With a hattip to Gaianne and DeAnander, here is a lazy quote diary from Orlov. With a poll!

The actors: Promusicae is a trade group representing the Spanish recording industry.

Telefónica is a huge telecommunication company that among other things serve as an internet service provider to persons in Spain.

The charge:

According to Promusicae, those persons were using the KaZaA file exchange program (peer-to-peer or P2P) and providing access in shared files of personal computers to phonograms in which members of Promusicae held the exploitation rights.

The demand:

It [Promusicae] therefore sought disclosure of the above information in order to be able to bring civil proceedings against the persons concerned.

I saw this in todays Salon:
metavision:

Not new, but worth repeating http://dailypaul.com/node/2406

Printing more money is the Fed's typical answer, but we are on the verge of runaway inflation. We have printed so many dollars now that we are at parity with the Canadian dollar for the first time since 1976. Since the Fed stopped publishing M3, which tracks the total supply of dollars in the economy, we can't even be sure how many dollars they are creating. Reported inflation is around 2%, but the method for calculating inflation changed in the 1980's, largely at Mr. Greenspan's urging. Private economists using the original method find actual inflation to be over 10%, which matches more closely the pain consumers in the real economy feel.

It poses some questions:

1. Did the way of calculating inflation in the US change in the early 80'ies?
   
2. What has the inflation been in terms of the old standard? Or what was the inflation of the 70'ies in terms of the new way of calculating?
   
3. Is inflation even calculated the same way in different countries?

Promoted by Colman

I have come to believe full employment (everyone who wants a job, has a job) as a goal is essential to the left regaining its moyo. As long as we have a substantial unemployment the right is going to use it as an argument to lower taxes, lower regulation and such in order (so they claim) to increase employment. The far-right (the ugly parties) are going to claim that it is the foreigners fault, who take our jobs either oversea or here. If the lefts only answer is that those propositions are false but have no own agenda to get full employment the right will keep on winning.

I have come to realise that when it comes to the economics of employment I have a lot of questions, and few answers.

I will start where I think I know something and work myself towards were I know I do not know. Between we will pass some unknowns...

This is more of a sketch then anything else, and I hope I get some answers in the comments.

From the diaries ~ whataboutbob

Just heard (Wed. 7/18) swedish radio news about the earthquake and nuclear power plant accident in Japan. Apparently the spill was larger then first reported (no numbers) and IAEA has encouraged Japan to be more open about nuclear power. No surprises thus far.

Now comes the real news (to me anyway).

From the diaries ~ whataboutbob. Back from the front paged and bumped because it is still active. --Jérôme

I wrote a comment I like to expand on.

DeAnander has drawn up the playing field of the nuclear debate.

As seen from that drawing and comments there are all kinds of pro- and anti-nuclear stances. So just to make things interesting I would like to know: How many reactors do you think we (as in all the world) should have around 2030?

I made a comment:

In Sweden it has recently surfaced that during the EU summit in Gothenburg 2001, swedish police acted on faulty intelligence provided by american services.

and was asked to expand it into a diary.

I figured the easiest way was to translate key portions of the article by the researcher in question, docent (sort of junior professor) Hans Abrahamsson at Peace- and Conflict-studies at Gothenburg university.

In todays Guardian, Merkel explains her plan to pass the constitution.

In a discussion some time ago it was suggested that the might of DKos mainly stems from an ability to direct donations to candidates.

I think it was Colman who asked about the laws concerning political donations. As the laws differ it might be a big or little hassle to try to direct donations. If this is efficient in a european setting is also a good question.

By accident I stumbled upon what the rules are in Sweden.

Earlier parts:
Swedish politics: Rascism, Scandals and Piracy (Part 1: Rascism)

Swedish politics: Rascism, Scandals and Piracy, Part 2: Scandals

Finally, the last installment of my election coverage in Swedens election (it was in september). I know that you have been eager for the Piratpartiets election analysis and future plans. Well, here it is:

From the diaries ~ whataboutbob

As Laurent already has reported, the Swedish trade minister resigned yesterday. Things are coming to fruitation quicker then my reporting, but here is my longish version of what is going on.

Figured a follow-up on the election, the new government and the Pirate party was in order. First the election and my first button-pusher:

Rascism
With all the votes checked and doublechecked the big surprise is Sverigedemokraterna - a far-right rascist no-immigration party - almost entered the parliament. They stopped at 162 463 votes - 2,93 % (4 % being the threshold). They picked up seats in many local elections and in Karlskrona in southernmost Sweden they got 22,26 % and 12 seats (of 51). Their direct impact will be little however as all other parties refuses to cooperate with them.

So why the surge? Sweden is doing fine economically and they have not got any new charismatic leader (I would not be able to pick their leader out in a line-up). I think there is two main factors:

Election day!
I figured I make a starter and then you can fill it in in the comments as results start to come in.

For background read someone's diary and the longish comments on this mornings open thread.

promoted from the diaries by poemless

This summer - the 25th of July - there was an incident at the nuclear plant Forsmark in Sweden. Now the analysis performed by SKI - the swedish governmental agency in charge of nuclear safety - is nearly completed.

I just read an article on the incident by an journalist that has read the nuclear plants report with aid from the investigators. If you can read Swedish I suggest you read it yourself (open the flash graphics on the right), but for you who do not, here is a summary:

Today the Guardian reported that Ethiopean troops have entered Somalia.

In fact they have probably been there for a while but are now being reinforced with more troops and more heavy equipment. The New Zealand Herald estimates the Ethiopian forces in Somalia at about 5000 soldiers.

I will try to give a brief view of the political situation in this region, a region where only the big bursts of violence reach the western news. Feel free to add what I miss in the comments.

From the Frontpage

In a previous thread we yet again got into a discussion about the constitution. Let me first say that this diary is not about the constitution. If you must know I do not have a firm grip on the pros and cons of the constitution as public debate barely started in Swedn before it stopped. So I have no position.

This diary is about the public participation in the formation of the European unions treaties. And please leave the discussions of the illfated constitution by the door. You can pick it up on the way out.

Today I went to a demonstration. But lets start in chronological order.

The Pirate Bay, closed by a police raid last wednesday is now back online. Their new logo features not only their famous pirateship but two cannonballs being fired at a Hollywood sign.

Today one of the worlds largest bittorrent trackers - The Pirate Bay - was raided by police, arrested and their computers and other equipment seized.

Report of the raid in english

The russian citizen arrested in february for spying in Sweden has been released. The no longer suspect was working as a scientist at SLU (agricultural university) in Uppsala.

The prosecutor claims to be able to prove only that scientific results and information about individuals at SLU was handed over to the russian embassy, but not that this has caused any harm to neither national security nor any companies in Sweden. Thus there is no case.

I think I commented this as a probable case of incompetent security service in february. I stand by that.

As I wrote about in a comment a couple of weeks ago, the Pirate Party has been founded in Sweden in january and is running for seats in the swedish parliament. The election is on the third sunday of september. The Pirate Party started with the question of downloading (hence the name, the copyright lobby has succesfully coined the meme pirate-copying) and anger towards the EU data retention directive, which our justice minister has been a leading proponent of. There is a general feeling that governments and big corporation together are trying to control communications and culture. And in Sweden the government and the opposition are squibbling over the details of the surveilliance while passing the big things together.

The Pirate Party has a platform with the following questions: