EFF privacy attorney gets pranked by interns and LOLCats:


Cory Doctorow:

When Electronic Frontier Foundation privacy lawyer Kevin Bankston announced that he was locking his office door to "prevent pranks" by this summer's crop of interns, the interns took it as a personal challenge. They figured out how to get into his office (they had the universal key!), took some pix, and then made a snappy little LOLCats animation commemorating the event. The LOLCats are especially ironic, given that Kevin's cat recently ran away from home, prompting a discussion of whether it's morally consistent for a privacy specialist to insert an RFID tag into his pets.

Link

(Thanks, Amy!)

See also:

EFF privacy attorney is a magnet for privacy invading street-searches

Schroedinger's LOLCat

Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard

Posted by mikki at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paris Hilton loses inheritance | NEWS.com.au:


PARTY princess Paris Hilton is $60 million out of pocket after her billionaire grandfather - appalled by her jail term for drink-driving offences - axed her inheritance.

Family patriarch Barron Hilton was already embarrassed by his granddaughter's wild behaviour - notably when her home sex video was leaked on the internet.

But the 79-year-old considered her 23-day sentence last month the last straw.

"He was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris," says Jerry Oppenheimer, who wrote a biography of the clan called House Of Hilton.

"He now doesn't want to leave unearned wealth to his family."

Hilton senior, the only member of the family left with a sizeable stake in the huge hotel chain, has let it be known that he intends to donate to charity the $2.4bn he will gain from this month's sale of the company to private equity firm Blackstone.

The money will go to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the charity set up in the name of the founder of the family business.

Posted by mikki at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wisconsin man's mangled prose takes bad writing prize; says college prepared him:


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Wisconsin man whose blend of awkward syntax, imminent disaster and bathroom humour offends both good taste and the English language won an annual contest Monday that salutes bad writing.

Jim Gleeson, 47, of Madison, Wis., beat out thousands of other prose manglers in San Jose State University's 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this convoluted opening sentence to a nonexistent novel:

"Gerald began - but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten per cent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them 'permanently' meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash - to pee," Gleeson wrote.

Scott Rice, an English professor at San Jose State, called Gleeson's entry a "syntactic atrocity" that displays "a peculiar set of standards or values." Rice has organized the contest since founding it in 1982.

Gleeson, who works at a Madison hospital setting up computer networks, said he submitted about 20 entries, and gave a little insight into what it takes to win the bad writing title and its US$250 prize.

"It's like you take two thoughts that are not anything like each other and you cram them together by any means necessary," Gleeson said. He claimed he took time off from his current project, a self-help book for slackers entitled "Self-Improvement Through Total Inactivity," to pen his winning entry.

Gleeson credited his time in college with preparing him well. "There's a certain degree to which academia prepares you to write badly," Gleeson said wryly.

The contest takes its name from Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" famously begins "It was a dark and stormy night."

Entrants are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Citations are handed out for several categories, including "dishonourable mention" awards for "purple prose" and "vile puns."

Posted by mikki at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Administration Seeks Broad Authority to Intercept Calls, E-Mail:


In a far-reaching new proposal to Congress, the Administration is asking for authority to intercept, without a court order, any international telephone call or e-mail made by any American citizen. The proposed legislation would not require that the targeted communication involve terrorism or other dangerous conduct. The proposal would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to allow the National Security Agency to force communications carriers to turn over without a court order any international communications into and out of the United States for indefinite storage and data-mining. CDT strongly opposes the proposal.

Posted by mikki at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FCC meeting tomorrow:


Just a quick note, because I've been tied up all day with one thing and another - Kim Hart of the Washington Post has a fine article here about the implications of the FCC's meeting tomorrow.

And this entry from Web Pro News, by Jason Lee Miller:

Seen as the

last line of defense against the telecommunications industry's desire to keep

mobile phone subscribers bound in contracts, using select phones, accessing

approved websites, downloading approved applications (sounds familiar to the Net

Neutrality worries, doesn't?), Google pledged to bid $4.6 billion on a chunk of

the spectrum, but only if all four conditions of openness were met.

This

infuriated AT&T, who accused Google of trying to stack the deck in its

favor, which is an activity reserved exclusively for AT&T.

Posted by mikki at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Police: Workers asked for pay bump, got bumped off - CNN.com:


EAST POINT, Georgia (AP) -- The owner of a car dealership has been accused of killing two employees because they kept asking for pay raises.

Rolandas Milinavicius has been charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Inga Contreras, 25, and Martynas Simokaitis, 28.

All three are from the eastern European nation of Lithuania but had been living in Atlanta, Georgia, authorities said.

Milinavicius, who was having financial problems, told police he shot the two Thursday after they kept asking for more pay, said police in East Point, which is just outside Atlanta.

"He told us that he was under a lot of stress," East Point police Capt. Russell Popham said. "Unfortunately, he decided to take his anger out with violence."

Milinavicius, who had been living in Alpharetta, a suburb north of Atlanta, started RM Auto International two years ago, hoping to meet the demand for American cars in Lithuania. He began shipping cars and later hired the two victims as his only employees.

Milinavicius, 38, turned himself in two days after the shootings and confessed to the killings, Popham said.

"As I understand, the employees were not really happy about the pay, and they had questioned him about it over the course of time," Popham said. "That morning he said he just snapped."

Contreras and Simokaitis were cremated and an informal memorial service was held at Simokaitis' cousin's apartment over the weekend. The remains were to be flown to Lithuania on Tuesday.

"It doesn't make any sense," the cousin, Jaunius Simokaitis, of Fayetteville, said Monday. "If he was having money problems, these two would have been the ones to help him get out of debt. They would have helped him make that money."

Posted by mikki at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Qatar sheikh delays BA plane over seating - New Zealand's source for oddstuff - strange, weird & bizarre news on Stuff.co.nz:


A Qatar sheikh held up a British Airways flight at Milan's Linate airport for nearly three hours after discovering three of his female relatives had been seated next to men they did not know.
When none of the other business class passengers agreed to swap seats, the sheikh, a member of Qatar's ruling family, went to the pilot, who had already started the engine, to complain, an airport official said.
But the pilot ordered him and his travelling companions, the three women, two men, a cook and a servant, off the plane.
The London-bound flight took off nearly three hours behind schedule on Thursday evening and around 50 of the 115 passengers missed connecting flights.
Traditions in the conservative Gulf Arab region bar women from mixing with unrelated men.

Posted by mikki at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ABC News: Game in Bag Prompts Airport Evacuation:


A suspicious item in checked luggage that prompted the evacuation of a terminal at Long Beach Airport on Thursday turned out to be an electronic game, authorities said.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the terminal for about 90 minutes and five arriving aircraft were held on the tarmac until the all-clear was given.

Posted by mikki at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ABC News' Washington Bureau Briefly Evacuated - News Story - WRC | Washington:


WASHINGTON -- D.C. authorities said a building housing the Washington bureau of ABC News was briefly evacuated Thursday afternoon because of a suspicious envelope.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter said a small envelope was found with a white powdery substance. The substance turned out to be aspirin.

About 60 to 80 people were evacuated from the downtown Washington building. They were allowed back in just before 1:45 p.m.

Etter said the building was evacuated as a precaution, and no one reported any medical symptoms.

Posted by mikki at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Relatively late last night, I got a phone call from the elusive Boston Hobbit, insane Prius owner/tinkerer/advocate and uber geek. He will be in the DC area sometime possibly Thursday and staying for as long as I force him to by chaining his leg to the wall. Anyone interested in viewing this difficult to capture creature is welcome to, just let me know and I will attempt to make it available. It will keep him from frobbing my Prius.

Of course, Hobbit visits bring back some rather fond memories of days of old. There were the UNIX vs. VMS wars, the "you are gonna get in trouble" elevator riding sojourns, the "you must wear shoes in this hotel" admonishments, the "you're going to put an eye out with that laser" pronouncements, the wacky trip to St. Thomas including intercepting ship to shore transmissions, the "this is the air duct I slept on for 2 years" etc. etc.

The flood of memories....ah, how sweet. I wonder if I'll still be able to keep up with the boy....

Posted by mikki at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So how do you get Congress and law enforcement to take time and money away from fighting actual crime and terrorism, and instead putting it towards helping private interests make more money? Call it "national security" and voila! Spin a story of FUD to the already techno-incompetent old codgers, complete with fears of secret plots and unsecure classified documents, and tell them that at any time, naughty peer to peer networks might sneak into their hard drives and thieve all their important documents. Do away with those pesky things so the RIAA and MPAA can sleep better at night. Yeah, that's the ticket....

Whole story

Congress: P2P networks harm national security
July 24, 2007, 3:09 PM PDT

WASHINGTON--Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers.

At a hearing on the topic, Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, without offering details, that he is considering new laws aimed at addressing the problem. He said he was troubled by the possibility that foreign governments, terrorists or organized crime could gain access to documents that reveal national secrets.
High Impact
What's new:

Also at the hearing, Mark Gorton, the chairman of Lime Wire, which makes the peer-to-peer software LimeWire, was assailed for allegedly harming national security through offering his product.

Posted by mikki at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Threat Level - Wired Blogs:




An FBI proposal to pay the nations' telecoms to store phone records for years and to provide instant access to agents raises concerns about American's Constitutional  rights, according to the ACLU.  The $5 million per year initiative, revealed in the FBI's budget request (.pdf) for 2008, would continue ongoing payments to telecoms to reimburse them for filling emergency phone record requests from counter-terror investigators and be used to convince three telecoms to build special databases to store records for longer periods of time. AT&T and Verizon are two of the companies paid by the FBI, but the identity of the third is unknown.

The Justice Department has been pushing telecoms and ISPs to keep data longer and has pushed legislation to mandate a two-year "data retention" period for phone and internet records.   While

Posted by mikki at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mom Sues Universal Music for DMCA Abuse:

Home Video of Dancing Toddler Yanked From YouTube After Bogus Claim

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit today against Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.

Stephanie Lenz's 29-second recording shows her son bouncing along to the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy," which is heard playing in the background. Lenz uploaded the home video to YouTube in February to share it with her family and friends.

But last month, YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its website after Universal claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company. Under federal copyright law, a mere allegation of copyright infringement can result in the removal of content from the Internet.

"I was really surprised and angry when I learned my video was removed," said Lenz. "Universal should not be using legal threats to try to prevent people from sharing home videos of their kids with family and friends."

"Universal's takedown notice doesn't even pass the laugh test," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video."

Last May, UMPG's parent company, Universal Music Group, sent a baseless copyright takedown demand to YouTube for a video podcast by political blogger Michelle Malkin. That video was quickly reposted after Malkin fought back.

"Copyright abuse can shut down online artists, political analysts, or -- as in this case -- ordinary families who simply want to share snippets of their day-to-day lives," said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "Universal must stop making groundless infringement claims that trample on fair use and free speech."

The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz's home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.

This lawsuit is part of EFF's ongoing work to protect online free speech in the face of bogus copyright claims. EFF is currently working with Stanford's Fair Use Project to develop a set of "best practices" for proper takedowns under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

For the video (since reposted):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KfJHFWlhQ

For the full complaint:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/lenz_v_universal/lenz_complaint_final.pdf

For more on DMCA abuse and free speech:
http://www.eff.org/IP/freespeech/

Contacts:

Corynne McSherry
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
corynne@eff.org

Jason Schultz
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jason@eff.org

Posted by mikki at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fond du Lac Reporter - Bizarre coincidence marks Warbird's landing on Highway 41:


A veteran pilot stranded on Highway 41 Sunday night after a tire blew on his motor home got an up-close look at his buddy’s Warbird after it made an emergency landing on the roadway and bounced over his vehicle.

David Mann of Racine had little time to register that the plane zooming down towards his head belonged to his friend, Bill Leff of Dayton, Ohio, who was forced to make an emergency landing after his engine failed. Leff landed on a crowded Highway 41 in the northbound lanes northbound near Military Road at 7:43 p.m. Sunday.

Both Leff and Mann were on their way to the Experimental Aviation Association AirVenture show in Oshkosh.

“I have been a pilot for over 40 years and this was the closest I have ever been to an aircraft in flight that I was not flying,” Mann said.

Emergency landing
Leff said the engine in his 1951 North American T-6 Texan failed while heading into Fond du Lac, forcing him to make the emergency landing, which resulted in damage to the right wing. He initially planned to land at the Fond du Lac County Airport, N6308 Rolling Meadows Drive.

“For awhile the engine continued to run but eventually stopped running entirely, and I realized I wasn’t going to make it (to the airport),” Leff said.

So plans changed, and Leff decided he’d make his landing on Highway 41—a four-lane thoroughfare packed with motorists, many of whom were heading north toward EAA AirVenture, a yearly air show that draws thousands of aviation enthusiasts from around the world.

“I was concerned that there was not going to be enough space (to land), but when things happen like that you don’t have time to be scared or to worry,” Leff said.

From the ground view
Meanwhile, on land, Mann stood on the right side of Highway 41 northbound near Military Road, concerned about his disabled motor home and anxious to get to the air show. Nearby, two Wisconsin State Patrol cars—one in front of the motor home and one behind it—were guiding traffic around the disabled motor home.

Before anyone really had time to think, Leff’s plane landed behind the motor home and bounced, clearing the 32-foot motor home and coming within eight feet of Mann’s head.

“I saw it just when it was to the back of the motor home and I yelled something unprintable and by then it was above my head,” Mann said.

Karen Fryman of Fond du Lac was in the southbound lane of Highway 41 when she saw the plane go under a set of telephone wires and land on the highway.

“It looked like it was headed towards us,” she said. “There was plenty of weekend traffic at the time … thank God, no one was killed.”

Flying friends
After things calmed down a bit, Mann learned the man flying the plane was a friend who he’s flown to several air shows with over the years, he said.

Mann said he’s hoping to track Leff down while at EAA this week and commend him on successfully maneuvering the plane onto the highway.

“I think it was pretty amazing flying,” he said.

Leff said he’s grateful he and his 19-year-old son, Gregory D. Leff, made it safely to the ground. No one was injured during the incident.

“I was able to pick a spot in between (the vehicles) and I was careful and the drivers down there were alert,” Leff said.

“It was interesting,” he added.

Leff has been flying for 44 years and has flown the T-6 Texan for 32 years. He planned to fly the Texan in the air show Monday but will unable to since the plane is inoperable as a result of the emergency landing.

The Texan will need its engine repaired. Also, the right wing was dented after it clipped a bridge marker post.

The plane—known as “the Pilot Maker” because it was a military training aircraft—will be repaired, Leff told authorities Sunday.

After landing, the plane came to rest directly in front of the Fond du Lac County Airport, according to a Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department press release. A pickup truck with a tow bar pulled the plane to the Fond du Lac County Airport where it remained Monday afternoon

“This was all very unusual,” said Manager Lee Perrizo of the Fond du Lac County Airport.

Posted by mikki at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Secret list of buildings you can't photograph:


Cory Doctorow:

The DHS says that it's against the law to photograph "sensitive" government buildings, but they won't publish a list of these buildings, so it's impossible to comply with the law. The rub is that if you get caught breaking the law, you'll get shaken down, have your name and personal information taken, and go into a file, presumably forever.

The bottom line is that McCammon was caught in a classic logical trap. If he had only known the building was off-limits to photographers, he would have avoided it. But he was not allowed to know that fact. "Reasonable, law-abiding people tend to avoid these types of things when it can be helped," McCammon wrote. "Thus, my request for a list of locations within Arlington County that are unmarked, but at which photography is either prohibited or discouraged according to some (public or private) policy. Of course, such a list does not exist. Catch-22."

Link

(via Making Light)

Posted by mikki at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Air controllers say work conditions dangerous - CNN.com:


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Air traffic controllers say poor maintenance of their aging work places has hampered and harmed them and could endanger the flying public.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which employees the controllers, has not given priority to maintaining and preserving aging air traffic control facilities, argued Patrick Forrey, president of the controllers' union.

"The resulting environmental conditions have jeopardized the safety of workers as well as the effectiveness of the equipment they use -- both of which can negatively impact the safety of the air traffic system," Forrey said in testimony prepared for a hearing Tuesday by the House aviation subcommittee.

"We recognize that we have a backlog of maintenance and repair," said Bruce Johnson, FAA's vice president of terminal services. "And we are taking steps to reduce that backlog ... We are making headway."

In prepared testimony, Johnson said that repairs and maintenance affecting safety "as always are our first priority." He added that high priority needs like a leaking roof or an air conditioner outage during summer are addressed immediately, while lower priority needs like new paint and carpet are planned through the agency's annual budget process.

Water leaks, obscured sight lines, toxic fumes, mold, asbestos, pest infestations and poor heating and cooling were reported in a survey by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association of its field representatives at the nation's 314 airport towers and traffic and radar control centers. Responses were obtained from 220 sites.

Forrey said:

• Seventy-five reported water leaks including six with frequent leaks directly over controllers or equipment. At the Atlanta Center "controllers have had to hold an umbrella over the radar scope in order to see the planes and hope they do not get electrocuted while working."

• More than 100 facilities reported extreme temperature variations because of poor heating or cooling. Because of recurrent condensation on the San Juan tower windows "controllers are sometimes 'blind,' without the ability to scan the runways or taxiways."

• Operations have been interrupted and some controllers taken ill because noxious fumes entered their work place, including poisonous carbon monoxide at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control in April and welding fumes at the Dulles airport tower outside Washington, D.C., in May.

Of the 220 facilities reporting, 62 rated their conditions poor. Another 18 called theirs "outright dangerous" and said they "were concerned with their personal well being as well as the facility's ability to handle the daily aircraft operations.

Posted by mikki at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brits reject copyright term extension for music!:


Cory Doctorow:

Reuters is reporting that the British government has rejected a proposal to extend music recording copyrights from 50 to 95 years. Virtually all music is out of print in at 50 years, and extending copyright for another 45 years would only ensure that the vast majority of British recordings were long vanished and forgotten before they returned to the public domain. Economists calculated the net present value of the 95th year of copyright at less than the net present worth of a lottery ticket -- so the government would do more for the average recording artist if they bought her a lotto ticket than if they gave her 45 years more copyright.

This is the first time that I know of, in the history of the world, that any country has given up on extended copyright terms. In the US, the Supreme Court found that 98 percent of the works in copyright were "orphans" with no visible owner and no way to clear them and bring them back into the world. Extending copyright dooms nearly every author's life's work to obscurity and disappearance, in order to make a few more pennies for the tiny minority of millionaire artists like Cliff Richards (and billionaires like Paul McCartney).

Link

(via Michael Geist)

Posted by mikki at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report: Pilots in deadly crash didn't get warnings - CNN.com:


LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) -- The pilots in a jet crash last summer that killed 49 people left the terminal without receiving four important airport advisories, including one that said the normal taxiway to the main runway was closed, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The four updates -- called Notices to Airmen -- were missing from the flight dispatch paperwork the pilots received from Comair, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, citing information the Air Line Pilots Association submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Comair relies on prerecorded messages to get local advisories from the Blue Grass Airport, but the taxiway closing wasn't recorded that day.

Randy Harris, president of the local National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said he didn't know why the notice was omitted.

Comair Flight 5191 crashed on August 27, 2006, shortly after mistakenly taking off from the general aviation runway, killing all people aboard but one. The plane taxied to the wrong runway in the pre-dawn darkness.

Flight data recordings indicated the pilots thought they were taking off from the main runway and may have been confused by the alternate route.

The NTSB will release its findings and state a probable cause in the crash during a meeting Thursday in Washington.

The NTSB and the Air Line Pilots Association did not return calls from The Associated Press on Sunday.

The pilots -- Jeffrey Clay and first officer James Polehinke -- also did not receive information about the airport's general aviation runway being limited to daytime use and about the distance-remaining lights on the airport's main runway being out of service, the Herald-Leader reported.

Pilots contend the notice system is outdated and isn't always readily available. Anywhere from 300 to 1,000 notices are issued each day across the nation and can contain everything from departure procedures to airport construction.

Posted by mikki at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | Suspicious device was weather station:


The suspicious device blown up by a State Police Bomb Squad Thursday evening turned out to be a weather station.

It happened outside the Medical Office Building on the east side of Lewis Gale Medical Center.  We were told a visitor contacted authorities after seeing a suspicious object hanging from a tree. Authorities brought out a robot to check it.  The device was blown up around 7:00 p.m.  At no time was the hospital or any other buildings at Lewis Gale evacuated.

Friday afternoon, Salem Police said the package was actually a remote weather station.  A hospital employee had attached it to the tree and used putty to weather-proof it.  Police say no criminal charges will be filed.

Posted by mikki at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Key move:


Here's a letter from Google that you should read.  It's significant, for at least three reasons:

1.  This is the moment when the internet mindset finally engages with the telecom mindset in a concrete way.  Google's point is that highspeed internet access is just that - access.  Google wants the pipes to be commoditized, to be as open as possible so that, like the internet itself, this transport can make possible all kinds of innovation, economic growth, and creativity.  The pipes, the sidewalks, shouldn't be controlling or monetizing the conversations that we have as we walk along.

2.  Google is not doing this out of sheer goodwill towards humanity.  Google has in mind that this spectrum could be used to create a realtime auction for internet access - with Google running the auction.  You, the user, wouldn't see the auction going on.  Your retail provider of access would be going through a central Google-clearinghouse that would serve as a spot, instant market.  This will use spectrum much more efficiently, yes, but it also puts Google right in the center.  If Google's plan works, this will be the moment when the inefficient market for access, like the inefficient market for advertising and search, will be leveraged by Google.

3.  Google is willing to say it would pay the minimum, reserved price of $4.6 billion for twelve large regional licenses that (packaged together) would create a national license.  This means that Google is actually willing to put its money behind its telecommunications policy goals.  This changes the landscape significantly.

The story in a nutshell:  the FCC is about to create rules for an auction of former-TV spectrum.  Chairman Martin has created a compromise that would provide for devices to work across networks and for applications not to be blocked.  But that's less than half the openness we need - it doesn't require that access be on a wholesale basis.  Wholesale access would create platform-competition in the wireless broadband market, which right now is dominated by Verizon and AT&T and their closed-world approach.  (Not that this 22 MHz block would necessarily be enough for highspeed access - but it would be a big step, and could be leveraged by smart radios and other clever devices that would be able to use "whitespaces" for even faster speed.)  So Google is saying it's willing to pay the minimum price, if and only if the "open access" conditions tied to this license are real.

Posted by mikki at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware:


Blog: The FBI refuses to answer journalists' questions about its spyware that can be delivered over the Internet and implanted in a suspect's computer remotely.

Posted by mikki at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

White House: U.S. Attorney May Not Prosecute Contempt of Congress Against Subpoenaed Former Officials:


Via the Washington Post: Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated...

Posted by mikki at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woman Finds Black Widow Spider in Grapes:


ANDOVER, Minn. (AP) - Judy Reardon found something unexpected in the four-pound box of grapes she brought home from Costco in Coon Rapids last week. Something dangerous. As she washed off the grapes and put them in plastic bags last week, she saw something move _ a spider. With the help of her husband, she captured it alive in a jar.

"I wanted to destroy her but my husband has been keeping her _ cause I don't know why," Reardon said.

The Reardons thought the spider was a black widow but they weren't sure. They let WCCO-TV take it to the University of Minnesota's insect museum.

"There's red markings on the underside of the abdomen," professor Phil Clausen said as he confirmed it was indeed a black widow.

Reardon said she contacted the supplier of the grapes in California, and was told this happens about once a year with its grapes. But Clausen said there's a chance the spider got into the carton in Minnesota because the climate is getting warmer and black widows are turning up here more often.

"This is a very, very abnormal situation," Craig Wilson, assistant vice president for food safety for Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco Wholesale Corp., told the station. "You could use more dangerous pesticides but that causes bigger problems."

Reardon returned the grapes. She said she has no interest in suing Costco _ she just wants everyone to be careful when they bring grapes home, wash them well and check them over.

The spider's new home will be at the university's insect museum.

The black widow got its name because the females eat the males right after they mate. A black widow bite can cause people severe pain, cramping and illness, but deaths are relatively rare.

Posted by mikki at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reuters AlertNet - Brazilian blue parrot makes a comeback - report:


WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - A spectacular Brazilian blue parrot, the Lear's Macaw, has come back from the brink of extinction with more than 750 birds in the wild counted in a recent survey, wildlife conservationists said on Wednesday.
That is more than 10 times the number reported in the wild in the late 1980s, according to the American Bird Conservancy, which attributed the creature's comeback to protection of its natural habitat in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil.
The macaw has brilliant blue feathers with yellow patches around its beak and eyes. It nests on sandstone cliffs and feeds primarily on licuri palm nuts, the conservancy said in a statement.
Conservationists counted the number of macaws in June as the birds flew from the canyons where they roost to the feeding grounds. They found 751 Lear's Macaws. The global population of this species was just 70 birds in 1987; in 2003 it was 455, and until the June count, the estimated population was 600.
The species is currently threatened by hunting and the illegal pet trade, the conservation group said.

Posted by mikki at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, you can't paint a whole group by the ramblings of a complete ignoramus ditz, but how many believe that others should be penalized in some way for protesting the war or speaking out against government erosion of civil liberties? It's very difficult to believe that any American would truly think this way.

Conversations with neocons on a cruise:


Mark Frauenfelder:

Johann Hari of the Independent (UK) paid $1200 to take a cruise with 500 "straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republican" readers of the conservative National Review magazine. His mission: to "find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren't listening."

I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, " Of course, we need to execute some of these people," I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. "A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says. "Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll change."

Link

Posted by mikki at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lunch Bag Leads to Office Evacuation:


PITTSBURGH (AP) - It took a bomb-sniffing dog to figure out that a brown paper bag left in the bathroom of a government office building was just lunch.

The suspicious bag _ containing a salad from a bagel shop _ prompted security guards at the downtown building to evacuate the office of Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and close a main courthouse entrance. The lockdown Tuesday lasted about an hour.

The bag was found in a women's bathroom on a shelf under a sink. A sheriff's deputy arrived with a bomb-sniffing dog and quickly discovered there was nothing explosive about the salad.

"It was just strictly a precaution," County Manager Jim Flynn said. "I don't think it was a real threat."

Posted by mikki at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Military Information Security:




I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the U.S. military
doesn't seem to be any better about information security
than

companies or

other parts of government:

Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern
Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military
airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base
in Afghanistan.

The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose
a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of
terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release
the documents when asked.

But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by
government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an
Internet connection.

—
Military files left unprotected online,
By Mike Baker,
Associated Press Writer,
Thu Jul 12, 8:03 AM ET

Apparently some military contractors are depending on security
by obscurity:

A spokeswoman for contractor SRA International Inc., where the AP
found a document the Defense Department said could let hackers access
military computer networks, said the company wasn't concerned because
the unclassified file was on an FTP site that's not indexed by Internet
search engines.

"The only way you could find it is by an awful lot of investigation,"
said SRA spokeswoman Laura Luke.

And the AP seems to think that if it destroys the copies it picked up,
nobody else has copies:

The AP has destroyed the documents it downloaded, and all the material cited in this story is no longer available online on the sites surveyed.

Given that much of this information
can be found in

satellite imagery originating outside the military,
and which foreign governments presumably also have,
one wonders just how sensitive some of this information
really is.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has time

to block soldiers' access to myspace.
This makes me wonder.

What's the real point here:
actual sensitive military secrets too visible,
or Internet bad and needs suppressing?

But Mark Moss, a Charlotte-based FBI agent who focuses on online security,
said foreign intelligence agencies spend a lot of time on the Internet
because online intelligence-gathering is cheap, quick and anonymous.

"If they steal your technology through the Internet, it's overseas in
an instant," Moss said. "It's the perfect conduit."

-jsq

Posted by mikki at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TSA doesn't like the looks of an iPod recharger:


Mark Frauenfelder:

Damon Burke wanted to use the recharger he built from a Minty Boost kit to juice up his iPod so he could watch movies on a long flight, but the TSA was afraid it was a bomb designed to blow up the homeland.

I tell him it is a battery charger for my iPod. He asks if I made it myself, to which I reply that I purchased a kit over the internet. He says that he can't let me on the plane with it. I explain to him that I have flown with it 4-6 times a month for a year now and nobody has questioned it. He says, "Not on my watch and not with my people."

He swabs the device and runs it through the calorimeter. Again, no residue.

I ask why it can't be taken on the plane and he said, "Because it looks like an IED."

Link (Via Make)

Posted by mikki at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RIAA ordered to cover suit target's legal fees | Tech news blog - CNET News.com:


In what appears to be the first such occurrence, the recording industry must foot nearly $70,000 in legal bills incurred by an Oklahoma woman whom it unsuccessfully accused of "vicariously" aiding copyright infringement.

Until Monday's ruling in this case, called Capitol v. Foster, the Recording Industry Association of America had never been ordered to pay attorneys' fees as part of its ongoing battle against allegedly illicit file swapping, according to attorney Ray Beckerman, who has been tracking such suits at the blog Recording Industry vs The People.

The RIAA, for its part, said in a statement sent to CNET News.com Tuesday: "We respectfully believe that this ruling is in error and is an isolated occurrence."

Lawsuit targets have been unsuccessful in recovering such fees in at least five other recent cases.

The RIAA's suit against Deborah Foster began in November 2004, when it claimed evidence that an IP address associated with her Internet service provider account was engaging in illegal file sharing. Foster repeatedly asserted she had no knowledge of such activity, and in 2005, the RIAA expanded its complaint to include her adult daughter, Amanda. Because Amanda failed to defend herself against the complaint, the RIAA won a judgment against her by default.

The RIAA continued to pursue its claims against Deborah Foster until U.S. District Judge Lee West in Oklahoma City dismissed them last July. The judge went on to find Foster was eligible for attorneys fees, but the RIAA called for further proceedings to determine the amount.

Foster requested $105,680.75, but the judge concluded in a lengthy 14-page analysis of her itemized expenses and other billing materials that she was eligible only for $68,685.23.

The case was only one of thousands of lawsuits filed against university students, teenagers and grandmothers by the recording industry in its multiyear campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing. But Foster's quest for attorneys fees after her case was dismissed drew a friend-of-the-court brief from advocacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen.

The groups argued that the RIAA has effectively bullied innocent parties into settling by offering "a carefully chosen sum that is substantially smaller than the legal fees required to fight the accusations." The organization has also been known to get the identity of its targets wrong in the past.

"A fee award would encourage innocent accused infringers to stand up and fight back against bogus RIAA claims, deter the RIAA from continuing to prosecute meritless suits that harass defendants it knows or reasonably should know are innocent, and further the purposes of the Copyright Act by reaffirming the appropriate limits of a copyright owner's exclusive rights," they wrote.

The RIAA on Tuesday defended its handling of the Foster case.

"Our interest in these cases is enforcing the rights of the record companies and artists, while fostering an online environment where the legal marketplace can flourish and the music industry can invest in the new bands of tomorrow," the group said in a statement. "In the handful of cases where the person engaging in the illegal activity in the household is not the person responsible for the ISP account, we look to gather the facts quickly and do our best to identify the appropriate defendant."

Posted by mikki at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a move almost as ridiculous as my idiot neighbors who are shocked, SHOCKED to find deer living in the woods where their houses are....

The Sun Online - News: Council: Garden birds too loud:


STUNNED nature-lover Dorothy Berry was ticked off by her local council over noise — from BIRDSONG in her garden.
The official note from environmental health warned of “a complaint alleging nuisance caused by birds singing”.

Great gran Dorothy said last night: “When I saw the letter I thought someone was larking about.

“I have a lovely garden in which the blackbirds sing in the trees and on the aerial of the house.

“But I really don’t see what we can do about that.”

The letter to Dorothy claimed the problem was caused by birdsong “arising from your premises during the early hours”.

It went on: “In the interests of preventing any possible disturbance to nearby residents you may wish to consider if any such noise is likely to cause offence.

“If so, your prompt action in resolving this matter will be appreciated.”

But Dorothy, 65, of Fulham, West London, has not kept birds INSIDE her home since her beloved pet cockatiel died last year.

She added: “We have so much wildlife, it’s so beautiful. The frogs croak in the pond - maybe they are doing that too loudly?”

Posted by mikki at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.:: Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World's Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service ::.:


"Heads Need To Roll Here"
A federal investigator is accusing the Federal Aviation Administration of not only hiding air traffic controller mistakes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, but also for sometimes blaming pilots for those mistakes.
The allegations have come from the US Office of Special Counsel, which is an independent investigative agency responsible for protecting government whistle-blowers, according to the Associated Press.
Mistakes at DFW included a controller not telling a co-worker a plane had been cleared for takeoff, and planes flying too close together.
"The message needs to get out that we have a cavalier attitude about safety," said special counsel Scott Bloch. He said there is a "culture of laxness" at not only the FAA but the air traffic controllers' union, as well.
This report renews accusations that were levied in 2005 but never fixed, according to the investigator. The FAA insists all controller errors are properly reported.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church said any failure to properly report any controller error lies not with the controllers, but their managers.
The FAA changed the way it classifies certain events last month, he said, to manipulate safety statistics, like allowing aircraft to come within 2.8 miles of each other instead of the required three miles.
The NATCA has long contended DFW suffers a severe controller shortage. It says 100 workers are required to properly manage the center and there are currently 68 controller and about 20 trainees. 
Bloch said he got information from interviews with two FAA whistle-blowers, other employees and a review of radar data, according to the AP.
He agreed with Church's statement that the FAA has manipulated error reporting to conceal its true safety record and reward those with the fewest mistakes which, he says, promotes financial gain over safety.
Anne Whiteman is a controller supervisor and one of the whistle-blowers. She says managers regularly classify controller mistakes as pilot errors. Since January, about 100 pilot errors have been reported at DFW -- a lot more than in previous years.
The other whistle-blower preferred to remain anonymous.
"The flying public can rest assured that the FAA thoroughly investigates every safety deviation, whether it was the result of controller or pilot error and closely tracks and addresses any pattern of errors," said the agency.
Bloch sent a letter and the report to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters Monday and directed the Transportation Department to launch an investigation and present its recommendations within 60 days.
Bloch said if safety violations were persistently ignored, "eventually you're going to have an air crash."
"Heads need to roll here," he said.

Posted by mikki at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

US Airports Report Spike in Near Misses:


NBC -- Airports, air traffic controllers and airlines are struggling with a spike in delays, cancellations and near-misses, when planes come within 500 feet or less of one another.

At Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said a Delta Airlines flight that had just touched down, had to quickly take-off again to avoid a United Airlines plane instructed to taxi on the same runway.

"Our information now is that they passed about 100 feet vertically from each other," said Robert Sumwalt, Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

In the northeast alone since may, there have been more than five near misses.

Thursday night at Newark’s Liberty International, Rich Domich, a sports news executive, said the Continental commuter jet he was on had just landed when it experienced a close call with a 747 taking off.

"We slam on the breaks, we roll, we take a right and then there's another jar that he's applying the breaks and we look up and you just see that plane right in front of you," said Domich.

So far, Continental Express is calling it a non-incident and the FAA says it is reviewing the air traffic control tape.

The FAA admits a shortage of air traffic controllers and an increase in air travel are taxing an already strained system.

"You are flying in some of the most congested airspace we have with airports that do not have an adequate air traffic control system until we go to the next generation," said FAA administrator Marion Blakey.

But lawmakers said something needs to be done now.

New York Senator Charles Schumer said, "How could the FAA let this happen? How can the FAA say that it's the guardian of our skies when things have deteriorated so dramatically?"

Questions. Frustrations and challenges as America takes to the skies in record numbers.

Posted by mikki at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Missing Macaw Found 80 Miles From Home:


CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J. (AP) - A pet macaw that flew away from its owners and went missing last weekend turned up alive and well in a most unlikely place _ 80 miles away at the Jersey shore.

Robert Daly, 25, said he was driving near his home Thursday night when he spotted the large blue and gold bird sitting quietly by the side of the road.

He called police, who captured the bird and put it into a box. Officers who had seen news reports about the bird's disappearance notified the owner, Rosalie O'Hara, and the two were reunited Friday.

"I knew it was Sophie," O'Hara told The Record of Bergen County. "She did some little shakes and gestures, and I knew it was her."

Sophia had vanished last Saturday after O'Hara's husband lost his grip on the bird while the couple were out for a walk.

The couple had been looking frantically since then and posted a $5,000 reward.

O'Hara said she is mystified how the bird, which she had raised indoors from a chick, was able to survive so long in the wild and travel 80 miles south from its home in Cliffside Park to the Jersey shore town of Seaside Park.

"I never thought I'd get her, I swear," O'Hara said.

O'Hara said she had contacted Daly to let him know he was entitled to the reward.

Posted by mikki at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Gives Warning:


California -- The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment.
John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort.

"Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said.

After touring gardens raided this week in Shasta County, Walters said the officers who are destroying the gardens are performing hard, dangerous work in rough terrain. He said growers have been known to have weapons, including assault rifles.

"These people are armed; they're dangerous," he said. He called them "violent criminal terrorists."

Walters, whose official title is director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said too many people write off marijuana as harmless. "We have kind of a reefer blindness,' " he said.

No arrests have been made so far in the four days of raids, the opening leg of what Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has promised will be at least two straight weeks of daily raids.

He said suspects have been hard to find because their familiarity with their terrain makes it easy for them to flee quickly.

Although crews doing the raids are using Black Hawk and other helicopters to drop in on some of the gardens, Bosenko said they don't want to give the growers any warning of a raid.

"We try to move in under stealth," he said.

As of Thursday morning, Operation Alesia raids had resulted in the yanking of 68,237 young marijuana plants from public lands in Shasta County. Raids already have been conducted in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, as well as on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service north of Lake Shasta and other public land near Manton.

The operation is being led by the sheriff's office and has involved 17 agencies, including the California National Guard and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It's believed to be the largest campaign of its kind in the state, Bosenko said.

The operation is named after the last major battle between the Roman Empire and the Gauls in 52 B.C. That battle was won by the Romans.

With the blitz of marijuana gardens around Shasta County, Bosenko said officials hope to not only get rid of the pot, but also win back the land for the public that owns it.

"These organizations are destroying our lands and wildlife," he said.

Bernie Weingardt, regional forester for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Region, said the 28,000 acres believed to house illegal marijuana grows on national forest land throughout the state would cost more than $300 million to revive.

"These lands must be cleaned and restored," he said.

His estimate is based on a National Park Service study that found it costs $11,000 per acre to pull the plants, clear irrigation systems, reshape any terracing and replant native vegetation, said Mike Odle, Forest Service spokesman.

While Walters didn't give specific goals for Operation Alesia, he said anti-drug agencies aim to cripple the organized crime groups that he said are behind the marijuana cultivation.

"This business we intend to put into recession, depression and put its leaders into jail," Walters said.

Posted by mikki at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hindu Prayer in Senate Disrupted - washingtonpost.com:


WASHINGTON -- A Hindu clergyman made history Thursday by offering the Senate's morning prayer, but only after police officers removed three shouting protesters from the visitors' gallery.

Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Nev., gave the brief prayer that opens each day's Senate session. As he stood at the chamber's podium in a bright orange and burgundy robe, two women and a man began shouting "this is an abomination" and other complaints from the gallery.

Police officers quickly arrested them and charged them disrupting Congress, a misdemeanor. The male protester told an AP reporter, "we are Christians and patriots" before police handcuffed them and led them away.

For several days, the Mississippi-based American Family Association has urged its members to object to the prayer because Zed would be "seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god."

Zed, the first Hindu to offer the Senate prayer, began: "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds."

As the Senate prepared for another day of debate over the Iraq war, Zed closed with, "Peace, peace, peace be unto all."

Zed, who was born in India, was invited by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Speaking in the chamber shortly after the prayer, Reid defended the choice and linked it to the war debate.

"If people have any misunderstanding about Indians and Hindus," Reid said, "all they have to do is think of Gandhi," a man "who gave his life for peace."

"I think it speaks well of our country that someone representing the faith of about a billion people comes here and can speak in communication with our heavenly Father regarding peace," said Reid, a Mormon and sharp critic of President Bush's Iraq policies.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the protest "shows the intolerance of many religious right activists. They say they want more religion in the public square, but it's clear they mean only their religion."

Capitol police identified the protesters as Ante Nedlko Pavkovic, Katherine Lynn Pavkovic and Christan Renee Sugar. Their ages and hometowns were not available.

Posted by mikki at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flight Attendant Boots Gwinnett Mom, Baby From Plane - News Story - WSB Atlanta:


GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- A Gwinnett County mother says she wants answers and action after she and her baby were kicked off a plane.
Kate Penland said she was glad to board the plane in Houston after an 11-hour delay to visit her father in Oklahoma. But she said a rude and aggressive flight attendant caused her to get to Oklahoma a day late.
Penland thinks her 19-month-old son, Garren, has a bubbly personality. But Penland said when they were aboard a Continental Express plane, a flight attendant became annoyed by Garren’s personality when he kept saying three words.
“As we started taxiing, he started saying ‘Bye, bye plane,’ said Penland. “At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, ‘It’s not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up.’
In disbelief, Penland asked the woman if she was kidding. It was then, Penland said, the flight attendant went too far.
“She then said, ‘You know, it’s called baby Benadryl. And I said, 'Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight.'
Penland said when the other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, the flight attendant got angrier and soon announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane.
“I was crying, I was upset and I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do? I don’t have anything with me, I don’t have anymore diapers for the baby, no juice, no milk,” said Penland.
The young mother said she later learned the flight attendant told the pilot that she had threatened her. Penland said that never happened.
Express Jet Airlines released a statement that said, "We received Ms. Penland’s letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents."
A fellow passenger told Channel 2's Rachel Kim none of the other passengers had problems with Garren and that Penland never threatened the flight attendant.
Penland is considering legal action.

Posted by mikki at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Suit: Porn star took old friend's name - Yahoo! News:


HOUSTON - A Houston woman is suing a former high school classmate who took her name and starred in pornographic movies.

Kristen Syvette Wimberly, 25, is asking that Lara Madden and film distributor Vivid Entertainment Group stop using or publicizing her name, which Madden took as a stage name.

The two met in ninth grade at Kingwood High School. According to the lawsuit, they "were friends but eventually that friendship ended due to conflict."

Madden, 25, began her adult-film career in 2004 and has appeared in about a dozen adult films using the name Syvette Wimberly.

As a result, the lawsuit claims, Madden and the distributor have inflicted "humiliation, embarrassment, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, mental anguish and anxiety."

Caj Boatright, attorney for Kristen Syvette Wimberly, said her client started being contacted by friends and acquaintances asking about her career in pornography.

"The purpose of the lawsuit is to get her to stop using this name," Boatright said. "We're not out looking for millions of dollars."

Kent Schaffer, Madden's attorney, said his client chose the name simply because she liked the sound of it.

"There is no bad blood between them," Schaffer said. "Lara never meant to harm this other girl."

Madden no longer performs in pornographic films, Schaffer said. Vivid Entertainment had no comment because it hadn't been served with the lawsuit, a spokesman said.

The lawsuit, filed June 26 in Harris County District Court, seeks unspecified damages, but Schaffer said Madden will agree to stop using the name if that's all the plaintiff wants.

"They'll never get a penny from her," he said. "She doesn't have any money, for one thing, but even if she did this suit will never hold up in court. I'm not aware of any court that has upheld such a lawsuit. If I use your name to defraud somebody, that's different."

Posted by mikki at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What? A guy who believes in creationism would actually STIFLE science? Ya think? Sheesh!

www.kansascity.com | 07/10/2007 | Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona denounces Bush administration's political interference:


WASHINGTON | President Bush’s first surgeon general testified Tuesday that his speeches were censored to match administration political positions.

He was prevented from giving the public accurate scientific information on issues such as stem-cell research and teen pregnancy prevention, he said.

“Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried,” Richard Carmona, surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, told a congressional committee. “The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party.”

Carmona’s remarks were the latest in a series of complaints from government scientists about what they say are administration efforts to control — and sometimes distort — scientific evidence in order to support policy decisions. NASA scientists have complained of pressure to tone down warnings about global warming. EPA officials have said that technical information on power plant emissions and oil drilling have been ignored.

Carmona’s testimony drew a pointed rebuke from the White House. Officials suggested that any breakdown in communicating health information to the American people was ultimately a failure on his part.

One of his major accomplishments as surgeon general was a report on the dangers of secondhand smoke. Its release was delayed for political reasons, he said. Other reports on mental health, emergency preparedness and global health issues were blocked, he said.

Also testifying were former surgeons general C. Everett Koop and David Satcher, who served in the Reagan and Clinton administrations respectively. Carmona said their testimony showed that political interference was “a systemic problem,” but that several former surgeons general told him they had never seen it rise to the levels he encountered.

Posted by mikki at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pope: Jesus formed 'only one church' - Focus on the Vatican - MSNBC.com:


LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.

Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers the erroneous interpretation of the council by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.

In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II’s ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.

It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

In the new document and an accompanying commentary, which were released as the pope vacations here in Italy’s Dolomite mountains, the Vatican repeated that position.

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles.

‘Identity of the Catholic faith’
The Rev. Sara MacVane of the Anglican Centre in Rome, said there was nothing new in the document.

“I don’t know what motivated it at this time,” she said. “But it’s important always to point out that there’s the official position and there’s the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together that goes on at all levels, certainly between Anglican and Catholics and all the other groups and Catholics.”

The document said Orthodox churches were indeed “churches” because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed “many elements of sanctification and of truth.” But it said they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope — a defect, or a “wound” that harmed them, it said.

“This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an ‘internal constitutive principle’ of the very existence of a particular church,” the commentary said.

Despite the harsh tone of the document, it stresses that Benedict remains committed to ecumenical dialogue.

“However, if such dialogue is to be truly constructive, it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith,” the commentary said.

‘Not backtracking on ecumenical commitment’
The document, signed by the congregation prefect, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, was approved by Benedict on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul — a major ecumenical feast day.

There was no indication about why the pope felt it necessary to release the document, particularly since his 2000 document summed up the same principles. Some analysts suggested it could be a question of internal church politics, or that it could simply be an indication of Benedict using his office as pope to again stress key doctrinal issues from his time at the congregation.

Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the document did not alter the commitment for ecumenical dialogue, but aimed to assert Catholic identity in those talks.

“The Church is not backtracking on ecumenical commitment,” Di Noia told Vatican radio.

“But, as you know, it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity. That is, dialogue cannot be an occasion to accommodate or soften what you actually understand yourself to be.”

Posted by mikki at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Feds to require 'open' wireless networks? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com:


As the government prepares to auction off a prized slice of wireless spectrum early next year, Google and a number of consumer advocacy groups have been pressuring federal regulators to impose some form of "open access" rules that would prevent only a few companies from controlling the coveted space.

It appears the Federal Communications Commission may be poised to grant their request, according to various reports.

According to draft auction ground rules seen by a Dow Jones reporter, the regulators are entertaining the idea of attaching open-access conditions to more than one-third of the portion of the 700 MHz broadcast TV band that they plan to auction off.

>Freeing up that spectrum for public safety and commercial uses is the major purpose of a long-discussed shift from analog to digital television scheduled for 2009. The band is such a hot commodity because its signals can travel farther and easily penetrate walls, which could foster cheaper, and more widespread, wireless broadband networks.

An unnamed FCC official cited in the Dow Jones story said that two 11 MHz blocks would be bound by open access principles, which would mean that spectrum operators would have to allow consumers to use the wireless devices they wish and to load the applications they desire onto their gadgets, so long as they don't harm the network.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seemed to confirm the agency was headed in that direction in an interview with USA Today published Monday. He was quoted as saying, "Whoever wins this spectrum has to provide...a truly open broadband network--one that will open the door to a lot of innovative services for consumers."

Martin also reportedly said he was troubled that some wireless handset makers, at the request of U.S. mobile carriers, have stripped out features like Wi-Fi, whereas in Europe, consumers have had wider access to "unlocked" phones for years.

Major wireless carriers have resisted calls for "open access" requirements for the upcoming auction because they say such decisions should be decided by the market. If companies like Google want to make use of the spectrum, they should bid accordingly and hope they win, not seek help through new regulations, the industry has said.

Google's Washington telecommunications and media counsel, Richard Whitt, said in a blog post Tuesday morning that his company was still weighing whether it would make its own bids. After consulting with various experts, however, he added that the search giant had determined existing wireless carriers are likely to prevail against new mobile market entrants like Google--that is, unless the FCC requires various forms of openness.

Whitt said he was also hearing "through the proverbial grapevine" that the FCC rules may be aligned with Google's wishes. "Obviously we'll need to see the fine print, but such a proposal would represent a step forward for new, innovative entrants to the broadband market," he wrote.

A final version of the rules is expected to be made public by late July or early August, according to Dow Jones, and would then go to a vote before the five-member commission. Meanwhile, a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday morning plans to examine a similar set of issues at a hearing entitled "Wireless Innovation and Consumer Protection." (Click here for a PDF with more information.)

Stay tuned to CNET News.com for coverage of Wednesday's congressional hearing and further analysis of the upcoming auction rules.

Posted by mikki at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry folks, but I have trouble spelling too. That's why the gods created spell check. But, you know, this "let's dumb it down" mentality is really getting my goat. Like it or not, there are some people in this world who are BELOW AVERAGE in many areas. So where does the dumbing down stop? When EVERYONE can successfully do the thing in question? When MOST can successfully do it? Doesn't that mean that those who can't will still be at an "unfair disadvantage?"

Some things are hard to do because we don't WANT everyone doing them. Get over it. *grrrrrr*

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Should we simplify spelling?:


They've been campaigning for a century to make the spelling of the English language easier and recently picketed a spelling bee in the US to make their point. Welcome to the Simplified Spelling Society.

Masha Bell, a member of the society and author of Understanding English Spelling, believes that reform of the spelling of the English language could help children learn to read and make life easier for some adults too.


SIMPLIFIED GLOSSARY
Learn - lern
Slow - slo
Beautiful - butiful

Full glossary

Prof Vivian Cook, a linguist, expert in second language learning and author of Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, believes changing spellings would be unnecessary, expensive and could harm children's ability to read.

We pitched the two, spelling reformer and spelling traditionalist, into a battle to persuade the other. Here they debate the merits of spelling systems, in the form of short e-mails.

Some of Ms Bell's entries are partly-written in simplified spelling.

Posted by mikki at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

She was a wonderful person, always kind and helpful to me. Even though she wasn't my main typing teacher, she helped me learn to touch type, which was the foundation of much of what I've accomplished in my life.

Hats off to you, Miss Stips! Wow!

Union Leader - Miss Stips' gift: An amazing bequest - Tuesday, Jul. 10, 2007:


Miss Stips' gift: An amazing bequest

13 hours, 12 minutes ago

WHEN Manchester Memorial High School business teacher Patricia Stips passed away two Novembers ago, her obituary mentioned her dedication to Memorial, where she was a highly respected and admired teacher. It never mentioned a nearly $2 million estate.

Few people seemed aware until the New Hampshire Union Leader reported Saturday that Stips had an estate worth $1.8 million. This was one business teacher who knew her stuff!

What people did know was that Patricia Stips was a giver, not a taker. In addition to her career imparting knowledge to city youth, she donated to many charities throughout her life, and, it turns out, after her passing.

She left $765,000 -- 42.5 percent of her estate -- to Memorial. The bulk of it, $680,000 will go to a scholarship fund, the rest to the library and media center.

She also left large sums to the Currier Museum of Art, the Goffstown Public Library, Goffstown Fire and Rescue, the Salvation Army, the Manchester Historic Society and several other non-profits.

It's amazing in this consumer-oriented time to witness the simple power of frugality. Stips worked her entire career as a public school teacher, and yet she retired a millionaire, nearly twice over.

In her life and in her giving, Stips has imparted another lesson to the city's young people. You don't have to make a six-figure annual income to live comfortably and wind up with significant accumulated wealth. You just have to be smart about managing your money.

Oh, and there's another lesson