BigDumbGuy

David Letterman & Bill O'Reilly

2006-01-04T20:20:00.000-06:00

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

2006-01-04T20:18:00.000-06:00

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

2006-01-04T03:12:00.000-06:00

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

2005-12-27T16:33:00.000-06:00

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

2005-12-01T16:14:00.000-06:00

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?

2005-11-30T13:31:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-30T13:02:00.000-06:00

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"

2005-11-30T12:48:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-30T12:44:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-30T12:31:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T16:51:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T14:07:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T13:20:00.000-06:00

**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?

2005-11-29T11:16:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T11:02:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T09:05:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-29T09:00:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-28T21:29:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-28T18:44:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-28T12:36:00.000-06:00

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.

2005-11-28T12:30:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-14T12:22:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-14T12:16:00.000-06:00

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.

My Favorite Windows Tip: Remove Icon Descriptions

2005-11-10T22:17:00.000-06:00

Afterall, you should know what the icon is for. Right click the icon, choose rename. Clear out the existing text. Make sure your num lock is engaged, hold down alt and type 0160. Voila. Oh, I believe you have to use the numeric keypad to make it happen (If you have a laptop, there is some way or other to make it work). If you get an error message saying you cannot rename it because the name already exists (this would be on your attempt at renaming a second icon). Repeat the procedure, only after you type in 0160, release the alt key, hold it down again, and enter a second 0160. For the third... you get the idea. For the regular desktop items, i.e. My Computer, etc. you may not have to add the additional 0160's. In fact, you may be able to just blank out the description, hit enter and it is gone. Don't know for sure as I have none of the standard icons on my desktop.

It makes for a nice, clean looking desktop.

10th Century B.C. Writing Discovered

2005-11-10T16:26:00.000-06:00

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C.

"This is very rare. This stone will be written about for many years to come,'' archaeologist Ron E. Tappy, a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who made the discovery, said Wednesday. "This makes it very historically probable there were people in the 10th century (B.C.) who could write.''

Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn., who was not involved in the find, said the writing is probably Phoenician or a transitional language between Phoenician and Hebrew.

"We have little epigraphic material from the 10th century in Israel, and so this substantially augments the material we have,'' he said.

The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.

AP via LiveScience

Jordanians Pissed at Al-Qaeda

2005-11-10T16:24:00.000-06:00

It's about time people in middle-eastern states took to the street to protest terrorism.

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Three terror bombings that killed at least 56 people in Jordan's capital sparked furious protests against al Qaeda on Thursday after a Web site carried a claim that the group was behind the attacks.

Jordanians flooded Amman blaring car horns and waving the nation's flag to protest the suicide attacks at three hotels with Western connections.

Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the claim of responsibility was posted.

CNN

Godzilla Discovered

2005-11-10T16:19:00.000-06:00

Actually it is 13-foot long dinosaur called Dakosaurus andiniensis related to crocodiles.

The sheer strangness of the Dakosaurus andiniensis, found in South America and announced today, led its discoverers to call it Godzilla after the huge, amphibious, dinosaur-like movie icon.

"This species was very unusual, because other marine crocodiles that were around at the same time had very delicate features – long, skinny snouts and needle-like teeth for catching small fish and mollusks," said Ohio State University researcher Diego Pol, who determined the crocodile lineage. "But this croc was just the opposite. It had a short snout, and large teeth with serrated edges. It was definitely a predator of large sea creatures."

The fossils were found in Patagonia, in an area that was once a deep tropical bay attached to the Pacific Ocean, by paleontologists Zulma Gasparini and Luis Spalletti of the National University of La Plata in Argentina.

LiveScience

In other news, I figured out Adblock was preventing me from posting pictures.

Speeding Star

2005-11-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers [1] have recorded a massive star moving at more than 2.6 million kilometres per hour. Stars are not born with such large velocities. Its position in the sky leads to the suggestion that the star was kicked out from the Large Magellanic Cloud, providing indirect evidence for a massive black hole in the Milky Way's closest neighbour. These results will soon be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters [2].

"At such a speed, the star would go around the Earth in less than a minute!", says Uli Heber, one of the scientists at the Dr. Remeis-Sternwarte (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany) and the Centre for Astrophysics Research (University of Hertfordshire, UK) who conducted the study.

The hot massive star was discovered in the framework of the Hamburg/ESO sky survey far out in the halo of the Milky Way, towards the Doradus Constellation ("the Swordfish").

"This is a rather unusual place for such a star: massive stars are ordinarily found in the disc of the Milky Way", explains Ralf Napiwotzki, another member of the team. "Our data obtained with the UVES instrument on the Very Large Telescope, at Paranal (Chile), confirm the star to be rather young and to have a chemical composition similar to our Sun."

The data also revealed the high speed of the star, solving the riddle of its present location: the star did not form in the Milky Way halo, but happens to be there while on its interstellar - or intergalactic - travel.

"But when we calculated how long it would take for the star to travel from the centre of our Galaxy to its present location, we found this to be more than three times its age", says Heber. "Either the star is older than it appears or it was born and accelerated elsewhere", he adds.

As a matter of fact, HE0457-5439 - as the star is called - lies closer to one of the Milky Way satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located 160,000 light-years away from us. The astronomers find it likely for the star to have reached its present position had it been ejected from the centre of the LMC. This could suggest the existence of a massive black hole inside the LMC, in order to have imparted the speeding star the necessary kick.

Another explanation would require the star to be the result of the merging of two stars. In this case, the star could be older that presently thought, giving it time to have travelled all the way from the Milky Way Centre. This scenario, however, requires quite some fine-tuning. The astronomers are now planning new observations to confirm one of the two scenarios.

ESO
I wish that said what its speed is relative to. Still cool-- a mystery star moving very fast.

Mugabe Razes 1000's of Homes/Shacks

2005-11-10T11:56:00.000-06:00

Zimbabwean police yesterday bulldozed thousands of shanty towns in Harare and cities across the country, making thousands of people homeless.

After a weekend hiatus President Robert Mugabe's authorities restarted the massive demolition campaign to tear down all illegal houses that have sprung up in the cities, according to accounts from Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Victoria Falls.

Armed police razed homes as families scrambled to save their possessions. The army was called in to help in some areas where residents protested and put boulders in the roads. Residents of Harare's Mufakose township said police used flamethrowers to burn homes.

Guardian

What a nice guy.

Risk using Google Maps

2005-11-10T11:47:00.000-06:00

This has been on Digg and now it is on Slashdot. I like the idea of it, just I find it impossible to play. Others say it is the best thing since sliced bread. I think it needs a lot of work. Decide for yourself.

Lots of Free Shit

2005-11-10T11:45:00.000-06:00

Some of it isn't shit, but most of it is. Spoofee
I signed up for free razors, dog food, and other assorted useful items. Then there is also a free 10 minute long distance call available here.

Call from a phone in the U.S. with CallerID. Call 1-843-654-1010 which is one of our DIDs in Charleston, South Carolina. The call will never be answered so you won’t be billed for the long distance call. Within 10 seconds, you should hear a fast busy. Just hang up, and our Asterisk server will call you back within 30 seconds. Listen carefully! You’ll be provided a random password for your call, and then you’ll be prompted to key it in. With your phone keypad, just do that and press the pound key (#).

Torrent Finder, DOSBox, ASCII Text

2005-11-09T10:43:00.000-06:00

Torrent Finder Self-explanatory. I have not tried this out yet, but I assume it works. It searches multiple torrent sites.

DosBox This is an emulator for DOS, so that you can play your old DOS games and programs on your modern box. It does not work for all programs as I discovered when trying to get it to play an old game that I loved.

ASCII Text Signature Generator Also self-explanatory. You have to try out various styles until you find one that is readable.

Giant Apes Lived With Humans?

2005-11-09T10:35:00.000-06:00

A gigantic ape standing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds lived alongside humans for over a million years, according to a new study.

Fortunately for the early humans, the huge primate's diet consisted mainly of bamboo.

Scientists have known about Gigantopithecus blackii since the accidental discovery of some of its teeth on sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy about 80 years ago. While the idea of a giant ape piqued the interest of scientists Â and bigfoot hunters Â around the world, it was unclear how long ago this beast went extinct.

LiveScience

The article does not go into the incredible stench of Hong Kong pharmacies. It's Chinese medicine-- you don't go there to buy aspirin. The smell is equalled only by the stench of Hong Kong street food. Seriouslly, you need to hold your breath.

Ebay Bullying

2005-11-09T10:29:00.000-06:00

Some psychotic, drug-crazed guy in Texas has found a new hobby. Stalking and harrassing potential Ebay buyers. This is very odd and kind of funny.

When the Schimkes e-mailed back with a question about the shipping cost, the seller allegedly blasted them with a nasty e-mail.

"As soon as he got my e-mail, he was pounding the keyboard and venting," Tina Schimke said.

The anger didn't stop there, she said.

The seller allegedly left her a message that said, "Hey there, schmuck boy -- not answering the phone now?"

The alleged eBay bully was on a roll.

"I know exactly where you f---ing live. E-mail me again and see what happens to your little b---- a--," the accused bully said in the message. "I was afraid this person was a maniac and was going to show up on our front door," Tina Schimke told the station.

The Schimkes aren't alone. This eBay bully had struck before, the station said.

He allegedly called the Burleson household 37 times.

Cindy Burleson and her daughter, both from Dallas, were also hammered over their questions about comic books the man was selling.

Cindy Burleson said the accused bully threatened her life.

"(He said,) 'I'm going to kill you. Scumbags like you shouldn't be allowed to live.' (He said) stuff like that," Burleson said.

10News San Diego

Instructions on Torching Peugeots

2005-11-09T10:26:00.000-06:00

Slate has an informative article called So, You Wanna Torch a Peugeot? How French hooligans set cars on fire.

Rioters in France burned more than 1,400 vehicles on Sunday night, as the civil unrest that began almost two weeks ago continued to spread. So far, at least 4,000 cars and buses have been torched by angry protesters. How do you set fire to a car?

From the inside out. The car's interior contains all the parts that are easiest to ignite: carpets, seat foam, soft plastic, even windshield wiper fluid. Manufacturers treat the interiors of some cars with flame retardants, but even these vehicles will go up in flames in a few minutes if there's a bit of fuel around. A cigarette butt probably won't set off a blaze by itself, but a single sheet of newspaper, if ignited, could do the trick.

Pentagon Channel

2005-11-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

The Pentagon is providing free video content here. It forces you to use Internet Explorer. That is too much of a hassle for me (yes, I use IE View). If they had guaranteed quality content I would watch it.

Wacky Packages Site

2005-11-06T15:17:00.000-06:00

Remember those funny stickers that parodied products? Tom's Wacky Packages Page has images of them along with more information and links about Wacky Packages than you need. They aren't nearly as hilarious as I remembered them.

Jimmy Mass(hole)ey

2005-11-06T15:09:00.000-06:00

Ron Harris in the St. Louis Dispatch writes about Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey. He is the guy who became an anti-war celebrety by telling of all the attrocities committed by American forces in Iraq. The problem is he is a fucking liar.

Each of his claims is either demonstrably false or exaggerated - according to his fellow Marines, Massey's own admissions, and the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's unit, including a reporter and photographer from the Post-Dispatch and reporters from The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.

Read the entire article.

How to Perform Strong Man Stunts

2005-11-05T14:02:00.000-06:00

A book by Ottley R. Coulter, published in 1952. Includes such tricks as tearing a phone book in half and how to break a spike using your teeth. sandowplus

Google Lunch

2005-11-05T13:52:00.000-06:00

This explains some of the inside jokes on yesterday's post about the Yahoo! Maps and Google's address. No, I wasn't that bored to actually look into this-- I just happened upon it.

As many people know, Google offers its employees free lunch and free dinner at the campus (Yahoo charges its employees). It’s a lavish affair, with many different types of high quality food, drinks, desert, etc. I like visiting Google for lunch, and accept nearly every offer I get from a Google employee.

To get into Google’s internal offices requires a discussion with security, sign in, badge, and escort. However, the dining area has no specific security into or out of it. If you can get past parking security, you can walk right in and eat.

Like much on TechCrunch, this is pure rumor. But I’ve heard from multiple independent sources that non-Google employees are making a game out of getting onto the Google campus, without an escort, and eating a free lunch, often taking a second lunch “to-go” for dinner. These people are keeping score to see who can eat the most free, unescorted lunches at Google. And specifically, my understanding is that many or all of these people are Yahoo employees. Yahoo HQ is right down the freeway, a very short drive away.

Have other people heard about this, or tried it (anonymous comments are fine)? For research purposes I may be trying this out myself. :-)

TechCrunch

Yahoo! Maps and Google

2005-11-04T17:11:00.000-06:00

Yahoo Maps pranks Google

Yahoo engineers apparently couldn't help themselves. The beta of the new Yahoo Maps for a short while listed "The Dude's Fish Store" at 1600 Amphiteatre Parkway in Mountain View, CA.

The address is better known as the headquarters for Yahoo's competitor Google.

Silicon Valley Sleuth
Mildly amusing. I believe Yahoo! maps are in flash now. Either that or I am completelly wrong. I know I read somewhere about some company's maps being in flash.

Some Paris Links

2005-11-04T16:22:00.000-06:00

Amir Taheri has an editorial called Why Paris is Burning in The New York Post. He explains why the Muslims are alienated as well as a recount of how this all started. The commentary does not really go into why the rioting is taking place though, only hinting that the Muslims want to be left alone. If that is the case, nothing is stopping them from returning to whatever North Africa hellhole they or their parents came from.

The Drudge Report has a news flash which, well read it.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that the riots in several Paris suburbs over the previous night were "not spontaneous" but rather "well organized."

"What we saw in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis overnight was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized. We are looking into by whom and how," Sarkozy told French news channel i-tele.

The interior minister also said the government would not allow "troublemakers, a bunch of hoodlums, think they can do whatever they want" in the country.

A force of 1,000 police were assigned late Thursday to Seine-Saint-Denis, following the previous night of violence which affected about half of the 40 towns in the department, mostly communities of immigrants from Africa, officials said.

Just when I was getting bored with the French rioting, it may be getting more interesting.

A woman on crutches was doused in flammable liquid and set on fire earlier this week as she tried to get off a bus in a Paris suburb, a judicial official said Friday. She suffered severe burns.

The AP via ABC

And my favorite of the day comes from a New York Sun editorial I found from PowerLine.

Back in the 1990s, the French sneered at America for the Los Angeles riots. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 1992: "the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs." President Mitterrand, the Washington Post reported in 1992, blamed the riots on the "conservative society" that Presidents Reagan and Bush had created and said France is different because it "is the country where the level of social protection is the highest in the world."

Stupid, arrogant Frenchies.

French Muslims Continue Rioting

2005-11-03T17:32:00.000-06:00

BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - Rioters shot at police and fire crews in the worst night in a week of violence in poor Paris suburbs, as France's conservative government struggled to respond to the unrest.

Youths rampaged in nine poor suburbs north and east of Paris, home to North African and black African minorities frustrated at their failure to get jobs or recognition in French society, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

"It's a dramatic situation. It is very serious and we fear that the events could even get worse tonight," said Francis Masanet, secretary general of the UNSA police trade union.

Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, the government's top official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, confirmed rounds had been fired at police and fire crews in three separate incidents.

"Four live bullets were fired. Two shots were fired at La Courneuve against police. One shot was fired at Noisy-le-Sec against fire crews, and one shot was fired against fire crew in Saint-Denis," he told a news conference.

Reuters

Oh, I'm sorry, I referred to them as Muslims. I meant to write "North African and black African minorities."

It seems to have spread to Denmark as well according to Dread Pundit Bluto, quoting a translation of a Danish paper.

RosenhÃ¸j Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Ãrhus for years. "This area belongs to us", the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack.

Their words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants.

The good news from Iraq is not fit to print

2005-11-02T12:51:00.000-06:00

Jeff Jacoby writes an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe on the media's handling of Iraq. He uses the Washington Post's token coverage of the Iraqi constitution ratification as an example. For some reason the Boston Globe was never mentioned.

WHAT WAS the most important news out of Iraq last week?

That depends on what you consider ''important." Do you see the war against radical Islam and Ba'athist fascism as the most urgent conflict of our time? Do you believe that replacing tyranny with democratic self-government is ultimately the only antidote to the poison that has made the Middle East so dangerous and violent? If so, you'll have no trouble identifying the most significant development in Iraq last week: the landslide victory of the new Iraqi Constitution.

Boston Globe link requires registration or Bug Me Not

Time for an Israeli Airstrike

2005-11-02T12:49:00.000-06:00

Iran to process fresh batch of uranium - diplomats
Wed Nov 2, 2005 1:10 PM GMT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran will process a new batch of uranium at its Isfahan nuclear plant beginning next week, despite pressure from the United States and European Union to halt all sensitive nuclear work, diplomats said on Wednesday.

"Beginning next week, the Iranians will start a new phase of uranium conversion at Isfahan. They will begin feeding a new batch of uranium into the plant," a European diplomat familiar with the result of inspections of the U.N. nuclear watchdog told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Accused by Western nations of running a covert atomic weapons programme, Iran had frozen all work at Isfahan late last year under a deal with France, Britain and Germany. But it resumed work at the plant in August, prompting the EU's three biggest powers to suspend talks with the Islamic republic.

Reuters

Riots Continue in Paris Suburb

2005-11-01T11:53:00.000-06:00

It is now five nights in a row that Muslim youth in the Paris suburb Clichy-sous-Bois have rioted. All because two Muslim boys thought it would be a good idea to scale a fence at an electicity substation to elude police. Not surprisingly, they are dead. What do you do?
A. Attend the funerals and comfort the families.
B. Chalk it up to Darwinism and call them dumbasses.
C. Start a safety campaign warning people of the dangers of high voltage.
D. Blame the government and riot for five nights.

One account has the rioting spreading to other suburbs One police source told news agency AFP that "the Clichy rioters are being copied in Sevran, Neuilly-sur-Marne and Bondy", where he said vehicles were torched. AFP via SPS

I like this guy the best.

But equal opportunities minister Azouz Begag said a stronger police presence was not the way to tackle the violence.

"It is by fighting the discriminations of which young people are victims that we will re-establish order, the order of equality. Not by bringing out more CRS (riot police)," Begag told the newspaper Liberation in an interview.

Reuters Yeah, that will work. Good thinking.

Edit: Make that the sixth night now.

Paris hit by sixth night of rioting

Unrest spread across troubled suburbs around Paris in a sixth night of violence as police clashed with angry youths and scores of vehicles were set on fire in at least nine towns.

Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois - one of the worst-hit suburbs - where 15 cars were burned.

Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the fire station.

Four people were arrested for throwing stones at police in nearby Bondy where 14 cars were burned. A fire engulfed a carpet store, but it was not clear whether the blaze was linked to the suburban unrest.

Officials gave an initial count of 69 vehicles torched in nine suburbs across the Seine-Saint-Denis region that arcs around Paris on the north and north east. The area, home mainly to families of immigrant origin, most of them from Muslim North Africa, is marked by soaring unemployment and delinquency.

The Scotsman

4,100 Year-Old Observatory Found in China

2005-11-01T10:05:00.000-06:00

Archaeologists in northern China have reportedly found one of the world's oldest observatories.

The remains, discovered near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province, are thought to be about 4,100 years old.

Wang Shouguan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state media that the discovery would help the study of ancient astronomy.

Chinese astronomers are thought to have made some of the earliest recorded observations of the stars.

The observatory consists of a semicircular platform 40 metres (130 feet) in diameter, surrounded by 13 pillars which were are believed to have been used to mark the movement of the sun through the seasons.

It "was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites," He Nu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua news agency.

"The ancient people observed the direction of sunrise through the gaps, and distinguished the different seasons of the year," he said.

In order to test this theory, archaeologists reportedly spent 18 months simulating ancient uses of the site.

They found that the seasons they calculated were only one or two days different from the traditional Chinese calendar, which is still widely used today.

BBC

More Breaking News on Blogs From LA

2005-10-31T18:38:00.000-06:00

Ric Romero, pictured on the left is said to be not pleased with a fellow journalist trying to scoop his story, according to reliable sources on Fark.

In an apparant attempt to capitalize on Ric Romero's new found fame, intrepid LA Times reporter Michael Hiltzik unleashed Experiment Starts Now: Call Me a Blogger A mandatory derogatory Fark thread was quicklly put in place. Here is an excerpt from the blog in question. It surprisinglly does not have that many Farker comments on it. Perhaps because it is Halloween.

The Romero Fark link can be found right here, on this crappy blog.

Simple Way to Defeat the Great Firewall of China

2005-10-31T13:00:00.000-06:00

An anonymous reader writes "A new feature in CustomizeGoogle (Firefox extension) modifies the Google Cache urls so that they are no longer blocked by the Chinese firewall. This feature is only available in CustomizeGoogle zh-CN, found here. This is how it works: All links to Google Cache, from the Google search result, are slightly modified. The Chinese Great Firewall doesn't recognize the new links as Google Cache links, and therefore they are accessible for everyone."

Slashdot
If you read the comments, you will find most of the slashdot crowd are saluting Google for this, when they had nothing to do with it. Whoever wrote the Chinese version of CustomizeGoogle deserves the credit.

Proof Communists are No Fun: Hugo Chavez

2005-10-31T11:45:00.000-06:00

Yeah, that's our latest terror weapon, a holiday for children.

Chavez: Halloween part of U.S. culture of terror

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelan parents not to dress their children in costumes for Halloween, calling it a U.S. custom that has no place in the South American country's cultural traditions.

Speaking during his weekly radio and television show Sunday, Chavez called Halloween a "gringa," or North American, custom.

"Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches," Chavez said. "That is contrary to our ways."

Chavez said he was urging Venezuelans to reflect on the subject. In recent years it has become common to see Venezuelan parents holding parties for children dressed as ghouls, animals and witches.

In one odd incident a week ago, authorities found more than a dozen jack-o'-lanterns left in spots around Caracas bearing anti-government messages and what appeared to be bomb-like fuses. Police and firefighters removed the pumpkins with caution, though the jack-o'-lanterns reportedly bore messages saying they were not explosives.

Paper skeletons bearing anti-Chavez messages also have appeared in spots across Caracas recently, and government officials have blamed sectors of the opposition with aiming to create chaos.

Chavez did not refer to those incidents in his comments on Halloween. But he urged parents to think about whether it was appropriate to dress up their children as part of a foreign custom, calling it "the game of terror."

He said that is part of the U.S. culture -- "terrorism, putting fear into other nations, putting fear into their own people."

The Associated Press via CNN

RSS Mix-- This is Great!

2005-10-30T11:58:00.000-06:00

RSS Mix allows you to combine many RSS feeds into one for free. If you are a fan of elephants for instance and you normally go through all your elephant news and blog feeds trying to get the latest on elephants, now you can go to one elephant source. Not only does it save time, but it unclutters your feed list. I have the original feeds saved in one folder in case the service craps out. I was disappointed at first when my first go at resulted in three of my desired feeds not being read-- my news reader had no problem with them, but I haven't had problems since. I believe AP, Reuters, and some other feed would not work.

Altered Photos: More Fun With Ward Churchill

2005-10-30T11:08:00.000-06:00

For some reason I cannot post pictures right now. You will have to go to Little Green Footballs for the pictures. Or you can use your imagination. That's fun! Picture Ward Churchill (remember that clown-- anti-American, pro 9/11, plageriazing white guy who heads the Dept. Of Native American Studies at C.U.) wearing a military style jacket, sunglasses, and some sort of beret type hat. That image is funny in itself. Hey, we can laugh at Ward Churchill without him even opening his mouth. The picture is from an ad for an upcoming lecture he is giving at Shoreline Community College in Washington. Don't bother clicking on the link as they removed the picture. Also funny.

Now imagine the same picture, this time with Ward Churchill holding a Kalashnikov. That would be the original picture. Apparently, Shoreline College loves radical hate-filled anti-American frauds. Just not armed ones. LGF

ACLU Seems to be Pro Suicide & Drugs

2005-10-30T10:46:00.000-06:00

This story is brought to us by AgapePress, a Christian news service, via Insight.
The ACLU of Maryland is complaining about a Christian comedy team that gave presentations at local schools about suicide and drugs. The presentations were not religious in nature, according to the story. It took one goofy mother to complain in order for the ACLU to get its panties in a bunch.

However, the program speaker believes the real issue in this dispute is not the Constitution at all; rather, he says, the issue is that the ACLU simply does not want Christians speaking in public schools. "They talk about separation of church and state," he says, "but it's not separation of church and state at all. They really do have an agenda to dismantle Christianity or any belief in God in this country."

There may be more to this story, but I doubt it.

Iranian President Still a Nut Job

2005-10-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, cheered by thousands of supporters, signaled on Friday he stood by his call for Israel to be wiped off the map, while Iran's foreign ministry sought to defuse a diplomatic storm.

Israel said it would request an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council over the comments, which have drawn the condemnation of the West and Tehran's ally Russia.

Iranians chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America", converged from nine points in the Iranian capital for a rally attended by most of Iran's top officials. Some protesters set fire to or trampled on Israeli and U.S. flags.

Ahmadinejad took a short walk in the crowd, rallying in support of his comments that the Islamic world could not tolerate the Jewish state in its heartland. He said Western criticism carried no weight.

"My words are the Iranian nation's words," he told the official IRNA news agency, when asked if he had a message for the world.

"Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid."

Reuters
It is a good thing Russia is hell-bent on ~~helping Iran develop a peaceful nuclear program~~ helping Iran develop nuclear weapons. Just why does an oil-rich state require nuclear energy?

Halloween Urban Legends, Levitation, etc.

2005-10-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

A sampling of recent finds on the web.

Snopes has a collection of Halloween and horror urban legends for our entertainment.

Here is a site that explains the levitation illusion made famous by two cocks, first David Blaine, then Cris (or however he spells it) Angel. Not surprisingly, it involves either standing on one foot or wires.

News.com tells us how to search for flights on Google.

Users can type in two different cities, or airport codes, in the Google search box to bring up two boxes for entering departing and returning flight dates. Below those are links to the travel Web sites Expedia, Hotwire and Orbitz. Clicking on one of those links leads directly to flight options for your selected itinerary on that site.

The story also mentions Yahoo! has a similar service.

ASCII-O-Matic turns images you upload into ASCII character images.

Tsunami Uncovers Ancient Temple in South India

2005-10-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

Archaeologists say they have discovered the site of an ancient temple in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

It is the latest in a series of archaeological discoveries in the area struck by December's tsunami, which desilted large areas of the coastline.

The brick temple dates back more than 2,000 years to the late Tamil Sangam period and was discovered on the beachfront near Saluvankuppam, just north of a famous World Heritage site at Mahabalipuram.

The discovery lends more weight to growing evidence that a huge tsunami hit the east coast of India during this period, obliterating large habitations along the coastline.

BBC

"Scooter" Libby Resigns

2005-10-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation, a politically charged case that casts a harsh light on President Bush's push to war.

Libby, 55, resigned and left the White House.

The Associated Press
The full indictment can be found here (pdf), and here (pdf). The charges have little to do with actually leaking the name. Also of note with this story is the absence of a Karl Rove indictment. You can read all about this at any of your favorite blogs or news sites. There is no need for me to list further reading. I am waiting for some reports on how the media is handling this. There are a few that I found, but it is too early for a good roundup.

Update: Well, Little Green Footballs has a piece on the media that is worth mentioning.

At MSNBC, an AP wire story notes a simple fact, buried amidst heaps of hyperbole. (Hat tip: ciaospirit.)

In the end, Fitzgerald accused Libby of lying about his conversations with reporters, not outing a spy.

They spent two years and millions of dollars to come up with this.

All three networks interrupted their broadcasts to carry Fitzgerald’s press conference live. Hmm. I wonder what other historical events were considered important enough to interrupt commercial broadcasts? (Hat tip: NC.)

Pearl Harbor Under Attack
John Glenn Orbits Earth
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Nixon Resigns
Iran Hostage Crisis
Berlin Wall Crumbles
Rodney King Verdicts Incite Riots
The 2000 Election

In other news, millions of housewives are angry about missing their "stories."

Volcker Report

2005-10-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

The committee found that over 2000 companies in 65 countries got their hands oily.

Preferential treatment was given to companies from France, Russia and China, the report says, all permanent members of the Security Council, who were more favorable to lifting the 1990 sanctions than the America and Britain.

Telegraph
Here is the entire report if you wish to read all 500 pages of it.

PowerLine read the portion relating to Galloway.

Based on the documentary evidence discovered to date, there is no doubt that Galloway's "Mariam Appeal," a political organization dedicated to opposing the U.N.'s sanctions against Iraq, received large amounts of money from oil allocations that were recorded by Iraqi officials as being for "Galloway," and were clearly made with Galloway's knowledge. This contradicts various public statements that Galloway has made, including statements under oath before Coleman's Subcommittee. It isn't clear whether Galloway personally profited from the Mariam Appeal. It is clear, however, that Saddam also paid $150,000 to Galloway's then-wife.

Andrew Heyward Sacked

2005-10-26T17:55:00.000-05:00

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- CBS News President Andrew Heyward will step down after almost 10 years and will be replaced by CBS Sports chief Sean McManus, the television network said.

McManus will take over Nov. 7, according to statement today from CBS, which is owned by New York-based Viacom Inc. Heyward will assist with the transition and leave at the end of the year when his contract expires, CBS said.

Bloomberg
This couldn't have anything to do with Rathergate, right? Of course not. CBS never admitted doing anything wrong. Meanwhile, Dan Rather can not face reality.

September 28, 2005 -- DAN Rather wants to reopen the investigation into President Bush and the National Guard story that resulted in the Memogate scandal and led to his early departure from the anchor desk.

But his bosses at CBS have forbidden him to go back at it, he said.

"CBS News doesn't want me to do that story," Rather said during an interview that aired on C-SPAN Monday night.

"They wouldn't let me do that story," he said during the shockingly frank interview with former NBC newsman Marvin Kalb.

Rather continues to insist that the story was correct and suggested in the interview that he and the network may have been set up by some outsider.

"There are some strange, and to me, still mysterious things," he said. "Certainly unexplained things that happened about how it got attacked and why, even before the program was over," Rather said.

The report, delivered by Rather last September, was discredited two weeks later after drawing fire, first from politically conservative Web logs and later from mainstream media who reported that the "60 Minutes 2" story was based on forged documents. Rather retired from the "CBS Evening News" last spring. Some, including CBS chief Les Moonves, have suggested that Rather might have stayed on for at least another year had he not been embroiled in the scandal.

"I believed in the story," Rather said. "The facts of the story were correct.

"One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question," he said. "To this day, no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not."

New York Post
Thanks to J.D. in the Little Green Footballs comments for reminding me of this.

Skype Patches Flaw, Software to Block VoIP

2005-10-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

Skype users are being urged to upgrade to the latest version of the popular Internet telephony client, thanks to a number of critical flaws in the software that were disclosed Tuesday by Skype's maker, Skype Technologies.

If exploited, two of the flaws could allow attackers to take over a Skype user's system, the company said in an advisory published Tuesday. These flaws affect a number of Windows versions of the software ranging between versions 1.1 and 1.4, the statement said.

PCWorld

Meanwhile, a company is selling telecoms software to block or interfere with VoIP, so VoIP may soon be a thing of the past.

Retaliation comes courtesy of software created by Mountain View, CA-based Narus. Its software can detect and identify VoIP packets traversing the switched telecom network. It can even tell a lot of times which software, like Skype or Vonage, generated the call.

webpronews
The article goes on to say that in the U.S. telecoms are common carriers, preventing them from blocking VoIP. Yet

Common carriers status doesn't extend to broadband providers like the country's largest cable company, Comcast, which is already a Narus customer. Thomas would not say if Comcast was blocking VoIP with Narus software.

Well, I can say whether Comcast blocks VoIP. They do not. Unless something changed in the past two days. Why would my cable company even care if I am making free calls to Asia?

Condi's Satanic Eyes

2005-10-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin compares a picture of Condi Rice that was in USAToday last week to the same picture by the Associated Press in Yahoo!Espana.

Can you spot the difference? Malkin conveniently includes a list of several other blogs that are carrying this story along with some reader comments on how this is done in Photoshop. You pretty much get the full story just by looking at satanic Condi in USAToday compared with the unedited picture, though.

Update: USAToday replaced the picture with unedited picture along with the following note:

Editor's note: The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY's editorial standards. The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice's face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

USAToday via Michelle Malkin

Comedy Central to Provide Clips, Original Content Over the Internet

2005-10-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

Unfortunatelly, entire programs will not be shown, just clips. Still cool considering I no longer have cable.

Comedy Central unveiled details on its new broadband network Motherload on Tuesday in New York.

Motherload, which goes live on Nov. 1, will consist of five video-based channels featuring a mix of clips from Comedy Central’s programming as well as original content produced specifically for the broadband network.

“We’ve taken everything that is great about Comedy Central and shifted it into broadband,” explained Comedy Central president Doug Herzog. “They can program it themselves.”

The channels, offering more than 450 video clips at launch, are: Originals, TV Shows, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Comedians, and Cult Classics. Each channel will be updated five days a week, with a total of 50-80 new clips being added each week.

MediaWeek via Pirillo

The Most Botched Robbery Ever, Courtesy of Milwaukee

2005-10-25T19:59:00.000-05:00

Surely this wasn't how the stickup was supposed to go down.

After making off with some cash, the robber was struck five times by two vehicles - first by someone police think was the suspect's own getaway driver and four more times by another driver who appears to have been trying to intervene.

Toward the end of the strange scene, the beleaguered bandit accidentally shot himself in the leg - then got hit a fourth time by the second driver, a woman who apparently knew the victim.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

Remote Controlled People

2005-10-25T19:48:00.000-05:00

I thought this was already perfected in "The Naked Gun." This is pretty strange. The article does not list any potential application for it that is practical.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons.

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head - either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.

The Associated Press

Mr. Galloway Goes to Jail?

2005-10-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

No surprise here. George Galloway is accused of dipping his hands into Iraqi oil allocations by a U.S. Senate committee.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will refer the Respect Party MP for possible prosecution after concluding that he gave “false and misleading” testimony at his appearance before the panel in May.

The sub-committee claimed that, through intermediaries, Mr Galloway and the Mariam Appeal were granted eight allocations of Iraqi crude oil totalling 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003.

Times

Sex in Zero G? Just a Pipedream of Mine, or Concern?

2005-10-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers.

NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2018 and later on to Mars. But a round-trip mission to the Red Planet would probably last at least 30 months and carry six to eight people. That would be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, says a report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

"With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality," says Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an author of the report. It reviewed NASA's plans for research to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space – but the plans make no mention of sexual issues in spaceflight.

New Scientist

Ah, I see I have to use the word verification again.

Changes at Google Blogs

2005-10-23T16:14:00.000-05:00

This server is currently experiencing a problem. An engineer has been notified and will investigate.

Status code: 1-500-15

Uh, the original post was about the changes. You now need to put in a text verification to publish your post. Edit: They removed that for now. You also might have experienced a freeze when publishing. This is all about the amount of spam that is sent from Google's blogs. See Chris Pirillo's blog for more details.

Don't get me wrong, I am willing to live through this while Google improves our service. Afterall, do I pay for my site?

100 M Firefox Downloads

2005-10-23T15:37:00.000-05:00

Uh, I have downloaded Firefox versions at least 30 times in the last year. The statistic is flawed as it fails to account for existing Firefox users upgrading. mozillaZine

On AOL, Google, MS, and Yahoo!

2005-10-23T15:32:00.000-05:00

Geez, can we have a universal standard for IM's already?

AS MORE and more of the world's business is conducted online, a battle royal is taking shape. The struggle is to decide which company will become the primary gateway to the internet. Three firms, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, are aiming to establish the world's leading internet portal—the site that most internet users rely on for everything from searching the web to sending e-mail and catching up on the news. All three firms are hoping to strike some sort of deal with AOL—the fourth player in the battle of the portals.

The Econominist

Computers in Movies

2005-10-23T15:24:00.000-05:00

This is old, but still worth looking at. Annoyances has this funny piece. BTW, Annoyances is a good site.

Opera 9.0

2005-10-23T15:14:00.000-05:00

I downloaded Opera but doubt I will use it as I have too much time invested in my Firefox extensions. The last version of Opera I used was great, but I went with Firefox as I did not care for the adverts in Opera and liked the customizable elements of Firefox. Both are great browsers.

LED Lightbulb Advance-- How Cool Is This?

2005-10-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.

Happy accident

Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair.

Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.

When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened.

"I was surprised when a white glow covered the table," Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow."

Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light similar to a regular light bulb.

LiveScience

Hello Kitty Jet

2005-10-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

Do not get me started on Hello Kitty. My cousin's wife's sister had a great quote while living in Hong Kong: "If I see another grown woman wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt, I will kill her."

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (20 Oct., 2005) -- Embracing the creativity and innovation encouraged by its corporate culture, EVA Air has teamed up with Sanrio Company, Ltd. to unveil the world’s first “Hello Kitty Jet.” Revealed today in a heartwarming celebration at the Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation hangar that was co-hosted by EVA Air President K.W. Chang and Sanrio top management, the cheerful special-edition EVA Airbus 330-200 is painted nose-to-tail with super-sized characters from the charming world of Hello Kitty.

EVA Air
Credits to Boing Boing where I heard of this first.

Driving Around Tijuana With a Dead Dude-- Who Hasn't Done That?

2005-10-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Police discovered on Friday that a passenger on a motorcycle involved in an accident in the rough Mexican border city of Tijuana was in fact a corpse which the driver had been carrying through the city strapped to his back.

The motorcycle driver lost control and skidded in the downtown area and when a policeman approached to investigate the mishap, the driver fled.

The police officer checked the passenger, who had been seated behind the driver, and found it was the corpse of a man who had died some time before.

Normandy as Reported by the Modern Media

2005-10-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

This is priceless. What makes it better is that it is from a Spanish paper, The Spain Herald. It is satire, so don't get your panties in a bunch.

Around three hundred French civilians were murdered yesterday and an undetermined number were injured during the first hours of the American invasion of continental Europe. Most of the French victims were due to artillery shots coming from the American fleet that was trying to hit German fortifications on the coast before thousands of soldiers proceeded to land on several of the beaches. According to sources in the improvised hospital in the town of Saint Mere Eglise, the slaughter was worse than French and Germans anticipated. “We are dropping like flies” said an eye witness who preferred to remain anonymous. “The Americans came in killing like mad men, I never thought I would say this, but life was better with Adolf Hitler.”

Read the entire thing. So funny.

BEHAVE KIDS OR I'LL BLOW UP YOUR BUS

2005-10-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

Unfortunatelly, I doubt this "teacher" will get fired. What the hell was she thinking?

A TEACHER faces a police quiz after allegedly telling pupils: "Behave or I'll put a bomb on your bus."

Palestinian-born Mazin Albarq was said to have made the sick joke to a class of 13 and 14-year-olds.

Parents complained and headteacher Maureen Bates contacted police.

Pupils in supply teacher Mr Albarq's class may also be questioned over a possible charge of threatening criminal damage.

The parent of one 14-year-old said: "Children who use the school bus were terrified. It was surely meant as a joke but in the present climate there was nothing remotely funny."

Another parent said his 13-year-old daughter arrived home in tears after the school bus journey.

Police said: "Inquiries are at an early stage following a complaint of inappropriate comments."

Mrs Bates, head of St Bede's Catholic School in Lanchester, Co Durham, said Mr Albarq worked at the school for only a few days.

She added: "The allegations came to light after he left and we informed the police and agency."

Mr Albarq, father of a primary age pupil, said at his home in Darlington, Co Durham: "How sad that a joke can cause such a fuss.

"I honestly didn't know anybody had complained. I knew nothing about this. I have heard nothing from the school or from the police."

He did not deny making the joke, but added: "I have contacted solicitors."

Mirror

Burning Afghans

2005-10-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

This story has made quite a splash over blogs. A nice roundup can be found at The Jawa Report. Even CENTCOM got it wrong. Thanks to The Dread Pundit Bluto for the CENTCOM link.

Meanwhile in Iraq it is acceptable for "insurgents" to set living Americans on fire.

Killing one of the men with a rifle round fired into the back of his head, they doused the other with petrol and set him alight. Barefoot children, yelping in delight, piled straw on to the screaming man's body to stoke the flames.

Telegraph

Great Firewall of China

2005-10-22T14:24:00.000-05:00

How stupid is this? I IM'd a buddy of mine who is on holiday in China. We were free to shit all over the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) over IM, yet he could not access my blog.

State control of the internet in China may have found a new target with many "bloggers" unable to update their web journals, apparently because of government restrictions.

The website Blogger.com lets users build and maintain customized blogs and claims to have over one million subscribers. Blogs created through the service can be hosted though a sister site called Blogspot.com. According to bloggers living in China, access to this site was cut off by China's notorious national firewall on 8 January.

"After talking to other Blogspot users in China it seems that the ban is present throughout the entire country," wrote one anonymous Chinese blogger on a US site on Sunday: "I know that a lot of Chinese people have blogs and that they will not be pleased to see their personal journals taken away for unknown political reasons."

One explanation for the blockade suggested by a number of reports is that the entire site may have been blocked to prevent Chinese internet users reaching one blog in particular: dweb.blogspot.com. This site is has published lists of proxy servers that can be used to gain access to restricted web sites from within China.

New Scientist
There are ways around the censorship as the article suggests.

I Cannot Believe I Failed to Mention This

2005-10-22T05:19:00.000-05:00

WHITE SOX WHITE SOX GO-GO WHITE SOX
LET'S GO GO-GO WHITE SOX
WE'RE WITH YOU ALL THE WAY
THEY'RE ALWAYS IN THERE FIGHTING
AND YOU DO YOUR BEST
WE'RE GLAD TO HAVE YOU OUT HERE
IN THE MIDDLE WEST
WE'RE GONNA ROOT ROOT ROOT ROOT WHITE SOX
AND CHEER YOU OUT TO VICTORY
WHEN WE'RE IN THE STANDS
WE'LL MAKE THOSE RAFTERS RING
ALL THROUGH THE SEASON
YOU WILL HEAR US SING
LET'S GO GO-GO WHITE SOX
CHICAGO'S PROUD OF YOU
WHITE SOX WHITE SOX GO-GO WHITE SOX
ROOT ROOT ROOT FOR THE WHITE SOX
WE'LL CHEER YO OUT TO VICTORY
WHEN WE'RE IN THE STANDS
WE'LL MAKE THOSE RAFTERS RING
ALL THROUGH THE SEASON
YOU WILL HEAR US SING
LET'S GO GO-GO WHITE SOX
CHICAGO'S PROUD OF YOU
PLAY BALL!!!
WHITE SOX WHITE SOX GO-GO WHITE SOX
LET'S GO GO-GO WHITE SOX
CHICAGO IS PROUD OF YOU

A List of my Favorite Firefox Extensions

2005-10-21T14:52:00.000-05:00

First off, I am not one of those pushy browser assclowns* that insist everyone use the browser they prefer (note no Firefox link on my index page). If you prefer Opera over Firefox, fine whatever works for you, Opera is a good choice. I don't know anything about Safari as I rarely use Macs (what I have read makes it sound nice). If you use Internet Explorer or a skin for it such as Avant, you-- nevermind.

The following is an alphabetical list of the extensions I currently am using with a brief description of each. I will start with one that is out of alphabetical order as it is essential.

1. Nightly Tester Tools This extension offers several features, two of which I use. If you use a build over 1.0.7 you will want to have this.

What makes this extension indispensable is that you can force extensions that say they are not compatible to work with your current version of Firefox. This does not really do anything other than rewriting the extension to say that it is compatible with your current build-- no real changes. This works with 95% of extensions in my experiences with it. If the extension still does not work, then it is truly not compatible and you should either go back to a prior Firefox build, uninstall the extension, or wait it out for the extension's author to update it. Of note, the popular Adblock extension was incompatible with Deer Park+, (don't know if they fixed it-- see below).

The second, and minor thing I use the extension for is to modify what the title bar displays. I believe it defaults with the build number, but you can easily change it to whatever you like. Mine displays "1.4.1," which is the real number for what Firefox is calling 1.5 beta 2. I think you can change it to simply Firefox if you wish. I don't know if you can dispense with the title all together using this (would be nice).

On to the alphabetical list:

2. AdBlock Plus I came across this extension when I discovered Adblock did not work with the official alpha and beta builds I was using. I am not sure what the + is all about (other than it works with later builds). I am sure it offers some sort of improvement, but I am happy with how things are and found no need to explore what the + entails. Oh, I almost forgot to describe what it does. It is a simple way to tell the browser not to load ads from the domain you specify. You probababally guessed that from its name.

3. All-in-One Gestures This is in my opinion the best mouse gesture program for Firefox. A flick of the wrist on your mouse will get you to whatever you want to do. It is intuitive and natural (at least for me). I find myself using the mouse gestures even when I am not on the internet (the gestures are that natural to me)... Of course, I feel like an idiot when I realize what I am doing.

4. Bandwidth Tester Self-explanatory. There are better testers out there, what comes to mind is the list that Broadband Reports has. I will probabally uninstall this.

5. BBCode If you like me, think posting comments on a message board is a total shit because what you want to post requires putting in code, this is for you. It supports HTML, XHTML, and PHP. Saves a butt-load of typing.

6. BugMeNot This extension allows you to access most pages that require a registration to view. When you get the "sign in or register" page, all you have to do is right click, select BugMeNot, and click. No, it does not work for pay sites. This is so handy for news junkies like me.

7. CustomizeGoogle The primary function of this extension is to give you links to other search engines on the same topic when you search on Google. It also lets you block Google ads in all or some of the searches, and lets you anonymize the Google cookie. I am not sure how effective that is. I am somewhat paranoid about Google, so after every search and after every gmail session, I clear their cookies.

8. Farkit This is an outstanding extension if you frequent Fark. It lets you easilly quote other posters without having to put in HTML. I cannot believe I posted on Fark manually putting in the HTML... Outstanding.

9.FlashGot This extension is a HUGE time saver if you wish to d/l every link at a site. A caveat is that you need a download manager in order for it to work. I suggest Free Download Manager. It downloads everything in the blink of an eye. Sweet. You perverts will appreciate the blinding speed you can get your porn at.

10.Gmail Notifier As the name of the extension says, it notifies you when you get an e at your gmail address. The biggest problem I have with this extension is that it only supports one address (I have about ten-- only use two). I do not have it on unless I am expecting mail if I am going to search on Google, and I ALWAYS clear my cookies after I read my gmail messages. No reason for Google to associate my searches with my e-mails... Google offers a notifier that sits in your system tray. I haven't tried that, so I cannot say if it is better than this extension or not.

11. Googlebar This adds a Googlebar for Firefox. Could you guess that? This is another extension that I would be hard pressed to live without. You can customize it to display whatever searches you want. I have news, images, site, and blogger. It does not have buttons for some of Google's later searches, but I am sure they will be added soon. This extension is much better than the search field you can put in Firefox. I still have that, too, just I have it set for Wikipedia.

12. IEView For those rare web pages that use Microsoft's proprietary crap*, you can right click IEView and open up the page in IE. You should rarely need to use this, but I have encountered the situation enough that I keep it as an extension.

13. NoScript This extension is essential for seurity minded people and should probabally be included in the next Firefox build in my opinion. The extension defaults Firefox to turn Java Script off. You can customize it so that you can allow a site to use Java Script either temporrairlly, or permanentlly. It is a must-have, unless you are a fan of spyware.

14. Sage This is a news aggregator for Firefox, and yet another extension I cannot live without. If you do not know what a news aggreator is, please read this. To be honest, if a site I like does not have a RSS feed, I am unlikely to bookmark it. Caveat: importing OPML sucks donkey ass using Sage. There are probabally better news readers out there. I only tested a few before I decided upon Sage. Feel free to e-mail me or write a comment if you have a better suggestion.

15. WebmailCompose I believe this used to be known as "GmailCompose." What this does is allows you to open up your webmail when you click on a "contact me" link on the web. Instead of going to Outlook, Eudora, etc., it goes to your webmail, whether Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc. Whatever you specify. You cannot choose between multiple webmail accounts, however.

16. x-Mirror This adds other sites that you can get Firefox extensions from when you choose "Tools," "Extenstions." A drop-down menu is provided for other sites with Firefox extensions.

There are many other extensions you might like. A popular one is FoxyTunes (I see no need for that). I used to use CookieCuller and that would have been included on my list, except that the new Firefox builds include its features.

This is what is so great about Firefox. It is an uncluttered, small program when you download it. But then you need to customize it. Your browser can easilly exceed IE's size. I seriouslly need to rethink what I have installed as my right click dropdown menu is huge.

*how 'bout dem sites created with noncompliant HTML from Frontpage (MS) so that other browsers don't work? Typical proprietary B.S.

Toledo Riot: Video of an Ambulance Attack

2005-10-20T20:31:00.000-05:00

WTOL, the Toledo CBS TV station has an interview with one of the paramedics and footage of his ambulance getting pelted with bricks and rocks. I found this through Michelle Malkin's blog. It's kind of a pain to figure out which Java Scripts to allow in order to get it to play, but worthwhile.

Old Geezers Fighting

2005-10-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

Here's another good clip. The title is self-explanatory. The ending is especially good as one of the combatants misses landing a punch, falls to the ground, and cries out in agony. Dave's Daily

Shark Bate Trends

2005-10-20T18:00:00.000-05:00

According to National Geographic the French are using live dogs and cats as shark bate.

Live and dead dogs and cats are being used as shark bait by amateur fishers on the French-controlled island of Réunion, according to animal-welfare organizations and local authorities.

The small volcanic island off Africa's east coast is bursting with stray dogs—upward of 150,000, says Reha Hutin, president of the Paris-based Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis (the Thirty Million Friends Foundation).

National Geographic

That's better than the San Francisco woman that used her three children as shark bait. Reuters

South Park Parodies Katrina Coverage

2005-10-20T17:47:00.000-05:00

Newsbusters has a clip of the South Park episode. It's pretty funny and makes me wish I still had cable television.

World War II Iceman Found in Sierra Nevada Glacier

2005-10-20T17:13:00.000-05:00

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- An ice-encased body believed to be a World War II airman who crashed in 1942 was chipped out of a Sierra Nevada glacier and taken to a laboratory for identification, a deputy coroner said Thursday.

Blustery weather kept rangers at Kings Canyon National Park from reaching the frozen remains for two days after ice climbers reported last weekend they had seen a man's head, shoulder and arm protruding from the thick ice.

About 80 percent of the body was buried in the glacier on 13,710-foot Mount Mendel. The area can only be reached by hiking two or three days, or by helicopter when the weather allows.

The Associated Press
The story comes with a video that isn't all that exciting.

Cool Video of Giant Hornets v. Honey Bees

2005-10-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

I learned of this National Geographic clip while reading Boing Boing. Gigantic hornets duke it out with honey bees in Japan. The bees are slaughtered. The bees do have a cool defense against single hornets scouting out their hive, though. You need a fast internet connection to view it and you need Java Script enabled.

LA TV Reporter Introduces the World to the Next Fangled Fad: Blogs

2005-10-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

Your Opinions Online
KABC By Ric Romero

Anyone with a computer can become their own publisher on the internet.
You can create your very own diary online and share personal thoughts or political opinions on anything.

Its known as blogging, and it's simple to use and you can do it for free.

A blog is like your own personal soapbox. There are no rules. And you can use your blog to share thoughts, pictures, even video clips with friends and family thousands of miles away.

Blogging has turned the internet into a personal, yet public place to create your own custom journal. Surf the web these days and you're likely to come across somebody's personal blog page.

Blogging has become a place to voice your opinion on politics, share your favorite recipes or tell the the world about your travel experiences.

Even celebrities, like Barbra Streisand, have blogs to communicate with their fans.

Chris Holland of Hermosa Beach set up his personal blog page about a year ago. He posts articles that interest him, exchanges computer and technology tips with other bloggers, and shares his personal photographs.

It's easy to become a blogger. There are many websites that will sign you up instantly.. Some charge a small monthly fee. Others like blogger.com, owned by Google are free.

Chris showed me just how easy it is to set up my own personal blog. It only took about a minute to create my account.

Then he, showed me how to put a face to my new blog, taking out his digital camera.

Once you connect your camera to your PC, you then download your pictures to your computer's hardrive then upload them to your blogsite. This whole process can be done in a few minutes, even less, if you have a fast processor and a high-speed internet connection.

To show you how quick the internet works& I didn't tell anyone about my new blogsite. but, within a few hours after Chris set up my account, three web surfers found it, and posted a note on my blog, welcoming me to the exploding blog community.

KABC, LA
I found this idiocy on FARK. Read the comments there, they rip this guy a new one.

Spanish Arrest Warrant for Three U.S. Soldiers

2005-10-19T12:50:00.000-05:00

This is unbelievable. The three soldiers fired a shell from a tank into the Palestine Hotel while under fire, resulting in the death of a Spanish cameraman and a Reuters camerman.

"I just cannot imagine how any U.S. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition," a U.S. State Department official, who asked not to be named, said in June.

Reuters via ABC News

Gateway Pundit on Katrina

2005-10-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

I'm getting a little sick of hearing about Katrina and almost skipped reading this entry. Gateway Pundit does a nice job of clearing up some of the many inaccuracies regarding the aftermath of the storm.

Katrina Facts & Fiction on Racism

A month after Hurricane Katrina, the facts don't back up the claims of racism originally made by an angry young rapper and fed by the mainstream media, liberal politicians as far away as Germany, and entertainers, during the worst days of the tragedy.

Fiction: "The real criminals drown our people (blacks) in New Orleans." Malik Zulu Shabazz, Million More Movement Rally, October 15, 2005.

Fact: Of the identified victims released to families from the makeshift morgue in St. Gabriel 44% are African American, 47% are Caucasion, 3% Hispanic, 8% Unknown.

It is worth the time to read the entire entry.

Two Anti-Google Stories in InformationWeek

2005-10-19T12:22:00.000-05:00

The first is the Editor's Note which is critical of Google's (lack of) privacy policy. Nothing really new here.

1. Editor's Note: Google's Magic Pixie Dust

I definitely want some of the magic pixie dust that Google uses. Google gets away with stuff that other companies--particularly Microsoft--get hammered for. But Google gets a free pass. Because it's Google. And everybody loves Google.

Microsoft faces constant scrutiny for the data it collects--or might collect--on its customers. Four years ago, when the company introduced "product activation" to stem piracy, privacy advocates cried foul. Likewise, Microsoft proposed technology code-named HailStorm as a way of consolidating login information for multiple sites; privacy concerns eventually scuttled that proposal.

Google regularly gets away with this kind of thing. According to its privacy policy, Google explicitly reserves the right to track every time you click on a link from one of its searches. If you use Gmail as your primary E-mail--and many people do--Google keeps a repository of all your E-mail and indexes it for marketing purposes.

And yet there's no outcry against Google; nobody complains except for a few privacy advocates (and, unfortunately, the phrase "privacy advocate" these days is simply a polysyllabic way of saying "kook").

By tracking clicks and storing E-mail, Google is keeping a detailed dossier on each of its users Internet-usage habits. And that means it knows a lot about our real lives, too, because, here in the 21st century, our online habits are reflections of our real lives. We shop online, do finances online, and use the Internet to research our medical conditions, hobbies, and leisure activities.

Google is a great company. All of us use Google many times every day. I have a Google account and remain logged into it all day, so that I can enjoy the benefits of the personalized home page and Google Reader (which, by the way, is terrific). But I don't use Gmail, because I don't want to entrust Google with all my E-mail. (I mean, heck, forget about privacy; what about if their server crashes and it turns out the guy who was supposed to make backups was instead spending his days drinking Four Roses bourbon and watching The Guiding Light?)

Google's motto is, "You can make money without doing evil." But the company isn't staffed by angels; they are as capable of doing evil as any of the rest of us, and we're all very capable of doing evil when you put big buckets of money in front of us.

For more on this subject, or to comment, visit my blog entry. Or you can read what columnist Fred Langa had to say a few months ago about Google and privacy.

Mitch Wagner

InformationWeek
The volume of spam coming out of Blogspot is the next story. I learned a knew word, "splog." IceRocket actually stopped listing Google blogs. Here is an excerpt:

A bump-up in the number of spam blogs on Google's Blogspot has drawn the ire of prominent bloggers, and at least one blog search service has stopped indexing posts on the hosting service.

The warpath against Google is unwarranted, said one "splog" expert Tuesday, while another took the other end of the argument and said Google needed to do something before things really get out of hand.

"Not index a site because of spammers? That's ludicrous," said David Sifry, the chief executive of Technorati, a search engine that tracks blog updates. "There's a whole arsenal available. You don't want to use a shotgun when you can use a rifle."

"I think there's not been enough done on the part of Google," countered Bob Wyman, the founder and chief technology officer for PubSub, a company that provides a matching engine to help users find blogs. "Google is the front line, and they should take the responsibility. They need to strictly enforce their terms of service, or they'll end up poisoning the stream for the whole [blog] community.

InformationWeek

Taiwan Now Not Part of China: Google Maps

2005-10-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

The story includes screenshots of the maps before and after if you want to verify that yes, they are maps of Taiwan, and one of them lists it as a province of China.

BEIJING, Oct. 19 -- Google.com, world's largest Internet search engine, deleted the words "Taiwan, a province of the People's Republic of China" on a map of Taiwan linked to its maps search engine maps.google.com. This has drawn rage from Chinese officials and the people.

News reports indicate Google made the changes under pressure of extremists in Taiwan's pan-Green camp (a pro-independence alliance between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the hard-line Taiwan Solidarity Union party).

The website deleted the words at the top left corner of the web page that noted that Taiwan is a distinct part of China. Instead, arrows and some other graphics were placed there, through which the map can be moved or enlarged.

Peng Keyu, consul general of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, voiced objection to the Google decision and urged it to follow the US government's allegiance to the one-China principle, according to the SingTao Daily.

China and the United States long ago reached consensus in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and thus officially established diplomatic relations in the late 1970s after decades of isolation from one another. That's when the US government promised to remain committed to a one-China principle and opposition to Taiwan independence.

Li Xinpei, former president of North Californian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, expressed his disappointment with Google's decision to succumb to the Taiwan independence forces.

However, Google spokesman Debbie Frost claimed that this alteration was just a "regular update" of all of the site's map pages rather than a deliberate effort to specially update the Taiwan page.

In spite of that, Li denounced Google's excuse, saying that whatever its intention was, it must bear the one-China principle in mind.

Zhang Shaofu, a Chinese-American scholar, worried that the updated web page may mislead the American people, Google's largest consumer group, giving the impression of an "independent Taiwan." Worse still, the overseas Chinese may develop wrong concepts as the result of the "updated" map of Taiwan.

Many Chinese online readers expressed rejection and displeasure at the removal by Google, with many writing at the popular sina.com and sohu.com chatrooms suggesting boycotting Google's China service.

Xinhua

China Invaded Japan? Yahoo! Hoax

2005-10-19T11:25:00.000-05:00

Internet hoax sees China invade Japan

Wed Oct 19, 7:29 AM ET

A fictitious article saying Chinese troops invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa was seen on a bogus Japanese-language Yahoo News website at the height of tensions between the two Asian neighbours.

The article, which was wrongly credited to Japan's Kyodo news agency, reported that the US Department of Defense announced the "invasion" early Tuesday.

Both Kyodo News and Yahoo Japan quickly denied they had anything to do with the story and said they were considering legal action although the identity of the perpetrators was unknown.

"US forces as well as Japanese self-defense forces are exchanging fire in the skies over Okinawa at the moment," the bogus news item read.

It said that the incident was sparked off by a Chinese naval bombardment of a Japanese patrol plane flying near a disputed gas field in the East China Sea.

The website used a logo resembling that of Internet portal Yahoo Japan's news site.

By clicking other news headlines on the bogus site, the user could access genuine Yahoo news items.

Apart from the gas field dispute, Japan's relations with China have been soured by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's fresh pilgrimage to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japanese World War II leaders, despite objections from Asian neighbours.

AFP via Yahoo!
I wish I had a copy of the hoax site.

Just in Time for Christmas, Get Your Hugo Chavez Doll

2005-10-19T11:20:00.000-05:00

The picture is from the site MercadoLibre, which ironiclly means free market.

Toying with revolution, Chavez doll on sale
Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:23 AM BST

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Move over Ken and Barbie, the revolution is here.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, whom critics accuse of trying to introduce communism in Venezuela, has been modelled into an action doll with his trademark red beret and distinctive mole, according to an online offer.

The 51-cm (20-inch) "revolutionary doll" costs $16 (9.16 pounds) and gives soundbites from the talkative president, according to the offer posted on Internet shopping site and eBay partner MercadoLibre by a seller on Venezuela's Margarita Island.

"Great present for compatriots, birthdays, Christmas and surprises," reads the offer for the action figure, which says the doll comes in uniform or a revolutionary red jacket.

A spokeswoman at MercadoLibre could not give any sales figures for the doll.

Supporters of Chavez praise the former army officer for helping Venezuela's poor majority with social programs financed by oil revenues and his admirers in Caracas sell T-shirts, posters and watches printed with his face.

Opponents blast his self-styled revolution as a carbon-copy of the communist model of his ally Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Reuters U.K.

Volcker: Tie U.N. Reform to Funding

2005-10-19T10:54:00.000-05:00

This idea is long overdue. What is the worst that could happen? The U.N. cries because their allowance is slashed for being a naughty boy and is forced to cut back on some of its departments that should never have been created in the first place? This has been a fantasy of mine for years but is unlikely to become real as Bush opposes such a move.

The United States and its allies should threaten to cut the budget of the United Nations if it fails to end corruption and adopt badly needed reforms, the man who led the probe into the U.N. oil-for-food scandal said yesterday.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that he opposed a unilateral U.S. withholding of U.N. dues, but that a "de facto alliance" of nations demanding reform could cut through the world body's "culture of inaction."
The message, he said, should be: "Look, if the organization isn't ready to reform itself, that has budgetary implications."

The Washington Times

Journalists Should Have Handled Katrina Plus Their Coverage of it was Superb

2005-10-18T10:26:00.000-05:00

The CBS news president, Andrew Heyward, actually said this. Broadcasting & Cable I guess gross inaccuracies and reporting on the latest rumor amounts to superb journalism. More at NewsBusters.

More on Toledo

2005-10-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

ABC still has the clearly wrong headline saying "White supremacist Riot in Toledo" as pointed out in NewsBusters. Apparently ABC likes to distort the news in favor of gangbangers over Nazis. What? Why choose one group of assholes over another?

No Need to Wash Your Undies

2005-10-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

Sky News has a disturbing article about underwear with silver threads woven into them, designed to stop bacteria from spreading. This means they can be worn again and again without getting smelly. The short article says the undies are designed for mountaineers and the like.

Does it work? I doubt it. If it did work would you buy them? I wouldn't. At least I do not have the job of being the stank tester.

The Dread Pundit Bluto: CENTCOM Vs. The Associated Press

2005-10-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

The Dread Pundit Bluto
I stumbled upon this nice piece of work from The Jawa Report. Hey! The guy uses Blogger with the same theme that I do. It is all good in my mind about the choice in switching blog hosts.

Anyway, Dread Pundit does a fine job of pointing out the journalistic integrity of the press. He compares the CENTCOM account with AP's story. Not surprisingly, the accounts differ.

Let's see, we can believe the detailed, precise account of a US servicemember, or we can accept Wagner's tale based on unnamed witnesses and a "tribal leader" from an area that Wagner admits is "a hotbed of Sunni-Arab insurgents".

Dread Pundit

It is well worth reading the CENTCOM version, the AP version, what Dread Pundit has to say as well as The Jawa Report.

In other news, I've decided that Haloscan's trackback sucks. I put the code in the correct places and everything is set up right, but I cannot ping ANYONE. Oh, don't get me started about how they say they have a Java and non-Java based version... Maybe if I actually paid for something I would get better results... Well, I will try to ping Dread Pundit and the Jawa Report.

Edit: I was able to ping both, making the free product not suck. Still, it is a complete pain in the ass. I assumed this was something that was done automatically, silly me. I won't be using it much as it is time consuming.

As Malkin Promised, More on the OU Suicide Bomber

2005-10-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

I can't exactlly remember what Michelle Malkin promised she would write about regarding the OU suicide bombing as I was ready to sleep when I read it last night. What she wrote today is not what I expected, however. She surprised me by focusing on an interview she had with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal regarding the bombing and the reaction of the blogosphere. According to Malkin, the reporter already knew the story he was going to write before the interview. His focus, of course, was to be on how the blogosphere overreacted and assumed rumor to be truth. Despite Malkin's evidence to the contrary, take a guess about how the story was handled. Sorry, the WSJ requires registration, no link.

I expected more from a WSJ reporter. It does not really surprise me, though. All print media is threatened by blogs (well, not exactlly this one). It is a good read and I urge you to check it out.

EFF Reveals Hidden Codes Made From Laser Printers

2005-10-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

The EFF cracked a code that a model of Xerox laser printers puts on every document it makes. The code consists of yellow dots not visible to the naked eye that identify the serial number of the printer and date stamps it. Presumablly other makes and models do the same.

I guess I will put my master criminal plans on hold.