Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley (1986, Chess)
52 minutes ago
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals bassist Chris Feinstein R.I.P.
Feinstein played on recent Ryan Adams & the Cardinals albums Easy Tiger, Follow the Lights, and Cardinology. He also contributed to Santigold's debut album, the I Am Sam soundtrack, and Albert Hammond Jr.'s Yours to Keep.
@'Pitchfork'
Will Iran ignite?
Tehran’s missile test triggers calls for sanctions—just the latest flash point in what promises to be a tense month ahead. Gary Sick on what to watch for as Iran’s dissidents turn up the heat.
The next month in Iran is likely to be extremely hot.
The Shiite mourning month of Muharram begins on December 18. It involves massive street marches of citizens mourning the death of Imam Hossein, the quintessential martyr in the Shiite faith. He was killed on the tenth of Muharram (Ashura) in the year 680 on the plain of Karbala, in what is now Iraq. He and a small band of devoted followers were killed, according to Shiite tradition, while opposing the oppression and the wrongful rule of the Caliph Yazid.
This event is rich in symbolism and is extremely emotional. The life and martyrdom of Hossein is relived in sermons and passion plays that touch all Iranians from their earliest days. It is well known for the sometimes grisly marches of thousands of young men, some dressed in shrouds, who march through the streets rhythmically beating themselves with chains or other instruments, not unlike the “mortification of the flesh” sometimes practiced by Christian believers, with the same intent of purification and as a demonstration of utter devotion.
Brazil boy found with 40 needles in 'black magic rite'
A Brazilian toddler has been found with up to 40 needles inside him, which police say his stepfather deliberately inserted in a "black magic" ritual.
Police said Roberto Carlos Magalhaes has confessed to sticking the sewing needles into the two-year-old boy, who is in intensive care at a hospital.
Mr Magalhaes said his mistress told him to ritually kill the child to take revenge on his wife.
Doctors will try to remove the needles, some 2in (5cm) long, from the boy.
The toddler was taken to hospital in the north-eastern Bahia state by his mother, complaining of stomach pains and vomiting.
X-rays showed scores of sewing needles inside his neck, torso and legs. At least one had punctured a lung.
'Revenge attack'
Police said Mr Magalhaes broke down and confessed after being arrested.
"He did that for revenge, to get back at his wife," the police chief the town of Ibotirama, Helder Fernandes Santana, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
"His mistress told him to kill the child through a macabre ritual," Mr Santana said.
The mother told police she suspected that the boy had been the victim of a black magic ritual after she found suspicious objects in the home she shared with Mr Magalhaes - her husband of six months - and her six children.
Doctors said most of the needles will be removed, but not the ones inside organs as their removal could cause more damage.
They said there were no signs of wounds on the boy.
Reports say the boy is in serious condition, but that he has shown some improvement since being admitted to hospital on Sunday.
Doctors initially said up to 50 needles had been inserted into the child, but later revised that figure to up to 40.
Iran's jails: An inside view
A female prison guard stands in a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison on June 13, 2006. Evin is Iran's most notorious prison but some detained in 2009 report that treatment is worse in smaller makeshift jails. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)
Iran’s jails have a notorious reputation for brutal conditions and harsh interrogation methods that include torture.
Now Iranian and international human rights organizations warn that a string of hidden detention sites have been established throughout Tehran and its suburbs by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The disturbing reports come from many of the thousands of Iran’s opposition supporters who have been arrested in the anti-government demonstrations since the disputed June 12 elections. Several of those released describe being kept in unimaginable conditions inside industrial containers, storerooms and a former Revolutionary Guard arms factory hastily converted into a prison.
“They herded us blindfolded into what I thought was a stadium where they beat us solidly for three days and threatened to execute us,” said one recently released prisoner who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “They said to us that since we haven’t been registered, officially we don’t exist.”
In July, the death of Mohsen Rooholamini, 25, the son of a prominent conservative, spurred Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order the closure of Kahrizak detention center and the release of 140 political prisoners from Evin Prison.
“The main reason behind Khamenei’s order to close Kahrizak was to prevent Majlis (Iran’s parliament) from doing an investigation on it like it is planning on investigating some detention centers,” said Mehdi Khalaji, a specialist on Iranian politics at the Washington Institute...
Greens, EFA critical of ISP filtering plans
The chorus of voices critiquing the Federal Government’s mandatory ISP-level filtering plans has grown larger with the Greens and Electronic Frontiers Australia joining the likes of the Federal Opposition and Google in opposing the filter.
Greens communications spokesperson, senator Scott Ludlam said in a statement that the party was “deeply concerned” about the Federal Government's intention to plough ahead on ISP level filtering
“The pointless nature of this proposal is set out in the report itself, which admits that the filters will be circumvented by people seeking blocked material," Ludlam said.
"The Government has also indicated the open-ended nature of the filter by acknowledging they will be importing blacklists from overseas to supplement the Australian list. As many people have said, this is the thin end of the wedge. The policy is simply misguided.”
Ludlum said unless the Government changed tack on its plans, the Greens would move significant amendments to this legislation if it is introduced to the Senate.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) spokesperson Colin Jacobs claimed in a statement that the criteria for success of the Federal Government’s trial of the mandatory ISP-level filter was set far too low. “Given the pilot’s modest goals, it was designed from the beginning to pass,” Jacobs said. “Although it may address some technical issues, what it leaves out is far more important – exactly what will be blocked, who will decide, and why is it being attempted in the first place?”
The EFA noted that, since the last election, the Federal Government’s cyber-safety plan had shifted away from providing tools to shield minors on the web to a black list of almost exclusively Refused Classification content aimed at adults.
“The Government knows this plan will not help Australian kids, nor will it aid in the policing of prohibited material. Given the problems in maintaining a secret blacklist and deciding what goes on it, we’re at a loss to explain the Minister’s enthusiasm for this proposal,” Jacobs said.
“We’ll be interested to see how the Internet service providers respond. We know they are critical of having such intrusive Government interference in their networks,” he added.
The EFA said that although communication minister Stephen Conroy had hailed the pilot a success, many concerns about the proposal remained ignored, with neither draft legislation nor a comprehensive policy document have yet been released to the Australian public, though legislation is expected in 2010.
“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy,” Jacobs said. “We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”
Google has also expressed its concern over the Federal Government’s plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, arguing that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Computer says no: Google slams filter
Internet search giant Google has come out in opposition to the Federal Government's push to introduce mandatory ISP filtering.
In a post on Google Australia's official blog, the company said the plan raised concerns about censorship.
"At Google we are concerned by the Government's plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, the first of its kind amongst Western democracies," the post said.
"Our primary concern is that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide."
While Google accepted there must be some limits on internet content, it condemned the Government's filtering approach as heavy-handed.
"We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression," the post said.
"While we recognise that protecting the free exchange of ideas and information cannot be without some limits, we believe that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.
"Some limits, like child pornography, are obvious. No Australian wants that to be available - and we agree. Google, like many other internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results.
"But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy-handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information."
Citing a recent report into filtering, Google said the use of refused classification (RC) as a screening tool would go far beyond restricting illegal content.
"The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green and John Hartley - Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering - has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime," the post said.
'Grey realms'
"Refused classification is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material - for example, educational content on safer drug use - as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia.
"This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues."
But the Federal Government maintains the new filter rules are not intended to curtail freedom of speech.
Google said the Government should instead focus on education and providing effective filtering tools for individuals.
"While the discussion on ISP filtering continues, we should all retain focus on making the Internet safer for people of all ages," the post said.
"Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, user empowerment through technology tools, and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. The Government has committed important cyber safety education and engagement programs and yesterday announced additional measures that we welcome."
Google also defended weighing into the controversy, saying discussion on contentious issues was needed for effective democracy.
"Exposing politically controversial topics for public debate is vital for democracy," it said.
"Homosexuality was a crime in Australia until 1976 in ACT, NSW in 1984 and 1997 in Tasmania. Political and social norms change over time and benefit from intense public scrutiny and debate.
"The openness of the internet makes this all the more possible and should be protected.
"The Government has requested comments from interested parties on its proposals for filtering and we encourage everyone to make their views known in this important debate."
@'ABC'
@'ABC'
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.
"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.
"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.
The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.
Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.
British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."
Christopher Hitchins: In defence of foxhole atheists
It’s no secret that conservative Christians dominate the U.S. military, but when higher-ups start talking about conversion missions, it’s time to worry. The author meets a group of soldiers who aren’t having it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
