Pica Pica

People care enough to keep this kind of place passable and free, but they don’t particularly pride themselves on the back lane. Perhaps that’s why there is such a dreamy peace to be found there sometimes.

Behind Norton Street

Sometimes when one sees a pink elephant, it is real. One may find one abandoned in the park and bring it home. Ones people may insist on washing it, but one is justifiably proud.

… a bunch of people who think that Australia’s national anthem is “Advance Fairskinned Australia”.

Or so it is said.

I’ve not only been splitting the old blog into these two new ones, but also seriously refreshing my work site. I’m impressed, both by WordPress in general (they have prepared some really good documentation) but also by the highly customizable Atahualpa theme I’ve used there as well as for the blogs.

The media here are making much of the young, net-savvy Iranians using social networking sites to get the news out. Most people believe the Iranian presidential election to have been rigged, most outside journalists have had to leave Iran, but the Iranians are said to be twitter-ing and facebook-ing away about what is going on. And don’t we just love it, because it is the Iranian regime that is threatened by the net?

So good. Freedom of information really does work in favour of democracy! Our governments should be financing research to keep information free, and to protect those who publish it – software to keep government snoopers out of our e-conversations, and to provide security and privacy. The Great Firewall of China, the Australian plans for ISP-level filtering, plans to keep logs of all e-mail exchanges – these are toys that would have made Big Brother green with envy.

Underlines my point!

First off, a declaration that this thought started with an article by Gary Feuerberg in the Epoch Times; the article also refers to a site concerned with undermining democracy.

Feuerberg’s article summarizes a report entitled “Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians,” released on Capitol Hill, June 4 – the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre – sponsored by Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia. Its 80 pages find that four authoritarian states—China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela—are setting forth a new authoritarian model for countries to follow, and that they have the resources and sophistication to be highly influential in the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Continue reading Global Free Information?

Robert – hope you had a good day!

A report in the SMH tells that the number of mental health patients forced to undergo electroconvulsive therapy in NSW has doubled in the past decade – the figure is now around 600 involuntary (yes) treatments a year – about one person in ten thousand. I call it barbaric.

Let us not forget. 20 years ago tomorrow. Here is one article in the Wall Street Journal.

There I was, watching Channel 10 at 20 past the hour, when an advertising slot started. Fair enough – that’s what pays for the film.
“Don’t go away!“, they say, promising that the break will only last 60 seconds. Not bad, I thought. I believed them – I’ve even measured it in the past, and it’s true. Impressive.

But this time, I kept my eye on what happened. Yes, the break was only one minute long. Then we had four (yes, just four) minutes of program, followed by another ad-break. This time it lasted three-and-a-half minutes. The channel did not boast about the length of that spot!