Here’s two pieces in two formats from two of the smartest people I know of. The subject: The Future. How it’s been shaped and will be continue to be shaped.
First we have Cory Doctorow, writing…
oh hai, you’re probably here about the Future
Read more "oh hai, you’re probably here about the Future"Read moreit’s wrong in a way that futurists are often wrong: it assumes a clean break with history and the positive extinction of the past. It predicts an information landscape that is reminiscent of the Radiant Garden Cities that Jane Jacobs railed against: a “modern” city that could only be built by bulldozing the entire city that stood before it and building something new on the clean field that remained. Every futuristic vision that starts with a clean slate has a genocide or an apocalypse lurking in it. Real new cities are build through, within, around, and alongside of the old cities. They evolve.
Read morePayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity. We’ve notified the account holder of this action.
Read moreSearch engine outfit Google has decided to start censoring searches so that they do not offend the music and film industry.
The outfit is going to stop allowing its search engine to find torrent sites and places that might be distributing pirated content.
Google has announced an updated copyright plan and promised to respond to takedown requests in a more timely manner and focus more intensely on expelling infringing content from its products.
fuckyeahmilspec: Image by Steven Klein.
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..two centuries worth of observation indicate a disproportionate amount of comets originate from the outer regions of the Oort Cloud as opposed to the areas closer to the Sun. A planet anywhere from one to four times the mass of Jupiter could be responsible for the gravitational influence that would create this imbalance. Matese points out that the probability that this effect is purely a statistical fluke is extremely small, which suggests there’s something strange going on out there in the outer Oort. Tyche might also be responsible for the unusually elongated orbit of the dwarf planet Sedna.
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If the planet exists, it would be located some 30,000 astronomical units away, meaning its distance from the Sun is 30,000 times that of Earth. It be extremely cold, with a temperature of about -73 degrees Celsius. At such a freezing temperature, Tyche would radiate no heat for us to detect, and its extreme distance would make it incredibly hard to spot. By comparison, Neptune is only 30 astronomical units away, and the Kuiper Belt is just 55 AU from the Sun. (via Gigantic hidden planet could be hurling comets at the rest of the solar system)
Read moreRead moreAmazon Web Services (AWS) rents computer infrastructure on a self-service basis. AWS does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. WikiLeaks was not following them. There were several parts they were violating. For example, our terms of service state that “you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content… that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity.” It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren’t putting innocent people in jeopardy. Human rights organizations have in fact written to WikiLeaks asking them to exercise caution and not release the names or identities of human rights defenders who might be persecuted by their governments
As a consequence, popular German blog VZlog.de has said it will go offline on New Year’s Eve. VZlog.de states it doesn’t have the resources to check all of its content and comments, nor does it have the technical resources to slap an 18 certificate on it, make certain its readers are 18 and above using Postident, or simply put the site online at midnight and take it offline again in the early hours.
The blog, which covers popular German social notworking sites meinvz, studivz and schülervz and hailed by media pedagogues and officials, is mainly read by youngsters. Seventy percent of its readers are are under 18, its authors are ages 14 to 19, it is ad financed and will now be going offline.
It seems politicians don’t believe kids and teenagers in Germany have the level of competency to use the internet properly and so must be protected from it, despite clearly demonstrating the contrary.
It seems the only people set to profit are lawyers, who are going to have a field day next year. Lawyers are expected to start sending out cease and desist letters to websites, telling them they’re breaking the law and have to pay a couple of thousand euros.
(via Web age certificates law forces German blogs offline – The world’s dumbest internet law? | TechEye)
Read moreRead moreIt’s been left to astute bloggers to articulate the importance of establishment embarrassment at a time when US foreign policy under Obama has mostly continued the pattern set by the Bush administration.
One example is the litany of documents that prove Israel and the US looking to spy on Palestinian officials and gather information such as frequent flyer and credit card numbers. Many in the Israeli press are pleased that the documents prove that US-backed autocrats support the hardline Israeli stance on attacking Iran. Why a supposedly democratic nation like Israel would want to be in bed with one of the most brutal regimes in the world, Saudi Arabia, has gone largely unremarked.
But little of this has surfaced in the corporate press as they’ve been too busy repeating the talking points of outraged officials in Canberra, London and Washington. The reaction of Arab bloggers has also been mostly ignored.
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But where is the bravery in the media assessing the fallout of the leaks? Slate’s Jack Shafer calls for the resignation of Hillary Clinton because of the hard evidence that she demanded her foreign-service officials to spy on friend and foe. Here was – in black and white – documentation that shows Washington engaged in a global network of espionage. When Tehran or Beijing acts similarly, it’s called terrorism.
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It’s as if the corporate press can’t quite bring itself to acknowledge the lies told by the US government, fearful of losing access in the process. Instead, many in the Australian press are giving valuable space to the US ambassador in Canberra who unsurprisingly condemns the leaks.
Moreover, one of the key take-away points from the revelations is the US contempt for democracy around the world. Public opinion can be essentially ignored for the perceived greater good; backing Zionist and Arab dictatorships in the name of oil security. We should care that US officials pressured nations not to investigate alleged human rights committed by the US post 9/11.
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The job of real journalists is not to insulate officials or governments from embarrassment but to investigate legitimate stories relevant to the public interest. Note how many reporters are primarily worried about Washington’s loss of information, not the details contained within the files.
Damaging the “national interest” is a principle that should be questioned when policies of the state are deliberately designed to ensure secrecy over state-sponsored terrorism. Transparency and accountability are what WikiLeaks offers. Those who oppose it must be vigorously challenged.
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 