jaqen - Slashdot User

Submission + - History According to Jesus Taught in NJ

Submitted by

fistfullast33l

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @10:23AM

fistfullast33l writes: "A fight is brewing in Kearny, New Jersey a 16 year old student and his school district over the teachings of the student's history teacher. According to the NY Times, the student did not think the teacher's lectures in class were relevant to the subject matter, so he started recording the teacher in class. On the tapes, "Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah's ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe." Matthew LaClair, the student, was reprimanded by the school for turning the tapes in (apparently students aren't allowed to secretly record lectures) and has been harassed by students. He has threatened to sue the school district. According to WNBC in NY, the teacher claims "he was merely answering a question posed to him in a question-and-answer session, according to Demetrios Stratis, a Fair Lawn lawyer who said he represented the teacher.""

Submission + - UK Government Ignores Petition To Ban DRM

Submitted by

taskforce

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @08:17AM

taskforce writes: "A petition to ban DRM on the UK Government's new (and seemingly pointless) petition site which was signed by 1,400 people was blown off today by the British Government. In its typical response to the swell of public opinion, the government said Digital Rights Management, 'helped give users unprecedented choice,' and that it would fully support the continued embedding of the software into digital media. The full text of the dismissal can be found here."

Submission + - YouTube permanently bans Gisburne, changes story

Submitted by

mijkal

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @08:01AM

mijkal writes: "YouTube has told atheist member Nick Gisburne that he is now permanently banned from the site. This stems from his posting of a video slideshow of quotes from the Quran. Originally YouTube said it was because of 'inappropriate content', but now it has changed its story and is claiming copyright infringement because it has a soundtrack (nevermind that hundreds of lip-synch videos as well as official music videos readily available on YouTube). Had Nick known this was the reason to begin with (YouTube admits it made a mistake), he wouldn't have reposted the video (or encouraged others to do the same). YouTube has decide to evoke the DMCA and its '3 strikes' policy, and is trying to reassure us all that the content has nothing to do with the banning of a certain unnamed account, but rather because of recurring copyright infringement. YouTube is also covering its tracks by changing the reason the videos were removed. All of his videos from all of his accounts have been removed, and anyone who's spent some time on YouTube and seen Nick's videos should clearly see this policy is not routinely executed, so why is Gisburne being unfairly targeted here? Given the context, it seems Gisburne is being treated rather harshly by the YouTube censors. (And just to nip this in the bud, yes, YouTube has the right to censor; and we all have the right to call YouTube on it when we feel its unfair and YouTube can change its policy or we can move on; no one's equating this with government censorship.)"

Submission + - Technology Behind Entertainment

Submitted by Pink Fluffy Dinosaur on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @03:00PM

Pink Fluffy Dinosaur writes: Web 2.0 applications pop up daily in the virtual scenery. www.flickrcombat.com is a mashup that is offering an effective process to involve the community in revealing the best Flickr photos (sourced via the flickr.com API) and at the same time to keep things interesting and entertaining. In the good web 2.0 spirit, the users exercise an influence over the content and the more they get involved, the more value they add to the application. So what is FlickrCombat all about? Two pictures in each combat, seven categories to choose from, and a top 21 that says it all. The rank of a picture is determined by the defeats, wins and number of combats (more details on the algorithm here. )

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