French consumers are not entitled to make personal copies of DVDs, even if they do not distribute them, France’s highest court said Wednesday in a victory for film companies like Vivendi Universal
The Pentagon is funding research into neural implants with the ultimate hope of turning sharks into stealth spies
capable of gliding undetected through the ocean — via NewsVine
Cityrail may be bad but, as the Amateur Transplants point out, the London Underground is worse.
Amateur Transplants (aka Adam Kay and Suman Biswas) are two qualified doctors, who practice medicine with varying degrees of success
Prime Minister Tony Blair has told how he prayed to god spoke to his invisible friend when deciding whether or not to send UK troops to Iraq. Anti-war campaigners attacked Mr Blair’s comments as a joke
— via The Pagan Prattle
The US Senate has passed a renewal of the Patriot act, 89-10, after two extensions caused by months of negotiations. The only thing standing in the way of a full renewal is a House vote, expected to pass next week. The renewal comes with some privacy protections attached, however, some worry they are only cosmetic
NaturalNano is developing a new nanotube paint that is able to block mobile phone signals on demand. The nanotubes are filled with copper, suspended in paint, and can be applied to the walls and ceiling of places such as concert halls, churches, and classrooms
The Tax Office’s $500 million IT Change Program is based on a decades-old Cobol design, raising questions about future flexibility even before the project is rolled out
A special Australian committee on copyright and DRM has published its findings, and has recommended a drastic scaling-back of the protections given to DRM in most countries — via Boing Boing
The Bruichladdich distillery on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland’s west coast, announced it was reviving a centuries-old recipe for whisky so strong that one 17th-century writer feared more than two spoonfuls could be lethal. Risk-taking whisky connoisseurs will have to wait, however — the spirit will not be ready for at least 10 years
Perth’s Edith Cowan University will seek to use its new mesh wireless network to cut down its fleet of mobile phones by replacing them with wireless handsets enabled for Voice over IP
One of the biggest and most complete giant squids ever found is on display at London’s Natural History Museum. Measuring a monstrous 8.62m, the animal was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler
Sony Ericsson has announced several new phones, including two that carry Sony’s Cyber-shot brand and come with 3.2-megapixel cameras that are integrated with Google’s Blogger application
The Mobile Antivirus Researchers Association is reporting what it says is the first virus that can pass from a PC to a mobile device and then erase files. The proof-of concept virus is not yet threatening users
Anti-virus companies are warning of new malicious software that can infect any mobile phone capable of running Java applications, not just feature-rich smart phones
Schools have warned they will have to turn off the internet if a move by the nation’s copyright collection society forces them to pay a fee every time a teacher instructs students to browse a web site. Teachers said students in rural areas would bear the brunt of cuts if the Copyright Agency was successful in adding internet browsing charges to the $31 million in photocopying fees it rakes in from schools. The agency calculates the total due by randomly sampling schools each year for materials they copy, and extrapolating the results
The contents of 800 Australian libraries have gone online, with the launch of a new free service by the National Library in Canberra. Libraries Australia has been used by professional librarians for 25 years. The National Library’s Fran Wilson says from today that will extend to everyone
A new optical effect has been created in a London laboratory that means solid objects such as walls could one day be rendered transparent. Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, have pioneered the technique which could be used to see through rubble at earthquake sites, or look at parts of the body obscured by bone. The effect is based on the development of a new material that exploits the way atoms in matter move, to make them interact with a laser beam in an entirely new way — via Warren Ellis
Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran has halted the export of Australian livestock to Egypt, amid allegations of animal mistreatment. Channel 9’s 60 Minutes program has aired footage of cattle in an Egyptian abattoir, having their tendons slashed before slaughter. The 60 Minutes reporter believes the cattle are Australian, but Livecorp says that is unlikely
Google has announced their pilot program to digitise the entire video content of the National Archives and make it globally accessible for free on Google Video. The history of the world should be universally accessible and this is definitely a great step towards making sure that our history is not lost, and that everyone has equal and easy access towards such information. Google has provided some sample videos from the National Archives, such as the 1969 moon landing
mPhase Technologies and Lucent Technologies Bell Labs have reported that their jointly developed nano-based smart
battery prototype has proven it can store and convert energy on demand. This practical confirmation of the theory behind the technology is a major milestone in the product development process
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