Daily Archives: 14. November 2013


14.11.2013 - 22:46 [ AlterNet ]

Have You Been Smoking Pot? Denver Police Have a New Way to Tell: The ‚Nasal Ranger‘

Denver, Colorado—one of the cities in the country to legalize marijuana use—has passed a new “odor ordinance” with a potential $2,000 fine for anyone found guilty of polluting the atmosphere with high concentrations of cannabis. And the police department‘s plan for enforcement is a strange-looking device called an olfactometer, or more collquially, the „nose telescope.“

14.11.2013 - 21:54 [ Gegen Hartz ]

BA spioniert Hartz IV Beziehern im Web hinterher

„… Will die Bundesagentur für Arbeit die NSA toppen und das Internet als Feld der Bespitzelung von Erwerbslosen und Bürgerinnen und Bürgern mit geringem Einkommen nutzen? Anzuraten ist der Bundesagentur für Arbeit dagegen, ihrem Dienstleistungsauftrag gerecht zu werden und dafür zu sorgen, dass Hartz-IV-Beziehende ihr Recht erhalten.“

14.11.2013 - 21:50 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

Court Upholds Legality of Google Books: Tremendous Victory for Fair Use and the Public Interest

It’s a good day for fair use and sane copyright law. After years of litigation, Judge Denny Chin has ruled that the Google Books project does not infringe copyright. Readers, authors, librarians and future fair users can rejoice.

14.11.2013 - 19:36 [ The Independent ]

Exclusive: US blocks publication of Chilcot’s report on how Britain went to war with Iraq

Although the Cabinet Office has been under fire for stalling the progress of the four-year Iraq Inquiry by Sir John Chilcot, senior diplomatic sources in the US and Whitehall indicated that it is officials in the White House and the US Department of State who have refused to sanction any declassification of critical pre- and post-war communications between George W Bush and Tony Blair.

14.11.2013 - 19:32 [ New York Times ]

Residents Suing to Stop ‘Fortresslike’ Plan for World Trade Center

Hoping to cast some light on the issue, a group of Lower Manhattan residents is preparing to sue the New York Police Department over its security plan for the World Trade Center, saying that the plan will leave the center in “fortresslike isolation” and the area around it “as impervious to traffic as the Berlin Wall.” … The Police Department plans to close the streets in and around the trade center to normal through traffic. Vehicles would be screened before entering this zone, or “campus,” as the police call it. Some would be searched. Only those having demonstrable business at the trade center, or those previously certified as trustworthy, would be allowed in.

14.11.2013 - 19:27 [ The Stranger ]

The Seattle Police Department Disables Its Mesh Network (the New Apparatus Capable of Spying on You)

The Seattle Police Department just announced that it has begun the process of deactivating its wireless mesh network, a powerful tool for sending vast amounts of data that also has powerful surveillance potential. In theory, the network (built by a California-based company called Aruba Networks) could track and indefinitely log the movements of any wireless device with a MAC address (phones, laptops, tablets) that moves through its coverage area.

14.11.2013 - 19:12 [ The Washington Times ]

Homeland Security must disclose ‘Internet Kill Switch,’ court rules

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must disclose its plans for a so-called Internet “kill switch,” a federal court ruled on Tuesday.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the agency’s arguments that its protocols surrounding an Internet kill switch were exempt from public disclosure and ordered the agency to release the records in 30 days. However, the court left the door open for the agency to appeal the ruling.

14.11.2013 - 19:02 [ Russia Today ]

Ego building? NATO erects $1bn HQ as members slash military spending

„When defense budgets are being cut and in general when governments are under so much pressure from taxpayers to save money, it looks terribly extravagant,“ Daniel Keohane, head of strategic affairs at the FRIDE think tank in Brussels, told Reuters.

The timing of construction of the eight-floor structure, which contains enough blast-proof glass to cover 10 football fields, was „unfortunate,“ Keohane said.

14.11.2013 - 19:01 [ NATO shows off its new HQ-to-be ]

NATO shows off its new HQ-to-be

Some have questioned whether an organization founded to counter the Soviet threat has a role in today‘s world but Lungescu said the fact that members agreed to build the alliance a new home is „a vote of confidence for the future of NATO.“

14.11.2013 - 18:26 [ Washington Post ]

Two Secret Service agents cut from Obama’s detail after alleged misconduct

The disruption at the Hay-
Adams in May involved Ignacio Zamora Jr., a senior supervisor who oversaw about two dozen agents in the Secret Service’s most elite assignment — the president’s security detail. Zamora was allegedly discovered attempting to reenter a woman’s room after accidentally leaving behind a bullet from his service weapon.

14.11.2013 - 17:12 [ Gentrification Blog ]

Social Media für soziale Mieten (Aufruf zum Mitmachen)

Hausverwaltungen und Investoren sehen es nicht gern, wenn das eigene Handeln quasi in Echtzeit im Internet dokumentiert wird. Insbesondere wenn es darum geht, Mietraum in hochpreisige Eigentumswohnungen umzuwandeln, können negative Schlagzeilen zur umworbenen Immobilie die Marketingstrategie empfindlich stören. Nicht selten wird mit Unterlassungsklagen, Anwaltsbriefen oder auch mit Einschüchterungsversuchen in persönlichen Gesprächen versucht, die Abschaltung der entsprechenden Seiten durchzusetzen. Der Kampf um die Häuser ist auch eine Auseinandersetzung um die Definitionsmacht in der digitalen Welt.

14.11.2013 - 17:01 [ Beppe Grillo ]

The spectre of populism

A spectre is roaming around Europe. It’s not the spectre of Communism that Marx talked about in his Manifesto of the Communist Party. Today, the spectre is something else: populism. Here is the great fear of the existing, invisible powers, (and they too are like spectres in a certain way), the powers that control what Ida Magli defines as the European Dictatorship: the fear that the next time there are elections, alongside the “traditional” parties, others will sneak in – movements that are in open and real opposition to this idea of Europe, to this economic-financial oligarchy that has been called the European Union.

14.11.2013 - 15:48 [ Ria Novosti ]

Lawrow kritisiert Arabische Liga: „Einige überstürzte Beschlüsse zu Syrien“

Der Außen- und der Verteidigungsminister Russlands waren zu Verhandlungen mit ihren ägyptischen Amtskollegen nach Kairo gekommen. Darüber hinaus ist ihr Treffen mit dem ägyptischen Übergangspräsidenten Adli Mansur geplant. Im Anschluss daran soll ein „2+2“-Treffen der Außen- und der Verteidigungsminister beider Länder stattfinden.

14.11.2013 - 15:46 [ Russia Today ]

Putin calls Assad on Geneva-2, chemical weapons, persecution of Christians

Putin said he was concerned with “purposeful persecution of Christians and other religious minorities” by extremist groups in Syria. He said Russia hopes the Syrian government “will do everything possible to relieve the suffering of the civilian population and to restore the peace.”

14.11.2013 - 15:44 [ Electronic Intifada ]

Jewish student receives death threats over Palestine solidarity work

A Jewish member of Students for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern University in Boston has received death threats ostensibly because of his involvement in Palestine solidarity activism and outspoken criticism of Zionism.

The threats come as Zionist groups warn of legal complaints against the university, alleging campus “anti-Semitism” — despite an ever-growing record of failure to support these kinds of accusations.

14.11.2013 - 15:42 [ Guardian ]

Torture inquiry ‚finds UK intelligence officers knew of mistreatment‘

An official investigation into the extent of the UK‘s involvement in rendition and torture after 9/11 is reported to have concluded that British intelligence officers were aware that detainees were being mistreated in prisons across the globe.

The Gibson inquiry report recommends that further inquiries now be made to establish how far ministers were responsible, according to the Times.

14.11.2013 - 15:41 [ Netzpolitik ]

SPD-Mitarbeiterin schickt versehentlich vertrauliches Papier an alle Fraktionen – SPD votiert demnach für “europäische Drohne”

Hintergrund waren entsprechende Verhandlungen von CDU/ CSU und SPD zur Anschaffung von Kampfdrohnen, die in der “Arbeitsgruppe Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik” geführt wurden. Mehrere Medien hatten bereits gemeldet, Pläne zum Kauf von Kampfdrohnen seien erstmal vom Tisch.

14.11.2013 - 13:53 [ Radioforen.de ]

GEMA-freie Musik in Radios?

Gibt es eigentlich Radiosender die Gemafreie Musik abspielen? Ich würde gerne in meinem Laden so einen Sender abspielen lassen dann müsste ich ja keine gema gebühren mehr bezahlen.

14.11.2013 - 13:51 [ Basis-Film Portal ]

VIDEO VERTOV im Bali Kino Berlin: Politisches Kino

Das in den 20er Jahren Weimars als Tanzsaal gegründete Bali Kino in Berlin Zehlendorf, dass ab 1946 bis zum heutigen Tage politisches Kino zeigt, hat in “30 Jahren in Folge Auszeichnungen durch das Bundesministerium des Innern, Bundesministerium für Angelegenheiten der Kultur und Medien und Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg für ein hervorragendes Jahresfilmprogramm” erhalten. Am heutigen Donnerstag um 20.30 Uhr, sowie am Samstag (16.) um 18.00 Uhr, zeigt es VIDEO VERTOV, in Anwesenheit des Filmemachers Gerd Conradt.

14.11.2013 - 13:33 [ Guardian ]

Mexico accused of suppressing freedom of speech over hit documentary

When Presumed Guilty – the nightmarish tale of a street vendor in Mexico City who was twice wrongly convicted of murder – was released in 2011, it won an Emmy for investigative journalism, broke Mexican box-office records, and triggered a fierce debate over the country‘s dysfunctional judicial system.

Nearly three years later, as important legal rulings are expected in two cases over the documentary, the film is banned in Mexico and the director has recieved death threats.

14.11.2013 - 13:29 [ Global Research ]

South Korea Police State: National Intelligence Service (NIS) Arrests Rep. Lee Seok-ki: Did ROK Lawmaker Really Try to Overthrow the Government?

In the early dawn of August 28th, South Korea’s top intelligence agency, the Nat’l Intelligence Service (NIS), raided the offices and residences of ten Unified Progressive Party (UPP) members including first-termer Rep. Lee Seok-ki. The NIS promptly arrested three party officials including Hong Soon-seok that afternoon and went on to arrest Rep. Lee on September 4th.