Our Allies

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Blaming_the_victim_Abused_Afghan_wo_04302008.html

"Trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her 3-year-old son, Rukhma was handed to an Afghan who raped and abused her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched helplessly.

"He was jailed for 20 years for murder, but Rukhma ended up in prison too.

"Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, had put up with her mistreatment for three months last summer before seeking protection and justice from authorities. Instead she was given a four-year sentence on Dec. 5 for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan, even though she says she was kidnapped and raped."

...

"She said the boy was placed under a blanket, barely conscious, blood dripping from his mouth.

"When I lifted the blanket, he looked up and saw his mother. I could see that those were going to be his last breaths, and then he died. That was the last time we looked each other in the eyes," she said, her voice cracking, her face crumpled in grief. As she cried, so did the newborn daughter of her second marriage, lying in her lap.

"When police came to arrest Yarul, they arrested her, too."

George Bush's friends in his "War on Terror"...

Dennett

Daniel Dennet is probably the smartest person on the planet.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2275308,00.html

"If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them."

Logo

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/22/ogc_logo/

D'oh!

Fast

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/04/eugene_police_motorcyclist_goi.html

"Oregon State Police say they've never seen a faster speeder -- 164 mph on Interstate 5.

"And on a motorcycle.

"And the evidence of the precise speed came from a video camera attached to the bike and aimed at the speedometer."

At least he wasn't snapping pics of the speedometer with his phone at the time...

So?

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/26/0053213&from=rss

"Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and other lawmakers are pushing legislation to limit the power of the state secrets doctrine in blocking lawsuits. The doctrine has been used as a 'get out of jail free' card in cases like the EFF's warrantless wiretapping lawsuit. This new legislation would make it harder for the administration to invoke the doctrine, and provide new allowances, such as using attorneys with security clearances to enable the lawsuits to go forward even when the issue is appropriately raised."

1) This administration has demonstrated that it is fully willing to blatantly violate the law, disregarding all attempted oversight, over and over and over and over, in instances now too numerous to list.

2) The results of item 1 to date have shown there's no enforcement the administration need be concerned with.

* * *

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&articleId=9080598&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_top

"A federal judge has told the White House to answer "once and for all" whether backup tapes holding e-mail documents sought by a Washington-based watchdog group have been preserved."

To which the Whitehouse can, and will, once again answer, "So?"

* * *

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_18/b4082042959954.htm

"Andersen is going after the recording industry under conspiracy laws. She argues the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade group, and its affiliates worked together on a broad campaign to intimidate people into making financial payoffs. The defendants "secretly met and conspired" to develop a "litigation enterprise" with the ultimate goal of preserving the major record companies' control over the music business. Andersen is requesting class action status for her case, seeking at least $5 million in compensation for the class."

And she's winning.

* * *

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134294

"The trial of Chicago developer and political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko has been closely watched for any mention of the defendant's onetime friend, Barack Obama. But last week, prosecutors threw a curveball, telling the judge that one of their witnesses is prepared to raise the name of another prominent Washington hand: Karl Rove. Former Illinois state official Ali Ata is expected to testify about a conversation he had with Rezko in which the developer alleged Rove was "working with" a top Illinois Republican to remove the Chicago U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald."

So?

Stinks

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-george-w-bu.html

A grassroots team in San Francisco is sponsoring a November ballot initiative to rename the "Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility" the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant".

Ha!

The Weakest Leak

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/16/security-is-no-match-for-chocolate-and-good-looking-women/?mod=WSJBlog

"A survey out today by the organizers of the tech-security conference Infosecurity Europe found that 21% of 576 London office workers stopped on the street were willing to share their computer passwords with a good looking woman holding a clipboard. People were offered a chocolate bar in exchange for the information. More than half of the people surveyed said they used the same password for everything."

Rush Limbaugh Calls for Riots

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/15980105/detail.html

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.

Spending

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120534523952430847.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Treasury's monthly budget statement shows the February deficit was 46% bigger than the deficit of $119.99 billion in February 2007. In January, the government had a budget surplus of $17.84 billion, which was unrevised.

"Outlays were $281.29 billion during February, up 17% from February 2007's $240.31 billion. Government receipts in February were $105.72 billion, down 12% from February 2007's $120.31 billion."

See?

Yet another sign of global recession and general belt tightening...
Things are tough all over.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1581582720080416

"Global auction house Sotheby's failed to hammer off a 72.22-carat, "D" flawless white diamond at its Asian sales last week in a possible sign of weakness in the global diamond trade.

"The large diamond which had a pre-sale estimate of $10-12 million, attracted a final bid of HK$73 million ($9.24million) that fell short of the reserve price and went unsold, said Sotheby's press officer Rhonda Yung."

Meanwhile...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CIA_knew_secret_detention_interrogation_program_0424.html

"The Central Intelligence Agency knew from the beginning that its secret detention and torturous interrogation tactics probably bordered on illegal from the start, according to new documents identified through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

...

"The CIA also acknowledged in their filings that the program 'will continue.' Terror suspects detained or "renditioned" by the United States are transferred to third party countries that allow torture which gives the US a legal loophole to allow harsh interrogation without being legally liable. Such suspects, who effectively disappear, are held without access to courts."

Proud to be an American?

Yes We Do Torture, Actually

Media in the US is worse than AWOL on this issue. I don't get it. I've never believed in mass-media conspiracies, but this has me wondering. Not only did the US do these things, but, yes, very senior staff personally reviewed and approved of it all, including the President and the Secretary of State, both of whom have specificly lied about it publicly and repeatedly since. AND the President has actually admitted that this is so! What's the deal??

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/23/thomas-chides-colleagues-torture/

During this afternoon's White House press briefing, reporter Helen Thomas noted that Bush .has admitted that he did sign off on torture. saying it damages 'the credibility of this country.' But press secretary Dana Perino denied that the United States has ever tortured detainees and referred to testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden as evidence:

THOMAS: The president has said [...] we do not torture. Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it. So how do you reconcile this credibility gap? [...]

Now That's Angry

http://www.katu.com/news/17737484.html

"Investigators say a man who was making bombs in his house blew himself up inside early Tuesday morning, blasting the roof off of his home and causing the structure to burn to the ground.

"Pierce County Sheriff spokesman Ed Troyer said a couple called 911 after returning home Monday evening to find their 26-year-old roommate angry and handling explosives."

Re: open source .net?

The great irony of .NET is that it's actually a good technology, except that MSFT has crippled it by keeping trapped and squeezed into a nearly useless Windows-only world, which all but defeats its purpose and makes it nothing but a great big yawn. If I was a developer that helped design .NET, I'd be deeply disappointed. If I was on the marketing force that actually drives MSFT's "technology", well, I guess everything would be going as planned.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001098.html

Hmmm... Bacon...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080319.wlomega19/BNStory/lifeFoodWine/home

The omega-3 pig looks and tastes much like an average hog, but it could prove to be a lucrative new entry into a market that's increasingly wary of the health risks of red meat.

"I know a product like healthy bacon almost sounds like an oxymoron" said Willy Hoffmann, president of Prairie Orchard, located about 45 minutes west of Winnipeg in Elie, Man. "We have a novel product that way."

True

"Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything."

-- Benjamin Graham

Memo

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/washington/03intel.html?ex=1364875200&en=4c895874f2d2dffa&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Back in the day, they used to get this John Yoo guy on the News Hour a lot on subjects relating to the Justice Department. The things he said, I found, shocking and offensive. And scary. Listening to a man like Yoo, it's easy to understand how governments, any government, slip into totalitarianism. I glad to see him disgraced, but there's more where he came from. And the Bushs, Cheneys, Rumsfields and Ashcrofts of the world will always find a job for people like Yoo.

Now more is coming out. The verbiage is shocking, even for people like me that think they saw through what was happening, and what some people (in power, and empowered to vote) still believe and actively work for. Ordinary people always have, and will continue to, work to turn their country toward dictatorship in the name of morality, their "way of life" and in the face of declared "emergency."

Bushed

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2270318,00.html

"In the director's own words, the film will address the question: "How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"

"The part of Bush will be played by Josh Brolin, no stranger to Texan roles, having been in the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men. Elizabeth Banks of Spider-Man and The 40-Year-Old Virgin is expected to play the first lady."

* * *

http://www.ebiologynews.com/4215.html

"In addition, no single study indicates that people need to drink the recommended amount of water each day. Indeed, it is unclear where this recommendation came from."

Simple, people, Americans anyway, are scared of food and water.

* * *

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/how-to-battle-z.html

"You've found out how to take down 500-foot monsters, and learned the secret to terminating Terminators. Now it's time for the utimate challenge. How you should arm yourself to survive a zombie apocalypse?"

* * *

An even bigger G?

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/04/02/did-you-hear-what-i-heard.aspx

"Various sources are predicting that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is about to hook up with eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) Skype. And Google's M&A appetite may not stop there. Shares of Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) soared 10% yesterday, after an analyst with Susquehanna alluded to rumors that Big G was readying a bid for the travel portal.

"So bolt yourself to the floor, because a cash-rich Google may be coming for you next."

Occupation: PRESIDENT

Here's George W. bush's 2007 federal income tax return...

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interactive/allpolitics/0804/bush.cheney.taxes/bush.pdf

Technical

"I knew that technical analysis didn't work when I turned the charts upside down and I got the same answer."

-- Warren Buffet

So Noted

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/industrial-cont.html

"On June 10th, 1999 a 16-inch diameter steel pipeline operated by the now-defunct Olympic Pipeline Co. ruptured near Bellingham, Washington, flooding two local creeks with 237,000 gallons of gasoline. The gas ignited into a mile-and-a-half river of fire that claimed the lives of two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man, and injured eight others.

"Wednesday, computer-security experts who recently re-examined the Bellingham incident called its victims the first verified human causalities of a control-system computer incident. They argue that government cybersecurity standards currently under debate might have prevented the tragedy."

* * *

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4583256

"Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

"The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic."

Throughout history, torturers, secret police forces, para-militaries and the like nearly always have one thing in common - for some reason they are compelled to keep extrodinarily detailed records. From the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis, to the special police arms of the Soviet states recent Latin American dictators, and the "good guys" working for modern western nations... They all do "what must be done" to protect the state, the people, a way of life, whatever, and they keep very detailed records.

Perhaps red tape and mundane bureaucracy somehow dull their inhumane acts.

What was done, it will all come out.
And history will not be kind to George W. Bush.

* * *

This entire article it well worth a read.

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=9WdWMfPrdR9HJDmcJcW5pMkf4bvmpvgp

"I teach a seminar called "Secrecy: Forbidden Knowledge." I recently asked my class of 16 freshmen and sophomores, many of whom had graduated in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes and had dazzling SAT scores, how many had heard the word "rendition."

"Not one hand went up.

"This is after four years of the word appearing on the front pages of the nation's newspapers, on network and cable news, and online. This is after years of highly publicized lawsuits, Congressional inquiries, and international controversy and condemnation. This is after the release of a Hollywood film of that title, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, and
Reese Witherspoon."

A shocking story? Not really, but it is a disturbing one. People are stunningly stupid.

* * *

http://pressesc.com/01179641589_republicans_turn_clock_back_on_human_rights

"In 1947, the U.S. sentenced a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, to 15 years of hard labor for using a form of water-boarding"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15433467/

"[It's] a direct affront to the primary authors of the Military Commission Act in the Senate - John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner - all of whom have publicly stated that the legislation signed by the president last week makes water boarding a war crime," said Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "This is Cheney ignoring the consensus of his own Pentagon," she said, referring to comments by senior officials that harsh interrogation techniques do not produce reliable intelligence."

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Vote2008/story?id=4481249

"So?"

-- Vice President Dick Cheney

Bad Idea

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2008/03/portfolio_0327

"The plan - the boldest move yet to keep the wounded entertainment industry giants afloat - is simple: Consumers will pay a monthly fee, bundled into an internet service bill in exchange for unfettered access to a database of all known music."

This is the most idiotic idea I've seen today. I mean really... The stupidity is staggering - a new hidden tax to support a dead business model so that giant media companies don't have to innovate and invest, and so can continue to ignore market forces...

Ya, that's the American way alright.

Ha

http://simulatedcomicproduct.com/comics/2008-03-13-DexterityRoll.jpg

Nerds...

Cartoons and Stuff

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/03/the_10_most_insane_childwarping_moments_of_80s_car.php

"Yet there.s at least one scene that gives us viewers pause: in the episode 'April Fool, April leaves behind her yellow jumpsuit for once and dons formal wear. For some reason, she treks down into the sewers to show off her gown to Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo. At the 3:27 mark here, all of them are on the verge of howling like Tex Avery wolves, with even Splinter, the turtles' sanguine rat-man mentor, ogling a woman not of his species. And then the turtles follow April out of the room, clogging the door in one writhing mass of undisguised reptile lust. Horrifying."

* * *

Nerds.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2008/03/gallery_larping

"Until recently, LARPing was the little-known hobby of fans of Dungeons & Dragons, Renaissance faires and historical reenactments, but it has gained new notoriety thanks to popular YouTube videos of players battling with foam swords and imaginary lightning bolts."

* * *

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/21-the-extinct-human-species-that-was-smarter-than-us?utm_campaign=DISCOVER%20Magazine%20Human%20Origins%20Newsletter%203%2E24%2E2008&utm_content=tygerx9@gmail.com&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=The%20Extinct%20Human%20Species%20That%20Was%20Smarter%20Than%20Us

"Judging from fossil remains, scientists say the Boskops were similar to modern humans but had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads that held brains about 30 percent larger than our own.

...

More insightful and self-reflective than modern humans, with fantastic memories and a penchant for dreaming, the Boskops may have had 'an internal mental life literally beyond anything we can imagine'."

* * *

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341574,00.html

"An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.

...

"The girl's parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to "apparently they didn't have enough faith," the police chief said.

...

"The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said."

Religion kills. Always. It's as simple as that. We can't make stupidity a crime of course, unfortunately. But homicide certain is.

People Are Still Stupid

There are idiots and then there are idiots. Here's the stories of some completely ordinary people that you may meet just walking down the street everyday.
Nice list...

http://www.spapo.com/s200.html

Idiots.

Tech Writer

Our new tech writer is a classic food hypochondriac/health nut. I was just listening to her going on to someone else about water. She bought a filtering water jug for her desk [since all water is full of poison, I guess, although where we happen to be is well documented to have some of the best tap water in the world. I wonder if she knows what the filter filters and what it doesn't? No doubt not]. She goes on about how she has to have something because she's so dehydrated even though she "drinks like a gallon of water a day." [A gallon!?] Then she says maybe she's not getting enough sodium or electrolytes... [Ya think?? And, uh, sodium is an electrolyte by the way]. But she doesn't eat salt because salt is bad for you, she says "I should look up what kind of sodium I should be getting." [uh, sodium is an element, there's only one kind in the whole universe] "Or," she says, "I'm not getting electrolytes and I should drink one Vitamin Water each day." [One. And better that even odds she doesn't know Vitamin Water is a Coke-Cola product].

News flash, if you drink that much water, your body is stressing to retain not only electrolytes, such as salt (next to water perhaps the single most important compound to all life as we know it, here on planet Earth), but also all water soluble vitamins as well. If you're sitting around in an office, and not sweating out the water, and replenishing what the body is washing away, you'll probably feel like crap.

I think we're hard wired to worry about food and water. But in modern, middle class America, food and water are plentiful. So some people just make up worries. And end up worse off for it. The idea of drinking eight glasses a day is a myth.

No, it's not "unhealthy". And these people might say things like "it can't do any harm." But there's two problems, one is sumed up nicely in the words of Lisa Simpson:

Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
[Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

And the other problem is that a person is not doing themselves any good by sitting around all day worrying about their food. The whole "food as medicine" thing is an unhealthy relationship with life.