newspeak

Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners – ProPublica.

Why is an open government policy and programme important? Because, as we see from the ProPublica article and from the very recent history of the Japanese nuclear reactor responses and suppressions and collusions and misdeeds, governments suppress information that affects the wellbeing of their nations’ residents. It’s not a matter of ignorance or accident. It’s a question of actual intentional suppression.

I tend to believe things are getting better, for a couple of reasons. One is that there are tools now that more people have access to and also know how to use, and there is a sufficiently large enough audience for this sort of information. (Proportionally, it may be quite a lot smaller than before, but the actual numbers, the quantity, is what counts.) Second, the *point* of government is evolving and clarifying. As we continue to emerge to a kind of post-enlightenment democratic complex, one less woven with racist and racialist threads, though these are obviously still colouring the material of our being, to one that actually allows us to claim as our identity our ambitions. Yes, that’s wildly optimistic.

Sperm quality and counts worsening in Finland.

This is very worrying. Testis cancer–testicular cancer, such as Lance Armstrong recovered from–is curable, even if caught relatively late, but also increasing in incidence. It used to be quite uncommon.

And sperm count have been dropping in more and more places….. suggesting the environmental pressures—like pesticides, plastics, organophosphates, etc.–are having generational consequences. It’s not just the current generation, in short, that is affected; it’s subsequent ones.

The Economics of Blogging and The Huffington Post – NYTimes.com.

The Carr-Benkler wager relates to the economic significance and sustainability of “free” or volunteer content contribution, with Benkler arguing on behalf of volunteer peer production, a k a, “free” content contribution, vs professional (and implicitly for fee) work.

2011 was supposed to be the year when the wager is to be called….

Satellite image shows U.S. blanketed by winter storms – Yahoo! News.

Toronto is somewhere under that.

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream – Watch Now – Al Jazeera English.

The reportage is brilliant, the massive actions confirming my profound optimism in the people’s finally shrugging off the mantle of the 20th century, but in watching this real act of democracy–people’s will manifested politically, albeit with a simple demand lacking in a coherent (so we are told) aftermath (what comes next? that seems to be motivating state & military politics now)–I am reminded of the similar but very tragic Burmese uprising of a couple of years ago. You know: the one that focused, was personified by the shooting death of the Japanese news photographer, Kenji Nagai, in September 2007. The junta ruling Burma is still in power and although there has been some positive movement, it’s not been nearly enough and the status quo pretty much obtains.

Egypt Leaves the Internet – Renesys Blog.

This is extraordinary. “Interdiction” takes on a new meaning? No: just the old meaning applied to new media. Which suggests that to have old freedoms writ into new modalities we need new protections. For this sort of interdiction–sudden, as here, but also it could be progressive, so that one doesn’t really know it’s occurring until too late, it’s occurred and there’s nothing to do because there is no way to discriminate one from the other–this sort of clamp down could occur, does occur, will occur everywhere.

Ford warns of TTC fare hike; budget reveals minor cuts – thestar.com.

It’s always depressing–really depressing–to read of such patent hypocrisy from the Tories and right-wing, in general. Harper’s desire for more prison expansion is another case in point. Government, the logic goes, is always bad, except when it builds prisons, which instance right-wing social ideals but do worse than zero for actual crime and even less to counter social injustices. Government money is bad otherwise–sigh.

Meanwhile, our tax dollars are spent in obscure ways to produce negative effects and to counter social justice, and our tax dollars–mine, say–are spent on things which are worse than costly: they lock in a system that will continue the social injustices and opacity.

\’Violence is OK, if that\’s what it takes to make our mark\’ – UK Politics, UK – The Independent.

Hard not to recall how a few weeks ago the beeb’s savant could opine that though there might be dissatisfaction there would, could not be in England such violence. What an idiot.