Brain and brain! What is brain?

Never let the facts stand in the way of a sensationalistic headline. At least that appears to be Marguerite Reardon's philosophy on the CNet News Blog:

New study links cell phone usage to cancer
Posted by Marguerite Reardon
 
Just when you thought it was safe to talk on your cell phone.
 
Now some scientists say there is a chance that talking on a mobile phone for as little as 10 minutes could trigger changes in the brain that are associated with cancer, according to a story published on Thursday by the The Daily Mail.
 
The article said that researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel discovered that exposure to even low levels of radiation from mobile handsets could interfere with how brain cells divide, thus causing tumors.
 
But the scientists said there was no evidence to suggest a definite link between radiation from mobile phones and cancer. Instead the study merely suggests that certain cells can react to cell phone radiation. A health expert in the article said the effect was "unlikely to cause cancer."

(Emphasis added)

Cory Doctorow vs. SFWA

Cory Doctorow is accusing SFWA of issuing fraudulent DMCA notices:

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to fraudulently remove numerous non-infringing works from Scribd, a site that allows the general public to share text files with one another in much the same way that Flickr allows its users to share pictures.
 
Included in the takedown were: a junior high teacher's bibliography of works that will excite children about reading sf, the back-catalog of a magazine called Ray Gun Revival, books by other authors who have never authorized SFWA to act on their behalf, such as Bruce Sterling, and my own Creative Commons-licensed novel, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom."

This will undoubtedly have a lot of tempers flaring in the next few days. I'm not drawing any conclusions right now, just reporting.

Chibi Big Brother

China is using cuteness to candy-coat repression. All web sites registered with Beijing hosts will be required by the end of the year to install animated images of cops which will "pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content." The images will appear every half hour.

These images will serve two purposes: to remind people that their Internet activity is being watched, and to encourage them to turn people in. Clicking on the images will take the user to a government website for "police help."

This coincides with a report from China that "many Internet Data Centers have received notices from Gong-an (Police department) which forced them to close down thousands of websites. ... The police’s policy is to ensure that the 17th National Congress of the CPC will go on smoothly."

The use of friendly cartoon images to promote compliance with the government is nothing new, even in the United States. During World War II, Bugs Bunny sold bonds and Daffy Duck demonstrated the futility of dodging the draft. But the planned pervasiveness of the images and China's current practices regarding dissent give a very sinister touch to these chibi Big Brothers.

Disabling JavaScript will probably make these images go away, but unfortunately won't do anything to the underlying policies.