Berkman Center for Internet & Society

In spite of claims by the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) of a peaceful, orderly, and ultimately successful elections last May 13, 2013, poll watchdogs, civil society groups, IT experts, and netizens are alleging that the midterm polls were tainted by automated fraud, massive vote buying, electoral violence, and other various irregularities.

The 2013 mid-term automated elections has been declared by independent poll watch groups as a “technological and political disaster”:

In 2010, a significant number of clustered precincts in both provinces and cities had delayed transmissions of up to two days; as of May 17 or four days after this year’s election, 18,187 clustered precincts or 23% of the total number failed to transmit election returns affecting if not potentially disenfranchising 8.6M voters.

Like in the 2010 presidential elections, the recently concluded polls used an automated election system (AES) which supplanted the manual system used in the 2007 polls and preceding years. The AES involves the use of a Precinct Counting Optical Scan or PCOS machine which records, counts, and transmits votes to a central server for canvassing and consolidation.

The AES Watch said that most of the election problems that it monitored were PCOS-related. This includes initialization errors, machine breakdown to hardware problems, ballot rejection by the machine, and transmission problems from the machine to the canvassing centers and Comelec servers.

This comes alongside observations of an improbable “pattern” of the votes obtained by senatorial candidates during the elections wherein those coming from the administration party consistently got 60 percent, the ones from the Opposition United Nationalist Alliance got 30 percent, and the independents got 10 percent of the votes.

Sorting through the tallies of the senatorial race from the first to the 16th canvass reports, Ateneo University professor Lex Muga noted the peculiar pattern. Using the election data released from the news website Rappler.com, the blog Radar Sweep meanwhile discovered the same pattern in all 11 intervals checked.

“Hacking Our Democracy” author Prof. Rene Azurin warned that the uniformity of the senatorial race results wherein no ranking changes occurred from the beginning to every lull in the counting pointed to the pre-programming of the automated system in order to ensure a 9-3 victory for the ruling party. Azurin cites former Comelec IT director Ernie del Rosario who said:

The progressive tallies follow some sort of deterministic linear equation devoid of the influence of any probabilistic parameter or variable. This can only mean one thing — it is a pre-designed results reporting mechanism that fits the 9-3 survey instead of a tally of the actual votes. I will call it the 9-3 Formula. Notice that the rankings of the candidates in the entire tally (1st to 33rd place) from the time the first report was published to subsequent ones are practically unchanged. What happened to the individual candidates’ known bailiwicks that should have caused some ranking movements in the tallied results? Smoothened by the 9-3 linear formula?

In a Facebook post, Center for People Empowerment in Governance IT consultant Pablo Manalastas comments:

The correct test to determine a “conspiracy” is NOT to check the national averages to see how close to 60-30-10 we can get, because this is exactly what the law of large numbers tells us that we will get. The more correct indicator of a conspiracy is if we get the same 60-30-10 figures in a precinct-by-precinct comparison, provided that the precinct figures were used to get the national canvass.

Meanwhile, Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals Union also shared graphs showing the same disturbing pattern in all 18 towns of Bohol Province on Facebook.

Boholanos seem to have been genetically modified. They voted the same. The rank of the senators is almost the same in all the towns.

These fears of automated fraud is aggravated by the Comelec's lack of transparency in the conduct of the automated polls, as pointed out by Kontra Daya:

The Comelec failed to implement the basic security safeguards mandated under R.A. 9369 or the Poll Automation Law, particularly the review of the PCOS source code by political parties and citizen’s groups prior to the elections… The so-called PCOS “source code review” that was supposedly started days before the polls was worthless in terms of ensuring the integrity of the machines. It was nothing but a publicity stunt by Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. in a vain attempt to silence critics.

An hour after the voting ended last elections, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) which is the official citizen arm of the Comelec announced the partial and unofficial results from 1,418 precincts wherein more than 10 million of the votes were obtained by administration senatorial candidate Grace Poe.

When independent poll watchdogs pointed out that the figure was bloated, the PPCRV reportedly had Smartmatic change the script of the source code saying the data was incorrectly formatted and double counted.

The error is significant, as a maximum of 1,000 voters per precinct should only yield a total of around 1,418,000 maximum votes… That Smartmatic can change the script of the source code during the canvassing shows serious problems with the entire automated system.

Dr. Carol Araullo questions why a foreign corporation is allowed to control the country's elections.

More pernicious and fatal to our democratic processes, or the appearance thereof, is the virtual enthronement, if the Commission on Elections is to have its way, of the current automated election system designed and operationalized by a foreign multinational company, SMARTMATIC, to a seat of honor in running and controlling Philippine elections.

The Comelec's all too hasty proclamation of the first six winning senatorial candidates based only on 23 percent of 301 Certificates of Canvass also did not help win the confidence of the public.

In response to accusations, Comelec Chairperson Sixto Brillantes questioned the motives of those questioning the conduct of the polls and accused them of engaging in a “conspiracy”. He warned them to shut up or face legal charges. Various groups are calling for a manual recount as the only way to ensure the validity of the election results.

Written by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

On April 18, 2013 India's Supreme Court ruled that village councils should make the final decision as to whether controversial British company Vedanta Resources can mine for bauxite in the eastern state of Odisha. Vedanta wants to mine on land that the local Dongria Kondh people hold sacred.

The controversy over the proposed bauxite mine dates back to 2004, and an international campaign has been waged against Vedanta's plans. The Supreme Court rejected a request from the company to end a ban on mining, and ruled that two local councils, or gram sabhas, should respond within three months on whether or not they want it to proceed.

The Dongria Kondh live in the upper reaches of the Niyamgiri hills and regard the hills and forests as deities. The highest hill, which is in the proposed mining area, is the home of their most revered god, Niyam Raja.

On the environmental news site Down To Earth, Richard Mahapatra wrote a blog post called My god v. your resource:

Is a village council qualified to deal with religious beliefs? The answer lies in a recent order by the Supreme Court in the Vedanta case. Gram sabhas (village councils consisting of all voters in a village) in Odisha’s Rayagada and Kalahandi districts will decide whether the industrial activities of Vedanta violate the constitutional right of tribal communities to worship. Translated into practice, the order means voters in a few villages will decide the fate of the multi-billion-rupee project based on their religious beliefs. Though parroted often that religious belief is a private concern, the apex court’s order is exceptional in making religious decision a community one.

He continued:

There are a few reasons that make this case interesting. First, it is a perfect case where the government’s power to acquire land for public purpose and having right over minerals are in direct conflict with religious rights of local communities. Secondly, the religious belief in question is that of tribal communities. Unlike many religions, tribal religious beliefs are manifested in tangible living forms like forest, land and water. In this case, the direct conflict between religious belief and public purpose becomes intense as the public purpose acquisitions are the gods and goddesses of the tribals. For the Dongria Kondhs in Odisha, the Niyamgiri hill is the Niyam Raja or god. Thirdly, tribals do not have any supreme religious head or bodies to protect and interpret beliefs. Tribal beliefs are pure functional codes for maintaining the fragile ecology-economy equation that sustains them. This is where the court’s order to assign the village council, that enjoys constitutional powers, to take a call on the religious rights comes as an acknowledgement of the fact that the standard law and religion approach to tribal areas will not work.

Environmentalist Sunita Narain (@sunitanar) commented on the ruling:

@sunitanar: Vedanta judgement is environmentalism of poor. Deepening of democracy way ahead for green growth. Must welcome.

But journalist Prayaag Akbar (@unessentialist) was not impressed with how the ruling was reported:

@unessentialist: A tribal deity won't decide, Times of India, a gram sabha will. So stop sneering. Horrific reporting

At media monitoring website The Hoot, Aritra Bhattacharya noted:

Most reports failed to point out the fact that the court had, in a sense, chosen to bypass the most vexing questions relating to violations of environmental laws in the case. The Supreme Court decision, while granting the ‘right’ to decide on the fate of the bauxite mine to the gram sabhas, chose to set aside all ecological concerns and made religious rights of the Niyamgiri tribals the central plank of the judgement. [...] In the coming months, local bodies in the area will have to deal with the following question: will the local deity be disturbed if mining is allowed within a 10-km radius of his/her abode? How much space, and what kind of access will be required to preserve my religious practices and rituals? As is evident, there can be no factual replies to such questions; instead, responses will be based on perceptions.

It has been alleged that the Odisha government and Vedanta are now pushing for gram sabha decisions in favour of the proposed bauxite mining. On May 22 a rally and public meeting of Dongria Kondh took place at Munikhol in Rayagada district, after a five-day march. CGNet Swara citizen journalist Litu Minj reported that the villagers were determined not to allow any company to mine in the Niyamgiri hills.

The following short video uploaded to YouTube by KBKNEWS shows Dongria Kondh in Niyamgiri celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling:

Written by Ayesha Saldanha · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

This is the case that has united Serbia: Saško Bogeski [sr], who killed burglar Vlada Manić in his home in Belgrade on Tuesday, was arrested immediately and ordered by a judge yesterday to be held in jail on remand for 30 days. According to the authorities, Bogeski had allegedly crossed the line of what is known as “necessary defense” [sr] in the Serbian law.

Serbian netizens are demanding urgent amendments to the Penal Code of the Republic of Serbia [sr], which defines “necessary defense” in such a way that makes it extremely difficult to prove, while interpretations frequently play against the attacked individuals.

Twitter user @zmiroljub resonated [sr] the opinion of most netizens following this case:

Ovog coveka treba javnost da podrzi. Da je provalnik pobio njegovu porodicu, to bi bila samo vest na naslovnoj Blica…

This man needs public support. If the burglar had murdered his family, it would have just been a news item on the front page of Blic [a Serbian daily]…

Many netizens, such as Twitter user Biljana Lukic, sound overwhelmingly disgruntled and sarcastic [sr]:

Kad vam upadne provalnik u kuću, budite ljubazni, pokažite mu gde držite vrednosti i nadajte se da ćete preživeti. Ako se branite, robijaćete.

When a burglar enters your home, be polite, show him where you keep your valuables and hope that you will survive. If you defend yourself, you will serve prison time.

User @web_neki_tamo writes [sr]:

Ako mi upadne provalnik prvo ću da ga pitam šta ima od oružja, da ne bih slučajno uzeo nešto što je jače od njegovog.

If a burglar drops in, I'll ask him which weapons he has first, so I don't accidentally grab something more powerful than what he has.

Similar laws are in place in most countries of the former Yugoslavia, while most other European countries often interpret “necessary defense” in a wider sense and such cases often proceed without trial and are not viewed as criminal acts.

An online petition in support of Bogeski [sr] has been launched, and over 8,100 people have already signed it. In the petition, Bogeski is described as a well-known philanthropist and a committed activist for the rights of marginalized groups. He is the president of an NGO that stands for the promotion of ethical values in private and public lives of individuals. During the war in Bosnia, he worked in a Bible school and helped displaced individuals and those with special needs. He was also part of the team that brought Nick Vujicic, a Serbian-Australian motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs, to Belgrade. He has had no prior misdemeanors or criminal charges. The killed burglar, on the other hand, was a multiple offender with over 50 prior criminal charges for offenses that included robbery and armed robbery.

In the Serbian society, there is an ongoing debate related to whether or not there was justified cause for “necessary defense” in cases similar to Bogeski's. In the Blic daily, attorney Nebojša Perović explains [sr]:

U ovakvim slučajevima sud se dosta oslanja na nalaz veštaka. Pitanje je u kom stepenu je smanjena moć rasuđivanja i u kom stepenu je prisutan efekat straha i besa. Vrlo je teško proceniti koliko napadnuti može da kontroliše svoj postupak i u kom trenutku on brani sebe i porodicu.

In cases such as these, the court relies heavily on the assessment of court experts. The question is to what extent the power of judgement was diminished and to what extent the effects of fear and rage were present. It is very difficult to assess how much the attacked individual was able to control his acts and at which point he was defending himself and his family.

The signing of the online petition and the activism present on social networks certainly won't solve the issue, but they nevertheless show that citizens are taking a stand when faced with this problem.

Arguments of self-defense are very difficult to uphold in court cases in Serbia, and cases in which the court has acquitted those accused of manslaughter are extremely rare, even when self-defense was obvious to an average person. The best-known example in the former Yugoslavia is that of the famous actor Žarko Laušević, who was tried for the 1993 double murder that he committed while defending his own life, the life of his brother and others present at the scene. Laušević was pardoned after serving some 5 years in prison, the larger part of a longer sentence given by the court.

Many citizens are now appealing [sr] to the Minister of Justice, Nikola Selaković, directly on Twitter with the request that the state protect citizens with amendments to the existing laws:

Poštovani @selakovicnikola može li se ikako inicirati promena u Zakonu koja bi zaštitila privatni posed? [...]

Respected @selakovicnikola is there any way of initiating amendments to the law that would protect private property? [...]

At the time of writing this post, Minister Selaković has not yet responded to users on Twitter.

The investigation of Bogeski's case is still in progress.

Written by Tamara Gocmanac · comments (2)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Which comes first, coordination or collaboration? It’s a classic chicken or egg debate that surfaces among network organizers and one that Peter Wardrip, a Ph.D. student in the Learning Sciences and Policy program at the University of Pittsburgh, has been exploring for the past three years. In today’s interconnected world, there seems to be a network to support just about any interest or profession. If you’re a writing teacher or an edtech leader, your options include the National Writing Project or the Consortium for School Networking. Young people from metropolitan areas such as Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh can expand their learning experiences by joining the Digital Youth Network or the Hive Learning Networks. But what do the inner workings of these networks look like, and what design mechanisms are put in place that best encourage collaboration across all fronts?

Wardrip examines how these networked organizations spread and support innovations. Currently, he is involved in a study that seeks to better understand how networks get started and how they form. Two years prior to this work, Wardrip was part of the research team of Quantway, a network improvement community that addresses the alarming drop out rates of community college students in developmental math. Quantway, which comprises eight community colleges across three states, aims to improve mathematical outcomes for all students by constructing engaging learning experiences that support the development of quantitative literacies. The key to this, Wardrip says, is the network structure of Quantway.

In the video below, Wardrip discusses several fundamental components of the networked organization including the community’s decision to develop a new curriculum that shifts the focus of development math from algebraic concepts to those of quantitative reasoning. Wardrip presented his work at the DML Summer Research Associates Institute in 2012. Below are just a few highlights, but throughout the entire video, Wardrip discusses the role coordination plays in collaborative work and the effects both have on the implementation of effective network improvement communities.

For collaboration to happen or to advocate for collaboration and have it implemented, there have to be structures put in place in order for people to be able to collaborate. I do a lot of research in high schools, and they often don’t support collaboration very well.

There’s no incentive for collaborating. There’s no reward for collaborating. In a school sense…the mindset of the administration, the leadership, as well as the teachers, has to shift in order to promote collaboration.

A common challenge of distributed work is being aware of what everyone on your team is doing. You have to figure out the ways to build group awareness – whether it’s through technologies, through frequent face-to-face opportunities, or phone calls.

Learning from many different places, testing out curriculum in multiple places…and adapting to the contextual factors that are important to each classroom can broaden the educational opportunities for students in a diverse array of places in the country.

Peter Wardrip - DML Summer Institute 2012 from DML Research Hub on Vimeo

Production credit: Marc Bacarro
Banner image credit: jeremywilburn http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremywilburn/5431133156/

The news of the arrest of photojournalist Raúl Capín, at his home in Madrid, was widely shared under the tag #RaúlLibertad on Twitter. Later, the reason for the arrest was made know in exact terms: “disturbances and contempt of authority.” Photojournalist Adolfo Luján was also arrested. They have since been released.

The most prudent Internet-users waited to find out the reasons for the arrest while others condemned it on principle: a government attempt to limit the freedom of the press in Spain.

Raúl Capín, who works for the Diario DID (Independent Digital Newspaper) [es] and Mundo Obrero (Workers World) [es], was criminalized by the large conservative newspapers of the country which called him an “undercover photographer in the demonstrations” and even a “radical demonstrator.”

Meanwhile, online messages of indignation and complaints of the repression of journalists who report on social protests continue to circulate. Various groups, platforms, alternative media sources and journalists have shown their solidarity with those who were arrested, such as the platform Fotogracción [es] which put out a statement [es] on which more than 120 groups and 250 people have already signed in support. The online newspaper La República [es] explained its perspective:

Es así como se ha producido la detención del compañero, a quien han ido a buscar a su casa, como si se tratara de un peligroso delincuente. En su casa tenía armas tan peligrosas como una cámara Nikon… Nosotros y nosotras, como Raúl, también estamos armados. Tenemos cámaras de fotos, vídeo, ordenadores y, lo más peligroso para ellos, las ganas de informar.

This is how the arrest of our fellow journalist was carried out, who they went to detain at his house, as if he were a dangerous criminal. In his house he had such dangerous weapons as a Nikon camera… We, like Raúl, are also armed. We have cameras to take photos and videos, computers, and the most dangerous thing of all for them, the desire to inform.

Social networks and citizen journalists on the Internet allow for more and more stories that contrast official information, thanks to the spread of videos and images that show another reality. In this video we can see how the police take the bracelet worn by members of the press from the photojournalist who was arrested yesterday, while covering the protests organized by the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Platform of People Affected by Mortgages) against evictions:

Another video [es] shows the same scene from a different perspective and how the police treat journalists covering the demonstration.

This is not the first time the Spanish government has violated freedom of the press, and not only in the area of social actions. The public state-run network of Spanish radio and television (RTVE) has dismissed journalists [es] for what allegedly political reasons. At the beginning of the legislative term, a law modified the designation of the president of RTVE [es] who, from now on, will be appointed by the government without having to come to any agreement with the opposition. Those working for the corporation have called this modification “very worrisome” because it means the loss of the network's autonomy. Recently, the newspaper El Mundo reported on the votes of the Spanish European Parliament Members [es] from the European Popular Party against a report on freedom of press.

*Thumbnail by photographer Juan Luis Sánchez and taken from his Twitter account @juanlusanchez.

Written by Elena Arrontes · Translated by Sally Seward · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Arlington v. FCC. At issue was a very abstract legal question: whether the FCC has the right to interpret the scope of its own authority in cases in which congress has left the contours of their jurisdiction ambiguous. In short, can the FCC decide to regulate a specific activity if the statute could reasonably be read to give them that authority? The so-called Chevron doctrine gives deference to administrative agencies' interpretation of of their statutory powers, and the court decided that this deference extends to interpretations of their own jurisdiction. It's all very meta, but it turns out that it could be a very big deal indeed for one of those hot-button tech policy issues: net neutrality.

Scalia wrote the majority opinion, which is significant for reasons I will describe below. The opinion demonstrated a general skepticism of the telecom industry claims, and with classic Scalia snark, he couldn't resist this footnote about the petitioners, "CTIA—The Wireless Association":

This is not a typographical error. CTIA—The Wireless Association was the name of the petitioner. CTIA is presumably an (unpronounceable) acronym, but even the organization’s website does not say what it stands for. That secret, known only to wireless-service-provider insiders, we will not disclose here.

Ha. Ok, on to the merits of the case and why this matters for net neutrality.

Verizon v. FCC is a long-running case currently in DC Circuit court, arising out of Verizon's challenge to the FCC's "Open Internet Order." It all started in 2010, but for a variety of reasons it has moved at a snail's pace. They haven't even scheduled oral arguments yet. One one side, Verizon claims that the FCC does not have the authority to implement the non-discrimination rules contained in the order, and that they as a company have a First Amendment right to discriminate. On the other side, the FCC has asserted a patchwork of statutory theories for why they can enforce the order. The Commission also claims that the free speech arguments by Verizon are bogus because the company is merely a carrier of speech and, if anything, the free speech obligations should counsel in favor of non-discrimination.

These arguments are largely untested ground for both sides. Although Verizon's free speech argument may seem rather dubious, it might nevertheless turn out to be a legal winner in light of cases like Citizens United. The FCC's "carrier of speech" argument fits a common-sense notion of what telecommunications companies do. Unfortunately for the Commission, it has already chosen to "deregulate" internet communications by stating that they are not "common carriers" -- that is, entities that are traditionally obliged to deliver communications without discrimination. Instead, they articulated the patchwork of other statutory theories -- the so-called "ancillary jurisdiction" approach.

As others have observed, the decision in Arlington gives the FCC a much better shot at winning the ancillary jurisdiction argument in the Verizon case. Tim Lee thinks that on balance this is a bad thing for public policy, because it contributes to regulatory jurisdiction creep. I can appreciate his position.

Let's assume for a moment that the FCC loses the Verizon case in the DC Circuit. If the Supreme Court hears the case, it would be quite entertaining indeed. That's because Scalia has some strong views on how broadband should be classified and what jurisdiction the FCC should have. This takes us back to a case in 2005, NCTA v. Brand X. In that case, a company named Brand X Internet Services claimed that cable-based broadband internet service was indeed a "common carrier" service. The FCC was at the time proceeding with its novel approach to "deregulating" broadband internet by stating that it was not a common carrier but instead subject to ancillary jurisdiction. The logical and legal acrobatics of this approach were quite impressive. The Supreme court, in a 6 to 3 vote applied Chevron deference to the FCC's interpretation of the statute, and let it stand. Scalia dissented vociferously. He simply didn't think that the statute was ambiguous. Broadband internet was a a common carrier service, rather than some new "information service" under the FCC's "deregulated" scheme (see his extended pizzeria metaphor). He also noted that the Court's decision (and the other dissenting opinions) would permit the FCC to change its mind and reclassify broadband as a common carrier under the Chevron doctrine. As he said:

"In other words, what the Commission hath given, the Commission may well take away–unless it doesn’t."

The FCC actually considered relying on this so-called "Title II" reclassification approach initially, but rejected it at the time because it was too politically sensitive (telcos/cablecos have friends in Congress). So, even if Verizon wins the case at the DC Circuit, and even if the Supreme Court does not reverse the DC Circuit, the FCC could take the significant (and, logical, to Scalia) approach of common-carrier classification.

Arlington supports this approach, and the FCC filed a letter with the court yesterday noting this fact. Verizon, for what it's worth, filed a letter citing a recent DC Circuit opinion upholding the free speech rights of corporate conveyors of speech against control by others.

For Verizon, there is no going back now. They have staked out their position and will defend it to the hilt. Many other broadband internet providers (including the cable companies) decided not to take part in this battle. MetroPCS, the other appellant, pulled out last week. Intervenor "CTIA—The Wireless Association", represented by Jonathan Nuechterlein of WilmerHale, pulled out last summer. I, for one, am looking forward to oral arguments.

Peruvian mathematician Harald Andrés Helfgott made headlines after news broke that he had demonstrated the solution to a 271-year-old problem in number theory.

Back in 1742, Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach‘s theory, known as Goldbach's conjecture, stated that “every integer greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three prime [numbers]”.

This conjecture, one of the most difficult problems in mathematics, has been investigated by many number theorists and confirmed by computers for all even numbers smaller than 1018. After working hard on the so called Goldbach's weak conjecture, Helfgott managed to fully demonstrate it.

Helfgott has a position at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, and has published two papers “claiming having improved the estimates of major and minor arcs, enough to prove unconditionally Goldbach's weak conjecture.”

The blog Cajón de sastre [es] republished the news [es] and included a link to the compete work on Helfgott's demonstration.

Meanwhile, Twitter users also expressed their opinion about Harald Helfgott's work using the hashtags #Helfgott and #Goldbach.

Alberto Anguiano (@Dr_LAAG) summed up the news in one tweet:

@Dr_LAAG: #Goldbach: “Todo número impar mayor que 5 puede expresarse como suma de tres números primos”, conjetura resuelta por un peruano #Helfgott.

@Dr_LAAG: #Goldbach: “every odd number greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three prime [numbers]“, conjecture solved by a Peruvian #Helfgott.

Twitter user and physicist V H Satheeshkumar (@VHSatheeshkumar) expressed himself in three tweets:

@VHSatheeshkumar: #Helfgott proves of one of the oldest open problems in #mathematics, the ternary #Goldbach #conjecture http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897 . #numbers

@VHSatheeshkumar: Strong #Goldbach #conjecture: “Every even #number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two #primes.”

@VHSatheeshkumar: Ternary #Goldbach #conjecture: “Every odd number greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three prime numbers.”

And dmv.mathematik.de (@dmv_mathematik) asked:

@dmv_mathematik: progress made proving #Goldbach‘s #theorem? #Helfgott says so, proof published at http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897 #math #prime #conjecture

Norwegian mathematician Torgunn Karoline Moe (@TorgunnKaroline) shared Helfogtt's work enthusiastically in two tweets:

@TorgunnKaroline: Goldbach-artikkelen ligger her http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897 . Les med måte! #helfgott #goldbach #abel

@TorgunnKaroline [no]: Goldbach's article can be read here http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897. Read his work! #helfgott #goldbach #abel

@TorgunnKaroline: @alexarje For en fantastisk nyhet!! S2 #goldbach #helfgott

@TorgunnKaroline [no]: @alexarje For a fantastic news!!! S2 #goldbach #helfgott

Mexico_Today (@Mexico_Today) tweeted cheerfully:

@Mexico_Today: ►PERÚ: ‘INCREÍBLE!! MATEMÁTICO PERUANO RESUELVE CONJETURA DEBIL DE GOLDBACH’ #peru #matemáticas #goldbach

@Mexico_Today [es]: ►PERU: ‘INCREDIBLE!! PERUVIAN MATHEMATICIAN SOLVES GOLDBACH'S WEAK CONJECTURE’ #peru #matemáticas [mathematics] #goldbach

More ironically, Mario Daniel (@Desiderantes) said:

@Desiderantes: Ok señores, ya probaron la conjetura de #Goldbach, ya se pueden dormir http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897

@Desiderantes [es]: Very well, you all out there, #Goldbach has been demonstrated, you may go to sleep now http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897

As this is Peru we are talking about, a football reference could not be absent, as laslo rojas (@amnesico) wrote:

@amnesico: Confirmado: Harald Helfgott es la Foquita de las matematicas: http://ow.ly/ldsE0  #Goldbach #Math

@amnesico [es]: Confirmed: Harald Helfgott is the Foquita of mathematics: http://ow.ly/ldsE0  #Goldbach #Math

Jefferson Farfán, known as Foquita (little seal), is a Peruvian football player who is currently part of Bundesliga's Schalke 04 team.

Futhermore, Luis Biedma (@LBiedma) simply said:

@LBiedma: Acaban de probar la conjetura debil de #Goldbach!? Que leeeeendoooo!!! #OMG [Oh, Díos mío]

@LBiedma: #Goldbach‘s weak conjecture has just been demonstrated!? So niiiiiiice!!! #OMG

Lastly, Luis das Cragfeit (@Cragfeit) played with words:

@Cragfeit: ¿Entonces #Goldbach decía que si dos primos se casaban, siempre tendrían hijos que se dividieran por la mitad? #Preguntica #PrimeNumbers

@Cragfeit [es]: So, #Goldbach said that if two cousins got married, they would always have children that might be divided in halfs? #Preguntica [little question] #PrimeNumbers

In Spanish, “cousin” and “prime” are the same word: “primo.”

As Helfgott shared on Facebook [es]:

Me parece que lo importante es – mas alla de donde vivamos o trabajemos – mantener un compromiso con la educacion y la ciencias en el Peru y Sudamerica, y con la matematica local en particular. [...] Quisiera que esto sirva para que el trabajo que muchas generaciones han hecho por la matematica peruana sea apreciado.

I think the important thing -regardless of where we came from or where we live or work- is to stay engaged with education and science in Peru and South America, and with local mathematics in particular. [...] I'd like this to be useful so the work many generations have made for Peruvian mathematics might be appreciated.

Written by Gabriela Garcia Calderon Orbe · Translated by Gabriela García Calderón · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Media

• Tell Hollywood Thou Shalt Not Put A Stumbling Block Before the Treaty For The Blind, by Harold Feld. Points to the We the People Petition
• Why is the Media Hyping Cord-Cutting?
• Elements of a viral launch page, by Simon Schmid on Smashing
• Fred Wilson on “natural advertising”

Science

• Tornadoes and Climate Change: Huge Stakes, Huge Unknowns, by Dr. Jeff Masters in the Wunderblog.

Business

• The 1 Chart That Reveals Just How Grossly Unfair The U.S. Tax System Has Become, by Mark Gongloff in HuffPo.
• Senators laud Apple CEO Tim Cook for his amazing products and outside-the-box interpretation of the American corporate tax code. On The Daily Show
• Google reportedly pursuing ‘multipronged effort’ to build wireless networks in emerging markets, by Donald Melanson in Engadget

Personal Clouds & VRM

• The Power of Vendor Relationship Management, by Pam Baker in Tech Page One
• IT’s new concern: The personal cloud, by Robert L. Mitchell in Computerworld
• Space Monkey! The Challenge of Providing a Truly Private Personal Cloud, by Dan Blum (Here is Space Monkey.) Also by Dan: Personal Cloud Security and Defining Personal Cloud: An Analyst’s Perspective.
• Video by John Kelly, of Neustar, at Gartner

Infrastructure

• Wikipedia:
• Radio masts and towers
• List of links to masts and towers
• List of catastrophic collapses and demolitions of broadcast masts and towers
• Photos
• Photos by Nfrastructure (yours truly)
• WBZ Tower site in Hull, Mass
• Radio
• WBUR transmitter tour
• WQXR to buy WDFH in Ossining
• WDFH transmitter (directional, 53 watts). Application for 250 watts, but note the high degree of directionality. In all directions other than north the power is as low as 50 watts.

Five Yemenis convicted of murder and robbery were executed in Saudi Arabia and their bodies displayed in public in the southwestern town of Jizan.

The beheadings of the men, who were reportedly members of a gang, bring Saudi Arabia's total number of executions this year to 47. Murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, and apostasy are capital offenses under the kingdom's Muslim Sharia law.

Yemen also has the death penalty and ranks sixth in the world when it comes number of executions, according to Amnesty International. Saudi Arabia ranks fourth, behind China, Iran, and Iraq. The United States ranks fifth.

Photos of the five corpses hanging from a rope high in the air tied to two cranes circulated on Twitter and Facebook on May 21, 2013 to the outrage of many users, including many Yemenis who were disturbed and enraged by the images of their executed countrymen.

On Twitter, a professor and editor in Saudi Arabia, Bayan (@BintBattuta87) wrote in dismay:

@BintBattuta87: Graphic: Image of 5 men executed today, their dead bodies hanging now in #Saudi streets. Fuck this country, wallah. pic.twitter.com/LwztwvfpAB

She added:

@BintBattuta87: GRAPHIC: #KSA: Ppl sit around staring at their dead bodies. Nobody stands up to condemn this?! That's what kills me: pic.twitter.com/za72LMdNDQ

Haykal Bafana (@Bafana3), a Yemeni lawyer based in Yemen, tweeted a photo of the scene and commented:

@Bafana3: This is how Saudi Arabia executes armed robbers. 5 #Yemen men executed yesterday. #KSA https://www.facebook.com/haykal.bafana/posts/469019226511426 … pic.twitter.com/0NcWDxYBHc

Sana2 Al-Yemen (@Sanasiino), a Yemeni journalist based in the UK, pointed out:

@Sanasiino: Saudi executes 5 Yemenis in Jizan & leaves them for the world to see. These are the people ruling over our Holy Land pic.twitter.com/JP6QpnzXsE

Journalist and former Middle East editor for The Guardian newspaper Brian Whitaker (@Brian_Whit) tweeted a link to his latest post:

‏@Brian_Whit: Saudi Arabia steps up executions. Headless bodies put on display http://bit.ly/YYULRz (http://al-bab.com)

In the piece, he observed how the Web was affecting the perception of Saudi Arabia's around the world:

The idea behind public executions is to deter others, though it's not at all clear that they do. But nowadays, as a result of the internet, it is not just the Saudi public that sees them and this reinforces international perceptions that the kingdom is barbarous.

Quoting Amnesty International, he added:

. Amnesty International says:

“Authorities in Saudi Arabia routinely flout international standards for fair trial and safeguards for defendants, who are often denied representation by lawyers and not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them.

“They may be convicted solely on the basis of ‘confessions’ obtained under torture or other ill-treatment.”

Yemeni blogger Afrah Nasser (@Afrahnasser), who is based in Sweden, challenged Yemen to speak out against the execution of its citizens:

@Afrahnasser: I dare Mr. Hadi or anyone from #Yemen‘s foreign ministry issue a statement to condemn #Saudi execution of 5 Yemeni! http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/2013/05/saudi-excutes-five-yemeni-men.html?

Written by Noon Arabia · comments (2)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

By discussing the case of two alleged video-poker cheats being prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Professor James Grimmelmann examines the ambiguity of the concept of “circumvention” in the law.

By discussing the case of two alleged video-poker cheats being prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Professor James Grimmelmann examines the ambiguity of the concept of “circumvention” in the law.

As Croatia prepares to enter the European Union officially on July 1 of this year, and Serbia awaits to finally receive a date to begin talks about EU entry, citizens of both countries express mixed feelings about European Union (EU) integration.

Some young Croatian citizens are looking forward to being able to seek employment in EU countries and to the economic benefits some say the EU promises to bring. Twitter user @Tash from Zagreb says [en]:

@EszterLzr haha i know, bad timing for EU and here ppl have mixed feeling ab it..and i just want to be able to go to work somewhere else

Others, like Aleksandar Holiga from Zagreb, look forward to traveling with more freedom to other EU countries [en]:

Flying to London tomorrow. For the last time ever required to fill that form and speak to immigration officer on the non-EU airport booth.

The majority, however, seems to be taking entry into the EU with a grain of salt. Goran Saravanja, a Croatian economist who blogs for Vecernji List daily, begins and ends his thoughts on the matter with simple, objective conclusions in a post titled “Facing Change: Croatia in EU” [hr]:

Prosječna osoba neće primijetiti veliku razliku u svom svakodnevnom okruženju na dan pristupanja Hrvatske EU. No, važne promjene nastupit će ubrzo. [...] Pristupanje EU samo po sebi neće automatski poboljšati kvalitetu domaćih institucija, kao ni razne politike niti njihovu provedbu. Ukoliko želimo da nam rast bude konstanta, nezaposlenost smanjena, a izvoz povećan, mi sami moramo provoditi reforme i (ne samo) ekonomsku politiku na kvalitetan način.

An average person won't notice a large difference in their everyday surroundings on the day of Croatia's entry into the EU. However, important changes will come quickly. [...] Entry into the EU in and of itself won't automatically improve the quality of domestic institutions, nor various political standpoints or their execution. If we want our growth to be constant, our unemployment lowered, and exports to grow, we must implement reforms ourselves and (not only) economic policy in a quality manner.

While Mr. Saravanja lists many of the benefits and opportunities that EU membership will bring Croatia, Zarko Plevnik in an editorial for Glas Slavonije [hr] (Slavonia is a Croatian region) questions how Croatian products will fare in the EU market because most are “unprotected”:

Gledajući i slušajući vijesti iz Hrvatske o tome kako svaki dan pronalazimo neki novi problem vezan uz naš ulazak u Europsku uniju, između ostalog, nameće se pitanje – što smo mi zaštitili od naših proizvoda prije ulaska u EU?

Watching and listening to the news from Croatia about how every day we encounter a new issue related to our entry into the European Union, among other things, the following question arises – what have we protected [trademarked] of our products prior to entry into the EU?

An article on the same site, titled “And This Is the European Union,” shows a picture of Greek farmers giving away fresh vegetables to their “class allies” [hr], or, rather, government employees.

Most social media users from Croatia seem to be skeptical about the benefits of EU membership.

Twitter user @ruzniuzorak says [hr]:

smorena sam ko europska unija

I'm bummed out like the European Union

User @nxyassa from Croatia comments [hr]:

Glupost nema granice evo naprimjer EUROPSKA UNIJA

Stupidity has no limits [borders] for example the EUROPEAN UNION

User @cromarko from Zagreb quotes an article and adds his own opinion [hr]:

“Najvece priznanje ulaska RH u EU je sastanak s kraljicom”. Priznanje hah, sve sto cu reci je Sjeverna Irska! #freeireland #oneireland

“The greatest acknowledgement of [Croatia's] accession in the EU is a meeting with the Queen.” Acknowledgement hah, all I will say is, Northern Ireland! #freeireland #oneireland

In Serbia, social media users, bloggers and many journalists are just as skeptical. Considering the recent history of Serbia and Croatia, one might wonder at the lack of perhaps expected envy that might come from Serbia towards Croatia, as Croatia enters the EU, while Serbia is still on hold and waiting for talks on membership. Serbs, however, seem to be much more concerned with their own fate.

Twitter user @na_preporciju from Serbia says [sr]:

Evropska unija nam se pokakila na demokratiju i slobodu,
a naši Slepci ne znaju da povuku vodu.

The European Union pooped on our democracy and freedom, while our Blind Men don't know how to flush.

User @m2aja echoes [sr] what many Serbs are saying:

Britanc žele da napuste Evropsku uniju, a Srbija bi da ide…

Britons want to leave the European Union, while Serbs want to enter…

Even users like @luminous_pg from Montenegro, which began EU accession negotiations a year ago, view EU-related matters [sr] sarcastically:

Muče vas bolovi u vratu? Imate problema sa zglobovima? Zaboravite na vaše neprilike, uskoro ulazimo u EVROPSKU UNIJU!

Neck pain bothering you? Have problems with your joints? Forget all your troubles, we're entering the EUROPEAN UNION soon!

User @na_preporciju also comments [sr]:

Kad uđe Hrvatska Evropska unija zaključava vrata – od robijašnice.

When Croatia enters, the European Union will close the door – of the work camp.

Some, like the Beograd Cafe blog, see positives economic opportunities for Serbia in Croatia's entry into the EU [sr], reporting from the recent “CEFTA After Croatia's Entry Into EU” trade conference, where all of the regional countries’ representatives met to discuss the Central European Free Trade Agreement:

Ulazak Hrvatske u EU doneće Srbiji niz prednosti, kao što su dominantan položaj u CEFTA regionu i povećanje suficita u razmeni sa okolnim zemljama, a očekuje se i više investicija…

The entry of Croatia into the EU will bring Serbia several advantages, such as a dominant position in the CEFTA region and a larger sufficit in trade with surrounding countries, while more investments are also expected. [...]

A blog from Bosnia and Herzegovina also writes about the subject [bs] in a post titled “Due to Exiting CEFTA, Croatian Companies to Move Production to Bosnia and Herzegovina?”.

In general, both in Croatia and Serbia, people seem to have an “it is what it is” attitude about the European Union in general. Perhaps the tweet of one user, @Darac42, sums it up best [hr]:

Da da, bit ce taj EU hard landing za hrvate.. niti ne zasluzujemo bolje..

Yes, yes, that EU will be a hard landing for Croats.. and we don't deserve better..

Written by Danica Radisic · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

This post is part of our special coverage Dossiê Belo Monte (Belo Monte Dossier) [pt] and Indigenous Rights.

[All links lead to Portuguese-language pages unless otherwise noted.]

As Brazil's economy steamrolls forward on the momentum of mega-construction projects, many of the country's indigenous have found their homelands snatched away for the sake of development.

This land-hungry economic push under Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, including road construction, mining, hydroelectric plants, and the exploitation of natural resources, has led to violent clashes between activists and police throughout Brazil. Rousseff's indigenous policy has been the target of criticism from experts and activists who point out that such development is costing tribes their territory.

Some scholars such as Idelber Avelar go so far to consider Rousseff's government as the most retrograde in indigenous rights since the end of the country's military dictatorship, during which hundreds of indigenous people were tortured and killed by the state. It was the case of 2,000 of them from the tribe Waimiri-Atroari who vanished overnight for being on the way of “progress” or the so-called “Brazilian economic miracle [en]“.

Hydroelectric construction

The recent construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant is perhaps the most emblematic case of violence against indigenous people in the country.

On 2 May, 2013, communities from the Xingu River, which is the main river affected by the plant, protested the project by occupying the construction site. Among them, about 200 natives of various tribes issued a manifesto denouncing the violence to which they are being subjected:

Vocês estão apontando armas na nossa cabeça. Vocês sitiam nossos territórios com soldados e caminhões de guerra. Vocês fazem o peixe desaparecer. Vocês roubam os ossos dos antigos que estão enterrados na nossa terra.

Vocês fazem isso porque tem medo de nos ouvir. De ouvir que não queremos barragem. De entender porque não queremos barragem.

You are pointing guns at our heads. You raid our territories with soldiers and war trucks. You make the fish disappear. You rob the bones of the old who are buried in our land.

You do it because you are afraid to hear us. To hear that we do not want a dam. To understand why we do not want the dam.

The indigenous people, who occupied the dam for three days, received the support of about 3,000 construction workers, who were threatened to be sacked and also staged strikes denouncing poor working and accommodation conditions. Some workers have also accused the Consórcio Construtor Belo Monte (the consortium responsible for the Belo Monte dam) and the National Force for having abducted workers, handled demonstrators with heavy hand and committed murder.

Journalist Ruy Sposati denounced the violence against the press on the site as well as criticized the project in a post shared by Idelber Avelar on Facebook:

Não é trivial. É a expulsão de jornalistas, em plena democracia, pelo aparato policial do Estado, do sítio de construção da obra mais cara da história do Brasil…., feita com dinheiro público, com seríssimos impactos humanos e ambientais, escassa demonstração de sua utilidade inúmeras acusações de violação da lei e, neste fim de semana, a incrível novidade de jornalistas expulsos por forças policiais, em plena democracia. Cabe lembrar que Belo Monte foi inicialmente orçada em R$ 4,5 bilhões e já se encontra em quase R$ 30 bilhões.

It's not trivial. It's the spell of journalists by the police apparatus of the state from the construction site of the most expensive work of the history of Brazil under a full democracy,….[a dam project] made ​​with public money, with very serious human and environmental impacts, scant evidence of its usefulness, [target of] many accusations of violation against the law, and on this weekend [4-5 May], the unbelievable novelty of journalists being expelled by the police, during a full democracy. It's worth to recall that Belo Monte was initially budgeted at 4.5 billion Brazilian reais (2 billion US dollars) and this is already almost 30 billion reais (13 billion US dollars).

Indigenous groups have disavowed the Brazilian Intelligence Agency's espionage of the Xingu Vivo movement.

In the northern state of Pará, Munduruku people have also protested [en] against the presence of the National Public Security Force and the Army on 22 March, 2013. The security forces entered the territory to guarantee that 80 researchers of the Ministry of Mining and Energy could safetly assess the chances of a hydroelectric plant around the Tapajós river – the only major undammed river region in the country. This plan for a dam in the region is called operation Tapajós [en] and it has been suspended. The Munduruku people continue to resist.

In addition to that, Munduruku people affirmed that representatives of the Brazilian government missed the meeting scheduled for 25 April, 2013 and that the police force was used as a tool of intimidation, reports journalist Ruy Sposati while interviewing Waro Candido, President of the Association Pusuru, a representative entity of indigenous people, in an article published on the website of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI):

O indígena disse que, por três dias, Jacareacanga esteve sitiada. “O governo trouxe mais de 200 policiais pra cá, o pessoal da cidade viu chegar pelo menos sete caminhões, helicóptero, avião, caminhonete, carro. Ficou igual em Itaituba [local onde teve início a Operação Tapajós]”, explica [Cândido Waro]. “E queriam que uma comissão [de lideranças indígenas] saísse da aldeia e fosse encontrar com eles na cidade, cheia de polícia. E isso a gente disse que não, foi uma decisão do nosso povo durante a assembleia de que queríamos receber o governo, mas tem que ser na nossa terra e sem policiais” [afirma Waro].

“O governo disse que estava com medo de ser atacado, e os vereadores disseram que eles pessoalmente cuidariam da segurança de todos os representantes. Mas aí eles falaram que só viriam se fosse com Força Nacional, Polícia Federal dentro da aldeia, que o Gilberto Carvalho [ ministro-chefe da Secretaria-Geral da Presidência da República do Brasil] falou isso pra eles” [disse Waro].

The Brazilian government, on the other hand, published a note on the official website of the General Secretariat of the Presidency saying representatives of the government attended the meeting on 25 April, 2013. Munduruku people denied that the meeting took place in an open letter:

Exigimos que o governo pare de tentar nos dividir e manipular, pressionando individualmente nossas lideranças, caciques ou vereadores. Lembramos que quem responde oficialmente pelo nosso povo são as coordenações das associações Munduruku, chamadas Pusuru e Pahyhy, as entidades representativas de todas as comunidades Munduruku. [...]

Também exigimos que nossos direitos constitucionais sejam garantidos, sem que sejam usados como moeda de troca. E reafirmamos: somos contra as barragens e queremos todos os nossos rios livres. E nós vamos lutar por eles.

2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games preparations

In March 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian riot police violently evicted a group of indigenous people from a former indigenous museum that they had occupied, known as Maracanã Village [en], to make way for a walking area for fans during the 2014 World Cup and eventually the Olympic Museum.

On 26 April, 2013, there were more demonstrations of resistance against that eviction. YouTube user patrickgranja published a video showing police aggression toward the demonstrators:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbHUE499QUk[/ embed]

“Ruralist” lobby

In the federal state of Mato Grosso do Sul [en], the Guarani-Kaiowá, Brazil's second largest indigenous group, continue [en] to fight against the massacre perpetrated by gunmen, police and large state owners also called ‘ruralists’ in the country. They have been suffering due to the interests of cattle, cane sugar and soy estates in the region and the threat of losing lands already demarcated as reservoir because of the lobby led by the ruralists in the Congress.

And in April 2013, hundreds of indigenous people stormed the National Congress [en] to protest against the a proposed constitutional amendment (PEC 215) which would hand over the power to demarcate indigenous lands from the executive to the legislative ones. With the powerful ruralist lobby's influence in Congress, indigenous groups fear that amendment would pave the way for ranchers to take more of their homelands.

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · View original post [pt] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Once again the Islamic regime's desire for absolute control of political life in Iran surprised many when it announced their selection of only eight shortlisted presidential candidates out of more than 600 hopefuls who registered.

Most controversially, the conservative Council of Guardians disqualified two high profile candidates: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, an ally of the current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have each dared to differ with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. At present only Khamenei can reverse this decision.

Rafsanjani publicly accused Iran's leadership of incompetence and ignorance after being barred from standing in the election.

Blogger Mola Hasani says [fa]:

I was very relieved when I heard that Rafsanjani was disqualified… Is it funny that they disqualified the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran. They [Council of Guardians] are really stupid and this stupidity makes us happy and hopeful.

Azarakan says [fa]:

It is possible that Ali Khamenei would reverse the Council of Guardians’ decision and let Rafsanjani run for the presidential election for several reasons, such as: He wants to make Rafsanjani understand that he can run thanks to his generosity. Khamenei can show the oppressed 2009 victims that he is a wise and good leader. The Leader also aims to show Western powers that he is the one who is in charge.

َA group of Mashaei's supporters published [fa] a statement in their blog asking the Leader to intervene to restore Mashaei's candidacy.

The blogger Imayan writes [fa] that the Council of Guardians lies, and that the Leader wants to impose its one vote on the whole population.

Belgiran writes [fa] that the coming election is not going to solve anything.

“The regime is dead, the military carries a corpse on its shoulders. It's time to bury it, people want change.”

Written by Farid · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Do patents encourage innovation or impede it? It is a question many economists and patent lawyers have strived to answer over the years. Professors Mark Schankerman and Alberto Galasso bring new analysis to the patent & innovation debate in their VOX article, “Do Patent Rights Impede Follow-On Innovation?”

Do patents encourage innovation or impede it? It is a question many economists and patent lawyers have strived to answer over the years. Professors Mark Schankerman and Alberto Galasso bring new analysis to the patent & innovation debate in their VOX article, “Do Patent Rights Impede Follow-On Innovation?”

A plan to erect a coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh next to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world which straddles Bangladesh and India, is drawing fire from activists in the country who say it would destroy the world heritage site.

The proposed 1320-megawatt plant, to be built in the area of Rampal in the southern Bagerhat district, was initially put into motion in a bilateral agreement between Bangladesh and India during the Bangladeshi prime minister's tour of India in 2011 before an environmental impact assessment was conducted by Bangladesh's Environment Ministry.

On 20 April, 2013, the Power Development Board of Bangladesh signed [bn] three agreements with India's National Thermal Power Corporation, which made the implementation official. The project, estimated to cost 1.6 billion US dollars, is expected to be completed by 2018.

When the government finally released an environmental impact assessment (download in PDF from here) on the power plant, environmentalists rejected it in a consultative meeting, organized by the Power Division on April 12, arguing that the report did not take into consideration most of the important environmental aspects of the Sundarbans, its ecology, flora, and fauna as well as a large number of local people.

Moreover, the report stated that (page 208) once the proposed site was a part of Sundarbans, but had been evacuated by the settlers later.

Bangladesh's energy infrastructure is known to be quite small, insufficient and poorly managed. Only 40% of the population has access to electricity with a per capita availability of 136 kWh per Annum. So there is a huge pressure on the Government to meet the growing demands of electricity.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports urged citizens of both India and Bangladesh to carry out concentrated efforts to stop the power plant on its website.

Abdullah Al Imran [bn] pointed out in a Facebook note that India is violating its own laws meant to protect wildlife with its involvement in this power plant:

১৩২০ মেগাওয়াট ক্ষমতার একটা বিদ্যুতকেন্দ্র গড়ে উঠবে বাগেরহাটের রামপালে যা কিনা সুন্দরবন থেকে মাত্র ১৪ কিলোমিটার দূরে। ভারতের ওয়াইল্ড লাইফ প্রটেকশন এ্যাক্ট ১৯৭২ অনুযায়ী বাঘ-হাতি সংরক্ষণ অঞ্চল,জাতীয় উদ্যান এবং জীব বৈচিত্র্যের জন্য গুরূত্বপূর্ণ বনাঞ্চলের১৫ কিলোমিটার ব্যাসার্ধের মধ্যে কোন বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্র তৈরী করা যায় না।

An 1320 MW plant would be established in Rampal of Bagerhat which is only 14 kilometres away from the Sundarbans. According to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972, no such power plant should be established within 15 kilometers of a forest which is home to sanctuaries for tigers and elephants and wildlife.

Journalist Kallol Mustafa [bn] summarized on Facebook the environmental impact that the report foresees that the plant will have:

বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র নির্মাণের মালামাল ও যন্ত্রপাতি সুন্দরবনের ভেতর দিয়ে নদী পথে পরিবহন করা হবে। এর ফলে বাড়তি নৌযান চলাচল, তেল নি:সরণ, শব্দদূষণ, আলো, বর্জ্য নি:সরণ ইত্যাদি পরিবেশ আইন অনুসারে নিয়ন্ত্রণ না করা গেলে সুন্দরবনের ইকো সিস্টেম বিশেষ করে রয়েল বেঙ্গল টাইগার, হরিণ, ডলফিন, ম্যানগ্রোভ বন ইত্যাদির উপর ক্ষতিকর প্রভাব ফেলবে বলে ইআইএ রিপোর্টে আশংকা করা হয়েছে।

The building material and equipment for the plant would be transported on the river. So it is stated in the EIA report that the increase in transport of engine ships, oil spillage, noise, light and air pollution, etc. will have an adverse effect on Royal Bengal tigers, deer, dolphins, the mangrove forest and other ecosystems.

Engineer Md. Shahadat Hossain [bn] wrote on the Water Resource Engineers Forum blog:

প্রস্তাবিত রামপাল কয়লা বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্রের ইআইএ রিপোর্টের এই সংক্ষিপ্ত পর্যালোচনা থেকে স্পষ্ট যে, [..] সুন্দরবনের পাশে ১৩২০ মেগাওয়াটের এই কয়লা বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্রকে জায়েজ করার সর্বোচ্চ চেষ্টা করা স্বত্ত্বেও, এরপরও খোদ ইআইএ রিপোর্টে বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র নির্মাণ, পরিচালানা ও কয়লা পরিবহনের ফলে সুন্দরবনের উপর সম্ভাব্য ক্ষতিকর প্রভাব সম্পর্কে এমন সব তথ্য বেরিয়ে এসেছে যা প্রস্তাবিত কয়লা বিদ্যুৎ প্রকল্পকে পরিবেশগত বিবেচনায় অগ্রহণযোগ্য বিবেচনা করার জন্য যথেষ্ট।

Analysis of the EIA report for the proposed power plant reveals that the building, operation, and coal transport for the 1320 MW coal-based power plant in the Sundarbans would create an adverse effect on the Sundarbans mangrove forest in the coming years, suggesting that it should be scrapped on environmental grounds.

On community blog Ishtishon, Mahbub Shumon questioned the wisdom of harming the Sundarbans when they protect Bangladesh from natural disasters:

প্রথমত – ঝড় ঝাপটা প্রাকৃতিক দুর্যোগ থেকে থেকে বুক পেতে বাংলাদেশ রক্ষাকারী এই বনের মধ্যে বা কাছা কাছি ক্ষতিকর দূরত্বে এমন কোন প্রকল্প করা উচিৎ কিনা যা জীব – বইচিত্রের আধার এবং প্রাকৃতিক ভারসাম্য রক্ষাকারী, সর্বোপরি দুর্যোগ থেকে রক্ষাকারী এই প্রাকৃতিক দেয়াল ধ্বংস করে দিবে? সচেতন মানুষ মাত্রেই একমত হবেন নাবোধক উত্তরে। এমন বিদ্যুৎ আমাদের দরকার নাই যে বিদ্যুতের জন্য আমাদের দেশটাই ধ্বংস হয়ে যাবে।

দ্বিতীয় জরুরী প্রশ্ন হল- অন্য কোথাও বিদ্যুৎ প্রকল্প করা হলেও আমরা কি কয়লা ভিত্তিক বিদ্যুৎ প্রকল্পের ক্ষতি সামাল দিতে পারব?

First of all, these mangrove forests save Bangladesh from natural disasters. So why would you put a project in the vicinity of this forest that will destroy its wildlife, its flora and fauna? Any concerned person would say no. We don't need such power which will destroy my country's ecosystem.

Secondly, even if the plant is shifted, will we be able to restrict the damaging effects of burning coal for the plant?

Blogger Banglar Hassan [bn] reminded his readers that a similar project had been turned down in Odisha, India as it failed to obtain environmental clearance.

Faisal Caser [bn] asked:

যে বিবেচনায় এনটিপিসি নিজের দেশে বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র নির্মাণ করতে পারেনি সেই একই বিবেচনায় বাংলাদেশে কী তাদের প্রকল্প বাতিল হতে পারে না?

The reason why NTPC could not build a power plant in its own country is not strong enough to stall their similar project in Bangladesh?

Facebook events have been created to raise awareness of the planned plant. The dates of offline protests will be announced soon.

 

Written by Rezwan · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Omar Qatifaan, a 14-year-old media activist, was killed 21 May, 2013 while covering clashes between the Syrian Army and the rebel Free Army in the southern Daraa al-Ballad area of Syria near the border with Jordan.

Youth media project Syrian Documents reported on his death, and Syrian news blog YALLA SOURIYA called him the “Spirit of Syria”.

The conflict in Syria, as well as other Arab Spring uprisings, has seen a rise in citizen journalists reporting from the ground on the ongoing war between the country's pro- and anti-government forces. Many have been detained, tortured, and even killed while trying to bring the story of the revolution to the world.

Children have also paid a terrible price during the conflict, with thousands killed during the violence so far.

Another media activist recorded video of Qatifaan after he was killed. The footage was posted on YouTube by SyrianDaysOfRage [GRAPHIC VIDEO]:

Written by Rami Alhames · Translated by Global Voices · View original post [en] · comments (0)
Share: facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

The Pakistani human rights organisation Bytes for All is challenging the use of invasive surveillance software by the government of Pakistan. FinFisher, produced by Gamma International, a UK-based company named by Reporters Without Borders as one of five “corporate enemies of the internet” and “digital era mercenaries,” is notorious for its advanced spying and surveillance capabilities which are used to target human rights movements all over the world. For example, Egyptian protesters in March 2011 found documents pointing to the use of FinFisher by the Egyptian security services under Hosni Mubarak and in July 2012 Bloomberg reported on the targeting of Bahraini activists with the software.

FinFisher software is installed remotely through seemingly innocent software updates of regular programs such as iTunes or Firefox, or code embedded in an e-mail. The software cannot be detected by virus-scanners and works on all common mobile devices. Once installed, it allows the user to access all stored information and monitor even encrypted communication. Keystrokes can be logged, Skype conversations recorded and cameras and microphones can be activated remotely.

The problem with software like FinFisher is that it is “dual-use”: it can be used for legitimate purposes by government agencies to monitor criminals, but as researchers at Citizen Lab found, it is often sold to countries where the exercise of legitimate rights such as the right to free expression is considered criminal activity. Among the 36 countries listed by Citizen Lab that use or have used FinFisher many have a well-documented record of human rights violations, such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Ethiopia, Qatar, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

That list also includes Pakistan. Concerned with this violation of Pakistani citizens’ right to privacy , Bytes for All has filed a petition in the High Court of Lahore, seeking a response from the government of Pakistan to the following questions: (1) Why was FinFisher deployed in Pakistan and (2) Who authorised its deployment? Moreover, Bytes for All requested the Court to order the government to immediately halt all FinFisher activities, based on the grounds that its use clearly violates the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan.

This is a pioneering legal bid. Previous action has been taken against FinFisher: the UK-based NGO Privacy International recently filed a request for judicial review of UK customs agency’s refusal to release information about the potential illegal export of FinFisher to countries with a record of human rights abuses. A complaint against Gamma International was also filed with the OECD for the use of FinFisher software in Bahrain, and Mozilla has taken steps to stop it from infringing upon its brand by letting the software pose as legitimate Firefox products. Challenging a government’s use of spying software, however, is relatively uncharted territory and could set an important precedent. On May 8, 2013, the High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to carry out a full investigation into the FinFisher allegations and present its findings before the Court on June 24, 2013. This will be a case to watch.

Nani Jansen is Senior Legal Counsel with the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI). MLDI is working with its partners around the world to challenge internet censorship and surveillance. Bytes for All and MLDI are currently challenging the blocking of YouTube and other websites in Pakistan.

Written by Nani Jansen · comments (0)
Share: facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

TV audiences in Senegal have witnessed the rise of a new genre of broadcast journalism, presented by two local rap stars Xuman (39) and Keyti (40), leading figures in the the movement opposing Abdoulaye Wade's failed re-election bid last year. Like all Senegalese television news, ‘Le Journal Rappé’ is presented both in Wolof, a local language, and in French. On it the show Xuman and Keyti tackle current events – political, social and international.

The interview was conducted in French by Global Voices author Anna Gueye and all links forward to articles in French.

The two artists discuss their show below.

Global Voices : WHo are you ?

- Mon vrai nom est Cheikh Séne plus connu sous Keyti.

- Makhtar Fall AKA Xuman.

- My real name is Cheikh Séne, better known as Keyti.

- Makhtar Fall AKA Xuman.

GV : Where are you from?

Keyti : Je suis né à Saint-Louis au nord du Sénégal mais j’ai grandi entre Dakar et Thiès.

Xuman: de Dakar

Keyti : I was born in Saint-Louis in the north of Senegal but  I grew up between Dakar and Thiès.

Xuman: From Dakar.

GV : What is your educational background?

Keyti : J’ai eu le parcours classique de l’enfant sénégalais moyen : élémentaire, lycée puis après le bac 3 ans d’études de langues à l’université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis que j’ai finalement quittée pour me consacrer entièrement à la musique.

Xuman : J’étais lycéen.

Keyti : I had the typical education of the average Senegalese child: elementary school, secondary school, the BAC, then three years studying languages at L’Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis which I ended up leaving to dedicate myself 100% to music.

Xuman : I went to secondary school.

GV : How did you end up here?

Keyti : D’abord, la passion de l’écriture et de la musique puis le rap est arrivé.

Xuman : J'écrivais des poèmes et j’aimais la break dance. La combinaison des deux m’a mené au rap.

Keyti : First of all, out of passion for writing and for music, and then rap came into my life.

Xuman : I used to write poems and I loved breakdancing. The combination of the two is what led me to rap.

GV : What did you do prior to this project ?

Keyti : J’ai sorti 2 albums (en 1998 et 2001) avec mon ancien groupe le Rapadio avant d’en sortir un en solo en 2003. Puis j’ai fait un autre album avec les Dakar All Stars, un collectif avec 3 autres artistes. J’ai aussi participé à un album (Histoires Extraordinaires des Enfants du Poto-Poto) avec 16 artistes d’Afrique de l’ouest (dont Xuman) pour la promotion des droits de l’enfant en Afrique.

Xuman J’ai participé à 7 albums dont 5 avec mon groupe Pee Froiss.

Keyti : I did two albums (in 1998 and 2001) with my former group the Rapadio before I launched my solo career in 2003. Then, I made another album with the Dakar All Stars, a collective with 3 other artists. I also took part in an album  (Histoires Extraordinaires des Enfants du Poto-Poto) with 16 artists from West Africa (which Xuman was also a part of) to promote the rights of the child in Africa.

Xuman I made 7 albums, including 5 with my group Pee Froiss.

GV : What do you do outside of rap music?

Keyti : Mes autres activités tournent essentiellement autour du rap, de la musique. En 2010 par exemple j’ai réalisé un documentaire de 26mn sur le rap sénégalais nommé 100% hip-hop. Hormis cela je participe à des projets sociaux comme des ateliers d’écriture et de musique assistée par ordinateur dans les prisons de Dakar.

Xuman : je fais de la radio, de la télé et je suis DJ.

Keyti : My other activities basically revolve around rap, around music. In 2010, for example, I produced a 26 min documentary on Senegalese hip hop called 100% hip-hop. Outside of that I take part in social projects like online writing workshops and music workshops in Dakar prisons.

Xuman : I do radio, television and I'm a  DJ.

GV : Why this project?

Keyti : Moi je le fais pour d’abord m’amuser et prouver que le rap peut aussi transporter de l’humour d’autant plus que j’ai cette image du rappeur sérieux au Sénégal. Il faut aussi dire que je suis un news addict et du coup c’est une façon pour moi de régurgiter toutes les infos que je croise, à ma façon, avec beaucoup de liberté dans le langage et les analyses.

Xuman : Pour donner notre version de l’actualité différente de celle imposée par certains medias.

Keyti : I do this first and foremost for my own enjoyment and to prove that rap can also bring humour, since I have this image of a serious rapper in Senegal. I also have to say that I’ m a  news addict and it's also a way for me to regurgitate all the news I come across, in my own way, with a whole lot of freedom in the language I use and the analysis.

Xuman : To give our version of events, different than the one that is imposed by certain parts of the media.

GV : What inspired you? Where did you get the idea from?

Keyti : Xuman a eu l’idée à la base. Il m’en a parlé, c’était intéressant pour moi et j’ai eu envie de relever le challenge.

Xuman : Le fait d’avoir fait de la radio pendant un temps et aussi de relever le défi de coller à l’actualité et de le faire en musique … l’idée était là depuis un moment, il fallait juste avoir les moyens techniques pour la réaliser.

Keyti : Xuman came up with the idea. He spoke to me about it, I found it interesting and I felt like taking up the challenge.

Xuman : The fact of having done radio for a while and also taking up the challenge of sticking to reality, and doing that in music… I actually had the idea for a minute, it was just a question of having the technical means to make it happen.

GV : How much time was there between the idea and the first show?

Il y a eu 4 mois avant que nous n’ayons le pilote puis 4 autres mois avant qu’une chaîne télé ne soit intéressée par le projet.

It took about 4 months to get the pilot done and then another 4 before a TV station got interested in the project.

What station are you on?

La 2STV (chaîne de télévision privée. chaque vendredi soir après le journal traditionnel puis disponible dès le lendemain sur YouTube).

La 2STV (a private television channel. Every Friday night after the traditional news, and then available the next day on YouTube).

GV : How did you make the first episode happen ?

C’est notre partenaire Level Studio qui a proposé le pilote au directeur des programmes qui a tout de suite aimé le concept.

Our partner Level Studio proposed the pilot episode to the director of programming. He liked the concept right away.

GV : What problems did you encounter?

Avoir l’équipe adéquate pour que l’idée de base soit traduite en images. Il était important pour nous que le produit soit crédible, surtout au niveau de la réalisation graphique et vidéo. Il a donc fallu un peu de temps avant de trouver Level Studio qui a bien voulu nous suivre dans l’aventure.

Getting the right team together so that the original idea could come across visually. It was important to us for the end product to be credible, especially on the visual production and video level. Because of that, it took some time before we found Level Studio who wanted to ride with us on this adventure.

GV : Who is your audience?

Keyti : Les plus jeunes en premiers parce que le journal est fait en rap qui est une musique de leur temps mais au-delà tous ceux qui veulent de l’impertinence, une actualité passée en revue sans langue de bois.

Xuman : Et enfin tous ceux qui ne suivent pas l’actualité mais préfèrent écouter de la musique.

Keyti : The younger viewers first and foremost because the news is done in rap, which is a musical style of their times, but above all, all those who want to see some impertinence, to see current issues get covered without ‘news speak'.

Xuman : And finally, all the people who don't pay attention to the news but who prefer to listen to music.

GV : What is your goal?

Divertir d’abord mais aussi faire sauter plus de barrières et libérer beaucoup plus le discours des artistes au Sénégal quel que soit leur domaine. Qu’on puisse s’affranchir de la politique, des pesanteurs sociales et religieuses petit à petit et dire les choses comme nous les pensons.

To have fun first of all, but also to overcome barriers and liberate the discourse of artists in Senegal, in every domain. So that we can free ourselves of politics, social and religious pressure, bit by bit, and say what we really think.

GV : How was it received? Did you have a good audience?

Keyti : Globalement je crois qu’il y a eu un bon accueil. Il reste toujours des choses à parfaire et nous avons bien sûr reçu des critiques par rapport à ces choses-là.

Xuman : Très bien car nous avons un vécu et sommes crédibles. Nous avons pu toucher au delà du milieu hip-hop. ( note de l'auteur: Ce que je confirme, je n’écoute jamais de rap mais je suis restée littéralement scotchée devant ce journal d’ailleurs le nombre de vues  en quelques jours démontrent que je ne suis pas la seule).

Keyti : Overall, I think that there's been a good reception. There's always things which could be improved and of course we have had some criticism in relation to those things.

Xuman : Really good because we have a story and we're credible. We've been able to touch people beyond hip hop. (author's note: this I can confirm, I never listen to rap but I have been virtually glued to this news broadcast and judging from the number of views in just a few days, I'm not the only one).

GV : Who produces the show?

Ce projet est auto-produit de bout en bout. Cependant les premiers numéros ont suscité l’intérêt de certains investisseurs et nous étudions toutes les propositions afin de garder aussi notre liberté de ton sur les prochaines éditions.

This project is 100% self-produced. However, the first episodes caught the interest of certain investors and we look at all the propositions carefully to safeguard our freedom of expression in future editions.

See also the Afrik.tv report on the ‘News in Rap'.

Written by Anna Gueye · Translated by Jea · View original post [fr] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

When it comes to controlling information online, the Thai government has had a busy month. In addition to suing Thai Rath cartoonist Chai Rachawat for defamation, the government of Thailand is now threatening to close down websites that insult the Prime Minister.

Chai Rachawat posted a Facebook photo with a controversial caption criticizing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra:

Please understand that prostitutes are not bad women. Prostitutes only sell their bodies, but a bad woman has been wandering around trying to sell the country.

Chai Rachawat was reacting to a speech delivered by Yingluck in Mongolia last month. Yingluck is Thailand’s first female Prime Minister. She is also the younger sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted by a coup in 2006. Thaksin has been convicted of plunder and is living in exile outside of Thailand.

In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Chai Rachawat explained why he made the controversial remark:

The prime minister's speech overseas touched a raw nerve with many. They feel that the facts about democracy in Thailand were distorted with the intention of whitewashing the brother and his family.

Speaking negatively about one's own country is like betraying the nation. It makes foreigners misunderstand Thailand.

The prime minister made two mistakes: saying something that was out of place and lying.

He also clarified that he didn’t label Yingluck a prostitute:

What I meant was prostitutes are not evil because they sell themselves, not the nation. However, a woman who sells the nation is evil. I did not label the prime minister as a prostitute.

Despite his clarifications, Rachawat has been sued for defamation and for violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. The suit was filed on World Press Freedom Day.

Blogger Bangkok Pundit thinks the defamation suit is a bad idea:

On all levels, this lawsuit is politically a very bad idea…[It] will hurt Yingluck more than it will ever hurt Chai. Yingluck should drop the lawsuit.

The suit is unprecedented in Thailand, as it is the first time that a Prime Minister has accused a citizen of defamation in relation to a Facebook post. What is common in Thailand is the filing of Lèse Majesté cases against bloggers and online commenters who insult the Royal Family, including the blocking of websites that criticize the monarchy.

After suing Chai Rachawat, the Minister of Information and Communications Technology warned that websites containing defamatory remarks against the Prime Minister will be immediately shut down. It urged citizens to report websites with offensive content.

Human rights groups have been asking the Thai government to amend the Lèse Majesté law, which has been described as the harshest in the world. They are also concerned about certain provisions in the Computer Crimes Act which they think can be easily abused by authorities in order to target dissidents and members of political opposition groups.

Whether Chai Rachawat was right or wrong in his provocative remarks, his case will certainly have a great impact on Internet openness and Internet regulation in Thailand.

Written by Mong Palatino · comments (0)
Share: facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Norbert Wiener was at MIT legend. He taught at the Institute for a long time (after getting his PhD from Harvard at age 17), where he epitomized the absent-minded professor. Of the legion of perhaps-apocryphal stories about him, my favorite was related by fellow mathematician Howard Eves,

When he and his family moved to a new house a few blocks away, his wife gave him written directions on how to reach it, since she knew he was absent-minded. But when he was leaving his office at the end of the day, he couldn’t remember where he put her note, and he couldn’t remember where the new house was. So he drove to his old neighborhood instead. He saw a young child and asked her, “Little girl, can you tell me where the Wieners moved?” “Yes, Daddy,” came the reply, “Mommy said you’d probably be here, so she sent me to show you the way home”.

In 1949, the year after he published his landmark work Cybernetics, the New York Times asked him to contribute an essay about “what the ultimate machine age is likely to be” to the Sunday edition of the paper. Due to an unfortunate series of events the essay never ran. Until Monday, when the Times finally ran it along with an introduction by John Markoff.

It’s a pretty amazing document — way ahead of its time. Wiener thought the ultimate machine age was upon us in 1949 so he was a bit early, but as Paul Saffo reminds us, “never mistake a clear view for a short distance.”

Wiener foresaw robots:

Machines much more closely analogous to the human organism are well understood, and are now on the verge of being built. They will control entire industrial processes and will even make possible the factory substantially without employees.

The instrumentation of just about everything:

In these the ultra-rapid digital computing machines will be supplemented by pieces of apparatus which take the readings of gauges, of thermometers, or photo-electric cells, and translate them into the digital input of computing machines.

and machine learning:

The possibility of learning may be built in by allowing the taping [i.e. programming] to be re-established in a new way by the performance of the machine and the external impulses coming into it, rather than having it determined by a closed and rigid setup, to be imposed on the apparatus from the beginning.

And he laid down a great ground rule for how far this can go:

Roughly speaking, if we can do anything in a clear and intelligible way, we can do it by machine.

But he was not an uncritical cheerleader for technology. Like me, he was concerned about how workers would fare as technology kept racing ahead, and in his essay he offered a plainly-worded caution, and a direct challenge to everyone who’s not worried about technological unemployment. I’ll close this post with his words, and with an appeal to all of us to take them seriously.

These new machines have a great capacity for upsetting the present basis of industry, and of reducing the economic value of the routine factory employee to a point at which he is not worth hiring at any price. If we combine our machine-potentials of a factory with the valuation of human beings on which our present factory system is based, we are in for an industrial revolution of unmitigated cruelty.

We must be willing to deal in facts rather than in fashionable ideologies if we wish to get through this period unharmed. Not even the brightest picture of an age in which man is the master, and in which we all have an excess of mechanical services will make up for the pains of transition, if we are not both humane and intelligent.

[All links lead to Spanish-language pages, except where noted.]

Spain's main public television station channel 1 featured a workshop for parents on “how to teach their children to dress appropriately” in its daily afternoon update on May 14, 2013. Although the report was barely a minute and a half long, it featured soundbites such as “it seems we live in an era when everything must be shown” and “the big question: is my daughter dressing provocatively?”

YouTube user ACTUALIDADenunTUIT uploaded the video:

A few days before, the same program had broadcast a brief report on the “sudden” rise in religious devotion among the unemployed, asserting that prayer and the lighting of candles for the saints had a calming affect on them. This is the video of the report, uploaded on YouTube by Kewban:

As expected, the story about how teenagers “should dress so as not to provoke” elicited significant dissent on the Internet. On Twitter, the Spanish words “decoro” (decorum) and “tve” (the TV station) were trending topics that very afternoon. Twitter users Andere, Nacho Grim, Alberto and Herráez, took issue with the anachronistic nature of the advice:

@SaintAndere: Entre el decoro en la vestimenta y las recomendaciones de orar para los parados, una no sabe en qué país vive, ni en qué siglo… @igotzi

@SaintAndere: Between dress and decorum and the recommendation to pray for the unemployed, one wonders in what country, and in what century we're living….@igotzi

@NachoGrim: http://www.publico.es/455359/tve-explica-como-vestir-a-las-hijas-con-decoro-para-que-no-provoquen … – La Falange y la Sección femenina vuelven, espero impaciente la llegada del NODO. [No-Do: Noticiarios y Documentales]

@NachoGrim: http://www.publico.es/455359/tve-explica-como-vestir-a-las-hijas-con-decoro-para-que-no-provoquen … The Falange and the Sección femenina are coming back; I eagerly await the arrival of the NODO. [No-Do: Noticiarios y Documentales] [Translation note: The Falange and its sister organization of women were Francoist groups. NODOs was a propaganda newsreel.]

 @TANSOLO140: Al paso que va la burra, “Cuéntame” va a acabar siendo una serie futurista :(

@TANSOLO140: At this rate, ”Cuéntame” is going to end up being a futuristic series:(
[Translation note: Cuéntame is a popular TV series set in the final years of the Franco regime.]

 @JHerraez: ¿He dormido hacia atrás y despertado en 1947? TVE explica cómo vestir a las hijas con decoro y que no provoquen

@JHerraez: Did I sleep backwards and wake up in 1947? TVE is explaining how to dress girls modestly so they don't provoke

In reality, this is simply the anecdotal part of a much more serious problem. Just a few months after winning an absolute majority in the November 2011 elections, the Council of Ministers of the ruling Partido Popular (PP) approved a decree that modified the way in which the board of RTVE, the public radio and television corporation, is chosen—until then it had required the consensus of two thirds of the legislature, but now a simple majority would suffice. This drew criticism from all parties, who accused the PP of converting a public broadcaster into state television.

Shortly afterwards, the new bosses assumed their positions; among them was news director Julio Somoano, formerly of the conservative television network Telemadrid and a figure closely associated with the Partido Popular. Somoano replaced Fran Llorente, under whose mandate TVE newscasts maintained the highest audience share and received more than 200 awards. Somoano's arrival had immediate repercussions on the broadcasting personnel. One of the first victims of the purge was journalist Ana Pastor, a well-regarded professional whose merits include securing the only interview given by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Western media. Anna Bosch was also let go just prior to receiving the Madariaga award.

In November 2012, Carlos Alonso, producer of the flagship weekly program Informe Semanal, refused to sign off on a report on the death of five young people at at a Halloween mega-party. The CNT union of RTVE explained the reasons on their website:

El descenso por la cuesta de la credibilidad comenzó el año pasado, con motivo de la emisión de un programa sobre la tragedia del Madrid Arena. Un realizador fue fulminantemente expulsado del programa por negarse a firmar un reportaje que ha entrado en el top ten de la Historia universal de la infamia audiovisual y que se suponía que analizaba la tragedia, para llegar a la conclusión de que la culpa es de los padres actuales que no atan corto a sus hijas.

The decline in credibility started last year, with the broadcast of a program on the tragedy of the Madrid Arena. A producer was summarily ejected from the program for having refused to sign off on a report that has entered the top 10 of all time in audiovisual infamy and that was supposedly analyzing the tragedy, reaching the conclusion that the fault lay with the actual parents who did not reign in their daughters.

This case prompted the intervention of the Media Council, which declared:

Mediante la práctica de imposiciones, advertencias de sanción o el cambio de destino, la Dirección parece interesada en imponer una ‘ley del silencio’ que daría al traste con los derechos profesionales regulados en los últimos años

Through the practice of restrictions, warnings of potential suspension or transfer, management appears to be interested in imposing a ‘law of silence’ that would put an end to the rights of professionals as had been standardized in the last several years.

Alonso's supporters wrote a letter endorsed by 260 professionals at the network. The letter includes the following:

La dirección [ignora] el precepto legal de que TVE debe ser independiente, plural y rigurosa en sus contenidos. Se seleccionan temas de manera tendenciosa, se imponen enfoques concretos y (…) se veta de una manera clara y directa tanto a ciertas personas como aquellas noticias incómodas para la línea editorial de la dirección. (…) [La expulsión de Alonso] es injustificable en lo profesional y un paso más en una estrategia clara que quiere imponer el silencio, el miedo y la ausencia de debate periodístico en la elaboración de los contenidos.

Management [is ignorant] of the legal precept that TVE must be independent, pluralistic and rigorous in its content. Subjects are chosen with bias, specific approaches are imposed and (…) both certain people and news items inconvenient to management's editorial line are being vetoed in a clear and direct manner. (…)  [The expulsion of Alonso] is professionally unjustifiable and one step further in an obvious strategy to ensure silence, fear, and the absence of journalistic debate in content production.

The program Informe Semanal has also been heavily criticized for its treatment of the Bárcenas case [en], a corruption case allegedly involving high level members of the PP. All this is taking its toll on TVE broadcasts: the dramatic drop in audience share has meant that the network has lost its status as news leader. Moreover, not one of TVE's programs has been nominated this year for the Television Academy awards. Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that the Council of Europe criticized the interference of the Spanish government in TVE in its resolution 1920 [en], of 24 January 2013:

La Asamblea advierte con preocupación recientes informes sobre presiones políticas en cadenas de servicio público en Hungría, Italia, Rumanía, Serbia, España y Ucrania (…). Recuerda a los estados miembros los (…) indicadores de medios en una democracia: «las cadenas públicas deben estar protegidas de injerencias políticas en su gestión diaria y su trabajo editorial; se deben negar los puestos de dirección a personas con claras afiliaciones políticas; las cadenas públicas deben establecer códigos de conducta internos para el trabajo periodístico y la independencia editorial de influencias políticas»

The Assembly notes with concern recent reports about political pressure on public service broadcasters in Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine (…).  It reminds member States of (…) indicators for media in a democracy: “public service broadcasters must be protected against political interference in their daily management and their editorial work; senior management positions should be refused to people with clear party political affiliations; public service broadcasters should establish in-house codes of conduct for journalistic work and editorial independence from political influence.”

Written by Lourdes Sada · Translated by Victoria Robertson · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

The fiber optic cable, which is expected to improve Cuba's connectivity to the Internet, is of utmost importance to the country, and every piece of information continues to clarify the current state of this technological infrastructure. In the past days, U.S. company Renesys announced on its blog that during this week they “observed a second non-satellite connection established for the Cuban state telecom, ETECSA [Cuban State Telecommunications Company]“.

In January of this year, Renesys stated that the ALBA-1 submarine cable had begun to bring Internet traffic in the segment that connects Cuba to Venezuela.

According to Doug Madory, a Renesys employee:

esta vez un segmento diferente del cable submarino ALBA-1 se utiliza para conectar Cuba a la isla vecina de Jamaica. A las 15:04 UTC del 13 de mayo de 2013, se observó que ETECSA comenzó a recibir el servicio internacional de Internet a través de Cable & Wireless Jamaica

this time a different segment from the ALBA-1 submarine cable is being used to connect Cuba to its neighboring island, Jamaica. At 15:04 UTC on May 13, 2013, it was observed that ETECSA began receiving international Internet service through Cable & Wireless Jamaica

Madory also confirmed that two weeks ago, during a presentation by LACNIC 19 [es] in Medellín, Colombia, ETECSA representatives confirmed the initial statements from Renesys. According to the employee, “it was a pleasure meeting some of the people involved in this historic activation.”

The description of the project [es] on the Cuba-Venezuela International Telecommunications Systems confirms that the Cuba-Jamaica segment will be used for “the purpose of restoration.” As a result, Renesys believes the activation could “help alleviate some minor connectivity problems recently experienced by ETECSA.”

Following the Cuban State Telecommunications Company's initial statements in January 2013 regarding the operational nature of the fiber optic cable and the start of several tests, a group of resident users on the island took to social networks to discuss computerization and increased Internet access in the country.

According to Daniel Salas [es], professor at the University of Havana:

Para irnos montando en el debate sobre cómo extender Internet en Cuba, podríamos empezar por ir teniendo claro cuál es la situación de la infraestructura nacional de comunicaciones, qué nodos enlaza la fibra óptica nacional, cuál es la saturación de las centrales telefónicas y los pares de cobre, qué tipos de soluciones tecnológicas estarían disponibles y sus costos, y no estaría de más saber un poquito de las cuentas de ETECSA.

In order to continue participating actively in the debate on how to extend Internet in Cuba, we could start by clarifying the current situation of the national communications infrastructure, which nodes the fiber optic cable links, the saturation of central operator exchanges and copper pairs, the types of technological solutions that would be available and their costs, and it would not hurt to know a bit about the ETECSA accounts.

Meanwhile, Cuban professor and researcher Milena Recio considered [es]:

Según la nota de ETECSA, se derivan dos posturas de política: 1) habrá que sacar divisas de algunos servicios para repartir gratuidad en otros. Dice: “aumentar los recursos en divisas, destinados a pagar el tráfico de Internet”. Es decir, se mantiene el esquema gratuidad; 2) se multiplicarán las posibilidades de acceso, aunque no “automáticamente”, pero se multiplicarán. Es decir, no solo mejorarán las actuales. Ahora bien, preguntas posibles ¿conectividad social, implica necesariamente gratuidad? ¿qué parte de la infraestructura interna de telecomunicaciones se priorizará en función de qué objetivos?

According to ETECSA's announcement, there are two political positions: 1) currency will have to be taken from certain services in order to deliver free services in others. It says: “increase foreign exchange resources, intended to pay for internet traffic.” This is to say that it maintains the free-of-charge scheme; 2) Access possibilities will multiply, though not “automatically,” but they will multiply. This is to say that not only will the current ones improve. Now, possible questions – does social connectivity necessarily imply a free-of-charge service? which part of the internal telecommunications infrastructure will be prioritized depending on which objectives?

The Cuban telecommunications company's late statement also motivated a number of criticisms among bloggers. Blog Fanal Cubano reflects it as follows [es]:

El sólo hecho de divulgar cuatro días antes esta propia nota, escueta, pero rotunda, habría despojado a ETECSA de la responsabilidad de darle un sesgo confirmativo al hecho, y nuestra entidad, cubana ciento por ciento, hubiese emergido como fuente portadora de una noticia de alcance mundial por su significado, en tanto victoria de la integración regional sobre la política de cerco económico, comercial y financiero practicada por los Estados Unidos contra Cuba desde hace más de medio siglo.

The mere fact of divulging this very brief yet emphatic announcement four days earlier, ETECSA would have been stripped of the responsibility of giving it a confirmatory bias, and our entity, one hundred percent Cuban, would had emerged as the source for news of global reach because of its significance, as much as it would have been a victory of regional integration over the economic, commercial and financial siege of the United States against Cuba for over half a century.

Cuba currently has a bandwidth of 323 Mbps (megabits per second) via satellite for the entire island. A website can take several minutes to open and even hours to see a video.

Written by Elaine Díaz · Translated by Marianna Breytman · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

I like and subscribe to Radio INK, which is the main way I stay current with what’s happening in mainstream radio. And Radio INK loves WTOP, the news station in Washington. Do a search for site:http://www.radioink.com WTOP and you’ll get many pages of praise running from Radio INK to WTOP — all of it, I am sure, deserving.

The latest of these is WTOP IS #1 NEWS STATION IN AMERICA. It begins,

A panel of news and news/talk experts have named Hubbard Radio’s WTOP top news station in the country in Radio Ink’s first listing of news and news/talk stations. Under the leadership of GM Joel Oxley, Vice President of Programming Jim Farley, and Program Director Laurie Cantillo, WTOP has developed into a news leader in the Washington D.C. market, competing with newspaper outlets like the Washington Post and television news organizations in the nation’s capital. WTOP has also established itself as a digital news leader with nearly 100,000 regular readers at WTOP.com and 60,000 followers on Twitter and 11 full- and part-time digital journalists.

Here is the list of stations:

• #1) WTOP – Washington DC*
• #2) 1010 WINS – New York City*
• #3) KFI-AM – Los Angeles
• #4) KCBS-AM – San Francisco*
• #5) WBBM-AM/FM – Chicago*
• #6) WCBS-AM – New York City*
• #7) WBZ-AM – Boston
• #8) WSB-AM/FM – Atlanta
• #9) KYW-AM – Philadelphia*
• #10) WWJ-AM – Detroit*
• #11) KIRO-FM – Seattle
• #12) WBT-AM/FM – Charlotte
• #13) KNX-AM – Los Angeles*
• #14) KKOB-AM -Albuquerque
• #15) WBAP-AM & FM – Dallas
• #16) KTRH-AM – Houston
• #17) KFBK-AM & FM – Sacramento
• #18) KMBZ-AM & FM – Kansas City*
• #19) KRMG-AM & FM – Tulsa*
• #20) WGAN & WGIN – Portland, ME

I put an * next to the stations that are all-news, meaning you’ll hear live news on them if you tune them in, rather than a talk show. The rest on the list are talk/news, rather than news/talk. By that I mean, if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity are in the station’s program lineup, it’s a talk station.

But I’m also thinking, okay… As long as we’re opening the door here to stations that are a mix of talk and news, why not public radio stations?

Go to Radio-Info’s ratings page for April, and we find, among other things,

• WAMU beating WTOP in Washington, 9.7 to 7.9
• KQED beating KCBS in San Francisco, 5.5 to 5.4 (and KQED also has a 5.6, #3 overall, in San Jose)
• KUOW beating KIRO in Seattle, 4.6 to 3.3. (And why doesn’t KOMO, a full-time news station in Seattle, with a 3.2, miss the list above?)
• KPBS in San Diego is the top talk station in that city, with a 4.9. (It has no news stations.)
• KOPB is the #2 station overall in Portland, with a 6.9.
• WUNC is #2 overall in Raleigh-Durham with an 8.1 (and is often #1, for example in February, when it had an 8.4)

As I put it in my response to Radio INK’s latest, ”Why not give some credit to the public stations that are huge ratings successes? … I understand that your main interest is commercial radio; but noncommercial radio matters just as much — if not more, if actual listening is taken into account.”

Ed Ryan replied, Doc: Good Points. We did not receive any nominations for non-coms. Hopefully you will nominate a few next year. And, ratings was not the only factor in determining the list. Hope yo are well.  Ed

I hadn’t realized that this story was based entirely on nominations by the stations themselves. Now that I do, I invite public stations to step up and start claiming the credit they deserve. I’ll try to remember to do the same, next time this rolls around.

[Links are to Spanish-language pages, except where otherwise noted.]

Peruvian gastronomy [en] is a hot topic both in and outside the country. But lately, the culinary theme on everyone's lips has not been the quality of the dishes or the traditional ingredients—instead it is the recently adopted legislation of President Ollanta Humala, known as the Law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating by Boys, Girls, and Adolescents.

The law, whose wording was published on May 17, states that its objective is to “effectively promote and protect people's right to public health and proper growth and development through education, strengthening and fostering physical activity, establishing healthy food stands and lunchrooms in elementary and secondary educational institutions, as well as monitoring advertising, information, and any other practices related to food and non-alcoholic beverages targeted at children and adolescents.”

Once the law was adopted by Congress on May 2, congressman Luis Galarreta declared that it had a “completely interventionist vision that I think jeopardizes both the media and its financing.” At the same time, the former Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Alfredo Ferrero, argued that the ambiguities of the law could “affect broadcasting of the Brazil World Cup in 2014.”

Peru's national association of industries (SNI in Spanish) has requested a repeal of the law because, by prohibiting the sale of packaged food in schools, it encourages the consumption of unregulated products to the detriment of the health of school children; and moreover, schools are not in a position to assume the task of feeding children. 

On the other hand, Fernando Leanes, a representative from the Pan-American Health Organization (OPS in Spanish) and the World Health Organization (WHO) supports the law and declared that “(we are trying to avoid) silent diseases such as diabetes or hypertension that can contribute to children developing health problems when they are 40 or 50 years old.”

In social networks opinions are equally divided, and the debate is seasoned with pictures of succulent sandwiches and other fare usually labeled junk food. On Twitter Miguel Mellado (@miguelm1504) expressed an opinion apparently shared by many:

@miguelm1504: Ningún publicista o medio de comunicación va estar a favor de la ley sobre la comida chatarra.

@miguelm1504: No advertising professional or media outlet is going to be in favour of a law on junk food.

On Facebook, writer Sonia Luz Carrillo shared her feelings while watching a television interview on the subject:

La publicidad de los productos menos saludables y hasta francamente dañinos a la salud según los especialistas – nutricionistas debidamente acreditados, por ejemplo- es uno de los principales ‘alimentos’ de las empresas de comunicación, especialmente la televisión. Eso explica la campaña en contra de la Ley y cualquier otro dispositivo que coloque la necesidad de conocimiento conveniente para que el público pueda optar por una alimentación saludable.

The marketing of products that are less healthy and frankly almost harmful to our health according to experts—certified nutritionists for example—is one of the main sources of fodder for the communications companies, especially television. This explains the campaign against the law and whatever other measure there is that makes it possible for the public to find out how to make healthier food choices.

The controversy grew when Cardinal and Archbishop of Lima Juan Luis Cipriani [en], declared that it has been a while since he has eaten junk food and believes that much of it is harmful, but at the same time he is against legislating what people can or cannot eat. 

In a widely discussed article shared on social networks, the advertising professional Robby Ralston wrote that in his view the law was poorly conceived, which “leaves so many grey areas that can invite criticism”, adding that “this leads inevitably down the road to advertising censorship and corruption”. Finally Ralston mentioned that “what really bothers me is that they are limiting my freedom to advertise and above all the freedom of Peruvians to see and enjoy advertising.”

The journalist Isabel Guerra commented on Facebook, echoing another of Ralston's arguments:

El Tribunal Constitucional ha despenalizado las relaciones sexuales presuntamente consentidas con menores de entre 14 y 17 años. Ahora tenemos una ley que supuestamente prohibirá que a esos mismos menores se les venda “comida chatarra”. Es decir, un adulto se puede llevar a la cama a una nena de 14 años, pero no le puede vender un pan con hot dog… :S #yodigonomás :S

The Constitutional Court has decriminalized presumably consensual sexual relations with minors of 14 to 17 years of age. Now we have a law that supposedly prohibits the sale of “junk food” to these same minors. In other words, an adult can bed a 14-year-old girl, but cannot sell her a hot dog on a bun…:S #yodigonomás (that's all I have to say) :S

The discussion reached a new low when a journalist tweeted a photo of Presidente Humala's daughters and commented that one of them seemed to be overweight. The tweet garnered a battery of criticism.

Given that the Ministry of Health has 60 days to issue the regulations for the Law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating, debate and pressure from various interest groups is expected to continue.

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by Victoria Robertson · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Outlining

• Dave on the Icon Chooser Dialog (Just added the icons for each subhead)
• This is a test: em dash — , possessive apostophe ’ . If you see more of those in the text below, please ignore. Thanks. – Doc

VRM

• Intention Economy: from the Fringes to Mainstream? Interview in Paris Tech Review
• Fighting Facebook, a Campaign for a People’s Terms of Service: Social media companies say consumers’ loss of privacy is just the cost of doing business. But what would happen if they actually had to bargain with users on equal footing? By Ari Melber, Woodrow Hartzog and Evan Selinger in The Nation

Earth

• America’s first climate refugees, in The Guardian
• Climate change will make hundreds of millions homeless, in The Guardian
• No-Water-Gate: Scandalous NY Times Piece On Dust-Bowlification Never Mentions Climate Change, By Joe Romm in ThinkProgress
• Chu On Climate: ‘If We Don’t Change What We’re Doing, We’re Going To Be Fundamentally In Really Deep Trouble’ By Joe Romm in ThinkProgress
• The coming war over climate change and judicial nominations, by David Atkins

Media

• Arbitron Ratings for April, in radio-info.
• WTOP IS #1 NEWS STATION IN AMERICA, in Radio INK. My response: No, it’s not. WAMU is.
• Objectivity and the decades-long shift from “just the facts†to “what does it mean?†by Jonathan Stray at Niemanlab.

Monday's sitting of Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament saw the Opposition Leader quoting from several e-mails, which, he alleged, implicate key government ministers, including the Prime Minister, in attempting to cover up her administration's actions surrounding the Section 34 controversy.

Netizens were taking notice. Twitter was unusually quiet, but many social media users who watched the No Confidence motion against the government play out, flooded their Facebook status updates with commentary about the goings-on. Some even posted notes, like this one by Christian Hume – its contents are reproduced in this post with the writer's permission:

The good thing about Emailgate is that the majority of people who would decide the next General Election understand e-mail. The Attorney General himself has publicly stated that he has had a particular e-mail address for the last 15 years, which means that he too would have been among the earliest people in this country to sign up for e-mail back in 1997. I am therefore amused at the comical defenses being put up by himself and Anil Roberts in trying to convince people who do not understant e-mail (and some who do) that there is no connection between the e-mails read out in Parliament yesterday and the high government officials that they are purported to have come from.

Soon, the discussion, both on and offline, turned to the authenticity of the e-mails. In this blog post, diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch wrote:

This revealed email exchange over the Section 34 débâcle is a deal breaker if it turns out to be true. Why I find it amusing though, is that it is so obviously fake.

There are several clues which reveal right off, to those who are semi-literate in email technology, why said emails are fudged.

First of all, and most strongly telling is that Gmail, even since its inception in 2004 (when people were paying for invitations to Gmail) did not allow for 4-character usernames. Not even 5… and I know; I was there… back in 2004, you had to use 6 alpha-numeric characters or more.

Secondly…I have never seen such childish spelling and grammatical mistakes from Anand Ramlogan. Sure, one can argue that most people are far more informal in emails than in a commentary column… but even so some lineament of the writing style will continue to hold true. In other words, wolf cyah play sheep.

Thirdly, how improbable is it for public figures in high positions to use ‘free’ email accounts to contact each other, when they have ‘official’ government provided email?

What has me is a puzzled frame of mind is trying to fathom the reason Keith Rowley would bring this up in Parliament. Is he so naive that he would fall into the clutches of desperation? Malicious? Or is he merely dotish?

Hume addressed that very question in his Facebook note:

I'm hearing people saying that Dr. Rowley should have presented the technical verification of the authenticity of those e-mails in Parliament yesterday. Given that he read the contents of 31 e-mails, that would have been impractical, seeing that he only had 75 minutes in which to make his presentation. At any rate, the technical verfication of those e-mails would have been incomprehensible to the most of the national population, and I daresay, to almost all the members of the House of Representatives, including the Speaker himseslf. Instead, Dr.Rowley went one better. He took pains to explain the necessity for Parliamentary privilege, before using it to lay his case before House and country. In doing so, he is challenging Kamla, Anand, Suruj, and the PP machinery to deny the authenticity of the e-mails, and as most people in that situation would do, the PP spokespersons have already obliged bombastically. I am confident that the technical details that would verify the authenticity of those e-mails will start to emerge in the days to follow, and not necessarily from PNM quarters. Grab your pop corn, sit back and watch. Doh say ah didn't tell allyuh.

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society contributed to the discussion by tackling the topic of hacking. The post explained the phishing phenomenon, adding:

The method of phishing emails pretending to be from a friend or organisation you know underscores the ease of faking emails. The from field in an email can have any text (e.g ‘lldjlkdladajdlk@sdkaldjal') that looks like an email address and not be from the ‘real’ sender.

In this context, one Facebook user, suggested that if the Prime Minister's e-mail was indeed hacked, she should have noticed irregularities in the use of her account. The TTCS post explained:

To detect hacking attempts, one should set up two factor authentication which improves the security of your email account. One common implementation of two factor authentication uses your cell phone. Whenever a new device or software is used to access your email account, the email provider prompts you to enter a second password that is sent to your cellphone via SMS. If you receive an SMS and you are not trying to access your email from a new device, then you are aware that someone else has your password and is attempting to access your account.

Detection of whether your email account is compromised without two factor authentication requires a regular review of your email account profile and/or settings.

The rest of the post detailed a step-by-step process through which to protect yourself and to determine if your account was compromised:

The complete, strange emails…should be kept for study by you or pertinent authorities to study for clues as to the IP address where the email was sent from.

This requires the preservation of the email headers which are typically not shown by email clients nor included in the email when emails are forwarded. However, all email messages have e-mail headers.

Meanwhile, Robin Montano, a former Senator with affiliations to the United National Congress (one of the political parties in the coalition People's Partnership government), addressed the Opposition Leader's allegations on his blog, calling them the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass:

Dr. Keith Rowley's play in Parliament yesterday could be labelled such a pass because if what he said turns out to be not true he will have effectively sunk himself and his PNM team. That would be it! Finito! Kaput! On the other hand, if all that he has said is true the Government is sunk!

The e mails basically allege a criminal conspiracy between the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Prime Minister's special security adviser, Captain Gary Griffith over the section 34 issue. Further the e mails go further to suggest that the parties involved were planning serious harm to a journalist.

The problem here is that the e mails appear on their very face to be faked. For example, a lot of the e mails are supposed to have come from an e mail address: anan@ gmail.com. But it is not possible to create a g mail account with less than six characters. Then there is another e mail address that ends in “.coN “(I have high lighted and capitalised the ‘n’ for emphasis). There should be an ‘m’ where the ‘n’ is. Then there is an alleged exchange of e mails between Captain Griffith and Mr. Ramlogan starting with Mr. Ramlogan allegedly e mailing Captain Griffith at 1:33am on a Monday morning and Captain Griffith replying at 1:40am! So these men don't sleep and are sitting on their computers at that time?! Really?

The post then considered the potential political fallout:

The accusations that he has made are very, very serious. The Prime Minister has quite properly referred them to the Commissioner of Police. If they turn out to be true the Prime Minister and her Attorney General will have to resign. There is no question of that! But if the accusations turn out to be false then Dr. Rowley should be expelled from the Parliament.

In a follow-up post today, Montano declared:

I now believe beyond reasonable doubt that the e mails are fakes. Whether Dr. Rowley knew that the e mails were forgeries is another question.

He also challenged what the opposition knew and when they knew it:

You sent those e mails to the President? And by ‘you’ I mean the PNM. So that means that not only Dr. Rowley knew about those e mails but others in the PNM knew about them too? And therefore President Richards knew about them in December? And the Integrity Commission knew about it also in December?!

Mr. Ken Gordon, the Chairman of the Integrity Commission, is quoted in the press this morning as saying that if the e mails are true then that would be very serious. But I must ask Mr. Gordon directly, what if the e mails are forgeries? Fakes? Wouldn't that also be very serious?

To help determine whether the e-mails could indeed be fake, Global Voices contacted tech journalist and blogger Mark Lyndersay. We asked him, from a technical perspective, whether there were any red flags:

Mark Lyndersay: The first flag was that there only seem to be prints of these e-mails. It's hard to imagine that the Leader of the Opposition chose to stand before Parliament with no more evidence than some paper documents. His next logical step should have been an announcement that the electronic files would have been sent to the appropriate authorities for verification. That hasn't happened, though there is no reason to believe that it won't.

We then asked Lyndersay what he thought the next steps should be in order to determine the authenticity of the correspondence:

ML: First up would be the investigation of the e-mail transmissions to review the routing information that the messages took. Without that information, the argument is really about whether or not the printed information is convincing and that really shouldn't be a discussion at all.

Finally, we asked him about the impact that the technical aspects of this issue could have on its political aspects:

ML: Technology is absolute. It deals in verifiable bits that either are or are not. A message either has a proper transmission header or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it's unverifiable and useless as evidence, regardless of who offers it. This may be a confusing matter for politicians, who trade in mood, feelings and allegiances, none of which have any impact on bits. Information on the web may have mood and feeling, but its existence is trackable and verifiable every step of the way (unless people take the trouble to use anonymizers and other identity obscuring tools). E-mails can't just look right or wrong, they are either truly electronic transmissions and can be verified as such with a trackable footprint or they are not. It really is as simple as that. From a verification point of view, an unverifiable e-mail, whether it was invented out of whole cloth on a word processor or copied and pasted into a fresh transmission, simply can't be used as a tool of accusation.

In light of today's failed motion, in part thanks to the fact that the very opposition that raised it walked out of Parliament, political blog The Eternal Pantomime summed everything up this way:

Dr Rowley took a massive gamble accusing the government of conspiring against the office of the DPP and conspiring to harm a citizen of the country with just a pile of transcripts. To have pulled it off successfully what was required were digital files or actual screen shots of the e-mails so that the members of the doubting public would have irrefutable proof, create a significant hue and cry and catapult the powers into action.

Without those digital files it all boiled down to playing the blame game…yet again. It is a game the country has been caught up in for the past 3 years and it has gotten old and tired. Despite the numerous scandals and missteps this government has gotten itself embroiled in, this Motion of No Confidence had the potential to land a PM, an AG and a senior government Minister in jail had it been handled right.

Now, three days later, with Keith pointing fingers and Kamla sticking out her tongue and saying prove it, we have the country right back where it started…wondering who lying.

If Stephen Williams wasn’t such a compromised Commissioner of Police, if we had a serious cyber crimes unit here, if the Integrity Commission actually functioned and if the President had the power he thinks he has…there would be an independent investigation and the first thing to be done would be to confiscate the devices of these individuals and to ask their email hosts for transcripts on the dates Rowley gave…

But this was a rape trial. Rowley accused them of fucking us over…it was up to him to prove there was unwanted penetration…and before he managed to accomplish that in Parliament…he pulled out.

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Yesterday, Pew Internet and American Life Project (in collaboration with Berkman) unveiled a brilliant report about “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy.” As a researcher who’s been in the trenches on these topics for a long time now, none of their finding surprised me but it still gives me absolute delight when our data is so beautifully in synch. I want to quickly discuss two important issues this report raises.

Race is a factor in explaining differences in teen social media use.

Pew provides important measures on shifts in social media, including the continued saturation of Facebook, the decline of MySpace, and the rise of other social media sites (e.g., Twitter, Instagram). When they drill down on race, they find notable differences in adoption. For example, they highlight data that is the source of “black Twitter” narratives: 39% of African-American teens use Twitter compared to 23% of white teens.

Most of the report is dedicated to the increase in teen sharing, but once again, we start to see some race differences. For example, 95% of white social media-using teens share their “real name” on at least one service while 77% of African-American teens do. And while 39% of African-American teens on social media say that they post fake information, only 21% of white teens say they do this.

Teens’ practices on social media also differ by race. For example, on Facebook, 48% of African-American teens befriend celebrities, athletes, or musicians while 25% of white teen users do.

While media and policy discussions of teens tend to narrate them as an homogenous group, there are serious and significant differences in practices and attitudes among teens. Race is not the only factor, but it is a factor. And Pew’s data on the differences across race highlight this.

Of course, race isn’t actually what’s driving what we see as race differences. The world in which teens live is segregated and shaped by race. Teens are more likely to interact with people of the same race and their norms, practices, and values are shaped by the people around them. So what we’re actually seeing is a manifestation of network effects. And the differences in the Pew report point to black youth’s increased interest in being a part of public life, their heightened distrust of those who hold power over them, and their notable appreciation for pop culture. These differences are by no means new, but what we’re seeing is that social media is reflecting back at us cultural differences shaped by race that are pervasive across America.

Teens are sharing a lot of content, but they’re also quite savvy.

Pew’s report shows an increase in teens’ willingness to share all sorts of demographic, contact, and location data. This is precisely the data that makes privacy advocates anxious. At the same time, their data show that teens are well-aware of privacy settings and have changed the defaults even if they don’t choose to manage the accessibility of each content piece they share. They’re also deleting friends (74%), deleting previous posts (59%), blocking people (58%), deleting comments (53%), detagging themselves (45%), and providing fake info (26%).

My favorite finding of Pew’s is that 58% of teens cloak their messages either through inside jokes or other obscure references, with more older teens (62%) engaging in this practice than younger teens (46%). This is the practice that I’ve seen significantly rise since I first started doing work on teens’ engagement with social media. It’s the source of what Alice Marwick and I describe as “social steganography” in our paper on teen privacy practices.

While adults are often anxious about shared data that might be used by government agencies, advertisers, or evil older men, teens are much more attentive to those who hold immediate power over them – parents, teachers, college admissions officers, army recruiters, etc. To adults, services like Facebook that may seem “private” because you can use privacy tools, but they don’t feel that way to youth who feel like their privacy is invaded on a daily basis. (This, btw, is part of why teens feel like Twitter is more intimate than Facebook. And why you see data like Pew’s that show that teens on Facebook have, on average 300 friends while, on Twitter, they have 79 friends.) Most teens aren’t worried about strangers; they’re worried about getting in trouble.

Over the last few years, I’ve watched as teens have given up on controlling access to content. It’s too hard, too frustrating, and technology simply can’t fix the power issues. Instead, what they’ve been doing is focusing on controlling access to meaning. A comment might look like it means one thing, when in fact it means something quite different. By cloaking their accessible content, teens reclaim power over those who they know who are surveilling them. This practice is still only really emerging en masse, so I was delighted that Pew could put numbers to it. I should note that, as Instagram grows, I’m seeing more and more of this. A picture of a donut may not be about a donut. While adults worry about how teens’ demographic data might be used, teens are becoming much more savvy at finding ways to encode their content and achieve privacy in public.
…
Anyhow, I have much more to say about Pew’s awesome report, but I wanted to provide a few thoughts and invite y’all to read it. If there is data that you’re curious about or would love me to analyze more explicitly, leave a comment or drop me a note. I’m happy to dive in more deeply on their findings.

Banner image credit: paride de carlo  http://www.flickr.com/photos/paride81/4515486809/#

A prominent Chinese nationalist has called for China to take tighter control of the country's Internet in part by building an online army of civilians to monitor the Web.

Zhang Hongliang (張宏良), a Maoist opinion leader, put together [zh] an elaborate plan of action on his blog on May 17, 2013 soon after the “Seven Speak-Nots“ policy, a list of seven forbidden subjects for discussion in schools and online in China, was revealed. The post has since been deleted.

Political liberals in China have promoted the Internet as a platform for public deliberation and political negotiation since the landmark Sun Zhigang incident in 2003. That case saw the abolition of custody and repatriation in China, which allowed police to detain people without a proper permit and return them to where they legally could live and work, after the death of 27-year-old university graduate Sun Zhigang in an official detention center caused massive outrage online.

Even extreme nationalists have made use of the Internet for political mobilization, such as a national anti-Japanese protest in September 2012.

But in the past few weeks, the government has undertaken a new censorship campaign that has removed the accounts of numerous political liberals from popular microblogging site Sina Weibo.

Below are the four main arguments Zhang makes in his 10,000-word article [zh]:

第一，新浪等各大门户网站为外资企业，有美国等西方国家垄断资本控制，在客观上与中国形成利益对立。

Firstly, Sina and other major portal sites are registered as foreign corporations and controlled by monopolized capital in the hands of the United States and other western countries. Their interests are thus in opposition to China.

第二，各大门户网站的把关编辑和关键岗位人员，都是南方报系这个当今传媒界“黄埔军校”培养出来的，是中国历史上规模最大的“网络伪军”。这是当今国内外反共反华势力最为自豪和自信的地方。

Secondly, most of the editors or content operators of major portals are coming from Nanfang Media Group, which is like a “military academy” for online media. Both domestic and overseas anti-communist and anti-Chinese forces are very proud of the base.

第三，[…]中国网管部门长期被推行西方政治制度和西方普世价值的领导人所控制，采取强制政策把反左和反对“文革余孽”作为主要任务，打着反左和反对“文革余孽”的旗号，妖魔化人民革命，妖魔化人民领袖，妖魔化社会主义，妖魔化民族文化和民族精神，支持汉奸文化，纵容反共反华势力、打压左翼爱国力量。

Thirdly, Internet authorities in China are under the control of those who advocate for western political systems and universal values. Their mission is to crackdown on those with left-leaning beliefs and Cultural Revolution believers by demonizing people's revolution, people's leaders, socialism, and national culture and spirit and by supporting traitor culture, indulging anti-communist and anti-Chinese forces, as well as repressing leftist patriot forces.

第四，“中美国”已从经济领域延伸到网络领域，形成了美国网军司令部统一操控中美两国网络舆论的危险状况。“中美国”是美国哈佛大学教授弗格森对“中国生产，美国消费”这种新型经济共同体的称谓，我们把它称之为“殖民经济循环圈”。“中美国”是新自由主义经济改革造成的，后来美国又试图通过中国政治体制改革，把“中美国”由经济领域推向政治领域，实现“中美共治”的新型政治共同体。目前在网络领域，由美国主导的“中美共治”已经形成。除了上述三个方面之外，形成“中美共治”的最主要力量，就是由“黑头发黑眼睛外国人”组成的庞大水军。

Fourthly, “Chimerica” has been extended from the economic domain to the Internet. The online opinion headquarters in the US is now manipulating both Chinese and US Internet opinion. “Chimerica” is a notion conceptualized by Harvard professor Niall Ferguson to describe the new economy of “made in China and consume in the US”. However, we call such a relationship “colonial economic cycle”. “Chimerica” is a result of the neoliberal economic reform, and the US later tries to extend such a relationship from the economic to the political domain to create a polity based on the “co-governance of China and the US”. Now in the Internet domain, the “co-governance of China and the US” led by the US has already been shaped. The major driving force is the large number of online opinion navy [meaning paid opinion leaders] formed by “foreigners who have black hair and black eyes”.

Based on his above analysis, Zhang put forward the following proposal:

第一，对各大门户网站实行本土化管理，或者国有化，或者中国化，收回网站控制权。此前我们多次指出，信息时代，网站是特殊企业，关乎国家安全和国防安全，绝不能像一般企业那样由外资控制或与外资合作经营。目前各大门户网站都在海外上市，可以采取获得控股权或控制权的办法，把各大门户网站变成中国控制的企业。获得控股权是指通过企业外部的股权并购来控制企业；获得控制权是指通过企业内部建立党团组织、工会组织以及员工持股会等，控制企业政治方向。总之，一定要像重视军队那样重视门户网站，把所有权牢牢控制在中国手中。军队不能由外资控制或者与外资合作经营，网站同样不能由外资控制或与外资合资经营。

Firstly, major portal websites have to be governed under domestic policy. Or we can regain the control by nationalization. We have pointed out many times in the past that in the information age, the Internet is a very distinctive business that affects our national and military security. It should not be controlled by foreign controlled capital or run by the foreign capital cooperation model. Now that major portal websites are listed in overseas stock market. We could regain China's holding through merger and acquisition. To regain China's control over the portal sites, we have to set up party branches, labour union branches, and worker stake-holding organizations within the corporations. We have to manage portal websites like our military. The military should not fall into the hands of foreign capital or be managed under the foreign capital-cooperation mode. The same principal should be applied to the Internet.

第二，调整网管队伍，保证网络管理权掌握在马克思主义者和爱国主义官员手中。[…] 此前中国网络舆论导向的问题，实际上是管理部门的问题，是管理部门推行西方普世价值的管理导向决定的，只要网络管理部门能够坚持十八大精神和习近平总书记系列讲话，中国网络就一定能够成为社会主义和爱国主义的舆论阵地。

Secondly, rearrange the Internet administrative team and make sure that the task of Internet governance should be in the hands of those officials who believe in Marxism and patriotism. […] The problem with Chinese online public opinion is caused by the Internet authorities whose decisions are based on western universal values. When Internet management authorities insist and act on Secretary Xi Jinping's speeches and the spirit of the Chinese Communist Party's 18 Congress, the Chinese Internet will gear public opinion towards socialism and patriotism.

第三，发挥中国共产党领导和人民群众监督相结合的政治优势，向各大门户网站派驻工作组和群众监督委员会，形成自上而下和自下而上的双重监督机制，保证网站的爱国主义方向和国家的政治安全、国防安全。

Thirdly, manifest political advantage by combining the communist party's leadership with mass monitoring by setting up working teams and people's monitoring committees in portal websites. So that the monitoring is both top-down and bottom-up. This is to ensure all the portal websites are in alignment with patriotism and serving national, political, and military security proposes.

第四，组建军民相结合的现代网军，形成网络社会的现代国防。网络时代是大众民主的时代，大众民主取代精英民主，是21世纪人类社会发展的根本潮流。[…] 而中国以往的全民皆兵时代和大众民主运动，是我们组建现代网军的天然优势，是新时代群众路线的主要内容，与此相联系的大众政治文明，也是中华民族崛起的历史依据。只要我们真正坚持群众路线，网军时代就是中华民族复兴的时代。

Fourthly, build a modern online army by bringing together the military force and people so as to form a modern defense system of the network society. The age of the Internet is an era of mass democracy and mass democracy should replace elite democracy. This is the developing trend of the 21 century human society. […] In China, the history of everyone being a solider and mass democratic movement has given us the advantage of building the modern online army, which is the substance of massive participation in the new era, towards a civilization of mass politics. This is the historical path of the rise of the Chinese nation. If we stick to the principle of the mass, the era of the online army is the era of the revival of the Chinese nation. [Note: the revival of the Chinese nation is the slogan or the "China dream" of President Xi Jinping's leadership.]

第五，借鉴去年美国和俄罗斯分别制订《爱国法案》和《叛国罪法》的经验，尽快制订与《反分裂法》相适应的《反汉奸法》，恢复宪法中“惩办卖国贼”的相关条款，把党要管网、群众管网与依法治网结合起来，建立保护爱国主义的法治基础。

Fifthly, borrow from the experience of the US and Russia with legislation of “Patriot Act” and “Treason Law“, we should legislate an “anti-Chinese traitor law” which is in the same spirit of the “anti-separation law”. We should restore the clause regarding “punishing the traitors” in our Constitution and set the patriotic legal ground for party, people, and legal governance of the Internet.

The central government's policy towards Internet government is under the so-called “dictator's dilemma”. On the one hand, an open Internet is the essential foundation of the information society and the central government has established its legitimacy by actively responding to online public opinion.

On the other hand, citizens have made use of the Internet to build a consensus for liberal political reform and by doing so, they have put the power of the one-party regime at risk.

Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

The citizen initiative “14 million- Life, family and liberty”” [es], which opposes the free distribution of the day-after pill and other forms of family planning policy, has caused controversy among Ecuadorians.

Those involved in this initiative say that parents’ right to choose education for their children according to their values and principles has been ignored. They also denounce the intention to introduce laws that threaten the definition of marriage between men and women, changing the word “sex” with “gender” in citizen identification cards.

The group names these and other points in a video [es] inviting citizens to participate in a “great gathering for family, life and liberty.” The gathering took place on May 19, 2013 in the cities of Quito, Santo Domingo y Guayaquil. The YouTube channel Fourteen million [es] shared the video:

On May 18, President Rafael Correa rejected the actions of the “14 million” movement. The newspaper El Tiempo [The Times] [es] published some of Correa's declarations:

“No es verdad, como pretenden hacer creer estos señores, que a un niño de doce años se le regalan anticonceptivos. Esa es una mentira monstruosa” y de “mala fe”, enfatizó Correa, un mandatario de izquierda que también se declara “católico practicante”.

Señaló que el grupo “14 millones”, que es la cifra redonda de habitantes en Ecuador, “no tiene personería (validez) jurídica” y dijo sospechar que detrás de ella “están todos los opositores al Gobierno”.

“It is not true, as these people want to make you believe, that a 12-year-old child will be given birth control. It is a monstrous lie” and in “bad faith,” emphasized Correa, a leftist who describes himself as a “practicing Catholic.”

He stated that the “14 million” group, which refers to the the approximate number of people in Ecuador, “does not have an official, valid status” and said he suspected that “those who oppose the government are behind it.”

Isabel Maria Salazar, national director of the “14 million” movement, said in an interview for the Ecuavisa channel [es] that they are not in favor of or opposed to any political party:

“Nosotros somos una auténtica iniciativa ciudadana donde estamos varones, mujeres, jóvenes. No queremos que esto se vea como una manifestación a favor o en contra de determinadas posiciones políticas, más bien estamos preocupados porque se le ha dejado a la familia de lado en varios proyectos de educación, y también en aquello que corresponde a la salud.”

“We are an authentic citizen initiative in which we are men, women and youth. We do not want to be seen as a manifestation in favor of or against determined political positions, but more so we are worried because family has been left to the side in various education projects and that also relates to health.”

Salazar further showed her rejection of the free distribution of the day-after pill [es] without parental consent, stressing that according to article 29 [es] of the constitution of Ecuador, parents have “the right to choose for their sons and daughters an education in line with their principles, beliefs and teaching methods.”

Days before the gathering, the group released a pamphlet featuring the stamps of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference [es], the Archbishop of Quito [es], the the Pro-Life Action Foundation [es] and others.

However a letter signed by Mateo López, deputy secretary general of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference, later clarified that “the use of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference stamp in '14 million’ movement materials has not been authorized by this conference and appears against its wishes, which were expressly communicated to the organizers.”

Silvia Buendía (@silvidabuendia) [es] shared the image on the “14 million” pamphlet:

@silvitabuendia: Lean todos pic.twitter.com/Um6TmNGYp1 esta es la carta de los 14Millones. Ojo católicos, la firma la Conferencia Episcopal Ecuatoriana 

@silvitabuendia [es]: Everyone read pic.twitter.com/Um6TmNGYp1 this letter from 14 million. Look Catholics, the stamp of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference

Then she apologized and shared the letter from the Episcopal Conference:

@silvitabuendia: Me disculpo con la Conferencia Episcopal, ayer me escandalicé d q firmaran la carta d los @14Millones pic.twitter.com/9BPOUXF36j era mentira 

@silvitabuendia [es]: Forgive me, Episcopal Conference. Yesterday I was scandalized that you had signed the letter from the @14Millones [14 million] pic.twitter.com/9BPOUXF36j It was a lie.

The citizens that support the initiative -@14millones [es] on Twitter- comment with the hashtags #14millones [14 million] and #19mporlafamilia [19 million for family].

Loli Andrade (@loliandradem) [es] stated her support for the May 19 gathering:

@loliandradem: @14millones HOY defiendo la vida mas q nunca con paz, alegria t amor x la vida y la familia! Soy de gquil pero stoy en Quito y aun asi voy! 

@loliandradem [es]: @14millones [14 million] TODAY I defend life more than ever with peace, joy, love, life and family! I'm from Guayaquil but I'm in Quito and I still go! 

While Jose D'María (@JoseMatamoros_) [es] wrote about the rights of children:

@JoseMatamoros_: Regresando a Cuenca a exigir los derechos de la familia y los niños #19mporlafamilia #14millones @14Millones

@JoseMatamoros_ [es]: Returning to Cuenca to demand the rights of family and children #19mporlafamilia [19 million for the family] #14millones [14 million] @14Millones [14 million]

Rafael Silva (@_RBSILVA) [es] also showed his support of “14 million:”

@_RBSILVA: Para eso hemos sido entrenados, defenderemos la verdad y no se nos arebatara el fuego q en nuestra sangre esta! @14Millones #19Mporlafamila

@_RBSILVA [es]: For that we have been trained, we will defend the truth and not lose the fire in our blood! @14Millones [14 million] #19Mporlafamila [19 million for family]

However, there also exists opposition to the movement, in part because they chose to call themselves “14 million,” the number of people in Ecuador, and many do not feel represented by the ideas of the group.

Under the hashtag #YoNoSoy14Millones [I am not 14 million] various users separate themselves from those that defend the movement. This includes Jaime Tamariz (@JaimeTamariz) [es]:

@JaimeTamariz: Somos 6.676.120.288 de personas distintas/diversas tratando de encontrar la felicidad en nuestra efímera vida #YoNoSoy14Millones

@JaimeTamariz [es]: We are 6,676,120.288 diverse and different people trying to find happiness in our ephemeral lives #YoNoSoy14Millones [I am not 14 million]

Majito Lasso (@majitolasso) [es], for his part, shared his opinion about being “pro-life:”

@majitolasso: Ojalá se escandalizaran de la violación y el femicidio, no de derechos sexuales y reproductivos. Eso sería provida #yonosoy14millones

@majitolasso [es]: I hope that they're scandalized by rape and female infanticide, not sexual and reproductive rights. That would be pro-life #yonosoy14millones [I am not 14 million]

In a similar manner, Mónica Pazmino (@justmonique1981) [es] wrote:

@justmonique1981: Cuando inculcen [sic] amor y tolerancia hablamos amigos fundamentalistas Provida #YoNoSoy14Millones

@justmonique1981 [es]: When they instill love and tolerance we talk, friends, of fundamental pro-life. #YoNoSoy14Millones [I am not 14 million]

Written by Daniela Gallardo · Translated by Nicki Gorny · View original post [es] · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

How the Decline of the Traditional Workplace Is Changing Our Cities, by Emily Badger

American ISPs are now hated even more than airlines, By Brad Reed

Hollywood studios attempt to censor Pirate Bay documentary

High plains aquifer running out. Graphic.

Google tweaks search.

After You Read This Kid’s Story, You’ll Think Twice About What You Post On Facebook. (And That’s The Problem.), in The Liberty Crier

VRM

• A more intelligent way for companies to avoid personal contact with you.
• How the Internet of Things changes everything, by Stefan Ferber in HBR
• You are your data: The scary future of the quantified self movement, by Michael Carney in Pando Daily
• Intel Fuels a Rebellion Around Your Data: The world’s largest chip maker wants to see a new kind of economy bloom around personal data. By Antonio Regalado and Jessica Leber in MIT Technology Review
• How people really use mobile, in HBR
• Hub of All Things
• McAfee’s LiveSafe (a personal data locker)
• Why health care consumers are completely, hopelessly, in the dark, by Dylan Tweeney in LinkedIn

As rapid industrialization and development in India snatches up land and livelihoods and the government grapples with a legal framework to deal with the displaced, activist groups such as Ekta Parishad have loudly campaigned on behalf of the landless and homeless.

The group, whose name means “forum of unity” in Hindi, met with Indian Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on 15 April, 2013 to affirm an earlier agreement the two parties had made in October 2012 after Ekta Parishad staged a massive protest march.

That agreement promised to create a task force to shape reform that would ensure the agricultural land and homestead rights of the landless and the homeless and provide legal aid for the most vulnerable.

India is currently considering a bill that would “provide just and fair compensation to the affected families whose land has been acquired [..] and make adequate provisions for such affected persons,” but but Ekta Parishad is fighting for land rights for those people who do not traditionally own land but whose life and livelihood are highly dependent on it.

The transfer of India's important natural resources to industrial investors, both Indian and foreign, fueled rampant growth in recent years. Local populations, of whom 70 percent still live in rural areas today and who are dependent on natural resources for their survival, were often displaced by land grabs, made without any compensation.

The most impoverished people in India, the Dalits and Adivasis, especially women, are not only forgotten, but are also the main victims of this development.

In February 2013, the National Dalit and Adavasi Women's Congress was cited in a recent blog article by Sujatha Surepally, which also denounces this sad reality:

The hall is echoing with the furious voice of Dayamani Barla, veteran Adivasi activist from Jharkhand. She is trying to unite people against mining in Jharkhand, around 108 mining companies are waiting to destroy Adivasi life in the name of mining, first they come for coal, next they say power houses, it continues, we are pushed out and out further. How do we live without our land? Spectacular speech for an hour, pin drop silence all around, everyone is identifying with her pain and agony. At the end of it, what is she is trying to convey? Humko Jeene Do! Let us live our own life! If this is called development, we care a damn about it!

Marches for Justice

Given the 60 million people who were displaced without compensation between 1947 and 2004, and the 25 million hectares of land requisitioned, activists from Ekta Parishad organized Janadesh - the “people's verdict”, in 2007, which was a month-long march of 25,000 people from the city of Gwalior to the national capital, Delhi, to demand rights for the landless. These videos describe Janadesh [fr] and its Indian and international support [fr]:

These grievances were heard, and resulted in laws such as the “Forest Rights Act“. Subrat Kumar Sahu commented in an online article in April 2010 about the law :

The Bill stated: “For the first time in the history of Indian forests, the state formally admits that, for long, rights have been denied to forest-dwelling people, and the new forest law attempts not only to right that ‘historic injustice’ but also give forest communities’ role primacy in future forest management.” Forest-dependent communities that were being pushed deeper and deeper into what remained of the forests were pleasantly surprised by the passage of FRA 2006, although forest-rights activists were cynical about the state’s intentions. Many called the Bill “a paper tiger”, like so many other pieces of legislation in India.

Despite these progressive laws, few achievements have been effectively realized since they were passed. This led Ekta Parishad and more than 2,000 other organizations to organize in October 2012 the Jan Satyagraha, or the March for Justice, again from Gwalior to Delhi, which was attended by 50,000 people on its first day.

The video below, subtitled in French, “Act or Die,” summarizes the alternatives for these people:

According to the blog Rexistance Inde [fr]:

Difficile de dénombrer les marcheurs, mais il faut compter presque cinq heures pour voir défiler l'ensemble du cortège. (…) Nous traversons (…) quelques villages où les gens accueillent la Marche avec des colliers et des jets de pétales de fleurs jaunes et orange.

It was difficult to count the number of marchers, but it took almost five hours to watch the passing of the entire procession (…) We passed through (…) some villages where people welcomed the March with necklaces of yellow and orange flowers, and by throwing flower petals.

Promises to keep

The petitions of 2007, which had focused on landless rural people, were this time expanded to include the homeless, the effective application of laws against poverty, the technical means for such application, and finally, a precise timetable for the fulfillment of these promises. The summation of these demands was written in the 10-point agreement between the marchers and the Indian Government [fr] on 11 October, 2012, and was confirmed by a new meeting between the authorities and the marchers in April 2013.

The blog Rexistance Inde [fr] stated in an article on 31 December, 2012:

Le gouvernement fédéral s'engage à plancher sur une politique de réformes agraires et à faire pression auprès des gouvernements locaux – l'allocation de terres étant leur prérogative – pour permettre aux populations marginalisées de rester sur leurs terres, ou d'en obtenir de nouvelles pour y travailler. Et pour y vivre ! Car l'une des clauses centrales, et nouvelles, de l'engagement consiste à inclure le droit au logement pour chaque famille pauvre et sans terre. [...] Mais Ekta Parishad n'est pas naïf. Au contraire, fort de l'expérience de la Janadesh en 2007 dont le peu de promesses obtenues n'avait pas vraiment été tenues, le mouvement reste vigilant, à tel point qu'il lance dans la foulée de la signature de l'accord un appel à soutien international pour signifier au gouvernement que les “invisibles” ne le lâcheront pas d'une semelle, et que l'œil de la conscience citoyenne veille, partout dans le monde.

The federal government is starting a campaign of agrarian political reforms, and to put pressure on local governments – since the allocation of land is their prerogative – to allow marginalized populations to remain on their land, or to find new land where they can work. And where they can live ! Since one of the new, and central, clauses of the agreement consists of the inclusion of a right to housing for each poor and landless family [...] But Ekta Parishad is not naive. On the contrary, given the experience from Janadesh in 2007, from which few of the promises obtained have truly been kept, the movement remains vigilant. To the point that, in the wake of the signing of the agreement, it launched an appeal for international support, to signal to the government that the “invisibles” will not retreat an inch, and that the eyes of civic consciousness are watching, throughout the world.

The support initiatives, at the Indian, European and international levels, were also redoubled during recent months, to ensure that the agreement will be respected by the Indian government, as stated in a collective letter sent to Minister Jairam Ramesh, thanking him for his actions since the beginning of the year on behalf of the most impoverished, but also encouraging him not to turn back from such a promising path.

Hope and caution

The agreement reached between Ekta Parishad and the Indian government may well represent the promise of a new paradigm for development and distribution of natural resources within India and perhaps elsewhere. On the eve of general elections in India, it is time for mobilization and hope, but equally well for caution.

V. Rajagopal, President of Ekta Parishad, confirmed that the movement intends to make its voice heard clearly during the electoral campaign which is now beginning in India, in an online article on Firstpost India, on 12 April, 2013:

2014 is an election year, and all political parties are drafting their manifestos. And our effort is to make land reform figure prominently in their manifestos. We are talking to different political parties. And keeping the next election in mind, we have come up with a slogan – Aage zameen peeche vote, nahi zameen toh nahi vote (first land, then vote; no land, no vote).

 

Written by Marie Bohner · Translated by Andrew Kowalczuk · View original post [fr] · comments (1)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

The news [es] that an oil company provided a private plane for President Laura Chinchilla's trip to Peru has rocked the Costa Rican presidency and its structure of contributors.

Originally the purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of Vice President Luis Liberman's son. However, to make the most out of the trip, an appointment with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala was set.

As communicated by the Presidency communications manager, the meeting with President Humala was scheduled before the trip to address Costa Rica's chances to join the Pacific Alliance and to talk about a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) ratified last April.

Later it was made public that President Chinchilla had also used that same plane to attend President Hugo Chávez's funeral in Venezuela.

Although many frowned upon the fact that a private company provided a plane for the President's trip to Peru, on May 15 another issue was added to the news: the company that lent the airplane [es] is connected to a businessman questioned for drug trafficking in Colombia. The businessman, Gabriel Morales Fallón, was part of the board of Thorneloe Energy, today known as THX.

According to publications on Semana [es] and El Tiempo [es] in Colombia, Morales has been investigated for his links with a drug dealer known as “Chupeta”.

Francisco Chacón, until then Costa Rican Minister of Communication, noted [es] that they believed that Gabriel Morales’ mother's last name was Olafán and not Fallón, and they alleged being misled. It was later confirmed that the businessman had changed his name.

The President didn't take long to issue a response. During a national broadcast she announced some of the government's corrective measures:

The President mentioned two important points during her televised speech: “The management and acceptance by the Presidency were careless, without all necessary procedures and controls to assure integrity and safety”, and goes on to say: “The omissions were particularly serious regarding national security and protection to the President of the Republic. Furthermore, it could endanger the country's solid international image, that has always fought drug trafficking and organized crime”.

“We shall never forget this lesson, it's a hard one”, said the President at the end of the national television broadcast.

As a result, two government officials resigned from their positions: Communication Minister Francisco Chacon, and the head of the Direction of Intelligence and Safety Mauricio Boraschi.

Cristian Cambronero (@cambronero) [es] said on his Twitter account:

@cambronero Vuelo de la presidenta Laura Chinchilla acaba con la caída de su hombre fuerte.

@cambronero [es] President Laura Chinchilla's flight ends up with the fall of her strongman.

The President's long time personal assistant, Ms. Irene Pacheco, has also left her position.

Laura Chinchilla said that Boraschi and Pacheco didn't do their duty [es] in verifying the origin of the plane.

President Chinchilla (@Laura_Ch) [es] added on her Twitter account:

@Laura_Ch He aceptado renuncia de 2 funcionarios, entre ellos Comisionado Antidrogas quien libró valiente lucha antidrogas pero descuidó mi seguridad.

@Laura_Ch [es]: I've accepted the resignation of two government officials, including the Anti-drugs Commissioner, who fought drugs bravely but neglected my security.

The government has been weakened and the President's circle of trusted officials has been reduced after this episode. Furthermore, the flaws in security have shown the deficiencies in the national security service.

The Republic's General Attorney and the public prosecutor have initiated separate investigations [es] about the trip in the private plane, about the government's relationship with the questioned company, and about the failure to comply with obligations.

Written by Roy Rojas · Translated by Gabriela García Calderón · View original post [es] · comments (1)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

If you subscribe to Creative Commons’ newsletter or follow us on Twitter and Facebook, you’re likely familiar with the story of Bassel Khartabil, our friend and longtime CC volunteer who’s been in prison in Syria since March 2012. Today, on the second birthday that Bassel has spent in prison, friends of Bassel and members of the open community are taking a moment to reflect on his situation and call for his release.

The Index on Censorship, which honored Bassel in March with the Digital Freedom Award, has compiled a collection of birthday wishes for Bassel:

I just want him free, I pray for him to be free and I pray for all his friends who believe and work on Bassel’s freedom. – Bassel’s mother

It is your birthday. It is not a day of happiness — yet. But when justice is done, and you are released from your wrongful imprisonment, all of us will celebrate with enormous happiness both this day, and every day that you have given us as an inspiration for hope across the world. – Larry Lessig, founder of Creative Commons

Read more

Our friend Jon Phillips, organizer of the #freebassel campaign, has launched a project called FREEBASSEL SUNLIGHT. In Jon’s words, “Please help shine some sunlight on Bassel by doing some novel research on his situation, where he is located, and help connect the dots of his situation and life.”

Artist and filmmaker Niki Korth recently developed a game that uses quotations from Bassel to start conversations about free and open communication, the conflict in Syria, and other topics. Niki has been publishing the playing cards online as well as videos of people playing the game.

Earlier this week, Niki led a few of us at CC in the game. You can watch our responses to several of her questions on her Vimeo page.

In this video, CC CEO Cathy Casserly voices our shared hope that we’ll see Bassel soon:

Read more

• Free Bassel, Free Culture
• Lawrence Lessig’s WSJ Article on Bassel Khartabil

In a recent 60 Minutes interview, TAP scholar Alessandro Acquisti discusses his research on facial recognition search and its effect on privacy.

In a recent 60 Minutes interview, TAP scholar Alessandro Acquisti discusses his research on facial recognition search and its effect on privacy.

Omar Qatifaan, a 14-year-old media activist, was killed 21 May, 2013 while covering clashes between the Syrian Army and the rebel Free Army in the southern Daraa al-Ballad area of Syria near the border with Jordan.

Youth media project Syrian Documents reported on his death, and Syrian news blog YALLA SOURIYA called him the “Spirit of Syria”.

The conflict in Syria, as well as other Arab Spring uprisings, has seen a rise in citizen journalists reporting from the ground on the ongoing war between the country's pro- and anti-government forces. Many have been detained, tortured, and even killed while trying to bring the story of the revolution to the world.

Children have also paid a terrible price during the conflict, with thousands killed during the violence so far.

Another media activist recorded video of Qatifaan after he was killed. The footage was posted on YouTube by SyrianDaysOfRage [GRAPHIC VIDEO]:

Written by Rami Alhames · comments (6)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

China’s biggest e-commerce firm Alibaba Group announced  on April 29, 2013 that it would acquire an 18 percent stake in Sina Weibo for 586 million US dollars, a deal that could reshape the country’s Internet landscape. Sina Weibo is China’s most popular Twitter-like microblogging platform with over 500 million user accounts, but it has yet to find a profitable business model.

By connecting the millions of Weibo users to Alibaba, an e-commerce platform that handled more transactions than Amazon and eBay combined last year, the deal is widely heralded as a game changer that could jump-start an era of social commerce, or social media-driven e-commerce, in China.

New exclusion in the era of social commerce

But the deal also marks a subtle trend which will enable the authoritarian state to tighten its grip on the Internet. As the line dividing economics and politics in the Internet space erodes, new possibilities arise for governments to pursue systematic online persecution beyond content control. Google’s Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen spell out this scenario in their new book “The New Digital Age“:

As connectivity spreads, Internet service and mobile devices offer vital outlets for individuals to transcend their current environment, connecting them with information, jobs, resources, entertainment and other people. Excluding oppressed populations from participating in the virtual world would be a very drastic and damaging policy [...]. As banking, salaries and payment transactions move increasingly onto online platforms, exclusion from the Internet will severely curtail people’s economic prospects. It would be far more difficult to access one’s money, to pay by credit card or get a loan.

As a country facing the Internet “dictator’s dilemma,” the above scheme presents great potential for China to bring the Internet’s convenience to bear upon curtailing of online freedom. By embracing the Internet, the Chinese government has reaped its benefits for economic and social developments, thereby enhancing its legitimacy. According to McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, China is the second largest e-tailing market in the world, after the United States, with sales totaling 120 billion US dollars in 2011. But at the same time, the Internet has become a vibrant public sphere filled with criticisms about government policies and corruption.

The well-known Great Firewall, which blocks “undesirable” foreign websites, and elaborate social media censorship, with forced cooperation from private Internet companies, are the official responses. A recent Economist special report described the Chinese Internet, with its distinct mix of economic freedom and political “unfreedom”, as a flourishing “giant cage” which is constantly watched over.

The Alibaba deal is a foretaste of how the Chinese regulators further manipulate the economic desires and needs of citizens. Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter, highlights its sinister aspect in his New York Times Dealbook column that the deal, “through integrated online payment functionality, has the voluntary real name registrations of many users”.

Information totalitarianism

In December 2011, the Beijing Municipal Government issued rules requiring microblogging services to verify the identity of their users. In December 2012, China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, passed a law requiring users to provide their real names when registering with an Internet service provider. While the rules have thus far not been well implemented, China’s leadership sees this as a top priority. In late March 2013, the State Council released its task list for the next five years, which includes implementation of an Internet real name registration system by June 2014.

But the task list includes something more worrisome, namely, the establishment of a unified credit information platform and a unified social credit coding system based on citizens’ ID numbers. Combined with an online real name system, these systems will give the government an unprecedented ability to gather and act on user data. In the future, it will be easier than ever  to electronically isolate outspoken individuals from economic and social opportunities. Beijing-based dissident writer Mo Zhixu calls this a state of “information totalitarianism,” one in which there will be no hiding place left for anyone (via Seeing Red in China):

First of all, once the real-name system is used in website backstage management where one ID card matches one ID number, as Alipay (支付宝) does, those ID numbers culled online will soon become useless for repeated use. Secondly, with regard to activists using ID numbers of relatives and friends, if the conventional deterrence measures don’t work, the government could resort to building control into services by bundling ID card and the correlating social credit code with matters of personal interest. That way, relatives and friends will not want to, nor dare, to lend their ID numbers to anyone else.

Having established “a unified credit information platform with gradual input of information about finance, commercial registration, tax payments, social security contributions, traffic violations and other credit information” and “a unified social credit coding system based on identification number,” personal credit information will necessarily include information about Internet use. Thus, the Internet real-name system will be tied with one’s social credit code, and even with the social welfare system. From there, it’s not unimaginable for the government to use the unified credit code as the exclusive online ID code.

When so much is at stake, the threat of being excluded from the Internet will have a powerful chilling effect. Self-censorship will be heightened to a whole new level for concerns of being excluded from commerce, finance and social security.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma recognizes that Sina Weibo has increased transparency in China, and stresses that Alibaba wants it to be more successful, but not by turning it into a glorified advertising platform. However, with the looming information totalitarianism, freedom will be eroded and manipulated in subtle ways, especially when the economic, political and ideological spaces converge. There is only a fine line between freedom and enslavement. The greatest danger comes when netizens are unaware of how power is being exercised over them, as Global Voices co-founder Rebecca Mackinnon, author of “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom”, noted in an article for The Atlantic:

In the Internet age, the greatest long-term threat to a genuinely citizen-centric society — a world in which technology and government serve citizens instead of the other way around — looks less like Orwell's 1984, and more like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: a world in which our desire for security, entertainment, and material comfort is manipulated to the point that we all voluntarily and eagerly submit to subjugation. If we are to avoid this dystopian fate, political innovation will have to catch up with technological innovation.

Written by Andy Yee · comments (2)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is suing a popular cartoonist for defamation over a comment he posted on Facebook comparing the leader to a prostitute for “selling out her country”.

In a lawsuit filed on May 3, 2013, Yingluck accuses Chai Rachawat of insulting an official during an official event, defaming another person via publicity, and violating the 2007 Computer Crime Act, which prohibits posting defamatory comments against others online.

Chai, who illustrates for best-selling newspaper Thai Rath, was reacting to a controversial speech given by Yingluck when he posted on his Facebook page:

Please understand…the female prostitute is not a bad person. The prostitute is merely selling her body. But that bad woman is selling out her country.

This is the first time in her two-year premiership that Yingluck, who is Thailand's first female prime minister, has sued a citizen for commenting on a social media network.

During the 7th Ministerial Conference on the International Democracies in Mongolia, Yingluck, who is the younger sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted by a coup in 2006, gave a speech that ruffled many feathers back home. In it she shared her experience as a warning to other leaders about the collapse of democracy in her country and the pain that had put her family through.

Thaksin later went into self-exile to avoid a jail sentence for alleged corruption.

An excerpt from Yingluck's candid speech delivered April 29, 2013:

We all thought that the new era of democracy finally arrived in Thailand….this was not true. An elected government, which won two elections with majority, was overthrown in 2006. Thailand lost track and the people spent nearly a decade trying to regain democratic freedom…My brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was a rightful elected leader. Many of you who don't know me say that ‘why complain?’ This is a normal process that government comes and goes. If I and my family were the only one suffering, I might just let it be. But this was not. Thailand suffered…rule of law in the country was destroyed…the people felt their rights and liberties were wrongly taken away…

She even criticized some features of Thailand's Constitution:

It is clear that elements of anti-democratic regime still exist. The new constitution, drafted under the coup leaders led government, put in mechanisms to restrict democracy.

A good example of this is that half of the Thai Senate is elected, but the other half is appointed by a small group of people. In addition, the so called independent agencies have abused the power that should belong to the people, for the benefit of the few rather than to the Thai society at large.

A video of her speech was uploaded on YouTube:

Her words sparked outrage among the opposition, the military, the media and the senate, while prompting lively online discussions. Many took out their frustration on Facebook.

Nearly 60 senators denounced Yingluck's action and demanded she apologize to the Thai people. Senator Nareewan Jintakanon reminded [th] Yingluck that Thaksin was ousted because he abused power:

The prime minister claimed her brother was mistreated. This is not the whole truth. The 2006 coup d'état was launched because Thaksin abused his power; had conflict of interest and lacked any moral ethics to lead a country.

Vasit Dejkunjorn, a retired high-ranking Royal Court Security police officer condemned Yingluck's “stupidity” for telling others that Thailand is unstable when her job is to promote the country to foreign investors.

Chai's comment further set the online world aflame, with many slamming the remark. On popular web board Pantip, a group of netizens established “We hate Chai Ratchawat Group” in response to his Facebook remarks. ban_rach16 wrote that what Chai posted was not satire:

A political cartoonist shouldn't hit this low. This is not political satire, it's making a mess

Another web board, Ban Ratchadamneon, had many anti-Chai Ratchawat posts. Ta Kob Dong commented:

He [Chai] has no morality but was elevated to a high position. Now we all see his true colors

Meanwhile, a group of Red Shirts, the name for supporters of the political group United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship which opposes the 2006 coup that toppled Yingluck's brother, stormed newspaper Thai Rath headquarters demanding Chai's dismissal. A protester held a sign:

Why being a prostitute is so bad? There are many prostitutes who love their country. Unlike some media who sells out and forgets its own ideals.

A new “Thai Spring” website was launched as a venue for Yingluck's opposition to have their say, following outrage from her speech. Inspired by the pro-democracy Arab Spring movements, the site aims to launch a petition against the government. The “petition against the speech in Ulaanbaatar” has over 23,000 signatories as of May 21, 2013.

The saga is far from over as other anti-Yingluck websites mushroomed in the Thai cyberspace, prompting her brother, Thaksin, to give a threatening remark during his recent Skype video conference with thousands of Red Shirt supporters, marking the third anniversary of the deadly military crackdown on the group's protests in 2010.

“The Thai Spring website would never be ‘sprung',” claimed Thaksin.

Written by Aim Sinpeng · comments (3)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Rice contaminated with high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, dubbed “cadmium rice,” is the latest food scandal in China to trigger public panic and anger among the country's consumers.

The Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration revealed[zh] on May 16 that eight out of 18 rice samples tested in local markets contained excessive levels of cadmium. Most of the polluted rice comes from the southern province of Hunan, China’s top rice producing province.

“Cadmium in rice usually comes from the soil where it grows, and the soil was polluted by mining and chemical wastes,” Fan Zhihong, a food safety expert at China Agricultural University in Beijing, told the state-run Global Times.

The rice joins a growing list of food scares to hit China in recent years. Earlier this month, it was revealed that rat and fox meat was sold as lamb in the Shanghai and Jiangsu.

Contaminated rice has been a problem in China for decades. According to Global Times, a Nanjing Agricultural University research project in 2011 found that around 10 percent of rice sold across the nation contained excessive amounts of cadmium. According to another report, up to 70% of China’s soil is contaminated with heavy metals and fertilizers.

But officials are usually not forthcoming with information about such pollution. Earlier this year, environmental authorities refused a Beijing lawyer's request to publish the soil pollution data in China, saying it’s a “state secret”.

An insider was quoted by communist party newspaper People’s Daily as saying:

对于含有镉这类“慢性中毒”的食品，一般情况下不会突然引发大的食品安全事故，有关部门负责人迫于经济发展压力，对食品企业违法行为睁一只眼闭一只眼，自身既不易受法律制裁，也能保住“乌纱帽”。

The food that contains cadmium is “chronically poisoned” food, which under normal circumstances will not lead to major food safety incidents. Under the pressure of economic development, some related departments turned a blind eye to food enterprises that broke the rules. They are unlikely to be punished by the law and they can still keep their posts.

In response to the news, the Chinese government's official mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency ran a piece, titled [zh] “Experts Recommend People Should Not Eat Rice from One Region All the Time,” that suggested people should diversify their rice sources to lower the risk.

The advice sparked lots of criticism online. On popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo, one netizen “Bolin” wrote [zh] sarcastically:

人民日报告诉我们，中国贩运有毒食品是合法的，有毒食品参杂服用，就不只会死于一种有毒食品

People's Daily tells us that it is legal to sell toxic food. By eating all types of toxic food, we won't die from one kind of toxic food.

Shanghai-based writer “Lei Wenke” echoed [zh]:

就是要均衡各种污染么？

Does it mean [we should] maintain a balance of different types of pollution?

Environmentalist Dong Liangjie posed [zh] a rhetorical question:

在市场上不仅有镉大米、还有铅大米砷大米，有的是两个或三个同时超标；产地不仅是湖南，湖北、江西、广西、广东、河南、河北等都有；数量不是万吨，而是上百万吨。这么多产地和数量，如何轮着吃？体制内专家不追根求源、不谈真相，吃着纳税人给的俸禄，转移焦点，职业道德何在？

Not only cadmium rice, but lead rice and arsenic rice are also in the market; some have two or three excessive chemicals at the same time. [The polluted rice is] not only from Hunan, but also from Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Henan, Hebei, and other provinces. It's not just tens of thousands of tons, but millions of tons. So much polluted rice from so many places, how do you take turns to eat it? Experts within the system don't track the source of the problem or talk about the truth; they use taxpayers’ money and try to shift people's attention. What's happened to professional ethics?

Online personality and social critic “Xue Manzi” suggested [zh] that labels should list the amount of heavy metals that the rice contains:

鉴于最近大米重金属超标曝光后，大米的污染成了全国人民关注的焦点。为了食品安全，建议在大米白面的外包装上注明其重金属含量。我们实在不希望再重演进口洋奶粉的现象。奶粉还可以背，大米白面实在背不动。印上这个，大家可以放心食用了。大伙儿支持吗?

In view of the recent exposure of rice containing excessive levels of cadmium, rice pollution has become the focus of attention for the whole country. For food safety, I recommend that the packaging of rice and flour all have the amounts of heavy metals in them on the package. We really do not want to repeat the scene of importing foreign milk powder. We can carry the milk powder, but rice and flour are really too heavy to carry back [from abroad]. By printing this information on the package, we can feel safe to eat it. Anyone support my idea?

One user “Beiou jixu mengxiang zhilv” complained [zh]:

当空气、水、粮食均被污染后，我们能做的就不是挑选无污染食品，而是跟有污染食品抗争，看我们中国人体内到底能自我排出多少毒了！

When air, water, and food are contaminated, we can not pick pollution-free food, but fight with contaminated food to see how much poison can be self-discharged from the Chinese people's body!

Caijing Commentator Ye Tan called on [zh] the Hunan government to be more transparent about the food safety issues. However, as it shows on the shared map of China's rice pollution, the problem is not only limited to Hunan, but found in China at large.:

湖南方面应该拿出解决的诚意，公开信息。不公开信息，不承认本地的重金属污染，消费者无法确切地分辨湖南所产大米毒与非毒，最简单的做法是对所有的湖南大米敬而远之。如果公开信息，湖南大米可以被区分为被污染的，与安全的，不公开信息，会让湖南大米出现整体的信用危机，占全国13%的稻田成为废墟。

The Hunan government should sincerely work to solve the problem by making the information public. Without transparent information and recognition of the heavy metal pollution in the soil, consumers can not distinguish poisonous rice from non-poisonous rice produced in Hunan. The simplest approach for them is to turn away from all the rice in Hunan. If information is made public, then Hunan rice can be divided into contaminated and safe rice. If the information is not made public, Hunan will face an overall credit crisis. The land, accounting for 13 percent of the country's rice fields, will become ruins.

Written by Abby · comments (2)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Every so often, President Ricardo Martinelli (@rmartinelli) [es] riles up the Panamanian online community by tweeting controversial and confrontational statements, even insults.

The most recent example is a tweet directed at journalist Santiago Cumbrera of La Prensa, a newspaper with which the president has clashed in the past:

@rmartinelli: Para el que no conoce el odio de Santiago cumbrera a mi es pq se le despide de Epasa por. coimero y acosador sexual de mujeres. [Nota: en Panamá se le dice "coima" a las mordidas o sobornos]

@rmartinelli: For anyone who doesn't know why Santiago Cumbrera hates me it's because he was fired from Epasa for being crooked and sexually harassing women.

Throughout his term, which is in its final year, the president has had constant altercations with the media, which he insults, accuses of antagonism, and then apologizes to, promising to change.

The accusation against Cumbrera has a history. EPASA [es] is a daily publisher of three widely distributed newspapers: La Crítica, El Panamá América and El Día a Día. El Panamá América used to maintain a line for investigation and complaints against the government, but the publishing group was bought a few months ago by an organization affiliated with government interests.

The sale precipitated a change in editorial policy across the various papers, and although it is not official policy, it is common knowledge that El Panamá América is the government's mouthpiece.

Given this change, several journalists left EPASA, some voluntarily, like Santiago Cumbrera; others were fired for not following the newspaper's new approach.

Santiago Cumbrera published a letter in La Prensa [es] sharing his reasons for resigning. In the letter, he makes it quite clear that his convictions weren't up for negotiation:

En esa coyuntura, y otras que me reservo, prefiero renunciar antes de aplaudir las cosas que ayer criticaba. De lo que sí pueden estar seguros los lectores es que no claudicaré a mis convicciones y principios. Tampoco me prestaré para publicar informaciones que ya vienen procesadas por alguien intencionado y que, además, buscan distraer la atención de asuntos de interés nacional. Yo no vendo mis convicciones al mejor postor, como aquellos que dicen ser independientes, pero tienen la libertad de un títere y que buscan fama aunque tengan que mentir y manipular informaciones.

At this juncture, and others that I won't discuss, I would rather resign than applaud that which I previously criticized. What readers can be sure of is that I will not waver in my convictions and principles. Nor will I loan myself out and publish information that comes to me already assembled by someone else, and that furthermore is trying to distract everyone from issues of national importance. I don't sell my convictions to the highest bidder, like some who claim to be independent but who have all the freedom of a puppet, and seek fame even if they have to lie and manipulate the facts.

The president's accusations against Cumbrera stem from an article published in La Prensa on May 20, 2013, “The Hydroelectric Industry: A Business of Power” [es], in which Cumbrera links the president and his cohort to hydroelectric power companies.

Santiago Cumbrera (@santcumb) [es] defended himself against the president's accusations on his Twitter page, clarifying that he was not fired, but rather resigned for reasons that he made clear in his open letter:

@santcumb: Yo renuncie a Epasa días después de que se concretó la venta del diario. Las razones constan en una carta que hice pública.

@santcumb: I resigned from Epasa a few days after it finalized the sale of the paper. My reasons are in a letter that I made public.

Another former EPASA journalist, Eduardo Soto, published a brief post on his blog Hojas Sueltas [es] in which he reflects on his departure from the company and reports that in the new editorial guidelines suggest “concealment, double standards, and deception.” Soto also comments on Santiago Cumbrera's resignation:

Recordemos que hasta antes de que cambiara de manos, Panamá América estuvo semana a semana destapando escándalos y jugadas chuecas del actual equipo de gobierno. El nombre de Santiago Cumbrera coronó la mayoría de esas notas. Santiago no esperó que lo echaran; presentó su renuncia diciéndole a la nueva directiva que eran unos impostores.

Let's recall that until it changed hands, Panamá América was constantly uncovering scandals and crooked moves by the current government. Santiago Cumbrera's name was on the majority of these articles. Santiago didn't wait to be kicked out; he tendered his resignation, telling the new board that they were imposters.

Twitter lit up with reactions to the president's remarks.

Luis Castillo (@Luis03Castillo) [es], for example, reminded the president that Cumbrera resigned and was not fired, and asked him to be serious and act in accordance to his position:

@Luis03Castillo: @rmartinelli yo trabaje con Santiago Cumbrera en EPASA y el renuncio. Me consta. Sea serio y no olvide su investidura.

@Luis03Castillo: @rmartinelli I worked with Santiago Cumbrera at EPASA and he resigned. I'm sure. Be serious and don't forget your inauguration.

Others, however, insisted that the accusations were true. Abel D Pereambro (@AbelDPereambro) [es] said that he had spoken to one of the victims himself:

@AbelDPereambro: @RicardoLombanaG yo hablé con una de las víctimas del acosador sexual Santiago Cumbrera. Pidio favores sexuales y coima. Es un degenerado!

@AbelDPereambro: @RicardoLombanaG I spoke with one of Santiago Cumbrera's sexual harassment victims. He asked for sexual favors and bribes. He's a pervert!

Yodalys Vasquez (@YodalisYodi) [es] says that the president also has the right to freedom of expression:

@YodalisYodi :el presidente TAMBIEN debe tener libertad de expresion!

@YodalisYodi: The president ALSO should have freedom of expression!

Edgardo Vidal (@EVidal1507) [es], though, demanded that the president provide evidence to back up his accusations:

@EVidal1507: Q el Presidente Martinelli presente las pruebas de sus acusaciones al periodista Cumbrera… Que bajo lenguaje para un presidente!

@EVidal1507: President Martinelli must show proof of his accusations against the journalist Cumbrera… What base language for a president!

The Panamanian online community is waiting for clarification from the president, although no one has been surprised when previous situations ended with a brief apology and a charge of wrongheadedness.

Written by Ariel Moreno · Translated by Nina Shield · View original post [es] · comments (1)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Most of this report was researched, written, and edited by Lisa Ferguson, Weiping Li, Alex Laverty, Ellery Roberts Biddle, and Sarah Myers.

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This report highlights new policies in China that are increasing restrictions for netizens in the country.

Censorship

China's new so-called “Seven Speak-Nots” policy prohibits discussion of “universal values, civil society, citizen rights, judicial independence, freedom of the press, past mistakes of the communist party, and the privileged capitalist class” in university settings. Last week, East China University Professor Zhang Xuezhong described the policy on microblogging site Sina Weibo and subsequently had his account deleted. Mentions of the policy are no longer visible in search engine results in China and users report that all relevant comments on the policy have been wiped from Weibo [zh]. A government memo entitled “Concerning the Situation in the Ideological Sphere” reportedly notes that the “Speak-Nots” have also been incorporated into China’s Internet censorship policy.

A Chinese blogger known as B.Y. was interrogated by Chinese public security agents after she posted a petition on the US government website, We the People. The petition called for international attention to the environmental impact of a planned petrochemical plant in China's Sichuan Province. After authorities demanded she delete the petition, B.Y. posted on Weibo, asking for help in deleting the petition from We the People, which does not have a delete function. Her Weibo post has since been deleted.

Dr. King-Wa Fu at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre reported that users’ activities on Sina Weibo have dwindled [zh] since the implementation of China's real-name registration policy, which requires users to give their real names when registering for Internet services and social media accounts. Dr. Fu's team at the Centre developed WeiboSuite, a program that has restored more than 200 million posts in Weibo deleted by the Chinese censors.

At the request of the Australian government’s financial regulator, Australian network operators including Telstra and Optus blocked access to over 1200 websites including an education-focused community group called Melbourne Free University. The government claims the websites were blocked due to suspicion that the institutions had engaged in fraudulent activities. According to Delimiter.com.au, this could “open the door for other government agencies to unilaterally block sites they deem questionable in their own portfolios.”

In Equatorial Guinea, with parliamentary and municipal elections fast approaching, Facebook and the website of the country's opposition party have been blocked. The website of the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea remains operational.

Syria underwent an eight-hour Internet blackout on May 15, the second this month.

Thuggery

Slovenian blogger Mitja Kunstelj was sentenced to six months in prison for defamation. On his popular Mikstone Blog [sv], Kunstelj crudely described details of the private lives of two journalists with whom he had personal relationships. Kunstelj was prosecuted after refusing authorities’ demands that he pay a fine or cease writing posts of the same nature.

Six Bahraini Twitter users were sentenced to a year in prison for “misuse of freedom of expression”; making defamatory remarks about King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; and “undermining the values and traditions of Bahrain's society towards the king on Twitter.” Many Bahraini activists and supporters have used Twitter to air their grievances with the regime amid the current uprising against the ruling monarchy.

Surveillance

Saudi telecommunication company Mobily solicited help from American developer and privacy advocate Moxie Marlinspike for aid in surveilling encrypted communication applications. Marlinspike publicized the request on Twitter. Reactions can be tracked under a hashtag that translates as “Mobily spies on the people.”

Access to Information

US-based magazine The New Yorker announced that it will become host to Strongbox, the last major open-source secure information sharing project that Internet activist Aaron Swartz worked on before his death. The New Yorker writes that the platform, which is highly secure, will enable the public to “share information, messages, and files with our writers and editors” anonymously.

Ericsson South Africa and the City of Johannesburg are set to activate a broadband network that will provide Internet access to all the city’s municipal buildings, thus allowing the city to achieve ‘Smart City’ status. Other ISPs and companies can use the network too, as the city government needs only a small percentage of the 1.2tb core capacity network. The three-year project is set to launch on July 1.

Microsoft’s 4Afrika Initiative, which seeks to provide affordable access to smart devices, has launched another partnership in East Africa. Working with the University of Dar es Salaam, the goal of the pilot project is to test the use of TW white spaces in Tanzania, where the wireless spectrum previously used for television is now used to for wireless broadband.

National Policy

Azerbaijan's parliament passed new legislation criminalizing online defamation that will carry a fine of up to US$1270 and a prison terms of three years. President Illham Aliyev, often criticized by human rights groups for suppressing the media, is expected to sign the legislation into law. Amnesty International and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have condemned the amendment as an attack on freedom of expression.

Nepal's Ministry of Information and Communications has established a committee to oversee the registration and regulation of online journalism. The committee, comprised of two government officials, two online news site editors, and a representative of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, is currently holding consultations on how to improve the web domain registration process for Internet media outlets.

In an alleged attempt to identify a source of leaked information regarding CIA operations in Yemen, the US Department of Justice obtained telephone records of the Associated Press news agency using an administrative subpoena. In response, US lawmakers introduced the Telephone Records Protection Act which would amend the current Telephone Records Act to require that government agencies obtain judicial approval before demanding such records. The current law allows federal law enforcement to obtain basic subscriber information with only an administrative subpoena.

Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is planning to introduce amendments to the country’s Criminal Justice Bill, which would allow the government to demand telecommunications companies shut down mobile phone service if authorities suspect that an act of terror might occur in a given area.

Internet Governance

Governments, companies and civil society groups gathered in Geneva from May 14-16 for the Fifth World Telecommunication Policy Forum. Six non-binding opinions on Internet infrastructure have since been issued. One of the more controversial opinions focuses on the issue of multi-stakeholderism in Internet governance. A summary report by ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure is available here.

Cybersecurity

El Mañana, a newspaper in Mexico's northern state of Nuevo Laredo, underwent two cyber attacks on May 12. In recent years, the newspaper has sustained attacks both on and offline. After a series of violent attacks on its offices in 2006, the newspaper stopped reported on drug trafficking.

Internet security company Trend Micro uncovered an active cyber espionage operation known as SafeNet that has reportedly compromised computers in over 100 countries. Trend Micro asserted that SafeNet, which targets users by sending them malicious programs via email, is primarily designed to steal information.

Netizen Activism

Researchers at Humboldt State University developed an interactive map, Geography of Hate, which charts the origins of hateful tweets–homophobic, racist, or targeted at the disabled–by region of the United States.

Cool Things

A man from China’s Sichuan province who had been abducted and taken to Fujian at five years old found his way back home after analyzing Google Maps to figure out where he came from.

Publications and Studies

• Reforming Telecommunications in Burma – Human Rights Watch

• Mapping Digital Media: Kazakhstan Country Report – Open Society Foundation

• Impact of the Internet in Africa – Dalberg

Subscribe to the Netizen Report by email

For upcoming events related to the future of citizen rights in the digital age, see the Global Voices Events Calendar.

Written by Netizen Report Team · comments (0)
Share: facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

In addition to reporting on Internet rights challenges around the world, Global Voices Advocacy provides a platform for advocates to discuss Internet and human rights-related projects with goals similar to ours. This post announces the launch of Irrepressible Voices, a new video and human rights initiative based in Berlin.

In recent years, few major catastrophes have taken place without being captured through video, pictures, or tweets by ordinary citizens. Citizen journalists have reported on everything from the civil war in Syria, to natural disasters such as the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, to incidents of police brutality at Occupy protests.

This kind of raw documentation brings new complexity to the information landscape. It has created new avenues for news dissemination, and as more mainstream media outlets include citizen media in their reporting, it has changed and enhanced their coverage. However, there still is a gap between the mainstream media, with their large audiences, and these citizen journalists that must be bridged.

The newly launched project Irrepressible Voices (IV) aims to fill this gap by creating a platform that will connect online activists, bloggers, and citizen journalists with the mainstream media as well as with policy and decision makers.

Irrepressible Voices will focus explicitly on human rights. Users from all over the world are invited to securely upload their videos to the Irrepressible Voices platform. After content is uploaded to the platform, the IV team will verify the video's content, discuss the problems depicted, and identify ways to advocate on the issue in question. This final step will often involve work with other NGOs working in this area. While the community interacts on the platform, IV will connect them with experts from partner institutions.

This short video provides a first impression of the topics that Irrepressible Voices wants to cover:

Irrepressible Voices came into being a year ago during the 5th Initiative on Human Rights and Internet by the Internet & Society Collaboratory. Bloggers from around the world were asked to send their video responses on how the Internet helps to enforce human rights.

The response confirmed the need for people to broadcast their living environment and realities. The Berlin-based Irrepressible Voices team (journalist and social entrepreneur Isabel Gahren, human rights expert Linda Walter, and Eike Leonhardt, a scientist at the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics) started Irrepressible Voices with the support of Futurechallenges.org and Internet & Society Collaboratory.

IV’s partners and media collaborators will help to reach an international audience and thereby increase awareness of their causes. Irrepressible Voices is already collaborating with Reporters without Borders Germany, Futurechallenges.org, Witness.org, Co:llaboratory, Social Impact Lab, and Sourcefabric.

The Irrepressible Voices website is still in its beta phase, but there are already some videos on the platform. The video above was produced in cooperation with Future Challenges and it shows how important the Internet is when it comes to human rights violations. Citizens from all over the world can raise awareness for their causes and make their voices heard.

 

Written by Mario Sorgalla · comments (0)
Share: facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Eric Posner and Glen Weyl, both professors with the University of Chicago, co-wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times in which they discuss their proposal to improve the effectiveness of corporate shareholder voting. “Shareholder Democracy Needs People to Pay for Their Votes” outlines the professors’ system, which they call quadratic vote-buying (QVB).

Eric Posner and Glen Weyl, both professors with the University of Chicago, co-wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times in which they discuss their proposal to improve the effectiveness of corporate shareholder voting. “Shareholder Democracy Needs People to Pay for Their Votes” outlines the professors’ system, which they call quadratic vote-buying (QVB).

Flickr has updated its service. I knew it was coming and I had a few hopes for it:

1. Better multiple account management
2. Personal service, by human beings using their real voices
3. Ability to make changes (e.g. of permissions or licensing) for thousands of shots in one move
4. Finer distinctions than friends/family/private

The updates, from what I can tell, offer none of that. What I got, as a Pro customer, appeared in the form of index page copy that began,

Dear Doc, as a Pro member continue to enjoy the benefits of unlimited space, an ad free experience and stats.

For non-paying users, there was this, from the index page as it appeared on a browser that didn’t know I’m a Pro member:

Smile.

Everyone gets a free terabyte.

Biggr. That’s right, a terabyte.

Spectaculr. Share in full resolution.

Wherevr. Available anywhere you go.

Then there was this, from an email from Flickr to one of my several selves who have a Flickr Pro account:

As a Pro Member, your subscription remains the same. You’ll enjoy unlimited space for your photos and videos, detailed stats and an ad-free experience. However, you can switch to a Free account before August 20, 2013.

Why offer an opportunity to switch? I wondered.

So I clicked on a “learn more” link that went to this:

Next question: Why a down-sell to Free rather than an up-sell to Pro?

I guess they’d rather have me looking at ads than paying for a service — to be a consumer rather than a customer.

Yet Flickr is still relatively free of the load-slowing spyware typical of most commercial websites. (There’s just ScoreCard Research Beacon and Yahoo Analytics. I have the former turned off, but I leave the latter on. Seems harmless enough.)

Anyway, I’m not sure what’s up with Pro accounts. Nothing, I guess.

But the problems remain. From The Intention Economy:

A similar problem comes up when you have multiple accounts with one site or service, and therefore multiple namespaces, each with its own login and password. For example, I use four different Flickr accounts, each with its own photo directory:

1. Doc Searls
2. Linux Journal
3. Berkman Center
4. Infrastructure/

The first is mine alone. The second I share with other people at Linux Journal. The third I share with other people at the Berkman Center. The fourth I share with other people who also write for the same blog.

Flickr in each case calls me by the second person singular “you,” and does not federate the four. To them I am four different individuals: one cow, four calves. (Never mind that three of those sites have many people uploading pictures, each pretending to be the same calf.) My only choice for dealing with this absurdity is deciding which kind of four-headed calf I wish to be. Either I use one browser with four different logins and passwords, or I use four different browsers, each with its own jar of cookies. Both choices are awful, but I have to choose one. So I take the second option, and use one browser per account—on just one laptop. When I use other laptops, or my iPhone, my Android, or the family Nokia N900, iPod Touch or iPad, I’m usually the first kind of calf, using one browser to login and logout every time I post pictures to a different account. Which I mostly don’t do at all, because it’s one big pain in my many asses.

As it happens I’m having a problem with the Infrastructure account: I’ve lost the login and password. At this point the account is mine alone:  I’m the only one paying for it, and the only one using it. But I haven’t been able to raise a human being, so far, at Flickr. I could share my email exchange with the automated process there, but there’s no point. I’d rather just have the problem fixed.

So here’s a request, if anybody from Flickr is reading this: please contact me, and let’s fix this thing. Thanks.

On May 18, some 30,000 people gathered at a rally in Crimea‘s capital Simferopol to honor the memory of the victims of the 1944 Crimean Tatar deportations and to demand the immediate resignation of Anatoly Mogilev, the former Ukrainian Interior Minister who is now the chairman of Crimea's Council of Ministers.

J. Otto Pohl wrote briefly [en] about the deportation that took place 69 years ago:

This Saturday is the 69th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from their peninsular homeland on the Black Sea to the deserts of Uzbekistan and the wet forests of the Urals. The NKVD rounded up almost the entire population and took them to rail stations where they were stuffed like cattle into box cars. In three days over 180,000 people had been expelled from their homes and sent on a long and arduous journey eastward. The official reason for the deportation was the false charges of treason brought against the whole population by the Stalin regime. However, the number of Crimean Tatars that fought with the Germans, about 10,000, was quite small compared to a number of other nationalities that were not subject to wholesale deportation. Upon arriving in Uzbekistan and the Urals the Crimean Tatars were placed under special settlement restrictions. On 26 November 1948, the Soviet government decreed the deportations and special settlement restrictions to be forever. The death of Stalin on 5 March 1953 brought about an eventual end of the special settlement regime and on 28 April 1956 the Soviet government freed the Crimean Tatars from these restrictions. They, however, were not allowed to return to Crimea in any significant numbers until 1987 near the very end of the Soviet regime. Even today they still face obstacles to resettling in their homeland and nearly 100,000 still remain in Uzbekistan.

On Facebook, Oleksandr Starish also wrote [ru] about the tragic events of 1944:

[...] Despite the fact that the Crimean Tatars were fighting in the ranks of the Red Army and participated in the guerilla movement, the basis for their deportations was an accusation of collaboration with the Third Reich.

Deportations began early in the morning of May 18 and ended on May 20, 1944. Over 32,000 NKVD troops were employed in the operation. [...]

Those Crimean Tatars who were fighting in the Red Army units, were also deported upon demobilization: in 1945-46, 8,995 Crimean Tatar war veterans were exiled [...].

[...]

Assessments of the numbers of those who died in this period vary: according to the Soviet official data, 15-25 percent died, and according to the activists of the Crimean Tatar movement, who were gathering the information about the victims in the 1960s, the figure is up to 46 percent… [...]

Starish ended his post with these words in three languages – Russian, Turkish (which is related to Crimean Tatar) and Ukrainian:

[...] I don't know if one can repent someone else's sins… But every person must bow to the memory of the innocents who were murdered… Regardless of one's ethnicity or religion… [...]

Idil P. Izmirli explained the political component of the May 18 rally in this Jamestown Foundation article [en]:

[...] Crimea differs from the rest of Ukraine because it is the only autonomous republic with its own unicameral parliament (with 100 members) and Council of Ministers, thus having a similar institutional structure to that of the Ukrainian state. Under all previous presidents of Ukraine, the planning of this May 18 Crimean Tatar Remembrance Day of Victims of the Deportation event had received considerable support from both the Crimean and the Ukrainian authorities. In fact, during these commemorative gatherings, alongside the Mejlis officials and the mufti (religious authority) of Crimea, a representative of the Ukrainian president, the head of the Crimean parliament, and the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) participated in the ceremonies. In 2013, however, under Anatoli Mogilev, the chairman of the Council of Ministers in Crimea, the governmental attitude to the Day of Remembrance has changed drastically. Mogilev was appointed by President Viktor Yanukovych in November, 2011. Insisting that he was ill, he opted out of the May 18 gatherings in 2012, marking the first time a Crimean leader did not participate in this event. Even before his appointment, Mogilev was well-known in Crimea for his anti-Tatar sentiments, his brutal order of police units (BERKUT) to attack peacefully protesting Crimean Tatar business owners in the Ai Petri hills in 2007 while he was a police chief, and his subsequent Krymskaya Pravda article (2008) in which he praised the Joseph Stalin–era deportation of the Crimean Tatars (http://www.unpo.org/article/10968).

On February 25, 2013, under Mogilev’s leadership, the Crimean authorities announced that the May 18 event needed to be approved by the Crimean Council of Ministers. Consequently, the Simferopol City Council declared that they were going to ban the annual May 18 gathering that has been organized by the Crimean Tatar Mejlis since the early 1990s. This decision of the Crimean authorities was not received well by [Mustafa Cemilev], the head of the Mejlis, who stated that Crimean Tatars will come to the Central Square in Simferopol as a large collective regardless of the ban, and if they are not allowed to hold their remembrance day, then they will block the roads, paralyze traffic, and take their protests to other regions of Crimea [...]. [...]

Simferopol-based journalist Zair Akadyrov wrote [ru]:

Today at the rally in Simferopol, every 100th Crimea resident has pointed Mogilev to the exit. And now imagine if every 100th Ukrainian did the same at Maidan [Independence Square] in [Ukraine's capital] Kyiv, no less… [...]

Kyiv was having its own political rallies on May 18, and even though the turnout at the opposition's event was rather high, it could still hardly match the Crimean Tatar one in genuineness and determination. Kyiv-based journalist Victor Tregubov shared a photo of the Simferopol crowd and wrote this [ru]

[...] They say, there were 35-40 thousand people, and, looking at this photo, I tend to believe this. According to various assessments, there are 270 to 340 thousand Crimean Tatars living in Crimea. It means that every 8th [Crimean Tatar] is present at this rally.

When I saw this photo, I stopped worrying about the [Crimean Tatars'] future. What can some gang [the regime] do to a nation whose every 8th representative voluntarily attends a rally devoted to national solidarity and national revival? A nation like this will overcome any kind of trouble.

As for the Ukrainians’ future, I still worry about it.

***

More photos of the Crimean Tatar May 18 rally – by Andy Ignatov, Volodymyr Prytula, and Smail Tantana.

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · comments (1)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Blogging, commenting thoughtfully on others’ blogs, staying safe online, creating a positive digital footprint, using audio and video to connect with students in other parts of the world, creating and publishing video – at what grade level should students be introduced to these essential digital literacies? How about the second grade? Linda Yollis, a teacher in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, remembers the classroom in which she started teaching in the 1980s: “Learning was confined to the four walls of the classroom, was entirely paper-based, worksheet-driven, and I was the audience for most of the written work in this classroom; parents found out what was going on by reading the newsletter that I would send out and maybe by looking at the graded projects their children took home. All of the learning took place between eight and three. I had a very closed classroom. That all changed in 2008 when I started blogging. Having a class blog has flattened the walls of this classroom. Now we have an online space where students, parents, and other classrooms all over the world can come together in an online learning community.”

Mrs. Yollis not only teaches her second-graders to blog (some of whom came into her class with blogging experience from Mrs. Levy’s first grade blog), she teaches them – and her students make videos to teach others – about raising the level of online discourse through quality blog comments. Take a look at Mrs. Yollis’ introduction to blog commenting and ask yourself whether the online commons could become a much better place in a few years if more second graders were introduced to online discourse in this way. She even introduced a rubric for blog comments that eight year olds can understand: “A one-point comment is a general comment that doesn't add very much to the post. Example: I like your blog. Please visit mine! A two-point comment adds something to the comment conversation. A commenter might compliment the writer in a specific way or add new information. Another idea is to make a connection. Maybe the post reminds you of an experience that you've had. Share that connection! Try to end your comment with a relevant question. That way, an interesting conversation can develop.”

If you think this kind of higher-level thinking and digital skills are unrealistic goals for such young students, you can judge for yourself by inspecting the results: Here is the teacher’s blog post about making “reasonable estimates” and the comment dialogue among her students that followed, in which each student challenged others to try an estimate. Of course, nobody expects second graders to be expert typists. I asked Mrs. Yollis, who told me that she encouraged students to dictate to her in class or to parents at home: “I tell parents to let grammatical and spelling errors stand so I can direct students in correcting them.”

Before 2008, contact with parents was through their students’ grades, written comments on their work, and a newsletter. Now, parents and grandparents participate in “family blogging month.” Mrs. Yollis models the kind of sharing she asks of her students, making videos about the benefits of blogging with young children and publishing what she learns and finds on her educational blogging wiki. I couldn’t wait to talk with her. Watch this short video interview to experience her enthusiasm – and expertise – directly.

Learning Online in the Second Grade: Linda Yollis from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

Banner image credit: Photo by Shayna, Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog

This week we have two exciting announcements about our Global Summit, the bi-annual gathering of our community which will be held in Buenos Aires in August 2013.

First – we are pleased to confirm that Professor Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and one of Creative Commons’ founders and current Board members, will be presenting a keynote at this year’s Summit. Anyone familiar with Creative Commons is likely to be familiar with Professor Lessig, who for the last decade has been one of the leading advocates for a more open copyright system worldwide and a popular public face of CC. If you are one of the few people who are unfamiliar with Professor Lessig’s work, you can see an example of his inspirational speaking style in his TED talk from 2007, Laws that choke creativity (he also spoke on reform of US political funding in 2013). Details of the time and subject of Professor Lessig’s talk will be distributed closer to the event.

Second – registration for the Global Summit is officially open. You can find the registration form here. The event is free, but places are limited, so early registration is essential if you want to ensure your place at this meeting of CC commmunity, board, staff, and key stakeholders interested in the present and future of the commons.

Finally, while we have you, we’d also like to remind you that the call for papers for the Summit closes this week. Have you papers in by 24 May if you want to be on the main program (lightning talks and unconference sessions can be submitted later).

See you all in Buenos Aires in August!

Hundreds of hopeful Iranians, including thirty women, have registered as candidates to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the forthcoming election on June 14, 2013 even though they have no chance whatsoever of being elected. The conservative Council of Guardians appoints the shortlist of candidates who will actually run.

Besides political heavy weights such as former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's ally, there are several eccentric candidates that have attracted media attention, momentarily stealing the limelight.

Eccentric Candidates

The elderly man in this television interview says he wants to make his eldest son the Minister of Housing if he is elected because they never had their own house.

Another candidate says, ”Presidents should be handsome and make people happy.” [photo above, video below]

Female Candidates

Thirty women have registered to stand as candidates for the forthcoming presidential election. Meanwhile, Mohammad Yazdi, a clerical member of Iran’s Council of Guardians, has declared that Iran's laws “do not allow women to become presidents.”

The blogger Saeedshabani says:

Dear Ladies, why does a regime that does not consider you to have enough brain to stand as a candidate, accept your votes? I ask this question: what is the difference between men and women? I hope women will boycott this election.

Written by Farid · comments (1)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Two weeks ago we wrote about the U.S. Executive Order and announcement of Project Open Data, an open source project (managed on Github) that lays out the implementation details behind behind the President’s Executive Order and memo. The project offers more information on open licenses, and gives examples of acceptable licenses for U.S. federal data. Some of this information is clear, while other pieces require more clarification. Below we’ve provided some commentary and notes on the licensing parts of Project Open Data.

Open Licenses

The Open Licenses page on Project Open Data says that a license will be considered “open” if the following conditions are met:

Reuse. The license must allow for reproductions, modifications and derivative works and permit their distribution under the terms of the original work.

Users can copy and make adaptations of the data. The government may use a copyleft license, thus requiring that adapted works be shared under the same license as the original. In our view, the reference to the government using a license is confusing. Works created by federal government employees in the in the public domain, and a license is not appropriate–at least as a matter of U.S. copyright law. More on this below.

The rights attached to the work must not depend on the work being part of a particular package. If the work is extracted from that package and used or distributed within the terms of the work’s license, all parties to whom the work is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original package.

Everyone is offered the work under the same public license.

Redistribution. The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the work either on its own or as part of a package made from works from many different sources.

Third parties can sell the data verbatim or produce adaptations of the data and sell those.

The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale or distribution.

Users don’t have to pay to use the licensed data.

The license may require as a condition for the work being distributed in modified form that the resulting work carry a different name or version number from the original work.

When the data gets remixed the licensor can require that the remixer note that their remixed version is different from the original.

The rights attached to the work must apply to all to whom it is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

Public licenses must be used, which means that everyone gets offered the data under the same terms, without the need to negotiation individual licenses.

The license must not place restrictions on other works that are distributed along with the licensed work. For example, the license must not insist that all other works distributed on the same medium are open.

The license doesn’t infect other data or content that is distributed alongside the openly licensed data. It’s important that the open data is marked as such; the same goes for marking of the the non-open data.

If adaptations of the work are made publicly available, these must be under the same license terms as the original work.

This is a confusing statement, because it seems to require that all data be licensed under a copyleft license. This does not align with the licensing options listed in the Open License Examples page.

No Discrimination against Persons, Groups, or Fields of Endeavor. The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the work in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the work from being used in a business, or from being used for research.

Anyone may use the licensed data for any reason.

Open License Examples

The Open License Examples page offers a helpful guide as to which open licenses will be accepted for government data released by federal agencies. As we noted in our earlier post, there is some confusion in that the Open Data Policy Memo says, “open data are made available under an open license that places no restrictions on their use.” Saying that data should be placed under a license with no restrictions doesn’t make sense, since even the most “open” license (such as CC BY) makes attribution to the author a condition on using the license. If the United States truly wishes to make federal government data available without restriction, it could consider mandating only those tools that accomplish this, for example the CC0 Public Domain Dedication or the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License.

Data and content created by government employees within the scope of their employment are not subject to domestic copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. § 105.

The fact that data and content created by federal government employees is not subject to copyright protection in the United States is a longstanding positive feature of the US code. But as noted here, this copyright-free zone only applies when talking about domestic protection, e.g. inside the United States. Outside its borders, the United States government could assert that, for example, one of its works is protected under French copyright law, and then enforce its copyright in France. It’s unclear how much this legal nuance is leveraged outside of the United States. But it does seem to create a challenge for the U.S. federal agencies in utilizing public domain dedication tools like CC0. This is because CC0 puts content into the worldwide public domain, whereas under Section 105 works created by federal government employees are only in the public domain in the United States. So, while it’s useful that works created by U.S. federal government employees is in the public domain in the United States, it’s a shame that this seems to preclude federal agencies from utilizing public domain tools like CC0, which would help communicate broad reuse rights easily and in machine-readable form. This begs the larger question, if information created by federal government employees is in the public domain in the United States, then is it inappropriate to license this data and content under one of the licenses noted below? And, if that is true, then what content will be licensed under the conformant licenses? Third party content?

When purchasing data or content from third-party vendors, however care must be taken to ensure the information is not hindered by a restrictive, non-open license. In general, such licenses should comply with the open knowledge definition of an open license. Several examples of common open licenses are listed below:

Content Licenses:

• Creative Commons BY, BY-SA, or CC0
• GNU Free Documentation License

Data Licenses

• Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL)
• Open Data Commons Attribution License
• Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL)
• Creative Commons CC0

Notwithstanding the questions above about licensing options for the work produced by federal government employees, the Administration is taking a great step in recommending that licenses should align with the Open Definition. In addition, the Administration might include information about appropriate software licenses, should those come into play when they release data.

Since it was founded 12 years ago this week, Wikipedia has become an indispensable part of the world’s information infrastructure. It’s a kind of public utility: You turn on the faucet and water comes out; you do an Internet search and Wikipedia answers your question. People don’t think much about who creates it, but you should. We do it for you, with love.

Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner, from http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/14/wikipedia-the-peoples-encyclopedia/

As Sue says, the people who create Wikipedia are terrific. I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve just wrapped up my first three months as their lawyer – as Deputy General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. Consider this the personal announcement I should have made three months ago :)

Wikimania 2012 Group Photograph, by Helpameout, under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Greenberg Traurig was terrific for me: Heather has a wealth of knowledge and experience about how to do deals (both open source and otherwise), and through her, I did a lot of interesting work for interesting clients. Giving up that diversity and experience was the hardest part of leaving private practice.

Based on the evidence of the first three months, though, I made a great choice – I’ve replaced diversity of clients with a vast diversity of work; replaced one experienced, thoughtful boss with one of equal skill but different background (so I’m learning new things); and replaced the resources (and distance) of a vast firm with a small but tight and energized team. All of these have been wins. And of course working on behalf of this movement is a great privilege, and (so far) a pleasure. (With no offense to GT, pleasure is rarely part of the package at a large firm.)

The new scope of the work is perhaps the biggest change. Where I previously focused primarily on technology licensing, I’m now an “internet lawyer” in the broadest sense of the word: I, my (great) team, and our various strong outside counsel work on topics from employment contracts, to privacy policies, to headline-grabbing speech issues, to patent/trademark/copyright questions – it is all over the place. This is both challenging, and great fun – I couldn’t ask for a better place to be at this point in my life. (And of course, being always on the side of the community is great too – though I did more of that at Greenberg than many people would assume.)

I don’t expect that this move will have a negative impact on my other work in the broader open source community. If anything, not focusing on licensing all day at work has given me more energy to work on OSI-related things when I get home, and I have more flexibility to travel and speak with and for various communities too. (I’m having great fun being on the mailing lists of literally every known open source license revision community, for example. :)

If you’d like to join us (as we work to get the next 1/2 billion users a month), there are a lot of opportunities open right  now, including one working for me on my team, and some doing interesting work at the overlap between community, tech, and product management. Come on over – you won’t regret it :)