Ad Targeting Improves on Web Sites - AP

Based on the weather reports and restaurant listings you check out online, Yahoo Inc. has a good idea where you live. Based on searches you've done, the Web portal might also know where you want to go. Don't be surprised then to suddenly see an advertisement on flight deals between those two places. It's what United Airlines did with an ad on Yahoo earlier this year as people browsed for something completely unrelated to travel.

Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases - NY Times

The United States could shave as much as 28 percent off the amount of greenhouse gases it emits at fairly modest cost and with only small technology innovations, according to a new report.

A large share of the reductions could come from steps that would more than pay for themselves in lower energy bills for industries and individual consumers, the report said, adding that people should take those steps out of good sense regardless of how worried they might be about climate change. But that is unlikely to happen under present circumstances, said the authors, who are energy experts at McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm.

Facebook's Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought - PC World

A Computer Associates security researcher is sounding the alarm that Facebook's controversial Beacon online ad system goes much further than anyone has imagined in tracking people's Web activities outside the popular social networking site. Beacon will report back to Facebook on members' activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends.

Mothers Skimp as States Take Child Support - NY Times

The collection of child support from absent fathers is failing to help many of the poorest families, in part because the government uses fathers’ payments largely to recoup welfare costs rather than passing on the money to mothers and children.

Lawmakers Set Deal on Raising Fuel Efficiency - NY Times

Congressional negotiators reached a deal late Friday on energy legislation that would force American automakers to improve the fuel efficiency of their cars and light trucks by 40 percent by 2020.

Deep concern over Three Gorges Dam - BBC

There are fears that China's Three Gorges Dam is causing serious environmental problems, despite official claims to the contrary. Local farmers, environmental campaigners and even officials themselves have voiced concern about environmental damage.

For some years now, students have not been getting to the root of the aim of Zen, instead taking the verbal teachings of Buddhas and Zen masters to be the ultimate rule. That is like ignoring a hundred thousand pure clear oceans and only focusing attention on a single bubble.

- Ying-an

How to get your brain up to speed - Guardian

Cold meat and chocolate will get your mind fit ... and sex is handy too, according to a new book

Forget Sudoku, crossword puzzles and computer games. If you really want to train your brain, then eat dark chocolate, have plenty of sex and follow the Scandinavian example of having cold meat for breakfast.

The growing numbers of people who are trying to strengthen their mental ability through 'brain training' should also avoid cannabis, watching soap operas, hanging out with serial complainers or pursuing fat-free diets, according to a new book on getting 'brain-fit'.

Many of the suggestions in Teach Yourself Training Your Brain are surprising, such as cuddling a baby, cheating at school, reading out loud and doing your university degree in business studies. Co-authors Terry Horne and Simon Wootton say their recommendations are based on and backed by the latest research by leading experts around the world.

'For decades we have thought that the cognitive capacity of our brains is genetically determined, whereas it's now clear that it's a lifestyle choice. What we eat and drink, how we learn at school and what type of moods we have are all crucial,' said Horne, a business lecturer at the University of Central Lancaster and an authority on thinking and learning.

Read on ...

Cult Watch 2007: Who's Drinking the Kool-Aid?
Mike Elgan

As we wind down another year in technology, it's a good time to check in on the cults and see how they’re doing.

For companies who inspire them, user cults are nice because they motivate customers to overlook strategic blunders, exaggerate product successes and -- most importantly -- walk the earth “virally” marketing products without pay.

Cult members themselves get an enhanced feeling of self-worth through group association. "I'm better than you! I have an iPhone!" Consumers can become one of the "chosen people" for $399, plus a two-year contract.

Let's have a look at the major tech cults, and see how they're doing.

Read on ...

 
Drew Sheneman - 30 November 2007

 
Stuart Carlson - 26 November 2007

 
Tom Toles - 03 August 2007

 
Tom Toles - 13 August 2007

If you use Firefox and wish a festive Christmas/Holiday theme, check out Tinseltown. The extent that the author went in taking this theme is incredible.

Tinseltown is a Christmas theme with holiday imagery including Christmas lights, snow, reindeer, presents and more. This theme is made eve better with great Christmas icons from Watiworks and a semi-transparent URL bar. Get in the holiday spirit!

Taser death in Canada sparks heated debate around the world - CSM

The death of a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport has sparked an intense debate in Canada over the increasing use of Tasers by law-enforcement officials. Concerns over the use of these electric shock guns has mounted in several other countries after a UN Committee on Human Rights recently labeled their impact "torture."

Heritage Foundation on Hunger: Let Them Eat Broccoli - MotherJones
Poor people aren't hungry; they're fat.

While most Americans were planning for the annual ritual of overconsumption known as Thanksgiving, the good folks at the Heritage Foundation, America’s leading architects of conservative thought for at least three decades, were doing their part to add to the holiday cheer. According to a November 13 Heritage article, well-off revelers could stuff their faces unhampered by guilt about the less fortunate, because there are no longer any hungry people in the United States.

Sen. Clinton proposes moratorium on foreclosures - Reuters

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton proposed on Monday a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures to give financially troubled borrowers time to work with lenders and avoid losing their homes.

U.S. report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclear program - Reuters

U.S. intelligence has determined that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but believes it is continuing to develop technical capabilities that could be used to build a bomb, a government report said on Monday.

Bali climate summit: a test of the world's resolve - CSM

Next week is seen as crunch time in the fight against global warming. Representatives from some 130 nations will gather in Bali, Indonesia, beginning a two-year effort to agree on a new pact to cut greenhouse-gas emissions - one that goes well beyond the goals of the current Kyoto Protocol.

Microsoft FUDwatch II: Internet Explorer vs. Firefox security - C|Net

Microsoft is at it again. Or, rather, Jeff Jones is. Jones is Microsoft's security strategy direction and is the one who periodically remixes history and data to declare that Windows is more secure than Linux. Now he's declaring that Internet Explorer is much safer than Firefox.

Australia steals show at Bali climate talks - Reuters

Australia won an ovation at the start of U.N.-led climate change talks in Bali on Monday by agreeing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, isolating the United States as the only developed nation outside the pact.

... A new treaty is meant to widen the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The United States and developing nations have no caps under Kyoto.

... The United States, as the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, has been feeling the heat from developing nations demanding the rich make stronger commitments to curb emissions.

Read on ...

 
Jeff Danziger - 28 November 2007

Monitors denounce Russia election - BBC

Foreign observers have said that Russia's parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin's party, was "not fair".

The statement was made by a joint observer team of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe.

... The election "was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections," the observers from the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly told a news conference in Moscow.

Read on ...

Peacefire.org newest Circumventor site:

http://www.plumfriend.com/

Remember, always try https://www.stupidcensorship.com first.

The big list.

We had just a killer sunset last night here in Denver and I uploaded a set of photos to Flickr for your viewing pleasure  

Brian Fairrington - 28 November 2007

Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonist Index has a great collection of cartoons called "Santa Claus!"

Google to dig up more personal records: Software to index more state files such as school test scores - AP

Googling something or someone? If the state of Florida has public records about your subject, they might show up in your search results.

Spinning the NIE Iran Report - Time

The Rashomon-like battle to interpret the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran is well under way. All sides of the Iran nuclear dispute are working hard to make their own reading of the report the accepted one, and to emphasize the findings that best suit their agendas. Those agendas will remain unchanged by the NIE: Israel and Washington hawks want military action against a grave and gathering threat; the Bush Administration is pursuing coercive diplomacy; the Europeans want to avoid war. And it is those agendas that will shape each player's response to the NIE in what promises to be a furious battle over Iran policy in the months to come. A guide to the players and their likely plays ...

Scientists Beg for Climate Action - AP

For the first time, more than 200 of the world's leading climate scientists, losing their patience, urged government leaders to take radical action to slow global warming because "there is no time to lose."

Judge: Reconsider bird ruling: Agency decided to keep grouse off endangered list - Rocky Mountain News

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider a decision to keep the greater sage grouse off the endangered species list, a ruling that could have significant implications for Colorado's fast-growing oil and gas industry.

The transistor turns 60 - C|Net

Sixty years ago, on December 16, scientists at Bell Labs--William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain--built the world's first transistor and nothing has been the same since. We'll be covering the anniversary in subsequent articles, but here's a smattering of some of the implications, in somewhat chronological order, of the event ...

 
Deep Cover by Tim Eagan - 06 December 2007

 
Paul Combs - 04 December 2007

Ann Telnaes - 06 December 2007

Six places in the world where climate change could cause political turmoil - CSM

From Nepal to Nigeria, Indonesia to the Arctic Circle, a warmer world poses different problems.

Data-recovery firm reveals top client mishaps - C|Net

Ant infestations, oil saturation, and failed parachute jumps are some of the unusual fates that have befallen innocent data-storage devices recently, according to data-recovery company Kroll Ontrack's list of the most unusual recovery jobs it has faced in the last

Iran's Nukes: Now They Tell Us? - Time

The President looked awful. He stood puffy-eyed, stoop-shouldered, in front of the press corps discussing the stunning new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran halted its nuclear-weapons program in 2003. He looked as if he'd spent the night throwing chairs around the Situation Room. ...

With my last ride around Cherry Creek Reservoir I ended up with 10,011 miles on my 2001 Specialized Sirrus Comp. I started keeping track in March of 2004, so it took about 3 years and 8 months to get to the 10,000 mile mark. That averages to 2700+ miles per year. Since this doesn't include the first few years I owned the bike, I can figure a solid 16,000 miles on the bike.

My legs are tired just thinging about it.  

I finally got around to updating the picture and info on my single speed. It only took me about a year or two.

• Frame and fork are Nashbar Steel
• Surly Hubs with Mavic 221 rims
• Surly Singleator chain tensioner
• Crank is the original one from my Sirrus w/ 36 tooth chainring
• Most of the other parts from Performance

Dethroning Ubuntu - What Would It Take? - Datamation

Many people are looking to Ubuntu to be something that it is not: A mass market ready operating system designed to work with the same level of compatibility as Microsoft Windows.

Where people get confused is in believing that if Ubuntu, king of the Linux distros, is not able to take the marketplace by storm, then something must be broken with desktop Linux. In this article, I'll explain what it will take to dethrone the mighty Ubuntu and gain a market share so large that it will eclipse anything seen by Ubuntu to date.

Read on ...

CIA's destruction of tapes likely to spur lawsuits - CSM

The Central Intelligence Agency's admission that it destroyed at least two videotapes of harsh interrogations of terror suspects has caused an uproar in Washington and seems almost certain to lead to legal challenges to the agency's actions.

Trita Parsi: The NIE's Got Nothing on Him - MotherJones Interview

This Iran expert was saying it before it was cool: Iran is a rational actor. And he's not so sure the new National Intelligence Estimate will change things in the Middle East, either.

Corporate Enemy No. 1: State Attorneys General - MotherJones

As the Bush administration turns a blind eye to consumer crises, state AGs are picking up the slack—and making powerful enemies in the process.

Here, from within my heart, I make the vow to shun all evil - to achieve the good. From deep within my heart I seek my refuge.

Buddha

Security concerns raised as China fills U.S. medicine chest - McClatchy Newspapers

The medicine cabinet in the average U.S. home is filling with drugs made in China, and some experts say that could be a prescription for trouble.

Linux is about to take over the low end of PCs - Desktop Linux

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

Senate rejects far-reaching energy bill - CSM

There's still hope the nation may get a nice green-energy law for Christmas – not the big fat one environmentalists wanted, but a slimmed-down version that probably includes fuel economy and biofuel provisions. ...the Senate failed to approve a more far-reaching House energy bill that promised to cut US dependence on imported oil and global warming emissions.

No hope now - San Francisco Chronicle Editorial

President Bush announced his HOPE NOW program to ease the nation's mortgage crisis last Thursday. The plan is neither "hope" nor "now," nor will it ease the nation's mortgage crisis.

It's baffling why an administration that believes in the free market as much as this one does would attempt to intrude on an inevitable economic correction. There are two possibilities, both of them desperate: 1) 2008 is coming up, and both parties need to look like they're doing something for Americans who are losing their homes, and 2) The administration is panicked about what might happen should those who invested in mortgage debt start calling off their deals with the banks that sold them.

Desperation rarely leads to good policy. (To be fair, the Democratic counters to the Bush plan are equally irresponsible.) Regarding the two scenarios, the problems of the second are dealt with at length in the article on the front page of this section. As for the first, the main problem is that while politicians may gain a few points for "helping" struggling home buyers stay in houses they can't afford, their bailout policies aren't helping either home buyers - past, current, or future - or the economy.

Read On ...

~

The Spies Strike Back - Jim Hoagland
Washington Post

The Fourth of July came on Dec. 3 this year for the U.S. intelligence community.

The nation's espionage agencies delivered their own declaration of independence from the war aims and rhetoric of President Bush and Vice President Cheney in a National Intelligence Estimate that was ostensibly about Iran's nuclear program.

But the CIA, DIA and 14 other agencies grouped under the director of national intelligence also delivered a riveting if implicit X-ray of the changing nature of leadership in Washington, where the White House's once-commanding authority over government has been smashed but not replaced by any other power center.

The Bush-Cheney obsession with restoring presidential authority has provoked new challenges to powers the White House can legitimately claim. It is as if this administration has developed its own political version of Jimmy Carter's aborted project for a neutron bomb, which was intended to destroy people while sparing buildings. Bush consistently manages to destroy or damage goals he proclaims and friends who support him, while foes escapes harm.

Read on ...

~

The United States of debt - Christine Tatum
The Denver Post

As the nation's comptroller general, David M. Walker is essentially licensed to be one of the world's most boring people.

But then he opens his mouth, and it becomes clear that the country's top auditor is ready to bust some chops and to say things a whole lot of people don't want to hear.

The federal budget is crumbling, he says. The nation continues to borrow at an alarming rate and to saddle today's toddlers with exorbitant debt they may not ever be able to repay. The country can't afford the Medicare and Social Security benefits it has promised.

And politicians seemingly refuse to level with Americans about how much financial trouble the country faces if it sticks with the status quo much longer.

Read On ...

 
Jim Borman - 07 December 2007

While watching the Colts - Ravens game, there was a little video feature about when the Colts left Baltimore. One of the interesting facts: when Indianapolis plays in Baltimore, they don't put Colts on the score board, they put Indy. All other teams are listed by their team name, not city!

 
Dan Wasserman - 04 December 2007

The last time he was much happier!

Walt Handelsman - 07 December 2007 

http://www.jellotime.com/  

More sizes on Flickr

U.N. climate talks under pressure to drop 2020 goals - Reuters

The United States has urged a tough 2020 target for rich nations to axe greenhouse gas emissions to be dropped from a draft text at climate change talks in Bali, delegates said on Monday.

Peacefire.org newest Circumventor sites:

http://www.Proxster.org/
http://www.poorlight.com/
http://www.sneezecard.com/

Remember, always try https://www.stupidcensorship.com first.

The big list.

Took the single out for a spin yesterday in the snow and brought home a little ice. Not a bad riding day. I rode for about an hour on local bike paths. The paths had been plowed, mostly, and just had packed snow on them. There where a couple areas where I was blazing a path in 3-4" of fresh powder.  Ah, winter time in the Rockies!

Not by silence
does someone confused
& unknowing
turn into a sage.
But whoever - wise,
as if holding the scales,
taking the excellent -
rejects evil deeds;
he is a sage,
that's how he's a sage.
Whoever can weigh
both sides of the world:
that's how he's called a sage.

Dhammapada, 19

 
Drew Sheneman - 08 December 2007

 
Glenn McCoy - 11 December 2007

 
John Deering - 10 December 2007

Choosing a Linux Distro, Part 1: Kicking the Tires - LinuxInsider

Start your search by checking out the distribution Web sites. Read the the FAQ and Wikis pages to learn how the different distros work. Check out the features and read what sorts of requests for help have been made on the community forums, and how those requests were answered. This approach will help you to narrow down exactly what you are looking for in terms of support and ease of use.

Running Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft Windows or Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple Mac OS X gives users about the same amount of flexibility as was offered to early car buyers. They could drive any kind of car they wanted, as long as it was a Model T and as long as it was black.

When the free open source Linux OS first showed up, early developers offered much the same set of options. Today, however, when picking a Linux distribution (known as a "distro"), users are offered a wide variety of flavors and features. In fact, Linux comes in so many different sizes and shapes that selecting the version most suited for consumer or enterprise use can be a seemingly impossible task.

Read on ...

WTF? Johnny Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, on Judge Judy?

Check it out on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2CnwYPhcQk

Review: Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon takes on Mac OS X Leopard for the OS of the Year - Linux Magazine

Today we have a technological cage match involving two operating systems, both UNIX- based, both mature, both with passionate detractors and even more passionate defenders, and both released just a week apart. I'm talking, of course, about Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), with its final release on October 18, and Apple' s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which was available for purchase on October 26.

The stereotype for each OS is well known: Mac OS X is elegant, easy-to-use, and intuitive, while Ubuntu is stable, secure, and getting better all the time. Both have come a long way in a short time, and both make excellent desktops. So we have two great desktop operating systems out at roughly the same time. Let's see how they stack up against each other.

Read on ...

Rolling Stone: Remembering Ike Turner, Rock Pioneer and R&B Giant

New York Times: Ike Turner, Musician and Songwriter in Duo With Tina Turner, Dies at 76

Newsweek: RIP, Ike Turner: His troubled personal life overshadowed what was really a brilliant career in music.

Don Wright - 05 December 2007 

Stars named in report on steroid use in baseball - Reuters

Pitching great Roger Clemens joined home-run king Barry Bonds among dozens of Major League Baseball players named on Thursday in the Mitchell Report that detailed widespread use of banned drugs in America's pastime.

Bamboo PC is eco-friendly and looks nice too - Reuters

Back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I, an early personal computer that consisted of a circuit board in a simple wooden box. ...The Asus Eco Book, as it's dubbed, has a case made of laminated bamboo strips available in different shades.

I loved the The Rocky Mountain News front page today. Kudos to whomever came up with it.

Opera files EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft - Reuters

A small Norwegian maker of Web browsers, backed by an industry coalition, has filed the first complaint against Microsoft to the European Commission since the software giant lost a landmark antitrust case earlier this year.

Microsoft hits back at Opera antitrust claims - ZDNet UK

Microsoft has hit back at Opera antitrust claims regarding Internet Explorer, denying that it is abusing its dominant market position to lock users into the web browser.

Peacefire.org newest Circumventor site:

http://www.gravypage.com/

Remember, always try https://www.stupidcensorship.com first.

The big list.

how bad is the writers strike affecting the late night hosts?

Dave can't even affort a razor anymore!  

The world has continued, in the words of Italian astronomer Pierantonio Cinzano, to "envelop itself in a luminous fog." Cinzano’s 2001 atlas of artificial night sky brightness estimated that two-thirds of the U.S. population, and one-fifth of the world population, can no longer see the Milky Way with the naked eye.

from Michelle Nijhuis's story, "Quest for Darkness" in Hich Country News (subscription required)

UK hands control of Basra to Iraq forces - Reuters

Britain handed over security in Basra province to Iraqi forces on Sunday, effectively marking the end of nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq.

Bali Forum Backs Climate 'Road Map' - Washington Post

U.S. Accedes on Aid Pledges, Wins Fight to Drop Specific Targets for Emissions Cuts. Delegates from nearly 190 countries emerged from a final 24 hours of bruising negotiations Saturday with an agreement on a new framework for tackling global warming, one that for the first time calls on both the industrialized world and rapidly developing nations to commit to measurable, verifiable steps.

Fabric of America is Fraying
By David Wann

By certain measurements, the U.S. economy has been quite successful in the last several decades, but the fundamental question remains: Successfully what?

We may lead the world in categories like gross domestic product, average house size, and ownership of color TVs, but we also "lead" the industrial nations in debt per capita, the child poverty rate, overall poverty rate, ratio of people in prison, rate of traffic fatalities, murder rate, carbon dioxide emissions per capita, and the per capita consumption of energy and water.

These are hardly distinctions we can be proud of. Clearly, we're not taking care of what really matters.

On the upside, increased awareness of where we stand can guide a reordering of national and local priorities, resulting in a healthier and more satisfying American lifestyle ...

The New Entitlement
By George F. Will

She who would be president excoriates, as Democratic presidential candidates must, the current president and almost all his works. But she and he largely agree regarding the subprime mortgage problem. Granted, she greeted his response to it with the cri de coeur without which Democrats would be speechless: "More!" She upped his ante by proposing a moratorium, for 90 days, on foreclosures. But the crux of her proposal is the crux of his -- a selective five-year freeze on the rates of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages ...

A Gates-Style Thaw
By Jim Hoagland

"We are going to do something terrible to you," one Kremlin insider frequently told Americans in the 1980s as the Soviet Union was crumbling before the unbelieving eyes of U.S. intelligence. "We are going to deprive you of an enemy."

He turned out to be more prophetic than he realized. Today -- to my slack-jawed astonishment -- a senior U.S. official is pursuing a similar approach toward a newly hostile Kremlin by making subtle overtures on ballistic missile defense and other contentious security issues and then wooing world opinion.

Big deal. Diplomats get paid to do that, right? But this is the astonishing part. The official is Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The same Robert Gates who under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush helped shape hard-line intelligence judgments -- which he later admitted were behind the curve -- and cultivated an image as a leading CIA hawk in the Washington political aviary.

From the Rocky Mountain News The Clause Celebre

Primary Photo By Martti Kainulainen / AFP/Getty Images; photo illustration by Chas Chamberlin/The Rocky Mountain News

Can you pick out the famous movie Santas that help make up our St. Nick mosaic? They range from Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to Tim Allen in The Santa Clause to "Mini Me" Verne Troyer in Jingle All the Way. And that burly-looking dude? Why, it's Hulk Hogan, of course, flexing his way through 1996's Santa With Muscles.

Sixty years ago today William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain succeeded in building the first practical point-contact transistor at Bell Labs.

ENIAC, which used vaccum tubes, weighed 28 tons, consumed 170,000 watts of power and required several operators

1,800:
Cubic meters of water consumption, per capita, in the U.S. in 2006

300:
Cubic meters of water consumption, per capita, in 15 European Union countries

100:
Cubic meters of water consumption, per capita, in Denmark

Dana Summers - 14 December 2007
 

 
Jeff Dazinger - 16 December 2007

This just in from PNC, the Christmas Price Index, aka 12 Day$ of Chri$tma$, is up 3.1% this year compared to 2006.

Watch the report here.

House Sends President An Energy Bill to Sign - Washington Post

A year of rhetoric, lobbying, veto threats and negotiations ended yesterday as the House of Representatives voted 314 to 100 to pass an energy bill that President Bush is to sign this morning. The bill will raise fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles, order a massive increase in the use of biofuels and phase out sales of the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb popularized by Thomas Edison more than a century ago ...

For farmers and agribusiness, it is a windfall, providing more support than perhaps even the farm bill. It doubles the use of corn - based ethanol - despite criticism that corn-based ethanol is driving up food prices, draining aquifers and exacerbating fertilizer runoff that is creating dead zones in many of the nation's rivers.

Times Person of the Year 2007 - Vladimir Putin

U.S. military command hacks Wikipedia - Daily News

Wikipedia sleuths Wednesday exposed the U.S. military hackers who labeled Fidel Castro an "admitted transsexual" and deleted sensitive information about Gitmo detainees from the Web site.

It's a beautiful thing - 3 Jacks Sports Bar & Grill, my favorite watering hole, has Wifi! And it's WPA protected!

Now I can go get their kickass Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad, have a Fat Tire and go online, like I am doing right now.

Brook, you rule!  

And remember, on Tuesdays they have $3 Fat Tire tall boys and for bowl games $3.75 pints and $10 pitchers of Fat Tire.

PS: Be sure to ask Anthony about the bar tricks he is teaching himself.

Boy, 8, sued in ski crash - AP

A 60-year-old man is taking an 8-year-old boy and his dad to court, claiming the third-grader caused a ski-slope collision that left the older man with a shoulder injury.

A Thinkgeek specialty!

 
Tom Toles - 23 December 2007

 
Dana Summers - 22 December 2007

Interesting comment from CompUSA - Very Grumpy Rabbit

I don't know if you've heard or not, but CompUSA is going out of business. ...

... I asked one of the employees off the record if he could comment at all on the impact of Vista sales on the end of CompUSA's business, expecting no comment. Afterall, most such retail chains don't want local employees speaking out for the company.

That... isn't what I got. With a glaring look he responded I'd be better off asking about the returns. Returns? Well, the employee asked me to follow him to the back, and he pulled out a cardboard box opening it up to reveal it was packed full of copies of Vista.

Returns.

 
Prickly City by Scott Stantis - 25 December 2007

Restricted Codecs Mess in Linux - Mad Penquin

There are a number of newcomers who migrate to Linux and then find themselves at ends with the confusion regarding restricted formats and codecs in the US. The laws regarding usage are confusing and all over the map, thus leaving many Linux distributions forced to mark them as possibly illegal to use in some countries, despite no solid evidence to actually support this outside of MPAA and RIAA rhetoric, which is hardly a court's decision. And in a recent article, I took this whole idea to task and examine how it may not actually be illegal to use libdvdcss after all.

Linux for everyone - cpilive.net

Ubuntu Linux's Mark Shuttleworth talks of free software for the masses, cultural tidal waves and building rockets.

Mark Shuttleworth made news in 2002 when he fulfilled a lifelong ambition and became the first South African to travel into space, paying $20 million to be a civilian cosmonaut on an eight-day flight aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In 2004, he founded Ubuntu Linux to bring the operating system to people around the world. He is also the founder of HBD Venture Capital and the nonprofit Shuttleworth Foundation.

You have pumped more than $10 million of your own money into the continuing development of Ubuntu Linux, and you have been on a personal campaign to bring a free, easy-to-use and reliable Linux to the masses around the world. Why?

In college, I was struggling to get my own personal computer hooked up to the university network. Then someone gave me a stack of Slackware Linux discs, and I found myself just enthralled by the breadth and depth of the tools that were available from Linux, even in those very early days. It’s like going from living in the desert to walking into an all-you-can-eat buffet. I went on to turn that interest in the Internet into a small business called Thawte [in 1995], which sold digital certificates that I created, initially at least, with cryptographic software that was available under an open-source license.

Read on ...

 
Non Sequitor by Wiley Miller - 27 December 2007

 
Ann Telnaes - 27 December 2007

 
Moderately Confused by Jeff Stahler - 28 December 2008

Another in the Long Volley of Shots Heard 'Round the World - Washington Post

Benazir Bhutto's father was prime minister of Pakistan in the 1970s and, before he was hanged, he would tell her to study the lives of great women as inspiration. She sometimes told reporters that story, including the names of Joan of Arc and Indira Gandhi as study subjects suggested by her dad. The French revolutionary was burned at the stake; the Indian prime minister was assassinated by her bodyguards.

The Legacy of Benazir Bhutto - Washington Post

Try to imagine a young Pakistani woman bounding into the newsroom of the Harvard Crimson in the early 1970s and banging out stories about college sports teams with the passion of a cub reporter. That was the first glimpse some of us had of Benazir Bhutto. We had no idea she was Pakistani political royalty. She was too busy jumping into her future to make a show of her past.

The vacuum left by Bhutto's death - BBC

As if things could not get worse in a country that has been torn apart by political strife and Taleban extremism in recent months, Pakistan has now been plunged into unimaginable grief, anger and chaos and an uncertain political future.

Benazir Bhutto in her own words - BBC

... a selection of quotes from one of the world's foremost female political leaders.

Bhutto void requires wider U.S. outreach in Pakistan - Reuters

The United States said on Friday it was reaching out to a wide range of political players in Pakistan after the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto -- a move critics said Washington should have begun years ago.

Bhutto Buried as Government Orders Virtual Lockdown - NY Times

As Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest on Friday, Pakistan's government recast its version of events and announced that it had obtained an intelligence intercept pinning the attack on a militant leader linked to Al Qaeda.

Bhutto's assassination leaves U.S. diplomacy in disarray - IHT

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday left in ruins the delicate diplomatic effort the Bush administration had pursued in the past year to reconcile Pakistan's deeply divided political factions. Now they are scrambling to sort through ever more limited options, as American influence on Pakistan's internal affairs continues to decline.