Retreat of Antarctic Ice Shelves Not New

The current retreat of ice shelves in the Antarctic due to global warming is nothing new - but this time the problem is manmade and therefore potentially more serious, according to research released Wednesday.

Microsoft and AIM

Users of America Online Inc.'s instant messaging service can now automatically see from Microsoft Corp.'s popular Outlook e-mail application whether their friends and colleagues are online.

A free tool AOL is offering beginning Monday integrates "buddy list" information from AOL Instant Messenger with Outlook.

What do you think of this idea?

Jurors find professor's former wife guilty in his slaying

"The jury in the first-degree murder trial of Texas lawyer Piper Rountree moments ago recommended that she be sentenced to life in prison, plus three years.

Rountree was convicted today of shooting to death her ex-husband, University of Richmond professor Fredric M. Jablin, on Oct. 30 in front of his Henrico County home.

Judge L.A. Harris of Henrico Circuit Court ordered a pre-sentencing report and scheduled sentencing for May 6."

Girl Eats for First Time in Life

Socialized medicine in England found that this little girl had bulbar palsy. She had to be fed through a stomach tube. Now 8 years old, her parents raised the money to take her to Stanford where they determined what was really wrong with her and "cured" her. Thinking of Kelly in her place brought me to tears.

The Mirror ran a story abour her (pre-cure) Dec., 2004

Washington Post Analyzes Condi

I had to laugh when I read Dr Rice being compared to The Matrix. I guess when you can't discuss substance, you discuss clothes? Although, this article did make me admire her all the more.

Check this blog for picture and commentary.

Mozilla Update

The Mozilla Foundation released an update to Firefox yesterday, the first since the browser's official launch last November. Version 1.0.1 features a number of stability and security fixes, including two for serious flaws that could allow malicious attackers to spoof the source displayed in the "Download Dialog" box or to spoof the content of Web sites.

"I'd encourage users to get this release, especially if they've been prone to phishing attacks or spoofing," said Chris Hofmann, director of engineering with Mozilla. "A lot of work in this release focuses on those areas."

Read about it here.

Windows without Media Player

The EU wants Windows available without the Media Player. They can't seem to decide on an appropriate name, and a bigger problem is that

three of the four biggest PC makers in Europe told IDG News Service in January that they had no current plans for offering Windows without WMP in their machines.

My Dinner at Applebee's With White Supremacists!

"I decide to infiltrate a white supremacist hate group by posing as an eager new recruit, a new hater, if you will. I want to put a face on extreme hate, to find out the hobbies of haters, what haters find hot and what haters find not. I want to learn what someone in a hate group really loooooooves. Ice cream? Everyone loves ice cream. I love ice cream. Maybe hate groups love ice cream, too?"

Mike's Classic Cartoon Themes

Tons of mostly old cartoon themes are archived here in mp3 format: Alvin, Beany and Cecil, Captain America, Danger Mouse, Fat Albert, GI-Joe, etc. There are over 180 of them in all.

Ann Coulter on Left's Bigotry

This commentary reminded me of that Maher piece I posted Feb 18. Why is the left allowed to act in a bigoted fashion?

Are we supposed to like gay people now, or hate them? Is there a Web site where I can go to and find out how the Democrats want me to feel about gay people on a moment-to-moment basis?

Massachuesetts' Court At It Again

In September, they want to start hearing arguments for the repeal of the 1913 law that prohibits non-residents from getting married. This would be a back door way to get gay marriage recognized in all 50 states.

Homecoming

Looks like Steve will be back in San Diego Mar. 1.
BTW--He got to give author Robert Kaplan a tour of the topside of the ship, and was interviewed by him! Unfortunately Steve is not mentioned in the newsletter
There is already a book about the Benfold- Go here for a little history or maybe you would like to read Chapter 1

The Star Wars Kid

Before Gary, Vince and Todd, there was The Star Wars Kid. This site tells the story:

"The Star Wars Kid was just goofing off at school. Now he finds his private performance downloaded by over 15 million Internet users across the world.

"The Star Wars Kid is a 15-year-old from Quebec known only as Ghyslain -- his parents are keeping his last name secret to protect his identity. Back in November 2002, Ghyslain was goofing off at a school video studio and recorded himself fighting a mock battle with a golf ball retriever lightsaber. Over two minutes, the video shows the lone, overweight teenager twirling his mock lightsaber ever faster while making his own accompanying sound effects."

The site has 106 remixed versions of the video.

Props to Mae for the tip.

Update: the links to most (if not all) the videos are down. :-(

Update: this site hosts a bunch of them.

Open directory of Iraq pics

I found a huge trove of pics from Iraq on a backend entrance to ohio.com. Apparently they host the pics here to use for stories. Most of them are dated from 2004. They are high quality pics too -- most of them over a meg each.

Relativity. Incompleteness. Uncertainty.

Is there a more powerful modern Trinity? These reigning deities proclaim humanity's inability to thoroughly explain the world. They have been the touchstones of modernity, their presence an unwelcome burden at first, and later, in the name of postmodernism, welcome company.

A Retreat into the iWorld

Walk through any airport in the United States these days and you will see person after person gliding through the social ether as if on autopilot. Get on a subway and you’re surrounded by a bunch of Stepford commuters staring into mid-space as if anaesthetised by technology. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t overhear, don’t observe. Just tune in and tune out.

Watt Replies to Moyer Comment

Remember the Moyer quote about evangelical Christians not caring for the environment because "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back"? He specifically pointed to James Watt, who gives a response to the accusations here. If you need a refresher on what all Moyer said, find it at this site

Kids Who Have Everything Lack For Something

Professors agreed, the biggest problem with young people today is that they lack a sense of purpose. And, the professors insisted, this might have something to do with the fact that these kids don't lack for much else.

Noonan on Blogs

Beautifully written, like a Reagan speech. She is such a forward thinker and a realistic optimist.

Wead Tapes Bush

I don't think I would be too happy if a friend was secretly taping our conversations. Who can you trust anymore? "A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret." Prov. 11:3

Washington Post article
New York Times article

Inhaling Their Food

I never thought about this reason for why the French are "smaller".

Podcasts

Be your own radio station. From walleye fishing to fishers of men, this is the newest way to spread news.

Tyranny of Eminent Domain

Do you think the Supreme Court will take the private property rights side of this?

Bill Maher: Christians Have Neurological Disorder

Mr. Maher certainly isn't afraid to use his freedom of speech! If he was a conservative he would rightfully be called a bigot.

Why do you believe in one fairy tale and not the other? Just because adults told you it was true and they scared you into believing it, at pain of death, at pain of burning in hell.

What Is the Real Message of Yellow Ribbons on Cars?

Listen to Bob complain about a magnet! From NPR

Commentator Bob Sommer's son has just returned from a year in Iraq and knows intimately what it means to support our troops. But he finds yellow ribbon magnets on cars with the message "Support Our Troops" off-putting.

Embedded Reporter Speaks

This reporter was surprised to find out that military people in Iraq are not "blood thirsty maniacs". She also discovered they were there to help the Iraqi people! Good thing other reporters are there to keep this and other devious thinking in check. For example,

While on the mission, the journalist realized the northern forces intended to attack a group of Americans. What should the journalist do?
Peter Jennings, Abrams recalled, said he hoped he would have the courage to call out and warn the American troops. But Mike Wallace interrupted to admonish Jennings, asking, "Peter, why are you there?," implying that as a journalist he should not get involved.

Hi Net Recorder

I was looking for a way to record certain windows media files and found it here. It does all sorts of files, is easy to work and does an acceptable job. I was using it within minutes of installing it. No extensive manuals to read!

Numa Numa

Hey Scott, I was ahead of the curve. I even found a lego version and the original group's video, and the words with translation. And now I know the reference to "not one white guy" in the one we saw. Here's a good site to find all but the Mexican/Asian one. Some are better than others.

Here's the one I showed you last night.

And this is the words and translation.

Milk and Cereal

Just two students singing about their breakfast

A Gay Child Left Behind

An interesting op-ed written by a gay man about why he is not gloating over the Keyes' story.

The next time someone like Maya Keyes comes tumbling out of the closet, we should all try to be gracious and not succumb to our baser instincts. Because one day it's going to be our turn.
I mean, kids. They'll break your heart every time.

Arizona Hospitals Fund Mexican Clinics

Arizona hospital administrators say they have found an innovative way to save money - by spending money to upgrade the level of care available in Mexico.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

You can watch the trailer at the URL above. The movie comes out April 29th.

Abstinence Education Works

Whoever coined the phrase "you can't argue with success" never ran into the folks who run the pro-abortion lobby... The fact is that many teens seek sex not because they are happy and successful, but because the opposite is true. Catching an STD or experiencing an unplanned pregnancy is no self-esteem booster.

ChoicePoint Break-in Leads to Identity Theft

Funny that it was a Nigerian that they caught. Wonder if there is a tie-in to all those Nigerian scam emails- Nah.
Here's more info from an article dated Feb. 18, 2005.

A Glacier is Growing!

In 2002, Greenpeace declared that Franz Josef was a "global warming casualty."

This year though, it is growing meters by the day.

The Once and Future President

This article has too many odd quotes like hordes lined up outside the door, smoking cigarettes to keep warm to list them all. When you have time to read, this is worth it for the oddities.

Microsoft Plans New IE Browser

The last line tells us the real reason Microsoft is doing this.

Internet Explorer held a 90.3-percent share of U.S. browser usage at the middle of January, compared with a 95.5-percent share in mid-2004.

Looks like the free market is working again.

The CBS Three Won’t Slink Off; Hiring Lawyers

"On Jan. 10, when the 224-page report on the investigation into CBS News’ 60 Minutes Wednesday memo scandal arrived, CBS president Leslie Moonves issued a statement dwelling on the failures of the employees involved in producing the disputed segment.

Prominent among the targets was executive producer Josh Howard. Mr. Howard, Mr. Moonves said, "did little to assert his role as the producer ultimately responsible for the broadcast and everything in it. This mistake dealt a tremendous blow to the credibility of 60 Minutes Wednesday and to CBS News in general."

The producer, he wrote, had been asked to resign, and the network was "taking a variety of actions to put this crisis behind us."

Five weeks later, the crisis is not yet behind Mr. Moonves. And far from resolving the problem of the network’s credibility, the independent report commissioned by CBS appears instead to be leading to a confrontation, with defenders of both the ousted CBS staffers involved in the debacle and top CBS management asserting two different truths from the same document.

Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers—his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West—haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves’ remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name."

The Thornburgh report was designed to make this problem go away, but unfortunately for Moonves, these three aren't gonna get swept under the rug. I think theymight be still in the old media mindset of "What difference does it make? We're the media, and we decide what people think!"

Softer Passion

I read this on a Newsmax Update and so quoted the whole thing here. I might be interested in seeing a "kinder, gentler" Passion.

A Softer 'Passion'This March, mega-moviemaker Mel Gibson is set to release a new version of the blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ."In an effort to accommodate people who love the story but wanted the brutality toned down, the movie has been painstakingly re-tailored.In making a subdued version of the film, Gibson, who has recently been referred to as Hollywood's most powerful figure, was responding to something that his fans wanted."There has been quite a demand by the religious community to bring [the film] back for Easter," Bruce Davey, Gibson's partner at Icon Productions, told Variety. At the same time, fans of "The Passion" wanted a version that would tone down the scenes of torture and suffering that are a part of the Crucifixion story. "Mel wanted to try and accommodate those people by making a version that is softer and gentler," Davey explained.Distributor Newmarket Films will release "The Passion Recut" nationwide on March 11.The Left Coast Report can't think of a better way to deepen the Easter experience than to view this act of cinematic devotion

Keyes Daughter Comes Out

What is going on with so many conservative and Christian families?

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile

(CBS) College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.

"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.

So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.

And what kind of mileage does he get?

"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.

And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.

Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile."

Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.

"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.

Heard this on Rush.

Gays Debate Radical Steps to Curb Unsafe Sex

"After all the thousands of AIDS deaths and all the years of "Safe Sex Is Hot Sex" prevention messages, it has come down to this: many gay men who know the rules of engagement in the age of AIDS are not using condoms. As news of a potentially virulent strain of H.I.V. settles in, gay activists and AIDS prevention workers say they are dismayed and angry that the 25-year-old battle against the disease might have to begin all over again."

Years and years of 'education' has not stopped the unsafe sex going on in the gay community (not to mention the general public). Even AIDS isn't enough to make them think twice. I have been reading the book, "Every Man's Battle", about the struggle men have with sexual temptation, and how when left unchecked the desire to sin can overpower anyone's conscience or even common sense. This is exactly what is happening here.

Geopolitical Forecast

Stratfor, a private intelligence and security consulting organization, has released a 10-year geopolitical forecast predicting the decline of China and Russia, the rise of Japan, the disintegration of the European Union and the continued dominance of the United States.

Democrats: “Deja Vu” All Over Again

A look back at history demonstrates just how little the party of appeasement has changed in 140 years.

Night Before Christmas (Cambodian Version)

I know this is a little out of date, but it still is funny.

Irritating Love

As Francis Schaeffer writes in True Spirituality: "The trouble with human relationships is that man without God does not realize that all men are sinful, and so he hangs too much on his personal relationships, and they crush and break."
I read this today in World Magazine. It is by Andree Seu.

The Art of Propaganda: Nationalistic Themes in the Art of North Korea

"The pictures in this gallery are taken from two North Korean propaganda books purchased in China near the China-North Korean border. Also included are links to the web pages of three individuals who traveled to North Korea in the 1990s, and to the official North Korean web site. All pictures and photos are copyrighted by the respective owner listed below.

"These images (and those on the sites linked to below) have been selected to demonstrate the major themes in the art of North Korea encountered by everyday people, including architecture, billboards and monuments, posters, and other art dedicated to the personality cults of the late Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, the current leader of North Korea. Also included are a few images of other everyday images of North Korea."

There are about 45 posters in all exhibited in this gallery.

Wired: Pollution May Feed Plankton

"A surprising chain of events and chemical reactions link a rise in air pollution over land to a decrease in a common greenhouse gas over the sea, announced researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Thursday.

The chain includes the participation of dust storms in the Gobi Desert, the buildup of harmful sulfur dioxide over coastal industrial zones, and a burst in the population of tiny plants in the sea known as phytoplankton, said the researchers. The end result is a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide, they said. Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming by preventing heat from escaping the atmosphere, the way the walls of a greenhouse prevent heat from escaping an enclosed space."

Wacko environmentalists just can't escape the bad news these days!

Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

Found this site yesterday. Looks like there's a lot of good things to read. I am reading An Enlightenment View of Islam and the Arab Worldright now.
I am also interested in the article titled In Support of a Stupid Chief Justice

Google Maps from Chester VA to Leroy WV

Check out Google's directions from here to Leroy WV.

Interview: Lynne Cheney, Author and Historian on Fresh Air

Dad recommeded that I listen to the Lynn Cheney interview on Fresh Air (NPR) last night and I was able to this morning -- it was very interesting. Just like O'Reilly, she came on the program to talk about her new book (and presumably new books she's currently writing, which Terri Gross didn't even ask about until the last ninety seconds, as though it were an afterthought to ask an author what projects they're working on now), but Terri railroaded her into the homosexual marriage issue as fast as she could. But Cheney handled it well -- it was one more example of a strong conservative shutting down a very rudely persistent line of questioning by the Fresh Air host.

Marry Your In-Laws?

Scotland is rewriting its marriage laws. Not only do they want you to be able to marry any in-law, but check out the rest of the proposed changes at the end of the article and the church's reaction.

Bacteria are not Immortal

I did not realize that science ever believed them to be anything but mortal.

Psychiatry is Discovering EVIL

"Evil is endemic, it's constant, it is a potential in all of us. Just about everyone has committed evil acts," said Dr. Robert I. Simon, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School.
Psychiatrists are beginning to verbalize the total depravity of man. But they still don't want to make moral judgements so please don't use the E word (you are free to think it though).

New Stamp

This is a very nice stamp- a fitting tribute to a fine president!
(I like his smile)

Desperate Housewives and Camus

Camus, Sysiphus, Desperate Housewives, Solomon-all teach the same thing: life is empty. The article gives no real answer- this world's wisdom can't. So write your own ending and share it with those who are desperate - this life does have meaning when lived to glorify God and enjoy him forever!

The case for Judeo-Christian values: Human Worth

Would you first save the dog you love or a stranger if both were drowning?
The answer depends on your value system.
Sent in by Aunt Lib.

Google Gets a Map

Google has launched their own maps and directions service -- it's pretty nice, too. It's still in beta, but the finished product is going to be a lot better than Yahoo Maps is right now.





Reading some online discussion elsewhere I found this site mentioned a few times: map24.com

Its mapping features are excellent also.

Kerry's Lessons

Read for yourself what Kerry says he learned from the presidential race.
Discover what excuses he gives for losing.

More Judicial Lawmaking

New York City may have gay marriages as early as next month!
Thank you, Justice Doris Ling-Cohan.

The Democratic Divide

Here's a fascinating look into the inner workings of the DNC. Is the RNC as corrupt?

History by Laptop

Mr. Fisk says he is no Luddite. This is an interesting look at how we write based on the technology used.

News Update Site

Found a news site out of the UK that updates every five minutes. It checks 19364 news sites.

Theology Slays Barbie Religion

This is not the view of God that we want to have! Written by a PCA theologian-in-residence in St. Louis Missouri.