Inflatable Human Beach Ball - Gizmodo

Sweet, though only available in Australia, where it's almost summer.

It's almost winter here. Stupid hemispheres.

Positive news vs. Negative news.

This is the front page article on the Washington Times website about the Middle East.

This is the front page article on the NYT website.

How To Survive a Robot Uprising

Who would have thought that a scientist can author such an entertaining book?

Kitschy, yet surprisingly informative on the state of robotics today.

Al-Zarqawi is pathetic

Musab al-Zarqawi is now claiming that the suicide bombing at the Radisson SAS hotel in Jordan was targeting supposed Israeli and American intelligence officials instead of a wedding.

It's looking like the Jordanian outrage over the terrorist attacks is forcing al-Zarqawi to backpedal and redirect blame onto phantom Zionist enemies. Not a winning solution, since it makes him look weak.

Saddam offered asylum to OBL

Interesting.

John McCain

Though often reckless (just see the McCain-Feingold Act), John McCain speaks with principle and conviction. His article today in the New York Post railing against the recent amendment passed targetting a pullout date as "aiding & abetting" the terrorists in Iraq is spot on.

This man has vision and principle. I saddened more and more that he did not win the 2000 Republican primaries.

Deal averts Internet showdown

The Internet deal reached in Tunisia seems like a win for the U.S. for the most part. The U.N. gets another bureaucratic committee with no real power (isn't that always the case with the U.N.?) and the U.S., through ICANN, gets to keep full control of Internet governance.

Win-win.

Cheney...unleashed!

Drudge is reporting on the text of a speech to be given by Dick Cheney tonight.

All I've got to say is "Wow." It's a tough speech and marks a big pushback from the Administration. However, Cheney and co. are still very vulnerable, so I'll take a wait-and-see approach.

Airport security

You know, 9/11 started through Logan Airport, so you'd figure that Logan would be particularly conscious of security. I work as part of the company tasked with installing and managing the new security measures, so I'm intimately aware of what's going on. Let me tell you that Logan Airport is one of the most lax major airports I've ever seen.

At Philly, the state police actually move cars that have been sitting at the arrivals side for more than a minute. Here, at Logan, the state police stand around and do practically nothing! Occasionally they may wave cars on or have a squad car buzz them onward, but cars simply move down the road a little bit, park in a No Parking area, and are then completely ignored by the state trooper standing less than 100ft. away. Amazing!

Also, today we find out that there are TSA agents that don't have access to Terminal A operating the exit slider doors for that terminal. Basically, their supervisors turn on the controls for them, then leave them alone to operate the door. Talk about a security breach!

Literacy

I can't be sure, but sometimes I think that Andrew Sullivan is illiterate, or, at the very least, got very low scores in reading comprehension.

Yesterday, Sullivan bashes Glenn Reynolds about a posting Glenn put up regarding the media writing articles that contain falsehoods about the war effort. In it, Sullivan keys on four unfortunate words Reynolds writes:

I've done it myself, with regard to the war crimes originally reported by Zeyad, problems with CERP, etc. Reporting on things taht are actually going wrong, without the "see, Bush is horrible!" spin, and false facts, that we're getting elsewhere, is actually helpful, and we could use more of it. It would, however, be work, and it might help Bush out, which is apparently unforgivable.

Italics mine. He then goes on a wild rant about how Glenn is blindly covering for Bush, when Glenn has called out the President more than once. What Sullivan completely misses is Reynolds's point, that criticizing the war is legitimate, but using misinformation to do it is wrong. In fact, Glenn welcomes criticism in his post.

It's sad when Sullivan goes on one of his hysterical rants. Any kid with with 6th grade reading comprehension skills could have understood Glenn's post better than Sullivan did.

Bias against U.S. in Internet discussion?

The Independent reports on the U.N. discussion on the future of the Internet and provides some anti-U.S. bias in its summary of the situation.

Firstly, it claims that the Bush administration wants ICANN "on US soil and subject to US controls." OK, well, it already is on US soil and subject to US controls; and by US controls, I mean virtually none. ICANN has a laissez-faire attitude towards the internet, with very little in the way of regulations or content control.

The Independent also injects fear-mongering into the article by writing that "the unelected Californian corporation could...block access to entire country domain names", even though, in reality, ICANN lets all countries control their top level domain names without regulation. I could run out and kill people tomorrow, but that doesn't mean I should be locked up today when I've never had a history of violence.

The Independent article is a pathetic and blatant attempt at attacking the US position of laissez-faire control of the internet. The US has been managing the internet for years, with no indication that it has ever censored the free flow of information. As the old engineering adage goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The 'fix', giving control of the internet to the UN, can only make the internet worse off.

When is a man not a man?

When he wears these.

You might as well hand over your masculinity when you put on those pants. Nothing screams effeminacy more than these pants.

The Politics of War

You know, at this point, I would seriously consider voting for Joe Lieberman for President in 2008.

College 'journalist' shows her irrelevancy

How can anyone not be entertained by Fark.com?!?

And read her complaint about Fark's design, then look at the design of her newspaper's website. Talk about Pot, Kettle, Black.

I really think this is a college student who wants to show just how mature she is, but really, I'm 27 and I LOVE Fark. Then again, maybe that means I'm immature...

I gotta see my therapist.

**UPDATE**

She's getting a thrashing on the Fark Comments section.

Poor girl.

**UPDATE II***

Looks like she didn't write the article after all.

Apologies.

Jesse Jackson...T.O. advocate???

Just who does Jesse Jackson think he is? He decided to open his fat mouth and jump into the Terrell Owens saga, calling Owens's suspension "much too severe". He feels getting suspended for 4 games and being deactivated for the rest of the season if Owens had been caught shaving points, selling drugs, or carrying a gun.

No, Mr. Jackson, shaving points, selling drugs, or carrying a gun is deserving of a lifetime ban. Owens bashed his quarterback publicly twice, attacked the team by saying that it lacked class, got involved in a bitter contract dispute, swore at his offensive coordinator, and got into a fight with Hugh Douglas.

I'd call the punishment way too lenient. And I'd call Mr. Jackson a publicity-seeking blowhard.