Crikey it's easy to get world news now

Looking across the world politics is much easier today than in previous years, but it has its problems for governments and newsmakers. Julian Assange is currently being pursued across the world by the United States administration for his 'WikiLeaks' leaks. http://www.crikey.com.au/  I decided to pursue the Assange story across the internet to see what else I might find about this story. In just a few moments I was reading about the claims Philip Shenon was making as well. He said even President Obama is asking for the allies (Britian, Germany, Australia and others) for help in tracking down and holding the elusive Afghan war 'leaker', Assange. http://www.thedailybeast.com//  It becomes even more intriguing to see the report expanded further in another site.http://www.mainjustice.com// At this site, claims were made by Leah Nylen that the Justice Department is working with the Department of Defence on probing who had leaked thousands of documents on the war in Afghanistan. The information is easily expanded by further links to http://www.bloomberg.com/news/, where Mahmoud Kassem claims the United States and Pakistan have dismissed portions of the documents. He gave the original reports of the leaks to The Guardian newspaper in Britian and Der Speigel magazine in Germany. In just these few moments I have been able to follow an interesting story story regarding the media. It is something unheard of a couple of years ago.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/attorney-general-holder-says-u-s-probing-leaks-of-afghanistan-documents.html
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/09/09/rundle-wikileaks-i-havent-seen-accusations-says-assange-as-plot-thickens/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-10/a-western-crackdown-on-wikileaks/?source=cmailer
http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/07/28/doj-probing-wikileaks-disclosure/

Driver booked for speeding by his truck

The article ,"Mobiles a 'threat' to privacy" (Dowling J,  & Austin P, 2010) which talked about surveillance of people, reminded me about the French company's surveillance of my brother, who drives their truck. As he was passing the wheat town of Yaninee, the computer on board the truck notified the head office that he was speeding. It had mistaken the highway on which the truck was travelling to be a service road which ran alongside -this had a speeed limit. The computer has "dobbed" him in last week because it thought he had taken too long (three hours)to do a local job. The job was not local but eighty kilometres away.


Dowling J & Austin P 2010 Mobiles a 'threat' to privacy theage.com.au accessed 22 August 2010.
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/mobiles-a-threat-to-privacy-2

The skeptical nature

Anthony Giddens (1999, p6) raised an interesting topic when he mentioned that people have developed a 'skeptical nature of science' because of the contradictory claims between scientists. He gave the example of the decisions one makes at breakfast. Some scientists claim consuming one food is healthy while another will claim it is detrimental to our health. It complicates the simple decisions about which food or drink one  consumes.

It seems to be a specious decision to fill your plate with deep fried portions of chicken and potato chips and decide to wash it down with a sugar free drink. I find myself wondering how one can justify the decision to drink a sugar free drink with such a calorie laden meal.


Giddens A, “Risk and Responsibility”, The Modern Law Journal,vol. 62, no.1, p 6, accessed 23 August 2010 from Jstor.

The ABC in the digital domain

Mark Scott (2010, p2) wrote about the directions the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is taking in its promotion of the arts in the changing digital domain. He questioned what needed to be retained and what should be discarded. Scott (2010, p2) said that audiences were dividing into two distinct groups; those people who want to enjoy the programs as it is transmitted to them and the growing audience who want to participate in the program as it goes to air.




I feel we should treat new technology as carefully as we treat a new born child. By hastily changing to embrace the new digital programming advantages, we might destroy some of the unique elements of some programs and lose the enjoyment and entertainment that these special programs give to their audience. Careful programming may allow these items to be transmitted in forms that  keep both audiences satisfied. One division of the audience could be enjoying the artist as a unique presentation or rendition, quite oblivious to the comments and criticism being levelled at the performer by the participating division of the audience.





Scott M 2010 Retaining relevance in the digital era abc.net.au accessed 6 August 2010, http.://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/2929457.pdf