Ancient ice shelf snaps, breaks free from Canadian Arctic - CNN.com:


TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said.

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north.

Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake. (Watch the satellite images that clued in ice watchers)

Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw.

"This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," Vincent said Thursday.

In 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said.

The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it.

Posted by mikki at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Typo takes tourist 13,000 km out - CNN.com:


BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

Dressed for the Australian summer in T-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.

Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake.

The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.

"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.

Posted by mikki at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, Wes' credit card expired so DirecTV called with a recorded message at 8:30 am, waking me up. So Wes goes back to the DirecTV website and fixes the credit card. 1PM same recorded message. Hmmm. This could be annoying. We hoped that the record would catch up ASAP. Fat chance. Next morning, 8:30 am, waking me up, yet another DirecTV call. And again at 1pm. So I sent them an email telling them in writing to stop calling, explaining what happened. They said that because of the expiration, there was a balance on the account. I told them to bill it to the credit card now on file. Did they? NO! Next day, they called THREE times with the recorded message. This was a Sunday, and xmas eve. I called them and YELLED at them to stop calling. They promised they would. I emailed to follow up. Xmas day, no calls. Wow! Tuesday morning, 3 more calls. This time I contacted complained to the Federal Trade Commission under the Federal Fair Debt Collections Act which requires a creditor to stop calling if you tell them to cease, AND also prohibits calls at "inconvenient times" according to the consumer, AND prohibits "excessive calls." This morning, woken up again at 9 am.

When I had called DirecTV, I was told I was an "A list customer" which means that they "jump through hoops" to keep me happy. If THIS is happy, what do they do with "non A list customers?" What in the name of the Goddess does one have to do to get these people to STOP CALLING?!?

Posted by mikki at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Endless carols endless torture, groups say:


LONDON, Dec. 24 Forcing store clerks to listen to the same holiday music over and over could be akin to torture and should change, a British noise pollution group said.
The UK Noise Association and labor unions are suggesting legal action on behalf of store employees who listen to endless looped recordings of holiday music, the Observer said Sunday.
What we are saying is that, if Christmas carols are being played on the same CD repeatedly, that could create an unhealthy working environment. It must drive people to distraction, said Paul Clarke, spokesman for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers. Exposure to the same music constantly is no different to being tortured, added Val Weedon, the noise association ' s national coordinator. Legal action could be difficult. An employment lawyer said employees would have to demonstrate that their employers could reasonably foresee any illness.
This means there would have to be some form of notice that an employee had some vulnerability to Christmas music, the ill health in question, or both, the lawyer said.

Posted by mikki at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a tragic turn of events this Christmas, a small experimental aircraft was shot down after ignoring attempts to divert it away from the area. The White House confirmed that the President was not in residence at the time. The decision to fire was made after repeated attempts to contact the aircraft via radio were seemingly ignored by the pilot, who was seen to throw brightly colored objects out of the aircraft, in a likely attempt to ward off the intercepting fighter jets.

"All pilots know of the Washington Defense Zone," said an unnamed source at NORAD. "Flying in this area without a radio in experimental aircraft is just not done. We regret having to take this dramatic action."

The crippled aircraft limped to an emergency landing on the mall, its 8 engines seemingly intact. As the pilot was being dragged away by the Secret Service, having wrestled him to the ground, he was heard to say "I'm Santa Claus fer chrissakes! Where the hell is your Christmas spirit?" Santa's lawyer could not be reached for comment. Children waking up without gifts this morning are urged to call NORAD's missing gift hotline at 1.800.no.fly.

Posted by mikki at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Idiot Of The Year Awards - Offbeat:


Idiot Of The Year Awards
And The Winner Is

Envelope Please...
2006 Idiot of the Year: Laura Mallory, of Loganville, Georgia. This vigilant mother of four has demanded local schools remove Harry Potter from their libraries because, in her analysis, the books are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in Wicca religion. Congratulations Laura, and good luck on your quest to eradicate the dark forces which pollute children's literature.

Silver Medal: Nevada state senator Bob Beers who's pushing the legislature to consider letting teachers carry guns in classrooms "to stem a rise in school violence." Ready, aim, learn!

Bronze Medal: The 22-year-old British war vet who attempted to launch a Black Cat Thunderbolt rocket out of his rear end, on Guy Fawkes Day.

Honorable Mention: The hard-working cops of Muzaffarpur, India who attempted to arrest a 3-month-old baby for robbing a bus only days after his birth.

So that's it for 2006. Thanks to everyone for your help and participation. Let's hope 2007 is a idiotic as this past year!

Posted by mikki at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well gee, while this man rails against immigration, perhaps he doesn't understand that there are actual American citizens that have religions different than his. As more Americans of different religions begin running for office, guess what? There might actually be Hindus, Buddhists, and maybe even those horrible Pagans who might actually get ELECTED! Oh dear. What will my state's Congressman do besides wail his pitiful "I want tradition back" cry of the ignorant who truly believe that America was founded on Christianity, despite the huge number of Deists, Masons, etc. who created such small documents as, oh.... the First Amendment!

So, for those of us who actually want immigration reform, this man's stance is painfully annoying. It has nothing to do with not wanting religious or ethnic diversity. It has everything to do with rule of law and what's best for the whole called the United States. There are many of us who embrace diversity, while wanting to keep uphold the law.

Va. Congressman Fears Election Of 'Many More Muslims' - News - MSNBC.com:


WASHINGTON - A Virginia congressman has warned that "many more Muslims" will be elected demanding to use the Quran unless immigration is tightened. Republican Rep. Virgil Goode made the comment in a letter to constituents who had written in about Congressman-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran at his ceremonial swearing-in.

"I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way," Goode wrote.

"The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran," he said. "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America."

Posted by mikki at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This bill needs to be supported. For MANY reasons already enumerated elsewhere, a national ID card would be a very dangerous thing indeed.

Senators Propose Repeal of National ID Card Law:


A pair of Senators last week proposed legislation to repeal a controversial law mandating the creation of a national identification card. Senators Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and John Sununu (R-N.H.) proposed the bill on the last day before the 109th Congress adjourned for good, but are likely to reintroduce it in 2007. The Real ID Act -- approved in 2005 without hearings or debate -- was intended to standardize state drivers' licenses and create a national network of databases of personal information. Since then, it has become increasingly apparent that REAL ID is so fraught with privacy and security concerns that it requires fundamental reevaluation. CDT supports the bill and urges Sens. Akaka and Sununu to reintroduce it in the 110th Congress.

Posted by mikki at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anti-Gay Church Must Pay Marine's Family - News:


BALTIMORE -- A Kansas church has been ordered to pay $3,150 for costs and fees associated with a summons and complaint filed by the father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by the extremist group.
Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., is suing the Rev. Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church after church members demonstrated at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, of Westminster, and posted pictures of the protest on their Web site.
Lance Snyder was killed in Iraq in March. Members of the Topeka church claim U.S. soldiers are killed as God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Posted by mikki at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So where does this end? When is it permissible for land owners to get together and deny use of surrounding lands to benefit suburban dwellers and preserve the beautiful vistas of their community? When can people put their feet down and say "no more growth?" When do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? And when can we start some serious population control by means of both birth rate AND legal and illegal immigration?

'We Won't Glow' Fight Continues In Northern Virginia - News:


BROAD RUN, Va. -- The landowners and preservationists in Virginia's hunt country, which more than a decade ago famously fought off a proposed Disney theme park in rural Prince William county, is gearing up for battle over some of the same turf.

The Piedmont Environmental Council is at odds with Dominion Power Company over a 40-mile section of a proposed high-voltage power line that cuts through pristine fields and mountains.
The utility company is arguing that the proposed line is badly needed to meet growing demand and buck up the Northeast region's electrical grid.

Residents contend that the plan will destroy some of the most scenic parts of northern Virginia.

"We can't continue to destroy our beautiful countryside," said resident Donald Haley.
"I would probably move," said another resident.

The council held a press conference Monday with its brightest star, actor Robert Duvall, to denounce plans to run the line through parts of Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties that generally have remained preserved despite the Washington, D.C., region's exploding growth.

Posted by mikki at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Border Agents Find Alligator in Suitcase:


YUMA, Ariz. (AP) - Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma found an alligator stashed in the suitcase of a California man who was on his way to Phoenix. The agents found the 4-foot, 4-year-old cayman alligator during a routine checkpoint search on Interstate 8 on Thursday night, agency spokesman Lloyd Easterling said.

Easterling said a drug-sniffing dog became alert near the man's car. Inside, agents found 13 grams of marijuana. Then agents asked the man, whose name was not released, if he had anything else inside the car they should know about.

"The guy says, 'There's an alligator in there,'" Easterling said. "He says, 'He's in the suitcase there.' And when (the agent) opened the suitcase, sure enough, there was a cayman in there."


Rebecca Wright, law enforcement program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Yuma, took the feisty reptile back to her office to await shipment to a Phoenix animal refuge.

Posted by mikki at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are already tracked in our passports by RFID, so why not extend that to our cars? When will we be able to use RFID to track your car's speed so we don't need police to write up traffic violations anymore? How bout chipping your kids? We already chip our pets....

27B Stroke 6:


Malaysia plans to embed remotely readable chips in license plates next year, in an attempt to cut down on stolen cars, according to the International Herald Tribune. The RFID chips will be readable from 100 yards and have a ten year life span.

It's not exactly clear how this will help since Road Transport Department Director-General Ahmad Mustapha was quoted by New Straits Times as saying "The first thing thieves do after a car theft is change the registration plates." I guess then the system will work by waiting on someone to report their car as stolen and then for people to report their stolen license plate, which can then be used to track down a car. No word on what will happen when a thief steals a car and some other license plate and then disables the RFID tag, nor how many readers the country plans to have around the country. Of course, such a system would be a very nice way to keep a database of the movement of citizens.

I for one welcome the move and have been thinking for years, "Won't someone think about luxury cars?" (BTW, how cool would it be if the RFID could also be used to pay street vendors for cigarettes and chee cheong fun)

Posted by mikki at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for prohibiting pedophiles from finding children to molest, but this has me a bit worried. Many things could go wrong here. I'm definitely not saying "MySpace" is somehow a constitutional right, but I'm quite concerned that this won't stop here. First off, will convicted sex offenders who have obviously broken the law already, REALLY register every single email address and IM handle they have? Will parents now see places like myspace as "safe" and think they can abrogate their responsibility to check out what their kids are doing online because all the bad guys have been kept out? What about the new ones who haven't been convicted yet?

There are already too many excuses for parents to not supervise their kids' time online. I'm hoping this does not become another one.

Va. A.G. Wants Sex Offenders to Register E-Mail Addresses, IM Names:


RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia is looking to keep kids from chatting online with sexual predators by requiring convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and Instant Messaging identities with the state's Sex Offender Registry.

Attorney General Bob McDonnell wants the Commonwealth to be the first to team up with MySpace.com. The social networking site is creating a software system that would identify a sex offender should they try to log on to the site.

Posted by mikki at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Think it will take a non auditable vote to slice NIST funding to get them to change their minds?

No Action on Paperless Voting Machines:

The Washington Post reports here that the policymaking panel at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has rejected the recommendations of its internal experts (noted here), voting against guidelines requiring electronic voting machines to have a software-independent audit trail.  According to the Post, five states use such paperless machines exclusively and 11 more use them in some locations.

Posted by mikki at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Planned Office Tower Called Hazard for Planes:


ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - A 390-foot-tall office tower planned across the Potomac River from Washington could be a hazard to airplanes, the Federal Aviation Administration has determined.

The preliminary ruling on the glass-and-steel tower has delayed Arlington County's hopes to build a "signature skyline" with views of the monuments and memorials of the nation's capital. Some business owners had already started marketing the Rosslyn area as "Manhattan on the Potomac."

The FAA is concerned the tower would be a "presumed hazard" for planes approaching the nearby Reagan National Airport. But the agency's Nov. 24 decision seems strange to some officials because the FAA had also ruled this year that the structure's twin residential tower next door would not be a danger.

The residential tower is also planned for 390 feet and is "only a few feet away" from the office tower, said Kathleen L. Webb, a principal at JBG Companies, the Washington-based developer building the towers.

"On the residential tower, the FAA did a study and determined it not to be a hazard," said Diane Spitaliere, an FAA spokeswoman. She said the second tower is still being evaluated.

"They sent out a 'notice of presumed hazard' because there are some issues with the location of building in relation to the approach to the runway, but we're still studying it," Spitaliere said.

Currently, the tallest building in Rosslyn is 312 feet. Pilots and aviation experts had long worried the existing buildings were too tall.

Posted by mikki at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Park creators: download our shows!:


Cory Doctorow:

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker gave a great interview to the libertarian magazine Reason. They talk a lot (and well) about free speech issues, but they really shine when tlaking about copyright:

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.

Link

(via Svardaman's MySpace)

See also:

Comedy Central downs "Bloody Mary": South Park episode yanked

"Bloody Mary" resurrected: censored South Park hits P2P

Bloody Mary: War on Xmas over, War on Blasphemy starts

South Park "Bloody Mary" an immaculate deletion, says Comedy Central

Posted by mikki at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Less Pretext?:


It seems
HP (and others) may soon have less pretext, since Congress just
passed a law to criminalize pretexting:

"Stealing someone's private phone records is a criminal act that can now be prosecuted," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lead sponsor of the proposal in the Senate. "Phone information and call logs should be protected with the same safeguards as financial data or medical records."

The issue became big news late last summer following revelations that investigators working for executives at Hewlett-Packard Co. used deception to obtain phone numbers of board members and reporters in an effort to track down news leaks.

Senate Approves Anti-Pretexting Bill,
By JOHN DUNBAR,
The Associated Press,
Saturday, December 9, 2006; 5:17 AM

-jsq

Posted by mikki at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Census of seas reveals amazing forms of life - CNN.com:


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Peering deep into the sea, scientists are finding creatures more mysterious than many could have imagined.

At one site, nearly 2 miles deep in the Atlantic, shrimp were living around a vent that was releasing water heated to 765 degrees Fahrenheit. Water surrounding the site was a chilly 36 degrees.

An underwater peak in the Coral Sea was home to a type of shrimp thought to have gone extinct 50 million years ago.

More than 3 miles beneath the Sargasso Sea, in the Atlantic, researchers collected a dozen new species eating each other or living on organic material that drifts down from above.

"Animals seem to have found a way to make a living just about everywhere," said Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation, discussing the findings of year six of the census of marine life.

Added Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist with the census: "We can't find any place where we can't find anything new."

This year's update, released Sunday, is part of a study of life in the oceans that is scheduled for final publication in 2010. The census is an international effort supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations. About 2,000 researchers from 80 countries are participating.

Posted by mikki at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Forcing religion on consumers is anti-Christmas | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:


nly America's Religious Right is able to find controversy where it does not exist. There is nothing more anti-Christmas than forcing American businesses and employees to say Merry Christmas. And only in consumerism-run-amok America is it important to force retail workers who make minimum wage to wish every shopper, ``Merry Christmas.''

Humbug to those phony Christians who think Christmas is all about minimum-wage employees uttering vapid niceties to gluttonous shoppers in mega-store foyers and checkout lanes!

If the Religious Righteous want to demonstrate their commitment to the Christmas spirit, let them start by boycotting the big-box retailers who refuse to pay their workers a living wage and family-sustainable benefits. The Religious Right, in its zeal to make every American conform to a specified form of speech during Christmas, is not much different than the Roman Empire requiring its citizens to say "Hail Caesar!" or the Third Reich requiring Germans to greet one another by uttering "Heil Hitler!"

Grinch-like conservatives take the meaning and spirit of "merry" and "Christmas" out of "Merry Christmas" by making its use mandatory and branding those who refuse to conform as "anti-American" and "anti-Christian."

But hang a wreath on your home in the shape of a peace symbol as one woman recently did in Loma Linda, Colo., and the Christmas zeal soon disappears among the Religious Right. The resident was threatened with a huge fine by her homeowners association for displaying what they considered to be an "anti-American" and "Satanic" wreath. After the case was reported around the world, the crusaders for Christian subdivision covenants backed down.

Much of the phony debate about the phony "War on Christmas" is led by broadcasting right-wing inciters such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Last year, the Catholic League, the heirs of Father Charles Coughlin, the suburban Detroit radio-ranter in the 1930s, threatened boycotts of Target, Wal-Mart, Macy's and other stores unless they put up "Merry Christmas" banners.

America's home-grown Fascists now have commandeered the term, calling their enemies "Islamo-fascists" and "cultural fascists."

Posted by mikki at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)