Vivat Libertas

Chevron: Clean Up Ecuador

United Nations News Centre - Israel subjecting Palestinian prisoners to 'abusive' detention, interrogation – UN committee Business as usual, really. I'm originally from Israel, as are my family. Speaking honestly for once, it makes me want to scream at the bastards in charge to stop needlessly abusing people, to actually treat them as their equals for once and to respect their basic human rights instead of trampling all over them for the sake of years of hate, but I live so stupidly far away (a 5-hour plane trip) and besides, I have a shitty choice in allies. Because of my nationality, I can choose between associating myself with people who adore Israel (so won't try and kill me) but who are generally pretty racist and conservative, or with people who generally share my views on everything else but also believe that I am worthless and have no right to exist because I was born on one side of an arbitrary border.

Thai policeman charged over trafficking of Rohingya refugee | Bangkok Post: news

Anonymous vs. Los Zetas: The Revenge of the Hacktivists

allAfrica.com: Gambia: CCPC Holds Discussion On Child Abuse, Others

Istanbul Police Launches Investigation on Gezi Tweets - Bianet / English - Bianet

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Al-Shabaab Abducting Children From Central Somalia

Cyberattacks Shut Down Major Korean Websites : Major websites in both North and South Korea are under a series of cyberattacks after international hacking group Anonymous warned last week it planned to disclose North Korea’s military documents today. The targeted state-run North Korean websites Rodong Sinmun, Korea Central News Agency and Air...

WRS | Switzerland a base for human trafficking

Recognizing the Signs | Polaris Project | Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery

NSA: If Your Data Is Encrypted, You Might Be Evil, So We'll Keep It Until We're Sure

UN Takes on Disarmament’s Next Frontier: Killer Robots | The Nation

A 'dark day' for freedom of expression in Russia | Amnesty International Why, universe? Why?

Anonymous Leaks Documents & E-mails Used by NSA for PRISM These are currently stored on thedocs.hostzi.com . Get 'em while they're hot!

United Nations News Centre - Independent UN rights expert urges more clarity on US counter-terrorism policies

A Magdalene Laundry survivor speaks out This article is drippingly sentimental and has resemblances to misery lit. Get past that and the content is terrifying and informative.

Utah regulators keep Cedar City girls' home open despite charges of rape, sexual abuse Oh, brilliant.

Every now and again, I see some post on the internet about how women are all crazy and irrational and oversensitive - normally by a man, though sometimes by women too. It pisses me off for three main reasons: firstly, it silences women by implying that we have nothing of value to say. As a woman who has spent my life studying, I'd at least like a fair contest before men (because it's always men) decide that whatever comes out of my mouth is useless crap. And by fair contest, I mean one where I'm not shouted down and threatened with physical assault, rape and murder unless I shut up. Secondly, it completely ignores the fact that if women are irrational, everyone  is irrational. I'm not saying this out of spite, I'm saying this out of decades of research showing that while humans can and do think rationally, it takes up time, effort and energy and so the brain unconsciously switches to a system that requires less effort, time and conscious thought, and that gives go

6 Horrifying Things About Pork Everyone Should Know | Alternet First of all, I would like to say that I don't post this article as part of any agenda, and secondly, I would like to say that I don't approve of this article's sensationalism; it's written to shock the American middle classes silly and make them feel guilty for a second or two. But despite all that, it makes some good points if you read the text and not the eye-catching, hyperbolic headings, and should worry everyone - meat-eater or not.

Shocking: Rape Is Rampant in Juvenile Justice System and Most Often Perpetrated by Staff | Alternet

The Rant Mistress: 100 years on from Emily Davison... : So, it has been 100 years since Emily Davison died after invading the track at Epsom's Derby Day. She has become a feminist icon, a ... This is a sadly brilliant post.

In this day and age when many people are drugged up and lying to themselves just to have the appearance of happiness, idleness seems to have become some kind of a sin. You're always expected to be up being sociable, going out, and slaving away for five days a week to make some rich fuck even richer. Now, for some reason you're supposed to be happy that you took that worthless degree to eke out four decades working at various insurance companies instead of getting a degree in physics or spending the best part of your life researching the influence of Ovid on medieval French literature or something, anything else that would actually make you happy and fulfilled because people convinced you that there wasn't enough money in it. Of course, they forgot to mention that spending four decades making money at a job you hate drives you insane, but hey, capitalism! Anyway, I'm getting off-topic and talking far too much about my not-so-veiled fear of actually contributing t

CyberGuerrilla soApboX » Redhack explanation: Redhack a member of an activist who was killed in #Istanbul! The actual post itself is not very well translated, so scroll down to the comments section and read the first comment for a better translation.

Have you ever wished you could control a space telescope? Stupid question; of course  you have. Well, maybe just me - but I'm sure at least one other person in the world does, otherwise we wouldn't have ARKYD! You might ask what ARKYD actually is - so I'll try and tell you. Funded by Planetary Resources , a company hoping to mine asteroids in space, it's a fast, light, efficient and relatively high-resolution space telescope. Now, that would be awesome enough in itself for me, because I'm a space nerd. What makes it even more awesome is that its aim is to be the first publicly accessible space telescope, with classrooms, scientists, researchers and even a wastrel like me  all getting a say in what the telescope does, where to point it, and who takes the pictures. In short, science controlled by the public. This is fantastic on so many different levels: firstly, it opens up knowledge. As a nerd, I always have trouble learning more because I come up against

CyberGuerrilla soApboX » Anonymous Operations Turkey democracy expects your help

Hacker group Anonymous warns Japan on whaling | The Japan Times

Let's get one thing straight now, because I don't think people really understand: Complaining on the internet is not activism. This is old news by now to any actual activist (not that I claim to be one, I just met quite a few), but not so much to a lot of non-activists who think that complaining on social media actually makes a goddamn bit of difference. Now, when it comes to making a difference in the world, I'm not picky. I accept any nonviolent method, from direct action to humour to the arts to rallies to letter-writing to blogging and spreading the word online. I even count e-petitions, which many activists don't, because while on they're own they're about as effective as pissing on a forest fire they're still something , and when you're fighting governments, corporations and intangible oppressive structures that have existed for at least a couple of centuries if not more, I don't believe you can afford to be particularly choosy. All of