Scarborough Fair – Just when you’ve seen it all

I’m learning Scarborough Fair right now on the guitar and i stumbled across this rendition. After watching this video it’s hard to carry on playing!

If it doesn’t come up, go here:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=WYHDQHQDS-4&feature=related

Here’s a live version of Simon and Garfunkel playing with Andy Williams. Simply brilliant.

Government black boxes will ‘collect every email’

Government black boxes will ‘collect every email’
Home Office says all data from web could be stored in giant government database

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Wednesday, 5 November 2008

Internet “black boxes” will be used to collect every email and web visit in the UK under the Government’s plans for a giant “big brother” database, The Independent has learnt.

Home Office officials have told senior figures from the internet and telecommunications industries that the “black box” technology could automatically retain and store raw data from the web before transferring it to a giant central database controlled by the Government.

Plans to create a database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK have provoked a huge public outcry. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, described it as “step too far” and the Government’s own terrorism watchdog said that as a “raw idea” it was “awful”.

Nevertheless, ministers have said they are committed to consulting on the new Communications Data Bill early in the new year. News that the Government is already preparing the ground by trying to allay the concerns of the internet industry is bound to raise suspicions about ministers’ true intentions. Further details of the database emerged on Monday at a meeting of internet service providers (ISPs) in London where representatives from BT, AOL Europe, O2 and BSkyB were given a PowerPoint presentation of the issues and the technology surrounding the Government’s Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the name given by the Home Office to the database proposal.

Whitehall experts working on the IMP unit told the meeting the security and intelligence agencies wanted to use the stored data to help fight serious crime and terrorism, and said the technology would allow them to create greater “capacity” to monitor all communication traffic on the internet. The “black boxes” are an attractive option for the internet industry because they would be secure and not require any direct input from the ISPs.

During the meeting Whitehall officials also tried to reassure the industry by suggesting that many smaller ISPs would be unaffected by the “black boxes” as these would be installed upstream on the network and hinted that all costs would be met by the Government.

“It was clear the ‘back box’ is the technology the Government will use to hold all the data. But what isn’t clear is what the Home Secretary, GCHQ and the security services intend to do with all this information in the future,” said a source close to the meeting.

He added: “They said they only wanted to return to a position they were in before the emergence of internet communication, when they were able to monitor all correspondence with a police suspect. The difference here is they will be in a much better position to spy on many more people on the basis of their internet behaviour. Also there’s a grey area between what is content and what is traffic. Is what is said in a chat room content or just traffic?”

Ministers say plans for the database have not been confirmed, and that it is not their intention to introduce monitoring or storage equipment that will check or hold the content of emails or phonecalls on the traffic.

A spokesman for the Home Office said that Monday’s meeting provided a “chance to engage with small communication service providers” ahead of the formal public consultation next year. He added: “We need to work closely with the internet service providers and the communication service providers. The meeting was to show the top-line challenges faced in the future. We are public about the IMP, but we are still working out the detail. There will a consultation on the Communications Data Bill early next year.”

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association said the organisation was pleased the Home Office had addressed its members and was keen to continue dialogue while awaiting a formal consultation.

Database plans were first announced by the Prime Minister in February. It is not clear where the records will be held but GCHQ may eventually be the project’s home.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/government-black-boxes-will-collect-every-email-992268.html

1984 – Communication Sypware

The future was here! These wonderful programs monitor our communications.

Eschelon

Eschelon was created during the cold war with Russia in the 1960s. It is an “interceptor” software that is “capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, faxes, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks and microwave links. “

Reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s, today ECHELON is believed to search also for hints of terrorist plots, drug-dealers’ plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence. But some critics, including the European Union committee that commissioned the EU report, claim the system is also being used for large-scale commercial theft, inter-nation economic espionage and invasion of privacy.

British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand Journalist Nicky Hager asserted in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.[6]

In 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy.

The proposed U.S.-only “Total Information Awareness” program relied on technology similar to that supposedly used by ECHELON, and is believed to have been intended to integrate the extensive sources it is legally permitted to survey domestically with the “taps” already supposedly compiled by ECHELON. It was canceled by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It was later discovered in 2005 that the CIA was developing a data mining program with similar aims called “Tangram.” A United States Air Force procurement document stated that the system will build on work by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies “developing systems, tools and algorithms to detect international terrorist activities and planned events” which have developed “methods of … efficiently searching large data stores for evidence of known (terrorist) behaviors.”[7] “
[http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Echelon]

Total Information Awareness

The name was later changed to Terrorism Information Awareness before it was “disbanded.” There were two bones of contention:

“The first involved the Director of IAO, Dr. John M. Poindexter. Poindexter, a retired Admiral, was, until that time, perhaps most well-known for his alleged role in the Iran-contra scandal during the Reagan Administration. His involvement with the program caused many in the civil liberties community to question the true motives behind TIA.[11] The second source of contention involved TIA’s original logo, which depicted an “all-seeing” eye atop of a pyramid looking down over the globe, accompanied by the Latin phrase scientia est potentia (knowledge is power). Although DARPA eventually removed the logo from its website, it left a lasting impression.”
[http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/TIA]

Carnivore

“Carnivore is a system implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is analogous to wiretapping, except in this case, e-mail and other communications are being tapped instead of telephone conversations. Carnivore is a customizable packet sniffer that can monitor all of a target user’s Internet traffic. It is a form of policeware. Carnivore was implemented during the Clinton administration with the approval of Attorney General Janet Reno. U.S. government officials have neither confirmed nor denied much about the physical or logical workings of Carnivore, but there are some facts that are generally agreed upon.”
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_program]

Policeware

“Policeware is software designed to police citizens by monitoring discussion and interaction of its citizens. Within the U.S., Carnivore was a first incarnation of secretly installed e-mail monitoring software installed in Internet service providers’ networks to log computer communication, including transmitted e-mails. Magic Lantern is another such application, this time running in a targeted computer in a trojan style and performing keystroke logging. Oasis, software developed by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is designed for converting intercepted audio into searchable text. CIPAV, deployed by FBI, is a spyware/trojan allegedly designed for identification of a computer.”
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policeware]

List of Key Carnivor and Eschelon words
[http://www.rense.com/general66/scgh.htm]

Weather Comparison

All my family are scattered to the four corners of the earth. This is the weather we’ll be experiencing this week. (This is the weather forecast for the 1st week of November).

Vancouver, Canada

London, England

Wellington, New Zealand

Tokyo, Japan

Rumba 5 Cuban Rock Ballroom Dance

My brother is going to Cuba this month and now i know why! This has got to be one of the most raunchiest forms of ballroom dance i’ve seen so far for basic moves.

English Language Fun

I feel sorry for my students who are trying to learn this crazy language. Here’s some examples of how messed up the language can get.

• The bandage was wound around the wound.
• The farm was used to produce produce.
• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse
• We must polish the Polish furniture.
• He could lead if he would get the lead out.
• The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
• Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
• A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
• When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
• I did not object to the object.
• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
• There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
• They were too close to the door to close it.
• The buck does funny things when the does are present.
• A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
• To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
• After a number of injections my jaw got number.
• Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?