The Islamists have also banned the cinema, music and bras because they say they are all un-Islamic. Such restrictions are influenced by foreign fighters practicing Wahhabi Islam, which is much stricter than Somalia's traditional Sufi Islam that incorporates a long tradition of poetry and song.

"The last time I listened a song or music was two years ago, before the insurgents managed the full control of my village," said Bile Hassan. Now, he says, even the memory of music makes him feel afraid.

This is the world in which we live today.

Sylvestor

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on 8 September. It is the patronal feast day of the United States. It is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as well as a few other closely related Christian churches.

I might feast, doesn't mean I have to believe ;)

Sylvestor

A prototype spaceplane built for the US military has returned to Earth after seven months in orbit.

The unpiloted X-37B touched down at Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 0116 PST (0916 GMT).

The project has been shrouded in secrecy, prompting widespread speculation about the craft's purpose.

The Air Force has not said whether it carried anything in its cargo bay, but insists the primary purpose of the mission was to test the craft itself.

Sylvestor

Julian Assange has written an Op-Ed, to be published in The Australian tomorrow. It was due to go live at midnight AEST, and it is already in early editions of the newspaper, due on the streets at 2am.

Now we hear reports that Mr Assange has been arrested. I have permission from my Editor in Chief to publish a snippet of what will go live at midnight.

Mr Assange begins by saying:  `In 1958, a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide’s The News, wrote: `In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.’’

It will, indeed, be an interesting read. Thanks to Caroline for sharing early.

Sylvestor

Assange reportedly turned himself in to police at 9:30am (local time). He is expected to appear before the City of Westminster court later on Tuesday (London time).

He has recently been staying in south-east England.

This is important to note! Assange handed himself in to authorities, who then formally 'arrested him'.

In a related story from The Drum (ABC News) - Open letter calls for Gillard to defend Assange

A group of almost 200 prominent names have appealed to Prime Minister Julia Gillard to defend WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Many prominent US figures have called for Mr Assange's death since his whistleblower organisation began releasing hundreds of US diplomatic cables last month.

And Ms Gillard has been accused by Mr Assange's lawyers of prejudicing any case against him by claiming he is "guilty of illegality" for leaking the documents.

But in the open letter posted on the ABC's Drum website, figures such as writer Noam Chomsky, former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson, retired intelligence officer Lance Collins and actor Max Gillies call on Ms Gillard to ensure Mr Assange's safety in light of the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding WikiLeaks.

"We therefore call upon you to condemn, on behalf of the Australian Government, calls for physical harm to be inflicted upon Mr Assange and to state publicly that you will ensure Mr Assange receives the rights and protections to which he is entitled, irrespective of whether the unlawful threats against him come from individuals or states," they write.

 

via http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/07/3087189.htm

It is a clear cut case of discriminating on the basis of international-political-browny-points!

Sylvestor

By Peter Kemp, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on 2010-12-04

Dear Prime Minister
From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of "illegal" on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables.

Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange.

As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth's "secrets" that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth.

Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Clearly, and reinforced by publicly available material such as Professor Saul's excellent article:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/dont-cry-over-wikil...
...Julian Assange has almost certainly committed no crime under Australian law in relation to his involvement in Wikileaks.

I guess David Hicks was afforded special dispensation from the US by the Australian Government because he was innocent, rather than him being Australian? Yes?

I too am curious about the stance taken by Julia Gillard. It is unfortunate that very few Australian politicians will have the balls to take a stance on the issue outside of the US line. It is a real shame.

I neither support nor condemn Assange.

When the individuals that scan, photocopy, email confidential/secret information to a whistle-blower website, they must be the ones to face the legal/moral music of their employer/country etc. Then again, whistle-blowing only seems to be okay when it is convenient to those holding the power ;)

Sylvestor

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is at risk of being assassinated over the release of secret US documents and will remain in hiding for his own security, the website's spokesman said this morning.

Spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said the Australian's safety was at stake after US politicians called for him to face treason charges and an adviser to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper reportedly said he should be killed.

Would the Australian Government allow one of its allies to put a 'citizen' up on treason charges or support a bid for that 'citizen' to be assassinated?

Seems ridiculous, but that appears to be what is being reported in our media today!

Sylvestor

Legal Status
Present family name: ASSANGE Forename: JULIAN PAUL Sex: MALE Date of birth: 3 July 1971 (39 years old) Place of birth: TOWNSVILLE, Australia Language spoken: English Nationality: Australia

Offences
Categories of Offences: SEX CRIMES Arrest Warrant Issued by: INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC PROSECUTION OFFICE IN GOTHENBURG / Sweden

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONTACT
YOUR NATIONAL OR LOCAL POLICE   GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF INTERPOL

So Interpol has issued an alert for the arrest of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, for "sex crimes" in Sweden.

The case against Assange in Sweden has been ongoing for some time now, and whether or not it has any substance is not really my business. It does seem convenient, however, that Interpol has weighed in since the latest release of information on Wikileaks! Coincidence?

Sylvestor

TheRealDave says:

09:49am | 01/12/10

Dear God, yes even as a devout atheist I have to just throw my hands up sometimes at supposedly intelligent peoples gross stupidity.

1. Firstly, People who own iPads should never ever be allowed to comment on IT matters. Ever. You’ve already demonstrated your complete lack of IT knowledge by buying a useless piece of crap at a premium inflated price.

2. Where are the cables going to go? Are you friggin serious? I put that right up there with other gross stupidity like ‘Wireless is better’ and ‘Fiber is outdated’ and ‘it will cost THOUSANDS to re-wire your house’ lines of gross stupidity. 5 minutes of reading ANYTHING about the NBN, well, anything by people who have an actual clue so that counts out The Australian and most other News Limited press, would have told you were the freaking cables are going to go. Jeabus. I mean really. See point 1 about iPad owners.

I don't really care that much about Julia's comments on the NBN here. Its more the comments from the readers - as is so often the case for me. Just like "TheRealDave" here.

Onya RealDave, you made me smile this morning! :)

Sylvestor

Even superheroes need to sleep ;)

An amazing collection of unusual Google streetview photographs.

Sylvestor

See the full gallery on Posterous

Always sad to see a fire. I find seeing a library burn just a little bit more sad. One would hope it wasn't deliberate, but who knows.

When was the last time you visited your local library? Don't forget they're there, or it might be too late.

Sylvestor

The United States Air Force says it has found the "apparent wreckage" of an F-22 fighter in Alaska after the stealth jet failed to return from a routine training mission.

The air force says the aircraft, the most sophisticated in the US fleet of warplanes, had lost contact on Tuesday night (local time) with air traffic controllers at a base in Alaska and the pilot remained missing.

....Its a stealth fighter? Not very stealthy then!

;)

Sylvestor

China Telecom sent incorrect routing information last April that resulted in Internet traffic to major corporate websites and U.S. military and government sites being sent through China for 18 minutes, according to a report by a congressional advisory group.

The incident was one of several discussed by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Reuters obtained a copy of the draft report, which will formally be released on Wednesday.

In the hijacking incident, the Web traffic, much of which originated in the United States and was directed toward U.S. corporate and government websites, should have gone the shortest available route and not through China.

Some of the traffic was headed to sites owned by the U.S. Senate, the office of the secretary of defense, NASA and the Commerce Department, the draft said.

The commission said it was unclear whether the hijacking was intentional or whether any data was collected or stopped, or if the massive amount of data affected concealed a targeted attack.

"Evidence related to this incident does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends. However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities," the report said.

...it maybe inappropriate for me to say...but:

...and they worry about Google docs?!?!?! :/

So their data went on a little holiday for 18 minutes back in April...we all need a holiday sometimes :)

Sylvestor

CERN experiments create and trap particles of anti-matter * 38 anti-hydrogen atoms trapped for long enough to study GENEVA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Physicists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced on Wednesday they have created and trapped anti-matter, one of the biggest mysteries of modern science.

Star Trek - here we come!

It doesn't like that big a deal, but the ability to harness 'antimatter' must be a massive step forward in science. And they have to start somewhere, and 38 atoms is definitely a start!

The potential future of these sorts of discoveries can easily change the way the world is and can be...interesting stuff.

Sylvestor

At the heart of the controversy over "body scanners" is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner. These are those images.

A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly-perhaps illegally-saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.

If you visit the Gizmodo website you are presented with a sample of the images in question....and to be honest, if this is what those full-body scanners do, then no thanks! How bad are those scans?!?

Seriously though, the current fuss about the technology and privacy does become an issue when this sort of thing happens, trust is lost, and a possible (and I don't know one way or another) positive move in security technology will be lost to the politically-correct-over-enthusiastic-privacy folk. I don't really care one way or the other. But, others obviously do.

Sylvestor

When Tom Palastanga reached up and felt a chunk of surfboard sticking out of his face he knew he'd copped more than just a bent nose at a New Zealand beach.

Ouch!

Note to self: Surfboards are not food! That is all.

Sylvestor

STUDENTS at a Gold Coast primary school are being warned against hugging a move some parents say is political correctness gone mad.

They say children at the William Duncan State School in Nerang are being punished with detention for hugging or touching their friends boys or girls, the Gold Coast Bulletin said.

Father of five, Ross Kouimanis, labelled the decision "an absolute joke".

''What on earth are we turning our kids into?'' Mr Kouimanis said.

''Kids hug all the time. My high school daughter hugs her friends. It's perfectly normal.

''It's perfectly innnocent and I can't understand it.

''It's political correctness gone mad. Banning kids hugging? It's ridiculous.

It is a bit silly - and I am sure this sort of action aimed at young people has a lasting effect.

I do, however, disallow hugging in my workplace...not because I am being 'politically correct' - have you seen the people I work with????? ;)

When was the last time you gave away a hug?

Sylvestor