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11/9/2005

U.S. Army Admits Use of White Phosphorus as Weapon :.

...the claim by the US Government that White Phosphorus was used only for illumination at Fallujah had been pre-emptively debunked by the Army.



BBC: Amman Blasts Bear al-Qaeda Hallmark :.

In other news, from haaretz.com, Israelis were evacuated from the Amman hotel hours before the bombings:
A number of Israelis staying on Wednesday at the Radisson hotel were evacuated before the bombing by Jordanian security forces, apparently due to a specific security alert. They were escorted back to Israel by security personnel.

The Foreign Ministry stated Wednesday that no Israeli tourists are known to have been injured in the blasts. Representatives of Israel's embassy in Amman were in contact with local authorities to examine any report of injured Israelis, but none were received.
Well, well, well...

UPDATE: Edan's Letter

You'll love this. Some guy wrote to me saying that I've taken the above Haaretz quote "out of context." Interestingly enough, the original content of the story has been disappeared by Haaretz.

Imagine my shock.

Thanks Edan, I'll make a point of keeping the original quote posted, and I'll post your letter, in its entirety, so everyone can see what the writing of a fascist shill looks like. Have a nice day:
Hey,

I really like your site most of the time - you seem to find EXTREMELY interesting news science/tech articles. And I plan on moving to NZ one day and opening an organic farm as well.

BUT!!!!

Your anti-Israel stance is really out of control. I am both Israeli and American and I think both governments are insane and have seriously f*cked-up policies

HOWEVER -

Your recent post on the Jordan bombings is COMPLETELY taken out of context.

The actual Ha'aretz quote is:

>>There is no truth to reports that Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday were evacuated by Jordanian security forces before the bombing that took place there.<<

A good journalist would amend the post --- a good Israel-hater wouldn't.

Which are you?

Best,
Edan
Related: Cryptogon Stories on Israel



Apple DRM: System and Method for Creating Tamper-Resistant Code :.

Make your time:

On Nov. 3, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed that Apple has filed patent application 20050246554 titled "system and method for creating tamper-resistant code." James D. Batson is listed as the sole inventor for application 837413 originally filed in April 2004. This appears to be related to Appleā€™s forthcoming Tiger-Intel platform.



Bush Borrowed More Than All Previous Presidents Combined :.

With fiscal conservatives like this, who needs liberals?

President Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined, a group of conservative to moderate Democrats said Friday.

Blue Dog Coalition, which describes itself as a group "focused on fiscal responsibility," called the administration's borrowing practices "astounding."

According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.



IBM's Public Image Monitoring Solution :.

It's important to maintain appearances:

Corporate leaders who ignore what bloggers are saying about them and their businesses could have serious consequences.

IBM today introduced new software that monitors and analyzes blogs, wikis, news feeds, consumer review sites, newsgroups and other community-generated content to keep tabs on their image.


11/8/2005

JUST MARRIED!

Becky and I got married this morning!



Update: Video

Our close friends, Carmen and Fernando, were with us. Fernando is documentary filmmaker.



The Robot that Thinks Like You :.

Give that thing a gun:

Scientists built a robot that thinks like we do and set it loose to explore the world. New Scientist discovers what happened next

THE infant crawls across a floor strewn with blocks, grabbing and tasting as it goes, its malleable mind impressionable and hungry to learn. Before my eyes it is already adapting, discovering that the striped blocks are yummy and the spotted ones taste bad.

Its exploration is driven by instincts: an interest in bright objects, a predilection for tasting things, and an innate notion of what tastes good. This, after all, is how babies explore the world and discover that pink, perky objects exist, and that they produce milk. Hands-on exploration moulds their billions of untrained brain cells into a fully functioning brain.

The infant I am watching wander around its rather spartan playpen in the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in La Jolla, California, is a more limited creature. It is a trashcan-shaped robot called Darwin VII, and it has just 20,000 brain cells.


Research Credit: TP


11/7/2005

U.S. Pays Iraqi Man $5,000 After Murdering His Wife and Son :.

Bargains, American style:

HAMEED Hassan sat in the remains of his car, next to his dead wife, and watched his four-year-old son begin to bleed to death.

The family had been on the way to buy clothes in Rawah's small market when the American soldiers opened fire. A helicopter gunship joined in the attack, cutting the car and two of its occupants to pieces.

Hassan's wife, Basima Taha, died almost immediately. His youngest son, Mahmoud Muhsin, was not as lucky. Hit in the torso, his abdomen was torn open, a wound that would prove fatal.

They were outside the main government building in Rawah, a town on the Euphrates River about 90km from the Syrian border, deep in Sunni al-Anbar province, when Hassan turned his car around. He drove down a side street, alongside the civic centre, and found himself heading towards a group of US soldiers - engaged at that time in a major anti-insurgent offensive.

"They started shooting straight away," he said, "I saw no signal, no warning, just the bullets hitting my car. The helicopter joined in. I saw my wife was killed."

The soldiers drove off, leaving the family in the street.

The US military has not apologised for the incident. But it has agreed to pay compensation for the killings, an acceptance that innocent lives were lost.

Under the US "consequence management" system, there is a maximum payout of $2,500 per claim. A dead wife and a dead son are equivalent to two claims; meaning Hassan is in line to receive a total of $5,000 in cash.

Sergeant Jeffery Mubarak, a 37-year-old veteran of four US wars, is one of the soldiers processing compensation in Rawah. "Do I think we're paying the man enough money," he said, "No, I don't. But I just work here. I don't set the rates.



Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre :.

Support our troops?

See what happened when they rained white phosphorus on civilians in Fallujah.



Power Source that Turns Physics on its Head :.

BlackLight Power has been around for years, but why not post this?

It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its head.



DARPA Funds Solar Power for Battlefield :.

The terminator robots need clean power too:

A consortium led by the University of Delaware on Wednesday said that it could receive nearly $53 million in funding - with the bulk of the money coming from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) - to more than double the efficiency of terrestrial solar cells within the next 50 months.

The technology hopes to bring solar energy for soldiers on the battlefield. It is also aimed for commercial applications as well.



Big Loss for NZ Greens: Rod Donald Dies Suddenly :.

Yesterday morning, Becky and I were having breakfast at a restaurant when I noticed an old guy wearing suspenders [braces, in New Zealand English]. I made a comment about how I'm going to have to get some of those once we're in New Zealand and the crust starts to set in on our farm. Becky started telling me about Rod Donald, his political activities and his signature red braces and the possum pelt seat cover that he uses in parliament. That was the first I'd ever heard of the guy.

Later that night, Becky's mom called and told us that he had died.



New Zealand: Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels When You Sell Your Soul :.

Don't take any wooden nickels
When you sell your soul
A devil of a time awaits you
When the party's over
You're on your own

-Eels, Wooden Nickels
New Zealand is selling resident visas for NZ$2 million. What kind of people have a spare NZ$2 million lying around? Hint: You don't want them showing up in your neck of the woods.

I don't know if Kiwis know what they're dealing with, but I hope they figure it out before these wealthy imports trash the place. And trash the place they will, because their money will corrupt the political system. That is a mathematical certainty.

As someone fleeing a place that has been destroyed by investment, and progress, please hear me: don't let the same thing happen in New Zealand.

...If you're rich enough, you can now effectively buy your way into this country. A residency visa is yours as long as you've got a lazy two million dollars to invest in a government controlled account.

PESCHARDT: You're getting more than your fair share of rich and famous aren't you?

PRIME MINISTER HELEN CLARK: Oh we're doing very well with people who show an interest here. There's the odd person who's made their hundreds of millions and the United States economy who find sanctuary here in New Zealand.

PESCHARDT: There is an issue though isn't there, a serious issue, do you think it's morally right for a country as it were to sell a visa?

PRIME MINISTER HELEN CLARK: I think that we would not be the only country that had an investor category and New Zealand needs investment. As a country right through our history, we've been short on capital. We import the savings of others. We haven't been great savers ourselves so having people able to come here with investment resources that they can put to use in New Zealand, actually helps out a lot.




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