Cognitive Dissidents

The Observer | UK News | Today, our chance to fight a new hi-tech tyranny

The internet is big business, but in the search for profits some companies have encroached on their own principles and those on which the internet was founded: free access to information.

The results of searches using China-based search engines run by Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and local firms are censored, limiting the information users can access.

Microsoft pulled down the work of one of China's most popular bloggers who had made politically sensitive comments. Yahoo gave information to the authorities that led to people being jailed for sending emails with political content.

We do not accept these firms' arguments that it is better to have a censored Google, Yahoo or Microsoft in China than none at all.

Tags: amnesty international, censorship, internet censorship, censorware, cyber curtain, irrepressible information, google, yahoo, microsoft, repression

Posted by Dr. K at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

asahi.com：Japan Coast Guard to establish anti-pirate team

The Japan Coast Guard will heighten efforts to deal with pirates in the Malacca Strait and other areas of Southeast Asia to protect Japanese ships against attacks, officials said. The coast guard will establish a five-member team of experts in anti-piracy issues, who will gather information from dangerous areas, analyze the data and come up with countermeasures. The information will be shared with shipping companies.

Tags: piracy at sea, japan

Posted by Dr. K at 11:29 AM | Permalink

DAILY STAR: Top Stories

The five, who were reportedly heavily armed, were allegedly overpowered and nabbed by the crew of F/B Cadiz City, owned by businessman Steven Be, when they boarded their vessel in the waters off the coast of Isla Higantes in Iloilo.

Briones, on the other hand, claimed the five were volunteers of the Masbate Bantay Dagat and had boarded the vessel in waters near Gin-awayan Island in Masbate and not Isla Higantes in Iloilo.

He claimed Be, boat captain Sergio Escala Sr., Joseph Ariel Resquites and 35 crew members were responsible for the abduction, murder and attempted murder of Bantay Dagat volunteers of Masbate.

Tags: piracy at sea, philippines

Posted by Dr. K at 11:26 AM | Permalink

I've been going through the comments and changing the spam URLs to sensible ones ... while doing so I've tracked down some of the blogs that are also being spammed or quoted - there are some real gems - this is more fun than technorati

I recommend this article Less than Size Zero from Rollertrain - somebody used the last line of the article for a piece of porn spam - the article is MUCH more interesting.

Next up was googling for people who had been spammed with the comment "Fear, loathing, and perfunctory seduction" - who else had this character picked?

Well there is this great story about a 48 cylinder motorcycle that I highly recommend. Three years in the making and 48 cylinders does not an elegant bike make!!

Next up is xavodim which seems like a nice sensible blog about web design and development that was good enough to make it into my RSS reader - thanks spammer!!

Moving along nicely we come to the article Can I Still Call Google GouGou "Doggy" 狗狗?: Cultural Implications of Google’s New Chinese Name-谷歌 - yet another sensible blog which made it into my RSS reader.

I though the spammer might have taste .... but next up was some kind of financial blog which has severe comment moderations problems ... no seriously ...

Andy Wibbels "the original blogging evangelist" - had one of those "40 things you Wanted to Know about Blogging" articles which I actually hadn't read yet and will add to my list of "100 articles about blogging you need to read" ...

I really tried hard to figure out what Acting to Improve was all about - but after two paragraphs I gave up ... no sorry I just tried reading it again and I don't get it - maybe wiser minds than mine can see it ... try this quote:

I believe that a small first person action research study such as mine can only make small claims of impact. The main impact has been on myself and on my own practice. This impact does not easily lend itself to measurement, these are subtle shifts in my attitudes and thinking. There is some potential impact on my professional development in that the research moves me nearer to needs identified in my mission statement in my personal development plan at the end of year 1.

I guess I should move swiftly on to NY Metro who have a story about a cinematographers strike - why did the spammer pick on that?

In fact why did the spammer pick any of the blogs that he/she spammed? There is no rhyme nor reason to any of the choices - and there is no discernable pattern to the blogs chosen - I've just picked out the interesting ones from the first Google results page ....

Still I found a couple of blogs I didn't know about - maybe I'll spamtrack some other blog comments and see what else emerges.

The site being promoted? No idea - and if the spammer thinks I'd link to it they are completely mad ... and I am still no closer to finding out where the line "fear, loathing and perfunctory seduction" originally came from.

Tags: spam, blogspam, comment spam, spam spam, spam search, technorati

Posted by Dr. K at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Independent Online Edition: Americas

No - this is not about child pornography and censorship on the internet - this is about the systematic abuse of children which could possibly have been US government sanctioned.

The notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay has been hit by fresh allegations of human rights abuses, with claims that dozens of children were sent there - some as young as 14 years old.

Lawyers in London estimate that more than 60 detainees held at the terrorists' prison camp were boys under 18 when they were captured.

They include at least 10 detainees still held at the US base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured.

I believe, the same callousness that allows us to send teens to boot camps in which "pain compliance' tactics are expressly permitted, the same callousness that allows us to try juvenile offenders as adults (you're not old enough to drink or vote, but once you commit murder, you're suddenly mature enough to be held accountable for it) and until recently, to put them to death, is responsible. America likes to see itself as humane and compassionate-- but if we look at the way we treat children, the picture is far from flattering.

Tags: child abuse, independent, guantanamo, human rights, child rights, human rights violations, maia szalavitz

Posted by Dr. K at 8:54 PM | Permalink

NASA - In Search of Crater Chains

In a remote windswept area named Aorounga, in Chad, there are three craters in a row, each about 10 km in diameter. "We believe this is a 'crater chain' formed by the impact of a fragmented comet or asteroid about 400 million years ago in the Late Devonian period," explains Adriana Ocampo of NASA headquarters.

Now that everyone seems to be reporting structures, please, independently of using NASA World Wind, Google Maps, Google Earth, etc., please if you think you have discovered anything use Google Earth (download it if it is not yet installed in your computer) and turn Google Earth Community layer on. This is the first thing to see if anyone else found that structure before. Later using NASA World Wind for verifying is great. With different layers maybe you can appreciate more details, and the 3D view can be helpful.

Please don't bother geologists with anything that looks like a circle

Tags: astroseti, aorounga, kebira, crater chains, emilio gonzález, nasa, meteorites, google earth,near earth objects

Posted by Dr. K at 12:42 PM | Permalink

Wired News: Just Give Me a Simple Phone

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas -- Nathan Bales represents a troubling trend for cellular phone carriers. The Kansas City-area countertop installer recently traded in a number of feature-laden phones for a stripped-down model. He said he didn't like using them to surf the internet, rarely took pictures with them and couldn't stand scrolling through seemingly endless menus to get the functions to work.

I can't use them because they are un-ergonomic to me - and to millions of older mobile phone users.

I have here on my desk a calculator that is about 160x100mm in size and the same weight as a my mobile - it has a large clear screen that I can read without glasses and buttons that I can easily hit with my fingers.

Why can't the mobile phone companies make a phone of this size and design? There would be enough screen space to do whatever was needed and the buttons would be easier to access. Not only that but it would fit nicely into an inside breast pocket of a jacket, inside my waistcoat pocket - almost anywhere.

If I had a phone that was easy to use I would use texting more - but right now texting is the last resort - because the phone was designed for much smaller hands than mine - and the idea of doing email and wap over my phone (which is is quite capable of doing) is out of the question.

So you can forget "convergence" for a large sector of the market - they already have problems programming the video - and loading new features onto a phone only sells the phone to people who want - and use - those features.

My phone is feature laden - but which feature do I use most? The ability to make and take a phone call.

Everything else is ignored - the calendar, the agenda, the alarms, the wap, the games - the whole lot is dead to me.

Phone companies take note - the reason why we only have one mobile phone in the house is that they are too small and difficult to use - if they were easier to use you'd sell me 2 - one to replace the old one and one for my wife who currently refuses to have anything to do with them.

So don't be talking to me about "market saturation" - the market is not saturated - you aren't reaching all of the market.

Time for a rethink - please.

Tags: mobile phones, convergence, market saturation, ergonomics

Posted by Dr. K at 10:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Talking about psychic powers and thinking of a Fortean nature reminded me I've had this scan of a two headed sheep on my desktop for ages and been meaning to post it.

These scans are from an article in Diario de Cadiz.

Tags: fortean, diario de cadiz, two headed sheep

Posted by Dr. K at 2:47 PM | Permalink

BBC NEWS | UK | Britons report 'psychic powers'

Of 1,006 adults polled for Readers Digest Magazine, 43% reported reading others' thoughts or having theirs read.

More than half had had a dream or premonition of an event before it happened and 26% said they had sensed when a loved-one was ill or in trouble.

A fifth said they had seen a ghost and 29% believed near-death experiences were evidence there was an afterlife.

Of those questioned, 43% claimed to have tapped into other people's thoughts or to have had their own minds read by someone else.

Tags: psychics, fortean, skeptic, parapsychology, sony

Posted by Dr. K at 2:03 PM | Permalink

MPAA accused of hiring a hacker | CNET News.com

The Motion Picture Association of America hired a hacker to steal information from a company that the MPAA has accused of helping copyright violators, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

This will be one to watch - if the claims are true and stand up in court it will expose MPAA as an organisation with no scruples whatsover.

"We have very significant proof of wrongdoing and the MPAA's involvement,"

"We think it's ironic for the MPAA to claim that they are protecting the rights of the movie studios and then go out and pirate other people's property."

You can get a copy of a pdf of the lawsuit here - it makes interesting reading.

Tags: mpaa, piracy, copyright violation, hackers, bittorrent, lawsuits, copyright, search engine

Posted by Dr. K at 1:21 PM | Permalink

In the Fight Against Spam E-Mail, Goliath Wins Again

Reshef's Silicon Valley company, Blue Security Inc., simply asked the spammers to stop sending junk e-mail to his clients. But because those sort of requests tend to be ignored, Blue Security took them to a new level: it bombarded the spammers with requests from all 522,000 of its customers at the same time.

Then, earlier this month, a Russia-based spammer counterattacked, Reshef said. Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded Blue Security with so much Internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to Bluesecurity.com, as well as to other Web sites. The spammer also sent another message: Cease operations or Blue Security customers will soon find themselves targeted with virus-filled attacks.

Tags: email, spam, ddos, cyber extortion, cyber crime, livemail, spam blockers, cyber war

Posted by Dr. K at 10:32 AM | Permalink

From the Washington Post comes this interesting piece about education in Saudi Arabia.

This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.)

A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith."

Religious minorities would have their own color schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes, while Christians will be assigned the color red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the color of their zonnar.

Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, said in an e-mail to the Post yesterday that, “We wish to categorically reject the news item.

“These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step.”

the selection of yellow for Iran's 25,000 Jews is especially odious: One of the earliest pieces of anti-Jewish legislation in Nazi Germany required all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on the front of their clothes. Intended as a mark of shame, this patch also helped single out Jews for persecution.

Soon the Jews were more than stigmatized; they were shipped to death camps.

The new Iranian law actually dates back to 2004, but was blocked within the Majlis. Now that Ahmadinejad has lifted roadblock - who has also threatened to obliterate Israel. Which is why the echoes from Nazi Germany are so ominous.
of the reports.

The new law imposes a total ban on wearing neckties and bow ties, which are regarded as "symbols of the Cross." Will Iranian Christians be allowed to wear them, nevertheless? No one knows.

Q1370: What is the view on wearing a necktie?

A: Generally speaking, it is not permissible to wear a tie, or other kinds of clothes that are considered as the attire of non-Muslims, in such a way that their wearing will promote vile Western culture. The ruling is not confined to people of the Islamic Republic.

Tags: iran, new cold war, islam, islamic clothing, neckties, ahmadinejad, khamenei

Posted by Dr. K at 12:38 PM | Permalink

Censoring the Internet?

Finally net-neutrality and Internet censorship is becoming a concern in mainstream political blogs.

If you've never considered the possibility that the federal government might one day tell you what websites you could access, what files you could download, and even what software packages you could install on your computer, it might be time to take a look at "Hands Off the Internet," a site representing a coalition of Internet users who have taken a proactive stance on maintaining "Net Neutrality."

Their logo of "Say NO to Government Regulation of the Internet" is complimented with pages of links to articles which further address the subject, a news section, two form letters to contact your legislators to voice your concerns about possible government interference of the Internet, and a chance to sign-up for site updates and further legislative movement as it develops.

Right now the threat of censorship and the end of net neutrality means that the "End of Cyberspace is not just a metaphor anymore.

Maybe the the end of the internet has suddenly become a real possibilty.

Tags: censorware, censorship, net-neutrality, internet censorship, blacklists, ubiquitous state, new cold war

Posted by Dr. K at 12:51 PM | Permalink

10 Things You Might Not Know About Censorware

This is a good article about censorware which sums up the main issues very nicely by Seth Finkelstein.

1. Censorware isn’t just for kids
2. Programmers have been sued for publishing reverse-engineering of censorware
3. Censorware often blacklists language translation sites, as a LOOPHOLE
4. Censorware often blacklists the Google cache
5. Censorware research has been one of the few successful DMCA exemptions
6. Legal arguments over the effectiveness of censorware were the reason for the subpoena for data from Google and other search engines
7. If censorware works for parents to control children in the US, it’ll work for governments to control citizens in e.g. China. Contrariwise, if censorware can’t work for governments to control citizens in e.g. China, it can’t work for parents to control children in the US.
8. Nobody wants the “.XXX domain”, except people trying to make money from it.
9. Nobody wants a kids-only domain, except politicians
10. Censorware sex blacklists are overall very boring

Tags: censorware, seth finkelstein, blacklists, censorship, internet censorship, dmca, free speech

Posted by Dr. K at 2:27 PM | Permalink

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Brazilian Stonehenge' discovered

Brazilian archaeologists have found an ancient stone structure in a remote corner of the Amazon that may cast new light on the region's past. The site, thought to be an observatory or place of worship, pre-dates European colonisation and is said to suggest a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy.

Tags: archaeology, astro archaeology, amerinidian archaeology, astronomy, stone circles, winter solstice

Posted by Dr. K at 1:44 PM | Permalink

The recent case of Gary McKinnon has highlighted problems wih the ongoing governmental programmes which demonises "hackers" in order to "up the ante" - and guarantee funding to watch all of us - forever.

The real problem is that the US Military installed commercial software for the remote control of PCs.without changing the default passwords

The US MILITARY were not bothered enough - or not intelligent enough - to ensure that a commonly known vulnerability and exploit was patched in order to protect the confidentiallity, integrity and access to their systems.

For two years ...

You't think that sort of thing was important - especially in the age of "Homeland Security" and the "imminent threat of terrorist attacks" - I wonder if Osama and his crew noticed the gaping security hole?

But the US Military didn't - and then some non-terrorist hacker was caught using the most basic of hacks to subvert the public portions of milnet.

Now the US Government want their pound of flesh - extradition and imprisonment in the USA, a hostile and foreign country - for up to 70 years.

This would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" - to be locked up in an American prison thousands of miles from friends and family (who would probably end up on a "no-fly" list anyhow) - for exploiting the ignorance and stupidity of military systems administators.

Gary McKinnon might be many things.

He might have pulled off the "greatest military hack" of all time in the eyes of the media - but many of his peers have a slightly different opionion of him - opinions that make it plain we are NOT dealing with some super-criminal quasi-terrorist uber-hacker.

There are laws in the UK to deal with this kind of trans-national data crime - and it is important that they are used to maintain national sovereignity - especially in the face of the US led "war on terror" where we are all are potential suspects and anyone could suffer "extraordinary rendition" if their name is similar to a name on the ever-increasing list of secret databases that watch our every move.

The UK should not extradite Gary McKinnon to the US.

Not just because the US military were incompetent, and not just because it would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" or for any of the other reasons that anyone has suggested,

It is because the UK should try, sentence and punish Gary McKinnon in the UK - in a jury of his peers, in the UK, where he is not seen as a "foreign combatant" - and to ensure that any other UK citizen accused in the "war on terror" is not whisked away at a whim by the US government.

Anything else would be nothing more than an attempt at scapegoating a hacker for governmental shortcomings.

The money spent on this case would be better spent on training systems administrators and ensuring that MILITARY systems do not have default passwords and vulnerabilities that last for TWO YEARS.

"Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?".

It was a good question in 1967 - it is still relevant now.

Tags: gary mckinnon, hackers, military, military hacks, military intelligence, oxymoron, rees-mogg, free gary

Posted by Dr. K at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Whiskey Bar: Leviathan

Some of these data sources are in the public record, and many of the tools listed are standard commercial packages. But when you add it all up -- in its Totality, so to speak – you can see the Pentagon is amassing an internal surveillance capability that could, if put through all its paces, outclass anything the old Soviet Union ever brought to bear on its own citizens – at least in terms of the ability to aggregate and analyze vast amounts of personal data very quickly.

Tags: big brother, counter insurgency, terrorism, nsa, phone-tapping, fifth-column, imaginary threats, surveillance, ubiquitous state

Posted by Dr. K at 9:19 PM | Permalink

deepikaglobal.com - National News Detail

Mumbai, May 12 (UNI) The fifth National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB) meeting today discussed the preventive measures required to be instituted against pirate attacks in high seas and international waters and the development of low cost emergency transmitters for search and rescue operations.

Tags: piracy, copyright-theft

Posted by Dr. K at 12:34 PM | Permalink

I recently compiled a list of my Top 10 Time Wasters on the Internet - I guess I had nothing better to do.

Google Earth - If you want to have a life and not spend the entire time zooming around the planet volcano spotting or hunting for the perfect unspoilt beach - then you should NOT download this.

Google - Everything you never wanted to know about everything you don't need to know about. Warning: Your addiction will get worse if you read this book.

Email - I don't need penis enlargement, I don't drive, I already have business cards and I don't need a free phone. One of the greatest killer apps on the planet has turned into one of the killer pains in the ... well you get the picture.

TailRank and/or Rojo. News for news junkies and where I get part of my daily fix.

Google News - Real world news from the over 4500 sources, searchable by keyword and allowing for RSS feeds. This service has wasted a lot of my time lately.

digg - Technology news which is the only viable alternative to slashdot

del.icio.us - The Number One social bookmarking website is a Number One timesink too. Why are other people's bookmarks so fascinating?

Technorati - If you don't read blogs already - don't go here. Because they have MILLIONS of the darned things.

Squidoo - Be an expert - make a lens. Its so addictive that 10 lenses later you realise you had work to do. At least I earned $0.11 for my efforts.

flickr - The top social photo sharing site is so good that I can never resist it. Just one more keyword. Go on - you know you want to.

Tags: internet, computing, time-wasting, timesinks, top10

Posted by Dr. K at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a crazy story - apparently a five-pointed star was made by mistake in a new playground project - and now they are going to spend money to change it because it is a "satanic symbol".

Springfield resident Leland Rhodes said he found the design "distressing."

"There is a certain breed of individual out there who reveres such symbols, and in that context, it becomes a religious icon. In this day and age of general concern for children's welfare, especially in regard to predators, my main concern was for the crowd that it might draw," Rhodes said.

But - five pointed stars are everywhere - all over the place - are they all going to attract "certain breeds of individuals" because "it is a religious icon"?

Will Mr. Rhodes require other changes to, for example, the flag of the USA, because of the 50 five pointed stars on "Old Glory". Surely it is 50 times as likely to attact "certain breeds of individuals" and might even "draw a crowd" of "predators".

This is plain daft. Why can't a five-pointed star just be a five pointed star? - and if some new-age hippies want to burn candles - so what? it is a public park after all.

I personally find moonlit or candlelit picnics romantic and fun - I don't need a five pointed star to do it - and to spend money changing up a harmless design is just stupid - religious correctness gone mad.

Tags:pentagram religious-correctness satanism

Posted by Dr. K at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Creating Passionate Users: The myth of "keeping up"
Made me laugh - because I'm so busy not keeping up that I haven't time to keep up ...

Posted by Dr. K at 12:12 AM | Permalink