"Absorbed cosmic
rays are emitted in a beacon fire to a fetus."
Fiorentino Sival, Vision through Somniliquence
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| MSNBC: Could lunar real estate spark a future war? |
| May
24, 2004, 13:59:
Mail-order customers who buy property from the Lunar Embassy get an official-looking deed .... The scheme is bogus, legal scholars argue, but business is booming, and futurists have been forced to ponder the fate of celestial property rights.
Meanwhile, the "Head Cheese" of the whole shebang asserted last week that his Galactic Government flag will be planted on the moon by the end of this year.
....a lunar land grab -- however dubious it may be -- is well under way.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4137710/
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| The Australian: Regulators stymie 'human trees' |
| May
14, 2004, 16:13:
A SCHEME by two London artists to take DNA from a dead person and insert it into apple trees to create a living memorial of that individual's "biological essence" has run headlong into problems .... the only known way of doing this is extraordinarily complex and time-consuming (and thus expensive) because the sequence has to go through eight coding steps. The other problem is even more daunting: British regulators. Every single tree will have to be approved by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), a watchdog that vets applications for genetically-modified organisms.
URL: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,9550089,00.html
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| Financial Firms Drown Privacy When They Offshore Their Backoffices |
| Mar
04, 2004, 16:48:
...a letter I wrote to the Inman News,
a real estate industry newsletter, regarding an article on
oursourcing. Some of the assertions regarding privacy and security
strike me as either ingenuous or dangerously naive.
Letter and original article archived on Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
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| Dutch Gov't Wants to Shutdown Pirate Radio Before It Can be Legalized |
| Mar
04, 2004, 16:48:
On May 23, The Dutch government auctioned off radio frequencies to the highest bidders as part of their new Zerobase Radio Frequency Policy. As a result only the biggest, most commercially and mainstream oriented stations are able to exploit Dutch radio frequencies for the eight year term of the licenses. The auction was preceded by "Project Etherflits" in March -- a crackdown on pirate radio stations which are technically illegal but were previously tolerated. Studio equipment was confiscated and large fines imposed on the operators. Most stations have now been forced off the air.
The ZeroBase Policy acknowledges only two kinds of radio: public and commercial. Any radio formats that don't fit within either of these categories have in effect become criminal organizations and can never be granted a legal broadcasting permit. And even the most successful pirate stations don't have the financial or legal resources required to apply for a legal permit if they were allowed to do so under the current policy.
Full article in Kuro5hin
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| Fashion Note: Headgear for enlightenment |
Jan
05, 2004, 13:08:
Renowned neuropsychologist Dr. Michael Persinger claims strange phenomena such as mystical
experiences and alien abductions are caused by electromagnetic fields
and markets headgear to induce such experiences -- sort of the
opposite of an aluminum foil hat.
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| Could we be immersed in a large alien civilization without being aware of it? |
Dec
16, 2003, 16:37:
Beatriz Gato-Rivera, CSIC, Spain: Do mountain gorillas know that their civilization is embedded in a larger civilization corresponding to a much more evolved and intelligent species than themselves? Do they know that they are a protected species inhabitating a natural reserve in a country inside the African continent of planet Earth? The answer to these questions is certainly no .... In the same way, the human civilization of planet Earth could be immersed in a much larger civilization unknowingly, corresponding to much more evolved and intelligent species than ourselves. After all, the sun is only a young star among thousands of millions ... and the possible existence of such advanced civilizations is only a question of biological evolution .... The answer to the usual remark "if there are advanced extraterrestrials around, why they do not contact us openly and socially and teach us their science and technology?" seems obvious. Would any country in this planet send an social delegation to the mountain gorilla territory to introduce themselves openly and socially to the gorilla authorities? Would they shake hands, make agreements and exchange signatures with the dominant males? Brane Worlds, the Subanthropic Principle, and the Undectectability Conjecture [PDF]
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| NY Times: Offloading Your Memories |
Dec
16, 2003, 14:52:
In the past year, a handful of separate research projects have surfaced, all sharing the same goal: offloading our memories to machines .... In effect, what Bell and others are creating is TiVo for real life. Whatever flows through your perceptual systems can be rewound and queued up for viewing at a later date .... If these personal archives do become commonplace, the outcome, after decades of dark prophecies about the end of privacy, will be a curious one: you will turn out to be the one recording your every move, not the National Security Agency or Equifax or John Ashcroft -- a surveillance society of one. We have met Big Brother, and he is us. [Full article requires registration to access]
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