, implying alcoholism tendencies"... and yet, this is precisely what will happpen in the future if the ID/NIR system is rolled out. Your every buy of booze, mags, fags, petrol ... every time you are forced to show your ID card for a check will be recorded, and made accessible to anyone with access to a terminal. Clarke has today unveilled his cheaper ID card. That fat asshole can't be trusted obviously. Wether or not this young guy is any good, and really, how could he be? At least the argument against ID/NIR has been given this shaft of light to play with.

Google UFO Launched

Google tracks UFO sightings with new map

By THE NEW MEXICAN October 12, 2005 Using their Google Maps API (or application program interface), Google has launched a map of UFO sightings at http://www.ufomaps.com/. The interactive map is dotted with "flying saucer" icons indicating where UFOs have been sighted. Clicking on the icon pulls up a short summary of the sighting, with an additional link to a more detailed report. Thte data is from the National UFO Reporting Center. The Google initiative is not the only site to use maps to chart UFO activity. http://www.larryhatch.net/ is a detailed effort to graph UFO activity ffrom the past 50 years or ealier, and as a sizable set of graphs, charts, histograms and other data. http://www.ufodisclosure.com tracks alleged UFO flight corridors and patterns near Bisbee, Arizona. While not offering maps, another serious effort of research is at http://www.ufoinfo.com/.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/33610.html

The Axis of Beaurocracy

Classic globalism. Classic liberalism to equate the corrupt European sensibilities with logic and fair-mindedness. Classic liberalism to believe that the Left-leaning media-driven attitude about the War in Iraq has anything to do with objective reality. Classic liberalism to believe that the War in Iraq can be compared to everything in history. Absolute myopia. The Left has no grounding in proportion, objectivity or reality. The global society is not the inventor of the Internet. What utter arrogance for it to believe that it has a right to be proprietor. Classic socialism: create nothing, appropriate and regulate everything. Piss off, Mueller. Piss off Europe. Your bitch asses are in no position to sermonize. We've saved your asses in WW1, WW2 and the Cold War. All this grief from the continent that gave the world Nazism, totalitarism, Fascism. Now we have to take their socialist, globalist shit and believe that they have a track-record to be trusted. Accept our gracious offer of allowing you to plug into our Internet. If you don't like it, create your OWN Internet. BUILD SOMETHING OF YOUR OWN FOR A CHANGE. [...] http://www.icannwatch.org/

I enjoyed that post from the ICANN Watch site, especially the 'create nothing, apropriate and regulate everything' line. The facts are very plain; go make your own internet if you don't like the one that was made for you. The tools are out there and you don't even have to pay for them. This would present a huge business opportunity for telecoms companies; firstly, they would make money building these mini national internets. Then they will make money charging you to connect to the real internet, which will suddenly become a premium service. In the end, the internet will become more expensive to access outsde of the usa, which will be the only netspace of any value. Everyone will be desperate to connect to the real internet, email will be disrupted; in fact, because networks hate regulation, these national internets will stagnate, like Minitel, as the real internet continues to magnetically aggregate the best content and services, until someone wakes up and realizes that 'hey, this is one thing, like the weather, that we cannot control'. What a story! This guy also notes that Vivianne Reding is a total computer illiterate, and makes some fun out of it all:

A number of people, notably Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, have been asking about how to Break The Internet. Since Mme Reding seems to have absolutely no prior experience in the Information Technology, Computing or Telecommunications industries, I have prepared this brief HOWTO. 2. Build the network of Root Servers. This is somewhat more difficult. What you really need to do is get some ISPs and universities to agree to host a root server. Unfortunately, the people who work at these institutions have an overdeveloped sense of their own competence, what with all those years of experience, PhDs in Engineering and Computing, and having helped build the Internet in the first place (perish the thought that technologists have a better understanding of technology than you! After all, you have a doctorate in "Human Sciences"! Science! That's better than technology!). So you have two options to persuade them to cooperate: Bludgeon Them With Bureaucracy, or Bribe Them With Cold, Hard Cash. The choice of which option is left as an exercise for the reader. 5. Get everyone to use the new Root Zone. At first, this seems like the hardest part. But actually, it's not. All you need to do is get all the parliaments in all the countries in the EU to pass laws to force all the ISPs, commercial organizations, academic institutions and private citizens in their countries to use the new DNS root, and make it illegal for them to use any other. After all, if you can legislate for straight bananas, you can do this! For the Chinese and Iranians, it's much easier. If someone complains, they can just execute them. Wouldn't life be easier if you could do that? 6. Sit back and Watch it Burn. Right, now you've broken the Internet, let's pass a law to set the value of Pi to be 3! That'll make things much better!

http://www.circleid.com/article/1241_0_1_0_C/ indeed! Seriously, the second paragraph is most interesting, just who the heck do they think they are going to get to run these mission critical services? Its hard enough trying to get someone to plumb in a bathroom in the EU; no self respecting university dept will have anything to do with this nonsense...the whole thing is a non starter.

Monkeys on keyboards

"The US is absolutely isolated and that is dangerous," she said during a briefing with journalists in London.

"Imagine the Brazilians or the Chinese doing their own internet. That would be the end of the story.

"I am very much afraid of a fragmented internet if there is no agreement." [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4327928.stm

There was a thread on Slashdot a few days ago about this. The fact of the matter is that the Internet is an agreement between private people to route traffic. It is a technical 'problem' not a political one. Any country can set up its own private network, like Saudi Arabia has, and if the 'rest of the world' doesnt like ICANN being in its position, then they can spend the money to make whatever network they like.

This is a perfect example of why no European country ever came up with anything like the internet (the country closest to making some kind of useful network being France with its hopelessly limited Minitel). The person they put in charge of this matter is a total computer illiterate with no background whatsoever in the subject.

Lets look at the CV of Viviane Reding, 'European Commissioner responsible for the net':

Personal details

Born on 27 April 1951 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, Married, three children

Education: Doctor of human sciences, Sorbonne, Paris

Professional career

1978-1999

Journalist, Luxemburger Wort

1986-1998

President, Luxembourg Union of Journalists

Political career

1979-1989

Member of Luxembourg Parliament

• President of social committee
• Member of the Office of the Chamber of Deputies
• Member of Benelux Parliament
• Member of the North Atlantic Assembly (leader of Christian Democrat/Conservative group)

1981-1999

Communal councillor, city of Esch

• President of Cultural Affairs Committee 1992-1999

1988-1993

National president of Christian-Social Women

1995-1999

Vice-president, PCS (Parti Chrétien-Social)

1989-1999

Member of the European Parliament

• President of the Petitions Committee 1989-1992
• Vice-president of Social Committee 1992-1994
• Vice-president of Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee 1997-1999
• Head of Luxembourg delegation to EPP
• Member of EPP group office

1999-2004

Member of the European Commission (Education, Culture, Youth, Media, Sport)

2004-

Member of the European Commission (Information Society and Media)

There is not a single line in there related to computers, except the last one, where she has just been given the job for heaven knows what reason. It would have been far more sensible to appoint Tim Berners-Lee with this poistion, he is a European, and he has the understanding to do the job correctly. He would never waste time on this DNS nonsense and instead, would focus on the real issues of importance, like how France and Germany block content or the insane copyright and patent laws that attack the network's usefulness etc etc.

America has done some bad stuff, but putting control of the root servers in the hands of computer illiterates for no good reason is just insane.

Alfred Hermida 'Technology editor, BBC News website' is just another journalist like this commissioner, who has presented an article without any FACTS. There are no facts about how the internet runs at the top level, there is only this single very vague line:

..."It manages how net browsers and e-mail programs direct traffic."

Yeah great. The relevant facts of this matter are technical not political, and its is easy to find out precisely what they are and to explain it. Its also easy to find out what would happen if the EU started its own DNS system and legally mandated all EU ISPs to use it.

Honestly, there is nothing more revolting than an ignorant apointee blowing off jealous steam and causing fear uncertainty and doubt....except an irresponsible and biased journalist who puts heat under the fat underbelly to stoke the boiler.

Look at all of his articles. They are all of the same type, hysteria focussed, issue pumping garbage. Really, there must be SOMONE at the BBQ who has got a clue.

We of course already know that there is no one at The Guardian that has a clue:

It would be wrong to exaggerate the influence of Icann since the internet is by its nature a highly fragmented system that is very difficult to control. But Icann, though nominally independent, is subject to a veto by the US department of commerce which set it up. The Bush administration has made it crudely clear that it will not give up its veto and especially not to a body answering to the UN. It is time the US had a more mature approach. Whatever its origins, the internet is a global phenomenon and that must be reflected in its governance. The US has done immensely well out of its invention since it produces most of the hardware and software that powers the internet. This has been a big factor in the prolonged revival of the US economy during the past decade. Whatever legitimate worries there may be about threats to security under broadened control they must not be used as an excuse to prevent the emergence of a new model of internet governance to reflect its global structure. This need not spell the end of Icann, which has done a good job. It would certainly mean broadening the base of its stakeholders. There is a need for a separate body to deal with global issues such as spamming, child pornography, intellectual property and abuses of democratic rights. The UN would be good for this role, though its bureaucratic structure is not best fitted to run a fast-moving phenomenon such as the internet, nor to deal with political problems including China, which recently forced Yahoo to hand over data that led to the imprisonment of a journalist. China has also been trying to change domain name suffixes to make them inoperable in China. Any new body should have a membership and constitution that reflects the extraordinarily democratic character of the internet, and which also protects it against interference from governments. [...]

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,16541,1589374,00.html The internet is not "a global phenomenon and that must be reflected in its governance". It is a private set of networks that agree to co-operate for the benefit of its users. Its workings have nothing to do with government. "it produces most of the hardware and software that powers the internet". This is simply wrong. The origin of the software that runs the internet is irrelevant, since it is free software that anyone can download alter and use at no cost. Also, people from all over the world have contributed to the creation of this software.... whoever wrote this leader is completely and utterly clueless. Anyone can download a copy of Linux (made [initailly] by a Finnish man) run BIND and DNS and whatever they need, they can set up government manufacturing divisions to make their own routers if they dont trust commercial ones, and then SET UP THEIR OWN INTERNET. They can then mandate that the only language to be used on it is Luxembourgish, and that you have to be taxed, show ID, be fingerprinted, consent to all your activities being recorded just to access it.

Music from the future

Jeff Mills - WIRE2003 UR Timeline [Live] http://www.basicmath.jp/

PhotoShop or Planet of the Bears?

The Egg of Umber

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed.

Taubenberger's team sequenced genome information recovered from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost in 1918. Then, they shared the data with researchers at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Using a technique called reverse genetics, the Mount Sinai researchers used the genetic coding to create microscopic, virus-like strings of genes, called plasmids.

The plasmids then were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where they were inserted into human kidney cells for the final step in the virus reconstruction.

"We carefully considered the implications of publishing this research and concluded that the knowledge we're gaining to potentially protect public health far outweighs the risk of working with the virus," Kennedy said. The Spanish flu of 1918 was a terrible pandemic. In a few months, it killed more people than any other illness in recorded world history -- an estimated 20 million to 50 million worldwide, including roughly 550,000 in the United States. [...] Tumpey also confirmed the 1918 virus's avian-like characteristics by injecting it in fertilized bird eggs. It killed the eggs, just like the Asian bird flu does. Other modern-day flu strains that are human-based don't kill fertilized bird eggs, he noted. [...] CNN The first lie is that they "made it from scratch". They baked this bad pie in a kidney with material they took from a corpse. The second lie is that they gave careful consideration to the risks. They never do this. The 'risk' is that it escapes and kills tens of millions of people. Anyone carefully considering this would never have undertaken this work, which has no guarantee of being useful for anything. Of course, they might get a prize for doing it. But thats 'never the motivation'. If this old flu escapes and I die, who do my relatives sue for compensation? These people have a subconcious malthusian urge to wipe out millions, or at the very least, love the power of handling something that can kill more people than any bomb, that they made 'from scratch'. I love the line about injecting it into an egg, and then asserting that it is 'avian like' because it killed the egg. If I inject vinegar into an egg, it will die. Does that make vinegar 'avian like'? That line just has to be a journalist misrepresentation. Look at the cool tools they use to do this work. They run UNIX. They make pretty pictures. I like pretty pictures. I like UNIX. Do you? Someone clever said: > They eliminated smallpox [who.int] from almost all laboratories a few years ago to make sure it could never be used again.

"Almost" doesn't cut it. And if you think the former Soviet Union (and former United States) really eliminated their last reserves of the virus, you're seriously deluded.

> Now they are reviving an old virus that was completely eradicated. This does not make sense, other than for the nobel-prize signs in the scientists eyes (which they should not get).

The 1918 pandemic strain killed off the most vulnerable portion of the population three or four generations ago. Subsequently, mutations to that strain that were less virulent than the original appeared. These less-virulent strains didn't kill their hosts as quickly (and often, didn't kill the host at all!), and turned out to be better-adapted to their environment than the original. These less-virulent strains worked their way throughout the rest of the population. The world ended up with a not-so-bad version of the flu, and a relatively high resistance in the surviving population. All in all, a lousy environment for the original or the less-virulent strains to propagate.

Don't worry about the 1918 flu getting out. First, it almost certainly won't. Second, if it does, it won't be nearly as bad as it was in 1918, largely due to the fact that anyone who was highly vulnerable to it had been ejected from the gene pool by 1920.

> I could name hundreds of things that could go wrong, and will not even start wildly speculating what would happen if 5HN1 somehow mutates with this virus.

Don't worry about an H5N1 recombination (or reassortment) with the 1918 flu. You'd need someone to be simultaneously infected with both viruses. The probability of that is vanishingly small. (As is the probability of the 1918 flu escaping and setting up a reservoir population in birds or pigs.)

Worry about a human-to-human transmissible evolution of H5N1. If the strain currently fiddling around Jakarta [recombinomics.com] is reproducing by means of human to human transmission, and if that strain is doing so via casual contact (to date, it appears that most cases from this cluster involve zoo visitors, their immediate families, and health care workers -- so we don't yet have confirmation of h2h transmission, let alone via casual contact), then worry.

If a human-to-human transmissible of H5N1 shows up, and if it's as lethal to humans as the version currently floating around Asia, you're looking at somewhere between 100M and 300M dead before a weaker variant evolves.

Its right in your face!

Bush Cites Military Takeover In Case Of Flu Outbreak

Paul Joseph Watson | October 4 2005

During this afternoon's White House press conference President Bush confirmed that he would attempt to impose military curfews and quarantines in case of a flu pandemic occurring in the United States.

The comes on the heels of a majority of the nation's governors rejecting the Bush administration's proposal to use active-duty military assets in providing disaster relief. Understanding this in the context of Hurricane Katrina, this means total gun confiscation and enforced evacuation at gunpoint.

Bush stated, "If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country, and how do you then enforce a quarantine? When -- it's one thing to shut down airplanes; it's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move."

CLICK HERE FOR THE AUDIO CLIP

This is the same justification that Bush used throughout the Hurricane Katrina debacle. The crisis was made worse by intentional federal sabotage of the relief efforts that were being conducted by the local government in New Orleans. FEMA were cutting communication lines and denying food, water and oil shipments to the critically affected areas. This led local Sheriffs to set up armed patrols to keep FEMA out of their county zones.

The elimination of Posse Comitatus via natural disasters which are then intentionally sabotaged by government, is one of the Bush administration's major goals. Bush has openly announced his plan to have the Pentagon usurp power over State's rights.

Posse Comitatus allows for the use of the military for relief efforts only, not for law enforcement. This is why Bush is trying to eliminate the 1878 law, because his ideal of military involvement in crises is one of quarantines, checkpoints, mandatory vaccinations, curfews and evacuations, and not of providing relief or infrastructure protection.

We have been warning for years that natural disasters would be used as a means of placing active duty military on the streets of America. People are not buying into the scam that we need a police state to fight Al-CIAda terrorists so this is the next step. Today it's hurricanes, in five to ten years it will be the threat of asteroids and meteors.

The message is the same, you have no right to protect yourself and we will confiscate your firearms if you even try. The truth is that throughout history government has never been able to adequately protect the people and to forcefully take that mantle only makes matters worse.

Is the threat of a bird flu pandemic a red flag or is it simply a means of creating a false scarcity so that everyone runs out and buys the antidote fearing an imminent outbreak?

We should be wise to remember that the revelation that the Bush cabinet was on Cipro, the anthrax fighting antibiotic, only emerged in the media after the anthrax attack was in process, not before.

Therefore it seems more likely that this is a ruse to line the pockets of the government affiliated pharmaceutical companies.

One thing is clear, if this outbreak did occur then the justification to suspend Constitutional rights will be flaunted to its maximum exposure. Back in April President Bush added pandemic influenza to the list of diseases for which quarantine is authorized.

China's zealous martial law tactics in dealing with SARS, home detention, curfews, mandatory vaccinations, restriction of travel, are the model for what could unfold in the US.

The federal blueprint for the exact same scenario was released and picked up by the Associated Press a year ago.

This will make ID cards and airport security checks look like a tea party.

And when this flu pandemic happens who will we blame? Surely not US scientists playing around with the deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus at "less than the maximum level of containment" according to the New Scientist magazine.

Bush's comments are clearly intended to acclimatize people to accept martial law in times of crisis caused by natural disasters or health pandemics.

With two more major hurricanes predicted to hit in October we should all remain vigilant and speak out against the government hijacking crises in order to implement their jack-booted police state agenda. [...]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/041005militarytakeover.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/04/bush.avianflu/index.html I saw this first on CNN, and then, as expected, it is better outlined in the first URL. Listen to the recording of W, the stumbling, mumbling, incoherent buffoon, advocating the complete dismantling of the USA. Never mind that the Katrina fiasco was just that - a fiasco - now he wants to duplicate it nation-wide. What should be done in the middle of an outbreak? Would stay at home advisories be enough, with information about affected areas disseminated to prevent the spread? Enforced quarantine, enforced vaccination...no one in their right mind likes the sound of that. And I wonder what the UK is cooking up as a response to this potential outbreak?!