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Comment This isn't a victory for Behring-Breivik. (Score 3, Insightful) 491

by CleverNickName (#51949589) Attached to: Anders Behring Breivik, Norway Murderer, Wins Human Rights Case

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.
Programming

Subversion Project Migrates To Git 162

Posted by timothy from the seasonal-variety dept.
New submitter gitficionado (3600283) writes "The Apache Subversion project has begun migrating its source code from the ASF Subversion repo to git. Last week, the Subversion PMC (project management committee) voted to migrate, and the migration has already begun. Although there was strong opposition to the move from the older and more conservative SVN devs, and reportedly a lot of grumbling and ranting when the vote was tallied, a member of the PMC (who asked to remain anonymous) told the author that 'this [migration] will finally let us get rid of the current broken design to a decentralized source control model [and we'll get] merge and rename done right after all this time.'" Source for the new git backend.
Earth

Indonesian Erruption Forces Evacuation of 1300 36

Posted by timothy from the evacuation-seems-like-a-good-plan dept.
ABC News reports that "A volcano in western Indonesia erupted again Sunday, unleashing volcanic ash high into the sky and forcing the evacuation of villagers living around its slope. Officials raised Mount Sinabung's alert status to the second-highest level after the 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) -high mountain erupted early Sunday, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Authorities were working to evacuate residents from four North Sumatra province villages located within the mountain's three-kilometer (two-mile) danger zone, Nugroho said. About 1,300 villagers have been relocated to safer areas so far. It was the volcano's second big eruption since late last month, with its Oct. 24 explosion prompting the evacuation of more than 3,300 people." This video of Sinabung's 2010 eruption gives some clue about what to expect.
Businesses

Companies Petition Congress To Reform 'Business Method' Patent Process 78

Posted by timothy from the it-seems-so-very-obvious-even-to-those-unskilled-in-the-art dept.
ectoman writes "This week, a coalition of more than 40 companies sent a letter to Congress asking for legislation that expands the Covered Business Method (CBM) program, a move some feel would stem patent abuse in the United States. Expanding the scope of CBM—a program that grants the Patent and Trademark Office the power to challenge the validity of certain business methods patents—would expedite the patent review process and significantly cut litigation costs, they say. "The vague and sweeping scope of many business method claims covering straight forward, common sense steps has led to an explosion of patent claims against processes used every day in common technologies by thousands of businesses and millions of Americans," says the letter, signed by companies like Amazon, Netflix, Red Hat, Macy's, and Kroger)."
The Almighty Buck

Connecticut Groups Cancels Plan to Destroy Violent Games 350

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the pr-stunt dept.
An anonymous reader writes with an update to an earlier story about a group wanting to destroy your violent video games. "Southington, a town in Connecticut, has canceled its plans to collect and destroy violent games, stating that it has already succeeded in raising attention." Perhaps the real reason: "Backed by the Southington Chamber of Commerce, SouthingtonSOS originally planned to offer citizens $25 gift certificates in exchange for their violent games, films, and CDs, which the group would collect for 'permanent disposal.'"
Privacy

Skype Hands Teenager's Information To Private Firm 214

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the but-we-were-friends dept.
New submitter andrew3 writes "Skype has allegedly handed the information of a 16-year-old boy to a security firm. The information was later handed over to Dutch law enforcement. No court order was served for the disclosure. The teenager was suspected of being part of a DDoS packet flood as a part of the Anonymous 'Operation Payback'." According to the article, Skype voluntarily disclosed the information to the third party firm without any kind of police order, possibly violating a few privacy laws and their own policies.
Games

Submission + - Atari turns 40 today (time.com)

Submitted by
harrymcc
harrymcc writes: "On June 27, 1972, a startup called Atari filed its papers of incorporation. A few months later, it released its first game, Pong. I celebrated the anniversary over at TIME.com by chatting with the company's indomitable founder, Nolan Bushnell, who also started Chuck E. Cheese and more than 20 other companies--mostly unsuccessful, but often visionary--and hired and influenced Steve Jobs when he was an antisocial Reed College dropout."

Submission + - Will Dolby's New Atmos 62.2 Format Redefine Surround Sound? (cepro.com) 2

Submitted by
CIStud
CIStud writes: "Anyone who goes to see Pixar's new animated "Brave" film might come home with their ears ringing. Why? because "Brave" is the debut of Dolby's Lab's new 62.2 surround sound format called Atmos, which adds new innovations such as developments such as pan-through array and overhead speakers. With 62 speakers and 2 subwoofers, only a handful of theaters nationwide will be able to show the film at its full throttle. Dolby has produced a new highly informative video that talks about how movie sound has progressed from mono to stereo to LCR (left/center/right) to 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound and now Atmos. The big question is will the 62.2 format system be adapted for home theaters intent on emulating the immersive movie experience?"

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