December 12, 2002 -
The spam solution: It's not as simple as you think - ZDNet,
By David Berlind, In response to my ongoing series about spam, my
inbox has been overwhelmed by your ideas on how to rid the world of
spammers. Understandably, you are outraged -- and so am I. Many of you
have written to me suggesting the same handful of solutions. Here,
presented in order of popularity, are the top three and why they won't
work. Spam king lives large off others' e-mail troubles - West
Bloomfield computer empire helped by foreign Internet servers...
December 06, 2002 -
Halifax Explosion - Thursday, December 6, 1917, dawned bright
and clear in Halifax. World War I raged in Europe, and the port city was
busy with the movement of war ships carrying troops, relief supplies and
munitions. Around eight that morning, the Belgian relief ship Imo left
its mooring in Bedford Basin and headed for open sea. At about the same
time, the French ship Mont Blanc was heading up the harbour to moor,
awaiting a convoy to accompany her across the Atlantic. A convoy was
essential; this small, barely seaworthy vessel was carrying a full cargo
of explosives. Stored in the holds, or simply stacked on deck, were 35
tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, 10 tons of gun cotton, 2,300
tons of picric acid (used in explosives), and 400,000 pounds of TNT...
December
12, 2002 -
Man held for German 'cannibal
killing' - German police
are watching home videos made by
a sex cannibal who apparently
shared a last meal of flambéed
penis with his willing victim
before carving him up and
freezing the man's remaining
body parts to eat later.
Prosecutors in Kassel said on
Thursday that the 41-year-old
homosexual, who has confessed,
was not being treated as insane.
Germany's more sensational
newspapers were packed with
lurid details. Police arrested
the man after he posted an
Internet advert seeking another
male volunteer to satisfy his
appetites. "We're watching the
videotapes and searching his
house. There are several tapes,"
said a spokesman for police
combing the suspect's elegant
half-timbered home in the
picturesque town of
Rotenburg-an-der-Fulda, near
Kassel, on Thursday. They had
already found deep-frozen human
flesh and bones as well as video
recordings of the exceptionally
bizarre crime.
Prosecutors, who
first announced the murder
investigation on Wednesday, have
named neither the victim nor
suspect. But German media have
quoted investigators identifying
the dead man as "Bernd Juergen
B." and the alleged killer as "Armin
M." "He's in normal custody at
the moment. He is regarded as
capable of standing trial," Kassel prosecutor Hans-Manfred
Jung said. Amending some details
first given on Wednesday,
prosecutors said the accused was
41 and the victim a 42-year-old
man from Berlin. They believe
the killing dates back to March
last year. Both men were
computer technicians, German
newspapers said. "The deed
appears to stem from
cannibalistic and homosexual
tendencies shared by both men,"
police said on Wednesday in a
statement so grisly in its
detail that the nation's biggest
selling newspaper, Bild,
reprinted it word for word...
December
05, 2002 -
Canadians go to Baghdad as 'human shields'
- Martin O'Malley, CBC News Online
| Dec. 5, 2002, Opposition to a war on
Iraq has a long way to go before it rivals
the draft-card burnings and demonstrations
against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s,
but a new anti-war movement is growing
muscle. Some Canadians already have left
for Iraq to serve as human shields against
bomb attacks on Baghdad. More will follow
before Christmas...
December
04, 2002 -
Feds' Spying Plan Fades to Black -
By Julia Scheeres, WiredNews, A
controversial government initiative to
recruit Americans to spy on each other in
an attempt to prevent terrorist attacks
was quietly killed with the passage of the
Homeland Security Act. First announced by
the Justice Department in January,
Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and
Prevention System), was initially designed
as a nationwide reporting system that
would enlist one million workers -–
ranging from postal employees to truck
drivers –- to tattle on any "suspicious
activity" by people along their routes...
December
05, 2002 -
Rx for
Druggist: 30 Years - A Kansas City pharmacist who admitted to
diluting chemotherapy drugs for as many as 4,200 cancer patients during
the '90s was sentenced Thursday to the maximum of 30 years in prison.
Robert Courtney, 50, was also ordered to pay $10.4 million in
restitution and a $25,000 fine. Although he expressed regret, federal
prosecutors successfully sought the maximum penalty by portraying
Courtney as a man whose greed hastened at least one patient's death.
"Your crimes are a shock to the civilized conscience," U.S. District
Judge Ortrie Smith said in passing sentence. "They are beyond
understanding."
December
02, 2002 -
Absolute Corruption - WiredMag, Issue 10.12 - December 2002,
A new global index dishes the dirt on government dishonesty. Can the
Net help clean it up? By Bruce Sterling, I have before me the Corruption
Perceptions Index for 2002. Transparency International, the German
activist organization that publishes this document, calls itself “the
coalition against corruption.” Every year, the group asks policy wonks
in 100 nations to report on local dirty business. The aim is to assign
each country a number on a scale of malfeasance, from 1 to 10, and rank
them from least to most corrupt. Viewed through Transparency
International’s lens, the world’s nations divide not between Eastern and
Western, developed and developing, or Judeo-Christian and Muslim, but
between accountable and expedient...
