The Association for Progressive Communications has a really interesting summary of the possible implications of new copyright legislation in Australia. They have a set of PDF’s there that give a “risk matrix” for teens, families, small businesses and industry.
If you’ve ever wondered how a bunch of kids singing in a restaurant can turn into a criminal offence under copyright law then this is for you (especially if you own an iPod). Read ’em and weep..
(Via)
The Vanuatu cargo cult of John Frum, one of the last surviving cargo cults, is celebrating its 50th birthday.
The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs.
In January 2007 Melbourne used a grand total of just over 35 million litres of water, down 24% from January 2006.
Each day in South Australia BHP uses over 32 million litres, all extracted from the Great Artesian Basin, and doesn’t pay a cent for it. Still, at least they didn’t increase it to the 150+ million litres a day they wanted to..
NB: BHP’s water use does not impinge on Melbourne, so don’t think I’m saying I don’t believe in the water savings that are so necessary here!
It appears that our prime minister believes it would be inappropriate to bring retrospective legislation in to charge David Hicks with offences in an Australian court, but does think it is OK for the USA to do so, even though some prominent US citizens don’t think too highly of ex post facto legislation:
“The sentiment that ex post facto laws are against natural right, is so strong in the United States, that few, if any, of the State constitutions have failed to proscribe them. The federal constitution indeed interdicts them in criminal cases only; but they are equally unjust in civil as in criminal cases, and the omission of a caution which would have been right, does not justify the doing what is wrong. Nor ought it to be presumed that the legislature meant to use a phrase in an unjustifiable sense, if by rules of construction it can be ever strained to what is just.”
(Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson, August 13th, 1813)
An interesting news article from the BBC, it is believed that the Chinese military did an anti-satellite weapons test against an old weather satellite of theirs and successfully destroyed it with a surface launched ballistic missile.
The report said that a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, launched in 1999, was destroyed by an anti-satellite system launched from or near China’s Xichang Space Centre on 11 January.
There is the usual outrage over the test, but I do wonder whether they would have said anything if it was the US who had done the same..
Update: China has confirmed that this test took place.
Power outages all over Melbourne (as well as Victoria). The Age says:
Large parts of Victoria including much of metropolitan Melbourne are now without power, after bushfires in the north-east of the state knocked out vital transmission lines connecting Victoria to the national power grid.
To see the areas around central Melbourne affected you can go to the CItipower Outages page.
Traffic lights are out, trains are still running (but delayed). Be careful folks..
Update: This report says that the fire has disrupted 2 gigawatts of power that the state would normally have access to.
This is sad. Magnus Magnusson, the founding presenter of Mastermind from the BBC, has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 77 according to the BBC. They have an obituary for him.
The BBC is reporting that Momofuku Ando, who was the inventor of instant noodles has died at the age of 96.
Mr Ando said the inspiration for his product came when he saw people lining up to buy bowls of hot ramen noodle soup at a black market stall during the food shortages after World War II.
Ando san, the students of the world salute you!
The BBC is carrying a report that Saddam Hussein was hanged today in Baghdad, along with two others at 03:00 GMT.
The news was confirmed to the BBC by the Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister, Labeed Abawi.
Not that I suspect it will change anything, the killings will probably go on, the recent artificial construct of Iraq will continue to fall apart. 🙁
It would appear that my earlier blog about the missing islands in the Bay of Bengal was wrong on one count when I wrote:
Fortunately the two Indian islands that have disappeared in the Bay of Bengal do not appear to have been inhabited
as the UK’s Independent Newspaper is reporting that:
The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
The article is a bit strong on the hyperbole though, saying:
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.
Factually correct, but sadly I’m not convinced that it’s one of the most apocalyptic predictions..