Under The Sun

Google! DayPop! This is my blogchalk: English, United Kingdom, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, Rob, Male!

No more JPEGs - ISO to withdraw image standard The JPEG fiasco seems to be taking a turn for the worse.

Patents and copyright are both legal provisions to promote the common good. They were instituted to enable creators to obtain reward for their labour, in return for placing ideas and creative works into the public domain after a reasonable period of time. US laws now being proposed could allow large, powerful and amoral corporations to control virtually everything that you and I watch and listen to on electronic media: Entertainment and Software Cartels Strike Again, and You Lose.

Reclaiming the Commons, is a thought-provoking look at the effect such commercial control is having on society, for example: “There’s been a shift in the predominant way our society thinks of children . . . Not long ago we considered children vulnerable beings to be nurtured. However, today, we increasingly see kids through an economic lens. In our business culture, children are viewed as an economic resource to be exploited, just like bauxite or timber.”

JPEGs are not free: Patent holder pursues IP grab A company based in Austin, Texas says it’s going to pursue royalties on the transmission of JPEG images (the format used for photographic images on web pages and by digital cameras). It may be too soon to Burn All JPEGs, as there seems to be enough prior art to invalidate the patent. Still, when lawers are involved you never know…

“Four years ago, few could have predicted that genetic engineering would be such a huge issue in an election campaign” Move to lift ban on GM technology splits voters in New Zealand

how Britain is selling weapons to the most unstable places on earth

The UK Cabinet Office has a web site to support the Government’s consultation on e-democracy. A link was added today to the GNU.FREE e-democracy project.

Is Western industrial Pollution a factor in Africa famines?

I came across a church web site yesterday that states, in the first paragraph on its home page, that we believe in the literal 24-hour 6-day Creation of the world by God, a young earth and a worldwide flood. If the church wants to take such an exclusive stance on the interpretation of Genesis it has every right to do so, but It strikes me as strange that they define themselves as a church in this way. Are non-Christians to understand this to be the essence of Christian belief? What happened to we preach Christ crucified?