The Union Network International, representing 15 million workers worldwide, has hit out at US-based security multinational Chubb over its actions in East Timor [BugMeNot]. The public condemnation of the company follows the sacking of 32 local workers who were employed in cleaning and security areas for Chubb’s client in Dili, the World Bank. The union claims that the workers were removed after they took strike action as a means of disputing a company attempt to cut wages by 30%. The union also claims that the company has sought to re-hire the workers but only if they eschew union membership and sign individual contracts accepting a significant wage cut. These measures are believed to be in contravention of East Timor law and fall short of complying with international labour laws
A British-based company is selling MP3 players which can be attached to an assault rifle. The AK-MP3
player is built into the ammunition clip of a Kalashnikov. It can be swapped with the real magazine carrying bullets and inserted into the weapon. The device is being advertised on the internet by a Buckinghamshire-based company set up by a group of Russian businessmen who sell audio books. It comes with enough storage space to hold 3,000 audio books or 9,000 songs — via Die Puny Humans
Mozilla have released the new version of Firebird and it has been rebadged as Mozilla Firefox and gained a cute new logo. Firefox is now at version 0.8.
There’s also a new version of Mozilla Thunderbird, now at version 0.5.
Nice to have a functional, standards compliant alternative to the evil of Microsoft’s Outlook and Internet Explorer.
Hundreds of intellectuals and administrators have been assassinated [BugMeNot] since May in a widening campaign against Iraq’s professional class
When a 40-year old British woman set off a metal detector alarm at Athens airport, bemused security staff found that it was caused by a chastity belt she was wearing
An amusing image in response to the eternal whine of a many a small girl — and they’re always girls — about wanting a bloody horse.
What is it with little girls and horses anyway? Do little girls who want horses turn into the scary women who are armpit deep in cats? — via Die Puny Humans
Professor Jim Barber, from Imperial College London’s department of biological sciences has claimed that artificial photosynthesis could turn the world’s oceans into an almost limitless source of fuel. He made the prediction after shedding new light on the mechanism plants use to split water into hydrogen and oxygen — via Die Puny Humans
A team from the University of Michigan is proposing an economic solution to spam. Instead of relying on technical solutions or government regulations, they use a sender warranty system. In some cases, they argue, it can even be superior to a perfect filter with zero cost, and no errors. With the caveat that some infrastructure is necessary, they also claim their approach restores control to the recipient, halts spam, and creates a marketplace for valuable information exchange
Some people may be aware that a scene they are looking at has changed without being able to identify what that change is. This could be a newly discovered mode of conscious visual perception, according to psychologist Ronald Rensink, based at the University of British Columbia, who discovered it. He has dubbed the phenomenon mindsight
A paint that soaks up some of the most noxious gases from vehicle exhausts will goes on sale in Europe in March. Its makers hope it will give architects and town planners a new weapon in the fight against pollution. Called Ecopaint, the substance is designed to reduce levels of the nitrogen oxides, collectively known as the NOx gases, which cause respiratory problems and trigger smog production
Three livestock exhibitors at last year’s Ohio State Fair have been disqualified for allegedly outfitting their Holstein cows with hairpieces. State Fair inspectors said the three glued or painted hair from another part of the animal or from another animal to create straighter backs on the cows and enhance their appearance in the show ring
Sometimes dreadlocks are contrary things and they develop weak spots, where the hair thins, to annoy you. I had one such spot, fortunately near the end of a dread, that was defying my best efforts to correct. It was getting to the point of trimming the offending dread when a solution occurred to me.
If you haven’t heard of needle felting, it’s one of those fad crafts that come and go in waves. It’s based on the process used to make industrial felt. A lot of synthetics aren’t that keen on being felted, so barbed needles are punched through, dragging the fibres into an interlocked fabric. Needle felting is the same thing on a smaller scale and is useful if you need to sculpt fibre and felt. I don’t, so had no real interest in it, until it occurred to me that it may be a viable way to repair my dread.
I grabbed a friend who is into needle felting, stuck my head on the table and let her rip. She folded the damaged section of dreadlock onto itself and needle felted the join. It only took a couple of minutes and worked like a charm. The repaired section is indistinguishable.
I wouldn’t recommend it for weak spots closer to your scalp, but it is a useful technique for combating otherwise difficult to repair ends.
Web surfers battling spyware
face a new problem: so-called spyware-killing programs that install the same kind of unwanted advertising software they promise to erase. SpyBan is one of the offending programs
Some web developers are complaining that an Internet Explorer patch that’s meant to foil Net scams is disabling some applications that didn’t put a premium on security
A Thai man was mauled when he drunkenly tried to sexually attack a dog that fiercely resisted his advances. The bloodied man was questioned by police after residents notified local authorities when they saw him walking along a road. He told police he noticed a brown female stray dog wagging its tail and acting sexy
and pulled it into some tall grass by the roadside. But the dog resisted, biting him on his face, chest and arms before he gave up his attempt and tried to stagger home. Under further questioning he admitted to raping three dogs previously while he was under the influence of alcohol. He told police he always became aroused when he drank heavily but did not have enough money to pay a prostitute — via Die Puny Humans
Australia will have its own top-level internet name server from next week, bringing it in line with New Zealand
Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt signed Utah’s 2.4 million residents up for a pilot program — MATRIX, Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange — that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman and child and didn’t bother to tell anyone. The Utah legislature is trying to figure out how to get the state out of the program but the question is how was the Governor able to enroll the whole state without anyone knowing
A vinyl fan stumbled on an amazing find at a flea market — a collection of about 35 or 40 hand-drawn and hand-painted album covers made between 1969 and 1976, some complete with fake cardboard records inside them. Mingering Mike [BugMeNot] put together all of these albums as if he were the musician. The covers are complete with hand-drawn barcodes, track listings, lyrics, drawings of the band(s), and in some cases, liner notes. He did soul and funk albums and blaxploitation soundtracks (for movies that never existed), and even a christmas album
John Brockman has asked his Edgy band of scientists, futurists, writers, and philosophers about some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some law-like pattern, either grand or small, that you’ve noticed in the universe that might as well be named after you
, like those of Newton, Moore, or Murphy — via kottke.org
Diffrient‘s Law: The
lawsof nature are more like habits.
Sheldrake‘s Principle: The improvements derived from technological advances have an equal and opposite effect on culture and the environment magnified by time and scale.
Anderson‘s Second Law: A scientist who can speak without jargon is either an idiot or a genius.
Raymond‘s Law of Software: Given a sufficiently large number of eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
Godwin‘s Law: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle today endorsed the comments of World Bank president James Wolfensohn who has criticised the pursuit of bilateral trade deals such as the US/Australia Free Trade Agreement as bad for the world economy
RSS – Posts