Jim Bell on Blogger

I donate. How about you? Thank you from the Wikimedia Foundation

2011-02-02T13:15:00.001+11:00

I have selected to donate $2 monthly.

"Dear James,

Thank you for your gift of USD 2.00 to the Wikimedia Foundation, received on January 17, 2011. I'm very grateful for your support.
Your donation celebrates everything Wikipedia and its sister sites stand for: the power of information to help people live better lives, and the importance of sharing, freedom, learning and discovery. Thank you so much for helping to keep these projects freely available for their more than 400 million monthly readers around the world.

Your money supports technology and people. The Wikimedia Foundation develops and improves the technology behind Wikipedia and nine other projects, and sustains the infrastructure that keeps them up and running. The Foundation has a staff of about fifty, which provides technical, administrative, legal and outreach support for the global community of volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia.
Many people love Wikipedia, but a surprising number don't know it's run by a non-profit. Please help us spread the word by telling a few of your friends.

And again, thank you for supporting free knowledge.

Sincerely Yours,

Sue Gardner
Executive Director

* To donate: http://donate.wikimedia.org
* To visit our Blog: http://blog.wikimedia.org
* To follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wikimedia
* To follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wikipedia

This letter can serve as a record for tax purposes. No goods or
services were provided, in whole or in part, for this contribution.
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charitable corporation
with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in the United States. Our address is 149 New Montgomery, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94105. Tax-exempt number: 20-0049703 "

Unhackable data in a box of bacteria: Future of InfoSec? - Computerworld Blogs

2011-01-19T12:13:00.001+11:00

http://blogs.computerworld.com/17683/unhackable_data_in_a_box_of_bacteria_stored_in_a_frig_future_of_infosec

Jim Bell

My Website & Portal: jimbell.id.au

Email Me: jimbell@people.net.au

19 Beautiful Examples of HDR Done Right

2010-12-16T13:41:00.000+11:00

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/19-beautiful-examples-of-hdr-done-right

Jim Bell

My Website & Portal: jimbell.id.au

Email Me: jimbell@people.net.au

Very funny Wayne and Chris!

2010-09-25T13:46:00.000+10:00

Jim Thompson again

2010-09-23T17:32:00.000+10:00

Good reason to use Creative Commons Music

2010-06-23T13:05:00.001+10:00

Ruling on gym music fees appealed - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Ruling on gym music fees appealed

Updated 1 hour 28 minutes ago

Fitness Australia says it will appeal against a decision to significantly increase the cost of playing music in gyms.

Last month the Australian Copyright Tribunal decided to increase the licence fee for the right to play protected sound recordings in fitness classes.

Gyms had previously been charged 96.8 cents a class, with a cap of $2,654 a year. The increase will see them pay $15 per class.

Fitness Australia's CEO Lauretta Stace says an increase of over 1,500 per cent is simply unaffordable.

Ms Stace says the aim of their appeal is to have the decision overturned.

Two Choices for Rates and Cheap Isn’t One of Them

2010-06-21T13:12:00.001+10:00

This is a very good article.

Work for free or for full price. Never for cheap.

http://www.drawar.com/articles/two-choices-for-rates-and-cheap-isnt-one-of-them/242/

If you charge too much though they will walk away. You might even feel guilty charging the rate you want for doing the thing that you love, but very few people are in the position that you are in. You bust your ass for a reason and not everyone can do the excellent work that you do so be proud of it and charge a rate you can be proud of. Most companies have no problem paying for quality work and yet most designers have a problem charging for it.

If you do a job for free you can control the expectations of the client. You can tell them what the boundaries are and what they should expect of you. When they aren't paying anything they don't want to overstep those boundaries to piss you off. They are thankful for any work that they can get out of you.

Electric (element) hot water hearers are becoming illegal!

2010-06-10T10:35:00.001+10:00

This is an environmental rant -- not a political rant .. :-)

Hunter region -around Newcastle - New South Wales - Australia is doing something pretty drastic.

Electric (element) hot water hearers are becoming illegal! Any new heater has to be a solar or a heat pump type with subsidies of up to AU$1000 to help with the process.

This will reduce by TONS the amount of CO2 produced each year by our region.

Are any other areas going this way ?

Here's a link to Rheem Hot water as an example http://tinyurl.com/4sk6.

Add to that --"As Part Of The New Economic Stimulus Package, The Federal Government Has Removed The Means Test On The Solar Hot Water Rebate.

You can now get $600 for installing a heat pump, or $1000 for installing an on-the-roof system, when replacing an old electric HWS."

This seems to be a better way of stimulating an economy rather than giving money to banks ;-)

Location:Belmont,Australia

Gamasutra: Mark Newheiser's Blog - Farmville, Social Gaming, and Addiction

2009-12-09T07:55:00.001+11:00

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarkNewheiser/20091204/3733/Farmville_Social_Gaming_and_Addiction.php

Massive Samoan Quake Triggers Tsunami Warnings Off Coast Of Hawaii, New Zealand - cbs2.com

2009-09-30T19:46:00.001+10:00

This is from CBS News USA

Dozens Dead After Tsunami Levels Samoan Towns

American Samoa, Other Pacific Nations On Edge After Magnitude 8.3 Earthquake Spawns Tsunami

http://cbs2.com/national/samoa.earthquake.tsunami.2.1215867.html

7.45 am 23dr Sept 2009 Belmont Dust storm!

2009-09-23T07:54:00.001+10:00

We have fish AND WHALES!!!

2009-08-20T20:37:00.003+10:00

Busy minding our own business, happily pulling in lots of different fish
("http://bit.ly/E3yXO We have fish!!! http://yfrog.com/75z8qj ")
when out of the blue these three enormous pests tried to scare away all our fish!!! :)

Check out the last picture!!!

Wait, there's more than one!

Thar she blows!

"Did ya get that shot Jim?"

"Stick Dudes" getting naked!

2009-06-25T14:16:00.000+10:00

EXERCISE FOR PEOPLE OVER 50

2009-05-22T01:36:00.001+10:00

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface,

where you have plenty of room at each side

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand,

extend your arms straight out from your

sides and hold them there as long as you can.

Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you'll find that you can hold this

position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks,

move up to 10-lb potato bags.

Then try 50-lb potato bags and then

eventually try to get to where you can

lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand

and hold your arms straight for more

than a full minute. (I'm at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level,

... put a potato in each bag.

Don't know if this is just a coincidence but...

2009-05-17T11:41:00.000+10:00

Don't know if this is just a coincidence but....
2007 - Chinese year of the Chicken - Bird Flu Pandemic devastates parts of Asia
2008 - Chinese year of the Horse - Equine Influenza decimates Australian racing
2009 - Chinese year of the Pig - Swine Flu Pandemic kills hundreds of pigs around the globe.

Has any one else noticed this???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But...It gets worse........
next year......
2010 - Chinese year of the Cock - what could possibly go wrong?

Updated Blog and now side bar's missing?

2009-05-14T13:29:00.001+10:00

I just updated the Blog and now the side bar's missing?
What could cause this?

ANSWER --- don't copy other blogs HTML straight to your blog!!
It stuffs up the formatting!

WHO Investigates Claim that Swine Flu Virus May have Been Created… By Mistake

2009-05-14T12:02:00.001+10:00

Found on http://www.dvorak.org/blog

Bloomberg- The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.” The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.

A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said. The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.

Gibbs and two colleagues analyzed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus’s eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper today for publication in a medical journal.

“You really want a very sober assessment” of the science behind the claim, Fukuda said May 11 at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters. “My guess is that the picture should be a lot clearer over the next few days,” Fukuda said. “We have asked a lot of people to look at this.” Gibbs wrote or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications on viruses during his 39-year career at the Australian National University in Canberra, according to biographical information on the university’s Web site.

Breaking news - Celebrity Swine Flu Fatality

2009-05-13T01:21:00.001+10:00

Subject: Breaking news - Celebrity Swine Flu Fatality

And we all know who gave it to him…...

Too much to drink!

2009-05-12T12:43:00.005+10:00

Too much to drink!
Memories of the the holiday season may remain (or not), so I would like to pass along this gentle reminder...
You may have seen some of these very disturbing photos before, but this is a reminder that you don't want to be another statistic.

6 beers

2 glasses of wine

2 bottles of wine (shared)

Too many margaritas

3 Kamikazes

7 Captain Morgan's (coconut flavored, of course) & coke

1 large purple haze

3 martinis

1 bottle of tequila

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY!

Twitter Fan Wiki / Apps

2009-05-02T00:48:00.002+10:00

This is a collection of twitter apps for the Mac

http://twitter.pbworks.com/Apps%23Mac

Ada - Ada is the perfect little Twitter app with a clean, simple design. It doesn't hog up your desktop or distract you with a million crazy features. See and send tweets, replies and direct messages. Ada runs on both PCs and MACs.

AlertThingy - AlertThingy v2 brings the very latest updates from your favourite social networks direct to your desktop. Plus send Tweets, update your Facebook status, upload photos to Flickr, post to Tumblr and more. With v2 AlertThingy makes it faster and easier to manage the online you. Plus you get the coolest looking RSS reader on the interweb.

Airmailr - A full-featured Mac OS X dashboard widget for Twitter

BigTweet - BigTweet installs easily and quickly as a bookmarklet on all the major browsers and allows you to post to Twitter (or FriendFeed) from any web page. Automatically capture the current page title, URL and any highlighted text. Insert special Unicode characters and shorten URLs with the Bit.ly API right from the bookmarklet window. Optionally add a Bit.ly API Key to track and view statistics on your shortened links. No registration is required - only Twitter login credentials are needed.

Blogo - A weblog editor which is also a full-featured Twitter client integrated with Twitpic, tinyURL, tweetburner and Ping.fm.

Bluebird - A simple and beautiful twitter client by {13Bold}. Bluebird has support for html/css themes and works great for updating multiple accounts!

Canary - An easy to use, single column Cocoa twitter client with filters, drag and drop TwitPic integration and more.

Celly. OS X. The original Twittergotchi as a downloadable app by Chris Messina

Chirp v.5. OS X. Dashboard Widget for Twitter, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, and Pownce by Warm Chocolate.

Chitter. OS X. Plug-in for iChat by ROFL Software

EventBox. OS X. Social network aggregator with full support for Twitter (searching, etc).

feedalizr - A free deskptop application that allows you to view, rate and comment on what your friends are sharing online. Tweet, upload pics to Flickr, update your Facebook status, keep up to date with your friends’ Google Reader, Digg, Tumblr, YouTube and Last.fm posts on Friendfeed. Use unique filters to reduce the noise. Duplications are filtered out. -- by MIH SWAT

Friendbar- A Firefox toolbar that is the best way to follow Twitter & Facebook updates, and post to Twitter and Facebook

iChat Status to Twitter. Applescript that pushes your iChat status, including iTunes current song by WT Leroux

iTunes to Twitter. Applescript that pushes out your iTunes current song by WT Leroux

MoodBlast. Updates Twitter (and Facebook, Jaiku, Tumblr, Yappd, iChat, Adium, Skype) from a hotkey with extensive replacement strings.

NatsuLion - NatsuLion is a simple native Twitter client for Mac OSX with ability to view only @replies.

Nambu - Free desktop application that combines Twitter, FriendFeed, Twitter Search and tr.im URL shortening together into a great streamlined experience.

P3:PeraPeraPrv for Mac - P3: PeraPeraPrv for Mac is fully functional twitter client based on Java. P3 supports full-keyboard based operation, filter view to tracking with @id's and keyword, quick-appearance changing, English/Japanese/Chinese interface and many features.

PhotoTwitter. This application allows you to take a Snapshot using your iSight and post the photo and your text on Twitter.

pocket* - A refreshingly simple twitter client by the author of TwitterPod.

Pwytter - The free open source Twitter client written in Python now packaged as an App

RAILhead Design. Wiki page. UPDATED TO v1.3.2 on 02-23-2007.

Robin. OS X Dashboard Widget by SimplyExcited.

Scalaris - OS X. Built as minimal and unintrusive as possible. Relies on Growl.

Syrinx - Syrinx is a fully customizable twitter client designed for Leopard (OS X 10.5+). Syrinx is built from two ideals: efficient workflow and customization. It includes some unique features such as the ability to pause the twitter stream, and a bookmark that flags your latest read tweet.

TikiTwit . Updates your Twitter status when you change your iChat status.

Tototl 1.4 - An opensource and lightweight Twitter Client for Mac OSX in Cocoa

Tweetie for the Mac - a beautiful application including features such as threaded conversations and DMs, detached search windows, support for multiple URL-shortening and photo-posting services, and much more.

Twidget. OS X. Twitter Dashboard by Aquabox

Twitgit. OS X. Dashboard Widget by Ben Ward (See also Wiki Page)

TwitterFun - A clean, easy to use Twitter Client for mac. It has seven URL shortners, send @replys to your friends, Send/Receive Direct Messages, and apply filters to your searches.

Twits -- A simple Open Source Bash Status updater (v0.0.5 Stable). Also obtaining more features and optional GUI.

Twitter Thingy - A very simple Adobe air based Twitter client for windows, OS X and Linux. It has all the essential functions that get you using the best parts of Twitter as quickly as possible, without having to learn a colossal new bit of software. It also does groups and archiving as well as threaded replies.

Twitter from TextMate - A simple little script that allows you to tweet from TextMate with a GUI Dialog popup.

Twittereze SIMBL extension for Twitterific by Sören Kuklau

Twitterlex. Dashboard Widget by Brett Taylor

Twitteromatic. OS X. Send out current weather, iTunes track, secret word of the day, this day in history, uptime and current IP.

TwitterPod. A Twitter app

TwitterPost. OS X. Desktop app by Maury McCown

Twitterrific. OS X. Desktop app by Iconfactory (See also Wiki page)

Twitter Studio. OS X Desktop app by BlueCrestStudios

Twittia Twitter-client for OS X by Jeena Paradies

Twoot - An ad-free open source minimalistic customizable twitter client for those who know HTML and CSS. Appified with Fluid.

Twoot - Extended and improved version by Travis Jeffery.

Visionary Saver. A Mac OS X screen saver for Twittervision, Twittervision 3D, Flickrvision, and various others.

Twitterlights MAC app that allows for one click tweeting and content saving (and much more) all free!

Twitminal Terminal app with growl notifications, very lightweight, free kind of cool .

pbtweet - pbtweet is small program make your twitter experience ehnance. pbtweet enhances infinite timeline scrolling, automatically update, RT/via style quoting tweet, translating tweets, picture tumbnail badges and inline reply chains to twitter.com. All animation effects based on Webkit's early implementation of CSS3 transitions.-- by t_trace

Test of upload of image with Mars Edit

2009-04-30T01:50:00.001+10:00

iPhone photo from canal trip in Bangkok

Mars Edit

2009-04-30T01:46:00.001+10:00

Mars Edit is now my main blog editing tool but I'm also looking at Qumana

MUSIC ON TWO 8-FOOT TESLA COILS WITH A ROBOTIC DRUMMER

2009-04-28T00:27:00.000+10:00

http://joelorr.squarespace.com/blog/2009/2/18/music-on-two-8-foot-tesla-coils-with-a-robotic-drummer.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZLdguAzbwg&feature=player_embedded

Using "Ecto" V.3.0 to publish to Blogger

2009-04-27T01:24:00.000+10:00

JUL30

VirtueSoft BlogWriter

iPhone AppsAdd comments

Read what you like and blog what you think. Blog writer and RSS reader all in one app on your iPhone/iPod touch at a low price.

Supported Services:

- Google Blogger (blogger.com / blogspot.com)

- MSN Live Spaces

- WordPress.com

- Self-host WordPress blogs

- MetaWeblog access enabled blogs

Features:

- Sync, publish, delete posts.

- Publish posts enclosing photos.

- Upload photos to your blog photo album.

- Geotag photos and embed geotag info in posts.

- Multi-languages support (UTF-8 encoding)

- Full featured RSS reader to track your favorite feeds.

NOTE: Limited by MSN Live Spaces server, VirtueSoft BlogWriter doesn’t support photo uploading with MSN Space blog.

The VirtueSoft BlogWriter is on sale in Apple App Store now.

Support forum: http://virtuesoft.com/support/

Not NDK but actually MBK mall ... (8 Floors) Bangkok

2009-04-18T20:54:00.003+10:00

MBK Center, also known as Mahboonkrong (Thai: มาบุญครอง), is an enormous marble shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand. At eight stories high and 330 metres long, with 2,500 shops using a total selling area of 89,000 square metres, this shopping mall used to be one of the biggest malls in Asia when it was first founded in 1985. It is particularly well known for its many vendors of mobile phones and other electronics, as well as furniture stores.

http://www.mbk-center.com/th/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBK_Center

View from peninsula hotel suite

2009-04-14T15:43:00.000+10:00

8 stories of mall shops !!!

2009-04-09T21:28:00.002+10:00

NDK mall Bangkok

2009-04-09T21:00:00.000+10:00

Fuel-Making Fungus from Patagonia.

2008-11-08T02:51:00.001+11:00

1) Fuel-Making Fungus Challenges Oil Creation Theory
Tuesday, November 04, 2008 By Robert Roy Britt

Read the full story at:FOXNews.com - Fuel-Making Fungus Challenges Oil Creation Theory - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

"A newfound fungus living in rainforest trees makes biofuel more efficiently than any other known method, researchers say.

In fact, it's so good at turning plant matter into
fuel that researchers say their discovery calls into question the whole
theory of how crude oil was made by nature in the first place.

While many crops and microbes can be combined to make biofuels — including the fungi that became infamous as jungle rot during World War II — the newfound fungus could greatly simplify the process, its discoverers claim.

Researchers have suggested that billions of acres of fallow farmland could be used to grow the raw material of biofuels.
But turning corn stalks or switchgrass into fuel is a painstaking
process and the end product is expensive and not entirely friendly to
the environment."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) The original, and on-going, research is being conducted at Montana State University, ...

... which holds the patient for "Gliocladium roseum", and is being conducted by
Gary A. Strobel, Professor, PhD. from University of California-Davis.

see:http://plantsciences.montana.edu/facultyorstaff/faculty/strobel/

"Dr. Strobel’s current work focuses on the
endophytic fungus, Gliocladium roseum, that he discovered in Patagonia.
Gliocladium roseum has been shown to produce many of the same
hydrocarbons found in diesel fuel. Strobel has dubbed the products of
this fungus “myco-diesel.” "

Listen to the podcast of Strobel talking about myco-diesel

Listen to the podcast of Strobel talking about endophytes

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Lost in translation!

2008-11-03T23:22:00.002+11:00

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=29914
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/nov/01/5

Lost in translation!

Published on November 1st, 2008

Posted by Eideard in General

Swansea (UK) council contacted its in-house translation service when designing the bilingual sign.
The seeds of confusion were sown when officials received an automated email response in
Welsh from an absent translator, saying:
“I am not in the office at the moment.
Please send any work to be translated.”

Unaware of its real meaning, officials had it printed on the sign.
The council took down the sign after Welsh speakers spotted the mistake.

Comment on the US Dvorak site ..........

We have a similar problem in northern New Mexico with all the road signs being produced at the State Penitentiary.

The prevailing illiteracy makes for some fascinating reading while trying to find your way around the region.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet

2008-11-02T01:02:00.002+11:00

This is really important to all of us ......
I found this on:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=29653 which is a US site and also on:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24568137-2862,00.html

I think this is something we may need
to kick up a stink about.

"AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring
of the internet under plans put forward by the Federal Government.
The revelations emerge as US tech giants Google, Microsoft and
Yahoo, and a coalition of human rights and other groups unveiled
a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.

The government has declared it will not let internet users opt out of the proposed
national internet filter. The plan was first created as a way to combat
child pronography and adult content, but could be extended to include
controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.
Communications minister
Stephen Conroy revealed the mandatory censorship to the Senate estimates
committee as the Global Network Initiative, bringing together leading
companies, human rights organisations, academics and investors,
committed the technology firms to "protect the freedom of expression
and privacy rights of their users".

Mr Conroy said trials were yet to be carried out, but "we are talking
about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material."

The net nanny proposal was originally going to allow Australians who
wanted uncensored access to the web the option of contacting their internet
service provider to be excluded from the service.

Human Rights Watch has condemned internet censorship, and argued to
the US Senate "there is a real danger of a Virtual Curtain dividing
the internet, much as the Iron Curtain did during the Cold War,
because some governments fear the potential of the internet, (and)
want to control it" Groups including the System Administrators Guild of Australia
and Electronic Frontiers Australia have attacked the proposal, saying it would
unfairly restrict Australians' access to the web, slow internet speeds
and raise the price of internet access.
EFA board member Colin Jacobs said it would have little effect on
illegal internet content, including child pornography, as it would
not cover file-sharing networks. "If the Government would actually
come out and say we're only targeting child pornography it would
be a different debate," he said.
The technology companies' move, which follows criticism that the
companies were assisting censorship of the internet in nations such
as China, requires them to narrowly interpret government requests
for information or censorship and to fight to minimise cooperation.

The initiative provides a systematic approach to "work together in
resisting efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in
acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards",
the participants said.

In a statement, Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang
welcomed the new code of conduct. "These principles provide a valuable
roadmap for companies like Yahoo operating in markets where freedom
of expression and privacy are unfairly restricted," he said. "Yahoo was
founded on the belief that promoting access to information can enrich
people's lives, and the principles we unveil today reflect our determination
that our actions match our values around the world." Yahoo was thrust into
the forefront of the online rights issue after the Californian company helped
Chinese police identify cyber dissidents whose supposed crime was expressing
their views online.
China exercises strict control over the internet, blocking sites linked to
Chinese dissidents, the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement,
the Tibetan government-in-exile and those with information on the 1989
Tiananmen massacre. A number of US companies, including Microsoft,
Cisco, Google and Yahoo, have been hauled before the US Congress in
recent years and accused of complicity in building the "Great Firewall of China".

The Australian Christian Lobby, however, has welcomed the proposals.
Managing director Jim Wallace said the measures were needed.
"The need to prevent access to illegal hard-core material and child
pornography must be placed above the industry's desire for unfettered
access," Mr Wallace said."

Also check out
http://www.efa.org.au/2008/10/29/efas-dale-clapperton-on-sunrise

EFA´s (... Electronic Frontiers Australia) Chair, Dale Clapperton, was
interviewed on Channel 7´s Sunrise program on 29th October about
the government´s proposed mandatory filtering policy. A phone-in survey
on the program revealed that 80% of respondents
were opposed to the censorship plan.

(Additional comment by David:)
Very much so. One of the not-mentioned aspects of this filtering scheme
is that it will also be vetting your connections to secure sites like banks
and other financial institutions, ie, your net banking username and
password will be able to be obtained by your ISP. This is a ridiculous
scheme the government is proposing, will be almost
totally ineffective at what it is trying to do, will slow down your Internet
connection by around 30% (if you are lucky), and will block a large
number of legitimate sites. Please contact your local federal member to
protest about this, and letters to the prime minister and minister
for communications would be helpful too.
You can get their addresses by ringing the local member's office.

Term 3 Session 5 Exposure Value, Rule of Thirds, Software, "Stop Motion" vs "Motion Blurred"

2008-09-02T15:27:00.002+10:00

Check Out the full post on my U3A Blog

http://u3a-digital-photography.blogspot.com/2008/09/term-3-session-5-exposure-value-rule-of.html

Rule of thirds

Jim Bell's U3A Digital Photography Course.

2008-06-23T00:42:00.001+10:00

This is the blog that I've set up for the U3A Digital Photography Course that I'm running, at Belmont North Community Centre, on a Wednesday.
Jim Bell's U3A Digital Photography Course.

Fuel-saver technology Premo-drive run over by budget | The Australian

2008-06-20T13:05:00.006+10:00

Come on Kevin, we don't need this sort of rubbish from Labor.

.. I wonder if it's possible for us "Normal" people to help with this sort of thing ... 5 million Aussies .. one dollar a head through say .. PayPal or some other sort of donation system. I'd possibly even put in more than a dollar. Later on the company could give a little back some way possibly as a discount on a share purchase .. What do you think?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
"PERMO-DRIVE is the sort of company that Kevin Rudd would like to believe is Australia's future - not only is it a manufacturer, it has developed innovative technology to slash fuel consumption."

"Its hybrid drive system for trucks promises to deliver fuel savings of up to 25 per cent, many times greater than the efficiency offered by the Toyota Camry the federal Government is backing with a $35 million cash grant.
From its base in Ballina, on the NSW north coast, the company secured the interest of the US army, which has subjected the technology to years of rigorous testing.
The company is ready to roll out 20 demonstrator models, and Australia's biggest trucking companies are keen to try them.
But all that promise now appears to be in doubt.
Permo-Drive chairman Colin Henson has written to the company's 1900 shareholders, telling them the company must be put into liquidation - and the Rudd Government's first budget was blamed.

The company was counting on a $5 million grant from the small business development program Commercial Ready, which was axed in the budget.
The company's executives were furious. "It seems very unfair of the federal Government to take away that opportunity from an Aussie company like Permo-Drive, yet, at the same time, announce a $35million fuel-saving hybrid subsidy to Toyota, a wealthy multinational company," Mr Henson wrote.
He told The Australian yesterday that while Toyota president Katuaki Watanabe had appeared nonplussed when asked what his company would do with the $35million federal grant, announced this month and immediately matched by a similar offer from the Victorian Government, Permo-Drive knew exactly what it would do with the $5million.
"That is the betterment of a technology that has been developed and proven in Australia," Mr Henson said.
He said a British venture capital company was prepared to put in $7.5million on condition that the business was successful in its application for the CR grant.
"A number of our potential investors were attracted by the fact that the company had the opportunity to claim under the Commercial Ready grants," Mr Henson said. "When they were scrapped, those investors evaporated."
Permo-Drive's technology is based on a hydraulic brake, which stores the energy released when a truck is slowing down by compressing gas in cylinders.
The truck then uses the power from the release of the gas when it is accelerating. It is ideal for rubbish trucks, postal vans and commercial delivery vans, which stop frequently.
Chief engineer Chris Marshall said the system was much lighter and cheaper than battery-based hybrid systems.

Permo-Drive was preparing its application for a Commercial Ready grant when the $700mil-lion-a-year program was axed in the budget. The program fell victim to the Government's razor gang after criticism from the Productivity Commission that it gave taxpayer funds to companies that would have gotten their technology to market anyway.
In its past 10 months, the program helped 125 small businesses get new products into production, ranging from a new design for orchestral harps to a mining drill.
Grants followed an appraisal by Ausindustry, provided there was matching funding from private sources. The Productivity Commission suggested the program would be improved if it were based on loans, not grants.
Coalition industry spokesman Eric Abetz said yesterday that while the Commercial Ready scheme could have been improved, it filled an important gap in small business funding.
"I would like to suggest to (Industry Minister) Kim Carr that he support Permo-Drive, but if he did that, he would be confronted with hundreds of similar requests from all around Australia," Senator Abetz said. "I have been inundated with tales of woe and concern from small businesses."
Senator Carr said the decision to chop the scheme had not been taken lightly.
"Anyone who says the budget wasn't tough needs only look to decisions like this," he said. "These disciplined savings measures will help to put downward pressure on inflation because we understand that inflation is real and it hurts working families."
He said almost three-quarters of the savings from the scheme had been earmarked for the Government's clean energy plan."

FOXNews.com - Study: Big, Carb-Heavy Breakfast Key to Weight Loss - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

2008-06-20T00:53:00.001+10:00

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368462,00.html

Eating a big breakfast, heavy in carbs, is the key to keeping slim, according to new research.

A new study found that women who eat half of their daily calories first thing in the morning lose more weight in the long term than those who start the day with a small breakfast.

And they are also less likely to pile the pounds back on.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, from the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela, who led the study, said: "A very low carbohydrate diet exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism. After a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

It is thought that eating a meal packed with protein and carbohydrates helps cut cravings for sweet or starchy foods, and boosts the metabolism.

Scientists compared the "big breakfast" diet with a strict low-carb weight-loss regime.

Jakubowicz and a team at Virginia Commonwealth University studied 94 obese, inactive women and found that low-carb dieters initially lost more weight.

The strict low-carb diet caused an average weight loss of 28 pounds; the big-breakfast version cut 23 pounds.

However, after eight months, the strict dieters had regained 18 pounds. The big-breakfast eaters continued to drop weight, losing another 16.5 pounds.

Those on the big breakfast diet lost more than 21 percent of their body weight, compared with just 4.5 percent for the low-carb group.

Women who ate a big breakfast reported feeling less hungry, especially before lunch and had fewer cravings for carbs than the other women did. The big breakfast dieters ate an average of 1,240 calories per day, 610 of which were consumed at breakfast. The low-carb dieters ate just 1,085 calories per day.

The findings will be presented this week at ENDO 08, the 90th annual meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco.

FOXNews.com - Study: Big, Carb-Heavy Breakfast Key to Weight Loss - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

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Aussie Bitten “Down Under” by Poisonous Snake, Survives

2008-06-12T13:31:00.001+10:00

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=18425

Published on June 11th, 2008

Posted by McCullough in General

Rum the remedy for snake bite on penis | NEWS.com.au

"A MAN bitten on the penis by a deadly snake has told how he used a cold rum can to soothe the pain while he rang his mother to say a final goodbye. “I thought I was gone,” Daryl Zutt said of his now notorious encounter with a brown snake during a roadside toilet stop in remote far north Queensland, The Cairns Post reported. “I thought, ‘Maybe, this is it. Maybe, I’m gonna cark it’.”

The Cairns Post revealed details of the bizarre encounter two weeks ago but the identity of the victim remained unknown until Mr Zutt came forward to tell how the brown snake took a near-fatal swipe as he relieved himself. “I squatted down … I reckon I must’ve nearly sat on his head,” he said. “As soon as I felt it, I yelled.

“It really hurt. “When it happened, I knew in the back of my mind it was a snake. “I seen him coming out from between my legs.” He said he tried to remain calm as he inspected the damage. “He got me about halfway down,” he said. “I saw fang marks and a bit of blood come out.” Mr Zutt’s friend drove him to a medical centre before he was moved to a hospital for further tests which showed he was not envenomated. “They’ve been saying things like ‘It was a trouser snake fight’ and ‘He (the snake) saw the competition and got scared’,” Mr Zutt said. “Once they knew I was right, the jokes came out.”

And the joke: So the doctor tells his friend, “If you want to save his life, you need to suck the poison out.” His friend nods, and hangs up the cell phone. Aussie asks his friend “What did the doctor say?” Friend looks at him ominously and says, “Your going to die mate”.

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Gasoline thieves adopt a new drill

2008-06-09T14:53:00.001+10:00

http://www.star-telegram.com/189/story/688574.html

Heidi Perkins spent $90 filling up her 2002 Dodge pickup the Friday before Mother's Day and used a quarter of the tank over the weekend. So she was mystified Monday morning when the gas gauge was below "E" as she drove her daughter to school.

She pulled into the closest gas station and began to refill.

"The gas was pouring out of the gas tank almost as fast as it was going in," said Perkins, who lives in Waxahachie. "There was a hole in it. And I started to wonder if my gas was stolen."

She was right: Someone drilled a hole in the truck's plastic gas tank and drained it.

With gas prices at record highs and service stations thwarting drive-offs with pay-before-you-pump policies, gas thieves are becoming more creative.

Police and Tarrant County auto-shop owners have reported gas tanks being punctured or fuel lines being cut on parked cars, trucks and SUVs. While most mechanics say they've seen only a couple of victims each, they fear the crime will grow with gas prices.

Read the rest at http://www.star-telegram.com/189/story/688574.html

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Flock Browser Test

2008-06-07T12:23:00.001+10:00

This is written and posted from inside Flock

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Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

2008-05-24T00:07:00.002+10:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_fe_st/

TOKYO - When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help., Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, nearTokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said., He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet., "I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs., "We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said., The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years., But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials., "I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said

In rubble, Chinese couple clung to each other, and to life

2008-05-20T13:38:00.002+10:00

In rubble, Chinese couple clung to each other, and to life

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/19/asia/19survivors.php

SHIFANG, China: At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris.
Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb.
Then there was the rain, sharp and cold, lashing at them through the cracks.
"I don't think I can make it," he told his wife, Li Wanzhi, his face just inches from hers, their arms wrapped around each other.
She sensed he was giving up. "If God wants to kill us, he would have killed us right away," she said. "But since we're still alive, we must be fated to live."
And they lived. They were pulled from the rubble of their collapsed six-story workers' dormitory 28 hours after last Monday's earthquake, spared the end met by at least 32,000 others.
Their tale of survival is also one of a rekindled love, of two people who might have died had they been trapped alone.
They whispered to each other. They talked of their 14-year-old daughter — who would take care of her? They recalled their life together, the shape of it before and the shape of it to come, all the changes they would make if they ever got out alive.
Days after their rescue, they lay in separate beds in Shifang People's Hospital, a loud place with too many patients and too few doctors. Wang's stout body was covered in cuts scabbed over with blood and pus, and he drifted in and out of sleep while talking to a reporter.
Li, 38, her petite frame dressed in a pink nightgown, spoke softly and stared at the ceiling with tears in her eyes. A white blanket covered her left side, where her arm had just been amputated. She had pleaded with a doctor not to cut it off, but there had been no choice: It had turned gangrenous after being trapped beneath Wang in the collapse.
Yet they were both thankful. "My colleagues said, 'You're the lucky one. You don't know how many people died,' " Li said of the reaction of her fellow factory workers.
Of the 28 hours, Wang said, "It was more terrifying than facing the god of death." Like for millions of Chinese, the life they knew was completely eradicated at 2:28 p.m. last Monday, when the 7.9-magnitude earthquake sent wave after wave of tremors through the river valleys and glaciated mountains of Sichuan Province, one of the most beautiful corners of China.
Wang, 40, had just returned home two days earlier, after traveling around the country for half a year and trying his hand at small businesses. He had lost a lot of money. He and his wife rarely spoke. He spent the Chinese New Year in the city of Guangzhou by himself, skipping China's most important family holiday.
Wang is the kind of itinerant worker found in China by the millions, wandering from city to city in these boom years, and so it was chance that brought him home two days before the earthquake.
Li was raising their daughter, Xinyi, on her own while working at a chemical factory in the town of Luoshui. "My husband doesn't have a stable life," Li said. "He goes wherever he can get a job. I told him, 'Why don't you have a rest? Stay away from business. Just try and enjoy life for a while.' "
Last Monday, she and her husband had just sat down in her fourth-floor apartment to watch a police soap opera on DVD when the dormitory, which houses dozens of factory workers, began shaking violently.
He flung an arm around her as they sprinted for the bathroom eight feet away. The entire building collapsed right as they got there, knocking them to the ground. The wooden bathroom door slammed against Wang's back. Clouds of dust filled their lungs.
They were frightened but did not feel any pain at first. "In our minds, everything was clear," Li recalled. "We were buried in the rubble.
"As a woman, as a mother, my first thought was, 'What about my daughter? Who'll take care of her if I die?' " she said.
They lay entwined on their sides, not knowing whether they were bleeding or any bones had been broken. A large chunk of concrete loomed inches above their heads. Shifting their bodies, they knew, could cause it to drop down on them.
Li's left arm was wedged beneath her husband. The pain was excruciating at first, until the arm went numb.
"My mobile phone is in my pants pocket," said Wang, who was wearing a tracksuit. "See if you can get it out."
With her free hand, Li managed to fumble it out, but there was no signal. She thought she heard her cellphone ringing elsewhere in the rubble. It rang over and over for a while. Family and friends must be calling, she thought. Then it stopped.
They tried yelling, even though it was hard to breathe. "Save us! Save us!" they screamed. They yelled whenever they heard any noise outside. Li told her husband, "We need to keep our heads clear and pay attention to what's happening."
Li tried to focus her mind on only two things: How can I get out? How can I stay alive? But of course she and Wang thought of their family and friends, whether they were suffering in the same way. Their daughter was at school when the earthquake hit. Their parents and siblings, mostly farmers, also lived in the area.
"I want you to make it out," Wang said. "We have a child, and I want you to raise her."
Through a crack in the rubble, they could see the light fading. The rubble was moving. It was pressing down, slowly crushing them. They no longer felt any pain because their entire bodies had gone numb. Nor did they feel hunger and thirst.
They had to take turns breathing. When Li took a deep breath, her chest expanding, Wang held his breath.
Li looked at the cellphone at 11 p.m. Still no signal. But at least they had the phone, their one lifeline. They kept it on. The battery meter showed one bar of power left.
The cold rain started sometime during the night. Wang could hear it pounding the debris like a drum: da-da-da-da-da. It came down through the cracks. Wang also heard other noises, stones crashing against stones. Were those landslides?
They looked again at the cellphone. The battery had died.
"I gave up hope that night," Wang recalled. "No one was going to save us." He thought about what it would be like to die slowly, minute by minute, and he made a decision. "I tried bending my neck against the wall to kill myself," he said.
That was when Li told him that since God had not killed them right away, they were meant to live. She also told him he was born in the Year of the Monkey, and monkeys can live for 500 years. She said he had to remember their daughter.
Maybe he would spend more time at home, he said. Settle down, see more of their daughter.
"Let's try to get some sleep and save our energy," she said.
But they were too terrified to fall asleep.
Then slowly the daylight began coming back through the crack. Hours later, they heard crunching footsteps on the rubble. Their voices were hoarse, but they began yelling again.
Someone shouted back, "Who are you?"
Li recognized her boss's voice. "I'm Li Wanzhi," she said.
Then came the words, "Hold on, we're going to save you right now." A constellation of voices, some familiar, swirled overhead. They could not understand what was being said, only that the people were weighing different plans.
At last, they heard rumbling of heavy machinery, which went on for perhaps five or six hours, the couple guessed. Afterward, a straw came down through the crack, and they took turns sipping sugar water.
"They were using their hands now," Wang recalled. "The crack was getting bigger." Then they heard rescue workers say that only one of them could be pulled out at a time. That risked rubble collapsing onto the other. But there was no other way.
The workers told the couple they were going to pull Li out first. "I can't feel my legs, so I think I'm stuck under something," Li told them. "You should get my husband out first."
Two pairs of hands grabbed him, and within minutes he was out of the hole and being led to an ambulance, where his sister was waiting.
The rubble had not collapsed farther into the hole. On the contrary, Li felt a sudden expansion of space when her husband was lifted out, and now she could breathe more easily. But her lower body was still pinned down by heavy bricks. "Can you get some tools to pull me out?" she asked.
They said no. And at that moment, beyond exhaustion, she gave them the signal to get her out any way they could: "Well, I can't feel anything anyway."
She felt hands gripping her. After a powerful tug, she was out, just like that. In the ambulance, she was put down on a bench opposite her husband. "I wanted to hug him, but I couldn't move my body," Li said.
Nearly a week after the rescue, both were still in tremendous pain. Wang said it felt as if his heart were being squeezed. He still cannot sit up on his own.
Every aftershock terrifies Li. She thinks of being buried alive again. No one has told her how many of her co-workers were killed. But their daughter was unhurt, and she refused to leave their side in the hospital.
They have no home to return to, but that is another problem for another time.
"The only thing we had was each other," Wang said. "We encouraged each other to live on, and we said once we got out, we'd live a good life and care for each other. Now we have a new start."

Fat inmate sues over weight loss | NEWS.com.au

2008-04-28T13:08:00.001+10:00

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23608746-23109,00.html

By staff writers

April 28, 2008 09:11am

AN obese inmate awaiting trial for murder is suing authorities after he lost more than 45kg because of the prison food.

Broderick Lloyd Laswell has filed a federal lawsuit which says Benton County Jail in Arkansas doesn't give its inmates enough food after complaining he was down to 140kg after eight months inside.

He is accused, along with another man, of fatally beating and stabbing a man then setting his home on fire.

According to the suit, Mr Laswell weighed 187kg when he was jailed in September, the Associated Press reported.

"On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out," Mr Laswell said in his lawsuit.

"About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again."

He said he should not be losing weight because he did little exercise.

"If we are in a small pod all day (and) do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight," the suit said.

"The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."

The meals, provided through Aramark Correctional Institution Services averaged 3000 calories a day, jail spokesman Hunter Petray told The Morning News of northwest Arkansas yesterday.

A typical Western diet consists of 2000 to 3000 calories a day.

When bananas ruled the (American) world

2008-04-21T11:23:00.001+10:00

Very interesting article about the not so sweet history of the banana and it's relation to North and South america.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/04/19/bananas/

"April 19, 2008 | On a trip to Honduras, journalist Dan Koeppel caught the banana bug. Researching an article for Popular Science about attempts to breed a disease-resistant banana, the American journalist wandered the grounds of the old Chiquita compound, amid the fading colonial mansions and golf course, where he stumbled upon the cheery yellow fruit's unsavory past."

...

"When local leaders threatened taxes or complained about the company's abysmal labor practices, such as paying workers exclusively in company scrip to be spent only at the company store, United Fruit threatened to leave the country, taking its business next door. Mere bribes to local officials were strictly junior varsity in this jungle."

New Idea slammed for revealing Prince Harry duty in Afghanistan

2008-02-29T14:16:00.002+11:00

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/new-idea-slammed-for-revealing-princes-duty/2008/02/29/1204226939403.html

"LONDON - Britain's army chief has slammed an Australian women's magazine for leaking news that Prince Harry was fighting the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/29/2176274.htm

"Australian women's magazine New Idea says it did not knowingly break an embargo on news of Britain's Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan, but was simply unaware of a media blackout."

I was even disgusted enough to look up the editors email and express my disgust!

Email contact directly to editor =>

http://www.pacificmags.com.au/Pages/EmailContact.aspx?cid=361a3aa8-d90d-4ee1-b71c-d9bceebd297f

List of New Idea contacts =>

http://www.pacificmags.com.au/Pages/Magazines/Contacts.aspx?mid=978a4091-bc21-400a-97fc-732b22328062

How to narrow a search down to a particular site

2008-02-22T09:30:00.005+11:00

Tip of the Week from the "Security Now" podcast.

http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-130.htm

"...if people want to data-mine the Security Now! transcripts, Google
can help. ... You type "site:" and then you can narrow its search
down to a site. So in this case, if you type "site:grc.com" and then
the word "transcript," which will narrow it down to transcripts, and
then whatever keywords you want, boom.

What this means is that if you want to find some specific things on one
website-

1) -start google..

2) -in the search type "site:" then the internet site you want (eg
http://bigpond.com.au )

3) -next put a space and follow that with the word or term you are
searching for.

For example:

"site:http://jimbellonblogger.blogspot.com/ phone"

This will get me directly to my article about the Romanian internet
scammers that got their just rewards.

Great tip if you know there is some info on a site but can't remember
where it was!

Catch of the day: Cocaine

2008-02-11T13:48:00.000+11:00

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=272&objectid=10491443

Don't want to go there but it's interesting to know that it exists!!

"Catch of the day: Cocaine - 09 Feb 2008 - Oceans news - NZ Herald

At first glance, Bluefields in Nicaragua looks like any other rum-soaked, Rastafarian-packed, hammock-infested Caribbean paradise. But Bluefields has a secret.

People here don't have to work. Every week, sometimes every day, 35kg sacks of cocaine drift in from the sea. The economy of this entire town of 50,000 tranquil souls is addicted to cocaine.

Bluefields is a creation of the gods of geography. Located halfway between the cocaine labs of Colombia and the 300 million noses of the United States, Bluefields is ground zero for cocaine transportation. Nicaraguan waters are near Colombian territorial limits, making the area extremely popular with cocaine smugglers using very small, very fast fishing boats...."

Welcome to America ... You're Under Arrest

2008-02-05T16:22:00.001+11:00

http://www.alternet.org/rights/75208?page=1

Tales of a Pakistani immigrant dealing with racial profiling, the Patriot Act and the INS as he tries to make a life in New York City.

This is a fascinating read.

It was about five years ago. I was returning from Pakistan and standing in the immigration line at JFK, completely exhausted after a 20-hour flight. When my turn came up at the counter, the INS agent looked at my papers, typed a few things into his computer, and then asked me to follow him to a large room at the side of the immigration hall. I was informed that I was being detained.

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE

2008-02-02T12:03:00.001+11:00

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE WHEN YOU'RE OLD AND DON'T MOVE FAST ANYMORE.

George Phillips of Gold Coast, Australia was going up to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. ( Boy does this sound familiar! )

George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" and he said "no". Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available. George said, "Okay," hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I've just shot them." Then he hung up.

Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response Unit, and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George: "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

(True Story) I LOVE IT - Don't mess with old people!!

Pentax adds HDR capabilities to their latest DSLRs | APC Magazine

2008-01-31T23:15:00.001+11:00

http://apcmag.com/7922/pentax_adds_hdr_capabilities_to_their_latest_dslrs

Ever wondered how some photographers can take a shot with amazing detail and colour even in the darkest and brightest areas?

It's a technique called High Dynamic Range (or HDR), where multiple exposures of the same scene are captured (allowing the dark areas to be photographed brighter, and very bright areas to be photographed darker in various exposures.)

The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated (A Library of Congress Exhibition)

2008-01-13T23:24:00.001+11:00

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

Domains May Disappear After You Search .. SO DON"T!

2007-12-29T10:23:00.000+11:00

Domains May Disappear After Search

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 28, @11:36AM

from the risky-business-out-here dept.

Ponca City, We Love You writes

"Daily Domainer has a story alleging that there may be a leak that allows domain tasters to intercept, analyze and register your domain ideas in minutes. 'Every time you do a whois search with any service, you run a risk of losing your domain,' says one industry insider. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC ) has not been able to find hard evidence of Domain Name Front Running but they have issued an advisory (pdf) for people to come forward with hard evidence it is happening. Here is how domain name research theft crimes can occur and some tips to avoiding being a victim."

Stealing domain name research =>

http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/03/stealing-domain-name-research/

YouTube - Bugatti Veyron vs Mclaren SLR

2007-12-23T13:51:00.001+11:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unRvopGXCgA&feature=related

And now the Veyron is no longer the fastest street legal car in the world!!

Look at the SSC Ultimate Aero TT from Shelby!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSC_Ultimate_Aero_TT

Good reason to slow down in the wet!

2007-12-20T15:20:00.000+11:00

Good reason to slow down in the wet!

Celebrities Before and After photoshop

2007-12-19T13:10:00.001+11:00

http://m3.torispics.com/piles/?s=baphotoshop

The camera doesn't lie ... can't say the same for the computer!

How to Glacé Fruit

2007-12-19T12:29:00.000+11:00

How to Glacé Fruit

http://www.ochef.com/4.htm

Q. Could you please tell me how to glacé things, as my mother and I have been searching for the instructions for ages and just can't get them?

A. If you have the time, we have the procedure. It takes about a month from start to finish. And by "things," we assume you mean fruits.

Glacé is the French word for glazed, and refers to fruits that are preserved in a sugar syrup and then further glazed or candied with syrup. They can be used in cakes, breads and other sweets, or used to decorate desserts. The best candidates for the procedure are cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, starfruit, pineapple, apples, oranges, lemons, limes and clementines. Because this is such a time-consuming process, you will want to select the best fruits and treat them with care.

Glacé Fruits:

Ingredients:

1 pound of fruit
4-1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of corn syrup

Instructions:

Prepare the fruit: Pit cherries and prick them with a pin to allow the syrup to penetrate the skin; peel core and quarter or slice apples, apricots, plums, pears, peaches; peel and core pineapple and cut it into rings or cubes; slice citrus fruits thinly (no need to peel them). Place the fruit in the bottom of a saucepan, cover with water, and simmer gently until almost tender. Cook the fruit in batches, if necessary. Lift the fruit out with a slotted spoon and place in a shallow dish. Pour out all but 1 cup of the cooking water (or add enough to make 1 cup), add 1/2 cup of sugar and the corn syrup. Heat it to dissolve the sugar, bring to a boil, and pour over the fruit to cover. Leave it overnight. Next day, pour the syrup into a pan, add a half-cup of sugar, heat to dissolve, bring to a boil, pour over the fruit and leave overnight. Repeat again for the next five days. On the next day, pour the syrup into a pan, add the half-cup of sugar, and boil, then reduce the heat, add the fruit and cook gently for three minutes. Pour the fruit and syrup into the dish and leave it to soak for two days. Repeat once more. At this point, the syrup should look like runny honey. Leave the fruit to soak for 10 days to three weeks and take a vacation! At the end of the soaking period, remove the fruit from the syrup and arrange it on a wire rack over a tray. Dry in a warm place, in the oven at the lowest setting, or in a dehydrator until the surface no longer feels sticky.If you haven't done enough work by this point, you can also plunge each piece of fruit into boiling water for an instant and roll it in granulated sugar to coat the surface. Store in an airtight canister, tin, or jar in a cool, dark place.

War on Greed

2007-12-07T12:12:00.000+11:00

Do we have anything like this in Australia?

This would seem to go against the Australian way of life but we should beware that we don't follow the US.

http://warongreed.org/greed.php

http://warongreed.org/press.php

http://warongreed.org/facts.php

http://warongreed.org/index.php

Pirates of Private Equity

by Adam Doster, In These Times

Private equity funds are complicated entities. Essentially, they are unregulated pools of private capital raised and controlled by investment managers, otherwise known as "general partners." Typically, managers buy up undervalued companies, de-list them from public exchanges... Read on.

Watch out for Granny!!

2007-11-30T16:44:00.000+11:00

Don't mess with little old ladies!

Kershaw Co. man cuts off his own arm

2007-11-25T11:58:00.000+11:00

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7401516

KERSHAW COUNTY, SC (WIS) - A Kershaw County man is sharing his story of survival. He faced a life or death decision when his hand got stuck in a piece of farm equipment, and then a fire broke out around him. What he did next might shock you, and we have to warn you that some of the details might be disturbing.

How To Hide An Airplane Factory ++ Think or Thwim »

2007-11-17T10:00:00.001+11:00

http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/08/19/1034/

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting and trompe l’oeil to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

More on Giving up Wine.

2007-11-15T14:38:00.001+11:00

The Disadvantages of Giving up Wine.

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner.

I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked,
"If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?"
"No I had to stop drinking years ago", the homeless woman told me.
"Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?" I asked.
"No, I don't waste time shopping," the homeless woman said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."
"Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?" I asked.
"Are you NUTS !" replied the homeless woman. "I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!"

"Well," I said, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight."
The homeless Woman was shocked. "Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting."

I said, "That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine."

NEW - Miracle Cure!

2007-11-12T12:14:00.000+11:00

NEW - Miracle Cure!

· Do you have feelings of inadequacy?

· Do you suffer from shyness?

· Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about White Wine.

White Wine is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions. White Wine can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you're ready and willing to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of White Wine almost immediately, and with a regimen of regular doses you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to live. Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had. Stop hiding and start living, with White Wine.

However, White Wine may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use White Wine.

However, women who wouldn't mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effects may include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, erotic lustfulness, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, loss of virginity, delusions of grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing Karaoke and play all-night rounds of Strip Poker, Truth Or Dare, and Naked Twister.

WARNING:

The consumption of White Wine may make you think you are whispering when you are not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine is a major factor in dancing like a idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~

The consumption of White Wine may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may cause you to think you can sing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The consumption of White Wine may be a major factor in getting your ass kicked.

NOW JUST IMAGINE WHAT YOU COULD ACHIEVE WITH RED WINE!

Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles - Salon

2007-11-11T01:38:00.000+11:00

http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2007/11/07/mac_price/index.html?sr=hotnews

Once and for all, proof that Macs are cheaper than PCs

Let's put to rest the myth that an Apple computer will set you back more than a Windows PC. In fact, it'll cost you less.

By Farhad Manjoo

It's time to buy an Apple computer. Indeed, it's been that time for the past five years, at least, but only now, slowly, are people waking up to this fact. Thanks to Apple's relentless flash -- the John Hodgman ads, the iPods, the iPhones -- its Macintosh business is now in league with that of the biggest PC companies in the world. Everyone who's used it agrees that Leopard, the operating system that Apple released late last month, is to its chief rival, Microsoft's Windows Vista, roughly as Richard Wagner is to Richard Marx. This simple truth is dawning: If we forget about computer-industry network effects and monopolistic business practices, if we forget Apple's various ancient missteps -- if we're going just by what's better -- the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops: The Mac has won.

And yet, you're not buying an Apple computer. Most of the world isn't. There is probably a single overwhelming reason you're clinging to Windows. Macs are expensive. This is what you've been told, and in your research, it's seemed to check out. If they acknowledge it at all, Mac fans will rationalize the higher prices by noting that you're paying for quality. Buying a Mac, folks say, is like buying a BMW (Apple CEO Steve Jobs regularly compares the Mac's market share with that of German luxury cars). But what if you don't want the BMW of PCs? What if you can only afford a Chevrolet?

The present article is an attempt to prove to you that, on price alone, the Mac is not the BMW of computers. It is the Ford of computers. I am not arguing that the Mac is cheaper only if you consider the psychic benefits conferred by its quality. Rather I'm going to illustrate something more straightforward: Even though you may pay a slight premium at the cash register for a Mac over a comparable Windows PC (a premium that gets slighter all the time), it will cost you less money -- real, honest-to-goodness American dollars -- to own that Mac than to own that PC.

Why this should be has to do with an economic truth that has not recently mattered much in the computer industry, but that, in an age of eBay and unyielding obsolescence, is now crucial. It is resale value. Macs fetch far more on the aftermarket than do PCs -- and after years of use, you can offset that cash-register premium by selling your Mac for a better price than you could your PC.

Consider this example: Last Thanksgiving, you could have purchased a fairly well-outfitted Windows desktop -- the HP Pavilion Media Center A1640n -- on sale from some retail outlets for $699. The machine came with 2 gigabytes of memory, a 250 GB hard disk, and it ran on a quick 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Around the same time, you might instead have picked up Apple's top-of-the-line Mac Mini, which came equipped with a processor slightly less powerful than the HP's (a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo), a far smaller hard disk (80 GB), and less memory (512 MB). The Mac Mini would have set you back $799, or $100 more than the HP.

A good way to gauge the current market value of a computer is to check how much buyers have been willing to pay for similar models in auctions recently completed on eBay. Doing so for the HP shows prices ranging from $236 to $257 -- let's say a rough average of $250. Sales of the Mac Mini, meanwhile, go from about $445 to $550. Let's assume you can unload yours for $500.

If you used your HP for a year and then sold it, you would have spent $449 to own it -- that is, your purchase price of $699 minus your sale price of $250. The Mac Mini, for the same year, would have set you back far less: $799 minus $500, or just $299.

I ran such comparisons on many Windows and Mac systems sold during the past four years, and in nearly every one -- whether the machines were laptops or desktops -- the Macs sold by enough of a premium over comparable Windows machines to make up for the greater amount you would have paid when buying them.

In the spring of 2006, for instance, you could have purchased a nice Dell laptop -- the Inspiron E1505, with a 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor, 1 GB of memory, and an 80 GB hard disk -- for $999 directly from Dell. At the time, Apple's roughly comparable entry-level MacBook -- 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 512 MB memory, a 60 GB disk -- went for $100 more, $1,099.

Even if you'd treated your machine very well, you'd be lucky to sell the Dell today for $550, while MacBooks have recently sold for $710, $740, $790, and even $800. It would, in other words, be a cinch to sell the MacBook for $100 more than the Dell Inspiron, thereby making up the purchase-price difference you paid earlier (and likely even beating it).

Apple fans have long understood the amazing resale value of their machines. Windows users, on the other hand, might be scratching their heads at my argument; in the Windows world, selling your computer (rather than recycling it) is almost unheard of. After just a year or two of use, a Windows machine gets so gummed up with spyware, viruses and other nasty stuff that it seems malicious to ask anybody for money for the thing.

When I say that it is time to consider buying an Apple computer, what I really mean is that it's time to consider that computers can live longer than what we in the Windows camp are used to. It's time to realize that a 2-, 3-, or even 4- or 5-year-old machine is still intrinsically useful -- if not to you then to someone else -- and you'd do well to take this value into consideration when choosing what to buy.

Last year, the Web entrepreneur Daniel Nissanoff published an intriguing book called "Future Shop," in which he argued that by making all goods more "liquid," eBay and other auction sites would profoundly revolutionize how we shop. The coming "auction culture," he writes, "will shake up the status quo by reshuffling brand values according to how well a product actually sells in the secondary market." Instead of choosing what to buy based on its price tag, we'll take into account "how much it will fetch on eBay next year, which corresponds to how much it will really cost you to own it up until then."

Tech geeks tend to purchase computers as if brands don't matter. As long as the specs are in order, they argue, you can buy a bargain-basement PC and rest assured that it'll work out for you -- the logo on the case doesn't mean a thing for how it runs.

Nissanoff's thesis -- not to mention the completed sales on eBay -- upturns this argument. Even for computers, brand matters. This week I compared prices of several machines from Dell, Gateway and other PC vendors against Apple's lineup of Macs. In most cases comparable Macs sold for within $100 more than the PCs.

But the Apples had something extra: that logo, the design, the history, the clutch of fans willing to snap up any products the company makes. You'll need another computer in a year or two, and at that time, when you go to sell your current machine, Apple's intangibles will count for a great deal -- much more than $100.

Worlds Tallest Dog Meets Worlds Shortest - Life in the Fast Lane

2007-11-09T12:00:00.001+11:00

http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/worlds-tallest-dog-meets-worlds-shortest/offbeat-news

Standing worlds apart, 2 Guinness Wrold Record holders come together as Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who is the world's tallest dog, measuring an incredible 42.2 inches (107 centimeters) meets Boo Boo, a long haired Chihuahua — who stands merely 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) high — is smaller than Gibson's head.

Both bred in America, the 2 celebrity canines united to celebrate Guinness World Records Day 2007 outside the White House in Washington D.C.

Lana Elswick, Boo Boo’s owner has bred Chihuahuas in Kentucky for 19 years and said that the precious pooch was only the size of a thumb when she was born, and had to be fed with an eye dropper every 2 hours before she could eventually nurse a bottle.

Trojan targets Mac users - SC Magazine US

2007-11-04T12:18:00.001+11:00

http://www.scmagazineus.com/Trojan-targets-Mac-users/article/58290/

Apple users, your days of worry-free web surfing could be numbered. A Mac internet security and privacy software maker has discovered what is believed to be the first professionally crafted in-the-wild malware targeting the Mac operating system.

A (400 year old) clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland

2007-10-29T14:27:00.001+11:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7066389.stm

"A (400 year old) clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived creature discovered."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071028100032.htm

"Can you imagine living for four centuries? A team of scientists from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences believe they have found an animal which did just that, a quahog clam, Arctica islandica, which was living and growing on the seabed in the cold waters off the north coast of Iceland for around 400 years.

Myer trials in-store mammograms - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

2007-10-29T12:42:00.000+11:00

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/29/2072854.htm

Women in western Sydney may soon be able to have their breasts screened for cancer while they shop.

The New South Wales Breast Cancer Institute and the Myer department store chain have agreed on an in-store pilot mammogram program.

Bold Move Pays Off

2007-10-27T23:42:00.001+10:00

Bold Move Pays Off, originally uploaded by 4durt. Found on Digg.

Buyer's Guide: Ten Things You Should Know Before You Upgrade to Mac OS X Leopard

2007-10-27T23:21:00.001+10:00

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/buyers-guide/ten-things-you-should-know-before-you-upgrade-to-mac-os-x-leopard-315690.php

"Those of you who haven't been poring over all of Mac OS X Leopard's feature list (because you actually have lives) probably only know a few things about it. There's this new backup software...and...some iChat stuff? That's where we come in. We distill all the features down to ten points to help you decide whether or not the upgrade is worthwhile for you. Here are Ten Things You Should Know before you upgrade to Mac OS X Leopard."

Another digger (Australian Soldier) killed in Afghanistan

2007-10-25T23:43:00.001+10:00

"An Australian soldier from the Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment has been killed in Afghanistan.The Defence Department says the soldier was on patrol in the Oruzgan Province, in southern Afghanistan, when he was severely wounded by small arms fire from Taliban extremists."

read more | digg story

Another digger killed in Afghanistan - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

2007-10-25T23:37:00.000+10:00

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/25/2070673.htm

It is the second death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan this month. (File photo) (ADF)

Man killed in freak Time Team jousting accident

2007-10-25T00:16:00.001+10:00

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/23/2066866.htm

Posted Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:39am AEST
Updated Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:30am AEST

Freak accident: Knights jousting at a medieval tournament (file photo). (Reuters: Stephen Hird)

A man has died in a freak accident while filming a medieval jousting tournament for the archaeological TV show Time Team, Britain's Channel Four said overnight.

The unnamed man, a professional re-enactor, died after a splinter of wood from a lance flew through the slit of his helmet and penetrated his eye.

He died after a week in hospital. The accident occurred in September, but the man's death has only just been made public.

"We have been shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic accident," a Channel Four spokeswoman said.

"The professional company of historical enactors has an excellent safety record and took all the appropriate and necessary precautions and it does sadly appear this was a tragic freak accident."

The man had been filming a sequence for a Time Team special about King Edward III's Round Table at Windsor Castle, with the jousting demonstration taking place at Rockingham Castle in Leicestershire.

The participants were using lances with a balsa wood tip designed to break off on impact with an opponent's shield, but a splinter flew off through the slit of the man's helmet, Channel Four said.

The show's host, actor Tony Robinson, was not present when the incident took place, the broadcaster said.

The planned episode is to be screened, although the jousting footage will not be shown.

Time Team is broadcast on ABC TV in Australia.

- Reuters

Microsoft Corp. reported revenue of $13.37 billion

2007-10-23T12:26:00.001+10:00

Microsoft Corp. reported revenue of $13.37 billion for the quarter
ended June 30, 2007, a 13% increase over the same period of the prior
year. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.31.
Excluding $0.08 of previously announced charges primarily related to
Xbox 360™ warranty policies, earnings per share would have been
$0.39, an increase of 26% over the same period of the prior year when
also adjusted for certain items.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, Microsoft announced revenue
of $51.12 billion, a 15% increase over the prior year. Diluted
earnings per share for the year were $1.42. Excluding certain items,
earnings per share would have been $1.49, an increase of 17% over the
prior year when also adjusted for certain items. $31 billion in cash,
or approximately 175% of operating cash flow, was returned to
shareholders during the year through share buybacks and dividends.

This fiscal year marked the general availability of Microsoft's
flagship products, Windows Vista® and the 2007 Microsoft Office
system. Revenue growth was primarily driven by solid customer
acceptance of these products, as well as increasing sales of existing
products such as SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, and Xbox
360™ consoles.

Business Outlook:

•Revenue is expected to be in the range of $12.4 billion to $12.6
billion.

•Operating income is expected to be in the range of $5.0 billion to
$5.2 billion.

•Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $0.38
to $0.40.

Management offers the following guidance for the full fiscal year
ending June 30, 2008:

•Revenue is expected to be in the range of $56.8 billion to $57.8
billion.

•Operating income is expected to be in the range of $22.2 billion to
$22.7 billion.

•Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $1.69
to $1.73.

Apple has announced their financial results for their 4th quarter 2007

2007-10-23T12:09:00.001+10:00

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/22/apple-4q-2007-results-conference-call-6-22-billion-revenue-904-million-prof/4

Monday October 22, 2007 04:37 PM EST

Posted by arn and longofest

Apple has announced their financial results for their 4th quarter 2007 (July - September 2007). Apple posted revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $542 million, or $.62 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh(R) computers, representing 34 percent growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac shipments by 400,000. Apple sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

"We are very pleased to have generated over $24 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in net income in fiscal 2007," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're looking forward to a strong December quarter as we enter the holiday season with Apple's best products ever."

"Apple ended the fiscal year with $15.4 billion in cash and no debt," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the first quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $9.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.42."

Apple will be broadcasting their FY 07 Fourth Quarter Results Conference Call live via Quicktime beginning at 2:00pm PDT, 5:00pm EDT. We will provide highlights and a summary of the call here.

Q&A Highlights:

• Reiterates that the iPhone is a multiyear exclusive agreement with AT&T

• Direct sales 57% of total company revenue. Up from 53% in year-ago quarter.

• Europe sales did not have typical lull in August.

• Holiday quarter is usually a big quarter for iPods.

• Sales of iPhones accelerated after price drop.

• Confident in shipping 10 million iPhones in Calendar 2008

• Still on target to get iPhone in Asia in Calendar 2008

• Japan continues to be the most challenging major market. iMac was well received.

• Over 40,000 iPod Distribution locations, 8700 Mac Distribution locations

• Apple rep guesses that 250,000 iPhones sold to unlockers

• Apple Working with Salesforce.com

• No updates on Enterprise testing of iPhone.

• Vast majority of Macs in the last 4 years able to run Leopard. ~21 million Macs.

• 15 million were eligible to run Tiger when it launched

• Over 50% of Macs sold in Retail stores were sold to individuals who had never owned a Mac before

• Most successful back to school season they have ever had.

Raw Data: Apple Press Release

Reference Data: 4Q 2006 Financial Results

Rating (202 Positives; 18 Negatives)
[ 139 comments ] [ digg ]

Falsely accused woman freed after 70 years - Telegraph

2007-10-21T20:54:00.001+10:00

Seventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown.

However, it is just such a fate that befell Jean Gambell when at the age of 15, in 1937, she was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p) from the doctor's surgery where she worked as a cleaner.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/29/nfree129.xml

Newsvine - Reveal Brethren links, (Australian) PM told.

2007-10-16T11:17:00.001+10:00

http://bellfamilyofbelmont.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/15/1027369-reveal-brethren-links-australian-pm-told

Australian public broadcaster ABC in it's "Four Corners" current affairs

show has claimed that a front company for members of

The Exclusive Brethren sect has funded advertisements

supporting the Australian Liberal Party and smearing its opponents.

'Miracle' saved teenager's eye after chair assault - National - theage.com.au

2007-09-26T14:07:00.001+10:00

X-ray images show the leg of a chair embedded into the eye socket of a Melbourne teenager

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/miracle-saves-teens-eye/2007/04/19/1176697005264.html

drainage systems just got interesting « deputydog

2007-09-26T13:42:00.001+10:00

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/25/drainage-systems-just-got-interesting/

I don't care if this is true or not!

2007-09-20T11:54:00.000+10:00

World's Worst Polluted Places 2007

2007-09-17T12:01:00.001+10:00

Hugh Pickens writes on Slashdot

http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/09/16/0242223.shtml

"Blacksmith Institute has published their list of the most polluted sites in the world

compiled by comparing the toxicity of the contamination, the likelihood of it

getting into humans and the number of people affected. For example,

ninety-nine percent of the children living in and around the poly-metallic

smelter at La Oroya in Peru, owned by the Missouri-based Doe Run Corporation,

have blood lead levels that exceed acceptable limits.

Scientific American says that despite the massive pollution,

it would be relatively cheap and easy to clean up the most dangerous hazards.

For $15,000, the radioactive contaminated soil from the Mayak plutonium facility

on the shore of the Techa River in the Russian town of Muslyomova could be

dug up, saving an estimated 350 lives. 'For about $200, the cost of a refrigerator,

we are able to save someone's life,' says Richard Fuller, founder of Blacksmith."

The original info is at:

http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/ten.php

and makes frightening reading.

Video: William Tell Overture, with a difference!

2007-09-17T11:43:00.001+10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3vLQ7iCz94

Alex Wanted a Cracker, but Did He Want One? Good Article!

2007-09-16T23:35:00.001+10:00

(Well worth the read.........)

" ...... But what Jimmy finds most endearing is Alex's bad attitude.

As bored with the experiments as Jimmy is with school,

the parrot would abruptly squawk, "I'm going away now,"

then refuse to cooperate further.

Except for the part about Jimmy and the imminent apocalypse

(still, fingers crossed, a few decades away), all of the above is true.

Until he was found dead 10 days ago in his cage at a Brandeis University

psych lab, Alex was the subject of 30 years of experiments

challenging the most basic assumptions about animal intelligence. .... "

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/weekinreview/16john.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

7 Wonders Panoramas - The New 7 Wonders -Travel Great Wall, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu - 360 degree Panoramas

2007-09-10T14:16:00.001+10:00

These are VERY good panoramas!

http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/

Alex The Grey Parrot, Colleague of Irene Pepperberg, Dead at 31

2007-09-10T13:06:00.000+10:00

" ... yesterday, I received the devastating news that Alex the African
grey parrot, who was both a study subject and colleague to Irene Pepperberg,
died unexpectedly on 7 September 2007, at 31 years of age."

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/09/alex_the_grey_parrot_colleague.php

Slashdot | NZ Police Busted When Tracking Device Found On Car

2007-09-10T13:03:00.001+10:00

A police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man

came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found

tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and

listed them for sale on Trade Me.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB4/aamsz=300x44_MULTILINK/4192768a24035.html

The story's 5 years old but is doing the rounds of the net again!

2007-09-09T11:15:00.001+10:00

Ocean-crossing catamaran on sea trials

2007-09-09T00:06:00.000+10:00

http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20060924131425ymnews.html

Chaser comedians take easy road into no-go zone

2007-09-08T11:15:00.001+10:00

A source inside The Chaser's War on Everything has revealed the team, headed by stars Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello never expected to get as far as they did.

read more | digg story

Just joined up as a Wikipedia editor.

2007-09-01T23:06:00.000+10:00

Newsvine - Exclusive Brethren in the news in Australia.

2007-08-22T23:35:00.000+10:00

This was my submission to newsvine.

http://bellfamilyofbelmont.newsvine.com/_news/2007/08/22/912309-exclusive-brethren-in-the-news-in-australia

Exclusive Brethren/Australian Federal Election, 2004 - SourceWatch

2007-08-22T23:04:00.001+10:00

Possibly another reason dear John was meeting with the Bretheren?

Exclusive Brethren/Australian Federal Election, 2004

Contents

1 Copies of Brochures and Advertisements

2 Other SourceWatch Resources

3 References

4 External Links

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Exclusive_Brethren/Australian_Federal_Election,_2004

According to this site this is an actual add:

Exclusive Brethren Ad Supporting Prime Minister John Howard in the electorate of Bennelong, 2004 federal election campaign. (27KB pdf).

Also

External Links

Linda Doherty, "Brethren linked to Howard campaign", Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), September 16, 2005.
David Marr, "Where art thou, Brethren?", Sydney Morning Herald, January 20 2007.
David Marr, "Sect member funded anti-Greens campaign", Sydney Morning Herald, January 20 2007.

Jim Bell sends you a cool page!

2007-08-21T13:07:00.001+10:00

Jim Bell sends you a cool Page. Click on the following link or copy and paste it into your browser:

http://www.pageflakes.com/RO.aspx?pfp=8u5AKktoQkiMFkhnTUuqjA

Personal message:

Link to my Pageflakes Page

__________________________________________

Pageflakes is the easy and fun way to customize the Internet
and make it yours. Your personal Pageflakes homepage can
include news, sports, e-mail, local events, search, photos, music,
videos – even interactive tools like a calendar and a to-do list – and
just about anything else you do on the Web.

It's quick and free, so give it a try at www.pageflakes.com

The Morning News - (Picture) Galleries

2007-08-17T23:29:00.001+10:00

This is a truly amazing collection of galleries on all sorts of subjects

Check out in particular Still Life

stop motion photos of figurines as they fall and smash

and Running the Numbers

Jet Trails, 2007 .... 60" x 96 ...... Depicts 11,000 jet trails,

equal to the number of commercial flights in the U.S. every eight hours.

These are mass pictures about some staggering statistics!

The whole collection and others at:

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/

If you think the U.S. has only 160,000 troops in Iraq, think again.

2007-08-15T20:24:00.001+10:00

Found on Newsvine

Published on Monday, August 13, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

The Mercenary Revolution: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities
by Jeremy Scahill
Originally published by The Indypendent newspaper
If you think the U.S. has only 160,000 troops in Iraq, think again.
With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.
There are now almost 200,000 private “contractors” deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished.
In essence, the Bush administration has created a shadow army that can be used to wage wars unpopular with the American public but extremely profitable for a few unaccountable private companies.
Since the launch of the “global war on terror,” the administration has systematically funneled billions of dollars in public money to corporations like Blackwater USA , DynCorp, Triple Canopy, Erinys and ArmorGroup. They have in turn used their lucrative government pay-outs to build up the infrastructure and reach of private armies so powerful that they rival or outgun some nation’s militaries.
“I think it’s extraordinarily dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of force and the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives,” says veteran U.S . Diplomat Joe Wilson, who served as the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.
The billions of dollars being doled out to these companies, Wilson argues, “makes of them a very powerful interest group within the American body politic and an interest group that is in fact armed. And the question will arise at some time: to whom do they owe their loyalty?”
Precise data on the extent of U.S. spending on mercenary services is nearly impossible to obtain - by both journalists and elected officials-but some in Congress estimate that up to 40 cents of every tax dollar spent on the war goes to corporate war contractors. At present, the United States spends about $2 billion a week on its Iraq operations.
While much has been made of the Bush administration’s “failure” to build international consensus for the invasion of Iraq, perhaps that was never the intention. When U.S. tanks rolled into Iraq in March 2003, they brought with them the largest army of “private contractors” ever deployed in a war. The White House substituted international diplomacy with lucrative war contracts and a coalition of willing nations who provided token forces with a coalition of billing corporations that supplied the brigades of contractors.
‘THERE’S NO DEMOCRATIC CONTROL’
During the 1991 Gulf War, the ratio of troops to private contractors was about 60 to 1. Today, it is the contractors who outnumber U.S . forces in Iraq. As of July 2007, there were more than 630 war contracting companies working in Iraq for the United States. Composed of some 180,000 individual personnel drawn from more than 100 countries, the army of contractors surpasses the official U.S. military presence of 160,000 troops.
In all, the United States may have as many as 400,000 personnel occupying Iraq, not including allied nations’ militaries. The statistics on contractors do not account for all armed contractors. Last year, a U.S. government report estimated there were 48,000 people working for more than 170 private military companies in Iraq. “It masks the true level of American involvement,” says Ambassador Wilson.
How much money is being spent just on mercenaries remains largely classified. Congressional sources estimate the United States has spent at least $6 billion in Iraq, while Britain has spent some $400 million. At the same time, companies chosen by the White House for rebuilding projects in Iraq have spent huge sums in reconstruction funds - possibly billions on more mercenaries to guard their personnel and projects.
The single largest U.S. contract for private security in Iraq was a $293 million payment to the British firm Aegis Defence Services, headed by retired British Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, who has been dogged by accusations that he is a mercenary because of his private involvement in African conflicts. The Texas-based DynCorp International has been another big winner, with more than $1 billion in contracts to provide personnel to train Iraqi police forces, while Blackwater USA has won $750 million in State Department contracts alone for “diplomatic security.”
At present, an American or a British Special Forces veteran working for a private security company in Iraq can make $650 a day. At times the rate has reached $1,000 a day; the pay dwarfs many times over that of active duty troops operating in the war zone wearing a U.S. or U.K. flag on their shoulder instead of a corporate logo.
“We got [tens of thousands of] contractors over there, some of them making more than the Secretary of Defense,” House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Penn.) recently remarked. “How in the hell do you justify that?” In part, these contractors do mundane jobs that traditionally have been performed by soldiers. Some require no military training, but involve deadly occupations, such as driving trucks through insurgent-controlled territory.
Others are more innocuous, like cooking food or doing laundry on a base, but still court grave risk because of regular mortar and rocket attacks.
These services are provided through companies like KBR and Fluor and through their vast labyrinth of subcontractors. But many other private personnel are also engaged in armed combat and “security” operations. They interrogate prisoners, gather intelligence, operate rendition flights, protect senior occupation officials and, in at least one case, have commanded U.S. and international troops in battle.
In a revealing admission, Gen. David Petraeus, who is overseeing Bush’s troop “surge,” said earlier this year that he has, at times, been guarded in Iraq by “contract security.” At least three U.S. commanding generals, not including Petraeus, are currently being guarded in Iraq by hired guns. “To have half of your army be contractors, I don’t know that there’s a precedent for that,” says Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating war contractors.
“Maybe the precedent was the British and the Hessians in the American Revolution. Maybe that’s the last time and needless to say, they lost. But I’m thinking that there’s no democratic control and there’s no intention to have democratic control here.”
The implications are devastating. Joseph Wilson says, “In the absence of international consensus, the current Bush administration relied on a coalition of what I call the co-opted, the corrupted and the coerced: those who benefited financially from their involvement, those who benefited politically from their involvement and those few who determined that their relationship with the United States was more important than their relationship with anybody else. And that’s a real problem because there is no underlying international legitimacy that sustains us throughout this action that we’ve taken.”
Moreover, this revolution means the United States no longer needs to rely on its own citizens to fight its wars, nor does it need to implement a draft, which would have made the Iraq war politically untenable.
‘AN ARM OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’
During his confirmation hearings in the Senate this past January, Petraeus praised the role of private forces, claiming they compensate for an overstretched military. Petraeus told the senators that combined with Bush’s official troop surge, the “tens of thousands of contract security forces give me the reason to believe that we can accomplish the mission.”
Taken together with Petraeus’s recent assertion that the surge would run into mid-2009, this means a widening role for mercenaries and other private forces in Iraq is clearly on the table for the foreseeable future.
“The increasing use of contractors, private forces or as some would say ‘mercenaries’ makes wars easier to begin and to fight - it just takes money and not the citizenry,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose organization has sued private contractors for alleged human rights violations in Iraq.
“To the extent a population is called upon to go to war, there is resistance, a necessary resistance to prevent wars of self-aggrandizement, foolish wars and in the case of the United States, hegemonic imperialist wars. Private forces are almost a necessity for a United States bent on retaining its declining empire. Think about Rome and its increasing need for mercenaries.”
Privatized forces are also politically expedient for many governments. Their casualties go uncounted, their actions largely unmonitored and their crimes unpunished. Indeed, four years into the occupation, there is no effective system of oversight or accountability governing contractors and their operations, nor is there any effective law - military or civilian being applied to their activities. They have not been subjected to military courts martial (despite a recent congressional attempt to place them under the Uniform Code of Military Justice), nor have they been prosecuted in U.S. civilian courts. And no matter what their acts in Iraq, they cannot be prosecuted in Iraqi courts because in 2004 the U.S. occupying authority granted them complete immunity.
“These private contractors are really an arm of the administration and its policies,” argues Kucinich, who has called for a withdrawal of all U.S. contractors from Iraq. “They charge whatever they want with impunity. There’s no accountability as to how many people they have, as to what their activities are.”
That raises the crucial question: what exactly are they doing in Iraq in the name of the U.S. and U.K. governments? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which is responsible for reviewing sensitive national security issues, explained the difficulty of monitoring private military companies on the U.S. payroll: “If I want to see a contract, I have to go up to a secret room and look at it, can’t take any notes, can’t take any notes out with me, you know - essentially, I don’t have access to those contracts and even if I did, I couldn’t tell anybody about it.”
‘A MARKETPLACE FOR WARFARE’
On the Internet, numerous videos have spread virally, showing what appear to be foreign mercenaries using Iraqis as target practice, much to the embarrassment of the firms involved. Despite these incidents and the tens of thousands of contractors passing through Iraq, only two individuals have been ever indicted for crimes there. One was charged with stabbing a fellow contractor, while the other pled guilty to possessing child-pornography images on his computer at Abu Ghraib prison.
Dozens of American soldiers have been court-martialed - 64 on murder-related charges alone - but not a single armed contractor has been prosecuted for a crime against an Iraqi. In some cases, where contractors were alleged to have been involved in crimes or deadly incidents, their companies whisked them out of Iraq to safety.
U.S. contractors in Iraq reportedly have their own motto: “What happens here today, stays here today.” International diplomats say Iraq has demonstrated a new U.S. model for waging war; one which poses a creeping threat to global order.
“To outsource security-related, military related issues to non-government, non-military forces is a source of great concern and it caught many governments unprepared,” says Hans von Sponeck, a 32-year veteran U.N. diplomat, who served as head of the U.N. Iraq mission before the U.S. invasion.
In Iraq, the United States has used its private sector allies to build up armies of mercenaries many lured from impoverished countries with the promise of greater salaries than their home militaries can pay. That the home governments of some of these private warriors are opposed to the war itself is of little consequence.
“Have gun, will fight for paycheck” has become a globalized law.
“The most worrying aspect is that these forces are outside parliamentary control. They come from all over and they are answerable to no one except a very narrow group of people and they come from countries whose governments may not even know in detail that they have actually been contracted as a private army into a war zone,” says von Sponeck.
“If you have now a marketplace for warfare, it is a commercial issue rather than a political issue involving a debate in the countries.
You are also marginalizing governmental control over whether or not this should take place, should happen and, if so, in what size and shape. It’s a very worrying new aspect of international relations. I think it becomes more and more uncontrollable by the countries of supply.”
In Iraq, for example, hundreds of Chilean mercenaries have been deployed by U.S. companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy, despite the fact that Chile, as a rotating member of the U.N. Security Council, opposed the invasion and continues to oppose the occupation of Iraq. Some of the Chileans are alleged to have been seasoned veterans of the Pinochet era.
“There is nothing new, of course, about the relationship between politics and the economy, but there is something deeply perverse about the privatization of the Iraq War and the utilization of mercenaries,” says Chilean sociologist Tito Tricot, a former political prisoner who was tortured under Pinochet’s regime.
“This externalization of services or outsourcing attempts to lower costs - third world mercenaries are paid less than their counterparts from the developed world - and maximize benefits. In other words, let others fight the war for the Americans. In either case, the Iraqi people do not matter at all.”
NEW WORLD DISORDER
The Iraq war has ushered in a new system. Wealthy nations can recruit the world’s poor, from countries that have no direct stake in the conflict, and use them as cannon fodder to conquer weaker nations. This allows the conquering power to hold down domestic casualties - the single-greatest impediment to waging wars like the one in Iraq. Indeed, in Iraq, more than 1,000 contractors working for the U.S. occupation have been killed with another 13,000 wounded. Most are not American citizens, and these numbers are not counted in the official death toll at a time when Americans are increasingly disturbed by casualties.
In Iraq, many companies are run by Americans or Britons and have well-trained forces drawn from elite military units for use in sensitive actions or operations. But down the ranks, these forces are filled by Iraqis and third-country nationals. Indeed, some 118,000 of the estimated 180,000 contractors are Iraqis, and many mercenaries are reportedly ill-paid, poorly equipped and barely trained Iraqi nationals.
The mercenary industry points to this as a positive: we are giving Iraqis jobs, albeit occupying their own country in the service of a private corporation hired by a hostile invading power.
Doug Brooks, the head of the Orwellian named mercenary trade group, the International Peace Operations Association, argued from early on in the occupation, “Museums do not need to be guarded by Abrams tanks when an Iraqi security guard working for a contractor can do the same job for less than one-fiftieth of what it costs to maintain an American soldier. Hiring local guards gives Iraqis a stake in a successful future for their country. They use their pay to support their families and stimulate the economy. Perhaps most significantly, every guard means one less potential guerrilla.”
In many ways, it is the same corporate model of relying on cheap labor in destitute nations to staff their uber-profitable operations. The giant multinationals also argue they are helping the economy by hiring locals, even if it’s at starvation wages.
“Donald Rumsfeld’s masterstroke, and his most enduring legacy, was to bring the corporate branding revolution of the 1990s into the heart of the most powerful military in the world,” says Naomi Klein, whose upcoming book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, explores these themes.
“We have now seen the emergence of the hollow army. Much as with so-called hollow corporations like Nike, billions are spent on military technology and design in rich countries while the manual labor and sweat work of invasion and occupation is increasingly outsourced to contractors who compete with each other to fill the work order for the lowest price. Just as this model breeds rampant abuse in the manufacturing sector - with the big-name brands always able to plead ignorance about the actions of their suppliers-so it does in the military, though with stakes that are immeasurably higher.” In the case of Iraq, the U.S. and U.K. governments could give the public perception of a withdrawal of forces and just privatize the occupation. Indeed, shortly after former British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that he wanted to withdraw 1,600 soldiers from Basra, reports emerged that the British government was considering sending in private security companies to “fill the gap left behind.”
THE SPY WHO BILLED ME
While Iraq currently dominates the headlines, private war and intelligence companies are expanding their already sizable footprint. The U.S. government in particular is now in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. According to a recent report in Vanity Fair, the government pays contractors as much as the combined taxes paid by everyone in the United States with incomes under $100,000, meaning “more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to [contractors] rather than to the [government].”
Some of this outsourcing is happening in sensitive sectors, including the intelligence community. “This is the magnet now. Everything is being attracted to these private companies in terms of individuals and expertise and functions that were normally done by the intelligence community,” says former CIA division chief and senior analyst Melvin Goodman. “My major concern is the lack of accountability, the lack of responsibility. The entire industry is essentially out of control. It’s outrageous.”
RJ Hillhouse, a blogger who investigates the clandestine world of private contractors and U.S. intelligence, recently obtained documents from the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) showing that Washington spends some $42 billion annually on private intelligence contractors, up from $17.54 billion in 2000. Currently that spending represents 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget going to private companies.
Perhaps it is no surprise then that the current head of the DNI is Mike McConnell, the former chair of the board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the private intelligence industry’s lobbying arm. Hillhouse also revealed that one of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence documents, the Presidential Daily Briefing, is prepared in part by private companies, despite having the official seal of the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
“Let’s say a company is frustrated with a government that’s hampering its business or business of one of its clients. Introducing and spinning intelligence on that government’s suspected collaboration with terrorists would quickly get the White House’s attention and could be used to shape national policy,” Hillhouse argues.
MUTLINATIONAL MERCENARIES
Empowered by their new found prominence, mercenary forces are increasing their presence on other battlefields: in Latin America, DynCorp International is operating in Colombia, Bolivia and other countries under the guise of the “war on drugs” - U.S. defense contractors are receiving nearly half the $630 million in U.S. military aid for Colombia; in Africa, mercenaries are deploying in Somalia, Congo and Sudan and increasingly have their sights set on tapping into the hefty U.N. peacekeeping budget (this has been true since at least the early 1990s and probably much earlier). Heavily armed mercenaries were deployed to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while proposals are being considered to privatize the U.S. border patrol.
Brooks, the private military industry lobbyist, says people should not become “overly obsessed with Iraq,” saying his association’s “member companies have more personnel working in U.N. and African Union peace operations than all but a handful of countries.” Von Sponeck says he believes the use of such companies in warfare should be barred and has harsh words for the institution for which he spent his career working: “The United Nations, including the U.N. Secretary General, should react to this and instead of reacting, they are mute, they are silent.”
This unprecedented funding of such enterprises, primarily by the U.S. and U.K. governments, means that powers once the exclusive realm of nations are now in the hands of private companies with loyalty only to profits, CEOs and, in the case of public companies, shareholders. And, of course, their client, whoever that may be. CIA-type services, special operations, covert actions and small-scale military and paramilitary forces are now on the world market in a way not seen in modern history. This could allow corporations or nations with cash to spend but no real military power to hire squadrons of heavily armed and well-trained commandos.
“It raises very important issues about state and about the very power of state. The one thing the people think of as being in the purview of the government - wholly run and owned by - is the use of military power,” says Rep. Jan Schakowsky. “Suddenly you’ve got a for-profit corporation going around the world that is more powerful than states, can effect regime possibly where they may want to go, that seems to have all the support that it needs from this administration that is also pretty adventurous around the world and operating under the cover of darkness.
“It raises questions about democracies, about states, about who influences policy around the globe, about relationships among some countries. Maybe it’s their goal to render state coalitions like NATO irrelevant in the future, that they’ll be the ones and open to the highest bidder. Who really does determine war and peace around the world?”
Jeremy Scahill is author of The New York Times-bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute. This article appears in the current issue of The Indypendent newspaper. He can be reached at jeremy(AT)democracynow.org

Do NOT click on this link if you want to get ANY work done!!

2007-08-03T23:49:00.000+10:00

Desktop Tower Defence

Do NOT click on this link if you want to get ANY work done!!

This is a warning ..... don't click!

Don't do it .........

Look... I'm telling you.. if you need to do ANY!!! .... work .... at all .... don't ... whatever you do

.......... click on this link ..........

....................YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp

New party game: Last one out wins...........

2007-08-03T14:07:00.000+10:00

What can you say.............

Good article about my home town Belmont "Belmont - New South Wales - Australia - Travel - smh.com.au"

2007-08-02T21:14:00.001+10:00

http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Belmont/2005/02/17/1108500192692.html

jim bell can be contacted at:-

bellfamilyofbelmont@bigpond.com

bell.family@hunterlink.net.au

website

http://www.users.bigpond.com/bellfamilyofbelmont/

Let's Meet a Romanian eBay Scammer - Hello, Ghiuri Simionescu... - dslreports.com

2007-08-02T17:29:00.001+10:00

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Let's Meet a Romanian eBay Scammer
Hello, Ghiuri Simionescu...
06:08PM Tuesday Jul 31 2007 by Karl
tags: world scam exclusive BBR-News

The past few years have seen an increase in eBay and phishing scams out of Romania. Our resident scambusters have privately been tracking one operation in particular -- a group of young Romanians that have been scamming people around the world for thousands of dollars over the past year.

The scammers hack machines for use as eBay phishing hosts, then use the acquired Paypal accounts and passwords to buy expensive items on eBay. The phishing efforts also net them plenty of eBay accounts, which are then used to hold bogus online auctions.

By tracking a number of these scams over the past year, our users were able to identify a major young Romanian phisher and scammer named Ghiuri Simionescu. That's him at the right, chilling out with his dad after a hard day ripping people off. Our resident scambusters also managed to identify a Romanian friend of his living in Spain named "Florin," who helps coordinate drops and pickups.

Ghiuri (above, left) is a charmer. This is an e-mail he sent to a victim after they realized a deal to buy Nokia phones was a scam:

Why do you not send me the money ? Please keep your stupid words for you, or I will blow your f***ing internet and your f***ing stupid network provider for 1 mother f***er YEAR. okay ? Take it easy, I am doing my job , just my f***ing job. How you have a f***ing job and live a hones and borring life, I have job to take money from stupid people but not like you ... you are a little smart but dont worry, will be someone there to take your stupid money and to lough. I repeat, keep your f***ing words for you and tell them to your wife and let me do my job in peace.

God Bless America because there are a Lot of f***ings stupid mother f***er cock sucker Lamers !!! Have a good day and see you in HELL.

The eloquent Mr. Simionescu has since shifted his attention toward selling nonexistent Nintendo Wiis.

Users were able to identify a number of his accounts, compromise many of the e-mail addresses being used, and even nab pictures of his family (who sometimes participate in the scams). They have also been using the data to warn potential victims, keeping at least some money out of Ghiuri's pockets.

One Russian victim lost $2,000 when trying to buy mobile phones. The victim became rather distressed -- going so far as to hint at suicide after losing his life's savings in the deal gone bad:

The story then takes an entertaining turn.

"Florin you ripped off the Russian mafia you *******.

-Our phish chaser

Our chief resident scambuster decided to lend the Russian victim a hand in what he calls a "longshot." He called the scammers and pretended to be the victim's uncle and a member of the Russian mafia. After rattling off complete details of Florin and Ghiuri's operation, he says they're being watched, and that they have eight hours to give the kid a full refund. His description of "the chat":

So it goes something like this. I said. "Florin hey Florin"...silence.... "Hey Florin this is Ghiuri's friend" ....he says "who are you I don't know you" I said "listen very carefully Florin or you will know me real soon". "Florin you ripped of the Russian mafia you ******* " He says "I don't know what you are talking about, you must have the wrong number" I start to yell. "Florin you ripped off my stupid nephew" he says "who are you talking about" I said "you know who, the Russian kid, you took his $2,000". "now pay attention Florin, and make sure you tell this to Ghiuri too, don't send him his cut"

"I know where you are right now ******, I have people that are less than 30 minutes away from you". "I know which Western Union you picked up the money from" "I know every move you are making" I then told him the mobile service carrier he was using (I looked it up first).

"I said now listen carefully Florin, you have 8 ***** hours to send my nephed his money back, 8 hours" If not I will ship you ass back to Romania in a box, with one phone stuffed down your throat and another up your ass, do you hear me"

"Russian mafia are everywhere Florin," and I swear if that money is not on the way back in 8 hours, you will go back to Romoland in a box, I will even write your obituary on the outside". He goes yes !!

I said you call Ghiuri right now and tell him also, I have people in Bucheresti and Constanta. If that money aint back to that kid, tell Ghiuri that they will be taking him, Ana Serban, and the rest of the Simonescu family on a one way trip to the mountains in the boot of that ***** taxi.

I said " we scam more **** people before breakfast than you a Ghiuri do in six months"

"Now Florin, you call Ghiuri right now and get this kid his money back"

He goes "I will take care of it"

I said "if you never want to hear form me again you better, oh and dont ever **** with the Russian Mob again...... oh and Florian tell Ghiuri to call the kid and tell him ......Hurry......Comprende Amigo..Capiche ?... He goes "Yes Yes Goodbye"

The pair of Romanian scammers quickly refunded the money, the victim is beyond grateful.

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