Archive for April, 2009
Economic Meltdowns, Natural Disasters, Swine Flu — What does it all mean?
Posted by: | CommentsEconomic Meltdowns, Natural Disasters, Swine Flu – What does it all mean?
In the battle for smooth sailing, when one might just start to hope that the worst is behind us – consumer confidence is up, a mortgage fix-it plan has come to pass, stocks are on the rise – we get a new kick in the shin: the swine flu.
So far, the disease is in the pre-pandemic stages much like the skittish stock market of last summer. But it is very likely that the black October of the swine flu pandemic is not far behind, resulting in more closures, frozen leisure travel, and economies of world cities stalling to a stand-still. It leads one to wonder what humankind may have done to provoke such ire of the gods and Mother Nature.
This is when it pays to step back and realize that life is really behaving quite normally. Really.
It may not seem so is we simply look at the short snippet our own lives represent in the vast epic of earth’s history. But throughout humankind’s known history, we can see some familiar patterns. Countries and empires achieve great advances often followed by deep retractions. Remember the Romans? Mother Nature’s drama is earth’s way of rebuilding itself. Think of the blooming prairies following Australia’s wildfires and the thriving slope of Mt. St. Helen’s. And while, we have been able to preserve or domesticate many forms of wildlife, viruses don’t happen to be one of them. As any organism with the spark of life in it, this swine flu virus is simply trying to find a better way to live and we humans must make life smooth sailing. And we humans will answer back as we always do, keeping everything in balance. It is the way of life.
Maybe one day we can find a way to co-exist peacefully with these creatures, but in the meantime we can take comfort knowing that living things are doing and will continue to do what they have always done in the face of challenge: they will keep going.
Surveillance 101
Posted by: | CommentsSurveillance request are on the rise and having done some surviellance work I can say that the trick is blending in. I recently had to do a surveillance job in a tight knit community with narrow streets and kids with their parents out in the front yard playing amongst many of the homes on the block. After doing a drive thru I realized the big black suburan I was in stood out and had to abort.
The key is to look so ordinary that no one even knows you are there. Any little thing that stands out whether it is clothing, hair style, automobile etc that can draw some glance that would be memorable by a passer by or the target is troublesome.
Blogger Seeks to Protect Sources
Posted by: | CommentsYes, as reported in the news the past two days I, Shellee Hale (read story here) am the blogger being Sued for defamation regarding a few post I made last year on a forum frequented by members of the adult industry called Oprano.
This is truly a important case as we address the merging of mainstream journalism, blogging, citizen journalism and the credibility of an author and their means of collecting, researching and disseminating news converges on a more popular medium – the Internet.
I believe that I do own the privilege to protect my witnesses statements that supported comments and questions I made online. More importantly the comments and questions I made to a group on the Oprano Forum with a purpose of continuing to collect information for a story were not intended to defame or slander anyone but asked with the sole purpose of expanding on research I was doing for a story.
I truly believe in the shared media space of the blogging world and journalism online and the importance of a clarification of the laws to meet with the current technological means of delivery of news and information. The court heard my testimony today. The shield privilege is necessary to protect the confidential witnesses I spoke with and I hope that I will prevail in this case.
A journalist, blogger, or citizen activist researching the facts of a story has a method of gathering information and fact checking the information and to be stifled in the middle of this process by litigation has been a setback for me personally but I believe in my position that the privilege will apply and I should not have to reveal my confidential sources for the story I was working on.
Hopefully we will have a favorable opinion in the next couple of months. I am represented by a team of brilliant New Jersey Attorneys lead by Jeff Pollock, Barry Muller and Joseph Schramm of Fox Rothschild, John Prindiville of Barry & Prindiville and Arizona Attorney Charles Carreon of Online Media Law.
Obama’s Open Government Directive
Posted by: | CommentsOpenthegovernment.org and OMBwatch have began work sessions discussing hot to implement the President’s Open Government Directive with topics on the agenda including:
- Accessing the right data
- Managing Records
- Creating a culture of opennness
- Leadership/organizational structure
With a desire to encourage and support a governement that is transparent, participatory and collaborative President Obama on his first day in office sent a memorandum to his administration asking them for recommendations on the open government directive.
A google group has been set up to provide a forum to discuss and develop those recommendations that this Directive needs and I would encourage all those interested especially Private Investigators to voice their opinions and participate in the discussions.
