-Show
number            10

-Date    1er mars 2007

 

-Simple-net.ca

- Le iPhone Shuffle     
"Call Martin"    -"Calling, Roger"

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INTRO 

Le BotCast with
cheese   -

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-------------------------------

FIRST SEGMENT

--------------------------------

BREAK

Break:                    Milan Kolarovic (Acumen), World
War II Memoirs (4m40)

www.milankolarovic.com

-------------------------------

SECOND SEGMENT

--Game Tech Support requests:  

OutTro:                   Ryan Cramer, Geometric Shadows

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Konami slot machines pulled for
subliminal messaging

Filed under:
Gaming

While
we've seen quite a few instances where
shifty gamblers got the boot, this time
it's the slot machines participating in a mass exodus of Canadian casinos. In
another tale of misguided marketing
garnering awful PR, Ontario's provincial gambling operator has "pulled 87 video
slot machines out of service or physically removed them from its casinos" after
an investigation found

URL:

http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/96813211/

While we've seen quite a
few instances where shifty gamblers
got the boot, this time it's the slot
machines participating in a mass exodus of Canadian casinos. In another tale of
misguided marketing garnering awful PR,
Ontario's provincial gambling operator has "pulled 87 video slot machines out of
service or physically removed them from its casinos" after an investigation
found some tricky imagery hidden within. Apparently, a number of
Konami slot machines flashed "winning
jackpot symbols" for a fifth of a second every so often, purportedly giving
players "subliminal messages" that would keep them chucking away coins for
longer periods of time. Comically, Konami is asserting that the flashing images
are simply a " software glitch" that will
be fixed shortly, which leaves us wondering what else could be ailing these
machines for the betterment of the establishment.
Regardless, the Ontario-based discovery has spawned several other investigations
in the US, British Columbia, and Quebec, but it has "yet to be determined" if
the flashing imagery has effected the gameplay of addicts professional
gamblers.

MS Tech Support Tell Customer to Use Activation Crack

"The Customer Service
Manager told me that I could either borrow an XP Home disk from a friend (isn't
that software piracy ??) or look online for one of the many Vista Activation
cracks to bypass Vista Activation completely, and specifically mentioned
"TimerLock" (um... hey, HE told me to do it !!). Well, I followed his
instructions."

URL:

http://digg.com/software/MS_Tech_Support_Tell_Customer_to_Use_Activation_Crack

Google-ized

Google's unofficial
slogan is "Don't be Evil." It seems that such a slogan should be applied to
oneself above all. Evil aside, Google has put itself in a position of, what can
only be construed as, being a censor of information; for example, its decision
to violate the openness of the internet by censoring Uruknet from its news
service, collaboration with Chinese regime 3, and removing certain sites from
google ads, such as controversial Ziopedia.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

TV Station Uses a $10 Wok as a Transmitter - Very
Clever

Why pay $20,000 for a
commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok is just
effective? A small television station from the deep south of New Zealand are
using wok's to transmit their program, instead of the more expensive,
"professional" option. And, amazingly, it works!

URL:

http://digg.com/hardware/TV_Station_Uses_a_10_Wok_as_a_Transmitter_Very_Clever

Texas Governor Perry took Merck money before mandating
cervical vaccine

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)
says that it's just a coincidence that he and eight other lawmakers received
donations of $5,000 each from Merck lobbyists just a few days before mandating
the drug giant's HPV cervical cancer vaccine for all females in Texas ages 12
and up.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

Safety alarms raised at nuclear weapons plant

Electrical failures have
shut down the plant. The roof has leaked. Decrepit machinery dates back more
than 40 years. Safety lapses led inspectors to levy fines twice within two
years. And employees, under deadline pressure, complain they are often worked
past the point of exhaustion. If this factory were producing medical devices or
refining gasoline, the conditions would be serious enough. But this is where
they work on nuclear bombs.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help

Oklahoma City bombing
conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official "apparently" was
directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might
have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit
filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

German Bible Goes Politically Correct

A new German translation
of the Bible is aimed at ridding the Holy Scriptures of their misogynist and
anti-Semitic traits as well as flashing out the relationship between the poor
and the privileged.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/expert_debunks_.html



According to a new study by a researcher at Texas A&M International University,
studies that see a connection between video games and violent behavior usually
suffer from shoddy research techniques. Dr. Christopher Ferguson studied the
results of a number of recent studies linking violent video games to aggressive
behavior with an eye not just to individual results, but also to overall trends
in the studies as a whole.

Ferguson found that the
connection between violence and gaming had more to do with publication bias than
it did with any actual correlation. In other words, journals were more likely to
publish studies that supported the hypothesis that playing violent games made a
subject more prone to violent behavior. Nothing like scientific stacking the
deck, eh? Ferguson sums it up nicely:

Thus it was concluded
that there is little evidence from the current body of literature on violent
video games that playing violent video games is either causally or
correlationally associated with increases in aggressive behavior.

Expect
He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named to jump on this one like a duck on a junebug, folks.

Researcher Finds Scant Evidence Linking Violent Games
With Aggressive Behavior

Researcher Finds Scant Evidence Linking Violent Games
With Aggressive Behavior

Any
scientific link between violent video games and violent behavior remains
tenuous.

At least, that's the
conclusion of a Ph.D faculty member at Texas A&M
International University's Department of Behavioral, Applied Sciences
and Criminal Justice. The researcher, Christopher Ferguson forwarded
GamePolitics information about a study he recently completed. In an
e-mail, Ferguson wrote:

I conducted a
meta-analysis of studies associating violent video game exposure with aggressive
behaviors.  A meta-analysis involves collecting existing studies in the
literature, and obtaining an over all effect size (i.e. degree of relationship)
for all of the studies examined.  This allows us to get a sense, not just for
individual research projects, but rather for the overall result from combined
studies in a field. 

In the current
publication, studies that examined violent video game effects on aggressive
behavior were analyzed. Also examined was a phenomenon called "publication bias"
which means that scientific journals are more likely to publish studies that
support a particular hypothesis than those that reject it.   

Results from the current
meta-analysis found that there were about 25 recent studies on violent video
game effects, with conflicting results. 

Overall results of the
study found that although violent video games appear to increase people's
aggressive thoughts (which it would not be surprising that people are still
thinking about what they were just playing), violent games do not appear to
increase aggressive behavior. 

This as true for both
correlational and experimental studies.  Also it was found that studies that
employed less standardized measures of aggression produced higher effects than
better standardized measures of aggression.  In other words, better measures of
aggression are associated with lower effects. 

Publication bias appeared
to be a significant issue for studies of aggressive behavior.  Thus it was
concluded that there is little evidence from the current body of literature on
violent video games that playing violent video games is either causally or
correlationally associated with increases in aggressive behavior. 

Ferguson included a copy
of his findings, from which the following quotes were lifted:

(it) appears that news
outlets may promote media violence in general, and video game violence
specifically as a direct cause of violent behavior. 

Despite the relatively
young and sparse nature of the research on violent video game effects, some
researchers have claimed that the evidence is conclusive…

Yet a close read of the literature reveals that many of the studies used to
support this link provide only questionable or inconsistent evidence. 

Part of the problem may
be that video game researchers have adopted unreliable methodologies from media
violence research in general… Most of the research (particularly laboratory
research) employs unvalidated ad-hoc measures of "aggression".

Lead-laden lunchboxes OK'd by government

In 2005, when government
scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, they found that one in five
contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe — and several
had more than 10 times hazardous levels.But that's not what they told the
public.Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that
they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their
actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having
their information released to the public.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

More than a year after death, man found in front of his
TV

Neighbors said they had
thought Ricardo was in a hospital or nursing home. Still, neighbor Diane Devon
said residents at a gathering last month remarked that they hadn't seen him in
some time. "We never thought to check on him," she said.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

Four more Americans charged in CIA kidnapping of Muslim
cleric

On Friday an Italian
judge charged four more Americans to stand trial for kidnapping of Italian
cleric Hassan Nasr in 2003, bringing the total number of Americans charged to
26.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070218/CPARTS01/70218029/1043/CPARTS01



Le Canada, une menace pour Hollywood



Le piratage des films est en pleine expansion au Canada, alimentant les marchés
internationaux et ulcérant les grands studios de Hollywood qui comptabilisent
leurs pertes par millions.



La Chine et la Russie posent «le plus de problèmes à l'industrie du droit
d'auteur», mais «le problème de l'enregistrement non autorisé de films
(camcording) dans les cinémas au Canada frôle la crise».



Ce constat a été fait cette semaine par l'Alliance internationale pour la
propriété intellectuelle (IIPA), un groupe de pression financé par l'industrie
américaine du droit d'auteur, la plus importante au monde, dans une lettre
envoyée à la représentante américaine au Commerce, Susan Schwab.



L'Alliance, qui accuse le Canada de ne pas protéger suffisamment les droits
d'auteur, demande aux autorités américaines de mettre le voisin canadien sur la
«liste de surveillance prioritaire» des pays fautifs dans ce domaine aux côtés
de la Chine, de la Russie et de l'Inde.



«En 2005 on estimait qu'environ 20% des films piratés sur le marché mondial
provenaient du Canada, et un bon pourcentage de Montréal», estime Serge
Corriveau, enquêteur pour l'Association canadienne des distributeurs de films,
une antenne des grands studios hollywoodiens.



Ceux-ci chiffrent à plus de 6,1 milliards de dollars les pertes qu'ils subissent
annuellement à cause du piratage de leurs films dans le monde.



«Les blockbusters (films à grand succès) attirent toujours les pirates, mais au
cours des dernières années au-delà de 200 films ont été enregistrés (au Canada)
et ils se sont retrouvés dans 45 pays», assure M. Corriveau.



L'industrie dénonce le «laxisme» des lois canadiennes en matière de lutte contre
le piratage de films. Alors qu'aux États-Unis, l'acte de filmer au cinéma est un
crime dans plusieurs États, dont la Californie, il n'en est rien au Canada.



Certes, une personne prise en flagrant délit de filmer dans un cinéma peut y
être poursuivie au civil par le propriétaire de la salle, le distributeur ou le
studio. Mais pour que des accusations criminelles soient portées contre cette
personne, la police doit prouver qu'elle avait l'intention de distribuer le
film.



«Pour prouver l'intention, ça demande plus de preuves. Il ne s'agit pas de voir
quelqu'un filmer dans un cinéma, il faut accumuler des preuves afin d'avoir un
mandat de perquisition, par exemple, pour aller fouiller dans son ordinateur. Ce
n'est pas facile», explique Helaine Lavergne, porte-parole de la Gendarmerie
royale du Canada (GRC).



Devant ce quasi-vide juridique, des propriétaires de salle se font justice
eux-mêmes. Lors de premières à Montréal, qualifiée dans l'industrie de «capitale
canadienne du piratage«, certains cinémas utilisent des détecteurs de métal à
l'entrée afin de décourager les pirates potentiels. La direction d'une chaîne de
«méga-cinéma» est même allée jusqu'à interdire l'entrée à de présumés pirates.




Et si Hollywood perd de gros sous dans cette histoire, des adeptes du piratage
n'en font pas pour autant leurs choux gras.



«Il y a tellement de gens qui le font de nos jours. Ce n'est pas vrai que les
pirates font tous de l'argent avec ça (...), on fait ça pour le plaisir, pour
regarder les films chez nous. On le fait aussi un peu pour emmerder les studios
américains. Ils ne sont pas à plaindre, ils ne manquent pas d'argent», se
vantaient récemment deux pirates déclarés au Journal de Montréal.

"US Senators to arrive in israel for indoctrination"

"We think that it is
important that the members of the delegation feel the connection and understand
Israel better. They are mostly non-Jewish and we want them to feel some
obligation to the country," he added.

URL:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

JE VEUX EN PARLER PLUS EN
DÉTAIL DE CELLE LA




http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/02/14/software-warnings.html



The entertainment and software industries have found an effective tool to deter
some Canadians from downloading TV programs, movies, music and software. And it
doesn't involve going to court.



A number of industry groups, mostly based in the United States, are relying on
e-mail to get the message out that peer-to-peer file sharing is illegal.
Thousands of the e-mails are being sent to Canadian users each month under a
program known as "notice and notice."



Major Canadian internet service providers including Rogers, Bell and Telus have
voluntarily agreed to distribute the notices to their customers on behalf of the
industry associations. Telus forwards an average of 4,000 notices every month.




Stephen Harrington received a notice late last year after downloading a computer
game from a bit torrent file-sharing site. (Bit torrent sites are used to share
larger files, such as movies.)



Harrington wanted to play the game with his friends, liked it, and purchased it
a few days later.



"Actually, I almost deleted it. But I read through and was quite surprised. But
I was initially concerned," Harrington said.



The entertainment industry has long expressed frustration with Canada, and its
unwillingness to modernize copyright laws.



"Canada's copyright laws regarding uploading and downloading are unclear, and
that does present a number of challenges in curbing internet piracy," said Neil
MacBride, a vice-president with the Business Software Alliance, a Washington
D.C.-based industry association that fights software piracy.



The Business Software Alliance sent out about 60,000 "notice and notice" e-mails
to Canadian internet users in 2006. "They've been most effective," MacBride
said.



'Stop this infringing activity'



"If you're somebody who's downloading and you receive word that you're
essentially using somebody else's property without their permission, it seems to
have the desired effect — namely, people take it seriously and alter their
behaviour accordingly."



The notices contain terse legal language: "This unauthorized copying and
distribution constitutes copyright infringement under applicable national laws
and international treaties. We urge you to take immediate action to stop this
infringing activity and inform us of the results of your actions," reads one of
the e-mails, sent by NBC Universal to Canadian internet users who were suspected
of downloading a NBC television show.



Canadian users are tracked by IP address when content is downloaded from the
internet.



"It doesn't have any significant legal weight in the sense that it doesn't mean
they're facing a lawsuit immediately or even the claims of infringement have
been proven," said leading internet law expert Michael Geist of the University
of Ottawa.



But Geist said the "notice and notice" program has been successful in scaring
people to stop downloading.



"I think they've proven surprisingly effective and in fact indications are that
when subscribers receive these, a significant proportion will take down the
offending content if, in fact, it is infringing," he said.



Harrington says he has not downloaded material using peer-to-peer sites since he
received his e-mail notice, forwarded by his ISP, Rogers Communications. But he
is concerned about privacy: What information are the ISPs passing along to the
industry groups?



"The ISPs are the only ones who know what individuals are doing what, so they're
trying to push that thin blue line and get to individual privacy that way," he
said.



No privacy issues, ISPs say



Both Rogers and Telus maintain they do not pass any personal information, such
as user name or address, to any of the groups initiating the notice e-mails.



"We protect the rights of our customers and the privacy of our customers and the
information about our customers quite vigorously and we do not pass the
information about our customers on to third parties," said Michael Lee, chief
strategy officer for Rogers Communications.



The notice program in effect in Canada is essentially a tool to alert users that
they are downloading what the industry groups see as copyrighted material. Even
though tens of thousands of e-mails have been distributed over the last few
years, no one has been prosecuted for copyright violation as a result of the
notices.



"Notice and notice" differs from the "notice and take-down" program that's in
place in the United States. There, when an industry group notices an alleged
copyright violation, an e-mail similar to the ones being sent to Canadian users
is forwarded to the American ISP. In most cases, the ISPs are forced to
immediately take down the content or face penalties.



"I think notice-in-notice is a great alternative that really respects privacy
and free speech much more than notice and take-down," said Ren Bucholz of the
internet advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

============

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1705/125/

The Effectiveness of
Notice and Notice

The CBC runs a
story today on the growing use of "notice
and notice" by copyright holders.  Telus apparently sends out about a thousand
notices each week, while the Business Software Alliance says it sent out 60,000
notifications to Canadians last year. These numbers are consistent with my own
experience as I now regularly receive emails from Canadians asking about the
implications of such notifications. 



The notice and notice system involves a notification from a copyright holder -
often involving movies, software or music - claiming that a subscriber has made
available or downloaded content without authorization on file sharing systems. 
The Internet Service Provider forwards the notification to the subscriber but
takes no other action - it does not pass along the subscriber's personal
information, remove the content from its system, or cancel the subscriber's
service.  It falls to the subscriber to act and as the CBC story notes, many
remove the infringing content (if indeed it is infringing) voluntarily. 



Some people object to U.S.-based notifications that carry no legal weight in
Canada being sent to Canadians with the cooperation of Canadian ISPs.  I am
supportive of the system since I think it balances various interests in fair
manner.  First, it stands in marked contrast to the U.S. notice and takedown
approach, which creates incentives for ISPs to remove content without warning or
evidence of actual infringement.  The recent avalanche of Viacom notices - which
targeted dozens of non-infringing videos - provides a
good case study for why the notice and
takedown system can have a chilling effect on online speech.  Second, the
approach protects user privacy, consistent with national privacy law and the
CRIA file sharing case from 2004.  Third, it reflects a consistency between
industry practice and proposed legislation.  While Bill C-60 was criticized for
some its provisions, many applauded the decision to codify a notice-and-notice
system into law (I assessed the ISP provisions here). 
The IIPA may be demanding that Canada
follow the U.S. approach, but the effectiveness of the Canadian notice and
notice system demonstrates that a balancing privacy, free speech, and copyright
can lead to solutions that serve everyone's best interests.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070216/CPMONDE/70216028/1014/CPMONDE



Un juge italien a décidé vendredi de renvoyer devant le tribunal de Milan (nord)
26 agents de la CIA poursuivis pour l'enlèvement en Italie d'un ex-imam égyptien
en 2003, l'un des cas de transfert secret de détenus dénoncé par le Parlement
européen.



La décision du juge des audiences préliminaires de Milan, Caterina Interlandi,
concerne aussi le général Nicolo Pollari, ancien chef des services de
renseignement militaire italiens (SISMI), limogé en novembre pour son
implication dans cette affaire.



Il figure sur la liste des accusés aux côtés, entre autres, des anciens
responsables de la CIA en Italie, les Américains Jeff Castelli et Robert Seldon
Lady, ou de l'ancien numéro 2 du SISMI, Marco Mancini.



Le procès, sans précédent en Europe en ce qui concerne le nombre d'agents
américains renvoyés devant la justice, débutera le 8 juin, a ajouté Mme
Interlandi, et il se déroulera par contumace en ce qui concerne les citoyens
américains.



Selon la presse italienne, la majorité des 26 agents a agi sous de faux noms et
se trouve actuellement aux États-Unis.



Il y a 15 jours, la justice allemande a délivré 13 mandats d'arrêt contre des
agents présumés de la CIA soupçonnés d'avoir enlevé en 2003 en Macédoine
l'Allemand d'origine libanaise Khaled el-Masri.



L'enlèvement d'Abou Omar est l'un des cas dénoncés par le rapporteur du Conseil
de l'Europe Dick Marty dans son étude sur les vols secrets de la CIA.



Soupçonné de terrorisme, l'ex-imam égyptien Abou Omar a été enlevé le 17 février
2003 à Milan par un commando de la CIA aidé par des agents italiens, selon le
parquet de Milan.



Conduit à la base américaine d'Aviano, dans le nord-est de l'Italie, il a été
transféré en Égypte après le rapt, où il a été incarcéré et affirme avoir subi
des tortures.



Relâché dimanche par les autorités égyptiennes, il a annoncé son intention de
porter plainte contre Silvio Berlusconi pour obtenir dix millions d'euros de
dommages-intérêts «pour son implication dans l'enlèvement en tant que chef du
gouvernement (à l'époque des faits) et pour avoir permis à la CIA de le
capturer».



Un mandat d'arrêt européen a été émis contre les 26 Américains mais la demande
d'extradition adressée aux États-Unis est toujours sur le bureau du ministre
italien de la Justice, Clemente Mastella, seul autorisé à la transmettre.

Check ca, c'est véridique.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8996055986353195886&q=Les+OGM+sont-ils+dangereux+pour+la+sant%C3%A9




OGM : un reportage fait fureur sur Internet




http://technaute.lapresseaffaires.com/nouvelles/texte_complet.php?id=81,12399,0,022007,1331312.html&ref=top_short


Cyberpresse

Stéphanie Bérubé

13 février 2007 - 08h54

 



Depuis quatre jours, plus d'un million d'internautes ont regardé le documentaire
français «Les OGM sont-ils dangereux pour la santé? L'étude qui accuse».





Propulsé par une fausse rumeur de censure, ce reportage de 2005 se passe de
courriel en courriel. Le sujet de tant d'intérêt? Deux études démontreraient que
des rats nourris avec des OGM subiraient eux-mêmes des mutations génétiques.



«C'est un documentaire très choquant parce qu'on voit que certains secrets
commerciaux sont très bien protégés», indique Jocelyn Desjardins, de Greenpeace
Québec, qui est évidemment ravi de voir la popularité inespérée de ce reportage.
D'une moyenne de 300 connections par jour, en novembre, le lien de Google qui
présente la vidéo est maintenant visité par 10 fois plus de monde, tous les
jours. Hier après-midi, ils étaient plus de 2,3 millions à avoir pris le temps
de regarder le reportage.



Les messages qui accompagnent la vidéo, lorsqu'elle est envoyée par courrier
électronique, parlent d'un cas de censure. Or il n'en n'est rien. «C'est un beau
cas de téléphone arabe», admet Jocelyn Desjardins. Même le patron de la défunte
émission française 90 minutes a été surpris de l'ampleur du mouvement. Il a
confirmé qu'il n'y avait pas eu censure.



Si le reportage fait tant jaser, deux ans après sa diffusion initiale, c'est que
peu de films abordent le sujet des organismes génétiquement modifiés, croit le
représentant québécois de Greenpeace. Et celui de l'émission 90 minutes adopte
un ton très dramatique, avec musique d'ambiance et sous-entendus très efficaces.




On y présente deux études sur des rats nourris aux OGM, dont une provenant du
fabricant de grains transgéniques Monsanto. Bien qu'on ait trouvé des lésions
sur certains rats nourris au maïs Monsanto, la multinationale a défendu son
innocuité. Avec succès : la France a autorisé son utilisation en 2005. Au
Canada, ce maïs transgénique est approuvé pour la consommation humaine depuis
2003.