- How Egypt switched off the ‘Net. And how Egyptians — and hacktivists the world over — are routing around the damage. (ADDED: And here’s yet another way — thanks to engineers at Google and Twitter.)
- “Anonymous: A net gain for liberty.”
- Dmitry Orlov is interesting and the wording of the headline may be misleading. But why should anyone have to have faith in any human institution? How about confidence, suspicion, contempt, etc. based on performance?
- “What is a gold standard?” Interesting to see the mainstream financial media finally beginning to address the question without immediately tossing out words like “fringe,” “impractical,” “right-wing,” etc.
- Hey, could this be your chance to get an inexpensssssive home?
- Okay, the whole “private screeners” thing was only window-dressing, anyhow. But who knew that the TSA has the authority to decide whether anyone’s allowed to compete with it? Or thinks it does. Only in government. No wonder more smart people are asking this question.
- I don’t make a habit of linking to articles from Alex Jonesland, but if you were the guy in the truck, would you be pleased to know that the the Glorious Fatherland was striving to protect the see-something, say-something hysterics from you? The whole nation is going mad. But then, you knew that, didn’t you?
- Ironclad? T’aint nothin’ ironclad when it comes to privacy protection<;/a> on Facebook.
- Side note and ANYBODY LOOKING FOR A GOOD DOG?: This weekend, for the first time, I actually ran across something useful to do on Facebook — in this case, get in touch with a specialist in deaf dog rescue. First sign I’ve seen of Facebook having a purpose other than exchanging drivel and selling info on users. BTW, if anybody in the NW is interested in adopting a nice, young male pointer/English setter mix who’ll soon be graduating well-trained from a prison-pet partnership program, let me know in the comment section. Deaf dogs can be marvelous pals and are easier than most people imagine. I’ve fostered several and found them a joy.
- Integrity. (NY Times free subscription link.)
- For women only: Naturally Concealed. Cool idea. Biggest problem I can see is that, since it’s made like a bra, it will only last as long as a bra. Not long enough. Still … when so many holsters strive merely to overcome the disadvantages of the armed female body, it’s neat to see one that actually uses our … um, assets. (Tip o’ hat to LD!)
- You go, Bolivians! Another sign that the American empire is slowly losing its influence.
In the techie world the whole “cut off the interweb” has been a major discussion. Mostly it keeps coming back to the close ties ISP’s have with the gov. You know, the ties that let them get permits to offer services others would pay for and a backhanded way to reduce start ups. Because of the close ties, the fear is that if they don’t do what the people in power want, they will 1) lose permission to keep working or 2) things will change and they won’t have those close ties (someone else will).
In the US, right now, we have less close ties. We have some, and the more the FCC gets involved in regulating the Interweb tubes the more ties develop. That is why we saw all those proposals to set up a way for the president to “kill switch” the internet a while back but no major paper/news seems to be raising them now. I would love to see “Sen. Lieberman, you have been advocating giving the president the power to do what the dictators in Egypt have done, turn off the internet so they can suppress dissent, Why? do you fee that people might protest in the US?”
On a less related note, a cool video on what $100 million in budge cuts means. (i have not checked the math on it, but it is cool) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk_jToBbpWU
I suspect Orlov speaks more truly than he hopes anyone will notice: what, after all, is the foundation of the millennia-old criminal racket dba “government,” except the illusion that it serves, has served, or can serve any other primary function than socilaizing costs and centralizing benefits?
As to Bolivia – part of Obama’s Change (“More of the same, only worse!”) he seems to be expanding US military interference throughout Latin America. This fact goes largely unnoticed in the lapdog media, thanks to the usual combination of deliberate misdirection, ignorant chauvinism, and just butt-laziness. So: lotsa luck avoiding that humanitarian bombing and torture, Bolivians.
From the “see something, say something” “King said his bill would extend protections from individuals “who report suspicious activity anywhere,” adds the report, making reference to the DHS’ “See Something, Say Something” campaign, which characterizes paying for things with cash as a suspicious activity.”
It seems a call to dhs about suspious hoarding seems in order when one of my local politicks goes to Sams/Costco and stocks up. Likewise suspicous and frequent travel out of the state, perhaps gathering with known subversives?
Hey Claire, here’s one you’ll probably love, Doggy and Deer:
http://www.dogwork.com/ddsff4/
Turning off the Internet isn’t as easy as it’s made out to be-if all else fails, there’s what used to be called a “phone patch”-a way to link amateur or CB radio to phone lines. It’s old-school,but would work(slowly,but it would work)for data as well as voice. No one has satellite internet connections there? You can slow it way down, but it would be difficult to shut it completely off.
ZeroPoint — Oh, I love it! Especially the part where the deer and the dog are chasing each other and obviously having such a great time. (My dogs would have been either chowing down on venison or going to the vet for a kick in the head …)
DrillSgtK — Great little video. I also haven’t checked the figures, but I don’t doubt at all that the proportion of the proposed “savings” is that small or even smaller. And then when you consider that government “cuts” are nearly always merely “decreases in the rate of increase” … sigh.
Scott, I hear ya. Good points. And to think, in Egypt, they’re using everything from fax machines and copiers to — egads! — Morse code!
I already have a deaf dog, but I’ll keep it in mind. 🙂
As for the women’s CC holster… ok, but it won’t work for a lot of us. There’s too much ME already present in that area. I can just imagine how comfy that would be bending over a hot stove – or a lot of other things I do every day!
I’ve found that a holster on my belt, hanging out in sight of God and everybody, is far more comfortable and practical than anything else I’ve tried. But then, that’s just me. 🙂
I’ll keep the link to give to my students, however.
MamaLiberty — You already have a deaf dog? Good for you. Is this a dog you got knowing he couldn’t hear? Or just a guy who got old and lost his hearing?
I haven’t yet met the dog I posted about. But everybody says he’s terrific. And he’s the only dog about to graduate from the prison training program that hasn’t been claimed by an adopter. I’ve been invited to his graduation in mid-February, but I groan at the idea of a background check and physical search so I’m not sure I’ll go.
BTW, here’s an Etsy alternative that several people have mentioned: http://www.artfire.com/
Its interface looks a lot like Etsy’s, but one user described it as a “zen-like” environment compared with Etsy. Zen-like. Hm. Whether that’s a good atmosphere for a marketplace, I dunno. But I just thought I’d toss it out there for people who are interested in selling handmade items online and not interested in being poked and prodded into “social media” against their will.
Hi Claire! The whole reason I joined FaceBook last year was to help with animal rescue efforts … it is an absolutely wonderful tool for sharing dogs to be rescued, finding transport, posting info about shelters, linking up rescuers nationwide … I joined on the urging of one of my local rescue friends, when i was bemoaning the fact that as I still work my day job, I had limited time to volunteer … I put in an hour or two on FaceBook each evening on rescue work, (before, during and after my RRND work) … I have met some amazing folks in animal rescue throughout the country, helped many animals find homes and transport, helped raise funds for sick and injured animals and struggling small private shelters … I too thought FB was just to share drivel and recipes … like every other form of communication, it is what YOU make of it! Friend me on FB !
Hey, Mary Lou. Good to see you here again. Thanks for the work you do every day at Rational Review News (one of my favorite sites, as I’ll bet you know).
I can’t friend you on Facebook because I’m not on Facebook. (The Facebook contact with the deaf dog person was via a friend of a friend.) I’m really glad to know that FB is useful in animal rescue, but I’ll have to look around and observe more usefulness for myself before I’d hold my nose and join. I do occasionally visit my vet’s FB page. And I’ll look you up.
(Well, I followed a link from your blog to Facebook, but I wasn’t allowed to look at the FB page. So that’s that.)
I have the ‘privacy settings’ set so only ‘friends’ (FB friends) can view profile … a minor precaution. RRND is on FB and Twitter (I really dont like Twitter:-) also….. there has been some nice ‘instant’ political organizing done thru FB also … but, I mainly use it for animal rescue… much much quicker and more comprehensive than my old email rescue lists … BTW, a lot of folks are on FB under ‘aliases’ … and several are on under their dogs’ names,LOL… I was leery of FB myself, I had tried Twitter (which drove me nutz) and MySpace (which was inane) … but when a rescue friend urged me to join FB and I did, I very quickly realized how valuable a tool it is…