Britain Forward Not Back

As B.Liar, Brown, and their Labour Party cronies stand in front of their

'Britain forward not back'

slogans to announce the launch of the Labour Party manifesto, The Antagonist wonders if the opening words of the Labour party slogan

'BRITAIN FOR WAR'

are there by accident, or design.

Cloned Cattle Produce 'Safe'

"Milk and meat from cloned cattle appear safe for human consumption, a pilot study has found."

Oh, really?

Last The Antagonist heard, even non-cloned cattle has its fair share of problems.

Dell: Not Quite As Advertised

Congratulations to Dell Computers for leaping unashamedly onto The Antagonist's corporate scams radar with their superb coffer-boosting efforts of hijacking a few extra pounds from unwitting consumers at the point of sale.

It would be very difficult not to spot at least some of the glut of advertising that Dell fills the world with these days, and a reader ('H', here-on in) of the Antagonist's musings, who happened to be in the market for a new PC, was no different. Inspired by a glossy, colour photograph of a fully-fledged, multimedia Dell PC, flatscreen and speaker combo, 'H' telephoned Dell to place an order.

During the conversation that ensued, the Dell representative advised that the system did not contain a sound card and that one could be fitted at an additional cost of UKP34. According to the representative, the extra expenditure would allow 'H' to "make full use of the system" and, of course, full use of the speakers that were so prominently displayed in the glossy advert that inspired 'H' to order.

So, Dell advertises what appears to be a multimedia PC, along with the price for that multimedia PC, and then tells anyone that tries to order it that they need to spend more money to get the multimedia functionality that is implied by the glossy marketing literature.

Rather unsubtly, the idea here is to exploit the fact that anyone spending the best part of UKP1000 on a PC isn't going to balk at the marginal cost of an extra UKP40 to get the implied functionality. The deal is, if you want to actually listen to the CDs and DVDs that a new Dell system will allow you to play through the speakers shown in their adverts, you have to pay more than the advertised price of that implied functionality.

The Antagonist believes that this is a highly spurious business practice and constitutes entirely misleading advertising.

Further, if you were to take this practice to its logical extension, Dell would be selling empty computer cases, screens and speakers, as shown in the glossy adverts, and then getting customers who call up to order to fill these redundant boxes with other random component parts - like motherboards, CPUs, and graphics cards, all at extra cost - so 'H' and other consumers can then "make full use of the system" displayed.

Researchers at the Antagonist Twin Towers are very interested to know how many other people have experienced this sort of unscrupulous practice at the hands of Dell...

Are You Thinking What We're Thinking?

Nice bit of creative dissent and subvertising going on over at http://www.toryscum.com/, that's worth a mention - although The Antagonist feels the slight political bias implied by the name of the site rather unnecessarily excludes a lot of http://www.mpscum.com/ from their deserved limelight.

And, while we're on the subject of http://www.toryscum.com/, still not thinking what they're thinking? Then create, print and distribute your own Tory election posters.

Heck, put them in your windows and on your front doors and keep the canvassers away.

High Speed Multimedia Terrorism

Hey media industries, has The Antagonist got some news for you!

Reports of Internet transfer rates of "billion bits a second" and how "consumers could download an entire HD movie in about five minutes vs. today's 22 minutes."

Whatever evil spins the media corporates try and put on p2p or filesharing, even a click and a whopping 22 minutes to download a film wins hands down when compared to paying to sit on hold to a call centre for 22 minutes to pre-order tickets to a film - complete with additional booking fee for the privilege, of course - for which you still have to queue, possibly for another 22 minutes, to pick up when you've braved the elements and travelled, perhaps 22 or so more minutes, to get to wherever it is the film is showing. Then, after about 22 more minutes of adverts and general fluff that most of us could happily live without, along comes your film.

Which one would you choose?

In their infinite wisdom, the global media mafiaa are sticking to their clever strategy designed to see them through this passing Internet fad and have sued a few more multimedia terrorists... er... I mean a few more of the "upwards of 400 million peer to peer users worldwide".

The Antagonist will return soon with some clever statistics involving the numbers 9,000 (total law suits to date) and 400,000,000 (number of peer to peer users worldwide) just as soon as the abacus has been exponentially upgraded.

Safe Blogging

Immediately The Antagonist finishes posting about the Freedom of Expression Blog Awards 2005, along comes the EFF's How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else).

There must be something in the air.

Freedom of Expression Blog Awards

Freedom of expression is a good thing in the mind of The Antagonist, who lives in a place where the press purports to be free and yet which, in the majority of cases, only serves to limit the bounds of acceptable opinion and discussion.

Luckily, organisations like Reporters Sans Frontières exist and they recently launched the Freedom Of Expression Blog Awards 2005 to pay tribute to bloggers around the world who defend free expression, often in the face of adversity. Blog readers are being asked to pick from blogs in six geographical categories - Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Iran and International.

Voting is open until 1st June 2005 and there are over 60 blogs to choose from so get reading and voting and lets try and at least keep expression free, even if precious little else is.

REVOLUTION, Revolution, Revolution

“EDUCATION, education, education” was Tony B.Liar's election war cry of 1997. He probably mentioned it a few times in 2001 but I don't recall and, for once, I can't be bothered to look it up. Suffice to say, in 1997, it was the election slogan, even though all it is is meaningless reptition of the same thing, over and over again.

Today, in the early stages of the 2005 farc... election, Tony B.Liar was seen to be sweating it a bit, in the style of Charles Kennedy during his speech last year, as he appeared before his Sedgefield constituency to outline something or other in the run up to May 5th, the day before his birthday.

Surrounded by numerous Labour Party "forward not back" slogans, and with no sense of irony, sarcasm or humour, Tony B.Liar leapt firmly forward not back to 1997 and announced his party's new commitment to, er, “EDUCATION, education, education”.

Baghdad: Mass Shiite Protest Against Iraq Occupation

In a speech to tens of thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad on the second anniversary of the city's fall to the Americans, Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr demanded US troops leave Iraq.

According to the story, Christians and students also paraded around the square with banners chanting "No! No to terrorism!" and "No! No to America!" in support of Sadr's call for national unity:

"Bush, you said the world is safer now. Bush I tell you maybe America is safer but the rest of the world is more dangerous. Why are you dismantling the weapons of our resistance and you permit Israel to have nuclear arms.

"Why are you waging war against Islam, and at the same time supporting the Jews. We don't want your security. We don't want anything good or bad from you, we want you to leave us alone."

With continued global opposition outside of Iraq and both peaceful and violent opposition to the continued occupation inside the country, how much longer can the can the occupation of Iraq^* continue?

--
* Iraq: The, "stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history," and, “a vital prize for any power interested in world influence or domination,” as the region was described by Britain in 1947.

Global Week of Action For Trade Justice - 10th-16th April 2005

This week, 10th-16th April 2005, is Global Week of Action for Trade Justice, involving hundreds of organisations and thousands of events around the world to challenge the free trade myth, and generate awareness of alternatives, through the biggest global mobilisation of people to date.

Over 80 events are being held around the world and are listed geographically for Africa, the Americas, Asia/Pacific, and Europe. Specific details regarding events in the UK are listed on the Trade Justice Movement web site and London also has a special Wake Up To Trade Justice event which runs from 7.30pm on Friday 15 April 2005, through the night, until 8am on Saturday morning.

Organised by the World Development Movement and other coalition members of the Trade Justice Movement and Make Poverty History, the Wake Up To Trade Justice line-up includes a little something for everyone:

• From 7:30pm: Films for Trade Justice, WDM's screening of various films for Trade Justice, including The Yes Men, The Corporation and Crowd Bites Wolf
• From 10pm: Club night at the Marquee, including Nitin Sawhney, Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction and Super Furry Animals' frontman Gruff Rhys.
• 11:30pm: Lighting of candles on Whitehall
• Stars such as Thom Yorke, Vanessa Redgrave and Ronan Keating attending the event
• From 5am: Fairtrade breakfast
• 6:30am: Dawn procession past Downing Street

Global week of ACTION! Let's get to it, people!

It's Over For Rover (Again)

By some strange twist of bureaucratic planning, it was All Fool's Day 1999 when the BBC News web site proclaimed the future of Rover's Longbridge plant had been secured following a deal between the Government and Rover's German parent company BMW. The 'deal' involved UK taxpayers handing over £UK200 million to BMW, the private, foreign owners of Rover - a fact about which Tony B.Liar was "delighted" as he looked forward to a "world class plant for the next century".

As his is his won't in his bouts of non-specific political verbosity, Tone neglected to mention quite how far into the next century he expected this world class plant to last and, just six years later, Rover has finally collapsed amid questions about £200m of cash and assets missing from Rover's published accounts.

On Friday, contact with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) who were originally in on the deal to save Longbridge, and then out again, was available only via their broker in London NM Rothschild.

Today it looks like the four directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings who have managed to pay themselves in excess of UK£30 million since buying Rover for UK£10 from BMW in May 2000, may be required to meet some of the cost of the £400 million shortfall which has appeared in the company’s pension fund.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said:

"There will obviously be inquiries into what has happened in Rover since the deal with BMW. I think we can look at all the consequences of what has happened in the past at a later date."

Alternatively, Gordon, we could look into all the consequence of what has happened now, while the government and people responsible are still officially in charge and while it's still relevant to workers at Longbridge.

Windsor Castle Fake Bomb Delivery Update

No, not an attempted fake-bomb-re-delivery on the day of the Royal Wedding, but an update regarding the inquiry into the Windsor Castle incident earlier this week where a journalist drove a van carrying a fake 'bomb' past Windsor Castle security and into the site of today's wedding between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

As the fake 'bomb' was cunningly disguised in brown box, clearly labelled 'BOMB', and was delivered in a heavily graffiti'd and rather suspect looking van, the inquiry has deemed that the two Royal Protection Group police officers responsible for allowing entry be moved from their duties to "non firearms commands", and other tasks hopefully less challenging than spotting the bloody obvious.

Ultrasonic Remote Control for Your Brain

One in the eye for those worried about the prospect of chip implants - brain manipulation without the requirement for an implant.

Not content with creating artificial desires in people via old fashioned senses like sight, sound and smell (so 'last century'), those boys at Sony obtained a patent which speaks of technology to stimulate brain activity via ultrasound, thereby creating sensory experiences such as moving images, tastes and sounds.

From the patent:

"A non-invasive system and process for projecting sensory data onto the human neural cortex.... Changes in the neural firing timing induce various sensory experiences, depending on the location...the system induces recognizable sensory experiences by applying ultrasonic energy in one or more selected patterns on one or more selected locations of the cortex."

Suddenly, all those people wearing tin-foil hats don't seem quite so silly after all.

Pots, Kettles and Blackness

The US has dismissed a tour by journalists of a nuclear facility in Iran as a "staged media event."

And, of course, the U.S. should know for it was they who brought us this gem of meretricious propaganda. And it didn't stop there, either.

In this there is a lesson. Namely, whatever allegations the U.S pitches at whomever the current foe-of-the-moment is, is precisely what the U.S. is doing and hoping that no-one notices.

Closer to God

After endless daily reports about Il Papa's inability to speak, breath and perform his usual gesticulatory papal duties in front of the congregated masses in St Peter's Square, the pope has died.

Don't worry folks, a new one will be along shortly.

RIAA Lawsuits Draw to a Close

Washington, DC - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) this week announced that its litigation campaign against American filesharers will now end. Explained RIAA President Cory Shoreman, "In short, we sued 'em all. All 70 million, plus their parents, grandmothers, and roommates, have been properly brought to heel, for settlements ranging from between $3,000 and their entire net worth."

Shoreman continued, "The only logical result is that a properly chastened nation will now herd - peacefully, without protest - into the local malls to purchase from dusty, bulging shelves a dozen copies each of $18 Ashley Simpson copy-protected CDs."

"Why a dozen? Why, one CD for every RIAA-designed, government-approved listening device, of course! And then on top of that you've got to buy duplicates for back-ups in case any of them get scratched."

Twirling his moustachios and straightening his top hat, Shoreman chortled, "And they said the recording industry would never adjust to the Internet era!"

Nice to see the EFF in good spirits!

£140 Million To Access Your Own Money

UK£140 million. That's the cost to UK consumers for the privilege of accessing their own money via ATMs, as determined by a Treasury Select Committee.

The Select Committee report cleverly surmises that the banking malpractice of charging between £1.25 and £1.75 for each transaction means that people on low incomes suffer the most financially, and that the UK is fast approaching the point where many communities will no longer have access to ATM services free of charge.

A month after HSBC announced £9.6bn ($17.6bn) profits for 2004, and as UK debt tops UK£1 trillion, this latest report has sparked MPs into action to protect the interests of UK bank customers via the enforcement of a new banking regulation:

"signs which warn users of fee-charging ATMs must be made larger and easier to see."

Nice effort, boys.

Bad Peer Days

It's been an interesting few days in the battle of big business versus the Internet-using population of the World.

First, in the run up to the MGM Vs Grokster case, owner of a number of content companies and the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, takes a financial stand against the really big content companies and pitches in monies to employ the legal services of Richard Taranto in arguing the EFF case for Grokster.

Next up, members of the U.S. Supreme Court express their concerns that allowing legal action to proceed against technology companies will stifle future technological progress. Intel agreed, and filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to be used on behalf of Grokster and the other defendants. The Intel brief explains:

"Imposing on innovators, such as Intel an obligation to anticipate potential uses of their innovations, to correctly guess which uses will predominate, and then to design their technologies to prevent infringing uses (even if it were technically and practically feasible to do so) would stifle innovation and dramatically increase the cost of such technologies and of the consumer and enterprise products based on those technologies."

Then, on the day EFF defends StreamCast Networks in front of the Supreme Court, Cuban writes another article questioning the logic behind the RIAA's claim that file-sharing causes a decline in sales.

Cuban goes one step further and says that all other forms of digital media - DVDs, Digital Photographs, Video Games, Software, and Ringtones - have all seen huge increases in sales, either in terms of monetary value, or actual units since the advent of P2P technology, and that any alleged decline in music sales is simply due to lost market share. When you consider the global media mafia's steadfast commitment to their die-not-adapt logic and the sales of non-RIAA-cartel releases popularised by the very peer to peer networks the media mafia are looking to destroy, this all makes perfect sense.

The media companies are fighting just about everyone they can, from members of the general public, to technology companies, to even other media companies who happen to demonstrate a greater understanding of the inherent nature of digital media and Internet technologies. And in this they've taken on the impossible task of stopping the unstoppable.

The world knew it back in the days of Napster. Mark Cuban knew it in the early days of broadcast.com. Maybe, soon, the global media mafia will realise it too.

The Legitimisation of Spyware

According to Microsoft's Security at Home site, spyware is defined as:

"software that performs certain tasks on your computer, typically without your consent. This may include giving you advertising or collecting personal information about you."

However, Microsoft don't seem to apply this definition to their own software. Take versions of Microsoft Word which attempt to contact Microsoft via the Internet when the application is started, and which has long been known to phone home when various functions are performed within the program.

Microsoft are not alone in this practice. Version 3 of popular Instant Messaging software Trillian proudly boasts, "no other included software, pop-ups, or spyware", and also attempts to contact the manufacturers each time you start it, just prior to connecting the configured IM accounts. Nero's CD burning software and many other applications do the same thing.

Given that even the simplest packet of data your computer might send out reveals substantial infomation about its origins and, by default, both of the "certain tasks on your computer" described above occur, "typically without your consent", is this 'software' or 'spyware' functionality?

Now, in a further blurring of the fine line between software and spyware, the concept and function of spyware is being used for dubiously legitimate purposes. A company called Remote Approach is utilising the general ignorance and/or acceptance of surreptitious network activity by commonly used applications as the basis for their new PDF tracking tool:

"Every time the PDF is read, it briefly interacts with the reporting repository to record the event.... Some simply wish to know whether their customers actually read or forward a client's PDFs after downloading them from the client's Web site, while others engaged in peer-to-peer marketing want measurable data on whether their available PDF is being effective."

Software manufacturers will claim you signed-up for this sort of surreptitious, non-explicitly-consensual behaviour when you clicked the Accept button for the End User License Agreement, and Microsoft's definition of spyware is fairly standard, so where are users left who don't wish for everyday applications to report back a wealth of information every time they are used? Is electing to read a PDF document explicit consent for the software to let an arbitrary third party know that you've done so?

Even personal firewalls don't necessarily solve the problem. A user with an inclination to rely on a big-name firewall from any one of a number of large software houses with self-serving and mutually beneficial 'trusted computing' initiatives isn't much better protected than a user without a firewall.

Is Norton's personal firewall going to disallow Norton Anti-Virus from contacting the Internet whenever it wants? Unlikely.

Is Microsoft going to set the firewall built-in to Windows XP to prevent Word, Media Player and other Microsoft applications from accessing the Internet whenever they like? Unlikely.

This means you're not going to see a warning when 'trusted' applications surreptitiously access the Internet as spyware functionality is legitimised as a tool for detailed application and data tracking.

Richard Stallman gave this sort of thing a name. He called it Treacherous Computing. It's everywhere, watch out for it.

Smile for Big Brother

"Cameras scan and record the vehicle registration marks of every passing car. The numbers are then cross-checked against a number of databases, including the Police National Computer, the DVLA databases and police intelligence records, both locally and regionally, to identify vehicles of interest to officers."

Communist Russia? Iraq under Saddam Hussein? Not quite... Welcome to Britain.

As the UK government launch the imposition of a nationwide roadside camera network with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), linked to a variety of police and government databases on a nation of unsuspecting and, more importantly, predominantly innocent UK citizens, we must each determine for ourselves whether we are prepared to suffer technologies of mass control in the hands of an increasingly unaccountable few in supposedly 'free' and 'democratic' countries.

Bush / Wolfowitz World Bank Cabal

American President George Bush has nominated the incredibly hawkish Paul Wolfowitz as a candidate for president of the World Bank.

Wolfowitz is one of the people behind the Project For the New American Century's September 2000 document entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses, "the blueprint for US global domination", which revealed plans for a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' "even before he became the nominee for the Republicans".

Rebuilding America's Defenses claims:

"The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge."

The document outlines in detail the militarisation and measures required that America might achieve and maintain a position of global dominance before noting, one year prior to the events of September 11, 2001:

"...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

In a world where we have apparently been taught "that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge" and since (before?) the "catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor" that occurred in New York on September 11, 2001, the plans outlined by Wolfowitz and the PNAC crew have rapidly, visibly and unilaterally been coming to fruition the world over.

Bush's nomination of Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank is merely the latest development in the cabal's ongoing plans for world domination and brings America yet another step closer to being the world's single largest power, controlling the money and the might, globally and unchecked.

MP Adam Price Thrown Out Over Blair War Jibe

MP Adam Price was thrown out of the House of Commons chamber after claiming that Tony Blair had "misled" Parliament over the Iraq war. He was ordered to leave by the speaker of the house for refusing to withdraw his comments. If MPs like Adam Price can't hold the Prime Minister to account, who can?

Mr Price was trying to highlight calls to impeach the prime minister for High Crimes and Misdemeanours in relation to the invasion of Iraq, which even Pentagon Hawk Richard Perle admitted was illegal six months after it had started.

The BBC report of the story offers, "The rules bar MPs from accusing fellow Parliamentarians of lying" which, in this case, seems to mean that Parliamentarians aren't allowed to tell the truth either.

MPAA & RIAA To Sue People Who Touch

"RedTacton is a new Human Area Networking technology that uses the surface of the human body as a safe, high speed network transmission path."

As Japanese technology company RedTacton's Human Area Networking technology hits the streets offering 10Mbps data transfer across the surface of a user's skin, it's only a matter of time before the likes of the MPAA & RIAA attempt to sue people who touch.

Alternatively, they could just get a clue.

Sony Vs Beatallica, Freedom and Creativity

Another example of the media industry's desire to stifle the world of creativity outside of its direct control exists with what's going on between a rather talented parody band called Beatallica and the media moguls at the Sony Corporation.

Formed in 2001 as a one-off Metallica tribute for a local festival, Beatallica came up with the idea of combining Beatles songs with Metallica's heavy-metal format and ended up recording and releasing around two album's worth of material for download. The Internet-word soon spread and Beatallica gained numerous fans around the world, all of which upset Sony Music who have now ordered Beatallica to Cease & Desist while seeking simultaneously to claim compensation for infringement of Beatles copyrights.

Luckily, the Internet is a long way from the passive market of consumers which Sony is used to manipulating and you can still download the excellent Beatallica tracks from metafilter.com, with lyrics available from lyrics-songs.com. Given that Beatallica have made their music freely available, there shouldn't be any problems with downloading it from your friendly file sharing network either.

While you're enjoying Beatallica's talents, do the world of freedom, innovation and creativity a favour, join the other 10,000 or so people with a sense of reason, and go now and sign the online petition requesting Sony to retract their Cease and Desist order against beatallica.org and beatallica.com (both of which, at the time of writing, were offline thanks to Sony's actions, unlike Beatallica's messageboard).

The case is still ongoing and Metallica's Lars Ulrich recently got involved offering Beatallica his support. Mr Ulrich is famous for his role as drummer in Metallica, and a little more famous in some circles for being the chief Anti-Napster spokesman in the Napster witch-hunts of yester-year. This is before Metallica realised the error of their ways, did a complete U-turn, and began releasing Metallica material for download, so who knows quite what's going to happen next.

Update: I just found All Along The Blog Tower which promises, "All Beatallica. All the time. At least until Sony sues me" which includes, amongst other things, an amusing list of possible titles for songs on Beatallica's next album. Dude, dude, let's hope we don't get sued...

2,618 Minutes of Silence

On the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings in which 191 people died, I read that Spain remembered the victims with 5 minutes silence and I wonder how many people spare a second for the 2,618 pro-rata minutes of silence it would take to pay similar homage to the 100,000 Iraqis slaughtered during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Scott Ritter: Iraq Vote Fixed

NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story - Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter said yesterday that January's historic election in Iraq was fixed.

Ritter also claimed that the White House has already approved plans to attack Iran within the next four months, explaining, "In October of 2004 the president reviewed the Pentagon's plans for military operations against Iran in June 2005 and he signed off on them."

Quelle surprise, the carefully scripted global soap opera continues.

All that's needed now is a bit of high publicity WMD and nuclear scaremongering and Iran's fate will be sealed in the same manner as that of Afghanistan and Iraq. All of which nicely explains the recent media focus on Syria instead.

Global Free Trade Under Threat From Corporate Greed

On 28th February The Register reported that: "The market for downloaded music is strong enough to take a price rise, according to the major music labels." This might lead people to believe that all is going well in the corporate music world. Apparently, not so.

Less than two weeks later, and under the banner of 'Music industry 'nails UK pirates', the results of the British Phonographic Industry's first round of threatening to sue peer-to-peer users are announced as 23 people pay up for file-sharing.

As the BPI follow the lead of the RIAA, and more recently, the MPAA and the actions of a number of other slightly lower profile cases in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada, the global media Mafia step-up their campaign to ensure the music download market will sustain the same sort of cartel-inspired, artificially inflated prices that the media industries have always managed to impose on their captive audience.

The use of the word 'pirate' to describe a range of people who include a student, the director of an IT company, and a local councilor, who range in age from 22 to 58, strikes me as rather strange for a 'pirate' is one who preys on others.

Picture, if you will, groups of cocaine-snorting, cross media-industry representatives at a lavish industry gathering, quaffing bottles of champagne that cost more than most music consumers pay to keep a roof over their heads each month, rejoicing at how well music sales are going and how nicely online sales are now they've finally got round to figuring out a little bit about how this new Internet thing works, and wondering still how maybe they can make themselves all just that little bit richer, even if it is at the expense of the very people that gave them all their money in the first place.

Then picture a 22 year old student sat at home with a PC and an Internet connection. Their favourite band has released a new single. She's bought all their previous albums and singles and even a couple of solo efforts by various members of the band, and now the papers, the magazines and just about everyone else is raving about how good the new single is. But, the last thing that the budget will stretch to is a new CD, no matter how desirable it might be. After searching the Internet for a while the student manages to find the new song for download and, after waiting for it to download, she finally gets to listen to the much hyped song.

Now picture the former threatening the latter with legal proceedings and fines of thousands of pounds on the basis that she is a pirate.

In any case where the former, a group of incredibly wealthy media organisations with billions of pounds/dollars/euros/etc at their disposal, are threatening and intimidating the latter, an impoverished, student trying to scrape her way through college, or indeed any other individual with less material wealth than say, whatever a reasonable, current value for habitable accommodation to suit their circumstance might be, the only possible discernible 'piracy', or 'preying on others' occurring is that which is being orchestrated by the media corporations, en masse, against comparatively defenseless individuals.

The sad irony of the music business suing their customers is that artists create to share their passions with others and any artist will willingly admit that their art is nothing without an audience to appreciate it. The more people that have an opportunity to experience and appreciate an artist's work, by whatever means available, so much greater will the success of the artist be. Conversely, if you've never heard of an artist, you're never likely to buy their CD, or tell your friends about them and buy a bunch of tickets to their concert.

The media industry versus peer-to-peer file-sharing battle has nothing to do with piracy.

The industry openly admits that business is booming and getting better all the time, whether this be despite the existence of peer-to-peer networks, or as a direct result of artists obtaining increased exposure via them.

The media industry versus peer-to-peer file-sharing battle is one of control.

Control the supply in a market driven economy and you control the market. What anyone with a passing interest in peer-to-peer developments is witnessing now is a frantic and desperate attempt by the media conglomerates to maintain control of the artificial marketplace they created and which was, until very recently, beyond the bounds of any serious threat.

Technologies like peer-to-peer file-sharing are the ultimate in capitalist, free-market fantasies - international and operating without let or hindrance the world over in the true sense of the word free. If the multi-million dollar entertainment industry is too bloated to keep up with this and other media revolutions without dictating what the world can and can't do online, and has to die as a result, so be it.

By liberating the media marketplace, file-sharing has opened up a whole new world of direct-to-audience opportunities for artists everywhere for it is after all 'audiences' that true artists seek, not the 'demographics' media oligopolies seek to control with their every action.

The transition to this new media age may not be smooth but when anyone with access to camcorder, a computer and an Internet connection can make and distribute films and music of equal and better quality to that available elsewhere at artificially inflated prices, we are all assured a far more diverse and interesting media future.

India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links

9/11 - Complicity, Collusion or Conspiracy?

Mahmoud Ahmad is the ex-head of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Pakistan and was in charge of the ISI prior to, and at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Ahmad is widely reported to have been in America on regular 'visits of consultation' with senior officals in the U.S. administration in the weeks before and after 9/11.

When the attacks occurred on September 11, 2001, Republican Congressman Porter Gross, Democratic Senator Bob Graham and Mahmoud Ahmad were having breakfast in Washington, discussing Osama bin Laden.

In early October 2001, Indian intelligence learned that Mahmoud Ahmad had ordered Saeed Sheikh - the convicted mastermind of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl - to wire US$100,000 from Dubai to one of hijacker Mohamed Atta's two bank accounts in Florida.

An Asia Times story says the "US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed the whole story: Indian intelligence even supplied Saeed's cellular-phone numbers".

The original India Times story is reproduced below for posterity.

India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links
MANOJ JOSHI, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2001 11:08:55 PM

NEW DELHI: While the Pakistani Inter Services Public Relations claimed that former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought retirement after being superseded on Monday, the truth is more shocking.

Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.

Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh’s mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link.

A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions. The US cannot but suspect whether or not there were other senior Pakistani Army commanders who were in the know of things. Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake US confidence in Pakistan’s ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition.

Indian officials say they are vitally interested in the unravelling of the case since it could link the ISI directly to the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Kathmandu-Delhi flight to Kandahar last December. Ahmad Umar Sayeed Sheikh is a British national and a London School of Economics graduate who was arrested by the police in Delhi following a bungled 1994 kidnapping of four westerners, including an American citizen.

The Antagonist thinks this information is worth a little recap, just in case anyone's missed the point, so here it is.

The head of Pakistani intelligence ordered the guy convicted of kidnapping and killing an american journalist that may have inadvertently stumbled on the missing link between the US and the 9/11 attacks to transfer $100,000 to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, and was having a breakfast meeting with american senators and congressmen, discussing Osama Bin Laden, while the September 11 attacks were happening.

Yet, despite this information being available since October 2001, complete with mainstream news reports to support it all, the general consensus of opinion seems to be that this guy did it.

Testing Tube Babies to Be

The Antagonist has long maintained that if cattle were transported in the same conditions that London's commuters face as they endure their daily journeys to and from their places of work, there would be a public outcry.

Today, in both a confirmation of the fact the tube system is struggling under the strain of the insane levels of traffic it has to face each day, and a worrying indictment of Londoner's ability to distinguish between 'fat' women and 'pregnant' women, London Underground (LU) announced that it is to give special badges to pregnant women in a drive to encourage people to give up their seats to mums-to-be.

If there are no seats on trains for pregnant women and, if pregnant women are entitled to seats, the implication is that there are generally not enough seats available. Most commuters in London will tell you that there isn't even enough space to stand most of the time so no one's even likely to see these badges unless pregnant women stick them to their foreheads or wear them on the end of Deeley Bopper-style head attachments.

That there is a deficiency in both seats and space on tube trains suggests that the service isn't adequately coping with demand and that, perhaps, money would be better spent addressing more fundamental service issues than issuing badges that don't really improve the tube experience for anyone.

P2P Vs the 0.01 Percent-ers

In a recent blog entry The Antagonist wrote how, if the music industry continues to demonstrate its historical recalcitrance to adapt in the face of unstoppable technological novelty, specifically with regard to digital media, it is doomed. This is especially true when these technological novelties occur with insistent regularity, are entirely unstoppable, and they lead to exponential increases in the ease and pace at which media can be digitised and distributed.

In February of 2001 the world knew that Sean Fanning's Napster network had over 60 million registered users worldwide. Despite the availability of this information and knowing that there could be nearly that many users in America alone, the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) launched the first found of law suits against 261 peer to peer users in September 2003 amid a blaze of publicity - publicity designed to distract from the lack of substance and logic behind the action and in a shock-tactic attempt to deter other peer-to-peer users from file-sharing.

In just over two years the RIAA has fired off another dozen or so rounds of law suits, with accompanying media frenzy, at varying numbers of individuals in America. Recent Wired News coverage of similar actions by the Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) suggests that the RIAA has filed more than 6,000 lawsuits against individuals to date.

In the two years the RIAA has been issuing legal threats, a lot else has happened. One of these things is a broadband revolution and another is the release of a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project entitled "A decade of adoption: How the internet has woven itself into American Life". The report claims that 128 million people aged 18 and over form the basis of the American Internet population and that 29% of them regularly download and share music. This equates to over 37,000,000 file-sharers in America alone, and that's without including figures for those under 18 years of age.

Seeing as the RIAA have dictated that we include under-18s by firing law suits at 12-year olds, we must also try to account for them here. The Pew report tells us that almost 30% of 18-29 year olds participate in file-sharing and I think it's safe to guess that the figure would be at least as many again in the 12-17 year old range, 87% of whom are regular Internet users. Whichever way you look at it, 37 million file sharers is a hellishly conservative estimate and figures of at least double that, in America alone, are eminently possible when considering that computers and Internet connections are regularly shared among an arbitrary number of family members.

So, we have around 60-80 million peer-to-peer users in America, ISPs and communications companies claiming that as much as 80% of all network traffic is peer-to-peer related, and the RIAA playing a veritable game of Sissyphean catch-up with 6,000-8,000 threats of legal action issued.

By The Antagonist's quick and ready reckoning this is less than 0.01% of the filesharing population in America and it's taken a little over two years to 'achieve'. In light of these facts and the apparent commitment of the RIAA to this flawed logic of suing customers, some might also wonder about the logistics of issuing legal threats against the remaining 99.99% of American peer-to-peer users. What about people that don't want to settle out of court? That's a lot of court cases. Oh, and what about peer to peer users in the rest of free world?

Even Intellectual Property advisors seem to think the RIAA and MPAA are misguided in both action and intention. Intellectual Property Law & Business, in an article headed Don't Sue The Customers, says the number of legal threats issued by the RIAA is "at 4,280 and counting" with the analysis that "evidence thus far suggests that the RIAA litigation campaign has had little, if any, effect on P2P file-sharing".

4,280 and counting. It's a long way from 4,280 to the 37,000,000 confirmed users and even further still to the 60,000,000 suggested by Intellectual Property Law & Business. Their recomendation? The only sensible one for the RIAA, MPAA and their global counterparts - that they give up their "dreams of controlling distribution in favor of collecting fair compensation".

In any form of business, you have to be one step ahead of the competition. When the competition is free, you've got your work cut out to survive. Instead of attempting to sue their customers, the conglomerates should be looking to provide some of that ever-elusive 'value-add' that all businesses claim to offer and all consumers seek to find. Until then, they're on a road to nowhere.

Kick-Starting The Cold War

It looks like those that run the planet's Truman Show have remembered the story about the boy who cried wolf. It seems they've realised that if they continue to fill our airwaves, newspapers and Internet newsfeeds with never-ending stories of alleged terrorism and terrorist threats in countries in which there has been no terrorist activity since at least September 11, 2001, slowly and gradually they, and their stories, lose credibility and people become cynical.

This cynicism and lack of crededulity is further compounded by the fact that the only vaguely terrorist activity occurring, largely unreported, is that which is perpetrated by those that warn us to beware of terrorists.

When cynicism and complacency sets in among the people, it's time for a new common enemy. Who better than the Bush war consortium to pluck a new addition to the 'Axis of Evil' out of thin air?

When George Bush met Vladimir Putin earlier this week, Bush - wearing that grin that makes it look he's trying simultaneously to shit and calculate the sum of two and two - told Putin that he had concerns about democracy in Russia. Unsuprisingly, Putin told him that democracy in Russia was Russia's business and the stage has been set for Cold War - The Sequel.

"The music industry is shit-scared of the Internet"

These were the words a Sony Music executive uttered to The Register back in 1998. Seven years and lots of legal threats later, not much appears to have changed if the furore about Steal This File Sharing Book by Wallace Wang is anything to go by. Wang's book explains, in old fashioned printing-press form, how to use a bunch of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for finding whatever it is a user of these networks might be looking for.

So what? Well, the hubbub that surrounds this book brings me to a pertinent point that doesn't seem to have received a whole lot of coverage in the peer-to-peer debate thus far, and it's a point that needs bringing to the consiousness of the masses before we all lose sight of the facts, such as they are.

Traditional media coverage of peer-to-peer networking technologies and issues has concentrated on the trading of music as MP3 files thanks to the narrow focus afforded to the issue by the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) in their various attempts to sue peer-to-peer users in America. More recently, the trading of movies has entered the peer-to-peer debate thanks to moves by the Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) to follow the RIAA's lead in attempting to sue users of peer-to-peer networks.

However, this isn't quite the full story. In fact, it's quite a long way from the full story because peer-to-peer technologies are far more useful than a cursory glance at the actions of the RIAA/MPAA would first suggest. These two organisations represent the interests of the music and film industries - in America - and that's it!

Peer-to-peer networks aren't quite so limited in their scope - they can carry music and films, and they can also carry books, games, applications, utilities, talks, speeches, presentations, photographs - in fact, anything that can be turned into a file on a computer. Not only that, but file sharing networks enable these files to be distributed far beyond the borders and industries within which the jurisdictions of the likes of the RIAA and MPAA fall.

So, what happens to all the games, books and software that end up on peer to peer networks? What about shared music, films, games, books and applications in all the countries in the world outside of America?

As a result of the misguided efforts of the RIAA and MPAA, the laborious and costly process of finding a source of potential infringement, attempting to locate the specific individual responsible, and issuing proceedings against that individual has been born. Each stage of the process is fraught with well documented difficulties and, thus far, we're only talking about music and films being traded within America's borders. Nor have we accounted for the process of dragging each of these alleged infringers through the courts.

This convoluted process might work relatively well for a handful of individuals in a single country, but try applyling the concept to the ever-growing millions upon millions of peer-to-peer users users that span the globe and that share music, films, games, applications, books, etc., and you can see how the notion of each industry suing alleged offenders quickly renders itself entirely redundant. Really, people, you can't sue everyone, everywhere, forevermore.

The RIAA have thrown their weight around on a few high profile occasions in true 'women and children first' fashion by suing kids, mothers and even dead grandmothers. Now the MPAA are adopting the same approach as the music industry in their quest to maintain the huge profits that holding a captive audience to ransom for decades has allowed them to reap and are suing their customers too.

Sure, both the RIAA and MPAA are big, scary organisations with lots of money at their disposal to protect their highly profitable racketeering industries - and if you've bought or rented any music or films, ever, it's your money. In reality, their only weapon is fear, and by committing themselves to this perverse die-not-adapt logic, the music and film industries of America have decisively committed to a superbly flawed method of attempting to preserve themselves in the face of technological developments that they cannot hope to survive in their existing incarnations.

As Wang writes (and anyone with a decent grasp of simple logic can fathom):

"The bottom line is that the corporations, who currently hold all the power and make most of the money, are going to have to change, and that's something they aren't willing to do."

In reality, change is something that the corporations should have embraced a long time ago when MP3 evolution and MP3 portability were fledgling technologies. For the best part of ten years change hasn't been an option and, as Wang concludes in his book:

"The question isn't whether file sharing technology will put today's corporate powerhouses out of business. The question is when, and that future is closer than they think."

Of this fact peer-to-peer users everywhere should take heed.

The media giants have made their choices and decided that they would rather die than adapt. In sounding their own death knell the corporate behemoths have also issued a resounding message to peer-to-peer users everywhere - share your files or we've won.

--
Note: A sample chapter of Steal This File Sharing Book offering an overview of the peer-to-peer file-sharing network technologies is available from the No Starch web site for anyone that's interested. No doubt a full version of the book will be available on your friendly file sharing network soon!

Visionary

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want" -- Muhammed Ali

A Question of Semantics

Watchers, listeners and readers of the news over the last few years may have become inreasingly familiar with the word 'insurgent' which, according to dictionary.com is defined as follows:

in·sur·gent adj.

1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.

If Iraqis had risen in revolt against Saddam Hussein, perhaps the term may have been justified in its use. However, that's not what happened and quite how politicians and the media can begin to use the word 'insurgents' to describe those resisting and defending against an invasion by a conquering global power is beyond the realms of rational credulity.

Using the same logic that labels Iraqis as insurgents, if Canada invaded America for harbouring some of the worlds most devestating and prolific international terrorists - however legitimate this charge may be - any American resisting the invasion could also legitimately be described as an insurgent. Somehow, I don't think Americans would see it quite like that.


Update: Someone even complained to the BBC about the inappropriate use of the word 'insurgent'.

Media blamed 'for Iraq attacks'

Is this the start of the end of war reporting?

The UK's Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Michael Walker has said about attacks on UK troops in Iraq, "The contribution towards the initial attacks against the Black Watch was certainly enhanced by a media picture that was being laid across a number of channels in all sorts of places."

So, let me see if I've got this straight - Iraqis have been sitting around positively enjoying the invasion and occupation of their country, loving the continued bombing since March 2003, and finding that the increased risk of dying every day just adds to the joys of living until they started watching television and realised things weren't quite as bright and rosy as they first thought? Maybe I'm missing the point, but surely any Iraqi attacks on British troops are related to the fact that these are the very troops that invaded and continue to occupy their country on entirely false premises?

However, let's pretend that this has nothing to do with the attacks and deal with the statement quoted above. By entirely ignoring the invasion and occupation of Iraq as the only possible reason for any attacks on British troops, not only is the issue of the invasion and occupation removed from the equation, the implication of this statement is that the reporting of events in Iraq and by logical extension any other event anywhere else in the world deemed to be of a sensitive nature, is a direct threat to certain specific interested parties. And, on occasions where these parties deem their interests to be greater than those of the requirement of the public to know what is going on, then the former should emerge victorious from the propaganda battle.

As if intimating that the already limited information that reaches us is already too much information by far wasn't sufficient cause for concern, Gen Walker went on to reject estimates, published in The Lancet (that well known bastion of outrageousness), that around 98,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war and occupation saying, "I don't think we can put any credibility on that study in straight terms." If anyone can find any meaning for that statement in any context, please let me know. He goes on to say, "The difficulty with casualties, particularly when they are not your own casualties and are members of the civilian population or the anti-coalition forces is that we don't control the casualty evacuation, so one will never quite know what the figures are." All of which is a terribly convenient way of avoiding the issue again.

There is always going to be some margin for error in estimating the number of victims of the Iraq invasion. But, when the governments that should be accountable to their citizens decide that any data regarding this subject constitutes classified information, we are left with no other option than to rely on any available sources of data that can reasonably stand public scrutiny.

Karzai sworn in as first democratically elected Afghan president

Troops from NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and personnel from the US-dominated and led coalition forces accompanied Afghan army and police as they intensified their patrols on the streets of Kabul ahead of the inauguration of the new president. But who is the man the Economist hails as "Afghanistan’'s George Washington"?

Hamid Karzai was born December 24, 1957 in Kandahar, an ethnic Pashtun and member of the powerful Populzai tribe (which has supplied Afghanistan's kings since 1747 and which, combined with Karzai's appointment as President of Afghanistan, provides yet another example how power is maintained amongst a very tightly knit group of clans the world over, throughout history and by whatever means necessary). Karzai become involved in the world of Afghan politics at an early age, supporting the incumbent clan's king, King Zahir Shah before studying to obtain a BA and MA in political science and international relations from Shimla University in India.

Following his studies, Karzai returned to Afghanistan and spent the mid-to-late eighties serving as a mujaheddin adviser and diplomat and fundraising on behalf of anti-Soviet uprisings. After the Soviet forces were expelled with the help of the CIA and Osama Bin Laden, Karzai served as a deputy foreign minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani who was overthrown by the Taliban in 1996. Initially, Karzai was a keen supporter of the Taliban, "Like so many mujaheddin, I believed in the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene in 1994 and they promised to end the warlordism, establish law and order, and then call a Loya Jirga to decide upon who should rule Afghanistan," Karzai said in an interview in September 2001. "I gave the Taliban $50,000 U.S. to help run their movement and then handed over to them a large cache of weapons I had hidden away."

Karzai's allegiance with the Taliban came to an end when Karzai began to oppose their rigid policies and distrust their connections to Pakistani intelligence and Arab Islamic radicals. In 1997 Karzai refused to become ambassador to the UN, even though Unocal oil barons were happy to entertain the Taliban in Texas.

Shortly afterwards, Unocal declared the political climate in Afghanistan to be too unstable to proceed with their plans for a pipeline through Afghanistan and in 1998, from his home in Quetta, Karzai set about organising opposition to the Taliban. On July 14, 1999 Karzai's father Abdul Arhad Karzai was assassinated with reports stating he was gunned down by unidentified killers who fled on a motorcycle as he emerged from a mosque. Blame was tacitly assigned to the Taliban, despite the killers being 'unidentified' and who may well have been another third party that wished for a perfidious connection to made between the murder of Karzai's father and the Taliban). Eight days later Hamid Karzai was nominated by Afghan leaders and Islamic scholars to be the next leader of the Populzai tribe, even though he has several older brothers living in the United States that might have qualified for the position.

In October 2001 Karzai's brother said that Karzai survived an ambush by Taliban forces and was still in Afghanistan. Other reports said that U.S. forces had rescued him and took him out of Afghanistan. The U.S. says it whisked him out of the country; Karzai insists he never left--perhaps concerned about being seen as too close to the U.S. Neither report could be independently confirmed. In December 2001 Karzai is sworn in as Afghanistan's new leader, a role which he filled until his presidential inauguration ceremony today.

In a country that has suffered from a notoriously unstable political climate for its entire history, one might have thought that the execution of the coup d'etat by conquering imperialist forces in Afghanistan would have been a little more swift than the three years it has taken to arrange for Hamid Karzai to become "democratically" and "popularly" elected as the country's President. And, with the likes of former Halliburton fraudster, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld among a select 150 of "the world’s great and good" foreign delegates that attended the inauguration of the new president, one has to wonder quite what the Afghan definition of 'stability' might be in the future.

Fittingly, and in a perverse reversal of Afghani, Iraqi and increasingly global truth Cheney announced, "We gather to mark a historic moment in the life of the nation and in the history of human freedom."

Afghan warlord plans $100m ski resort fighter plans a Swiss-style resort

According to the UK's Independent newspaper, the former warlord Izatullah Atif Rooz plans to build a $100m (£56m) mini-Switzerland ski-resort in the battleground of the Afghan mountains.
Rooz, who says the area was virtually destroyed by the soviets, then the Taliban and that he lost 700 members of his family, is now seeking investment from Switzerland to build 600 homes within the next three years, using labourers that once made up his 2,000 strong private army, recently disbanded. The plans include ski slopes with snowmaking facilities and alpine chalets.

One of the hurdles that must be overcome for this venture to go ahead is that of removing any left over landmines in the area - what better way to do this than to cover them in snow and let fat rich skiers find 'em!

French End Hiding Of Explosives In Luggage

In another of those 'you couldn't make it up' stories, French police have decided that their practice of hiding plastic explosives in air passengers' luggage to train bomb-sniffing dogs is to come to an end after a package of plastic explosives went walkabouts.

In regular training exercises French Airport police deliberately placed plastic explosives into passenger's luggage in a bid to test the effectiveness of their bomb dogs. Early on Friday evening such a test occured and the luggage containing the plastic explosive was lost on a conveyor belt carrying bags through a restricted area from check-in to planes!

At the time of writing, no passenger has contacted French authorities to report discovering a bag with nearly 5 ounces of explosives tucked into his or her suitcase

In one slickly executed training exercise the French police have exposed the mindless risks to which authorities will expose citizens, proved that sniffer dogs are no good for anything other than working out if someone's smoked a spliff on the way to the airport, and given some poor soul a lot of explaining to do when they arrive at their destination - assuming, of course, that anyone official notices they happen to be carrying half a pound of plastic explosive!

Brown Wants Schools To Take Babies in Private Nurseries

Knowing only the headline, The Antagonist surmises the gist of the story is that someone has devised a plan to install young babies into new, private nurseries so parents are freed of the problems of parental responsibilities. The characteristically New Labour way of fixing the problem of parental responsibilities by tackling the cause of parental responsibilities and removing kids from the parental equation.

So, knowing roughly what is to follow, The Antagonist goes on to read the article finding such gems as, "Under Labour’s plans, primary schools will be funded to set up private fee-paying day nurseries for infants and young children, as well as providing breakfast clubs and after-school activities for their pupils" spill forth from the screen.

The Antagonist asks the question, "Why would anyone suggest that removing newborn children from the care of their parents might be a good idea?"

From a governmental point of view this proposed scheme has a number of obvious advantages; Firstly, you can extort additional monies from parents for the 'service' being rendered.

Secondly, you dramatically increase the available work force (extensively so when done in conjunction with increasing retirement ages) by providing the means by which both parents can eschew any claim to maternity and paternity rights and duties, simultaneously making each and every other worker onsiderably less valuable (read: cheaper).

Thirdly - and most alarmingly - under the proposed new plans the hearts and minds of all new born children in the UK would effectively be under government control from a far younger age than ever before. Children are usually sacrificed to the woefully underachieving education system in Britain at the age of four. Under these new plans, this four year buffer period during which parents impart essential life skills to their child prior to allowing them to enter the education system and the world at large will be entirely removed, leaving children exposed to whatever sights, sounds and activities (Two Minutes Hate?) the government deems appropriate almost immediately they are born.

Indeed, in some parts of the country, similar schemes are already underway, and, "...[at St Bede’s primary school in Bolton] The nursery takes 40 children aged from six weeks to four years. Parents can leave their children from 7.30am to 6pm for a fee of £110 a week."

Before long, it'll be another £50 a week to leave them in overnight from Monday to Friday and the government will throw in extra weekend board options so neither parent has to bear the burden of sitting in school run traffic jams in a 4x4 full of screaming kids.

Googlist

While we're on the subject of Google, if you run a query for Kazaa, Google very kindly includes the following message, "In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed x result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint for these removed results." Nice touch. What else is Google censoring?

9/11 Racketeering & Profiteering Continues

On the eve of the third anniversary of 9/11, and just as the three year statute on taking legal action is about to expire, the World Trade Center Agency that owns the site of the World Trade Center in New York says it is suing Saudi Arabia for damages suffered on 11 September, 2001.

Only last week the bond brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald who lost more employees in the attack than any other firm - sued Saudi Arabia seeking US$7 billion and claiming Saudi Arabia aided the attackers. Interestingly, there appears to be no mention of this action on the Cantor Fitzgerald web site, despite this being a fairly signifcant legal claim, and instead the latest news announcement at the time of this post was one relating to a September 11th charity fund.

Shortly before the events of 9/11 in the summer of 2001, Silverstein Properties won, with Westfield America, a 99-year right-to-lease of the World Trade Center from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with the deal resulting in Silverstein controlling the office space and Westfield America the retail space.

Assuming that the WTC Agency comprises at least the The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and maybe some part of Silverstein Properties, neither of these organisations appears to believe that issuing a law suit against Saudi Arabia for allegedly aiding attackers on 9/11 is particularly newsworthy as neither Cantor Fitzgerald, Silverstein Properties, nor The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey web sites appear to contain any information about the issuance of these law suits, despite them being rather significant events.

Given all we've been told about who was allegedly responsible for the attacks, and everything that has transpired since - the ongoing 'war against terror' ('the bombing of an abstract noun' as described by Monty Python's Terry Jones) which has resulted in the bombing and occupation of Afghanistan (tenuously connected to the events of 9/11) and Iraq (entirely unconnected with the events of 9/11, nor did it possess any weapons of mass destruction (or 'bombs' as they were known before the impact and meaning of words started disappearing entirely)), and consider also the fact that two leading Saudi newspapers published articles offering the Saudi point of view, condemning the attacks and disassociating the majority of Muslims and Arabs from 9/11 - one might be forgiven for wanting to understand quite how it might be possible to seek compensation from Saudi Arabia, mightn't one?

The Prophetic Visions of General Tommy Franks

Four days before 9/11 Tommy Franks made a public comment that an attack on the World Trade Center was what kept him awake at night. When you've been a key part of orchestrating such a huge event for so many months, I guess you're bound to lose a little sleep here and there.

Smoke & Mirrors

Or, 'Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything' - only, with the spread of media controlled by just a few powerful, wealthy individuals with their own agendas, it now applies on a global scale.

There's a whole world of people out there will unquestioningly accept whatever it is they're told as if every random third party on the planet has their best interests at heart. This nice little article provides a bit of an overview as to how this global whitewash is achieved.

Keeping the spirit alive

I am not American. I do not live in America. I have little actual, effective jurisdiction over what goes on in the country in which I live, irrespective of whether or not I vote, or if indeed I am even allowed to vote, so it can be safely assumed that I have no sway over the American electoral system. However, like every other human being on this planet, I am being increasingly subjected to the tyrannical actions, and the repercussions of those actions, taken by those that govern the alleged land of the free. (Which definition of 'free' were they using, exactly?)

So, when I received the call-to-arms for the American people via email (congratulations Mr Smith, you're the Antagonist's first), I felt duty bound to post it on the optimistic whim that, maybe, if people the world over can communicate and work together sufficiently well in the run up to an election in America to change things for the better (however naive that notion may be), then maybe this spirit of collaboration and cooperation, as opposed to the traditional one of competition and conflict which is expounded and horrifically prevalent in daily events, can transcend borders, races and religions to build a better world for more people and, maybe one day, everyone.

Critical Mass
The cooperative spirit of the public is alive and clearly evinced by events such as the immense global anti-war protest that occurred prior to the bombing of Iraq, as well as the increased sense of unity demonstrated by the Spanish people after the Madrid bombing and their choice to align themselves with and elect a leader who speaks of peace and who professes to uphold their will on an issue where their previous government failed them.

In the interests of keeping this spirit alive...

Footnote: it could be argued that, by virtue of the fact that I've posted this call-to-arms, and that a bunch of people that may be entitled to vote might in the US may read it and, further, might also make a decision based on the information contained here-in that could potentially affect the outcome of the American elections in a manner that could potentially be detrimental to the position of power held by George Bush (despite even the efforts of the likes of Katherine Harris?*), that I do indeed have some influence over what goes on in a far-off land. If this applies to me, then it must apply to you too. [ * Serious respect to Mr Blumrich for hitting Google's number four spot with a simple search for "katherine harris" :) ]

Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt

The UK is at no greater risk now from a terror attack than it was before the Madrid bombings or even 11 September, Home Secretary David Blunkett said yesterday.

Today, Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens has said a terror attack on London is inevitable.

Well, how useful. By the same token, the sky is going to fall in and we're all going to die. Oh, and news just in... the sky is not going to fall in and we're still all going die but it's going to take slightly longer than if the sky had fallen in.

In amongst the fear, uncertainty and doubt that is created around us, we must endeavour to free ourselves from the burdens of all forms of external pressure and chastisement for this is the way to an enlightened and peaceful life.

Necessary Illusions?

When it was realised that there was only so much control that could exerted over people through the use of physical force, logic dictated that the way to make people en masse act in the desired manner is ensure their minds are controlled instead. The text below is a collection of quotes from various talks given by Noam Chomsky relating to the subject of propaganda and which all fit together nicely to produce a synopsis of quite how values, beliefs and ideas are engendered in a largely unwitting public via 'education' systems, mass media and simple repetition:

"The point is that you have to work. That's why the propaganda system is so successful. Very few people are going to have the time or the energy or the commitment to carry out the constant battle that's required to get outside of McNeil or Dan Rather or somebody like that.

The easy thing to do, you know, you come home from work, you're tired, you've had a busy day, you're not going to spend the evening carrying out a research project. So you turn on the tube and say, "It's probably right", or you look at the headlines in the paper and then you watch the sports or something. That's basically the way the system of indoctrination works. Sure the other stuff is there, but you're going to have to work to find it.

Modern industrial civilisation has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilisation has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praise-worthy, on the grounds that private licence yields public benefits, in the classic formulation.

Now, it's long been understood, very well, that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself, in time. it can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can.

At this stage of history, either one of two things is possible. Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interests guided by values of solidarity, and sympathy, and concern for others. Or, alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control.

As long as some specialised class is in authority, it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole, and by now that means the global community.

The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely to impose 'necessary illusions', to manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena. The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved, or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival."

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