Topic: War and Peace - on January 26, 2012 at 10:12:00 AM CET
Reporters Without Borders international press freedom index
“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world,” Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index. “Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.
“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.
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Topic: PHOTO - on January 26, 2012 at 10:03:00 AM CET
Insane English copyright ruling creates ownership in the idea of a photo's composition
In a bizarre ruling, an English court has ruled that in favor of a commercial poster company that argued that a photo that showed a similar (but different) scene taken by a different person in a different place nevertheless infringed the copyright of a poster. What the judge ruled was that photographing a scene that is "substantially similar" to a scene someone else has already photographed infringes the first shooter's copyright.
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Topic: WEB - on January 26, 2012 at 8:36:00 AM CET
Österreich unterzeichnet ACTA - heute
Das umstrittene Anti-Piraterieabkommen ACTA wird von Österreich am Donnerstag in Tokio vom österreichischen Botschafter in Japan unterzeichnet. Das bestätigte ein Sprecher des Außenministeriums am Mittwoch der futurezone. Der Ministerrat hatte das Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), das in den vergangenen Jahren weitgehend unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit zwischen 39 Staaten ausgehandelt wurde, bereits am Dienstag beschlossen. Durch den EU-Rat ging der Pakt bereits Mitte Dezember.
In Tokio werde das Abkommen deshalb unterzeichnet, weil Japan der Depositarstaat sei, wo Dokumente zu dem Pakt hinterlegt werden, so der Ministeriumssprecher. Das Abkommen muss noch vom österreichischen Parlament und vom EU-Parlament beschlossen werden, das den Pakt noch kippen kann.
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Topic: MUSIK - on January 26, 2012 at 8:02:00 AM CET
Chemical Brothers – the movie: do not adjust your eyeballs
The Chemical Brothers' famously psychedelic live act has finally been captured in film – with flying cutlery and clowns.
Adam Smith is the first to admit that his debut feature film is not the easiest sell in the history of cinema. "There's no real narrative strand," says the director. "It's 85 minutes long, it's got paintballs exploding – and clowns. I was saying to someone the other day, 'You'd never commission it, would you?'" He laughs. "It sounds rubbish, you know?"
Seated across the table from Smith in a west London pub, Tom Rowlands, one half of the Chemical Brothers, frowns. "There is," he says heavily, "some music in it is as well." But even taking into account the film's subject matter – the Chemical Brothers headlining Fuji Rock festival in Niigata, Japan, last year – Don't Think still seems on the face of it an unlikely candidate for cinematic glory. "It's quite a singular experience," admits Rowlands. "It's an hour and a half of …" He searches for the right word to describe the ferocious electronic psychedelia of the duo's live set. "Bosh," he decides, adding that the film has no scene-setting introduction, "just a load of cutlery falling in slow motion."
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Topic: nuclear power - on January 25, 2012 at 8:59:00 PM CET
Tepco: Radiation levels from Fukushima increasing — Now releasing 70,000,000 Bq/hr
Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> on Monday reported an increase in radioactive materials leaking from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. The total amount of radioactive cesium that leaked from the containment vessels of the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors reached 70 million becquerels per hour, up 12 million becquerels from the December level, the power firm said.
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Topic: WEB - on January 25, 2012 at 8:53:00 PM CET
Forget SOPA, Europe is about to ratify its bigger brother ACTA
Just as the SOPA and PIPA debate winds down in the US, the European Union is later this week set to work on ratifying a global intellectual property enforcement treaty: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
European countries, including Ireland, will later this week join the US, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Canada in supporting ACTA
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Topic: WEB - on January 25, 2012 at 12:45:00 PM CET
ACTA: "Friedlicher Protest statt Attacken"
In der Nacht auf Dienstag hat AnonymousAustria aus Protest gegen das Anti-Piraterieabkommen ACTA mit Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS)-Attacken diverse österreichische Regierungswebsites lahm gelegt. Doch was können derartige Angriffe bewirken? Michael Bauer vom Verein für Internetbenutzer Österreichs (vibe!at) hält DDoS-Attacken "für ein schlechtes Mittel des Online-Protests" und setzt sich stattdessen für friedliche Aktionen ein.
"Wir stehen ACTA ablehnend gegenüber, weil es hinter verschlossenen Türen verhandelt wurde und es weit über ein gewöhnliches Abkommen hinaus geht. Wir rufen dazu auf, vielfältige Protestaktionen zu setzen", erklärte Michael Bauer vom Verein für Internetbenutzer Österreichs (vibe!at) gegenüber der futurezone. DoS-Attacken gehören allerdings nicht zu den Mitteln, die der Verein für adäquat hält. Bei derartigen Attacken werden Server gezielt mit Anfragen bombardiert, bis diese wegen Überlastung zusammenbrechen oder nur noch langsam funktionieren.
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Topic: WEB - on January 25, 2012 at 12:43:00 PM CET
Ask Slashdot: Choosing Anonymous Proxies?
There are lots of anonymous proxies out there, and anyone concerned about their privacy probably uses one for at least some of their web browsing. The Megaupload story highlights the fact that having servers in the USA is not a great idea. There are also other countries one may not want to trust. Oddly, very few proxy services mention where their equipment is located. What anonymous proxy services do you use? What criteria do you use to select them? How paranoid are you, and for what types of Internet usage?
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Topic: DRUGS - on January 25, 2012 at 12:36:00 PM CET
A Rare Look Inside a Commercial Medical Marijuana Growing Operation
Recently, I was allowed access to a marijuana growing operation in Oakland, California and had full access to photograph it. My tour guide, a commercial medical cannabis grower, let me take as many images as I liked as long as the operation’s details were un-identifiable (foremost, a concern of safety). As harvest time was near, I was lucky to be able to capture a few of the cannabis plants at their peak.
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Topic: DRUGS - on January 25, 2012 at 12:33:00 PM CET
Cannabis: Legalisierung ist überfällig und macht Prävention erst möglich
Zur Forderung der Linken nach Einführung von Cannabis-Clubs erklärt Harald Terpe, Sprecher für Sucht- und Drogenpolitik:
Das Verbot von Cannabis ist gescheitert, die Legalisierung ist überfällig. Dieser Befund ist nicht neu, dennoch kommt die deutsche Debatte um Cannabis seit Jahren keinen Millimeter voran. Dies liegt vor allem daran, dass die Befürworter des Verbots sich in ihren ideologischen Gräben verschanzt haben und kaum Bereitschaft zeigen, sich mit den Realitäten abzufinden. Cannabis ist trotz des Verbots eine Alltagsdroge wie Alkohol oder Tabak. Zwischen zwei und vier Millionen Menschen konsumieren Cannabis gelegentlich oder regelmäßig. Die wenigsten von ihnen sind abhängig.
Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Mayer: Verbot von Cannabis-Clubs beibehalten Kiffer-Clubs? Nein danke!
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 25, 2012 at 12:31:00 PM CET
Gingrich Threatens to Skip Debates if Audiences Can’t Participate
Newt Gingrich insists his fans will not be silenced.
Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, on Tuesday morning threatened not participate in any future debates with audiences that have been instructed to be silent. That was the case on Monday, when Brian Williams of NBC News asked the audience of about 500 people who assembled for a debate in Tampa to hold their applause until the commercial breaks.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 25, 2012 at 12:30:00 PM CET
In Sweden, Forced Sterilization is Still a Thing
Since 1972, transgendered individuals in Sweden who wish to legally change their sex must first be sterilized. Yes, you read that correctly. Sweden, progressive homeland of Ingmar Bergman and government subsidized everything, has arguably the most aggressively anti-trans policies of any developed nation.
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