the/diseased/republik

Tony Snow returns to work and continues the Republican Ruse. He flat out denies that any of the Bush Cabal tried to link 9/11 and Iraq. Transcript: Q. The message is clear– the administration was not straight with Americans, not about W.M.D.’S, not about 9/11. There it is from the former C.I.A. Chief. Is it time for the administration to come clean, Tony? TONY SNOW: Wait a minute, Chris. The president has been saying exactly that all along. I don’t know what the headline is. As a matter of fact, I can remember right after September 11 sitting here when I was a journalist and some of your colleagues, I believe Charlie Gibson may have been there at the time as well. The fact is the president made it clear before the State of the Union in 2002 that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and September 11. So Im afraid what’s happened there is that George Tenet may have been referring to something that has been misreported or at least twisted by people with political motives, but ...

Bill Kristol is one of the most irresponsible son of a bitch alive today. He has no scruples and has no personal accountability what-so-fucking-ever! I cannot believe the media still calls him an expert on Iraq and the Mid East! Just another treasonous bastard! 'In response to a question on "FOX News Sunday" yesterday about George Tenet's accusation that Bush administration neocons (Cheney, Perle, Feith) were pushing hard for war with Iraq despite Saddam having no links whatsoever to 9/11, Bill Kristol invoked Bill Clinton and said Tenet was not only a "mediocre" DCI, but also a "crybaby." video_wmv Download (2.615 megs) here Of course, comparing Clinton's Iraq policy to Bush's is the height of hilarity. While it's certainly true that Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 that supported regime change, he did not unilaterally invade the country based on false pretense in defiance of world opinion. Nor did he do so in a reckeles...

"But the true threats to stability and peace are those nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the --- that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans." - George W. Bush March 13, 2001 Speaking to the media in Washington, D.C. I truly wonder if George takes his own words to heart. His Treasonous Administration does nothing but use double speak and lies to cloud their intentions and actions. Again, most Democrats fall into this mode of operation too.

Barbers warned against Western haircuts | Oddly Enough | Reuters : "TEHRAN (Reuters Life!) - Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday. The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values. 'Western hair styles ... have been banned,' the newspaper Etemad said in a frontpage headline. It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing numbers of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months. Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment."

"Bush initially told the nation that he was going to stick his head through the banister in order to secure stockpiles of cashews on the other side. Though intelligence reports cited by the president seemed to indicate the presence of these cashews, a comprehensive probe by White House personnel revealed that no such nuts existed." http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bush_refuses_to_set_timetable_for read more | digg story

MOSCOW — The United States is planning to launch a war with Iran with a salvo of cruise missiles against military and other strategic facilities, a Russian official said. A leading Russian analyst close to the government of President Vladimir Putin said the Bush administration has been preparing a major air strike against Iran. The analyst said the Iranian release of 15 British Marines abducted in early April has hampered but not canceled U.S. attack plans. "Preparations to strike Iran's strategic facilities continue," Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems, said. "Three major groups of U.S. forces are still in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Altogether, they have up to 450 cruise missiles on alert." [On Tuesday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily quoted French military sources that projected a U.S. strike on Iran in 2007, Middle East Newsline reported. The sources said Iran could be making a major mistake in unde...

For good reason, many of us have become cynical about what politics can achieve in this country. And as many Americans have turned away from Washington, we know all too well what's filled the void. It's the lobbyists and influence-peddlers with the cash and the connections -- the ones who've turned government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and we all get stuck with the bills. They think they own this government. But today, we're here to tell them it's not for sale. So far, just this month, over 40,000 people have stepped up to own a piece of this campaign and prove them wrong. But the special interests and Washington insiders believe that they can still use their power and influence to control politics. They do not understand the power of the American people's will to change. They do not understand that when ordinary people come together, they can do extraordinary things. They believe that hope is a fleeting feeling, and that peo...

g.ho.st is a virtual computer service that has recreated the desktop in your browser window. With g.ho.st, you can do pretty much anything you can do on your computer’s desktop, from document management to playing games. The service is obviously great for people that travel a lot, or students that frequently use community computers. Of all the virtual computer services I’ve seen, this one is among the ones that look and feel the most like a computer desktop. g.ho.st is still a work in progress, in their very early beta, so it can be a bit slow at times. But g.ho.st has some potential. i tried (still trying) this out and it seems like a great idea. so far the usability is pretty limited but hey, its in alpha now. otherwise, i cant wait for more new features to be implemented. i am a portable app junkie and this makes life alot easier with public computers and its powered thru the web browser (firefox and IE) so its crossplatform ability is a huge plus! Mashable has a great review of t...

The development is also the latest legal setback in civilian attorney efforts to put a spotlight on a series of Guantánamo-related issues in the federal courts. On April 2, the justices decided not to prematurely step into a legal battle over whether captives should be allowed to challenge their confinement in District Court, through habeas corpus petitions -- a power stripped away by Congress. Now, Bush administration lawyers are seeking to further limit attorney-client contacts at Guantánamo. In the latest Supreme Court development, it was Hamdan's military commission case that led to a repudiation of the Bush administration last year in the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of Hamdan, declaring President Bush's system of military commission trials violated U.S. and international law. Subsequently, the Bush administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill pushed through a law reconstituting the military commissions, giving them the congressional imprimatur that ...

Recent weeks have brought major changes in the music industry and a major victory in our battle against DRM. First Steve Jobs pledged to drop DRM if major labels would let him. We held his feet to the fire with over six thousand people signing an open letter to Jobs asking him to back his pledge! Apple and EMI then announced that the iTunes Music Store would sell EMI tracks without DRM, and this has been followed by similar announcements from other online music stores and retailers. Call these Criminals TODAY and let them kmow how you feel. The Heroes Behind This Campaign. Make a call today! All the folks listed below work in Warner's New York offices. Try to make your calls in the morning on the East Coast. If your on the West Coast, you might want to wait until around 10AM PDT (after lunch for those on the East Coast). * Laird Popkin , Director of Digital Technology * Alex Zubilaga , Executive Vice President for Digital Strategy and Business Development * Edgar Bronf...

In light of democratic presidential candidate, Mike Gravel , being banned for the next debate, he is asking that you sign the official petition to prevent this blatant and unjustified censorship. Mike Gravel is a real voice of the American people, now it's our chance to return the favor and sign the petition! read more | digg story

...why the hell didn't they do something. Now that we have intelligence experts, the military community, present and former administration, a Senator, and the media saying that they all knew the evidence was bullshit. Durbin's excuse is that he was sworn to secrecy . I don't know about Dick, I was taught that you call bullshit when you see (or hear) it. If he thinks that he is a good American for not ratting out his politico brethren, he is sadly mistaken. Questioning the status quo is what America and being a patriot is all about. In my opinion, not only is the Bush Administration guilty of treason , so are the Democrats, with very few exceptions. I keep hearing that the Democrats should impeach Bush or Cheney or some other Republican slob and the first thing that comes to mind is that the American People should be rounding up the whole lot. The Democrats are just as guilty as enablers ( Patriot Act amongst other crimes against the American People) in this whole fiasco an...

'Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she does not rule out a meeting with her Iranian counterpart at a conference on Iraq's security in Egypt.' I don't see why this is not a requirement. I would want every neighboring country involved. What we have done to the power balance within the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan) is criminal. The vacuum it will leave when we pull out of these countries effects the whole region and they should have been consulted before the invasions and during the ongoing conflicts. It is both arrogant and negligent that we (the USA)went to someone else's neighborhood and completely trashed it. We have the Monroe Doctrine , which is pretty much a big FUCK YOU to the rest of the world about meddling in the affairs of our neighborhood. Sweet Condi has also been back pedaling (video and transcript) on the "imminent threat" put out about Iraq and its nuclear/chemical/biological programs. In my opinion the Bush Administration is w...

The Washington Post has a very informative article on the vast number of people under indictment or facing conflict of interest cases in the Bush administration. It reads like a who's who of power-brokers and Bush croneys. A must read and another reason our political parties must be boycotted in the next election.

Marijuana Policy Project - News : "ATLANTA — Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. A third officer still faces charges. Officer J.R. Smith told a state judge Thursday that he regretted what had happened. 'I'm sorry,' the 35-year-old said, his voice barely audible. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation, making false statements and perjury, which was based on claims in a warrant. Former Officer Gregg Junnier, 40, who retired from the Atlanta police in January, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. Both men are expected to face more than 10 years in prison."

The Raw Story | Deputy Secretary of State resigns after admitting escort link : "'Condi loves him,' friend tells Washington Post WASHINGTON -- Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias submitted his resignation Friday after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington escort service, multiple media outlets reported Friday. Tobias, 65, said 'that he must step down' from his post 'effective immediately,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement Friday that did not disclose his escort service link."

VentureBeat » Secretive Silicon Valley company, OptiSolar, builds largest solar farm : "A secretive Hayward, Calif. company has just announced it will build the largest solar power “farm” in North America, using solar cells manufactured in Silicon Valley. The site, near Sarnia in Ontario, Canada, will be enough to power between 10,000 and 15,000 homes on sunny days, drawing on a monstrous 40-megawatt capacity. The company, called OptiSolar, is backed by private equity firms apparently with oil connections. It has studiously avoided saying anything until this announcement."

History While many CHA sites have been maligned for their monotonous, institutional-looking architecture, the Raymond Hilliard Homes(Hilliard) is regarded as an aesthetic gem. With their curving structure and honeycomb-shaped windows, Hilliard Homes is reminiscent of one of Chicago’s architectural treasures, Marina Towers. This is hardly coincidence. Both sites were designed by renowned architect Bertrand Goldberg, who designed Hilliard in 1966 as his team was completing the Marina Site. Hilliard was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, a distinction that played a significant factor in plans for the site’s renewal. More than 30 years after its construction, the Hilliard site remains architectural unique, a bold expression of individuality that shatters the conventions of public housing. Existing Conditions About 290 residents currently reside in Hilliard, which consists of two 22-story family buildings, shaped in an arc and encircling a public space, and two cyli...

Bill O'Reilly is the posterboy for all that is wrong and evil in the media and this country. Never wanting to be held responsible for what he does or says. FOX News should have fired him a long time ago... "In a "Factor Fiction" segment Wednesday night, Keith highlighted how Bill O'Reilly attacks MediaMatters for committing the mortal sin of quoting him accurately. It's hysterical how he seeks to discredit everything MM does when all they do is accurately document what he says. It doesn't matter if he actually said the quote in question; what matters is if it was documented by MM. If it was, then it's immediately invalid — even though they always include the entire context and video/audio." from crooksandliars

This tutorial will take you every single step of the way through installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) using Parallels for OS X. In other words, even your parents should be able to follow along. Although I am not currently using OS X, I am a fan of Ubuntu (since 4.10) and recommend it highly. Plus the cool factor is an 11. read more | digg story

Two persons identifying themselves as New York police officers interrupted a 9/11 Truth demonstration-- on a public sidewalk in front of the new WTC 7 Building-- to intimidate free speech, stating "Larry [Silverstein] doesn't want to hear it," before accusing We Are Change founder Luke Rudkowski of having a bomb and that his cell phone was "a gun." read more | digg story

LOS ANGELES —Following his critically acclaimed performance in the post-Sept. 11 drama Reign Over Me, a "spellbinding" interview on The Colbert Report, the actor's actor and voice of his generation Don Cheadle captivated patrons of Ollie's Coffee Shop in downtown L.A. Monday with his order of a grande half-caff Americano and banana- walnut muffin. A complete review can be found here .

"Yesterday India successfully launched an Italian astronomical satellite . A BBC article ( view video clip ) notes that the launch grants India membership in the exclusive group of nations that can sustain commercial satellite launches . India's launch vehicle has less overall capacity than the competition — up to 1,500 kg to orbit — but the country plans to sweep the low end of the market by offering the lowest cost per launched kilogram for smaller payloads."

Quantum physics says goodbye to reality. Some physicists are uncomfortable with the idea that all individual quantum events are innately random. This is why many have proposed more complete theories, which suggest that events are at least partially governed by extra "hidden variables". Giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist. read more | digg story

The Justice Dept is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of Bush's No Child Left Behind law , another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million in deals.

Here are some interesting quotes: "To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."-- Nuremberg Tribunal "The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the U.N. charter."-- U.N. Chief Kofi Annan - September 2004 [Source BBC] "When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law." Frederic Bastiat (1801~1850) French economist, statesman, and author [Source: "The Law," by Frederic Bastiat, 1850] "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."-- Frederick Douglass "It is part of the moral tragedy with which we are dealing that words like 'democracy,' 'freedom', 'rights', 'justice', which have so often i...

Personally, I think lil' George has nothing on Ol' Tricky Dick. However, over at RollingStone Magazine, Matt Taibbi is trying to lead his interviewee ( Seymour Hersh ) in that direction. Otherwise, it is an informative article.

First we have this tidbit from Atlanta: ATLANTA (AP) -- The Georgia Secretary of State's office has begun an investigation into who threw more than 75,000 Fulton County voter registration cards into a trash bin. The cards contained a voter's full name, address and Social Security number. The office says a random sampling showed many of the cards were for active voters. In a statement, Secretary of State Karen Handel said the finding "represents a significant and serious breach of the personal information of Fulton County voters and an outrageous violation of the trust and integrity of Fulton County's elections." After getting a call from a resident, officials with Handel's office found more than 30 boxes of voter registration application cards, precinct cards and other documents Monday in a construction trash bin at Atlanta Technical College in southwest Atlanta. Handel has called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the county solicitor general's of...

In their extremely misguided, Nazi-like effort to rid the world of psychiatrists (and, in fact, all mental health practitioners), the Criminal Cult of Cruise is now using the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy as a platform for their latest, ill-advised recruitment drive. Scientology has not attempted so publicly, so grotesquely to capitalize on a national tragedy since they descended like vultures at Ground Zero post 9-11. While hindering legitimate, heroic rescue efforts with their spurious "therapies" at the site, Scientology claimed they were from the non-existent National Mental Health Assistance outfit, and falsely aligned themselves in the media with the Red Cross.

Following the success of the W.W.J.D (What would Jesus Do) merchandise, the New York Police Department is reportedley issuing Cops with 'What Would Batman Do' wrist bands. An observer told us that they had been "quietly impressed by the success of Batman in preventing crime", and felt that he was "a very positive role model for the police force."

Sony Corp. of America says it has fixed a glitch on recent DVD releases including Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction that prevented the movies from playing on some DVD players.Sony said the problem was due to an update of its ARccOS copy-protection system, an additional layer of protection meant to prevent ripping. Sony claims it has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped. read more | digg story

Google's rivals are unlikely to get the anti-trust case against the search engine that they want, because the Department of Justice doesn't yet consider online advertising a distinct market, and Mountain View's share of advertising as a whole is less intimidating. But there's one other way to hobble Google, and stymie its acquisition of Doubleclick... read more | digg story

" The university broke federal law by waiting 14 months to disclose the accident. The work of the Texas universities, like that of approximately 400 other Federally-funded labs across the nation, may involve pathogens that could possibly be used for offensive germ warfare, banned by the 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention." The accident occurred under the supervision of Texas A&M professor David McMurray, inventor of the (MAC). According to Sunshine, the case of the stricken student is the third report of a serious illness in connection with the chamber’s use. On one occasion, a leaky aerosol chamber was responsible for three tuberculosis infections in a Seattle lab in 2004. The MAC is used to infect animals with disease through their lungs. Cultures of the organisms causing tuberculosis, or the bioweapons agents brucella, anthrax, or Q fever, are placed in the MAC’s nebulizer, which mixes them with the air. The resulting aerosol is directed into a metal chamber...

Gunman kills 30 in rampage at Virginia university - International Herald Tribune : "At least 30 people were killed and 29 were wounded Monday at Virginia Tech University in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and one of the worst anywhere." shortly after a frantic call for help to the campus police 911 center, state and local police, along with heavily armed SWAT Assault Teams swarmed the campus. the first shooting reportedly occurred about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of a large residence hall, Ambler Johnston. students refer to it as "Animal House." freshman, Aimee Kanode, told the AP that "They had us under lockdown," and when "They temporarily lifted the lockdown. The gunman shot again." the assault continued two hours later across campus, @ Norris Hall. Between the attacks - a matter that has raised immediate question - why the campus was not secured? later, a jerky cellphone video taken by student, Jamal Albarghouti, aired on CNN, ...

The Recording Industry Association of America has upped its campaign against N.C. State students downloading music with 23 lawsuits.( 1 ) Originally, the RIAA was only sending letters regarding a settlement students could pay to avoid legal action. However, the organization has now sent lawsuits to 37 who elected not to settle. Student Legal Services, led by Pam Gerace, can't stress enough that students who are caught up with the RIAA have support and can fight the charges.( 2 ) It's apparent, based on the amount of attention the University gets from the RIAA, that we are one of its main targets, and this is something we all must fight. We realize that students who engage in music piracy have done something illegal, and neither Student Legal Services nor the Technician advocates for it. However, Student Legal Services does want to make sure students are treated fairly. We applaud it for stepping up and taking charge of this situation, because many students are uneducated when ...

about 37,000 nailgun injuries a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [ 1 ]. nailgun injuries have risen about 200 percent since 1991, the CDC said. the CDC looked at who was getting injured, it became clear that the number of work-related nailgun injuries had stayed stable since 1998. it was consumer-related injuries that had soared. the popularity of DIY home improvement is causing America more casualties per year than 4 years in Iraq (24,314 wounded in action, [ 2 ]). one thing is for certain- just because you can buy it does not mean you know how to use it.

i have been keen on Russia my whole life. i used to ditch class in highschool to go to the library and read Soviet Life. i had dreams of being a Trotsky or Lenin-type character when i grew up (didnt happen). my fascination with Russia and more/over Soviet history and culture continues. i have been watching with great interest the protest in Moscow. not enjoying the narratives from the more pedestrian news wires, i found a blog with a first hand account of the happenings (complete w/ pictures). if you want a first person view of whats going on and are wary of mainstream press...check out Darkness at Noon ! there is a wealth of info on Russian life and culture. Kasparov was arrested because "he came and began to provoke police into taking harsh action, while knowing that the demonstration on Pushkin Square was forbidden," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. The former chess champion was taken to court in central Moscow and charged with shouting ant...

i have always said that 'GOOGLE is your friend'. now it seems that some weird cousins are at the door. Charles K has compiled a list of specialized (ie ufo, ghosts, etc) search engines. head over and check it out . have one thats not on the list? send it to me!

Check out these Vista concept shots. Just look at the packaging pictured above. Would you ever see that lining the shelves at Best Buy? No. And that's what makes seeing this stuff so enjoyable. Sure, the folder concept is completely space inefficient. And what we can only assume is a pure diamond block case would probably be expensive even for mass production. But my guess is that most consumers would be more likely to impulse buy an OS if it looked like something out of an 80s future movie. >>

"But males [giant squids] get round their inferior size by being endowed with a particularly long penis, which means they can inject the female without having to get too close to her chomping beak. The male's sexual organ is actually a bit like a high-pressure fire hose and is normally nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head." -- i am thinking it may be a dual purpose device- ie turbo boost for escape, grasping appendage, lasso, etcetera ad nauseum... read more | digg story

Bees are suddenly and mysteriously dying off worldwide. Now some scientists blame RADIATION FROM CELL PHONES and cell phone towers, which they say interferes with bees' navigation, so worker bees go out to find pollen, and never find their way back to the hives. i would like to see PETA, ALF, and the ELF start going after telecom's in defence of the helpless lil fellas...

Check out this 17 year old who built his own fusion reactor . Here is the open source fusor research consortium . For more plans, research, and this fusor built by Richard Hull. It's his fourth version - definitely worth checking out. Essentially, all the atmospheric air is removed via vacuum. Then you add a bit of deuterium gas, some high voltage and if you got it right, bask in the glow of your own personal fusion reaction. (Just watch out for X-ray leaks.)  More here and here .   

Over on the O'Reilly Network, there's an interesting piece about how Microsoft tried to hire people to contribute to Wikipedia . Not wanting to do the edits directly, they were looking for an intermediary to make edits and corrections favorable to them. Why? According to the article, it was apparently both to let people know that Microsoft will not 'enable death squads with their UUIDs' and also to fight the growing consensus that OOXML contains a useless pile of legacy crap which is unfit for standardization.

Where is the ACLU when you need them. personally, they should be tried on either the RICO Act or under the new Homeland Security Act for trying to terrorize the population. The RIAA is beginning to find itself in an awkward position. A few of its many, many lawsuits don't manage to end in success for the organization. Typically, when they decide a case isn't worth pursuing (due to targeting the wrong person or not having sufficient evidence), they simply move to drop the case. Counterclaims are usually dropped in turn, and everyone goes separate ways. But recently, judges have been deciding to allow the RIAA to drop the case, but still allowing the defendant's counterclaim through. According to the Ars Technica article: 'If Judge Miles-LaGrange issues a ruling exonerating Tallie Stubbs of infringement, it would be a worrisome trend for the RIAA. The music industry has become accustomed to having its way with those it accuses of file-sharing, quietly dropping cases it b...

being a chicagoan, i am very glad to hear that the city of the big shoulders (aka the windy city/ chicago) is in the race for the 2016 olympiad...Chicago has seen off Los Angeles to become the US Olympic Committee's chosen venue for the 2016 Summer Games. Chicago, which has never staged an Olympics, joins several other cities hoping to be handed the Olympic flame after London in 2012. Madrid, Prague, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo may be joined by Azerbaijan and Qatar in the candidates' list. n 1904, Chicago was the first city in the United States chosen by the IOC to host a summer Olympics, but the Games were switched to St Louis. Chicago was considered for the 1952 and 1956 Games but failed to make it to the final round of voting. The United States last hosted the Summer Games in 1996 when the Centennial Olympics were staged in Atlanta. The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco were eliminated earlier in the US 2016 bi...

jakosc writes@/. : "The Register has a short commentary about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Azimov's three laws of robotics , Canning proposes (pdf) that we should 'Let machines target other machines and let men target men.' Although this sounds OK in principle, 'a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.'"

CAMDEN, N.J. April 14 — In his rush to cash in on the Don Imus debacle, Gov. Jon S. Corzine underwent an hour-long operation on Saturday to clean the leg wound he suffered during a car crash on Thursday, and doctors said he was exhibiting signs of improvement that bolstered their confidence that he had escaped any brain or spinal injury. The crash occurred Thursday afternoon on the Garden State Parkway after the Chevrolet Suburban in which the governor was riding was hit by a white pickup truck that had swerved to avoid a red pickup that was driving erratically. The driver of the white truck was not charged. LINK TO STORY>>>

Israeli company develops biological cleaning process 8 Apr 2007 By letting Mother Nature do the heavy work, Israeli company BioPetroClean provides a solution that is eight times cheaper than cleaning by mechanical means. [Photo: Israel 21C] ...

...and replace it with the old Soviet flag. "Comrades, we have another proposal about changing the flag," Putin tells his advisors, "but this one is quite a bit more attractive, and I think we should consider it. But first, tell me--how much time do we have left on the current flag contract with Coca-Cola?" There are two truths in this joke: One--under Putin, the personal financial interests of the state apparatchiki have become completely inbred with the national interest. The entirety of state-owned and controlled enterprises are run by and for the benefit of the cabal around Putin--a collection of former KGB colleagues, St. Petersburg lawyers, and other political cronies. This band of comrades has managed to place all of the large money-making industries under their control--so much so that the thought of losing their grip when the Russian president's second term ends next year is a source of rising anxiety for his inner circle. read more>>>

-- Russian police arrested opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov today along with more than 100 supporters and several journalists at an unsanctioned protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Thousands of riot police swarmed around central Moscow's Pushkin Square, the historical focus of democracy protests, after the city's authorities pledged the same display of police force that greeted the last protest in the capital, in December. Kasparov, who leads a loose assembly of opposition groups called The Other Russia, was arrested shortly after the rally began, said his spokeswoman, Natalya Morar. The Other Russia hopes to field candidates in the nation's parliamentary elections in December and presidential election next March. ``Russia Without Putin,'' chanted protesters around the square as demonstrators and both foreign and national reporters were herded into waiting police vans, where some detainees could be heard banging from t...

OK...going postal in russia loses something in the translation... as posted over at Hack a DAY : Apparently our Russian brethren have some issues ordering things online. Their shipping solution? A bit of remote social engineering. Thanks to the nature of Russian addresses - that is, the language is pretty easy to recognize - they've found that putting down their address in Russia along with a Canadian zip code will usually result in the package being forwarded along thanks to the thoughtful Canadian postal workers. Spacebo... read original and another poster had this tidbit: As a Libertarian I especially Hate Socialists disguised as Democrats. So I started signing up to a couple of campaigns of some really pinko types . I donate $1 Dollar and Letters will start POURING in. I think they all trade lists etc. Anyhow once the letters start coming to me from say candidate X. I take the generic Pre-Paid envelopes they usually supply and Clear Tape it to a Brick that I have wrapped to loo...

Hordes of giant mice are devouring endangered seabird chicks on a remote South Atlantic island and may be pushing some of the birds to extinction, scientists report. The carnage has harmed the breeding success of endangered Tristan albatrosses and threatened Atlantic petrels on Gough Island, a British territory a thousand miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of South Africa. Video cameras revealed one pack of ten mice feeding on a Tristan albatross chick's wounds as it nested on the ground. Footage also showed mice devouring Atlantic petrel and great shearwater chicks. "Like a House Cat Attacking a Hippo" Nearly three feet (one meter) tall, a Tristan albatross chick can weigh up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms), or about as much as a turkey. Gough Island mice weigh just 1.2 ounces (35 grams) on average. The birds did not fight off their attackers, even as some mice fed inside the body cavity of one albatross chick. Researchers say the footage provides t...

A report on AppleInsider about Leopard still being an unfinished product was taken down after an order by Apple Legal. "This article has been removed temporarily for edits at the request of Apple Inc." the ap[ple]ologists and fanboys are out in force over @ /. and it is now the fault of Gates and his infernal redmond cabal. UPDATE do you hear the snickering from Redmond after reading Apple's statement regarding its delay of Mac OS X "Leopard." This comes from a company that never passed up an attempt to bash Microsoft's incessant delays of Vista at every turn. Now, Apple's a great company, don't get me wrong, but this attempt at spinning the truth smells of hypocrisy! As somebody in the office said today, "You can't bash Microsoft for being late to the party and then be tardy yourself." How true. Apple claims that in order to finish the iPhone on time, it had to pull developers from the Mac OS X team. It goes on to say that the OS wo...

we use Firefox tabs to open all our favorite Sites and services inside Firefox right?, yes, Gmail inside Ff, Yahoo inside Ff, ebay inside Ff, Banking inside Ff ect. ect. ect….With all these favorites inside Firefox, How about Opening Firefox inside Firefox? Not bad huh? and its really easy too just type this in the url in a new tab in Firefox *press enter* and there you go! Firefox inside Firefox! chrome://browser/content/browser.xul users may cause damage by using this with IE to Open Firefox inside IE sarcasm read more | digg story

"Linux Complete Command Reference", "Java Programming on Linux", "the SlackBook", "Running Linux", "100 Linux Tips and Tricks", etc...i love books on NIX! the more the better! i have been using one flavor of NIX or another for about 10 yrs now and everytime i read a new book i always learn something new or relearn something old...by the way- i am no Nix snob, i am at home with the penguins,bigcats, and even flying thru windows... read more | digg story

Postdialectic libertarianism in the works of Rushdie Steven M. Stryker, esq. Department of Sociolinguistics, Miskatonic University, Waukegan, Il 1. Rushdie and postdialectic libertarianism If one examines capitalist theory, one is faced with a choice: either reject submodernist dialectic theory or conclude that the purpose of the participant is deconstruction, but only if Baudrillard’s critique of objectivism is valid; if that is not the case, expression is created by the masses. Therefore, Bataille uses the term ‘postdialectic libertarianism’ to denote the difference between class and consciousness. “ Class is meaningless,” says Lacan; however, according to Tilton [1] , it is not so much class that is meaningless, but rather the rubicon, and subsequent failure, of class. The characteristic theme of von Ludwig’s [2] model of dialectic capitalism is the fatal flaw, and therefore the futility, of subcapitalist language. In a sense, if objectivism holds, we have to choose betw...