Spamhaus laugs at US insolence

Some US local court thought it had the power to put down Spamhaus as a result of a countersuit by e360 Insight – basically a bunch of spammers branded as such by Spamhaus – but no-one is cooperating. Spamhaus, which is UK based, refused to recognise the court’s legitimacy and ignored the whole proceedings. ICANN is refusing to pull the domain stating it’s the responsibility of the registrar (Tucows) who, being Canadian, don’t have to listen to US courts either. Aside from the Spamhaus service being widely used and an important contributor to killing spam, who does this US court think it is exactly?

Tweel – a lame name for a cool concept

Michelin has invented the rather stupidly named ‘tweel’ – a wheel without air in it. The video in the link shows how it is mounted under a car, and has a few other applications for it as well.

The airless wheel might take a bit of getting used to, but it helps with suspension, simplifies the tyre by not needing air and a vent, damage to sidewalls becomes a non factor and no worries about whether the tyre is at the right pressure.

Nuclear Holocaust

Well, the world’s media is in a buzzfuzz about North Korea’s upcoming Nuclear test ([sarcasm]who knew?![/sarcasm]), but let’s have a quick look at other nuclear states.

The USA is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon (ok, two of them) in anger on another nation.
France, Russia, Great Britain and China (with the US the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) are all nuclear, but have never used them.
There are several countries with access to nukes but don’t technically own them (such as the Netherlands).
Then there was the recent spat about India and Pakistan who both tested nukes, were embargoed for them, but because of their help on the war on terror, we’ve seem to have decided to forget that they have them.
Israel is a friend of the US so we don’t get too upset about them having nukes.

BUT, there’s more we’re not hearing about:
Brazil and Argentina.
Both have a track record of lying about their weaponry programmes to appease the international community, and have the technology needed to enrich uranium. Especially Brazil is a viable candidate for nuclear weaponry.

European Software Patents Up For Bat Again

Yet again there will be a bill in the EU parliament for software patents, but there has been some sort of compromise which means it’s likely to be ratified this time. Just what the compromise is, I can’t really find out, except that it seems to make lawsuits on patent infringements more expensive, meaning IMHO that small companies have even less of a chance to fight the behemoths.