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Due to being in Iraq at the time I missed this interview with Saddam Hussein. Fascinating.
Have you ever thought it was a bit creepy that Facebook, a profit-driven organisation, has such an intimate knowledge of you, your friendships and family links? Ever considered leaving Facebook because of such creepiness? Maybe now is a good time.
War Crim Tony Blair has been awarded a prize from Zionist organisation Dan David Foundation, amounting to $1 million.
Presumably for his efforts to ensure Israel can continue its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
While the rest of the world attempt to stimulate their economies with government spending, the ideologically hamstrung National/ACT government of New Zealand is arbitrarily slashing departmental budgets by 10%.1
Notes:And it looks like the slash and burn has already begun, with confirmation that the government is planning to slash 500 to 1000 people from the Ministry of Social Development - the very people who are going to be needed to help others during the recession. But as usual, they’ll be told to “do more with less”. In the 90’s, that philosophy — of imposing arbitrary budget cuts in pursuit of some arbitrary fiscal target — led to crumbling schools, roads, and hospitals, to chronically underpaid doctors, nurses, and teachers, to growing public health waiting lists and high barriers to getting social support. It also led to a government which outsourced core functions to highly paid consultants while letting its internal capacity wither — to the extent that it was eventually unable to run an election properly due to the relevant people not being budgeted to do it. Even after nine years in power, Labour was unable to heal all of that damage. And now it looks like National is going to do it all again…
So, when your local school starts falling down and you can’t find a doctor, just remember: that’s the price you pay for electing a National government.
Somehow copyright holders have managed to royally trump all other interests in getting an unbelievably crap copyright law through Parliament; giving New Zealand the most draconian copyright law in the world, which allows people and organisations to be disconnected from the internet simply on the basis of accusations of “copyright infringement.” No courts involved. “Guilt upon accusation,” as Juha Saarinen puts it.
Here’s Russell Brown’s take, and David Farrar’s (although predictably defensive of National) and Juha Saarinen for Geekzone.
You can blame both Labour and National for this screw up. It’s a revealing glimpse into the authoritarian streak that runs through both these parties. The Greens (as usual) and the Maori parties were the only ones to sensibly vote against this crap.
Really, if you vote Labour or National take this as a good reason to consider other parties when you vote next time.
The best way to deal with this screw up is to repeal the law.
Pace of climate change exceeds estimates:
“We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations,” Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said.
… emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel’s 2007 reports.
Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of “feedback loops” that are speeding up natural processes.
Foreign Office link to torture cover-up
How do these people sleep at night?
And now for something completely different, for those of you who like to listen to classical music. I’ve been meaning to blog this for a while:
Passionato.com — this is how digital music distribution on the net should work: decent length previews, DRM-free (meaning no restrictions on which devices you play your music) and available in lossless file format (meaning the files are compressed without sacrificing the integrity of the audio, as happens with lossy formats like MP3).
They could improve their search function, but the show-stopper is price: if I find an album I like what’s to stop me from purchasing the CD for cheaper? I’m not a huge buyer of music but I would be if digital distribution competed with CDs.
Check out more on their about page.
Free-market ideology is dead, and none too soon:
The pattern is clear: governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with an acceleration of that same discredited agenda will not survive to tell the tale.
I just hope the same can be said for New Zealand.
If you read nothing else about politics today read this:
George Monbiot: Just what exactly do you stand for, Hazel Blears — except election?
For some context in the lead up to this piece check out No Right Turn’s links on the matter.