Mandelson seeks to amend copyright law in new crackdown on filesharing – The Guardian — Could he make it any more clear that he’s in bed with Big Content? Is this sneaky crooked amendment aimed at creating the office of Pirate Finder General?

Lord Mandelson is seeking to amend the laws on copyright to give the government sweeping new powers against people accused of illegal downloading.
[...]
The proposed alteration to the Copyright Act would create a new offence of downloading material that infringes copyright laws, as well as giving new powers or rights to “protect” rights holders such as record companies and movie studios – and, controversially, conferring powers on “any person as may be specified” to help cut down online infringement of copyright.

The changes proposed seem small – but are enormously wideranging, given both the breadth of even minor copyright infringement online, where photographs and text are copied with little regard to ownership, and the complexity of ownership.

Mandelson says in his letter that he is concerned about “cyberlockers” – websites that offer users private storage spaces whose contents can be shared by passing a web link via email.

“These can be used entirely legitimately, but recently rights holders have pointed to them as being used for illegal use,” Mandelson writes in the letter.

But the proposal to alter the Copyright Act in this way has caused alarm within government, where some fear that an incoming Tory administration could use it to curry favour with Murdoch, head of the News International publishing group.

• Google Chrome OS made official. Some details follow.
• Win 7 sales booming.
• Sony to use Firefox on PS3.
• Palm phones go on sale.
• NSA backdoor? They say no.
• Al Gore in the news. This is a beaut.
• Best Buy starts Black Friday already.
• Dell Profits drop.

• Microsoft giving away beta copies of Office 2010. Worth a look.
• Also IE 9 floating around.
• Judge says Verizon ads OK.
• Call of Duty breaking all records.
• IBM makes a computer that simulates a cat’s brain! Meow.
• Google Chrome coming out and to be announced tomorrow.
• EU Ombudsman backing Intel.
• Controversy over new OED words.

Washington Post- Nov. 17, 2009:

The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat.

At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government’s first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans’ access to food.

The magnitude of the increase in food shortages — and, in some cases, outright hunger — identified in the report startled even the nation’s leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens.

Gaddafi’s Bodyguards

Gaddafi hires 200 young Italian women – to convert them to Islam — The guy’s barking but you gotta admit he has style.

When the hostess agency put out the call for attractive, well-dressed women, under the age of 35 and over 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) tall, it was inundated with responses from hundreds of Roman women.

Most seemed to think they would be bringing a little glamour to a gala dinner with the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Instead, they found themselves being lectured by him for two hours on the role of women and invited to convert to Islam. “We were at least expecting a snack”, grumbled Silvia Figliozzi afterwards.
[..]
The women at Sunday’s event were promised €50 (£45) and told not to arrive in miniskirts or low-cut tops. They assembled outside a hotel in the centre, where several were rejected because they were either too short or revealingly dressed. The rest – most teetering on stilettos and some wrapped in furs – boarded buses and were driven to the Libyan ambassador’s residence.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa, about 200 filed through the heavily protected gates, where a security guard insisted to reporters that they were assembling for a “medical conference”.

After a delay of an hour, Gaddafi appeared, in a black uniform with a black beret. As he launched into his address, female members of his entourage distributed embossed copies of the Qu’ran and the colonel’s own great work, The Green Book.

• Android all over the news with contradictory stories.
• MSFT at risk.
• Nokia and Palm deal creating a stir even though there is no deal yet.
• Eqypt first country to go Arabic with web domains.
• 1/2 of Teens talk on phone while driving. 1/2 of teens apparently lie.
• Cray has fastest supercomputer again.
• Russia banning games.
• Semiconductors to lead us to the promised land.

Bill Clinton in Chicago pitches health care; muses on “Mad Men” – Lynn Sweet — For some reason this commentary amuses me.

Clinton looked out at the diverse crowd and said it was different than a crowd of white men that might be seen on the TV show “Mad Men.”

“You ever watch that TV series ‘Mad Men?’ ” Clinton asked. “If I keep watching this program, will I ever find a happy person? Great television. Good drama. But a lot of really painful reminders in that show about how black people were supposed to run the elevators… were supposed to ask permission before they get on an elevator. The way women were treated is appalling, and only occasionally funny to me.”

Found by Tim Yates.

#148 No Agenda For Sunday November 15th 2009
Adam Gets Kicked Out

Stolen Freddo: boy, 12, charged – The Age — A classic example of how shabbily indigenous peoples are treated in Australia, particularly in the West. Disgraceful.
Updated – Charge is likely to be withdrawn

AN ABORIGINAL boy, 12, will face a children’s court today charged with receiving a stolen Freddo frog.

The chocolate frog, allegedly shoplifted by the child’s friend from a Coles supermarket in regional Western Australia, usually sells for about 70 cents.

The boy, who has no prior convictions, also faces a second charge involving the receipt of a novelty sign from another store. The sign, which was also allegedly given to the boy by his friend, read: ”Do not enter, genius at work.”

The boy’s lawyer, Peter Collins, has lobbied WA police for the charges to be withdrawn, but authorities had failed to respond to his request, he said.

”It’s scandalous that a 12-year-old child should be subject to prosecution for a case of this type,” he told The Age.

Mr Collins said that when the boy last month missed a court date due to a family misunderstanding, police had apprehended him about 8am on a school day and taken him into custody. The boy was then imprisoned for several hours in the holding cell at the police station.