Busy busy.

Just quick "I'm alive!" post. To let you know what's on my plate the next couple days - I've got a new business acquisition to oversee, and production to finish up on for Darrell's new film. Coming up on the site during this week: Three short films, and one REALLY LONG POST about personal stuff!

/rizzn

Lights out man.

This update has been a long time in coming. I've been outlandishly swamped lately, and simply haven't had the energy to devote to a number of pressing matters. I will try to address as many of them as possible here for you, as I've also been swamped with emails, too.

BlipMedia
Not a day goes by that I don't get an email about the status of Blip. Basically, what has happenned is we've outgrown our servers, and we no longer have any available diskspace. We've purchased new servers to move to (as of several months ago), but I've been so busy with new projects that I haven't had the time to devote to maintaining the service. At one point we were talking a merger through with a couple of our next biggest competitors, but unfortunately, those talks fell apart. I don't have any ill will towards them - quite the contrary. I had a good time meeting my competitors, and we saw eye-to-eye on almost everything, but we were both so busy maintaining our own businesses that we just didn't have time to join forces. Sad but true.

As a result, Blip has sort of ... degenerated. I had hoped to be able to announce an alternative service in a reasonable fashion and a way to migrate your podcasts over, but again, no time.

Here's the bottom line: Blip's future is uncertain at the moment. If I can find a few good cheap (or even better, free) programmers willing to take up my slack, I can revive Blip. We have the servers and the capital to return it to it's former glory, just not the time. If you are or know a programmer willing to help out with this, let me know. You must know ASP, batch programming, and have a good working knowlege of WAV and MP3 file formats as well as RSS. I can offer cash compensation and even points in the company (believe it or not, there is a pending profit model for Blip).

As for your files and RSS feeds, all MP3s will remain on the server and available to public download. All RSS files will stay static, and available, but not updatable.

You can contact me at mark@5tribe.com with any comments, questions, and concerns you have re: Blip. If you have a problem uploading, direct that to mark@blipmedia.org.

T. Evan Fisher for Texas House of Representatives, District 108

Politics! Yes! I've finally taken the final plunge into politics. A few months ago, I made it official, and took the headlong plunge into politics by accepting a position with T. Evan Fisher's Libertarian campaign for a Texas legislature spot. Without a doubt, it's going to be an interesting campaign. It's already becoming interesting, as there's some drama forming already in the form of one of our Democratic opponents being outed as a former male prostitute.

T. Evan Fisher is one of our own - from the old Tyler Denny's Crew. Most of you from there probably know him better as "Thos."

Thos is running for the 108th District of Texas' State Legislature under the Libertarian Party ticket. We had discussed informally before working together, but this weekend we made the arrangement official - I am the designated campaign treasurer for the T. Evan Fisher for Texas Legislature campaign. This means, in effect, I'll be functioning as a campaign manager as well. We're going to really try to organise a strong grassroots campaign as well as some innovative fundraising techniques.

I know I've got a lot of Libertarian readers out there, and I could use all the promotion from my friends and associates as possible. We'll be putting up the official website very soon, and I'll be putting out position and platform papers here and there for your review.

As for political views, the Libertarian Party, if you're not aware, is a very inclusive party that despite conservative or liberal bents, almost everyone finds attractive when they examine their tenets closely. I'd encourage you to do so at http://lp.org - and stay tuned for more on our buddy's quest for office.

Project Catarl
Those of you involved with the Alpha Catarl project may look forward to your handhelds very soon. We should be wrapping up development within the next few weeks and start rolling out prototypes. The Free Alpha signup is closed, but we will be opening up a paid Alpha Program soon, as well. Stay tuned for updates here.

Mystery Radio Project
There is a radio project that I and several very big movers and shakers in the streaming, satellite, and podcast world are putting together. We intend this to be the child project of what was started with BlipMedia, and somewhat closer to what we originally intended with the Blip project. I can't say more right now, but I can tell you that development is almost finished, and I'll be pointing you to the new hubbub very soon. We're talking to our new PR guy, our front end design guy is sending us our final layouts soon, we've hired a program director, and the talent should be getting their official invites to the new company within the next couple weeks. I, of course, am handling the backend work, and am, as usual, behind schedule. I expect to see this project off the ground in less than a month. I will probably be dissappointed, but that's what I expect as well. :-)

Peer-to-peer Banking Project

I've been enticed into a Peer-To-Peer banking project by some good friends of mine. I'm footing the bill on this one because of the promise of some VC coming our way. I can't go too far into the details at the moment (as per usual), but we could be looking at a peer-to-peer banking launch for American users within the next few months here.

Don't know what peer-to-peer banking is? Neither did I when I first heard the term. Go google it, you'll find some food for thought.

My Personal Life Update
Much like the rest of my life - very hectic. I have to say, I enjoy having money again. Ever since I've been back in town, I've been enjoying periodic windfalls of cash in addition to my steady stream of income from the contract job. It has allowed me a number of luxuries I've been denying myself over the last few years: a new car, a nice big apartment, new furniture, a new computer, and a little bit of investment and savings cushion.

A lot of money, however, gets sunk into a new apartment - more than I remember, at least. Down in SouFla, furnished apartment and living situations are common, and I've been used to packing everything up in a couple boxes, loading them up into whatever POS model car I happen to be driving at the time, and moving on a moments notice. Now that I'm actually accruing stuff now, I'm actually dreading the eventual move in six months to a year after I grow tired of whatever it is I'm doing and need to move on!

At least these are good problems to have. Some not so good problems to have include the tiff I've been engaged in this week with the electric company. I'm not going to out them just yet as they haven't completely worn out my patience (but they're quickly moving towards that end), but I've been without power for the coldest week in my memory. The reason is that I transferred my power over from the apartment complex's name on Tuesday to my own, and Tuesday afternoon, the power went out and hasn't come back on yet. Every day they promise to have it on by the end of the day, and every day I'm disappointed.

Very annoying. Ah well, on to the news!

For All My Austinian Friends
Better than your boyfriend posts about secret tunnells under UTA. It's quite an engaging and interesting read. Click the link and check out the full thing. My Austin crew should try this out and tell me what they find.

...there were the tunnels. We’d heard about them before - supposedly there was a secret network of tunnels underneath UT that connected almost all of the buildings. It was a farfetched concept, but it became credible to us when we read an article that said it was the way they got to the tower without being shot to take out Whitman. Soon after moving into UT, we started looking for the tunnels.

Any expectations we had were instantly shattered. No longer were we on campus - we’d be transported into another world. The narrow concrete path was flanked with a host of steam pipes, bundles of wires, and even toxic waste pipes. Intermitently, the steam pipes would makes scary noises which sent our hearts jumping. It was surreal.

Be careful how you read that.
Mz6 writes "According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time. "That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. "People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley. The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers. Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time."

Earthshell Corporation Board Chairman Resigns
EarthShell Corporation announced today that one of its directors, Simon K. Hodson (whom faithful Rizznites will remember was firmly entrenched in the FlyDLUX debacle), has resigned as a director of EarthShell, effective immediately. Mr. Hodson has also been serving as chairman of the Board. According to a company press release, Simon has resigned in order to focus his efforts on his recent appointment as Chief Executive Officer of E.Khashoggi Industries, LLC. This has confirmed longstanding rumors amongst the FlyDLUX crowd that Simon is somewhat of a "right-hand man" to Essam Khashoggi.

EKI, LLC is (not so coincidentally) EarthShell's largest stockholder. EarthShell holds an exclusive license on a worldwide basis from EKI to commercialize patented material technology for the manufacture of foodservice disposable packaging (but as of yet, the corporation has yet to actually do anything with this patent). A new chairman of the Board will be elected at the next regularly scheduled meeting of EarthShell's Board of Directors and the corporate governance committee of the Board will initiate a search for a new director to fill the vacancy on the Board.

Get Your Bags of Money Here
Matt Marshall over at the San Jose Mercury News does a nice job pointing out how VCs are back to funding startups with 20-somethings running the show -- something that was quite common during the bubble years, but which fell out of favor quickly. However, there's one big difference this time around that isn't mentioned in the article. During the original bubble years, for many of these companies the fact that the founders were inexperienced 20-somethings was often used as a major selling point for the company. There were tons of articles profiling young founders, where it seemed like what the companies actually did was secondary. This time around, it seems like more companies have at least figured out that it helps to focus more of the attention on the company and its products.

Yay, East Texas
It would appear that patent trolls (even if the article refers to them as "patent pirates") have found a friend in the form of a federal judge in the East Texas town of Marshall. Not only does he not waste time and push cases through quickly (a good thing), he sides with the patent holder nearly every time (and much higher than in cases throughout the rest of the country). Apparently, patent trolls around the world are learning that if you want to get your money quickly, file your claim in Marshall, Texas. In fact, many defendants are more likely to settle, rather than have to head into the courtroom of Judge T. John Ward. So, who has the patent on speedy trials?

Free Sports TV. Sort of.
NBC is significantly expanding its Olympics video offerings for the internet and cell phones, a sure sign of its increased comfort with technologies that erect geographic boundaries online. The network's official Olympics site, NBCOlympics.com, will show for free, on a delayed basis, the complete runs and routines for the top finishers and for all U.S. participants in almost every event, with highlights provided for team sports like hockey, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.

None of the video will be live however; in most cases it won't be available online or on phones until the end of NBC's broadcast day, generally 11:30 p.m. ET. By contrast, the BBC's website is simulcasting five television feeds, though only to U.K. residents.

Don't be a dip, Zip your zip

Why is it, that when you walk around half the day, and your pants are unzipped, no one has the huevos to tell you? I've been walking around since 11AM around the office, to the cornerstore, and to the coffee shop, and not one single person told me my pants were unzipped! It's not like they can't see it! I'm 6'5", it's probably about eye level. Trust me, if you see me and my pants are undone, I'm not making a fashion statement. Tell me to zip them up!

I've been busy the last couple days. There's a strong probability that we're opening up a rock venue here in Tyler, and I've been meeting with the people I'd be hiring as managers to run the joint. More on that later, but if you're a long time friend of me, it'll be modus operandi like the Cedars of Lebanon shows, and the location will be out past Lindale highschool.

I've also been super busy banging my head on the keyboard. One of the less fun aspects of the contract I've taken here in Tyler is that I've got to design a system to acquire data from an old Unix based system that was created by a uninteruptible power supply company. Sounds arcane? It is! Just ask Darrell. We were literally pushing random buttons and having more luck than when we were actualy trying to utilize our cognitive functions to solve the problem.

Sundance.com Festival
Despite the efforts of folks in Hollywood to lock down everything and put up tollbooths for all online content, it appears that some more independent film makers recognize that giving away content online can have strong promotional value. That's why about two-thirds of the short films being shown at Sundance this year will also be viewable online. It sounds like it's only streaming, which is a start -- but they could get even more value out of offering it in really downloadable form, so that people could watch the video wherever and however they want, while also passing it along to friends to build up more buzz.

Online access to leftist political screeds, gay love stories, environmentalist documentaries, and experimental student films? Be still my beating heart.

Hillary: Left, Right or Indifferent?
In the process of creating the impression that she has shifted to the center, Hillary Clinton is alienating her liberal supporters and even some of her buddies in the media, who criticized her for cosponsoring a bill to make flag burning a crime. One columnist called it one step too far on her journey to the middle.

This week several of Hillary's lefty pals called her a politician for hire for securing $123 million worth of grants and contracts for big corporations that contribute to her political action committee. The New York senator secured the federal money for individuals and businesses that have donated big bucks to her compaign committee. The beneficiaries range from a Buffalo nanotechnology firm to a cancer research program in Cold Spring Harbor.

Before this new development, Hillary had already been labeled "politically disloyal" by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org for breaking with liberals in supporting the Iraq war and several other online blogs, such as Yellow Dog have officially withdrawn their support for the former first lady.

But don't be fooled by the mainstream media repeatedly labeling Hillary a centrist. The American Consevative Union, the nation's oldest conservative lobbying organization, has kept track of Hillary's senate voting record and points out that she is still a big time liberal.

Dumb Joke of the Day
A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patricia Whack.

"Miss Whack, I'd like to get a $30,000 loan to take a holiday."

Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it's okay, he knows the bank manager.

Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with some collateral.

The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patty explains that she'll have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office.

She finds the manager and says, "There's a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000, and he wants to use this as collateral."

She holds up the tiny pink elephant. "I mean, what in the world is this?"

The bank manager looks back at her and says, "It's a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

End of Privacy as we Know It
I found this very poignant critique of the information state and the national ID card system. Check it out.

http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

Courses for Libbers
The NLP was providing five week courses on various topics to increase our effectiveness, such as affiliate building, campaign management & fundraising, among others. I understand these courses will be intensive, and will require much of your time, but it appears it will rely on donations, rather than actual fees. For further information see: http://www.lp.org/lls/.

Germy Keyboards
"A test carried out by Pegasus Lab on account for Swedish magazine PC För alla showed that a normal PC keyboard was infected by more bacteria than a normal toilet seat. More specific it contained 33000 bacteria per square centimeter, compared to 130 on a ordinary toilet seat. The tests also showed occurrence of up to 3100 fungi per square centimeter." Also note that unless you read Swedish, you still have plausible deniability when asked to windex yours.

I'll RoShamBo ya for it!
While some people are big fans of the idea of vigilante justice against spammers, it seems only likely to lead to problems eventually. However, with companies such as IBM buying into the idea of vigilante justice on spammers, it's no surprise that the idea has built up quite a strong following. The latest effort, launched just last month, was named Kick a Spammer in the Nuts Daily (descriptive, yes?) and consists of having a ton of people fill out bogus orders on spammed sites. Brian McWilliams is now saying this method has worked against one spammer who is now begging for mercy. However, as McWilliams notes, it's unlikely most spammers will give in. Many will figure out ways around these attacks -- and they may start attacking back. And, of course, these sorts of vigilante actions way too often end up with totally innocent parties being harmed as well. While it's enjoyable to see a spammer begging for mercy, the risks of this method mean it's likely to backfire at some point.

Quote of the Entry:
"Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds."
- Samuel Butler

Just Another Day

Had a semi-productive day. Still putting names on the list for the Alpha Test. If you're interested, mail me at mark@5tribe.com and let me know.

I for one welcome our new robot overlords...
The South Korean government has robot fever, and they're about to unleash a whole army -- literally -- of the mechanized creatures on their public. According to The Korea Times, the country will see the rollout of police and military robots within the next five years, thanks to a newly approved $33.9 million spending appropriation. Patrol bots will guard the streets at night, and even chase criminals, while horse-shaped combat bots will augment the country's fighting force. In both cases, the bots will communicate via Korea's vast mobile network.

To get things rolling, so to speak, Korea will debut a series of household bots in the private sector this October. Unlike domestic bots already released in Japan, the Korean bots will be relatively cheap, since they use the network to perform much of their computational work instead of internal hardware and software.

Yeah, but they probably won't do it right...
Google's made it pretty clear that's it's got advertising aspirations that go well beyond Adsense ads on web pages, looking to sell space in magazines and newspapers and on TV. Don't forget about radio, either, with Google saying it will buy a company that's developed a platform for selling, scheduling, delivering and tracking radio ad spots online. That sounds like Adsense for radio -- so unsurprisingly, Google will integrate it into Adsense to sell radio airtime alongside Web ads. The question remains, though, just how much better and more efficient Google can make radio advertising. The results of its first print ad trials weren't very promising as Google couldn't deliver the same benefits to advertisers that it does online. Radio may not prove much different.

Cox, BigBand Networks extend agreement
BigBand Networks has signed a five-year agreement with Cox Communications that extends Cox's use of BigBand's FastFlow BPM (Broadband Provisioning Manager) to provision Cox High Speed Internet (CHSI) and VoIP-based Cox Digital Telephone services and features. Cox currently uses BigBand's FastFlow to bring other offerings to its broadband Internet, voice and commercial data subscribers. Cox has been a BigBand customer since 2000, using the platform for CHSI, various VoIP-based Cox Digital Telephone launches, RateShaping, HDTV, digital advertising insertion, and Gigabit Ethernet transport of video.

Reminds me of my Nokia Days
Slashdot points us to some research on the negative effects of meetings. For most people, this probably sounds intuitively correct. People are always complaining about the number of meetings they attend, as most aren't particularly helpful. Many are complete wastes of time, often designed more to make it appear like something is being done or some decision is being made, when the reality is that someone is trying to avoid getting something done or making an important decision. Of course, the article doesn't break down the different types of meetings, but one rule of thumb I've heard is that the more "all hands meetings" a company has, the more likely it's in trouble. If you have an all hands meeting every day (and I once worked at a company that did -- and they even claimed it was mandatory), then you know it's time to look for an escape route.

Tidbits from PopBitch
Brad and Ange are getting married on Valentine's Day. Justin Timberlake has told his mum he's "gearing up" to ask Cameron Diaz to marry him. How thrilling.

British tourist Sharon Tendler married a dolphin last week in Eilat. She has been visiting the 35-year old for years and said, "I'm the happiest girl on earth... And I am not a pervert."

Donnie Carroll, the real-life inspiration for the character of Turtle in HBO's Entourage, Mark Wahlberg's buddy, died at Christmas, aged 38, of an asthma attack.

Best holiday season celebrity spot: Crown Prince Albert of Monaco, on the dancefloor at a villa party in Cape Town, "tongue down the throat of a blonde, sporting a pair of beige and black african pyjamas, accessorised with a pair of earplugs, dancing to r&b."

Khashoggi and Energy
While the rest of us were concerned with other matters, some of the wealthiest people on the planet were busy snapping up small, independent power companies.

The repeal of the depression-era Public Utility Company Holding Act made it all possible and allows the big utility holders to take these little money machines–into which tens of millions pay monthly payments–and turn them into massive liquidity pools to buy more utility companies or to trade energy for profit.

The man at the penultimate position of power in this dangerous development is Mayo Shattuck III, a key player on Wall Street. He has just guided an $11 billion deal to create the largest utility merger in U.S. history, having a market capitalization of $28 billion. The new company combines Constellation Energy, of which Shattuck is CEO, and Florida Power and Light, well known for its windfarm development. It will operate in several states and therefore not be subject to state regulation.

Shattuck has been involved in deals with Russian ruble trading, Microsoft, Enron, the Bronfman dynasty and a massive insider trading scandal involving international arms trader Adnan Khashoggi’s Genesis Intermedia just before 9/11.

On 9/11, Shattuck was head of the A.B. Brown unit of Deutschebank AG of Frankfurt, Germany. He took over after his good friend A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard left to serve as number three man in the C.I.A. in 1998.

Shattuck presided as huge "put" options were placed with his bank against United Air Lines stock just before the World Trade Center attacks. "Puts" are bets the price of the stock will fall.

The next day, Shattuck resigned his position, abandoning the latter half of a multi-million-dollar, three-year contract as chairman. He then became CEO of Constellation Energy Group, a rather obscure player in the field. Even more unusual, Shattuck had no background in the energy field.

CEG gained access to Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and also helped refinance the Carlyle Group in its purchase of United Defense Technologies in 2000. The Brown bank has links to the Bush family that stretch back more than 70 years. It helped organize and manage the bank managed by George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush. That bank was Brown Brothers Harriman. The federal government, in the World War II era, shut it down for trading with the enemy. The government said Bush and Harriman were giving financial support to Hitler’s regime in Germany.

Shattuck owns 583,964 shares of Constellation Energy, according to Yahoo Finance. Other declared holdings of Shattuck include: Capital One Financial of New York, Capital Source Inc., and Gap Inc., where he holds 14,319 shares.

Quote of the Entry:
Unclespam21: your in florida????
Unclespam21: come on over
Unclespam21: we'll have fun
RznDoUrdn: no, I'm back in Texas now.
Unclespam21: wtf
Unclespam21: your like god danm carmon sandiago
RznDoUrdn: haha
Unclespam21: exept u dont get the endorsments

Libertarians Needn't Focus on Bush

I posted this letter to both the Broward Libertarian mailing list and the Rizznite list earlier last week. I didn't preface it when I sent it to the RIC list, which apparently I should have. I was subsequently told by a couple readers that my reasons here were particularly flimsy defenses of the President. The reason they may seem flimsy, if you think my point was to defend the President, is that I wasn't. My point in the letter was to speak to the independents and the LPers on the lists and point out that it is both not in our best interests nor is it constructive to simply deconstruct the Republican and Presidential agenda.

I ask that you, my faithful Rizzn-ites, re-read the following letter in that context and help me out with it. I know that many of us Libertarians hate the President's conduct, and many of us support the President's politics. That's the mixed bag you get with Libertarians. There should be focus on solutions rather than accusations, is my position. With that in mind, re-read my letter and tell me what you think.

(original slate article found here: http://www.slate.com/id/2133908/)

Dear fellow Broward LPers,

I don’t know whether to attribute this piece of garbage reporting and editorialisation to poor MSM journalistic standards or plain ol’ fashioned bias. I’ve stopped disputing the garbage I see come from the LewRockwell site, since I think it goes without saying that it’s pretty much a HateBushFirst rag (for explanations: http://www.rizzn.com/2005/11/hate-bush-first-rant.asp and http://www.rizzn.com/2005/11/hate-bush-first-responses.asp).

But since this is the Slate, and it’s yet another article recommendation from Frank J. Gonzalez, the Democrat that thinks he has a bunch of friends in the Libertarian Party because no one says anything to contradict his mindless drivel, I’m going to speak up again. I’m just a little fed up his assumption that just because I’m in an alternative party, and don’t support President Bush that I want to buy every piece of idiotic rhetoric the liberals and the Democrats want to feed me.

And just so it’s clear where I stand on Libertarian issues and the LP, I’ve taken a position starting in a couple months where I’m campaign treasurer for an LPer running for State Legislature in Texas. I believe in the majority of the precepts of the LP, enough to heavily support one of its candidates in what promises to be a heavily involved election process. But I also strongly believe that it doesn’t behoove any of us to pursue the Hate Bush First mentality and the fallacies of logic and research demonstrated in this and many other propaganda pieces put forward by Mr. Gonzalez.

Fallacies Put Forth by Mr. Kaplan
1) The evidence that the war in Iraq is wrecking the Army is steeply mounting.
You cannot say that the war in Iraq is the root cause of the problem, or at least not definitively. We’re talking about what amounts to social issue here, and sociology isn’t as much of a science as an art. You can’t point to one thing and say, hey, yep, that’s the only reason why millions of Americans don’t sign up to the military.

What could be some reasons? Other than the most obvious one: over the last 20 years, we’ve turned ourselves into a culture of wussies that will sue over a papercut (for emotional trauma, of course). So given that signing up for an Army or any other branch of service has an inherent risk of death in a non-combat situation, when there’s an actual hot-conflict situation going on, do you think Johnny Emo-boy or Jenny Gothy-pants is going to want to sign up for the military? No!

That’s the thing, most people don’t want to join the military in the first place! That’s why recruiters have been using dirty tricks since my Dad was a kid to get people to join. People just don’t want to die. Personally, I think that’s a healthy position for most people to take. And maybe, if the MSM would cover more of the positive outcomes of the war, everyone in this country wouldn’t be so staunchly against it. I mean Lord knows I have a million issue with the way this whole thing has been conducted, and it’s especially easy for us civilians to armchair quarterback this war, but there has to be at least a couple stories of positive outcomes that the conflict has produced. Seriously! I’m not a huge fan of Fox News, but they’re the only outfit I’ve seen that has reported such stories.

With bad PR like that, who can blame the general public for not wanting to sign up to die for a hopeless cause?

2) Category IV recruits are starting to skyrocket.
This is just simple math. 4% is not ‘skyrocketing’ when compared to 2%. The additional statistical information provided (even in the mathematical explanation) is ambiguous at best, and clearly phrased with an agenda in mind.

4) Every Army officer knows that the military is going to hell in a handbasket and every Army officer wants the US out of the war in Iraq.
In the resolution to the piece, he uses the facts that he does cite to prove a conclusion unrelated to the facts at hand. The facts do not prove that the military is going to hell in a handbasket. More importantly, it nowhere cites the opinions of any military officers.

How come everyone involved here has no solutions?
This is the problem with the anti-war crowd today (as well as the anti-Bush crowd). Everyone has a million reasons to hate war and the President, but nobody has any solutions! I’m calling them all out. It’s easy to sit here and say, yes, the President lied, we’re in a war we don’t need to be in, and war sucks because people die. It’s quite another to have viable alternatives to dealing with world unrest and instability.

What would fix this problem? Well, I have an unorthodox solution that would probably be right up Mr. Kaplan’s alley, if he had put any thought at all into this piece.

If you read about Mr. Kaplan’s past, he’s a graduate of MIT (poli-sci major). Someone who attended MIT had to have been exposed to the best and brightest technological solutions of the day, and has to have some sort of working knowledge of at least what’s out there in the technological field; anything less, and I’d be severely disappointed in the declining standards of MIT admissions. Given that, doesn’t it sound like we need more automation in our battlefield strategies? Put more robots or automated vehicles out there with operators who don’t have to go behind enemy lines? Instead of taking the easy way out and punching up on the administration and the recruiting problems, be suggesting some innovative ways to utilize technology to lower the casualty rates, thereby lowering the human cost of conducting war, thereby increasing the ability of the recruiters to recruit without using their age-old patented sleazy techniques.

I’m just sayin’, that’s one solution that could have been put forth, and it took me ten seconds to come up with it. This article, like 90% of the articles that Mr. Gonzalez forwards us, are articles that are agenda-based, have no clear solutions for us to prosecute or discuss, and are ultimately useless and self-destructive. Granted, that’s the culture we find ourselves in, but shouldn’t we as Libertarians be setting ourselves aside from the political culture of sheep-mentality and rhetoric?

You tell me.

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry:
"The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity."
- Helen Rowland

Back on the Set, and Coverin' All Bets

I'm back from my weekend trip to Florida. I have one piece of advice for all you people living in Texas wanting to travel to Florida. If you ever get the opportunity to travel on Spirit Airlines - don't. What a long and arduous journey! I missed my first plane out of town, and because I chose the fledgling airline for my ticket, and they didn't have another flight that left on Saturday to get to Fort Lauderdale. As a result, I had to fly on American Airlines, which is a nice and big airline, but cost me $200 extra dollars for a one way ticket!

Once I got there, my Leo and I had a nice lunch and catch-up session. Then I wound up waiting at the auto-repair place while they worked on changing a tire on my car for three hours!!! I can change a tire in 10 minutes. I don't know what the big hold-up was, but anyways...

Then I went home and started packing up my belongings. I'm sub-letting my apartment to a former business associate who's moving back into town, so I had to get all my personal affects out of there. I then proceeded to go home and fall fast asleep until about noon on Sunday. When I woke up, I was in a panic, because I had about four hours to finish boxing things up (and the maid service I called to clean my apartment never showed up! That was a waste of a hundred bucks!).

Fortunately, I go 99% of everything I wanted done this weekend (except I left a load of laundry at the cleaners - and my FAVORITE shirt is there. hopefully Leo will go and pick up my laundry for me).

I took a limosine back to the airport. That was interesting. I found out it was cheaper to rent a limo than to call a cab! At any rate, I arrived at the airport in style, walked up to the counter, and found out the airline had lost my ticket AGAIN!

So, I reiterate, if you ever have the chance to fly on Spirit airlines - DON'T! Bad times!

Fortunately, I had enough cash to buy ANOTHER one way ticket back home.

Cops were told gun likely fake
In Longwood, Florida, The parents of a 15-year-old boy accused of terrorizing classmates with a pistol warned authorities the weapon likely was fake before police shot him in a middle school bathroom, a family attorney said Saturday.

Christopher Penley of Winter Springs reportedly brandished the gun in a classroom and roamed the grounds before a SWAT team member shot him in a bathroom, authorities said.

Officers who went to the suburban Orlando school believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm and did not learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.

The parents, Ralph and Donna Penley, were in contact with authorities during the incident and told them the weapon was likely fake, said family attorney Mark Nation. Ralph Penley went to the school to try to talk his son out of the situation. The boy was clinically brain dead Saturday and his organs were being harvested, Nation said

George Clooney is Gay
If there were any question whether or not George Clooney was gay after his loving apprortions given to his flick Brokeback Mountain, he appeared to fight back the tears as he accepted a special award - the Freedom Award.

The Freedom Award? The Freedom Award!?! The Freedom Award is special tribute "for illuminating our shared values of freedom, tolerance and democracy", at the 11th annual Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica. Granted, the award wasn't for the gay-fest Brokeback Mountain, but his performance in Good Night, and Good Luck. Still, though. Crying? Over the Freedom Award? Give me a break.

Sorry ladys, George is taken. With boiies!

Stern and Burn
Howard Stern played it safe on his debut for Sirius Satellite Radio. The show kicked off with secret cast member revelations (that will be matched to the appropriate Stern regular next week), the truth about his romantic trip over the holidays (no marriage for Howie), and the addition of Star Trek star George Takei as the show's announcer (at least through the end of the week).

Foul language and lewd acts were kept in check, perhaps deliberately. Stern is looking to duplicate -- and ultimately surpass -- his terrestrial radio success, so there's no point in going for the jugular overnight. Starting tame also helps Stern prove his point that his show won't be raunchy for raunchy's sake.

So there you go. Not exactly a big start for the Stern-master, but maybe he's mellowing out in his old age. One can only hope. Personally, I tired of the same dick and fart jokes about two weeks into the first time I listened to Stern.

Life ... will ... find ... a way! Bwahahaha!
I know, I normally don't do a whole bunch of environmental stories, but this one is just great, and I can't wait to see what sort of search engine results I get from posting this story. Originally found here.

Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.

There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.

Are You Actually Trying To Tell Me that a Democrat Lied?
...because I thought only Presidents who were named George W. Bush did that. Below is an excerpt I was given from a book called "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left" by an author named David Horowitz. It should be released in paperback this month.

On July 10, the Democratic National Committee released a television ad which they titled, 'Read His Lips: President Bush Deceives the American People.' The subject of the ad – and of weeks of unrelenting Democratic attacks – was a sentence containing sixteen words from the president's State of the Union address of January 28. The words referred to an alleged attempt by the Iraqi government to purchase 'yellow cake' uranium in the African state of Niger: 'The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' The ad included a clip of the president uttering the second half of the statement, but omitting the fact that he was citing a British intelligence report. The DNC text continued, 'But now we find out that it wasn't true. Far worse, the administration knew it wasn't true. A year earlier, that claim was already proven to be false. The CIA knew it. The State Department knew it. The White House knew it. But he t old us anyway.'

In other words, the commander in chief was a liar, and his deceptions had taken America to a war that was needless and that cost America lives.
Democrats were certainly aware of the seriousness of their attacks on the integrity of the president, not to mention the possible ramifications for national security. Presidential candidate John Edwards told a New York Times reporter, 'The most important attribute that any president has is his credibility – his credibility with the American people, with its allies and with the world. When the president's own statements are called into question, it's a very serious matter.' The fact that the accusations were being made over such a flimsy claim was thus particularly troubling. The British government continued to stand by its report, making the presidential statement literally true. Moreover, the ad's insinuations in regard to the CIA and the State Department were misleading since both had vetted and approved the president's speech. Neither of these considerations served to restrain the Democrats' attacks.

A year later, when major damage to the commander in chief's credibility had already been done, a bi-partisan Senate committee investigating intelligence failures leading up to the war exonerated him: 'We conclude also that the Statement in President Bush's State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" was well-founded.'

Geek Joke of the Day
Unless you're the sort of person who immediately recognized why the folks at Google originally sought to raise $2,718,281,828 in its IPO, you might want to just pass over this story. A reporter at News.com noticed an extremely unintentional inside joke with Apple's closing share price today. On the very day the company officially announced its first Intel-based product, Apple's stock price closed at $80.86. If you don't get it, it's time to read up on your computer history. No, there is no way at all that this was intentional. However, that doesn't make it any less amusing.

Quote of the Entry:
I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
- Mary Chase

She's Got Manhands, Jerry!

Project Catarl Mini-Update
I wanted to say I've recieved quite a few requests to join the Alpha test, despite the fact that the email address was completely wrong on the previous entry. This is the Correct Address. Feel free to try it again if the address buggered out on you last time.

Captain Insano Dating Life
I'm thinking very heavily about starting a little story of the week section about my dating life, as my recent history has become like some sort of protracted episode of the Seinfeld show. I've been on maybe two or three second dates in the last two years, and the reason always comes out sounding like a George/Seinfeld answer ala "She's got MANHANDS, Jerry!", but when the whole story comes out, the listener will tend to side with me. The latest little episode has really pushed me over the edge as far as wanting to spread the stories around (although when you hear it compared to some of the other ones, you may wonder why it was that one which pushed me over the edge or not).

The moral debate, of course, is that I know a lot of the girls I've dated, both past and present, still read these pages. Despite the fact I'll probably never talk to these girls again, I still feel bad about making direct references to them in ways that they'll know I'm talking about them.

But of course, on the other hand, every time I tell these stories in mixed company at a party or a gathering of friends, they absolutely kill like a session of Seinfeld standup, so I'm pretty sure they're at least entertaining stories. I'll leave the decision up to you. In the comments section below this entry, let me know what you think. Should I sacrifice half my female demographic by pissing them off one by one and telling stories about them and the tragic dates I went on? Or do I keep my mouth shut like a gentleman, and only tell the stories when I'm sure they won't find out?

Supercomputing on its way...

University of Michigan scientists have created the first quantum microchip, which could be a giant stride in the race to produce a new generation of brawny, super-fast computers.

So, on a semiconductor chip roughly the size of a postage stamp, the Michigan scientists designed and built a device known as an ion trap, which allowed them to isolate individual charged atoms and manipulate their quantum states. An ion expresses a positive or negative charge, depending on whether its parent atom has a missing or an extra electron. And ions are the preferred building blocks for a quantum system.

"The cadmium atom that has lost an electron becomes a negatively charged ion, which can then be controlled with an electrical field," said Daniel Stick, a doctoral student in the University of Michigan's physics department who participated in the work.

Will your notebook or desktop PC someday sport quantum innards? It's unlikely, at least in the immediate future. Researchers believe quantum systems will be much more efficient at rock-solid cryptography and mass database searches than running the latest version of Doom.

The Skylab-Area 51 Incident

Today on Slashdot, a reader wrote in:

"The Space Review has an interesting story written by Dwayne Day about the 1974 incident when astronauts onboard Skylab took photos of a facility that did not exist in the US called Area 51. From The Space Review: What the memo indicates is that there was a difference between the way the civilian agencies of the US government and the military agencies looked at their roles. NASA had ties to the military, but it was clearly a civilian agency. And although the reasons why NASA officials felt that the photo should be released are unknown, the most likely explanation is that NASA officials did not feel that the civilian agency should conceal any of its activities. Many of NASA's relations with other organizations and foreign governments were based on the assumption that NASA did not engage in spying and did not conceal its activities."

The article itself states:

Why the Skylab astronauts disobeyed their orders and took the photo is unknown, as are what it depicted. Because they had only handheld cameras for earth observation, the resolution of the image would have been limited. The existence of the base was not a secret, particularly to an Air Force pilot like Bill Pogue—the pilots who flew in the huge Nellis testing range in Nevada referred to Area 51 as “the box” because they were under explicit instructions to not fly into that airspace. But for whatever reason, they had taken the photo and now it had created a stir within the intelligence community

By the way, if you're interested in a higher-resolution look at Area 51, just point your Google Earth to 37 d 14' N, 115 d 49' W. Interestingly enough, while you can get a perfectly good picture of Area 51 from Google Maps, Area 51 does not show on the FAA aircraft navigation charts (e.g. the Las Vegas VFR sectional chart). Groom Lake itself is on the map, but there is no sign of any aircraft facilities. The whole point of these charts is to provide information to pilots, including the nearest place to land if they're in trouble. Suppressing Area 51 must have taken some pretty high-level string-pulling.

Comcast adds 200K VoIP subscribers in 2005
At a Citigroup investors' conference in Phoenix, Comcast announced that it added 202,000 new VoIP subscribers by end of 2005, making its total number of telephony customers (both circuit-switched and packet-switched) to 1.3 million, in line with its expectations.

Acknowledging that Comcast needs to migrate a substantial portion of its circuit-switched customers over to the Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) service, chairman and CEO Brian Roberts expects the CDV product to capture 1 million new customers in 2006. According to Doug Mitchelson, analyst at Deutsche Bank, voice will be one of the key catalysts for 2006 as Comcast redefines its addressable markets by allowing it to target its non-video subscribers with a voice/data bundle and helps drive video and data growth. To do this, however, Comcast will need to increase CDV's footprint. Sixteen million homes today can avail of Comcast's VoIP service, which still leaves 60 percent of its footprint (or roughly 20 million homes) lacking the technical capabilities to take advantage of the VoIP service.

Comcast continues to expand availability of the VoIP service in markets like San Francisco, Washington, Nashville and Little Rock, AR, and hopes to have the service available in 70 million homes over the course of its five-year plan, capturing a penetration rate as high as 20 percent.

Do What I Say, Not What I Do
Remember all those people who were insisting to us that using an open WiFi connection is a horrible crime that deserves terrible punishment? Well, perhaps they should arrest new UK MP Adam Afriyie, who reportedly had to sit on the steps of the Parliamentary building and catch the available WiFi from a neighboring cafe. Doesn't seem like he has a problem with using open WiFi. The rest of the article talks about how the folks in Parliament are simply begging for WiFi to be enabled in Parliament so they can actually get some work done. In the past, of course, Parliament has not always been particularly tech friendly. A year ago, for instance, it banned the use of Blackberries -- not necessarily because they were distracting, but because someone accidentally sent the wrong email to the wrong person.

Western Muslims' Racist Rape Spree
Someone posted the following story on the Miami Craigslist (which I still subscribe to). It's interesting, and it is confirmed by some MSM sources (for what that's worth). It's not getting a lot of play or research by the MSM, so I'm turning it loose on you, Rizznites. See what you guys can turn up as far as verification or denial of this story. Either way it falls, it's quite interesting given it's very volitile nature.

In Australia, Norway, Sweden and other Western nations, there is a distinct race-based crime in motion being ignored by the diversity police: Islamic men are raping Western women for ethnic reasons. We know this because the rapists have openly declared their sectarian motivations.

When a number of teenage Australian girls were subjected to hours of sexual degradation during a spate of gang rapes in Sydney that occurred between 1998 and 2002, the perpetrators of these assaults framed their rationale in ethnic terms. The young victims were informed that they were "sluts" and "Aussie pigs" while they were being hunted down and abused. In Australia's New South Wales Supreme Court in December 2005, a visiting Pakistani rapist testified that his victims had no right to say no, because they were not wearing a headscarf.

Earlier this year Australians were outraged when Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed gave a lecture in Sydney where he informed his audience that rape victims had no one to blame but themselves. Women, he said, who wore skimpy clothing, invited men to rape them.

In Norway and Sweden, journalist Fjordman warns of a rape epidemic. Police Inspector Gunnar Larsen stated that the steady increase of rape-cases and the link to ethnicity are clear, unmistakable trends. Two out of three persecutions for rape in Oslo are immigrants with a non-Western background and 80 percent of the victims are Norwegian women.

In Sweden, according to translator for Jihad Watch, Ali Dashti, "Gang rapes, usually involving Muslim immigrant males and native Swedish girls, have become commonplace." A few weeks ago she said, "Five Kurds brutally raped a 13-year-old Swedish girl."

In France, Samira Bellil broke her silence -- after enduring years of repeated gang rapes in one of the Muslim populated public housing projects -- and wrote a book, In the hell of the tournantes, that shocked France. Describing how gang rape is rampant in the banlieues, she explained to Time that, "any neighborhood girl who smokes, uses makeup or wears attractive clothes is a whore."

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry:
"The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it."
- Benjamin Disraeli