Lewis Libby named as source for CIA leak

I Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, who is chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was a source for a story surrounding the leaking of the name of a CIA operative.

The New York Times named Libby on Friday after he released the journalist from the confidentiality promised him. The journalist, Judith Miller, however had to spend the past twelve weeks in jail for refusing to disclose her source, before Libby stepped in.

Miller has now been released from jail and will testify before a grand jury on Friday morning.

The case has important implications for the Bush administration, the CIA, and the media. The story began when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger to investigate a document that had surfaced from foreign sources which alleged Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium enrichment for a nuclear bomb. The CIA had been requested to initiate an investigation on the instructions of Vice President Dick Cheney's office, after Cheney himself had raised the matter at a briefing.

Wilson subsequently visited Niger and reported back that the document could not be substantiated, nor could the allegation, which he declared was baseless. Despite Wilson's report, the claim was used by President Bush in his State of the Union address in January 2003 to bolster support for the invasion of Iraq.

Wilson subsequently went public to denounce the claim, and at the same time denouncing the war in Iraq.

Shortly after, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was named by two journalists, Miller and Bob Cooper of Time magazine, as a CIA operative. Wilson alleged his wife's 'outing' was in retribution for his going public, and alleged the White House was behind it. The disclosure of a CIA agent's name is a Federal offence.

Karl Rove has already been named.

iiiiiiii

I can't figure out what this site is all about.

Sorry Gotta Go

When You Absolutely, Positively Have to Get Off the Phone SorryGottaGo.com - Helps End Unending Phone Conversations.

The Web-based Office

recent ZDNet article predicts that desktop apps are on the way out. The reason is simply that 'no one works at their desktop anymore.'

While the article rightly points out that office people are spending more and more time on the Net, I don't agree with his conclusion that this necessarily signals the end of desktop apps - yet.

Google ends boycott of Cnet news service

Google ends boycott of Cnet news service.The search engine was irked over story on chief executive.

I'm not surprised at all that Google changed its mind,' said Mark Glaser, a columnist for the Online Journalism Review, an online newsletter by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. 'This whole thing was a big mistake on Google's part.'

The blackballing started after Cnet of San Francisco ran a story in July about potential privacy concerns over Google. As part of the story, News.com included personal details about Schmidt such as his net worth, political contributions and home town that were found by using his company's search engine.

Soon after, News.com's editor Jai Singh said, a Google spokesman called to object to the article's contents and then added that Google employees would not speak with Cnet's reporters until July 2006.

Three Miserable Mortgage Rip-offs!

Mortgage lending is a cut-throat market, forcing lenders to become more cunning. Have you been caught out by one of these sly tricks?

Cards To Suit Everyone

Whether you're looking for a balance transfer or cashback card, you can find the best deals around HERE

Opiate of the masses

It is a highly addictive drug, but governments everywhere encourage its use. Richard Dawkins, Professor of Public Understanding of science at Oxford, writes about Gerin oil (or Geriniol to give it its scientific name).

I was prompted to write this article by the smiling face of a very happy man in Bali (see picture). He was ecstatically greeting the news that he was to be executed by firing squad for the brutal murder of large numbers of innocent holidaymakers whom he had never met. Some people in the court were shocked at his lack of remorse. But far from remorseful, his mood was one of obvious exhilaration. He punched the air, delirious with joy that he was to be "martyred," to use the jargon of his particular sub-culture of Gerin oil substance-abusers. For, make no mistake about it, this beatific smile, looking forward with unalloyed pleasure to the firing squad, is the smile of a junkie. Here we have the archetypal mainliner, doped up with hard, unrefined, unadulterated, high-octane Gerin oil.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that:

Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

Carlo M. Cipolla explains in detail.

James Boyle: intellectual property law

James Boyle points out the misgivings in how intellectual property rules are formulated:

First and most lamentably, intellectual property laws are created without any empirical evidence that they are necessary or that they will help rather than hurt. Second, the policymaking process has failed to keep track of the increasing importance of intellectual property rights to everything from freedom of expression and communications policy to economic development or access to educational materials. We still make law as though it were just a deal brokered between industry groups – balancing the interests of content companies with those of broadcasters, for example. The public interest in competition, access, free speech and vigorous technological markets takes a back seat. What matters is making the big boys happy. Finally, communications networks are increasingly built around intellectual property rules, as law regulates technology more and more directly; not always to good effect.

The biggest treasure find in history

An article in The Guardian says a long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (£5.6bn).

Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) Indicted

A Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday on a charge of criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington.

The indictment forced DeLay, one of the Republicans' most powerful leaders and fundraisers, to step aside under House rules barring such posts to those accused of criminal conduct. Full Story...

Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman may well be the two most interesting people creating popular culture right now. Whedon is the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and he wrote and directed the science fiction film Serenity, which opens Sept. 30th. Gaiman created the instant-classic comic book Sandman, and he's the author of the new novel Anansi Boys, out this month. He has a new movie, Mirrormask, which also opens Sept. 30. They chatted on the phone together—chaperoned by TIME's Lev Grossman—about their work, their fans, their Klingon bodyguards and, of course, Timecop.

Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant Squid

Like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel, an enormous tentacled creature looms out of the inky blackness of the deep Pacific waters.

But this isn't science fiction. A set of extraordinary images captured by Japanese scientists marks the first-ever record of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in the wild.

Religion and Society

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

shuttle, space station were mistakes

NASA head Michael Griffin said the space shuttle and the International Space Station were mistakes, and he believes the agency must change its path. Griffin made the remarks in a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. Griffin last week announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2018 in a spacecraft resembling the Apollo capsule. He has said the space shuttle was flawed and that the space station was not worth risking human life. USA TODAY (9/27)

Best remote controls

So you have a remote to turn on the TV, another to power up the cable box and a third to control the volume on your audio receiver. And don't forget the ones for the DVD, the TiVo and the VCR. Checks out the latest batch of remote controls that can run all your A/V.

Life of a one-man tech department

Mike McBride is about to celebrate the fourth anniversary of his blog. That's no mean feat, but what's even more impressive is that he's been able to do it as a one-man IT operation.

Farewell, Maxwell Smart

Don Adams, who as TV's Maxwell Smart lampooned spies, spy movies and an earlier generation of technology, has died

Replacing the PC with a cell phone

It's a radical notion that we've probably all considered: Could we ever use our cell phone as our home computer?

Banned Books Week

On the ALA’s website, you can view the 100 most banned books, buy a banned books bracelet and read all sorts of other interesting information.

Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

The Observer reports that armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?'

The worst song in the history of music

Truly, the worst. The artist is unknown, the title, as far as we can tell is "Symantec revolution" - it is a corporate bonding anthem by Symantec, providers of "sweet" internet security solutions. It is in the style of late-eighties/early-nineties power pop house. It is C + C Music Factory with an MBA.

Listen at your own risk.

Instant Pregnancies

And yes, I mean go have sex - just not with yourself. In a rather eyeopening article from Britain, doctors describe a new trend of "instant gratification" conception using IVF. People want everything now.

Top 50 Science Fiction Television

With the resurgence of science fiction shows this season, Boston.com has come up with the Top 50 science fiction shows of all time.

Think for a moment

“The man who can't visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot.” - André Breton

Don't Ask Jeeves

Ask Jeeves decides to axe Jeeves. Search site Ask Jeeves is getting rid of the iconic valet that has been its companion since its earliest days.

Mike Brown

How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?
A TIME inquiry finds that at top positions in some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting connections before experience

100 Greatest Mathematical Theorems

Here is the list of 100 Greatest mathematical Theorems. The Irrationality of the square root of two still amuses me.

Porn Squad

This is a very funny Washington Post article about the FBI ooking for recruits for the Anti-Porn Unit.

Yahoo! launches new Web-based mail

Yahoo! announced a limited beta test of its new Web-based mail product, integrating technology obtained from their acquisition of Oddpost last July. The beta is by invite only.

Read for more details.

GoogleTV is Coming

But questions abound...

What will the Google tools offer consumers, advertisers and the entertainment folks? And what will be the response of privacy advocates to the advertisement targeting?

Blogging For dollars

Wired has a more in-depth article on the subject of blogger salaries.

Des Lynam takes on Countdown

BBC News reports that Former sports presenter Des Lynam is to be the new host of Channel 4's daytime quiz show Countdown.

Lynam will follow in the footsteps of previous presenter Richard Whiteley, who died in June.

Thank God It’s Friday

It’s Friday. I’ve never really understood this ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ thing. I know that weekends let people spend more time with their families, but leaving that aside, the reason so many people get excited about the weekend is because they can’t stand the week.

The masses don’t like weekdays because they don’t like their jobs.

Don’t you think it’s a bit tragic that the majority of the population dislike five of the seven days they’re alive each week?

The old new

The BBC reports on the similarities of the iPod Mini and TR-1 transistor radio which was made in 1954. The Regency was the first commercially sold transistor pocket radio.

The similarity between the two has created quite a stir online. Some of those stirred by the debate definitely see the parallels.

"I'd say a good engineer learns from a good thing, not to say they copy it," says one member of community discussion site Digg.

"It'd also be decently safe to say that [Apple boss Steve] Jobs likes his old school design work, think about the iMac G4 for a sec; you've all heard the classic desk lamp reference. I could be really off base here, but look at how [animation firm] Pixar depicts certain common appliances/cars in films, pretty retro."

So is Apple a copycat? Well, the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes has a few words to say about novelty, fashion and innovation.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be:
And that which is done is that which shall be done:
And there is no new thing under the sun."

The Million Dollar Homepage Sells pixels

Alex Tew a 21 year old Englishman, setup up his website aptly titled Million Dollar Homepage. I think it is a great enterprising online idea The Million Dollar Homepage is an attempt by Alex, business student to pay his university fees by selling advertising on a site.

Handbook for Cyber-Dissidents

At the Reporters Without Borders website, you can now download a copy of their handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents… this document is specific for bloggers where topics like thouroughness, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and independence are dealt with.

Now that I got me the handbook i'm gonna go underground and overthrow the world with my pithy wit and cutting remarks.

Manolo Blahnik Feminism: The Right to Choo's

Chris Abraham laments what has become of feminism. In his Manolo Blahnik Feminism: The Right to Choo's article he writes:

"I understand how empowering strappy stilettos, butt jeans, bare bellies, and camisole tops are for the modern woman. It is all about taking back the sex, taking back the gaze, reclaiming the control of what is cute, what is hot, what is sexy, it about taking back control, reclaiming feelings of pride in the body, pride in the shape and tan earned from an active, outdoorsy life. That's all fine and good. Unfortunately, we men never got the memo. I never got the memo."

Precisely, there has never been a memo. Feminism does not include men on their agenda. Female empowerment is about out maneuvering men.

Some Women have tragically been transformed into raunchy teasing unsatisfied beings. Who is to blame? Wait for it, MEN!

Is George W. Bush Still Clean and Sober?

The National Enquirer accuses our clean and sober president, George W. Bush, of being off the wagon and drinking.

AdSense interface launched on Blogger

Blogger has just launched a new AdSense interface for bloggers on the Google Blogger/BlogSpot network, announced today on the official Blogger Buzz.

Never Pay Retail

This from Never Pay Retail:

Each day, today's regular New York Times op-ed columns will be noted, each with a post title indicating the name of the columnist and the Times's title for the column. As they become available-- usually within a few days-- at least one link will be added in the body of each post to a syndicated copy of the column from a news source that doesn't charge for access.
The Times continues to insists that this loophole won't last long...

Innocent in London

This gradual erosion of our fundamental liberties should be of concern to us all.

Nokia Milestone

My, we've come a long way from those 33-pound Mobira Talkmen, haven't we?
I don't know what's more astonishing, that Nokia's sold more than 1 billion handsets or that it sold its 1 billionth to someone in Nigeria. I have to ask: how did they know which phone it was?

The Googlization of Business

The 'googlization' of business is the subject of a new article by Joshua Stylman and Peter Hershberg. The first article in a three-part series takes a look at Google's impact on business dealings as they relate to Publishing. So check it out - The Googlization of Publishing.

Bet on Kate Moss arrest

Betmaker.com an online bookie is offering odds on Kate Moss' arrest following the announcement by the police that they were investigating whether kate Moss had been filmed taking cocaine.

Meanwhile, Kate Moss has issued a statement in which she says:

I take full responsibility for my actions. I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them.

"I want to apologise to all of the people I have let down because of my behaviour which has reflected badly on my family, friends, co-workers, business associates and others.

"I am trying to be positive, and the support and love I have received are invaluable."

Firm takes iPod Nano apart, discovers truth

Market research firm iSuppli takes iPod Nano apart and discovers truth that the cost of materials to build a nano iPod amounts to $90. The iPod Nano costs $400 when you buy it. The truth is in the detailed report which iSupply is selling.

The 10 Secrets of a Master Networker

If you're serious about developing word-of-mouth business, there is no quick fix; you must meet people in a planned and structured way. There are many types of networking groups out there.

Which groups should you join? The master networker shares his secrets of how and which ones to join.

I'm Oscar Dot Com

Arrested Development is one of the funniest shows on tv. One of the characters, George Bluth SR, mentioned the name of his website a few times. Low and behold imoscar.com.

TVgasm - Big Bother...

TVgasm's infatuation with Juli Chen, presenter of Big Brother has developed into a banal obsession. But First... play the clip to understand what the thrill is all a butt.

The Science Behind Swearing

The New York Times' writeup on cursing and its role in recent studies of the brain is fascinating.

Some researchers are so impressed by the depth and power of strong language that they are using it as a peephole into the architecture of the brain, as a means of probing the tangled, cryptic bonds between the newer, "higher" regions of the brain in charge of intellect, reason and planning, and the older, more "bestial" neural neighborhoods that give birth to our emotions.

Researchers point out that cursing is often an amalgam of raw, spontaneous feeling and targeted, gimlet-eyed cunning. When one person curses at another, they say, the curser rarely spews obscenities and insults at random, but rather will assess the object of his wrath, and adjust the content of the "uncontrollable" outburst accordingly.

Because cursing calls on the thinking and feeling pathways of the brain in roughly equal measure and with handily assessable fervor, scientists say that by studying the neural circuitry behind it they are gaining new insights into how the different domains of the brain communicate - and all for the sake of a well-venomed retort.

The urge to speak the unspeakable may be very complex. The person is gripped by a desire to curse, to voice something wildly inappropriate. Higher-order linguistic circuits are tapped, to contrive the content of the curse. The brain's impulse control center struggles to short-circuit the collusion between emotions system urge and the neural source, where decisions to act or desist from acting may be carried out, and it may succeed for a time.

Yet the urge mounts, until at last the speech pathways fire, the verboten is spoken, and archaic and refined brains alike must shoulder the blame.

'Everybody Hates Chris' is Rock solid

"Everybody Hates Chris" is a new sitcom series on UPN. The title, a playful flip of the just departed "Everybody Loves Raymond," is instantly understandable and likable.

So is the premise, which has Chris Rock narrating stories from his own adolescence - his own version of "Wonder Years," beginning in 1982, when he was the only black kid bussed to an otherwise all-white school.

More from New York Daily News...

Ten Hated Restaurant Trends

There was a time I enjoyed eating out, especially at places where young budding trendsetters congregated en masse. After queuing for God knows how long, you get crammed in on top of each other....can elbow person at next table. Feel a bit like being on conveyor belt...bums on seats with quick turnover to get next booking in and out unless, of course, you order an expensive champagne.

These latest
Restaurant trends spoil people's appetite.

Google Print and the Authors Guild

The Authors Guild has misguidedly brought a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and Google has responded.

Google Rank and 'Failure'

"If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House's official biographical page for President Bush. We've received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I'd like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these concerns.

Google's search results are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. By using a practice called googlebombing, however, determined pranksters can occasionally produce odd results. In this case, a number of webmasters use the phrases [failure] and [miserable failure] to describe and link to President Bush's website, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases. We don't condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we're also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up. "

-- Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products at Google, says President George W. Bush is likely to remain the butt of a long-running Googlebombing joke for the foreseeable future.

Educating Rita

Hurricane Rita, now upgraded to a Category 4 storm is swirling westward toward Texas and the already battered Gulf Coast. The tropical storm battering the US gulf coast reminds me of the the unstoppable bubbling Rita in the movie Educating Rita. I first saw the movie while at college and my perspective was naturally from a student's angle. Fast forward and I now see it from the professor's position.

Watching Rita (julie Walters) put Frank Bryant's(Michael Caine) emotionally crippled professor consistently on the spot is wonderful and insightful fun. This is probably because most of us, as adults, can whole-heartedly relate to him. He is lost, adrift in his own inadequacies and bathing in the boiling funk of his own cynicism. He is old, tired and defeated. Life has almost crushed him. Watching Walters' Rita resurrect him becomes the most wondrous and life-affirming story the screen may have ever given us.

Those of us who are older, who have become a little bit crusty and cynical, need a shot in the arm like this every once in a while to remind us of the overwhelming beauty of life...

When the storm is over there will be sunshine.

Bloggers Linked to Wikipedia

A BlogPulse analysis finds that Wikipedia, the user-created, collaborative online encyclopedia, is one of the hottest applications on the Internet. In fact, consumer references and blog links to Wikipedia have increased steadily and dramatically in the past few months, fuled by increased blog traffic and a need for real-time updates sbaout breaking news stories.

More than twice as many bloggers now refer to Wikipedia as they do to the more traditional term 'encyclopedia,' and a half-percent of all blog posts typically cite Wikipeda as a source of information. Bloggers, in fact, mention Wikipedia six times more frequently than they mention Encyclopedia Britannica's web site.

Source: blogpulse News

The Fearful Fool

"However, I want to set aside that question for a moment to once more ask an uncomfortable question: How much of your life do you want to put at Google's disposal?"
Why I Fear Google WiFi

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta

Another browser toolbar has been unleashed. This one promises to take you where other browser cannot reach. Here are Download details.

The Legend of Martha Zorro

Hollywood Reporter says that within 48 hours of Martha Stewart and everyone on her new syndicated daytime show "Martha" donning the now-famous poncho she wore upon her release from prison, viewers placed more than $375,000 worth of orders for the garment on http://www.Marthastewart.com.

I read somewhere that Catherine zeta Jones, the Zorro woman in a poncho, is set to play a high-powered chef in the romantic comedy-drama "Mostly Martha."

This brings a whole new meaning to cross-marketing dressing.

'greedy' music pricing

Apple boss Steve Jobs, the man behind the popular iPod digital music player, called the music industry greedy for considering hiking digital download prices, warning such a move would drive users back to piracy.

We have all known this fact way before iPod. The music industry does not understand technology channels. It relies on manipulation, threats and a big whip. It does not matter what Steve Jobs thinks or does, the music industry is sustained by greed. Simply put, what record labels want, record labels get.

Drug Abuse In The TV Industry

NYC blogger, Belle in the Big Apple has a rather sad account of graveyard-shift Fox News staffers doing coke to both survive the shift and alleviate the boredom.

Opera Feels Free

In case you haven’t read around the web yet, that not-so-oft mentioned other web browser is now free and is, at the very least worth, a download and a run. It is Opera, so go download it.

Talk Like A Pirate Day - How It All Began

I attended college in a Cornish Village in England. The campus was close to a town called Penzance which is lengendary for Pirates of Penzance. When I read about Talk Like a Pirate Day, a few memories flooded back and I have decided, one day soon, to revisit the pirates' town.
I wanted to learn a bit more about "talk like a pirate day" and why all the fuss. Apparently, it was started by a few guys while mucking around with a racquetball. One of the guy's came up with September 19, his ex-wife's birthday.

That's it? Arrrrr!

Google plans WiFi Service

According to Reuters, Internet search leader Google is preparing to launch its own wireless Internet service, Google WiFi, according to several pages found on the company's Web site on Tuesday.
The Google site refers to a product called 'Google Secure Access,' which is designed to 'establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi,' according to a frequently asked questions page (http://wifi.google.com/faq.html).
A separate page (http://wifi.google.com/download.html) offers a free download of Google Secure Access.

What to do when a PC goes wrong

Technovia provides a guide to your legal rights - in the UK - under the Sale of Good Act, and what to say to companies to get a replacement when they're dodging their obligations. It's good to know what you're entitled to, because some companies can be a total pain to deal with.

Wanted: psychopaths to make a killing in the markets

Research revealed that the best wheeler-dealers could well be "functional psychopaths". A team of U.S. scientists has found the emotionally impaired are more willing to gamble for high stakes and that people with brain damage may make good financial decisions.

In a study of investors' behavior 41 people with normal IQs were asked to play a simple investment game. Fifteen of the group had suffered lesions on the areas of the brain that affect emotions.

The result was those with brain damage outperformed those without.

It's not surprising that many company chiefs and top lawyers may also show they share the same trait.

TV Show Faces the Ugly Reality

A Texas woman has sued ABC's popular reality show "Extreme Makeover" for more than $1 million claiming among other things that an abrupt cancellation of her appearance on the program led to her sister's death.

The suit starts with the blunt description: "Deleese Williams is considered ugly" and says one doctor promised her "a Hollywood smile like Cindy Crawford."

To prepare for the show, the producers sent a crew to Texas in January 2004 to interview Williams and her family.

The suit claims the "Extreme Makeover" crew manipulated Williams' sister, Kellie, into making cruel statements about Williams' looks.

The night before Williams was to begin her makeover, the show's producers told her it would take too long for work on her jaw to heal. They canceled her appearance and sent Williams home where Kellie, distraught over what she had said about her sister, eventually killed herself, according to the suit.

"Sometimes Deleese blames herself for Kellie's death," the suit said.

describing one of your own family member as ugly is not such a big deal. It is only a big deal when a stranger says it. If ABC "Extreme Makeover" called anyone of my family members ugly, I'd sue them as well.

Perhaps a contribution towards the cost of the makeover should have been offered after the TV appearance was cancelled.

'new journalism order' of fear

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather .said Monday that there is a climate of fear running through newsrooms stronger than he has ever seen in his more than four-decade career.

Addressing the Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan, occasionally forcing back tears, he said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said.

Pornified and Female Chauvinist Pigs

The Slate asks a simple but puzzling question.Is porn really transforming our sex lives?.

" Women want intimacy with men, men want fantasy sex with porn stars, and the porn stars presumably just want a paycheck. No one's getting much pleasure."

So, is porn your friend or fiend? Over to you.

Has H&M Dropped Kate Moss?

Rumours from the London Fashion Show say that H&M has dropped Kate Moss. The fashion house H&M initially supported Kate moss when photographs, allegedly, showing her taking cocaine surfaced.

Apollo On Steroids

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin rolled out NASA's plan for the future Monday, including new details about the spaceship intended to replace the shuttle and a timeline for returning astronauts to the moon in 2018.

Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal dies

Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal dies in the Austrian capital Vienna aged 96. The BBC reports.....

Best of the Web Special Report and Survey

BusinessWeek Magazine has published the best of the web repecial report and survey results. The list is pretty impressive.

Kozlowski is Locked Up

Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison Monday for his part in stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the manufacturing conglomerate.

Intelligence in the Internet age

Philosophers, technologists and, yes, writers debate whether today's technology is making for a brainier world.

What makes us intelligent--the ability to reason and learn--is staying the same and will never fundamentally change because of technology. On the other hand, technology, from pocket calculators to the Internet, is radically changing the notion of the intelligence necessary to function in the modern world.

Karl Rove Unplugged

Karl Rove, President Bush's top political advisor and deputy White House chief of staff allegedly said:

On Katrina: The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government...

On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally...

On Bush's Low Poll Numbers: We have not been good at explaining the success in Iraq. Polls go up and down and don't mean anything...

On Iraq: There has been a big difference in the region. Iraq will transform the Middle East...

On Judy Miller And Plamegate: Judy Miller is in jail for reasons I don't really understand...

On Joe Wilson: Joe Wilson and I attend the same church but Joe goes to the wacky mass...

50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs...Ever

VH1's list of the 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs...ever countdown.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a simple, but brilliant idea for Cataloging your books online.

Christopher Hitchens Tails Galloway

I wouldn't be surprised if Hitchens and Galloway have a secret pact to whip-up public
frenzy inorder to promote Galloway's new book. Why else would Hitchens hitch a ride on the back of the most insensitive and shallow politician. Hitchens is "staying on his (Galloway's) case until the very end". End of what? The end of Galloway, iraq war or when Hitchens has had enough of the parasite lifestyle.

Someone somewhere once said:

Don't argue with a fool, people might not notice the difference

Google may consider a bid for AOL

According to Inside Bay Area article, Google may consider making a bid for America Online to keep the company from switching to Microsoft Corp.'s search technology.

CIOL : News : Yahoo boss Semel tunes in to online TV

Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel outlined his television strategy on Friday, saying that the Internet company wants to commission original content without aping existing TV networks.
Speaking to a group of top British TV executives who were not sure whether to regard Yahoo as friend or foe, Semel urged them to index their dormant archives and add them to Yahoo's video search service.
'Video search is a way to monetise some of the stuff that's lounging around in warehouses and hasn't made a dime for years,' he said at the Royal Television Society conference. Read more for details.

Cash in on Your Social Network

Traditional job hunting is all about who you know. A new recruitment service uses the internet social-networking phenomenon to capitalize on friends of friends.

H3.com -- which was founded last October and completed a beta test this summer -- is one of several startups turning to online social networks as recruiting instruments.

CNN Hacks New TV Technology

On The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer and his crew push the boundaries of television news by integrating internet technology and viewpoints.Some critics cry 'buffer overrun- adding up to an unpleasant overload.

Financial Fraud Viruses

Computer hackers seeking financial gain rather than thrills or notoriety are increasingly flooding the Internet with malicious software code, according to a semi-annual report issued on Sunday.

Motion-Activated Toilet Ligh

Oh, look. A gender based toilet seat product. How entertaining, I can hear the "LOL's" coming already. This device is placed on the inside of the top toilet seat. When the seat is up and it detects motion, there will be a red light illuminating a bulls-eye in the water, you know, for competitive urinators. When the seat the down there is a green light illuminating the seat so females can gently guide their way to the seat. If all women would just start using the P-Mate we could avoid having to deal with stupid gadgets like this.

Source: Gizmodo

Kozlowski Faces day of Judgement

Former Tyco chief executive Dennis Kozlowski faces the music today. It looks like he is heading for a lengthy lock-up.

Grokster in talks to be acquired by Mashboxx

File-sharing service Grokster Ltd. is in talks to be acquired by Mashboxx LLC, which is attempting to establish a legal peer-to-peer music company, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Read for more details.

Emmy Loves "Raymond"

"Desperate Housewives" may have had all the attention, but "Everybody Loves Raymond" won the big award -- best comedy -- at 57th Annual Emmy Awards. The show ended its nine-year run in May. "Lost," the rookie ABC show about people marooned on an island after a plane crash, won best drama. "Housewives," which earned 15 nominations, didn't come up completely empty. Felicity Huffman was named best actress in a comedy.

N. Korea agrees to give up nuclear program

North Korea agreed today to drop its nuclear weapons programs, according to a statement issued by the six nations that have been holding talks in Beijing on the issue. "The DPRK (North Korea) is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs," the statement said. Participants in the talks are China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the United States. In exchange, North Korea will receive energy assistance and more economic cooperation.

Podcasts, Internet radio come to Sprint phones

Sprint handsets can double as music players under a new subscription service that Real and the mobile company plan to debut.

How We Got Engaged!

Go on, have a cry at your desk?

Camera phones will be high-precision scanners

NEC has developed software that lets you wave your cameraphone at a page of text for 3-5 seconds and produce a scan that includes optical-character-recognition-extracted text as well as any images and a graphic of the page itself.

Troy's Mixtape of Love - The Remix

As you may or may not be aware, Troy Gregory, a University of Idaho Journalism student has been making the rounds on the internet lately. His misguided 'Mixtape of Love' has become a virtual instant smash with it's painful-at-times declaration of love for his girlfriend of six months Melissa. Now, Eyemarten has remixed Troy's mixtape of love. It is chock full of Will Farrell, Bruce Campbell, DJ Shadow riffs, and of course... the master himself... Troy.

This was bound to happen. Seeing someone in so much pain and finding it hilarious is cruel, I know.

Punctuation’s axis of evil

Are you for or against the semicolon? Apparently, some people see the semicolon as punctuation’s axis of evil. No kidding, punctuation is Pause celebre among the literati.

"In fact, one attempt to quash San Francisco's gay marriage law last year was dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiff had used a semicolon instead of a conjunction. A conservative group had asked the court to order the city to "cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnising marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before the court." As the San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren explained, the word "or" should have been used instead of the semicolon. "I am not trying to be petty here," he told reporters, "but it is a big deal... That semicolon is a big deal."

This is so bizarre, what's the fuss?

Perhaps the general loss of old-school learning - memorised historical dates, multiplication tables, the odd stanza or sonnet - has sent a frisson of intellectual status anxiety through the newly middle-aged middle classes. And what could be more unnerving than a slipshod grasp of punctuation?

I always knew that middle-age is difficult for intelligent people; they become very boring.

Internet Speed Test - Broadband, DSL Bandwidth Connection Check

An awesomely useful web page that allows you to see how fast your current internet connection is .... GO THERE!

Study Says Typing Sound Could Be Security Risk

Sounds from typing on computer keyboards are distinctive enough to be decoded, allowing security breaches caused by 'acoustic snooping,' University of California, Berkeley researchers said on Wednesday.

I think this is overblown, much ado about nothing.

Going Ballmy

This was bound to happen. I like the English sense of humour.

Microsoft Will Not Win the Web

Molly E. Holzschlag rebuffs Microsofts SteveB's statment issued in BusinessWeek where he said:

“We won the desktop. We won the server. We will win the Web. We will move fast, we will get there. We will win the Web.”

Molly says:

The Web is not a prize to be won, and Mr. Ballmer’s attitude is deplorable in the light of what the Web means to the world, to users, to designers and developers and to put it into Microsoft parlance, customers.

The Web belongs to everyone. The Web’s core vision and value is to be platform independent. Microsoft has no right to think it can win a tool that is for the people, of the people, and ultimately - by the people.

No Mr. Ballmer, you will never win the Web for one very good reason: We the people will make sure you never do.

SteveB is beginning to resemble the former Iraqi Information Minister.

Hitchens vs Galloway: It is personal

The more I read about George Galloway, The UK Respect party MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, the more I lose interest in him as a politician, not that I have particular liking for politicians. This debate staged by Christopher Hitchens, vocal supporter of the Iraq war, against George Galloway, indefatigable enemy of the war goes to show how shallow Galloway is. I hope he'll gall oway fast.

The Tipping Point and Global Warming

A scary article appears in the Independent Online Edition describing how global warming has past the point of no return.

"The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a 'tipping point' beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically."

The implications are huge, so we are told by experts. Losing the sea ice of the Arctic is likely to have major repercussions for the climate. There could be dramatic changes to the climate of the northern region. The creation of a vast expanse of open water where there was once effectively land will have a very big impact on other climate parameters.

Now I'm tempted to think that this 'vicious cycle' of global warming warming will eventually hit the boiling point. How long will it take before the oceans reach the 'boiling point'?

Repent all ye sinners the end is nigh!

The President's Power

"The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out." 
                                                                    JUMP TO FULL POST

Fashion firm sticks with Kate Moss

Fashion store H&M says it has no plans to ditch"regretful"supermodel Kate Moss over allegations of drug abuse. The Daily Mirror released photographs apparently showing model Kate Moss taking cocaine.

Moss also has deals with Chanel, Burberry and Dior. H&M spokeswoman Liv Asarnoj said:

"We strongly disapprove of her actions.

"We think that this is very unfortunate, of course, and we have strict policies for engaging models.

"They should be healthy, wholesome and sound, and we are strongly against drug abuse - we have made this clear to Kate Moss.

"After hearing her explanation and her regret we have decided for the time being to continue the campaign."

Troy's Mixtape Of Love

This is an original tape Troy made to his girlfriend Melissa on their 6 month anniversary. She left him 3 days after. How needy can you get?

Sex Is Latest Cellphone Feature

Ring Tones, Cameras, Now This. The pornography industry is eyeing the cellphone as a lucrative new vehicle for distribution.

In the past, pornography has helped to drive the popularity of new technologies. including the videocassette recorder, cable television and the Web itself, and it is a source of revenue for many major media companies.

Since mobile phones are very popular with children, there is one stumbling block to streaming sexually explicit content; age verification.

Plague-infected mice missing

Three plague-infected mice have gone missing from a bioterror research facility in Newark, N.J. Researchers lost track of the bubonic rodents more than two weeks ago, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.

There is no need to panic. I gather,the CSI can trace the mice in one hour tops, just like they found the rat that ate the bullet from a crime scene.

Google Earth leads to an archeology find

news @ nature.com describes how an Italian computer programmer stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa while studying maps of the region around his town using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth.

Tongue-eating bug found in fish

This is the most unusual stuff I have seen this year so far.

Nintendo Revolution Controller

The controller for the Nintendo Revolution has been unveiled. The controller itself, which is wireless, has a surprisingly different form factor. It looks very much like a television remote control; it is vertically oriented and held in one hand. Your thumb can rest on a directional pad or large A button, and your index finger curls around to grip the B trigger on the underside. Read more here.

The Kiwi's badminton kerfuffle

New Zealand's All Blacks are, in my opinion, the best rugby team in the world. Badminton is not my cup of tea, I find it too boring. Whipping a lightweight flying object is hardly a mind boggling challenge to keep me tuned in. The Kiwi Badminton team came up with a creative name inorder to attract attention, and they have got plenty of it. This article explains the full story.

MGM Mirage unveils $5 billion CityCenter on Strip

In a city known for being big on building big, MGM Mirage is giving the public its first look at the biggest thing ever built here -- or maybe anywhere.

To be constructed on 66 acres between the company's Bellagio and Monte Carlo casinos, the project will be anchored by a 4,000-room, 60-story hotel tower with a "sophisticated, contemporary design [that] will be demonstrably different from any building that has preceded it," the company. Also on site will be two 400-room high-end boutique-style hotels, 1,640 condominium units and 500,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.

"This is the most expensive privately funded project in U.S. history," said MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni. "You could take Rockefeller Center and throw in SoHo and Times Square, and this is bigger."

Smartquote

There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way."
Christopher Morley,
American journalist, novelist and poet

Bush's Second Second Inaugural Address

The president tries to start this term all over again in New Orleans.

Blogging is therapeutical

According to the latest
AOL survey blogging is a form of therapy.

"In a way, blogs serve as oral history," Bill Schreiner, vice president of AOL Community, said in a statement. "When it comes to sharing blogs and reading other people's blogs, we like to connect with people, learn about their lives, and find common ground. There's no pressure to write about a particular subject or keep blogs maintained a certain way, and it's not necessarily a popularity contest."

About 31 percent of bloggers said that, in times of high anxiety, instead of seeking any counseling, they either write in their blogs or read blogs of others facing similar issues, the report said.

Bankruptcy fatigue sets in for carriers, passengers

Some airline passengers are growing weary of big airlines filing for bankruptcy. Since 1978, almost two-thirds of the major carriers have filed at least once, and three did not survive. For their part, the carriers are tired of the forces that have forced them to file for court protection. "Actually, what we've grown weary of are the record-high fuel costs that have masked any of the gains we've made in efficiency," said Air Transport Association spokesman Jack Evans.et If fuel prices had remained where they were at the beginning of 2004, "it would be a completely different ballgame, " he noted.   The New York Times

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the goblet of fire trailer looks like great fun.

Yahoo! Search - Instant Search

Yahoo! Search - Instant Search looks terrific, but I don't think I'll use it much.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay per Click Advertising on Google and the other search engines (which basically refers to paying to be listed near the top of the search engines) is the most important Marketing breakthrough this century. It is quite simply the most effective method for reaching highly qualified potential customers, whatever type of business you're in. But many who try pay per click get their fingers burned, so it's essential that you understand the secrets of effective pay per click marketing. Learn more....

Hard Drive Bling

The hard drive is the new bling. Play this Animationto see the hot and cool bling.

Microsoft planning to buy AOL?

Time Warner may have found a way to unload AOL, or at the very least invigorate it a bit: sell a portion of the long-suffering Internet service provider to Microsoft. The New York Post, citing "two sources familiar with the matter," says that Time Warner and Microsoft are in "advanced discussions" about such a deal. Under the terms being discussed, Time Warner would be equal partners with Microsoft in a combined AOL/MSN Internet unit. While the deal could fall apart, the sources told the Post, the two companies are hopeful they can finalize it in the next couple of months. This all came as news to a "source close to the discussion," who told Reuters that there was no deal in the works. "There have been talks on ways Microsoft and AOL assets can be better leveraged and they've taken place over the normal course of business," the source said, calling reports of a joint venture between the two companies "way overblown."

Source: sv.com

Search as the New Great Game

Chris Sherman from SearchEngineWatch reviews "The Search: How Google Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture".

In years past, major powers struggled to win the hearts and minds of people by maneuvering in what Kipling called "the great game." The new great game is playing out not as geopolitical intrigue, but in a egalitarian dance that transcends borders and is reshaping social reality, says John Battelle in his new book The Search.

The Search is an excellent book, with something for everyone. Apart from a comprehensive history of the industry, the sections dedicated to the business aspects of search are instructive for anyone wondering exactly how search engines make money.

End of the Bush Era

I wrote earlier about the The so slow death of Bush. Now the WaPo has set the date for the End of the Bush Era, it is in the past. Here is a piece from the obituary;

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

What happens to Bush now? He has more than three years left in his term. The moment he understands that he was very lucky to be president and acknowledge his failures, the US people will have some level of respect for him. If on, the otherhand, he arrogantly keeps claiming to be in control he'll be doomed to an agonising life in limbo.

Gillette unveils 5-bladed razor

Gillette unveils 5-bladed razor with two lubricating strips. Read more about it here.

Frankly, I have tried all Gillette's shaving models and I have found that their disposable razors give the best shave.

president bush's note to condeleezza rice

Here's the full original at Reuters .. the actual unedited Reuters photo.

Swapping Scoops

The Editor and Publisher reports that every night the 'NY Times' and 'Wash Post' exchange front pages for the following day

Welcome to life under the Washington Post-New York Times swap. As part of a secret arrangement formed more than 10 years ago, the Post and Times send each other copies of their next day's front pages every night. The formal sharing began as a courtesy between Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and former Times Executive Editor Joseph Lelyveld in the early 1990s and has continued ever since.

Peer to peer exchange is common in other sectors like science research and development. Some critics think the New York Times and the Washington Post's relationship is incestous. If this is the case the Times-Post rivalry is unique in that it is a myth.

A six-figure blogger

Darren Rowse, author of the ProBlogger site, announces that he's earned $100,000 in the last 12 months blogging.

Andy Merrett Says:

I did some maths to prove that blogging is a legitimate business to be in.

1. Take US$100,000 = GBP £54,688 (at current exchange rate)
2. This is £149.83 earning every single day of the year.
3. Broken down into a ‘normal’ working week (5 days p/w, 48 weeks per year), Darren would either have to earn about £32 an hour, for a 35-hour week, or else work an 18 hour day for about £12.65 an hour.

£12.65 per hour is a low-end professional wage in Britain. Even £32 per hour is not an extortionate wage for the sort of work that is involved in pro-blogging.

So anyone who sneers at pro-blogging as some sort of walk in the park, or get-rich-quick scheme, ought to check out the raw figures, when broken down. Damn hard work for fair remuneration.

Of course, the earnings could yet go far higher, and deservedly so.

The maths may not be great, but you get the idea.

Clearly, one needs to devote a lot of time to blogging and as always Problogger wannabes will quit their jobs to follow Rowse's money trail--and then fail.

Microsoft recruiter knocks on heaven's (wrong) door

A Microsoft recruiter gets a biting response when he tries to land an open-source leader.
Knock, Knock!
Who is there?
Microsoft..errr...
Go to hell!!!
Actually, the following quote is what was said;

"What were you going to do with the rest of your afternoon, offer jobs to Richard Stallman [founder of the Free Software Foundation] and Linus Torvalds [the 'father' of Linux]? Or were you going to stick to something easier, like talking Pope Benedict into presiding at a Satanist orgy? ... On the day *I* go to work for Microsoft, faint oinking sounds will be heard from far overhead, the moon will not merely turn blue but develop polkadots, and hell will freeze over so solid the brimstone will go superconductive."

-- Open source advocate and Halloween Documents publisher Eric S. Raymond replies to Microsoft's offer of employment

Cosmetics from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners

The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners ..

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

Read the rest here.

Google Blog Search

Google has launched a blog-search service. According to Google;

Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.

Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you'll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and other languages as well.

A Poem of Inspiration

Don't Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit --
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out,
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late
when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out --
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the light when you're hardest hit

Its when things seem worst that you mustn't quit

Why Google hired Vint Cerf

CNET reports on Why Google hired Vint Cerf :

"In one of the tech industry's most prestigious hires in recent years, Google announced Thursday that Cerf, 62, would help the company develop new architectures, systems and standards for a next generation of applications that would likely run across the Internet. Cerf, who was the vice president of technology strategy at MCI and a visiting scientist with NASA, will start his new job as Google's chief Internet evangelist on Oct. 3."

The Ten Stupidest Utopias!,

An interesting Strange Horizons Article lists The Ten Stupidest Utopias!. If utopia is supposed to be the ideal and perfect place, where everyone lives in harmony, then why do so many of them turn out to suck?

...in conditions of inequality and injustice, people will always imagine a better place. What constitutes "better" is, however, a matter of much dispute. We dream our fears as well as hopes, reflecting all the agonies and contradictions of the waking world; in dreams, demons rise from our darkest places. This is the dangerous element in utopian aspiration, the monster behind the smiling face. Utopias can embody the highest hopes of humankind and frameworks for continuous evolution, but they can also reflect our worst fears and sickest appetites—not to mention a mania for power and control that is latent in every person.

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

Computer security is definitely still a 'hot topic.' But why are we spending all this time and money and still having problems?
Someone has attempted to highlight The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security. What are they? They're the anti-good ideas.

Ship of Fools: The Laugh Judgment

Read on for the jokes .. The Laugh Judgment

eBay to Acquire Skype

eBay has finally confirmed the acquisition of Skype. Different opinions have been expressed about Why eBay Is Buying Skype.

The key appeal for eBay at the outset: the ability to offer its buyers and sellers an entirely new way for people to do business online: lead generation, or pay per call. In addition to paying eBay listing and completed-auction fees, sellers also could pay eBay a fee for getting an Internet call, or lead, via Skype

Men's Vogue ?

The very name is a truly moronic oxymoron, like holy war or garlic mouthwash . But alas, it is true: Last week, after a century of Vogue and a few years of Teen Vogue, Conde Nast launched Men's Vogue, the first Vogue for American men. And the company is pondering the possibilities of a magazine to be called Vogue Living.

The Wapo asks why.

Toxic Waters Cover Up

Toxic chemicals in the New Orleans flood waters will make the city unsafe for full human habitation for a decade, a US government official has told Independent Online Edition >The Independent on Sunday. And, he added, the Bush administration is covering up the danger.

How Bush Blew It

The so slow death of Bush

"How this could be - how the president of the United States could have even less 'situational awareness,' as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century-is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace."

Newsweek Hurricane Katrina Coverage describing how bureaucratic timidity, bad phone lines and a failure of imagination led to a so slow response to the catastrophe.

BobHarris.com

Is this really what Bush authorized before the storm hit? Are they really that incompetent?

TV Squad

TV Squad is quite a fascinating blog. All the TV you need on a blog. Cool.

Apple - iPod nano

Call it astonishing. Unbelievable. Impossible, even. It's an iPod. Are we ever going to sleep?

Katrina has rekindled a Domain Name Dispute

This post highlights a dispute over a domain name between a poor school in Zambia and an Internet hosting company in New Orleans. It is surprising what Katrina can do.

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

Accompanying her husband, former President George
H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in
Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the
poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

Is it working out well for you as too, or are you sort of scared that they'll want to stay in Texas.

Africa in the Western Media

I wonder why the Western Media has devoted a great deal of its resources and energy toward painting the continent of Africa in a negative light. The fact of the matter is the continent's mineral resources, strategic metals, and natural resources are significant factors in the wealth of European Nations, America, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, top name a few. Continual denigration of Africa and, by implication, its people there or in the Diaspora, is a function of white supremacy, plain and simple. Those so affected by this practice must instigate its demise.

Quote from Africa in the Western Media

David Aaronovitch- The Uncomfortable Truth

From the murky water of doubt emerges an uncomfortable truth

"It isn't the failure to act in New Orleans that is the story here, it's the sheer, uninsured, uncared for, self-disenfranchised scale of the poverty that lies revealed. It looks like a scene from the Third World because that's the truth. It's a quiet disaster that's been going on for years - a pudding-basin-full-of-poverty situation."

David Aaronovitch from The Times

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars: "Larry Johnson pleads his case.. 'I believe there are grounds charges of criminal negligence being brought against US Government officials. This is not partisan bashing. There are people who are dead who could have and should have been saved. The responsibility for not responding quick enough clearly lies with the Feds. Those ain't my words, it is their own damn plan.'

Whatever: Being Poor

Here is an interesting reminder why being poor sucks.

GoogleNet - Rumors of a Parallel Internet Surface

"Google's secret fiber-optic underground network - it literally titillates the imaginative senses with latent possibilities. " A webmaster wonders what Google's unprecedented large-scale purchases of miles and miles of "dark," or unused, fiber-optic cable means.

The Ultimate American Idiot

He lives here

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind f*ck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones meant to follow
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
Calling out out to Idiot America�.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue."

Lyrics by Green Day

Miserable Failure

I sat through the BBC News24 live coverage from New Orleans. This is 21st century USA! What a mess of racial politics. These are the same guys trying to tackle terrorism. What a miserable failure. A search for miserable failure on Google brings up the official George W.Bush biography from the US White House web site. How about that!

The socio-economics of disaster

A point interestingly made elsewhere about the reporting of the flooding is the disparity of how crime is reported along racial lines. You can see it here and here.

Black people loot, white people find?

This Boing Boing article shows how racists use the media.

MarketingSherpa.com Katrina Resources

MarketingSherpa's Katrina Resources for
Marketing, Advertising & PR Professionals has been launched to assist businesses affected by hurricane Katrina.

You'll find advice, hotlinks, and resources for:
- Email marketers
- Direct postal mail marketers
- Hospitality and travel industry pros
- Market researchers
- PR pros & business communicators
- Trade show professionals
- Online publishers
- Association marketers

if you have any additional resources
or hotlinks they should include. Contact
feedback@marketingsherpa.com

Murphy's Carey

A newly single Eddie Murphy is apparently wasting no time getting back into the dating game.
Murphy has been linked to pop diva Mariah Carey after the two were seen whispering and cuddling close together at Miami hotspot Prive following the singer's performance Sunday night on the MTV Video Music Awards, reports the New York Daily News.

The singer reportedly joined Murphy after he gave her a phone call while she was dining with friends in the penthouse at the Raleigh Hotel. Carey arrived at the nightclub at 2:30 a.m. where, according to witnesses, the canoodling began. One onlooker claims that the Daddy Day Care actor 'held hands with her (Carey) under the table.'

azcentral.com