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Revenge of the Sith

BBC News: Third Star Wars film gets title

The new film will be released in May 2005
The third and final Star Wars prequel – due for release next summer – will be called Revenge of the Sith, producer Lucasfilm has said.

See Star Wars: Episode III for more information on the movie.

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Freak huge waves: No myth!

Freak waves spotted from space

The shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey buildings had finally been proved, the European Space Agency (Esa) said on Wednesday.

Sailors often whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until now, no one quite believed them.

As part of a project called MaxWave – which was set up to test the rumours – two Esa satellites surveyed the oceans.

During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.

I don’t know why but I love the idea of huge waves spontaneously appearing in the middle of the ocean. The unknowable power of Mother Nature. Why are governments spending billions of dollars exploring the Universe when we don’t know enough about our own planet?

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Register now at Bugmenot.com

Bugmenot.com now has a registration page for users of the service to fill in. Odd if you consider that bugmenot’s service is to give you log in details for sites such as The New York Times that require registration before usage.

However, upon closer examination you may find that it is a spoof with some rather personal information being asked for such as

Out of ten how would you rate your partner’s satisfaction with your sexual performance?

and totally crazy ones like

Would you be willing to have an RFID chip inserted under your skin in exchange for a free, 12 month newspaper subscription?

Having to register at websites just to read articles is fucking annoying and bad security as it means yet more passwords to remember. Most people hate to remember many passwords so they will use the same password that they use for sites that actually require some security such as their bank account.

One other thing is that it makes these sites inaccessible to search engines so that when you search for something at Google it’s unlikely that you’d get a link to the page of the article from The New York Times that covered it.

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It starts with Ted Turner Vs. Big Media

My Beef With Big Media: How government protects big media–and shuts out upstarts like me. By Ted Turner

Ted Turner argues that the big media corporations are stifling innovation and should be broken up.

I agree particularly as they are encouraging Senators to produce rather insane bills such as the INDUCE act proposed by Senator Orrin Hatch et al. An overreaching act that would hold technology companies liable for any product they make that encourages people to steal copyright materials. It would in effect ban any device capable of recording a copyrighted work. Wired magazine asks Will Copyright Bill Kill Tech? and Lawrence Lessig (Professor of Law and author of Free Culture) writes even I can’t believe this.

Also in on the act so to speak is the RIAA whose letter in support of INDUCE has been reproduced and annotated by Ernest Miller of Corante.

The RIAA wishes to protect its menbers from loss of revenue due to illegal file-sharing over the Internet even though there is evidence to the contrary.

Yet despite the industry’s belief that file sharing is anathema to record sales, a recent study has shown that it may not be so clear cut. “Downloads have an effect on sales that is statistically indistinguishable from zero,” the controversial report claims, even going so far as to suggest that for popular albums, “the impact of file sharing on sales is likely to be positive”.

The US Copyright Office goes further than the RIAA and says that the INDUCE act doesn’t go further enough. Ernest Miller writes

Yesterday, Marybeth Peters, the head of the US Copyright Office, testified before the Senate regarding the INDUCE Act. Her testimony was even more radical than the RIAA’s. Not only did she (inappropriately) explain what outcome the Appeals Court in the Grokster case should reach and argue (wrongly) that the INDUCE Act wouldn’t have a chilling effect on innovation, she actually said she thought the INDUCE Act was not enough. The Register of Copyrights argued that the Betamax decision, which made VCRs legal, should be overturned by Congress. Wow.

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Alan Moore interview at Salon.com

See it here. Non-subscribers can read it via the ad-sponsored free day pass.

A wide ranging interview with arguable the best comic book writer of all time that covers his work, his views on politics and how TV and Film are short-circuiting reality and damaging the public’s ability to discern the truth of events.

Favourite quotes from the interview:-

And I really hope that people are not morally lazy or weak enough to elect this guy; I won’t say ‘again’ because he wasn’t elected the first time. And it is true to say that across the world there is quite a lot of anti-America sentiment, which is different than anti-American sentiment. I think that even in the majority of Muslim countries that have been polled, nobody blames Americans — they blame George Bush and the people surrounding him. Mind you, we’ll see what happens this November, because you can have someone take over your country once and still have it be an accident. But twice? Well, that would be regrettable. [Laughs.]

…I mean, I think that television is one of the most diabolical — in the very best sense of the word — inventions of the past century. It has probably done more to degrade the mind and intelligence of its audience, even if they happen to be drug addicts or alcoholics; I would think that watching television has done more to limit their horizons in the long run. And it has also distorted our culture.

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Dyson Flash for Attention

Yet more Flash entertainment, oddly enough by the hoover-kings at Dyson…

http://www.dyson.co.uk/game/default.asp

My god this is insane. I have finally completed levels 1-25 having played it virtually all day and I’ve done nearly no work at all.

My company should sue Dyson for loss of productivity or something. I shall attempt the christmas levels later, but for now I should actually do some of what I’m being paid to do on this computer.

Level 23 was the real killer I don’t know how many hours I spent trying do that one and yet level 24 I got immediately, but then the horror of level 25 arose to destroy my confidence yet again.

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I love you Guinness

Charlie K wrote at the Straight to Hell forum the following.

So, we’re having this big street fair right now in Ann Arbor, MI. I’m coming back from getting my lunch and I come across this giant pint of Guinness. (That is, a man in a giant Guinness costume.)

It looks at me. I look at it. I hold out my arms. It holds out its arms. We embrace.

I say, “I love you, Guinness.”

A voice from inside goes, “I love you, too.”

A beautifully surreal image that I shall cherish forever. For the side-splitting laugh that resulted from reading that I love you Charlie K.

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Elvis: "That’s All Right" to end of copyright

Reuters: European Copyright Clock Ticking on Elvis Hits

LONDON (Billboard) – Fifty years after it was first released in the United States, Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right” is a hit in Great Britain.

The single entered the British charts last week at No. 3. But for BMG, the company releasing the track, the celebration might be short-lived.

If there are no changes in European copyright law, the track will fall into public domain Jan. 1, 2005. Anyone will be able to release it without paying royalties to the owners of the master or the performer’s heirs. BMG will start losing a significant piece of its catalog income in Europe.

As “That’s All Right” is being hailed by some as the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll, the implications are that every year after 2005, more recordings that defined the genre will fall into public domain.

As a supporter of Free Culture and Creative Commons I am thrilled by this news, it is a wake up call in more ways than one. Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of British Phonograph Industry, calls for a change in the law to protect artist’s rights for a longer duration to gain parity with US law. But I see this as an opportunity for the public to question copyright legislation and ask if we need a further extension.

Elvis Presley can no longer benefit from sales of his recordings so the law doesn’t protect his interests it protects BMG the music company that continues to profit from his genius. The expiration will not mean that BMG can no longer sell Elvis records it just opens up the market for others to sell recordings or create derivative works of “That’s All Right”. This could well spawn a new industry of kids creating remixes of classic pop music in their bedrooms and becoming top selling music stars themselves.

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The President of the United States is not a fact-checker.

For other things that President Bush isn’t see this article at the Harper’s magazine website.

My other favourites are:-

I’m not a numbers-cruncher.

The President is not a micromanager.

I’m not a lawyer.

I’m not a doctor.

The President is not an economist.

I’m not a very good prognosticator of elections.

I’m not a poet.

I’m not a very good novelist.

I am not a revengeful person.

I’m not an Iraqi citizen.

I’m not a tree, I’m a Bush.

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Hole in a hedge


040714-05
Originally uploaded by electricinca.

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