Internet shoppers accustomed to tax-free purchases from Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store soon may be in for an unpleasant surprise. State legislatures and tax officials, eager to find new ways to boost government spending and curb budget shortfalls, are eyeing the burgeoning market for digital downloads as a potentially lucrative source of revenue
70 year old Yasumasa Matsuzaki was evicted from a convenience store because of his habit of reading magazines without ever buying anything. He returned five minutes later with a chainsaw and threatened the staff before returning to the magazine rack. The incident last week is part of a wave of so-called grey crime in Japan. The percentage of over-65s in prison has trebled in the past decade and exceeds 10 per cent of the total prison population – four times the UK figure. Japan has the highest rate of incarceration for pensioners in the industrialised world
This Anzac Day descendants of Turkish soldiers will for the first time be officially allowed to join in the march of veterans. Turkish-Australians whose fathers and grandfathers fought at Gallipoli have been defying RSL policy by marching in the Melbourne parade since 1996. But now they’ve been given official sanction from Victoria’s RSL
Microsoft has developed Oklahoma’s Computer Spyware protection Act. The law will supposedly protect people from unwarranted hackers or virus attacks and can fine individuals up to $1M who are found guilty of breaking into a computer without the owners knowledge. At the same time, it also allows some of the better known capable companies to look
into your computer for possible virus/spyware and fix the problem without informing you. And, while these friends are doing their job, they can also take the moment to do other things — via Slashdot
Google has snapped up the rights to an advanced text search algorithm invented by a University of NSW student. The algorithm, or search engine tool, is called Orion and was developed by UNSW PhD student Ori Allon at the university’s School of Computer Science
An RAF doctor who refused to serve in Iraq because he believed the war to be illegal was jailed for eight months. The conviction and imprisonment of Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the first member of the armed forces to be charged with disobeying orders to deploy in Iraq, has provoked widespread condemnation. Anti-war groups declared that a man who had shown great moral courage and acted according to his conscience was being pilloried for his beliefs
The construction of 402 homes might finally signal the end of the 28-year red wolf breeding programme at the Graham site. Local zoo officials want to move the wolves to protected land at Northwest Trek near Eatonville, but that hinges on a $550,000 federal appropriation at a time when money is tight
The competition watchdog has rejected Telstra’s proposed charges for connecting and disconnecting broadband ISPs’ access to its basic copper wire
Australian ISPs could face huge fines if they do not provide spam filtering or impose e-mail sending limits under new rules set down by a communications watchdog
New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack. City Department of Transportation employees were conducting maintenance on the structure when they found the cache on the top floor of a three-floor space inside the bridge’s base — via Warren Ellis
Internet copyright pirates in France will face prison and large fines after French MPs pushed through laws to curb illegal music and film downloads
Up to one million litres of oil have leaked from a damaged pipeline in Alaska’s North Slope, the worst spill in the region’s history. The leak, apparently caused by metal corrosion, was detected March 2 in the United States’ largest oil field in Prudhoe Bay, which lies about 1,040 kilometres north of Alaska’s biggest city, Anchorage
Desmond Irvine, 74, was so heartbroken by the death of his wife Veronica on Valentine’s Day that he put her in a nice dress and, with the help of his son, took her in a taxi from Edinburgh, Scotland to their holiday home in Berwick, England where they put her in the freezer. Two weeks later, police were tipped-off by concerned family members and discovered the body. Desmond was detained by police for nine hours. Apparently, Desmond and his son are now trying to bring Veronica back home — via Boing Boing
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
Citing the Prevention of Terrorism
act, British Police have arrested and interrogated three of the stars of the award-winning film The Road to Guantanamo
, together with the three ex-Guantanomo detainees on whose story the film is based — via Feòrag
Children at a Florida elementary school refused to sell lollies to raise money for a field trip, having just completed an educational unit on health and well-being. The widow of Dr Atkins was so moved by their commonsense that she donated $16,000 to their school so they could afford the trip without selling junk-food — Boing Boing
Harry Whittington, 78, was alert and doing fine
after US Vice President Dick Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. Does this mean it’s open season on lawyers? — via Boing Boing
George Deutsch, the loony fundie who tried to muzzle top NASA climate scientist James Hansen and ordered NASA web designers to add the word theory
to every mention of the Big Bang, has resigned. NASA has declined to discuss the reasons for his resignation, but it came the same day that Texas A&M University, from which Deutsch claimed on his resume to have graduated, revealed that he had attended the university but did not complete his degree
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said Friday the Bush administration’s domestic spying is within the retarded monkey boy‘s inherent power under the Constitution
Senators have voted in favour of a bill removing control over the abortion drug RU486 from the federal health minister, a noted loonie fundie. Senators were given a rare conscience vote on the bill, with 45 voting in favour of the change and 28 voting against. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives and if passed will end the Health Minister’s power to ban RU486 and allow the Therapeutic Goods Administration to make a decision on the drug. It is the first conscience vote since 2002
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