Australian internet users support education over mandatory Internet filtering

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today welcomed the results of a recent survey that found Australian Internet users do not support the idea of mandatory Internet filtering.

The preliminary results of the Australian Broadband Survey 2009, conducted by Whirlpool (whirlpool.net.au), found that 91.8% respondents did not support the idea of mandatory Internet filtering.

The survey also found 83.4% of respondents said that the introduction of mandatory Internet filtering might affect their vote at the next Federal election.

“The results highlight widespread community disagreement with the Government’s plan,” said Peter Black, EFA’s campaign manager. “These results also show that Australians believe the Government would be better off focusing on increased education and law enforcement, instead of an impractical and costly policy of Government censorship.”

When asked what the Government should focus on in terms of internet safety, 81.8% supported educating parents, 63.9% said educating children, 43.7% said law enforcement, 42.1% said subsidising desktop filter software, and 33.5% said subsidising ISP-level opt-in filters, with only 3.2% supporting mandatory Internet filtering.

These preliminary results from the Australian Broadband Survey 2009 only include respondents aged 18 years of age or older. The survey was successfully completed and verified 21,775 times by respondents aged 18 years of age or older. The full results of the Survey are expected to be published soon.

“These results confirm that people who understand the issue overwhelming oppose the Government’s policy,” Black said. “The big challenge now is to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Australians, who perhaps aren’t particularly computer or Internet savvy.”

That is why last week EFA launched the Open Internet campaign, centred around a new website, OpenInternet.com.au, blog and Facebook fan page, to, to, that together will act as campaign hub for all the different individuals and organisations that are campaigning against the Governmentb s mandatory Internet filtering policy.

The Open Internet campaign marks an escalation of opposition to the Government’s policy, which will continue throughout the year. “Our goal is to ensure the Australian public know what they’re in for,” said Black. “It’s important that such a major and expensive policy gets the public scrutiny it deserves. And we believe that Open Internet portrays a positive and understandable message that will resonate with Australians who are yet to form a strong opinion on the Government’s policy.”

@'EFA'

John Lydon interview 1987

American Takfiris

[A. Serwer]The theological justification for al Qaeda's wholesale slaughter of civilians was provided by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl, one of the founding fathers of al Qaeda. Because the murder of innocents is forbidden in Islam and the murder of Muslims in particular, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden required some sort of theological framework for justifying terrorism. This was provided by al-Sharif, who essentially argued in his book, "The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge," that apostates could be murdered, and that approach, takfir (which has come to be known as takfirism) allowed al Qaeda to, for all intents and purposes, kill anyone they wanted without violating the laws of Islam by declaring them to be apostates. In other words, Dr. Fadl helped provided a theological justification for something that everyone involved knew was wrong. 

The legal memos justifying torture aren't very different in terms of reasoning--it's clear that John Yoo and his cohorts in the Office of Legal Counsel saw their job not as binding the president to the rule of law, but to declare legal any tactic that the executive branch believed necessary to fight terrorism. They worked backwards from this conclusion, and ethics officials at the Department of Justice, we now know, decided that they they had violated professional standards in doing so. Whereas al-Zawahiri and bin Laden turned to al-Sharif for a method to circumvent the plain language of the Koran, Bush and Cheney went to Yoo and Jay Bybee to circumvent the plain language of the law. Most Islamic scholars, just like most legal experts, reject their respective reasoning as unsound. 

The torture memos--indeed, all of the pro-torture arguments rest on a similar intellectual themes to the takfiris. Suspected terrorists are "illegal enemy combatants", outside the framework of laws that would otherwise guide us. Just as the takfiris justify the killing of even self-identified Muslims by excommunicating them as "infidels", torture apologists argue that even American citizens like Jose Padilla who are accused of being terrorists become legal "apostates" without any rights the president is bound to respect. These are extraordinary circumstances, this is an extraordinary war--and so, the Bush administration turned to Yoo, a man who believes the president is bound by no laws during wartime: he can murder a village of innocent civilian non-combatants just as surely as he can crush the testicles of a child or deploy the military against residents of the United States. The architects of torture are the intellectual mirror image of their declared enemies, depending on the perceived inhumanity of their foes to justify monstrous actions. It's worth noting however, that the Bush administration did not take full advantage of the wrongs that the lawyers in their Office of Legal Counsel would have enabled. My point is not to equate the deeds of AQ with the deeds of the Bush administration--merely to point out justification for acts that are on their face unjustifiable take a similar intellectual path.

From his cell in an Egyptian prison, al-Sharif denounced his former colleagues in al Qaeda, declaring that the killing of innocents was wrong. He essentially renounced his earlier work providing the theological basis for politically motivated murder and destruction, declaring, "There is no such thing in Islam as ends justifying the means," now arguing that the murder of innocents, Muslim or otherwise, was sinful. Whatever theological cover al-Sharif's original arguments provided were meaningless against the body count of mostly Muslim innocents amassed by al-Qaeda in their war against the "West", which by the numbers has been a war against fellow Muslims. In combination with the furious efforts of moderate Muslims and even committed Islamists like al-Sharif, al Qaeda and its methods have been largely discredited, to the point where, as Fareed Zakaria writes, we don't fear "a broad political movement but a handful of fanatics scattered across the globe."  

 I confess to being bothered that we haven't seen a similarly backlash against the architects of torture here--part of the reason we haven't, is because even though innocents were tortured, we still see them as fundamentally alien. Few Americans directly suffered as a result of what Yoo and Bybee did--although I think we have yet to understand that damage that's been done to our society as a whole. Bolstered by ideological partisans and powerful figures looking to avoid accountability for their actions, men like John Yoo and Jay Bybee have yet to be held responsible for the crimes they enabled--and I'm not sure they ever will be--although I'm less concerned with their punishment than with the permanent American rejection of torture. The Justice Department's David Margolis overruled the original conclusions of the Department's ethics lawyers that Yoo and Bybee had, in ignoring legal precedents and sanctioning behavior that was likely illegal, had committed "professional misconduct". That would have triggered professional sanctions for Yoo, a tenured professor at Berkeley, and Bybee, a sitting federal judge, but Margolis' memo instead concludes that they had excercised "flawed legal reasoning" that could be forgiven in part because of the context in which the memos were written, months after the 9/11 attacks. Margolis though, does not endorse their reasoning, and as for Yoo, he writes that whether or not he deliberately gave bad legal advice is a "close question."  Al-Sharif will never be able to wash the blood from his hands, but while this founding father of al Qaeda has recoiled from the fruits of his labor, the American architects of torture continue to argue that their reasoning is legally sound.

The American conscience, when it decides to act, is mighty--but it is also sluggish and vain. Americans are crushed by the weight of not fulfilling their own high expectations--so the shameful acts of one generation are often rectified by a subsequent generation unencumbered by their own complicity in such acts. So the compromise the Founding Fathers reached on the issue of slavery, in defiance of the spirit of the documents they authored, was eventually righted by the Civil War. The slavery by another name of reconstruction was ignored by a nation weary of conflict after nearly being rent in two--but eventually gave birth to the civil rights movement. The suffragettes were forced to accept a compromise on the 14th Amendment that denied them the vote--but they would ultimately prevail. Roosevelt interned Japanese Americans, Reagan gave them reparations. The American conscience is often slow to action, but not because it cannot recognize evil--but because our view of ourselves as a people guided by justice is so important to who we are that when confronted with proof of our own shortcomings, we recoil in shame and precious vanity. Eventually, with the big stuff, we usually find our way--we see this with our slow, staggering, but inevitable march towards full personhood for gays and lesbians.  And while those who stained America's honor with war crimes have escaped accountability for now, these American takfiris will eventually be judged by history with a clarity we cannot muster today. 

The arc of the universe is long...you know, all that stuff. 

@'The Atlantic'

Honor societies

(click to enlarge)

@'xkcd'

Fast, fast food

(Thanx Bill!)

Paul Schütze: Third Site Live

    

Visit the Soundcloud page for free download

Recorded live at the Impact Festival, Utrecht 11/05/1999.

Paul Schütze - electronics, vibraphone

Clive Bell - woodwinds, reeds

Raoul Björkenheim - guitar

Simon Hopkins - guitar

Thomas Köner - voice (in absentia)

More from Paul Schütze
@'Everythingonmyipod'
HERE
Where there is also this comment from Schütze himself:

Paul Schütze said...

"keep up the good work. Don't let anyone tell you file-sharing will destroy the music industry. They have achieved that themselves by treating their artists and customers with contempt. As models of commerce implode and dissolve around us, art (which should have no use) is defined by our use of it. I would rather you share my work with people who may not know it and may otherwise never hear it."

The Hurt Locker sees off The Smurf Movie at Baftas

Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker won six awards at the Baftas, including best film and director. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

It came, it saw, but failed to conquer. James Cameron's Avatar, which has taken more money at the box office than any other film in the history of cinema came away tonight with just two Bafta awards in an evening dominated by arthouse films made on a fraction of its budget.

The outright winner at the London ceremony was The Hurt Locker, directed by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. It won six awards including best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound.

British success came in the acting awards with Carey Mulligan named best actress for An Education and Colin Firth best actor for A Single Man.

The Hurt Locker, a grittily realistic depiction of US army bomb disposal men in post-invasion Iraq, has been around a long time, gathering pace and acclaim on the film festival circuit. It first premiered in competition at Venice 18 months ago and has been seen by only a small fraction of those who have seen Avatar: it took $17.6m at the box office, compared with Avatar's mind-boggling $2bn.

Nevertheless, the film has been lavishly praised as a brilliantly accomplished piece of tense, well-crafted drama.

Bigelow, best known for her macho action dramas such as Point Break and K-19: The Widowmaker, said: "The secret to directing is collaborating and I was so, so lucky to have an incredible cast and crew. This is amazing and humbling."

She dedicated the award to never abandoning the need for a peace resolution and is hoping to repeat her success by being the first woman to win a best director Oscar.

It was a miserable night for Cameron and Avatar, a film dismissed as hyped and derivative nonsense by its detractors, or the glorious future of cinema by its fans. It did, though, win best special visual effects and best production design.

Firth won his first Bafta for his portrayal of a gay college professor breaking down after his partner dies in a car accident. Firth paid tribute to director Tom Ford, the fashion designer, who had also made him "better groomed and more fragrant".

"What Tom Ford doesn't know is I have the email telling him I could not possibly do this," Firth said. "I was about to send it when a man came to repair my fridge … so I would like to thank the fridge guy."

Many had tipped An Education to win best British film, as a consolation prize, perhaps, to best film. Instead, Andrea Arnold's working class Essex drama Fish Tank took the award for outstanding British film.

Mulligan's victory had been widely predicted. The film, based on a schoolday memoir by journalist Lynn Barber, tells how, in 1962, she was seduced by an older Bristol-driving charmer. It was a career-making performance which has resulted in the 24-year-old becoming a hot Hollywood property One of her next roles will be this spring's sequel to Wall Street in which she plays Gordon Gekko's estranged daughter.

"I really didn't expect this at all so I didn't think of anything to say," she said. "Thank you so much Bafta. I was here a year ago and I didn't imagine in a million years that this would happen. I wish I could do a speech like Colin Firth and talk about fridges, but I can't."

She said: "My brother and my dad are right up there. My mum is there. I love them. Thank you so much."

Christoph Waltz had been odds-on to win best supporting actor for his role as the unhinged Nazi "Jew hunter" in Inglourious Basterds. He called the award "beautiful and terrific." He said: "Supporting or supported? From the moment that fate dropped me in front of Quentin Tarantino everybody has supported me."

Similarly, Mo'Nique had been favourite in the best supporting actress category for her portrayal of a monstrous mother in Lee Daniels' Precious. It will be astonishing if she now fails to win the Oscar.

It was a good night too for The Young Victoria, which won for costume design and make-up & hair.

The Orange Rising Star award – chosen by the public – went to Twilight's Kristen Stewart. The first-timer award for an outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer was won by Duncan Jones – David Bowie's son – for his space drama, Moon. Slightly overcome by emotion, he said he had tried a lot of jobs, but: "Finally, I think I've found what I love doing."

Perhaps the most zeitgeisty movie was Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a hatchet man who flies around the US making people redundant. It won in the best adapted screenplay category.

The arguments continue to rage about how good a year it had actually been for English language films. Some argue that the best movies came from Germany (The White Ribbon), Sweden (Let The Right One In) and France (A Prophet). The latter, a brutal, gripping prison drama, won the award for best foreign language film.

The final award, the Bafta fellowship, was presented by the new Bafta president, Prince William, to Vanessa Redgrave. Accepting her award, Redgrave said: "Oh dear, you've absolutely done me in." She also paid tribute to Prince William's father, Prince Charles, praising him for his "intelligence, humility and kindness.

@'The Guardian

'Exile' accused of plagiarism (???)

Plagiarism on the Net

you don't know the meaning of procrastination.

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2 posts • Page 1 of 1

Plagiarism on the Net

Postby Kelvin Throop » Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:57 pm

My recent post on "Mindfulness Education" has been cut and pasted in it's entirity and posted here. I'm obviously happy to be quoted but what is the point of just repeating the entire post? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I suppose.

Editted to fix link

Last edited by Kelvin Throop on Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Beware of the superficially profound

Read "Education Watch" at http://kelvinthroop.wordpress.com/

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Kelvin Throop

Bolero

Posts: 102

Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:35 pm

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Re: Plagiarism on the Net

Postby ZackDavies » Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:56 pm

Hi Kelvin,

It looks like your link is broken. Not sure whether this is intentional (like when people post "hxxp" links to stop anti-vaxxers seeing who's linking to their site), so maybe you don't want to fix it. But if anyone else is interested, add ".com" after "blogspot" and it'll work.

That's a weird-ass "blog" - 750 posts this year, mainly videos. I can't see any coherent point to it. If it seemed like the product of a rational mind, and if they hadn't linked back to your article using links with your name in, I'd be more inclined to call it plagiarism. As it is, I think it's just spreading the word with lax attribution practice.

ZackDavies

Viennese Waltz

Posts: 220

Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:55 pm

Location: Kent

@'Bad Science Forum'

When I have stopped laughing, I shall comment on this...

Boys, boys, boys
1/ Linking back to your blog post cancels out the plagiarism accusation...
2/ I felt that it WAS an important point that you were making, so DO consider it flattery
3/ It's 'edited'
4/ 'Weird-ass' blog...one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said about 'Exile'
5/ I agree, my mind is NOT rational!
6/ Mostly videos? I think not and if someone wants to do the maths for those 750 posts we may discover the real reason why it is called the "Bad Science' forum
7/ It may not be 'coherent' but it sure looks pretty
8/ 'Lax attribution'? I think not when as I say I link back directly to your blog post


Spread the word... 
MonaXXX
PS: Anything that I write at my blog is always in grey...

Underground Resistance - The Lightning (Acid Rain)

Cabaret Voltaire - Colours

Meanwhile...

Justice Department Will Not Punish Yoo and Bybee Because Most Lawyers Are Scum Anyway

Full OPR Report on Torture
HERE

Larkin Grimm - December 27, 2009 Knitting Factory

[photo by nyctaper]

Larkin Grimm is the subject of one of my favorite artist descriptions. Michael Gira, founder of The Swans, and with whose Young God Records Larkin is signed, described her as follows: “Larkin is a magic woman. She lives in the mountains in north Georgia. She collects bones, smooth stones, & she casts spells. She worships the moon. She is very beautiful, & her voice is like the passionate cry of a beast heard echoing across the mountains just after a tremendous thunder storm, when the air is alive with electricity. I don’t consider her folk though - she is pre folk, even pre- music. She is the sound of the eternal mother & the wrath of all women. She wears jewels, glitter, & glistening insects in her hair.”

Last night at Knitting Factory, Larkin was just a singer, albeit a special one. The Sunday night crowd was larger than expected for an early post-holiday off-night, and Larkin entertained us with stories and songs anchored by her deeply rich voice. The band included the legendary producer Tony Visconti (Bowie, TRex, Morrissey) on bass guitar. Larkin performed primarily new songs, and just one number from her most recent release Parplar.

We recorded this set with the four-microphone rig set up directly in front of the soundboard, and other than some venue sounds during quieter moments of the recording, the sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

01 [introduction]
02 Paradise
03 Blond and Golden Johns
04 [banter]
05 Pool of Milk
06 [tuning/banter]
07 Paved With Leaves
08 [tuning/intro]
09 Flash and Thunder
10 [banter]
11 The Butcher
12 Dirty Mind
13 The Burglar
14 [outro/band]
Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

FLAC's available

@'NYCTaper'

Flyfire Vision

HA!