Posts from — November 2007

…But what about the “unknown unknowns” that they might be guilty of if the US knew what they were?

The BBC version: UN mixed on Iran nuclear report

The UN nuclear watchdog has said Iran has provided it with information about its past nuclear activities as agreed under a work plan made in August.

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You’ll never believe the latest “outrage” by “an activist judge” – banks are being required to prove they actually hold the mortgage when they foreclose on a someone’s home.

This was noted by the Pensacola Beach Blog in The Bank You Know…, and Susie Madrak in Roadblock linking to an article in the New York Times: Foreclosures Hit a Snag for Lenders

“The big issue in all these cases, whether we are dealing with a bankruptcy court, a state court or a federal court, is who really owns the mortgage note, and that is allegedly what they securitized,” said O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer who represents borrowers in foreclosure in Shelby, N.C. “A collateral question is, has that mortgage note really been transferred and assigned to the securitization trust? If not, then they really don’t have standing. It’s Law School 101.”

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The BBC reports on the re-birth of one of the earliest computers: Colossus cracks codes once more

Colossus is widely recognised as being one of the first recognisably modern digital computers and was developed to read messages sent by the German commanders during the closing years of WWII.

It was one of the first ever programmable computers and featured more than 2,000 valves and was the size of a small truck.

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The crime rate in the United States is directly proportional to the number of males in the 15 to 45 year old age group. Crimes increase when that number goes up and decrease when that number goes down. If you want to plan for future increases or decrease in activity in the criminal justice system that is the gold standard of indicators.

The “Baby Boom” started in 1946. In 1992 the “Boomers” started turning 46 and passing out of that group. What do you think happened to the crime rate?

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Cookie Jill of Cookies In Heaven and skippy the bush kangaroo wants people to remember the food banks, which try to do something extra at this time of year, but are facing more requests with fewer donations than ever.

Writers like John Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey, are keeping their hand in blogging, as in Lunch Conversations #4223: Getting In on the Ground Floor.

Rook agrees that we should consider robot overlords while the Der Verrückte Philosoph notes another trend: Americans Announce They’re Dropping Out Of Presidential Race.

The Shrubbery has the gall to talk about the Dems being “teenagers with a credit card.” Let’s take a look at his bill. We have a national debt is excess of $9 trillion [ $9,000,000,000,000]. If it were all at 4% annual interest that would be $360 billion in interest per year. At 5% it is $450 billion dollars per year, while the Defense budget [without the wars] was $459 billion dollars this year.

We were beginning to pay down the national debt during the Clinton administration and the Hedgemony with the rubber stamping Repubs in Congress went on a 6 year spending spree. Somehow the fact that they have plunged this nation into unconscionable debt doesn’t bother the GOP. They will say “but the war” and the fact is, earlier Presidents raised taxes when the country went to war to pay for them.

You can’t trust the GOP with your credit card or your check book.

Back when I drank alcohol my favorite mixed drink was Jack Daniels Black Label and Coke. Not cola, and not just any Coke, but the Coke in glass bottles from the original Atlanta bottling plant. The Coke in the glass bottles was made with cane sugar, not this corn syrup crap.

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There is a powerful tropical cyclone in the northern Indian Ocean that could be catastrophic.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr

Position: 16.6 N 89.3 E.
Movement: North near 11 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 150 mph.
Wind Gusts: 185 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb.

About 400 miles South of Calcutta, India.

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Did you know that there is a key shortcut that turns your screen upside down if you are using Windows XP? I didn’t know that until Ringo decided to flop down on my keyboard and invoked the magic three-key combination. Oh BTW, re-booting doesn’t clear the problem and your mouse and arrow keys work in reverse.

To make matters worse, there was a Windows update, and I was wondering if that was the problem, until I developed the skills to Google upside down and backwards to find a group talking about this “kewl feature” of this bloated mess.

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Full disclosure: I once suffered the indignity and aggravation of being a systems administrator at a college. I understand the problems, both technical and financial of trying to keep under-funded, over-worked, dated computer networks operating in something approaching a reasonable fashion while waiting for the next grant to show up for the next load of bubble gum and baling wire, as well as donated hardware and software that wasn’t compatible with what existed.

The News blog at CNet reports: Politicos near vote on anti-P2P rules for universities

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The Associated Press [apparently the only source of reporting at the networks 😈 ] writes that Musharraf says he’ll quit army this month

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday he expects to step down as army chief by the end of November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, warning that Pakistan risked chaos if he gave into opposition demands to resign.

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CNet introduces something else you never knew you needed: First ‘robot’ electric guitar tunes itself

Ever get mad trying to figure out why your version of “Voodoo Child” doesn’t sound like Jimi Hendrix?

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There was a time when I wouldn’t have believed this was possible: Ex-FBI Agent Accused Of Security Breach

(CBS/AP) A former agent for the FBI and CIA pleaded guilty Tuesday to faking a marriage to win U.S. citizenship, clearing the way to being hired and given security clearances by the two intelligence agencies.

Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, emigrated to United States from Lebanon in 1989. She was given U.S. citizenship five years later and began working as a special agent at the FBI’s field office in Washington in 1999, according to a criminal information sheet filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

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