posted by eric3579
1 year 11 months 1 week ago • 689 views
Courtroom Testimony
These are things people actually said in court, word for word,
taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying
calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his
sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh...
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition
notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead
people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
posted by eric3579
1 year 11 months 1 week ago • 902 views
Each state and D.C. has been colored to represent its most recent
straw poll winner. These polls, however, may not be representative of
the entire state since many are smaller, local straw polls, and some
are several months old.
1. Ron Paul (17)
2. Mitt Romney (9)
3. Fred Thompson (7)
4. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee (2)
6. Duncan Hunter, John McCain (1)
8. Alan Keyes, Tom Tancredo (0)
STRAW POLLS
head-to-head
Records of wins, losses, and ties grouped by the Condorcet method.
1. Paul beats Giuliani 42-27, Huckabee 43-20-5, Hunter 40-13-3,
Keyes 5-0, McCain 41-21-4, Tancredo 39-11-2, Thompson 33-30-1 (7 wins)
1. Romney beats Giuliani 52-35-3, Huckabee 65-13-5, Hunter 58-6-2,
Keyes 5-1, McCain 72-13-2, Paul 36-32-1, Tancredo 56-2-2 (7 wins)
1. Thompson beats Giuliani 48-26-3, Huckabee 52-19, Hunter 46-13-1,
Keyes 4-1, McCain 57-18, Romney 41-33-2, Tancredo 45-5-2 (7 wins)
4. Giuliani beats Huckabee 59-21-2, Hunter 49-15-2, Keyes 5-1, McCain 66-20-1, Tancredo 50-8-2 (5 wins)
5. Huckabee beats Hunter 46-17-1, Keyes 4-1-1, McCain 41-36-3, Tancredo 44-9-6 (4 wins)
6. McCain beats Hunter 34-25-5, Keyes 3-2-1, Tancredo 45-11-3 (3 wins)
7. Hunter beats Keyes 3-1, Tancredo 33-11-10 (2 wins)
8. Tancredo beats Keyes 3-2 (1 win)
9. Keyes beats none (0 wins)
Total wins
Total number of first-place finishes.
1. Paul (30)
2. Thompson (24)
3. Romney (23)
4. Giuliani, McCain (6)
6. Huckabee (3)
7. Hunter (2)
8. Tancredo (1)
9. Keyes (0)
Olympic ratings
Top 3 finishes with 3 points for win, 2 for place, 1 for show.
1. Romney 23-19-18 (125)
2. Thompson 24-18-9 (117)
3. Paul 30-9-6 (114)
4. Giuliani 6-27-21 (93)
5. McCain 6-8-8 (42)
6. Huckabee 3-8-9 (34)
7. Hunter 2-2-6 (16)
8. Tancredo 1-0-2 (5)
9. Keyes 0-0-1 (1)
NASCAR ratings
100 for win, 98 for place, 96 for show, etc., 0 if absent. This rating gives a high weight to total poll presences.
Among 4 polls with no absences: Paul 398, Huckabee 378 (tie),
Thompson 378 (tie), Romney 368, Giuliani 362, Hunter 354, Tancredo 348,
Keyes 346, McCain 342.
Among 45 polls with up to 1 absent: Romney 4324, Thompson 4288, Paul
4242, Giuliani 4234, Huckabee 4130, McCain 4022, Hunter 3990, Tancredo
3872, Keyes 346.
Among 62 polls with up to 2 absent: Romney 5962, Giuliani 5866,
Huckabee 5676, Thompson 5622, McCain 5484, Paul 5450, Hunter 5254,
Tancredo 4768, Keyes 424.
posted by eric3579
1 year 11 months 2 weeks ago • 871 views
Artist: ImaMonster
posted by eric3579
1 year 11 months 3 weeks ago • 821 views
Perspective - An art installation from Burning Man 2007. The letter "A" is six inches tall. The "E" is ten feet tall. This led me to a question, I was hoping someone could answer.
If "A" is six inches tall and 10 feet from the camera,and "E" is ten feet tall, how far away do you place"E" to make the letters appear to be the same size from the cameras perspective?
posted by eric3579
1 year 11 months 4 weeks ago • 9252 views
 MTV
Networks plans to make every clip from every episode of hit animated
comedy “South Park” available for free online next year as part of a
strategy to reach consumers everywhere. The decision from the biggest
division of media conglomerate Viacom Inc follows on the heels of the
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” whose popularity online has helped
boost television viewership. MTV Networks’s Comedy Central network
began offering in October some 13,000 “Daily Show” videos dating back
to 1999. Offering versions of TV shows online has not hurt television
ratings, and may have actually helped. “One does not diminish the other
by any stretch of the imagination. That is kind of our hat trick,” MTV
Networks Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath said at the Reuters
Media Summit in New York on Wednesday.
In August, Comedy Central signed an extension of a deal with “South
Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and agreed to create a new
joint venture to spread “South Park” materials across the Web, on
mobile phones and video games. Other shows from the 20-year archives of
MTV Networks could also get the same online treatment, but executives
stopped short of naming other properties. The Daily Show’ was the first
out of the gate and it’s been a big success and it’s a nice little
model for us to follow,” said Mika Salmi, MTV Networks president of
global digital media. “There’s no limit to which shows we can use at
this stage.” Once criticized for moving slowly to establish itself
online, MTV Networks has aggressively expanded its digital media
presence over the past year by building new Web sites and communities
on the Internet and over cellphones globally. It’s good to finally see
some progress.
Source: Reuters
posted by eric3579
1 year 12 months ago • 811 views
posted by eric3579
1 year 12 months ago • 1498 views
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her
toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got
arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca- age 8
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.
Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne
and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip
before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it
everyday."
Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still
friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked
at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody.
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."
Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 462 views
You see that guy over there in the corner talkng to himself? He keeps saying something about the cops. Im gonna go check it out.
http://www.videosift.com/member/sleepmed2
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 664 views
I just watched this film, and it was brilliant. Two big thumbs up!
 A
not very active scene group COALiTiON released a fairly interesting
documentary In The Shadow Of The Moon. This could be a nice download
for people interested in space exploration, as it offers stories of
Apollo 11 astronauts on their way to the Moon. Few black and white
scenes in this screener.
Between 1968 and
1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked
upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on
another world. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON brings together for the first,
and possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single
Apollo mission that flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their
story in their own words. This riveting first-hand testimony is
interwoven with visually stunning archival material which has been
re-mastered from the original NASA film footage – much of it
never used before. The result is an intimate epic that vividly
communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this
extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up
at America.
In.The.Shadow.Of.The.Moon.LIMITED.DVDSCR.XVID-COALiTiON
1 CD, 700 MB, coalition-itsotm.dvdscr.xvid
sample #1, #2, #3
IMDB (8.6), trailer, nfo, torrent soon
http://www.videosift.com/video/In-The-Shadow-Of-The-Moon-Documentary-Full-Film
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 1053 views
 Mozilla
Corp. lat Monday released the first beta of Firefox 3.0, but continued
to warn most users to stick with production Version 2.0. “We do
not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download
the Firefox 3 Beta 1
milestone release,” Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s interface
designer, said in a note posted to the company’s development
center. “It is intended for testing purposes only.” But
while the official word was for users to stand clear, Beltzner’s
personal recommendation was a lot less intimidating. “It’s
a preview release, so use with caution and don’t expect your
add-ons to work without some magic; but between you and me, I’ve
been running on this ‘developer preview’ for at least three
months, and have never looked back,” he said in a post to his own blog.
Beltzner also touted several of the improvements in Firefox 3.0,
including new security features and tools, a redesign of the
bookmarking and browser history and numerous back-end platform
enhancements, but he said they all require more testing and user
feedback. The company has posted a more complete list of new features
in the release notes it added to its Web site Monday. On the security
side, Firefox 3.0 adds malware check, a phishing filter-like feature
that warns users attempting to reach a URL blacklisted for suspected
malicious code hosting; one-click site information that displays site
ownership; fixes for vulnerabilities in plug-in updating; and
integration with antivirus software and Windows Vista’s parental
control settings.
Mozilla also claimed that it has fixed more than 300 individual
memory leaks and added a new cycle collector to eliminate other memory
issues. Firefox has a reputation for leaking memory consuming large
quantities the longer it’s left running, and ultimate slowing
down its host computer although some of its developers have contested
the claims, and even pegged the problem as one of perception. Most
current Firefox plug-ins Mozilla calls them extensions will not work
with Firefox 3.0, a stumbling block for some who might otherwise want
to test the preview. “Users of the latest released version of
Firefox should not expect their add-ons to work properly with this
beta,” the beta’s release notes read. Firefox 3.0 Beta 1
can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 21 language
versions from Mozilla’s site.
Source: Wired, NY Times
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 688 views
 A
popular stand-up comedian Bill Maher goes beyond borders of his own
show and releases his own film called “The Decider”. You
can expect the exactly same kind of political humour, only with little
more adult language and even more evil comments. Released on 1 CD with
2 channel AC3 audio.
Comedian, writer and politically incorrect HBO talk-show host Bill
Maher takes time off from his regular hosting duties to perform a
hilariously scathing stand-up set in this comedy special. Airing live
from the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, this one-hour special
features Maher’s acerbic takes on a wide range of social and
political issues, including the follies and foibles perpetrated on
America by President George W. Bush.
Bill.Maher.The.Decider.DVDRip.XviD-DIMENSION
1 Cd, 700 MB, the.decider.dvdrip-dimension
60 min, 1427 kbps, 640 x 352, AC3 192 kbps
IMDB (7.5), Amazon, nfo, torrent
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 3739 views
 Disturbing news appeared few hours ago at eWeek:
A new Trojan is introducing malware into thousands of computer systems
worldwide, and the number is growing by the hour. The malware is being
introduced by MSN Messenger files posing as pictures, mostly seeming to
come from known acquaintances. The files are a new type of Trojan that
has snared several thousand PCs for a bot network within hours of its
launch earlier on Nov. 18 and is being used to discover virtual PCs as
a means of increasing its growth vector.
The Trojan is an IRC bot that’s spreading through MSN
Messenger by sending itself in a .zip file with two names. One of the
names includes the word “pics” as a double extension
executable—a name generally used by scanners and digital cameras:
for example, DSC00432.jpg.exe. The Trojan is also contained in a .zip
file with the name “images” as a .pif executable—for
example, IMG34814.pif. The files are infiltrating new systems by using
either known contacts from which the Trojan has harvested instant
messaging names, as well as from the systems of unknown users.
Doublecheck every file you receive through your MSN or your computer
could easily end up as a zombie in some huge botnet…
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 489 views
The forgotten fallen
John Pilger
On
Remembrance Day 2007, the great and the good bowed their heads at the
Cenotaph. Gen erals, politicians, newsreaders, football managers and
stock-market traders wore their poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. No
one mentioned Iraq. No one uttered the slightest remorse for the fallen
of that country. No one read the forbidden list.
The forbidden list documents, without favour, the part the British
state and its court have played in the destruction of Iraq. Here it is:
1 Holocaust denial
On 25 October, Dai Davies MP
asked Gordon Brown about civilian deaths in Iraq. Brown passed the
question to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who passed it to his
junior minister, Kim Howells, who replied: "We continue to believe that
there are no comprehensive or reliable figures for deaths since March
2003." This was a deception. In October 2006, the Lancet
published research by Johns Hopkins University in the US and
al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad which calculated that 655,000
Iraqis had died as a result of the Anglo-American invasion. A Freedom
of Information search revealed that the government, while publicly
dismissing the study, secretly backed it as comprehensive and reliable.
The chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Roy
Anderson, called its methods "robust" and "close to best practice".
Other senior governments officials secretly acknowledged the survey's
"tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones". Since
then, the British research polling agency, Opinion Research Business,
has extrapolated a figure of 1.2 million deaths in Iraq. Thus, the
scale of death caused by the British and US governments may well have
surpassed that of the Rwanda genocide, making it the biggest single act
of mass murder of the late 20th century and the 21st century.
2 Looting
The undeclared reason for the invasion of
Iraq was the convergent ambitions of the neocons, or neo-fascists, in
Washington and the far-right regimes of Israel. Both groups had long
wanted Iraq crushed and the Middle East colonised to US and Israeli
designs. The initial blueprint for this was the 1992 "Defence Planning
Guidance", which outlined America's post-Cold War plans to dominate the
Middle East and beyond. Its authors included Dick Cheney, Paul
Wolfowitz and Colin Powell, architects of the 2003 invasion. Following
the invasion, Paul Bremer, a neocon fanatic, was given absolute civil
authority in Baghdad and in a series of decrees turned the entire
future Iraqi economy over to US corporations. As this was lawless, the
corporate plunderers were given immunity from all forms of prosecution.
The Blair government was fully com plicit and even objected when it
looked as if UK companies might be excluded from the most profitable
looting. British officials were awarded functionary colonial posts. A
petroleum "law" will allow, in effect, foreign oil companies to approve
their own contracts over Iraq's vast energy resources. This will
complete the greatest theft since Hitler stripped his European
conquests.
3 Destroying a nation's health
In 1999, I
interviewed Dr Jawad Al-Ali, a cancer specialist at Basra city
hospital. "Before the Gulf War," he said, "we had only three or four
deaths in a month from cancer. Now it's 30 to 35 patients dying every
month. Our studies indicate that 40 to 48 per cent of the population in
this area will get cancer." Iraq was then in the grip of an economic
and humanitarian siege, initiated and driven by the US and Britain. The
result, wrote Hans von Sponeck, the then chief UN humanitarian official
in Baghdad, was "genocidal . . . practically an entire nation was
subjected to poverty, death and destruction of its physical and mental
foundations". Most of southern Iraq remains polluted with the toxic
debris of British and American explosives, including uranium- 238
shells. Iraqi doctors pleaded in vain for help, citing the levels of
leukaemia among children as the highest seen since Hiroshima. Professor
Karol Sikora, chief of the World Health Organisation's cancer
programme, wrote in the BMJ: "Requested radiotherapy
equipment, chemo-therapy drugs and analgesics are consistently blocked
by United States and British advisers [to the Sanctions Committee]." In
1999, Kim Howells, then trade minister, effectively banned the export
to Iraq of vaccines that would protect mostly children from diphtheria,
tetanus and yellow fever, which, he said, "are capable of being used in
weapons of mass destruction".
Since 2003, apart from PR exercises for the embedded media, the
British occupiers have made no attempt to re-equip and resupply
hospitals that, prior to 1991, were regarded as the best in the Middle
East. In July, Oxfam reported that 43 per cent of Iraqis were living in
"absolute poverty". Under the occupation, malnutrition rates among
children have spiralled to 28 per cent. A secret Defence Intelligence
Agency document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities", reveals that
the civilian water supply was deliberately targeted. As a result, the
great majority of the population has neither access to running water
nor sanitation - in a country where such basic services were once as
universal as in Bri tain. "The mortality of children in Basra has
increased by nearly 30 per cent compared to the Saddam Hussein era,"
said Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at Basra children's hospital.
"Children are dying daily and no one is doing anything to help them."
In January this year, nearly 100 leading British doctors wrote to
Hilary Benn, then international development secretary, describing how
children were dying because Britain had not fulfilled its obligations
as an occupying power under UN Security Council Resolution 1483. Benn
refused to see them.
4 Destroying a society
The UN estimates that 100,000
Iraqis are fleeing the country every month. The refugee crisis has now
overtaken that of Darfur as the most catastrophic on earth. Half of
Iraq's doctors have gone, along with engineers and teachers. The most
literate society in the Middle East is being dismantled, piece by
piece. Out of more than four million displaced people, Britain last
year refused the majority of more than 1,000 Iraqis who applied to come
here, while removing more "illegal" Iraqi refugees than any other
European country. Thanks to tabloid-inspired legislation, Iraqis in
Britain are often destitute, with no right to work and no support. They
sleep and scavenge in parks. The government, says Amnesty, "is trying
to starve them out of the country".
5 Propaganda
"See in my line of work," said George
W Bush, "you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the
truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
Standing outside 10 Downing Street on 9 April 2003, the BBC's then
political editor, Andrew Marr, reported the fall of Baghdad as a
victory speech. Tony Blair, he told viewers, "said they would be able
to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis
would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved
conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his
critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and
a stronger prime minister as a result." In the United States, similar
travesties passed as journalism. The difference was that leading
American journalists began to consider the consequences of the role
they had played in the build-up to the invasion. Several told me they
believed that had the media challenged and investigated Bush's and
Blair's lies, instead of echoing and amplifying them, the invasion
might not have happened. A European study found that, of the major
western television networks, the BBC permitted less coverage of dissent
than all of them. A second study found that the BBC consistently gave
credence to government propaganda that weapons of mass destruction
existed. Unlike the Sun, the BBC has credibility - as does, or did, the Observer.
On 14 October 2001, the Observer's front page said: "US
hawks accuse Iraq over anthrax". This was entirely false. Supplied by
US intelligence, it was part of the Observer's staunchly
pro-war coverage, which included claiming a link between Iraq and
al-Qaeda, for which there was no credible evidence and which betrayed
the paper's honourable past. One report over two pages was headlined:
"The Iraqi connection". It, too, came from "intelligence sources" and
was rubbish. The reporter, David Rose, concluded his barren inquiry
with a heartfelt plea for an invasion. "There are occasions in
history," he wrote, "when the use of force is both right and sensible."
Rose has since written his mea culpa, including in these pages,
confessing how he was used. Other journalists have still to admit how
they were manipulated by their own credulous relationship with
established power.
These days, Iraq is reported as if it is exclusively a civil war,
with a US military "surge" aimed at bringing peace to the scrapping
natives. The perversity of this is breathtaking. That sectarian
violence is the product of a vicious divide-and-conquer policy is
beyond doubt. As for the largely media myth of al-Qaeda, "most of the
[American] pros will tell you", wrote Seymour Hersh, "that the foreign
fighters are a couple per cent, and then they're sort of leaderless".
That a poorly armed, audacious resistance has not only pinned down the
world's most powerful army but has agreed an anti-sectarian, anti
al-Qaeda agenda, which opposes attacks on civilians and calls for free
elections, is not news.
6 The next blood letting
In the 1960s and 1970s,
British governments secretly expelled the population of Diego Garcia,
an island in the Indian Ocean whose people have British nationality.
Women and children were loaded on to vessels resembling slave ships and
dumped in the slums of Mauritius, after their homeland was given to the
Americans for a military base. Three times, the High Court has found
this atrocity illegal, calling it a defiance of the Magna Carta and the
Blair government's refusal to allow the people to go home "outrageous"
and "repugnant". The government continues to use endless recourse to
appeal, at the taxpayers' expense, to prevent upsetting Bush. The
cruelty of this matches the fact that not only has the US repeatedly
bombed Iraq from Diego Garcia, but at "Camp Justice", on the island,
"al-Qaeda suspects" are "rendered" and "tortured", according to the Washington Post.
Now the US Air Force is rushing to upgrade hangar facilities on the
island so that stealth bombers can carry 14-tonne "bunker busting"
bombs in an attack on Iran. Orchestrated propaganda in the media is
critical to the success of this act of international piracy.
On 22 May, the front page of the Guardian carried the
banner headline: "Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US
out of Iraq". This was a tract of unalloyed propaganda based entirely
on anonymous US official sources. Through-out the media, other drums
have taken up the beat. "Iran's nuclear ambitions" slips effortlessly
from newsreaders' lips, no matter that the International Atomic Energy
Agency refuted Washington's lies, no matter the echo of "Saddam's
weapons of mass destruction", no matter that another bloodbath beckons.
posted by eric3579
2 years ago • 899 views
A company called Terrafugia is currently developing a plane that transitions into a car. For a mere $148,000
you too can own a Transition. When completed in late 2009, it will have
an average cruising speed of 115 mph, gets over 25 mpg in the air. It’s
classified as a Light Sport Utility vehicle and weighs only 1320 lbs. It will be powered by a 100 hp, 4-stroke Rotax 912 ULS.
This engine is FAA certified to run on both 91+ octane autogas as well
as 100LL. The same engine is used to power the rear push-prop and front
wheels, using a clutch-based transmission for power selection. The
Rotax engine is certified to allow a 5% ethanol mixture.
Cargo and dimensions
The vehicle will have 550 lbs of usable cargo weight in a 20 cubic foot
space, which can be divided up among people, bags or fuel. It has a 20
gallon fuel tank which consumes about 120 lbs of fuel. Its maximum
range is 460 miles (400 nm) when operating at 75% power, which is
required to sustain 115mph cruising speed. When in folded position, the
vehicle measures just 6.75 feet high, by 7.5 feet wide, by 18.75 feet
long. No data on the wingspan was given, however it could not exceed
approximately 35 feet due to the stated dimensions and mechanical
operation of the wing through a single central hinge. The internal
cabin space is 50 inches wide.
Transition’s wing loading is approximately 8.8 lbs per square foot,
which is comparable to light sport or general purpose aviation
aircraft. They currently have a working prototype wing design, however
it is machine mounted and is not part of the actual aircraft. All of
the pictures and images seen are either from a 1/5th scale prototype
that was built and flown, or from computer generated animation.
The vehicle goes from 1-2-3, or from 3-2-1 via the push of a button.
It must be stopped, engine off, to make the transition. The vertical
stabilizers double as rear taillights and indicators. A pilot’s license
is required to operate the vehicle, which will have a price tag of
approximately $148,000. It will be available in late 2009, with a full-size prototype completed in late 2008. A 1/5th prototype has already been created and flown.
In order to operate the vehicle, the pilot (not the driver) will
have to be FAA certified and hold a pilot’s license. Currently only a
visual flight rating (VFR) ability is planned, as the on-board
instruments will not be sufficient for a full Instrument Rating.
posted by eric3579
2 years 1 week ago • 983 views
I received a very pleasant mail today. My inbox is usually full of
stupid cease & desist messages from various antipiracy
organizations, but it’s mails like this one which make you happy.
It’s good to see that some people realize that internet piracy
isn’t just evil…
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Eric D. Wilkinson and I am the producer of a small
independent film called “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From
Earth” (our review).
I am sending you this email after realizing that our website has
had nearly 23,000 hits in the last 12 days, much of it coming from your
website. In addition, our trailer, both on the www.manfromearth.com
site and other sites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL has been watched
nearly 20,000 times AND what’s most impressive is our ranking on
IMDb went from being the 11,235th most popular movie, to the 5th most
popular movie in 2 weeks (we are also the #1 independent film on IMDb
& the #1 science fiction film on IMDb). How did this all happen?
Two words: Torrent / File Sharing sites (well, four words and a slash).
More specifically, RLSLOG.net. Our independent
movie had next to no advertising budget and very little going for it
until somebody ripped one of the DVD screeners and put the movie online
for all to download. After that happened, people were watching it and
started posting mostly all positive reviews on IMDb, Amazon and other
places. Most of the feedback from everyone who has downloaded
“The Man From Earth” has been overwhelmingly positive.
People like our movie and are talking about it, all thanks to piracy on
the net!
Am I upset… surprisingly no. Thanks to everyone who has
downloaded this torrrent and watched the film, our awareness level is
through the roof. For that I say, “THANK YOU”!
What you guys have done here is nothing short of amazing. In the
future, I will not complain about file sharing. YOU HAVE HELPED PUT
THIS LITTLE MOVIE ON THE MAP!!!! When I make my next picture, I just
may upload the movie on the net myself!
This guy really deserves support from the file shareing community!
You can support producers of The Man From Earth by buying the retail
DVD, which should be available in the US stores from tomorrow.
posted by eric3579
2 years 2 weeks ago • 3269 views
posted by eric3579
2 years 2 weeks ago • 861 views
 
More of my pics from Burning Man 2007and a few from previous years
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11785864@N02/sets/72157602432584095/
posted by eric3579
2 years 2 weeks ago • 749 views
 Nintendo
displaced Sony as the leader of video game sales this past quarter said
a new market report published on Tuesday. According to iSuppli,
combined game sales of both Wii and DS totaled US$1.2 billion dollars
during the third quarter of 2007, up 31 percent from the second quarter
of this year and more than double the amount sold a year prior. By
comparison, combined PS3, PS2, and PSP game sales totaled $1 billion
for the same period while Microsoft reached $318 million in total Xbox
360 and Xbox 1 games sales.
The news marks the first time that Nintendo has accomplished the
feat since first being displaced by Sony in the mid nineties with the
release of the original and much more popular PlayStation 1 when
compared to the Nintendo 64. Nintendo is
expected to maintain its lead as it ships about 200 additional titles
by the end of the year, bringing the number of games to more than 350,
many from outside publishers, iSuppli analyst David Carnevale said. In
addition, game sales could get a further boost by the expected
introduction of a new flagship title for the Wii, called Wii Fit. The
game encourages players to engage in full-body exercises using Wii
Balance Boards, performing activities including yoga, push-ups,
aerobics, and stretching.
posted by eric3579
2 years 2 weeks ago • 540 viewsCanadian Study: Piracy Boosts CD Sales
Written by Ernesto on November 03, 2007
A recent study on the impact of filesharing on CD sales shows that
the more music people download on P2P-networks, the more CDs they buy.
University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz surveyed a large group of Canadians to find out what the effect of piracy is on music sales. The results are surprising, at least, for the music industry.
The researchers conclude that that people who download more music
actually buy more CDs. They report: “We estimate that the effect of one
additional P2P download per month is to increase music purchasing by
0.44 CDs per year.”
This basically means that if someone downloads 270 songs a year via
BitTorrent, he or she will buy 9 CDs more than someone who only
downloads 27 songs. So, in a way illegal downloads actually convert
into more CD sales.
Overall the researchers found no difference between pirates
and other people in the number of CDs they buy. They did not find a
positive or a negative relationship between filesharing and CD sales.
So, at worst, filesharing isn’t the cause for a drop in CD sales. It
might even be a boon to it.
This study once again confirms that piracy is not as bad as the
recording industry content “owners” want us to believe. Filesharing
gives people the opportunity to discover new music for free. It makes
it easier to try new music before you buy. Right now, downloading songs
off P2P networks is pretty much the only way to listen to complete
tracks before deciding to buy them.
It is worth mentioning that there are legal alternatives, like Soundpedia and Lala.com’s upcoming service,
which will let you stream entire songs for free. However, most people
will still prefer pirated music because the quality is much better and
they can transfer it to their MP3 player.
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