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YouTube Partially Unblocked in China-> 1

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes "After China unblocked certain sensitive keywords in search engine baidy.com last week, YouTube is now partially, quietly unblocked (Google Translate.) Users inside China can, without bypassing the Great Firewall, visit the site, search for sensitive keywords, and see uncensored results and comments. The videos themselves, including those not related to politics, remain blocked, however. Given that the Chinese government likes to make major changes in gradual, experimental steps, it is unclear what this round of Internet loosening will lead to eventually. At the meantime, many netizens in the country express their welcome of the moves as a good start through microblogging."
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Censorship

As many as one in four websites may be blocked in Iran->

Submitted by
hugheseyau
hugheseyau writes ""Internet usage in the Islamic Republic of Iran has increased significantly since the country's first Internet link went live in 1993, second only now to Israel when comparing the percentage of the population with Internet access in the Middle East. This presents a problem for a regime with a well documented history of press censorship as many users see the Internet as an opportunity to have their voices heard outside the reach of the Iranian Government. In response, in 2006 the Iranian Government began to dramatically increase its censorship of the Internet In Iran.

This article examines the state of Internet Censorship in Iran in 2012 by conducting a survey to determine whether top sites across all categories of the Internet are censored in Iran. The results of this survey were quite shocking, revealing a large percentage of websites are blocked in Iran""
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Congress Capitulates to TSA; refuses to let Bruce Schneier testify->

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes "Following up on the earlier Slashdot story "Congress Wants Your TSA Stories" (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/03/23/2312228/congress-wants-your-tsa-stories), earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing titled 'TSA Oversight Part III: Effective Security or Security Theater?' that was streamed line by CSPAN (http://www.c-span.org/Events/House-Hearing-Examines-TSA-Security-Initiatives/10737429331-1/).

In a blog update (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/congressional_t.html), Bruce Schneider says that "at the request of the TSA" he was removed from the witness list.

Bruce also said "it's pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress. They want to control the story, and it's easier for them to do that if I'm not sitting next to them pointing out all the holes in their position. Unfortunately, the committee went along with them.""
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Hardware

Aeronautical 3D Printing: Design, Print, Fly->

Submitted by jcho5
jcho5 writes "Last August, a team of aeronautical engineers at the University of Southampton designed, built, and successfully flew a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) plane within seven days using 3D printing technology. In the video capturing the flight, a small airplane is darted into a vast blue horizon off the platform of a slingshot-mechanism, and immediately the shrill of the plane’s electrically-powered engine drowns out the static caused by wind. The roaring abates as the airplane gets smaller and smaller on the screen.

The goal of the project was to show how 3D printing would revolutionize aeronautical manufacturing. With the help of 3T RPD, a 3D printing firm in the UK, the engineers at Southampton were able to produce a plane using three steps—draw, print, fly; they drew the design on a computer CAD program, printed the parts of the UAV out of hard nylon, snap-jointed the pieces together, and watched the design—drawn only five days prior—rip through the skies.

The question is why aren’t bigger manufacturers investing in this technology? Well, it turns out they are. Companies like Boeing, one of the world’s largest airplane manufacturers, and NASA are already implementing 3D printing technology into their designs. The Boeing Phantom Ray—an unmanned combat air vehicle—for example, is part of the company’s efforts to utilize 3D printing.

At the beginning of the 20th century, industrialization and assembly lines provided every middle-class American the means to own a Ford Model T. Would it be going too far to say that 3D printing will revolutionize aircraft manufacturing in a similar way?"
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Censorship

China Unblocks Sensitive Keywords->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes "Reports from oversea (in Chinese) and Hongkong-based Chinese media report that China appears to have unblocked several sensitive political keywords. Using Baidu.com the country's leading search engine, users within the mainland border find, in Chinese, uncensored web page links and images using keywords like Tiananmen and "June 4". (Readers can click on the first one to view the images.) Given that the unblocking of these most sensitive keywords (of all) comes one week after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao publicly denounced left-wing leader Bo Xilai's movement of "striking down the ganster while reviving the red culture" as going down the path of Cultural Revolution, it could signal the silent start of a major political change. Separately, the Financial Times reports that the Premier has proposed the rehabilitation and re-evaluation of the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, but he met strong resistance from the left-wing fraction led by Bo. Bo has been sacked following the denouncement. Also the linked sites of the search result appear still being blocked and that other keywords, such as "Dalai Lama", are still being censored."
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Comment: Re:comparative position? (Score 1) 294

by ItalianScallion (#39407475) Attached to: Mammoth "Metal Moles" Tunnel Deep Beneath London

Actually, it isn't. In 1844, in the interests of segregating passenger train and road traffic, a rail tunnel was built under the roadbed of Atlantic Avenue, in what was then the independent city of Brooklyn, New York. There is a reply to the OP suggesting that Liverpool has some earlier tunnels than this, but in any case, it would seem that Brooklyn significantly predates the London underground train system.

Comment: Re:Not credible (Score 2) 249

by ItalianScallion (#38541240) Attached to: New Group Paves Way For 2012 Online Primary

Americans Elect's board is primarily staffed by the far right. This is simply an effort to split the liberal vote. Go look it up; it's pretty easy to find that Americans Elect's board alone makes it untrustworthy.

actually, this is FUD, and isn't at all correct. the board are political and money people, and of the independent / moderate / better world persuasion.

Peter Ackerman, the chairman and a founder, works on wall street, and also was previously associated with Freedom House, which was started by Eleanor Roosevelt, and which does research and advocacy for human rights and political freedom. He also has co-founded the American Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which "promotes the study and utilization of nonmilitary strategies by civilian-based movements to establish and defend human rights, social justice and democracy".

I'm not sure where you get far right and untrustworthy out of that, but if you mean that Americans Elect are trying to provide a voice that isn't of and filtered by the existing two dysfunctional self interested politics parties, i'm all for that kind of untrustworthy.

Comment: Re:Good in theory (Score 2) 249

by ItalianScallion (#38540836) Attached to: New Group Paves Way For 2012 Online Primary

mod score 5. really?

you are willing to sound off in a hugely popular internet forum currently discussing politics... about how the internet is irrelevant to politics?
(and then you go on to basically say that all modern politics are programmed, and way right wing, and suck, anyway.)

i guess you won't be happy till it is all overthrown, so why even bother with the curmudgeonly (and not very useful) postings...

moderators, what exactly were you thinking w the mod points on this guy?

Today, THREE WINOS from DETROIT sold me a framed photo of TAB HUNTER before his MAKEOVER!