outside

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/security/data-control/news/index.cfm?newsid=6198

"There are nearly half a million database servers exposed on the Internet, without firewall protection according to UK-based security researcher David Litchfield.

"Litchfield took a look at just over 1 million randomly generated Internet Protocol [IP] addresses, checking them to see if he could access them on the IP ports reserved for Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle's database.

"He found 157 SQL servers and 53 Oracle servers. Litchfield then relied on known estimates of the number of systems on the Internet to arrive at his conclusion: "There are approximately 368,000 Microsoft SQl Servers... and about 124,000 Oracle database servers directly accessible on the Internet," he wrote in his report, due to be made public next week."

Failure Phone

Here we have the sad, and common, story of a company investing heavily in developing a product and missing it's mark so badly that it leaves one wondering how on earth it could happen. This story as all too common. Microsoft's crippled wireless feature in the Zune for example. And a long (and growing) list of Sony attempts. Here's a phone that was intended to compete with the iPhone. And might have. But some place along the way they forget everything they were trying to do. Stupidity takes over, and the phone ends up going wrong everything that the Apple does right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/technology/personaltech/08pogue.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"There you have it: the Shadow, one of the least expensive smartphones on the market, loaded with features, feeling luxurious and looking stunning in your hand. For once, you don.t have to be jealous of the much cooler phones available in Europe.

"But then you turn the thing on.

"Unfortunately, after they did such a great job designing the hardware, T-Mobile's chief executive and his ex-Apple designer punted on the software. They equipped this phone with Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6. As it turns out, that decision is just as much an impediment to the Shadow's greatness as AT&T exclusivity is to the iPhone.

"Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. Common features require an infinitude of taps and clicks, and the ones you need most are buried in menus. Apparently the Windows Mobile 6 team learned absolutely nothing from Windows Mobile 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

"And lest you think I don't have Microsoft's best interests at heart, here's a list of helpful suggestions. At no charge.

First of all, a cellphone should not display a .wait. cursor. Ever. And definitely not almost every time you change screens, as on the Shadow."

Read on at the link above. It's a text book case of failure.

Yet Another One

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/02/catholic_school_principal_cross_dress/

A Kentucky Catholic school principal is on "personal leave" from his post after being discovered by cops sitting in his car "wearing an all-black, leather, woman's outfit, fishnet stockings and women's black plastic breasts" in a Louisville neighbourhood "known for prostitution and narcotics".

...

Schum wasn't arrested, but must appear in court on 27 November on a misdemeanor prostitution rap. He is head at Bethlehem High School in Bardstown, described as a "Christ-centered, college preparatory, co-educational high school that challenges students to develop spiritually, academically, socially, and morally in the Catholic tradition".

Criminal?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/11/washington_lawmaker_embroiled.html

"I am not the criminal here," he told Brancaccio, according to a report in this morning's edition.

Curtis represented portions of Clark and Cowlitz county in the Washington Legislature for three years. He resigned after public disclosures of a sexual tryst with a 26-year-old male gay porn model. Curtis alleges the man attempted to extort money from him after their encounter.

Oh that clears it up. So.... Who's the criminal?

Shocking News!

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9054178

"Microsoft Corp. has warned Windows Home Server users not to edit files stored on their backup systems with several of its programs, including Vista Photo Gallery and Office's OneNote and Outlook, as well as files generated by popular finance software such as Quicken and QuickBooks.

"When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server," Microsoft said in a support document posted last week."

What's this? A Microsoft product doesn't work? How could this be? Shocking! Just shocking!

Microsoft doesn't have to worry. People are stupid. They have used, and will continue to use, Microsoft products no matter how many times they lose their data, no matter the reboots, no matter the loss of private information, no matter the spam... No matter what, nothing. That's been well proven.

Got Security? Nope

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220195648.htm

"There is no solid evidence that the huge amounts of money spent on airport security screening measures since September 11th are effective..."

Surprise, surprise... Airport security can not be shown to be effective in preventing danger. Of course it is good for promoting fear and discomfort and the idea that "the government" is doing "something" when in fact it's doing little or nothing helpful.

Here's another good piece on this topic:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/12/airport_securit_11.html

The Known Known

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103103095.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

"In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war."

We can only hope there's a special place in hell prepared for the likes of Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Working Dead

http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/the-working-dead/

"The young guy in the other cubicle next to me spent my first day voicing complaints about my squeaky chair. He switched it for a different one the first chance he got. I think he spent every day after that looking at porn.

"His behavior was not unique. My job involved fixing computer problems wherever they turned up, so I spent a lot of time walking around the facility. It was common for me to pass a series of cubicles and see something like: Solitaire. Solitaire. Solitaire. Porn. Solitaire. Solitaire. Solitaire. Porn."

This is the American way. It's not so much that"kids today" have no sense of (the myth of) getting ahead by hard work. People have been saying that about "kids today" since Og learned to make make a better stone tool than his father and as a result had more free time on the weekend for hobbies around the cave.

What's wrong with this picture is a culture of lazy habits. It's really the fact of how easy it is not to think for ones self. Why are there record foreclosures for example? Because so many people felt that they did not need to put forth the effort understand their mortgages. Just coast along...

Oh well, people are stupid. What can be done...

Zzzzz

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071022120219.htm

"They found that following sleep restriction to 4 hours per night, an individual's ability to perform complex tasks gradually decreased during the five days. Several changes in their immunological system were also recognized, e.g. increase in CRP (C-reactive protein), an indicator of defense reaction."

People spend a astonishing amount of effort and money on health. Yet they absolutely refuse to do the simplest things - especially if those things are free. People desire physical stress and discomfort, and that's why they push everything in their lives just past the comfortable level. Afterall, if they were comfortable, what would they have to complain about at work? What would they spend their money on?

Pete Stark not Censured

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23cnd-stark.html?ex=1350878400&en=24a6722372dd9e1f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"By 196 to 173, the House voted to table a resolution to censure Mr. Stark, who is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, for what he said as the House sustained President Bush.s veto of a bill to expand a children.s health insurance program.

"You don't have money to fund the war or children," Mr. Stark told Republicans last week. "But you.re going to spend it to blow up innocent people, if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Interesting remarks. I wish more members of the House were as angry as Mr. Stark. They should be.

Digital Music News

Digital media may finally be hitting a critical mass that will hopefully dislodge the entrenched middlemen that are the RIAA.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1535184120071015?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"From November 13, Led Zeppelin, which disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham, will make its albums available for download from all online music retailers."

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1425810520071015?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"For Real Networks' Rhapsody digital music service, there's no place like home.

"The company has teamed with TiVo to bring subscription-based on-demand streaming music into the living room directly from Internet-connected TiVo digital video recorders."

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/10/12/universal/index.php

"Morris is looking to wrest some control back from Apple and change the way digital music is sold with a new service called Total Music, according to BusinessWeek. The plan is to get hardware makers to absorb the cost of a $5 monthly subscription, so that consumers would get their music essentially for free when they buy a new player, and the hardware industry
would be compensated by selling many more devices."

One Lone Whale, and Such

Here the sad story of the day...

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/20/184723/82?

"For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and ageing. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind.

"It has received no answer. Nor will it ever."

There's always a "last one" and as humans ever more rapidly end life on this planet there are sure to be more and more of these stories. Naturally the vast, vast majority will go unnoticed. Not that anyone would care, nor change their behavior in anyway... It's much too late anyhow.

***

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/northwest/story/262134.html

"Rep. Jim McDermott says he's no Grinch, even though he voted against Christmas.

"The veteran Seattle Democrat voted against a House resolution recognizing the importance of Christmas, but called it a protest against President Bush's veto of a children's health care bill.

"While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There's a little bit of irony going on around here," McDermott said Thursday."

***

http://alternet.org/story/52801/?page=entire

"In 1926, Justice Louis Brandeis explained the constitutional role of the separation of powers. He wrote, "The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy."

***

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Christmas-Stephen-Nissenbaum/dp/0679412239/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197651737&sr=1-32

"The Battle for Christmas" by Stephen Nissenbaum is yet another must read.

***

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/14/wii_attracts_cockroaches/

Does the Wii attract cock roaches? I very much doubt it.

Hijacking Catastrophe

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3320922145165829917&q=hijacking+catastrophe&total=47&start=0&num=10&so=3&type=search&plindex=9

"Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party used the trauma of ... all the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force."

http://www.google.com/search?q=disaster+capitalism&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Disaster Capitalism. Read about it.

Shame

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-847

I guess this is the new thing to be outraged about: Christmas. Not the fact that our government has been running torture camps, and destroyed evidence there of. Not a war as costly as it is pointless. Not the destruction of Earth. Not declining value of the dollar. Not investment flight. Not economic drain of a failed healthcare system. No, none of those things. What our government is working on is shoving us one more step closer toward an Iranian-style religious state. That's what's really important. Yep, that's it.

Torture and Christians in the News

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/10/carter-america-tortures/

"Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday he is convinced the United States engages in torture that clearly breaches international law and told CNN President Bush creates his own definition of human rights to escape violating them.

"I don't think it. I know it, certainly." the former president told CNN's Wolf Blitzer when asked if he thinks the United States commits torture."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/64873

"A study released last week by the Barna Group, a reputable Evangelical research and polling firm, found that under-30s -- both Christian and non-Christian -- are strikingly more critical of Christianity than their peers were just a decade ago. According to the summary report, Barna pollster David Kinnaman found that the opinions of non-Christians, in particular, had slid like a rock in that time frame. Ten years ago, "the vast majority" of non-Christians had generally favorable views of Christianity. Now, that number stands at just 16%. When asked specifically about Evangelicals, the number are even worse: only 3% of non-Christian Millennials have positive associations with Evangelicals. Among the Boomers, it's eight times higher."

LynKs

Close to a mudslide - real close...

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/forestry_worker_tapes_slide_as.html

"Moments before a landslide buried U.S. 30 near Clatskanie on Tuesday, Jason Hinkle of the Oregon Department of Forestry was standing near where the slide started. In the moments before the mud, rocks and water let go, Hinkle thought something was happening and started shooting this video."

***

File under "Duh":

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/forestry_worker_tapes_slide_as.html

"In 2004, health care software vendor McKesson Provider Technologies began focusing on ways to cut IT costs for customers, including hospitals and medical offices.

"The cure for IT cost bloat: moving many of McKesson's medical software applications to Linux, which could then be used on less expensive commodity hardware instead of expensive mainframes."

***

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140443.stm

Here's childs review of the $100 laptop, XO. Which, somehow, shockingly, manages to run without Microsoft? Could be be? Really??

"I just seemed to work it out. It was rather easy. I didn't even need help." Surprise, surprise, his first discovery was a game. "I found Block Party. It's like Tetris. I'm now up to Level 7."

***

File this one under "B. S.":

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3991651

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife, Jeanne, is the state's former governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.

"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.

"Clinton's campaign said it had nothing to do with his comments, and Shaheen said later he regretted them.

"I deeply regret the comments I made today and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way," Bill Shaheen said in an e-mail released by the campaign."

B. S.

***

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2224694,00.html

'The overwhelming lesson teenagers are now learning from the world around them is that being "sexy" is the ultimate accolade, trumping intelligence, character and all other accomplishments at every stage of a woman's life,' said Liebau, a political analyst and the review's first female managing editor. 'The new female imperative is that it is only through promiscuity and sexual aggression that girls can achieve admiration and recognition.'

***

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/B/BALI_CLIMATE_CONFERENCE?SITE=WIRE&SECTI$

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.

"White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday Gore was wrong in blaming the United States for holding up progress. "I think he is incorrect," she said."

Oh well I guess that settles that. Nevermind then!

The Next Big Thing

Here's the next big thing in stupidity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071213/wr_nm/russia_internet_dc

"A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it can chat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade them to hand over phone numbers."

Software is slowly getting good, really good, at somethings that people have imagined computers would someday do back in the 1950s. One of those things is impersonate a person. This comes in many forms from voice response systems to movies to video games, but scamers will be picking up soon enough. Look out, they will be good, very good.

See also...

http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/12/meet-veronica-s.html

"Just in case you can't read that last bit, it reads:

'can't wait to get real nasty and show off :) IM REAL MISS WEB CAM!'

"Reply to the message and immediately you're asked to share your contact details (a la Skype.) I didn't risk having Veronica spam all my friends (not sure how that would work, but I've got some nice people on my list, and I'd hate for them to be upset.) But I did reply to her message, and her responses were quick, and, dare I say it, felt a trifle automated"

Shocking. You're shocked right? I rather like Skype. I'd hate to see it get annoying.

Doomed to Repeat History

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/iphone_windows

"With Apple's announcement Monday that it shipped 1.12 million iPhones in the three months after its launch, the gadget's apparent popularity rivals some PCs. That has security experts warning of trouble, following revelations that Apple built the iPhone's firmware on the same flawed security model that took rival Microsoft a decade to eliminate from Windows."

The design in question was actually well known to be bad even way back when Microsoft did it, at least among grown up engineers, in the UNIX world. I'm rather astonished that such errors would turn up again in this context. Apple has typically been smarter than that.

;drop

http://xkcd.com/327/

This comic is really very good.
There are sooo many web sites out there where you can type something like that into a form...

Rediculous

I am really beginning to hate this woman.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071211-7.html

MS. PERINO: I am saying that the United States does not torture. The President has been -- [...]

Q But when you have a former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, now saying that waterboarding was used -- since you're saying the interrogations were legal; he's saying on the record now, waterboarding was used in at least one case. You're saying waterboarding is legal?

MS. PERINO: Ed, I'm saying I'm not commenting on any specific technique. I'm not commenting on that gentleman's characteristics of any possible technique. I've given you a very general statement about interrogations being legal, limited and --

Q You just said it was legal.

MS. PERINO: I'm sorry?

Q You said it was within the legal framework.

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q Everything that was done.

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q So waterboarding is legal.

MS. PERINO: I'm not commenting on any specific techniques.

Credit Cards

http://consumerist.com/consumer/gross/walmart-junior-panties-suggest-that-your-genitals-are-better-than-credit-cards-332465.php

Here's some pink panties sized for teenage girls as available at Walmart. They are printed with the words "Who needs credit cards..."

Obviously this is more than a little strange. One would think Walmart, even Walmart, would think twice about a product like this. Then again perhaps more overt prostitution of low income teenage girls is all part of the coming New World Order.

Texas is Full of Idiots, Still

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/oregon_sues_texas_pharmacy_ove.html

"Oregon is suing the Texas pharmacy implicated in the deaths of three people in Oregon and Washington earlier this year.

"The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court alleges that ApotheCure Inc. and company owner Gary Osborn of Dallas, Tex., illegally sold the mislabeled prescription drug colchicine. Overdoses of the drug killed at least three people."

In The News Today

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/humans-evolving.html

"Look out, future, because here we come: scientists say the speed of human evolution increased rapidly during the last 40,000 years -- and it's only going to get faster.

"The findings, published today by a team of U.S. anthropologists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overturn the theory that modern life's relative ease has slowed or even stopped human adaptation. Selective pressures are still at work; they just happen to be different than those faced by our distant ancestors."

In theory... Next thing these "scientists" will be telling us that the earth is getting warmer, or that the sun is the center of the solar systems or that blood letting doesn't really cure scurvy. Whatever...

It's Official

Doesn't matter much though... You can lie to the American public all day, be caught in the lies, beyond all doubt, and then simply lie about the lies. It'll only get you re-elected... People are stupid. They love to be lied to. They beg to be manipulated. They hate to be bored with facts and science - things that can be proved. No, give them a shouting match, and a raft of insults, hate, and fear any day. People will put bullets in their own brains if they're told to. They will never think. They will be question. Ever. Period.

All that is required to achieve power in the U.S. is to occasionally trot out and claim to oppose abortion. Simply do this, now and then, and the public will rubber stamp anything else without the slightest question - anything else.

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071210101633.pdf

"For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed.

"This report presents the findings of the Committee.s investigation. The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.

"In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute developed an internal "Communications Action Plan" that stated: "Victory will be achieved when ... average citizens 'understand' uncertainties in climate science . [and] recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom'" The Bush Administration has acted as if the oil industry's communications plan were its mission statement. White House officials and political appointees in the agencies censored congressional testimony on the causes and impacts of global warming, controlled media access to government climate scientists, and edited federal scientific reports to inject unwarranted uncertainty into discussions of climate change and to minimize the threat to the environment and the economy."

Yet Another One

What is it with these people? One after another we find right-wing kooks turn out to be just what they've built lifetime reputations for bashing and hating. Ok now I'm sure that this is a minority, and I'm sure not all Christian fanatics, racists and gay-bashers are really closet homosexuals and pedophiles... I'm sure some are simply the fear and hate filled morons that they appear to be. Still, there does seem to be a trend doesn't there?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/us/07scoutmaster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"A scout leader who once sued the City of Berkeley for challenging a national Boy Scout ban on members who are gay or atheist has been arrested on felony charges that for at least five years he sexually abused young males in the troops he led.

"Evans, 64, a retired high school teacher and for 35 years leader of the Berkeley Sea Scouts, was arrested at his home in nearby Kensington on Tuesday after investigators identified four youths, ages 13 to 17, who said they had been sexually abused by him."

While previously...

"Mr. Evans sued the city in his role as a leader of the Sea Scouts, an affiliate program of the Boy Scouts. The city, after providing free berthing for a Sea Scouts boat for 60 years, said in 1998 that a Boy Scout policy barring gay scouts and atheists violated Berkeley's rules against discrimination. The city said the Scouts would have to leave the berth or pay $500 a month rent.

"Mr. Evans sued for discrimination and for violating the Scouts' First Amendment rights. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Berkeley."

Label-Free

I may have to become a bigger fan...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/burn/nine-inch-nails-dumps-record-labels-going-direct-to-fans-308409.php

"Hear that? It's the RIAA quaking in their diamond-coated boots as yet another A-list band gives labels the finger: Pretty hate machine Trent Reznor announced today that "as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label." Instead of futzing through the hapless middleman of an inept label, Trent's promising "a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate"

More Links

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071206/full/news.2007.358.html

"Most people tend to learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same blunder twice. Now research reveals a genetic mutation that helps to determine the extent to which certain people are doomed to repeat history."

***

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html

"Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users' hands."

***

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071207/venture-summit-has-the-internet-jumped-the-shark/

Has the Internet jumped the shark? I doubt it. But it does appear as though some things has simply run their course (Windows for example). Change is in the air. By 2010 things will be starting to look different as new ideas come to the fore.

***

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/07/First-Passport-now-fraud-ex-MS-employee-charged_1.html

"In another alleged scam, she is charged with convincing a Microsoft contractor, Marksmen Inc., to send checks to her attention at Microsoft, claiming they were being used to repay a Microsoft employee, G.M. Lossman, for transferring domain names into Microsoft's control. Those checks were cashed in Gudmundson's mother's account, according to the U.S. Department of Justice."

***

http://torrentfreak.com/50cent-file-sharing-doesnt-hurt-the-artists-071208/

"What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn`t hurt the artists!"
...

"The advances in technology impacts everyone, and we all must adapt. Most of all hip-hop, a style of music dependent upon a youthful audience. This market consists of individuals embracing innovations faster than the fans of classical and jazz music." -- 50 Cent

***

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0933738520071209?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"The objective is to create a platform for engagement, so the artist can engage with the fan for both collaboration and financial support," O'Connell says. "It's our intention to create a way forward that is as sustainable and exciting for the audience as it is for the creator."

***

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/opinion_newdow

"Hollywood spent a mind-boggling $180 million to bring author Philip Pullman's celebrated anti-religious novel, The Golden Compass, to the silver screen, but essentially stripped the work of its devastating attack on organized religion."

***

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/10/radiohead_wartime_misery/

"Misery will be compulsory, if top rockers Radiohead have their way. The band have thrown their weight behind a "World War 2"-style programme of austerity measures: including restrictions on behaviour, and higher taxes.

"Last week, two newspaper columnists called for a return to the kind of social coercion only ever seen before in wartime. It's all for the sake of "the environment", but as we'll see - it's a very peculiar and selective version of environmentalism."

***

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3QR3AC2WXWHIT/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm/

Of pens...

Hot Links

For today, here's a random collection of links for your time-wasting
pleasure.

http://monolithic.com/domenews/2005/rmf-pic01.html

A radio station in Poland (or a secret alien base, possibly in Poland).

***

http://www.drewheffron.com/files/gimgs/13_funnyometer.gif

hAhA.

***

http://rename42nd.org/

Don't panic, mostly harmless.

***

http://www.woot.com

It's a woot-off today, must buy stuff now.

***

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/technology/personaltech/06pogue-email.html

"These are all actual Web sites that have hit the Web in the last year or
so: Doostang. Wufoo. Bliin. Thoof. Bebo. Meebo. Meemo. Kudit. Raketu.
Etelos. Iyogi. Oyogi. Qoop. Fark. Kijiji. Zixxo. Zoogmo."

Website names have jumped the shark.

***

http://www.mylittleponylive.net/

The world's biggest tea party - and you're invited!!

Dick

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.dailykos.com%2Fdailykos%2Findex.xml

"Vice President Cheney today predicted Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office, calling the current U.S. surge strategy "a remarkable success story" that will be studied for years to come....

"I am fairly confident we'll have [Iraq] in a good place, where we'll be able to look back on it and say, 'That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq,'" Cheney told us [Politico] in a 40-minute White House interview."

Stupid

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/05/scarborough-bush-nie/

"We are left with only two options here. Either the President of the United States is lying to the American people about what happened during that meeting, or the President of the United States is stupid.

...

"Earlier on the show, Scarborough and Pat Buchanan called for congressional subpoenas of Bush.s advisors, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to determine when they knew about the latest NIE report."

Personally, I am getting close to the conclusion, in all seriousness, free of political hyperbole, the George W. Bush is insane. Taken as a whole, there's getting to be very little else that can be concluded from the actions, inactions and outrageous statements of this administration over the years.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071017.html

"...if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. And I take this very -- I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously." - G. W. Bush

And just today, this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00853220071205

"It is clear from the latest NIE, that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions." - G. W. Bush

History

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/opinion/07meacham.html?em

"Thomas Jefferson said that his bill for religious liberty in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." When George Washington was inaugurated in New York in April 1789, Gershom Seixas, the hazan of Shearith Israel, was listed among the city's clergymen (there were 14 in New York at the time), a sign of acceptance and respect. The next year, Washington wrote the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., saying, "happily the government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."

"Andrew Jackson resisted bids in the 1820s to form a "Christian party in politics." Abraham Lincoln buried a proposed "Christian amendment" to the Constitution to declare the nation's fealty to Jesus. Theodore Roosevelt defended William Howard Taft, a Unitarian, from religious attacks by supporters of William Jennings Bryan."

Today, Americans are stupider than ever. There is gross misinformation about America's history of religious tolerance, and its struggle for religiously neutral government. But history shows that this is nothing new. Indeed, the most natural form of human governance is the theological dictatorship. America's great experiment is to go a different direction. But it is a unending struggle. Citizens are fighting to give up freedoms, individuality and privacy, and to create a "Christian" police state in America. And it is an ironic price of freedom that they must be allowed to continue their struggle, just as others struggle against them. Preserving freedom is not easy in a nation founded on a principle of government by the people.

How True

http://www.testearly.com/2007/08/17/fire-your-best-peoplereward-the-lazy-ones/

Idiot

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071204/pl_afp/usirannuclearbush_071204153738

"The best diplomacy, effective diplomacy, is one in which all options are on the table," Bush said in a White House news conference.

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

...

"A US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), released on Monday, said that Iran halted its nuclear weapons drive in 2003 and that US charges about Tehran's atomic goals have been overblown for at least two years."

MS Bad Ideas

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7126902.stm

"Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints."

These sorts of things have always proved to be bad ideas in the end. They only hurt the honest customers. ALWAYS. And yet, companies continue to do this. They never, ever, ever learn. Never.

People are stupid.

GPL News

http://mjg59.livejournal.com/78590.html

"And yes, I did attempt to contact them by email and phone before resorting to the more obnoxious behaviour of contacting the ISP. No reply to my email, and the series of friendly receptionists I got bounced between had no idea who would be responsible but promised me someone would call back. No joy there, either."

The Golden Compass

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-miller2dec02,0,1352215.story?coll=la-books-headlines

"Earlier this fall, many Catholics began to receive e-mail messages warning of the "agenda" behind a "new Children's movie out in December called 'The Golden Compass.' " The film, these e-mails claimed, was intended to serve as bait for the novel on which it is based, the first in a fantasy trilogy collectively titled "His Dark Materials." Kids intrigued by the film, the e-mails went on, would be tempted to read the trilogy and might thereby fall into the ideological clutches of its author, Philip Pullman, who seeks nothing less than "to bash Christianity and promote atheism."

...

What's really astonishing, and telling, is how long it's taken America's religious fear-mongers to notice Pullman. He's never hidden his skepticism about God or his rejection of organized religion. A quick Internet search turns up a 2004 essay he wrote deploring "theocracies" for a newspaper in his native Britain, and his own Web site states that he thinks it "perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it." "His Dark Materials" features a sympathetic character, an ex-nun, who describes Christianity as "a very powerful and convincing mistake," while "The Amber Spyglass" concludes with the two child heroes participating in the dissolution of "the Authority," a senile, pretender God who has falsely passed himself off as the creator of the universe."

File under "Same Old Thing."

Back in the '80s in the US, in the early days of the politicalization of the religious right as we have come to know it, there were loads of much hyped kitty stories of Satan's in influence
in everything from movies to soft drinks to all sorts of other perfectly normal, everyday cultural traditions and trends. Media loved it. Nothing works better toward consolidating political power than fear. A lot of what went on in those days was first class LOL material.

But now it's the end of 2007. Give it a rest already.