cats, cat signals, games, internet freedom

Sunday, September 30, 2012

5 High-Tech Toys for Your Geeky Cat

5 High-Tech Toys for Your Geeky Cat: "Does your cat spend time home alone? We have some high-tech solutions to help keep him amused while you’re out, plus a few ways to enjoy some quality time with kitty when you’re in. From remote-controlled rodents to toys with laser beams, these five options will keep your kitty happy for hours — or as long as the batteries last."


I'd like any of these!!





Saturday, September 29, 2012

Endangered Snow Leopard Twins Make Public Debut



Endangered Snow Leopard Twins Make Public Debut





Friday, September 28, 2012

Study: Estonia, US have most Internet freedom

Study: Estonia, US have most Internet freedom
Network World
A number of governments in the Middle East have restricted Internet freedom since the Arab Spring movement that began in late 2010, she said. "They saw what kind of consequences can happen when people organize with social media," Kelly said. 

A little freedom is a dangerous thing?





Thursday, September 27, 2012

Universal Face Workstation: FBI to give facial-recognition software to law enforcement.

Universal Face Workstation: FBI to give facial-recognition software to law enforcement.: " In a blog post earlier this month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was concerned that the “FBI wants to be able to search and identify people in photos of crowds and in pictures posted on social media sites—even if the people in those photos haven’t been arrested for or even suspected of a crime.” This sentiment was echoed in July by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., during a hearing at the Senate judiciary committee’s subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law. Franken said that he feared the FBI’s technology “could be abused to not only identify protesters at political events and rallies, but to target them for selective jailing and prosecution, stifling their First Amendment rights.” (The same fears punctuated the recent hysteria about TrapWire, which is not actually facial recognition software, contrary to widely published claims.) . . ."

Even if the people in those photos haven’t been arrested for or even suspected of a crimeTarget them for selective jailing and prosecution, stifling their First Amendment rights?

Remember this is Obama's FBI when you vote in November! Otherwise, Big Brother cometh.




Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Members of Congress Who Reauthorized Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Don't Understand What It Does

House of Representatives--pathetic knuckleheads!! Ignorance is NOT bliss--

Members of Congress Who Reauthorized Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Don't Understand What It Does | Mother Jones: "Congress doesn't really understand what it's doing. Specifically, the House members who voted 301-118 on Wednesday to reauthorize the vast spying powers in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (or FISA Amendments Act, and yes, that's really its name) don't seem to understand what they were doing. The same thing happened in 2008, when Congress first voted to retroactively legalize warrantless wiretapping. Then, as now, supporters of the legislation falsely insisted that it does not collect the communications of American citizens. "





Tuesday, September 25, 2012

IN UR REALITY

IN UR REALITY  source: http://xkcd.com/262/




























Monday, September 24, 2012

Internet freedom--what does that mean?

What does Internet Freedom mean?--

Republicans embrace Internet freedom, but what does that mean? - latimes.com: "Wireless broadband is a good example of that threat. With much less capacity than wired networks, wireless carriers have flatly blocked applications (such as Sling's app for remote TV viewing), or charged more for the right to use them (such as Apple's FaceTime video calling app). That's why an alternative "Declaration of Internet Freedom," which has attracted the support of left-leaning groups around the globe, implicitly backs regulations like the FCC's Net neutrality rules. From this faction's perspective, it's crucial to "keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate." In sum, we all seem to agree that the freedom to innovate online is a really good thing. But there's a sharp divergence in opinion over how to preserve that liberty."



Sunday, September 23, 2012

Romney-Ryan support Internet Freedom

Romney-Ryan ticket wants to keep government regulators off the Internet - Conservative News, Views & Books: "Romney, Ryan oppose SOPA--Romney and Ryan are also strongly opposed to SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, a highly controversial legislative package nominally intended to enhance copyright protections for material distributed online. SOPA caused a massive outcry across the Internet, due to its highly intrusive provisions that would have compromised both personal privacy and electronic commerce."

Now it’s time for President Obama and Gov. Romney to ratify their support for Internet freedom by signing the Declaration of Internet Freedom!



Saturday, September 22, 2012

FCC --Get Your Hands Off the Internet!

The FCC Scores a Hat Trick of Errors on Internet Regulation - Forbes: "Chairman Genachowski and his colleagues are right to believe that the Internet is the future of global communications, and that the U.S.’s unparalleled success in inventing, deploying, and exploiting its still untapped capabilities is our greatest source of competitive advantage. But the Chairman and his colleagues also believe that unless the FCC starts storming the beaches of the Internet, regulatory guns blazing, all will be lost. Quite the contrary.  We have arrived at the golden age of communication without the FCC’s help—indeed, because of the wisdom of Congress reflected in the 1996 Communications Acts–a bi-partisan decision to keep the agency from tampering with a new technological frontier.The results speak for themselves. Please, FCC, we’re begging you.   Go help someone else for a change."

Hands off FCC!



Thursday, September 20, 2012

Tech Giants Form Internet Freedom Lobby to Counter MPAA, RIAA Clout

About time--fight fire with fire!!--

Tech Giants Form Internet-Freedom Lobby to Counter MPAA, RIAA Clout
Wired (blog)
Another lobbying group hit Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. But think again before you start screaming that it's just another lobby representing the 1%. The InternetAssociation, backed by behemoths Amazon, Google, Facebook and others — 14 groups in all ...

Wired (blog)

US Response to Anti-Muslim Video Undermines Internet Freedom
World Politics Review
It also has troubling implications for the State Department's initiative in defense of Internet freedomlaunched in January 2010. In announcing that well-intentioned effort, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed that President Barack Obama ...

Senate Panel Approves Internet Freedom Resolution
National Journal
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution calling on the United States to prevent the United Nations from having a greater role in governing theInternet. The nonbinding resolution, which mirrors one passed ...

The Internet Association Starts Cracking the Whip
E-Commerce Times
The Internet Association is K Street's newest lobbying firm, representing a coalition of 14 technology-focused companies in areas such as Internet freedom and fostering innovation. One of its stated goals is to protect users, but as analyst Rob Enderle ...

Should the Internet be regulated?
China Daily
Could the Internet be totally free and should it be? The recent turmoil in the Arab world caused by a contentious video denigrating Prophet Muhammad shows the United States, which is busy promoting global Internet freedom, has paid a huge price with...

China Daily

Freedom of (cyber) expression
Asianjournal.com
THE INTERNET has become a double-edged sword: it is both a medium for freedom of expression, and a venue for people to propagate, not just false, but also slanderous accusations that cause many forms of distress to the person/institution they are ...

UN chief says anti-Islam filmmaker abused freedom of expression
Chicago Tribune
The film, posted on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims," mocked the Prophet Mohammad and portrayed him as a womanizer and a fool. It sparked days of deadly anti-American violence in many Muslim countries, including an ...

Google, Amazon, Facebook and more confirmed as members of the ...
By James Trew
Citing its three main areas of focus as protecting internet freedom, fostering innovation and economic growth, and empowering users, the Internet Association will represent regulatory and political interests of its member companies, and their ...
Engadget

SIIA Applauds Senate Resolution Against International Internet ...
By Laura Greenback
Giving the U.N. unprecedented power over Internet governance will open the door for repressive regimes to undermine today's reality of Internet freedom. It's no surprise that China and Russia, two countries that have taken extreme steps to ...
SIIA Digital Discourse

DC Lobby Group Internet Association Lists Full Roster Of Tech ...
By Natasha Lomas
It is the Internet's decentralized and open model that has unleashed unprecedented entrepreneurialism, creativity and innovation. Policymakers must understand that the preservation of that freedom is essential to the vitality of the Internet itself ...
TechCrunch





B-Movie Legends Troma Entertainment Releases 150 Films On YouTube

B-Movie Legends Troma Entertainment Releases 150 Films On YouTube | Techdirt: "Kaufman has shown himself to be a filmmaker who truly understands how the internet can help him, rather than be something worth fearing, so it's great to see him fully embrace a platform like YouTube to distribute his flicks, and to not freak out about the fact that people can watch stuff for free (actually, to encourage people to watch stuff for free)."

My kind of guy!







Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Injustice Continues--US DOJ favors the Hollywood Oligopoly over innocent consumers

Injustice Continues as Megaupload User Data Negotiations Go Bust | TorrentFreak: "Months after the Megaupload raids and arrests the fate of the site’s user data is still unclear. The final negotiation round between the involved parties just went bust with Megaupload’s defense team holding the US Attorneys Office responsible. “They favor the Hollywood Oligopoly over innocent consumers who lost access to their data,” Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken told TorrentFreak."

Remember that's Obama's DOJ--now you now why Obama raised all that campaign money from Hollywood moguls .





Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tech Figures Raised At Least $27 Million For Obama Campaign

Forced to buy "influence" to counter government interference and government collusion with Hollywood (see, e.g., Megaupload case), tech has no choice but to join this "racket"--

Tech Figures Raised At Least $27 Million For Obama Campaign: "As new media begins to gain political clout along with financial power, one potential loser is the entertainment world, long a fundraising hub for Democrats. And the two California power bases have dramatically different interests, a narrative that has has been developing with increasing clarity in recent years. Last winter's Capitol Hill showdown over two anti-piracy bills, known as SOPA and PIPA, showed the growing strength of the online platform(ie, Silicon Valley) vis-a-vis the content (Hollywood). Suddenly, as Wikipedia blacked itself out and protests sprang up off-line on both coasts, it seemed that Northern California was asserting itself politically in a new way."





Monday, September 17, 2012

Henri 3, Le Vet (video)


Henri 3, Le Vet (video)

Henri on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/henrifb

Henri's store: http://store.henrilechatnoir.com/

You can pre-order Henri's book at any of the following links and save 20%:http://www.amazon.com/Henri-Chat-Noir-William-Braden/dp/1607745100
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/henri-le-chat-noir-william-braden/1112405069?...
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781607745105
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781607745105-0

Henri 1 and 2 can be seen here: http://www.henrilechatnoir.com/

Music for this video is "The Good and Bad Heart", by Will Braden

Special thanks to the Green Lake Animal Hospital.
http://www.seattlevetassoc.com/greenlake-animal-hospital




Sunday, September 16, 2012

FBI vs Google - The Legal Fight to Unlock Phones

FBI vs. Google: The Legal Fight to Unlock Phones - WSJ.com: "Google has a history of challenging government requests it views as over-reaching. In 2006, Google fought a subpoena from the Department of Justice that sought all the search queries it had received during a two-month period, and all the URLs that it had indexed at that time. Eventually, a judge ruled Google only had to turn over only 50,000 URLs and no search queries."

Who's defending the Constitution--the government (FBI) or Google? Pretty clear don't you think?









Saturday, September 15, 2012

KeepTheWebOpen.com

DECLARATION
We stand for a free and open Internet.
We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
Expression: Don't censor the Internet.
Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don't block new technologies, and don't punish innovators for their users' actions.
Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone's ability to control how their data and devices are used.

KeepTheWebOpen.com: ""I believe that individuals deserve an open and unobstructed Internet, so they are free to innovate, collaborate and participate in building a stronger America and better world. It is crucial that we secure the principles outlined in the Declaration of Internet Freedom and the Digital Citizen's Bill of Rights to defend against those who seek to interfere and disrupt our vibrant online community and the economic growth it supports. I'm proud to sign the Declaration and look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress and Internet users everywhere to develop common-sense policy that ensures future generations enjoy the Internet freedoms we do today." - Congressman Darrell Issa, July 9, 2012"

Yeah Darrell Issa!!








Thursday, September 13, 2012

Meet my cousin, the jaguar



Jaguar Research Center in Pantanal from Ronan Fournier-Christol on Vimeo.
The Pantanal is an amazing area in Brazil, full of wildlife. It is now possible to meet the jaguar from very close…






Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Travel Protocol from Big Brother (video)


Travel Protocol from Big Brother





Monday, September 10, 2012

The 1 Purr-cent: Internet fat cats

The 1 Purr-cent: Internet fat cats - Boing Boing: "“[Cats are] already acting like the ruling class,” he tells me. “They look and act like they own the place, and I wanted to recontextualize some of their facial expressions. If you just take a normal cat’s facial expression and add money and status signifiers, you can really start to pull out the meme, this relationship between the cat and the money.”"

We do "own the place!"





Friday, September 7, 2012

Copyright Bots out of control - Where are the class action Plaintiffs' lawyers?

Copyright abusers are using bots to bring down perfectly legal content--

Copyright infringement claim brings down the Democratic National Convention | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News: "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 law that requires sites like YouTube to promptly respond to accusations of copyright infringement. Today, those accusations are usually leveled by automated bots that scour popular uploaded clips for content that might be uploaded without the owner's permission. Charges are made by computer programs and responded to by computer programs, so content is inappropriately removed all the time. . . . "

Copyright Killbots Strike Again: Official DNC Livestream Taken Down By Just About Every Copyright Holder | Techdirt: "This time, content protection via crawling bots have taken down another approved, perfectly legal stream. The victim this time? The Democratic National Convention's official stream, hosted at YouTube. As Wired reports, if you're looking to catch up on last night's activities, including a speech by Michelle Obama, don't bother: The video, posted by the official YouTube account for the convention, DemConvention2012, was blocked, according to YouTube, for ostensibly infringing on the copyright of . . .  WMG, SME, Associated Press (AP), UMG, Dow Jones, New York Times Digital, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, . . . ."

Where are the class action Plaintiffs' lawyers? The copyright abusers have "deep pockets" and they are abusing DMCA and copyright laws without any consequences whatsoever. Meanwhile, the FTC and FCC  and DOJ are MIA.




Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Why the Web Loves Cats?

The Million Dollar Question: Why Does the Web Love Cats?: "“Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion, which makes them awesome for captioning and anthropomorphization,” says Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network."

I like that part "awesome for captioning and anthropomorphization!”






Monday, September 3, 2012

Internet Cat Video Film Festival at Minneapolis (video)


The winner was revealed live at #catvidfest on August 30th to be “Henri, Paw de Deux.”
Internet Cat Video Film Festival, at Walker Art Center - NYTimes.com: ". . . The crowd — easily double what organizers expected — packed the lawn outside the museum, spilling onto the sidewalks across the street. There were local cat lovers and out-of-state fans of Fluffy; many wore kitty-theme T-shirts or simply ears and whiskers. Some took real cats on leashes. A few dogs came, for irony. . . ."

http://www.walkerart.org/openfield/programs/internet-cat-video-film-festival/

L. A. Times, “Film festival to focus on Internet cat videos,” Deborah Netburn, July 10, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-internet-cat-video-film-festival-20120710,0,1797944.story

Time, Newsfeed, “The Art of the Cat Video,” Olivia B. Waxman, July 11, 2012
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/12/our-nominations-for-the-internet-cat-video-film-festival/#the-art-of-the-cat-video

Wired, Underwire, “First-Ever Internet Cat Video Film Festival Opens for Nominations,” Geeta Dayal, July 11, 2012
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/07/internet-cat-video-festival-announced/

BBC News, “Cat video film festival to celebrate web’s furriest virals,” July 11, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18795123

Kansas City Star, “More than 7,000 enter first cat video festival,” Lisa Gutierrez, July 31, 2012
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/30/3732685/cat-videos-and-images-are-taking.html

MPR News, “Walker to host Cat Video Film Festival, Internet LOLz,” Jon Collins, July 11, 2012
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2012/07/the-walker-is-made-of-cats.shtml

The Guardian, Shortcuts, “The Internet Cat Video Film Festival: my idea of heaven,” Laura Barton, July 12, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts/2012/jul/12/internet-cat-video-film-festival-heaven

Huffington Post, “Internet Cat Video Film Festival To Be Held In Minneapolis,” July 11, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/internet-cat-video-film-festival-minneapolis-_n_1665369.html

Mashable.com, “Lights, Camera, Meow! Cat Videos Get Their First Film Festival,” Emily Price, July 10, 2012
http://mashable.com/2012/07/10/cat-film-festival/

Buzzfeed, “Finally! An Internet Cat Video Film Festival,” Katie Notopoulos, July 10, 2012
http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/finally-an-internet-cat-video-film-festival







Sunday, September 2, 2012

Obama's Unjust Domain Name Seizures

Members of Congress Demand Answers for Homeland Security’s Unjust Domain Name Seizures | Electronic Frontier Foundation: "This morning, a bipartisan group of Representatives, led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), sent a pointed letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano protesting the recent spat of domain name seizures—executed on dubious copyright grounds—that have been censoring websites with no due process. “Our concern centers on your Department’s methods, and the process given, when seizing the domain names of websites whose actions and content are presumed to be lawful, protected speech,” the letter said, which was also signed by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Ut.). The Representatives’ letter focused on the case of former hip hop website Dajaz1. Dajaz1’s domain name had been seized for over a year, despite evidence that the website had lawful material, and that “many of the allegedly infringing links to copyrighted songs, and specifically the links that were the basis of the seizure order, were given to the site’s owner by artists and labels themselves” including Kanye West, Diddy, and a vice president of a major record label."

The same article went on to note:

"It is disturbing enough that DHS has been effectively acting as the tax-funded hired gun of the content industry, but, even more horrifying, it censored the wrong targets, for no good reason, for a year. Dajaz1’s case is far from unique, as we found out earlier this week when a similar situation happened to Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org, the popular sports streaming sites that were seized—again with no due process—back in February 2011."

One thing is clear--the Obama administration has no regard for consitutional rights or due process! One is left to wonder whether the Obama administration is merely acting as the inept goons of Hollywood moguls or has become itself an instrument of evil.

In any event, it is one more reason to NOT vote for Obama.

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