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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Obituaries: Obituary: Warren Clarke

Posted: November 19, 2014 at 6:42 pm

Warren Clarke as Winston Churchill in Three Days in May at London's Trafalgar Studios in 2011. Photo: Tristram Kenton

With a crumpled face, dyspeptic demeanour and gruffly disapproving scowl, Warren Clarke found unlikely fame as a politically incorrect Northern detective superintendent saddled with a liberally minded Southern university graduate sidekick in Dalziel and Pascoe.

Over the course of 12 series across 11 years from 1996, Clarke humanised the chauvinist copper in a performance of nuanced directness underpinned by winningly sly wit. The role showcased an unerring ability to imbue even the most unsympathetic characters with qualities that rendered them always watchable, if not always likeable.

The son of a stained-glass window maker and secretary, he left school at 15 to become a copy boy for the Manchester Evening News before involvement in amateur dramatics led him to the Liverpool Playhouse in 1966 to play Huckleberry Finn in Tom Sawyer.

Turning professional, early appearances in Liverpool over the next two years included Willis Halls The Long and the Short and the Tall, Ray Lawlers The Piccadilly Bushman and McCann in Pinters The Birthday Party.

At the Library Theatre, Manchester in 1967 he played Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, and appeared in John McGraths Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun. He made his Royal Court debut in Tom Murphys Famine and Frank Normans prison drama Insideout (directed by Ken Campbell) in 1969.

The following year, Clarke was seen alongside John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in David Storeys Home, transferring with it from the Royal Court to the Apollo Theatre.

Later Royal Court appearances included Sam Shepards The Unseen Hand (1973) and the Richard OBrien musical T.Zee (1976). In between, he appeared in the premiere of Anthony Shaffers Murderer at the Garrick Theatre (1975).

At the National Theatre in the late 1970s, Clarke appeared in Thomas Bernhards The Force of Habit (1976); Christopher Hamptons translation of Tales From the Vienna Woods; as Bonario to Paul Scofields Volpone (both 1977) and in Keith Dewhursts Lark Rise (1978).

Later stage work included Dennis in Ayckbourns Just Between Ourselves (Palace Theatre, Watford, 1986) and Winston Churchill (a role he also played in the 1974 television serial Jennie Lady Randolph Churchill) in Ben Browns Three Days in May at Londons Trafalgar Studios in 2011.

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Pauline Hanson returns to lead One Nation

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Pauline Hanson has announced her return to the One Nation party to become its leader after a 12-year hiatus.

The serial candidate wants to win a Queensland seat and will prepare the party for next year's Queensland election.

On the day her ascent was announced, Ms Hanson has already taken a swipe at foreign ownership, Halal and multiculturalism.

She announced her comeback on One Nation's website, saying she would dare to raise issues which were politically incorrect.

"We are witnessing large amounts of our prime farming land and housing sold to foreign ownership," she said.

"The push for multiculturalism is only segregating us as a nation and not uniting us as Australians with the same values, beliefs and laws.

"Halal is being forced on us by 2 per cent of the population."

Speaking on television this morning, Ms Hanson said the party would stand candidates in the Queensland election, but not in NSW because it was not registered there.

Despite Hanson's aspirations, the party did not fare well in the last Queensland election in 2012.

Its six candidates got a combined total of 2,525 votes, just 0.1 per cent of votes.

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Pauline Hanson returns to lead One Nation, plans to contest Queensland election

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Pauline Hanson has announced her return to the One Nation party to become its leader after a 12-year hiatus.

The serial candidate wants to win a Queensland seat and will prepare the party for next year's Queensland election.

On the day her ascent was announced, Ms Hanson has already taken a swipe at foreign ownership, Halal and multiculturalism.

She announced her comeback on One Nation's website, saying she would dare to raise issues which were politically incorrect.

"We are witnessing large amounts of our prime farming land and housing sold to foreign ownership," she said.

"The push for multiculturalism is only segregating us as a nation and not uniting us as Australians with the same values, beliefs and laws.

"Halal is being forced on us by 2 per cent of the population."

Speaking on television this morning, Ms Hanson said the party would stand candidates in the Queensland election, but not in NSW because it was not registered there.

Despite Hanson's aspirations, the party did not fare well in the last Queensland election in 2012.

Its six candidates got a combined total of 2,525 votes, just 0.1 per cent of votes.

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What is the World Internet Conference? China Hosts International Leaders Amid Criticism Over Censorship

Posted: at 6:42 pm

The stated goal of the World Internet Conference, Chinas first such international forum, is to promote discussions about issues facing governments and business online, but Chinas history of Internet censorship has taken center stage, at least outside of China. The meeting takes place through Friday in Wuzhen and will see speeches and discussions by entrepreneurs and officials from China and abroad.

The conference will focus on current issues in the cyberspace, including cybersecurity, online anti-terrorism efforts, mobile network and cross-border e-commerce, according to CRI English. The theme of the conference is An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All.

Criticshave pointed out the irony of China hosting an Internet conference given its massive Internet censorship campaign. China blocks Western websites like Facebook and YouTube. Lu Wei, chief of the national Internet authority, discussed Chinas censorship practices at a press conference last week, but avoided concrete answers to questions about censorship.

I never visited these websites before, therefore I dont know whether they have been shut down, but I want to make it clear that all the supervision currently in place is based on Chinas laws [and made to protect Chinese consumers], Lusaidof social media censorship. He went on to say Chinas Internet censorship shares the same spirit with that of the U.S. and many other Western countries.

Chinese authorities unblocked access to these platforms in Wuzhen for the conference, but not countrywide, meaning representatives from sites like Alibaba and Apple will be able to tweet, update Facebook and watch YouTube while they are there.

Lu kicked off the conference by advocating for a global Internet governance system.

We will strengthen communications and seek common ground while resolving differences to establish a multilateral, democratic and transparent international Internet governance system, Lu said. Join us in building up a peaceful, safe and open and co-operative cyberspace.

The conference will be permanently held in Wuzhen, according to Peoples Daily, a state-run newspaper.

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Lessons on censorship from Syria's internet filter machines

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Nov 18, 2014 by Emiliano De Cristofaro, The Conversation In Syria everything coming in, and everything going out is watched. momente/Shutterstock

Norwegian writer Mette Newth once wrote that: "censorship has followed the free expressions of men and women like a shadow throughout history." As we develop new means to gather and create information, new means to control, erase and censor that information evolve alongside it. Today that means access to information through the internet, which motivates us to study internet censorship.

Organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, or the Open Net Initiative periodically report on the extent of censorship worldwide. But as countries that are fond of censorship are not particularly keen to share details, we must resort to probing filtered networks, that is, generating requests from within them to see what gets blocked and what gets through. We cannot hope to record all the possible censorship-triggering events, so our understanding of what is or isn't acceptable to the censor will only ever be partial. And of course it's risky, even outright illegal, to probe the censor's limits within countries with strict censorship and surveillance programs.

This is why the leak of 600GB of logs from hardware appliances used to filter internet traffic in and out of Syria is a unique opportunity to examine the workings of a real-world internet censorship apparatus.

Leaked by the hacktivist group Telecomix, the logs cover a period of nine days in 2011, drawn from seven SG-9000 internet proxies. The sale of equipment like this to countries like Syria is banned by the US and EU. California-based manufacturer Blue Coat Systems denied making the sales but confirmed the authenticity of the logs and Dubai-based firm Computerlinks FZCO later settled on a US$2.8m fine for unlawful export. In 2013, researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab demonstrated how authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt and Kuwait all rely on US-made equipment like those from Blue Coat or McAfee's SmartFilter software to perform filtering.

This technology is extremely powerful as it can perform deep-packet inspection, that is, examining in detail the contents of network traffic. They provide censors with a simple interface to fine-tune filtering policies, practically in real time.

Inside a censor's mind

At the recent ACM Internet Measurement Conference we presented our paper detailing the relatively stealthy but targeted censorship system that we'd found from examining the logs.

Internet traffic in Syria was filtered in several ways. IP addresses (the unique addresses of web servers on the internet) and domain names (the URL typed into the address bar) were filtered to block single websites such as badoo.com or amazon.com, entire network regions (including a few Israeli subnets), or keywords to target specific content. Instant messaging, tools such as Skype, and content-sharing sites such as Metacafe or Reddit were heavily censored. Social media censoring was limited to specific content and pages, such as the "Syrian Revolution" facebook page.

The appliances were sometimes misconfigured, meaning the filter caused some collateral damage for instance, all requests with the keyword "proxy" were blocked, probably in an effort to curb the use of censorship-evading proxies, but this also had the effect of blocking adverts and certain plug-ins that had no relation to banned content.

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Ron Paul Economic Policy What President Obama Should Do Listen too 360p – Video

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Ron Paul Economic Policy What President Obama Should Do Listen too 360p

By: KiddoStudEnergy

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Ron Paul to hold lecture at USF

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TAMPA Former Republican congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul is set to return to the University of South Florida on Wednesday, two years after he rallied supporters at the Sun Dome ahead of the Republican National Convention.

Some 8,000 people turned out to hear Paul criticize the Federal Reserve, tout the benefits of limited government and call for an end to overseas wars.

The 79-year-old Texan, who left Congress in 2013 after 12 terms, said in an interview he's not running for political office, but nonetheless enjoys touring colleges to extol libertarian themes.

His talks no longer draw the thousands of his stumping days, but he's hoping for a big turnout when he visits USF to deliver "a candid look at the American political system," according to USF organizers. The speech, free and open to the public, is part of the student-run University Lecture Series.

USF said Paul will use anecdotes from his two decades in Congress to "highlight his views on the need for a limited government, more personal liberties and will advocate for liberty in politics."

Paul said he's looking forward to the discussion, which will involve audience interaction.

"When I go to college campuses I try to keep it lighter," he said. "It's very serious in a way, but very upbeat in that I want people to know there's an answer to this mess."

The talks usually consist of a 45-minute lecture and 30 minutes of questions and answers. Paul's lectures draw from across the political spectrum.

"They're very diverse and I've always considered that an advantage," he said. "Whether a left or right person, whatever your standards are, it's all up to you. If you understand liberty, you can be very tolerant. The left and the right, they can both come together to defend liberty."

He said the talks remind him of when he was a young obstetrician running for Congress in 1974. He lost that race but won a special election two years later and served 12 terms in Texas' 22nd and 14th congressional districts, often while bucking mainstream Republicans.

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Ron Paul on Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio: They're 'average'

Posted: at 6:41 pm

By Ashley Killough, CNN

updated 8:06 AM EST, Wed November 19, 2014

(CNN) -- Ahead of a speech Wednesday in Florida, former Rep. Ron Paul seemed uninspired by two of the Sunshine State's two political big shots: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

"I'd say they were pretty average, status quo, middle-of-the-roaders," the former three-time presidential candidate and libertarian minded Republican told the Tampa Bay Times in a story published Tuesday.

Both men -- like Paul's son, Sen. Rand Paul -- are widely considered to be potential candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Paul's comments came ahead of a speech he's set to give Wednesday night at the University of South Florida, the same place where he held a rally that drew thousands during the week of the Republican National Convention in 2012, which was also in Tampa.

Paul famously refused to endorse the GOP's then-presumptive nominee Mitt Romney or speak at the convention.

In the interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Paul didn't elaborate on his son's expected presidential bid or whether Paul would be a part of that effort.

"I guess we will know next year," he said.

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Is Ron Paul in Big, Big Legal Trouble?

Posted: at 6:41 pm

Back in August, an Iowa Republican state senator pled guilty to taking cash payments to abandon Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign and endorse Ron Paul. Also in August, Paul started spending oodles of cash on lawyers. There's ample evidence to suggest the two events are connected.

A new report by the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog, which tracks money in campaigns, shows that Paul, the choice of folksy libertarian brogrammers everywhere, is burning through his more than half a million dollars in leftover 2012 campaign contributions, all to keep some legal eagles driving Porsches while they contend with federal investigators fromsurprise!Iowa:

Leftover campaign cash can be used for a variety of purposes, but since August, the Paul campaign has been deploying much of it to pay legal bills. In fact, since Aug. 1, the Ron Paul presidential campaign has paid $237,997 to lawyers. In the previous 19 months, the campaign spent just $190,000 on all expenses.

What on earth does Ron Paul need with all those attorneys? It's probably related to the upcoming allocution and sentencing of former Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson, who in the leadup to the 2012 Iowa GOP caucuses had been running Bachmann's presidential campaign in the state. But six days before the voting, Sorenson jumped over to Paul's ship.

Sorenson admitted three months ago to federal prosecutors that he received $73,000 in "under the table" payments from a shadowy company called ICT shortly before shifting his support from Bachmann to Paul. And according to Open Secrets, "the Paul campaign sent ICT $82,375 in payments that almost exactly match payments to Sorenson." Which probably explains why U.S. attorneys in Iowa have subpoenaed emails and records from a bunch of Paul campaign workersand possibly the old man himself.

There's something else, too: "Sorenson's sentencing date has not yet been set," Open Secrets writes, "but his plea agreement suggests he will be asked to testify against someone before sentencing." He has not previously named the people who paid him, although media reports have identified a deputy for Ron Paul's campaign who gave Sorenson another $25,000 check through a jewelry store owned by the deputy's wife.

What did Ron Paul know, and when did he know it? Whatever the answers, he and his bevy of lawyers will probably paint the former congressman as a kindly but feeble and trusting old man who had no idea such unsavoriness was going on under his nose. Which doesn't seem like much of a defense for a politician who aspired to lead the free world, but is a fine, fine quality in a retired grampa covering for taking his grandkid to see the ponies in the fifth race at Gulfstream.

[Photo credit: AP Images]

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Ron Paul says Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio are 'pretty average'

Posted: at 6:41 pm

Former Rep. Ron Paul describes his new voicesofliberty.com website as a digital bully pulpit for early stage political ideas. (Associated Press) ** FILE ** more >

Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate and longtime congressman, is mum on a potential presidential bid by his son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. But he does have a few opinions about his sons potential GOP rivals in 2016.

Id say they were pretty average, status quo, middle-of-the-roaders, he told the Tampa Bay Times in an interview ahead of a lecture at the University of South Florida on Wednesday.

The libertarian champion was referring to a pair of Floridians, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, who are on the short list for a 2016 bid for the White House.

But Mr. Paul an opponent of the Iraq War, the war on drugs and federal snooping on Americans telecommunications played it cool when asked if his son will run, or if he would play a role in the campaign.

I guess we will know next year, he told the Tampa Bay Times.

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