Category: observations

Bin Laden is in China:

The capture of Bin Laden would virtually guarantee the reelection of George Bush Jr., as it would confirm to the millions of undecided voters of the U.S. that the war against terrorism was judstified after Bin Laden had authorized the attacks of 9/11 against New York and Washington.

“A new administration Bush would present China as its great new ally in the war against terrorism. China would enjoy in Washington the status of a most favored nation with all of its facets. Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars would be approved by fast track. The history of human rights violations in China would be ignored,” confirmed last week a high-level representative of the Pentagon. He added that only a small number of “members of very high rank” in the Bush administration knew about the plan to “seize Bin Laden in exchange for a special relationship with China.” With almost certainty, among them would be the vice-president, Dick Cheney, and the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

Original here.

So is this the reason why Bush won’t have bilateral talks with N. Korea, with his insistence that China stay in the loop? He needs China to play ball with him and he’s willing to do a deal with them to ensure his re-election?

George Bush Bulges:

Does Bush have a device under his Jacket? Is it an earpiece/transmitter? You be the judge.

A slideshow of images purporting to show either shoddy tailoring or a seekrit device under the president’s jacket.

Drink a shot every time the president says something costs some “trillion dollars.”

So the guy who hoped for the decapitation of Adam Nagourney’s son in a “Republican war” stopped by today, and a little Googling (how he has come to hate that, I’m sure) turned up his open letter to the NYTimes ombudsman who quoted him.

So let me see if I understand this. Writing as if your email will be published on the front page of the Times has been the understood rule since, oh, 1990 or so. So this is not a great insight on his part:
Letter to Daniel Okrent:

Let me close by pledging that, henceforth, I shall write all of my e-mails as though they will be published in the New York Times.

But in his comment below, he says he turned his Cub Scout pack contact list into pointers to Nagourney and Okrent to spare his Cub Scout parents, rather than publishing an explanation of what happened. So instead he turns his car club website into his platform? And he claims he’s not running, not hiding, but leaves a bogus email address in a non-existent domain. I guess he’s afraid of the same attacks he lobbed at Nagourney . . .

I’m not sure he really understands what’s going on. I hope he uses his 15 minutes wisely . . . .

Continue reading “what a maroon”

Text follows.

Continue reading “hit them in the pocketbook”

Mike Whybark points out that the Mount St Helens visitors center and webcam are located well inside the area devastated by the 1980 eruption.

See the brown shaded area? That’s the blast zone from the volcanic landslide: five miles at speeds of 100 mph or more doesn’t take long to cover (3 minutes?). And the area just north of that, with the rounded texture? That’s referred to as the “sear zone.” The camera and visitors center are located at the red circle labelled “CRVC.”

Somehow a picnic doesn’t sound so appealing . . .

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: October 03, 2004 – October 09, 2004 Archives:

When shown that it was taken directly from the official debate feed, a spokeswoman, Nicolle Devenish, said it was “most likely a rumpling of that portion of his suit jacket, or a wrinkle in the fabric.” Said the Times: “Ms. Devenish could not say why the ‘rumpling’ was rectangular.”

I think it’s an iPod he’s packing . . . . I can see some cool guerrilla iPod art based on this. (and the ALT text — “national bulge” — came from the NYTimes, not me.

Continue reading “What’s on Bush’s iPod?”

I saw these “single-use” digital cameras the other week and after getting over the shock of their existence, the shop assistant told me there were a number of hacks in the wild to do things like make them multi-use, ie, download the pictures, etc.

But I had no idea you could do all this. Like any other digital device (the iPod comes to mind) there are features in the hardware that the vendor may not provide access to, which is where the hackers come in.

Use the (PureDigital) Dakota Digital Camera with your PC:

The Dakota Digital Camera is one of several inexpensive ($10.99 MSRP) single-use digital cameras currently on the market in the US. Picture quality is a bit lacking, but acceptable for Web images and the like, and certainly not bad for the price. These are available at participating Ritz or Wolf Camera stores, or can be ordered by phone at 1-877-690-0099 (no online ordering, apparently). The camera is easily adapted from single-use to many-use following the instructions below, and is powered by two easily-replaced AA batteries. While they are sold with the intention that you return them at some point for processing (they give you prints and a photo CD, but keep the camera), there is nothing (no contract, rental agreement, deposit, etc.) that actually requires you to return it–once you buy it, it’s yours to do with as you please.

This is amazing stuff: the webcam idea is especially interesting. A reasonable webcam for less than $20? Why not?
Continue reading “never underestimate what hackers can make possible”