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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Ed Webb

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Ed Webb

Machine pieces together the ripped secrets of the East German state - Times Online - 0 views

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article7070484.ece

secrecy Germany stasi pattern_recognition computers data information authoritarianism Totalitarianism

shared by Ed Webb on 22 Mar 10 - Cached
  • An astonishing 45 million documents were ripped up, and stuffed into rubbish bags
  • The reunified German state insisted that the files be reconstructed, and a team of 30 in Nuremberg set about manually sticking the documents together using old-fashioned puzzle methods, tweezers and lots of sticky tape. But in the course of 15 years, just 350 sackfuls of paper have been reassembled this way: completing the task, it was estimated, would take at least another 400 years.
  • the E-puzzler, the most sophisticated digital pattern-recognition system in the world
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • within a second, the document is assembled on the adjoining monitor
  • The East German police state — memorably evoked in the 2006 film The Lives of Others — remains an object of grim fascination for both Germany and the world. The BStU receives 8,000 requests a year from Germans anxious to uncover the past.
  • the technology promises to do more than the historical equivalent of reconstructive surgery. Museum curators and archaeologists have used it to help to reconstruct broken terracotta figures from China and papyrus documents from Iraq. Next month the files from the Jewish archive in Buenos Aires, badly damaged in a terrorist attack in 1984, will be brought to Berlin, where Fraunhofer technicians will begin the task of salvage and reconstruction. The equipment has played a role in a German tax fraud case.
  • Even documents that have shredded twice and resemble confetti can be digitally reassembled.
  • Ed Webb on 22 Mar 10
     
    via Wm Gibson @GreatDismal
Ed Webb

China calls U.S. a hypocrite over human rights - Yahoo! News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...us_china_usa_rights

USA China human rights rights diplomacy politics

shared by Ed Webb on 17 Mar 10 - Cached
  • "The United States not only has a terrible domestic human rights record, it is also the main source of many human rights disasters worldwide," the Chinese report said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. "Especially a time when the world is suffering serious human rights disasters caused by the global financial crisis sparked by the U.S. sub-prime crisis, the U.S. government has ignored its own grave human rights problems and reveled in accusing other countries."
Ed Webb

How Iraqi Oil Is Changing the World - By Stephen Glain | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...raqi_oil_is_changing_the_world

oil OPEC diplomacy Iran Iraq KSA

shared by Ed Webb on 17 Mar 10 - Cached
  • For decades, Saudi Arabia has served as the world's central banker of oil supplies. In unstable times, most famously in the wake of Iraqi's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, it has drawn from its spare production capacity of some 1 million barrels to bring prices to heel.
  • Iraq's revival as a prominent oil exporter is bound to reshuffle a careful power balance in the energy-rich Arab world, particularly between bitter rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saddam Hussein's 2003 toppling created a vacuum that both sides rushed to fill, for example deploying proxy forces at the height of Iraq's sectarian civil war. OPEC is another battlefield for the Saudi-Iran rivalry, and the Saudi kingdom is in no hurry to lose its uncontested status as No. 1. Now, as Iraq stabilizes politically and slowly rebuilds its oil-production capacity, both sides will have to accommodate a more assertive Baghdad. Even if oil production doesn't reach the Iraqis' goal, it will likely be higher than the approximately 1.7 million barrels per day that Iraq was producing just prior to the U.S. invasion.
  • quota smashers like Iran and Venezuela, who routinely oversell to pay for their costly entitlement programs
Ed Webb

Death metal rockers raise eyebrows in sedate Bahrain - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...bahrain.metal.music

death metal Bahrain middleeast music censorship socialnetworking

shared by Ed Webb on 17 Mar 10 - Cached
  • "People don't accept the fact of metal being music and having fun. It's always in conflict with religion,"
  • In Bahrain, metal bands and their followers are often branded as Satan worshippers. Gigs are regularly shut down, and the movement largely stays underground to avoid public attention. Many groups rely on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to stay connected.
  • the rock and metal movement, which is mostly an expression of freedom
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • A melting pot of different cultures, Bahrain boasts a diverse cultural scene. But partly because of small size of the country, it is often overlooked, said Al Shafei. "Noone looks at Bahrain as a place where talented musicians are emerging," she said. In fact, overall there's been little attention placed on the underground musical scene in the Middle East, which is one of the reasons why she's launching Web site Mideast Tunes.
Ed Webb

Who is Running Egypt While President Mubarak Recovers? | The Middle East Channel - 0 views

mideast.foreignpolicy.com/...whos_running_egypt

Egypt succession analysis opinion el-baradei Ikhwan Mubarak

shared by Ed Webb on 16 Mar 10 - Cached
  • As Mubarak has aged, however, his visible involvement in Egyptian politics has decreased, leading Egyptians to swap rumors about who is really running the country. Is it the security apparatus? His son? High members of the National Democratic Party? What is the role of his wife, a visible figure in Egyptian public life? Most important of all, who will follow him? Mubarak's illness has catapulted these questions from the rumor mill to the headlines. But it has not answered them.
  • Opposition parties are allowed to operate -- as long as they are weak, fractious, and stay off the streets and in the salons where they belong. Real opposition movements are contained and sometimes harshly suppressed. Wildcat strikers and demonstrators can be treated roughly indeed. And the Muslim Brotherhood -- essentially a middle-class religious reform movement with an ability to mobilize thousands of followers throughout the country -- has provoked a prolonged security campaign ever since it won one-fifth of the seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections. The Brotherhood was not so foolish as to try to win those elections -- its leaders say that under current circumstances, they would never seek more than one-third of the seats and they generally compete for far less. But the movement's strong showing in 2005 reached too far.
  • a stultifying political environment
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • the more bashful Brotherhood will actually be useful to the regime -- it does not threaten but it does serve as a bogeyman to scare liberals and Western governments.
  • only a regime without much credibility or legitimacy could be spooked by an international civil servant long absent from the country.
  • Its current system does not inspire respect or affection, but it does quite effectively present itself as inevitable. It is as legitimate as gravity.
Ed Webb

The danger of majority tyranny | openDemocracy - 1 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...danger-of-majority-tyranny

Switzerland democracy politics opinion analysis ban minarets Islam

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Mar 10 - Cached
  • The “yes”’ to banning minarets has brought these limits to mind, causing a real shock and deep disappointment for many people. I cannot remember any referendum that has divided our country both politically and ethically in a similar manner.
  • Democratically reached decisions reflect the will of the people in a given moment, though, not necessarily a superior wisdom or power. Democratic decisions can be wrong, unjust and impractical, violate the country’s constitution and even violate basic human rights. They can even relate to issues for which the democratic system is quite simply inadequate.
  • The debate about the limits of popular sovereignty will surely go on in Switzerland for some time to come. We need to make sure that the discussion is characterized by clarity of analysis, precision in drawing these borders and public education. An absolutized concept of democracy can threaten freedom and is susceptible to misuse. An enlightened people recognizes and acknowledges the limits of its sovereignty and knows that these limitations are what strengthen democracy and freedom.
Ed Webb

Op-Ed Columnist - Iraq's Known Unknowns, Still Unknown - NYTimes.com - 3 views

www.nytimes.com/...24friedman.html

NYT opinion USA Iraq friedman tribal tribes sects authoritarianism culture

shared by Ed Webb on 24 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Ed Webb on 24 Feb 10
     
    Let's discuss this
Ed Webb

Activists aim to punch holes in online shields of authoritarian regimes - SiliconValley... - 1 views

www.siliconvalley.com/...ci_14407148

censorship evasion filters activists Iran China USA

shared by Ed Webb on 20 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Haystack, a program to help Iranians wiggle past government filters as tensions between authorities and the opposition movement surge.
  • virtual slingshots to take on government censorship
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