Posts from — June 2007

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof writes about the problems that have plagued Shakesville recently: a series of denial-of-service attacks.

A clue that a DOS attack is in progress is given when your browser talks about problems connecting to 127.0.0.1 – your computer is always 127.0.0.1 until it hits the ‘Net and is given a “real” address. That is the fixed Internet Protocol [IP] address for localhost, essentially your computer, and it means you are shut out. This is one way a system may combat a DOS attack, so don’t take it personally.

The people doing this are obviously afraid of the writers at Shakesville and are trying to silence them. The activity is criminal, and if they keep it up, they will leave a trail that can be followed. Melissa’s ISP will have already called this in, and the tracking has already begun.

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CBS reports: Feds Raid Office of Mississippi Governor’s Kin

The FBI has raided the office of a company owned by the wife of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s nephew. Rosemary Barbour’s firm Alcatec LLC has a large contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to maintain thousands of travel trailers housing residents displaced by hurricane Katrina. There is no evidence that Governor Barbour is involved with the company.

Rosemary Barbour is married to Charles Barbour, the nephew of the Governor and himself a county supervisor. A spokesman at the FBI field office in Jackson Mississippi would not comment on the ongoing investigation but said agents had conducted a “court approved” search of a business late Thursday.

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As I have said in the past, these visas are used by big tech companies to keep down the cost of programmers. There is no shortage of tech people in this country, only a shortage of people who will work for the low wage, no benefits offers that the big tech companies want to pay to maximize profits.

Natasha of Pacific Views has a post on the H-1B visa scam, and a video that shows one of the ways the companies do it.

Dot In No Action

mumble, mumble, kittens, mumble

[Editor: Dot is not exactly a gracious hostess when it comes to the kittens. She doesn’t cuff them, but she certainly has not had any latent maternal instincts aroused by their presence.]

Friday Ark

The Shrubbery has managed to make it by Jimmy Carter’s 28% to become the second most unpopular President ever recorded in Newsweek’s poll with a new low of 26%. Only Tricky Dick’s 23% is between the current resident of the White House and immortality as the most unpopular President ever.

Dr. Jeff Masters is reporting another resource is coming on-line for hurricane predictions: UK Met Office.

While they have been reporting on hurricanes and cyclones for a very long time, they have been working on an atmospheric computer model to more accurately predict the behavior of hurricanes that doesn’t depend on historical data. This is important in a period of climate change, because the old rules and norms are changing.

Phinky of Ignorant Hussy checked in today to say: “I AM IN KUWAIT!”

She expects to be back in the “world” this weekend after six months in the “sandbox.”

Liz at Blonde Sense has some of the winger reaction to Jimmy Carter’s complaints about the way the Hedgemony has been treating Palestine.

It is a fairly straightforward situation, the Palestinians had an election that the US, EU, and Israel demanded they have. The problem was the Palestinians didn’t vote for Fatah.

Instantly everyone cut off funding and Gaza and the West Bank have been descending into anarchy.

Hamas has finally established its control of Gaza using weapons, confirming the control it had already won at the ballot box, but that is being portrayed as a coup, while Fatah’s unilateral dissolution of the government and call for new elections is being hailed as legal.

Sorry, but the problem with democracy, is that it doesn’t guarantee the results you want. You can’t say you support democracy, and then demand a new election when the election didn’t produce the results you were looking for.

Abbas may be the choice of Israel, the EU and the US, but there is no indication that he and his party are the choice of the Palestinian people. What is the plan if they hold new elections and Hamas wins again?

So long ago that Woody Allen was making movies that were amusing, he made a “sci fi/comedy” called Sleeper. It involved being defrosted from a long period of cryogenic storage to deal with problems in a distant future.

One of the first “gags” is when a doctor hands Woody’s character a cigarette as he is coming to and tells him to smoke it, saying it was tobacco, one of the best things for you.

Wellllllll, Peter of Lone Tree at Blonde Sense has a post about new research: Researchers Light Up for Nicotine, the Wonder Drug.

No, smoking isn’t good for you, but nicotine has some interesting possibilities.

Dr. Cole would like as many people as possible to spread the word to people in and around New York City that there will be a Vigil for Detained Iranian Intellectuals:

Amnesty International

In May the government of Iran arrested four Iranian-Americans: prominent U.S. scholars Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, journalist Parnaz Azima and activist Ali Shakeri. Esfandiari, Tajbakhsh and Shakeri remain in detention without being able to see family, lawyers, or the ICRC. All four face serious charges stemming from their efforts to promote an Iranian-American dialogue and scholarly work and could be sentenced to long prison terms.

…

WHERE: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 1st Avenue and 47nd Street across from the United Nations Plaza

WHEN: Wednesday June 27, 12 noon to 1 pm

As I have said in the past, more than anything this is a reaction to the seizure of five Iranians in Irbil. The Iranians were there at the request of the Kurdish regional government. If the US were willing to be reasonable, an exchange would be made.

We really need to find an experienced kindergarten teacher to mediate between Iran and the US.

Update: Laura Rozen has more on the Iranians detained by the US.

Today at 1:06PM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.

Many Wicca celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.

The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.

The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Musorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.

Via Andante from some time ago, I ran across Archaeoastronomy which tracks all of the important solar events.

Because everyone else is doing it:

Because of two “cocaines” and one “crap” – pretty high bar.

Via Laura Rozen an article in Ha’aretz: Netanyahu departs for U.S. in bid to increase pressure on Iran

Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday will embark for the U.S. on a visit aimed at increasing financial sanctions against Iran to get it to drop its nuclear program.

During his visit, Netanyahu is slated to meet a New York State financial official, asking him to withdraw or freeze hundreds of millions of dollars the state pension funds have invested in Iran.

Netanyahu will then arrive in Washington where he will meet for talks on the Iranian issue with Vice President Dick Cheney, Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, and Republican Party presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.

An interesting group of visits.

“Bibi” Netanyahu believes that military force is the only real solution to any problem. He and Cheney are a matched set. I’m not exactly surprised by the candidates he chose to visit. Nothing he has to say will advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.

Culture Ghost forgot to celebrate his fourth blogiversary™ on the 14^th, and I forgot to mention it until now.