Human

Nelson, you once asked me if I thought that the Democrats Eat Their own? I WILL Respond to you Now. LIEBERMAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/lo...ty/15223957.htm Area Democrats dread a Lieberman loss Party loyalists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey fear the senator will run as an independent, creating a dilemma. By Tom Infield and Leonard Fleming Inquirer Staff Writers Democrats from Pennsylvania and New Jersey have contributed almost $400,000 to help U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman defeat a challenger in today's Connecticut primary. If Lieberman loses, as polls suggest he might, those Democrats may be forced to make a choice: Will they stand by Lieberman if he runs as an independent candidate this fall? Or will they accept the primary verdict and not oppose the Democratic nominee? Lieberman has been collecting signatures to run as an independent should he choose to. Mark Aronchick, a former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association and longtime Democratic fund-raiser, said the choice, for him, would be "a torment." "My first response would be that I'm going to fall in line with the party and support the Democrat," Aronchick said yesterday. "It would be a difficult decision for me, but the bigger issue would be about the Democratic Party holding together." The prospect that the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 could be defeated within his own party just six years later has made the Connecticut contest a subject of broad national interest. Ned Lamont, the cable-TV millionaire who is opposing Lieberman, has made it a race about Lieberman's backing for the Iraq war, which is very unpopular among the party's support base. Several prominent Pennsylvania and New Jersey donors said one issue - even the war - was not enough for them to abandon a man they had admired for years. Lieberman has long been able to raise money outside his home state. Arthur Makadon, chairman of the Ballard Spahr, a law firm in Philadelphia, said he "wouldn't be torn in the least" if Lieberman became an independent. "I think his opponent in the Democratic Party is so unworthy I could never support him," Makadon said. Ballard Spahr was the site of a fund-raising event for Lieberman in April. Lionel Kaplan, a prominent New Jersey fund-raiser who has helped Lieberman for years, said that, win or lose, he will stick with his longtime friend. "I can't imagine a situation where I would not support him through November," said Kaplan, a Trenton lawyer. "I would believe he's going to get significant support from people around the country. I will be asking my friends to support him." Josh Weston, former board chairman of Automatic Data Processing Inc., a contributor to civic causes in New Jersey, said he was "more interested in seeing the seat go to a Democrat" and would not back Lieberman as an independent. "That's not a good decision because it's going to split the Democratic vote and might help the Republican win," Weston said. But David L. Cohen, a close adviser to Gov. Rendell, said Democrats did not have to fear a Republican victory. He noted that Connecticut leaned strongly Democratic and that the large number of independents there have long liked Lieberman. He said it was unlikely that Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger could mount a serious race. As of July 19, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Schlesinger had raised only $113,000, compared with $8.9 million for Lieberman and $4.1 million for Lamont. "There would not be a risk that Joe Lieberman's entry as an independent would jeopardize a Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate," said Cohen, also a friend of Lieberman. Rendell, who is up for reelection himself but has donated $1,000 to Lieberman's campaign, declined yesterday to address what Lieberman's friends should do if he ran against the party nominee Nov. 7. Rendell's "attention is going to be on Pennsylvania," said Dan Fee, his campaign spokesman. In New Jersey, Gov. Corzine also has not said what Democrats should do. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) has said the Connecticut senator should not run as an independent if he loses by a wide margin.

Nope, I don't understand it. I got several friends "okay more than several" who are lawyers, and they don’t crave suing people. They do crave talking; debating, and winning the point and several of them ARE judges. Oh! and one of them is a Law Professor the only thing he craves is not losing any more money in the stock market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bfrank, dc politics is really rough stuff. I've never seen such sadism in politics like this. I would really like to know what was said on the craig list "or how ever it is spelled" that it seems to me started all of this. Bfrank, if the posts in here are correct "IF", then what was said to rees that would piss him off enough to take some one from there to court??

I actually find ALL of this funny. Yeah!!! I really do. There is the general politics for public consumption, and then there is Power Politics of which some of you in here are trying so desperately to get into. Power Politics = Internal,Knowledge,Real delievery,Contacts,Suponsers who are in Authority, and it's also based on perception as to how far people THINK that your power extends too. It also is WHAT IS WASHINGTON D.C. What is more real to me is the post Luke made on that hit, and run driver. " http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...ic=9460&hl=luke " That post should remain on top of all the other posts in here for a week.

http://www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php ALERT Chittagong anchorage, Bangladesh Twenty five incidents have been reported since 28.01.2006. Pirates are targeting ships preparing to anchor. Ships are advised to take extra precautions. The IMB Report on Piracy and Armed Attacks on Ships from January to June 2006 is now published. Please see the end of this page to order. Suspicious crafts None reported. Recently reported incidents 28.07.2006 between 2100-2200 LT at Chittagong anchorage 'b', Bangladesh. Three robbers boarded a tanker using long poles with hooks. Alert crew activated fire hoses and repelled boarders. Master reported this was the third attack that night. 26.07.2006 at 0200 LT at Belawan anchorage, Indonesia. Three robbers armed with long knives boarded a tanker at forecastle and stole ship's stores. All crew chased robbers who jumped into water and escaped in a boat waiting with five accomplices. 30.7.2006 at 2115 LT at Chittagong outer anchorage 'b', Bangladesh. Three robbers armed with knives boarded a container ship at poop deck and stole ship's stores. Alert crew raised alarm and robbers jumped overboard and escaped. 27.07.2006, 67 nm from Langkawi, Malacca straits. Five armed pirates attacked two fishing boats and kidnapped four crew members. They are demanding a ransom from the owners for the release of the crew. Piracy prone areas and warnings S E Asia and the Indian Sub Continent Bangladesh : Chittagong anchorage. Indonesia : Galasa Straits, Jakarta (Tg.Priok) Malacca straits Singapore Straits Africa and Red Sea Gulf of Aden / Southern Red Sea Somalian waters - Eastern and northeastern coasts are high-risk areas for hijackings. Ships not making scheduled calls to ports in these areas should keep at least 200 nm away from the coast West Africa : Lagos South and Central America and the Caribbean waters

http://www.egyptguide.net/Business/showArt...?ArticleID=1482 02/08/2006 20:53:59 Egypt has launched a new company for the development of the online money market information to serve all financial companies and banks operating in Egypt. Chairman of the Egyptian General Authority for Money Market Hani Sarriuddine who attended the signing of the contract to establish the company with the help of the French Atos Euronext Market Solutions (AEMS) said that Egypt was embarking upon a new and most important phase in developing its IT systems. He said that the new company would contribute to the development of the Egyptian money market in a more professional and safer way. The capital of the new company, the Nile Company for Information Technology, stands at LE 15 million in which Egypt's Misr Settlement and Clearance Company shares by 51 %, the AEMS by 29%, the National Bank of Egypt by 10% and al-Fardan companies in Qatar and the Emirates by 10%. Mohamed Abdul-Salam the Board Chairman of the Egyptian Misr Settlement and Clearance Company said that the nascent company would design computer programs to operate and secure online dealings by brokers and banks operating in Egypt. Atos Euronext Market Solutions manages the IT operations of Euronext in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels and offers capital market services on a global basis. Its activities also include the provision of services by Atos Origin to Euronext life in London, thereby creating a leading provider of technology services to capital markets globally. (SIS)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/index.php?p=310 Inspired by the coordination of bird flocks and fish schools, oceanographers will launch this month an entire fleet of undersea robots in Monterey Bay, California. These underwater robots will work together without human input. The goal of this program is to make detailed and efficient observations of the ocean, but it also has larger implications. For example, "it may lead to the development of robot fleets that forecast ocean conditions and better protect endangered marine animals, track oil spills, and guide military operations at sea." And the researchers think that self-choreographed robotic teams might even explore other planets. This experiment is one critical part of the three-year program known as Adaptive Sampling and Prediction (ASAP), led by Naomi Ehrich Leonard of Princeton University and Steven Ramp of the Naval Postgraduate School. Before going further, below is an image describing the Autonomous Oceanographic Sampling Network (AOSN) of Princeton University, which is a coordinated group of sensor platforms capable of collecting oceanographic data in an optimized manner. Some of these sensor platforms included Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. During the experiment, the ASAP system will determine what paths the underwater robots should follow to take the most information-rich samples, or measurements, of ocean activity. As the ocean changes, automated computer programs will update the sampling strategy under the supervision of the ASAP team. Most of the scientists will not be on site during the actual field experiment. The team will collaborate while the experiment is ongoing through a virtual control room, something like a chat room for the ASAP scientists. The researchers will gather online in the virtual control room to share observations and make important decisions about necessary changes to the field operation as it is under way. This program is using several kinds of underwater robots, or gliders, which will independently measure the ocean's temperature, salinity and other variables. Two types of gliders will be deployed — Spray gliders and Slocum gliders. The Slocum gliders belong to David Fratantoni of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; the Spray gliders to Russ Davis of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. On a day-to-day basis the control algorithms allow the gliders to make decisions independently about how to alter their course — without any input from humans. This day-to-day autonomy enables the gliders to move according to the organized patterns, even as they are buffeted by strong currents. As the ocean changes and new features are detected in the measurements and the forecasts, the ASAP team will reorganize the patterns to help guide the gliders toward ocean features of interest such as eddies and thermal fronts. This process, called "adaptive sampling," is expected to dramatically improve our knowledge of the ocean and our ability to predict its chaotic behavior.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...t-hhs072606.php Press release – An Industrial Design Engineering graduate from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has designed and built a working prototype of a scooter, which can be powered by hydrogen. Crijn Bouman, who graduated for his Master's degree with credits, designed the Fhybrid scooter for the purpose of fighting pollution in inner-cities. Industrial designer Bouman: "the look and feel of the scooter are aimed at selling the clean technology inside". The scooter has an electric in-wheel motor that derives its power from a (Li-)ion battery. This battery (primarily when the scooter is stationary) is charged by a compact fuel-cell system, which derives its energy from hydrogen (from a tank) and oxygen (from the air). The battery moreover stores up energy when the scooter brakes. Depending on the amount of traffic, this so-called regenerating braking system reduces the hydrogen consumption by 10-20 percent. To use the energy generated during breaking optimally, the scooter is front-wheel driven. Apart from being environmentally friendly, the Fhybrid performs better than regular petrol powered scooters during test drives. The Fhybrid has a top speed of 65 km/ph, accelerates faster than regular scooters and can travel approximately 200 km on a full tank of hydrogen. An additional feature is the parking assistant. The electric engine can be very precisely controlled when travelling at low speeds, enabling the driver to park backwards or forwards without having to push the entire scooter into place. The Fhybrid is designed to be hydrogen-powered, but for now the prototype is powered by batteries, with the help of a fuel-cell simulator that was specially designed for this project. "A special course and various permits are required to build a hydrogen-powered engine. It wasn't possible to achieve this during the time period of my graduation project", Crijn Bouman explained. "The faculty is now trying to assemble all the necessary means to fully develop the hydrogen-powered scooter." The Fhybrid's complete drive system and energy management system were built by Epyon, a TU Delft spin-off company, of which Bouman is one of the founders, and in partnership with the Delft Design Institute.

www.chinaviewspam 2006-07-22 18:34:39 BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A newly-developed space cookie made of silkworm pupa powder is set to add more taste to astronauts' diet. Masamichi Yamashita, a researcher with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), released a recipe for the pupa cookies during the 36th scientific assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). The recipe comprises three to six grams of silkworm pupa powder,200 grams of rice powder, 50 grams of soy powder and 300 cubic centimeters of soymilk, with soy sauce and salt. All these ingredients will be available in space as soybeans and wheat have been grown successfully in simulated space chambers and methods of raising silkworms in space are under development, said Yamashita. Astronauts may blend these materials with water and divide the mixture into small pieces. "They will be flavor some cookies after being fried for 15 minutes in a 600-watt inductive heating machine," Naomi Katayama, a renowned Japanese nutritionist and member of Yamashita's group, told Xinhua. Pupas are first pan fried, seasoned with soy sauce to mask its fishy smell and then ground to powder, Katayama said, adding that cooked pupa will taste almost the same as shrimp or crab. Yamashita has suggested a transparent greenhouse be built on Mars to grow mulberry for silkworms, as well as other plants like wheat, soybeans and potatoes. Yang Yunan, a researcher with the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that the silkworm might become a regular dish of Chinese astronauts because it is rich in protein,easy to raise, and produces little waste water. Enditem

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cf...jectID=10392691 12.30pm Monday July 24, 2006 By Stephen Castle BRUSSELS - The EU has signed its biggest ever fisheries deal with an African nation, sparking a debate on whether Third World oceans should be exploited now that many European fish stocks have collapsed. In what is seen as a test case for agreements on sustainable fishing, the accord will allow around 200 European vessels to fish for shrimps, hake, tuna and other species the waters off the Mauritanian coast. The deal is worth a total of €516m ($1,049,662) to the Mauritanian government over six years and the European Commission says that the "great part" of the cash will be devoted to supporting "responsible and sustainable fisheries" off the African coast. Joe Borg, European Fisheries Commissioner, described the development as a "major breakthrough" and stressed the mutual benefit in terms of "jobs, strengthened monitoring and control, conservations of resources in compliance with scientific assessment and environmental protection". But conservationists are concerned that the accord is based on incomplete knowledge of the state of fish stocks and could precipitate the devastation of some species. The agreement replaces an existing, €86m-a-year accord with Mauritania, just five per cent of which goes to fund sustainable fisheries projects. The new deal scales back fishing of some depleted stocks including cephalopods, which include octopus and squid, and demersal species, which dwell on or near the sea floor. Fishing for cephalopods - for which the EU currently has the right to fish with 55 vessels - will be reduced by 30 per cent, while the catch for demersal species will be slashed about 60 per cent. Of the €86m the EU will pay Mauritania annually for six years, €10m will go to upgrading ports, modernising Mauritanian fishing fleets, strengthening scientific monitoring of stocks, tightening controls and improving standards of safety at sea. In addition, licence fees from European fishermen may add another €22m a year for Mauritania, a country of more than 3 million people. That will represent almost one-third of Mauritania's national income. Vessels from more than a dozen nations, including Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Italy, are expected to fish in Mauritanian waters. But campaigners say that they are worried about several elements of this, and the other 13, bilateral fisheries agreements currently in force. These often lucrative deals present a dilemma for West African governments. They have to balance their desperate need for foreign-exchange earnings with the need to safeguard stocks to help feed their own population and provide rare economic opportunities for many communities. Saskia Richartz, Greenpeace EU marine policy advisor, said: "The EU has revised its guidelines for a new generation of fisheries agreements and there are some improvements, however the key problems are still there. "Going into new regions is a result of over-capacity of our fleets and unsustainable fishing of our own fish stocks. Consequently, we have to go further afield to fish." African stocks already under pressure | Greenpeace is worried that African stocks are already under growing pressure both from indigenous fishermen and from illegal fishing by European, Chinese, Russian and Korean vessels. They point to research that shows that Somalia may be losing $480m in annual revenue, and Guinea $160m, from undeclared fishing. These catches are not factored into the scientific calculations and could therefore mean that stocks are more at risk than suspected. "We are concerned that these agreements are regulated on incomplete knowledge of the situation because of illegal fishing," Ms Richartz said. There are also doubts about the administrative capacity of West African countries to monitor the situation. And campaigners say that it is vital that European catches are reduced as the Mauritanian fleet develops its capacity. The new deal will come into force at the beginning of next month pending formal agreement by the EU member states. As part of the agreement a joint scientific committee will be established to monitor the state of fish stocks in Mauritanian waters. It will meet at least once a year. But many conservationists believe they are fighting a losing battle because of the growing demand for fish and the vast improvements in efficiency of modern industrial trawlers. These ships can stay at sea for weeks and even months and even less sophisticated African vessels manage 15 days, equipped with iceboxes and with enough room for up to 15 crewmen.

http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/i...=35199404532498 TEHRAN (AFX) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told arch-foe Israel to 'pack up' and move somewhere outside the Middle East, the state news agency IRNA reported. 'I advise them to pack up and move out of the region before being caught in the fire they have started in Lebanon,' said Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be relocated elsewhere on the planet. Iran refuses to recognise Israel and opposes any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ahmadinejad has in the past called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' or relocated as far away as Alaska. Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12 after Shiite Hezbollah militiamen captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border. The Jewish state is also continuing with its attacks on the Gaza Strip, with the aim of retrieving a soldier snatched by Palestinian militants and stopping rocket fire. 'Zionists have launched their own destruction by attacking Lebanon,' Ahmadinejad added, while accusing Britain and the United States of being 'accomplices in this regime's crimes'. Iran, like Syria, has been accused of financing and arming Hezbollah but has always maintained it only gives 'moral' support.

Please note that this following article is the type of justice that the democrats have "thru their own actions" have instilled in Latin America. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2208447 Mexican leftist warns of unrest, Fox denies fraud Jul 18, 2006 — By Kieran Murray MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Vicente Fox rejected claims on Tuesday of fraud in Mexico's election to replace him but the leftist who claims he was robbed of victory warned of unrest if all the votes are not recounted. Fox had stayed out of the growing dispute about the July 2 election, narrowly won by ruling party conservative candidate Felipe Calderon, but he finally weighed in on Tuesday during a visit to Spain. "In Mexico, there is no electoral fraud. Never," Fox told a small group of demonstrators protesting the alleged vote-rigging. He was ridiculed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing candidate who says election results that showed him losing by about 0.6 percentage points are bogus. Lopez Obrador said the president was living in a world of his own, which he called "Foxilandia." Fox's election victory in 2000 ended seven decades of corrupt one-party rule in which elections were often rigged. The July 2 presidential vote has split Mexico between left and right and Lopez Obrador has pulled hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets to back his demand for a full recount. With 41 million votes cast, official results gave Calderon a winning margin of around 240,000. Lopez Obrador again warned on Tuesday of unrest if all the ballots are not counted again. "If we want political, economic and social stability, the votes must be counted," he said in a television interview. "We will channel these protests peacefully as far as we can but there are millions of Mexicans offended by the fraud. "The people are very upset and we are not talking about a minor issue. We are talking about an affront to democracy." Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, has appealed to Mexico's electoral court to order a vote-by-vote recount across the country but Calderon's team says that would be illegal and insists he won fairly. FORMAL DECLARATION The court has to rule on legal challenges to the election by August 31 and formally declare the winner on Sept 6. While Lopez Obrador's team is planning a campaign of civil resistance, Calderon is intent on looking like president-elect by meeting with trade unions and religious groups. He accuses Lopez Obrador of trying to blackmail Mexico with the street protests. "I am not going to break, I am not going to fold," the Harvard-educated former energy minister said in a speech to trade union groups on Tuesday. "I believe in the force of law, in the force of the peaceful over the force of the violent." As Calderon left the meeting, a small group of PRD supporters hurled insults at him and banged on his car. Lopez Obrador later declined to criticize the protesters, saying, "I don't condemn it. I condemn electoral fraud." An opinion poll released on Tuesday showed about 56 percent of Mexicans think the election was clean but 35 percent believe there was fraud. Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City with a long history of leading protests, insisted he would not back down. "When I defend a just cause, even if I am alone, I don't give up," he said. (Additional reporting by Monica Medel) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blingbling You do UNDERSTAND that Halliburton WILL no longer have the iraq contract? Oh!! it's not a 680 million dollar contract, it's a 6 billion dollar contract. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=398...=51&category=10 Halliburton Loses Army Contract by Jim Aroune Published Jul 13, 2006 Halliburton has lost a multi-billion dollar contract. The U.S. Army said it will no longer use the company to provide logistical services to troops. The Army said it will use multiple contractors to allow for better deals. The five-year-old contract with Halliburton's KBR unit will be put up for open bidding after its current phase expires in 2006. Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the oil and gas industries. The company became the sixth-largest U.S. military contractor last year with its work in Iraq. The company drew criticism from Democrats in Congress, who said it received special treatment from the government because of ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. Halliburton’s KBR unit will return to building energy complexes.

Anyone find the ironic twist in this story? The Left Wing of the Democrat Party in "The United States" Support THESE types’ of regimes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/...on/15056186.htm By Steven Dudley McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) MIAMI - Cracks are becoming fissures in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's self-declared revolution, as armed groups of leftist supporters clashed in recent weeks in a rough and poor barrio in skirmishes that left at least four dead. The gunfights are the first between Chavez supporters in public and seem to illustrate the rough scramble over the benefits from Chavez's oil-fueled government as well as bitter jealousies among leaders of Chavista groups. "Wherever you go in this country, you'll find a (poor neighborhood) ... where there are internal fights," said Alberto Garrido, a longtime Chavez watcher and author of several books on the man and his ideology. The fighting has put the government in a quandary because it has been arming civilian militias and other groups as part of its plan to defend itself against what it says is a possible U.S. invasion - something that Washington has repeatedly denied. Now Chavez has to decide how to deal with rogue groups that support him but may be getting out of hand. Tensions between pro-Chavez organizations in the January 23rd neighborhood, a poor Caracas barrio of about 1 million people, have been simmering for months but bubbled to the surface June 21 when gunmen killed the son of a prominent community leader, Valentin Santana, after they played soccer. Santana allegedly responded by sending his own gunmen to kill two members of a rival neighborhood. Police said they are searching for Santana and others, and authorities have called for a dialogue among all the factions before more violence erupts. But the groups - many of which call themselves Tupamaros after Uruguay's 1970s leftist Tupamaro guerrillas - seem bent on continuing their vendettas. Chavez, elected in 1998, owes part of his staying power to such radical groups as the Tupamaros and their activities in poor neighborhoods like January 23rd, which has been at the heart of his socialist government's literacy and health programs that have helped him maintain high approval ratings. The neighborhood also has long been a crime-ridden and volatile place. It was where remnants of Uruguay's Tupamaro guerrillas, crushed by a military dictatorship, took refuge in the 1970s and began sowing the seeds of vigilante groups that use the same name. Some of those groups drove out delinquents, while others slid into crime themselves. Today, there are at least four groups using the Tupamaro title, and dozens more that sprung from the early groups. All support Chavez, but they also follow leaders who control city blocks and individual buildings in the barrio's 1950s public housing complex. The neighborhood was named after the date in 1958 when dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez was toppled. Some Tupamaros maintain their vigilante role and run government literacy and after-school programs, while others engage in criminal activities. But all are armed and seem to have benefited financially and socially from Chavez's rise to power. Some have government jobs, while others are living off the leftovers from the government's increased social spending. Several of the January 23rd neighborhood leaders interviewed by The Miami Herald said one of the main sources of trouble has been Jose Pinto, the head of the Revolutionary Tuparmaro Movement, who according to local media reports may have sent the gunman to kill Santana's son. Pinto could not be reached for comment by The Miami Herald, but he has denied the reports to the local media. A former ally, Alberto Carias, has said the attacks on Pinto are unfair and alleged that Chavez opponents had infiltrated the Tupamaros to cause discord. This is not the first outbreak of violence among Chavistas. Lina Ron, a prominent Chavez supporter with her own armed group, complained recently that Carias was threatening to kill her. She did not say why. Carias denied Ron's accusation and now seems to be helping the government scramble to shore up the differences between the Tupamaro factions before more bloodshed occurs. However, threats of renewed fighting loom daily, and leaders of some of the factions say they are scuttling from safe house to safe house. "They've created monsters," said Lisandro Perez, a leader of the Tupamaro Popular Resistance Front, referring to the myriad pro-Chavez vigilante groups. "And now these monsters are eating them."

Slow Your Pace - Don't over exert yourself. If you must engage yourself physically, slow your pace and choose the coolest time of day to do so. Stay Indoors - If there is no air-conditioning in the home, avoid the upper floors. Remember, heat naturally rises. Drink Plenty of Water-- Avoid dehydrating beverages (caffeinated drinks and alcohol). Iced herbal teas or healthy juice bars can be quite refreshing. Wear Light colored Clothing-- Choose white or lighter color clothing over black and darker shades that tend to absorb the heat, whereas white reflects the heat. Eat Less-- Avoid eating large meals. Eating more frequently with smaller portions will be more easily digested. No need to stress your body further during a heat spell with a sluggish tummy. Install a De-humidifier in your living quarters. Sticky humidty in the air factors into heat discomfort, and For Gods Sake REST. Heat exhaustion and possible heatstroke symptoms include mental confusion, rapid pulse and heartbeat, dilated pupils, rapid and shallow breathing, either elevated or lowered blood pressure and unconsciousness. I know it's hard with this HOT WEATHER, but try to be tolerant towards each other.

1 in 50 I think is the correct number. This type of epidemic must be brought under control, and aids Does not care which political party you belong to, or whether you are hetero sexual or gay. Hopefully both political parties can put there differences aside on this ALL TO IMPORTANT ISSUE, and Work together to try to resolve it. The behaviors from both the hetero sexual community and the gay community MUST change. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now this assorted tale is coming to a head. My question being is this; Why did you guys or gals pick on the dc police department Latino Unit, and try to destroy their careers? Was that just another game to you people???????? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As odd as it may be, The Iranian web site, and I actually agree on some thing. That the Taliban is stupid in trying to keep the public illiterate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp...006&Cat=4&Num=6 PORIAT, Afghanistan (AP) -- For 14-year-old Mohammed Salam, his tent school was about all this mud-brick farming village had going for it. That was until suspected Taliban militants burned it to the ground. "Now we are taught underneath trees," the teenager said as he and other students took exams in a cluster of trees near the place their school stood before it was destroyed more than a month ago. "They (the Taliban) want us illiterate so we have nothing else to do but pick up a gun," Mohammed said Monday. The school in Poriat, a village 60 miles northeast of the capital, is like hundreds that a new Human Rights Watch report says have been attacked or forced to close in Afghanistan. The militant campaign targets state schools, particularly those for girls. The report documents 204 attacks on schools, teachers and students since January 2005. Remnants of the toppled Taliban regime, other Islamic extremist groups and Afghan warlords are believed to be behind the campaign. Zuhoor Afghan, the top adviser to Afghanistan's education minister, painted an even bleaker picture. He said militants had set fire to about 120 schools in the last four months and forced 200 more to close by threatening teachers and students. As a result, he said, more than 200,000 children were going without an education. "Once they destroy a child's chance for education, there is nothing else for the young generation to do and it becomes very easy to encourage them to join their forces," the education minister said. Motives abound for why militants would target schools. Insurgents claim educating girls is against Islam. They oppose government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion. Targeting schools is also a tactic to shake the authority of the U.S.-backed government. The spike in attacks on Afghan schools comes amid the most intense period in militant violence in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled for harboring Afghan said 40 students and teachers have been killed this year. An April 11 rocket attack on the Salabagh School in Asadabad, eastern Afghanistan, killed six pupils and wounded 14. Militants also beheaded a headmaster in the southern town of Qalat in January after he had refused to meet with their commander. Sam Zarifi, a co-author of the Human Rights Watch report, said violence against Afghan schools dates to the 1979-89 Soviet occupation, when then Islamic fighters targeted schools as part of a similar ploy to spread instability aimed at ending the Russian presence. "Attacks on schools, especially for girls, is a tried and proven insurgent tactic, but the pace and ferocity of the recent attacks has been unprecedented," Zarifi told The Associated Press. Zarifi and education officials interviewed by the AP said most attacks are taking place in southern Afghanistan outside the relative peace of the capital Kabul, and are blamed on the Taliban. But other radical Islamic groups are believed to be behind many of the attacks and threats throughout eastern Afghanistan, where Al-Qaida-linked militants are active. "Our teachers and our students are being threatened with letters from the Taliban left at their schools, homes and mosques warning them not to go to school or they will be attacked," said Nabi Khushan, director of education in southern Zabul province. United Nations official in Kabul, Tom Koenigs, deplored the school attacks and called on the government, local leaders and the international community to address the situation. "One of the threats of the Taliban is to return to illiteracy and a lack of schools, particularly for girls," Koenigs told reporters at a news conference. Koenigs recommended that every school burned must be replaced by either the international community or the government "as fast as possible." In Poriat, Mohammed Salam and his friends study in the shade for as long as possible before the searing summer sun makes it impossible to work. "It is very important that we get our school back, even if it is just another tent, as soon as possible," he said. "We need good teachers, good security and good lessons. I want to do something for my country in the future." ___

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5168002.stm Letters written by Albert Einstein to his family have shed light on the scientist's personal life, including a string of extramarital affairs. The German-born scientist travelled extensively and wrote hundreds of letters to his family. The letters were released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which had held the collection for many years. Einstein's stepdaughter, Margot, had stated in her will they should not be revealed until 20 years after she died. Einstein is known to have had a dozen lovers, two of whom he married, said Barbara Wolff of the Hebrew University's Albert Einstein Archives. 'Unwanted' attention The 3,500 pages of correspondence include letters to his first and second wives and children between the years 1912-1955. Einstein wrote almost daily to his second wife Elsa and her daughter Margot in that period. He openly discussed his affairs, saying that women showered him with "unwanted" attention. In one 1931 letter to Margot, Einstein complains about one of his conquests, a Berlin socialite: "Mrs M" - Ethel Michanowski - "followed me [to England], and her chasing me is getting out of control. "Out of all the dames, I am in fact attached only to Mrs L, who is absolutely harmless and decent." In another letter to Margot, he asks her to pass on "a little letter for Margarita [known as his 'Russian spy lover'], to avoid providing curious eyes with titbits." The letters deal with a number of other topics: His Nobel Prize money: Despite reports that Einstein transferred the Nobel Prize money directly to Switzerland following a divorce agreement in which it was assigned to his first wife, Mileva, the letters reveal he instead invested the major part of it in the US, where he settled after being driven out of Nazi Germany. Much of the money was later lost in the Depression. His son: Einstein found his son Eduard's schizophrenia difficult to accept, and often expresses the idea that it would have been better if Eduard had not been born. His stepdaughter: In a letter to Elsa in 1924, Einstein writes: "I love her [Margot] as much as if she were my own daughter, perhaps even more so, since who knows what kind of brat she would have become [had I fathered her].'' Relativity: In a letter to Elsa in 1921, he says: "Soon I'll be fed up with the relativity. Even such a thing fades away when one is too involved with it."

http://206.190.35.122/s/bw/20060707/bs_bw/b3993001 The Plot To Hijack Your Computer By Ben Elgin, with Brian Grow Fri Jul 7, 4:00 PM ET Consumers have strong opinions about Direct Revenue's software. "If I ever meet anyone from your company, I will kill you," a person who identified himself as James Chang said in an e-mail to Direct Revenue last summer. "I will f------ kill you and your families." Such sentiments aren't unusual. "You people are EVIL personified," Kevin Horton wrote around the same time. "I would like the four hours of my life back I have wasted trying to get your stupid uninvited software off my now crippled system." Sifting through a stack of customer complaints in June, 2005, a Direct Revenue employee decided to tally the most frequently used words of aggression: "die" (103 times), "f------" (44), and "kill" (15). Douglas Kee, then Direct Revenue's chief of quality assurance (QA), ribbed colleagues in an e-mail that with all the death threats, it was a "good thing QA sits farthest away from the entrance." According to angry consumers and the New York State Attorney General, Direct Revenue makes "spyware." These programs track where you go on the Internet and clutter your screen with annoying pop-up advertisements for everything from **inappropriate material**ography to wireless phone plans. Spyware can get stuck in your computer's hard drive as you shop, chat, or download a song. It might arrive attached to that clever video you just nabbed at no charge. Web security company McAfee Inc. (NYSE:MFE - News) estimates that nearly three-quarters of all sites listed in response to Internet searches for popular phrases like "free screen savers" or "digital music" attempt to install some form of advertising software in visitors' computers. Once lodged there, spyware can sap a PC's processing power, slow its functioning, and even cause it to crash. This explains the vitriol aimed at Direct Revenue. The company, located in a loft above a clothing boutique in New York's hip SoHo district, has been a pioneer in a seamy corner of the booming Net advertising industry. Although it is small by some corporate standards, having generated sales of about $100 million since its start in 2002, its programs have burrowed into nearly 100 million computers and produced billions of pop-up ads. Direct Revenue's swift rise illustrates the intertwining of spyware and mainstream online marketing. The Web is the hottest game in advertising, but what's rarely acknowledged is the extent to which unsavory pop-ups boost the returns. Here's how it often works: Sellers of advertising, ranging from giant Yahoo! Inc (Nasdaq:YHOO - news). (NASDAQ:YHOO - News) to much smaller networks, recruit clients, tally the clicks their ads generate, and charge accordingly. But then Yahoo and the other advertising companies sign up partners that distribute the ads beyond their own sites in return for a fee, and those partners sign up other partners. Down the line, a big piece of the business winds up in the hands of outfits like Direct Revenue, which disseminate the ads as pop-ups and share revenue with their more mainstream partners. Some advertisers say their messages have appeared in pop-ups without their permission. Others seek out pop-ups, and Direct Revenue frequently sells ads directly to such advertisers. Spyware rakes in an estimated $2 billion a year in revenue, or about 11% of all Internet ad business, says the research firm IT-Harvest. Direct Revenue's direct customers have included such giants as Delta Air Lines (dalrq.pk.PK) and Cingular Wireless. It has sold millions of dollars of advertising passed along by Yahoo. And Direct Revenue has received venture capital from the likes of Insight Venture Partners, a respected New York investment firm. Spreading Strategy Many of those impressive ties have frayed or ripped apart recently as Direct Revenue has struggled to fend off a lawsuit filed in April by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The state court action alleges that Direct Revenue crossed a legal line by installing advertising programs in millions of computers without users' consent. Shining a light on the shadowy spyware trade, the suit asserts that the company violated New York civil laws against false advertising, computer tampering, and trespassing. This article is based in part on more than 1,000 pages of Direct Revenue's internal e-mail and other documents included in court filings. BusinessWeek has reviewed additional documents and interviewed dozens of industry insiders, including 12 current and former Direct Revenue employees and executives. The company denies any wrongdoing. In a filing in June, it calls the Spitzer suit "much ado about nothing" and defends its past practices as "commonplace" in the industry. It calls its programs "adware" and says it has notified consumers when putting the programs on their computers. It insists that some of the methods Spitzer assails "were long ago changed." And it argues that by accepting its ads, consumers get popular software applications free of charge that otherwise can cost up to $30 apiece. In the wake of the litigation, Direct Revenue has shrunk in size, but it remains an important player on the spyware scene. Thousands of people still complain each month to Web security firms about new computer infections caused by Direct Revenue programs (although many users are baffled about what's causing the maladies). And a new generation of spyware purveyors of equal or greater potency is imitating Direct Revenue's strategies, infuriating customers, and threatening to taint the larger business of online advertising. Chances are you have some of their handiwork hidden within your hard drive right now. Spam King Direct Revenue's origins trace the rise of what might politely be called one of the more freewheeling sectors of Internet commerce. The company's sales philosophy, according to current and former employees, was heavily shaped by Jesse Stein, a Wharton School-educated marketer whose successes before joining the company included selling VigRX, an herbal penile-enlargement supplement. VigRX may sound familiar because, to win customers, Stein inundated e-mail in-boxes with spam promoting the product. In 2003, when the ABC News (DIS) 20/20 program identified what it said were the biggest online spammers, it featured VigRX and showed one of Stein's e-mails. He reveled in the notoriety. On his desk at Direct Revenue, Stein, now 36, kept a framed 20/20 screen shot of his VigRX spam, former colleagues say. His eventual boss, Joshua Abram, came to online hawking from a different angle. His family has a rich history of public service. Abram's late father, Morris, was a civil rights activist in the 1960s who later served as president of Brandeis University and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George H.W. Bush. Joshua's sister, Ruth, heads the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York. In 1999 Joshua Abram helped start Dash.com, a benign precursor to later spyware operations. Dash attached an unobtrusive horizontal bar to the bottom of a computer user's Web browser. As the user moved around the Internet, Dash would note the sites being visited and offer relevant text ads inside the narrow bar. Dash went out of its way to ask users' permission to install the ad bar, and the company even shared its fees with consumers who made purchases. But Dash's tactful text ads drew relatively few clicks, and its fee-sharing became an administrative nightmare. As the Internet market imploded in 2001, Dash folded. Abram, known for wearing stylish suits amid a sea of techie grunge, kept developing ad software with several colleagues. They joined a broad post-bust move toward treating customers with less respect. One of the new spyware variants he helped create was called VX2, which a former colleague and computer security professionals believe was named after the deadly, undetectable VX nerve agent. In 2002, Abram, a father of two and husband of a fashion-industry executive, started Direct Revenue. His co-founders were fellow Dash alumnus Daniel Kaufman and a pair of data-mining entrepreneurs from a company called Pipe9, Alan Murray and Rodney Hook. The next year, Direct Revenue did business with and then acquired Stein's online ad agency, forming a spyware powerhouse. Stein declined to comment. The four founders didn't respond to numerous inquiries. By early 2004, Direct Revenue, with Abram as CEO, had settled into its SoHo loft, employing two dozen programmers and salespeople. Current and former staff members say the place had an informal, often cynical atmosphere. The unsophisticated computer users subjected to Direct Revenue's ads had a nickname among some staffers: "trailer cash." Knowledgeable consumers can reduce the risk of spyware infection by using widely available security software and steering clear of free online goodies. Direct Revenue and its rivals -- companies with such names as eXact Advertising and Zango -- say they employ "user agreements" that notify individuals when they are about to download their software. But the agreements typically can be found only by clicking on links deep within separate legal agreements related to the online freebies. The documents tend to be lengthy and opaque. Large numbers of Internet users who lack adequate security software and fail to read the legalese make themselves vulnerable. Spy Vs. Spy Once embedded in your hard drive, spyware communicates via the Internet with the company that produced it. The company's computer keeps track of your online meanderings and sends you pop-up ads relevant to the sites you visit. The travel-booking sites Travelocity (TSG) and Priceline.com (PCLN) have both been direct customers of Direct Revenue. People who picked up Direct Revenue spyware and then perused flights on Travelocity might find their screens obstructed by a pop-up for Priceline, or vice-versa. The travel sites say they stopped doing business with the company earlier this year. Direct Revenue and other ad software creators struggle to balance an impulse to pump out waves of profitable pop-ups against the danger of enraging consumers who lose control of their computers. "Most of these companies can't overcome their desire to make the most money right away," says Sam Curry, vice-president for product management at Computer Associates International Inc. in Islandia, N.Y. (NYSE:CA - News) From early on, a small group of programmers at Direct Revenue focused on how to protect their employer's programs once they were lodged in a computer, current and former employees say. The team called itself Dark Arts after the term for evil magic in the Harry Potter series. One of the biggest threats Dark Arts addressed came from competing software. The presence of multiple spyware programs can so cripple a computer that no ads manage to get seen. Dark Arts crafted software "torpedoes" that blasted rival spyware off computers' hard drives. Competitors aimed similar weapons back at Direct Revenue's software, but few could match the wizardry of Dark Arts. One adversary, Avenue Media, filed suit in federal court in Seattle in 2004, alleging that in a matter of days, Direct Revenue torpedoes had cut in half the number of people using one of Avenue Media's programs. The suit settled without money changing hands, according to an attorney for Avenue Media, which is based in Curacao. "This is ad warfare," explains former Direct Revenue product manager Reza Khan. "Only the toughest and stickiest codes survive." In light of the Dark Arts stratagems, Direct Revenue management in early 2004 procured from its lawyers a modified user agreement that would supposedly be shown to PC owners. Within the densely written seven-page document was a declaration that Direct Revenue "could remove, disable, or render inoperative other adware programs resident on your computer, which, in turn, may...have other adverse impacts on your computer." Abram presented the new agreement to his troops with an impudence befitting the Dark Arts crew. "It's a lawyer-approved license to kill," the CEO said in a February, 2004, e-mail. He urged some restraint because at the time potential investors were examining the company: "I would think twice about going too aggressively on the offense during (due) diligence." But he added: "Obviously, if we find someone is slaughtering us in the interim, we should not wait to counter." "It was like a big game of Dungeons & Dragons," a current Direct Revenue manager says, and it was becoming lucrative. An ad software shop generally charges advertisers up to a penny a day for each computer that showcases its ads. A company with access to 10 million computers can make about $100,000 a day. With its "install base" soaring to more than 20 million computers by late 2004, Direct Revenue's annual sales rose 450%, to $39 million. Its four founders took home a combined $23 million, with Abram enjoying the biggest share: $8.1 million. This cash geyser drew investors' attention. Insight Venture Partners, which has among its advisers Robert E. Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and now chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup (NYSE:C - News), poured in $27 million, court filings show. Andrew J. Levander, a lawyer for Insight, says the firm's pre- investment due diligence "did not raise any issues concerning the lawfulness of Direct Revenue's disclosure and distribution practices." Rubin wasn't involved with the investment, Levander says. When Insight learns of complaints, he adds, it works with the company to address them. Complaints were certainly not in short supply. "You have 24 hours to provide me with a removal tool for your piece of crap spyware program," Joe LoMoglio e-mailed the company in September, 2004. "Your pop-up ads popped up a few **inappropriate material** sites while my 6- and 9-year-old children were using the computer." Reached by e-mail, LoMoglio says the company "refused to respond." As Direct Revenue surged in late 2004, its hyperactive sales force profited as well. Several top performers took home more than $300,000 apiece that year, current and former employees say, and a celebratory mood enveloped the fourth-floor ad-sales department. On Friday afternoons, employees opened bottles of beer, and Paul Nute, a top sales executive, occasionally blasted the pop song Everybody's Working for the Weekend. Nute had a trademark line for corporate sales pitches, according to current and former sales employees. "It's like crack," he would say. "Once you try it, you'll keep coming back for more." Nute declined to comment. By early 2005, Direct Revenue had notched deals with JPMorgan Chase, Delta, and the Internet phone company Vonage, according to former sales staffers and Direct Revenue documents. Cingular Wireless spent more than $100,000 a month at the peak of its relationship with Direct Revenue, current and former employees say. Direct Revenue put Cingular pop-ups in front of other phone companies' Web sites and news sites such as the one affiliated with tech magazine Wired. Vonage, meanwhile, was billed $110 for each customer that Direct Revenue delivered, according to a sales report from July, 2005. For that month, Direct Revenue billed Vonage for 287 new customers, or $31,570. JPMorgan Chase confirms that it advertised with a Direct Revenue unit through the middle of last year, but says it was unaware of any spyware activity. Delta and Cingular declined to comment. Vonage didn't respond to inquiries. No More Mr. Nice Guy By mid-2005, Direct Revenue had grown to more than 100 employees, and its practices were drawing public notice. Bloggers, invoking the right to be free of uninvited ads, singled out Direct Revenue. Benjamin Edelman, a prominent Internet consultant and spyware foe in Cambridge, Mass., tried to shame advertisers away from Direct Revenue by displaying on his site the names of companies that appeared in Direct Revenue pop-ups. Jules Neuringer, owner of Portronix, a Brooklyn [N.Y.] computer-service firm, says that during this period about a dozen of his small-business clients complained about Direct Revenue spyware. Of these, he says he "was never able to bring an infected computer back to pristine operating condition." Direct Revenue insiders knew they were alienating consumers and even made tentative moves to clean up their act, court filings show. But when the result was fewer people getting stuck with its software, Direct Revenue pulled back from reforms. In early 2005 the company was bundling its products with a file-sharing program called Morpheus, which users could download onto their computers. Morpheus required that Direct Revenue make its software easy to spot in a computer's "Add/Remove" panel, which is the registry where a user can find most legitimate software and delete it. Direct Revenue agreed at first but after a few months noticed that thousands of new users it gained via Morpheus were quickly deleting the ad software. Kaufman, a co-founder of Direct Revenue, sent an e-mail to colleagues in February, 2005, saying the company should drop the Mr. Nice Guy routine. "We need to experiment with less user-friendly uninstall methodologies," he wrote. The distribution agreement with Morpheus ended within three months. Mass Paralysis The same ambivalence was evident in April, 2005, when Direct Revenue released a concoction known as Aurora. The program clearly labeled ads as coming from the company, a gesture designed to build credibility. But Aurora had powerful features that fought off competing spyware and security programs. The company also raised the number of pop-ups it sent users to as many as 30 a day. Disaster ensued, as Aurora paralyzed thousands of computers. Matt Oettinger, who ran media operations at Fastclick (NASDAQ:VCLK - News), an advertising network that bought ads from Direct Revenue, found his home PC afflicted by Aurora, e-mails in court filings show. In June he ordered all Fastclick ads disentangled from Aurora. Branko Krmpotic, the managing director of Technology Investment Capital Corp. (TICC) (NASDAQ:TICC - News), which had invested $6.7 million in Direct Revenue, also caught the Aurora bug and couldn't kill it, according to e-mails. Eventually, Direct Revenue had to send its customer support director to fix Krmpotic's machine. After receiving complaints about Aurora, Insight Venture, another major investor, told the company to remove Insight's name from the Direct Revenue Web site. Fastclick declined to comment; Krmpotic didn't return calls. Even Aurora's creators fell victim as the program froze computers at Direct Revenue. One sales staffer, Judit Major, documented receiving more than 30 pop-up ads in one day, according to e-mails. Her computer crashed four times. "We are serving WAY TOO MANY pops per hour," wrote Chief Technology Officer Daniel Doman in a June e-mail to the company's brass. "If we overdo it, we will really drive users to get us the hell (off) their machine. We need to BACK OFF or we will kill our base." By then consumer complaints were pouring in to Attorney General Spitzer's office. He filed suit in April, after his staff had hauled away 150 boxes of the company's e-mails. Spitzer alleges that he found numerous examples of Direct Revenue spyware downloaded with misleading user agreements or no disclosure at all. In many cases, the download was performed by a distributor on behalf of Direct Revenue, but company executives repeatedly conceded in e-mail that users were in the dark about how its programs got into their computers. This, Spitzer argues, amounts to illegal deception. Persistent Headaches A Direct Revenue spokesman, Michael Spinney, says the company is "mystified" by Spitzer's allegations. It cleansed its practices more than nine months ago, Spinney says, and now puts its name on all its pop-up ads. It also now makes its software available for deletion in a computer's Add/Remove Programs registry and has limited its use of distributors. Before these changes, Spinney asserts, Direct Revenue employed practices common in its industry. He wouldn't comment on Spitzer's individual allegations. The anti-spyware activists and computer security firms confirm that Direct Revenue has dropped its most destructive programs, such as Aurora. But they emphasize that the company continues to cause serious headaches. Tokyo's Trend Micro Inc. (NASDAQ:TMIC - News) offers an online service that scans customers' troubled computers. In April it identified Direct Revenue's spyware as the culprit in 9,400 computer scans. That's down from 14,000 in January, but it represents a substantial level of annoyance. "Direct Revenue is still on everyone's top 10" of reviled spyware companies, says Anthony Arrott, Trend Micro's spyware research manager. Deborah Maradei-Ugel, a loan officer in Santa Clarita, Calif., says she receives more than 20 pop-ups a day on her home computer as a result of Direct Revenue spyware. She complained to the company, but removal instructions it sent her are impossible to follow, she says. Her machine frequently stalls and requires restarting. "You hit your computer," she fumes, "but it doesn't help." The way Direct Revenue describes its software during the download process remains vague and misleading, Edelman and other critics say. The company now bundles ad programs with Kazaa, an online service offering music and other digital content. Kazaa gives users a choice between a $30 version of its program and a free version labeled "ad supported." But few ordinary consumers would understand that ad-supported means they get separate software from Direct Revenue that will monitor them online and serve a steady stream of pop-ups, Edelman says. Kazaa declined to comment. Direct Revenue has lost business and reduced its headcount to a couple dozen employees. The four founders still own 55% of the company, according to Spitzer's filing, and Abram is still seen around the office in his sharp suits. But he no longer serves as CEO. Sales gurus Stein and Nute have moved on to another Internet venture. Many major companies, such as Cingular and Yahoo, have severed connections with Direct Revenue. But the ads of others, including Vonage, continue to appear in Direct Revenue pop-ups. Insight and TICC remain investors. Among Direct Revenue's alumni, pride over technical cunning mingles with regret for exasperating so many computer users. After waffling on the issue during a long interview, one former Dark Arts wizard sighs and sums up his version of the company credo with an elegiac observation by abolitionist Frederick Douglass: "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

It's a pitty that they don't have one for people in politics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/hazmap_dis.html

Hey!!!!!!!!!! If any of you EVER wanted to comment about the net, THEN HERE IS YOUR CHANCE. I'm jumping on this one myself as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.theregister.com/2006/07/02/ntia...n_consultation/ US government asks for comments on how Net is run By Kieren McCarthyPublished Sunday 2nd July 2006 The US government is asking for comments on how the internet should be run, and anyone is allowed to comment - but you'll need to be quick. The NTIA - an arm of the US government's department of commerce - is holding a public meeting at the end of July over what should happen to the current Internet overseeing organisation ICANN when its contract is renewed in September. In the meantime, it has opened a public comment board where you are able to email comments for the US government and the rest of the world to see. The board is open now but comments need to be sent by this Friday, 7 July. The email postal address is DNSTransition@ntia.doc.gov. It is the first time that the public has been able to directly contribute to the debate surrounding governance of the internet, and it has already seen dozens of people email their ideas and views. The question of how the internet should be run has recently gained wide international interest following public arguments over the US government's current position as overall authority. The subject is also likely to become all the more important in the next few years as the internet expands to incorporate different languages and different countries more fully. This situation has already seen a flood of emails from people asking for the US government to reconsider its role and allow a sharing of power between governments at the very top of the net to prevent any undue influence from creeping into the system. Numerous statements are also expected in the next few days from internet organisations, including ICANN itself. The "notice of inquiry" asks specific questions about how ICANN functions - and should function - and poses wide-ranging questions about what could be done in the future. There is some concern that since ICANN remains a relatively unknown organisation this will put people off making their views known, so the At-Large Advisory Committee, which represents the views of ordinary internet users within ICANN, has set up its own query process to elicit suggestions from the wider public. If you want to know more, you can read about it on the NTIA website, or you can visit the people's representative ALAC at its home pages: www.icannalac.org. Now's your chance to have you're voice heard, so get typing. ®

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americ...icle1152036.ece Diamonds in the rough as film threatens sales By Andrew Buncombe in Washington Published: 01 July 2006 The diamond industry and Hollywood are involved in an increasingly heated spat over a forthcoming movie highlighting the gems' historical link to wars in Africa. In a strike against what it fears will be a barrage of bad publicity, the industry has launched a campaign to tell people that more than 99 per cent of all diamonds are "conflict free". The campaign is co-ordinated by the World Diamond Council (WDC), a trade body that represents diamond producers such as De Beers. The campaign has been launched ahead of the release of The Blood Diamond, a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, due to be released in January. The movie is set against the background of the civil war in Sierra Leone that was partly fuelled by the trade in uncut diamonds. The council wrote to the film's director and producer, Edward Zwick, demanding that the movie reflect what it said had been a transformation of the diamond industry. It said a scheme known as the Kimberly Process (KP) had established a system to authenticate diamonds not linked to wars. "It would be a great pity if a movie as important as the one you are now producing told only a part of the story and suggested that the situation in Sierra Leone today and, indeed, in other diamond-producing countries had remained unchanged," the council wrote. Mr Zwick responded in an interview with the entertainment website Eonline.com: "We're aware of the KP. The movie details the events of 1999 and our facts are in order. We're not negotiating with anyone as to the content of our movie." Diamond campaigners say there is still concern about the trade despite the introduction of the KP. Amnesty International said: "One of the major criticisms [we] and other NGOs have made of the KP scheme is that there are inadequate checks on the diamond industry throughout the production and distribution process to verify industry compliance. This creates loopholes allowing illicit diamonds to enter the trade." Corinna Gilfillan, a campaigner with the group Global Witness, said: "It's definitely true that there are less wars caused by diamonds than there were 10 years ago but there is still a long way to go." The extent of the diamond industry's angst was revealed last year when Jonathan Oppenheimer, a director of De Beers, warned a trade convention in South Africa about the film, saying: "Can you imagine its impact on the Christmas-buying audience in America?"

okay, now I figured out what gave me away, it's that double line thingy I always do. You got me on that one. The double line thingy really is a hard habit to break, but My statement was still correct. After all the democrats embrace people like Al Sharpton.

To me I don't see that any of the newspapers did anything wrong, what they did do was do their home work well. After all what the debate that we had in here about the patriot act, and its uses was about policy in uncovering the terrorists funding "among other things".