Its the Silverfuel

What do you never say to a panda

2010-09-20T06:20:00.001-04:00

A Kindle World blog: TIP: Gutenberg E-Books direct to Kindle - repeat

2010-02-15T19:14:00.000-05:00

A Kindle World blog: TIP: Gutenberg E-Books direct to Kindle - repeat: "The 30,000 free Project Gutenberg books are laid out well and proof-read.
This tip allows you to directly download a Project Gutenberg book to the Kindle, although that will work only where whispernet web-browsing is enabled already - U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico."

The iPad’s Closed System: Sometimes I Hate Being Right | Popular Science

2010-02-02T05:50:00.000-05:00

The iPad’s Closed System: Sometimes I Hate Being Right | Popular Science: "Remember that groundbreaking Apple Super Bowl ad from 1984? The one where the woman throws a hammer at Big Brother, signifying a new era of freedom that would be ushered in with Macintosh? My, how times have changed. Here we are more than 25 years later and the despotic, all-knowing face up there on that giant screen now belongs to Steve Jobs—and Big Brother Steve is holding an iPad."

7 Of The Most Expensive Flops In Television History | Business Pundit

2010-02-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

7 Of The Most Expensive Flops In Television History | Business Pundit: "Movie bombs get all the publicity and airtime due to the gaudy amounts of money sometimes lost, but as the recent Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien fiasco proved TV is also pretty good at pissing away money. Entertainment Weekly put out a list of TV’s 50 biggest bombs in this week’s issue, but they are focused more on bad decisions. We’re more about the dollars and cents here, so we’ve put together a list of 7 of the worst flops in TV history, based purely on amount of money spent. Rankings here are somewhat subjective as it’s not always easy to tell exactly how much a TV show cost (or lost, plus you have to factor in inflation, etc. for older shows), but we think it’s a pretty good list."

China mulls setting up military base in Pakistan - China - World - The Times of India

2010-01-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

China mulls setting up military base in Pakistan - China - World - The Times of India: "'I have personally felt for sometime that China might one day build a military base in India's neighborhood. China built the Gadwar port in Pakistan and is now broadening the Karokoram highway. These facilities can always be put to military use when the need arises,' Ramesh V Phadke, former Air Commodore and advisor to the Institute of Defense Studies told TNN."

Nutrition cliffnotes

2010-01-24T21:42:00.003-05:00

Taken from puredemo on reddit.
* Vitamin A and D are absolutely crucial. Even if you're vegan you should probably make one exception and supplement your diet with Cod Liver Oil.

* Heart disease and cancer are both most closely correlated with eating too much flour and sugar. Not with eating too many fatty foods as most people think. This makes donuts possibly the worst food there is, all things being equal, as they are literally just deep-fried flour and sugar.

* Extremely low-carb diets are bad, as you do need some carbs for energy and to regulate blood sugar. Extremely low-fat diets are also bad, many important vitamins are fat soluble. Many low-fat foods are also processed in ridiculous ways, which strip them of almost all their nutrients. Regular yogurt is much healthier than low-fat yogurt for that reason. Low-protein diets are bad as well; getting enough protein is crucial to long term bone and muscle health, among other things.

* A solid diet derives about 1/3 of calories from each group: protein, carbohydrates and fat. Meat and potatoes, or eggs and bacon and toast are actually perfectly healthy meals because you get solid amounts of carbs, protein and fat from them. Many vegans look unhealthy because they follow diets like the 80/10/10, that has waaaay too many carbs and not nearly enough protein or fat.

* Supplement with vitamin K2.

* Berries and nuts are good for you as they are very nutrient dense. People don't eat nearly enough of either.

* Drink V8, not soda. Soda is all carbs. It fucks with your blood sugar, even in small amounts. And again, heart disease trends directly with sugar intake.

* Don't eat fast food. It's all processed carbs soaked in ridiculously cheap and over-processed vegetable oils. It's right up there with donuts as one of the direct causes of heart disease in the country.

That's about it really.

Nobody likes him

2009-01-07T21:13:00.001-05:00

Bush's mortgage speech from 2002, THE reasons for the crisis

2008-10-12T13:39:00.001-04:00

Jim Cramer predicts meltdown in August 07

2008-09-16T08:03:00.000-04:00

Matt Damon talks about Palin

2008-09-10T19:50:00.000-04:00

Jon Stewart Annihilates Sarah Palin's Media Surrogates | Comedy Central Insider - The Comedy Blog for Comedy Fans

2008-09-04T20:38:00.000-04:00

I chased you for 12 years around the world, and I still can't find you

2008-07-18T14:49:00.000-04:00

[best of craigslist]

When I met you in 1990, you said that you'd marry the man who'd follow you around the world. We were just sophomores in high school, so I didn't know what to think. I thought it was just some school girl romantic fantasy. All I knew was that you were the girl for me. We were only 15 years old, but I had this feeling that you'd play a major role in my life. After we graduated from Aragon High School in San Mateo, you revealed to me that you were accepted to Berkeley, but you wanted to go to Germany for college. Remember that night we spent ice skating at Fashion Island? You said that you loved me, but you had to cut off all ties with to be able to move on. That was the last time I ever saw you. I said I'd wait for you, but you told me not to and to just move on...but I remember what you said sophomore year.

You were accepted at the University of Tübingen, Berlin. I left home for Berlin. For 4 years I looked for you. You made the impact you always did in Berlin. People heard of you, but didn't know where you were. Nobody helped me. I wasn't good enough for Tübingen, so I attended Technische Universität Berlin where I earned a degree. I am now fluent in German, a language I never intended to learn. After graduation, I returned to San Mateo thinking you returned as well. I called your mother on the summer after you graduated, she said you had left for grad school in Tokyo. I left again, this time, to Tokyo. Auf Wiedersehen.

Your father said you are studying business at Keio University in Tokyo. I looked all over Tokyo for you. From the morning rush at Shinjuku Station, to the last train on the Tozai-line bound for Nakano. You were never found. To make ends meet, I got a job at NOVA, then in 1998 I got a real job at DoCoMo. I fell in love with Japan and its culture. I learned the language, and I am now fluent. Another language I never intended to learn. I went to the graduate office at Keio University's school of business seeing if you were set to graduate. There you were, on the list. I was denied entry to the ceremony since I had no tie to anyone graduating. That was the closest I had ever come to seeing you since grad night back in high school. Two months after graduation, I resigned from DoCoMo. I recieved an email from your cousin (You know, Jerry's ex-girlfriend) saying you had gotten a job in Hong Kong. I left my friends, my job, my home, my fiance, and everything Tokyo gave me to search for you. I'm so sorry Mizuki. Kima wa itsumo kokoro no naka ni iru.

It was 1999, and I had just arrived in Hong Kong, and so did you. Six months later, I found out you had left Hong Kong because you didn't enjoy your new job. From Causeway Bay to Kowloon, there were traces of you, but never the real entity. Your father told me you went to India for training for a tech company, then were to be set up in London. I don't know if I searched for you for no reason, but then again, my searches have always been fruitless. I went to Seoul to take up a lucrative job offer at one of LG's sister companies, Hiplaza, Inc.

In late 1999, I had already been established in Korea. I worked for Hiplaza, then 3 years later, LG. For the first time, I was free of the feeling of having to look for you. I was in a place I knew you weren't It was like a dream. A world without you. The dream ended 3 months ago when I left LG. Now the curse of your existence has returned. An nyonghi jumuship siyo.

I'm now back in San Mateo. I haven't been here in the bay area since 1996. All my high school friends are either married, dead, or gone without a trace. I have nobody here but my dysfuctional family. Your brother said last month that you're still in London and will return to the bay area permanently this summer. I chased you around the world for 12 years, learned 3 languages, made quite an amount of money, just to meet you in the town where it all began. Fashion ISland isn't even there anymore, but the ice skating rink is still there.

I'm not German, I'm not Japanese, and I am not Korean, but I can say anything in those languages, but I can't say anything to bring you back. You made the biggest changes in my life without barely stepping foot into it. I don't know if I should thank you or hate you, but one thing I'm sure of, I miss you dearly. Your cousin told me what your brother couldn't bring himself to tell me. 3 hours ago I recieved an email saying the reason why you're coming back is because you want to have your wedding in San Francisco, and that it was your fiance's idea.

Fuck you.
PostingID: 30593810

and then there is the rest of us...

2008-07-07T20:43:00.000-04:00

[best of reddit nominee]

There's a certain amount of selection bias in immigrant communities, though. The sort of person that has the courage and fortitude to leave the country of their birth to pursue a better life, to lift themselves up by their bootstraps out of unimaginable poverty, to do whatever it takes to make sure their children have a better life than they did -- these people are not cut from the same cloth as 99% of the rest of the world. This is why the United States, a country built on the backs of immigrants, came to dominate the world. And it is why the close-our-borders xenophobia that now permeates our society is so incredibly damaging to our continuing dominance.

When you meet an African immigrant in the US, you are not meeting a typical African. When you meet a Chinese immigrant in the US, you are not meeting a typical Chinese person. Hell, even when you meet a European immigrant in the US, you aren't meeting a typical European. You are meeting the sort of person that makes his own future instead of living his life by the cards he was dealt. If the only interaction you've ever had with Africans is with African immigrants in the United States, you will come away with the impression that there is no way we poor mortals can possibly compete with them; they are smart, motivated, driven, sociable, and well above average. The same is true for Chinese immigrants, and Indian immigrants, and Arab immigrants -- the more difficult it is for them to get here, the more likely they are to be exceptional.

Hell, even the single Mexican mother without a formal education who swims across the Rio Grande in search of a better life has more courage and more strength of will in her being than 99% of any non-immigrant you will ever meet. It takes tremendous force of character to uproot yourself, to make your life in a culture not your own, speaking a language not your own, not just for a year or two or five, but for the rest of your life.

Don't underestimate immigrants. Even the ones from developed countries that have fewer hoops to jump through to get here still have to be willing to leave their families and their culture behind. It's not easy. They deserve your respect, and we should try our best to get as many of these people as possible to come here. Given the chance, they will make our country great, as they always have.

AZN Pride

2008-06-26T20:11:00.000-04:00

wtf is this guy doing?

2008-06-26T19:56:00.001-04:00

Giants bar after the Giants won the superbowl

2008-02-04T08:12:00.000-05:00

The follow up video to the Dallas fans decorated cubicle

2008-01-17T17:58:00.000-05:00

Rednecks build spider mech warrior

2007-12-15T16:50:00.000-05:00

The new mcgoverns in Newark

2007-12-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

Skullys

At dabbawala in Summit, NJ

2007-12-04T19:07:00.000-05:00

This is a month old video I found on my cell when I went to Dabbawala in Summit, NJ. The place is setup really well with pictures of Bombay city dabba walla's and train stations. They serve the food in metal tiffin dabba's just like the Bombay dabba walla's. Tasty too...

Yo, I'll tell you what I want

2007-11-07T19:27:00.000-05:00

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want, So tell me what you want, what you really really want, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want, So tell me what you want, what you really really want, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna

Lindsay Lohan's Bodyguard Kicks Photographer in the BALLS!!!

2007-11-02T18:04:00.001-04:00

from Hollywood TV

A photographer takes a kick where it counts from Lindsay's bodyguard this afternoon as she exits a parking facility on Robertson. Apparently, the huddle of paparazzi around her get too close and Lindsay somehow gets hurt. Her bodyguard springs into action and lands a flying kick full force in the crotch of a by-standing photographer, who may or may not have even been responsible for Lindsay's ouchie. Stay tuned: we're investigating to see if there will be legal or penal repercussions to this episode.

Return to Newark

2007-11-02T14:31:00.000-04:00

So yea, I admit I like Newark. Had a good time. Met some weirdo's again. Watched a bartender getting fired.

NICE!!

2007-10-31T21:58:00.000-04:00

I finally transfered some images to my phone off my computer and now I have a wallpaper I really love! A lotta things had to happen for this to go down succesfully. 1) My 2GB MicroUSB card for my phone had to arrive which it did. 2) I had to figure out a way to find a get my USB ports working again which I did. 3) I had to find the time to transfer images and test.

All done. I transfered 5 images. 3 Shiri Appleby pics (of course) and 2 Itachi pics (of course) and applied all as wallpapers succesfully.

My first wallpaper test was a Shiri Appleby pic I found online. Since it was found on a creative commons site, I was able to download it for personal use. It was perfect. It fit the scale and went well with the Nokia velvet theme.

My second test was the Itachi avatar images. The full image works a lot better than the avatar but both were transfered over. Currently the full image is serving as the Nokia Black Velvet theme wallpaper.

Perfect, now I can sleep in peace. :-)

P.S: I love her -------------------------------->

I'm taking care of business

2007-10-30T10:31:00.001-04:00

Fox News caught on camera planning how to censor Ron Paul

2007-10-30T05:36:00.001-04:00

Great article:The Daily Show is as substantive as the "real" news

2007-10-28T09:33:00.000-04:00

Basically, more people get their news from the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert buts thats not so bad.
Main article here

The Daily Show is as substantive as the "real" news

By Eric Bangeman | Published: October 04, 2006 - 04:36PM CT

The Daily Show is much funnier than traditional newscasts, but a new study from Indiana University says it has the same amount of meat on its bones when it comes to coverage of the news. The brand of news coverage Jon Stewart and the rest of The Daily Show's staff brings to the airwaves is just as substantive as traditional news programs like World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News, according to the study conducted by IU assistant professor of telecommunications Julia R. Fox and a couple of graduate students.

The researchers looked at coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions and the first presidential debate of the fall campaign, all of which were covered by the mainstream broadcast news outlets and The Daily Show. Individual broadcasts of the nightly news and corresponding episodes of The Daily Show were analyzed by the researchers, who found that the "average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories" were no different from The Daily Show. Perhaps more telling, The Daily Show delivered longer stories on the topic.

"It should be noted that the broadcast network news stories about the presidential election were significantly shorter, on average, than were The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stories," said Professor Fox. "The argument could be made that while the amount of substance per story was not significantly different, the proportion of each story devoted to substance was greater in the network news stories ... On the other hand, the proportion of stories per half hour program devoted to the election campaign was greater in The Daily Show."

Using the entire half-hour programs as the basis of analysis yielded the same results: there was just as much substance to The Daily Show's coverage as there was on the network news. And The Daily Show was much funnier, with less of the hype—references to photo ops, political endorsements, and polls—that typically overshadows substantive coverage on network news, according to the study.

What constitutes "substantive" coverage? Ars Technica spoke to Professor Fox who told us that the she and the other researchers defined substantive coverage as that which addressed issues included in the party platform or questions of candidate qualification. "It was the same definition I used in a previous study of network news coverage from 1988 to 2000," Professor Fox told Ars. "It is similar to criteria used by other scholars who examine political coverage—'image vs. issue'—but there's consensus within the scholarly and journalistic communities that anytime there is discussion of issues in a campaign, that's what would be considered substantive."

Is it time to tune out World News Tonight and tune into The Daily Show? Professor Fox doesn't think so, saying that "we should probably be concerned about both of those sources, because neither one is particularly substantive. It's a bottom-line industry and ratings-driven. We live in an 'infotainment' society, and there certainly are a number of other sources available."

It's ironic that Jon Stewart, who seldom hesitates to criticize the media, is turning out tongue-in-cheek content that is just as substantative. It also demonstrates that the mainstream media may not be so mainstream anymore, and that people looking for in-depth treatments of newsworthy topics are often best served by looking in places other than the evening news or The Daily Show, no matter how funny the latter is.

Professor Fox's study, titled "No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign," will be published next summer in the Journal of Broadcast and Electronic Media.

It gets worse in Zimbabwe. More inflation.

2007-10-27T16:05:00.000-04:00

Mugabe is a dick stealing from his people, killing ethnic tribe members and kicking the white people out of his country just to steal their moeny. He is building mansions and palaces and his wife goes on shopping spree's in Europe while his people barely have enough food to eat. Kinda puts our bitching about the Bush administration in perspective.

Zimbabwe's millionaires worth only $1 (article here)
Jan Raath in Harare

Zimbabwe’s currency has fallen to record levels, with one million Zimbabwean dollars buying a single US dollar (48p) and inflation reaching 8,000 per cent.

The bleak data was announced as people in the capital Harare struggled to cope without electricity for the third day. “We closed our business today,” said a woman who helps to run a major petrol supplier. “We just can’t operate like this.”

The National Blood Transfusion Services said that it had been unable to test blood since Tuesday. “We are in serious trouble,” said a doctor.

At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar held parity with the US dollar but the currency has suffered from the recent economic policies of President Mugabe; at the beginning of this year it was $Z2,800 to one US dollar and ten days ago $Z500,000.

President Mugabe has struggled to keep inflation under control and in July ordered businesses to halve their prices to alleviate the country’s woes. The order resulted in the arrest of about 10,000 business people as thousands of police officers raided companies, shopping malls and markets to take goods marked above price control levels. Now the supermarkets are bare and it is almost impossible to buy food.

Although the inflation rate slowed marginally in August it rose to 7,982 last month, according to official statistics, which are regarded as highly conservative. “It shows the lunacy of their belief they can legislate against inflation and bring it down at the barrel of a gun,” said Rob Davies, an economist.

Officials in Mr Mugabe’s ruling party reportedly expect him to sign a law that will force all foreign-owned companies, including local subsidiaries of Barclays and Standard Chartered, to sell 51 per cent of their equity to black Zimbabweans.

We had a really important meeting at work today

2007-10-24T19:19:00.000-04:00

This is a short clip of what we got accomplished. Due to time constraints, we were not able to satisfy our agenda. We will have to continue tomorrow.

I want a start a online video show

2007-10-24T10:07:00.001-04:00

Best of Craigslist: To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza

2007-10-21T19:51:00.000-04:00

best of craigslist > ann arbor > To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza

Date: 2007-09-18, 11:30AM EDT

You: the guy who answers the phone at cottage inn pizza
Me: Hungry and stoned out of my gourd

I called you from my cell phone but had completely forgot who I was calling by the time you answered the phone. Of course, you were also baked to bajeezus and forgot to tell me that I had called Cottage Inn.

When you answered and said, “Whatsup?” I thought about it, and after a 20 second pause I told you that was hungry. You suggested I try a pizza, and I agreed that it was probably a good idea.

Then I asked you if you sold pizza and you said that you could make me one. I said I wanted anchovies and something else on my pizza. You asked me what that something else was.

We spent five minutes listing toppings until we figured out that I was trying to remember how to say: “Sun dried Tomatoes.” When you said: “We'll bake that right up for you,” we both started laughing uncontrollably.

It was the best pizza I ever had; I just wanted to thank you for helping me out.

Location: The One By Jimmy-Johns
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 425529349

George Carlin: Who owns you..

2007-10-21T19:48:00.000-04:00

An awesome YouTube video clip about who owns America. George Carlin is the man.

The 13th hole at Raritan Landings

2007-10-16T19:00:00.000-04:00

Video from my awesome Nokia 6120c

2007-10-16T14:58:00.001-04:00

Holy Crap! A second earth found!!

2007-10-16T12:19:00.001-04:00

Found the link on the Reddit frontpage: The Guardian Article

'Second Earth' found, 20 light years away

Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky "second Earth" circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.

The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth's nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.

Measurements of the planet's celestial path suggest it is 1½ times the size of our home planet, and orbits close to its sun, with a year of just 13 days. The planet's orbit brings it 14 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. But Gliese 581 burns at only 3,000C, half the temperature of our own sun, making conditions on the planet comfortable for life, with average ground temperatures estimated at 0 to 40C. Researchers claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere. The discovery follows a three-year search for habitable planets by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in Chile.

"We wouldn't be surprised if there is life on this planet," said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

Two years ago, the same team discovered a giant Neptune-sized planet orbiting Gliese 581. A closer look revealed the latest planetary discovery, along with a third, larger planet that orbits the star every 84 days. The planets have been named after their star, with the most earthlike called Gliese 581c. The team spotted the planet by searching the "habitable zone".

Australian study: Men should ejaculate more, say scientists

2007-10-15T22:42:00.000-04:00

The London Paper

Monday, 15 October 2007

Scientists today recommended men should ejaculate more often if they want to keep their sperm healthy. Research showed that men who had some form of sexual activity daily had better quality sperm than a control group who had been told to abstain for three days at a time.

The study was aimed at helping couples improve their chance of getting pregnant and concluded that men cut their chances if they hold off sexual activity. Experts said some couples seemed to believe men should hold their sperm "in" for days or weeks to improve its quality. But the Australian research shows the chances of pregnancy are lower if a couple waits for long stretches between sex sessions. A study found that getting men with damaged sperm to ejaculate daily improved its quality when couples were undergoing IVF. Researchers in Sydney studied 42 men with abnormal sperm structure whose partners had suffered repeated miscarriages or failed IVF attempts.

The men were told to ejaculate daily for seven days and these samples were compared with ejaculation after three days of abstinence. A total of 37 patients had less sperm damage - or DNA fragmentation - if they ejaculated daily compared with after three days, the study found. The research was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Washington DC.

Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society, said it was important to understand the "trade-off" between genetic damage to the sperm and quantity. He said: "If you get above 30 to 40% damaged DNA, a man is highly likely to be infertile. "There is a population of men who have a history of IVF failure and miscarriage in their partners, in whom there is an underlying concern about the DNA quality in their sperm. "This research shows that when you put people on a daily ejaculation regime, it reduces that figure for DNA damage. "If you can go from 30% down to 20% that is quite a big shift and that should have implications for fertility." Dr Pacey said some couples believed they had a better chance of achieving pregnancy if they waited a long time between making love.

"There are men out there who think, or whose partners think, that limiting ejaculation will make them more fertile," he said.

"I remember one couple in which the woman would only let the man ejaculate when she was in her fertile period, so the poor chap was going without for almost a month at a time. "But if sperm is released in a steady stream, the sperm that is ejaculated are newer and less damaged. "There is a trade-off between genetic damage and quantity, so when a couple is first trying to get pregnant a wait of two to three days is probably advisable.

"But if you are a guy who has high DNA damage and a decent sperm count, it is probably in your interest to ejaculate every day.

The NutriSystem (NTRI) crash!! A

2007-10-14T17:31:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know I am doing this a little later but I have to document this. The stock went from almost $73 to $30 in a span of 4 months. From MSN money dated Oct 3 2007, "Nutrisystem lowers Q3 guidance Co lowers Q3 guidance, sees EPS of $0.62-0.66 vs $0.82 Reuters consensus; revs $188 mln vs $204.91 mln Reuters consensus."

Chart says is all:

Giuliani booed at the Yankees game

2007-10-11T19:18:00.001-04:00

he needs to stop using 9/11 the way he does. its taking away from his achievement.

The most attractive TV host in the world

2007-10-08T19:38:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard of Mélissa Theuriau yet, you have been missing out. Vital info: She is French, she is 29, she is a news reporter and she is an internet phenomenon. I had heard about her in late 2006 and was reminded of her in a link about her posted today in the recommend links on Reddit. A google search of her name brings up Wiki links, YouTube videos and fan sites.

WOW! She was voted "most beautiful new reporter" and "TV's sexiest news anchor" by Daily Express and and Maxim. Also, the French FHM voted her "most beautiful woman in the world."

The office Season 4 Promo: Just came across it

2007-10-07T19:25:00.000-04:00

Awesome picture

2007-10-06T19:47:00.001-04:00

From Reddit labeled FOOD FIGHT!

Awesome Slashdot Comment: learning to think differently

2007-10-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

by david in brasil

A couple of times a year, I pull up the following and read it, trying to realign my thinking process. I don't know who originally wrote it; I've had it for years. I apologize for the long post, but it's worth it. ++++++++++++++++++++

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.I read the examination question: "SHOW HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE HEIGHT OF A TALL BUILDING WITH THE AID OF A BAROMETER." The student had answered, "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it,lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building." The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this.

I suggested that the student have another try. I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch.Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^^2, calculate the height of the building." At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded,and gave the student almost full credit.

While leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem,so I asked him what they were. "Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building,and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building." "Fine," I said, "and others?" "Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units." "A very direct method." "Of course. If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building,in principle, can be calculated." "On this same tact, you could take the barometer to the top of the building,attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession". "Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem.Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer."

At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think. The student was Neils Bohr.

Pirate Bay fires back

2007-09-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Piratebay has filed charges against 10 media companies ran out of Sweden. Apparently, the MediaDefender scandal regarding the email leak from September 15th proves the media companies took part in commercial sabotage of Piratebay's trackers.

SCO kicked off NASDAQ. RIP

2007-09-20T16:19:00.000-04:00

LINDON, Utah, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. (the "Company") , a leading provider of UNIX(R) software technology and mobile services, today announced it received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market indicating that the Company's securities will be delisted from Nasdaq on September 27, 2007, pending an appeal. Full article here

More Police Brutality: Roseland, IN

2007-09-18T20:42:00.000-04:00

This is the extended version of the clip that showed up on the Reddit front page. Some town councilman in Indiana gets beat up by a police officer.

SCO files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

2007-09-14T18:07:00.000-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- SCO Group Inc., the embattled software company best known for litigation targeting distributors of open-source, Linux software, said Friday it has filed for bankruptcy.

SCO, which provides Unix-based software to run server computers, said in a prepared release that its board of directors has "unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders, and employees." NASDAQ: SCOX

Article

WTF??

2007-09-02T23:15:00.001-04:00

Shaolin monks deny tale of ninja that bested them

2007-09-01T10:33:00.000-04:00

BEIJING (AP) - China's Shaolin Temple has demanded a public apology from an Internet user who claimed a Japanese ninja beat its kung fu-practising monks in a showdown, a lawyer said Friday. Click here for the whole article

SCO lawsuit aftermath

2007-08-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

SCO stocks took a huge dive today towards extinction. At closing, the stock had falled 72% due to the lawsuit.

SCO's destined demise

2007-08-13T16:34:00.000-04:00

In a really cheap move in 2003, SCO sued IBM for using UNIX without paying it royalties. The lawsuit had no merit but it allowed the executives to make some money. There was a little FUD and some companies paid SCO royalties. IBM counter sued. On Friday August 10th, courts ruled that SCO has no rights to UNIX ownership.

Court: Novell, Not SCO, Owns Unix Copyrights

August 13, 2007 10:11 a.m. EST

Ed Sutherland - AHN News Writer

San Francisco, CA (AHN) - Novell, not SCO Group, is the owner of Unix copyrights, a Utah federal judge ruled Friday. The decision could force SCO to abandon a lawsuit against IBM over Unix and the open-source operating system Linux, reports said.

The legal defeat means SCO will have to pay Novell a licensing fee, according to reports.

In 2003, SCO Group sued IBM, claiming IBM used Unix code in Linux. SCO saw Linux as "an unauthorized derivative of Unix" that the company purchased from Novell in 1995, according to The New York Times.

Unreal!

2007-08-13T16:27:00.000-04:00

Karl Rove has announced his retirement date. August 31 will be Rove's last day as the President's special advisor.

Karl Rove to quit at end of AugustStory Highlights
NEW: Rove, Bush to speak Monday at 11:35 a.m. ET

It's the "right time to be giving more time to his family," spokesman says

Top White House adviser Karl Rove to quit at end of month, CNN confirms

President Bush's "architect" tells Wall Street Journal he "thinks it's time"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, will voluntarily step down from his White House post at the end of the month, senior administration officials said Monday.

Karl Rove was dubbed by President Bush as "the architect."

"Obviously it's big loss to us, said Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino. "He is a great colleague, good friend and a brilliant mind."

Perino said Rove "wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this is the right time to be giving more time to his family."

The president and Rove are expected to speak before boarding Marine One at the White House at 11:35 a.m. ET. Bush will head to his Crawford, Texas, ranch where he will remain for the rest of the week.

Rove, who has held a top position in the White House since Bush took office in January 2001, is to stand down on August 31. Watch why the announcement is so significant »

"I just think it's time," Rove told the Wall Street Journal. "There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family."

Bush nicknamed Rove "the architect" for creating the plan that won the White House in 2000 and 2004.

Rove told the newspaper that he would leave Washington to return to Texas and that he had first suggested the idea of leaving a year ago.

However a series of problems for the Bush administration, starting when the Democrats took control of Congress and then as immigration and the Iraq war topped the agenda, made the enormously powerful Rove stay on.

But one of Bush's most trusted advisors claimed his hand was forced when White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten announced that any senior staff that were working past Labor Day (September 3) would be expected to stay on until the end of Bush's term in January 2007.

A Bush loyalist to the end Rove, who instrumental in all aspects of the executive conservative agenda, told the Wall Street Journal that he expected the president's approval ratings to rise and that conditions in Iraq would improve due to the work of the U.S. military.

Rove also took the opportunity to fire a parting shot at the Democrats, adding that he thought Hillary Clinton -- a "tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate" -- would win the 2008 presidential nomination.

Loved by conservatives but a hate figure for many Democrats, Rove said he expected his rival party to be divided over the wireless wiretapping issue while the Republicans should come out top in economic issues closer to the 2008 poll.

Dick Cheney interview in 1994

2007-08-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

Gotta do this to someone: the Coke bottle prank

2007-08-09T22:03:00.000-04:00

back...

2007-08-08T19:36:00.001-04:00

After regularly blogging for a few months, I went through a phase of collecting all my reddit, digg and delicious stories on Tumblr. I really wasn't a content creator so I was pretty satisfied with the way Tumblr worked. Now I really miss posting my own stand on issues so here I go again!

After long delay: Chinese car in crash test

2007-08-08T18:58:00.001-04:00

Chicago police officer beats up a female bartender

2007-03-25T13:58:00.000-04:00

Short version: An off duty Chicago police office gets so drunk at a bar, the bartender refuses to serve him. The cop gets pissed and beats the crap out of the bartender. Link to the whole story posted before.

Chicago police officer charged with beating bartender

Hilarious protest sign

2007-03-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

Taken from http://flickr.com/photos/nickcalyx/425704292/ link found on Redditt.

Free land if you move to Anderson, AK

2007-03-17T23:49:00.000-04:00

The town of Anderson in Alaska is offering free land (1.3 acres) to anyone (upto 26) that decides to actually move there. I looked up the history of this town in Wikipedia:

Anderson is named after Arthur Anderson, one of several homesteaders who settled in the area in the late 1950s. In 1959, Mr. Anderson subdivided his homestead into house lots and sold most of the lots to civilian workers from Clear Air Force Station, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System completed in 1961.

So a town of 300 wants grow. Thats a good thing. But whats this Homestead thing? Turns out that the Homestead Act gave free land to people (160 acres) to move into and sell. From Wikipedia:

The first claim under the Homestead Act was made by Daniel Freeman for a farm near Beatrice, Nebraska on January 1, 1863; the site is preserved as the Homestead National Monument of America.

There is an elephant in the way

2007-03-16T19:18:00.000-04:00

Best of Craigslist: Advice to Young Men from an Old Man

2007-03-16T05:58:00.001-04:00

Advice to Young Men from an Old Man
1. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without cause, its stupid.
2. Don’t hate women. It’s a waste of time
3. Invest in yourself. Material things come to those that have self actualized.
4. Get in a fistfight, even if you are going to lose.
5. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or political interests.
6. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people, and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no matter what bullshit they try to feed you.
7. Don’t be a Republican. They are self-dealing crooks with no sense of honor or patriotism to their fellow citizens. If you must be a Republican, don’t be a “conservative.” They are whining, bitching, complaining, simple-minded self-righteous idiots who think they’re perpetual victims. Listen to talk radio for a while, you’ll see what I mean.
8. Don’t take proffered advice without a critical analysis. 90% of all advice is intended to benefit the proponent, not the recipient. Actually, the number is probably closer to 97%, but I don’t want to come off as cynical.
9. You’ll spend your entire life listening to people tell you how much you owe them. You don’t owe the vast majority of people shit.
10. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic. They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to suppress you.
11. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments, government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one is looking out for you.
12. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives. Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes credit and the rewards where none is due.
13. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does. Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your side. Everybody else worries about themselves.
14. Don’t be afraid to tell people to “Fuck off” when need be. It is an important skill to acquire. As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice shakes.
15. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife fucking somebody else.
16. Keep fit.
17. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world, even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.
18. Don’t cheat on your wife/girlfriend. If you must cheat, don’t humiliate her. Don’t risk having your transgressions come back to her or her friends. Don’t do it where you live. Don’t do it with people in your social circle. Don’t shit in your own back yard.
19. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.
20. Don’t bother with “emotional affairs.” They are just a vehicle for women to flirt and have someone make them feel good about themselves. That’s the part of a relationship they want. For you it is a lot of work and investment in time. If they are having an emotional affair with you, they’re probably fucking someone else.
21. Becoming a woman’s friend and confidant is not going to get you into an intimate relationship. If you haven’t gotten the girl within a reasonably short period of time, chances are you won’t ever get her. She’ll end up confiding to you about the sexual adventures she’s having with someone else.
22. Have and nurture friendships with women.
23. Realize that love is a numbers game. Guys fall in love easily. You’re going to see some girl and feel like you’ll die if you don’t get her. If she rejects you, move on to the next one. It’s her loss.
24. Don’t be an internet troll. Got out and live life. There is not a cadre of beautiful women advertising on Craigslist to have NSA sex with you. Beautiful women don’t need to advertise. The websites that advertise with attractive women’s photos and claims of loneliness are baloney. All they want is your money and your personal information so that they can market to you. The posts on Craigslist by young “women” seeking NSA sex, and asking for a picture are just a bunch of gay troll pic collectors. This is especially true if the post uses common gay lexicon like “hole” as in “fuck my hole” or seeks “masculine” men, or uses the word cock (except in the context of “Don’t send a cock shot.”) There are women on Craigslist. They are easily recognizable by their 2-5 paragraph postings. Most are in their 30's or older.
25. When you become a man in full, know that people will get in your way. People who are attracted to you will somehow manage to step in your path. Gay guys will give you “the look.” Old people will somehow stumble in front of you at the worst time. Don’t get frustrated. Just step aside and go about your business. Know that these are passive aggressive methods to get you to acknowledge their existence.
26. Don’t gay bash. Don’t mentally or physically abuse people because of who they are, or how they present themselves. It’s none of your business to try to intimidate people into conformity.
27. If your gay, admit it to yourself, your parents, your friends and society at large. Be prepared to get harassed. See rule 14. If someone threatens you or assaults you, call the cops. Have them arrested. You have no obligation to self sacrifice because of who you are. As a gay person, you’ll have more social freedom than straight men. Use it to protect yourself. Be prepared to get out of Dodge if your orientation makes your life unbearable. Move to San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or New Orleans. You’ll find a welcoming community there.
28. Don’t be a poser. Avoid being one of those dudes who puts a surfboard on top of their car, but never surfs, or a dude with a powder coated fixed gear bike and a messenger bag, but was never a messenger. Live the life. Earn your bona fides.
29. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men. More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statically, women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in school. It is the boys in school getting fucked over, and prescribed ritalin for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.
30. Remember, 97% of all advice is worthless. Take what you can use, and trash the rest.

101 year old woman mugged

2007-03-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

This video really angers me. Some guy in Queens punched a 101 year old woman 3 times and took off with her purse. More here

From the article: The vicious mugging, caught on surveillance tape, has sparked outrage in a city where people are accustomed to hearing about strange and violent crimes. Police have launched an all-out manhunt, but it's not just the cops who want the villain's head.

Fox News screenshots

2007-03-12T08:12:00.000-04:00

No Quarter Blog did a really good job of collecting all the bs FOX News story screenshots over the years.

Japanese revenge?

2007-01-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

Click for Wiki

In Japan's feudal past, the Samurai
class upheld the honor of their family, clan, or their lord through the
practice of revenge killings, or 'katakiuchi'. These killings could
also involve the relatives of an offender. Today, katakiuchi is most
often pursued by peaceful means, but revenge remains an important part
of Japanese culture.

woman driver

2007-01-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

water ballon exploding

2007-01-21T17:07:00.001-05:00

Stephen Colbert Explains AT&T

2007-01-17T20:42:00.001-05:00

Funniest coke and Pepsi video ever

2007-01-01T22:12:00.001-05:00


Funniest coke and Pepsi video ever, no diet coke in this one..

Windows Vista RTM - Demonstation of Windows ReadyBoost

2006-12-31T09:13:00.001-05:00


In this video I tested how fast Windows Vista boots to the destkop with and without a 512MB SD card.

DWI Checkpoint-stopped and harrassed

2006-12-30T23:36:00.001-05:00


Getting detained and having car searched at a checkpoint in St. Louis County.

Amazing electric car

2006-12-27T08:54:00.001-05:00

250 miles for 10 minutes of charging.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/the-perfect-electric-car

Beat hangovers

2006-12-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

Taken from here

Five ways to beat a hangover
According to a systematic review published in the British Medical Journal last year, no compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating hangovers. The worst symptoms are caused by the liver breaking down the products of alcohol. Alcohol is also a diuretic so speeds up water loss from your body causing dehydration (hence the dry mouth, headache, dizziness). It also irritates the stomach lining (causing nausea and stomach cramps).

1 Line your stomach: alcohol is absorbed more rapidly into the blood stream and will irritate the stomach lining more if your stomach is empty. Before going out, eat a meal containing fat, which is digested slowly and therefore protects your stomach, slowing the rate at which alcohol enters your body. A glass of milk has a similar effect.

2 Choose light-coloured drinks: congeners, found primarily in darker alcoholic drinks, may affect blood vessels directly, producing migraine-like effects (spasm and/or dilation of blood vessels) and intensifying a hangover. As a rule, the lighter the colour, the fewer congeners it is likely to contain (ie, vodka is better than whisky). Drinking one glass of water for every glass of alcohol will counter the dehydration.

3 Wrap up warmly: Alcohol dilates the blood vessels near the skin, causing us to lose body heat, but feel warmer - drunkenness followed by hypothermia is a leading cause of death in Russia.

4 Before bed: Along with drinking plenty of water, a slow-burning snack such as granary toast will help avoid low-blood-sugar on waking.

5 The morning after: Water! And take antacid for your stomach and paracetamol for your head (aspirin is too harsh on your stomach). A single cup of coffee may help as caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, so eases the dilated blood vessels, but go easy as it is also diuretic. Liquids rich in minerals and salts (eg, broth or bouillon), or sports drinks can help to rehydrate you. According to Prof Sir Colin Berry, professor emeritus of pathology at Queen Mary, University of London, that old favourite, vitamin C, will do nothing for your symptoms, while "hair of the dog" merely postpones the agony. And as for alternative remedies, the BMJ review found that commonly used dietary supplements (borage, artichoke and prickly pear) have zero effect.

Naruto vs. Neji AMV

2006-12-05T23:54:00.001-05:00

Joke Police

2006-12-03T11:22:00.001-05:00

Got this from Amber Mac's blog. Hilarious!

Banned by MTV, amazing Faithless video on youtube

2006-12-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

This video has been banned by MTV for being too antiwar. They claim its banned for being too violent or too political but who are they kidding?

Panda Sneezes

2006-12-01T22:40:00.001-05:00


Sneezing panda, priceless!

Smiley Intervention? LOL!! :D

2006-12-01T22:37:00.000-05:00

Those Japanese!!

2006-11-25T14:11:00.000-05:00

Cool stuff from Reddit

2006-11-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

Funny Sign

Bush's Compared

From techblog: Autistic Kid plays a video game

2006-11-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

This is amazing. Watch this video!

This can happen in Kearny, NJ

2006-11-23T07:59:00.000-05:00

An idiot was allowed to teach history at a High School and the idiot told them they will go to hell if they do not accept Jesus! Come on, what's with these people? Why not educate and let us make our own decisions?

Original Article

really good links

2006-11-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

How Much of Your Car Should You Finance? Zero percent.

The life of a 'sisterwife'

Here is one that takes the cake. Will this be the final nail in the coffin?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that every user of the open source Linux system could owe his company money for using its intellectual property. The statement will confirm the worst fears of the open source community.

Microsoft recently signed a deal for SUSE Linux, a Novell-owned distribution of the Linux operating system. The two companies pledged that they would improve the interoperability of their products. Open source advocates were amazed at the deal, but Ballmer's comments could vindicate the suspicions of some.

America's most convenient bank

2006-10-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

Sick of Bank of America treating me like crap, I decided to sign up with Commerce Bank. They call themselves "America's Most convenient Bank." Two things to consider here:
1) Whats more convenient than the Internet?
2) Am I not the laziest guy in the world? Put these two things together, we get me signing up over the internet. Stupidest thing I ever did.

I filled out a form at commerceonline.com and started a checkings account. They told me i'll be receiving my packet in the mail. I would require an opening deposit and sign some forms. WOW, thats easy! I can do that from the comfort of my home. Mind you, the alternative is to drive 6 miles to a commerce down the street. Not too bad either but what can beat the Internet. I got my forms the other day and they asked for an opening deposit. Whatever, I sent in $1000 to start the account.

I call 6 days later for an update and the problems start. I ask them if they have received a check. They ask for my social. I give it to them but they cannot find my account. I glance at the form and realize they assholes printed my social wrong. Not just that, they effed up my gender, calling me 'Ms.' I ask them how to fix this, they tell me to drive to the local commerce and get it fixed. FUCK! This is what I was trying to avoid.

I get to the Bank and they tell me there is nothing they can do. Apparently the Branch office and the online group are two different entities that dont well with each other. This is a problem cause I'll have to deal with the online group for the smallest things like online account sign up and deposts. They tell me to wait till the online group sends me another form asking the correct social which is the only way I can do anything about this. I really wasn't agreeing with the "America's most convenient bank" claim.

I call Sunday and tell them I just want to cancel the account. I don't want to start an account with the online group. They tell me if I dont send in anymore paperwork, the account will just die off byitself. NICE! They tell me I can just drive down to the local Branch and create a new account. DONE! I drive down to the local bank and America's most convenient bank comes through.

infosecurity seminar

2006-10-25T20:59:00.000-04:00

Strange stuff i'm about to describe. I am writing this on the traing on my way to penn station under MSG. So the plan was to go to this network security convention at the javits in NYC. I can get a ton of free stuff to use at home and hadn out some brochure's etc. Suswaram was going to join up with my at Metro Park at around 11. Well since his wife's pregnancy has some minor worries, he took her to the doctors and the tests prolonged our departure to about 12. We missed two trains on our way up to the platform from the parking lot. Finally got on the one going to New York Penn at around 12:40.

This stuff worked out pretty well. Time flies when you are having fun. I got to meet the guys from Astaro the sponsors of Security Now. They gave me a shirt. I got a few more shirts from GFi and Sunbelt. Suswaram picked up a encrypted USB key, 256MB. Seriously learned a lot of stuff about new products. The most useful ones we talked to were the NetIntelligence guys. Their hardware inventory and network monitoring solution is phenominal.

After that we basically just walked to Penn station, ate and got on the train home.

too many things, not enough time

2006-10-24T20:31:00.000-04:00

Gotta go to a conference tomorrow. Havent made a post for a long time because of a couple of new things in my life. Installed Vista RC2 on my PC at work today. Spent a while trying to get it on the Domain.

Just realized I might have to shell out 6 grand for college cause I dropped a class. Thats always nice. I need to setup a tada list type of application on thatte.com for me to use. btw, I switched to powweb for publishing online.

Have to go to a conference tomorrow. InfoSecurity at the Javits center in New York. Imma go with Suswaram and get some free routers and shit. It'll be real cool to get some free networking stuff at the seminar. Hope to pickup a lot of important information too. Wonder if I'll need the laptop. Catch up with you guys later..

Priceless

2006-10-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

Landslide in Japan

2006-10-14T20:49:00.001-04:00

Daily Show explains his job

2006-10-06T17:48:00.001-04:00

Bush did nothing in Feb 2001

2006-10-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

Is Olbermann on Thin Ice? -Cohen

2006-10-03T22:42:00.001-04:00

Is Olbermann on Thin Ice?

by Jeff Cohen

I fear for Keith Olbermann.

Like so many others who hunger for some journalistic independence on TV news, I often marvel at Olbermann’s dogged reporting and unique commentary. In a cable news environment of conformity and conservatism, the MSNBC host takes on the Bush administration for “demonizing dissent,” for abusing our Constitutional traditions, for “taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love [following 9/11], and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death.”

Only Olbermann talks about Team Bush “monstrously transforming [9/11 unity] into fear and suspicion, and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections.” He was virtually alone on TV news in seriously reporting on 2004 election irregularities in Ohio, and in exploring the pre-Iraq war Downing Street Memos indicating White House deception. In recent months, his prime targets seem to have evolved from softer ones like Bill O’Reilly to bigger game: Bush and his minions.

It’s worth noting that strong criticism of an extremist presidency hardly makes Olbermann a leftist. I remember him as the whimsical sports guy on ESPN. I remember his first go-round on MSNBC in 1998 when he could have sued his bosses for repetitive stress disorder for having to host scores of Lewinsky episodes on the road to Clinton’s impeachment – an impeachment that may well have been impossible if not for the complicity of TV news.

It’s obvious his bosses at MSNBC/NBC/GE never envisioned the increasingly bold Olbermann of recent months. It’s likely that Olbermann himself could not have foreseen his current role as the lone voice of those who feel assaulted by a cable news business dominated by the O’Reillys and Hannitys.

So why do I fear for Olbermann? Because I know his bosses. In the runup to the Iraq war, I too worked for MSNBC – as an on-air pundit and a senior producer on the primetime Donahue show.

As I detail in my new book Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media, the Suits at MSNBC/NBC muzzled us and ultimately terminated us. They feared independent journalism and serious dissent. They smeared Bush critics, with MSNBC’s editor-in-chief actually going on air – without evidence – to accuse Iraq WMD skeptic Scott Ritter of being a paid agent of Saddam Hussein.

Olbermann has been gaining in audience ratings. That provides him some security. But perhaps not enough.

When Donahue was terminated three weeks before the Iraq invasion, it was MSNBC’s most watched program. Canceling your top-rated show doesn’t happen often, but it happened to Donahue. Who knows what will happen to Olbermann?

With Donahue, management cared less about building up audience than tamping down dissent. While independent outlets and blogs were soaring in audience by questioning the rush to war, our bosses imposed straightjackets on us that prevented similar growth.

In the last months of Donahue, management gave us strict orders: if we booked a guest who was antiwar, we needed two who were pro-war. If we booked two guests on the left, we needed three on the right. When a producer proposed booking Michael Moore, she was told she’d need three rightwingers for ideological balance.

Olbermann’s increasingly bold dissent has been occurring at a time when Bush’s approval ratings are low and Bush’s war is in shambles. That gives him some added security.

During Donahue’s tenure at MSNBC on the eve of war, Bush’s popularity was high. And media conglomerates were particularly concerned about not ruffling the White House at that moment – as they were lobbying hard to get FCC rules changed to allow them to grow still fatter.

The day after Donahue was terminated, an internal NBC memo leaked out; it said that Phil Donahue represents “a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.” Why? Because he insisted on presenting administration critics. The memo worried that Donahue would become a “home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”

NBC’s solution then? Dump Phil, stifle dissent, brandish the flag.

NBC’s solution now? So far, Olbermann appears to be on more solid footing – mostly because the political zeitgeist is much changed from four years ago.

But MSNBC is still owned by GE’s conservative bosses, and managed by NBC’s ever-timid executives. Olbermann knows this reality as well as anyone; six months ago on C-SPAN, while expressing confidence that good ratings would keep them at bay, he remarked: “There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC, the company, and GE, the company, who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all.”

I’m pulling for Olbermann; I’m one of the multitudes who find his commentaries online (perhaps more see them on the Web than on TV) – and forward them far and wide.

But with each new broadside against the Bush administration, I fear for his future. His best security is us, an active citizenry. It’s media activism, organized heavily on the Net. It’s media watch groups like FAIR and Media Matters for America. It’s the movement that resisted the FCC changes in 2003, challenged Sinclair Broadcast propaganda before the ’04 election, and recently exposed the 9/11 “hijacking” of ABC by rightwing Clinton-bashers.

In the epilogue of Cable News Confidential, I lauded this movement: “My only regret was that such a potent movement had not coalesced by 2002 – to flex its muscles against MSNBC brass in defense of an unfettered Donahue.”

If Olbermann gets muzzled or terminated for political reasons, it will be up to us to fight – not only for him, but for the concept that without serious dissent, democracy is a sham.

amazinf odie!

2006-10-03T21:08:00.000-04:00

Links..October 03 2006

2006-10-03T18:18:00.000-04:00

Building changes shape with wind
http://www.walrus.com/%7Eddprod/michaeljantzen/windshape.html

Stupid Turkish Hijacker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5403976.stm

Bulding from 8,800 BC found
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5403976.stm

Death threats over choosing evolution
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2006/09/death_threats_o.html

Crazy Frog Bros

2006-09-26T20:56:00.001-04:00

5 ways to help open source

2006-09-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

http://nongeeksight.blogspot.com/2006/09/5-ways-to-contribute-to-open-source.html

Clinton on Foxnews transcript

2006-09-25T21:52:00.001-04:00

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on "Fox News Sunday," I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I've got to say, I was surprised. Most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaeda out of business when you were president?

There's a new book out, I suspect you've already read, called "The Looming Tower." And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said, "I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops." Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole.

CLINTON: OK, let's just go through that.

WALLACE: Let me — let me — may I just finish the question, sir?

And after the attack, the book says that bin Laden separated his leaders, spread them around, because he expected an attack, and there was no response.

I understand that hindsight is always 20/20. ...

CLINTON: No, let's talk about it.

WALLACE: ... but the question is, why didn't you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?

CLINTON: OK, let's talk about it. Now, I will answer all those things on the merits, but first I want to talk about the context in which this arises.

I'm being asked this on the FOX network. ABC just had a right- wing conservative run in their little "Pathway to 9/11," falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 Commission report, with three things asserted against me directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report.

And I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans, who now say I didn't do enough, claimed that I was too obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough said I did too much — same people.

They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in "Black Hawk down," and I refused to do it and stayed six months and had an orderly transfer to the United Nations.

OK, now let's look at all the criticisms: Black Hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Usama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew Al Qaeda was a growing concern in October of '93.

WALLACE: I understand, and I ...

CLINTON: No, wait. No, wait. Don't tell me this — you asked me why didn't I do more to bin Laden. There was not a living soul. All the people who now criticize me wanted to leave the next day.

You brought this up, so you'll get an answer, but you can't ...

WALLACE: I'm perfectly happy to.

CLINTON: All right, secondly ...

WALLACE: Bin Laden says ...

CLINTON: Bin Laden may have said ...

WALLACE: ... bin Laden says that it showed the weakness of the United States.

CLINTON: But it would've shown the weakness if we'd left right away, but he wasn't involved in that. That's just a bunch of bull. That was about Mohammed Adid, a Muslim warlord, murdering 22 Pakistani Muslim troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission. We had no mission, none, to establish a certain kind of Somali government or to keep anybody out.

He was not a religious fanatic ...

WALLACE: But, Mr. President ...

CLINTON: ... there was no Al Qaeda ...

WALLACE: ... with respect, if I may, instead of going through '93 and ...

CLINTON: No, no. You asked it. You brought it up. You brought it up.

WALLACE: May I ask a general question and then you can answer?

CLINTON: Yes.

WALLACE: The 9/11 Commission, which you've talk about — and this is what they did say, not what ABC pretended they said ...

CLINTON: Yes, what did they say?

WALLACE: ... they said about you and President Bush, and I quote, "The U.S. government took the threat seriously, but not in the sense of mustering anything like the kind of effort that would be gathered to confront an enemy of the first, second or even third rank."

CLINTON: First of all, that's not true with us and bin Laden.

WALLACE: Well, I'm telling you that's what the 9/11 Commission says.

CLINTON: All right. Let's look at what Richard Clarke said. Do you think Richard Clarke has a vigorous attitude about bin Laden?

WALLACE: Yes, I do.

CLINTON: You do, don't you?

WALLACE: I think he has a variety of opinions and loyalties, but yes, he has a vigorous ...

CLINTON: He has a variety of opinion and loyalties now, but let's look at the facts: He worked for Ronald Reagan; he was loyal to him. He worked for George H. W. Bush; he was loyal to him. He worked for me, and he was loyal to me. He worked for President Bush; he was loyal to him.

They downgraded him and the terrorist operation.

Now, look what he said, read his book and read his factual assertions — not opinions — assertions. He said we took vigorous action after the African embassies. We probably nearly got bin Laden.

WALLACE: But ...

CLINTON: No, wait a minute.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: ... cruise missiles.

CLINTON: No, no. I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him.

The CIA, which was run by George Tenet, that President Bush gave the Medal of Freedom to, he said, "He did a good job setting up all these counterterrorism things."

The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came there.

Now, if you want to criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this: After the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.

But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11.

The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would've had to send a few hundred Special Forces in helicopters and refuel at night.

Even the 9/11 Commission didn't do that. Now, the 9/11 Commission was a political document, too. All I'm asking is, anybody who wants to say I didn't do enough, you read Richard Clarke's book.

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough, sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn't get him.

WALLACE: Right.

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried.

So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted.

So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me. What I want to know is ...

WALLACE: Well, wait a minute, sir.

CLINTON: No, wait. No, no ...

WALLACE: I want to ask a question. You don't think that's a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question, but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of.

I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, "Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?"

I want to know how many you asked, "Why did you fire Dick Clarke?"

I want to know how many people you asked ...

WALLACE: We asked — we asked ...

CLINTON: I don't ...

WALLACE: Do you ever watch "FOX News Sunday," sir?

CLINTON: I don't believe you asked them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of ...

CLINTON: You didn't ask that, did you? Tell the truth, Chris.

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: Tell the truth, Chris.

WALLACE: With Iraq and Afghanistan, there's plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that?

You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch's supporting my work on climate change.

And you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time talking about — you said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7-billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments. And you don't care.

WALLACE: But, President Clinton, if you look at the questions here, you'll see half the questions are about that. I didn't think this was going to set you off on such a tear.

CLINTON: You launched it — it set me off on a tear because you didn't formulate it in an honest way and because you people ask me questions you don't ask the other side.

WALLACE: That's not true. Sir, that is not true.

CLINTON: And Richard Clarke made it clear in his testimony...

WALLACE: Would you like to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative?

CLINTON: No, I want to finish this now.

WALLACE: All right. Well, after you.

CLINTON: All I'm saying is, you falsely accused me of giving aid and comfort to bin Laden because of what happened in Somalia. No one knew Al Qaeda existed then. And ...

WALLACE: But did they know in 1996 when he declared war on the U.S.? Did they know in 1998 ...

CLINTON: Absolutely, they did.

WALLACE: ... when he bombed the two embassies?

CLINTON: And who talked about ...

WALLACE: Did they know in 2000 when he hit the Cole?

CLINTON: What did I do? What did I do? I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him.

Now, I've never criticized President Bush, and I don't think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is only one-seventh as important as Iraq.

And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive thing? When all you have to do is read Richard Clarke's book to look at what we did in a comprehensive, systematic way to try to protect the country against terror.

And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could.

The entire military was against sending Special Forces in to Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter. And no one thought we could do it otherwise, because we could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that Al Qaeda was responsible while I was president.

And so, I left office. And yet, I get asked about this all the time. They had three times as much time to deal with it, and nobody ever asks them about it. I think that's strange.

WALLACE: Can I ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative?

CLINTON: You can.

WALLACE: I always intended to, sir.

CLINTON: No, you intended, though, to move your bones by doing this first, which is perfectly fine. But I don't mind people asking me — I actually talked to the 9/11 Commission for four hours, Chris, and I told them the mistakes I thought I made. And I urged them to make those mistakes public, because I thought none of us had been perfect.

But instead of anybody talking about those things, I always get these clever little political yields (ph), where they ask me one-sided questions. And the other guys notice that. And it always comes from one source. And so ...

WALLACE: And ...

CLINTON: And so ...

WALLACE: I just want to ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative, but what's the source? I mean, you seem upset, and I ...

CLINTON: I am upset because ...

WALLACE: And all I can say is, I'm asking you this in good faith because it's on people's minds, sir. And I wasn't ...

CLINTON: Well, there's a reason it's on people's minds. That's the point I'm trying to make. There's a reason it's on people's minds: Because there's been a serious disinformation campaign to create that impression.

This country only has one person who's worked on this terror. From the terrorist incidents under Reagan to the terrorist incidents from 9/11, only one: Richard Clarke.

And all I can say to anybody is, you want to know what we did wrong or right, or anybody else did? Read his book.

The people on my political right who say I didn't do enough spent the whole time I was president saying, "Why is he so obsessed with bin Laden? That was "wag the dog" when he tried to kill him."

My Republican secretary of defense — and I think I'm the only president since World War II to have a secretary of defense of the opposite party — Richard Clarke and all the intelligence people said that I ordered a vigorous attempt to get bin Laden and came closer, apparently, than anybody has since.

WALLACE: All right.

CLINTON: And you guys try to create the opposite impression, when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke's findings and you know it's not true. It's just not true.

And all this business about Somalia — the same people who criticized me about Somalia were demanding I leave the next day. The same exact crowd.

WALLACE: One of the ...

CLINTON: And so, if you're going to do this, for God's sake, follow the same standards for everybody ...

WALLACE: I think we do, sir.

CLINTON: ... and be flat — and fair.

Fox News attempts to ambush Bill Clinton

2006-09-25T21:16:00.000-04:00

Foxnews attempts to ambush Clinton by asking him why he didnt do enough to catch Bin Laden. Clinton replies in fashion completely ripping the argument apart.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/24/clinton-video/

Reddit, newsvine and Digg considered, the best reaction I have seen so far came from out of a Knicks forum by a guy posting as - Marv:
"you got that little smirk on your face, you think you're so clever."

oowee billy aren't you feeling it.

guess that ticker's pretty mended up.

here's my thing with clinton though - here's a guy who squandered so much political capital that he coudn't launch any effective military or covert campaigns because everyone thought he was just trying to divert attention from monicagate. plus he ushered in bush by fanning the "family values" flame. talk about screwing the pooch - she truly WAS a dog.

hell i understand human nature and everyone's gotta have some, etc, but that was one of the all-time worst clusterf**ks and we've all paid for it many many times over.

still it's good to see him spitting fire at the weasel wallace. he's like tom cruise only without the insanity!

nice clip silver, thanks for posting it.

Ahmadinejad: Iran Doesn't Need the Bomb

2006-09-21T18:21:00.000-04:00

UNITED NATIONS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Thursday that Tehran doesn't need atomic weapons and he is "at a loss" about what more he can do to prove that. Ahmadinejad said his country has not hidden anything and was working within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

the top 5 beers

2006-09-18T22:18:00.000-04:00

The best has to be: Weihenstephan
The second best: Hoegaarden
The 3rd: Magic Hat #9
The 4th: Blue Moon
The 5th: Guinness

2006-09-18T21:48:00.000-04:00

The Zune is supposed to be Microsoft's iPod killer. Check it out: here and here.

The best football game of the year (GIANT COMEBACK)

2006-09-17T19:11:00.000-04:00

Picture this: Your team can open the season 0-2 threatening to end their season in week 2 and you'll be out $70 OR your team can get a huge win and you'll be $140 richer.

I drove up to Rod's all pumped about Football Sunday. The Giants were taking on the Eagels after all. Oh I forgot. I also had a $70 on the mirror friendly contest with Rob at Cill Caningh Ale House. I get there, look at the Olive Garden Menu and settle on an Eggplant parm + Tiramisu. I'm really happy about having some good food and watch a competitive football game while expecting my team to win. The game starts and approximately 5 plays later, Giants score a TD. WOW! This is what they call good times right? WRONG!!!

Eagles come right back behind Donovan McNabb and score a TD. Then they score again and next thing I know, the Giants are down 17-7 at the half. So I go to Olive Garden to pickup some food where I have some more problems. Whatever, I'll deal as long as the Giants win. I park in my friends Driveway and walk in and turn the TV on. Guess what the score is...24-7 Philly!! I'm eating and trying to deal with the misery that was the 3rd quarter. The 3rd ends and we are still down 24-7. My favorite team was about to go 0-2 to start the season. With the next to games in Seattle and Atlanta, it was a distinct possibility that the Giants season was over. AND I WAS GOING TO BE $70 POORER!! NOOO! Something had to happen. I need to hope for a win. But I cant hope for a win. I'm a Knick fan. There was no hope in my world.

I always wondered why my teams never had any ferocious come backs. There was a little hope here. Eli was the King of Comebacks last year so I can hope for a bit of the good stuff. Guess what? He did it. The Giants came back from 24-7 down to force OT and they scored a TD in OT to win the game. Eli to Plaxico Burress! Game over! Giants win. I win $70. Life is good. :-)

kid drummer

2006-09-17T08:27:00.000-04:00