Swandives

Human rights. It’s a pretty big deal. It’s one of the reasons journalists are always harping on about The Great Firewall of China, which censors internet content and (in)famously marked the moment when Google went against its corporate values and became evil.

And if the Federal Government has its way, Australia will soon have a great firewall of its own.

At the moment ACMA is trialling an ISP-level filtering system which, ostensibly, is aimed at helping parents protect kids from the more unsavoury aspects of the web. I can understand the challenges parents face in this regard - it’s a bit of a minefield if you’re not technically savvy, and kids generally have it all over mum and dad/gran and pop when it comes to Net nous. The worry, however, is the ‘ISP-level filtering’ aspect.

The problem with the plan currently on trial is what starts out as a mild-mannered idea to save the children ends up as internet policing. It’s not so big a jump to go from this level of filtering to filtering for copyright breaches, for example. It’s known in industry parlance as scope creep. Innocuous enough under normal standards. Far from it when we’re talking about our right to access the internet as an essential service. Call me cynical, but I don’t believe it will stop at saving da kiddies.

Filtering would be mandatory in homes and schools and would be based on a blacklist of prohibited content. The arguments can get quite technical but it boils down to expense, slowing everything down and the potential for sites to be incorrectly filtered.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has set up a campaign webpage at http://nocleanfeed.com. I must admit, I’ve signed the petition. And you can follow all the commentary on Twitter if you’re registered - just search for #nocleanfeed.

Note to John McCain: you don’t do yourself any favours by comparing Obama to Paris Hilton. Coz Paris will getcha good and she may just well end up running against you (and painting the White House pink). Bloody funny.

Image via WikipediaCue the Twilight Zone music: something weird is happening. I posted a minor rant about my disappointment with Weight Watchers and it mysteriously disappeared. The WW faeries came and took it away - if only they could do the same for the extra 8 kg of lard that’s hanging around right now. But thank you for all your ideas and comments - they’ve been filed away where I will put them to good use.

Yesterday I ran 4 km and then did a pump class. I was a wee bit weary by the end of it all. But I’ve entered the City to Surf so it’s training, here we come. I wasn’t going to enter because with only a few weeks left, it’s unlikely that I’ll get the 14 km even at my snaily pace, but I had a mini epiphany - I don’t actually have to run the entire way. Hell, most people don’t run the entire way. And all of a sudden, the C2S stopped being this painful chore and started being potentially fun. So that’s the plan, anyway.

Of course, this comes in the first year that C2S offers timing chips, so I’ll know exactly how slow I am. I am very happy about the chips and it’s providing extra incentive to train but why in the very year when I decide to be zen about my time and walking? Oh well. There’s always next year.

… in other news, a truly weird moment watching the news on the tele tonight. Actually, I was listening, not watching. It was all about the wildfires in California, which are pretty dire by the sounds of things. Too many fires, not enough resources to fight them all, forcing fire fighters to pick and choose and leave some to burn. The news coverage switched to the obligatory pollie news grab, and all of a sudden I was listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring a state of emergency and ordering the National Guard to assist in the efforts.

It was a surreal moment because my first reaction was to think, “Why doesn’t Arnie just put the fires out?”. He saved the world countless times - he even saved Mars, for goodness sake! A few fires should be a doddle, right? A few moments later common sense kicked in: “D’uh Swannie, this is real life we’re talking about, not some movie.” Oh yeah. Right. Darn.

With all the hullabaloo, hand wringing and haggling surrounding Facebook, MySpace, Twitter et al, it’s easy to become complacent and cynical about the social networking phenomenon.

Then something happens to remind us of the potential positive power these networks have.

Today, thousands of Australians have in their own small way helped reconciliation in this country - making a profound statement simply by updating their social network status of choice. All over Facebook, for example, individuals are saying sorry. And suddenly, it’s not just our government making an apology in parliament - it’s about Australians being part of that sentiment. Which in turn makes it more than just sentiment. Now that’s powerful.

Where would we be without Alan Ramsay? He has written a very interesting piece in the SMH about the pulp mill in Tasmania. Very interesting indeed. An excerpt:

Note the binding date of the length of the approval. Fifty years. Gunns Ltd now has watertight legal standing from the Australian people, courtesy of a government and a prime minister so thoroughly on the nose with voters they’re headed for imminent electoral defeat, to go on destroying, for the next half century, what remains of Tasmania’s magnificent old-growth forests for woodchipping fodder for a $2 billion pulp paper mill in the Tamar Valley, south of Launceston.

The incumbent government is not the only one at fault here either, as this piece also notes. I saw Peter Garrett toeing the party line on the news last night. It made me so sad. Midnight Oil has always been one of my favourite bands and, in a matter of about 20 seconds, he undid 20 years’ work. This is why politics is an evil profession - it forces people to compromise their ideals until there is nothing left. Sigh.