Topic: LOST - on January 18, 2012 at 1:45:00 PM CET
10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free
Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.
Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?
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Topic: AUSTRIA - on January 18, 2012 at 1:40:00 PM CET
Hat der digitale Kanzler ausgezwitschert?
Web 2.0. Faymann und Team überlegen, den umstrittenen Twitter-Auftritt einzustellen. Neu sind die „Kanzlervideos“.
Kurz vor dem „Zweimonatigen" - nämlich dem zweimonatigen Schweigen von „teamkanzler" - auf der Internetplattform Twitter verdichten sich die Zeichen, dass das Team um Kanzler Werner Faymann (SPÖ) bald endgültig „ausgezwitschert" hat: Wie die „Presse" erfuhr, überlegt Faymanns Web-2.0-Mann- und -Frauschaft ernsthaft, den Twitter-Auftritt von „teamkanzler" einzustellen.
Ende Oktober 2011 war ein bis zu achtköpfiges Team - das allerdings noch mehrere andere Internet-Projekte Werner Faymanns betreut - bereits mit einigen Mühen auf Twitter gestartet: User und Experten kritisierten heftig, dass Faymann selbst dort gar nicht posten werde, sondern „nur" seine Mitarbeiter, die mit Steuergeld bezahlt werden. Das entspräche nicht einem modernen, flotten Auftritt eines Regierungschefs, um den sich Faymann mit seinen neuen Web-2.0-Aktivitäten von Facebook über Twitter bis zu www.bundeskanzler.at aber bemühen wollte und will.
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Topic: DRUGS - on January 18, 2012 at 12:50:00 PM CET
Liberal Plan to Legalize Pot Would Generate Millions
A Liberal resolution to legalize marijuana at the party's recent policy convention is getting high praise from a number of pro-pot groups, who say the move could make millions of dollars for Ottawa.
Samuel Lavoie, president of the Liberal youth wing, said that coming out in support of marijuana was an intentionally bold move to push discussion forward on the issue.
"We were expanding the debate," Lavoie told CTV's Power Play in Ottawa on Monday.
ctv.ca Hallelujah! Canadians agree it's time to legalize marijuana
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Topic: SEX - on January 18, 2012 at 12:49:00 PM CET
L.A. City Council OKs law requiring condom use by porn performers
The vote marks a significant victory for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been rallying for years to protect the health of porn actors by asking agencies in California to mandate condom use during film shoots.
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Topic: SEX - on January 18, 2012 at 12:47:00 PM CET
Los Angeles - Stadtrat beschließt Kondompflicht für Pornodarsteller
Pornodarsteller in Los Angeles müssen sich nach einer neuen städtischen Vorschrift bei Dreharbeiten mit Kondomen vor sexuell übertragbaren Krankheiten schützen. Mit großer Mehrheit verabschiedete der Stadtrat der kalifornischen Metropole ein entsprechendes Gesetz, berichtete die "Los Angeles Times". "Ich nehme jede Möglichkeit wahr, die Verbreitung von HIV/Aids zu reduzieren", begründete der Stadtverordnete Paul Koretz seine Zustimmung. Der Erlass muss noch vom Bürgermeister unterzeichnet werden.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 18, 2012 at 12:45:00 PM CET
Iran: Morality Police Cracking Down On Barbie Dolls
Iran's morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.
As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear programme, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a "soft war" against decadent cultural influences.
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Topic: COPYRIGHT - on January 18, 2012 at 12:36:00 PM CET
SOPA Resistance Day begins at Ars
Today is SOPA Resistance Day at Ars. Sites across the 'Net, from reddit to the Internet Archive, from Wikipedia to Google, are protesting the excesses of the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA remains a flawed bill that treats piracy as an existential threat to the US economy and to a sacred class of rightsholders—and in doing so loses all perspective on appropriate remedies. The discussion is absolutely unbalanced.
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Topic: COPYRIGHT - on January 18, 2012 at 12:34:00 PM CET
Warnstreik für das freie Internet beginnt
Am Mittwoch sind zahlreiche Websites aus Protest gegen US-Gesetzesvorschläge zur Bekämpfung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen offline gegangen. Damit sollen die möglichen Folgen der geplanten gesetzlichen Maßnahmen aufgezeigt werden. Kritiker fürchten um die Zukunft des freien Internets.
"Warnung an alle Studenten und Schüler: Erledigt eure Hausaufgaben bald. Wikipedia protestiert am Mittwoch gegen ein schlechtes Gesetz", twitterte Wikipedia-Gründer Jimmy Wales. Zuvor kündigte er an, dass die englischsprachige Ausgabe der Online-Enzyklopädie am Mittwoch (in Europa ab 6.00 Uhr morgens) für einen Tag abgeschaltet wird. Damit will Wikipedia gegen zwei Gesetzesinitiativen in den USA protestieren, die drakonische Maßnahmen gegen Urheberrechtsverstöße im Netz vorsehen. Zahlreiche weitere Web-Dienste gehen ebenfalls offline.
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Topic: Green - on January 18, 2012 at 12:31:00 PM CET
Activists and Japanese whalers clash at sea
Three activists says they have cuts and bruises after clashing with a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean.
The incident happened about 300 miles north of Mawson Peninsula off the coast of Antarctica.
Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said whaling crew used grappling hooks and a bamboo pole to strike the activists.
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Topic: DRUGS - on January 18, 2012 at 12:30:00 PM CET
Mexican navy seizes huge haul of precursor chemicals
The Mexican navy says it has seized 195 tonnes of chemicals which can be used to make the drug methamphetamine.
The navy found 12 shipping containers full of the precursor chemical in the Pacific coast port of Lazaro Cardenas.
bbc.co.uk usopenborders.com Decomisan 194 toneladas de precursor químico en Michoacán Incautan más de 194 toneladas de precursores Incautan 194 toneladas de droga en México procedentes de China
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Topic: War and Peace News - on January 18, 2012 at 12:28:00 PM CET
The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare
American fighter jets screamed over the Iraqi countryside heading for the MQ-1 Predator drone, while its crew in California stood by helplessly. What had begun as an ordinary reconnaissance mission was now taking a ruinous turn. In an instant, the jets attacked and then it was all over. The Predator, one of the Air Force’s workhorse hunter/killer robots, had been obliterated.
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Topic: SECURITY - on January 18, 2012 at 12:25:00 PM CET
Hackers Steal $6.7M In Bank Cyber Heist
A perfectly planned and coordinated bank robbery was executed during the first three days of the new year in Johannesburg, and left the targeted South African Postbank — part of the nation's Post Office service — with a loss of some $6.7 million. The cyber gang behind the heist was obviously very well informed about the post office's IT systems, and began preparing the ground for the heist a few months before, by opening accounts in post offices across the country and compromising an employee computer in the Rustenburg Post Office
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