A Day in Paradise

Life & Leisure News Article | Reuters.com

So they are finally releasing Mordechai Vanunu, but under a tight “gag order” which means that “he will be barred from leaving Israel for at least six months, a restriction that will then be reviewed and could be extended. He will be forbidden to have contact with foreigners or discuss his work at the Dimona reactor.”

For those of you who don’t know who Mordechai Vanunu is, he is the guy who blew the whistle on the Isreali Nuclear program in 1985 by releasing pictures and details to the The Sunday Times of London. Mossad agents kidnapped him from Italy that year and brought him to Isreal where he was charged with Treason and has been in jail for 18 years.

This artilce talks about a tape from one of his questioning sessions that was leaked to the press. He reportedly did not want or authorize the tapes release but it “had been leaked to the Israeli news media by a senior Israeli official hoping to improve his relations with the press.”

Mordechai Vanunu is a fascinating man and I hope that he can get his life back together.

The Agonist: Top Hamas Leader Killed in Missile Strike

There really has got to be a better way to bring peace then the whole “Kill someone who kills someone to prove that killing people is wrong” thing. There are some reports that his wife and son were killed in the attack.

Cosmic 419er lost in space | The Register

A classic via slashdot. We need your help to get the Nigerian Astronaut out of space, you really have to read it to believe it.

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust fund we need your assistance.

O’Reilly Network: The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It’s Bogus [Apr. 16, 2004]

See, I’m not crazy! Gmail is a Good Thing ™. Nothing to get your panties in a knot over. Lets move along now.

What’s the Story — by Aaron Wormus

Google has given me back my 6/10 pagerank. Thanks! When I get some time I need to hit at least 7/10
In other news, I’ve also made it onto dmoz. Even got a Thumbshot up there… doesn’t look like it rendered quite right, but it almost looks better that way

Iraq, then the world, Bush hoped - OpinionPeterHartcher - www.smh.com.au

Interesting opinion. A good read!

Texas Safe Voting

So we all know diebold is crap, but this page and the video clips are REALLY SCARY. Here’s a classic bit:

“The examiners found out, apparently by accident, that using Diebold’s provisional voting system, it was possible for two voters to vote using the same ID number — or for one voter to vote multiple times. In practice, the Diebold representative explained, they give out paper stickers to make sure that each person votes only once.”

The Agonist–Fast Paced, Progressive News And Commentary From Around The World

A warning leaflet has been seen in Baghdad warning locals to stay inside from April the 15th to April 23rd.

The “Mujahideen Brothers” will “transfer the resistance fire to Baghdad, the capital, to help out Mujahideen brothers from the Al-Mahdi Army to free you from the darkness of the occupier”.

I had a weird dream last night. It went on an on, but somewhere in it I met B. B. King, he was telling me how he knew my mom when she was 21. Funny… a little bit later on (or before, I have no idea), I was in a barbers shop waiting for somthing when an idle hairdresser decided to trim one of my sideburns, and then charge me 1.5GBP!

I don’t usually have dreams, maybe this is something significant… Nah!

Linspire.com - Michael’s Minutes

So they didn’t like eckspee, it’s a linspriacy (kudos to cubex on #phpc for that one). This is just outside the US. Inside the US they will continue to be Lindows.

eBay item 2392259136 (Ends Apr-09-04 02:00:40 PDT) - An Old Mattress

This is VERY funny. The GAIM guys are funding GAIM development through selling stuff on ebay.

From their auction page:

“Do not pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity to sleep on the same mattress on which Gaim developer Mark Doliner’s roommate Andrew sleeps on!”

I guess now is a good time to annouce that GAIM 0.76 is up! And aparantly Yahoo works again! Yippie!!!

Security Pipeline | News | California Senator To Block Google’s Gmail

Some more great quotes! There is no need to comment on the absurdity of this statement:

“This proposal is little different from asking people to let the phone company listen in on their calls and butt in at any time to say, ‘This call is brought to you by…’”

If someone said that I could get free phone calls for the option of listening an appropriate commertial AFTER the phone call I would at least consider it. They record our phone calls anyway
I assume they aren’t offering POP3… any word?

Ars Technica: Google’s Gmail under threat in California

It is strange how I am jumping to Google’s defense over this one. Anyway, hypocrisy aside, I think that the following statement is a bit absurd.

“Privacy advocates argue that analyzing a user’s e-mail is an invasion of privacy, even if it is done by a machine and even if someone agrees that this is allowable in a Terms of Service agreement.”

While I understand the issues, they are not forcing anyone to sign up. We don’t know what Yahoo and MSN do with our email. Personally I trust google more then them.

Marine Corps Times - News - More News

If it was a joke its not funny at all.

dean.edwards.name/IE7/

This looks like it will be pretty useful. Just make sure the CSS file is the first one that loads, and you’ll have a standards complient Internet Explorer.

Works with IE5.5 and up.