Category: Opinion
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Je suis Charlie
Earlier today, gunmen entered the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, gunning down 12 people in cold blood. The reason: the magazine published cartoons of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. This is why it is necessary to speak out against fanatical religious beliefs and to defend the right to free speech. That’s what…
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“We must be free to insult each other”
If you’ve taken the time to read the page describing what this blog is all about, you will have seen that I describe myself as a free speech radical. I believe that free speech is absolutely necessary if a democracy is to function at all. I therefore believe that any form of censorship is objectionable,…
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Technologically enhanced humans
Yesterday, The Register reported on a man who was physically assaulted at McDonalds in Paris for wearing computer assisted spectacles. He has a full account of the event, with photos taken by the computer assisted spectacles, on his own blog here. The exact reason for the attack on Dr. Steve Mann remains unclear but it…
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I’m a terrorist
What? Yes, I am a terrorist. At least, according to Marielle Gallo, a member of the European Parliament, wife to famous historian Max Gallo. In a heroic effort to prove to the world how far Mrs. Gallo is removed from her constituency (and sanity, some might argue) she stated in a recent interview that those…
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The fork or the crossroads?
We live in interesting times. Economic crisis, social upheaval, collapsing companies, rampant consumerism, revolutions, government crackdown, disappearing privacy and globalisation. It feels like there is a pressure building and like all pressure, it’s going to have to find a way out. It is my opinion that we are standing on the fork or a crossroads,…
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The silence of traditional media
As the discussion and protests against ACTA heat up across Europe, there are several media, such as newspapers and TV, that remain silent. The protests don’t make it to the evening news, there are no articles dedicated to ACTA in newspapers. That is a shame, since these media traditionally reach a large number of people.…