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Mad Max
[Quote:]
“There’s a soldier in Iraq who’s been posting some crazy pictures of American SUVs and pickup trucks that have been modified by civilian security contractors for use as gun trucks. They’re insane, in a ‘Mad Max at the Wal-Mart parking lot’ kind of way.”
Ford SuperDuty pickup (and here), Toyota Land Cruiser, Ford Expedition, Chevy Suburban, Chevy Avalanche, Chevy pickup, Another Ford SuperDuty, In convoy, Yet another Ford
Captain Copyright: Wikipedia pirate!
[Quote:]
Jim sez, “Captain Copyright includes two quotes about ISBN’s from Wikipedia, but fails to follow the requirements of Wikipedia’s GNU license by providing a direct link back to the source article or even acknowledging the GNU license as required by Wikipedia.”
Captain Copyright is the propaganda cartoon character created by Canada’s Access Copyright agency to “educate kids about copyright, in the most biased, one-sided and intellectually dishonest way imaginable.
Link
Immigrant joke
A Mexican family crosses over the border to the Land of Milk and Honey where the streets are paved with gold. But the husband couldn’t find any work. His family is hungry, so he takes a walk to a quiet place at the foot of a big hill, kneels at the base of a tree, and begins to pray: “Sweet Jesus, please show me a way to feed my family… ” Eyes closed, the Mexican does not see the black man coming over the top of the hill, who is stumbling wildly with a broken grocery sack.
When the Mexican man opens his eyes, a large wheel of cheddar cheese rolls down the hill and lands at his feet! “Oh, thank you Jesus, thank you!” he cries, grabs the cheese, and runs straight home, while the Black man yells at him.
Upon returning home, he gives the cheese to his wife and instructs her to make some nachos.
“But wouldn’t you rather have cheese enchiladas and burritos and other things” she inquires? “No,” the husband says, “Jesus sent this to me with a message. As I ran home, I kept hearing Him yelling, “That’s nacho cheese!”
Free Tickets
I just received three tickets to the opening match of the Dutch soccer team at the world cup next week. I’m giving them away to readers on this web site - click here for a picture of seat location in the stadium.
Wrestling with Windows’ hidden features
[Quote:]
When I was teaching in Brazil last week, Jose Antunes, a student of mine, showed me a Windows trick he discovered accidentally. It may be something that was discovered and reported years ago, but it was new to me — and my “Where Windows Malware Hides” document didn’t discuss it.
The trick is that Internet Explorer 6 and 7 beta can be fooled into running Windows desktop shortcuts instead of going to the Internet. For example, right-click your desktop and choose Create a Shortcut. Tell the shortcut to run Notepad.exe, but name the shortcut “www.aol.com.” Now type www.aol.com into IE (Internet Explorer) and see what happens. Instead of going to www.aol.com, IE starts Windows notepad.
Huh?
The NSA Phone Call Database: The European Perspective
[Quote:]
Had a European government, instead of the Bush administration, created the NSA’s call database, would that government be in violation of European privacy law? I think so, for the reasons I explore below.
Why should anyone care that the outcome would have been so different under European privacy law? One reason for the comparison with Europe is that it enables us to understand better current developments in American law. It is striking how similar American and European data privacy law was in the early 1970s, how different it is today. The first European database privacy statutes of the 1970s drew on the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974. Alan Westin’s Privacy and Freedom, published in 1967, was read widely by both American and European policymakers. There are many reasons for the divergent paths of the two systems. This latest example of difference highlights one set of reasons: the President’s new constitutional powers in fighting terrorism, post-September 11. Congress, the courts, and the public might very well accept that the NSA program is legal, based on the President’s inherent authority as commander-in-chief. In Europe, that would not be possible.
(read the rest - it’s a fascinating read…)
Dead stuck buck
[Quote:]
apparently this buck got stuck in the tree rubbing the velvet off his antlers or at least practicing for the rut.
A human would never put their head somewhere that it might get stuck.
Klassejustitie: Tonino gaat vrijuit
[Quote:]
Joost Tonino, de officier van justitie op wiens pc kinderporno werd gevonden, wordt definitief niet vervolgd.
Dat heeft het Amsterdamse gerechtshof besloten.
De officier gaat in de toekomst weer aan de slag bij justitie. Tonino kwam in 2004 in opspraak, toen op zijn computer vertrouwelijke documenten en afbeeldingen met kinderporno werden gevonden. Hij had zijn pc bij het grof vuil gezet, maar een passant nam de computer mee en gaf die aan verslaggever Peter R. de Vries.
Tonino’s werkgever, het Openbaar Ministerie (OM), besloot hem niet te vervolgen. De officier zou de kinderporno niet bewust hebben gedownload. De stichting Childright, die opkomt voor de belangen van kinderen,
probeerde via het gerechtshof alsnog vervolging af te dwingen. Maar volgens het gerechtshof zijn er geen aanwijzingen dat Tonino strafbare feiten heeft gepleegd. Childright is diep teleurgesteld: ,,We hoopten dat er nieuw onderzoek naar strafbare feiten zou komen. Dat zit er dus niet in.’’
Volgens Childright is het een ‘totaal verkeerd signaal’ dat een officier van justitie niet wordt vervolgd voor het bezit van dergelijke afbeeldingen, terwijl veel kinderen het slachtoffer worden van de kinderporno-industrie.
Tonino zelf is opgelucht dat de zaak nu definitief is afgedaan, zegt zijn woordvoerder. ,,Hij wil in de toekomst graag weer aan de slag als officier van justitie.’’
Het hoofd van het OM, Harm Brouwer, vindt dat Tonino ‘een fout heeft gemaakt, maar ook zelfinzicht heeft getoond’. Dat zegt hij in een interview met deze krant, dat morgen verschijnt. ,,Joost heeft een tijdje in de luwte gewerkt, maar kan wat mij betreft weer aan de slag als officier van justitie.’’
Dus je weet, als je voor de rechter komt, gewoon claimen dat je zelfinzicht hebt getoond. Dan mag alles. Moet je wel eerst hier solliciteren.
Extortion virus code gets cracked
[Quote:]
Do not panic if your data is hidden by virus writers demanding a ransom.
Poor programming has allowed anti-virus companies to discover the password to retrieve the hijacked data inside a virus that has claimed at least one UK victim.
The Archiveus virus caught out British nurse Helen Barrow and swapped her data with a password-protected file.
The virus is the latest example of so-called “ransomware” that tries to extort cash from victims.
[..]
The 30-digit password locking the files is “mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw”. Using the password should restore all the hijacked files.
Amazing! I use the same combination on my luggage!
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IC 443: Supernova Remnant and Neutron Star
Radio Wide: NRC/DRAO/D.Leahy; Radio Detail: NRAO/VLA; Optical: DSS
IC 443 is typical of the aftermath of a stellar explosion, the ultimate fate of massive stars. Seen in this false-color composite image, the supernova remnant is still glowing across the spectrum, from radio (blue) to optical (red) to x-ray (green) energies — even though light from the stellar explosion that created the expanding cosmic cloud first reached planet Earth thousands of years ago. The odd thing about IC 443 is the apparent motion of its dense neutron star, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. The close-up inset shows the swept-back wake created as the neutron star hurtles through the hot gas, but that direction is not aligned with the direction toward the apparent center of the remnant. The misalignment suggests that the explosion site was offset from the center or that fast-moving gas in the nebula has influenced the wake. The wide view of IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish nebula, spans about 65 light-years at the supernova remnant’s estimated distance of 5,000 light-years.
Deadly rockslide closes Swiss highway
A car lies under a rock on the A2 Gotthard freeway direction south near Gurtnellen, Canton of Uri, Switzerland on Wednesday, May 31, 2006. A rock slide hit several vehicles on a major north-south highway through the Swiss Alps early Wednesday, killing two people, police said. The highway was blocked on the northern approach to the St. Gotthard tunnel, a major route linking northern Europe with Italy, Uri cantonal (state) police said in a statement. (AP Photo/Keystone, Sigi Tischler)
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Marines to face charges in Iraqi’s death
[Quote:]
Military prosecutors plan to file murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman in the shooting death of an Iraqi man in April, a defense lawyer said Thursday.
The eight men are being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego, said Jeremiah Sullivan III, who represents one of the men.
The Iraqi man reportedly was dragged from his home west of Baghdad and shot. Both the Los Angeles Times and NBC News said troops may have planted an AK-47 and shovel near the body to make it appear the man was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb.
Neither media outlet suggested a possible motive for the April 26 killing in Hamandiya.
Mosul
U.S. soldiers inspect the scene after a car bomb exploded in Mosul, May 31, 2006. (Khaled al-Mosy/Reuters)
Beached SUV limo
[Quote:]
Mike and I were having dinner at Goat Hill Pizza when a giant SUV limo appeared out of nowhere and promptly grounded out on the hill. I couldn’t resist taking photos…
Why people do super-stretch limos in a city that’s mostly hills I will never know.
Misschien waren ze bang dat als ‘ie zich verveelde, Tonino aan een politieke carriere zou beginnen bij die nieuwe partij…