Environment World

I just read this news snippet about successfully creating a cloned embryos from monkeys. I assume humans aren’t too far behind. What got in my head is that clones are the exact copy of the original animal. Many animals use their finely attuned sense of smell to identify each other. If a cloned animal is allowed to enter the society of the original will the other animals tell them apart (assuming body scent doesn’t change over time). If a human is successful cloned will the fingerprints be the same?

Another municipality in Japan has set up a smoking ban on city streets. First it was Chiyoda in Tokyo and now it’s Fukuoka, both have the same fines, 2,000 JPY (about $18) on average with a max of 20000 JYP (about $180). When the law went into effect in Chiyoda I watched some very angry people on the news yelling at the ticketing agents. I expect more of the same but I’m sure the idea is sinking in. What I find strange is that the rights of non-smokers are never spoken about. The reason for the laws are about burned clothes and cigarettes on the ground. I suppose it’s still a good start.

If you’re a computer geek like me or are concerned with your rights as an American you might be happy to learn that Elmsoft was found not guilty of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is a controversial law designed to extend copyright protections into the digital age. That sounds like a good idea but the law goes too far. An example of too far is when a university professor was threatened with court action when his research discovered how to break a flawed watermarking scheme for digital files (watermarking is a like branding cattle, never a good idea if you’re a cow). Or when Walmart threatened to sue Fatwallet.com, a site that gave details on the big shopping day “Black Friday”. There are too many examples of big business stripping rights from consumers using the DMCA, do a Google search and learn for yourself.