Storm over leak of vital sites - The Hindu

AP The internet homepage of Wikileaks is shown in this photo taken in New York on Dec. 1, 2010. Photo: AP A comprehensive inventory of what the United States considers “critical infrastructure and key resources,” has been published online by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website, raising the pitch of the debate surrounding its exposé of secret U.S. State Department cables.

According to the cable, dated February 18 2009 and sent from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to all U.S. diplomatic outposts abroad, the State Department requested diplomats to update the “vital” sites list, which included telecommunication infrastructure, gas pipelines, mineral mines, medical research facilities, weapons components manufacturers and transportation hubs.

The sites mentioned in India include chromite mines in Orissa and Karnataka and a company called Generamedix in Gujurat, which the cable suggests is involved in producing chemotherapy agents, including florouracil and methotrexate.

Issuing a request for action to U.S. diplomatic posts world over the Secretary’s cable said the State Department required “compilation and annual update of a of critical infrastructure and key resources that are located outside U.S. borders and whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the U.S.” The cable added that under the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 “critical infrastructure” was defined as systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, “so vital to the U.S. [that] the incapacitation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact” on U.S. national security.

Condemnation of the release of the list followed swiftly, particularly in the United Kingdom, where a Downing Street spokesman was quoted as saying, “We unequivocally condemn the unauthorised release of classified information. The leaks and their publication are damaging to national security in the U.S., Britain and elsewhere.”

However Mark Stephens, the lawyer representing WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, who is on the run from authorities, was said to have denied that Wikileaks was putting people and facilities at risk.

According to the BBC he said, “I do not think there is anything new in that... What I think is new is the fact that it has been published by Wikileaks and of course we have the Wikileaks factor because a number of governments have been embarrassed by what has happened.”

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Google to Release New 'Nexus' Phone - Wall Street Journal

Google Inc. said it is launching a new smartphone, developed with Samsung Electronics Co., along with a new version of the Android software for mobile devices.

The Nexus S phone will be sold in mid-December through retailers such as Best Buy Co. Inc., said Andy Rubin, a Google vice president of engineering who leads the Android team. The Nexus S will be sold for $199 with a two-year T-Mobile USA contract in the U.S. It will also be sold for $529 without a service contract.

Google is shifting strategies it used with the last Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, which launched earlier this year and was sold directly to consumers through a Google Web store. Executives at wireless carriers said the Nexus One didn't sell well, though Mr. Rubin claimed more than 100,000 were sold in three months. Google closed the Web store a few months ago.

The Nexus S smartphone will feature front- and rear-facing cameras so users can make video calls, similar to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. It also includes technology that could help people make payments with their devices when they're on the go.

Google, in a blog post, said the new Android software that will power the Nexus S, known as Gingerbread, includes support for so-called near field communications technology. Such technology can enable third-party developers to create mobile payment applications.

The company also said Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a four-inch contoured display, which is designed to fit comfortably in the palm of the hand and along the side of the user's face.

Google won't make any money from direct sales of the Nexus S, a spokesman said. Google licenses the Android software for free to hardware makers such as Samsung.

But the adoption of Android software helps ensure that Google's Internet search, maps and other services will be a mainstay on mobile devices. Google sells ads alongside its Internet search results and helps place ads within mobile-device applications such as games, and two months ago Google executives said the company was on track to generate $1 billion annually in mobile-related revenue.

Android is making significant gains in the smartphone market, claiming 23.5% of U.S. subscribers aged 13 years old and up in October, up from 17% in July, according to estimates by comScore Inc. Apple had 24.6% of U.S. subscribers in October, up from 23.8% in July, comScore said. Research In Motion Ltd, maker of the BlackBerry, continued to slip, dropping to 35.8% from 39.3% during the same period.

Write to Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com

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Art Prof Lets World Peer Through His Surgically Embedded 3rd Eye - TechNewsWorld

For the next year, Wafaa Bilal, an assistant art professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, will record his life through still images taken at one-minute intervals by a camera surgically attached to the back of his head.

The photos will be sent to an art museum in Qatar which commissioned the work.

Bilal is known for controversial art projects, and this latest one has stirred up the faculty and staff at NYU.

His project could be seen as one type of "sousveillance" -- the recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant.

Bilal had three titanium plates implanted under the skin in the back of his head at a body modification shop. The plates each have a post attached that sticks out through the skin when it's sewn back over the plates.

A 10-megapixel color digital camera measuring one inch by two inches was then screwed on to the posts.

The camera will regularly snap images, and the photos will be transmitted to his server via a cell phone worn on his body. Ultimately, they'll be sent to the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, which commissioned the project, called "The Third I." The museum, which will open Dec. 30, will display a live stream of the photos.

"No doctor wanted to do this, so piercing was my next best option," Bilal told TechNewsWorld. "It was done safely."

Bilal has already seen some fallout from his efforts. NYU asked him to cover the camera with a lens cap while he was on university property, in order to protect the privacy of staff and students. He has agreed to do so.

That might put a crimp in his ambition to document his life minute by minute for the next year, but Bilal has come up with a solution -- blank images tagged with the time,, date and GPS location will be sent back to his server when the camera lens is capped.

Apparently several acquaintances have taken him off their guest lists for future gatherings because of the camera as well.

Further, as can be imagined, Bilal has trouble when trying to sleep -- he can only sit up, propped up by pillows.

Bilal has racked up a bit of a reputation for himself with his projects.

Earlier this year, he reportedly received over 100,000 tiny tattoos on his back to commemorate those killed in the war in Iraq, where he was born.

The project, titled "... and Counting," consisted of his getting the names of Iraqi cities tattooed on his back along with 5,000 red dots to represent American military personnel killed there and 100,000 dots in UV ink to represent the official death toll for Iraqi citizens. The entire procedure was streamed live on the Web.

In 2007, his dynamic installation "Domestic Tension" had him sit in front of a paintball gun, with cameras streaming this over the Web 24 x 7.

A 2008 project, titled "Virtual Jihadi," consisted of a video game into which he inserted an avatar of himself as a suicide bomber hunting then-president George W. Bush.

Is Bilal really a publicity hound?

"I am nothing if not a storyteller," Bilal said. "All of my work to date has been concerned with the communication of public and private information to an audience so it may be retold and distributed. The stories I tell are political dramas."

Bilal's latest project may be thought of as a type of sousveillance. The term was coined by Steve Mann to describe the recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant.

Mann's a professor in the University of Toronto's department of electrical and computer engineering. He worked at MIT, where he was one of the founding members of the Wearable Computers Group in the MIT Media Lab.

Dec. 24 was denoted World Sousveillance day in 2001. Sousveillance by citizens of a state has been credited with exposing problems such as electoral misdeeds or election fraud. For example, voters in Sierra Leone and Ghana used mobile phones to check electoral malpractice and voter intimidation during elections in 2007.

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Wal-Mart, global warming cases will get hearings before Supreme Court - Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court: High court agrees to hear Wal-Mart, global warming cases - latimes.com div.thumbnail span.credit { font-weight: normal !important;}div.article div.articlerail ul li.relatedTitle, div.storygallery div.storyGalleryRail ul li.relatedTitle { font-size: 12px !important;} Mobile Site Subscribe/Manage Account Print Ads Place an Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals More Classifieds   NATION HOME Breaking Crime L.A. Apps Weather Traffic Obits Community Crosswords Holiday Guide Wine Club Local L.A. Now Politics Crime Education O.C. Westside Neighborhoods Environment Obituaries FindLocal U.S. Politics Now Top of the Ticket Science & Environment Obituaries Religion World Afghanistan & Pakistan Africa Asia Europe Iran Iraq Latin America Mexico Under Siege Middle East Business Money & Co. Technology Personal Finance Small Business Company Town Jobs Real Estate Cars Sports Lakers Clippers Dodgers Angels NFL Ducks/Kings USC UCLA Soccer High Schools Scores/Stats Entertainment Movies TV Music Celebrity Arts & Culture Company Town Calendar Envelope Books FindLocal Health Booster Shots Fitness & Nutrition Medicine Mental Health Healthcare Reform Breast Cancer Diabetes Living Home Food Image Books Parenting FindLocal Brand X Magazine Your Scene Cars Travel California Hawaii Mexico Las Vegas Europe Asia Australia Travel & Deal Blog Destinations Opinion Editorials Op-Ed Letters Opinion L.A. More Corrections Readers' Rep Photos Video Blogs Data Desk Comics Puzzles & Games Community Mobile Site Subscribe/Manage Account Print Ads Place an Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals More Classifieds Weekly Ad In the News: dwp Gay marriage Kennedy Center Honors College bowls Box office Wal-Mart, global warming cases will get hearings before Supreme Court The Supreme Court agrees to take up two cases of interest to corporate America: whether a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart can proceed as a class action, and whether courts can put limits on carbon emissions from power plants. Share Related Interactive: Major Supreme Court cases High court ruling on Arizona act could shape immigration law Supreme Court questions broad use of exception in sunshine law to withhold documents Stories Wal-Mart will buy controlling stake in South African company to get foothold in the country High court handling of Wal-Mart appeal will have wider implications By David G. Savage, Reporting from Washington December 6, 2010|8:41 a.m.

E-mail Print Text Size sc-dc-1207-supreme-court-20101206 The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two major appeals from corporate America seeking to block mass lawsuits, one involving a huge sex-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart and the other a massive global warming suit brought against several of the nation's top power producers.

In both instances, the justices said they will consider blocking the mass lawsuit from proceeding toward a trial.

In the Wal-Mart case, the justices will decide whether the retail giant can be sued for sex bias in the largest workplace class action in the nation's history. A federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals in San Francisco cleared the lawsuit to proceed as a class action on behalf of 1.5 million women who were employed at Wal-Mart in the past decade.

The lawsuit contends women were regularly paid less than men and denied promotions. In its appeal, the company argues that the lawsuit should not proceed as a class action because hiring and promotion decisions are made in its 3,400 stores.

The issue of when a suit can proceed as a class action is of great interest to corporate lawyers and the trial bar. If a single suit can speak for thousands of employees, companies feel pressure to offer a settlement rather than risk a potentially crippling jury verdict.

The global warming case will decide whether judges and courts can put limits on carbon emissions on the theory that this pollution is a public nuisance. Eight states, including New York, California and Connecticut, joined with environmentalists and launched a lawsuit against the power producers in the Midwest, arguing that their coal-fired plants were contributing to climate change.

Environmentalists said they took the issue to court because Congress was not likely to take up the climate change issue and set limits on greenhouse gasses. They won a significant preliminary victory when the U.S. appeals court in New York cleared the suit to proceed.

But the power industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Obama administration joined in urging the high court to stop the lawsuit. They argue that the global warming issue and limits on carbon emissions should be decided by Congress and the White House, not by judges acting on lawsuits.

The two cases, Wal-Mart vs. Dukes and American Electric Power vs. Connecticut, will be heard in the early spring and decided by July.

david.savage@latimes.com Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive

E-mail Print Digg Twitter Facebook Read This Later   Comments (9)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ jdw2010 at 10:01 AM December 06, 2010

I wonder if these are the same environmentalists that protested nuclear power to death, such a two faced argument. When will the hippies realize you need to supply base power SOMEHOW? Wind, Solar, Hydro, etc. are not applicable for base power needs. That leaves Coal, Natural Gas, and Nuclear as primary power generation with Coal being the cheapest and Nuclear being the cleanest (in terms of greenhouse emissions). Wake up people, you can only squeeze so much blood from a stone.

jav1231 at 9:56 AM December 06, 2010

In regards to "climate change," it's the job of the courts to interpret law through the prism of precedent and the Constitution. NOT to create law. This should be a slam dunk. Hopefully.

carlsherylmorris at 9:46 AM December 06, 2010

Come on, Libs...  What you want to accomplish is not Constitutionally allowed...  Things you're trying to make lawful.. or unlawful,  needs to come from Congress...  I think the whole country is sick and tired of the courts trying to run the country..  IT IS NOT within their scope of authority...  How did you Libs ever get to thinking the way that you do???

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Gay Marriage Opponents Ask Appeals Court to Reinstate 2008 Ban - BusinessWeek

December 06, 2010, 1:12 PM EST By Pamela A. MacLean

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Supporters of a ballot measure in California that outlawed gay marriage urged a federal appeals court today to overturn a ruling that declared the law unconstitutional.

Proponents of the voter-approved 2008 state constitutional amendment banning same-sex weddings contend traditional marriages protect society’s “vital interest” in reproduction and childrearing. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco struck down Proposition 8 in August, saying the measure violated the constitutional rights of gay people to equal protection and due process.

The case before Walker was the first to go through a federal trial testing whether same-sex unions are protected by the U.S. Constitution. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco is hearing arguments today in a case that may reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The city of San Francisco and gay couples from Berkeley and Burbank sued in federal court to strike down Proposition 8, which was passed by 52 percent of voters after same-sex marriages were legalized by the California Supreme Court in a 4- 3 decision in May 2008.

Proposition 8 backers say the desire of gays and lesbians to marry is outweighed by the state’s interest in promoting child rearing through traditional heterosexual marriages.

They said in court papers that before recent movements to include same-sex relationships in the definition of marriage, “it was commonly understood and acknowledged that the institution of marriage owed its very existence to society’s vital interest in responsible procreation and childrearing.”

Same-sex marriage supporters have countered that the Constitution doesn’t permit unequal treatment under the law.

‘Responsible Procreation’

They contended in court filings that the “responsible procreation” justification can’t pass constitutional muster as a means to create a separate classification of relationships. They wrote that Proposition 8, while banning same-sex marriage, “had no effect on legal regimes governing parentage and childrearing in California.”

After the January trial over Proposition 8, Walker concluded in August that San Francisco and the gay couples had demonstrated by “overwhelming evidence” that Proposition 8 violates constitutional rights. He prohibited California from enforcing the ban on same-sex marriage.

The appeals court put Walker’s decision on hold temporarily, barring additional gay marriages in California at least until after the panel rules.

18,000 Gay Couples

About 18,000 gay couples married in California before voters passed Proposition 8. As of 2006, there were an estimated 109,000 gay couples in California, more than any other state, according to U.S. Census data compiled by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Some 36 states have passed state laws or constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. Since California approved its ban in 2008, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut have legalized same-sex marriage. Massachusetts did so in 2004.

The appeal raises a procedural issue that could sway the outcome. Both California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown declined to defend Proposition 8 in court. The measure’s campaign organizers from ProtectMarriage.com moved in to defend the amendment.

Walker said in his ruling that he doubted supporters of the ban could proceed on appeal. He said they don’t have anyone officially representing the state of California on their side and therefore lack legal standing to pursue the case.

‘State’s Interest’

The proponents say they are acting as “agents for the people” of California and as such are legally permitted to “assert the state’s interest,” according to a court filing.

Imperial County in Southern California filed an appeal jointly with marriage ban supporters, raising an additional question of whether a local government entity can act on behalf of the state.

The three-judge appeals panel set aside the first hour of today’s two-hour proceeding to deal with so-called standing issues.

The three appellate judges, selected by random drawing, are Stephen Reinhardt, who was appointed to the court in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter; Michael Daly Hawkins, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994; and N. Randy Smith, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2007.

The case is Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 10-16696, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco.) The district court case is Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 09-02292, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

--With assistance from Karen Gullo in San Francisco. Editors: Peter Blumberg, Michael Hytha

To contact the reporter on this story: Pamela A. MacLean at pmaclean@pacbell.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.

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