One of the great things about the good old Interweb, is that apart from being the biggest library on Earth, nothing can be hidden. The major downside is that there is no indexing between fiction and non fiction and all stations in between.
A quick Google often gets you the background stories the mainstream newspapers won't (and sometimes can't) break. The suppressed report in this particular instance is located here and as it falls outside of the jurisdiction of British courts, cannot be shut down by legal action from clever lawyers. Unlike traditional mainstream media outlets.
Wikileaks is a moderately reasonable source for suppressed reports. Even the reports on how to stop information leaks have ended up there.
There is currently also one report on how court motions filed in California force Google to give up the IP's for investigative Journalists' Gmail addresses. However, if said reporters don't have a fixed IP, don't have a public and incomplete Google profile, post from multiple locations via free wi-fi hotspots and via anonymous 'cloud' proxies, then the information released under court orders rapidly becomes more expensive to trace. Even though Google has elected to keep extensive, non-anonymised records on its users, but not defend these records from disclosure. So if you're an investigative journalist trying to winkle out the details of some monumental Government cock-up, it is still possible to keep digging in relative secrecy.
Oh yes, that Pepsi iPhone App which currently has a certain section of the media up in arms. Actually looks quite handy, and although blatantly transparent as a 'pick up' aid, means that you can have a reasonable stab at keeping up with your chosen companions conversations / prejudices, and used judiciously, avoid any massively embarrassing social faux-pas. Pepsi should have done one for the girls along the same lines (Sporty dude, geek, whatever). Just for the sake of parity. After all, if your potential date has any areas into which you don't want to get drawn (like vegetarian restaurants or other serried unpleasantness), might not being aware of these be rather useful?
Playing away
6 days ago
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2 comments:
I love the concept of that video! I still won't get a cell phone, but I found that funny!
In reality, it seems a bit impractical to me, but I guess I'm old school. These kids grew up with gadgets in their faces. Maybe it's not considered rude anymore, but it is to me.
Scoakat, think of it as a ready reference. When your date (or you) goes for a break, you spend a furtive five minutes looking stuff up that they might find entertaining or interesting. That way you get to come across as urbane, sympathetic, sophisticated etc, instead of some poor Neanderthal schmo who's not yet noticed that he's left the end of his tie in his soup.
I think the idea needs refinement, but shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.
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