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Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has come under fire for failing to condemn efforts by the state's Sons of Confederate Veterans to institute a license plate commemorating Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The general infamously slaughtered black Union troops that surrendered at Fort Pillow Tennessee in 1864 and became a Grand Wizard in the KKK after the war ended. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, meanwhile, say that the license plate is meant to commemorate those who lost their lives in the war... those words apparently aren't doing much to console members of the NAACP...
Last year, Larry Flynt Publications filed lawsuits against several thousand "John Does" the company accused of illegally sharing its movie "This Ain't Avatar XXX". Now, following on from problems it had gaining identities of Does from ISP Time Warner, thousands of cases have been dismissed by a senior judge. The road to gaining settlements from allegedly infringing individuals has just become massively more costly, and the profitable future for these type of projects in general now appears to be in serious doubt.
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| A protest march is staged at Glasgow University over plans to cut courses in a bid to save £20m. |
| The U.S. informed Arab governments Friday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal. But the Palestinian's rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesdy of Arab representativs and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution Friday, according officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospects that the Obama adminstration may cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council. |
| Wisconsin lawmakers are prepared to pass a momentous bill that would strip government workers of nearly all collective bargaining rights over the loud objections of thousands of teachers, students and prison guards who packed the Capitol for two days of protests. |
Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised by recent news that the Iraqi defector whose information helped build the Bush Administration's case for invading Iraq in 2003, has admitted he lied about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Continue reading →  |
| Während US-Außenministerin Clinton sich für die Internetfreiheit in anderen Ländern stark macht, aber WikiLeaks verurteilt, werden von republikanischen Senatoren wie John Ensign und Scott Brown sowie vom unabhängigen, aber den rechten zuneigenden Senator Lieberman Gesetzesentwürfe eingebracht, um Veröffentlichungen von Geheimdokumenten zu verhindern und als Spionage zu bestrafen. |
| BERLIN (Eigener Bericht) - Die Bundeswehr treibt mit Hilfe von `Friedensforschern` und Sozialwissenschaftlern ihren `Medienkrieg um die öffentliche Meinung` voran. Ein aktuelles propagandistisches Mittel hierfür ist ein im Internet präsentierter `Reader Sicherheitspolitik`, der `Meinungsführer` in der deutschen Gesellschaft ansprechen und für die Ziele der Bundeswehr gewinnen soll.............. Da die deutsche Bevölkerung nicht wie in anderen Staaten `selbstverständlich mit patriotischer Gesinnung` hinter ihren Streitkräften stehe, müsse eine "proaktive" Medienpolitik betrieben werden, heißt es: Die Presse sei `Teil des Schlachtfeldes" und müsse benutzt werden - `von innen heraus`......... |
| Als Teil der Operation "Save Our Children" wurden 84.000 Domains von der US-Regierung vom Netz getrennt, die meisten davon zu Unrecht. |
| Enthüllung des britischen Guardian: US-Außenminister Powell präsentierte zur Begründung des Kriegs gegen den Irak eine "Quelle" des deutschen Geheimdienstes |
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An anonymous reader writes " According to the CBC: 'An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the internet, CBC News has learned. The attack, first detected in early January, left Canadian counter-espionage agents scrambling to determine how much sensitive government information may have been stolen and by whom.' It should be noted that the Auditor-General warned of this months ago and was ignored by everyone as she usually is. It should also be noted that public sentiment towards China is getting very, very testy." Read more of this story
US-Forscher: 2200 sind 60 Prozent der Dauerfrostböden getaut - Erderwärmung wird verstärkt |
| It was the deliberate slaying of protesters in Tunisia that turned a regional uprising into a nationwide revolution... According to a source with ties to the interior ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, the shooters were members of a special militia that was organised independently from the presidential guard, although they were under the same command. The militia was formed by General Ali Seriati, the former head of presidential security, Rafik Belhaj Kassim, the former interior minister, and Leila Ben Ali, the former First Lady. They recruited members of the national police force and the presidential guard who had been discharged for serious infractions. These agents were given comfortable front positions as civil servants in various government ministries. To guarantee their loyalty, they received a second salary and other perks. During the uprising, the agents were called up for duty. Some were used as snipers or to commit acts of vandalism, whilst others feigned pro-Ben Ali protests, such as the one on the night of Ben Ali's speech. "[The strategy] was aimed at creating chaos, but luckily it didn't work," the source said. |
| China warns the US not to use calls for internet freedom as an excuse to meddle in other countries' affairs, and removes US embassy tweets discussing the issue. |
| Field Marshal Mohamad Tantawi, the head of the Higher Military Council that took control of Egypt last week, was also against economic reforms because they create "social instability". The briefings, in cables handed to the WikiLeaks website, raise questions about the field marshal's suitability for overseeing transition to a democratically elected government. |
| The United States' reliance on coal to generate almost half of its electricity, costs the economy about $345 billion a year in hidden expenses not borne by miners or utilities, including health problems in mining communities and pollution around power plants, a study found. |
| In theory, the domestic Internet should have survived that strike. But the cutoff also revealed how dependent Egypt's internal networks are on moment-to-moment information from systems that exist only outside the country - including e-mail servers at companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo; data centers in the United States; and the Internet directories called domain name servers, which can be physically located anywhere from Australia to Germany. |
| A plan by two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal - sparking Israeli ire - has been cancelled, says an Egyptian official. |
| Cyber crime costs the UK £27bn a year, according to the government's first published estimate of the figure. |
| Scientists around the world will be watching closely as three waves of charged particles from the Sun reach the Earth. |
| Nach einem Bericht des Münchener Merkur hat das bayerische Landeskriminalamt einen Verdächtigen drei Monate lang mithilfe eines auf den Rechner des Mannes eingeschleusten Trojaners überwacht. Der Trojaner hat offenbar immer dann, wenn der Verdächtige mit seinem Browser online war, alle 30 Sekunden einen Screenshot angefertigt. Auf diese Weise wurden über 60.000 Screenshots an die Polizeibehörde übermittelt. Damit konnte das Internetnutzungsverhalten des Verdächtigen lückenlos erfasst werden. |
| In an effort to safeguard the future of more than 1,500 varieties of potatoes, samples are being sent to an Arctic "doomsday vault". |
Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell wants the U.S. intelligence community to answer for its faulty intelligence on Iraq's WMD program. "The question should be put to the C.I.A." and the Pentagon, Powell told the U.K.'s The Guardian, as to why " false information was put into the [National Intelligence Estimate] sent to Congress, the president's State of the Union address and my…presentation to the U.N."
| In der Plagiats-Affäre gerät der deutsche Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg immer stärker in Erklärungsnot. Nicht zuletzt wegen der Blogger, die fleissig abgekupferte Textpassagen zusammentragen. Blogger machen sich einen Spass daraus, weitere Plagiate aufzustöbern. So wird auf einer Plattform bei Google dazu eingeladen, an «einer kollaborativen Dokumentation der Plagiate» mitzuarbeiten. |
| The Chinese government says the country's worst drought in decades is likely to continue, putting the winter wheat harvest at risk. |
In a dramatic departure from longstanding policy, the United States intends to support a United Nations Security Council resolutions censuring Israel for building settlements in Palestinian territory. [link]
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jhernik writes "International cyber threat initiatives are in danger of becoming overblown, the US government's security chief told the RSA Conference in San Francisco. 'Cyber war is a terrible metaphor,' said the US government's cybersecurity czar Howard Schmidt. 'Don't make it something it's not.' Internet attacks from hackers, spies and terrorist groups deserves serious attention, he said, but this should not be 'to the extent of mass hysteria'." Read more of this story
Das FBI wird am morgigen Freitag wahrscheinlich einen massiven Vorstoß für mehr Möglichkeiten zur Überwachung des Internet starten. Das geht angeblich aus einer geleakten Vorabversion einer Stellungnahme hervor, die die Leiterin der FBI-Rechtsabteilung, Valerie Caproni, morgen abgeben wird. |
| Public workers crowd into Wisconsin's state capitol to protest against a Republican effort to curtail their right to collective bargaining. |
| When it comes to developing cyberwar policy, the United States will likely wait for a catastrophic event and then overreact, rather than plan ahead, said former intelligence chief Mike McConnell at the RSA Conference on Wednesday. |
| The House forwarded legislation to the president Thursday to extend three controversial Patriot Act spy measures through May. They were set to expire at month's end. |
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President Obama today defended his plan to cut by half the home energy assistance program, which tens of thousands of New Englanders rely on to help pay their home heating bills.
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| World stocks hit a 30-month high on Thursday, driven by strong corporate earnings and cautious optimism on the U.S. economic recovery from the Federal Reserve, while oil prices edged |
| The FBI is expected to reveal Thursday that because of the rise of Web-based e-mail and social networks, it's "increasingly unable" to conduct certain types of surveillance that would be possible on cellular and traditional telephones. |
| In the eight months since Kenneth R. Feinberg took over the $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, he has been attacked by many of those filing claims and by coastal state politicians who argue that the process is opaque, arbitrary and slow. Many of them have also argued that Mr. Feinberg's recently-published estimates of future damage to those in the Gulf are too optimistic, and thus his offer of compensation in a final settlement too low. |
| A new poll found that 61 percent of Michigan voters said they would vote yes again or would be likely to vote yes. Support for 2008's Proposal 1, legalizing the possession and use of marijuana for medical reasons, was 62.6 percent statewide. |
| In ihrer Rede sagte die US-Außenministerin, es sei kein Widerspruch, gegen Wikileaks vorzugehen und gleichzeitig die Freiheit im Internet zu verteidigen. Sie betonte die Wichtigkeit der neuen sozialen Medien wie Facebook oder Twitter anhand der Vorkommnisse in der arabischen Welt und dementierte gleichzeitig, dass die US-Regierung Unternehmen die Zusammenarbeit mit Wikileaks untersagte. |
| The government agrees to provide an additional £200m to help the PSNI combat the dissident terror threat. |
| According to the results of a year-long study by the East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic, "casual gaming" has been proven to noticeably lower stress and anxiety in people suffering from clinical depression. |
| In den Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union (EU) wächst die Sorge über die finanzielle Lage Portugals und es wird angenommen, dass das wirtschaftlich schwache Land bis April gerettet werden muss. |
| Werden die EU-Staaten ihre Souveränität mittel- bis langfristig vollständig verlieren? Zumindest wenn es nach dem Willen des Präsidenten der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB), Jean-Claude Trichet geht. Trichet träumt in der "Zeit" von den "Vereinigten Staaten von Europa" und fordert in diesem Zusammenhang die Abschaffung der nationalen Geldpolitik. |
| Dutzende Panzer fahren auf Augenzeugen berichteten, dass mehrere Explosionen zu hören waren. Die Zugänge zu dem Platz, auf dem hunderte Menschen in Zelten die Nacht verbrachten, war von der Polizei abgeriegelt worden. USA sind sehr besorgt Die USA, deren 5. Flotte in Bahrain ihre Basis hat, zeigten sich `sehr besorgt` über die Entwicklung in dem Land. Der Sprecher des Weissen Hauses sagte US-Präsident Barack Obama beobachte die Ereignisse genau. Obama sei überzeugt, Bahrain müsse wie alle Staaten der Region die Rechte ihrer Bürger achten. |
Dirty GOP: The Republican Plan To Abolish The EPA
| Galaxies need 10 times less dark matter to sustain star formation than previously thought, but just the right amount can set off rapid star formation, a recent study suggests. |
| Brazil's Catholic bishops criticise the country's popular reality TV shows, claiming they have a low moral level and are "an abusive and immoral exploitation". |
| Hicks was brutally tortured. Psychologically and physically for four years, maybe longer. He was injected in the back of his neck with unknown drugs. He was sodomized with a foreign object. He spent nearly a year in solitary confinement. He was beaten once for ten hours. |
| Europe's unmanned space freighter launches from French Guiana on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. |
| People who don't believe their pain medicine will work can actually reduce or even cancel out the effectiveness of the drug, and images of their brains show how they are doing it, scientists said on Wednesday. |
| Republican strategist and Fox News commentator Karl Rove spoke out on skepticism among some in his party over whether or not President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday night. "Within our party, we've got to be very careful about allowing these people who are the birthers and the 9/11-deniers to get too high a profile and say too much without setting the record straight," said Rove, according to a transcript of the exchange with Bill O'Reilly from GOP12. |
| Patients in the U.S. trust their physicians, but not the electronic health records those doctors are now implementing. In fact, many worry that their health information will someday be used by criminals for blackmail or by companies to choose who they should hire. |
| Police officers were dispatched to find Wisconsin state lawmakers who boycotted a vote on a sweeping bill that would strip most government workers of their collective bargaining rights. |
Why I stopped travelling to the US and I largely stopped doing business in the US. [link]
Progressive Solidarity Movement Emerges In Wisconsin
