jamotto

Link quote:By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer JASPER, Texas - For some drivers, even a Hummer may not be enough. At a curb weight of more than 3.5 tons, the Humvee-inspired Hummer H1 is no skinny guy who gets sand kicked in his face. But the Bad Boy Heavy Muscle Truck, a dressed-up military vehicle more than twice as heavy, is being billed as bigger, badder and more bodacious. "It's the rugged Bubba," said Daniel Ayres, president and CEO of Homeland Defense Vehicles LLC and its division Bad Boy Trucks. The East Texas company aims to market the machine to civilians with disposable cash and a hankering for more protection from the outside world. A $379,000 version made its public debut in January at the Dallas Safari Club convention. For a base price of $225,000 ÔÇö nearly twice the Hummer H1 wagon's base price of $117,508 ÔÇö consumers can get a basic version of the 10-foot-tall Bad Boy that can drive through five feet of water, climb a 60-degree grade, tow six tons and keep rolling even with a quarter-sized hole in the tire's sidewall. The price goes up from there, depending on options. Drivers can get infrared cameras that peer through darkness. The flat-nosed cab can be bulletproof, and house a mini-safe behind three leather seats. The dash can include a satellite phone, a two-way radio and a global-positioning system ÔÇö all alongside DVD, MP3 and CD players and a flip-out LCD screen. For $750,000, buyers can get the fully loaded "NBC" version that can, Ayres said, detect and block out fallout from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by over-pressurizing the cab with filtered, clean air much like an aircraft. Ayres said he isn't playing on post-Sept. 11 fears by offering the NBC option. "There's a certain group of people who color outside the box," Ayres said, and if they want to escape a city targeted by terrorists with dirty bombs or biological agents, "this is the truck for them." Possible Bad Boy customers include ranchers, sports enthusiasts and possibly CEOs who need to travel through unfriendly areas, Ayres said. He said he is negotiating with dealers in various regions to stock a couple of Bad Boys, and customize what buyers want once they're hooked. Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research and an auto industry expert, said there's definitely a market for Bad Boy Trucks. "It's exactly what the Humvee was all about ÔÇö an absolutely useless vehicle for consumers," Spinella said. "It's a statement vehicle. I know people who would buy this and that's the only reason they would do it ÔÇö because it makes a statement." Dave Caldwell, a spokesman for Hummer, declined comment on the Bad Boy, noting Hummer has no plans to switch gears from its established Hummer H1 and more SUV-like Hummer H2 brands, as well as the rollout this spring of the Hummer H3. "We're pretty focused on our specific mission that it would be hard to imagine us veering our course for any other reason," he said. Both the Hummer H1 and the Bad Boy began as military vehicles, and retain that look. On the ceiling of the Bad Boy cab is a mirror, lined by red lights. That's a turret for soldiers with guns in the military version, but "that's not an option we're offering" in the civilian version, Ayres said. The Hummer H1 emerged from Humvees built for the U.S. Army by AM General in South Bend, Ind. In 2000 General Motors bought the Hummer brand. The basic Bad Boy is a light tactical military truck built for the Army by Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson's tactical vehicle unit. Dave Lombardi, marketing director for the unit in Sealy, about 60 miles west of Houston, said the company recognized a commercial market for the truck, though likely not as big as the Hummer market, and in 2004 turned years of talks with Ayres into action. Stewart & Stevenson participates like a wholesaler, Lombardi said. "We'll build the base, he'll trick it out," he said. Ayres' company in Newton, Texas, isn't limiting itself to the Bad Boy. The company has forged a partnership with Parliament Coach Corp., a Clearwater, Fla.-based manufacturer of luxury motor coach conversions, to produce high-line motor coaches equipped to block out nuclear radiation and chemical and biological agents ÔÇö for $1 million or more. The company aims to sell 50 Bad Boys this year, which Spinella said was possible in its niche market. Ayres hasn't sold one yet, but he isn't worried. "Now Hummers are a dime a dozen," Ayres said. "This is a 100 percent military specification truck ... The most get-anywhere truck in the world."They really expect to sell 50 of these things?

Thanks for the tid bit there Chavik.

Link quote:By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - It's been 75 years since the discovery of Pluto, but it remains a mystery. Perhaps in another 10 years some of its secrets will be revealed when a space probe gets close enough for a good look. Pluto was quickly heralded as the ninth planet in the solar system when it was spotted Feb. 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a young amateur astronomer at Lowell Observatory. It still holds that title today, if somewhat tenuously. "It's a misbehaved planet if you want to think about it as a planet," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Tyson provocatively removed Pluto from his exhibit of planets five years ago, lumping it instead with a belt of comets at the edge of the solar system. "I still have folders of hate mail from third-graders," he said. Pluto was discovered in a search for a theoretical ninth planet. The 26-year-old Tombaugh was given the assignment. Had he not been so attentive, he might have missed Pluto as he stared through an eyepiece while switching back and forth between photographic images of the night sky over northern Arizona. But he believed right away the recurring speck he saw was the elusive Planet X later called Pluto. Generations of schoolchildren grew up memorizing solar system charts that included Pluto. But shortly after Tombaugh died in 1997, some astronomers suggested that the International Astronomical Union, a professional astronomers group, should demote the tiniest planet. At the time it was discovered, Pluto was the only known object beyond Neptune in the solar system. When its moon, Charon, was spotted, that seemingly confirmed Pluto's planet status. But astronomers also have found about 1,000 other small icy objects beyond Neptune rotating around the sun. There may be as many as 100,000 of these bodies in what's called the Kuiper Belt, said Bob Millis, director of Lowell Observatory. Pluto, with its elongated orbit and odd orbital plane, seems to behave more like other Kuiper Belt objects than other planets, some astronomers say. They also point out Pluto is very small, smaller than Earth's moon. "You start to see where Pluto fits in better with Kuiper objects," said Hal Weaver, project scientist on the New Horizons mission, which hopes to launch a probe to Pluto next year, possibly reaching it as early as 2015. Tyson's decision at the Hayden Planetarium to remove Pluto from the planets and lump it with the Kuiper Belt seemed to strike a nerve. Tyson speculates that the name ÔÇö the same as the Disney character which also debuted in 1930 ÔÇö and its position as the littlest planet make it a favorite with schoolchildren. "The Plutocracy, as I like to call it, is greater than we want to admit to ourselves," Tyson joked. But others have pointed out that Pluto remains unique among known objects. "If you don't call it (a planet), what else do you call it?" asked Kevin Schindler, senior supervisor of public programs at Lowell. Pluto is very spherical like other planets. Asteroids and comets tend to be misshapen, said Weaver, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Pluto also has an atmosphere and seasons. Complicating the debate is that there is no official definition for a planet. Setting standards like size limits or orbital patterns potentially invites other objects to take the "planet" label, while throwing Pluto out. "It's a controversy that flares up and then subsides. I don't know what the outcome will be," said Millis. "It's more interesting to me: What is Pluto really like, than what is Pluto?" Astronomers hope to get some answers to that question, and the birth of the solar system, with the New Horizons mission. But it will take nearly a decade to reach the icy rock. In any event, the debate over what to call Pluto is mostly a question of semantics, Weaver said. And even if it somehow loses planet status, he believes it might still be the largest of the Kuiper Belt objects. "Some people thought (the debate) was a slight of Clyde Tombaugh. You were trying to take away his planet," Weaver said. "I'm sure that it was nothing personal." quote:"I still have folders of hate mail from third-graders," he said. serves him right!

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Robert A. McNail, 30, of Meridian, Miss., died Feb. 11 in Iskandariyah, Iraq, when his HMMVW struck another military vehicle. McNail was assigned to the Army National Guard's 150th Combat Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team, Quitman, Miss.Link May you rest in peace...

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. William T. Robbins, 31, of North Little Rock, Ark., died Feb. 10 in Taji, Iraq, of non-combat related injuries. Robbins was assigned to the Army National Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade, Little Rock, Ark.Link May you rest in peace...

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Kristopher L. Shepherd, 26, of Lynchburg, Va., died Feb. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated during clearing operations. Shepherd was assigned to the 767th Ordnance Company, 63rd Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance Group, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.Link May you rest in peace...

Remnants of the Stars quote:Remnants of the Stars is an upcoming, open ended space simulation that features unparalleled space combat integrated tightly with an engaging story. It takes place in a massive universe which the player is free to explore and exploit.Looking forward to this one!

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I also released 25 new shotsScreenshots look great!

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jeffrey S. Henthorn, 25, of Choctaw, Okla., died Feb. 8 in Balad, Iraq, from non-combat related injuries. Henthorn was assigned to the 24th Transportation Company, Fort Riley, Kan.Link May you rest in peace...

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Jessica M. Housby, 23, of Rock Island, Ill., died Feb. 9 in Route Golden, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near her convoy. Housby was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1644th Transportation Company, Rock Falls, Ill.Link May you rest in peace...

Link quote:By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer ROXBURY, Conn. - Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89. Miller, who had been hailed as America's greatest living playwright, died Thursday night at his home in Roxbury of heart failure, his assistant, Julia Bolus, said Friday. His family was at his bedside, she said. His plays, with their strong emphasis on family, morality and personal responsibility, spoke to the growing fragmentation of American society. "A lot of my work goes to the center of where we belong ÔÇö if there is any root to life ÔÇö because nowadays the family is broken up, and people don't live in the same place for very long," Miller said in a 1988 interview. "Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent." Playwright Edward Albee said Miller had paid him a compliment, saying "that my plays were `necessary.' I will go one step further and say that Arthur's plays are `essential.'" Miller's career was marked by early success. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman" in 1949, when he was just 33 years old. His marriage to Marilyn Monroe in 1956 further catapulted the playwright to fame, though that was publicity he said he never pursued. In a 1992 interview with a French newspaper, he called her "highly self-destructive" and said that during their marriage, "all my energy and attention were devoted to trying to help her solve her problems. Unfortunately, I didn't have much success." "Death of a Salesman," which took Miller only six weeks to write, earned rave reviews when it opened on Broadway in February 1949, directed by Elia Kazan. The story of Willy Loman, a man destroyed by his own stubborn belief in the glory of American capitalism and the redemptive power of success, was made into a movie and staged all over the world. "I couldn't have predicted that a work like `Death of a Salesman' would take on the proportions it has," Miller said in 1988. "Originally, it was a literal play about a literal salesman, but it has become a bit of a myth, not only here but in many other parts of the world." In 1999, 50 years after it won the Tony Award as best play, "Death of a Salesman" won the Tony for best revival of the Broadway season. The show also won the top acting prize for Brian Dennehy (news), who played Loman. Miller, then 83, received a lifetime achievement award. "Just being around to receive it is a pleasure," he joked to the audience during the awards ceremony. Miller won the New York Drama Critics' Circle's best play award twice in the 1940s, for "All My Sons" in 1947 and for "Death of a Salesman." In 1953, he received a Tony Award for "The Crucible," a play about mass hysteria during the Salem witch trials that was inspired by the repressive political environment of McCarthyism. That play, still read by thousands of American high-school students each year, is Miller's most frequently performed work. Miller and Monroe divorced after five years and in 1962 he married his third wife, photographer Inge Morath. That same year, Monroe committed suicide. Miller wrote the screenplay for the Monroe film "The Misfits," which came out in 1960, and reflected on their relationship in his 1963 play "After the Fall." Reminiscing about Monroe in his 1987 autobiography, "Timebends: A Life," Miller lamented that she was rarely taken seriously as anything but a sex symbol. "To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was," he wrote. "Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes." Miller's success, so overwhelming in the 1940s and '50s, seemed to be on the wane during the next two decades. But the 1980s brought a renewal of interest, beginning with a Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman" starring Dustin Hoffman in 1984. Enthusiasm for Miller's work was particularly strong in England, which marked his 75th birthday in 1990 with four major productions of his plays. Miller also directed a Chinese production of "Death of a Salesman" at the Beijing Peoples' Art Theatre in 1983. Those who saw the Beijing production may not have identified with Loman's career, Miller wrote, but they shared his desire, "which was to excel, to win out over anonymity and meaninglessness, to love and be loved, and above all, perhaps, to count." In his later years, Miller became increasingly disillusioned with Broadway, and in 1991 he premiered a new play, "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," in London ÔÇö the first time he had opened a play outside of the United States. Miller said at the time he opted for the London opening to avoid the "dark defeatism" of the New York theater scene. "There is an open terror of the critics (in New York) and of losing fortunes of money," Miller said in an interview that year. "I have always hated that myself. All in all, it seemed like we ought to do the play in London." He returned to Broadway in 1994 with "Broken Glass," a drama about a dysfunctional family that won respectful reviews and a Tony nomination, but no big audiences. In London, it won an Olivier award as best play. Even in his later years, Miller continued to write. "It is what I do," he said in a 1996 interview with The Associated Press. "It is my art. I am better at it than I ever was. And I will do it as long as I can. When you reach a certain age you can slough off what is unnecessary and concentrate on what is. And why not?" "Resurrection Blues" had its world premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in the summer of 2002 when Miller was 86. Set in an unnamed banana republic, the satire dealt with the possible televised execution of a revolutionary. Last October, another new play, "Finishing the Picture," premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It was based on an episode of his marriage to Monroe. In recent years New York even rediscovered Miller's first Broadway play, "The Man Who Had All the Luck." It was a four-performance flop in 1944 but had a successful revival, starring Chris O'Donnell, nearly six decades later. Miller's producer, David Reichenthal, said as recently as this week, he and Miller were working on a London revival of "Death of a Salesman." It will go on as planned in May, he said. "His loss is a little like the Manhattan skyline," Reichenthal said. "I'm at a loss for words." In accepting his lifetime achievement award at the 1999 Tony awards ceremony, Miller lamented that Broadway had become too narrow. "I hope that a new dimension and fresh resolve will inspire the powers that be to welcome fiercely ambitious playwrights," Miller said. "And that the time will come again when they will find a welcome for their big, world-challenging plays, somewhere west of London and somewhere east of the Hudson River." He was born Oct. 17, 1915, Miller was one of three children in a middle-class Jewish family. His father, a manufacturer of women's coats, was hard hit by the Depression in the 1930s, and could not afford to send Miller to college when the time came. Miller worked as a loader and shipping clerk at a New York warehouse to earn tuition money and eventually attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1938. He wrote his first plays in college, where they were awarded numerous prizes. He also published several novels and collections of short stories. He wrote several screenplays, including "The Misfits" (1961), which became Monroe's last movie, and "Playing for Time," (1981) a controversial television movie about the women's orchestra at Auschwitz. He also wrote a number of books with Morathmainly about their travels in Russia and China. Miller had two children, Jane Ellen and Robert, by his first wife, Mary Slattery, and he and Morath, who died in 2002, had one daughter, Rebecca....and will be sorely missed

quote:Originally posted by Grayfox: so did thief deadly shadowsblasphemer!

Link quote:NEW YORK Jeff Gannon, the controversial White House correspondent for the obscure, conservative Web site Talon News who resigned from his job Tuesday, confirmed late Wednesday, in a phone interview with National Public Radio, that he has been using a false name. A few hours later, Howard Kurtz, writing in The Washington Post, confirmed earlier tips, arising from liberal blogs, that the reporter's real name is indeed James D. Guckert. Despite the ruse, "Gannon" still managed to gain access to many White House briefings and was one of the few reporters allowed to ask President Bush (news - web sites) a (very friendly) question at a press conference two weeks ago. NPR reported Wednesday that when Gannon was turned down for Capitol Hill credentials -- a move first reported by E&P last week -- he had used the name James Guckert. He admitted to NPR that Gannon was not his real name, and left it at that. This "begs further investigation," James Pinkerton, a media critic for Fox News, told the online magazine Salon.com. He recalled that in the six years he worked for Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the White House was "strict about who got in. It's inconceivable to me that the White House, especially after 9/11, gives credentials to people without doing a background check. ... If [Gannon] was walking around the White House with a pass that had a different name on it than his real name, that's pretty remarkable." Dana Milbank, the former White House correspondent for The Washington Post, said the "scandal" of the whole episode was that it was blogs, and not the White House, that ultimately exposed Gannon's ruse. Milbank, on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC program, said he'd seen Gannon at the White House as recently as Monday. Gannon, amazingly, also has ties to the Valerie Plame/CIA (news - web sites) scandal. Adding another twist, NPR's David Folkenflik, in his report Wednesday night, referred to revelations arising from liberal blogs earlier in the day, connecting Gannon to sexual Web sites such as HotMilitaryStud.com, among others. "These sites are registered to an address in Delaware that's the same as one held by a James Guckert," Folkenflik said. "And that's the name that Gannon used to apply for press credentials on Capitol Hill. ... As for those Web sites, Gannon said he created them for clients of a software company he used to work for. And Gannon said his Christian faith has enabled him to receive forgiveness for the sins of his past." The New York Daily News' story on Thursday carried the headline, "Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link." Washington reporter Helen Kennedy wrote: "A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution." On Tuesday, in a message on his Web site (www.jeffgannon.com), Gannon announced: "Because of the attention being paid to me I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News. In consideration of the welfare of me and my family I have decided to return to private life. Thank you to all those who supported me." E&P has not been able to reach "Gannon" since. But he told the daily paper in his hometown in Delaware, The News Journal of Wilmington: "I asked a question at a White House press briefing and this is what happened to me. If this is what happens to me, what reporter is safe?" Gannon's real name, Guckert, had been outed earlier Wedneday by investigators at DailyKos, Eschaton, Media Matters and other sites. They also showed that Talon News is run by a Texas GOP activist. Also Wednesday, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to President Bush asking him to "address the matter" in light of "mounting evidence that your Administration has, on several occasions, paid members of the media to advocate in favor of Administration policies." Gannon first gained attention several weeks ago when he asked a question at a presidential press conference that some in the press corps considered so friendly it might have been planted. Later E&P revealed that Gannon had been turned down last year for a congressional press pass because he could not prove his employer was a valid news organization. That denial barred him from receiving a White House "hard pass," allowing regular access to White House press events. But Gannon had been obtaining daily White House press passes, a situation that had irked some veteran White House reporters who also questioned his credentials or considered him to be too partisan in his questioning. On Olbermann's program Wednesday night, however, Milbank said he had seen Gannon with a pass and photo I.D. that certainly looked like it was of the permanent variety. On Thursday, The Boston Globe reported that Gannon told them he had gotten no special consideration at the White House. He had applied for a background check and daily passes under the name on his driver's license, not his "professional name," he said. Earlier in the day, on CNN, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz said that White House spokesman Scott McClellan had told him that "President Bush didn't know who Jeff Gannon was when he called on him at that news conference." Gannon's original refusal to deny he used a fake name sparked investigations by a number of blogs, which probed his true identity. In addition, those sites posted allegations that Web sites such as hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com, and militaryescortsm4m.com, were registered to the same owner as Gannon's personal Web site. "The bloggers," Kurtz writes today, "also have linked to a since-withdrawn America Online photo of a man who appears to be Gannon, posing in his underwear, with a screen name bearing the initials 'JDG.'" In her letter to President Bush, Rep. Slaughter charged that "it appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your Administration." Dan Froomkin, the Washington Post columnist, said Wednesday in an online chat, "the heat should be on" Scott McClellan: "Why did he call on Gannon? Did they ever pre-arrange anything? Did they have contact with his parent organization?" Another intriguing issue is his involvement, along with the better-known Robert Novak, Judith Miller, and others, in the Valerie Plame/CIA episode. Gannon's name turned up on a list of reporters targeted for questioning by the federal prosecutor in the case. Froomkin of the the Washington Post wrote last spring that "the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson." The Talon News site today scrubbed its archives of many "Gannon" articles and removed his biography. It said it was already looking for a replacement for its star reporter. In an e-mail to E&P last Friday, not published until now, Gannon wrote: "Much has been made about whether I use a professional name or not, but I am reluctant to provide information one way or another because of the threats that have been made against my person, property and family in both internet postings ... as well as in e-mails that I have forwarded to law enforcement. I'm sure you understand." Olbermann on his TV show Wednesday referred to Gannon as "HBO's Ali G, without the satire."

Wonder what will happen to the Thief series?

It must not have been hard to create a hack for that game as they didn't wear anything in the first place.

quote:Originally posted by Cmdr Chavik: Neato. The generally newspaper published speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. (From school texts I think it's closer to 186,252) Sixty seconds make a minute so 186,000 times 60 = 11,160,000 miles per minute. Sixty minutes make an hour so 11,160,000 times 60 = 669,600,000 miles per hour for the speed of light. 1.5 million miles an hour sounds huge doesn't it? Divide the calculated 669,600,000 mph of the speed of light into the 1,500,000 mph of the velocity of the star and you find that for this very rough calculation the star is travelling at .002240 or .224% the speed of light. If you use the 20 million mph figure (I'm assuming it was the orbit velocity) it looks like the star was travelling at .02986 (2.9% , 3% if you round up) the speed of light to break orbit of the galaxy. Astounding. I wonder what other things they are calculating with their figures.It also adds credence to the thought that there is one really big Black Hole at the center of our galaxy.

Link quote:In 1942, President Roosevelt's budget included money for starting Voice of America, which used the era's hottest communications technology - radio - to lob what FDR called "the truth" about the USA into hostile territory. With that in mind, maybe the budget President Bush (news - web sites) released this week should include money to start something like Bits of America. OK, so it sounds like a new breakfast cereal. But the mission of this non-existent BOA would be to put super-cheap laptops and the era's hottest communications technology - the Internet - into the hands of billions of schoolchildren in the poorest nations, especially in hostile territory. Nothing could do more for America's safety and well-being. And there has never been a better time to rally the technology industry behind just such a mission. This is evident by the buzz the past week over Nicholas Negroponte's $100 laptop. Negroponte is founder of the renowned Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, he showed leaders and pop-culture icons a mock-up of a laptop he says could be sold for $100. Sounds a little crazy, right? You can't buy a decent pair of ice skates for $100. A stripped-down, 512-megabyte iPod Shuffle with no screen or keyboard costs $100. How can a laptop cost $100? Negroponte says he has figured it out. Half the cost of today's laptops is in the display screens. Negroponte's mock-up uses a far-cheaper technology that works like a miniature rear-projector TV. It's not elegant, but it seems to do the job.He also plans to run the laptop on a Linux-based operating system - which would be free - instead of Microsoft's Windows. By using 1 gigabyte of solid-state memory to store software and data, "We're thinking maybe you won't need a hard disk drive," he says. And instead of expensive batteries, the $100 laptop could come with less-capable batteries and a hand crank for juicing them back up, like a radio on M*A*S*H. Google has already signed up as a backer, presumably dreaming of a few billion more people Googling prospective mates or finding the nearest butcher. Another backer is chipmaker AMD, whose CEO, Hector Ruiz, has been vocal about the need for inexpensive computers for poorer populations. Samsung, Motorola and News Corp. are considering joining in. Alan Kay, a legendary computer researcher now at Hewlett-Packard, is helping. So is music maestro Quincy Jones. So is Bono, who is turning into a global superhero. One day he has a No. 1 record; the next he's joining a Silicon Valley investment firm; the next he's with Nelson Mandela. Whenever we land on Mars, I swear the hatch is going to open, and Bono is going to come down. Anyway, the support has been huge for what Negroponte is calling the Hundred Dollar Laptop Corp., or HDLC. "This is the first project in my life where I've never had to worry about money," he says. Beyond Negroponte's project, a number of tech companies are pushing for a "world computer." In a speech in October, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "There has to be a $100 computer to go down-market in (emerging) countries." AMD is coming out with its $185 Personal Internet Communicator, which is the size of a Pop-Tart box but doesn't come with a screen or keyboard. Cisco, eBay and other companies are backing One Economy, a non-profit working to get the Net into low-income homes. Why such interest now? Well, there are high-road reasons and there are low-road reasons. On the high road, spreading the Internet should help open closed societies, boost education and raise standards of living. Those factors help with everything from world peace to better health and a more stable environment - and make it less likely there will be hostile anti-American movements that try to blow up our cities. The correlation between Internet penetration and economic success is startling, though certainly it's a chicken-or-egg type of thing. In Qatar, 19% of the population uses the Net, and the nation has a per capita income of $20,701, according to InternetWorldStats.com. Syria has 1% penetration and income of $1,160. In Ghana, it's less than 1% and $270. In the Cayman Islands, Internet gambling sites and off-shore banks have stormed ashore and vaulted the country into the Internet big leagues. Penetration: 17%. Per capita income: $35,000. U.S. penetration is 67%. Per capita income: $35,060. Technologically, the time is right. Five years ago, no one could've dreamed of making a $100 laptop. Plus, Wi-Fi is now so good and inexpensive, a remote village could put up a single satellite link and a few wireless hot spots to serve its whole population. About that low road: "There are reasons a bit less noble than mine - excuse me for saying that so boldly," Negroponte says. Basically, tech companies need new customers. Fewer than 700 million people - about 11% of the world's population - use the Net now. But that's most of the developed world. The people who can readily afford computers and Net access often have both. Which leaves 4 billion or so virgin customers. The right price point might get a billion morepeople into the game - the billion who now own cell phones but have never touched PowerPoint or iTunes. All in all, a Bits of America type of program offers a vast upside for the U.S. tech industry and for the country as a whole. Is there a downside? Well, the kids in Pakistan or China would no doubt start out accessing home-grown content and shooting IM's to their pals in the next village. But pretty soon they'd find their way to Slashdot rants about software, video of Michael Jackson going to court and auctions of Paul McCartney's used tissues on eBay. Then they'll know what we're really about.

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Capt. Sean L. Brock, 29, of Redondo Beach, Calif., died Feb. 2 from wounds received as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, Okinawa, Japan.Link May you rest in peace...

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Steven G. Bayow, 42, from Colonia Yap, Federated States of Micronesia, died February 4 in Bayji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle. Bayow was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Sgt. Daniel Torres, 23, from Fort Worth, Texas, died February 4 in Bayjii, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle. Torres was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.Link May you rest in peace...

Link quote:By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outcast star is zooming out of the Milky Way, the first ever seen escaping the galaxy, astronomers reported on Tuesday. The star is heading for the emptiness of intergalactic space after being ejected from the heart of the Milky Way following a close encounter with a black hole, said Warren Brown, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The outcast is going so fast -- over 1.5 million mph -- that astronomers believe it was lobbed out of the galaxy by the tremendous force of a black hole thought to sit at the Milky Way's center. That speed is about twice the velocity needed to escape the galaxy's grip, Brown said by telephone. "We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," he said. "We're tempted to call it the outcast star because it was forcefully tossed from its home." The star used to be part of a binary pair, waltzing with its companion star close to the rim of the black hole. In this case, "close" is a relative term; the actual distance was probably about 50 times the 93 million-mile distance between Earth and the sun. As the two stars twirled around each other, they were pulled faster and faster toward the edge of the black hole, one of those monster drains in space whose gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape once it is consumed. While the companion star was captured by the black hole, the outcast continued on its whirling path around its edge. Objects go faster the closer they get to black holes and this star was probably moving at extraordinary speed, perhaps as high as 20 million mph. That very speed, coupled with the speed of its twirling, sent the outcast zooming toward the edge of the Milky Way and beyond. At this point, the outcast is about 180,000 light-years from Earth, in an outer region of the galaxy known as the halo. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

Link quote:LIBERAL, Kan. - Jill Wettstein won the American leg of a trans-Atlantic pancake race Tuesday in a time just fast enough to edge out the winning English runner, giving the United States its seventh straight victory. Wettstein, 25, finished the 415-yard run in 67.38 seconds. Earlier, British winner Andrea Rawlings ran the course at Olney, England, 50 miles northwest of London, in 69 seconds. Wettstein, a medical technologist who runs every day and lifts weights, finished third at Liberal last year. Cheri Bevis, the winner in Liberal the last two years, didn't compete this year. A year ago she finished in 60.6 seconds, beating Rawlings' time by nearly five seconds. Julie Sumner, 29, a preschool assistant director, was second this year and Jennifer Hyde, 28, a teacher, was third. Brooke Buchman, who finished second last year, fell about 100 yards from finish line. Each town holds the race at 11:55 a.m. local time, meaning the American race is run almost six hours after the English winner has been decided. Rawlings was the fastest in a field of 26 apron-clad contestants between ages 20 and 73, who ran from the Olney market place to the local church while carrying a pancake in a frying pan. The women are required to flip their pancakes before the start of the race and at the end to prove they haven't dropped the pancakes. The 1:09 time clocked by Rawlings, a 31-year-old mother and local saddler, was four seconds slower than her winning time last year. Shrove Tuesday, widely known in Britain as Pancake Day, was traditionally the last day for merrymaking before the start of Lent. Pancakes were thought to be a good way to consume the fat the Christian faithful were supposed to forego during the period of fasting. Legend has it that the Olney race started in 1445 when a harassed housewife, rushing to be on time for church, arrived at the service still clutching her frying pan with a pancake in it. After a lapse during World War II, the race was revived in 1948. Liberal, in southwest Kansas, challenged Olney to a friendly trans-Atlantic competition in 1950 after seeing a picture of the race in Time magazine.

quote:The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jeremy O. Allmon, 22, of Cleburne, Texas, died Feb. 6 in Taji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle. Allmon was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.Link May you rest in peace...

Link quote:By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press Writer BOISE, Idaho - A 16-year-old Idaho girl was tied up and scalped by an older woman in an attack motivated by revenge, police said. Authorities are searching for Marianne Dahle, 26, who was visiting Kirkham Hot Springs in central Idaho Jan. 18 with the girl and a friend when Dahle allegedly tied the girl up and cut away the entire crown and back portion of her scalp. A felony arrest warrant accuses Dahle of aggravated battery, though she has not been formally charged. "When I say this gal was scalped, she was truly scalped," said Boise County Chief Deputy Bill Braddock. "The top of her head, her hair, was completely cut off. The motive, as near as we've been told by witnesses, was retaliation for acting in a way that the adult perceived as being offensive to women as a gender." The girl is recovering at home. Police would not release many details ÔÇö including the victim's name ÔÇö for fear it would harm the prosecution's case. Braddock said he only agreed to discuss the incident because the public could help authorities find Dahle, who has been missing since the alleged assault. Braddock said the victim, the suspect and the female teen witness were "long-term" acquaintances. No drugs or alcohol were involved in the attack, he said. "It was an act of revenge. I view this as a case where an adult female is using predatory control ÔÇö both psychological and sexual ÔÇö toward juvenile victims. There are definitely sexual overtones to this crime," Braddock said. Police were alerted to the case after Dahle allegedly dropped the teen off at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center in Boise, perhaps fearing the girl would die, Braddock said. Though authorities were able to recover the scalp, which had been left behind at the hot springs, doctors were not able to reattach it, he said. After being hospitalized for several days, the teen was released to recover at home. "I've been doing this for 32 years now and this is certainly a very unusual case," Braddock said. "I've never even heard of another scalping. I really do think this is an aberration, of one very controlling female who preys on young juvenile females." The teens and Dahle had gone to the hot springs about 70 miles northeast of Boise, apparently just planning on a soak at the national forest campground, Braddock said. The hot springs, made by a cascade of hot water forming small pools at the base of a cliff, are popular with campers and hikers. But during mid-week in the winter, Braddock said, visitors can count on near total seclusion. "When I got there it was after midnight and very cold out, about 9 degrees. I found a lot of physical evidence consistent with information that we were given, including the scalp itself, which was near one of the hot pools," he said. The case has been difficult to investigate because it has taken deputies some time to win the trust of witnesses and friends of the victim. The teens and Dahle allegedly hang out with a counter-culture punk clique, Braddock said, and some witnesses are fearful of retaliation. "Everybody in this case is very fragile and they're worried about how they're going to be judged by their peers," Braddock said. "I have to be very protective of my victim and others who are cooperating." Authorties say Dahle is believed to be armed with a knife and staying somewhere in the Caldwell area, driving a four-door, white 1995 Mercury Tracer. Dahle was described as 5-foot-8, about 140 pounds and with brown hair. Police say Dahle may have shaved her hair except for her bangs. Though Idaho's mayhem law bans "depriving a human being of a member of his body," Braddock said he expected Dahle would be charged with aggravated battery, which carries the same maximum sentence of 14 years but requires a lesser burden of proof in court.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Oh please; I have all faith that he's going to best Michael Keaton in every which way.I truly hope Christian Bale does a great job in his role as Batman. At this moment though Micheal Keaton has been the best Batman hands down. Maybe after seeing Batman Begins I will think differently.

quote: The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Richard C. Clifton, 19, of Milford, Del., died Feb. 3 as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.Link May you rest in peace...