FPA VIDEO: Liberian Gov #39; t Seeks Media Control
Highlights of outgoing Press Union President Peter Quaqua #39;s farewell address. #39;
By: Frontpage Africa
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FPA VIDEO: Liberian Gov' t Seeks Media Control - Video
A life in prison has not silenced Christopher Jack Reid.
The former porn star and convicted Pullman rapist continues to share his thoughts with friends and others through an edgy Twitter account and has relied on YouTube to publish a lengthy series of videos that proclaim his innocence by arguing that the victim was manipulated by authorities into giving testimony filled with lies.
Reid, 31, is behind bars for the 2007 rape of a Washington State University student, and his continuing use of social media illustrates a problem prison officials are mostly unable to control.
Authorities want inmates to remain engaged with family and friends and have developed an email system that screens messages for inappropriate content. But social media present new potential problems, and authorities are monitoring them as much as possible for abuse.
So far, for example, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) has asked social-media giant Facebook to shut down 560 profiles of inmates for improper use and violation of the companys own terms of service. Authorities have less leverage with other social-media sites, though.
Reid, who was known in the adult-entertainment industry as Jack Venice, was convicted of breaking into a WSU sorority with Kyle M. Schott, where both raped a woman while she slept.
Schott accepted a plea deal and was convicted of third-degree rape. Reid, however, was convicted by jury of second-degree rape.
Hes fought the conviction since it was handed down in Whitman County, studying Washingtons public-records laws, earning a paralegal certification and even suing the city of Pullman, claiming it improperly presented evidence in his case.
Social-media campaign
Despite being locked up without Internet access in Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Reid has turned to social media to make his case public.
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Pullman rapist uses social media to claim innocence
NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-L will be the focus of a media opportunity at 10 a.m. EST Friday, Jan. 3, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Fla.
Media will be able to view the TDRS-L spacecraft and interview project and launch program officials from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and United Launch Alliance (ULA).
TDRS-L is scheduled to lift off on a ULA Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Jan. 23 at the opening of a 40-minute launch window that extends from 9:05 to 9:45 p.m.
The TDRS-L spacecraft is the second of three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the fleet, which now consists of eight satellites in geostationary orbit. The spacecraft provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These include NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. TDRS-L has a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet the growing S-band communications requirements.
Full clean room attire must be worn during the media opportunity and will be furnished. Journalists should not wear perfume, cologne or makeup. Long pants and closed-toe shoes must be worn. No shorts or skirts will be permitted. Some camera equipment may be identified by Boeing contamination control specialists as having to be cleaned before being taken into the high bay facility. Alcohol wipes will be provided. All camera equipment must be self-contained, and no portable lights are allowed. Flash photography will not be permitted, however, the facility has adequate metal halide lighting for pictures. Wireless microphones also are not permitted inside the high bay.
On Jan. 3, U.S. media may proceed directly to Astrotech, which is located in the Spaceport Florida Industrial Park, 1515 Chaffee Drive, Titusville. Access will be available starting at 9:45 a.m., and the event will begin at 10 a.m.
Only media who are United States citizens may attend this event, per Astrotech rules. A government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license or permanently issued NASA media accreditation badge from Kennedy will be acceptable. In addition, proof of U.S. citizenship also is required, such as a passport or birth certificate.
Journalists should call Kennedy's media update phone line at 321-867-2525 on Thursday evening, Jan. 2, to confirm the event still is on schedule.
Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in El Segundo, Calif., built TDRS-L. NASA's Space Communications and Navigation Program, part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, is responsible for the TDRS network. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management. United Launch Alliance provides the Atlas V rocket and launch service.
For more information about TDRS-L, visit:
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NASA Offers News Media Access to TDRS-L Spacecraft Jan. 3
VLC media player
VLC media player 2.1
VLC media player (commonly known as VLC) is a portable, free and open-source, cross-platform media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project.
VLC media player supports many audio and video compression methods and file formats, including DVD-Video, video CD and streaming protocols. It is able to stream over computer network and to transcode multimedia files.[7]
The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding/calibrating proprietary plugins. Many of VLC's codecs are provided by the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project, but it uses mainly its own muxer and demuxers and its own protocols implementations. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux and OS X by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library.
The VideoLan project was originally started as an academic project in 1996. VLC used to stand for VideoLAN Client, but since VLC is no longer simply a client, that initialism no longer applies.[8][9] It was intended to consist of a client and server to stream videos across a campus network. VLC was the client for the VideoLAN project. Originally developed by students at the cole Centrale Paris, it is now developed by contributors worldwide and is coordinated by the VideoLAN non-profit organization.
Rewritten from scratch in 1998, it was released under GNU General Public License on 1 February 2001, with authorization from the headmaster of the cole Centrale Paris. The functionality of the server program, VideoLan Server (VLS), has mostly been subsumed into VLC and has been deprecated.[10] The project name has been changed to VLC media player because there is no longer a client/server infrastructure.
The cone icon used in VLC is a reference to the traffic cones collected by cole Centrale's Networking Students' Association.[11] The cone icon design was changed from a hand drawn low resolution icon[12] to a higher resolution CGI-rendered version in 2006, illustrated by Richard iestad.[13]
After 13 years of development, version 1.0.0 of VLC media player was released on July 7, 2009.[14] Version 2.0.0 of VLC media player was released on February 18, 2012.[6][15]
In 2011 and 2012, large parts of VLC were relicensed to the GNU Lesser General Public License.[16][17]
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VLC media player - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Over the last few years Ive transitioned from owning a boatload of CDs, DVDs and other media to owning almost none at all, keeping only digital copies of everything. Heres what Ive learned over the last few years about where digital still falls short.
Generally speaking, Im all about going all-digital with my media. Its easier to use, quicker to load, doesnt require driving to a brick-and-mortar store, doesnt need shelf space, and doesnt require a truck to deliver it from one place to another. But digital media has some growing pains, and until we fix some issues, Im going to miss physical media a little. Its not about the smell of paper or the thrill of looking through the liner notes on a new LP. Its about the fact that nobody wants to let me control my digital goods in any way.
I might be in the minority on this one, but one of my biggest problems with the bulk of digital media is that I cant organise most of it. I have to search through downloads, deal with an apps singular organisation method, or cross my fingers that Ill be able to find something after I download it.
For me, the worst offender is streaming video. My Netflix and Amazon Prime queues are a mess and its impossible to actually use it to find a movie to watch. Similar, minor annoyances exist across media. With Steam, once you download a game its in your library forever and you cant really get rid of it. The Xbox 360 hides games beneath three layers of menus. The Kindle keeps nonfiction and fiction on the same shelf. The only way to save an album on Spotify is to star it or create a playlist, neither of which work particularly well. Having digital stores automatically organise things alphabetically is nice, but I miss the ability to manually sort my shelves exactly as I wish the way I can with physical media.
Aimless browsing isnt really possible in online stores. Even with Amazons advanced algorithms telling you what other products you might be interested in, theres no analogue for walking into a book store on a Sunday afternoon with a gift card and a couple of hours to waste.
Its sometimes claimed that the traditional bookstore ruins discovery, but thats only partially true. Id argue its more about the thrill of discovery. Thats a slightly different thing.
Discovering something previously unknown to you in a store was as simple as walking into a store, looking for something with a cool cover, and then trying that thing out. That might be listening to an album, flipping through a book, or renting some weird old VHS tape at the local video store. Those discoveries felt like your own because they werent just about the media they were about the story that led to the discovery. Telling your friend about how youd found an album buried in the bargain bin, or a book hidden on the back corner shelf, has bigger impact then saying that some stranger recommended it on Twitter.
Thats not to say theres anything wrong with the new modes of discovery there isnt. In fact, theyre a lot better and smarter. Im consistently impressed with what Netflix recommends, what Spotify wants me to listen to next, and what books Amazon thinks Ill enjoy. But none of those things add value to products. If Amazon recommends a book I end up liking, I just continue along with my day. If I find a book completely on my own, hidden in the depths of a store, I feel like that book is mine and mine alone. I found one of my favourite books of all time > misfiled on a shelf at the bookstore, and have since then never seen it anywhere else. Thats just not a story we get with an ebook.
Im not the type to buy into conspiracy theories about media companies trying to take away ownership of everything, but its clear that they control how and when we get access to media. Usually, thats fine, but every once in a while it really seems to screw with you.
For example, when The Hobbit was originally released, it was easy to rent it from any digital store. You could grab it on your PS3, from Amazon, iTunes, or wherever else. But the other day I decided to watch it again before the new movie came out, only to find that the rental version had been pulled from all digital stores. If I wanted to watch it again, I had to buy it, and I have absolutely no interest in spending that amount of money on that movie.
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Where Digital Fails: The Pitfalls Of Ditching Your Physical Media