Slashdot Mirror

Here's what the LA Times has to say, which is quite different from the "day in history of the Internet" crap:

U.S. Unlikely to Yield Web Oversight Yet
Federal officials seem inclined to extend a deadline for privatizing control of the Internet's address system.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Times Staff Writer
July 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The federal government appeared unlikely to relinquish oversight of the system for assigning and managing website domain names after a Commerce Department hearing Wednesday raised broad concerns about giving an obscure Marina del Rey nonprofit unsupervised control.

read the rest

According to this article dated May 31, this is already a work in progress. I'd bet its the same professor, although I was unable to confirm.

The idea is that you don't need all 50 states -- you need 270 electoral votes, the smallest number which guarantees a victory (of the 538 total votes cast). So, the compact doesn't go into effect until enough states sign such that 270 electoral votes are at stake.

According to the article I've linked, in addition to California the legislation is "in progress" in the New York Legislature, and its got some support in Illinois, Missouri and Colorado. That doesn't guarantee passage, of course.

Note also that this does not require a Constitutional Ammendment because each state is free to determine how to divvy up its electoral votes. There is no Federal requirements on how to allocate the electoral votes, just requirements on who can (and can't) vote. States have additional input, which is why prisoners, parolees, and those who have been completely released by the penal system may or may not be allowed to vote, depending on the state in which they live.

There is a brief mention of MySpace having problems here. No conspiracy.

wish I had mod points. of course around here this gets modded flamebait, but you are 110% correct. I am a high school history teacher and am thoroughly disgusted with the treatment history gets in our textbooks. It is sanitized, whitewashed, and outright rewritten. Dianne Ravitch (hardly a right-wing ideologue) wrote a great piece a while ago titled: PC textbooks full of skewed history which details the way California (where I teach) purposefully uses history for every reason other than to teach about the past.

Public schools have failed precisely because they are not doing precisely what it is they are required to do. There are many solutions, not the least of which is to eliminate teacher unions (of which I am a member) completely. I can think of no greater conflict of interest than unions lobbying the state on educational issues. There is no concern for educational quality only what is in the teachers' best interests. In fact, I believe that public employees shouldn't be allowed to strike. This is hardly an anti-labor/anti-union position, as public employees (police, fire, teachers) a) chose their profession b) have job security and c) serve vital roles which the market cannot remedy. Unlike say an auto manufacturer who has competitors, is accountable to shareholders, and has to actually market and sell a product, you have no real choice when you dial 911 or send your child to school.

The unions have been infiltrated with very left-wing ideologues and it has permeated every sector of education. Now, before people get upset, just think about those places where "intelligent design" has been adopted into the cuuriculum. Many want that no more than others want Heather has two mommies but it is exactly the same prinicple. I've always believed that privatization of schools is the ultimate answer. In fact, government should stay out of the schools, marriage, business, the internet, etc.

Here's a better article about the current use of the time honored practice of vote buying in Mexican political campaigns.

(Note: I'm not saying Mexico is better or worse than the U.S. or Canada in terms of political corruption.)

Actually, here is a better article that describes some of the problems in Mexican politics with vote buying. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But not for long.... From today's Los Angeles Times, soon workers in China will reap the benefits of our glorious HMO medical care system, thanks to companies here in the US with double-plus-good names like 'Sunnylife Global', for which they're billed $375 per annum, plus copayments.

Yes, socialism is a dirty word, since it and communism have the same end goal, just different means of getting there.

The problem with Unions, IMHO, is that they concentrate power, which in turn gets corrupted. Once a factory goes union, is there an option to "opt-out"? Do I have the "freedom" to not be union while my co-worker is? Since there isn't, that power tends to corruption. A classic example is teachers unions. The teachers are paid from property taxes (here in the US anyway), which they then pay Union dues. Then, if a lawsuit comes up, the state uses more tax money to handle a lawsuit which is being defended by money that came from taxes in the first place. The system just feeds itself.

As a final point, you said "Is it un-American to disclaim the class system, and ensure that one's neighbours do not starve or suffer ill-health?"

Well, the difference is we (speaking broadly here) would rather deal with a starving neighbor on a personal level through personal generosity and donations/gifts than to have the money taken by us through taxes, and then paid out to other people that might or might not deserve it or use it wisely. If I knew that an honest neighbor was starving to death, I would go to the store, by $100 worth of groceries for example, and give them to them. However, I would not do the same for a neighbor that is a drunk and is wasting his money on booze. What happens in socialized welfare is the government does not/can not make a distinction between the two and take $300 from me (the government programs are expensive to administer, right) and give $100 cash to each of my neighbors.

See the reports about the money that went to Hurricane Katrina victims. See this article for a quick example: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la- na-fema15jun15,0,1306432.story?coll=la-home-headli nes

Ultimately, it boils down to the individual being responsible for ones own actions, having both the ability to succeed (like Bill Gates) and the possiblity of failure. You can't have one without the other. In a Union (at a factory level) or socialism/communism (a national level), a safety net is erected to prevent failure. The same mechanism also stunts success.

This LA Times article from the weekend has a more in-depth look at the grueling process of Chinese university entrance exams, and shows a bit more of the motivation to go to such lengths to cheat.

For example:

hinese college admissions officers don't look at your high school grades, personal interviews, recommendations or essays in making their decisions. They don't make allowances if you don't test well. They won't even cut you slack if your mother died the day before. Everything, countless years of sacrifice and hard work, boils down to this one test. Those who perform miserably have to wait another year to take the exam.

Not a great system from any point of view. Encourages cheating. Discourages creativity, not particularly fair to the students .... -- Paul

Hopefully, the Compton School Police won't be handling the drones.

The U.S. government is humorous. A recently released FBI report about the compromising ties between a Chinese-American Mata Hari and her FBI-agent lover is a stark reminder that after terrorism, the greatest threat to our national security at home is espionage." (source). Couple this with government employees giving data away, and we've got the making of a new way to spy on the US without planting swallows, cobblers, ravens... I wonder how fast after this service is up will we be reading about a government slip-up via that portal... Anyway, this truly isn't anything new. I've used Google's Uncle Sam search plenty times...

And CNN is publishing industry press releases as news, but hey, what's new?

Notice no disclosure that he's completely freaking paid for by the telecom industry, who do you think Public Strategies' clients are? And "Hands off the Internet"? That's an astro-turf campaign, noticed the crappy wanna-be underground looking propaganda that's been popping up on blog-ads, that's them. More info at DailyKos.

Editor's note: Mike McCurry is a partner at Public Strategies Washington Inc. where he provides strategic communications counsel. He is a co-chairman of Hands off the Internet, a coalition of telecommunication-related businesses. McCurry served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton from 1995 until 1998.

More coverage by kos, john marshall, la times, matt stoller.

This is just like the telcos claims over open access. Every regional telco has been granted monopoly status for years, we the users paid for that infrastructure, and we'll use the same model in the future if need be. These claims of eminent domain are horseshit distractions. They were when they strangled and drowned the CLECs and they are now as they try to do to the Internet what the cell companies have done to wireless. I don't use my phone other than to talk, data services currently lack value over the cell networks in the existing price structure. They want to impose the same pricing structure possibilities on their segments of the Internet. Just like access to the copper, they want you to pay for what you've already paid for. Mike McCurry is getting paid to help these people steal from you; for this payment, he's trying to convince you that being stolen from is in your best interest.

These assholes will kill the goose that laid the golden egg if allowed. Support Save the Internet, don't let them do it.

Stop them cause Mike McCurry is a Jeff Gannon-wannabe manwhore.

People don't lose their spouses, jobs or house due to a tobacco addiction.

Funny coincidence, there's an article in the L.A. Times today about how Russia is going back to its old trick of declaring political opponents to be "mentally ill" and throwing them into sanitariums whenever they want them out of the way. A barbaric practice to be sure, but how many Slashdotters would do the same if they were given the chance?

Ya, and when you make people pass English exams to graduate from high school the idiots who can't pass sue the state. I love America. You know it just has to be racist if a person who happens to be a minority fails the exam ... I mean, only white kids are dumb and fail exams. When latinos or African-Americans fail an exam, it's not because they're dumb but because of some conspiracy of white people to make them fail.

Just wait for the perpetual war, that'll be fun.
(emphasis mine)

You mean this?
or this?
perhaps this?
how's about this?
It's been almost 5 years, has anyone seen this guy lately?
And do you really think this is going to end any time soon?
The war on terror is by its definition unwinnable. It is based on the sound tenats of the Powell Doctrine unwinnable. I believe the United States resources to be virtually unlimited to fight this war, since they will not withdraw and cannot win or be annihilated, the war must therefore be perpetual.

Well, with no virtual memory, I'd have a heck of a time running Oracle. Why would anyone bother even looking at an OS that can't run modern applications? From my vantage point, minix hasn't even caught up to 1980 vintage operating systems. An OS without applications is like an engine without a car. An OS without virtual memory is like a tiny little model engine. Won't get the kids to Gramma's house.

In a recent news article, the "Los Angeles Times" reports, " USA Today, which disclosed the program this week, reported that Qwest had refused to turn over its phone records because it believed it would be illegal. Qwest urged the NSA to get a court order, but the agency refused, the newspaper reported.

In a statement Friday, the attorney for former Qwest Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio said the government approached the company in the fall of 2001 seeking access to the phone records of Qwest customers, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.

'Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act,' attorney Herbert J. Stern said. "

I encourage everyone to support Qwest by making it their preferred telecommunications provider.

Interestingly, AT&T is one of the companies that eagerly gave the customers' telephone records to the government. AT&T is also affiliated with Yahoo DSL via AT&T's merger with Pacific Bell. No one should be surprised at the connection between AT&T and Yahoo. Yahoo is the company that assisted Beijing in arresting and imprisoning several reporters in China.

I encourage everyone to use Qwest as the preferred telecommunications provider and to use either MSN or Google as the preferred search engine. Use your economic might to defeat tyranny.

In a recent news article, the "Los Angeles Times" reports, " USA Today, which disclosed the program this week, reported that Qwest had refused to turn over its phone records because it believed it would be illegal. Qwest urged the NSA to get a court order, but the agency refused, the newspaper reported.

In a statement Friday, the attorney for former Qwest Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio said the government approached the company in the fall of 2001 seeking access to the phone records of Qwest customers, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.

'Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act,' attorney Herbert J. Stern said. "

I encourage everyone to support Qwest by making it their preferred telecommunications provider.

Interestingly, AT&T is one of the companies that eagerly gave the customers' telephone records to the government. AT&T is also affiliated with Yahoo DSL via AT&T's merger with Pacific Bell. No one should be surprised at the connection between AT&T and Yahoo. Yahoo is the company that assisted Beijing in arresting and imprisoning several reporters in China.

I encourage everyone to use Qwest as the preferred telecommunications provider and to use either MSN or Google as the preferred search engine. Use your economic might to defeat tyranny.

Well as terrified as I am about the "cancer gene" messing with the "soul gene", I'm willing to take the chance. Oh and last I checked, neurobiology has made some headway in cracking this whole "soul mystery" thing. Turns out that human individuality might actually be created by something called a "long interspersed nuclear element". A lot less handwaving than a "soul gene". LA Times has a rather extensive article on it and although the LINE is similar to a gene it's considered a precursor...

Assuming that this article isn't completely incorrect, I'd say it's pretty safe to say that we'll have trouble fucking it up. It exists in every mammal [including mice] and has existed for well over 600 Million years. Fun read on a fascinating topic.

The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat.

...I was beaten again and left in a small, dirty, cold concrete cell. I was extremely thirsty, but there was only a bottle of putrid water in the cell. I was refused fresh water.... They told me that I was now in a country with no laws, and did I understand what that meant?... In desperation, I began a hunger strike.... After 37 days without food, I was dragged to the interrogation room, where a feeding tube was forced through my nose into my stomach. I became extremely ill, suffering the worst pain of my life.

if you don't know ABSOLUTELY EVEYRTHING about the subject.

Superheroes(TM) are brands.

Superheroes have always been in worse positions than any of us, because superheroes are unable to live for themselves. They are unable to shit, to fuck, to hurt, to die. Not even imaginably.

Superpowers exist to alleviate misery. And right now, with even superheroes defending themselves from the exact same attacks all of us regular ol' non-heroes are defending ourselves against - cowardice, fighting, and rampantly betraying our own kinds - each of us is in the same boat as Wolverine, Spiderman, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, and even...Captain America!!!, it is time for the wheels to turn again.

Not back to September 10th, 2001 (a fine day!), but forward to a future where those of us who choose to live freely and happily can do so without detriment to any others.

But, sorry, having the good guys become bad guys who are after the good guys who are now the bad guys is only making matters worse.

I read comics because I believe in hope, and the possibilities, and power of having dreams. Marvel and DC make comics because they want us to sell out those dreams for expensive books, unimaginative storylines, and cheap headlines.

Trademark the concept superhero? Impossible.

How so?

Because my soul is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Nuff said(TM)?

...unlock my car...
I take it you didn't read the LA Times lately. For reference, go read this article and when you are done, do you REALLY think they won't be able to do something similar? In fact it will be even easier, they just watch a place that gets a lot of expensive cars, place a few RFID readers around, wait for you to leave and then walk up to your car and drive away. They wouldn't even need to spend several minutes "cracking" your car's code since they got it from you when you drove into the lot.

...log me on to my computer...
Get a fingerprint reader, or a smart card reader. Heck Sun has an entire system based on this for years, it will even move your active session from computer to computer (i.e. the applications you have open and running, your connections to other computers, the mozilla window on slashdot, the code you have compiling, etc...)

...control home automation...
Wow, you need to have a RFID "implanted" to do this? Why not a card or a chip, or widget that fits in your wallet? Why not that for ANY of the above? All you do with the implant is tag yourself for everyone else to see and track. A card/chip/widget can be easily changed. Same reason why you need to change passwords ever few weeks, it make it harder for someone to compromise and continue compromising your security.

Bubonic plague, now available in California!

But officials from the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center were quick to say that they believed the dramatic increase was due largely to the fact that they were using a far more inclusive definition of what constitutes a terrorist attack than in previous years.

The biggest single factor was the inclusion of attacks within Iraq, which in prior years were largely excluded, the report said.

At least 30% of terrorist incidents last year occurred in Iraq, as did 55% of related fatalities, or about 8,300, the report said. Fifty-six Americans were killed in terrorist acts, 47 of them in Iraq. A total of 40,000 people were killed or wounded, including about 6,500 police and 1,000 children, the report said.

11,111 attacks that caused 14,602 deaths in 2005. Those figures stand in contrast to prior State Department reports, which cited 208 terrorist attacks that caused 625 deaths in 2003; and 3,168 attacks that caused 1,907 deaths in 2004.

Here's an LA Times article from a paranoid MySpace Mom who spies on her daughter for fear of those pedophiles the idiot box keeps talking about. Best parts are the Mom doesn't understand private profiles, and asks her friends about the site before looking at it herself. And then she bans her daughter from the one form of Internet activity she can easily track. Now her daughter is banned from MySpace but we're all sure she won't be using IM and web-mail, right?

According to the original LA Times article the reporters were able to find actual soldier's SSNs which they were able to verify by tracking down the home addresses and personal vehicles of the soldiers.

Granted the rest of the info could be false, but that would mean they're deliberately leaking troops' personal info which could be putting their families at home in some real danger.

You can't be this dumb. Learn to use Google.

A brand new article with new info. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-f g-disks13apr13,1,5101806.story?coll=la-headlines-w orld

The BBC article is based on a LA Times article which contains more details like the fact that on the thumb drives they found a list of soldier's SSNs which which they were able to track down the soldier's home addresses.

Original LA Times article

Agreed, and it doesn't go far enough. The morons who write these stupid headlines might try, just once in a while, to have it make sense. E.g. from Google news and Yahoo news:

The Leaker in Chief?
WTF is this story about? You'ld have to click the damned thing to guess.

Disney to use Web
They don't have a web site yet? Or maybe they're talking about spiders? Who knows?

The kind of hacking you want
Are they talking about computers, driving a cab, or writing a newspaper article?

Massachusetts miracle?
And?????

Sutherland pacts for 3 three more years of "24"
That one doesn't even PARSE. Is a verb too much to ask for?

Big Brother inmates released to vote

Would it be too much to ask for folks who are supposed to enlighten us to start actually communicating? I use the headline to tell me whether or not I want to click the link. I gave up paper newspapers long ago.

I sure hope journalists don't make more than minimum wage, 'cause if they do they're all way overpaid.

But that's OK, free people only need to be exposed to sufficient information, chosen by our Good Leaders. Who needs the aggravation of knowing the bad parts?

Unlike their current services, in which online shoppers pay around $4 to rent new movies for up to a month, the films will be sold for prices "similar to home video," says Ramo.

Piracy fears also prevent online services from giving technological early adopters what they really want -- the ability to watch downloaded movies on their televisions. That's because the studios insist that downloadable movies include rigorous safeguards on copying. Users, for instance, can burn a DVD of a downloaded movie, but it will play only on a PC.

[...]

Ramo said download-to-own movies would sell for $20 to $30 -- up to double the $15 that discount retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. charge for DVDs, with downloads of classic titles for $10 to $17. He said the premium reflected the convenience of the service and the flexibility to transfer the digital download to two computers, as well as the ability to create a backup DVD that also would play on computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

Last I checked, paying more for something that I can do strictly less with wasn't the dictionary definition of "flexibility", but hey, I'm not a high-paid exec, what do I know.

That's correct. Intel expert Steven Aftergood called this an attempt by the right wing to find "a retrospective justification for the war in Iraq." The bloggers have made some interesting finds, it's true, but so far the ONDI's warning that "amateur translators won't find any major surprises, such as proof Hussein hid stockpiles of chemical weapons" has turned out to be true. They have also given us some bizarre misinterpretation too, such as some bloggers' belief that one document (CMPC-2003-006430.pdf) is a manual for the Mukhabarat even though it is clearly a printout of a webpage by the Federation of American Scientists from 1997 (complete with FAS logo!). Another supposed "smoking gun" was a document that had pictures of Zarqawi, cited as "proof" that Saddam trained him -- when in fact the documents clearly show that the Saddam regime is on the lookout for Zarqawi and his group, and, according to Associated Press, "Attached were three responses in which agents said there was no evidence al-Zarqawi or the other man were in Iraq." There is a lot more misreading and jumping to conclusions from this document dump. It's interesting, and I think it is good to have these documents made public, for historical reasons mostly, but the idea that these documents are where we should look for justification of Bush's war effort just shows how desperate Pete Hoekstra and other Republicans who pushed forcefully for this move really are.

Would that we were that clever. Unfortunately, this move appears to be purely political. It was instigated by ideologues Stephen F. Hayes and Pete Hoekstra, who have been demanding that the documents be released publicly so that all the brilliant Arabic translators in the right wing blogosphere can mine them for "evidence" that Saddam had WMD and ties to al-Qaeda all along. It's a canard; Negroponte's office has already looked through the documents and found nothing that interesting, and they warn that there won't be much beyond historical interest here. It is doubtful any of the documents have much to say about the current insurgency, since they are mostly older. This is a political move by Republicans desperate to justify the Iraq war in the face of recent evidence; as one intelligence expert pointed out "It looks like an effort to discover a retrospective justification for the war in Iraq." (see the LATimes article). The right wing blogosphere already has its underwear in a bunch about this though - with absurd readings of several documents they are claiming these documents prove everything from WMD to Saddam being behind 9-11. Several sites were really up in arms about one document in particular that they thought was a secret Iraqi Intelligence manual, but actually turned out to be a printout of a web page in English by the Federation of American Scientists from 1997 (the page has the FAS logo and everything on it). It's all pretty silly, actually.

Steve Kubby maybe?

You mean by using the more effective, 24-hour propaganda machine suggested by Rumsfeld which is paying journalists to write favorably about the US and it's war effort?

I wonder how much propaganda the US is involved in domestically and in other regions around the world and I really think organisations such as RSF (reporters without borders) should do more to discourage it - no wonder reporters are always getting locked up.

There are two sides to every story and NO news source ever presents both, everyone has an agenda.

You're not morons - that's your phrase. No, you ID fake scientists are child molesters, raping their minds much like the pedophile priests you defend. I understand that you were likewise mindraped yourself as a child, but it's your responsibility as an adult to heal yourself and not spread it to another generation.

Well, the H2 Prius can get projected 100 miles (Hydrogen ICE vehicle) & reality ~80 miles to a two-H2-canister tank!

Evolution leading to complex organisms is at least tricky to understand . How about the idiots who, for example, think Bush is comparable to Hitler? That's just as stupid as not believing in evolution, or believing the earth is flat, or whatever. We're surrounded every day by idiots who believe in bizarre things.

What I find amusing about that article I liked above, though, is the guy is teaching kids to doubt evolution on the basis that they weren't there to see it. Is that what he really wants to be teaching the kids? To doubt what they can't see for themselves? :D

If they can just keep Chris Douridas from drugging and attempting to kidnap minors... http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kcrw14jan1 4,0,2973206.story?coll=la-headlines-california "KCRW-FM radio host Chris Douridas, an influential Grammy-nominated musical tastemaker who has consulted on such Hollywood films as "American Beauty" and "Shrek 2," was arrested last week outside a popular Santa Monica bar on suspicion of drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl."

Franklin would have watched his mouth and not made such treasonous statements it he had known that Washington was tapping his phone.

I recently read in the LA Times about a small company that's competing with LM on the blimps.

Apparently, Worldwide Aeros, a smallish company founded by a Russian immigrant, was one of two U.S. companies that was awarded $3 million (USD) by the Pentagon to research the concept. (The other was LM.)

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian had been working on a project to develop mammoth airships to deliver supplies to Siberian oilfields.

You can find the article here. -- Paul

Even better, copy the link http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-superballs2feb 02,1,7280327.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

into google and enjoy :)

David Brin wrote more about that notion in "Earth", as well, which is a great fiction novel. The notion of wearing a camera around to record the cameras recording you is disturbing, but perhaps fitting. If nothing else, catching a cop beating or shooting a compliant suspect during an arrest points out that sometimes the guys wearing the badge exceed the law:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-highspeed1 feb01,0,7570035.story
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/31/chase.beating.ap /index.html

Pay attention to these sorts of things, everybody, people need to make sure that nobody is above the law, starting with the people who make and enforce them. One standard for all is better than an infinite number of double-standards driven from self-interest....

A narrow plurality, 49% to 45%, said they supported Bush's decision to allow the National Security Agency to intercept, without a warrant, international communications suspected of links to Al Qaeda.

Hard to believe. But then there was this:

A large share, 46%, said they would not mind if the government monitored their calls "as part of the fight against terrorism"; 53% said they would object.

So about 8% do care about their own rights but don't mind as long as it's somebody else's rights being violated.

Source? Sure, check out this from last November:

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice.

By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON -- As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

ADVERTISEMENT

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

----->8----->8-----snip----->8----->8-----

Fun stuff.

Personally, I have no problem with it being taught in a philosophy class, though apparently others do when it's a philosophy class in a government-funded high school.

The course description reads:

[T]he class will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the scientific, biological and biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin's philosophy is not rock solid. The class will discuss intelligent design as an alternative response to evolution. Physical and chemical evidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not billions.

The difference, in my view, is like that of a "Religions of the World" theology class vs. Sunday School.

John Lasseter is now Disney's Chief Creative Officer, working with the animators at Disney and Pixar as well as leading the Imagineers in designing and revamping attractions for the theme parks. Also, the current President of Pixar, Ed Catmull, is now the head of all Disney Animation.

All the news reports I've seen have said that Iger and Jobs main concern was keeping Pixar as intact and independent as possible. Lasseter is under contract until 2011, and is well respected in the animation field for his passion for storytelling and perfection. When asked about whether traditional 2D animation would be restored, John didn't rule it out.

Read the LA Times article about John for more insight.

With Ed and John running all animation at Disney, and Jobs sitting on the board to help them from the top, where's the possible downside?