New Hampshire Health News Digest

CIA pursues video game - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics : "The CIA is set to spend several million dollars to develop a video game aimed at helping its analysts think like terrorists, The Washington Times has learned. The agency's Counter Terrorist Center, or CTC, is working with the Los Angeles-based Institute for Creative Technologies on a project designed to help its analysts, 'think outside the box,' a CIA spokesman said. The project is close to approval, but officials wouldn't comment on the exact cost of the program. >> It gets better... Other projects being worked on by the California institute reportedly include Roman shields with skateboards that come off the sides of tanks, and foam sprayed by troops that can stop tank rounds. " roman shield skateboards that come off the top of tanks! I've got to get a job with these people! Only they could appreciate the ideas I come up with!

RSVP This is actually quite fun, for such a simple little game.

w w w . i s h k u r . c o m Not only a great guide to electronic music, but a great website altogether. Great animation! Don't skip the intro!

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall But cronyism, like charity, starts at home. So let's get to it. A little more than a year ago, I told you about Edison schools, the brain child of entrepreneur Chris Whittle. The company's mission was to get contracts to run public schools on a for-profit basis and to do it better and more cheaply. The company was the toast of the Republican establishment and got tens of millions of dollars of start-up capital back in the go-go 90s. The only hitch was that it ended up producing poor performance and for more money. Other than that it worked great. When we last noted Edison in June 2002, Whittle was hollowing out the company to cover personal debts by having the company loan him about $9 million to buy stock in itself. That's not all that uncommon. The only problem was that Whittle had collateralized the loan with the stocks themselves. And by then Edison's stock, which had traded as high as $23 a share in the glory ...

The Atlantic | March 2003 | Caring for Your Introvert | Rauch : " Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice? If so, do you tell this person he is 'too serious,' or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out? If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands�and that you aren't caring for him properly. Science has learned a good deal in recent years about the habits and requirements of introverts. It has even learned, by means of brain scans, that introverts process information differently from othe...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China hotel 'orgy' sparks fury "China hotel 'orgy' sparks fury Hotels catering for foreigners now often attract prostitutes A three-day orgy allegedly held at a Chinese luxury hotel for hundreds of male Japanese tourists has provoked outrage after reports of the lurid goings-on were published in China's state media. The 400 or so men, aged between 16 and 37, flew into Zhuhai city in southern Guangdong province expressly for sex at the five-star hotel, according to the media reports. On one of the nights the men are said to have had nearly 500 girls brought to serve them. The incident, at a time when Chinese resentment against Japan is already very high, has prompted thousands of angry messages to be posted on the internet by Chinese users. > 'Japanese people deep in their bones look down on Chinese people,' said one posting. Hotel employees however told Chinese reporters that Japanese tourists regularly cam...

Reuters News Article : "ROME (Reuters) - Italy regained most of its power on Sunday after a nationwide blackout hit virtually the whole population in the dead of night, unleashing chaos, stalling lifts and stranding thousands of travelers. Only Three deaths were unofficially attributed to the outage: a man killed in a traffic accident at an intersection where the lights had failed, and two elderly woman who fell down stairs in the dark in separate cases. Almost all of the country's 57 million people were affected -- a similar scale to last month's collapse in the U.S. Northeast and Canada. But coming on a weekend night its initial impact was less dramatic and caused less economic damage. 'It's chaos, and until the electricity comes back on it will continue to be chaos,' said policeman Fabio Bragazzi, 21, at Rome's main Termini train station where passengers, among more than 30,000 stranded across the country, slept on the ground. It was the four...

Yahoo! News - U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling "WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 � The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism. The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said. Justice Department (news - web sites) officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals � terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration has sold the American public a false bill of goods, using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law ...

TIME.com: Chasing a Mirage -- Oct. 06, 2003 : "Over the past three months, TIME has interviewed Iraqi weapons scientists, middlemen and former government officials. Saddam's henchmen all make essentially the same claim: that Iraq's once massive unconventional-weapons program was destroyed or dismantled in the 1990s and never rebuilt; that officials destroyed or never kept the documents that would prove it; that the shell games Saddam played with U.N. inspectors were designed to conceal his progress on conventional weapons systems missiles, air defenses, radar�not biological or chemical programs; and that even Saddam, a sucker for a new gadget or invention or toxin, may not have known what he actually had or, more to the point, didn't have. It would be an irony almost too much to bear to consider that he doomed his country to war because he was intent on protecting weapons systems that didn't exist in the first place. These tales are tempting to dismiss as script...

Reluctance to Share Control in Iraq Leaves U.S. on Its Own (washingtonpost.com) : "NEW YORK -- To rebuild Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration wanted control and it wanted international help on U.S. terms. A difficult few days of personal diplomacy at the United Nations last week confirmed that President Bush cannot have both, so he has settled for control." > Security fears, coupled with the uncertainty about what role the Bush administration will permit, mean that no significant U.N. presence is likely for weeks -- or longer -- said senior U.N. officials and Security Council diplomats. On the positive side, a European diplomat in New York said Bush administration emissaries made progress in convincing their counterparts that the U.S. government does not want to remain an occupying power. What remains, however, is "a competition of ideas on how to reach the common object of a democratic, stable Iraq." > Yet officials from a...

Yahoo! News - U.S. Holding 19 al-Qaida Suspects in Iraq : "WASHINGTON - U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites) are holding 19 suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, the American civilian administrator said Friday. The suspected al-Qaida members are among 248 non-Iraqi fighters being held by the Americans in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer said in a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference. Bremer said authorities determined the suspects' al-Qaida links through interrogations and documents the suspects were carrying. He said he did not know what countries they came from. The largest number of foreign fighters, 123 of the 248 � came from Syria, Bremer said. The next-highest numbers came from Iran and Yemen, he said, adding he did not have precise figures for those countries. "

Mongolians Return to Baghdad, This Time as Peacekeepers : "Mongolia's offer of troops surprised the American government because it had not asked Mongolia for help, said Steven R. Saunders, president of a private, Washington-based group promoting business ties with Mongolia. Around this dusty city with its Cyrillic character signs left over from the Soviet era, Mongolians talk of supporting democracy in Iraq, of bolstering geopolitical ties with the United States and of returning their nation's long-eclipsed name to the world stage. Mongolia is the only nation in Northeast Asia where there is widespread support for sending troops to Iraq: Russia glowers, China appears neutral and Japan has approved the sending of troops but begs for more time. South Korea has 650 military medics and engineers in Iraq, sent despite violent public protests. Now, in the face of American demands for combat-trained troops, South Korea is sending a study group. Slightly more than a decad...

Electronic paper reaches video speed: Colour movies might soon be playing on single sheets. : "Paper capable of playing videos has been invented at the Philips Research laboratory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. A single sheet looks pretty much like ordinary paper. But the ink can be rearranged electronically fast enough to show video movies. Its devisers, Robert Hayes and Johan Feenstra, have also figured out how to create full-colour displays. Their colour screens would be four times brighter than the flat devices currently made from liquid crystals, they reckon. The invention is the latest version of 'electronic ink'. Researchers hope to combine the convenience, robustness and readability of printed material with the vast and flexible information content of laptop computers." Wow! This would be huge! People just like ink and paper better for sustained reading. And here it comes, electronically!

TCS: Tech Central Station - The Iraq -- Al Qaeda Connections : "That is why is important to remember why we fight in Iraq -- and who we fight. Indeed, many of those sniping at U.S. troops are al Qaeda terrorists operating inside Iraq. And many of bin Laden's men were in Iraq prior to the liberation. A wealth of evidence on the public record -- from government reports and congressional testimony to news accounts from major newspapers -- attests to longstanding ties between bin Laden and Saddam going back to 1994. Those who try to whitewash Saddam's record don't dispute this evidence; they just ignore it. So let's review the evidence, all of it on the public record for months or years:" long list of alleged Iraq-Al Qaeda dealings

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US and Germany declare rift 'over' : "US President George Bush says a long-standing rift with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is 'over' after the pair's first formal meeting in 16 months. Both leaders said they had set aside past differences on Iraq and agreed to work together to stabilise the country. 'The first thing I told him, I said, 'Look, we had differences. And they're over.' We're going to work together,' Mr Bush told reporters after the leaders spoke privately at the UN General Assembly. Mr Schroeder says he believes agreement on a US resolution on Iraq can be struck 'in the next few weeks'."

ajc.com | Opinion | Falsely bleak reports reduce our chances of success in Iraq : "On Sept. 14, I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon. Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death. News media reports about our progress in Iraq have been bleak since shortly after the president's premature declaration of victory. These reports contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress presented to Congress by Department of Defense representatives -- a real disconnect, Vietnam d�ja vu. So I went to Iraq with six other members of Congress to see for myself. The Iraq war has predictably evolved into a guerrilla conflict similar to Vietnam. Our currently stated objectives are to establish reasonable security and foster the creation of a secular, representative government with a stable market econom...

Sunday Herald : " ROBOT soldiers manufactured to kill enemy troops have been designed for the Pentagon by a tiny Glasgow computer company which is set to make millions from the deal. Essential Viewing says the technology comes straight from the world of science fiction. Chief executive Simon Hardy said the technology had its nearest equivalent in the Star Wars movie Attack Of The Clones. In the film, armies of robots are able to fight running battles, making human casualties, for the side possessing the technology, a thing of the past. The equipment refined by Essential Viewing will see robot vehicles equipped with an array of video cameras and weaponry. The images picked up by the robots will be instantaneously relayed back to military commanders who can then move the robot or order it to shoot at targets. With current technology, which attempts to relay live video images between one side of the globe and the other, there is a significant delay "

Sunday_Mirror.co.uk - DESPERATE SADDAM OFFERS AMERICANS DEAL : "SADDAM Hussein has been in secret negotiations with US forces in Iraq for the past nine days, we can reveal. The Iraqi dictator is demanding safe passage to the former Soviet republic of Belarus. In exchange, he has vowed to provide information on weapons of mass destruction and disclose bank accounts where he siphoned off tens of millions of dollars in plundered cash. President Bush is being kept abreast of the extraordinary talks by his National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice. She is co-ordinating negotiations in Baghdad which are led by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq. The United States has vowed never to negotiate with Saddam and want to take him dead or alive, but the White House hopes the clandestine talks will allow them to pinpoint the tyrant's exact location."

Arlington tomb sentinels shun shelter As Isabel rages, guards at �Unknowns� monument stay at posts A U.S. guard on duty marches in front of the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. on Oct. 20, 1945. A sentry has been posted there continuously since 1930. ASSOCIATED PRESS ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 19 � As the winds from Hurricane Isabel swept over Arlington National Cemetery, the soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns were given � for the first time in history � permission to abandon their posts and seek shelter. �They told us that. But that�s not what�s going to happen,� said Sgt. Christopher Holmes, standing vigil on overnight duty. �That�s never an option for us. It went in one ear and right out the other.� > THE MONUMENT was established in 1921 with the interment of an unknown World War I soldier. A sentry has been posted there continuously since 1930. With the fierce storm bearing down Thursday night, cemetery offi...

NBC 4 - Education - Girl Wants To Start Caucasian Club At High School POSTED: 8:41 a.m. EDT September 18, 2003 OAKLEY, Calif. -- Lisa McClelland says she isn't a racist. She says her campaign for a Caucasian Club at her California high school is a move toward diversity, not bigotry. SURVEY Should a California high school student be allowed to start a Caucasian Club? Yes, if there are other clubs like the Black Student Union and Asian Club she should be allowed to. No. There should be no clubs targeting any ethnic group. No. Only minorities should be able to have clubs targeting an ethnic group. She says everyone is invited -- and nobody will be excluded. McClelland's ethnic background includes American Indian, Hispanic, Dutch, German, Italian and Irish. She says she and her friends feel slighted by other clubs at Freedom High School in Oakley, such as the Black Student Union and the Asian Club. McClelland says she's collected 245 signatures of support fr...

thgohut tihs was inertsenitg... Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig!

World Tribune.com--Front Page The report said Al Qaida's financial network has been hurt since October 2001. The CIA said 10 leading financiers of Al Qaida have been captured or killed over the last two years. Moreover, two-thirds of Al Qaida's leadership �composed of up to 25 people � has been killed or captured. The result, the CIA said, is that Al Qaida has lost much of its ability to launch large-scale attacks. Two such Al Qaida financiers identified were Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, both captured over the last 18 months. "While the group has a large bench of middle managers and foot soldiers," the report said, "it is rapidly losing its cadre of senior planners who have access to and the trust of Bin Laden, the leadership and organizational skills needed to mount sophisticated attacks, and the savvy to operate in an increasingly hostile counterterrorism environment." But the report warned that Al Qaida remains lethal and maintains a...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The cheap way to the stars - by escalator : "f climbing a stairway to heaven sounds like too much hard work, then a conference of 70 scientists and engineers opening in Santa Fe today may offer hope of a more leisurely way into space. In two days of discussions, the scientists aim to turn into a reality an ambition that has been around for at least a century: the creation of a space elevator that would deliver satellites, spacecraft and even people thousands of kilometres into space along a vertical track. Engineers say that recent advances in materials science - particularly in the development of carbon nanotubes - mean that such a system, which first gained widespread attention when the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke described it in his 1979 novel Fountains of Paradise, is no longer pure science fiction. Mr Clarke - who once said a space elevator would only be built 'about 50 years after everyone stops laughing' - w...

News : "Mobile phones and the new wireless technology could cause a 'whole generation' of today's teenagers to go senile in the prime of their lives, new research suggests The study - which warns specifically against 'the intense use of mobile phones by youngsters' - comes as research on their health effects is being scaled down, due to industry pressure. It is likely to galvanise concern about the almost universal exposure to microwaves in Western countries, by revealing a new way in which they may seriously damage health. Professor Leif Salford, who headed the research at Sweden's prestigious Lund University, says 'the voluntary exposure of the brain to microwaves from hand-held mobile phones' is 'the largest human biological experiment ever'. And he is concerned that, as new wireless technology spreads, people may 'drown in a sea of microwaves'."

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle : "Scientists say there's no evidence that Yellowstone is poised for a powerful eruption, such as the one roughly 600,000 years ago that spewed massive amounts of lava and ash. If the park were ready to blow, there would be several signs that magma was moving toward the surface. Earthquakes would be more frequent and stronger. The ground, while often rising and falling in Yellowstone, would most likely gradually rise. And the chemistry of many geysers would change. All of those things are constantly monitored by scientists involved with the Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory, or YVO, a long-running study of the park's volcanology. If the park was poised for a major eruption, the precursors wouldn't be subtle, Heasler said. 'I doubt you'd need seismographs to know that changes were happening in Yellowstone,' he said. Early signs of an impending outburst would be similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helen...

Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event : "SMILING FROM THE WOMB Pioneering scanning techniques have produced astonishing images from inside the womb which show babies apparently smiling and crying. Experts believe the breakthrough could lead to advances in baby health for a whole range of conditions, including Down's Syndrome. The pictures offer a new insight into foetal behaviour. The ultra-sound scanning techniques capture images which show the foetuses yawn, blink, suck their fingers and seem to cry and smile." amazing photo with story

A monster awakens? September 11, 2003�Part of America's Yellowstone National Park was closed to visitors on July 23 this year and remains closed today due to high ground temperatures and increased thermal activity in the park. National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said that "A portion of the Norris Geyser Basin on the west side of the park has been closed." [1] >> On August 10, the Denver Post reported that Liz Morgan, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist had discovered a huge bulge underneath Yellowstone Lake that had risen 100 feet from the lake floor. The bulge is two thousand feet long and has the potential to explode at any time. Morgan was quoted as saying that "The inflated plain is a potential and serious hazard and possible precursor to a large hydrothermal explosion event." [3] Then, on August 24th, the University of Utah Seismograph Station reported that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred just 9 miles southeast of the souther...

New Scientist : "The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service Blood test tells how much it hurts A simple blood test could be the first objective measure of how much pain someone is experiencing, the test's inventor claims. As well as revolutionising pain research, the assay could prove invaluable for doctors treating young children, people who are not fully conscious, and anyone else unable to communicate properly. Many pain researchers are sceptical about whether such a test is possible. But inventor Shaun Kilminster claims his test has already been shown to work in headache sufferers."

Wired 11.10: Extreme Makeover : "Extreme Makeover PCs are a marvel of engineering on the inside. By Cory Doctorow The shell of a garden-variety desktop machine, on the other hand, is as dull as a command prompt. Users longing for a box whose beauty is more than CPU-deep have invented a new form of self-expression: casemodding - altering a PC's exterior to make it as distinctive as its owner. Think of it as nerd folk art, equal parts Linus Torvalds and Martha Stewart. Modders don't just dress up stock boxes. They stuff motherboards into gasoline cans, build containers that resemble gingerbread houses, and custom-fabricate phantasmagoric adornments; they combine expert craftsmanship with whimsy, nostalgia, and a Transformers-inspired sensawunda. It's a mod, mod, mod, mod world."

FT.com Iraqis do not trust Americans, says poll By Guy Dinmore in Washington "Commissioned by the American Enterprise Institute, the pollsters sought to survey a representative cross-section of Iraqi society by going to four cities: Mosul and Kirkuk in the north, Ramadi in the mostly anti-US Sunni area of central Iraq, and Basra in the Shia south. A total of 600 people were interviewed in public places. In Ramadi the pollsters were caught in crossfire in an ambush of US forces. One was arrested by Kurds in the north, while others were chased by car. In Basra some were detained for 24 hours. Asked if the US and UK should help make sure a fair government is set up in Iraq, or should the Iraqis work this out themselves, 31.5 per cent wanted help while 58.5 per cent did not. Some 38.2 per cent agreed that democracy could work well in Iraq, while 50.2 per cent agreed with the statement that 'democracy is a western way of doing things and it will not work here'. ...

Israel Wants to Expel Arafat - But Not Yet (washingtonpost.com) : "Israel Wants to Expel Arafat - But Not Yet Reuters Thursday, September 11, 2003; 2:47 PM By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's security cabinet agreed in principle Thursday to exile Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but not immediately, sources close to the government said. One source said the security cabinet decided to ask the army to prepare a plan for Arafat's exile from the region but decided against swift expulsion because of U.S. opposition."

WorldNetDaily: Easy visas explain Saudi hijackers : "DAY OF INFAMY 2001 Easy visas explain Saudi hijackers Al-Qaida mastermind describes subplot to 9-11 attack Posted: September 11, 2003 6:38 p.m. Eastern � 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The self-described mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks says it was no accident 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudis and that they were used for practical and 'political' reasons. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told his CIA interrogators the Saudis were initially chosen because it was easier for them to get visas than for recruits from other Arab countries like Yemen, a Saudi official with direct knowledge of Mohammed's interrogations told reporters in Washington this week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he learned about the conversation with Mohammed from U.S. officials. CIA officials declined to comment on the interrogation. United Press International said another unnamed diplomat confirmed...

News Blue Movies Proliferate in Post-Saddam Iraq BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Outside the cinemas on Saadoun Street, groups of men loiter round film posters of naked women, whose private parts are crudely super-imposed with underwear drawn in colored pen. Behind doors in Baghdad's main movie strip, there is no such teasing. Barely a seat is empty as hundreds of men, most puffing cigarettes, sit in total silence and darkness to enjoy scenes of nudity and sex for 1,000 Iraqi dinars ($0.50) a time. 'Under Saddam, forget it. You would go to jail for showing or watching this,' said movie-watcher Mohammed Jassim at the Atlas Cinema where one of the films on offer was disturbingly named 'Real Raping.' The fall of Saddam Hussein liberalised Iraq's cinema industry overnight. Pornographic movies which had circulated only secretly before suddenly came into the open. The smuggling of films from abroad became overt importing. And demand has proved high despit...

Document links Saddam, bin Laden - Wednesday, 06/25/03 : By GILBERT S. MERRITT For The Tennessean "Federal appellate Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of Nashville is in Iraq as one of 13 experts selected by the U.S. Justice Department to help rebuild Iraq's judicial system. Merritt, 67, has made trips to Russia and India to work with their judicial systems. He has been sending periodic reports to The Tennessean about his experiences in Iraq and filed this dispatch recently: Through an unusual set of circumstances, I have been given documentary evidence of the names and positions of the 600 closest people in Iraq to Saddam Hussein, as well as his ongoing relationship with Osama bin Laden. I am looking at the document as I write this story from my hotel room overlooking the Tigris River in Baghdad. One of the lawyers with whom I have been working for the past five weeks had come to me and asked me whether a list of the 600 people closest to Saddam Hussein would be of ...

Sci Tech News - from ABC News Online 10/07/2003 Marriage may tame genius : "Marriage may tame genius Thursday, 10 July 2003 Creative genius and crime express themselves early in men but both are turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, a study says. Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work. The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein, who wrote in 1942: 'A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.' "

Forces Strained in Iraq Mission, Congress Is Told : "The Army portrayed its announcement of the extension, which was reported today by The Washington Post, as a clarification of a troop-rotation policy that Gen. John M. Keane, then the acting Army chief of staff, outlined on July 23. That policy included yearlong tours of duty for Army troops. Army officials said today that the tour length referred to both active and reserve troops, whose tours would be measured by time on the ground. In prior call-ups, the one-year mobilization of reservists included training time, as well as time on the ground. The policy affects only those reservists currently in Iraq or Kuwait, and will not affect troops sent in the future, including two National Guard brigades scheduled to go to Iraq for six months next year. The announcement today deepened the concern of many lawmakers and military officials that over-reliance on reservists could hurt morale. 'They are now stretched to the breaking po...

Procrastinators Anonymous Need help getting started on all those things you've been putting off? Look no further!

Tech News - CNET.com : "newsmakers Sterling Ball, a jovial, plain-talking businessman, is CEO of Ernie Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings endorsed by generations of artists ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to the dudes from Metallica. But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale. "Tech News - CNET.com: "Rockin' on without Microsoft By David Becker CNET News.com Sterling Ball, a jovial, plain-talking businessman, is CEO of Ernie Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings endorsed by generations of artists ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to the dudes from Metallica. But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale....

spamgourmet - disposable email addresses, spam blocking: spamgourmet - disposable email addresses, spam blocking: "Q. Will spamgourmet stop spam from coming straight to my email address? A. No. Spamgourmet only gets involved when the sender uses a disposable address that you've given out. When this happens, the message first comes to spamgourmet, then (maybe) to you. If someone sends a message straight to your real email address, spamgourmet isn't involved at all. Q. How do I create a disposable email address? A. First, set up an account here, if you haven't already, and save your real email address in the space provided (don't skip this important step!). Remember your username. Later, when you need a disposable email address, just think of a word (any combination of letters and numbers (20 characters max), provided you haven't used it before), and decide how many messages you want to receive at the new address. Then, put the word, the number, and your...

The Irritating Fish - From B3ta.com (Billy Bass singing fish parody thing)

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion : "AL QAEDA'S AGENDA FOR IRAQ September 4, 2003 -- 'IT is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy." This is the message of a new book, just published by al Qaeda in several Arab countries. The author of "The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad" is Yussuf al-Ayyeri, one of Osama bin Laden's closest associates since the early '90s. A Saudi citizen also known by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad, he was killed in a gun battle with security forces in Riyadh last June. The book is published by The Centre for Islamic Research and Studies, a company set up by bin Laden in 1995 with branches in New York and London (now closed). Over the past eight years, it has published more than 40 books by al Qaeda "thinkers and researchers" including militants s...

Powell and Joint Chiefs Nudged Bush Toward U.N. (washingtonpost.com) : "The effort by Powell and the military began with a t�te-�-t�te in Qatar on July 27 between the top U.S. commander in Iraq and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was furthered in a discussion between the Joint Chiefs chairman and Bush at the president's ranch on Aug. 8. And it was cemented in the past 10 days after Powell's deputy, Richard L. Armitage, went public with the proposal. For an administration that prides itself on centralized, top-down control, the decision to change course in Iraq was uncharacteristically loose and decentralized. As described by officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon, the White House was the last to sign on to the new approach devised by the soldiers and the diplomats. 'The [Pentagon] civilians had been saying we didn't need any more troops, and the military brass had backed them,' a senior administration official said. 'Po...

Transblawg: Where IKEA gets the names : "Where IKEA gets the names There has often been speculation about the names of IKEA furniture (especially about the desk Jerker and the bed Gutvik). An article in German in Stern reveals a surprising amount of planning. Thus bathroom items are named after Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays; sets of bookcases after occupations; dining tables and chairs after Finnish placenames; carpets after Danish placenames; and much more. There�s a long list on the second page. ADDED LATER See overleaf for a summary in English. This is a rapid translation! It�s harder than I thought it would be: Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian placenames Dining tables and chairs: Finnish placenames" From another blog. The list goes on and on!

Marriage And The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator : "St. Mary's University researchers, headed by psychologist Nancy S.Marioles, Ph.D asked 426 married and premarried couples to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which measures peoples preferences on how they relate to the world. The authors then compared each type with each spouses' marital satisfaction. A person can have four different types that determine how they deal with the world. > The authors found very little evidence that opposites marry. The only exceptions were ESTJ men married to INFP women and ESTP men married to INFJ women. These two types of men, said the authors, were also the two types who had been married the most often. Men who were INFPs, INFJs and INTPs most often married a female with the same psychological type. Women, on the other hand, who were ENFJs and INFJs married men with the same type. The researchers also found that female feeling types (mostly ESFJs) were married the longest and that...

Thinkers of the deep - Science - www.theage.com.au : "Fish do not deserve their reputation as the dim-wits of the animal kingdom, according to a group of British scientists. Far from being instinct-driven dunces, held back by a three-second memory, fish were cunning, manipulative, cultured and socially aware. In some respects of their intelligence, they could even be favourably compared with non-human primates, it was claimed. The three scientists from the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrew's in Scotland, and the University of Leeds, said conceptions of the psychological and mental abilities of fish had undergone a 'sea change' in the past few years. Biologists Calum Brown, Keven Laland and Jens Krause wrote in the journal Fish and Fisheries: 'Gone (or at least obsolete) is the image of fish as drudging and dim-witted pea-brains, driven largely by 'instinct', with what little behavioural flexibility they possess being severely hampered by an in...

OrlandoSentinel.com: Space : "Poll tells NASA to keep sending ships into space WASHINGTON -- Sixty percent of Americans are willing to spend what it takes to build a new type of manned spaceship to replace the aging shuttle, according to an Orlando Sentinel poll. Despite the Columbia disaster and a highly critical report released last week by the accident's investigators, public support for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration remains high. The survey found that 81 percent of Americans consider space exploration very important or somewhat important to the country's future. That's a 7-point increase from a February 2002 survey -- and a 6-point increase from a poll taken immediately after Columbia broke up over Texason Feb. 1. Washington-based Ipsos-Public Affairs conducted all three national polls for the Sentinel. More important, the new poll shows Americans are prepared to support NASA with their pocketbooks. Besides their willingness to foo...

USATODAY.com - Marijuana ban unconstitutional, Alaska appeals court says : "JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) � A law banning Alaskans from possessing any amount of marijuana in their homes has been ruled unconstitutional by a state appeals court Friday. Friday's decision by the Alaska Court of Appeals reversed the 2001 drug conviction of a North Pole man and ordered a new trial. The ruling affirms a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision that found it legal to possess less than four ounces of marijuana in one's home. That ruling found that the state constitution's strong privacy law superseded legislative attempts to ban marijuana. Alaska voters approved a law in 1990 that criminalized the possession of any amount of drug in any location. That law had gone unchallenged until David Noy appealed his conviction on a count of sixth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance. A search of Noy's home had turned up five live pot plants, growing equipment and other paraphern...

Excite News Co-Worker of Pa. Bank Robber Found Dead : "ERIE, Pa. (AP) - A friend and co-worker of a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank then died when a bomb strapped to his body exploded was found dead at his home Sunday. Police said there was no obvious connection between the two deaths. Still, authorities sent a bomb squad to search the home in Lawrence Park Township as a precaution, Erie state police Cpl. Mark Zaleski said. 'There was nothing overtly obvious as to the cause of his death,' Zaleski said, 'but because there's a relationship between the two individuals, we are over there.' Robert Pinetti, 43, worked with Brian Douglas Wells, 46, who died Thursday shortly after robbing a bank in Erie. Minutes before the bomb went off, Wells told officers who stopped him that he had been forced to rob the bank. No one else was injured in the explosion. Wells had gone to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned...

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage : "Saudi Crackdown Encourages Iraq Jihad, Clerics Say Sun August 31, 2003 12:58 PM ET By Andrew Hammond RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi militants, facing a clampdown at home long demanded by Washington, are heading to Iraq for a holy war against the American 'Satan,' clerics and analysts say. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said last week that some of those attacking U.S. forces in Iraq are coming into the country from neighboring Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria." >> "Some clerics in the kingdom said a security crackdown by Saudi authorities on Muslim militants after deadly suicide bombings in Riyadh in May -- leading to bloody clashes and arrests -- was pushing militants to head to Iraq. "Most youth think the only safe road is to go to Iraq. They are trapped between the international campaign against terrorism and this campaign at home. The only safe haven for them is to go to Iraq,...

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2002� : "Schoolgirl, 17, kills herself over loss of pet squirrel Sun Aug 31 2003 23:36:27 ET Hong Kong (dpa) - A Hong Kong schoolgirl killed herself after her grandfather freed a pet squirrel she was given as a birthday present by her boyfriend, police said Monday. The 17-year-old hung herself from her bunk bed at her home in Hong Kong's Kowloon district after her grandfather released the squirrel she had been given by her boyfriend just two days earlier, the spokesman said. Suicide rates among young people are high by international standards in Hong Kong, and government officials have launched a series of programmes to try to encourage youths in despair to seek counselling." This is just sad.