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Obama Administration Defends Warrantless Wiretapping 788

Posted by timothy from the high-moral-ground-is-a-grassy-knoll dept.
a whoabot writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Obama administration has stepped in to defend AT&T in the case over their participation in the warrantless wiretapping program started by Bush. The Obama administration argues that that continuation of the case will lead to the disclosure of important 'state secrets.' The Electronic Frontier Foundation has described the action as an 'embrace' of the Bush policy." Update: 04/07 15:18 GMT by T : Glenn Greenwald of Salon has up an analysis of this move, including excerpts from the actual brief filed. Excerpt: "This brief and this case are exclusively the Obama DOJ's, and the ample time that elapsed — almost three full months — makes clear that it was fully considered by Obama officials."

Comment Re:Can't come soon enough (Score 1) 226

by jon_cooper (#26865569) Attached to: "Liquid Wood" a Contender To Replace Plastic
Realistically, while oil prices will undoubtedly rise over time, we're not likely to hit any "peak" for a long, LONG time.

You're mistaken in what the "peak" in peak oil means. The peak refers to the AMOUNT of oil produced, not the price of oil. If the price of oil peaked, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?

The concept is that oil will continue to rise in price (as you said) and that eventually it will become so expensive that demand for it will drop. Despite the drop in demand, because the stuff will become so expensive to extract, it will still continue to rise in price and drop in demand.

That's the theory anyway - I personally don't think there will be a clearly defined peak in extraction, but more a rollercoaster.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Hacked Oyster card system crashes again (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "London's Oyster card billing system crashed this morning for the second time in two weeks, forcing Transport for London (TfL) to open gates and allow free travel for all. "There is currently a technical problem with Oyster readers at London Underground stations which is affecting Oyster pay as you go cards only," explains the TfL website. This follows the first crash two weeks ago, which left 65,000 Oyster cards permanently corrupted. Speculation is increasing that the crashes may be related to the hacking of the Oyster card system by Dutch researchers from Radboud University. Plans to publish details of the hack were briefly halted when the makers of the chip used in the system sued the group, although a judge ruled earlier this week that the researchers could go ahead. During the court action, details briefly leaked on website Wikileaks."
The Media

2008 Beijing Olympics as a Media Test-Bed 134

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the just-a-test-of-inconvenience dept.
CNN is reporting that NBC is using the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a test-bed to understand how people are using different media platforms. "NBC has scheduled 3,600 hours of Olympics programming on its main network, along with Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. That's the equivalent of eight days of programming packed into each day. In addition, the company is planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com. Consumers may also get video on demand via their computer and Olympics content through their mobile phones."
Privacy

Submission + - Australian ISPs Reject Calls To Police Their Users

Submitted by jon_cooper
jon_cooper writes: After recent setbacks in the RIAA's lawsuits, AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) has decided to try a different approach in Australia and want ISPs to do their dirty work for them. However, Australian ISPs have soundly rejected calls from AFACT to slow down or terminate user accounts that AFACT has determined are being used to distribute copyrighted works. Telstra had this to say, "... we do not believe it is up to the ISPs to be judge, jury and executioner in relation to the issue when the content owners have any number of legal avenues to pursue infringements."
Biotech

Submission + - Boeing Helping to Develop Algae-based Jet-Fuel (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by jon_cooper
jon_cooper writes: Air New Zealand, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation and Boeing are working together to develop and test a bio-fuel derived from algae. Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation began operating in May last year after it met a request from the local council to deal with excess algae on sewage ponds. Boeing's Dave Daggett was reported this year as saying algae ponds totalling 34,000 square kilometres could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero.
Books

Harry Potter Leaked Via Handheld Camera 427

Posted by kdawson from the too-big-a-perimeter-to-patrol dept.
owlgorithm writes "Salon reports that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been leaked four days before it hits bookstores. It turns out that someone with access to the American edition of the book has taken a photograph of every one of the pages and made them available via bittorrent. Publishers may well be quaking in their boots, but in some places the quality is barely legible. On many pages the pirateer's hands are in the pictures with other pages needing a bit of Photoshopping just to make out the words. It appears many of the sites have been removing the content, naturally enough."

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