WAR ON EVERYTHING

Anti-terror law used on litterbugs

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to clamp down on local councils who use anti-terror laws to catch litterbugs and other minor offenders.

Increasing concern that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) is being used as a "snoopers-charter" could mean that only elected councillors or senior officers would be able to approve secret filming or the monitoring of telephone records.

Read examples of how local authorities have been using the controversial law.

SHEEP AND GOAT

Sheep Goat Effect

Psi missing is one of the most startling discoveries of modern parapsychology. At times, certain individuals persist in giving the wrong answers in psi tests. The accumulation of systematically wrong answers can be so flagrant that it suggests something quite different than a mere lack of psi abilities: it is as if people use psi to consistently avoid the target, unconsciously "sabotaging" their own results!

A number of different psychodynamics could conceivably lead to psi missing, but one of the most solidly established is quite simple: belief. In 1942, Gertrude Schmeidler, professor of psychology at City University of New York, set up a questionnaire to explore students' beliefs about psi. She used the term "sheep" to refer to those who were confident about the reality of psi and "goats" for those who doubted its existence or its pertinence in the context of the test. After the questionnaire, she gave the students a classic psi test with ESP cards in which they tried to guess sequences of target- cards. Then Schmeidler compared the results of the psi test and those of the questionnaire. The remarkable conclusion was that the "sheep" had a significant deviation above chance, while "goats" were significantly below it.

This difference between believers and disbelievers, known as the "sheep-goat effect," has been confirmed by many other researchers. A meta-analysis by Lawrence (1992), covering 73 experiments by 37 different researchers, clearly confirms that subjects who believe in psi obtain, on the average, higher results than those who do not believe in it.

COPYRIGHT WRONG

Film reviewer sacked after downloading illegal copy

Corporate giant 20th Century Fox has condemned the theft and copying of a film and has enlisted the FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America to track down the perpetrators.

Downloading a copy of the film for publicity purposes columnist Roger Friedman wrote a positive review that appeared in his Fox411 column on Thursday.
"I doubt anyone else has seen this film. But everyone can relax. I am, in fact, amazed about how great Wolverine turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn," he wrote.

Friedman met with Fox News executives and, following the meeting, the company issued a statement saying the parties had "mutually agreed to part ways immediately".

[He described how easy it is to download any film or TV show and joked he might decide to catch up on some other recent films via illegal downloads.]

WHITE LIES

White Phosphorous: Israel fires artillery shells into Gaza

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

New Mars impact crater

Formed between February 2005 and July 2005
(ESP_011425_1775)

A PDF fact sheet is available here.

JUNKYARD MARS

The parachute and backshell that guided the Mars
rover Opportunity to its Martian landing site. (link)

Hi-res cam spots space junk on Mars

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted litter on the surface of the Red Planet.
HiRES spotted the remains of space probes and landing gear on the surface of Mars and was also able to zoom in on Viking I and Viking II, which landed in 1976, in addition to the two currently operating rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.