My Reaction to Osama bin Laden's Death by Noam Chomsky - required reading

"We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic."

Chomsky

Acclaimed social activist and professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky gives a rational and thought-provoking reaction to the recent highly-publicised assassination of Osama bin Laden in this Guernica magazine article.

Fred "The Shred" Goodwin, ex-boss of Royal Bank of Scotland has a secret super-injunction!

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"Fred "the shred" Goodwin, who presided over the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland and is now collecting a £200,000/year pension at taxpayer's expense (over and above his £3m bonus) for his work in helping to destroy one of Britain's great financial institutions, has secured a "super-injunction" prohibiting the press from discussing his affairs. The injection also prohibits the press from disclosing that it exists (hence "super-injunction") and from mentioning any facts about Goodwin's life, up to and including the fact that he is a banker."

Boing Boing has the full story.

 

 

 

New Labour's dirty secrets

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Index on Censorship have an interesting article The Pursuit of Secrecy by Richard Norton-Taylor examining the real legacy of the Blair and Brown governments - their willingness to break the law when expedient, and to use the legal system to then hide their misdeeds, such as their involvement in extraordinary rendition and torture.

Indian court rules that Hindu gods can't trade in stocks and shares

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Following attempts by a private religious trust to set up trading accounts for several Hindu gods including the elephant-headed god Ganesha, an Indian court has now ruled that gods can't deal in stocks and shares. But not before income tax cards had been issued, and saving accounts set up in the gods' names!

Whilst it's certainly bizarre that in the 21st century a court is spending time and money debating an issue like this, we can at least be a little reassured that they reached the right decision! 

There's a wonderful quote from the judges who ruled in the case: "Trading in shares on the stock market requires certain skills and expertise and to expect this from deities would not be proper"...

Police seize Jason Chen's computers over iPhone HD affair

Police have seized computers from the home of Gizmodo's Jason Chen as part of the investigation into the loss, then purchase by Gizmodo, of Apple's prototype iPhone HD.

Here's the search warrant:

(download)
and the police inventory:
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And here's the response from Gaby Darbyshire, COO and legal representative of Gizmodo's owners Gawker Media LLC, who believe the warrant is invalid:
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Read the full story over at Gizmodo.

British Chiropractic Association finally admits defeat in Simon Singh libel case

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Two years after Simon Singh's Guardian article that questioned the validity of the claims made by the British Chiropractic Association, the BCA have finally withdrawn the libel action they started against Simon Singh personally (but not against The Guardian).  Whilst this is undoubtedly very good news, there is still much work to be done mending the UK's broken libel laws.

Read more in today's Guardian article.

The BCA press statement is reproduced below.

 

Click here to download:
BCA_Statement_15th_April_2010.pdf (16 KB)
(download)

Talk Talk talk tough on the Digital Economy Bill

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UK internet provider Talk Talk have been vocal opponents of the mess that is the Digital Economy Bill since it was first announced.  Now the bill has been rammed through the dying parliament, Talk Talk have confirmed in their new blog post "Digital Economy Bill - it's a wash up" that they remain opposed to the bill and will not comply with its demands.  Good for them.