(found at http://orsm.net/)

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

There are many, many more pictures here.

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You’re an Ashcroft! No, you’re the Ashcroft!

Imagine hearing that exchange in a movie — you’d think that Hollywood had come up with a crazy new insult. Well, it turns out that some airline passengers watching the Oscar-nominated film “Sideways” on foreign flights are, in fact, hearing “Ashcroft” as a substitute for a certain seven-letter epithet commonly used to denote a human orifice.

The Post’s Monte Reel, based in Buenos Aires, tells us he heard the former attorney general’s name substituted at least twice in “Sideways” dialogue when he watched the film earlier this week on an Aerolineas Argentinas flight to Lima, Peru. The movie was shown in English and the dubbing was done “in the actual voices of the actors,” Reel reports. Star Thomas Haden Church utters the A-word.

Profanity is typically cut from in-flight movies to make them suitable for general audiences, but how did the studio come up with “Ashcroft”? Hoping for enlightenment yesterday, we queried Fox Searchlight Pictures, the studio behind “Sideways.” A spokeswoman initally e-mailed us to say she had “all the info” about dubbing, then failed to respond to our followup questions.

Ashcroft did not return our phone message, but we’re certain he was busy and not just being an . . .

Here’s another link to the story mentioned in a recent comment.

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The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a “parasite,” to a federal privacy advisory board.

An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.

“This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department’s mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States,” Nuala O’Connor Kelly, the department’s chief privacy officer, said in a statement.

Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa. Recently, the privately held company has been trying to seek credibility by following stricter privacy guidelines and offering behavioral profiling services to its partners.
In an e-mail message to CNET News.com, Kelly defended the inclusion of a Claria representative on the committee. “I am proud of, supportive of and grateful for those individuals in the public and private sector who are willing to take on the hard tasks, fight the good fight, and who surprise us with creative, fresh and unconventional thinking, and who make change where change is needed through their hard work and personal dedication,” Kelly said.

What is next? A promoter of torture as Attorney General?

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Don’t you hate it when you give your phone number to someone at a club, and then some time later her hardware gets hacked and your number gets broadcast all over the world for anyone at all to see? And then you start getting crank calls from these morons who don’t even know you, and your only option is to change your number so they quit calling you?

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The structure is built to carry up to 173 people at over 600 mph and in temperatures of -70 degrees F. It cost millions of dollars to build. It is made mostly of aluminum and other corrosion resistant metals and was designed by Boeing, who has the most brilliant engineers in the world.

This structure can certainly offer comfort to you, your family and friends. It can safely protect you through any winds, even hurricane force winds. It takes a minimal amount of energy to heat and cool it. We are offering it finished and delivered at prices that compare to conventional homes.

this tells the story of episode III.

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Astronomers say they have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter.

The team, led by Cardiff University, claimed it is the first to be detected.

A dark galaxy is an area in the Universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars.

Let’s help them out. I suggest we donate Ben Affleck.

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The ISearch and IDownload applications have a long and sordid history of using clearly documented shady installation techniques; most recently making use of the WMP DRM vulnerability we’ve discussed at length. The company behind the apps have sent a “cease and desist” letter to security site Castle Cops, for classifying the applications as “Spyware”:

“This firm represents iDownload.com with respect to your inaccurate classification of iDownload’s software product, iSearch toolbar, by referring to it as Spyware in its description. Specifically, a recent review of materials disseminated by your company, via the Internet, revealed that your company is falsely disparaging iDownload’s product.”

The letter goes on to inform the site they will take legal action if they do not change their description of the ISearch and IDownload products. Not only can’t the products be called “Spyware”, they can’t be called “Foistware” or “Malware” either.

Why is this so important to them? Because the marketing industry knows that Congress is considering new laws cracking down on sleazy products. To avoid getting caught up in any nets, they’ve been engaged in a massive image makeover and PR campaign that so-far includes:

• Reframing the debate by calling what they do “Adware”, and what the “bad guys over there” do as “Spyware”. They then pretend (See WhenU’s “Spyware Removal tool“) to be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem
• Legally pressuring or offering anti-spyware vendors marketing deals to exclude their applications from detection.
• Joining anti-spyware consortiums, nearly leading to their dissolution.
• Threatening on-line resources who refuse to play along with the new marketing industry coined definitions of what constitutes troublesome software.

If you recall, Claria sued the PC Pitstop website some time ago for the same reason. We joked at the time that bank robbery must now be referred to as “professional forced fund reallocation.” It’s no longer funny.

So, if any lawyer from iDownload.com is reading this: the crap is spyware, malware, or whatever you want to call that crap.

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What looks like vintage natural history studies turns out to be, on closer inspection, images of computer and technological cords and peripherals, each slightly manipulated to take on organic characteristics–a fused or sprouting growth from a stem, a viral infection, or a radial symmetry.

I used a digital camera to photograph the computer cords and peripherals that surrounded my home workstation, and then transferred them to the computer where i digitally altered and added to the original images. Arranged suggestively on an image of a vintage print (the original botanical images on it having been erased), the techie beginnings become transformed into the final archival-quality iris prints.