Poking around Google Earth at a moment of geopolitical drama, I took a look at North Korea. Turns out that military installations are not only indicated by the Google Earth community, they’re described in some detail.

Open Source » Blog Archive » Google-Earthing the North Korean Military

The Home Office wants to give the police and the courts sweeping new powers which could see suspected hackers and spammers receiving the cyber equivalent of an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo).

The proposed Serious Crime Prevention Order is intended to combat organised crime where the police do not have enough evidence to bring a criminal prosecution. It would enable civil courts to impose the orders on individuals, even if they had not been convicted of a crime.

These people have absolutely lost their minds!

"In the US, this legislation would not be constitutional," said Starnes.

I gather from the quotations that the tone of this comment is critical of the US.

"Hey, look at the great things we can do in the UK! We can administer punishments to people without any evidence of wrongdoing! Isn't that awesome? Wouldn't it be terrible to live in the U.S. where the police actually have to have evidence before they can sanction someone? Evidence is such a waste of time. Obviously the police are always right and can always be trusted. Everyone they suspect is clearly guilty, so why bother with this whole messy judicial process. It just slows things down. Crime victims demand immediate action, and in the UK we can give it to them! The UK is the greatest country in the world! God save the queen!"

If I had to pick an egregiously unreasonable legislative proposal it would be that people who propose legislation like this be dragged out into the town square and stoned to death with history text books.

UK Government goes off the deep end

ISS X-Force has reported a vulnerability in Asterisk, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

Provided and/or discovered by:
Tom Cross, ISS X-Force

woot

Secunia - Advisories - Asterisk IAX2 Call Request Flooding Denial of Service

Thanks to a boost today from a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire company, a U.S. private space firm has sent a novel expandable module toward Earth orbit—and a step forward in providing commercial space habitats.

This is frickn' sweet!

SPACE.com -- EXCLUSIVE: Bigelow Orbital Module Launched into Space

"I once asked Ivan, 'How is it possible for you to have invented computer graphics, done the first object oriented software system and the first real time constraint solver all by yourself in one year?" And he said "I didn't know it was hard."
-- Alan Kay on Ivan Sutherland.

Lisa Rein's Tour Of Alan Kay's Etech 2003 Presentation

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Syd Barrett, the eccentric guitarist who founded Pink Floyd but later left the music business to live quietly and somewhat reclusively, has died at the age of 60, according to a spokeswoman for the band.

CNN.com - Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett dies - Jul 11, 2006

An animated map of Americans getting fatter over the past 15 years. The heart of the fat seems to be right here in the South East. I guess pulled pork and fried everything isn't as healthy as I thought.

Obesity in America - MSN Health & Fitness

At least five explosions have been reported at various local railway stations in the city of Mumbai, India.

Sounds like Al'Q...

Several blasts rock Mumbai commuter trains - Wikinews

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

FBI proposes Internet CALEA

FBI plans new Net-tapping push | Tech News on ZDNet

The Gulf Stream indeed contributes to Europe's warmth, but it is wrong to conflate the climate difference across the North Atlantic with the northward flow of warm water in the Gulf Stream. This erroneous logic leads to such statements as (from The Times of London): "The British Isles lie on the same latitude as Labrador on the East Coast of Canada, and are protected from a similarly icy climate by the Atlantic conveyor belt." Such claims are absolutely wrong.

This certainly changed my understanding and also Al Gore's.

American Scientist Online - The Source of Europe's Mild Climate