June 29, 2004
Islamic militants execute captured US Marine
The BBC is reporting that the captured US Marine, Cpl Wassef Ali Hassoun, has been executed. The report originated from al-Jazeera.
Oceans on Mars?
The news media has largely forgotten about those two Rovers on Mars, but they are making some huge discoveries, including the above structure. It was noted:
Despite detailed inspection with the microscopic imager, "we have not got this thing figured out yet," Squyres admitted at a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California on Friday. "I don't know how these things formed, and it's driving me nuts!"
Some very interesting science being done on Mars.
Black Line goes pink
Peter is messing with his blog templates, and I have to say I like the new one. The more traditional blog format makes it easier to read. A move to WordPress or MT would be a good move though.
June 28, 2004
Mobile phones rot your balls
And the funniest headline of the week award goes to: El Reg, for this corker:
Mobile phones rot your balls:
Hello Moto. Goodbye Mojo
I actually laughed out loud to that one.
U.S. Overseer Holds Ceremony Without Notice, and Departs
In case you missed it...
Bremer made a very quick exit. But I guess that's to be expected.
Moore film opens in a blaze of glory
Michael Moore's new film has surpassed even the most optimistic predictions. It has quite literally turned into phenomenon. I am looking forward to seeing it, but I have taken on board the numerous criticisms of the film, most pointedly seen in the blogopshere.
A World Without Power: Niall Ferguson
Foreign Policy popped through the letterbox today, and what a great read it is. Niall Ferguson has the cover story, it is usual Ferguson, interesting nonetheless.
Other articles are good too, more on that later.
Internet browser breach defused
The Russian web server at the centre of a serious net security problem has been shut down. When visited by unwitting web users the server exploited loopholes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and opened a backdoor into compromised PCs.When first discovered, the security problem prompted experts to tell people to avoid using Internet Explorer.
The problem was judged serious because many trusted websites were innocently sending people to the suspect server.
Microsoft have still not released a patch...
June 26, 2004
Chester Beatty Library
I am using the wireless facilities at the Chester Beatty Library today, and great too that it is still free. Providing the access provided incentive, and now I will have to make a donation, and buy lots of hot chocolate.
Carole Coleman and George Bush
Carole Coleman, RTE Washington correspondent, has caused a mini-controversy after her interview with George Bush. You can watch the full interview with Real Player.
John feels she was not up to the job. I am going to reserve judgement for now.
Watch it though.
June 25, 2004
IEEE approves 802.11i security spec
I was writing about the future implementation of 802.11i back in 2001, and this week it was finally approved by the IEEE.
Here's hoping for more secure wireless.
Winning the War
Drum also points to two recent articles by Wesley Clark (Washington Monthly) and Anne Applebaum(TNR) respectively.
I find myself in some agreement with Drum when he notes:
This is precisely what war supporters have been so deeply wrong about for the past two years: not the odiousness of Saddam Hussein's regime or the necessity of combatting radical Islam, but the idea that Bush's quick and dirty invasion of Iraq was a serious response to it. I know my readers hate to be reminded of this — and hell, so do I — but I supported the war until it finally became clear that Bush wasn't even faintly serious about democracy in the Middle East, consensus building among our allies, or any of the other long-term strategies necessary to win this war.
"Go fuck yourself": Dick Cheney
Kevin Drum points to a funny story concerning Dick Cheney.
According to congressional aides, [Sen. Patrick] Leahy said hello to Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.
Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.
....During their exchange, Leahy noted that Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of President Bush's anti-abortion judges, the aides said.
That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb," aides said.
Poor old Cheney, he must be worried about something or other.
June 24, 2004
Blair's daughter Kathryn
I have received some indications from London lately about the daughter of the UK premier. I checked it out, and came across this Indymedia (I know) article.
Suffice to say I will not discuss it in any real way - but I think Indymedia's line on it is a bit weird.
Belfast's broad horizons
After a long gap, a published piece in the New Statesman today.
I attended a roundtable discussion in Belfast last week, discussing the future of broadband in Northern Ireland. All very interesting - it is a region on the up and up.
I really have not been writing as much as I should, but writing lots on here for you people. Unfortunately it does not pay!
Trackback
After nearly a year, I have decided to turn Trackback back on. It is a handy enough tool I guess.
AOL worker arrested in spam scheme
Here is an interesting way of making money.
A software engineer at America Online was arrested Wednesday and charged with stealing AOL's subscriber list and selling it to someone sending spam e-mail, federal prosecutors in New York said.According to the criminal complaint, Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., used his inside knowledge of AOL's computer system to steal a list of 92 million AOL customer account "screen names," and then sold them to Sean Dunaway, who is not an AOL employee.
Dunaway, of Las Vegas, NV., was accused of using the list to promote his own Internet gambling business and also sold the list to other spammers for $52,000, according to David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Blogging: A Web Diary Tour
Dan Gillmor was on an NPR radio show the other day. You can listen to the show here. It also featured
Lev Grossman
*Staff writer for Timemagazine, author of recent article "Meet Joe Blog"
Steve Rubel
*Publishes the blog "Micro Persuasion"
*Vice-president of client services with Cooper-Katz, a public relations firm in New York
Ana Marie Cox
*Writes and edits blog wonkette.com, a political gossip blog on life in Washington
Dan believes "Critical mass is approaching, it seems.".
Blogging With The Boss's Blessing
Business Week has a good article on the increasing use of blogging in the workplace, using Microsoft as an example.
For now, though, many are running the risk. In an era of fragmented media, with companies struggling to get their message out any which way, blogs are becoming a kind of undercover megaphone. One way to think of them is as the latest guerrilla marketing tool, a new kind of brand bait.They'll likely backfire, though, if employers attempt to exert control. "Companies inevitably will try to co-opt blogs," says Dan Gillmor, author of We, the Media, a book about blogging due out next month.
Until then, happy reading.
June 23, 2004
Dido and Eminem row over royalties
Singer Dido is said to have fallen out with rapper Eminem over payment of royalties.
Continue reading "Dido and Eminem row over royalties"Still Don't Give A Fuck
“Still Don’t Give A Fuck” is the last track of the Slim Shady LP.
The song is deranging on purpose, provocative and made to piss you off. Slim Shady grabs the sharpest lyrical knife to rip you off with no mercy.
The introduction to the song is particularly interesting. It shows that Eminem is not ready to compromise his style for anybody:
'Star Wars': The sequel
The Boston Globe had a good editorial piece on the Star Wars project, worth a look.
Instead of directing finite resources toward protecting America against likely threats, he is lavishing billions of dollars on a system that has not been tested under the realistic conditions that would obtain in the unlikely event America came under attack from ballistic missiles launched by North Korea. Instead of funding research that might one day make possible an effective defense against ballistic missiles, Bush is spending $10.2 billion this year - the single biggest item in the defense budget - on a system whose flaws independent scientists regard as insurmountable.
Nicholas D. Kristof: Victims of Sudan's vicious purge
Nicholas Kristoff with another stirring article on the situation in Sudan. Go read it.
Perhaps Americans truly don't care about the hundreds of thousands of lives at stake - we have other problems, and Darfur is far away. But my hunch is that if we could just meet the victims, we would not be willing to acquiesce in genocide.
US admits rise in terror attacks
The BBC reports on the mistaken figures given by President Bush.
The US has more than doubled its estimation of the number of people killed by terrorism last year. The state department said 625 people were killed in 2003, compared with the 307 it claimed in April.
The Bush administration seized on the original report as proof that its "war on terror" was succeeding.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said there had been no attempt to deceive people, and blamed clerical and administrative errors.
A US official said the figure of 625 people killed worldwide was still lower than the previous year's 725 deaths.
'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed
It appears that the first private space flight did not go as smoothly as we thought, but they did go into space afterall. Can't be perfect firs time round.
The flight of the first private astronaut was not as perfect as it first appeared – a number of glitches occurred during the flight, some potentially catastrophic.
The revelations were made by Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, which on Monday became the world's first privately funded craft to enter space. Until the team fully understands exactly what went wrong during the flight, he said, they will not go ahead with the pair of flights needed to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.
Electric Warship Heralds Evolution in Weapon Technologies
From Slashdot, looks like the US Navy has been busy, they plan to implement rail gun technology by 2011.
DD(X) is in development by the Navy, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and other firms. When the new ship arrives in service it will be armed with very advanced, but conventional weaponry, including two United Defense 155mm Advanced Gun System cannons and an 80-cell vertical launch system for various guided missiles. But these systems are stepping stones to greater capabilities, according to Michael Collins, Navy IPS/electric drive program manager. “This technology opens the door” to advanced weapons, he said.
A report on Rail Gun technology can be read here. (PDF)
US, EU reach final accord in satellites row
The United States and the European Union have reached a final accord on resolving a transatlantic row over rival satellite positioning systems and will seal the deal at the US-EU summit this week in Ireland, officials from both sides said Monday.
At one point, Washington suggested that the Galileo was an unnecessary rival to GPS that merely duplicated the US system.
Despite the US reservations, Europe forged ahead with the project and Galileo is set to be operational by 2008 with 30 satellites encircling the globe in medium orbit.
Late last year, the Europeans agreed to modify the modulation of Galileo signals intended for government use so they would not disrupt encrypted GPS signals to be used by the US military and NATO.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two sides agreed on key points including:
- a common signal structure for so-called "open" services, and a suitable signal structure for the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS).
- a process allowing improvements, either jointly or individually, of the baseline signal structures in order to further improve performances.
- confirmation of inter-operable time and standards to facilitate the joint use of GPS and Galileo.
June 22, 2004
Holding his Footnotes to the Fire
Peter is having a great time having a bash at George Monbiot and his book, the Age of Consent.
He concludes, with some mirth I imagine:
That doesn't alter the fact that Monbiot has written something directly contradicting his sources. At least Jayson Blair could blame booze and coke and Philip Glass had a vivid imagination, but why should this bullshit be published? I suppose that a profession willing to give Andrew Gilligan a second chance doesn't hold itself to very high ethical standards. Or maybe it's just another British craft industry like coal-mining or ship-building where the workers won't take any responsibility for their output.
Watch out Monbiot, Peter is watching you.
Five Days in Fallujah
Unfortunately Robert Kaplans excellent article on his time in Fallujah is not available on the Internet. But I will try and do something on it soon.
I Agree with Me
PJ O'Rourke has an entertaining article on right wing politics in the US. He poses the question I have often asked myself...When was the last time a conservative talk show changed a mind?
He likes Rush Limbaugh? Apparently so, but he still is not all that right:
Me. I am a little to the right of ... Why is the Attila comparison used? Fifth-century Hunnish depredations on the Roman Empire were the work of an overpowerful executive pursuing a policy of economic redistribution in an atmosphere of permissive social mores. I am a little to the right of Rush Limbaugh. I'm so conservative that I approve of San Francisco City Hall marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, and New Hampshire's recently ordained Episcopal bishop. Gays want to get married, have children, and go to church. Next they'll be advocating school vouchers, boycotting HBO, and voting Republican.
He is critical of the right, for usually being just too extreme. And of the left he asks :
Do some liberals feel as if they're guarding the net while their teammates make a furious rush at their own goal? NPR seems more whiny than hectoring, except at fundraising time.
A funny piece.
Plan of Attack: Bruce Hoffman
And we move on to Bruce Hoffman's piece where he suggests that the insurgency currently in Iraq might come under a definition called "netwar". This is a concept thought up by RAND analysts John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt in 1992. Defined as:
Unconventional warfare involving flat, segmented networks instead of the pyramidal hierarchies and command-and-control systems (no matter how primitive) that have governed traditional insurgent organizations.
Hoffman suggests the solution:
It is a battlefield situation that a conventional military often cannot cope with, and we must learn to adapt. We must build effective indigenous intelligence capabilities so that we can identify the signs of an incipient insurgency; establish, train, and forge close cooperative relations with a functioning and capable police force; improve the safety, security, and living conditions of the local population, thereby gaining their confidence; and take advantage of the training capabilities, language skills, and cultural awareness and sensitivities of American special-operations forces, whose mission specifically includes the training of foreign militaries. In the end, however, no matter how sophisticated a response we develop, and no matter how new the insurgents' strategies are, a simple lesson that has been learned and forgotten again and again still applies: Don't let insurgencies get started in the first place.
Sounds like the first rule of invading countries.
The Indulgence Effect
Just remember that if you make donations to the Church, the bigger the donation the more likely you are not to go to Church at all...
A recent study by an MIT economist finds that, on average, for every one percent increase in a household's donations to religious groups, participation in faith-related activities, including attendance at services, declines by one percent. Economists have long wondered whether religious participation and religious giving tend to rise in tandem, or whether people view giving as a substitute for participation. For every religious denomination studied, the latter seemed to be true: write a bigger check, it appears, and you'll feel better about shirking services on Sunday (or Friday night, or Saturday, depending on your faith). This indulgence effect, as one might call it, was least pronounced among conservative Protestants (who were only half as likely as the average to supplant churchgoing with donations), followed by Roman Catholics, who appear to have left "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs" back in the sixteenth century.
Betting on Bankruptcy
Third on the list are some truly staggering figures:
Every year Americans lose as much money on legal gambling as they spend on movies, amusement parks, spectator sports, and video games combined—which is one reason that opponents of legalized casinos claim that gambling leads to financial ruin for many Americans.
Now that is alot of money. The full report is available here.
Iraq by the Numbers
Second on the list is Iraq, with a report from the Brookings Institution. It provides some telling contradictions of the official US line on post war reconstruction, and on the status of the Iraqi army. It also provides some details of the progress being made in education and health.
For instance, whereas Defense and State contend that there are now more Iraqi security forces than coalition forces protecting the citizenry, Brookings finds that only 65 percent of the 196,766-person indigenous security force is "partially or fully trained." (Tellingly, training levels are at 100 percent for those Iraqis tasked with guarding oil and electricity installations and serving as drivers and interpreters for coalition forces.) Moreover, Brookings reports, the nascent Iraqi army has fewer than 3,000 men, and 480 of the 900 Iraqis in the first new army battalion resigned shortly after being put on active duty. The State Department claims that the current violence in Iraq is due in large part to "foreign terrorists." The Brookings report notes, however, that fewer than two percent of the 8,500 "anti-coalition suspects" detained in Iraq are foreign nationals. The State Department also says that electrical-power levels "exceeded pre-war capacity" in the fall of 2003. This is technically true: on a single day last fall electrical-power levels exceeded pre-war capacity. The monthly average for electricity production, however, has yet to reach pre-war levels. Meanwhile, potable water is available to only two thirds of the population. There is some good news in these reports: the value of the Iraqi dinar is rising; oil revenues have passed $5 billion; all hospitals in Iraq are open, with 90 percent operating at pre-war levels; and the unemployment rate has decreased from 60 percent in June of 2003 to 45 percent earlier this year. Perhaps the brightest spot is education: more than 2,300 schools have been rehabilitated by USAID, millions of new textbooks have been printed and distributed, and teachers' salaries are far higher than under the former regime.
Pigs at the Trough
The Atlantic finally popped through the door so I can point to all the interesting pieces in this months issue. Some of the material is available online, but I prefer reading the hardcopy issue, and then linking to the stories.
First up is Primary Sources, always one of the most interesting parts of the Atlantic.
The first story details how much Congress spends on projects tacked onto appropriations bills. It seems fiscal year 2004 was a record, with 10, 656 such projects. The Pig Book can be found here.
Among others:
Choice slices of pork listed in the Pig Book include $50 million to build the world's largest indoor rain forest in Coralville, Iowa; hundreds of thousands of dollars for "poultry litter composting" and "berry research"; and $5 million for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which was originally designed to "capture energy from the aurora borealis" and now aims to "heat the ionosphere to improve military communications." It's no coincidence that HAARP, which has absorbed nearly a hundred million federal dollars since 1995, is an Alaska-based project: the state's senior senator, the Republican Ted Stevens, chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee—and Alaska procured more pork per capita than any other state in 2004, with $524 million in appropriations.
Capture energy from the aurora borealis? Not heard that one before.
South Korean hostage 'beheaded'
After the tragedies of Nick Berg and Paul Johnson, it appears Kim Sun-il is the latest hostage to be beheaded. His corpse has apparently been found in Iraq. No doubt there will be another deluge of people on the Internet seeking pictures of Kim Sun-il, though it appears his beheading was not recorded.
Don’t mess with Shady about his love for Hailie
You might hate him and his music. You might want to diss Eminem. You got the right to.
Continue reading "Don’t mess with Shady about his love for Hailie"June 21, 2004
Why ain't Denaun Porter more popular?
-Why ain’t Denaun Porter more popular?
-Denaun who?
- Kon Artis...
Yes, I mean the Kon Artis from the D12 group.
June 20, 2004
Eminem and Kim viewed by each other
The press has spilled a lot of ink about Marshall and Kim’s story, the media have constantly displayed lots of details about their privacy, but probably the most objective and honest sentences can be found in Marshall and Kim’s own statements when they both talk about each other.
Eminem tells us that his relationship to Kim has been far from easy:
June 19, 2004
Eminem 'Stan' - Irish style
This is only my second post on Eminem - but this must be one of the funniest take-offs I have ever heard. It sounds like Pat Shortt but not quite sure who it is. It's a 7:27 minute MP3 of non-stop hilarity.
I think for alot of it, you might have to be Irish to understand it - but everyone should find the lyrics hilarious.
Listen to it. LISTEN TO IT! (The lyrics are pretty graphic, but only to people not from Ireland)
Emineire.mp3 (3MB)
Touring without him (by me)
The 5 other D12 members are currently touring without Slim Shady, who is busy working on his next album. Despite the fact Eminem promised to make a few guest appearences during the D12 tour, many Eminem fans are disappointed not to see “the lead singer of the band” (just kidding).
Continue reading "Touring without him (by me)"D12 is sticking together, with or without Eminem
Tom Horgen, Star Tribune
June 20, 2004 POP0620
http://www.startribune.com/stories/457/4833738.ht
June 18, 2004
Senate votes to add 20,000 troops to Army
Defying the Bush administration, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to add 20,000 troops to an Army stretched thin by the war in Iraq and other commitments around the world.The 93-4 vote in the Republican-led Senate -- following a similar action by the House -- reflected the anxieties lawmakers have been hearing from families of service personnel whose tours in Iraq keep getting extended and whose return to civilian life is repeatedly postponed.
Oil chief: my fears for planet
The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet". In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.
Paul Johnson beheaded
The deadline has passed, and reports indicate that the US captive has been beheaded in the style of Nick Berg. Shall we also see a video of Johnson's beheading?
Update: My website has been deluged with people looking for a video of Johnson. 2,500 people so far today. Strangely I rank number one on the Google for 'islamist website johnson', higher even, than the BBC.
Ogrish.com are seeking a copy of any video of Paul Johnson. They also have copies of the Nick Berg and Robert Jacob videos.
Update: Ogrish have posted the pictures. I have linked to them -
Eminem's divorce
Marshall and Kim have known each other since the time they were teenagers. Moreover, Kim grew up at Debbie’s home as his foster sister.
Continue reading "Eminem's divorce"June 17, 2004
Gutter sniper: British rapper the Streets takes aim at reality
Gutter sniper: British rapper the Streets takes aim at reality
Tom Horgen, Star Tribune
June 18, 2004 MUS0618
http://www.startribune.com/stories/457/4827688.html
Census Bureau D12
The song “Census Bureau” from DJ Kay Slay’s album”The Streetsweeper” Vol.2 features D12. This less known song, featuring D12, could have been entitled “Death Index” as well when we think about the numerous references to people who get killed at 7 Mile Road, Runyan Ave during the whole song; dramas are followed by dramas. You entered into a hellhole.
Continue reading "Census Bureau D12"
