Schiavo Dies After Feeding Tube Removed

Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose final years tethered to a feeding tube sparked a bitter feud over her fate that divided a family and a nation, died Thursday, her husband's attorney said.

Toshiba battery charges to 80% in one minute

From InfoSyncWorld:

Battery recharging woes may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new battery developed by Toshiba. According to an announcement made today, Toshiba has improved on its existing Lithium Ion battery technology through the implementation of nanoparticles which aid in preventing the rapid disassembly of organic electrolytes witnessed in current batteries, allowing for rapid charging and a massive improvement in battery capacity loss over time.

Toshiba claims its new battery is capable of obtaining a charge of 80% in as short time as a minute, and also produced test results showing that following a test cycle of 1,000 charges and depletions, the decrease seen in battery capacity was a mere 1%. Aiming to commercialize the technology in 2006, Toshiba did not comment on whether pricing levels for batteries based on the new technology would remain similar to current battery pricing.

This would be nice, but they could also do everybody a favor and make the average battery life a lot longer. A story in the NYTimes in January ("Power Users, Ready for a Refill") talked about the scarce resource of power outlets in Starbucks and other cafe-type places of business -- more and more people are using battery-powered devices constantly, and battery life needs to keep up. And we have yet to see the wire-free recharging pad come to market, first mentioned in 2002 coming from MobileWise.

The Laura K. Pahl Saga

It's the story of how a college student turned to plagiarism, and how the Internet crushed her.

Start here, and if you can't find your way from there...

go here...

then here...

and then here for the surprise ending.

Via Waxy Links.

Oops, did I say Laura K. Pahl? I meant Laura K. Krishna.

Neurologist Exam of Terri in 2002

This is a must read. It is the most extensive report on her condition that I have seen. And he had his examination of her videotaped.

Orb Networks Drops Subscription Fees, Streaming Media Service Now Free to All Users

From ehomeupgrade.com:

Orb Networks, Inc., a developer of streaming media software and services, today announced the company’s groundbreaking streaming media software, Orb Media, will now be FREE to all users. Orb’s software and service gives consumers the ability to spontaneously access their live TV, music, photos, videos, and other digital content located on their home PC from virtually any Internet-enabled device, from anywhere in the world, and now provides that service without adding any new monthly fees for new and current customers. Additionally, Orb has added a new Photo Sharing service to its solution allowing customers to share all of their selected photos with friends and family at any time.

Orb’s mission is to provide consumers with the easiest, most innovative way to access their digital home media files wherever they are. The Orb solution is available to the millions of Windows® XP operating system and Windows® XP Media Center Edition users in the United States and is now made even more convenient for users to access their digital worlds by providing Orb Media absolutely FREE.

This is exactly what I have been envisioning for some time now: a service that lets you access the music, video, tv, photos, etc. on your home computer from anywhere via the Internet. This service makes that functionality easy and accessible to the average computer user. It's not as sophisticated as the 1337 h@ck3r5 would want, but that's OK...

Be Very Worried!

I guess it's time for another scare story to take our mind off UN scandals and the like! And of course we know who's fault all this is and who has to pay to change their evil ways. Even though I did note that it is Africa that the toll is the highest, it is still our fault, I'm sure.

HUMANS are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and increasing the risk of abrupt collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation or "dead zones" in the seas, an international report has found.

Funding for the study was provided by the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the World Bank.

Minuteman Project

Have you heard about this? The plan is to watch the border from April 1-30.

The Minuteman Project is a grassroots effort to bring Americans to the defense of their homeland, similar to the way the original Minutemen from Massachusetts (and other U. S. colonies) did in the late 1700s. Like them, we want to bring to this effort only what few personal possessions we can carry...plus our heart, mind and spirit.
This call for volunteers is not a call to arms, but a call to voices seeking a peaceful and respectable resolve to the chaotic neglect by members of our local, state and federal governments charged with applying U.S. immigration law.

Read all the way down the home page to see a breakdown of those involved. And the FAQ page is good too.

Michelle Malkin has a commentary on the ACLU's planned response to this. You can guess which side the ACLU is on!

Yatta!

Sorry if you are tired of my "human interest" links, but I thought this song was kind of spunky and cute- even if the guys are a bit underdressed for my tastes!
You can read the lyrics and a translation here.
To me, the lyrics underscore some truths about Japanese culture and thought patterns too. So make sure to scroll down to find the English translation.

Oh, and if you want to learn to do the moves, here's some cute stick figures to teach you!

Leaders call 'Emerging Church Movement' a threat to Gospel

A recently developed way of envisioning church known as the "Emerging Church Movement" deals carelessly with Scripture and compromises the Gospel, according to a prominent evangelical scholar and a Southern Baptist seminary president.

But Brian McLaren, one of the movement's leaders, told Baptist Press that such criticisms are unfounded and that the Emerging Church Movement is "seeking to be more faithful to Christ" in the current postmodern cultural context.

Naturally there is a wave of reaction in the blogosphere, so here are a few places to start: Andrew Jones has a response, and there is a discussion in the comments; more discussion can be found here...

Jackson Prays With Terri Schiavo's Parents

Corrected headline: "Issue brings Jackson, GOP Together". Oh, except that headline would never be seen in the MSM.

Schiavo to Undergo Autopsy to End Debate -- Lawyer

This should put the "He's trying to hide something" crowd to rest... it probably won't, though...

The husband of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo has ordered an autopsy after she dies to silence allegations his plan to cremate her body is aimed at hiding something, his lawyer said on Monday.

Rice likely to back Iraq pullout

Only Nixon could go to China -- only Rice could pull the troops out...

50 Peeps. 60 Minutes.

This was hilarious. He also has some other "experiments"- I'm sure you've heard of microwaving peeps.

Walk by my side a while, as I relate to you my sad, painful story. After reading my article on microwaving Peeps, one of my beloved regular readers managed to turn the table of torture straight on me. "Seriously, those peeps are almost as bad as black licorice. But it's funn seeing some try to eat a bunch at once. There's your next article. I'll bet you that you can't eat 50 all in an hour."

Pentagon begins to see Iraq momentum shift

Rowan Scarborough writes today in the WashTimes:

In the privacy of their E-ring offices, senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago: Iraq is turning the corner.
Military officials and analysts say the clearing out of enemy-infested Fallujah in November, the Jan. 30 elections and the increasing willingness of Iraqis to fight and die for a democratic country are contributing to the momentum.
"This is still a tough fight. We don't want anyone to think that it is not," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a military analyst who strongly supports Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "But the momentum is in our direction."
...
The favorable trends do not mean that insurgents cannot pull off spectacularly deadly attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
On Thursday, 11 Iraqi policemen were killed by a single suicide bomber, most likely a terrorist in the employ of Jordanian-born Abu Musab Zarqawi.
But Iraqis continue to sign up. After an even bloodier attack in January against Iraqis in line to apply for police jobs, a still-longer line formed the next day at the same spot, said a U.S. Army officer in Iraq.

Arthur Chrenkoff has been doing his "Good news from Iraq" news roundups for a long time now -- he's up to Part 24 [via Powerline].

Life in The Sleeze Belt

I read this yesterday in the Richmond-Times Dispatch. It gives a good explanation as to why we get the type of winter weather we do.

The Schiavo great divide

Donald Sensing, Charles Johnson, and Glenn Reynolds all have comments on the way that conservatives who are not completely against letting Terry Schiavo die now (as the courts have ruled should happen under the laws of Florida) are being attacked. (Sensing's writings on the Schiavo issue in general are particularly good -- I think I with him).

They are under the impression that the conservatives pointing their fire at other conservatives learned this behavior from liberals. I think it's not only the way that people normally act (why did Paul have to tell us to give preference to one another), I think this is the quintessential modern way of dealing with issues: assuming that "I" am right and anyone who disagrees me is wrong/evil/condemned/heretical/etc.

Jeff Jacoby helped me crystallize my thinking on this -- the title of this piece says it all: "Less certainty, more prayer" (Townhall).

Starvation Not Painful

Here is a different take on the Schiavo case. What I wonder though is if starvation is not painful for the terminally ill, does it logically follow that it not painful for others?

3:30 PM Same Day- This AP writer asks the same question.

Transparent Screens

These are really creative. Most of them do look transparent. 

Nader for Schaivo

Even Ralph Nader says the courts are slowly killing Terri.

A Serious Mathnet

This show looks like it might be interesting. It is on CBS on Friday nights at 10PM, starting April 1.

Rob Morrow stars as FBI agent Don Eppes, who recruits his mathematical genius brother, Charlie (David Krumholtz), to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. From two very different perspectives, the brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases, aided by Don's partner, Terry Lake (Sabrina Lloyd), and new FBI recruit David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard). Although their father, Alan (Judd Hirsch), is pleased to see his sons working together, he fears their competitive nature will lead to trouble. Charlie's colleague, physicist Dr. Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol), urges Charlie to focus more on his university studies than on FBI business. Inspired by actual events, NUMB3RS depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions.

A MISSIONAL INCARNATION OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN POSTMODERNITY [pdf]

This paper spends the first 15 or so pages on a very succinct description of the transition from modernity to postmodernity, and postmodern assumptions and values.

Why YOU Should Plant a Church by Bob Hyatt

Bob Hyatt writes in Next Wave:

Through my experience in church planting I have learned that there’s a hard way to do this and an easy way. The hard way involves plans and proposals, hundreds of thousands in seed money, denominational strings and a host of headaches. “Start with a bang!” they will tell you. “Mailers to every home in three zip codes!” they will advise you. A full band! Complete children’s ministry! Advertising!!!!

Don’t listen.

Start small. Raise some support, trust God for the rest and get a job at Starbucks if need be. Let your community be what it will be. Refuse to do for the people who come the ministry that they should do for themselves. Concentrate on laying a foundation of community and common core values and let your church grow organically without superimposing a grand “vision” on it.

When we were still in the dream phase of this thing people would ask me- “What will it look like?” I grew to love answering “I have no earthly idea.” All I could say was that if a bunch of cloggers and bluegrass musicians showed up, well… we’d be the clogging church. If a bunch of skate punks showed up, we’d be the skate church. I wasn’t out to niche target-market our community, and so felt great freedom to just sit back and watch what happened. I still feel that freedom…

Like I said, it’s not rocket science. You can do this thing. Just look at the guys Jesus started with…

More...

Who wants to marry Michael Schiavo?

In May 1995, Christopher Reeve was taking part in a cross-country equestrian event when a fall caused his skull to literally become separated from his spinal cord. He was totally paralyzed. Of that moment he later said, "It dawned on me I was going to be a huge burden to everybody, that I had ruined my life and everybody else's. Not fair to anybody. The best thing to do would be to slip away." When his wife, Dana, came into his room he looked at her and mouthed the words, "Maybe we should let me go."

His wife started crying and said, "I will support whatever you want to do, because this is your life and your decision. But I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You are still you. And I love you." Reeve said that Dana's response to him "made living seem possible, because I felt the depth of her love and commitment. ... My job would be to learn how to cope with this and not be a burden. I would have to find new ways to be productive again."

Reeve went on to inspire the world with the depth of his commitment to his own life and that of others. Before his untimely passing in October of last year, he had taught all humanity of the value of life and the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Good thing for all of us that Christopher Reeve was not married to someone like Michael Schiavo.

Read on...

"When piety is not enough"?

In contrast to Brian McLaren's heartfelt and loving eulogy to Stanley Grenz, this guy on SBC Baptist Press News ... well, you'll see.

Liberal/Conservative : 2-D or 3-D?

Steve Harbinger writes "[it] was a pleasure to read this account of emergence by a conservative evangelical who is obviously secure in his own beliefs. His description of emergence is charitable, despite his disagreement. I also found it interesting that he compares the attitude of emerging christianity towards conservative evangelicalism as analogous to evangelicalism's attitude towards fundamentalism, when the evangelicals broke from fundamentalism in the 1940s and 50s."

The post he is referring to:

Lately, I have encountered among many Christians a desire to rename and re-identify themselves. This desire usually manifests itself as attempting to forge a new way between so-called, conservative Evangelicalism and Liberalism. The contexts for these terms is both theological and political. These proposals can be seen in the writings of Jim Wallis in politics or Stan Grenz or Brian McLaren in theology. Indeed, much of the so-called emergent movement can be conceived of in this fashion.

Not only are they critical of specific positions within both Evangelicalism and Liberalism, but also of the entire framework. They see both groups (conservative and liberal) as being stuck in the modern mindset of being able to have a corner on truth and therefore excluding others from that claim. They are quick to point out that modernity is dead and so we need to move beyond the problems which plagued it....

Read the rest here.

Drudge: HBO MOVIE SHOWS RADIO 'AIR AMERICA' CHAOS

**Exclusive**

HBO is set to air a behind the scenes look at the launching of liberal radio network AIR AMERICA.

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a director's cut of LEFT OF THE DIAL, a grossly entertaining docu-drama of life on the other side of the AIR AMERICA microphone.

The doubts. The lies. The bounced checks. The heartbreak.
...
The HBO film is set for air March 31.

More from Drudge...

Who do we know that has HBO? ;-)

Use a Baton, Go to Jail

In France, conductors and orchestras face increased scrutiny, searches and even jail time. Read to find out what the French (and Germans) take seriously.

Will the French police let the fat lady sing?

His Essence

Want to know what Jesus smells like? Buy this and permeate your life and house with Jesus.

Squashed Philosphers

The books which defined the way The West thinks now condensed and abridged to keep the substance, the style and the quotes, but ditching all that irritating verbiage.

Poker Sites under Blogger Attack

In the last two weeks there has been a campaign amongst bloggers to googlebomb for the Online Poker Wiki page. As we have known for a long time if you have thousands of bloggers linking to a site, it will gain a top ranking. This stunt is turning into a problem for blogs, wikis and Google.

They've managed to get the Wikipedia entry for online poker up to #3 on a Google search for online poker. Not sure what the purpose is. (By my linking to the Wikipedia entry, this blog is becoming part of the Googlebomb.)

Slashdot discussion here.

Foreign Pollution in US

Pollution that crosses our borders negates our efforts.
And we were supposed to sign onto Kyoto?!

Brian McLaren Remembers Stan Grenz

A euology for Stanley Grenz, who passed away this past Saturday from a brain hemorrhage.

Hi 5

"Find old friends, meet new people, browse photos.

Have you seen this? What is your opinion?

Google Desktop Leaves Beta

Google Desktop New Search Items Include

Netscape Mail / Thunderbird
Netscape / Firefox / Mozilla
PDF
Music
Images
Video

Hillary: Women Leaders Less Corrupt

"New York Senator Hillary Clinton touted the ethical standards of female leaders like herself on Monday, telling a forum at New York University that women in government are less corrupt than their male counterparts.

"Research shows the presence of women raises the standards of ethical behavior and lowers corruption," Clinton told the Vital Voices' Women's Global Leadership Summit, in quotes picked up by NYU's student newspaper, the Washington Square News."

This "research" doesn't help explain the recent rash of news stories about female teachers having sex with students. Not to mention how ridiculous it sounds for Hillary to hold herself up as a paragon of moral virtue!

Cronkite Says Schieffer Was Better Choice as CBS Anchor

Just 48 hours before Dan Rather steps down under a cloud as anchor of the CBS newscast he's helmed for 24 years, the guy he squeezed out said Rather should've been replaced years ago.

After nearly a quarter of a century, Walter Cronkite landed the final punch.

The hatchet job on Rather by certain folks in the media becomes a bit more understandable with this lastest blow by Cronkite.

Barone: Minds are changing

Nearly two years ago I wrote that the liberation of Iraq was changing minds in the Middle East. Before March 2003, the authoritarian regimes and media elites of the Middle East focused the discontents of their people on the United States and Israel. I thought the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime was directing their minds to a different question: how to build a decent government and a decent society. I think I overestimated how much progress was being made at the time. But the spectacle of 8 million Iraqis braving terrorists to vote on January 30 seems to have moved things up to breakneck speed.
...
On Nightline, the New York Times's Thomas Friedman and, with caveats, the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell agreed that the Iraqi election was a "tipping point" (the title of one of Gladwell's books) and declined Ted Koppel's invitation to say that things could easily tip back the other way. In the most recent Foreign Affairs, Yale's John Lewis Gaddis credited George W. Bush with "the most sweeping redesign of U.S. grand strategy since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt," criticized Bush's implementation of that strategy in measured tones, and called for a "renewed strategic bipartisanship."
...
George W. Bush gambled that actions can change minds. So far, he's winning.

This Song is My Song

Remix artists create new art by combining and creatively editing old songs and videos. But while record companies and MTV are starting to capitalize on the trend, for most artists its still illegal to make mash-ups and other remixes...

A very interesting look at the legality of covers, remixes, and mashups. Written by someone from the library community.

What's Special About This Number?

0 is the additive identity.
1 is the multiplicative identity.
2 is the only even prime.
3 is the number of spatial dimensions we live in.
...
9988 is the number of prime knots with 13 crossings.
9995 has a square formed by inserting a block of digits inside itself.
9996 has a square formed by inserting a block of digits inside itself.
9999 is a Kaprekar number.

And everything in between! Very interesting!

Netscape Browser 8.0 Beta Goes Live

America Online's Netscape team has opened its doors to the public, releasing the first beta of the revived Netscape Web browser Based upon Firefox, Netscape version 8 focuses on security and protecting user privacy, and supports rendering with both Mozilla's Gecko and Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser engines.

Since this beta is based on Firefox 1.0, it has some vulnerabilities.

I've used it a bit here at work, and it's default interface is pretty busy, but seems to work just fine.

Google File System

Interested in how Google organized it's computer and file systems? Read this pdf.
I like their assumptions that things break down and people make mistakes.

First Internet Star

The year- 1999
The man - Mahir Cagri
The site- I Kiss You

Everyone talks about poor Gary. Maybe he should take a lesson from Mahir who made tours and cut a CD single. This man, from Turkey, is considered the first star of the internet.

Read about him in:
Salon - Nov. 8, 1999
Salon - Nov. 4,1999
The Globe and Mail - 2001
NY Times - 2001
or check out his list of news articles.

Here's my favorite parody of his site.

Don't forget to watch the video he made. You can find it on the headline webpage.

Great American Dollar Bill Locator

This looks like fun. Enter the dollar bill info and see where your "George" has been.

Browser Security Flaw to be Fixed

Firefox and Opera are making changes to make it more difficult to set up bogus sites. this is actually a problem that IE ddoes not have.

Hate Evil

The notion of hating evil was and remains revolutionary.

The vast majority of ancients didn't give thought to evil. Societies were cruel, and their gods were cruel.

Save Star Trek!

A campaign to save Star Trek spin-off show Enterprise says it has received a $3m (£1.6m) donation from anonymous figures in the space flight industry.

NY Library Putting Images Online

The New York Public Library is putting hundreds of thousands of its images online, allowing free personal downloads of material including maps, Civil War photos and illuminated medieval manuscripts.

The NYPL Digital Gallery will have 275,000 images available beginning Thursday, and the collection will grow to 500,000 images over the next several months, library officials announced Wednesday.

BBC told to quit ratings war

By Alexa Baracaia Media Correspondent, Evening Standard

The BBC must ditch its obsession with winning the TV ratings battle and focus on high-quality public service programming. Tough new rules will mean that instead of "copycat" entertainment and makeover series - designed to compete with commercial rivals - every one of the corporation's television channels and radio stations must fulfil its obligation to screen more peak-time documentaries, original drama and comedy, current affairs and arts-related shows.

The proposals come in a Green Paper on the BBC's future Royal Charter obligations. In effect, it will lay out a " mission statement" for the corporation that is far more explicit than any BBC Royal Charter to date.

Sources close to Whitehall say the BBC will also be warned that it can no longer sidestep its public-service remit by "burying" high-quality programmes on specialist digital channels such as BBC4, showing them out of peak viewing hours or even by putting them on BBC2 rather than BBC1.

How long before CNN gives up the race against FNC as well?

Two Decades

When I became an American two decades ago at 9:33 in the evening, at Tacoma General Hospital, I was a survivor of abortion.
A testimony of God's mercy by Hans Zeiger

New Browsers, Same Unwanted Ads

The upshot of spyware writers' newfound attraction to Mozilla, Arrott predicts, will be that in the next six months or so computer security guides will stop recommending that people switch from IE to halt intrusions.

I guess I'll stick with Opera.

New Maine House Bill Would Protect Fetuses Carrying the ‘Gay Gene’

Rep. Brian Duprey (R-Hampden) has submitted a bill to the State Legislature to shield potentially homosexual fetuses from discrimination. LD 908, “An Act to Protect Homosexuals from Discrimination,” attempts to protect homosexuals from death because they might carry the gene that could lead to homosexuality.

This bill as drafted would make it a crime to abort an unborn child if that child is determined to be carrying the “homosexual gene.” Duprey said that no such genetic marker has yet been discovered. But considering rapid advancements in genetic mapping research, he wants legislation in place should such a breakthrough occur. “If the homosexual gene is ever determined to exist,” he said, “I want to ensure that a woman could not abort an unborn child simply because that child is determined to be carrying this gene.”

Rush talked about this today.