The crystal skulls are a number of human skull models fashioned from blocks of clear or milky quartz crystal rock, claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders. However, none of the specimens made available for scientific study were authenticated as pre-Columbian in origin, and in the opinion of the contemporary mainstream scientific community they were manufactured in the mid-19th century or later, almost certainly in Europe.

Worthersee got me trapped in this wikihole this morning. A few links later I was reading about aboriginal activism in Canada. Have fun...

Crystal skull - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The computer attackers who took down Comcast's homepage and webmail service for over five hours Thursday say they didn't know what they were getting themselves into.

In an hour-long telephone conference call with Threat Level, the hackers known as "Defiant" and "EBK" expressed astonishment over the attention their DNS hijacking has garnered. In the call, the pair bounded freely between jubilant excitement over the impact of their attack, and fatalism that they would soon be arrested for it.

Neither hacker would identify their full names or locations. Defiant's MySpace profile lists him in Cashville, Tennessee, but he says that's incorrect. His girlfriend lists herself in New York. Threat Level expects both hackers' names and locations will emerge shortly.

This is entertaining... One of those cases where you really gotta sympathize with the perps. It was a prank - fairly innocent. Egg on Comcast's face for getting outsmarted by a couple of teenage pot heads. Hope they don't throw the book at them. This isn't the mafia here.

Comcast Hijackers Say They Warned the Company First | Threat Level from Wired.com

Nasa has confirmed that the toilet on the International Space Station has failed, leaving astronauts in an urgent need for spare parts.

The problem lies with the fan that draws liquids into the waste chamber prior to being ejected to burn up in the atmosphere.

Damn. That sucks.

Space Station inconvenienced as toilet fails - vnunet.com

Acidus wrote:

On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California announced that Lori Drew, now 49 years old, was indicted on conspiracy and hacking charges. The indictment charges Drew, a resident of O'Fallon, Missouri, with three counts of unauthorized access by violation of MySpace's terms of service and one count of conspiracy.

There is a good write up over at The Volokh Conspiracy by Orin Kerr and I highly suggest you read it.

I have a bit of a different perspective on this. I agree with Kerr that this has nothing to do with the TOS, but I still think its fraud.

If you call an operator up on the phone, tell her you're a phone company employee, and ask for some internal bit of telco information, this is telephone fraud, and its illegal.

Replace the telephone with the Internet, the operator with this girl, phone company employee with a cute boy, and the internal bit of telco information with dirt on the perps daughter, and what, exactly, is the difference? You've used a false pretense to con someone out of information. Its a crime, and I think they'll get a conviction on it. I also think people will blow it out of proportion. I don't think it means what everyone else seems to think it means.

RE: MySpace Suicide Indictment: or TOS violation = crime

We're in the final week before Summercon 2008! Come out Friday night @ 7PM and meet at the Wyndham Hotel bar, a.k.a. "The Mojito Lounge". Don't be shy, just look for someone wearing a Summercon t-shirt and introduce yourself. They won't bite or fight... probably. We'll plan on hanging out at the hotel for a bit and then herd everyone to another fine drinking establishment. Friday night is an ice-breaker, so come out and get to know your friendly neighborhood hacker. Don't sleep in much past noon on Saturday, presentations start at 12:30PM.

Operation Summercon 2k8 in Da House

Right now, Barr’s polling mimics the performance of Ross Perot and his Reform Party candidacies in 1992 and 1996. In his first run, Perot won nearly 14 percent of the vote in Georgia. In his second, he dropped to 6 percent.

But in each case, Bill Clinton was the beneficiary. In ‘92, Clinton won Georgia. In ‘96, he came within 1.2 percent of taking the state.

Don’t think that the Obama campaign isn’t watching every move that Barr makes. Should he become the Libertarian candidate, how Barr does in Georgia — worth 15 electoral votes — becomes especially important.

Bob Barr's potential run for the presidency could spice up this election season. I like Barr. I think he is the most professional politician associated with the Libertarian party, and I think he is genuinely interested in civil liberties. His bid for the Presidency would help raise the profile of the Libertarian party, but at the expense of damaging it's soul.

His bid has a chance of being popular this season because there are a lot of people who are disaffected with the Republican party, and there are a lot of people who are disaffected with John McCain. The trouble is that there are also a lot of people involved in the Republican party who don't understand what Libertarian means. They think it means that you "support a smaller government." Thats not exactly correct. Its true in the sense that triathletes are interested in bicycling, but its not the complete picture.

It is because of this misunderstanding you have people who think Ron Paul is a Libertarian. He isn't. His political philosophy most closely resembles that of civil war era state's rights confederates. Thats nothing like Libertarianism, but there are an aweful lot of people who don't understand the differences, and these people are likely to vote for Barr.

It is because of this misunderstanding that you get what I refer to as "Neal Boortz Libertarians." People who are died in the wool partisan Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat if their life depended upon it, who are socially conservative and have absolutely caustic views toward civil liberties who for some reason think of themselves as "Libertarians." These people are not Libertarians, but they are likely to vote for Barr.

Add in the ultraconservatives who hate McCain purely because he is willing to consort with Democrats and who might be looking for a protest vote. Ultraconservatives are certainly not Libertarian, but they are likely to vote for Barr, who is a fairly conservative guy.

So the question is, what happens after this election is over? Do some of these people who voted Libertarian for the first time in their lives stick around? I guess thats the point, but its a bit like Hong Kong's absorption into China. Will contact with Libertarian thinkers at Reason and Cato cause these conservatives to reconsider their authoritarianism or will we be seeing bumper stickers that read "Libertarians for the Patriot Act?"

Barr could put Georgia in play, and the Obama campaign knows it | Political Insider

possibly noteworthy wrote:
George Packer:

Have the Republicans run out of ideas?

It continue to be shocked to see opinions like this given all the talk of the permanent majority after 2004. I think Republicans over estimated their position in 2004 and this article under estimates their position in 2008. Do Democrats have ideas? About healthcare perhaps, but not about Iraq nor social security nor the economy. The fact that Republicans have been winning on wedge issues does go to show you that they don't have real issues to win on, but I don't think that Democrats are any more charged. The electricity in this year's Democratic campaign has more to do with the moral victory of electing someone who isn't a white male and ending an unpopular war. Are they going to unfuck the housing crisis? Its over their heads. Ultimately, you've got two complacent, corrupt, authoritarian groups, funded by people who benefit financially from the status quo, who spend all their time trying to figure out how to win elections and don't have any inclination to also bother thinking about where this country ought to go.

RE: The Political Scene: The Fall of Conservatism

Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green

I particularly appreciated the observation that the construction of new cars has an environmental impact...

I drive an old Ford Explorer. I obtained it because it was the most economical vehicle for me at the time due to a complex set of circumstances. I continue to drive it because it is comfortable and reliable after nearly 10 years on the road (although my understanding is that they don't make 'em like they used to).

In the past I've had several green leaning friends complain about it, particularly at the height of the anti-SUV backlash in 2002... before the Iraq war diverted everyone's attention away from, er, domestic issues. It always used to piss me off. I didn't buy the car because I wanted to run down poor people in the street, as Jello Biafra once suggested in a rant, and I never understood how the extreme and unnecessary expense associated with replacing it would help the environment, particularly if I resold it rather than having it turned into scrap metal. My friends were literally suggesting that I drop tens of thousands of dollars in a gesture that would largely be symbolic... on a more fashionable car which appears to be helping the environment but actually isn't. Talk about liberal bullshit.

Now, were I in the market for a new car might I consider a hybrid? Certainly. I drove a Prius recently and enjoyed it. I think Acidus's new car is very cool. There is something about early adopting and using a more efficient technology that appeals to me beyond any interest in protecting the environment. But buy a brand new car when I don't need to, simply for the sake of keeping up with some fad? Fuck that!

If you've got ten thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket and you want to spend it protecting the environment there are much better ways to spend your money.

Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green

Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline.

USA National Gas Temperature Map

A career civil servant who had worked for six prime ministers from Mackenzie King to Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Cross watched anxiously from Parliament Hill as the drama unfolded. Wondering whether "this still could be Canada," he waited while Mr. Trudeau consulted his advisers.

"Canadians might've been accustomed to uniforms and arms during wartime, but to have them appear in peacetime gave one an uneasy feeling," Mr. Cross said decades later.

The Globe and Mail ran an obit on my Grandfather friday.

globeandmail.com: Ottawa insider was at the centre of the October Crisis of 1970