Patrick Cockburn: The attempt to topple President Assad has failed - Commentators - Opinion Severe economic sanctions were slapped on Syria's already faltering economy. Every day brought news of fresh pressure on Assad and the momentum seemed to build inexorably for a change of rule in Damascus. It has not happened. Syria will not be like Libya. The latest international action has been an EU ban on Assad's wife, Asma, and his mother travelling to EU countries (though, as a UK citizen, Asma can still travel to Britain). As damp squibs go, this is of the dampest. "Nobody is discussing military operations," the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said last week. What went wrong for the advocates of regime change? This has been the experience of revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries throughout the ages. Conditions are very different in Syria. In the second half of last year Assad appeared to be facing an all-powerful international coalition. The Syrian protesters did everything they could to give the impression that what happened in Libya could be repeated in Syria.
Google Removes 1 Million Infringing Links Monthly | Threat Level Each month, Google removes more than 1 million links to infringing content such as movies, video games, music and software from its search results — with about half of those requests for removal last month coming from Microsoft. The search and advertising giant revealed the data Thursday as it released sortable analytics on the massive number of copyright takedown requests it receives — adding to its already existing data on the number of times governments ask for users’ personal data. The Mountain View, California-based company removes links to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA requires search engines to remove links to infringing content at a rights holder’s request or else face liability for copyright infringement itself. Google said it complies with about 97 percent of requests, which are submitted via an online form and usually approved via a Google algorithm. Removal of links has become big business, as rights holders often farm out such duties.
Syria After the Massacre Damascus Parts of Syria are convulsed by civil war, while in other areas life continues almost as normal. At the same moment as more than 30 children had their throats cut and dozens of civilians were killed by shelling in Houla in central Syria on Friday, people in Damascus were picnicking on the slopes of Mount Qassioun, overlooking the capital. Syria yesterday denied that its forces had carried out the massacre of at least 116 people including dozens of children in Houla, claiming that the slaughter was the work of rebels. But it did not give a detailed account of what had happened that would convincingly refute allegations by insurgents, largely supported by UN monitors, that military units and militia men loyal to the government had carried out the killings. Sources in Damascus told me yesterday that they believed the attack had been carried out by regime forces in revenge for the killing of a government informant in the nearby Alawite village of Kabou a month earlier. A Long War Looms
Quebec Erupts 100. One hundred days have now passed since the “Printemps Érable” (“Maple Spring”)began in February 2012. Students have been protesting on the streets of Montreal each night against announced increases in their tuition fees, ordered by government of Jean Charest, the Canadian province’s premier. Last week a special bill was passed following a debate that lasted some 21 hours. The bill has drawn the ire of the highly unionised workers of Quebec, helping spread the protests far beyond just the student world. This law was expected to bring order, but it is about to become the very purpose of the protests. The day after the law was enacted, a night demonstration was declared illegal by the Montreal police just 10 minutes after it began. Brutality The current upheaval and the authorities response to it are unprecedented in an ordinarily calm and peaceful country. Avis donné à la foule : #manifestation illégale, les gens doivent quitter immédiatement. Truncheon law Global reach
Edzard Ernst: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Amongst the many misleading arguments, which are frequently used to promote useless treatments, this one occupies a prominent place. When I first heard it, I was impressed: it is succinct and elegant. In fact, it is also entirely logical: the absence of evidence for extra-terrestrial life represents no evidence that such life does not exist; just because you have not seen someone being struck by lightning does not mean that lightening does not hit people; you may never have seen the Northern Lights, yet they do exist. If the argument is correct, how can it be simultaneously misleading? In alternative medicine, this argument is used to silence doubters and critics. This argument can appear so compelling that it is easy to forget why it is misleading. Not so in alternative medicine! Edzard Ernst is a professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter.
It starts in Quebec: Our revolution of love, hope and community In almost every report on the social movement now sweeping Quebec, including my own, words like conflict, crisis and stand-off figure prominently. Anger is omnipresent. The anger of protesters, the anger of government, the anger of those supposedly inconvenienced. Pundits scream about mob rule, anarchy in the streets and the dissolution of society as we know it. Don't get me wrong, there is anger, present of course. As I write these words there are demonstrations going on in every neighborhood of Montreal. The prevailing question in the media is, how do we end this? As this movement goes on, and grows by leaps and bounds, it is increasingly clear that it is not a movement of anger, of rage or of hate. Perhaps the most lasting effect of this movement will be to build stronger, more connected communities. This is what Charest is afraid of. The most honest reason which can be given for why people are in the street is the simplest. We walk past each other every day, but we do not smile.
Is there Nothing Wrong with Being Religious? March 17, 2012 It feels unnatural to be reading philosopher Alain de Botton’s new book, Religion for Atheists. His title doesn’t have a ghost of a chance with me. Keeping up with scientific accounts of religion myself, I don’t need reminding that De Botton is expressing a theory that certain forms of religious life meet human needs -- the aesthetics, the communal practices, the rites of passage, the psychologies of comfort, etc. Maybe that theory is right. What disappoints me is the way that De Botton makes a huge leap from a thin theory about how religion appeals to people to an overblown claim that all people need some religion. * There’s Nothing Wrong With Religion * If De Botton is right that even atheists need religion, then there can’t be anything *that* wrong with religion. I’m mildly interested, to be sure, in the way that De Botton is surveying a few rationales for religious humanism. Consider how De Botton goes about calling for more religion in everyone’s lives. Comments:
Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin | Technology The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world". "I am more worried than I have been in the past," he said. "It's scary." The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms. Revealed: US and China's cyber war gamesWashington's plan to beat web censorsChina struggle to regain control of the internetHow open is your internet? "There's a lot to be lost," he said.
Laurie Penny: Don't listen to what G4S say. Look at what they do - Commentators - Opinion I mention all this because G4S will shortly be patrolling the London Olympics with more than 10,000 private security agents. The British-based company, billing itself as the "world's leading international security solutions group", will be the main provider of all manner of surveillance services to the Games, which will all cost hundreds of millions to the British taxpayer – a bill which has tripled from original estimations. Questions are being asked in Parliament about G4S's human rights record, but the biggest question has yet to be raised: are we really happy for global security, from prisons to police, to be in the hands of private firms that turn immense profits from the business of physical enforcement and are accountable almost exclusively to their shareholders? The first thing you need to know about G4S is that it's enormous. This is the new face of the global for-profit security business. Technically, we are not allowed to call these people mercenaries.
Amnesty International seeks George W. Bush's arrest - Tim Mak The human rights group Amnesty International called on Canadian authorities Wednesday to arrest former President George W. Bush when he attends an economic summit in the province of British Columbia next week. The group accused Bush of “responsibility for crimes under international law including torture.” Continue Reading Amnesty International asked that Canada either prosecute or extradite Bush for violations that they allege took place during the CIA’s secret detention program between 2002 and 2009. “Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture,” Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement. The Canadian government responded to the request with critical words for Amnesty International. “I cannot comment on individual cases… that said, Amnesty International cherry picks cases to publicize based on ideology.
Clive Thompson on How Tweets and Texts Nurture In-Depth Analysis | Wired Magazine Illustration: Thomas Ng We’re often told that the Internet has destroyed people’s patience for long, well-thought-out arguments. After all, the ascendant discussions of our day are text messages, tweets, and status updates. The popularity of this endless fire hose of teensy utterances means we’ve lost our appetite for consuming—and creating—slower, reasoned contemplation. Right? I’m not so sure. When something newsworthy happens today—Brett Favre losing to the Jets, news of a new iPhone, a Brazilian election runoff—you get a sudden blizzard of status updates. The long take is the opposite: It’s a deeply considered report and analysis, and it often takes weeks, months, or years to produce. The long take also thrives on the long tail. The real loser here is the middle take. This trend has already changed blogging. “I save the little stuff for Twitter and blog only when I have something big to say,” as blogger Anil Dash put it. Which, despite reports to the contrary, we are.