Slashdot Mirror

Yes, I couldn't read their site. Here is another article (or, for all I know, the same one).

Important points from that article: That the ship was carrying so much gold is debated. Allegedly there are some oddities about the company that says it found the ship.

Another article. This one says they intend to raise the ship, which seems decidedly odd, compared to just trying to raise the gold. I'm wondering if there was a translation error.

In New Zealand government departments (probably also private companies but they aren't covered by the Freedom Of Information Act) have been hiring Private Investigators to keep tabs on protest groups for ages.

This has lead to a series of embarrassing news reports about the investigation agency Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited and their links with government departments and most recently the SIS. Although I can't remember them (TCIL) specifically using Facebook, another PI did this report on how easy it was to get your Name, Age, Address, Parents, Spouse, Occupation, Children and Shopping habits using social media saying that basically money was the only limit on what information could be obtained.

In New Zealand government departments (probably also private companies but they aren't covered by the Freedom Of Information Act) have been hiring Private Investigators to keep tabs on protest groups for ages.

This has lead to a series of embarrassing news reports about the investigation agency Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited and their links with government departments and most recently the SIS. Although I can't remember them (TCIL) specifically using Facebook, another PI did this report on how easy it was to get your Name, Age, Address, Parents, Spouse, Occupation, Children and Shopping habits using social media saying that basically money was the only limit on what information could be obtained.

Yes, he owns property in New Zealand and was granted citizenship under controversial circumstances.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/...

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/busi...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/medi...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nation...

Yes, he owns property in New Zealand and was granted citizenship under controversial circumstances.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/...

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/busi...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/medi...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nation...

There has been a rash of poorly made steel used in construction where I live recently, and although the link doesn't really say it, most of the failed steel came from Chinese factories.
The reasons for the poor quality might be more complex than just cost saving or poor controls. There is a cultural drive in some Asian cultures towards saying "yes" when the answer ought to be "no" because they find it difficult to stand up to those they see as in authority.
Although I suspect the importers bought the steel because it was cheap, we have a tradition of shitty construction over here.
Google what happened to the CTV Building during the Christchurch earthquake.

The reason they chose to arrest him in New Zealand is because the US knows that the NZ government will do what they are told, no questions asked.
It is starting to unravel a bit, because the courts here have at least some independence, and have ruled that our spies broke the law which might make the evidence go away also.
I don't imagine that will get Kim his money back however.
I am not a lawyer, but I do play one on the Internet sometimes.

Except the Herald, Stuff, and Scoop. And those were the first three I tried. RNZ does too.

Your first link is a reprint of a Washington Post story. Second one starts with a middle-endian date format - must be a foreigner.
Third one is a press-release by an illiterate wanker with numerous spelling/punctuation/grammar errors including the humourous "bold-face liar". He prints lies in a heavy font?

Except the Herald, Stuff, and Scoop. And those were the first three I tried. RNZ does too.

Our government is desperate to shut down any talk of the two being linked, but everyone knows they are. China is a huge buyer of our exports, and have no problem using that power.

It's a feel good scam.

To quote RNZ,"New Zealand's target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 11 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 remains conditional on aspects of the Paris deal that have not yet been nailed down, namely that there are functioning and transparent carbon markets in place."

Add that to our the recent Morgan Foundation report labelling New Zealand a climate change cheat for dealing in dodgy Carbon Credits, the utter failure of our government to rein in our dairy industry and the widespread degradation of the environment here we are not really doing anything except making the rich richer.

What I don't get is that they are still, local bodies included, happily building infrastructure on land that their own people tell them will be be flooded or underwater in fifty years. They don't care, they don't believe, and they don't want to deal with it.

Here are your sources, ignorant.

And before someone mentions it, the link is not necessarily single-hop:

Guam-based Pacific Telecom Inc says a backup microwave link, connecting Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan, has now restored emergency services.

The US State Department recruited Hollywood to boost “anti-Russian messaging“.
Sony pirated multiple books about hacking, while aggressively campaigning against piracy.
Emails reveal concerns in the US over the secrecy of the TPP talks.
The leaks included a draft of the international VOD and DHE agreement between SONY and Google
Sony received nearly $48 million in tax breaks in 2011 and 2012 after donating to New York Governor Cuomo.
Ben Affleck demanded PBS program “Finding Your Roots” hide his slave-owning ancestor.
Sony changed the Snowden film press release to remove “illegal spying” from the description of NSA’s activities
Sony cameras are used as a part of the guidance system for Israeli rockets bombing Gaza
Sony Chiefs met with David Cameron ahead of the Scottish referendum
Corrupt product placement practices used in Dr. Oz show

I really hope that slashdot doesn't become another place of pro-government propaganda, as that really pisses me off. The information was already out there, but their republishing obviously did us a favor (us that care about government accountability or knowing the truth anyway). We already have enough media outlets against information out there, let's keep this one useful.
I would never know the above facts if it wasn't for them, as 1. I believed the propaganda that it was mostly employee information and didn't feel comfortable downloading it and reading, and 2. it would be too much work for me to look into the e-mails.
Now that I know these stuff I feel like someone more informed than before. I hope the Slashdot community stops being against information.

By the way, since I haven't seen here a link to their press release, with the leaks, here it is.

Most likely an understanding of China's intentions / deals with various Pacific states, such as their support for post-coup Fiji.

Given the undemocratic nature of UN representation (Tuvalu's population of 10,000 has the same level of representation is India's 1.24 billion), the Pacific's developing nations are prime targets for vote-buying by China, US and other regional players.

I am a kiwi, and I have campaigned against this government and find this kind of spying to be very much against my country's values.

Radio NZ did a 40 minute interview with evolutionary biologist Alan Cooper (the lead researcher) on Saturday. It is well worth a listen if you've got the time.

It's for exactly that reason that he gets any traction in public opinion in NZ. The first time he came to the attention of most Kiwis at all was when the NZ police raided his house with swat teams, helicopters and the works at the behest of US law enforcement. For ... copyright infringement.

Then it turned out that our intelligence services had been spying on him illegally, (along with 80 or so other foreign-born NZ residents) Some of our politicians had been taking political donations from him and later denying all knowledge, and our Prime Minister claimed to know nothing about the illegal spying despite being briefed on it 12 months earlier

In addition FBI agents in NZ sent copies of his personal files to the US despite the ruling of NZ courts.

In essence, our local politicians and law enforcement acted like such complete and total dickwads that they made even a guy like Kim Dotcom look the good guy by comparison. The let him into the country for his money, despite his convictions. Then when the US law enforcement came knocking they turned on him like a bunch of weasels.

In fact public opinion is starrting to swing against him. Kiwis typically aren't impressed by the kind of excess and showboating he is famous for. I don't think is party will get that many votes, but in a country the size of NZ, and due to the peculiarities of our version of MMP, a small party can sometimes gain a couple of seats and be in a position to act as kingmaker.

This was on the radio the other day. Basically the guy sailed a yacht race from Melbourne to Osaka ten years ago and lived on fish and rice the whole way. Now he does it and he's calling it a dead ocean.

If you are interested in this, here's a very interesting podcast interview on the good and bad of the pills we take and the suppliments industry by an epidemiologist:

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20120421-0908-david_b_agus_the_end_of_illness-00.ogg

It's well worth the listen. (no, he's not a quack with a silver bullet solution)

book form + reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Illness-M-D-David-Agus/dp/145161019X

Ah, so that's it! Might take a while...

> but this summary just does it - it makes so much "no sense" that
> i have no fucking idea what is it about and i'm just going to skip
> the topic.

which is real a shame, because what is happening is nasty, evil, theft (in the correct IP usage of the term) from a long established volunteer community by newly arrived greedy corporate. Or just take a moment to listen to the linked 2 minute mp3?

here is the real project's "about" page: http://koha-community.org/about/

"Koha" is a Maori word meaning gift (often in a quid quo pro sense). Note that Wikipedia lists it as a custom. It is a truly wonderful name for a GPL'd project for the public good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koha_(custom)

read the mailing list plea from the librarian here:
http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/pipermail/openchat/2011-November/008940.html

a blog post:
http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/14545

and the thread that follows.
http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/pipermail/openchat/2011-November/thread.html#8943

favourite quote from the ensuing thread:

Oh, and that you can't win a Wikipedia fight against librarians.

listen to more audio from NZ public radio than what's in the /. submission here:
(Scroll down to the Ogg @ 9:44 am)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

The project was founded by a small country town library in 1999 when the Y2K bug was taking out their existing solution and they couldn't afford to buy another one. Since then it has grown to be a large and wonderful FOSS success story. Until last year, when an associated company that held the domain name and provided commercial support got bought out by a big corporate bully, who took ownership of the DNS and domain name, taken over the home page, obfuscated links to and existence of the community (which has had to rush out and register http://koha-community.org/ instead of their original koha dot org site), and now are trying to block the community from being able to use their own name, on their own turf. It seems that Liblime has grabbed the trademark already in the US; the original koha-community.org group after they got over their shock was able to get in first in the EU, but not Liblime (a US company) has moved in to grab it in the community's home country of New Zealand.

PTFS/Liblime's actions here are truly despicable, and if I were a customer I'd have to wonder if they are willing to screw over the people who built up the project from nothing, what is stopping them from screwing me over too?

Please visit the Koha-community.org site, read the plea: http://koha-community.org/plea-horowhenua-library-trust/

and help out their non-existent legal fund with a small donation:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FQ6JH3L48LV5Y
(your dollar goes far here; they are a registered legal non-profit, paypal's freezing of funds typically happens to unregistered projects who are basically ignoring tax laws, so they should be safe from that)

written article here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/91830/lawyer-labels-overseas-trademark-of-'koha'-offensive

> but this summary just does it - it makes so much "no sense" that
> i have no fucking idea what is it about and i'm just going to skip
> the topic.

which is real a shame, because what is happening is nasty, evil, theft (in the correct IP usage of the term) from a long established volunteer community by newly arrived greedy corporate. Or just take a moment to listen to the linked 2 minute mp3?

here is the real project's "about" page: http://koha-community.org/about/

"Koha" is a Maori word meaning gift (often in a quid quo pro sense). Note that Wikipedia lists it as a custom. It is a truly wonderful name for a GPL'd project for the public good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koha_(custom)

read the mailing list plea from the librarian here:
http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/pipermail/openchat/2011-November/008940.html

a blog post:
http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/14545

and the thread that follows.
http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/pipermail/openchat/2011-November/thread.html#8943

favourite quote from the ensuing thread:

Oh, and that you can't win a Wikipedia fight against librarians.

listen to more audio from NZ public radio than what's in the /. submission here:
(Scroll down to the Ogg @ 9:44 am)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

The project was founded by a small country town library in 1999 when the Y2K bug was taking out their existing solution and they couldn't afford to buy another one. Since then it has grown to be a large and wonderful FOSS success story. Until last year, when an associated company that held the domain name and provided commercial support got bought out by a big corporate bully, who took ownership of the DNS and domain name, taken over the home page, obfuscated links to and existence of the community (which has had to rush out and register http://koha-community.org/ instead of their original koha dot org site), and now are trying to block the community from being able to use their own name, on their own turf. It seems that Liblime has grabbed the trademark already in the US; the original koha-community.org group after they got over their shock was able to get in first in the EU, but not Liblime (a US company) has moved in to grab it in the community's home country of New Zealand.

PTFS/Liblime's actions here are truly despicable, and if I were a customer I'd have to wonder if they are willing to screw over the people who built up the project from nothing, what is stopping them from screwing me over too?

Please visit the Koha-community.org site, read the plea: http://koha-community.org/plea-horowhenua-library-trust/

and help out their non-existent legal fund with a small donation:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FQ6JH3L48LV5Y
(your dollar goes far here; they are a registered legal non-profit, paypal's freezing of funds typically happens to unregistered projects who are basically ignoring tax laws, so they should be safe from that)

written article here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/91830/lawyer-labels-overseas-trademark-of-'koha'-offensive

Complete bunk: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/50985/wildlife-still-declining-in-chernobyl-exclusion-zone

This article actually explains it better, and uses the phrase "piece of pi". I love it.

There was a bit on our National Radio programme about this today, downloadable here: http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20090527-0908-Government_reliance_on_Microsoft.ogg (Vorbis, 13Mb)

It starts with an interview with the head of the NZ Open Source Society, and follows with an interview with a local Microsoft guy.

You could always listen in to Radio New Zealand (Warning: Windows Media, YMMV) on the hour to find out. Then you'd be able to type their names in. I, of course, being a New Zealand, can't.

Oh, and rather hilariously, their names are available on teletext.

Heres a link to the audio of the midday report.

Forget contempt of court. That's nothing.

Currently the NZ parliament is pushing though a law that not only takes away the right of the accused to face their accuser (think traumatized rape victims having their grant jury testimony video taped then replayed at the main trial; honourable perhaps, but with that an evil accuser with a vendetta only has to get their story straight once) ... the bill also removes protection from double jeopardy! (in extreme[ly embarrassing lost] cases only of course)

And the few marginalized Green Party MPs are the only ones who consider either of these things to be at all problematic!

This is directly out of this morning's newspaper, almost given as an afterthought.

here's a link to a recent RadioNZ [think BBC/PBS] podcast:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ckpt/the_rule_against_double_jeopardy

As a New Zealander I've found this very disappointing. Normally I associate New Zealand as having a very open and non-corrupt national government with an open information policy (written into law through New Zealand's Official Information Act), and without too many layers of bureaucracy. I'd much rather have an environment where the media is free to take what pictures they like. To put it in context though, the main section of New Zealand's television media, which is most directly affected by this, really is hopeless. Personally I think the un-professionalism of many of the journalists has really encouraged parliament to add some limitations, appropriate or not.

There are only two major providers of television news in New Zealand -- one state-owned (TV1) and another private (TV3, owned by CanWest). Neither actually invests in quality journalism any more. They invest in news that can double as entertainment to sell commercials in a prime-time entertainment slot. The way they advertise their own news programmes makes this obvious, and on television there's no alternative. TV3, in particular, spends a lot of time trying to stress how much better it is than TV1. Any story that has anything to do with that is promoted to the front of its bulletin.

Most reporters are young and inexperienced, with the experienced journalists having either lost their jobs, retired or moved overseas for better opportunities. A lot of reports seem to be more about making sure people know who the reporter is and adding superlatives, annoying clichés, metaphors, and background music that just distract from the actual information. The only reason I bother to watch locally produced television news programmes in New Zealand these days (with a few exceptions) is to get some pictures, but I cringe at the commentary that comes with them. Many of those who are left have an attitude where they like to claim they're hugely important, but in general they're not actually providing quality journalism to back it up. I've found it quite sickening watching this whole thing play out, because the media that's kicking up such a storm isn't actually demonstrating that it's worthy of the right it's wanting.

I'm quite amazed when I flick over to BBC and see something like Hard Talk, which is just amazing in comparison to what we have locally produced. I really wish we could have that kind of quality in a local production, but I suspect the country just isn't large enough to have the resources for a reliable media.

If you are in New Zealand, try listening to MediaWatch on National Radio (or stream it if you prefer). Personally I think it's one of the most insightful commentaries on the New Zealand media available. (The show on 1st July actually covered this issue.)

Apparently so (that's comforting, since that's where I live). At first I doubted that the judge actually acquitted him, and thought maybe he just convicted him without imposing a sentence; but another NZ source says the judge "discharged him without conviction, despite police opposition."

dumbass for doing the work and providing the results before even a contract was drawn up.

In fact the other source I cited above has a different story: it says he "identified security vulnerabilities in the bank's telephone system, and then offered to provide them with details if they paid for his services." Sounds like a much less daft approach.

This is the old "doing it for a living" thing. The enthusiastic amateur can spend as long as they want creating a perfect labour of love, picking and choosing what to work on. The paid pro has a very limited amount of time, can't always choose what to work on and has done it so many times before not everything they do piques their interest 100% any more.

Absolutely -- I agree with you on this point, but I don't think this should detract from the point that media companies aren't actually providing good journalism in many cases. After all, the journalists out there at the moment are a consequence of the people and businesses who hire them. I'd have to admit that this issue is much bigger than just journalism, though. The reason it's a problem is because people put up with it.

When I go home and watch the evening news on TV, for instance, I frequently get the impression that the people on screen couldn't possibly have been hired for their journalism skills as much as for their ability to generate superlatives and cliche's, make something sound dramatic, and generally hold an audience that might switch channels. I agree that most people wouldn't do much better if they were doing it for a living, but I also think it'd be difficult for most of those people to even get such an opportunity. They wouldn't fit the mould of what the media business probably wants.

It's often similar with newspapers and radio, although I at least have some respect for some newspapers, because they're happy to publish people's criticism of them... in a semi-weblog like way. I often flip through letters to the editor -- not because I'm expecting many of them will be worth reading, but because they're a good indication of when something that the newspaper has published is controversial.

I should definitely mention that my perspective is coming from a relatively small country (New Zealand) that has bugger-all decent media. Most of the good journalism I'm familiar with (and plenty of bad) comes from overseas. There's a little good journalism locally, but it mostly falls below the radar. The main exception, which is in a horrible slot of Sunday morning public radio, is a programme called MediaWatch, which evaluates and comments on how the media's been acting in the last week or so.