Ubuntu's new Linux tries getting cloud-friendly
( Unhappily, Dr. John v. Kampen will not be available to comment further/again until around Nov. 10 His Ubuntu-blogging is something I am following more and more all the time: I 'Friend' him on Blogger as well as My Opera. Non Linux users aren't usually aware that support for its various iterations is 'all over the web'. Free Software Foundation )
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Comments by www.blogger.com/profile/01621946866211400380
( This is a dual-purpose link. First, it gives you a tool to track online comments. Second...those who wonder WTF I think now know more of same. Dr. John has a recent Privacy post. Hmmm. )
Why I choose 3G over Wi-Fi
As I sat watching the choppy FCC Webcast, trying to piece together what was being said, I experienced firsthand how an unmanaged, congested Wi-Fi connection, simply doesn't work, especially when it comes to video.
US raids hit Mexican drug cartel22 October 2009
( Unhappily, Dr. John v. Kampen will not be available to comment further/again until around Nov. 10 His Ubuntu-blogging is something I am following more and more all the time: I 'Friend' him on Blogger as well as My Opera. Non Linux users aren't usually aware that support for its various iterations is 'all over the web'. Free Software Foundation )
Why I choose 3G over Wi-Fi
As I sat watching the choppy FCC Webcast, trying to piece together what was being said, I experienced firsthand how an unmanaged, congested Wi-Fi connection, simply doesn't work, especially when it comes to video.
More than 300 people have been arrested in a series of drug raids targeting a Mexican drug cartel operating in the US
The two-day operation, which involved thousands of police officers in 19 US states, is the latest aimed at the cartel known as La Familia.
It was part of Project Coronado, which has led to almost 1,200 arrests over four years
Ottawa's "Green Bin" Municipal Composting Program is About to Take Off!
The collection of organic waste is set to begin in January 2010, and since about 45% of the waste collected by the city is compostable, and since anaerobic decomposition in landfills produces large quantities of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas), it has the potential to make a pretty big difference
US paper seeks pot correspondent
The alternative Denver newspaper, Westword, is seeking a writer for its weekly review of Colorado's booming medical marijuana dispensaries.
But there is a catch - candidates must have a medical ailment allowing them to enter a dispensary and use marijuana.
Fourteen US states now allow the sale of some sort of medical cannabis.
Saudi journalist sentenced to 60 lashes
Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14 on "A Thick Red Line."
That episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where Shariah, or Islamic law, is practiced. Premarital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle.
( Must be where the quip 'Incest is best kept in the family' originated. )
Iran has weathered sanctions since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Currently, the toughest measure imposed by the US is against Iranian banks which can't, accordingly, deal with American banks, so stifling trade - but not killing it completely.
( This by the nation which had positioned itself as a 'global currency.' No entity repeatedly dishonouring I.O.U.'s of any nature can retain a credible reputation. For a Bank to do so should be a fatal flaw of confidence : even a nation bank. Cuba, North Korea, Saddam's Iraq.... Losing impartiality in all these cases ruins universal convertibility as a plausible claim : an underpinning of international payment for petroleum. If you were Iran...would you accept U.S. $$$ in payment ? Payment you can't spend is no payment at all. )
Iran 'to accept UN nuclear deal'
( Except that's not really what the article itself says ! )
Iran will accept a UN deal on its nuclear programme, but only if "very important changes" are made, Iranian state media have reported.
Terrorism - Can you spot the difference?
The government has completely abandoned us
They call us to patriotism, values, religion, family (theirs not ours, we are asked to attend at their illnesses – while single payer is verboten, by THEM ALL). Respect, civility, obedience even, they use all of that to call us to VOTE.
For them.
Scientologists convicted of fraud
Unlike the US, France has always refused to recognise Scientology as a religion, arguing that it is a purely commercial operation designed to make as much money as it can at the expense of often vulnerable victims.
Over the past 10 years, France has taken several individual members of the group to court on charges of fraud and misleading publicity, but this is the first time the organisation itself has been charged.
That is why all the BANKS MERGED to COVER THE PAPER TRAILS, The PAPER TRAILS that were not covered WERE BURNED such as Cantor Fitzgerald at the WTC Incident on 9/11/01.. It was Credit Lyonaise which suffered records being burned "twice".. there was the WINDSOR TOWERS which was burned to destroy the PAPER TRAIL ON PARMALAT... and it just goes on, and on.. without the True Criminals ever having to show up in a Court of Law..
CONNECT THE DOTS WITH THE AFGHANISTAN WAR AND UPDATE: WHO TRIED TO TAKE THE U.S. & GLOBAL BANKING, FINANCING AND ECONOM
World failing to dent heroin trade, U.N. warns
Private Firms Undermine U.S. Occupation of Iraq
Despite the high-level political connections of the mercenary organization Blackwater, the scandals about its recklessness and ruthlessness in Iraq are expanding. And they are increasingly being reinforced by new scandals about other big corporations’ undermining the U.S. occupation by unrestrained pursuit of private profit.
The latest are the revelations about Dyncorps, the company entrusted with the training of the Iraqi police, one of the Iraqi security forces that are supposed ultimately to achieve the U.S. aims in Iraq and allow the scaling down of the U.S. military operation.
The BBC website reported Oct. 23: "The US government audit, due to be released in Washington, says the State Department cannot say 'specifically what it received' for most of the money paid to DynCorp, the largest single contractor to the department."
Even the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, nominally a Democrat but an ardent supporter of Bush's policy in Iraq, expressed uneasiness. The BBC noted:
"Senator Joe Lieberman ... said it could take the State Department up to five years to review invoices and demand repayment from DynCorp for unjustified expenses. 'This scenario is far too frequent across the federal government,' he said."
.......
Blackwater, then operating under a Defense Department contract, was supposed to use vehicles with armored protection kits, but as of the date of the killings, no such vehicles had been obtained. A Blackwater internal report obtained by the committee quoted an employee who said the contract ’paid for armor vehicles’ but that ’management in North Carolina … made the decision to go with soft skin due to cost.’
“The report disclosed that another complicating factor was a contract dispute with a different company. The report suggested that Blackwater never intended to armor its own vehicles. Instead, Blackwater employees were told to ‘string along’ the other company in hopes of forcing them out of their contract or giving them ’no choice but to buy us armored cars,’
'Bittersweet return' for soldiers
Soldiers from a Northern Ireland-based battalion which lost 13 men during a six-month tour of Afghanistan have returned to their base in County Down.
Jane Mayer: The Risks Of A Remote-Controlled War
Mayer examines the ethics and controversies surrounding the CIA's covert drone program, in which remotely controlled, unmanned planes target terror suspects in Pakistan and elsewhere.
Mayer writes that unlike the military's publicly acknowledged drone program in Afghanistan and Iraq — both official war zones — the CIA's campaign doesn't operate in support of U.S. troops on the ground. Instead it's a secret program, run partly by private contractors, that amounts to "targeted international killings by the state," in the words of one human-rights lawyer. Because of its covert status, there's "no visible system of accountability in place," Mayer writes, and a sharp increase in the number of reported drone strikes has raised questions about whether the moral costs and the political consequences have been adequately considered.
The Great American Arm-Twist in Afghanistan
Exactly what Mr. Kerry told Mr. Karzai last week is unknown, but it seemed likely that he communicated Mr. Emanuel’s — and Mr. Obama’s — sentiments. Diplomats in Kabul said afterward that the senator made it clear to Mr. Karzai that if he refused to accept the election results, domestic support for his government, in the United States and Europe, would collapse.
“It took a lot of convincing,” said a Western diplomat here, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yet even with the immediate crisis resolved, there remains the matter of the runoff election, which will pit Mr. Karzai against his rival, the former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. Despite assurances from officials with the United Nations and Western governments, there seemed little reason to expect that the fraud and vote stealing that occurred in August wouldn’t happen again. Unless something changes by Nov. 7 — the day of the runoff — most of the same officials are likely to be in place who carried out the fraud the first time around.
“It took a lot of convincing,” said a Western diplomat here, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yet even with the immediate crisis resolved, there remains the matter of the runoff election, which will pit Mr. Karzai against his rival, the former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. Despite assurances from officials with the United Nations and Western governments, there seemed little reason to expect that the fraud and vote stealing that occurred in August wouldn’t happen again. Unless something changes by Nov. 7 — the day of the runoff — most of the same officials are likely to be in place who carried out the fraud the first time around.
How data-dependent is health care reform?
If the visualization of America’s Healthy Future Act (also known as the Baucus Bill) — immediately below is any indication, data is pretty important to health care reform plans. The word occurs 275 times in the text — there are new data banks, data collected, data submitted and data shared.
Entering digital age an expensive proposition for GOP
Correction: Fees for Livingston Group corrected in FLIT
Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker
Fighting net neutrality, telecom companies, outside lobbyists, cluster contributions to members of Congress
While the Federal Communications Commission considers the first steps toward ensuring net neutrality–making certain that broadband providers do not discriminate against high traffic sites–the telecom firms that would be affected by the rules and their trade groups have been swamping Congress with a one-two punch of campaign contributions from the companies and their registered lobbyists. Some 244 members of Congress were the beneficiaries of these contribution clusters–totaling more than $9.4 million–from January 2007 to June 2009, an investigative collaboration of the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics has found. Telecom interests and their lobbyists engaged in more clustered giving than any industry save pharmaceuticals.
Overall, the top recipient of the largess was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who took in $894,379 (many of those contributions were directed to his 2008 presidential campaign). The telecom interests also targeted House and Senate leaders: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was next with $341,089, followed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. ($275,275), Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus, D-Mont. ($248,999) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ($198,972).
Broadband providers have attempted to enlist members of Congress in an effort to block action on net neutrality rules by the FCC. Verizon and AT&T have beenparticularly active in this effort; they also were the sources of all the clustered contributions among broadband providers, with AT&T and its outside lobbyists combining to give to 110 members, followed by Comcast (105 members) and Verizon (96 members).