For several years von Hagens and his team experimented using smaller squid, and found that the fragility of the skin needed a slower replacement process than other animal specimens.

Some 1500 litres of silicone later, the plastination of the giant cephalopods was completed in January.

The reporter found the security flaw in the airport’s duty-free shopping system. At Schiphol airport, passengers flying to countries outside the Schengan Agreement Area can buy bottles of alcohol at duty-free shops before going through security. They are then permitted to take these bottles onto flights, provided that they have the bottles sealed at the shop.

Mr Stegeman bought a bottle, emptied it and refilled it with another liquid. After that he returned to the same shop and ‘bought’ the refilled bottle again. The shop sealed the bottle in a bag, allowing him to take it with him through security and onto a London-bound flight. In London, he transferred planes and carried the bottle onto a flight to Washington DC.

The flaw, of course, is the assumption that bottles bought at a duty-free shop actually come from the duty-free shop.

But note that 1) it’s the same airport as underwear bomber, 2) reporter is known for trying to defeat airport security, and 3) body scanners would have made no difference.

Watch the TV program here.

As Feargal Sharkey, head of UK Music, speaks of his confidence that the massively controversial Digital Economy Bill will be passed before the general election, the Open Rights Group has revealed that in the last 3 days more than 10,000 outraged citizens have written to MPs demanding a debate on the issue.

The UK Government continues to push forward the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) that aims to protect copyright holders from online pirates. On 15th March the House of Lords approved the bill and handed it over to the House of Commons.

To the absolute dismay of most outside the music and movie industries, some of the most controversial elements of the Bill are unlikely to receive any major scrutiny and will be dealt with quickly under the so-called ‘wash-up’, a short period between the announcement of an election and parliament being closed down.

‘It’s a deeply unsatisfactory and very worrying development,’ a senior executive from an ISP told The Guardian. ‘The fear is that no one will know what is being cooked-up before it becomes law. It’s legislation on the hoof.’

But this situation suits the BPI just fine. This week a leaked memo from the BPI fell into the hands of Cory Doctorow which showed that the ‘LibDem amendment’ – a proposal under the DEB which would allow for websites to be blocked if, essentially, the BPI didn’t like their activities – was in fact written by the BPI. Very cosy.

But the controversies don’t end there. Doctorow also received an internal document prepared by the BPI’s Director of Public Affairs and prospective Labour parliamentary candidate, Richard Mollet. In the document he admitted that the only reason the DEB had a chance of passing is because MP’s are resigned to voting on it without debate.

‘Translation: if MPs got to debate the Bill, they would tear it to unrecognizable pieces as they realized what terrible rubbish it really is,’ wrote Doctorow. The scandals go on and on, but we have to stop somewhere.

Nevertheless, UK Music head Feargal Sharkey says that he is confident that the DEB will be passed before the general election, although others are not so sure.

‘It will still be nip and tuck to get the Digital Economy Bill onto the statute book before the election so the battle is not won yet,’ wrote Shadow Culture Minister, Jeremy Hunt, on his blog this week.

According to Jim Killock at the Open Rights Group, UK citizens aren’t leaving anything to chance with 10,000 of them having written to their MPs in the last three days to demand a debate on the Digital Economy Bill.

‘It is outrageous for corporate lobbyists including the BPI, FAST and UK Music to demand that MPs curtail democracy and ram this Bill through Parliament without debate,’ says Killock, adding: ‘The British people did not elect UK Music and the BPI to write our laws.’

Killock says that what is making the 10,000 so angry is the pushing through of the DEB without debate, an act he describes as ‘undemocratic and dangerous’.

If you’d like to add your dissenting voice, please email your MP, write to your local newspaper, and attend the planned demonstrations”

By TAMAR LEWIN, Published: March 17, 2010

In the first federal appeals court opinion dealing with ‘sexting’ — the transmission of sexually explicit photographs by cellphone — a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that parents could block the prosecution of their children on child pornography charges for appearing in photographs found on some classmates’ cellphones.

‘It does not resolve all of the constitutional issues implicated in sexting prosecutions, but it’s a terrific start for civil liberties,’ said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, who represented the parents.

The case, Miller v. Mitchell, began in 2008 when school officials in Tunkhannock, Pa., discovered seminude and nude photographs of some female students — some as young as 12 or 13 when the photographs were taken — on other students’ cellphones. The officials confiscated the phones and turned them over to the Wyoming County District Attorney’s Office.

The district attorney at the time, George Skumanick Jr., said that students possessing ‘inappropriate images of minors’ could be prosecuted for possession or distribution of child pornography, and sent letters to the parents of the students with the phones — and the parents of students who appeared in the photographs — threatening to prosecute any student who did not participate in an after-school ‘education program.’

The syllabus called for the girls to write a report explaining why they were there, what they had done, and why it was wrong.

‘Participation in the program is voluntary,’ the letter said. ‘Please note, however, charges will be filed against those that do not participate or those that do not successfully complete the program.’

Three families whose daughters were in the photographs refused to participate and instead filed suit to block the charges, which they said would amount to retaliation for that refusal. They said the district attorney’s actions interfered with the girls’ constitutional rights to be photographed and to be free from compelled speech — and with the parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing.

In March, the district court temporarily barred the district attorney from initiating any criminal charges against the girls. Wednesday’s opinion came in response to his appeal and upholds the injunction but does not resolve the case.

The unanimous ruling of the judges, Thomas L. Ambro, Michael A. Chagares and Walter K. Stapleton, criticized the district attorney’s reliance on the girls’ presence in the photographs as a basis for the potential charges.

‘Appearing in a photograph provides no evidence as to whether that person possessed or transmitted the photo,’ said the opinion, by Judge Ambro.

Psychologist Jeremy Ginges and his colleagues identified this backfire effect in studies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2007. They interviewed both Israelis and Palestinians who possessed sacred values toward key issues such as ownership over disputed territories like the West Bank or the right of Palestinian refugees to return to villages they were forced to leave?these people viewed compromise on these issues completely unacceptable. Ginges and colleagues found that individuals offered a monetary payout to compromise their values expressed more moral outrage and were more supportive of violent opposition toward the other side. Opposition decreased, however, when the other side offered to compromise on a sacred value of its own, such as Israelis formerly renouncing their right to the West Bank or Palestinians formally recognizing Israel as a state. Ginges and Scott Atran found similar evidence of this backfire effect with Indonesian madrassah students, who expressed less willingness to compromise their belief in sharia, strict Islamic law, when offered a material incentive.

[...]

After giving their opinions on Iran?s nuclear program, all participants were asked to consider one of two deals for Iranian disarmament. Half of the participants read about a deal in which the United States would reduce military aid to Israel in exchange for Iran giving up its military program. The other half of the participants read about a deal in which the United States would reduce aid to Israel and would pay Iran $40 billion. After considering the deal, all participants predicted how much the Iranian people would support the deal and how much anger they would feel toward the deal. In line with the Palestinian-Israeli and Indonesian studies, those who considered the nuclear program a sacred value expressed less support, and more anger, when the deal included money.

Updated March 15, 2010
Terrorists Targeting Children Via Facebook, Twitter

FOXNews.com

The Internet grew 20 percent uglier last year, with terrorists and racists increasingly turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — and targeting children, finds the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The 2010 Digital Terror Report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance found a 20% increase in the prevalence of hate-filled Web sites–notably in social media like Facebook and Twitter.

The Internet grew 20 percent uglier last year, with terrorists and racists increasingly turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — and targeting children, finds the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The CD-ROM report, put out annually by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance, aims to assist law enforcement, public officials, educators, parents and the news media to better grasp the scope of hate.

The report, based on some 11,500 problematic Web sites, social networks , chat forums, twitter posts, other Internet postings, found that hate-filled language is increasingly filling social networks. In compiling it, researchers for the Wiesenthal center found such disturbing online content as video footage showing bomb-making instructions and hate games — including one about bombing Haitian earthquake victims.

The report found a 20% increase to 11,500 in hate-filled social networks, Web sites, forums, blogs, Twitter feeds, and so on (up from 10,000 last year). It notes that beyond its role in our social lives, the Internet often acts as the incubator and validator of dangerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and organ theft.

The lone wolf terrorist, once primarily a domestic extremist character, is now a role heavily promoted by terrorist groups, found the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The Wiesenthal Center uncovered expanded ‘how-to’ posts for terrorists, including binary and laser technology. And even more disturbing, the Center found hate games, including one inviting the user to bomb Haitian earthquake victims, continue to target young people

It’s all part of a trend of terrorists targeting young people, the report indicates, a finding supported by recent news reports. Over the weekend, FoxNews.com reported that the 6-year-old son of a Colorado nursing student who ran off to Europe to join a terrorist murder cell was brainwashed into a hate-filled Islamic fundamentalist zombie, his family said Saturday. Her family said she struck up an Internet friendship with a Colorado radical.

And court records and other documents show that Colleen LaRose — or ‘Jihad Jane’ — may have used YouTube as part of her alleged trail of terrorist activities.

The report was presented at a press conference at the New York Tolerance Center by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal center, a pioneer in digital hate and terror, and Mark Weitzman, the center’s director of government affairs. Representative Carolyn Maloney joined in the unveiling as well.

The report is used by the FBI, Homeland Security, military officials, hate crime units and joint terrorism taskforces in the U.S. as well as Canada and Europe.

New York, NY – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) joined, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (R), a pioneer in digital hate and terror, and Mark Weitzman (L), the Center’s Director of Government Affairs for the release of the 2010 Digital Terror & Hate Report ‘The Global Reach’

The following are Congresswomen Maloney’s remarks:

‘I want to congratulate the Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center for putting together an extraordinary report again this year.

For more than a decade, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been tracking the growth of hate on the internet.

And while children are taught that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you – it’s not always true. Terrorism and intolerance start with words, but they grow into actions.

An anti-semitic website spreads hatred and acts as a recruiting tool. Social networking is all about enabling like-minded people to find one another. As Simon Wiesenthal once said: The combination of hatred and technology is the greatest danger threatening mankind.

And Wiesenthal also recognize that Jews are not the only targets of hatred: Victims from more than 20 nations were killed by the Nazis.

Too many Americans are ignorant of the Holocaust and do not know that an enlightened society decided to eliminate Jews from the face of the world. They do not understand how easy it is to demonize a particular ethnic group, and persuade people to destroy them. And we have many lessons to learn from the Holocaust. I have introduced legislation in Congress, the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Assistance Act, that will teach new generations about the devastation and death that stem from intolerance.

And that is why I admire what the Simon Wiesenthal Center does, and salute you for issuing this report.

The internet joins together billions of people. Ideas can spread like wildfire. And a call to action can be released on twitter or facebook, setting seemingly unrelated people in action. YouTube allows a terrorist’s lonely rant to be seen by thousands.

It can be used to enhance freedom in dictatorships – but it can also be used by advocates of hatred and intolerance.

The Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center’s report and educational workshops help law enforcement understand these tools, how they are being used by terrorists and extremists, and how we can beat them at that game.

Jihad Jane – accused of plotting to kill the Swedish cartoonist who caused riots by his depiction of Mohammed – was known for posting increasingly hate-filled screeds on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet – that’s how she came to the attention of law enforcement.

YouTube is this generation’s printing press. Hitler had Mein Kampf. Osama bin Laden has YouTube and the internet.

And these new ways of reaching potential followers have a worldwide reach.

I applaud the Simon Wiesenthal Center for all that it is doing to promote tolerance, and to help law enforcement identify those who are moving beyond speech and are planning attacks.

New tools require new techniques and new skills. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is dedicated to the idea that you can prevent attacks by teaching tolerance and training law enforcement to use the new techniques of tracking the bad guys.

Thank you for all you do.’

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

(Via QuickLinks Update.)