Private firm may track all email and calls

External estimates of the cost of the superdatabase have been put as high as £12bn, twice the cost of the ID cards scheme, and the consultation paper, to be published towards the end of next month, will include an option of putting it into the hands of the private sector in an effort to cut costs. But such a decision is likely to fuel civil liberties concerns over data losses and leaks. Macdonald, who left his post as DPP in October, told the Guardian: "The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."

from the Guardian

Designing Obama

During one of his rare walk-throughs, Obama asked Thomas what he was up to, and the designer responded, "Making you look good. That's what we do all day: Photoshop your face."

All that Photoshopping paid off, as we now know. Obama's historic win must be at least partly attributed to the savvy and skills of the professionals responsible for his messaging. Though the campaign is over, the work of Thomas's team is memorialized in one final seal that is still around, at least for the time being: the seal of the office of the President-elect, which the triumphant Obama '08 designers whipped up the day after the election as a last hurrah.

Who, though, owns this work, including the world-renowned "O"? After Steven Heller asked that question, there was a short, confused silence, after which Thomas replied: "I think the best answer would be the American people."

read more...

Obama's designers speak!

The hardest working presidential logo

Gotham, Barak Obama's typography choice

Designing Barack Obama's logo

The Paranoia Squad

The villagers marched, demonstrated and sent in letters and petitions. Some people tried to stop the company from cutting down trees by standing in the way. Their campaign was entirely peaceful. But RWE npower discovered that it was legally empowered to shut the protests down.

Using the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997, it obtained an injunction against the villagers and anyone else who might protest. This forbids them from “coming to, remaining on, trespassing or conducting any demonstrations or protesting or other activities” on land near the lake(2). If anyone breaks this injunction they could spend five years in prison.

The act, parliament was told, was meant to protect women from stalkers. But as soon as it came onto the statute books, it was used to stop peaceful protest. To obtain an injunction, a company needs to show only that someone feels “alarmed or distressed” by the protesters, a requirement so vague that it can mean almost anything. Was this an accident of sloppy drafting? No. Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, the solicitor who specialises in using this law against protesters, boasts that his company “assisted in the drafting of the … Protection from Harassment Act 1997″. In 2005 parliament was duped again, when a new clause, undebated in either chamber, was slipped into the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. It peps up the 1997 act, which can now be used to ban protest of any kind.

by George Monbiot

BISH! Church leaders blast the 'immoral' Government BASH! They accuse Labour of betraying Britain's poor BOSH! Furious Brown hits back ..

Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, claimed ministers had betrayed the poor with broken promises. He added: "While the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer.

"When a big bank or car company goes bankrupt, it gets bailed out, but no one seems to be bailing out the ordinary people who are losing their jobs."

from Mirror.co.uk

PR supremo Stephen Carter is appointed to key No 10 role by leader who spurned spin

Mr Carter was reputed to be earning £500,000. At Downing Street he will be paid the top salary available for a special adviser — £137,000. However, he can reasonably expect compensation for whatever short-term salary reduction he suffers when he returns to business with the title of Principal Special Adviser in No 10 on his CV.

from TimesOnline

Gordon Brown invites you to 'Ask The PM'

Gordon Brown launches the UK politics YouTube channel

Tesco in ‘mind-boggling’ grab for shop space

TESCO snapped up half of all the new shopping space in Britain this year (2006) once store closures were taken into account, according to data obtained by The Sunday Times.

from TimesOnline

Tesco pulls out of eco-towns project at Hanley Grange

The supermarket chain, which owns 80 per cent of the land, was providing most of the financial backing for an eco-town with 7,000 homes at Hanley Grange, near Cambridge. But the project has been heavily opposed by local campaigners and all the surrounding councils. Yesterday Tesco pulled the plug.

from TimesOnline

Spy drone 'Predator,' reflects what US has become

from the Narcosphere

Armchair pilots striking Afghanistan by remote control

"Seeing bad guys on the screen and watching them possibly get dispatched, and then going down to the Taco Bell for lunch, it's kind of surreal," says Captain Matt Dean.

from CNN.com

The way the brain buys

The area immediately inside the entrance of a supermarket is known as the “decompression zone”. People need to slow down and take stock of the surroundings, even if they are regulars. In sales terms this area is a bit of a loss, so it tends to be used more for promotion. Even the multi-packs of beer piled up here are designed more to hint at bargains within than to be lugged round the aisles. Sound familiar?

from the Economist

Georgia’s Saakashvili nervously giggles to Putin’s intention to hang him by the balls

“I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Putin said. “Hang him?” Sarkozy asked. “Why not?” Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

from pravda

Saakashvili eats his tie

Blind man navigates obstacle course using 'blindsight'

A man who was left completely blind by multiple strokes has been able to navigate an obstacle course using only his "sense" of where hazards lie. Brain scans showed that he could recognise expressions including fear, anger and joy in other people. However, he is totally blind and normally walks using a stick to alert himself to objects in his path. To test the extend of his blindsight, scientists constructed an obstacle course made up of boxes and chairs arranged in a random pattern. Not only was he able to safely manoeuvre the course he did not bump into a single box or chair.

from the Telegraph

Humans are still evolving - and it's happening faster than ever

Humans are evolving more quickly than at any time in history, researchers say. In the past 5,000 years, humans have evolved up to 100 times more quickly than any time since the split with the ancestors of modern chimpanzees 6m years ago, a team from the University of Wisconsin found.

from the Guardian

The Day the Door to China Opened Wide

In January 1979, Deng made his historic trip to the United States, which began with a private dinner at Brzezinski's house and climaxed with the most sought-after state dinner of the Carter years. At Brzezinski's house, Deng spoke of his dreams for a China he knew he would not live to see. He believed China could leapfrog the years in which the world had passed it by, but only with American support. He was ready to cooperate on containing the Soviet Union, even agreeing to the installation of secret American intelligence listening posts along the Chinese border to track Soviet missiles. He accurately foresaw a vast exchange of students, modern technology and trade. More than any American official, he anticipated what the opening to China would accomplish.


from the Washington Post

They're Who You Call When Pirates Strike

Piracy has reportedly been on the rise this year, particularly in the Gulf of Aden, near Somalia. Negotiators at Corporate Risk have resolved more than 465 kidnappings, extortions and illegal detentions around the world since 1993, McWeeney said...

From Washington Post

Vote for us or else!

For a few precious hours there was a sense of jubilation and victory on Sark yesterday as, on a bright blue day, the tiny Channel island celebrated its first democratic election after 150 years of feudal rule.

But joy turned to despair for many, and uncertainty for all, when the Barclay brothers, owners of the Telegraph and the Ritz hotel, reacted to their disappointment at failing to get their chosen candidates elected by announcing they were ceasing their multimillion-pound operation on the island and laying off 140 workers.

Read at The Guardian or audio

Super Cannes - by J.G. Ballard

"Civility and polity were designed into Eden-Olympia, in the same way mathematics, aesthetics and an entire geopolitical world-view were designed into the Parthenon and the Boeing 747. Representative democracy had been replaced by the surveillance camera and the private police force."

Read review from Spikemagazine.com

Jacqui to go? Yes, prime minister

“It’s not his proper job to call in the police – it’s not what we ask officials to do,” says Sir Antony. “This has political fingerprints all over it. There are so many calls for the police to investigate real crime – yet they send 20 officers to arrest a Tory frontbencher! Is it because officials are terrified of Gordon Brown? Did this start with the prime minister’s pique over the leaks?”

by Sue Cameron - FT.com