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.

FIRST DROPS

Man Says He Was Nearly Hit by Meteorite

A Nebrasks man was watering his yard last week when he had a very rare and close encounter with a possible meteorite.
Brad Kinzie was out watering his yard in the wee hours of the morning Saturday - trying to avoid the hottest period of the day - when an object whizzed by his head and landed.
“It came over my head, probably, about a foot and a half. I could feel the breeze,” Kinzie said. “It was silver and it kind of had red and black on the back of it and smoke.”
The object landed about 65 feet from where Kinzie was watering.
"I stood ... here looking at it, ‘cause it was still glowing. I says, ‘Wow,’” Kinzie said.

OGLE GOOGLE

Call to 'shut down' Street View

A formal complaint about Google's Street View has been sent to the UK's Information Commissioner (ICO).

Since Street View launched in the UK on 19 March, PI has been contacted by many people identifiable via the service. Among them were a woman who had moved house to escape a violent partner but who was recognisable outside her new home on Street View.

Also complaining were two colleagues pictured in an apparently compromising position who suffered embarrassment when the image was circulated at their workplace.

The ICO said it had received the complaint from PI and would respond "shortly". It added: "It is Google's responsibility to ensure all vehicle registration marks and faces are satisfactorily blurred.

STASI STATE

Britain trains civilian anti-terror force

Britain has launched a clandestine alliance that recruits citizens and trains them to act as undercover agents against terror suspects.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the initiative is vital for safety in the UK. According to him, tens of thousands of civilians have already been trained for the purpose.

CLEAN SKIN

Internet filter blacklist leaked on web

"Now that we have seen the list, it is clearly not the perfect weapon against child-abuse it has been made out to be," said Jacobs.

"Many of the sites clearly contain only run-of-the-mill adult material, poker tips, or nothing controversial at all. Even if some of these sites may have been defaced at the time they were added to the list, how would the operators get their sites removed if the list is secret and no appeal is possible?"

The ABC has been unable to contact Broadband and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, but he is quoted by Fairfax as saying any Australians involved in the leak could face criminal charges.

"No-one interested in cyber safety would condone the leaking of this list," he said.

As well as child pornography, the list of 2395 pages also includes online gambling sites, YouTube links, regular porn and fetish sites, and websites of a tour operator, Queensland boarding kennel and a Queensland dentist. It also includes the Wikileaks website.

[The filter is designed to protect children from accessing child pornography and other criminal content.]

DOMAIN MASTER

Creative Commons Zeroes in on public domain

New “licence” waives all rights to created content.

Creative Commons has introduced a new licence that allows content creators to waive all their rights over their material.
CC0—pronounced “CC Zero”—is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain.
“Our copyright licenses empower creators to manage their copyright on terms they choose,” said Diane Peters, Creative Commons’ general counsel.

DOPE BUSH

Obama Administration Likely To Review UMass Scientist's Bid To Grow Marijuana

Days before President Bush left office in January, his administration fired a parting shot at Professor Lyle Craker's eight-year quest to cultivate marijuana for medical research by abruptly denying him a federal license despite a nearly two-year old Drug Enforcement Administration law judge's recommendation that he receive one.
But the new administration led by President Obama, who has publicly backed the use of marijuana for medical purposes to stave off pain, might reverse the decision and keep Craker's license application from going up in smoke.

GITMO OUTTA HERE

Some Truths About Guantanamo Bay

There are several dimensions to the debate over the U.S. prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that the media have largely missed and, thus, of which the American people are almost completely unaware. For that matter, few within the government who were not directly involved are aware either.

The first of these is the utter incompetence of the battlefield vetting in Afghanistan during the early stages of the U.S. operations there.

The second dimension that is largely unreported is that several in the U.S. leadership became aware of this lack of proper vetting very early on and, thus, of the reality that many of the detainees were innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, had little intelligence value, and should be immediately released.

The third basically unknown dimension is how hard Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage labored to ameliorate the GITMO situation from almost day one. Ambassador Pierre Prosper, the U.S. envoy for war crimes issues, was under a barrage of questions and directions almost daily from Powell or Armitage to repatriate every detainee who could be repatriated. Standing resolutely in Ambassador Prosper's path was Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who would have none of it. Rumsfeld was staunchly backed by the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney. Moreover, the fact that among the detainees was a 13 year-old boy and a man over 90, did not seem to faze either man.

by Lawrence Wilkerson

GENETIC WITNESS

Man's murder verdict quashed after 27 years in jail

A man who spent 27 years in jail for a murder he did not commit said he was "ecstatic" as he walked free from the Court of Appeal.Sean Hodgson, now 57, saw his "unsafe" conviction for killing Teresa De Simone, 22, in her car in Southampton 30 years ago quashed by senior judges.
Tests prove DNA from the scene was not his and police have reopened the case.

Mr Hodgson is one of the longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice in the UK.

POLICE STATE

Grand Valley State University student Derek Copp

Analysis and discussion about the world we live in

Student, Derek Copp, shot in chest by police for smoking marijuana:
Executing children in the "War on Drugs"

According to his page on Facebook, Copp identifies himself as "a left-wing hippie peace-keeping liberal," who is seeking a film and video degree.
He plays the guitar and often volunteers at music festivals to see favorite bands for free, the social networking page states.

LIFE CYCLES

Josef Fritzl pleads guilty to incest and rape

JOSEF Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of locking his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar for 24 years, raping her and forcing her to have seven children, has told a court that he too was abused as a child.

"I had a very difficult childhood," Fritzl said in a trembling voice. "My mother didn't want me. She was 42 when she had me," the 73-year-old retired electrical engineer told the three judges and eight jurors hearing his case.
At the age of 12, when he made it clear that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself, Fritzl says he was then "Satan personified for her".
His relationship with his mother was never close, even though they shared the same house until her death in 1980. She never showed him any affection and his father appeared only "rarely and sporadically". Fritzl attributed his mother's coldness to her own childhood.
"Her life wasn't the best, either," he said.

BIG BROTHER

SA police begin using number plate recognition cameras

BIKIES, pedophiles and unregistered drivers will be targeted by a new "Big Brother" style camera being trialled by SA Police.

Police will soon start using four Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras that are already being used by UK police.

Speaking from London, Police Minister Michael Wright said the cameras were "a powerful crime fighting tool."

 Tripod-mounted ANPR cameras have been used by Operation Nomad police since 2004 to monitor vehicles of suspected firebugs on days of extreme fire danger.

The new generation of ANPR cameras can be used inside and out of police cars, giving officers more scope to detect suspicious vehicles.

 The cameras instantly scan number plates and match them against information stored in databases.

NUDE AND PRUDE

Web censor lifts Wikipedia ban

The IWF ran into a storm of protest when it decided to add the article on German heavy rock band The Scorpions' Virgin Killer record to the list of URLs blocked by the vast majority of Britain's ISPs.

The filtering employed by the ISPs left millions of Britons unable to make edits on the Wikipedia site and drove thousands more to seek out the banned image.

The IWF now admits the ban was counter-productive.

"IWF's overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect," the watchdog said in a statement.

THE BARD

Original Shakespeare portrait unveiled

A portrait of William Shakespeare - believed to be the only surviving picture of the English playwright painted during his lifetime - has been unveiled in London.

The painting dates from 1610, when the Bard was 46.

It has been owned by the same family for centuries, but was only recently identified.

Art restorer Alec Cobbe says his family took possession of it when a cousin married the great granddaughter of Shakespeare's only literary patron, Henry Wriothesley.

FILTHY LUCRE

India seeks Rupee status symbol

It has billionaires and big ambitions. Now India wants something that no global economic powerhouse should be without: an international symbol for its currency.

The hope is that the Rupee sign will become as ubiquitous as the US dollar ($), or that instant emblem of the digital age, the @ symbol.

But how easy is it to launch a symbol on the international stage and land a coveted place on keyboards the world over?