"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Nerdy Tattoos
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:08 pm EDT, Apr 21, 2008
Abraham writes: "My fascination with Tesla started in elementary school, when my science teacher compared Tesla and Edison. I decided to pay my tribute to the wizard with a patent drawing on an electric magnetic motor, submitted by Tesla in the late 1800's."
“If states are unable to guarantee such protection,” the pope said, “the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations charter and in other international instruments.”
Vile wrote: Yo, you bitches got a lotta fucking nerve posting these here shits on the motherfucking web. Get with the times, motherfucker. This ain't like, columbus day or nothing. Cut the shit! This is like a fucking site...on the internet. And you use it to this effect. I am only pissin' off here with no good reason though, bitches. You are just stealin' up realty on the side of the information superhighway. You should vacate cuz I could make something that's called memestreams and has www.memestreams.com as it's little slice of internet acreage and it would be cooler than what you are using that shit for now. Just you wait. Look into my words, kids. I ain't playin' witchall.
The evidence is now overwhelming that Mark Dowd was, in fact, sent back through time to kill the mother of the person who will grow up to challenge SkyNet. Please direct your attention to Dowd’s 25-page bombshell on a Flash bytecode attack.
Some context. Reliable Flash vulnerabilities are catastrophes. In 2008, we have lots of different browsers. We have different versions of the OS, and we have Mac users. But we’ve only got one Flash vendor, and everyone has Flash installed. Why do you care about Flash exploits? Because in the field, any one of them wins a commanding majority of browser installs for an attacker. It is the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 of clientsides.
So that’s pretty bad-ass. But that’s not why the fate of humanity demands that we hunt down Dowd and dissolve him in molten steel.
Look at the details of this attack. It’s a weaponized NULL pointer attack that desynchronizes a bytecode verifier to slip malicious ActionScript bytecode into the Flash runtime. If you’re not an exploit writer, think of it this way: you know that crazy version of Super Mario Brothers that Japan refused to ship to the US markets because they thought the difficulty would upset and provoke us? This is the exploit equivalent of that guy who played the perfect game of it on YouTube.
Food Inflation, Riots Spark Worries for World Leaders - WSJ.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:09 am EDT, Apr 15, 2008
There was a somewhat phony story circulating about tent cities cropping up in Los Angeles as a result of the credit crunch. This story isn't phony.
Surging commodity prices have pushed up global food prices 83% in the past three years, according to the World Bank -- putting huge stress on some of the world's poorest nations. Even as the ministers met, Haiti's Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was resigning after a week in which that tiny country's capital was racked by rioting over higher prices for staples like rice and beans.
Among other targets, they singled out U.S. policies pushing corn-based ethanol and other biofuels as deepening the woes.
James Connaughton, chairman of the White House's council on environmental quality, said biofuels are only one contributor to rising food prices. Rising prices for energy and electricity also contribute, as does strong demand for food from big developing countries like China.
When I was in Nice I noticed one of these. Ironically, Nice is not listed here. Ironically I did not notice any in Montpellier. There are tons of them there.
The Next Administration's Economy - Wall Street Column - Jesse Eisinger - Portfolio.com
Topic: Current Events
12:10 am EDT, Apr 15, 2008
The presidential campaign has gone on for so long that it feels like one of those bad dreams in which you run in slow motion but never get anywhere.
It's increasingly looking like the economic revival of the past few years—once celebrated on the right as the "Bush boom"—was a mirage, conjured up by excessive borrowing and irresponsible lending.
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.
The NAO surge continues roughly as you'd expect ...
"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."
Thompson called DHS's release Thursday of the office's procedures and a civil liberties impact assessment "a good start." But, he said, "We still don't know whether the NAO will pass constitutional muster since no legal framework has been provided."
I think there is some reasonable debate here about whether people have no expectation of privacy in regard to things that are only visible from above. At the time the Constitution was written, certainly, a hedge afforded some privacy.
This guy has got to have one of the coolest jobs in technology.
What amazes Chipchase is not the standard stuff that amazes big multinational corporations looking to turn an ever-bigger profit. Pretty much wherever he goes, he lugs a big-bodied digital Nikon camera with a couple of soup-can-size lenses so that he can take pictures of things that might be even remotely instructive back in Finland or at any of Nokia’s nine design studios around the world. Almost always, some explanation is necessary. A Mississippi bowling alley, he will say, is a social hub, a place rife with nuggets of information about how people communicate. A photograph of the contents of a woman’s handbag is more than that; it’s a window on her identity, what she considers essential, the weight she is willing to bear. The prostitute ads in the Brazilian phone booth? Those are just names, probably fake names, coupled with real cellphone numbers — lending to Chipchase’s theory that in an increasingly transitory world, the cellphone is becoming the one fixed piece of our identity.
Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good Life
Topic: Health and Wellness
10:10 am EDT, Apr 14, 2008
This report on the attitudes and lives of the American middle class combines results of a new Pew Research Center national public opinion survey with the center's analysis of relevant economic and demographic trend data from the Census Bureau. Among its key findings:
Fewer Americans now than at any time in the past half century believe they're moving forward in life.
For decades, middle-income Americans had been making absolute progress while enduring relative decline. But since 1999, they have not made economic gains.
About half of all Americans think of themselves as middle class. They are a varied lot.
For the past two decades middle-income Americans have been spending more and borrowing more. Housing has been the key driver of both trends.
At a time when these borrow-and-spend habits have spread, Americans say it has become harder to sustain a middle-class lifestyle.
Economic, demographic, technological and sociological changes since 1970 have moved some groups up the income ladder and pushed others down.
Most middle class adults agree with the old saw that the Republican Party favors the rich while the Democratic Party favors the middle class and the poor.
