Wikipedia page banned : internet censored !!

In Brief : Make up your mind on internet censorship. The Internet Watch Foundation -- a nonprofit, nongovernment-affiliated organization -- added the Wikipedia page for the Scorpions' 1976 album "Virgin Killer" onto its blacklist Friday. The IWF's concern comes over the image on the album's original cover, which shows a young girl completely nude. Someone had reported the image as inappropriate through the IWF's online submission tool, the organization says, and its internal assessment found the photo to be "a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18." The IWF's blacklist is used by the vast majority of British Internet service providers to maintain decency standards for their subscribers. As a result of the ban, affected U.K. Internet users are unable to view the page or access Wikipedia's article editing function.

I think they have gone too far. Form your own opinion. Animal Magnetism is their only album I have in my collection and I think going by the trend they may find it's cover provocative too.

In Detail : Washington Post story

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Believe it or not : One case, two HC verdicts !!

In Brief : It's like "Ripley's believe it or not". But then this is India where bizarre is common and common is bizarre.

In an unprecedented incident, the case of an Adilabad man charged with harassment for dowry and murder of his wife was heard by two division Benches of the A P High Court almost concurrently. And while one of the Benches pronounced him guilty on both the counts, the second one acquitted him on the charge of murder and ordered that he be set free immediately.

Imagine this in a country where "death sentence" and "double jeopardy" are legal.

source : The Times of India
In Detail
The trial court in Adilabad, after examination of the evidence on record, both oral and documentary, held Hymad responsible for the death of his wife and in 2006, sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder along with Rs 1,000 as fine and imposed another three years imprisonment plus Rs 500 fine for harassing his wife for additional dowry.
The accused has been serving prison term since then. Meanwhile, the relatives of Hymad approached S Surendar Reddy, a lawyer in Hyderabad and through him, got a criminal appeal filed in 2006 in the AP High Court against the judgment of the trial court. Around the same time, Hymad too wrote a letter to the authorities of the high court seeking their help in engaging the services of an advocate for preferring an appeal over the trial court verdict. The high court, through its legal aid wing, allotted lady advocate Shanti Neelam to argue his case.
The criminal appeal by Hymad's relatives went to a two-member division bench comprising Justice A Gopal Reddy and Justice B Seshasayana Reddy while Hymad's own appeal went to another two two-member bench comprising Justice D S R Verma and Justice K C Bhanu. The judgment on the appeal by relatives holding the accused guilty on both counts was delivered on March 7, 2008, while the verdict on Hymad's appeal acquitting him on the charge of murder was given on September 29, 2008

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Beer from Space : it's cosmic !!

In Brief : Japanese beer brewed from barley which was grown on the international space station orbiting the Earth, has finally been tasted.

The space-beverage was the result of a five-month mission during which barley was grown for the first time in a Russian laboratory on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Sapporo Breweries, one of Japan's major breweries, went on to use the crop of barley grown in space to create 100 litres of a 5.5 per cent proof beer ­ aptly named "Space Barley".
The space brew was the result of a collaboration between the Russian Academy of Science, Okayama University in Japan and Sapporo Breweries , one of the oldest brewers in the country.
The barley was grown as the result of an on-going crop growing project on board ISS, with other products including wheat, lettuce and peas. In the furute, potatoes could also be grown in space.
Cosmonaut Dr Boris Morukov who spent 11 days in space says potatoes may one day be grown, but not to make space vodka.
While the current batch of space beer will not be sold commercially, 30 couples selected from among the public by lottery will be invited to a special tasting event in Tokyo next month.
Although beer has previously been off space menus due to its alcohol and gas content, breweries are hoping that the newly-created space beer may eventually become available for astronauts to enjoy in space.

In Detail
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Believe it or not : world's greatest woman boxer not good enough for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award !!

In Brief : Only 4 months of training after a two-year sabbatical may not be ideal build-up for a World Championship but that is all M C Mary Kom needed as she clinched a historic 4th gold medal to become the most successful woman boxer in the world.

Yet, the pint-sized 46kg boxer, who returned to the capital on Monday, bagged the top honour with a comprehensive 7-1 verdict over Romania ’s Steluta Duta.
When MC Mary Kom started boxing, she had to convince her father that it was okay for a woman to try and storm what was considered a male bastion. Eight years and three World championship gold medals later, Mary Kom, now a mother, had to convince herself that she still had some fight left in her.
IT HURTS

“Women boxers in India should be treated with more respect. They have been bringing laurels for the country regularly,” said the world’s most successful woman pugilist.
“I was extremely pained when I was denied the Khel Ratna Award,” she said.
“I had three world titles under my belt but the selection panel did not find me good enough to get the award.
“I was very upset because the panel had some eminent sportspersons, including the legendary Milkha Singh. At least they should have realised my contribution. It happened to me twice,” the boxer said with regret.
Mary Kom said despite being ignored time and again, she was not going to call it quits so easily.
Awards or no awards she is the real "Million Dollar Baby".

Read More
source : PTI http://www.dnaindia.com/ The Telegraph
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MySpace web hoax case : The juror's view and hacking argument.

In Brief : The jury leader in the trial of a Missouri woman accused of an Internet hoax that ended in a teenage neighbor's suicide said most panelists favored convicting the defendant of felony conspiracy.
The jurors in Myspace internet hoax case convicted Lori Drew the accused only on federal misdemeanor charges because they were unable to agree on whether the MySpace hoax was malicious, according to forewoman Valentina Kunasz.

Drew, 49, of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, was convicted Nov. 26 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, where the case was tried because MySpace has servers in the area.
Witnesses had testified that the aim of the hoax had been to find out whether Megan was spreading rumors about Drew's daughter, Sarah, who was also 13 at the time.
The "boy" dumped Megan in 2006, telling her: "The world would be a better place without you." Megan hanged herself soon afterward.
PROSECUTER's VIEW
They didn't think she intended to have this girl kill herself. But she knew she was suicidal, depressed and taking medicines and still continued to pursue this act. Whether (Drew) physically types those messages we'll never know, but she didn't make any effort to stop it, so, that was malicious.
DEFENCE's VIEW
Drew had conspired to create a fictitious teenage boy on MySpace to get Megan Meier, 13, to divulge information, not to harm her.

Megan's mother, Tina Meier, pointed out that Drew is an adult. "She knew what was going on," Meier said on "Today." "She allowed this to continue to happen."
She said she was disappointed that Drew was not found guilty of additional charges, "but that's something I can't dwell on."

THE HACKING ARGUMENT

The specifics of the Lori Drew case are messy and emotional. The important fact is that there is no federal cyberbullying statute, so the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles turned to a novel interpretation of existing computer hacking laws to try to punish the woman. The general idea is that in creating terms of service, a Web site owner specifies the rules of admission to the site. If someone violates any of those contractual terms, the "access" to the Web site is done without authorization, and is thus hacking.
Unfortunately for Internet users everywhere, a jury bought the theory last week and found Lori Drew guilty of three misdemeanor violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, punishable with up to one year in a federal prison and a $100,000 fine for each of the three counts
SENTENCE :Drew could face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for her convictions on three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization.

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Next is what : Internet in outer space !!

In Brief : Imagine Cyberspace being extended to outer space !!

Nasa has successfully transmitted images to and from a spacecraft 20 million miles away with a communications system based on the net.
The Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology is designed to work across vast distances where response times can be measured in days.
Further tests of DTN are due to take place on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009.
Read more ... and more...

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/ & http://www.sciam.com/

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