fingerback

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 22:04:02 GMT

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:12:55 GMT

My score on The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test:

Buffy Summers
(27% amorality, 90% passion, 45% spirituality, 54% selflessness)

Well, what can one say? Passionate, down-to-earth, unfailingly moral (ehh, basically) and utterly selfless.

In short, a hero.

Congratulations!

If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in the following:

Nerds, Geeks & Dorks

Professional Wrestling

Love & Sexuality

America/Politics

Thanks Again! -- THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

Link: The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test
(OkCupid Free Online Dating)

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:06:08 GMT

MEMEAGE...

1.Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:

HERE COMES THE FUN ... ... ...

1. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
2. Whats your philosophy on life?
3. Would you have my back in a fight?
4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
5. What is your favorite memory of us?
6. Would you give me a kidney?
7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
8. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
9. Can we get together and make a cake?
10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
11. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?
12. Do you think I'm a good person?
13. Would you drive across country with me?
14. Do you think I'm attractive?
15. If you could change anything about me, would you?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
18. Would you go on a date with me if i asked you?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Will you repost this so i can fill it out for you?

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:47:32 GMT

if you would like to see my latist photosshop art its on my myspace page under pics

http://www.myspace.com/fingerback

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:15:41 GMT

You scored as Captain Jack Sparrow. You are definitely quirky and often mistaken for mad but if anyone is truly paying attention they can see there is method to your madness. You try really hard to be bad but in the end you tend to do the right thing.

</td>

Mary Read

100%

Captain Jack Sparrow

100%

Long John Silvers

75%

Dread Pirate Roberts

67%

Black Beard

67%

Sinbad

58%

Captain Barbosa

50%

Captain James T. Hook

33%

Morgan Adams

25%

Will Turner

25%

What kind of Pirate are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 21:51:28 GMT

COMBAT CARDS 2.0

watch fingerback fight

CREATE YOUR CARD

Fri, 26 May 2006 17:23:01 GMT

Researchers Demo New Robot-Human Interface

A new interface allows near real-time operation of a robot without invasive incisions into the head and brain. The breakthrough, demonstrated this week in Tokyo, opens up possibilities for new interactions between machines and people.

By K.C. Jones
TechWeb.com

May 25, 2006 05:52 PM

Researchers have developed a new "Brain Machine Interface" that allows robots to decode and act on brain activity in humans.

Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) and Honda Research Institute Japan Co. announced that they developed the BMI so data can be extracted for near real-time operation of a robot without invasive incisions into the head and brain. The breakthrough, demonstrated this week in Tokyo, opens up possibilities for new interfaces between machines and people.

The technology is based on an article called "Decoding the perceptual and subjective contents of the human brain," published by Dr. Yukiyasu Kamitani, a researcher at ATR, in Nature Neuroscience. Dr. Kamitani and his collaborator Dr. Frank Tong were named among 50 Research Leaders in Scientific American.

HRI and ATR took it a step further by developing the theory into a system for robotic control. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine tracks hemodynamic responses and maps brain activity of a subject moving his or her fingers. A computer program extracts and decodes the specific signals generating the hand movements and transfers the information to a hand-shaped robot, which then simulates the movement within seconds. Researchers reported an 85 percent accuracy rate.

Eventually, the technology could be used for typing, assisting people with disabilities and improving car safety.

Honda recently announced other robotics developments to ASIMO, its walking, child-sized robot. ASIMO can hold hands, greet and guide visitors and run errands. The humanoid robot is a big hit with children and has appeared on England's popular children's television show Blue Peter.

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:46:36 GMT

What type of Fae are you?

WAT THE FUCK

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:42:26 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man in charge of Manhattan's St. Patrick's Day parade has fueled a controversy by saying allowing a gay group to join Friday's march would be like permitting neo-Nazis to participate in an Israeli parade.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-17T192420Z_01_N17296528_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-STPATRICK.xml&archived=False.

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 17:23:22 GMT

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Physical Touch.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		11
Physical Touch:		10
Words of Affirmation:		6
Acts of Service:		3
Receiving Gifts:		0

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

must read

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:30:30 GMT

Freedom Of The Press
posted February 28, 2006

Freedom of the press. What does that mean? I’m talking about within the context of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Why was freedom of the press so important to those people back then?

Put yourself in their place. There would not have been an American Revolution without the press.

The only way to gather a group and continue to expand that group to the point where it’s large enough to stand up and declare its independence from the mother country and its government is to give them a reason to do it.

Without information there is no reason for the people to do anything or think anything outside the daily grind of their miserable lives as individuals just trying to get by.

It takes information to bring the people together as a group. People have a natural desire to know the news. “What’s going on?” That’s the question. It’s the responsibility of a free press to provide that answer.

Of course delivering the news is only part of it. It is also the responsibility of the press to stir up the pure mind. In my opinion, the greatest single figure of the American Revolution was the pamphleteer, Thomas Paine.

If I had to name the true father of this country, it would be him. He stirred up the pure mind with ideas and argued for complete independence from England before it became mainstream thinking. He electrified the countryside with his words that were read in the churches and town squares and sold on the street corners.

His pamphlets, his reasoning and his common sense arguments for revolution and freedom inspired George Washington to the extent that he asked Paine to write one for his soldiers. It was the first of the Crisis pamphlets, the “Winter Soldiers” speech with the line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Washington ordered it read to the army in the field.

So Washington and the other Founding Fathers went on to glory and Paine went on to die alone and destitute.

But that doesn’t change it for me. I still believe that it was Paine and the power of his pen that was the driving force that turned the people into revolutionaries and brought them together in a big bunch crying out for freedom, risking their lives and whatever fortunes they had in order to gain their independence from England.

I don’t think Paine has ever gotten the true credit he deserves, but I believe the Founding Fathers knew how important he was to the revolution, and how important the press was in general with helping to bring about the revolution and helping the people maintain their freedom once it had been achieved and victory won.

That’s why freedom of the press is listed in the First Amendment, prohibiting Congress from making any laws that would abridge that freedom or the freedom of speech.

The press was that important, not only in bringing about the revolution but in maintaining the freedoms won by the revolution, such as those other First Amendment rights prohibiting Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of it, the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The thing that made Thomas Paine such a powerful force in the establishment of America was his ability to articulate the desire of the human heart to be free. His eloquence was so pure and simple, it spoke to the high and low, from the richest man in the country to the poorest dirt farmer. He stirred the hearts of men and women, the young and the old.

Besides a great mind, Paine had a great heart and great courage and a great ability to make people think and realize the simple truth that if they wanted to be free they would have to free themselves, as a group, even at the cost of their lives, by fighting the British and winning their liberty.

The man himself may have died alone and penniless and unsung but his song is still being sung. Freedom is still the song of America and it is still the hope of America. The Revolution that Paine struck a match to has never really gone out, but still burns in the individual hearts of those who are not free, both here and around the world.

The desire for freedom still burns in the hearts of those Americans who can see the rusting away and corrosion of their freedoms. It burns in the hearts of those who want more freedom and it burns in the hearts of those who have been denied their equal freedoms as human beings along with the rest.

Paine didn’t invent the idea of freedom, he articulated the common sense need for it and pointed out that there would never be a better opportunity for the people to free themselves from the bonds of England than right then, while the iron was hot.

All they had to do was put their courage to the sticking place. After all hadn’t they dug out a living and developed a sustainable economy while fighting off the Indians and the French?

Had their parents and grandparents not given them this opportunity by their sweat and blood and their willingness to fight for the land which they had wrested out of the wilderness?

Inspired by the thinking and reasoning and writings and speeches of Thomas Paine and the other revolutionary leaders and speakers, a significant number of the people came together as a group with a single vision - freedom. The rest is history.

But history is still in the making. History changes. The idea of freedom changes. The idea of freedom of speech and the press, and freedom of religion, the freedom to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances changes.

Ironically – this being a government of, for and by the people – the great, grazing masses have become corrupt and full of hypocrisy, greed, selfishness, self-righteousness and have taken plain old-fashioned dumbness to a place that the Founding Fathers could never have contemplated.

We need a Thomas Paine today to get the word out and to reason with the people and make them think and take a look around. The freedom of the press, which is to say the freedom of the watchdog and guardian of our liberties, has been seriously abridged, both from the inside and out.

That became obvious after 9/11 when the press failed to provide the proper leadership and guidance to the people. It was as if the press had given up its responsibility and joined the grazing masses. The press should have been calling for restraint and wisdom and proper conduct in the class instead of going along with the national drive for revenge - regardless of who was bombed or how many had to be killed.

It became even more obvious in the days leading up to our illegal attack on Iraq, when the press, led by the great New York Times, turned themselves into secretaries and public relations people for the government by feeding the people exactly what the government wanted fed to the great grazing masses, without question.

In fact, it is becoming more and more obvious every day that the free press is not free. How can it be free if it has given up its most important duties? To give the people the truth and nothing but the truth, no matter how hard they have to dig for it, work for it, suffer for it or risk their lives for it.

I always thought that freedom of the press and duty of the press meant the same thing. What good is freedom if you’re not going to do your duty? And what is your duty if it’s not telling the truth and speaking out for the truth.

The press is the greatest weapon in the creation of freedom and in the defense and maintenance of freedom than all the military weapons in the world combined. When doing its duty it is a great two-horned beast that cannot be withstood.

One horn is used in delivering the facts, especially about those things that people need to know, and to deliver those facts with clarity and intelligence, with no other duty except to provide the truth.

The second horn is the horn that Thomas Paine blew.

We need some Thomas Paines today. We need to get through to the great, grazing masses that we can’t be free unless we free ourselves. And the only way to free ourselves is to stop our numb-minded grazing on hypocrisy, self-righteousness, selfishness and greed.

Somehow we have to shake the people up from their sleep and make them think and realize that there are only two choices and two outcomes. The world will either come together in peace or it will go out together through war.

The same way that we have come this far in our struggle for freedom – and we are not all equally free, ask the Indian that we took the land from, ask the people of color, ask the poor people – is too slow a way for today because time is moving too quick toward nuclear war.

We can’t afford anymore of this trial and error stuff. We can’t afford to spend our time and lives and money and resources on waging illegal war around the world, while the poor continue to become poorer and the rich become richer, while the grazing herd grazes and the great power of America is in the hands of a bunch of neotards.

Freedom requires respect between both parties. Freedom requires respect, and equal respect, between all nations, not just the nations we like and can count on to help us in our pursuit of more wealth and more power, but even the nations we don’t like because of their beliefs and the type of government that the people live under, or because of their riches and resources.

We are not showing our own people equal respect and we are not showing other nations and other peoples equal respect. Don’t we realize even yet that there can be no freedom and no peace without equal respect? How can it be that that notion is so hard for the great, grazing masses to grasp?

Are the great, grazing masses so stupid as to believe that the only way to gain respect is by the sword? Is that the cud they are still chewing after all these years? Do they not understand the words of their own Bible which they claim so loudly to believe in? That those who live by the sword shall die by the sword?

It is time to replace the sword of war with the bugle of peace. That bugle is the free press. But, for some reason, it has become silent. And when it does manage a toot once in a while, it is not loud enough or often enough to grab the attention of the masses that continue to graze in ignorance even as they are herded toward the slaughter houses.

It’s time for a Thomas Paine to address the masses. It’s time for the free press to do its duty and prove that there is still such a thing as freedom of the press and that someone needs to sound a warning that the struggle for freedom has taken a turn for the worse and that the greatest threat to America and peace in the world is coming from within America itself, in the form of the great, grazing masses and their representatives, led by the powerful, religious, war-mongering, capitalists and neotards.

It’s time for the free press to start blowing its horn. It’s time for the people to realize that the American Revolution was never over and it will never be over until mutual respect and the right to freedom becomes a true thing, not only among individual Americans but for nations all over the world – including the right to be left alone to make their own choices and not to be taken over, bullied and pistol whipped into obedience by an America that has drifted off course and decided that there will be no freedom and no peace until it rules the world.

Naman Crowe
namancrowe@yahoo.com

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:16:49 GMT

Warning on drug 'more addictive than crack'
DAVID BARRETT

A DANCE and sex drug which is more addictive than crack cocaine is becoming a global problem, the United Nations' drug control agency warned yesterday.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said it was concerned about the rocketing use of methamphetamine, or crystal meth.

The board called on governments across the world to introduce tougher restrictions on chemicals used in the manufacture of the drug, which is also known in varying forms as ice, meth, Tina and Nazi crank.

full story http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=309702006

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 14:45:25 GMT

Students to raise Islam awareness

Students hope to establish greater understanding of the Koran

Students at Aberdeen universities have launched a Muslim awareness week to try and develop understanding between religions.

It has been arranged after the controversy caused by cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Events include showing documentaries, as well as activities and discussions.

Aberdeen University Muslim Students' Association (Aumsa) said: "It will allow the public to ask questions and find answers for themselves."

full story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4754364.stm

National Archive movies available on Google Video

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 01:28:40 GMT

In a joint press release today, Google and the United States National Archives announced the immediate availability of 104 films (well, they announced 103, but forgot about one WWII clip) from the Archives on Google Video. This collection of movies constitutes a pilot program for what is anticipated to become a much wider cooperation, and future expansions could also include Google helping the archivists make portions of their massive collection of texts available online. The partnership is non-exclusive, so the archive is free to find more channels through which to distribute its materials.

full story
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060224-6262.html

Paratrooper porn scandal

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:44:10 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The U.S. army has charged seven paratroopers from its elite airborne division with engaging in sex acts in video shown on a homosexual pornographic website, authorities said yesterday.

Three of the soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy, pandering and engaging in sex acts for money.

Four other soldiers, whose names were not released, received non-judicial punishments. The army has recommended all be discharged.

The charges do not mention the name of the site, but the division has said previously it was investigating allegations soldiers appeared on a homosexual pornography website.

The 15,000 paratroopers of the division are among the U.S. army's elite soldiers, all having volunteered to serve in a unit that trains to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service." Members who violate it are removed from the military.

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 18:54:59 GMT

KFC plants hidden secret in new TV ad

By BRUCE SCHREINER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Psstt. KFC wants to share a secret. No, not THAT secret.

Colonel Sanders' herbs-and-spices recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken is still safely locked away, but the chain unveiled a new TV ad Thursday that allows viewers to crack a hidden message if they play the spot back slowly on a digital video recorder or VCR.

The gimmick is aimed at countering the rise of technology that enables television viewers to skip past commercials faster than ever before.

"This is taking the exact opposition approach - rewarding viewers for taking the time to engage and be interactive with television," said Tom O'Keefe, an executive at Foote Cone & Belding, the advertising agency that created the spot for KFC Corp.

For those savvy enough to solve the secret, the prize is a coupon for KFC's new, sauce-drenched Buffalo Snacker chicken sandwich

for all you computer geeks and hackers

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:25:04 GMT

here is a link dedicated to running osx tiger on a windows pc

http://osx86project.org/

thanks chez, sorry wrong link

i now have the corect link

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:12:25 GMT

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.
ADVERTISEMENT

Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision.

The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

New Justice
Samuel Alito did not take part in the case, which was argued last fall before Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor before her retirement. Alito was on the bench for the first time on Tuesday.

Roberts said that the Bush administration had not met its burden under a federal religious freedom law to show that it could ban "the sect's sincere religious practice."

The chief justice had also been skeptical of the government's position in the case last fall, suggesting that the administration was demanding too much, a "zero tolerance approach."

The Bush administration had argued that the drug in the tea not only violates a federal narcotics law, but a treaty in which the United States promised to block the importation of drugs including dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.

"The government did not even submit evidence addressing the international consequences of granting an exemption for the (church)," Roberts wrote.

The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which could consider more evidence.

Roberts, writing his second opinion since joining the court, said that religious freedom cases can be difficult "but Congress has determined that courts should strike sensible balances."

The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, 04-1084.

___

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

i love mac

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:22:30 GMT

Call it hackneyed versus hackers.

High-tech companies spend millions on sophisticated security measures to thwart hackers. Now Apple Computer Inc. has dug deep into its bag of tricks for a new deterrent: a few lines of doggerel warning off would-be software pirates.

The verse is embedded inside the latest version of Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, included on the new "Intel Inside" Macs that started shipping in January. It came to light this week after a hacker found it and posted it on the Internet.

"It's not Wordsworth, but it's pretty funny," said an Apple spokeswoman. She confirmed that the verse does, indeed, reside deep within the operating system, albeit somewhere "you'd have to get deep and dirty" to find it.

Like others who have commented on the poem's literary merits -- or lack thereof -- she said it appeared to be the oeuvre of an engineer.

Let's just say the author shouldn't count on a career at Hallmark, let alone as Poet Laureate. It reads:

Your karma check for today:

There once was a user that whined

his existing OS was so blind,

he'd do better to pirate

an OS that ran great

but found his hardware declined.

Please don't steal Mac OS!

Really, that's way uncool.

for all you mac users

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 21:36:53 GMT

Reports emerge of Mac OS X Trojan horse or worm

By Peter Cohen

Reports indicate that someone has let loose a “Trojan horse” or worm for Mac OS X users. The program is hidden within a package that purportedly contains screenshots of Apple’s as-yet unannounced next major revision to Mac OS X. Whether it’s a Trojan horse or worm seems to vary depending on the source of the information.

The package, called “latestpics.tgz,” first surfaced recently on a Mac rumors Web site. Independently verified by Ambrosia Software president Andrew Welch, he’s dubbed it the “Oompa-Loompa Trojan,” because the files in question check for the presence of an attribute called “oompa” — an apparent reference to the movie and book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Welch provides extensive details on the Ambrosia Software discussion forums.

When unpacked, the archive includes an application that resembles a JPEG file. When it’s clicked on, the file executes and attempts to propagate itself via the buddy list of Apple’s instant messaging software iChat.

Welch is careful to point out that this should probably be considered a Trojan horse, rather than a virus, “because it doesn’t self-propagate externally.”

So-called Trojan horses are differentiated from viruses because they masquerade as a regular application or file and do not replicate themselves arbitrarily.

Anti-virus software maker Sophos takes issue with this description, claiming this is the “first ever virus for Mac OS X.”

“OSX/Leap-A is programmed to use the iChat instant messaging system to spread itself to other users. As such, it is comparable to an email or instant messaging worm on the Windows platform. Worms are a sub category of the group of malware known as viruses,” said Sophos in a statement.

Symantec similarly classifies it as a worm, and classifies its threat containment and removal as “easy.” McAfee, makers of Virex, also call the code, which they refer to as “OSX/Leap,” as a worm.

Intego, makers of VirusBarrier, also confirmed the trojan horse’s existence. Because the code is distributed by iChat, Intego said, people are more likely to presume the file is legitimate. Intego advised users to update their virus definition files and “never open files received by e-mail or iChat unless they are sure that these files are safe.”

Sophos, Symantec, McAfee and Intego have all added the code’s description to their Mac anti-virus software files, which can be downloaded from each publisher’s respective Web site.

OSX/Leap-A, Oompa-Loompa, or whatever else you want to call it, also requires an admin password if you’re not running as an admin, said Ambrosia’s Welch.

Additionally, Ambrosia’s Welch said the software has a bug in its code that prevents it from working and prevents infected applications from launching. Still, he strongly advises users that find the “latestpics.tgz” file to avoid downloading or running it.

and this is whats wrong with our country

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:00:35 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- To graduate this year, high school senior Nadira Wasi faces a requirement that no class before hers has _ the state's high school exit exam.

Wasi, 17, is part of a program for students who need extra assistance in school. She passed the English section but has twice failed the math portion.On Wednesday, 20 high school seniors and their parents sued the state Department of Education and school Superintendent Jack O'Connell, claiming the exam is illegal and discriminatory. They worry the test may prevent the students from graduating.

"I don't think it should hold up your graduation,"

Iran threat to revise nuke policy

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:52:28 GMT

just an interesting quote.

Ahmadinejad aimed his most withering criticism regarding the cartoons at the Israelis: "I have said previously that, to a number of bullying European governments and to the great Satan, it is acceptable to insult the prophet, but it is not acceptable to question the legitimacy of the regime which has occupied Palestine and has usurped lands and blackmailed all Western governments and committed crimes and killed women and children and destroyed houses."

He added: "If you are looking for the Holocaust, the true Holocaust, you should look in Palestine," where "occupiers kill helpless people every day."

Or, he said, a Holocaust can also be found in Iraq.

you go bush

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:45:23 GMT

White House given early warning of Katrina fury

Email
Print
Normal font
Large font
By Lara Jakes Jordan
February 12, 2006
Advertisement

Advertisement

FORMER US federal disaster chief Michael Brown has testified that he told top White House and Homeland Security officials on the day Hurricane Katrina roared ashore that "we were realising our worst nightmare" and New Orleans was seriously flooding.

He dismissed as "just baloney" and "a little disingenuous" claims by agency officials that they didn't know about the severity of the damage until the next day.

Testifying before a Senate committee on Friday, Mr Brown said he agreed with members who characterised him as a scapegoat. "I feel somewhat abandoned," said Mr Brown, who quit under fire as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just days after the storm hit.

He suggested the Administration's fixation with fighting terrorism may have been to blame, in part, for the slow government response.

Had there been a report that "a terrorist had blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that," he said.

The Adminstration's lacklustre response to Katrina undermined Americans' confidence in President George Bush's leadership abilities and contributed to a decline in his opinion poll ratings.

The storm slammed into New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico coast on the morning of Monday, August 29, last year.

Mr Brown said he spoke by phone to a top White House official - he said he believed it was Joe Hagin - "on at least two occasions on that day to inform him of what was going on".

Mr Hagin was with the President, who was on holiday at his Texas ranch at the time while Mr Brown was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"I think I told him that we were realising our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true," Mr Brown said.

He said he also emailed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Earlier, the chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Senator Susan Collins, said FEMA had missed early warning signs that emergency response teams were unprepared to handle a catastrophe such as Katrina.

Mr Brown, who is widely viewed as the public face of the Government's mistakes during and after the storm, which killed more than 1300 people, staunchly defended his role.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said he did not know the levees were breached until the following day.

don't sneeze on me i might get fat

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:39:33 GMT

Obesity 'can be caught like a cold'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 31/01/2006)

Evidence that obesity could be contagious was published yesterday by American researchers - and washing your hands could be an elementary step to avoiding the virus and becoming overweight.

A team led by Dr Leah Whigham, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that the human adenovirus Ad-37 causes obesity in chickens, marking the third virus to be linked to being overweight: two related viruses, Ad-36 and Ad-5, also cause obesity in animals.

Moreover, Ad-36 has been associated with human obesity, leading researchers to suspect that Ad-37 also may be implicated.

"We know Ad-36, and now Ad-37, cause obesity in animals," said Dr Whigham, whose findings are reported in the American Journal of Physiology.

"But we do not have cause-and-effect data in humans - you cannot ethically do the experiments for that kind of data: infect humans and see if they get fat."

The notion that viruses can cause obesity has been a contentious one among scientists, she admitted. And yet, there is evidence that factors other than poor diet or lack of exercise may be at work.

"With the exception of infectious diseases, no other chronic disease in history has spread so rapidly," Dr Whigham said.

"The nearly simultaneous increase in obesity in most countries is difficult to explain by changes in food intake and exercise alone, and suggest that adenoviruses could have contributed."

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:08:24 GMT

Record Label Supports Man Accused Of Sharing Music Illegally

"Suing music fans is not the solution; it's the problem," says the chief executive of the Canadian music label, which will pay for the man's defense.

By Antone Gonsalves
TechWeb News

Jan 27, 2006 06:50 PM

A major Canadian record company has taken the unusual step of hiring a defense lawyer for a man accused by the U.S. record industry of downloading hundreds of songs illegally.

The Nettwerk Music Group said it would pay for the defense of David Greubel, a father of four children who is the defendant in a complaint filed by the Record Industry Association of America in a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas. Greubel is accused of having on the family computer 600 music files suspected of being illegally downloaded from file-sharing services. Among the files is the song "Sk8er Boi" by artist Avril Lavigne, who is a client of Nettwerk.

"Suing music fans is not the solution; it's the problem," Terry McBride, chief executive of Nettwork, said in a statement this week.

In defending the RIAA's action, spokesman Jonathan Lamy said Friday in an email, "Stealing another person's property is theft, it's against the law and breaking the law must carry consequences or no one will think twice." Lamy said downloading music illegally deprived labels, songwriters and musicians of their "hard-earned royalties."

McBride, however, disagreed, saying litigation doesn't benefit artists.

“Litigation is not ‘artist development,’" McBride said. "Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists’ best interests.”

Nettwerk has hired Chicago-based Mudd Law Offices to represent Greubel. Attorney Charles Lee Mudd Jr. has represented individuals subpoenaed and sued by the RIAA since 2003. The record company said it would also pay any fines should the family lose the case. The RIAA is seeking a $9,000 stipulated judgment as a penalty, but would accept $4,500, if Greubel pays the amount within a specific period of time, Nettwerk said.

The record company became involved when Greubel's 15-year-old daughter Elisa contacted Nettwerk rap artist MC Lars, saying she could relate to his tune, "Download This Sing," because her family was being sued by the RIAA.

"You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions," Elisa Greubel said in an email, according to Nettwerk. "The line, ‘they sue little kids downloading hit songs,’ basically sums a lot of the whole thing up. I'm not saying it is right to download, but the whole lawsuit business is a tad bit outrageous.”

Mudd declined Friday to discuss his legal strategy against the RIAA, until he files his response to the complaint, which is due Feb. 24. In general, however, Mudd said the RIAA has "misused" U.S. copyright law, and said the people he has represented against the industry trade group are average Joes who get caught in litigation for doing something they didn't realize was illegal.

"The people I represent are not the thieves that the RIAA has made them out to be," Mudd said. "They are consumers using consumer products and software -- average individuals like you and I who find themselves in a situation that they had no idea they would be in."

Mudd claimed that nearly all his clients would have stopped downloading music, if they had received a warning from the RIAA before it filed a lawsuit.

The current case is unusual in that Greubel, through the backing of Nettwerk, may have the money to fight the RIAA through the courts, Mudd said. Cases similar to Greubel's have seldom even gone to trial, with most defendants avoiding further litigation by agreeing to pay the RIAA.