Music Videos Back Online on YouTube in the UK; video site reaches agreement with the PRS for Music rights collection society; premium videos to return in the next few days. (YouTube Biz Blog) Speaking of online music videos, Vevo is reportedly in talks with NBC and CBS to develop original programming for its forthcoming music video site. (Reuters)

NBCU CTO Leaves for Conviva; Darren Feher will be CEO of the online video distribution company, which has a multi-year agreement with NBCU. (paidContent)

RollingShutter Removes Video Wiggle; plug-in tool for After Effects straightens objects that get tilted because of the CMOS sensors. (The Foundry)

Livestation and Telestream Pick Wowza for Multiple Screen Streaming; the Wowza Media Server 2 streams live entertainment to devices like the iPhone. (emailed release)

NDS and TNS Team Up for Individual TV Tracking; the opt-in service is able to monitor viewing habits of individual users. (Multichannel News)

Cable Cos Cry Foul Over Franchise Fees; they are lobbying hard to get a law passed in California that would require satellite operators to pay up to provide service. (The LA Times)

Cherchant à parfaire mon Anglais, je cherchais une Web-TV proposant des chaines d’information dans la langue de Shakespaere. Je suis tombé par hasard sur Livestation.

Voici comment l’installer.

Nous allons tout d’abord télécharger le fichier sur le site de Livestation.

Je vous propose de l’enregistrer dans le dossier  Documents.

Ouvrez ensuite une console et tapez : cd /home/Votre_User/Documents

Tapez ensuite :

chmod +x ./Livestation*

sudo ./Livestation*

Une fois le fichier décompressé, votre console va se figer. Tapez alors q puis y (pour passer la licence et l’accepter). Tapez ensuite Entrée pour tous les choix proposés.

Nous allons maintenant créer un lanceur. Je vous propose d’enregistrer l’icône ci-dessous :

Faites un clic droit sur Applications => Éditer les menus.

Cliquez sur Son et Vidéo puis + Nouvel élément et remplissez comme ci-dessous :

Au premier lancement il vous faudra entrer votre e-mail ainsi que votre mot de passe afin de pouvoir sauvegarder vos préférences.

sudo ./Livestation*

Got stuck in the house on Sunday – despite the glorious weather in Cardiff there was no where for me to go and, after I exhausted Virgin Media’s supply of The Wire Series 2, not a lot to do. Sat infront of the PC and with Livestation powered up I flick through the several Pak TV channels that transmit over the internet. While Dawn, the English network, is broadcasting a quirky and irrelevant clip show, Geo in Urdu has some actual news. But without an translator sat beside me, and my Urdu being limited to the numbers one to five and the word azad, I’m sat clueless as to who the moustached guy shouting about talibanisation is.

Thankfully someone, lets call him Ali of Sweden, is in Livestation’s GEO chatroom ranting about said man and opened the curtains for me a little. Little did I know I’d end up having a stilted conversation with a Taliban apologist. This is a rough transcript of the conversation:

Ali: I hate this man! Why are they allowing this terrorist to speak! He makes my blood boil!
Saesneg: Hi!
Ali: Talibanisation! What is he talking about?
Saesneg: Could you help me out here? Who is speaking?
Ali: A son of Pakistan.
Saesneg: I mean the guy on the TV?
Ali: He’s a terrorist!
Saesneg: He’s a what now?
Ali: He orchestrated the ethnic violence in Karachi. He runs a terrorist party. Blaming the Taliban! The media only gets a one sided view.
Saesneg: Yeah but who is he?
Ali: He is scum! He is no pakistani! He is a terrorist!

At this point I guessed he’s talking about Altaf Hussain, leader of the MQM, and later through Dawn News I learn he had met with Zardari on Sunday night and discussed uniting the MQM with the PPP over the Taliban threat. I thought Mr Ali could help me finally watch some proper Pakistani news and might even teach me a thing or two. Or make my eyes pop out of my head.

Saesneg: So that’s Altaf Hussain? Fair enough, what about talibanisation is he talking about?
Ali [after largely ignoring my question for a minute or two]: He’s blaming the Taliban! They always get the blame! The media just gives you one side of the picture – The Taliban are innocent!
Saesneg: The Taliban are innocent?
Ali: Yes, they’re uneducated. They have the right cause, for justice and honour for pakistan, but they don’t know how to put it into practice.

At this point I thought entering into a debate with this guy wouldn’t be as half as interesting as getting to the bottom of why he feels like this.

Saesneg: What is the right cause?
Ali: He makes my blood boil! I can’t listen to him! Terrorist!
Saesneg: But what is the cause that the Taliban are fighting for?
Ali: For justice and honour for all in Pakistan.
Saesneg: People don’t get justice in Pakistan now, though the current Pakistani state?
Ali: Yeah they do, if your related to the judge. All judges are corrupt.

The best I could get out of him was that the Taliban are fighting with the Pakistani state out of alienation caused by corruption, or at least this was why he supported their cause. So if you’re alienated from the Pakistani state it is OK to pick up arms? Should Pakistan totally replace its judicial and political system with rule by Qazis? What exactly do you want Ali of Sweden?

Saesneg: So what alternative would you like to see?
Ali: I’ve got to go now, Riz Kahn is on Al Jazeera!

My investigation of the only Taliban fan I’ve ever met is ended adruptly thanks to a chat show (which wasn’t even on that night…). I don’t know what to make of that conversation and what it represents, if anything or anybody. He doesn’t like the MQM and says they are terrorists but the Taliban, whose associated groups control Swat and hold sway in other parts of Pak, are misunderstood and misguided? Was he just a troll or something else? I wonder that, maybe, he should go to NWFP with a powerpoint presentation like a naff strategic consultant and give Muslim Khan and others some pointers and set them on course to save Pakistan.

And then I wonder how he’d feel if he was living in Swat, and not Sweden.

De Nederlandse applicatie Mobinews krijgt er een buitenlands broertje bij: Television. De naam maakt duidelijker dat het om tv-beelden gaat, maar qua functionaliteit is de applicatie grotendeels hetzelfde. Je kunt met de applicatie tv-programma’s van buitenlandse omroepen bekijken op de iPhone en iPod touch. Er zitten uitzendingen van CNN, NBC en MTV bij, maar ook hoogtepunten van de BBC, ARD, TF1 en nog veel meer. In totaal worden er 50 tv-programma’s doorgegeven van 30 kanalen.

Alle programma’s zijn voorzien van een omschrijving en datum. Net als bij Mobinews wordt de content in Television zo recent mogelijk gehouden en wordt er voortdurend ververst, zodat je niet naar oud materiaal zit te kijken. Tv-kijken kan alleen via het Wi-Fi-netwerk, omdat de applicatie volgens de voorwaarden van Apple niet via het 3G-netwerk mag werken. De volledige lijst van zenders en programma’s staat hieronder.

Website: http://www.makayama.com/television.html

Het volledig zender- en programmaoverzicht van Television:

Verenigde Staten
CNN – Now in the News, In Case You Missed
CBS – Eye to Eye, Face the Nation
NBC – Nightly News, Meet the Press
CNBC – Fast Money
Comedy Central – Standup Highlights
VH1 – Celebrity Rehab, The Pickup Artists
Onion Networkk – All videos
College Humor TV – All videos
Digg.TV – Diggnation
CNET – First Look, Buzz Report
Discovery Channel – Highlights
National Geographic – Highlights
MTV – MTV News, music videos
NBA – News and match highlights

Engeland
BBC – Highlights from Top Gear, Torchwood, Goodness Gracious, QI
SKY – Sky News
ITN – News and Showbizz
Megawhat.Tv – Tech News

Duitsland
RTL – News, Aktuell, Wetter, Exclusiv
ARD – Tagesschau, Das Wetter
NDR – Ratgeber Technik
WDR – Die Sendung mit der Maus, Käptn Blaubär
ZDF – Heute, Wetten Dass Backstage, Aktuelle Sportstudio

Frankrijk
TF1 – Le Journal, Météo
M6 – Six Minutes
BFM – Première Edition
iTele – iTele News

Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction

It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—BDS for short—was born.

Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause, and talk of cease-fires is doing little to slow the momentum. Support is even emerging among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel. It calls for “the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions” and draws a clear parallel with the antiapartheid struggle. “The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves.… This international backing must stop.”

Yet even in the face of these clear calls, many of us still can’t go there. The reasons are complex, emotional and understandable. And they simply aren’t good enough. Economic sanctions are the most effective tools in the nonviolent arsenal. Surrendering them verges on active complicity. Here are the top four objections to the BDS strategy, followed by counterarguments.

1. Punitive measures will alienate rather than persuade Israelis. The world has tried what used to be called “constructive engagement.” It has failed utterly. Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against Lebanon and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive measures—quite the opposite. The weapons and $3 billion in annual aid that the US sends to Israel is only the beginning. Throughout this key period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies. For instance, in 2007 Israel became the first non–Latin American country to sign a free-trade deal with Mercosur. In the first nine months of 2008, Israeli exports to Canada went up 45 percent. A new trade deal with the European Union is set to double Israel’s exports of processed food. And on December 8, European ministers “upgraded” the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a reward long sought by Jerusalem.*

It is in this context that Israeli leaders started their latest war: confident they would face no meaningful costs. It is remarkable that over seven days of wartime trading, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s flagship index actually went up 10.7 percent. When carrots don’t work, sticks are needed.

2. Israel is not South Africa. Of course it isn’t. The relevance of the South African model is that it proves that BDS tactics can be effective when weaker measures (protests, petitions, back-room lobbying) have failed. And there are indeed deeply distressing echoes of South African apartheid in the occupied territories: the color-coded IDs and travel permits, the bulldozed homes and forced displacement, the settler-only roads. Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent South African politician, said that the architecture of segregation that he saw in the West Bank and Gaza was “infinitely worse than apartheid.” That was in 2007, before Israel began its full-scale war against the open-air prison that is Gaza.

3. Why single out Israel when the United States, Britain and other Western countries do the same things in Iraq and Afghanistan? Boycott is not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the BDS strategy should be tried against Israel is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent, it could actually work.

4. Boycotts sever communication; we need more dialogue, not less. This one I’ll answer with a personal story. For eight years, my books have been published in Israel by a commercial house called Babel. But when I published The Shock Doctrine, I wanted to respect the boycott. On the advice of BDS activists, including the wonderful writer John Berger, I contacted a small publisher called Andalus. Andalus is an activist press, deeply involved in the anti-occupation movement and the only Israeli publisher devoted exclusively to translating Arabic writing into Hebrew. We drafted a contract that guarantees that all proceeds go to Andalus’s work, and none to me. In other words, I am boycotting the Israeli economy but not Israelis.

Coming up with our modest publishing plan required dozens of phone calls, e-mails and instant messages, stretching from Tel Aviv to Ramallah to Paris to Toronto to Gaza City. My point is this: as soon as you start implementing a boycott strategy, dialogue increases dramatically. And why wouldn’t it? Building a movement requires endless communicating, as many in the antiapartheid struggle well recall. The argument that supporting boycotts will cut us off from one another is particularly specious given the array of cheap information technologies at our fingertips. We are drowning in ways to rant at one another across national boundaries. No boycott can stop us.

Just about now, many a proud Zionist is gearing up for major point-scoring: don’t I know that many of those very high-tech toys come from Israeli research parks, world leaders in infotech? True enough, but not all of them. Several days into Israel’s Gaza assault, Richard Ramsey, the managing director of a British telecom specializing in voice-over-internet services, sent an email to the Israeli tech firm MobileMax. “As a result of the Israeli government action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company.”

Ramsey says that his decision wasn’t political; he just didn’t want to lose customers. “We can’t afford to lose any of our clients,” he explains, “so it was purely commercially defensive.”

It was this kind of cold business calculation that led many companies to pull out of South Africa two decades ago. And it’s precisely the kind of calculation that is our most realistic hope of bringing justice, so long denied, to Palestine.

*On January 14, in response to Israel’s aggression in Gaza, the EU called off its plans to upgrade the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a sign of growing understanding that political sanctions can be brought to bear to bring an end to the war.

This column was first published in The Nation

Further Information:
The only international news network covering every aspect of the war on Gaza is Al Jazeera English. The station isn’t available in North America but you can watch it live in high-quality through www.livestation.com (player download is required).

Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism by Darryl Li

Bilbao Initiative

Online history being made by Obama

Here’s a quick list of the best spots to watch Obama’s inauguration online on January 20th:

• Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies – closed captioned and flash required. The site has a wealth of information about what happens on Inauguration Day, including a handful of inaugural videos dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1957 swearing-in ceremony, as well as videos of presidential luncheons dating back to the inauguration of John Kennedy. (It also reveals, for those interested, the recipe for Obama’s luncheon meal, which features a main course of pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney.)

•  CBS News will have day-long live coverage January 20 on TV and the Web, starting at 7 a.m. EDT. Katie Couric will also host a special Webcast that night with reporters and punditry, for which viewers can submit questions during the webcast.

•  CBS streaming coverage will also be Webcast on Joost’s Everything Obama page, which also features interviews, campaign highlights, and satire clips.

•  MSNBC will be streaming the historical event on its home page and politics section, and users can embed the video into their own sites and social pages. Its inauguration page also features videos of inaugurations from decades past.

•  If a computer screen seems too small for such a momentous moment, there’s always the option of heading to a movie theater–or a Starbucks. At MSNBCEvents.com, the cable network is distributing free tickets to screenings of the inauguration in movie theaters in 21 cities (what a bargain instead of $10 a ticket for a normal movie). MSNBC is also partnering with Starbucks to

simulcast the its coverage in 650 coffee shops in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

•  Fox News will provide live streaming coverage via Hulu beginning at noon for about two hours. After the live stream, Hulu will provide on-demand access to the ceremony. The live stream is embeddable, as is an inauguration countdown from Hulu (wonder what companies will pay for commercials on Hulu, could be a wonderful way to get some cheap branding). The video site’s Obama Presidency page also features related content like speeches, commentary, satire, and past inaugural speeches.

•  C-SPAN will debut its Inauguration Hub on January 20, featuring an online “control room”–a multichannel grid designed by Mogulus with Webcasts of inauguration activities. Visitors will be able to choose from one of four live feeds featuring events like the swearing in at the Capitol, the parade, and a number of inaugural balls.

•  CNN is partnering with Facebook to provide live streaming of the swearing in and Obama’s speech. Viewers can “RSVP” for the event on Facebook, and as they watch, they will be able to provide status updates with their thoughts on the events. A Facebook window on the CNN.com Live channel will show viewers their friends’ relevant status updates.

•  Current TV and Twitter are teaming up, as they did during the election, to add real-time tweets to Current’s broadcast and Webcast of the swearing in, which starts at 11:30 a.m. EDT and will be replayed throughout the day.

•  The New York Times, the AP’s online video network, the Online NewsHour, and ABCNews.com will also live stream inauguration coverage.

•  Livestation, the peer-to-peer Internet video site, is featuring coverage from news outlets such as Al Jazeera English, BBC World News, Euronews, and France 24. Viewers will not only be able to skip through the different channels on the Livestation desktop player, but also chat with other viewers and program producers, I think these guys are really entering new territorty and this could be pretty interesting.  This is what I plan on checking out.

•  The Washington Post has a comprehensive online Inauguration guide that is particularly useful for Washington residents trying to keep track of everything happening in the city now through January 20. Visitors to the site will find some interactive features such as a video discussion on the question of “How historic is Obama’s inauguration?”

If you want to record one of these live webcasts check out these guys for a listing of software that can capture online video.  If we could only learn to paint or do artwork through online video it sure would help the artistic community.  Seems like plenty of colleges are out there hoping you get an online degree but how useful is it really?  Anyway, I digress…

If you know of any other websites where coverage will be held let me know.  Also would love to hear feedback on which websites did the best coverage.

Final preparations are underway for the inauguration and more than 4 million people plan to watch the ceremonies in D.C. Tuesday. For millions more who can’t make the trip, there are places closer to home where they can watch including their neighborhood coffee shop or on their laptops.

TV One, a cable/satellite television network, will devote 24 hours to the inauguration beginning at 7 a.m. EST; live coverage begins at 10 a.m. EST. Coverage will also show President and Mrs. Bush leaving the White House and the Obamas arriving at the Capitol and Obama’s trip to view the parade. The coverage culminates a weekend of programming honoring Barack Obama and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as celebrating the African-American network’s fifth anniversary.

In 21 cities, MSNBC  coverage will appear in movie theaters through a promotion with Screenvision. For free tickets, visit MSNBCEvents.com. CBS, MSNBC and CNN will stream inauguration coverage and ABC News will show Obama’s swearing-in ceremony on its Web site. Facebook users can post updates that will appear on CNN.com.

“The channel is also planning to announce a partnership with Starbucks to simulcast its coverage in 650 of the company’s stores,” according to a New York Times article  published this week.

The Associated Press will also provide Webcasts on Online Video Network, which distributes video content to more than 2,000 newspapers, broadcast and other media Web sites throughout the country.

C-SPAN will use Mogulus  to webcast activities over the weekend through Tuesday. Another online option is Livestation  where visitors can flick between international channels. Hulu will stream coverage; click here to embed the code. ESPNwill televise the inaugurationand “possibly carry live interviews with sports figures at the event,” according to Reuters.  The sports network will carry the pool feed from ABC.

“You won’t see a set down there or anything like that; that’s not the intention,” said Vince Doria, ESPN director of news . “But we think it’s a significant event and a significant event for our viewers.”

Some newspapers such as the New York Times will stream coverage online.

Watch parties are planned across the nation as well as screenings for the swearing-in of the 44th president. In Memphis, Obama’s inauguration will also be shown on two giants screens in the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.” To host or attend a party that’s linked – through interactive technology – with the first-ever Neighborhood Ball on Tuesday,” according to the Presidential Inauguration Committee. Update Jan. 16: The Avon Williams Campus of Nashville’s Tennessee State University  will host an all-day inaugural watch event beginning at 8 a.m. in the AWC Auditorium.

Cities such as Birmingham and Nashville will have local celebrations to mark the inauguration.

Or some may opt to watch the historic event at home such as poet laureate Maya Angelou, who was the first poet since Robert Frost to read a poem at an inauguration.

“I shall enjoy those and not miss one flicker of the camera. Not one flick,” she told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I shall be somewhere between crying and praying and being grateful and laughing when I see faces I know.”

In an unusual live Wednesday morning broadcast, I finally produced the 2nd episode of Digital Crossroads of the year. I’ve been reading and highlighting and writing about Gaza. This show is about thinking critically before you trust what you read in the news.

Funeral at UN school struck by Israel

Below you can click to listen to the 30-minute show as it aired on Boise Community Radio and Radio Free Moscow. If you make it all the way through the show, please check out the additional 10 minutes I did live this morning on RadioBoise.org covering Obama’s support from the “defense lobby” as well as reports inside Gaza. Hear from Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian human rights activist, and from Sameh Habeb, a Palestinian photographer. More links and photos after the jump.

To download or stream the show, click here- Gaza: Wake Up America (mp3)

Check out an additional 10 minutes here- DC 2009 B-Side (mp3)

In a story published Jan. 9th by Alternet from New America Media, Shane Bauer covers “What You’d Know About Israel if you Watched Al Jazeera TV.”

He writes, the 350 reporters who descended on Israel when the conflict began are stuck at the border between Israel and Gaza. Instead of giving their viewers up-close pictorial evidence of what is occurring in Gaza, television networks have been restricted to showing their viewers plumes of smoke as they rise in the distance.

“There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” an enraged John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros in front of the Al Shifa hospital Thursday. Those words came after the Israeli Defense Forces bombed a UN school that was being used as a refuge. Later in the day, a second UN school was struck by the Israelis, killing at least 40. Ging insisted, “Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized and they have the right to be because there is no safe haven… This violence needs to stop now. Neither side can wait for the other to stop first.”

Meanwhile the world’s only live coverage of the tragedy is kept away from American eyes. While Al Jazeera English competes with CNN and BBC as one of the largest networks in the world, no major American cable provider has been willing to carry the channel since it launched in 2006. But Al Jazeera is finding its way around the problem. Today, Americans can download Livestation, a free program that wil let viewers watch Al Jazeera English and other international networks.

Here’s a timeline looking back at news you likely haven’t seen if you have depended on US network TV and corporate newspapers over the past 2 weeks…

Funeral in Gaza City

Jan 13- BBC News
Palestinian medical sources say 920 people have been killed in Gaza so far, of whom 292 were children and 75 were women. Israeli officials say 13 Israelis, including 3 civilians, have been killed.

Israel is still preventing international journalists from entering Gaza, making it impossible independently to confirm casualty figures.

Israeli planes have attacked more than 60 targets in Gaza as its offensive against Hamas entered its 18th day. Thirteen rocket or mortar attacks were launched from Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli police said. No one was hurt.

Human rights group al-Mizan in Gaza said more than 90,000 people had fled their homes during the violence. About 31,000 of them were staying at UN-run schools in Gaza City, which are full, in Jabliyah camp and Shati camp. The other 60,000 were staying with neighbors and relatives.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said there had been too much civilian suffering, that the fighting in Gaza should halt immediately. “In Gaza, the very foundation of society is being destroyed: people’s homes, civic infrastructure, public health facilities and schools.”
___

Jan 13- Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) Media Advisory
Indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets are illegal under international humanitarian law. However questions of legality are almost entirely off the table in the US media.

Only two network evening news stories (NBC Nightly News, 1/8/09, 1/11/09) have even mentioned international law, totalling a mere 3 percent of stories that NBC, ABC and CBS’s newscasts have broadcast on the Israeli military offensive since it began Dec. 27.
___

Jan 13- Al Jazeera, Mark Levine, U of CA, Irvine prof of Middle East history
The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by center-right Israeli intelligence think tanks.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s Dec. 31 report confirmed that the June 19 truce was only “sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by… rogue terrorist organizations.” Instead, “the escalation and erosion of the lull agreement” occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on Nov. 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Gaza Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day.”

The United Nations has flatly denied Israeli claims that Palestinian fighters were using the UNRWA school compound bombed on Jan. 6, in which 40 civilians were killed, to launch attacks, and has challenged Israel to prove otherwise.

Who will save Israel from herself? … Not the organized Jewish leadership in the US and Europe, who are even more blind to what is happening than most Israelis, who at least allow internal debate about the wisdom of their government’s policies.

… And not senior American politicians and policy-makers who are either unwilling to risk alienating American Jewish voters, or have been so brainwashed by the constant barrage of propaganda put out by the “Israel Lobby” that they are incapable of reaching an independent judgment about the conflict.
___

Jan 12- Huffington Post, James Zogby, founder of Arab American Institute
How Israel’s Propaganda Machine Works: Define the terms of debate, and you win the debate. Recognize that stereotypes work. Be everywhere, and say the same thing, and make sure your opponents remain as invisible as possible. Give no ground. Deny, deny, deny.
___

Jan 12- AP
Joe the Plumber, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher, has become a rookie war correspondent, covering the Israeli perspective for conservative website pjtv.com. There is a clip of him online in which he says to a man he is interviewing in Sderot that he has many questions but he can’t think of any of them.

“Why hasn’t Israel acted sooner?” Wurzelbacher asked. “I know if I were a citizen here, I’d be damned upset. He described himself as a peaceloving man, but added, “When someone hits me, I’m going to unload on the boy. And if the rest of the world doesn’t understand that, I’m sorry.”

Wurzelbacher, who underwent intense media scrutiny during his 15 minutes of campaign fame, said pjtv enlisted him to cover Israel because he’s an expert on media bias.

“I was on the short end of the stick, like Israel is now.”
___

Jan 11- AP, Ibrahim Barzak, Christopher Torchia
International aid groups say Israel must do more to ensure the safety of civilians. They note that civilians are in many cases unable to flee to safe places in Gaza, and are essentially trapped because the territory’s exits are closed.

The UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees has resumed operations after suspending them because of Israeli attacks on its convoys. UN aid vehicles were moving around Gaza on Sunday and UN workers tended to about 30,000 people in shelters, but aid officials warned that the dire security situation made it impossible to operate at full capacity.

“This is a very small fraction of what we normally do in the Gaza Strip,” said Filippo Grandi of the UN Relief and Works Agency. “Things might get worse.”

Israel has warned Gaza residents of a wider offensive. On Sunday, it dropped leaflets urging Gaza residents to report the whereabouts of Hamas fighters, providing a phone number to call.

British Mideast envoy Tony Blair and Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visited Jerusalem Sunday, supporting Israel, while claiming to seek a truce.
___

Jan 11- AP, Jason Keyser
Human Rights Watch said Sunday that Israel’s military has fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.

Researchers in Israel from the rights group could not confirm injuries on the ground because they have been barred from entering the territory.

Israel used white phosphorus in its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The US military in Iraq used the incendiary during a Nov. 2004 operation in Fallujah.
Israel is not party to a convention regulating its use. Under customary laws of war, however, Israel would be expected to take all feasible precautions to minimize the impact of white phosphorus on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

MORE ABOUT WHITE PHOSPHORUS BY CLICKING HERE

Human Rights Watch senior military analyst Marc Garlasco said photos published Thursday in British newspaper The Times showed Israeli units handling American-manufactured white phosphorus shells with fuses on them.
___

Jan 10- Editor & Publisher
Three weeks into the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, The New York Times editorial page has barely mentioned the severe Israeli-enforced press restrictions that have hampered all media coverage from the war zone, including reporting on civilian casualties. The Times carried on brief mention in one editorial but no full editorial or repeated calls.

On the other hand, the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz included the subject in its own editorial Sunday, which concluded: “The IDF’s manipulations of the media, which willingly cooperates, may be good for the army, but it’s very bad for Israeli democracy.”
___

War part of Israel's regional plan?

Jan 9- Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Israeli military’s bombing today of a Gaza City building that houses the offices of a number of international news organizations.

The Israeli Dense Forces (IDF) attacked the rooftop of Al-Johara Tower. It is an eight-story building located in Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, according to multiple news outlets. At least one journalist was injured.

At least one journalist has been killed in Gaza in direct relation to his work since the Israeli offensive began on Dec. 27, CPJ research shows. Basil Ibrahim Faraj, an assistant cameraman for the Palestinian Media and Communications Company, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Egypt after suffering head injuries when his crew came under fire on the first day of the military campaign.

Media facilities have come under Israeli fire in two other instances since the military campaign started. On Jan. 5, the IDF bombed the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala newsweekly, according to multiple news agencies. On Dec. 29, the IDF shelled the headquarters of Al-Aqsa TV, destroying the facilities. The IDF has sporadically taken over the frequencies of Al-Aqsa to call on Palestinians to abandon Hamas.
___

Jan 8- New York Times, op-ed by Rashid Khalidi
Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and seacoast, and its forces enter the area at will. The blockade of fuel, electricity, imports, exports and movement of the people has led to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.

Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip. This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Moshe Yaalon, then the IDF chief of staff, said in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”
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Jan 5- The Independent, Robert Fisk
Keeping out the cameras and reporters simply doesn’t work.
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Jan 2- Dissident Voice, Stephen Lendman
The dominant media vilify Hamas, stay silent about Gazan suffering, are mute on the crippling blockade, its devastating human toll, and practically champion Israel’s call for “all-out war” and the slaughter of defenseless men, women, children and infants.

On Dec. 30 at 5:00 AM, Israeli gunboats (without warning) attacked the humanitarian boat Dignity (in international waters 90 miles from Gaza) bringing three tons of medical supplies. It was rammed three times, heavily damaged, and took on water. It managed to get to the Lebanese port of Tyre in the afternoon. The Free Gaza Movement founder, Paul Laurdee, said 11 Israeli vessels surrounded Dignity, ordered it to stop, but it refused.

The New York Times was silent on the incident.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Bush administration also supplied the Israeli Air Force with “a new bunker-buster missle” called GBU-39, a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision, minimal collateral damage strikes.

Congress authorized 1000 of them in Sep, and defense officials said the first shipment arrived in early Dec. for use in penetrating underground Gaza Kassam launcher sites and bombing Egyptian border tunnels in Rafah through which emergency supplies were funneled.

Israel’s PR spin began before the assault. According to the Guardian, “the foreign ministry honed its message and ammassed its staff” and in Sderot, a multilingual media center was opened to brief foreign journalists. Everything was orchestrated. Tzipi Livni briefed around 80 international representatives and dignitaries in the Sderot media center. She also called foreign ministers in half a dozen powerful countries.

Israel is a serial aggressor. Its lawlessness can no longer be tolerated. Mass outrage and world pressure must build for a global campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions until its human rights abuses stop, its war crimes are punished, its occupation and colonization end, Palestinian refugees have the right to return, and the people of Gaza and the West Bank achieve their long-denied self-determination rights in an internationally recognized sovereign state, free from Israeli oppression. For people of conscience, that’s Resolution One for the New Year.
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Jan 1- Dissident Voice, Belen Fernandez
The Israeli Foreign Ministry was tasked with staging a global PR assault according to an article in Haaretz. One component of the assault was the forced exodus of all ministry officials presently vacationing in Israel, and their reinstallation in their respective foreign outposts. Speakers of various languages might explain the situation in Gaza to visiting media representatives. Tzipi Livni’s view on political accountability, she informed the Knesset, was that commitment to democracy could not get in the way of protecting Israeli citizens.
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heard about the pro-Gaza march in Spain?

More than 100,000 demonstrators in Spain opposed Israel’s attack on Gaza.

The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Read the article here.

“Wake up America,” Kucinich said on the House of the US Congress. He read from the Washington Post about Israel preventing ambulances from rescuing children and mothers who died from the attacks. The US Senate passed a non-binding resolution in support of Israel’s attack and by default, killing of civilians. Dennis Kucinich speaks out against Congress’ blind support of Israel.

Vittorio Arrigoni writes from Gaza

Italian human rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni writes for newspaper Il Manifesto and is being carried currently on Global Voices Online. Do not click on his blog Guerrilla Radio unless you can handle seeing photographs of children killed.

“Everything you can imagine, we do not have,” Gaza-based journalist Sameh Habeeb told Zahra Hankir of Indypendent. He is forced to live in a home with nearly all of his immediate family, with hardly any food.

Digital Crossroads airs on Boise Community Radio and Radio Free Moscow, community radio stations in Idaho. Music by Ooah, The Tasteful Nudes and Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada. Wednesday afternoon, following my show, Radio Free Moscow aired an episode of Sprouts, distributed by Pacifica Radio, focused on rebuilding in Rafah, Gaza.

By Eric Garris

Want to see first-hand reporting from Gaza? Al-Jazeera’s team was there before journalists were banned.

Want to watch English-language TV news from Pakistan, India, Iran, Russia, Korea?

Want to watch Hezbollah TV without your provider going to prison?

Want to watch special movie channels, documentary channels, and various specialty channels without paying for them?

A new application called LiveStation allows you to watch thousands of different channels on your PC for free, in very high quality. Stations are being added daily, and users are able to add any stations that offer public feeds. Stations added by users become available to all LiveStation users. A chat function is also available to interact with other viewers.

The download is fast and free, and the program doesn’t appear to be buggy or a memory hog. The video quality is very good, even in full-screen mode.

LiveStation has become my new addiction. I highly recommend downloading the program and giving it a try. It is available for PC, Mac, and Linux

This article appeared on Antiwar.com on January 7, 2009.

I spent the later part of this afternoon and some of this evening beta testing the Livestation iPhone App. It’s still early days and there’s some bugs that need ironing out, but it’s looking promising. For more info read this.

Funny or Die Raises $3 Million(?); cash comes from undisclosed investor, though news reports unsure of whether this is a new round or part of the previous $15 million round. (Reuters)

ESPN to Launch Interactive TV Apps Next Year; sports network to launch three iTV initiatives, two based on the EBIF software spec and one based on Tru2Way, will allow viewers to do things like create custom data feeds and participate in votes and polls. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Last of the VHS Holdouts Gives Up the Ghost; VHS distributor Distribution Video Audio says this is the last Christmas the company will offer the antiquated format. (Ars Technica)

SAG Delays Strike Authorization Vote; ballots won’t be sent out until Jan. 14th at the earliest. (The Hollywood Reporter)

ThePlanet.com Picks EdgeCast Networks; IT infrastructure taps EdgeCast as its content delivery network. (emailed release)

Livestation™ is a new development from Skinkers

In essence it’s live video streaming to your desktop over the web, OK nothing exactly ground breaking there, but they’re also developing a version that will run on mobile devices, namely the iPhone & iPod Touch. Although technically, they can deliver the stream over a 3G network, the cell operators will likely baulk at that idea, so currently it’s only due to work via wifi. It’s not out for the iPhone or iPod Touch yet, but that’s likely to happen quite soon! Also within 3months, they have on average 5-10k per day? (so that’s quite a wide ranging average!? anywhere between 450,000 – 900,000)

Here’s the link to their blog where you can get the latest info, there’s a great interview on their with the wonderful Jemima Kiss from the Guardian

Hace un par de semanas les había hablado de Livestation, la aplicación gratuita para OS X, que te permite ver cientos de los principales canales de televisión en el mundo y en la Web en calidad HD de forma gratuita.

Pues resulta que la gente detrás de esta aplicación está actualmente trabajando en una aplicación para que puedas obtener el mismo servicio desde tu iPhone. Varias cosas que se menciona en la entrevista:

• Solo se podrá utilizar conectado a Wi-Fi.
• Será compatible con el iPhone y con el iPod Touch en ambas generaciones.

A continuación la entrevista donde por primera vez se menciona al publico los planes para una aplicación de Livestation para el iPhone, (Lo del iPhone comienza en el minuto 1:49)

Vía – iClarified

Technorati Tags: Discovery Channel, CNN, Fox, Sky News, Ministry of Sound TV, Antena3, TeleMadrid, Wapa TV, Canal 30 San Juan, Livestation, Gratis, TV, iPhone, iPod, Touch

Live-streaming TV on the iPhone? That’s what Livestation is promising, with a video demo of an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, though the app hasn’t yet been accepted by Apple (s APPL). Livestation offers peer-to-peer enabled streams from providers such as the BBC and Al Jazeera.

However, the app, once accepted by Apple, is only going to be available for Wi-Fi, which somewhat limits its utility, unless you live in one of those lucky towns with municipal Wi-Fi or happen to commute on a Wi-Fi enabled bus, train or plane.

In other video-on-iPhone news, Joost’s newly launched iPhone — which was also initially Wi-Fi only — is coming to 3G (which means you’ll actually be able to take it on the go), Joost CEO Mike Volpi told Beet.tv. Volpi said 3G access will only apply to some of Joost’s library, but it will be coming “very very shortly.”

Internet Television has enormous potential.  Currently, I don’t think there is anything in place to overtake cable television as the dominant means of (not always) mindless entertainment and, more importantly, advertisement intake.  But the stage is being set, and all the trends are pointing towards it.

The cable companies may have made a mistake by introducing OnDemand and DVR services.  It was a great idea four years ago, when the goal was to take some business from Tivo and offer an advantage over the satellite companies.  But it set a precedent, and whet our appetites for more low-commercial, time-insensitive content.

The internet, as proven by Joost, Hulu, and a slew of others,  can deliver this content more efficiently and in greater quantity. Hulu can control whether the viewer skips the advertisements, which is a huge (and underacknowledged) advantage over cable OnDemand and DVR services.  As an advertiser and sole source of income for most of television, I want my commercial seen.

Most new High-def televisions can receive input from a computer, which makes small monitor size almost a non-issue.  PC remote controls do exist, but are not widely integrated because public awareness of internet TV is still young.  In a few years, I expect a lot of people will be sitting on their couches, watching the internet.

Internet television is immune to the FCC…sort of.  As long as it get its shows from major networks and basic cable who are regulated, then (I’m gonna create an obnoxious name now) iTV will be affected vicariously.  But as it become more popular, I would expect to see popular sites like College Humor, The Onion, or Pitchfork Media creating uncensored content for channels on Hulu, Joost, or their successors.  Maybe major networks will create uncensored programming just for the interenet, or iTV providers will create their own content.  I also expect the FCC to make a power play as iTV grows, but for now its freedom offers a large advantage.  I like objectionable material.

TV on the internet offers another huge advantage over cable and satellite, much lower overhead.  Yes, it needs a high amount of bandwidth and server maintenance.  But how much do you think Comcast pays in line and broadcast maintenance, and the hiring of tens of thousands of employees for customer support, installation, and God knows what else.  Comcast has to have offices and operations in every market they’re in.  Hulu has to have one location, I assume.  A few at the most.

Live television is the one advantage that cable and satellite have, but it’s a nut that’s almost been cracked.  We saw few services that offer it in class.  There’s a few more promising one’s out there.  Zattoo seems to have already figured it out, but its currently only available in Europe.  I’m setting up Livestation as we speak, verdict pending.  The channel list looks a little weak, unless you’re a Discovery channel addict.  When you can stream the Super Bowl you can say goodbye to Comcast.

I think the biggest setback (it’s a biggie, and a recurring theme on this blog) iTV has now is the ability to generate profit.  I think the answer lies in a subsription fee, but Hulu and Joost aren’t good enough to be able to pull that off.  People are willing to pay for it, my $60 monthly cable TV bill is proof of that.  Here’s what an iTV provider will need to have.

• Way more content than the other guys.

As long as Joost and Hulu are free, its going to be tough convincing the public to pay for internet     television.  But if the variety of programming is massive enough, I’d be glad to pony up some dough for a new service.  I’m picturing a Netflix of TV, 40,000 titles to choose from.  Have old shows, obscure cult classics, international programming, and *sigh*… Friends.

This new service should be able deliver this content for a fraction of the cost of Comcast’s overhead

• A cheaper price tag than cable and satellite…for now.
  

The aforementioned lack of overhead should allow this service to charge between $15-$25 per month, under half the cost of basic digital cable.  This would allow the networks who provide the programming to keep all of their advertising revenues (I assume Hulu keeps a portion to cover its costs), and assuming these commericals are unskippable, offer a big incentive to go with the service.  This is how the service would accrue tens of thousands of programs.

As it grows in popularity, and people switch and lose cable all together, the service could create reasons to increase the price.

• Live and local programming.

This is another thing that Hulu and Joost lack, but Zattoo and Livestation have proven it can be done.  Giving local affiliates an easy to use program for broadcasting with the service would be a must.  Live sporting broadcasts would also have the same commercials as the cable counterparts.

• Shorter, more effective advertising for non-live programming.

Fewer commericials is a big incentive for iTV, and will be key for growth in the early life of the service.  There’s no reason to fuck it up.  Instead, offer commercials in mostly shorter time blocks, 15 seconds.  Have maybe three or four minutes of commercials in a 30 minute show (13-17 commercial minutes is standard on cable.  That’s still 12-16 commericals per show, and they’re mostly immune to fast forwarding or channel surfing.  Also, the viewer picked the show from thousands of others, so the chances of him finding something better to watch are very slim.  This increases the viewing chances of advertising from cable’s 25% to around 95% (completely made up, but probably somewhat accurate figures).

This should allow programmers using the service to charge ad rates comparable with cable and satellite.

• Better tracking of viewer habits.

This one’s easy.  Cable needs companies like Nielsen to install equipment on consenting viewers televisions in order estimate the viewership of its programs.  This service would be able to easily track every show that every viewer watches using very basic interenet technology, making it a more accurate tool for generating ratings figures.  People would kill for that kind of information, and the service could even sell it, becoming a Nielsen competitor, and offsetting costs.

Whew, that post was a doozie.  See y’all in class.

No outro dia andava à procura de algum software do género “Joost” que só existe para Windows e acabei por encontrar uma informação num Blog acerca do LiveStation.

O LiveStation possui uma conjunto ainda bastante diversificado de canais, como por exemplo o Euronews, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, Discovery, CNN, Fox USA, Nasa TV e até TV Record, para além de outros e também dá para adicionar os nossos próprios canais.

O LiveStation tem versões para Linux, Windows w MacOS.

Para instalar (através do terminal), execute os seguintes comandos:

wget http://www.livestation.com/account/get_file?platform=LINUX

# chmod +x Livestation-[versão].run

./Livestation-[versão].run

Pressionar “q” para dar um skip no readme e “y” para aceitar os termos. Talvez seja necessário executar esse ultimo comando como root (sudo)

Após terminada a instalação, inicie o LiveStation com o comando:

livestation &      (não esquecer o "&" no final)

This is a short list of websites which broadcast TV shows. However, with just these, you might realise that you do not need cable television after all.

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News

Al Jazeera on Livestation

Recommended player:

Livestation: a free stand-alone player which will allow you to hundreds of news channels and radio channels. Among others are: CBC, RAI NEWS, FRANCE 24, CSPAN, ITV, RUSSIA TODAY.

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Series and Films

www.hulu.com: For a comprehensive serving of current television shows.

The Simpsons, Lost, Family Guy, Saturday Night Live etc…

and Films

Planet of the Apes, Fever Pitch, The Madness of King George.

Click here for the alphabetical list.

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Live Sports

www.justin.tv: this website points to live sports events.

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In general, visit the website of the channel which broadcasts your show.

Daily Motion and Youtube also carry series and quality videos.