The truth about Opus Dei | World news | The Guardian

Some were helped by a celice, a spiked ring, worn so tightly around their legs that they would bleed, in order to suppress desire.

The truth about Opus Dei | World news | The Guardian

Calls for internet access to be enshrined as a fundamental right

Calls for internet access to be enshrined as a fundamental right:

"Internet use has become so woven into everyday life that some technology experts say online access should be legally protected, even to the point of considering it a human right."

Imagine this Labor government allowing this. The only rights they are interested in are those of their religious right puppet masters.

A new search engine for ''privacy-conscious'' Australians, Startpage Australia, will be launched this week as an alternative to Google.

SMH

This article doesn't look very promising at the start but it ends as above. I'm glad I grit my teeth and read to the end.

StartPage doesn't sound very promising to begin with. How many Google Killers have we seen come and go? Anything saying Australian Google Killer just makes me think of the Sensis flop. Anyway, StartPage isn't an Australian startup... or up start. StartPage is Ixquick's search engine offering. They say:

We want to extend a warm welcome to the people of Australia, and invite them to use the Startpage search engine as a tool to protect their privacy and anonymity.

From: ITWire

Filter goes ahead regardless

Filter goes ahead regardless:
There's a poll over there for fun.

"Unacceptable Website"
I find religious websites that say things like:
. Scientists will go to hell for accepting the Theory of Evolution
. Women are less than men because god said
. Homosexuals should be stoned to death like the bible says
Can I get them banned? I don't want to but if this filter is in and it is stopping me from seeing sites I want, reporting sites using religion to generate hate will be a full time occupation for me. If we live in a society that lets me get sites banned because I am uncomfortable about their content (bearing in mind that there's no such thing as a child porn site - it all happens P2P).

$128 million!
Think of all the people you know. Now think of all the people they know. Now imagine all the tax that all of these people will work all of their lives to pay. This is the kind of money we are talking about wasting on a filtering system that cannot work but makes people like the Australian Christian Lobby feel like they are regaining control of people's sex lives. This is for a filter that can be bypassed permanently for USD20 per month.

iiNet? Telstra?
Didn't these 2 ISPs pull out of the trial?
iiNet's Michael Malone appeared on 4 Corners explaining why this was a bad idea. Is Conroy simply lying about ISP support for this idea?

If Jim Wallace and Bernadette McMenamin say it's a brilliant idea run away! If the US Secretary of State, the US Ambassador to Australia, Google and Yahoo say it's a bad idea, run away! The moral of the story... Run Away!!!

Critics claim the policy will not result in any meaningful dent in the availability of harmful internet content, will create significant freedom-of-speech issues and will be prone to abuse by politicians.

Add to this the opportunity cost. Hundreds of millions of dollars that could pay for real policing and real care for real people who've been harmed by child abuse. We are letting children be abused while chasing the filtering rainbow.

Tweets aren't looking good...

Bernadette McMenamin:
Delimiter:
Somebody Think Of The Children:
And:

All she can do is denounce anyone who opposes her point of view as a child abuser. This is not an argument. This is an argument bomb.

Travellers red-faced over new customs porn rule | Courier Mail

POWERS allowing customs officials to search travellers arriving in Australia for pornography have been labelled as "sneaky" and an "invasion of privacy".

The first question on custom’s Incoming Passenger Cards has been changed to ask people if they are carrying pornography.

Those answering "yes" will have their material examined by customs officials.

Travellers red-faced over new customs porn rule | Courier Mail

Well, that should encourage people to stream all their porn in future.

It's Time To Tell Mum

Link: It's Time To Tell Mum

Talking Points:

#1: The entire list of what will be banned is secret.
The Australian Government has compiled a list of websites they believe Australian’s shouldn’t be able to access. At the moment the list doesn’t include thousands of the sites that should be banned, and includes sites that shouldn’t be banned, including a dentist and a tuck shop lady.

#2: The filter will block access to material that is currently legal to possess and view.
Any films, publications and games that the Government deems to be offensive will be banned. The Government should help Australian families make choices about what information we have access to, not decide we don't have access to perfectly legal films, books, or computer games.

#3: The methods the Government plan to implement will affect your mum's internet connections forever.
Even mums want an internet connection that's faster, cheaper and more secure, but the technology being forced on internet companies by the Government has the potential to damage all of these.

#4: The way they plan to implement the ban would not keep child pornographers from sending or receiving illicit material OR from making child pornography.
Of course it would be great if there was a way to make sure children were never exposed to child pornography, never used for child pornography, and for child pornography to end completely. But, internet censorship does not do this. It will in no way stop people from making child pornography, or stop them from distributing it. In fact, the filter will probably make it harder to catch people involved in these illegal activities.

#5: Internet censorship will not protect children from being exposed to the billions of other pages that are illicit, but not on their list.
There are too many dangers online for the filter to keep children safe from them all. The filter will create a false sense of security. If mums begin to rely on the filter to keep their children safe, rather than monitoring their children’s internet use themselves, children will actually be less safe than before the filter was in place.

#6: The filter does nothing to protect children from what mums are really concerned about, like online predators, cyber-bullies, spam, viruses, and other cyber threats.
The only safeguards to these kinds of threat are parental monitoring of their children’s activities online. Internet censorship will not keep children safe, no matter what the Government says.

Google SafeSearch

Senator Conroy wants to filter but Chrome comes with a SafeSearch function built in to keep kids away from adult content.

Conroy: We’ll block 50,000 sites – The Stump

Conroy: We’ll block 50,000 sites – The Stump

So... Senator, if you never had any intention of having a list of 50,000 sites on your black list, why did you ask the techs about it?

The whole black list thing... it's a bit of a zebra list given that a number of sites that really weren't that black and that it will make no difference to people viewing these sites.

Filtering by computer fails on judgment

The plan to filter the internet for material refused classification under Australian law is legally flawed. Australia's classification law is not compatible with the Rudd government's proposal, and in fact has its own problems that make it unsuitable as a basis for any internet ''clean feed''.

Publications, movies and computer games ''refused classification'' cover a wide spectrum. They deal with child pornography, explicit sex and extreme violence, and controversial areas such as euthanasia and abortion, which are outlawed in all or part of Australia.

SMH Link:

You know who's very quiet through all of this debate? The religious right. They don't need to argue publicly for the filter because Conroy and Rudd have already told them it's going ahead.

Minister slams Facebook breaches

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has attacked the social networking site Facebook and its former college student founder for what he says is its ''complete disregard'' for privacy.

Senator Conroy is under fire from many in the internet industry for his proposed mandatory net filter. He has previously attacked Google, a key critic of the filtering plan, but last night in a Senate estimates hearing turned his attention to Facebook.

''Facebook has also shown a complete disregard for users' privacy lately,'' Senator Conroy said in response to a question from a government senator.

BrisTimes Link:
Related Tweets:

This has to be a joke. Conroy has personified the invasion of privacy. He wants to determine what goes on in every bedroom in the country. Today it's no normal porn via computers. Recently the government introduced a "are you carrying porn" question onto the Australian visa applications. Tomorrow he'll be checking that sex is performed in Opus Dei approved missionary position.

His character attacks rolled forward in this session. Now he's after Google over their gathering of wireless network data while photographing for google maps. Again, unlike Conroy, Google stopped when the public objected. See this important step that you are missing, Conroy? It's the "listen to the public" step of democracy. Very important. You don't have the power to make laws and decisions, you have temporary permission. Fuck it up (like now) and you get voted out.

Ludlam says it best:

"The minister's on a bit of a hair trigger so anyone who's criticised the net filters becomes a target for character assasination, whether it be an advocacy group like EFA [Electronic Frontiers Australia] or one of the world's largest technology companies like Google," Senator Ludlam said.

"It comes across as really petulant - the guy's a minister of the Crown, you don't need to be bawling out technology companies just because they've taken a critical stand on his filter."

"I just think the minister's being a little bit oversensitive to criticism - it would be helpful sometimes if rather than shooting the messenger he listens to what he's being told."

Senator Ludlam and Colin Jacobs, chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, both agreed that the Google Wi-Fi bungle was a serious matter but said Senator Conroy appeared to be beating it up for political gain.

"The Minister's hyberbole, bordering on hysterical, is counter-productive," said Jacobs.

Conroy delays internet filter bill - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Senator Conroy says if the filter was brought in, he would consider allowing child pornography websites to be left online for a short time to catch people maintaining or using them.

Conroy delays internet filter bill - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Conroy's perennial confusion is showing here:
Firstly, if the police need to view a blacklisted site they will use a proxy, like everyone else.
Secondly, child abuse material is traded via P2P networks (I'm trying to speak slowly for you, Senator).
Thirdly, so you admit that it will hamper police work?

Customs porn inquiry upsets Sex Party (SMH)

FOR years the adult industry has fought to keep the government out of your bedroom. Now it is fighting to keep it out of your luggage as well.

The Incoming Passenger Card for people entering Australia was recently changed to ask if they are carrying pornography. If passengers declare they are, customs officials will be able to conduct a search to assess whether the material is illegal.

The Australian Sex Party says the move marks a new era of official investigations into people's private lives. It notes the lack of a formal definition of pornography means that a variety of erotica may need to be declared.

Customs porn inquiry

Who invited this dreadful government into our bedrooms? If anyone imagined that the netfilter wasn't just a puritan power grab this should disabuse them of that notion.

For Conroy and co., "protecting the children" means protecting the churches and their anti-porn, anti-fun campaign. You know it's policy on the run when the Australian Christian Lobby, riddled with young earther denialism, thinks it's a good idea.

Travellers to be searched for porn

Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers' laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.

Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying "pornography".

Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers' electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people's private lives. She questioned whether it was appropriate to search people for legal R18+ and X18+ material.

Asher Moses' article

So now they want their filter nonsense at the airport. What is it with these people. Who cares if people have normal porn on their laptops.

The company Conroy keeps... Facebook Blocked in Pakistan Over Prophet Images

Pakistan's government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook amid anger over a page that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (May 19)

This is the company we will keep. Some loons decide that something offends them and Conroy will ban it. This is essentially what this filter is. Some religious wingnuts decided that porn was bad for other people. If history is anything to go by, they probably use it but that's OK cause they're special and they can handle it (I'm looking at you, Haggard).

Julian Assange on Dateline

The WikiLeaks website is fast gaining credibility as a whistleblowing site for political secrets, but one of the people behind it, Australian Julian Assange, remains an international man of mystery.

His biggest coup so far has been obtaining classified video of Iraqi civilians and Reuters staff being gunned down by a US military helicopter, dubbed Collateral Murder, which has been watched over six million times.

The site also released what it claimed was the list of websites to be banned under the Australian Government’s proposed internet filter, before parts of WikiLeaks itself were blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

But Julian Assange does all this with no home or office, constantly travelling the world, so Mark Davis tracked him down to Norway, followed him to Sweden, where many of WikiLeaks servers are based, then to Iceland, where he was advising politicians on turning the country into a safe haven for whistleblowers, and finally to Australia, where he was told his passport would be cancelled amid WikiLeaks being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

So what did he manage to find out about this shy former-computer-hacker-turned-investigative-journalist?

Link: SBS Dateline

Wikileaks is fighting this fight. I'm trying to contribute to their costs but paypal is stuffing up on me. I'll get there though. Best USD25 I'll ever spend.

ACMA's blacklist - Google Search

ACMA's blacklist - Google Search

Challenge To Existing Australian Censorship Rules Rejected

While we've been covering the ongoing back and forth about proposed new internet censorship rules in Australia we didn't quite realize that Australia already has internet censorship rules in place. Michael Scott points us to the news of Electronic Frontiers Australia (sort of an EFF for Australia, but with no official relationship between the two) challenging an attempt by Australian officials to censor a blog post EFA put together to highlight Australian censorship...

Link:

The Media Line

"According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.

“To see resistance from a woman means a lot,” Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist told The Media Line. “People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance.”

“The media and the Internet have given people a lot of power and the freedom to express their anger,” she said. “The Hai’a are like a militia, but now whenever they do something it’s all over the Internet. This gives them a horrible reputation and gives people power to react.”"

The Media Line:

The net at work. Saudi women are seeing that their sisters have it better then they do and they aren't gonna take it any longer. Brilliant!

Study casts doubt over net filter support

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attempts to fend off a slump in the Labor's approval rating, evidence is mounting that one of its key initiatives - mandatory internet filtering - may not prove as popular with voters as the government had hoped.

If Australia censors the web, what will the others do?

In February, a phone survey run by McNair Ingenuity indicated widespread support for the initiative among ordinary voters, but new findings from a study commissioned by the Safer Internet Group indicate that the more parents find out about the proposed filter, the less they support it.

The filter has been mired in controversy since its inception, with internet industry groups, academics and backbenchers labelling it heavy handed. The US State Department has also raised concerns about the plan.

Link:

Virtual tumbleweeds blow across NBN discussion website

Perhaps it's an idea just a bit ahead of its time.

A web discussion page established by the government to debate the recommendations of a study into the national broadband network has attracted just six brief contributions in its first week online.

The site, hosted by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy uses a wiki format to encourage users to proffer their thoughts on the implementation study as part of a broader public consultation.

Link:

"Ahead of its time"... really? Nothing new about government obfuscation and double speak.

What's the point of talking to Senator Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy? He will only listen to the religious right, his pet techs and the people who are spruiking the net filtering panacea.

He doesn't speak to or for people making a living online. I suspect he's never even met a netizen. I am part of the digital economy. I find the Senator's ignorance is disturbing. He's any industry's nightmare. A politician who is completely oblivious to his portfolio's needs and wishes and unwilling to listen to industry experts is incompetence at it's most dangerous.

The site mentioned site looks like it is designed to serve two purposes:
1) give other non-netizens a place to vent
2) create the appearance of consultation.
A third purpose would be to waste millions of dollars... but that serves no purpose.

The one piece of information that I really want is when the Senator is up for election. That is a piece of data I can hang my hat on.

The Government's 'Wiki'

On folly, freedom and filters

Wearing my EFA Board Member hat, I spoke today at an event at Parliament House hosted by the Menzies Research Centre in a debate with Tony McLellan of the Australian Christian Lobby. The audience was primarily members of the Australian Liberal Students Federation; young Liberals destined for jobs as political staffers and politicians.

Below is the text of my part of the debate.

Let me begin with a short anecdote.

On Monday night as we watched Four Corners and Q&A, my not-quite-13 year old daughter, Hannah, made a particularly interesting observation. “Gee, Dad,” she said, “I think I’ve just seen more rude pictures in that story than I’ve ever seen on the Internet.”

Link: EFA

Senator Ludlam's net filter speech

Senator Scott Ludlam's speech on Internet Filtering Legislation from Greens MPs on Vimeo.

IFPI’s child porn strategy

Start with child porn, which everybody agrees is revolting, and find some politicians who want to appear like they are doing something. Never mind that the blocking as such is ridiculously easy to circumvent in less than 10 seconds. The purpose at this stage is only to get the politicians and the general public to accept the principle that censorship in the form of ”filters” is okay. Once that principle has been established, it is easy to extend it to other areas, such as illegal file sharing. And once censorship of the Internet has been accepted in principle, they can start looking at ways to make it more technically difficult to circumvent.

Link:

An article espousing what I think they're up to. Starts with child abuse material because no-one could defend it, then it moves onto other censorship. They want us under control and I don't want to be under their control.

Censorship is a crime against ships

What will be filtered?

From:

Net Filter companies losing ISP business

Sales of web content filters to the telecommunications industry have frozen as reluctant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) wait for possible subsidy under the Federal Government’s national Internet content filter plan.

Two of the largest web filtering vendors, Marshall 8e6 and Netsweeper, reported Australian ISPs have iced plans to buy content filters that would be used to provide optional filtering services for subscribers.

Link:

Opt in filtering hardware sales to ISPs have fallen. ISPs are waiting to see what they will be forced to buy or subsidized to buy before buying. Many ISPs offered filtered internet before all this started. The take up rates were nominal because no-one wants this. The idea that more ISPs offer this is being blocked by Conroy's filter.

I see dumb people. They're everywhere. They don't know that they're dumb.

Have you ever noticed how incompetent people are often incredibly confident? Meanwhile, highly-skilled folks underestimate their ability to perform. That's called the Dunning-Kruger Effect named for Justin Kruger and David Dunning of Cornell University who published their study of the cognitive bias in a 1999 scientific paper. ABC Radio National's The Science Show recently explored the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

BoingBoing

Are you reading this Conroy? You are very confident that your filter will work. You have tech experts trying to explain this to you but you can't hear them over the roar of your incompetence.

ABC radio report:

NYTimes article from 2000

Overcoming bias

Rudd retreats on web filter legislation

KEVIN Rudd has put another election promise on the backburner with his controversial internet filtering legislation set to be shelved until after the next election.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said yesterday the legislation would not be introduced next month's or the June sittings of parliament.

Link:

This hasn't gone away. They are going into election mode so the netfilter doesn't get mentioned much... just like last time when they were in election mode.

I followed Rudd's election closely. I would have known if this was mentioned because I would have stopped thinking positively of him. The Greens (my vote) are coming through for us. I hope the Greens get balance of power in the Senate. A nice three way split like in the UK.

If we stop voting for them will they leave us alone??

Support fading for Government's internet filter

Support for the Federal Government's proposed mandatory internet filtering program is waning, with a study revealing that fewer people back the move.

Earlier this week Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said a re-elected Labor government would not expand the proposed internet censorship.

Link:

"... re-elected Labor government would not expand the proposed internet censorship."
Is Conroy-Speak for Labor will expand the filtered list or he hasn't fully disclosed what will be on the list, like Rudd didn't really talk about the filter before the election. It was there but it was buried.

Governments should not censor the internet

We live under the illusion that governments can protect us from the evils of the world.

Paedophilia, extreme violence, lessons in self-harm and suicide, race hatred and terrorism. We have every right to expect governments to monitor hate and terror sites and arrest and prosecute those who aim to do harm to others.

Link:

Twitter jokes on trial: how one tweet turned a man into a criminal

Chambers was referring to the fact that the airport was closed due to a snowstorm. He was flying out the next week from Doncaster, England to visit his girlfriend in Ireland and was anxious his flight would be canceled. He did what is a very common thing in the age of social media - he put his thoughts out there for people to read. He assumed what he said would be seen only by his followers, sort of like talking in a room full of friends. But days later, the tweet was found by airport manager Shaun Duffield who told the court yesterday that the threat was not considered to be credible and no effect on airport operations.

Link:

How do people like this get to stay judges. Had to have twitter explained to him!? A tweet constitutes a credible threat to an airport? Stephen Fry is paying his fines but he has a criminal record now which means he can't become an accountant.

This has probably turned the tweeter from a mild mannered future accountant into a civil liberties crusader. Welcome to the fight, Mr Chambers.

Ban Piano Lessons Next!!!!

Sex-charge teacher 'set up spy camera in toilet'

A former piano teacher who sexually abused several children in central Victoria installed a spy camera in a homemade toilet used by his victims, a court heard today.

Colin Harold Doo, 51, formerly of Romsey, pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court today to 36 charges including 12 counts of committing an indecent act in the presence of a child under 16, nine of producing child pornography and seven of rape.

Link:

They go on to talk about computers, hard drives, DVDs and so on. Nowhere in this story does it say that this material was sourced on the net.

This is how kids are protected, by their parents.

A MAN filmed a young girl and her mother while they used his portable shower during a camping trip, a court has been told.

Rodney Paul Howell, 50, created the videos during camping trips to Double Island Point, north of the Sunshine Coast, with the family between 2005 and 2008.

Link:

The parents were vigilant and worked out that a creepy old guy had befriended them to film their 11 year old. The step father is to be commended. He did his job as a parent and looked out for his step daughter.

This is how children will be protected. Not with Conroy's magic bullet.

Internet filter could scupper NBN speeds

An internet service provider (ISP) says the Federal Government's proposed filter has the potential to cause bottlenecks and webpage blackouts, making its high-speed National Broadband Network less viable.

The Government announced the filter two years ago as part of its cyber safety program to protect children from pornography and offensive material. Last year it ran tests on the system.

John Lindsay from internet company Internode says such a filtering slowdown will make a big difference to businesses, especially when downloading files.

Link:

Internet censorship remains part of Conroy's agenda

The government has postponed its web-filtering legislation to defuse it as an election issue

IT was ironic that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the postponement of his internet filtering legislation via an adviser last week. Advice was not something he was fond of taking. Sensing a voter backlash on the legislation, which was supposed to be introduced into the parliament before the federal election, Rudd and Conroy are banking on removing it as an election issue. But will they?

If Conroy had introduced the legislation before the election, he might have risked the ire of the Greens and Electronic Frontiers Australia, but at least it would have been done and dusted. It would then be up to other political parties to say that they would try to overturn it, a much more difficult task. Now the election could be turned in part into a referendum on the issue.

Link:

I like this article. It actually just admits that adults want to access adult material on the net and that doesn't mean they are pedophiles or perverts. Thus:

He also has miscalculated the number of people who use the internet to seek out sexual material. At last count there were 238 million adult sex sites on the internet and millions of searches every day are for sexually related material. Does Conroy think all these people live in Upper Volta or New Zealand? His insistence on calling them pedophiles and perverts has only hardened their resolve to bring him down. Sexual pleasure on the internet is a personal freedom that many adults will not give up lightly.

Amid Calls for Transparency, Pope Describes Dangers of Digital Age

"At a conference on digital media at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the idea of transparency in the Internet age, warning that digital transparency exacerbates tensions between nations and within nations themselves and increases the 'dangers of ... intellectual and moral relativism,' which can lead to 'multiple forms of degradation and humiliation' of the essence of a person, and to the 'pollution of the spirit.' All in all, it seemed a pretty grim view of the wide-open communication environment being demanded by the Internet age."

Link:

Article:

The Vatican has to be sick of Web 2.0's attention. I'm not planning on cutting them a break. Was this what Rudd and the Pope talked about when Rudd visited the Vatican? Is the Australian Government's filter designed to limit the usability of the internet because it is upsetting the Vatican's power balance?