Thursday, August 29, 2002
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Monday, August 26, 2002
ABCNEWS.com : A New Anti-Terror Mission for Special Ops Last month, a highly-classified memo leaked from the Pentagon reportedly indicated that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was considering ordering Special Operations Command to engage in covert missions to capture or kill top members of al Qaeda, the terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden.
Friday, August 23, 2002
Islamic association searched. Police in Braunschweig and Solingen searched apartments and the headquarters of an Islamic society. The Foreign Ministry announced that they were looking for documents belonging to the former Islamic association El Aksa, which was banned recently by Foreign Minister Schily. The police confiscated computers and documents in the searches.
Between 40,000 and 60,000 people are scheduled to gather in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 26 to September 4 to tackle the earth’s worsening environmental problems and to address the plight of the world’s poor.
You will be reminded that 10 years ago a similar circus was staged ostensibly called the Earth Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro, where despite an array of agreements to stave off climate change, preserving biodiversity and curbing pollutants, none of these accords have been implemented.
Why? The Kyoto Protocol on global warning, the most important of all the agreements, four years of extensive negotiation, is not even worth the paper it is written on as the United States, the worst carbon polluter on earth has opted out and there is nothing that the United Nations or the rest of the planet earth can do about it and that is not all.
Ten years ago in Rio, rich countries pledged 0.7% of the Gross National Product (GNP) in development aid, what’s the reality; the European Union’s share is 1/2, 0.33% while the USA is a mere 0.11%, now while the rich countries continue to throw nickels and dimes into the fund they spend six times more on farming subsidies, now do you understand the plan, makes you want to puke!
Everything Space Four independent teams of scientists, whose results appear as separate papers in The Astrophysical Journal, used Chandra to detect intergalactic gas with temperatures ranging from 300,000 to 5 million degrees Celsius. This gas forms part of a gigantic system of hot gas and dark matter that defines the cosmic landscape. The gaseous component alone contains more material than all the stars in the universe.
“We had strong suspicions from the Big Bang theory and observations of the early universe that this gas exists in the present era, but like a stealth aircraft it had eluded our detection,” said Claude Canizares of the
The Nando Times: Ousted Pakistan official wants to run for parliament ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (August 22, 2002 1:46 p.m. EDT) - Defying Pakistan's military rulers, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto filed Thursday as a candidate for parliament in the October elections despite the government's insistence that she is not qualified to run.
Bhutto, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in London, said she was determined to return to Pakistan and run for parliament in the Oct. 12 election despite government threats to arrest her if she does.
"Life and death are in the hands of God," Bhutto said. "I am determined to go back to serve my countrymen."
Bhutto said she would come home "much before the elections" but did not way when. "I will contest elections," she insisted. "I will go back to my country."
Bhutto's application for certification as a candidate was submitted to election authorities by her Pakistan People's Party, since she lives in self-exile in London and the United Arab Emirates.
The Nando Times: Nigeria opposes stoning death LAGOS, Nigeria (August 22, 2002 3:11 p.m. EDT) - The Nigerian government is "totally opposed" to an Islamic court ruling sentencing a single mother to be stoned to death and will back the woman's appeal, the justice minister said Thursday.
Government lawyers will assist Amina Lawal's legal team with the case that will test the authority of Islamic courts to hand down such sentences, Justice Minister Kanu Agabi said.
An Islamic court in the northern town of Funtua on Monday rejected Lawal's appeal against the stoning sentence for having sex outside of marriage.
Thursday, August 22, 2002
ABCNEWS.com : Philippine Rebels Behead 2 Captives Muslim extremists linked to the al-Qaida terror network beheaded two of six Jehovah's Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines and dumped their heads in a public market, authorities said Thursday.
ABCNEWS.com : Pakistani Christians Killed by the Dozen In a country where 97 percent of the 145 million population is Muslim, human rights groups have periodically protested that there is woefully insufficient protection granted Pakistan's religious minorities, which include Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and certain Shiite Muslim sects considered a renegade sect by the Sunni majority powerbase.
But Shahbaz Bhatti, chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, says the situation "has gone from bad to worse. After the Sept. 11 attacks, it's becoming unbearable as more and more Christians are becoming targets of Islamic militants."
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Mammoth hopes rest on icy DNA
From Clem Cecil in Moscow
JAPANESE scientists hope to use parts of a mammoth preserved in the Siberian permafrost to impregnate an Indian elephant with its sperm and clone the extinct animal for display at an Ice Age wildlife park.
Organisers of the planned park are now populating it with species from that time in preparation for the much hoped-for return of the mammoth. Several hundred wild horses have been sent to graze in land set aside for the park in the far North East of Siberia on the River Kolyma.
Musk ox from another part of Siberia have also been imported, and discussions on buying bison have started with Canada.
A hunter discovered two frozen mammoth legs in the permafrost eight years ago, but because of lack of funds the local authorities only visited the site in 1997 and could not afford to excavate. Japanese interest in the find was excited and two universities funded an expedition this month.
The mammoth appears to have been killed by an avalanche which made it tumble on to its rump, and crushed it on to the permafrost between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.
The science departments from the universities of Kinki and Tifu in Japan, who have sponsored the excavation of the legs, hope to receive Russian permission in the autumn to export fragments of mammoth skin for research.
Information Wave Technologies has announced it will actively deny the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from accessing the contents of its network. Earlier this year, the RIAA announced its new plan to access computers without owner's consent for the sake of protecting its assets. Information Wave believes this policy puts its customers at risk of unintentional damage, corporate espionage, and invasion of privacy to say the least.
Due to the nature of this matter and RIAA's previous history, we feel the RIAA will abuse software vulnerabilities in a client's browser after the browser accesses its site, potentially allowing the RIAA to access and/or tamper with your data. Starting at midnight on August 19, 2002, Information Wave customers will no longer be able to reach the RIAA's web site. Information Wave will also actively seek out attempts by the RIAA to thwart this policy and apply additional filters to protect our customers' data.
Information Wave will also deploy peer-to-peer clients on the Gnutella network from its security research and development network (honeynet) which will offer files with popular song titles derived from the Billboard Top 100 maintained by VNU eMedia. No copyright violations will take place, these files will merely have arbitrary sizes similar to the length of a 3 to 4 minute MP3 audio file encoded at 128kbps. Clients which connect to our peer-to-peer clients, and then afterwards attempt to illegally access the network will be imm
ABCNEWS.com : Scientists Hope to Build Deep-Sea Station The proposed Ocean Atmosphere Seafloor Integration Study, or OASIS, would offer aquanauts (the underwater version of astronauts) a permanent perch on the continental shelf about 600 feet below the ocean surface. And unlike a journey to the International Space Station, a trip to an ocean base could be as easy as stepping on an elevator and pushing "down."
Abstracts 1-75 In the environmental field, carbon and nitrogen content are of great importance in various applications. Researchers can assess the effects on the overall carbon cycle by understanding on a micro level the effects of carbon and nitrogen concentrations on biological life forms in various matrices, including soils and seawater. More importantly, scientists are recently gaining insight into the ability of nitrogen to influence carbon concentrations, or "fertilize", in either fresh or saltwater, a process known as eutrophication. In years past, although many strides were made in measuring carbon levels with high sensitivity, total nitrogen measurement was not as sensitive as well as proved to be time consuming. However, using the combustion oxidation method in conjunction with chemiluminescence detection, an analyst can simultaneously measure carbon and total nitrogen levels with high accuracy and sensitivity in less than four minutes.
The Energy-Environment Nexus U.S. electricity generation mix from 1950 to 2000. Fossil fuels provide more than 70 percent of our electricity--52 percent from coal, 16 percent from natural gas, and 3 percent from oil. The issue facing us is how we as a nation can move toward a more sustainable electricity future. The word "sustainable" means different things to different people. To some, it means integration of the social, economic, and environmental domains. To some it means energy that lasts forever. And to some it means energy with no environmental cost for its production and use. Energy from every source has environmental or cost consequences. The challenge for us as a society is to agree on a practical definition of sustainability and then to develop a road map to achieve it. The road map should include public policies, incentives, and research and development (R&D) agendas.
ABCNEWS.com : Iraqi Embassy in Berlin Seized The group sent a statement to Reuters saying: "In the name of the Iraqi people and their legitimate leadership, the Iraqi opposition, we declare that the liberation of Iraqi soil begins today. We are taking over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin and with this the first step in the liberation of our beloved fatherland."
Report and Recommendations of the West Stoddart Gas Committee The West Stoddart gas processing facility will then purify the gas by removing hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide, which constitute the “acid gas”, recover a portion of the hydrocarbon liquids content, and dispose of the recovered acid gas (approximately 530 103m3/day) by injecting it into 2-3 injection wells located near the proposed gas processing plant site.
Suzuki DL 1000 V-Strom Windshields
Our new V-Strom windshield is designed to alleviate most of the vortex turbulence that is associated with the stock windshield. We have also lengthened the windshield to 22" and incorporated a pronounced flip at the top to divert air upwards away from the upper torso and helmet area. To make the windshield less noisy and turbulent, we have built into the windshield an aerospace NACA style vent, which allows air to pass behind and up through the trailing edge of the windshield and minimizes the turbulence that comes from the stock OEM shield. Available in 1/8" aircraft grade acrylic clear, ice blue, green, light gray and dark gray tints. It is also available in our exclusive, high gloss opaque carbon fiber look.
Monday, August 19, 2002
World Tribune.com: Saudis still funding terror, Congressional panel told
Testimony to the U.S. Congress contradicted assertions by the Bush administration that Saudi Arabia has stopped financial support for organizations linked to terrorism.
Last week, three Saudi princes and major Saudi banks were listed as defendants in a $1 trillion suit filed by the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 Al Qaida attacks on New York and Washington. Among the princes is Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz.
Levitt told the Senate that Saudi Arabia has avoided a genuine crackdown on Islamic charities accused of funding terrorists because this could reveal donations by high-ranking Saudi princes. He said that despite the suicide attacks on New York and Washington "Saudi officials have exhibited, at a minimum, a clear pattern of tolerating funds earmarked for extremist purposes."
The testimony to the Senate was in line with that of other U.S. counterinsurgency experts that dismissed Saudi efforts to halt financing to Al Qaida and allied groups.
Levitt cited several Saudi-based charities that have been determined to finance Al Qaida. They include the International Islamic Relief Organization, its parent Muslim World League and the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia.
The European Union has done little to contribute to the U.S.-led war against terrorism, Levitt said. He cited complaints by U.S. officials that European allies have contributed few names to the list of alleged terrorist financiers. He said Europe has not acted against all of the names on the list of U.S. terrorist financiers.
ABCNEWS.com : Nigerian Court Upholds Death by Stoning An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal today by a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
SteelCrete by Simple Building Systems Inc. SteelCrete, invented by Tony Ruiz, is a patented composite building system. It uses metal studs embedded into thin concrete (1.5" to 2") to form panels for construction that are stronger-but-lighter than solid concrete, concrete block or any other conventional construction method. The bonding of the concrete and metal becomes so strong that this building system is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. SteelCrete gives you a competitive edge over tilt-up and other building systems by allowing you to build faster, stronger buildings at lower cost.
Metal Buildings The Metal Building Network has been putting the Internet to work for the metal building industry and you since 1995. As the original online metal building community we are proud to have more than 8000 steel building related companies listed. Join The Metal Building Network today, its free to all metal building related companies. With 3000 - users each week this is the number one place on the web to find a metal building builder, erector, supplier or vendor for your next project.
Friday, August 16, 2002
CAMILLE PAGLIA REPLIES:
Thank you for that excerpt from my Salon column - written ten months before the attacks on the World Trade Center. Quite frankly, reading it now sends a chill through me. I warned again and again in Salon about the dangerous insularity of American culture, which was worsened by the tilt of the Clinton administration toward p.c. domestic issues and away from world affairs. (I speak as a disillusioned Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton twice.)
The abject failure of the major media to pursue the issue of terrorism in the years following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing will live in infamy. I blame the media as well as the superstructure of the Democratic party for the appalling delusionalism of the Monica Lewinsky episode, which began in 1998 and consumed the news for two years.
I have not changed my position, as repeatedly expressed in Salon: first, any politician has the right to a randy private life, but it should not be conducted on government property, especially not in revered public space like the White House. Second, any politician who has disgraced his office and his family should resign as an act of honor.
When the Lewinsky scandal broke, Democrat big wigs should have muscled Clinton out the door and let Al Gore assume the presidency. The nation would have been spared the obsessive distraction of the Lewinsky affair - with its incompetent, foot-dragging, whey-faced wimp of an independent counsel (Ken Starr) a
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Language gene found Researchers today unveil the single gene that, when it goes wrong, causes this speech breakdown. The gene - the first to be definitively linked to language - switches others on and off, and so could lead the way through a genetic network of language learning and use.
The Moon Trees Apollo 14 launched in the late afternoon of January 31, 1971 on what was to be our third trip to the lunar surface. Five days later Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the Moon while Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, orbited above in the command module. Packed in small containers in Roosa's personal kit were hundreds of tree seeds, part of a joint NASA/USFS project. Upon return to Earth, the seeds were germinated by the Forest Service. Known as the "Moon Trees", the resulting seedlings were planted throughout the United States (often as part of the nation's bicentennial in 1976) and the world. They stand as a tribute to astronaut Roosa and the Apollo program.
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Monday, August 12, 2002
Alice Texas Alice Texas is playing at Village Underground Saturday, April 6th at 9:00pm. This is our last show for quite some time, and possibly longer, as we will be venturing off to distant lands where foreign tongues will tickle our fancies. Please come down to bid us farewell and sample live some of the exotic new tastes featured on our up-coming, freshly recorded CD. Village Underground is located at 130 W. 3rd St. in beautiful Greenwich Village.
Friday, August 09, 2002
The Register Unless we can take back the Net from the libertarians, constitutional lawyers and rapacious corporations currently recreating the worst excesses of US political and commercial culture online, we will end up with an Internet which serves the imperial ambitions of only one country instead of the legitimate aspirations of the whole world.
While this would greatly please the US, it would not be in the interests of the majority of Internet users, who want a network that allows them to express their own values, respects their own laws and supports their own cultures and interests.
Fauna and Flora Home My infatuation with Mount Pelion began in the late 1980's. The effect was, in a sense, magical. The breathtaking mountain cast a powerful, everlasting spell on me, bewitching me straightway.
Thursday, August 08, 2002
Atlantic Crossing Early in the afternoon of 21 August 1998, a diminutive Aerosonde weather-reconnaissance aircraft landed into a brisk wind on South Uist in the Scottish Hebrides, and so became the first unmanned aircraft (and, at only 13.2 kg takeoff weight, by far the smallest aircraft) ever to have crossed the Atlantic.
Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Next-Generation Win32 exploits: fundamental API flaws This paper presents a new generation of attacks against Microsoft Windows, and possibly other message-based windowing systems. The flaws presented in this paper are, at the time of writing, unfixable. The only reliable solution to these attacks requires functionality that is not present in Windows, as well as efforts on the part of every single Windows software vendor. Microsoft has known about these flaws for some time; when I alerted them to this attack, their response was that they do not class it as a flaw - the email can be found here. This research was sparked by comments made by Microsoft VP Jim Allchin who stated, under oath, that there were flaws in Windows so great that they would threaten national security if the Windows source code were to be disclosed. He mentioned Message Queueing, and immediately regretted it. However, given the quantity of research currently taking place around the world after Mr Allchin's comments, it is about time the white hat community saw what is actually possible.
Gunther Stent Current Projects
To ascertain the role that the developmental line of descent of an identi¹ed nerve cell plays in determining its differentiated characteristic fate, we devised novel cell lineage tracing methods. Experiments using these methods revealed that the cellular line of descent of the leech nervous system is highly determinate, in that each of five large, bilaterally paired, early embryonic precursor cells gives rise to a characteristic, segmentally iterated set of identifiable nerve cells and other cell types via a stereotyped pattern of cell divisions.
Tuesday, August 06, 2002
disinformation | forward the foundation
forward the foundation
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - November 13, 2001
In the early 1950s, the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote the Foundation trilogy, a landmark portrayal of a futuristic pan-Galactic Empire. Inspired by Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88), Asimov's stories featured his alter ego, the scientist Hari Seldon, a Platonic 'Philosopher-King' who battled a corrupt and unsympathetic bureaucracy to collate socio-political and cultural data in an attempt to save civilization from a new Dark Ages.
Seldon's Quest had mythical resonances for author Marshall Savage. Since writing The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps in 1992, Savage, a graduate of the University of Southern California, has been at the forefront of a growing movement attempting to overcome the conceptual gridlock crippling the United States space program since the Apollo moon landings ended.
For Savage, the writer turned space advocate, the Dark Ages facing humanity is a world afflicted by 'limits to growth' problems like exponential population increases, world food shortages and the need for non-polluting energy sources.
New Scientist A powerful plasma discharge has operated for a world record 210 seconds in an experimental French fusion reactor. The demonstration is a significant step toward the long plasma confinement times needed in a practical fusion reactor.
Physicists sustained the three-megawatt electric discharge in the Tore Supra reactor at the Association Euratom-CEA in Cadarache. During that interval, it dissipated more than 600 megajoules of energy, more than twice the previous record, also set by Tore Supra in 1996
theage.com.au - The Age By Nathan Cochrane
August 6 2002
Next
American movie, recording and software executives could be prohibited from entering Australia or extradited to face criminal charges if a copyright protection bill before the US Congress passes into law.
Californian Democrat congressman Howard Berman has proposed legislation to deal with the rising tide of copyrighted works illicitly traded over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks such as KaZaA.
Berman's bill immunises copyright holders from civil litigation or criminal prosecution if they invade US PCs connected to the international P2P networks to take down their own copyrighted materials.
But the global nature of P2P networks ensnares file sharers outside the US, with the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for copyright holders to pursue pirates in Australia.
Under section 9a of the Victorian Summary Offences Act (1966), "a person must not gain access to, or enter, a computer system or part of a computer system without lawful authority to do so". The penalty if convicted is up to
Janis Ian Articles Quite frankly, when I spent three months researching and writing The Internet Debacle, I wasn't planning to become part of a "cause". I assumed that the 35,000 subscribers of Performing Songwriter Magazine might read it, and a few might email me about it. I had no idea that a scant month later, the article would be posted on over 1,000 sites, translated into nine languages, and have been featured on the BBC.
In the past twenty days I've received over 2,200 emails from unique senders. I've answered every one myself, getting an education I never intended to get in the process. I've corresponded with lawyers, high schoolers, state representatives, executives, and hackers. And I've felt out of my depth for a good portion of it.
Monday, August 05, 2002
Friday, August 02, 2002
Plustech Walking technology The walking forest machine is Plustech's best-known innovation.
The goal of product development was a machine that has the best
possible working stability and minimum impact to the terrain.
Sci-fi treasure trove donated to U of Calgary
A massive collection of science fiction and pulp magazines spanning the last century has been donated to the University of Calgary which officials say will be a boon for literary and pop culture research.
University staff were stunned by the size of the donation: upwards of 35,000 volumes dating back to the 19th century, much of it bought at second-hand stores across North America and Britain.
"It spans the age of science and technology," said retired English professor Susan Stratton, among the first to teach science fiction at the university in the 1970s.
"In it we can study changes in perceptions of the role of women in society, the promises and threats of atomic power, of biotechnology."
The scope of the collection means scholars can chart when the starry-eyed "gosh, wow" view of science began to be challenged by the darker threat of advancing technology.
"It's no longer escapist reading for teenaged boys — if it ever was," Ms. Stratton said Thursday.
The treasure trove of material was donated by the family of William Gibson, who spent decades amassing the collection which eventually took over much of his Calgary home. Mr. Gibson died in 2001 at age 92.
Talking points:
Crack Down on Corporate Crime: Make all executives who profit from corporate crime do jail time and give up their ill-gotten gains.
Open up the Deep Pockets: Repeal the laws that shield accountants, bankers, lawyers and other accomplices in corporate crime from being sued for collusion.
Debarment: Stop giving companies that break the law any government contracts.
Employee rights: Strengthen pension reforms and whistleblower rights so that employees who come forward when they know a crime is being committed are protected from reprisal.
Patriotism and taxes: Stop corporate tax traitors from moving their headquarters to Bermuda and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes.
Limit the Rights of Citizenship to Real People: Introduce this 11-word amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "A corporation is not a person under the United States Constitution."
Consumer Protection: Enact a Financial Consumers' Protection Act to establish Financial Consumer Associations (FCAs), state-chartered, nonprofit organizations with full-time staffs that can help consumers band together to serve as watchdogs on financial issues.
For additional information, see Recipes for Reform.
TIME.com: 10 Questions for Ralph Nader -- August 5, 2002
Did you think there was this much corporate corruption?
No. And isn't it saying something that it exceeded my anticipation? It is impossible to exaggerate the supermarket of crime. It's greed on steroids.
Why didn't we know about it all sooner?
What amazes me is that there are thousands of people who could have been whistle-blowers, from the boards of directors to corporate insiders to the accounting firms to the lawyers working for these firms to the credit-rating agencies. All these people! Would a despotic dictatorship have been more efficient in silencing them and producing the perverse incentives for them all to keep quiet? The system is so efficient that there's total silence. I mean, the Soviet Union had enough dissidents to fill Gulags.
• Key Players in the Plame Affair