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I do not recommend you try Amazon Unbox, and here’s why. Yesterday evening I decided to give the video download service a try, especially since it gives you a free $1.99 video. A nice touch, I thought. I chose a Star Trek episode called “The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky,” because it’s one of my favorites.

After the normal Amazon checkout rigmarole, I was prompted to download a proprietary video player from Amazon. It’s the only way to complete the download.

[.. lots of complaints deleted..]

So, in summary, to be allowed the privilege of purchasing a video that I can’t burn to DVD and can’t watch on my iPod, I have to allow a program to hijack my start-up and force me to login to uninstall it? No way. Sorry, Amazon. I love a lot of what you do, but I will absolutely not recommend this service.

Amazon is offering the usual non-free media deal: In order to enjoy popular culture, you must surrender control of your computer. I guess I’ll continue to do without…

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When the crew of a yacht spotted Matthew Harvey floating unconscious off Guernsey some 56 hours after he had gone missing while diving, his survival was heralded as miraculous.

But the epic nature of the 35-year-old scuba diver’s ordeal only became clear when he revealed he had spent much of the two and a half days semi-conscious on rocks only to return to the water to swim to safety – with near-disastrous consequences.

In the first account of his disappearance, Mr Harvey said he got into trouble when he was struck by a boat while out on a solo dive on Saturday morning in treacherous waters off the east coast of the Channel island.

The failure of the museum worker to return from his dive in Fermain Bay led to one of the largest search operations in Guernsey’s history with more than 20 vessels joining lifeboats, helicopters and police divers over three days. But while rescuers were fruitlessly scouring the seas, Mr Harvey, who was at first knocked unconscious by the collision with the boat and lost his mask and oxygen regulator, was lying in a rocky inlet. He had swum for up to six hours against tides running “like an express train”.

Before you go “wow!” you may want to the reason behind the following response by the rescue organisation:

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“Criticisms in the media of our ability to conduct a search properly have proved to be unfounded.”

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State police hid eight ounces of plastic explosives on the back bumper of a truck Wednesday night during a drill for bomb sniffing dogs at Logan International Airport.

Before the drill had been finished, however, a Massport employee drove off in the white pickup truck, unaware that a clump of the explosive Semtex had been slapped on the back. The employee only drove about 1.5 miles, according Lieutenant Sharon Costine, but it was far enough for clay-like explosive to fall.

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Let’s say you find a good deal on towels at Amazon.com, and you order 18 of them — nine bath towels and nine face towels. When you order, you (naturally) enter “9″ in the quantity box, and check the box to have Amazon send your order in as few shipments as possible.

You might expect your order to arrive in, oh, two big boxes. Maybe four.

You would probably not expect this:

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On August 10, after his family was refused a home loan, an Arcata man was mortified to find the phrase “son of Saddam Hussein�? included on his credit report.

“I looked at it and couldn’t believe my eyes!�? Said the Arcata man who asked that only his middle name, Hassan, be divulged.

The routine credit check, pulled by the Arcata family’s prospective mortgage company, lists the alleged alias under the section titled “Borrower Bureau Alert Information:�?

“HASSAN ALIASES: AL-TIKRITI, ALI SADDAM HU.S.SEIN DOB: 1980 ALT (ALTERNATE) DOB: 1983; POB: IRAQ; NATL: IRAQI; SON OF SADDAM HU.S.SEIN AL-TIKRITI…�?

A partial name match to the individual listed on the Arcata man’s credit report, “Hassan�? is the man’s middle name, but any likeness to the description of Hussein’s son ends there.

“It was almost surreal, why just because of my middle name, it’s not even similar, it’s out of total ignorance,�? said Hassan, who explained the alleged alias is full of discrepancies: Hassan who was born in the U.S. in the 1940s, is not of Iraqi descent and has never had contact with nor visited the Middle East, believes his middle name is the only possible basis for the information listed on his credit report.

“I ran home to show my wife and called the FBI, and attempted to make a police report for fear of stolen identity. The police officer indicated this was part of the patriot act or “big brother�? and filing a police report would resolve nothing at this point,�? said Hassan who indicated the situation has put the family’s plan to purchase a home on hold as they attempt to resolve the situation. The family explained may even loose a chance at Arcata’s first-time homebuyer’s program if they can’t get a loan for the balance in the next few months.

[..]

“The credit reporting agencies are now scanning this list and putting watchlist information on the reports even if it’s a partial match,�? said Sinnar.

source

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HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming. – Alan, age 10

No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with. – Kristen, age 10 (isn’t she a treasure)

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. – Camille, age 10

No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married. – Freddie, age 6 (very wise for his age)

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

You might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. – Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MUM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

Both don’t want any more kids. – Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

Dates are for having fun and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. – Lynnette, age 8

On the first date they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. – Martin, age 10 (who said boys do not have brains)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

I’d run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns. -Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

When they’re rich. – Pam, age 7 (I could not have said it better myself)

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that. – Curt, age 7 (good point)

The rule goes like this: if you kiss someone then you should marry them and have kids with them. It’s the right thing to do. – Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

I It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. – Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN’T GET MARRIED?

There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there? – Kelvin, age 8

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck. – Ricky, age 10 (the boy already understands)

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Under pressure from former President Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party, ABC scrambled on Friday to make 11th-hour changes to a miniseries suggesting he was inattentive to the Islamic militant threat that led to the September 11 attacks.

Officials at the Walt Disney Co.-owned network said they were still tinkering with the five-hour production, titled “The Path to 9/11,” which is scheduled to air without commercial interruption in two parts on Sunday and Monday.

But ABC declined to say how the movie was being reshaped or whether any changes would address specific complaints lodged by Clinton, his former aides and congressional Democrats that the film contained numerous inaccuracies and distortions.

The Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety, citing sources close to the project, reported the network was considering canceling the miniseries altogether.

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Further complicating the situation for ABC was a prime-time address to the nation President George W. Bush has planned for 9 p.m. EDT on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, right in the middle of part two of ABC’s miniseries.

The network said it would air the first hour of the film, break for 20 minutes to carry Bush’s speech live, then broadcast the rest of the movie.

Wow, how obvious can you get….

but if God didn’t want Bush to make political use of 9/11, he’d have made those planes hit something Bush doesn’t care about, like New Orleans

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Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.

In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said “he would fire the next person” who talked about the need for a post-war plan.

Rumsfeld did replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff in 2003, after Shinseki told Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to secure post-war Iraq.

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The Central Intelligence Agency last fall repudiated the claim that there were prewar ties between Saddam Hussein’s government and an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to a report issued Friday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The disclosure undercuts continuing assertions by the Bush administration that such ties existed, and that they provided evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. The Republican-controlled committee, in a second report, also sharply criticized the administration for its reliance on the Iraqi National Congress during the prelude to the war in Iraq.

The findings are part of a continuing inquiry by the committee into prewar intelligence about Iraq. The conclusions went beyond its earlier findings, issued in the summer of 2004, by including criticism not just of American intelligence agencies but also of the administration.

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As recently as Aug. 21, President Bush said at a news conference that Mr. Hussein “had relations with Zarqawi.” But a C.I.A. report completed in October 2005 concluded instead that Mr. Hussein’s government “did not have a relationship, harbor or even turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates,” according to the new Senate findings.

[..]

The panel concluded that Mr. Hussein regarded Al Qaeda as a threat rather than a potential ally, and that the Iraqi intelligence service “actively attempted to locate and capture al-Zarqawi without success.”

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The reports were approved by the committee in August, but went through a monthlong declassification process. It was Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the committee’s Republican chairman, who set early September as the release date.

Amazing how an upcoming election and a low approval rating for the administration can effect the workings of a Senate committee…