Tuesday, 18 May 2010
LimeWire found liable for copyright infringement
The lattermost verdict is the key distinction here: Previously, many arguments and legal rulings have held that file-sharing networks weren't liable for the actions of their users — who download tons of digital music and video files annually, which may or may not turn out to be copyrighted. While several cases have held that networks are responsible for policing their own sites for copyrighted content — and in at least two major cases, have found the P2P networks guilty of inducing users to infringe on copyrights — this is the first case in which a network itself has been found liable for engaging in copyright infringement.
This is an important distinction, as "primary" copyright liability is a far more serious legal issue than "secondary" copyright liability.
LimeWire's founder, Mark Gorton, was also found personally liable for the crimes.
The ruling will almost certainly cause major changes in the peer-to-peer landscape, as P2P networks could now be found liable for extremely serious crimes — crimes for which they had previously been able to avoid liability for through legal maneuvering and a court system that seemingly prefers to place blame at the feet of the users rather than the enablers. (For better or worse, the same could be said of gun manufacturers for more than a century.)
Christopher Null @'Yahoo News'
Opium addiction fuels Afghan chaos
A new survey of drug addiction in Afghanistan is expected to show a major rise in drug consumption in the country.
The BBC's Ian Pannell visits northern Afghanistan to survey the damage wrought by opium addiction.
Her small head, cloaked in a bright green scarf, ducked towards the floor. She put a long wooden pipe to her lips and sucked. The far end glowed and bubbled before her head disappeared in a haze of smoke.
At just 10 years old, Shasana is already an opium addict. Her mother is too. In fact, most of the people she knows in this windswept village are.
They all live in a tiny cluster of mud buildings in the middle of the Turkmen desert in Afghanistan's far north.
The land they occupy is as barren as it is wild; too hot in the summer and stranded by mud in the winter.
There are no fields or forests, no rivers or streams, so the men spend the day gathering brushwood while the women go to work on one of Afghanistan's most famous exports: carpets.
But it is back-breaking work and the women complain that they ache all over.
On average, it takes three months of 10-hour days and seven-day weeks to create one of these beautiful rugs, and it is opium that keeps them going.
Three times a day, they stop work to smoke, and for a while the pain eases and the misery of life floats away.
The carpet-weavers give it to their children to treat them when they are sick or to pacify so they can go to work, and so the cycle of addiction starts from birth.
In many areas, there are simply no doctors or modern pharmaceuticals available, so the brown, sticky opium is smoked and ingested by men and women, boys and girls - and even babies.
It is used to treat headaches, pains, sickness and the psychological scars of three decades of war and poverty.
The last research on drug addiction in Afghanistan was published five years ago.
A new survey is being finalised now and is expected to show a 50% rise in the number of addicts to about 1.5 million.
In a country of just 30 million, that would mean Afghanistan has the highest relative rate of addiction of any country in the world.
Afghans sit at the wrong end of many league tables: it is one of the poorest countries in the world, also one of the most corrupt and violent, and it sits right at the very top in terms of opium production. More than 90% of opium and heroin originates here.
It is not surprising that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) leapt on the recent news that a mystery fungus may have destroyed as much of a quarter of the opium-producing poppy harvest, because in absolute terms drug demand reduction and poppy eradication has failed.
While there is evidence of a decline in production in the last two years and some provinces have now been declared "poppy-free", the overall trend for the last 10 years is of a massive increase in opium production and addiction.
A tiny 20-bed clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif is the only facility for tens of thousands of addicts in the north of the country.
The handfuls who are admitted are forced to go "cold turkey" and receive stern lectures from former addicts.
We met three generations of one family on the women's ward: a grandmother, her daughter and grandchildren, including a two-month-old baby boy, all addicted to opium.
The baby's mother, Izat Gul, explained how her children had become addicts.
"When my son was born, he had earache. We couldn't get to a doctor, so I gave him opium to help him get rid of the pain. After my daughter was born, she got stomach aches, and I only had opium to give to her for medicine, so now they're both addicted."
Dr Mobeen helps run the clinic and struggles valiantly to hold back the tide, but with just 20 beds for nearly a 100,000 addicts, he admits it would take 100 years to help them all.
And that assumes it is possible to stop the demand as well as the supply.
The vivid purple and white flowers mark out the beautiful and deadly poppy. More than 90% of the world's opium and heroin comes from here and the south of the country, in particular Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
The drugs are taxed by the Taliban, the police and corrupt government officials. The smuggling routes bring weapons and the precursors for roadside bombs into the country too.
As the tractors set to work, ploughing up field after field, one farmer tries in vain to halt the work, standing in front of the giant wheels, waving at the driver and trying to force him to stop.
His anger is palpable and unsurprising. This one small field, about 25 metres squared (270 sq ft), represents the entire annual income for his family, and it has just been wiped out.
When this kind of eradication has happened elsewhere in the country, it has turned largely peaceful areas into insurgent strongholds.
The latest plan by the international community is to try and persuade farmers to grow other crops and to go after some of those who really profit from this instead, in particular drug-traffickers.
But it is slow, under-resourced work that has yet to show convincing results.
And until it does, the flow of money for insurgents and corrupt officials will continue, and the number of addicts will rise. Perhaps more than any other single factor, opium fuels the chaos that keeps Afghanistan at war.
Increasingly, people are now moving from opium to heroin. The drugs they smoke and inject fuel crime, corruption and insurgency, the very targets of the international community's war in Afghanistan.
But these addicts are simply not a priority, and it is slowly pulling apart an already fragile nation.
The BBC's Ian Pannell visits northern Afghanistan to survey the damage wrought by opium addiction.
Audio and images by Ian Pannell and Richard Colebourn
Slideshow production by Phil Coomes. Publication date 17 May 2010.
Shasana had just come home from school. It was midday, and she crouched on the floor of her family's mud hut, waiting patiently for her lunch and her opium.Slideshow production by Phil Coomes. Publication date 17 May 2010.
Her small head, cloaked in a bright green scarf, ducked towards the floor. She put a long wooden pipe to her lips and sucked. The far end glowed and bubbled before her head disappeared in a haze of smoke.
At just 10 years old, Shasana is already an opium addict. Her mother is too. In fact, most of the people she knows in this windswept village are.
They all live in a tiny cluster of mud buildings in the middle of the Turkmen desert in Afghanistan's far north.
 |  Three times a day, they stop work to smoke, and for a while the pain eases and the misery of life floats away  |
There are no fields or forests, no rivers or streams, so the men spend the day gathering brushwood while the women go to work on one of Afghanistan's most famous exports: carpets.
But it is back-breaking work and the women complain that they ache all over.
On average, it takes three months of 10-hour days and seven-day weeks to create one of these beautiful rugs, and it is opium that keeps them going.
Three times a day, they stop work to smoke, and for a while the pain eases and the misery of life floats away.
The carpet-weavers give it to their children to treat them when they are sick or to pacify so they can go to work, and so the cycle of addiction starts from birth.
Universal remedy
Opium is a panacea for hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan. In many areas, there are simply no doctors or modern pharmaceuticals available, so the brown, sticky opium is smoked and ingested by men and women, boys and girls - and even babies.
 Where there are no doctors or medicine, opium is smoked |
The last research on drug addiction in Afghanistan was published five years ago.
A new survey is being finalised now and is expected to show a 50% rise in the number of addicts to about 1.5 million.
In a country of just 30 million, that would mean Afghanistan has the highest relative rate of addiction of any country in the world.
Afghans sit at the wrong end of many league tables: it is one of the poorest countries in the world, also one of the most corrupt and violent, and it sits right at the very top in terms of opium production. More than 90% of opium and heroin originates here.
It is not surprising that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) leapt on the recent news that a mystery fungus may have destroyed as much of a quarter of the opium-producing poppy harvest, because in absolute terms drug demand reduction and poppy eradication has failed.
While there is evidence of a decline in production in the last two years and some provinces have now been declared "poppy-free", the overall trend for the last 10 years is of a massive increase in opium production and addiction.
Holding back the tide
Those who do work on front-line services are struggling to cope. A tiny 20-bed clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif is the only facility for tens of thousands of addicts in the north of the country.
| When my son was born, he had earache; we couldn't get to a doctor, so I gave him opium to help him get rid of the pain Izat Gul |
We met three generations of one family on the women's ward: a grandmother, her daughter and grandchildren, including a two-month-old baby boy, all addicted to opium.
The baby's mother, Izat Gul, explained how her children had become addicts.
"When my son was born, he had earache. We couldn't get to a doctor, so I gave him opium to help him get rid of the pain. After my daughter was born, she got stomach aches, and I only had opium to give to her for medicine, so now they're both addicted."
Dr Mobeen helps run the clinic and struggles valiantly to hold back the tide, but with just 20 beds for nearly a 100,000 addicts, he admits it would take 100 years to help them all.
And that assumes it is possible to stop the demand as well as the supply.
Fuelling war
At the same time, in the west of the country, a long convoy of tractors and diggers moved through the lush fields of Shindand District near Herat.  The international community wants to persuade farmers to grow other crops |
The drugs are taxed by the Taliban, the police and corrupt government officials. The smuggling routes bring weapons and the precursors for roadside bombs into the country too.
As the tractors set to work, ploughing up field after field, one farmer tries in vain to halt the work, standing in front of the giant wheels, waving at the driver and trying to force him to stop.
His anger is palpable and unsurprising. This one small field, about 25 metres squared (270 sq ft), represents the entire annual income for his family, and it has just been wiped out.
When this kind of eradication has happened elsewhere in the country, it has turned largely peaceful areas into insurgent strongholds.
The latest plan by the international community is to try and persuade farmers to grow other crops and to go after some of those who really profit from this instead, in particular drug-traffickers.
But it is slow, under-resourced work that has yet to show convincing results.
And until it does, the flow of money for insurgents and corrupt officials will continue, and the number of addicts will rise. Perhaps more than any other single factor, opium fuels the chaos that keeps Afghanistan at war.
Increasingly, people are now moving from opium to heroin. The drugs they smoke and inject fuel crime, corruption and insurgency, the very targets of the international community's war in Afghanistan.
But these addicts are simply not a priority, and it is slowly pulling apart an already fragile nation.
Australian Wikileak founder's passport confiscated
Julian Assange, the Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, says he had his passport taken away from him at Melbourne Airport and was later told by customs officials that it was about to be cancelled.
Last year Wikileaks published a confidential Australian blacklist of websites to be banned under the government's proposed internet filter.
The Age has been told that Assange's passport is classified ''normal'' on the immigration database, meaning the Wikileaks director can travel freely on it.
Assange told The Age his passport was taken from him by customs officials at Melbourne Airport when he entered the country last week after he was told ''it was looking worn''.
When the passport was returned to him after about 15 minutes, he says he was told by authorities that it was going to be or was cancelled.
Passports are routinely taken from travellers for short periods by immigration officials if they are damaged.
Wikileaks has risen to prominence for posting leaked footage of US forces laughing at the dead bodies of 12 people they had just killed in Iraq in 2007.
It was in the Australian spotlight last year after publishing a confidential blacklist of websites that forms the basis of the government's proposed internet filter.
The list as published by Wikileaks then blocked links to YouTube clips, sites on euthanasia, fringe religions, and traditional pornography - as well as the websites of a tour operator and a dentist. The government says the intention is to block extreme sites depicting such things as child pornography, bestiality and rape.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has also asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the leaking and publishing of the Australian internet blacklist. But a spokeswoman for the AFP said yesterday the federal police had dropped the case earlier this year because it was ''not in our jurisdiction''.
The Age has been told that Assange's passport is classified ''normal'' on the immigration database, meaning the Wikileaks director can travel freely on it.
Assange told The Age his passport was taken from him by customs officials at Melbourne Airport when he entered the country last week after he was told ''it was looking worn''.
When the passport was returned to him after about 15 minutes, he says he was told by authorities that it was going to be or was cancelled.
Passports are routinely taken from travellers for short periods by immigration officials if they are damaged.
Wikileaks has risen to prominence for posting leaked footage of US forces laughing at the dead bodies of 12 people they had just killed in Iraq in 2007.
It was in the Australian spotlight last year after publishing a confidential blacklist of websites that forms the basis of the government's proposed internet filter.
The list as published by Wikileaks then blocked links to YouTube clips, sites on euthanasia, fringe religions, and traditional pornography - as well as the websites of a tour operator and a dentist. The government says the intention is to block extreme sites depicting such things as child pornography, bestiality and rape.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has also asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the leaking and publishing of the Australian internet blacklist. But a spokeswoman for the AFP said yesterday the federal police had dropped the case earlier this year because it was ''not in our jurisdiction''.
Assange said half an hour after his passport was returned to him, he was approached by an Australian Federal Police officer who searched one of his bags and asked him about his criminal record relating to computer hacking offences in 1991.
Assange's allegations about his passport were first made on SBS current affairs program Dateline, which aired a story on the Wikileaks founder.
Assange's allegations about his passport were first made on SBS current affairs program Dateline, which aired a story on the Wikileaks founder.
(Thanx BillT!)
A dog day afternoon in Melbourne...
What I'm curious about is the performance part of the piece. But it's pretty far from my neck of the woods, so I'll just have to rely on hearsay...
Bennett Miller’s Dachshund U.N. is both a large scale architectural installation and a performance work that examines the role of the United Nations as a risk management organisation.
A scale replica of a former U.N. office in Geneva, Switzerland, will be constructed by Miller in the Melbourne Museum plaza, where it will remain for the duration of the 2010 Next Wave Festival. Each Saturday afternoon, this structure will play host to a meeting of the U.N.’s Commission on Human Rights, wherein all 47 of the national delegates are live dachshunds, or ‘sausage dogs’.
More
@'NextWave'
@'NextWave'
Mona Says:
But as it is about a mere 10 km's from 'Exile' Towers, I shall check it out and bring you a first hand report!
Hank Jones RIP
The New York Times reports that jazz pianist Hank Jones died yesterday in the Bronx. He was 91.
Jones grew up outside Detroit with his two younger brothers, fellow future jazz greats Thad and Elvin. As the Times reports, in 1944, Jones moved to New York to play with singer/trumpeter Hot Lips Page. In the decades that followed, Jones worked with many great jazz figures, including Billy Eckstine, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Charlie Haden, and Charlie Parker. He served as Ella Fitzgerald's accompanist for several years, and was on staff at CBS from the late 50s to the mid-70s.
Jones posed in the famous 1958 photo "A Great Day in Harlem" and accompanied Marilyn Monroe when she infamously sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Far all coffee junkies out there...
Good news: it seems reports of the long-term benefits of coffee abuse are not overrated! (Although, when considering who funded the research, one could feel tempted by a healthy amount of skepticism...)
(Click to enlarge)
Although caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only recently begun to be adequately appreciated. Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies and fundamental research in animal models suggests that caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). A special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases," sheds new light on this topic and presents key findings.
More
@'ScienceBlogs'
@'ScienceBlogs'
'Impossible motion' trick wins Illusion Contest
A gravity-defying illusion has won the 2010 Best Illusion of the Year Contest, held yesterday in Naples, Florida.
The visual trick involves a 3D construction of four slopes that appear to extend downwards away from a common centre (see video). When wooden balls are placed on the slopes, however, they bizarrely roll upwards as if a magnet is pulling them.
But the "Impossible Motion" illusion, created by Kokichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Kawasaki, Japan, is soon dispelled when it's viewed from a different perspective – each slope is actually sloping downwards towards a common centre.
We're fooled because we make the assumption that each supporting column of the object is vertical, and that the longest column in the centre is the highest. But in reality, the columns and slopes are angled to create the illusion.
Double HA! (For Stacey!)
This was after a news report about a procedure to enhance the G-Spot. It cost $1200 per procedure and lasts 4-6 months. This was the response of the newscaster. Classic live comedy!!!
Monday, 17 May 2010
Havana Cultura Remixed Podcast with Gilles Peterson
It was two years ago that Gilles visited Cuba for the first time on a reconnaissance mission to check out the new generation of Havana-based artists. Suitably impressed, he was back within the year for a 5-day session at the legendary Egrem Studios with Roberto Fonseca and his superb band. Revelling in his role as executive producer, it was a hot, sweaty, intense session but a fruitful one nonetheless.
We released those tracks on an album entitled 'Gilles Peterson presents Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound', and with GP living as much in the electronic/dance scene as in the jazz world, the decision to commission remixes of these session tracks was an easy one. Consolidating the numerous parts was by no means as straightforward, nor indeed was settling on our preferred remixers to coax the spirit of the Egrem session into the club. In the end, we settled on a squad of big-hitting producers that we trusted to do justice to the original jams: the likes of Louie Vega, MJ Cole, 4hero, Carl Cox, Rainer Trüby, Gotan Project’s Philippe Cohen Solal, Seiji, Michel Cleis and Mocky. All veterans of the Worldwide underground and all equipped with the skills and experience to flip Havana Cultura onto a another level. And of course, in order to maximise the Cuban flavour, we cut DJ Wichy and Doble Filo loose on their favourites from the album, with awesome results.
CD02 in the Havana Cultura Remixed package boasts a bonus DJ mix courtesy of Gilles himself that neatly weaves together the disparate threads that make up a typical Peterson DJ set.
The tracks featured here are:
1. Roforofo Fight (Louie Vega Remix)
2. Chekere Son (Alex Patchwork Remix)
3. Rezando (Michel Cleis Remix)
4. La Revolucion del Cuerpo (Skinner's Owiney Sigoma Mix)
5. Afrodisia (Rainer Trueby Remix)
6. Lagrimas de Soledad (No Existen Palabras) (d'Wala Riddimix)
7. Think Twice (4hero Remix feat. Danay & Carina)
2. Chekere Son (Alex Patchwork Remix)
3. Rezando (Michel Cleis Remix)
4. La Revolucion del Cuerpo (Skinner's Owiney Sigoma Mix)
5. Afrodisia (Rainer Trueby Remix)
6. Lagrimas de Soledad (No Existen Palabras) (d'Wala Riddimix)
7. Think Twice (4hero Remix feat. Danay & Carina)
The album 'Gilles Peterson presents Havana Cultura: Remixed' is released on 7th June 2010 via Brownswood Recordings. Watch out for two very special 12"s too:
EP1 featuring:
Rezando (Michel Cleis Extended Remix)
Chekere Son (Seiji Rerub)
La Revolucion del Cuerpo (Skinner's Owiney Sigoma Mix)
Rezando (Michel Cleis Extended Remix)
Chekere Son (Seiji Rerub)
La Revolucion del Cuerpo (Skinner's Owiney Sigoma Mix)
EP2 featuring:
Roforofo Fight - The Louie Vega Mixes
Louie Vega's EOL Mix
Louie Vega Remix
Louie Vega Remix Instrumental
Bonus Beats
Roforofo Fight - The Louie Vega Mixes
Louie Vega's EOL Mix
Louie Vega Remix
Louie Vega Remix Instrumental
Bonus Beats
Released by: Brownswood Recordings
Release/catalogue number: BWOOD053CD
Release date: Jun 7, 2010
Release/catalogue number: BWOOD053CD
Release date: Jun 7, 2010
Get well soon...
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is selling a brand new range of 'Get well soon' cards designed specifically for people who are unwell with mental ill health. These cards have been designed in collaboration with service users, carers, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
The cards come in two striking and colourful designs. Inside the greeting reads:
"Thinking of you at this time. Hope things improve soon."
Research shows that people who are unwell with mental problems receive far fewer cards or messages of support than people with physical health problems, but a College survey shows that 8 out 10 service users say that receiving a 'Get well' card would improve their recovery.
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