Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Daedelus - My life Lowly Ends (A Live Set)
Originally created for The Low End Theory Podcast. Especially made for freeway driving
Murdoch’s Nemesis
“F--k me,” he said. “I’ve got Rupert Murdoch in front of me in a week.”
Just days before, News of the World, News International’s flagship tabloid, had ceased to exist, its office in the company’s gated complex near the Tower of London sealed off as a crime scene. That morning, Britain’s top cops had been grilled in Parliament over their failure to properly investigate the news conglomerate, and suspicions of corruption and cover-up were running high. It was easy to forget that for the last two years, Watson had appeared to many as a lonely and possibly unhinged figure as he railed against the apparent lawlessness of the Murdoch empire. While British politicians and media ignored the issue, Watson hammered away at it in speeches and parliamentary sessions, in the process becoming its public face—which was not necessarily a good image to have.
Some friends, Watson admitted, “probably said, ‘This is getting a bit obsessive.‘”
Stocky and bespectacled, Watson doesn’t cut the figure of crusading scourge. But with the News International executives heading to his committee room, the M.P. has become one of the scandal’s most lauded heroes. On Sunday, the British newspaper The Guardian called him Rupert Murdoch’s “tormenter in chief...”
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Mike Giglio @'The Daily Beast'
Anticensorship software to help rebels get the word out
State-backed internet censorship is the method of choice for countries that want to crack down on citizens spreading messages of revolution online. But now dissidents have a tool to help them fight back.
Telex, developed by computer scientists at the University of Michigan, US and the University of Waterloo, Canada, transmits information to blocked websites by piggybacking on uncensored connections with the aid of friendly foreign internet service providers (ISPs).
Dissidents install the Telex client, perhaps from a USB stick smuggled over the border. They then make a secure connection to an uncensored site outside of the censor's network - nearly any site that uses password logins will do. The connection looks normal, but Telex tags the traffic with a secret key.
Foreign ISPs in the network between the client and destination site can look for these tags and redirect the connection to an anonymising service such as a proxy server, which allows users to connect from one location while appearing to be elsewhere. Using Telex is more robust than using such servers directly, as censors can easily block access to a proxy once it is discovered.
The researchers have tested the system by watching YouTube videos in Beijing, China, despite the site being blocked in that country, but they say it's not yet ready for real users. One barrier might be the need for foreign ISPs to install Telex software. "Widespread ISP deployment might require incentives from governments," suggest the researchers - something that the US government might be interested in given its plans to provide rebels with an "internet in a suitcase". Telex also wouldn't be able to help during an Egypt-style disconnect, as dissidents must at least be able to connect to uncensored sites.
Jacob Aron @'New Scientist'
Telex, developed by computer scientists at the University of Michigan, US and the University of Waterloo, Canada, transmits information to blocked websites by piggybacking on uncensored connections with the aid of friendly foreign internet service providers (ISPs).
Dissidents install the Telex client, perhaps from a USB stick smuggled over the border. They then make a secure connection to an uncensored site outside of the censor's network - nearly any site that uses password logins will do. The connection looks normal, but Telex tags the traffic with a secret key.
Foreign ISPs in the network between the client and destination site can look for these tags and redirect the connection to an anonymising service such as a proxy server, which allows users to connect from one location while appearing to be elsewhere. Using Telex is more robust than using such servers directly, as censors can easily block access to a proxy once it is discovered.
The researchers have tested the system by watching YouTube videos in Beijing, China, despite the site being blocked in that country, but they say it's not yet ready for real users. One barrier might be the need for foreign ISPs to install Telex software. "Widespread ISP deployment might require incentives from governments," suggest the researchers - something that the US government might be interested in given its plans to provide rebels with an "internet in a suitcase". Telex also wouldn't be able to help during an Egypt-style disconnect, as dissidents must at least be able to connect to uncensored sites.
Jacob Aron @'New Scientist'
The Obama Doctrine: Drones, Targeted Killings and Secret Prisons
The Bush Doctrine was that the world was our battlefield—we were at liberty to carry out drone attacks and unlawful interrogations throughout the world. But many Americans may be surprised to discover that far from fading away with the former president, these policies have in fact expanded and intensified under President Obama.
As The Nation's Jeremy Scahill explained on MSNBC's Morning Joe today, Obama has succeeded in normalizing and legitimizing these policies that were considered illegal in the extreme only a few years ago. Recounting his recent investigation of increasing CIA involvement in counterterrorism efforts in Somalia, Scahill says we have to decide, "are we a country that operates under the rule of law or do we believe we're emperors who can wage war on the world?"
For more on US involvement in East Africa, read Scahill's article in this week's issue, The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia, and view a slide show of exclusive photographs from his trip to Mogadishu.
Anna Lekas Miller @'The Nation'
WTF???
@JonnieMarbles Jonnie Marbles
It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done before #splat
Rupert Murdoch attacked: an eyewitness account
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
tom_watson tom_watson
1st dirty trick of the day. Tory MP Nick Debois shouted "object" to Cathy Jamieson being appointed to our committee. So we're one down.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald that criticises the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, claiming that the channel is used to promote and advocate right-wing views. The film says this pervasive bias contradicts the channel's claim of being "Fair and Balanced", and argues that Fox News has been engaging in what amounts to consumer fraud.
Wiki
Wiki
9 Questions for Rupert
Rupert Murdoch’s appearance before a parliamentary select committee is drawing the kind of international attention usually reserved for royal marriages. The committee, appropriately enough, is for “culture, media and sport,” and the Elizabethan sport that public anticipation calls to mind is that of bear baiting: a powerful, blinded beast maddened by small dogs. That would be to underestimate Rupert, who has been rehearsing for days, and certainly to overestimate the forensic ability of members of the committee (“selected” from unpromoted MPs, but in no qualitative sense “select”). It will operate under severe constraints as a result of the arrest of Rebekah Brooks.
The main constraint will be the presumption of innocence—or at least the British sense of fair play: Ms. Brooks was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to hack unlawfully and to corrupt police, and the Murdochs themselves may soon follow her into the finger-printing room. So "The Wapping Three" have a right to remain silent. When the Maxwells were called before a select committee inquiring into the pilfering of The Mirror pension fund, they brought along George Carman, the country’s top barrister.
The Murdochs will be tempted to attend with a row of Queen’s Counsels—a purse of silks, so to speak—but this would be a public-relations error. If Rupert ever says, “I will not answer that question on the grounds it could incriminate me,” News Limited shares would go into freefall. His best strategy would be to adopt the pose that enabled some screenwriters to survive dishonor before the McCarthy hearings—“I will answer any and every question about my own role but because others may face criminal investigation, Mr. Chairman, you will understand why it would be improper for me to speak what I know about them.” This pose plays well—it suggests courage in taking all responsibility, although in reality it masks a position that covers up part of the truth.
The committee hearing may well disappoint, because it is not designed for cross-examination. U.S. Senate committees have counsel and investigators, and their questioning can last hours and be very searching. U.K. select committees have few staff and limited time for a few questions from each committee member. There can be no effective cross-examination, which usually requires sustained questioning before it can be effective. “Laying the ground” is the most important part of the art. In court, it might go like this...
The committee hearing may well disappoint, because it is not designed for cross-examination. U.S. Senate committees have counsel and investigators, and their questioning can last hours and be very searching. U.K. select committees have few staff and limited time for a few questions from each committee member. There can be no effective cross-examination, which usually requires sustained questioning before it can be effective. “Laying the ground” is the most important part of the art. In court, it might go like this...
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Geoffrey Robertson @'The Daily Beast'
jonstribling Jon Stribling
Why couldn't @LulzSec take the heraldsun and Australian news sites down to give us all a bit of respite from their poisonous s**t?
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