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CARS: A quick overview of the Smart car, which Chrysler plans to bring to the US market by 2006. ZAP will start importing and converting the cars for sale in the USA this year. When someone does start selling these in Honolulu, there will be a long waiting list. Cooper Minis are very popular here.

Tech: GrepLaw interviews Nicholas Reville of Downhill Battle. DB has developed sites like sp2torrent.com and whatacrappypresent.com to promote file sharing. This is an excellent overview of the current conflicts between publishers and consumers. Thanks, Slashdot.

USA: Killer bees may have reached Oklahoma. A work crew was attacked in Tipton earlier this month while tending to a tree. Seven people required treatment for bee stings.

Related posts on billso.com

• 15 May 2008: Crazy ants run amuck in Texas, ruining computers
• 13 August 2004: Giant mutant ants in Australia

USA: John McCain has finally convinced W take legal action against the Swifties and other groups. Of course, most of the top 527s are working for Kerry and against W. The Republicans are kicking themselves because they missed an opportunity to get even more campaign money, and will now sue 527s to hurt Kerry’s chances.

Kerry is pressing his argument that the GOP is conducting a smear campaign. This could help derail W’s momentum. It could also alienate young people who don’t remember Vietnam, and undecided voters who care about real issues.

Meanwhile, the W campaign has ignored the IOC’s request to pull an ad that mentions the Olympics. The W campaign never asked the International Olympic Committee for permission to run an ad that violates US law: “An act of Congress, last revised in 1999, grants the USOC exclusive rights to such terms as “Olympic,” derivatives such as “Olympiad” and the five interlocking rings. It also specifically says the organization “shall be nonpolitical and may not promote the candidacy of an individual seeking public office.”“

USA: RNCnotwelcome.org is just one of the web sites that will support protestors in New York City during the next week. I hope things are peaceful in NYC, but there’s a good chance that New York’s finest will turn a protest into 1968 Chicago.