Blog Housekeeping -- Word Verification...

Dear All...

It seems that a lot of my posts are getting spammed. Therefore, I have opted to activate word verification. Hopefully, this will reduce the amount of spam I am getting about buying pirated DVDs and CDs from Russia and other places, as well as medications from all over the globe. After all, there is only so much Viagra and Cialis that one man can use :D

Hopefully, you all will get to enjoy the rest of your Friday and have a nice weekend to boot.

Child Abuse -- The Baby Swinging Video Charges Dropped...

Finally, common sense has prevailed in this case and the charges have been dropped. This case was a loser from the outset and should never have been brought by the police. It was a case of over-zealousness on the part of the police or maybe even a not so subtle attempt to try and judicially broaden the scope of the relevant legislation. In any event, it failed and rightly so.

I have written about this case on three separate occasions and you can find those posts here.

The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has dropped the charges. The realization that if this went to a jury trial that they would be very unlikely to succeed in convincing a jury of Christopher Illingworth's peers that he was guilty of distributing child abuse material has prevailed.

The video was posted on Liveleak and showed a man swinging a baby. The man and the baby remain pretty much unknown. However, the video is purportedly of either a Russian or Ukrainian circus family doing a little bit of training. At the end of the video the baby is smiling and laughing.

What was even more bizarre was that the Australian Film Classification Board classified this as MA15+ which would suggest that they were not convinced that the material was of a standard that would see it become a criminal offense under the provisions for child abuse material. Ultimately, the classification sealed the deal for Illingworth. There was simply no way that a jury would have been convinced that he had broken the law.

This ends the criminal saga however it is unclear whether Illingworth has any recourse for the trauma he has suffered as a result of his home being raided by the police, his arrest, and subsequent committal for trial.

The Fate of the Free World and a Blackberry

I am sure that there are good reasons for President Obama to want to keep his Blackberry handy, like keeping in contact with his kids for example or texting Hillary Clinton that the bombing of Iran is an option or similar things. The mere fact that the President is going to continue to use it is tantamount to being a red rag to a bull. Every hacker worth their salt is going to be trying to crack the "big one". Fox News is referring to it as the Holy Grail.

The free world can rest assured that the device must have the best encryption available to human kind loaded onto it. Nevertheless, that is always the challenge that hackers face. So, why should hackers not go after the Presidential Blackberry?

I am sure if you crack the thing and then get found out you will be in for a world of hurt. Nevertheless, your reputation and legend will pretty much proceed you wherever you go. Kevin Mitnick, once acclaimed as the world's greatest hacker, did five years in prison for his hacking activities, but nevertheless seems to think it possible and that a sophisticated hacker is in with a shot at getting in.

According to Mitnick, the weakness might not be the President but rather the circle of people that he communicates with. They presumably will not be as encrypted as the President and therefore seeming more vulnerable to attack.

So, the innocuous SMS of "Dad, where is this secret service dude that is supposed to be picking me up from school" from one of his kids might be just the entry point a hacker needs.

The reality is that now that it has been publicly declared that the President is going to continue to use his Blackberry that there are armies of hackers and code breakers sitting in underground caves in China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, among other locales, all tasked with a solitary mission, hack into the Presidential Blackberry.

I wonder what the threat is like. Is it conceivable that the fate of the free world can be compromised by the use of a Blackberry?

The mind boggles.

Monopoly -- Communist / Soviet Style...

Keeping on an earlier Monopoly theme. What the world might look like if the other side won the war.

This picture comes via here.

World's Oldest Blogger -- Now In Blogger Heaven

I would love to still be alive and blogging at 108! Although I have gotta say that blogging will probably be technology of the past. Innovation and the need to develop new technologies will mean that blogging will undoubtedly become obsolete, and probably sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, whatever takes its place I want to be doing it at 108. Hopefully, I will still be able to see and hear then.

Olive Riley, who lived in Woy Woy on the NSW Central Coast, died in her nursing home early yesterday morning. I had never heard of this old bird nor her writings. Both, apparently are going to be missed, Olive by her family and friends and Olive by the many thousands of people who visited her personal musings.

The technology is amazing in that the world is becoming an increasingly smaller place all the time. According to her great grandson, Darren Stone, Olive loved to communicate and had regular correspondence going on with readers in the US and in Russia.

Olive had led an interesting, some might say extraordinary life raising three children on her own, living through two world wars and the Depression, working as a station cook in rural Queensland, as an egg sorter, and barmaid in Sydney throughout those 108 full years. Since February last year she had managed to post more than 70 entries on her blogs.

Olive's blogs can be found here and here. After one particular post Olive's blog had more than 350,000 hits. Truly amazing!

Olive Riley was born in 1899, and would have turned 109 on October 20.

I have stopped by to both blogs and I wish I had found the old dame a little sooner.

RIP Olive Riley.

Russian Billionaires and US Real Estate

Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian billionaire, who made his fortune in fertilizer has dropped a cool USD 100 million to buy Maison de l'Amitie from Donald Trump. A house that sells for 100 million dollars has got to be some seriously good real estate.

It is not like Rybolovlev cannot afford it. His personal wealth is estimated to be at USD 13 billion and his company, Uralkali, is capitalized at some USD 33 billion. Nevertheless, the property was not bought to become the family home. Rybolovlev intends to remain living in Moscow and sees the property as an investment for the future. It might be a good buy provided the bottom does not fall out of the super luxurious housing market. Donal Trump acquired the 3,000 sq. foot Maison for USD 41.4 million at a bankruptcy auction. So, the Trump has more than doubled his investment. Yet, the property was originally listed for sale at USD 125 million.

The lives of the rich and famous!

Russia -- A Free Press

Russia has not been known for its free press under the previous President, Vladimir Putin, and many have assumed that his anointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev, would be nothing more than a figure head as the real power would now move to the Prime Minister, a position now held by Putin. However, maybe this is not the case as Medvedev has essentially quashed amendments to the libel law which would have made the press in Russia a much less open place than it is now.

It is being reported that the Kremlin is keen to highlight the much more liberal views on matters such as press freedom. Perhaps this is to soften a particularly hard line approach adopted under Putin's Presidency. However, the proof of this will evolve over time as it remains to be seen how influential the former President will be as Prime Minister.

The Russian system of governance is an interesting one in that a "critical" note on a piece of legislation in effect sinks it. I guess this is some kind of veto power (note: I need to learn more about governance in Russia).

Apparently, this issue came about because Mr. Putin wants to dump his wife and run off and marry a 24-year old gymnast (I am guessing for her increased flexibility). Look, Putin would not be the first European leader to dump the wife for a younger, sexy, more flexible new wife. Putin only needs to look as far as France for an example of this, as Nicolas Sarkozy dumped his wife for the former model Carla Bruni.

Currently, the media in Russia can only be shut down for trading in the following news worthy items: state secrets, extremist statements, calls to carry out terrorist acts or statements justifying terrorism.

It would seem though that this is a no win situation for Medvedev as even those likely to benefit from this are sure to be vocal critics that this is nothing more than an exercise in propaganda.

Site Traffic Too - Russia, Middle East, China, and Africa

I have only recently started tracking my site traffic (and my blog is not very popular at all) mainly to see where readers are coming from. As I have posted regularly before, I write this blog to humour myself as much as anything else. Although, to be honest it would be nice to know that someone found reading these little musing interesting.

Nah, in that vein, and similar to the rationale of posting provocative words to stimulate the masses and attract traffic, I am going to post some regional specific entries in a blatant attempt to attract visitors from the four locations noted in the title.

Once again, I will let you know how that goes in terms of numbers of visitors....

Good weekend to all!

Indonesia and Russian Tourists

Indonesia is on the final day of a three-day road show in Moscow at the Moscow International Tourism and Travel (MITT) fair. The idea is simply to promote the culture and value of Indonesia as a travel destination for Russians. Russian estimations suggest that there are some 40 million Russians that travel each year.

In 2007 the number of Russian tourists entering Indonesia was a touch under 47,000 after having peaked at just over 47,210 in 2006. You can do the math on that as a percentage of the 40 million or more Russians that are traveling each year but it is not a big number.

The answer to raising the numbers of Russian tourists who choose Indonesia as their travel destination of choice is direct flights between Russia and Indonesia. Currently, Russians and Indonesians traveling between the two countries must transit in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, or Amsterdam. Apparently, the 'having to transit' issue is one cited as being a deterrent to travel. If this is indeed an accurate reflection of the majority of Russians, then a direct flight makes sense in both the common sense and money sense ways!

Let's see what happens! A direct route might inspire me and the missus to fork out some hard earned cash but probably not during the winter! The direct flight would be about 18 hours if any one wants to know!

The photo is from my personal collection and was taken at Borobudur Temple in February 2008...still learning in the photography department (it is one of my better ones so far though)...