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Researchers from universities across Florida claim they are being locked out of Gulf oil spill response efforts by BP and state and federal agencies.

Since the April 20 spill, BP and government agencies have hampered their efforts to secure information about the spill and scientific data, such as water oil samples, collected during response efforts, the academics said.

“We’re throwing this open for the scientific discourse, and right now, we’re not getting a heck of a lot of information about what’s going on out there,” said Florida State University Associate Vice President for Research W. Ross Ellington. “If we, the scientists, are not getting much information … we know the public isn’t getting information.”

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Het noemen van de bestandsnaam van uploads op usenet is een schending van het intellectuele eigendomsrecht. Dat heeft de rechtbank in Den Haag geconcludeerd in een zaak van Eyeworks tegen usenet-community FTD.

FTD moest alle verwijzingen naar de bestandsnaam van de film Komt Een Vrouw Bij De Dokter daarom verwijderen, oordeelde de rechtbank in Den Haag dinsdag. Op de usenet-community was het linken naar bestanden al verboden, maar ook het noemen van de bestandsnaam is al genoeg om het intellectuele eigendomsrecht te schenden, zo zei de rechter in de beschikking over een verzoekschrift tot het geven van van een onmiddelijke voorziening bij voorraad. Bij zo’n beschikking, ex parte genaamd, wordt de tegenpartij niet gehoord. FTD heeft daarom geen verweer gevoerd in deze zaak.

Quick translation:

Mentioning the name of a file posted to usenet is a violation of intellectual property. That is what the court in The Hague concluded in a matter of Eyeworks at FTD usenet community.

FTD had to delete all references to the name of the film Komt Een Vrouw Bij De Dokter the court in The Hague ruled Tuesday. The Usenet community was linking to files already banned, but also the name of the file is enough to violate the intellectual property, said court in the decision on a petition to give to an immediate provisional measure . With such a decision, called ex parte, the party is not heard. FTD has therefore made no defense in this case.

Of course FTD is appealing this – although I am at a loss why an ex parte procedure was possible, it appears Eyeworks is getting a lesson in the Streisand effect.

Apparently you cannot talk about the movie and say how much it sucks or that you can download it here, here, here or here?

Well, let’s do that anyway: Komt een vrouw bij de dokter is a lousy movie andyou can get it HERE.

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Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band.

Jupiter’s appearance is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere – one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.

But recent images taken by amateur astronomers show that the southern band – called the south equatorial belt – has disappeared.

The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun’s glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen.

Seems like The Onion is on top of it.

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Based on the information here and the continuing public fascination with ‘Area 51′, I propose the government invest a modest amount, on the order a few million dollars, in the redesignation and securing of some otherwise dull military facility in order to give the appearance of Top Secret activity taking place within. Military personnel at the facility – ideally those who have proved unfit for active service owing to defects of intellect or character – can be assigned routine and unimportant maintenance tasks, but warned on a regular basis not to talk about them.

At small expense, underutilized vehicles with darkened windows, tightly-sealed cargo containers, and helicopters can travel to and from the facility for no particular reason. Utility buildings with basic but otherwise inadequate security can be fitted with otherwise redundant or obsolete electrical equipment such as strobe light generators and loudspeakers, whose output can be triggered at random intervals during nocturnal periods to create the impression that Something Is Going On.

Similarly, senior officers and members of the general staff can occasionally be required to waste some of their valuable time by paying a completely pointless visit to the facilities, where they will evince an impatient and irritated demeanor, while failing to provide any guidance about the facility’s real purpose. Even if such personnel explicitly state that the purpose of the facility is to mislead and confuse lower-ranked service personnel and, by extension, the general public, such statements will be regarded by interested parties as evidence of obfuscation and concealment, heightening speculation and imagination.

We estimate that such a program, for substantially less than the cost of a single main battle tank could indirectly generate tens or even hundreds of millions worth of new creative output about government secrets and conspiracies, much of which would find its way back to the United States Government via taxation of profits from international sales. We note in particular the significant economic revenue brought to the US by artists such as film director Steven Spielberg, half of whose career consists of motion pictures predicated on the existence of inscrutable space aliens.

Additionally, the inevitable tide of speculation and misinformation about the ‘real’ purpose of apparently secret but actually pointless activity on a military facility would draw attention away from facilities of more serious purpose and generally confound and perplex America’s enemies. The more time they spend trying to figure out what the hell we are actually doing, the less time they have to plot the destruction of our freedoms. Finally, by attempting to maintain an inordinate degree of secrecy and urgency about a facility which is otherwise completely lacking in value, we will gain valuable information about the fundamental weaknesses in our security apparatus which will allow us to anticipate and mitigate similar failures in more important military contexts.

It would, of course, be honor to lead a team charged with the planning and implementation of such a program, before suddenly disappearing for an extended period, and furiously denying any involvement in such an operation upon my reintegration into public life. For added effect, I could then recant and admit the truth of the whole affair some time later, thereby upholding the high standards of honesty and probity required of all employees of the Federal Government while simultaneously intensifying the air of mystery and conspiracy in fulfillment of the mission’s purpose.

You know where to find me, gentlemen.

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British Petroleum, the company whose drill site is spewing thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day, could pay for the entire costs of its cleanup thus far with just 3.8 days of profits, according to a new analysis.

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ThinkProgress has a leaked copy of a telcoms industry PowerPoint presentation laying out their plans to use astroturf to kill Network Neutrality. The industry is hiring the same turfers who work with the Tea Party movement to carry their message to the people.

What the telcos want to do is reduce your access to websites and services unless those services have paid a bribe for “premium carriage” to you. So Google buys its bandwidth from its ISP. You buy your bandwidth from your ISP. Then your ISP goes to Google and says, “If you want to send your bits to our customers when they ask for them, you’ll have to pay us too.” If Google doesn’t pay, the ISP slows down its bits when you ask for them.

They call this “free and unregulated internet access for content flow and connectivity speed free and unregulated internet access for content flow and connectivity speed.”

Update: it’s fake