MIT Hacks Through the Years

PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror

"Massive misinformation" from Arab news networks such as Al-Jazeera is hampering the US effort in Iraq, Rumsfeld told the troops during his Christmas Eve visit to Mosul: "Everything we do here is harder because of television stations like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyah." In remarks that were not quoted in the American press, the defense secretary went on to tell the troops, "We don't go out and hire journalists and propagandize and lie and put people on payroll so that they'll say what you want. We just don't do that and they do and that's happening" (which is itself meta-misinformation.) Meanwhile, the Pentagon's multimillion-dollar solution -- the CIA-funded Iraqi news network, Al-Iraqiya (featuring "Iraqi programs that make you laugh, cry, and learn") -- has become "an irrelevant mouthpiece for [coalition] propaganda" according to one of its own former correspondents, veteran news reporter Don North. [from MetaFilter.com]

AARP Against Bush Plans for Social Security

There’s nothing wrong with Social Security that a few changes can’t fix
After 65 years Social Security is, like America, facing the challenges of aging. Fewer workers will be paying into the system to support those who receive benefits. By 2040 there will be just two workers for each retiree, compared with more than three today, seriously affecting the solvency of the system. But just how dire is the financial picture? Will Social Security be there for our grandchildren?
Designed to provide a basic income for retirees and their families, Social Security has done remarkably well in achieving that goal and is considered the most successful government program in the nation’s history.

Russia to Launch Satellite to Communicate With Aliens

Russian satellite experts have developed new panels that will allow people to send messages into space where they can be intercepted by interstellar civilizations. The new generation satellite, Glonass-M, is set to be launched on Dec. 25, with six initial information panels.
Russians will be able to send their space ads for free, but the company will determine which ones they accept.
The Krasnoyarsk satellite company that created the new panels said they had come up with the new way to make use of satellites — apart from their primary function, “satellites can be used as interstellar postmen,” the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The satellite will orbit at distance of 20,000 kilometers and can theoretically remain in space forever. Information in the form of drawings or script can be placed on special aluminum sheets with an area of 12cm x 26cm.

Military Lab Proposed Gay-Aphrodisiac Chemical Weapon

Thanks to a FOIA request from the Sunshine Project, a fascinating document has now come to light. In June 1994, the US Air Force Wright Laboratory wrote a proposal titled "Harassing, Annoying, and 'Bad Guy' Identifying Chemicals." While listing the categories of chemical weapons they planned to develop, the military scientists wrote:
Chemicals that effect [sic] human behavior so that discipline and morale in enemy units is adversely effected [sic]. One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior.
The Air Force Lab was quite serious about the proposal, listing a timetable and estimate of expenses for the overall project.
Total cost through fiscal year 2000: $7.5 million
Having enemy soldiers throw down their guns and start humping each other: Priceless
The document is here [PDF format]
Other documents about the US "non-lethal" weapons program are here

Federal Court Rules Minnesota Can't Regulate VoIP Internet Calls

A Minnesota agency may not regulate calls through cyberspace as it does calls through traditional phone lines, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Tuesday order by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upholds a lower-court ruling and is a win for fledgling companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., which provides Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission had argued that VoIP companies were providing phone-like service and therefore should be regulated as phone companies are. But those businesses said they provide an information service rather than a telecommunications service.
VoIP converts the sound of a voice into packets of data, sends them across the Internet, and reassembles them into sound on the other end of a call.

US Businesses Overseas Threatened by Rising Anti-Americanism

The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
One third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq, constituted their strongest impression of the United States.

Uncensored Restoration of Battleship Potemkin Premieres

A newly reconstructed version of the 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin will premiere at Berlin Film Festival.
The film, by Sergei Eisenstein, dramatised a mutiny on the Russian ship showing how it inspired a failed 1905 uprising against the country's czars.
It now includes Russian graphics and words from revolutionary Leon Trotsky, which were censored in the 1920s.
The festival, which is showing the film next year, said no complete print of the original movie survived.

AIDS Action Befriends Bush

"It's mind-boggling: Marsha Martin, the executive director of AIDS Action - the AIDS community's largest, most visible, and wealthiest Washington lobby, with a multi-million dollar budget - has jumped into bed with the Bush-Rove Republicans with both feet," political journalist Doug Ireland writes on his blog Direland. "In a perfectly scandalous act of betrayal of the AIDS community, Martin is one of a small committee sponsoring a pricey celebration of Bush's November victory, and that of the Republicans in Congress. And guess who gets the money from this orgy of felicitations to the GOP? A front group for Big Pharma that crusades against giving cheap, generic AIDS-fighting meds to the world's poorest victims of the AIDS pandemic." The event is a benefit for the Aids Responsibility Project, which counts as "partners" the giant trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Daimler Chrysler, drug maker Pfizer, U.S. Agency for International Development and the free-market website Tech Central Station.

Arthur Schopenhauer: The Art Of Controversy

If you find that you are being worsted, you can make a diversion - that is, you can suddenly begin to talk of something else, as though it had a bearing on the matter in dispute, and afforded an argument against your opponent. This may be done without presumption if the diversion has, in fact, some general bearing on the matter; but it is a piece of impudence if it has nothing to do with the case, and is only brought in by way of attacking your opponent.

Navy SEALs Sue Associated Press Over Iraq Photos

Six Navy SEAL special operations commandos and the wives of two of them sued The Associated Press and one of its reporters on Tuesday for publishing photos taken from a Web site that appeared to show the SEALs abusing prisoners in Iraq.
The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, said the pictures did not depict abuse and instead put the lives of the soldiers at risk by exposing their faces to the world.
"We haven't been served yet, so we haven't seen the complaint," said Associated Press attorney Dave Tomlin, who is representing the news agency and reporter Seth Hettena. "But we believe AP's use of the photos and the manner in which they were obtained were entirely lawful and proper."
The plaintiffs are identified only as "Six Navy SEALs and Two Jane Does," and the suit indicates they have been allowed to file anonymously by court order.

Agencies Clash on Fingerprint Database

Despite some improvement, the Justice, State and Homeland Security departments are at an impasse over such basic issues as whether two or 10 fingers should be printed at U.S. borders and which law enforcement agencies should have access to immigration information.
"Progress toward the longer-term goal of making all biometric fingerprint systems fully interoperable has stalled," Fine's report concluded.

Images of the Dec. 26th Tsunami

Video 1 2 3
Visualizations 1 2

Devastating quake redraws map
Sunday's destruction was unleashed by a 'megathrust' - a huge, sudden juddering movement beneath the ocean floor. Here, a buildup of pressure caused the Indian Ocean floor to lurch some 15 metres towards Indonesia, burrowing under its tectonic plate and triggering the ferocious swells that smashed the surrounding shores.The movement is likely to have altered the geography of neighbouring islands such as Simeulue, the Nicobar and Andaman islands, and Sumatra itself, says Bill McGuire, a geophysicist at University College London, UK. "In terms of the specific position of Sumatra on the planet, it will have moved," he says. "Things have shifted literally within minutes."

Michigan Now Open for New Jersey's Trash

Wayne County, already the dumping ground for all of Toronto's trash, is fast becoming the destination for New Jersey's construction waste, too.
To the ire of local and state officials, Canadian National Railway Co. this month began shipping as much as 1,000 tons of demolition debris -- broken walls, gnarled metal and the like -- 600 miles every day from the Garden State to Rockwood, a one stoplight community of 3,400 residents that hugs the border of Monroe County.
"Everyone is just disgusted," said Rockwood resident Dieter Schulz, a landlord. "It's terrible. Why is Michigan the dumping ground for everyone?"
The garbage flap began with rumors, remains stoked with mystery, but is almost certain to end in court. Along the way, the private deal could reshape Michigan's decade-long fight against out-of-state waste.

Steve Perry Adventures

Welcome to the Perry-Tales fan fiction site of make believe. This site is dedicated to the greatest voice in music, Steve Perry. If you are offended by fan fiction, any characterization of Steve or role playing, then this site is NOT for you. To the others, join us in this new Journey, and we shall gather under the banner of Perry-Tales! Enter all who desire something new and different.

Certain Things Have Come to My Attention

It has further come to my attention that the specter of my botched appearance before the Senate will end my political career, and may very well personally destroy me.
These revelations have shocked and bewildered me. How could I have done these things? How could I have remained unaware of them?
Are there two of me? Do I have an evil twin? Multiple personalities? A degenerative brain disease? Perhaps I'm psychotic?
Another equally troubling question is this: How could someone of my fundamental incapacity have come so close to heading the department of the United States government charged with protecting our country from acts of terrorism? Is anyone else horrified by this? Is anyone besides me even slightly bothered?
[thanks to Rod]

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed [oh and, also see :] [from MetaFilter.com]
Diamond teaches geography at U.C.L.A. and is well known for his best-seller “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. In “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” Diamond looked at environmental and structural factors to explain why Western societies came to dominate the world. In “Collapse,” he continues that approach, only this time he looks at history’s losers—like the Easter Islanders, the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Mayans, and the modern-day Rwandans. We live in an era preoccupied with the way that ideology and culture and politics and economics help shape the course of history. But Diamond isn’t particularly interested in any of those things—or, at least, he’s interested in them only insofar as they bear on what to him is the far more important question, which is a society’s relationship to its climate and geography and resources and neighbors. “Collapse” is a book about the most prosaic elements of the earth’s ecosystem—soil, trees, and water—because societies fail, in Diamond’s view, when they mismanage those environmental factors.

Recovered: Complete Fox News Series on Israeli Spying in US

Fox News' surprising and crucial December 2001 series on Israeli spy operations in the US was yanked off the Web soon after it triggered howls of rage from Israel and its supporters.
The transcripts of all four segments and the video of two segments have been widely mirrored on the Web since the story aired, but the first two video segments were thought lost until now. The entire series - video and text - is now available at the Information Clearing House:
Carl Cameron Investigates: Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.?

Satan Worshipper, Witch Testing Religious Liberty

A religious liberties lawsuit brought by a Satan worshipper, a Wiccan witch, a white supremacist, and an adherent of an ancient Viking religion is drawing the impassioned support of major national religious groups as it approaches a hearing before the Supreme Court.
The case is potentially the most important religious liberties case on this year's docket, impacting how far a state can go to accommodate the religious practices of its citizens and whether Congress can require states to be more accommodating.
The case was filed by a group of Ohio inmates - Jon Cutter, J. Lee Hampton, John Gerhardt, John Miller, and Daryl Blankenship - who are demanding access to religious books, medallions, and costumes, as well as the right to worship in groups while in custody.
Ohio prison officials have dismissed their religious claims as a cover for gang activities, noting as an example that one of the plaintiffs belongs to a church that has been linked to the Ku Klux Klan. Their lawyer countered that they are sincere: Mr. Blankenship, who practices a polytheistic Nordic religion called Asatru, fasted for weeks in protest of prison rules and was hospitalized.

Russia develops new nuclear missile systems, Putin states

Putin, speaking to armed forces chiefs, said although international terrorism was one of Russia's main security threats the country had also to keep its nuclear defenses in sound condition.
"We know that we have only to weaken our attention to such components of our defenses as the nuclear-missile shield, and new threats to us could appear," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. He said research and successful testing of new nuclear-missile systems technology was being conducted, informs Reuters.

LAPD Using New Facial-Recognition Technology

"It's like a mobile electronic mug book," said Capt. Charles Beck of the gang-heavy Rampart Division, which has been using the software. "It's not a silver bullet, but we wouldn't use it unless it helped us make arrests."
But Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the technology was unproven and could encourage profiling on the basis of race or clothing.
"This is creeping Big Brotherism," Ripston said. "There is a long history of government misusing information it gathers."

Creative Commons for Sciences to Launch Jan 1st

Numerous scientists have pointed out the irony that, at the historical moment when we have the technologies to permit worldwide availability and distributed processing of scientific data, legal restrictions on transfer make it harder to connect the dots. Learned societies including the National Academies of Sciences, federal granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation, and other groups have all expressed concern about the trends that are developing. Any solution will be need to be as complex as the problem it seeks to solve, which is to say it will be interdisciplinary, multinational, and involve both public and private initiatives.
Enter Science Commons
Science Commons is an exploratory project to apply the philosophies and activities of Creative Commons in the realm of science.
...Here Science Commons continues the traditional Creative Commons role as public interest lawyer. Existing Creative Commons licenses have immediate relevance in the field of scientific publishing. We cite as an example the Public Library of Science (PLoS) which has agreed to adopt CC attribution license as its standard license - enabling anyone to make and distribute translations, as long as they give credit to the original authors.

Mainstream Media Buffeted In 2004 By Right And Left

We have asked a number of media experts and critics to make sense of events and to reflect on what they believe has been the year's biggest media story - the one that will have the most lasting effect on the business.None of the answers we got were precisely the same, though most point to a continuing crisis within the traditional media and concern about where it all will lead. Here's what they had to say:

Jeffrey Dvorkin, ombudsman, National Public Radio
"The most important change, in my opinion, was the increasingly defensive posture that most journalistic organizations have assumed in order to avoid any charge of media bias. As a result of the stridency of talk radio, cable TV shows, media watchdogs and bloggers, mainstream media has sought to avoid controversy, even when it goes against their own journalistic values."

...Geneva Overholser, the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in public affairs reporting, Missouri School of Journalism, Washington bureau
"This was the year when it finally became unmistakably clear that objectivity has outlived its usefulness as an ethical touchstone for journalism. The way it is currently construed, "objectivity" makes the media easily manipulable by an executive branch intent on and adept at controlling the message. It produces a rigid orthodoxy, excluding voices beyond the narrowly conventional."
And it leads to a false balance of `on the one hand, on the other hand' stories that make the two `hands' appear equal even when factual weight lies 98 percent on one side. Objectivity's most effective use today is as a cudgel in the hands of those who wish to beat up on the media."

Steve Lovelady, managing editor of Campaigndesk.org, and former newspaper and magazine editor
"I think the most important media story of the year was the way in which the press was so easily manipulated by spin machines all the way through the election campaign, partly thanks to the fact that it was hopelessly hobbled by some of its own outdated conventions and frameworks. And that, in turn, is related to its embarrassing performance in 2003 on weapons of mass destruction and on the question of an Iraqi tie to 9/11."
[It is also related to] its inability to be as nimble or fast on its feet as some blogs, and to continuing media consolidation, which invariably leaves editors with less staff and less space to make sense of the world for their readers. In some fairly scary ways, it all dovetails together."

ABC's Glib and Misleading Coverage of the Recount

Ohio Official Refuses Interview Over Vote

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has requested a protective order to prevent him from being interviewed as part of an unusual court challenge of the presidential vote.
Blackwell, in a court filing, says he's not required to be interviewed by lawyers as a high-ranking public official, and accused the voters challenging the results of "frivolous conduct" and abusive and unnecessary requests of elections officials around the state.

Networks Refuse to Release Exit Poll Data

Conyers wrote to Warren Mitofsky, who owns the exit poll data, asking for the complete raw data, without the "real" numbers mixed in. Mitofsky balked, saying that the TV Networks actually own it and he was not able to release it without their permission. Conyers then took his inquiry to the leaders of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox.
And they promptly laid an egg. Through a spokesperson who spoke on behalf of all the media companies together, they said they are still analyzing the data and don't want to release it until they're done.

Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence

This afternoon, an attorney representing the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign filed two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud in the November election. The motions were filed in the matter titled Yost et al. v. Delaware County Board of Elections and J. Kenneth Blackwell (Civil Action No. C2-04-1139) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The document is titled "Motion Of Intervenor-Defendant Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. For A Preservation Order And For A Leave To Take Limited Expedited Discovery." The purpose of the motions is twofold: A) To preserve all ballots and voting machines pertaining to the Yost matter for investigation and analysis; and B) To make available for sworn deposition testimony a technician for Triad Systems, the company that produced and maintained many of the voting machines used in the Ohio election. The technician has been accused of tampering with the recount process in Hocking County, Ohio, though other counties are believed to have also been involved. Any officers of Triad Systems who have information pertaining to said tampering are likewise subject to subpoena for sworn deposition testimony.

Video Supporting Ohio Vote Fraud Claim Revealed

The revelation of this video has motivated Rep. John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, to post a letter to Brett Rapp, President of Triad Systems. In the letter, Conyers states:
"I have just reviewed a tape prepared by the documentarian Lynda Byrket of the hearing held by the Hocking County Board of Elections on December 20, and based on that tape I have more questions and concerns than ever about the conduct of your firm in connection with the Ohio presidential election and recount. In particular, I am concerned that your company has operated - either intentionally or negligently - in a manner which will thwart the recount law in Ohio by preventing validly cast ballots in the presidential election from being counted."

Questions over David Kelly's Death

Dr David Kelly is the first British citizen whose sudden, unexpected and violent death has been denied an inquest. Three weeks after Dr Kelly's body was found, Lord Falconer ordered that the inquest into his death be adjourned indefinitely and subsumed into a public inquiry by invoking section 17a of the Coroner's Act 1988.
The section is designed to avoid duplication of inquiry in cases of multiple deaths where the cause of death can, to some extent, be assumed from the outset. But Dr Kelly's was a solitary death coming amid a political storm concerning doubts over the government's case for war with Iraq, and its cause required rigorous investigation. The Hutton inquiry had no power to call a jury, subpoena witnesses or cross-examine them under oath.

Iceland tells U.S. to butt out; Fischer still welcome

Iceland has rejected a U.S. request to drop the offer of a residency permit for former American chess champion Bobby Fischer, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. ambassador to Iceland, James Gadsden, asked the country last week to withdraw its offer because Fischer is wanted in the United States on criminal charges.
Fischer, who is being held in Japan, is wanted in the United States on charges of violating U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia when he played a chess match there in 1992.
But on Monday, Foreign Secretary David Oddsson invited Gadsden to a meeting and told the U.S. ambassador that the Icelandic government stood by its offer, Icelandic officials said.

Evidence of Fraud and Disenfranchisement in Ohio: A Partial List

This post is intended as a resource tool for those doing factual research on Ohio election 2004 (a) fraud, (b) disenfranchisment, (c) voter suppression, (d) recount obstruction, and (e) vote machine tampering. It makes no pretense at comprehensiveness, but is merely an attempt to compile links which have been posted on this site which are primary sources of evidence, or which summarize, analyze, or point to, such sources. They are listed in reverse chronological order of posting. The permanent link to this post is

In Ohio, almost 1 in 50 votes for president don't count

Nearly 97,000 ballots, or 1.7 percent of those cast across the state, either did not record a preference for president or could not be counted because the voter selected more than one presidential candidate.
An analysis by Scripps Howard News Service found that Ohio recorded the second-highest number of missing votes in the country, behind California. Elections experts say a large number of missing votes in a high-profile race like president should raise a red flag that something may be amiss.

State Department Bans Arabic TV Network in US

"It's not a question of freedom of speech," State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said. "It's a question of incitement of violence. We don't see why, here or anywhere else, a terrorist organization should be allowed to spread its hatred and incitement through the television airwaves."
...The U.S. action had the effect of banning al-Manar in the United States, where its programming had been beamed via GlobeCast, a company that sells access to foreign television programs by satellite. "As of Friday last week, that channel is no longer on the satellite," GlobeCast spokesman Robert Marking said.
Some Arabic-speaking Americans expressed frustration with the State Department's action. Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, a newspaper in Dearborn, Mich., said al-Manar is popular in this country in part because of its strong support for "resistance against Israeli occupation."
"I disagree with the State Department that it incites violence," he said. "By that standard, they should shut Fox News for inciting violence against Muslims."

Berkeley Student Co-op Behaving Very Badly

More than a score of neighbors are suing an "Animal House" near the University of California, Berkeley, campus where over the years students have hurled chunks of roasted pig at passersby during a luau, beheaded a chicken with garden shears and twirled a flaming baton next to a neighbor's fence.The off-campus cluster of houses called Le Chateau has developed a reputation for outrageousness that has forced even the open-minded to demand closure to the situation. One former Chateauvian, as they're called, was dubbed "Naked Guy" because he went to class wearing only shoes and a small hat.On Monday, a small-claims court judge concluded hearing testimony from 21 neighbors, each of whom seeks $5,000, from the student housing cooperative association that owns Le Chateau. A date for the ruling was not announced. [thanks to Michael B.]

New coal plants bury 'Kyoto'

New greenhouse-gas emissions from China, India, and the US will swamp cuts from the Kyoto treaty.
The official treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions hasn't gone into effect yet and already three countries are planning to build nearly 850 new coal-fired plants, which would pump up to five times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce.
The magnitude of that imbalance is staggering. Environmentalists have long called the treaty a symbolic rather than practical victory in the fight against global warming. But even many of them do not appear aware of the coming tidal wave of greenhouse-gas emissions by nations not under Kyoto restrictions.

Scientific American's Top Science Stories of the Year

Mars Exploration
Researchers Unveil New Form of Matter
Cloned Human Embryos Yield Stem Cells
Chemists Report New Superheavy Elements
Ancient Shells May be Earliest Jewels
Ringed Victory: Cassini Gets Up Close and Personal with Saturn

Ohio GOP Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas as Kerry Enters Stolen Vote Fray

Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell refused to appear at a deposition on Monday, December 27. The deposition was part of an election challenge lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile John Kerry is reported to have filed a federal legal action aimed at preserving crucial recount evidence, which has been under GOP assault throughout the state.
Richard Conglianese, Ohio Assistant Attorney General, is seeking a court order to protect Blackwell from testifying under oath about how the election was run. Blackwell, who administered Ohio's November 2 balloting, served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.
James R. Dicks, Miami County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, filed a motion to block a subpoena in his county while Conglianese filed to block subpoenas in ten key Ohio counties.
President George Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove received notice that they will be deposed Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28 and 29. The trio’s Ohio attorney, Kurt Tunnell, so far claims his clients have not been properly served. Under Ohio law, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is responsible for serving the three with subpoenas.

Davey & Goliath Resurrected

After a nearly 30-year hiatus, Davey Hansen and his faithful dog Goliath are back to teach values to a new generation of young people. The Lutheran church has revived the 1960s-era animated series for a holiday special, "Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas." The special — with a theme of religious tolerance — debuted on the Hallmark Channel last week , and will be repeated at noon Sunday. If things go well, Goliath's exasperated "Oh, Davey" will be heard many times again when his master gets into trouble.

Google's 2004 Searches of the Year

1. britney spears
2. paris hilton
3. christina aguilera
4. pamela anderson
5. chat
6. games
7. carmen electra
8. orlando bloom
9. harry potter
10. mp3

Berkeley Property Lines Shifting with Earth

The land under Robert Mathews' house in the Berkeley hills has slid about 20 feet since the structure was built in 1916. But property lines do not move, which means that today half of his house seems to sit on his neighbor's land.
"I figure the property line runs right through the middle of the front doorway,'' he said.
Three major landslides in Berkeley and neighboring Kensington are creating a dilemma for residents who, like Mathews, live in the well-populated neighborhoods.

Alabama Judge Wears Ten Commandments on Robe

A judge refused to delay a trial Tuesday when an attorney objected to his wearing a judicial robe with the Ten Commandments embroidered on the front in gold.
Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan showed up Monday at his Covington County courtroom in southern Alabama wearing the robe. Attorneys who try cases at the courthouse said they had not seen him wearing it before. The commandments were described as being big enough to read by anyone near the judge.

Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane 'shot down' in Pennsylvania

Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000?
Here's what Rumsfeld said Friday: "I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."
Several eyewitnesses to the crash claim they saw a "military-type" plane flying around United Airlines Flight 93 when the hijacked passenger jet crashed – prompting the once-unthinkable question of whether the U.S. military shot down the plane.

"How Walmart Is Destroying America And The World: And What You Can Do About It"

Available for pre-purchase, online, from Walmart.com. List price: $10.95. Wal*Mart price: $7.55. You saved $3.40. [from MetaFilter.com]