Facebook killed the Internet Star (from 2014) I found this link whilst tracking down some old tekno mixes from the 1990s/2000s. I remember Schnews; my personal view on it is although they were a good info site they did get sidetracked by the "hedonistic dissent as a fashion statement" culture which infested Europe from around 1999 to mid 2000s (until things got really serious from global conflicts in Mid East / former USSR spilling over into the affluent countries); it got to the point of them even trying to "spin good news" and add fluff like fashion type articles (not even DIY type fashion) in the same way the Grauniad is notorious for these days.
However what one of their former reporters say about the effects of the US-dominated social networks is 100% spot on.
I am old enough to remember how the Internet was firewalled off between different European countries and its use restricted due to resourcing limitations as much as politics. The tech behind it all is the same stuff we use today; and the Internet is based on a lot of agreements between private companies. There might be marginally less regulation of content unlike traditional telecommunications and broadcasting, but this also means there is no obligation for any of these companies to provide a minimum service level to those who are not willing to pay a premium price or transmit competing organisations data. Some of the things being done by the big US networks are making the Internet less resilient as a whole.
Facebook killed the internet star: reflections on radical media | Corporate Watch
NO/DK/FI/IS/SE : Nordic military cooperation pledge signed More Cold War 2.0 stuff. I suspect I am not the only European here who is bloody glad he is too old for conscription (the UK, NL and DE are part of a wider NATO cooperation agreement alongside the Nordic nations). Not sure why "Aftenpoften" whine at me in Norweigian for blocking their ads as surely they can tell I'm in the UK; I might not understand them or they could be for something only available in Norway, like moose detection alarms or 30% off a wild bear feeding platform? :laugh_at:
Russian aggression: Nordic states extend their military cooperation - Aftenposten
LT : Conscription reintroduced susprised this hasn't been discussed more (or are Europes young people too distracted by cybersex and football to notice this?)
It is an unusual move for a EU nation; especially one aspiring to be modern and democratic (and one of the newest nations to elect a female leader); although I can understand why this decision was made in the light of recent events in Russia and Ukraine to someone of my generation its like we have just gone 30 years back in time; and what can happen in one small EU nation can happen quickly in others.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2015/03/09/lithuanias-reintroduction-of-conscription-is-a-clear-response-to-the-threat-posed-by-russia-in-the-baltics/
PL : New border control towers to be built at Kaliningrad Kaliningrad is an odd place as it is RU territoriy between PL, LT and BY; Russia put some missiles there last year (which has unnerved those surrounding countries that are part of the EU; although in legal terms it is no worse than UK putting submarines with nuclear missiles in Scotland, which it has done for at least 30 years).
That is a very quick delivery time for large surveillance towers; and the EU is pouring a lot of euros into the project at a time of economic depression (this might be because it encourages people to stay in PL rather than migrate to other countries; and Warsaw want their young people back anyway...)
the URL destination below is correct (I thought I'd posted a wrong one) - (I do not know why BBC Caversham suddenly puts Poland in the USA, you'd think they'd know where it is by now) :laugh_at:
Poland to build Russia border towers at Kaliningrad - BBC News
Big Cats in Britain? Does anyone believe that big cats such as pumas and the like roam the British countryside? I think that there could be as so many people have reported sightings of them. Imagine being at a rave and coming across one! :omg:
This site makes for decent viewing - http://www.britishbigcats.org/12
Scotland: new powers to store suspect’s DNA Powers allowing police forces to keep the DNA of people accused of sexual or violent offences have come into force.
The measure will allow the police to store such information on a database, even if there is no conviction.
Currently, DNA must be destroyed if it belongs to an accused of sexual or violent crimes if there is no conviction obtained.
The changes are contained in the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.
Full story is here
Scotland – in or out of the UK? Today's the day when Scottish folk get an opportunity to either devolve or opt out entirely from the UK - including the currency (and debt level).
Any predictions? It's a close thing, last time around they were promised devolved powers all they got was Maggie Thatcher...
I have a sneaking suspicion some people have been busy stuffing ballot boxes with "no" votes but hey, I'm notoriously paranoid and cynical.
Which way would I vote if I could? I'm a McDonald, pretty much disadvantaged at every level so it's pretty unlikely I'd vote, more likely I'd just walk away.
UK state declares war on freedom of thought and expression http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/uk-prime-minister-david-cameron-stop-the-unnecessary-censorship-of-esoteric-websites-and-web-forums
Signatures needed. I'm not requesting RPGs or land mines just yet.
Rolf Harris Charged with child sex offences. [h=1]Rolf Harris charged with indecent assault on girls[/h]Rolf Harris has been a fixture on British TV screens for more than 40 years
TV presenter Rolf Harris has been charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of children, police have said.
Mr Harris was first arrested in March by officers investigating historical allegations of child sexual abuse.
Six offences relate to the indecent assault of a girl aged 15-16 between 1980 and 1981 and three relate to a girl aged 14 in 1986.
The indecent images of children were alleged to have been made last year.
Mr Harris, 83, of Bray, Berkshire, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 23 September.
Operation YewtreeAlison Saunders, chief Crown prosecutor for London, said: "Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of a child.
"The alleged indecent assaults date from 1980 to 1986 and relate to two complainants aged 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offending."
Mr Harris was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, which was set up in the wake of allegations against the former BBC Radio 1 DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile.
Operation Yewtree has three strands - one is looking specifically at the actions of Savile, while the second strand concerns allegations against "Savile and others".
Mr Harris was arrested as part of the third strand, which relates to alleged complaints against other people unconnected to the Savile investigation - who the police term "others".
Mr Harris has been a fixture on British TV screens for more than 40 years, having arrived in the UK from his native Australia in 1952.
He has been honoured in the UK three times, first as a Member of the British Empire in 1968 (MBE), then an OBE in 1977 and in 2006 he was advanced to a CBE.
In June 2012 he was awarded one of Australia's highest honours when he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen's birthday list.
Yet another perv revealed. Just shocking.12
An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC by stephen fry By Stephen Fry
August 7th, 2013
Dear Prime Minister, M Rogge, Lord Coe and Members of the International Olympic Committee,
I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them. He claimed they “polluted” the purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich. He blamed them simultaneously for the mutually exclusive crimes of Communism and for the controlling of international capital and banks. He blamed them for ruining the culture with their liberalism and difference. The Olympic movement at that time paid precisely no attention to this evil and proceeded with the notorious Berlin Olympiad, which provided a stage for a gleeful Führer and only increased his status at home and abroad. It gave him confidence. All historians are agreed on that. What he did with that confidence we all know.
Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law. Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment. It is simply not enough to say that gay Olympians may or may not be safe in their village. The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma. Let us not forget that Olympic events used not only to be athletic, they used to include cultural competitions. Let us realise that in fact, sport is cultural. It does not exist in a bubble outside society or politics. The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong. Everyone knows politics interconnects with everything for “politics” is simply the Greek for “to do with the people”.
An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.
He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him, make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, “the banality of evil.” A stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats. Putin may not be quite as oafish and stupid as Deputy Milonov but his instincts are the same. He may claim that the “values” of Russia are not the “values” of the West, but this is absolutely in opposition to Peter the Great’s philosophy, and against the hopes of millions of Russians, those not in the grip of that toxic mix of shaven headed thuggery and bigoted religion, those who are agonised by the rolling back of democracy and the formation of a new autocracy in the motherland that has suffered so much (and whose music, literature and drama, incidentally I love so passionately).
I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian “correctively” raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew at seeing history repeat itself.
“All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” so wrote Edmund Burke. Are you, the men and women of the IOC going to be those “good” who allow evil to triumph?
The Summer Olympics of 2012 were one of the most glorious moments of my life and the life of my country. For there to be a Russian Winter Olympics would stain the movement forever and wipe away any of that glory. The Five Rings would finally be forever smeared, besmirched and ruined in the eyes of the civilised world.
I am begging you to resist the pressures of pragmatism, of money, of the oily cowardice of diplomats and to stand up resolutely and proudly for humanity the world over, as your movement is pledged to do. Wave your Olympic flag with pride as we gay men and women wave our Rainbow flag with pride. Be brave enough to live up to the oaths and protocols of your movement, which I remind you of verbatim below.
Rule 4 Cooperate with the competent public or private organisations and authorities in the endeavour to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace
Rule 6: Act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement
Rule 15 Encourage and support initiatives blending sport with culture and education
I especially appeal to you, Prime Minister, a man for whom I have the utmost respect. As the leader of a party I have for almost all of my life opposed and instinctively disliked, you showed a determined, passionate and clearly honest commitment to LGBT rights and helped push gay marriage through both houses of our parliament in the teeth of vehement opposition from so many of your own side. For that I will always admire you, whatever other differences may lie between us. In the end I believe you know when a thing is wrong or right. Please act on that instinct now.
Yours in desperate hope for humanity
Stephen Fry
An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry
Happy Birthday Al Qaeda I heard on radio 4 that Al Qaeda is 25 years old today. Obviously I don't really wish them a happy birthday, I hope they all might son decide to follow Islam in a more peaceful way. (as so many other Muslims do) While i'm on the topic I hope the damn EDL members grow a few brain cells and disband.
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