What the HECK???

You gotta be kidding me.  ...This data can't be right.  ...REALLY???

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-First-Test-That-Proves-General-Theory-of-Relativity-Wrong-20259.shtml

Google held accountable for a user video in Italy

So, here's the story...


Apparantly , some Italian google executives have been sued for hosting Google in Italy, and allowing google to host a user-posted video where some school teens are bullying an autistic classmate.  While the video is obviously terrible in and of itself, apparantly Italian internet laws are so old, Google is being held responsible.

"The case involves online videos showing an autistic boy being bullied by classmates in Turin, which were posted in 2006 on Google Video, an online video-sharing service that Google ran before its acquisition of YouTube.

Prosecutors charged that the videos violated Italian personal privacy protections. They said the clips were removed only after complaints from Vivi Down, an Italian organization representing people with Down syndrome, whose name was mentioned in the videos.

...

Google insists that under European Union law, video-sharing sites and other Internet companies are protected from liability for the content of material posted. But it is a gray area, according to legal experts.

The relevant E.U. law, which has been implemented in Italy, was adopted a decade ago, before user-generated content was the popular phenomenon it is today. While Internet service providers are clearly protected from so-called intermediate liability for the content they convey, the law does not specifically address user-generated content."

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sticking it to the big corporate exec when they deserve it, but this is NOT google's fault.  This is the fault of some punk kid whose parents should get sued... not google.

Full story can be found here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/technology/companies/25google.html

*sigh* More strangeness soon, I imagine...

Betcha never thought of a termite mound as something like a living organ

Okay this one's pretty cool...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527481.300-for-sustainable-architecture-think-bug.html?page=2

I was interested that the architectural community is really looking into this... I wonder if we'll ever have lung-walls?  (Certainly a tough idea here in the desert... need filters like crazy)

Airlines transponder codes: Now impound-able!

I understand the trouble in relations in the middle east, but this is just silly.

"Iran has warned that airlines will be banned from flying into its airspace, unless they use the term "Persian Gulf" on their in-flight monitors.

The transport minister has threatened to impound planes that fail to comply.

...To call it the Gulf, annoys the authorities; to call it the Arabian Gulf, infuriates them even more."

I read this and thought to myself... Okay, Iran, a sovereign nation, has trouble recognizing the gulf as Arabian, and prefers to call it the Persian gulf... I can kind of understand that... Americans have done similar things, to be sure.  Though threatening to impound the planes seems SEVERE if you ask me.

That's when I read the last line of the story.

"As for the minister, Hamid Behbahani, it may or may not be a coincidence that he is making a stand on this patriotic matter at a time when he is facing calls for his impeachment for alleged lack of competence."

Ah.  ...Now that makes more sense.

One Bizarre World (First Post)

Let's face it. Humans as a species are absolutely strange. Sure, we've managed to progress at levels that can only be defined as incredible, but every so often, you come across a (TRUE) story that leaves you scratching your head. You wonder, "How does that happen?"

Maybe it's some mutated sheep with a human face. Perhaps a celebrity making headlines for their latest antics. Or maybe it's just the fad of wearing crocs. Whatever it is, you sit there telling yourself, "That's just BIZARRE!"

I've been finding so many gloriously head-scratching things wonderful, strange, or incredible, I've been clogging my personal blog with them. Well no more. Every "Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot" I say from now on comes through here. Hopefully, my links and possible comments will, if nothing else, provide with amusement.

I hope you all enjoy. To start off the blog, I give you: A University Professor who shot three coworkers to death, and wants to know if she still has a job. No, seriously.

Enjoy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_re_us/us_ala_university_shooting