Topic: COPYRIGHT - on June 23, 2012 at 9:50:00 AM CEST
Law & Disorder / Civilization & Discontents ACTA on life support as key EU committee rejects it
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been facing an uphill battle since protests against the treaty broke out across Europe earlier this year. Three different committees of the European Parliament recommended rejection of the treaty last month.
Now the fourth—and final—committee to consider the treaty has rejected it by a 19-12 vote, giving opponents strong momentum going into next month's decisive vote of the full European Parliament. The trade committee's vote is considered crucial because it has formal jurisdiction over trade agreements like ACTA.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: AUSTRIA - on June 23, 2012 at 9:49:00 AM CEST
China Pirates Austrian Village
Knockoff Apple Stores are one thing…but a knockoff Austrian village? That’s some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it to China to do, what it does best.
After a year of construction and a price tag of $940 million dollars, the Chinese have successfully recreated the Austrian village of Hallstatt in its entirety over in the Southern Guangzhou Province. And let’s just say not every Austrian’s a fan of having their UNESCO heritage site ripped off. But since China is Austria’s second largest trading partner…what are you gonna do? Sue?!
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on June 23, 2012 at 9:47:00 AM CEST
Uruguay will staatlichen Verkauf von Marihuana erlauben
Die Regierung im südamerikanischen Uruguay will einen staatlichen Verkauf von Marihuana erlauben. "Wir glauben, dass ein Verbot bestimmter Drogen mehr Probleme für die Gesellschaft schafft als die Drogen selbst - mit desaströsen Folgen", sagte Verteidigungsminister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro am Mittwoch (Ortszeit) vor Journalisten. Ziel des Plans sei eine "strikte staatliche Kontrolle über die Abgabe und Produktion" von Cannabis. Das Vorhaben ist Teil eines Maßnahmenpakets, mit dem die Regierung gegen Gewalt vorgehen will.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on June 23, 2012 at 9:46:00 AM CEST
Uruguay to become first government to SELL cannabis to its citizens
Uruguay could become the first country in the world to sell marijuana to its citizens as it attempts to fight a growing crime problem.
Under the plan, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults who have registered on a government database - letting officials keep track of their purchases over time.
Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said the measure aims to weaken crime in the country by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on June 23, 2012 at 9:44:00 AM CEST
Baby soaps and shampoos trigger positive marijuana tests
Commonly used baby soaps and shampoos, including products from Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno and CVS, can trigger a positive result on newborns' marijuana screening tests, according to a recent study. A minute amount of the cleansing products in a urine sample — just 0.1 milliliters or less — was found to cause a positive result.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, began studying the issue after an unusually high number of newborns in their nursery began testing positive for marijuana exposure. Newborn screening for marijuana at hospitals, particularly among babies of women who are considered at high risk of drug use, is not uncommon: at U.N.C. Chapel Hill, 10% to 40% of newborns are tested.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on June 23, 2012 at 9:42:00 AM CEST
Das Drogenverbot ist (mal wieder) am Ende
Der hochtechnisierte und globale Markt produziert ständig neue Substanzen, eine Kontrolle wird immer schwieriger
Die Problemlage ist seit langem bekannt: Einerseits steht eine Unmenge von Genussmittel und psychoaktive Substanzen zur Verfügung, die von Bürgern aus unterschiedlichsten Gründen konsumiert werden. Andererseits unterwirft sich die Gesellschaft über ihre Institutionen umfangreichen Regelwerken, die diesen Konsum in geordnete Bahnen lenken sollen. Während man bei den Genussmitteln froh darüber ist, dass der Staat deren Herstellung reglementiert und Inhaltsstoffe kontrolliert, damit gesunde Ernährung möglich bleibt, wird die Reglementierung bei den psychoaktiven Substanzen von einer mittlerweile nicht unerheblichen Teil von Bürgern und Experten kritisch gesehen. Denn um die Einhaltung der Regeln zu gewährleisten, setzt der Staat auf das Strafrecht. Wer also meint ein Kilogramm Zucker zu besitzen, der darf dies tun, bei einem Kilogramm Kokain sieht das anders aus.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: POLITIK - on June 23, 2012 at 9:39:00 AM CEST
Here is the Accenture software for voter registration
This is an installation kit which contains the software; it also has the installation instructions, and a text file explaining how to set it up on a standalone machine if you aren't on a network.
This voter registration and voter history system has been widely criticized -- in Colorado, where it reportedly assigned voters who are Republicans as Democrats, and vice versa, and in Tennessee where it has been proven to lose voter histories.
Now you can examine it yourself.
The MS Access files contain quite a bit of source code. This set is circa 2004.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: HOLLYWALD - on June 21, 2012 at 8:42:00 AM CEST
Shooting 2001
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: NASA - on June 21, 2012 at 8:24:00 AM CEST
ISS Star Trails
Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on June 21, 2012 at 8:23:00 AM CEST
US Navy finds 19,000 pounds of marijuana floating off California
An aircraft carrier group recovered an estimated 19,000 pounds of marijuana that had been dumped into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend by three boats off the California coast, the Navy said Tuesday.
Nobody was apprehended and the three boats sped off after dropping their load, said Lt. Aaron Kakiel, spokesman with Naval Air Forces Pacific.
Crews from the aircraft carrier Nimitz, guided-missile cruiser Princeton, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 6, Helicopter Maritime Squadron 75 and the Mexican Navy picked up 186 bales of marijuana that apparently was en route to the United States.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: PHOTO - on June 21, 2012 at 8:22:00 AM CEST
Gigapixel Camera Catches the Small Details
David Brady, an engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues are developing the AWARE-2 camera with funding from the United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (abstract). The camera's earliest use will probably be in automated military surveillance systems, but its creators hope eventually to make the technology available to researchers, media companies and consumers. ... AWARE-2 sidesteps the size issue by using 98 microcameras, each with a 14-megapixel sensor, grouped around a shared spherical lens. Together, they take in a field of view 120 degrees wide and 50 degrees tall. With all the packaging, data-processing electronics and cooling systems, the entire camera is about 0.75 by 0.75 by 0.5 metres in volume. The current version of the camera can take images of about one gigapixel; by adding more microcameras, the researchers expect eventually to reach about 50 gigapixels. Each microcamera runs autofocus and exposure algorithms independently, so that every part of the image — near or far, bright or dark — is visible in the final result. Image processing is used to stitch together the 98 sub-images into a single large one at the rate of three frames per minute
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: COMPUTER - on June 21, 2012 at 8:20:00 AM CEST
Centenary of the birth of WWII code breaker Alan Turing
This week sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing, a man regarded as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th Century.
He is best known for his work cracking the Germans' secret codes during the Second World War.
He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of computer technology.
An exhibition devoted to his life and achievements opens at the Science Museum in London on 21 June.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
