Column of the WolfA daily mix of news covering technology, science, human rights, wolf news, stupid human tricks and many other topics.Report Against Municipal WiFi Revealed As Bogus- (Found June 29, 2008 ) A recent independent report did a hatchet job on municipal wireless networks, damning them as an expensive failure. Glenn Fleishman took the report to pieces in a series of long blog-posts, exposing its shoddy methodology and dubious provenance. Now he reports that the organisation that produced it, the New Millennium Research Council, is a front for the telecoms lobby &8212; via Boing Boinghttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003674 Amerikan Youth Hates Freedom, Likes That Fascist Groove Thang- (Found June 29, 2008 ) When told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three American high school students said it goes too far in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories &8212; via Warren Ellishttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003660 Corpse Soup- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Six Romanians have been jailed for digging up the corpse of a cancer victim, ripping his heart out and eating it because they thought he was a vampire &8212; via Warren Ellishttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003661 MP3tunes Offers Music Service Without DRM- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Former MP3.com chief and Lindows CEO Michael Robertson will reenter the music world next week with MP3tunes, a service that promises music without DRM restrictions. MP3tunes hopes to attract users who are fed up with restrictions on copying music from sites that use digital-rights-management techniques, such as iTuneshttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003662 Putin Opposes Media Restrictions in Anti-Terror Bill- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a statement to the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, attacking part of an anti-terror bill that would restrict media coverage of terrorist attacks and calling it unconstitutional. You've got to laugh when it's Russia who are more progressive than the so-called free westhttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003663 Canadian Government Weary Of Patriot Act- (Found June 29, 2008 ) The Canadian government is moving to counter worries surrounding Canadian citizens' privacy being compromised by the United States' Patriot act. Apparently the FBI currently has the right, through Patriot, to search documents which may contain Canadian information sent to US firms carrying out work under contract. Thankfully, privacy still means something up therehttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003664 Windsor Staffers Back Bribe Claims- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Two key witnesses appearing before a Senate inquiry in Canberra have backed bribery claims made by federal independent MP Tony Windsor. Mr Windsor says he was offered an overseas posting to quit politics, a claim he has repeated under oath at the inquiry. He says that businessman Greg McGuire made the offer on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Nationals Senator Sandy Macdonald. Little Johnny Coward's cronies are still trying to weasel out of the chargehttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003665 Storms Bring Modem Mayhem- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Some Optus customers are facing a $179 charge for a new modem following the storms that lashed the Victoria and NSW this week. Australian IT understands that the carrier has been called on to replace a large number of modems used for its HRC cable broadband service since the storms hit on Wednesday. Customers whose equipment is out of warranty will be charged $179 to replace their modems, which are only available from Optushttp://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003666 Outrage Mounts Over Detention Centre Case- (Found June 29, 2008 ) South Australian Premier Mike Rann wants an immediate investigation into why an Australian woman was held in the Baxter detention centre for four months. Cornelia Rau, 39, who went missing from the Manly psychiatric hospital in Sydney in March 2004, spent four of 10 months' detention in Baxter after being found in far north Queensland without identification. She spent the other six months in the Women's Correctional Centre in Brisbane, after Queensland police believed she was an illegal...http://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003667 US Loses Ruling On Grey Wolves- (Found June 29, 2008 ) A federal judge has struck down a Bush administration rule that lowered Endangered Species Act protection for wolves that are migrating out of strongholds in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes into neighbouring states. In a ruling released yesterday, US District Judge Robert Jones in Portland rescinded the April 2003 decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which had divided wolf range into three areas and had reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of...http://www.redwolf.com.au/column/archive/2005_02.html#003668 |