Tom and Katie News

Are you fascinated by hte train wreck that seems to be the marriage between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes?

If so then you'll want to check out the blog dedicated to news of the couple. Is it Katie Holmes' marriage that fascinates?

Or the scientology, her husband, the baby Suri, or what?

Whatever it is, check out the link for all your Katie Holmes news needs.

Chinese Food

Yes, we all know that Chinese food can mean eating the very odd parts of even weirder animals.

Tiger penis for example, and bear's paw.

But I really didn't think they would come up with a black chicken.

It's a simple chicken, yes, but the skin, bones and flesh are all black.

McNuggets anyone?

Teh Gays!

Looks like gay rights might be some time coming in the East:

Trolley-bus drivers in a Lithuanian town refused to drive their vehicles while they were carrying advertisements promoting tolerance toward gay men and women, a company official said Monday.

Algirdas Krivickas, director of the trolley bus company in Kaunas, said employees had reacted strongly to the adverts which read: "A gay can serve in the police" and "A lesbian can work at school."

Drivers had refused to take out trolley buses bearing the adverts. These had now been taken down.

"Some said they feared the trolley bus could be vandalized, some said they do not want friends to laugh at them," Krivickas said.

Conservative attitudes are common in the former eastern bloc.

It's actually a bit weird in Russia. Public attitudes are very po-faced indeed. But cottaging in hte parks isn't regarded as "gay"...it's not true to say that someone who has gay sex is gay. Weird.

Ringtones Links

"Everybody loves ringtones. So i decided to have a search for the best ringtones sites. Maybe everyone knows Ringophone.com or Ultrasonic-ringtones.com but to tell the truth the best site for free ringtones to download is GoldRingtone.com. Download the best Ringtones for free! Doesn't it sound attractive? The site has a weekly update (as they inform me with their press release) so you can continuously find the best new free ringtones.

The site is simple. The users can download free mp3 ringtones from any carrier. Besides, there are sections for all carriers. You can get free Sprint Ringtones, or free Cingular Ringtones.

Google and Search Records

Google has finally announced that they'«re going to stop keeping records of everyone's searches:

 

Internet search giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced Wednesday it will take steps to improve the way it handles data obtained as millions of consumers search for products and information online.

Within the next year, the company said, Google will change its privacy policy and begin deleting personally identifiable information 18 to 24 months after it has been logged.

"We will continue to keep server log data (so that we can improve Google's services and protect them from security and other abuses) -- but will make this data much more anonymous, so that it can no longer be identified with individual users," Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel, posted on Google's company blog.

It's not perfect, but then again, as they say, they do need to have data to improve the services.

Viacom and Google

It's all the fault of the Supreme Court in fact:

 

LAST week, Viacom asked a federal court to order the video-sharing service YouTube to pay it more than $1 billion in damages for some 150,000 videos that Viacom claims it owns and YouTube users have shared. “YouTube,” the complaint alleges, “has harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale,” threatening not just Viacom, but “the economic underpinnings of one of the most important sectors of the United States economy.”

Yet as federal courts get started on this multiyear litigation about the legality of a business model, we should not forget one prominent actor in this drama largely responsible for the eagerness with which business disputes get thrown to the courts: the Supreme Court.

For most of the history of copyright law, it was Congress that was at the center of copyright policy making. As the Supreme Court explained in its 1984 Sony Betamax decision, the Constitution makes plain that “it is Congress that has been assigned the task of defining the scope of the limited monopoly,” or copyright. It has thus been “Congress that has fashioned the new rules that new technology made necessary.” The court explained that “sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for copyrighted materials.” In the view of the court in Sony, if you don’t like how new technologies affect copyright, take your problem to Congress.

The court reaffirmed this principle of deference in 2003, even when the question at stake was a constitutional challenge to Congress’s extension of copyright by 20 years. Challenges are evaluated “against the backdrop of Congress’s previous exercises of its authority under the Copyright Clause” of the Constitution, it wrote. Congress’s practice — not simply the Constitution’s text, or its original understanding — thus determined the Constitution’s meaning.

These cases together signaled a very strong and sensible policy: The complex balance of interests within any copyright statute are best struck by Congress.

But 20 months ago, the Supreme Court reversed this wise policy of deference. Drawing upon common law-like power, the court expanded the Copyright Act in the Grokster case to cover a form of liability it had never before recognized in the context of copyright — the wrong of providing technology that induces copyright infringement. It announced this new form of liability even though at precisely the same time Congress was holding hearings about whether to amend the Copyright Act to create the same liability.

The Grokster case thus sent a clear message to lawyers everywhere: You get two bites at the copyright policy-making apple, one in Congress and one in the courts. But in Congress, you need hundreds of votes. In the courts, you need just five.

You want to listen to Lessig: he's an expert in this area.

The 5 Worst Things About Apple

Fascinating piece here, the 5 worst things about Apple. Apart, that is, from the fact I can't use any of their products.

1. The 'reality distortion field'

The infamous 'reality distortion field' refers to Steve Jobs' ability to work onlookers into a frenzy of excitement over the most ordinary of products. Jobs' usual line, that no one does it better than Apple, is all-pervasive in its marketing.

2. The iPod

The best selling MP3 player has taken on iconic status ever since it was first launched in 2001 and today dominates the market, easily seeing off the latest challenge from the Microsoft Zune with a record-breaking quarter of sales.

But the device has long been dogged by accusations of dodgy battery life, defective mechanics, easily scratched or cracked screens and a general lack of longevity. Most of the silicon.com editorial team have got through at least one iPod each.

3. Style over substance

The translucent Bondi Blue iMac initiated Apple's much-trumpeted departure from the Beige Brigade and a return to good times for the struggling company. The criticisms of style over substance and form over function have followed the company ever since.

4. The iPhone

Some say the latest device to come out of Cupertino is a classic example of 1 and 3. It's a phone that does email, web browsing and plays music. "Three revolutionary products in one," Jobs said to the San Francisco Macworld attendees last month.

It's pretty and it has an innovative interface but a clutch of mobile devices have been offering the same services for the last year or so at a fraction of the price. And it doesn't arrive for another six months or so. And when it does there will be just one operator to choose from. The latest example of Steve Jobs snake oil?

5. Arrogance

Even its fans would have to admit that Apple can often come across as a pretty arrogant company. For instance: announcing the iPhone on a worldwide stage when the trademark to that name is owned by Cisco. Openly scorning Vista at its last developer conference. Jobs putting the Mac clones out of business by demanding much higher royalties.

And let's not forget regularly refusing to comment on most articles other than those that relate to its product launches - a particular frustration to tech journalists.

Seems fair enough to me.

 

Technorati tags: apple, iPhone, iPod

Sexsomnia

So just what is this sexsomnia?

Falling asleep after sex is common, but falling, sleeping and staying asleep during sex is another matter. The condition is called sexsomnia.

Sexsomnia occurs when a person is asleep and yet proceeds to initiate sexual activity with their bedmate. Sexsomnia is also known as "somnambulistic sexual behaviour".

The first use of "sexsomnia" for this condition was by Dr C M Shapiro and two colleagues from the Sleep Alertness Clinic of the University of Toronto and the Toronto Western Hospital in a June 2003 article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Sexsomnia is described as a mix of sleepwalking and adolescent wet dreams.

According to the researchers, amazingly, not all partners of sexsomniacs are distressed or irritated by the novel experience of having an unconscious person make love to them. In fact, some seem to prefer it. The researchers describe sexsomnia as a "distinct variation" of sleepwalking.

One wonders whether the reduction in inhibitions shown when one is asleep leads to more adventurous sex or not?

 

Technorati tags: sexsomnia, sex, sleep walking.

Online Gambling Ban

Now the EU is weighing in on the US ban on online gambling and poker playing:

The European Union's internal market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy yesterday accused the US government of protectionism in the way it is dealing with online gambling.

According to the Financial Times, McCreevy said: "In my view it is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it up in another forum." He said the case could go to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The real problem people forsee is that the ban is only temporary. Ban it while foreign companies are doing well, destroy them, then make it legal again when hte big US gambling groups are ready to enter a now empty market.

The US has already lost one case before the WTO brought by Antigua.

That was exactly what Antigua alleged and they won in court, not just once but again on appeal.

 

Technorati tags: online poker, online gambling, betting