The attacks on Fallujah, the small town near the city of Baghdad, were the headlines of this time last year’s news. Now it has hit again with even more claims of total disregard to the UN convention. UNN wrote about the Fallujah Napalm case last November. Thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives to the stupidity of this war, I think its time the world spoke out.
“Bodies melted away before us.”

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: “US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.” By Peter Popham | 11/08/05 | “The Independent”

A must see ‘documentary’ looking into the situation really does explain a lot concerning the total indiscriminate effects of the weapons used in Fallujah. One veteran says “Bodies melted away before us.”

I must warn you of the following:

This video contains images that depict the reality and horror of war.

It should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Watch the video at YSE (Faster) Watch the video at ICH The media are minimising US and British war crimes in Iraq $5,000 for loss of wife and son: how US prices death Torture: It’s the new American way

Update:

The US military on Wednesday acknowledged it might have killed civilians in the Iraqi city of Falluja with white phosphorus munitions during the battle against insurgents a year ago. ICH

May thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered from this trajedy.

You can donate to a charity involved in the work of recovery here.

“Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiuun” – Verily we belong to Allah , and truly to Him shall we return. Muslims say this upon the death of somebody as a rememberance of God. Learn More

 London, September 12, 2005 – eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com) has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration. The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company. The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era. Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world.

 :arrow: Skype Press Release

 Well as I always say, the big get bigger and the small get smaller (okay maybe I don’t but whatever). Basically now that eBay’s purchased Skype I reckon there will be two major differences.

1. A price difference. Lets face it most people want money and eBay’s probably no exception. That means that i’d expect to see at least a rise in prices of the current application.

2. Futher improvements. The software now has a huge company backing it, that means they have the money to improve even futher – mainly to combat the rivalry VOIP software that is coming.

Anyways Skype, you sellouts!  

It makes me feel a whole lot older, how did ten years pass by like that! I remember the release of the PS1 which was a revolution in the console gaming world. I’m not gonna lie, I never owned one – but so many of my friends and relatives did that I might’swell have. I never was much of a console guy (pc all the way) but the Playstation certainly had its place in the worlds advancing video games market, and for that I pay my dues. 

September 9th will go down as a day notorious in American gaming history. Two consoles launched on September 9th; one, which launched in 1999, was a failure that doomed a hardware manufacturer to a future of software production. The other, launched in 1995, is one of the most successful consoles in gaming history. But you’re not reading this to lament over the late Dreamcast, we hope. Instead, you’re here to read up and celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the PlayStation’s U.S. launch. Sony’s little grey machine that could is a decade old now, and its ripple effect over gamers, popular culture, and technology carries a profound legacy.

 :arrow: Gamespy, Top 25 PSone Games of All-Time

 Now I won’t ruin for you their number one game, but it does bring back memories of the fun times I had on the PSone – especially the days of Tekken 3, what a game. It comes to show how far Technology is advancing and not only changing the gaming world, but also the political and even religious world around us.

 APPLE is preparing to bring its combined iPod and mobile phone to Britain in the next few weeks in conjunction with mobile operator O2, The Times has learnt.

The iPod mobile, manufactured with Motorola, will allow owners to buy music while on the move, enhancing the power of the iconic device.

Apple is expected to unveil the new technology in the United States in partnership with Cingular Wireless next week. A British launch is expected shortly after, with the new devices available in time for the Christmas shopping season.

 :arrow: Times Online

Microsoft’s latest version of DRM (Digital Rights Management), which was designed to put a stop to hacker’s getting around the licences imposed on downloaded music, could be exploited once again.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/04/14

Ever since Microsoft released its DRM technology, rookie hackers have been trying to get around it to get more for their money from services such as Apple’s iTunes and Napster. However, professionals have decided to take on the daunting task of decoding Microsoft’s encryption methods.

The reason for this taking on this lengthy process is not just out of spite. The community of hackers lead by the infamous Cody Brocious are said to be undergoing this daunting task to allow them to code a universal music download client that can run on Linux and take advantage from both iTunes and Napster.

Cody insists that his project merely allows consumers to listen to their music on whatever platform they want to, however in order to achieve this Brocious and his team had to crack Microsoft’s DRM management code in order to play protected files on a non-Windows platform.

The hacked client doesn’t re-code the protected sound file – instead it just strips the DRM protection headers and tags from the file and decrypts the file permanently. This process however will only work with tracks downloaded with the ‘improved’ client as the encryption key needed to perform these tasks are only send to your computer when you 1st download the sound file.

There have been other ways you could get around the DRM rights but they have all relied on the same principle of setting up a loop-back in your sound card (the line-out [speakers] port is connected to the line-in port) where the songs are streamed and then recorded using a separate program. However this method means you have to play each song you want to recode all the way through and would mean you lose quality and tag information. For this reason, DRM has never really had any threats.

But the idea of being able to remove DRM on-the-fly poses an enormous threat to the major record labels. With the newly-introduced subscription packages from services like Napster, people could pay as little as £9.95 per month and they could download as many songs as they wanted to do and copy/rip/listen to them when/where they want to. They could then cancel their subscription after the 1st month and they’d have 1000s of tracks for less than a penny a song.

But is this idea so wrong, I personally believe that if you pay for your music (whether it’s by subscription or per track), then you have the right to do what you want with it. You should be able to freely upload it to your MP3 player or be able to burn it to a CD without having to pay any extra.

The world’s first interactive 3D display has been developed by IO2 Technology.

HelioDisplay creates 3D displays in the air using lasers, drawing input from computers, TVs and DVDs. It also allows interactive applications to be controlled by a finger, instead of a mouse.

"Our first generation version, the Heliodisplay, projects TV, streaming video and computer images into free space, (mid-air)", the company’s website claims.

While it’s early days for such technologies, the company has just completed its first production unit and claims it is ready to release a limited number of units for sale.

 Macworld UK

 Minority report!? Well whatever but this is a step into the future and it is really…quite cool I must say that these things have all been ‘predicted’ or what have you so really its nothing to be surprised about. I’m sure many many people would already think that such things already exist! Its funny the companies website got overloaded by visitors after this report that it can’t be accessed (at least not when I tried!).

A message on behalf of Trustees, Director and Staff of IPCI

Early this morning, 8 August 2005 / 2 Rajab 1426, Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat passed on to meet his Creator. This was after succumbing to a severe stroke that left him paralysed for more than nine years.Throughout this period, he gracefully persevered under the most difficult personal conditions; however, not forgetting his task as a daee (Islamic worker) and an ambassador of Islam, he continued to inspire, educate, challenge and inform people about the universal message of Islam.It is on this solemn occasion of his demise that we salute the courageous spirit and phenomenal work of this world-renowned personality, a hero of the Muslim World, nay, a true hero of believers all around the globe!

Find out more about Sheikh Ahmed Deedat and read a small biography here 

Here we go again!

Yep another ethically debatable topic which has been thrown around the world with the first cloned animal (i think), was that ‘Dolly’. Okay thats wrong I just found this:

Dolly the sheep may have been the world’s most famous clone, but she was not the first. Cloning creates a genetically identical copy of an animal or plant. Many animals – including frogs, mice, sheep, and cows – had been cloned before Dolly. Plants are often cloned – when you take a cutting, you are producing a clone. Human identical twins are also clones.

Anyways leaving that aside, the question is – Is animal cloning okay, especially as it is leading towards the idea of Human Cloning! Well my opinion is my opinion but its somthing to think about…

 

The researchers, led by Hwang Woo-suk, insist they cloned an Afghan hound, a resplendent supermodel in a world of mutts, only to help investigate human disease, including the possibility of cloning stem cells for treatment purposes.

But others immediately renewed calls for a global ban on human reproductive cloning before the technology moves any farther.

"Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be possible to clone any mammalian species, including humans," said Ian Wilmut, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh who produced the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, from an adult cell nearly a decade ago.

 Read more from Yahoo!

Taking Over!

Well what’s going on? Much like the computing world (remember Adobe and Macromedia) and so on, when a relatively sucessful company is not doing as well as its rivals, instead of trying new ways or having ran out of methods of fixing their issues, they seem to do the only thing feesable – Sell out!!

The world’s second- and third-biggest sports goods companies said Wednesday Adidas would buy the outstanding shares of Reebok for $59 per share in cash, a 34 percent premium to Reebok’s closing share price Tuesday.

The combination will create a more formidable competitor to battle Nike’s dominance of the market for athletic gear, particularly in the United States, which accounts for 50 percent of the sports footwear market alone.

Read the rest from Yahoo!