Google Australia expresses concern in face of Rudd Government intention to censor its search engine

One of the interesting snippets to emerge in discussion of the Rudd Government commissioned report from Enex Test Labs is that the 'live' pilot of the proposed national Internet filtering scheme involved six out of nine of participating Internet Service Providers using filtering software which permanently locks Google's search engine into safe mode and possibly sends URL information back to the U.S. software vendor (this is a company which coincidentally seems to have a board dominated by accountants, financial advisers, venture capitalists and former investment bankers which are just the sort of people that the Global Financial Crisis has taught us to trust).
The software also locks Yahoo! search.

Anyone who has ever researched some of the more obscure historical information available using the World Wide Web will know that this safe mode frequently fails to display innocuous but often useful information and images.

Google's safe mode is of course a personal choice available to every PC user and strict search engine filtering can be locked in with password access.

Google Australia is naturally perturbed by the Rudd Government's drive to impose blanket censorship of the Australian Internet and posted this on its official blog on 16 December 2009.

A sincere thank you to Google's I.Flynn for this effort:

Our views on Mandatory ISP Filtering

At Google we are concerned by the Government's plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, the first of its kind amongst western democracies. Our primary concern is that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide.

We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression. While we recognise that protecting the free exchange of ideas and information cannot be without some limits, we believe that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.

Some limits, like child pornography, are obvious. No Australian wants that to be available – and we agree. Google, like many other Internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results. But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information.

The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green, and John Hartley, Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering, has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime. Refused Classification (or RC) is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material -- for example, educational content on safer drug use -- as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia. This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues.

While the discussion on ISP filtering continues, we should all retain focus on making the Internet safer for people of all ages. Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. The government has committed to important cybersafety education and engagement programs and yesterday announced additional measures that we welcome.

Exposing politically controversial topics for public debate is vital for democracy. Homosexuality was a crime in Australia until 1976 in ACT, NSW in 1984 and 1997 in Tasmania. Political and social norms change over time and benefit from intense public scrutiny and debate. The openness of the Internet makes this all the more possible and should be protected.

The government has requested comments from interested parties on its proposals for filtering and we encourage everyone to make their views known in this important debate.

Posted by Iarla Flynn, Head of Policy, Google Australia

As I write Twitter's #nocleanfeed protest page is running at 35 tweets a minute and The Sydney Morning Herald poll this morning did not favour the Great Firewall of Australia:

You can censor the Internet Mr. Rudd, but you can't interfer with our votes at the next election

First Rudd's Labor team quietly snuck its telecommunications policy onto the Web at almost the last minute before Australia went to the polls in the 2007.
Now as the country gears up for Christmas the Rudd Government releases the much delayed Enex Test Lab Internet Service Provider (ISP) Content Filtering Pilot Report (I see Senator Conroy received it in October) while simultaneously announcing that it intends to introduce mandatory national ISP-level filtering when federal parliament resumes next year.
Well, Mr. Rudd, your government has finally crossed that line in the sand and lost all hope of getting our votes in 2010 or 2011. We'd rather waste our votes on an independent (and exhaust ballot preferences before they reach any of the major parties) than vote for your sorry excuse for a government.
There have been so many betrayals; public health and dental services still abysmal, bad laws stomping on our human rights still on the books, no protection of whales in the Antarctic, p*ss poor environmental record on the land, a pathetic failed attempt at an ETS, no reduction in national greenhouse gas levels (in fact an increase), aboriginal remote community living conditions still disgraceful, gays still unable to legally marry - the list gets longer and longer.
We don't believe Stephen Conroy when he says that the URL blacklist process will be transparent (obviously an oxymoron - a transparent secret list) and we think you all lie when promises are made that only RC classification sites will be blocked in light of the fact that the old ACMA and Classification Board assessment policies will remain and these can even see a school tuckshop banned.
Talk about a poxy policy!

Bill 'n' Ben
Northern Rivers

* Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Dear Kev, Oh how I hate to write.........

A direct tweet sent to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last night:

Monsanto under the media spotlight once again

Click on image to enlarge

Monsanto and Co is under the media spotlight once more at US ABC News in a four-page article AP IMPACT: Monsanto Seed Business Role Revealed which looks at how this biotech company is determined to create a global seed monopoly.

Something Australian farmers and consumers should consider carefully, given government's almost uncritical acceptance of gene technology, the very narrow profit margins of many family farms and those comfortable margins jealously defended by the dominant retail grocery companies.

"We now believe that Monsanto has control over as much as 90 percent of (seed genetics). This level of control is almost unbelievable," said Neil Harl, agricultural economist at Iowa State University who has studied the seed industry for decades. "The upshot of that is that it's tightening Monsanto's control, and makes it possible for them to increase their prices long term. And we've seen this happening the last five years, and the end is not in sight."

Monsanto is rather upset about the claims made in this and other similar articles and, as usual, has gone into print itself with a quick muddy of the waters over at its own blog Beyond The Rows.

I'm sure that everyone is relieved to know that, according to its corporate blogger Mica, the biotech giant really doesn't control 90 per cent of seed genetics because; we licensed the technology to hundreds of seed companies, including our major competitors, and no one has offered a better product to these seed companies or to growers.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

NSW Labor Right tries to airbrush Nathan Rees from government history?

First new NSW Premier K-K-Keneally removed her predecessor's tweets from premierofnsw.
Now Labor Right's favourite marionette seems to be removing all his media releases from government websites as well, according to a Crikey rumour this week:
"New Premier Kristina Keneally has decided to wind back one of Nathan Rees' first actions as Premier -- the publication and archiving of all ministerial media releases on the NSW government website. The decision was heralded at the time as a long overdue move towards more open and accountable government in NSW. However, instead of a link to a minister's releases on their contact page, users are now directed to the Premier's releases instead."
Mind you, there are a few traces of Rees left on www.premiers.nsw.gov.au, but these mostly lead to 'HTTP 404 Not Found' notices whenever they are not re-directed to information about very petty Kristina.
Madame, you're visibly tripping over your own ego and pride comes before....et cetera, et cetera.

Specially for those who are good at playing la familia politics but are still profoundly ignorant about what drives NSW voters.

Pic from Google Images

Only in Australia can you trade online in Copenhagen Climate Change Conference Loopholes!

As the developed world walked out of the UN Climate Change Conference (and back in again five hours or so later) over the greenwash proposed by First World heavies and allegations of planned abandonment of the legally binding Kyoto Protocol, things really looked bad all round........
But never fear those super greenhouse gas emitting Aussies are here!

* Only in Australia would humour manifest itself so blackly, with an invitation from the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at the University of New South Wales to trade in Loopholes on The Copenhagen Prediction Market (COPPM) with beaut live graphs of trading market fluctuations available and prizes at the end:
New market on loopholes launched!
Recent heated debate shows that reduction targets can only be truly interpreted if one takes into account the magnitude of loopholes. Therefore, a new market on loopholes is now open for trading.
At the COPPM, you trade on the outcomes of the Copenhagen Climate Conference (Conference of Parties, COP15).

No real money is used in trading. Instead, Participants trade with Experimental dollars (E$). The three participants who accumulate the largest final portfolio values (final value of shares plus experimental dollar holdings) on each question will be awarded a prize. On behalf of the winners, Baker & McKenzie will offset, using Gold Standard Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), personal emissions equivalent to twelve months, four months and two months for the first, second and third prize respectively. Calculations will be based upon the world annual average per capita emissions. Winners will receive a certificate which states the offset amount (tonnes of CO2e cancelled).

Upon enrolment, you will be given an experimental cash position of E$5000 and 50 "market bundles". You can invest this experimental money in shares which represent the possible outcomes of the Conference. Only the shares that corresponds to the true outcome of the Conference pay out.

* A more sober look at what is happening in Copenhagen can be found at Climate Action Tracker with its detailed information on pledges by individual countries, including Australia's inadequate response:
With only five days to go before a Head of Government Agreement on climate change at Copenhagen, even the best emission reductions proposal are only half way to the limits in 2020 that would keep global average temperature rise below 2°C or 1.5°C as called for by 100 countries. The updated assessment by the "Climate Action Tracker" of the emission commitments and pledges put forward by industrialized and developing countries for the Copenhagen climate negotiations shows that the world is headed for a global warming of 3.5°C by 2100. Carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to be over 650 ppm, with total GHG concentrations close to 800 ppm CO2 equivalent. From these numbers, there is at least a one in four chance of exceeding a warming of 4°C.
This "Climate Action Tracker" is an independent science-based assessment, which tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries. The website provides an up-to-date assessment of individual national pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Florence Nightingale had feet of clay and nothing much has changed in nursing since then if Calvary Mater is any indictation

By the time I was in my teens it had become apparent that historical figures were not always as presented in popular history tomes considered suitable for high school students.

A case in point is Florence Nightingale, whose admirable drive to establish the nursing profession also hid an individual with almost as many prejudices and erroneous preconceptions as the average person walking the streets of London in Victorian England.

Nothing much has changed over time. The nursing profession is still quick to judge and slow to examine its own assumptions, if hospital patients I have spoken with over the years are to be believed when they complained of the degree of 'labelling' they experienced.

The latest example of this to come to light is this effort by a nurse who should have known better than to mention werewolves at all when being interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald last Sunday:

There were 91 emergency patients rated as having violent and acute behavioural disturbance at the Calvary Mater Newcastle hospital from August 2008 to July 2009.
Leonie Calver, a clinical research nurse in toxicology, said almost a quarter of the cases (23 per cent) occurred on a night of full moon and this was double the number for other lunar phases.
The patients all had to be sedated and physically restrained to protect themselves and others.
"Some of these patients attacked the staff like animals - biting, spitting and scratching," Ms Calver said.
"One might compare them with the werewolves of the past, who are said to have also appeared during the full moon."
Ms Calver said werewolf mythology included reports of people rubbing "magic ointment" onto their skin or inhaling vapours to induce the shirt-rending transformation from man to beast.
The main ingredients were belladonna and nightshade, she said, both substances that could produce delirium, hallucinations and delusion of bodily metamorphosis.
Ms Calver said it appeared the "modern-day werewolf" preferred alcohol or illicit drugs, as more than 60 per cent of the patients reviewed in the study were under the influence.
"We don't know if its more fun to use drugs and alcohol under a full moon or if their behavioural disturbance is directly influenced by the moon," she said.
"Our findings support the premise that individuals with violent and acute behavioural disturbance are more likely to present to the emergency department during...full moon."

Calvary Mater Hospital should have looked at two things which may have influenced the raw data producing these so-called findings.
One - a full moon means more light in the landscape, which in turn means that vulnerable homeless people have less shadowed urban public space in which to conceal themselves from the predators in our society, so stress levels for some of these marginalised individuals may be higher during this time as a reaction to perceived increased threat levels rather than to a bigger moon in the sky.
Two - full moon during 10 out of the 12 months covered by this particular study fell on or within seven days of at least one type of fortnightly Centrelink payment, which meant that many individuals with long-term substance abuse problems were more likely to have had the cash to purchase alcohol and/or street drugs during a full moon. Those with serious levels of abuse and those self-medicating due to psychiatric disability are also perhaps more likely to turn up at a hospital A&E during the acute intoxication phase.

Not exactly the moon-influenced scenario favoured by the werewolf-loving Catholic hospital in Newcastle, which so foolishly sought a bit of easy publicity for a very limited study which could almost be called bureaucratic time wasting if one was inclined to be unkind.

Less mythology and more empathy required there.