The E-ELT is expected to start collecting data sometime in the next decade, and it will be outfitted with a 128-foot (39 m) mirror. ESO has referred to the telescope as „the world‘s biggest eye on the sky.“ [See artist depictions of what the E-ELT will look like]
Daily Archives: 20. Juni 2014
When Transparency and Technology Activists Come Together, Contacting Congress Gets Easier and Easier
Exactly one year ago, Amy Ngai of the Sunlight Foundation visited EFF‘s offices in San Francisco to introduce our staff to the rather large and versatile collection of transparency tools they‘ve developed. Midway through her presentation, there was a moment when you could clearly perceive several pieces click into place in our activism team‘s collective mind. Sunlight is developing new technologies for engaging with Congress and the legislative process, while EFF has been at the forefront of mobilizing the online community to defend Internet freedom. With a shared hacker and tinkerer mentality and a love of exposing government secrets, a natural partnership was formed.
‚The Beast‘ Asteroid Seen in Amazing Detail (Photos, Video)
The nature of „The Beast“ has been revealed. The Earth-based radar observations taken over four hours on Sunday revealed that the asteroid is at least 1,200 feet (370 m) wide
Inside the Koch Brothers‘ Secret Billionaire Summit
Charles and David Koch wrapped up their annual summer seminar on June 16 in Dana Point, California, at the St. Regis Monarch Bay resort—a fitting location for two men whose combined net worth is more than $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The highly secretive mega-donor conference, called „American Courage: Our Commitment to a Free Society,“ featured a who‘s who of Republican political elites. According to conference documents obtained through a source who was in attendance, Representatives Tom Cotton (AR), Cory Gardner (CO) and Jim Jordan (OH) were present, as were Senators Mitch McConnell (KY) and Marco Rubio (FL). Cotton, Gardner and McConnell are all running for the Senate this year; Jordan for re-election in the House. Rubio is widely considered a major contender for a 2016 presidential run. According to the documents, the conference attendees discussed strategy on campaign finance, climate change, healthcare, higher education and opportunities for taking control of the Senate. (The draft agenda is available for viewing here.)
Canadian Court to the Entire World: No Links For You!
The decision is a massive overreach. The removal of the defendant‘s entire domain from Google‘s local Canadian sites would have already been excessive. Although it cannot be confirmed from official reports, this one could have carried other legitimate products unrelated to the plaintiff‘s designs, or even hosted a blog or discussion forum with other users‘ comments and submissions. For example, the U.S. seized and took down the hip-hop culture website, Dajaz1.com, due to some allegedly copyright infringing works that was shared on the platform even while most of the site’s pages contained lawful content. It‘s not clear whether such considerations were made at all, and that is terrifying on its own.
Einigkeit im Orbit: russisch-ukrainische “SATAN”-Rakete setzt 33 Satelliten aus, mit an Bord Technik aus den U.S.A., Israel und Saudi-Arabien
Weitere Satelliten oder Raumfahrttechnik sind Perseus-M 1 und 2 (USA), Deimos-2 (Spanien), Hodoyoshi-3 und 4 (Japan), BRITE-CA 1 und 2 (Kanada), BugSat-1 (Argentinien), SaudiSat- 4 (Saudi-Arabien) und Duchifat-1 (Israel). Letztere ist ein israelischer Versuchs- und Lehrraumschiff, das von israelischen Studenten an Sekundar-Schulen entwickelt und gebaut wurde.
Congress passes anti-mass surveillance amendment with overwhelming support
We did it!
The NSA just lost its budget for ‚backdoor‘ web spying
US Congress has voted to pass a legal amendment that will cut off funding to the NSA and CIA‘s „backdoor“ programme and prevent the spy agency from snooping on its citizens‘ internet communications.
Shut the NSA‘s Backdoor to the Internet
We did it. Thanks to tweets and phone calls from concerned Internet users like you, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to close critical backdoors that allow the NSA to surveil the Internet. We‘re one step closer to reining in NSA spying abuses.
We took a big step tonight to ‪#‎ShutTheBackDoor‬ on unwarranted government surveillance by passing the Massie-Lofgren amendment.
The House stood up for the American people and the Constitution, and that is something we can all celebrate.
House Votes to Impose New Curbs on Government Spying
In a surprise vote, the House backed an amendment to a $570 billion defense spending bill that would bar warrantless collection of personal online information and prohibit access for the NSA and CIA into commercial tech products.
“The American people are sick of being spied on,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who joined with libertarian Republicans and liberal Democrats to push the measure.
.@repjustinamash thank you for helping draft last night‘s #NSA legislation and for blazing the path to victory!
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I told @RepThomasMassie we were going to win tonight.
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Massie amendment to stop unconstitutional #NSA backdoor searches passes 293-123-1.
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House Overwhelmingly Votes To Slam The Backdoor Shut On The NSA!
A week ago, we told you that there were plans for a very important amendment to slam the backdoor shut on the NSA‘s use of backdoor searches, as well as mandates for backdoors in technology. On Wednesday, we asked you to call your Representatives to support the Amendment. The story got almost no other press. And yet, last night, the amendment passed by an overwhelming majority, 293 to 123. And it was also an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote: Republicans voted for it 135 to 94, and Democrats voted for it 158 to 29. Go take a look at the vote results in the link above
M5S to meet Renzi‘s PD for reform talks Wednesday
The anti-establishment Five-Star movement (M5S) said Friday it will be represented by its Lower House Whip Giuseppe Brescia, Senate Whip Maurizio Buccarella and MPs Danilo Toninelli and Luigi Di Maio at a meeting with Premier Matteo Renzi‘s Democratic Party (PD) on Wednesday for talks on election-law.
In a blog post, the movement said it wanted to discuss reforms with the PD “as a parliamentary force“.
Nuclear talks to resume July 2, Iran says key issues unresolved
Iran and world powers will resume negotiations on its contested nuclear activities on July 2 after a round of talks in Vienna this week that Tehran said yielded no breakthrough on the main sticking points.
Estonia PM calls for permanent NATO presence as bulwark to Russia
Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas urged NATO on Friday to establish a permanent presence in the Baltic state in response to Russia‘s actions in Ukraine, telling his allies to „open your eyes and stay awake“.
Egypt is back online after partial internet cuts: Telecom official
(3.6.2014) Egypt suffered telecom cuts in several provinces earlier in the day when a fire broke out in a Telecom Egypt centre in Alexandria
WikiLeaks: S E C R E T STATE 015113 wichtigste Kommunikationsnetze und Ressourcen
(29.12.2010) Am 6.Dezember 2010 veröffentlichte WikiLeaks eine Anweisung der US-Aussenministerin Hillary Clinton an alle auswärtigen Vertretungen, Informationen über strategisch-wirtschaftliche Schwerpunkte in den jeweiligen Gastländern zu erstellen und zu aktualisieren, die für die nationale Sicherheit der USA von grösster Bedeutung sind.
Ganz besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei auf die Kommunikationsnetzwerke wie Unterwasser-Seekabel gelegt, die den Pulsschlag der modernen Lebensweise bilden und bei entsprechenden Störungen ganze Volkswirtschaften lahmlegen können. Die Anweisung suggeriert, dass die Funktionstüchtigkeit für die Sicherheit und Wirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika unentbehrlich ist.
Den Umkehrschluss des gezielten Ausschaltens dieser genau analysierten Kommunikationswege im Falle einer drohenden militärischen oder diplomatischen Krise zwischen diversen Staaten und den USA zu ziehen, um Länder zu schwächen, dürfte genauso auf der Hand liegen.
Erneute Internetausfälle in Ostafrika nehmen inflationäre Auswüchse an
(18.3.2012) Wieder hiess es für die Kommunikation via Internet für die Nutzer zwei Tage offline durch zerschnittene Glasfaserkabel der Mombasa-Nairobi-Route in Kenia – Unternehmen, die auf eine Internet-Anbindung angewiesen sind, wurden hart getroffen.
Zu- oder Testfall: Ostafrikas dramatischer Telekommunikation-Blackout
(29.2.2012) Der Ausfall der Hauptadern der Internet- und Handy-Kommunikation in Ost-Afrika fällt in Zeiten der erhöhten Spannungslage – nicht nur der Bevölkerung von Somalia steht ein extrem heisser Sommer bevor
NSA uses 33 countries to intercept web traffic – Snowden Files
The previously unreported NSA operation — a program codenamed RAMPART-A — “sweeps up a vast amount of communications at lightning speed,” according to Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept, by letting the NSA tap into broadband internet cables containing web traffic that might not be otherwise easily obtainable from the originating country.
EFF Statement on Passage of Massie-Lofgren Amendment Regarding NSA Backdoors
Today, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill designed to cut funding for NSA backdoors. The amendment passed overwhelmingly with strong bipartisan support: 293 ayes, 123 nays, and 1 present.
Currently, the NSA collects emails, browsing and chat history under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, and searches this information without a warrant for the communications of Americans—a practice known as „backdoor searches.“ The amendment would block the NSA from using any of its funding from this Defense Appropriations Bill to conduct such warrantless searches. In addition, the amendment would prohibit the NSA from using its budget to mandate or request that private companies and organizations add backdoors to the encryption standards that are meant to keep you safe on the web.
34 % aller BĂĽrger in E.U.-Staaten wissen nicht, dass sich die Erde um die Sonne dreht
) 21. März 2014) Auf die Frage “Dreht sich die Erde um die Sonne oder dreht sich die Sonne um die Erde?” anworteten mit “die Erde um die Sonne” (das ist die korrekte Antwort) prozentual die Befragten in den jeweiligen Gebieten wie folgt:
SĂĽdkorea: 84 %
Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika: 74 %
Europäische Union: 66 %, Halleluja, Baby!
Vier von zehn sorgen sich wegen Terroranschlägen in Deutschland
Aktuellen Berichten zufolge gibt es mehrere hundert deutsche Islamisten, die sich an den kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen in Syrien und im Irak beteiligen und danach wieder nach Deutschland zurückkommen. Mehr als vier von zehn Deutschen machen sich in Anbetracht dessen sehr große (9 Prozent) bzw. große Sorgen (34 Prozent), dass es auch hierzulande Terroranschläge geben könnte.
NSA-Ausschuss: Snowden sagt Befragung in Moskau ab
„FĂĽr ein mĂĽndliches, ‚informelles‘ Gespräch in Moskau besteht nach alledem derzeit weder Raum noch Bedarf“, heiĂźt es in einem Schreiben des deutschen Rechtsbeistands von Snowden, Wolfgang Kaleck, an den NSA-Untersuchungsausschuss. Das teilte der Vorsitzende Patrick Sensburg (CDU) ZEIT ONLINE mit.
That Time When People Thought Playing Chess Would Make You Violent
Take, for example, chess. ChurchHatesTucker writes in about a nice and extensive post on iO9 about how critics attacked what is now considered the game of intellectuals when it was first taking over, over a century ago. The arguments, I dare say, will sound familiar to you.
Verfassungsschutz warnt vor Salafisten-Alarm | Islamisten bereiten Propaganda-Krieg gegen Deutschland vor
(8. Oktober 2012) Darauf deute auch ein Drohschreiben (BILD.de berichtete) hin, in dem zum Mord an deutschen Politikern aufgerufen werde. Im dem achtseitigen Schreiben (liegt BILD vor) ruft ein deutscher Islamist zu Attentaten und Mordanschlägen in Deutschland auf.
„Eine Gefahr fĂĽr unser Land“ – Verfassungsschutz warnt vor radikaler Salafisten-Szene
(27. April 2014)
Kritik an hessischem Innenminister: #FDP: Beuth zu weich im Kampf gegen #Salafisten (von Ralf Euler, Wiesbaden)
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Egypt’s Salafist Nour party in tenuous political alliance with president-elect Sissi
(01. Juni) Former defense minister Abdel Fatah al-Sissi won Egypt’s presidency in a landslide last month, but amid low turnout, one key group of voters who were expected to support him stayed away from the polls: ultraconservative Islamists who had officially endorsed his bid.
Egypt: Head of Ultraconservative Nour Party Says to Get 20 Percent of Parliament Seats
(10. Juni) The Nour Party garnered the second largest number of seats in 2012‘s parliamentary elections, 20 percent, after the Muslim Brotherhood‘s Freedom and Justice Party.
Makhyoun insisted that the party and the „Salafi call“ have maintained their support despite what he described as a negative image that has tarnished Islamist parties due to the mistakes committed by the Brotherhood.
Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Leader Al-Shater: Military Rule Will End
In the first interview since his arrest after the military coup (since July 2013), Khairat Al-Shater, Muslim Brotherhood Vice-Chairman, assured that military rule in Egypt will soon fall.
During a hearing court session of a totally fabricated case against him, in notorious Tora Prison (south of Cairo), Al-Shater said: „We must purge the country of military putschists. This military coup is a non-stop, day and night, soap opera. God will soon reveal the putschists‘ dark secrets. Down, down with military rule.“
Saudi King Abdullah to visit Egypt for first time since 2011 uprising
The visit will be Abdullah‘s first since the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a close ally of both Saudi Arabia and the United States. (…)
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations showered Egypt with billions of dollars in aid after Sisi, then the army‘s top general, overthrew Islamist President Mohammad Mursi amid massive protests last summer.