[Quote:]

Elke burger kan politie en justitie achter zich aan krijgen zonder iets te hebben misdaan. Het kabinet wil dossiers laten aanleggen over bijvoorbeeld het reisgedrag, pinbetalingen en hobby’s van burgers.

Doordat opsporingsinstanties verbanden tussen deze onschuldige informatie mogen leggen, kan iemand plotseling worden aangemerkt als verdachte.

Het wetsvoorstel van minister Donner (Jusititie) dat dit mogelijk maakt, ligt bij de Tweede Kamer. Politie en justitie zouden nog meer bevoegdheden krijgen om iedereen in de gaten te houden.

Sinds 1 januari moeten bedrijven en instellingen zoals bibliotheken, winkels en internetaanbieders alle gegevens over hun klanten, ook al worden deze nergens van verdacht, doorgeven aan de politie. Deze gegevens kunnen straks in een dossier worden gestopt en aan elkaar worden gekoppeld.

[Quote:]

A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military’s plans for “information operations” – from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

[..]

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military’s psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.

“Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience,” it reads.

[Quote:]

What Do You Know About The Separation of Church and State?
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has created this handy 21 question online multiple choice test. How good are your church/state separation Constitutional knowledge chops?

I scored at “Better informed than most Americans”… hmmm…

[Quote:]

The A.V. Club: What’s your take on the “truthiness” imbroglio that’s tearing our country apart?

Stephen Colbert: Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don’t mean the argument over who came up with the word. I don’t know whether it’s a new thing, but it’s certainly a current thing, in that it doesn’t seem to matter what facts are. It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that’s not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It’s certainty. People love the president because he’s certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don’t seem to exist. It’s the fact that he’s certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?

[Quote:]

With Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, Pixar President Ed Catmull was named President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios and Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter is the new Chief Creative Office of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering.

According to a poster at Animation Nation, Catmull and Lasseter “announced to Feature Animation employees [Tuesday] that the ‘Toy Story 3′ production will end effectively [Tuesday]. They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film.”

[Quote:]

Episodes of ABC series “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” available on a day-after-broadcast basis from Apple’s iTunes for $1.99, generate 55 cents for Apple and pass the remaining $1.44 to the network.

[..]

A JPMorgan Chase analyst, Spencer Wang, commented in the report how that $1.44 exceeds the “estimated 57 cents in advertising revenue per user generated under the current model.” Nielsen analyst Larry Gerbrandt was also cited on his analysis that states content owners make about as much from downloads as they do from DVD boxed sets.

[Quote:]

Canada’s biggest record label, publisher and management company is helping out a family sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)for copyright infringement.

The privately-owned Nettwerk Music Group is intervening, it says, because the songs downloaded by the Gruebel family include Avril Lavigne, a Nettwerk management client. Nettwerk will fund the Gruebel’s defense.

“The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists’ best interests,” said Nettwerk chief executive Terry McBride in a statement.

“Litigation is not ‘artist development’. Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love.”

On Tuesday President Bush will deliver his State of the Union.

Here is a preview…

History is repeating…

[Quote:]

Even the junkiest of the political junkies likely haven’t heard of the PFIAB.  It’s the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB).  Established in 1956 by President Eisenhower, it was originally called the “President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities.”  The PFIAB is, according to the White House website, “a nonpartisan body offering the President objective, expert advice on the conduct of U.S. foreign intelligence.”   Non-partisan and expert advice.  

A sub-unit of the PFIAB is the “Intelligence Oversight Board,” which “advises the President on the legality of foreign intelligence activities.”  Non-partisan, expert, legal oversight. Sounds great! It is the FIAB that acts as one of the most objective and trusted confidants when it comes to the President ordering foreign intelligence activity.  

PFIAB members get unprecedented access to our nation’s most closely gaurded secrets. They have, according to Salon, “access to intelligence that is unavailable to most members of Congress. They are privy to intelligence from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the military intelligence agencies and others.”

Who are the members of the President’s FIAB? Brace yourselves. The list of people Bush selected to give him “non-partisan,” “expert,” and “objective” legal advice on his foreign intelligence activities reads almost like a list of his Rangers & Pioneers, or a list of invitees at the Bush-Cheney ’04 victory party. Actually, it reads a lot like that list.  

While previous Presidents have made the names of their foreign intelligence advisors public, Bush has tried to keep his secret. Only after some prying by David Corn back in 2002 did some names slip out. And as of 2005, courtesy of Salon, we see how Bush’s cronyism rots the very core of our national security.

Here’s the list, in 2002, at the time the domestic spying program was ordered and well under way. Drum roll please….

• Brent Scowcroft: national security adviser to President Bush I. Scowcroft heads the Scowcroft Group which “sells intelligence and other services to globe-trotting corporations.”
• Pete Wilson: former GOP Senator, Governor.
• Cresencio Arcos: AT&T executive and former US ambassador.
• Jim Barksdale: former head of Netscape.
• Robert Addison Day: chairman of the TWC Group, a money management firm, Bush Pioneer.
• William DeWitt: Ohio businessman, Bush Pioneer, top fund-raiser for Bush’s 2004 Inaugural committee, former partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.
• Stephen Friedman: past chairman of Goldman Sachs.
• Alfred Lerner: chief executive of MBNA.
• Ray Lee Hunt: super-rich Texas oil man, Bush Pioneer, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, Halliburton Board of Directors.
• Rita Hauser: “a prominent lawyer and longtime advocate of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.”
• David Jeremiah: retired admiral.
• Arnold Kanter: national security official under Bush I, founding member of the Scowcroft Group.
• James Calhoun Langdon, Jr.: “a power-lawyer in Texas,” Bush Pioneer, Washington lobbyist.
• Elisabeth Pate-Cornell: head of industrial engineering and engineering management at Stanford University.
• John Harrison Streicker: a “real estate magnate.”
• Philip Zelikow: National Security Council staffer during Bush I.

How many names do you count that seem qualified to analyze the most sensitive of our nation’s secrets, AND to pass judgment on the constitutionality of the President’s actions? Five? Four? Three? Out of sixteen?

[Quote:]

The USA based mobile operator, Cingular Wireless has managed to get a patent on the concept of using emoticon on mobile phones. While the aim of the patent is to enable the displaying of MSN style graphics on handsets, they also managed to patent the delivery of text based emoticon – so presumably sending via an SMS – if selected via a dedicated or softkey, would be a breach of the patent in future.

They can stick that patent in their (_|_)

[Quote:]

De beveiliging van het nieuwe biometrische paspoort is nog voor de introductie gekraakt door beveiligingsspecialisten. Dat maakt het Vara-wetenschapsprogramma Nieuwslicht donderdag bekend. Het nieuwe paspoort is voorzien van een chip waarop de gegevens van de houder en een scan van het gezicht staan.

De informatie op de chip wordt op afstand gelezen door een kaartlezer. Specialisten van een bedrijf uit Delft wisten het radiosignaal tussen de chip en de kaartlezer te onderscheppen. Nadat de zogeheten versleutelingscode werd gekraakt, was alle informatie op de chip te lezen.

Toch handig, dat op afstand te lezen is wie je bent – zo kunnen oplichters in populaire bestemmingen gemakkelijker hun slachtoffers selecteren.

[Quote:]

1. « DEUS CARITAS EST, et, qui manet in caritate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo manet » (1 Io 4, 16). Haec Primae Epistulae Ioannis voces singulari quidem perspicuitate veluti fidei christianae centrum aperiunt: christianam Dei imaginem atque etiam congruentem hominis imaginem eiusque itineris. Praeterea eodem hoc in versiculo nobis concedit Ioannes compendiariam, ut ita dicamus, christianae vitae formulam: « Et nos cognovimus et credidimus caritati quam habet Deus in nobis ».

Nos Dei caritati credidimus — sic praecipuam vitae suae electionem declarare potest christianus. Ad initium, cum quis christianus fit, nulla est ethica voluntas neque magna quaedam opinio, verumtamen congressio datur cum eventu quodam, cum Persona quae novum vitae finem imponit eodemque tempore certam progressionem. Suo in Evangelio iam notaverat Ioannes hunc eventum hisce verbis: « Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum… habeat vitam aeternam » (3, 16). Cum medio puncto amoris suscepit christiana fides id quod fidei Israel fuerat nucleus simulque eidem nucleo novam addidit altitudinem atque amplitudinem. Credens enim Israelita cotidie vocibus precatur Libri Deuteronomii, ubi includi is novit suae vitae nucleum: « Audi, Israel: Dominus Deus noster, Deus unus est. Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, ex tota anima tua, et ex tota fortitudine tua » (6, 4-5). In unicum aliquod praescriptum coniunxit Iesus amoris Dei mandatum cum amoris proximi praecepto, quod quidem continetur in Libro Levitico: « Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum » (19, 18; cfr Mc 12, 29-31). Quoniam prior nos Deus dilexit (cfr 1 Io 4, 10), nunc non est iam tantum « praeceptum » amor, verum est responsio erga amoris donum, quo Deus nobis occurrit.

(English version, and the original German)

[Quote:]

The public has heard little about John Walker Lindh since the media frenzy over his capture in the winter of 2001. On January 19, John’s father Frank Lindh delivered an address at The Commonwealth Club of California. Lindh explained that he and his family have avoided the press for nearly four years; he now wants the public to understand the truth about his son, who he says didn’t stand a chance of getting a fair trial in the emotional days following 9/11. Immediately characterized as a “terrorist” by the press and politicians, Lindh faced a jury in Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Pentagon. The trial date scheduled by the judge was the anniversary of 9/11. Initially facing 11 criminal counts — most relating to terrorism — the only charge that John Lindh was found guilty of was violating economic sanctions by supporting the Taliban government, for which the 20-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The following is excerpted from Frank Lindh’s speech.

[Quote:]

Leping Zha, Ph.D. lives in San Mateo, California, USA. Trained as a physicist with a technical day job in the San Francisco Bay area, fine art landscape photography has been his second profession. Working mainly in color with medium and large format film camera equipments, Leping Zha concentrates his passion in grand landscapes as well as fine natural patterns in both western and eastern worlds. Constantly searching and studying the forms, order, balance, inner relationship, grandeur, and drama of nature, he has been tirelessly exploring to capture truly magical images with ultimate quality and finesse to transcends the subjects into impeccable art elements, and to integrate both eastern and western artistic influences into his personal style of expression.

This is odd. The Amsterdam Tourism Board is giving webloggers a free roundtrip to Amsterdam, just to get an interview out of them.

Are webloggers really that interesting?

(Thanks Madeleine)

[Quote:]

More than half the British population does not accept the theory of evolution, according to a survey.

Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned believe that creationism or intelligent design should be taught in school science lessons.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the BBC’s Horizon series.

Its latest programme, A War on Science, looks into the attempt to introduce intelligent design into science classes in the US.

Over 2000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and development of life:

* 22% chose creationism
* 17% opted for intelligent design
* 48% selected evolution theory
* and the rest did not know.

I think The Economist said it best:

“Intelligent Design is something Britons read about with a smirk before they turn to the Horoscope section”

[Quote:]

Tweede-Kamerfracties rommelen massaal met hun boekhouding. De partijen dienen voor tienduizenden euro’s onterechte declaraties in. Dat staat in een geheim onderzoek, dat in het bezit is van RTL Nieuws.

De partijen krijgen 116.000 euro per Kamerlid. Het geld is vooral bedoeld om het ondersteunend personeel te betalen. Ze geven het echter uit aan cadeaus, verkeersboetes en mediatrainingen.

Zo probeerde de LPF een verkeersboete van 288 euro te declareren. Ook de VVD wilde zo’n boete declareren en probeerde daarnaast ook nog ruim 12.000 euro van het fractiebudget af te boeken, terwijl die kosten door Europarlementariërs waren gemaakt.

Het CDA diende maar liefst 32.000 euro aan verkeerde declaraties in. Kort na de verkiezingen in 2002 werd aan de gehele fractie een mediatraining gegeven, terwijl de Kamerleden nog níet officieel beëdigd waren. Verder kocht de partij een cadeau van ongeveer 2000 euro voor de toen kersverse premier

Vandaar dat de kamer geen problemen heeft met al die verkeersboetes – gewoon declareren die hap!

[Quote:]

When some people receive an error from the compiler, they see it as an indication that they are doing something fundamentally wrong and should change their code. Others see such a message as a challenge to overcome and strive to find a way to trick or force the compiler to do what they want. You can probably guess what camp Jon’s predecessors fell in …

Public Structure UserInformation
  Shared intUserID As Integer

  Shared strUserID As String
  Shared Username As String
  Shared Realname As String

  Shared Token As String
  'Don't know why we need this, but won't compile without it
  Public PleaseCompile As Boolean 

End Structure

And a note for the VB-deprived, Shared is the keyword for static.

And for a bonus WTF, this comment in the thread:

A while back, a co-worker couldn’t get inner queries to work properly. He was trying something like:

select CustomerID from (SELECT CustomerID FROM Customers)

- and not having much success. You should have seen the look on his face when I changed it to:

select CustomerID from (SELECT CustomerID FROM Customers) Please

- which ran first time.

I think I’m going to run out of glue soon…

[Quote:]

Will the price of tracks or albums be reduced with the more cost-effective digital distribution method? You don’t have to manufacture the CD, package it, send it to the distributor/wholesaler, and finally the shops. Rowan Smith, Exmouth

# John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI):

I think digital is already fantastic value – a track for less than a pound is a great deal for the music fan.

Translation: no.

Do you believe people who are buying CDs legally and copying that music to an iPod should be punished – as they are, in fact, breaking the law? Darren, Cardiff

# Peter Jamieson, BPI:

Consumers don’t have the right to copy CDs in the UK and never have, and though we’ve never brought action against anyone for private copying, the advent of peer-to-peer and digital distribution has turned the issue on its head.

Translation: yes. (Even though the average iPod owner bought less than 20 tracks online – apparently they do think their customers are thieves, all of them).

But there are refreshingly honest answers as well:

I don’t expect to be using my iPod in 20 years time. But I do expect to be able to listen to the digital music I buy today in 2026 without having to re-purchase it. Can online music providers guarantee that my collection will be safe in 20 years if I buy from them? Simon Wilson, Brussels, Belgium

Brad Duea, Napster:

Simon, given your concern, you should never have been using the iPod or iTunes. Apple appears to want to sell and resell you hardware and music, over and over again. Also, when compared to subscribing to music, buying music in any format does not make much sense, particularly when history shows us the pain folks have endured from the format sales scam by having to buy the same album on eight-track, vinyl, cassette, CD and now digital.

Indeed. You should not buy from iTunes. Nor from any other music distributor at the moment, actually.

[Quote:]

Consider Chicago’s Derek Dupree for one moment. Derek is a frankly fat dude with extremely sweaty pits who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. So he should have known better than to try out for American Idol. He should have known better than to proclaim, “I have a unique range. I can sing anything from Elvis to Queen.” And he should certainly have known better than to plead for a second chance from the judges. But not knowing better doesn’t mean Derek deserved to be ridiculed in front of more than 30 million viewers.

Similarly, 16-year-old Crystal from Palatine, Illinois. Crystal may have tanned herself into the skin of a 40-something. She may be the end product of a process that starts with the celebrification of Paris Hilton. But again, Crystal still deserves better than to be exploited for money by Cowell, Abdul, Jackson, 19 Entertainment, Freemantle Media and Fox. Dragging in her mother to continue their joke, the judges’ treatment of Crystal amounted to little more than child abuse.

[..]

There are two pre-audition selection rounds before contestants are allowed to meet the judges. Clearly then, the show’s army of “talent” spotters deliberately sent Derek, Crystal and the others crashing and burning onto national television, in the sure and certain knowledge that humiliation means ratings.

And for those of you who like Flickr but don’t have Macs, check this out…

[Quote:]

A July 2002 Justice Department statement to a Senate committee appears to contradict several key arguments that the Bush administration is making to defend its eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing such operations, was working well, the department said in 2002. A “significant review” would be needed to determine whether FISA’s legal requirements for obtaining warrants should be loosened because they hampered counterterrorism efforts, the department said then.

President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other top officials now argue that warrantless eavesdropping is necessary in part because complying with the FISA law is too burdensome and impedes the government’s ability to rapidly track communications between suspected terrorists.

In its 2002 statement, the Justice Department said it opposed a legislative proposal to change FISA to make it easier to obtain warrants that would allow the super-secret National Security Agency to listen in on communications involving non-U.S. citizens inside the United States.

Today, senior U.S. officials complain that FISA prevents them from doing that.

via

[Quote:]

Global drinks firms, including Coca-Cola and Cadbury Schweppes, have unveiled a European initiative aimed at tackling the problem of obese children.

Unesda, the Union of European Beverages Associations, said it would limit youth advertising, control sales in schools and improve nutritional labels.

It also pledged a wide range of drinks, including sugar-free and low-calorie, in container sizes that limit intake.

The European Union has singled obesity out as a major threat to public health.

[..]

One drinks company representative in the UK told the BBC that the main driving force behind the changes were the consumers themselves, many of whom were demanding healthier options.

Rule number 1: advertisers lie. They’re not doing this because of consumer requests. The companies are running scared of the regulators of Europe’s free-health-care social democracies: as the public cost of obesity soars, how long until Europe’s governments try to recoup a little of that expense from the calorie-pushers?

[Quote:]

Going to the movies is not what it used to be. Security at the studio-owned theatres is heavy, it’s not a trip to be taken lightly. But if you want to see the film everyone is talking about without waiting a year for the home release, you have little choice. When you enter the lobby the first thing you see are long ranks of tiny, thumbprint activated lockers. This is where you must leave all of your electronics, your personal server and peripherals, even your watch, and you had better not be wearing smart spectacles or contacts. As you enter the security zone you’re scanned for anything you may have forgotten. Cochlea and optical implants must be capable of responding with a coded RF identification signal to indicate their systems are secure and cannot record. People with older models, or models implanted abroad where such interrogation is illegal, are turned away. Perhaps they would like to see one of the older releases? Once through the scanner you must submit to a biometric ID test – this is where the known bloggers, hackers and spoilers are ejected. Finally there is the non-disclosure agreement to be signed – these days most moviegoers choose to sign via the MPAAs annual subscription, just trying to take some of the hassle out of visiting the cinema. Finally you get to see the film. In the auditorium the audience is constantly scanned by an AI looking for suspicious activity, so don’t rummage in your pockets for too long. It’s strange that all this effort to protect the movie industry has done so little to improve the movies.

Check the situation outside the USA

[Quote:]

In the last two months, I’ve become fascinated with clocks and automatons. My family never owned a mechanical clock, but I had an aunt with a musical cuckoo clock, and a grandfather clock that showed the phases of the moon. I wondered what made the pendulum keep swinging (was it magnets or batteries?), and what made the cuckoo bird sing.

I still don’t know what makes the cuckoo bird sing, but I now have a better idea of what makes the pendulum swing, thanks to Jeff Schierenbeck, the designer of the Ascent wooden gear clock, a kit I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

I decided a few weeks ago to build a wooden gear clock because I wanted to understand the clock mechanism better. There are a number of websites that offer plans for wooden gear clocks, but as someone with absolutely no woodworkng experience (band practice generally interferes with taking shop class), and no tools, I needed something that was ready to build. I found three sites that offer such kits: Jeff’s wooden-gear-clocks.com, klockit.com and clockplans.com.