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Tag: politics

Name-checked in the Seanad

Published October 22, 2010

So, after I posted this post about Aslan’s imaginary illegal downloads, someone on Twitter linked to this comment by Senator Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail), in the Seanad the next day, repeating the incorrect Aslan factoid:

Sen. Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail): There is a perception that the big five record companies, all international companies, have been ripping off the consumer for many years. I do not want to be seen as an apologist for the music industry, but at the lower level I can give a specific example to highlight the impact of illegal downloading on Aslan, an Irish band. It has sold 6,000 copies of its current album, but there have been 22,000 illegal downloads. […] Why must we wait for a High Court judgment to be made before we introduce relevant legislation?

It appears a few people, Adam Beecher for one, got in touch with the Senator by email. To my surprise, a couple of days later, I got some Twitter messages telling me that I’d been mentioned in the Seanad! Indeed, here it is:

Sen. Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail): Last week on the Order of Business I raised an issue relating to illegal downloading of music on the Internet which followed on a court case which the major international record companies had lost that had been taken the previous day. I asked the Leader what possible legislation could be introduced to address this gap, and I am repeating the request. I have had quite a significant amount of response to the comments I made last week, specifically from persons who state that the figures quoted in my report, and also the figures quoted in the court case to defend the record companies’ position, are inaccurate, and I was asked by a number of those who emailed me to correct the record. Having investigated this further – I recommend to the House that those who are interested log on to taint.org – there is no doubt that the figures that have been quoted to support the court case, which was subsequently lost, are not accurate. It related to the group Aslan. I do not want to delay the House on this other than to correct the record in that I put the figures as I had received them in good faith and such has been the response to the comments I made in the House last week that I feel obliged to correct the record and state that there is no doubt but that the figures that have been used are, at best, suspect.

It would be important if the Leader could have the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O’Keeffe, come to the House to give some indication of his proposals because the music industry is currently lobbying in this House and in the other House to have legislation changed to benefit it. However, there is a wider view that illegal downloading will continue irrespective of what happens, the record companies are now on the defensive and there are other alternatives that could be brought forward such as licensing those who wish to download. In that context, I would be interested in the Leader’s response.

A few comments in response:

  • Credit is due to Senator Mooney in that he admitted that he’d been misled, and corrected the record in that regard.

  • it’s amazing to see that the democratic process has opened up to this degree. I would have never expected to have this degree of input to our elected representatives without having to go through more traditional channels (face-to-face meetings etc.)

  • Finally: ‘The music industry is currently lobbying in this House and in the other House to have legislation changed to benefit it’. That is very, very worrying. Indeed, suzybie noted on Twitter:

@jmason not sure if you caught it but I saw Willie K and his mates entering Dáíl last Wednesday evening. FF backbenchers were being met

McGarr solicitors have been in touch with the relevant Ministers requesting that Digital Rights Ireland be included in any discussions regarding legislative change. This will be one to keep an eye on.

3 Comments

Michael Woods saying “the Brits made us do it”

Published May 27, 2009

If you were listening to the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 last Saturday afternoon, you might have heard the mind-boggling stuff coming out of Michael Woods, the Fianna Fail former Education Minister with a “strong Catholic faith” who brokered the controversial backroom deal back in 2003 which allowed the Catholic Church and its institutions to evade prosecution on child abuse.

Here’s a great thread on Politics.ie where quite a few folks boggle at the incredible things he said.

Thanks to Podcasting Ireland, I was able to track down and cut out this segment, so here is a recording of Michael Woods coming up with the pathetic excuse of how the British forced the Christian Brothers to abuse children:

Michael Woods – the brits made us do it.mp3 (951KB)

The last refuge of a cornered FFer — blame the British. Absolutely incredible. It has to be heard to be believed. What century is this again?

Update: according to Mary Raftery in the Irish Times, this is a preview of the religious right’s tactics:

‘It Is easy to discount former government minister and senior Fianna Fáil member Michael Woods. A former minister, he is no longer a prominent figure. He has, however, left a festering sore behind him which continues to weep poison every now and then. The infamous church-State deal on redress for victims of institutional child abuse, under which the religious orders pay a mere 10 per cent of the compensation bill, was at its most septic over the weekend.

Woods, the main architect of the deal, defended it on the television news and gave a long RTÉ radio interview on Saturday. We were beginning to hear some of the defences likely to be chosen by religious conservatives as soon as they manage to regroup and fight back.’

We marched in the streets about this stuff. It’s like the 90’s never happened.

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The Pay-No-Attention-To-Our-Tiny-Logo Party

Published May 15, 2009

In the current run-up to the local elections here in Ireland, it’s pretty obvious that Fianna Fail, the ruling party who’ve screwed the economy with mismanagement and rampant cronyism, are in line for a massive drubbing. So much so, in fact, that their own candidates are attempting to hide their party affiliations.

Check out this poster for candidate Kenneth O’Flynn (son of FF TD Noel O’Flynn):

what logo, you ask? Look closer:

Compare that to what FF posters used to look like, 2 years ago:

Meath FF councillor Nick Killian has removed the logo from his leaflet’s front page entirely, too.

Thanks to martinoc for the Bertie’s Team poster, and Ivor in the comments of this post at On The Record for the photos of Kenny’s posters. There’s gold in those comments…

2 Comments

Blackout Ireland – a response to IRMA’s censorship demands

Published February 27, 2009

As Adrian noted last week, IRMA are demanding that Eircom block the Pirate Bay — first on a list of websites they don’t like — on pain of being sued. On top of that, they intend for the other Irish ISPs to follow suit — here’s a key line from the letter they sent to Blacknight MD Michele Neylon:

in the event of a positive response to this letter it is proposed to make practical arrangements with Blacknight of a like nature to those made with eircom.

If that comes to pass, this will be an appalling situation for Irish internet users, and we need to act to ensure it doesn’t happen. Digital Rights Ireland:

The net effect of this scheme, if it is allowed to go into effect, will be to impose an internet death penalty on two groups. On users, who will be cut off on the allegation of a private body, with no court involvement, and on websites, which could be blocked to Irish users based on a court hearing where only one side is heard.

Pace Mulley:

So first they’ll start with the Pirate Bay. Then comes Mininova, IsoHunt, then comes YouTube (they have dodgy stuff, right?), how long before we have Boards.ie because someone quoted a newspaper article or a section of a book?

Digital Rights Ireland have posted an excellent document detailing the following plan of action for Irish internet users concerned about this:

  • Contact your ISP and let them know that this is a key issue for you, as their customer.

  • Join up with your fellow netizens. Subscribe to the Blackout Ireland blog. Follow the #blackoutirl hashtag on Twitter. Join the Blackout Ireland Facebook group. It looks likely that there’ll be a week-long blackout campaign starting next Thursday, March 5th.

  • Contact politicians. This is likely to cause irreparable damage to the Irish internet, so our pols should be very worried. See the DRI post for details on getting in touch with Minister for Communications Eamonn Ryan.

New Zealand is running their own blackout campaign right now, so that may help our planning.

International readers — make no mistake, you’re next. IRMA in this case is acting as the local delegate of IFPI, which stated in 2007 that this was one of the 3 technical options for ISPs to control piracy:

Here’s some other interesting coverage:

Fantastic interview with BitBuzz CEO Alex French:

If ISPs, including Eircom, agree not to oppose blocking access to The Pirate Bay and other similar websites, is this not an agreement to web censorship? “I don’t think there is any other way to interpret it,” said French.

“They are essentially agreeing to censor certain websites at the behest of the recording industry, without these websites ever having necessarily shown to be illegal in the Republic of Ireland. I would have a huge concern over what other websites may be blocked and what other industries will pile in now that the precedent has been set.”

Some sample letters:

And further discussion — here’s a massive boards.ie discussion thread, now closed in favour of this newer thread.

Update: here’s the letter I sent to the Minister, if you’re curious or need inspiration.

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Don’t vote Green in Dublin Central!

Published April 10, 2007

I’ve long held green views, and have always voted green — I believe climate change, damage to the environment and pollution are extremely serious problems, especially for Ireland. At the same time, I also believe that science and technology has a key place in a better, greener future — a Viridian, bright green / electric green viewpoint, in other words.

Given this, I was really shocked and appalled to hear (via the lovely C) of an interview on Today FM with Patricia McKenna, a Green Party candidate for my local constituency of Dublin Central — one I’ve voted for before, no less! — in which she revealed that she believes in the thoroughly discredited scaremongering regarding a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, and has taken the appallingly irresponsible position of not allowing her children to be vaccinated.

This blog post discusses the interview, which was broadcast on Today FM’s The Last Word show on Tuesday 13 March. Here’s an archived podcast of that interview so you can listen to it yourself, and here’s a local copy of that WMV file in case that first link expires any time soon.

Here’s a transcript of the part of the interview once the issue of vaccination is brought up. Matt Cooper is the host of the show. Keith Redmond is an opposing candidate, for the PDs. The timestamps are in minutes and seconds from the start of the audio file.

  • 8:30: Patricia McKenna: Parents have the right to choose what they opt to do, and in relation to some vaccinations, there are serious question marks hanging over them but that’s not what we’re talking about here…

  • 8:44: Matt Cooper (clearly annoyed): No its not, but now that it’s up there, couldn’t it be irresponsible for parents not to vaccinate children against serious issues (sic), if they don’t have reputable scientific facts to back up the decision not to vaccinate?

  • 8:54: Patricia McKenna: Many parents in this country have chosen not to vaccinate their children in relation to the MMR because of the links to autism.

  • 9:00: Matt Cooper: Utterly untrue, totally unproven, absolutely bogus and false.

  • 9:02: Patricia McKenna: Hold on a second…

  • 9:03: Matt Cooper: Andrew Wakefield has been utterly and totally discredited in relation to that. Anyone who doesn’t give the MMR vaccine to their children because of a fear of autism is almost in danger of endangering their child themselves. We’re going to have a rise of measles again in this country because of people not actually giving the vaccine.

  • 9:17: Patricia McKenna: First of all, we’re moving away from the issue…

  • 9:22: Matt Cooper: Yeah we are, but it’s come up now, let’s deal with it…

  • 9:23: Patricia McKenna: It’s come up, right. Eh, have you had the measles? I’ve had the measles, and I’ve got over them well, I have a strong immune system, my 10 year old son has had the measles…

  • 9:30: Matt Cooper: And you are aware that unhandled the measles can have very serious side effects?

  • 9:33: Patricia McKenna: Look — the side effects that are linked to the measles are in relation to… there are other things linked to it in relation to the child’s well being initially. Now you just look at the number of people when you were young, all of your peers I would say have had the measles as with mine, and I think we have a tendency to over-indulge in vaccinating our children and vaccinating ourselves, because what we need — our immune systems are getting weaker and weaker by the day, it’s a — I think we need to be very careful about how we actually approach this so that when medicines are necessary, we will not be immune to them…

  • 10:08: Matt Cooper (interrupting): Do you know that children have died of the measles in this country in the last 5 years?

  • Keith Redmond: because of views like that.

  • Patricia McKenna: Well I’m saying is that, as far as I’m concerned…

  • 10:18: Matt Cooper (repeats): Do you know that children have died of the measles in this country in the last 5 years?

  • 10:30: Patricia McKenna: The children that have died of the measles because of other complications (sic), not the measles themselves.

  • Keith Redmond: that have not been vaccinated.

  • Patricia McKenna: Not the measles themselves, but other complications, right? Now if you’re saying that parents should — it’s a bit like —

  • Keith Redmond: Matt, can I just come back to…

  • 10:32: Matt Cooper: Sorry, one second Keith. Would you also concede Patricia, that there is absolutely no link between the MMR and autism, that that link was a bogus link put up by Andrew Wakefield who has been completely and utterly discredited and it has done an awful lot of damage, the misrepresentation of his views in relation to the MMR and autism.

  • 10:50: Patricia McKenna: Well in relation to the MMR, I am not satisfied that it’s safe, and I am not satisfied with the idea of lumping a whole lot of vaccines — different vaccinations together en masse, inducing them (sic) to our children — but having said that, parents should have the right to choose and decide what is best for their children…

  • 11:06: Matt Cooper: But would you concede that Andrew Wakefield, who is the man that pushed that whole agenda, was exposed as a fraud?

  • 11:11: Patricia McKenna: But the jury is still out in relation to…

  • 11:15: Matt Cooper: No, it’s not.

  • 11:16: Patricia McKenna: Yeah well I’m sorry but the jury is still out in relation to how safe the MMR is. And I think it’s unfair to label all parents who decide for their own children’s safety, that they may not want to go down the route of vaccination, that they’re being irresponsible, because I wouldn’t consider myself irresponsible, I would consider I want what’s best for my child.

  • 11:37: Keith Redmond: [again says something]

  • Matt Cooper: Give Keith a chance to come in.

  • 11:41: Keith Redmond: This totally exemplifies the Greens’ approach to any kind of science. We have a woman there who knows, in her heart of hearts, that her argument is wrong but refuses to admit it because it relies on science. Now, we have exactly the same issue with flouridation — we know the science, we know the facts, and we still have this scaremongering every now and again. And the Green Party are totally irresponsible and you’re right, they are frightening parents across the country right now and it’s absolutely reprehensible.

My god, this insanity has me agreeing with a feckin’ PD!

This is luddism, pure and simple. Matt Cooper is spot on the money — children are dying in Dublin because of this “my child, my rules” selfishness and simple inability to understand the science surrounding vaccination as a public health policy.

This is appalling. To put it bluntly, there is no fucking way I’ll be voting Green if this kind of cargo-cult, anti-science superstition is the kind of shite they’re espousing these days. …and if you think I’m feeling strongly about this, you should hear my (zoologist) wife.

But it goes on — here’s a letter to the Irish Independent on this issue from Feb 9 2007, which raises another worrying factor:

… until two days ago, there was a statement on the Green Party website informing voters that there were “serious question marks about the benefit of mass vaccination programs”.

Furthermore, the party promised that there would be a “major review” of vaccination if they were returned to office.

Now that these statements have apparently been removed from the Green party website are we to take it that they are no longer Green policy?

This blog posting at Winds and Breezes also notes this. So — is this official Green policy or not?

Update: In the comments, it was noted that McKenna is pretty much acting alone in this; it, apparently, is not Green Party policy at all. I’ve updated the title to reflect that it’s only one constituency’s candidate that needs to be shunned.

Also, Conor O’Neill has a great idea over here:

I was thinking further on this yesterday and I realised what the Greens need to do in order to be taken seriously… They need to become the “Party of Science”. Proper environmentalism is based on rigorous science and strategic thinking. Every policy they define should be backed up with rock-solid science and a detailed long-term financial analysis proving why it is in our best interests to adopt them.

Man, I would love to see that!

108 Comments

Labour’s flat-rate bus tickets

Published November 27, 2006

Well, that was quick!

Right after posting this, I hear about Labour’s new transport strategy for Dublin. Here’s the top 3 items:

  • Labour will increase the Dublin Bus fleet by 50% (500 buses), significantly increasing frequency and reducing waiting times.

  • Will complete the Quality Bus Corridors, and greatly reduce journey times.

  • Will introduce a EUR 1 per-trip fare for adults and a 50c per-trip fare for children.

The flat-rate fee structure makes a lot more sense than the confusing and rip-off-ish current model, whereby if you don’t know in advance how much a particular journey is going to cost, you’re given a useless receipt instead of change. This wierd and rip-off-ish policy has certainly stopped me from catching buses in the past. In general, flat-rate pricing models appear to encourage use in other fields. And the increase in the fleet is obviously a fantastic idea. Fantastic stuff!

Read the full policy paper here (as a PDF).

2 Comments

Road Deaths in Ireland

Published July 12, 2006

Road deaths are a hot topic in Ireland. They’re actually lower, per capita, than rates in other countries, but are given plenty of column inches and headlines here, and have become a government priority as a result.

Here’s the latest headline:

[Gay Byrne, head of the Road Safety Authority] claimed young people were ignoring road safety campaigns and that all he could do was to warn people to reduce speed and not to drink and drive. “I don’t know what else we can do. We have done all the horror ads, but there are obviously a great number of people who don’t look at television, listen to radio, or read newspapers and don’t get the message,” he said.

Ads. Great. Well, one thing that could be done is fixing the unsafe roads, and building decent ones; Irish country roads, while picturesque, are unable to deal with the levels of traffic they’re now facing. It’s time to apply modern safety standards, instead of considering a 2-lane boreen to be adequate.

There’s been a bit of improvement here; the roads from Dublin to Sligo, and from Dublin to Dundalk, for example, are both now fantastic, well-designed roads, and safe as a result. But try to get from Sligo to anywhere that isn’t Dublin, and you’re right back on those boreens again — with maniacs overtaking on blind corners into oncoming traffic and so on.

But here’s the real reason for the post. I have to reserve some special scorn for this idiot:

Hotelier Declan Corbett, who employed both siblings, yesterday called on Mr Byrne to resign following his comments.

“I am after coming down from the Frewen family house and if Gay Byrne or Michael McDowell were after witnessing what I saw he wouldn’t be coming out this morning with this ranting and blaming the young people of Ireland,” he said. […]

“Gay Byrne was given this job and he shouldn’t have been given this job. It’s typical Dublin 4 job-for-the-boys. A job like this should be given to someone in rural Ireland – somebody like Sean Og O’hAilpin that young people look up to.”

Sean Og O’hAilpin, eh? As Paul Moloney noted — that’d be the same Sean Og who ended his Gaelic football career when he overtook a car on a bend, at speed, crashing head-on into oncoming traffic? A great example, indeed.

I think that might be the problem.

16 Comments

Dublin Riots

Published February 26, 2006

While driving around Ireland on a wedding-location-scouting trip, we started receiving texts talking about riots in Dublin; I texted a friend, and got a reply along these lines: “Celtic-topped scobes run riot through O’Connell St, torching cars in Nassau street, hospitalising cops and Charlie Bird. madness!”

I thought he was joking, but nope. A load of IRA-slogan-shouting scumbags really had been allowed to run riot — with paving stones of all things left unsecured in their midst! — and it quickly got way, way out of hand.

The blog coverage is excellent, with lots of photos. I suggest starting with Indymedia Ireland, these Flickr photos and the links on this weblog. It appears the gardai really fell down on this one.

For what it’s worth, I was in town a few hours later, and the rest of Dublin was trouble-free — just the usual Saturday night goings-on. O’Connell St. was still a rubble-strewn mess when I passed through on Sunday, though.

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The Adelphi Charter

Published October 17, 2005

I’ve just finished Sir John Sulston’s inspiring book about the Human Genome Project, The Common Thread, in which he discusses how he found himself on one front line of the battle between intellectual ‘property’ maximalism attempting to grab ‘property rights’ over the human genome, and the common good, preserving such rights for all humanity and unfettered research. (Thankfully, he — and therefore the latter side — won.)

I’ve been meaning to post a few choice quotes here about it at some stage, but haven’t had the time — I’ve had to just limit myself to correcting the Wikipedia entry for the Human Genome Project instead. ;)

Anyway, Sir John is in the news again, as part of a new international initiative — the Adelphi Charter:

Called the Adelphi charter, it is an attempt to lay out those principles. Central among them are the ideas that policy should be evidence-based and that it should respect the balance between property and the public domain, not eliminate the latter to maximise the former.

Coverage:

Very encouraging to see something taking off at this level. I hope it does well, and I hope Ireland and the EU’s lawmakers take note, since I’ve been hearing a lot of IP maximalist party-line from there recently…

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Anonymous remailers being tampered with

Published July 14, 2005

Politics: EDRI-gram notes that the Firenze Linux User Group’s server was tampered with last month at its ISP colo:

On Monday 27 June 2005, two members of FLUG (Firenze Linux User Group) visited the data centre of Dada S.p.a., in Milan, where the community server of the group is physically housed, in order to move it to another provider.

When the server was put out of the rack, however, it was discovered that the upper lid of the server case was half-opened. At a closer inspection, it was also discovered that the case lid was scratched, as if it had been put out and reinserted into the rack. Worse, the CD-ROM cable was missing, as were the screws that kept the hard disks in place.

What is particularly worrying is that the server hosted an anonymous remailer, whose keys and anonymity capabilities could have been compromised. Considering what happened to Autistici/Inventati server – which hosted another anonymous remailer – this possibility is not so far fetched. This begs the question whether a co-ordinated attempt at intercepting anonymous/private communications on the Internet has been ongoing in the past weeks and months.

Bizarre goings-on.

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Annoying anti-arab Republican talking points, pt. xxviii

Published January 6, 2005

Politics: This moronic comic from Pat Oliphant came up in my comics page the other day, and, after a few days of hearing this particular talking point through the usual propaganda channels, I just saw it again. It pissed me off enough that I took a look at the stats.

Naturally, it’s bullshit. The top 50 governments pledging tsunami aid, per GDP:

  • Qatar (#2)
  • UAE (#5)
  • Kuwait (#9)
  • Bahrain (#10)
  • Saudi Arabia (#15)

Given that the USA’s at #29, and the UK at #22, I think the arab states are coming up with a pretty good result there.

I guess it’s hard to look beyond today’s talking points when you’re still drawing cartoons at the age of 70.

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Global Guerrillas

Published November 5, 2004

Politics: Global Guerrillas: ‘Networked organizations, infrastructure disruption, and the emerging marketplace of violence. An open notebook on the epochal war of the 21st Century.’

This stuff is scary — and I think it’s right; the author thinks Bin Laden sees the US as an over-stretched 1980’s Russia, vulnerable to economic collapse; his last communique talks about what he calls the ‘bleed-until-bankruptcy plan’.

Bruce Sterling says ‘You ever read my 80s novel ISLANDS IN THE NET? The one with a sinister, imaginary book of military strategy in it called THE LAWRENCE DOCTRINE AND POSTINDUSTRIAL INSURGENCY? Well, this blog feels a lot like I imagined that book would have felt. Kinda floods the mind with creepily subversive 21st century insight.’

Definitely worth reading.

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Four More Wars

Published November 3, 2004

Politics: Disaster. I can’t believe it.

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Indymedia server drives seized

Published October 8, 2004

Politics: Indymedia’s hard drives in Rackspace UK seized by FBI order, seemingly as a ‘courtesy’ to Swiss police. There’s several morals to be learned:

  • Rackspace UK are happy to roll over for the US feds;
  • it appears the action was taken using powers granted under the USA-Patriot Act;
  • hosting in Europe is not safe from bad US laws.

However, the UK site is back on the air, and reportedly they’re recovering nicely; ‘All this goes to prove that Indymedia is decentralised enough (but not perfectly) to survive an attack and that as a cooperative international network, we rock!’

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Bush at the UN

Published September 21, 2004

Politics: So I was listening to that this morning. Did I hear correctly? Did Bush really say that one of the good side-effects of Iraq’s invasion, was that there were now hopefully less attacks inside other countries? sure looks like it:

‘Coalition forces now serving in Iraq are confronting the terrorists and foreign fighters so peaceful nations around the world will never have to face them within our own borders.’

I’m sure the Iraqi civilians will love that. ‘Hey guys, sorry about all the missing limbs, but you’re doing a really good job of being flypaper so we don’t get hurt. Cheers! Have a 15% corporate tax rate!‘

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“Vice-President Hunter Thompson”

Published June 22, 2004

Politics: Kerry in Colorado:

“Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly,” Kerry told the fund-raiser. “How does this sound? Vice President Hunter Thompson.”

Travel: Great posting on culture shock and ‘going native’ at Yankee Fog.

Hacks: Dan Kaminsky’s LayerOne presentation hits Slashdot. Definitely one of the highlights of that conference.

Spam: confession for two: a spammer spills it all. Interesting — especially since the spammer winds up earning less than he would have working for Starbucks.

It’s also worth noting this posting from Gary Smith on the sa-users list, in which Gary filled out a spam form with some not-entirely-valid info — with hilarious results!

So I did talk to some of these lenders. Apparently they buy leads from www.lendergateway.com . One guy that I talked to was irritated because it costs him $100 per lead they sell him and it’s supposed to only be sold to him. He apologized quite a bit and was nice enough to give me the information on who sold him the names. The number he game me goes to voicemail which I’m going to try later. A couple other people told me what I can do with myself and one lady kept saying that she couldn’t give me information on who provided her with my information.

The stupid thing is each time I talk to them I tell them I’m on a cell and that I need their name and number and I’ll call them right back. They give it to me… So when they hang up I start calling again and again. I’ve been irritating the hell out of them…

Anyways, that’s the fun storing of what happens when these forms are filled out.

$100 per spurious ‘lead’ would make a serious dent, if enough spurious leads showed up… ;)

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EU IPR Enforcement Directive Approved By Council

Published April 27, 2004

Politics: FFII reports that the ‘IPR Enforcement Directive’, the law proposed to deal with ‘IPR infringement’ by the wife of the CEO of Vivendi Universal, has just been approved by the EU Council.

Another glorious moment of digital cluelessness by the Irish presidency. But then, it had already been passed by the parliament. Reminder: that page lists the Irish MEPs and how they voted on a key amendment, which would have inserted safeguards so that ‘surprise raids … in the middle of the night by private security firms, on the flimsiest evidence’ would not be possible.

It’s now done in Europe. Next step is to deal with it when the member state governments implement it (which has to happen by June 2006).

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McCarthyite smearing, 21st-century style

Published April 5, 2004

Politics: The massive opposition to e-voting without a VVAT by Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting and others, has clearly got Minister Martin Cullen thoroughly needled.

As John Lambe points out here, in the Dail on Wednesday he stated that ICTE are ‘not experts in this field’, ‘have no expertise or international accreditation’, and best of all, he has resorted to the 21st-century equivalent of calling ICTE ‘reds under the bed’ — they are apparently ‘linked to the anti-globalisation movement’. Here’s a cut and paste from the online transcripts:

Mr. Bernard Allen, FG: Electronic voting is a good idea but this system has been badly thought through and public confidence has been badly shaken by a Government unwilling to listen to anyone but its own so-called experts. The Government has called the introduction of this system a step forward, a point reiterated by the Minister. I submit that it is a retrograde step based on insufficient knowledge on the use of technology. The Minister has a new toy and thought everyone would like it. They do not. The Irish Computer Society said: ‘Any electronic voting system must include a paper-based voter-verified audit trail.’ The Minister in his arrogance recently said these people were cranks and Luddites.

Mr. Bernard Durkan, FG: Are they cranks?

Mr. Martin Cullen, FF: They are linked to the anti-globalisation movement. The Deputy should check them out. They are all the same.

Mr. Allen: It is all a–

Mr. Cullen: If Fine Gael bases its policies on such people, it is no wonder it is in decline.

Mr. Durkan: The people concerned are computer experts.

Mr. Allen: We do not know what the Minister’s policies are and where he stands on any matter.

Mr. Paul Kehoe, FG: The Minister should know more about policy having been a member of more than one party.

Mr. Allen: Irish technology experts have told the Government its system must include a paper-based voter-verified audit trail.

Mr. Cullen: They are not experts in this field.

Mr. Allen: The Minister has made a serious allegation about genuine people–

Mr. Cullen: They are not accredited to anything. They have no expertise or international accreditation.

(Interruptions).

Mr. Michael Ring, FG: Fianna Fáil are experts on everything. They have filled every tribunal in the country.

Mr. Allen: The Minister has come to this House and–

Acting Chairman (Jerry Cowley, Ind): Deputy Allen should direct his comments through the Chair.

Mr. Allen: The Chair should ask the Minister to cease interrupting.

Mr. Cullen: Such comments are pathetic. It is no wonder Fine Gael is in such a disorderly state.

Mr. Ring: Fianna Fáil are the experts.

Acting Chairman: I remind Members that this is not a Committee Stage debate. We are dealing with Second Stage and I ask Deputies to allow Deputy Allen to continue without interruption, please.

Mr. Allen: The Minister has vilified people who cannot protect themselves.

Mr. Durkan: Outside the House.

Mr. Allen: The Minister should withdraw the allegation against–

Mr. Cullen: I have not vilified them. I said they are not accredited–

Mr. Allen: The Minister said they are linked to the anti-globalisation movement and suggested we should check them out.

Mr. Cullen: Yes, they are.

Acting Chairman: Deputy Allen, please continue.

Mr. Allen: The Minister should withdraw that allegation against people who cannot protect themselves.

Mr. Cullen: I will not.

Acting Chairman: Deputy Allen, please continue.

Mr. Durkan: The Minister has cast aspersions on people outside this House. In accordance with Standing Orders–

Mr. Cullen: I think they are proud of their links.

Mr. Durkan: On a point of order, the making of such an allegation is not in accordance with the Standing Orders of this House. Perhaps the Minister would like to comment.

Acting Chairman: The Chair has ruled on that matter.

Mr. Durkan: With respect, the Chair has no authority to rule on this matter. Standing Orders apply.

Acting Chairman: That Chair has ruled on the matter.

Mr. Durkan: No, I am sorry, I do not agree. On a point of order, the Minister has cast aspersions–

Mr. Cullen: I paid them a compliment.

Mr. Durkan: The Minister has cast aspersions on people outside this House.

Mr. Cullen: They will regard my remarks as a compliment, a badge of honour.

2 Comments

Bruce Sterling rocks

Published March 16, 2004

Politics: Bruce Sterling’s speech at SXSW ’04. It’s excellent. He covers climate change, globalization, the Bush administration’s Lysenkoism, the spam problem, WMDs, and the Spanish election. Now I want to move to Austin ;)

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Thank you, MS Word Metadata

Published March 15, 2004

Politics: California AG forwards anti-P2P screed on behalf of the MPAA.

However, the metadata associated with the Microsoft Word document indicates it was either drafted or reviewed by a senior vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America. According to this metadata (automatically generated by the Word application), the document’s author or editor is ‘stevensonv.’ (The metadata of a document is viewable through the File menu under Properties.)

Sources tell Wired News that the draft letter’s authorship is attributed to Vans Stevenson, the MPAA’s senior vice president for state legislative affairs. MPAA representatives have issued similar criticisms of P2P technology in the past. Stevenson could not be reached for comment.

Funny: Humorix: Feds Unveil Practical Method To Combat Spam. ”If a spammer
has access to a list of millions of clue-impaired users, they won’t need to bother sending spam to anybody else’, Thullweppon argued.’ (thanks to Kenneth Porter for the link!)

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Tales of Tel Aviv

Published January 20, 2004

Politics: G2: Tales of Tel Aviv.

Tomer, aged 33, a promoter in the music business who personifies Israel’s lost generation, the soldiers of the two intifadas: ‘There’s no prize any more for being a good soldier or a good citizen, we all have a mental scratch – for some of us it’s a scar, for others it’s a Grand Canyon. The saddest thing for me is seeing people in their mid-20s with such an empty look in their eyes. All the symptoms are of people losing hope, of seeing no solution.

At the moment I’m trying to promote the Geneva accords as much as possible. We’ve all made so many mistakes in this region, what else have we got to lose? But mainly, I’m just sad.’

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Racism in New Zealand, Teapot, and Lena

Published December 17, 2003

Politics: Lest we get carried away with the beauty, grooviness and coolness-in-general of New Zealand — where 1 in 160 of the population was involved in the making of the LoTR trilogy — up pops this story. It seems racism and xenophobia is finally arriving on the shores of Aotearoa.

Under the headline ‘Whose country is it anyway?’ Peters’s leaflet rails against Asian immigrants, falsely claiming that hundreds of thousands are coming to New Zealand and blaming them for, among other things, traffic problems in Auckland. These immigrants are, according to Peters, simultaneously poor enough to be leeches on the welfare system, and rich enough to drive up the cost of housing.

It would be easy to dismiss all this as a piece of desperate populism. But, unlike the Australian One Nation party, New Zealand First is not a collapsing political joke: it is the third-biggest party in Wellington’s parliament, and until 1999 Mr Peters was the country’s deputy prime minister. Barring an electoral miracle, the opposition National party will have to take them on as coalition partners if it is ever to win another election.

‘Traffic problems in Auckland’? WTF? (found via Danny Yee)

Computing: Amazing. via GirlHacker, it turns out that a teapot has long been used as a demonstration of complex computer graphics techiques — with it’s curved surfaces, hidden surfaces and the like (don’t ask me, I’m no graphics guru). If you were around for the early 3-D graphics days, you’ve almost definitely seen the teapot.

Well, it turns out there was a real teapot. Here’s the history.

A related image is that of ‘Lenna’, a standard test image used when testing image compression schemes, which features a woman giving the viewer a rather saucy come-hither look. It turns out she was a Swedish model, who posed for Playboy in 1972, and that picture was scanned by an (unauthorized) researcher at USC. Piracy!

Playboy later threatened to prosecute over the unauthorized use, but by now has recognised the unique history this now has, and has relented. Cool.

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Small arms and radioactive waste

Published November 22, 2003

Politics: Hey, Sarge, Why Are They Shooting At Us with American Guns? (Three-Toed Sloth).

An interesting article, with one central thesis that had never occurred to me before; why should exports of guns, automatic weapons, and landmines be as free and easy as they are now?

In recent weeks, small arms have brought down several U.S. helicopters in Iraq, killing dozens of soldiers. Given the historically unprecedented military strength of the American armed forces, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be flooding the world with weapons that could someday be used in guerilla warfare — arguably the only kind of war that an enemy can successfully wage against the U.S. military.

Sanchez cited Afghanistan as a perfect example of this phenomenon. ‘No sale of weapons is ever completely safe,’ he said, ‘as yesterday’s allies become today’s terrorists.’

Environment: excerpts from Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (via NTK). Eek! Check this out…

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Needs more thought

Published November 3, 2003

Politics: Nelson Mandela banned from visiting the US. oops! But they’ve fixed it:

The good news is that the United States government has removed Nelson Mandela, Tokyo Sexwale and Sidney Mufamadi from its list of global terrorists. The bad news is that the removal is only for the next 10 years. ….

‘To make an exception for those who struggled against apartheid would require congress to change the law, and that would be a very lengthy process,’ (Virginia Farris, the public affairs spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria) said.

Via Wendy M. Grossman, who reckons myself and the other SpamAssassin guys are Mrs. Beeton. ;)

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fantastic New Yorker article

Published October 20, 2003

Politics: The Stovepipe, by Seymour M. Hersh:

The notes said that Jafar was then asked, ‘But this doesn’t mean all W.M.D.? How can you be certain?’ His answer was clear: ‘I know all the scientists involved, and they chat. There is no W.M.D.’
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Compare and Contrast

Published October 20, 2003

Politics: Eli Lilly wants it both ways. First off pro-free-market:

Not many U.S. companies would put ‘maintenance of free market’ at the top of their worry list, but the pharmaceutical industry has genuine reasons for concern.

But then, anti-free-market!:

Starting immediately, if a Canadian wholesaler tries to order more Lilly product than Lilly’s estimate of what is appropriate for Canadian use, ‘they will not be able to have it,’ Smith said.
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