Who knew that swine flu could also infect Twitter? Yet this is what appears to have happened in the last 24 hours, with thousands of Twitter users talking about this nascent and potentially lethal threat. There are quite a few reasons to be concerned about Twitter’s role in facilitating an unnecessary global panic about swine flu.
Gorgonzolanoid notes a post on TorrentFreak reporting that the German Rapidshare is divulging uploader information to rights holders. Record labels are apparently making creative use of “paragraph 101” of German copyright law, which gives them a streamlined process to ask a court to order disclosure of information such as an IP address. “In Germany, the file-hosting service Rapidshare has handed over the personal details of alleged copyright infringers to several major record labels. The information is used to pursue legal action against the Rapidshare users and at least one alleged uploader saw his house raided.”
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The New Yorker has a long piece examining the growing trend of healthy people, not diagnosed with any mental condition, taking drugs that enhance mental functioning, including Adderall and Provigil. The profiles include a Harvard student, a professional poker player, a number of brain researchers, and a self-described transhumanist. “Zack [Lynch]… has a book being published this summer, called ‘The Neuro Revolution’… In coming years, he said, scientists will understand the brain better, and we’ll have improved neuroenhancers that some people will use therapeutically, others because they are ‘on the borderline of needing them therapeutically,’ and others purely ‘for competitive advantage.’ … Even if today’s smart drugs aren’t as powerful as such drugs may someday be, there are plenty of questions that need to be asked about them. How much do they actually help? Are they potentially harmful or addictive? Then, there’s the question of what we mean by ‘smarter.’ Could enhancing one kind of thinking exact a toll on others? All these questions need proper scientific answers, but for now much of the discussion is taking place furtively, among the increasing number of Americans who are performing daily experiments on their own brains. … [A cognitive researcher said,] ‘Cognitive psychologists have found that there is a trade-off between attentional focus and creativity. And there is some evidence that suggests that individuals who are better able to focus on one thing and filter out distractions tend to be less creative. … I’m a little concerned that we could be raising a generation of very focused accountants.'”
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mallumax sends word from the NYTimes that US government officials today declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of the swine flu first seen in Mexico. Here is additional coverage from CNN. From the Times: “American health officials [say]… that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak. Other governments around the world stepped up their response to the incipient outbreak, racing to contain the infection amid reports of potential new cases from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic. The cases in US looked to be similar to the deadly strain of swine flu that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico and infected 1,300 more.” Reader “The man who walks in the woods” sends a link to accounts emailed to the BBC from readers in Mexico. While these are anecdotal, they do paint a picture of a more serious situation than government announcements have indicated so far.
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 guardian.co.uk |
4 cases of swine flu confirmed in Nova Scotia, 2 in BC
CBC.ca Women wearing surgical masks pray in the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City on Sunday. (Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press) Nova Scotia and British Columbia have confirmed cases of swine flu, while new cases of the infection have been found in New York City, … Video: Swine Flu Fears Prompt Global Quarantine Plans The Associated Press World 'well prepared' for virus BBC News Los Angeles Times – CNN – CTV.ca – guardian.co.uk all 12,745 news articles |
 Times Online |
Analysis: Stark end game for Tigers
BBC News By Charles Haviland The ceasefire declaration by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its immediate rejection by the government have emphasised the starkness of the situation in which the guerrilla group finds itself, 37 years after first … British, French, Swedish FMs to visit Sri Lanka: Miliband AFP Sri Lankan rebels declare unilateral cease-fire The Associated Press Times Online – New York Times – CNN International – guardian.co.uk all 7,785 news articles |
 BBC News |
Pakistani forces battle militants
BBC News Pakistani security forces have clashed with Taleban militants in the troubled north-west of the country, close to the Swat Valley. Pakistan urges Taliban to lay down arms Reuters Amid US criticism, Pakistan again battles Taliban The Associated Press Times Online – Los Angeles Times – Aljazeera.net – Xinhua all 5,325 news articles |
During the Pirate Bay trial Monique Wadsted represented several major movie studios and called for a “very significant” prison sentence for the defendants. This didn’t go down particularly well with some Pirate Bay supporters and now, in a retaliatory move, a few of them have now taken down her law firm’s website.
You thought that music piracy was a product of modern times, didn’t you? Have a look at the image below (and the original PDF linked at the bottom) for a New York Times article from June, 1897 discussing music piracy – of course the perpetrators were Canadian.
