Tag Archives: massachusetts

Dutch Anti-Piracy Group, With MPAA’s Help, Able To Grab 29 US-Hosted Domains… With No Trial Or Notice

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Dutch Anti-Piracy Group, With MPAA’s Help, Able To Grab 29 US-Hosted Domains… With No Trial Or Notice

Now that the US government appears to be endorsing the idea of simply seizing domain names without notice( http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101128/15302012021/who-needs-coica-when-homel… ) to the proprietors of those domains, it appears that others are doing the same as well. TorrentFreak reports that the Dutch anti-piracy group, BREIN, with help from the MPAA, has been able to get 29 different domain names — all hosted in the US — to point to BREIN's homepage instead( http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-shuts-down-29-bittorrent-and-nzb-sites-101215/ ). The owners of those domains were apparently given no notice and no recourse. It sounds like most of the sites did not host any content but linked to potentially infringing content. Whether or not you believe that simply linking to potentially infringing content should be against the law, we're seeing yet another example of the simple lack of due process and how this may impact other areas. If BREIN can get US domains shut down, what's to stop other countries from doing the same thing? China doesn't like reporting by an American site about China? What's to stop it from trying to “seize” that domain? Even if we grant the idea that many of these domains were engaged in or encouraging unauthorized copying of works covered by copyright, why should BREIN and the MPAA simply get to shut them down without any sort of trial? http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-shuts-down-29-bittorrent-and-nzb-sites-101215/ Update: TorrentFreak requested a list of the affected domains from BREIN and received this response from Tim Kuik. “No that would amount to free PR for the sites that intend to continue their unlawful activities at another hosting provider. These are not large sites and we want to keep it that way.” In response to a question about how the sites were taken offline: “The sites were taken down by the hosting provider,” said Kuik. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/11300412292/dutch-anti-piracy-group-wi… added by: toyotabedzrock

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Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

His party got hammered in the midterm election, he's taking heat for compromising with Republicans on taxes and his approval levels are hovering around 45 percent, but a new survey concludes President Obama's prospects for re-election in 2012 are fairly strong. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Thursday finds while only 42 percent of respondents say they'd probably vote for the president if he runs again, just 39 percent say they'd vote for a Republican. Ten percent say it depends who the GOP opponent is. But when you put a Republican name into the equation, the numbers change — in favor of Obama. The president leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 47 to 40 percent. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota trails by 20 points, 47 to 27 percent. The president leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin 55 to 33 percent. NBC says that 22 percent spread is “an indication that the former Republican vice presidential nominee remains a polarizing figure who actually wins support for Mr. Obama.” The survey finds that nearly three-quarters of Americans personally like the president, even if they don't agree with his stands on the issues. Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells NBC the White House can see this poll as a pretty good review at the half-way point of his first term. “From my point of view, this poll is anything but a lump of coal in the president's Christmas stocking,” said Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “But there is a lot of work to be done.” McInturff concludes Obama “retains very strong numbers with a political core constituency.” Another poll out Thursday gauged Obama's re-election chances in eight swing states, most of which he won in 2008: Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The Public Policy Polling survey found the president's chances remain good in each state, with Romney the potential candidate who could put up the best fight for Republicans. added by: TimALoftis

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Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

His party got hammered in the midterm election, he's taking heat for compromising with Republicans on taxes and his approval levels are hovering around 45 percent, but a new survey concludes President Obama's prospects for re-election in 2012 are fairly strong. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Thursday finds while only 42 percent of respondents say they'd probably vote for the president if he runs again, just 39 percent say they'd vote for a Republican. Ten percent say it depends who the GOP opponent is. But when you put a Republican name into the equation, the numbers change — in favor of Obama. The president leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 47 to 40 percent. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota trails by 20 points, 47 to 27 percent. The president leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin 55 to 33 percent. NBC says that 22 percent spread is “an indication that the former Republican vice presidential nominee remains a polarizing figure who actually wins support for Mr. Obama.” The survey finds that nearly three-quarters of Americans personally like the president, even if they don't agree with his stands on the issues. Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells NBC the White House can see this poll as a pretty good review at the half-way point of his first term. “From my point of view, this poll is anything but a lump of coal in the president's Christmas stocking,” said Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “But there is a lot of work to be done.” McInturff concludes Obama “retains very strong numbers with a political core constituency.” Another poll out Thursday gauged Obama's re-election chances in eight swing states, most of which he won in 2008: Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The Public Policy Polling survey found the president's chances remain good in each state, with Romney the potential candidate who could put up the best fight for Republicans. added by: TimALoftis

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Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Poll: Obama Beats Any Republican in 2012

His party got hammered in the midterm election, he's taking heat for compromising with Republicans on taxes and his approval levels are hovering around 45 percent, but a new survey concludes President Obama's prospects for re-election in 2012 are fairly strong. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Thursday finds while only 42 percent of respondents say they'd probably vote for the president if he runs again, just 39 percent say they'd vote for a Republican. Ten percent say it depends who the GOP opponent is. But when you put a Republican name into the equation, the numbers change — in favor of Obama. The president leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 47 to 40 percent. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota trails by 20 points, 47 to 27 percent. The president leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin 55 to 33 percent. NBC says that 22 percent spread is “an indication that the former Republican vice presidential nominee remains a polarizing figure who actually wins support for Mr. Obama.” The survey finds that nearly three-quarters of Americans personally like the president, even if they don't agree with his stands on the issues. Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells NBC the White House can see this poll as a pretty good review at the half-way point of his first term. “From my point of view, this poll is anything but a lump of coal in the president's Christmas stocking,” said Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “But there is a lot of work to be done.” McInturff concludes Obama “retains very strong numbers with a political core constituency.” Another poll out Thursday gauged Obama's re-election chances in eight swing states, most of which he won in 2008: Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The Public Policy Polling survey found the president's chances remain good in each state, with Romney the potential candidate who could put up the best fight for Republicans. added by: TimALoftis

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A blow to Obamacare

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on A blow to Obamacare

A federal Judge has ruled in favor of Virginia’s challenge to the Constitutionality of Obamacare. This is the beginning of the unraveling of this new federal health care mandate. Score one for the Tea Party! They were adamant that the law was unconstitutional and they were right. I wonder if our Massachusetts Congressional Delegation will now admit they were wrong. I won’t hold my breath. On a different note this might be bad news for Romneycare and Mitt’s Presidential aspirations. Continued at http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/lone_republican/index.php/2010/12/13/a-bl… . added by: Dagum

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Wikileaks: Anonymous stops dropping DDoS bombs, starts dropping science

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Wikileaks: Anonymous stops dropping DDoS bombs, starts dropping science

Sean Bonner is one of the guys behind Metblogs, Neoteny Labs, Crash Space and has previously been involved with art galleries and record labels of the punk rock variety. If this image is to be believed—and I have no reason not to, other than that I found it on the internet—the rebel squadrons behind Anonymous (attn. “news” hacks – that would be an entirely different group from Wikileaks and/or Wikipedia) are about to change their approach. So far, as we've witnessed, they have been launching point-and-click distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks at companies perceived as the enemies of Wikileaks. Those targets included Mastercard, Paypal, and Visa (companies that froze donation funding), and Amazon (which denied hosting services). The new approach suggests more sophisticated thinking. This new mission, apparently, is to actually read the cables Wikileaks has published and find the most interesting bits that haven't been publicized yet, then publicize them. In my opinion, this action would have far more positive impact. Anonymous often repeats the Orwell quote, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” Looks like they decided to take those words to heart. http://boingboing.net/2010/12/09/anonymous-stops-drop.html added by: ras_menelik

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Senate DADT Vote Fails

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Senate DADT Vote Fails

Supporters of “don't ask, don't tell” repeal in the current lame-duck session of Congress were dealt a major blow Thursday when the U.S. Senate failed to move forward on the national defense bill. The vote to proceed to debate on the defense bill, of which DADT repeal is a component, was 57-40 —three votes shy of the 60 votes that Democrats needed. Though Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine voted to support moving forward on the defense bill, no Republicans colleague followed suit. Senators crucial to repeal voted No, including senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe of Maine. The failed vote comes after intense negotiations in the senate, where independent Sen. Joe Lieberman served as a de facto intermediary between Democratic Senate majority leader Reid and Collins, who supports the repeal of “don't ask, don't tell” but urged a “fair and open” process for the Defense Authorization spending bill. On Wednesday evening, Reid had postponed a full vote in the Senate on the bill that includes language to repeal the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian troops. Reid on Thursday criticized Republican opposition to moving ahead on the defense bill as harmful not only to DADT repeal, but to the armed forces as a whole. “Despite the critical importance for our troops, for our nation, and for justice that we get this bill done, we have not been able to reach an agreement,” Reid said earlier this afternoon. “And I regret to say that it is our troops who will pay the price for our inability to overcome partisan political posturing.” Update: Servicemembers United executive director Alex Nicholson called on Congress to pass DADT repeal as a stand-alone bill, issuing the following statement after the vote: “This was a major failure on the part of the Senate to simply do its job and pass an annual defense authorization bill. Politics prevailed over responsibility today, and now more than one million American servicemembers, including tens of thousands of gay and lesbian troops, are worse off as a result. “Since the votes are there in isolation, the Senate should still consider a stand-alone bill to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' law before adjourning for the winter holidays,” Nicholson said. added by: TimALoftis

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Lawyer asks judge to block video of Conn. boy’s Uzi death from ex-police chief’s trial

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Lawyer asks judge to block video of Conn. boy’s Uzi death from ex-police chief’s trial

BOSTON — Eight-year-old Christopher Bizilj — 4-foot-3 and 66 pounds — stepped up to the firing range to shoot an Uzi as his father and 11-year-old brother watched from a few feet away. As Christopher fired the 9mm micro submachine gun at a pumpkin, the weapon flipped backward and shot him in the head. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Prosecutors brought manslaughter charges against the gun club where the machine gun shoot took place, two men who supplied the weapons and a small-town police chief who owns a company that sponsored the gun fair. On Monday, the first trial begins in what is expected to be a heart-wrenching recounting of Christopher's death on Oct. 26, 2008. Edward Fleury, the former police chief in the tiny western Massachusetts town of Pelham, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter as well as four counts of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. Full Story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40517427/40518258 added by: Radical_Centrist

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Plymouth Massachusetts Thankful As Coalition Restores River Used by Pilgrims

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Plymouth Massachusetts Thankful As Coalition Restores River Used by Pilgrims

Town Brook, at the Plymco dam site in Plymouth MA, USA. Image credit:all photos in this post are by Brian Graber of American Rivers, and used with permission. Odds are that you’ve heard the story of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims coming to Plymouth, Massachusetts . Maybe you’ll even tell it a… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Plymouth Massachusetts Thankful As Coalition Restores River Used by Pilgrims

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Taylor Swift Announces World Tour, Gets Serenaded by Dane Cook

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Taylor Swift Announces World Tour, Gets Serenaded by Dane Cook

Taylor Swift will soon be coming to an arena near you. The artist has announced a whirlwind 2011 tour that will take her to 87 cities in 19 countries, beginning February 9 in Singapore. What the heck is going on in this photo? Find out NOW ! “I’m so excited to go back out on tour again in 2011!” Swift said. “The Fearless tour was so much fun and even more unforgettable than I ever imagined, and I can’t wait to get back out and play my new music from Speak Now!” We’ve listed all the tour dates and locations below. February 9 Singapore February 11 Seoul, South Korea February 13 Osaka, Japan February 16 & 17 Tokyo, Japan February 19 Manila, Philippines February 21 Hong Kong March 6 Brussels, Belgium March 7 Rotterdam, Holland March 9 Oslo, Norway March 12 Oberhausen, Germany March 15 Milan, Italy March 17 Paris, France March 19 Madrid, Spain March 22 Birmingham, UK March 25 Belfast, Northern Ireland March 27 Dublin, Ireland March 29 Manchester, UK March 30 London, UK May 27 & 28 Omaha, Nebraska May 29 Des Moines, Iowa June 2 & 3 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida June 4 Orlando, Florida June 7 Columbus, Ohio June 8 Milwaukee, Wisconsin June 11 Detroit, Michigan June 14 & 15 St. Paul, Minnesota June 18 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 21 Buffalo, New York June 22 Hartford, Connecticut June 25 Foxborough, Massachusetts June 30 Greensboro, North Carolina July 1 Knoxville, Tennessee July 2 Louisville, Kentucky July 8 Charlotte, North Carolina July 9 & 10 Atlanta, Georgia July 14 Montreal, Quebec July 15 & 16 Toronto, Ontario July 19 & 20 New York, New York July 28 Grand Rapids, Michigan July 29 Indianapolis, Indiana July 30 Cleveland, Ohio August 2 & 3 Washington, DC August 6 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 9 & 10 Chicago, Illinois August 13 Lexington, Kentucky August 14 St. Louis, Missouri August 18 & 19 Edmonton, Alberta August 23 & 24 Los Angeles, California September 1 & 2 San Jose, California September 3 Sacramento, California September 6 Portland, Oregon September 7 Seattle, Washington September 10 & 11 Vancouver, British Columbia September 16 & 17 Nashville, Tennessee September 21 Tulsa, Oklahoma September 24 Kansas City, Missouri September 27 Denver, Colorado September 28 Salt Lake City, Utah October 4 Little Rock, Arkansas October 5 New Orleans, Louisiana October 8 Dallas, Texas

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Taylor Swift Announces World Tour, Gets Serenaded by Dane Cook

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