Essential viewing. Seriously. If you use the internet, you need to see this. Know your history. Wherever you are on the web, this is part of your history.
I just spent the weekend clearing out a garage full of old belongings and personal documents, including box after box after beat-up box of Silicon Alley Reporter magazines, and brochures for NYC tech conferences I produced with Jason Calacanis. Watching Fred's presentation and leafing through those dusty old glossies makes me feel nostalgic for all the hope, ambition, and excitement we all felt back then. I'm proud to have been there for some of it. Even the crazy, fucked-up parts that ended badly, which Fred chronicles beautifully here. (thanks, Josh "MC Luvvy" Harris!)
Lauren McLaughlin sez, "Young Adult author Maureen Johnson launches new Obama social networking website. Many YA authors will be blogging there, including Judy Blume, Scott Westerfeld, Meg Cabot, Holly Black and many more. From the mission statement:"
YA for Obama is a community of YA writers and readers and friends who have joined together because of our commitment to Future United States President Barack Obama...This is a social networking site, which means that when you join (it’s free! easy! takes about a minute!) you can do LOADS of stuff around here. You can make your own page, contribute to the forum, upload your own photos and videos, and make friends who love Obama as much as you do.
I wouldn't say I loved Obama (his vote to allow the continued illegal wiretapping of the entire nation destroyed any chance of that), but I do support him. If I got a vote (I'm Canadian), that's who I'd vote for.
YA for Obama
(Thanks, Lauren!)
Looks like Bill O'Reilly skipped the First Amendment section of Journalism 101. He thinks owners of websites that posted Sarah Palin's hacked emails should be prosecuted along with the hacker who broke into her account. When a Fox news anchor attempts to explain why the websites can't be prosecuted, he refuses to accept it, arguing back with bad analogies, which the news anchor handily demolishes. It's fun to watch.
A slender majority of members in the American Psychiatric Psychological Association have voted in favor of a resolution that forbids members from aiding in torture. This was spurred by the complicity of APA members in conducting torture-based interrogation at Guantanamo Bay and other American and American-affiliated secret prisons:
The ban means those who are American Psychological Association members can't assist the U.S. military at these sites. They can only work there for humanitarian purposes or with non-governmental groups, according to Stephen Soldz, a Boston psychologist. Soldz is founder of an ethics coalition that has long supported the ban...
Psychologists have been involved in decisions that approve of coercion methods, including "taking away comfort items like clothes and toilet paper from detainees" to help extract information from them, Soldz said.
He said that some even declined to diagnose post-traumatic stress in detainees because that would suggest detainees had been abused or harmed while in custody.
...
Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Mental Health and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture have determined that treatment equivalent to torture has been taking place at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. [1]
Whereas this torture took place in the context of interrogations under the direction and supervision of Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) that included psychologists. [2, 3]
Whereas the Council of Europe has determined that persons held in CIA black sites are subject to interrogation techniques that are also equivalent to torture [4], and because psychologists helped develop abusive interrogation techniques used at these sites. [3, 5]
Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross determined in 2003 that the conditions in the US detention facility in Guantánamo Bay are themselves tantamount to torture [6], and therefore by their presence psychologists are playing a role in maintaining these conditions.
Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the US Constitution (where appropriate), unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights[7].
A good friend of mine got this email about his Canadian .ca domain from "TradeMarkSolutions.cn" telling him he needed to send money to China or he'd lose his domain. Needless to say, it's a scam. Thought you'd want to know!
We are one of the Domain Name Dispute Resolution (DNDR)
Committee members authorized by ANIC(Asia Internet Network
Information Center).
Now we have something urgent need to confirm with your company.
On the Sep17, 2008, we received the GoldenSunshine
International Investment Group's application that they want to
register the “ * XXXX * ” as their Internet Brand and Asia
Pacific domains. Considering these domains and internet brand
would involve the intellectual property of your company’s
name,patents,trademarks,and copyright, and in order to avoid
confusion between them, so we inform you urgently. If you
considered these domains and internet brand are important to you
and there was necessary to protect them by registering them
first, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or
domain name contact me as soon as possible.Thank you for you
cooperation.
I am waiting for your urgent reply,
Kind Regards,
Dr. Laurence Rockefeller
Chief Law Officer,Senior Consulting Director
