30 junho 2013

Snowden e vigilâncias, omissões e negócios



This Really Is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed: Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

Fact and Fiction in the NSA Surveillance Scandal: The whistle-blower’s claims, revisited.

Who is Leaking More: Edward Snowden or the Government Officials Condemning Him? In the month since the Guardian first started reporting on the surveillance documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the government has taken to the media to condemn his leaks and insist he is flagrantly violating the law. To prove this, the government has been incessantly leaking information itself.

Who Helped Snowden Steal State Secrets? The preparations began before he took the job that landed him at the NSA.

Greenwald on ‘coming’ leak: NSA can obtain one billion cell phone calls a day, store them and listen

In 2009, Ed Snowden said leakers “should be shot.” Then he became one

If U.S. Mass Media Were State-Controlled, Would They Look Any Different? Suggesting a fellow journalist be arrested is a new low in mainstream media.

Spying 'Out of Control': Senior European Union officials are outraged by revelations that the US spied on EU representations in Washington and New York. Some have called for a suspension of talks on the trans-Atlantic free trade agreement. (Key US-EU Trade Pact Threatened After Latest Leaks About NSA Spying On Europe)

Mumificação

via How to Make a Mummy

29 junho 2013

Unificação

28 junho 2013

27 junho 2013

24 junho 2013

Noruega

23 junho 2013

Sessão da tarde: Baltazar Ushca, o último vendedor de gelo

O punk

O punk em estudo universitário: Andy Bennett destacou a importância de ser o primeiro projecto no mundo sobre o punk a ser financiado por uma instituição ligada à investigação The Art of Punk, MOCA’s Series of Punk Documentaries, Begins with Black Flag

22 junho 2013

Olha, olha, a Google na Alemanha - só opt-in a partir de 1 de Agosto...

Google Makes Google News In Germany Opt-In Only To Avoid Paying Fees Under New Copyright Law: Google News in Germany will soon change. Starting August 1, it will only index sources that have decided to explicitly opt-in to being shown on the search giant’s news-aggregation service.

Google News remains an opt-out service in the other 60 countries and languages it currently operates in, but since Germany passed a new copyright law earlier this year that takes effect on August 1, the company is in danger of having to pay newspapers, blogs and other publishers for the right to show even short snippets of news.

Publishers will have to go into Google’s News tools page to agree to be indexed by Google News. Publishers who don’t do this will simply be removed from the index come August 1.

Ganhar eleições não é suficiente (ou coisas que Cavaco Silva não entende...)

Zombie democracy: A note to Turkey’s prime minister, among others: winning elections is not enough 

Majoritarianism — the credo of an expanding group of elected but autocratic rulers around the world, which holds that electoral might always makes you right—is not true democracy, even if, on the face of it, the two things look alike. It is worth explaining why. [...]

Beyond documents and institutions, the difference between crass majoritarianism and democracy resides in the heads of the mighty. Democrats have a bedrock understanding that the minority (or often majority) who did not vote for them are as much citizens of their country as those who did, and are entitled to a respectful hearing; and that a leader’s job is to deliberate and act in the national interests, not just those of his supporters. [...]

The basic idea of a democracy is that the voters should pick a government, which rules as it chooses until they see fit to chuck it out. But although voting is an important democratic right, it is not the only one. And winning an election does not entitle a leader to disregard all checks on his power.

Imagem daqui: Majoritarianism Is Not Compatible with Individual Rights

Bauhaus

21 junho 2013

18 junho 2013

Edward Snowden e os conteúdos

Edward Snowden respondeu esta segunda-feira a questões do público, sobre as revelações do que a Agência Nacional de Segurança (NSA) dos Estados Unidos faz às comunicações electrónicas.

A afirmação mais interessante - e que desmente quem andava a falar que a NSA apenas tinha acesso aos metadados - é a seguinte: a NSA tem acesso a tudo, incluindo o conteúdo das comunicações, "All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time - and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants".

Para os americanos, pode ser novidade. Já os europeus, parecem mais escandalizados com a NSA do que com o que se passa na sua terra.

Um exemplo nacional? A Lei n.º 32/2008, de 17 de Julho, que "transpõe para a ordem jurídica interna a Directiva n.º 2006/24/CE, do Parlamento Europeu e do Conselho, de 15 de Março, relativa à conservação de dados gerados ou tratados no contexto da oferta de serviços de comunicações electrónicas publicamente disponíveis ou de redes públicas de comunicações".

Esta lei permite o registo de dados de tráfego electrónico (os tais metadados) e também dos seus conteúdos. Não?!? Sim, mas com regras legais (as mesmas que a NSA devia seguir): "a conservação de dados que revelem o conteúdo das comunicações é proibida, sem prejuízo do disposto na Lei n.º 41/2004, de 18 de Agosto, e na legislação processual penal relativamente à intercepção e gravação de comunicações".

Quanto a Snowden, que tem algumas diferenças relativamente a casos anteriores - como o de Daniel Ellsberg -, respondeu a algumas dúvidas que pairavam. Por exemplo:

1) My creeping concern that the NSA leaker is not who he purports to be: Again I hate to cast any skepticism on what seems to be a great story of a brave spy coming in from the cold in the service of American freedom. And I would never raise such questions in public if I had not been told by a very senior official in the intelligence world that indeed, there are some news stories that they create and drive — even in America (where propagandizing Americans is now legal). But do consider that in Eastern Germany, for instance, it was the fear of a machine of surveillance that people believed watched them at all times — rather than the machine itself — that drove compliance and passivity. From the standpoint of the police state and its interests — why have a giant Big Brother apparatus spying on us at all times — unless we know about it?

2) A Catalogue of Journalistic Malfeasance: The reporting on Edward Snowden has been dreadful. Is there a way to make it better?

Mas Snowden respondeu a mais: 14 Things We Learned From The Q&A With Edward Snowden.

Em termos de contexto, já existe um Princípio de Snowden: "From the State's point of view, he's committed a crime. From his point of view, and the view of many others, he has sacrificed for the greater good because he knows people have the right to know what the government is doing in their name. And legal, or not, he saw what the government was doing as a crime against the people and our rights. For the sake of argument, this should be called The Snowden Principle."

E os exemplos da história ("Privacy in an age of publicity"), a análise do novo complexo ciber-industrial da vigilância e quais os limites da espionagem doméstica.

Tudo para que os cidadãos saibam do que andam a fazer às suas comunicações e terem alguma privacidade, certo? Errado: "Most Americans back NSA tracking phone records, prioritize probes over privacy".

17 junho 2013

Hong Kong

15 junho 2013

14 junho 2013

13 junho 2013

Pub da boa, com Orquestra Sinfónica da República Checa

Cavaco Silva, chulo e malandro - por esta ordem -, e não são palavras que me assistem

Um homem foi multado em 1300 euros por insultar Cavaco Silva.

Fonte da Presidência da República diz que não apresentou queixa - mas o homem foi condenado e "os dois agentes à paisana que o ouviram a vituperar Cavaco Silva garantiram em tribunal que o habitante de Rio Maior se esticou mais do que isso nos insultos, coisa que o próprio nega: “Dizem que lhe chamei chulo e malandro. Não são sequer palavras que me assistam, que eu use no dia-a-dia”."

E se?

Chulo serve para adjectivar alguém, entre outros termos referidos na Infopédia, como "rústico". Alguém duvida que Cavaco Silva o é?

Em termos coloquiais, chulo é também "indivíduo que vive à custa de alguém ou que se aproveita economicamente de outra pessoa". Se Cavaco Silva vive à custa dos portugueses, que lhe pagam a devida reforma através do Banco de Portugal, onde está o crime, a ofensa?

E é Cavaco Silva um malandro? Ou seja, alguém "que revela maldade" ou é "malicioso", entre outras definições? Bom, é recordar o que pode ser um "malicioso linguajar" e a sua omissão de sempre sobre os negócios com o BPN.

"É uma situação que não lembra ao diabo, numa altura em que há protestos de norte a sul do país. Devem querer fazer de mim exemplo, para mais ninguém protestar", disse o multado.

E pode ter razão.

Em 2006, o presidente foi apelidade de "Um Gangster, Um Chulo!". Em 2011, chamaram-lhe "malandro tecnocrata". E as palavras eram as mesmas, chulo e malandro - por esta ordem. Onde estavam então os seus seguranças?

[actualização, sobre "O espectro do medo": A acção contra Carlos Costal até poderia cair. O mesmo artigo do Código Penal refere que "o procedimento criminal cessa se o Presidente da República expressamente declarar que dele desiste". Carlos Costal garante que só depois de contactarem os serviços da presidência os agentes de Elvas o informaram de que seria detido. Contactado pelo i, o Palácio de Belém diz que "nunca esteve envolvido" no caso e que apenas soube da detenção mais tarde, pelos meios de comunicação.]

[actualização final: Ministério Público pede nulidade de julgamento que determinou multa de 1.300 euros por insultos a Cavaco Silva: “O Ministério Público requereu a declaração de nulidade insanável da audiência de julgamento realizada em processo sumário pelo crime de ‘Ofensa à Honra do Presidente da República’, por não ser admissível, no caso deste crime, o uso daquela forma processual, nos termos do artigo 381.º, n.º 2, do Código de Processo Penal”, refere uma nota enviada à comunicação social pela Procuradoria-Geral da República.]

(imagem tirada daqui)

11 junho 2013

Pub da boa: Points

Cálculos idiotas

 
Stupid Calculations: Where practical facts get rendered into utterly useless ones.

10 junho 2013

Pub da boa: Nivea

Smartest Print Ad In The World

Heróis anónimos

À atenção dos fanáticos pela privatização dos serviços públicos

Why A 29-Year-Old Contractor Had Access To Government Secrets: Another question raised by the revelation of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is the federal government's growing use of contractors for things like defense and intelligence.
The Guardian reports that Snowden is a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA who has lately worked as a contractor for two companies — Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. Booz Allen said that Snowden worked at the company for less than three months.

08 junho 2013

Imagine

Imagine No Countries: The Singularity and Politics

Coisas que é bom saber: PIBs 1820-2012


 KPCB Internet Trends 2013

Como a Comissão Europeia esconde informação do público mas não dos grupos de lobby

Court ruling fails to stop business lobbies' privileged access in EU-India trade talks: In a ruling delivered today following a lawsuit by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory, the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg concludes that the European Commission did not violate EU rules when withholding information about the EU-India free trade talks from the public, even though it had already shared the information with corporate lobby groups. Corporate Europe Observatory warns that this decision risks deepening the secrecy around EU trade negotiations and legitimises the Commission’s practice of granting corporate lobby groups privileged access to its policy-making, at the expense of the wider public interest.

Casa sobre rodas

Vítor Gaspar pode ser bom meteorologista ou bom tolo ou bom sábio - mas é mau nas citações

...
Diz Gaspar: "Dizia Bismarck que frequentemente um homem aprende com os seus próprios erros. Continuava Bismarck: um homem sábio aprende com os erros dos outros. Reconheço que não estou nesta posição e tenho consequentemente amplo material para aprender com os meus próprios erros".

Diz Bismarck: “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others”. Ou “Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
Já agora, e da mesma fonte, outras frases que pode usar de Bismarck: 
“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” 

“It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”

“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”

E, já agora, “Politics ruins the character”...

07 junho 2013

O mundo não está perigoso


Forget Gold and Bitcoin: Kissing Is the New Currency: A cafe in Australia let’s you buy a coffee with a kiss. Maybe they’re on to something.

Um minuto de muito azar

06 junho 2013

Das prostitutas, velhas e novas


VD is not victory: the second world war guide to sexual health - in pictures

Diretor da Saúde é exonerado após polêmica campanha sobre prostitutas: Ministro da Saúde, Alexandre Padilha, demitiu o servidor depois que material de combate ao preconceito contra profissionais do sexo foi veiculado com peça 'eu sou feliz sendo prostituta'

Uma boa questão


Do Psychiatrists Create the Very Mental Problems They Claim to Treat? It's easy to blame Big Pharma and the DSM for creating trendy mental illnesses, but the real problem is psychiatry's blindness to culture.

Quem inventou a escrita?

O que disse o ministro Nuno Crato à Veja?


"É verdade que, às vezes, o diálogo fica duro com os sindicatos. Reconheço seu papel de brigar por melhorias para sua própria classe, mas nem sempre eles têm colocado as questões fundamentais e inadiáveis do ensino à frente das outras que pouco interessam à sociedade".


"Visto como um todo, o modelo de gestão da educação do século XXI ainda faz lembrar muito o velho sistema soviético, em que um comitê central concentra todas as decisões."

O que diz o Expresso? "Os sindicatos dos professores colocam questões que "pouco interessam à sociedade" à frente de outras, "fundamentais e inadiáveis" e o atual "modelo de gestão da educação do século XXI ainda faz lembrar muito o velho sistema soviético, em que um comité central concentra todas as decisões"."

O que diz o Público? Omite a questão dos sindicatos.

05 junho 2013

O que é um blogue?


Economia digital com tendência para o gratuito

In the digital economy, we'll soon all be working for free – and I refuse: We can shrug and say it's just another industrial revolution, a move from formal to informal work, the whole "portfolio" number. But where is the social contract, then, if it "doesn't tide you over when you're sick and it doesn't let you raise kids and it doesn't let you grow old"?

The implosion of the middle class produces instability. We cannot all be freelancers for ever. Freelance work, like interning, is fine if you have the funds to manage without a regular income. That is, if you are already wealthy. But the digital economy operates as a kind of sophisticated X Factor. Someone will make it, sure. For more than 15 seconds even, maybe. But most won't. This is why Lanier says the internet may destroy the middle classes, the people who can't outspend the elite. And without that middle group, we cannot maintain a democracy.

He sees musicians and artists and journalists as canaries in the mineshaft of this new economy. Who will pay them? "Is this the precedent we want to follow for our doctors and lawyers and nurses and everybody else? Because, eventually, technology will get to everybody." [...]

The creative industries, first music and now journalism, saw these changes coming too late. My children have been brought up in a world where they have to compete with those who will work for free. It is only a matter of time until we will all be asked to do the same. And I refuse.

For what is being eroded is not only actual wages but also the very idea that work must be paid for. Huge profits are being made from these so-called opportunities for our youth. But they are, in fact, the exploitation of insecurity. This is not about being anti-technology. It is about being pro-human. Technology is here and it's often great. But we must find a sustainable way of using it so that the stuff we do or make is paid for in living and not virtual wages.

In Limbo

23 imagens de três anos de protestos


Pictures From Global Protesters: It started in Greece, with violent austerity protests.

04 junho 2013

Vigilância dos estados e privacidade e liberdade de expressão

UN Human Rights Council Report: Impact of State Surveillance on Privacy and Freedom of Expression: The present report analyses the implications of States’ surveillance of communications for the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression. While considering the impact of significant technological advances in communications, the report underlines the urgent need to further study new modalities of surveillance and to revise national laws regulating these practices in line with human rights standards.
2. Innovations in technology have increased the possibilities for communication and protections of free expression and opinion, enabling anonymity, rapid information-sharing and cross-cultural dialogues. Technological changes have concurrently increased opportunities for State surveillance and interventions into individuals’ private communications.

Robôs no humor

Data, The World's First Comic Robot: Humor: can robots master one of the most mysterious—and quintessentially human—skills of them all: making people laugh? Meet Data, the world's first stand-up-comedy bot

Uso justo - ou media de cabeça perdida...

Court Says Copying Journal Articles To Show Prior Art In Patent Proceedings Is Fair Use: some academic journals were ridiculously claiming that law firms, who made copies of journal articles to submit to the US Patent and Trademark Office to show examples of prior art, were infringing on their copyrights. Yes, they were arguing that you couldn't use their journals as examples of prior art without paying them for the privilege.

Tecnologias da mentira são... mentira?

Polygraphs and other lie-detection technologies may never really work in the real world: As far as detecting actual lies, however, polygraphs produce too many false positives—that is, they mistake too many truthful people for liars. In the eyes of a lie-detector examiner, innocent people can seem guilty. Under interrogation, they may become frightened, indignant, or agitated. Their hearts pound, their breath labors, and their palms sweat. They may even feel guilty. Conversely, liars are not necessarily anxious; this is especially true of psychopaths and other practiced liars, whose peripheral nervous systems are less responsive to threat than are most individuals’. At bottom, the polygraph is an arousal detector, not a lie detector.

Modin

Suspeito, o teu DNA é das autoridades

DNA Collection Is the New Fingerprinting: the Supreme Court gave the OK to the controversial practice of cops collecting DNA samples from crime suspects under arrest. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices decided that swabbing a person’s cheek prior to their conviction of any crime did not constitute an unreasonable search—so long as the suspect was under arrest “for a serious offense” and had been brought “to the station to be detained in custody.”

02 junho 2013

Sessão da tarde: Stanley Kubrick

Para perceber como o encerramento de estações dos CTT tem uma lógica...

Scam Alert! Press Sleeps Through the Great Post Office Fire Sale: One doesn’t need an MBA to understand that selling a tax-exempt building one owns to lease space one doesn’t is not a good long-range business model —  unless one is the real estate broker that has scored an exclusive contract to sell the public’s property and advise on what to sell. That makes a very good business model indeed. [...]

The dismantling of the nation’s postal service and the sale of the public’s property is yet another facet of Grover Norquist’s famous pledge to so shrink the federal government that he can drown it. Norquist has also expressed his admiration for another Gilded Age when men such as Stephen Puter transferred the public domain into private fortunes. Senator Jennings Randolph once remarked that “When the post office is closed, the flag comes down. When the human side of government closes its doors, we’re all in trouble.”