June 2, 2009
Article from CNN: Ships head for area airplane debris spotted
My heart goes out to the families and friends of the people who are likely lost in an Air France plane crash which occured off the coast of Brazil. It is always disheartening to hear about such tragedies. However, there is a story within a story here. What was said illuminates a bigger problem, the state of our oceans and our environment at large.
During the search for survivors it appears searchers had spotted something, potentially related to “airplane debris”: quoted from the article, “Earlier Tuesday, searchers found an airplane seat, an orange life vest, small white fragments, an oil drum and signs of oil and kerosene about 700 kilometers (435 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, said Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.”
Ocean Trash
Mr. Amaral goes onto to explain…
“There was not enough material to officially say it is wreckage from Flight 447, Amaral said.”
My question is two-fold; 1) Was there another plane crash we are unaware of that happened in the same vicinty? 2) If this debris is not enough to claim it is from flight 447, then does it not imply this could be a “normal” amount of ocean debris?
I think we have all heard about the growing amount of ocean trash across the planet. But to Mr. Amaral’s defense, I doubt he was implying this is being confused with what trash is already in the ocean. However, the implication is there is alot of ocean debris or trash and we are poisoning our planet, our oceans at an unprecedented rate.
It is about time we stop crashing planes into the ocean so there is no confusion over airplane debris and our garbage.
May 8, 2009
Article by moi:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has filed a Uniform Domain-name dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) action against Ben Dean, the owner of UDRPFail.com. ICANN claims Mr. Dean has no legitimate right to use the claim “UDRP Fail” as all the failing to date is directly a consequence of the failure of the UDRP, not Mr. Dean.
UDRP Fail
In a recent UDRP decision a single panelist stripped Mr. Dean of his domain name Deacom.com and awarded it to the complainant because; “The Panel agrees with Complainant’s assertion that Respondent has not utilized the disputed domain name in an active manner.” In this case active manner means not having an active website. The UDRP panelist failed to take into consideration Mr. Dean used the domain for business email correspondence. Furthermore, the complainant in conjunction with the UDRP failed to prove Mr. Dean registered the domain name in bad faith or that he was not using the domain for bona fide business use
In response to losing his domain name, Mr. Dean set up a “bona fide” website to communicate his displeasure with the UDRP decision, which failed to protect the rights of the domain name owner, in this case Mr. Dean. This website can be found at http://www.udrpfail.com
In a not-so surprising turn of events, ICANN, the agency which oversees the UDRP has filed a UDRP action against Mr. Dean for using the terms “UDRP” and “Fail” in the same domain name. ICANN is not claiming they own the mark, but asserting they have established the UDRP as a “failing” policy and as such have exclusive rights to “fail.” Considering there is no doubt ICANN has legitimate use rights in the acronym UDRP and clearly has shown they have “failed” on more than one occasion, see; Versa.com and Filta.com for recent failures, there is a better than good chance ICANN will win this decision.
Don’t be surprised if ICANN goes after Fail.com next. Although “Fail” is a generic term, one could argue the failure rate of the UDRP is so out of whack the policy is now synonymous with failing and therefore requires the domain name Fail.com because one can assume direct or indirect visitors expect to find the UDRP and/or ICANN-related content at the domain name Fail.com. The owner of Fail.com, Exponent Engineering and Consulting could not be reached for comment.
April 29, 2009
Article spoofed from CNN: Earliest case of ”Ant” flu tucked away in Mexico
Stamford, Connecticut (FactFace) — Tucked away in this mid-sized city of the Northeast, off a three-laned highway flanked by suburban neighborhoods, is where the earliest case of ant flu — a virus spreading globally — was confirmed.
There is now a “patient zero” as named by his doctors — 5-year-old Eddie Herman, who survived the earliest documented case of ant flu in an outbreak, officials say, has now spread across four continents.
Ant Flu Virus Culprits
His family lives in the 118,000-population city of Stamford in the State of Connecticut, where a flu outbreak was reported on April 2. State officials arrived and took samples from hundreds of people.
Lab tests confirmed Eddie was the only patient in Stamford to test positive for the ant flu virus; the others had contracted a common flu. Health officials had returned to Eddie’s sample only after cases of the new flu strain were spotted around the country.
“In this case, there’s a patient who turned out to be positive for the ant-flu virus, with the exception that at that time in no region of the world it had been established as an etiological, epidemic cause,” said US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
Eddie has managed to bounce back from his symptoms and playfully credits ice cream for helping him feel better.
His mother blamed the virus on a huge ant farm in Eddie’s bedroom. Officials have conducted tests on the ant farm, and those tests came back negative.
Meanwhile, US health officials suspect the ant flu outbreak has caused more than 1.5 million deaths and roughly 2.5 million illnesses.
The World Health Organization says at least 105,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 64,000 in the United States; 26,000 in Mexico; six thousand in Canada; three thousand in New Zealand; and two thousand each in Spain, the United Kingdom and Israel. WHO has confirmed deaths only in the US, where seven thousand people have died from ant flu.
The deadly outbreak in the US prompted authorities to order about 350,000 public venues in the US to close or serve only meals with no insects as health officials tried to contain the virus.
April 20, 2009
Article from CNN: Karl Rove’s a twitter creep
There is no doubt, the more she speaks the more I love her. Meghan, I love you. Do you love me? Check here ___ for YES and here ___ for NO. It’s ok, you wont hurt my feelings if you dont. In any case, I think you should be the new face of the republican party. And you are right, Rove is “creepy.”
“”Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That’s creepy,” she said. “I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It’s allowed me to share the less serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there’s also been a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits. We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people.”"
And here is what some people had to say about this story:
DennisK says: “The Straight Talk Express has a new McCain at the wheel! This young lady is smart, funny and honest (i.e., everything pols like Sarah Palin are NOT).
I’m a registered Democrat but an independent thinker, and Meghan McCain is exactly the type of “loyal opposition” the current President and Congress need.”
Roxxane says: “I love Meghan McCain. I like her sense of bravado and candor. I am a Democrat but I slide in and out of viewpoints between the two parties. If I were to ever become a Republican, I would agree with her idea of what the party should be. Currently, I do see it as a bunch of old, rich white guys who don’t have a clue about what is going on in the 21st century let alone our inner cities and with the younger generation. Good job Meghan for calling a spade a spade.”
B E says: “I am a long time yellow dog democrat and it is a bit “creepy” that Meghan just might bring the GOP out of the deep, dark hole they have been digging for themselves. So far, I cant find any disagreement with her comments and political philosophies; you go girl!!!, what you are doing is in the best interest of bringing some sanity back to American politics.”
J, Greer says: “McCains daughter needs to just come out and say she is a democrat. You cannot say your a republican if yours views are in favor of democratic platforms. This whole notion of appeasing everyone is nonsense. What is wrong with standing strong for conservative issues. Could she have possibly voted for Obama? Sounds like she is a democrat to me. I never hear saying anything positive about conservatism only negative. I would buy a playboy if she was in it.”
And I really need to retort to this idiot. Yo, J. Check it out, you are mixing political party with ideology. It is unfair to imply all Democrats are not conservative. Have you ever heard of the Blue-dog Democrats? And the only reason one could never appease everyone is because most don’t even know what they stand for. Just because mommy and daddy told you so dont make it right. And then to end it with your last comment just threw any argument you had right out the window.
April 15, 2009
Article from CNN: Nationwide ‘tea party’ protests blast bailouts
I have no problem with people being upset over the numerous bailouts and the amount of taxpayer money gone into failing systems. However, these “conservatives” really need a history lesson and a message which is a little less blurry. Let me make a couple quick points…
Tea Party
1) Taxes are not going up: in case you didnt know, for those of you making less than 250K a year there will be no increase in the amount you are taxed. You should be more concerned about what your money is worth six months from now, rather than how much you have to give up each year.
2) Why is socialism a bad word?: Some form of socialism will actually help the majority of Americans, especially those on the bottom. We have been giving our money relentlessly to the rich since Reagan, isnt it about time we actually leveled the playing field. Trickle down economics dont work people, wake the fuck up!
3) The “tea party” anaology is terrible: The Boston Tea Party was about colonists who were being taxed when they had no say in how they were being governed – taxation without representation. Every single one of those protesters, above the age of 18, had every opportunity to vote in the last election. That means you were represented. Problem is, the Republicans lost (the so-called conservatives). Ironically, it was poor management by a mostly Republican-run government for the past 10 years that got us in this mess to begin with.
Here is a good article from Paul Begala
