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LPH 941 - Alphamix (1971-2012)
1 hour ago
Friday, 3 February 2012
Anonymous Hacks Neo-Nazis, Finds Ron Paul
The hacktivist collective Anonymous set out to take down the white supremacist American Third Party (A3P) in what they called “Operation Blitzkrieg” but they may have done much more.
In a document dump that includes private forum messages, emails, organization notes another other information the group found numerous connections between Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and A3P. According to the documents, all hosted here, Paul himself regularly met with many A3P members, engaged in conference calls with their board of directors and engaged in a “bridging tactic” between A3P and the Ron Paul Revolution.
Other excerpts show A3P webmaster Jamie Kelso (whose email account was one hacked by the collective) coordinating meeting between Paul and other members of A3P such as corporate lawyer and chairman of the neo-Nazi group Paul. “I’m going to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Bill Johnson,” reads an email to an A3P member dated January 2011. “Bill and I will be meeting with Ron and Ran Paul. I have a teleconference call with Bill (and Ron Paul) tonight. Much more later. Things are starting to happen (thanks to folks like you).”
In another passage, Kelso, a former Scientologist and account owner of other German Nazi forums, wrote: “I’ll be at CPAC from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12. I’ll send back reports to you from personal meetings with Ron Paul, newly-elected Senator Rand Paul and many others. It’ll be here on WhiteNewsNow, a place that is really starting to get interesting because of the presence of folks like you. Birds of a feather flock together, and we are really gathering some quality here.”
Accusations of racism and ties to neo-Nazi interests have plagued Paul since the 1990s and have re-surfaced during this campaign. So far Paul has issued standard denials, claiming not to have been aware of the ties between his camp and the racist right and denied authorship of a series of racist newsletters, despite confirmation from his closest staff that Paul signed off on every detail.
So what’s Paul’s explanation now?
Jessica Pieklo @'care2'
(Thanx GKB!
Ultra Violence
Initial reports said the violence erupted during a match between storied Cairo club Al Ahly, Egypt's most popular team, and Premier League team Al Masry, with only a minimal number of security forces in the stadium. While Wednesday's deadly incident constitutes the worst soccer-related violence in an Egyptian stadium in the country's history, it is not the first time that militant fan groups - or "ultras," modeled on similar groups in Italy and Serbia - have invaded the pitch. The incident is but one of a series of violent events involving soccer fans since Mubarak's fall...
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Combatting caste
‘In the rainy season,’ the woman began, ‘it is really bad. Water mixes with the shit and when we carry it (on our heads) it drips from the baskets, on to our clothes, our bodies, our faces. When I return home I find it difficult to eat food sometimes. The smell never gets out of my clothes, my hair. But this is our fate. To feed my children I have no option but to do this work.’
Narayanamma began cleaning human excrement at 13. She is now 35. The stench is nauseating, overpowering. First, she sweeps the shit into piles. Then, using two flat pieces of tin, she scoops it up and drops it into a bamboo basket which she carries to a spot where a tractor will arrive to pick it up. No gloves. No water to wash with. She hitches up her sari tightly so that it does not trail on the ground or touch the shit. Still, it is almost impossible to go through a whole day’s work without some of it inadvertently getting onto her clothes and person.
After 20-odd years of cleaning toilets, Narayanamma clings to a dignity which is markedly at variance with the work she does. She is dressed neatly, immaculately clean. Jasmine adorns her oiled and well-groomed hair...
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...and you think your life is shit!
(Thanx David!)
Baxter Dury @ La Maroquinerie Paris 18.12.2011
1. Francesca's party
2. Isabel
3. Claire
4. Leak at the disco
5. Trellic
6. Babies
7. Hotel in Brixton
8. Impro
9. The Sun
10. Cocaine man
11. Love in the garden (Encore)
12. Oscar Brown (Encore)
Baxter Dury is the son of British singer Ian Dury
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Societal Control of Sugar Essential to Ease Public Health Burden
FuckingMorgan Anthony Morgan
Tax the sugar! Addictive health destroying sugar should be taxed at the same rate as tobacco! Go ahead. Do the thing.
Tax the sugar! Addictive health destroying sugar should be taxed at the same rate as tobacco! Go ahead. Do the thing.
Facebook IPO: what we've learnt from its S-1 filing
• It is extremely profitable. In 2011, it brought in revenues of $3.7bn and had an operating income (the profit after you subtract day-to-day costs, but before taxes) of $1.7bn. Its net income for that year was $1bn - giving it a 27% net margin. For comparison, most physical businesses have net margins of between 5% - 10%.
• The Like button - and user growth - turned loss into profit. In 2009 Facebook flipped from loss to profit, and the introduction of the Like button that February helped to target advertising.
• Mark Zuckerberg will remain in charge. The shares will be split into "A" and "B" shares, in which the latter get 10 votes per share, and the former get one. Zuckerberg presently owns around 28.2% of the share capital, so that will (on conversion) give him majority control of the votes.
• Active user numbers are still growing fast: at the end of 2011 had 845 million active users, up 39% from the same time in 2010.
• Facebook depends on advertising, but less of its revenue comes from that. The proportion of revenue from advertising in 2009, 2010 and 2011 was, respectively, 98%, 95% and 85% of revenue. The rest comes from in-app purchases such as in games like Zynga's Farmville. Speaking of which…
• Zynga is an important partner. In 2011, 12% of Facebook's revenue came from it (so between advertising and Zynga, that's 97% of revenues.) So much so that Zynga gets a special mention: "If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected."
• The rate of growth is expected to decline. That's not surprising given how rapidly it has grown - 154% from 2009 to 2010, but only 88% from 2010 to 2011.
• 2009 is the year when everything clicked into place. In the years up to that point, as recorded on the S-1, revenues were small compared to costs (which aren't broken down, but consist of activities such as running the site and getting advertising sales). But in 2009, it broke through: from 2008 to 2009, revenues grew from $272m to $777m, almost tripling, but other costs only doubled. Result, profit.
• Facebook's revenues for 2011 are about the same as Google's were in 2004, when it filed its S-1. But its profitability is much higher.
• Mobile is, potentially, the Achilles heel. Right now there aren't any adverts in the mobile version of the site, but more and more people are accessing the site via mobile - 425 million monthly active users in December 2011. As the filing notes, "our revenue may be negatively affected unless and until we include ads or sponsored stories on our mobile apps and mobile website. We believe that people around the world will continue to increase their use of Facebook from mobile devices, and that some of this mobile usage has been and will continue to be a substitute for use of Facebook through personal computers."
• Privacy only gets passing mentions. It doesn't have its own section with any warnings about what might happen if people get itchy.
• There are lots of rivals, especially in China. Facebook wants to get into that country, but notes there are already rivals such as Renren, Sina and Tencent established there. Russia and Korea and Japan also have entrenched social networking rivals.
• We don't know exactly what the offer share price is going to be yet. That has yet to be worked out with banks.
• It has started building its own data centres. The amount of investment isn't detailed, but it does say that "In 2011, we began serving our products from data centers owned by Facebook using servers specifically designed for us." We would like to know more about who's building the servers - does Facebook roll its own, like Google?
• The only "key personnel" named are Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer.
• Lots of Facebook employees who have been there a while are going to be very rich. This isn't surprising, but there are 138m shares that have been issued to them for $0.83. At an expected price of around $45, that's almost $6.2bn of pure profit for all those staff.
Charles Arthur @'The Guardian'
Judge: Oakland Police in 'serious violation' of court order
OakFoSho Spencer: For Hire
Oakland Fire: "OPD called for backup. Said we would not engage unless they fell in. Cops can't swim."#OccupyOakland #OO #Aquapy #OWS
Oakland Fire: "OPD called for backup. Said we would not engage unless they fell in. Cops can't swim."
ACLU Sues U.S. for Information on Targeted Killing Program
Our government’s deliberate and premeditated killing of American terrorism suspects raises profound questions that ought to be the subject of public debate. Unfortunately the Obama administration has released very little information about the practice — its official position is that the targeted killing program is a state secret — and some of the information it has released has been misleading.
Our suit overlaps with the one recently filed by The New York Times insofar as it seeks the legal memos on which the targeted killing program is based. But our suit is broader. We’re seeking, in addition to the legal memos, the government’s evidentiary basis for strikes that killed three Americans in Yemen in the fall of 2011. We’re also seeking information about the process by which the administration adds Americans to secret government “kill lists.” We think it’s crucial that the administration release the legal memos, but we don’t think the memos alone will allow the public to evaluate the lawfulness and wisdom of the program.
We know something about the fall 2011 strikes from media reports. On September 30, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) jointly carried out the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico, using missiles fired from unmanned drones in Yemen. A second U.S. citizen, Samir Khan, was killed in the same attack. Two weeks later, Anwar al-Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen born in Colorado, was killed in another U.S. drone strike elsewhere in Yemen. The administration has not adequately explained the legal basis for these strikes, and it has not explained the factual basis, either.
Soon after the fall 2011 strikes, we submitted a FOIA request to the CIA, Department of Defense, and Department of Justice (DOJ). Three months later, we have yet to receive a single document in response. Outrageously, the CIA and the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel responded by refusing to confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to our request. Essentially, these agencies are saying the targeted killing program is so secret that they can’t even acknowledge that it exists.
Some officials, including President Obama, have spoken on the record about the program. They have publicly claimed responsibility for killing al-Awlaki, and they have more generally defended the government’s right to kill citizens after a secret non-judicial process. Just last week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta acknowledged on 60 Minutes that the U.S. can and does carry out targeted killings of U.S. citizens subject to the recommendations of the CIA Director and the Secretary of Defense and pursuant to the President’s authorization. And this week, President Obama publicly defended the CIA targeted killing program in a live internet interview [starts at minute 26:30].
The government’s self-serving attitude toward transparency and disclosure is unacceptable. Officials cannot be allowed to release bits of information about the targeted killing program when they think it will bolster their position, but refuse even to confirm the existence of a targeted killing program when organizations like the ACLU or journalists file FOIA requests in the service of real transparency and accountability. One news report indicates that the Obama administration may be planning to release more information about the targeted killing program. Let’s hope that’s true. The public has a right to know the evidence and legal basis for the deliberate targeted killing of U.S. citizens. So chilling a power must be opened to public scrutiny and debate.
Learn more about targeted killings: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.
Nathan Freed Wessler @'ACLU'
♪♫ Young Charlatans - Shivers (1978 Demo)
Rowland S. Howard, Janine Hall, Ollie Olsen and Jeffrey Wegener
jeremyscahill jeremy scahill
The war against Planned Parenthood and women's health care providers is absolutely reprehensible.
Amsterdam: The Bicycling Capitol of Europe
Amsterdam has created a bicycle friendly city that promotes a healthier, more active lifestyle for its residents. With people meeting face to face instead of bumper to bumper, the city challenges us to rethink our car centered-lives.
I miss Am*dam so much sometimes as I have never driven a car in my life!
I miss Am*dam so much sometimes as I have never driven a car in my life!
Ad Break: HA!
After reading this story in the LA Times, we decided Apple Scotland needed their own commercial. http://lat.ms/z2w1Mj
Bonus:
(For Yotte!)
(Thanx Claudia &Son#2!)
AlanStrangeSky Alan Strange
Sentences handed down to Stephen Lawrence's killers won't be referred to Court of Appeal for a decision on whether they are "unduly lenient"
Canada: Changes to identity screening requirements
Last July, the Governor General of Canada made changes to the Aeronautics Act, (note: these changes were not subject to the Parliamentary process) which have the potential to adversely affect several groups of people.The specific clause which is of concern states that:
Sec 5.2(1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if
(a) the passenger presents a piece of photo identification and does not resemble the photograph;
(b) the passenger does not appear to be the age indicated by the date of birth on the identification he or she presents;
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents; or
(d) the passenger presents more than one form of identification and there is a major discrepancy between those forms of identification.
There is an exemption for any passenger whose appearance has changed as a result of medical reasons (and they have a letter from a healthcare professional confirming this), but in principle, the ruling gives the authorities the option to bar people with a mismatch between their gender presentation and "the identification he or she presents" (presumably this is most likely to be their passport) from entering the country. So if you were assigned one gender at birth but your presentation is at odds with the stereotypical appearance often associated with that gender, then you may be prevented from flying into, and within, Canada. It's fairly clear that this could have a significant impact on some TS/TG, intersex and other non-binary identified people.
The risk of being prevented from travelling because of a mismatch between one's gender presentation and legal documentation isn't a new thing and can be traced back, if I understand correctly, at least as far as the days after the 9/11 attacks when some male members of the bin Laden family were believed to have fled the US dressed in burqas. A longer-term outcome of this has been the steady introduction of body-scanning technology at all airports in the US and the UK wherein one's anatomy is clearly visible on-screen to airline employees (note: not security officials). In passing, this article by Victoria Cohen in The Observer last October points out that these scanners are also being introduced at some UK railway stations.
However TS/TG, intersex and non-binary identified people are not the only vulnerable group here: Canada has also recently introduced legislation to prevent Muslim women from covering their faces while taking the oath of citizenship and I can't help but wonder if these regulations could also be used against this group, too. The logic is that if a woman's face is not visible, then it's not possible for the Canadian authorities to assess if her appearance is congruent with her documents. I think that there is significant potential for Islamophobic discrimination and associated human rights breaches as a result.
Of course, many of the particular concerns of TS/TG, intersex and other non-binary identified people could, theoretically, be allayed by the removal of gender markers from passports, and by the delinking of one's legal documentation to one's gender presentation and medical/surgical status. As things stand, even if a TS/TG person has undergone surgical transition, there is no guarantee that they won't be tripped up by the requirement; for example, last year, Egypt refused entry to two TS women who had undergone surgery because their documents and physical bodies differed.
It seems to me that the questions of document mismatch and gender markers on passports could well benefit from further consideration by those with the power to legislate around human rights issues. But I doubt that's likely to happen as long as certain countries continue to view every air traveller as either a potential terrorist or in need of punishment for not complying with cultural stereotypes of what is meant by male and female.
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Cross-posted from The F-Word
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
✔
Simon_Cullen Simon Cullen
Fair Work Australia decision on equal pay test case is here: fwa.gov.au/sites/remunera… For some workers it will mean pay rises of up to $24K pa
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