Rally for Information Freedom - NYC, April 7

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Thursday January 13, 2011 · 4:54 PM PST

2011/01/13 · 16:54

We've just begun sending out the following press release in support of a rally and press conference at which I and others in the free information movement will be speaking, with meetings and other events to be held throughout the week. As per below, this will be held on April 7 at 3:00 pm on the steps of City Hall in New York City. Anyone who is interested in learning more may get in touch via the press inquiry info provided at the bottom of this press release. Thanks.

barrettbrown

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Tuesday January 11, 2011 · 2:11 PM PST

2011/01/11 · 14:11

The rhetorical dance that ensues in the wake of every act of domestic political violence took an amusing turn yesterday when the relatively reasonable George Will decided to discredit those of us who occasionally refer to him as relatively reasonable. As is the custom among those who are too respected to read over what they write in order to ensure that it is something that would have been published if the person were not respected, Will attempts to rise above the post-shooting fray while also jumping in himself. That a conservative columnist has engaged in some manner of logical tomfoolery would hardly be newsworthy on its own, of course; in this case, though, the ideological splashback is particularly revealing and, more importantly, amusing.

barrettbrown

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Monday January 03, 2011 · 2:51 PM PST

2011/01/03 · 14:51

As I noted yesterday, a faction of Anonymous has launched OpTunisia, its response to a recent clampdown on civil liberties by the Tunisian government in the wake of Wikileaks releases and protests by Tunisian citizens. Government websites, with the exception of those that are involved in human services and other essential functions, have been forced down by Anonymous participants and in some case hacked and replaced with a message to the Tunisian people. Other participants, many of whom helped to engineer similar attacks on other countries and multinational corporations in support of Wikileaks and other issues, are in contact with Tunisian dissidents, who themselves are now redistributing these messages to others within the country in order to show our support for their reasonable aspirations.

Update

Anonymous has developed a script by which Tunisians can prevent the government from spying on their social networking accounts.

barrettbrown

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Sunday January 02, 2011 · 11:20 AM PST

2011/01/02 · 11:20

The faction of Anonymous that launched the anti-Scientology movement Chanology and has more recently been supporting Wikileaks through various information and direct action campaigns has launched an attack on the Tunisian government's web capabilities in retaliation for the censorship policies it has recently put in place. Their main site is down and will remain so for the near future; other actions are imminent. I have been given the following press release from the faction in question and have posted it below the fold; further updates will be added as they occur.

Update

I have replaced the original version with a better translation (it is available in several languages and I can provide those upon request).

barrettbrown

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Friday December 17, 2010 · 9:29 AM PST

2010/12/17 · 09:29

I have just received the following press release in which a contingent of Anonymous spells out its general aims and practices while also announcing another effort, Project Truth is Revolutionary. I have pasted it below the fold and will update at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen throughout the day.

barrettbrown

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Wednesday December 15, 2010 · 10:14 AM PST

2010/12/15 · 10:14

Ongoing events, coupled with some discussions I've been having in the context of those events, have prompted me to revisit a story which I consider to be among the most telling in terms of the nature of governments, media, and the thought processes that inform them, for better or worse. Such a story as this will take several days to tell properly; consider this blog post to be the prologue.

barrettbrown

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Friday December 10, 2010 · 9:05 AM PST

2010/12/10 · 09:05

A number of people have been linking to the following essay over the past couple of days, which provides additional information on Anonymous as well as an examination of what the organization represents if we take the long view. It was originally written in the context of this year's relatively modest campaign against the Australian government, which had already become notorious among Western states for the extent to which it had chosen to interfere in information flow via the internet; a proposed law that ostensibly sought to regulate pornography was viewed, rightfully, as providing precedent for potential future censorship, with Minister Conroy's plan to keep the websites that would be filtered secret from the public causing particular concern among free speech organizations. The level of DDOS utilized against various Australian government websites was minimal, but those attacks were accompanied by various other methods including black faxes, information campaigns, and in-person protests. Despite the relatively small number of participants, Operation Titstorm was notable for being the first campaign of its sort against a major government.

barrettbrown

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Thursday December 09, 2010 · 1:18 PM PST

2010/12/09 · 13:18

The following is one of several short essays I wrote on Wikileaks between March and April of this year, both before and after the organization released the Afghanistan tape. This one appeared on April 10 at True/Slant and other outlets.

barrettbrown

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Wednesday December 08, 2010 · 1:59 PM PST

2010/12/08 · 13:59

WikiLeaks may be a small player, really, in the bigger scheme of things. But to some degree it is also a bellwether, a forecast of things to come as information and technology continue to nip at the heels of the state. Perhaps we really are approaching a time when government becomes less relevant, less necessary, where other institutions both real and virtual can begin to supplant the role of the state in our lives, subversively at first but then more openly as time passes.
- Erik Kain, Secrecy and the State

barrettbrown

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Friday December 03, 2010 · 11:11 AM PST

2010/12/03 · 11:11

So, I wake up this morning all hung over and whatnot and thus decide to spend the day doing nothing, and then I see that there's a trackback thingy on my most recent blog post here, and it's ol' Robert Stacy McCain having a go at me in his inimitable way. The main point seems to be that I'm arrogant and narcissistic, which should be news to exactly four people, but there are also some untrue and occasionally downright weird claims made that I should probably address. First, though, I should draw attention to this line he delivers in the midst of a prior discussion on trolling:

And Robin of Berkeley lays her finger on an important point in suggesting trolls “intermix trolling with downloading internet porn.”

barrettbrown

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Saturday November 06, 2010 · 3:16 PM PDT

2010/11/06 · 15:16

I've just become engaged in a written debate with Joe Carter, the online editor of First Things and a former spokesperson for the Family Research Council as well as a former communications advisor to Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign. I myself am a contributor to Vanity Fair and Skeptical Inquirer, among other things, and serve as director of communications for the atheist PAC Enlighten the Vote; I also advised now-defeated Democratic congressional candidate Wynne LeGrow (VA-04) in his recent campaign against longtime Republican incumbent Randy Forbes.

barrettbrown

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Thursday October 14, 2010 · 12:38 PM PDT

2010/10/14 · 12:38

Scientists and media critics tend to agree that there has been a noticeable decline in the quality and accuracy of science journalism over the last decade or two, thereby creating an environment in which pseudo-scientific agendas such as intelligent design and the debunked autism-vaccine link can prosper with dire results for the American public. Although the causes of this are many and sometimes obscure, the solution may be quite simple. Today, I announced in my monthly column for Skeptical Inquirer the launch of a new effort, the Science Journalism Improvement Program, which has been planned and carried out under the aegis of my distributed think-tank Project PM. The whole article may be found at this link, while a basic rundown is pasted below.

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Rally for Information Freedom - NYC, April 7

George Will accidentally calls Krauthammer "progressive"

Update on Tunisia protests and Anonymous attacks

Tunisia under attack by Anonymous; press release

Anonymous launches new project, press release

Conspiracies and Pseudo-Skepticism, Part I

Anonymous, Wikileaks and the Fall of the Nation-State

Wikileaks, Shell, Nigeria, and misplaced priorities

Anonymous launches new Wikileaks defense effort

Palin biographer accuses me of planning violence

My debate with Huckabee advisor Joe Carter

Scientist? Writer? Help us improve science journalism