Kim Zetter
Government's Star Witness Stumbles: MySpace Hoax Was Her Idea, Not Drew's
Wired online 20 November 2008
Astonishing and depressing how people think they can escape from reality and find something different on the Internet. Personally, I also find exaggerated the protection that law gives to the gullible. It is a sad case this one, but I doubt that the parents of the little suicidal girl are less guilty than those who played that distasteful prank.
Friday, 21 November 2008
Psichological damages for a tasteless prank on MySpace
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Code of conduct rules: can't behave like an animal with animals anymore
Maev Kennedy
Pet owners reined in by conduct code
The Guardian Wednesday November 5 2008
On the same day US made history electing their first African-American president, UK
proved to one step forward, establishing a code of conduct for pet owners. I quote from the article linked above
'[...] The codes advise not just on food and housing; readers learn about likes and dislikes. The cat code alone runs to 26 pages and notes that felines need "entertainment and mental stimulation", that given their climbing nature they might need access to high shelves, and that they are solitary by nature.
Dogs, as pack animals, need company, while donkeys "have particular socialisation needs and can ... become ill if separated from a companion."'
Good job animals can't read, so far. Otherwise imagine little kitty dwindling the code in front of your eyes next time you tell it of for climbing on the kitchen sink, and then telling you to get lost and leave it alone in order to second its solitary nature. Or the dog complaining about you always staying in the office and neglecting it...
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Intrusive pictures
USCD Jacobs News
Keys Can be Copied From Afar, Jacobs School Computer Scientists Show
Thursday 30 October 2008
Well after reading this I bet there will be no more showing off at the bar on who's got the flashiest keys, or as it often happens between young males, who's got the longest keys. I can also predict a suspicious increase in the enrollment in Computer Science courses.
In my case, however, I doubt burglars will bother about taking a picture of my keys and learning Matlab & Computer Vision basics. There is indeed another security hole in my door: if you sneeze strong enough in front of it, you can break it.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The constant slag-off
John Hooper
Crime and punishment, Italian-style
The Guardian, Wednesday October 22 2008
This is only the hundredth time I find an article in the British press that ridicules or harshly criticise Italy.
Honestly, I can only guess why this has intensified lately on the Guardian, but it not the case of discussing the contingent reasons here.
The content, rather than the style of this article, is appalling. The journalist, attacks the Italian judiciary institution of the civil party in crime trial. He reports, I hope partly, the authoritative opinion of an Italian magistrate, the equivalent of the British QC. The Italian expert explains that such "civil party" is there to seek compensation representing the victims' next of kin. In the UK, the journalist continues, such thing can be pursued only in a separate civil action. Why is it better to lead two separate proceedings for the same fact is left unsaid. On the contrary, the sole acknowledgment of a third party damaged by a criminal conduct, and the permission to have a say in the trial gives dignity and substance to those left to mourn. Not considering the obvious redundancy of a double procedure, before different judges, that have different competencies. Our right has very deep roots and frankly I think we have very few to learn about fundamentals in the field, especially from this kind of shallow articles. More to the point, however, the third party represented in the case mentioned is an English couple whose daughter was murdered in Italy last year. Now, if someone has to pick on Italy, there is plenty to choose from, but t least when we apply the fairest conditions, we should be left alone.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Unlikely conspiracies and the paranoia of being so close
Oliver Burkeman
How often can you say 'beaten at the box-office by a Hollywood Chihuahua'?
The Guardian, Thursday October 16 2008
Very funny. Although, I start to perceive, in US and in the more Democrat-friendly part of the UK, a sort of paranoia. The Republicans are in the unusual role of those alleging a conspiracy whilst Obama's folk are in the uncomfortable position (as they are not used to it) of having to dissipate the doubt. Moreover, the syndrome of the imponderable overturn is hunting. The pressure is rising and I bet all Obama's supporters would give the world for it to be already the day after Election Day
The memory police
Timothy Garton Ash
The freedom of historical debate is under attack by the memory police
The Guardian. Thursday October 16 2008
The problem of governments, or individuals that think it is their business to:
"[...] to define historical truth and to restrict the liberty of the historian by penal sanctions [...]" (quoted from the link above), is closer than one often thinks.
People jeer at you, yell at you, even forbid you to speak out your mind, government can put you to jail. The easiest thing to do, instead, as the author of the article above rightly puts it, is to refute the false. I wonder why, on the contrary people want to outsource thought control?
