Insult to our intelligence’: Feeble excuses for not inviting Snowden, Assange to surveillance conference

Snowden, Assange and the team at Wikileaks has done a huge service to humanity, so any excuses for not inviting them seem lame, Jane Duncan from Rhodes University of South Africa told RT.

A massive internet forum on issues of privacy and surveillance took place in Stockholm on May 26. However, all the leading whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald were blacklisted from taking part, and even Wikileaks representatives were banned. The move has caused a storm on Twitter, which has been rife with sarcasm and anger towards the conference organizers. 

 

Julian Assange (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)

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RT: The organizers gave some answers as to why these people were not invited. Do you think gender balance is a reasonable excuse?

Jane Duncan: They did not only use the excuse of gender balance but also the need for geographic representation as well. Personally I find these excuses to be extremely weak. In fact, I would say that they were an insult to our intelligence. There were over 450 participants from around the world and I do not think that the addition of 2-3 more white males would have made any difference whatsoever. 

RT: What is the actual reason behind the ban, do you think?

 

JD: It troubled all of us in the conference. In fact, a lot of us coming from the global South were concerned that we were actually being used in order to legitimize what is a completely unacceptable decision. I suspect that the reason why this decision was taken was because the Swedish government did not want to embarrass the US government in this particular conference, and as we know there has been information that has come out of Snowden’s revelations which has linked GCHQ, the NSA and Swedish intelligence in collaborations. I suspect that it may have been an attempt to try and prevent a full airing of those particular issues. Obviously Edward Snowden and Greenwald, the people who were instrumental in exposing these particular collaborations, would have been best placed to speak about these issues.

RT: What was the point of the conference and did it achieve anything?

 

JD: I have to say that I was really proud of many of the people who were especially civil society representatives. There was a very hot session towards the end where the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt participated, and there was a US government representative as well. I must say that both of them were given hell, they were not let off the hook and I think that especially US civil society really took the US government representative to task. So I think to that extent, it has been communicated to both Swedish and US governments that the decision that was taken not to invite the key protagonists in what is really the biggest story around communications surveillance in the past year was not acceptable. I think that message has been communicated loud and clear. And to that extent it was a very useful conference. 

RT: Are we seeing a new wave of pressure on whistleblowers across the world?

 

JD: Yes, most certainly. I think whistleblowers around the world are under attack. I must also say that Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and the team at Wikileaks have done a huge service to humanity. Even my own country, South Africa, has felt the ripples of the information that has come out of the particular leaks, because Wikileaks released information that was showing that South Africa was manufacturing mass surveillance technology that has since been found in the listening rooms of Libya and Egypt. And this is the legacy that I think these extremely courageous whistleblowers have left behind. It must have been tremendously difficult for them to make the decisions that they did, to put themselves on the line in the way that they did. At least they still have their lives in spite of the fact that to an extent their lives have been ruined by these particular decisions. In a country like South Africa for instance, whistleblowers have been assassinated for speaking out about issues of corruption and government mismanagement. All of this goes to show that we have a crisis around the protection of whistleblowers around the world, and particularly those whistleblowers who are located deep in the belly of the beast of the emerging surveillance state, and its these people who need the greatest protection at a time when the protection is clearly so incredibly weak. Let’s hope that other whistleblowers will not be discouraged by what has happened to Snowden and Assange and others, and will step forward and will expose government excesses in other intelligence agencies around the world because we will certainly need that. 

The not-very-nice things U.S. officials used to say about Ukraine’s new president

• By Adam Taylor

Ukrainian businessman Petro Poroshenko won the nation's presidential election Sunday. (Reuters/Stringer)

On Sunday, Ukraine voted in Petro Poro­shenko as its new president by a very convincing margin. Poroshenko, a "chocolate tycoon" with an estimated $1.3 billion fortune, is known as a soft spoken politician who had allied himself with protesters against ousted president Viktor Yanukovych. The hope is that he can lead Ukraine out of the chaos it has been suffering in recent months.

Poroshenko's win earned him congratulations from President Obama and from Catherine Ashton, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. But Poroshenko hasn't always been held in such high esteem by the international community, as Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reported Thursday. Back in 2006, U.S. officials were describing him as "disgraced" and "deeply unpopular."

Kommersant reporter Elena Chernenko dug through Wikileaks diplomatic cables to find mentions of Poroshenko. There are plenty of mentions of the 43-year-old, who was the head of the Council of Ukraine's National Bank and served as the nation's foreign minister: At least 350 reference can be found by searching the Wikileaks Web site, and many are not so positive.

In one cable from 2006, for example, Poroshenko is casually described as a "disgraced oligarch" by the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst. Later that year, a cable from Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission in Kiev Sheila Gwaltney mentions that "Poroshenko was tainted by credible corruption allegations."

More cables continue this theme. Another 2006 cable finds Herbst recalling how he was told Poroshenko was a "discredited" figure who was a "net-minus" for his party, Our Russia. Later, the new head of the U.S. diplomatic mission, William Taylor, says Poroshenko is "a deeply unpopular politician" but has "widespread support among party leaders due to his past financial/organizational roles."

Kommersant notes that the criticism appears to stop in 2009, when Poroshenko became Ukraine's foreign minister.

The bulk of the criticism appears to be related to Poroshenko's feud with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who accused him of corruption in 2005 over the privatization of state-owned firms. But both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko were then fired by President Viktor Yushchenko, and the Chocolate tycoon may have had the last laugh with this recent election: Poroshenko beat out Tymoshenko by 55 percent to 12.9 percent.

Whether those corruption scandals were true is hard to say. Ukrainian analyst Ivan Lozowy told the New York Times that no real evidence had ever come out, although he said he was sure that Poroshenko had "bought his way in," as "that’s the way it works in Ukraine." CHESNO, a civil movement that investigated the leading presidential candidates for signs of corruption, told Deutche Welle that Poroshenko seemed to have stayed within the law while amassing his fortune.

Of course, these are hardly the worst insults that have been uncovered in the WikiLeaks cables: Remember how French President Nicolas Sarkozy was described as "an emperor with no clothes" and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi was "feckless, vain, and ineffective"?

Even so, the cables do show that while Poroshenko has been able to portray himself as a centrist willing to bridge Ukraine's many divides, he's also very much part of the pre-Maidan political elite, and he faces a lot of the criticisms that came with that. Perhaps it's no wonder that now, even after the election, Kiev's Maidan protesters aren't sure if they should head home.

Apple's lost future: phone, tablet, and laptop prototypes of the ’80s

By Jacob Kastrenakes

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Apple's focus on design has long been one of the key factors that set its computers apart. Some of its earliest and most iconic designs, however, didn't actually come from inside of Apple, but from outside designers at Frog. In particular, credit goes to Frog's founder, Hartmut Esslinger, who was responsible for the "Snow White" design language that had Apple computers of the ’80s colored all white and covered in long stripes and rounded corners meant to make the machines appear smaller.

In fact, Esslinger goes so far as to say in his recent book, Keep it Simple, that he was the one who taught Steve Jobs to put design first. First published late last year, the book recounts Esslinger's famous collaboration with Jobs, and it includes amazing photos of some of the many, many prototypes to come out of it. They're incredibly wide ranging, from familiar-looking computers to bizarre tablets to an early phone and even a watch, of sorts.

This is far from the first time that Esslinger has shared early concepts from Apple, but these show not only a variety of styles for computers but also a variety of forms for them. Some of the mockups still look sleek and stylish today, but few resemble the reality of the tablets, laptops, and phones that Apple would actually come to make two decades later, after Jobs' return. You can see more than a dozen of these early concepts below, and even more are on display in Esslinger's book.

Hint: Use the 's' and 'd' keys to navigate

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Source:http://www.theverge.com

Lenovo overtakes Apple in US PC sales for the first time

By Sharif Sakr @shotsheriff\

 

Apple has rightly made a big deal of the fact that its Mac sales have continued to grow, in spite of a contracting PC market. 

But Cupertino certainly isn't alone in having figured out how to win at desktops and laptops: Lenovo has just reported big gains in its full-year revenue and profits, and it claims that its PC shipments in the US overtook Apple's for the first time, grabbing the No. 3 spot behind the more stagnant giants, HP and Dell. 

 This claim is based on data for the last three months, likely with a bit of help from analysts at IDC, although it's worth pointing out that Gartner still had Lenovo in fourth place in the US as recently as April. Whichever pundits you listen to, Lenovo has now dominated the PC market globally for around a year, thanks to its ever-expanding ThinkPad line, while also growing its non-Windows tablet and smartphone sales -- with the latter soon to become a lot more prevalent in the US now that the company owns Motorola.

Source:http://www.engadget.com

Humans will be put into suspended animation in trials starting next month

It might sound like something straight out of a science fiction movie or but it is true and it is real life, even though scientists don’t want to call it suspended animation. The first of the trials involving humans are about to start with 10 patients at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. These are people that have suffered from injuries which would be fatal if surgeons were to operate on them.

The team of surgeons will remove the blood from the patients and then replace the blood with a saline solution that is chilled, which would cool down the patient’s body. This in turn slows down the bodily functions, which will delay death due to loss of blood. Dr Samuel Tisherman said “We are suspending life, but we don’t like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction… we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation.”

In 2000 tests were made on pigs and these were very successful. The pigs had fatal cuts and the scientists then dropped the body temperature down to 10 degrees Celsius. The control pigs died but those who had been preserved had around a 90% survival rate following heart restarts. At the moment the technique would be useful when it came to emergency procedures following injuries classed as being severe, and in situations where there would only have been a survival rate of 7%.

The US Army is behind the funding of the project and the whole idea of being able to suspend people came as the result of the Vietnam War. Military surgeons found that one of the leading causes of soldier’s death was losing blood within the first 5 and up to 20 minutes after sustaining an injury. Around one third of soldiers suffered from wounds that they would have been able to survive, if they were in an emergency room. Suspended animation as we know it thanks to sci-fi films, is still a long way in the future, the scientists can only preserve people for about four hours. However this could be plenty of time to save lives.

Via [Electrogeek]

source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Modern Mahina House

The modern Mahina House has been designed in the shape of a crescent moon. It has been named for it’s interesting shape. Mahina in the Maori word for moon. It has not been built yet but it is under construction. It will be located in New Zealand on Kawau island. Kawau island is approximately 60kms north of Auckland. This glorious house was designed by Weber Consulting and has many luxurious features.

The stunning windows reach from floor to ceiling. There will be a swimming pool as well as a green house and a deck for regulating thermal mass. A glamorous place for entertaining or a wonderful vacation spot. The house provides 360 degree views in every direction.

Source:http://welldonestuff.com/

Apple Now Makes Apps For Other Mobile Platforms

By (@drizzled)

 

 

Apple became something more with the Beats acquisition today – a multi-mobile platform developer at least for the time being. The company will continue to operate Beats Music on Android and Windows Phone, Apple CEO Tim Cook tells The Financial Times’ Tim Bradshaw following the acquisition.

While Apple has offered iTunes for Windows in the past, this marks the first time that an app it runs, even through a subsidiary, will be available on a rival mobile OS. Apple says it’s “all about the music” when addressing this change of practice, and it marks a departure that could become very significant as we think about what this deal means for the future of digital media.

The Apple acquisition of Beats is said to be primarily about the streaming service, according to a source familiar with the deal, and the Beats brass team will be reporting to Eddy Cue, we’re told. That provides lots of support for the theory that Beats will help in part to transition iTunes from digital downloads to a streaming-based economy.

What’s most interesting here, however, is that Apple has secured a multi-platform foothold in streaming – one that iTunes Match didn’t really help it to achieve, especially with regards to the mobile ecosystem. Apple might still champion and make the vast bulk of its money on iOS and the iPhone, but if it wants to continue to dominate the digital music and media industry for the next decade in the same way it has the last, it needs to look further afield.

From the horse’s mouth, via a Tim Cook internal memo to Apple employees published by 9to5Mac:

Apple’s history in music began with selling Macs to musicians. That remains important to us today, but we also bring music to hundreds of millions of customers with iTunes, which is at the forefront of the digital music revolution. Music holds a special place in our hearts at Apple, and we know that we can make an even bigger contribution to something that is so important to our society. That’s why we have kept investing in music and why we’re bringing together these extraordinary teams — so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.

Cross-platform has long been a defense that streaming media companies have thrown up against the threat of efforts by industry giants like Apple. If Apple sticks to Cook’s stated plan to offer Beats Music across a range of devices, that may no longer be a valid point to hide behind.

We reached out to Apple to find out if in addition to remaining available, the Windows Phone and Android Beats Music apps would continue to be actively developed, but we had received no response at press time.

Source: www.techcrunch.com

Iran court summons Mark Zuckerberg over privacy concerns

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (AFP Photo / Getty Images / Win McNamee)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been summoned to appear in an Iranian court as part of a case against social network privacy breaches in the South of the country. He must appear to “defend himself and pay for possible losses.”

The 30 year old stands accused of mass privacy breaches. Iran’s censors previously banned WhatsApp – an application which was cited as the primary reason for the summons. The Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content said that its acquisition by Zuckerberg was a factor in its summons, according to the ISNA news agency.

“According to the court's ruling, the Zionist director of the company of Facebook, or his official attorney must appear in court to defend himself and pay for possible losses,” said Ruhollah Momen-Nasab, an Iranian internet official.

The judge also ordered the two apps blocked.

In April, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp, the US Federal Trade Commission issued a warning to both companies to maintain privacy controls.

However, users remained concerned over the amount of information being added to Facebook's database through the acquisition, such as phone numbers that users may have been apprehensive about displaying on their online profiles.

“If the acquisition is completed and WhatsApp fails to honor these promises, both companies could be in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act,” the FTC cautioned.

It is unlikely Zuckerberg will heed the summons. There is no extradition treaty in place between Iran and the US. Additionally, Iran remains under international sanctions because of disputed nuclear programs. US citizens are experiencing some problems gaining travel visas to the country.

Tehran sometimes filters social networking websites such as Twitter or Facebook. Moderate Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has been negotiating a loosening of internet restrictions with a conservative judiciary.

Last week, in a statement reported by the country’s official IRNA news agency, Rouhani said:

“We ought to see (the internet) as an opportunity. We must recognize our citizens' right to connect to the World Wide Web.”

His predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad routinely imprisoned bloggers.

Internet use in the country remains high, suggesting that its populace is utilizing proxy servers to bypass the controls. 

Source:rt.com

The world’s first 3-D printer drone

Mirko Kovac of Imperial College London and his team have merged two technologies that are seeing rapid growth in the commercial world this decade – drones and 3-D printers. The quadcopter drone is essentially a flying 3-D printer which can deposit material that hardens to form a sticky foam during flight.

[Image Courtesy of Arial Robotics Lab]

 The inspiration has yet again come from nature and in particular, the swiftlet, a small East Asian bird which builds nests by depositing threads of its own saliva. Now Kovac and his team at the Arial Robotics Lab have turned drones into flying robotic swiftlets by attaching 3-D printer technology.

The flying printer carries two different chemicals that are kept separate and which produce polyurethane when mixed. A printer module is used to extrude the foam which hardens in the area it is deposited. The idea is that these robots can be used to remove waste from nuclear sites or patch up damage buildings and bridges without the need for time and effort of scaffold construction or dangerous harnessing.

The hexacopter can carry 2.5 kg, but scaled-up versions could carry up to 40 kg, says Kovac. At the moment the robots are battery powered by Kovac has stated his desires to operate them using afuel cell which the robots could recharge themselves by perching in the sun and deploying fold-able solar panels. ”They will build nests to recharge their batteries with solar cells and to observe the environment,” he says.

The team are working towards total autonomy such that the construction plans are input and the printer drones set about their work using GPS coordinates and 16 infra-red cameras to be aware of its surroundings. The robots will also have to perform calculations to compensate for the changing weight of the device as foam is deposited. All the calculations are done by a nearby laptop which automatically sends the instructions wirelessly.

The merging of two such technologies has certainly provided this 3-D printer with a niche and it’s interesting to see such solutions to particular problems.

via: [New Scientist, 3d print]

Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Snowden Reveals US Trained Him as Undercover Spy in First Interview With American Media

MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is currently living in Russia under temporary asylum status, has refuted claims by the US government that he was a low-level contractor, according to an excerpt from an NBC News interview published Wednesday.

"I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas – pretending to work in a job that I'm not – and even being assigned a name that was not mine," he said in his first interview with American media.

Snowden said he had worked as a “technical expert” at all levels of the US government, lectured at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy and operated undercover for the CIA and NSA.
“So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading,” the whistleblower said.

NBC’s Brian Williams and Snowden met at a hotel in Moscow on May 21. The TV channel is airing the full interview at 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday (2 a.m. GMT Thursday).

SNOWDEN SAYS US VIOLATING RIGHTS OF ALL GERMANS

Edward Snowden has additional information regarding US spying on German citizens, but it’s unlikely that Berlin would want to hear it as it has employed the same surveillance methods as Washington, Stern magazine reported.

“I'd be surprised if German lawmakers learnt nothing new if I laid out all the information,” Snowden told the media outlet.

Snowden underlined that the new revelations show that the constitutional rights of every German citizen had been violated.

Earlier this month, German lawmakers decided to have talks with the fugitive whistleblower but haven’t agreed yet on details of the meeting. The opposition believes Snowden should be invited to Berlin to let him express himself freely. Meanwhile, the conservatives from Merkel’s CDU party insist that grilling Snowden in Berlin would even further deteriorate German-American relations.

The fact that Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, uses the same spying techniques as the NSA might be one of reasons why some in Berlin were reluctant to hear him, Snowden said.

SNOWDEN CONSIDERS RETURNING TO US
Snowden is considering returning to the US under certain conditions, Der Spiegel reported citing Wolfgang Kaleck, the leaker’s German lawyer.

“Negotiations are currently under way. Everyone familiar with [Snowden’s] case understands that a friendly settlement with US authorities would be the most reasonable one,” he told the newspaper.
Efforts were being made to find a solution that would be acceptable to Snowden, the lawyer said, adding the whistleblower himself is not participating in the negotiations.

Snowden is facing a long-term imprisonment as he has been accused by the US authorities of espionage after leaking documents about a secret NSA surveillance program, Der Speigel reported.
Earlier this week, Glasgow University Rector Mick Napier told RIA Novosti that the former NSA contractor could be granted permanent sanctuary in Scotland. Napier has put forward a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for Snowden to be offered political asylum. Some parliamentarians supported the petition, but its consideration has been postponed to after the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence in September.

In February, Snowden was elected by students of Glasgow University, one of the UK’s oldest academic institutions, to the position of rector. Previous holders of the post included Winnie Mandela, Mordechai Vanunu and former British Prime Minister Henry Asquith.

Snowden leaked information to the press about the extensive electronic surveillance programs conducted by the US government around the globe, including eavesdropping on American citizens and foreign leaders. The revelations have sparked domestic controversy and strained relations between the US and its allies.

The leaker may have taken up to 1.7 million documents from the NSA, the channel said, citing US officials.

US authorities have rejected claims that Snowden is a whistleblower, insisting that he committed crimes and should stand trial at home. They have charged Snowden with espionage and revoked his passport.

The 30-year-old has been residing in Russia for a little under a year, after the local authorities granted him temporary asylum, which he sought in 21 countries. He is now awaiting renewal of his asylum status in June.

Source: http://en.ria.ru

Mystery New iMac Models Caught Lurking In Pulled OS X Beta

By Greg Kumparak (@grg)

If you’re looking to grab yourself an iMac sometime soon, you might want to wait a few more weeks. Based on details left lurking in the latest beta of OS X Mavericks, it looks like an iMac hardware refresh is looming.

Poking around the internals of the OS X Mavericks developer beta just released this morning, Apple-fan Pike spotted references to up to three hereto-unseen iMacs:

• Mac-81E3E92DD6088272.plist / iMac15,1 (IGPU only)
• Mac-42FD25EABCABB274.plist / iMac15,n (IGPU/GFX0/Apple display with id 0xAE03)

• Mac-FA842E06C61E91C5.plist / iMac15,n (IGPU/GFX0/Apple display with id 0xAE03)

The crucial bit is the “15,1″ and “15,n” labeling; up until this release, only the currently released iMac models — 14,1 and 14,2, the 21.5-inch models and 27-inch models, respectively — had ever been listed. Alas, as tends to be the case with plist leaks like these, there’s not much in terms of concrete details or specs.

Curiously, as 9to5mac points out, the Mavericks beta seems to have been pulled now — just four hours after it was released, and very shortly after word of the iMac listing started spreading.

If Apple has three new iMacs tucked up its sleeve, they probably won’t be hidden up there for long: WWDC, where Apple generally debuts wares like these, is in just five days.

Source:techcruch.com

Ten Cool Faucets

Faucets are often general accessories that we take for granted. There are maybe a few different types but we don’t pay much attention to them. This doesn’t have to be the case. There are many cool ones around that are interesting and unique. Here are ten cool faucets that  are out of the ordinary.

 via via via via via via via via ^This dragon faucet is made from brass and provides a great vintage style tone. via ^ This one doesn’t just look cool, it also tracks you water usage. A great idea. via

I f you thought all faucets were the same then hopefully you found something cool here to change your mind.

Source:http://welldonestuff.com/

Microsoft Demos Real-Time Speech-To-Speech Translation On Skype

By Ryan Lawler (@ryanlawler)

Microsoft’s Skype has long enabled people in different parts of the world to communicate with one another through video, voice, and text chat. Now the service is looking to expand those capabilities by testing out a feature that could allow people who don’t speak the same language to talk with each other. 

Today at the first annual CODE Conference, Microsoft head of Skype and Lync Gurdeep Singh Pall showed off a new speech-to-speech translation technology that the company is looking to introduce in future versions of its Skype products. The feature, which Skype is hoping to roll out in beta later this year, translates speech from one language to another in near real-time. 

As it was demoed, the feature translated Pall’s speech from English into text for transcription on a colleague’s screen in German, and also into voice in German… and vice versa.

In a chat before the demo, Pall said “Skype is about bringing people closer, and breaking down barriers.” That started with the idea of cheap international calling and expanded into face-to-face communications via video. Now it’s taking on the challenge of breaking the language barrier.

The feature was a collaboration between Skype, Bing, Microsoft’s Research Lab, which has long been working on natural language processing and machine learning for a while. Language recognition is powered by the same technology as Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant on Windows 8.1.

At the conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the feature would be avialable later this year, and that the company would try to launch it on as many devices and apps as possible. 

Source:http://techcrunch.com