Find the differences.

Ronald, you’ve changed!

(I can’t wait to see what they do with the Michelin Man)

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This is the only working Star trek communicator in existence.

It’s a one of a kind prototype.

You can use it to make and recieve calls with any bluetooth 1.1 compatible mobile phone.

It does not require wires.

It works within a 10 meter radius of your phone so you can leave your mobile in your pocket or a bag and recieve calls by opening the flap and pressing the button.

The second button makes the classic communicator hailing signal.

Here is a site with Gorgeous images of night-time urban Japan (Japanese titles, English alt tags, 1024×768 images available). Includes: sleeping bullet trains, trams, cats, Tokyo Harbour tunnel, bridges, tail lights, Narita airport, offices, Mount Fuji, Tokyo Disneyland (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and many more.

(via)

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President Bush nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who helped shape the administration’s controversial legal strategy in the war on terror, to be attorney general Wednesday. He would be the first Hispanic ever to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

[..]

Gonzales drew criticism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks when he wrote a memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, who said it helped lead to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Specifically, Gonzales’ memo said the Geneva Convention that had long governed the treatment of prisoners did not apply to al-Qaida or the war in Afghanistan. The memo called some of the Geneva Convention’s provisions “quaint.”

Gonzales also defended the administration’s policy — essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in lower courts — of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

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I found it interesting while being a student at UT Austin, that the US Army recruiters have decided that spamming students is a viable means of recruitment. So desperate must they be to get people to fight in Iraq.

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A federal trial began today in Atlanta over evolution disclaimers in Cobb County schools. A group of parents backed by the ACLU argue that the disclaimers in science biology textbooks are a government endorsement of religion.

Cobb County put stickers in three biology texts in 2002, after more than two-thousand parents complained that the books used evolution as the only explanation for the origin of life.

County school officials said their stickers simply encourage students to keep an open mind, but the lawsuit claims the warning promotes the teaching of creationism and discriminates against particular religions.

The trial is expected to last several days. The stickers read: “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that creationism was a religious belief that could not be taught in public schools along with evolution.

Now here’s an idea:
Let’s allow the religious right to paste their stickers in all the biology texts they want so long as they affix the following text to each and every one of their Bibles:

“This book contains material on Judeo-Christian theology. Judeo-Christian theology offers insight into the origin and meaning of life and is the basis for several of the world’s great religions. But it does not encompass the full range of religious beliefs held sacred by members of our diverse American society. Moreover, this material is based on ancient texts, and significant errors may have been introduced through subsequent translations and omissions. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

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It is with great pleasure I post today that the MPAA anti-piracy signs are being removed from The Mall at Tuttle Crossing in Dublin, Ohio.

[..]

The ads are tantamount to a legal threat to the general public about their property, and they do it opposite advertisements for children’s movies. My response is that I do not want them to do that in my community, in the public space where I’m trying to live. I am an artist too, and just because they have a problem with free downloads, doesn’t mean they can give the impression that people in *my* community can’t download my copyrighted works for free.

It is not that I think that copyright infringement is justified. Rather, corporations are giving legitimate downloading and new internet-based media a bad name by claiming they are a victim of new technology.

Wired Magazine’s back-page each month features a photoshopped image that is meant to represent a telling found object from our future.

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The US Government is attempting to block efforts to find out who seized Indymedia’s servers in London last month. The Government has filed a motion in San Antonio District Court opposing the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s motion to unseal the court order which resulted in the seizures, and arguing among other things that unsealing would “seriously jeopardize” an “ongoing criminal terrorism investigation”.

[..]

The Government covers this as follows: “None of the movants have standing to file the Motion to Unseal.” The subpoena, it says, was served on Rackspace in San Antonio, “the parties to the instant action are the requesting foreign country, hereinafter ‘requesting state’, the United States government and the party on whom the subpoena was served, Rackspace. The entities and one individual requesting the illegal unsealing are not parties and lack standing to complain of the alleged seizure.”

The vast majority of web site ‘owners’ (inverted commas introduced courtesy US Gov) should have no trouble at all figuring out where they would stand in such a scenario. You operate a web site which is hosted by an external company, and an unidentified agency of an unidentified government has the power to take data which you own, but which is situated on hardware hosted by the external company, and according to the US Government, it’s nothing to do with you, only the external company has the standing to complain. One could speculate why, given the need to maintain some form of ongiong relationship with the FBI, a hosting company might not think it a particularly good idea to complain.

In the specific circumstances of Indymedia, a process that was started in Texas resulted in the removal of servers in London, knocking out numerous Indymedia web sites. According to the US, Indymedia has no standing to complain about this or to seek redress, or to find out what it was supposed to have been doing, or who said it was doing it. The UK Government insists the whole matter is nothing to do with it, while the US Government says the matter is closed, flashing the T-word to be on the safe side.

In other words, no matter where you are, if the US government feels it could use your servers, you’re fucked. No invasion required.

For the English-language-only readers of my weblog, here is a nice summary of what’s been happening over here yesterday.

Please note that we didn’t need a Patriot Act or a Home Security Department to find these guys.

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Apple has quietly removed a feature from its online store that automatically gave its own products a “5-Apple” rating. As reported by MacMinute, the online Apple Store last week added the ability to review and rate third-party products, but not Apple gear. The company said at the time that it gives its products a perfect rating because “we think they’re great.” All mention of the Apple ratings has now been removed from the program’s frequently asked questions.

duh.

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US-led troops involved in fighting against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja have found four imprisoned men believed to be Iraqi hostages.

Three of the men were contractors working for the US military, a US marines spokesman said, and the fourth said he was a taxi driver.

cat employees.txt >/dev/nullsoft

Reasons:

1. AOL
2. iTunes
3. no more llamas to kick

(full report here)

In March 2000, European leaders committed the EU to become by 2010 ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment’. The Lisbon strategy, as it has come to be known, was a comprehensive but interdependent series of reforms. Actions by any one Member State, ran the argument, would be all the more effective if other Member States acted in concert.

External events since 2000 have not helped achieving the objectives but the European Union and its Members States have clearly themselves contributed to slow progress by failing to act on much of the Lisbon strategy with sufficient urgency. This disappointing delivery is due to an overloaded agenda, poor coordination and conflicting priorities. Still, a key issue has been the lack of determined political action.

The Lisbon strategy is even more urgent today as the growth gap with North America and Asia has widened, while Europe must meet the combined challenges of low population growth and ageing. Time is running out and there can be no room for complacency. Better implementation is needed now to make up for lost time.

In this context, if we are to deliver the Lisbon goals of growth and employment then we must all take action. To achieve them will require everyone to engage. This means more delivery from the European institutions and Member States through greater political commitment, broader and deeper engagement of Europe’s citizens, and a recognition that by working together Europe’s nations benefit all their citizens.

Each element of the Lisbon strategy is still needed for the success of the whole. Improved economic growth and increased employment provide the means to sustain social cohesion and environmental sustainability. In their turn, social cohesion and environmental sustainability can contribute to a higher growth and employment.

For Europe to increase its living standards, it needs to accelerate employment and productivity growth via a wide range of reform policies as well as a wider macroeconomic framework as supportive as possible of growth, demand and employment. No single action will deliver higher growth and jobs. Rather, there are a series of interconnected initiatives and structural changes that through concurrent action in the European Union will release its undoubted potential. This requires urgent action across five areas of policy:
- the knowledge society: increasing Europe’s attractiveness for researchers and scientists, making R & D a top priority and promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs);
- the internal market: completion of the internal market for the free movement of goods and capital, and urgent action to create a single market for services;
- the business climate: reducing the total administrative burden; improving the quality of legislation; facilitating the rapid start-up of new enterprises; and creating an environment more supportive to businesses;
- the labour market: rapid delivery on the recommendations of the European Employment Taskforce; developing strategies for lifelong leaning and active ageing; and underpinning partnerships for growth and employment;
- environmental sustainability: spreading eco-innovations and building leadership in eco-industry; pursuing policies which lead to long-term and sustained improvements in productivity through eco-efficiency.

Individual Member States have made progress in one or more of these policy priority areas but none has succeeded consistently across a broad front. If Europe is to achieve its targets, it needs to step up its efforts considerably.

The task is to develop national policies in each Member State, supported by an appropriate European-wide framework, that address a particular Member State’s concerns and then to act in a more concerted and determined way. The European Commission must be prepared to report clearly and precisely on success and failure in each Member State. National and European Union policies, including their budgets, must better reflect the Lisbon priorities.

In order to ensure that Member States take up their responsibilities, a new focus is required along three lines: more coherence and consistency between policies and participants, improving the process for delivery by involving national parliaments and social partners, and clearer communication on objectives and achievements.

In addition, the High Level Group proposes that:
- the European Council takes the lead in progressing the Lisbon strategy;
- the Member States prepare national programmes to commit themselves to delivery and engage citizens and stakeholders in the process;
- the European Commission reviews, reports and facilitates the progress and supports it by its policies and actions;
- the European Parliament plays a proactive role in monitoring performance;
- the European social partners must take up their responsibility and actively participate in the implementation of the Lisbon strategy.

To achieve the goals of higher growth and increased employment in order to sustain Europe’s social model will require powerful, committed and convincing political leadership. Member States and the European Commission must re-double their efforts to make change happen. Far more emphasis must be placed on involving European social partners and engaging Europe’s citizens with the case for change. Greater focus is required to build understanding of why Lisbon is relevant to every person in every household in Europe.

Europe has built a distinctive economic and social model that has combined productivity, social cohesion and a growing commitment to environmental sustainability. The Lisbon strategy, refocused on growth and employment in the way this report suggests, offers Europe a new frontier for that economic and social model.

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BT is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December.

The Christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the UK via the internet.

Users will need to use BT’s internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator, and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their PC.

BT has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers.

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Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.
Eugene McCarthy (1916 – )

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Al Qaeda will begin to disintegrate within two years as its various factions start to squabble and militants return to their local roots, a senior British parliamentary adviser predicted on Wednesday.

Professor Michael Clarke, a specialist adviser to lawmakers on the House of Commons defense committee, said the consequence would be that the security services would be able to win the “war on terror” as the group’s structure fell apart.

“I think (cracks) are going to start to appear in the next 12 months to two years,” he told Reuters at a security conference in London.

“It’s going to start to fragment and split up,” he said.

Clarke said he envisaged the network breaking down into smaller, disparate cells which would be more easily infiltrated and dealt with, bringing an end to the group’s ability to carry out major attacks along the lines of the Sept. 11 attacks

“Terrorism will go back to being about more local issues. It will be reduced to a level which people can live with,” he said.

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Seeking to take advantage of the momentum from an election where moral values proved important to voters, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced Tuesday he has formed a new coalition to guide an “evangelical revolution.”

Falwell, a religious broadcaster based in Lynchburg, Va., said the Faith and Values Coalition will be a “21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” the organization he founded in 1979.

Falwell said he would serve as the coalition’s national chairman for four years.

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Yasser Arafat, who triumphantly forced his people’s plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for Palestinian statehood, died Thursday at age 75.

The French military hospital where he had been treated since Oct. 29 said he died at 3:30 a.m. The Palestinian leader spent his final days there in a coma. Doctors would not disclose what ailment killed Arafat.

If any of you ever expected Arafat to die in his bed, raise your hand…

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Algemeen directeur Gerard van Miltenburg van het Terra College in Den Haag heeft maandag zijn functie neergelegd. Dat bevestigde K. Bun woensdag. Bun is voorlopig aangesteld als interim-directeur.

Volgens Bun is “de problematiek rond het dalende aantal leerlingen op de school” er de oorzaak van dat Van Miltenburg ontslag heeft genomen. “Hij wil de oplossing daarvoor aan een ander overlaten”, aldus Bun. Volgens hem is het de enige reden dat Van Miltenburg stopt.

Per 1 januari sluit een van de vestigingen van het Terra College aan de Beresteinlaan wegens teruglopende leerlingenaantallen. Enkele tientallen personeelsleden worden ontslagen. Het Terra College kwam medio januari negatief in het nieuws nadat de leerling Murat D. conrector Hans van Wieren doodschoot.

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Naast de politieactie in Den Haag, zijn woensdag nog vijf aanhoudingen verricht, vier in Amsterdam en een in Amersfoort. Dat zei hoofdofficier van het landelijk parket M. van Erve woensdagavond tijdens een persconferentie in Den Haag. De aanhoudingen zijn gedaan in het kader van het onderzoek dat zich richt op een netwerk van radicale moslims.

In Amersfoort doorzocht een speciaal onderzoeksteam onder leiding van het landelijk parket doorzoekt woensdagavond een woning aan de Sagenlaan in de Amersfoortse wijk Schothorst-Noord op aanwezigheid van explosieven.