Apparently the ALP now wants to censor your internet according to these stories.
It won’t even be an opt-in system, you’ll get it because it’s good for you, and you’ll need to contact your ISP to opt-out. Of course, there’s a big disincentive there if you object to censorship on principle because you’ll fear that they will make assumptions about why you want to opt out..
This BBC report says that a Kabul court is trying a man for converting from Islam to Christianity and the prosecution want him to be executed for it.
Now I’m not a religious person, but I feel people should be free to think freely, and that includes changing their religion without being punished for it, and it would appear that I’m not alone as the United Nations “Declaration of Human Rights” (1948) says:
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
An interesting article from IT-Wire asking the question “Microsoft deal is up, what now Victoria?“, wondering whether the monopoly lock-in will continue or whether a new wind will start to blow in Victoria and (shock horror) a choice might appear ?
Here’s a bizarre story – a koala called Aoi in Japan that comes down out of the trees to sleep on the ground each night. It’s the only one of the 9 to do so apparently!
I’ve now put the piccies of the start of the InstallFest up in my Gallery. It’s only the start because I was too busy installing systems afterwards to take any more! 😉
…including the official opening by the local state member of parliament, Karen Overington (Labour) who, despite being a self-pronounced computer klutz, was kind enough to help us out.
But the real stars of the show were Sasha Ivkovic and Troy, the technician, who did a wonderful job in spreading the word and prepping the room brilliantly and Bill Farrow for bringing the barbie and snags for free!
From ABC News – South Korea gets rare yellow snowfall.
Here’s an interesting story with a twist.. 🙂
ABC News today reported that Dr Simon Robson has “discovered a new type of ant, believed to be the only species that can live, swim and navigate under water“. It goes on to quote him saying:
“I was actually working with a film crew working on insects in the mangroves and they wanted to film one of these ants and I said, ‘Well, lets put it on a rock in a puddle of water and that’ll stop it going away and then you’ll be able to film it,’ and the ant promptly just leapt off the edge of the rock and swam across the water and disappeared”
First of all this is not a new type of ant, merely a newly discovered behaviour of Polyrhachis Sokolova, but that’s not unusual for a media translation of a science/technology story.
More interesting is that there is a JCU press release from 2001 that says:
Issue date: 31-AUG-2001
Bees might be known as the busiest of insects, but a JCU Honours student has discovered one species of ant which doesn’t sleep, knows how to swim and shares its babies with other nests.
School of Tropical Biology student Angela Shuetrim has spent most of this year investigating the behavioural habits of Polyrhachis sokolova, an ant species occupying the mangrove habitat at Three Mile Creek, near Pallarenda.
(Underlining added)
It turns out that Angela Shuetrim is a research student under Dr Robson and that there was another press release put out by JCU on March 10th 2006 that mentions all the researchers.
So my guess is that this apparent re-discovery is the result of a mangling of multiple stories together by the ABC, maybe to make it sound like groundbreaking research happened whilst the BBC was filming ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ – who knows ?
Still, it’s interesting to know that at least one species of ant can swim. 😉
Leon is awake, is responding to voice command (can you squeeze my hand, can you look at me), and is opening and using his right eye to locate people! He is even smiling on demand, and kissed Lucy back when she kissed him.
Another update from the PLUG list:
Leon was taken off the sedation on Saturday and has been waking up slowly since then. As you can imagine, this is a slow process because of the nature of the injuries and the level of morphine he is on. He was put in a chair/bed for a while today so he could be in a different position. He required support, but opened one eye slightly and was able to look at Lucy and move his head to see. He was responding to pain stimulus on his hands and feet yesterday, but today he has improved to respond to a more gentle touch on his feet, and squeezed people’s hands with his when requested (after a few seconds pause). He still has a tube down his throat, but the assisted breathing has been turned off – he is now breathing on his own!
Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus! 🙂
(Daffodil image by Jeremy Beker, licensed under a CC license)