Miscellania Archives

Brass dacks: top international military officials fly into Saranac Lake, NY

SARANAC LAKE - Powerful generals and admirals from some of the most powerful nations on Earth are reportedly meeting somewhere in the local area this weekend after flying into the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear on Friday.

Among the passengers of a large Boeing 757 airplane with "United States of America" printed on its fuselage were top members of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and their counterparts from France, Germany and another country, possibly Great Britain, according to Barry DeFuria, a town of Harrietstown councilman and Airport Committee member who was there when the plane landed. A top military delegation from Italy flew in on a separate Falcon airplane, DeFuria said.

Posted at 10:12 PM

O.J. Simpson: guilty on all counts

Breaking now: OJ Simpson has been found guilty on all charges. His co-defendent Clarence Stewart was also found guilty on all charges. The minimum possible sentences aren't known, but both of them could face life imprisonment.

Posted at 10:56 PM

Permanent U.S. Army brigade to help with "civil unrest and crowd control"... inside the U.S. (non-lethal weapons)

U.S. troops returning from duty in Iraq will be carrying out homeland patrols in America from October 1st in complete violation of Posse Comitatus for the purposes of helping with "civil unrest and crowd control" - which could include dealing with unruly Americans after a complete economic collapse.

This shocking admission was calmly reported on September 8th by the Army Times website [link], which reports that from the beginning of next month the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team "Will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks."

...The purpose of the unit's patrols includes helping "with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack."

The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

"It's a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they're fielding. They've been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it."

The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets...

Posted at 11:34 PM

England: kids urged to become "Climate Cops", monitor "Climate Crimes" of parents, neighbors

Back on April 6, 2008 I uploaded the video below called "Green Pioneers", satirizing the global warming hysteria by proposing a Soviet Union-style Pioneers program featuring kids monitoring and reporting the energy consumption of their parents and neighbors.

From my satire to others' realities, as in July, Barack Obama proposed his Clean Energy Corps.

But, even that wasn't as close as a new program from the British company NPower called "Climate Cops". They want children to monitor their parents' and neighbors' "Climate Crimes" and leave Post-It notes at the scene of the crime, building up a "Climate Crime Case File". Similar historical programs are discussed here and here. Someone else's satire of the new program is here. And, if you want to join up, visit climatecops.com

Posted at 10:48 AM

Odd: scientist commits suicide after learning would be charged in anthrax attacks

Bruce Ivins - a biotechnology researcher at Fort Detrick in Maryland - apparently committed suicide using Tylenol 3 and died Tuesday. That was after he learned that the government would charge him in the anthrax mailings of a few years ago. According to this the story was uncovered by the L.A. Times, but at post time the headline on their site returns a "page not found". However:

Henry S. Heine, a scientist who had worked with Ivins on inhalation anthrax research at Fort Detrick, said he and others on their team have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that has been investigating the anthrax mailings for more than a year... Ivins was the co-author of numerous anthrax studies, including one on a treatment for inhalation anthrax published in the July 7 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Related posts on the strange deaths of biodefense researchers, microbiologists, and the like here, here, and here.

Posted at 11:08 PM

A standing army for the United Nations? See the candidates who support it.

Globalist forces are pushing to give the United Nations a standing army consisting of 15,000 troops and personnel who could respond within 48 hours under the command of the U.N. Security Council (called the "U.N. Emergency Peace Service"). While that might make sense under certain circumstances, it could obviously be severly abused and might even result in U.N. troops - i.e., blue helmets - being deployed inside the U.S. Combined with the U.N.'s push for global taxation (such as through LOST), this would hasten the development of a world government.

The far-left internationalist group Global Solutions gave a questionnaire about U.N.-related issues to various candidates (globalsolutions.org/politics/elections_and_candidates/races/2008?action=cq) which included this question:

Will you cosponsor a resolution in Congress supporting the establishment of a U.N. Emergency Peace Service if one is introduced?

The answers to the other questions are interesting as well, but here are the responses from those who answered that question in support, ranked generally from worst to least worst:

Bob Alexander (D-MI 08)
Yes, as a former Peace Corps Volunteer and Teacher Corps Intern I fully support the needed Emergency Peace Service.

Daniel Seals (D-IL 10)
I believe that the establishment of UNEPS would drastically improve our ability to respond to humanitarian crises.

Stephen Todd Sarvi (D-MN 02)
The U.N. Emergency Peace Service is an idea whose time has come. It would enable quick responses to situations such as East Timor and Darfur However, the United States has very serious military readiness issues that must be addressed in order for us to participate responsibly in such a service. Additionally, questions need to be answered about command of the force and how it's paid for. This initiative must have wide backing and support within the world community as well, and the United States should not have to be the primary operator.

Darcy Burner (D-WA 08)
Yes, I would support a resolution in Congress supporting the establishment of a U.N. Emergency Peace Service if one is introduced. The ability of the U.N. to respond to deadly emergencies quickly is vital to their mission of ensuring peace and protecting human rights throughout the world.

Tom Udall (D-NM)
The creation of UNEPS as a permanent humanitarian crisis raid-response structure would go far in stabilizing how the international community reacts to emergency conflicts and situations. Although I would need to see the specific proposal, I am a strong supporter of international peacekeeping missions; I would support a permanent structure as long as it establishes clear goals, clear responsibility, and is fully equipped to deal in conflict resolution, emergency medical situations, natural disasters, and other emergency conditions around the world.

Jill Morgenthaler (D-IL 06)
As a former peacekeeper in Bosnia, I am keenly aware of how the rapid deployment of resources can minimize both dangerous situations and long term costs. The current mechanisms within the United Nations for addressing global hotspots take too long to spring into action. An emergency peace service would be able to match stated desires with desired action.

Jigar Ashwin Madia (D-MN 03)
I support an international conference to explore the concept of a U.N. Emergency Peace Service. Such an organization could greatly reduce U.N. response time in dealing with emerging crises. It is important for such an organization to have a narrow and clearly defined mission that is appropriately tailored to its humanitarian purpose.

Linda Stender (D-NJ 07)
I would need further information before I make a decision on this issue. One of my principal concerns in Congress would be to restore fiscal responsibility back to the federal government. I would be interested in seeing if, through efforts to fight waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, existing funding can be shifted toward the establishment of a UN Emergency Peace Service.

Gerry Connolly (D-VA 11)
The U.N. should have the capacity to respond to crises immediately and without having to convince member nations to contribute personnel.

Al Franken (D)
I would support anything that helps shorten the time it takes for peacekeepers to be deployed.

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Although I would need to see the specific proposal, I am a strong supporter of international peacekeeping missions.

Thomas Perriello (D-VA 05)
I believe the US and the UN have an affirmative obligation to prevent and stop genocide and crimes against humanity. In the absence of UN authority, the US can and must lead a multi-lateral effort in this regard, as was the case in response to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

Eric Massa (D-NY 29)
I believe that the current framework that exists within the United Nations in adequate, and I feel that we should operate within the framework of what already exists, while working to make sure that that framework is fully funded and fully functioning.

UPDATE: Here's a trick question you can try asking one of those who supports this plan. Pretend that you support the plan and ask something like:

You support the UNEPS, a standing military force for the United Nations that could be used in places like Darfur. Couldn't it also be used in case of a natural disaster inside the U.S. where our resources are strapped, such as in case of a terrorist attack or something like Katrina?

There's a good chance they'll say yes. The talking point will then become that they support U.N. troops operating inside the U.S., something that hopefully the vast majority of their potential voters would find repellent.

Posted at 11:19 AM

Sunset and Cahuenga in Hollywood is now "Larry King Square"

The beautiful corner of Sunset Boulevard and Cahuenga in central Hollywood, Los Angeles, California will, beginning on Thursday, be known as "Larry King Square" after America's favorite CNN talk show host, city officials confirm. However, that designation will only take effect during the day; after sundown, it will be known as "RentATrannyCentral". LRonHubbard Avenue, located a couple miles down Sunset, could not be reached for comment.

Posted at 10:32 AM

Mainstream media hacks get taste of own medicine: some OC Register editing tasks outsourced to India

The Orange County Register will be conducting a one month trial where they outsource some newspaper editing functions to a company in India. They'll also be doing layout work on one of the OCR's community newspapers. Per their deputy editor:

"This is a small-scale test, which will not touch our local reporting or decision-making. Our own editors will oversee this work."

Hopefully the reader is laughing as hard as I am. Virtually every newspaper "reporter" who writes about outsourcing and the related issue of immigration is basically a paid hack who pushes the interests of those who profit from outsourcing and massive immigration. Few of those "reporters" have shown any interest in accurately representing the concerns of most Americans and instead have acted as shills and pitchmen. Perhaps some of them will see which way the wind is blowing and realize that this "trial" could turn into a trend among other papers, and that the outsourced writing up of stories gathered by stringers could be used to supplant some "reporters". Certainly, Indian English is a bit different from the American variety, but that's just an implementation detail.

Posted at 11:33 AM

Eve Fairbanks misleads about Wikipedia (+Kevin Drum)

If two "liberals" tell you that Wikipedia isn't biased towards the "liberal" side of things, doesn't that prove that it is biased, especially when the two "liberals" aren't exactly known for thinking things through?

OK, it's not proof, but it is a strong indicator, as Kevin Drum [1] approvingly directs our attention to the post from Eve Fairbanks [2] of the New Republic (also home to Jim Kirchik and Jason Zengerle). She discusses a subscriber-only National Review article (link) called "Liberal Web" which discusses liberal bias at WP, and says:

while I hadn't perceived anti-conservative bias on Wikipedia's political pages, I wanted to see if [John J. Miller] had picked up on something I didn't.

She then uses the fact that Miller only came up with two points to buttress her claim that there's no such bias. Obviously, she's engaging in a logical fallacy: just because Miller doesn't present more examples doesn't mean that there are no more examples and doesn't mean that better examples can't be found. And, in fact, many more can be found as I know from editing various WP pages from about 2004 to about 2007 when I basically gave up due to things such as perfectly reasonable, fact-based edits being constantly rolled back [3]. In fact, I even created a site with a few examples at wikipediabias.com; note that there are many more that need to be added. Not all of the bias is of the "liberal" variety, such as that to be found at the Snopes entry.

And, it's perfectly understandable why there would be such bias due to the demographics of the web, which skews not just "liberal" and libertarian but also younger than the general population. Younger folks have more time to engage in editing wars, and those on the left side of things tend to be more activist than those on the right.

Related:
Wikipedia deletes, locks North American Union article
Google to just let Wikipedia control search results from now on
Liberals: Wikipedia not biased, Conservapedia a joke
AVWatch: will facts stick in Villaraigosa's Wikipedia entry?
How not to criticize Wikipedia
AVWatch: let's see how long facts stay in Villaraigosa's Wikipedia entry
Bloggers: stop linking to Wikipedia
"Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence"
Wikipedia's continual low credibility

[1] washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_04/013529.php
[2] blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/
2008/04/15/george-will-s-not-bitter.aspx
[3] I made a recent edit to the Bill Richardson entry, which was rolled back. I'm not going to get into a fight over it, but others might consider doing so: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bill_Richardson#controversies

Posted at 04:37 PM

Treasury Dep't proposes consolidating Federal Reserve's power

The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

...According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate what is now an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.

While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it carefully avoids a call for tighter regulation.

The plan would not rein in practices that have been linked to the housing and mortgage crisis, like packaging risky subprime mortgages into securities carrying the highest ratings.

Posted at 07:09 PM

The Rockefeller/Bill Gates/Monsanto seed bank (GMO crops)

Built on the island of Spitsbergen in the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean in the country of Norway, a group of wealthy corporations [including "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation, and the Government of Norway"] has invested millions of dollars in their project named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The mission statement is: "So that crop diversity can be conserved for the future"...

...An essential ingredient to this plan is none other than the hybrid seed. The key to hybrid seeds is their inability to reproduce. They are designed to not multiply. Seeds were originally designed to give yields similar to the parent seeds year after year. Not so of hybrid seeds. Subsequent yields are significantly lower and of lower quality. Declining yield necessitates farmers buying seed year after year to assure high yields. The big seed companies were now in perfect control as no smaller group could produce the hybrid but them. This was the foundation of the GMO seed revolution...

...The advantages of [Monsanto's] Terminator technology are obvious. Seeds yield only one harvest. Period. This forces farmers (the third world nations) to return to the seed companies year after year to replenish their seed supplies so that they can grow food to feed their people. Within 10 years, this could create a complete monopoly for these seed companies...

Posted at 11:23 AM

Youtube video view counts are unreliable

Here's an example of how you can't rely on Youtube's view counts for their videos. Not only has the view count for the Obama Che Guevara video I uploaded yesterday not budged at all from this morning until now, but the "Sites Linking to This Video" section shows 52 more clicks than the view count shown just above it:

I don't suggest getting paranoid about this, but at the same time I'd be surprised to learn that some contributors aren't on the "fast track" and that some are on the "slow or worse" track.

UPDATE: Around the morning of the 13th the view counts suddenly started working, and it since went on to get over 11,000 views and briefly hit the 40th or so most watched video of the day. I realize that YT has millions of videos and they only have so much throughput, but if they can update the sites linking figures and generate the most-watched lists they can certainly improve things a bit.

Posted at 05:17 PM

Hillary Clinton voted to grab guns during emergencies, Barack Obama voted against it

One of its strongest opponents was Dick Durbin - Obama's fellow Illinoisan and the first senator to endorse his White House campaign.

During the debate, Durbin sharply reminded senators that the amendment would even bar police from seizing guns they believed to be used in previous crimes.

"What are we thinking?" Durbin, the Democrats' No 2 leader, asked. "Why would we do this to the men and women in law enforcement, to the National Guardsmen, or to innocent victims, which could be you or me or people we love, in a disaster they cannot even anticipate?"

Posted at 03:17 PM

Pakistan given nuclear secrets by U.S. officials? Foreknowledge of 9/11? (B-52 nuke "mistake")

A whistleblower has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan...

Posted at 02:07 PM

Snowman goes global: Youtube questions at World Economic Forum (Davos)

The World Economic Forum and Youtube appear to have joined forces and are requesting that Youtube users submit questions for the Davos event to be held next year (youtube.com/thedavosquestion). One or more top-rated videos will be selected and screened for the attendees, and then the attendees will deign to provide responses. The user videos should answer the following question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

Then, starting January first, visitors will vote for their top choice. (Since coming up with a voting system isn't that difficult, I wonder why they couldn't have had it in place for the CNN debates.)

Unlike with the questions for the U.S. presidential race, I'd be very happy if all or most of the questions are completely idiotic and then an effort could be started to vote up the absolute worst one. Maybe Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf could join forces with the Snowman to promote World Communism, or maybe Obama Girl has a song.

Note that the spokesmodel for this effort is Lori Harfenist ("The Resident"). While easy on the eyes (youtube.com/watch?v=2zMxGgmPcHs), she's not exactly known for being a heavyweight pundit nor someone willing to ask real questions (see all her other videos, like youtube.com/watch?v=eVVHotSNR8g, youtube.com/watch?v=6Lqsc97lYlo, or youtube.com/watch?v=e3b-Xbau0nY). Note also that Chad Hurley, Youtube founder, spoke at last year's event (youtube.com/watch?v=2xXlZK5rCls).

Posted at 11:35 AM

Braindead: Neal Boortz, Susan Estrich, Alan Colmes on Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence incident

On October 7, two members of San Francisco's "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" (the "nuns" - except for the last "nun" - featured on this video) took Communion at the Holy Redeemer Church, located in Frisco's Castro district (thesisters.org/MHR_Release.html; picture here; news report with video of the incident here; apology from Archbishop here). They were videotaped apparently by a member of a conservative Catholic group, and in any case if them dressing as nuns-in-drag and their history wasn't enough of a clue, the behavior of the two - such as pretend cheek kissing - made it clear that their goal was to mock, despite their protestations to the contrary.

Bill O'Reilly has been making hay with this event since then, and tonight's Hannity & Colmes decided to make some hay as well.

Guests Neal Boortz and Susan Estrich and host Alan Colmes were completely clueless on this issue, thinking it was a good thing that they were going to church. Whether due to the libertarianism of the first and the liberalism of the last, or due to something in the water, they completely failed to understand that the goal of the exercise was to mock the Catholic Church. While I'm used to seeing braindead pundits, this was a new low.

Posted at 10:01 PM

DailyKos poll: only 35% want Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president (Democratic Party rejoice!)

A few days ago, Huffington Post contributor Sally Kohn disclosed that she has a "crush" on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/23/83652/6735

However, the Kossacks have since redeemed themselves with this poll:

dailykos.com/story/2007/9/23/224950/843

After 1080 votes, only 35% would prefer that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president of the U.S.

There's hope for the Democratic Party!

Posted at 09:11 AM

Minnesota bridge: officials knew of "remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing"

From this:

Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned... The documents provide the first look inside MnDOT's decision-making process as engineers weighed benefits and risks, wrestling with options to prevent what they believed was a remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing.

Posted at 07:25 PM

Time, relentless time

I have little doubt that many of today's youths will not only not know who these people are, but won't even be familiar with them in their later, more poppy, much more famous incarnation. If you're stumped, here's a hint: think goat.

Here's another one, with an intro as creepy as you'd suspect. Surprisingly, there are actually several other videos available from that version of their ensemble.

Posted at 09:51 AM

"Girlfriend": Avril Lavigne ripped off the Rubinoos? (A contest!)

[By reading this message you have already agreed to conduct blog-related business in English only.]

Bon jour! Canadian national icon and noted singer Avril Lavigne is accused of ripping off a band (I think) I've never heard of called the Rubinoos. Back in 1979 - five years before the glorious year of the Canadian sweetheart's birth - they apparently had a hit with "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." Now, Avril and writing partner Luke Gottwald stand accused of ripping them off with her latest Welthit "Girlfriend".

You can listen to them both here, and Avril has since called the charges baseless (here). I have to agree with the plucky Canuck: there are some extremely minor differences between the two songs. They are not completely the same, just about 99.9999999%. In other words, it's not like she was blatant about it or anything.

Now, the contest: come up with Avril's best defense in comments. The winner of the best defense will win a date with Avril (subject to her and the winner's approval).

L'UPDATE: Cette message est tout egalement disponible en Francais. Ecrivez-vous a: La Department des Contests Bilingues de la Blogging/12 Rue des Slagues/Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Earth.

Posted at 08:15 PM

"Al Gore's son busted for drugs in hybrid car"

The 24-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore was arrested for drug possession on Wednesday after he was stopped for allegedly speeding in his hybrid Toyota Prius, a sheriff's official said.

Al Gore III -- whose father is a leading advocate of policies to fight global warming -- was driving his environmentally friendly car at about 100 miles per hour on a freeway south of Los Angeles when he was pulled over by an Orange County sheriff's deputy at about 2:15 a.m..

Posted at 12:46 PM

Art Bell retiring again (round #382)

Art Bell is retiring... again! This is, by my count, the 382nd time that he's retired, at least this decade. The New World Order change agent and pusher of Art Bell's Pizza Punch wants to spend more time with his child bride of full legal age wife Aryn, and intends to stay in Pahrump and work on his giant antenna. Developing...

UPDATE: Of course, it needs to be pointed out the strong possibility that the person now known as "Art Bell" is not the real Art Bell, who may have been whisked away by Grays, Shadow People, Giants, or Bigfoots some time between his 3rd and 4th retirements. We have also been in contact with Major Ed Dames, who, via Remote Viewing, has predicted that Bell will actually end up relocating to Saskatchewan to live at the compound - and home of Peenman Enterprises - started by Dr. Johnson Jameson and designed to weather the Coming Global Superstorm. Maj. Dames informs me that there are gold bars buried several miles from the compound, and he and his team will be looking for them later this year. He, Art, and Dr. Jameson will use those to survive the massive crop failures associated with the cataclysmic solar activity that Dames has been predicting for the last ten years or so... Stay tuned...

Posted at 10:07 PM

Google: jabs at Lou Dobbs; testifies for more H-1B

A few days ago, Google's entertainment channel (?) at current.tv had an episode with a lightweight mocking (in both senses) of Lou Dobbs: current.tv/pods/google/GC03275 . This was contemporaneous with the David Leonhardt smear.

Today, Laszlo Bock, Google's "Vice President of People Operations" testified before Congress today expressing their wish for more H-1B visas, including a warm welcome from former immigration lawyer Rep. Zoe Lofgren. [1]

Related? Just part of the general Google "Zeitgeist"? Completely unrelated? Who knows, but even if there's no seepage of the business and editorial side of Google into the search side, it's always worth taking their search results with a grain of salt, especially since they (as well as Yahoo) tend to place Wikipedia entries near or at the top of search results for a wide variety of terms despite none of the entries at that site being trustworthy.

[1] googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-us-immigration-policies-mean-to.html

Posted at 07:04 PM

Friday Fun Link

Who knew Youtube would actually have a few things worth watching:

Posted at 12:55 PM

Reuters on global warming: ice no longer cold, sunbathing in Arctic

Remember the infamous shot of the polar bears "trapped" on a "melting" ice floe? I do, since I made a satirical video about it (link) that few seem to have realized is satire.

The latest example of picture propaganda comes with the story "Arctic islands invite tourists to see climate woes" by "Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent":

Caption:

Climate activists Lesley Butler and Rob Bell (R) "sunbathe" on the edge of a frozen fjord in the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen, April 25, 2007. The remote chain of Arctic islands is advertising itself as a showcase of bad things to come from global warming.

I'd say a bit more context is necessary here, perhaps pointing out that this was just a posed shot and that if they were really "sunbathing" in such an environment they would most likely have ended up with frostbite and other medical complications.

Posted at 12:37 PM

Fish were tainted with melamine too

Continuing our proud tradition of linking to one of the few worthwhile posts to appear at the Huffington Post, we hereby link to this.

Melamine-tained fish meal made its way to U.S. and Canadian fish farms, and thus likely into the U.S. food supply. Previously it was announced that millions of tainted chicked had been eaten, and pork products have also been involved, although quarantines may have been involved.

Further:

The tainted "wheat gluten" and "rice protein concentrate" at the center of the pet food recall, was actually misrepresented as such. Further tests have determined that it is wheat flour, adulterated with melamine.

Posted at 03:02 PM

Up to 3 million melamine-tainted chickens were eaten

From this:

In a conference call with media this afternoon, USDA Assistant Administrator Kenneth Petersen revealed that as many as 3 million chickens, contaminated with melamine from a single Indiana feed mill, have already been slaughtered, distributed and eaten. An additional 100,000 breeder chickens are currently being voluntarily quarantined by farmers...

Posted at 03:18 PM

Andy Levy/Red Eye (Andrew)

On a recent Reason Magazine thread (reason.com/blog/show/119840.html), Andrew Levy (Andy) of FOX's Red Eye TV program and dailygut.com made an off-hand, ad hominem comment about my Libertarian Quiz. I posted a comment asking him whether he could provide an actual argument, to which he replied, "nope".

While it would be easy to consider him just a lightweight, I'll give him a second chance. He can leave comments here explaining his position, and I'll try to reply as time allows.

Posted at 01:26 PM

Media Matters for America plays word games re: their funding

Recently Bill O'Reilly "disclosed" the funding of the group Media Matters for America (link to video). The segment includes a chart showing money flowing from George Soros to the Open Society Institute, Democracy Alliance, MoveOn, and the Center for American Progress. The latter three are current or former donors to MMFA; the first is/was a donor to the Tides Foundation, which is/was a donor to MMFA.

Now, "A.I." (presumably Andrew Ironside) offers "O'Reilly purported to chart an intricate web leading to "vile propaganda outfit" Media Matters" [1]:

As previously indicated, Soros has never given money to Media Matters, either directly or through another organization. If he wanted to fund Media Matters, he or Open Society Institute (OSI), a grant-making foundation he established in 1993 to conduct his philanthropy, could simply write a check directly to Media Matters, as he and OSI do to numerous entities.

That's a truly Clintonian statement. Soros money has obviously flowed to MMFA through intermediaries such as MoveOn. Soros may not have explicitly told MoveOn to give part of the money he gave them to MMFA, but one wonders whether they would do something that he would disagree with.

The paragraph above links to this brief statement that doesn't even go as far [2]:

Media Matters has never received funding from progressive philanthropist George Soros.

Which, again, may be true if the money went through intermediaries.

And, of course, back in March 2005, MMFA stopped disavowing connections to Soros-affiliated groups.

What exactly are they afraid of?

[1] mediamatters.org/items/200704240003
[2] mediamatters.org/items/200704130012

Posted at 11:10 AM

NBC Nightly News promotes left-wing environmental group "Step It Up"

Tonight's NBC Nightly News featured Brian Williams introducing a segment on a group called "Step It Up" which wants to end global warming and which held marchs across the U.S. on the 14th. The report was all bright and happy and wholesome.

Then, of course, I looked up the group itself to find what they weren't telling their millions of viewers. As it turns out at least their "Partners and Allies" include several left-wing groups, yet - oddly enough - Brian Williams didn't disclose any such inclinations Step It Up might have.

It's run by Bill McKibben, a well-known environmentalist, writer, academic, hiker, etc. There doesn't appear to be much "opposition research" on him, but in 1999 he was called a "left-wing ecologist" here.

A look at their "Partners and Allies" page (stepitup2007.org/links.php) shows - in addition to many usual suspects such as the Sierra Club - several left-wing but not extremely radical groups, such as:

* Center For Biological Diversity
* Codepink - Women for Peace (run by Susan "Medea" Benjamin)
* Global Exchange (ditto)
* MoveOn.org
* No War No Warming! (trying to bring together environmental and anti-war movements)
* Physicians For Social Responsibility
* SEIU (Service Employees International Union)
* United for Peace and Justice

Can the reader imagine NBC News featuring their opposite number without using the word "conservative" or similar?

Related:
Young Pioneers of the Global Climate Change and Environmental Justice Movement (comrade)

Posted at 07:54 PM

GoDaddy review: very, very bad

GoDaddy.com is a leading web host and domain registrar, and I strongly advise staying as far away from them as possible. There are dozens of reasons here, and here's my personal tale. Earlier today I was trying to diagnose why a script I wrote was only working intermittently for someone else.

Bottom line: it wasn't a problem with my script, it was a special feature with GoDaddy's hosting that their "support" completely failed to tell me about.

Details: I was pretty sure there wasn't anything wrong with the script itself, yet it only worked once every three or four times. The script was designed to pull XML files from Amazon webservices via REST, and even when I changed it to pull Sun's or IBM's homepage it didn't work well. I called GoDaddy "support" and asked them to take a look at it. No matter how many times I asked (very many), they flat out refused to look at it, or even tell me whether something could be wrong with their PEAR setup. I then tried with Curl, and that didn't work either. Their "advanced" team put a mailer script in the user's account and, after determining that that worked, informed me that the system was functioning properly and there was nothing else they could or would do.

Finally, I did a search for 'godaddy curl', and found this and this document:

help.godaddy.com/article.php?article_id=288

As it turns out, GoDaddy uses a proxy with Curl. Wouldn't you think their "support" - after I explained to them what my script was doing and especially after their "advanced" team had been informed of the problems - should have told me about this? What would almost any other host do?

My GoDaddy review: very, very bad.

Posted at 02:14 PM

Shocker at CBS: producer fired for plagiarism

A CBS News producer was fired and the network apologized after last night's Katie Couric broadcast was found to be plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal and other sources.

The complete broadcast was removed from the CBS Web site and an editor's note was posted saying the segments should have credited to Jeffrey Zaslow of the Journal, Nancy Pelosi's office, George Bush's office, the CFR, ANSWER, Code Pink for Peace, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Immigration Forum, and Michael Moore, the network said Tuesday..

..."We were horrified," CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said. "It was almost verbatim."

CBS would not identify the producer fired for the transgression, but he's reportedly currently engaged in a bidding war involving ABC, NBC, and CNN.

Posted at 07:59 PM

Young Pioneers of the Global Climate Change and Environmental Justice Movement (comrade)

As others have no doubt noted, the general global warming movement seems to have some curious aspects. For instance, here's Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. in "Assault of the 'Transies'" saying:

Al Gore's hobby horse is also breathing new life into the ultimate Transie project: the imposition of international taxation ("globotaxes") to finance the various causes and institutions favored by transnational progressives.

And, the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Control called for an "international authority" to enforce climate regulations.

And, the "movement" also has its Stalinistic/Lysenkoistic side, attempting to discredit or otherwise send to Siberia those who dare to raise questions about the scientific evidence relating to the issue.

And, they've got their own youth league too. The site "It's Getting Hot In Here" (itsgettinghotinhere.org):

is a community media project created and sustained by leaders of the youth climate movement as a place to speak out about an issue that threatens our livelihoods and future generations and the actions that we are taking to create a more just and sustainable future... ...Originally created by Energy Action [energyaction.net] for youth to report from the International Climate Negotiations in Montreal, Its Gettting Hot In Here has since grown into something more, a strong voice from a growing movement...

The latter held "A week of action" from January 29 to February 2:

America and Canada's youth are calling for five days of demonstrations to jumpstart the second semester of the Campus Climate Challenge and put the heat on a new U.S. Congress and a returning Canadian Parliament to begin aggressive national power shifts on global warming.

If you'd registered by January 10th you would have received a "free DVD and screening rights for 'An Inconvenient Truth'".

(Confused by all these groups yet? There's one more.) One of their members is the "Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative" (ejcc.org) which combines race-baiting with guilt:

Global warming, or climate change, is fundamentally an issue of human rights and environmental justice that connects the local to the global. With rising temperatures, human lives—particularly in people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities—are affected by compromised health, financial burdens, and social and cultural disruptions. Moreover, those who are most affected are least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause the problem—both globally and within the United States.

You might be thinking, "how long until A.N.S.W.E.R. gets involved?" But, of course, they've been at the very vanguard. Their September 7, 2005 protest (preview.tinyurl.com/2e8lkj) included this:

Global warming is a major factor in the big increase in tropical storms, particularly Hurricane Katrina, which developed from a minimal hurricane to one of the largest and most powerful ever recorded because of the extremely high water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico. Still, the Bush Administration continues to contemptuously turn its back on evidence of climate change and stands by its position to cancel the Kyoto Accord.

And, even earlier (October 17, 2004), their Million Worker March (preview.tinyurl.com/2hktjt) said this:

An end to the poisoning of the atmosphere, soil, water and food supply with a national emergency program to restore the environment, end global warming and preserve our endangered eco-system.

All of this played a part in the (generally failed) satirical petition I created, but I feel the need to take it to the next level. I feel the need for t-shirts, banners, and chants designed to reveal the religious/far-left nature of the "movement". Stay tuned.

Posted at 09:31 PM

Tainted pet food wheat gluten was "food grade"

Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

"Yes, it is food grade," Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query...

...Wheat gluten is sold in both "food grade" and "feed grade" varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only "food grade" gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption...

...Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine said the FDA is not aware of any contaminated gluten that went into human food but said he could not confirm this "with 100 percent certainty." [link] Wheat gluten is a common food additive used as a thickener, dough conditioner, and meat substitute. It is widely used as an additive in commercial bakery items and special purpose flours...

Tainted wheat gluten that triggered a massive nationwide pet food recall also ended up in processing plants that prepare food consumed by people, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. While agency leaders offered assurances that the nation's food supply remains safe, they said they cannot yet completely rule out contamination of human food by the suspect wheat gluten, which contained melamine, a chemical found in plastics and pesticides.

"To date, we have nothing that indicates it's gone into human food," said Dorothy Miller , director of the FDA's Office of Emergency Operations. "We have a bit more investigation to do."

Posted at 08:40 PM

Darryl Fears wants Washington Post to junk their comments

Howard "Howie" Kurtz offers the rather pointless "Online, Churls Gone Vile", which I only clicked because Memeorandum was running a link to it next to a pic of the Babe of Brentwood, and couldn't help myself. Anywho, discussing the commenting feature that the Washington Post gives logged-in readers, Kurtz says:

But Post reporter Darryl Fears is among those in the newsroom who believe the comments should be junked if offensive postings can't be filtered out in advance. "If you're an African American and you read about someone being called a porch monkey, that overrides any positive thing that you would read in the comments," he says. "You're starting to see some of the language you see on neo-Nazi sites, and that's not good for The Washington Post or for the subjects in those stories."

I've left a few comments on the WashPost's blogs, but I only appear to have left one on the news side. And, the link to the comments isn't exactly prominent. And, since the WaPo engages in editing, we don't know what was in comments that were deleted and how many were deleted.

Despite that, I think I'm going to go ahead and distrust Fears' judgment in this matter, due to his past habit of misleading about immigration matters. In addition to his name's link above, see:

Darryl Fears: the Democratic line on immigration
Illegal immigration supporters split over May 1 boycott
More pro-illegal immigration propaganda from the Washington Post
WaPo: immigration laws aren't being enforced, therefore they won't work

Posted at 04:39 PM

Cardinal Roger Mahony lied to his parishioners

At least six months after Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told his superiors at the Vatican that a videotape provided proof of a priest's criminal misconduct with high school boys, the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese told the public that the tape showed no sexual activity between Father Lynn Caffoe and the boys, according to court records.

Documents newly filed in the Caffoe civil case provide the first glimpse into confidential priest files that Mahony sought for four years to keep sealed in the midst of a sexual abuse scandal that engulfed the archdiocese. He eventually took the secrecy fight to the U.S. Supreme Court...

Posted at 04:57 PM

Obamanation! Trademark Office says: stick your application where the sun don't shine

Two radio hosts from Chicago tried to trademark the term "Obamanation", refering of course to Barack Hussein Obama. They were refused because the term was considered to be "disparaging". Oddly enough, however, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office attorney Karen K. Bush included an extremely questionable screenshot in her notice of refusal. (Children can stop reading this entry right about here).

... (Did the kids leave?)

OK: in her refusal, the U.S. PTO attorney included a screengrab of the Wikipedia entry for "ButtttPluggg", except without the doubled-up consonants since I don't want to get hits for the regular version.

You can see a copy of the email the U.S. PTO attorney send them here, and read WND's overview here.

At first glance it seems to have absolutely no bearing on the refusal, and since I don't have Lexis/Nexis I can't check the cited cases to see if they have some bearing. I'm going to assume she was just playing around (with her career).

Posted at 08:15 PM

Google to just let Wikipedia control search results from now on

You know, when searching for something as seemingly basic as that in the graphic below, one would expect that a multi-million dollar TV network's main site or the page listing their shows would appear first in the results, not what is simply a bunch of junk, including at least two mailing list messages in the first five results. And, of course, what would search results be without the now-obligatory Wikipedia entr(ies)?

The Yahoo results are strikingly similar, and this might be related to that network now just using its initials. However, one would think there would be hundreds of old links using its full name or that these search engines would be able to figure it out and deliver something at least slightly helpful.

Posted at 12:20 PM

Greece, Turkey declare war on each other... on Youtube!

Some of the currently top viewed videos on Youtube are currently what appear to be back and forth insults directed at each country. Will the next news we hear out of the region be a withdrawal of their ambassadors from the other country?

Would you like to see what it would be like if Borat was Turkish and was mad at you or your country? Here's a sample. Warning: text and graphics on video are NSFW, very NSFW.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the video was "removed by the user". You can see another one of these here, but I couldn't find one that, like the original link, was in English.

Posted at 01:11 AM

Liberals: Wikipedia not biased, Conservapedia a joke

Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum has started an alternative to Wikipedia called Conservapedia.

Needless to say, the usual "liberal" suspects are having a great deal of (what passes to them as) fun (link, link, link,link). They're pointing out "errors" in the encyclopedia, and some of those "errors" may actually be vandalism (link, link,link) and would be refered to at WP as such. Did you really expect anything different?

Of course, those of us with a greater mental age might wonder, "if unthinking 'liberals' say Wikipedia isn't biased, isn't that prima facie evidence that it is indeed biased?" And, we could compare that to the occasional ludicrous statement that the MSM does not have such a bias. And, we could point to entries at WP such as that on Antonio Villaraigosa, or the press-release-manquee for Media Matters. Or, something else I just noticed: Art Torres' 187 quote was added to his entry in April 2006, removed in May, and then not added back in until August. Meaning that all during the Summer of 2006, a very "liberal" POV of Torres was being presented to all those who visited the entry, which turns up at the #1 spot in a Google search for his name.

Nope, no bias in Wikipedia, which is "normal" and "unbiased" in the same sense that the New York Times is "normal" and "unbiased".

I note also that WP publishes an /Interwiki_map, which lets you create links to other wikis. Instead of entering the full, external URL, you use something like [[Disinfopedia:Wikipedia]], which would link to the Wikipedia entry at sourcewatch.org. Unlike almost all other external links, such links don't have the nofollow tag added, which is certainly of benefit to many sites. There are interwiki links for commercial sites such as IMDB, and one was briefly added for Youtube (it was deleted over concerns of linking to copyrighted material). You can suggest adding an interwiki link on its talk page, and no one has so far offered for Conservapedia. I wonder what would happen if someone did?

The bottom line is that the "liberal" response to Conservapedia is similar to their response to Rush Limbaugh, the Washington Times, and Fox News, and their push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. They aren't content with having their biases presented in almost all of the wider media, they simply want it all.

VERY SPECIAL UPDATE: Certainly, not all the bias at WP is "liberal". In the 06:13, 26 January 2005 revision of the Asa_Hutchinson article (a Republican and a former DHS Undersecretary), I added four negative links, none of them to any of my sites and all relating to illegal immigration:

"Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'"
"Hutchinson’s Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration"
Cheers, jeers at immigration town hall meeting
"(Hutchinson) slammed for stopping illegals sweeps"

Those links were deleted 10 weeks later; in August I added them back in twice before giving up. In its current state, no one would know anything about his involvement in the Temecula sweeps, which is about the only thing (other than running for Arkansas governor) he's known for in the past few years.

DON'T MESS WITH MINILIB UPDATE: My Digg post was buried; searching for it by name didn't bring it up until I checked the 'show buried stories' checkbox. I don't know exactly how that works, but if you go here and vote for it it might become un-'liberaled'.

Posted at 01:55 PM | Comments (12)

Mainland Antarctica not showing global warming effects

Never fear, they're currently looking for them:

A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models.

Says "David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography, and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University":

"It's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now... Part of the reason is that there is a lot of variability there. It's very hard in these polar latitudes to demonstrate a global warming signal. This is in marked contrast to the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the Earth... The best we can say right now is that the climate models are somewhat inconsistent with the evidence that we have for the last 50 years from continental Antarctica... We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment."

Posted at 12:05 AM | Comments (1)

Freeway offramp fruit sellers: products from supermarket dumpsters?

You know those people who sell fruits like oranges at freeway (or highway or thruway) offramps? Did you ever ponder where they got the fruit and what type of arbitrage is involved there? Well, I did, briefly, once and I assumed that they bought it from supermarkets and then resold it for a higher price for those in a hurry to get the Vitamin C. But now, a disturbing voice has whispered in my ear another possibility: the produce has been retrieved from supermarket dumpsters after the market threw it out because it had passed the sell-by date. I don't know whether that's prevalent or not, but it is something to consider.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

AVWatch: will facts stick in Villaraigosa's Wikipedia entry?

As a test designed to show how unreliable Wikipedia is, I added some long-missing facts to the WP entry for Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Then, someone else came along and junked the paragraph I added up a bit. Then, problem administrator "Will Beback" added 'citation needed' marks to the junked-up paragraph, and I noted at the time that that was most likely a pretext to remove the whole paragraph. I was half right, since "Will Beback" subsequently reduced my paragraph to just this one line:

At [[UCLA]], Villaraigosa was a leader of the group [[MEChA]] [http://www.bruinalumni.com/antonio/antonioindex.html] [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3531] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/recall/20030830-9999_1n30mecha.html].

Now, I've fleshed out the original paragraph in order to avoid future pretext-related deletions. Let's see what fun happens to this:

At [[UCLA]], Villaraigosa was a leader of the group [[MEChA]] [http://www.bruinalumni.com/antonio/antonioindex.html] [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3531] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/recall/20030830-9999_1n30mecha.html]. Some, such as [[John and Ken]] of [[KFI]], derisively refer to him as ''Mayor [[Reconquista]]'' [http://www.kfi640.com/podcast/JohnandKen.xml] [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mayor+reconquista%22] [http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/15/video-la-mayor-villaraigosa-jumps-ugly-with-john-and-ken-over-immigration/] [http://newsbusters.org/node/5903] because of that and because of his support for [[amnesty]] for [[illegal immigrants]] [http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_024214716.html] [http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/003211.html] [http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/004756.html]. Quote: ''"I think there is a lot of momentum and support for an amnesty or regularization."'' [http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-12-02-villaraigosa/index.html]

Posted at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

Fiji bans Helen Clark and John Howard!

Fiji's new military dictator has banned Prime Ministers Helen Clark (New Zealand) and John Howard (Oz Oy Oy Oy aka Australia) from visiting his tropical atoll country. Clark responded thusly:

"I think the Commander is digging himself into an even deeper hole and I really don't intend to dignify the comments by saying anymore about it."

The Commander in question is, of course, Voreqe Bainimarama, also known as "Frank" and not to be confused with the 80s band with a similar name.

Posted at 05:34 AM | Comments (0)

AVWatch: let's see how long facts stay in Villaraigosa's Wikipedia entry

Wikipedia is completely unreliable not just because of the possibility that an entry contains errors or biased statements. The more pernicious aspect of its unreliability is missing information. Statements of fact in an entry can be verified, but unless a visitor is familiar with the subject, they won't be able to figure out what the entry isn't telling them about the subject.

A case in point is the entry on Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (tinyurl.com/33tyxc). What you won't find in that entry is the undisputed fact that while at UCLA, he was a leader of the group MEChA. In fact, during the L.A. mayoral campaign someone followed him around with a sign and eventually forced him to somewhat renounce his involvement in that group.

As far as I can determine, information on his involvement was deleted from his WP entry on May 9, 2006 and it has not been reinstated (diff: tinyurl.com/2shlrh). I didn't add the paragraph that was deleted, but I had a discussion about another similar paragraph that I added that was subsequently deleted on their talk page (do a find for LonewackoDotCom at tinyurl.com/2l63tj)

As a test, I'm going to insert a modified version of that paragraph and see how long it sticks and who removes it. This is the original paragraph:

On the other hand, there is still some lingering resentment from his district after breaking the promise to serve a full term in the city council. He has remained mum about plans for higher office. Among conservatives, he is often referred to derisively as ''Mayor [[Reconquista]]'' because of his membership in [[MEChA]] and his support for [[amnesty]] for [[illegal immigrants]].

I'm going to change that to the following and put it near the end of the article in the 'Reputation' subsection of the 'Mayoralty' section:

At [[UCLA]], Villaraigosa was a leader of the group [[MEChA]] [http://www.bruinalumni.com/antonio/antonioindex.html] [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3531] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/recall/20030830-9999_1n30mecha.html]. Some, such as [[John and Ken]] of [[KFI]], derisively refer to him as ''Mayor [[Reconquista]]'' because of that and because of his support for [[amnesty]] for [[illegal immigrants]].

Note that there are at least three links supporting the claim that Villaraigosa was involved with MEChA, so one wonders what interesting excuse whoever deletes this will come up with.

Posted at 12:11 PM | Comments (4)

Washington Post to openly publish fiction

The Washington Post is breaking new ground in journalism:

Washingtonpost.com is publishing fiction for the first time, serializing the debut novel of Post Business section reporter David Hilzenrath.

The rest of this post is a mere formality, because the reader has no doubt already figured out that that paragraph is itself a work of fiction: the WaPo has been publishing fiction for years and calling it fact.

Posted at 02:46 PM | Comments (0)

Youtube goes nuts with the links, part 2

This is a follow-up to the first post about linking issues at Youtube, specifically relating to their (perhaps Google-inspired) use of the odious nofollow tag. In the following images, links within a salmon-colored box with a dashed border have that tag, ones without that change are normal, old-school style web links.

The first shows that one of my sites is responsible for over 2% of the views for one of their popular videos. Despite that, I get the tag:

On the plus side, a link to another of my sites that I just added to the description of a video I had uploaded in November does not have that tag:

UPDATE: I wish to fully and completely distance my complaints from these.

Posted at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

Media Matters for America shows left's regard for free speech

The Soros-funded leftwing nuts at Media Matters for America are latching on to the case of "Spocko" a blogger who posted audio recordings of KSFO (San Francisco, "Frisco") hosts Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman to his website. Those may have been covered by fair use, but ABC/Disney (owners of the station) sent a cease and desist letter anyway and got "Spocko"'s site pulled.

David Brock of MMFA chimes in:

We are also gravely concerned that ABC/Disney has engaged in what appears to be corporate intimidation in an effort to silence the voices of those Americans who would dare to criticize this type of dangerous and un-American rhetoric.

I might somewhat agree with them. However, given MMFA's past statements I'm almost 99% sure that the samples they provide were taken out of context. And, MMFA is engaged in their own form of intimidation and makes it clear in the rest of their piece that they support free speech - just as long as it's not what they incorrectly refer to as "hate" speech. Those "liberals" who actually believe in things like free speech might want to read between the lines of MMFA's letter to see what they really support.

UPDATE: There's much, much, much more than you want to know about this issue here. It does indeed look like some of the quotes provided were taken out of context. Also, sleazeball Mike Stark is involved in this matter.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

Youtube goes nuts with the links and all

WTF? In the following screenshot, the salmon-colored squares are not part of the page, but are added by a Firefox one-liner that I use to help me spot links that have the evil, anti-web nofollow attribute. This is a very recent development, and I wonder what role the "do no evil" folks who now own Youtube are playing in this scheme. I don't know exactly what the game is, but perhaps they're trying to concentrate all the "juice" that they receive from links to a certain video into their specific sections of their site rather than it being spread to a large number of unrelated areas. In a typical page, the only links without the tag are: their navigation bar, the user's profile, the tags, the "See all videos" link, the Chevy promotion internal link, and their sitewide page footer.

I note also that the URLs that they allow those with "Director" status to put next to their videos not only have a nofollow tag, they go through a redirect script. I guess that might be better than a redirect script alone, but I believe that before those used to be regular links.

It's little things like this that may lead to people seeking an alternative. Note that Youtube used to have their own version of the "top syndicators" section, but as previously discussed they played around with that too.

If they're going to do things like this, is there any reason to not use the same tag when linking to Youtube?

(Note: the "F" where the video should be is because I use the flashblock plugin which allows me to control whether I play a Flash movie or not.)

Posted at 05:46 AM | Comments (1)

El Cucuy es... wanted for questioning

Normally this site wouldn't sink this low, but: "El Cucuy" is a Spanish-language disc jockey in Los Angeles, and bus bench ads feature a picture of him together with the tag line "El Cucuy es Raza". His real name is Renan Almendarez Coello, and over the summer he held a pro-illegal immigration bus tour with the help of Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, state senator Gil Cedillo, and assemblyman Joe Coto.

Now comes word that the LAPD wants to question him in a domestic violence case. According to Eric Leonard of KFI, one of his sources tells him that he's hiding out in a community to the south east of downtown L.A. Hmmm...

Posted at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

Independent Institute: Somalia, the libertarian paradise

Libertarianism - the political doctrine usually indistinguishable from satire - reaches one of its lows in a paper from Dr. Benjamin Powell called "Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?" He looks to be about 18 years old, but more telling is it's from the Independent Institute, the same group that gave us the Open Letter on Immigration. Our friends at Reason Magazine provide this excerpt:

...In 2005, Somalia ranked in the top 50 percent in six of our 13 measures, and ranked near the bottom in only three: infant mortality, immunization rates, and access to improved water sources. This compares favorably with circumstances in 1990, when Somalia last had a government and was ranked in the bottom 50 percent for all seven of the measures for which we had that year's data: death rate, infant mortality, life expectancy, main telephone lines, tuberculosis, and immunization for measles and DTP. Furthermore, we have found that during the last years of Somalia's government, 1985 to 1990, their performance was deteriorating compared to other African nations as their relative ranking fell in five of these measures...

I'm not familiar with Somalia, but I'm going to hazard a guess that their earlier government - as well as the ones being compared - are a bit - just a tiny bit - dysfunctional. I'm also going to guess that there are certainly governments in Somalia right now, albeit unrecognized ones. And, I'm going to guess that Dr. Powell would not like to live in some of those, unless he were willing to convert. I'll refrain from asking, "other than that, how did you enjoy the play", or commenting on trains running on time.

Posted at 05:14 PM | Comments (3)

Fry's Electronics paid *me*

Like everyone else, I hate Fry's Electronics. Unfortunately, like many other people, we're occasionally forced to shop there. Thus it was a few days ago. Later however, I decided I didn't need the item, and took it back. But, like a sucker, I bought something else from them. Despite continuing to give them money, I received a $50 bill in my change. I thought nothing of it, other than the relative scarcity of such bills.

A day later, I went to a shop, and the shoppee refused to take the bill! He'd run his fake bill checking pen over the bill a couple times and determined that the bill was bad. Apparently the yellow highlighter-style pen should stay a light color for normal bills, but with mine it was a dark yellow.

A million disturbing thoughts rushed through my mind: had I lost forever the respect of the shoppee at RiteAid? Would the no doubt videotaped exchange be turned over to the Treasury Department for immediate prosecution? Why does that unmarked van keep following me?

Perturbed, confused, and uncertain of future events, I visited the local bank and asked the teller person whether the bill was good or not. Shockingly, he informed me that not only was the bill good, but it could even be a collector's item and I should hold on to it! It was only after he informed me that the bill was from 1950 that I realized it was an old bill. Greedily clutching the bill close to my breast, I sped my way to the local library and picked up a recent copy of one of those books that shows the prices of currency.

Unfortunately, the bill would have to be in excellent shape (for instance, without the two yellow stripes) to fetch some times its face value, and the "Average Bid Price" for all such bills is only $2 to $5 more than par.

However, it is the first time I've received an unearned bonus from Fry's, rather than the other way around, so I'll take it.

Posted at 02:03 PM | Comments (1)

Donuts (Christmas music video)

Back in the early 90s I shot this music video (also here) of Los Angeles homeless singing Jingle Bells. This was several years before Bum Fights, and was done with different intentions.

The evolution is also (to me at least) interesting. I shot it on Hi-8 and - before I learned how to do it myself (at the editing house run by the producers of this video) - had someone else edit it using analog tape and the Video Toaster. I had no place to show it except on public access cable TV. A year or three later I digitized it and put it on a CD-ROM, but there still wasn't a way to achieve mass distribution of such things. Yet another year or three later I considered offering it as a download on my website, but even by cutting it down to around 1 meg I decided against that due to bandwidth issues. (Nowadays, of course, bandwidth is fairly cheap so even at 5 megs I could have around 10,000 downloads per month for about $10 with my current host, I have spare bandwidth with another account, and Amazon has a bandwidth service I could use if I needed it).

Now, after having made and uploaded a few videos to Youtube already, I recently remembered this video and had it digitized again. After spending a lot of time finding a converter for .vob (DVD) files and then spending a lot of time converting the VOB file to a regular format, I was able to upload it to Youtube and Google Video.

Posted at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

Tom Ridge recommends the Swiss Army Knife?

Will the horrors of the Bush administration never end? While browsing Amazon, I came upon the "Swiss Army One-Hand Trekker Lockblade Pocket Knife" (you can buy one here), and I saw this:

The Swiss Army Knife is the only knife recommended for the emergency kit of the US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

I was unable to determine whether the former DHS Secretary had actually endorsed those knives (made by Victorinox), but I wouldn't doubt it considering his other Krusty the Klown-style moves.

Previously:
Tom Ridge hired by Albania
Ninety former DHS officials cashing in
Were terror alerts faked to elect Bush?
Tom Ridge on Home Depot board

Posted at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

Dr. Laura Schlessinger action figure (talking doll)

If you too are a big fan of Doctor Laura for one reason or another, you can recreate the magic with the new Dr. Laura Action Figure (pictured right, available at Amazon). Approved by the good Doctor herself, this talking doll says 23 phrases including "Now, go and do the right thing."

Posted at 10:11 PM | Comments (2)

Get a Playstation 3, the easy way

If, like me, you don't make a habit of visiting malls, and if like me you've watched with some concern the PS3 riots you might be wondering how you could get your hands on what is quite possibly the latest and greatest game console. The easy way to get a Sony Playstation 3 is to buy one on eBay. The average sale price is around $1000, but if you really want one now, that might be your only option.

Posted at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)

"Bush Buys Land in Northern Paraguay"

Buenos Aires, Oct 13 (Prensa Latina) An Argentine official regarded the intention of the George W. Bush family to settle on the Acuifero Guarani (Paraguay) as surprising, besides being a bad signal for the governments of the region.

Luis D Elia, undersecretary for the Social Habitat in the Argentine Federal Planning Ministry, issued a memo partially reproduced by digital INFOBAE.com, in which he spoke of the purchase by Bush of a 98,842-acre farm in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia.

The news circulated Thursday in non-official sources in Asuncion, Paraguay...

The Governor of Alto Paraguay, Erasmo Rodríguez Acosta has admitted to hearing that George Bush Sr. owns land in the Chaco region of Paraguay, in Paso de Patria. Acosta says that rumor has it that Bush owns near to 70 thousand hectares (173,000 acres) as part of an ecological reserve and/or ranch. However, the governor said he had no documents to prove the rumor. Acosta said that some stories credited the land to the Fundacion Patria, which Bush would be a member of. The spokespeople of the organization were not available to comment. Supposedly, Timothy Towell, the U.S. Ambassador in Asuncion (the capital of Paraguay) is the present administrator of the land. First accounts signaled that Bush had acquired 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) in the Chaco zone of Fuerte Olimpo, near the Bolivian Border. A spark of the interest in this property may have been Jenna Bush's private visit to Paraguay with Unicef, which started Saturday, October 7, 2006. Supposedly Jenna will travel to the ranch to ''observe'' several indigenous villages are located on the property.

Posted at 01:06 PM | Comments (1)

New film claims Cardinal Roger Mahoney assisted pedophile priest

...[A] former priest, who lives in Ireland, said he was able to continue abusing children in part because of actions by Cardinal Mahony, who now heads the country's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, here in Los Angeles, and is among the church’s most influential American leaders. Mr. O'Grady says in the film that as bishop in Stockton, the cardinal moved him from parish to parish in the face of abuse accusations.

"The film does certainly charge the atmosphere here in Los Angeles," said William Hodgman, the top deputy of the target crimes division of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, who coordinated prosecutions of priests in Los Angeles.

The film also "will fuel ongoing consideration as to whether Cardinal Mahony and others engaged in criminal activity," Mr. Hodgman added...

Posted at 11:15 PM | Comments (4)

Mexico detained lawyers, alleged victim of priest sex abuse (Cardinal Roger Mahony)

[Mexican] immigration authorities yesterday briefly detained representatives of a man who says he was sexually abused by a Mexican Roman Catholic priest. The three men were detained shortly after they alleged that the fugitive cleric was still celebrating Mass in Mexico.

The alleged victim, 25-year-old Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, also told a news conference he has feared for his life and that of his family since he first went public with his claims late last year.

Aguilar Mendez, along with several U.S. lawyers and members of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the news conference to reveal details of a civil lawsuit he filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging that Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect Catholic Priest Nicolas Aguilar.

Shortly after the news conference, immigration officials detained and questioned for an hour two of Aguilar Mendez's U.S. lawyers - Jeff Anderson and Michael Finnegan - as well as Survivors Network national director David Clohessy, the group said...

Posted at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

George Stephanopoulos: Castro is OK!

On ABC's This Week, a gleeful George Stephanopoulos announced that Fidel Castro was A-OK and showed the following picture. However, he failed to note that some question whether the image is photoshopped or real:

From the caption:

This is one of four photographs published Sunday Aug. 13, 2006 by Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper's online edition Juventud Rebelde proporting to show The first photographs of Fidel Castro since his illness two weeks ago. Castro holds a copy of the Saturday Aug. 12, 2006 edition of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. The headline reads "Absolved by history." The Associated Press cannot verify the authenticity or the date when these photographs were shot. (AP Photo/HO)

Posted at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

Panama Canal to be widened

The [Plan Puebla Panama] is the most direct threat of corporate water ownership (supported heavily by former President Vincente Fox)...

...Fox wants to transplant the maquiladora, production-for-export model that has been applied with disastrous results in northern Mexico, but with a few new twists. The isthmus is one of the most bio-diverse regions on the planet, and contains some of the most important fresh water reserves in the hemisphere. Exploitation of these resources is key to the plan. "

The US is in support of PPP: "Secretary of State Colin Powell [has] told Vincente Fox that the U.S. will support the plan if Fox militarizes the Mexico-Guatemala border to prevent immigration from Central America northward."

Posted at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

George Soros, Maurice Strong to sell Chinese cars?

George Soros and Maurice Strong might invest hundreds of millions in Chinese automaker "Chery". They make a car which sells for $3,600 in China but will sell for $20,000 here. GM accuses Chery of ripping off the design for a car that their South Korean affiliate Daewoo makes.

Posted at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)

Alex Jones detained in Canada on Bilderberger orders?

Customs openly told Alex as soon as they brought him into custody that the Bilderberg Group was aware of his arrival and that this was the reason for his detainment. All three members of the team were instantly detained despite going through different immigration desks...

...Towards the end of the ordeal national media, including the Ottawa Citizen and CBC, got wind of what was unfolding and sent journalists to the airport to talk to Alex...

...The point to emphasize again is that it was brazenly stated that the Bilderberg Group were behind the decision to detain Alex and his team...

"As a result of the privacy act, we are forbidden from discussing individual cases," said Marina Wilson, spokesperson for the department. "I'm not aware of this ... (detention) is at the discretion of our visa officers."

Mr. Jones said that he and the agents had reconciled prior to his release.

"I want to say, on the record, it takes two to tango. I could have handled it better."

Posted at 09:51 PM | Comments (6)

Pulitzer Prize for Propaganda

The Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. If they wanted to be a bit closer to the past and present reality, they'd have a Propaganda category. What would that look like? Let's imagine:

Best Propaganda: This year's award goes to several newspapers: the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, USA Today, San Diego Union-Tribune, and many more for their reporting on illegal aliens taking Katrina jobs from American hurricane victims. Even though those papers probably weren't working together, their coverage seemed like it. They offered several stories on American citizens being warehoused in hotels outside New Orleans, while illegal aliens from Mexico and other countries were brought in to do work that those Americans should have been doing. The propaganda associated with this effort is some of the most un-American the Prize Board has ever seen, and we congratulate those sources for their efforts

Best Propaganda (Runner-up): Jeff Franks of Reuters for "Immigrants find opportunity in ruined New Orleans". That piece contains this odious anti-American bit: "The immigrant workers do not feel too threatened by competition from the local Americans. They point to the back of the parking lot where the only "gringos" in sight are sleeping on sheets of cardboard or sitting on wooden boxes, surrounded by empty beer cans and booze bottles." The Prize Board concludes that Jeff Franks writes like he could be working for one of America's enemies, and we wish him the best of luck in next year's competition.

Lifetime Achievement Award: This year's award goes to Nina Bernstein of the New York Times. She's actually been spreading propaganda even longer than last year's winner Bart Jones, and it's good to see her finally win it.

Posted at 08:01 PM | Comments (1)

Modern Propaganda Techniques

There's a pretty good list of some techniques the MSM uses here. See also my new site about immigration reform. It provides additional canards the MSM uses to lie about the topic.

Posted at 05:23 AM | Comments (0)

Thomas Kinkade heckled Siegfried and Roy, marks territory

...In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman's breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.

And then there is Kinkade's proclivity for "ritual territory marking," as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

"This one's for you, Walt," the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade's company, in an interview...

Posted at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

Al Gore's Current TV gets sued... twice!

A Maryland company and Minnesota Public Radio are suing Al Gore's Current TV network in separate suits charging trademark infringement over the name of the network.

An earlier statement had the following:

"We know of no consumers who confuse us with Minnesota Public Radio, and we can't imagine that anybody ever would".

Maybe if they tried harder!

Posted at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)

Where will the Bush administration move if the worst happens?

If - God forbid - Harry Whittington shouldn't pull through or suffers a lasting disability, what will happen to the Bush administration?

There's a good chance that Dick Cheney will resign. Of course, you never know, and he might decide to stick around.

If he does resign, perhaps Bush will try to get Jeb, "P", or even Daddy to replace him. The first two for on-the-job training, the last for an experienced hand in times of continual crisis.

Another alternative is that the entire Bush administration - including all family members - will decide to leave the U.S. They could still continue to run the U.S. via a videophone link-up from Mexico, Brazil, or some friendly Mideast country like the UAE. One day their domestic staff will wake up and realize that they've flown the coop during the night.

I'm betting on the latter being the most realistic scenario.

Posted at 10:17 PM | Comments (2)

Cheney shooting victim has minor heart attack

Now breaking...

Posted at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

Lithuania: dead sailor might have had bird flu

AN Indian sailor who died in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda may have been infected with bird flu, the Lithuanian health ministry said today.

"A member of the crew of the ship MV Ocean Wind, Indian citizen Shaikh Rafikque, died in Klaipeda today. The suspected cause of death is bird flu," a statement from the ministry said.

If avian flu is confirmed as the cause of death, it would be the first human case of the disease in the European Union...

The Liberian-flagged Ocean Wing came to Lithuania from Germany on January 17 to undergo repairs, the health ministry said...

...Kazimieras Lukauskas, head of Lithuania's state veterinary and food service, said raw poultry was among foods loaded onto the ship in Germany, but played down the possibility that it was the cause of the sailor's death...

Posted at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Chertoff apologizes for latest Rex-related deaths

Speaking in Chicago earlier today, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff profusely apologized for the latest round of maulings and deaths caused by 'Ready Kids' mascot and mountain lion 'Rex'.

"When we originally invisioned the latest mascot 'Rex' we were going to create him as just a cartoon character. However, we had the brilliant idea of using a real mountain lion in order to increase our penetration of the market. It is unfortunate that due to various unforeseen circumstances Rex was able to get loose. And, we heartily apologize for not just the latest incident but all previous incidents as well", he said.

Some sources have raised issues with Rex's handler, Alan Hubertson, claiming that he is unqualified for the role. Hubertson is a former lawyer for the mercury and dioxin disposal industry association and a former member of Team Bush-Cheney 2004. He is also a cousin of vice president Dick Cheney. And, he has absolutely no background in wild animal management or any field of life sciences. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff derides all such criticisms as "partisan politics."

'Rex' - together with his cartoon wife Purrcilla, his daughter Rory and his best friend, Hector Hummingbird - form the latest propaganda offensive from the DHS, designed to help schoolchildren as young as 3rd grade understand to the very root of their being the absolutely vital necessity of electing some member of the Bush family - or whosoever they may designate - in order to protect them.

Earlier in the day, Secretary Chertoff held a very informative roundtable discussion in which he said that in addition to featuring cartoon mascots, the DHS is also "getting the border under control". However, he warned America that they can't achieve full control unless and until they have a guest worker program. "Anything else would be contrary to 'market' forces," he reminded America.

Secretary Chertoff is working with the Ad Council, Scholastic Inc., and Halliburton to "re-tool" the Rex campaign, including the possibility of feeding him immediately before appearances at schools and forcing him to wear large gloves. They will also shortly be announcing a new "Protect Your Necks From Rex" campaign.

Source: dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0848.xml

UPDATE: Linked by this.

Posted at 08:33 PM | Comments (3)

Halliburton gets $385 Million detention facilities contract

...The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.

The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

Wendy's Chili Finger Finder gets nine years

Anna Ayala, who claimed to have found a severed human finger in a bowl of chili she got at a San Jose Wendy's, has been sentenced to nine years in California prison:

"Greed and avarice overtook this couple and they lost their moral compass," Judge Davila said... [he] also ordered the couple to pay almost $22 million (12.5 million pounds) in restitution but Wendy's officials indicted to the court they would only seek to collect approximately $170,000, representing the wages lost by employees at the San Jose restaurant where working hours were cut back after a downturn in business.

This story was last featured here in: Breaking: Wendy's chili finger settled $50 debt

Posted at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)

Deepak Chopra, COINTELPRO agent?

Is Deepak Chopra a COINTELPRO agent? If not him, what about other New Age gurus and gurettes? Has someone dressed in black "gotten to" Shirley McClain?

Those questions and many others went through my mind as I scanned the first part of the very long post "How to Spot COINTELPRO Agents". The part that I read posits that the New Age religion was started by the government as a form of mind control and to make discussion of UFOs a fringe subject.

Of course, I don't believe a word of that, and I quickly lavaged my mind of all such bad thoughts.

The same author thinks that the Above Top Secret website (abovetopsecret.com) is run by "sp00ks".

Of course, that's all just crazy talk.

OPCEN 15 983 AOX 212 FRANCE OP 28 28 28 AUTH 17

Posted at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

Democratic Underground Thread of the Week

This "TOTW" is indeed pathetic. It concerns the Sago Mine miners and the notes they wrote. Considering the source, can you guess the title? I'll bet you can come close.

Posted at 04:44 AM | Comments (0)

Boffins: Star Trek gobbledygook might become reality

The U.S. government is looking into a scheme that would use a huge magnetic field to propel a spaceship into an alternate dimension, enabling a trip to Mars in three hours and a trip to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days.

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.

(Lonewacko comments: The Z Machine is currently used to control the weather, hurricanes, and the like).

Professor Jochem Hauser, former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency and a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany says:

"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."

Posted at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

Goodbye Chris Garnett, hello KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

The youth outreach coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Chris Garnett, has legally changed his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com. Those wacky extremists!

The former Dover Plains, New York, resident and current Street Team coordinator of peta2—PETA's youth division [aka "petmol" -- LW] —has the official state papers and driver's license to prove it... Under KentuckyFriedCruelty.com's watchful eye, peta2's Street Team has grown to more than 100,000 dedicated young activists across the country who will mobilize in defense of animals at a moment's notice... KentuckyFriedCruelty.com joins the growing ranks of consumers, celebrities, and scholars—including actor Pamela Anderson, The Rev. Al Sharpton, Sir Paul McCartney, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama—who are helping out in PETA's campaign to force KFC to end its abusive treatment of chickens.

Previously: Lisa Franzetta bares all for the cause.

Posted at 01:34 PM | Comments (2)

Canadian Liberal Party official quits over blog posting

A high-ranking official within the Liberal Party of Canada resigned today after he made disparaging comments on his blog about NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife, NDP candidate Olivia Chow.

Mike Klander, executive vice-president of the federal Liberal party's Ontario wing, stepped down after photographs of Chow, the NDP candidate for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, and a chow chow dog were posted on his blog dated Dec. 9 under the heading "Separated at Birth."

Posted at 04:57 AM | Comments (0)

How to Crush the Schemes of the Enemies Who Disseminate Unusual Lifestyles

Welcome to today's lecture. I and Our Leader would like to congratulate you on your hair, as it appears to conform to our standards. Remember: long hair depletes your brain of the oxygen it needs and does not conform to socialist style. Do not let your hair grow longer than 2 inches. But, if you are an older man, you can let it grow 2.8 inches in case you need to comb it over.

Also, Our Leader congratulates the women in the audience for wearing such modest skirts and blouses, and I even see a few wearing the hanbok. Anything else would be a sign of the utterly rotten bourgeois lifestyle.

I must however remind you not to watch any foreign movies, as it will cloud your mental and ideological health.

Always remember that the bastards' indecent methods are clouding the mental and ideological health of the people. If we cannot stop them in time, we will be in the same position as the Iraqis. We must eradicate the erroneous way of thinking that eating foreign foods enhances your living standards.

(The preceding was derived from an L.A. Times article about North Korean propaganda. Supposedly someone smuggled their lectures into China, where they were copied and then returned to the dissident. Details here. Be assured that the L.A. Times is adapting their methods to its own ends.)

Posted at 06:40 AM | Comments (1)

Is Raw Story a credible source?

Is the far-left "news" organization Raw Story credible or not? Consider the last headline from this screengrab of their site:

The last link in that graphic claims that Fox News' Tony Snow is tied to a white supremacist group because the site MartinLutherKing.org contains a column he wrote in 1999 about Kwanzaa. The MLK site is apparently a front site for a white supremacist group, which has a link to the latter group's site at the bottom of the page.

Does that mean that Tony Snow writes columns for a racist site? Let's do the extremely easy detective work that RS apparently doesn't know how or conveniently forgot to do.

Take a close look at the article in question. Notice anything... different just above Snow's name?

Yes, that's right, there are two dates given just above his byline:

Dec. 31, 1999/22 Teves, 5760

The second form of the date is... from the Jewish calendar. In fact, the Snow column first appeared at the... Jewish World Review.

In other words, if RawStory is to be believed, not only does Tony Snow have links to a white supremacist organization but so does a Jewish publication.

Of course, what probably happened is the MLK site obtained reprint rights through a third party or from JWR without either of those groups being aware of their true nature. Or, they just copied and pasted the article.

Since there's an extremely large chance that that's true, that means that there's an extremely small chance that Raw Story's implication is true in any way.

While I've linked to RawStory and BlueLemur in the past, in the future I will make sure and verify everything I read there before linking again. I no longer consider them an even marginally credible source.

Posted at 03:03 PM | Comments (3)

How to get press attention for your tourist attraction and book

Today's award goes to 75-year-old Ray Wright from England who runs the "Clearwell Caves attraction in the Forest of Dean" and who's seeking a publisher for his book "The Gifts Of The Sun". He got his name in the paper by claiming that the Twelve Days Of Christmas is actually a church-cleaned-up version of a pagan mating ritual song.

Congratulations to Mr. Wright for his timing and skills with press release writing.

Posted at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)

"Ever used Napster? $500"

I've noticed recent ads from a group looking for those who used Napster "back in the day", specifically 2000 or 2001. They want to buy your old computer and they'll give you $500.

I'd provide a link except I don't want to give them any additional help. I don't think this is a fraud, but I wonder exactly what they're after. I note that they have both an sbcglobal email address and a 1-800 number specifically for this campaign. The number references their campaign and asks you to leave a message, but doesn't give any additional information.

One possibility that springs to mind is that Hillary Rosen and the BATF intend to storm the residences of all those suckers who reply.

A more likely scenario is that is from a law group seeking electronic evidence on someone's behalf: either Napster or someone who's suing Napster. Except I thought they were out of business.

Another possibility is something related to patent attorneys looking for prior art, although that's less likely since they could probably obtain Napster code through other means.

If you find out what's involved, leave a note.

Posted at 06:01 PM | Comments (1)

The EPA and... pesticide testing on orphans and mentally handicapped children?

I realize that as time goes on the Bush administration is looking more and more like a secret attempt to discredit the Republican Party, but even they wouldn't come out with a scheme to do pesticide testing on orphans and mentally handicapped children. Right?

So, I am absolutely positive that there must be a convenient explanation for this proposed EPA rule:

"The IRB (Independent Review Board) shall determine that adequate provisions are made for soliciting the assent of the children, when in the judgment of the IRB the children are capable of providing assent...If the IRB determines that the capability of some or all of the children is so limited that they cannot reasonably be consulted, the assent of the children is not a necessary condition for proceeding with the research. Even where the IRB determines that the subjects are capable of assenting, the IRB may still waive the assent requirement..."

More details and what you can do here. Now, obviously, I don't usually link to such sites.

But, on the other hand, I see that Snopes has raised issues with a previous alert from the same organization. And, since I have recent experience with Snopes obscuring what could be a major scandal I'm not going to trust what they wrote. And, frankly, I don't trust the Bush administration not to try something like this.

I don't know who's right, but, unless you don't want them to know that you know, sending a letter to the EPA opposing this seems like the best bet.

Posted at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)

Cynthia McKinney won't discuss own bill about possible government involvement in Tupac murder

McKinney's bill would have the National Archives collect "all government records on the life and death" of Shakur, which her bill says "should be preserved for historical and governmental purposes."

Approached outside her congressional office on Wednesday, McKinney refused to comment to a reporter about her own bill _ a Washington rarity.

She appeared surprised by the question and asked a reporter if it was his "modus operandi" to catch lawmakers in the halls of their office buildings _ it's a common practice on Capitol Hill.

Before walking away she referred questions about the bill to her staff.

More wild theories suggest links to the John F. Kennedy assassination _ or that Shakur is still alive.

And several have pointed to possible government links.

Does McKinney suspect the feds were in on it?

Reached by the Sun, McKinney aide John Judge said he could not say if his boss believes the government played a role in the slaying.

But Judge said there was extensive government surveillance of Shakur. Judge mused that if there was not direct government involvement, perhaps indirect involvement could have triggered the murder _ or perhaps the surveillance officers could be guilty of not acting to thwart the killing...

Posted at 04:40 AM | Comments (1)

Rat lovers unite!

Can you count the problems with this site I stumbled across? Let's count them down:

- It plays music without you giving it permission.

- I wonder about that "e*PetBay TM" at the top. Trademarked? Really? I wonder what "eBay" would think about that.

- "RatsAreUs"? I know ToysRUs had a bit of trouble, but did they stop defending their marks?

- IT'S GOT A BIG PICTURE OF FRIGGING RATS.

Posted at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

A Nigerian 419 scam with an uppercrust British accent?

My name is Catherine Jennings I work with the Private Banking Division At Berkeley Bank Limited, London. We are conducting a standard process investigation in relation to matters involving a client who shares the same name as yours (Kessler) and also the circumstances surrounding investments made by this client at our bank.

Our Berkeley Banking client died intestate and nominated no next of kin to inherit the title over the investments made with our bank...

1-Are you aware of any relative/relation who shares your same name whose last known contact address was in Brussels ?

2-Are you aware of any investment of considerable value made by such a person at the Private Banking Division of Berkeley Bank?

3-Can you establish beyond reasonable doubt your eligibility to assume status of next of kin to the deceased?

Posted at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

A new way for "liberals" to be traitors

They can support Quebec's plan to create their own armed forces.

[Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said:] "There'll be an army, of course... We have to have those organizations, I would say... If you develop a foreign policy the way we see it, then we'll have an army that will intervene mainly to secure democracy in some countries, participating in international forces, going when there's a natural catastrophe, either inside Quebec or outside Quebec... And sometimes you have to go to war."

Posted at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

Senator Barbara Boxer book: "A Time to Run"

Previously came the news that California's dumber Senator, and in fact one of the dumbest Senators ever, is trying her hand at fiction: "She's a boxer, a fighter, and a bodice-ripping good read". This, of course, follows her two successful non-fiction titles: Governance for Dummies and If I Can Be A Senator So Can Anyone.

I now demand that you purchase a copy of A Time to Run: A Novel by this plucky Democrat. If she becomes a best-selling author she might decide to pursue that full time, thus saving California and the nation from having to deal with her decisions.

"Suffice it to say, this effort reads more like a cross between a bad romance novel and a soap opera script. The Congressional Record might be more entertaining. And it's free," noted the Sacramento Bee, which obtained an uncorrected proof of the novel last month but was prohibited from quoting directly from it. According to Mrs. Boxer's 2004 financial records, she received an advance of $15,938 for the novel, co-written with Mary-Rose Hayes, a sixtysomething British author known for such feminine fare as "Amethyst" and "The Winter Women."

Well, it will make a great collector's item and conversation starter then.

Posted at 03:05 AM | Comments (1)

Air America's Communist connection

Did you know that ads from a Communist-linked group appeared on Air America Radio?

Da, comrade, it's true! Jamie, from Gosudarstvennoye Buro Informatsii, aka AAR's media relations dep't, has not returned my call requesting a statement. We will keep all comrades up to vremya on breaking scandal. Rabotayu i slezhu....

Posted at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

The French are getting fat

France-bashing seems to be waning, so I thought I'd pick up some slack by pointing this out:

Obesity levels among French children are now about the same level as in the United States 20 years ago, [a study conducted by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research] found.

Posted at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

Chinese farmer extracts live bear bile, gets expelled

Did you know that animal keepers in China and other Asian countries keep bears in order to do live extractions of bile from their gall bladders? Needless to say, this bile is part of traditional Chinese medicine. And, the gallbladders themselves are also sold.

Needless to say, the bile extraction is probably not a painless procedure, and bear farmer Han Shigen found out the hard way that the bears don't like it: he was attacked and eaten by six of them on Monday: "Abuse was too much to bear".

Posted at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

CDC restricts access to flu data

...Open government advocates are critical of the CDC's "Information Security" manual, the 34-page document that gives officials 19 categories to shield data from public scrutiny without obtaining a "secret" classification.

That runs counter to CDC's mission, says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, which first published the leaked manual on its Web site...

...Upon further questioning, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck cited national security concerns...

One potential concern that the CDC may have about sharing data is how it would affect any partnership it might now have with vaccine manufacturers, said David Webster, president of Webster Consulting Group, a health industry consulting firm based in Pennsylvania. The CDC might be concerned that those manufacturers might not be able to recoup their investment if the information is made widely available, he said.

Posted at 08:34 AM | Comments (1)

The Bilderbergers don't rule the world

Feel relief, Citizen, as you learn that the Bilderberg group does not rule the world and set the international political agenda. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Viscount Etienne Davignon, corporate director and former European Commissioner, revealed that it's just not so.

Posted at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

JetBlue, other American airlines outsource maintenance work

...Since last week's landing, though, we've learned a couple of other things that aren't quite so comforting -- for instance, that this was at least the seventh time that the front wheels on an Airbus A-320 have gotten locked in the wrong position.

More surprising still was the news about JetBlue's long-term maintenance of its aircraft. When the planes are inspected for damage and then reassembled, the work takes place either in Canada or El Salvador.

...When JetBlue first took to the air in 2000, rather than hire its own long-term maintenance department, the company subcontracted that work to Air Canada and the Central America-based TACA. It's certainly cheaper: According to a Wall Street Journal story last January, the Salvadoran mechanics make $300 to $1,000 a month -- far less than their U.S.-based counterparts. Roughly one-third of the Salvadoran mechanics have passed the exam that qualifies them for the Federal Aviation Administration's license, while in the United States, such licenses are required for all mechanics employed directly by the airlines.

But such licensed, in-house mechanics are increasingly the exception at U.S. airlines. About half of the long-term maintenance on the planes of U.S. carriers is outsourced, and much of that work takes place overseas, where FAA inspections are a sometime thing...

...But today, a foreign station can get certified even if there is little or no international travel expected in the area and can work on any aircraft for any reason. This means that an aircraft that flies between Washington, D.C. and Chicago can find its way down to Mexico, Brazil, or Costa Rica to receive regularly scheduled maintenance and overhaul work. The results of this regulatory change are predictable - since 1988 the number of foreign stations has increased 150 percent as these facilities compete for lucrative U.S. repair work.

The problem is that the FAA does not require these foreign stations to meet the same safety standards that domestic stations must follow. For example, while U.S. mechanics must undergo drug and alcohol testing, no such comparable requirement exists in foreign countries in which U.S. certified stations do business. In addition, at a domestic station, supervisory and inspection personnel must be certified by the FAA, yet a foreign station can operate without a single certified mechanic. These double-standards are contrary to sound aviation safety policy.

Posted at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

Uncle Walty to America: you're dumb

"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week.

In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."

"If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."

Posted at 12:00 PM | Comments (2)

Why lefties don't like Pope Ratzinger

targeting him as one of the Vatican's fiercest opponents of communism, according to a report published on Sunday.

From April 1974 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the feared Ministry for State Security kept close tabs on the then theology professor Joseph Ratzinger, according to documents from the so-called Stasi archives printed in the weekly Bild am Sonntag.

"Ratzinger is seen at the Vatican as one of the staunchest opponents of communism," a Stasi spy noted in his file after the late John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981.

The report said the Stasi also attempted in vain to unearth damaging documents from Ratzinger's involvement in the Hitler Youth under the Third Reich.

An "unofficial collaborator" for the regime using the alias "Birke" (birch) reported on lectures Ratzinger gave at a seminary in the eastern city of Erfurt and recognised his importance to the Roman Catholic Church...

Posted at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)

I like the Washington Times, but...

Challenging U.S. leaders to build a 51-mile "peace" bridge and tunnel from Alaska to Russia, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon rallied hundreds of Seattle supporters last night in an effort to bolster a religious movement best known for mass weddings.

Moon delivered a rambling, 45-minute sermon at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center that heavily criticized the United Nations and called for the end of war and the reconciliation of religious differences.

Moon offered no specifics on how a combination bridge and tunnel could be built or funded...

Posted at 07:58 AM | Comments (4)

FCC moves to install Internet backdoor for wiretapping

Sep 29 - Quietly last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a 59-page document outlining new rules forcing broadband internet and voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone service providers to open up their systems to federal, state and local law enforcement officials.

In releasing the rules, the FCC opened up a 30-day public comment period. The regulations, which are planned for implementation in 2007, were decided upon in the beginning of August and made public Friday without a news release or other announcement.

Opponents of the proposed rules argue that the "backdoor" requirements pose the opportunity for privacy rights violations and will be prohibitively expensive for companies and the consumers they will ultimately pass the cost along to. In addition, Internet phone companies allege that the FCC rules are designed to prop up faltering traditional telephone companies, which are losing ground in competition with the relatively versatile and inexpensive VoIP services...

Posted at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

Deep inside the mind of a defense lawyer

Obviously, defense lawyers are a key and necessary part of our justice system (etc., etc., etc.) However, sometimes there's justice, and there's "justice."

From defense lawyer, TalkLeft proprietor, and occasionally HuffPost contributor Jeralyn Merritt comes this:

I just found out that Tom DeLay has got himself the best lawyer in Texas and one of the best trial lawyers in the country - Houston's Dick DeGuerin... Dick has also been a very good friend of mine for 20 years. You may remember him as David Koresh's lawyer in WACO, or Kay Bailey Hutchinson's lawyer, or the lawyer... who got Robert Durst acquitted of murder even though he admitted hacking up the body.

Just let that wash over you and sink in.

But, wait, no, really, he had a good excuse.

(nofollow tags in place because her comments have them)

Posted at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)

Hugo Chavez (D-Venezuela) accelerates land reform; disses Bush

Lider Chavez is accelerating his plan to seize underused ranch lands:

"We are not carrying out expropriation, this belongs to the nation, to the state," he said at the Marquesena farm [that had just been seized]... "We can't stop with the Marquesena, we have to accelerate all of this," said Mr Chavez, who was accompanied by members of Brazil's Landless Movement... "I extend my hand to the supposed landowners to find a constructive solution," he added.

The non-owners have been offered part of the land; the rest will be used to build a state-owned co-operative. And, all the peasants will live in peace and harmony.

In other news:

"In Cuba, when they know a hurricane is coming, chickens, hens and people are all evacuated," Chavez said in an interview with The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, stepping up his rhetoric against the US government. "A hurricane recently destroyed many towns in Cuba but not a single person died because no one was there. The government prepared its people and took them to shelters, whereas here (in the United States) they left the poor without protection, especially the blacks."

Posted at 02:46 AM | Comments (1)

Heinz learns about Venezuela's liberal wonderland

The headline tells you all you need to know: "Seized Heinz processing plant in Venezuela illustrates hazards of global operations".

Posted at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

Hugo Chavez (D-VZ) sends oil, bashes Bush, claims there's an invasion plan

In a speech to the U.N. world summit, he also said the United States had failed its own people in its response to Hurricane Katrina, accused Washington of fueling terrorism and faulted it for its doctrine of pre-emptive military strikes.

"Today we know there were never weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but despite that, and going over the head of the United Nations, Iraq was bombed and occupied. So the United Nations must be pulled out of the United States," Chavez said...

Chavez noted bitterly that U.S. television evangelist Pat Robertson, a strong supporter of President George W. Bush who called for Washington to assassinate him, remained a free man. Robertson later apologized for his remark.

"This is an international crime, terrorism," Chavez said...

World leaders at the summit had been asked to speak for five minutes but Chavez ran long and when the presiding diplomat passed him a note saying his time was up, he threw it on the floor. He said if Bush could speak for 20 minutes, so could he.

When he finally stopped, he got what observers said was the loudest applause of the summit...

The President as confirmed that before traveling to New York to attend the UN summit, Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco phoned the Venezuelan President accepting his offer of help.

Posted at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

North Korea introduces credit card

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Friday the introduction of the Stalinist country's first credit card, but just how it would work was unclear.

"The North East Asia Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has introduced (an) IC credit card ... in order to modernise its settlement business," the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

"The IC card ensures the safety of the data registered in it. And it is impossible to counterfeit it so as to prevent money from being lost," KCNA said...

Posted at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

Trans-Texas Corridor: "there's something wrong going on in Texas"

Trans-Texas Corridor critics denounced the state's handling of the project on Tuesday and called on McLennan County residents to organize against the proposed transportation network.

In a meeting at Tours Hall in eastern McLennan County, speakers urged the roughly 200 attendants to slow down or stop the Texas Department of Transportation's plan to build a network of tolled highways, railways and utility infrastructure from San Antonio to Dallas.

"We have to raise the political cost, and how you raise political cost is you organize," said Chris Hammel, chairman of the Bell County anti-corridor group Blacklands Coalition.

The McLennan County group DERAIL, which opposes the corridor, scheduled Tuesday's meeting to update people on the corridor project, said Rick Wegwerth, a group organizer.

Hammel said next year's gubernatorial primary and general elections will be the "beachhead at which we as people who are opposed to this can send a very clear signal to both parties that are in office that there's something wrong going on in Texas."

Gov. Rick Perry proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2002 as a way to handle current and future trade traffic and population growth by providing an alternative to the state's interstate system...

Posted at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)

Avoid Chinese skin-care products: IT'S PEOPLE!

A special investigation by al Guardian has revealed that a Chinese cosmetics company is exporting skin care products that are made from the skin of prisoners who were shot.

No, I'm not kidding: "The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners":

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

Al Guardian has not identified the company, and they may in fact be a supplier for other companies...

"We are still in the early days of selling these products, and clients from abroad are quite surprised that China can manufacture the same human collagen for less than 5% of what it costs in the west." Skin from prisoners used to be even less expensive, he said. "Nowadays there is a certain fee that has to be paid to the court."

There's more at the link. Print it out and read it at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Posted at 11:00 PM | Comments (2)

Katrina: Jesse Jackson does bad, Rudy Giuliani could do good

I've been saving off the various comments made by "liberals" concerning Katrina. While I could discuss them here now, I think it's more appropriate to wait until the situation settles down somewhat.

However, one of the low points should be pointed out now: Jesse Jackson seems to be trying to incite a riot. While it's good of him to take in supplies, he really should concentrate on that. The fact that he'd make statements like those at this time shows what a low opportunist he is. And, instead of making excuses for the looters, perhaps he should show his leadership by encouraging them to stop.

On the bright side, perhaps someone like Giuliani, Powell, or Franks could step in and offer leadership in this situation.

Posted at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)

PETA's 25th Anniversary: September 10 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood

Oddly enough, my invite to the C-list-star-studded gala appears to have been lost in the mail. Thankfully, a cavalcade of press releases has alerted me to this impending event.

Those scheduled to appear include such minor, long-forgetten, laughable pseudo-stars as:

Pamela Anderson (co-host)
comedian Fred Willard (co-host)
Lady Heather Mills McCartney
Ravi Shankar
Alec Baldwin
Jamie Lee Curtis
Kelly and Sharon Osbourne
Alyssa Milano
Dennis Rodman

But, don't fear, as there will be palatable vegan food to keep the crowd happy. From this:

PETA scoured the country to assemble a world-class gourmet vegan catering team, and heading the list in the dessert category was San Francisco-based vegan ice cream maker extraordinaire MaggieMudd.

Oddly enough, this says:

PETA scoured the country to assemble a world-class gourmet vegan catering team, and heading the list in the dessert category was Ft. Lauderdale-based vegan dessert maker extraordinaire Sublime.

Wait, yet another press release says this:

PETA scoured the country to assemble a world-class gourmet vegan catering team, and heading the list was Glendale’s Devil Spice.

Even a whole slew of world-class restaurants are listed here, and cookies are offered here.

But, what of the awards, you say?

Runkle is undaunted by threats to his personal safety as he continues to conduct undercover investigations into cruel factory farms and abusive rodeos. He has organized countless vegetarian events and demonstrations, coordinated anti-circus and anti-fur campaigns all over Ohio, produced TV advertisements, and even raised the money to air them. Runkle is also the founder of the animal rights journal Outrage and publisher of his own vegetarian starter kit.

Now, I know it's unseemly for me to make fun of PETA press releases while chickens are having their beaks seared off and cows are forced to stand on their hind legs and beg for mercy. I'm willing to be converted, but only by Lisa Franzetta.

Posted at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

Katrina: How low will the left go?

BTW, does anyone else think it's suspicious that the levees didn't break until AFTER the hurricane passed and it was clear the storm surge was not going to swamp the city. It would probably only take a couple of sticks of dynamite to get those things flowing. Seems like someone wanted Bush to have another pile of debris to climb on top of.

The hurricane had passed and the city was safe from catastrophe. Than overnight the levies broke.

I HAVE been wondering why Bush looks so perky and happy - like he's very PLEASED about the hurricane. It seems like more than his usual sociopathic cluenessness. Is there somethiing about the oil infrastructure, the neighborhoods that were destroyed (surely not strongholds of GOP support), the probable availabllity of cheap land now that so much has been destroyed. Or perhaps just that the cost of oil has soared so high?

As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi's Gulf Coast, it's worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush's iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

...Now we are all learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and--now--Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.

In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was Barbour's memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.

...Well, George and I are leaving Crawford today. George is finished playing golf and telling his fables in San Diego, so he will be heading to Louisiana to see the devastation that his environmental policies and his killing policies have caused.... And, should I dare say "global warming?" and be branded as a "conspiracy theorist" on top of everything else the reich-wingers say about me.

Posted at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

Katrina: Thousands dead in Gulfport, Mississippi?

I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit.

He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive.

Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis.

They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore.

The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets.

GULFPORT, MISS. - Stunned residents emerged from shelters and homes Tuesday to start assessing the massive damage left by Hurricane Katrina as rescuers pulled bodies from crushed homes and apartments near the coast.

The death toll in this hard-hit county rose to more than 100, but officials believe that number will rise. "There's so much rubble, we won't know for a while. But I fully expect the number to be in the hundreds," said Jason Green, assistant to the Harrison County coroner...

..."We begged, we pleaded, we demanded. We told them they had a good chance of dying if they didn't leave. But there's only so much government can do to protect people," [Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan] said. "Too many people tried to ride it out. We can't regulate good sense."

Posted at 11:28 PM | Comments (4)

Vsya Vlast' Nerdam: Linux big hit in tiny socialist state

Kerala, a tiny coastal state in south India, is a site of significant popularity of free software and GNU/Linux. What lessons can Kerala teach other areas about using free and open source software?

Kerala, as a state, is strongly grounded in principles of socialism. Most of the educated middle class is leftist, at least in principle. The state is credited with a near 100% literacy rate and better social statistics than most of the rest of the country. And all this is reflected in a spirit among the people to question any decision imposed on them. They resent lack of choices, and by extension, oppose monopolies. What better fuel for an open source/free software movement to thrive on than a society like this?

...One lesson that is obvious from most of the above is that the key to promoting the adoption of Linux is to take it to the masses in a manner they understand. Present it to them, highlighting tangible benefits. Make it easy for them to move. Prepare migration paths mentored by professionals. Train them at nominal costs. And always strive to create not users, but 'missionaries.' Today, a state, tomorrow, a country, next year, the world!

Posted at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)

Gov. Rick Perry's vision of the Trans-Texas Corridor

Texas' Republican Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a massive scar across that state called the "Trans-Texas Corridor". It would consist of roads, railway lines, and energy transport pipelines and, in some places, it would be one-quarter of a mile wide.

Now, Raytheon has been selected to provide the booth-less toll part of the massive project. Don't have a toll pass? You'll get a bill in the mail after your license plate has been scanned. BTW: "FM" means "farm road". Just for your future reference should you find yourself in the area.

Previously: "Dueling over a scar". Some call the TTC a "NAFTA Road".

Posted at 08:56 PM | Comments (1)

"Haitian Police Distribute Machetes in Bel Air"

...MINUSTAH, the U.N. mission in Haiti, may bear a certain level of responsibility for the actions of the police. Installed three months after Aristide's controversial ousting, their mandate is, in part, to "restructure and reform the Haitian National Police, consistent with democratic policing standards."

MINUSTAH spokesperson Damian Onses Cardona told the Voice that MINUSTAH was not made aware of the deadly incursion until the next day, when the story hit the media. When asked how this could be possible, given the fact that MINUSTAH has two large bunkers full of peacekeepers in Bel Air, staffed 24 hours a day, Cardona said that "gunfire is not that unusual in Bel Air." He added that a hotline has been set up so that people can phone to anonymously report violence—police and otherwise. "We are going to investigate this," he said.

In March 2005 Harvard University released a highly critical 50-page report on MINUSTAH entitled "Keeping the Peace in Haiti?"

The study contends that "MINUSTAH has effectively provided cover for the police to wage a campaign of terror in Port-au-Prince's slums." And that "even more distressing than MINUSTAH's complicity in HNP abuses are credible allegations of human rights abuses perpetuated by MINUSTAH itself."

Posted at 05:43 AM | Comments (0)

Massive crack opens in ground; Texans stunned, confused

All across the Texas panhandle, Texans have been asking themselves, "what caused a giant crack to open in the ground in Claude?" The tiny hamlet is located east of Amarillo.

The finest scientific minds have so far been unable to answer that question. Amarillo Globe News reports that the crack is hundreds of yards long and up to 50' deep. Was it caused by recent rains? Or, could it be a "joint" in the Earth's surface? Or, is it the result of an earthquake fault? Note that that Claude crack is just miles from the much larger trench Palo Duro Canyon.

Through my telekinesis Sputnik mind control ray, I've determined that both Steve Quayle and Whitley Strieber will soon be considering the possibility that this could be the result of a space alien experiment gone horribly wrong.

Posted at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

More microbiologist wackiness

Microbiologists and other scientists sure seem to have been having an awful run of bad luck these past few years. I see that Steve Quayle's List of Dead Scientists has expanded to include a few new names since I last checked.

One of the latest is Dr. Robert J. Lull, who was the chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. He was found in his home's entry hall, stabbed multiple times by one or more assailants. The police found several cherry stones on the floor, and there were cherries in his refrigerator, but they don't know where they came from: him, the assailant(s), or perhaps they fell out when he was taking out the trash. As of May 21, the police were stumped: "Doctor's murder stumps police in San Francisco". His car and credit cards were taken, but the police say something other than robbery could be the motive.

Then, there's the case of Todd Kauppila, who had worked at... Los Alamos. He was fired from there last year in a matter involving two computer disks which had gone missing. It was later determined that the disks never existed in the first place, and his boss later left his job. This case might have just been a medical issue, or it might have been something else entirely...

Snug down your tinfoil and enjoy these prior cases:
Los Alamos whistleblower Tommy Hook: bar fight or setup?
"Death of [chemist] at treatment plant [in NJ] ruled a homicide"
The Microbiologist Mystery gets weirder and weirder
Thank gosh I'm just a blogger!

Posted at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

Camp Goahomahippiesa

I realize I'm out of the loop and this might make me look bad, but I'd never heard of the Rainbow Family before. If you've never heard of them, what do you think they are? A Grateful Dead cover band? A kindler, gentler Mans0n Fam|ly? A bunch of old hippies who get together to have their 60s flashbacks in a social setting?

The latter appears to be the correct idea. They apparently have yearly gatherings consisting of thousands of people camping out. Money's out, barter's in. More information on the group here:

Some say we're the largest non-organization of non-members in the world. We have no leaders, and no organization. To be honest, the Rainbow Family means different things to different people. I think it's safe to say we're into intentional community building, non-violence, and alternative lifestyles. We also believe that Peace and Love are a great thing, and there isn't enough of that in this world. Many of our traditions are based on Native American traditions, and we have a strong orientation to take care of the the Earth. We gather in the National Forests yearly to pray for peace on this planet...

Which brings us to the present day. The DUmmies direct our attention to this news report. The Rainbowians want to hold this year's meeting in the Monongahela National Forest, but the Forest Service is trying to prevent it due to endangered bats. Apparently the FS has allowed them to camp in another area of the forest however.

Surprisingly, the DUmmies offer mixed reviews of the peace and freedom lovers, including this:

when I went to a gathering some years ago the leaders were having to remind people not to sh|t in the river!

That's pretty bad. And, this:

I am working two jobs to keep my head above water and don't have the time or finances to take off for weeks on end on some kind of Magical Mystery Tour like it was 1967 all over again...

Heh indeed. To determine whether you're Rainbow material, look at this picture of two cousins. To which are you closer?

Posted at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

Ronald McDonald back from fat farm, now trim, healthy

America's lovablest corporate shill is getting more than a face lift: he's getting a body lift as well. The new version of Ronald McDonald will be trimmer and instead of that clown outfit, he'll be seen sporting basketball and soccer outfits. He'll also be 'boarding, dude. Complete story here. "This is just another in our long line of pathetic attempts to avoid being sued into nothingness," a clearly disgruntled Mayor McCheese was heard to mutter.

Posted at 11:06 AM | Comments (1)

Los Alamos whistleblower Tommy Hook: bar fight or setup?

...colleague and fellow whistleblower, Chuck Montano, said he had secluded himself to recover from his injuries, but that Hook stands by his version of how the attack happened.

"What's unfortunate about this is that it appears to be Mr. Hook's word against the word of four or more assailants," Montano said. "These individuals involved would have every incentive to portray a different scenario than what Mr. Hook portrayed. That says volumes about how difficult it is as whistleblowers to bring issues to the surface."

Posted at 06:10 AM | Comments (0)

Do disposable video cameras make sense?

CVS is going to start selling a disposable video camera (USA Today). It costs $29.95, then you need to pay an extra $12.95 to get your video burned onto a DVD. And, of course, you don't get to keep the camera. Meanwhile, the company can most likely keep using the camera's innards over and over, since it's all digital. It also only records 20 minutes of action, and you can only play back the most recent scene you shot.

CVS is the exclusive vendor, and Pure Digital Technologies is the manufacturer. They currently make all-digital disposable still cams, and they appear to have some heavyweight backing and executives from larger companies.

On the other hand, you could always go to Fry's (or a nicer store) and spend a couple hundred bucks on an open box cam. You can find an even better price on a used videocam from craigslist.

But, for those special moments when you've, (just as an example) got Paris Hilton cooling her heels in the car, this might make sense.

Apparently the parts costs on this camera is $35, so just as long as they can find enough people in a similar situation it might be profitable. It also doesn't make that much sense for hobbyists, since they could assemble something probably even better for a similar price. But, if this becomes popular, it will probably also have an effect on the prices for related components like memory cards.

Posted at 05:52 PM | Comments (1)

Los Alamos whistleblower Tommy Hook assaulted

Whistleblower Tommy Hook was at the Cheeks Night Club in Santa Fe early Sunday morning, reportedly to meet someone else who had information on financial irregularities at Los Alamos. The unknown informant didn't show, but as Hook was leaving he was apparently assaulted in the parking lot. It doesn't look like robbery was the motive, and according to his wife the assailants told Hook, "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut."

AP report here. Backstory here. Previous problems at Los Alamos in this Wired series. See also "Chinese diplomats rush past [Los Alamos National Laboratory] guards".

UPDATE: Now see "Los Alamos whistleblower Tommy Hook: bar fight or setup?"

Posted at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

While we're de-Klannifying things...

Only in Alabama! "Ala. School Drops Klan Founder's Name":

The city school board has voted to stop using the name of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest as part of a consolidation plan, a move that ends a long-simmering dispute. Students at Forrest Middle School will move into what is Emma Sansom High School - named after a woman who showed Forrest's Confederate forces where to cross a creek as they chased federal troops in the area...

In other news, you can read a list of the roads, schools, community centers, (am I telegraphing this enough?), outhouses, pork rendering plants, mountains, hills, dales, bends-in-the-road, etc. etc. named after Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd here.

Previously: West Virginia: "It's not as bad as you feared". I drove the Robert C. Byrd Highway to Elkins, West Virginia. WV wasn't such a bad place, but, bear in mind I wasn't in the heart of Appalachia, just in the central and northern parts of the state.

Posted at 12:02 PM | Comments (1)

What if Chernobyl had had billions of gallons of coolant available?

...RosAtom head Alexander Rumyantsev said earlier that floating power plants are absolutely safe. The reactors "will be the same as those that are used by our submarines and nuclear ice-breakers," he said, stressing that after the Kursk submarine that sank in August 2000 was lifted from the bottom of the Barents Sea, its reactors were still in an operational condition.

However, many critics say the main objective of nuclear plants all over the world is enrichment for building nuclear weapons, and after RosAtom first announced the building of the floating plant in the early 2000s, foreign media immediately called it a "floating Chernobyl"...

Posted at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

Tortured by Tyson, whipped by Lisa Franzetta

From December 2004 through February 2005, a PETA undercover investigator worked on the slaughter line of a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Heflin, Alabama. Using a hidden camera, he documented the treatment of the more than 100,000 chickens killed every day in the plant. Anyone would be horrified by what he saw: live birds who had their heads torn off by hand because workers couldn't be bothered to kill them by slitting their throats; birds who had their bodies mutilated by throat-cutting machines that didn't work properly, including one bird who had the skin torn entirely off her chest; workers who threw chickens around and were cruel to them just for fun; and chickens who went through the "scald bath" (a tank of scalding-hot water used to remove their feathers) while still conscious and able to feel pain. Watch the video and see for yourself the agony of these animals' last moments...

For several years now, I've spent a good deal of time caged and nearly nude, my body painted like a tiger or other exotic animal. It's not what I imagined I'd end up doing when I was a student at Brown University, but I'm an animal rights activist, and if there is one thing I've learned, its that baring a little skin certainly shines the spotlight on animal issues...

Posted at 01:30 PM | Comments (1)

"Chirac counts on jungle tribes to swing EU vote"

Among the Wayampi Indians it is not uncommon for children to give birth at 10 and become grandparents in their twenties. They hunt and fish in red loincloths. Their favourite food is smoked alligator.

...1.4m voters [from "the impressive French portfolio of dominions around the globe from the Pacific to the Amazon jungle"] could swing the result in the closely fought May 29 French referendum on the European Union’s constitution and determine the future of Europe, not to mention influence the timing of Tony Blair's departure from No 10.

The Wayampi do not know him but excitement was building last week at the prospect of playing their part in the politics of the palan isi lena, or the "land of the white man", as Europe is known.

Many speak only rudimentary French and have little understanding of qualified majority voting, but an election is always a welcome occasion for a gathering in this alligator-infested corner of French Guiana in South America...

Posted at 12:58 PM | Comments (1)

Arkancides in Linux Land?

The editorial staff of LinuxWorld Magazine would like to set the record straight on our efforts and intentions with regards to what we publish on LinuxWorld.com and LinuxWorld Magazine. Due to an unfortunate series of events, we recently advised our publisher to remove content from a sister Web site of another title that does not adhere to the company's publishing guidelines...

...We want to express our sincere best wishes to Pamela Jones of Groklaw (www.groklaw.net) and wish her the best in her endeavors.

Except of cause if you are Val Kreidel or Robert Penrose. In which case it become tragically personal.

It is telling you feel that her new found 'persona non grata' status is 'tragic', what do you consider the supossed "suicide" of two people ?

The Orange County, Calif., Coroner's Office and Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed Monday that Val Noorda Kreidel, daughter of technology entrepreneur and Canopy founder Ray Noorda, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Kreidel's death came less than a week after her attorneys and those for fired Canopy Chief Executive Ralph Yarro and two associates formally announced a settlement of their dueling lawsuits over control of Utah's premier technology venture capital firm...

SCO and its minions can never again complain about Linux "zealots", not without being laughed right off the stage, because compared to them and their tactics, it's clear now who are the pros at intimidation and terror.

Darl McBride and Laura DiDio have complained bitterly about receiving nasty email and late-night phone calls. That's kid's stuff by comparison. Without commenting on the latest O'Gara article's contents, because I am considering legal action and can't comment directly at this time, think about this: Have Linux "zealots" ever put up personal info on how to find Darl McBride's mother, with pictures of her home and the number on her mailbox so any stalker can find her readily? That was O'Gara's intent. Has anyone published who DiDio calls from her landline phone? Can you imagine the press conference SCO would hold, and what names they would call the FOSS community, if anything like that happened?

...On a personal note: I've heard from several who are seriously warning me that they think SCO is setting me up so that they can arrange my "suicide". You know, like Val Kreidel allegedly was so overwhelmed by what was printed about her by Maureen O'Gara and others that she ended it all?

I have no experience in such things, so I can't evaluate their warnings, but I have taken note that three persons on the SCOX Yahoo Finance board, one known to be a SCO supporter if not an insider, have already predicted my suicide, two of them since this article...

Posted at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

Russians resuscitate an old favorite

A "Victory Train" rolled through Moscow with the above picture of Josef Stalin on its front to celebrate the end of WWII. Sixty "world dignataries" are on hand to help in the celebrations.

And, a new statue of the great leader was unveiled to a cheering crowd in eastern Siberia. Details here.

Previously: a statue of KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky is erected in a small town outside Moscow.

Posted at 05:03 PM | Comments (1)

Breaking: Wendy's Chili Finger Gate Watch 2005: Arrest made...

This just in... police in San Jose say that Ana Ayala, the finger finder in the San Jose Wendy's chili, has been arrested... Charges not disclosed... Press conf. Fri. morn... Ayala sister says charge grand theft... breaking... must not credit Lonewacko Blog... stay tuned for updates throughout the day...

Previously: Finger Watch 2005: Wendy's ups the ante.

Posted at 12:19 AM | Comments (2)

JLo's giant inflatable beaver

"On April 29, we'll be waiting for her outside Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show' studios at 4 pm with a 30-foot inflatable beaver with a banner saying, 'Fur -- Leave it to Beaver.' We'll have a massive protest at the L.A. premiere of 'Monster-In-Law' with posters showing Lopez in pelts and the logo of the movie adapted to read 'Monster-in-Fur.'

"We'll also be at the Atlanta premiere she's supposed to attend with Jane Fonda on May 5. Maybe Jane can inform the apathetic fur hag what a protest is. She sure is keeping our interns busy! She's providing us with endless opportunities to show what happens when a star so thoughtlessly pushes such a violent industry."

Posted at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

Why we have a national food pyramid

The new and improved National Food Pyramid has been released.

Now, at first glance you might get all libertarian and ask, "why the hell do we have a National Food Pyramid in the first place? I mean, it's not like we don't already have a bunch of stuff like sweeping vistas and magnificent monuments from which we can derive national pride, right? Why do we as a nation have to wrap so much of our national self-esteem in a National Food Pyramid? Frankly, isn't that a bit, 'third-worldish', this emphasis on food pyramids?"

But, you'd be wrong. Without the National Food Pyramid, there are literally hundreds of government nutritionists who would be out of work.

And, how else do you expect people to see the lies proferred by the (hypothetical) Frito's Food Pyramid? With our own National Food Pyramid, we can point to the Frito's Food Pyramid and discern its attempts to lead us astray. We can be assured that the National Food Pyramid would always be less beholden to special interests than the non-official competitors.

And, without the National Food Pyramid, kindergarten teachers would have nothing to discuss between filmstrips.

Posted at 07:05 PM | Comments (3)

Smells like phish

Hello,
First, Very Sorry for my bad English.

Someone is sending your private e-mails on my address. It's probably an e-mail provider error! At time, I've got over 10 mails on my account, but the recipient are you.

I have copied all the mail text in the windows text-editor for you & zipped then. Make sure, that this mails don't come in my mail-box again.

Posted at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

"Nike lists abuses at Asian factories"

Fark.com directs our attention to the al Guardian article "Nike lists abuses at Asian factories", which contains this absolutely hilarious blooper: "In more than half of Nike's factories, the report said, employees worked more than 60 hours a day. In up to 25%, workers refusing to do overtime were punished."

Somewhere, there are libertarians probably getting ready to apologize for Nike's actions. I can already sense the digits typing away over at Reason. "Hey, at least they were employing people and they didn't have to work as sex workers!" They can use this idea as a template.

Meanwhile, you can probably find the referenced report somewhere at one of Nike's websites. Start here.

Posted at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Feeling lucky, English?

Three Elkhart County men remained in the LaGrange County Jail on Friday, accused of holding up a buggy and robbing its occupants of $1...

The men – two of whom wore masks – jumped out of the car and held the family in the buggy at gunpoint while they demanded money, the statement said. A man in the buggy threw his wallet onto the road.

The men took the wallet and fled the scene, police said. It contained $1...

Posted at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

Finger Watch 2005: Wendy's ups the ante

Wendy's has raised the reward for information on the finger found in the chili at their Monterey Road store to $100,000.

The MSM reports here.

In other Finger Watch 2005 news, the finger of the lady who had an accident with a leopard in Pahrump Nevada has been absolved of all involvement in the matter.

Previously: "Finger Watch 2005: An Art Bell connection?"

Posted at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

"It was horrible. There were fake chicken feathers everywhere."

Brownsville, Texas — Holding signs that read, "The Colonel’s Secret Recipe: Live Scalding, Painful Debeaking, Crippled Chickens," members of PETA—including an activist wearing a body screen TV showing shocking undercover video footage of chickens on factory farms and in slaughterhouses—will protest KFC suppliers’ abusive treatment of chickens at a local KFC restaurant. A giant, crippled "chicken" will cross the road in front of the restaurant, while activists hand out leaflets...

...John Olivo, the manager of the [KFC], turned on the sprinkler system full blast to soak the curbside protesters. And a man who eats beef followed them around with his stepchildren and a microphone...

Armed with a microphone and a hand-held speaker, Ingersoll followed the protestors and outshouted them at a busy intersections.

"You bunch of crazy animal rights nuts!" he shouted. "You’re not going to win. Not in Brownsville!"

His two step-children passed out anti-PETA pamphlets to drivers stopped at the intersection...

Posted at 11:40 AM | Comments (1)

Finger Watch 2005: An Art Bell connection?

Our coverage of the lady who found the finger in the San Jose Wendy's continues with this breaking news.

Police are looking into another lady who lost a finger in an accident involving a leopard. The hospital told her the finger could not be reattached. The hospital apparently tried to give her her finger back, but the victim didn't receive it or lost it. And, the hospital cannot account for the finger.

While the location of the hospital is not known, the lady apparently had her accident in... Pahrump, Nevada. Pahrump is, of course, the home of the giant antenna and the connection to Dr. Johnson Jameson's underground bunker in Saskatoon.

Previously: Wait. That's the Wendy's on Monterey Hwy?

UPDATE: The MSM weighs in with "Wendy's finger finder won't sue; possible link to leopard attack."

Posted at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

Stalking the wild tabby

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers faced-off against hundreds of hunters at meetings around Wisconsin to voice their opinion on whether to legalize cat hunting...

The proposal was one of several dozen included in a spring vote on hunting and fishing issues held by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. The results, only advisory, get forwarded to the state Natural Resources Board...

Posted at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

What is the primary internet destination for the seafood industry?

While cruising around this here web, I happened to run across seafood.com. The front page looked a little templated, like it was part of a family comprised of pork.com, meat.com, and sweetbreads.com. (Like I should talk.)

Anyhoo, I clicked on the "About" link and boy was I surprised. It features a dry, detailed history of the site including their time during the dot-com boom:

...However, a shake out had started as the internet bubble collapsed, and we determined that a sale or merger of Seafood.com with another entity was desirable. In January, 2001. Seafood.com was purchased by iTradeNetwork, a company that provided transaction services to the produce industry. Between 2001 and 2002, iTradeNetwork acquired aqcuired Provision X, founded by major U.S. meat companies, and received a large investment from DTN. In 2004, iTradeNetwork partnered and received investment from EFS, the Electronic foodservice network funded by Sysco and McDonalds, among others. By2002, iTradeNetwork was the largest provider of integrated ecommerce between retailers in the U.S. and their meat and produce suppliers, and was rapidly adding foodservice distributors...

Posted at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Ivor Manuel prophet has something to say. Will you listen?

Over two years ago I wrote the post "Fishing in Venezuela" about Judicial Watch suing Hugo Chavez about possibly sending $1 million to OBL after 9/11.

"Ivor Manuel prophet" recently left a long rambling, incoherent comment at that post about... Pope John Paul II.

I have no idea why Ivor chose that particular post or even what he's talking about. Go to his site at www.aleuzenev.com to see the more complete version.

To see an even more incoherent comment someone else left on an old entry, try this. I think she posted about 50k worth of text.

Posted at 10:45 PM | Comments (4)

Wait. That's the Wendy's on Monterey Hwy?

Since I've driven along Monterey Highway in San Jose a few times, albeit several years ago, it has suddenly struck me that I probably ate at the Wendy's where the finger was found in the chili... I ate at the Wendy's on El Camino Real many times, but I'm sure I stopped and enjoyed a Frosty or a burger combo or even some... chili... at the one on Monterey...

Anyhoo, the S.F. Chronical uses not just one but two of their reporters to let us know that "Some loyal customers still dining at Wendy's".

Previously in Wendy's Watch 2005: "Finger Finder Has History of Lawsuits".

Posted at 02:40 PM | Comments (1)

French mobilise to save cheeses under threat of extinction

PARIS - A worrisome trend is looming in this country of cheese-lovers, where the nation's rich palette of 1,000 cheeses is being nibbled away at with the annual demise of several varieties.

"In 30 years, more than 50 have been struck off the menus as the proportion of industrial cheeses continues to grow while cheeses made from unpasteurised milk only represent seven percent of our consumption," said Veronique Richez-Lerouge.

She is the president of an association formed to protect France's unique cheeses, the focus of Friday's fourth national cheese day...

Posted at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

"Finger Finder Has History of Lawsuits"

LAS VEGAS - The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy's restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits - including a claim against another fast-food restaurant...

There's what appears to be a picture of the found object in this report. You might prefer the text-only version provided by Fox.

Previously: "Wendy's finger food case takes a disturbing turn".

Posted at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

Texas bans hunting over Internet

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously Thursday to ban remote hunting for game animals. The new regulation requires that anyone hunting a game animal or bird be physically present and in control of the firearm...

The new parks and wildlife regulation does not apply to non-game animals, such as exotics. Lockwood said Thursday that he plans to conduct a hunt for an exotic black buck antelope this weekend for an out-of-state disabled hunter...

Posted at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

My picture with Michael Dante? I'd pay for that.

Posted at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

When Junior designs software

It's early to be talking about the dumbest technology of 2005. But United Virtualities has set a mark that it's going to be tough for other vendors to beat.

United Virtualities makes technology that allows marketers to un-delete cookies that users have chosen to delete. Their rationale — and I am not making this up — is that users are too dumb to make these decisions on their own.

As reported by TechWeb's Antone Gonsalves, United Virtualities has developed what it calls a Persistent Identification Element, or PIE (get it? cookies? pie?), which gets uploaded to a user's browser when he visits a site. PIE makes a backup copy of that site's cookies, and if a user deletes the cookies, PIE restores them...

Posted at 11:54 PM | Comments (1)

Wendy's finger food case takes a disturbing turn

...A woman found the finger in her [chili] at a San Jose Wendy's last week. Tissue samples of the finger have been sent to federal agents for DNA testing. A search of fingerprint databases have turned up nothing so far.

Meanwhile, investigators are contacting food-supply companies to see if there have been any industrial accidents that may have led to the incident.

...Wendy's maintains that the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. All the employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients have reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said...

Posted at 06:35 PM | Comments (2)

"Free trade may have finished off Neanderthals"

Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists. The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000 years of healthy survival...

Jason Shogren, an economist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, US, says part of the answer may lie in humans' superior trading habits. Trading would have allowed the division of labour, freeing up skilled individuals, such as hunters, to focus on the tasks they are best at. Others, perhaps making tools or clothes or gathering food, would give the hunters resources in return for meat...

Posted at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

A small tale of media bias

HONOLULU -- A state lawmaker has suggested Hawaii's public schoolteachers be forced to weigh in as part of the fight against obesity in students.

A resolution in the state house would create an obesity database among teachers. The idea isn't being well received by the teachers union.

Promoting a healthy lifestyle through physical education and health classes are part of the curriculum being taught in Hawaii's schools today.

State Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced a resolution requesting the Board of Education establish an obesity database among public schoolteachers...

Posted at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

Arkansas leads the nation in at least one thing

Drudge has linked to a few stories about petting zoos spreading E. coli infections. Here's the latest. Similar reports have appeared on the various nightly news programs, and legislation has even been proposed.

During the Blogging Across America I visited a few zoos or similar, and if I recall correctly most or all of them had signs warning visitors to wash their hands after touching the animals. They also had hand sanitizer dispensers available at the exits. So, it would seem that the free market already has this covered in many areas: who needs legislation when you have a more basic fear of getting sued.

I distinctly recall that the Arkansas Alligator Farm had such dispensers. So, at least one place in Arkansas is ahead of places in Florida, not that there's much of a distinction between the two states.

I don't recall whether the horrific Prairie Dog Town had such dispensers, but they might have.

And, I think the Waco Zoo had dispensers at their petting zoo.

On a slightly related note, see the post "Summarizing Bill Clinton" for a picture of one of the more strange places I visited (or at least took a glimpse inside) during the whole tour. In the event that I'm ever in the area again I'm definitely going to try to get permission to shoot the inside of that place.

Posted at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

What is the "Akaka Bill"?

Frankly, I'd never heard of this before, but it involves setting up a Native Hawaiian-only governmental body.

Haunani-Kay Trask is or was opposed to it "Pro, con articles on Akaka bill fail to address land issues". So are these related blogs: link, link

On the other hand, many Senators support the bill. But McCain supports it too, so now I'm getting confused: does Trask's opposition outweigh McCain's support?

To add to the confusion, the WashTimes published a guest editorial opposing it: "The pineapple time bomb".

Posted at 02:52 PM | Comments (2)

When cat ladies attack

The post "Wisconsin hunter wants open season on free-roaming domestic cats" described the valiant efforts of a La Crossian firefighter to get vital legislation passed.

A Michigan feline - who apparently had seen that report on the Internet - joined the war by shooting its owner.

Now the owners are getting in on it in "Man Who Wants To Hunt Domestic Cats Gets Death Threats":

...Mark Smith told La Crosse police he's gotten angry phone calls and messages at work and at home.

Police reports said one call made while Smith was working at the La Crosse Fire Department suggested it should be "open season on firefighters." Another woman told Smith that if the state Legislature approved his request Smith would be hunted down and killed...

That report has a poll and a discussion, and it directs us to a feline-friendly web site about this issue: DontShootTheCat.com.

At post time there are over 60,000 votes in the poll, with 72% opposing the measure.

Posted at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

"Wisconsin hunter wants open season on free-roaming domestic cats"

Presented without (voiced) comment:

MADISON, Wis. Hunter Mark Smith welcomes wild birds onto his property, but if he sees a cat, he thinks the "invasive" animal should be considered fair game.

The 48-year-old firefighter from La Crosse has proposed that hunters in Wisconsin make free-roaming domestic cats an "unprotected species" that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game license...

UPDATE: The war has begun: "Michigan man shot when cat knocks gun onto floor".

Posted at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)

Ward Churchill: "Facts don't support attacks"

Ward Churchill has an editorial in his defense here. He says, among other things, that Denver drive-time talk jocks Caplis and Silverman took a speech he made out of context. See their site for the clips Churchill is complaining about.

Posted at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

A minor scandal at the KC Star?

The Kansas City Star is a bit like the NYT of the heartland, and I don't mean that in a good sense. So, seeing an article about a bit of a scandal KCStar is intriguing, but it's filled with so many inside-KC references I'm having trouble getting to the actual point. Nevertheless, if you want to wade through it, click here.

See "KCStar: Americans should keep eating cake" for more on that fine paper.

Posted at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)

"Collar-bomb victim's family seeking help through Web site"

ERIE, Pa. - Frustrated by a lack of progress in the FBI and state police investigation into the death of their brother, the siblings of a pizza delivery man killed by a bomb locked around his neck have taken to the Internet to ask the public to help.

The Web site, www.brianwells.net, is named for Brian Wells, 46, of Erie, who died as he sat handcuffed in a parking lot on Aug. 28, 2003 - when the bomb he was wearing exploded as state police waited for a bomb squad to arrive...

The website is poorly written and, in an undiplomatic move, calls the investigating officers incompetent. However, it does have scans of the many letters involved as well as pictures of the cane gun that was used. That alone should be rare enough to be a very valuable clue.

This case might have spawned a copycat case involving a Memphis medical examiner. See "The Microbiologist Mystery gets weirder and weirder".

Posted at 01:32 PM | Comments (1)

Jennings Explores ABCs of UFOs

From this:

Flying saucers and strange beings who have visited Earth aren't the typical topics reported by Peter Jennings, anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." Jennings, whose new two-hour special tackles the subject of UFOs, admits he and his production team began the project with doubts and a dose of curiosity...

Segments include visits to the Center for UFO Studies outside Chicago, where files bulge with reports of sightings, and to a radio talk show on "UFOlogy." That show's host, Art Bell, cites among his 18 million weekly listeners "the most informed UFOlogists, the best scientists and some of the craziest people you'll ever meet."

The show will be broadcast this Thursday, on both sides of the Rockies at the same time.

Posted at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

Three suspects in the Geetha Angara (NJ chemist) murder?

February 18, 2005 -- Investigators yesterday identified three suspects in the drowning murder of a New Jersey water-treatment chemist, with roughly 40 of the woman's co-workers left to be interviewed...

The Prosecutor's Office has also accused Totowa cops of compromising the evidence. They say evidence such as a smashed beaker apparently held by Angara shortly before her death was swept up off the floor.

Investigators are also furious cops allowed the victim's brother-in-law to drive her car home from the plant before they searched it for evidence. "The crime scene was destroyed," one investigator raged...

The source for the news of there being three suspects? A "law-enforcement source". The three suspects are not named either. So, if we can trust the NY Post (definitely an arguable point), we need to trust the unnamed source. Even with that chain of trust satisfied, we then need to imagine this not being more than a blatant attempt to get the perpetrator(s) to do something stupid.

UPDATE: In addition to the titular topic, "TV crime show shot scene similar to chemist's death" has this:

...Avigliano would neither confirm nor deny a published report that investigators had identified three plant employees who "could have had the opportunity to commit the crime."

"The people in my office deny telling anyone that there were three suspects, and I certainly didn't say it," Avigliano said. "If somebody gave out that information, they would certainly be subject to disciplinary proceedings."

Totowa Police Chief Robert Coyle said he knew nothing about such a suspect list. Avigliano said he saw no need for further questioning of his own detectives...

(Via this. "Enlighten New Jersey"???)

Posted at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

"Death of [chemist] at treatment plant [in NJ] ruled a homicide"

PATERSON, N.J. - A woman whose body was found in a tank at a water treatment plant drowned and her death has been ruled a homicide, the Passaic County prosecutor said Monday.

Geetha Angara had been doing water quality tests Wednesday when she disappeared. A search found her body about 100 feet from where she was working, but her two-way radio and clipboard were found directly below the work area, which had a protective grate to prevent falls, Prosecutor James F. Avigliano said.

"That was where we think the woman was either pushed or shoved into this opening," Avigliano said...

An earlier report is here. She was a senior chemist and had a PhD from NYU, and her job was to calibrate the sensors dealing with water clarity. The grate in question was 3.5' x 4.5' and weighed fifty pounds. Investigators had previously considered the possibility that she could have accidently stepped onto a corner of the grate, and there were conflicting reports on the position of the grate when they decided to search the tank.

And, from this we learn, Angara was working on a 7-foot-wide corridor that runs between a cement wall lined with instruments and the water tank...

From Body of a Missing Chemist Is Found in a Water Tank we learn:

Around 10 a.m., she was last seen leaving her lab to calibrate some water testing equipment at one of the storage tanks, the Passaic County prosecutor, James Avigliano, said Wednesday. Her purse, cellphone and coat were discovered at the treatment plant, and a broken beaker was also found, he said...

There doesn't appear to be much information on her in google, just a couple references to conferences and such. Was this just a garden-variety homicide, or something else? Could she have spotted someone trying to put something into the water? Apparently there are no surveillance cameras in the area where she was.

Note from the wilderness: Steve Quayle adds her as #54 in his list of dead scientists. Previous spooky coverage starts here.

UPDATE: The DUmmies weigh in.

UPDATE 2: Of course, there might be a more prosaic explanation:

... Inspectors with the State Department of Labor have cited the plant for 55 violations since 2000, department spokesman Robert Corrales said.

The violations include improper handrails on sludge tanks and stairways, stored materials blocking an aisle, improper covers over an electrical box and broken grates over a drain. Those grates were in a separate part of the complex from where Angara was found, records show.

All the violations have been fixed and none is outstanding, Corrales said.

Ernest Landante, a spokesman for the water commission, said the area in which Angara was found has been rebuilt since the violations were issued. He said the plant has an ongoing safety program that enlists a dozen consultants...

UPDATE 3: The NYT article wasn't clear on this point, but from an earlier WABC report:

Angara had gone into the rarely visited area of the plant yesterday morning to calibrate an instrument and to take a water sample. Our camera aren't allowed inside the plant but investigators tell us that shards of a broke beaker were found near the metal grate that is supposed to keep people from falling into 35 feet of icy water in the tank.

Posted at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)

The Microbiologist Mystery gets weirder and weirder

Consider, if you will, the case of former Shelby County Tennessee medical examiner O.C. Smith. On June 2, 2002, in a case similar in style to the pizza bomb case, he was found wrapped in barbed wire, with a motion-sensitive bomb attached to his chest, and sprayed with a lye solution.

He had received death threats in the past, but federal agents say he did it himself. His trial began Tuesday:

...Psychiatrist Park Dietz, who has worked on the cases of Jeffrey Dahmer, the D.C.-area snipers and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, is expected to testify that Smith's behavior characterized "factitious victimization disorder," a term Dietz coined for the case.

Sufferers of factitious disorder fake illness to gain attention and sympathy...

[...previous threats against Smith were sent and a previous bomb were found...]

Not only has Dietz never examined Smith, but the psychiatrist's false testimony caused the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the conviction of child killer Andrea Yates in January.

During Yates' 2002 trial, Dietz said that Yates drowned her five children after seeing a similar crime on the television show "Law and Order." However, no such episode existed...

Now, here's where it gets even weirder:

Dr. Smith had been working on two high-profile cases: the death of Harvard University microbiologist Don Wiley, who supposedly fell from a Memphis bridge in December, 2001, and helped identify the body of Katherine SMITH, a state driver's license examiner who was found burned beyond recognition in February 2002, a day before a hearing on federal charges of helping five Middle Eastern men obtain fake driver's licenses. Dr. Smith reportedly received a series of death threat letters early in 2001.

There's more on the series of events that would have had to have happened for Smith's explanation of Wiley's death to have taken place here, and there are references to news reports about these cases here. Previous coverage of the mysterious deaths of microbiologists and other scientists starts here.

Posted at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

Dueling over a scar

The TransTexas Corridor appears to be closer to reality:

AUSTIN - Farmers oppose it, metro area officials are upset about it and now state lawmakers have their own concerns about the Trans Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's $184 billion plan to build megahighways around the state.

While the Legislature would seem unlikely to put the brakes on Perry's ambitious transportation plan, lawmakers appear willing to start tinkering with policies regarding tolls, eminent domain and just how wide the corridor will be.

"Change brings about cause for concern," said Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security.

"We know there's a mobility crisis in Texas today," Staples said Wednesday. "The status quo won't do. Change must occur. We want change to occur in the most user-friendly manner as possible..."

The CSM states their opposition to this plan in "Supersized Highways". NPR has an interview with a Dallas Morning News reporter about it here.

Previous coverage is here. Especially see the links in the first comment, such as to CorridorWatch.

Posted at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

"Suicide" comes in threes

TBILISI, Feb 4 (AFP) - An aide to Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania, who died apparently after breathing toxic fumes leaked by a faulty heater, committed suicide late Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

The aide, 32-year-old Georgi Khelashvili, shot himself with a gun in his Tbilisi apartment, the spokesman said...

It was not yet clear whether Khelashvili`s suicide was linked to Zhvania`s death...

The body of another local Georgian official, Raul Yusupov, was found dead on the floor in another room in the apartment [where the PM had his accident]. There were no signs of foul play, and officials quickly quashed suspicions that the deaths could have been anything but accidental...

And, from TASS:

...According to preliminary data provided by police Khelashvili committed suicide at home. Motives behind the suicide have not been mentioned. However there is a high probability that they were personal and not associated with his work...

Posted at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

A quarter-mile scar across the Texas landscape

Say hello to the Trans-Texas Corridor:

In what sounds like another tall tale told by a Texan, the state has embarked on an audacious project to build superhighways so big and so complex that they will make ordinary interstates look like cow paths.

The Trans-Texas Corridor project, as first envisioned by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing $175 billion over 50 years, financed mostly if not entirely with private money. The builders then would charge motorists tolls...

...they would be megahighways — corridors up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, and broadband transmission cables...

...But as the plan rumbles along in the fast lane, some have called it a Texas-size boondoggle. Environmentalists are worried about what it will do to the countryside. Ranchers and farmers who stand to lose their land through eminent domain are mobilizing against it. Small towns and big cities alike fear a loss of business when traffic is diverted around them...

A quarter mile is four football fields...

Note also that almost all the land in Texas is privately owned. While the BLM and other federal agencies own vast swaths of other western states, Texas has no or very little BLM land.

(Via the loonitarians here, who have more to say and more links)

Posted at 05:19 PM | Comments (2)

Somewhere, a Zamboni cassandra is saying, "I told you so."

"Explosion causes more than $600,000 in damage to Duluth rink":

DULUTH, Minn. - Investigators were trying to determine on Monday the cause of the Sunday night explosions that destroyed a local ice arena and injured several broomball players and fans.

People inside the building said they suspected the explosion came from a room containing an ice-grooming machine, which are often known by the brand name Zamboni...

(Via Br'er Drudge)

Posted at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)

Germans to become less depressed, more cheerful

"Germans get taste of tropics an hour's drive from Berlin":

Winter-weary Germans basked yesterday in 70F temperatures amid palm trees and sandy beaches - only an hour's drive from Berlin.

At dawn yesterday, thousands of people began flocking to a bulbous former airship hangar transformed into Europe's largest leisure resort.

As the wind howled outside and snow settled on the ground, they pitched their tents and watched a golden sunrise projected on to a 450ft long screen...

70 degrees? That's sweater weather here in ever-sunny SoCal.

Posted at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

What ever could the residents of Mink, LA want?

MINK, LA. - It's no secret what the 15 householders in this tiny settlement want for Christmas: the same thing they have always wanted year-round --- ??????

What could they want?

- dialect removal lessons
- indoor plumbing
- telephones
- a group marriage to Louisiana sweetheart Britney Spears
- topographic variety

If you're stumped, click the link.

UPDATE: Mink has now joined the 21st century, at least in this specific way.

Posted at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

Jury Recommends Death For 'Sausage King'

Dec. 14 (AP) — Jurors in the trial of convicted killer Stuart Alexander have recommended the self-proclaimed "sausage king" be put to death...

Alexander was convicted in October of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of two federal inspectors and one state inspector at his Santos Linguisa factory in San Leandro in 2000.

The entire incident was captured on Alexander's surveillance videotape, which was shown repeatedly to jurors during his five-month trial.

Posted at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

The Problem of the Strange Academic

The December weather had been even colder and wetter than usual. Looking out the window of our Baker Street flat at the thick, yellow London fog I could barely see to the other side of the street.

Suddenly, I espied a strange figure making his way up the street, pausing occasionally to look at the house numbers. In his hands I noticed a strangely tied box.

"That looks an odd bird," I remarked to my old friend and colleague Sherlock Holmes.

"Yes, indeed," Holmes remarked. "Without even seeing him, I can tell he has a shoelace and a wooden spoon in the box. I deduce he's going to commit suicide and try to make it look like murder in order to pin the blame on a rival academic."

"Why, Holmes!" I cried. "That would be just like The Problem of Thor Bridge!"

"Yes, indeed it would be, Watson. It's elementary, my dear Watson. Now, hand me my cocaine spoon and my violin and my meerschaum pipe and my deerstalker and all those other accoutrements, some of which were never mentioned in those stories you wrote but which have become part of my lore, as I read these stories."

From "Hint of murder in suicide of expert on Conan Doyle":

A leading authority on Sherlock Holmes took his own life in a way meant to suggest that a rival had murdered him, it has been claimed.

Richard Lancelyn Green, 50, a prolific author and collector of memorabilia relating to the fictional detective, was found garotted on his bed in March after trying to stop a £2 million ($5 million) auction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's papers.

Although the coroner returned an open verdict, friends and relatives of Lancelyn Green now claim that the evidence suggests he took his own life in a manner that would implicate an American rival.

In an interview with the magazine The New Yorker, James Gibson, who co-edited the first comprehensive Conan Doyle bibliography with Lancelyn Green in 1983, concludes that his colleague had wanted his death to look like murder, and that he had set up a trail of "false clues".

Police found Lancelyn Green's body in his flat in Kensington, west London, on March 27. He had a shoelace tied round his neck and a wooden spoon, which had been used to tighten the noose, still entangled in the cord...

Earlier report here.

Posted at 05:40 PM | Comments (0)

Where will your new IBM PC be built?

Here's a list of the factories by province.

(Special note: the preceding is satire and commentary. It does not necessarily reflect where new IBM PCs or the parts for them will be built.)

Posted at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

"Phoenix official dies after jumping or falling from car going 60 mph"

I don't know what category to put this in:

Witnesses told police that Kevin Keogh, 55, [Phoenix's] finance director, climbed through sun roof onto the top of his moving Mercedes-Benz near 64th Street, stretched out his arms and then jumped or fell from the car.

The car continued driverless until it crashed into a Dodge Neon waiting for a stoplight at 68th Street around 3 p.m. No one else was hurt...

...At a brief news conference Thursday morning, City Manager Frank Fairbanks praised Keogh's business acumen, calling him an "extraordinary professional," but also hinted that the bizarre death could have been related to a mental defect or medical condition.

Fairbanks said Keogh's wife, Karlene, had informed him that her husband had contracted a parasite in Mexico two years ago that had affected his brain and other parts of his body. The city was not aware of Keogh's illness, Fairbanks said.

The family said it believes the accident "is related to the impacts of this disease on his central nervous system."

In rare instances, people who ingest a parasite that lives in the soil and makes its way into fruits and vegetables in other parts of the world can develop frontal lobe disinhibition, which can make people do crazy things, said Dr. Christina Kwasnica, director of brain injuiry rehabiliation at Barrow Neuroligical Institute in Phoenix.

When it comes to making a decision, "our frontal lobes tell us what's socially appropriate," she said.

"The first idea that comes to mind, without the frontal lobe stopping it, we just act on it."

Posted at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

The benefits of having a cold

I don't feel as guilty as I would if I didn't have a cold and I was monitoring The Rebel Billionaire to watch the 700' rappel.

Posted at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

"The threat from life on Mars"

Drudge is linking to this Times of London article about the possible dangers posed by Mars life forms being brought back to Earth on a space probe. (That is, the probe is of Earth origin; the article doesn't touch on the topic of Mars-origin probes.)

I note that our very own spiritual advisor, pictured right, has been warning about this very same issue for some time now.

(Hat tip: my giant antenna)

Posted at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

The "Semantic Web" could have happened last decade

I've occasionally referred to the web as a bunch of "text crap." To see what I mean, simply look at the source to this or any other web page. It is indeed a bunch of text crap.

Because the web involves sending blocks of poorly formatted text around, it leads to all manner of problems: "innovations" like cookies and style sheets and javascript and all the rest.

For an example from one of the organizations that perpetrated the web, see this:

...I have had a lot of success lately using XSLT to screen-scrape RDF out of XHTML pages...

That is, quite simply, absurd. Because the W3C designed the web the way it is, their home page is just one big text file with no real "semantic" information readily available. To get some of that semantic information out of their big blob of text, they're forced to screen scrape like one would if they were dealing with a dinosaur-era mainframe system. Nevertheless, to people who don't know any better this might seem "advanced." It is not.

There's another, much more interesting and useful example of screen-scraping here. In a way, these are similar to the village elders mandating that everyone has to throw their garbage in one big pit. Then, since some of that garbage might be useful, employing some village members to go into the pit looking for useful items.

All of this screen-scraping is designed to facilitate the "semantic web", the newest invention from the same people who brought you the web. Using the second case as an example, the idea would be to define what exactly a "Senator" is, then publish a list of Senators in a form that could be readily machine-processed. For instance, if you want to send emails to each Senator, in the current system you'd have to visit each of their pages and get their emails or locate their email form. With the semantic web, you could directly get a list of Senators and their emails. And, you could get other information, like their birthdays or a list of Senators from 1989 or whatever. And, with the semantic web none of this screen-scraping would be necessary.

As part of the semantic web, they define "ontologies", which describe what constitutes various fields of knowledge (baseball, chemistry, etc.) and the interrelationships of those items. For instance, here's an ontology for baseball, and here's one for people. (I'll note that an Error is not a kind of fielding play, and Male is not a Subclass of Animal, so there already seem to be problems a-brewing in the semantic web).

Could all of this have been avoided, and could we have had the semantic web from the get-go? The web didn't have to be a bunch of poorly formatted text files, it could have been something infinitely better.

Let's imagine if the web had been designed by people familiar with object-oriented design. Let's say there was no such thing as the web, and various people had been shown a mock-up of this blog's main page. Some of those people might suggest using some variant of SGML to send blocks of text around, which would then be parsed by a text processing program and would display the page. I.e., the current system.

However, an object-oriented designer would see the mock-up as a series of objects. Let's call the design he would have made the "OOWeb". With the OOWeb, you have a Site object that contains a series of Post objects. Each of those Post objects contains certain things and has certain characteristics:

CreationDate
Title
PostText
Comment[] (the "[]" mean a series of Comment objects)
Trackback[]
Author

Other objects that the Post object contains are less visible. Such as copyright information, revision history, other objects that reference the Post object, etc. etc.

When someone wants to see my blog, they send a request to my server. In the current case, they get a big blob of text back. In the OOWeb case, they'd get a series of objects. Their browser would then display those objects just as in the case of the web.

However, the semantic web would have been built-in with the OOWeb. If you have a Post object, you could ask it for its Author object, then query that Author object for other things, like the Author's email. No screen-scraping required.

After visiting my blog, you would have a cache of Post objects on your computer. You could look at a list of those Post objects, or browse through them looking for Posts with comments. You could directly tell a Post object to monitor its counterpart on my server, letting you know when someone had replied to that Post. In effect, you'd have a series of intelligent "agents" on your computer that could maintain a relationship with their original versions on my server.

Each Post object could be displayed using a standard display object, or you could use a third-party display object or write your own. Let's say you want to see the copyright notice for each post in your browser. You'd modify the code that displays Post objects to get the copyright information from the Post and then display that. Similarly with things like translating the text of a Post or displaying the Post using large print or special fonts or on special devices or whatever else. All of these things would be fairly easy with the OOWeb. With the current web, all of those things are problematic and would involve some form of screen-scraping or parsing or other things which would be fraught with the possibility of error. (I can already hear the complaints from web-supporters: 7-bit gateways, security, Java didn't exist when the web was invented, editing would have been problematic, binary formats are Micro$oftian, etc. etc. There are answers to each of these objections, some of which are answered here. Overcoming all of them would have been easier than the current situation.)

Now, perhaps the very fact that the web was so horribly designed lead directly to its success. And, its horrible design has certainly created a lot of money for a lot of people as they've invented "brilliant" workarounds like cookies, javascript, and all the rest.

Nevertheless, there was a better way and it's too bad that hadn't been explored at the time rather than the current mess.

(Additional information on the semantic web can be found here, here, here, and here.)

Posted at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

World's largest composited photo of the real world

If you look closely at the small image in the upper left corner above, you can see a small red dot. The image above is a zoomed-in part of the much larger image in the upper left.

In fact, this is a 2.5 gigapixel photo of Delft Holland. It was created out of many smaller digital photos that were stiched together, so it's not like it was taken in one shot by a mega-camera. Nevertheless, it's quite interesting especially the technical details. You can see the big picture and do your own zooming here.

(Via this)

Posted at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

J.R.R. Tolkein was right!

From this:

On an isolated islet of Indonesia, scientists have discovered skeletons of a previously unknown human species — tiny, hobbit-sized figures who lived among dwarf elephants and giant lizards as recently as 12,000 years ago when modern humans already thrived worldwide.

Startled experts in human origins called the discovery — made public today — of a contemporary human species barely 3 feet tall the most important — and surprising — human find in the past 50 years...

Posted at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

It's the small things, innit?

Moscow Times: Men [sic] trying to bring down the statue of [KGB founder] Felix Dzerzhinsky on Aug. 22, 1991. The sign "Khunte Khana" says "The junta is finished."

-------------------

9/11/2004, BBC, "Russia KGB founder honoured": A new statue of the founder of what became the KGB, Felix Dzerzhinsky, has been unveiled in a small town outside Moscow.

Some believe the event is part of the gradual rehabilitation of the once feared Russian secret service under President Vladimir Putin, himself a former officer of the KGB...

No need for airbrushes this time around, they've got Photoshop and the GIMP and they no doubt will use them to full effect.

Posted at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

"The Earth is going to disappear" very soon

Brain-hungry ETs are out of luck. Due to our increasing use of digital cable and directed broadcasts, the amount of radio frequencies we broadcast into space is greatly diminishing, making any attempts to find us much less likely, boffo scientists say.

Sorry, ET, but I hear Alpha Centaurians are quite tasty.

Posted at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Today in spam

In addition to emails with single-word titles ("blork" "upsala"), I'm now getting spam with titles in Russian and - believe it or not - Latin. Could the caesars of old imagine that their language would be used to sell penis pills and mortgage ripoffs?

And, the latest US Bank emergency notice suggests "AFTER SUBMITTING, PLEASE DONOT ACCESS YOUR ONLINE BANKING ACCOUNT FOR THE NEXT 48 HOURS UNTIL THE VERIFICATION PROCESS ENDS."

Okalydokaly.

Posted at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Please make it stop

I posted an ad for a small, low-value job to losangeles.craigslist.com, asking people to send me URL examples of their work. I have an idea for an anti-Kerry bumper sticker.

I get 63 frigging replies.

That wouldn't be a problem, except now I gotta sort through all these goshdarn HTML-formatted emails trying to differentiate between the artists' URLs and the spam URLs inserted by their mailing software. I did a grep for http, but I'm sure I didn't get all the URLs. So, I need to search through each frigging message.

Once again, Tim Berners-Lee should be sent the bill for all the productivity lost courtesy of his "brilliant" idea.

Posted at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

"A lesbian cruise to success"

Welcome google users! I don't usually feature stories about lesbianism, especially when there's kissing involved, but I do need some traffic. Herewith:

Judy Dlugacz knew she was onto something when the cruise ship she had chartered for 400 lesbians arrived in the Turkish port of Kusadasi.

Instead of meeting rejection, as they sometimes did in the United States, the travelers got a red carpet welcome from merchants eager to do business with the "lovely lesbian ladies." The half-million dollars they poured into Turkey's economy made the front pages of Istanbul's major newspapers.

In March, Olivia [the lesbian company Judy Dlugacz founded] became the first business owned and operated by gays to sponsor a professional athlete, signing an endorsement deal with golfer Rosie Jones on the LGPA tour...

This fall, for example, Showtime's lesbian drama "The L-word" will film part of an episode aboard an Olivia cruise to the Caribbean. Cast members are scheduled to socialize with guests at the company's first shipboard film festival and be serenaded by Shawn Colvin and Indigo Girls...

For many guests, an Olivia vacation is the first time they can openly hold hands and kiss while they travel...

Posted at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)

Lonewacko, Art Bell taken for ride through Chernobyl

Remember the previous post about plucky Ukrainian 'Elena' and her site featuring pictures supposedly taken when riding her motorcycle through Chernobyl?

Via our giant antenna, we've just learned that her site was a hoax:

PRIPYAT, Ukraine — Kate Brown began thinking about visiting this high-rise ghost town in the mid-1990s, when she was researching a book about the region before it was evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Then she saw a website about a young woman's lone motorcycle rides through Chernobyl's exclusion zone. The site, http://www.kiddofspeed.com , attracted tens of millions of viewers and became the most-visited site on Angelfire.com, a Web page hosting service...

"Elena," whom several Internet sources identified as Lena Filatova of Kiev, has been described as "fearless," "heroic" and "seriously whacked" in the virtual chatter the website generated...

"That story is not true! She did not ride a motorcycle alone in the zone! She came with her husband and a friend on a regular tour," insisted Rimma Kyselytsia, who was the group's official guide. She identified the woman in the images on the website as Filatova and has the documents to show that Filatova's tour was organized by a Kiev travel agency and that her party traveled in a car provided by Chernobylinterinform, the agency that ushers all visitors to the exclusion zone...

On behalf of myself, Art Bell, George Noory, John Lear, Richard C. Hoagland, and all the ships in deep space, dwelling beneath the earth's crust, and on either side of the Rockies, I apologize for any confusion. And, remember, if you don't read it in a quality news source like the L.A. Times, it might be false. Especially those things you find on that Internet thing.

Posted at 09:33 PM | Comments (2)

":Scientists Transfer Info Between Atoms"

Holy Moses Malone:

Basically, researchers can use lab techniques to create a weird relationship between pairs of tiny particles. After that, the fate of one particle instantly affects the other; if one particle is made to take on a certain set of properties, the other immediately takes on identical or opposite properties, no matter how far away it is and without any apparent physical connection to the first particle.

Posted at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)

How the hell do I remove the front PCV grommet on a '94 Jeep Cherokee?

Please, someone tell me. I was trying to replace the front PCV hose - the one that goes from the front of the valve cover to the air cleaner - when the L-shaped plastic part sticking out of the valve cover broke. That's one of the parts I was going to replace, but even so now that it's broken it's even more difficult to get it out. I've started chipping away at the rubber grommet, but I realize that's not the best way to do things. I've tried using screwdrivers to pry the L-shaped bit up to no avail. Searching google groups, I've run upon two tricks: twisting it 90 degrees to one side, or using a pair of needle-nose pliers that are bent at 90 degrees. I'll try the first one tomorrow. I'd really like to avoid having to either go out and buy special tools or - even worse - having a backyard mechanic with tools come by or - even much worse - having it towed into a shop.

Hopefully there's a screen under there so that if and when I finally get the thing off the bits of rubber and plastic won't go into the engine.

Anyone have any good tips? Does my reader or my alternate-days reader have any ideas?

Posted at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

I am a Spatial Thinker

I am also a Logical-Mathematical Thinker and an Intrapersonal thinker.

Take the test yourself and see how your thinking style compares with that of your leader.

Posted at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

Please don't shop at Fry's Electronics

Could you, please? Over the past few days I spent almost $600 there, and I feel really, really, really bad about it.

Sure, there are other stores I don't like and I don't enjoy spending money at. And, there are other stores I completely boycott, and have for years. Unfortunately, Fry's is different. First, it's frequently very difficult to shop somewhere else, and second, shopping there makes me feel really, really, really bad.

Since I spent almost $600 there, if I can convince my bloggees who are going to spend at least that amount on computing equipment to spend it somewhere else, I won't feel that bad. Could you, could you please?

Also, I'd like to suggest avoiding refurbished eMachines. Sure, the price at Fry's wasn't that bad. And, I got a couple day's use out of the machine. Unfortunately, last night I was simply typing into a web form much like this when suddenly the screen went black, just as if the eMachine had lost power. It had not lost power, it had just decided to shut down for some reason. The lights were on, but no computer people were home. Turning the power off and turning the computer on again didn't work. I let it sit a while, and it did restart OK, but then it clunked out. This morning it did the same thing, so I took advantage of one of its working moments to wipe the disk and I returned it.

Fry's didn't give me any problems with refunding my money so, like a sucker, instead of just taking my money and running far far away, I used it to buy another system from them. This is a well-known brand name. You're probably heard of them: Great Quality. What's that you say, you've never heard of them? Well, they really are a well-known brand. Bear in mind, this is the Great Quality at 34-I Chung Lo Fat Way, Taiwan City, Taiwan, not the Great Quality on Wong Way. Perhaps I'll post a graphic of their logo, I'm sure that will jog your memory of this great brand.

11/28/04 UPDATE: The GQ machine has been sitting here unused for a few months now. It worked OK for a while, but then it started crashing at unexpected times. Things would be going along OK, but I'd move the mouse over something and it would crash. And, after restarting Windows wouldn't load. I'd turn the power off and it still wouldn't load Windows. Over and over and over again. My best guess is the problem is related to Kingston RAM that I installed, because it works fine with just the original RAM, but it's almost unusable without extra RAM. At some point I'll see if setting the wait state to some long value in the CMOS screen works. I had narrowed the problem down to the RAM after the time period during which I could have returned the RAM to... Fry's. Please, please, please don't shop there. Let's spread our collective money around.

Posted at 11:25 PM | Comments (5)

Dieter Sues Atkins, Just As The Lonewacko Blog Predicted

From 'Dieter Sues Atkins, Says Diet Clogged Arteries':

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man who blames his heart disease on the Atkins diet said on Thursday he is suing the privately held Atkins Inc. to force it to disclose what he called the risks of the popular high-fat, low-carb regimen...

You, my bloggees, are of course ahead of the curve. See the May 3, 2004 post 'Low Carb, High Liability?'.

Posted at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

This isn't a good sign

I downloaded the open source Eclipse IDE from IBM and friends and unzipped it into a directory as the instructions said.

Then, I double-clicked the 'eclipse.exe' icon, and all I get is the error message above.

Hey, at least I got an error message, right?

Lord knows I'm not perfect, but if I were going to distribute something like this with the full might of IBM behind me, I'd make pretty darn sure that my starter application worked under various conditions and configurations. If I needed to run under a specific set of circumstances, I'd search for those circumstances and if I couldn't find them I'd inform the user of that fact. Anything less would be amateurish in the extreme.

But, that's not the java mindset. No, the java mindset is the less platform-specific code, the better. Even if it's in something as isolated as a launcher. Or, even if by using a little native code you could make something actually work instead of being a 100Meg boat anchor. I'm sure the answer is out there, probably related to something about it using the wrong VM and my needing to write a batch file to launch their launcher to tell it which VM to use. The customer should never have to do things like this, but, then again, not making the customer jump through hoops would be contrary to the Java Way.

UPDATE: It works! And, all I needed to do was open up an MS/DOS window and type in:

eclipse -vm C:\java\jdks\jdk142\jre\bin\javaw.exe

That's all! Thanks for your professionalism, IBM.

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

Low Carb, High Liability?

At the same time that McDonald's is radically altering its menu to avoid being a litigation target, some restaurants are offering menu items that might lead to future litigation. For instance, Carl's Jr. is offering a 'Low Carb Breakfast' to Atkins dieters. Just reading that I feel my arteries clogging. It's 900 calories, 660 of which are from fat? 73 grams of fat, of which 33 are saturated? Almost a gram of cholesterol, and over 2 grams of sodium? Crikey! It's almost like a Homer Simpson joke.

What if, instead of their current practice of attacking SuperSizing and the like, greedy lawyers decide to go after the Atkins diet and those who offer low-carb choices?

I have a fairly low opinion of the Atkins diet, but I don't have any scientific proof it's a bad thing. What if a study comes out definitively showing it's bad? Won't that then open those fast food restaurants and other food providers to law suits? Are there potential litigants chomping away at Carl's Jr. and on various other low carb fast food?

The Lonewacko dieting suggestion is simple: eat a fairly traditional balanced diet, just eat less of it. And, just as important, spend a lot of time exercising. If you're very overweight, consider some form of surgery.

Posted at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

I support Sun's quixotic quest

Those of you who don't know about or care about Sun, Java, Java on the desktop, etc. can skip this entry.

For years I've railed about the direction Sun takes with Java. Here's an example; there are many many more, including dozens if not hundreds of Usenet postings and personal appearances at a few JavaOnes.

Now, Wal*Mart is selling cheap computers that run the Java Desktop System. It's Linux with Java and StarOffice built-in. I'd imagine it won't run Windows programs without something like WINE. Some people will no doubt be upset to find out that that new system they just bought not only won't run Windows software, it looks a little funny and it runs all these other strange programs.

And, considering that it's from Sun, I'm going to hazard a guess that it has nothing on the Mac in the usability arena. In fact, I'd imagine that there are all manner of weird things that will bite average consumers in the ass. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that Sun thinks regular users are going to edit or write shell scripts or know how to set permissions or a multitude of other UnixElite tasks.

That said, it's finally an opportunity to get a mass market desktop that runs an up-to-date version of Java. Even if it just took Sun nearly a decade to do it.

Posted at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

Riding through Chernobyl

Here are several pictures from someone who tours the "the dead zone" of Chernobyl on her motorcycle.

Via Art Bell. In keeping with the source, do you notice something... strange... about the first photo on this page? Did "Elena" - if that is indeed her name - blur out the picture of a mutant space alien inhabitant of the Chernobyl dead zone?

UPDATE: The previous link was to an angelfire page which has since disappeared. Good thing considering their various attempts to take over my browser.

UPDATE 2: First, I changed the second link to point to a page not at Angelfire; the original page was located at www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter13.html but all the angelfire pages appear to have gone away.

Second, an alternate address is www.kiddofspeed.com

Third, and most important, this site has now been determined to be a hoax.

Posted at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)

In Vegas, back Sunday

I'll be in Vegas until tomorrow. Here's a picture I just took 30 minutes ago at Red Rock State Park. Ain't WiFi great?

Posted at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)

The Center for Science in its Own Interest?

Calpundit links to the L.A. Times report about a food product called "Quorn." It's a meat substitute brewed in vats out of some space bacteria or caterpillars or something messy and yucky like that:

The product is Quorn, a fungus-based meat substitute that millions of Europeans have eaten for years. It entered the U.S. market in 2002 to rave reviews by consumers, but was quickly met with a dogged anti-Quorn campaign by an influential consumer group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Michael Jacobson, the CSPI's executive director, claims that Quorn, which he derisively terms an "odious" "mold"-based product, makes people ill � and he wants every last nugget expunged from American soil.

He has started a "Quorn complaints" website, published anti-Quorn letters in medical journals and petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to yank the product...

The CSPI's first action against Quorn was to file a deceptive labeling complaint with the FDA. The American Mushroom Institute and Gardenburger, a maker of meatless soy and mushroom patties, enthusiastically joined the protest...

There appears to be some kind of a link between CSPI and Gardenburger, as this article and this point out:

CSPI appears to have an unsavory relationship with Quorn competitor, Gardenburger -- a company that rails against Quorn on its Web site and pesters the FDA.

CSPI regularly promotes Gardenburger products on its Web site and publications.

In the April 1998 issue of its newsletter, for example, CSPI stated: "Remember the saturated fat and the E.coli bacteria that could be hiding inside [a hamburger]? You can keep the taste but forget the worries with Gardenburger."

CSPI recently spotlighted Flame Grilled Hamburger Style Gardenburgers as a "favorite" that "taste like they're hot off the coals."

Posted at 09:14 PM | Comments (1)

McDonald's Salad Has More Fat Than Cheeseburger!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, duh. If you get a salad and load it down with Bacon Bits and croutons and extra-high-fat salad dressing and batter-dipped lard then of course it might have more calories than things like cheeseburgers. Plus, there's serving sizes and weight to take into account. A watermelon has more calories than a cheeseburger, but few people eat a whole watermelon in one sitting.

I've said it before and before: if you get a salad without the aforementioned high-calorie items, and you use a low-calorie dressing such as those currently available from most fast food restaurants, the resulting salad will most likely be fairly low-calorie.

Posted at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

That's a lot of industrial ethanol

There seems to be something a little strange about the recent tanker explosion:

US coastguard rescuers were searching the freezing waters off Virginia yesterday for 18 crew members missing after a tanker carrying industrial ethanol exploded late on Saturday.
Three people have been confirmed dead in the accident, and six have been rescued.

The tanker, sailing under a Singaporean flag, was making its way from New York to Houston carrying 16m litres (3.5m gallons) of the highly flammable liquid. Ethanol is commonly used as a solvent in varnishes and perfumes, and as a fuel...

There had been 24 Filipinos and three Greeks on board the ship...

The 39,000-tonne ship, Bow Mariner, was owned by the Norwegian shipping company Odfjell Seachem.

(NYT report here)

I know next to nothing about biomass, ethanol, and the rest. But, I do know how to use google.

Namely: what were they doing carrying a large amount of industrial ethanol from New York to Houston, when New York - in fact the whole Northeast - doesn't seem to be a hotbed of ethanol production?

Consider the chart at the end of this page, which shows ethanol production by state. The entire Northeast appears to be nearly devoid of ethanol production, at least as of 2000. Consider this list of ethanol producers, none of which are in the Northeast. Here's another list of producers, only one of which is in New York. This 2000 press release discusses building plants in PA and NY. This page from Jan. 2002 says, "the ethanol industry can sustain approximately 700 jobs through the annual production of 30 million gallons of denatured ethanol plus related co-products," said Kevin Swartley, president of New York Corn Growers". This New York plant can produce 9.5 million gallons of ethanol per year, just three times that carried by the tanker. And, apparently due to new legislation concerning MTBE, demand for ethanol in New York has increased.

Like I said, I'm no ethanol expert. But, all of this leaves me wondering, where the heck did all that ethanol come from?

Posted at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)

"EU has no case against Zimbabwe: President"

Our leader speaks:

THE European Union has no case against Zimbabwe because Britain influences its decisions over Zimbabwe, President Mugabe said yesterday.

"There is no case that the European Union should go against us," he told the outgoing French Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Didier Ferrand, at Zimbabwe House.

"That is the issue, but we notice of course that Britain is taking these issues to the European Union..."

The United States was also accused of influencing the EU decision by issuing a warning to its citizens last week to consider leaving Zimbabwe...

Mr Blair, President Mugabe said, admitted he was wrong on his treatment of Zimbabwe, but it was too late.

"They could not retract and redeem themselves because of too much publicity. We are more democratic here than most countries in Africa."

Posted at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

My amicus brief in Dell v. Gateway

OK, I'll try to make this as quick as possible. About 10 days ago I ordered a refurbished Dell Inspiron 600m notebook. It had a 1.3MHz Pentium M, 384Megs of RAM, a 14" screen, a CDRW, and the other standard stuff.

It took Dell 24 hours to email me confirmation of my order. In order to push the order through, I called them to arrange payment arrangements. Due to a daily limit on the credit card I used, I wanted to split the payment into two payments on successive days.

After about a dozen calls, shuttling back and forth between their esales and customer service departments, I eventually reached someone who helped me out. For a reason I won't go into, Dell ended up cancelling the order. It wasn't because the card declined, it was just concerning information I provided them. OK, so that I can understand, and even accept partial blame for. They're trying to protect me. However, what I'm bothered about is a) they didn't inform me that the order had been cancelled, and b) they didn't tell me they needed that information to process the order.

And, most importantly of all, they had put my order back in the bin. So, the computer I had selected was no longer available. When I asked them whether they could give me the same or a better system for the same or a better price, I was informed that I had to go back to their web site and go through the whole procedure again. I mean, if I wanted to make a sale, I would have said: "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, here, let me make you a satisfied customer." But, they told me I had to go through all their crap again.

I've got a better solution, and it's right here.

So, I noticed that Gateway had a special on their 400SP Plus for $800. It's certainly not as good as the Dell: 2.2Ghz Celeron, 256Megs RAM, a 15" screen. Great! I said as I received the printout with the quote from the Gateway store in Manhattan Beach. Oh No! I said as they informed me that they had none in stock.

To cut a long story short, the 400 SP Plus has been discontinued by Gateway, and only their Glendale store had something similar in stock. However, it was $100 more. The only difference is it had 512Megs of RAM. Note that that extra 256Megs of RAM is available elsewhere for $50.

So, why should I spend an extra $50 (plus CA tax)? Plus Gateway charges a 15% restocking fee whereas with Dell all you need to do is pay shipping to return something. On the other hand, Gateway has stores across this great land, which might make servicing the thing (knock on plastic) easier.

So, I got the Gateway. I only saved $200 off the Dell, I got a system with a larger screen, more RAM, but with a worse processor.

But, at least I can say: "Dude, I won't be getting a Dell."

Posted at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

More nonsense from Slate

The Slate article "Would You Like Fries With That Endive?" reviews the salads offered by various fast food restaurants:

The thinking seems to be that salads offer at least two incentives that haven't been traditionally associated with fast food: Classiness ("What's next—valet parking?" McDonald's asked in a recent billboard) and healthiness. "These are the anti-burger," the chains' ads seem to whisper. "Eat them, America, and live long and be well." ("And if you want to quit suing us, that'd be OK, too.")

Let's ignore for the moment that the last point is very similar to that I offered away back on May 26 in my McDonald's new "Please don't sue us" menu post.

No, let's instead concentrate on things like this:

[With a] Jack in the Box['s] Chicken Club [salad with] salty bacon-ranch dressing, and you end up with a staggering 65 fat grams—equal to the FDA's daily limit and perilously close to the chain's Ultimate cheeseburger (which has 66).

Well, duh. Most of the chains listed also offer low calorie dressings. Unfortunately, most of them are Italian and a bit too vinegary. But, if you can live with that, they'll bring the fat and calories down sharply. Most of the salads reviewed are high fat in their "stock" versions. However, if you use the lower calorie dressings, avoid the "crunchy" chicken, and throw away fried things like crispy strips, their fat and calorie counts go down to a reasonable level.

Given this article, can we trust anything else from Slate?

Posted at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

"Court curbs Microsoft Java distribution"

From this:

A federal appeals court dealt a legal blow to Sun Microsystems on Thursday, tossing out most of a preliminary injunction requiring Microsoft to carry its rival's version of an interpreter for the Java programming language...

Here's a nifty chart comparing SUNW and MSFT over the last 5 years.

Posted at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

.la Registrar sold me domain names that were "technically already reserved"

Back on June 13, I registered 8 domain names in the new .la domain. (See my triumphant posting here.)

However, some of the domains didn't work when I tried to forward them to URLs at my site. I sent an email to dreamhost, and I've now been informed that they "had a problem with our registration system on the 13th and 14th, and the http://www.la/ was erroneously giving out some domains that were technically already reserved..."

Three of the domains I registered work as expected; the five ones that don't work are:

active.la
insider.la
living.la
meet.la
run.la

The price for the first four was $50/year, the price for run.la was marked as "premium" at $100/year.

They inform me that they've refunded my money for those domains ($300), and are giving me an additional $50 credit. However, I had already started work on run.la, which I think would have been quite a popular site. I was looking forward to placing a personals service at meet.la, and various other services at the other domains.

Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments (1)

New computer changes all rules

"The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world’s fastest desktop computer,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO [news -- web site -- personality cult]. “IBM offers the most advanced processor design and manufacturing expertise on earth, and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship."

Posted at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

Microsoft Launches Legal Blitz Vs. Spammers

From this:

In one case, Microsoft accuses two Dayton, Ohio, companies, Email Gold and NetGold, and three individuals of sending repeated offers for a how-to spam kit to its members using falsified MSN and Hotmail domains. In another case, Microsoft alleges a Haddonfield, N.J., company, The E-Offer Store, sent spam using fake subject lines. Other cases involve either false subject lines or spoofed domain names. Two cases list the defendants as John Doe...

Posted at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

Are you a sick, horrible person?

Here's today's test:

Daniel Cruz Romero, 34, was killed Friday after being caught in a meat-processing machine at Michael Angelo's Gourmet Foods, a frozen food manufacturer in northern Travis County. Romero had complained to a former co-worker he was having trouble with the machine, the Austin American-Statesman reported for Saturday's editions.

Romero's entire body went through the machine, police said.

"He came to us in fragments," said Dr. Elizabeth Peacock, deputy medical examiner in Travis County.

Posted at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

Domains for sale

The following domains are now for sale:

inside.la
insider.la
blog.la
active.la
meet.la
living.la
relocate.la
run.la

These are from the new .la top-level domain. Let's hope I didn't just piss away $450.

Posted at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)

Total lunar eclipse, May 15

There's a total lunar eclipse on Thursday. Telescopes will be set up in Griffith Park, and this page has the details as well as a nice graphic showing when the moon will be in various stages.

Posted at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

Where's Lonewacko?

Tonight, Lonewacko has a choice between three fine and exciting events:

At 7pm, there's the monthly Los Angeles Java Users' Group meeting in Pasadena.

At the same time and in the same city, the Outland Mountain Shop is presenting a slideshow called "Canyoneeing around the World," which supposedly will be a "comprehensive and instructional slide show reviewing techniques for canyoneering. Utah, Hawaii, and New Zealand will be the area of discovery. Including a first descent. Topics will include: Gear, anchors and protection, objective hazards, weather, ratings, ethics, water flow techniques vs. dry canyons."

I've never tried canyoneering, mainly because as with other things I have trouble finding cohorts. But, I have rappelled a couple times, and after viewing this unrelated site, I'm very interested.

However, at 6:30 PM, one of the Atwater organizations is presenting a speech with LAPD Chief Bratton at Chevy Chase Park (4165 Chevy Chase Dr. LA 90039 between the L.A. River and Brand). I might go despite not being an Atwaterian.

Posted at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

West Nile virus, Simpsons-style

From The Simpsons:

% Some time later, the city honors Bart for his work.

For decimating our pigeon population, and making Springfield a less oppressive place to while away our worthless lives, I present you with this scented candle.
-- Mayor Quimby, "Bart, the Mother"

% Away from the speech, Skinner and Lisa talk.

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

From real life:

El Paso County [CO] health officials will use an aggressive fish known as gambusia or mosquitofish this summer to try to control mosquito populations that can spread West Nile virus...

A professor who has closely studied the fish warns that gambusia are escape artists, able to follow floodwaters to infest other waterways. "Once they get established in a habitat, it's almost impossible to get rid of them," said Lee Kats, professor of ecology at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. "Our evidence here shows once they get established in local streams, it's only a matter of time before the native amphibians begin to disappear."

Posted at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)

The too-pragmatic Big Green

WaPo has an interesting series on the Nature Conservancy. From "How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief":

Mobil officials said that the donation [of a parcel of land near Houston] offered "the last best hope" of saving the Attwater's prairie chicken, a speckled grouse whose high-stepping mating dance attracts avid bird watchers to the Texas plains each spring.

Then an unusual role reversal took place.

The Conservancy, whose core mission is preserving land to protect species such as the prairie chicken, started acting like an oil company. The Conservancy sank a well under the bird's nesting ground.

They also killed a few of the prairie chickens along the way. And, they drilled someone else's gas, and then tried to buy their gas rights using a front...

After The Post began examining the Texas City project, Conservancy President McCormick issued a memo to staffers and state trustees describing "tactics" used at the preserve as "not consistent with our values."

Render unto J.R., etc. etc.

Posted at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Oil is made from people!

From this article about a company which has invented a procedure to turn a wide variety of waste products into oil products (via Drudge):

Unlike other solid-to-liquid-fuel processes such as cornstarch into ethanol, this one will accept almost any carbon-based feedstock. If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water. While no one plans to put people into a thermal depolymerization machine...

Yet.

Posted at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)

"British Army, Police Assassinated Catholics in Northern Ireland"

"BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Intelligence agents of the British army and police helped Protestant extremists kill Catholics in the late 1980s, including a lawyer well-known for defending IRA suspects, a four-year official investigation concluded Thursday."

Posted at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Texas Professor Indicted on Charges Stemming From Plague Bacteria Scare"

Remember the Texas Plague Scare of 1-ought-3? The professor's been indicted:

A professor was indicted Thursday on federal charges accusing him of smuggling plague bacteria and lying when he said vials of the dangerous germ had disappeared from a Texas Tech University lab last January.
Thomas C. Butler, 61, triggered a terrorism-alert plan when he said 30 vials of the bacteria were missing. The FBI rushed dozens of agents to this West Texas city.

The professor later told the FBI he made a "misjudgment" by telling school authorities the vials were missing when he had actually destroyed them, according to court document...

Butler's attorney, Floyd Holder, said his client will plead innocent...

The indictment also alleges Butler brought plague bacteria samples on a plane from Tanzania to Lubbock in April 2002 and did not fill out paperwork disclosing the samples.

He was charged with improperly driving samples to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facility in Fort Collins, Colo., shipping 30 vials to Tanzania via FedEx and sending others aboard an American Airlines flight to a U.S. Army research center in Fort Detrick, Md...

The grand jury also charged Butler with filing a false income-tax return for 2001.

Sounds like a real strong and worthy case to me.

Posted at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

"U.N. Envoy Warns of War in Korea"

From this.

Posted at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

'Opelousas PD Buys Machine Gun'

From this:

"Opelousas [Louisiana] police don't want to be out-gunned, so they've bought a machine gun which can be mounted on the department's armored personnel carrier. The department is the first in the state to buy the weapon, recently made legal for police by the Homeland Security Act."

Let martial law begin!

Posted at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

Back in a couple days

I'm off to do some of this, this, and this.

Posted at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

Note to Drudge

Hey Matt! Love the site, but I gotta tell ya, Madonna could twist herself into a pretzel and no one would care. If she was ever attractive, that was many many years in the past. Although, I do appreciate you linking to the story '[Yoko] Ono waging full-page ad campaign for peace'; now I know the "peace" movement is officially bankrupt. Sometimes minimalism is just an excuse for having nothing to say. Via a pop-up ad (no, really), I found out about what appears to be a worthy cause: National Geographic and a couple NGOs have created a fund to educate the "Forgotten Girls" of Afghanistan.

Posted at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

Is press freedom relative?

This post links to a story from Reporters sans Frontieres which ranked the U.S. 17th in the world in press freedom.

We were beat by Canada (#5) and Costa Rica (#15). I think part of the reason for that might be not so much that we have less press freedom, but other differences.

For instance, would Costa Rican reporters or editors be willing to write a highly damaging expose of their government or a major corporation? If their natural inclination would be not to do something like that, and they usually write less controversial stories, then I think their perception of what is a free press is not comparable to the perception of U.S. reporters.

For both Canada and Costa Rica, there also isn't that much dirt for reporters to write about as there is in the U.S. Also, I'm vaguely familiar with the controversy regarding the gag order in this Canadian trial.

Posted at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

The Java Problem

According to this article:

AN INSIDER AT Sun Microsystems says there's frantic discussion inside the company about big problems with the Java platform that, he claimed, "prevent general acceptance of Java for production software within Sun". He said: "It strikes me as hypocritical for Sun to blame Microsoft for any failure of the Java platform when Sun's own engineers find developing common software applications in Java impractical".

FUD?

Well, no. Read the original memo, straight from SUNW itself, here.

Posted at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Just go back to Oaktown baby

Except, I don't think he had possession before going out of the endzone.

Well, they still need three scores just to tie, including two TDs with 2-point conversions. I hope I didn't jinx nothin'.

I'm the first to admit that the Raiders got robbed a couple times. They deserve it.

Oops, I think the game is just about over. Except, there's still 78 seconds left to run up the score a bit. C'mon, just for fun.

See, I was right!

UDPATE: Oakland fans are taking it in a classy way.

Posted at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

Gawd I hate the Raiders

Posted at 07:06 PM | Comments (2)

My fave pro football team

... is whoever is playing against the Raiders. Go Titans!