eau de porneau.

Israel Group Nixes Pot on Passover - Newsday.com

“You shouldn’t smoke marijuana on the holiday, and if you have it in your house you should get rid of it,” Levine said. The edict was first reported in The Jerusalem Post.

But not everyone needs to give up their habit for the duration of the festival. The rabbinic injunctions banning hemp were never adopted by Sephardic Jews, who come from countries in the Middle East and North Africa. That means there is no reason they can’t keep smoking marijuana, Levine said, except that it remains illegal, despite her party’s best efforts.

I was reading about different kosher/non-kosher foods tonight, and found this interesting. A little past due, sure, but still interesting information. It led me to wonder what the rules are on what’s kosher and what’s not, and then I found this, this, and this.

From here.

I think it’s kind of disgusting that we’re getting fleeced like this, but I suppose it basically boils down to competition. I can’t say much for New Zealand or Rwanda, but I know there are so many mobile carriers in America that people are forced to offer crazy low prices for their product. In Canada we have what, 5? 6? And only a few of those are actually nationwide. For example, Fido doesn’t exist in Halifax, but Rogers does. Halifax has Aliant Mobility, which my Telus phone picks up on, and so on and so forth.

In any event, I’m pretty sure society will benefit if these services are priced cheaply enough that people who need or want them can get them at a reasonable price, rather than being dragged along like we are.

Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

So much for “state-sponsored piracy.” This is undeniably a step forward, but still reeks to me. Now we have to pay a premium to do what we want with shit we buy? 30 cents is a small fee to pay, I suppose, but why not scrap DRM altogether and make all tracks 99 cents? I suppose this is a pool that you need to wade in before you can swim.

The bottom line is we will soon be able to purchase higher quality (256k AAC) music than what we’d get off torrent sites, with the same amount of restrictions (none). If the rest of the record labels would get onboard, this would change from an experiment to the status quo. Will I buy shit off iTunes once this drops? I guess it all depends on what’s there.

Trial would have done Stalin proud - lawyer - World - smh.com.au

“First there was indefinite detention without charge. Then there
was the torture, however the Bush lawyers, including his
attorney-general, might choose to describe it. Then there was the
extorted confession of guilt.”

The controversial deal came a day after the US Defence
Secretary, Robert Gates, told a congressional committee in
Washington that tribunal verdicts would lack credibility because of
the reputation of Guantanamo around the world.

You’ve got to hand it to Gates for coming out and saying the obvious. Rumsfeld (and a bunch of marines) recently averted disaster regarding the Abu Ghraib incidents. It seems to me that the world is tossing allegations about the quality of the Iranian hostage system, meanwhile disregarding the horrible atrocities being committed in their own prisoner detention centers. They seem to be doing a good job of getting people to admit to committing various crimes, and it seems like there’s more to come.