Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes

November 6, 2012 — xanthippa

This is one terrible mess!

‘We are unable to confirm whether or not something fraudulent has occurred, but the story seems to lean towards a malfunction. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Senior Staff Technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, has claimed that it is a miscalibration of the touch screen, though Centralpavote’s personal account directly contradicts that statement, pointing towards a malfunctioning piece of hardware, incorrectly implemented software or, in the worst case scenario, intentional voter fraud.’

Read it and weep:  incompetence or  malice, it does not really alter the fact that with electronic voting, without backup paper ballots, there is no way to verify whether the results the machines are reporting accurately reflect the will of the people.  Where such an accountability vacuum exists, fraud is sure to follow soon – it’s human nature!
Sad, just sad…

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Russian attack submarine sneaks inside the 200 mile territorial limit on the East coast of the USA

November 6, 2012 — xanthippa

This time, it’s no Marko Alexandrovich Ramius trying to defect, either!

From Washington Free Beacon:

‘A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine cruised within 200 miles of the East Coast recently in the latest sign Russia is continuing to flex its naval and aerial power against the United States, defense officials said.

The submarine was identified by its NATO designation as a Russian Seirra-2 class submarine believed to be based with Russia’s Northern Fleet. It was the first time that class of Russian submarine had been detected near a U.S. coast, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of anti-submarine warfare efforts.’

The same article cites something that is potentially even more disturbing:

‘Meanwhile, the officials also said that a Russian electronic intelligence-gathering vessel was granted safe harbor in the commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla., within listening range of Kings Bay.

…

“A Russian AGI [Auxiliary-General Intelligence] and an SSN in the same geographic area as one of the largest U.S. ballistic missile submarine bases—Kings Bay—is reminiscent of Cold War activities of the Soviet navy tracking the movements of our SSBN’s,” said a third U.S. official, referring to the designation for ballistic missile submarines, SSBN.’

It only gets worse:

‘The submarine deployment followed stepped-up Russian nuclear bomber activity near U.S. borders last summer, including the transit of two Bear-H strategic bombers near the Alaska air defense zone during Russian strategic bomber war games in arctic in late June.Then on July 4, in an apparent Fourth of July political message, a Russian Bear-H flew the closest to the U.S. West Coast that a Russian strategic bomber had flown since the Cold War when such flights were routine.

In both incidents, U.S. military spokesmen sought to downplay the threat posed by the air incursions, apparently in response to the Obama administration’s conciliatory “reset” policy of seeking closer ties with Moscow.

U.S. and Canadian interceptor jets were scrambled to meet the Russian bombers during the flights last summer.’

In other words, specifically in response to Obama anemic projection of woosiness power, Putin’s Russia has placed air, surface and underwater military assets within US territorial jurisdiction…all without any response from Obama’s eviscerated military!

No wonder Putin has thrown his support behind Obama in the 2012 election!

Sure, the Bolsheviks are not in power in Russia any longer, but Obama and his Mensheviks are winning the long-term war in America – and dictators like Putin know how to exploit this very weakness!

 

 

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Remember, remember, the 5th of November…

November 5, 2012 — xanthippa

F***king Guy Fawkes day!

(OK – I need to explain the profanity….it’s a reference to an Ed McBain detective story where a transplanted Brit became a New York cop and riles on and on about the ‘f***king Guy Fawkes’.  Now, my hubby and I cannot say ‘Guy Fawkes’ without the preceding expletive…)

Well, since the Anonymous hactivists have adopted the movie ‘Guy Fawkes’ mask as their method of anonymization, ***** Guy Fawkes day has, traditionally, been a special day for them.  A day they call people to action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lB3wHORlehk

Here, in Canada, the government has banned masks from all protests – so that technology with facial recognition may be used to identify even peaceful protesters…

Why?

You should be asking not just yourself, but also your government representatives!

My advice?  If you plan to attend a demonstration of any kind, get a niqab or a burqa:  our governments may feel free to strip the rights away from non-favoured groups, but are too squeamish to strip those same rights away from militant Islamists.  Rather than bitching about it, we ought to use it!

And, you should not be willing to submit to the creep of ever-increasing surveillance.

Yes, we cannot avoid some of it – it has already become extremely pervasive in our society.

But it does not mean that we should not fight back against the creep!

And, creeping it is….

For example, a judge in the US has just ruled that the police do not need a warrant to install surveillance equipment to monitor your private property – even if it is fenced off and ‘no trespassing’ signs are posted all over the place.

And while we all know the tracking capabilities of smart phones and GPS units in vehicles (I’ve had mine physically unplugged, but the newer ones are being installed into the starter, so that the vehicle will not function if the GPS tracking has been disabled), did you know that seemingly innocuous items like asthma inhalers, will soon collect the data on everywhere you’ve been and report it to your MD or any government authority that demands the data?

Because if the data exists, somewhere, somehow, all kinds of government agencies can demand it.  It will always be turned over to them if they get a warrant, but it will also ‘usually’ be turned over to them by the companies (or individuals) who hold the info – and who fear that if they do not co-operate with ‘the authorities’, they will be targeted and put out of business through ‘targeted regulations enforcement’.

Don’t think this is happening?

Think of Buckey-balls!!!

Privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past – governments know more and more about all aspects of our lives.

Don’t like it?

There is nowhere left to run…

Sure, you can do the basic things, like avoid the ‘points’ cards (they are simple tools of profiling and your profile is being sold for profit), pay cash, avoid using anything with a GPS in it, and so on.

Anonymous is taking it a step further – they actively urged everyone to use the occasion of F***cking Guy Fawkes Day to hack the organizations most active in conducting electronic surveillance and profiling.

So, how did it go?

There were protests in front of the British Parliament.

A couple of thousand Anonymous supporters held a demonstration in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Finance Minister (Canada) Jim Flaherty’s personal website was hacked – and downed for several hours.

NBC and Lady Gaga were also hacked.

Zynga and Facebook were bitched at.

Various bits of hacked data, including VMware source code, were publicly posted.

The most evil PayPal was hacked, as well as Symantec and even the Auzzzie government…

If you have a PayPal account (shame on you), you might want to consider changing your password, like, now – as there are reports PayPal account passwords were hacked and leaked.

TrapWire and INDECT were also hacked.

ZDNet has an excellent roundup – including updates and clarifications. (via TechEYE)

Sounds like a lot of hactivists were busy little beavers today!

 

 

 

 

 

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The Reference Frame: EU bureaucrats’ new strategy to close Czech nuclear power plant

October 3, 2012 — xanthippa

This really should not surprise me, but the EU bureaucracy is rising to new ‘Randian’ heights!

Here is the short version of the story:  the Czech republic is good at producing electicity.  In addition to hydro dams and other sources, it has invested heavily into nuclear power plants – over many decades, so that 1/3 to 1/2 of their electricity comes from nuclear power plants.  The Czech energy policy has been so successful that now, green-invested Germany buys much of its electricity from the Czechs.

While some of the Czech nuclear power plants are brand-spanking new, some are older and pre-date Czech’s entry into the EU.  These older plants use uranium fuel enriched in Russia.

So far, so good.

Then, Czrch became a member of EU.

Still OK.

Except that now, the EU bureaucrats came and told the Czechs they will have to shut down the power plant(s) that use Russian enriched uranium, because there is a pre-existing EU regulation that only EU enriched uranium may be used in EU nuclear power plants…

From TheReferenceFrame (note:  Temelin and Duchovany are Czech nuclear power plants):

‘Temelín – with its combined Russian-American design – was opened after the fall of communism, in 2002 (although the construction began in 1981), and it was a frequent target of attacks by the Austrian Luddite activists. However, Dukovany (constructed started 1974, opened in 1985-1987) which has apparently invited almost no opposition just came under a vicious assault by the EU bureaucrats.

…

We are learning that the Europeans are not allowed to buy uranium enriched outside of the EU due to some strange paragraph agreed upon at the 1994 EU Corfu Summit (island in Greece). Holy cow. How many shocking ghosts of this magnitude does the EU have? We weren’t members of the EU at that time and the citizens who were deciding about our EU membership in a referendum were not told that “Yes” could mean that some stunning assholes could get a weapon to close our nuclear power plants because of some silly sentence okayed by some drunk and corrupt jerks at an island belonging to a country that shouldn’t have been in the EU at all. If this information were the case, I would consider the referendum to be fraudulent.’

Read it and weep…

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A New Species Discovered – on Flickr…

August 11, 2012 — xanthippa

An entomologist was looking at some bug pictures on Flickr – and realized that he was looking at a previously unclassified species!

‘The new species was dubbed Semachrysa jade — not after its pale green color, but after Winterton’s daughter. It was introduced to the world in the latest issue of ZooKeys, a scientific journal focused on biodiversity. In keeping with the digital nature of their discovery, Winterton, Guek and Brooks wrote the paper from three different continents using a Google document.

The moral of the story? The world is full of potential naturalists, Winterton says. More and more people using high-quality cameras that capture the kind of detail scientists need for identification, and they are sharing these photos online.’

 

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RIM lays down for the Indian government

August 3, 2012 — xanthippa

Once upon a time, RIM, the maker of Blackberry, was known for excellent security in communications.

So much so that unscrupulous governments sought to ban it – lest they not be able to spy on their citizens.

Now, RIM seems to have rolled over and decided to let governments trample over its users’ civil liberties:

‘RIM recently demonstrated a solution developed by a firm called Verint that can intercept messages and emails exchanged between BlackBerry handsets, and make these encrypted communications available in a readable format to Indian security agencies, according to an exchange of communications between the Canadian company and the Indian government.’

 

RIM had originally built its reputation – and marketshare – based on the security the encryption it put all messages through provided.  Its encryption was so secure, governments that would like to monitor their citizens’ communication threatened to shut them out of their marketplace.

Hence the flop.

Without this enhanced security, however, there is little to elevate their product over cheaper or ‘sexier’ smart phones.

This, therefore, is a serious gamble on the part of RIM:  will access to the Indian market permit them to grow, or will this latest corruption of the security of its communications be the last nail in their coffin?

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Iranian scientists under investigation for copyright infringement

July 25, 2012 — xanthippa

Copyright infringement is no laughing matter – as some scientists at Iran’s nuclear facilities are about to find out!

Reports have begun to appear that these scientists have been listening to unlicensed copies of AD/DC’s popular song, Thunderstruck.

At full volume!

If they are not under investigation for this already, they are bound to be soon!

Sure, the scientists are certain to claim some lame defense, like that ‘hackers did it’.…

Come on, people!

Hackers may be naughty, but even they would not transgress against the mighty copyright trolls!

Iran is about to learn a very difficult lesson:  the American government may be a bunch of pushovers whom they can bully at their will, but transgressing against the music copyright holders will bring Iran to its knees!

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Free Dominion makes the pages of WorldNetDaily

July 21, 2012 — xanthippa

Free Dominion, the oldest conservative internet discussion forum in Canada, has made the pages of WorldNetDaily!

From the article:

‘Mark Fournier, in a statement on the website, explained that the appeals court has instructed parties to return to Superior Court with expert witnesses who can better inform the court of the many new issues related to the situation.

“Traditional defamation law is badly in need of an update in its application to the Internet,” Mark Fournier wrote.

“Unfortunately, and for reasons we do not understand, the high court ordered us to pay John Baglow $14,000 in costs. It is difficult because the appeals court wants us to help them examine these important issues, yet they placed a financial burden onus that could potentially knock us out of the game. If this happens it will be bad for Canadian Internet users.

“We will remain in an era where Internet arguments will be settled by SLAPP suits and lawfare, and, to us, that is completely unacceptable.”’

 

The article also lists the link where one can donate to help the Fourniers fund the legal battle to keep our internet speech free and a link to the long list of legal battles the Fourners have already withstood!

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100% ‘fair use’ political ad censored by DMCA

July 17, 2012 — xanthippa

This is a perfect illustration of how the unbalanced copyright laws are abusive.

The political ad of Obama singing the song ‘Let’s Stay Together’ while showing images of him with rich lobbyists is as textbook  ‘fair use’ as there is.  Yet, the song rightsholder, BMG, had it yanked off the interwebitudes:

‘A YouTube video produced by the Romney for President campaign got hit by a takedown request on Monday, highlighting the challenges that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act can pose for free speech.

…

Yet the “notice and takedown” process established by the DMCA and apparently utilized by BMG in this case doesn’t give the Romney campaign much recourse. It can file a counter notice stating that it believes its clip to be fair use, but YouTube is required to wait a minimum of 10 days before putting the video back up. In a campaign where the news cycle is measured in hours, 10 days is an eternity.’

Because sometimes, delaying a message is just as good as stopping it…

Another dimension of the problem is that individuals unfairly censored under the current policies are penalized for the other side’s failure – without any accessible or effective recourse or remedy readily available.  They are, in a very real sense, guilty until proven innocent – at their own cost and by their own effort.

This is so contrary to our common law tradition I don’t know where to begin!

And it’s only going to get worse – unless we shift our enforcement focus from ‘fair dealing’ to ‘fair ‘use’ (as, hopefully, seems to be happening up here, in Canada).

 

 

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Supreme Court of Canada rules on ‘copyright’ in the context of education

July 12, 2012 — xanthippa

The Supreme Court of Canada has handed down a ruling that covers copyright issues as they relate to educational institutions.  It’s ruling is not exactly supportive of the copyright cartel…

From Dr. Michael Geist’s commentary on the ruling:

‘The Supreme Court of Canada issued its much anticipated rulings in the five copyright cases (ESAC v. SOCAN, Rogers v. SOCAN, SOCAN v. Bell – song previews, Alberta v. Access Copyright, Re:Sound) it heard last December (my coverage of the two days of hearings hereand here). It will obviously take some time to digest these decisions, but the clear takeaway is that the court has delivered an undisputed win for fair dealing that has positive implications for education and innovation, while striking a serious blow to copyright collectives such as Access Copyright. ‘

In my never-humble-opinion, the ‘copyright issue’ in our society suffers from the same difficulty in being heard that the ‘atheist issue’ does:  it is impossible for individuals who are simply speaking for themselves (whether they be individual people who are defending their property rights over copyrighted items they have purchased or individuals who simply do not belong to any religious organization) to be heard over the voices of well organized groups with ample funding (whether they be religious organizations or industry representatives).

It is my hope that the ruling, which says it is the consumer’s rights and not the copyright holders that must be given the broadest consideration, will discourage the initiation of frivolous lawsuits which maliciously target people and make the lawsuit process itself a punishment.

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