Hulleye Comes By!

Exxon Mobil Corp. said its second-quarter net income rose 14% as record oil prices once again yielded a new high in quarterly profits for a U.S. company

The world’s biggest non-government oil company had net income of $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year earlier. …

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.”

Volatile India-Pakistan Standoff Enters 11,680th Day

DC held out till the very end of Comic-Con to drop its biggest bit of news: Neil Gaiman is returning to the publisher for a two-issue Batman series with artist Andy Kubert.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? will serve as a transition point between Batman R.I.P. and whatever comes next. Dan DiDio shared a little with Newsarama:

Newsarama: Dan, obviously the title is a reference to Alan Moore’s Superman story, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Are there parallels between this story and that one?

Dan DiDio: There are a number of parallels to that. There’s a very particular reason why we call it that, and that information will be coming out later on, but with this, we wanted to get someone of that particular stature to tell this story, a story that will really define the years of Batman’s life.

And Gaiman has posted about it on his blog, though he’s even less forthcoming:

So I don’t have to write lots and lots of emails back to all the journalists:

1) Yes, I am writing a two part Batman story.

2) Yes, Andy Kubert will be drawing it.

3) Yes, it will be two oversized issues.

4) No, I don’t plan to say anything else about it until it’s all written and drawn.

(I just called my Visa card to fix something, and found myself being asked if I was the Neil Gaiman. I said yes, I was. “So,” said the Visa person, “Are you going to be writing an episode of Dr Who?”)

This one is related to OpenOffice.  To find this easter egg do the following:

Start OpenOffice Spreadsheet (Applications > Office > OpenOffice Spreadsheet)

Within an empty field, type: =GAME("StarWars")

Enjoy

little_becky wants to knock her school down. courtesy of hemlock.

Almost would be comical if the TSA were the equivalent of running a hotel called Fawlty Towers. This is reality unfortunately.

For arguing with a TSA agent, Robin Kassner wound up being slammed to the floor. She’s filed a lawsuit.

“I kept begging them over and over again get off of me … and they wouldn’t stop,” Kassner said.

And it wasn’t enough for another woman to show TSA agents nipple rings that set off a metal detector. The agents forced her to take them out.

Mandi Hamlin said, “I had to get pliers and pull it apart.”

In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone

“It’s humiliation,” Perry said.

Perry was also taken to a see-through room by a TSA agent when his artificial knee set off the metal detector.

“He yelled at me to get the belt off. ‘I told you to get the belt off.’ So I took the belt off. He ran his hands down over and pulled the pants down, they went down around my ankle,” Perry said.

At that point, Perry was standing in his underwear in public view. He asked to see a supervisor. That made things worse.

“She was yelling ‘I have power, I have power, I have power,” Perry said. The power to stop him from flying to Florida with his wife that day to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

If you’ve ever used Microsoft Access or Excel, you have likely used a product that Mike Gunderloy had a hand in developing. The irony is that Gunderloy himself doesn’t use those products anymore. He’s given up Microsoft for open source — and he’s not going back.

On the News Tab, KXB linked to an article in the New York Times regarding the relationship between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency, the I.S.I. Most recently, the I.S.I. is thought by some to have been behind the dastardly terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last month (see this story), though I don’t there is any conclusive evidence of that. Some in India have also blamed the I.S.I. for any number of terrorist attacks over the past six years, sometimes merely on suspicion.

But what is less talked about is the fact that American intelligence operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan have for years been deeply dependent on the I.S.I., even as Americans have known about the I.S.I.’s links to terrorists.

Given that history, it’s no surprise that the C.I.A. and the I.S.I. don’t trust each other at all:

But most C.I.A. veterans agree that no relationship between the spy agency and a foreign intelligence service is quite as byzantine, or as maddening, as that between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I.

It is like a bad marriage in which both spouses have long stopped trusting each other, but would never think of breaking up because they have become so mutually dependent.

Without the I.S.I.’s help, American spies in Pakistan would be incapable of carrying out their primary mission in the country: hunting Islamic militants, including top members of Al Qaeda. Without the millions of covert American dollars sent annually to Pakistan, the I.S.I. would have trouble competing with the spy service of its archrival, India. (link)

The article does offer one interesting explanation as to why the ISI might have, to begin with, cultivated ties with questionable individuals in the NWFP — ethnicity and language:

Even the powerful I.S.I., which is dominated by Punjabis, Pakistan’s largest ethnic group, has difficulties collecting information in the tribal lands, the home of fiercely independent Pashtun tribes. For this reason, the I.S.I. has long been forced to rely on Pashtun tribal leaders — and in some cases Pashtun militants — as key informants.

Also, sometimes the I.S.I. has been incredibly helpful to American interests:

Keep reading at SM.

Richard Dawkins (The author of “The GOD Delusion”) at his website:

In 2006, I was one of tens of thousands of academic scientists all around the world who received, unsolicited and completely free, a huge and lavishly illustrated book called Atlas of Creation by the Turkish Muslim apologist Harun Yahya. The thesis of the book, which was published in eleven languages, is that evolution is false. The main ‘evidence’ consists of page after page of beautiful photographs of fossil animals, each one accompanied by a modern counterpart that is said to have changed not at all since the time of the fossil. It is a large-format book, a thick coffee-table book with more than 700 high-gloss colour pages. The cost of production of such a book must have been extremely high, and one is bound to wonder where the money came from to produce it and then distribute it gratis in so many copies and so many languages.

Given that the entire message of the book depends upon the alleged resemblance between modern animals and their fossil counterparts, I was amused, when I began flicking through at random, to find page 468 devoted to “eels”, one fossil and one modern. The caption says:
There are more than 400 species of eels in the order Anguilliformes. That they have not undergone any change in millions of years once again reveals the invalidity of the theory of evolution.

The fossil eel shown may well be an eel, I cannot tell. But the modern “eel” that Yahya pictures (see photo) is undoubtedly not an eel but a sea snake, probably of the highly venomous genus Laticauda (an eel is, of course, not a snake at all but a teleost fish). I have not scanned the book for other inaccuracies of this kind. But given that this was almost the first page I looked at . . . what price the main thesis of the book that modern animals are unchanged since the time of their fossil counterparts?

Incidentally, in May 2008 Harun Yahya, whose real name is Adnan Oktar, was sentenced in a Turkish court to a three-year prison sentence “for creating an illegal organization for personal gain.”

Keep reading. It get’s better.

A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator who lives in Pittsburg, has been charged with four counts of computer tampering and is scheduled to be arraigned today.

…

The damage is still being assessed, but authorities say undoing his denial of access to other system administrators could cost millions of dollars.

Officials also said they feared that although Childs is in jail, he may have enabled a third party to access the system by telephone or other electronic device and order the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents.

Authorities have searched Childs’ home and car for a device that could be used in such an attack, but so far no such evidence has been found.

As part of his alleged sabotage, Childs engineered a tracing system to monitor what other administrators were saying and doing related to his personnel case, law enforcement officials said.

what does it take to become batman in real life? scientific american takes a closer look.

radiohead is awesome. google is sometimes awesome. the better part of all of this is that, google recognizes that radiohead is awesome. from the google blog:

A few weeks ago we heard about a project Radiohead was working on. The band was making a new video, but they weren’t using any cameras, just lasers and data. As you might imagine, we were intrigued.

The song is called “House of Cards,” from Radiohead’s recent “In Rainbows” album. In this new video, there were no cameras on set. Instead, two scanning technologies were used to capture 3D images. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produced structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne LIDAR system that uses multiple lasers was used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In the video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

Whether you’re a music fan or a developer (or both), we agreed with the band that it would be great to give you a deeper look into how all of this was done, and even a chance to play with the data yourself, under a license that allows remixing.

You can view the video, watch a short documentary about how it was made, interact with the video in 3D, download some of the data, and download an iGoogle theme and gadget - all at http://code.google.com/radiohead.

so not sure if i’ve ever mentioned this, but i’m a HUGE fan of the browser opera. recently i’ve realized how much behind any other browser is in it’s ability to be usable. customization of the browser, it’s plugins, it’s user community, it’s keyboard shortcuts, it’s mail client (more about this in a bit), is far superior than anything i’ve used previously.

you ask why you should download it. well…it’s about getting more out of the time that you spend on the internet. opera is designed to be much faster than other browsers, giving you powerful features that most other browsers lack. it has one of the best reputations in security as well. it pioneered and adopted a lot of features which are new to firefox and IE.

it’s mail client is nothing like i’ve ever used before. initially i hated it but then slowly after using it for a week, i adopted it like a fish to water. it indexes everything without any fussing and searches are instantaneous and it integrates with the browser perfectly. oh yeah, IMAP support for gmail rocks. the filters are incredible and it just works. if you’re used to evolution or outlook, this will just blow you away.

you can learn more about the browser at operawatch.com as well. if you’re a fan of keyboard shortcuts, then you won’t be disappointed. almost EVERYTHING in the browser has a shortcut and is completely customizable. in fact, there are so many shortcuts i have trouble keeping track of each one.

if you do one thing today, try out opera. and then keep using it.

Bell Canada Inc., accused last week by Google Inc. of breaking the law by slowing broadband connections, has fired back and said if anybody is acting as the internet’s gatekeeper and furthering its own interests, it’s the search engine company.

“If there is, indeed, any gatekeeping activity on the internet, which is questionable, the gatekeeping is being performed by the internet search engines, which are typically the users’ window to the near-infinite content available worldwide,” Bell wrote in a Friday submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and made public on Tuesday.

Mysterytopia: Embracing icebergs sing eerie duets
The phenomenon occurs when the huge lumps of ice scrape past each other and produce thousands of tiny “icequakes”.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mexico probes online ‘hitmen ads’
“In one of them, a person describing himself as an ex-military killer offers “discreet, professional services” for $6,000 (£3,000).”

Rare ‘Star-Making Machine’ Found In Distant Universe
“extreme stellar machine — a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year”

Ae Musafir Kyoon Ghabrata Hai Mere Rikhshaw Mein Beth Jane Se
Khuda Bhi Naraz Hota Hai Kisi Ka Dil Dukhane Se

Zalim Palat Kar Dekh Tamana Hum Bhi Rakhte Hein
Tum Agar Car Rakhti Ho To Rikhshaw Hum Bhi Rakhte Hein

Jo Maa Ko Satata Hai
Wo Rikhshaw Hi Chalata Hai

Driver Ki Zindagi Ajab Khel Hai
Maut Se Bache To Central Jail Hai

Allah Allah Tera Zor Hai Mere Deewane Mein
Kal Hi Zamanat Karwaii Thi Aj Phir Se Thane Mein

Port Per Rehte Hein Sohrab Ghot Mein Sote Hein
Jab Tere Yaad Aati Hai Ji Bhar Ke Rote Hein

Kal Chodween Ki Raat Thi Balti Mein Tera Aks Dekha
Aur Phir Balti Hila Hila Kar Rat Bhar Tera Raks Dekha

Chalti Hai Ghari Urhti Hai Dhool
Jalte Hein Dushman Khelte Hein Phool

Ae Rocket Tujhe Qasam Hai Himat Na Harrna
Jaisa Bhi Khada Aee Has Kar Guzarna

Na Kar Jhagra Musafir Se , Musafir Door Se Aaya Hai
Safar Qismat Mein Likha Hai , Hokum Door Se Aaya Hai

Pata Kya Khaak Bataein Nishaan Hai Be Nishaan Hamara
Laga Bethe Jahaan Basta Wahe Samjho Makaan Apna

back in 2006, i wrote about the death of habeas corpus and what the lack thereof means to the general population globally, and how the US has done much to ignoring the rights of americans in this regard. seem like great britain is following suit and bob geldof (from the boomtown rats, live aid and the wall fame) has come up with a very serious and in-depth op-ed in the telegraph on what it means to be living in an orwellian world and how pathetically the rights of average citizens are being stolen away from us.

Still today, 800 years later, Magna Carta resonates: “To no man will we deny, To no man will we delay, Justice and Right.” Is that not grand, worthy of your vote? Is habeas corpus to be traduced in one sad moment of political expediency? Do we not clearly deny and delay Justice and Right when we imprison a person for 42 days without charge?

What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha’p'orth of momentary panic?

What terrorises the terrorists is our civilisation. What those unthinking fools of fundamentalism fear most are the freedoms our representatives now strip away. This “war on terror” is against Islamist forces that reject the Enlightenment.

How can we ever succeed, if we side with our opponents in rejecting those ideals? Every moment we are spied on by the invisible watchers, every time we are monitored, every time we are logged on databanks, they win. And every time we accept it, we lose.

Why should I carry an ID card? I own my identity - nobody else. The war on terror is no answer. ID cards did not stop the bombers in Germany or Spain. Nor does it diminish crime, nor illegal immigration. And if for some mad authoritarian reason they are introduced, stand by for a brisk trade in false British ID cards.

i thought this was hilarious.

Microsoft Corp. yesterday said it would offer free technical support to small businesses that buy new PCs with Windows Vista in the next three months, its latest attempt to convince users that moving to Vista is a good idea.

and if that wasn’t enough, this was even funnier!

And if those efforts are for naught, Microsoft will help those users downgrade from Vista to Windows XP, the same maneuver several large computer makers, including Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., have used in recent months to continue offering the older operating system to buyers.

The offer, dubbed Windows Vista Small Business Assurance, is available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees or 25 PCs, and it provides free telephone support through the end of October to companies that buy new PCs with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate between now and Sept. 30, according to details posted on the Microsoft Web site.

Humans are consuming natural resources so quickly that we’re running out of elements.

The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany’s University of Augsburg. He estimates that our planet’s stock of indium will last no more than another decade. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. Even copper is an endangered item, since worldwide demand for it is likely to exceed available supplies by the end of the present century.

AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity.

“We see political instability first because we go down as far as we can into the market,” says Alexander Cummings, head of Coca-Cola’s Africa division. The ups and downs during Kenya’s post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi’s slums and in western Kenya’s villages. Events in the Middle East, such as the 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, can dent sales in Muslim parts of Africa, though anti-American feeling usually wears off quite quickly.

Coca-Cola says it is the largest private-sector employer in Africa.

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

“It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House,” said one yesterday.

Chomskybot is a web-hosted program that generates text which appears similar to (and based on) the famously hard-to-follow linguistic work of Noam Chomsky. But unlike Chomsky’s actual work, Chomskybot’s text is devoid of meaning. Circling back on itself, piling modifiers on terms, and stretching the limits of human attention, Chomskybot generates a stream of text that’s almost meaningful — and by doing so, it’s actually kind of fun to read…until it drives you nuts. For example, try to make sense of this Chomskybot passage:

With this clarification, the theory of syntactic features developed earlier is not subject to a descriptive fact. For one thing, a subset of English sentences interesting on quite independent grounds is not to be considered in determining nondistinctness in the sense of distinctive feature theory. It must be emphasized, once again, that the fundamental error of regarding functional notions as categorial is to be regarded as a corpus of utterance tokens upon which conformity has been defined by the paired utterance test. Clearly, the systematic use of complex symbols cannot be arbitrary in an abstract underlying order. To characterize a linguistic level L, the descriptive power of the base component delimits an important distinction in language use.

Visit Chomskybot for more scary gibberish.

Read more on Chomskybot from Wikipedia, or see the official FAQ.