News of Interest for 8/29/06

Bugged bins to promote recycling
"Microchips in bins which help councils charge for the weight of rubbish collected could be common across the UK within two years."
-Via BBC
Technology Lets Parents Track Kids' Every Move
"So, Mark Pawlick bought what's called a black box and hid it in Jessica's car. By using global positioning system technology to fix its location every second or so, the device is essentially an electronic tattletale. It automatically e-mails or calls Pawlick every time Jessica drives too fast, or goes somewhere she isn't supposed to."
-Via NPR
Punished son dies on the way to jail
"A 17-YEAR-OLD New Zealand boy whose exasperated parents believed would be helped by going to prison for a series of minor crimes was murdered in the van taking him to jail."
-Via London Times
12,000 buildings hit by rocket attacks
"Some 12,000 buildings, including 4,000 public structures, were damaged by rocket attacks waged by Hizbullah from Lebanon during 35 days of confrontation with the Israel Defense Forces, a report by the Ministry for the Environment showed."
-Via YNet News
Bashir links CIA to Bali bombings
"Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has accused America's main intelligence agency of involvement in the 2002 Bali suicide bombings, which claimed the lives of 202 people, including 88 Australians."
-Via ABC News (Australia)
You wouldn’t catch me dead in Iraq
"Scores of American troops are deserting — even from the front line in Iraq. But where have they gone? And why isn’t the US Army after them? Peter Laufer tracked down four of the deserters"
-Via London Times
Black Panther founder teaches party's vision
"The second course will focus on African-American resistance movements, especially the Black Panther Party, Hilliard said. The party's history is shunned in school, so his course will help bring light to its past and the people who influenced it, he said."
-Via The Daily Lobo
Christiana renovation to cost millions
"After coming to power in 2001, the Liberal-Conservative government has taken an increasingly harder line on Christiania and its estimated 850 residents, closing its open-air hash market, Pusher Street, in 2004, and threatening to bulldoze the colony entirely."
-Via Copenhagen Post
Robots Wrote This
"First they came for the bomb disposal crews, and we said nothing. Then they were spot-welding and spray-painting on the auto plant assembly lines, and still we said nothing. Only now that they've come for the journalism jobs do the journalists scream. But it's too late."
-Via Wired News