In node 14 schrieben wir über die Berliner Hedonistische Internationale, die der neo-hegemonialen Demonstrationskultur, die sich rund um den nun nahenden Heiligendamm-Gipfel formiert, mit ihren schrägen Mitteln (irgend)etwas entgegensetzen will. Oder besser: sich quer zu allem stellt, denn wenn mit Schlauchbooten zum Verteidigungsministerium gepaddelt wird, man halb nackig vor dem Reichstag ravt und für die Zeit am Zaun Wegbass-Boxen-Anleitungen präsentiert, ist der Demonstrationsgegenstand nicht besonders luzide. Ist aber auch nicht so wichtig. Raven in der Sparkasse ist schon wieder out (ungefähr acht Jahre), da ist öfter mal was Neues ja ganz in Ordnung.
www.hedonist-international.org

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept. has been working for several years with a defense contractor, Ocatron, to develop a specialized UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] for police work. Last week they gave reporters a demo. […]

“The plane is virtually silent and invisible,” said Heal. “It will give us a vertical perspective that we have never had.” […]

I think he’s completely correct and UAVs will probably become standard, even ubiquitous pieces of equipment for police.

Link: Lemonodor: Los Angeles Sheriff’s UAV Runs Headfirst Into the FAA

Just listened to an edition of Radio Open Source on the NSA wiretapping case, and was struck by how well the topic maps to social networks as we know and use them. Privacy, degrees of separation, pattern analysis, and more. With comments by William Gibson!

Patrick Radden Keefe: I was talking to a bunch of high-school kids about a month ago, talking about the government surveillance, and the Bush administration’s moral-less eavesdropping, and was meeting with dead uninterested stares from these high-school juniors.
Eventually the Q&A started, nobody seemed very engaged, and a certain point I said “Why doesn’t this concern you, aren’t you worried about the government?” And after a pause a girl in the back row raised her hand and said “We’re worried about our parents!”

Chris Lydon: Meaning what?

Patrick Radden Keefe: Privacy from their parents. In a very micro-context, within the realm of their family, they’re worried about their parents knowing what they did online. But anybody outside that family capacity: let ‘em at it!
There’s a kind of impersonal space in the Internet, that they figure: “Somebody could look into it, but it’s impersonal enough, so why would they be interested.”

Link: The NSA’s New New Phone Database