Demonstration: Make a fist like you were holding on a gun pointing your finger straight out, and pull back on the top of your hand to simulate recoil. Your whole arm bends. Now hold your hand sideways, arm & hand in same position. Pull SIDEWAYS on your hand, to simulate recoil. Your whole arm bends. Why? Because you just twisted your wrist, badly. Go grab an icepack, and write I WILL NOT HOLD MY GUN LIKE A GANGSTA PISSANT with your other hand 100 times on the chalkboard. Class dismissed.

Works for me, Ragabash. I wonder if he'll refuse to bring pizzas to us after this. And, the new toy is Ultimate Badass, since I recall you expressing much sparklies over the photos of it. Oh yeah - there's a lot of empty space in the new layout, above the text...did you want to consider filling any of that in, or what? Just a thought.

Wish I knew how much the Chii kit is, she's sitting down and leaning back with the wind blowing her hair out straight, makes a gorgeous paperweight. Just waiting for the kit to come in...

Gaming group, bringing new different toy. < ^_^ >

P.S. Ragabash, got it, finished a few tweaks, and will put it up late late tonight. OOH! Another Chii resin kit, this one is orderable! And it has such pitty long hair...

Geneticists call this process the "histone code" and are only now beginning to comprehend it. Methyl, a very common organic molecule, interacts with the histone proteins that cover the DNA, and apparently use the reaction to control genetic growth and what genes are used. The problem is that there is no understanding yet of how the interaction works, and what DNA blocks are switched on or off by what histones. So now, even if a properly-combined embryo is created, if the histone-DNA interaction is incorrect, it will be a failure.

Perhaps this is why it takes so many efforts (nearly 1 in 300 on average) to develop a working clone by seeding an egg cell with genetic material from a donor - because the proteins in the genetic donor don't match the proteins in the egg cell, and the DNA may be recieving multiple sets of instructions from the same reaction. The other side of the equation is, it may not be a faulty _gene_ that causes genetic disease, but rather the proteins that control the gene itself.

The histone code is apparently the actual controls as to what instructions get read in the DNA makeup, and how things continue on with life. If the histone instructions ever become understood, not only will we know which genes control which features, but also how to turn them on and off. Until then, there's another layer of complexity to it all - which would seem to imply a rather planned and created design for life, rather than mere chance at best. Could something as simple as mere randomness produce something this extravagant, this detailed, even down to the literally molecular level? The closer we look, the more we see God's signature.

The PDBs are still at it in Chechnya as well, with 6 Russian cops dead from a bomb blast that knocked out the APC they were in. On Friday, eleven other Russian troops were wounded when they got into a firefight with rebels east of Grozny. So far, thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed, along with thousands of civilians and rebels in the area since 1999, in what Moscow continues to call an "anti-terrorist operation" that seems to smack again of Afghanistan and Vietnam. And noone really knows just WHY this operation has drawn on this long, and what the point to it is.

12 arrested in Israel during a demonstration outside the Israeli-held Orient House held to protest the Israeli takeover of the unofficial PLO HQ. It is "unacceptable" that the Israelis have occupied the building, said the Pallie cabinet minister. The Israeli takeover came after the heroic self-sacrifice of Hamas f*ckhead terrorist Izzedine Shuhin al-Masri and his brave, courageous act of strapping explosives to his body and protesting the horrible treatment of the valiant, noble, honorable Palestinian people by the evil, oppressive Jews by sending his own murderous terrorist ass to hell, and killing 15 innocent Jewish bystanders at the same time, just because they felt like getting a pizza. Nice guy.

Sharon will not negotiate until the violence stops, Arafat promises to stop the bombings only after he gets a negotiated peace. Well, some months ago the Israelis DID try a peace accord and cease-fire, back when Arafat was making the same promise. And y'know what he did when the Israelis wanted to negotiate? Made all kinds of promises, and then that very day called for a Day of Rage (again) and over 60 Israelis died in 5 separate car- and suicide-bombings in 48 hours. Nice guy.

The Pallies are in Israel at the whim of the Israelis - you think these guys WANT to hang around with people that they're taught to hate and kill? Wouldn't the Pallies get along far better being in an Arab nation? Apparently not - they used to be in Syria, who didn't want a damn thing to do with the Pallies, and threw the whole lot of them out. Nice guys.

Airman fined 100,000 yen (approximately 800 dollars) for torching a car in Okinawa while drunk. Yeah, there's a way to get along. Just because the Japanese do need us over there to keep the North Koreans and Chinese from getting damned frisky, doesn't mean we can shit on their flagpole and make them take it.

Just to prove asshole bandit terrorists aren't just limited to the Middle East, Angolan train ambush kills 16 and wounds 56 more after a mine on the tracks disabled the train and then gunmen open fire on the survivors. The 500 passengers on the train were refugees from the war between the Angolan government and the UNITA rebel forces. The UNITA force has been fighting against the government for the last 26 years, ever since Angola (in West Africa) was given independence from Portugal.

And now for the weird. British porcine disease outbreak prompts new TV show based on the popular Big Brother show - "Pig Brother". Five pigs will compete in September to raise money for the farmers out there, since 3.7 million sheep, cattle, and pigs have been killed trying to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease. Callers will vote pigs off the show, and a portion of the cost of the call will go to support a charity called Supporting Farmers In Crisis. Considering that the Brits have far fewer TV stations than the Americans do, it might actually gain some popularity - which will, no doubt, be boosted by the fact the ham actors are named after various Brit politicians.

And in a fine case of lawyers being far too powerful for our own good, the New Scientist magazine that published the original article about the Cactus copy protection damaging speakers printed a "correction" today under orders of the lawyers for Midbar Tech, the company developing Cactus. And now that the lawyers have stepped in, well, golly, gotta throw out those negative-sounding test results and "correct" the truth.

Who needs a fricking Cray block anymore, just do your computers in large-scale networks and run a 13.6 teraflop/second megaprocessor with 600 terabytes of HD space. Or, for more modern numbers, 13,600,000 megahertz and 600,000,000 megabytes of storage. For a mere 53 million, the planners are building this from thousands of Linux workstations that already exist, and several thousand more with the next-generation Itanium processors from IBM. The plan for this is to set up a "computing power" grid, like the electrical power grids nationwide, to be allocated to whomever needs things. Interesting idea, I wonder how well it'll go over. And, the whole thing combined together is quite scary that they will have that much power together. I wonder if it'll wake up.

Hmm. Spread the panic of school shootings a bit more...remember the article posted about Zero Tolerance, and how (on Department of Justice numbers) out of the millions of children in the schools (some 75 million estimated) only 40 people, adults included, have actually been killed in school? Basically leaving with - since 1996, 5 years now - one person, adults included, per two million children actually murdered in school. Yet...look at this latest report on "school violence" and look at their incredible numbers.

Okay. As a quick aside, someone mind explaining how you can have 60+ days between attempts in one month? And now let's take a look at the main numbers - four days between school killings in February? And less than 15 on the slow month? Damn, these kids are slaughtering themselves, why don't you ever hear about it on the news? In fact, damn, the last school killing you heard about was the two back in March, in my old home-town. *ticks* March...April...May...June...July...and, a wee bit of August. Ya'll heard anything about one single school killing in that time? Sure, Nathan Brazil, but he did his deed LAST year, just got recently SENTENCED. Doesn't count.

Oh but now, upon close examination of the article we find these two paragraphs next to each other:

February led the months of the school year, with about one homicide for every four days, followed by September with about one every six days. December had the lowest homicide rate -- one for every 15 days.

School violence has fallen steadily over the past decade and remains extremely rare. Less than 1 percent of homicides and suicides of school-age children happen at school.

YOUR GOVERNMENT IS LYING TO YOU. It always will, to further what it thinks its own interests are - namely, growth and expansion via more laws and more taxes. Power corrupts, and absolute power...you all know the adage. Any way the government can distort the truth and present it to you wrapped up in a little bow, to play off your emotions...and get the media's help doing it, with the hype surrounding school killings (out of those inifitesimal numbers, the problem has been blown up so much 40% of parents think that their kids are at risk of a shooting), why, it sounds rather like an old propaganda machine, now doesn't it?

Remember this. Remember the TRUTH as to the violence, and just how deep out of their ass they're pulling this information. Remember this when you see the next batch of Zero-Tolerance/Gun-Control legislation come soon. I warn you now.

Remember the Russians having screaming fits about the US developing an ABM system? And my comments as to how it was like being yelled at, by someone next door threatening to kill you, for putting in bulletproof windows? And, ya'll recall that little headline for the story I couldn't get to in the Russian military journal, MilParade? The one that mentioned that a ballistic missile defense system was a guarantor of security and a good defense?

All of a sudden, Russia says that it feels antiballistic missile tests in Alaska will NOT violate the ABM treaty after all. In fact, the Americans can test anti-ballistic weapons all you like, as long as you notify the Russians what they're doing, and vice versa. This comes as a major surprise because as recently as last week Putin had announced again his opposition to an ABM system. And now there's a Russian general telling us it's just fine with his country if we test the ABM defenses, and if they test theirs, because it magically now WON'T bother the treaty?

There's little details given as to what General Baluyevsky meant as to "notification" or "testing", but hopefully clarification will come on Saturday when SecDef Rumsfeld meets with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one then.

In the meantime...why the sudden 180 degree switch? Why did the Russians go from complete opposition to the US plan (and were trying to convince Europe of this) to a sudden go right ahead and just let us know when you're testing, this fast? I want to see what Russia's been working on - did they suddenly get some sort of monster laser/optics breakthrough, or develop some nifty new anti-missile software? Or did they suddenly get their hands on something stolen from us, or even worse - a recent personnel transfer put a Russian agent into the ABM plans?

Call me paranoid, but the old KGB and its progeny, SVR, are THE pros when it comes to infiltrating a foreign intelligence apparatus. Robert Hanssen, anyone? Guy's been working for the Russians since they were Soviets, and THE ENTIRE TIME they have been good buddy buddy demokratski. And let's not forget the traitor rat bastard Aldritch Ames - who better to turn as a KGB agent than THE FUCKING HEAD OF CIA?! So yes, the Russians are well and long known for being able to get agents in place, for a LONG damn time. I'd call for a MAJOR security review, and also a close look at what we have over there and try to find out what's going on.

Countries DO NOT make major changes on things like this...I wonder if China/India is dealing with the Russians...get a working ABM system and we'll pay out the @$$ for it as the terms of the contract. Maybe the Russians got wind of a real threat from the New Players and It's all speculation - but I was right about them lying through their teeth as to just how they felt about an Anti-Ballistic Missile defense system. And might I add, that since before that treaty was signed in 1972, Moscow has had a working ABM system the entire time? Keep track of this one...

Game group, Sunday, 7:30-8:00.

Ooh, Microsoft - telling the world to prepare for Code Red with all its patches - gets whacked hard, internally and externally with the worm. Apparently the internal network got nailed hard when someone brought in an infected laptop and hooked it in to the corporate network. Chomp chomp hock spit, and the MS net went down.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was just what the Code Red inventor DREAMED of.

And yet more Fun With Bill - phreakers get free international access and try to call Bill from an internet park bench in England. They never got ahold of Bill, sadly, but they did get the point across that M$ is paying for some international calls that they shouldn't be. Ah well, such is life.

Anyone who knows databases care to explain the M$-SQL story to me please?

More debate about the viability of the current stem cell line, and the decision seems to have been popular - 50% polled agreed with the president, 25% disagreed with his choice, and a whopping 25% didn't care one way or another.

First off - Bush did not say that the dismantling of a human embryo to acquire the "stem" cells is illegal - merely that research using cells obtained in that manner will not get federal grant money. He reasons that the current lines of research have already had "the decision of life or death" made, but will not force taxpayers to pay for cell research that would involve the question of whether or not a life is being taken or kept from growing.

President Bush did endorse heavy funding - $250 million dollars worth - on other forms of stem-cell research - namely, adults, umbilical cords, placentas, and animals, all good sources of the same material availible - but this time, not without deconstructing the base of a human being to get at them. In the umbilical and placental sources, the adult body has already rejected them and so there's no need of the tissue anymore. Considering there's far more births in this country than there are availible, usable, fertilized embryos, why not simply utilize those from the availible, unneeded maternal organs?

The president also will create a new Council on Bioethics that will watch medical and biotech research as it goes further along, and consider ethical and scientific tradeoffs comparatively. Reaction to the choice is mixed, with some agreeing to the decision and calling it a "decent and honorable" move, and "a fair step forward". Opponents cited in the CNN story include Montel Williams - who, despite having multiple sclerosis, I would not hardly qualify as a biotech research expert - and his commentary that the existing cell lines may or may not be viable.

Bush has a good situation, and considering the subtleties, made an excellent call - he did not outright ban the stem cell research, only said that he would not fund it for that specific method of collection. Bush has some control over what the taxpayer money goes to, and he is carefully limiting it. The money you pay in taxes, no matter what you believe about the government, goes to support the whole thing - whether you agree with it or not, you still pay for it. Bush makes the move that you, the reader, will not have to support the funding of stem-cell research if you do not want to. If you're all for stem-cell research, then it's your money to do with as you please, and by all means send it off to the biotech companies. But it shouldn't be taken from you quite literally at gunpoint, which is what Bush's plan does. He won't spend taxpayer money on something that a sizeable portion of those taxpayers disagree with, but he also won't make the research illegal. Also, appointing an oversight committee is an excellent idea - at the rate science is gaining, an ethics board may become necessary, like with the case of the Three Rogues and their cloning attempt soon.

And, in the Middle East, Israel makes major move against the Palestinian Authority. First, an F-16 nailed a Pallie police station with two AGMs (Air to Ground Missile), and apparently pulls off the attack without injury, even admitted by the Pallie Red Crescent society. Then, Israeli forces take a chunk of East Jerusalem and shut it down. This area includes the unoffical headquarters of the still-existing PLO, and the house of the governor of Abu Dis, the main base of "Force 17", Arafat's "elite guard". Also included in the area is the headquarters for Palestinian military and police agencies, and the Israelis also occupied the Orient House, the unofficial Foreign Ministry for the Palestinians. The whole region is officially under Israeli control and the Pallies agreed not to operate forces in the area.

Refined totals from the suicide bombing at the Sbarro's Pizzaria in Jerusalem bring it to 15 dead and over 100 injured. Among the dead include one United States citizen/resident (the story is not clear on this status) Shoshana Greenbaum. Claiming credit for a "heroic act" first was Islamic Jihad, and then Hamas. Islamic Jihad later retracted its claim. These sick f*ckers are arguing over who did it not to blame, but to accept the laurel wreath of a job well done?!

Shortly after the bombing, Yassir Arafat issued a statement that supposedly condemned the violence and asked the Israelis to join a "comprehensive cease-fire". First off, this was offered to Arafat months ago, who refused to join until after several suicide bombings that killed well over 60 Israeli civilians turned international attention against the Pallies. Arafat paid lip service to the agreement though apparently has yet to follow any part of it, and at last check has not arrested those responsible in the previous bombings.

If Arafat were serious about this peace process, he'd hand over the names of the Islamic Jihad AND the Hamas crew to the Israelis, because a) they're a terrorist organization, b) they're killing the Israelis and taking CREDIT for it, and c) making Arafat look bad internationally because he can't keep control of the Pallies. And so that pretty much eliminates his "Authority". But Arafat hates the Israelis, and if Islamic Jihad can kill more of them, he's happy. And will keep right on protecting them and breaking the agreements he makes with any other country to keep using them.

Terrorists have no major agenda - they are not fermenting revolution, because you need popular support for a revolution. You do not get popular support by vaporizing 8 year old kids by the dozen. They are murderers and bandits, pure and simple, and should be dealt with like the human scum they are - hunted down to die cold, alone, in the dark, and collectively forgotten like a bad dream. Let Allah or God be the judge of their past lives - just give them all an early appointment to the court.

In other news, The Register was down today apparently due to a shooting in London. Interestingly, the news article notes that there is a rising trend in gun crime, even encroaching within the central capital area itself. Apparently the gun crimes are now an everyday occurrence over there in most boroughs. Might I add that the country banned the ownership of firearms in 1996 because one single licensed gun owner flipped his lid and went off? Yes, it was a tragic event, but the move to eliminate all legal civilian firearms ownership sure seems to have put people in danger, if they can't defend themselves.

Just a thought.

In the meantime, you remember the Cactus Data Protection CDs? The ones that have a control-noise-pattern built in so that if a ripped and/or burned disc is played, the noise would damage/destroy speakers? There's a million of them now availible in Europe so be careful what you buy if you decide to rip.

That's enough for now, I guess. Someday I'm going to sit down in front of the computer and not have anything more to say, and I won't know what to do then. Fortunately, this world is stupid and f*cked up enough that that day shouldn't happen for quite some time yet.

Till the world grows a brain and gets a clue, or till someone puts a slug through my head just to see if my loudmouth @$$ is really dead this time, Spent Casings stays open and never backs down.

As far as whether the cells are even useful or not - well, sure, stem cells (which have no specific purpose in the body and can grow or change into any type of cell) are useful, especially in combatting genetic defects. During discussion of the stem cell question on Rush Limbaugh this morning (far more intelligent than most Las Vegas morning radio, I will say) a man called in who had stem cells taken from an _adult_ body applied to his corneas, which actually gave him some sight restoration. And, for the fighting of alzheimers, there are other drugs that show extremely promising effect, so is this embryo stem cell research really all that necessary?

While typing, CNN just finished the Bush announcement. I have projects to do at work at the moment, but CNN's coverage is here. Will get to it shortly.

And I sympathize with the wrong-blog error ^_^ I'm just waiting for Tomoyo to scream at the bad things in the world, or me going all cosplay-happy...and having trouble deciding just which would be worse.

Outliving your children is a horrible thing, but outliving them as a victim of severe Alzheimer's is worse... Daughter of former United States President Ronald Reagan Maureen Reagan dead at 60 from brain cancer. She was his first daughter, from the marriage with Jane Wyman, and had battled skin cancer since 1996. Last month it was discovered that the tumor had spread to her brain, and apparently it went quickly from there. She leaves behind her husband and a 16 year old daughter.

In New York, police officer Joseph Gray ran down and killed 3 people and a fetus that later died after delivery at the hospital Saturday night. He was drunk at the time, and has since been charged with multiple counts, up to and including vehicular homicide. A subsequent investigation shows that the situation is worse at the 72nd Precint, there were four other police with Gray at the Wild Wild West topless bar - which is off-limits to police, on- or off-duty. The police cooperated with the investigation and did not attempt to hide behind any "wall of silence".

In light of this, Giulani announced major action against police in the precint - Five officers, including the Precint Commander, his XO, and the Integrity Control Officer, and two supervising sergeants for the day shift have been transferred to other precints. Six officers - Gray himself, 2 sergeants for drinking in public in front of the topless bar (one of whom was inside the bar with Gray) and the 3 other officers who were also inside with Gray. Seven other officers found drinking in the precint parking lot were also cited.

I'm glad to see it. Of all people ANYWHERE, cops should know the dangers of alcohol and ANYTHING - driving, firearms, all of it. Officers also have a higher standard to hold to as guardians of the populace. The badge says To Protect And Serve, so that's what you have to do. A solid response - against all who were there that night, no scapegoating or sending messages, and also against the COs for either allowing it to happen or endorsing it. Yes, police work is a very difficult and stressful job - but you do not cross the line or else you don't become a cop. Gray fucked up, big and hard. And now he's paying for it, and so are the other officers who thought they wouldn't get caught. Good.

Most cops out there, the ones you never hear about because they do their job well, fair, and peacefully, and toe the thin line, are good folks. Sadly, the bronze that gets the most news are the ones that really screw it up, and it makes it hard for the rest of the force. Coming down on things like this has to be done, because of the duty that police are charged with. The police especially have to follow the rules they enforce, or else they become mere thugs for use by the government. They have to, and for the vast part do, keep clean, follow the rules, and go home quietly. It's stressful. It's damn stressful, go ask any policeman who's been out there a few years in a big city. But that was part of the job, and those who can't or won't deal with the rules - like Gray - need to get out of the force before they cause another incident as well.

And in the meantime, a family in New York is decimated...

John Tobin, US student jailed 6 months ago in Russia for questionable drug charges, back home after an early release on his 1 year sentence. And with unpleasant things to say about dear Mother Russia, namely comments about the wonderful (lack of a) legal system they have over there. As for the sentencing, the Russians say they busted him first on marijuana posession charges, then accused him of training to be a spy though he was never charged with espionage. Tobin says that the Russians approached him to spy for the Americans, and that he turned them down. If that's true, tack on the "political research" he was doing, and I smell a little fishiness here.

Then again, it's all too possible he did have the marijuana, though considering the spy charge in the case I'm strongly tempted to believe Tobin. The Russians have been paranoid b@stards, even after the Good Old Days, about spies and espionage, and have always been damn good at it. Plus, the accusations of spying tossed haphazardly on top of the drug charges, and then not followed through, smell like real fuzzy evidence and more like a setup job. Ah well, either way he's home and probably has a lot of political theses now, and plenty of hard data to work with. Welcome back home, dude.

And continuning this morning...Time.com published an article discussing the rogue scientists that are carrying out the cloning experiments against the rulings of the different countries. Ignoring the laws being passed and the criticism of their scientific colleagues, and apparently ignoring the possibilities of danger, the trio (Dr. Severino Antinori, Dr. Panayiotis (Panos) Zavos, and Dr. Brigitte Boisselier) say they will continue experiments and produce clones for the first 200 families that came to them. They claim that what they are doing is "therapeutic cloning" - is it really? Well, let's go talk to good old Webster about what "therapeutic" means:

Of or pertaining to the healing art; concerned in discovering and applying remedies for diseases; curative.

Either way, in 10 years these three will be international pariahs or else hailed as geniuses who changed the world, there's not a lot of middle ground availible on this.

19 dead in Islamic Jihad bombing of a restaurant in Jerusalem after a suicide bomber loaded himself up and went to go see Allah, Egyptian style. The Sbarro restaurant was also located at a major intersection leading within the Israeli side of Jerusalem, and the restaurant was utterly destroyed. The terrorist sons of bitches at Islamic Jihad had this to say about the bombing:

"Around 2 p.m. today the heroic martyr Husseini Omar Abou Naeseh, 23 years old, belonging to Walid Beharad, carried out a suicide operation inside a restaurant in the juction of Jaffa Street and King David (sic) in the heart of occupied Jerusalem ," a statement faxed to news agencies in Beirut said.

There's no logic over there, just an incredibly deep-seated hatred of the Israelis by the Palestinians, and the Pallie government won't do anything to stop it. In fact they encourage it, with the releases of known terrorists in the area and Arafat's direct support of Fatah, and the refusal to fulfill his promise and start dealing himself with the Pallie terrorists. I'll bet you that that "Walid Beharad", or whoever that codeword stands for, never sees justice for this until a quick flash in the air and an explosion announces the end of another terrorist.

The Pallies are severely outnumbered and outgunned in this - if it came to a straight-up, knock-down fight, the Pallies would be wiped out utterly. It won't happen, because Israel has a long memory, and 1935-1945 wasn't that long ago as far as they are concerned. When they said "Never Again" they meant anyone in that position - mass murder of an entire culture. The Israelis won't destroy the Pallies, and the Pallies know it - so they'll do all they can to ruin the Israeli day, knowing that they will only pay in small amounts for their actions. And it's not going to change anytime soon.

President Bush to make his decision on stem-cell research at 9pm EST tonight. After long consultations with dozens of experts, and a lot of debate as to what the benefits may be compared to the ethics of the choice and what the future may hold, his decision on it has apparently been made. It's believed he will put forth a proposal similar to Senator Bill Frist (a Republican transplant-surgeon-cum-senator), who endorsed funding for research using only embryos from fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded, and would ban the fresh creation of embryos soley for research methods. Written consent for any created embryos "donated" would be required. Frist's plan also calls for an increase in support for adult stem-cell research as well. We'll know later tonight...

Computer crash knocks JAL systems off-air and forces manual processing of tickets, flights, and caused major delays in the airport. Thank god it wasn't the ATC grid, that could have gotten ugly in a hurry.

Zeruel, hey man, there's nothing to be annoyed about being on the computers for 9 hours - just kick back and take a break now and then, and enjoy the greatest miracle of mankind - air conditioning! And nice work on the wasps - shame you couldn't have torched the little monsters, flamethrowers do a fiiiiine number on them.

And RIAA decides to take off the mask and show its colors, demanding that Napster be shut down permanently. The RIAA filed its motion and wants an October 1 hearing to completely close down the Napster service - even for public-domain music, like folk or classical. And the RIAA doesn't seem to be doing this for money, but rather to excersize legal power as a private organization - Napster tried to deal, but RIAA said no and then demanded a lesser deal themselves.

Napster in February offered the recording industry $1 billion over five years for the right to use copyrighted music, but that offer was rejected as inadequate.

In this week's filing, the RIAA said it wanted to press ahead for immediate damages, which could top $100 million.

Sounds to me like the RIAA is going to seriously push for its own online music sharing and wants Napster completely gone out of the picture, and so is trying to get them to shut down for good. RIAA wants dominance of the music industry, like M$, and probably will get it nowadays too.

Happy birthday, Nadia! ^_^

Again, apologies for the late post, but the lightning was HARD last night...and when it's less than 3 seconds from flash to thunder, it's time to shut down for the night. Especially because it was still going on after I passed out.

And my brand new neighbor/s nearly got themselves shot yesterday night around 3am, after either they or their friends came charging up the stairs, yelling at each other and pounding against my wall and window. Yes, 3am. Had they come armed through door or window, things would have turned into a firefight quickly. Unarmed, they would have been sniffing carpet in seconds with police on the way. Needless to say my night was extraordinarily sleepless, and yes I would pull the trigger on an entry if they showed lethal threat - Las Vegas has a crime rate that's sadly rather high and I _WILL NOT_ be a victim. Great if you don't condone violence, but that won't stop people who do from choosing you as a target. Either way, I'm not in a terribly happy mood this morning (4 hours of horribly interrupted sleep makes an unhappy bear out of Icchan), and I'm gonna call it here. G'nite all, off to go take care of stuff and then get running to work.

Well well, Saddam Hussein is getting an attack of grandeur. Saddam warns the US not to fly over his territory and says he is "entitled" to upgrade his air-defense network. Saddam also accuses the US of using Iraqi defenses as an excuse to attack his country, and likens this action to the Gulf War - apparently believing that the Americans attacked him for the hell of it, and is telling his people that Washington is using this upgrade of his hardware as a similar excuse to violate his sovereign rights.

First off...Saddam, you little worthless impotent "dictator", your ass is only alive because the Americans gave more credit to the...7? 8? attempts against your life, and we figured you'd be dead in six months after your invasion of Kuwait. And as hard an beating as you got in late February 1991, you think that what we do now - surgical elimination of a rocket launcher, AAA, or radar site that tries to shoot down one of our plans - is a real assault? Wake your ass up, or else a boot labeled PROPERTY UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT is going to come back and severely kick the hell out of it. And what's this bullsh*t that you're "entitled" to do anything? You can do anything you like, as long as we let you, and you can try to fight it as hard as you can, but guess what Saddam? There IS NO divine right of kings. And this is a pretty hard world to live in, if you don't want to get along. Get out of the way, go put a real ruler into Iraq, and maybe we'll be nice, but till then, go screw a camel.

And making the anarchists happy, the Italian police admit to brutality against protestors at the recent G8 summit, in which 200 were injured and 1 killed. Since then, 3 of Italy's top policemen, including the deputy head of the Italian police and the Genoa police chief, have been fired. The Italians do say that the violence was started by "violent criminals" - namely the anarchist firebombing of the prison - but that the police response was an excessive use of force. The Italian PM also suggests that a UN Food and Agriculture Organization conference be moved from Rome to somewhere in Africa.

Amusing on several levels - namely, African nations aren't going to take troublemakers very well, but more than a few have major bones to pick with the UN. And that might get far more violent than any wannabe anarchists and environmentalist whackos. Wouldn't that make for an interesting headline, UN conference taken hostage by the military of (insert African country). And why exactly does the UN want to meet in nice, cushy, Rome, rather than going to where the people who really need Food and Agriculture help are? Isn't the UN supposed to be the World Savior or some crap like that? Go get your hands dirty and go where the problem is, guys.

Operation Avalanche, a major investigation into child pornography by Landslide Inc., nets over a hundred indictments and convictions of the couple running the company on dozens of charges, multiple sexual exploitation of minors, distribution of child porn, and much related. There were over a quarter-million sick f*cks subscribing to the sites, and more arrests for child pornography are expected as they contine working through the lists. Warrants for the webmasters, living in Russia and Indonesia, have already been issued.

Ever wondered just what your dog had to say? Japan thinks it has a rough canine translator. It listens to the bark, and gauges six different emotions and displays how the dog feels on a little handheld device, connected by IR beam. It also stores a record of the dog's emotions during the day. It'll run 12800 yen, it's called the Bow-lingual, and it hits stores in February. Wonder how well it works...

And in India, a couple in love has apparently been hanged by the parents and villagers because they were of different castes. Apparently, the parents were tipped off Monday by villagers, that the two were seeing each other, and so they took the two people and hanged them from the roof of one of the houses in the village. Noone in the village reported the murder. Six people - including the girl's parents and two brothers - have been arrested, the boy's have yet to be captured. Interestingly, despite the witnesses who came forward and the arrests, there's a version of the story being spread that says Sonu (the girl) and Vishal (the guy) eloped and then hung themselves separately.

We wonder why that country is in so much trouble...

Bunch of stuff at the register I'm going to link, but not go into detail now due to time constraints, and I want to discuss it with people who know more than me. M$' .NET plan may close down the Open Source movement (yeah right, this I have to see) and M$ also announces the revival/future implementation of a brand-new data storage scheme, Blackcomb.

And, attention FIE and Cellblock D: August 24 is Slacker Day!

And actually I use Popup Killer, which doesn't block the ones that you open yourself, either with a target=new HTML or javascript open:new, or anything that you do an "open in new window" on. But it'll kill any popup that comes on when you first open a window, or close one - to the accompanyment of a gunshot. Which was extraordinarily funny, because at one game site I was at a port ad popped up (saw it in the killed-windows list)...and a second later I was rewarded with a 6 second string of gunfire from the computer, as Popup Killer went full auto on all the close-window-spawn-new-one commands. It was great, I was cracking up that it tried to open so many windows, and PUK nail'ed 'em all. Good program. Plus, you can edit the Black List and put things like *koff* tripod ads in it, or take out stuff you want to see (why?). Double-plus good program.

The obvious main point was the confirmation that this company will begin its first batch of cloning with 200 women, to impregnate them with a cloned embryo made by combining a "somatic" cell from the body into an egg cell, then transferring that into the uterus. The cell seems to be coming from the father, because it's mentioned later on that the method is a way for infertile males to pass on their genes.

All ethics questions aside, let's look at this for a moment from a purely biological idea. Darwin's theory about Natural Selection holds much water, even if the large-scale Evolution theory was disproved and later even recanted by Darwin himself as foolishness. Natural Selection basically means that the slow, infirm, sick, or infertile generally won't live to breed. So do we want infertile people spreading their genetics into the population? Or do we even want to start considering the idea of sorting people by their genetics - "Sorry, sir, you're infertile and your genes will not be a benefit to the human race." GATTACA may not be science-fiction someday, and nothing in Race, Creed, Sex, or Color mentions genetics yet.

Going back to their methods - they say they will use the same method as Dolly the sheep's cloning, which according to the scientists at the session challenging the cloning announcement has a success rate of 1 in 290. Yet the cloning team, apparently led by Dr. Panos Zavos, claims that they will do it right, or not at all. Even still, with such claims, they're not terribly popular. Said Zavos,

"They may be calling us mad scientists, which of course we're not, but this is very important," said Zavos, one of the human cloning advocates, during in a fiery exchange with a colleague who warned that the procedure was fraught with danger.

Italy as well has already begun "disciplinary action" against one of the scientists working with Dr. Zavos, and in March a Council of Europe ban on human cloning came into force as well. And this isn't the first time that Dr. Severino Antinori has been in medically-ethical hot water. He's known for helping a 62-year-old give birth in 1994, and in 1996 he helped a 59 year old British woman become the mother of twins. Antinori seems to be rather touchy on a religious basis as well, considering his comment about President Bush:

Antinori said he would argue in Washington that cloning is not a religious question, adding that U.S. President George W. Bush was only against cloning because "he listens to the Pope."

The primary issue for this whole affair is the survivability-rate. For the Dolly sheep, most of the embryos didn't develop. Some did. Of those, all but one were genetic failures and died. Only one sheep, out of all those attemps, actually was created - so what were those other attempts? What worth is the life of one sheep, when with cloning we can make a hundred exact copies, just as easily, that will "come out better"?

What worth is the life of a human, when with cloning we can make a hundred exact copies, just as easily, that will "come out better"? What if your baby that was just born has some sort of heart problem and will always have problems with life - do you chalk that one up to a genetic defect, scrap it, and try again with Clone Man 2.0? What about a kid with Downs syndrome, or any host of genetic diseases? What qualifies them as "failures" to be scrapped as a project and aborted? Or, alternately, what qualifies a success? If it breathes, and has a heart beat, but has two heads, no faces, and has misshapen tentacles for arms and legs, but it lived to birth, is that a success?

All those genetic errors - even the lack of a face - have occurred. There was a famous case some time back for infant plastic surgery, where a baby was born with a short-circuit of sorts in the DNA pattern - and the facial structure (eyes, mouth, nose, jaw, etc) didn't grow past the stage of about 3 weeks, where there was just an intake hole. The rest of the body was just fine, except for the horrible gash where the face was. It was an incredible amount and quality of plastic surgery and reconstruction, but now the girl has no more difficulty in life than an ordinary blind person.

Let's focus more on the problems of genetic disease and repairing malfunctions in the code, rather than creating YET MORE new life. Let's focus on the thousands and thousands of kids out there, infant and up, who don't have families and need the bonding. They who need a solid bonding with parents they will stay with for the rest of their lives, and not abandon them. Yes, the suicide rate for kids with foster parents is significantly higher in general - but if you look at the numbers, the ones who stay with one solid, loving family have no higher a rate than bio-related kids and parents.

Perhaps, again, evidence for a strong family structure being a requirement? And none of this who-needs-fathers/mothers-one-parent-independent-power bullshit? If that were how it was supposed to be, it'd be that way by human nature. But God, Allah, Gaea, or just good old humanity decided strong family structures were best to raise up kids in.

If you want a kid, ADOPT. If you're infertile, ADOPT. They need you more than you need to be known as a 21st Century Family. Leave the genetic research to solving problems rather than quite literally creating new ones.

It looks like plans were in the works for major strikes against Iraq as predicted last week, but plans do change and the strikes were called off. Questions of actual effectiveness against Iraqi air-defense due to heavy dispersal of the radar and AAA sites, and also questions of how much this would have damaged US relations in the area were the primary reason for canceling the operation. And, we're now down to just one carrier in the Persian Gulf, now that Constellation left on Saturday. Back to the usual grind...

Router blowout responsible for temporary death of The Register, combined with a host of Murphy pretty much kept things dead for some time. The site will be going down again later to finish switching out the router. In the meantime, a little bit of news from them.

Son of Code Red is born, with a little more potency for IIS machines and an interesting spin. I'm guessing that someone reverse-engineered the original worm and rebuilt it a bit, because this time it seriously forces open external access to IIS machines via a command shell, allowing full telnet access. Any scriptkiddie now can get into one of these trapdoors, according to The Reg. The funny part is that the language of the original virus made it attack any site that didn't have a Chinese-language server (and threw in that stupid little message), this new one apparently targets Chinese servers heavier than the American ones.

Microsoft's Passport system slammed by 2 AT&T scientists due to significant, undisclosed risks - partly because they're still using older SSL technology, and for not using an authenticator, and vulnerabilities to redirectors and DNS games.

How nice of them to support their neighbors. State Department to impose sanctions against Chinese companies for sending missile components to Pakistan in flagrant violation of their promise not to support nuclear missile programs. Apparently the government-run "corporation" (just how many big corps over there AREN'T?) has been sending a dozen known shipments of various missile parts to Pakistan, for use in the Paki Shaheen 1 and Shaheen 2 nuclear missile programs. This started this year, after China agreed last November to not assist any country with a nuclear missile program.

Nice work, Mr. Clinton and Loral Industries. Thanks to your definably treasonous activities with the sale of missile technology to China, endorsed by a president who wasn't wiping his ass with the American flag and saluting the Chinese one, now China is turning around and spreading that information and its older hardware to other countries. Bill, you greedy arrogant bastard, I hope you're happy in Harlem.

Interestingly the Chinese are seriously playing games over there in Asia - they've signed on tight with the Russians, and the Russians are good friends with the Indians and have them in the same treaty as the Chinese. The Pakistanis and the Indians had their little atomic pissing contest back in '99, and over there the threat of nuclear strike is much higher. Now China, possibly an ally to India, is selling nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan - I wonder what the Indians have to say about this. And if China's selling to both sides...double your profits, and keep both markets since one side won't move without major advantage. Also curious to find out what the Russians think. Milparade might have something next issue.

Google the search engine actually making a profit?! Wow. That puts it among very limited company and is all the more exceptional when you realize...it's STILL just a search engine. It doesn't have all the portal "features" of Yahoo or Lycos (thank god), but it managed to actually bring in an implied-sizeable profit. Good work, gang. Don't screw up the system now that it's working.

There is some information on the cloning experiment soon to be announced here on CNN but the press conference has not yet been held apparently. I'll wait for that before reporting.

Common sense is breaking out all over, noone bid in the Name-My-Kid-After-Your-Company auction. Apparently the idiot parents of the kid are going to now have to find some more ridiculous way to scrape together their fortune, because they're not going to get it that way. I'm reminded of the son who killed his father over the strange name he was given...in this case, if it happened with this kid, I'd call it justifiable homicide and let him go. In a side note, the boy is now named Zane.

And, in a case of breaking news while reporting it, an Iraqi antiaircraft missile launcher was splattered with a pair of laser-guided bombs after it launched 3 SAMs at US aircraft in the area. Iraq continues to violate the no-fly zones, this time penetrating 60 miles of airspace with a Mig-23 before turning back, without losing the a/c. If you're going to have a no-fly zone, put it over the whole country and enforce it by killing all the fighters on the ground. The best antiaircraft gun is your tank parked on your enemy's airfield.

Blair...you sick, tortured, poor poor b@st@rd. He built this from foam, fabric, tupperware, easter eggs, and coke bottles. I KID YOU NOT. Tomoyo will review all the entries later.

I am robbed of my fun, The Register's still down and out today.

Hmm. Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones is the new title for episode two. Why not just call it Send In The Clones instead? According to the story, the movie hits theaters in spring of 2002 - right around the same time the cloning debate ought to get real hot. Nice timing, Mr. Lucas.

Yet another blast from the past, Takara has rereleased the old Starscream toy from the Transformers show. Cool stuff.

Blarg...nothing much fun today in the news, at a glance. Tired. Slightly sick. Headache. Off to Tomoyo's blog...

And, my, my, the Gundam Project is already ready for questions! The front page has direct links to the Gundam and 08th MS Team sections, plus a UC Overview. Good stuff.

Hmm, wonder what happened to The Reg? *trace* Hmm. Seems to be blowing up in London somewhere, after the gigabitethernet servers. Sprintlink's a little bit hosed in the west US too, over 2000ms seektimes...

And just to prove that it can happen to anyone - Misaki's friend Lily nearly had a breakin from two guys who were banging on her door and fortunately couldn't get over the fence. Think you're safe? I doubt the criminals will read your mind and believe it.

Oh, here we go. Remember when I predicted that bans and such don't last long, and that sooner or later someone is going to start large-scale work with clones? I was right. Lexington, KY-based private corporation announces plan to clone 200 infertile couples, with the hope of producing a baby for them. They will announce plans at a major press conference tomorrow, I'll post up info as I find it.

So far, no humans have yet been cloned, however there have been successful attempts with mice, sheep, and cows. However, one thing that doesn't get mentioned much - those cloned animals had a LOT of failures beforehand. Too-fast growth rates, other "abnormalities", and some just died. The method that this company wants to use to create its 200 children is the same one that was used to create Dolly the cloned sheep...but it took 277 attemps to get Dolly, the rest were all failures of various types. The human body does not have 277 egg-cells to spare...so let's be nice and say the success rate is 1 in 50, through whatever refinements - so that would give an expected 9800 failures in the experiment. There's something to have hanging over your head, ten thousand failures to create the baby you have in your hands.

If you want a kid, there's another SLIGHTLY more successful way to get one - ADOPT. We have enough loose kids out there without families - if you're willing to spend your love and life on a child, spend it on one who is already born and has the need for you. You can adopt all the way to infants, if you don't want to have the specter of Second Parents hanging over you. Children are out there. They need you. Consider this before you consider being a Star Trek Family.

And in a fit of unexpected sanity, the California Supreme Court overturned the previous ruling allowing victims to sue gunmakers for damages from illegal use of their product. Yes, that's right, OVERTURNED - the previous court threw out all logic and reason and the precedent of 30 other states and decided that CA could sue gunmakers. Amazingly, the ruling was 5-1 - so who voted that the gunmakers could be sued?

Remmeber what I said about a lawsuit-happy nation? Wanting a quick buck in the world, let's sue Ford for example for making a car that goes fast because people get drunk and drive them and kill people. (lots more than guns, I might add) So your illegal use of a product and the illegal taking of life can be blamed on the carmaker? Hell, let's sue any maker for cars that go over 65mph because you could get a speeding ticket. Let's just sue, sue, sue, and eliminate responsibility from the entire book. You're not responsible for anything you do! What fun!

Nadia...wow. Nice work, I must say. Except that your experience seems to support the possibility that the Z-T plan is not so much punishment for crimes as it is domination of students and the flexing of what little power a few educrats have.

I'd just like to know what the Zero-Tolerance policy would have done with those threats - would telephones be banned in the school? Would they hold locker sweeps for illegal telephones? Hell, I'd put a handset in my locker every time they announced one.

Socialism, Nadia. The birth of it here in schools, hopefully this crap gets proven for the crap it is and gets pulled.

And another new reader, Dani, who apparently makes Angelica and me her only listed links now. I feel special. Argh.

You...you b*stard. You're selling a Thompson M1, vintage, in MINT CONDITION, fully automatic, for only 5 thousand. You idiot, those guns are going for 15 easy! And I'm REALLY pissed because...5 thousand was a workable amount of cash for doing the Pulse Rifle Project...I coulda done it with a machinegun...*cries*

And, in addition to batch of new linked bloggers, also (finally) got around to archiving my noted gun/rights rants, and put them up with the UN Rant and the filks, in the Archives section. Been meaning to for weeks, just never got around to it. Also added a link to the cosplay blog, Fanart in Fabric, so if you're really bored go there.