Sounds like science-fiction, possibly not for long.
Clinton eyes U.N. post
Does anyone else smell the apocalypse coming?
Christopher Reeve/Superman Dead at 52
MOUNT KISCO, New York (AP) — Actor Christopher Reeve, the star of the “Superman” movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.
We always thought you would walk again one day, but I supposed you are now. We’ll all miss you.
Orgies are the way to ease social tensions, claims US judge
He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.
But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.
Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: “I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.”
It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant when he promised to appoint more judges like Scalia to the court, should the opportunity arise. Crucially, Justice Scalia is one of the judges in favour of overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark judgment protecting abortion as a constitutional right.
One audience member also asked the judge “whether you have any gay friends, and, if not, whether you’d like to be my friend,” the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported.
“I probably do have some gay friends, but I have never pressed the point,” Justice Scalia responded. He offered no clue to the logic behind his claim that orgies eliminate social tensions.
Nobody asked him whether he was familiar with Rick Moody’s novel The Ice Storm, turned into a movie by Ang Lee, which appeared to suggest the exact opposite.
Oliver Burkeman in New York
Friday October 1, 2004
The Guardian
Klingons For Kerry.
In other news, people still living in parents basement support Kerry.
Critical Flaws Flagged in Mozilla, Thunderbird, and Firefox
Might want to update to the latest version, of any of these you use. The latest firefox build is nice.
Image flaw exposes Windows PCs
Microsoft has issued a warning about a critical vulnerability in Windows that could let carefully crafted pictures act as bearers of malicious code.
The flaw was found in the code that the operating system and other Windows programs use to display images prepared in the popular Jpeg format.
The vulnerability has been found in more than a dozen Microsoft programs.
Millions affected
At risk programs include Office XP 2003, Office 2003, Windows Server 2003, Internet Explorer 6 plus some versions of Digital Image Pro and Picture It.
The software giant urged all users who are at risk to download and install a patch for the vulnerability.
Microsoft has also produced a tool that helps users find out if they are running software that contains the vulnerable computer code.
It said that the flaw could only be exploited if users are tricked into opening an image crafted to exploit the vulnerability.
Anyone falling victim to the loophole could have their computer taken over by an attacker.
Microsoft said that it had no evidence that the Jpeg loophole was being actively exploited.
However, because Internet Explorer is one of the programs vulnerable it is theoretically possible that someone could fall victim to a virus written to exploit the flaw just by visiting a website that used such carefully crafted images.
Any image written to exploit the flaw could prove successful because before now people have fallen victims to e-mail viruses when they clicked on attachments that claimed to be a picture.
The flaw in the way that Windows handles the popular Jpeg file format is called a buffer over-run.
Many old viruses have used buffer over-runs to get malicious code on to target machines.
The advisory about the Jpeg flaw is the 28th advisory that Microsoft has issued this year. Often these advisories detail several vulnerabilities. One advisory issued in April mentioned more than 20 separate loopholes in Windows XP.
Microsoft said that anyone who has downloaded and installed the SP2 update for Windows XP is not at risk from this vulnerability.
However, anti-virus firm Sophos said those that have installed SP2 should not be complacent.
“If you are running applications on XP SP 2 which do have the flaw you could be putting your computer at risk,” said Graham Cluley from anti-virus firm Sophos.
Mr Cluley urged users in such a situation to download and apply the patch.
Boiler kills on impact after sauna launch
Mon 13 September, 2004 04:45
(Reuters) – A boiler that exploded at a Chinese sauna sailed over a six-storey building and
landed on an old man crossing the road, Xinhua news agency says.
The 63-year-old pedestrian was killed instantly and three people
injured in Sunday’s bizarre accident in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Xinhua quoted local
police as saying on Monday.
“A passerby tried to escape when he saw the large object flying towards him,
but he was hurt in his leg,” Xinhua said. “Two workers in a restaurant
next to the bathhouse were also injured after a wall of the restaurant collapsed.”
The explosion of the boiler, measuring two-metres (six-and-a-half-feet)
across, is under investigation.
Hurricane Frances
Living on the west coast of Florida for about 9 years now, I’m getting used to Hurricanes.
That doesn’t mean I like them all that much.
My two webcams