The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing five different government agencies for refusing to disclose their policies on investigations using social networking websites.
The lawsuit was filed Monday after the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests that sought all records and guidelines outlining the collection of personal information from social media.
The initial FOIA requests were made after recent news reports indicate that government investigations have been increasingly relying on social networking sites — in October, for example, the Federal Bureau of Ivestigation used Twitter to catch a man accused of bank fraud.
In its lawsuit the EFF stated that “[a]lthough the Federal Government clearly uses social-networking websites to collect information, often for laudable reasons, it has not clarified the scope of its use of social-networking websites or disclosed what restrictions and oversight is in place to prevent abuse.”
Congress is considering legislation that would set guidelines on the government’s use of these websites.
Awareness is about ‘being’ in the present. When we experience life with all our senses, present in the here and now we are truly alive. Unfortunately, like me, you probably spend more time in your head – dragging up memories and worrying about stuff in the future that may never happen.
Our brains, which gave us such a profound evolutionary edge appear unable to keep up with an ever-increasing rate of social change. Many of us feel overwhelmed.
Inside my head it’s like a battlefield – full of conflict, judgement and pain. From the moment I awake I am bombarded by such thoughts. I used to find some peace by numbing my mind with substances, but, in the long-term they only made the situation worse. Now, I’m learning to accept myself again.
Awareness of the here and now frees us from the tyranny of our minds. We all have this potential and Yoga and mindfulness meditation have been used for this purpose for 5000yrs.
An integrated task force has been formed to patrol Omkoi district in Chiang Mai Province. Due to the poverty of its residents and its isolated location, it has seen an increase of illegal activities ranging from opium poppy production, illegal immigration, and has become a center for the transportation of stolen vehicles across the border. Illegal immigrants and the illegal harvesting in the National Forests remains a problem, according to the report released by the Office of Narcotics Control Board this November.
The task force created to monitor the area will consist of members of the Border Patrol Police, local administrative officials, Royal Thai Rangers, and the Omkoi police to be led by Pol, Col, Satit Katetanon, Deputy Commander of the Border Patrol Police Division, Region 3. The Omkoi Special Command, led by Lt. Col. Adul Jampatong, Deputy Commander of Rangers Force Division 36, has already found and destroyed 4 rai of opium poppy plantations.
Meanwhile, the 2010 plan for the eradication of opium poppy planting was announced November 24 at the Pha Muang Task force Center by Lt. General Wantip Wongwai, Deputy Commander of the Army Area 3. The plan will cover 76 separate areas in the north, of which the army will be responsible for 65 areas in Mae Chaem and Omkoi. They will be supported by the Office of Narcotics Control Board, Provincial and Border Patrol Police.
Lt. General Wantip traveled to the Omkoi district to observe the destruction of opium plants and to distribute sporting equipment and other goods to Rang Bee village members of which have cooperated with officials in their goal to eradicate opium poppy planting.
To date, 46 rai of opium poppy fields have been destroyed with a further 94 rai awaiting destruction.
The things that happened last night somehow managed to skew my immediate perception of the world and I do not like it. In the same moments I realized I need to return to my double daily does of yoga. A deep sigh here. A distraction there.
When I woke up this morning my roommates were watching Doctor Strangelove. It made me giggle internally because the last time I saw the film I was living in Spokane, it was a Sunday afternoon. My old guitarist and I were sitting on the front porch of my broken down apartment building practicing our punk set acoustic style because the rest of the band was out of town. A neighbor came walking across the street without any shoes and we felt sure he would be coming to tell us to keep it down. Instead he told us that he had a mini studio apartment and invited us over. Turns out he did music scores for IFC and upon walking in we saw a beautiful set up of iMacs and audio equipment. We played a few of our songs for him, he was encouraging and told us that back in the 70s he was really into the then new onset of this thing called punk rock. He couldn’t have been more right; when getting up to use the bathroom (having to to avoid several cats) I noticed a gold record on the wall. To my great surprise, it was for an album in 1978 by The Skulls which I knew as one of the first Los Angeles punk bands. I immediately questioned his possession of it, and to the great delight we found that we had just smoked bud [out of a crazy Coca Cola bubbler] and done a line or two of pure white off of mirror with an original member of The Skulls. Then we watched Doctor Strangelove and walked back home in a haze induced by both drugs and awe. I had completely forgotten about this experience until now! Wow.
In any case, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me. After what turned out to be a very motivational phone conversation with my father last night I’ll be jumping full on into making this clothing line work. There are lists and sketches and time lines scattered about and now is the perfect time to make this work. I have both the skills and the opportunity, now I must focus and simply DO IT. I’ve realized, too, that I need to start doing menswear. Fuck.
I’ll be the first to admit it: I am a crazy cat lady. The big orange one is Sean Connery.
There are two others; MacGruber and Isotope. At some point last night I awoke to find two cats silhouetted in the window. Isotope was licking Sean Connery’s face. Bizarre life that I live.
Yesterday the weather was beautifully deceptive. Sunny and bright and glowing from my window; when I stepped outside my face froze instantly. Bicycling in that temperature was wholly uncomfortable even with the layers I was wearing. The majority of my day was spent standing in lines. At the Department of Licensing, at the bank, at the cable company, at the court house. Lines are terrible for one main reason; everyone in a line is in a bad mood. Impatient, angry, annoyed- it’s pure negative vibes! A very draining way to exist on a Wednesday afternoon.
The light part of the day was ending and I quite randomly decided to do something uncharacteristic. I diverted to the task of buying real make up for the first time in my life. My lack of expertise in the area required some text coaching from a friend who actually knew what she was doing. After spending nearly an hour on the hunt, I purchased my choices nervously hoping I had successfully followed my friend’s guidelines on shade and type. An hour and a considerable amount of careful effort passed and this was the result.
I was incredibly pleased. The difference to some may be subtle, but I’m proud nonetheless. Unfortunately, I spent the rest of the evening inside and alone, as per my usual custom. I’ll be doing it again tonight, I’m sure.
My stomach, for unknown reasons, is uneasy.
Today I feel human.
Anyone who has never married can enter into a contract of sale or lease, provided that he/she is:
-Not a minor, except for exceptions such as mentioned in Minors and a Contract of Sale or Lease”;
-Not under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of conclusion of the contract;
-Not insane;
-Not prohibited from concluding contracts without the assistance of a curator, in terms of a Court Order;
-Not an unrehabilitated insolvent.
Widows, widowers and divorcees have full contractual capacity, except for the exceptions mentioned above.
A hearing of two court cases involving violent crimes committed by teenage girls has raised the question – is there a growing trend of violence among young women throughout Great Britain? Two 17-year-olds involved in one of the noted cases are stubborn in the face of these concerns, stating that there is no such concept of “girl gangs”.
Apparently, these crimes arise because of nothing but friendship. Mates have to look out for each other. If somebody is talking about you behind your back and making threats - this will not pass without action. “You can’t just go around being bullied” Tish, one of the girls involved in the hearing, argued that the violence involved in this incident was “not violence, that’s self defence”.
But is it? Inconsideration of the Rosimeiri Boxall case, the 19-year old girl who was tortured and bullied into her death, it is clear that self defence claims prove pitiful. In fact, Hatice Can, 15 and Kemi Ajose, 17 were participating in an example of brutal bullying and torture. These girls try to blame their actions on their childhood and the character of their parents, but it comes down to an individual conscious choice. In the previously mentioned case, Tish stated that she feels she has no chance because of her mother. However, this point is soon brought to a close with the blunt realisation, “I’ve just got a temper on me”
We can speculate about the ins and outs of violent incidents involving young women, but the statistics speak for themselves. Even though women from the age of 16-24 have the highest risk of becoming victims of hostile crime in the UK, recent data has shown an increase in individuals turning to crime themselves. Further to this, women’s rights group Engender have found that within a group of 14- to 21-year-olds, one in three girls and one in two boys thought there were circumstances in which it could be acceptable to hit a woman or force her to have sex.Youth Justice Board figures for last year further show that girls can now be blamed for approx. 21% of criminal offences that reach the courts due to the 50% rise in violent crime committed by young women.
The concern of rising female violence is not just restricted to the UK. Other western European nations report similar trends in female crime. Over the past 10 years the rate for violent offences involving adolescent girls in Canada has increased at twice the rate for boys.
Dr Val Besag (Kidscape) claims alcohol and socialisation are to blame. Girls have always been socialised into being kind and ladylike. In the face of confrontation, girls would have to ‘go away and be friends’. However, boys would be told to ‘fight back’. There is obviously a cultural bias and a stereotype that men are more violent than women. US psychologist Richard Felson states that motives for violence are identical for both genders – to gain retribution and to protect self-image
Evolutionary science has provided evidence that girls are just as violent as men but they take longer to become angry. Women have a procrastinating nature. However, abuse of alcohol and drugs shortens this time. Some terrible cases of bullying and murder have arisen from the use of these harmful substances. All that has to be seen is a crowd of drunken girls on a Friday or Saturday night to get a vivid idea of these claims.
It is clear that the concept of a “girl gang” is very prominent in our society. Whether young females decide to cover up their actions by a vow of friendship or blaming their parents, these young girls are simply making the choice to create conflict as a group activity.
BEIJING – The week before the visit of United States President Barack Obama, the Chinese media were full of hope and expectations: Obama’s meeting with China’s leaders would lead to new and higher-level bilateral relations, newspapers wrote. But it was already clear that, contrary to the ideas of the foreign press, this would not mean that China was to become a second America.
In fact, on November 14, less than 48 hours before Obama’s arrival in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency released a long statement in Chinese only explaining that Xi Jinping, vice president of the state and president of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Central Party School), had held a conference about the necessity to “actively encourage the building of a ruling party study model of Marxism“.
Xi, in his speech at the Party School, which was chaired by Li Jingtian, the executive vice president of the same school, recommended studying socialist theory with Chinese characteristics and applying the “core values of socialism”
The school is the highest institution in the country to train officials of the Communist Party of China.
It sounds like a trip back in time, light years away from the wave of freshness and optimism that seems to blow in the West and in the US around Obama, with his liberal, charismatic aura.
But it is not an isolated gesture. The strong emphasis on Marxism has been echoed by headlines in recent months. The current economic crisis places in question the faith, previously almost blind in China, in the capitalist system.
On November 11, the Chinese edition of Global Times, China’s best-selling national newspaper, led the front page with a report that a BBC survey in 21 countries had found that a majority of people no longer had confidence in capitalism. (More than 29,000 people in 27 countries were questioned. In only two countries, the United States and Pakistan, did more than one in five people feel that capitalism works well as it stands.)
In a sense, China is emerging from decades of reticence about its political system. On November 13 and 14, immediately before Obama arrived in Beijing, Zheng Bijian, credited as a political adviser to President Hu Jintao, flew to Taiwan to take part for the first time in a seminar on political systems. Zheng was executive vice president of the Party School in the 1990s when Hu was its president.
t was the first time that a very senior Beijing official had agreed to discuss the differences between the political systems in China and Taiwan, which have been a major stumbling block in any potential process of reunification of the island with the mainland. Taiwan is a parliamentary democracy, and China isn’t.
The message appears to be that with the current crisis – which is economic, but to a certain extent systemic in the US – China is having renewed doubts about the value of the US and Western system, and is growing cautious.
This does not mean that Beijing will turn back or stop, although it is willing to explore different directions.
In his speech, Xi coined a new term in China’s ultra-coded political rhetoric: “The ruling party study model of Marxism.” The definition is cryptic for people in the West, but it is still clearly miles away from the days when the party called itself “Communist Marxist-Leninist“.
The indications are that the Chinese are no longer inclined to define their party as “communist”, although they acknowledge a real, not simply rhetorical, value in the study of Marxism and the “core values of socialism”. China is becoming more convinced and self-confident in its trial reforms of the political system.
This greater confidence was evidenced in Zheng Bijian’s trip to Taiwan. In essence, the message to the Taiwanese, who might still one day unite with the mainland, was, “We will certainly change our political system, but your parliamentary democracy also must reform; otherwise, it risks being derailed and overwhelmed by demagoguery and populism.”
Zheng’s position is not without support on the island, where many entrepreneurs and tycoons are beginning to admire the efficiency and economic success in mainland China.
China’s leaders stress they do not want to export their political model, and they even ask others not to imitate them but to look for their own development paths. Still, China’s politicians are becoming unwilling to endure lectures on politics or ethics, given the fact that their system is working today, while others falter.
In the run-up to Obama’s visit, all this meant that the message to the visitor was to keep domestic politics out of big-policy discussions. But it was also a statement: China is reforming its political system, although it might not be totally along the lines Washington or the West wants to see.
A hearing of two court cases involving violent crimes committed by teenage girls has raised the question – is there a growing trend of violence among young women throughout Great Britain? Two 17-year-olds involved in one of the noted cases are stubborn in the face of these concerns, stating that there is no such concept of “girl gangs”.
Apparently, these crimes arise because of nothing but friendship. Mates have to look out for each other. If somebody is talking about you behind your back and making threats - this will not pass without action. “You can’t just go around being bullied” Tish, one of the girls involved in the hearing, argued that the violence involved in this incident was “not violence, that’s self defence”.
