I was on the Newsday today, in the World section. Six or seven articles down the page, I’m greeted by this headline, “Experts: Time to Put Cards on Table” which linked to this article, Experts: Time to Put Cards on Table. I was pretty sure I’d missed a big announcement from the UN. the blurb that followed the title was:

“Hoping to convince a skeptical world, the United States went before the United Nations and dramatically presented indisputable evidence that a rogue nation possessed weapons of... [More]”

This web site, GWBush.com is the unnofficial George Bush homepage. The best part is the stickers section in the store, where you can find beauties like:

1. “Regime Change” Starts at Home
2. Democracy was getting old anyway
3. Don’t Blame Me, My Vote Didn’t Count
4. Vote Republican — it’s easier than thinking!
5. If you can read this, you’re not the president
6. I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway
7. George W. Bush: America’s Last President

…and finally, my personal favorite:

“Bush — born on third... [More]”

Slashdot reports in Another Critical Microsoft Hole that IE, once again, has a problem with granting ActiveX controls too many rights. This latest security flaw in Windows NT/2000 (not present in XP) is a really good as the best solution Microsoft can recommend is to “…to make sure you have no trusted publishers, including Microsoft.” (Security Bulletin MS02-065). That means you have to remove all the trusted publishers from your list, because the control at issue is actually signed and... [More]

Read the New York Times these days about the new round of inspections in Iraq and you’ll likely see the U.S. government’s (not it’s people’s) stance toward war in Iraq. They desire it. They want it to happen. When asked what they would like to see happen, the answer is never that they would like to see Hussein disarmed peacefully, they respond that they want to go in and take him out. The war is no only inevitable, it’s not even seen as a last resort for these people.

In Iraq Tells the U.N.... [More]

dur has been playing around with Quake again recently and took a few screenshots of his handiwork. It’s just bot play, but it’s on the Hardcore level and has some neat stats.

Ozzie has some new pictures up, documenting his experiences so far in Switzerland. He’s got a journal entry, Kicked out of the States (and poor) and he’s got some pictures from
December 6th, 2002 (Sami Claus day) and some pictures from December 1st, 2002 (one of the few sunny days in the last 8 weeks). Check ‘em out to see how the Oz-man’s doing.

Warm ups:
20 regular pushups
20 wide pushups
10 reverse negative pushups. go down and dont touch floor, go up half way and hold there till told to come down
35 crunches legs up
35 bicycles
1 minute legs raised 6 inches. after 20 sec, go from straight legs to legs wide apart
70 jumping jacks
95 squats
20 squat thrusts

some footwork exercises, usual combinations.

Exercises with gloves on:

avoidance drill: partner comes with a jab, avoid by snap away, catch, slip, cork screw

drill to practive... [More]

I learned this trick for crashing Windows 2000/XP a while ago. I know, I know, it doesn’t take much. But, seriously, I haven’t gotten a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) in Windows 2000 in a long time. I can’t actually remember the last time I got one. This extremely simple program produces a BSOD immediately every time. Your computer will reboot.

It still works today. It’s quite simple: you simply issue one more backspace in a buffer passed to printf than there are characters in the buffer. You... [More]

When you start reading Service Tension on Salon by Mary Elizabeth Williams, you find yourself agreeing with her. Her tales of “rude, pathological or clueless service people” resonate with our own experiences. It’s an article about what it’s like to exist in a world supported by service industry staff, and having to put up with it all. In many ways, I’m sure it sounds just like the kind of “you just can’t find good help these days” griping that’s accompanied the upper classes since the dawn of time.... [More]

Swiss earthli Logo

If you’re seeing this article, then you’re browsing the Swiss version of earthli.com. The site (along with it’s proprietor) has moved to Switzerland. As you can see, the logo has been updated to reflect this status :-). If you find anything that is broken, be sure to let me know, as it could be a configuration problem as a result of the move.

After long months of focus-group testing and careful deliberation, earthli has a new logo. This logo is only rendered in alpha-transparent PNG, so will look extra bad on all Windows IE incarnations, but those are the breaks. It’s worth it just to have one logo for all themes now. The new logo also makes a nicer and more distinct icon, as you can see in the icon to the left. With the decision to leave all non-alpha-transparent-PNG rendering browsers behind, the logo can make full use of the... [More]

The August 15, 2002 Cryptogram by Bruce Schneier at Counterpane Internet Security explains what is known about “Palladium”, the code-name for Microsoft’s trusted computing intiative. It’s abbreviated as Pd, like an element. Isn’t that cute. This is a natural outgrowth of Hollywood’s (in the form of the MPAA and the RIAA) jihad against its customer base and our acceptance of the blame. It aims to use hardware to prevent people from doing anything that Hollywood doesn’t want them to with... [More]

Am I looking for conspiracies where they don’t exist when I read The Importance Of Being In India in Business World India and this article, Bill Gates pledges $100 million to fight AIDS in India on Canada.com on the same day and wonder whether the two are connected? I mean, Gates himself said that “…[h]e worried that India’s enormous progress in information technology − the country has the only Microsoft software development centre outside the United States − would be thwarted by AIDS.” At this... [More]

Arab League Expects Iraq to Comply on the New York Newsday discusses Iraq’s response to the new “United Nations resolution that requires Baghdad to declare and destroy all its weapons of mass destruction.” In addition, neighboring countries in the “…Arab League yesterday urged Hussein to comply with the Security Council resolution”.

“Hussein yesterday ordered Iraq’s 250-member parliament to hold an emergency session today in Baghdad. The legislature is stacked with members of Hussein’s ruling... [More]”

The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks on Counterpunch talks about the latest plan for “rooting out evildoers”. The report, prepared for Rumsfeld by the Defense Science Board, plans to create a new organization, whose duty it will be, in the most Orwellian possible fashion, to find terrorists, even if they must be created first.

“new organization—the “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)”—will carry out secret missions designed to “stimulate reactions” among terrorist... [More]”

As BBSpot points out in Americans Surprised to Learn of Upcoming Election, “74 percent of Americans were surprised that elections were being held this Tuesday”. This is actually surprising, since you would think that the administration would have their hands full with diverting attention from the economy; but it seems that the ever-compliant media has helped to downplay today’s elections as well.

Plastic explains why there may be so little emphasis on today’s elections in Election Day In The... [More]

If you dig the Pixar movies, then check out the trailer for Finding Nemo, hosted at Apple. I’m not really sure what the story is about — it looks like two fish trying to find one of their sons, surprising named “Nemo” — but it’s a sure bet it has a happy ending. It seems Pixar has found another venue in which to show off its technical prowess. In Monsters, Inc. it was Sully’s fur that stole the show, technologically; this time, it’s the underwater environment that will blow you away. In the... [More]

The Washington Post reports in Europe’s Microsoft Alternative that a region of Spain, “a western region of Spain called Extremadura, a mostly rural expanse of olive trees and tiny towns with 1.1 million inhabitants”, is planning “to convert all the area’s computer systems, in government offices, businesses and homes, from the Windows operating system to Linux”. This is a trend that started in Asia, with first China, then India, declaring that they would be standardizing on Linux or other... [More]

I know, I’ve written about the WhiteHouse.Org site before, providing select links that really stand out, but whoever is writing this site has really hit his/her stride at this point. Perhaps it’s because of all the juicy news tidbits available these days, perhaps because the target of ridicule is so big; whatever the case, the “press releases” by “The President” are just hilarious. It’s almost scary how much they sound like what we all know he wants to sound like in that malignant tumor posing... [More]

Writing With Elvish Fonts is, believe it or not, a page put up by one Daniel Smith, someone who apparently has enough free time to create TrueType™ fonts for the main elvish scripts from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

“This guide aims to give an introduction to using fonts for writing with the Tengwar, an Elvish writing system in J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels. In The Lord of the Rings the Tengwar can be seen in the inscription on the One Ring and the text on the West Gate of Moria.”

The font files... [More]

The problem with capitalism today is that it works really well for some people. Then those people do everything they can to make it keep working for them. It only takes a relatively small group of people with this lack of morals to make it work. The plurality of people with flexible morals are the grease that moves the machine forward. A topmost layer must at least have some awareness of the lives they’re co-opting for their own gain, but those myriad layers in between, in which each simply... [More]

The World’s Funniest Joke — Official at Yahoo News gives us the end result of the “largest-ever scientific study into humor”. The study was based in Britain, and their home page is at Laugh Lab, which seems to be down at the moment. After “[m]ore than 40,000 jokes from 70 countries and two million critiques”, they came up with the following (which I think is pretty good…these studies tend to find the most lame jokes):

“Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem... [More]”

Shadow boxing
15 squat thrusts
20 Reg push ups
cat stretch
20 wide
cat stretch
20 diamond
cat stretch
30 crunches legs down
30 Bicycles
30 jack-knives
Stretch up (3)
90 J Jacks
90 Knee bends

mirror drill with kicking shield, when opponent moves in, fire a hook kick
mirror drill with kicking shield, when opponent moves in, fire a side kick

live round: sl, sl-bf, lsl-uc, sl-lh-hh
live round (same as before, but ending in cross): sl, sl-bf-c, lsl-uc-c, sl-lh-hh-c

Remember to line up the feet on... [More]

For the dismantling of the apartment, prior to earthli’s move to Switzerland, the Webcam has been re-enabled. As usual, service will be intermittent, but you should be able to see the living room change…and maybe we’ll move the camera as we move to different rooms.

Neck − lie flat on back, raise head, twist from side to side for 1 minute
Arms − forearm raises − Get into pushup position, but on the forearms instead…hold for 15 seconds. Lift right arm behind back, hold for 15 seconds. Lift left arm behind back, hold for 15 seconds. Both arms again. Repeat.

Footwork

Get into stance as quickly as possible on a cue. Do five times into stance going forward, then backward.

step and slide forward twice − 5 times forward, then 5 times backward
slide/step... [More]

90 J Jacks
20 Reg push ups
20 wide
20 diamond
30 crunches legs raised
30 L over R
30 R over L
90 Knee bends

live round:
straight lead, back fist, low straight lead, hook

combinations:
2 sl, bf sl, sl hk, lsl sl

avoidance drills, switch with partner
slip on jab
catch jab parry cross (can also snap away)
catch parry cover

10 hk (hook kick)
10 hk + sl
10 fk (front kick)
10 fk + sl
20 rear leg roundhouse

10 squat thrusts with 3 pushups
30 crunches legs up
30 bicycles
25 leg raises
80 or so jumping jacks
80 or so knee bends
20 regular pushups
20 diamond pushups
20 wide push ups
25 squat jumps !

—-

footwork drills

slide forward, slide back
slide back, slide forward
slide back, push shovel

(2 or 3 more, cant remember)

—-

single straight lead standing, count of 20 (?)
—be careful not to jam the hand, should connect with vertical fist and straight elbow
straight lead with a push shovel... [More]

If hackers ruled the world at Security Database’s forums is a pretty funny post of Photoshopped images modified to show an eerie alternate reality in which Hacker-Speak has replaced English everywhere. My favorites are the first one (with a hacker-friendly epitath) and the one shown at left, which is pretty funny if you play any online multiplayer games (especially Quake, Counterstrike, etc.).

That’s a nice term I saw coined by Ted Rall in If You Have Dignity, the Terrorists Have Won on Yahoo News. It’s an opinion piece which covers the dread with which you should be approaching this day quite nicely.

“Are you the kind of person who believes that attaching a plastic American flag to your SUV makes a major patriotic statement? … Don’t get the rest of us wrong. We love America too. But we are understandably tense as we approach what is likely to be the greatest orgy of cheesy... [More]”