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I think that all Aussies with an interest in being able to use their computers unencumbered should really make their frustration over this deal known now. While it may be too late to stop the FTA, we still might be able to make a difference. Hopefully if we make enough noise the media and politicians will stop ignoring the IP aspects of the FTA.

So, start sending letters to newspapers. The FTA is a hot topic in the news right now, so there's a good chance it will be accepted (see letter second from the bottom).

You can send letters to the editor at the following addresses:
The Australian
Sydney Morning Herald
The Age

If US Slashdotters are keen, they could even send a "letter to the editor" detailing the problems with the DMCA and software patents that Australia will now face.

You can also let your feeling be known to the shadow minister for the Arts, Sport and Information Technology (Senator Kate Lundy). Her contact details are here. Be sure to mention that this issue will affect your vote.

You can also find out what electorate you are in, if you don't already know, and send your local federal MP a message about how disappointed you are over the FTA's impact on the IT industry.

While the timing of the posting of this story on Slashdot wasn't ideal (most Aussie Slashdotters won't be awake for another 5 or 6 hours), hopefully a reasonable number will read this in the morning and take action.

when you consider it is Telstra who we are talking about. Telstra seems to want to charge whatever it wants, however it can only increase it's charges in line with costs. So jumping on Linux would decrease thier costs and the ACCC would jump all over them.

Maybe I'm just a cynic and my logic is flawed, but it doesn't suprise me that one monopoly should use get into bed with another monopoly.

I think you're missing my point. The technology will be tested in the supply chain; the testing will come to the conclusion that it is too easily hacked, if a 'write-many' technology is used. My point about it being used (and implemented) in the supply chain is simply that they will have it in a working environment and find all these issues long before they start relying on it for checkout.

The retailer will then settle for the write-once-read-many technology that doesn't make it so easy to rip them off, and put the consumers' mind at rest by allowing some type of clearing of the RFID tag (if the privacy backlash is too great). And those that say that being able to clear the tag will enable shoplifting just as easily as being able to change the info on the tag are clearly mistaken. The first instance of RFID being used will not replace the checkout process as it is today. You will still have staff at the front of store checking to make sure you're only taking what you pay for.

Today, retailers are already trialling self-checkout technologies. These involve using barcodes still, and use a combination of weighing the items, staff monitoring, and various other means, to ensure what is taken out of the store is what has been paid for. The RFID implementation of this will be the same, except less time consuming, as the customer won't have to pass every item across a barcode reader like what occurs today with traditional checkout technologies.

Here's how we deal with Computers in Colorado. (from http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/25/10590 84199743.html ) "In January, police were called to an apartment block in Boulder, Colorado, after neighbours saw a man waving a handgun and yelling that he "wanted to kill" the "bitch". The police, thinking it was a violent domestic row, then called in a SWAT team and the building was evacuated. It didn't take long, however, before the rifle-equipped SWAT team realised the man was simply suffering computer rage and that the gun was actually a plastic pellet pistol. No charges were laid. Only two months later in the same US state - Colorado must have poor PC support - an office worker in Lafayette walked into a nearby bar (which he also owned) with his laptop, told the customers to cover their ears, and then shot his laptop four times. It was later hung on the bar wall like a hunting trophy. Unlike the other gun-toting rager, however, he was arrested."

Featured in today's Age newspaper, is an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, in which he specifically mentions:

As the first generation that grew up with computer video games enter their 30s and discover less time for play, Miyamoto also questions the industry's obsession with game length. "It's been a topic of much discussion at Nintendo. We need shorter, simpler games that people can pick up and play without so much commitment".

For those who are complaining that Nintendo has cartoony graphics and produce only kids games, you might find the following interview interesting.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/29/10906 94037678.html

I personally prefer the Miyamoto philosophy (I'm 35), but I admit I may be in the minority in the western world.

There have been more and more stories in the mainstream press mentioning Firefox as a cure for what ails your computer:

Salt Lake Tribune
The Age
Sierra Star (CA)
Sun-Sentinel (FL)
News-Press (FL)
News-Leader (MO)
The Scotsman (guys in skirts)
etc...

He's been pounding these out for months now. Rebutted by Open Source Industry Australia in April.

Well, down here in merry old Oz, some unions were asking store owners to moderate the playing of carols for the sake of the employees; likening it to psychological terrorism.
Link

I know %1 sounds like a reasonable guess, but actual estimations of psychopathy rates performed by psychologists I've seen were a full %5. I expect in some societies the rate to be significantly higher than that.

According to this article, Dr Robert Hare (emeritus professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia) estimates psychopathy at 1% of the population at large.

However, psychopaths tend to gravitate to particular professions -- "business, politics, law enforcement agencies, law firms, religious organisations and yes, the media" -- where percentages are probably much higher.

-kgj

Too bad there was nothing to disarm, and still isn't anything to disarm.

There is no way to sugar-coat this. You are 100% wrong. There is nothing factual about your claim. Perhaps you came to this conclusion based on inaccurate information, but you can no longer claim ignorance for your inaptness of the subject. Please read the facts regarding WMD if you have any questions. Your welcome.

Um...yeah you did. You went to war with Iraq. In fact, you invaded them. Remember? Killed a few innocent people, a whackload of bad guys and pretty soon a cool grand in US soldiers(900 and counting! Go us!)?

Guess what? We never stopped our war with Iraq. According to the Safwan Accord signed by Iraq in 1991 to end the first Gulf War, Saddam was required to disclose his WMD programs and allow the UN to either destory the programs or view evidence that they were destroyed. This was a condition of the ceasefire to the first Gulf War. Well, Saddam never complied, so that means a ceasefire never took place. The conflict that started last year was a continuation of the war that started over a decade ago, and was only brought to pass because 9/11 shocked us into realizing that we couldn't leave serious business like that unfinished.

The only difference is this time we actually did finish the job, and we are safer because of it.

Pink Floyd had Dark Side of the Moon bootlegs in stores....

"Pink Floyd played a concert version of Dark Side at London's Rainbow Theatre in February 1972. To their dismay, a bootleg recording of the concert sold 100,000 copies about a year before the official release." Article

And look what it became...

"In the USA, DSotM is the 18th best-selling album of all time and has spent a total of over 740 weeks on the Billboard magazine music charts with the longest continuous period lasting 591 consecutive weeks. It reached the #1 chart position in the US, Belgium and France; even in 2002, thirty years after the album's release, over 400,000 copies were sold in the United States, making the record the 200th bestselling album that year. "Time", "Money" and "Us and Them" have become radio call-in favourites (with "Money" having also been a bestselling single in the USA)." Wikipedia

If it is good enough people will still buy it. So if this record is phenomenal U2 should just finish it.

But this was. I'm glad the people at Acxiom have more integrity than this police force.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton.

for these reasons alone I love living in a place where if I'm outside it can be hard to be captured by image because of the size of the country.

the closest we have to cctv in melboure was some cameras put up in sept-oct '81 for CHOGM. This of course in under review as the 2006 commonwealth games are being planned.

But getting a shirt and some dacks at a local store on the weekend illustates how insidious observation has become. I picked up a buiness card seeing where was an online ordering option and I happened to notice the terms of condition for entry into the store.

If you refuse to have your bag searched the company reserved the right to use video images to refuse entry into *any* store in the future indefinatly.

• ``For YOUR protection, a video record of you and your establishment is being transmitted and recorded at remote locations. [insert darkglass here on shirt] All criminal acts prosecuted.''

  Steve Mann, Shooting back.

The problem for me is twofold, double standards and unnecessary data collection. Double standards becuase I bet the store owners and company in question would object if I did a steve man on them and put them under surveillance , secondly the potential for abuse or mistakes made using this approach.

In a country where noise is made about *free speach*, *innocence before guilt* and *privacy* I'll make less of a noise when pollies allow visual transmission of 100% of parliamentary procedure and not cut transmission due to parliamentary standing procedure to avoid honourary members falling into disrepute.

You're not entirely correct. Yes, the lyrics and music of the song are still covered by copyright, but THIS PARTICULAR RECORDING of the song will not be, after 31st Dec 2004. So two Europeans could share an MP3 of it on Kazaa perfectly legally, or you could sample it and remix THIS RECORDING (a la JXL v. Elvis) - anything that involves the "mechanical reproduction" of this particular recording will not be covered by copyright any more. Because of the 50 year rule for recorded music copyrights, a lot of famous recordings are entering the public domain in Europe - for example the work of Maria Callas. Indepedent record labels can therefore release their own compilations of these recordings - often at bargain prices. It's important that we fight this issue, if it comes round to the European Parliament - they might not act quickly enough to "save" these particular recordings - BUT on 1st Jan 2013 the recordings of a certain Liverpool quartet will start to enter the public domain. If EMI is still around at this stage, and haven't forced a change of the law through, then you can bet there will be the most almighty wailing...

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" - The US Supreme Court thinks we should know each and every one of the millions upon millions of US laws by heart, once we turn 18. On top of that, we're supposed to know the infinite number of possible ways the courts will interpret the laws. The Government thinks the average joe is ignorant. Geeks think the average joe is ignorant too.

Are we REALLY ignorant? Or are we just busy living our own lives? I certainly don't have time to fuss over technical esoterica that I'm not getting paid to fuss over...At least you don't go to jail for ignorantly using IE...Oh, wait - "A rogue program corrupts an internet link and gets a family man arrested over child pornography" ... "a so-called Trojan horse - that had infected his PC, probably during innocent internet surfing."

Maralinga Experiments

Bizarrely or thankfully, Australia has no nukes (officially) but the Pommies do. I guess that's offsite storage at its best.

This browser warning page thoroughly trashes MSIE, but every phrase is linked to a news article that uses the exact same verbiage in order to demonstrate that it isn't just anti MS FUD - It's the honest truth. It's designed and maintained for webmasters to deliver to the IE-using visitors to their webpages. You can read the source code for some more information about that. In case you're curious, here's a paste of the text and links that it has - This should prove quite effective with anyone you're trying to convince to stop using IE:

Your web browser - a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer - may not function properly on this website, and could have a large number of problems that allow hackers to hijack it with viruses. These viruses could be used by criminals to secretly take over your computer, download child-pornography, or to commit acts of terrorism and fraud. You may automatically update it now with Microsoft's available patches, however, there is a possibility that a necessary patch will not be available due to Microsoft's somewhat sluggish development schedule.

The US Department of Homeland Security strongly suggests that you stop using Internet Explorer immediately.

There are several standards-compliant web browsers that you may use instead of Internet Explorer. Please install one of them as a replacement.

• Opera [Download Now]
• Mozilla [Download Now]
• Netscape [Download Now]
• K-Meleon [Download Now]

If you suspect that your computer is already being used for criminal activity, it is critical that you seek help from a computer professional in your local area. You may also try one of the free web-based virus scanners that are available.

Here are some. Some may be a year or so old, and I don't recall what links I sent as examples. Google should help you find all you need.

Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
30 unpatched holes in IE, says security researcher
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw | CNET News.com
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Microsoft Windows Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows
CERT recommends anything but IE
Exploiting design flaws in the Win32 API for privilege escalation
Worm Exploits Multiple Windows Vulnerabilities
Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs

Gates fussy over security in Sydney

Couple of choice quotes:

"The Microsoft co-founder and one of the world's richest men is in Sydney today for a press appearance so tightly scripted and controlled it could have been orchestrated by US President George W. Bush's media office."

"At least the assembled do not have to submit their retinas or fingerprints for scanning - possibly because Microsoft can't come to grips with good security."

"Those running the market-leading open source Apache web server, who use desktop operating systems such as Mac OS X or GNU/Linux, or Windows web browsers other than Explorer (such as Opera or Mozilla) were inoculated from the virus."

There's quite a bit more, all fun reading.

While I won't usually cite USA Today as a source, the myth of the "Club Fed" prisons is just that: a myth.

They're certainly not as dank or dangerous as a maximum security state prison, but they're not country clubs, either.

USA Today article, RE: Martha Stewart and what she faces in prison

Similar article from Globe and Mail

Article from Australia's The Age regarding white collar criminals in the US

-l

I don't think so.

Search at The Age: "Sorry, no articles matching color were found"

Search at The Age: "You searched for colour and found 30 matches"

I don't think so.

Search at The Age: "Sorry, no articles matching color were found"

Search at The Age: "You searched for colour and found 30 matches"

clicky

Space debris could be very catastrophic, but the chances of being hit by it are still miniscule

Yeah!.. But it wouldn't even need to be the size of a house to cause a problem.

I'll confess that my blanket statement about a growing culture of greed may have been unfair and - admittedly - unresearched.

Okay.

But my statements about over-representation (not a fault of farmers mind you) still stand, as does my remark on Australia's unbalanced focus on agriculture.

Okay. To say we've got big, nightmarish environmental problems is an understatement. The fact that they've been able to turn a huge salinity problem in VIC into a "salt for cents" business scares the shit out of me and also just about anyone who lives/works/depends on the land. Australian farmers and rural communities are not ignorant, they know the problems. I think you've acknowledged this. You're right that you hit a sore spot of mine - people who've read somewhere that farming is bad (it is, but I believe it can be managed) and hence condemn all rural folk as ignorant in their practices or just outright baddies (some are, most aren't).

Interestingly, it's also a shame that by definition, cities/urban areas emerge from (and consume) our most fertile land. Not that I'm saying this as any defence for negligent, short-sighted farming practices, but instead I usually say this to the person on their high-horse to point out that we are all part of the problem.

hope that you can accept my apology for the unfounded 'culture of greed' comment

Appreciated. I should add that farm operators (not all are family run, as you probably know) aren't saints, there is greed, but it isn't a culture.

if you'll also accept that many of my points on agriculture vs the environment and over-representation are also true or at least warrant some merit.

Sure, although I'll have to take your word for the over-representation issues - I'm almost totally uninformed with the politics, and I have a sore point with spending on roads, which could generate 1000s of words of my thoughts...

I've realised I fell into the trap of blaming rural Australians for the flawed policies of government - which wouldn't be fair even if it made any kind of sense.

Exactly. As a nation that uses it's own agriculture, we're all part of the problem.

I'd also be interested to learn about what you meant by one corporation controlling most of the country's cattle production. It's certainly not something I was aware of.

I'm no expert, my field of interest is actually electronic engineering. However, it's my understanding that the cattle production sector has historically attracted a sort of "enterprise business model" bunch of entrepreneurs, but then again so have the other sectors, I guess. Certainly in the area I grew up there existed a huge cattle property, complete with mansion and servants the owner rarely visited, a landing strip for a private Leer jet (+ paid pilot) and private (non-mustering) chopper (+ paid pilot).

Anyway, found the landline episode and this age article, about the sale of Stanbroke. Stanbroke was already the worlds' largest beef producer, I thought it was being bought by AAC (another significant owner of beef production) but apparently not, had my facts wrong, they actually lost the bid. After reading these articles I've linked I'm now of the impression that the final deal isn't so bad afterall.

Still, the empire grows bigger.

So, I actually think you and I are not on totally different wavelengths afterall. Isn't rational discussion great? :-) My original sentiment for the objection of comparing the American farm lobby and Australian rural politics (of which I admit I know little, being neither a farmer nor interested in it) came from that sbs dateline episode I

To summarise:

• A federal government commissioned study of the agreement, which found it would boost the Australian economy by more than $6 billion a year, was out of touch with reality.
• The deal could cost Australia around $52 billion within two decades, largely due to Australian governments surrendering their control of key policy decisions. This would be most felt in knowledge-based industries, with American companies likely to overwhelm their small Australian opposition, wipe out competition, withdraw domestic investment and take profits offshore.
• The study also put a cost to the proposed changes in copyright laws in Australia, that will extend copyright protection by 20 years, in line with the US. The NIEIR found this change would benefit the Disney Corporation, which has pushed the copyright extension in the US, at a $450 million cost to the Australian public.
• Changes in the copyright, pharmaceutical and knowledge-based areas, and restrictions on the ability of Australian governments to act in the country's best interests, all meant the deal was not in the national interest.
• It found the average loss of jobs would be around 57,000, but in a worst-case scenario, it could rise to 195,000.

Well that just sounds wonderfull...

Q.

My favorite "unbelievable but true" negligence lawsuit is this one:

Man sues bar after slipping on residue from friend's pork-based shoes.

-a

Robots are cool and all, but why bother building and programming robots to find mines when we already have biological robots that can do the same thing while running off of water and a little bit of food. It seems a bit like a wonderful solution to a problem that doesn't exist - evolution has been doing pretty darn well at doing this sort of thing so far, so I'm not really sure why would need robots after all this time.

In what way is this "News for Nerds"?

I managed to find a few links that talk about buildings that use/will use solar-powered AC, but they skim over the background: Duke | Some House

Here are are a couple of commerical solar-powered AC units: Coolmax | Solacool

You can find some more links if you google solar-powered air conditioning.

Several cometes hosting rebel troops governed by evil and rebelious law were fretted by an unusual hungry BigMac. The 250 hotspots were digested within less than a second. BigMac's first comment: 'This was fun! Where exactly did you say that cluster of beowulfs is located? Buuurghrp.' The BigMac is now heading for McDonald's Plaza in Oak Brook, IL and dying to see Birdie. The extra-terrestial fresh quality of the Cometa, the main ingredient of McDonald's most popular burger, the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Bacon and Eggs and Cometa, is a result of a unique process and BigMac's ability to eat the Cometa directly after catching.

The Australian parliament has to pass five or six pieces of enabling legislation, although the agreement itself will not be voted upon directly.

Mr Vaile said he hoped to have those pieces of legislation passed during the July and August sittings of parliament.

Both countries hope to have the deal operating from January 1 next year.

According to this article on The Age, the rats do not weigh enough to set off the mines. So, they are far less likely to get blown up as a human or dog. Therefore, using them is more humane than using a dog. If demining organizations don't use rats or dogs, what do they use? I suppose we could use PETA members. Any volunteers???

According to this article on The Age, the rats do not weigh enough to set off the mines. So, they are far less likely to get blown up as a human or dog. Therefore, using them is more humane than using a dog. If demining organizations don't use rats or dogs, what do they use? I suppose we could use PETA members. Any volunteers???

NY Times
The Age
Seattle Post

Don't forget that Hamas was in large part funded by Israel to create a strong opponent to the PLO. What an collosal backfire that was!

Slightly OT, but this incident involving stupidity and airport security that happened yesterday may be familiar to some Australian readers.

There is also the case of Abu Zubayr, an officer in Saddam's secret police who was also the ringleader of an al Qaeda cell in Morocco. He attended the September 5, 2001 meeting in Spain with other al Qaeda operatives, including Ramzi Bin-al-Shibh, the 9/11 financial chief. Abu Zubayr was apprehended in May, 2002, while putting together a plot to mount suicide attacks on U.S. ships passing through the straits of Gibraltar. He has allegedly since stated that Iraq trained and supplied chemical weapons to al Qaeda. In the fall of 2001 al Qaeda refugees from Afghanistan took refuge in northern Iraq until they were driven out by Coalition forces, and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, an al Qaeda terrorist active in Europe and North Africa, fled from Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has reportedly been sent back to Iraq to coordinate al Qaeda activities there.

Take note of Al-Zarqawi. You can read some of what he has to say about the war in Iraq in my next response.

Iraq also sheltered Abu Nidal, one of the most notorious terrorists of the 70s and 80s who appears to have links to 9/11. Oddly enough, Nidal committed "suicide" by shooting himself multiple times, in the head IIRC, not long before the war.

and now we're handing it over to Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda doesn't feel that way. Here is what their leader in Iraq, Al-Zarqawi, has to saw about their fighters and efforts there only a few months ago:

1. Most of them have little expertise or experience, especially in organized collective work. Doubtlessly, they are the result of a repressive regime that militarized the country, spread dismay, propagated fear and dread, and destroyed confidence among the people. For this reason, most of the groups are working in isolation, with no political horizon, farsightedness, or preparation to inherit the land. Yes, the idea has begun to ripen, and a light whisper has arisen to become noisy talk about the need to band together and unite under one banner. But matters are still in their initial stages. With God?s praise, we are trying to ripen them quickly.

2. Jihad here unfortunately [takes the form

Why did it work? Because the "liberation" was a popular movement with broad support among all people of the nation to be "liberated".

Why will we fail in Iraq? Because we are not "liberating" anyone, we are subjugating them.

Poor journalism? At a the Times? Never! All their reporters are ethical, honest, hardworking folks!

One aussie politician points out that not all computer systems are affected.

Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: "My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are."

The phrase untermenschen - literally "under-people" - was brought to prominence by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf, published in 1925. He used the term to describe those he regarded as racially inferior: Jews, Slavs and gypsies. -- British commanders condemn US military tactics

I much prefer the message in Half-Life, plenty of Americans understand that their interests and the interests of government thugs do not coincide...

This coming from the same state that also tails rappers when they come to shoot their music videos.


The only reason that I'm really worried is that I like to drive without my pants on sometimes.

If "AXA" wins, this means that using its name is forbidden, unless the company gives its approval beforehand. This imposes an undue restriction on freedom of speech, since Google is certainly not the only forum in which AXA is discussed and/or searched. Will this company sue, let's say, every newspapers or forums that discuss insurance companies and/or policies? Unlikely.

It's slightly more complicated. The problem with Google's ads (as explained by Playboy's lawyer in this article) is that they confuse the user into thinking that the company that they searched for sponsored the ad. Don't confuse it with an effort to eliminate AXA from all web pages everywhere.

It's very similar to domain name squatting. If you go to www.ford.com, you expect to find a company named Ford (most likely Ford motor company), not a redirect to www.honda.com. If you instead found information about a competitor, you might think that the company supports the competitor, which is does not. When you think of this case as if it were about a domain name, it doesn't appear to be as simple as others present it.

The other word they're suing for is "direct insurance" - according to this slightly more informative story from AP out on the wires now.

What really bugs me is that AXA did not pay Google to be listed. AXA can easily deny, via robots.txt, google's ability to visit their site. AXA is getting tons of free publicity via exposure on google. What right does it have to deny clearly demarcated ads on the very same site?

There are at least two online music stores for Australians to use. http://bigpondmusic.com/home.asp and http://www.destramusic.com/.

Sure, they are both Windows only (and they both suck), but they are there. Personally I use www.allofmp3.com in Russia. See today's Age newspaper for more details.

Local software developer Jeremy Howard's against the DMCA, according to the Age by way of google news. No mention of Prime Minister John Howard being against it.

You can read an article/review about it here in the Melbourne Age. Eugene Spafford was interviewed in the documentary, and was a target of the above-mentioned hackers.

I will use the term hacker from now on, but you can substitute the term cracker if you think it is the more "correct" term.

My recollection of the documentary says that one of the hackers did claim to compromise one of Eugene Spafford's machines, albeit briefly. I cannot recall if Eugene Spafford confirmed this in the interview, but I doubt it (his confirmation, that is).

Whilst it is impossible to verify what was claimed by the hackers the tone in which it was told was not "boastful", and given the other systems that they were convicted of getting into (NASA etc), it does not seem fanciful that they did indeed compromise his machione for a short period of time - which does kind of go against what he claims in the article.

In terms of the documentary, it was excellent viewing. It did not appear sensationalised or biased, and laid out the people and (sometimes) the motives behind some of these early attacks. Recommended viewing, if you can find it.

Yes, try telling that to Australian born David Hicks and his family. After been captured in northern Afghanistan, he had to wait 2 years before receiving legal representation at Guantanamo.
More info here

To the best of my knowledge, there has been absolutely no progress here and he is still being detained.
Don't attempt to claim that an Australian doesn't have a "governmental umbrella" that can be negotiated with, this is just a single example of many that the US is a law unto itself and is routinely allowed to detain people of any nation for extended lengths of time without trial. I suspect that the US media doesn't report many of them. I know I certainly don't see much mention of the major cases we hear on local new broadcasts vs re-broadcasts of major US news stations