An attorney for MegaUpload -- which was shut down by the US government earlier this month, and whose assets have been frozen, following copyright complaints from the entertainment industry -- says that the US Attorney General is planning to destroy all its user data within a week. With its assets frozen, MegaUpload can no longer pay to host its data with its service provider, and so the AG will cooperate with the erasure of tens of millions of users' personal files -- backups, family photos, personal videos, financial records, and even movies and music in production by independent artists who used MegaUpload as a file-locker while their produced their work. TorrentFreak characterizes this as the destruction of evidence, and I think that's right.
Read more here.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Toronto and yet more bullsh*t condo marketing
195 units ranging from 380-square-foot studios ($238,000) to 1,230-square-foot three-bedroom suites ($724,000).
So affordable..
A man signed a waver, and finds his image used in a 23 ft mural promoting yet another condo project..
The closest I’ll ever get to one of these condos is when I tiptoe into the presentation centre. I am a lifelong renter. I have no credit history. My mortgage application would make even the kindliest banker bust a gut. This isn’t a complaint. I’ve made a conscious choice to live my life a certain way, to eschew money for time — time to write, to stroll, to enjoy an afternoon espresso — and now my lifestyle is being used to sell a condo that I could never afford — because of my lifestyle.
Read more here.
So affordable..
A man signed a waver, and finds his image used in a 23 ft mural promoting yet another condo project..
The closest I’ll ever get to one of these condos is when I tiptoe into the presentation centre. I am a lifelong renter. I have no credit history. My mortgage application would make even the kindliest banker bust a gut. This isn’t a complaint. I’ve made a conscious choice to live my life a certain way, to eschew money for time — time to write, to stroll, to enjoy an afternoon espresso — and now my lifestyle is being used to sell a condo that I could never afford — because of my lifestyle.
Read more here.
US Rep. Jane Harman: Idiot of the Day
She outraged about being wired taped, while supporting the Patriot Act.
The stupid, it burns, it burns!!
H&M rips off artist design
Tori LaConsay, painted a billboard in the US with the message You Look Nice Today to make residents in her town feel good about themselves.
A couple of days ago, she realised that H&M were selling towels, pillows and doormats with a similar design.
One message written in support of Tori LaConsay, from Georgia, Atlanta, said: "Your You Look Nice Today rug and pillow design has been stolen."
H&M's initial response denied copying the artwork: "H&M apologises if anyone thinks we have copied, which has never been our intention and not allowed.
Their bullshit:
"We have merely been inspired after seeing many different varieties of different text messages, to create something similar in a different font, with the use of the big and small brackets and the placement of the heart.
Read more here.
A couple of days ago, she realised that H&M were selling towels, pillows and doormats with a similar design.
One message written in support of Tori LaConsay, from Georgia, Atlanta, said: "Your You Look Nice Today rug and pillow design has been stolen."
H&M's initial response denied copying the artwork: "H&M apologises if anyone thinks we have copied, which has never been our intention and not allowed.
Their bullshit:
"We have merely been inspired after seeing many different varieties of different text messages, to create something similar in a different font, with the use of the big and small brackets and the placement of the heart.
Read more here.
Sunrise Propane explosion finally goes to trial
Took their fucking time about it, no?
The Ontario government’s court case against Sunrise Propane begins on Monday, more than three years after the company’s facility in northwest Toronto exploded, killing a worker and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
Sunrise employee Parminder Saini died in the explosion and firefighter Bob Leek suffered a fatal heart attack while battling the fire that followed. The blast sent up a fireball that could be seen across the city and forced the evacuation of 12,000 people from their Downsview neighbourhood homes.
The company faces several charges under provincial labour and environmental laws for its role in the Aug. 10, 2008, explosion that charged the lives of those who live near the fuel depot at 62 Murray Rd., in the area of Keele Street and Wilson Avenue.
Read more here.
And let's not forget this little gem, from 'Shut up!' Councillor Maria Augimeri:
Saturday, January 28, 2012
MPAA just doesn't understand the Internet
To them, it's all about control...
The MPAA's O'Leary concedes that the industry was out-manned and outgunned in cyberspace. He says the MPAA "is [undergoing] a process of education, a process of getting a much, much greater presence in the online environment. This was a fight on a platform we're not at this point comfortable with, and we were going up against an opponent that controls that platform."
Read more here.
The MPAA's O'Leary concedes that the industry was out-manned and outgunned in cyberspace. He says the MPAA "is [undergoing] a process of education, a process of getting a much, much greater presence in the online environment. This was a fight on a platform we're not at this point comfortable with, and we were going up against an opponent that controls that platform."
Read more here.
Harper and Co. will f*ck over old people...slowly
Harper, step by step making this country just that much more heartless.
Any changes to retirement income won't be sudden, but the government isn't ruling out any options for restructuring the system, Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies said Friday.
In an interview with Rosemary Barton on the CBC News Network, Menzies says the government wants to make sure the system in place now can be sustained in the future.
"I don't think we'd change anything overnight," he said.
"We're looking at all options right now. We're looking at all options that make it sustainable."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told world leaders Thursday that Canada's retirement income system will see some "necessary" changes in the coming months.
While his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday was short on details, Harper said Canada's aging population "poses a threat" to the country's social programs and services.
Read more here.
Any changes to retirement income won't be sudden, but the government isn't ruling out any options for restructuring the system, Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies said Friday.
In an interview with Rosemary Barton on the CBC News Network, Menzies says the government wants to make sure the system in place now can be sustained in the future.
"I don't think we'd change anything overnight," he said.
"We're looking at all options right now. We're looking at all options that make it sustainable."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told world leaders Thursday that Canada's retirement income system will see some "necessary" changes in the coming months.
While his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday was short on details, Harper said Canada's aging population "poses a threat" to the country's social programs and services.
Read more here.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Mustang Mid-High School forgets students are people
Another school reacts to students with an abuse of power...
A suburban Oklahoma City school district has suspended a ninth-grade student and is investigating whether a substitute teacher whose photograph was taken on a cell phone was asleep on the job.
Mustang school district officials say a Mustang Mid-High School student snapped a picture of what appears to be a man with his eyes closed behind a school desk last week.
A district spokeswoman told The Oklahoman a faculty member saw the photo on a social media website and reported it to the principal. It's not clear if the photo was taken during class time.
School officials say cell phones are allowed on school grounds, but can't be used during class. The names of the student and the substitute teacher under investigation weren't released.
Read more here.
A suburban Oklahoma City school district has suspended a ninth-grade student and is investigating whether a substitute teacher whose photograph was taken on a cell phone was asleep on the job.
Mustang school district officials say a Mustang Mid-High School student snapped a picture of what appears to be a man with his eyes closed behind a school desk last week.
A district spokeswoman told The Oklahoman a faculty member saw the photo on a social media website and reported it to the principal. It's not clear if the photo was taken during class time.
School officials say cell phones are allowed on school grounds, but can't be used during class. The names of the student and the substitute teacher under investigation weren't released.
Read more here.
More government moves to control the Internet, this time called ACTA
Sopa and Pipa might be on hold for the time-being, but there is a greater threat looming. It's called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and it's an international agreement that aims to establish multinational standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.
Most recently, Acta made the headlines when online activists paralysed some of Poland's government sites to protest against Warsaw's plans to sign the international copyright treaty. They fear that it could lead to censorship on the web. Meanwhile Anonymous has announced over Twitter that it is planning a "huge operation soon" opposing Acta.
Wired.co.uk has created a handy guide to the agreement and how it might affect you. It's worth looking at the introductory video in this post to start with.
Read more here.
The Australian transport minister Anthony Albanese: Idiot of the Day
'In Australia we have serious challenges to solve and we need serious people to solve them,' he said. 'Unfortunately, Tony Abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything. He's only interested in two things - making Australians afraid of it and telling them who's to blame for it.'
If you think that sounds a tad familiar, you'd be right.
In the 1995 movie The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, tore into his rival Bob Rumson.
Read more here.
If you think that sounds a tad familiar, you'd be right.
In the 1995 movie The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, tore into his rival Bob Rumson.
Read more here.
Study indicates conservatives may be idiots
No, really?
There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Read more here.
There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Read more here.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Twitter becomes a craven coward
A new Twitter policy which goes into effect today allows the social network "to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country," so that Twitter can further expand globally and "enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression."
Fuck you Twitter
Read more here.
Fuck you Twitter
Read more here.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Flint expert 'reverse engineers' Neanderthal stone axes
Researchers at the University of Kent have recreated the processes Neanderthals used to produce sharp flint axes, and found that our ancestors were skilled engineers.
A modern-day 'flintknapper' replicated the sharpening processes that Neanderthals used to create tools - a sort of modern 'reverse engineering' of ancient techniques in use by three kinds of early 'hominin' including Neanderthals as early as 300,000 years ago.
The researchers found that Neanderthals could shape 'elegant' stone tools - shaping them to be hard-wearing, easily sharpened and with a perfectly balanced centre of gravity.
The reproduction of how Neanderthals worked shows that it is unlikely that stone flakes used in the tools could have been shaped by accident - and that our ancestors intentionally 'engineered' stone cores to create tools fit for their jobs.
Read more here.
A modern-day 'flintknapper' replicated the sharpening processes that Neanderthals used to create tools - a sort of modern 'reverse engineering' of ancient techniques in use by three kinds of early 'hominin' including Neanderthals as early as 300,000 years ago.
The researchers found that Neanderthals could shape 'elegant' stone tools - shaping them to be hard-wearing, easily sharpened and with a perfectly balanced centre of gravity.
The reproduction of how Neanderthals worked shows that it is unlikely that stone flakes used in the tools could have been shaped by accident - and that our ancestors intentionally 'engineered' stone cores to create tools fit for their jobs.
Read more here.
Reality vs. Oklahoma state Senator Ralph Shortey
...Shortey’s bill, which we pray is the last remaining evidence of human civilization when aliens finally discover Earth:
No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.
Read more here.
No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.
Read more here.
Rob Ford: Idiot of the Day
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford compared his political opponents at city hall to despot Joseph Stalin on Tuesday, the same day that one of those councillors had praised the mayor for a new attitude.
Speaking on Toronto radio station AM 640, Ford was asked a question about Coun. Josh Matlow — a first-term politician usually described as centrist, who has said he will oppose the mayor's planned abolishment of the land transfer tax.
After calling Matlow a "left-wing NDPer," Ford compared him to left-leaning councillors Adam Vaughan, Gord Perks, Janet Davis and Paula Fletcher.
"These people are all two steps left of Joe Stalin," he said. "So I'm not discouraged by that and I don't expect it. They don't care about the taxpayers. But I know one person that does, and that's me."
Stalin? Really Robbie, Stalin?
Read more here.
Speaking on Toronto radio station AM 640, Ford was asked a question about Coun. Josh Matlow — a first-term politician usually described as centrist, who has said he will oppose the mayor's planned abolishment of the land transfer tax.
After calling Matlow a "left-wing NDPer," Ford compared him to left-leaning councillors Adam Vaughan, Gord Perks, Janet Davis and Paula Fletcher.
"These people are all two steps left of Joe Stalin," he said. "So I'm not discouraged by that and I don't expect it. They don't care about the taxpayers. But I know one person that does, and that's me."
Stalin? Really Robbie, Stalin?
Read more here.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tea party group in Tennessee want their children to be as ignorant as they are
Muddle a child's mind and you've got them for life.
A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners.
Read more here.
A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners.
Read more here.
Monday, January 23, 2012
US Supreme Court hands down yet another hideous decision
Revolting
A state law mandating "humane treatment" of downed livestock headed for the slaughterhouse was unanimously overturned Monday by the Supreme Court.
At issue was whether federal regulations dealing with inspection of domesticated animals about to be killed, processed, and sold for human consumption preempted -- or nullified -- California Penal Code 599f.
Several justices had earlier noted the good intentions behind the state action, but all now agreed that it went too far into the traditional federal arena.
Read more here.
A state law mandating "humane treatment" of downed livestock headed for the slaughterhouse was unanimously overturned Monday by the Supreme Court.
At issue was whether federal regulations dealing with inspection of domesticated animals about to be killed, processed, and sold for human consumption preempted -- or nullified -- California Penal Code 599f.
Several justices had earlier noted the good intentions behind the state action, but all now agreed that it went too far into the traditional federal arena.
Read more here.
Harper and Co. continue to embarrass Canada on a global scale
Canada is becoming a jingoistic petro-state.
OK, so our friendly northern neighbor isn’t exactly Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. But neither is it the verdant progressive utopia once viewed as a haven by American liberals fed up with George W. Bush. These days Canada has a Dubya of its own. And judging by a flurry of negative press from around the world—the latest: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other African leaders are taking out newspaper ads accusing Canada of contributing to famine and drought on the continent—it seems anti-Canadianism could be the new anti-Americanism.
Well done Stephen, you must be so proud.
Read more here.
OK, so our friendly northern neighbor isn’t exactly Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. But neither is it the verdant progressive utopia once viewed as a haven by American liberals fed up with George W. Bush. These days Canada has a Dubya of its own. And judging by a flurry of negative press from around the world—the latest: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other African leaders are taking out newspaper ads accusing Canada of contributing to famine and drought on the continent—it seems anti-Canadianism could be the new anti-Americanism.
Well done Stephen, you must be so proud.
Read more here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
