(Thanx Bodhi!)
Friday, 12 November 2010
Twitter joke trial: Paul Chambers loses appeal against conviction
The man convicted of "menace" for threatening to blow up an airport in a Twitter joke has lost his appeal.
Paul Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant whose online courtship with another user of the microblogging site led to the "foolish prank", had hoped that a crown court would dismiss his conviction and £1,000 fine without a full hearing.
But Judge Jacqueline Davies instead handed down a devastating finding at Doncaster which dismissed Chambers's appeal on every count. After reading out his comment from the site – "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" – she found that it contained menace and Chambers must have known that it might be taken seriously.
He was also saddled with a legal bill three times higher than his original £384 with £600 costs, as the court ordered him to pay a further £2,000 legal bill for the latest proceedings.
Chambers, who lost his financial manager's job after his arrest in January, sent the message to a contact called @crazycolours, a young woman from Northern Ireland who was among 650 people who regularly followed his 140-character tweets.
They had arranged to meet in Belfast and Chambers told an earlier hearing he was desperate and frustrated that heavy snow might close Robin Hood, near Doncaster, and ruin their plans.
He used Twitter's private service to joke with her late at night about hijacking a plane, noting wryly that its pilots might expect to be diverted to somewhere more exotic than Northern Ireland. But his facetious bomb threat was sent on the network's public system, allowing anyone to see it – including staff at Robin Hood.
Chambers's conviction this summer caused huge controversy both on Twitter itself and among civil liberties lawyers because of its implications for the cyberworld's freewheeling style. The Crown Prosecution Service caused controversy by using a law aimed against nuisance calls – originally to protect "female telephonists at the Post Office" in the 1930s – rather than specific bomb hoax legislation, which requires stronger evidence of intent.
Judge Davies refused a request by Ferguson to cut the sentence to an absolute or conditional discharge. She effectively branded Chambers a liar by calling his denials about realising the possible implications of the tweet incredible.
She told the court that he had been an "unimpressive witness" and said: "Anyone in this country in the present climate of terrorist threats, especially at airports, could not be unaware of the possible consequences."
She also described some of his earlier evidence as "self-serving" and cast doubt on his claims not to have kept up to date with current affairs through newspapers or TV. As for the tweet at the centre of the case, she called it "menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed."
Chambers and @crazycolours, who now live together in Northern Ireland, left court disconsolately and will now meet their legal team to consider a further appeal. The cost will be weighed against clearing Chambers's name and the wider issues, which have caused an international debate on social networking sites.
Chambers said he was also aggrieved at the heavy-handed handling of his case, saying that he had been held for seven hours in a police cell. He said: "I wouldn't have minded if they had told me off for being stupid, which was clearly how they saw things really, but it wasn't like that."
The wider implications were fanned by news of a second arrest under the same "nuisance call" law of a Conservative councillor in Birmingham who posted a tweet crudely attacking the columnist Yasmin Alibhi-Brown. The post by Gareth Compton, now removed, reportedly said: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."
Compton, who represents Erdington on Birmingham city council, apologised after his release on bail and said: "It was an ill-conceived attempt at humour. I apologise for any offence caused. It was wholly unintentional."
The tweet was criticised in the House of Commons by the Leader of the House, Sir George Young, who was asked to allow an emergency debate by Steve McCable, Labour MP for Selly Oak in Birmingham.
Young said: "Stoning to death is a barbarous form of punishment which the government, and I am sure every member of this House, deplores. I hope that no elected person will threaten any member of our society with that form of punishment."
Martin Wainwright @'The Guardian'
Secret Files Show Kopassus, Indonesia's Special Forces, Targets Papuan Churches, Civilians.
Secret documents have leaked from inside Kopassus, Indonesia's red berets, which say that Indonesia's US-backed security forces engage in "murder [and] abduction" and show that Kopassus targets churches in West Papua and defines civilian dissidents as the "enemy."
The documents include a Kopassus enemies list headed by Papua's top Baptist minister and describe a covert network of surveillance, infiltration and disruption of Papuan institutions
The disclosure comes as US President Barack Obama is touching down in Indonesia. His administration recently announced the restoration of US aid to Kopassus...
Continue reading
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Four Tet:: 'The music industry is scared'
With more albums to his name in a decade than some artists release in a lifetime, Four Tet (real name Kieran Hebden) has mastered the art of musical legacy, using each record as a testimony to his evolution as an artist rather than to his ability of adapting himself to suit trends, buzzwords, and the music industry in general. “When I make records, I’m not thinking ‘maybe they’re all going to call this chillwave and I’ll jump on that new thing’,” he begins. “I’m thinking to myself ‘how am I still going to be able to look back on this record and be comfortable with it in 40 years time’. To me, that’s the sort of thing that really counts.” “I want to make music that’s relevant now in terms of communicating to people and people enjoying it and touching them in that moment,” he continues. “But in terms of fitting into current genres and the music business as a whole, it’s much more important to me that it looks good in the history of music and in the future than it does now.” Resistance to industry agenda and it-band popularity aside, since his debut as Four Tet in the late 1990s, Hebden has grown a devout following of critics, listeners and musicians alike, with his 2009 release, There is Love in You earning overwhelming praise and adding further proof to his longevity as an artist. “I think my whole concept of why I’m putting out records and why I’m doing it has changed a lot – especially in the last four or five years,” he explains. “I think when you start making records – or maybe it was just my experience – you’re working towards some sort of magical goal by putting out your ‘best record ever’. But I’ve come to realize now that I don’t think it’s about that at all. I’m not sitting down to make a record and thinking about how I can make it better than the last one – to me, that’s kind of meaningless.” In the spirit of greats like Miles Davis, Hebden aspires to hone a catalogue that documents and reflects his transition as an artist and doesn’t waver to suit the status quo. “To me, my record is a document of my personal journey and I want to see my whole catalogue in the records lining my shelf that tells my musical story,” he shares. “And if you suddenly have a record in the middle of there that’s heavily manipulated by the record company . . . that would be a blip in the history. That would be where it all went wrong.” Now playing dates in Europe after wrapping his North American tour, Hebden has no immediate plans to record his follow-up, but feels comfortable taking his time since he feels so many bands seem to be suffering from the industry’s blatent cash-cow agenda. “[The music industry cashes] in on acts as fast as they can because they’re scared,” he maintains. “You don’t hear about record companies signing bands and being like, ‘oh, on their sixth album we’ve got to do something special’.” “Everything about the way things are done now is quite bazaar (sic),” he adds. “But maybe it’s brilliant. Maybe it’s the most exciting time ever. But I never want to decide. And people [are trying] to decide whether it’s an exciting time or not – but I’m going to be more interested to look back on it in the future.”(via aux) @'Extra Music New'
sunny_hundal Funny how police are quick to launch investigations when they don't use enough force, but not when they go too far http://bbc.in/9TJ7JY
SQWUBBSY!!!
Julian Cope performing 'I Wanna Know What's In It For Me'
Joe Strummer Memorial Busking Tour
October 27th 2008 C.E.
Swanborough Tump
Joe Strummer Memorial Busking Tour
October 27th 2008 C.E.
Swanborough Tump
(RePost) The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month
In Memory of
Private ARTHUR JOHN HADDOCK
2766529, 6th Bn., Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
who died age 20
on 24 April 1944
Son of Robert Arthur and Catherine Haddock,
of Orrell, Bootle, Lancashire.
Remembered with honour
CASSINO WAR CEMETERY
Watch Out: The World Bank Is Quietly Funding a Massive Corporate Water Grab
Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure in Latin America, Southeast Asia, North America, Africa and everywhere else it's been tried. But don't tell that to controversial loan-sharks at the World Bank. Last month, its private-sector funding arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) quietly dropped a cool 100 million euros ($139 million US) on Veolia Voda, the Eastern European subsidiary of Veolia, the world's largest private water corporation. Its latest target? Privatization of Eastern Europe's water resources.
"Veolia has made it clear that their business model is based on maximizing profits, not long-term investment," Joby Gelbspan, senior program coordinator for private-sector watchdog Corporate Accountability International, told AlterNet. "Both the World Bank and the transnational water companies like Veolia have clearly acknowledged they don't want to invest in the infrastructure necessary to improve water access in Eastern Europe. That's why this 100 million euro investment in Veolia Voda by the World Bank's private investment arm over the summer is so alarming. It's further evidence that the World Bank remains committed to water privatization, despite all evidence that this approach will not solve the world's water crisis."
All the evidence Veolia needs that water grabs are doomed exercises can be found in its birthplace of France, more popularly known as the heartland of water privatization. In June, the municipal administration of Paris reclaimed the City of Light's water services from both of its homegrown multinationals Veolia and Suez, after a torrent of controversy. That's just one of 40 re-municipilazations in France alone, which can be added to those in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America and more in hopes of painting a not-so-pretty picture: Water privatization is ultimately both a horrific concept and a failed project.
"It's outrageous that the World Bank's IFC would continue to invest in corporate water privatizations when they are failing all over the world," Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Food and Water Watch and the author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water, told AlterNet. "A similar IFC investment in the Philippines is an unmitigated disaster. Local communities and their governments around the world are canceling their contracts with companies like Veolia because of cost overruns, worker layoffs and substandard service."...
Continue reading
Scott Thill @'Aternet'
johannhari101 Nick Clegg warned before the election of "riots" if Tories introduced extreme cuts. Now the riots have begun. And Clegg is a chief cutter
HA!
adambanksdotcom Apparently Gazza is on his way to Millbank with some chicken and a fishing rod #demo2010
Demo2010 ('Wish my boyfriend was as dirty as your policy')
"We stand against the cuts, in solidarity with all the poor, elderly, disabled and working people affected. We are against all cuts and the marketisation of education. We are occupying the rood of Tory HQ to show we are against the Tory system of attacking the poor and helping the rich. This is only the beginning."
Live coverage
Live coverage
Due to UK libel laws you can't read this in Britain...
Not the case this time but...
We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform!
Government abandons lie detector tests for catching benefit cheats
A benefits office in London uses VRA lie detector software to catch benefit cheats. Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer
The government has dropped plans to introduce controversial lie detector tests to catch benefit fraudsters after trials found that the technology is not sufficiently reliable.
The Department for Work and Pensions has given up on "voice risk analysis" (VRA) software after spending £2.16m on trials to assess whether the technology can identify people who are trying to fiddle the system when it eavesdrops on their telephone calls to benefit offices.
Plans to install lie detectors were hailed as a vote-winning move to get tough on benefit cheats when they were unveiled by the former prime minister, Gordon Brown, on the eve of the Queen's speech in December 2008. Ministers hoped the technology would make the benefits system more efficient and less costly.
VRA is meant to detect signs of stress in a caller's voice by analysing short snippets of speech, but critics say the system is not powerful enough to distinguish cheats from honest callers.
In 23 pilot studies, local authorities used the lie detector system to analyse phone calls from people applying for, or updating existing claims for housing benefit, council tax, income support and jobseeker's allowance. The technology was judged a success in only five of the trials.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions confirmed that the technology was being dropped now the trials had ended. "We have got the analysis back and have been going through whether it works when applied to the benefits system. This is the first time it has been used in the benefits system and the decision is that it is not very good value for money," she said.
The department organised two groups of trials. The first, in 2008, cost £460,000 and involved six local authorities and the department's executive agency, Jobcentre Plus. The second phase trial was expanded to 24 local authorities at a cost of £1.7m. Information from 45,000 calls was included in the evaluation, the department said.
Nine local authorities trialled the lie detector on calls about new benefit claims. Of these, only three said it worked well enough to highlight risky callers without raising too many false alarms. Of 12 local authorities who used VRA to spot cheats during benefit reviews, only one judged the trial to have been a success. Two local authorities tested VRA on callers who were reporting changes in their personal circumstances, with one reporting the trial as successful.
Voice risk analysis has been mired in controversy since scientists raised doubts over the technology soon after it reached the market. In 2007, two Swedish researchers, Anders Eriksson and Francisco Lacerda, published their own analysis of VRA in the International Journal of Speech Language and Law. They found no scientific evidence to support claims for the device made by the manufacturer, an Israeli company called Nemesysco.
Eriksson and Lacerda went on to say the software was "at the astrology end of the validity spectrum". Following complaints from Nemesysco's founder, the article was withdrawn from the website of the journal's publisher, Equinox Publishing and the authors were threatened with legal action by the company.
Professor Lacerda, who is head of phonetics at Stockholm University, told the Guardian he welcomed the government's decision to drop the technology.
"I praise the Department of Work and Pensions for the serious investigation they have done, which reinforces the strength of their decision. My only surprise is that it didn't come earlier. There is no basis for the device at all, so I would be surprised if they had reached another conclusion," he said.
"The problem with this device is that it is not even plausible to begin with. Had the department asked scientists in the UK they would probably have been advised not to bet on it, so this is a very expensive way of reaching an obvious conclusion," Lacerda added.
Under the "one strike and you're out" proposals put forward by Gordon Brown in 2008, people stood to lose their benefits for a month if caught out by lie detector tests. In a letter to Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science, the minister for welfare reform, Lord Freud, confirmed that the department "has now discontinued interest in VRA".
Milan Vjestica, a consultant speaking for DigiLog, a Buckinghamshire-based company licensed to sell VRA in the UK, said: "The Department for Work and Pensions have not said that it doesn't work. They have said that local authorities can, as part of their own fraud and error strategies, use VRA amongst other tools.
"The concerns that some scientists have raised have been strongly contested by Nemesysco. This was one example of scientists saying in their opinion it didn't work. It's not like there is a whole host of people saying it doesn't work."
Ian Sample @'The Guardian'
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Peverelist - FWD Mix
Tom Ford is at the forefront of the post-dubstep breed of UK bass music. Combining influences from DnB, Jungle, Dubstep, House and Techno, Peverelist's productions are characterized by their innovative, challenging percussive layers and funky bass grooves. Peverelist's seminal Punch Drunk label has helped define the current underground dubstep scene, fiercely distancing themselves from the Rusko-focused mainstream.
1. Ekoplekz 'Stalag Zero' (Punch Drunk)
2. Elgato 'Blue' (Hessle Audio)
3. A Made Up Sound 'Demons' (A Made Up Sound)
4. Wax10001 (Wax)
5. Peverelist 'The Grind' (Punch Drunk)
6. Bernard Badie 'Time Reveals' (Night Club)
7. Peverelist 'Better Ways of Living' (Punch Drunk)
8. Peverelist 'Bluez' (Punch Drunk)
9. Pinch 'Elements' (Swamp81)
10. Peverelist & Hyetal 'rrrr' (Punch Drunk)
11. Bass Clef 'Promises' (Peverelist & Appleblim remix) (Blank Tapes)
12. Joe 'Rut' (Hessle Audio)
13. Jeremy Sylvester 'Mesmorise' (Urban Dubz Mix) (Quench)
14. Peverelist & Hyetal 'The Hum' (Punch Drunk)
‘Fela!’ Is Sued for Copyright Infringement
The author of a biography of the Afrobeat musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti has filed suit against the producers and creative team of the Broadway musical “Fela!”, saying the stage production infringes on the copyright to his book and seeking an injunction against the show.
In his complaint, filed on Monday in federal district court in Manhattan, lawyers for Carlos Moore, the author of a biography called “Fela: This Bitch of a Life,” say the musical “copies portions of Moore’s book verbatim,” adding, “Entire portions were simply copied from Moore’s book and inserted into the script of the musical.”
The complaint names production companies involved with “Fela!” as defendants, as well as Bill T. Jones, its director, choreographer and co-author of its book; Jim Lewis, the other co-author; and Stephen Hendel, a producer.
Mr. Moore says in the suit that he worked closely with Mr. Kuti to write his biography, which was first published in French and English in 1982. On at least two occasions, Mr. Moore says, he was approached by producers of “Fela!”: once in 2007, when he says producers sought to obtain some rights to his book but “adequate compensation was never proposed”; and in 2009 when, Mr. Moore says, he was asked to consult on the show and believed that he would be compensated for this work.
Among the similarities between his book and the show that the lawsuit cites is their use of a character called Afa Ojo (or “She Who Commands the Rain”), a ghost that Mr. Moore says he created to provide the voice of Mr. Kuti’s dead mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. The complaint says, “the musical introduces Moore’s character in virtually the same way the character is introduced in the book.”
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Hendel said he had not yet seen Mr. Moore’s suit, adding: “Carlos has been incredibly supportive of the show. Several years ago, he saw the Off Broadway show. He was willing to sit and be interviewed by our people, to talk about Fela and Fela’s legacy, and that interview has been on YouTube for a long time, and at his request we have been selling his book in the theater since we opened and at our Web site. We’re disappointed and somewhat perplexed, and hope at some point we can get this resolved.”
Dave Itzkoff @'NY Times'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
