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Showing posts from October 10, 2004

Bush and the draft.

Increasing denial of mandatory military draft is only serving to spread the rumour further. www.bushandthedraft.com are trying to bring this further into the spotlight. Meanwhile, Bush has fallen below a 50% approval rating - something considered an unrecoverable position especially 17 days before the election. Let's only hope this nightmare ends in 17 days time.

Shock, horror.

In a "shock" report out today, it turns out that nearly 1 in 4 businesses uses and/or relies on pirated software. There's a huge scientific analysis on the subject but they've missed the simple explanation : if it wasn't so freakin' expensive, then perhaps more people would buy it. Or perhaps buying Photoshop would entitle you to two upgrades, rather than the current system of "buy one for $400, then buy the next one in 8 months time for another $400". 3DS Max is a prime culprit of this methodology. I bought 3DSMax4 and it cost me something like $4000. 6 months later, Max5 came out and I wasn't entitled to an upgrade. Then Max6, and now Max7. Each one costing more than the last, none of them free to existing customers. Way to run a business guys. The irony would be if people like Adobe and 3DS were using pirated software to make their software :-)

Kerry and Bush both traitors?

I have a feeling that the Bush campaign are preparing to wheel out the Winter Soldier report about Kerry in 1971 and his questionable dealings with the VietCong. I'm sure Bush's camp will hark on about how treasonous some of his actions were, and how some of claims of American conduct in Vietnam are outright lies. But given the recent actions of US soldiers in Iraq, under Bush's command, and given the Bush families ties to the Nazis and the Trading With The Enemy debacle, let me be the first to say : Pot? Kettle? Black? Ok so they're both as bad as each other, at least we're on a level playing field again.

Classic quotes to the press, and the USGS is backing up.

Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone said "we escaped a major, major catastrophe here. It's amazing there were no serious death or injuries." It's nice of him to acknowledge that death is pretty serious :-) Meanwhile, the USGS is gently reversing it's position on Mount St. Helens. They've gone from: "an explosion like that which happened 1980 is impossible due to changes in the structure of the mountain" to "an explosion like that which happened in 1980 isn't very likely" which today became "there's not much chance of an explosion like that which happened in 1980". I like the progression of words from impossible, to unlikely, to chance.

The French get it right.

Cinemas in France are now allowed to block mobile phone signals! Full story here.

"Obvious"

Further proof that all things Bush and Florida are corrupt or just plain wrong. Miami-Dade County was missed by all four hurricanes this year, yet 19,500 Miami-Dade residents applied for FEMA financial aid. FEMA approves $21.5 million -- $1 million more than Indian River County, where 49,000 homes were destroyed. Guess where Jeb Bush lives....... The full story is on the AP wire here.

Possibly the finest headline this week:

Balloon Pilot Blames Wind For Radio Tower Crash I don't know why, but it just struck me as funny, given that hot air balloons travel by wind... It was from a report on the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta which ended with a bang as the "Smokey the Bear" balloon got wrapped around the top of a 670ft AM radio tower. The 4 passengers in the gondola were safely retrieved but they had to climb about 500ft down to meet the rescue crew coming up the other way.