] Traces of the poison ricin have been found at a railway
] station in Paris, according to the French interior
] ministry.
]
] Two vials of the potentially deadly substance were found
] inside a locker at the Gare de Lyon, according to
] ministry officials.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Ricin found in Paris

quote from msnbc weblog central:

"Ostensibly based in Baghdad, Where is Raed? is written by a person blogging under the pseudonym of Salam Pax, a tech-savvy Iraqi whose mastery of English provides for vivid descriptions, cutting wit, and thoughtful commentary. In the past there has been some discussion of the veracity of the writer’s claims, but those appear to have been resolved, with several bloggers offering testimony to Salam’s authenticity —and frankly, the more you read, the less doubt there seems to be."

Where is Raed ?

A great report from the CDT (Center for Democracy & Technology) that analyzed behaviors that increase the chance of receiving spam. This is a PDF file that's worth reading through. The bottom line: don't post your email address on a website.

Why Am I Getting All This Spam?

] This guide is the first in a series on the Art of Video
] Capture, Clean-up, and Compression.

Ars Technica: Guide to Video Capturing - Page 1 - (03/2003)

] Protesting the Protesters II
]
] This is a follow-up to coverage of the New York City
] protest of February 15th.

Protesting the Protesters II - Video

] The U.S. government has obtained potentially valuable new
] information on Iraq's biological and chemical weapons
] programs in recent days from scientists and intelligence
] agents confronted outside Iraq with threats that failure
] to cooperate could mean unpleasant consequences when
] Baghdad falls, according to two U.S. officials with
] direct knowledge of the effort.
]
] In a top-secret adjunct to an openly reported diplomatic
] initiative, U.S. and allied intelligence services
] summoned scores of Iraqi operatives in foreign capitals
] to present a stark choice. They were told "they could
] either 'turn,' " said one official, using an expression
] for switching sides, or be expelled back to Iraq "to
] enjoy your very short stay in Baghdad."

U.S. Reaps New Data On Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

The fact that this guy finds these numb-skulls "witty and erudite" shows just how bright you have to be to write for the San Francisco Bay Gaurdian.

=darwin

quoted:
===

Anarchy in the USA
Black Bloc antiwar rioters speak out.

By A.C. Thompson

THE BLACK BLOC has few friends. Cops, obviously, loathe the sable-clad anarchist types who've stomped through downtown San Francisco three times in the past three months, skirmishing with cops, spray painting the San Francisco Chronicle building, shattering windows (Old Navy, Starbucks, and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, among others) and causing at least $50,000 in property damage.

Pacifists and less radical elements of the antiwar movement say the rioters are tarnishing the movement's image and scaring away would-be supporters (see "Resist!," page 22). Stephen Zunes, a left-leaning associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, trashed the Black Blocers in the Chronicle last week, describing them as "nihilists" and "hoodlums" without a "political agenda."

Zunes's comments are typical. Most people seem to think the Black Bloc rioters are a pack of mindless hooligans. But that analysis is only half correct. Hooligans? Definitely. Mindless? No way. The four young shit-disturbers – three anarchists, one communist – I met at an anonymous and presumably unbugged location March 15 were witty and erudite. And they definitely have a political goal.

sfbg.com | Life During Wartime

quoted:
===

CUYAHOGA FALLS -- A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy.

Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat.

"On Sunday, we were awarded as the best firefighting unit in the Army National Guard in the entire country," said Prime. "That was a big moment for us."

Prime took his name from the leader of the Autobots Transformers, which were popular toys and a children's cartoon in the 1980s.

He legally changed his name on his 30th birthday and now it's on everything from his driver's licence, to his military ID, to his uniform.

National Guardsman changes his name to a 'Optimus Prime'

] This war is a test of the concepts behind the theory of
] "effects-based warfare".
]
] This is the new "in-phrase" in military circles - the
] idea that you can achieve military goals by carefully
] selecting critical groups of targets whose destruction
] could effectively collapse the regime and disorientate
] its armed forces, thus avoiding the need to defeat the
] Iraqi military unit by unit.
]
] This is uncharted territory.
]
] The US planners are putting great store in their capacity
] for swift movement and the ability of their air power to
] deliver whatever the commanders on the ground need.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Comment: New US theory of war

] A DC-3 aircraft on a flight out of Cuba was hijacked
] Wednesday evening with 35 people aboard but landed safely
] in Key West, Fla., under military escort.

] THE AIR TRAFFIC Center in Miami observed an unknown
] aircraft headed northbound toward the United States at
] 7:45 p.m. ET, according to Kathleen Bergen, a public
] information officer with the Federal Aviation
] Administration.

DC-3 hijacked from Cuba