noun. The conventional media collectively (as opposed to the blogosphere) . See Old Media.
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Last night many Samizdatistas heading for Aldwych as the 2004 Big Brother Awards were held at the London School of Economics. The list of winners, who are in fact losers, can be found here1. 
Simon Davies of Privacy International is the driving force behind the Big Brother Awards…
The stout lads from No2ID were out in force…
About 450 people turned up to
This was probably the best propaganda shirt I saw! 1 = Update: The link to the Big Brother Award details has been changed, which is not very clever. Link updated to a somewhat less informative page. July 29th, 2004 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)
 We have already been alerted to a website Preparing for Emergencies that, for some strage reason, the statists want dismantled immediately. It is remarkably similar in domain name and style to the timewasting “offishal” preparingforemergencies.org.uk. Be quick to check it out as its death sentence has alreday been pronounced on Radio 4… They are not amused. Thanks to Tony Millard for the link. July 29th, 2004 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
Internetnews.com reports that the U.S. Senate voted to delay by one year the looming Oct. 26 deadline for Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries to begin issuing machine-readable passports. The House of Representatives has already approved a one-year extension. The VWP allows visitors from Europe, Japan, Australia and 22 other countries to visit the United States without having to obtain a visa. In 2002, Congress approved the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, which required those countries to issue tamper-resistant passports that incorporate biometric identifiers. According to the U.S. Department of State, neither the United States nor any of the larger VWP countries, including England, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Spain or Japan, are in a position to meet the Oct. 26 deadline. The legislation now goes to the White House, and, although President Bush sought a two-year delay, he is expected to sign the bill. Maura Harty, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that a delay in the program implementation is necessary because of technological challenges encountered by the United States and the visa waiver countries. She cited issues, such as chip availability, the security of the data on the embedded chips and the international interoperability of readers. Harty said the United States does not expect delivery of the 64 kilobyte “contactless” chips needed for the passports until next year, and the State Department does not anticipate completing the transition to biometric passports until the end of 2005. July 29th, 2004 | Comments are closed
There are plenty worse [than Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan] in the nation’s upper house – John Kerry, Edward Kennedy, Christopher Dodd, Claiborne Pell, Alan Cranston and the appalling Howard Metzenbaum, to name just six. N.B. Top of the list of shame! July 28th, 2004 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
As we used to chant at demonstrations, “the whole world’s watching!” Except this time it is not the media acting as the intermediary between watcher and watchee. The whole world is watching the political reporters this time around and the most important blog stories will be the ones they do not talk about. This is not to mention the unposed and ‘off the cuff’ imagery we will be seeing. Are DNC parties better than LPC parties? Do they have an equivalent to the Kansas Caucus? Enquiring minds want to know! A note to any of our compadres who are attending: The National Space Society will be holding a party there. Drop by and say hello to George Whitesides. July 28th, 2004 | Comments are closed
Although not in the mainstream news as much as the story deserves, the thus far peaceful (from the student side at least) Iranian intifada is alive and well. Unfortunately the same can not be said for some of its members. The Mullahcracy continues to visit violence and imprisonment upon such supporters of liberty. In response, some of the imprisoned are carrying out a hunger strike to gain international attention for their plight.
My cynical side wonders if one who has a ‘close relationship with the ruling mullahs’ would help the students for reasons other than a belief in democracy and human rights. Nah. These are civilized and nuanced European leaders. July 28th, 2004 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Britain’s government has a website telling us all manner of splendid things about how we are protected by the state now that we have David Blunkett watching over us… and what we should do in the event of a spot of bother happening when Blunkett is off on a tea break. Yet it seems a more, well, candid version of this site has also helpfully been made available to us by our political masters. (with thanks to the eagle-eyed Guy Herbert for spotting this) July 28th, 2004 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
July 27th, 2004 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
If you have enjoyed the discussion about commercial space and the future here on Samizdata, you might find The Space Meetup of interest. The Meetup website is a good example of ways in which internet entrepreneurs are building businesses on the community aspect of the internet, and in this case assisting the creation of a global community in the non-cyberworld. July 27th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
I found this interesting site called Abandoned.ru (via the irrepressible Good Shit) and as ‘Tears for Fears’ once said (said he, showing his age), there is a beauty of decay. For an old cyberpunk like me, stained concrete, jagged bare metal and pools of water under ruined roofs are a rhapsody of shadows for the darker parts of the soul. Go check out Uryevich’s excellent series of photo essays. And yes, I am so ready to play Stalker… July 27th, 2004 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
Senator John Kerry had one of those moments the other night. For reasons best known to themselves, the Democrats have decided to hold their presidential nominating convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Two findings have emerged from this decision. First, that Americans outside the North-East are being reminded that the Democrats have a liberal New England candidate, with limited appeal outside his backyard. Second, that the traffic chaos caused by the Convention is very unpopular with the inhabitants of that town. Conspiracy theorists claim that the Republican Governor of Massachusetts has deliberately botched up the arrangements. So in front of thousands of baseball fans, Sen. John Kerry was introduced to throw the first pitch of the match between the Boston Red Socks against the New York Yankees on Sunday. First, the fact that the Democratic Convention was happening in Boston was booed by virtually the entire 36,000 crowd. Then most of the crowd booed again (although there were cheers) when Kerry was introduced. Then the macho-man threw the ball short, and the catcher missed. Cue mirth, giggles and fun on the George W Bush blog. Memo to politicians and actors: never work with babies, animals or baseball fans. July 27th, 2004 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
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