An interesting article has been posted on AlterNet on an alleged campaign within the Republican party to remove Dick Cheney from the 2004 ticket. The administration has recently come under increased criticism from within certain factions of the GOP that are displeased with the seemingly out-of-control spending and infringements of civil liberties of the past few years, so this movement is perhaps not altogether surprising.



Of course, one has to wonder about the ultimate efficacy of leaving the current administration, albeit in a toned down form, in power. ;-)

The v0.9.5 snort-av patch has been backported to Snort v2.0.6, and can be downloaded at the usual place.

An update to our alert verification patch to Snort has been released which updates the upstream Snort source to v2.1.0 as well as fixes a FreeBSD build issue. The current patch and pre-patched Snort source archive can be fetched from the project software page.

It's a strange, strange world we live in.



I'm fairly certain that had I, during one of my mercifully short childhood stints as a churchgoer, attempted a flare on the church floor, I would have received a holy beatdown. Then again, I wasn't the most pious child ever to attend Sunday school, so being on the receiving end of divine retribution would not have been out of the ordinary. To this day, holy water and I get along like Gollum and elven rope, as in:



"It buuurrrrnnnnssss ussss!!!"

Josh Marshall has an interesting piece in the New Yorker on the America's recent penchant for unilateral action and how the current administration's approach to foreign policy has differed from past instances. The article also includes some interesting parallels between the US and previous empires. Definitely worth a read.

You're probably already familiar with craigslist, but perhaps you haven't checked out their best of craigslist section. If not, you're missing out. Some recent entries:

• 10 reasons for you to choose me
• free (cursed) prosthetic legs
• "Careful! Poop on there!"
• Why I Think My Cat Is On Acid

The Seattle Times is reporting that the discovery of the first BSE-infected cow in the US was "a fluke." Rather than being a downer selected for testing, several eyewitnesses claim that the cow was instead selected for examination because of birthing-related injuries, and that if the cow had not exhibited these injuries, its tainted meat would have entered the food supply undetected. Furthermore, if the cow had been a downer, under emergency rules enacted in late December it would have been sent straight to a rendering plant, where no testing for BSE is done at all.



Comforting, indeed.

Thanks to the Elite Force Aviator George W. Bush action figure, one can now see our Commander-in-Chief practice his Warrior I, Warrior II, and Downward Facing Dog poses, not to mention the Supported Head.



Seriously, though, is anyone else disturbed to see Dubya dolled up in the guise of a fighter pilot, given his less-than-distinguished military career? Furthermore, it just doesn't strike me as healthy that little children should be playing with a presidential doll action figure as one would with a comic book superhero. Frankly, it smacks far too much of "Dear Leader"-style idolatry; engraining this into the nation's youth wouldn't seem to be especially conducive to the future of healthy political discourse.

The Boston Globe is reporting today that staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee obtained unauthorized access to Democrat-controlled servers, intercepting secret strategy memos undetected for at least a year. Besides providing a bonanza of intelligence to the Republican party, excerpts of private communications were apparently leaked to the media on at least fifteen occasions.



It's quite interesting to get a glimpse of some of the dirty tricks going on behind the scenes between both parties. It seems clear that these intrusions fall squarely under the definition of cybercrime, and are thus federal offenses which carry quite serious prison terms. I also find it somewhat hard to believe that the anonymous technician whose programming error allowed the Republicans to access these secret documents would overlook such an important access control detail. In any case, it will be interesting to see who will take the fall for this, or if this will somehow be spun.

This is one of the most detailed guides to electronic music I've ever seen. If you're unfamiliar with the nuances that distinguish hard acid trance from hard acid house, don't have relatives who are heavily into JPop idols (like, oh, Ayumi Hamasaki), or are one of the uninitiated who have yet to experience buttrock goa, really, what are you waiting for?



Of course, some of the descriptions are less favorable than others: Anyway, if nothing else, you will learn to ph34r the happy hardcore!

Classic: Colmes is to Hannity as the Washington Generals are to the Harlem Globetrotters. Honestly, I've never watched this show, but given the network, it certainly wouldn't be out of character.

An EPIC FOIA request reveals that "Northwest gave NASA personal information on millions of passengers" for the purposes of developing a statistical terrorist detector. JetBlue is now the target of several class-action lawsuits for performing a similar misdeed in September, so one would hope that airlines have gotten the clear message that these kinds of actions are unacceptable.



Of course, EPIC deserves thanks for their efforts on this front, since without the vigilance of groups like these, these violations might never come to see the light of day. If you're interested in preserving our privacy and civil liberties, you might consider lending EPIC your support.

Research project, or the result of blowing a quarter's food budget on Natty Ice? You be the judge.



This story is quintessential Isla Vista.



Honestly, it would be difficult to starve out here. I mean, if you're hungry (and stealthy) enough, it's really as easy as "gathering" from your neighbor's garden. I'd be a bit cautious with regard to the ocean considering the runoff, sewage, and oil seepage, but a friend of mine had roommates in Connecticut that survived by foraging for food and drink at parties, and there are definitely plenty of those around...

An...interesting...quote for you: Any guesses on the speaker? Televangelist, bible-belt preacher, mentally-deranged street person? Actually, it's the owner and primary funder of the Washington Times and UPI as well as a major contributor to the Bush Administration, the one and only Reverend Sun Myung Moon.



Here's a copy of the original transcript of his sermon, as well as more information on the good Reverend's ties to the GOP.

A word of warning to those running OS X:



If you happen to pick up a sweet new external Firewire disk, and subsequently proceed to move the bulk of your audio and video archive (legally compiled, of course!) from your FileVault-encrypted home directory to the new disk, the next time you logout of your account, be prepared to stare at a screen somewhat like this for a long, long, long time.

Courtesy of tompaine.com and just in time for Tuesday's address: the State of Union Scorecard.

If you've been following tech news at all over the past year, you're probably sick and tired of hearing about SCO / The Canopy Group's attempts to litigate their way to profits by claiming Linux copyright violations of UNIX. Well, one Slashdotter has proposed linking SCO's website to the phrase "litigious bastards" in Google as a form of protest.



Well, why not? The sooner those litigious bastards go away, the better. ;-)

MoveOn recently sponsored a contest to create a 30 second ad criticizing the Bush administration. The winner, "Child's Pay," poignantly attacks the administration's massive spending by pointing out the fact that future generations will have to pay for the fiscal irresponsibility of those in power today.



When MoveOn attempted to purchase a Super Bowl spot for the ad, however, they were denied by CBS on the grounds that the ad violates their policy of running ads which deal with political issues, even though both anti-smoking and anti-drug Super Bowl ads have already been scheduled.

Chalmers Johnson has an article out detailing the current state and future directions of America's global network of military bases. Whatever your opinion of the international reach of the US military, there is no denying the vast influence projected through these bases as well as the fact that many Americans are woefully ignorant as to the extent of America's omnipresence and the ill-will many foreigners harbor towards us because of it.



One interesting claim: obtaining an abortion at a US military base hospital is prohibited, forcing victims of the 14,000 or so sexual assault attempts each year within the US military to choose between potentially facing an unwanted pregnancy or turning to local doctors to perform the procedure. Obviously this can be less than desirable depending on the location of the base.

In a blow to trolls everywhere, goatse.cx1 has been forcibly removed from the internet. Of course, a petition has already been created to have this "internet icon restored to its original domain."



In other news, tubgirl2 hits are expected to increase sharply.

1. Not going to link to this, any existing copy, or any archive. If you know what it is, you know, otherwise consider yourself among the lucky.
2. Not going to link to this either. :-)

A fool and his money are soon parted. Still, I suppose you at least get a ride on a nuclear icebreaker out of the deal.



The itinerary makes fun reading:

Tee-hee. Fat kids helping fat kids get phatter. Seriously, I can't say this is the healthiest thing I've ever seen.

American Journalism Review has an interesting article on the BBC and its popularity with Americans during the Iraq war due to its perceived impartiality and skepticism. Contrast this with the unquestioning cheerleading of certain "fair and balanced" news outlets, and it's not hard to see why. What does it say when in this "land of liberty" corporate media seems so much more biased than the UK's government-controlled media?

From a Slashdot poll on the best Tetris brick comes the story of the origins of Tetris, an example of an actual "tetris," and a video of some freakishly good player apparently from the Japanese national Tetris finals.

It appears that Delta is to begin testing CAPPS II, a controversial airline passenger pre-screening system proposed by the Transportation Security Administration. This proposal had previously come under fire from both Congress as well as privacy activists over concerns that the information collected is open to abuse and that the security measures proposed are in any case easily evaded. Groups are calling for a boycott of Delta in response to their involvement in the rollout of CAPPS II.

ABC News has an interesting article on the use of antidepressants to manage compulsive shopping. On the face of it, it makes some sense if you assume that many compulsive shoppers may attempt to fill some void in their lives with materialistic goods.



Also, some tips on how to manage compulsive shopping without resorting to medication.

Advances in technology have made so many previously undreamt of scenarios possible. Who would once have thought that humans would place probes on Mars, or that the entire human genome would be decoded, or that sperm donations would enable incest through genetic sexual attraction?

There's an excellent article on Democratic presidential nominee Howard Dean's troubles with the media over at Salon (subscription or ad view required). If one has followed the mainstream media's coverage of Dean at all during his campaign for the Democratic nomination, the extent of the media bias against him has been quite evident, so it's nice to see someone picking up on this. Is the prospect of an outsider ascending to the presidency so threatening?

Well, I guess that's settled then. Good to know that "it doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad..."

Support "prayer for the world" and "charitable service to others" while saving money on quality compatible remanufactured ink, toner, fax, and copier supplies from the LaserMonks!



Or hey, buy some beer instead.

Send in a title, get back an illustration. Pretty cool.

Happen to be hanging out at MIT? Have to use a restroom? Wondering if one of those nasty social interactions will be necessary when selecting one? Wonder no more.



Of course, it's best to be up on your urinal etiquette.

Oh yes, I couldn't resist. Behold the Lords of the Rhymes in all their majesty!



Quickbeam and Bombadil are gonna rock this joint with their hobbit band. They've got a single out, "Lords of the Rhymes" (lyrics), as well as a video. They're keepin' it green with their hobbit pals, too. They couldn't possibly be taking this too far though, could they? Nah... ;-)

For those of you following the latest episode in the mad cow or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) saga, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of PR Watch have an excellent book out which delves into some of the history behind TSEs (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) including kuru, scrapie, mad cow, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease with a focus on attempts by various industry groups to downplay the seriousness of the situation in order to preserve profits at the expense of consumer welfare.



Given the historically inadequate testing measures implemented by the US meat industry as well as the numerous loopholes in regulations concerning the feeding of recycled animal proteins to livestock, the problem in the US may be much worse than it is presently portrayed. The possibility that thousands of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease go unreported or misdiagnosed as Alzheimers or similar conditions in the US is quite sobering to say the least.



A copy of the book is also available for download as a PDF.