Read more“We are used to imagining our cities as permanent and definitive, but it’s amazing how little time it takes for nature to reclaim its spaces.”
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Read moreA computer hacker who calls himself “The Jester” claimed responsibility for the cyber attack which took down the WikiLeaks site Sunday, shortly before it started posting hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables.
The Jester, who describes himself as a “hacktivist for good,” said he took the controversial site down “for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, ‘other assets’ & foreign relations.”
He normally attacks Islamist websites, announcing “TANGO DOWN” on his Twitter account when claiming to have attacked a site. “Tango Down” is Special Forces jargon for having eliminated a terrorist.
Over the past few days, the Jester has targeted a handful of websites for reasons including “online incitement to cause young Muslims to carry out acts of violent jihad,” “distributing jihadist instructional materials,” and “for the online radicalization of young Muslims in US and Europe.”
The Jester describes himself as “an ex-soldier with a rather famous unit, country purposely not specified.”
“I was involved with supporting Special Forces, I have served in (and around) Afghanistan amongst other places,” he told the website threatchaos.com early this year.
WikiLeaks said in September that it had prepared an unspecified “insurance policy” against its site being taken down.
“This annoyed me… so I got busy,” the Jester wrote on his blog in September.
Read moreI got a lot of funny looks four years ago when I started talking to people about Wikileaks.
Let’s just say some people were skeptical of the notion that volunteers from all across the world could come together to dump just insane amounts of confidential or even classified information onto an unsuspecting public.
No ads. So much agenda. No strings attached except the part where I’m on the run for the rest of my life.
Now here we are, millions upon millions of documents released into the Internet-connected world.
It is the 5th most terrifying website in the world – but Wikileaks isn’t anything like a commercial website. It is a community creation, written by unsuspecting volunteers failing to secure one confidential document at a time. If you’re in government or business there’s a good chance that you will soon become part of our community one way or another. And I’m writing today to ask you to protect and sustain Wikileaks.
Together, we can keep it free of charge and full of secrets. We can keep it open – you can use the information in Wikileaks any way you want. We can keep it growing – hustling knowledge everywhere, and imposing transparency on everyone.
Each year at this time, we reach out to ask you and others all across the diplomatic, business, intelligence and military community to help sustain our joint enterprise with a modest donation of 20, 35, 50,000 or more documents.
If you value Wikileaks as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now.
All the best,
Julian Assange
Founder, Wikileaks
P.S. Wikileaks is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like you write Wikileaks, one word at a time. People like us populate it, thousands of documents at a time. It’s proof of our collective potential to change the world.
Read moreThe calls for an all-out campaign against WikiLeaks are growing more shrill. Tony Shaffer of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News that he would like to see military action against Assange: “I would look at this very much as a military issue. With potentially military action against him and his organization.” (While the Obama administration no longer uses the term “enemy combatant,” it claims (PDF) the authority to “detain” someone who has provided “substantial support” to enemies of the United States.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today said: “WikiLeaks and people that disseminate information to people like this are criminals, first and foremost. And I think that needs to be clear.” That’s an indication the investigation has gone beyond WikiLeaks’ source to the group itself. He added, when asked against legal action against WikiLeaks and Assange: “We are looking at a whole host of things, and I wouldn’t rule anything out.” And syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer reportedly said on Fox News (I haven’t seen this segment myself yet) that journalists should be investigated: “To say that if you are unlike CNN and Wall Street Journal, who apparently turned down collaboration with WikiLeaks, and you collaborate, we are going to look into possible prosecution.”
A war is brewing. If you think body scanners, sexual assault patdowns, censorship laws, and the seizure of property without even a notice are the end, you’re sadly mistaken.
It’s only the beginning.
Thom Holwerda, OS News (via seanbonner)
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Read moreZimov is trying to recreate an ecosystem that disappeared 10,000 years ago with the end of the ice age, which closed the 1.8 million-year Pleistocene era and ushered in the global climate roughly as we know it.
He believes herds of grazers will turn the tundra, which today supports only spindly larch trees and shrubs, into luxurious grasslands. Tall grasses with complex root systems will stabilize the frozen soil, which is now thawing at an ever-increasing rate, he says.
Herbivores keep wild grass short and healthy, sending up fresh shoots through the summer and autumn. Their manure gives crucial nourishment. In winter, the animals trample and flatten the snow that otherwise would insulate the ground from the cold air. That helps prevent the frozen ground, or permafrost, from thawing and releasing powerful greenhouse gases. Grass also reflects more sunlight than forests, a further damper to global warming.
It would take millions of animals to change the landscape of Siberia and effectively seal the permafrost. But left alone, Zimov argues, the likes of caribou, buffalo and musk oxen multiply quickly. Wherever they graze “new pastures will appear … beautiful grassland.”
Read moreMonique Wadsted, an attorney representing American record companies, was pleased with the ruling.
“It’s a relief that the court of appeal finally affirmed that if you carry out this type of activity, you’ll go to prison,” she told TT.
“In two years, this type of piracy will be over. After a ruling like this and all the pioneers start to get older and have children and families, piracy won’t occur to this extent.”
While Christian Engström, a member of the European Parliament representing the Pirate Party, called the ruling “depressing,” he disputed whether the ruling would affect file sharing.
“The judgement has no meaning for file sharing. It has continued to increase from year to year and the technical capabilities continue to develop,” he told TT.
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 