"In the film sequences since 1998 only the doubles appear," said Dieter Buhmann, a Homburg coroner. "He himself has not been seen again." "

Yahoo! News - German TV Network Says Saddam Has Three Doubles

[Originally from Decius:]

"Britney Spears is among the pop stars fronting a new advertising campaign aimed at warning people against online piracy."

...

The TV adverts will be shown at a Congressional hearing on piracy in Washington on Thursday before making their debut on US screens a few weeks later.

...

"We want to hit fans with the message that downloading music illegally is, as Britney Spears explains, the same as going into a CD store and stealing the CD," said Hilary Rosen of the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA)

...

[Hijexx's Commentary]

piracy (from dictionary.com):

1. a) Robbery committed at sea. b) A similar act of robbery, as the hijacking of an airplane.
2. The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.
3. The operation of an unlicensed, illegal radio or television station.

I agree, begrudingly, that downloading and using copyrighted music does, in fact, break the law. That is not to say that the law is just (thanks to Walt Disney's palm greasing.) If all the RIAA can muster is Britney's Pears (sorry little girl, it's all about your tits, always has been) and Missy Elliot to preach to the masses, I'd say we have not a thing to worry about on that front.

What is disconcerting to me is the Nazi style, Joseph Goebbels inspired propaganda being spewed by Hilary Rosen. Two times in this article the idea of an "unlicensed internet service" is mentioned. I am not making this up. Folks, there is NO SUCH THING as an "unlicensed internet service" in the context of peer to peer networking. It's a glorified telephone with theoretically unlimited conferencing abilities, that's about it.

As Goebbels proved, if you repeat a lie enough, eventually people believe it. This is especially the case when said people are unwashed (dare I say brainwashed?) mass consumers.

Moo.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Britney's Pears warns against piracy

"Amid the baronial splendor of the royal family’s summer residence in the Scottish Highlands, the world’s most powerful central banker Alan Greenspan was awarded an honorary knighthood on Thursday."

Greenspan awarded knighthood

"RSA Laboratories, the research center of RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS), the most trusted name in e-security®, today announced that a coordinated team of computer programmers and enthusiasts, known as distributed.net, has solved the RC5-64 Secret-Key Challenge. The distributed.net team solved the challenge in approximately four years, using 331,252 volunteers and their machines. Distributed.net receives a cash prize of $10,000 for solving the challenge."

RSA Security | Distributed Team Collaborates to Solve Secret-Key Challenge

"JERUSALEM (AP) - The chief Hamas bombmaker, Mohammed Deif, who has topped Israel's wanted list for years, was killed in an Israeli air strike Thursday, Israeli sources and TV reports said. Hamas insisted Deif was alive.
An Israeli government spokesman, Daniel Seaman, confirmed that Deif was the target of Thursday's air strike, but said he did not know whether Deif was killed.
Several Israeli police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had been informed by the Israeli military that Deif was killed. "

Yahoo! News - Police: Strike Killed Hamas Leader

"During the long bull market of the 1990s, Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel’s 1994 bestseller, Stocks for the Long Run, was the closest thing there was to an investor’s Bible, preaching the long-term benefits of stocks over bonds and cash. Then in 2000 Siegels friend and MIT graduate school classmate, Robert Shiller, warned of the risky, unpredictable nature of stocks in his own bestseller, Irrational Exuberance.
Just as Siegel’s book had seemed to predict – perhaps even to help create – one of the greatest bull markets in U.S. history, the book by Shiller, an economics professor at Yale, was dead-on in forecasting the stock-market plunge that began in the spring of 2000.
With two years to test these dueling views against real market data, which holds up best? "

Stocks Revisited: Siegel and Shiller Debate

The exchange said the move is intended to reassure investors, who have seen a 96 percent drop in the Neuer Markt's value from its peak in March 2000, about the reliability of the companies listed. "

Yahoo! News - Germany Shuts Down High-Tech Market

Washington has named Iran part of an "axis of evil" accusing it of seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction and sponsoring terrorism, a charge Iran denies. "

Will Bush get on his soap box and start beating the drum for a regime change in Iran now?

Yahoo! News - U.S. Detects Al Qaeda Camp in Iran - NBC News

"Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, 8th Edition, is a critical reference for investors--especially in today's tumultuous markets. This seminal book--the first to produce a methodology for interpreting and profiting from the predictable behavior of investors and markets--revolutionized technical investment approaches and continues to show traders and investors how to make money regardless of what the market is doing. "

Amazon.com: buying info: Technical Analaysis of Stock Trends, 8th Edition

Police say the "Bumfights" producers persuaded street people to fight for the camera in exchange for cash payments, food, liquor and hotel rooms but warned the participants not to tell authorities about the remuneration.

Yahoo! News - Alleged 'Bumfights' Video Makers Arrested