.: LarsonsWorld :.
just another persons waste of time
.: News Archive :.

25 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail - NY Times
The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental
Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that
must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message
containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials
said last week.
more ...
Five Myths About the New Wiretapping Law: Why it's a lot worse than you think. - Slate
Sometime today, the Senate is likely to approve the most comprehensive
overhaul of American surveillance law since the Watergate era. Unless
you're a government lawyer, a legal scholar, a masochist, or an
insomniac, chances are you haven't read the 114-page bill. Don't beat
yourself up: Neither have most of the 293 House members who voted for it
last week. Ditto the mainstream press, who seem to have relied chiefly
on summaries provided by the same lawmakers who hadn't read it.
more ...
Be quiet: the surveillance cameras might hear you - Ars Techinica
Although crime statistics point to the fact that law-and-order issues
are actually less of a problem now than in the past, the general
public's perception remains one convinced that muggery and buggery hides
behind every street corner. Politicans and the media stoke these fears,
and we get hastily made laws and policies enacted as a result. Over in
the UK, the trend over the past two decades has been to abrogate
day-to-day policing of the streets to an army of CCTV cameras. Soon, if
scientists have their way, the cameras will be able to train their focus
on suspicious sounds automatically with new AI technology.
more ....
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 1:29 AM MDT | Updated: 25 June 2008 8:20 PM MDT
Tags: Civil Liberties Environment News
| | Permalink

17 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
Gallery: 10 Best Apocalyptic Vehicles - Wired
Global warming. Faltering economies. Dwindling resources. Mankind has
finally set in motion environmental, political and social policies that
will surely destroy the world as we know it.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 8:25 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

12 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
The Enemy Within - Who are we more afraid of: enemy combatants or federal courts? - Slate
The Supreme Court's decision Thursday in Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah
v. United States is - as all the big enemy-combatant cases have been -
both enormously important and relatively insignificant. This is, after
all, the third stinging setback and blistering rebuke the court has
handed the Bush administration with respect to prisoner rights at
Guantanamo. Yet you may have noticed that all of these setbacks and
rebukes have mostly meant more hot days in orange jumpsuits, more
solitary confinement, and ever more plus ça change for the detainees
there. At his pretrial hearing in April, one of the detainees "lucky"
enough to actually face a trial, Salim Hamdan, pointed out to the
presiding judge that winning his own appeal at the Supreme Court in 2006
got him precisely nothing.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 10:53 PM MDT | Updated: 12 June 2008 10:56 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

10 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
Cable: deregulation good for consumers; Ars: like heck it is- Ars Techinca
If the last 10 years have taught us anything, it's that the cable
industry in the US is focused on openness, innovation, and customer
satisfaction; but if we can't keep the government's knuckleheaded
regulators out of our cable lines and off our Internet, cable's nearly
absurd level of innovation will be throttled down more effectively than
BitTorrent uploads on Comcast's network. Well, so says the cable
industry, at least.
more ....
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 5:35 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

04 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
The Skinny on Fat: You're Not Always What You Eat - Scientific American
Ever wondered why some people seem able to gobble down anything and
still stay slim? New research shows that the answer may lie in
serotonin, a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger produced by nerve
cells. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco,
(U.C.S.F.) report in the journal Cell Metabolism that the nerve
messenger, a known appetite suppressant, not only controls whether and
how much you eat but, independent of that, also plays a role in what the
body does with the calories once they're consumed.
more ...
Daily cell phone tracking confirms we’re creatures of habit - Ars Technica
Where does a human's typical day take it? It seems like a simple and
somewhat uninteresting question, but neither of these are actually the
case. The dynamic movement of human populations has implications for
everything from urban planning to epidemic control. Due to ethical and
privacy concerns, we actually know more about animal movements than we
do about those of people, leaving human daily activity a bit of a black
box. A study that will be published in today's issue of Nature opens
that box by following the daily travels of cell phone users in Europe
for a period of six months. The study finds that, in general, we humans
are creatures of habit.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 5:48 PM MDT | Updated: 04 June 2008 6:43 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

02 June 2008
.: watercooler :.
Why doctors give out antibiotics you don't need. - Slate
While working a busy night shift in the ER recently, I evaluated a
13-month-old girl. On her chart, the triage nurse had written: "Infant
with fever and runny nose. Mother here for antibiotics." The baby was
fussy but probably more tired than uncomfortable. Between her squirms,
she cooed and smiled at me. Her anxious and upset mother, however, was
in far worse shape, repeatedly sticking a rubber bulb syringe up her
infant's nostrils in a futile attempt to suck out an endless stream of
snot. The mom was also really mad: She had been waiting for more than
three hours for a doctor to see her daughter. Now she wanted
antibiotics: specifically, a prescription for bubble-gum-flavored
amoxicillin.
more ...
The bad news about the good news about terrorism. - Slate
Terrorism, contrary to what you may think, isn't what it used to be. So
says Fareed Zakaria in his column in this week's Newsweek. The proof, he
contends, is in the statistics.
more ...
Phoenix Landing Rockets May Have Already Uncovered First Ice Sample - Wired
Photos released Saturday of the ground underneath the Phoenix lander
revealed a pleasant surprise, a large patch of bright smooth material,
believed to be ice, uncovered from beneath two to six inches of topsoil
blown off by the retro rockets.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 8:10 PM MDT | Updated: 02 June 2008 9:43 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

19 May 2008
.: watercooler :.
Warming and Storms, Uncertainty and Ethics - NY Times
Over the weekend, a pair of very different climate studies - one
physical, one social - illustrated two uncomfortable, and related,
realities confronting society as it grapples with possible responses to
human-driven global warming.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 8:30 PM MDT
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

18 May 2008
.: watercooler :.
Perilous Landings by Soyuz Worry NASA - Washington Post
Two consecutive chaotic and dangerous landings by Soyuz space capsules,
including one with an American astronaut aboard, have NASA and space
experts concerned about the spacecraft's reliability in ferrying
astronauts to and from the international space station.
more ...
The Old Titans All Collapsed. Is the U.S. Next? - Washington Post
Back in August, during the panic over mortgages, Alan Greenspan offered
reassurance to an anxious public. The current turmoil, the former
Federal Reserve Board chairman said, strongly resembled brief financial
scares such as the Russian debt crisis of 1998 or the U.S. stock market
crash of 1987... But in the background, one could hear the groans and
feel the tremors as larger political and economic tectonic plates
collided. Nine months later, Greenspan's soothing analogies no longer
wash. The U.S. economy faces unprecedented debt levels, soaring
commodity prices and sliding home prices, to say nothing of a weak
dollar.
more ...
In Colorado, an unlikely alliance against drilling - CSMonitor
Plans to open up a swath of wilderness are bringing hunters and
environmentalists together – and reshaping state politics.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 5:49 PM MDT | Updated: 18 May 2008 8:26 PM MDT
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

12 May 2008
.: watercooler :.
Deep packet inspection under assault over privacy concerns - Ars Technica
Add the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) to
the list of groups concerned about the privacy implications of
widespread deep packet inspection (DPI) by ISPs. CIPPIC has filed an
official complaint with Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer
Stoddart, asking her office to investigate Bell Canada's use of DPI (and
we're flattered to be quoted as an expert source in the complaint). In
addition, the group would welcome a wider investigation into possible
DPI use at cable operators Rogers and Shaw, as well.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:10 PM MDT
Tags: Civil Liberties Computing News
| | Permalink

11 May 2008
.: watercooler :.
Broadband: other countries do it better, but how? - Ars Technica
One of the ironies of the current broadband situation in the US is that
staunch free marketeers defend the status quo even though the result of
their views has been duopoly and high prices. Meanwhile, other countries
(including those with a reputation in some quarters for "socialism")
have taken aggressive steps to create a robust, competitive,
consumer-friendly marketplace with the help of regulation and national
investment.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 7:18 PM MDT
Tags: Computing News
| | Permalink

07 May 2008
.: watercooler :.
The computer security paradox - Raiden's Realm
One of the most prized rights of any American is the right to privacy
and security. It's something people in some countries would kill for.
Yet now there appears to be a very frightening trend growing. Your
privacy and security are being thrown out the window wholesale in favor
of easier access by law enforcement. A recent example of this can be
seen with the announcement that Microsoft has been providing a tool to
investigators that can effectively rip your Windows security to shreds
in seconds, exposing all your private data to whoever wants to look at
it.
more ...
IBM, Microsoft Trounce Apple on Climate Friendliness Scorecard - Wired
Scorecard IBM earned top honors among electronics manufacturers on a
recently-updated climate friendliness scorecard (.pdf), earning 77 out
of a possible 100 points to beat runners-up Canon, Toshiba, Sony and HP
in a ranking of the companies' responsiveness to climate change. IBM,
which makes big, hulking servers and mainframe computers, even beat out
Microsoft (38 points) and Google (55), whose products are composed
entirely of electrons. Apple, which has taken heat from Greenpeace for
the allegedly toxic chemicals in its iPhone, scored a pathetic 11 out of
100.
more ...
Viacom, Google set for fight to bitter end over Safe Harbor - Ars Technica
It has been just over a year since Viacom launched its $1 billion
lawsuit against Google for "brazen disregard of intellectual property
laws" on YouTube. Although we haven't heard much news about the case as
of late, some fightin' words have come out of both sides recently to
indicate that the case is still going strong. There's no sign of an
impending settlement, either, as Viacom is still beating the piracy drum
and Google continues to stand its ground. Because of this, the eventual
outcome of the Viacom suit may set a legal precedent that could send
ripples throughout the entire Internet.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:49 PM MDT | Updated: 07 May 2008 5:04 PM MDT
Tags: Civil Liberties Computing Environment News
| | Permalink

09 April 2008
.: watercooler :.
The Eligible-Bachelor Paradox - Slate
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the available, sociable, and
genuinely attractive man is a character highly in demand in social
settings. Dinner hosts are always looking for the man who fits all the
criteria. When they don't find him (often), they throw up their hands
and settle for the sociable but unattractive, the attractive but
unsociable, and, as a last resort, for the merely available.
more ...
Defendants: RIAA's private eyes are watching us - illegally - Ars Technica
Last week a pair of rulings further muddied the waters around the RIAA's
argument that making a file available over a P2P network constitutes
distribution as defined by the Copyright Act. This week, the hot issue
is the role that MediaSentry plays in the RIAA's legal campaign and
whether the company should be licensed as a private investigator. A pair
of defendants in separate cases are arguing that the company does need a
license and that all evidence gathered by it should be excluded. The
RIAA, in turn, is arguing that no license is necessary—and that even if
MediaSentry's evidence was obtained illegally, it should still be
admissible.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 6:41 PM MDT | Updated: 09 April 2008 8:18 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

23 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
Rick Rolled to child porn = you're a pedophile, says FBI - Ars Technica
Everyone has had it happen to them: a "friend" sends you a link in IM or
over IRC that purports to be something like a cat in an awkward position
with a hilarious caption. Soon, however, you discover that the link
wasn't to a lolcat at all; instead, you've been Rick Rolled—or even
worse, sent to 2girls1cup (find it on your own, but be warned: it may
scar you for life). These pranks are commonplace now, but be careful of
what you click on and from whom. If that link points to anything even
pretending to be child porn, that's enough evidence for the FBI of
intent to download it. The authorities could then raid your home and
possibly throw you in jail.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:03 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

18 March 2008
.: he never grew up, but he never stopped growing :.
I was sad to read upon my arriving home from work today that Arthur C. Clark (1917-2008) passed away this morning. I am not going to try to put into words what many others have already done, much more eloquently.
Childhood's end: Arthur C. Clarke passes away at age 90 - Ars Techinica
Arthur C. Clarke, Premier Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90 - NY Times
The last rendezvous with Arthur C. Clarke - Salon
A global figure, Arthur C Clarke never lost his sense of wonder - Times
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 8:22 PM MDT | Updated: 18 March 2008 8:45 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

13 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
House to close its doors for spying bill - AP
House doors were locked Thursday night as lawmakers prepared for their
first closed session in 25 years to debate surveillance legislation.
Republicans
requested privacy for what they termed "an honest debate" on the new
Democratic eavesdropping bill that is opposed by the White House and
most Republicans in Congress.
more ...
Inspector general: FBI not embracing privacy safeguards - C|Net
The FBI has wielded the Patriot Act's extraordinary surveillance powers
to unlawfully collect information about American citizens and has
resisted some efforts to impose additional privacy safeguards, according
to the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 9:24 PM MDT | Updated: 13 March 2008 9:34 PM MDT
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink

10 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data - Wall Street Journal
Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism
program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to
search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an
intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
more ...
~
EMI to slash antipiracy funding, but will stick with IFPI - Ars Technica
After spending a few months on the fence and even threatening to leave
the group, major record label EMI has decided to stick with the IFPI and
will continue contributing to the group's operations. The support comes
at a price for the IFPI, however, as EMI and the other labels will slash
their funding for the industry group's antipiracy effort.
more ...
~
A Space Robot With Arms to Make R2D2 Jealous - New York Times
Anyone who has followed science fiction knows that a good long-duration
spacecraft has to have a robot. The space shuttle Endeavour takes off
for the space station on Tuesday with a large, Canadian-made robot named
Dextre in its cargo bay. Endeavour’s seven-member crew will assemble the
robot during three of the mission’s five scheduled spacewalks.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 5:52 PM MDT
Tags: News
| | Permalink

09 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
Bad Phorm? UK ISPs to sell clickstream data to advertisers - Ars Technica
Deep packet inspection gear has long had the ability to peer inside
users' datastreams to pull out all sorts of interesting information, but
a UK company called Phorm is taking DPI to the next level by using it to
sell ads. The company's ambitious goal: segment users into small and
highly-accurate "channels" by reading the URLs they visit, the search
terms they use, and the content of the pages they visit. The resulting
channels are then sold to advertisers who are salivating at the thought
of better targeting. Actual users are predictably less thrilled,
however, and a row over the issue has erupted in Britain.
more ...
AP probe finds drugs in drinking water - Associated Press
A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics,
anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in
the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an
Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations
of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per
billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also,
utilities insist their water is safe.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 7:07 PM MDT | Updated: 09 March 2008 10:42 PM MDT
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

07 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips - Ars Technica
The United States has often presented itself as the guardian of Internet
free speech. China may censor the Internet, and otherwise-civilized
nations such as Germany or France may attempt to block what they view as
unacceptable material, but the United States of America likes to think
of itself as a place that doesn't censor people online... unless you
happen to own a foreign travel business that offers trips to Cuba. Under
such circumstances, as Steve Marshall discovered, all bets are off.
more ...
Google pulls some map images at Pentagon's request - Reuters
Google Inc has complied with a request by the Pentagon to remove some
online images from its street-level map service because they pose a
security threat to U.S. military bases, military and company officials
said on Thursday.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 1:33 PM MST | Updated: 07 March 2008 6:18 PM MST
Tags: News
| | Permalink

06 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a High-Speed Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier - Wired
Quantico A U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct,
high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing
customers' voice calls, data packets and physical movements to
uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant
who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003.
more ...
Free WiFi comes at a price in Denver International Airport - Ars Technica
The limitations of web filtering software have been extensively
documented; most software arbitrarily excludes sites with educational or
other sophisticated content, while clearly pornographic material
sporadically slips through. Oddly, the limitations haven't stopped
organizations or, in the case of Australia, an entire government from
attempting to deploy them. The international airport in Denver recently
took the plunge and started using filtering software when they converted
their WiFi network to free access. The results are an excellent
illustration of what leads an organization to choose a solution that's
annoying, arbitrary, and ineffective.
more ...
More FBI privacy violations confirmed - Associated Press
The FBI acknowledged it improperly accessed Americans' telephone
records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth
straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed
at tracking terrorists and spies.
more ...
KY Rep. Seeks To Ban Anonymous Blogging - WebProNews
... Kentucky state representative Tim Couch (R-Hyden), introduced a bill
to the General Assembly that would bar Kentuckians from anonymously
commenting on Websites, or via their own blogs. The bill would require
anyone leaving a comment to provide their real name, address, and email
address to the website on which they wish to comment. Website operators
would be required to enforce this policy or face fines.
more ...
Bugs Bunny vs. Daffy Duck: Why voters always choose the wascally wabbit for president - Slate
How did we reach the point at which Sen. Clinton, the clear Democratic
front-runner six months ago, needs clear wins in Texas and Ohio to mute
the calls for her to end her campaign?
... And here's another
explanation for this remarkable reversal of fortune, one that represents
for me one of the few really reliable rules of presidential political
warfare: Bugs Bunny always beats Daffy Duck.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 12:08 AM MST | Updated: 06 March 2008 1:44 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News Politics
| | Permalink

05 March 2008
.: the fisa fight - it's all about the internet & emails :.
Spying Fight about Emails, Not Phone Calls, DOJ Reveals - Wired
In the end, it turns out it's all about the emails.
The fight in Congress and the big push for expanded wiretapping powers
has nothing to do with intercepting foreign-to-foreign phone calls
inside the United States without a court order. In fact, it turns out
that the nation's secret wiretapping court is fine with that.
more ...
FISA and Total Online Awareness - MojoBlog
New questions have arisen about what, exactly, the government hopes to
surveil.
... And indeed, that would seem to be a big problem. Back in August
2007, an extremely large, bipartisan majority in Washington sought to
make an extremely small, technical change to FISA to account for the
fact that the NSA can't know, a priori, where the recipient of a call
will be located: Under the theoretical terms of the agreement, the NSA
would be allowed to listen to calls of foreign origin making their way
through a U.S. switch. If the recipient happened to be in a foreign
country, surveillance could continue unmolested. If the recipient
happened to be located in the U.S., then the NSA could either continue
surveillance with a warrant, or minimize the data.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 12:37 PM MST | Updated: 05 March 2008 4:16 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink
.: watercoooler :.
What piracy crisis? MPAA touts record box office for 2007 - Ars Technica
... But this sort of thing has become crucial to the MPAA. Take a look
at the group's homepage; nearly everything is about copyrights and
piracy. The MPAA routinely asserts that the movie business is being
decimated by piracy, but the press release announcing the Weekly Reader
deal sits just below a far more interesting piece of news (PDF): data
that shows the US box office doing its biggest year of business ever in
2007, growing 5.4 percent over 2006 and bringing in $9.63 billion.
more ...
Comcast Must Die - MojoBlog
Comcast, the cable TV giant, has given its customers lots of reasons to
hate the company. They've refused to embrace a la carte programming,
charged people $2 to stop sending them junk mail, wrecked people's
credit reports, falsely advertised its Internet speed and generally
abused the people who pay for its services. Comcast's customer service
problems are so acute that Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield
started a blog called Comcast Must Die to compile all the gripes about
the company from consumers. But Comcast doesn't really need any help
generating bad press.
more ...
AT&T's degrading service and my landlord’s ban on Comcast - ZDNet
With all the negative attention headed towards Comcast lately, AT&T's
problems seem to be slipping below the radar. Unfortunately for me,
those problems are first hand for me as I'm personally suffering
degradations in speed. As if getting 1200 Kbps downstream on a so-called
1500 Mbps service and all those outage problems (example here and here)
weren't bad enough, my AT&T DSL service has declined. I suppose I could
count myself lucky compared to my Mom's neighbor who only got 320 Kbps
service after AT&T unilaterally and without permission "upgraded" his
bill to the 1500 Mbps service without upgrading his performance.
more ...
Great news for Microsoft: Zunes stolen! - ZDNet
Providing yet another sign that Apple's iPod is the audio and video
platform, a policy think-tank on Tuesday said that thefts of the media
player have skewed crime statistics. Microsoft wishes it had that
publicity.
more ...
The Gaza Bombshell - Vanity Fair
After failing to anticipate Hamas's victory over Fatah in the 2006
Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously
covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part
Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged
former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President
Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott
Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan,
touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than
ever.
more ...
Could a Coffee Maker Be Worth $11,000? - Slate
The New York Times used words like "cult object," "majestic," and
"titillating"; the Economist called it "ingenious" and "sleek." The
subject of these encomiums is, incongruously, a commercial coffee
machine—the Clover 1s, an $11,000 device that brews regular coffee (not
espresso) one cup at a time. Could the Clover represent that much of an
advance in the state of the coffee art? I had to try it for myself.
more ...
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 10:08 AM MST | Updated: 05 March 2008 4:14 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties Computing Ect... News Politics
| | Permalink

04 March 2008
.: watercooler :.
Immune Systems Increasingly On Attack - Washington Post
First, asthma cases shot up, along with hay fever and other common
allergic reactions, such as eczema. Then, pediatricians started seeing
more children with food allergies. Now, experts are increasingly
convinced that a suspected jump in lupus, multiple sclerosis and other
afflictions caused by misfiring immune systems is real.
Gary Gygax, 1938-2008: Rest in peace, Dungeon Master - Crave
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and one of the fathers of
tabletop role-playing games, died on Tuesday at the age of 69. He had
suffered from heart problems.
Windows-based cash machines 'easily hacked' - ZDNet
Security experts have hacked ATMs to show how easy it is to steal money
and bank account details from modern cash machines. ATMs, or automated
teller machines, today face the Internet-born threat of worms and
denial-of-service attacks, as well as being at risk from malicious
applications that can harvest customer data or hijack machines.
Why spam isn't going away soon (Hint: Blame the Storm worm) - C|Net
Recently, Symantec said in its February 2008 State of Spam report that
78.5 percent of all e-mail is spam; they also said most of that is now
coming from Europe. That's a change from previous reports that had
suggested servers in North America were responsible. What the Symantec
report doesn't explicitly state is that much of the European spam
doesn't come from individuals sitting at their desks pumping out lists.
Europe is one of the hotbeds for the Storm worm botnet, notorious for
automatically co-opting its victims into spam relays.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 11:53 AM MST | Updated: 04 March 2008 6:40 PM MST
Tags: Computing News
| | Permalink

28 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
New supercomputer is a rack of PlayStations - The Sydney Morning Herald
When the PlayStation3 was released in November 2006, Gaurav Khanna's
wife braved long queues so he could be one of the first people in the US
to get his hands on the gaming console. But the astrophysicist was not
itching to burn some rubber in Gran Turismo or shoot hoops in NBA 07.
Instead he wanted to build his own supercomputer.
Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison - Washington Post
More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison,
an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a
year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal
government, according to a report released today.
No impact from Energy Saving Day - BBC
The UK's first Energy Saving Day has ended with no noticeable reduction
in the country's electricity usage. E-Day asked people to switch off
electrical devices they did not need over a period of 24 hours, with the
National Grid monitoring consumption.
In Norway, Global Seed Vault guards genetic resources - IHT
With plant species disappearing at an alarming rate, scientists and
governments are creating a global network of plant banks to store seeds
and sprouts - precious genetic resources that may be needed for man to
adapt the world's food supply to climate change.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 6:34 PM MST | Updated: 28 February 2008 7:09 PM MST
Tags: Computing Environment News
| | Permalink

27 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
How To Be a Better BrowserCan a new filtering program cure the Web's information overload? - Slate
In a scant four years, the Internet, my beloved wellspring of
information, has blown its top and become a geyser. Back in 2004, I
heaped praise on an exciting new system called RSS. The "Really Simple
Syndication" format promised to be TiVo for Web surfers - by
automatically pulling content from all your favorite blogs and news
sites, an RSS reader would make your Web surfing more fruitful and more
efficient. While that prospect sounded enticing at the time, RSS has
turned out to be more of a problem than a solution. As of this moment, I
have 897 unread RSS items. I don't need a way to read more of the Net. I
need a way to see less of it.
Yahoo sued by Chinese dissidents again - C|Net
Yahoo faces another lawsuit over its actions in China. Several Chinese
men are suing the company and its Hong Kong subsidiary claiming they
were harmed because of Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government.
The Internet, Politics and Power of the People - LinuxInsider
Forty-two percent of people 18 to 29 say they regularly learn about the
campaign from the Internet, and 20 percent of those below 30 have gotten
campaign information from social networking sites such as MySpace and
Facebook, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, a
non-partisan organization studying social issues, attitudes and trends.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:44 PM MST | Updated: 27 February 2008 5:41 PM MST
Tags: News
| | Permalink

25 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
The Satellite Shootdown: Behind the Scenes - US News & World Report
Capt. R. M. Hendrickson stepped across the deck of the guided missile
cruiser USS Lake Erie last Saturday afternoon to a bank of ballistic
missile launch tubes, motioning to the particular 2-by-2-foot location
from which a missile flew from the ship positioned at the time some 420
miles northwest of Hawaii.
F.C.C. to Act on Delaying of Broadband Traffic - NY Times
The head of the Federal Communications Commission and other senior
officials said on Monday that they were considering taking steps to
discourage cable and telephone companies from discriminating against
content providers as the broadband companies go about managing heavy
Internet traffic that they say is clogging their networks.
Survey: Many Americans Switch Faith Identity - Washington Post
Forty-four percent of Americans have either switched their religious
affiliation since childhood or dropped out of any formal religious
group, according to the largest recent survey on American religious
identification.
US to set 'binding' climate goals - BBC
The US is ready to accept "binding international obligations" on
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials say, if other nations do
the same.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:20 PM MST | Updated: 25 February 2008 4:39 PM MST
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

23 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
Putin's Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates His Opponents - NY Times
Shortly before parliamentary elections in December, foremen fanned out
across the sprawling GAZ vehicle factory here, pulling aside
assembly-line workers and giving them an order: vote for President
Vladimir V. Putin's party or else. They were instructed to phone in
after they left their polling places. Names would be tallied, defiance
punished.
Move Over, Oil, There's Money in Texas Wind - NY Times
The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks's ranch are
twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as
the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he
is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76
more on the way.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 10:44 AM MST | Updated: 23 February 2008 11:04 PM MST
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

22 February 2008
.: british bookies on the us presidential election :.
via The Reporters on BBC.com
Ohio Democratic Primary
Barack Obama 5/6
Hillary Clinton 5/6
Election Winner
Democrats 1/2
Republicans 6/4
Independent 20/1
Who will be elected U.S. President?
Barack Obama 8/11
John McCain 6/4
Hillary Clinton 6/1
Michael
Bloomberg 20/1
Mike Huckabee 33/1
Ron Paul 150/1
Democratic Candidate
Barack Obama 1/6
Hillary Clinton 7/2
Republican Candidate
John McCain 1/50
Mike Huckabee 14/1
Ron Paul 200/1
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 12:08 PM MST
Tags: News Politics
| | Permalink
.: watercooler :.
Secret Service defends security at Obama rally in Dallas - Star-Telegram
The U.S. Secret Service on Friday defended its handling of security
during a massive rally in downtown Dallas for Barack Obama, saying there
was no "lapse" in its "comprehensive and layered security plan," which
called for some people to be checked for weapons, while others were not.
GOP politics in a nutshell - Glenn Greenwald/Salon
The House Republicans have produced a new dramatic ad (below)
complaining about expiration of The Protect America Act and demanding
immediate passage of the Cheney/Rockefeller Senate bill -- thus vesting
in the government the power to spy on us with no warrants and vesting in
the telecom industry license to break the law with no consequences -- as
the only way for us to avoid imminent, violent death (h/t Kathryn Jean
Lopez). The ad -- entitled "America at Risk" -- should immediately be
mounted on a museum wall under a plaque that reads: "The Republican
Party in the U.S., 2001-2008 (and counting)."
Will you trust your medical information to Google? - ZDNet
The Cleveland Clinic has announced a partnership with Google that will
essentially be a soft launch of the long-awaited Google Health personal
health record service. Privacy concerns may not be too far behind.
If it can happen to a Governor ... - Daily Kos
One of the most shocking stories to grow out of the U.S. attorney firing
scandal was the case of Alabama's former Democratic governor, Don
Siegelman. Seigelman was convicted on corruption charges last year. That
conviction, and the pressure that came from the Bush Justice Department
to secure it, has been a focus of Congressional hearings, and now a 60
Minutes story that will air on Sunday.
... If you haven't heard of this case, or aren't 100% clear on its
details, you owe it to yourself as an American, as a voter, or just as
an educated, capable adult human being with any amount of political
awareness, to make yourself familiar with this travesty. CBS will only
go so far in helping you do it.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 11:57 AM MST | Updated: 22 February 2008 4:47 PM MST
Tags: News Politics
| | Permalink

21 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
Reviewing the RIAA's "Reefer Madness" for the digital age - Ars Technica
We attended a special screening last night of In Trial: Prosecuting
Music Piracy, the first feature-length film produced by the National
District Attorneys Association in collaboration with the Recording
Industry Association of America. Prosecuting Music Piracy is a sordid
tale of drugs, terrorism, and technology that artfully challenges
society's preconceived notions about justice.
S braces for diplomatic backlash after rendition flight fiasco with Britain - Newsweek
The Bush administration is bracing for a diplomatic backlash after
conceding it used British territory to transport suspected terrorists on
secret rendition flights despite repeated earlier assurances the U.S.
had not.
Google lunar challenge gets under way - C|Net
A privately funded race to land a rover on the moon could cost each team
well more than the $20 million grand prize they're vying for, but all of
the contestants view Google's Lunar X Prize as a new engine for business
in space.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:57 PM MST | Updated: 21 February 2008 7:07 PM MST
Tags: News
| | Permalink

19 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
Fidel Castro retires - Reuters
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return
to lead the communist country, retiring as president 49 years after he
seized power in a revolution and became a central figure of the Cold War.
Sign of a faltering economy? Feds to close economic indicator site - Computerworld
It may soon be harder to track whether the U.S. is in fact sliding into
a recession with the closing of the U.S. Department of Commerce's
EconomicIndicators.gov Web site. The site provides a public portal to
key economic indicator data from the government.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 8:12 AM MST | Updated: 19 February 2008 8:30 AM MST
Tags: News
| | Permalink

18 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
RIAA, MPAA: Be Careful what you Wish For - ITWire
Schemes are being hatched to make it harder and harder to download
copyrighted material across the internet. Seems they will be just as
successful as the method to stop people recording CDs to tape in the
"old days." And just as ludicrous.
Fat Chance: Obesity, genetics, and responsibility - Slate
"Nature tops nurture in childhood obesity," a wire story announced last
week. The article's first sentence reported that according to a new
study, "Diet and lifestyle play a far smaller role than genetic factors
in determining whether a child becomes overweight."
Glitch lets FBI look at slew of e-mail - SFGate
A technical glitch gave the FBI access to the e-mail messages from an
entire computer network - perhaps hundreds of accounts or more - instead
of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret
intelligence court as part of a national security investigation,
according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.
Whistle-blower site taken offline - BBC
A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post
government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US.
Inside the Bizarre World of Japanese Pickup Schools - Wired
Satoshi Fujita is not a good-looking man. He has oily skin, beady eyes,
short legs and a boy-band wig to cover his balding head. But that hasn't
stopped him from becoming Japan's most sought-after dating coach for
geeks.
Many, Perhaps Most, Nearby Sun-Like Stars May Form Rocky Planets - NASA
Astronomers have discovered that terrestrial planets might form around
many, if not most, of the nearby sun-like stars in our galaxy. These new
results suggest that worlds with potential for life might be more common
than we thought.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 10:13 AM MST | Updated: 18 February 2008 6:42 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink

15 February 2008
.: watercooler :.
Under fire, Democrats seek end to spy law feud - C|Net
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have already stood up to
President Bush this week, refusing to approve a controversial Senate
bill that would immunize telephone companies from lawsuits alleging
illegal spying. Now they're being forced to defend their actions against
those who contend that inaction endangers national security--and who
wonder what happens next.
Get Ready for a Crackdown on Broadband Use - PC World
As traffic increases, experts say ISPs may start charging by the
gigabyte, limiting use of some services and snooping at the data passing
through their networks.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 9:27 AM MST | Updated: 15 February 2008 2:54 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink

14 February 2008
.: did the house democracts finally get a back bone? :.
If they did, it's about damb time. What the hell have they been waiting for?
Eavesdropping Law Is Likely to Lapse - NYT
Broad spying powers temporarily approved by Congress in August appear
likely to lapse this week after a daylong game of chicken on Wednesday
between the White House and House Democrats produced no clear resolution.
Bush, GOP Rebuke House Democrats on Surveillance Bill* - Washingon Post
House Democrats have decided to leave Washington today for a one-week
recess without any further action on a terrorist surveillance bill set
to expire Friday night, drawing protest tactics from Republicans and a
sharp rebuke from President Bush.
House set to let warrantless eavesdropping law lapse - CSM
Neither the White House nor House Democrats blinked in a standoff over
renewal of a controversial eavesdropping law, now on track to expire at
midnight Saturday.
President Bush said Thursday that failure to update the Protect America
Act will "harm our ability to monitor new terrorist activities and could
reopen dangerous gaps in our intelligence."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in response, dubbed such talk
fear-mongering. The president has every authority to continue needed
eavesdropping under another law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA), she said. Moreover, the authorities granted under the
temporary surveillance law enacted in August will carry on for a year,
she added.
President Bush is putting a lot of FUD out there about how our country will be in danger because of this impass. Harry Reid and Silvestre Reyes have written letters to the President concerning his recent remarks. Read them here.
* Be sure to read the comments - there are some really good ones.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 3:27 PM MST | Updated: 14 February 2008 5:14 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink
.: watercooler :.
A secret to drying clothes? Liquid. - C|Net
Clothes dryers are the second biggest hog of household energy, according
to the Department of Energy. Most are so similar in terms of power
hunger that the Energy Star label of efficient appliances doesn't even
mark dryers.
By this fall, however, consumers could enjoy faster,
greener and safer clothes dryers that draw half the power of
conventional models, according to Hydromatic Technologies Corporation.
Its
Dryer Miser technology would dry garments 41 percent more quickly
without shrinking as much or stinking them up with the odor of burnt
lint, said Michael Brown, the inventor and company president.
U.S. Plans to Shoot Down Broken Spy Satellite - Washington Post
President Bush, acting on the advice of his national security advisers,
has decided to attempt to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite that
is expected to crash to the Earth by early next month.
Senate Approves Telco Amnesty, Legalizes Bush's Secret Spy Program - Wired
The Senate overwhelming voted Tuesday evening to legalize President
Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and grant amnesty to the phone
companies that helped out with the domestic spying..
Comcast: Bloggers keep us honest - C|Net
After months of lying and evading our questions, Comcast seems to have
developed a love affair with the blogosphere. Is this an early
Valentine's Day present for bloggers, or is the company up to its usual
tricks?
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 11:33 AM MST | Updated: 14 February 2008 5:36 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties News
| | Permalink

05 February 2008
.: start up those bad habits again! :.
Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says - AP/Wired
Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save
money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy
people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters
the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments
millions of dollars.
"It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the
Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment,
who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then
you cost the health system more."
In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science
Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin
and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either
fat people or smokers.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 11:29 AM MST
Tags: News
| | Permalink

03 February 2008
.: the "brutal carrot-and-stick" letter to yahoo!'s board of directors :.
January 31, 2008
Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA
94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang,
Chief Executive Officer
Dear Members of the Board:
I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft's closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.
Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.
We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!'s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft's share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.
Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.
In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that "now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction." According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board's confidence in the "potential upside" if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.(1)
While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers.(2) Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:
- Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.
- Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search index and single advertising platform.(4) Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that today neither of our companies has on its own.
- Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of the combined entity.
- Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.
We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.(3a)
We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.
Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.
In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.
Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.(3b)
We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.
Sincerely yours,
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation
* Highlights are from various sources including: ZDNet,
AdWeek,
(1)
- Laying the ground work for a hostile takeover.
(2) - Google
(3)
- Ballmer driving a wedge between the board and stock holders
(4) -
need for scale to compete in the digital ad market.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 1:23 PM MST
Tags: Ect... News
| | Permalink

30 January 2008
.: watercooler :.
French police deal blow to Microsoft - AFP
The French paramilitary police force said Wednesday it is ditching
Microsoft for the free Linux operating system, becoming one of the
biggest administrations in the world to make the break.
Your First Steps with Linux - Terminally Incoherent
Over the years I think I helped to influence few people here and there
to actually start experimenting with linux. I count that as a personal
success. I’m sure I was not the primary influence in most cases, but I’m
glad I could help people to start tinker with the new OS
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 12:18 PM MST | Updated: 30 January 2008 12:23 PM MST
Tags: Computing Linux News
| | Permalink

28 January 2008
.: watercooler :.
It's Time To Drink Toilet Water - Slate
Officials in Orange County, Calif., will attend opening ceremonies today
for the world's largest water-purification project, among the first
"toilet-to-tap" systems in America. The Groundwater Replenishment System
is designed to take sewage water straight from bathrooms in places like
Costa Mesa, Fullerton, and Newport Beach and—after an initial cleansing
treatment—send it through $490 million worth of pipes, filters, and
tanks for purification. The water then flows into lakes in nearby
Anaheim, where it seeps through clay, sand, and rock into aquifers in
the groundwater basin. Months later, it will travel back into the homes
of half a million Orange County residents, through their kitchen taps
and showerheads.
Crayons Down! - MotherJones
If there is a creature more fickle than your typical four-year-old, it's
hard to think of one offhand. One day they're buttoning their own shirts
and uttering words of ancient wisdom, and the next they're pooping on
the living room floor because monsters have invaded the bathroom. They
are immune to logic and can barely sit still long enough to nibble a
chicken nugget. In a nutshell, "standardized" and "preschooler" are not
words you'd normally use in the same sentence.
In Endorsing Obama, Kennedy Anoints a Prince and Tells Clintons To Cool It - MotherJones
Democrats don't come much more traditional than Teddy Kennedy, the grand
man of the Democratic Party. So his endorsement of Barack
Obama--implicitly an anti-endorsement of Hillary Clinton--has punch.
Endorsements routinely don't matter much in presidential campaigns--with
a few exceptions. A politician who controls a machine--say, a
governor--can come in quite handy on Election Day. In this case, Kennedy
brings two piping hot dishes to the Obama potluck.
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 4:14 PM MST | Updated: 28 January 2008 5:42 PM MST
Tags: Environment News
| | Permalink

24 January 2008
.: watercooler :.
The Tao of ScreenIn search of the distraction-free desktop - Slate
If your computer desktop is anything like mine - and, brother, it is -
you've paved over every spare pixel in an iconistan of clutter. Desktop
design originated in a wistful visual metaphor, the clean, still work
surface, encouraging users to productive ends. Leaps forward in
computing horsepower and the rise of constant Internet use has
transformed the tabletop terra firma into a cockpit, an antic terminal
for the networked self. Our desktops are now a thick impasto of tabbed
windows, pull-down menus, dashboard widgets, and application alerts. No
possible distraction gets left behind, no link, feed, IM, twitter, or
poke unheeded.
Senate Delays Eavesdropping Vote - AP/US News
The Senate granted at least a temporary victory to the White House on
Thursday, turning back an attempt to increase court oversight of the
government's surveillance of phone calls and e-mails that involve people
inside the United States.
Rising Anti-Americanism in Russia - US News
Vladimir Dobrovinsky, 33, a teacher at a design school in Moscow, says
he's not interested in politics. But bring up America and the
well-traveled, university-educated Dobrovinsky holds forth. He
criticizes Washington's "crude interference" in world affairs. He
complains that Russia is not treated as an important partner by the Bush
administration. "A lot of Russians," he says, "are angry that America
deals with us like we're Thailand."
Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs? - NY Times
It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history
of cosmology, if not science. If true, it would mean that you yourself
reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in
a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past
born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled
cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are
illusions.
U.S. Given Poor Marks on the Environment - NY Times
A new international ranking of environmental performance puts the United
States at the bottom of the Group of 8 industrialized nations and 39th
among the 149 countries on the list.
Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo model - Reuters
Entrepreneur Richard Branson on Wednesday unveiled a model of the
spaceship he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into
space on a regular basis as soon as next year.
Geophysicists Urge Steep Cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Scientific American
The scientists of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) warn that
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be slashed in half to keep
temperatures from rising 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius)—or
else. "Warming greater than 2 degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels
is projected to be disruptive, reducing global agricultural
productivity, causing widespread loss of biodiversity and - if sustained
over centuries - melting much of the Greenland ice sheet with ensuing
rise in sea levels of several meters," the AGU declares in its first
statement in four years on "Human Impacts on Climate."
~ ~ ~
Posted by: dimbulb - 5:43 PM MST | Updated: 24 January 2008 7:08 PM MST
Tags: Civil Liberties Computing Environment News
| | Permalink
.: and why hasn't our president been impeached? :.
Ann Telnaes - 24 January 2008
935 Iraq Falsehoods - Washington Post
A nonprofit group pursuing old-fashioned accountability journalism is
out with a new report and database documenting 935 false statements by
President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration
officials hyping the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the two
years after Sept. 11, 2001.
The Center for Public Integrity reports that its "exhaustive examination
of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated
campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process,
led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
The database also documents how Bush and others had reason to know, or
at least suspect, what they were saying was not supported by the facts.
John H. Cushman Jr. writes in the New York Times: "There is no startling
new information in the archive, because all the documents have been
published previously. But the new computer tool is remarkable for its
scope, and its replay of the cresce