RIAA lobby for new laws

The RIAA (Recording Industry ASS. of America ) will , after the success of suing single parents and destitute families, try to push through new laws aimed at stamping out other types of copyright infringement. These will include:

- A free phone number to inform on people whistling or humming a tune without the copyright holders permission. These people will then be brought into court to explain their flagrant abuse of copyright material

- Asking courts to prosecute anyone found to be singing the copyrighted "Happy Birthday" song. The RIAA believe this abuse to be the most profita... Widespread abuse of copyright material.

- Giving CD and DVD writers the same restrictions as gun laws. All CD and DVD writer users will have to be checked for criminal records and bank details dating back to the mid 80's checked to see if at any other time the person had bought other items that should be illegal like duel tape decks, VCR's etc.

- Giving the R.I ASS of America the legal power to hack into your machine to check for file sharing software. If the software is discovered then they can apply to the courts to have your electricity turned off for a period not exceeding 5 years.

- Restricting Local Area Networks to only those places which have no Internet Connection. File Swapping over a L.A.N would be impossible to detect and by restricting their use to Non-Connected machines you would solve the problem. The R.I ASS. of America believe that the benefits of protecting stars so they can afford to buy their 4th multi million pound mansion far outweigh the needs of the Worlds businesses and it wouldn't matter if a few million businesses went bust because we all have a duty to protect copyright.

- Changing the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to the C.E.A (Copyright Enforcement Agency). The World has a much bigger Copyright Infringement problem than a drug problem and thus should be given greater priority. As the Ads on videos currently say: "Copyright theft funds terrorism". Scared by that? Well you should be. Drugs "May" kill you but the dozen 13 year olds you just downloaded that Linkin Park song from could well be plotting the next World horror so drug pushers should be a much lower priority.

Satire is a wondeful thing :)

UFO'S OVER TORBAY!

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk

BY COLLEEN SMITH AND PAUL JAMES

11:00 - 27 May 2004
Ufo fever has hit South Devon with one amateur photographer snapping this "flying saucer" over Brixham.

The Herald Express switchboard was swamped with calls yesterday from readers who said they spotted mystery objects over Torbay. Some reckoned what they saw was a Jumbo jet-sized party balloon while others accepted it as a UFO.

There was a suspicion the cigar-shaped craft was nothing more harmless than a an "8 Metre Airship" sold for £12.95 by local shops. Police and coastguards said they had no reports of any close encounters.

Chef Nick Borne from Paignton, who took the main picture, was enjoying a meal out with his family on Tuesday evening when the flying phenomenon strayed into view.

Nick, who works at Aromas Cafe in Hyde Road, was using his mobile phone to snap panoramic views from the Berry Head Hotel when the craft suddenly appeared in shot.

A bemused Nick secured a couple of images and continued eating.

But the object, which he captured for posterity at 6.30pm, was witnessed by at least 20 others elsewhere in the Bay at around the same time.

One mystified skywatcher was retired British Aerospace engineer Roy Dutton.

He tracked an object for 20 minutes through a high-powered telescope.

He reckoned it was flying at 10,000 ft and was at least the size of a Jumbo jet.

Mr Dutton, of Brunel Park, Watcombe, Torquay, said: "The telescope magnifies by 80 times.

"At first I thought it was just an airship but I could see it clearly and there were no signs of control or propulsion. There were no features whatsoever. It was jet black. It was just like a great big party balloon.

"It moved slowly along from north to south over Torquay.

"I have never seen anything like this before. I know from my experience of aircraft that it was flying at about 10,000 ft and it was very big, at least the size of a Jumbo jet. After about 15 minutes it stopped. Then it just wobbled and ascended to probably double the altitude, drifting away quite quickly broadside on towards the south east out over the Channel. I lost it eventually at about 5.25pm when I had to move the telescope because of the trees.

"What concerned me was that it was in the flight path often used by aircraft approaching Exeter airport. My first guess was that it was some sort of experimental balloon, in which case the authorities should be investigating.

"I didn't attempt to photograph it because I know from experience that it is very difficult to capture a good image of anything at that height."

Teenagers Helen McGregor, 15, and her 14-year-old cousin Hayley Tucker, reported seeing an object in the sky from Ellacombe.

"We all just stood there. Nobody said anything because we didn't know what it was. It looked like a kite but it was really, really high. It was just a long black tube. We ran back to tell my auntie but when we looked again it had gone," said Helen.

Laura Lamont, of Moore Lane, Watcombe, was with a crowd of about 10 people on Babbacombe Downs who looked up in astonishment.

"It was really amazing. We were all stuck for words. During the time we were watching it a red helicopter went across and there was a low-flying jet which went passed. They were nothing like this. It was so high up in the sky and it just seemed to have stopped there, dead. Lots of others were pointing up to it too."

Five golfers in Torquay interrupted their game to gaze in wonder at the cylindrical object which they said remained still in the sky for 15 minutes, the length of time that Nick Borne saw it before leaving the Berry Head Hotel with wife Claire and nine-year-old daughter Maddison.

"I was just panning around with the mobile when the UFO popped up and I took the pictures," said Nick. "I'm still quite sceptical about it all. At the end of the day it was something I could not identify. It was stationary and conical shaped with a dome in the middle. I've no idea what it was," he added.

He did not alert other diners and left with the object still hanging in the sky.

Simon Wills, who runs Babbacombe Model Village, also saw the phenomenon, which he reckoned might have been a balloon of some description which came away from its mooring.

"It was long and black with a shiny texture. It floated over Oddicombe Beach to Petitor and beyond," he said.

Gary Close, from Pendennis Road, Hele, saw it through his high magnification binoculars.

"The end facing me had a yellow tinge. If it was an escaped balloon I could not see any wire or rigging attached. It was very peculiar. It's difficult to say how big it was."

Other witnesses were Adam Nesbit from Watcombe and Pat Shemwell from Babbacombe who said: "It was around for about half-an-hour. I gave up looking at it in the end."

IF you think you can identify this object ring 01803 676223.

I'm still over the moon about finding out I'm going to be a dad and thanks to the folks who emailed and contacted me saying congrats. Very much appreciated!

I watched an amazing programme by Penn and Teller the other night. In the programmes It was said that the statistics are simply untrue that passive smoking causes thousands of deaths a year. The actual true figure is so small it can't be a statistic.

All the large organizations like the World Health Organization are using the Environmental Protection Agency's 1993 report which claimed passive smoking causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths a year. http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/etsfs.html

The EPA's data show no significant link between passive smoke and lung cancer

They concluded:

"Our results indicate no association between childhood exposure to ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] and lung cancer risk." The WHO study also noted that there was only "weak evidence" for a risk of lung cancer from spousal or workplace ETS".

So For every million people exposed to ETS, there will be 12.5 deaths from lung cancer; for every million people not exposed to ETS, there will be 10 deaths due to lung cancer. This is statistically of no significance.

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By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent

THE world's leading health organisation has withheld from publication a study which shows that not only might there be no link between passive smoking and lung cancer but that it could even have a protective effect.

The astounding results are set to throw wide open the debate on passive smoking health risks. The World Health Organisation, which commissioned the 12-centre, seven-country European study has failed to make the findings public, and has instead produced only a summary of the results in an internal report.

Despite repeated approaches, nobody at the WHO headquarters in Geneva would comment on the findings last week. At its International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, which coordinated the study, a spokesman would say only that the full report had been submitted to a science journal and no publication date had been set.

The findings are certain to be an embarrassment to the WHO, which has spent years and vast sums on anti-smoking and anti-tobacco campaigns. The study is one of the largest ever to look at the link between passive smoking - or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - and lung cancer, and had been eagerly awaited by medical experts and campaigning groups.

Yet the scientists have found that there was no statistical evidence that passive smoking caused lung cancer. The research compared 650 lung cancer patients with 1,542 healthy people. It looked at people who were married to smokers, worked with smokers, both worked and were married to smokers, and those who grew up with smokers.

The results are consistent with their being no additional risk for a person living or working with a smoker and could be consistent with passive smoke having a protective effect against lung cancer. The summary, seen by The Telegraph, also states: "There was no association between lung cancer risk and ETS exposure during childhood."

A spokesman for Action on Smoking and Health said the findings "seem rather surprising given the evidence from other major reviews on the subject which have shown a clear association between passive smoking and a number of diseases." Roy Castle, the jazz musician and television presenter who died from lung cancer in 1994, claimed that he contracted the disease from years of inhaling smoke while performing in pubs and clubs.

A report published in the British Medical Journal last October was hailed by the anti-tobacco lobby as definitive proof when it claimed that non-smokers living with smokers had a 25 per cent risk of developing lung cancer. But yesterday, Dr Chris Proctor, head of science for BAT Industries, the tobacco group, said the findings had to be taken seriously. "If this study cannot find any statistically valid risk you have to ask if there can be any risk at all.

"It confirms what we and many other scientists have long believed, that while smoking in public may be annoying to some non-smokers, the science does not show that being around a smoker is a lung-cancer risk." The WHO study results come at a time when the British Government has made clear its intention to crack down on smoking in thousands of public places, including bars and restaurants.

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Very interesting stuff!

I had the best news EVER! today.

I'M GOING TO BE A DAD!

Oh my god, I am so happy right now and I'm stuck in the video shop until 9pm tonight so can't even go out and celebrate for hours yet.

I have spent the whole day smiling and laughing. I swear the customers all think I'm mad hehehe.

The both of us are really, really happy and the boy/girl/thing/alien/fish will be born/caught in Jan 2005 :-)

I'm never ever going to forget today :)

The RIAA suing folks and claiming sales losses are still continuing but as more and more facts come out I wonder just how much longer can they claim downloading is affecting sales?

In This excellent piece about the RIAA's lies about lost sales we discover even more proof that in real terms record sales are actually up by around 10% in America for the first quarter of 2004.

This news comes after a pair of US Academics claim File sharing has no effect on CD sales.

There are 24 individuals who have so far elected to go to court rather than settle out of court. With ever more proof the RIAA are talking out of their ass and are fixing statistics to suit themselves this is going to be an interesting time ahead. How on earth the music industry can complain at this backlash after ripping off Billions from the likes of us still amazes me. They should be bowing their heads in shame and explaining how they will reimburse the billions they robbed and cheated from ordinary people!

The tide times for Torbay this weekend has been updated.

Here is some fishing news over the weekend....

Princess Pier
Good fishing between 4am and 9am and then also an hour or so before and after dusk.

2 Seals are still lurking around the pier but there is plenty of fish about.

Brixham breakwater is producing good results most of the time but still best fishing early morning and late evening.

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A few people have asked how is the quitting the smoking going. Well it's still going good. I came off the patches after a couple of weeks and two days after I came off them I had one cig but it didn't help at all and I haven't had one since then. I'm already at the stage where the smell of smoke puts me off and the thought of smoking again seems vile. I quit on the 15th April so it's going well.

It isn't plain sailing but the smell of stale smoke on smoker’s clothes and breath already helps me stay off them again.

The main problem is the weight gain. I have ballooned in weight over the last 3 weeks and it's scarey how fast I've put it on. I'm not doing anything about it just yet because I want to rid myself of the ciggy craving completely first. Once I've gone past that stage I can then start losing the weight. I tried keeping the food intake down but the cig craving went up so for now I'm just working on keeping off the smokes.