Saturday, June 24, 2006

I'm not surprised

Fuck, I don't even seem to be shocked...
Bank Records Secretly Tapped

Kennedy for President?

Mr. Kennedy called the silence of leading Democrats "a great disappointment," but declared himself undeterred. If anything, he said, the experience has left him more likely to run for office than before.

Another Kennedy Living Dangerously - Page 3

Another Kennedy Living Dangerously - New York Times

Anne Clark - Wallies

Just got some old CDs from a friend. British electronic rap with an accent by Anne Clark. Contempary music by Philip Glass. Clawfinger with a wonderful panoramic poster for the album a whole lot of nothing. A love hearing new music, at least music that is new to me. :-)
So this is where the future lies, in a beer gut belly, in a open fly
Brilcremed, acrylic, mindless boys, punching, kicking, making noise
From the cradle to the city streets they spill out their aggression
By punching what they don't understand and stopping all forms of expression
Teaching each other to be men by spewing in the street
Well now I know just what to do to make my man complete
Against the power of their misguidance we must learn to fight
To be just what we want to be morning, noon and night
Night is for the hunters and the hunted are you and me
Hunted for just retaining some form of identity
Night is for the hunters and the hunted are you and me
Hunted for just having some individuality

Too bad my iTunes is on strike, it won't grab music at the moment...

Friday, June 23, 2006

Thorough investigations ala US

Jos�Padilla (alleged terrorist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim people overseas"

For a second, I thought they were talking about Bush...

Jos�Padilla (alleged terrorist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FBI to Terrorists: Let's do an attack!

The group thought that they ''were doing [the attacks] in conjunction with al Qaeda'' but were really dealing with undercover law enforcement, the official said.

It was ''pretty much talk, we were on top of them,'' the source said.
I just can imagine how these people got talked into talking about maybe making an attack...

A law enforcement source said the group had photographs of the Sears Tower, the FBI's Miami field office and Miami police headquarters.
The probably got the photos from the FBI. Or google. Expect to be hustled the next time you make photos of the Sears Tower...

'But whenever we undertake an operation like this, we would not do it without the approval of a judge. We've got search warrants and arrest warrants and the like,'' Mueller told host Larry King.
Thank god, I was thinking that would be uncommon now the US. Wow, what a piece of investigative journalism.
MiamiHerald.com | 06/23/2006 | Terrorism raid targets a warehouse in Miami

Of Fizzling Fanfares

The United States has launched a number of terrorism prosecutions with great fanfare since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon although many cases later fizzled out.

FBI arrests seven in terrorism plot | WORLD | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

Muslim? Christian? Davidian? Quaeda?

Later, federal sources said that the terrorist group may have no ties at all with Al Qaeda. This would be a group named "Seas of David" which is very keen on the Bible and which has "soldiers" in Chicago according to an alleged member named 'Brother Corey'. Corey told they're nonviolent and didn't plan any terror attack. Yet neighbors of the group's teenagers and young adults members said they introduced themselves as muslims and tried to recruit young people. Authorities worried about their 'military'-like organization.

Most plotters are americans. Some told they are Black Muslims. No one knows if they're really muslims or not.

It doesn't matter. Just put them all in a big pot, stirr and tell the public "Terrorist plot by Quaede uncoverd".
"Perhaps it's only a Davidian-related threat, a new conflict between 'Davidians' who fight with 'Babylonians' (federal authorities). It needs a thorough investigation" a US source told ISRIA.

Thorough investigation? That'll be something new in the US. The officials and the media are more focused on putting away "cold-blooded murderers" without evidence, trial or conviction.
'Seas of David': Seven Suspects Arrested, FBI

Ami go home? Ami, where were you!

The mass media in Hungary and abroad were at pains to stress that Bush's visit to Budapest was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. What pundits failed to point out was that the revolution occurred in late October, not June. The timing here is important: many Hungarians -- especially the few remaining survivors of the revolution -- didn't want the American president in Hungary during the official anniversary in October, when Bush was initially invited.

Many still look back with bitterness and pain at how the US reacted to the revolution 50 years ago. After promising the occupied nations of Central and Eastern Europe assistance if they break free from the chains of communism, when this actually happened in October 1956 and no help had come, many felt betrayed.

TP: Occupying Forces

fivepointfive

This is a joke. Or maybe it is just one load of cocaine going arround...

16 SEIZURES OF 5.5 TONS OF COCAINE

Thursday, June 22, 2006

24 hours drinking games?

Many people see the Kim subplot in season two to be the low point of the show, but I've kind of lightened up on them. While they add little to the drama of the show, her plot line is ridiculous to the point of being surreal, and given enough liquor (24 is practically made for drinking games) unintentionally hilarious.
Ah, Kim, the trouble magnet.
Dave's DVD Shelf: 24: Season Two

Windows is one giant root-kit

Why does lsass.exe write to my harddisk? Why does it have the file "C:\Windows\Debug\PASSWD.LOG" open? why is my Virus Scanner so quiet? And why does Process Explorer say that lsass.exe is verified to be published by Microsoft?

[Update] It seems like a part of Terminal Server, but is strange never the less...

Saturday, June 17, 2006

What a piece of Bushshit

John le Carre:
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

Dr. Dave:
It's 1938 all over again. Bombings in Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines. Insane tyrannical despots in North Korea and Iraq intimidating the world. Unfriendly allies in Germany, France and Belgium. Slavery and baby rapes in Africa. 9/11 in the States. Deadly Ricin found ready to distribute in apartments in the UK. And WE'RE mad?


Africa? Since when does the uSA care about Africa? And Ricin in the UK? And if I remember correctly about 1938 (or was it rather 1939?), not that I was alive back then, it was the US that didn't want to get involved in the European shenanigans.

What a giant piece of BUSHSHIT. And yes, the US are mad.

Celebrity Hypocrites

The Official God FAQ

The Official God FAQ
(via fefe)

List of problems solved by MacGyver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of problems solved by MacGyver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(via fefe)

Friday, June 16, 2006

Excellent writing, as always

Telling Pilgrim that he’s making a mistake because Ubuntu doesn’t have as refined or cohesive a UI as Mac OS X is like telling someone who is switching from a Chevy Tahoe to a Toyota Prius that he’s not going to have as much cargo room. He knows it.

Daring Fireball: And Oranges

Are you a SLIder?

I know that I have been...

SLIders and The Streetlight Phenomenon

Offensive Cuteness

Things Hackers Detest and Avoid

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Bomb owner or really stupid?

[Iran] lied for 20 years to inspectors about its uranium and plutonium activities

Any nation lying for 20 years about its nuclear program either already has the bomb or is really, really stupid.

Nuclear disarmament | The long, long half-life | Economist.com

(via fefe)

What makes Tony tick?

Well, I don't understand all the motives behind the acts of the US goverment, but the more I read about it, the more I get the feeling that they are simply a bunch of morally corupt, selfcentered, arrogant, ignorant, incompentent Assholes (with a capital A). Take for example this about Dick Cheney. The people in power in the US don't care much about the impact their actions have, they just play the game of "Staying in Power".

By the way: Starting a war based on lies and killing at least 30,000 civilians in Iraq comes very close to my definition of a terrorist.

Now that many other nations in the region can't keep their feet still is a natural reaction. Not that I think that is good what they do, but it explains why so many nations mengle with the affairs of their neighbours. E.g. Iran has no interest that its neighbour Iraq is destablized by US and is made into a staging area for all kinds of acts against itself (Don't get me wrong, I would like regime in Iran removed, but it is a sovereign nation and should be treated the same as other nations like the US or China).

Ok, I'm slowly getting the picture why the people act how they act. but what really puzzles me: What's in it for Tony Blair?

I don't know much about British politics. I don't know what drives the people in power in the UK. The British government is a willing member of the coalition of the Terror Fighting Nations, troops in Iraq, people being shot and arrested for nothing both abroad and at home (Menezes, Wolverhampton, Derby, Croydon, Forest Gate). Now if Marget Thatcher, member of the Conservative Party, would still be in power and Reagan invaded Iraq, well, I wouldn't be surprised if the British stood very firmly by the side of the US. But Tony Blair? Is this Labour Party thing just a propaganda stunt? He is still a member of the Labour Party, right? The people arround Bush are the same that made Iran-Contra happen. But who are the people arround Blair?

Why the fuck does Blair what he does? I truely don't understand it. Did he get bullied into this? For sometime I thought maybe it is a US-UK friendship thing since WWII. And I would have understood this. The UK pays back a dept to the US, removes some WMD from Saddam, makes right a wrong. Afterall, it were the US and many European countries that delieverd weapons to Saddam so he can fight the Mullahs in Iran.

But Blair knew it was a lie. Why the fuck didn't he call it a bluff?

How difficult could this be?

During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company played Wagner, was The Simpsons. As Else judged it, this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about the scene.

Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of The Simpsons. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the copyright owner, unless "fair use" or some other privilege applies

LIBREria.org's Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig

All your songs belong to us

Well, I didn't know how that will help because I own the license and never put anything on the Internet.

42hours.org - Background

I couldn't make this up

Techdirt: The RIAA Says No Dancing To Music On YouTube

(via batzlog)

Well-funded terrorist

... could be achieved by a well-funded terrorist with access to a basic lab and PhD-level personnel.

Like the kind of well-funded terrorist enjoying his stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.

By the way, a well-funded terrorist could simply buy a couple of DC-9s in the US and do whatever terrorists do in the US with airplanes. The FAA will look the other way, I promise.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: the lax laws that could allow assembly of deadly virus DNA
(via fefe)

Monday, June 12, 2006

Powell? Fuck.

Another controversial part of his career is that Powell also had an operational role in the illegal Iran-Contra affair, acting as the initial coordinator for selling missiles to Iran in exchange for American hostages.

Why is it that allmost every time I look at a politican currently in charge in US government, some link to Iran-Contra comes up? I don't know chickenshit about Colin Powell, but I thought he was one of the nice guys...

Colin Powell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saturday, June 10, 2006

C.I.A. sponsors Somali warlords

Efforts by C.I.A. Fail in Somalia, Officials Charge - New York Times
(via fefe)

HAVA, HAVA, HAVA!

Daily Nonpareil - ELECTION: Faulty voting machines delay results; counting under way
(via fefe)

Un - be - lievable

Voting machine 'hacker' runs for congress
(via fefe)

How practical

First the US Military finds a video of Zarqawi, then the house he is in and then find two bombs their way to this house. How very practical. Now if they could find the WMDs or any proof that Osama is responsible for 9/11, that would be really neat.













I'm sure, if they need any other proof, they will find it.

TP: Archaische Bilder vom Sieg

Friday, June 09, 2006

WTF? 1200 Terrorists in the UK?

Telegraph | News | MI5 fears silent army of 1,200 biding its time in the suburbs

Sitzpinkel Rule

German Toilets

Might be a good book

10 Steps to Repair American Democracy : An Owners Manual for Concerned Citizens: Books: Steven Hill,Hendrik Hertzberg (Amazon.com)

Lost Chances in Iran (washingtonpost.com)

What's poignant about these wary U.S.-Iranian feelers is that just over a year ago, they yielded a plan for an "anti-terrorist" deal that both countries should have loved: Iran would hand over some senior al Qaeda operatives in its custody and the United States would transfer to Iran some prisoners it was holding from the Iraqi-backed Mujaheddin-e Khalq organization, a group America has officially branded as terrorist.

The State Department is said to have favored such a deal, but the Pentagon balked -- arguing that the Mujaheddin-e Khalq might be useful in fomenting regime change in Tehran. Sadly, this internal dispute between administration pragmatists and ideologues over Iran is similar to the feuds that have obstructed policy on North Korea and Iraq.
...
During and immediately after the Afghanistan war, meetings were held at least once a month. One former U.S. official says flatly that without Iranian help, it would have been impossible to establish the new government in Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai.

A new issue arose as al Qaeda operatives fled from Afghanistan into Iran after the war. The Iranians arrested more than 500 of them in late 2001 and early 2002, according to one senior Iranian official. He said Tehran transferred many to be interrogated in their countries of origin, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Italy and the Netherlands. A number of al Qaeda operatives charged with mounting terrorist attacks in Iran remained there, and they will be tried in Iranian courts later this year.

Lost Chances in Iran (washingtonpost.com)

Is there an Iranian partner? - Haaretz - Israel News

Hence, Judaism is not Ahmadinejad's problem; Zionism is.

Is there an Iranian partner? - Haaretz - Israel News

If the Palestinian Authority collapses, we will not be able simply to stand there and look on

Out of uniform and into the conflict - Haaretz - Israel News

The WTC 1 and WTC 2 were not "pulled"

As the joists on one or two of the most heavily burned floors gave way and the outer box columns began to bow outward, the floors above them also fell. The floor below (with its 1,300 t design capacity) could not support the roughly 45,000 t of ten floors (or more) above crashing down on these angle clips. This started the domino effect that caused the buildings to collapse within ten seconds, hitting bottom with an estimated speed of 200 km per hour. If it had been free fall, with no restraint, the collapse would have only taken eight seconds and would have impacted at 300 km/h. It has been suggested that it was fortunate that the WTC did not tip over onto other buildings surrounding the area. There are several points that should be made. First, the building is not solid; it is 95 percent air and, hence, can implode onto itself. Second, there is no lateral load, even the impact of a speeding aircraft, which is sufficient to move the center of gravity one hundred feet to the side such that it is not within the base footprint of the structure. Third, given the near free-fall collapse, there was insufficient time for portions to attain significant lateral velocity. To summarize all of these points, a 500,000 t structure has too much inertia to fall in any direction other than nearly straight down.

These are facts. Anybody claiming that WTC 1 or WTC 2 were demolished in a controlled way, claiming that the fire could not bring down WTC 1 or WTC 2 don't know what they are talking about.

Why Did the World Trade Center Collapse? Science, Engineering, and Speculation

Proof: Zarqawi met Saddam

270406gump

(stolen here)

Pulling the leg on Zarqawi ends?

Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi
(via)

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The CIA - Your friendly Nazi helper agency

US suppressed Eichmann whereabouts

The historians, who examined newly released CIA documents, told a news conference that America's use of war criminals in Cold War intelligence mainly produced unreliable information, sometimes with disastrous consequences for U.S. interests.

"We have not found any evidence that hiring these tainted individuals brought little other than operational problems and moral confusion," Naftali said.

Different conflict, same story. The ones in the three letter agencies in the USA will never learn. After all, the Taliban were once USA's best buddies, fighting the "evi" Soviets.

I should stop reading those conspiracy blogs...

Why I Quit HIV by Rebecca V. Culshaw

Kill yourself with a T-Shirt

The mockup used to illustrate the Times story looks strangely like a t-shirt with wires stuck on, and the apparent lack of payload space makes one doubt whether a suicide bomber could successfully kill themselves with it. The Times science writer, possibly baffled, appears to agree with us here.

Homebrew chemical terror bombs, hype or horror? | The Register

Orwell was a pretty smart cookie

A much more neglected theme of the novel is the suggestion that the supposedly opposing regimes in Orwell’s world are ideologically indistinguishable and not really enemies. They are engaged in a perpetual, unwinnable war whose only purpose use up human labour and the fruits of human labour so that each superstate's economy cannot support a decent standard of living for every citizen.

According to 1984, it is perfectly possible that the entire world is controlled by a single entity.


Famous for 15 megapixels: Cynicism

Suicide pigeon shot dead outside busy shopping centre

A new terror alert has been issued across the country after an overweight pigeon stuffed with explosives was shot and killed outside a Birmingham shopping centre.

TheChickenCount () Next Months News Today™ : Suicide pigeon shot dead outside busy shopping centre

Do you believe in Al Qaeda?

Al-Qaeda

The thing is, I don't know where the real Al-Qaeda stops and where the US propaganda starts. What do you think?

Bring me EVERYONE!!!

Two hundred and fifty plus police, a no fly zone, full hazmat procedures, the works...

Bring me EVERYONE!!!
(via blairwitch)

Our main weapon is fear

Osmium tetroxide is the chemical believed to be at the centre of an alleged bomb plot foiled by UK and US intelligence agents.

It is thought the supposed plan involved detonating an explosive device and the compound.

Osmium tetroxide is used by scientists to stain materials and as a catalyst - something that speeds chemical reactions.

It is also a toxic substance with corrosive effects on eyes and skin, making it dangerous to touch or inhale.

And it would also have the ability to cause panic if released in a closed environment.

But given its high cost and volatile nature, scientists say it makes an unlikely ingredient for an effective "dirty bomb".

What is osmium tetroxide? - BBC NEWS

The feasibility of using a bomb to disburse OsO4 is highly suspect. When heated OsO4 rapidly decomposes to OsO2, which is effectively a rock.

CNS - Osmium Tetroxide - a New Chemical Terrorism Weapon? - Apr. 13, 2004 - Research Story

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Florida, Airplanes and the CIA

The 14th Congressional District of Florida is on the Gulf Coast of southern Florida. It includes Lee County, Fort Myers, Naples, and part of Port Charlotte.

It is now represented by Connie Mack IV, who was elected after representative Porter Goss resigned to become Director of the CIA.

Florida's 14th congressional district - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Small world. Really small world.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

GM and Denmark

Of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries (2000)
(via fefe)

A Racist?

I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.


Who do you think said that?
(via Fefe's Blog)

A Simple Game

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."
Gary Lineker

Let's see, I'm not sure about the last part.
World Cup 101 - Soccertext

"we experience real crimes on a daily basis"

Real crimes, as opposed to the phantom terror threat.
FBI agents working real and pressing investigations such as organized crime, child pornography and missing persons are being pulled away from their normal law enforcement duties to follow up on NSA leads. Nobody wants another 9/11, of course, but we experience real crimes on a daily basis that, over the course of even one year, cause far greater loss of life and damage than the 9/11 attacks did. There are children abused on a daily basis to facilitate online child pornography, yet I know of at least two agents who were pulled from their duties tracking down child abusers to investigate everyone who called the same pizza parlor as a person who received a call from a person who received an overseas call. There are plenty of similar examples.

We have snakes in our midst, yet we are chasing a mythical beast with completely unreliable evidence.

Chasing a mythical beast. Nice.
Opinion: Why NSA spying puts the U.S. in danger
(via Schneier)

Saturday, June 03, 2006

eBay - The Giant Moves

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: eBay Wiki and Blogs

A different voice to RFK Jr. claims

Salon.com News | Was the 2004 election stolen? No.

Farhad Manjoo addresses some of the issues that RFK Jr. writes about, but not all. And the most important point he seems to make is "that it is all old news", the same line of argument that was made about the Downingstreet Memo.

Bush and gay marriage?

Ohio, like several other states, had an initiative on the ballot in 2004 to outlaw gay marriage. Statewide, the measure proved far more popular than Bush, besting the president by 470,000 votes. But in six of the twelve suspect counties -- as well as in six other small counties in central Ohio -- Bush outpolled the ban on same-sex unions by 16,132 votes. To trust the official tally, in other words, you must believe that thousands of rural Ohioans voted for both President Bush and gay marriage.

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Who allowed the monkey to become President?

Ballot crawl in Cleveland also shifted votes from Kerry to Bush. In Precinct 13B, where Bush received only six votes in 2000, he was credited with twenty percent of the total in 2004. Same story in 9P, where Bush recorded eighty-seven votes in 2004, compared to his grand total of one in 2000.

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

"Brooks Brothers Riot"

Angola? Cuba? China?

No, this is the US, in living color.

Miami 'Riot' Squad: Where Are They Now? (washingtonpost.com)

Friday, June 02, 2006

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
(vie Blue Sky on Mars)

A Clockwork Red White Blue - You bring the TV stations, we bring the propaganda

Federal authorities are investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news.

New Zealand Herald - American TV stations in 'fake news' inquiry

(via fefe)

US Meddles

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, demands for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, and secret encouragement by the US administration (Jimmy Carter, conveyed through Saudi Arabia) which was embroiled in a dispute with the new regime in Iran.
The US government helps one side to fight the other side. Then they get rid of one side and fight the other side themselves?

Starting in 1981, both Iran and Iraq attacked oil tankers and merchant ships, including those of neutral nations, in an effort to deprive the opponent of trade. After repeated Iraqi attacks on Iran's main exporting facility on Khark Island, Iran attacked a Kuwaiti tanker near Bahrain on May 13, 1984, and a Saudi tanker in Saudi waters on May 16. Attacks on ships of noncombatant nations in the Persian Gulf sharply increased thereafter, and this phase of the war was dubbed the "Tanker War."

... the United States offered to provide protection for tankers flying the U.S. flag on March 7, 1987 (Operation Earnest Will and Operation Prime Chance). Under international law, an attack on such ships would be treated as an attack on the U.S., allowing the U.S. to retaliate militarily. This support would protect ships headed to Iraqi ports, effectively guaranteeing Iraq's revenue stream for the duration of the war.

An Iraqi plane accidentally attacked the USS Stark, a Perry class frigate on May 17, killing 37 and injuring 21. But U.S. attention was on isolating Iran; it criticized Iran's mining of international waters, and sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 598, which passed unanimously on July 20, under which it skirmished with Iranian forces. In October 1987, the U.S. attacked Iranian oil platforms in retaliation for an Iranian attack on the U.S.-flagged tanker Sea Isle City.
The US government always sees only what it wants to see. And is it incidental, that many "best buddies" of the US turn into their "worst foes"?

Iran-Iraq War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thursday, June 01, 2006

I'm missing something

Why do many jobs ask for a skill that nobody with a sane mind wants to learn?

[ ] ASP
[ ] ASP.net
[ ] SQL
[ ] WebServices
[ ] SOAP
[ ] XML
[ ] XSL
[ ] SQL
[ ] MySQL
[ ] Oracle
[ ] Perl (yuck)
[ ] PHP
[ ] Java
[ ] J2EE
[ ] JSP
[ ] UML
[ ] .NET
[ ] C#
[ ] ABAP
[ ] Delphi
[ ] CASE
[ ] ...

Is it a bad sign that jobs are available with these technologies? And why do companies use these technologies, if they seem to have problems finding good people?

So, what should I learn, to earn my money. What sucks the least? And no, I'm not learning SAP.

A Classic

Ahhhh, Denis Leary.

BatzLog - Noch etwas Salz? � Stört es Sie wenn ich rauche…?

Long Term

In the long term, corporate data mining efforts are more of a privacy risk than government data mining efforts.

Schneier on Security: Data Mining Software from IBM

"Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable"

City Pages - No. 1?