Saturday, June 18, 2005

Diamonds are a Cryptographer's Best Friend

Listen to or download the audio filemp3 or audio fileOgg files. external site - links will open in a new window (what's ogg?)

Dr. James Rabeau with microwave oven
Dr. James Rabeau with microwave oven - Courtesy, Paul Richiardi
Quantum Cryptography is being hailed as the secret to secret communications, but there's one little problem. Well, perhaps two little problems. First, it's very difficult to understand, as it relies on the strange and counter-intuitive principles of quantum mechanics. The second problem is that it requires something that will spit out not thousands of photons, like any normal light-emitting device, but just a single photon at a time. Dr. James Rabeau, a Canadian research fellow at the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne has produced such a device by producing specially constructed diamonds in a microwave.

Related Links

external site - links will open in a new windowUniversity of Melbourne Release
external site - links will open in a new window
Preprint of paper in Applied Physics Letters, 86, 134104 (2005)
external site - links will open in a new window
Link to CBC.CA story
posted by Barrie , 8:38 PM Þ 
posted by captain davros , 9:24 AM Þ 
Friday, June 17, 2005

Excellent Hipster PDA templates

Some here

Some more here

Via 43 Folders.
posted by captain davros , 11:12 PM Þ 

Idlewild: Warnings/Promises
I have stolen from you where you have tried to steal from me. This Idlewild album came out months ago in Europe. It will come out in a couple more months in the US. Don't you realize that I know this? The world is all connected now, we are not beholden to you for information. An import copy of this record would cost me $26. The domestic copy will cost me $13 at most, probably less. I refuse to pay you to play these pointless games with arbitrary dates and obsolete borders. I can outlast you. I refuse to pay you twice for withholding music when it's supposed to be your job to bring it to me. "You say something stupid like", they sing, "'Love steals us from loneliness'", but I doubt you've even listened to this. We are in here talking to each other about solitude and connection and our grandest mistakes, those of us for whom music is human, and you are outside in the streets shouting about damage and margins and some venal thing you've obscenely labeled sacred, and insisting you are always right. And we are in here listening to records without you.

[...]

http://www.furia.com/twas/twas0503.html

Via Magnetbox ... 'ta'.
posted by Irdial , 8:02 PM Þ 

Copyright wrongs: we can't let the music industry suits stifle creativity
David Rowan
The Times, 16/6/05

BOB GELDOF is not the only superannuated rocker whose political gifts overshadow his more limited musical contributions to recent cultural progress. Sonny Bono, too, is a name currently buzzing through the Culture Department’s chill-pad in Cockspur Street, even though Bono departed his California stage set seven years ago. His biggest hit, you may recall, was the audaciously self-serving law he championed that extended United States copyright protection by 20 years. Worryingly, it is a tune that our own Culture Minister, James Purnell, appears unable to clear from his head.

Mr Purnell, who is in charge of our “creative industries”, believes that we, too, need to “modernise our intellectual property framework” along similar lines. Following a music industry campaign to extend the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years, he has been rapping in rhythm with the EMI and BMG massive: in a risky, talent-driven business like pop, the suits, apparently, need guarantees of long-term financial returns. As he told the Institute for Public Policy Research yesterday, the record labels need copyright reforms “that will allow them to make returns on their creativity and to invest in innovation”. What he failed to explain was the damage that such a short-term corporate grab would do to the public good...

The essayist and historian Thomas Babington Macaulay understood the perils when a similar battle to extend copyright was being waged in 1841. Amid calls to stretch the protection to 60 years after death, Macaulay saw no public benefit from a monopoly lasting longer than 42 years or life. “Are we free to legislate for the public good, or are we not?” he asked in the House of Commons. “Is this a question of expediency, or is it a question of right? An advantage that is to be enjoyed more than half a century after we are dead, by somebody utterly unconnected with us, is really no motive at all to action.” Many valuable works, he argued, would be suppressed — and publishers treated with such contempt that the reading public would happily turn to “piratical booksellers”...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1657575,00.html
posted by Irdial , 5:01 PM Þ 

"Grateful Darkies This Way ..."

Andy Kershaw, respect due.
posted by Alun , 1:08 PM Þ 

DTI warned against privatising arms unit

The Guardian


Serious doubts about a plan to privatise the Whitehall unit responsible for approving exports of arms and sensitive technology have been raised by an independent report.

Prompted by Treasury demands for civil service cuts, the Department of Trade and Industry is considering hiving off its export control organisation, a move which would save about 50 jobs [...]


If this goes ahead there will be very few private companies with the necessary experience of the field. The obvious arms companies are probably excluded for conflict of interest reasons, however any privatisation will seriously undermine whatver is left of the government's 'ethical foreign policy'. What would such a companies targets be? To reduce arms sales? To promote British exports over other countries? would such a company be able to eventually float on the stock exchange like Qinetiq? If that werethe case then any old arms manufacturer could by into and affect company decisions

This seems to me to represent a direct privatisation of policy rather than simply departmental functions.
posted by meau meau , 11:10 AM Þ 

As you can see in the edit pages for the Africa article, the racist 'Kelly Martin' put back the 'Demographics' section.

Wikipedia is imperfect, all encyclopediae are imperfect and none of them can ever reach perfection. Looking back on old editions of these types of work is always a laugh as they are full of errors and what we now believe to be crazy ideas - wikipedia is simply a new version of this type of publication that changes very very quickly.

Its easy to see why many people will never trust Wikipedia, but when you consider what it actually is, you can learn to live with its quirks, omissions, cultural biases and outright bullshit.

Wikipedia is a fractal island of the larger fractal internet. It is no more correct or incorrect than the larger internet of which it is a part, and no doubt a mathematician could write down its relation to the internet in a neat formula. Anyone that has surfed around both the Mandlebrot set and the internet knows what I am talking about.

Taking this into account there should be no surprise that the articles on the different continents at Wikipedia are so inconsistent; it is a perfect reflection of the cultural biases that feed the entire internet.
posted by Irdial , 11:00 AM Þ 

You will also notice there is no 'Race' section in the Asia page at wikipedia (there's not much there at all to be honest).
posted by meau meau , 10:25 AM Þ 

The image “http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2005/06/16/bell512ready.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
posted by Alun , 10:25 AM Þ 

From the Author
I have recently been made aware of several websites that focus on The Anarchist Cookbook. As the author of the original publication some 30 plus years ago, it is appropriate for me to comment.

The Anarchist Cookbook was written during 1968 and part of 1969 soon after I graduated from high school. At the time, I was 19 years old and the Vietnam War and the so-called counter culture movement were at their height. I was involved in the anti-war movement and attended numerous peace rallies and demonstrations. The book, in many respects, was a misguided product of my adolescent anger at the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam to fight in a war that I did not believe in. [...]

The central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change. I no longer agree with this. [...]


During the years that followed its publication, I went to university, married, became a father and a teacher of adolescents. These developments had a profound moral and spiritual effect on me. I found that I no longer agreed with what I had written earlier and I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the ideas that I had put my name to. In 1976 I became a confirmed Anglican Christian and shortly thereafter I wrote to Lyle Stuart Inc. explaining that I no longer held the views that were expressed in the book and requested that The Anarchist Cookbook be taken out of print. The response from the publisher was that the copyright was in his name and therefore such a decision was his to make \226 not the author's. In the early 1980's, the rights for the book were sold to another publisher. I have had no contact with that publisher (other than to request that the book be taken out of print) and I receive no royalties.

Unfortunately, the book continues to be in print and with the advent of the Internet several websites dealing with it have emerged. I want to state categorically that I am not in agreement with the contents of The Anarchist Cookbook and I would be very pleased (and relieved) to see its publication discontinued. I consider it to be a misguided and potentially dangerous publication which should be taken out of print.

William Powell

[...]

Now his children will be drafted to fight in Iran. Hmmmmm.

Someone clever said:

Tisk Tisk, December 20, 2004

Reviewer:Bob - See all my reviews
You are a liar william powell. You thought you knew what was right and saw that it was true. Yet now you think you know what is right and see that it is'nt true if we still need to publish your fine book. Or the fact that times really havnt changed man, you have.
Thanks
- Bob

!!!

posted by Irdial , 12:33 AM Þ 
Thursday, June 16, 2005

I began to write on euro/african races, but have no patience for any of these petty, meaningless pigeonholes. We are people. Destroy all borders.

Well, people are people, but the operating system in their heads are VERY different, and these are the differences that cause the problems. There are so many ways to talk about this; MacTel, WinTel, Case Mods, Overclocking...my oh my!

America is the best place to see this in action. When you telephone people over there, there is no way of knowing what they look like by their voice. You might get a clue from the name, but sometimes not. Those people are all running the same OS; 'USOS'. No matter what your parents were like or where they were 'from' the USOS is what makes you what you
are. Or does it? ' You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions... Kuato - Total Recall That fits in with USOS/UKOS/FROS/POLOS/SCOTOS ...

Check out the discussion:

Racists spinning this entry

It looks for the moment that the racists are determined to keep in the vile 'Race and physical appearance' (now named renamed 'Demographics') section with its racist terminology intact.

The Europe page will not have anything to do with this racist nonsense, instead, pointing all this discussion to other articles. See the discussion page there.

Distinguishing between people based on what they look like makes you a racist. Anyone that puts that 'Demographics' section back intact is just that. You cannot treat the discussion of Europe differently to the discussion of Africa just because the people in each region happen to look different to each other.

Either both the Europe article and the Africa article have 'race' sections in them or they both should not. What is most absurd and offensive is the current situation where one article is treated differently to the other; this is more wrong than if both articles had an erroneous/racist/fallacious section on 'race'.

Yawn. I live in a country on this continent where any mention of anything related to race or skin colour or any somesuch immediately gets you branded a racist. Playing the racism card is getting quite worn out by now. People are different, and not everyone around the world realises the extent of differences between people. If that section can shed some light on what the make-up of Africa is to someone living in China having no feeling for the rest of the world, it should be there — that's the point of an encyclopedia. Deal with the fact that we live in a rainbow world, and calling "orange" by any other name doesn't make it less orange.
Furthermore, I don't give a rat's ass what they do on the Europe page. We aren't in any way bound by what they decide there, and this page will grow through consensus from the editors here. That is the wiki way; take it in that spirit, or find another project to invest your time in. Dewet 21:28, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
You might not give a 'rats ass', but everyone in the world gave much more than a 'rats ass' about your country when it was being run by racists. It is very important that the two articles are consistent. There is no reason why both articles should not have a 'race' section, or both of them not. What is intolerable is one does and one does not, only (its seems) because Africans are 'brown' in the majority.
This is the issue here; if people are all the same then treat them the same. If the are different, then treat them as such, but be consistent about it, and certainly not flippant.

!!!

yes indeed, not at all surprising.

I detest this subject - it is a distraction.
posted by Irdial , 11:27 PM Þ 

Is "African-American" meant as a racial description, or a political statement?



I began to write on euro/african races, but have no patience for any of these petty, meaningless pigeonholes. We are people. Destroy all borders.

Look at this...

One can customarily divide the Slavs into the following subgroups:


(*) Classification disputed.

[...]

Classification? Classification?

If they were all labelled 'people' (or, better yet, unlabelled) maybe they'd have one less reason for fighting all the bloody time.
posted by Alun , 10:22 PM Þ 

The article added to the Europe page about 'Race and physical appearance' has been removed, with a comment from the editor saying this:

I see Seabhcán changed the Race section in Africa to Demographics. Europe could have a Demographics section with Demographics of the European Union as main article. ("Demographics of X" seems to be a Wikipedia title convention, but in this case Demographics of Europe is a smaller stub.

I'm curious why the anonymous poster at top of section thinks Europe has to have a Race section if Africa does. I agree with Rama etc. that current European attitudes seem to consider discussion of native racial differences within Europe to be old-fashioned and a waste of time if not actually harmful. There are probably more Americans concerned with it. It's interesting that the nordish.com Race section which was cut was written by an American and uses only American Presidents as example individuals.

There's controversy and material aplenty about European and other race at Caucasoid, Negroid, Extra-European Caucasoid, Northern Eurasian Supercluster, Caucasian race, Whites, Validity of human races, Race (historical definitions), Race etc. You probably want to keep this stuff out of Europe or even the Demographics of Europe articles but just link if necessary.--JWB 20:02, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

"I'm curious why the anonymous poster at top of section thinks Europe has to have a Race section if Africa does."

??? Thats very interesting indeed. The question is this; is Europe a continent populated by one type of person, and Africa is not, or are the continets of Africa and Europe both populated by different types of people that can be identified by their 'Race and physical appearance'?

If anyone claims that Europe contains a homogenous population, then Africa too has just such a population, and niether article should have a'Race and physical appearance' section.

Interesting how "discussion of native racial differences within Europe to be old-fashioned and a waste of time if not actually harmful." But in Africa this is OK? Because of what exactly?

Fascinating!
posted by Irdial , 9:25 PM Þ 

Following up the copyright thread.

James Purnell's speech to IPPR:

[...]
Third, we need to modernise our intellectual property framework, and in places it may need to be strengthened. IP is the bedrock of the creative economy. The Labour Manifesto committed us to “modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.”

This is vital - to attract creative companies, they need to know that we have an IP regime that will allow them to make returns on their creativity – and to invest in innovation. Bands like Coldplay will make enough money for their company to help them discover around 50 or 100 bands. At the same time, an information rich society needs an easy exchange of ideas – after all, creativity often comes from collaboration, from putting existing ideas together in new ways. So, we need an IP framework that balances the needs of consumers, creators and businesses.

I've been thinking about this, if Coldplay have an active life of 10 years this equates to 'discovering' 5-10 bands per year - it doesn't seem like a particularly great argument (for a major company)

That means two things - first of all, enforcing existing property rights. The EU estimates that 7% of all world trade is in counterfeit goods, and that we’ve lost over 100,000 jobs over the last 10 years because of counterfeit and pirated products. So, we will shortly announce how we will take forward the recommendations of the Creative Industries IP Forum see below on education and on tackling piracy.

But we also need to think through whether our IP framework is right for this fast-changing technological environment. I can announce today that DTI and DCMS will set up a joint project to implement our manifesto commitment, chaired by Lord Sainsbury and myself. We will examine in the first place what issues need to be addressed, including the key issue of Digital Rights Management, and the interoperability of new technologies. Obviously the primary role is for industry, which is why we have asked the Creative Industries IP Forum to advise us on this issue.
[...]

Nothing specific on extending copyright yet.

The Creative Industries IP Forum is a government quango with Eric Nicoli as 'industry representative'

Speech by Eric Nicoli, Chairman, EMI Group at Advancing Enterprise 2005

So, at the top of our list of concerns is the need to protect intellectual property and
the right of the creator of that property to get paid for it, and I congratulate the UK
government for setting up the cross-departmental and creative industries IP forum.
The forum has set up three sub groups to focus on new business opportunities, on
education and awareness, and on piracy and illegal file sharing, and the forum is doing
an outstanding job for the UK, but now we need to develop an international focus,
so we very much hope that the UK government will use its presidency of the
European Union to take these discussions into a European and wider international
forum, and in particular to drive the Lisbon agenda better and faster.
posted by meau meau , 5:20 PM Þ 

UbuWeb 1996-2005


Dear Friends,

UbuWeb is offline for the summer.

The UbuWeb Project -- a decade-long experiment in radical distribution of avant-garde materials -- has finished. Founded in 1996, the project has been a success beyond anyone's wildest expectations. As of Spring, 2005, it averaged over 10,000 visitors daily and hosted nearly a terabyte of artworks in all media by over 500 artists.

The site will be donated to a university shortly, where it will be archived intact for posterity. All content on the site will be available to the public, but please note that the site will no longer be updated. A URL linking to the archive will be posted on this page.

In the meantime, please listen to UbuRadio, a continuous 24-hour MP3 stream, randomly culled from UbuWeb's vast sound collection. To listen please paste the following URL into your MP3 player:

http://peacemaker.stat.wvu.edu/ubu_radio
posted by meau meau , 10:24 AM Þ 

Definition of "Obsolete"

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary:
a: no longer in use
b: of a kind or style no longer current

Tom Carlson:
lovable old stuff that is sometimes still pretty useful; a term of endearment rather than derision
The image “http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/apple2/system_board.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.



I adore my obsolete records.
posted by Alun , 10:24 AM Þ 



Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915))
posted by meau meau , 10:12 AM Þ 

We Buy Classical LPs

We are always keen to buy quality, saleable classical LPs. We travel the length and breadth of the country to collect quality collections and pay top prices for desirable LPs.

If you have a collection you wish to sell, please get in contact with us. If you have them catalouged in a document, please send that. If not, it is helpful if you could supply some information:

1) Approximate number of records in the collection (50, several hundred, several thousand?)
2) Approximate age of the collection, eg. mid 1950s to early 1970s (please note a date on the record sleeve itself will probably not be the date of issue, but the copyright date of the recording on a later reissue - most of the original issues up until the early 1960s did not have a date on them at all)
3) Your Location and ideally a phone number so we can call with any questions
d) Some idea of the content of the collection (see next page) If you can, it would be helpful if you could include a summary of some of the main labels. For example, 'I have about 400 records including 19 SXL 2000s, 23 Columbia SAX and 11 early HMV ASDs'.
We buy complete collections which have a reasonable percentage of collectable records (for example, the above example would probably be worth buying, but a 400 record collection with 2 SXL 2000s and 1 Columbia SAX probably wouldn't - but it all depends on the actual records in the collection).
You might like to read this article on selling classical record collections published in a record colletors magazine a few years ago - it is written by an American dealer, but it all applies to UK collections. Incidentally, we do pay more for collectable records than the example used in the article.


We are also keen to buy from experienced collectors wishing to trade their records and individuals who go out looking for records. Maybe you go out buying rock/pop LPs, or enjoy browsing in secondhand shops. See the next page for details of what to look out for.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note, we buy only Classical LP records (33 1/3 rpm)

We do not buy 78s
We do not buy Easy Listening
We do not buy Musicals/Shows



http://www.classical-lps.co.uk/buy.htm
posted by Irdial , 9:54 AM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 9:51 AM Þ 

Went to this record shop in York at the weekend. It's pretty fab, though not quite in the Harold Moores class for vinyl. But then again, Harold Moores may very well change beyond recognition soon as it's been sold and Harold is now just a 'consultant'. I, sadly, expect the musical Aladdin's cave downstairs, a sanctuary only 50 yards from the hell of Oxford Street, to become a brightly lit, clean, odourless CD rack, the clack-clack-clack of flicked cases assaulting walls used to little more noise than the regular's white-gloved style handling of 50-year old vinyl.

Actually, I probably exagerate as a result of emotional attatchment. HM was sold nearly two years ago... and apart from the odd downstairs cleanout and of Mole Jazz moving in upstairs, I still love the place. This does not stop me from expecting the worst every time I cross the Harold Moores threshold, though.

Anyway, talking to the York shop guy, he said they're offered at least 10,000 albums per week. Almost none of which they buy, as there just isn't the market. Lifetime collections of music, lost. I almost shed a tear.
posted by Alun , 9:15 AM Þ 

Sir Ian's skepticism seems to be informed by Passport Office trials which showed that black people and pensioner, for example, were sometimes not reliably recognised by iris scans, one of the tested biometric indicators. Nonetheless his belief that ID cards are important tools in the fight against terrorism or crimes such as identity theft remains unwavering. [...]

If only you could see what ive seen with your eyes.

Honestly. I wonder what David 'Slick' Lammy and the other 'blacks' in labour think about getting misidentified as big brother contestants...or worse. My days, even the COMPUTERS in the UK think all 'black people' look the same, to the level of teh fucking IRIS!!!

He said it was dangerous for the state not to know the identity of some people and argued the case of Kamel Bourgass, the convicted ricin plotter whose identity remains unknown, proved his point. "In the aftermath of the Bourgass trial with commentators saying this proved there was not a threat to the UK, it was the job of the Commissioner to say this was a real and present threat," he said. ® [...]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/15/id_card_tech/
??!! wtf?

Teh 'ricin plotter' was CONVICTED. This demonstrates perfectly that you dont have to 'know someones identity' in order to protect the public, all you need is what we have had for over a thousand years, a system of justice that works.

As for it being the job of the Commissioner to say that this was "a real and present threat" that is simply a lie. The 'aftermath' of that case was that it proved the system works as it stands ; the police have more than enough tools to hand to do the important jobs, and that they dont need ID cards to catch the bad guys.

I can tell you this though; if they dare to try and roll out ID cards, no one that is 'black' or 'brown' will enroll for one (especially knowing that the system doesnt work specifically for 'black people') meaning that the police will be sweeping them up constantly...which may cause....a problem.

posted by Irdial , 8:37 AM Þ 
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

US expected to abandon Biometric passport plan

Rules requiring Irish citizens to carry high-tech passports when visiting the US are to be dropped because the technology behind the scheme is seen as unreliable. The US Department of Homeland Security had previously set an October 2005 deadline for the inclusion of biometric information chips in the passports of European citizens who avail themselves of the Visa Waiver programme. This programme allows people to make short-term visits to the US without a visa. The chips would have included a variety of biological information about the passport holder, such as their fingerprints and retina scans.

But according to a report in the Sunday Times, Ireland has shelved plans to include biometric chips in passports amid expectations that the US is to abandon its biometric passport requirements.

"Biometrics are just a tool, the real concern is that the information would be used for more than immigration control," said Aisling Reidy, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, speaking to ElectricNews.net. "There is also a significant risk of false positives, that people could be wrongly identified, because the technology is not reliable."

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, quoted a spokesperson from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, who said that the US has now recognised the technical challenges involved in implementing biometric information.

Trials carried out in the UK last year, for the purposes of introducing a biometrics-based UK national identity card, showed significant levels of failure in the registration and verification of iris, fingerprint and facial recognition trials involving 10,000 British citizens.

Under a new arrangement, holders of passports that include digital photographs could continue to avail of the visa waiver programme. The latest Irish passports include a secure digital photograph, but do not include biometrical information.

The new arrangement is understood to have been devised following discussions between the US and the European Commission. European officials believe the Americans have taken on board concerns that the move would reduce the number of people traveling to the US for business and leisure purposes.

Biometric passports have been under consideration since 2002, when US legislators passed a law requiring the 27 countries in the Visa Waiver programme to start issuing high-tech passports by October 2004. The deadline was subsequently extended to October 2005.

© ElectricNews.Net

[...]

Woo Hoo!

posted by Irdial , 8:03 PM Þ 

New Bill Could Make Bush President For Life

Prison Planet | June 14 2005

A House bill has been introduced that would change the 22nd amendment and enable George Bush to remain President for the rest of his political life.

The bill would repeal limitations on a President holding office for a maximum of two terms.

An even darker scenario, Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected as President in 2008 and shorty after the 22nd amendment is abolished, making the Hitler admirer our permanent Fuhrer.

This is the modern day version of the Enabling Act, which allowed Hitler to officially declare himself dictator.

The bill, which can be found at the Library of Congress website here, reads as follows.

[...]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2005/140605presidentforlife.htm

I, for one, welcome our new Fuher!
posted by Irdial , 7:32 PM Þ 

You will be a number, not a free man

WHY am I so vehemently against the Governments's plan for identity cards, to the point of becoming a bore?

The short answer is that this vastly expensive scheme will create a central registry containing data on your health, taxation, social security and criminal records which wil be accessible to every arm of government.

As I learned while researching Brandernburg, my novel about the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany had such a system and it was one of the major insturments of political control in the GDR. "Dont worry your pretty head" is the reaction of beaurocrats and politians., "trust us" they seem to say. "we are a civilised country, we dont have a secret police force like the Stasi".

Thats true, but the first statges of this discussion, the then Home secretary David Blindkid announced that MI5 would be alowed access to the central registry which gives me very little confidence.

We need to focus on the privacy issue now, particularly because the Government has dropped the argument that the ID card is a useful weapon in the war on terror (Spanish ID cards did not prevent the Marrid train bombs).

Bur more important, its secondrary case, the the scheme will protect against fraud has been dismissed by DR James Backhouse, the head of the London School of Ecomonics' Systems Integrity Group, who warns that ID cards will beceome the master key for identity fraudsters.

So what is the point of a scheme that is likely to cost £18 billin over 10 years? Well, it means government will know who you are, where you live and what you're doing exactly llike the east Germans.

[...]

And sadly the similarity will not end there. Probably.

This piece was in The Evening Standard today.
posted by Irdial , 7:06 PM Þ 

Japan Shopping Services

Besides Yahoo Japan Auctions, we also provide services for some small auction sites and literally 100s of online shops and sites. We can handle all kinds of shopping from Japan for you whether you need a small gadget or a difficult to locate part for your car. We take care of everything.

[...]

At last, someone who can get you all the rare J-Goods you need!!

posted by Irdial , 7:04 PM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 1:39 PM Þ 



Also:
5
4
3
2
1
0
posted by meau meau , 11:47 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:09 AM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 10:38 AM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 10:30 AM Þ 

Microsoft helps China to censor bloggers

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Wednesday June 15, 2005
The Guardian


Civil liberties groups have condemned an arrangement between Microsoft and Chinese authorities to censor the internet.

The American company is helping censors remove "freedom" and "democracy" from the net in China with a software package that prevents bloggers from using these and other politically sensitive words on their websites.
[...]

Japan is considering censoring the internet after an 18-year-old boy, who was arrested for throwing a homemade bomb into his classroom, said he had found instructions on how to make it from a website.
[...]

The latter 'story' is reactionary nonsense.

In the first, I wonder whether the civil liberties groups have considered censoring M$ from their computers.

posted by Alun , 9:18 AM Þ 

the thought police are already out there.
posted by alex_tea , 12:51 AM Þ 

Only have time for a very quick comment about ID, as I make a hasty trip to my philosophy class:

How stupid/foolish are people to think that an "Identification" document has ANYTHING to do with their PERSON? Does a piece of paper have any relation to your body at all? The fact is that no matter how high tech an ID is it cannot be attached to your REAL identity.
This simple idea (which begs me to elaborate, which I may later tonight) proves that the only thing an ID document REALLY stands for is an element of control. DUH! Are photographs representative of the real you? NO! Does your name and "biometric" ID in a database stand in for the real you? NO!

This is SO SIMPLE. How can people not have their eyes open?
posted by Barrie , 12:09 AM Þ 
Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Someone REALLY insightful said:

You're missing the point. It's not just about the ID card. It's about the database(s).

You'd be required to use the ID for public services, health services, to get a job, to travel, to use private sector services, like buying a book, a dvd, a newspaper, etc etc.

Now, each goverment agency will have its own database collecting relevant information about you. Private companies will also keep their own databases collecting information about you. Ok, you're gonna say, nothing new here. I already use a card for my bank, another one to drive, another one for my local library, another one for my local supermarket etc. So what's the difference?

The difference is that you'll only use *one* card. That is *one* database *key* able to be used to run queries across any databases that keep information about you. These queries can return results in seconds with almost no effort. While nowdays, to get a profile on a person you'd need too much resources and time. So they only do it for criminals and not for your average citizen. Things will change though. Combine this with statistics, a proactive policy and the export of ID data to the US and things get scary pretty quickly. Think of the unlimited possibilities for the goverment or corporations; they could built complete profiles on you. Something that is impossible today because even though you exist on many databases, they are not integrated.

For example, you receive a letter saying...

...you are not allowed to drive, because a recent police cross-check on databases, revealed that you have been driving for the last 10 weekends following a certain pattern. You were always driving about 2 hours after your visit to a pub, where you had a few drinks each time. Although you had always 2 drinks and you were below the limit, statistics showed that 56% of the people who follow the certain pattern and have the health problem you have, have increased risk of causing an accident. No action is required by you, your ID card has been updated. Have a nice day.

...you are required to attend to your local police station for an interview. You have been considered as a posible threat to national security. Although we hold no evidence against you, our database cross-checks have revealed that you belong to a high risk category. You have borrowed 4 books from your local library over the last 2 weeks; 1 on politics, 1 on communism, 1 on freedom and 1 on computer networks. You are a member of Greenpeace and an activist for a group against recent goverment actions like our recent war. You are also classified as a person who has objections with authority as your school records show, an incident at your previous employment, as well as a conversation you had with a police officer last year. You associate with a person who has broken the law once (your neighboor) and he has a friend where he broke the law twice this year. None of these facts about you is explicitly unlawful, however the combination of these facts classifies you as having a 12% chance of commiting an act which would be detrimental to our national security, within the next 6 months. USA security agencies comfirm this as well. Due to our proactive policy we would like an interview with you. The outcome of our interview will determine whether you will be sent to camp delta for reeducation or not. If you do not attend your local police station within 24 hours you will be arrested. Your ID card service capabilities have been suspended until then. Have a nice day.

You think this is fiction? Yes, but for how long? [...]

Wow, now that's what I call insightful!

Of course, the car in question will not start unless the subjecte initiates the system with her fingerprint, which is checked aginst the register before the car will start. That is only part of what the "ID card service capabilities have been suspended" part means.
posted by Irdial , 7:50 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 4:44 PM Þ 

The image “http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/kennkarte.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

The image “http://rosenblumcoins.com/files/img/34e/1012.JPG” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Mandatory ID was introduced in the Netherlands this year. Things have quieted down a bit since, but at first a lot of outrageous and sometimes hilarious cases made the press. Right on the stroke of midnight on new year's eve, police arrested several revellers for not having ID on them. Old grannies, and a woman with a 5 month old baby have been detained for hours for not having an ID. If the police stops a person for, say, not having a working light on their bicycle, they often ask for ID so they can stick on another fine. If there's a protest going on that the powers-that-be don't like (such as protests during Euro summits or antiglobalist protests), simply have the police go around asking for IDs and take everyone without one into custody and off the streets.

My favorite is the old lady who, when asked to produce her, pulled out one she had had for a long time (and, being issued by Dutch authorities might even still be technically valid), with her name, her picture... and a 6-pointed star with the work "JOOD" (Jew) stamped prominently across the document.

Funny thing is, the mandatory ID does nothing to combat crime. Sure, people used to give false names when caught riding the train without a ticket, shoplifting, or defacing property, but the police already had the right to detain these offenders if they had doubts about the person's identity.

Another Slashthread line, illustrated with two ID cards for 'Jews'.
posted by Irdial , 3:53 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 3:19 PM Þ 

Someone clever said...

"the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country... "

As far as the tax authorities are concerned, someone calling themselves "titzandkunt"(!) earns so much money, and consequntly pays a certain rate of tax. Unless thay suspect that I'm under-declaring my income, that's the end of their involvment. They have no idea how much I spend - why should they?

"an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946..."

Useful for what? BTW, were ID cards introduced in Brasil during a democratic period, or during one of the dictatorships (1930-34, 1937-45, 1964-85).

"when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check."

I hope to God that this is hyperbole! If a patient is in a condition that they can't clearly state their identity, the paramedics ought to be checking the ABC's (airways, breathing, circulation) first.

When I'm presenting a credit card or cheque, I don't need further ID - both have got my name on them.

"a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO"

Yet again, you don't say how.

The real problem that informed critics have with the proposed uk ID scheme is not the card per se, but with the database backing the card. Do you know what information the government proposes to hold on this database? Here we go:

- Name

- Other previous names or aliases;

- Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;

- Address

- Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;

- Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;

- Current residential status;

- Residential statuses previously held;

- Information about numbers allocated to the applicant for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;

- Information about occasions on which recorded information in the Register has been provided to any person;

- Information recorded in the Register on request.

- Photograph

- Fingerprints

- "Other" biometrics (iris recognition);

- Signature

- Nationality;

- Entitlement to remain in the United Kingdom; and

- Where entitlement derives from a grant of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, the terms and conditions of that leave.

- National Identity Registration Number;

- The number of any ID card that has been issued;

- National Insurance number;

- The number of any relevant immigration document;

- The number of any United Kingdom passport (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77)) that has been issued;

- The number of any passport issued by or on behalf of the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or by or on behalf of an international organisation;

- The number of any document that can be used (in some or all circumstances) instead of a passport;

- The number of any identity card issued by the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom;

- Any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom;

- The number of any work permit (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971);

- Any driver number connected to a driving licence;

- The number of any designated document which is held by the applicant that is a document the number of which does not fall within any of the preceding sub-paragraphs;

- The date of expiry or period of validity of a document the number of which is recorded by virtue of this paragraph.

- The date of every application for registration;

- The date of every application for a modification of the contents of his entry;

- The date of every application confirming the contents of his entry (with or without changes);

- The reason for any omission from the information recorded in his entry;

- Particulars (in addition to its number) of every ID card issued;

- Whether each such card is in force and, if not, why not;

- Particulars of every person who has countersigned an application for an ID card or a designated document;

- Particulars of every notification given by the applicant for the purposes of regulations under section 13(1) (lost, stolen and damaged ID cards etc.);

- Particulars of every requirement by the Secretary of State for the individual to surrender an ID card issued to the applicant.

- The information provided in connection with every application to be entered in the Register, for a modification of the contents of entry in the Register or for the issue of an ID card;

- Information provided in connection with every application confirming entry in the Register (with or without change;

- Particulars of the steps taken, in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) or otherwise, for identifying the applicant or for verifying the information provided in connection with the application;

- Particulars of any other steps taken or information obtained (otherwise than in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b)) for ensuring that there is a complete, up-to-date and accurate entry about that individual in the Register;

- Particulars of every notification given by that individual for the purposes of section 12.

- A personal identification number to be used for facilitating the making of applications for information recorded in his entry, and for facilitating the provision of the information;

- A password or other code to be used for that purpose or particulars of a method of generating such a password or code;

- Questions and answers to be used for identifying a person seeking to make such an application or to apply for or to make a modification of that entry.

- Particulars of every occasion on which information contained in the individual's entry has been provided to a person;

- Particulars of every person to whom such information has been provided on such an occasion;

- Other particulars, in relation to each such occasion, of the provision of the information.

That's 51, count 'em, fields, some with multiple entries. Additionally, the onus is on the cardholder to ensure that their details are correct and the government proposes to create a whole raft of new offences, most attracting draconian penalties, to ensure that people do comply.

No single entity has any right, or justifiable need to hold all this information about me.

This isn't an ID card, it's a license to exist.

The whole attitude of the government in this matter cab be summed up in by the following quote (my emphasis added):

"The law giver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own"
(H.G. Wells)

Glorped from that Slashdot article. Very nice.
posted by Irdial , 2:26 PM Þ 



From Flickr. This photo came up on a Technorati (beta) search for 'conet' on the right hand 'related' panel. The title of this photo is "The Pip" and the caption reads, "This is an antenna sculpture I made out of bamboo and string and felt. It is about 6 feet tall."

!

I like it.
posted by Irdial , 1:38 PM Þ 

From Slashdot:

"I'm quite impressed at how the anglosaxon world reacts to ID cards. They are present in most countries, and are a far cry from a fascist tool.

As far as my experience goes, in Italy you can get fined for loitering if you are found without "papers" and you are over 18. Yet nobody ever asked me papers without a good reason (airport, electoral office, and such things). Never seen an evil use of that, and can hardly conceive one."

This from an ITALIAN who comes from the country that brought us Mussolini, and he "cannot concieve of an evil use (for ID cards)".

That my friends, is ASTONISHING.

And this is from a Swede:

"Sweden has had a system like this since 1960 or so. Whenever I do anything I give them my social security number (equivalent) and that's all I need. You cannot do anything in Sweden without one, unless you're all cash.

If I pay with a credit card I have to show ID. Identity theft is extremly rare here, I never even consider it. Very little personal business involving identity is done without showing for instance a drivers license (which also contains the Personal Identity Number).

The UK system of showing a gas bill or alike is just weird for someone like me."

Well, to us, this is VERY BAD INDEED. Of course, you are free to live in your country in any way you want. If it if required in your land that you get on your knees every time you want to transact, then that is your business, and not ours. The British are not slaves, idiots or people who do not own their own destinies, unlike others. What is "just weird" to a person like me is that otherwise intelligent people cannot understand, given all the history of Europe, how centralized and compulsory ID is simply unnaceptable. How the Belgians for example, simply accept as 'normal' that they cannot leave their own house and go into their own streets without ID. Appalling.

Rio has its say:


"the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country...

an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946...

when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check.

a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO."

"They are already half way up your ass, why not push it all the way in"

Boa Tarde fila da puta!

The Belgians weigh in:

"I live in Belgium and I have had an identity card since the age of 12. You are obliged to carry it at all times. Not a single person has ever made a fuss about it, and I don't see what all the fuss is about in the UK at the moment.

Last night I was watching a programme on the BBC where a young man was giving false id information to the police - that kind of business could easily be halted by just presenting an id card."

I've had enough of you already.

The Enemy Within speaks:

"

  • UK administration might actually start working
  • You can for once prove you are who you are in the UK
  • No need for that silly census where they try to guess how many people live in their own country
  • For the normal law-abiding citizen it will actually be easier to acquire a new driving license or passport should you have lsot the old one.
  • Improved information flow through the public sectors, e.g. if you become unemployed and go to the job centre or such like, your tax code can be updated right there instead by changing your status.
  • Credit card scams are ripe in the UK with people stealing identities and having to provide an absolute minimum of ID to empty your account.
  • Just because it wasn't part of the empire doesn't mean you can't use it!"
And this is the worst of all, a British man, betryaing a total lack of understanding of the issues surrounding what it means to be a free man.

Each of his points is absurd; administration working 'for onece'? ID cards wont make this happen. 'You can for once, prove who you are'. This is so absurd that it is difficult to begin to debunk it. Prove who you are to who? Banks only care that you have money, and have enough controls to hand to prevent fraud, only they dont use them...just who does this idiot need to prove his 'identity' to, above and beyond how he already does? As for the census, yes indeed, they will have a permanent rolling headcount of everyone every five years. No one has mentioned this before, and let me be the first to say that it is another bad dimension to this evil project. The rest of it...I will not bother to rebut, its just idiotic, ill informed and stupid.

The fact of the matter is this. There is no good reason for bringing in an ID card in the UK. The Europeans who suffer it are inured to it and cant give us good reasons why we should have one, and the British who endorse it are computer illiterates, 'ive got nothing to hide' dimwits that have zero understanding of what this plan really means. It seems, thankfully, that the penny is begnining to drop all over the UK, and that this is going to be destroyed one way or another.
posted by Irdial , 1:01 PM Þ 

Could this be the beginnings of John Titor's "Waco-type events" that preceed the American Civil War?

Perhaps events have been altered so this will not happen, and this is just a trace of a possible future.

Perhaps it was all a hoax anyway and I am just reading too much into the news.
posted by alex_tea , 10:45 AM Þ 

Did you notice this comment on the hipsterpda page;

This is a similar to a concept I developed to enable me to not have to carry a purse when out dancing at a party.

It's aptly named the "Saturday Night Wallet" -- I think you can guess how it works, but those who are a bit slow... You clip your money, ID, health card etc. together and Voila! [...]



Voila indeed. I wonder how many people would do this with a NIR ID card, presumably 18-21 year olds wanting to prove their age at a night club, substitute money for credit card because you don't want the hassle of change and you have a load of goodies ripes for the taking.

Get 'em while they're drunk and they won't regret it until the morning, isn't it? Or wait for gravity.
posted by meau meau , 10:43 AM Þ 

Menu dégustation de juinde Pierre Gagnaire

Croquant de chocolat au lait : bavaroise de poivrons grillés, fraises Mara et palette ibérique. Polenta et sablé au gingembre.

Pressée de rouget de roche, pain dentelle aux mendiants et copeaux de foie gras crus au sel de Maldon ; bouillabaisse glacée aux choux fleurs.

Olives de Nyons mi-séchées, raviole transparente d'olives noires taggiasche, crème d'olives vertes de Lucques aux supions.
Scampi d'escargots petits gris, gras de seiche et crête de coq.


Crémeux de riz noir vénéré, poêlée de lisette aux noisettes caramélisées.
Bouquet d'artichauts poivrades et manges tout assaisonnés d'un suc de melon au vinaigre blanc millésimé.


Nage maraîchère du jardin de Monsieur Pil : laitue « moelle et reggiano frais ».
Salpicon de homard bleu lié d'un velouté d'araignée de mer.

Lie de vin et tamarillo au sirop d'érable, biscuit de roquette.
Coeur de thon et anguille laquée.Germes de légumes à l'ail nouveau croustillant.

Aiguillettes de pigeon Gauthier aux amandes fraîches.
Un jus «rouge» : radis, betteraves bigarreaux, mûres et groseilles.


Glace brebis à l'huile d'olive ardente, granité champagne à la pomme verte et velouté de bleu des Causses.
Petit croque Monsieur, vieux beaufort et bocconcini.

Le grand dessert Pierre Gagnaire


http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/mailing/juin2005/cdcarte_menu.htm
posted by Irdial , 9:45 AM Þ 
posted by captain davros , 1:01 AM Þ 
Monday, June 13, 2005

Look what I just found on Pledgebank:

3. Brian Eno will get three friends to sign up to the Proportional Representation Groundswell but only if 100 other people will pledge to sign up at least three of their friends to

Proportional representation in a system that habitually ignores the electorate is just another type of democracy. What we need is an Oblique Strategy to make a real and lasting change to how we agree to be governed, not a tweaking of the hopelessly broken system that is parliamentary democracy.
posted by Irdial , 10:49 AM Þ 

NO2ID understand that the democratic process simply doesn't work, and they are now moving on to threats. This 'threat' is that HMG will have a poll tax style level of civil disobedience on their hands if they try to introduce an ID card. Read it:

As the Second Reading of the Identity Cards Bill approaches, NO2ID have
initiated a pledge for those who will resist compulsory registration for
a State-issued ID card. This is the first in a series of pledges
intended to demonstrate the depth and breadth of opposition to the
proposals BEFORE the legislation makes it through Parliament. Speed is
therefore of the essence.

Please, if you can, make your pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse
and pass on or promote this message/link to as many sympathetic people
and groups, mailing lists, bulletin boards and publications as you can
*without spamming*. To spread the message further PledgeBank provide
flyers and posters to print out, and people can also pledge by texting
'pledge refuse' to 60022 [standard text rate]. N.B. if you prefer to
keep your online pledge private, simply uncheck the 'Show my name on
this pledge' box before signing.

Our first pledge and target is as follows:

"I will refuse to register for an ID card and donate £10 to a legal
defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same
pledge."

— Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator

Polls have shown for some time that 3 - 4 million people across the UK
strongly oppose the Government's plans to introduce ID cards and a
National Identity Register. Were this many of us refuse to cooperate
then the scheme would be doomed to failure.

If the Government do manage to force through the ID cards legislation,
this pledge will not only demonstrate the level of solidarity amongst
opponents of the scheme - it will form the basis of a fighting fund* and
support network for all those who refuse to comply.

NO2ID continues to campaign against the introduction of ID cards and the
National Identity Register on all fronts, for more information on what
you can do NOW, please visit www.no2id.net

Many thanks to MySociety for building the PledgeBank site, and to you
all for your continued support - together we shall beat this.

Phil Booth

*all monies pledged will be held in trust for use in defending those
individuals who are prosecuted for resisting registration.
At the end of the day, fine grianed democracy is the only way forward, meaning, that people will only obey the rules that they think are reasonable and not every law on the statute book and local regulation. This is a direct result of the failure of democracy to properly take into account the will of the electorate.

We can already see this fine grained activity in the form of those who refuse to pay the congestion charge. No one accociated with the charge will admit it, but many many people are simply refusing to comply, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. You can get a sense of this by the following. In the boroughs that ring the zone, Transport For London have Congestion Charge officers on foot, examining the license plates of cars for numbers that have consistently refused to pay. TFL has staff searching for cars OUTSIDE OF THE ZONE. When I saw one of these officers, looking like a traffic warden but who clearly was a CC worker, I asked him what on earth he was doing looking up numbers on his handheld device. He said:?

"We are looking for cars that have not paid the charge. We put the numbers into this machine, and if the car has more than three unpaid entries, we put a notice on the car".

"You mean a 'ticket', right?", I say.

"No", he continued, "it is a notice. you would not believe how many people are not paying".

Yes indeed I would. Every borough outside of the Zone does not want it to expand, but TFL is going to do it anyway. This means that if you live inside the zone and have a car, you have to pay TFL just to keep it on the street, wether you drive or not. I guarantee you, millions will not pay this tax. They wilil get used to the idea that you simply do not have to comply with anything that you do not beieve is reasonable, and then fine grained democracy will be fully born, where the government has to be careful about what it plans and how it responds to public opinion, otherwise, the plans simply will not work.
posted by Irdial , 10:26 AM Þ 

What is NON-homogenized milk?

First find yourself a wet fish to slap about your face, for referring to something by a process under which it has not gone.

Homogenisation of milk is basically an aesthetic procedure whereby the globs of fat molecules in the milk are dramatically reduced in size, firstly this means you get no cream in full-fat milk, secondly seasonal variances in the colour of milk are reduced, milk produced by cows on 'winter feed' (traditionally straw rather than grass) is bluer/less dense than 'summer feed milk' - in the wacky world of denatured consumerism this leads to complaints about quality and so the introduction of homogenisation.

What is wrong with homogenisation?
1. It panders to crappy thinking
2. There are concerns that the fat molecules in the milk being much smaller are more likely to be absorbed into the blood circulatory system and lead to increased risk of coronary disease.

Now don't get me started on margarine...
posted by meau meau , 9:53 AM Þ 

I keep on forgetting to ask this question of meau:

What is NON-homogenized milk? I know no other kind of milk other than that which is homogenized! I must be missing out on something HUGE here! It's like some futurist dystopia, only about milk instead of freedom!

Also:

My problematic left ear has once again filled up with wax and is buzzing with tinnitus. I cannot hear anything with it other than a rather loud birchville-cat-motel drone. This is a rather interesting sonic experience, I have listened to a lot of music since it started two weeks ago and have seen a few movies too. Very disorienting, very hard to direct my hearing in any kind of accurate way. Having it flushed on Thursday.
posted by Barrie , 6:50 AM Þ 
Sunday, June 12, 2005

A few weeks ago I took a look at the 'Africa' page at Wikipedia. The word 'Africa' is being used alot (incorrectly) these days, and rarely do people refer to the independent soverign states that make it up. Africa is a continent, made up of independent states, and one would have thought that Wikipedia's entry had this fact in it.

It did not.

The entry on Europe however, did have a list of the independent states that comprise Europe. Hmmmm why the disparity? I was going to rustle up a map and list and insert it, but didn't get arount to it. Someone else thankfully solved the problem, and entered a linked list of states and a map showing them.

There are other disparities between the 'Europe' entry and the 'Africa' entry. The 'Aftica' entry has a section called 'Race and physical appearance' where the 'Europe' entry does not. At least, it did not until very recently.

I'm not sure why these two entries are so different, but what is for certain, you cannot have a section describing the independent states of Europe but not the independent states of Africa, and you cannot have a 'Race and physical appearance' section in the 'Africa' entry but not in the 'Europe' entry. If you can categorize people by appearance in one entry you must be able to categorize them in the other, or both of the sections should be removed.

If you can call human beings "Hottentots", "Blacks", "Dark Skinned" and "Pygmies" in the context of a 'Race' section of the Africa article, you can do the same in the article on Europe, and call people "John Bull type", "light-eyed" and "Nordic".

I subscribe to the view, in all deadly seriousness, that all Homo Sapiens are of the same 'race' and that their superficial differences are not enough to categorize them for any meaningful purpose. Other people believe other things, and that is their affair. I merely state that these entries must be equal, otherwise there is bias, which needs to be explained or eliminated.
posted by Irdial , 11:17 AM Þ 
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