… and why we lack the political will to do somethng about it. “Across the world an estimated 842 million people are today undernourished – and that figure is again climbing, with an additional 5 million hungry people every year. The figures, says the report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ‘signal a setback in the war on hunger’. The prospect of cutting by half the number of people who go hungry – the target set by the world’s governments in 1996 – looks ‘increasingly remote’.

The shocking thing about this is that, in the world of the politics of aid, at any rate, nobody is shocked.” —Indelendent.UK

“The man responsible for writing software that allowed people to circumvent copyright technology on DVDs has posted software on the Internet that may allow Windows-using customers of Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store to break digital rights management (DRM) technology that protects files downloaded from that service.

A link to the file, called QTFairUse, was posted on a Web log that is maintained by Jon Lech Johansen, also known as ‘DVD Jon.’ When compiled and run, the program allows iTunes users to make raw copies of songs that use Apple’s MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) standard.” —Yahoo! [thanks, abby]