Archives 2005 - 2019

Länk - Problemen med bekännelsebaserad rättsskipning i Japan allt tydligare

published May 08, 2007 11:19   by admin ( last modified May 08, 2007 11:19 )
"I Just Didn't Do It," a new documentary by Masayuki Suo, the director of "Shall We Dance?", has also raised popular awareness of coerced confessions. The movie - based on the real-life story of a young man who was falsely accused of groping a teenage girl on the Tokyo subway and imprisoned for 14 months - portrays how the authorities extract confessions, whether the accused are guilty or not. "Traditionally, in Japan, confessions have been known as the king of evidence," said Kenzo Akiyama, a lawyer who is a former judge and has written critically of the criminal justice system. "Especially if it's a big case, even if the accused hasn't done anything, the authorities will seek a confession through psychological torture."


Läs mer: Coerced confessions: Justice derailed in Japan - International Herald Tribune

Länk - Planerad attack mot militärbas i USA

published May 08, 2007 09:15   by admin ( last modified May 08, 2007 09:15 )
nvestigators said the men planned to use automatic rifles to enter Fort Dix and kill as many soldiers as they could at the New Jersey military base. Fort Dix was just one of several military and security locations allegedly scouted by this group, authorities said. # Slideshow: 6 Arrested In Alleged Terror Plot # Video: Info From Fort Dix The suspects, identified as Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Mohamad Shnewer, Derdar Tatar and Agron Abdullahu, have been charged with conspiring to kill U.S. government employees. Separately, the Duka brothers have been charged with being illegal aliens in possession of firearms.


Läs mer: 6 Charged In Alleged N.J. Terror Plot - News Story - WNBC | New York

Länk - Stoppa ett enzym: Inga hjärt-kärlsjukdomar?

published May 07, 2007 11:27   by admin ( last modified May 07, 2007 11:27 )
"Regardless of the type of fatty acid in the diet, even trans fat, no atherosclerosis occurs if the ACAT2 enzyme isn’t present," said Rudel. "Our research in animals tells us that ACAT2 is a potential treatment target to protect people against heart disease."


Läs mer: Gene tweak cuts fat-heart disease link in mice | Science Blog

Länk - Warren Buffet vill köpa "nånting stort"

published May 07, 2007 11:12   by admin ( last modified May 07, 2007 11:12 )
Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire (Charts, Fortune 500) has long said it would like to make a $5 billion to $20 billion acquisition. The company ended March with $46.03 billion of cash, and nearly $90 billion of cash and fixed-income securities on its balance sheet.


Läs mer: Buffett sets sights on buying 'huge' business - May. 7, 2007

Länk - Hugo Chavez inför mer och mer kommandoekonomi

published May 07, 2007 11:12   by admin ( last modified May 07, 2007 11:12 )
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's largest steel maker, Sidor, will not be allowed to make any more exports until it meets domestic needs, and threatened to expropriate the Argentine-controlled company if it resists.


Läs mer: Chavez to block exports of Venezuela's largest steel maker | Jerusalem Post

Australiensare utlämnad till USA - utan att ha varit i USA! Konsekvenser för EU-medborgare?

published May 07, 2007 02:26   by admin ( last modified May 07, 2007 02:26 )
Utlämningsavtalen måste nog ses över. En cracker från Australien har nu blivit utlämnad till USA för ett brott som han begått när han fysiskt var i Australien!

BEFORE he was extradited to the United States, Hew Griffiths, from Berkeley Vale in NSW, had never even set foot in America. But he had pirated software produced by American companies.

Now, having been given up to the US by former justice minister Chris Ellison, Griffiths, 44, is in a Virginia cell, facing up to 10 years in an American prison after a guilty plea late last month.



Och eftersom EU-länder kan lämna ut folk till varandra, räcker det med att ett land lämnar ut vidare för att en EU-medborgare ska hamna gud-vet-var, påstår en postare på Slashdot :


Not exactly, you signed up to the EU Extradited extradition which permits extradition for crimes including computer crimes (e.g. breaking DRM, no kidding). However that only applies to within the EU. But if the US can get a puppet government (e.g. Blairville) to issue a warrant for anyone in Europe, they can then extradite using the UK to US expedited extradition treaty. There's no limits on re-extradition. Worse, there is no judicial check in the UK, that the reasons given for the extradition, really complies with the requirements for extraditing. This is why a McKinnon (who broke US PCs into had a look around and left) is being accused of doing $5000 damage to each PC, in order for it to be a Federal crime and hence extraditable. The extradition mechanism doesn't let a UK judge check it.
(min fetstil)

Läs mer: Slashdot | Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home

Och från The Register:

McKinnon admits accessing the secret computers in 2001 and 2002, saying that he was looking for – and found – evidence of alien life and reverse-engineered alien technology. But whereas UK prosecutors said that he would serve community service, US prosecutors are publicly threatening him with sentences of up to 70 years in jail. McKinnon argues that he should be tried, but that it should be in the UK, where the offence was committed. He says that he was working with very basic hacking tools from a simple internet connection, and that the only reason he was able to access systems was because security was so poor.
"alien life"? Hmmm...

Läs mer: Pentagon hacker says charges have been manufactured | The Register

Länk - Om vänsterpartiets första maj-demonstration

published May 06, 2007 11:22   by admin ( last modified May 06, 2007 11:22 )
Sen gick jag och tittade på Vänsterpartiets tåg, och det var här jag såg årets nyhet. Något jag faktiskt inte kunnat förutse. Ganska långt bak i tåget kom helt plötsligt omkring hundra somalier. Någon var helt täckt i burqa. Flera hade plakat med porträtt av Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, förre ledaren för Islamiska Domstolarnas Förbund i Somalia, som ju ledde Somalia under den korta tiden som Sharia-stat. Jag blev uppriktigt förvånad. När blev religiös fundamentalism okej i vänstern?
[...]
Men denna märkliga syn gick att skratta åt också. En annan sektion av tåget bestod nämligen av perser som demonstrerade mot den islamistiska regeringen i Iran. Alltså den helt motsatta politiska åsikten.


Läs mer: gudmundson

Länk - Insikter om hur Frankrike fungerar - och varför

published May 05, 2007 10:59   by admin ( last modified May 05, 2007 10:59 )
The roots of this French attitude reach back to the Enlightenment, when the country developed a republican model based on a social contract that stressed the collective will, while republican models in Britain and later the United States stressed the primacy of economics and individualism - what the French still, with a shudder, call liberalism. "French society remains attached to the idea of the collective," said Jean-Claude Mailly, national secretary of the Workers' Force labor union. "It's a less individualistic society. A whole series of things are managed collectively."

...

Similarly, the right to strike is written into the French Constitution. Striking workers in France risk no more than a few days' pay. Nationwide strikes are meant to put pressure on the government more often than employers, and polls consistently show support for striking workers.


Läs mer: Sarkozy increases his lead in France; Royal warns of unrest - International Herald Tribune

Länk - En del muslimer oroliga för graven

published May 05, 2007 10:53   by admin ( last modified May 05, 2007 10:53 )
Surely this violence sounds medieval. Belief in "the torture of the grave" indeed stretches way back in history. It appears in eighth-century epitaphs and in early Islamic traditions, which elevated this belief to the status of dogma. But pious Muslims today continue to adhere to this belief. In invocations, funeral prayers, sermons, and popular literature, Muslims are frequently reminded to heed this punishment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of them take it seriously. The psychologist Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, who has studied anxieties about death among Arab youth, has found that preoccupation with the torture of the grave remains acute. The Egyptians and Kuwaitis he polled worried about this torture more than they feared losing a dear relative or succumbing to a serious, fatal disease.


Läs mer: The torture of the grave Islam and the afterlife - International Herald Tribune

Det skiljer sig ju inte så mycket från helvetet inom kristendomen. Det är synd att människor ska vara rädda för något så mycket att de kan få svårt att fatta bra beslut i detta livet.

Länk - Bomber färdiginbyggda i ny flickskola i Irak - för maximal skadegörelse

published May 05, 2007 10:18   by admin ( last modified May 05, 2007 10:18 )
Insurgents rigged a girls’ school under construction near Baghdad with explosives, building artillery shells into the walls and ceilings, in a plan that would have killed scores of children, a US general said yesterday. “We found artillery shells that were being literally built into the ceiling,” said Major General William Caldwell, the senior US military spokesman in Iraq. “We found artillery shells, again all hooked up with wires, being built into the floors. We found propane tanks – two very large propane tanks – built into the floors under the stairwells.”


Läs mer: Bombs found hidden in walls of new school-News-World-Iraq-TimesOnline

Länk - "Men tänk om Darwin *stödjer* vår konservativa livssyn?"

published May 05, 2007 09:53   by admin ( last modified May 05, 2007 09:53 )
Does Darwinian theory undermine conservative notions of religion and morality or does it actually support conservative philosophy?


Läs mer: A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin - New York Times

Länk - Klockren artikel om Ryssland av Kristian Gerner

published May 04, 2007 12:53   by admin ( last modified May 04, 2007 12:53 )
Det vi ser är vanmäktig ilska över att det sovjetiska imperiet bröt samman gå ut över de som många ryssar upplever som gärningsmännen, de estniska "fascisterna". Men det vore bättre om Ryssland lärde av Tyskland och tar på sig ansvaret för dess brott mot mänskligheten. Det skriver i dag KRISTIAN GERNER, professor i historia.


Läs mer: Därför tror Putin att ester är fascister - Debatt - Expressen

Länk - Farah: Prioritera nätverksbekämpning, inte individer (islamism)

published May 04, 2007 07:26   by admin ( last modified May 04, 2007 07:26 )
The same is true on the financial front. Catching the person with the suitcase full of cash crossing the Syrian border is good for stopping an attack. Pressuring the infrastructure that raises the money in Saudi Arabia from individuals and charities, will likely stop several attacks. Hence my constant harping on the need to go after the underlying financial structure of the wahhabist groups, rather than just shutting down one individual charity.


Läs mer: Douglas Farah

Länk - Fattigdom i Asien ner från 58% till 9% på 23 år!

published May 04, 2007 01:50   by admin ( last modified May 04, 2007 01:50 )
Most impressive is East Asia, where extreme poverty was reduced from 58% to 9% during these 23 years.


Läs mer: JohanNorberg.Net

Länk - Erikas vetenskapliga mattips

published May 04, 2007 01:39   by admin ( last modified May 04, 2007 01:39 )
Eftersom jag tycker om mat och mycket av de forskningsresultat som presenteras i media handlar om just mat på olika sätt, så tänkte jag börja med ett återkommande blogginläggstema. Tanken är att sammanfatta de olika dietforsknings-resultat som kommit i pressreleaser och olika dagstidningar under veckan. (Kanske inte blir varje vecka, men nån gång då och då i alla fall).


Läs mer: En forskares betraktelser: Veckans vetenskapliga mattips

Länk - Inte rätt sätt att gjuta olja på vågorna (Ryssland - Estland)

published May 03, 2007 12:20   by admin ( last modified May 03, 2007 12:20 )
A group of Russian members of Parliament visited Estonia this week, ostensibly to calm the tensions, but stirred anger by calling for the resignation of the Estonian government.


Läs mer: Tensions worsen between Russia and Estonia - International Herald Tribune

Länk - Om skattedeklarationen

published May 03, 2007 08:29   by admin ( last modified May 03, 2007 08:29 )
Det är med kluvna känslor jag deklarerar. Stolt kunde jag konstatera att jag slagit mitt ekonomiska personbästa. Det är en fin sida av deklarerandet - man får en årlig privatekonomisk sammanställning. Tyvärr kunde jag samtidigt notera att Skatteverket kände till mitt nya rekord.


Läs mer: John Bubbers Journal

Länk - En fara med total internetavlyssning av Sverige

published May 03, 2007 07:42   by admin ( last modified May 03, 2007 07:42 )
Vad tror ni att det skulle kosta Antipiratbyrån att få köpa data om fildelares datakommunikation, CIA att köpa tillgång till svensk-irakiers epostvanor eller ge Folkpartiet inblick i vilka som befinner sig på Mona Sahlins sändlistor? Kommer 100% av alla inblandade följa riktlinjer och lagar till 100%, eller kommer någon inse att de sitter på en guldgruva och handla därefter? Vi har faktiskt ett historiskt exempel att jämföra med. 1985 började CIA-agenten Aldrich Ames sälja hemligheter till Sovjet. Han avslöjade alla källor som CIA hade i Sovjet, som avrättade minst tio personer tack vare Ames avslöjanden. Ames fick totalt 2,5 miljoner dollar i ersättning.


Läs mer: Moderskeppet - Texter ur ett frihetligt perspektiv: Storebror till salu?

Är solande egentligen så farligt?

published May 03, 2007 06:51   by admin ( last modified May 03, 2007 06:51 )
I Dagens Nyheter kan man läsa i artikeln Fler cancerfall med nya resmål:

- Nittionio procent av alla svenskar vet att solstrålning kan ge cancer, så det är inte kunskapen som saknas, säger han. Efter nittiotalets flitiga kampanjer för att förebygga hudcancer planade fallen ut något. - Men efter 2000 så har det ökat väldigt snabbt igen. Det är mycket oroväckande. Det gäller inte bara insjuknandet, också dödligheten ökar allt mer, säger han.

Vi har verkligen lärt oss att sola är farligt. Men det kan faktiskt vara så att det är mindre bra att låta bli, också. Kroppen producerar D-vitamin av sol, och en del indicier pekar mot att för lite D-vitamin är farligt också. Toronto Globe and Mail skriver att det kan vara så att hudcancer är statistiskt sett ett litet pris att betala för de fördelar en hög D-vitaminproduktion kan ge, se det fetstilade i citatet nedan:

Those studying the vitamin say the hide-from-sunlight advice has amounted to the health equivalent of a foolish poker trade. Anyone practising sun avoidance has traded the benefit of a reduced risk of skin cancer — which is easy to detect and treat and seldom fatal — for an increased risk of the scary, high-body-count cancers, such as breast, prostate and colon, that appear linked to vitamin D shortages.

The sun advice has been misguided information "of just breathtaking proportions," said John Cannell, head of the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit, California-based organization.

"Fifteen hundred Americans die every year from [skin cancers]. Fifteen hundred Americans die every day from the serious cancers."

Health Canada denies its advice might be dangerous. In an e-mailed statement, it said that most people don't apply sunscreen thoroughly, leaving some skin exposed, and that people spend enough time outside without skin protection to make adequate amounts of vitamin D.

However, the Canadian Cancer Society last year quietly tweaked its recommendation to recognize that limited amounts of sun exposure are essential for vitamin D levels.


Det finns för lite data än om hur viktigt vitamin D är och hur mycket som är optimalt. Och notera att John Cannell i artikeln kommer från The Vitamin D council. Dock värt att hålla ögonen på.

Och om man vill ha i sig mat med mycket vitamin D, finns en bra lista här.

jag har tidigare bloggat om Vitamin D och artikeln, här.

En kommentar från Slashdot:

http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232675&cid=18920141

The revolution in Vitamin D research came with the discovery that D is "activated" (25OH-D3 turns into 1,25OH-D3) in a variety of different tissues of the body, not just the kidneys.

Which body tissues do we know can "activate" Vitamin D3? Here's some: prostate tissue, colon tissue, breast tissue. Where are some popular places that cancer likes to form? Same list. Hmmm.

...

There is a simple hypothesis (far from proved, but I'll bet my pill taking regimen on it for now) that explains this: local tissue conversion of 25OH-D3 to 1,25OH-D3 shuts down as soon as serum levels of 25OH-D3 start to decline, and doesn't start up again until serum levels stabilize.

If this hypothesis is true, then allowing your vitamin D3 serum levels to drop during the winter may be as bad for you as just having low levels of vitamin D3 all year round.





Pakistan annonserar efter borttappat radioaktivt material

published May 03, 2007 06:36   by admin ( last modified May 03, 2007 06:36 )
Pakistanska kärnkraftsinspektionen annonserar i tidningar i Pakistan om borttappat material. De använder dock inte den nya symbolen.

uran

Pakistan's nuclear authority has said there is no cause for concern after it published press adverts for information on "lost" radioactive material. The adverts urged members of the public to inform officials if they found any "lost or stolen" radioactive material. They were published in major Urdu-language newspapers in Pakistan.
Det är illa att kärnvapen sprids. Det är ju det enda vapen människan kommit på som faktiskt kan ha ihjäl oss alla. Det är bara en tidsfråga förrän någon vill visa känslor med dessa vapen, jfr handeldvapendebatten i USA.

Läs mer: BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan downplays radioactive ad