On the night of March 8, cruising 22,000 miles above the Earth, U.S. Navy communications satellite FLTSAT-8 suddenly erupted with illicit activity. Jubilant voices and anthems crowded the channel on a junkyard's worth of homemade gear from across vast and silent stretches of the Amazon: Ronaldo, a Brazilian soccer idol, had just scored his first goal with the Corinthians.

It was a party that won't soon be forgotten. Ten days later, Brazilian Federal Police swooped in on 39 suspects in six states in the largest crackdown to date on a growing problem here: illegal hijacking of U.S. military satellite transponders. null

This is so ridiculously and awesomely Gibson-esque. Hordes of low tek from The Sprawl hacking military satellites with homebrew gear and hacker know-how.

Unbelievably Excellent!

The Great Brazilian Sat-Hack Crackdown

The familiar .com, .net, .org and 18 other suffixes — officially "generic top-level domains" — could be joined by a seemingly endless stream of new ones next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web's address system.

Tourists might find information about the Liberty Bell, for example, at a site ending in .philly. A rapper might apply for a Web address ending in .hiphop.

"Whatever is open to the imagination can be applied for," says Paul Levins, ICANN's vice president of corporate affairs. "It could translate into one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history."

ICANN needs to be stopped. They proposing and prompting concepts that will irrevocably damage the Internet with essentially no one to keep them in check.

Something seriously must be done about the pollution of the TLDs.

From RFC 1591 in 1994:

2. The Top Level Structure of the Domain Names

In the Domain Name System (DNS) naming of computers there is a
hierarchy of names. The root of system is unnamed. There are a set
of what are called "top-level domain names" (TLDs). These are the
generic TLDs (EDU, COM, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT), and the two
letter country codes from ISO-3166. It is extremely unlikely that
any other TLDs will be created.

Postel must be screaming in his grave to know ICANN rolled like a dog in heat to special interests and already created bullshit TLDs like:

*.aero
*.asia
*.biz
*.cat
*.coop
*.info
*.jobs
*.mil
*.mobi
*.museum
*.name
*.pro
*.tel
*.travel

This is insanity. ICANN's mission statement is not to facilitate "the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history." Its to manage and preserve the operational stability of the Internet's addressing systems! When the hell did it become being a stooge for the world's ISPs?

Fuck. This. Shit.

ICANN == Whores

This is an excerpt from my friend Nancy's blog. Her baby was born premature, under a pound in fact, but thanks to Vanderbilt, itty bitty Becca is thriving today. Nancy is walking in the March of Dimes this year to raise money for vital research on premature birth. Check out Nancys blog, and then link over the the March of dimes - every bit makes a difference!

Thanks

Marie

This week marks one year from that awful day on which we received our baby girl’s awful prognosis. Dr. Fines’ exact words were, “I think we need to be prepared to lose this baby.” I was crushed. After calling John (who was in Costa Rica at the time) and stopping at Mejier to buy some pink sleepers, I took a nap. Here’s an excerpt of how I described that afternoon on this blog:

“The thing about taking a nap is that life doesn’t really change while you’re asleep. That whole “While You Were Sleeping” concept - not so much. When I woke up that afternoon - and for the next several mornings - I experienced that moment that many people who go through some kind of tragedy often describe. For about 30 seconds after I woke up, I thought everything was okay. And then I remembered. ‘I think we need to be prepared to lose this baby.’ Those next few days were some of the hardest of my life.”

Tonight, after countless perinatalogists visits, 121 days in the NICU, and 5 wonderful months at home together, our precious little Becca is sleeping in one of those pink sleepers, just down the hall from me.

As you know, our family has been touched by the March of Dimes mission to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. That’s why we have formed Itty Bitty Becca’s Team to raise money and participate in March for Babies. Since you were a part of the team that cheered her through our darkest days, we want you to officially be part of Itty Bitty Becca’s Team! There are two ways you can join: by walking with us on Sunday, April 19, or by sponsoring our event with a financial contribution.
Contributing to our team online is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from my personal webpage with a credit/debit card or PayPal. If you prefer, I can also accept cash or check. Just click the appropriate box on my webpage. My March for Babies webpage is http://www.marchforbabies.org/BeccaHill .

Or, if you prefer and are able to do so, we would love to have you walk with us in the March for Babies! We are participating in the Nashville walk on Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 at Cenntennial Park. If the weather is good and the germs remain at bay, Litte Miss Becca will be “walking” with us, too! (Of course, you can walk AND contribute, too!) You can also sign up to walk with us on the website.

Our family knows firsthand the challenges associated with prematurity. It is important to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it. By rai... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

March of Dimes

Dr. X was the ideal man for this job because of his very disreputability. He was a reverse engineer. He collected artificial mites like some batty Victorian lepidopterist. He took them apart one atom at a time to see how they worked, and when he found some clever innovation, he squirreled it away in his database. Since most of these innovations were the result of natural selection, Dr. X was usually the first human being to know about them.

Hackworth was a forger, Dr. X was a honer. The distinction was at least as old as the digital computer. Forgers created a new technology and then forged on to the next project, having explored only the outlines of its potential. Honers got less respect because they appeared to sit still technologically, playing around with systems that were no longer start, hacking them for all they were worth, getting them to do things the forgers had never envisioned.

Excerpt from The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Zoo chimp 'planned' stone attacks

An exposed bra. Skimpy hotpants. Does dressing like a soft porn star actually empower a woman, or is she simply exploiting herself, asks Katharine Whitehorn.

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Women on top

So don't tell me this great, rich country of ours can't afford to be in space — I am sick of hearing that refrain.

In fact, the next time someone tries to tell you we can't afford NASA, that we need to spend the money "here" (as if we loft the Benjamins into orbit!), I have some advice for you: If you don't want to mention the cost of the wars, if you would rather not get into Wall Street or Detroit bailouts, or if you don't want to tell them the money we spend on the space program is about the same as our annual expenditure on coffee — why not mention India? Say something like this: "Calcutta can afford it — and Cleveland can't?" Or perhaps more accurately: Calcutta thinks it cannot afford not to be in space — and we can? This would be a good time to remind them that when they need some tech support, they are likely talking to a smart, ambitious, young person in Bangalore — not Baltimore.

OpEd: We Aimed for The Stars...Until We Stopped

Autism, she said, is one of many diseases, like dyslexia, Elephant Man’s disease, tuberous sclerosis and schizophrenia, that are caused by genetic flaws but show no symptoms for years.

She blamed journalists for “creating a conspiracy where there was none.” By acting as if there were two legitimate sides to the autism debate, she said, “the media has fed on this — it’s great for ratings.”

Many doctors now argue that reporters should treat the antivaccine lobby with the same indifference they do Holocaust deniers, AIDS deniers and those claiming to have proof that NASA faked the Moon landings.

Paul Offit's Book "Autism's False Prophets" Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade - NYTimes.com

The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping, breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn. Then the smoke parts and you come across a child ambling barefoot, searching for old plastic cups that recyclers will buy for five cents a pound. Many families actually live in shacks on this smoking garbage.

Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.

This is especially true for women where in some countries their only alternative to factory work is the sex trade.

-janelane

Op-Ed Columnist - Where Sweatshops Are a Dream - NYTimes.com

In a “Peanuts” strip from the mid-1950s, Charlie Brown walks through the first panel and finds Schroeder sitting in front of an adult-size hi-fi, his ear to the speaker. “Shh,” Schroeder says, “I’m listening to Beethoven’s Ninth.” Charlie Brown inspects Schroeder’s outfit. “In an overcoat?” he asks. Schroeder leans even closer to the speaker and responds, “The first movement was so beautiful it gave me the chills!”

Schroeder Played Real Beethoven in Charles M. Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ Strip - NYTimes.com