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

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.

Of Democrats, Republicans, Native Americans, A Lobbyist, the White House and the W Word

A Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the Net - New York Times

We do what we can

James Tobin (political operative) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From the Department of Homeland Panic

TerrorReady.net

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)

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)

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

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?