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8/21/2004

Couple Sleeping on Beach Executed :.

This is as weird as it is tragic. The story doesn't mention it, but the streaming video piece indicates that the couple was to be married on September 11th. Weird, eh?

Remember the strange murders of Abigail Tapia and Jacqueline Toves in Big Sur nearly a year ago?

Two soon-to-be-married Christian camp counselors reported missing earlier this week were murdered in their sleeping bags on a Sonoma County beach, authorities said. Their autopsies were being performed Friday.

The bodies of Lindsay Cutshall, 23, of Ohio, and Jason Allen, 26, of Michigan, were discovered by chance Wednesday on remote Fish Head Beach, when deputies rescuing a stranded hiker spotted the crime scene from their helicopter.


8/20/2004

300,000 Seek 3,000 Dockworker Jobs :.

Longshore union and port shipping officials yesterday sifted through 300,000 applications submitted as part of a special lottery for 3,000 lucrative temporary dockworker jobs at the nation's largest port complex.



Democracy: Police Ready Sound Weapon in New York :.

Wave your signs and shake your fists at an enemy with God-like powers. The pink-tutu crowd is finally going to get a wake-up call:

Forget the megaphones. Police will have a much more high-tech — and louder — option to make themselves heard over the din of Manhattan traffic and noisy protesters outside the Republican National Convention.

It's called the Long Range Acoustic Device, developed for the military and capable of blasting warnings, orders or anything else at an ear-splitting 150 decibels.


Related: U.S. Troops Have Sound Weapon



OIL TO $49 IN EARLY TRADING :.

$50 today?

I hope it keeps going and brings down the whole damn show. But we're not that lucky. Not yet, anyway.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has the stones to be long or short this thing! What premises are you using? Taking either position seems nuts to me, at this point:

A slowdown in oil's rapid rise is nowhere in sight as escalating violence in Iraq and continued high demand pushed record prices closer to the $50 a barrel mark Friday.

The contract price for U.S. light crude for September delivery jumped to $49 in electronic trading early Friday, up 30 cents from Thursday's record settlement.



U.S. Department of Justice Hit

A U.S. Department of Justice user (wdcsun23.usdoj.gov, IP 149.101.1.123) conducted the following Netscape search at 18/Aug/2004:14:43:47 -0600: israeli executed photos.



Senators Ask Where $8.8 Bln in Iraq Funds Went :.

Someone tell Cheney to empty his pockets:

At least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon.

The audit by the Coalition Provisional Authority's own Inspector General blasts the CPA for "not providing adequate stewardship" of at least $8.8 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq that was given to Iraqi ministries.

The audit was first reported on a Web site earlier this month by journalist and retired Col. David Hackworth. A U.S. official confirmed the contents of the leaked audit cited by Hackworth (www.hackworth.com) were accurate.



Scientist Who Paved Way for Dolly the Sheep Found Hanged :.

THE scientist whose pioneering research into human embryonic stem cells paved the way for the creation of Dolly the cloned sheep has been found hanged in his holiday home.

The body of Professor John Clark was discovered on Thursday in the village of Cove, near Eyemouth on the Berwickshire coast.

The 53-year-old professor was the director of the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world’s leading animal biotechnology research centres.

Prof Clark played a major role in the creation of Dolly - the transgenic sheep that marked a breakthrough in generating human therapeutic proteins in milk. He is believed to have been suffering from depression for some time.



Tattletale Society Explodes: Spy on Your Neighbor for the Homeland :.

Turn in your friends, family and neighbors and get a large order of Freedom Fries!

Off the nation's coasts, recreational boaters scan the waters for "suspicious" acts, from scuba diving in unlikely places to yachtmen sketching bridges or ports.

Manhattan's doormen learn how to spot packages that may contain biological weapons.

In Pennsylvania, amusement park operators train to recognize unusual phone calls or inappropriate requests for information.

Call them the new "first responders" in the war on terror. As average Americans, from truck drivers to handymen, are increasingly standing sentry, they're swelling the ranks of a citizens' army, always poised and on guard.

Last week, terror warnings sent law-enforcement officers fanning out across five financial buildings in Manhattan, Washington, and Newark. But grass-roots groups form another wall of defense, mobilizing in a nationwide watch for suspicious activity - from the supermarket to the state fair.


8/19/2004

OIL GAPS UP $1.48 TO $48.75

Where it stops, nobody knows. I'd like to know how gas prices are remaining stable... even as the price of the underlying commodity has been rising steadily for weeks.



Cell Phone Users Are Finding God :.

The Myth of the Machine run amok:

Once merely a useful tool for keeping in touch on the go, the mobile phone is fast finding a new niche as an instrument of spiritual enlightenment.

From Muslims who use their phones to point them toward Mecca, to Roman Catholics who collect text messages from the Vatican, religious observers across the globe are turning to their cell phones for aid and inspiration in practicing their faith.

In response, service providers and religious institutions are rolling out a host of services to attract the growing ranks of spiritually oriented phone users.

For followers of Islam, companies such as LG Electronics and Dubai-based Ilkone Mobile Telecommunications make phones that aid Muslims in their daily practice by indicating the direction of Mecca, providing the call to prayer or even incorporating the Quran within the phone. Even those with a regular phone can augment it with a religious ring tone or download a lunar calendar.

The text message, a dominant method of communication in many parts of the world, has also become a valuable religious tool. Indian operator BPMobile lets customers send prayers by SMS to a Bombay temple where they are offered to the Hindu god Ganesh.

In a similar vein, subscribers in the United States and several European countries can receive a daily text message from the pope.



Former U.S. Banker to Become Pakistan Prime Minister :.

HAHAHAHA!

Plucked from Citibank in New York to become finance minister after a 1999 military coup in Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz is just days away from becoming the 23rd prime minister of the turbulent South Asian nation.



Iran Warns of Preemptive Strike :.

Perhaps Mr. Shamkhani got long the crude before his press conference:

IRANIAN Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani warned today that Iran might launch a preemptive strike to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities, in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV.

"We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us. Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly," Mr Shamkhani said when asked about the possibility of a US or Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

"America is not the only one present in the region. We are also present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan; we are present in the Gulf and we can be present in Iraq," said Mr Shamkhani, speaking in Farsi to the Arabic-language news channel through an interpreter.

"The US military presence (in Iraq) will not become an element of strength (for Washington) at our expense. The opposite is true, because their forces would turn into a hostage" in Iranian hands in the event of an attack, he said.


8/18/2004

SEPTEMBER CRUDE OIL $47.01 $47.27 $47.50

Maybe I'll just mention what's happening with the price of oil when it breaks round numbers. $47, $48, $49, etc...


8/17/2004

Florida Looting :.

I'm writing an extended essay that is based on this St. Petersburg Times article. I had to post this ASAP, however, because of my several past references to, "Miller Time."

It actually is Miller Time in Florida!

Down the road in the park sat Vietnam veteran Gary Snyder, drinking Miller High Life. Snyder, who was among only a handful in Harborview who rode out the storm, said residents were anxious about looters, but he was prepared.

"If I see 'em, I'll shoot 'em," he said. "They're gone. I'll tell 'em I had a flashback."



Police Tell Journalists to Leave Najaf or be Shot :.

Mission Accomplished, Liberation, Democracy, etc.:

The Iraqi authorities ordered foreign journalists to leave Najaf yesterday, threatening to arrest or even shoot reporters as US marines and Iraqi government forces resumed the fight against Shia militants.

Iraqi police told the journalists to leave because of a supposed threat by insurgents to bomb their hotel. The intimidation - including shots apparently fired by police at the hotel - came as Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, hailed the birth of democracy in Iraq at the opening of a national conference in Baghdad.



Kerry's Blue Blood = Free Pints for Me :.

* Message flag to DG as well *

To Tony, the barman I bet that Kerry would win, I'll take my winnings as an equal split between Guinness and Wife Beater. Thanks ;)

And, if I lose, I'll take my plate of crow well done:

When it comes to American presidential elections, blue blood counts.

So say British researchers who predict that Democratic challenger John Kerry will oust President George Bush on November 2 because he boasts more royal connections than his Republican rival.

After months of research into Mr Kerry's ancestry, Burke's Peerage, experts on British aristocracy, reported yesterday that the Vietnam war veteran is related to all the royal houses of Europe and can claim kinship with Tsar Ivan "The Terrible", a previous Emperor of Byzantium and the Shahs of Persia.

Burke's director, Harold Brooks-Baker, said Mr Kerry had his mother, Rosemary Forbes, to thank for most of his royal connections.

"Every maternal blood line of Kerry makes him more royal than any previous American president," Mr Brooks-Baker said.

"Because of the fact that every presidential candidate with the most royal genes and chromosomes has always won the November presidential election, the coming election - based on 42 previous presidents - will go to John Kerry."


8/16/2004

Robot with Attitude: Armed with Shotgun, WMD Sensor :.

The U.S. Army has been testing a robot armed with a pump-action shotgun for counter-insurgency missions. The unit has already seen action in Iraq.

In combat, the PackBot can be equipped with a pump-action shotgun system capable of recycling and remote firing. A soldier controls the robot through a joystick and receives streaming video from a front-mounted camera transmitting to a personal digital assistant, or PDA.



French Author Urges Slacking :.

Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and openly embrace sloth.

Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy of "active disengagement" -- calculated loafing -- to escape the horrors of disinterested endeavor.

"Imitate me, mid-level executives, white-collar workers, neo-slaves, the damned of the tertiary sector," Maier calls in her slim volume, which is quickly becoming a national best seller. She argues that France's ossified corporate cultural no longer offers rank-and-file employees the prospect of success, so, "why not spread gangrene through the system from inside?"



U.S. to Halt Nuclear Fusion Project :.

Open hostility toward research into viable alternatives:

Amidst a prolonged stalemate over where to build the world's largest nuclear fusion facility, the US is halting work on a homegrown fusion project. The decision caused concern among researchers at a fusion meeting earlier this week.

The US is pinning its hopes on ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), which aims to lay the groundwork for using nuclear fusion as an inexhaustible and clean energy source.

But the project has been stalled since December 2003 because its six members - the US, the European Union, China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia – cannot agree on where to build the facility.


Related: Louisiana Girls Replicate Naudin/Mizuno Cold Fusion Reactor



Hugo Chavez Wins Referendum :.

Will the CIA try another coup?

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has claimed victory in a popular referendum to oust him.

With 94 percent of the recall vote counted early on Monday morning, 58 percent voted to keep Chavez in office and 42 percent had voted to oust him, said Francisco Carrasquero, president of the election commission.

The result means the leftist populist president will now be allowed to complete the remaining two years of his term.



U.K.: Children of Criminals to be 'Targeted' and 'Tracked' :.

Wow!

Children of criminals are to be "targeted" and "tracked" from an early age by the Government to prevent them following their parents into a life of crime, as part of a campaign to tackle the next generation of offenders.

In an offensive on youth crime, a programme to prevent 125,000 children whose fathers are in prison from joining them in jail, is being planned by the Home Office.

In an interview with The Independent, Hazel Blears, the Policing minister, says she is optimistic that "tracking" and "targeting" can help prevent children becoming criminals like their parents.


8/15/2004

Federal Reserve to Begin Transferring Money Over an Internet-Based System :.

HAHA! Excellent! Not long to wait now:

With little fanfare, the Federal Reserve will begin transferring the nation's money supply over an Internet-based system this month — a move critics say could open the U.S.'s banking system to cyber threats.

The Fed moves about $1.8 trillion a day on a closed, stand-alone computer network. But soon it will switch to a system called FedLine Advantage, a Web-based technology.

Proponents say the system is more efficient and flexible. The current system is outdated, using DOS — Microsoft's predecessor to the Windows operating system.

But security experts say the threat of outside access is too big a risk.

"The Fed is now going to be vulnerable in two distinct ways. A hacker could break in to the Fed's network and have full access to the system, or a hacker might not have complete access but enough to cause a denial or disruptions of service," said George Kurtz, co-author of "Hacking Exposed" and CEO of Foundstone, an Internet security company.

"If a security breach strikes the very heart of the financial world and money stops moving around, then our financial system will literally start to collapse and chaos will ensue."



Wiretapping the Web :.

As if hacking worries weren't enough, two recent legal developments have raised further fears among Web privacy advocates in the United States. In one case, the Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 last week to prohibit businesses from offering broadband or Internet phone service unless they provide Uncle Sam with backdoors for wiretapping access. And in a separate decision last month, a federal appeals court decided that e-mail and other electronic communications are not protected under a strict reading of wiretap laws. Taken together, these decisions may make it both legally and technologically easier to wiretap Internet communications, some legal experts told NEWSWEEK. "All the trends are toward easier to tap," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation.



DVD Player Profits Down to $1 :.

The finish line in the race to the bottom is in sight!

The revolution in consumer electronics that was supposed to make everyone rich apparently isn't.

Commoditization is hitting China's DVD player manufacturers hard, according to researcher iSuppli. Between January and May, the average selling price of a DVD player exported out of the Guangdong province came to $40.80, leaving just about $1 in profit margins for the manufacturers.




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