TFS Reluctant

2009-07-08T06:17:00.004-04:00

Out With A Stroke

I had another stroke -- after hospital stay they moved me to a nursing home called Valley View in Norwich, N. Y., where they don't have internet -- I bought phone service Thursday and that includes internet service and I'M BACK!!!

I bought local service only, so you'll have to call me (607) 336-4539 but I don't have a phone yet, so you probably should wait a few days before calling me.

2007-04-09T14:02:00.001-04:00

news
Originally uploaded by gwms.

Associated Press
Saturday, April 7, 2007 (Dili)

East Timor Hopes For End to Violence In Vote

When East Timor picks a new president on Monday, voters hope to end a year of violence and instability that threatened to plunge one of the world's youngest and poorest nations into civil war.

The closely watched election - which comes amid bitter political rivalries - will test the fledgling state's democracy and ability to survive on its own after breaking from decades of brutal Indonesian rule in 2002.

More than 522,000 people are eligible to vote in the election, in which eight candidates are vying to replace President Xanana Gusmao for a five-year term.

Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, a popular Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had initially been considered a sure winner for the largely ceremonial role, but many experts now say a run-off is almost certain.

2007-04-09T11:53:00.001-04:00

Kidman Denies Pregnancy

nicolekidman_narrowweb__300x463,2
Originally uploaded by gwms.

Actress Nicole Kidman is denying rumors started by a British tabloid that the Oscar winner is pregnant with her husband, country rocker Keith Urban. Recently, The News of the World posted quotes from a source that claimed that not only had Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban been trying to get pregnant for months, even using fertility experts, but that Kidman was already pregnant. Nicole Kidman has made it clear that she wants to have a child, but is denying that she is currently pregnant.

Wendy Day, the publicist for Nicole Kidman, told the press this week, as quoted by Playfuls.com, that the reports were incorrect. Nicole Kidman spoke through Day, "As if she would confirm a pregnancy to News of the World. She is about to get on a horse in the outback and breaking brumbies (Australian horse). I hardly think she will be able to do that if she is pregnant."

Nicole Kidman already has two children that the actress adopted with her former husband Tom Cruise. The kids are named Isabella and Connor and they spend most of their time with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Keith Urban recently commented on the small amount of time that he gets to spend with the kids.

2007-04-06T10:43:00.001-04:00

CB055786
Originally uploaded by gwms.

Mamograms

Boston (eCanadaNow) - A new study has shown that computer-aided detection or CAD software which is set up to read mammograms makes a lot of errors and sometimes diagnoses the patients wrongly.Mammography which is used with this computer-aided detection gives far more false positive diagnoses of breast cancer. This is when it is directly compared to mammograms which are done normally with a doctor reading the scans.

The new findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and was funded by the NCI. Women who received mammogram screenings which used the computer-aided detection were more likely to be told that they had breast cancer or something abnormal in their breast. They were also far more likely to be subjected to more tests for breast cancer and a biopsy.

2007-04-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

Girls, like Apples...

---------------Girls--------------
-----------are like apples------
-------on trees. The best ones-----
-----are at the top of the tree.-----
---The boys don't want to reach---
--for the good ones because they--
-are afraid of falling & getting hurt.-
-Instead, they get the rotten apples-
from the ground that aren't as good,
but easy. So the apples on top think
something's wrong with them when in
-reality they're amazing. They just--
---have to wait for the right boy to
---- come along, the one who's-
----------- brave enough to-----
---------------climb all---------
---------------the way--------
--------------to the top--------
-------------of the tree.---------

2007-02-21T19:05:00.000-05:00

Flickr Badge

www.flickr.com

gwms' Linda Grace's cameraphone pix photoset

2007-02-21T16:40:00.000-05:00

Help! How Do You Tell FireFox That You Want A New Window?

It used to be you just specify a TARGET=windowname clause, but now that just gets you a new frame, not a window. So how do you say you want a new window -- it looks like FRAMETYPE=_blank might work, but there seems to be a problem. If you know how, leave it in comments or email me at mailto:gwmster[AT]gmail[DOT]com

My reference help file indicates that TARGET=_blank gives you a new window, presumably with no name conflicts. Let me try that Link to Mandarin Design. (Hi Meg! Hope you're well)

2007-02-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

MIDDLE EAST: UPDATE - RICE MEETS ISRAELI PREMIER AND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice

Jerusalem, 19 Feb. (AKI) - US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, speaking Monday after two-hour talks with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, renewed 'American participation' to a the Road Map peace process adding that both sides remained committed to it. Rice also said she would return to the region soon. 'The president and prime minister agreed that they would meet together again soon. They reiterated their desire for American participation and leadership to overcome obstacles, rally regional and international support and move forward toward peace. In that vein, I expect to return to the region soon,' she said.

'All three of us affirmed our commitment to a two-state solution, agreed that a Palestinian state cannot be born of violence and terror,' she said.

Neither Abbas nor Olmert joined Rice as she delivered her
brief statement to reporters, and she exited the room without taking questions.
"

2007-02-20T10:15:00.000-05:00

Asteroid on collision path with Earth - 20 Feb 2007 - Technology News - NZ Herald

Asteroid on collision path with Earth

February 20, 2007
By David Usborne

The United Nations will shortly be asked to take on a new and unfamiliar mission - to save the Earth, not from drought, war or disease, but from the cataclysm that could occur following a direct hit by an asteroid.

A group of former astronauts and cosmonauts is warning that at least one asteroid already identified in outer space is on a path that could indeed see it colliding with our planet in 2036.

They say work should begin now on considering a strategy to protect humankind from this and other asteroids.
[more]

2007-02-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

Gary Joins Paynet

Today I got an invite from Paynet Systems
(Paynet)
(just click the logo below to sign up and make me some money)

It's a merchant system to let you charge things (accept credit cards). I don't have anything to sell, but I will make money if you sign up. So go ahead and click!

2007-02-14T17:53:00.000-05:00

Quote Of The Day

"I want to die in my sleep, like grandpa, not kicking and screaming like the people in his car."
—GDjr on IRC

2007-02-12T09:37:00.000-05:00

Chinese herb Ganoderma lucidum mushroom can cure diabetes

Diabetes :: Chinese herb Ganoderma lucidum mushroom can cure diabetes

A team from the University of Western Sydney's Centre for Complementary Medicine Research (CompleMED) is working with the Cardiac Health Institute to find out if the medicinal mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum, can reduce high blood sugar, often a precursor to diabetes - as well as treat other health problems.

2007-02-05T20:45:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day:
'"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - Hunter S. Thompson'

2007-01-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

BOLEDOP

2007-01-31T13:02:00.000-05:00

Short circuit cripples primary Hubble camera | Chron.com - Houston ChronicleJan. 30, 2007, 11:40AM

Short circuit cripples a Hubble camera

Failure adds urgency to plans for repair mission

By MARK CARREAU
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Subscribe NOW
RESOURCES
Web sites
NASA-Hubble: The clearinghouse site for the Hubble Space Telescope.
3-D animation: An artist's rendition of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA
Photo galleries
Images from Hubble

An electrical failure has crippled the most powerful and widely used camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope near the end of its life expectancy, adding urgency to plans for an overhaul of the orbiting observatory by a space shuttle crew, NASA said Monday.

At most, experts can hope for only a partial restoration of the Advanced Camera for Surveys by sending commands that route electricity from a backup power source.

The powerful $75 million camera was just a month short of its five-year design life.

Hubble's total observing powers — with other cameras — cannot be fully regained until September 2008 when a team of seven shuttle astronauts is scheduled to lift off on what will be the final repair flight to the 17-year-old space telescope.

Space agency administrator Michael Griffin approved the ambitious $900 million mission on Oct. 31, reversing a decision after the 2003 Columbia tragedy to cancel the overhaul because of safety concerns.

The high-tech camera, installed by spacewalking astronauts during the most recent Hubble house call in March 2002, was used by astronomers a year later to look further into the cosmos than ever before. The ultradeep field survey of the universe offered scientists their best view yet of how galaxies evolved following the big bang, the powerful explosion that astronomers believe gave birth to the stars and planetsThe high-tech camera, installed by spacewalking astronauts during the most recent Hubble house call in March 2002, was used by astronomers a year later to look further into the cosmos than ever before. The ultra-deep field survey of the universe provided offered scientists their best view yet of how galaxies evolved following the big bang, the powerful explosion that astronomers believe gave birth to the stars and planets.

'Obviously, we are very disappointed,' NASA's Preston Burch, the Hubble program manager, said Monday.

"

2007-01-30T21:04:00.000-05:00

This is from a Blogger Tag:

This is from a porn writer who's sarting a blog: tag_your_it
It's a blog game. I'm supposed to pick three bloggers I know and ask them to:I pick meg of Mandarin Design, STu Savory thre writer and the classic Chief Bloaging Officer Chris Locke.

1) Pick up the book that you are nearest to with 123 or more pages. (According to early versions: Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.)
2) Turn to page 123.
3) Locate the fifth full sentence in that page.
4) Copy that and the next two sentences that follow.
5) Tag three more bloggers to do the same.

Here's mine: Another whispered in her ear,"if she has not provided herself a great belly, he was at her service." A third said, "He warranted she was a telation of Turpin." To which on of the company, a great wit, shaking his head and then his sides , answered, "He beleived she was nearer related to Turpis"

Mines from the William Fielding novel Joseph Andrews, which I have from the library. it's a lot like a high school reading book. But it does evokre the gereral tome and preocuation of the book

2007-01-30T10:32:00.000-05:00

Main camera on Hubble space telescope shuts down,

Edited by Mike Magee Phone 44 208 248 2800

Published by VNU Business Publications

Main camera on Hubble space telescope shuts down

Hubble hobbled

By Ian Williams: Tuesday 30 January 2007, 14:08
NASA ENGINEERS are examining a problem with the main camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope.

A spokesNASA told reporters that 'an electrical short in the backup system for Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) pushed the space telescope into a protective 'safe mode' over the weekend'.

Unfortunately, the camera was already relying solely on the backup system after the primary electrics malfunctioned in June of 2006.

The aging telescope has been having a hard time of things lately, with this upset being the third since June. Engineers have managed to get the rest of Hubble back up and running. Science observations will resume this week using the remaining instruments.

Astronomers are particularly irked as it was this camera's wide-field channel that allowed boffins the deepest view into the universe to date. Screensaver makers are also upset as their steady supply of pretty pictures may be affected.

Fortuitously, NASA scientists are already working on a new field camera that was originally designed to be a backup to the ACS camera, or work in tandem with it if both were fully functional. The Wide Field Camera 3 is due to installed at Hubble in September 2008."

2007-01-29T18:45:00.000-05:00

My First Video

2007-01-28T18:45:00.000-05:00

Gnarls Barklay "Crazy"

2007-01-28T15:38:00.000-05:00

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the De The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil Rock And Roll Circus, 1968 ..

2007-01-28T15:23:00.000-05:00

Weird Al Yankovic's "Fat"

2007-01-28T14:50:00.000-05:00

Britney & Madonna "Me against the music"

2007-01-28T13:46:00.000-05:00

She blinded me with science

2007-01-26T19:32:00.000-05:00

Much of Garner's 'Catch' plot deserves release

Jennifer Garner in 'Catch and Release.'
(Photo: Columbia Pictures)

Jan. 26
By JAY BOBBIN

She hasn't quite reached the Sandra Bullock-Meg Ryan level where movie roles are concerned, but when producers hire Jennifer Garner, it's a clue that they know just what they're looking for.

That's absolutely nothing against the former star of television's “Alias,” since her winning personality is key to elevating a project like “13 Going on 30.” It's also a saving grace in the case of a picture like her latest, “Catch and Release,” which has so many plot complications that anyone less than a thoroughly appealing leading lady might translate into a complete disaster.

“Catch and Release” isn't quite that, but writer-director Susannah Grant -- a veteran of the series “thirtysomething” who also did the script for “Erin Brockovich” -- overloads her newest heroine with tragedies and surprises to the point of a viewer's near-disbelief. Garner is so game, though, anyone who enjoys her work is likely to hang with the story all the way to the final improbable twist.

2007-01-23T15:12:00.000-05:00

Quote Of The Day:

From GDjr: "(Quit: I wanna die in my sleep like grandpa, not kicking and screaming like the passengers in his car)"

2007-01-19T15:46:00.000-05:00

Comic Of The Day

2007-01-14T16:23:00.000-05:00

whiskey river

The Key

The door to paradise is locked.
Everybody has the key
but you don't have the key.
Everybody wants the key
but you don't have the key.
Everybody is the key
but you don't see the key.
Everybody knows the key
but you forgot the key.
Everybody loves the key
but you don't recognize the key.
Everybody feels the key
but you don't feel a thing.
- a.h.s. boy
from the ancient archives of riley dog

"

2007-01-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

African Safari Slideshow From Webcasts

WILD ANIMALS of AFRICA.NAMIBIA.

2007-01-09T15:58:00.000-05:00

Credit & Copyright: Jens Hackmann

Explanation: The brightest comet in decades is unexpectedly now visible. The most optimistic predictions have Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) shortly becoming one of the brightest comets of the past century. For the next few days, its short tail and bright coma can be spotted with the unaided eye close to the Sun and near the horizon in both evening and morning skies. This dramatic picture of the comet shining through cloudy skies was taken near sunset on January 7 from Bad Mergentheim, Germany.

2007-01-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

From Warren Ellis:

2007-01-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

Christmas Divorce for Dita von Teese and Marilyn Manson - Music News - Playfuls.com - Fun & Entertainment

Dita von Teese Files for Manson Divorce

What seemed like a feasible marriage between rocker Marilyn Manson and burlesque dancer Dita von Teese is now ending as Dita has filed for divorce.
Dita von Teese

The two were together as a couple for seven years when they finally married in December 2005. After one single year of marriage, Dita von Teese filed for divorce before Christmas, citing “irreconcilable differences”.

Dita, whose real name is Heather Renee Sweet, is a star in her own right as a model and burlesque dancer. She reportedly split up with Marilyn Manson on Christmas Eve.

The two married on December 3, 2005, at Gurteen Castle in Kilsheelan. Dita famously wore a purple dress custom-made by Vivienne Westwood and a tri-corned hat. It appears the goth rocker had been a fan of hers for a long time before they became a couple.

2007-01-07T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hitherby Dragons

Dude, It's Like A Chocolate Buddha

I like alot of “dude” sayings, really. Dude is like, the buddha of the modern age. You know it’s true! dudette
– GoldenH

I can see it.

He’s down at the Dude Ranch, which is where they farm free-range Buddhas—

Because you do not want a factory farm Buddha—

And he’s leaning back with his eyes sort of closed and he’s got fringed pants on and a cowboy hat and he’s tall as your thumb. And he’s strumming on his zither, the way little Buddha dudes do, and he’s saying this:

“I will tell you the noble truth of suffering.
It comes from clinging.
You don’t let things go.”

And the farmers say, “That’ll do, little dude. That’ll do.”

Then the Little Buddha Hook comes along. It catches him up humanely. It dips him in chocolate. It puts him in the box. It ships him to a supermarket.

It can’t ship him to a submarket.

The sea’s in the way!

So it ships him to a supermarket—to a supermarket near you.

And you can go there, if you like, and if you do, you’ll find the dude.

You’ll find him there, the dude, the dude in the Buddha box, the Buddha of the ranch. And you’ll be all like, “Dude! You’re a tiny Buddha coated in dark chocolate!”

And he’ll be all, “Sweet.”

It is ironic that they add preservatives.

2007-01-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

Kung Fu Monkey:

Lions Led by Donkeys

We will make sure you have the equipment you need.

We will make sure have a clearly defined mission.

We will make sure that such missions are as well-planned as possible.

We will take care of your families while you are gone.

We will take care of you when you come home.
"

2007-01-07T11:23:00.000-05:00

Ribbity BlogThursday, November 27, 2003

New Tadpole (Congrats)

Dr. R. Frog and Mrs. R. Froglette are delighted to announce to arrival of a new Tadpollette this morning at 4.40 am. Tadpole and Froglette are well.

Dr. Frog will be taking the tads Rib and Rob to visit their new sister this afternoon.

Not much blogging going down these days, but a lot of ribbiting.

2007-01-06T22:34:00.000-05:00

Hitherby Dragons

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here is my thought.

A peculiar power is given unto us that we may give aid unto others—not to act for them but to open space for them to act, to clear their eyes when they are clouded and to free their hands when they are bound.

It is never a bad year to use that power.

This no more or less than any other.

But it seems a good year to keep that in mind. To remember that that is the power we have. To hold that in our thoughts as we deal with others around us.

–

I will leave generic thanks and other monthly updates until the next post.

-

2007-01-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

Two men catch falling toddler in New York

Updated Fri. Jan. 5 2007 11:06 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A local paper is calling it the 'Catch of the Day' after two New York men saved the life of a young boy who fell off a fourth-story fire escape Thursday.

The heroics come just two days after another New Yorker was rescued from an impending subway train, and a day after the NYPD helped deliver a baby on a Brooklyn subway platform.

Police say three-year-old Timothy Addo climbed out of his fifth-floor Bronx apartment window when the babysitter wasn't looking. He then tumbled onto the fourth-floor fire escape and was 'hanging on for dear life,' said one witness.

The two men, Pedro Nevarez and friend Julio Gonzalez, were passing by the building when Addo's grip weakened and he fell 12 metres.

The men managed to get underneath the boy and break his fall.

Addo knocked Nevarez off balance

2007-01-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Gmail - [WEB SECURITY] Universal PDF XSS After Party

Oops, It Doesn't Work

Guignol responds:
This doesn’t work. It’s all a hoax.

Sean responds:
It works in FF2.0.0.1 but only when the Adobe plugin is used. If the
action is “Open with default app” or “save to disk”, the exploit does
not work.

Ich auch erhebliche Probleme beim Reproduzieren. Ohne eifrige
Unterstützung durch den Web Browser geht da bei mir erst mal gar
nichts.

#Maik

Thursday, January 4, 2007, 2:16:59 PM, you wrote:

pa> Everybody knows about it. Everybody talks about it. We had a nice
pa> party. It is time for estimating the damages. In this article I will
pa> try to show the impact of the Universal PDF XSS vulnerability by
pa> explaining how it can be used in real life situations.

pa> http://www.gnucitizen.org/blog/universal-pdf-xss-after-party/

2007-01-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

"The glorious lust of doing good"

     The heart that finds its happiness to please
     Can feel another's pain, and taste his ease,
     The cheek that with another's joy can glow,
     Turn pale and stricken with another's woe,
     Free from contempt and envy, he who deems
     Justly of life's opposite extremes,
     Who to make all and each man truly bless'd
     Doth all he can and wishes all the rest.

                        -- Henry Fielding

2007-01-05T09:38:00.000-05:00

GNUCITIZEN ? Universal PDF XSS After Party

Universal PDF XSS After Party

January 4th, 2007
[provided by http://flickr.com/photos/bofh/32915908/]

Everybody knows about it. Everybody talks about it. We had a nice party. It is time for estimating the damages. In this article I will try to show the impact of the Universal PDF XSS vulnerability by explaining how it can be used in real life situations.

For those who has slept over the last two days, here is a short introduction of what this talk is going to be about:

The Universal PDF XSS issue was discovered by Stefano Di Paola and Giorgio Fedon and it was presented on 23C3 security conference. This vulnerability obviously affects the Adobe Acrobat Reader which is a widely used software among business, non-business organizations and individuals. By abusing Acrobat’s open parameter features well protected sites become vulnerable to Cross-site scripting attacks if they host PDF documents. This is pretty bad and unless you update your reader or change the way your browser handles PDF documents, you may get hacked quite badly. This issue is very serious.

The way attackers use PDF documents to execute JavaScript code is outlined with the following template. The code will be executed on the domain where the PDF files is hosted on:

http://path/to/pdf/file.pdf#whatever_name_you_want=javascript:your_code_here

file.pdf#whatever_name_you_want=javascript:your_code_here

Now we know what we are going to talk about, lets have a look on how attackers can use this vulnerability to abuse your WEB presence.

2007-01-03T09:45:00.000-05:00

2007-01-02T18:52:00.000-05:00

Mad cow proteins bred out of cattle | Science & nature | The Australian

Mad cow proteins bred out of cattle

*
* January 03, 2007

SCIENTISTS have genetically engineered a dozen cows to be free from the proteins that cause mad cow disease, a breakthrough that may make the animals immune to the brain-wasting disease.
An international team of researchers from the US and Japan say they have 'knocked out' the gene responsible for making the proteins, called prions.

The disease did not take hold when brain tissue from two of the genetically engineered cows was exposed to bad prions in the laboratory, they said.

Experts said the work might offer another layer of security to people concerned about eating infected beef.

2007-01-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north?|?Tech&Sci?|?Science?|?Reuters.com

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north

Tue Jan 2, 2007 8:57am ET25

By Jeffrey Jones

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, a researcher said on Friday.

Global warming could be one cause of the break of the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, which occurred in the summer of 2005 but was only detected recently by satellite photos, said Luke Copland, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's geography department.

It was the largest such break in nearly three decades, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 square km (25 square miles) adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said Copland, who specializes in the study of glaciers and ice masses. Manhattan has an area of 61 square km (24 square miles).

The mass is now 50 square km (19 square miles) in size.

2007-01-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Nude Rear

image from geenstijl.nl

2007-01-01T17:48:00.000-05:00

Interesting Movie:

2007-01-01T10:56:00.000-05:00

Attacks in Iraq at highest levels ever - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Attacks in Iraq at highest levels ever

By David S. Cloud and Michael R. Gordon
Published: 2006-12-18 20:50:08

WASHINGTON: Nearly 1,000 insurgent and sectarian attacks were carried out against American and Iraqi targets every week over the last three months, the highest level ever recorded, according to a Pentagon report on security trends in Iraq that was issued Monday.

The report, which covers the period from early August to early November describes a worsening security environment in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

The rise in attacks, to a weekly average of 959, was a jump of nearly 200 compared with the previous three months. As a consequence, civilian casualties reached a record high, more than 90 a day, the report said. While the majority of attacks were directed at U.S. forces, most of the casualties were suffered by the Iraqi military and civilians.

The Pentagon report, 'Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq,' is mandated by Congress and issued quarterly. It covers a broad range of subjects, including the economy, public attitudes, security and the training of Iraqi security forces.

2006-12-31T10:58:00.000-05:00

CBC.ca Arts - Fourth Indiana Jones film will be 'really cool': Lucas

Fourth Indiana Jones film will be 'really cool': Lucas

Last Updated: Saturday, December 30, 2006 | 11:13 AM ET
CBC Arts

Director George Lucas is vowing the fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones movie series will be the 'best one yet' in the adventures of the globe-trotting archeologist.

Lucas announced Friday the movie will be in theatres by May 2008.

George Lucas, seen here in a 2005 photo, says the fourth Indiana Jones film will be 'fantastic.'George Lucas, seen here in a 2005 photo, says the fourth Indiana Jones film will be 'fantastic.'
(Canadian Press)

'It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the best one yet,' Lucas said.

The 62-year-old filmmaker revealed that he and producer Steven Spielberg had finalized the script.

Locations for filming, due to begin in the new year, have not been decided, but part of the movie will be shot in Los Angeles."

2006-12-31T10:19:00.000-05:00

My Newest MisterPicassohead:

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=1042db9&skin=original

2006-12-30T14:13:00.000-05:00

Storm Gods by Alchemy Mindworks

"Storm Gods is an independent product review. The reviews published herein are based on products purchased by the staff of Alchemy Mindworks for personal use, or by Alchemy Mindworks for use in running its business. None of the reviewed products have been provided to us for review by their manufacturers or retailers, and we have received no compensation for writing these reviews." http://www.stormgods.com/

2006-12-30T12:57:00.000-05:00

From Alchemy Mindworks:

"Next year is upon us! Enjoy calendars that don't include any fluffy
kittens, monster trucks, sunsets, scenic views of Antarctica, beer can
collections, hairless dogs, octogenarian rockers, copyright-free poster
art or airbrush renderings of what life in another galaxy might look
like if it lives on a planet with a lot of airbrushes."

2006-12-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

More Mandarin CSS Tricks: The Big Drop Cap:

Full instructions for making the first letter big are in the Drop Cap copy and paste style tutorial. For this drop cap we forced the first big letter to span more than five lines. The font-size is adjusted to exactly 100 pixels while the line height is 80 pixels.

Here's the code:

<p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="float:left;color:darkred;font-size:100px;line-height:80px;
padding-top:1px;padding-right:5px;font-family: times;">F</span>ull instructions for making the first letter big are in the Drop Cap copy and paste style tutorial. For this drop cap we forced the first big letter to span more than five lines. The font-size is adjusted to exactly 100 pixels while the line height is 80 pixels. </p>

2006-12-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

New Mandarin Button:

Blog Trashed by Mandarin

And here's the code:

<div style="width:120px;padding:2px;border:medium double; background:white;text-align:center;">
Blog Trashed by <a href="http://www.mandarindesign.com/blogger.html" target=mandarinbox>Mandarin

</a>
</div>

2006-12-29T11:32:00.000-05:00

Gmail - Astrology.com: Daily Horoscope
Let the rational reenter your life as you restore organization to some parts that have gone topsy-turvy. A little chaos every now and then is necessary, but now it's time to clean everything up.

2006-12-28T14:17:00.000-05:00

Planet-Searching Satellite COROT Launched from Kazakhstan - Science News - Playfuls.com - Science & Technology:

COROT Telescope Launched

"
The European space telescope Corot, designed to search for planets, was launched into orbit in outer space at 14:23 GMT, Wednesday, from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 670-kilogramme satellite was lifted into orbit on board a Soyuz-2 rocket, the Russian news agency, Interfax, reported.

From 827 kilometres above the earth, the 4.2-metre satellite, equipped with a telescope, will speed up the search for planets outside our solar system for three years.

Most planets have been discovered by watching the way their gravity affects their parent stars or their stars' light. However, this brute method usually led to the discovery of huge planets which usually are just gigantic balls of gas, more like Jupiter than Earth, which are unlikely places for sustaining life."

2006-12-26T19:19:00.000-05:00

"Police Work And The Dog's Life"

Living in the modern age,
death for virtue is the wage.
So it seems in darker hours,
Evil wins, kindness cowers.

Ruled b yviolence and vice
We all stand upon thin ice.
Are we brave or are we mice,
here upon such thin, thin ice?

Dare we linger, dare we skate?
Dare we laugh or celebrate, knowing we may strain the ice?
Preserve the ice at any price?

--The Book of Counted Sorrows

2006-12-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

From A Friend's Site:

2006-12-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

Rape Charge Dropped In Duke Case

Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case - New York Times: "DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 22 — The district attorney today dropped rape charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players, but plans to go forward with sexual assault and kidnapping charges, his office said.

Michael B. Nifong, the Durham district attorney, made the decision after learning on Thursday that the woman who complained of rape could not be sure that she had been penetrated with a penis, a distinction that would determine whether what happened to her meets the legal definition of forcible rape in North Carolina, according to court papers filed today.

When she was interviewed on Thursday by an investigator from the district attorney’s office, the woman said she was penetrated from behind while she was bent over with her face toward the floor, but did not know with what, according to a person close to the investigation who would only speak on condition of anonymity."

2006-12-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

Stolen From Punkclown: (Yayyyy!!!! Punkclown!!!!!)

And more:

What Punkclown has to say:
TransitionsOfTransit
Playing around with the latest thang (so I'm led to believe)...video-blogging. Here's a little thing I put together from the lo-res movie capture capabilities my digital camera has. Enjoy...or not. Backing track is a snippet of "Duck Duck Goose" by the late, great Frank Zappa.

2006-12-18T16:05:00.000-05:00

And Another New Trick From Mandarin...

Float Left

YOUR TEXT GOES HERE. Just keep typing. The text you type here will wrap around the text you floated to the left. If you listen to Elvis while you type your words will shake, rattle and roll.

And yet another:

PEACE Dude

2006-12-18T09:13:00.000-05:00

New Pix Trick from Mandarin:

2006-12-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

Mandarin's back!

Mandarin's back! Click here: Mandarin Design

Dom't know what happened, but the site's back...

2006-11-19T15:36:00.000-05:00

From "Blogging in Paris"...

My friend Claudef sent me a note on Flickr mail when I was in the hospitqal with pneumonia telling me that our common friend Meg from Mandarin Design had died...Here's a note from her blog, Blogging in Paris:

Where is Mandarin Design? follow-up

posted by Claude Covo-Farchi @ 9:58 pm

/!-- div
style="width:30%;color:#FFFFCC;background:firebrick;padding-top:5px;text-align:center;font-family:arial, verdana;font-size:18px;font-weight:bold;line-height:1em;padding-bottom:5px;" onClick="top.location.href='http://covonline.net/index.php/archives/category/just-for-fun/';">
Blogs and blogging

==div style="width:30%;background:#FFFFCC;text-align:center;font-size:15px;font-family:system,geneva;font-weight:bold;>“Blogging in Paris” == /div>

-->
Blogging in Paris

…another post trashed by Mandarin Design thanks to the Wayback Machine…

Last week, I was wondering what had happened to Mandarin Design. It definitely seems that Meg’s site has been discontinued, and it is too bad that this has happened.

Now, a few days ago, talking about finding what our sites used to be like, my friend Leo mentioned The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, a place where you can find the successive versions of different sites. Although we discussed that approximately at the same time as I realised that Mandarin Design was no more online, I didn’t connect the two bits of information.

Well, if you try to find Meg at Mandarin, her site is still here

This is in fact where I found the pullquote that you can see on the right of this post.

Another post, trashed by Mandarin.

2006-11-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

A New Look At Spider Robinson

2006-11-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

Obscene Temptations

Spending the time listening to Linda's phone ring pointlessly makes it tempting to make obscene suggestions here...For some reason Linda's stopped talking to me...at all.
Today she started answering the phone and not saying anything, so I have to pay for the call, without getting to talk at all, boy that's irritating. So I hung on and left aessage...wanna fly to Jamaica? That would be fun...

Off to dinner, see ya.

2006-11-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Comic of the day

2006-11-12T06:39:00.000-05:00

Top search engines in September 2006: Google - 45.1%, Yahoo! - 28.1%, MSN - 11.9% by ZDNet's ZDNet Research -- Americans conducted 6.6 bln searches online in September 2006, up 2% versus August 2006. Annual growth rates in search query volume remained strong with a 31% increase since September 2005. 879 mln toolbar searches were conducted in September 2006, accounting for 13% of the total US search market. Search engine shares in September 2006 Engine July 2006 Aug 2006 Sep [...]

2006-11-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

Camera//coming soon

The kids (my daughter Anna and her boyfriend Jesse) are sending me a desk lamp so I can type in the dark, and a video camera for my computer. So three days from now you should see more posts and live pictures of me...Yayyyyyy! Thanks guys.

Ok, it's Veterans Day so no mail today...the bank's closed too, so no checking account either... Camera on Monday.

Oops, Can't Fit The Plug In

The USB plug is surrounded by other plugs on my computer, so I can't fit the USB camera plug into the group...someday soon I'll get past the stomach flu and stop throwing up every few minutes and turn off the power and unplug the moniter and fit the camera plug in (and load the driver) and see how it works -- live TV coming soon! (some day)
--oh well wish me luck and Thanks, Anna!

The desk lamp is nice -- good thing they included a pack of 40watt bulbs, though...

2006-11-09T18:11:00.000-05:00

Linda, you really f'cked up this tine

Ok, it's 1 in the afternoon after lumch, like you asked, and I called your home phone ro save your money. So the first thing you do is curse me. for calling tou, when you asked me to, where you asked me to. Never again. You can call me when you want to talk to me...whenever...

2006-11-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

2006-10-31T09:13:00.000-05:00

Linda Give Me A Call

lindaGrace, my phone seems f'd up. Please call me if you see this.

2006-08-04T14:40:00.000-04:00

Hello, I'm back

Hello, everybody. "I've escaped." MY mother had me locked up in a mental ward, based on the ideaa that she couldn't pick me up if I fell down.And as a result of the stroke I had last December, sometimes my left siDe doesnt work right and I fall down. The hospital founf s placee at Rennaisance PLaza, an old folks home where they can help me if I fall, and I can move alright with a walker, so I"m renting an apartmernt based on Sofial Security Dissability.

This Time It Was Pnumonia

I collapsed in the lobby and they called the fire department, who took me to Wilson Hospital... After a week. they took me to a nursing home, The Waters, where I spent a week throwing a tennis ball to therapists. Like my T-shirt says, Does the word 'Duh,' mean anything to you?

So I'm back. again

2006-04-30T11:48:00.000-04:00

via Comet Shatters Close to Earth - Los Angeles Times:

Comet Shatters Close to Earth

>
By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2006

Astronomers are getting a close-up view of the death throes of a comet as it passes Earth and enters the inner solar system.

Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has broken into more than 40 fragments as it speeds toward a swing around the sun June 6, NASA said Thursday.

The main fragment will come closest to Earth on May 12, when it will be visible to ground observers.

None of the comet's pieces will come close to hitting Earth, NASA said. The closest fragment will pass at a distance of 5.5 million miles — more than 20 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

'There is absolutely no danger to people on the ground,' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program.
"

2006-03-30T14:28:00.000-05:00

via Eyewitness News

Elation over release of reporter Jill Carroll

AMHERST, Mass. The U-Mass-Amherst community is sharing in the joy over reporter Jill Carroll's release from captivity in Iraq.

Carroll grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and graduated from U-Mass in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

One of her professors was Norman Sims, who said this was a 'tremendous day' -- a day the faculty was hoping would come for nearly three months.

Sims says he doesn't know how his former student will react going forward, but he hopes she will be able to write about her experiences.

Sims says even at an early age, Carroll was a 'tremendous writer' who was able to capture the core of a story.

2006-03-27T18:51:00.000-05:00

via news.nationalgeographic.com

Cloned Pigs Produce Healthy Pork?

Amitabh Avasthi
for National Geographic News
March 27, 2006

Pigs have been genetically modified to make their meat as healthy as seafood, researchers report.

But concerns over food safety and the U.S. federal approval process may prevent the tricked-up pork from appearing in supermarkets anytime soon.

The premise of the work, published yesterday in the online journal Nature Biotechnology, is based on cloning pigs to genetically express higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of natural oil that is thought to fight heart disease and various immune disorders. The oils are typically found in fish.

'Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial to human health,' said Jing Kang, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

'But the source is increasingly limited, due to declining fish stocks and contamination from mercury and other harmful chemicals. We need a cheap, land-based alternative to meet the growing demand, and these pigs could be the answer.'"

2006-03-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

via AXcessNews.com

Google Added to S&P 500

Bill Gates has to be fuming after Google was added to the S&P 500 Thursday
By Alan Fein

(AXcess News) New York - Bill Gates has to be fuming. Standard & Poor's announced that it was adding Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) to the S&P 500 after the close of trading March 31st, replacing oil and gas producer Burlington Resources Inc. (NYSE: BR). The news sent Google's shares up nearly 10 percent in realtime ECN trading at $373.28.

It's not that Google was out-performing Burlington Resources, but that BR was acquired by ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), making room for a new entry to the S&P 500.

Many index funds base investments on whether a stock is included in the S&P 500, a key stock market barometer. That caused buy demand for the world's no. 1 search engine.

Shares of Google soared as high as $475 earlier this year, but fell after the company's chief financial officer last month said revenue growth was bound to slow.
[more}

2006-03-24T11:09:00.000-05:00

via AXcessNews.com

Google Added to S&P 500

2006-03-23T16:36:00.000-05:00
Health & Medical News - Why bird flu doesn't spread between humans - 23/03/2006
Why bird flu doesn't spread between humans

Richard Ingham
Agen?e France-Presse

Thursday, 23 March 2006

Lock and key

The H5N1 bird flu virus doesn't lock onto the right receptors in humans, says new research (Image: iStockphoto)

Virologists say they understand why bird flu in its present form does not spread among humans.

The finding suggests the world may have a precious breathing space to prepare for any flu pandemic.

The reason lies in minute differences to cells located in the top and bottom of the airways, the team reports in today's issue of the journal Nature.

To penetrate a cell, the spikes that stud an influenza virus have to be able to bind to the cellular surface.
[more]

2006-03-13T11:03:00.000-05:00
via ? Google lands on Mars | Googling Google | ZDNet.com: "Google lands on Mars
Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:35

Tonight I noticed that mars.google.com now has a CNAME record that points to www.google.com. This usually means that something is about to happen with that subdomain — with the exception of calendar.google.com of course. So I started digging and you will never guess what I found — a Google Maps type application that lets you view Mars. This service is called 'Google Mars'."

2006-02-27T08:37:00.000-05:00

2006-02-25T15:02:00.000-05:00
via Scientific American.com
Two New Moons--and Maybe Some Rings--for Pluo
Adding to the growing compendium of Kuiper belt objects, astronomers have spotted two new moons orbiting Pluto. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope from May of last year show two tiny dots revolving around the same center of gravity as the ninth planet and its largest moon, Charon. Reporting the finding today in Nature, the researchers speculate that the tiny companions formed in the same cataclysmic collision that produced Charon.

'We used Hubble's exceptional resolution to peer close to Pluto and pick out two small moons that had eluded detection for more than 75 years,' says Hal Weaver, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University and the discovery team leader. 'That was somewhat surprising because ground-based observers had been trying for more than a decade to find new satellites around Pluto,' adds astronomer Max Mutchler of the Space Telescope Science Institute, the first to see the moons in Hubble's images.

2006-02-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

"Love
does not consist
in gazing at
each other
but in looking
together
in the same
direction."
- Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

2006-02-24T23:42:00.000-05:00
via game magazine
I Have No Words & I Must Design

This article was published in 1994 in Interactive Fantasy #2, a British roleplaying journal. Page down to read, or click on the links below to jump to a particular section.
[more]

2006-02-22T22:43:00.000-05:00
from, Meg: opacity

2006-02-21T17:11:00.000-05:00
Blogging in Paris
I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?

And that I was a maiden Queen
Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe was ne’er beguiled!

And I wept both night and day,
And he wiped my tears away;
And I wept both day and night,
And hid from him my heart’s delight.
William Blakek, 1757-1827

So he took his wings, and fled;
Then the morn blushed rosy red.
I dried my tears, and armed my fears
With ten-thousand shields and spears.

Soon my Angel came again;
I was armed, he came in vain;
For the time of youth was fled,
And grey hairs were on my head.
William Blake, 1757-1827

I took this photo at Highga"

2006-02-13T22:27:00.000-05:00

2006-02-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Click the image for more info...

2006-02-13T14:47:00.001-05:00

Batting Out Another One

Batting Out Another One Originally uploaded by Gelatomettista2.
[jimlee]

Another one...they take about 30 minutes and honestly, it's mostly trial and error at this point.

The images are too day-glo really but I like the pop art effect you get with the saturated colors. Painting this with oils or acrylics would take hours. And yeah, this is done with a Wacom product...the Cintiq21.

It's the monitor which you can draw on. I have a Wacom tablet and that was fairly effective and intuitive but the Cintiq is just like drawing on paper.

2006-02-12T23:31:00.000-05:00
via whiskey river
Remember The Seed
'In today’s world of modern conveniences, of cell phones and pagers, stealth fighters, nuclear submarines, electron microscopes and radio telescopes, it is sometimes easy to forget that the ability to pursue science unimpeded, to let imagination wander where inquiry leads, to investigate and reach beyond ourselves, is not an entitlement but a right that was fought for, as were other rights fought for, sometimes to the death. This struggle has shaped our history and our souls. In it are the seeds that define us as a species. It was curiosity, not Eve, that tempted Adam.'
- Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone
The Friar and the Cipher"

2006-02-12T23:25:00.000-05:00
via whiskey river
Shutting Your Eyes
'After looking at a mountain, if we shut our lids and dwell on the scene internally, we are led to seize upon its important details. The mass of visual information is interpreted and the mountain’s salient features identified: its granite peaks, its glacial indentations, the mist hovering above the tree line - details that we would previously have seen but not for that matter noticed.'
- Alain de Botton
How Proust Can Save Your Life"

2006-02-09T20:12:00.000-05:00
via NATIONAL JOURNAL
Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information

By Murray Waas, National Journal
? National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been 'authorized' by Cheney and other White House 'superiors' in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war."

2006-02-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

2006-02-08T18:54:00.000-05:00

via Daily Times - Site Edition
Cartoons were vulgar and offensive: Washington Post

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: While pointing out that extremists and political opportunists across the Muslim world are rushing to exploit the controversy over the cartoons, the Washington Post said in an editorial on Wednesday that their “vulgarity and offensiveness” was “beyond question” and that they were published as a “calculated insult by a right-wing newspaper in a country where bigotry toward the minority Muslim population is a major, if frequently unacknowledged, problem”.

The newspaper also pointed out that the Danish government depends for support in parliament on a far-right populist party with an anti-immigrant agenda, adding that this may have been why Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen “arrogantly refused to meet with ambassadors from Muslim countries last fall, when the controversy might have been defused”."

2006-02-08T15:23:00.000-05:00
via ActForChange : Act Now
Congress: Appoint a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Illegal Domestic Spying
Contributed by Working Assets

Shockingly, it has come to light that President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on conversations of Americans and others in the United States. This spying apparently occurred without any court order and was focused on telephone and e-mail communications of 'hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States.'

Even under the insidious USA PATRIOT ACT, electronic surveillance law generally prohibits non-consensual eavesdropping in the U.S. without a court order based on probable cause. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) makes it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to conduct electronic surveillance, except as 'authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order.' Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies at George Washington University, has said that Bush's secret order may amount to the president authorizing criminal activity."

2006-02-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

YOur choice:
>
via Defense Tech: "Ralph Peters: 'If you found your hilltop house on fire, would you (A) put out the flames, or (B) buy flood insurance? If your answer is 'B,' you're suited for a job in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). At a time when our Army and Marines bear by far the heaviest load of our nation's security burdens, OSD proposes reducing the number of soldiers to free up funds for wasteful Cold-War-era weapons systems.'"

2006-01-28T18:22:00.000-05:00
via http://www.juancole.com/
The Victory of Hamas and the Miseries of Bush's Policies
My article about the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections is out at Salon.com.

Excerpt:

' Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has come to power in Palestine. In his press conference on Thursday, Bush portrayed the Palestinian elections in the same way he depicts Republican Party victories over Democrats in the United States: "The people are demanding honest government. The people want services. They want to be able to raise their children in an environment in which they can get a decent education and they can find healthcare." He sounds like a spokesman for Hamas, underlining the irony that Bush and his party have given Americans the least honest government in a generation, have drastically cut services, and have actively opposed extension of healthcare to the uninsured in the United States.

But the president's attempt to dismiss the old ruling Fatah Party as corrupt and inefficient, however true, is also a way of taking the spotlight off his own responsibility for the stagnation in Palestine. Bush allowed then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to sideline the ruling Fatah Party of Yasser Arafat, to fire missiles at its police stations, and to reduce its leader to a besieged nonentity. Sharon arrogantly ordered the murder of civilian Hamas leaders in Gaza, making them martyrs. Meanwhile, Israeli settlements continued to grow, the fatally flawed Oslo agreements delivered nothing to the Palestinians, and Bush and Sharon ignored new peace plans -- whether the so-called Geneva accord put forward by Palestinian and Israeli moderates or the Saudi peace plan -- that could have resolved the underlying issues. The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which should have been a big step forward for peace, was marred by the refusal of the Israelis to cooperate with the Palestinians in ensuring that it did not produce a power vacuum and further insecurity. '

The rest is here at Salon.com

posted by Juan @ 1/27/2006 06:35:00 AM 8 comments

Minister of Industry Almost Killed
US Tilting to Sunni Arabs?

Assassinations in Kirkuk, a near-death of the minister of industry (and actual deaths of his bodyguards), the death of a GI and wounding of another in a roadside bombing, were among the violent incidents in Iraq on Thursday. Guerrillas also attacked a convoy of oil tankers, in their continued quest to starve Baghdad of energy, and they killed two clerics in the capital.

Another important labor union leader has been assassinated.

Iraq the Model: Iraqi journalists face jail time for writing critically about their society. This NYT piece implies that a Kurdish dissident journalist has been released after having been sentenced to 30 years for criticizing Kurdish warlord Massoud Barzani; as I understand it, he is to be retried.

Reuters reports that some Iraqi Shiites and other observers believe that the Bush administration is shifting away from its earlier alliance with the Iraqi Shiites, preferring the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. The rationale is said to be a dawning realization in Washington that the Iraqi Shiites would not react positively to a US attack on Iran. Given the increasing focus on Iran's nuclear energy program by Bush, his allies in the Iraqi South are becoming increasing liabilities, given their own warm relations with Tehran.

Al-Hayat [Ar.] reports that the military adviser to Jalal Talabani reported that there had been contacts with the Iraqi guerrillas for the purpose of increasing Iraqi security in all regions of Iraq. The newspaper alleged that Iraqi clans of Anbar Province for the second day continued a campaign against foreign fighters styling themselves al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, capturing 270 of them. The clans around Ramadi are also said to have helped the Iraqi army capture 200 "terrorists." (See Gilbert Achcar's translation from yesterday, below). The article says that the clan leaders have also been talking to Sunni clerics, preparing the way for talks between the Iraqi government, the US led coalition, and guerrilla leaders as early as next week.

[Cole: I think Talabani's office is vastly exaggerating these developments, and don't trust al-Hayat's editorial line on these alleged conflicts within the guerrilla movement. Their articles on it read to me as though they are attempting to convince themselves, and perhaps the guerrillas, of this story. On the other hand, the story that the US military will meet next week with guerrilla leaders is entirely plausible. Such contacts are not new, and the question is whether they will produce anything of value.]

Gen. Casey has admitted that the US army is stretched in Iraq.

Further pipeline sabotage and bad weather at Basra will keep Iraqi exports to only about 1 million barrels a day for at least the next month.

A new report says that the US will not be able to use the $18 bn voted by Congress to complete water, sanitation and electricy projects related to rebuilding Iraq. Reuters says, "Only 49 of 136 planned water- and sanitation-related projects will be completed and only about 300 of 425 planned electricity-related projects." The article blames Saddam for having run down Iraq but does not mention the role of stringent US-backed international sanctions in degrading Iraqi society in the 1990s.

posted by Juan @ 1/27/2006 06:30:00 AM 6 comments

Split in Sunni Guerrilla Movement

Gilbert Achcar kindly shares this translation of an article from al-Hayat on splits in the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement.

' The AMS: We Are Now Waging Two Battles: Against 'the Occupation' and Against 'the Terrorists'

Sunni Clans Take the Initiative of Launching a Campaign to Expel Zarqawi's Followers and 'Foreigners and Intruders'

From Al-Hayat Newspaper, London; January 26, 2006

Baghdad-London -- There are still more consequences to the wave of assassinations targeting Sunni political and religious figures participating in the political process, and the killing of 42 police recruits in Ramadi by extremist Islamist followers of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of "al-Qaeda's Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers." A new escalation took the form of additional Arab Sunni tribal clans joining the campaign aimed at liquidating this organization.

The "Popular Clan Committees" launched a large campaign chasing Zarqawi's group in Ramadi "in order to expel them to Syria beyond Iraqi borders." Sheikh Osama al-Jedaan, the head of the al-Karabila clan in Qa'im, on the Syrian border, said that the "Clan Committees" have started a military campaign against the "terrorists," asserting that security formations composed of Ramadi inhabitants are searching for people wanted by the Iraqi government and by their own "government." He emphasized that this operation aims at expelling from Iraqi borders "foreigners and intruders" coming from other states of the region. Six armed groups belonging to "the Iraqi resistance" recently declared war on Zarqawi's "terrorist" organization.

A Sunni religious figure from the province of al-Anbar told Al-Hayat that the groups that destroyed the Sunni provinces belong to the "terrorists and takfiris" [a label attached to the most fanatical Islamic fundamentalists]. He added that the best measure to be taken in order to stabilize the situation is that the inhabitants of the province (the clans) expel these groups. He expressed his regret that some Sunni families gave refuge to "the terrorist elements" although they constitute no more than 50 per cent [certainly a typographic error for a much lesser percentage] of the armed men, attributing this to several reasons among which are "wrong understanding, material need, fear from them, or the desire to take revenge on foreign troops." He asserted that this support and the silence kept with regard to terrorist groups have ended after Sunni families suffered from "the assassinations targeting Sunni figures and the killing of police recruits, the responsibility of which was claimed by al-Qaeda's organization." He said that the resistance fractions acting within the "popular committees" to cleanse Ramadi have ceased their operations against US troops (a truce), but that this does not mean that they trust the Americans or disregard the necessity that they get out of Iraq.

This Sunni sheikh asserted that the mediation of the Ramadi notables between the resistance and US troops "have succeeded in convincing the resistance elements of the necessity of expelling the terrorists, and anyone who excommunicates [takfir] a Muslim Iraqi and kills Shias on the basis of their religious identity, but they did not succeed in increasing their confidence in US authorities."

One of the sheikhs of the Sunni al-Dulaim clan in Ramadi said that the city inhabitants have started to understand the true nature of the armed groups that kill in the name of religion and resistance. He told Al-Hayat that many Ramadi inhabitants have given material and logistical support to the Arab fighters, but understand nowadays the goal of these armed groups, which is to sow the seeds of "a sectarian conflict by killing Shias on the basis of their religious identity and excommunicating the people working in the police or in the government in general."

Moreover, a member of the al-Bubaz Sunni clan, the largest clan in Samarra, stated that his city was quiet and had gotten rid of the terrorists by the action of its seven major clans (Bu-Nisan, Bu-Abbas, Bu-Badr, and others), adding that "the inhabitants of Samarra are ready to support the clan committee in Ramadi, and that they stand by waiting for any sign in order to join them in fighting the terrorists."

In the same context, Issam al-Rawi, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said that Arab Sunnis are now waging two battles, one against government apparatuses and the other against "terrorist gangs." Al-Rawi added that the AMS praises the efforts of the inhabitants of Ramadi to oppose terrorism, especially Zarqawi who "once excommunicates the Shias and their religious authorities, and another time excommunicates the Sunnis and the AMS, allowing Iraqi blood to be spilled." He explained that the AMS believes in resistance, but calls the terrorists to stop attacking Iraqis.

In the same way, a leader of the "Brigades of the 1920 Revolution" in al-Anbar told Al-Hayat that most "fractions of the patriotic Iraqi resistance" disapprove the way Zarqawi's organization deals with Iraqi civilians as well as his overdoing in targeting the police and army "in all regions of Iraq." [This last precision put between quote marks by the reporter hints at the very unfortunate sectarian twist -- now corrected apparently -- of many Iraqi armed groups who supported bloody attacks against gatherings of Iraqi police and army recruits as long as they were in Shia areas and changed their mind when the same turned to Sunni areas as happened recently in Ramadi.]

He said that "these fractions ["of the patriotic Iraqi resistance"] have called to concentrate the resistance efforts on targeting 'occupation' soldiers, instead of wasting time and effort in confrontations with the army, police and national guard, while occupation soldiers are thus enabled to recover." This does not mean that "Iraqi army and police will be immune from our attacks in case they targeted the 'mujahideen' or treated people badly or assaulted them."

He added that "the mujahideen have resorted to a new kind of operation reducing the risk for civilians, such as putting explosive charges on roads outside the cities and practicing sniping inside the cities." He also said that "the rift between the patriotic resistance and the extremists has worsened progressively, but that "the last straw was the extremists' attack on police recruits in Ramadi, at a time when most resistance fractions in al-Anbar had met and agreed unanimously on not hurting them as there is a need for police, especially in the city of Ramadi."

Published in Al-Hayat, Jan. 26, 2006, translated by Gilbert Achcar. '

2006-01-25T09:15:00.000-05:00

XST Strikes Back

From: Amit Klein (AKsecurity)
Date: 01/25/06 08:32:38 websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: [WEB SECURITY] Technical Note by Amit Klein: "XST Strikes Back"

Technical note

XST Strikes Back
(or perhaps "Return from the Proxy"...)

Amit Klein, January 2006

Introduction
============

About three years ago, the concept of "Cross Site Tracing" [1]
was introduced to the web application security community. In
essence, the classic XST is about amplifying an existing XSS
vulnerability such that HttpOnly cookies and HTTP authentication
credentials can be compromised. This is done using a client side
XmlHttpRequest object that sends a TRACE request back to the
server, receives the request echoed back by the server's TRACE
function, and extracts the information from the echoed back
request.
The recommendation in [1] is to turn off TRACE support in the web
server, which indeed takes care of the attack as described.

However, let us now consider a situation wherein there is a proxy
server somewhere between the client (browser) and the server. In
such case, it is possible to force the proxy server (at least, in
theory) to respond to the TRACE request, rather than the origin
server itself. Thus, HTTP TRACE can still be used to compromise
the credentials of the user, even if the server does not support
the TRACE request.

The technique
=============

Forcing the first proxy server in the chain to respond to the
TRACE request (rather than forward it) is as simple as including
an HTTP request header "Max-Forwards: 0" ([2], section 14.31).

So, for IE (up to and including 6.0 SP1) and for Mozilla/Firefox
(up to and including Firefox 1.0.6), the XSS payload should be
(IE code, Mozilla/Firefox modifications commented):

var x = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
// var x = new XMLHttpRequest();
x.open("TRACE","/",false);
x.setRequestHeader("Max-Forwards","0");
x.send();
// x.send("");
alert(x.responseText);

In IE 6.0 SP2, it seems that Microsoft silently removed support
for TRACE in the XmlHttpRequest object. That is, no method
starting with "TRACE" is allowed. However, a simple trick,
involving a technique similar to the one used in [3] and [4] can
be used to bypass this protection. Instead of using "TRACE" for
the method, one can simply use "\r\nTRACE". To quote from [2]
(section 4.1):

"In the interest of robustness, servers SHOULD ignore any
empty line(s) received where a Request-Line is expected. In
other words, if the server is reading the protocol stream
at the beginning of a message and receives a CRLF first, it
should ignore the CRLF."

So the XSS payload for IE 6.0 SP2 would be:

var x = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
x.open("\r\nTRACE","/",false);
x.setRequestHeader("Max-Forwards","0");
x.send();
alert(x.responseText);

Squid (2.5stable10/NT) ,Apache (2.0.54 mod_proxy) and other
popular proxy servers were found to support TRACE and Max-
Forwards.

Recommendations
===============

Proxy server vendors
--------------------

1. Ship proxy servers with default secure configuration, namely

no TRACE support disabled.

2. In the least, enable turning off support for TRACE via a
configuration option.

Proxy server owners/maintainers
-------------------------------

Disable support for TRACE.

1. For Squid, add the following to the Squid configuration file
(squid.conf):

acl TRACE method TRACE
...
http_access deny TRACE

2. For Apache, use mod_rewrite to prevent support for TRACE (see
[1]). Make sure to place the directive in the section of
the httpd.conf file. Also, It would be a good idea to append the
"[nocase]" flag to the RewriteCond directive, to ensure case
insensitive comparison (though it seems that Apache will only
serve fully uppercase HTTP methods).

Browser vendors
--------------

Disable support for TRACE in the XmlHttpRequest object. Make sure
you do it right though.

Web site owners
---------------

As a workaround (perhaps not too practical), enable SSL traffic
only to your site.

Summary
=======

This is yet another example of peripheral web security issue,
such as the ones discussed in [5]. A web application may be
compromised through issues that are beyond the control of the web
site owner - in this case, support for TRACE in browsers and
proxy servers. In fact, in many cases the site owner has no way
of even knowing that the attack took place, because the TRACE
request is answered at the proxy server, and never arrives at the
web server (of course, if the first proxy server is the site's
reverse proxy server, or if no proxy server at all is present,
then the site owner may find out).

It seems that the TRACE method should be disabled across the
board - not just in web servers, but also in proxy servers and in
browsers (and possibly in other web devices).

References
==========

[1] "Cross-Site Tracing (XST)", Jeremiah Grossman, January 20th,
2003
http://www.cgisecurity.com/whitehat-mirror/WhitePaper_screen.pdf

[2] "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1" RFC 2616
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt

[3] "XS(T) attack variants which can, in some cases, eliminate
the need for TRACE", Amit Klein, WebAppSec mailing list submission,
January 26th, 2003
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/107/308433

[4] "Exploiting the XmlHttpRequest object in IE - Referrer
spoofing, and a lot more...", Amit Klein, BugTraq mailing list
submission, September 24th, 2005
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/411585

[5] "Meanwhile, at the other side of the web server", Amit Klein,
BugTraq mailing list submission, June 9th, 2005
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/401866

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2006-01-24T23:07:00.000-05:00

Broken screen now replaced
My screen broke and they want $700 i reeokace it, so I got a monitor (for $20) and tonight my daughter sent me a new Dell home puter too!!!! Tomorrow I'll open the box and unload the new puter...

Wish ne luck!

2006-01-06T12:45:00.000-05:00
via Sirotablog
Bush Announces Radical Shift in Foreign Policy; No U.S. Paper Reports It

In case you thought the Bush administration's dangerous, and national-security-weakening unilateralism was just a one-time deal in Iraq, think again. Buried in the UK's Financial Times - and not reported anywhere else - are the details of a State Department briefing this week in which the Bush administration essentially said it is scrapping U.S. support for NATO and the United Nations. No joke.

Here's the key excerpt:

'The Bush administration says it wants to be able to form 'coalitions of the willing' more efficiently for dealing with future conflicts rather than turning to existing but unreliable institutional alliances such as Nato. 'We ad hoc our way through coalitions of the willing. That's the future,' a senior State Department official said in a briefing this week.'

NATO and the U.N. are by no means perfect, and America should continue to reserve its right to defend itself. Nonetheless, this declaration by the administration represents a radical shift in U.S. policy (at least its publicly-stated policy). And one that begs a very simple question: how could anyone - even the Bush administration - look at the Iraq 'coalition of the willing' model as anything but an incredible failure? It has left American troops isolated in Iraq, and American taxpayers largely footing the entire bill for reconstruction.

2006-01-04T20:11:00.000-05:00
via Faulkes Telescope Hawaii: Archive Login
Faulkes Telescope Project
The Faulkes Telescope Project in Hawaii is a joint effort between the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust and the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. The goal of this project is to give students and teachers in Hawaii and the United Kingdom access to a research grade telescope. With its 2-meter diameter primary mirror, this telescope (along with its twin in Australia) is the largest telescope for educational use in the world.

The telescope is designed to be completely robotic and to be controlled from remote locations. It has a unique clamshell enclosure to protect the telescope from wind and rain. Sensors at the site determine if the weather is good enough to make observations. Currently a 2048x2048 pixel CCD Camera provides high quality images. An infrared camera is planned to be added to extend the operational period of the telescope.

Remote observations with the telescope can be done in two modes: real time and offline. Real time mode involves operating the telescope through a web browser over the Internet. Due to the time difference, real time mode is best suited to classroom use in the UK. In Hawaii, most of the observations will be done through offline mode. In offline mode, users will request observations to be performed when the telescope is available. Users will be notified via Email that data is ready and they will be able to access it through a web interface. The telescope is now being used both in real time and offline mode.

2006-01-04T16:48:00.000-05:00
via AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth
What was that about Abramoff giving money to Democrats?

by John in DC - 1/04/2006 01:15:00 AM

Here is the list of who Abramoff gave money to, per Michael Petrelis' research:

$172,933 - Republican
$88,985 - special interest
total: $261,918

That's 229 donations and not a DIME to Democrats.

The list of donations is long, but it makes a great visual, so I'm posting it anyway. Next time you hear someone say that this is a bipartisan scandal, whip out this list and laugh.

This comes from Newsmeat.com, they have all the FEC data. I just counted, and I think this list of GOP donors and organizations is around 15 feet long. Someone on our side REALLY needs to print out this list and get in front of a camera. Hell, every single one of our pundits should have this list with them on TV and just roll it out on the table.

2006-01-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

Comic Sequence Of The Day

TFS Reluctant

Out With A Stroke

East Timor Hopes For End to Violence In Vote

Kidman Denies Pregnancy

Mamograms

Girls, like Apples...

Flickr Badge

Help! How Do You Tell FireFox That You Want A New Window?

MIDDLE EAST: UPDATE - RICE MEETS ISRAELI PREMIER AND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT

Asteroid on collision path with Earth

Gary Joins Paynet

Quote Of The Day

Diabetes :: Chinese herb Ganoderma lucidum mushroom can cure diabetes

Quote of the Day:'"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - Hunter S. Thompson'

BOLEDOP

Short circuit cripples a Hubble camera

Failure adds urgency to plans for repair mission

This is from a Blogger Tag:

Main camera on Hubble space telescope shuts down,

My First Video

Gnarls Barklay "Crazy"

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the De The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil Rock And Roll Circus, 1968 ..

Weird Al Yankovic's "Fat"

Britney & Madonna "Me against the music"

She blinded me with science

Much of Garner's 'Catch' plot deserves release

Quote Of The Day:

Comic Of The Day

The Key

African Safari Slideshow From Webcasts

From Warren Ellis:

Dita von Teese Files for Manson Divorce

Dude, It's Like A Chocolate Buddha

Lions Led by Donkeys

New Tadpole (Congrats)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Two men catch falling toddler in New York

Oops, It Doesn't Work

"The glorious lust of doing good"

Universal PDF XSS After Party

Mad cow proteins bred out of cattle

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north

Happy Nude Rear

Interesting Movie:

Attacks in Iraq at highest levels ever

Fourth Indiana Jones film will be 'really cool': Lucas

My Newest MisterPicassohead:

Storm Gods by Alchemy Mindworks

From Alchemy Mindworks:

More Mandarin CSS Tricks: The Big Drop Cap:

New Mandarin Button:

COROT Telescope Launched

"Police Work And The Dog's Life"

From A Friend's Site:

Rape Charge Dropped In Duke Case

Stolen From Punkclown: (Yayyyy!!!! Punkclown!!!!!)

And Another New Trick From Mandarin...

PEACE Dude

New Pix Trick from Mandarin:

Mandarin's back!

From "Blogging in Paris"...

Where is Mandarin Design? follow-up posted by Claude Covo-Farchi @ 9:58 pm

A New Look At Spider Robinson

Obscene Temptations

Comic of the day

Camera//coming soon

Oops, Can't Fit The Plug In

Linda, you really f'cked up this tine

Linda Give Me A Call

Hello, I'm back

This Time It Was Pnumonia

Comet Shatters Close to Earth

Elation over release of reporter Jill Carroll

Cloned Pigs Produce Healthy Pork?

Google Added to S&P 500

Google Added to S&P 500

Why bird flu doesn't spread between humans

Two New Moons--and Maybe Some Rings--for Pluo

I Have No Words & I Must Design

I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?

Quote of the Day:
'"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - Hunter S. Thompson'

Where is Mandarin Design? follow-up

posted by Claude Covo-Farchi @ 9:58 pm