This is pure, uncut, undiluted, straight-from-the-acid-bath scraped-right-from-the-leaves crack cocaine for the eyes.

I love it.

And I want Haruko's guitar.

Furikurikurikura furikurikurikuraaaaa, boys and girls, it doesn't get better than this.

The kindergartem knife assault in Japan I posted on some time back was apparently faked - the woman cut herself with a knife and made it up because records that needed to be filed with the kindergarten were not going to be finished in time. So she came up with the hoax out of stress and frustration...

Human or embryonic cloning research now illegal in Japan under a 10-year prison sentence. Embryos can be used for non-cloning experiments though.

British man spends over $11,000 to turn his entire apartment into a replica of the USS Enterprise from the Next Generation TV series. Ah, fans.

Ragabash, well, once I'm done there's a plan in general to game. Happosai^2 said you mentioned to him that we were going to restart the In Nomine game back last year, but never mentioned we started up again. Want him to join, or what? I gave him a little info on it since he said you mentioned it to him. Nothing going on Saturday, verified. Waliel, any chance we can meet at your dad's place on Sunday eve?

This has to be one of the finest things I have ever seen. Cybercheeze posted a humor list about 150 ways to kill the Purple Dinosaur. The company that owns the trademarks for the Barney character, The Lyons Partnership, decided to sue Cybercheeze for constituting threats and violence to the Barney character and for violating trademark and copyright laws. Cybercheeze's reply, posted on their website, has a most delectable counterattack to The Lyons Group's cheap strongarm tactics, and may heavily damage their (apparently quite fragile) ego. The Lyons Group once tried this with the San Diego Chicken, their attempt to extort a hundred thousand dollars failed when the judge quite rightly pointed out that parody and humor are protected by the first amendment. Here's the officialCybercheeze reply:

June 14, 2001

Re: Unauthorized Use of Intellectual Property

Dear Madam or Esq. ,

This mouth is counsel to Cybercheeze, ("Media Beyond Inc."), the owners of the exclusive right to use the copyrighted term "Kiss my ass"® as well as the federally registered and famous trademark and service mark "piss off".

It has come to the attention of Cybercheeze that you are operating an illegal scam called "Strong Arm" under the guise of "Intellectual Property". We have reviewed your letter and found that it not only is about as intellectual as the purple quivering mass of gyrating goo you call Barney, but that it also is demeaning to everyone that visits our website and reads this worthless attempt and scare tactic.

Therefore, we are countersuing you on the grounds that we lost spit on our monitor from uncontrollable laughter, thus causing us to fall out of our chairs breaking our tail bones and thereby coining the phrase, ROTFLMAO. In the future, I'm sure if we want to "incorporate the use and threat of violence", we will promptly ask your permission before we blow Barney's® head off with a sawed off shotgun and some gin.

We also would like to point out that your idea that Barney is "a recognized and distinctive famous trademark" slightly overrated. My dog is named Barney (although his Internet name is Sex). I'm sure he will back me up when I say that is an overblown sense of ego YOUR Barney has and he is quite the megalomaniac.

As a result of Cybercheeze's continuous promotion of Sex aka Barney, we vigorously object to any unsavory or unwholesome procreation you may feel the need to do in the future. The content that you have associated with Sex used in conjunction with any person that will have you, including purchasing and or sodomizing a can of Spam (Well, you can sodomize Spam as we can't stand Hormel, either), constitutes a violation of the Federal Anti-Lawyer Procreation Act pursuant to 69 U.S.C. 6666(c)(2). By having sex, your law firm tarnishes the distinctive qualities of humanity. Remedies available to Cybercheeze based upon a violation of the Federal Anti-Lawyer Procreation Act include a permanent injection, damages, costs and castration.

Your actions also constitute direct loss of our bowels, and make you subject to Injunction and liable to Cybercheeze for new seat cushions, costs and Depends® fees. Pursuant to The Famous San Diego Chicken vs. Barney the purple Dinosaur http://www.lw.com/news/pressRels/chicken.htm "the Copyright Act, the trademark laws and the First Amendment." Lyons Partnership Can't do Dick!

However, Cybercheeze will refrain from taking immediate legal action upon condition that you provide written assurances by June 27, 2001, that you have ceased and desisted from sex and procreation, as well as reproducing, distributing, performing by means of digital audio transmission, or displaying your genitals. Your written assurances must also state that you have removed all your clothing by signifying that you are typing one handed. We await an immediate response from you or your counsel.

Sincerely,

Christy, Regan & Sex, LMAO
By: ________________________________ Cybercheeze.com
cc: over 154,000 CC supporters.

And the fun keeps on growing, internal documents from MS show a desire to eliminate AOL users from accessing Real Player as a content viewer. There's yet more legal arguing over 3rd party content viewers, and who can be sued by whom, so it's not going to work itself out anytime soon. Shame the tech sectors in the Nasdaq fell way back down again, it would have been interesting to see how a further round of acquisitions and consolidations might have gone on.

Waliel, try dropping in a new table row across the bottom.

Nonspecific (but credible) terrorism threat sends US Navy out to sea throughout the Middle East. Officials have a timeframe for the attack, but will not disclose it for obvious reasons. They don't know where the attack will come from, since Bin Laden does have a very wide-reaching outfit. Personally, I'd LIKE to see the Russians step in and take this guy out, though who knows if they learned the lessons that were taught during the Afghanistan war. They don't seem to be linked to the Khobar indictments of OBL's terrorists, but the movement was quite sudden and only within the last 24 hours. Any travelers, watch your heads, you know it's not a pleasant world out there.

Not much today. Tired. Maybe more later. Anyone know what the plan is for Sunday?

Political correctness rears its moronic head and spouts off again. The International Campaign to Ban Winmine is leading the fight to eliminate the offensive game claiming that it is an "offence against the victims of the mines" and of the EOD techs who clear them. So everyone join the global coalition of less than 700 people who have deleted Minesweeper from their computers to show their support against land mines.

Been watching "Hitler's Holocaust" on the History channel. The story of the war, this time...filmed in Germany. Very much something to see.

Will the internet break up into various corporate networks? It's not hard, and it's already cracking - check out the article about New.net. Get any DNS entry you like - ANY. Want pie.shop? Or I.love.anime? It can be done, with specialized DNS servers and minor tweaks. But it can be done, easy. And probably will, according to The Reg.

Kristi, the power of shortness will be m0ck3d. And I DARE you to cosplay as Mahou Shouji Koujichan. What's the countdown for?

Whoah, a BIG reply from Bird. Lessee. I get the feeling I'm going to have to be on early in the morning now...e-mailwise, reply anytime ^_^ I'm patient. Hmm, where's the Family Trip going? I'm curious about the ducky now, you're going to have to tell. And make it a live performance - or at least a live oration as to what happened. And would you PLEASE stop kicking yourself? And arrange to run your sister over, putting her in the hospital ought to get you some time online.

The Japan-China trade war gets hotter as the Chinese decide to tack on 100% tarriffs on over 60 different varieties of goods being imported to China, and it could get worse if PM Koizumi goes to the Yasukuni shrine (the one to Japan's war dead).

*ducking heavy objects*

Kristi, I dare you to try, if you ever get here. Let's see if the power of shortness will overcome. XD Sure, post the death penalty rant, let's see it.

In the bizarre news for the day, Houston mother charged with drowning her 5 kids after calling into police and telling them. A weird one that will get stranger, I bet, I'll keep on it.

Pakistani general declares himself president which will cause problems with lifting US sanctions. General Pervez Musharraf pulled off a coup in 1999 and dissolved the legislature in Pakistan then, and apparently now does not want to give up the power of the office. It's a surprise move, since he was promising elections in one year to Colin Powell, who is over there on talks for bringing forward a democratically elected government. It could still happen, if General Musharraf steps down then, though it's not terribly sure. And now with India being heavily backed by Russia, what will Pakistan do? Afghanistan and Pakistan aren't good friends, not by a long shot, but they both have allied enemies - Pakistan and India have been at it for quite some time, especially with the concurrent introduction of nuclear weapons to both sides, and the Afghans have a long memory and even longer vengeances with Russia. Could this begin a counter-axis in Asia? A muslim-based one, perhaps, against the godless Russians and Chinese, and the infidel Indians? How much of the Arab states could they pull in, if they did? Most of them, Iraq and the western Arab states most likely, would not want to lose the Russian arms market and would probably stay out of any anti-R/C/I alliance...or would they? Thoughts, anyone?

Washington, D.C. menaced by flying manhole covers! For the past 3 days, underground fires have knocked out power to portions of Georgetown, and apparently the hot air from the fires has sent manhole covers popping several feet in the air, and has been a recurring problem for the last 18 months. Other underground fires are blamed for causing the other episodes of manhole bursts.

Intel is going all-out for 80% marketshare in a new PC chip price war with AMD. AMD is not content with 20% share and wants 30, so it's going to be a tough 10% fight. Watch for a big price drop on Intel chips...

Usenet legend and sci-fi god Gharlane of Eddore died last Sunday, starting a big search for his identity. Nothing matching the info given is in the Sacramento Bee obituaries, so happy hunting gang.

Apparently that stealth-detection system Ragabash posted on was legit, because the coverup begins. This may have been a similar, though more advanced, system to what brought down the F-117 fighter in Kosovo. Could this eliminate the stealth research done with the B-2, F-117, and F-22? The government apparently thinks so...

Send your name to Mars! Yes, I signed it.

From Japan, the burgeoning trade war with China is growing since the Japanese imposed import curbs on some vegetables. China said that it would put retaliatory tariffs on Japanese cars, cellphones, and air conditioning units in paybacks for the Japanese trade. It's not a large amount of money in the overall ($700 million US out of 83 BILLION per year) but it could lead to further tarriffs on other items, and begin a serious trade war between the two countries.

And yet more social pressures reach the boiling point, when a 37 year old housewife attacks a 7 year old girl with a knife, later telling police she was in a bad mood and frustrated over raising her children.

DAMN - this sets a record. Sharp releases Meibus PC-MT-P1 and PC-MT1-L1 laptop PCs - thinnest in the world, they are a mere 16.6mm (0.65" or 21/32 of an inch) thick - CLOSED. Stuffed into this paper-thin block are a flash-card slot, 56K modem, LAN hookup, 128mb of RAM, and 20GB of disk space.

Nigerian man arrested for Japanese bank robbery on Tuesday. Okay. Let's run over a few basics. If you are the only african man in the entire PREFECTURE, perhaps doing something so noticeable as robbing a bank isn't the best idea - the list of black people in Japan's pretty damn short. You're probably going to be damn easy to pick out of a lineup.

Is it a Nadia ripoff? No. Except for the little blue crystals/Blue Water thing (and the princess, Kida, does use hers to heal Milo in a rather reminiscent moment), there's no real comparison availible. Two extremely different movies.

And I got to see the Final Fantasy trailer. Ask Wally - we got in right after it started, he and Loni went for seats, I stayed right at the entrance, staring slack-jawed. DAMN. Trailer's availible from the FF movie site.

Does that not constitute a threat, either to your home or in this case national security?

Either cut the bullsh*t, Rasputin, and say what you want to say - Russia does not trust the USA and will always have enough ICBM-based nuclear missiles to turn every major city and most of the little ones to cinders, or else enough posturing and start saying HEY - this missile shield's not a bad idea, maybe _I_ should build one too because the Afghans are a threat, more so than the Americans.

The Phil government has the Abu Sayyaf terrorists on the ropes - the kidnapping, murdering bandits just offered to negotiate, and they were turned down. They claim that they would let hostages go if the soldiers back off, but the Phil govt. won't do it - so they're close. The army has located where the terrorists are, and apparently are massing for one massive strike. Right now there's over 5,000 troops scouring the area, and the terrorist's OA is growing smaller by the minute. There's been no ransom paid, and President Arroyo understands how to deal with terrorists - if you play the ransom game, they'll simply take the money and buy more and better hardware, and use it as a victory over you. Negotiations do sometimes work, but only when the terrorists are completely out of other options and cannot run - or else you capitulate to their demands, and they win again. Terrorists understand power and fear. They will understand fear much better when they realize that every single member of the armed forces of whatever country they operate in is hunting them personally, wth orders to kill on sight. No capture, no negotiation - just flee or die. Terrorist movements might not be so bad after all. And, yet another reason to recognize the right to own firearms and defend one's self - You never hear of mass-kidnappings like this in the US, do you? Always in nations where firearms are not legal to own - the terrorists will always get theirs, you can't stop that. But you can give the sheep horns, to give the wolves pause.

Raytheon gambles, and wins big - they developed a new design for carbon-fiber & composite-material aircraft. The company bet 500 million, and its future on the design. And, because the aircraft are roomier inside (thinner hull requirements), lighter (more speed and range), and stronger than aluminum, sales have been big. 300 of the smaller "Premier" jets (a 5 million each, that's 1.5 BILLION dollars) and another billion dollars of the larger "Horizon" craft, it paid off.

What globalization does to increase world relations, it seems to have a countereffect on languages - because the varied languages in different areas are dying out as various "common" languages like English and Chinese dominate.

And yet more holes in Microsoft IIS, if anyone cares.

Go Bird! XD You have friends online then too, that you don't get to see during the day. And you're bigger than she is.

Reins, thanks ^_^ Raggy did it. And I like the one you have up too, nice work with the pain pic.

Another knife attack in Japan, this time before students arrived. Kindergarten teacher lightly wounded by an older woman who slashed at the teacher's arms and hit her with a cane. The teacher screamed for a guard but the elderly woman escaped with the knife. Truly bizarre, and almost funny with the cane attack, but still...not a pleasant trend that seems to be growing.

Taiwan to begin testing Patriot missile defenses now that they have the defense grids set up.

Kristi, older, wiser, better...well, you got 1 of three. *ducks*

Slow day. I'm watching the Star Trek Motion Picture...on, of all things, The Nashville Network.

If you know what fried Targ tastes like...you might be a redneck Trekker.

And...my god. I have FOUND the holy grail of military-firearms collectors. Right here, top of the list. There's only 32 of them made for civilians - specifically, registered as transferable in the NFA. Their prices are somewhat steep on other firearms though.

Californian scientists come up with a rather new solution - use wave power to generate electricity. Floats out in the ocean would move a hydraulic-pump, which then drives turbines. It's doable, since an object in waves only goes up and down, and it could literally run forever. Wonder how long it'll take the environmentalists to claim it's disruptive to the sealife because it's too large, extends into the ocean, can cause problems with the kelp beds, or whatever they come up with.

Picked up the original novel of Starship Troopers. I so love this book.

American hostage may be dead in the Philippines - nothing yet confirmed (there's no body yet), though the Phillie government says now it may be true. I believe units like 160th SOAR, Delta Force, and the Rangers are qualified for this sort of thing.

Went shooting today, did much fun. Carved the 10-ring out of the target at 7 yards with the Glock toy. I'm almost sad it's not mine. XD

For just 600 dollars, you too can have a 1600x1200 digital camera. DAMN. I want one.

And the Pentium 4 will hit 1.8 gigahertz processors July 2 with the 2,000 megahertz chips availible at the end of the quarter.

This ought to remind you of just what kinds of freedom we have here. This discussion that Kristi and I have been having, and some of my other posts online don't happen in China - Liu Weifang was sentenced to three years in state prison for posting antigovernment messages on the world wide web according to the government-run newspaper. They convicted him of inciting subversion and called him a major threat to national security.

And these people are our friends?