] The world's richest man and one of the country's top news
] anchors sat down at a cafe for cappuccino but both
] walked away without paying the bill.
]
] NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw also was in town and
] interviewed Gates at the Past Times Cafe, where they both
] ordered a cappuccino. But when the interview was over,
] they left and no one paid the bill.
]
] "They just got right out the door, the security people
] ushered them right out," said Jackie Harrington, the
] waitress who prepared and served the coffee.
]
] No one thought much more about it until the cafe's owner,
] Corinne Arnold, got a call from Gates' office asking
] whether he owed some money. The cafe insisted the
] cappuccinos, which cost $3 each, were on the house.
]
] But Brokaw, a South Dakota native, thought otherwise and
] took care of the debt Wednesday with a note that included
] two $20 bills.
]
] "When we walked out without paying we got nailed," Brokaw
] wrote. "One 20 is for the coffee. The other is for the
] wall. Thanks, Tom."
]
] Cafe workers say the payment was unnecessary
] having the opportunity to serve Brokaw and Gates was
] reward enough, Harrin

Yea right. Fuck that shit - when you wipe your ASS with $100 bills, when you make more money in 60 seconds then most people make in a year, you don't get so fucking arrogant to think "oh they will comp us". Something tells me they were "reminded" they stiffed this coffee shop. And I'm not just talking about Gates. Brokaw isn't exactly hurting for cash himself.

Arrogant bastards.

Laughing Boy

Gates and Brokaw forget the check

] SAN FRANCISCO -- DVD-copying software maker 321 Studios
] is defending the legality of its products in court here,
] possibly facing an uphill battle before a judge who
] opened the hearing by saying she leans toward siding with
] Hollywood.
]
] U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said she is
] "substantially persuaded" by the opinions of other judges
] in earlier cases involving the 1998 Digital Millennium
] Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to distribute tools
] that circumvent copy prevention technologies. Those
] opinions were in favor of copyright holders.
]
] Several of Hollywood's largest movie studios are opposing
] 321 Studios, which markets several tools to make copies
] of movies on DVD. Initial hearings were held on Thursday
] in the request for an injunction barring the software
] vendor from selling its product. 321 Studios is facing
] complaints form Columbia Pictures, Disney, MGM Studios,
] The Saul Zaentz Company, Time Warner Entertainment,
] Tristar Pictures, and Universal City Studios.

DVD Copying Goes to Court

] WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and
] Daffy Duck will be used in public service messages
] educating Cambodians about land mines, the State
] Department said Wednesday.

Bugs Bunny to warn about land mines

] A new global study concludes that 90 percent of all large
] fishes have disappeared from the world's oceans in the
] past half century, the devastating result of industrial
] fishing.
]
] The study, which took 10 years to complete and was
] published in the international journal Nature this week,
] paints a grim picture of the Earth's current populations
] of such species as sharks, swordfish, tuna and marlin.
]
] The authors used data going back 47 years from nine
] oceanic and four continental shelf systems, ranging from
] the tropics to the Antarctic. Whether off the coast of
] Newfoundland, Canada, or in the Gulf of Thailand, the
] findings were dire, according to the authors.
]
] "I think the point is there is nowhere left in the ocean
] not overfished," said Ransom Myers, a fisheries biologist
] at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia

SNIP

This is bad. This is really bad. "Eat mor chikin"

CNN.com - Study: Only 10 percent of big ocean fish remain - May. 14, 2003

"...To the plaaaaanet core!" Boss Nass

] A Hollywood-like proposal to explore the center of the
] Earth calls for exploding a crack in the planet's surface
] and dropping a probe in behind tons of molten iron, which
] would sink and forge a path to the core.
]
] The plan is not ready for primetime, its creator told
] SPACE.com, but neither is it pie-in-the-sky.
]
] Exploring Earth's belly is ambitious in a scientific
] sense and could yield valuable data. The solid inner core
] rotates faster than the outer core, which is fluid and is
] responsible for Earth's magnetic field. But scientists
] don't know exactly why all this is so, nor do they know
] the exact composition or temperature of the core.
]
] A schematic shows how the probe would descend with molten
] iron, all in a crack that closes up behind the mission.
]
] If further research showed the core mission could
] actually work, it would be comparable in dollar terms
] with many space projects, says David Stevenson, a Caltech
] planetary scientist who has worked on several missions
] for NASA. Stevenson explains his idea in an article
] titled "A Modest Proposal" for the May

SNIP

NASA Meets Hollywood: Real Mission Proposed to Earth's Core

] The music industry's antipiracy efforts took an
] embarrassing turn Tuesday when the Recording Industry
] Association of America acknowledged that it has
] erroneously sent dozens of copyright infringement
] notices.
]
] The RIAA said Tuesday that a temporary worker was
] responsible for firing off legal notifications last week
] that invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act without
] confirming that any copyrighted files were actually being
] offered for download. "We have sent two dozen withdrawal
] notices--all appear related to this particular temp," the
] RIAA said in a statement. "We apologize for any
] inconvenience this may have caused."

When all else fails, blame it on the temp.

RIAA apologizes for erroneous letters | CNET News.com

Abstract: The entertainment industry, facing a formidable threat from peer-to-peer piracy networks, is exploring every possible means to attack these networks.

The industry is also employing defensive strategies to protect media and media players from those who would extract and copy their content. These content protection systems depend on the computer industry’s newly announced ‘trusted computing’ technologies.

While "trusted computing" technologies may better protect media and media players from content extraction by pirates, we assert that the very same technologies can be employed to better protect pirates and their peer-to-peer distribution networks from the entertainment industry.

Trusted Computing, Peer-To-Peer Distribution, and the Economics of Pirated Entertainment [PDF]

] AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Three Democrats returned to the
] Capitol on Tuesday, but more than 50 remained on the lam
] in Oklahoma, frustrating Republican efforts to push
] through a plan to redraw the state's congressional
] districts.
]
] The rebellious Democrats were holed up at a hotel in
] Ardmore, Okla. They sneaked out of Austin on Sunday after
] spending several days discussing ways to derail a GOP
] plan to redraw the districts that seeks to increase the
] number of Republican seats.
]
] With 58 Democrats gone on Monday, the 150-member House
] was unable to muster the two-thirds quorum needed to
] conduct business. House Speaker Tom Craddick called the
] House to order Tuesday morning but even with the return
] of three Democrats, there still were enough missing to
] block any House business.
]
] The three returning Democrats were welcomed back into the
] House chamber with hugs and supportive words from their
] Republican colleagues. One Democrat, Rep. Helen Giddings,
] fought back tears as she stated her desire to stop the
] redistricting plan.
]
] The defiant Democrats in Oklahoma said they would stay
] away until Republicans agreed to drop the redistricting
] plan.
]
] "It's totally up to Craddick, and he has been so
] advised," one of the Democrats told The Associated Press
] on the condition of anonymity. "If he'll get
] redistricting off the calendar, we'll be right there
] bright and early."

Only in Texas

Texas Dems skip session

] Style is a personal thing, this is nothing new. But I've
] always found it fascinating how diverse opinions can be,
] especially in the same city, in a similar age range. One
] girl's turn-off may be another girls cat's meow.
]
] To determine if there were universal female gripes within
] NYC, I did some digging. A simple question to female
] friends and associates, "Is there something you see a guy
] wearing that turns you off, before you even know him?"
] turned into an endless barrage of answers. (You'll see
] that "shy" would not be the word to describe the
] participants.)
]
] But for now, here's what the girlies DON'T like:

There's a corresponding article for girls at http://www.nycpulse.com/web/articles/fashion/nov/112602a.htm

I find it amusing when there is a trend in modern society that most people don't find attractive or interesting, but it seems to be extremely popular nonetheless.

New York's guide to entertainment, restaurants, nightlife and events | nycpulse.com online

] WASHINGTON Few Americans give the money in their
] wallets more than a glance, but maybe they should. More
] than $130 million in counterfeit U.S. money is estimated
] to be circulating around the globe.
]
] If you put all the counterfeit U.S. bills end-to-end,
] they would stretch more than 260 miles, about the
] distance between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. (More
] details: $20 bill's features, new and old)
]
] In an effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters, the
] government on Tuesday announced changes to the $20 bill
] %u2014 the most commonly copied currency domestically.
] The bill, which will enter circulation in the fall, will
] include colors other than green for the first time in
] modern history. Currency was last redesigned in 1996, and
] the most recent $20 has been in circulation for 4½ years.
]
] The redesign in part is in response to the proliferation
] of inexpensive, high-quality home computers, scanners and
] printers that have made it easier for counterfeiters to
] fake money.

It's too easy being green