Via: nettime's message splicer
Table of Contents:
Re: Netizens expose scientific fraud in South Korea
"tobias c. van Veen"
Re: Netizens expose scientific fraud in South Korea
Ronda Hauben
Re: Netizens expose scientific fraud in South Korea
"tobias c. van Veen"
Via: Ricardo Dominguez
Subject: En;SubDelegado Zero re:altmedia and coverage
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
**********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the Alternative Media of the "Other"
To those persons, collectives and organizations of the "Other" who are
proposing to make films, videos, photographs, reports, research, etcetera
concerning or during the first trip by SubDelegado Zero of the EZLN's
Sixth Committee:
Compa~eras and compa~eros:
Zapatista greetings from compa~eros in struggle. I am letting you know
that several letters have been received at our post office proposing, or
asking for authorization for, projects having to do with Alternative
Communication and independent artistic productions. We have the following
to say about this:
1. - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee (including SubDelegado
Zero), have any objection to your work. The "Other," as we have said time
and again, belongs to everyone, and, to our way of thinking, it should
also be a place for promoting and consolidating the different alternative
communication projects which exist below and to the left in Mexico. We
think the same way about artistic productions. In this regard, the only
thing we should do is welcome your proposals and do everything we can to
not be an obstacle to their being carried out.
2 - This first stage of the EZLN's Sixth Committee's trip throughout
Mexico will concentrate primarily on making direct contact with the
greatest possible number of supporters of the Sexta and the "Other." In
some cases it will be possible for us to participate in public events.
Given how full the agendas in each state will be, it appears that it will
be difficult for us to participate directly in the projects you are
proposing. Even so, we will make an effort to participate at some point
in something jointly with all the compas who are working in alternative
media and in artistic productions.
3 - Given that you are compas, and we need to also make the "Other" a
place for communications, dissemination and art, the EZLN's Sixth
Committee is recommending to the committees or coordinators which are
being formed in each state that they give preferential treatment to the
compa~eros from the "Other" who will be "covering" this trip, given that
the alternative media are at a disadvantage to the mass media, and, if
this is the "Other," then we should also be "otherly" as regards
communication and artistic productions. This preferential treatment does
not refer just to their being given access to the meetings and activities
in each location, but also that the space be organized so that the
alternative compas who record, take photos, films, videos, etcetera, can
do their work of news, documentation, research, artistic production,
etcetera, with the greatest possible ease.
4 - In return, we are asking you, in turn, to respect the decisions and
regulations made on this matter by the committees or coordinators in each
state or region.
That's all for now then, compa~eros and compa~eras. I hope that, when we
pass through the state where you live and work, we will be able to see
you and talk to you without a lens-microphone being involved.
Un abrazo.
>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
*********************************************
*********************************************
Subject: En;SubDelegado Zero on security issues
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To all the compa~eros and compa~eras of the "Other":
To the Committees, Coordinators (or however they are called) which are being
formed in each state or region in order to help with the first stage of the
EZLN's Sixth Committee national work
To the Security Committees which have been formed, or are being formed, for
the accompaniment and security of SubDelegado Zero during this first stage:
Compa~eras and compa~eros:
Greetings from our compa~eros and compa~eras of the "Other." We are writing
you in order to propose some criteria for security at the meetings and
activities in which SubDelegado Zero will be participating.
First - It is always better (and more effective) to avoid arrogance and
grandstanding. It is not about isolating, but about accompanying and
protecting. A security team is effective if it does its work without being
noticed. In no way will the EZLN's Sixth Committee accept any persons on
their security team who are of any nationality other than Mexican.
Second - The work of security and accompaniment is avoiding problems due
to crowds (in the unlikely event that there are any), preventing (as far
as possible) any bad acts by some "anti-otra," and, most importantly,
seeing that SubDelegado Zero does not get lost while going from one place
to another (for example, making a "mistake," with obvious trickery, with
the door when going to the bathroom and going into the "ladies" instead of
the "gents").
Third - In the event that the bad governments attempt some repressive
measure, do not put up any resistance (especially if there are shots),
and step aside. In no way should you put your life or liberty at risk.
Always have identification with you and the help of human rights, always
maintaining the truth, that is, that you are exercising a legal and
legitimate civil right. You will not be violating any law by being next
to an individual with a ski-mask and an elegant profile (with the
contribution of the tummy).
Fourth - In the event of detention, SubDelegado Zero knows what to do
and, above all, what not to do. And so do not worry yourselves by
imagining what you will do in such and such a horrible event. The
response is: run, take shelter, inform, disseminate, mobilize...send me
tobacco.
I am, in advance, not authorizing anyone or any organization to assume,
WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT VERBAL AND WRITTEN REQUEST, the legal defense of my
person.
Fifth - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee will be asking for any
guarantees from federal, state or municipal officials. We do not expect
anything, nor will we ask for anything, from those who have always treated
us with contempt and disdain. If any Committee or Coordinator from a
state or region decides to request from their respective officials respect
for the liberties of meeting, association and movement, which are the
prerogatives of any citizen, we are respectfully asking that they do so in
their name, not in ours. Even if they threaten us from above or promise
us detentions, jails, clandestine cellars or cemeteries, we shall go out
to do the work which we committed ourselves to in the Sexta.
Sixth - In the event of any major mishap, public statements or not, and
the decisions which our organization will take, are the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE
purview of the top command level of the EZLN.
Seventh - Whatever happens, know that it is an honor, and it shall be,
to have you as compa~eros and compa~eras in struggle.
>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
SubComandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
*********************************************
*********************************************
Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos Coverage Begins
Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 3:14 pm
Article: narconews.com
Let's Get The Other Journalism On The Road!
December 27, 2005
>From Somewhere in the Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas, Mexico
Preparations for Narco News Full "Swarm" Coverage of the first legs of the
historic six-month voyage of Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos to every corner
of Mexico are gearing up. You can read all about it at the special page
we've created for it:
http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/
The journey begins on Sunday, January 1, and I'm going to share a little bit
more with you here about what to expect when the rebel roller coaster ride
begins.
Thanks to each of you who already made a donation in the past two weeks we
are halfway toward the estimated budget that will be needed to move a mobile
team of Authentic Journalists - video, radio, photo, written word,
investigation, the works - from Chiapas to the Yucata'n peninsula during the
first 16 days of the journey.
The goal is not merely to cover Marcos - known as "Delegate Zero" - and his
travels, but also to undertake the more daunting task of interviewing "the
simple and humble people who struggle" that await his visit across the
Yucata'n Peninsula in the ten days prior to his January 9 arrival there.
I'll introduce you, in a moment, to your (every day growing larger team of)
journalists on the ground, and give you a preview of what we hope to
accomplish during these historic days, but first - because I know that not
all of you need "the pitch" to contribute some portion of your holiday booty
or hard-earned bread - here's the short version:
Please make a donation today to The Fund for Authentic Journalism to make
this news coverage possible (the journalists are all volunteering our labor,
but there are also gas, food, lodging, transport costs and other expenses
inherent in moving a large news team across hill and dale). You can make
that donation right now online at this link:
http://www.authenticjournalism.org/
Or you can send your contribution - checks made out to The Fund for
Authentic Journalism, please - through the mail to:
The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O. Box 241
Natick, MA 01760
United States of America
Now, here's a sneak preview of what will occur beginning on Sunday.
The Zapatista spokesman will begin his journey in the jungle outpost of La
Garrucha and head toward San Cristo'bal de Las Casas (the former colonial
capital of Chiapas) where a massive march will welcome and accompany him.
On the ground there in Chiapas will be a team of journalists headed by
Concepcio'n Villafuerte, editor of La Foja Coleta and former co-editor, with
her late husband Amado Avenda~o Figueroa, of the historic newspaper El
Tiempo (which has a special edition - the first since don Amado's April 2004
passing - coming out this week to begin the reporting and also announce our
own efforts). Working with do~a Conchita on the Chiapas coverage - you'll be
reading it via Narco News - will be the Italian journalist Giovanni
Proiettis (who has reported on the Zapatista struggle since the first days
of the rebellion in January 1994 for the Italian daily Il Manifiesto among
other publications), Gerardo Osuna, and our journalism brigade's general
coordinator Mercedes Osuna (who, for so many years when she was director of
Enlace Civil, guided the work of thousands of national and international
observers and journalists on Zapatista lands), plus others whom you will
meet through our pages in the coming days. (If you are going to be in San
Cristo'bal this week, please stop by and see Mercedes - telephone 967 678 36
98 or email oshalcon@gmail.com to learn more about our efforts and find a
way to participate.)
Meanwhile, the mobile road team will descend upon Yucata'n in advance of the
delegate's visit: Joining me there will be documentary director Greg Berger
(producer of the Gringoton and Atenco documentaries at
www.salonchingon.com ), cinematographer Sarahy Flores, documentary producer
Barrett Hawes (all three of them are co-producers of "Chew On This: For Us
Coca Is Life," the documentary produced in Bolivia during the 2004 School of
Authentic Journalism), plus ace radio reporters Quetzal Belmont and Karla
Aguilar (also 2004 graduates of the j-school), journalist Ana Laura
Herna'ndez (some of you may remember the international newspaper "Love and
Rage" that she co-edited). A few days later, Teo Ballve' (also a 2004
graduate) will arrive to lend his hand on deck with the coverage. And of
course our 2001 co-defendant Mario Mene'ndez and his team at the region's
largest daily newspaper, Por Esto!, has offered us a helping hand across the
peninsula to bring you the news in your language. (Other old friends and
colleagues are trying to clear their calendars to join in this effort, too:
stay tuned.)
There, over the following ten days, we will go out and interview the "simple
and humble people who struggle" from Me'rida to Chichen Itza to Cancu'n to
Chetumal and all places in between, and who await Delegate Zero's arrival
there on January 9.
And from January 9 to 15, we'll crisscross the peninsula a second time to
report on the news from that unprecedented visit.
During this time we'll be filing written reports, Internet radio reports,
"Newsreel" style short video reports, longer outtakes of interviews,
photographs, and whatever else is necessary to aid you in being there from
wherever you are on this earth.
Speaking of which: No matter where you are, you can participate in our Full
Coverage via The Narcosphere by monitoring the reports in other media,
bringing our (and all the readers') attention to other accurate news
coverage, correcting and criticizing the simulators and adding your own
observations and commentary (much as occurred last June during the events
that felled a president in Bolivia, or in August of 2004 when The
Narcosphere caught and exposed false reports in other media about the
Venezuela referendum). And if you are skilled in translation to or from
Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian or German, we also need more
hands on deck to assure that our reporting reaches readers in each of those
tongues.
For me, it is a pleasure to go back on the road again doing this worthwhile
work of Authentic Journalism with such talented and dedicated colleagues,
and the support of the international network we've all constructed together.
But this boat doesn't sail without the wind you put behind it, and so I
appeal to you once more to dig as deeply as you can to keep our journalists
healthy and mobile during the news that is about to happen. And, again, I
stress that this is an independent effort in the "Other Journalism" and
represents no other organization than those of us Other Journalists going
out to do this work.
Again, you can make your contribution via the Internet at this page:
http://www.authenticjournalism.org/
Or you can send your contribution to:
The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O. Box 241
Natick, MA 01760
United States of America
Thanks again. Immediate history is upon us. Let's join forces like we have
before to break the information blockade and make sure that the people know
the true story.
Salud y abrazo,
Al Giordano
Correspondent
Coordinator, Road Team, The Amado Avenda~o Figueroa Brigade
http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/
----- End forwarded message -----
Via: Ned Rossiter
via: < B.Neilson@uws.edu.au>
The following is an English language version (slightly longer) of an
article published in the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto yesterday.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/28-Dicembre-2005/
art82.html
Thanks to Ange, Ben and others who helped me shape these observations.
The Twilight of the Anglosaxon Model
by Brett Neilson
There are those who declared, at the height of the revolts in the
French banlieues, that the time had come to recognise that the
Anglosaxon model of multiculturalism has delivered greater peace and
stability than the French model of republican integrationalism. By
now, the course of events has overtaken such proclamations. For
anyone with doubts, the violence that occurred at Sydney's Cronulla
Beach earlier this month must shatter the illusion that communitarian
models of racial tolerance have been more effective than
integrationalist logics in reconciling the complexities of life in
diverse societies with the identitarian demands of the modern nation-
state. The situations in Paris and Sydney have to do with a wider
global conflict that has levelled the distinction between the civil
and the foreign war and insinuated itself in the daily rituals of
metropolitan life.
Symbol of the affinities between the conflicts in these cities is the
detritus that both have left behind: suburban streets lined with cars
burned or smashed to pieces with baseball bats. For those who have
not followed the events in Australia, these were acts of Middle
Eastern youth following the pogrom perpetrated against them by a
crowd of 5,000 angry whites gathered at Cronulla Beach, a popular
seaside resort in the city's southeast. Part of the Sutherland Shire,
one of the whitest and racially homogeneous areas of Sydney,
Cronulla, unlike other city beaches, is served by the railroad,
making it for many years a popular picnic destination for Lebanese
and other Mediterranean families that live predominantly in the
city's west. In more recent times, with the construction of bridges
and freeways that make car travel from the Western suburbs more
feasible, it has also become a gathering spot for young Arabs who
cruise the city in modified cars, listen to U.S. gangsta rap, and
engage in occasional scuffles with the white surfers who claim the
beach as their own. To be sure, this racial violence has acquired a
sexual dynamic, partly as a result of a gang rape that became a cause
celebre of tabloid racism and amplified the fiction that Muslim men
harass white women more than their Anglo counterparts. Thus, it is no
surprise that the white backlash rally of 11 December, organised by
SMS that were subsequently read out on talk radio and published in
the mainstream press, should announce itself as a defense of white
women, even as its ostensible cause was a fight between Lebanese
youth and two off-duty lifeguards. What occurred that Sunday
afternoon will go down as a heavy chapter in Australia's racial
history: white youths draped in Australian flags, tearing the veil
from Muslim women and pulverising the male 'lebs' and 'wogs' who
happened to get in their way.
While the images from this event were quickly relayed around the
world, the local response was an official attempt to talk down the
racial dimensions of the rampage and the passage of emergency laws
granting police powers to 'lockdown' suburbs and randomly search
cars. The following weekend, the beaches of Sydney were heavily
patrolled and accessible only to residents of the beachside suburbs,
a situation long desired by the racist elements who orchestrated and
participated in the progrom. Importantly, the beach has long provided
the ground for egalitarian fantasies of public access in Australia,
not least among the white intellectual classes. But it is also the
space where the otherly complexioned are apt to feel the least
comfortable.
It is worthwhile to remember that the Australian coastline is legally
designated as Crown land, a peculiar juridical category of the
settler colonies that at once extinguishes Indigenous territorial
claims and grants the sovereign the right to control private rights
and interests over landed property. In this sense, the presence of
the Union Jack on the national flag brandished by the white ramapgers
demonstrates that their claim on the beach was not a result of some
neo-Nazi infiltration but precisely an action in the name of the
public or the sovereignty of the people, the very basis of Australian
democratic expression. Perhaps this is why the New South Wales
Commissioner of Police could describe the rampage as 'a legitimate
protest and expression of disatisfaction.' And perhaps this also
explains why conservatives from the Prime Minister and Leader of the
Oppostion down have scrupuously disavowed the racial dynamic that
fueled the violence.
To be sure, there are dangers in assuming a stance that denounces the
racism of the Cronulla rampagers as vulgar and unbefitting of a
nation that prides itself on its multiculturalism. Such a position
seeks merely to absolve the national elites from responsibility in
the situation, indirectly justifying the populist claim that it is
not their business to interfere with expressions of the people. It
also fails to ponder the complexities of multicultural tolerance, not
least the way in which it leaves unchecked the capacity of those with
social power to act intolerantly. By the same token, it is dangerous,
given the public disavowal of the episode's racial aspects, to skirt
or complicate the question of race too much. Certainly, it is
necessary to point to the sexual dynamics that fuel this and, as we
know from Fanon, all other instances of racial violence. Equally, it
is crucial to understand the elements of social class, the history of
beach subcultures, mateship, or the participation of white women in
this anti-Muslim rampage. But to draw the discussion away from race
is to risk foreclosing an analysis of how the Australian model of
multiculturalism, particularly in the context of global war, fails to
deactivate the confluence of racial and nationalist feelings that
culminates in episodes like Cronulla.
It is a well-known paradox of Australian multiculturalism that it is
the same government department that organises events such as Harmony
Day in schools that is responsible for the administration of the
nation's notorious migration detention camps. Under the current war
conditions (Australia has been a willing participant in both
Afghanistan and Iraq), the presence of internal Muslim communities,
particularly those who refuse, often with stridency, to accept their
proletarianisation or crimilisation through racist law and order
agendas, has posed a consistent problem for the white political
classes. Indeed, in the wake of Cronulla, the local conservative
member of parliament went as far as to characterise the rampage as
revenge for the 911 attacks and the Bali bombings. While Morris
Iemma, the recently appointed Premier of New South Wales, wasted no
time in describing the police response as a war.
More frightening is the rapidity with which the state of seige has
been normalised, at once pushing Muslim and ethnic groups away from
the beaches while, for the sake of seaside businesses, compelling
Sydney-siders to return to their usual patterns of summer
consumption. As we know from cities like Sarajevo, it is often in
contexts where the intimacy between cultural groups has been
strongest that racial violence assumes its most shocking and
vivisectionist forms. For this reason, it is safest not to assume
that the thick cultural mixing that one finds in parts of Sydney
provides any guarantee against the escalation of the situation. What
the city faces now is nothing less than civil war, one which, like
the foreign wars we see (or rather don't see) nightly on our
television screens, all too quickly become part of metropolitan life.
It is likely, under the current global conditions, that these urban
conflagrations will not limit themselves to Paris and Sydney, but
flare up with increasing frequency here and there around the globe.
Who knows, Rome or Milan may be next.
Via: Ronda Hauben
Hi all
Interesting developments in South Korea show the power of the Internet
once a society has widespread broadband access.
The online community of scientists have uncovered scientific fraud in
articles in the US scientific journal "Science" by a leading South
Korean researcher.
The story in in the news around the world, but in general the news
account leaves out the fact that the online community of scientists in
South Korea were responsible for finding the fabrications in the
articles and then others in the online community helped to spread
knowledge and an understanding of the nature of the scientific
fabrications.
South Korea leads the world in broadband access and the result has
been this significant event. Below are two articles that give more of
the details.
"South Korean 'Netizens of the Year': The online scientific community
and Internet media challenge old hierarchies"
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=266352&r
el_no=1
and
"Korean Cloning Hero Deconstructed Online: Online Scientific Community
in South Korea Uncovers Fabrication of Data in Acclaimed Stem
CellResearch Papers"
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21647/1.html
Best wishes for a good New Year and for a New Year where access to
the Internet for communication purposes is spread to more and more of
the world's population.
Ronda
Via: matthew fuller
by Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
Dec. 23, 2005
With all of the controversy about the news that the NSA has been
monitoring, since 9/11, telephone calls and email messages of
Americans, some folks might now be wondering if they are being
snooped on. Here's a quick and easy method to see if one's email
messages are being read by someone else.
The steps are:
1. Set up a Hotmail account.
2. Set up a second email account with a non-U.S.
provider. (eg. Rediffmail.com)
3. Send messages between the two accounts which might be
interesting to the NSA.
4. In each message, include a unique URL to a Web server
that you have access to its server logs. This URL should only be
known by you and not linked to from any other Web page. The text of
the message should encourage an NSA monitor to visit the URL.
5. If the server log file ever shows this URL being
accessed, then you know that you are being snooped on. The IP address
of the access can also provide clues about who is doing the snooping.
The trick is to make the link enticing enough for someone or
something to want to click on it. As part of a large-scale research
project, I would suggest sending out a few hundred thousand messages
using various tricks to find one that might work. Here are some
possible ideas:
* Include a variety of terrorist related trigger words
* Include other links in a message to known AQ message boards
* Include a fake CC: to Mohamed Atta's old email
address (el-amir@tu-harburg.de)
* Send the message from an SMTP server in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
* Use a fake return address from a known terrorist organization
* Use a ziplip or hushmail account.
Besides monitoring the NSA, this same technique can be used if you
suspect your email account password has been stolen or if a family
member or coworker is reading your email on your computer on the sly.
Via: "Soenke Zehle [c]"
CCTV networks as the biggest thing since the introduction DNA
fingerprinting - that's what they say, affirming the 'biomediality' of
the biometric state. As Shuddha Sengupta has pointed out, a state that
has its roots in the identification and surveillance technologies
developed and deployed at the colonial margins of empire, so whenever
that's written, it'll be quite the transcultural story.
Until then, maybe use public transportation instead, or at least keep
your cars from 'associating' with other vehicles lest they get caught in
the act,
Soenke
Independent/UK
Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey
From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by
every car will be monitored
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 December
2005
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements
of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance
system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing
number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements
so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a
driver has made over several years.
The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which
are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to
provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns,
cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.
By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National
Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million
number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise
location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning
satellites.
Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage
period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so
that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into
the central databank.
Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as
possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and
prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.
But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the
movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely
recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.
The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis of
a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an operation
designed to drive criminals off the road.
In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities to
gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of organised
gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans or
motorcycles.
The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police
Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have
sanctioned the spending of 24m this year on equipment.
More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the
police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read
number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted to Hendon
via a secure police communications network.
Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with the
Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to incorporate
their own CCTV cameras into the network. In addition to cross-checking
each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police
National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each
vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test
certificate.
"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV somewhere.
The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates will be read
as well," said Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and
chairman of the Acpo steering committee on automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR).
"What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle was
in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a
particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime
scenes. Particularly important are associated vehicles," Mr Whiteley
said.
The term "associated vehicles" means analysing convoys of cars, vans or
trucks to see who is driving alongside a vehicle that is already known
to be of interest to the police. Criminals, for instance, will drive
somewhere in a lawful vehicle, steal a car and then drive back in convoy
to commit further crimes "You're not necessarily interested in the
stolen vehicle. You're interested in what's moving with the stolen
vehicle," Mr Whiteley explained.
According to a strategy document drawn up by Acpo, the national data
centre in Hendon will be at the heart of a surveillance operation that
should deny criminals the use of the roads.
"The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader
infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from
area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle movements
to be captured," the Acpo strategy says.
"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database
that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation
opportunities on a national basis," it says.
Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are
values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.
"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't
have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services
did not have access to this, we'd be negligent."
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements
of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance
system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing
number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements
so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a
driver has made over several years.
The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which
are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to
provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns,
cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.
By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National
Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million
number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise
location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning
satellites.
Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage
period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so
that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into
the central databank.
Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as
possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and
prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.
But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the
movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely
recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.
The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis of
a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an operation
designed to drive criminals off the road.
In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities to
gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of organised
gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans or
motorcycles.
The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police
Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have
sanctioned the spending of 24m this year on equipment.
More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the
police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read
number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted to Hendon
via a secure police communications network.
Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with the
Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to incorporate
their own CCTV cameras into the network. In addition to cross-checking
each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police
National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each
vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test
certificate.
"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV somewhere.
The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates will be read
as well," said Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and
chairman of the Acpo steering committee on automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR).
"What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle was
in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a
particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime
scenes. Particularly important are associated vehicles," Mr Whiteley
said.
The term "associated vehicles" means analysing convoys of cars, vans or
trucks to see who is driving alongside a vehicle that is already known
to be of interest to the police. Criminals, for instance, will drive
somewhere in a lawful vehicle, steal a car and then drive back in convoy
to commit further crimes "You're not necessarily interested in the
stolen vehicle. You're interested in what's moving with the stolen
vehicle," Mr Whiteley explained.
According to a strategy document drawn up by Acpo, the national data
centre in Hendon will be at the heart of a surveillance operation that
should deny criminals the use of the roads.
"The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader
infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from
area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle movements
to be captured," the Acpo strategy says.
"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database
that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation
opportunities on a national basis," it says.
Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are
values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.
"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't
have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services
did not have access to this, we'd be negligent."
Via: Tjebbe van Tijen/Imaginary Museum Projects
Since a few months Amazon Books have introduced a new device:
Statistically Improbable Phrases (shortened to SIP).
To give an example, for the book
Armstrong, David F. ()/2000, William C. Stokoe Jr ()/Wilcox, Sherman ()
"Gesture and the nature of language" 1995/Cambridge University Press
The following SIPs are given:
> Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
> primary sign languages, visible gestural, spoken language phonology,
> language modular, visible gestures, signed languages, sublexical
> level, sign language word, gestural approach, semantic phonology,
> spatial syntax, grammar module, gestural theory, vocal gestures, deaf
> signers, associationist theories, perceptual categorization, image
> schemata, grammatical processing, primary consciousness, global
> mappings, iconic gestures, modular theories, adaptive complex, order
> consciousness
By clicking on one of these 'phrases' a web page with other books with
the same phrase and the number of occurrences of that particular SIP
will be generated.
The idea of SIP is explained on the Amazon site:
> Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or "SIPs", are the most
> distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside!
> program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in
> the Search Inside! program. If they find a phrase that occurs a large
> number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside!
> books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.
> SIPs are not necessarily improbable within a particular book, but they
> are improbable relative to all books in Search Inside!.
and a new Wikepdia entry reads:
> Statistically Improbable Phrases is a system developed by Amazon.com
> to compare all of the books they index and find phrases in each that
> are the most unlikely to be found in any other book indexed.
> The system is used to find the most unique portions of books for use
> as a summary or keyword.
This new device prompted me to the following reaction to the Amazon
Book team:
(1)
Well statistics of what?
is my first question... I suggest you supply basic statistics about
the source of your SIPs:
- how many books/titles have you indexed
- are these full text indexes or just indexes of the 'inside the book'
pages you do supply on the web
- how many million words
- how many sentences
When this is not given it is like the manipulative percentages of a census or
opinion poll without the total number of people that form the basis of these
percentages.
(2) Though it might seem stupid to say, I would like you also to state explicitly
that these SIPs are generated according a certain algorithm, also
explaining in more detail what that algorithm entails.
(3) As people have been trying to jump 'up' the list of Google's search machine
rating, an unanticipated effect might be that writers, editors and publishers
would check a new text before publication for occurrence of SIPs and make
alterations to get a higher score. This might generate only statistically a more
"outstanding" text.
(4) We still need to value the most ourselves, us humans, because we are the only
ones that can 'read' (though machines can process text alright, but there is no
form understanding in the sense that each human reader becomes a re-writer when
"processing" a text in her or his personal way). The reader's reviews on your
website do give that kind of understanding and are often very helpful in learning
about a book and its reception. Recently I started to archive some of the Amazon
Books customer reviews in my bibliographical database. The on-line reader reviews
are part of a very old tradition, like the Renaissance 'commonplace books' and the
Greek/Roman 'hypomnemata' filled with quotations and remarks that students would
make to keep for themselves make and show to each other.
The value of readers comments lies in the rephrasing and synthesizing of the
content of a book, something that can only be appreciated by 'reading'.
The mechanisms of 'rating', choosing the top ten, hundred or whatever, are an
undeniable a part of our market oriented culture, still - even in a pure
commercial setting like Amazon Books - there can be a prominent place for personal
exchange of opinions between 'real reader's, beyond any automated statistics. An
exchange that allows for both praise and critique outside the realm of
professional and commercial reviewing.
(5) Sip-ratings can well develop into an useful search instrument, but let it be a
well understood that it is just a product coming from ' machine processing', a
secondary tool at most.
Tjebbe van Tijen
Imaginary Museum Projects
dramatizing historical information
http://imaginarymuseum.org
Via: "Patrice Riemens"
The legislative tribulations of the copyright online finally made it to
the front page of the newspapers in France yesterday. Parliament, irate at
the government's haste in pushing a botched law proposal through its
throat in an emergency procedure just before the Christmas break, adopted
an amendment making _private_ downloading of pictures and music by and
large legit. Shocked, PM de Villepin chose to postpone the whole proposal
till after the holiday, even at the expense of ridiculing his minister of
culture. Some in foreign parts have already hailed a breaktrough and
portrayed France as shining example of liberal legislative thinking.
This enthusiasm might be very premature. First the amendment is very
likely to be withdrawn when the proposal comes up for discussian again.
But mostly, it ignores two fundamentals in the French political and
cultural appreciation of the whole issue of copyright.
The first is the widely discussed, though less widely well-understood,
French 'particularity' about copyright, significantly known in French as
'droit d'auteur' (authors right). A somewhat simplistic ("rien n'est
simple" said Sempe in a famous cartooon serie) depiction would define
'droit d'auteur' as a moral right first, a commercial one second
(likewise, copyright would be defined as foremost of even exclusively
commercial).
This has arosen the impression that French 'copyright' could be somehow
more accomodative to 'sharing' and other less profit oriented formats,
while at the same time protecting the genuine interests of creators beter.
Reality, alas, is almost the exact opposite, as commercial interests
(read: producers and other intermediaries) have hijacked the moral high
ground and are defending their monolpoly rents even more vociferously than
in the Anglo-Saxon world. And with success up to now, to witt the harsh
penalties that have rained down on individual 'transgressors', and their
'helpers', especially ISPs.
Strongly, but subtly linked to this, is a second, much less (afaik)
well-known factor: the institutionaly ingrained aversion of French culture
for 'free' - as in 'beer'. Bizarely enough for a nation almost daily
bashed in the columns of the Wall Street Journal as economically
retrograde and capitalism feindish, France has a worship of the
remuneration for next to everything under the sun. It is not only that
"tout travail merite salaire" (each labor merits a fee) but the citizen is
also expected to affirm her status by demonstrating willingness and
ability to pay at all time (one can be arrested for vagrancy for want of
sufficient cash in the pocket). Profit here is not the point - even when
recovery costs exceed receipts gratuity is strongly rejected.
This aversion for what is automatically considered undeserved freebies and
its unreconstructed wordhip of the individual (but practically
non-existant), 'moral', author, make France largely impervious - and
hostile - to the increasingly global discourse about 'commons' (creative
or otherwise), and a likely candidate for the most restrictive and
oppressive legislation with regard to electronic copyright and 'defense'
of 'intellectual property' in general.
Via: Alan Sondheim
some british measures, 1844
(somewhere between the long shadow of the medieval guilds and the
dominance of local custom before the automobile and plane - every
mercantile space its customary measure. as international communication
grew, so did the need for standardization. here is britain in 1844,
near the beginning of this development.)
1 pound = 12 ounces = 240 pennyweight = 1818 diamond carets =
5760 troy grains = 7260 pearl grains = 115200 mites = 2764800 doits
= 55296000 periots = 1327104 blanks = 210 114/175 drams avoird.
1 pound = 12 ounces = 96 drams = 288 scruples = 5760 grains =
210 114/175 drams avoird.
1 ton = 20 hundreds = 80 quarters = 2240 pounds = 35840 ounces =
573440 drams = 15680000 troy grains.
1 last = 12 sacks = 18 1/5 packs = 24 weys = 156 tods = 312 stones =
624 cloves = 4368 pounds.
1 bundle = 4 1/6 spindles = 16 2/3 hasps = 20 slips = 100 heers =
200 leas, cuts, or raps = 24000 threads = 2160000 inches.
1 tun = 2 pipes or butts = 3 puncheons = 4 hogsheads = 6 tierces =
8 barrels = 14 runlets = 25 1/5 ankers = 252 imperial gallons =
1008 quarts = 2016 pints = 8064 gills = 69873.048 cubic inches.
1 lst = 2 weys or loads = 10 quarters = 20 cooms or sacks = 40
strikes = 80 bushels = 320 pecks = 640 imperial gallons = 1280
pottles = 2560 quarts - 5120 pints = 17455.360 cubic inches stricken
measure = 225238.960 cubic inches heaped measure.
1 ship load = 14 16/21 scores = 20 keels = 160 newcastle chald. =
310 london chald. = 1240 vats or strikes = 3720 sacks = 11160
bushels = 44640 pecks = 833280 pound weight avoir. = 31420834.92
cubic inches heaped measure.
1 tun = 2 butts = 3 puncheons = 4 hogsheads = 6 barrels = 12
kilderkins = 24 firkins = 216 imperial gallons = 864 quarts = 1728
pints = 59891.184 cubic inches.
1 cubic mile = 512 cubic furlongs = 32768000 cubic rods, poles or
perches = 5451776000 cubic yards = 147197952000 cubic feet =
254358061056000 cubic inches = 917352730714.022952 imperial gallons.
1 gallon = 8 pints = 160 fluid ounces = 1280 fluid drams = 76800
minims = 2560 weight iin drams avoird. = 70000 weight in grams troy
= 277.274 cubic inches.
1 mark = 13s 4d, 1 noble = 6s 8d, 1 tester = 6d, 1 groat = 4d, 1
moidore = 27s, 1 jacobus = 25s, 1 carolus = 23s, 1 angel = 10s.
1 french ell = 1 1/5 english ell = 2 flemish ell = 6 quarters = 24
nails = 54 inches.
1 spindle = 18 hanks or 560 yards = 126 skeins, leas, or raps =
10080 threads = 544320 inches.
1 hank or 560 yards = 7 leas or raps = 560 threads = 20160 inches.
1 mile = 8 furlongs = 80 gunter's chains = 320 rods, poles, or perches
= 880 fathoms = 1760 yards = 5280 feet = 8000 gunter's links = 63360
inches.
Via: Andres Manniste
I'm just sending the link to the "Nature" article on Wikipedia.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438890a.html
Editorial
Nature 438, 890 (15 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438890a
Wiki's wild world
Researchers should read Wikipedia cautiously and
amend it enthusiastically.
Sometimes the stupid-sounding ideas turn out to be the ones that take off. Almost
five years ago, a free online encyclopaedia known as Wikipedia was launched. To
those familiar with the peer-review process, the premise behind the new
publication seemed crazy: any user, regardless of expertise, can edit the entries.
It sounded like a method for creating garbled and inaccurate articles, and many
critics said so.
Fast-forward to 2005, and some of that criticism is looking misplaced. Wikipedia
is now a huge reference source, with something approaching a million articles in
the English version alone. It's true that many of its entries are confusing and
badly structured; some of them are badly wrong, and sometimes the errors are
deliberate. After the discovery of an outrageously false description of John
Seigenthaler, a former editor of The Tennessean newspaper, Wikipedia's publishers
introduced registration in an attempt to discourage (though it cannot prevent)
"impulsive vandalism". But as an investigation on page 900 of this issue shows,
the accuracy of science in Wikipedia is surprisingly good: the number of errors in
a typical Wikipedia science article is not substantially more than in
Encyclopaedia Britannica, often considered the goldstandard entry-level reference
work. That crazy idea is starting to look anything but stupid.
So can Wikipedia move up a gear and match the quality of rival reference works?
Imagine the result if it did: a comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date reference
work that can be accessed free from Manhattan to rural Mongolia. To achieve this,
Wikipedia's administrators will have to tackle everything from future funding
problems -- the site is maintained by public donations -- to doubts about whether
enough new contributors can be found to increase the quality of the mushrooming
number of entries. That latter point is critical, and here scientists can make a
difference. Judging by a survey of Nature authors, conducted in parallel with the
accuracy investigation, only a small percentage of scientists currently contribute
to Wikipedia. Yet when they do, they can make a significant difference.
Wikipedia's non-expert contributors are, by and large, dedicated to getting things
right on the site. But scientists can bring a critical eye to entries on subjects
they study, often highlighting errors and misunderstandings that others have
unintentionally introduced. They can also start entries on topics that other users
may not want to tackle. It is no surprise, for example, that the entry on =91spin
density wave' was originated by a physicist.
Editing pages is not always straightforward, as some users may disagree with
changes. In politically sensitive areas such as climate change, researchers have
had to do battle with sceptics pushing an editorial line that is out of kilter
with mainstream scientific thinking. But this usually requires no more than a
little patience. Wikipedia's users are generally interested in the reasoning
behind proposed changes to articles. Backing up a claim with a peer-reviewed
reference, for example, makes a world of difference. Naturewould like to encourage
its readers to help. The idea is not to seek a replacement for established sources
such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but to push forward the grand experiment
that is Wikipedia, and to see how much it can improve. Select a topic close to
your work and look it up on Wikipedia. If the entry contains errors or important
omissions, dive in and help fix them. It need not take too long. And imagine the
pay-off: you could be one of the people who helped turn an apparently stupid idea
into a free, high-quality global resource.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/pdf/438890a.pdf
Andres
