Archive for June, 2009
Surveillance Nation: America’s Most Closely Watched City
Reporting from Lancaster, PA — This historic town, where America’s founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction.
It may become the nation’s most closely watched small city.
Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town’s many tourists. That’s more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and Boston.
Unlike anywhere else, cash-strapped Lancaster outsourced its surveillance to a private nonprofit group that hires civilians to tilt, pan and zoom the cameras — and to call police if they spot suspicious activity. No government agency is directly involved.
Perhaps most surprising, the near-saturation surveillance of a community that saw four murders last year has sparked little public debate about whether the benefits for law enforcement outweigh the loss of privacy.
“Years…
Michael Moorcock on LSD, Immigration, and Writing
“People used to be convinced I’d written my fantasy novels on acid, but I had to disappoint them,” 69-year-old science fiction writer Michael Moorcock says in a new interview. “Strong sweet coffee and adrenaline was the secret and that probably gave me the neuropathy I enjoy today! So I wouldn’t recommend that, either…”
“I don’t have any regular practices or habits and, even if I had, I’d have to take the Fifth, I fear…. I signed a vast document when applying for my visa that I had never even been so much as near a vital herb.”
And what advice does he have for aspiring science fiction writers? “When people ask me what they should read in order to write fantasy or SF, I always answer stop reading it — read anything else.. That way you learn more and bring more to the fiction you’re writing.”
Moorcock is also collaborating with Alan Moore and…
Neo-Nazis Are in the Army Now
Matt Kennard, Salon: On a muggy Florida evening in 2008, I meet Iraq War veteran Forrest Fogarty in the Winghouse, a little bar-restaurant on the outskirts of Tampa, his favorite hangout. He told me on the phone I would recognize him by his skinhead. Sure enough, when I spot a white guy at a table by the door with a shaved head, white tank top and bulging muscles, I know it can only be him.
Over a plate of chicken wings, he tells me about his path into the white-power movement. “I was 14 when I decided I wanted to be a Nazi,” he says. At his first high school, near Los Angeles, he was bullied by black and Latino kids. That’s when he first heard Skrewdriver, a band he calls “the godfather of the white power movement.”
“I became obsessed,” he says. He had an image from one of Skrewdriver’s album…
Images From The #IranElection
Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch: As the world watches the violence and post-election protests escalate in Iran, startling images from the streets of Tehran are disseminating through various social media. Many of them are tagged #iranelection, a hashtag which started on Twitter but is spreading to Flickr and elsewhere.
Since it is difficult to find photos in the sea of Tweets using the same #iranelection tag I’ve been using Twicsy. If you search “iranelection” or “tehran iran”, dozens of images from the protests will pop up.
Fair warning: these images are raw and unfiltered, and some of them are quite gruesome, showing people getting shot and lying in pools of blood. The most tragic one shows what is described as a woman protester bleeding to death after being shot today. This same incident was caught on someone’s video or cell phone video camera and uploaded to YouTube. (I hesitate to link to this because it…
The Electric Rocket That May Put A Robotic Inchworm On The Moon
Charlie Jane Anders, i09.com: Here’s the “underdog” electric-powered rocket that just may conquer the Moon and win Google’s $30 million Lunar X Prize. The Lunatrex rocket uses a slow-but-steady approach, taking months instead of days to reach the Moon.
Google’s Lunar X Prize requires teams to put a robot on the moon, have it travel at least 500 meters across the lunar surface, and send high-definition photos back to Earth. There are 17 teams competing for the $30 million jackpot.
The Lunatrex team’s approach involves having a rocket build up speed while orbiting the Earth, before finally shooting off towards the Moon. The slow approach means you’d have weeks, not minutes, to make course corrections. Lunatrex is using an electric engine that shoots out a stream of charged particles to accelerate slowly, which has already worked well in probes like Deep Space 1 and the Dawn probe.
Lunatrex’s lunar robot designs are also…
Create Your Own ManBabies
MG Siegler, TechCrunch: I post this because it’s Friday, because it’s freaking hilarious, and because it could be a killer last-minute Father’s Day gift. Go visit ManBabies.com right now. I cannot stop laughing.
Babies are cute, and men are usually normal looking — but when you swap their heads, the results are truly terrifying. ManBabies does just that, both by creating its own images and accepting user submissions for photos that are then voted on by the community. And you can easily share all these pictures via the normal means: Twitter, Facebook, email and you can even embed them.
‘Hijacking Humanity’ A Documentary By Paul Verge
Brilliant documentary in the vein of Zeitgeist, Loose Change and The Obama Deception. Watch out for this guy Paul Verge, and spread this important film around!
Weird Animals – should we save them?
We humans are great at pouring money into protecting monkeys and cats, because they’re cute and look like us. But what about all those weird animals that you’d scream if you saw – shouldn’t we be protecting them just as much?
I think they’re adorable!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/photogalleries/amphibian-pictures/images/primary/Purplefrog_big.jpg
U.S. Fortifies Hawaii to Meet Threat From Korea
The U.S. is moving ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii as tensions escalate between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s recent moves to restart its nuclear-weapon program and resume test-firing long-range missiles.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang might soon fire a missile toward Hawaii. Some senior U.S. officials expect a North Korean test by midsummer, even though most don’t believe the missile would be capable of crossing the Pacific and reaching Hawaii.
Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.
What is Open Video?
Open Video Conference: As internet video matures, we face a crossroads: will technology and public policy support a more participatory culture — one that encourages and enables free expression and broader cultural engagement? Or will online video become a glorified TV-on-demand service, a central part of a permissions-based culture?
Open Video is a movement to promote free expression and innovation in online video. Join us for three days of inspiring talks, awesome video and film, open hacking sessions, parties, and cutting edge tech from around the world.
‘The Responsible Left:’ Funding Obama’s Expanding Wars $100 Billion a Vote
Jeremy Scahill: Over the past few days, we reported on how the White House and Democratic Congressional Leadership waged a dirty campaign to scare up votes to support another $106 billion in funds for their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, several of the so-called anti-war Democrats who left their principles at the House coat check on their way in to vote Tuesday are trying to explain away their hypocritical votes.
New York Democrat Anthony Weiner, who voted against the war funding in May—when it didn’t matter—only to vote Tuesday with the pro-war Dems, sounded like an imbecile when he made this statement after the vote: “We are in the process of wrapping up the wars. The president needed our support.” What planet is Weiner living on? “Wrapping up the wars?” Last time I checked, there are 21,000 more US troops heading to Afghanistan alongside a surge in contractors there,…
“The Responsible Left:” Funding Obama’s Expanding Wars $100 Billion a Vote
by Jeremy Scahill
Over the past few days, we reported on how the White House and Democratic Congressional Leadership waged a dirty campaign to scare up votes to support another $106 billion in funds for their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, several of the so-called anti-war Democrats who left their principles at the House coat check on their way in to vote Tuesday are trying to explain away their hypocritical votes.
New York Democrat Anthony Weiner, who voted against the war funding in May—when it didn’t matter—only to vote Tuesday with the pro-war Dems, sounded like an imbecile when he made this statement after the vote: “We are in the process of wrapping up the wars. The president needed our support.” What planet is Weiner living on? “Wrapping up the wars?” Last time I checked, there are 21,000 more US troops heading to Afghanistan alongside a surge in contractors there,…
Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax
Just in case you missed it here is an even clearer article regarding a bit of the disinfo we eat breath and sleap 24/7.
“Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation… Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion.” — Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009
Introduction: There is hardly any election, in which the White House has a significant stake, where the electoral defeat of the pro-US candidate is not denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite. In the most recent period, the White House and its camp followers cried foul following the free (and monitored) elections in Venezuela and Gaza, while joyously fabricating an ‘electoral success’ in Lebanon despite the fact that the Hezbollah-led coalition received over 53% of the vote.
US Congressmen Tell Dow to Clean Up Bhopal
A campaign in the United States led by two girl victims from Bhopal, highlighting lingering toxicity left behind by the 1984 gas disaster in their city, has paid off with a group of 27 members of the U.S. Congress asking Dow Chemicals to clean up the site.
Sarita and Sareen, both in their teens, were taken on a 42-day tour of the U.S., starting Apr. 21, by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) so they could meet and interact with officials, academics and politicians in New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco and other cities.
Rachna Dhingra, a member of the BGIA team, described the intervention of 27 Congressmen as a “big step” in getting Dow Chemicals to accept responsibility for cleaning up the disaster site in Bhopal, which it acquired from Union Carbide in 2001.
Woman Must Pay Record Companies $2 Million For File Sharing
CNET reports: Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of willful copyright infringement on Thursday in a Minneapolis federal court and must pay the recording industry $1.92 million.
In a surprise decision, the jury imposed damages against Thomas-Rasset, who was originally accused to sharing more than 1,700 songs, at a whopping $80,000 for each of the 24 songs she was ultimately found guilty of illegally sharing. Thomas-Rasset lost a previous trial in October 2007 when a jury rendered a $222,000 verdict against the Minnesota native.
According to Ars Technica reporter Nate Anderson, Thomas-Rasset gasped when the dollar amount was read in court. For the four largest recording companies, the jury’s decision is an affirmation of the legality of the industry’s copyright claims.
Swedish Church Worships Lego Jesus
A Protestant church in Sweden has made a life-size Jesus figure out of LEGOS. Forty people spent a year and a half on the endeavor, which took 30,000 LEGO pieces. Now this is a god that I can worship.
Ron Paul Slams New Financial Regulatory Proposal And Federal Reserve Power Grab
Ron Paul on MSNBC talking about Obama’s New Regulatory Reforms. Not surprisingly, he identifies the Federal Reserve’s power grab for what it is.
North Korea May Fire Missile At U.S. On Independence Day
North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.
Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii’s main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.
It was announced today that the U.S. has deployed anti-missile defences around Hawaii in response to the threat.
Magus: New Video on YouTube by Brett Fletcher
Great new video by Brett Fletcher. Description: The Magi: Francis Barrett and Eliphas Levi, set to the music of “Night On Bald Mountain” by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.
