Versatile Blogger Award again, thanks urbanperegrines!

Blogger urbanperegrines has been so kind to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you, and all the best for your fine blog!

I got this nomination at the same time as, when getting this award earlier, I had nominated urbanperegrines.

Here are the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 10 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award; and link to them. 2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award. 3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog. 4. In the same post, share 10 completely random pieces of information about yourself. 5. In the same post, include this set of rules. 6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

I have nominated the following 10 blogs:

1 365 Days
2 Midnighthues Poetry
3 mothergrogan
4 bestrockmusical
5 Doli Siregar ~ Photography
6 Colddeadheart’s Blog
7 BlueDoorHotel.com
8 jmgoyder
9 Becoming Cliche. My Journey to Becoming My Mother
10 Gerry Frederick digital

And here are ten random pieces of information about myself:

1 Until yesterday, my only first hand experience of barn owls was hearing one and seeing one vaguely in the dark. Yesterday was my first opportunity to see (young) barn owls from a very close distance.
2 I saw my first little owl in Greece long ago. More recently, I saw this species on Lesbos island, also in Greece.
3 I also saw a scops owl on Lesbos.
4 I saw a pharaoh eagle owl in Morocco.
5 I saw various African owl species in the Gambia.
6 I have never seen a snowy owl in the wild, only in zoos.
7 Years ago, a tawny owl used to call in the tree opposite my window. I never saw it, only heard it.
8 I saw my first ever black woodpecker at its nest in a big tree. When I came back there many years later, that tree had decayed and the birds were gone.
9 I saw my first osprey in Egypt, near Philae island.
10 I saw my first redwing during summer months in Iceland (where they nest). I had seen wintering redwings much earlier, further south.

United States corporate Internet censorship

This video from the USA is called How the Internet and Social Media can Stop Government Censorship and Oppression.

By Dave Jamieson in the USA:

Social Media Policies At GM, Target, DISH Network Deemed Unlawful By Labor Official

Posted: 05/31/2012 6:31 pm

WASHINGTON — In an effort to control employees’ activities on Facebook and Twitter, some U.S. companies have instituted social media policies that run afoul of labor law and infringe on workers’ rights, according to a memo issued Wednesday by the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.

General Motors, one of the largest automakers in the world, has gone so far as to forbid employees from posting anything potentially “misleading” about the company online and even told employees to be careful about “friending” their co-workers on Facebook, the memo indicates.

Other companies, including DISH Network and Target, have also maintained corporate policies that at least partially violated provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, according to the memo. That federal law covers collective bargaining and employees’ “protected activities” in the workplace.

Written by Lafe Solomon, acting general counsel for the NLRB, the memo is meant to help employers navigate the ever-changing territory of social media and develop workplace policies that keep within the bounds of the law. Solomon essentially acts as the lead prosecutor for the labor board, and the memo lays out his conclusions on a number of issues that have recently come before the agency.

“This [memo] is actually in response to requests from employer groups who said, ‘Hey, we need some guidance. What’s a good social media policy?’” explained NLRB spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland. “Social media just by its nature is collective activity, and that goes to the heart of our law. It makes sense that we would pick this up.”

At this point, Solomon’s reading of the law constitutes little more than suggestions to employers on how to avoid potential legal problems. And a GM spokesperson said that despite the NLRB’s recommendations, the company hasn’t changed its policy, maintaining that it “complies with applicable laws.” But the memo may signal some of the legal wrangling that lies ahead, particularly if more workers choose to challenge their employers’ social media policies on the grounds of free speech or labor rights.

Versatile Blogger Award again, thank you!

Blogger Otove has been so kind to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much!

Here are the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award (they are versatile again, compared to the last time that my blog got this award):

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 10 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award. 2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award. 3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog. 4. In the same post, share 10 completely random pieces of information about yourself. 5. In the same post, include this set of rules. 6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

UPDATE: people are also supposed to link to the blog which nominated them, and to the blogs which they in turn nominate. Sorry, I should have been clearer about that.

I have nominated the following 10 blogs:

1 Sharmishtha Basu’s poetries
2 urbanperegrines
3 My Botanical Garden
4 Passing Through
5 metaretriever
6 L’amore e forte come la morte
7 Russel Ray Photos
8 photobotos.com
9 Lesley Carter
10 Mazzarella Photo

And here are ten random pieces of information about myself:

1 I have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth.
2 I love birds.
3 I love other animals (like amphibians, mammals, etc.) as well. But often, they are more difficult to spot than birds.
4 I have forty subjects at my blog. When I don’t feel like blogging on one particular subject, there’s always the other 39
5 I have traveled to quite some places.
6 I still remember fondly many of them; including especially the Antarctic.
7 I have never been in the USA … well, just once, for five minutes. The ferry from Vancouver island in Canada to Vancouver city in Canada passes through a bit of United States territorial waters.
8 I saw killer whales from that ferry.
9 Sometimes, I use my binoculars not for birds, but for (very amateurish) astronomy.
10 Yesterday, a ring-necked parakeet flew not far away from my window.

War profiteers smear US journalists

This video from the USA is called Iraq For Sale – Full Movie.

By Eric W. Dolan in the USA:

Propaganda firm owner admits smear campaign against U.S. journalists

Thursday, May 24, 2012 17:14 EDT

The co-owner of a U.S. defense contractor that specializes in Information Operations admitted on Thursday to trying to discredit two USA Today journalists with an online smear campaign.

“I take full responsibility for having some of the discussion forums opened and reproducing their previously published USA TODAY articles on them,” Camille Chidiac, the minority owner of Leonie Industries and its former president, said in a statement.

“I recognize and deeply regret that my actions have caused concerns for Leonie and the U.S. military. This was never my intention. As an immediate corrective action, I am in the process of completely divesting my remaining minority ownership from Leonie.”

Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker reported in February on “dubious, costly” propaganda campaigns carried out by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reporters noted that Leonie Industries was awarded a contract from the Department of Defense, even though the company’s owners owed at least $4 million in federal taxes.

Leonie Industries is a relatively small company that specializes in cyber operations, intelligence analysis, psychological operations, and counter-IED explosives operations. …

After reporting on the company, the two journalists were targeted by a online disinformation campaign apparently meant to destroy their reputation. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts were created in their name, along with websites that purported to be owned and operated by them. Comments quickly sprung up on message boards, Yahoo! answers, Wikipedia, and blogs criticizing the two reporters’ investigation of Leonie Industries. Some comments even suggested the two journalists worked for the Taliban.

…

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has directed the department to review this matter and to take appropriate action,” according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

“I am glad to see that we now know who was responsible for these false attacks on Tom Vanden Brook, Ray Locker and USA Today,” Susan Weiss, executive editor of USA Today, said. “We stand behind our reporters and our stories.”

Anti-fascist trade unionist gets applause

This video from Britain is called Anders Breivik not 1st terrorist linked to EDL.

By Tony Patey in Brighton, England:

Applause for rep who faced down fascists

Friday 25 May 2012

A trade union and anti-fascist activist who was targeted by the far-right got an ovation the PCS conference today.

PCS rep Phil Dickens … faced physical abuse on a picket line and then a personal attack on a social network from the fascist North West Infidels over the May 10 strike.

He got unanimous support from the 1,000 delegates at the Brighton Centre today, who condemned the “disgusting” attacks.

Mr Dickens told the Morning Star that he had been on a picket outside the HMRC offices in Bootle, which drew about 25 workers at its height.

After going home, he rushed back when he saw a Facebook post mentioning the pickets.

“There were about about six of them, one with a Rottweiler, and they started shouting off about the usual things. Everyone drew together in a block.”

Mr Dickens’s partner refused to move away from in front of him, which he said confused the fascists. He asked the Star not to print her name.

“There was shouting back and forth and the police arrived, and one of them was arrested. He was held for two hours and then released.”

He said that as “revenge” for that an abusive post was put up on Facebook. He reckons he was targeted because he is a well-known activist in the area.

“There have been idle threats but they have never materialised. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of them but we will keep campaigning,” he vowed.

It took complaints and quite a while before Facebook pulled the abuse.

Delegates cheered and clapped and Mr Dickens said it was “absolutely brilliant” to get such support from his colleagues.

Wendy Turner (East Midlands) called the rise of the far-right “a plague across this country” that must be strongly opposed and underlined that Mr Dickens and his family were “at extreme risk” at the time.

Shell censors YouTube satire of its Nigeria pollution

This video about Nigeria is called Shell Oil – The Awful Truth.

Polluting multinational corporations do not seem to have a sense of humour … or of free speech …

Translated from Vroege Vogels TV in the Netherlands:

Shell makes YouTube remove a satirical campaign movie by Dutch Friends of the Earth

May 25, 2012 11:08

Shell has deleted the campaign movie ‘Shell CEO, Uncensored’ by Dutch Friends of the Earth from YouTube. This appears from an e-mail which YouTube sent to the ‘Worse than Bad’ campaign of the environmental organization. In the successful satirical movie, Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands pokes fun at Shell CEO Peter Voser because of the oil spill caused by the company in Nigeria. The video was watched over 25,000 times and can now only be seen on Dumpert.nl. On May 4, they copied the video and put it here. Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands are considering a counterclaim against YouTube.

Movie

For some time, Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands have been demanding that Shell should clean up all its oil spills in the Niger delta. But the only thing which the corporation has removed is a critical YouTube video which is part of the ‘Worse than Bad’ campaign worsethanbad.org.

Also at the share owners’ meeting last Tuesday in the Circus Theatre in Scheveningen, Shell CEO Peter Voser dodged all requests by Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands to start with cleaning up the area affected by the company. Even about the urgent advice of the UNEP environmental agency of the UN to invest $ 1 billion into a fund to clean up Nigeria, Shell has been in denial by now for almost a year.

When I log in at YouTube where the satirical Shell video used to be, I get the message “We are sorry. This video has been removed by the user [meaning Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands])”. That is untrue, as not Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands deleted that video there, but YouTube under pressure from Shell.

So, ‘Shell CEO, Uncensored’ has been censored.

At least, Shell this time did not use their Nigerian death squad gangsters against Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands; they pay those gangsters for violence against Nigerian farmers, environmentalists, etc.[sarcasm off]

Shell’s $4bn lobbying campaign cleared the way for Arctic oil drilling: here.

Mass arrests in Quebec

This video is called 250,000+ Defy Anti-Protest Law in Quebec.

By Keith Jones:

Quebec police mount mass arrests in bid to break student strike

25 May 2012

After Tuesday’s 150,000-strong demonstration supporting Quebec’s striking students and opposing the provincial Liberal government’s draconian Bill 78, the state has intensified its campaign of repression.

Police arrested almost 700 protesters in Montreal and Quebec City Wednesday evening.

Quebec City Police arrested 176 people for demonstrating in violation of the sweeping new restrictions Bill 78 places on protests. Passed in less than 24 hours late last week, Bill 78 makes all demonstrations–whatever their cause—illegal unless organizers submit to the police in writing more than eight hours in advance the demonstration itinerary and duration, and abide by any changes demanded by the police.

In Montreal most of the arrests came when riot police suddenly turned on a peaceful three-hour protest, allegedly because demonstrators did not follow police instructions as to where they should proceed next. Having “kettled”—penned in and squeezed—the protesters, the police arrested all present, some 450 people. “The swift police action squeezed the mob together tighter and tighter as the officers advanced and some people begged to be let out,” reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “One photographer was seen to be pushed to the ground and a piece of equipment was heard breaking.”

Those arrested in Montreal were not charged under Bill 78, which carries a minimum $1,000 fine for a first offense, but under a municipal bylaw imposing less drastic penalties.

Also Wednesday, Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil indicated that charges under Bill 78 may soon be laid against the student organization CLASSE and its leaders. CLASSE (The Broader Coalition of the Association for Student-Union Solidarity), which represents about half of the over 150,000 striking students, has vowed not to submit to Bill 78. Shortly after Tuesday’s march began it led tens of thousands on a route different than that set by police.

See also here.

Quebec’s Student Strike Turning Into a Citizens’ Revolt. Elizabeth Leier, Truthout: “The province of Quebec is no stranger to large and powerful social movements (the 1949 Asbestos Strike comes to mind, as does the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, in 2001). However, the ongoing conflict between the provincial government and striking students and their supporters will go down in history as one of the province’s – indeed the country’s – biggest mass protests. On its 102nd day, the student movement is growing, as is the awareness of an ever more oppressive and corrupt government”: here.

One week after criminalizing Quebec’s 15-week-long student strike, the provincial Liberal government is apparently about to summon leaders of the student associations for talks: here.

From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring Solidarity: the Student Movements in Chile and Québec. Andrew Gavin Marshall, Andrew Gavin Marshall’s Blog: “For both of these movements to move forward, it is important to not only promote informal acts and statements of solidarity between the two movements, but to begin establishing direct and indirect ties between the movements … But first and foremost, it is important to educate the students in Québec about what is taking place in Chile, and the students in Chile about what is taking place in Québec. That is the basis for all other forms of cooperation”: here.

Montreal Pots And Pans Video Of Protest Against Bill 78 Goes Viral : here.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in Quebec since the provincial Liberal government adopted emergency legislation May 19 that criminalizes the more than three-month-old student strike and places sweeping restrictions on the right to demonstrate: here.

“Pots and Pans” Protests for Freedom of Speech Spread Across Quebec Against Oppressive Government. Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: “Last week, BuzzFlash at Truthout wrote a commentary about the enduring and widespread student protest in Quebec – and the legal attempt to criminalize dissent that appears to be sweeping like an Iron Curtain across Western democracies. In short, to publicly protest in many cities of the so-called ‘free world’ is now a crime akin to committing an act of armed robbery. While not being a conspiratorialist, it would be hard to regard this as anything but a crackdown by global corporate/government institutions against any force that has the potential to expose the spoon-fed narrative of the status quo of the international 1 percent”: here.

Talks continue between Quebec government, student groups over tuition protests: here.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest suspended negotiations with university students aimed at ending weeks of protests over proposed tuition rises on Friday: here.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced back-to-work legislation Monday afternoon to illegalize a nation-wide strike by Canadian Pacific (CP) railway engineers and conductors: here. And here.

Facebook stock market scandal

This video from the USA is called Facebook vs. Google: Who Got IPO Shares?

By Barry Grey in the USA:

Facebook IPO engulfed by insider trading scandal

24 May 2012

Multiple investigations and lawsuits have been announced following reports of deceptive practices and insider trading in connection with last Friday’s $16 billion initial public offering of Facebook stock.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the social networking company and its bank underwriters downgraded their forecasts for the company’s earnings shortly before they increased the number of shares and raised the offering price in advance of the IPO. Neither Facebook nor the banks publicly announced their downgrades. The major banks involved are Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter of the IPO, is specifically accused of informing institutional investors and favored clients of its downgrade of Facebook and not telling the investing public at large.

These revelations suggest that insider trading and deception played a role in heavy selling of Facebook stock that drove down the price to barely more than the $38 initial offering price at the close of trading Friday, and has since cut the stock to $32, down 16 percent from the offering price. While Facebook executives, early investors in the company and Wall Street insiders, including at least some of the underwriting banks, made a fortune selling shares, many thousands of small investors have suffered heavy losses in the biggest ever Internet IPO.

The stench of fraud is compounded by the frenzied media hype in the run-up to the IPO, which was instrumental in inveigling small investors into what appears to have been a trap laid by Facebook and the banks.

On Tuesday, Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said her agency would look into charges surrounding the Facebook public offering, and both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees said they would begin to investigate the deal.

William Galvin, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on Tuesday subpoenaed Morgan Stanley’s internal documents on the IPO. In addition, an official at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s own regulatory body, said the group would examine the private advisories by bank underwriters to big investors.

Facebook shareholders meanwhile filed suit in federal district court in New York against Facebook, Morgan Stanley and other bank underwriters charging that the defendants fraudulently concealed the company’s weakened growth forecasts. A similar suit was filed in California.

Another suit was filed by investors against Nasdaq, which lists Facebook shares. The exchange was swamped last Friday by record trading volume in the new public stock and experienced delays and failures to confirm investors’ trades.

On May 9, nine days before the IPO, Facebook filed an updated IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which it said its revenue and earnings prospects were threatened by a disconnect between the growth of its user base and ads volume. Its users were growing much faster than its ads business, a problem the company attributed to the rapid growth of its mobile user base.

Facebook officials personally called stock analysts at its major IPO underwriters to advise them of these negative trends. Just days before the IPO, analysts at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America lowered their forecast numbers for Facebook as a result. The banks then relayed the weaker forecasts to selected clients, one of whom reportedly was warned that second-quarter revenue could be 5 percent lower than earlier estimates.

At virtually the same time they were downgrading their business forecasts, Facebook and the underwriters decided to raise the price range of the initial stock offering from a high of $35 to a high of $38 and increase the number of shares being offered by 25 percent.

The Financial Times on Wednesday quoted Hugh Evans of T. Rowe Price, a big institutional shareholder of Facebook, as saying, “They raised the range on the offering literally two days after the underwriters called around saying, ‘lower your numbers for the second quarter.’ Those two things don’t go together, ever.”

These facts may explain why Facebook executives, long-time shareholders and underwriting banks decided on the eve of the IPO to increase the shares they planned to sell. The Wall Street Journal reported May 17 that Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global Management and Facebook director Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s first investors, had more than doubled the volume of shares they planned to sell.

Pat Garofalo and Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress: “Facebook’s initial public offering – which so dominated the financial press that Facebook has been on the cover of the Wall Street Journal for nine straight days – has started to raise some red flags for regulators, after it came to light the company and its Wall Street underwriters quietly hid a report about weak revenue. And that’s just one of several ways in which the Facebook IPO highlights how Wall Street and big companies can game the rules to gain an economic advantage”: here.

Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth No Longer On Bloomberg Billionaire’s List After Facebook Share Slide: here.

Religious politicians refuse to shake women’s hands

Translated from daily De Standaard in Belgium:

Israeli minister refuses to shake hands with Onkelinx

Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 7:38 p.m.

[Belgian] Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx dislikes the fact that an Israeli minister this Tuesday refused to shake her hand at a conference in Geneva. She expressed her displeasure on the social networking site Facebook. …

“I have clean hands! For the second time in my life a minister has refused to shake my hand because I am a woman. The first time it was an Iranian minister; and yesterday it was the Israeli Minister of Health in Geneva. This fundamentalist attitude, linked to a certain conception of religion and women bothers me really much,” one may read on the Facebook profile of Onkelinx.

This Israeli minister is Ya’acov Litzman, of the United Torah Judaism party, a coalition party in the present Rightist Israeli government.

One may ask: as these fanatically religious misogynist politicians in both Iran and Israel have apparently so much in common: why don’t they propose to merge the states of Iran and Israel; instead of threatening each other with war as happens now? [sarcasm off]

One may hope that the nuclear agreement, discussed in the media today, will put an end to the perspective of a horrible war, costing the lives of many civilians in Israel, Iran, and probably elsewhere.

Talks on Iranian nuclear industry: here. And here. And here. And here.

Britain: Labour MP Paul Flynn issued a grim warning about the lurch towards a bloody and costly war with Iran on Thursday, writes Roger Bagley: here.

As Obama preaches patience, [General] Mattis prepares for war with Iran: here.

Bahraini sportspeople-torturing prince should be unwelcome at Olympics

This video is called Confession under torture; Bahrain medics.

From Al Bawaba:

Bahraini Prince Should Not be Welcomed in UK, Petition Asserts

Published May 20th, 2012 – 08:43 GMT

The petition drawn up by Avaaz, the world’s largest and most effective online campaigning community for change, will call on the British Prime Minster David Cameron and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to prevent Sheikh Nasser’s entry to the UK, declaring him as “persona non grata”, the Ahlul Bayt News Agency reported.

Sheikh Nasser, one of six sons to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain and the President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, had publicly called for “a wall to fall on the heads” of all those who peacefully demonstrated against the Al-Khalifa regime.

He also headed a committee that arrested, imprisoned and tortured 150 sportsmen and sports officials, including a disabled athlete, with some prisoners saying they were personally beaten by Sheikh Nasser himself.

Furthermore, when Mohammed Hubail, Bahrain’s national football team player, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, Sheikh Nasser tweeted, “If it was up to me, I’d give them all life.”

Meanwhile, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Bahrain has urged British Foreign Secretary William Hague to withdraw an invitation to the King of Bahrain to attend the UK Queen’s diamond jubilee event because it lends “respectability to a tyrannical regime.”

Earlier this month, supporters of the Bahraini uprising rallied at British premier’s office in London condemning the Queen’s invitation of the Bahraini dictator for the diamond jubilee celebrations.

The Al-Khalifa regime holds at least hundreds of anti-regime figures including three leading Bahraini human rights activists in custody, while international human right bodies are banned from visiting the country.

The regime has also killed at least 50 activists in the crackdown on protests since February 2011.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Bahrain Sports: Mixing Soccer, Football, and Torture: here.

Bahrain: Call for the immediate release of Mr. Al-Khawaja and all other detained human rights defenders and netizens: here.

Bahrain Live Coverage: Regime Says, “This Protest Good, This Protest Bad”: here.

Bahrain’s flashy crony capitalism cannot last. Opposition to the grand prix was fuelled by anger towards the excesses of prestige projects and the squandering of resources: here.

United Nations member states should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable human rights record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on May 21, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should push Bahrain to adopt specific measures to ensure free expression and peaceful assembly, end torture, free political prisoners, and establish credible accountability mechanisms for continuing abuses: here.

Bahrain Feature: Seeing the Crisis Through Children’s Cartoons: here.