What do 20 year old Colorado student Peter Smith and Avengers superhero Iron Man have in common? They both throw missiles at their enemies. That’s according to the Denver police anyway, who charged Mr. Smith with throwing a missile, causing a disturbance, and unlawful acts after he “glitter bombed” Mitt Romney earlier this month.
For those not in the know: glitter bombing is an activity engaged in by gay rights activists, who throw handfuls of glitter at politicians to make those that think gay people are fairies, look like fairies themselves. It has become increasingly popular, and a laundry list of politicians have already felt the glistening wrath of their civilian opponents.
The media has been mighty taken by Mr. Smith’s story. Some claim that the possible punishment for Mr. Smith (six months in jail and a $1,000 fine) is ludicrous, while others say that because the Secret Service has no way of knowing if it’s glitter or anthrax being thrown (hint: one sparkles!), the student should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law... MORE
On the heels of 25 arrests of Spanish-speaking anons last week, Anonymous was rocked Tuesday by the news that Hector Xavier Monsegur, the legal name of prominent antisec known as Sabu, has been cooperating with the FBI to hunt down other anon hackers from Lulzsec and Antisec.
The chatter on the anon IRC servers and anon-associated Twitter accounts ranged Tuesday from denial about Sabu’s involvement to outrage and hatred for Monsegur. One who worked with Sabu as part of Antisec, the miltant and pranksterish arm of Anonymous, described themselves as “emotionally devastated” and “shocked” by the news.
“Sabu was in my opinion a great guy. I was woken up today with the message that the arrests happened. It came to me like an emotional bitchslap,” said the anon in an online chat. ”I know why I got kicked out of antisec now,” the anon continued, intimating that Sabu did so to protect him/her from prosecution.
Another anon described Sabu as a mentor figure, saying Sabu had encouraged and taught him/her about Python programming.
“I honestly wouldn’t have learned without him actually taking the time to give me some really pro tips… and show me that there was almost no limits to what you could do with it if you were doing it right.”
But in the timeframe of Monsegur’s arrest — which occurred without public notice in the summer, this anon saw a change in Monsegur’s behavior. Monsegur became more distant, and while he’d always displayed an un-Anonymous desire for fame that drew criticism, “after a certain point everything just became about him-him-him. And he’d randomly send out some almost cryptic messages about how it was all for Anonymous etc etc, but at a certain point I just stopped buying that. I think a lot of people did.”
According to several anons, around this time Monsegur became interested in a wider range of operations, including those he’d not had previous involvement in.
But despite the changes and ultimate betrayal, many anons aren’t ready to condemn Monsegur after hearing about the arrests of fellow anons due to his cooperation with the feds.
“It was either 124 years for Sabu, or 10 years each for the others,” said the former antisec anon. “I get why he did it, but he damaged the collective because of his own problems. And Anonymous is not your personal army. Nor is antisec.”
The possible 124-year sentence for Monsegur’s crimes struck anons as out of proportion for his crimes. As one put it, “Sabu is approximately one Topiary and some cash less heinous than Bernie Madoff, according to the FBI using their measurement of prison time,” referring to the purported age of one of the Lulzsec members Monsegur snitched on and the relatively light sentence of the billion-dollar ponzi scheme fraudster...
Move the Mountain is an exhibition of original Chinese propaganda posters from 1969-1979. The communist posters depict scenes ranging from young Chinese people holding up copies of Mao's Little Red Book to soldiers fighting cartoonish capitalist monsters. This is the first time these works have been exhibited in the UK. At Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester from 9 March to 7 April 2012 MORE
'Ever needed to get rid of unwanted guests in the early hours? Just reach for Dirk Bogarde’s Lyrics for Lovers, on which the actor inhales audibly on his cigarette before reciting Ira Gershwin’s ‘A Foggy Day’ amid a swathe of violins...' - Elvis Costello.
I'm not really a culture maker, but I can make Joseph Kony famous in strange circles. Take a moment to learn about this piece of crap. However, you can also learn a little something about the Invisible Children activist group by checking this blog: http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/ Awareness is good...on both sides. Just know what you support and why.
...However, Invisible Children was accused of spending most of its raised funds on salaries, travel expenses and film-making.
Bloggers also pointed out that NGO watchdog Charity Navigator had given the group only two out of four stars for financial accountability.
And an article in Foreign Affairs which accused Invisible Children and other non-profits of having "manipulated facts for strategic purposes" was circulated on the web.
Invisible Children posted a blog to answer the criticism.
Right at this moment, robotic probes launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and others are gathering information all across the solar system. We currently have spacecraft in orbit around the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn. Several others are on their way to smaller bodies, and a few are heading out of the solar system entirely. Although the Space Shuttle no longer flies, astronauts are still at work aboard the International Space Station, performing experiments and sending back amazing photos. With all these eyes in the sky, I'd like to take another opportunity to put together a recent photo album of our solar system - a set of family portraits, of sorts - as seen by our astronauts and mechanical emissaries. This time, we have some closer views of the asteroid Vesta, a visit to the durable (if dusty) Mars rover Opportunity, some glimpses of Saturn's moons, and lovely images of our home, planet Earth. HERE
Former National Party senator and businessman Bill O'Chee has been revealed as the most prolific Australian informant of a controversial private global intelligence company that is the target of a new campaign by WikiLeaks... Via
If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times. Australia, the advocates said, had an inferior rights record to Europe because all the countries of Europe were stitched up in its charter of rights. From Geoffrey Robertson, from Michael Kirby, from Susan Ryan came the argument that Australian law was falling behind other jurisdictions, all busily developing their human rights law precedents and specialisations.
Okay.
And how do you explain the treatment of Julian Assange under European jurisdictions, that of the UK and Sweden?
The Swedish judge is prosecutor…yes, the two roles in the one officer, an outrage by Australian standards. The trial in Sweden was in secret, the public locked out. The charge includes rape but the sex was consensual. The victims have exchanged emails talking revenge and money.
Hang on. None of the above happens here. Would anyone disagree that Assange would be better off in an Australian court? In a system, that is, without a charter or a bill of rights?
I know the issue of the charter is dead here, with the ALP for the first time in decades having no platform commitment to a bill of rights and the Coalition having no advocate of a chart in its ranks.
Even those law school enthusiasts who supported the campaign might be given pause by this case which confirms that convention and common law and ethos in a country like Australia counts more than the bogus promise of a charter like in Europe. Via
We have lots of wonderful footage of my face being peeled off, getting cheek implants, and my chest being split open to put in breasts. We can maybe make an art film out of it—for more limited audiences. We want to put the cost of each surgery in ticker tape on the bottom of the screen!
In early December 2011 64 music fans at a punk charity concert in Banda Aceh’s Tamen Budaya park were violently arrested by the Shari’ah police. The were not (and cannot) be charged with any crime but were forced to undergo religious education which included their heads being shaven and forced into the lake to bathe.
"The presence of the punk community is disturbing, and disrupts the life of the Banda Aceh public. This is a new social disease affecting Banda Aceh. If it is allowed to continue, the government will have to spend more money to handle them. Their morals are wrong. Men and women gather together, and that is against Islamic Shariah. We will keep conducting raids until they're all caught, then we'll bring them for re-education here. Aceh is a Shariah region. Everyone should obey it and the punk community is clearly against Shariah. This training will be an example in Indonesia of the re-education of the punks."
The religious police have threatened a continuation of arrests and re-education against the punks “until they are better.” When questioned about the targeting of punks due to their cleanliness the Police Chief justified the actions by drawing a distinction between them and “the clean punks that exist in different classes.” Asked why the police aren’t then targeting the homeless he stated “there are no homeless in Aceh, there are only punks.”
The Governor of Aceh has denied that the punks were even arrested saying, “the truth is that police are helping them develop (their skills).”
Human Rights Watch have pointed out the multitude of ways the authorities have abused the rights fo the detainees including the violation of freedom or expression and not receiving proper legal treatment. They are understandably concerned that this treatment will continue unless the case is processed legally.
"What did we do to deserve arresting? We didn't steal and we didn't bother anyone. The punk community in Banda Aceh is not involved with criminality. So what's the crime that justifies us being brought to this camp? This country hasn't yet made it illegal to express yourself, right?"
...The logs also detail Sabu's astonishing involvement in the hacking attack on the security company Stratfor, of which US citizen Jeremy Hammond is accused. A cache of more than 5m emails taken from an attack on the company's servers in December 2011 is currently being published by WikiLeaks, but the indictment documents reveal that straight after the attack, Sabu offered an FBI-owned server to store the cache – which was quickly accepted.
"btw I started unpacking on [CW-1]'s new server," an online identity alleged to be Hammond notes.
This not only gave the FBI access to review or even potentially amend the cache, but also an inside track on Anonymous' discussions on how to use the documents, and potentially – though not revealed within the files unsealed to date – conversations between Anonymous and WikiLeaks.
The US department of justice has convened a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks, based in Virginia. If through Sabu or information he had gleaned from other Anons the US could glean any evidence to tie Julian Assange to hacking attacks on US soil, such as Stratfor, the case for extradition would be substantially strengthened.
The extent of communication between WikiLeaks and Anonymous regarding the Stratfor leak is currently unknown.
Throughout the logs detailed in the indictments published to date, the informer talks to other hackers in the room, at one stage even proposing publishing private password details: "Wanna release that list of 92% cracked stratfor hashes?" he asks. "Hrm, your call..." the defendent replies. "I'd err on the side of no, so that way we can more fully exploit." MORE
