September 2009
42 posts
Facebook turns users into web translation engine
Looking to translate your website into another language? You can now seek help from the social-networking-obsessed masses - and juice Facebook’s advertising schemes in the process. Today, at a web app conference in London, Facebook introduced a free service dubbed Translations for Facebook Connect, a translation engine driven by, yes, the site’s users. The social networking outfit has...
What was not heard at the "Audit the Fed" hearing
Quote of the Day:
“It has been argued that full disclosure of
details of funding facilities like TALF and PDCF, that enabled massive
bailouts of Wall Street, would damage the financial position of those
firms and destabilize the economy. In other words, if the American
people knew how rotten the books were at those banks and how terribly
they messed up, they would never willingly invest...
It's worth your while to pass this nearly...
Quotes of the Day: “A
pork-laden ‘stimulus’ spending bill, a debt-laden budget, a job-killing
national energy tax and other bills have been rammed through the House
… without even allowing the American people to know what’s in the
bills.” — House Republican leader John Boehner
“Members of Congress should read every major
piece of legislation before...
The utility pole dilemma: 21st century broadband...
By Scott M. Fulton, III If the Federal Communications Commission is serious about wanting to be the regulator of record for net neutrality — which the FCC defines as guaranteeing the right of equal access — then it will have to deal with an issue that Congress once tabled in order that the country could fight World War I: In the ultimate example of turnabout-as-fair-play, four of the...
NEW CAMPAIGN: Roll Back the Patriot Act
Quote of the Day: “The JUSTICE
Act will allow intelligence agents to monitor terrorism suspects while
putting checks in place to ensure that law-abiding Americans’ privacy
and civil liberties are protected.” - Sen. Daniel Akaka
SUBJECT: Rolling Back the Patriot Act
Following 9/11, Congress passed the gargantuan USA PATRIOT Act,
without reading it. The PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act...
1999, David Cross / Pride is Back / #16 Dead
US to cede control of ICANN?
The US government has reportedly agreed to cede control over ICANN once its current pact with the internet oversight body expires next week.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a California-based non-profit that oversees the internet’s address system. It currently operates under the auspices of the Joint Project Agreement with the US government, due to end...
It’sa me! Mario!
Is Drug Prohibition Worth It?
Quote of the Day:
“Those who suffer from the abuse of drugs have themselves to blame for
it. This does not mean that society is absolved from active concern for
their plight. It does mean that their plight is subordinate to the
plight of those citizens who do not experiment with drugs, but whose
life, liberty, and property are substantially affected by the
illegalization of the...
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention /...
NEW CAMPAIGN: How you can get more for less
Quote of the Day: “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” — Albert Einstein
Subject: What the politicians promise, HSAs deliver.
Downsize DC’s full-time employees have their own
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and when you see what they’ve done for
us, you may want one too.
HSA plans cover our employee’s health care
expenses through a...
Another Success Milestone for 'Audit the Fed'
Quote of the Day: “Economists
used to worry about government using up the nation’s savings. But now
Americans have no more savings to use. Still, the nation that can’t
save a dime sets out to save the entire planet.” — Bill Bonner and
Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt, pg 35.
Subject: Another success milestone for Audit the Fed
DC Downsizers have joined with many thousands...
“Life’s disappointments are harder to take when you don’t know any swear words.”
– Calvin & Hobbes (via bitchville)
FCC boss moves for stiffer net neut rules
The head of the US Federal Communication Communications has proposed formal net neutrality rules that would prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against particular content or applications. “Because it is vital that the Internet continue to be an engine of innovation, economic growth, competition and democratic engagement, I believe the FCC must be a smart cop on the beat...
Could they speak if they didn't lie?
Quote of the Day: “How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving.” — a proverb
Subject: Do you need the government to provide non-profit health insurance?
If some magic could be used to prevent
politicians from lying, would they have anything left to say? We ask
this question only partly in jest. Deception really does seem to be the
dominant mode of speech for...
US general warns of Afghan failure
The most
senior US and Nato commander in Afghanistan has said the war against
the Taliban “will likely result in failure” if more troops are not sent
and a new strategy developed.
General Stanley McChrystal said in a leaked report obtained by the Washington Post that, despite some progress, “many indicators suggest the overall effort is...
Volume Up, Bottoms Up
By Ryan Sager
Maybe I’m a fogey (okay, definitely I’m a fogey), but I’ve always hated live music in restaurants and bars. I know restaurant owners think it’s super-awesome-fantastic ( “I have a mariachi band, surely profits are just around the corner!” ), but it’s always way too loud and ruins my meal — because, you know, I like to talk to my dining companions (usually).
So, I was glad to come...
Is the Internet melting our brains? Not according...
By Vincent Rossmeier By now the arguments are familiar: Facebook is ruining our social relationships; Google is making us dumber; texting is destroying the English language as we know it. We’re facing a crisis, one that could very well corrode the way humans have communicated since we first evolved from apes. What we need, so say these proud Luddites, is to turn our backs on technology and...
WatchPolitical Accountability - Jim Babka on Fox News
Do you talk to your TV set?
Quote of the Day: “I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.” —Thomas Jefferson
Subject: How to get your voice and your ideals heard
Do you talk to your TV set? Do the things you
hear from the talking heads on the news shows make you grumble, or even
shout? Well …
Hopefully you won’t feel that way...
World's nastiest trojan fools AV software
One of the world’s nastiest password-stealing trojans evades detection by the majority PCs running anti-virus programs, according to a study that examined 10,000 machines.
Zeus, a stealthy piece of malware that sits on a PC and waits for users to log in to bank websites, is detected just 23 per cent of time by AV programs, according to the study (PDF) released by security firm Trusteer....
Twitter, Facebook, and the fate of NAIS
Quote of the Day: “There are two kinds of people, those who want to be left alone and those who won’t leave them alone.” Doreen Hannes
Subject: Twitter, Facebook, and the fate of NAIS
Washington, DC is relentless in its pursuit of
central control. Some people think the opposition to DC should be
centralized and coordinated as well. They’d like to fight fire with
fire.
...
Human brain 'works like US presidential elections'
American brain specialists, in an announcement which may explain many puzzling aspects of human behaviour, say that the human bonce’s decision-making process functions in a very similar way to US presidential elections.
William Kath and Nelson Spruston, of Northwestern Uni in Illinois, discovered the so-called “two-layer integration model” within brain cells using electron microscopy....
Legalized Counterfeiting Update
Quote of the Day: “In the general course of human nature, a power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.” — Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) Source: Federalist Paper 79
Subject: Legalized Counterfeiting Update
We see no moral or practical difference between
new dollars created by counterfeiting rings and new dollars created by
the Federal Reserve System...
US firm withdraws from Korean cloning dogfight
Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief The great Korean cloning dogfight has ended - not with a killer bite, but with a snarl and a whimper. Last year, rival South Korean dog cloners shaped up for a legal battle. In one corner was disgraced biologist Woo Suk Hwang, cloning dogs under contract for a Californian company called BioArts International. In the other were his former colleagues at...
At Last: IEEE Approves 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard...
People who criticize companies like Microsoft and Apple for pursuing
their own de facto standards instead of working through formal
standards bodies might consider the long, strange history of Wi-Fi. The
IEEE has finally ratified the latest longer range, higher speed version
of the wireless standard. The move came seven years after the process
began and more than two years after an all-but-final...
US trade deficit widens
The
US trade deficit has widened due to an increase of imported items,
including thousands of foreign-made cars sold under the Obama
administration’s “cash for clunkers” scheme.
The trade gap grew 16.3 per cent in July to $32bn, the largest
month-to-month increase since February 1999, the US commerce department
said on Thursday.
...
New Music Video, Federal Reserve FRAUD
MEDIA ALERTS: Downsize DC
President Jim Babka will be on two radio shows this afternoon/evening
— The Drive w/ Gary Nolan and Free Talk Live with Ian and Mark. Check
below his signature for details, along with a message from Free Talk
Live host Ian Freeman.
Quote of the Day: “Once I built
a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a
railroad; now it’s...
NASA panel: Human spaceflight in 'unsustainable...
NASA’s human spaceflight program appears headed on an “unsustainable trajectory” under its current budget, according to a committee charged with reviewing the US space program for the Obama administration. While NASA has big plans to retire the Shuttle Program in 2011, de-orbit the ISS in 2016, and begin a fresh round of lunar surface exploration, there simply isn’t enough...
Houston Independent School District to Implement...
New System Uses Latest Technologies to Track Student Activities and Will Help HISD Schools Tackle Tardiness Issues MIAMI, Sept. 9. Plasco ID announced today that it has agreed to a district-wide contract with the Houston Independent School District (HISD) for the PlascoTrac Student Tracking System. By the end of 2009, HISD expects 50 HISD schools to be fully operational wit h the PlascoTrac...
Swedish lesbians suck sperm banks dry
Sweden’s fertility clinics are racking up a serious backlog of people waiting for artificial insemination, due in part to a “spike” in demand from lesbian couples for vital supplies of man juice.
So bad have things got that prospective customers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg are now forced to wait 18 months for treatment.
The problem, the Göteborgs-Posten...
Understanding the bills
Share this Dispatch with your friends: http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/understanding-the-bills
Quote of the Day: “If Conyers,
the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, needs a lawyer’s help to
understand the health care legislation, what chance does the average
citizen have of deciphering the bill?”- Press-Enterprise editorial (Riverside, CA)
Subject: Understanding the...
G20 vow to keep spending high
The
Group of 20 finance ministers have pledged to maintain stimulus
measures such as extra government spending and low interest rates to
boost the global economy.
The ministers cautioned on Saturday that the fledgling recovery that
provided the backdrop to their meeting in London is by no means assured.
...
Bizarre act halts court hearing
James Orr put an
immediate halt to his criminal trial Wednesday when he squeezed the
contents of his colostomy bag onto the table in front of him and ate it.
“There was what appeared to be feces on the table and on the floor,” assistant Hamilton County prosecutor David Prem said. Prem
was prosecuting Orr, 66, for robbery and kidnapping. The trial, without
a jury before Common...
Should we celebrate the success of torture?
Quote of the Day: “Stare into the abyss and the abyss stares into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Subject: Should we celebrate the success of torture?
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been
celebrating the supposed success of torture as an interrogation method
to protect us from terrorism. Cheney claims that …
* Waterboarding and sleep deprivation turned Khalid Sheikh...
One-shot flu vaccine
Finally some good news about swine flu: the Swiss firm Novartis reports today
that its pandemic flu vaccine works with only one shot. Half as much
dead virus as in regular winter flu shots was needed to give 80 per
cent of the adults injected the amount of immune reaction required for
ordinary flu vaccines. This is good news. The low dose of virus means more doses can be made in a short time,...
Pfizer pays $2.3bn in record fine
Pfizer,
the world’s biggest drug maker, has agreed to pay a record $2.3bn fine
for unlawfully promoting prescription drugs in the United States.
The US government said on Wednesday the sum included a payment of $1.2bn - the largest criminal fine in US history.
Officials said the company had agreed to pay $2.3bn to settle claims it improperly...
Does This Bill Repeal Real ID?
Quote of the Day: “A danger foreseen is half avoided.” —Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)
Subject: Does this bill repeal REAL ID?
Politicians keep responding to your pressure by
pretending to do what you want. The “responding” part is evidence that
pressure works, while the “pretending” part is evidence that we need a
larger Downsize DC Army. Here’s the...
What you and Downsize DC accomplished in August
Quote of the Day: “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘not guilty.’” — Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th US President
Subject: What You and Downsize DC accomplished in August
August is always a struggle because so many people go on vacation, but your Downsize DC Army still made progress.
...