May 27, 2006
EU lawmakers consider taxing emails, SMS messages
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers are investigating a proposed tax on emails and mobile phone text messages as a way to fund the 25-member bloc in the future.
A European Parliament working group is reviewing the idea, tabled by Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP and member of the centre-right European People’s Party, the assembly’s largest group.
Lamassoure, a member of Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, is proposing to add a tax of around 1.5 cents on text or SMS messages and a 0.00001 cent levy on every email sent.
Well good luck to them. Good thing I don’t live in an EU country. I don’t understand why the email messages are so cheap though, you can get like 100,000 messages for 1 cent. If they would charge 1 cent per email, they might discourage spammers a bit more.
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Shakedown at MySpace?
LOS ANGELES Two teenagers in New York State have been take into police custody on charges of illegal computer access and attempted extortion after they allegedly threatened to shake down the Web site MySpace.com unless its operators paid them $150,000, prosecutors said.
I love how these douchebags thought they’d get away with these mafia tactics.
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More and more often, I get search results that are not relevant because google found keywords on the page that were not really in the content, but in the google ads of the page. Why the hell would I want that? And why doesn’t Google fix it?
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Pub urinals use tech to warn drunk drivers
POLICE in Nassau Country are installing plastic censors in pub urinals that lecture punters about the perils of drink driving.
According to WCBS 880, the device is a Wizmark Urinal Communicator which has a 3.5-inch plastic screen that displays digital files. The device recognises that it is being ‘Nintendoed on’ and plays an MP3 which suggest you get a cab if you have been drinking.
Imagine being so drunk that the toilet starts talking to you! I’d beat the hell out of that toilet.
I wonder whether it responds to puke, too. I wonder how well the screen can be read after it’s being puked on a couple of time! I wonder how well the alcohol-in-pee-sensor works, after being puked on.
Personally I never use the urinal anyway, i like to sit down when I pee, take my time. Especially after consuming alcohol.
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Theoretical Blueprint for Invisibility Cloak Reported
Once devised using exotic artificial ‘metamaterials,’ the cloak will have numerous uses, from defense applications to wireless communications.
Finally a way to hide ganja from the cops.
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