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India nuke hunger & Russia : When Supreme Court goes ashtray!

altnews.asia - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 15:35

India nuke hunger & Russia : When Supreme Court goes ashtray!

By DR. ABDUL RUFF

[Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal, Educationist, Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.) Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Specialist on State Terrorism ; Commentator on world affairs & sport fixings, Expert on Mideast Affairs,Former university Teacher; Editor:INTERNATIONAL OPINION; Editor: FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES; Palestine Times: RANDOM THOUGHTS; (http://abdulrubb.wordpress.com); website: http://abdulruff.wordpress.com/ mail: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com]

__________________________________

Russia nuke and India nuke hunger

Unfortunately for India and humanity at large, the Supreme Court judges have asked Indian terrocractic regime to go ahead with its pet project of twin terror plants in Kudankulam village of Tamil State, thereby further petrifying terror forces of India and Tamil node to attack the defenceless people mercilessly; India regime would use the Supreme court node as licence to , kill and torture anyone who opposes state terror projects.

By this foolish node, hon Supreme Court has weakened further democracy level of an already extra fanatic India and supported terrocractic fixers in India. .

Ever since Russia’s strong judo man V. Putin assumed power in Kremlin officially for the fourth time, he has markedly reduced protest freedoms for the voters who offered him the chance with a mandate, undermined the judiciary and presented himself as a super patriotic man of the so-called great Russia. He wants to free himself of his people, party and parliament. This former KGB agent decides everything in Russia.

Both USA and Russia bluffs about nuclear disarmament without dismantling their nuke arsenals, first. By mutual understating with USA, Russia manufactures nuclear reactors and looks around to hook weak fanatic nations to sell them by bring the nuke agents in those recipient nations.

India is one of key soft targets of Russia to impose its nuke we ill along with other cheap terror goods. Many MPs and even ministers are in Moscow’s lobby gang for nukes and Russian embassy in New Delhi takes care of these anti-humanity nuts.

Both USA and Russia are using China to play some nonsensical gimmicks at the border so that Indian goes to both USA and Russia and fix nuke deals in their favor. USA also is using India and Pakistan to create similar terror gimmicks at their borders, terrorizing the besieged Kashmiris on both sides of terror LOC.

India is presently happy that its nuke hunger is being appreciated by the hon Supreme Court judges who are duty-bound to protect people against state crimes.

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India nuke hunger & Russia : When Supreme Court goes ashtray!

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Automated License Plate Readers Threaten Our Privacy

eff.org - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 09:21

Co-Authored with Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using sophisticated cameras, called “automated license plate readers” or ALPR, to scan and record the license plates of millions of cars across the country. These cameras, mounted on top of patrol cars and on city streets, can scan up to 1,800 license plate per minute, day or night, allowing one squad car to record more than 14,000 plates during the course of a single shift.

Photographing a single license plate one time on a public city street may not seem problematic, but when that data is put into a database, combined with other scans of that same plate on other city streets, and stored forever, it can become very revealing. Information about your location over time can show not only where you live and work, but your political and religious beliefs, your social and sexual habits, your visits to the doctor, and your associations with others. And, according to recent research reported in Nature, it’s possible to identify 95% of individuals with as few as four randomly selected geospatial datapoints (location + time), making location data the ultimate biometric identifier.

To better gauge the real threat to privacy posed by ALPR, EFF and the ACLU of Southern California asked LAPD and LASD for information on their systems, including their policies on retaining and sharing information and all the license plate data each department collected over the course of a single week in 2012. After both agencies refused to release most of the records we asked for, we sued. We hope to get access to this data, both to show just how much data the agencies are collecting and how revealing it can be.

ALPRs are often touted as an easy way to find stolen cars — the system checks a scanned plate against a database of stolen or wanted cars and can instantly identify a hit, allowing officers to set up a sting to recover the car and catch the thief. But even when there’s no match in the database and no reason to think a car is stolen or involved in a crime, police keep the data. According to the LA Weekly, LAPD and LASD together already have collected more than 160 million “data points” (license plates plus time, date, and exact location) in the greater LA area—that’s more than 20 hits for each of the more than 7 million vehicles registered in L.A. County. That’s a ton of data, but it’s not all — law enforcement officers also have access to private databases containing hundreds of millions of plates and their coordinates collected by “repo” men.

Law enforcement agencies claim that ALPR systems are no different from an officer recording license plate, time and location information by hand. They also argue the data doesn’t warrant any privacy protections because we drive our cars around in public. However, as five justices of the Supreme Court recognized last year in US v. Jones, a case involving GPS tracking, the ease of data collection and the low cost of data storage make technological surveillance solutions such as GPS or ALPR very different from techniques used in the past.

Police are open about their desire to record the movements of every car in case it might one day prove valuable. In 2008, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck (then the agency’s chief of detectives) told GovTech Magazine that ALPRs have “unlimited potential” as an investigative tool. “It’s always going to be great for the black-and-white to be driving down the street and find stolen cars rolling around . . . . But the real value comes from the long-term investigative uses of being able to track vehicles—where they’ve been and what they've been doing—and tie that to crimes that have occurred or that will occur.” But amassing data on the movements of law-abiding residents poses a real threat to privacy, while the benefit to public safety is speculative, at best.

In light of privacy concerns, states including Maine, New Jersey, and Virginia have limited the use of ALPRs, and New Hampshire has banned them outright. Even the International Association of Chiefs of Police has issued a report recognizing that “recording driving habits” could raise First Amendment concerns because cameras could record “vehicles parked at addiction-counseling meetings, doctors' offices, health clinics, or even staging areas for political protests.”

But even if ALPRs are permitted, there are still common-sense limits that can allow the public safety benefits of ALPRs while preventing the wholesale tracking of every resident’s movements. Police can and should treat location information from ALPRs like other sensitive information — they should retain it no longer than necessary to determine if it might be relevant to a crime, and should get a warrant to keep it any longer. They should limit who can access it and who they can share it with. And they should put oversight in place to ensure these limits are followed.

Unfortunately, efforts to impose reasonable limits on ALPR tracking in California have failed so far. Last year, legislation that would have limited private and law enforcement retention of ALPR data to 60 days—a limit currently in effect for the California Highway Patrol — and restricted sharing between law enforcement and private companies failed after vigorous opposition from law enforcement. In California, law enforcement agencies remain free to set their own policies on the use and retention of ALPR data, or to have no policy at all.

Some have asked why we would seek public disclosure of the actual license plate data collected by the police—location-based data that we think is private. But we asked specifically for a narrow slice of data — just a week’s worth — to demonstrate how invasive the technology is. Having the data will allow us to see how frequently some plates have been scanned; where and when, specifically, the cops are scanning plates; and just how many plates can be collected in a large metropolitan area over the course of a single week. Actual data will reveal whether ALPRs are deployed primarily in particular areas of Los Angeles and whether some communities might therefore be much more heavily tracked than others. If this data is too private to give a week’s worth to the public to help inform us how the technology is being used, then isn’t it too private to let the police amass years’ worth of data without a warrant?

After the Boston Marathon bombings, many have argued that the government should take advantage of surveillance technology to collect more data rather than less. But we should not so readily give up the very freedoms that terrorists seek to destroy. We should recognize just how revealing ALPR data is and not be afraid to push our police and legislators for sensible limits to protect our basic right to privacy.

Documents

EFF and ACLU-SC's legal Complaint

LA Sheriff's Department ALPR Powerpoint Presentation

LA Sheriff's Department - Automated License Plate Reader System Information

LAPD - Automated License Plate Reader User Guide

LA Sheriff's Department - Field Operations Directive

Related Issues: Privacy Locational Privacy TransparencyRelated Cases: Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)
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Copyright Provisions in the TPP Would Stifle Innovation and Impede the Economy

eff.org - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 07:00

How would you react if you found out that traffic laws made the roads more dangerous for pedestrians? Or if existing building codes led to newly constructed houses becoming less structurally sound? Most people would probably be distressed to find out if regulations meant to serve a certain public good in fact undermined their very purpose.

The rhetoric around copyright and patents has been that they are unquestionably effective at promoting creativity and innovation. If you’ve been following EFF’s work over the years however, you would know that that’s simply untrue. In the U.S., we have seen case after case where new businesses, innovators, researchers, and artists have been silenced or sucked dry in the face of harsh copyright enforcement provisions.

The intellectual property chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) lifts and exports some of the worst parts of the U.S. copyright regime to the rest of the world. Here, we highlight just a few ways that those TPP provisions could debilitate the very people they supposedly meant to benefit: innovators and artists.

Expensive cost of enforcement can impede new Internet-based start-ups

The TPP carries provisions that could have the effect of making Internet service and content providers liable for copyright infringement by their users. The leaked draft includes a U.S.-style safe harbor provision that is meant to ensure service providers do not have an obligation to monitor their users’ activities in most instances. The safe harbor provision gives companies a way to protect themselves from legal liability as long as they put in place notice and takedown procedures. However, similar language in U.S. copyright law has not stopped large content owners from bringing lawsuits that, if successful, would require websites and service providers to become copyright cops. This leads to a number of setbacks.

For Internet Service Providers, the cost of implementing a system to oversee all users’ activities and process each takedown notice could be excessive. At the very least, companies would be forced to sink significant resources into legal defenses, and thereby discouraging investment.

Even if they are arguably in compliance with the safe harbor provisions, websites and services that enable platforms for social, user-generated content risk being hit with a copyright infringement suit. For example, Veoh, a web host that made every effort to “play by the rules,” was hit with a massive lawsuit. Several courts have said that Veoh was protected by the safe harbors, but litigation costs still put the company out of business. If replicated abroad, cases such as these can lead to such services becoming overcautious about hosting content, and lead them to take down, filter, or block subjects.

Legal protections for technologies that block innovation and fair competition

Digital rights management (DRM) software, also known as technological protection measures (TPMs), is code installed on devices to limit the use of content after sale. The supposed purpose is to prevent infringement of the content on the device (such as software, music, books, etc). Despite growing evidence that DRM technologies do much more harm than good, the TPP mandates legal restrictions that can be used to punish innovators and researchers for “circumventing” DRM—even if the circumvention is for a lawful purpose.

DRM can easily be used to support anti-competitive business practices and hamper innovation that builds upon existing technologies. For example, a company can prevent “unauthorized” software or digital content from interoperating with their devices by inserting DRM.

Overbroad definition of a “copy” allows existing dominant companies to crush new innovative businesses

All routine computer functions rely upon the regular creation of temporary copies of programs and files. Temporary copies are files that are automatically copied by computers into their random access memory (“RAM”) during everyday operations, and so temporary copying of data is fundamental to how computing works in general. The TPP has a provision that includes even “temporary reproductions” of copyrighted works without rightsholders’ permission as a potential copyright infringement. This definition is so broad it could be used to penalize and control a wide range of obvious legal activities.

In the U.S., there is a history of entertainment, tech, and other companies relying on this broad definition of a copy to sue independent creators and innovative services out of existence. A computer repair technician was sued for copyright infringement for simply loading a computer program into memory. Motion picture and television companies sued Cablevision, a cable TV provider, over its plans to deploy a “remote DVR” service that would allow its subscribers to record TV programming and play it back whenever they would like. The industry argued that since this service required Cablevision to make copies to save on its servers, it itself was an infringer of copyright. Cablevision prevailed, but only after expensive litigation.

Many countries do not have legal doctrines, such as fair use, that have helped mitigate the negative impact of potential liability for temporary copies. The TPP probably won't require countries to adopt fair use along with the innovation-killing parts of U.S. copyright law.

Excessive copyright term lengths impede creation of new works

One of the main purposes of copyright is to promote the creation of new works by giving authors certain exclusive rights to that work for limited times so that they may profit from them. However, the current standard copyright terms are much too long to be justified by this underlying objective. The international minimum length of copyright protection is life-of-the-author plus 50 years, or 50 years for corporate-authored or unpublished works. TPP would extend these terms even further, setting the minimum term to 70 years after the death of an author, and corporate works to 120 years after the date of creation.

Many academics say that such long copyright terms yield at best minimal increases in compensation for living authors and that there is little evidence to show that they significantly contribute to an author’s incentive to create. Creativity and innovation are only possible by building upon the prior work of others; excessive copyright terms prevent artists and creators from accessing, remixing, and recreating new works out of existing ones. The international standard for copyright terms is already too long, but the TPP would extend it even longer.

As long as a work is restricted by copyright, new creators would be severely restricted in their ability to use those materials legally — or completely unable to do so. Therefore the costs of making new works can become a barrier for creators. In countries where there is more flexible fair use, there may be more legal room to use these works. But still, it remains a murky, risky, and grossly inefficient system.

There are many works where the author of a work is deceased or cannot be located. As a result, getting explicit permission to use these "hostage works" can become ever more expensive or difficult. Creators might end up not making new works for fear of liability, if they use or are inspired by original works that might be protected by copyright.

~

Policymakers need to stop treating copyright law as a zero-sum game. An effective innovation policy is one that does not entitle an elite group of creative industries at the costly expense of everyone else. It must enable and promote new businesses. The TPP's intellectual property chapter carries provisions that instead threaten to force countries to enact laws that stifle and prevent new innovative services and creative works.

The negative consequences of copyright law can no longer be dismissed as simply a "price" we need to pay to ensure creators get compensated. The U.S. copyright regime is hugely deficient. Trade negotiators need to stop advocating for the worst parts of U.S. copyright law and exporting them around the world as if they are sound regulatory models. It's time to design innovation policy in a manner that pragmatically supports and incentivizes all innovators, big and small.

Take this action and join over 26,000 people to send a message to your elected representatives. Let's call on Congress to demand for the immediate release of the text of the TPP, and make this process become democratic and transparent once and for all.

(Not in the US? Go here.) Related Issues: Innovation Intellectual Property DMCA International Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
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After the Tragedy in Boston, More Government Surveillance is Not the Answer

eff.org - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 06:20

Since the tragedy in Boston three weeks ago, there has been much talk in the media and political circles about technology that helped capture the suspects, the role of surveillance, and the critical issue of how privacy should be handled in the digital age. Yet the public facts known so far do not call for new governmental surveillance powers or tools. Instead, the investigation supports the conclusion that the government’s current actions did not cross the Fourth Amendment line, and complying would not harm future terrorism investigations.

First, the familiar attempt to throw privacy out the window: The Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg led the way last week, saying that, despite privacy concerns, “our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.” NYPD chief Ray Kelly echoed Bloomberg, saying, "I think the privacy issue has really been taken off the table," in reference to surveillance after the bombings in Boston.

Bloomberg said terrorists “want to take away our freedoms,” yet his solution seems to be the government should take our freedoms away first. This is folly, and the very reduction of privacy and freedom is what could give victory to terrorism.

In an excellent and poignant column immediately after the bombing, security expert Bruce Schneier wrote in The Atlantic about the reaction we all should have: “When we react from fear, when we change our laws and policies to make our country less open, the terrorists succeed, even if their attacks fail.” He continued: “there's one thing we can do to render terrorism ineffective: Refuse to be terrorized.”

To Schneier’s point, the risk of terrorism is on the decline and has been since the 1970s, according to the Global Terrorism Database. And a report by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) showed the risk of Americans being killed in terrorism attacks that occur worldwide is exceedingly low. Of the 13,288 people killed by terrorist attacks in 2011, 17 were private U.S. citizens—.001 percent. In fact, you are far more likely to be struck by lightning than be killed by a terrorist.

These calls for less privacy also tend to ignore the fact that we’ve already given away a tremendous amount of our privacy since 9/11, despite the relatively low risk of terrorism in comparison to all sorts of other crime and causes of death, and have little additional safety to show for it. The PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendments Act, the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping, National Security Letters, or others were all implemented with the promise that giving up liberty would increase our safety. The NYPD now has a “Domain Awareness System,” which “allows officers to tap into live video camera feeds, 911 calls, mapped crime statistics, and license plate readers” all at once—with little oversight. And those are just a few of the programs we know about.

While most of these programs are still tremendously secret, the information we do have indicates that they have been abused many times. The NYPD, for instance, has been widely criticized for its post-9/11 pervasive surveillance. Read the Associated Press’ Pulitzer Prize winning series for more.

Let’s focus on just two areas that the Boston bombing brought to the forefront.

Government Surveillance Cameras

First, do the facts support a call for increased government surveillance cameras? No, they do not.

There’s certainly been an epidemic of media support for cameras in the aftermath of the Boston attack. We suspect that companies selling cameras are already lining up outside the doors of state and municipal officials hoping to snare some tax dollars from panicky officials.

But as many others have pointed out, it is important to remember, despite the fact that the bombers were surrounded by dozens of cameras, the cameras did not prevent the bombing. This is consistent with what has occurred in other such attacks, including the attacks in the subway in camera-happy London.

Cameras were quite helpful, along with other evidence, including eye-witnesses, in identifying the suspects after the fact. But importantly, the footage that identified the suspects didn’t come from government cameras – it came from private ones, volunteered from businesses and individuals, and provided more than enough to identify two people in days.

Why? Private cameras provide an informal check on government misuse. In a case like the Boston Marathon bombing, people wanted to help the government solve the heinous crime. It wasn’t hard for the government to collect terabytes of volunteered information. Yet private entities might be much more reticent to volunteer their photos and videos in the case where the government was overreaching or oppressive. If the authorities still want those private photos and videos, they can seek it through legal process, but allowing people to decide in the first instance when to share their private videos and photos with the government can serve as an important check on governmental overreach.

Finally, unless there is an emergency, private photos and videos usually remain in private hands, even if sometimes publicly available on private websites. Government surveillance footage is increasingly being organized and combined with other government information and used in ways that we often have no knowledge of, much less control over.

One of EFF’s longstanding concerns with untargeted, automatic government collection of information about people is the secondary uses. That is, the government desires to keep, correlate and analyze data about nonsuspect, innocent Americans—whether it’s surveillance cameras in public places, license plate readers or warrantless wiretapping—just in case you fall under criminal suspicion.

Private photos and videos can also be collected and collated, of course, but the systemic governmental systems are more worrisome, and likely create more of a chilling effect on Americans in their exercise of their rights to free speech, than disparate, private photos and videos.

Cell Phone Tracking

Second example: the police use of cellphone tracking to follow the car hijacked by the Boston suspects. The owner of the car had left his cell phone in it after the hijacking and, with the owner’s permission, the police used it to locate the car.

Once again, no additional police powers were needed. The private citizen, the carjacking victim said he gave the police permission to locate his phone, something that is not surprising given the situation. But even if the police were seeking to locate the suspects' cell phones, this should not have been a problem. Even assuming they did not have enough information initially, once the carjacking victim had contacted the authorities, there was probably cause for a warrant due to the theft of the vehicle and—due to the suspects' confession to the victim—the MIT murder and bombing.

EFF has long been saying that the Fourth Amendment should require the police to get a warrant when tracking cellphones, as well as pushing for legislation that would formalize this. Requiring the government to follow the warrant rules in seeking cell phone locations wouldn’t have hurt the Boston investigation, but it would protect many, many people.

Last year alone, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies requested cell phone data a shocking 1.3 million times. Much of that time, it was location data without a warrant. In emergency situations like Boston it’s important for police to act quickly, but in the course of normal investigations the oversight and limits provided by the warrant requirement are just as paramount.

The capture of the Boston suspect was made possible by old-fashioned police work and the willingness of the public to help in such a trying time. Technology surely assisted in this effort, but it’s important to note where it was and was not helpful, and to ensure that we don’t let the few dramatic situations lead us to downgrade our own privacy in everyday law enforcement situations.

Takedown Hall of Shame Inductions, May 2013

eff.org - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 05:44

In the 15 years since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) went into effect, bogus copyright and trademark claims and overzealous enforcement bots have misused the system to silence legitimate speech and creative expression online. We collect the most egregious examples of this kind of abuse in our gallery of villains — the Takedown Hall of Shame.

Today we name and shame three new honorees: Kern's Kitchen, meanspirited censors who seek to shut down recipe-sharing; Time Warner Cable, whose idea of entertainment doesn't extend to jokes about its customer service; and Fox, which doesn't mind if its efforts to police the Homeland cause collateral damage.

Kern's Kitchen

Louisville-based Kern's Kitchen has asserted a trademark over the term "Derby Pie," a popular Southern dessert made with chocolate and walnuts. For decades, Kern’s has threatened and sued restaurants that include derby pies on the menu and magazines that have the temerity to share “derby pie” recipes, even though the term is widely recognizable as the name of the pie in question.

Now the company behind the most litigious confection in America is going after individual websites that post new recipes for derby pies. In order to exploit the fact that free speech is only as strong as its weakest link, the company has taken its claims upstream to the hosts of those websites, such as Wordpress.com. To its credit, Wordpress did not simply takedown the websites, but worked with users to try to resolve the issue.

To be clear, Kern's Kitchen is asserting a trademark claim on the name itself, and not a copyright claim on the recipe. That's because in the U.S., recipes aren't generally subject to copyright restrictions. As a result, websites are in the clear if they change the name to something outside of Kern's trademark.

Our favorite: Mean Spirited Censorship Pie.

Time Warner Cable

If you live in New York City — or follow anybody on Twitter who lives in New York City — you have probably heard plenty about Time Warner Cable's Customer Service. That's the joke behind the gripe site TWCCustomerService.com, which looks a lot like a Time Warner site but asks: "What Can We Do Worse?"

It seems like everybody gets the joke but Time Warner Cable itself. The company is also exploiting free speech's weak links by going after each of the social media accounts associated with the website, one by one. The site is still alive (and still very funny), but its YouTube account and several of its Twitter accounts have been shut down.

Time Warner Cable should instruct its lawyers to look up the Streisand Effect: the phenomenon by which an attempt to suppress information results in wider dissemination of that information.

Fox

Fox owns a TV show called Homeland. It doesn't own the word "homeland," the concept of a homeland, or the many other works that go by the name "Homeland." But it seems no one thought to tell that to Fox's automated copyright enforcement bots that are programmed to send massive takedown notices for fuzzy matches of the word "homeland" all around the web.

And who's the latest dolphin to get caught in Fox's takedown fishing net? None other than science fiction author and EFF Fellow Cory Doctorow, whose recent sequel to his best-selling Little Brother young adult book is called — you guessed it — Homeland. Fox has sent takedown notices to Google (and probably others) for files with names like "Cory Doctorow Homeland novel."

Doctorow's Homeland is available under a Creative Commons license and has spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. But apparently that's not enough to keep it out of the crosshairs of Fox's sloppy takedown notices, and that causes real harm. As Doctorow put it:

The DMCA makes it easy to carelessly censor the Internet, and makes it hard to get redress for this kind of perjurious, depraved indifference.

Well put, Cory. We work on raising the stakes for bogus takedown notices in two major ways: by fighting back in lawsuits like Lenz v. Universal, where we're holding a rightsholder accountable for notices sent in bad faith, and by naming and shaming bad actors like these in the Takedown Hall of Shame.

Related Issues: DMCA
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EFF and ACLU Sue LA Law-Enforcement Agencies Over License-Plate Reader Records

eff.org - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 05:30

Los Angeles Police Department and County Sheriff’s Department Must Release Data Under California Public Records Act

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU-SC) today jointly filed suit against two Los Angeles-area law-enforcement agencies over their failure to produce records related to the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs).

Mounted on squad cars and telephone poles, these sophisticated camera systems read license plates and record the time, date, and location a particular car was encountered. EFF and the ACLU-SC filed requests with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department under the California Public Records Act seeking documents relating to policy and training on ALPRs, as well as a week's worth of ALPR data collected by the agencies in 2012. While the sheriff and police departments produced some materials, they failed to provide documents related to sharing information with other agencies, and neither agency has produced the data collected during the one-week period.

"Location-based information like license plate data can be very revealing," said EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch. "By matching your car to a particular time, date and location — and building a database of that information over time — law enforcement can learn where you work and live, what doctor you go to, which religious services you attend, and who your friends are. The public needs access to data the police actually have collected to be able to make informed decisions about how ALPR systems can and can't be used."

ALPRs can record up to 14,000 plates during a single shift. According to a June 2012 story in LA Weekly, the sheriff and police departments conduct, on average, approximately 22 scans for every one of the 7 million vehicles registered in Los Angeles County. As of June, the departments reportedly logged more than 160 million data points. While the police can use this technology to match license plates against databases to find stolen or wanted cars, the systems currently record and store information on every car, even where there's no reason to think a car is connected to any crime.

"Police can and should treat location information from ALPRs like other sensitive information. They should retain it no longer than necessary to determine if it might be relevant to a crime and get a warrant if they need to keep it any longer," ACLU-SC Senior Staff Attorney Peter Bibring says. "They should limit who can access it, who they can share it with and create an oversight system to make sure the limits are followed."

The complaint was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. EFF and the ACLU have asked a judge to issue a writ directing the agencies to hand over all requested records and award appropriate legal fees.

For the full complaint:

http://www.eff.org/document/aclu-sd-and-eff-v-lapd-and-lasd

Contacts:

Jennifer Lynch
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jlynch@eff.org

Peter Bibring
Senior Staff Attorney
ACLU of Southern California
pbibring@aclu-sc.org

BBC's Longstanding Pro-Israeli Bias

sjlendman.blogspot.com - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 05:09

BBC's Longstanding Pro-Israeli Bias
by Stephen Lendman
Since 1922, BBC's first general manager, John Reith, explained his mandate. UK officials "know they can trust us not be be really impartial," he said.
It's a reliable business/government partner. Earlier it was called the "British Falsehood Corporation." More recently it's been known as the "British Bombing (or Bombast) Club."
Its claim about "honesty, integrity (being) what the BBC stands for, free from political influence and commercial pressure" doesn't wash. It never did.
UK-based Media Lens offers independent, "authoritative criticism." Its reports reflect "reality." It's free from corporate or government influence.
It once called BBC reporting fundamentally one-sided, imbalanced, "biased, blinkered and culpable."
"Anyone can spot the propaganda with a modicum of vigilance while watching the news."
In April 2008, Media Lens said "news priorities….mean the more Palestinians killed the less importance their deaths have to news organizations like" BBC.
"Conversely, the fewer Israelis killed the more seriousness their deaths are accorded."
"As a result of….undeclared media censorship, public understanding of the Middle East remains limited; and challenges to Western support of brutal Israeli policy are easily diffused and minimised."
"Sadly, the net effect is that the BBC provides cover for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians." It's longstanding. It predates the Nakba.
BBC Watch "monitor(s) BBC coverage of Israel for accuracy and impartiality."
It's the largest news and information organization. Its global reach makes it perhaps the most influential. It violates its editorial standards. Doing so betrays the public trust.
Its pro-Israeli bias is notorious. Credibility isn't its long suit. From 1995 - 2000, Jeremy Bowen served as Middle East correspondent. Earlier he headed BBC's Jerusalem bureau. Currently he's BBC's Middle East editor.
Media Lens says his "reporting consistently reflects (a) pro-establishment, pro-Israeli line."
BBC Watch said "what is or is not deemed impartial (reflects) the culture in which (journalists like Bowen) work, and particularly when that culture is self-regulated, an institutional consensus (develops) which may not necessarily be identical to the definition of impartial or accurate as perceived by those outside the organization…."
Language and framing always matter. BBC's web site lists "Key terms." It calls premeditated assassinations "killings." If Israeli sources say so, they're "targeted killings."
Israel's apartheid wall is called a "barrier, separation barrier, West Bank barrier, (or) this wall."
"Be careful" using the word "border." "Do you mean boundary," it asks? "See Green Line." Omitted is saying Israel is the only country without defined borders. Historic Palestine was stolen.
"Avoid cliches whenever possible." Reporting a "cycle of violence (does) nothing to explain any of the underlying causes of the conflict and may indeed obscure them."
Israel bears full responsibility. It's done so for decades. State-sponsored terror is longstanding. It's official policy. Don't expect BBC to explain.
It notoriously denies Israel's occupation. It says Israel's "preferred phrase (is) 'disputed territories,' and it is reasonable to use this when it is clear that we are referring to or explaining its position."
It claims Jerusalem as its exclusive capital. Since 1947, it's been an international city under a UN Trusteeship Council. BBC reports otherwise.
Its Israel profile calls Jerusalem its "seat of government." It omits mentioning Israel's occupation. UN terminology is "occupied Palestinian territories."
Its Palestinian territories profile calls East Jerusalem its "intended seat of government. Ramallah serves as administrative capital."
It quotes Britain's Foreign Office saying it "regards the status of Jerusalem as still to be determined in permanent status negotiations between the parties."
Not so. International law has final say.
"Avoid the phrase 'Arab East Jerusalem,' " says BBC.
It ignores besieged Gaza. It says "Israel completed the withdrawal of all its troops and settlers" in 2005. Omitted is mention of frequent Israeli incursions, bombings, and at times premeditated war.
In discussing the second Intifada, the "usual guidelines about paying due regard to the context in which words are used should be carefully considered if we are referring to the causes of the uprising."
Israel bears full responsibility. BBC won't explain.
"There is no independent state of Palestine today…"
False! It exists. On November 15, 1988, it was proclaimed in Algiers. At the time, the PLO adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.
PLO legal advisor Francis Boyle drafted it. He included safeguards to assure all sovereign state rights. His document left no wiggle room loopholes. He also made sure UN membership won't comprise them.
Palestine satisfies all essential criteria. It does so for sovereign independence and full de jure UN membership.
All UN Charter states (including America and Israel) provisionally recognized Palestinian independence in accordance with UN Charter article 80(1) and League Covenant article 22(4). Don't expect BBC to explain.
Avoid the phrase "peace process" in the wrong context. (B)etter to avoid the term entirely (except) in an historical sense (or) a revival of" earlier discussions.
BBC scorns the right of return. More on that below.
In 1974, General Assembly Resolution 3236 reaffirmed "the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return."
Israel's UN admission was conditional on accepting and implementing Resolution 194. It said:
"refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage which, under the principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible."
Residents traveling abroad for any length of time or reason have similar rights.
BBC states:
"We should try to specify who would like to return and to where."
"There is a Palestinian demand that Palestinians 'who fled or were forced out of their homes' during the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars have the right to return to their homes."
"There is a dispute between the two sides over why they are refugees, so the previous phrase is a useful one that reflects the two different views."
No dispute exists. International law is clear. BBC didn't explain.
It said settlements "are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this."
They're not "considered illegal." They ARE illegal. International law is unequivocal.
BBC producer guidelines on terrorists state:
"We must report acts of terror quickly, accurately, fully and responsibly. We should not adopt other people's language as our own."
"Our credibility is undermined by the careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgements."
BBC does this repeatedly. Israeli aggression is called self-defense. Palestinian self-defense is called terrorism. Listeners and viewers get truth turned on its head.
Expect no policy change ahead. On April 2, Tony Hall became BBC director-general. He's a House of Lords member. He's notoriously pro-Israeli.
So is James Harding. Hall appointed him news and current affairs head. He's a former Rupert Murdoch editor. He'll join BBC in August.
Earlier he called himself "pro-Israel. I haven't found it hard (because his former employer) has been pro-Israel for a long time. I believe in the State of Israel." He defended its Cast Lead slaughter.
In February, Hall appointed James Purnell BBC's director of strategy and digital. In Parliament, he chaired the Labour Friends of Israel lobby group. Former members include Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Purnell calls Israel "a democracy. (It) suffer(s) terror attacks. (It's) surrounded by countries that don't recognize its existence. (It's) the victim of well-funded terrorist organizations that preach anti-Semitic hate."
Israel remains in good hands at BBC. Expect longstanding one-sided support to continue. Expect disdain for Palestinian rights.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/bbcs-longstanding-pro-israeli-bias/

Progressive Radio News Hour Guests for May 10, 11, and 12, 2013

sjlendman.blogspot.com - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 05:08

Progressive Radio News Hour Guests for May 10, 11, and 12, 2013
Friday, May 10 at 10AM US Central time: Elizabeth Woodworth
Woodworth is a writer and former head librarian for the British Columbia Ministry of Health (1978 - 2002). Her writing focuses largely on social justice issues.
She's also involved in Consensus 9/11. It seeks "best evidence" proof to dispel official story falsehoods. New information learned will be discussed.
Saturday, May 11 at noon US Central time: Finian Cunningham
Cunningham is a musician, writer and activist. He's based in Northern Ireland when not on site elsewhere.
Earlier he spent months in Bahrain. He did so addressing brutal Al-Khalifa monarchy repression.
Currently, he's on the Horn of Africa. He's covering struggles in that strategic part of the world. He's not ignoring others.
Key ones will be discussed.
Sunday, May 12 at noon US Central time: John Kozy
Kozy is a retired philosophy professor, now writing on social, political and economic issues. He taught for many years and has been writing for many more.
His latest writing will be discussed.

Internet Uncertainty

freepress.net - Tue, 07/05/2013 - 03:48

Internet Uncertainty Timothy KarrMay 6, 2013 When asked whether the Internet has been a force for good or evil, Zeynep Tufekci likes to answer “Yes.”

Categories: Aggregated News

Phoenix Rising

freepress.net - Mon, 06/05/2013 - 23:41

Phoenix Rising Candace ClementMay 6, 2013

The death of the Boston Phoenix hit Free Press hard.

As an organization working to protect independent media, we feel the loss of any publication or outlet. But this felt different.

Categories: Aggregated News

VINTAGE TEE DAY PROMOTING CHARITY & ECO-FRIENDLY FASHION

Tasmanian Greens - Mon, 06/05/2013 - 18:56

Cassy O’Connor MP Greens Environment Spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today joined the celebration of the Salvation Army’s “Vintage Tee Day”, by donning their favourite vintage threads to celebrate sustainable fashion. Greens Environment spokesperson Cassy O’Connor MP commended the Salvation Army on their efforts to promote sustainability and recycling, as well as conservation within the community by promoting ‘vintage’ [...]

Categories: Aggregated News

3d Game models with our innovations

altnews.asia - Mon, 06/05/2013 - 18:43

3d Game models

No matter what kind of home improvement project you are considering, the advice in this article can help you get the best results.

Have they done a similar project as far as scope and price? Many contractors work in niche aspects of home improvement and can do an excellent job for you. Clean up every time you demolish something to ensure that the upgrades you put in are done correctly. Clean up throughout your home improvement project to ensure that your project doesn't get derailed. What does it take to become good at home improvement? Yantram 3D Animation Studio use the most modern 3D Character Animation, 3D Character Modeling, Character Animation studio, VFX and Special Effects, 3d Game Character Rigging, 3d Game Character Animation, Voices & Sound composition, 3D Game Models,2D Character Modeling techniques to create 3d models! If the air coming into your home is filtered through your heating and cooling system, you will have less chances of contracting air-borne illness. Without these things, you will not get your home to look how you want. Gee, I wonder why? They can become cracked or clogged causing issues if you wish to use it, while more of your home's heating and air can escape through an old chimney. An old chimney becomes hazardous and decreases your homes efficiency as well. Furthermore, they run quieter. These tips can come in handy to help you out. After refinancing, you might also want to consider taking out a home improvement loan against the value of the home. If your chimney is dated back 100 years or more, you may want to consider replacing it. When using a contractor for your home improvement needs, be honest with him about how much money you have in your budget.

When doing a web search looking for a contractor to hire, do specific niche searches. Take a look at their portfolio to see if the work they do will work in your renovation. In addition, we add the 3d Game models with our innovations and creativity. They have exactly the same sharpness, high resolutions and shape, as you perceived. The refrigerator will use the most electricity out of all the appliances in your home.

Author: Yantram 3D Character Animation studio

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AttachmentSize 3D Game Models35.8 KB Tags:

Categories: altnews sister sites

America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime (Part II)

sjlendman.blogspot.com - Mon, 06/05/2013 - 17:46

America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime (Part II)
by Stephen Lendman
In late January, Lebanese military sources reported multiple Israeli violations of Lebanon's airspace. One or more targets on the Syrian-Lebanese border were struck.
Around the same time, Israeli warplanes attacked a military research center in Jamraya. It's about 10 miles from the Lebanese border. Early Sunday morning, Israel struck it again.
On May 5, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined "Explosions Hit Scientific Research Center in Jamraya Caused by an Israeli Rocket Attack, Casualties Reported."
The Damascus al-Hameh area was struck. Syrian state television said:
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army."
"This new Israeli aggression is a clear attempt to alleviate the pressure on the armed terrorist groups after our army beat them back in several regions and after the army's victories on the road to recovering security and stability in Syria."
"This attack proves the direct involvement of the Israeli occupation in the conspiracy against Syria and its links with terrorist groups in the aggression supported by Western countries and some Gulf countries."
Israeli officials confirmed Saturday's attack. YNet News said an unnamed "senior" Israeli source corroborated the second one. He claimed missiles intended for Hezbollah were targeted.
Previous articles suggested otherwise. Assad needs all the weapons he can get. If reports were accurate, evidence would have corroborated them. None was forthcoming.
Video footage showed multiple explosions. Huge fires followed. Obama ignored Israel's naked aggression. He claimed it's entitled to defend itself against enemies, saying:
"The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah."
He shares responsibility for what happened. These type incidents are jointly planned. Both nations partner in imperial crimes. Doing so is longstanding.
Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague also supports Israel's naked aggression. He called it self-defense. He said it's justification for "lifting the arms embargo" against Syrian insurgents. He wants them getting more weapons than already supplied.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad correctly called Israeli aggression "a declaration of war." He added that Syria will decide when and how to respond.
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour condemned "the Israeli aggression and the silence of the international community. It's time for the Arab League to take a clear stand in light of the repeated Israeli aggression against Arab countries."
On April 30, Syrian expert Patrick Seale headlined "How Israel Manipulates US Policy in the Middle East."
It's doing what it did many times before. It's "inciting the United States to attack Syria."
"By accusing Syria of using chemical weapons, Israel's goal seems to have been to trigger an early American armed intervention with the double objective of ousting Bashar from office, while preventing his replacement by the redoubtable Jabhat al-Nusra."
Israel wants Washington "to destroy both the Syrian regime and its Hizbollah ally," Seale added. Iran comes next.
"Israel wants no limits on the extraordinary freedom it has long enjoyed to attack its neighbours at will and never be hit back. From Israel's point of view, if America could be persuaded to do the job for it, so much the better."
On May 5, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi condemned Israel's "evil acts." They occurred after a "US green light." Fars News quoted him saying:
"The inhuman acts and adventurism of the Zionist regime in the region will strengthen the waves of anti-Zionism in the region and will shorten the life of this fake regime."
"Such desperate moves are not a sign of power and might but they show the regime's desperateness and confusion in dealing with the regional developments."
Mossad-connected DEBKAfile claimed Israel attacked "to prevent the transfer of Iran-supplied Scud D and Fateh-110 missiles to Hizbollah units fighting in Syria…."
It cited unnamed Arab sources saying "Israeli rockets also hit two 4th Division Republican Guard battalions."
"There were also claims that rockets were fired on or close to Mount Qassioun, one of Bashar Assad's presidential palaces and the site of command posts and arsenals overlooking the capital."
"The BBC's Arab sources add that Hizballah forces stationed in Damascus were also targeted."
Earlier, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah denied sending fighters to Syria. He said party members may be acting individually.
He added that around 30,000 Shitte Lebanese inhabit 22 Syrian villages. Volunteers defend them against terrorist attacks.
On May 4, Hezbollah official Ibrahim Amin Sayyed said:
"Hezbollah is ready to prevent Syria falling under the control of Tel Aviv and Washington."
"This is a strategy and not an intervention in the Syria crisis. It is an intervention in the conflict against America and Israel."
He added that Hezbollah's involvement in Syria is "political and strategic." It's to "support the people in their demands to reach a situation that preserves their dignity and freedom and ensures their participation in political life."
Days earlier, Nasrallah said his fighters were defending Lebanese citizens in Syrian border villages. He suggested that Iran, Russia, and unidentified "resistance groups" would act to prevent Assad's ouster.
Longstanding US/Israeli policy prioritizes regional destabilization and conflict. At issue is replacing independent governments in Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon with pro-Western puppets.
Doing so would achieve joint Washington/Israeli control. Iraqi and Libyan puppet regimes were installed. Replicating them in Syria, Iran, and Lebanon is planned.
Syria's being ravaged to do it. Iran and Lebanon may follow. Countless more lives may be lost. America and Israel don't do body counts. Their pockmarked histories claimed millions.
Many more die daily. Survivors endure appalling misery. It's hard imagining how much worse things can get. Expect it. It's planned. It's coming. Unchallenged dominance alone matters. Human suffering is a small price to pay.
Israel's attacks were lawless. They're clear provocations. They appear designed to get Syria to retaliate. Doing so would give Washington-led NATO pretext to intervene. Pentagon plans were prepared long ago.
A previous article said hindsight may show Israel's attacks preceded full-scale intervention. It may happen if Syria doesn't retaliate.
Proxy Western fighters are no match against Assad's military superiority. Nor were anti-Gaddafi insurgents in Libya.
Air power turned the tide. Expect similar tactics ahead against Syria. They'll begin as soon as Obama signs off. It could happen any time.
Israel's very much involved. It's a NATO partner country. It's a Mediterranean Dialogue member. It's practically a full-fledged one. It's covertly and overtly involved.
It's part of Washington's regional strategy. It's own prioritizes eliminating all regional rivals.
Both countries wage war on humanity. Syrians are in the crosshairs of their ruthlessness. Hundreds of thousands more may die before conflict ends.
Another country is being systematically ravaged and destroyed. It won't be the last one. Obama, Netanyahu, and rogue NATO partners have lots more death and destruction in mind. Rogue states operate that way.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/america-and-israel-imperial-partners-in-crime-part-ii/

Google Recognizes Palestinian Statehood

sjlendman.blogspot.com - Mon, 06/05/2013 - 17:45

Google Recognizes Palestinian Statehood
by Stephen Lendman
On May 1, Google recognized Palestine. It did so on its homepage. Earlier it referred to "The Palestinian Territories." More on that below.
On January 4, Abbas' presidential decree acknowledged the State of Palestine. It followed gaining UN nonmember observer status.
"All Palestinian stamps, signs and official letterhead will henceforth be changed to bear the new name."
Acknowledging Palestinian statehood stopped short of governing responsibly. Abbas is a longtime Israeli collaborator. It took him 24 years to accept what his silence rejects.
He should have done it long ago. The State of Palestine exists. On November 15, 1988 it was proclaimed in Algiers. Abbas knows. He didn't say. He governs like a subservient Israeli satrap. He disgraces himself in the process.
Previous articles explained Palestinian self-determination. In November 1988, the PLO adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.
All UN Charter states (including America and Israel) provisionally recognized Palestinian independence. They did so in accordance with UN Charter article 80(1) and League Covenant article 22(4).
Palestine satisfies all essential criteria for sovereign independence. It qualifies for full de jure UN membership. It's easily gotten. It's long overdue.
Palestinians are denied it. Abbas didn't seek it. He never explained why not. His longstanding collaboration with Israel tells all.
He promised to sign and ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He hasn't done it.
Doing so permits suing Israeli officials for crimes of war, against humanity, genocide and naked aggression.
Illegal settlements, outposts, Gaza's siege, the Separation Wall, and other lawless practices can be challenged.
Palestine can join the Statute for the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The State of Israel can be sued on the above charges and others.
Palestine can join the Law of the Sea Convention. Doing so establishes sovereignty over its territorial waters. They contain significant gas reserves.
Estimates range up to a trillion cubic feet or more. Where there's gas, there's oil. Offshore resources belong to Palestine, not Israel.
Palestine can become a High Contracting Party to the Four Geneva Conventions. They deal with laws of war and accountability.
Palestine can join the International Civil Aviation Organization. Doing so affords control of its own airspace.
Palestine can join the International Telecommunications Union. With it comes sovereign control over its airwaves, phone lines, and bandwidth.
Sovereign states have many rights. Palestine's new status affords all of the above. They don't matter if not invoked.
Expect little from Abbas ahead. He's Israel's enforcer. He's nearing retirement. He betrayed his people for years. He won't change things now. Palestinians deserve much better. They won't get it with him around. He governs illegitimately.
On October 28, 1974, the Seventh Arab League Summit Conference Resolution on Palestine designated the PLO as "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."
Numerous General Assembly resolutions affirmed it. Palestine's Provisional Government is the PLO Executive Committee. Under international law, the PA has no authorization to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. Abbas does it anyway.
Last November, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade Palestine. It did so to nonmember observer status. Only nine countries voted no.
They included Israel, America, Canada, the Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Panama.
Better late than never. On May 1, Google noticed. It recognized Palestine. Spokesman Nathan Tyler said:
"We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products."
"We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries."
"In this case, we are following the lead of the UN and other international organizations."
Recognition's posted on www.google.ps. Below Google's familiar logo, Palestine's in small letters.
On May 3, London's Daily Mail headlined "Who needs the UN? Google turns 'Palestine' into a state by changing its name on homepage."
London's Guardian headlined "Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel - Google."
The UN, EU, and Red Cross still refer to "Occupied Palestinian Territories." America marches in lockstep with Israel. It does so shamelessly.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "Google is not a diplomatic entity which begs the question why they are getting involved in international politics and on the controversial side."
America's Constitution affirms free expression. Google's free to say what it wishes. Everyone has the same right. Israel has no constitution.
It's the only nation without fixed borders. Acquiring them by wars or other extrajudicial means violates fundamental rule of law principles. Israel does so repeatedly. It's yet to be held accountable. It's high that changed.
It lawlessly occupies Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territory. It does so because world leaders able to stop it do nothing.
No US president ever challenged what demands condemnation. Failure reveals America's true character.
Both nations are imperial partners. Palestine's statehood doesn't matter. Israel and Washington afford it no rights. Occupation denies freedom.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/google-recognizes-palestinian-statehood/

Solar Plane's Pilot Describes 'Revolutionary' Flight

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:33

Nearly 15 years after he completed the first non-stop balloon trip around the world, Bertrand Piccard has not lost his appetite for adventure. The Swiss explorer embarked on the first leg of a coast-to-coast flight across the United States today (May 3) in a solar-powered airplane that can fly day or night without using any fuel.

The plane, called Solar Impulse, is on the first stretch of a months-long journey that will take it from California to New York as part of a campaign to promote solar technology and renewable energy.

Piccard departed from Moffett Airfield in Mountain View, Calif., this morning at 9:12 a.m. EDT (6:12 a.m. PDT). The Solar Impulse plane, which has a cruising speed of about 53 mph (85 km/h), is expected to land at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday (May 4) at 4:00 a.m. EDT (1:00 a.m. PDT), after 19 hours in the air. [Images: Cross-Country Flight in a Solar-Powered Plane]

For Piccard, being able to make the cross-country flight with zero fuel has been a decade-long dream.

"We want to promote the clean technologies that are so important for our world," Piccard told LiveScience from the cockpit of Solar Impulse, as the plane flew over Fresno, Calif., at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,650 meters). "This is an exciting vision."

An airplane powered by the sun

As it flies, the ultra-lightweight aircraft collects energy from its solar panels, which span the full length of the plane's wings. This energy is also stored in onboard batteries, which enable the plane to fly during cloudier conditions, as well as through the night.

Since the plane is so light, Piccard said it is extra sensitive, which requires him to maintain tight control of the aircraft throughout the flight.

Still, Piccard said flying for 19 hours straight is not as challenging as it may sound, and the aircraft can actually endure much longer flights.

"Theoretically, you can fly forever with the airplane," Piccard said. "But, of course, the pilot has no way to rest — no toilets, no autopilot — which means when the pilot is too tired, after 20 or 24 hours, it is safer to land."

Piccard and Solar Impulse co-founder André Borschberg will alternate piloting the single-seater plane on its cross-country trip. The journey has been broken down into five legs, with stops in Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and wrapping up in New York City.

Each leg of the Solar Impulse expedition will be streamed live, with a video feed that includes information on the airplane's position, altitude and speed, as well as camera views from inside the cockpit and from Solar Impulse's mission control center in Switzerland. [WATCH LIVE: Streaming Video of the Solar Impulse Flight]

For Piccard, the inspiration for Solar Impulse came to him shortly after he circumnavigated the globe in 1999 in a gas-powered balloon. To complete that record-setting trip, he had to burn roughly 3.7 tons of liquid propane.

"I promised the next [time] I would fly around the world, or across the country, it would be with no fuel at all," Piccard said.

Spreading the message

Solar Impulse's cross-country trip is part of an initiative called "Clean Generation," which aims to promote clean technology efforts around the world. The program already has several high-profile backers, including Hollywood director James Cameron, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, environmentalist and former U.S. Vice president Al Gore, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson.

The goal, however, is to increase support for the initiative throughout Solar Impulse's coast-to-coast flight. People can sign up on the Solar Impulse website to join the movement, and the names of all supporters are being carried on the plane as virtual passengers on a USB drive.

Piccard hopes to add more and more names to the list at each stopover city on Solar Impulse's cross-country trip.

"When we take off from Phoenix to Dallas, I hope we will have even more people," he said.

While Piccard said the technology is not advanced enough yet for commercial flights in the near future, Solar Impulse's cross-country jaunt demonstrates the enormous potential for using solar technology (and other renewable energy sources) in other aspects of our everyday lives, such as powering office buildings or homes.

As Piccard flew south over California, he marveled at the views of mountains and farmlands outside his cockpit window. And even with roughly 12 hours of flying time still ahead of him, he expects the experience will remain exhilarating.

"It's never boring, because it's the most revolutionary airplane that exists — an airplane that flies day or night with no fuel," Piccard said. "It's a privilege to fly it."

Categories: altnews sister sites

Crowdfunding Puts Spark of Life in Tesla's Old Lab

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:32

The old, neglected lab of Nikola Tesla, arguably the closest real-world example of the archetype of the brilliant but eccentric scientist, has been purchased by a non-profit group, with the aim turning it into a museum and science learning center.

Tesla patented the logic gate (which makes modern computing possible) in 1898, and pioneered both the alternating current that ferries electricity over long distances and into our homes, and radio technology, which gives us not only Top 40 and talk, but also WiFi.

On the darker side, he thought it was possible to control the weather, and attempted to build a particle beam weapon he said would be able to destroy fleets of airplanes from hundreds of miles away and “cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.”

Despite his more frightening ideas, his concepts and inventions have made huge contributions to our everyday lives. Yet his legacy has been overshadowed by rivals like Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi.

Edison’s laboratory and residence in West Orange, N.J., has been preserved as a museum and a national historic park for half a century. Meanwhile, Tesla’s Wardenclyffe lab on Long Island sits empty, unsecured, and in need of repair.

But the fortune of Tesla’s lab, and perhaps his legacy, are seemingly about to change. A nonprofit group, Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, which has been attempting to save the site for the past 17 years, raised $1.37 million in 2012 with the help of crowdfunding site Indiegog.com and popular Internet cartoonist and author Matthew Inman.

Yesterday (May 2), at a news conference held at the New Yorker Hotel, where Tesla lived the last decade of his life (and where he died, alone and in debt), the Tesla Science Center announced that they had purchased the Wardenclyffe site.

Jane Alcorn, president of the group, told attendees that the 16-acre laboratory site had been purchased from New Jersey-based Agfa Corp. for an undisclosed sum. [Read also: 10 Inventions That Were Ahead of Their Time]

The event also honored several donors to the crowdfunding campaign that made the purchase possible, as well as friends of the organization who have worked to save the site and buoy Tesla’s legacy over the past two decades.

But while the purchase of Wardenclyffe is done, don’t expect the group’s planned museum and science center to open its doors any time soon.

“Over the next months and years,” Alcorn said at the news conference, “we will be doing whatever we can to clean up the property, restore the laboratory, and begin to make a science learning center and museum worthy of Tesla and his legacy.”

The first step, Alcorn told TechNewsDaily, is to secure the property, which has been vandalized recently. After that, the group will need to secure more funding.

“Obviously we’ll need many millions more, not just the $1.37 million [already raised],” said Alcorn, “but amounts significantly larger than that to create the museum and science center.”

Alcorn says the planning process has already begun “to a certain degree,” but that no designers or architects have been hired yet. However, site planning seems to be on the group’s short-term agenda. Alcorn says that’s how the project’s budget will be set. “Depending on what we decide we need to do, then we’ll know how much money we need to raise,” he said.

One obvious restoration idea would be to rebuild Tesla’s iconic, 187-foot wireless transmission tower. It stood on the site from 1901 until 1917, when it was destroyed by order of the U.S. government, for fear it was being used by German spies.

Alcorn says a scaled-down replica tower may be a possibility, but a full-size replacement is unlikely, especially on the exact site of the original. She said the tower’s foundation area is extremely deteriorated and has been cemented and capped due to environmental concerns.

She speculated that a tower could be built somewhere else on the property, but that it’s not a priority because the group would need to raise millions more to build it, and that zoning would likely be another major difficulty.

Still, with the optimism that comes after raising more than a million dollars in a viral fundraising campaign and fulfilling a 17-year goal to save Tesla’s lab from ruin, Alcorn and her organization don’t seem willing to rule anything out.

“One never knows what the future will bring,” Alcorn said. “I won’t say never. I just have to say not now.”

Categories: altnews sister sites

Google Glass Highlights Gender Issues in Tech World

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:32

Take a look at the marketing videos for Google's Glass and you'll notice a diverse group of people are wearing the digital glasses. But a new website has popped up that highlights that the first group of people wearing them might not exactly be so heterogeneous.

A new Tumblr website, White Men Wearing Google Glass, features a number of pictures of, yes, white men wearing the glasses. "In its favour, if Google Glass didn't exist, all these Silicon Valley guys would be having affairs or buying unsuitable motorbikes," the tagline of the blog reads.

The site, which is run by an anonymous author, has been shared thousands of times in the last few days on Twitter.

When reached by ABC News, Google would not comment on the ratio of male to female Google Glass explorers, which is the group of people who applied to test the first round of the product.

Google has begun testing an Explorer Edition of the glasses, which overlay digital information in the world, in the last few weeks with select application developers and early adopters. Yes, one of the men even tested them in the shower.

RELATED: Google Glass: What It Can and Can't Do

"Glass is designed by and for people from all walks of life and we hope everyone will have a chance to enjoy it down the road. Our next step is to make Glass available to participants of our #ifihadglass initiative, which was designed to bring a diverse group of people into the Explorer program," Google said in a statement.

The #ifihadglass initiative opened up Glass availability to the public. The current wave of glasses are being given to those who signed up at the Google I/O developer conference last year when the glasses were first previewed. However, the #ifihadglass contest, which was launched this year, allowed anyone to submit their ideas of what they would do with the glasses.

But while Google might not be firing back at the Tumblr, another group is - women. In response to the original site, a new Tumblr called Women with Glass has popped up. The site was started by Christina Warren, a senior writer at Mashable.com, and a few other female technology journalists who have been testing Glass.

"I thought, 'Why do we not have a women-with-Glass Tumblr? We aren't unicorns!'" Warren told ABC News.

Warren admitted there are "considerably less women" Explorers, mostly because there are fewer female software developers.

"Most of the first females to have this are journalists," Warren said. "Other than those at Google proper, there doesn't seem to be that many female developers who have the Explorer Edition.

The underrepresentation of women in the tech world, especially the world of software developers and coders, is, of course, nothing new - though there has been a great effort to change that. Groups like Girls Who Code and Change the Ratio have formed with the goals of recruiting and supporting more females in the technology world. In fact, Google will be holding a women in technology gathering at its upcoming Google I/O conference.

"When you are talking about developers, you are looking at a more lopsided gender ratio," Rachel Sklar, the founder of Change the Ratio, told ABC News. "It highlights what we already know is an issue, which is that we have a very homogenous class of people with access to next-gen technology."

But while it might not be the norm, there are some female software developers out there not only wearing Glass but making apps for it. Macy Kuang, 25, ordered her pair last year at Google I/O and received them last week.

"I started working on a bike-sharing app last night. I want to be able to use them to find where a nearby bike station is," Kuang told ABC News. "I don't have any plans to make other apps, but there are a lot of possibilities."

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Wall Street analysts remains bullish on LinkedIn, investors not so sure

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:31

Wall Street took a long-tem view on LinkedIn Corp's prospects on Friday, with at least six brokerages raising their price targets despite the company's slower-than-expected shift to a marketing model based on selling ads on news feeds.

LinkedIn on Thursday forecast a weaker-than-expected current quarter, even after first-quarter results blew past estimates.

The company's shares were down about 8 percent in early trading after company executives suggested that a revamped mobile app and other new products designed to keep smartphone users engaged would not deliver on advertising growth as quickly as anticipated.

However, analysts said the disappointing news had not changed the strong fundamentals of the social network for professionals.

"...We found nothing thesis-changing in the quarter and would encourage investment on the 10 percent after hours pull-back," Evercore Partners analysts Ken Sena and Andrew McNellis wrote in a research note.

Evercore maintained its "overweight" rating and $210 price target on the stock, which closed at $201.67 on Thursday, while lowering its estimate for revenue from marketing by $85 million for the year.

LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions unit contributed $74.8 million to overall revenue in the first quarter, or about 23 percent of the total.

J.P.Morgan, BMO Capital Markets, Northland Capital, Cantor Fitzgerald, Wedbush Securities and Canaccord Genuity all raised their price targets on the stock, by as much as $50. There were no target cuts among brokerages tracked by Thomson Reuters.

Analysts said the marketing shift aside, LinkedIn was poised for further growth due to recurring subscription revenue streams, vast addressable markets and attractive margins.

LinkedIn has introduced a series of enhancements recently, including news content for mobile devices.

But its mobile-oriented "newsfeed" ads -- or promotions that appear directly in a users' stream of content -- remain in testing and will only be introduced gradually.

"Given the success of Facebook's sponsored content program, we expect a rapid ramp in Marketing Solutions revenue," Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice said, referring to the LinkedIn's advertising strategy. "Unfortunately, the rollout will be gradual, which should result in slower Marketing Solutions growth for the balance of 2013."

As consumers shift away from PCs, companies such as LinkedIn, Facebook Inc and Google Inc are stepping up efforts to better reach mobile users. More than a quarter of LinkedIn's Web traffic now comes from its mobile app.

And LinkedIn is ahead of the game in distinguishing between tablets and smartphones, creating different strategies for each, BMO Capital Markets analysts said.

As of Thursday's close, LinkIn's stock was trading at roughly 118 times estimated 2013 earnings per share.

The average price-earnings ratio for the sector is about 19, according to StarMine.

LinkedIn shares gained about 76 percent this year up to Thursday's close.

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BlackBerry Q10 sells strongly in Canada, Britain: analyst

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:30

BlackBerry's new Q10 smartphone, which comes with the physical keyboard that many BlackBerry fans prize, is selling well in both Canada and Britain, an industry analyst said on Friday.

The company introduced the Q10, its second smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, in Canada and Britain this week.

"Our checks indicate broad sellouts with generally limited stock otherwise," Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said in a note to clients on Friday. "Based on our store checks, the BlackBerry Q10 has been selling extremely well and has been sold out or seeing limited availability in Toronto and across the U.K."

Jefferies, which has a "buy" rating on shares of BlackBerry, said its findings were based on checks with top mobile carriers and retailers in both countries, including Bell, Rogers and Telus in Canada, and Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone, and Orange in Britain.

BlackBerry hopes its new line of smartphones, led by the touchscreen Z10 device it introduced earlier this year, will help claw back market share lost to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co's wildly popular line of Galaxy devices, which are powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.

Shares of BlackBerry were up 2.2 percent at $16.04 in early trading in the United States on Friday, while its Toronto-listed shares were up 2.8 percent at C$16.21.

PENTAGON CLEARANCE

The Jefferies report came a day after the Pentagon gave the BlackBerry 10 devices, along with Samsung's mobile devices, security clearance for use on U.S. defense department networks.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it also plans to clear Apple mobile devices that use the iOS 6 system at some point in early May.

The move is expected to set the stage for a tough fight over defense department orders among Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry. BlackBerry devices have so far dominated the segment.

The Pentagon said its move to open up its networks to a broad array of mobile devices is part of an effort to ensure the military has access to the latest communications technology without locking itself in to a particular equipment vendor.

That said, the Pentagon's stamp of approval was crucial for BlackBerry as it makes it easier for the company to market the devices to other security-conscious government, legal and financial industry clients.

Last week, international law firm Clifford Chance announced that it would roll out roughly 1,600 BlackBerry 10 smartphones to its employees.

Earlier in April, Canadian Tire Corp, which owns a wide range of retail outlets across Canada, said it planned to roll out the new BlackBerry devices to its corporate team across the country.

SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry reiterated on Thursday that it plans soon to extend its security capabilities to devices powered by both Apple's iOS software and Google's market-leading Android software.

BlackBerry said in March it planned to offer a service that will separate and secure work and personal data on iOS and Android. The offering is an attempt to encourage large government and corporate customers to continue to use BlackBerry's services to manage mobile devices on their networks at a time when a growing number of people seek to use their personal devices on corporate networks.

The company said testing of the new offering, dubbed "Secure Work Space", has already started and that it will be generally available by the end of June.

The service, powered by the company's mobile device management (MDM) tool BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10), will help secure data stored on devices as well as data that is being transmitted to a device.

Misek said he believes that BlackBerry's device management offering is under appreciated and that BES 10 is being widely tested by corporations.

"We think BlackBerry's MDM software will gain traction throughout this year and see a significant ramp in revenues next year," Misek said in his note to clients.

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Run silent, run deep: The life of Brian Krzanich at Intel

altnews.asia - Sun, 05/05/2013 - 19:30

It took him 30 years, but Brian Krzanich - the understated, analytical engineer who started his career at an Intel chip factory in New Mexico - quietly worked his way up to the top. Now, the man who once prided himself on halving production times will have to act swiftly to move the company into new areas of growth.

Krzanich will take over as chief executive beginning on May 16 at the annual shareholder meeting, replacing Paul Otellini, who in November unexpectedly announced his plan to retire. Under Otellini, Intel has been sidelined in smartphones and tablets while demand for its PC processors is on the wane.

To turn around the $53 billion-a-year empire, Krzanich will have to depend on trusted lieutenants, something he shouldn't have a problem doing, say former employees, analysts and industry executives who have worked with him.

In 2010, Krzanich was on the brink of a weighty decision: whether to break with tradition and open up Intel's top-secret manufacturing facilities and make chips for other companies. He called a teleconference of 8-10 key people - executives from marketing, investor relations and sales among them - and began firing off questions.

He wanted to know if going ahead with the manufacturing deal could create any potential problems for other areas within Intel, like upsetting major customers or creating misunderstandings on Wall Street about Intel's core strategies.

"His job was to say, Can we do it economically and make money in our factory? But he was really good about making sure the supply-chain guys, the marketing guys, everyone kind of understood the impact of (the potential deal)," one of the people on the conference call told Reuters.

In less than an hour, he took a decision that would pave the way toward a new business for Intel: Achronix became its first foundry customer. This past February, Altera Corp became its first major client for the business, and industry insiders believe it could eventually reach a similar deal with Apple.

At a company known in Silicon Valley for its insular culture, Krzanich went largely unnoticed by investors and media even as he rose through the ranks to senior positions. Two former longtime employees said that when they left Intel less than a decade ago, they had never even heard of Krzanich, though he was then in charge of the company's assembly and test facilities.

The new CEO is a mystery even to some of the best-connected of the chip industry elite. Paul Jacobs, CEO of No. 2 U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, said on Thursday he looked forward to meeting Krzanich.

The San Jose State University graduate, who declined to comment for this story, has an engaged but quiet management style, although an employee said engineers who miss their deadlines or targets tend not to stay in positions of responsibility.

When Krzanich was promoted to chief operating officer last year, Intel pushed him into the public spotlight, exposing him a little more to the media. Given a choice between speaking to an investor or a reporter, Krzanich will choose the investor every time, another Intel employee who knows him well said.

As recently as a few years ago he was known to drive just an ordinary car, and in January arrived at an investor meeting in Las Vegas wearing work boots. One of the former Intel employees described Krzanich as the worst-dressed guy in a meeting, "but in a good way."

"He doesn't worry too much about the impression he leaves with you. But you pay attention to what he has to say," said RBC analyst Doug Freedman.

FACTORIES STILL THE FOCUS

Intel's strength has traditionally come from its manufacturing prowess, and Krzanich's promotion is seen as confirmation by the board that the company's multibillion-dollar network of cutting-edge factories still holds the key to success.

People who have dealt with "B.K.," his handle inside the company, describe him as well aware of own limitations outside of manufacturing, like dealing with customers, but willing to consult with trusted others and make quick decisions based on their recommendations.

Perhaps for that reason, Intel Chairman Andy Bryant on Thursday stressed that the new CEO will work closely with new president and former software honcho, Renee James, and team up to push new markets, including smartphones and tablets.

After becoming COO, Krzanich told Reuters in a March 2012 interview that he had devoted a couple of years to learning to manage the product-design engineers outside of Intel's factories. "Managing them like the factory would be one of the worst things I could do for Intel. They need creativity. It's very different from the factory role."

Krzanich seems to play well with others. He stood out at an offsite executive-training course he attended for several days around a decade ago, according to two consultants who helped organize it.

"When you observed him on the team working with his peers he was a leader, but not because he was a dominating, hard-ass guy. He was a good team player," said Noel Tichy, who is also a business professor at the University of Michigan.

"What Brian brought was a level of depth. He went deep on the data. I remember conversations with him about his analysis, and moving the team through the analytic phase of the work. He had an opportunity to really help shape some of the team's thinking," said consultant Chris DeRose.

Krzanich began his Intel career soon after college at a chip factory in New Mexico in 1982. He acquired responsibility for his first factory, in Chandler, Arizona, in 1996. After running the company's assembly and testing facilities, in 2007 he was put in charge of the global network of factories as well as the chipmaker's supply chain. His promotion to COO in January last year added human resources and IT to his responsibilities.

CEOs Mark Durcan of Micron Technology and Mike Splinter of Applied Materials on Thursday lauded Krzanich for his profound knowledge of the industry.

One reservation was voiced by Henri Richard, senior vice president of commercial sales at SanDisk and a former executive of Intel rival AMD. Making changes to long-held Intel practices, he said, may be one of Krzanich's biggest challenges because of loyalty to the old guard.

"He's going to fall in the category of 'not a bad choice'," said Richard, who has never met Krzanich. "But I think the market had appetite for the implied bigger change that would have come with an external CEO."

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