Week 5 Thoughts of UK destroyed hard drive in Guardian

When I was reading the article 'NSA files: UK and US at odds over destruction of Guardian hard drives' I was shocked and couldn't understand why. 

I'm not a person that very interested in news. So I heard about the Snowden stories, I feel really have a good opinion on him. But if I want to know more about Snowden stories, I have to find more information. 

Edward Snowden, 29, he worked for Booz Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure analyst for NSA in Hawaii. 'I've been a systems engineer, systems administrator, senior adviser for the Central Intelligence Agency, solutions consultant, and a telecommunications informations system officer; said Snowden. (Laura Poitras and Gleen Greenwald, 2013) 

(Image from BBC News, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100>

Sonwden gave the journalist Green Greenwald, from The Guardian new in his secret place in Hong Kong. He told the journalist about the secret how American government monitoring people's life. Actually, this video is not how the first news came out. Snowden first gave the secret file to The Guardian and The Washington Post, after 5 days, Snowden came out of the suspicion and told everyone. he is the whistleblower. 

I don;t understand why he is did that and if he really has some secret of plan of did theses things. I believe he did the right thing and I think his dream of living in a country that is fair and respect its people is reasonable. 

Snowden said in the video, ' Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good' (Laura Poitras and Gleen Greenwald, 2013)

In my point of view, Snowden is brave and wise. He can stand out after almost the whole world is guessing who is the whistleblower and I think he knows that The United States is not going to sit watching. However, I could think that he did this to protect the others out of trouble. 

I believe he is smart enough (otherwise he will not work for the CIA). He released the information and had an interview with a journalist,he also planed to take refuge to other countries. If he is doing this all by himself, he is really wise person. 

About UK government destroyed the hard drive about Snowden storied in Guardian, I think Alan Rusbridger is right, tried to destroy the hard drive is pointless. (Julian Borger, 2013）



Linrong Li





Reference 

Borger J 2013, 'NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked files' the guardian, 21 August 2013,retrieved 25 August 2013, < http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/20/nsa-snowden-files-drives-destroyed-london >


Poitras L & Greenwald G 2013, ' NAS whistleblower Edward Snowden: I don't want to live in a society that dose those sort of things.-video', thegurdian, 10 June 2013, retrieved 25 April 2013, < http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video >

Intimidation versus resistance

‘Powerful perpetrators often act in ways that intimidate their targets. Most individuals are frightened when they are taken to court by a large company. ’ said Brian Martin, Chris Moore, Colin Salter (2010) This is not a exaggerate saying to  just to scare people, people sometimes will face this kind of problem. 


For example, a friend of mine is facing this kind of situation at this time. Make a long story short, before she signed the contract with her agent of her apartment, the agent said she can transfer the contract to somebody else. But now, when she intent to transfer, the agent asked her to pay for her braking the contract and refused her ask of transferring. Their problems are not only this, and in my point of view, I do believe she could for a while and get her money back. However, when she got an email from the agent of charge her in the court, she decided to gave up. I asked her why, she told me that she doesn't want to go to court with a big company, that cost more than 1,000 AUD.


I can't say her thought isn't right, people fear of those who has power and strong. They also don't like to spend too much money and time for things are complicated. At this time, justice becomes a form and saying, at this time, people choose to save troubles rather than protect their benefit. 


A big company itself is an intimidation to small companies and individuals. They can solve some problems and break the resistance without using any methods. However, this is not a common phenomenon in the society, but it do happens sometimes. What we can do, is to protect our own benefit by using right methods and do not fear of something or someone if we believe we are right. 


Linrong Li



Reference List


Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12, [available:http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2986/2680]. 

Photoshop - a new way of showing art

' Globalization is being shared by technological change' said Jan  Nederveen Pieterse. ( 2004,p. 8) The result and a good representation is the use of Photoshop. 'A brand name for computer software used to digitally alter digital photographs or other  graphics'. (Dictionary,2013)  The definition of Photoshop shows the main purpose of creating this program- to alter an image. If the user has plenty skill, the image can be whatever they want. 

                                               ( Image from fanpop.com)

Photoshop can be thought as a new kind of art style. However, this kind of art style is under querying. Some people argue photoshop misleading them in different ways. To me, Photoshop is changing the way I'm viewing art. 

I learnt photoshop last semester and I found it wealth learning because I can make an image much more beautiful than before and it's amazing in some ways.  This is the image that I make last semester. A man changes his face with a fish. I made this image to encourage people pay more attention of the animals, think about what they feel. And I believe this image may change some people's mind and love the animals. That is how Photoshop is changing my view of art. By using it, I find it can be used in many ways and can be used to show different things that real images can't. I don't believe some one can take a real image like this one. 

The disadvantage of Photoshop is obvious. People can use it to alter an image to whatever they want.  The most critical is to use it in a right way. 

Linrong Li 

Reference 

Dictionary, 2013, ' Photoshop', retrieved 5 August 2013, < http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/photoshop >

Fanpop,2013, ' Extreme(photoshop) makeover', retrieved 5 August 2013, < http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/photoshop/images/3515453/title/extreme-photoshop-makeover-photo >

Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, ‘Globalization: consensus and controversies’, Globalization and culture: global mélange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 8