So probably ever since Phantom Menace came out it’s been cool to like Star Wars. Everyone’s jumping on the wagon it seems nowadays and George has been cashing in on it ever since.
Remember the good ol’ days when it was just lunchboxes, backpacks and action figures? Now you’ve got clothing by Marc Ecko.
Which brings us to today’s newest venture: Adidas C-3PO/RD-D2 shoes.
You know, some things are probably best left forgotten. Like the Holiday Special. Or this.
If these were able to pull a Jedi Mind Trick over on you, they’re available here for $110.
The first official trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon has been released yesterday, and well, all I can say so far is that it looks very much like a typical Michael Bay movie. Check it out:
Regular readers will know we’ve covered plenty of stories about Apple’s approval policy for inclusion in the iTunes App Store: a policy that has seemed inconsistent to say the least. Now one company is threatening to take the matter to court.
Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet recently developed an iPad app that aimed to repackage the contents of the newspaper in a tablet-friendly fashion. Unfortunately for its hopes of acceptance, those contents included Side-9, a daily feature on said page that features a topless woman.
Apple has rejected the app on the grounds that the photographs violate restrictions on adult content. That’s prompted the newspaper’s editor Poul Madsen to complain that the rejection is unfair censorship and a restriction on free speech. He says that if Apple doesn’t reverse its decision, he will consider taking the issue to the European Court of Justice.
Simply on the taste and decency matter, I’d suspect the newspaper has very little chance of success. While European law does cover the issue of free speech, that’s designed more for preventing government censorship than how private publishing companies choose to accept customers. And Apple does have the right to set its own decency standards: this isn’t the same as the newspaper being banned from running its own website.
Where Ekstra Bladet may have a credible point is on the issue of inconsistency. The Sun, a British newspaper, has an iPad app that contains its Page 3 feature, much the same idea as Side-9 but with added puns and a comment on the news by the model that always seems to match the paper’s own editorial line.
On the face of it, Apple clearly isn’t playing fair and, if you wanted to come up with a conspiracy theory, you could point to the fact that The Sun is run by News Corporation, which is planning a major launch of an iPad exclusive newspaper next year.
To describe Side-9 as pornographic is ludicrous. To ban applications that contain partial nudity when the exact same image can be viewed through Safari is farcical. But as dumb a move as it may be, I’m not convinced Apple is doing anything illegal.
Those of us who first embraced Pokemon, bought ridiculous amounts of Pokemon cards, bought the different color video game releases, and watched the first episodes gleefully may never have stopped to realize the awful cost of our entertainment. Here to remind us of the pain and suffering inflicted to these poor creatures is artist Justin White AKA Jublin, who brings us his vision of the aftermath of a Poke battle.
When drawing up legislation or regulations covering recreational drugs, it’s important to get advice from scientists.
Until this week, I’d have considered that a statement of fact. It turns out it’s merely an opinion, and one not shared by the British government.
A proposed new law in the country would remove an existing requirement for scientists to be part of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACDM). That’s the committee that advises the Home Secretary (the government politician responsible for law and order issues) about which drugs should be banned and what the legal punishments should be.
The idea of the ACMD is to make sure the Home Secretary is given evidence about the medical effects of drugs, rather than merely making decisions on moral grounds or in response to public opinion. As it stands, the 20-strong committee is legally required to have four medical experts, including one with particular expertise in pharmacy.
As well as removing this requirement, the new proposals would also mean the Home Secretary would be allowed to ban a drug for up to one year without the need to either consult the ACMD or to gain the approval of Parliament.
The government claims the change is simply designed to allow more flexibility in appointing the committee. Critics argue it simply builds on the dismissal (under the previous government) of Professor David Nutt, who was fired from the committee last year after arguing that the current rankings of drugs in terms of seriousness under the law does not reflect the medical risk they pose to users. That led to several other members of the committee resigning in protest.
Tension between politicians and scientists continued criminalization of mephedrone (“miaow miaow”), which led to two further resignations from the ACMD by members who believed that the ban had not taken enough account of scientific evidence. One of those who resigned, Dr Polly Taylor, wrote to the then-Home Secretary saying “I feel that there is little more we can do to describe the importance of ensuring that advice is not subjected to a desire to please ministers or the mood of the day’s press.”
NASA recently created this Universe tour using images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources, placing each of them in 3D space in relation to our viewing point. Check it out!
