David Letterman & Bill O'Reilly

I just saw the interview which is available at The Political Teen in full. It is not what people are making it out to be. Neither Letterman nor O'Reilly were hostile and Letterman definatelly did not make O'Reilly look foolish. If anything Letterman looked like an idiot for debating subjects without having any facts. Oh, that and criticizing O'Reilly's show and calling him a liar based on "things he has read." Download the video and judge for yourself. I don't watch either program, but was angry that I missed it last night after reading about it yesterday morning.

75 m. year-old 30-foot crocodile found in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Unlabeled fossils — a jawbone, some teeth and armored plates — have been identified as those of a 30-foot-long crocodile, the largest that ever lived in prehistoric New Mexico.

The fossils of the predator had been stored, unclassified, for six years among the 100,000 fossils at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science here.

Yahoo

Oops, a minor error in West Virginia

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) -- Jubilant family members celebrated news early Wednesday that 12 miners were pulled alive from the scene of an underground explosion, only to learn nearly three hours later that they had been misled and just one miner actually survived.

The chief executive of the mine blamed the stunning error on a misunderstood conversation overheard between rescuers and the command center overseeing rescue efforts.

Families learned of the deaths from mine officials more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin said he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster. The sole survivor of the disaster was hospitalized, a doctor said.

Associated Press

Sorry for the absence

I am sure nobody has noticed my last post was dated weeks ago... Here is something new. An old PHP board I used to run is back from the dead, Hicow. As far as I can tell it is not getting many hits yet, but it's rebirth is still new. No registration is required to post. I have no idea what the owner of the board is doing, although I doubt he is serious about another go at a Hong Kong based board. Who knows?

1.3 M Year-Old Footprints Found In Mexico, Heading For the U.S. Border

In July a team of English researchers reported the discovery of human footprints in Mexico that appeared to be 30,000 years older than when most scientists believe humans arrived in the Americas.

Researchers commonly accept that humans came to the Americas some 11,500 years ago. But new dating of the Mexican find suggests that the features are in fact 1.3 million years old.

If the new dates are correct, the footprints could be among the most incredible hominid traces ever discovered—or, more likely, not footprints at all.

National Geographic

RSS Worms on the Way?

David Sancho, senior anti-virus research engineer at Trend Micro, warned that RSS feed hijacking will become commonplace when Microsoft Corp. ships Internet Explorer 7, a browser refresh that will feature built-in RSS support.

In a white paper titled "The Future of Bot Worms," Sancho said the IE7 release "will open some interesting possibilities to worm creators."

"The easy way of taking advantage of the popularity [of RSS] is to hijack the existing configured feed clients to automatically download new copies of worms and other threats to the infected computers. This is accomplished by pointing the already-configured client to different and malicious Web content," Sancho wrote.

"The way this would work is checking if the system has any automatic feed download configured. If it does, it would just add or change an existing one to point to the malicious Web site," he added.

Sancho predicts that RSS feed hijacking attacks will serve as a passive download point that could easily bypass personal firewalls and other security barriers.

"The download would still be working even if the worm is detected [and] deleted. To get rid of this properly, there should be a cleaning tool that deletes the configuration in the feed client," he added.

eWeek

OU Suicide Bomber Documents Update

Conservative journalist Mark Tapscott writes to say he is going through the documents and disagrees with Malkin's assesment that the documents aren't that interesting. I will keep an eye on his findings as well as that of Jason Smith who is doing the same.

But in the search warrant documents unsealed last week, we find this statement from FBI investigator Jennifer Baker described what she was told by eyewitness Donald Wayne Laughlin who walked past Hinrichs a few seconds before the bomb attached to his body detonated.

When the bomb detonated, Laughlin looked back at the bench where he had just walked past Hinrichs. According to Baker, "Laughlin saw what appeared to be the bottom half of the man that had been sitting on the bench."

There simply is no confusing a photo of a "headless body" with a witness's description of seeing "the bottom half of the man" an instant after the detonation.

I have additional questions, but in the meantime I look forward to hearing Vaughan Ververs and the FBI's explanation for how a headless torse could be confused with a body without a torso.

Tapscott's Copy Desk
I knew my laziness of letting others go through the documents would pay off.

Final Word on French "Riots"

They weren't riots at all. Silly us.

(Prime Minister) Villepin told the US television network CNN that the wave of unrest in French suburbs this month could not be described as "riots", and that it was not rooted in ethnic or religious divisions.

While admitting that there had been "severe social unrest", Villepin said the violence was on a far smaller scale than during the Los Angeles riots, in which 54 people died and some 2,000 were wounded.

"I'm not sure you can call them riots. It's very different from the situation you have
known in 1992 in LA for example," the prime minister said in the English-language interview. "In France during the two-week period of unrest, nobody died. So I think you can't compare this social unrest with any kind of riots."

AFP via Expatica
Thanks for clearing that up.

Playing With Coke Machines

Some of the newer Coke Machines have a simple OS that allows you to perform idiotic feats such as displaying on their LED screens how much cash is in the machine or the temperture inside the machine. No free soda pops. NLhiphop

Hostages in Iraq Are Spies

On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera broadcast video of the four men held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group claimed they were spies working under the cover of Christian peace activists.

Christian Peacemaker Teams said it was saddened by the videotape of their workers, who the statement said were working against the occupation of Iraq.

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the group said.

"We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people. We hope that we can continue to do this work and we pray for the speedy release of our beloved teammates."

Associated Press
I beg to differ. Everyone knows it is a ludicrous assertion that they worked for the CIA. That is almost as silly as Christian Peacemaker Teams holding the U.S. and U.K. governments responsible for the kidnappings. This overlooks the painfully obvious fact that these people decided to go to one of the most dangerous places in the world completely unprotected. Why should Christian Peacemaker blame the individuals for being stupid, themselves for organizing this questionable excursion, or, hold on, blame the terrorists?

OU Suicide Bomber Documents

Michelle Malkin is posting 94 of the court documents she recentlly obtained here (large pdf). These are the first of 350 that she will post. I haven't looked at them because she says they are unremarkable and incomplete. I will take her word for it and let others look them over for me.

6000 B.C. Settlement Found In Greece

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists in northern Greece have uncovered traces of two prehistoric farming settlements dating back as early as 6,000 B.C., the Culture Ministry said Monday.

The first site, located on a plot earmarked for coal mining by Greece's Public Power Corporation, yielded five human burials, as well as artifacts including clay figurines of humans and animals, sealstones, pottery and stone tools.

The ministry said the one-acre site near Ptolemaida, some 330 miles northwest of Athens, had been inhabited for a short period during the early Neolithic era — between 6000 and 5500 B.C.

"(The discovery) will help us solve problems regarding prehistoric social structures ... as the area saw a gradual introduction of farming techniques over at least five millennia," the ministry said.

Some 25 Neolithic settlements have been discovered in the area.

The ministry said a second, smaller site, also dating between 6000-5500 B.C., was excavated near Grevena, some 260 miles northwest of Athens. Archaeologists found a number of rare figurines in the settlement, which contained a workshop for producing stone tools.

The first traces of human settlement in Greece date to at least 40,000 B.C.

Associated Press

Iraqi Hostage Video Exclusive at The Jawa Report

**Jawa Report Exclusive**

***The Jawa Report releases names of four Western hostages.***

A hostage video has been released of the four Western peace activists taken hostage in Iraq. The Jawa Report has obtained a copy of the video. Images from the video and links to video posted below. The video shows American Thomas Fox of Clear Brook Virginia, Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, who resides in Auckland, New Zealand, British citizen Norman Kember, and some one who appears to identify himself as James Loni (last name unclear) of Canada.

Previously only Norman Kember had been identified. The Christian Peacemaker Teams organization has confirmed to The Jawa Report in the e-mail that the four hostages were working for that group.

The copy of the video I have makes no ransom demands, although a voice can be heard directing the hostages in the background.

Here is a transcript of the video:

My name is Norman Kember. I am 74. I am a member of the Christian Peacemaking team in Iraq.

My name is Harmeet Singh Sooden. I am 32 and I am working..I'm a volunteer for the CPT in Iraq.

My name is James Loni (?). I am 41 years old. I am from Canada and I am part of the Christian Peacemaker team in Iraq.

My name is Tom Fox and I am 54 years old. I am from the United States and I am a member of the Christian Peacmakers team in Iraq.

The Jawa Report
The site is getting killed right now, so you might want to wait a bit.

Pay Per Channel TV?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission is expected to suggest that cable companies could best serve their customers by allowing them to subscribe to individual channels instead of packages of several stations, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to announce Tuesday that the commission will soon revise the conclusion it reached in the report it issued last year on "a la carte" pricing in the cable industry.

Citing an FCC official familiar with the revised report, the Journal said the report will conclude that buying individual channels could be cheaper for consumers than bundles and that themed tiers of channels could be economically feasible.

Last year's FCC report on the subject found that most U.S. households would face higher television bills if they only paid for the channels they wanted to watch.

The commission said then that increased costs for marketing and equipment would force up monthly bills by 14 percent to 30 percent for most cable or satellite TV customers even if they only paid for a handful of stations.

Customer advocates have said a pay-per-channel approach would keep cost increases in check by making programmers and providers more accountable to viewers.

Reuters
That might get me to use cable again, but probabally will not.

Town Decides Painting Depicting Mayflower Compact Must Go

Provincetown, MA recently voted to get rid of a painting of the Mayflower Compact signing because it has no women in it and the only Indian featured was not voting.

To wit, Selectwoman Sarah Peake spun her chair around near the end of the Nov. 14 meeting, gazed up at an oversized oil painting depicting the Pilgrims voting on the Mayflower Compact when they first landed in Provincetown, and declared that she wanted it removed.

Mind you, it's not that she didn't like the look or the colors or the style. It's not that she thought it was too big or too small for the Judge Welsh Hearing Room. It's not that it clashed with anything around it.

No, what Peake didn't like was that the painting didn't include any women. That and the fact that the painting's only Indian -- Native American, I'd better call him -- wasn't holding a ballot like everyone else.

Boston Globe
The entire column by Brian McGrory is an amusing read. Remind me never to move there. Political correctness is bad enough where I live.

Russians Take Seriouslly Joke About Selling Alaska

Moscow (CNSNews.com) - It may have been a joke, but some media organizations and politicians in Moscow appear to have taken half-seriously a satirical suggestion that the United States should sell Alaska back to Russia for $1 trillion.

The tongue-in-cheek proposal published in a U.S. newspaper raised the vague notion still present here that Russia could one day retrieve the territory it sold to the U.S.

The return of Alaska would be marked by a great national holiday, said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an outspoken nationalist politician.

Russia would then have a presence on three continents -- Europe, Asia and America -- noted Zhirinovsky, who is deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament.

Last Wednesday, the Washington Post ran a satirical commentary entitled, "Alaska Would Be More at Home in Russia."

CNSNews

Making an Elevator Express to Your Floor

How To Force an Elevator to Go Straight to Your Floor Without Picking Anyone Else Up:

1) Get in the elevator.
2) Decide which floor you want to go to.
3) Extend both index fingers.
4) Press the button for the floor that you want to go to, and the door close button at the same time, and hold them down for five seconds.
5) Laugh at all of the people that are waiting on an elevator while you go right past them.

How To Do Stuff
The comments say that this does not work on all types of elevators.

Google's Worst Idea: Phone Ads

Google Tests Pay-Per-Call Ads

Search giant joins AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo in interest in new ad model.

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
Monday, November 28, 2005

Google has begun testing pay-per-phone-call ads, an emerging online ad model that is a twist on the popular pay-per-click ads.

While pay-per-click ads link users with advertisers' Web sites, pay-per-phone call ads link users and advertisers by phone. The Kelsey Group recently forecasted that in 2009 spending on online ads of this type could reach $1.4 billion, so it's not surprising to see Google testing the model.

Just as a pay-per-click advertiser pays only when a user clicks over to its Web site, a pay-per-phone-call advertiser pays only when the ad leads a user to contact the vendor by phone.

Just as they do with pay-per-click ads, companies typically determine the cost of pay-per-call ads via an auction process. The larger an advertiser's bid is for a search keyword or search category, the higher its ad will appear on the list of related ads that a search engine serves up in response to a user's search query.

PCWorld
Why on Earth would someone want a company to call you when you have a link to their home page right in front of you? But, the idea is not just ill-conceived, it is completelly fucked.

In Google's case, a phone icon has begun to appear with some ads; after clicking on it, users can enter their phone number. Google then generates a call between the user and the advertiser, according to a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page detailing aspects of the pilot program on Google's Web site.

I am sure people will only put in their phone numbers and not use it as a prank because people on the internet are honest.

Doomed to fail.

How to cheat at slots

Cleaners 'hoovered cash from slot machines'

Two cleaning ladies are being investigated for using industrial vacuum cleaners to suck cash out of casino slot machines.

The women allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash out of slot machines in a Slovenian casino.

The police have now been called in after bosses at Casino Korona in the Kranjska Gora ski resort grew suspicious.

They say money started disappearing from slot machines after the casino closed for the night.

Officers believe at least two of the casino's cleaning ladies had been using the giant vacuum cleaners for months to suck cash out of the machine's slots.

Casino bosses estimate the women could have stolen up to £330,000 pounds but cannot prove it. The entire cleaning staff has been sacked.

Ananova

Update on China's invasion of Japan

TOKYO (AFP) - A 30-year-old Japanese computer programmer was arrested on suspicion of posting a fictitious article saying Chinese troops invaded Japan on a bogus Japanese-language Yahoo News website.

AFP via Yahoo!
Original here

Liberal bias? Don't be silly.

CNN OPERATOR FIRED AFTER SUGGESTING 'X' OVER CHENEY WAS 'FREE SPEECH'

A CNN switchboard operator was fired over the holiday -- after the operator claimed the 'X' placed over Vice President's Dick Cheney's face was "free speech!"

"We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to a caller. "Bring our soldiers home."

The caller initially phoned the network to complain about the all-news channel flashing an "X' over Cheney as he gave an address live from Washington.

"Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or No?" the CNN operator explained.

"If you don't like it, don't watch."

Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN, said in a release:

"A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. "

Developing...
Drudge Report

Phillipines Fighting Indonesian Terrorists

Twenty slain as soldiers, Muslim extremists battle in Philippines

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - As many as 20 people are believed to have been killed as fighting between soldiers and members of an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militant group went into its third day in the southern Philippines on Sunday.

Heavy rains were hampering the military's pursuit of members of the Abu Sayyaf on the outskirts of the town of Indanan in the southern island of Jolo, said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, who heads an anti-terror task force on the island.

Aleo said the total number of soldiers killed had risen to four, with 21 others wounded.

Intelligence reports and radio intercepts revealed that 16 Abu Sayyaf members had been killed, although soldiers had only recovered three bodies, Aleo said.

The Abu Sayyaf, a feared Muslim outlaw group, has also received extra support from additional armed guerrillas as the troops advanced, Aleo said.

Fighting broke out on Friday when Abu Sayyaf members attacked a military patrol in Indanan.

Aleo said his soldiers discovered that the rebels had been forcing residents in outlying areas to leave their homes, for an as yet unknown reason. Troops had been sent to help the forced evacuees.

The Abu Sayyaf is a group of Muslim militants who have staged various kidnapping and bombing attacks against Christians and foreigners in this largely Roman Catholic nation.

It has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the Al-Qaeda network.

AFP via Yahoo!
It's really a shame what they have done to the Phillipines.

5 Questions non-Muslims would like answered

Dennis Prager in the L.A. Times has a commentary piece listing five very good questions that most in the media don't have the balls to ask.