Open Mic News

Owing to technical difficulties, I’m afraid Monday’s show is going to be a little on the silent side of things. As it is doubtful I’ll be able to get a show out today, I’m going to have to let everyone be their own newsreader for a day! That’s right folks, now you can host your very own episode of Open Mic News without the aid of any recording equipment at all. All you have to do is read aloud the following news articals…

UK - Two-Year-Old Girl Mauled By Dog
A two-year-old girl is in hospital after she was attacked by a dog at a flat in Lancashire.

Canada - Blood Donor Passed On Killer Nut Allergy
In what is thought to be the first case of its kind, the 80-year-old ate a peanut butter muffin two days later - and collapsed within minutes. Her throat closed, she was struggling for breath and had difficulty swallowing. Medics battled the potentially fatal reaction - then discovered the tainted blood had come from a 19-year-old donor with a history of severe allergic reactions to nuts

- That artical made me laugh one of those bitter, cynical laughs. They don’t allow homosexuals to give blood in case they give people “The Gay”, but they don’t even check donars for allergies! Crazy.

US - Schools Banning Ipods To Beat Cheaters
Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious — students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other. Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device. Devices including iPods and Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, school officials say.

US - Psychiatrist Pleads Not Guilty To Abuse
A noted child psychiatrist pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he molested seven boys in his care, and his lawyer said the accusers had mistaken routine physical examinations for sexual abuse.

US - Ashes Of Star Trek’s Scotty Fly To Space
The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer “Scotty” on “Star Trek,” and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket.

UK - A Very British Response As Earthquake Strikes Kent
People emerge largely unscathed after tremor measuring 4.3 on Richter scale - and head for the pub to watch football

US - ‘Will And Grace’ Scribes Legal Victory Windfall
NBC and “Will & Grace” creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan have settled a lawsuit that alleged NBC creatively accounted the two writers due share of the profits by “cooking the books” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

And some news just in…

UK - Men Convicted Over UK Bomb Plot
Five men have been convicted of a bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda that could have killed hundreds of people in Britain.

US - Man Kills Two In Mall Shooting
A gunman killed two people and wounded at least two more in a shooting at a crowded shopping centre in Missouri, US police say.

and finally…

UK - BBC Threatens To Drop ‘Neighbours’
Long-running Australian soap Neighbours could be dropped by the BBC following protracted negotiations over broadcasting rights.

 

 OMN 16 [60:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (105)

Whomever said reading the news was easy needs a good talking to.  This was my first solo show, so I hijacked Karasu from his own show, and (near the end) my TigerTails Radio co-host B.H. (aka Hedgie) to assist.  I have just finished cutting together show 16 of Open Mic News, and this is what you can expect to find within…

UK - Mathematicians set Chinese test
Maths enthusiasts are being challenged to answer a sample question from Chinese university entrance tests.

UK - Chancellor reveals maths weakness
Gordon Brown, the man who has run the country’s economy for 10 years, says he was never any good at maths.

UK - Where can you smoke once the ban starts?
Smokers should be given time off work to quit before the 1 July ban comes into force in England, NHS experts say. Where will nicotine-lovers unwilling - or unable - to quit be able to have a puff?

UK - Boy of 10 given a 2 year ASBO
A 10-year-old boy has become one of the youngest children in Britain to be given an anti-social behaviour order.

US - Welcome To Potterland!
Rowling in Flordia theme park deal. Universal Studios are set to add a Potterland to their Islands of Adventure park after two years of negotiations.

UK - Man Hacks Off Own Penis In London Restaurant
A man stormed into a London restaurant and hacked off his own penis in front of horrifed diners, the Italian eaterie said Tuesday.

Yeah, late and not much to show for it. I’ve muffed up todays show. The past 4 days have been dedicated to listing items on ebay. 700 items over 90 auctions, and there’s still more to go. It’s pretty much taken up all my time for the momment.

I should have found an alternate host for today, but I though I might still be able to squeeze it in. My fault. Alternate hosts will be taking the next few, as these auctions taking a lot out of me. At least lots of sales means lots of money to go toward a few very usefull items.

Here’s a few stories I would have been covering. A few good ones we’ve been sent as a group aren’t listed, as I’ll leave them for the thursday audio show.

Followup:
USA/China - Pet Food Poison May Have Been Intentional
Please note the difference between intentional and malicious.

News:
USA - Vermont Senate: Impeach the president
Now the Pres. won’t have to wonder where his enemys are hiding? Suceede from the union now, Vermont!

USA - Teen girl charged with posting nude photos on Internet
A short article that doesn’t cover the most important angle. Did the child know what she was doing? This inspired a small rant on the matter.

Science & Tech

World - Modified ink printer churns out electronic circuits
So, any inkjet printer can do this if it’s filled with silver iodine and vitamin C? That sounds like one hell of an easy hack!

World - Universal Blood
Cutting off sugar types to make it work. My question: Aren’t those sugars there doing something?

USA - Doctors Try New Surgery for Gallbladder Removal
This one’s here purely to make any female listeners wince.

 

 OMN 15 [66:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (67)

Co-hosting with me tonight is future News Host in his own right, TK!

There are some audio-artifacts in tonights recordings. The “chirps” are due to the new version of PowerGramo, as the software once again sticks in OGG-export mode. This is leading to lossy editing.

As stated at the begining of the show however, there is other good news! At long last, there are banner graphics available for those of you who want to spread the word about OMN! Please see the new “Banners” section at the top of the main page, or follow the link below.

~ Sci

Announcements:
Banner graphics now available!

Followups:
UK - Tigertail gunging results

USA - ‘Fatal’ blow to web broadcasters

News:
USA - Senator plans to revise Web labeling bill (Opinion piece from Destined)

USA - Debunking Jack Thompson’s Virginia Tech video game claims

Japan - Japanese mayor killed by mobster

Science & Tech:
World - The new X-prize is suprizingly lack-lustre

Useful stuff:
World - TED gives pricey content away for free online

Link to us:

If you want to help advertise OMN, please feel free to use the following advert graphics!

Standard Banner: 392×72

Square Button: 125×125

We are currently syndicated on:

LiveJournal

 

 OMN 14 [45:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (214)

Checksumed - Feedback from J:
Hey sci, two things;

ps. it was the king of nepal that clamped down on media and communication last year. he has since been relegated to figurehead status.

Thankyou so much J! And I’d also like to apologise to the king of thailand. I was working on bad information it seems. The king of nepal however still sounds like a dick.

And as a quick note, I forgot to mention this in the show itself. Our uber-tech Lance has informed me that we’re  at #746,451 on Technorati!  This may not sound like much, but for a site that indexes about 50,000,000.. top 2% baby!

——————————–

Thanks to Destined, our dedicated OMN reporter, for so many of todays links
Followups:
USA - Is The Army Shortchanging Injured GIs?

USA/China - China’s food safety woes expand overseas
News:
UK - Weather forcast for the summer

USA - Court to rule if fetus is a human being

USA - The FBI’s terrorism trade-off

Science & Tech:
Canada - Canada drops licences and adopts free model for map data

Heads up!
USA - Selling stuff online? Here comes the IRS

 

 OMN #13: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (282)

So, having finished the latest episode of Open Mic News, I submit it for your perusal. Covered in today’s episode:

US: States don’t just say “no” to REAL ID - they say “FUCK NO!” (thank you Destined!)

US: Judge sez free speech extends to MySpace, overturns probation for student who made inflammatory comment on school policy

US: Anarchist/blogger Josh Wolf freed

US/World: “Don’t just fine spyware makers, lock ‘em up too!” says FTC official

US/World: RIAA, MPAA claim right to pretexting

US: Sex offnders may not be my favorite people in the world, but not even they should have to live under a highway overpass! (Which they do, thanks to some overly restrictive laws in Miami-Dade county.)

US/World: And in ‘waste gas’ news - plastic wrap today, fuel tomorros? Could be!

US/Mexico: Border cops recover 1000 stolen wedding gowns (WTF? Who steals wedding gowns?!)

Mac’s Hacks: And you can put flash memory into(almost) any iPod! (a followup/expansion of Destined’s little article about turning an iPod mini into something flash-based.)

The music at the end of today’s show is The Orichalcon’s Secrets and Lies (e1m9) from the OC Remix Project DooM: The Dark Side of Phobos, which is freely available at the project website (doom.ocremix.org).

 

 OMN 12! [65:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (46)

Good morning ladies and gents!

Sci here, back from the bed. Asside from some gut bruising, I’m once again well. Sorry for missing last mondays show, but like I said, it couldn’t be helped.

Todays show was recorded on time and with the much apreciated co-hosting abilitys of OMN’s queen of sticky ham sandwiches, Millie. With this show she also becomes OMN’s first repeat co-host.

Seems it doesn’t take long to get out of practice, so I’m afraid we did ramble a little bit. There were also some lag issues over Skype. But otherwise, the show went well. Do you think so too, or not? Email us at news@openmicnews.org and let us know!

And here is the news..

~ Sci

Followup:
USA: The man from Del-Monte, he say “Uh-oh”

News:
USA: U.S. Girls’ Early Puberty Attracts Research Flurry

Thailand: Thai king can’t take critiscm

USA: Man With Drug-Resistant TB Locked Up

USA/Middle-East: U.S. agents visit Ethiopian secret jails

USA: FBI and Washington police are LIARS

USA: Petraeus Held Closed-Door Strategy Meeting With Republican Caucus
(from pseudo-manitou’s weekday news review)

Heads up:
Lenovo tops eco-friendly ranking

Useful stuff:
Replace your dead iPod hard-disk with flash

 OMN 11 . . 12 . . . one of those two. [58:56m]: Download (294)

Heya, folks, Macavity here. Sci was supposed to do a show Monday, but his voice was borked. He was planning to try again, but last I heard, he was under the weather. So, here I am with episode eleven (or is it twelve?) of Open Mic News.

In today’s episode:

US/Worldwide: EMI, Apple announce DRM-free iTunes downloads (Yay for no DRM!)

US - specifically, California: New California law calls for hackers to test e-voting machine security (thanks, Destined!)

US/World (followup to this story): Many people know about Windows Vista, but few intend to upgrade . . . and as if Microsoft wasn’t hurting enough already, they get slapped with a lawsuit about deceptive Vista advertising practices!

World: Don’t like seeing wind turbines on the ground? Fine, we’ll put them in the sky!

US: Old news, but - the recording industry doesn’t want you to mess with DRM, even if it threatens people’s lives . . .which leads one of the DMCA’s authors to lambaste the recording industry.

World: NIN promotes new album with unconventional methods, RIAA goes after fans who take part

US: High-schoolers sue anti-pagiarism service for copyright infringement

US/World: Study investigates confusing results of video-game studies, finds out that stable people are less likely to be affected by violent games than unstable people

And if you liked the music at the end of the show, the name of the song is Struttin’, and it’s from the Tryad album Listen (which is freely available from vavrek.com and various other places listed on Tryad’s main website (www.tryad.org).

Sorry to say it, but no, there’s no monday show this week. I got very sick at the last minute and there were no backup hosts available to take the slot.

We should be back for thursday.

Also, the “quarterly review” will be put off until things are in better order behind the scenes here. That means it’s more likely in the middle of the year.

For now, here’s the links that we were going to cover in the show..

—

Followups:
More pet foods recalled (thanks Destined)

News:
Subcommittee criticizes Google images

Israel goes on the virtual offensive (wtf??)

New California e-voting measure uses hackers to test voting machine
security (thanks Destined)

It's easy being green: Google goes solar (thanks Destined)

Brazil eyes free Internet to protect Amazon

A Deadly U.S.-Iran Firefight (uh-oh..)

Linux to help the Library of Congress save American history