Conflict Simulation :War Studies :King's College London

Conflict Simulation :War Studies :King's College London

Index of /debian-cd/current/powerpc/iso-cd

Index of /debian-cd/current/powerpc/iso-cd

Contains a 70mb businesscard.iso linux installation (debian). Awesome.

Need Small PPC Linux - Ubuntu Forums

Need Small PPC Linux - Ubuntu Forums: "Go debian, you can learn to do the custom install to build your very own small linux.

this is the net installer, you can install a base system-> http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian-cd/...sinesscard.iso

install the base system, that means when it comes to the package selection uncheck all the packages(standard and desktop, i think)
after the reboot, there won't be a gui yet
login as root
apt-get install xorg gdm synaptic fluxbox emelfm leafpad dillo
reboot(ctrl alt delete)
select fluxbox from the session menu <important
login
open synaptic and get what ever else you want,
emelfm is a filemanager
leafpad is a text editor
dillo is a small web browser"

June 2008 - Pirate’s Booty - Los Angeles Magazine

June 2008 - Pirate’s Booty - Los Angeles Magazine: "Disney warned us we were going to have a lot of horny women coming on to us. They were also worried about girls. I heard Disneyland had an Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She was very flirtatious, and they finally pulled her because men found her too sexually arousing and were acting out."

Dear Shaun, at bluishorange

Dear Shaun, at bluishorange

You might get fed up and snap and have a hamburger. You might find that you’re perfectly happy being a vegetarian all the time except Sunday mornings, when you just want to goddamned pieces of bacon with your scrambled eggs. You might not think about the chicken stock in the soup until after you’ve eaten it. That’s ok. Don’t feel like you’ve failed as a vegetarian. Even though, yes, you ate some meat, you are eating less meat. Your new vegetarianism (whatever your reason for it) is not some fragile vase that is going to shatter the second you have a bite of meat. It is as strong as you decide it is, and the boundaries are where you set them. Remember that what’s important here is net benefit. A single hot dog does not erase all the benefits from not eating meat for the previous weeks, months, or years. If you were only 100% vegetarian for a single day that would be better than never.

Footprints At The River's Edge

Footprints At The River's Edge: "City after city, when they'd find the spot where the body went in, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face. 'It's very disturbing,' Duarte said. The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it's a sick signature the killers leave behind. They found one eight years ago in Wisconsin and then others in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Then most recently, they believe they've found one in Iowa. In Michigan, they found something strange among the groups graffiti, the word 'Sinsiniwa.' They couldn't figure out what it meant until a few months later when they arrived in Dubuque, Iowa to investigate the death of Matt Kruziki. His body was found on Sinsiniwa Avenue. Plus, they've discovered the nicknames of people in the group at more than one location."

Stephenie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling? - TIME

Stephenie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling? - TIME

Charles Wilson (Texas politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Wilson (Texas politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Wilson later arranged a meeting between Somoza and Ed Wilson, who offered to form a 1000-man force of ex-CIA operatives to fight in Somoza's behalf. The meeting collapsed when Somoza lecherously fondled Tina Simons, Wilson's girlfriend."

GameShark | Features | Cracked LCD 5.1: RISK Black Ops Q&A

GameShark | Features | Cracked LCD 5.1: RISK Black Ops Q&A: "There’s a 2-player version of Risk called Balance of Power that springboards off the new ruleset. It will be out in Germany this year and the rest of the world in 2009. I quite like it."

Kidney Stone Diet

Kidney Stone Diet: "Although there are many foods that contain large amounts of oxalate, eight foods have been shown to be most at fault for raising urine oxalate levels. They are rhubarb, spinach, strawberries, chocolate, wheat bran, nuts, beets, and tea."

"Mission Accomplished," 5 Years Later, Since Bush Declared End To Major Combat Operations In Iraq, Nearly 4,000 U.S. Troops Have Died - CBS News

"Mission Accomplished," 5 Years Later, Since Bush Declared End To Major Combat Operations In Iraq, Nearly 4,000 U.S. Troops Have Died - CBS News: "Mr. Bush said, 'Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

LocalHikes - Mill B North Fork Overlooks

LocalHikes - Mill B North Fork Overlooks: "Trailhead: The Mill B North Fork Trailhead is 4.4 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon just north of the Mill B South Fork Picnic Ground.

Getting to Big Cottonwood Canyon:

Take I-215 South (freeway will become I-215 East) until you reach the 6200 South exit. Turn right onto Wasatch Boulevard, then turn left at Big Cottonwood Canyon. The intersection is clearly signed. You will see a 7-11 store to your right."

LocalHikes - Ensign Peak Trail and Overlook

LocalHikes - Ensign Peak Trail and Overlook: "Trailhead: Make your way to the State Capitol Building. Do this by traveling State Street from downtown, which will take you past the Capitol on the west side. Take the cross street either in front of or behind the Capitol complex until you reach East Capitol Blvd. Turn left and drive north through the residential area until you reach North Sandrun Drive (940 N) and turn left on that road. Drive about 1 block and the road 'forks'. In the middle of the fork is an LDS meetinghouse. Take the right fork, which runs behind the church. The trailhead is about 1/2 block further on the right hand side and is a developed, easily identifiable trailhead. (Lat:40.79185 Lon:-111.88825)"

Why Hillary Clinton makes my wife scream

Why Hillary Clinton makes my wife scream: "Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From first lady to Lady Macbeth."

5 rules to make your work day sane - Mar. 9, 2006: "Shirky was getting nowhere recently on an important book proposal. Until one day he found himself working on it underground, riding the R train from his home in Brooklyn to NYU's campus in Manhattan. Free from office interruptions, he experienced a breakthrough. 'Suddenly I was flying on it,' he says. 'I thought, Why get off the subway now?' He stayed on the train as it rumbled through Manhattan and into Queens. Thirty-two extra stops later (16 each way), he emerged victorious. Score: Shirky 1, temptation 0."

FBI Fears Chinese Hackers Have Back Door Into US Government & Military, page 1

FBI Fears Chinese Hackers Have Back Door Into US Government & Military, page 1: "Some months ago, my contacts in the defense industry had alerted me to a startling development that has escalated to the point of near-panick in nearly all corners of Government security and IT infrastructure. The very-real concern, being investigated by the FBI, is that either the Chinese government or Chinese hackers (or both) have had the benefit of undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military computer networks for months, perhaps years. The cause: a high-number of counterfeit Cisco routers and switches installed in nearly all government networks that experienced upgrades and/or new units within the past 18 months."

Pay Day! What should I get? | BoardGameGeek Forums

Pay Day! What should I get? | BoardGameGeek Forums: "I would second the TransAmerica suggestion. I would also get the Vexation expansion (very cheap) for the game. My wife, parents and son love game. We often play 4-5 games in a sitting with variations that include random 10 cities, 8 cities, etc. It is fun, quick and has some strategy as the game rarely ends in a blowout."

Just heard what sounded like a gunshot.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "I stick to my view that she needed double digits to have reason to stay in. Right now, she doesn't have it. But she won't leave. She will never leave. Ceding to someone younger is unthinkable to her. It's a form of death for her.

But here's what she does have: total shamelessness, and an absolute belief that she is the rightful nominee. Shamelessness: the appropriation of the message and even the words of her opponent; the portrayal of one of the most privileged and advantaged candidates in memory as an insurgent underdog; the eager embrace of the tactics - and message! - of the Rove right"

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "It's worth recalling what this primary came to be about, because of a self-conscious decision by the Clintons to adopt the tactics and politics of the people who persecuted and hounded them in the 1990s. It was indeed in the end about smearing and labeling Obama as a far-left, atheist, elite, pansy Godless snob fraud. That was almost all it came to be about. It was the Clintons' core message and core belief. And if anywhere would have proved its salience, it would surely have been beleaguered and depressed central and western Pennsylvania; and it would surely have worked with white ethnic voters over 50.

It did work, it seems to me. It will work, to some extent. It's valid in the sense that Rove is not stupid. But it works less and less the younger the vote is; and it is obviously losing some of its divisive salience even among the older generation. It is fading as a tool."

ABC News: Clinton on Iran: If They Attack Israel, We Could 'Obliterate Them'

ABC News: Clinton on Iran: If They Attack Israel, We Could 'Obliterate Them': "Clinton on an Iran Attack: 'Obliterate Them'

Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on 'Good Morning America' Tuesday. ABC News' Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

'I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran,' Clinton said. 'In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.'"

ACLU joins debate about FLDS kids' custody - Salt Lake Tribune

ACLU joins debate about FLDS kids' custody - Salt Lake Tribune: "SAN ANGELO, Texas - The ACLU of Texas has joined the debate over the removal of 416 children from a polygamous sect's ranch more than two weeks ago.
And a Utah man has gathered 1,000 signatures on an online petition site from people who oppose the blanket removal of the children from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado. That petition is on its way to Texas, said Connor Boyack, a political blogger. The petition is online at www.thepetitionsite.com
/2/free-the-innocent-flds."

Creative Loafing Atlanta | News & Views | Have you seen Jeff Mangum?

Creative Loafing Atlanta | News & Views | Have you seen Jeff Mangum?: "On a London stage in October 1998, the four members of Athens band Neutral Milk Hotel played their last show together. For nearly a year, they'd been on a grueling tour to support In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, an album that had become the darling of music critics across the country."

LDS.org - Ensign Article - God Helps the Faithful Priesthood Holder

LDS.org - Ensign Article - God Helps the Faithful Priesthood Holder: "The second part of the message you will receive as you pray for help in facing a hard assignment came to me very early Friday morning. I had prayed, as you will, about overwhelming inadequacies. The answer was very clear and very direct and really a rebuke as I prayed. “Forget yourself—start praying about the people you are to serve.” That does wonders, I can testify, to bring the Holy Ghost."

Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Waxy.org

Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Waxy.org: "Okay, maybe this is a good idea. One person I talked to said, 'When it sells 20,000 copies we'll finally be rid of Douglas Adams.' That may be a little cynical. However, let's look at the alternatives."

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of bestselling books Blink and The Tipping Point, and is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Several years ago, on a flight from New York to California, I had the good fortune to sit next to a psychologist named Dan Gilbert. He had a shiny bald head, an irrepressible good humor, and we talked (or, more accurately, he talked) from at least the Hudson to the Rockies--and I was completely charmed. He had the wonderful quality many academics have--which is that he was interested in the kinds of questions that all of us care about but never have the time or opportunity to explore. He had also had a quality that is rare among academics. He had the ability to translate his work for people who were outside his world.

Now Gilbert has written a book about his psychological research. It is called Stumbling on Happiness, and reading it reminded me of that plane ride long ago. It is a delight to read. Gilbert is charming and funny and has a rare gift for making very complicated ideas come alive.

Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?

In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating--and in some ways troubling--facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination. We're far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren't particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren't nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think.

I suppose that I really should go on at this point, and talk in more detail about what Gilbert means by that--and how his argument unfolds. But I feel like that might ruin the experience of reading Stumbling on Happiness. This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me. --Malcolm Gladwell

Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty Wurlitzer

Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty Wurlitzer: "OSS veteran Frank Wisner ran most of the early peacetime covert operations as head of the Office of Policy Coordination. Although funded by the CIA, OPC wasn't integrated into the CIA's Directorate of Plans until 1952, under OSS veteran Allen Dulles. Both Wisner and Dulles were enthusiastic about covert operations. By mid-1953 the department was operating with 7,200 personnel and 74 percent of the CIA's total budget."

NPR: AP FactCheck: Obama's Connections to Ayers Tenuous

NPR: AP FactCheck: Obama's Connections to Ayers Tenuous: "But the Clinton campaign won't give up. In conference calls today, Clinton spokesman said Ayers 'political' relationship with Obama was more important than President Clinton's decision to pardon two of former Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans on terrorist related weapons charges.

Come again?

'Asked if Hillary Clinton had expressed any disagreement with her husband's actions in commuting the sentences of Rosenberg and Evans, Wolfson said only that he would ask the candidate.'"

I'm not even feeling guilty about hating Hillary Clinton any more.

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": "What is a Web 2.0 marketing guy, anyway? Somebody who gets paid to have 'Ever-Fragmenting Conversations about Ever-Fragmenting Conversations.' Compared to tarring roofs in Texas in summer, it's not a bad job, but... Whatever.

But one hundred years from now, I'll be dead, and this website will be gone. Nobody will be talking about Web 2.0 anymore. But a wee voice tells me some of the cartoons will be still floating around, maybe online, maybe in books, maybe one or two of the originals will be hanging in private collections."

Interesting Times: George Packer: Online Only: The New Yorker

Interesting Times: George Packer: Online Only: The New Yorker: "This is far from the only thing Obama believes about religion and small-town America, as his 2004 interview with Charlie Rose and much else in his career show. Conservative propagandists like Kristol are predictably and unfairly wrapping Obama’s disastrous sentence around his neck and garroting him with it. So is Hillary Clinton, and the spectacle of her swallowing a boilermaker in a Pennsylvania bar is crass opportunism that will antagonize more voters than it charms. These days the winner is always McCain."

Randy Pausch - Last Lecture - Living Life to the Fullest - Tara Parker-Pope - New York Times

Randy Pausch - Last Lecture - Living Life to the Fullest - Tara Parker-Pope - New York Times: "Dr. Pausch said that his wife persuaded him to write the book, but that he was worried it would take too much time away from the children. Because he rode his bike every day to keep up his strength, he spoke with his co-writer, Mr. Zaslow, by phone on 53 one-hour bike rides."

Salary trend report: College faculty pay weakening in Utah, nation - Salt Lake Tribune

Salary trend report: College faculty pay weakening in Utah, nation - Salt Lake Tribune: "'Only a few of the college athletes on the field, or of the students in the stands, will find their future success in life determined by what they learned on Saturday afternoons at the game,' report author Saranna Thornton writes. 'What will count most in the decades after graduation is what they learned from their professors in the classroom.'"

D O S H

D O S H

some nifty looping mp3s

Donklephant � Blog Archive � Gore And Carter To Tell Hillary “No Mas”

Donklephant � Blog Archive � Gore And Carter To Tell Hillary “No Mas”: "DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de gr�ce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.

Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.

Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats.

“They’re in discussions,” a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. “Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence.”"

'She's Got a Gun': Every picture tells a story | ajc.com

'She's Got a Gun': Every picture tells a story | ajc.com: "I was terrified at first about my gun. But once I learned the pleasure of shooting, I understood the allure of it for him.

Q: What's the allure?

A: The ability to control it and shoot it accurately. When I'm shooting at a range and have ear muffs on, I feel like I'm in this tunnel all by myself, even though there might be other people around. You have to grip it in such a way ... that when you squeeze the trigger it doesn't wiggle anywhere. That body posture is the sweet spot."

Lore Sj�berg's Alt Text: Fat Lady Sings for Geeky Time Traveler

Lore Sj�berg's Alt Text: Fat Lady Sings for Geeky Time Traveler: "This is where opera breaks down for geeks and their famously short attention spans. They get bored spending hours watching people sing about dying. I figure if I can enjoy grinding for Worn Dragonscales in Warcraft, I can sure as hell enjoy watching a busty Chilean soprano in a corset emote for a while. Plus, there were two intermissions where Dreyer's Dibs could be purchased for a merely outlandish price."

http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=1640

Fashion tips for women from a guy who knows dick about fashion.

Fashion tips for women from a guy who knows dick about fashion.: "When I see people wearing Crocs, I know immediately that we have nothing in common, and that we could never be friends or have any meaningful kind of relationship. They come in every color imaginable yet look bad with every other article of clothing ever created. The only thing that goes with Crocs is social ostracism."

Shine a Light - Movie - Review - New York Times

Shine a Light - Movie - Review - New York Times: "At the heart of the gizmo, Mr. Jagger whirls, leaps, struts, wiggles his tiny hips and sashays around like an androgynous tart prowling a street corner at 3 a.m."

Scientists Find Another, More Reasonable Universe | Wired Science from Wired.com

Scientists Find Another, More Reasonable Universe | Wired Science from Wired.com: "Research funding. The public has demanded that basic science be funded at levels comparable to what is now spent on the Air Force. (The Navy budget goes to the arts.) Congress has established an endowment, overseen by the National Science Foundation, that is legally known as the Really Cool S--t Fund, and nobody complains about the Large Hadron Collider or other projects lacking immediately practical applications. When people do complain, they're sentenced to a day in the backyard with Legos, an erector set, a terrarium and a magnifying glass, and they can't come inside until they've enjoyed themselves."

Faulkner House Books - New Orleans, LA 70116

Faulkner House Books - New Orleans, LA 70116: "Expect to get lost on your way and end up asking a half-drunk english professor the way. He will be ready."

GeekList: Autism and Boardgames: Some Observations | BoardGameGeek

GeekList: Autism and Boardgames: Some Observations | BoardGameGeek: "If nonfiction is your thing, you could pick up any of the books by Temple Grandin, such as 'Thinking In Pictures' or 'Emergence: Labeled Autistic'.

If, like me, you're much more drawn to fiction, I cannot possibly give a higher recommendation to the book 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,' by Mark Haddon. It's a wonderful book and it's been widely praised by those both on and off 'the spectrum' for being one of the most realistic first-person fictional accounts of what an autistic teenager might think and feel. As well, I just plain found it to be a very emotionally moving story."

New Therapies Fight Phantom Noises of Tinnitus - New York Times

New Therapies Fight Phantom Noises of Tinnitus - New York Times

A problem ever since the q-tip incident.

My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-Terrestrial Technology

My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-Terrestrial Technology: "It's no surprise that these sightings are all taking place in California, and especially the Saratoga/South Bay area. Not far from Saratoga is Mountain View/Sunnyvale, home to Moffett Field and the NASA Ames Research center. Again, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the device capable of hijacking the cloaking of these nearby craft was inadvertently triggered, probably during some kind of experiment, at the exact moment they were being seen. Miles away, in Big Basin, the witnesses were in the right place at the right time and saw the results of this disruption with their own eyes. God knows what else was suddenly appearing in the skies at that moment, and who else may have seen it. I've had some direct contact with this device, or at least a device capable of the same thing, and this kind of mistake is not unprecedented. I am personally aware of at least one other incident in which this kind of technology was accidentally set off, resulting in the sudden visibility of normally invisible things. The only difference is that these days, cameras are a lot more common!"

Daily Herald - State should settle bear lawsuit

Daily Herald - State should settle bear lawsuit: "The earlier attack was serious. About 5:30 a.m. a bear, apparently attracted by a cooler, went through a tent occupied by two young people. They got out, and with friends they threw rocks and fired pistols into the air to drive the bear away.

Wildlife officials designated the animal as a dangerous Level III bear and hunted for it, but without success. A wildlife official reportedly stayed at the site, but left before Sam and his family arrived."

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS: "You're not talking about a diet with no carbs, just a reduced amount?

The underlying philosophy is this kind of Paleolithic diet theory. It's what we ate during the 2 million years that we were hunter-gatherers on this planet. The fact that we were hunter-gatherers for 2 million years suggests it was an extraordinarily successful evolutionary adaptation. The question is: What did we eat during these 2 million [years] when we left the jungle, the trees, went down into savanna and started surviving on whatever we could hunt or gather? That's the philosophy. The answer is, probably considerable meat, very low glycemic index, hard-to-digest roots and starches, and fruits and berries that look nothing at all like the beautiful Fuji applies you can buy at your local market now. Some carbohydrates, but whatever it was, it wasn't refined. It wasn't sugar. It wasn't flour. It wasn't easy to digest. That's my going theory. If this theory's right, the diet we evolved to eat is probably the correct diet."

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS: "What made you go after this topic in the first place?

Two things. I'd been reporting on salt and blood pressure, which is a huge controversy, and some of the people involved in that were involved in the advice to tell Americans to eat low-fat diets, and they were terrible scientists. These were some of the worst scientists I'd ever come across in my 20-odd year career of writing about controversial science."

Gone Gaming: Game Store Confidential

Gone Gaming: Game Store Confidential: "Daddy, what's scurvy? The school nurse kept saying that word today.'

'That's what little girls get when they ask too many questions. Now finish putting the base coat on those wolf riders or there's going to be no birthday parties this year.'"

Gone Gaming: IP, Morality, and the Gaming Industry, Part Two: Developers

Gone Gaming: IP, Morality, and the Gaming Industry, Part Two: Developers: "John Bohrers has a history of legalistic combativeness that disregards the game player. My understanding is that his father is a patent attorney or copywright lawyer or some such thing, a fact which he bandies around like a threat. He attempts to intimidate people through the implied threat of a lawsuit for which he will pay no legal fees. This is probably especially intimidating to a foreigner faced with the American legal system and its less than stellar international reputation. John acts exclusively in his very-narrowly-defined self-interest that leaves him looking like he is indeed, a crackpot."

Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D.

Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D.: "Here’s a tip: If the building you are currently in is burning to the ground, go find the person with NADD on your floor. Not only will they know where the fire escape is, they’ll probably have some helpful tips about how to avoid smoke inhalation as well likely probabilities regarding the likelihood you’ll survive. How is it this Jr. Software Engineer knows all this? Who knows, maybe he read it on a weblog two years ago. Perhaps a close virtual friend of his in New York is a fire fighter. Does it matter? He may save your life or, better yet, keep you well informed with useless facts before you are burnt to a crisp."

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR

Web Grognards: computer wargames

Web Grognards: computer wargames: "Computer wargames: Macintosh software"

Big Phat Liar - March 26, 2008

Big Phat Liar - March 26, 2008: "In an October 2003 letter to a federal judge preparing to sentence his son on fraud and identity theft counts, Peter Sabatino recalled that James was a successful child model whose mother, an unknown B-movie actress, 'projected all of her dreams of fame and fortune onto her son.' When James was 11, Peter wrote, the boy's mother left home, never to come back. 'Shortly thereafter, I received a call from James' teacher that James had told her his mother had died in a car accident. Obviously this wasn't true but was his way of resolving the matter in his head and his heart.'

From that point, James's behavior spiraled out of control and he was 'expelled from twelve different schools, parochial, private and finally public.' At one point he even spent 30 days in a psychiatric facility. The only thing that calmed James, his father wrote, was long hours in front of the television, where the boy would 'anxiously wait for the credits and write down the names of producers, directors and others that he felt were influential in the production."

New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn't Shot | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn't Shot | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "Still others, such as part-time music teacher and amateur ballistics specialist Luke Rossamer, refuse to rule out the possibility of lethal projectiles. According to Rossamer, bullet fragments that had lain dormant in Kennedy's head since World War II—when he was attacked by Navy frogmen who were bankrolled by mob boss Sam Giancana and disguised as a Japanese destroyer—were detonated by Ku Klux Klansmen on Nov. 22, 1963."

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea: "Alex: To be honest, I don’t think decisions matter that much. What matters is working your [---] off in between the decisions. And there’s something else I believe in: find your bliss. Find that one thing you really like doing and the decisions will make themselves."

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea: "haveanidea: Talking about planning: someone once said that planning was “research done right”. Now when I look at the number of times your campaigns have really hit the sweet spot, it seems to me that Crispin Porter Bogusky’s strategic planning is “strategic planning done right”. Can you tell me a bit more about your so-called Cognitive and Cultural Studies department?
Alex: Looking at planning and trying to understand how to perfect it, we realized that planning is an extremely advertising centered thing. So we started bringing in people from universities like sociologists or anthropologists. We still have planners who were brought up in agencies but we have these scientists too who are sometimes such brain jars they can’t really take a meeting with the client.

ihaveanidea: You mean they are nerds?
Alex: Let’s call them academia."

The L Magazine, New York City's Local Event Guide

The L Magazine, New York City's Local Event Guide: "A co-worker recently asked me if I’d ever been to Phoenix. Born and raised in Queens, he’d just come back from visiting a relative in Arizona.

“I don’t know, man,” he said, “It’s pretty nice out there. Quiet. Cheap. Warm all the time. For like $200,000 you can get a big house in a good neighborhood.

“Everyone’s always like, about New York — ‘I want the restaurants. I want the bars. I want the excitement.’ Yeah, sure, whatever. I’m like, ‘just give it a few years.’

“Believe me. You get over it.” •"

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | What if Hillary hadn't gone to the Scullery?

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | What if Hillary hadn't gone to the Scullery?: "History might have marked her famous St Patrick’s Day speech as the turning point in her campaign. The press would have been talking about her ability to make us think, to challenge the way we do politics in this country. By standing up for a fellow Democrat she would have shown that her loyalty to others and to the truth was paramount and we would have loved her for it.

But Hillary did not do any of these things. She gathered up those dirty dishes and after she flung them she saw to her dismay there was muck all over her as well."

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | Why I can't vote for Hillary

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | Why I can't vote for Hillary: "The level of mendacity displayed by Hillary on a more-or-less regular basis nowadays, and the lengths to which the Clinton campaign, and Hillary herself, have gone to keep this primary process alive have so bothered me that I could never support her run for the presidency."

The Sporting Scene: Nails Never Fails: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The Sporting Scene: Nails Never Fails: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "As of 2003, Dykstra had never used a computer, but he went about investing in the stock market with the same relentlessness and fearlessness that had characterized his playing career. He began sending e-mails to Jim Cramer, the host of “Mad Money,” on CNBC, with questions and tips."

E-Mail From Aunt Accidentally Opened | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

E-Mail From Aunt Accidentally Opened | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "CHICAGO—An otherwise routine e-mail-checking session went wrong when college student Gwen Petersen, 20, accidentally opened a message sent by her Aunt Sophie in Michigan, sources reported Monday.

After correctly identifying the sender as KalamazooLady5237@aol.com, her mother's sister and a 57-year-old guidance counselor present at Petersen's birth, Petersen attempted to properly delete the unwanted correspondence as she had many times before. But one mistaken click of the mouse began an ordeal that would overtake Petersen's in-box for several minutes—thrusting the history major into an HTML-formatted world she 'never intended to see.'
Enlarge Image Mistakenly Opened Email

Petersen, above, says she and her computer may never recover from the terrible oversight."

Judge allows questioning in Clinton suit - Yahoo! News

Judge allows questioning in Clinton suit - Yahoo! News: "But while Clinton engaged in substantive meetings with foreign leaders over the eight years, the overseas events are heavy with more traditional appearances by a first lady.

The schedules show her meeting other political wives, having lunch with prominent women, touring cathedrals and hospitals and engaging in various ceremonial duties in trips to Japan, Russia and other countries.

The schedules showing Clinton's engagement on a wide range of matters are an outline and don't reflect phone calls or impromptu strategy sessions, says her presidential campaign."

What Would Obama Say? - New York Times

What Would Obama Say? - New York Times: "When he first met Mr. Obama, Mr. Favreau was 23, a recent graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., near where he grew up. Mr. Obama was rehearsing his 2004 convention speech backstage, when Mr. Favreau, then a member of John Kerry’s staff, interrupted him: the senator needed to rewrite a line from his speech to avoid an overlap.

“He kind of looked at me, kind of confused — like, ‘Who is this kid?’ ” Mr. Favreau recalled."

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory: "International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War
Page 263

11/15/2104
At 14:52:28, FreedomFighter69 wrote:
Reporting my first temporal excursion since joining IATT: have just returned from 1936 Berlin, having taken the place of one of Leni Riefenstahl's cameramen and assassinated Adolf Hitler during the opening of the Olympic Games. Let a free world rejoice!

At 14:57:44, SilverFox316 wrote:
Back from 1936 Berlin; incapacitated FreedomFighter69 before he could pull his little stunt. Freedomfighter69, as you are a new member, please read IATT Bulletin 1147 regarding the killing of Hitler before your next excursion. Failure to do so may result in your expulsion per Bylaw 223."

How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong

How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong: "Apple operates with a level of secrecy that makes Thomas Pynchon look like Paris Hilton."

Muxton.com � Music OS X Tips � HOWTO Sync iTunes Playlist to your Mobile phone ( or non iPod MP3 Player ) - Mac OS X Only !

Muxton.com � Music OS X Tips � HOWTO Sync iTunes Playlist to your Mobile phone ( or non iPod MP3 Player ) - Mac OS X Only !: "By default there is a folder on the camera and also on the SD card ( once initialised ) called Music into which you can then drag your MP3 files from your PC’s hard disc. If you are a Mac iTunes user however there is a much more slick solution that I have come across which uses an Applescript from the popular Dougs Applescripts for iTunesExternal Link site. The script called “Sync playlist files to folder” is designed to synchronise an iTunes playlist to a folder that is accessible from your Mac. The script has to be very slightly edited then copied into your iTunes script folder, it will then be accessible from within iTunes to run."

A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology : NPR

A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology : NPR: "'Jesus says my mission is to eradicate poverty and to bring about freedom and liberation for the oppressed,' Hopkins says. 'And most Christian pastors in America skip over that part of the book.'"

Portrait: Arthur C Clarke | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books

Portrait: Arthur C Clarke | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books: "he Mirror claimed that Clarke had paid young boys for sex. It produced affidavits from the boys in question. Sri Lankan police later disproved them, he says. The story ran two weeks before Prince Charles flew to Sri Lanka to confer a knighthood on the grand old man of science fiction. The saga was the lowest point in his career. At a banquet in his honour Clarke, who has post polio syndrome, found himself hobbling away from the press, pursued by an unctuous reporter from the Daily Telegraph. The episode still upsets him. 'I take an extremely dim view of people mucking about with boys,' Clarke says. 'The whole thing was distressing to me. It was vindictive and very unpleasant. I can only assume it was a plot to embarrass Prince Charles.' The novelist finally got his gong this May, at a low-key ceremony at the British high commission in Colombo."

Rediff On The NeT: "Paedophile" Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka

Rediff On The NeT: "Paedophile" Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka: "'Paedophile' Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka

Child right activists in Sri Lanka have expressed shock over science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke's confession in a newspaper interview of a life of paedophilia and called for his deportation just around the time Prince Charles was to knight him.

Clarke, 80, widely regarded as a visionary and author of the celebrated 2001: A Space Odyssey and some 80 other books, was quoted as saying in the interview published in London's Sunday Mirror that having sex with children was all right.

''Once they have reached the age of puberty, it is OK... It doesn't do any harm,'' said Clarke, who has lived in Sri Lanka for 40 years.

'I am trying to think of the youngest boy I have ever had because, of course, you can't tell it here. I think most of the damage comes from the fuss made by hysterical parents afterwards. If the kids don't mind, fair enough,'' he was reported to have said in the interview which was conducted at his house."

BBC News | South Asia | Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes

BBC News | South Asia | Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes: "World: South Asia

Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes


A British newspaper, the Sunday Mirror, says it will hand over to the international police organization, Interpol, a recorded interview with the science fiction writer, Arthur C Clarke.

The paper says the taped interview suggests that Mr Clarke is a paedophile.

Mr Clarke has denied allegations of child abuse published by the Sunday Mirror earlier this year.

Earlier, police in Sri Lanka -- where Mr Clarke lives -- said their investigation into the allegation was being hampered by the Sunday Mirror's failure to co-operate with Interpol.

A spokesman for the paper denied this, saying they had previously sent a copy of the recording, but Interpol had apparently not received it.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service"

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the OJ trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike."

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video: "Cops are divorced from reality. They live in a vaccuum. They send their kids to the Cop Daycare and their wives and kids only socialize with other cop families. Cops are only friends with other cops. They only attend cop events. The Fraternal Order of Police Myopia.

From this self-inflicted isolation Cops are less human that we are. They experience fewer of the real-life scenarios that create wisdom and foresight.

Real citizens purposely avoid cops and cop families because real citizens realize a person can't be a 'cop' and be a normal human. The two are exclusive of one another."

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera i

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video: "And I'm a 'cop magnet'.

I've got 15 years of driving under my belt, and there was a point for about 6 years, where I got pulled over at least once a month or more. I drove boring sedans, SLOWLY, and never had a single citation (out of 30 people) given to me once that stuck. That's right, I took the cops to basic traffic court and each time the judge threw out the bullshiat speeding, lane change, etc. tickets.

Why?

Because I subpoenaed the dash-mount cams, each time."

Chemical Plants (Ftrain.com)

Chemical Plants (Ftrain.com): "There was a company that specialized in fire-retardant chemicals, which the bus passed every day on the way to and from school. One afternoon, coming home, I saw a man in a moon suit entirely engulfed in flames, like a sun: the flames rose two feet over his head, and poured from his fingertips. He scorched the dry ground where he walked. He walked slowly, ominously, moving towards a man with a fire extinguisher. The bus turned the corner."

Six Principles for Making New Things

Six Principles for Making New Things: "And yet, mysteriously, Viaweb ended up crushing all its competitors."

Lilly E-Mail Discussed Off-Label Drug Use - New York Times

Lilly E-Mail Discussed Off-Label Drug Use - New York Times: "“The fact we are now talking to child psychs and peds and others about Strattera means that we must seize the opportunity to expand our work with Zyprexa in this same child-adolescent population,” Dr. Lechleiter wrote in the message. He also encouraged Lilly to get data on the use of Zyprexa in treating “disruptive kids” in order to increase the drug’s sales."

Monsters.

#81 Graduate School � Stuff White People Like

#81 Graduate School � Stuff White People Like: "Being white means to engage in a day in, day out struggle to prove that you are smarter than other white people. By the time they reach college, most white people are confronted with the fact that they may not be as smart as they imagined.

In coffee shops, bars, and classes white people will engage in conversations about authors and theorists that go nowhere as both parties start rattling off progressively more obscure people until eventually one side recognizes one and claims a victory. By the time they graduate (or a year or two afterwards), white people realize that they will need an edge to succeed in the cut-throat world of modern white society.

That edge is graduate school."

Big O (Ftrain.com)

Big O (Ftrain.com): "What scientists saved programmers squander. It must be disappointing to spend your college years cultivating a ponytail and a sense of superiority, discovering the inherent recursive nature of everything, only to wander into a cubicle farm where programmers like myself sit like veal calves, fattened on the candy-colored syntax served up by our platform IDEs, iteratively wasting what you've learned to prize. It must sting to see us burn tons of coal for a single cup of coffee. It stings me in a different way, because I've started to run into programming problems at work that can't be solved just by burning more coal. I've been moving mustard seeds of data with mountain-sized frameworks, and have hit limits personal and processorial. This must be why the puzzle calls to me."

A Web Geek Takes Off His Mask - New York Times

A Web Geek Takes Off His Mask - New York Times: "Trains are a recurring motif for Mr. Ford - a towering, big-bellied, relentlessly polite man with a recent history of mainlining Diet Coke and Marlboros. Every few minutes, from the windows behind the computer table squeezed into a corner of his room, the F train, elevated high above the neighborhood, can be seen cutting a diagonal path toward the Gowanus and Coney Island.

It inspired the name of Mr. Ford's personal Web site, Ftrain.com, the font from which everything else, he says - jobs, friends, the book - has sprung.

Since 1997, Mr. Ford has honed his prose at Ftrain, experimenting with narrative architecture and programming derring-do, and spinning random thoughts or diarylike yarns about the life of Paul Ford - reared in West Chester, Pa., son of an English professor and a professional puppeteer, educated at Alfred University, 80 miles south of Rochester, a school best known for ceramic engineering."

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York Times

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York Times: "Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store."

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02: "`Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaeda as if it were Nazi Germany or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaeda has been penetrated by US intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication.'"

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02: "I don't think that Goff is being unduly picky when he wonders who and what kept the Air Force from following its normal procedure instead of waiting an hour and 20 minutes until the damage was done and only then launching the fighters. Obviously, somebody had ordered the Air Force to make no move to intercept those hijackings until . . . what?"

FARK.com: (3460932) Obama wins a primary in some other unimportant state

FARK.com: (3460932) Obama wins a primary in some other unimportant state: "Weaver95: I wonder what Hillary will say about this loss?

Think of the stupidest, most debasing comment that could be made that would insult all the people who voted and the entire Democratic Party. Then say it in a whining voice."

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax: "In 1973, Gygax formed a company called Tactical Studies Rules with childhood buddy Kaye. They didn't ask Arneson to join. 'Dave was never considered as a partner,' Gygax says.'We didn't figure he was the kind of the guy who would be too good at running a business.'

Arneson agrees. 'Gary was willing to go and make the pitches,' he says. 'I was having fun.'"

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax: "It's a weekday morning in the early 1950s. You can choose to go to school and max out your grade point average, or you can play hooky and go explore the sepulchral system of tunnels underneath the old Oak Hill Sanitarium, an abandoned insane asylum near the lake. What do you want to do?

Like most kids, Gygax wanted to be the hero of his own life. 'There's a call to adventure,' he says. 'It's something in the inner psyche of humanity, particularly males.'

He was very bright, but tunnel-crawling held a lot more appeal than grinding away in the classroom. 'I hated school, didn't like the discipline,' he says. He dropped out in his junior year."

Geek of the Week # 131: clearclaw (J C Lawrence) | BoardGameGeek Forums

Geek of the Week # 131: clearclaw (J C Lawrence) | BoardGameGeek Forums: "TransAmerica isn't terrible.

An interesting variant for TransAmerica is to draft cities Citadels-style. It works surprisingly well."

Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops - Yahoo! News

Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops - Yahoo! News: "Truthfully, I didn't know who he was. I asked the Americans, and they said he was a great fighter, and that's why they named me after him. They showed me a video, and it's true, he's a great fighter' said police trainer Mohammed Rasheed.

With his handle-bar moustache, Rasheed has a vague resemblance to Norris."

This message is from a Virgin Mobile user. Enjoy.
_____________________________________________________________

Colombia: Rebel killed by his security - Yahoo! News

Colombia: Rebel killed by his security - Yahoo! News: "Thursday night, he said, a guerrilla known as Rojas came to the troops with Rios' severed right hand, laptop computer and ID, saying he had killed his boss three days earlier.

It was unclear what motivated the killing, but Santos said it was to 'relieve the military pressure' because the rebels were 'surrounded, without supplies and without communication.'"

Raising Obama: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Raising Obama: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com: "“After I was elected president, in 2003, he came to see me, a couple months later,” Jones recalled, relishing the tale. “And he said to me, he said, ‘You’re the senate president now, and with that, you have a lot of pow-er.’ ” Jones stretched out the word, as if savoring the pleasure of it, and his voice became very quiet as he continued: “And I told Barack, ‘You think I got a lot of pow-er now?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you got a lot of pow-er.’ And I said, ‘What kind of pow-er do I have?’ He said, ‘You have the pow-er to make a United States sen-a-tor!’ ” Jones let out a soft, smoky laugh. “I said to Barack, I said, ‘That sounds good!’ I said, ‘I haven’t even thought of that.’ I said, ‘Do you have someone in mind you think I could make?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah. Me.’ ”"

Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom

Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom

Bee-nappers!

Army hero's leg torn off on sled run | Toboggan crash | St Moritz | Captain Bernie Bambury | The Sun |HomePage|News

Army hero's leg torn off on sled run | Toboggan crash | St Moritz | Captain Bernie Bambury | The Sun |HomePage|News: "Bernie, based at Bulford, Wilts, tackled the fearsome Cresta Run — nearly a mile of solid ice — at an Army tobogganing event in January. His right foot hit a marker post and the leg, severed below the knee, was recovered hundreds of yards up the course after he crossed the finish."

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early | : "Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early"

Cowboys Game Details

Cowboys Game Details

This game--tomorrow it is mine.

Fail Dogs

Fail Dogs

Mortgage Note Issues Help Debtors Avoid Foreclosure

Mortgage Note Issues Help Debtors Avoid Foreclosure

Feeling blue? Not like a Maya sacrificial victim - Yahoo! News

Feeling blue? Not like a Maya sacrificial victim - Yahoo! News: "'Adult males may have had their hearts removed before they were dumped in,' Feinman said.

Feinman said at the bottom of the cenote, a layer 14 feet

deep of blue goo has been found, likely composed of pigment that washed off sacrificial victims and objects."

Twitching :: Health and Disease :: Brain and Spinal Cord

Twitching :: Health and Disease :: Brain and Spinal Cord: "Nutritional Supplements

Neuromuscular function and muscle control require the minerals magnesium, calcium and potassium. A deficiency could be causing tics, trembling or cramping. The B vitamins reduce stress-triggered trembling by calming the nervous system. Vitamin B12 is often poorly absorbed through the intestinal tract and should be taken in a sublingual form. Calcium is also important for muscle growth and contraction and for the prevention of muscle cramps.

Daily dosages:

* Calcium, 1,000 mg

* Magnesium, 500 mg

* Vitamin B complex, 50 mg three times daily

* Vitamin B12 sublingual tablet, 100 mcg"

Annals of Invention: Thinking in the Rain: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

Annals of Invention: Thinking in the Rain: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "The Steve Hollinger experience can be described most simply as multimedia. For one thing, it includes olfactory surprises. My apartment was right above Steve’s for several years, and on a regular basis he would call to warn me about odors that might waft their way from the second floor, where he lived, to my apartment on the third. Once in a while, the warning was about something he’d be cooking, but often it was more unexpected; he would call to say that he was going to be using turpentine, or linseed oil, or exotic solvents, or some kind of stinky paint, and wanted to make sure that the smell wouldn’t drive me crazy. Other calls were about surprising noises: “I’m going to be using a table saw to cut up some ammunition boxes, so I hope it’s not too loud,” or “I’m drilling through some chunks of cement, so let me know if it bothers you.”"

I really enjoyed this profile of artist/inventory/sculptor Steve Hollinger, who invented a new type of umbrella. He moves so effortlessly through multiple domains of art and invention that it leaves me breathless and jealous.

Blogger, Sans Pajamas, Rakes Muck and a Prize - New York Times

Blogger, Sans Pajamas, Rakes Muck and a Prize - New York Times: "Seven years ago, Mr. Marshall was a Ph.D candidate in early American history at Brown University; the Washington editor of a liberal magazine, The American Prospect; and a new blogger. He had started the blog as an outlet for his ideas and to track the recount fight in Florida — the name came from a term bandied about during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

“If I had quickly happened into a staff position at The New Yorker, I probably wouldn’t have done this,” Mr. Marshall, 39, said of his migration to full-time online journalism."

Griffin Technology radioSHARK: Page 1

Griffin Technology radioSHARK: Page 1

The Griffin radio shark is like a Tivo for radio, recording radio straight to your hard drive. Bi-platform too.

YouTube - How to play In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by NMH on Ukulele

YouTube - How to play In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by NMH on Ukulele

Bill Clinton in Utah � Andrew’s Miracle Drug

Bill Clinton in Utah � Andrew’s Miracle Drug: "There’s growing inequality in the U.S. - while we’ve been in an economic recovery, the median income in the U.S. has actually decreased about $1000 per year in the past 7 years. This is one of the reasons that there is such a strong anti-immigrant sentiment. It’s not that right way to respond to this growing inequality between the upper- and middle-class, but it is an understandable reaction. This growing inequality is also reflected in the growing number of Americans without healthcare, and the vast differences in education opportunities between the wealthy and the poor. A Hillary Clinton presidency would bring universal health coverage, and make sure that education overall is improved. In addition, Hillary plans to make 2-year community college education available at no personal cost to all Americans."

gladwell dot com - none of the above

What IQ doesn't tell us about race.

Body of black male found in Draper - Salt Lake Tribune

Body of black male found in Draper - Salt Lake Tribune: "Body of black male found in Draper
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:�02/23/2008 09:47:05 PM MST

Winter revelers found a dead body in Draper on Saturday.
��� Detectives are determining who the man was and how he died. The body belonged to a black male between the ages of 16 and 25, said Draper police Sgt. Kurt Imig.
��� He said there was no obvious cause of death and an autopsy is planned for Sunday. No identification was found with the body and police are asking for the public's help in learning his name.
��� A family taking winter photographs found the body at 1200 Mike Weir Drive in a ravine south of the town golf course. Imig said the body was there 'perhaps for weeks.'
��� Anyone with information about the body can contact Draper police at 801-840-4000"

Ezra Crane by What Madness Productions, LLC

Ezra Crane by What Madness Productions, LLC

In Defense Of Chess | Chess | BoardGameGeek

In Defense Of Chess | Chess | BoardGameGeek: "penings and Endings

I've heard some complain that too much of the game is merely memorization of the openings and endings of the game, and as such, the interesting portion is a tiny series of moves in the middle game.

I want to respond to this charge in two parts. First, openings are acquired gradually as you play. If you begin your chess career by memorizing openings, you will lose. If you spend your energy reading books of ending, you will lose (although perhaps less horribly than those reading the opening books). Opening, at the level played by most players (i.e. 2 or 3 moves deep), are mostly common sense. In Settlers, don't put a settlement on a desert to start unless you have a very good plan. In chess, don't move you 'a' pawn as your first move unless you have a very good plan. Yes -- correspondence and master level chess (and good club) players know many variations of the Caro-Kann and Sicilian and King's Indian and whatever else to ten or more moves. The average player need not."

The St. Petersburg Times - Feature - Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved

The St. Petersburg Times - Feature - Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved: "The declassified files contain testimony from the leader of a group of adventurers who camped about 50 kilometers south of the skiers on the same night. He said his group saw strange orange spheres floating in the night sky in the direction of Kholat-Syakhl."

rambo-death-chart.jpg (PNG Image, 979x831 pixels) - Scaled (73%)

rambo-death-chart.jpg (PNG Image, 979x831 pixels) - Scaled (73%)

Rambo in a nutshell.

Obamamania verges on obsession - Lisa Lerer - Politico.com

Obamamania verges on obsession - Lisa Lerer - Politico.com: "Last week, Clinton adviser Sid Blumenthal e-mailed an article from The American Conservative implying that Obama's support was, at least in part, due to white liberal guilt.

'It's time to get real about how we actually win this election,' Clinton said Wednesday at Hunter College in New York.

“It's time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.”

Her conclusion: “Let’s get real.”"

Obamamania verges on obsession - Lisa Lerer - Politico.com

Obamamania verges on obsession - Lisa Lerer - Politico.com: "His charms seem tough to resist, even for some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

'He walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere,' George Clooney told talk show host Charlie Rose.
See Also

* Obama win sets stage for showdown
* Obama turns tables on Clinton
* Obama camp slams Clinton ‘lunacy'

'I'll do whatever he says to do,' actress Halle Berry said to the Philadelphia Daily News. 'I'll collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.'"

The Teacher has ADD

The Teacher has ADD: "Dear Parents:

I am very pleased to be your child's teacher this year and look forward to working with both you and your student. Before beginning the year however, I wanted to give you some information that might help us both during the coming months. I am sure you are familiar with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Many students today have to deal with this difficult disorder. I am very able to empathize with them, because I too suffer from ADD. Because of this, I hope you will be willing to make certain accommodations that will help me to be successful.

Please consider the following accommodations:

(1) When you write notes to me, consider using various colored markers to write your message. These help me to focus my attention. Do not expect weekly progress reports on our child. Such reports require organizational skills that are beyond the ability of ADD subjects."

Six Principles for Making New Things

Six Principles for Making New Things: "I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.

When I first laid out these principles explicitly, I noticed something striking: this is practically a recipe for generating a contemptuous initial reaction. Though simple solutions are better, they don't seem as impressive as complex ones. Overlooked problems are by definition problems that most people think don't matter. Delivering solutions in an informal way means that instead of judging something by the way it's presented, people have to actually understand it, which is more work. And starting with a crude version 1 means your initial effort is always small and incomplete."

This is my book writing philosophy.

Castro Retires | MetaFilter

Castro Retires | MetaFilter: "'Eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections, and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy' - George W. Bush, brother of Jeb"

No Substitute - The Grinder - CHOW

No Substitute - The Grinder - CHOW: "I just made two quarts of my version of Postum this morning. I'm a chef, so I looked at the label, looked at the online recipes and developed my own very good alternative. I'm not going to sell it because I use it as an alternative to coffee for health reasons. Coffee, chocolate, tea, and barley malt all block iron absorption because of the high tannin content. I almost died of severe anemia last year, so I started drinking postum because Pero and all of the other substitutes have barley malt."

TIAA-CREF vs Fidelity investments? | Ask MetaFilter

TIAA-CREF vs Fidelity investments? | Ask MetaFilter

My work is giving us a choice.

Radio DavidByrne.com

Radio DavidByrne.com

Right now it all sounds like Graceland.

Goodbye to Postum

Goodbye to Postum

Ack!

Turn Me On, Dead Man: Scientific American

Turn Me On, Dead Man: Scientific American

An editorial about anecdotal thinking.

Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray - New York Times

Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray - New York Times

I'm trying to decide if this matters to me at all.

Crowdsourcing Puts Crucial Superdelegates Under a Microscope

Crowdsourcing Puts Crucial Superdelegates Under a Microscope

I too fear a Hillary superdelegate coup. But then again, don't you want a backhanded, sneaky political insider promoting your agenda? Idealistic presidents just get assassinated by the Dharma initiative.

HEPA filters may improve cardiovascular health: study

HEPA filters may improve cardiovascular health: study: "The researchers discovered that when the HEPA filters were used, they removed about 60 per cent of the particles in the homes. As well, the finger sensors picked up an 8.1 per cent improvement in blood flow on average.

'Our main finding was a significant improvement in the function of small finger blood vessels after reduction of indoor air particles. This effect most likely indicates a general improvement in the function of the inner lining of small vessels, including those supplying the heart,' said Professor Steffen Loft of the Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen, in a release."

Game over man!!! (Maybe) | MetaFilter

Game over man!!! (Maybe) | MetaFilter: "So I guess I'll eventually end up buying a Blu-Ray recordable drive rather than an HD-DVD recordable drive for when I'm eventually bittorrenting > DVD resolution video and want to burn it. Good to know.

Why do that? Run an HDMI cable (or coax or Cat-5) from your computer to your video screen. Cable runs are not that hard to do, and while it may seem daunting, trust me, it is so much easier to just have to run the video from your computer. HDMI over Cat5. Of course I'm sure coax or fiber would preferably over twisted pairs ... but if you run any kind of modern line through your house it should be able to carry the video."

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times: "After two years of exotic animal training, my marriage is far smoother, my husband much easier to love. I used to take his faults personally; his dirty clothes on the floor were an affront, a symbol of how he didn't care enough about me. But thinking of my husband as an exotic species gave me the distance I needed to consider our differences more objectively."

Big night. Big mystery. -- chicagotribune.com

Big night. Big mystery. -- chicagotribune.com: "On an unseasonably warm Friday night last October, the culinary gods filed into a tiny restaurant on a gritty stretch of Wicker Park.

There was Ferran Adria from Spain, Heston Blumenthal from England and Pierre Herme from France -- considered by many to be among the world's top chefs. Other culinary heavy hitters followed close behind.

For the workers at Schwa, it was like seeing the 1927 Yankees roll in their front door.

'To look out the [kitchen] window and see these guys walk in, all eating at our restaurant, it was just a huge ego boost,' says Nathan Klingbail, one of the cooks that night. 'These are all the people we idolize.'

For 33-year-old Michael Carlson, chef/owner of Schwa, the dinner marked the pinnacle of his meteoric rise from anonymous assistant chef to proprietor of one of the most talked-about restaurants in town. On this night, Chicago chef Charlie Trotter -- a superstar in his own right -- had chosen Carlson to serve a 14-course, four-hour meal to his high-profile guests.

'It was as high a pinnacle as you could ever have,' Carlson says. 'It will never get better than that.'

The day after the dinner -- with a full refrigerator and a full reservation book -- Carlson disappeared."

YouTube - Seventeen

YouTube - Seventeen

some of the comments are hilarious.

Salt Lake Tribune - Committee approves autism registry for Utah

Salt Lake Tribune - Committee approves autism registry for Utah: "Committee approves autism registry for Utah
By Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 02/13/2008 05:55:15 PM MST

Posted: 2:47 PM- A registry of all Utahns with autism would be created under HB263, passed by the House Health and Human Services Committee Wednesday.
The Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, or URADD, would contain medical histories and would be available to researchers.
'The [autism] research is currently underway, but there isn't enough data to make it meaningful,' said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns. 'That's the big hole we're dealing with.'"

Salt Lake Tribune - Huckabee scolds those who say he has alienated Mormons

Salt Lake Tribune - Huckabee scolds those who say he has alienated Mormons: "WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says it is 'unfounded' for anyone to say he has alienated the Mormon community or that he used rival Mitt Romney's LDS faith as a wedge issue.
Huckabee, talking to reporters Tuesday in Washington, blamed a single remark he made to The New York Times Magazine last year - when he asked whether Mormons believed Jesus and Satan are brothers - as the cause of the angst in the Mormon community."

YouTube - john.he.is

YouTube - john.he.is

Nice spoof of "Yes, We Can." Sorta.

Writers’ Strike: Why the Web Wins | Newsweek From Forbes.com | Newsweek.com

Writers’ Strike: Why the Web Wins | Newsweek From Forbes.com | Newsweek.com: "Under the new agreement, writers will earn a fixed residual amounting to roughly $1,300 for the early part of the contract's three-year life (excluding a two- to three-week window of free usage for promotional purposes) and 2% of the distributor's revenue in the deal's final year. For new material, writers get $618 for dramatic programs produced for 'new media' up to two minutes plus $309 for each additional minute; $360 for two-minute comedy videos, with $180 for each minute after. What's more, new media writers get credits as well as health insurance."

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?: "Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world."

Recurve Crossbows: Why Choose Recurve Crossbows?

Recurve Crossbows: Why Choose Recurve Crossbows?: "Recurve crossbows are still used by elite military organizations when stealth and accuracy are required for assassination missions. I trust YOU will never aim your crossbow at another human being - not even in jest! Crossbows should only be used for hunting and target practice. They are loads of fun, and if you are just getting involved in the sport, I highly recommend you stick with recurve crossbows."

JOSEPH GOEBBELS tm - Joseph Goebbels

JOSEPH GOEBBELS tm - Joseph Goebbels: "Some of the Goebbels' principles of propaganda:

'Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.'

'Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.'

'Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. '

'Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred. '

'Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects. '

'To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium. '

'Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level'

�

Quotes 'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.' and 'The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed.' are widely and incorrectly attributed to Goebbels. It is probable that these are the paraphrases of the Goebbels' text 'Churchill's Lie Factory' where he said: 'The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.' - Jospeh Goebbels, 'Aus Churchills L�genfabrik,' 12. january 1941, Die Zeit ohne Beispiel"

Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths - New York Times

Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths - New York Times: "For decades, researchers believed that if people with diabetes lowered their blood sugar to normal levels, they would no longer be at high risk of dying from heart disease. But a major federal study of more than 10,000 middle-aged and older people with Type 2 diabetes has found that lowering blood sugar actually increased their risk of death, researchers reported Wednesday."

Whoops.

YouTube - Clinton/Obama....Ready or Not

YouTube - Clinton/Obama....Ready or Not

Oh my, this was great.

Apple - Science - Profiles - Robert J. Lang, pg. 1

Apple - Science - Profiles - Robert J. Lang, pg. 1

I think my brother Dave should become a professional Origama sculptor.

Kevin Kelly -- The Technium

Kevin Kelly -- The Technium: "the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention, and attention has its own circuits.�"

Kueng Airguns - Magnum Pistol.

Kueng Airguns - Magnum Pistol.

The Dirty Harry of Air Pistols.

Apple TV 40GB WIFI HDMI Widescreen AppleTV 40 GB Grd. A - eBay (item 270210408616 end time Feb-10-08 13:00:00 PST)

Apple TV 40GB WIFI HDMI Widescreen AppleTV 40 GB Grd. A - eBay (item 270210408616 end time Feb-10-08 13:00:00 PST)

Here's one.

Apple - Apple TV - Guided Tour - Medium

Apple - Apple TV - Guided Tour - Medium

A used Apple TV can be had for $150 on ebay and will stream anything in itunes to your regular tv set.

YouTube - Beirut - "Elephant Gun"

YouTube - Beirut - "Elephant Gun"

YouTube - The Re-entrants ukulele duo - Tainted Love

YouTube - The Re-entrants ukulele duo - Tainted Love

YouTube - Bohemian Rhapsody - Ukulele Bartt

YouTube - Bohemian Rhapsody - Ukulele Bartt

Compass Games - Silent War Custom Cabinet

Compass Games - Silent War Custom Cabinet

This table was built to play a single wargame about Submarine warfare in WW II. It can be closed when a game is in progress to protect the board from being scattered.

20 minutes or so on why I am 4Barack (Lessig Blog)

20 minutes or so on why I am 4Barack (Lessig Blog)

Why A Recession Might Be A Good Thing | MetaFilter

Why A Recession Might Be A Good Thing | MetaFilter: "The true wealthy have captured back their time by employing people to do the things that this guy and his family likely still has to do himself (driving, cooking, etc) THAT is real opulence. Owning other peoples time."

"There's something profoundly sad about watching people like Mitt Romney give 'victory' speeches on nights like this when it becomes obvious to any thinking person that they're slipping down the drain."

LimerickDB: Top 150

LimerickDB: Top 150: "His critics insist that Obama
Is Muslim, like evil Osama.
Well, they don't know their biz;
For if that fellow is,
Then so is the damn Dalai Lama."

A curious case of burger blues | Chris Ayres - Times Online

A curious case of burger blues | Chris Ayres - Times Online: "But hang on a minute: isn't the hamburger an icon of Bad Old America, Bush's America, the America that made everyone fat and gave them diabetes? Of course it is, but that's not what the hamburger blues are all about. An American feeling emotional about a hamburger is like a Briton feeling emotional about Concorde: you miss it, you hope it inspires something better in the future, but you don't seriously think that anyone should build another aircraft that seats three people and burns through an oilfield before it reaches New York."

VideoNow Color (and Jr) Video Conversions - VideoHelp.com

VideoNow Color (and Jr) Video Conversions - VideoHelp.com

instructions for hacking the videonow portable video player which are $5.00 at Walmart right now.

MMAFighting.com - Mixed Martial Arts FAQ

MMAFighting.com - Mixed Martial Arts FAQ: "What is the story about Richard Simmons slapping a fighter?
Richard Simmons was arrested on May 24th 2004 when he was charged with assault against Harley Davidson salesman and 'cage fighter' Chris Farney. Simmons was upset when Farney said 'Look, Richard Simmons. Drop you bags, let's rock to the 50's.' Simmons responded with 'It's not nice to make fun of people with issues' and slapped Farney in the face. The charge was later dismissed after the two settled out of court. Although Farney described himself as a cage fighter, he has not participated in any major mixed martial arts show."

Depleted Cranium � Blog Archive � The Top Ten Things Environmentalists Need to Learn

Depleted Cranium � Blog Archive � The Top Ten Things Environmentalists Need to Learn: "What we have to drive home is that low energy lifestyle = poverty. Unfortunately crap like: ” reach a societal consensus that what we desire is a slower and smaller way of living, a re-conceived notion of success” appeals to some vestigial protestant ethic that still colors our ideas of ‘correctness’."

YouTube - Hi-Point 9mm Love Theme

YouTube - Hi-Point 9mm Love Theme

A very long report on the hi point C9 - TheFiringLine Forums

A very long report on the hi point C9 - TheFiringLine Forums: "I would trust this pistol with my life without thinking twice. Stripping the pistol down is not too great. It has a small pin you must knock out with a punch and hammer ( I actually used a small allen wrench to punch it out)."

Defense Review - Hi-Point C9 9mm Pistol: Viable Option for Defensive Use?

Defense Review - Hi-Point C9 9mm Pistol: Viable Option for Defensive Use?

Macworld Encore

Macworld Encore

Great slideshow on time and attention by Merlin Mann.

lilmissnever: One day, when it is safe, I will write a

lilmissnever: One day, when it is safe, I will write a: "A certain government agency's security person had to teach me how to answer the phone, and how NOT to answer the phone; namely, if the caller insists that we are beaming rays directly into his brain, ask him what frequency. (Prompt the caller with 'Low or high?' if necessary.) When you get an answer, brightly inform the caller that those are not our rays, those belong to $OtherAgency. (In your case, I suggest you blame the Chinese.) Therefore, you can do nothing to help them, good luck!"

Rat & Mouse Gazette: Medical Corner: Rat Respiratory Disease: The Use of Albuterol Treatments

Rat & Mouse Gazette: Medical Corner: Rat Respiratory Disease: The Use of Albuterol Treatments

Mycoplasmosis in Rats

Mycoplasmosis in Rats: "Possible Causes

Ammonia is a contributing factor.� Ammonia build up can come from poor cage ventilation, dirty conditions and over crowding.� If you use an aquarium as a cage, make sure there is a wire roof to let plenty of air in, aquariums must be cleaned more often than a wire cage.�

Older animals are more susceptible, as are those with lowered immune systems for instance, recovering from an operation.� Also rats which are inbred may be more susceptible, so watch out for rats in pet shops!� There may be problems with certain colour strains, such as the Blue, which is more inbred than many other colours, (this is mainly conjecture), but it is good breeding practice to out cross regularly!�"

Our rat is sick and blue.

On Movies: Warming to this Global news conference | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/13/2008

On Movies: Warming to this Global news conference | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/13/2008: "'Anyway, I don't remember who it was - maybe it was [New Mexico senator] Albert Fall - but someone had to get up there and describe what drainage was, and his way of describing it was to say, 'Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake.'"

Open chess diary 281-300

Open chess diary 281-300

Even the paranoid are sometimes persecuted. The chessworld has always agreed that in the Candidates Tournament of Curaçao 1962, there was a Soviet conspiracy against Bobby Fischer.
Among eight participants, there were five Soviets: Tal, Korchnoi, Geller, Keres and Petrosyan. And in those days you didn't have to be paranoid to think that their first objective might have been to make sure that Fischer would not win.
Tal, who was in bad form and bad health, and who dropped out after 21 rounds, has never been accused of being part of a Curaçao conspiracy, and Korchnoi has always vehemently denied any such thing. But Geller, Keres and Petrosyan only played fightless draws against each other, which helped them to eight extra resting days each.
The Soviet Union does not exist anymore, the sins can be admitted. "Of course it was rigged," Yuri Averbakh has recently said (in an interview with Jules Welling in the Dutch magazine Schaaknieuws). According to Averbakh, who was in Curaçao as a member of the Soviet delegation, it had been decided that Keres, being an Estonian, should not win, and neither should the Jewish Ukrainian Geller. It had to the Armenian Petrosyan. Why an Estonian and a Jewish Ukrainian (and the Jewish Russian Korchnoi!) were not suitable and an Armenian was, Averbakh sadly fails to say, or Welling did not ask.
Well, a conspiracy - but how poorly those evil Soviets managed their conspiracy! With two rounds to go, the disobedient Keres was in first place, and he had to play the outsider Benkö. Had he won, no conspiracy could have prevented an Estonian becoming Botvinnik's challenger - but he lost. Yes, that was a relief, Averbach now says, Benkö's win was a Deus ex Machina which prevented suspicions.
In his famous piece in Sports Illustrated in 1962, titled How the Russians fixed World Chess, Fischer has given this position as proof of the conspiracy.

Steves Digicams - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 - User Review

Steves Digicams - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 - User Review

I just purchased this camera for $87 shipped. I think it was $400 new. It's one of the highest rated (older) cameras on DPReview and some other sites. It has 12x optical zoom and will record video with sound, which is all I need. Kind of clunky, but definitely a step up from our 2002 Nikon Coolpix. Oh, and it has Leica optics.

newsmap

newsmap

This newsmap graphically represents different breaking stories and their relative popularity. Plus, it looks cool.

newsmap

newsmap

Keyboard - Drivers - Mac OS X Leopard - Software Updates - VersionTracker

Keyboard - Drivers - Mac OS X Leopard - Software Updates - VersionTracker

IGM: MS Digital Media Pro Keyboard

IGM: MS Digital Media Pro Keyboard