Jorge Romero, a Chicago man that just happens to be 24 years old, has been charged with uploading copyrighted episodes of hit FOX show 24. Whether or not he knew it or did it, the episodes that he posted were in fact unaired as well as aimed at commercial distribution.
Since this offense was brought forth by the FBI and backed by FOX studios, Romero could do time for up to three years at a federal prison. He is in a terrible position, as he was “wise” enough to upload the first four episodes of the newest season of 24 a week before they aired on television, breaking all sorts of trade, copyright, and internet laws and regulations.
While it is hard to say anything about Romero’s innocence (Guilty!), I can say that the only person that could get him out of this mess would be Jack Bauer. Too bad that Jack is too busy saving the world.
The NASA Shuttle Atlantis, otherwise known as the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis OV-104 (OV stands for Orbital Vehicle), is the fourth operational shuttle built by the U.S. space program [Wiki]. The shuttle has been utilized in several missions, from performing military projects during its first flight in 1985, to deploying probes Magellan and Galileo and making seven flights to the Russian space station Mir. The shuttle has also taken a four-year temporary retirement before going back into use in 2006.
The Atlantis shuttle has gone through a lot throughout its service to U.S. astronauts and has even been used in media features such as:
* In the film Deep Impact the crew used the Space Shuttle Atlantis to get to the mission craft, Messiah.
* In the game The Dig, an unnamed shuttle participates in the mission of firing the asteroid. However in the game demo, the name “Atlantis” is mentioned.
* In the film Armageddon, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is destroyed in orbit at the beginning of the film by a meteor shower.
* In the episode of the animated show Recess which was called “Space Cadet,” the class watches a space shuttle launch. The vehicle is Atlantis.
* In the movie SpaceCamp, the space shuttle Atlantis is featured. The children were onboard the shuttle during an engine test when one of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters was ignited.
* In the free space simulator Orbiter created by Martin Schweiger, Atlantis is the default space shuttle you can pilot.
* In the PlayStation game “Treasures of the Deep,” the player goes on a mission to destroy the shuttle’s remains after it sinks in the Mariana Trench.
* In the Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising Atlantis was pulled off the launch pad just before a scheduled mission to allow the military to switch out her original payload with additional reconnaissance satellites just before the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union.
* In a Bill Nye the Science Guy Episode “Space Exploration,” Atlantis as well as Columbia make an appearance.
The Atlantis is, without a doubt, one of my favorite space vehicles (after the Millennium Falcon and the Gunstar ships from The Last Starfighter), and I was troubled when its fuel tank was damaged by a dastardly hail storm on February 26th 2007. Since the shuttle is planned to be retired in 2008 in shuttle mission ST-125, I wasn’t sure if the Atlantis would make its scheduled launch dates for ST-117, which should have occurred in March but got delayed due to the hail storm damage.
But on April 10, NASA stated that it is “targeting June 8 as the next possible launch opportunity for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-117 mission to the International Space Station”, and went on to say that “the damage required engineers to repair approximately 2,660 sites on the tank.” That hail can sure be a pain in the American Science and Surplus, since it cost NASA so much money.
(It seems so fitting) Hail Atlantis! If you have never heard the song ‘Atlantis’, I urge you to watch this video, lest you be forever in the dark about its pleasing aural beauty:
You there! Yes you. Do you take your freedom to surf the web for granted? I’m sure we all do and I’m sure most of us have tasted what it is to be blocked when viewing innocent web sites at work. It’s sort of sour with a bitter after taste.
Well then you can imagine what it must be like for Internet savvy surfers in China; a country notorious for censoring the Internet. Touted as having some of the most sophisticated firewalls in the world, greatfirewallofchina.org lets you check if you can pass China’s strict IP monitors. Apparently Next Lust is blocked. Yes, we here are nothing but hordes of anti-socialistic tech journalists with a hidden anti-red agenda.
What about your site? Are you blocked? Sound off!
UPDATE: Some people are reporting on and off blocking with the same tested URLS. It seems China’s IP blockade is not accurate and whatever algorithm they’re using to determine what should be blocked isn’t entirely absolute. However as of this past friday, all LiveJournal sites are blocked. That’s roughly 1.8 million blogs. Although China has reached agreements with Microsoft’s MSN Spaces, other blog hosting companies like Google’s Blogger and Six Apart’s Typepad are still periodically blocked.
The Chinese Government gave no reasons why all LiveJournal blogs were blocked, but one can deduce the highly personal voice found among LiveJournal users didn’t sit too well with the Red Party.
The year might not be 1984, but Big Brother plans on spying on you all the same, even if they have to push things back a bit. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for the implementation of its Real ID program from 2008 to 2013. Somewhere Winston Smith breathed a sigh of relief.
Real ID is a digital identification card, which will be required in all 50 states and will effectively replace the state driver’s license. Don’t get too excited, though, it’s not going to wipe that DUI off your record. The purpose of the cards is to create a national database, cataloguing personal information on all 240 million licensed drivers. Seems just like your driver’s license, but on a national scale, right? Well, not quite. Hang on, cause here is where things get a bit totalitarian.
An imbedded barcode will make each ID scanable, purportedly to check it against the database. Never mind that it could essentially be used to keep tabs on where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. An additional concern is that the information contained on the ID will not be encrypted … at all. Scanning it would be all it would take to make a record of your personal information. Yes ladies, that scary bouncer at the bar would no longer have work to quickly commit your address to memory. He’d already have it saved to disc. The cards may also include radio frequency identification technology as well. At the present time though, Homeland Security isn’t quite sure which sort of unsecure data collection they would rather go with.
So far there’s no getting around this either. Under the Real ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, all states are required by law to implement the program. Individual states have until Oct. 7, 2007 to provide their compliance plan to the federal government. However, citing privacy concerns, several rogue states are currently drafting legislation in direct opposition to the Act and its measures. The price for keeping your information private could be costly though. The penalties for noncompliance include disallowing residents of that particular state to use other forms of identification to board planes, enter federal buildings or collect federal financial assistance.
Taking a cue from every other cock swinging nation on Earth, Iran’s aerospace research center shot a payload carrying rocket into space yesterday. Proving that radical Islamic dictatorships still know how to party like it’s 1967.
“Britain’s former ambassador to Iran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC that, if confirmed, such a move could destabilize the Middle East: “It is a matter of concern. Iran’s potential nuclear military programme, combined with an advanced missile capability, would destabilize the region, and of course if there were a bomb that could be placed on the end of this missile, it would in breach of Iran’s obligations under the non-proliferation treaty.”
In all honesty it seems as though the Brits are overreacting. Who says the Iranians have malicious intent? Think about it, Richard Branson shot a rocket into space and they gave him a million dollars. Space racism or not, at least the price is right. Four goats and suckled virgin per ride … Allah Akbar!!!
If you’ve ever watched The Maury Povich Show, you’d know that over half of the women on there are all about getting child support payments. While they’re completely shallow (and naming their kids Camerion or Dar’Tayveus – c’mon, that’s a car and a Star Wars character, for chrissakes!), they are entitled to this money to help their child. Now, the Ontario Government agrees with them.
They have recently launched the site goodparentspay.com, a place to shame negligent parents who’ve skimped on their child support. Go ahead and browse through the fine selection of deadbeats. Based on the photos, nature has made the fuckwads obvious. Regardless, though it smacks of opportunism – there’s an election coming in the fall, doncha know – the internet seems to be the best way to communicate with the largest audience. However, is this really the best way, especially from an official government site? Or is a trip to New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania a better bet?
