] Key members of an al Qaeda cell in Italy passed each
] other coded messages buried in Internet pornographic
] images and photographs of the World Trade Center just
] days before the 9/11 atrocities, it was revealed
] yesterday.

Of course, this IS the NY Post...

NYPOST.COM World News: 9/11 PLOT HIDDEN IN E-PORN By NILES LATHEM

] With so many projects on the web dealing with various
] aspects of creating a Linux PVR, this site's main goal is
] become a central point where people can come and see the
] current state of creating a Linux PVR of their own.

A website that covers the status of various Linux PVR projects.

The Linux PVR Depot

All about mini-itx motherboards. The perfect hardware platform for your linux PVR.

mini-itx.com - news

] MythTV is a homebrew PVR project that I've been working
] on in my spare time. The project is still early in
] development, but I think it's coming along quite nicely.

A fairly kick ass looking Linux based PVR.

MythTV

Decentralized anonymity systems tend to be unreliable, because users must choose paths through the network without knowing the entire state of the network. Reputation systems can improve reliability by predicting the state of the network. In this paper we focus on anonymous remailers and anonymous publishing, explain why the systems can benefit from reputation, and describe our experiences designing reputation systems for them while still ensuring anonymity. We find that in each example we first must redesign the underlying anonymity system to support verifiable transactions.

Reputation in P2P Anonymity Systems [PDF]

,----
| VANCOUVER - A top White House drug policy official is threatening
| retaliation from the U.S. if Canada relaxes its laws against marijuana
| possession.
|
| David Murray, right-hand man to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, says he
| doesn't want to tread on another country's sovereignty, but warned
| there would be consequences if Canada proceeds with a plan to
| decriminalize the possession of marijuana.
`----

I mentioned this earlier. Changing attitudes in liberal Canada toward pot are going to generate political responses from the US, which will slow the pace of trade. As Canada is our largest trading partner, the drag on the economy could be significant. This may be an important forward looking economic risk. Of course, its going to be a big game of chicken. Are Canada's liberal attitudes more willful then America's interest in controlling pot? Are either of these wills stronger then their respective domestic business interests? If this continues to develop there, at the least, will be a lot to learn about the character of these societies. At the most we could prolong our economic slowdown.

(BTW, the American's arguements are a little silly. Pot creates crime because its illegal. If you are engaged in an illegal economic activity you must also engage in (essentially) violent crime because you have to provide for the security of your own property. It all goes with the territory. Once you have people who are willing to deal drugs and willing to provide the security needed to do so, you are going to generate people who are willing to commit other crimes as well. Gangs are a response to a security vaccum. Government is supposed to have a monopoly the use of force. If we were serious about that in poor communities, where one finds drugs and associated crime, we'd have it. Its not like we can't afford it. We just don't really care.)

CBC News: U.S. warns Canada against easing pot laws

Most likely the sons and daughters of the same people that want the confederate battle emblem put back on the Georgia Flag.

] A year after holding that school's first racially
] integrated prom, Taylor County High School in rural
] Georgia has returned to its segregationist ways and will
] be holding two proms again- one for white students and
] one for all students.

Nice job kids! You've done a fine job of perpetuating the stereotype that all southerners are racist rednecks.

Laughing Boy

Open Invitation for Georgia to Join This Century

Hrm... I'm posting this because these were my thoughts upon hearing about the Apple service. 99 cents a song is still too much money for disposable, low quality MP3s. I'd rather pay a flat rate subscription.

Unfortunately, it appears that this morning E-music released a new software revision that breaks all third party software that interoperates with it and forces end users to employ their download manager. This decision does not appear to be well thought out for a number of reasons. Personally its annoying because I've been making plans to write a client that allows MemeStreams and Emusic to interoperate so that you can have tracks picked by the reputation system, and as of today Emusic may have made that impossible. We'll see...

Why EMusic is better then the new Apple service (maybe)

] Yeah, I just think the blowback will be pretty bad. Any
] rumblings on Stratfor about how we intend on dealing with
] that?

Well for one, several people predicted that we would pull our troops out of Saudi Arabia, and we have... This is significant as SA is mecca and there are those that oppose our presence there for purely religious reasons. Also, the UK has been making noises about readdressing the Israel/Palestinian issue. They've actually admitted some western responsbility for the way things are, and have made rumblings about getting involved... You might watch developments vis-a-vis the parlimentary elections in Palestine for some information... (None of this is from stratfor... Their post war analysis was posted to Interesting People, but its mostly about pressures from Syria and Iran...)

RE: ABCNEWS.com : Officials: 9/11 Was Main Reason for War

] The Bush administration wanted to make a statement about
] its determination to fight terrorism. And officials
] acknowledge that Saddam had all the requirements to make
] him, from their standpoint, the perfect target.

The administration comes clean about its motives. Stratfor has been mostly dead on, if this story is correct. They apparently stop short of supporting the neo-conservatives, although in what way its not exactly clear.

ABCNEWS.com : Officials: 9/11 Was Main Reason for War