Barnhard Blog

We wrote before that the USA is becoming a police state, well according to “The 2007 International Privacy Ranking” Holland is not doing much better.

According to the report Holland gets a 2.1 grading which stands for a Systemic failure to uphold safeguards:

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The folks behind Steal This Film, an amazing, funny, enraging and inspiring documentary series about copyright and the Internet have just released part II of the series.

Update: Also on google video (click more)
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While Wordpress 2.4 recently has been delayed due development issues we do have already some insights in the new admin panel design of this release. Not too sure yet what to think about the design. A more “controlling” view would be nice.
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One long full year away from the elections, speechwriters already have something to look at.

Update: More about his speechwriter.

A nice insight in where great stories come from (by discovery channel)

There is only a slight difference in professional risks between the journalist and the citizen acting the journalistic role.
But some risk aren’t very different sadly…

China blogger beaten to death

“Wei is the first ‘citizen journalist’ to die in China because of what he was trying to film,” the group said in a statement.

See also: Citizen Journalism

Where earlier on new types of rice have solved food problems in Asia, a similar solution now seems to exist for the poor rainforest ground. There seems to exist a ground enrichement techique with leads to a ground fertility increase of 880 % compared to normal methods. Quite promising technique for poor ground I would say. Moreover, leaving a tiny layer of the matter for a couple of years results in the same amount of matter before removing the top layer. A compost production facility in its own terms! There are already farms of this kind starting up in Brazil.

While the documentary is from 2002, I haven’t read about this kind of ground enrichment techique before. So why isn’t it already used on massive scale? Will this technique form a new hope for the rain forests?

More information is here and here.

Here’s a clip demonstrating how a World War II D-Day invasion was staged in a few days with four guys and video camera. The story behind it can be read at Kevin Kelly’s blog.

See also: Post 1

 
Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a careful lecture on the crisis of local warming in the blogging community. Specifically, um, for men. [TED.com]

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Greens EFA, a coalition of two political parties that currently have 42 seats in the European parliament, have launched a pro-filesharing campaign named “I Wouldn’t Steal”. Their goal is to counter the anti-piracy propaganda put forward by the entertainment industry, and encourage people to download and share.

Whenever you rent a movie, the multinational media industry forces you to watch their propaganda. They claim that [downloading movies is the same as snatching bags, stealing cars or shoplifting]. That’s simply not true – making a copy is fundamentally different from stealing.

The media industry has failed to offer viable legal alternatives and they will fail to convince consumers that sharing equals stealing. Unfortunately, they have succeeded in another area – lobbying to adapt laws to criminalize sharing, turning consumers into criminals. They argue that their laws are necessary to [support artists], but in reality all they’re protecting is their own profits.

The Greens in Europe and worldwide has been opposing these laws. We believe that consumers are willing to pay if offered good quality at a fair price. We also believe that sharing is expanding culture – not killing it.

[http://www.iwouldntsteal.net] - Read the rest of this entry »

Turkey has taken steps to prevent access to YouTube after a video insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was posted on the site. Turk Telecom took the action on orders from a court. The telco said it would lift the ban, with the approval of the court, if the offending video was removed. (..) Insulting Ataturk is a criminal offence in Turkey punishable by prison.

In the Netherlands we have a similar sensitivity with the queen.. although, not Online.
[See also: "Why Turkey is not ready for EU"] 
Meanwhile EU member France is planning some unpleasant regulation too..

In another blow for the brave new world of user-generated content, France is banning anyone except reporters from videoing violent acts. The legislation, proposed by Nicholas Sarkozy, aims to stop incidents of happy slapping by imposing big fines on anyone filming such attacks.But the law is so widely drafted that several bloggers and Reporters Sans Frontieres have pointed out it could be used to stop genuine reporting.

Macworld noted that the law came exactly 16 years after an amateur videographer filmed the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. Under the new law French police should be protected from such an invasion of privacy.

(Source Article: The Register )

Update: Youtube is accessible again.

On Tuesday, the CULT committee (the part of the European Parliament responsible for culture and education) is voting on what needs to be done to support the “Cultural Industries” in Europe. The report, headed by Member of European Parliament Guy Bono, started off well - but the music industry have stuck in several hand-grenade amendments that could mess up European culture and the Internet for decades: They’re pushing for ISPs spying on traffic, “dangerous” sites being blocked online AND copyright extension, all in one document!

[BoingBoing]

See also here.

Update: Thankfully the proposal has been rejected.

DURHAM, N.C. – In a first-of-its-kind experiment, the brain activity of a monkey has been used to control the real-time walking patterns of a robot halfway around the world, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Researchers used some of the most sophisticated methods available to capture activity from hundreds of brain cells located in multiple areas of the brain. To collect this information, two rhesus monkeys were implanted with electrodes that gathered feedback from cells in the brain’s motor and sensory cortex. This technology recorded how the cells responded as the monkey walked on a treadmill at a variety of speeds and while walking forward and backward. At the same time, sensors on the monkey’s legs tracked the actual walking patterns of the legs while moving.

Website | Video | Source (dutch)

Waarom stemmen kamerleden niet altijd hoofdelijk?
Het effect van hun stem is niet minder wanneer ze niet hoofdelijk stemmen voor de wetgeving. Zelfs als het door partij politiek geen verschil maakt, waarom mogen we niet de standpunten van onze kamerleden weten?

Hoe weten wij nu of waar ze beweren voor te staan ook met hun stem bevestigd wordt? Het kan technisch. Zij vertegenwoordigen ons, dus het is een publieke zaak om te weten wat ze voor ons kiezen. Niet alleen maken zo politici zichzelf transparanter, maar ook voor de media is dan makkelijker concretere vragen te stellen naar de positie van politici op onderwerpen. Zeker nu we in het stemhokje ook al voorkeurstemmen mogen geven op personen, waarom gebeurt het niet?

Er is nu een petitie uit om dit in de kamer bespreekbaar te maken.

Naast de salonbloggies is de verkiezing van de Bwards is nu al reeds 4 weken in volle gang er zijn dus nog 2 weken (!) te gaan. Op hun site kan je de lijst zien van de blogs die in de lijst komen. Stemmen kan hier.

Promo-Filmpje

Actually not a real history telling, rather a reflection where we could be heading.. with humor.

Trust is obviously an issue in many relationships. Is she really with her friends shopping and did he really have a business meeting go late? In Hong Kong, you don’t have to worry anymore. A service that allows individuals to sign up and be tracked on their mobile phone, has been quite successful in putting people’s minds at ease. [via]

Hong Kong - Follow Me Follow You” enables you to search and get map location of your friends and relatives once obtained their authorization. This is a user-friendly application for keeping close communication with others or managing a work force on the move. Follow Me Follow You service by subscribing a monthly service plan with only $28.