Gravey and Jobriath

Transcript of "The Diamond Empire"

EDWARD EPSTEIN, Author, "The Rise and Fall of Diamonds": Well, what I learned was that the diamond business wasn't a business of extracting, as I originally expected, something of enormous value and then simply seeing how much of this object you could get out of the ground and selling it. That was what the business appeared to be when I started my venture. But their real business was restricting what came out of the ground, restricting what was discovered, restricting what got cut, restricting what actually found its way into the retail market and, at the same time, through movies, through advertising, through Hollywood, through the manipulation of perceptions, creating the idea that there was this enormous demand for these shiny little objects that they seemed to have in abundant supply. So I wound up on this voyage of discovery starting off with the idea that there was this object of great value, and it was just a question of how many could you get out, and I wound up discovering it was just the opposite.

NARRATOR: This is the story of how that grand illusion was created, and the story of how one family gained control of the world's diamond trade and for nearly a century has maintained its hold on an empire that defines the very idea of what diamonds really are.

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it.

Feral Children

Hacking Video Poker Machines

We open it up, we take out the ROM, we figure out what processor it is. I had made a decision to get this Japanese machine that looked like a knockoff of one of the big brands. I just figured the engineers might have been working under more pressure, they might have been a little lazy or a little sloppy.

It turned out I was right. They had used a 6809 [chip], similar to a 6502 that you saw in an Apple II or an Atari. It was an 8-bit chip with a 64K memory space. I was an assembly language programmer, so this was familiar.

The machine Alex had chosen was one that had been around for some 10 years. Whenever a casino wants to buy a machine of a new design, the Las Vegas Gaming Commission has to study the programming and make sure it’s designed so the payouts will be fair to the players. Getting a new design approved can be a lengthy process, so casinos tend to hold on to the older machines longer than you would expect. For the team, an older machine seemed likely to have outdated technology, which they hoped might be less sophisticated and easier to attack.

The computer code they downloaded from the chip was in binary form, the string of 1’s and 0’s that is the most basic level of computer instructions. To translate that into a form they could work with, they would first have to do some reverse engineering — a process an engineer or programmer uses to figure out how an existing product is designed; in this case it meant converting from machine language to a form that the guys could understand and work with.

List of Confidence Tricks

The Fiddle Game is a variation on the pigeon drop. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the violin that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example, $50,000) for such a rare instrument, then looks at his watch and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to call him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player (who "reluctantly" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two con men are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods and is the basis for The Streets' song Can't Con an Honest John.)

The glasses drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a pair of glasses that have already been broken. He will claim that the glasses were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them.

Psychic surgery is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand to pretend to remove bits of malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries, it imperils the victims, who may fail to seek competent medical attention. (The movie Man on the Moon depicts comedian Andy Kaufman undergoing psychic surgery.)

The Spanish Prisoner scam, and its modern variant, the Nigerian money transfer fraud, take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes goes in figuring he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal.

On This Day

Many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the programme, and in the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to the Second World War, took it to be a news broadcast. Contemporary newspapers reported that panic ensued, with people fleeing the area, and others thinking they could smell the poison gas or could see the flashes of the fighting in the distance.

The author Richard J. Hand cites studies by unnamed historians who "calculate[d] that some six million heard the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast; 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened'". (Hand, 7) While Welles and company were heard by a comparatively small audience (Bergen's audience was an estimated 30 million), the uproar that followed was anything but minute: within a month, there were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the broadcast or its impact (Hand, 7), while Adolf Hitler cited the panic, as Hand writes, as "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy." (Hand, 7)

Later studies suggested this "panic" was far less widespread than newspaper accounts suggested. However, it remains clear that many people were caught up — to one degree or another — in the confusion that followed.

Star Wars Screen Tests

I stumbled upon this Panopticist post of Robby Benson's Star Wars audition (he reads for the part of Luke along with a mostly off-camera Harrison Ford). This led me to the YouTube profile of its source, Ghyslain. (Not the Star-Wars-Kid Ghyslain, although that would somehow be poetic, wouldn't it?) Gyslain has collected a series of Star Wars audition videos.

His notes say there is 90 minutes of footage that features folks like Kurt Russell, William Katt, Fredric Forrest, Andrew Stevens, Charles Martin Smith, Amy Irving, and several others. So far you can see: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Lisa Eilbacher (from Beverly Hills Cop reading for Princess Leia). Here's another one with someone reading for Leia I don't recognize and does not identify herself in the video.

Whack-O-Lanterns

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

R.I.P. Stay the Course

How Do Lightsticks Work?

There are three components of a lightstick. There need to be two chemicals that interact to release energy and also a fluorescent dye to accept this energy and convert it into light. Although there is more than one recipe for a lightstick, a common commercial lightstick uses a solution of hydrogen peroxide that is kept separate from a solution of a phenyl oxalate ester together with a fluorescent dye. The color of the fluorescent dye is what determines the resulting color of the lightstick when the chemical solutions are mixed. The basic premise of the reaction is that the reaction between the two chemicals releases enough energy to excite the electrons in the fluorescent dye. This causes the electrons to jump to a higher energy level and then fall back down and release light.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn’t Want You To See

NBC is refusing to air an ad for the new Dixie Chicks documentary, "Shut Up & Sing." Variety reports, "NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing that it 'cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.'"

Doctor Slang and Medical Acronyms

45C - patient is one chromosome short of a full set (thick)
Beached whale - obese patient unable to do much for him/herself except lie there with flailing arms and legs
Bungee jumper - a patient who pulls on his catheter tube
Code Brown - faecal incontinence emergency (e.g. of bedlinen)
LMC - Low marble count (low IQ)
Negative Wallet Biopsy - (US) patient transferred to cheaper hospital because s/he has no insurance/funds
Ralphie McYakkers - young drunks vomiting

John Frum and Cargo Cults

In the morning heat on a tropical island halfway across the world from the United States, several dark-skinned men—clad in what look to be U.S. Army uniforms—appear on a mound overlooking a bamboo-hut village. One reverently carries Old Glory, precisely folded to reveal only the stars. On the command of a bearded "drill sergeant," the flag is raised on a pole hacked from a tall tree trunk. As the huge banner billows in the wind, hundreds of watching villagers clap and cheer. Chief Isaac Wan, a slight, bearded man in a blue suit and ceremonial sash, leads the uniformed men down to open ground in the middle of the village. Some 40 barefoot "G.I.'s" suddenly emerge from behind the huts to more cheering, marching in perfect step and ranks of two past Chief Isaac. They tote bamboo "rifles" on their shoulders, the scarlet tips sharpened to represent bloody bayonets, and sport the letters "USA," painted in red on their bare chests and backs. This is February 15, John Frum Day, on the remote island of Tanna in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. On this holiest of days, devotees have descended on the village of Lamakara from all over the island to honor a ghostly American messiah, John Frum. "John promised he'll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America if we pray to him," a village elder tells me as he salutes the Stars and Stripes. "Radios, TVs, trucks, boats, watches, iceboxes, medicine, Coca-Cola and many other wonderful things." The island's John Frum movement is a classic example of what anthropologists have called a "cargo cult"—many of which sprang up in villages in the South Pacific during World War II, when hundreds of thousands of American troops poured into the islands from the skies and seas. As anthropologist Kirk Huffman, who spent 17 years in Vanuatu, explains: "You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes." The locals don’t know where the foreigners’ endless supplies come from and so suspect they were summoned by magic, sent from the spirit world. To entice the Americans back after the war, islanders throughout the region constructed piers and carved airstrips from their fields. They prayed for ships and planes to once again come out of nowhere, bearing all kinds of treasures: jeeps and washing machines, radios and motorcycles, canned meat and candy.

Life of Brian (The Stoning)

Add Eyes That Follow the Cursor To Any Picture

Today's Religious News

SYDNEY - Women who do not cover up are similar to abandoned "meat" making them responsible for sexual attacks, a senior Islamic cleric has said.

The Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, has outraged female Muslim leaders with comments he made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?" the sheik asked.

"The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib [Islamic headdress], no problem would have occurred."

A group of Orthodox Jews in Los Angeles is trying to erect an eruv near a synagogue on Venice Beach’s boardwalk. An eruv is essentially a magic enclosure that allows Orthodox Jews to circumvent certain oppressive traditions within its confines. For instance, Jews are not allowed to perform some basic activities like pushing a stroller outside on the Shabbat, but slap together an eruv and you’re good to go. You can read more about eruvs here.

The proposal calls for several miles worth of 200-pound test fishing line to be strewn about the Venice Beach Boardwalk area. Typically in cities, eruvs are tied to existing structures like telephone poles, but a beach is quite different. The Jews suggest that the line be tied to existing lamp poles and signs. To fill the void in certain parts of the beach, 20-foot poles would be planted to provide the necessary connection.

Needless to say, many people are not too keen on the idea. Some are concerned about the poles being an eyesore, while others are concerned about the impact on local birds and their nests. Others find the use of public property for religious reasons troublesome.

Tax Loophole for Hummer H2s

"How is this possible?" Thorpe asks. "Thanks to the Bush administration's recent economic stimulus package, small businesses and the self-employed are eligible to deduct the entire purchase cost of new equipment up to $100,000 the year of the purchase." But these provisions are supposed to help farmers and small-business owners buy equipment to transport merchandise and haul stuff. No matter. "The Hummer H2 qualifies for this IRS Sec. 179 deduction by its gross vehicle weight of over 6,000 lbs. Cars and medium sized SUV's don't qualify for this deduction," Thorpe writes. "If you are seriously considering acquisition of a new vehicle, step up to the vehicle that can take you where you want to be, financially and otherwise..."

Hotlinking

R.I.P. Philip Kevin Paulson

Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59.

Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters.

During interviews with The San Diego Union-Tribune in September and October, a few months after doctors told him he did not have long to live, Paulson said he was unconcerned about death and proud of the stand that defined his life.

"The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it," said Paulson, who turned away from religion early in life. "It has nothing to do with me being an atheist or whether I was a Bible-thumping fundamentalist Baptist preacher."

Paulson, the grandson of a Lutheran preacher who shunned media attention to protect the case, agreed to exclusive interviews on the condition that his comments remain confidential until his death or the end of the case.

He said he wanted people to understand why he pursued the removal of the cross, and that he was never motivated by a hatred of Christians. "I don't harbor those kind of feelings," Paulson said. "My mother's a Christian. I was raised a devout Christian. I'm not anti-Christian. The reason I did it is because it's not fair to the other religions. America is not just the Christian religion."

Flower Urinals

A collection of images of urinals made to look like flowers. Definitely some cool sculptures.

Steve Carell on The Daily Show

Make a Viagra Pill Costume

Think you’re human Viagra? Or maybe you just want to express your devotion to the magic blue pill. Dress up as your favorite pharmaceutical this Halloween. We’ll show you how to make a costume that will really raise the dead and, needless to say, keep you up all night long.

Olberman on Limbaugh's Attack of Michael J. Fox

Beware of Flying Jews

Nazi-era film warning citizens about tiny flying Jews squeezing into their books, plus some gigantic plaster heads.

Rules for Handling the Qur'an

This is indeed a noble Qur'an ... Which none toucheth save the purified. -- Quran 56:77-79

From this passage, Muslims have developed a set of rules about how to handle the Quran. Here are some of them.

1. Make formal acts of cleaning yourself (ablutions) before touching the Quran.

2. Don't touch the Quran when you are unclean (like after having sex or while menstruating).

3. Don't touch the Quran (in Arabic) unless you are already a Muslim. (It's okay for non-believers to listen to tapes or touch a translation.)

4. If you do have to touch it for some reason (and you're unclean or a non-Muslim), then wear gloves or use a cloth to keep your filthy fingers off the sacred text.

5. Never let the Quran touch the floor.

6. Don't take it into a bathroom.

7. Don't place anything else on top of it.

These rules are based on the idea that the Quran is the literal word of God, revealed to the angel Gabriel and delivered to the prophet Muhammad (mayonaise and mustard be upon him) -- none of which, of course, is true (except for maybe the mayonaise and mustard part).

Best Film Speeches and Monologues (Part 2)

Gameboy Around the World

Inside a Megachurch

Before the festivities began, I took a seat next to an old woman who already had her checkbook splayed and pen in hand ; a bribe for Saint Peter no doubt. After a few torturous Christian power ballads, complete with Jefferson Airplane-era psychedelic imagery projected onto screens stretched above the stage, it was time for the sermon. Pastor Jerry Gillis, dressed in khakis and a green plaid shirt, took to the stage for an informal rap session. From the view of him on the big screens, I would have to say his head is nearly 15 feet wide: a truly great man. Armed with both a clip-on shirt microphone and redundant headset mic, Gillis delivered his hip-thirty-something-you-can-relate-to-me-because-I’m-sitting-cross-legged-on-a-stool anecdotes to the mixed crowd of gray-hairs and younger couples. He invoked the names of Jesus and Corey Hart with a relaxed vigor.

List of Homer Simpson's Jobs

Twilight Zone Episode Finder

5 Great Movie Monologues

3. "I'll never put on a lifejacket again."

For my money, Jaws remains Steven Spielberg's greatest film. It's essentially divided into two parts: the initial attacks and town reaction, and then what truly makes the film great -- three men on a rickety boat. The trio's search for the killer shark alternates between suspense and laughs, but for one scene it stops. Quint (Robert Shaw) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) are sharing tales of how they got various wounds when Hooper asks about one of Quint's. The captain reveals it's a tattoo he had removed that once bore the name of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the WWII ship he served on that was delivering the Hiroshima bomb but ended up sinking in shark-infested waters. Shaw is mesmerizing -- how he didn't get an Oscar nomination for this scene alone is beyond me.

How Many of Me?

Every Sperm is Sacred

Africam

Nkorho Pan is brought to you by Africam.com, ranked as one of the top African wildlife sites on the web. We pioneered the live web cam industry in Africa back in 1998 when we broadcast live images from some of the wildest places on the continent. This was a world first and fast gained popularity world wide. Technology has moved on and we are proud to bring you the first of our live streaming cameras on the Africam Wildlife Channel.

Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong

Worst Halloween Costumes of All Time

When I was growing up, most of the kids in my neighborhood were fairly uncreative. Instead of thinking long and hard about what you wanted to be for Halloween, you'd run with your parent to the store at the last minute, and grab a prepackaged costume made by Ben Cooper or Collegeville of some famous character. Superheroes, Monsters, and Star Wars characters were usually the favorites, but every now and then you came across a few gems that really made you scratch your head.

A Painful Doom for Disbelievers

For those of you who've never read the Quran, let me summarize it for you: Allah has prepared a painful doom for those who disbelieve what he revealed in the Quran to his prophet Muhammad (peanut butter and jelly be upon him).

This idea is so important that Allah (or his prophet) repeats more than 200 times in the Quran. Here are just a few variants.

Those who believe not in the Hereafter, for them We have prepared a painful doom. 17:10

Enron Explorer

In October 2003 the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission placed 200,000 of Enron's internal emails from 1999-2002 into the public domain as part of its ongoing investigations. The archive offers an extraordinary window into the lives and preoccupations of Enron's top executives during a turbulent period. Read more about Enron's demise on Wikipedia.

Trampoline engineers used this data as testbed during development of the company's SONAR technology. The result was so fascinating we decided to open it up and allow anyone to dig in. The Enron Explorer lets you investigate the actions and reactions of Enron's senior management team as the noose began to tighten.

From:
jeffreyskilling@yahoo.com
To:
Andy Zipper
Sent:
21/11/2001 at 20:13

Fuck you, you piece of shit. I can't wait to see you go down with the ship like all the other vermin.

Smug, paranoid, unhappy mother fucker.

Eat shit.

Dear top management, We know how serious is the situation but please don't fire us now. Our families are waiting for a happy chrismas and new year!!

Sato
Enron Japan

Carl Sagan: 4 Billion Years of Evolution

The late Dr Carl Sagan speaks about 4 billion years of evolution. Footage taken from the COSMOS series.

Why Does Orange Juice Taste So Bad After Brushing Your Teeth?

It's a question you may never have asked, but if you've ever brushed your teeth before you've had a glass of juice, you'll know why we had to seek professional advice.

David Cannell is the scientific spokesperson for Questacon, "It's because of a certain ingredient in toothpaste called sodium laurel sulfate. It actually blocks sweet sensors. All the other taste bud cells in your mouth are firing away nicely, but the receptors which pick up the sweet sensors are not working anymore. Not only does it block the sweet sensors, it enhances the sour and bitter, so you get this massive influx of sour and bitter taste coming through the mouth."

Olberman's Special Comment on Republican Fear Mongering

The dictionary definition of the word 'terrorize' is simple and not open to misinterpretation: "To fill or overpower with terror; terrify; coerce by intimidation or fear." Note please that the words 'violence' and 'death' are missing from that definition. For the key to terrorism is not the act-but the fear of the act. That is why bin Laden and his deputies and his imitators are forever putting together videotape statements and releasing virtual infomercials with dire threats and heart-stopping warnings. But why is the Republican Party imitating them? Bin Laden puts out what amounts to a commercial of fear; the Republicans put out what is unmistakable as a commercial of fear. The Republicans are paying to have the messages of bin Laden and the others broadcast into your home! Only the Republicans have a bigger bankroll.

Shuttle Launch Seen From ISS

These images came to me via a string of friends-of-friends-of-friends: shots of a Space Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station.

Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

My scientific colleagues have additional reasons to declare emergency. Ignorant and absolutist attacks on stem cell research are just the tip of an iceberg. What we have here is nothing less than a global assault on rationality, and the Enlightenment values that inspired the founding of this first and greatest of secular republics. Science education - and hence the whole future of science in this country - is under threat. Temporarily beaten back in a Pennsylvania court, the 'breathtaking inanity' (Judge John Jones's immortal phrase) of 'intelligent design' continually flares up in local bush-fires. Dowsing them is a time-consuming but important responsibility, and scientists are finally being jolted out of their complacency. For years they quietly got on with their science, lamentably underestimating the creationists who, being neither competent nor interested in science, attended to the serious political business of subverting local school boards. Scientists, and intellectuals generally, are now waking up to the threat from the American Taliban.

Bush Uses 'the Google'

HOST: I'm curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?

BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see — I've forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

Neighboroo

What is a Neighboroo?
A Neighboroo is someone who knows a lot about a neighborhood or a local area. They are the people you consult to find a new place to live, to figure out what are the "bad parts of town" or to find the "happening places".

America May Penalise Iraq If It Fails To Stop the Violence

President George W Bush met his top generals to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq as it was reported that America is considering punishing Baghdad if it fails to meet deadlines to stop the violence.

The new policy would mark a dramatic shift from the previous position that progress could only be determined by the "situation on the ground".

Instead benchmarks would be set covering progress in the Iraqi military, police and economy that if missed would result in the imposition of "penalties" by Washington.

These would include "changes in military strategy", which could mean troop cuts or redeployment within Iraq, or the removal of ministers deemed incompetent or corrupt.

Bush Caught in a Lie.....Again

Winning a Marathon on Your Ass

Robert Cheruiyot held off fellow Kenyan Daniel Njenga to win the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, taken from the course in a wheelchair after slipping and banging his head near the finish line.

Cheruiyot, winner of this year's Boston Marathon, stayed down for several minutes after hitting his head. He was placed in a golf cart and headed to a hospital for a precautionary exam. Race officials said he was not seriously injured.

Pi in Color

Each of the 10 possible decimals of the number pi is displayed by a distinct colored pixel.

Nigerian Dwarfs

The First 4 Minutes of Borat

20 Worst Video Games of All Time

This game was so bad it actually destroyed the life of the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 had a game where General Custer raped Indians tied to cactuses, and THAT couldn't kill the system. Here's how E.T. did it: most of the gameplay was E.T. trying to escape from scientists and jumping into pits to find parts of his telephone. Once you were in a pit, that's when the fun began. If there was no chunk of telephone in the pit, which was only the case in 97% of them, you could leave by stretching out ET's neck until he slowly, SLOWLY floated up. This was the most satisfying part of the game since it looked like an invisible monster was trying to tear his head off.

Cat's Tongue

Steve Ballmer Sells Windows 1.0

Republican to put More Books in Classrooms

Bill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intruders.

If elected, he said he would put thick used textbooks under every desk for students to use in self-defense.

He gave Eyewitness News 5 a videotape showing he and others shooting weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, at books in a field near Minco. They conducted the experiment to see how far bullets would penetrate the books.

Make a Cylon Jack-O-Lantern

For halloween this year, we made Cylon Jack-o-lanterns in both large and small versions. The design consists of two parts, a pumpkin-carving part and an electronics part. The big idea, of course, is to make the Cylon's red eye scan back and forth.

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Held annually, the competition aims to find the best wildlife pictures taken by photographers worldwide of all ages. Browse all the winning, runner up and highly commended images from the 2006 competition.

Lego Flamethrower

LEGO builder Mark Puustinen created this nifty flamethrower that "works by winding a little round knob which pulls the string which pulls the lever which pushes the bottle of butane against a holder with a hole from which butane shoots out from."

Seven Ways to Light a Fire Without a Match

Coin Dominoes

Life and Death of a Pumpkin

Bill Clinton for Veep?

A subsequent sampling of opinion from professors of constitutional law, former White House lawyers and even a couple of federal judges reveals a simmering disagreement on whether a president who has already served two terms can be vice president. Some agree with the conclusion that the presidential term limit embedded in the Constitution bars someone such as Clinton from returning to the White House even in the No. 2 slot. Others, though, call that a misreading of the literal language of the law.

As the former president might say, it all depends on the meaning of the word "elected." Under Article II of the Constitution, a person is "eligible to the Office of President" as long as he or she is a natural-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The 12th Amendment says "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President."

Okay, so that means if you're not eligible to be president, you're not eligible to be vice president. Makes sense. What would be the point of electing a vice president who can't succeed the president in case of death, incapacity or vacancy?

But then Congress and the states added the 22nd Amendment in 1951 to prevent anyone from following the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms. That's where things get dicey. "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice," the 22nd Amendment says.

On its face, that seems to suggest that Clinton could be vice president because he is only barred from being elected president a third time, not from serving as president.

Top US general says Rumsfeld is inspired by God

MIAMI (AFP) - The top US general defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God.

"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

War of the Words

Monkey Portraits

Olberman's Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”

Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy. For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

And lastly, as promised, a Special Comment tonight on the signing of the Military Commissions Act and the loss of Habeas Corpus.

We have lived as if in a trance.

We have lived… as people in fear.

And now — our rights and our freedoms in peril — we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid… of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

Stingray leaps into boat, stabs man in chest

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, authorities said Wednesday, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident recalling the one that killed Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials in Lighthouse Point, about 30 miles north of Miami, said James Bertakis was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren Tuesday when the spotted eagle ray leaped aboard and struck him.

"It's just a real freak thing," Lt. Mike Sullivan told Reuters, saying the incident occurred on Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

52 Year Old Soldier Killed in Iraq

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - A Vancouver soldier is one of ten killed this week by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Ron Paulson spent 14 years in the Army and then another 13 years as an inactive reservist. At 52 years old, he was called up for active duty.

When Paulson finished his service in 1992, soldiers were given a choice - take a lump sum of $30,000 and be done, or take an annual payment of $7,000 with a catch.

He said he went for the annual, but that meant he had to stay in the inactive reserve to get it, which is why he ended up getting called back in to service.

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?

A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”

That was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,” he said. “And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.”

O.K., I asked, trying to help, what about today? Which one is Iran — Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?”

He took a stab: “Sunni.”

Wrong.

Al Qaeda? “Sunni.”

Right.

AND to his credit, Mr. Hulon, a distinguished agent who is up nights worrying about Al Qaeda while we safely sleep, did at least know that the vicious struggle between Islam’s Abel and Cain was driving Iraq into civil war. But then we pay him to know things like that, the same as some members of Congress.

Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.

“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”

Senate Voting Record for the Military Commissions Act of 2006

Summary: Sidesteps the Supreme Court's 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld opinion that found the Administration's plans to hold military tribunals were unconstitutional. Gives Congress's OK to deny U.S. noncitizen detainees the writ of habeas corpus and to use coerced testimony and hearsay evidence against the defendant. Gives the President the power to name U.S. citizens and legal U.S. residents "unlawful enemy combatants."

An Essay on Oedipus

The 10 Most Polluted Places

Linfen, China, where residents say they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings, exemplifies many Chinese cities;

Haina, Dominican Republic, has severe lead contamination because of lead battery recycling, a problem common throughout poorer countries [image];

Ranipet, India, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich, resulting in water that apparently stings like an insect bite

Rick Santorum Compares Iraq to LOTR

LEVITTOWN - Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has instead been drawn to Iraq.

Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic, "Lord of the Rings," to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

"It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.," he continued. "You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

Muslim Phamacist Denies Morning-After Pill

A Muslim chemist repeatedly refused a mother the "morning after" pill because of his religious beliefs.

Jo-Ann Thomas, a school crossing patrolwoman with two children, was told that even though the item was in stock she should go to her doctor for her supplies.

When she was denied the pill at a Lloyds Pharmacy near her home in Thurcroft, Rotherham, she asked why and says she was told the pharmacist was a "deeply religious Muslim". advertisement

She said: "I am a 37-year-old woman, not a daft girl who doesn't know what she's doing, and the chemist has no right to tell me whether I can or can't take the pill.

"It's my choice, not his. It's his religion, not mine. He's a dispensing chemist and his job is to dispense drugs."

Richard Dawkins on The Colbert Report

Bush's Approval Rating By State

1970s McDonalds Training Film

Impersonating a College Student

Last October a group of new Rice University students went to Six Flags AstroWorld. Among them was David Jovani Vanegas, a sophomore transfer student from UT. No one knew him too well since he lived off campus, but he was friendly. When the group got lost between the Light Rail and the park entrance, Vanegas hung around. He was a political science major, he told his new friends. He mentioned he was really glad he got into Rice.

At least, that's what he said. Now, roughly a year later, the group knows that none of that information is true. On September 13, Rice police arrested Vanegas for criminal trespass. Turns out he wasn't an actual Rice student but a 20-year-old impersonator. Starting last September, Vanegas began eating in Rice's dining halls, hanging out with students and attending classes. Some nights, he crashed in friends' dorm rooms when he was too tired to go home.

Most of the campus learned about Vanegas's arrest in the undergraduate newspaper, The Rice Thresher. Vanegas's friend, senior Daniel Rasheed, turned him in to the police, the paper reported. Rasheed himself had transferred to Rice the previous winter. For the past six months, he'd doubted Vanegas's student status.

"I just wanted to know the truth," Rasheed told the Thresher. "I just thought they'd be like, 'Okay, he's not a student.'"

The university is doing more than that, though. On the day of Vanegas's arrest, criminal trespass charges were filed against him (but later dismissed). Within the next few weeks, campus administrators alleged that Vanegas had taken close to $3,700 worth of food from Rice cafeterias. On September 28, the district attorney's office filed felony charges for aggregate theft. Bail was set at $2,000.

Odd Watches

This highly complex instrument indicates the position of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky at any given hour as seen from our Earth. It also indicates the sunrise and sunset, dawn and dusk, moonphases, moonrise and moonset, eclipses of the sun and moon, the month , the day and the date.

I’m Not a Look-a-like

Interesting project by photographer Francois Brunelle. A collection of photographic portraits of North American and European look-alikes. Each photo features two look-alikes, who are not related, side by side.

America's Dumbest Congressmen

1.Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL)

If dumb Congress members were the X-Men, Harris would be their Wolverine—a mutant possessing fearsome skills, the product of a demented government experiment gone horribly wrong. Back in 2000, the then-Florida secretary of state thrust herself into the national spotlight by peremptorily calling the state for George W. Bush. Of course, the longtime crony of Bush's brother Jeb was also Florida's GOP campaign chair. Two years later, after she won her seat in the House, Harris wasted no time becoming a by-the-numbers culture warrior. But she really hit her stride on the campaign trail. Running for re-election in 2004, she told voters in Venice, Florida, that a "Middle Eastern" man had been arrested for trying to blow up the power grid of Carmel, Indiana. Neither the mayor of Carmel nor the governor of Indiana—nor anyone else acquainted with reality—had any idea what Harris was talking about.

Florida Republicans responded with sound skepticism when Harris put herself forward to face off against Democratic Senate incumbent Bill Nelson in 2006. But Harris was undaunted, allegedly telling campaign consultant Ed Rollins that God had asked her to run for Senate.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Being seems to have other plans for Florida Republicans—and especially for Harris's campaign team. Team Harris has hemorrhaged more than 25 senior staff and consultants, Rollins among them, over the past year. They rush for the exits every time there's a fresh report on Harris's shady dealing: her $2,800 dinner with MZM defense contractor (and Duke Cunningham's lubricator in chief) Mitchell Wade, who reportedly vowed to kick in $200,000 for a Harris fundraiser; her withdrawal of $100,000 from her campaign coffers to pay for repairs to her house; news that the FBI is collecting her campaign e-mails for review; and her decision to conceal from her lead staffer a federal subpoena concerning the abuses.

Why We Still Fight

At least 32 American troops have been killed in Iraq this month. Approximately 300 have been wounded. The “battle for Baghdad” is going nowhere. A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, “It didn’t get any better while I was there, and it’s not going to get better.” Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq.

Actually, I think the White House knows it too. Why then does it insist on “staying the course” at a casualty rate of more than one thousand Americans per month? The answer is breathtaking in its cynicism: so the retreat from Iraq happens on the next President’s watch. That is why we still fight.

Yep, it’s now all about George. Anyone who thinks that is too low, too mean, too despicable even for this bunch does not understand the meaning of the adjective “Rovian.” Would they let thousands more young Americans get killed or wounded just so George W. does not have to face the consequences of his own folly? In a heartbeat.

Not that it’s going to help. When history finally lifts it leg on the Bush administration, it will wash all such tricks away, leaving only the hubris and the incompetence. Jeffrey Hart, who with Russell Kirk gone is probably the top intellectual in the conservative movement, has already written that George W. Bush is the worst President America ever had. I think the honor still belongs to the sainted Woodrow, but if Bush attacks Iran, he may yet earn the prize. That third and final act in the Bush tragicomedy is waiting in the wings.

The Children's Crusade

The long-standing view of the Children's Crusade is some version of events with similar themes. A boy began preaching in either France or Germany claiming that he had been visited by Jesus and told to lead the next Crusade. Through a series of supposed portents and miracles he gained a considerable following, including possibly as many as 20,000 children. He led his followers southwards towards the Mediterranean Sea, where it is said he believed that the sea would part when he arrived, so that he and his followers could march to Jerusalem, but this did not happen. Two merchants gave passage on seven boats to as many of the children as would fit. The children were either taken to Tunisia and sold into slavery, or died in a shipwreck on the island of San Pietro (off Sardinia) during a gale. In some accounts they never reached the sea before dying or giving up from starvation and exhaustion. Scholarship has shown this long-standing view to be more legend than fact.

The Russell Tribunal

The Russell Tribunal was a public international body organized by British philosopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell, along with Ken Coates and several others. It was designed to investigate and publicize war crimes and conduct of the American forces and its allies during the Vietnam War. The tribunal was constituted in November, 1966 and conducted over two sessions in 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. It gained significant international attention, but was largely ignored in the US, where many considered it an ineffectual, biased show trial.

Representatives of 18 countries participated in the two sessions of this tribunal, formally calling itself the International War Crimes Tribunal. The tribunal committee consisted of 25 notable personages, predominantly from leftist peace organizations. Many of these individuals were winners of the Nobel Prize, Medals of Valor and awards of recognition in humanitarian and social fields. There was no direct representation of Vietnam or the United States on this 25 member panel, although a couple of members were American citizens.

More than 30 individuals testified or provided information to this tribunal. Among them were military personnel from the United States, as well as from each of the warring factions in Vietnam. Financing for the Tribunal came from many sources, including a large contribution from the North Vietnamese government after a request made by Russell to Ho Chi Minh.

Church of All Worlds

In 1962 CAW evolved from a group of friends and lovers who were in part inspired by the science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. This book suggested a spiritual and social way of life and was a metaphor expressing the awakening social consciousness of the times. Inspired by this awakening of consciousness and Heinlein's book, this group grew, evolved, became "water-kin" and created a religious organization that was recognized as a church by the federal government of the United States on June 18, 1970. They named this religious organization the Church of All Worlds after the church founded by the protagonist Valintine Smith in the book.

Oops

The guests came at five-thirty, and Wynn ushered them in. On the wall to his left and right were several paintings, including a Matisse, a Renoir, and “Le Rêve.” The other three walls were glass, looking out onto an enclosed garden. He began to tell the story of the Picasso’s provenance. As he talked, he had his back to the picture. He was wearing jeans and a golf shirt. Wynn suffers from an eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects his peripheral vision and therefore, occasionally, his interaction with proximate objects, and, without realizing it, he backed up a step or two as he talked. “So then I made a gesture with my right hand,” Wynn said, “and my right elbow hit the picture. It punctured the picture.” There was a distinct ripping sound. Wynn turned around and saw, on Marie-Thérèse Walter’s left forearm, in the lower-right quadrant of the painting, “a slight puncture, a two-inch tear. We all just stopped. I said, ‘I can’t believe I just did that. Oh, shit. Oh, man.’ ”

Wynn turned around again. He put his pinkie in the hole and observed that a flap of canvas had been pushed back. He told his guests, “Well, I’m glad I did it and not you.”

The Rapture

Earth's 'Second Moon'

Earth has a "second moon." Asteroid 2003 YN107 is looping around our planet once a year.

This news, believe it or not, is seven years old.

"2003 YN107 arrived in 1999," says Paul Chodas of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL, "and it's been corkscrewing around Earth ever since." Because the asteroid is so small and poses no threat, it has attracted little public attention. But Chodas and other experts have been monitoring it. "It's a very curious object," he says.

Most near-Earth asteroids, when they approach Earth, simply fly by. They come and they go, occasionally making news around the date of closest approach. 2003 YN107 is different: It came and it stayed.

"We believe 2003 YN107 is one of a whole population of near-Earth asteroids that don't just fly by Earth. They pause and corkscrew in our vicinity for years before moving along."

Worst Halloween Costume Ever

Child Toilet costume is a very funny kids Halloween costume. A Child toilet costume is also perfect for every potty mouth kid. Use as a modern day Dunce cap. Young boys love this silly Toilet bowl Halloween costume.

Roomba With Animatronic Chimp Head

Christian Right Propaganda Posters

For that reason I have created propaganda posters which promote some of the beliefs of the Christian Right. The intention is satirical, not sympathetic, but even so I believe that both the images and the words accurately reflect what some on the Christian Right belief and advocate. The original posters were produced as government propaganda, mostly during the first and second world wars.

Deep Fried Computer

I had recently read a few articles on submersion cooling, where you take your computer and dump it into a tub of non-electrically-conductive oil. It seemed to work really well, and was cheap. So I saw it as a type of poor man's water-cooling...

...But I soon became hungry for a fried snack - and since I had used all the oil in the house I couldn't fry myself anything. Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not use the oil that the computer's in?

Scuba Diving Cat

Dubai in the Fog

These photos where taken from 33rd level Emirates Towers.

Album Cover War

Name Origions of Rock Bands

BEASTIE BOYS - According to Michael Diamond, BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic Stages Towards Internal Excellence.

BLACK SABBATH - from a 1960's cheap horror movie starring Boris Karloff , suggesting a holy day of witchcraft.

GUNS 'N' ROSES - originally two bands L.A. GUNNS and HOLLYWOOD ROSES. Hollywood Roses was headed by Axl Rose, Tracii Guns headed the other band which also featured Slash. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends.

PINK FLOYD - taken from the names of two Georgia bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council - from the early days when the band saw itself as a blues band.