Read moreI think people need to seriously consider quitting [these] services and moving to ones which are located within Europe. But also the government needs to insist that legal rights and privacy rights should be applied to non-US citizens. After all, European governments respect the rights of US citizens. Why shouldn’t they do the same?
islands in the net
Read moreOn May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent”, and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.
In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. “I’ve left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay,” he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.
He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.
Next day David got out his tool chest. He made a little
unconscious ritual of it, like a duke inspecting his emeralds.
The toolbox weighed fifteen pounds, was the size of a large
breadbox, and had been lovingly assembled by Rizome craftsmen in Kyoto. Looking inside; with the gleam of chromed
ceramic and neat foam sockets for everything, you could get a
kind of mental picture of the guys who had made it-white robed
Zen priests of the overhead lathe, guys who lived on
brown rice and machine oil…Pry bar, tin snips, cute little propane torch; plumbing snake,
pipe wrench, telescoping auger; ohm meter, wire stripper,
needlenose pliers … Ribbed ebony handles that popped off
and reattached-to push drills and screwdriver bits . . David’s
tool set was by far the most expensive possession they owned.
Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling
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The Committee to Nuke Elysium 