01/07/28 Hunger strike in Turkey
01/07/26 The semantic web
01/07/23 Flash logic games
01/07/22 Dmitry Sklyarov
01/07/21 Death in Genoa
01/07/20 G8
01/07/18 Spyware
01/07/13 Choose your own adventure
01/07/02 Microsoft
01/07/01 I got rid of my mother's wheelchair
The home where Fatma Sener carries on her hunger strike has become a grim ward of death. Three women have starved to death here in the last three weeks protesting conditions in Turkey's prisons, and four more people are preparing to die for the same cause. Inside the modest house in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, activists help one of the weakest hunger strikers shuffle to the bathroom. She is Zehra Kulaksiz, 22, whose 19-year-old sister Canan died two weeks ago. Afterward, three women gently massage her hands and feet as she curls on a bed. Sympathizers bring flowers for a small shrine in the hall. Posters proclaim "Either life with pride or death" and "Heroes don't die and people don't get beaten."
Washington Post: 'Death Fasters' Put Spotlight on Turkish Prisons
Security forces stormed 20 prisons on December 19 in a bid to end a hunger strike begun in October by mainly left-wing inmates protesting at the introduction of new, high security jails. Some 30 prisoners and two paramilitary policemen died in the assault. The prison strike has placed Turkey's bleak human rights record in the international spotlight at a time when the country needs to make far-reaching democratic reforms in order to promote its bid for European Union membership. The December crackdown did not halt the protest, by over 400 inmates and sympathisers, which claimed its 26th victim on Friday. The Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said 22-year-old Zehra Kulaksiz, whose uncle was in jail, died on the 223rd day of her hunger strike. She died in an Istanbul house where her 19-year-old sister Canan starved to death in April on her 137th day without food.
Ptd.net: Pathologists blast govt account of prison crackdown deaths
A new Turkish law providing for conditional prisoner releases "simply does not address concerns over Turkey's human rights record," Amnesty International said today. Although the new law will result in the immediate release of thousands of prisoners, it still specifically excludes the release of others who have been imprisoned for peacefully expressing opinions, forming associations and assembling in public. As a result, some prisoners of conscience will remain incarcerated because they peacefully expressed their beliefs.
Amnesty International: Prisoner release law 'woefully inadequate'
Prison conditions have been a subject of intense debate in Turkey in the past year. Prisoners have usually been housed in large dormitories that hold 60 or sometimes more prisoners, but the Turkish authorities have started to build new wings to existing prisons and 11 so-called F-Type prisons based on a cell-type system that were due to be brought into use in 2000. Prisoners and their families as well as many human rights defenders and other civil organizations have been concerned that under the new cell-type system regimes of isolation might be introduced which would increase the risk of torture or ill-treatment in prisons. Fears that the new system might lead to small group isolation or solitary confinement were founded in so far as Article 16 of the Anti-Terror Law lays down a draconian regime of intense isolation, in which 'convicted prisoners will not be permitted contact or communication with other convicted prisoners'. Following the start of the process of replacing dormitories with smaller cells there were major protests and clashes in prisons which were ended by force. From October 2000 more than 1000 political prisoners participated in a hunger strike in protest against the F-Type prisons.
Amnesty International: 'F-Type' prisons - Isolation and allegations of torture or ill-treatment
The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. The first steps in weaving the Semantic Web into the structure of the existing Web are already under way. In the near future, these developments will usher in significant new functionality as machines become much better able to process and "understand" the data that they merely display at present.
Scientific American: The Semantic Web
Facilities to put machine-understandable data on the Web are becoming a high priority for many communities. The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. For the Web to scale, tomorrow's programs must be able to share and process data even when these programs have been designed totally independently.
W3C: Semantic Web Activity
Link to the Scientific American article found via Way.nu
Way.nu
When I first encountered this site there were three logic games, which I enjoyed. They've now greatly improved the site's front page and seem to be planning to add more games. Requires Flash. Link to one of the games found via Memepool.
Plastelina
Memepool
Sklyarov, of Russian software firm ElcomSoft, is the author of a $99 program called Advanced eBook Processor, which removes restrictions on reading and printing from encrypted PDF files. He was arrested on Monday after making a presentation entitled "eBook Security: Theory and Practice" at Defcon, the annual hacker's convention in Las Vegas.
The Register: Boycott Adobe campaign launches
Ever since Dmitry Sklyarov was nabbed by the FBI as an alleged copyright criminal, the Net has been buzzing with talk of his prosecution under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A mailing list is underway, websites are up, and protests are planned for Monday. But Sklyarov, adrift in the federal prison bureaucracy, hasn't been heard from yet.
Cluebot: Russian hacker arrested by FBI goes missing
The pressure we all have put on Adobe has resulted in an agreement to meet with representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this Monday morning, July 23.
Politechbot: Adobe offers to meet, EFF calls off Monday "free Dmitry" protest
Discussion on Kuro5hin
Discussion on Metafilter
Discussion on Slashdot
Note: many of the images linked below are disturbing. The links to photos on Yahoo News may activate pop-up and pop-under ads.
The riot van comes under attack from rioters, central Genoa, July 20th.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
The carabinieri van being cornered by protesters. The protester who would be shot can be seen in the left foreground.
Corriere della Sera
A close-up of the protester, apparently ready to throw the fire extinguisher at the van. A hand holding a gun can be seen in the top right section of the photograph.
Corriere della Sera
The protester has been shot and is on the ground, blood streaming from his face. The fire extinguisher has been dropped. In the foreground two other protesters can be seen, running away.
Corriere della Sera
The riot van is running over the protester's body, the legs can be seen from under the van. The fire extinguisher is near the van's front. Through the van's back window a hand holding a gun is visible.
Corriere della Sera
The van leaves the scene. The protester's body can be seen in the foreground, several carabinieri are on the left.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
Another protester, holding the hand of the protester who has been shot and run over.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
The same protester, trying to help.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
The protestor, lying dead on the road.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
Other protesters, trying to stem the blood.
Reuters / Martinez (Yahoo)
Sources for these links, and more information
Yahoo news coverage
Yahoo photos
Corriere della Sera (Italian language)
Reuters news coverage
Discussion on Metafilter
Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organizers, humanrights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of brands. That demand, still sometimes in some areas of the world whispered for fear of a jinx, is to build a resistance both high-tech and grassroots, both focused and fragmented that is as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert.
Naomi Klein: No Logo
Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri demonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits.
Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri: Empire
The Hertz thesis is conveniently summarised in the subtitle: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy . Her core argument is that a combination of globalisation, and the growing power of major corporations, mainly American and European, is rendering democratic governments impotent to influence key decisions that affect the lives of ordinary people. So far, so conventional. But she takes the argument one step further. In surrendering to the global capitalists, governments are themselves debasing democracy, making it quite useless for people to vote. People sense their powerlessness and the redundancy of ballot-box politics, and take to the streets of Seattle, Davos, the City of London, or wherever.
Noreena Hertz: The Silent Takeover - Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy
Between 70,000 and 100,000 people are in the streets of Genoa, Italy, to express dissent against the closed meetings of the Group of 8. The 'G8' - the leaders of the world's most economically powerful countries, meets yearly to discuss general international policy direction. Demonstrators from all over Europe have converged on Genoa to present alternative visions of the way the world's population could undo poverty, inequality and environmental disintegration.
Independent Media Center
Drop the Debt is based in London, and is the short term successor to Jubilee 2000, the international movement to cancel the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries to mark the new millennium, described by the World Bank as "one of the most effective global campaigns ever seen".
Drop the Debt
I found these book titles and websites through an article in NRC Handelsblad.
NRC Handelsblad (Dutch language site)
Having spyware installed on my system is bad enough. Having it installed by legitimately paid-for hardware is worse. But having it compromise my system for malicious hackers...now that's just unacceptable.
Discussion on Kuro5hin
It seems peculiar that Amazon.com would host a pop-up ad for a competitor-- I thought I saw one DealTime ad say they could get me a better price than what I was looking at, but I didn't have time to read it closely before I instinctively closed the window. So I asked an Amazon friend of mine about the ad, and was assured 1) that Amazon would never host that kind of advertising, 2) that Amazon is very strict about using JavaScript and anything else of that sort, and 3) that Amazon has very tight in-house security monitoring their own pages for unauthorized bad things.
Discussion on Metafilter
It's not an orginal idea. I saw this somewhere on the web a few months ago, but have forgotten where. And anyway, what's wrong with making my own, huh? Very simple concept - it's like a "choose your own adventure" book with a twist - when you get to the end of the story, you can extend it your self. You create the story. Indeed I've seen this done before, but I enjoyed playing it and even added a couple of rooms of my own.
Choose your own adventure
The San Jose Mercury News received a copy of an e-mail from Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, to all employees. It contains several brazen falsehoods -- including the claim that the appeals court found the company guilty only of "individual actions" that were anticompetitive, when the truth is that the court found systematic violations. Nonetheless, it's worth reading to see that the basic Microsoft mindset is intact. (Note -- if this letter wasn't intended to be leaked to the media, then I'm Bill Gates.)
Dan Gillmore's eJournal
Although the Smart Tags feature was included in Internet Explorer 6, the Web browser that is bundled with current beta versions of Windows XP, it will be dropped from the final product. "At this time we just don't believe it's going to be ready when (Windows XP) ships in October," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said late Wednesday. "External feedback" was one of the factors that led the company to remove the feature, although he indicated it could be resurrected in later versions. Cullinan also emphasized that Smart Tags remains a feature of Office XP, the upgrade to Microsoft's suite of applications that launched May 31.
CNET: Microsoft clips Windows XP Smart Tags
A dream, and some autobiographical stuff.
01/07/01 I got rid of my mother's wheelchair (journal)
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