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Gosling: Partnership with Microsoft Meaning Less and Less
Jeebus writes "At an event in Sydney this week James Gosling questioned the technical relationship between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft in light of the antitrust demands of the European Union. Gosling also talks about reverse engineering, DMCA and collaboration with Microsoft with on identity management. "
Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Daunte Culpepper showed off his scrambling ability Wednesday -- in a crowded convention center ballroom.
Daunte Culpepper looks over his baubles before handing them over -- temporarily -- to Jerry Townsend.
The Minnesota Vikings quarterback presented a paralyzed high school football player two diamond necklaces worth about $75,000 during an NFL awards ceremony, but then awkwardly asked for them back after it was finished.
The apparent gift prompted a mother to cry, a father to think about buying a safe to store it and Culpepper to find a way out of the mess.
"I'll get him something else," Culpepper said sheepishly.
The confusion began at the FedEx ground and air player of the year honors, where finalists Culpepper, Peyton Manning, Shaun Alexander and Curtis Martin were on stage for the announcement.
When the master of ceremonies opened the floor for questions, Jerry Townsend spoke up from his wheelchair in the front row.
"Hey Daunte, can I get some of that ice?" he said in a low voice, referring to the two sparkling necklaces hanging around Culpepper's neck.
Culpepper jumped up, pulled them off and brought them over to Townsend, a senior defensive back at Jacksonville Episcopal High School who was paralyzed from the neck down while making a tackle in October.
Townsend spent the last four months in various hospitals and was released Wednesday -- just in time to go to the Super Bowl event.
After Culpepper put the necklaces around Townsend's neck, his mother started to cry. His father talked about needing to get a safe for the expensive jewelry.
Culpepper, meanwhile, went back to his seat and finished the awards ceremony (Manning won the air award, and Martin won the ground one). After it was over, Culpepper patiently answered dozens of questions while keeping a close eye on his jewelry across the room.
One of the diamond-laced necklaces was the No. 11, Culpepper's jersey number, and the other was a large pepper (for Culpepper).
"Where's that kid at? I've got to get my stuff back," Culpepper said.
Culpepper then walked over to the Townsends and asked them to write down their address so he could send them something else. Culpepper wasn't sure what it would be.
In an unrelated note, Culpepper will appear in a 60-second NFL Network commercial to air during the Super Bowl along with several other players and coaches from around the league that didn't make it to the big game. They'll be singing "Tomorrow," a tune from the musical "Annie."
WASHINGTON, DC--The avian influenza virus, a mutant flu strain that has claimed the lives of 31 people in Eastern Asia since it was first observed passing from birds to humans in 1997, has the nation's foremost alarmists extremely agitated.
Above: Representatives from the Alarmist Council.
"Right now, the bird flu is just a blip in the newspapers, but if the avian influenza virus undergoes antigenic shift with a human influenza virus, the resulting subtype could be highly contagious and highly lethal in humans," Matthew Wexler, the president of the National Alarmist Council and one of the nation's leading fear mongers, said Monday. "My professional opinion, and more importantly, my personal belief, is that this is a cause for great national alarm."
Wexler's sentiments were unanimously upheld by members of the alarmist community.
"The bird flu could cause a global influenza pandemic similar to the Spanish Flu that killed more than 20 million people in 1918," medical alarmist Dr. Preston Douglas said. "Many experts also believe a major global flu outbreak to be imminent, if not--God forbid--already underway. Why, recent observation and documentation has recorded at least one case of human-to-human transmission of a rare strain of the avian influenza virus. If this one case is proof that the animal virus is mutating into a contagious, lethal human virus, then the entire world is basically doomed. Doomed!"
Douglas is best known for his brilliant alarmist analyses of flesh-eating bacteria, Ebola, and SARS--all of which he successfully developed into topics of major international trepidation.
Bird flu was first identified as a strain of infectious influenza in Italy in the early 1900s. Of the 15 subtypes, only subtypes H5 and H7 are known to be capable of crossing the species barrier from birds to humans. The first human outbreak, which occurred in Hong Kong in 1997, killed four people. Since then, the bird flu has remained a relatively minor virus, killing fewer individuals than common-cold variants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued neither an epidemic warning nor a public-health alert in connection with bird flu.
According to leading alarmists, the CDC's lack of immediate concern is a cause for alarm.
"So, basically, the CDC doesn't have the first inkling of what to do about a potentially explosive form of flu that infects ducks and chickens," said Fox News Science, Health, and Epidemics Commentator Marylinne Kent. "Given the popularity of these two birds as a food source among Asians, and the fact that we have no idea how many undocumented Asians have settled illegally in our nation, the potential for danger is extremely high."
"I urge you all to think of your families," Kent added.
Harold Jefferson, a founding member of the American National Citizen's Institute for Alarm, read from a prepared statement Tuesday.
"We have to face the facts: This isn't just a rapacious killer that could be incubating anywhere within our borders and for which there is no known cure," Jefferson said. "It is also an indicator of the profound indifference of millions of American citizens. Mark my words: People who aren't scared now will look pretty stupid if it turns out that they should have been."
Jefferson added: "The bird flu could someday claim as many lives as Mad Cow Disease."
Ruth Herrin, the New York Post's veteran panic expert, has relied heavily on information provided by alarmists in the scientific community.
"Listen, I'm no disease expert," Herrin said. "But I know that people should be warned about global devastation any time a devastation scenario can be extrapolated from an actual news report. And for the 16th consecutive month, that time is now."
None of the nation's 15,000 certified alarmists have offered a strategy to deal with a possible outbreak.
"Listen, finding cures is not my job," Wexler said. "I just report the facts as best and as briefly as I can. Then I interpret them in what I, as an alarmist, believe to be the most effective fashion. And if what I perceive here is real--namely, a looming epidemic and an atmosphere of apathy and fatalism in the U. S. medical community--then we are facing Armageddon."
When James Gosling talks, nobody listens. He is one of the people who advocated keeping Java within Sun in order to prevent Java from being a public standard.
How in the heck did this get modded as Insightful?
The mind boggles.
coomitterbase and As the premiere Please moderate We get there with tired arguments
funniest goddamn sig i've seen yet
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
You know I honestly read that as "deceased revenues" the first time around.
Hey if you don't like our American moderation system then you can GEEEDDDOUT