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What is this contraption? A timeout enforcement device? No, it’s actually the Babykeeper, a patent pending infant carrier seat that hangs from public bathroom stalls so you can go about your business without worrying where to put your baby.

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The UCLA police department identified the officer caught electrifying the student who did not produce his college ID card as Terrence Duren, an 18-year veteran of the UCPD.

Duren hasn’t had the smoothest career in law enforcement. He came to Westwood after being fired from the infamous Long Beach PD. A few years after being hired by UCLA he was accused of using his nightstick to choke a fratboy and the university asked the UCPD to fire Duren, but he was only given a three month suspension.

In late 2003 Duren shot a homeless man, Willie Davis Frazier, Jr., in a Kerckhoff Hall bathroom. Frazier, who attempted at first to shun lawyers and represent himself, was imbalanced enough to spend time in mental institution as the court tried to figure out if he was fit to stand trial.

During a 2004 preliminary hearing in which Duren testified against Frazier, the officer carried a Machiavelli book into court, “The Prince”, which argues that the ends justifies the means. “Did you know that this was Tupac’s favorite book?” he asked.

Less than a year after Duren shot Frazier, UCLA decided to invest $22,000 in tasers, according to the Daily Bruin.

And now, ironically it’s Duren who is being accused of abusing the taser.

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A manager at a Pennsylvania design studio, she’d been in her office on Nov. 4 last year when three uniformed soldiers came to inform her that her son had been killed on a combat mission in Iraq’s Anbar province. A few weeks after Jeffrey’s Nov. 14 burial at Arlington, a team of Special Forces soldiers arrived at her home and presented an hourlong PowerPoint presentation on the details.

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The trial of the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for fraud and money laundering has been adjourned shortly after it opened in Milan.

Proceedings against Mr Berlusconi, who is standing trial with 12 others – including his former British lawyer, David Mills – will reopen next Monday.

Prosecutors allege the defendants were involved in establishing a complex system to enable tax evasion.

The men, who face up to 12 years in jail if convicted, deny any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors say offshore companies set up in the early 1990s were used to buy American film rights which were sold at hugely inflated prices to Mr Berlusconi’s television company, Mediaset.

It was an intricate system designed, they allege, to ensure the former prime minister avoided paying tax.

Next time you hear the MPAA talking about piracy funding terrorism, ask him about Berlusconi and his company’s cooperation with money-laundering.

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A spate of new discoveries about the basic biology of cancer is pushing researchers toward an astonishing conclusion: For decades, efforts to cure the disease may have targeted the wrong cells.

Current therapies treat all cancer cells the same. They’re aimed at shrinking tumours on the basis that the various cells within them all have similar powers to spawn new cancers and spread destruction.

But mounting evidence suggests that cancer’s real culprits — the roots of perhaps every tumour — are actually a small subset of bad seeds known best to the world as stem cells.

“It is not unreasonable to say that all this time, the 30 or 40 years that chemotherapy and radiation [have] been around, we’ve been going after the wrong cells,” said Alan Bernstein, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the country’s main medical research funding agency. If the theory bears out, he said, “All of our therapies have been targeting and killing the pawns.

“But like chess, you have to kill the king to win the game.”

Abnormal stem cells have now been identified as the engines driving certain cancers of the blood, breast, brain, bone and prostate. And today, two research groups — one in Canada and another in Italy — report in an advance online publication of the journal Nature that they have pinpointed aberrant stem cells as the source of colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths.

And? Do they still want to outlaw stem cell research?

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Our interest in signing this agreement was to secure interoperability and joint sales agreements, but Microsoft asked that we cooperate on patents as well, and so a patent cooperation agreement was included as a part of the deal. In this agreement, Novell and Microsoft each promise not to sue the other’s customers for patent infringement. The intended effect of this agreement was to give our joint customers peace of mind that they have the full support of the other company for their IT activities. Novell has a significant patent portfolio, and in reflection of this fact, the agreement we signed shows the overwhelming balance of payments being from Microsoft to Novell.

Since our announcement, some parties have spoken about this patent agreement in a damaging way, and with a perspective that we do not share. We strongly challenge those statements here.

We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.

Yeah, right. When you sleep with dogs, you get flees. And if you don’t think you’re in any patent trouble, there was no need at all to sign the agreement. Even Microsoft agrees:

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“We at Microsoft respect Novell’s point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place.”

So, Novell, call me back when you’ve un-signed the deal. Until that time, you will continue to feel the heat from the community. Heck, some say you’re even violating the GPL.

A customer enters a Novell Office.
Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(Novell does not respond.)
Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, Miss?
Novell: What do you mean “miss”?
Mr. Praline: I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
Novell: We’re closin’ for lunch.
Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this Linux Distro what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
Novell: Oh yes, the, uh, the Novell OpenSuse Linux…What’s,uh…What’s wrong with it?
Mr. Praline: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. According to the terms of the GPL you can no longer distribute it, that’s what’s wrong with it!
Movell: No, no, it’s uh,… part of the service agreement.
Mr. Praline: Look, matey, I know a violation of the GPL when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.
Novell: No no it not violated, it’s , it’s cirumvented’! Remarkable OS, the Suse Linux, idn’it, ay? Beautiful eye candy with GLX
Mr. Praline: The eye candy don’t enter into it. your in violation of the GPL.
Novell: Nononono, no, no! it’s just slightly cirumvented!