. . . a Caltech grad student has built an intriguing Wikipedia tool that allows users to search for article edits made by users from known IP addresses.
I poked around for about 10 minutes and found the following:
. . .
On George W. Bush, 199.181.174.146 (The New York Times) added:
(I assume that's a clever ploy to boost the President's ranking in the results for search keyword "jerk".)
. . .
On George W. Bush, 156.33.43.214 (U.S. Senate) added:
GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT TO SLEEP IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
Five minutes earlier (this was about 2 years ago), a user from the same Senate IP edited Senator Robert Byrd's page, replacing the section on Byrd's KKK membership with:
ROBER (sic) LIVES! LONG LIVE DA BIG BYRD!
. . .
Much more at the link. Classy people, these Timesmen; not at all like those unbwashed, uncouth louts in the blogosphere.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/15/2007 06:29 ||
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#1
Over the past few years I've come to the firm conclusion that liberalism is a form of mental illness.
#3
I wonder if Vegas takes bets on whether an organization, like the NYT, which decries government surveillance of communications will start to surreptitiously monitor internet traffic within their own ranks. Of course, being 'liberal' the standard is 'one set of rules for me and another set of rules for thee'.
Cholla: The very first thing we do is find out who we're talking about. I mean, we don't even know where to find him.
Elmo: How are we gonna find him?
Cholla: Well it appears to me that there can't be too many guys driving around this valley with an ape.
#6
Bio-diesel, ethanol, etc. all *sound* good to the enviros, but the "law of unintended consequences" kicks in hard, like this one. I'm no die-hard enviro, but I love the great outdoors and want to keep some of it in place.
All the more reason to look hard at nuclear and natural gas for electric needs (natural gas could be used for transportation too), instead of all the latest "enviro fads", which are looking for a single magic bullet for all our energy needs. Much like electric cars, no one (except engineers, mostly) look at the big picture of "Where will we get the extra electricity from and what to do with all the spent batteries?" Ethanol and other bio-fuels wreak havoc on the water side of the environment (corn is one of the most water and fertilizer intense "fuels" of all), while also threatening "the poor" on the food supply side. Why no one looks at answers we ALREADY have is beyond me. Nuke/Nat'l Gas for electric needs, drill for our OWN oil (ANWR and oil shale in the west), put up wind farms off Nantucket, and all the while, continue research into other "alternative fuels," but we MUST look at the "big picture" effects of those fuels too.
Posted by: BA ||
08/15/2007 8:28 Comments ||
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Biofuels are turning into the boondoggle of our time. This shit is going to end up creating 10X the impact of just using oil.
#9
Last election Washington State voted to require utilites to produce more 'eco-friendly' energy, and hydro electic power doesn't count. so right now a big wind farm project is held up because somefolks don't want to look out THEIR windows and see those big turbines. I guess that liberal rules comment above applies.....
The State Department's point man on Libya will visit there next week to cement closer ties with Tripoli and plan a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is due in Tripoli midweek on his first visit there since the case of the jailed Bulgarian and Palestinian medics was resolved last month.
Posted by: ed ||
08/15/2007 19:41 ||
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Unknown gunmen have kidnapped the mother of a local MP in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, authorities say. The woman was abducted on Monday night from her home in Brass, a coastal village in Bayelsa, one of Nigeria's main oil-producing states.
Meanwhile, the 11-year-old son of another member Bayelsa State House of Assembly has been freed.
In the main Delta city, Port Harcourt, police have arrested a local politician following deadly gang clashes. Posters of Amakiri Otelemagba were found in a car allegedly used by gunmen in last week's clashes, in which at least 15 people were killed - mostly bystanders.
The city is now calm but BBC Nigeria correspondent Alex Last says given the scale and spread of the fighting, there is a suspicion that powerful political figures may also have been involved in the violence. He says that in the past, the gangs have been used to rig elections.
A fresh lawsuit was filed against former BNP lawmaker Abu Hena yesterday on charge of extortion. Ashraful Israil, a BNP activist of Suryapara village in Bagmara upazila filed the case with a Rajshahi Metroplitan Magistrate court against three persons including the former BNP lawmaker. The other accused are BNP activists DM Fazlur Rahman and Asgor Ali.
Rajshahi Metropolitan magistrate Sayed Rabiul Alam recorded the statement of the plaintiff and ordered the officer-in-charge (OC) of Bagmara police station to take legal actions after investigation. According to the case proceedings, Abu Hena, a former BNP lawmaker of Rajshahi-4 constituency, demanded Tk 2 lakh from the plaintiff in 2004 for sending him abroad. The plaintiff alleged that the accused took Tk 1.5 lakh from him promising to send him abroad, but they did not keep the promise.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Apart from his other assets, forest conservator Ali Kabir Haider, already in jail, has nine plots in the capital, according to his wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
In the wealth statement sent to the commission through jail authorities on Monday, Haider stated that he has three plots in Demra, two in Mirpur, one each in Banani, Nikunja, Sutrapur and Purbachal areas. Besides, he has 1.25 acres of land in Sirajganj, saving certificates worth about Tk 50 lakh, six bank accounts with about Tk 80 lakh, fixed deposit of Tk 80,000, furniture worth Tk 60,000, defence saving certificates worth Tk 50,000 and 14 tolas of gold.
Haider, detained on graft charges, was earlier directed by the Anti-Corruption Commission to submit his wealth statement to the commission.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2007 00:00 ||
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A Rajshahi court yesterday sentenced former BNP lawmaker Nadim Mostafa and 14 others to 10 years rigorous imprisonment in two separate cases of extortion and criminal activities during union parishad (UP) election, 2003 in Durgapur upazila.
However, the convicts would actually serve only seven years in jail as the second court of Additional Sessions Judge Rejaul Islam ordered simultaneous execution of two sentences. All the 15 convicted were also fined Tk 13,000 each, in default they would have to suffer 18 months more in jail. The judge in the extortion case sentenced them to seven years in jail and fined them Tk 10,000 in default they would have to serve 12 months more in jail.
In the case filed in connection with criminal activities, the judge sentenced them to three years imprisonment and fined them Tk 3,000 in default they would have to serve six more months in prison. The judge, however, acquitted two of the 17 accused in the cases. Nadim Mostafa and 11 other convicted have been absconding since the state of emergency was proclaimed earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Brought to you by the No One Saw This Coming Dept.
President Hugo Chavez was presenting his blueprint Wednesday for sweeping constitutional changes expected to allow him to be re-elected indefinitely, a move his critics call a threat to democracy.
Posted by: ed ||
08/15/2007 19:46 ||
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#1
That's not a "threat to democracy" it's called the "end of democracy."
Posted by: Destro in Panama ||
08/15/2007 21:17 Comments ||
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Good to see the AP considers these Hugo moves as "reforms".
Whaddya think they'd call them if Bush tried to pull this shit?
Didn't he get the memo about the fascist regime of BusHitler?
More likely he already has his ACLU and Hollywood friends lined up for the grueling PR campaign as soon as he arrives on US soil.
Talk about being sentenced to hard labor.
Might not want to look at a life sentence in a Brazilian prison. Sorta like a Turkish prison. Except they don't speak Turkish. Being sent home to Columbia may not look so hot either.
The lawyer representing one of Colombia's most notorious drug kingpins will travel to the United States on Tuesday to try to speed up his potential extradition from Brazil. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, was nabbed in a dawn raid on August 7 at a luxurious mansion in a gated community outside of Sao Paulo, from where authorities say he oversaw a multibillion-dollar drug ring that stretched to Europe and the United States.
Since his arrest, Ramirez Abadia has made it clear that he wants to be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted on drug trafficking charges and in connection with the murder of 15 people, including some police officers.
His Brazilian lawyer, Sergio Alambert, told Reuters on Tuesday he planned to meet with U.S. officials in the coming days to try to accelerate the extradition process, which can take months or years. Alambert said Ramirez Abadia fears for his life if he is sent back to Colombia.
Brazil's Supreme Court is studying the extradition request, but it is unclear if it will be granted. Some legal experts say Brazil might want to try Ramirez Abadia for money laundering before extraditing him to the United States.
There are also some legal obstacles that could bog down the extradition process even further. U.S. prosecutors must agree not to seek the death penalty or life imprisonment before Ramirez Abadia could be extradited. Brazilian law prohibits the extradition of prisoners to countries where they could face life imprisonment or a death sentence.
What's the point of imprisoning a drug kingpin if they can get out some day?
Ramirez Abadia -- nicknamed Chupeta, or Lollipop in Colombian Spanish -- gained notoriety in the 1990s as a leader of the Cali-based Norte del Valle cartel. He has already served prison time in Colombia, where authorities say he ordered the assassination of more than 300 people.
Last weekend, Ramirez Abadia was transferred to a maximum-security prison in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where he will be held until the Supreme Court rules on his extradition request.
"Hey Screw! Ya gotta call my mouthpiece! I gotta git outta here!"
A bridge that collapsed in China killing at least 34 people broke apart like a pat of "beancurd" because there were apparently no steel reinforcement bars, state media said on Wednesday, quoting a rescuer. Police have detained a construction manager and a project supervisor for questioning. Premier Wen Jiabao urged the local government to deal with the issue "seriously", the newspaper said. The work safety and quality watchdogs were investigating the cause of the collapse, but the newspaper quoted a rescue worker as saying that the bridge was mainly built of stone and concrete. "No reinforced steel bars were seen in the collapsed bridge supports. It was like a knife cutting through tofu (beancurd)," Hou Jiaping, a rescue worker, was quoted as saying.
Pictures in newspapers supported his comments. Sections of the bridge lay flat on the ground, lumps of rock bursting through the concrete and no steel bars to be seen.
#3
Toll 34 after China bridge collapsed "like beancurd"
Damn thats where the GL70 went didn't go!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/15/2007 4:54 Comments ||
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Police have detained a construction manager and a project supervisor for questioning.
Story on their untimely "suicide" in 3, 2, 1...
Posted by: BA ||
08/15/2007 7:43 Comments ||
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That is without a doubt the most manly bridge deck I have ever seen. There looks like there is a shitload of rebar in the foreground of one of the pictures, all bent up. But not a piece in the deck. It's so damned thick I be they were trying to figure out how to build a bridge without any rebar by making the deck 8ft thick. That, or someone just stole the money for the rebar.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed on Tuesday he would make a fresh bid for Turkey's presidency with the support of his ruling AK Party, but he will face hostility from secularists wary of his Islamist past.
Keeping an eye on Kemal Attaturk's statue at the Embassy, is all I'm sayin'.
Officials of the centre-right, Islamist-rooted party had said late on Monday that Gul would stand again, prompting concern that the decision might renew tension between the ruling party and the powerful secular elite, including army generals.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2007 00:00 ||
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A federal judge in Los Angeles barred the Navy on Monday from using powerful underwater sonar blasts for anti-submarine tests off California's Channel Islands, and warned that the sonar could cause widespread harm to nearly 30 species of marine mammals, including five species of endangered whales.
The preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper was issued while environmental organizations, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, are suing both the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service to prevent the sonar experiments.
Active sonar pulses at certain mid-frequency ranges beneath the sea act very much like radar signals do through space, bouncing back from targets - such as spacecraft, planes or even features on the moon, for example - and identifying them.
Scientists contend that in the water, sonar pulses damage the hearing organs of whales, disrupt their lives and have caused many whale species to strand themselves on shores.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and five other environmental organizations sued the Navy in March to halt a series of 14 anti-submarine exercises planned for the next two years, claiming the sonar pulses would severely threaten the lives and health of marine mammals and would violate four federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
When the suit was filed, the Defense Department exempted the Navy from complying with the laws because of overriding national security needs.
On Monday, Cooper sent preliminary copies of the language she planned to use in her final ruling, noting there was a near certainty that marine mammals would be endangered by the sonar blasts. She called a series of mitigations proposed by the Navy to protect the whales "woefully inadequate and ineffectual."
In an e-mail Monday, a Navy spokesman cited the Navy's response to the lawsuit, which claimed that in 30 years of similar sonar experiments no whales have ever been stranded, nor have any marine mammals suffered "injuries or behavioral disturbances ... or even temporary hearing loss."
The Navy's "extensive mitigation measures" to protect the whales include using trained lookouts, night-vision goggles, passive sonar to monitor marine mammals underwater, aerial surveillance and a 1,000-yard safety zone around its sonar transmitters, said the response document.
A spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service said her agency's officials would respond to the judge's ruling when they receive the final language in the injunction.
Both agencies are expected to appeal Cooper's ruling.
The court order "confirms that during sonar testing and training, the Navy can and must protect whales and other marine life in the extraordinarily rich waters off our Southern California coast," said Joel Reynolds, lead attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The Navy's rejection of common sense protective measures ... is illegal, unacceptable and completely unnecessary."
The environmental groups fighting to protect the whales from the powerful sonar signals contend that scientists have long known that marine mammals use their own sounds to find food, locate mates, avoid predators and communicate with each other. Man-made high-intensity sounds like powerful sonar can seriously disrupt the lives of these animals, researchers have maintained.
The Wall Street Journal printed one of David Fentons internal memos, after the Alar-on-apples scandal was publicly debunked. Heres Fenton in his own words: We designed [the Alar Campaign] so that revenue would flow back to the Natural Resources Defense Council from the public, and we sold this book about pesticides through a 900 number and the Donahue show. And to date there has been $700,000 in net revenue from it.
And then Swordfish:
NRDC joined forces again with Fenton Communications in 1998 to promote a food-scare campaign called Give Swordfish a Break! which was operated by SeaWeb, an organization created by Fenton specifically for this campaign. Nearly all of the funding for this effort came from pass-through grants solicited by NRDC on behalf of SeaWeb. Two years later the anti-swordfish campaign folded, with both groups claiming victory. The whole promotion was based on the myth that Atlantic swordfish were being over-fished to the point of extinction. But according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, that simply wasnt true.
#6
Thanks for the pointers, CrazyFool. It sounds like MRDC has tapped into scams similar to Ralph Nader's PIRG gravy trains. I'm simply amazed that I used to believe that NGOs have higher ethical standards than eeeevil corporations and the DoD.
#9
It is very important that the Navy not make any loud disturbing noises because the whale is a large, barnacle-like creature and, being firmly attached to the sea floor, is unable to move away.
#10
Easy solution. Move the exercises out past the U.S. Federal Waters limit (I think it's 12 miles). Of course, then we'd have to face the U.N. on this issue (international waters), but who doesn't like to rib them every once in a while, especially the Navy.
Posted by: BA ||
08/15/2007 22:47 Comments ||
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I agree with Mojo. Simple solution: Ignore the lady. If and when the US Navy is held in contempt of her "order" it will swiftly be dismissed due to a host of constitutional reasons, not the least of which is lack of jurisdiction.
Lightning struck a suspected illegal border crosser Monday night about 10 miles north of the border in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson. The 38-year-old man survived, and was transported to University Medical Center at taxpayer expense, said Richard DeWitt, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
A Border Patrol agent encountered a group at about 10:30 p.m. Monday near Milepost 10 on Arizona 286, he said. The group members said lightning had struck the man at about 8:30 p.m. and that, because of the wet ground, three others were shocked as well, DeWitt said. Members of the group said they carried the man to the road. He was conscious but unable to move, DeWitt said. The agent called for an emergency helicopter but stormy weather prevented it from going. The man was taken by ambulance to University Medical Center. The three who were injured were taken to St. Mary's Hospital, he said.
Lightning strikes are unusual but have happened before. In July 2002, four illegal entrants were killed and eight injured when lightning struck a tree they were under in the Perilla Mountains, about 20 miles northeast of Douglas. Expect Gonzales to indict and prosecute God.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/15/2007 08:55 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And while Pakistan reduced its Hindu population from 20 to 1%, Gandhi-Nehru included sharia guarantees in the Indian constitution. The percentage of Muslims in India has doubled since Partition.
Whatever abdullah wants, abdullah gets. When will our leaders come to their senses?
#3
Governor Lt Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool said on Tuesday that Pakistan was created so that its people could lead their lives in accordance with the Islamic principles of justice, tolerance and human equality.
So what the hell happened to that shit? They are head chopping, persecuting, slave trading pieces of shit. They have no idea what any of those principles mean.
2010 is going to be a big year for manned spaceflight. Bigelow Aerospace is planning the first private space habitat, and India is planning the first launch of their reusable spacecraft by 2010. India has been testing a space capsule that was recovered, laying the groundwork for manned missions. The space agency also says it plans a Mars mission "as early as 2012."
Certainly bold. And India is moving the time table up. Their last mission prediction for an Indian astronaut was by 2014, and the idea was only first broached in 2006, as India seemed to regard unmanned missions as having the same benefits until late in the year.
[For a rough overview of the story so far, Jeff Foust, as usual, has a great summary article here]
Posted by: Mike ||
08/15/2007 09:04 ||
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#1
No ISRO program has ever launched on schedule.. it will probably be 2012 or so before the HSTV is launched.
This will be a small unmanned, winged vehicle with a Scramjet engine
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:13 Comments ||
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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)has given details of ongoing work for its 2009 reusable launch vehicle demonstrator suborbital flight.
Launched on a 11.5m (38.3ft)-tall solid rocket booster and using 9,000kg (4,090lb) of propellant, the X-37-like 1,400kg vehicle is 6.5m long with a 3.6m wingspan. Flight apogee will be 67km (42 miles) and it has a downrange of 650km. The vehicle will splash down in the Indian Ocean.
To model the mission, ISRO has developed six degrees of freedom simulation software to encompass all the environmental conditions and flight dynamics. A scale model of the test vehicle's nosecone, with nine air ports for sensors to aid flight control, will be built for windtunnel tests.
The solid rocket booster is an existing design modified for this task. "The grain has to be modified to reduce the maximum dynamic pressure," says ISRO Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre's Ramesh Narayanan, speaking at the second European Conference for Aerospace Sciences in Brussels.
The booster will use its four control fins' adjustable tips to regulate ascent. The test vehicle will use a reaction control system to modify its attitude to descend initially at a 35° to 45° angle of attack. During flight, the vehicle will experience its greatest thermal load - 40W/cm2 (101.6W/in2) - 100s after launch.
For flight control within the atmosphere during descent, the vehicle has a body flap at the rear, a rudder on each of its two tail fins, and outer and inner ailerons. The rudders and ailerons both have a maximum deflection of +/-30°. The rudders will be used as speed brakes.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:15 Comments ||
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ISRO's proposed test vehicle
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:20 Comments ||
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The DRDOis also working on a Scramjet vehicle (for military uses)
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:22 Comments ||
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#5
Collaboration with Israel too...
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:28 Comments ||
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#6
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2007 12:28 Comments ||
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#7
Cool beans. Gotta keep those Chicom knickers in a twist.
SUMMARY: The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") is adopting amendments to Regulation SHO under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act"). The amendments are intended to further reduce the number of persistent fails to deliver in certain equity securities by eliminating the grandfather provision of Regulation SHO.
In addition, we are amending the close-out requirement of Regulation SHO for certain securities that a seller is "deemed to own." The amendments also update the market decline limitation referenced in Regulation SHO... To explain, brokerages were driving hundreds of small cap businesses out of business by selling shares they didn't own and that in many cases even hadn't been issued by those companies, then shuttling these worthless shares among themselves at 15 day intervals to conceal them. This meant pure profits to the broker as long as the companies eventually went bankrupt, which they would do when their stock price was collapsed out from under them. For years, the SEC refused to enforce the law against these brokerages for "naked short selling", until it has started to threaten the economy itself. Now, it may all come to an end this October 15.
#1
It also means that hundreds or thousands of brokers could be facing criminal charges because they are unable to pay off existing naked shorts. Their own firms will sue them or press charges.
Not too long ago, the SEC even tried to "grandfather" and forgive existing naked shorts as a mass amnesty to all the brokers who had cheated hundreds of thousands of investors. That didn't fly.
Come October 15, the SEC will either face the heat for refusing to enforce the law, or it will sacrifice a whole bunch of dishonest brokers.
#5
This is the sort of predatory crap that gives capitalism a black eye around the world. When the hammer drops, the SEC had better be ready to light these thieving suckers up like so many cheap cigars.
#7
For every short seller there is a buyer. The dis-honesty comes in when the naked seller avoids having to cover (buy) the stock he has sold short and effectively increasing the amount of stock in circulation and IMO manipulating the market.
I suspect the problem of companies going bankcrupt is that the company's stock (and hence its price) is used to secure loans. If the price falls loans are pulled, so the company buys its own stock to keep up the price. Again, there is nothing wrong with this. However, the naked short selling practice described would create an unlimited supply of stock for sale and therefore drive down the price. Buying the stock wouldn't keep up the price in the way it would if only real stock were for sale.
Clearly a short seller would make money if the company went backcrupt but could also make money by driving the price down at any time by selling non-existent stock.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Unknown gunmen have kidnapped the mother of a local MP in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, authorities say. The woman was abducted on Monday night from her home in Brass, a coastal village in Bayelsa, one of Nigeria's main oil-producing states. 
