COP15 emission cuts close to what is needed

New from COP15 is that the emissions cuts are close to what is needed. A study revealed that the countries taking part have said that they will cut emissions but scientists have called for just that little bit more. Some people have claimed that COP15 will fail but even though it needs a bit more work they are nearly there. The UNEP director Archim Steiner said that “For those who claim a deal in Copenhagen is impossible, they are simply wrong”.

The warnings were only based on pledges from industrial countries. UNEP said all the countries together should emit no more than 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2020 to avoid the worst consequences. “We are within a few gigatons of having a deal, the gap has narrowed significantly.” Steiner said. So on the first day of the summit they are nearly at their target. What will they do for the rest of the summit?

Under a day till the Copenhagen Conference begins

There's under twenty-four hours left until representatives from 192 countries around the world meet to discuss what they can do to reduce there carbon footprint. The summit will go on till December 18th. The Danish government is already educating kids at school about climate change and how it will affect them. It was announced yesterday that President Obama will be joining the summit. For the duration of the eleven days that the conference goes on all meetings and press conferences will be available live on Webcasts. It has been said that by 2020 emissions will be cut down by thirty percent from 1990 levels.

To make sure that these emissions are cut countries will sing a treaty. All EU countries will cut there emissions by twenty percent or thirty percent if other countries follow suit. This treaty should be completed by half way through 2010 and should take effect three years later.  The Asian Development Bank will put seven-hundred million dollars into helping member countries combat climate change. The money will help fund technologies such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power as alternative powers sources. I will be keeping you up to date on all the news from Copenhagen though the summit so keep checking back!

US military hacker to be tried in the US

UK computer hacker Gary McKinnon will be tried in the United States after requests to block extradition were refused. Gary’s family has been told that the Home Office couldn’t block the move because of his medical condition. Gary is accused of hacking into networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy. Department of Defence and the US Air force.

A US prosecutor claims the hack is the “biggest military computer hack of all time.” Gary said he was looking for UFO evidence. If he is convicted he will face 60 years in prison. Gary admits hacking into 97 US government computers which include NASA’s and Pentagon’s, during 2001 and 2002.

His mother Janis Sharp told the BBC she was “devastates” by the news and her son had reacted “very badly”. “To force a peaceful, vulnerable, misguided UFO fanatic like Gary thousands of miles away from his much-needed support network is barbaric”.

In my opinion although he has Asperser's syndrome he should still get a prison sentence but nothing else. We will have to see how it all comes out in the end.

Pirate Bay shuts down it’s tracker

The Pirate bay has shut down its tracker after BitTorent explained that there was no longer a need for such a tracking service. Although The Pirate Bay has continued to host files but are less directly involved in the download process. They have said that they don’t need to rely on a single server like BitTorrent that stores and distributes files. The move could be an attempt to get round legal threats on October 29^th.

These threats mean that if they still have to do what the court says The Pirate Bay will have to pay 73,000 dollars to the court if the site wasn’t closed. Four of the co-founders are appealing for a prison sentence but that has been postponed till next year. Former spokesman for The Pirate Bay posted on his Twitter “To make it totally clear, [the Pirate Bay] is not closing. (The Pirate Bay) closed the tracker because new technology has evolved to not need it. Less problems!”. The tracker has only been closed because it is no longer needed so we will have to wait to see what the court think!

Johnny Depp soon to become Hollywood's highest paid actor

Sometime soon Johnny Depp will become Hollywood’s highest paid actor for his role in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. He is expected to get twenty-one million for his role in the new movie. The film called On Stranger Tides will be released in 2011. He will be paid more than Tom Cruise and Will Smith when he gets the money.

His past co-stars Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom will not be staring in this film. He earned £15 million from staring in the last Pirates of the Caribbean film called Dead man’s Chest. It’s thought that from the whole series of films he will make around £50 million which will make him very rich. Although it’s not released for another two years, he will have to wait to see how much he makes and unfortunately it also means that we will have to wait. It should be good when it comes out though, if it makes as much as the other films!

Wormonauts set off on space mission

Space shuttle Atlantis has set off on a mission but with some very strange space travellers on board. The shuttle set off on Monday night from Florida, it had around four-thousand of the little creatures on board. The creatures are so small that they can only be seen under a microscope. Some scientists hope that the worms will help them work out why astronauts’ muscles go weak when they are in space.

The worms will spend eleven days in space and will orbit more than 200 miles round Earth. In total they will travel more than four and a half million miles on the journey. Also on that mission is a painting of a lady which is part of a different experiment. Six astronauts will also be on the mission to make sure that some equipment is delivered to the International Space Station. It will be a strange mission but it will be interesting to see how it turns out and I will hopefully be reporting on that.

Disney fights over Winnie-the-Pooh royalties

A company founded by the man who had worked with creator of Winnie-the-Pooh is taking Disney to court. This is because they want to get some apparently unpaid royalties. Stephen Slesinger who had come up with the idea of the red t-shirt for the bear had been allowed by a federal judge to sue Disney for royalties. A spokesman said that Disney owed a lot of money. Stephen had purchased the distribution rights for the US and Canada from A.A Milne in 1931. Eight years after Slessingers death in 1961 Disney got the rights that meant that they could films, TV series and toys.

Eric George who was a lawyer for Stephen said that that Disney owed his family 1.5% to 2.5% in royalties. Disney has said that the latest legal action is "baffling". Judge Florence-Marie Cooper made a decision on 25th September that rejected Slessingers company's claims. We still don't know the full outcome of this case but when we do we will hopefully be doing an update on the blog so watch out for it!