The string just broke

Hi folks, Rog is busy, I am not ready to post anything of general interest to readers, although I have a mountain of new material. New here means I do some work, takes time and effort.

Take this as an opportunity to discuss the blog, we could do with a discussion on where things ought to go. Subjects, kind of, etc.

I think we are suffering from technical obstruction, no good way to split between political and technical articles.

Is what we do right?

Or other things needing air.

If I can I’ll put up some articles, means taking my focus off something important.

Bangladeshi Bloggers “will be prosecuted if found guilty” of insulting prophet – Syria disconnected from net

From the BBC:

Clashes between police and Islamist protesters in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have left at least thirty two people dead and 60 injured.

Up to half a million protesters gathered in the city, where rioters set fire to shops and vehicles as police fought to contain them.

Thousands of activists from Hefajat-e-Islam blocked highways, isolating Dhaka from other parts of the country.

They are calling for those bloggers who insult Islam to face the death penalty.

They also want greater segregation of men and women, as well as the imposition of stricter Islamic education.

Peter Gleick: This may be the stupidest of your many stupid #climate posts

Earlier today, I spotted the wailing and gnashing of teeth beginning over the fact that the airborne fraction of co2 is about to pass 400 parts per million – 0.04% of the atmosphere. Peter Gleick was one of the protagonists.

So I tweeted this response:

Jeremy Corbyn MP: Dark days for British justice

Dark days for british justice
Tuesday 05 March 2013by Jeremy Corbyn MP

The House of Commons has many strange procedures, and one of them is the selection of amendments for voting on Bills.Monday saw a classic case concerning a major piece of government legislation, the Justice and Security Bill, which introduces the concept of secret courts through “closed material proceedings” (CMPs).We only voted on an opposition amendment requiring an annual review of the process, rather than on a much stronger amendment put forward by Green MP Caroline Lucas and supported by a number of us which would have removed the whole process of secret courts from the Bill.At the heart of this issue is the control of the security services.There has always been a legal process, known as public interest immunity, by which court proceedings can be held in camera or particular evidence withheld – but the general direction now embarked on is eminently much more dangerous than that.

Britain has been drifting away from open justice for a long time.Many of us opposed the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) introduced in 1974 after the Birmingham pub bombings, by which suspects could be held incommunicado and eventually brought to court.This was also accompanied by the use of confessional evidence (where a witness states that the accused has told them of his or her guilt) and huge miscarriages of justice resulted.

Apperley Bridge

A pleasant stroll in kinder weather. Happy Easter everybody.

2013 Bloggies: Talkshop Makes Finals for ‘Best Science or Technology Weblog’

It’s happened, we’re going head to head with the BIG GUNS. This really is an honour, thanks to all of you who nominated us.

JoNova is liked by very many, for its excellent political  and science dialog. It is so large discussion becomes difficult sometimes in the torrent of comment. Well done Jo!

The Talkshop is the David, the smallest site in the running, but active, category relevant, and pretty good with a slingshot. Yeah!

Penguin thinks the ice is melting, all that ice they go on about, soon to be gone. It’s not very bright. (Antarctic ice is at a satellite record high)

Watts Up With That, also nominated for Best Overall Weblog, as always a worthy finalist.  Well done Anthony!

ClimateAudit has been a place of leading edge science statistics discussions, these days mostly about FOI and climate politics. Steve deserves recognition for his years of effort, yup, kick ass, he’s a damn good sport.

Open Rights Group: Monday Deadline for UK Bloggers to Avert Internet Crackdown

We need to act quickly. Please visit this website and sign up: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/leveson

UPDATE 22/3

By the end of today we’ll know if press regulation Charter will affect blogs or not bit.ly/13i11rw

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) March 22, 2013

Don’t clobber bloggers with Leveson

Lord Leveson’s regulations are being applied to UK websites – in ways that could catch more or less anyone who publishes a blog. Ordinary bloggers could be threatened with exemplary damages and costs. If this happens, small website publishers will face terrible risks, or burdensome regulation – and many may simply stop publishing.

We have until Monday to stop this happening.

Lord Leveson said he wanted to regulate print media. He proposed that judges be allowed to award exemplary damages and full costs against unregulated publishers. These are stringent and controversial measures, but he only envisaged them applying to large and powerful publishers. Not websites, unless they belonged to print publishers.

Last weekend, the proposals were agreed in a rush, without public consultation, and with no attention to the detail.

Outrageously, they have given the Lords until Monday to fix their mistakes.

University of East Anglia Attempts to Put Frighteners on Tallbloke

I’ve received an unsolicited email purporting to be from a legal firm claiming to represent the University of East Anglia. I’d be grateful if a lawyer with DPA experience, sympathetic to the public interest nature of the case, would get in touch here, with a view to forming a professional legal response to this communication – Thanks, TB.

____________________________________________________

Dear Sir
We act for the University of East Anglia and attach a response to your recent blog posts about a password supplied by ‘Mr FOIA’.
<<Data Protection Act.pdf>>
[Redacted]
Associate
for Mills & Reeve LLP

_____________________________________________________

The content of the attachment is reproduced below the break. Unusually, It has no header, no signature, no indication of provenance at all. My good lady and I have already been put through the wringer once, and we don’t scare so easily anymore.

Internet at risk: UK Govt. wants new press regulation to apply to bloggers too

There is much consternation about the outcome of the Levenson Report. Nick Cohen at the Spectator has a good article up on the subject:

It’s not a press regulator, it’s a web regulator
Nick Cohen – Spectator March 18 2013

Since the early 1990s, hundreds of millions of words have been produced about the Web. Enthusiasts have told us that it is the greatest communications revolution since Guttenberg invented movable type, and they are probably right. Utopian fantasists have imagined that cyberspace would be beyond the reach of governments – those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’, as one particularly giddy theorist put it – and they were certainly wrong.

Their libertarian dreams, as we can see tonight, were an illusion. Those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’ are tougher than they look. They are more than capable of using the new technologies to their own advantage, while censoring what their citizens write online. In the past, I would have directed you to China, Iran or Belarus to see web censorship. But now we can get all that at home.

2013 Bloggies: Final day of voting

Last Chance to cast your vote in the 2013 Bloggies – please consider us when choosing your candidates. Thanks to all those who have shown their support. Click on the image to visit the Bloggies site and cast your votes.

It’s happened, we’re head to head with the BIG GUNS. This really is an honour, thanks to all of you who nominated us.

JoNova is liked by very many, for its excellent political  and science dialog. It is so large discussion becomes difficult sometimes in the torrent of comment. Well done Jo!

The Talkshop is the David, the smallest site in the running, but active, category relevant, and pretty good with a slingshot. Yeah!

Penguin thinks the ice is melting, all that ice they go on about, soon to be gone. It’s not very bright. (Antarctic ice is at a satellite record high). They’ve chickened out! Only four blogs left in category.