One Canuck's Radio Weblog

  Thursday, 3 June 2004

.< 10:59:35 PM >
'Terror' text contained punk lyrics

UK: A Special Branch officer questioned a punk rock musician as a terror suspect after he sent a text message containing lyrics from a Clash song to the wrong person, it was reported today. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 10:55:06 PM >

Doctors Without Borders suspended operations in Afghanistan today, a day after five of its workers were ambushed and killed, officials said. [New York Times: International]

< 10:54:17 PM >

Despite George J. Tenet's statement and the president's compliments, there was immediate speculation that there was much more behind the departure. [New York Times: International] 'Under Mr. Tenet, the C.I.A. has been the subject of blistering critiques for what its detractors have called the two worst intelligence failures of the last 50 years: not anticipating Sept. 11 and exaggerating the threat of Iraq's unconventional weapons.'

< 10:46:42 PM >

President Bush said today that it would be "disastrous" if Australia withdrew its troops, as the opposition leader, Mark Latham, has vowed to do if he prevails in national elections. [New York Times: International]

< 10:45:39 PM >

The US admits it used special interrogation methods on two al-Qaeda suspects, without specifying what they were. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 10:45:06 PM >

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A federal prosecutor on Thursday called for criminal probes of 81 Mexican officials -- from prosecutors to police detectives -- for their handling of the killings of hundreds of women in the past decade. [Reuters: World]

< 10:43:37 PM >

Interesting tidbit about the Grey Nuns on Guy: there are still 250 nuns there, but their average age is 82. [montreal city weblog]

< 10:42:44 PM >

Man says he was involved in fraud, fencing, drugs and immigration scams [GAM-National]

To say the defense is in disarray would be an understatement.

< 10:39:19 PM >

A tradition more than 50 years old - the oldest TV show in North America - is ended as Radio-Canada washes its hands of La Soire du hockey on Saturday nights. People without cable can go mooch off their neighbours, says the president of RDS. [montreal city weblog] 'Après Meet the Press de la BBC, qui roule depuis 1948, La Soirée du hockey de la SRC a connu la deuxième série de diffusion en importance de toute l'histoire de la télévision.'

!!!

< 10:33:57 PM >

"A Decade of War," an exhibition at War Photo Limited in Dubrovnik, Croatia, features 700 or so photographs from the Balkan wars. [New York Times: Arts]

< 10:31:57 PM >

With high-definition television just beginning to catch on, researchers at the Japanese national broadcaster NHK are already working on a successor. [New York Times: Arts]

< 10:17:53 PM >

The new Windows Media Player 10 works with a wide range of portable devices and digital music subscription services. But the real power move comes later this year, when Microsoft launches its own online music store. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]

< 12:38:10 AM >

The only other lossless audio compression method, available for Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X and Linux, is FLAC, which stands for free lossless audio codec. FLAC is sometimes used by bands that want to release their music on the Internet but don't want to compromise on audio quality.

Apple avoided using FLAC in part because its own method would be able to maintain control over music copying if it were used for iTunes Music Store audiophile releases. I'm just guessing, but I expect Apple to add lossless audiophile albums to the iTunes Store before long. [Syracuse Post-Standard]

.< 12:29:30 AM >
iTunes — PC World’s Software Newcomer of the Year

“Apple makes Windows apps about as often as Microsoft ships bug-free products, and if iTunes for Windows (free) is any indication, that’s a crying shame,” writes the PC World editors for the “Best of 2004.” “The iTunes media player works on PCs the same way it does on Macs, right down to the handy feature that lets you share your music library with other PC or Mac iTunes users on your network. It looks great, it’s easy to use, and it has a surprising number of useful features, like the abilities to generate rules-based Smart Playlists and to trim individual tracks.” [Jun 2] [Apple Hot News]