A writer from Shanxi Province is waiting for someone to decode his
novel, a novel without a single word but a set of 14 punctuations, with a reward
of 140,000 yuan (US$16,900).

Although the novel consists of only 14 Chinese punctuations, he insisted that it tells a touching love story, with ups and downs and a complete outline, which he spent a whole year on the novel.

Hu is offering to reward those who can understand the hidden story with 140,000 yuan. He said 20 people have already come with their interpretations but none of them satisfied Hu. Hu thought they are all too far away from the story his novel is telling.

"I have my own answer, which is around 100 Chinese characters. The interpretation should cover the description of characters and the plot of the story, I will reward someone who can guess 80 percent the hidden story correct" he said.

Love Story in code

This little internet Flame Warrior guide does not pretend to be comprehensive, rather it attempts to describe some of the main belligerents one might encounter in a mailing list, news group, bulletin board or chat room. The internet can be cruel and unforgiving, and those who wander out onto the battlefield would be well advised to know their enemies.

This is amusing as hell. Some of the better entries: Admin, Bong, Nanny, Cyber Sisters, Eagle Scout, Evil Clown, Issues, Jekyl and Hyde, Rebel Leader, Royals, Ideologue, and Target.

PoliticsForum.org - Flame Warriors

IN a perfect world, the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers would be a proper carnival you could take your kids to, with cold lemonade at the Parkway Rest Stop, sword swallowing by Mister Snitch!, dunk-the-blogger booth at Mary's Lame Attempt at Fame, house of horrors at the Bad Hair Blog and the rest.

But then who in New Jersey contemplates a perfect world? So, absent perfection, for another glimpse of New Jersey Ascendant, check out the weekly assemblage of all things Jersey that has taken on a life of its own on the Internet.

In New Jersey, Blog Carnival Is WWWeird

Three other amendments that Democrats proposed failed, including one that would have blocked investigators from getting records from libraries or bookstores.

Its disturbing that this survived.

The panel approved a measure related to the Patriot Act that would let one provision expire in 2010, unless extended by Congress, that allows the FBI to wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists who may be operating on their own, without control from a foreign agent or power.

That is good. Anyone could possibly be construed as a "lone wolf terrorist"..

Lawmakers also accepted another Democratic proposal requiring federal agents to give more detail to judges about roving wiretaps, which allow investigators to specify a targeted individual rather than a mode of communication. Investigators would have to file a report to the court when they change where they're monitoring the suspect.

It might be worth noting recent revelations out of London about the identities of the suicide bombers. It appears you might be more likely to spot a school massacre then a well planned terrorist attack.. Not that the Patriot Act will, or is even designed to, help with that.

House Panel OKs Patriot Act Provisions - Yahoo! News

After a brief overview of the technology and its related issues, each participant will receive a Zapped! RFID workbook. Participate in one of several hands-on exercises. You can to build your own RFID keychain detector that will ring, vibrate or light up when a RFID reader is within range and scanning the airwaves for data. Or program a RFID tag to "talk back" to a RFID reader that you may uncover with your Zapped! keychain.

Coming to NYC, Houston, and San Francisco.

Zapped! RFID Workshops

Among the first NerdTV guests are PayPal co-founder Max Levchin; original Macintosh programmer Andy Hertzfeld; and Sun Microsystems co-founder and the father of Berkeley UNIX, Bill Joy. The premier program will include a two-minute feature called "What the heck is NerdTV?" The 13 one-hour shows will be made available on a weekly basis after the launch date and all previous episodes will continue to be available through the NerdTV Web site. NerdTV viewers are actually encouraged to download and copy the shows, share them with friends and even post them on their own Web sites - all legally.

PBS brings on the nerds. The nerds always win.

PBS | I, Cringely . NerdTV

Another creepy video by Chris Cummingham with Aphex Twin doing the soundtrack. Check out this longer and higher resolution version of the trailer.

Rubber Johnny

Bernard Ebbers, the folksy entrepreneur who built WorldCom Inc. into a telecommunications giant, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for his role in the business fraud that led to the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy.

The sentence means Ebbers, 63, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Now when does something finally happen to Lay and Skilling?

Ex-WorldCom CEO Ebbers sentenced to 25 yrs

Last week Healthcare Advocates sued both the Harding Earley firm and the Internet Archive, saying the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal.

Keeper of Expired Web Pages Is Sued Because Archive Was Used in Another Suit - New York Times

Hey baby, why don't you get into the back of the truck.. We can make a movie..

Department of Homeland Security Surveillance Truck