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] The lucky finder was showing off Lohan's California
] driver's license, her black American Express card and
] other things she'd rather we didn't mention.

New York Post Online Edition: gossip

] Embracing their newfound freedoms, the women
] of Afghanistan have come forward to let the rest of the
] world take a revealing peek into their secret lives.

Speaking of "Humor for the Irreverent"...

jest magazine - volume 3 issue 2

] NEW YORK, Dec. 6 (Reuters) - A jury on Monday decided the
] hijacked airline attacks that destroyed the World Trade
] Center were two separate events, doubling to $2.2 billion
] the damages leaseholder Larry Silverstein can collect
] from insurers.

This is a big deal, a lot of the insurance world was holding its breath on this. Not only is it a significant settlement (+$1.1B is never small) but a significant precident in insurance coverage in the terrorist age.

FT.com / Home US - Jury calls WTC attack two events

] The last of this year's big routers has arrived, as
] Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR - message board)
] today is launching its TX Matrix, the basis for its
] multichassis core router (see Juniper Intros TX Matrix ).
]
] The TX is an interconnection hub linking four of
] Juniper's T640 boxes so they behave as one honkin'
] router. Juniper is the last of the major router vendors
] to announce a multichassis architecture. Avici Systems
] Inc. (Nasdaq: AVCI - message board; Frankfurt: BVC7) has
] been selling one with its TSR, and Cisco Systems Inc.
] (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) went multichassis with its
] CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, launched in May (see Cisco
] Unveils the HFR ).
]...
] The announcement comes with only two major surprises.
] First, the TX connects four T640s rather than eight as
] promised in 2002. That's because the market for really
] big routers hasn't exactly blossomed yet. Future versions
] will support larger numbers of routers -- the TX has the
] capacity to connect dozens of them -- but Juniper won't
] commit to a larger size until carriers' future needs
] become clearer, says Tom Jacobs, senior marketing
] manager.
]
] The other surprise is that Juniper can't yet point to any
] paying customers for the TX.

No one is buying them (CRS-1 and TX and...) but they have to make them in a perversion of "if they build it they will come". Juniper will probably be very successful with this, as the 640 does have some traction, and it sounds like the base TX can handle as many 640s as a customer would want; so for the customer not quite ready to commit to the major overhaul, accumulating 640s now makes even more sense.

Juniper is up to 29% of the core router market? Zowie.

Light Reading - Networking the Telecom Industry

] ...an even better and more audacious speculation is that
] once publicly free of the PC division IBM will either
] buy, or form a close joint venture with Apple to sell its
] PCs, which coincidentally are now built around IBM's
] PowerPC chip.

This consolidation would fascinating, but I'm not sure I see it. If we accept that IBM has caught the Open Source Bug, buying a company that makes money on software -- and who is working on eliminating need for support at all (IBM's bread-and-butter) (see old memeage about the new iMacs being fully user servicable)... doesn't make much sense.

But... maybe. Maybe Apple would sell its computing division to IBM and fully become an iPod/media company. Maybe they'd inherit enough design-crazed staff to keep up the sexy-hardware lifestyle branding. Maybe.

And that would be the gleeful cackling of the Gartner analyst, over the reduction to 8 of 10 major players in a single well-timed move, that you hear in the background

Apple of IBM's eye? | The Register

] Dogs rendered paraplegic by severe spinal cord injuries
] regained significant neurological function after
] treatment with a polymer called polyethylene glycol, or
] PEG, say researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, US.

Article: Spine-damaged canines made to heal�| New Scientist

] Verified Rights Owner Program (VeRO) is eBay's version of
] the DMCA. Acrording to eBay, "eBay's VeRO Program was
] developed to facilitate cooperation between eBay and
] rights owners protecting their intellectual property
] rights." In other words, eBay just gave a select group of
] business owners carte blanche control over who can sell
] on eBay and what they can sell. This special class of
] eBayers can shoot first and ask questions later.

Interesting story. I think I agree with some of the comments about this having to be corrected by eBay or it will correct eBay. Choosing to adopt the principle of first sale or not is an important question for them -- do they expect to derive more as being an online authorized reseller, or is their real power from the small casual sellers.

I expect that if this keeps up, they will realize it is better to be eBay than Amazon. Because if people are just looking for bargains as authorized by the manufacturer, there are plenty of places. eBay is about being able to buy that super-obscure thing that someone happened to have. When I win an corporate branded Hummer, I want to be able to list it and not have the company revoke it.

VeRO: eBay's version of the DMCA || kuro5hin.org

] The folks at Merriam-Webster (publishers of the
] Merriam-Webster Dictionary) have released their Top Ten
] list for 2004. Topping the list is the word "blog," which
] most of us know all about from firsthand experience.

M-W announced top nine words of the year, tosses in "blog" -- story instantly blogged thousands of places -- M-W marketing exec gets bigger raise.

Geek.com Geek News -

] There are two types of thieves, whether they be car
] thieves or otherwise. First, there are the thieves that
] want a car, any car. And second, there are the thieves
] that want one particular car. Against the first type, any
] security measure that makes your car harder to steal than
] the car next to it is good enough. Against the second
] type, even a sophisticated GPS tracking system might not
] be enough.

Sometimes the professionals pull off something substantial enough to make international headlines. "Russian mafia" indeed... I propose a connection to the latest GTA (begin "Ban Video Games" thread here)

Schneier on Security: An Impressive Car Theft