lix blog

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in “client states”; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors – and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington – the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments — even the most corrupt — around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of “The Iraq War Logs”, the world’s previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.

Here’s a snapshot: cablegate.wikileaks.org.zip for download.

“The red liquid thrust out of his arteries to interfuse with the pureness of the unwritten.

Meanwhile the knocking lessened slowly and finally extracted into a ray to emit the stellar dust of love.”

[Update on P0rno-Scanner]
TSA searches menstruating woman:

“These new scans are so horrible that if you are wearing something unusual (like a piece of cloth on your panties) then you will be subjected to a search where a woman repeatedly has to check your “groin” while another woman watches on (two in my case – they were training in a new girl – awesome). So please, please, tell the ladies not to wear their liners at the airport (I didn’t even have an insert in). I’m a strong, confident woman; I’m an Army vet (which is why those camo liners crack me up), I work full-time and go to graduate school full-time, I have a wonderful husband, and I don’t take any nonsense from anyone. I don’t dramatize, and I don’t exaggerate. I’m trying to give you a sense of who I am so you won’t think that this is a plea for attention, or a jumping on the bandwagon about the recent TSA proposed boycott. I just don’t want another woman to have to go through the “patting down” because she didn’t know that her glad-rag would be a matter of national security.”

Link: Gladrags Gab Blog

“Escaped out of the marble mold suddenly the rain drops fell like gravel from his eyes. But still. He got a glimpse of the rays that leaked from the lemon fruit.

Whereafter he decided to kill the kid that has never been born.”

“The young boy stared into the lemontree where the white sparkling flowers outpoured their tears and turned into yellow fruits filled of angels.

The boy was about to turn into marble when a lovely voice liberated his soul.”

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 26./ 27./ 28. November 2010

Starting Friday 9 pm for 48 hours until sunday 9pm

DON LI’S ORBITAL GARDEN INVITES:

A 48 HOUR RHYTHM AROUND THE CLOCK

FOR FABIAN KURATLI

Das Tonus-Music Labor präsentiert in Zusammenarbeit mit 48 Schlagzeugern einen 48 stundenlangen, Tag und Nacht durchgehenden Drum-Beat. Der Orbital Garden beginnt am Freitag um 21h und dauert ohne Unterbruch bis am Sonntagabend um 21h. Während dieser Zeit wird das Labor durchgehend geöffnet sein.

Die Schlagzeuger lösen sich stündlich ab. Drei bereitstehende Drum-Sets ermöglichen nahtlose Übergänge oder ein zeitweises Zusammenspiel. Der zum World-Clock synchron gespielte Beat von zwölf 10/4 Takten bei 120BPM, bildet einen Zyklus von einer Minute. Jeder Drummer spielt 60 Zyklen = 60Minuten.

Tom Beck, Flo Reichle, Muso Stamm, Dave Kobrehel, Christoph Steiner, Tobias Schramm, Don Li, Martin Kissling, David Lerch, Beni Bucher, Christian Wymann, Lukas Landis, Christoph Fluri, Marc Halbheer, J.J. Flueck, Singha Dee, Chris Jaeger Brown, Peter Conradin Zumthor, Julian Sartorius, Pius Baschnagel, Mirio Bähler, Dominic Egli, Samuel Baur, Gregor Hilbe, Christian Niederer, Simon Baumann, Gert Staeuble, Margrit Rieben, Giulin Stäubli, Simon Fankhauser, Fred Bürki, Andrej Marffy, Tobias Friedli, Simon Britschgi, Christof Jaussi, Andi Hug, Lukas Mantel, Christoph Staudenmann, Martin Meyer, Jan Schwinning, Tobias Hunziker, Dominik Burkhalter, Jonas Ruther, Arno Troxler, Rico Baumann, Fabian Bürgi, Eddie Miles Walker, Tian Bosshard – Drums

For the upcoming event

DON LI’S ORBITAL GARDEN INVITES:
A 48 HOUR RHYTHM AROUND THE CLOCK
FOR FABAIN KURATLI

Don asked me to program a precise metronome that ticks synchronously to the world clock and conducts the 48 drummer’s who will play at the 48 hours life performance from 26th to 28th of november 2010 at the Tonus Labor at Kramgasse 10 in Berne.

Therefore I chose puredata to build the patch to be able to address sound and video-files without delay and reliably. Further Pd comes with features such as [netsend] to stream framerates to a second computer where [netreceive] reads them and e.g. recalculates them to play a film using [gemwin].

This patch will be released as soon as I’m happy with it’s result. Meanwhile check the screenshot to get an idea what it’s doing.

… they did it again. As mentioned in my blog beginning of August, TSA continues to illegally store pictures of scanned people.
See: Gizmodo.

Another example on what ridiculous forms the “war on terror” gains. Meanwhile the “Nackscanner” or “nude scanner” has been renamed into “Porno scanner”. To prepare your kids for the upcoming age of naked citizenship, get this guide:

What will we see next? Pregnant women that try to hide it from their husband, being disclosed by a TSA agent while passing through the security check? Detained fakirs and Sikhs because of the nails in their stomach and dagger in the turban?

Compete by finding your 0wn way to opt-out (e.g. with a creased shirt?) – Haha! Or maybe a “wet t-shirt contest flashmob” at your airport?

… get yourself a shirt and stay tuned! 😉

Hi Steve

When using s/mime encryption, which is nicely integrated in the users keychain, with IMAP configured accounts in mail.app, the app does not encrypt the mail and stores it (e.g. as draft) unencrypted on the server before it has been sent.

An attacker can either read the unencrypted mail, if he has access to the server (sysadmin), or in case the IMAP connection is unencrypted, read the unencrypted message on the nodes/routers.

Please fix this.

Take care & best, lx