Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection.

The most recent report published in 2007, available at http://www.privacyinternational.org/phr, is probably the most comprehensive single volume report published in the human rights field. The report runs over 1,100 pages and includes 6,000 footnotes. More than 200 experts from around the world have provided materials and commentary. The participants range from eminent privacy scholars to high-level officials charged with safeguarding constitutional freedoms in their countries. Academics, human rights advocates, journalists and researchers provided reports, insight, documents and advice. In 2006 Privacy International took the decision to use this annual report as the basis for a ranking assessment of the state of privacy in all EU countries together with eleven non-EU benchmark countries. Funding for the project was provided by the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Follow this link for more details of last year's results.

Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007

That's because at least one lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America, the Big Four record companies' lobbying arm and primary legal weapon, considers the copying of songs from your own CDs to your own computer, for your own personal use, to be just as illegal as posting them online for all to share, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Arizona.

Crap! Here we go again on the battle for FairUse!

Was this not already ruled on in the whole VHS/BETA debacle?

Ripping MP3s Illegal, Grounds for Lawsuit

PERHAPS Ponce de Leon kept too far south in his search for the Fountain of Youth. He might have headed to Coney Island and there made himself young riding on a carousel, or a roller coaster, if a medical theory recently advanced is true—that, since old age is our final yielding to the inevitable, resistless pull of gravity, it is necessary only to overcome gravity and you overcome all that brings you down to earth.

Hmm... maybe I should start standing on my head. Or drive with rattle more often, they're similar things sometimes.

Modern Mechanix » Old Age Rejuvenator Centrifuge

A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims.

In the Malay language "Allah" is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries.

Opponents of the ban say it is unconstitutional and unreasonable.

It is the latest in a series of religious rows in largely Muslim Malaysia, where minority groups claim their rights are being eroded.

Muslims must have an interesting view of intellectual property.

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Malaysian row over word for 'God'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. hotel heiress Paris Hilton's potential inheritance dramatically diminished after her grandfather Barron Hilton announced plans on Wednesday to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion (1.16 billion pounds) fortune to charity.

Ha-ha.

Paris loses out: Hilton fortune pledged to charity | Entertainment | Reuters

We'd be proud too if we were Ford. Somehow the Blue Oval managed to convince NBC that the voice of Will Arnett and its Shelby GT500KR would make a perfect fit for an updated KITT on the boob tube. Today we found a couple new pics of the Fordified KITT and higher-resolution versions of the ones we showed yesterday on Ford's media site. To recap, there will three versions of KITT in the new Knight Rider TV show: a standard KITT Hero car, a more combative and winged KITT Attack (shown above), and KITT Remote for when the protagonist whispers into his Seiko watch, "KITT, I need help."

<img src="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/12/knightrider_attack_opt.jpg>

Cool.

Pics Aplenty: More pics of Knight Rider's new Fordified KITT - Autoblog

A directory of how to get a human on the phone for various companies. May Come in handy.

gethuman 500 database from Paul English

Alex Gibney’s new critically-acclaimed documentary Taxi to the Dark Side follows the path of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar, who was innocent of any terrorist ties but still “tortured to death by interrogators in the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base.” It also examines the Bush administration’s torture practices at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Think Progress » MPAA Rejects ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’ Movie Poster Because It Depicts A Hooded Detainee

Santa Cthulhu

Cthulhu doll 4 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album was an album produced originally in 1980 by the former RSO records. The album featured Star Wars themed Christmas songs, with members of the original cast of the first released Star Wars film, A New Hope.

Christmas in the Stars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia