Rolling Stone magazine calls Rupert Murdoch a climate killer

This month Rolling Stone magazine takes a sharp American pen to the growing band of climate change disinformation peddlers in an article titled The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.

The Disinformer
Rupert Murdoch
CEO, News Corporation

In 2007, when the world's most powerful media baron announced his newfound conviction that global warming "poses clear, catastrophic threats," it seemed as though the truth about climate change might finally get the attention it deserves. Murdoch promised that not only would News Corp. itself become carbon-neutral by 2010, but that his media outlets would explain the urgent need for a cap on carbon emissions. Climate change, he pledged, would be addressed as a sober reality across the News Corp. empire, whether as a plot element on 24 or in a story on Fox News. "I don't think there's any question of my conviction on this issue," Murdoch declared. "I've come to feel it very strongly."

Since then, however, Murdoch and his media operations have become the nation's leading source of disinformation about climate change. In October, Fox Business ran an extended segment on "The Carbon Myth," inviting a hack scientist to "make the case" that more carbon pollution is actually "good for the environment." The Wall Street Journal has continued to lie not only about the reality of global warming but about Obama's efforts to prevent it, denouncing climate legislation as "likely to be the biggest tax in American history." The New York Post insisted that the Copenhagen climate negotiations were little more than a meet-up for "shamsters, scam artists and assorted 'global warming' opportunists" who planned to "transfer a trillion bucks from the economies of the world's developed nations to Third World kleptocrats — with God-only-knows how much cash sticking to the fingers of well-connected U.N. bureaucrats." And on Fox News, right-wing attack dog Sean Hannity misinformed his viewers that 2009 — the fifth-hottest year in the past 130 — was "one of the coldest years on record." Hannity then summed up the deranged denial that permeates Murdoch's media empire: "I don't believe climate change is real," he said. "I think this is global-warming hysteria and alarmism."

Among others included in this list are:
The Profiteer
Warren Buffett
CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
The Fake Protestor
Jack Gerard
President, American Petroleum
Burning Man
Rex Tillerson
CEO, ExxonMobil
The Drudge of Denial
Marc Morano
Founder, Climate Depot
God's Denier
Sen. James Inhofe
Republican, Oklahoma
The Hack Scientist
Fred Singer
Retired physicist, University of Virginia
The Tea Partiers
Charles and David Koch
CEO and Executive Vice President, Koch Industries

In the same January 2010 issue Rolling Stone also ran with As the World Burns: How Big Oil and Big Coal mounted one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in history to block progress on global warming which included this observation:

Over the past year, the corporations and special interests most responsible for climate change waged an all-out war to prevent Congress from cracking down on carbon pollution in time for Copenhagen. The oil and coal industries deployed an unprecedented army of lobbyists, spent millions on misleading studies and engaged in outright deception to derail climate legislation. "It was the most aggressive and corrupt lobbying campaign I've ever seen," says Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic consultant.

The sheer futility of Internet censorship - mind numbingly stupid racist webpage still exists

At the end of last week Granny Herald mentioned that Google had taken down a website at the request of an Australian citizen:
"Google has agreed to take down links to a website that promotes racist views of indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal man Steve Hodder-Watt recently discovered the US-based site by searching "Aboriginal and Encyclopedia" in the search engine.
He tried to modify the entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satirical and extremely racist version of Wikipedia, but was blocked from doing so.
Mr Hodder-Watt then undertook legal action, that resulted in Google acknowledging its legal responsibility to remove the offensive site.
His lawyer, George Newhouse, said the site was "one of the most offensive sorts of racial vilification you could possibly find".
"It portrays indigenous Australians in the most unsavoury light possible, and you wouldn't want a child stumbling across it," he told ABC Radio.
Mr Newhouse said Google agreed to take the link down after he filed an official complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission."
I imagine that this news report gave Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy a warm fuzzy feeling in the middle of his little tum tum. The good ship HMAS Censorship was afloat.
Except that the Google search engine index still contains links to the website, as well as at least one direct link to the offending webpage along with cache {and no, I won't link to it because it's too bluidy ripe} and the entire page can be easily viewed again as it's internally linked from the website's homepage.
Not only that, but now this supposedly censored page contains a very offensive cartoon of the man who complained to Google Inc.
According to the relevant Google search results; "In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 4 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org" and "we have removed 1 result(s) from this page" appear.
Chilling Effects displays a letter which states; "Google received a complaint about a website that allegedly violates the Australian Anti Discrimination Act. Accordingly, Google removed the website from Google.com.au".
However, three days later and I'm able to view the updated nasty, spiteful webpage with ease on Google.com.au.
By the end of this week I expect that there will be other links to this alleged satire growing out there in cyberspace, as it is already starting off with well over 3,000 sites (including Twitter) linking in from Uzbekistan through to China, Europe, Australia and the Americas.
If Google can't effectively censor the dynamic World Wide Web, what hope do you think you have, Stevo?

The arts are a growth industry on the NSW North Coast

Family Connections by Michael Philp, Men's Business Exhibition
at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina

The Arts Northern Rivers team is an enthusiastic and capable promoter of arts on the NSW North Coast.

It has produced a two-page advocacy brochure which outlines a dynamic local scene:

The Northern Rivers region of NSW is a vibrant growth centre for arts and creative industries in Australia.

The region has the highest creative industry employment growth in NSW - more than double the growth rate of Sydney, and the highest "density" of creative workers per capita in the state outside Sydney (NSW Creative Industry: Economic Fundamentals, February 2009).

Located on the far north coast of NSW, the region is internationally renowned for its creative communities such as Byron Bay, Lismore, Murwillumbah, Nimbin and Yamba, it has become a centre for increasing numbers of sophisticated export oriented creative businesses.

The estimated economic impact of Creative Industries earnings in 2006 was $187.6 million. (Imagining the Future, Cathy Henkel 2006).

Employment in the arts and creative industries in the region is growing at 25% faster than the rest of the regional economy, and the Northern Rivers now has the highest concentration of visual artists outside the capital cities, and the largest cluster of screen industry workers outside Sydney and Melbourne.

Strongest Sectors

• visual arts and design eg. furniture exporter Zaishu, jewellery by Riley Burnett, eco-textiles and homewares by Bird and renowned visual artists James Guppy and Angus McDonald, and Indigenous visual artists Karla Dickens and Garth Lena
• writing and publishing eg celebrated writers such as Robert Drewe, Di Morrissey, Marele Day, and emerging children’s writer Tristan Bancks
• screen and digital content eg. the animated children’s series DirtGirlWorld; drama series East of Everything, and the feature film Lou, and many broadcast documentaries
• music and performing arts eg Grinspoon, Troy Cassar-Daley, Vitamin Records, Studio 301, Rocking Horse Studios, local comedians Mandy Nolan and Arj Barker
• cultural festivals East Coast Blues Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Byron Bay Writers Festival, Wintersun Festival, Lismore Lantern Parade
• arts education sector Southern Cross University, North Coast TAFE, SAE Colleges

Unfortunately the region has recently lost Splendor in the Grass to a Queensland venue. One of the very few backward steps taken in the last decade of cultural enrichment, which has seen as many as 76 exhibitions spaces/galleries/museums feature local artists and travelling exhibitions with the number of entertainment venues featuring local performers or touring shows ranging from pubs and clubs through to larger outdoor settings.

Northern Rivers Arts & Creative Industries Strategy 2008 - 2012 (Part 1)
Northern Rivers Arts & Creative Industries Strategy 2008 - 2012 (Part 2)
Northern Rivers Arts & Creative Industries Strategy 2008 - 2012 (Part 3)
Northern Rivers Arts & Creative Industries Strategy, Mapping Report, 2008 - 2012

Come in spinner! Time to lay bets on who'll win the 2010 Race to The Lodge

Antony Green has narrowed the dates for the 2010 federal election in Australia down to a Saturday between 3rd July and 18th September and online betting has the current odds posted.

Sporting Bet:
Australian Federal Election 31 Dec 2010
Scheduled for 2010/2011. Pay Out on Party That Provides the Prime Minister
Straight
Labor 1.20
Coalition 4.25

LuxBet:
Australian Federal Election Fri 31st Dec 20:00
Event Notice: Thu 30th Jul 12:52
Outright Winner
Australian Labor Party 1.12
Coalition 6.00

Centrebet:
AUST FED ELECTION (Sch: 2010/11)
LABOR $1.14 (in from $1.16)
COALITION $5.15 (out from $4.75)

Betfair:
Next Federal Election
Labor 1.2
Coalition 4.9

Paddy Power:
Is offering odds on NT, SA, Vic & Tas and what looks like the next federal election.
Monday 31st May 2010, 22:00
Winning Party
Australian Labour Party 1/5
Liberal National Coalition 3/1
Australian Greens 100/1
Family First Party 250/1

China's cyberdoor kicked down by Google

Snapshot of the Chinese version of Google on 15th January 2010

Sometime in the last three days Google flung China's door to the global Internet wide open.

This is the YouTube link on www.google.com.cn to videos showing the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Amnesty International commentary on the student protests is also able to be viewed, including this photo:

A China Daily article on Google's stand against China's Internet policy and recent hacking attempts is also intermittently available, although there have been reports that Baidu (dominant search engine backed by Chinese Government) is blocking access to Google's official blog post but not to links mentioning it.

How green is the Internet?

How green is the Internet? Not green at all would have to be the answer to that question.

Information and communication technology is said to directly contribute a whopping 2% of global carbon emissions according to Bell Labs research and the average network user consumes an estimated 25 watts of energy.

This means that worldwide the use of landlines, mobile phones, blackberries, personal computers etc. result in more greenhouse gas emissions in a year than total annual emission levels from entire countries like Australia and, the industry's carbon levels are expected to more than double over the next decade if communication technology is allowed to continue as usual.

In an effort to reduce this dismal state of affairs a consortium (which includes the University of Melbourne's Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society) has formed under the banner Green Touch to work towards an energy efficiency level, via changes in coding techniques which might eventually see the world's communications networks run for three years on the energy it currently takes to collectively power these networks for a day.

ITNews reports that the Australian Government already spent $1.411 million over three consecutive financial years on investigations used to create the nucleus of the URL blacklist it intends to use to censor the Internet from mid-2011, but what will the cost be in carbon terms once ISPs operating in this country have to run a mandatory filtering program against the online activity of every Australian user?

Google Gives China A Minties Moment

Google Inc. deserves a slap on the back and a free beer......
Here's what it posted on its blog on 12th January 2010 about the current situation in one of the few countries imposing mandatory Internet censorship:
"Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.
First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.
Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.
Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers............
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China...."
Taking all that in Stevo? Still don't see the yawning slippery slope you are setting Australia on with your daft plan to nationally censor the Internet?
Let's hope that Google does stand up to China and takes whatever economic hit comes its way, so that "do no evil" begins to mean something again across the more than 150 international Internet domains this company holds.

# OpenNet Initiative maps showing known levels of online social, national security, political & IT technology information censorship around the globe.