This story, Rumsfeld cancels trip after accusations, appeared on Friday 21 January 2005 on Aljazeera.net. From the story:

"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cancelled a planned visit to Germany after a US human rights organisation asked German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) has learned."

That's great, a story almost 2 years old. Wonderful.

But wait...

"13/11/2006: Human Rights groups seek criminal investigation in Germany of Rumsfeld and other high-ranking U.S. officials for authorizing torture in the “war on terror”"

This from FIDH.org, today.

"War Crimes Complaint Filed on Behalf of 11 Iraqi Victims and a Guantánamo detainee under Doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction

Rumsfeld Resignation Means He Can No Longer Claim Immunity"

And from another site:

From http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000111 with my comments interspersed:

Richard Stallman

"Now, what we didn't have 15 years ago was the threat of making the program effectively non free by technical restrictions placed around it. That's what Tivoisation is. Tivoisation means taking a free program and distributing a binary of it, and also providing the source, because the GPL requires that. But when the user changes the source code and compiles it and then tries to install the changed program he discovers that that's impossible because the machine is designed not to let him."

Stranger Than Fiction it's called, and Will Ferrell and the rest of the cast do an excellent job. Take the family too as it's rated PG-13, and I must say, there's something in it for everyone. I just saw it tonight at an advance screening and left thinking unequivocally: "must see." It opens Friday so times aren't listed yet on cinemaclock, but keep checking that link and they will be soon enough.

And yeah, no reason why I can't have two Jay's picks in one day, in multiple categories at that :)

These Flowers by Martha Wainwright is one of the more unique and melancholy (in a good way!) songs that I've heard in a while. It could be that I woke up to the song on the radio this morning, but after quite a few repeated listens I'm growing *more* enamoured of the song, not less as I expected. Also listen to When The Day Is Short.

From wikipedia:

"Martha McGarrigle Wainwright was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and the sister of Rufus Wainwright.
She has frequently appeared on recordings by her family members, and has released several independent EPs. Her full length self-titled debut was released in 2005 by Drowned In Sound, and debuted at number 18 on the Canadian album sales charts."

Viral Fossil Brought Back to Life. Wow, what a neat piece of science. More than neat or clever, ingenious, even brilliant.

Now I'm no expert, but an RNA molecule is a highly structured organic molecule. To have different known varieties--of say, a rhinovirus (common cold) or HIV, that function for the most part within the cells of a specific type host (human, chicken, dog etc.), or even within a specific type of cell within a specific type of host--is quite remarkable.

On the one hand there is Kirk Johnson who believes that the Bible is "filled with valuable information." Kirk Johnson is a Paleontoligist at a Denver museum. On the other had, there is Bill Jack who openly admits that atrocities have been commited in the name of religion. Bill Jack is a Christian Creationist. The two could not be more diametrically opposed. From The Current's website:

If you go through a natural history museum these days, you might see signs that reflect our more "politically correct" reality. For instance, the word "humankind" often replaces "mankind" on the placards. But in the United States, there's a Christian movement to take museums beyond politically correct to something called "biblically correct".

Stephen Colbert Interviews Richard Dawkins.

From Dawkins' site. Colbert is his usual deadpan self, and Dawkins -- well, he says you can't disprove the Flying Spaghetti Monster... Blasphemy!

Download the video from Dawkins' site here.

It seems that there is an internal inconsistency within the database that holds the content for the site. Specifically, it has to do with images. More work to be done later.

I get a kick out of stuff like this google ad:

Jamon Serrano from Spain
Buy imported Jamon Serrano Boneless or Bone-in with Hoof

I think if I ever end up in a Spanish speaking country I'll stick with the middle name to avoid too much hilarity or even awkwardness. Not complaining, it's really amusing :)

From tor.eff.org:

Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.

and the official word on the seizures:

Last week, a few Tor exit nodes were seized by the German police in a massive sting against child pornography. From our friends on the ground in Germany, we hear that dozens and dozens of other computers unrelated to Tor may have been seized too.