statism watch

Richard Gray, The Telegraph
August 17, 2008

In our ever-growing surveillance society, the average Briton is being recorded 3,000 times a week. Richard Gray reports.

With every telephone call, swipe of a card and click of a mouse, information is being recorded, compiled and stored about Britain’s citizens.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has now uncovered just how much personal data is being collected about individuals by the Government, law enforcement agencies and private companies each day.

In one week, the average person living in Britain has 3,254 pieces of personal information stored about him or her, most of which is kept in databases for years and in some cases indefinitely.

The data include details about shopping habits, mobile phone use, emails, locations during the day, journeys and internet searches.
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George Freidman, Stratfor
August 17, 2008

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted. The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery. This, as we have argued, has opened a window of opportunity for the Russians to reassert their influence in the former Soviet sphere. Moscow did not have to concern itself with the potential response of the United States or Europe; hence, the invasion did not shift the balance of power. The balance of power had already shifted, and it was up to the Russians when to make this public. They did that Aug. 8.

Let’s begin simply by reviewing the last few days.

On the night of Thursday, Aug. 7, forces of the Republic of Georgia drove across the border of South Ossetia, a secessionist region of Georgia that has functioned as an independent entity since the fall of the Soviet Union. The forces drove on to the capital, Tskhinvali, which is close to the border. Georgian forces got bogged down while trying to take the city. In spite of heavy fighting, they never fully secured the city, nor the rest of South Ossetia.

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Should children as young as 12 be involved in an MoD-sponsored contest to develop military hardware?

Last week I had an extremely stage-managed insight into the MoD’s Grand Challenge at Copehill Down on Salisbury Plain.

Copehill Down is a mocked-up German village built at the height of the Cold War for training British soldiers in street fighting. But it is currently playing host to a collection of experimental spy robots. The autonomous vehicles include mini-tanks, model helicopters and even a flying saucer.

The idea of the challenge is to develop robots that can scope out an enemy-controlled city for threats such as snipers and improvised explosive devices. On the surface it was all good gung-ho fun, but I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable that some of the 11 teams had involved children as young as 12 in the development of their robots. OK, so they are not designing automatic rifles and cluster bombs, and getting kids into science is good, but this is all part of making the UK military more effective.

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The Canadian Press
August 17, 2008

Online protests spur offline activism

Critics of the Harper government’s proposed changes to the Copyright Act are operating a cyber crusade to fight the bill.

They’re using everything from Facebook to YouTube to Wikipedia to blogs to get their message out, hoping the federal government will either scrap or amend Bill C-61 when Parliament resumes next month.

At the helm of the digital movement is Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in Internet and e-commerce law. In addition to his own blog, Geist runs a Facebook group called Fair Copyright for Canada that boasts 90,000 members.

The group, which was created in December, has become so large that members have created local chapters by city and riding to better organize their efforts. Many of the local groups have also developed wikis — online encyclopedic web pages — to keep their members informed.

Geist said more Canadians are getting involved because they recognize how the proposed reforms could affect their daily lives.

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