[Quote:]

The Department of Homeland Security is the home of many mysteries. There is, of course, the color-coded system for gauging the threat of an attack. And there is the department database of national assets to protect against a terrorist threat, which includes Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo in Woodville, Ala., and the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton, Ill.

And now Jim O’Brien, the director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in Clark County, Nev., has discovered another hard-to-fathom DHS notion: a mathematical value purporting to represent the square root of terrorist intent. The figure appears deep in the mind-numbingly complex risk-assessment formulas that the department used in 2006 to decide the likelihood that a place is or will become a terrorist target — an all-important estimate outside the Beltway, because greater slices of the federal anti-terrorism pie go to the locations with the highest scores. Overall, the department awarded $711 million in high-risk urban counterterrorism grants last year.

O’Brien took an active interest in how the government runs its risk-assessment numbers when the department announced this year that it was downgrading Las Vegas from among the highest-risk urban centers to the lowest 25 percent grouping of such potential targets.

That shift put Las Vegas on what’s called a “sustainment�? line of funding, which represents a loss of more than $700,000 in federal counterterrorism money. The city — the population center of Clark County — previously had placed among higher risk targets thanks to its highly visible skyline and the vast complement of tourists it attracts.

As O’Brien reviewed the risk-assessment formulas — a series of calculations that runs into the billions — he found himself unable to account for several factors, the terrorist-intent notion principal among them. “I have a Ph.D. I think I understand formulas,�? he says. “Take the square root of terrorist intent? Now, give me a break.�? The whole notion, O’Brien says, is a contradiction in terms: “How can you quantify what somebody is thinking?�?

Other designations for variables in the formula are almost befuddling, O’Brien says, such as the “attractiveness factor,�? which seeks to establish how terrorists might prefer one sort of target over another, and the “chatter factor,�? which tries to gauge the intent of potential terror plotters based on communication intercepts.

“One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure,�? he says. “So I don’t know how you measure attractiveness.�? The chatter factor, meanwhile, leaves O’Brien entirely in the dark: “I’m not sure what that means.�?

“What units do you use for intent, anyhow?”

Millidesires?

Or perhaps in English units:
2 wants is one wish
4 wishes make a longing
6 longings equal one yearning
4 yearnings is a pining
Pinings are pretty big, and usually indicate a lifetime of commitment to a cause. You don’t want to see too many pinings in that equation.

source

[Quote:]

1. Go to this page on Microsoft.com for Vista Business edition.

2. Click the “Buy�? tab or “Buy Now�? button. The page content changes, to reveal this icon:

   

3. Go to this page on Apple.com for Mac OS X Server.

4. Scroll down and observe this icon for Apple’s Workgroup Manager app:

   

5. Go “Hmm…�?.

6. Think of a snarky comment making fun of the fact that Microsoft can’t even copy an icon without screwing it up by resizing it.

[Quote:]

The Taliban gunmen who murdered two teachers in eastern
Afghanistan early Saturday were only following their rules: Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach must be killed.

The new list of 30 rules, decided on during a high Taliban meeting in September or October and since circulated over the Internet, span from the organizational — no jihad equipment may be used for personal means — to the health conscious — militants are not supposed to smoke.

They also contain a grave warning for aid workers and educators.

Rule No. 24 forbids anyone to work as a teacher “under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels.” One rule later, No. 25, says teachers who ignore Taliban warnings will be killed.

[..]

Other rules appear focused on not having ordinary Afghans turn against the Taliban. Rule No. 16 says it is “strictly forbidden” to search houses or confiscate weapons without a commander’s permission. No. 17 says militants have no right to confiscate money or possessions from civilians.

No. 18 says fighters “should refrain from smoking cigarettes.”

Rule 19 says that mujahedeen may not take young boys without facial hair onto the battlefield — or into their private quarters, an attempt to stamp out the sexual abuse of young boys, a problem that is widely known in southern Afghanistan but seldom discussed.

“The rule regarding behavior toward young boys shows this has been a problem,” Knittig said.

[Quote:]

Jeff Stein tells us that the rising Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes, doesn’t know whether Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are predominantly made up of Shiite or Sunni Muslims. Well, the BCIS has decided to revamp the test required of applicants for citizenship. So I think we, the blogosphere, should put together our own new test–fifty questions a legislator should be able to answer correctly before he or she can vote on laws relating to those subjects. I’ve made a start below. Once we get a bunch I plan to put this into a document and send it to Pelosi and Reid. Hell–at the very least, maybe they can get their legislators to cram for the quiz so they don’t sound quite so embarrassing in interviews.

1. The terrorist group Al Qaeda is overwhelmingly made up of what kind of Muslims?

a. Shiite
b. Sunni
c. Kurds
d. Nation of Islam

2. The known nuclear proliferator, AQ Khan, comes from which country?

a. North Korea
b. Iran
c. Pakistan
d. Libya
e. Iraq

3. Which of the following countries is known to have nuclear weapons?

a. Israel
b. Iraq
c. Iran
d. Libya

4. Which of the following leaders was elected in an election deemed to be fair by outside observers?

a. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
b. King Abdullah of Jordan
c. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
d. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan

5. Which option correctly shows the US share of world population and its share of world oil use?

a. 5% of the world population, 25% of world oil use
b. 16% of the world population, 16% of world oil use
c. 25% of the world population, 25% of world oil use
d. 3% of the world population, 6% of world oil use

6. How much of Mexico’s GDP in 2005 came from remittances, money sent back to Mexico from migrant workers in other countries (primarily the United States)?

a. $48.3 million
b. $879.6 million
c. $13.7 billion
d. $48.3 billion

7. How many new jobs have been created by NAFTA?

a. 1,000,000
b. none — the US has effectively LOST 1,000,000 jobs due to NAFTA
c. none — the US has not lost or gained any jobs due to NAFTA
d. 56

8. What is the most common cause of personal bankruptcy?

a. Gambling debt
b. Medical expenses
c. Laziness
d. Unnecessary consumer expenditures

9. Which of the following is not a likely result of global warming?

a. Tsunamis in Asian countries
b. Heat waves killing thousands of people
c. Rising sea levels
d. Diminished agricultural productivity

10. How much has the average cost of a college education risen in the last five years?

a. 3%
b. 15%
c. 40%
d. 120%

11. Which state has the lowest divorce rate?

a. Georgia
b. Massachusetts
c. Missouri
d. Utah

12. Which country has the highest number of people in prison?

a. China
b. India
c. Russia
d. United States

13. What is the poverty threshold for a family of four (with two children under 18) per the Census Bureau (2005)?

a. $19,806
b. $21,424
c. $24,498
d. $25,255

14. Which country had no citizens among the nineteen 9-11 hijackers?

a. Egypt
b. Iraq
c. Saudi Arabia
d. Lebanon

15. Which of the following did the September 14, 2001, Authorization for the Use of Force resolution specifically provide for?

a. Domestic surveillance of telephone conversations.
b. Extraordinary rendition of suspected terrorists.
c. Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
d. None of the above.

16. How much has the S&P 500 index gone up since President Bush took office?

a. It has actually fallen.
b. 2.5 percent.
c. 25 percent.
d. 125 percent.

1 b — 2 c — 3 a — 4 c — 5 a — 6 d — 7 b — 8 b — 9 a — 10 c — 11 b — 12 d — 13 a — 14 b — 15 d — 16 b

[Quote:]

A Microsoft-commissioned study that looks at the economic impact of Windows Vista in the United States in its first year of shipment estimates that for every dollar of Microsoft revenue from the new operating system, the ecosystem around it will reap $18 in revenues.

That would result in about $70 billion in hardware, software packages and services being sold in 2007 by OEMs, the IDC study found.

[..]

“These direct benefits—157,000 new jobs and $70 billion in revenues to companies in the U.S. IT industry—will help local economies grow, improve the labor force, and support the formation of new companies,” the report says.

Imagine what you can do with that money if you’re not migrating to Vista..

[Quote:]

Advertenties en reclames die de consument laten raden naar het doel of het merk van een product, werken niet. Reclamemakers menen dat consumenten een boodschap juist beter onthouden, als ze een beetje moeite moeten doen om de betekenis te snappen, maar die theorie klopt niet.

Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek van communicatiewetenschappers Paul Ketelaar en Marnix van Gisbergen, waarop zij volgende week aan de Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen promoveren. Het effect van de steeds populairder wordende raadselachtige advertenties was nog nooit eerder onderzocht, aldus de Nijmeegse universiteit.

[..]

Raadselreclames zijn in 25 jaar tijd snel toegenomen, aldus de onderzoekers. De meeste onbegrijpelijke boodschappen bestaan uit een chic, sfeervol plaatje met weinig of helemaal geen tekst. Soms bevat de advertentie alleen een logo van de producent als aanduiding waar het over gaat. Maar de consument vindt zo’n advertentie alleen maar moeilijk en helemaal niet intrigerend, zoals reclameontwerpers alom wel aannemen.

[Quote:]

Reason: Do you find yourself facing more restrictions on what you can do now or when you started out?

Parker: It started last Christmas when we did an episode—it was really an episode about alcoholism, but it happened to have a statue of the Virgin Mary shitting blood on the Pope.

Stone: So it wasn’t really about that.

Parker: Yeah. It was really saying these things about A.A., but that was the first episode that a Catholic group got really upset about, and Comedy Central pulled it [from the rerun schedule]. We were like, “Wow, that’s never happened.�? Then a few months after that, suddenly they were pulling the Tom Cruise episode.

On one hand, we ’re thinking, “We’re living in a pretty different time now. All this stuff’s getting pulled off the air.�? On the other hand, we’re thinking, “Well, the Virgin Mary is shitting blood on the Pope.�?

Stone: Our point was that if you’re going to pull this off for offending somebody, you don’t have any episodes of South Park left. Somebody will complain about every single episode.

Reason: When it looked like Comedy Central wasn’t going to rerun the Mary episode, people were still able to download it illegally online. Did you see that as a victory for free speech, or did you think, “My God, these people are stealing our intellectual property�??

Stone: We’re always in favor of people downloading. Always.

Reason: Why?

Stone: It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but been successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?

Parker: We worked really hard making that show, and the reason you do it is because you want people to see it.

[Quote:]

We are investigating reports of another new vulnerability in Microsoft Word – initial investigation has shown that this is a different issue to that reported in Microsoft Security Advisory 929433.

Our initial investigation has discovered that Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003 and the Word Viewer 2003 are affected, but Word 2007 is NOT affected by the vulnerability.

[..]

Have a good weekend all!

[Quote:]

A surprisingly recent instance of human evolution has been detected among the peoples of East Africa. It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, a team of geneticists has found.

The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the genetic level. Convergent evolution refers to two or more populations acquiring the same trait independently.

Throughout most of human history, the ability to digest lactose, the principal sugar of milk, has been switched off after weaning because there is no further need for the lactase enzyme that breaks the sugar apart. But when cattle were first domesticated 9,000 years ago and people later started to consume their milk as well as their meat, natural selection would have favored anyone with a mutation that kept the lactase gene switched on.

Such a mutation is known to have arisen among an early cattle-raising people, the Funnel Beaker culture, which flourished some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago in north-central Europe. People with a persistently active lactase gene have no problem digesting milk and are said to be lactose tolerant.

Almost all Dutch people and 99 percent of Swedes are lactose-tolerant, but the mutation becomes progressively less common in Europeans who live at increasing distance from the ancient Funnel Beaker region.

[Quote:]

Life was different in Unit E at the state prison outside Newton, Iowa.

The toilets and sinks — white porcelain ones, like at home — were in a separate bathroom with partitions for privacy. In many Iowa prisons, metal toilet-and-sink combinations squat beside the bunks, to be used without privacy, a few feet from cellmates.

The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting rooms.

But the only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program — which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time — says on its Web site that it seeks “to ‘cure’ prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems�? and showing inmates “how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past.�?

I see little difference with the Taliban…

[Quote:]

Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

The militants, the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year.

The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas, according to several American and NATO officials and Pakistani and Afghan intelligence officials.