It's Sunday, so the world is taking the day off...

Paying fines is for second class citizens

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030703484.html?hpid=topnews

Montgomery's Finest Won't Pay Fines

By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 8, 2008; Page A01

Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County's new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay.

The officers are following the advice of their union, which says the citations are issued not to the driver but to the vehicle's owner -- in this case, the county.

Not that significant an item, but the comments are interesting...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/08/2119211&from=rss

Japan IDs All Its Citizens

Posted by kdawson on Saturday March 08, @08:21PM from the juki-box dept. Privacy

Edis Krad writes "While RealID in the US is a threat whose implementation is a ways in the future, the Japanese long ago implemented something similar; and there has been very little complaint raised about it. The Juki Net (Residents Registration Network — link in Japanese) has been silently developing since 1992. The system involves an 11-digit unique number to identify every citizen in Japan, and the data stored against that ID covers name, address, date of birth, and gender. Many Japanese citizens seem to be oblivious that such a government-run network exists. Juki Net had a spotlight shone on it recently because a number of citizens around the country sued against it, citing concerns of information misuse or leakage. And while an Osaka court ruled against the system, the Japanese Supreme Court has just ruled it is not unconstitutional, on the grounds that the data will be used in a bona-fide manner and there's no risk of leakage. While there is a longstanding registration system for us foreigners in Japan, what astonishes me is how the government can secretly implement such a system for its citizens, and how little concern the media and Japanese citizens in general display about the privacy implications."

Interesting. Apparently Japan has faster, smaller, easier to use phones – imagine iPhone as obsolete technology?

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/61993.html

iPhone: Not So Cool in Japan?

By Shinichi Terada Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News 03/09/08 4:00 AM PT

... However, Japanese analysts are doubtful whether the iPhone will catch on in markets like Japan, where consumers favor smaller and sleeker multifunctional handsets. They also question whether Japanese carriers will accept ceding to Apple's tight control over handset design and agree to its demand for a certain share of subscription fees.

Current iPhones won't work in Japan, where the faster third-generation network has become the mainstream.

Look, we gotta use up all that lead paint we can't use on toys...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/world/europe/08heparin.html?ref=europe

Germans Seek China Tie to Blood Thinner Heparin

By CARTER DOUGHERTY and ELISABETH ROSENTHAL March 8, 2008

FRANKFURT — The German authorities said Friday that they had asked all German producers of the blood thinner heparin to check whether their ingredients came from China, after allergic reactions to the drug there were linked to two Chinese suppliers.

In cases where China did supply the raw ingredient, manufacturers were asked to test for any irregularities. The German authorities recalled the suspect heparin on Wednesday after receiving reports of allergic reactions in about 80 patients.

Heparin manufactured with Chinese ingredients has been linked to 19 deaths in the United States.

Does this sound phony to you? Why would they make this up? (To prove they have everything under control?)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_as/oly_china_terror;_ylt=AlGN18oGHSYFb7NK60S6Gnms0NUE

China: Terrorists targeted Olympics

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

BEIJING - Chinese police killed alleged terrorists plotting to attack the Beijing Olympics, while a flight crew managed to prevent an apparent attempt to crash a Chinese jetliner in a separate case just last week, officials said Sunday.

Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a January raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, had described a plot with a purpose "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."