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Pentagon Eyes Mass Graves for US GIs

The bodies of U.S. soldiers killed by chemical or biological weapons in Iraq or future wars may be bulldozed into mass graves and burned to save the lives of surviving troops, under an option being considered by the Pentagon.

Since the Korean War, the U.S. military has taken great pride in bringing home its war dead, returning bodies to next of kin for flag-draped, taps-sounding funerals complete with 21-gun salutes.

But the 53-year-old tradition could come to an abrupt halt if large numbers of soldiers are killed by chemical or biological agents, according to a proposal quietly circulating through Pentagon corridors. [more]

Man accidentally shot to death while using gun to beat his dog

A man trying to beat his dog to death with a gun was fatally wounded when it apparently went off accidentally, police said.

Raymond Poore Jr., 43, called his wife at work Thursday and told her that their dog had bitten him and he intended to kill the animal, police Capt. David Sobonya said. The wife came home about 6 p.m. and found her husband unconscious, with a number of dog bites and scratches. Emergency medical personnel discovered that Poole had been shot. He was pronounced dead at Winchester Medical Center.

Sobonya said Poore must have beaten the 30-pound Shar-Pei with the gun that went off. He said the stock of the weapon, a combination rifle and shotgun, was broken and there appeared to be blood and dog hair on it.

The dog was in the custody of an animal control officer. Sobonya had no detail on how badly it was injured.

Note: Is this is the modern equivalent of the story about Nietzsche coming across a coachman beating a horse? In later letters from an asylum Nietzsche admitted to initially wanting to beat the man for beating the horse and how that presented a philosophical conundrum. Failing to reach the man before the horse collapsed, Nietzsche himself collapsed unto the street throwing his arms around the horse's neck. He was eventually taken back to his apartment, but he had apparently also collapsed mentally. He was later found by friends, playing the piano with his elbows and singing wildly. Scholars will tell you that this event marks the outbreak of Nietzsche's "insanity". The more poetic among us will say that this was an inconvenient outbreak of perverse (counter to societal standards) sanity on the part of Nietzsche. Was I going somewhere with this? Probably not. I am going to retire to the piano now and play the song "Instant Karma" with my elbows accompanied by my faithful Labrador, Wagner...

MS SQL Server Worm Wreaking Havoc

"Since about midnight EST almost every host on the internet has been receiving a 376 byte UDP payload on port ms-sql-m (1434) from a random infected server. Reports of some hosts receiving 10 per minute or more. internetpulse.net is reporting UUNet and Internap are being hit very hard. This is the cause of major connectivity problems being experienced worldwide. It is believed this worm leverages a vulnerability published in June 2002. Several core routers have taken to blocking port 1434 outright. If you run Microsoft SQL Server, make sure the public internet can't access it. If you manage a gateway, consider dropping UDP packets sent to port 1434." bani adds "This has effectively disabled 5 of the 13 root nameservers." | Via Slashdot

Note: Coincidentally, we took our SQL server off-line for major upgrades and repairs about a week or so ago, but thanks for asking. Must be Fortune looking out for us.

Also see:

Virus-like attack hits web traffic

Worm disrupts automated bank teller machines in the United States

Risk of internet collapse rising

Virus sentence sends out shockwaves

Something Really Current

Man Is Accused of Stalking by Satellite

A man accused of using a satellite tracking device to trace the movements of his ex-girlfriend after their breakup entered an innocent plea Thursday to stalking and other charges. Connie Adams testified at an earlier hearing in Kenosha County Circuit Court that Seidler stalked her relentlessly for months with the aid of a global positioning system device that police later found planted under the hood of her car. She said the system recorded her movements — to work, on dates, shopping and even to buy gasoline — and Seidler would show up wherever she went.

Doubting Thomas offers her press veteran’s take on state of presidency

Thomas believes we have chosen to promote democracy with bombs instead of largess while Congress “defaults,” Democrats cower and a president controls all three branches of government in the name of corporations and the religious right.
As she signed my program, I joked, “You sound worried.”
“This is the worst president ever,” she said. “He is the worst president in all of American history.”
The woman who has known eight of them wasn’t joking.

Electronics Gives Chaos a Good Name

Chaos may improve a critical component of electronics manufacturing -- specifically in spray-applied coatings that enhance heat resistance and electrical conductivity. Scientists in Mexico have discovered in aerosols the same chaotic order that characterizes wispy clouds, rugged mountains and falling snow.

Fractals -- jagged, chaotic geometrical arrays that never smooth out, no matter how closely you look at them -- best describe the liquid-gas interface of a spray, according to a four-person team led by Antonio Sarmiento-Galan of the Mathematics Institute at Mexico's National University. While studying the fractal nature of sprays, the researchers claim they discovered how to increase the efficiency of spray application processes used, say, in coating electrical connections with copper films to improve conductivity. Another example is the application of metals to substrates -- such as ceramic or glass -- to make flexible electrical circuits.

"The total efficiency of a spray grows as the 'fractality' of the liquid increases," Sarmiento-Galan told NewsFactor. The more fractal -- or chaotic -- the spray, then, the better.

Singularity Watch Home Page

Some 20 to 140 years from now—depending on which evolutionary or systems theorist, computer scientist, technology studies scholar, or futurist you happen to agree with—the rate of self-catalyzing, self-organizing, ever more autonomous (human-independent) technological change in our local environment will undergo a "singularity," becoming effectively instantaneous from the perspective of current biological humanity. It has been postulated that events after this point must also be "future-incomprehensible" to existing humanity, though we disagree.
Some social theorists have suggested that the currently breathtaking rate of change, of "information processing growth," that we have seen in 20th and early 21st century human civilization, most clearly within the computer and communications industries, cannot continue to accelerate indefinitely. Apparent support for this position comes from the observed logistic or "sigmoidal" ("S curve") nature of biological growth, where resource limits and species interaction invariably lead to "saturation" in population size within finite time. Other such natural non-exponential dynamics are oscillation around a mean, as in predator-prey relationships, or even "crashes" ("i curves") seen in biological catastrophes, which are, interestingly, statistically quite rare.

I like Bruce Sterling's comment on Schism Matrix: "Imagine if these eager futurist guys at "Singularity Watch" actually found a Singularity. Would they be able to hastily type it up into the ol' website, or would they just be summarily swept right into the Rapture?"

A new opposition front in the drug war (Free Reg. Req.)
Criminalizing peaceful people who use psychoactive drugs to deepen their spiritual life is criminal itself, some groups are arguing

A new front has opened in opposition to the war on drugs--a religious front.

Several newly formed groups are contesting our prohibitionist, anti-drug strategies because they restrict religious freedom and "cognitive liberty."

Drugs alter consciousness and "the right to control one's own consciousness is the quintessence of freedom," reads part of a manifesto of the Journal of Cognitive Liberties. The journal is one of many projects of the four-year-old Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, a California-based, non-profit group that promotes intellectual freedom. The group defines cognitive liberty as "the right of each individual to think independently and autonomously, to use the full spectrum of his or her mind and to engage in multiple modes of thoughts and alternative states of consciousness." [MORE]

RSS Moves Even More Mainstream

JD Lasica (Online Journalism Review): News that comes to you. Instead of the hunt and peck of Web surfing, you can download or buy a small program that turns your computer into a voracious media hub, letting you snag headlines and news updates as if you were commanding the anchor desk at CNN.

Rusty Coats (American Press Institute): The next front[ier] in the disruption of traditional media. Most importantly, the cost of not offering your site's content via RSS news aggregators is in becoming irrelevant. I currently subscribe to more than 20 RSS feeds on my NetNewsWire aggregator. Three come from traditional news-media companies. The rest are offered by hobbyists and niche publishers.

It's clear to me, as well, that the traditional media mostly don't understand the power of this trend. It puts more control into the hands of news users, as opposed to news providers, but it spreads the best journalism -- professional and amateur -- far and wide.
This growing trend is one reason why I was so happy when we moved this blog back to a platform that supported RSS. (The blog's original platform also supported RSS, but when the blog went onto an internal publishing package the that capability disappeared.) I've heard from a number of people who are getting my feeds through a variety of news readers.

RSS is a key part of the developing conversation we're all having. May it spread, farther and wider, faster. -Dan Gilmore

Senate Rebuffs Domestic Spy Plan

Saying they feared government snooping against ordinary Americans, U.S. senators voted Thursday to block funding for a Pentagon (news - websites) computer project that would scour databases for terrorist threats. By a voice vote, the Senate voted to ban funding for the Total Information Awareness program, under former national security adviser John Poindexter, until the Pentagon explains the program and assesses its impact on civil liberties. The measure, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also said the computer dragnet being developed could not be deployed without congressional approval, although it allowed exceptions for national security. It was tacked onto a spending package in the Senate, but it is not yet law.

The Guilt-Free Soldier

"It's the morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain, or guilt," says Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, who emphasizes that he's speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the council. Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. "That's the devil pill," he says. "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't work, what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will." [more]

Follow up to previous post

In response to our previous article, IncuBLOGula feeder "Mag/Tif" (of Magdalen Sez fame, formerly of Fringe Ware connectivity) asserts that she was merely sightseeing with Fortean Times skeptical investigator Daev "hellshaw" Walsh (of Blather fame, formerly of Fringe Ware connectivity) and his crew. It was not an official mission.

How convenient, then, that their activities were detailed not only by IncuBLOGula surveillance, but publicly, in the SF Weekly. Miss Magdalen has refused to speculate as to the true cause of the key turning in her hand on this Ghost Hunt tour, which produced excellent views and lovely historical tales, but more gruyere than gruesome ghosts.

Clowns miss Livingstone with custard pies

Ken Livingstone has evaded a mob of clowns. The Mayor of London managed to avoid the group of angry protesters campaigning against his traffic plan. Armed with custard pies, the clowns from Zippo's Circus claim the congestion charges to be brought in on February 17 will cost them wages. "Our circus has 70 vehicles and we criss-cross London all through the year," said the circus owner, who calls himself, Zippo. "We've worked out it's going to cost us £20,000 a year. Now the Mayor says he wants the price of show tickets to go down - but how are we expected to do that? "We're not going to reduce prices because of this, so it's going to have to come out of the clowns' pockets." The clowns' plan of attack was thwarted this morning as Mr Livingstone managed to get into his City Hall office, near Tower Bridge, unharmed. A spokesman for Mr Livingstone denied being tipped off over the planned attack.

www.alexgrey.com

From our Spycam

In San Francisco's Prospect Heights recently, one of IncuBLOGula's omnipresent spycams locked in on what our proprietary facial recognition technology resolves as one "magdalen." Our crew member, also known as "Mag/Tif" of Magdalen Sez fame, appears to be channelling the uncanny key-turning abilities of poltergeist Claudia Chambers, who is said to inhabit the former Mansions Hotel at 2220 Sacramento Street. Or could this be some mortal magic perpetuated by San Francisco Ghost Hunt guide Jim Fassbinder?

Linked: The New Science of Networks

From the Editors: From one of the seminal researchers in the field comes this highly readable explanation of how networks form the foundation of everything from human societies to the living world, physics, and much more. Interconnectedness as a framework for understanding has revolutionized such disparate fields as cancer research and business strategy.

From the Publisher: The first book to explore the hot new science of networks and their impact on nature, business, medicine, and everyday life.
In the 1980's, James Gleick's Chaos introduced the world to complexity. Now, Albert-László Barabási's Linked reveals the next major scientific leap: the study of networks.
We've long suspected that we live in a small world, where everything is connected to everything else. Indeed, networks are pervasive—from the human brain to the Internet to the economy to our group of friends. These linkages, it turns out, aren't random. All networks, to the great surprise of scientists, have an underlying order and follow simple laws. Understanding the structure and behavior of these networks will help us do some amazing things, from designing the optimal organization of a firm to stopping a disease outbreak before it spreads catastrophically. In Linked, Barabási, a physicist whose work has revolutionized the study of networks, traces the development of this rapidly unfolding science and introduces us to the scientists carrying out this pioneering work. These "new cartographers" are mapping networks in a wide range of scientific disciplines, proving that social networks, corporations, and cells are more similar than they are different, and providing important new insights into the interconnected world around us. This knowledge, says Barabási, can shed light on the robustness of the Internet, the spread of fads and viruses, even the future of democracy. Engaging and authoritative, Linked provides an exciting preview of the next century in science, guaranteed to be transformed by these amazing discoveries.

Excellent Review on Slashdot.

Our take: Six Mutant Thumbs Up for this one !

World leaders uncork Spirit of Davos

So with a flourish of ties, a clatter of briefcases, it's coming home. Welcome back to Davos, Switzerland business supremos, all 1,000 of them, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina. Welcome back political chiefs, among them former US president Bill Clinton, and current US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Welcome even, for the first time, protesters who have raised the World Economic Forum's annual meeting as an icon of "evil" globalisation, and sought to smash it on the foundation stones of a new world order. Conspiracy Kookery or Pragmatic Analysis ?

International Journal of Game Theory Volume 31 Issue 2

Illegal Art

These films and videos appropriate others' intellectual property, whether through the use of found footage, unauthorized music, or shots of copyrighted or trademarked material. (Filmmakers and videographers now have to get permission for just about every concert t-shirt, store sign, or other piece of intellectual property that happens to appear onscreen).

Doctors Reattach Teen’s Head After Car Wreck
The most amazing thing about 18-year-old Marcos Parra's story is that he is alive to tell it.

Just a few months ago, Parra's car was hit by a drunken driver and his head was almost completely severed from his body, with only his spinal cord keeping it connected.
Parra barely recalls what happened. "I just remembered hearing someone screaming," Parra told Good Morning America. "They said it was my friend but I can't tell you because I wasn't there 100 percent."
Parra was rushed from the scene to the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.
Doctors had never seen such injuries. It almost didn't matter that he had a broken clavicle, pelvis, tailbone and ribs. They were stunned to learn of the injury to his neck that technically ripped off his head.
His skull was ripped from the cervical spine, detaching Parra's head from the neck.

The Starchild is born...

A very nice synopsis of the story of Clark's/Kubric's 2001 in Flash form. Multilingual.- Chiaroscuro

SBC actually sends a link patent infringement notice
Background on this story here.

Our website, www.museumtour.com has recently received an patent infringement notice from SBC Intellectual Property.

The letter suggests that any website which has static, linked information (top banners, menus, bottom banners) which are displayed while other sections of the page are displayed as non-static (the area where products appear on most websites) infringes upon the patents they hold.

Below, we have placed a copy of the first 4 pages out of the 36 that they sent us | Via FC

Four-winged dinosaur makes feathers fly

A stunning set of six fossils discovered in China could rewrite our understanding of how and why birds first took to the sky. The fossils clearly show a small dinosaur that had flight feathers covering its legs, as well as tail and arms, forming an extra pair of wings never before seen by palaeontologists.
News of the find comes just days after scientists published work showing that baby partridges flap their tiny wings to help them climb steep slopes, an insight that may explain why wings first evolved. Together, the two discoveries may represent one the most significant advances in the contentious study of avian evolution for decades.
"We need to be prepared to change some cherished notions" about the evolution of flight, palaeontologist Larry Witmer of Ohio University told New Scientist.

Total Information Awareness as Intellectual Property Theft?
Strip Mining Minds. Organized Crime has taken over Americas government and what you don't give them, they will steal from you. Pay your taxes, keep a cop on welfare.

For some years now in the United States (and elsewhere) there has been a movement by a small percentage of scientists and independent researchers to develop technology outside of corporate government control. This is highly frowned upon, as we have come to find out, because technology is the key to this oligarchys welfare, and I do mean welfare. They are incapable of original thought or creativity, just as Bill Gates was incapable of creating DOS without a MAC. They PREY (IT WORKS) on people who have voluntarily withdrawn from the mainstream, who feel dirtied by all the intellectual whoring-around going on, and with Total Information Awareness in place, this intellectual whoring-around has reached gargantuan proportions. It has been labeled Information Warfare but really is just Information Blood Sucking. Lots of proof of this, daily. [MORE]

Judge OKs surgical strike on Kazaa user

A federal judge ordered Verizon Communications to turn over to the Recording Industry Association of America the name of a Kazaa user who allegedly shared hundreds of pirated music recordings online. The decision is a major victory for the recording industry, which holds file-sharing networks responsible for the precipitous decline in CD sales in recent years. The RIAA sent a subpoena to Verizon in July, demanding that it divulge the name of the subscriber. In that subpoena, the RIAA cited The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects ISPs from prosecution for their subscribers' actions, provided they turn over the name of the offender when served with a subpoena. Verizon refused to comply with the subpoena, arguing it wasn't legally required to produce the name of the subscriber. The musical recordings the RIAA sought, Verizon said, did not reside on its network, but rather on the user's own hardware, which was outside the reach of a subpoena. The court disagreed and found in favor of the RIAA, issuing a ruling that could make it easier for the music industry to crack down on file sharing. "The court's decision has troubling ramifications for consumers, service providers and the growth of the Internet," said Sara Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon. "It opens the door for anyone who makes a mere allegation of copyright infringement to gain complete access to private subscriber information without the due process protections afforded by the courts." | Via GMSV

Demonstrating Genuine Leadership
LibertyThinker digs deep info on the Bush SPAM.
Just added: 01/22, Dan Gilmore picked this up. Thanks Dan.

If George Bush can't get the job done, perhaps the Raelians can?

One week ago, someone, somewhere began demonstrating genuine leadership. Until January 2003, Google had never seen any result for this phrase. When I first checked (2003-01-17 15:00), there were fifteen results -- all published since New Year's Day.

All of these appeared in "Letters to the Editor" in newspapers in different cities. All letters were identical. Each was signed by a different person -- a demonstrably real person. No person claimed membership in any organization, nor did anyone attribute the letter to its true author. They just signed it and mailed it to the Editor.

One possible explanation: the messages are Alien Transmissions from outer space! Using public search engines, UnBlinking has determined that Alien Transmission 2003-01 is not alone! In fact:

* There have been at least three unique Alien Transmissions (2002-09, 2002-11, and 2003-01).
* Alien Transmission 2003-01 appeared over two different names in the same newspaper.
* Two persons have published multiple, different Alien Transmissions several months apart.


We know of 37 different appearances of this most recent "Letter to the Editor" in US papers.

UnBlinking scans the wealth of information on the internet, gathering background on people and events. Using public search engines, UnBlinking collates what may be known (and what may have been forgotten). | Via The HIVE

More on this story:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7308
http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2003/01/20
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/6429.php

Apparently it's all coming from here: http://gopteamleader.com/ Via CDC

Walking the Chalk

The Sidekick is actually pretty cool. WiFi is accessible in most major cities, especially NY and SF, with LA in third. NY and SF excel at Warchalking.
With Onebox, I have a Universal (888) number, that will capture the caller ID/ANI info as text, put that in the body of an e-mail, convert the message (even hang-ups) to a .wav file, and email me the text info with the .wav as an attachment. It's a hightechfangled message forwarding system that allows me to be notified of, respond to or simply listen to messages without switching interfaces (e-mail to voicemail or Interment to Cell).
With Blogger Pro, I can actually post to this blog from my sidekick (as I'm doing now) for up to the minute, on the spot reporting (as we'll be doing soon). Of course, networks like Teledesic promise that I'll have wireless T1 speeds anywhere on the planet soon.
Drawbacks? If any, I'd like a quicker way to switch over from cell to Internet and back. The integrated interface is more of a conceptual problem with the separation of Internet and voice than it is a implementation problem. For now I guess you'll just have to download the voicemail/e-mail messages and then switch over to voice mode in order to file the restraining order. :-)
I talked to a guy from the Ukraine yesterday who is proposing an offshore wireless network that would cover NYC and specialize in pr0n for the wireless/WiFi market. That's when you know that a technology is here to stay, when the pr0n merchants move in. That's all for now. Keep up the good work.

Librarians and Privacy: Big Brother is Reading Over Your Shoulder

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on librarians' concerns that anti-terrorism laws will require them to violate their patrons' privacy. Librarians are holding workshops to learn about their responsibilities and options.
Listen Here.

Spies to publish cookbook

German special agents have published a cookbook of secret recipes.Top Secret - Schnitzel for Spies, is a new book by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - the German equivalent of MI6. More than two-dozen exotic recipes are included in the book, gathered from German special agents stationed around the world. Each recipe is spiced up with anecdotes from the agents about how they have made use of their culinary skills.

Comparative tables of deity-sequences

Sent in via the suggestion box.

Garofalo lights up campus with wit
Comedian takes on the media, government, teen pop stars

"The news disrespects us," Garofalo said. "How is the world supposed to make decisions, especially about Iraq, when we don't get relevant information? The information we get includes words like 'evil-doers' -- is this a fucking bed-time story?"

She spoke out against the pending war with Iraq but encouraged students to form their own opinions.

"We might as well live in a gated community if we choose to invade Iraq," she said. "The pro-American status might just come to bite us in the ass. I'm not saying that I hate America. I'm saying that I hate the arbitrary imperialism of a country who wants to make all the rules."

Garofalo also pointed out the "stupidity" of the American public.

"People say the American people aren't stupid. ... America is like the drunken frat guy of nations," she said as NU students burst into giggles.

Pre-elephants may have given birth to myth of Cyclops
Scientists speculate that giant tusked mammal swam— and its skull could have given rise to tales of cyclops

RESEARCHERS ON the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a fearsome Deinotherium gigantissimum, an elephantlike creature that reached nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall.
The 7 million-year-old remains suggest that the mammal moved around larger areas of Europe than previously believed, possibly swimming long distances in search of food.
“It was more widespread than we thought,” said Charalampos Fassoulas, a geologist who headed the excavations by the University of Crete’s Natural History Museum.
The 4½-foot (1.4-meter) tusk was found in September, along with seven fossilized teeth the size of softballs and several bones on farmland cleared to plant olive trees.
A large hole in the middle of the elephant’s skull — the nasal cavity for its trunk — could have given rise to the tales of the cyclops, the ferocious mythological giant with one eye that appears in Homer’s “Odyssey” and other stories.

Pirated Sites!! Aaarrgghh...

Are they kidding? Are they serious? Both? From the site: Pirated-Sites.com showcases side-by-side comparisons of web sites that are suspected of borrowing, copying or stealing copyright-protected content, design or code without permission. Check it out for yourself and decide.

The Politics of 'Real Time'
the dominant code of globalization is not networking nor the economic expansion of global corporations nor the global reach of terrorism. Rather it lies in the virtualization of the vision machine. This virtualization rests on the binary of the 'actual'/'virtual' which splits the 'real' creating a 'reality effect'. Paul Virilio: The Politics of 'Real Time'

"Our contemporary situation is the inverse of that of the primitive. It has to make its path in the midst of the proliferation of references, rules and orders. That is why the process of organizing perception seems to me so little suitable to the period. An actualization of perception ought to be at work in the composition of the immediate image: to see should not be constantly to re-see. Today we are no longer truly see-ers [voyants] but already resee-ers [revoyants], the tautological repetition of the same, at work in our mode of production (industrial) is at work equally in our mode of perception." | Via abuddhas memes

Could the Pentagon disable the Internet or portions of it in the event of war?

Bruce Schneier Founder and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security thinks so. "My guess is that the U.S. military could disable large parts of the Internet, at least for a while, if they wanted," writes Schneier in this month's issue of Cryptogram. "But I doubt that they would do so; it's far too useful an asset, and far too large a part of our economy. More interesting is whether they would try to disable pieces of it. If we went to war with country X, would we want to disable their portion of the Internet, or remove connections between their Internet and our Internet? Depending on the country, a low-tech solution might be the easiest: disable whatever undersea cables they're using as access. Could the U.S. military turn the Internet into a U.S.-only network if they wanted? That seems less likely, although again a low-tech solution involving the acquiescence of companies like Cable & Wireless might be the easiest. One important thing to remember here is that you only want to shut an enemy's network down if you aren't getting useful information from it. The best thing to do is to infiltrate the enemy's computers and networks, spy on them, and surreptitiously disrupt select pieces of their communications, when appropriate. The next best thing is to passively eavesdrop. After that, the next best is to perform traffic analysis. Only if you can't do any of that do you consider shutting the thing down. " | Via SVT

Techsploitation: Psychedelic Sci Fi

"I am stoned," the captain says gravely, his face in half-light as the glowing spaceship controls leave trails in the darkness behind him. He and his intrepid crew have just smoked a nicely rolled joint, the perfect preparation for their fatal mission. In a psychedelic apocalypse future, planet Earth is doomed because sperm counts have gotten so low that nobody can reproduce. Elite crews of men have been sent to the far reaches of the galaxy to find "fertility" and a place to plant their last remaining seed. They are armed only with pot, booze, and a special pill that will make them potent – granting them one last chance to inseminate whatever they can before they die.

F'd Companies

Fair review of F'cked Company book, which is by an old Taos Mountain co-worker. Now that Pud has written F'cked Company, someone should write a book about Taos Mountain and the levity of that situation. -JM

I think I know her Mom...

Good Lord!
I think I know her Mom...like Mother like Daughter?

New Stuff

Lots of new stuff, over there ->, under the incuBLOGula orginal columns. Much more to come in 03! Woo-hoo!

Police not amused at drunk driver's smiley

A man who erased his drink-driving record from a police computer and replaced it with a winking "smiley face" graphic ended up with a suspended licence and a fine when police failed to see the funny side. The 19-year-old computer whiz had been arrested for drunk driving and summoned to appear in court in Besancon, in eastern France, the French daily Liberation reported on Tuesday.
Finding an unmanned computer as he arrived at the police station for his hearing, the man decided to test the good humour of the court by sneaking into the database. He deleted his file from the computer's hard drive and inserted ";)" -- the text message shorthand for a winking smiley face -- in its place. But rather than smiling at the prank, the judge handed the man a three-month suspended prison sentence, a 400 euro (265 pounds) fine and suspended his driving licence for three months.

DeCSS A-OK in Norway

"DVD Jon" Johansen was acquitted Tuesday of all charges brought against him for his authorship of the widely-publicized DeCSS code (not here), which enables Linux users to view legally purchased DVD content on their computers.

Shuttle crew studies sprites and elves

Sprites and elves dancing on thunder clouds have been captured by cameras on the space shuttle Columbia. The sprites, which are red flashes of electricity shooting up from thunderclouds 13 miles (20 km) into the ionosphere, and elves, which are glowing red doughnut shapes radiating 190 miles (300 km), were photographed Sunday by astronaut Dave Brown on the sprite hunt's first orbit. Columbia and a crew of seven astronauts are on a 16-day science mission that began Thursday. The study of sprites is part of an Israeli experiment known as MEIDEX that includes the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon.

From the mailbag

Comment: Maybe you should can the biased political views. Difference in political opinion is what makes the world go around and alienating certain political groups only serves to decrease the amount of traffic visiting your website. Just a thought.

Answer: If it were Democrats in office we'd be making fun of them too. It's not parties in particular that we have a problem with. It's politicians in general. Parties just fall under that general heading. For the record the traffic on this site has swelled in the last 7 months to all time highs. Go figure. Indeed, diversity of opinion is what makes the world go round. We're just expressing ours.Thanks for yours. Name and e-mail withheld because not everyone out there can disagree with civility, like we can. ;-) | Via Our Contact Form

Remember what Timothy Leary said about Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign: "C'mon people, we can be more polite than that. Just say, No Thank You."

Legendary hacker to get unleashed and online

One of the world's most famous computer hackers gets off probation this week and plans to dive back into the Internet, his former playground where breaking-and-entering landed him in jail for five years.
On Tuesday, 39-year-old Kevin Mitnick will log on to the Internet for the first time in eight years, during the live TechTV show ``Screen Savers.'' Also scheduled to be on the program are Shawn Fanning, creator of Internet music downloading pioneer Napster, and Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple Computer Inc.
Mitnick says he is ready to go to work, ironically, in a position where he will be helping protect companies against the kind of hacking he used to do. He has a job interview scheduled for Monday, but declines to name the company. [MORE]

Click here to play "UN Weapons Inspector: The Game"

The Heretofore Unpublished Letters of Ernest Glitch

Call for Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie References

"Lyle Zapato, best-selling author (well, maybe just author) of Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie: Practical Mind Control Protection for Paranoids , and developer of MindGuard, personal anti-psychotronic software for Amiga and Linux, is trying to find as many references to AFDBs or similar devices prior to 1991 as possible. Please help this important part of our cultural heritage from being lost, and email him with any references you can find." Via slashdot

Can you Grok it?

This looks interesting. From their site: "The application quickly converts data, documents, records, and search results into contextually relevant, graphical knowledge maps. By employing an intuitive graphical interface and powerful tools, Grokker enables the discovery of unknown or unnoticed relationships and data points within information sources. Converting results into intuitive knowledge maps creates a new information currency that improves and streamlines information consumption and management. To “Grok” means to understand as a whole — Grokker™ is a tool that facilitates a holistic approach to the understanding of complex and disconnected information."

It seems a little pricey at $99 but they claim they'll be releasing a "try before you buy" version soon. However, it's a bit strange that they're charging for their preview releases. Oh well. I'm sure it will show up on Kazaa soon.

Coppola goes On the Road

Acclaimed Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola is to make a film based on Jack Kerouac's classic tale of the Beat Generation, On the Road. Coppola will produce while Joel Schumacher, - the Batman film-maker - will direct and Brad Pitt and Billy Crudup are set to star.
More Links here. Originally spotted on BB

Other movie news: Rumored to have been "canned", Invisible Monsters may live again.Interloper sez: "It seems Jesse Peyronel has renewed his option another year for the Invisible Monsters script he wrote last year. Apparently, Peyronel and his crew hit a snag last spring on the project when they couldn't secure the total budget they felt they needed for the film." The full story here.

Enormous Egg-Shaped Irish Temple Discovered Underground

Nov. 21 — An enormous temple that was once surrounded by 300 towering oak posts lies directly underneath the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Irish archaeologists recently announced.

While the site is home to many known archaeological treasures, this latest discovery reveals that even more exist underneath the sacred hill.

Project Mayhem infiltrates Avery?
Fight Club fan(s?) hack the package

Apparently Project Mayhem has friends at Avery. ;-)
(clue: Look at who the label on the left is addressed to) You may want to go get one of these, as they are sure to become collectors items. We're sure Avery will catch the prank and change it soon.

We cook your meals. We haul your trash. We connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.- Tyler Durden

Editors note: ...and apparently we design your packaging...LOL!

From the confirmation department: Just got back from Office Depot and indeed, the Avery 8293 (none else that I could see) has Tyler's name and address on the cover. The Paper Street address would confirm that it's not a "fluke".

Paul Boutin : Astroturf "demonstrating genuine leadership"

An alert Google user noticed that dozens of local newspapers from Boston to Honolulu have run the same letter to the editor under different names nationwide (the Eschaton weblog posted a partial list).

It's not the first time a form letter has been a hit, but you'd think by now it would be easier to catch them. Idly curious as to who authored and distributed it, I've left a couple of phone messages with people whose names have appeared in print under the letter, which reads...

When it comes to the economy, President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership. The economic growth package he recently proposed takes us in the right direction by accelerating the successful tax cuts of 2001, providing marriage penalty relief, and providing incentives for individuals and small businesses to save and invest. Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric attacking the President’s plan, the proposal helps everyone who pays taxes, and especially the middle class. This year alone, 92 million taxpayers will receive an immediate tax cut averaging $1,083 - and 46 million married couples will get back an average of $1,714. That’s not pocket change for a family struggling through uncertain economic times. Combined with the President’s new initiatives to help the unemployed, this plan gets people back to work and helps every sector of our economy. Via Weblogsky

Also see: PRO-BUSH LETTERS TURN OUT TO BE SPAM CAMPAIGN!

The Leader of UFO Land
His Holiness Rael Explains the Origins Of Life on Earth. Except for That Clone.

Soon nano-robots will make salads and steaks from thin air. Artificial intelligence will end the need for money and labor. People will live long for love and pleasure. And humans will become immortal, cloning themselves and downloading their memories and personalities into hard drives, then into brand-new cloned teen bodies.

This is the prophecy of a man, the Prophet Rael, who is sitting draped in pure white in a cinder-block building in a compound called UFOland. As strange as it may seem, UFOland is not that far removed from reality, a two-hour drive from the bustling, worldly city of Montreal, 1 1/2 hours if you know where you are going. Sometimes it takes people four hours. Sometimes they never make it.

Also see:The Man Who Has the Fringe Tied Up in Knots

Via NWD

Mystery Visitor Returns to Poe's Grave

With his face hidden beneath a dark hood, a man crept into a bitterly cold downtown graveyard before dawn on Sunday and raised a solitary birthday toast to Edgar Allan Poe.

Continuing a 54-year tradition, the man, whose identity remains unknown, put h