He admitted writing Perl scripts to harvest passwords, and to using password crackers to get into more protected systems. Once he was inside a network, especially a military network, McKinnon found that other computer systems considered him a trusted user. This was how he was able to get into the Pentagon's network. "It was really by accident," he said.

McKinnon said he was detected after he he got lazy, leaving messages on federal systems."

Seems Blair was somehow the best thing Labour had going for it, in public opinion.  That can't be good.

Article

In the course of following the arrest and extradition of former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, I was especially intrigued by this.

Charges against Mr Karadzic comprise:

11 counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities, the shelling of Sarajevo during the city's siege, at the cost of roughly 12,000 civilian lives, the organisation of the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosniak men and youths in Srebrenica, the targeting of Bosniak and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals, the unlawful deportation and transfers of civilians because of national or religious identity, and the destruction of homes, businesses and sacred sites.

However, it seems that there was a side to this man that few ever got to know.  Beneath the ruthless and genocidal exterior, there dwelt a sensitive soul, in touch with the cosmic balances of the Earth, at one with the cycles of nature, and a conduit for that great and universal energy that is called "love".  He probably even owned CDs of whales singing. 

Because, after all that carnage, destruction and ethnic cleansing (and assuming the identity of a retired farmer who knew nothing about any of this until recently), Radovan Karadzic became an alternative therapist.  Taken under the wing of a veteran con-artist "bio-energy healer" called Mina Minic, the former Bosnian Serb leader started a new life for himself, transferring energy between people and the universe with the use of little bits of twisted metal.

This article here even gives the account of someone whose wife was treated by Karadzic in his guise as an alternative therapist.

The lesson here: inside every vicious, murdering, despotic bastard, there's a fuzzy little hippy yearning to buy some healing crystals.

For anyone who hasn't already found it:

BrianWood.com



With free art books, issues, promo material and more to download.

Not that I really expect it to have had a tremendous impact on anyone's life, but I have in fact been away from my soapbox for a while (I've been trying out this new thing - I think it's called living), but I have returned, and will continue to do my bit to bring joy and enlightenment to your otherwise empty and humdrum existences... hopefully with more news stories about sheep-rape, which are always good for joy and enlightenment.

On one of my routine information-trawling expeditions, I snagged this story, which can be summarised as "girl gets to disown twatty parents for giving her a stupid name that will cause her to kill herself before she's half-way through high school".

The girl in question had been named "Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii", although she was in fact from New Zealand. 

The article ran a list of other names bestowed upon New Zealand children by parents similarly sensitive to the importance of social acceptance among peers, the traumas of growing up, and the benefits of having a name that won't get you kicked to shit at school.  These included: Violence, Midnight Chardonnay, Number 16 Bus Shelter, and a set of twins named Benson and Hedges.  Admittedly, "Violence" may have not been kicked to shit at school, but it's unlikely that he/she turned out as the most balanced individual in the world.

Names that had apparently been denied on grounds of unsuitability included: Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucky, Sex Fruit, Fat Boy, Satan, Adolf Hitler and 4Real.

And those are just the morons of one country. 

Reproductive organs should be ripped out at birth, stuffed in a jar with your name on, and only given back once you've passed a test.

McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, issued the statement: "John McCain believes withdrawal must be based on conditions on the ground...  Timing is not as important as whether we leave with victory and honor."

An unwinnable war of conquest and attrition, arguably waged on illegal grounds, and with cynical motives...

At this juncture, I'd suggest that the US really ought to consider settling for punctuality.

President George W. Bush has agreed to a "general time horizon" for withdrawing American troops in Iraq.

How precise. 

- "What time are we leaving for the restaurant?"

- "We'll be stepping out on a general time horizon."

- "Well, the booking's for eight thirty."

Doesn't really work, does it?  Although I know what I'll be telling creditors from now on when they ask me when I intend to pay them.

Hiroshima's Radioactive Lucky Charms - Radioactive material shipped to Hiroshima (possible replacement for outdated "coals to Newcastle" axiom?)

Man Nearly Eats Knife Hiding in Foot-Long Subway Sandwich

I'm posting a link to this allAfrica.com article, primarily because I thought it was good journalism, and it's interesting to see the situation appraised from a less Western viewpoint.

These lines, in particular, stood out:

"We acknowledge the fact that Mugabe was a hero of independence, having fought the colonialists to a standstill. We also acknowledge his struggle for the independence of his country and the tribulations he personally went through during the struggle. We recognise the fact that he was once in the vanguard of the glorious Black Nationalists in the mould of Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Sam Nujoma, among other great sons of Africa.

But that image of a freedom fighter has outlived its relevance. The image that now looms large is that of a power drunk old man who has lost touch with the basic needs of his people and the tenets of democracy."

Some pretty rough statistics: "Zimbabwe today reportedly has 80 per cent unemployment rate and the world's highest inflation rate of 165,000 per cent."