The before and after tsunami photos have been synced-up and they highlight even more (if that’s possible) the power of the sea. Saomeone has geo-aligned the various before and after aerial and satellite photos and adjusted the scale to provide a very accurate then/now comparison.

via Metafilter

[Quote:]

India’s untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.

Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India’s rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.

“The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste,” Ramachandran said.

[Quote:]

A thought suddenly struck me yesterday when I was reading the press release for Microsoft’s new Windows AntiSpyware product. If Microsoft’s product is really going to clean up spyware effectively, how will it do so without violating the licensing agreement of Claria’s Gator and other spyware/adware?

The we’re-adware-not-spyware crowd like Claria are of course great supporters of the sanctity of end user license agreements, since the supposed acceptance of their EULAs by unwitting downloaders provides the basis for the claim that their adware is installed with “customer” consent. And an increasingly common provision in the adware EULAs is a prohibition against using third party software to remove the program. As spyware researcher Ben Edelman reported in November,, Claria’s EULA only allows removal of Gator and related software through a cumbersome process using the Windows Add/Remove Programs menu. Removing it through the use of spyware detection programs, presumably including Microsoft’s new offering, is a violation of the EULA.

And the Claria/Gator EULA isn’t the only one that says this. The license agreement on DirectRevenue’s website states that those who have been inflicted with it “agree that you will not initiate, permit, authorize or assist any third party or application to remove the Software from your computer, or disrupt its operation or the operation of any other user.” DirectRevenue’s EULA also claims the right to reinstall itself if any third party software removes it. (Among the myriad spyware-related lawsuits going on, by the way, DirectRevenue is being sued by fellow adware vendor Avenue Media over the DirectRevenue software’s penchant for deleting other spyware from users’ systems.)

So it seemed to me that this poses something of a quandary for Microsoft. After all, the software EULA as we know it today is basically a Microsoft invention, and no other company has been as big a supporter of UCITA and other legal efforts to make sneakwrap licenses completely binding. So Microsoft isn’t going to want to go around violating any other company’s EULA, not even those of companies of whom they might not completely approve.

On the other hand, an anti-spyware program that doesn’t detect and remove things like Gator would certainly not be very useful. And, from the early reports I’ve seen about the Windows AntiSpyware beta, it does indeed detect and remove all the major threats. So does this mean Microsoft feels it can ignore what the Gator and other EULAs say? I asked Microsoft that question.

“Microsoft AntiSpyware enables customers to control what software installs and runs on their machines and Microsoft respects the end user license agreements for any third party products,” a Microsoft spokesperson told me. “The Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware beta end user license agreement, which all users accept as part of the installation process, clearly indicates that the software will only remove or disable ‘potentially unwanted software’ as users instruct it, and advises them to read the license agreements for other software before authorizing removal.”

For reference, the Microsoft spokesperson pointed out the relevant section of the Windows AntiSpyware beta EULA:

POTENTIALLY UNWANTED SOFTWARE. The software will search your computer for “spyware,” “adware” and other potentially unwanted software (“Potentially Unwanted Software”). If it finds Potentially Unwanted Software, the software will ask you if you want to ignore, disable (quarantine) or remove it. The software will only remove or disable Potentially Unwanted Software as you instruct it. Removing or disabling the Potentially Unwanted Software may cause other software on your computer to stop working, and it may cause you to breach a license to use other software on your computer, if the other software installed the Potentially Unwanted Software on your computer as a condition of your use of the other software. You should read the license agreements for other software before authorizing the removal of any Potentially Unwanted Software. By using this software, it is possible that you will also remove or disable software that is not Potentially Unwanted Software. You are solely responsible for selecting which Potentially Unwanted Software the software removes or disables.

Silly me – I should have guessed. Of course, Microsoft isn’t violating anyone else’s EULA. It’s you, the Windows AntiSpyware customer, who is solely responsible for violating your solemn contractual agreement with Claria, DirectRevenue, or whomever. You have a solemn contractual agreement with Microsoft that says so.

[Quote:]

When cassette tapes became popular in the early 80′s the record industry had a publicity campaign to try to prevent people from making copies and mixtapes for their friends. The slogan was “Home Taping is Killing Music – And it’s illegal”. Sounds kind of similiar to what they’ve been saying about filesharing, doesn’t it? Anyway, some young punks changed the slogan to “Home Taping is Killing the Music Industry – And it’s fun”. You can now get a Downhill Battle reissue of this classic for only 10 bucks (plus flat 2 dollars shipping US/Canada).

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on advertising:
[Quote:]

In fact, this is a general thing that we’ve done that has been very helpful to our business. About three years ago we stopped doing television advertising. We did a 15-month-long test of TV advertising in two markets – Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis – to see how much it drove our sales. And it worked, but not as much as the kind of price elasticity we knew we could get from taking those ad dollars and giving them back to consumers. So we put all that money into lower product prices and free shipping. That has significantly accelerated the growth of our business.

Is this a trend?
Yes, more and more money will go into making a great customer experience, and less will go into shouting about the service. Word of mouth is becoming more powerful. If you offer a great service, people find out.

[Quote:]

BBC director general Mark Thompson has defended the corporation’s decision to screen Jerry Springer – The Opera.

The BBC has received more than 40,000 complaints – mostly about swearing levels and the show’s religious themes.

Mr Thompson, himself a practising Christian, said he believed there was nothing blasphemous in the production, to be aired on BBC Two on Saturday.

The Christian People’s Alliance Party is demanding the controller of BBC 2 be suspended over the decision to show it.

Party leader Alan Craig said he wanted an investigation into why channel chief Roly Keating had “deliberately breached the BBC’s own charter guidelines on taste and decency”.

He added: “I’ve seen it and it’s deeply offensive, not only to Christians but to Muslims and other people of faith.

Well, that’s how I feel every sunday morning when (or rather “if” because I know when not to watch) I turn on my TV.

[Quote:]

Philip pulls up the sleeve of his oversized sweatshirt to show his forearm, covered with a dozen rubber wristbands, yellow, pink, light blue or green that he sells in the schoolyard of his high school in a suburb of Washington.

The yellow “LiveStrong” bracelet promoted by Lance Armstrong to fund cancer research, seen on the wrist of Hollywood celebrities and American presidential candidates has reached cult status for school children, becoming an easy way to collect funds for charity and sometimes pure profit.

“I buy a bunch of them on the internet and sell them to friends, the best-selling are the hard to find colors,” says Philip, a tenth grader who prefers not to use his last name.

The kids view the color first, before reading the slogans on the wristbands, to raise money for breast cancer research, to fight AIDS, autism, colorectal cancer, medical malpractice, support Israel, bone marrow donations, or simply finance a school’s Parents Teachers Association.

[Quote:]

Ten students between the ages of 11 and 12 were strip-searched as officials at their charter school tried to find a missing $10 bill.

Seven girls and three boys at the Mainland Preparatory Academy were searched down to their underwear Thursday after one of the girls reported the money missing, said Principal Wilma Green. The money was not found.

[Quote:]

You know it’s bad when Halliburton is #7

At the beginning of the Iraq war, Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), proclaimed that the reconstruction of Iraq would look like a modern-day Marshall Plan. But a year and a half later, a combination of bureaucratic ineptitude, corporate corruption and the growing Iraqi resistance threaten to undermine the Bush administration�s grand designs.

In mid-July, U.S. officials admitted that fewer than 140 of the 2,300 reconstruction projects funded by the U.S. were underway. Although AID says �dirt has been turned� on 1,167 projects including schools and hospitals, with at least 70 new ones staring each week, it�s unlikely that the big picture has changed much. The kidnapping and execution of contract personnel and the ongoing sabotage of key projects�power plants, electricity lines and oil pipelines�has slowed work in many areas of the country to a crawl, jacking up the cost of security, insurance and other ancillary expenditures, which in most cases amount to half of the contractors� budgets.

By August, Ambassador John Negroponte had to announce that more than $3 billion of $18 billion in U.S. aid earmarked by Congress for engineering and reconstruction work would be used for security and counterinsurgency operations.

Above is just a small snippet from the introduction. A list of all ten is in the actual article

Here’s a good reminder why you should always brush your teeth!

More pictures here.

[Quote:]

Kid Rock, a popular vulgar rock-rapper whose lyrics wouldn’t begin to pass muster with the Federal Communications Commission, is headlining the youth concert during the inauguration festivities for President Bush � a politician who was re-elected largely due to the participation of traditional “values voters.”

The Detroit-based rapper, who dedicated his first album to songs about oral sex and who was voted the Sluttiest Male Celebrity at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, will perform Jan. 18 at the Washington, D.C., Armory in a concert hosted by Bush daughters Jenna and Barbara. Teenage singer JoJo also will appear at the event.

I hadn’t seen this before. Funny!

Political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, and a lot of bull inbetween.

— Alfred E. Neuman