UK’s largest ISP ordered to block links to major pirate movie link website

A High Court judge has ruled that BT must block access to a website which provides links to pirated movies.

Newzbin 2 is a members-only site which aggregates a large amount of the illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.

The landmark case is the first time that an ISP has been ordered to block access to such a site.

It paves the way for other sites to be blocked as part of a major crackdown on piracy

FB-Mondial 250 Bialbero / Phil Aynsley

I’m always looking for an excuse to feature a racing motorcycle with a dustbin fairing. These new shots are from Australian photographer Phil Aynsley, and were taken recently in Florence. They show an exquisite 1956 FB-Mondial: the very machine that took Tarquinio Provini to second place in the 1957 250cc Grand Prix world championship — via Bike EXIF

Got $799,000? You could buy a town in South Dakota

Scenic, South Dakota, might not have much — a dance hall, a jail and a handful of out-buildings. But it’s a town. And most of it could be yours for $799,000.

They’ve decided to sell and move on, said Dave Olsen, a realtor with Coldwell Banker, who is hoping to sell the property.

It’s 46 acres in total — 12 acres in town and 34 acres around it — located about 50 miles east of Rapid City, South Dakota — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Media authority to investigate complaint about Jones comment

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating a complaint about alleged inaccuracies in statements on climate change by broadcaster Alan Jones.

GetUp! had made a complaint, which it believed was not being pursued by the broadcasting regulator, but Fairfax Media has learned ACMA is investigating the GetUp! complaint, and some others, concerning Mr Jones.

If the complaint is upheld, Mr Jones may be asked to acknowledge the statement was wrong and promise not to repeat it — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Beware of wrong transaction hotel spam

If you get an e-mail message telling you a hotel has erroneously charged your credit card account, be careful. The odds are that it’s part of a new spam campaign that could infect your computer.

The messages started popping up in recent days and there are already hundreds of variants on the same theme: A hotel wrongly charged a credit card number and the victim is supposed to fill out an attached form to process the refund.

Please see the attached form. You need to fill it out and contact your bank for return of funds, read one such message, titled Hotel Breakers Palm Beach made wrong transaction — via redwolf.newsvine.com

European study sees no mobile phone-cancer link

A European study involving nearly 1000 participants has found no link between mobile phone use and brain tumours in children and adolescents, a group that may be particularly sensitive to phone emissions.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was prompted by concerns that the brains of younger users may be more vulnerable to adverse health effects — such as cancer — from mobile phones — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google+ misses an opportunity – Privacy is an important part of openness

Google’s new Plus social networking service attracted more than 10 million users within a week of its public beta. That is a remarkable number of people signing up for an unfinished social network when the field of options is already quite crowded.

Why would so many people flock to Google+? The one thing almost everyone that I know references is privacy and control, or at least the hope that it might achieve that end — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A revenge plot so intricate the prosecutors were pawns

Soon after Seemona Sumasar started dating Jerry Ramrattan, she had an inkling that something might be wrong.

He said he was a police detective, but never seemed to go to work. He seemed obsessed with CSI, Law & Order and other television police dramas.

About a year after he moved into her house in Queens, New York, their relationship soured. One day, he cornered her, taped her mouth and raped her, she said. Ramrattan was arrested.

But he soon took his revenge, US authorities said. Drawing on his knowledge of police procedure, gleaned from his time as an informer for law enforcement, he accomplished what prosecutors in New York called one of the most elaborate framing plots that they had ever seen — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Suzuki GSX-R1100 Streetfighter / Lee Workman

For most of the bikes we feature here, performance is relative. (There’s even the odd replica Grimeca drum brake.) There’s no true answer to how much is too much, but in the streetfighter world, you can never have too much. Most streetfighters leave me cold, but this one stopped me in my tracks. Probably because I’m a sucker for anything connected to Yoshimura, and builder Lee Workman is a kindred spirit — via Bike EXIF

3,000 Roman 3rd Century coins found in Montgomery field

More than 3,000 Roman coins have been discovered in a field, it has emerged.

The hoard of copper alloy coins, dating from the 3rd Century, was unearthed in Montgomery, Powys, several weeks ago.

About 900 were found by a member of a Welshpool metal detecting club, with the rest of the discovery made with help from archaeologists — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Disused 1930s fire station / Accrington

Have you seen the BBC show Restoration Home? Generally speaking, someone buys an interesting or period property, then does the renovation with… variable… results. This disused 1930s fire station in Accrington, Lancashire would be a prime candidate for the show.

Want it? Well, price is on application, although we suspect it’s available for around the £300,000 mark. If you want it for your dream home, get in quick before someone turns it into apartments and offices. Find out more at Rightmove — via WowHaus

Theravada Buddhist monks walk away from sex-abuse allegations

A Tribune review of sexual abuse cases involving several Theravada Buddhist temples found minimal accountability and lax oversight of monks accused of preying on vulnerable targets.

Because they answer to no outside ecclesiastical authority, the temples respond to allegations as they see fit. And because the monks are viewed as free agents, temples claim to have no way of controlling what they do next. Those found guilty of wrongdoing can pack a bag and move to another temple — much to the dismay of victims, law enforcement and other monks — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hotfile to Sue Warner Bros For Abusing Its Anti-Piracy Tool

The Florida-based file-hosting service Hotfile intends to file a lawsuit against Warner Bros for abusing its anti-piracy tool. Hotfile claims that Warner Bros deleted files from the file-hosting service to which it didn’t hold the copyrights. In addition, the movie studio allegedly deleted files from Hotfile without verifying the contents — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Cornell software fingers fake online reviews

If you’re like most people, you give yourself high ratings when it comes to figuring out when someone’s trying to con you. Problem is, most people aren’t actually good at it — at least as far as detecting fake positive consumer reviews.

Fortunately, technology is poised to make up for this all-too-human failing. Cornell University researchers have developed software that they say can detect fake reviews (PDF). The researchers tested the system with reviews of Chicago hotels. They pooled 400 truthful reviews with 400 deceptive reviews produced for the study, then trained their software to spot the difference.

The software got it right about 90 percent of the time. This is a big improvement over the average person, who can detect fake reviews only about 50 percent of the time, according to the researchers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

The winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Sue Fondrie, an associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh who works groan-inducing wordplay into her teaching and administrative duties whenever possible. Out of school, she introduces two members of the next generation to the mysteries of Star Trek, Star Wars, and — of course — the art of the bad pun.

Professor Fondrie is the 29th grand prize winner of the contest that that began at San Jose State University in 1982. The contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels takes its name from the Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who began his Paul Clifford with It was a dark and stormy night.

At 26 words, Professor Fondrie’s submission is the shortest grand prize winner in Contest history, proving that bad writing need not be prolix, or even very wordy.

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Sue Fondrie, Oshkosh, WI — via redwolf.newsvine.com