The Null Device

2003/12/4

A trade union representing retail employees in Austria has claimed that excessive playing of Christmas carols in shops is "psycho-terrorism":

From morning to night, for weeks before Christmas, there was the same Christmas music in department stores over and over again, said Gottfried Rieser of the Union of Private Employees.
"Many staff in the retail sector suffer psychologically from it," Mr Rieser said. "They get aggressive. On Christmas Eve with their families, they can't stand Silent Night or Jingle Bells any more."

christmas human rights psycho-terrorism psychological warfare terrorism 2

Big surprise there; Australia signs up for US missile defence programme, building a system to (theoretically) protect the continental 48 states from Chinese French al-Qaeda missiles, and (in practice) enrich well-connected defense contractors. Funny, I don't remember reading about a parliamentary debate on the subject. No word on whether the deal involves Cabinet members getting private bunkers somewhere in the Rocky Mountains for their trouble.

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The Pentagon has dismissed the lawyers recruited to defend Guantanamo detainees after some of its members criticised the design of the trials as unfairly biased in favour of the prosecution. (via jwz)

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A moderately successful attempt to photograph last night's rather impressive thunderstorm (digital camera, long exposure):

And, in contrast, tonight's sunset, over Brunswick St.:

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