Wednesday - May 25, 2011
Purposeful Downgrade
UPDATE:
It all comes down to your computer.
I’m using 4.0.1 and love it. Much faster than the previous version and runs at about half the load. Wonder why our experience is so different?
Posted by Pal2Pal
Pal2Pal -
Because your computer is newer and stronger than mine. I looked things up and found that FF4 requires a much newer system to run properly than did FF3.6 -
FF4 needs at least a Pentium 4 CPU with SSE2 (2004 or newer) and 512 MB RAM
FF3.6 will run on any Pentium 233Mhz or faster and needs only 64 MB RAM
My system is a Pentium 3 at 733Mhz with 384MB RAM. At best it has SSE1, if it has any SSE at all; I see to recall MMX being an extra cost option around the time I got this machine (1999). Without going all techno-geek, SSE2 and MMX are technologies that allow for a basic kind of parallel processing (vectored SIMD - Single Instruction, Multiple Data), which is what the Pentium chip was really designed to do. The “Pentium” name comes from it’s design, which is one CPU controlling 4 other CPUs; the whole idea was to break up a given computing task into 2 to 4 smaller parts that could run simultaneously, thereby getting lots more work done for a given CPU clock speed. Great idea, hard to implement from the code end. SSE2 added lots more chip instructions to make this kind of processing possible. Today’s chips do this kind of thing automatically, and dynamically, to the point where CPU clock speed is largely irrelevant. Today’s Quad Core™ chips are far more than just 4 latest generation Pentium CPUs mounted together (given you the parallel power of 20 80386 super high speed CPUs), but they can be made to work that way. Firefox 4 takes advantage of some of those chip instructions, which is why it runs so darn fast on more modern PCs. But on older PCs it’s going to be utter confusion, with chains of instructions queuing up to run through a single processor that doesn’t have the necessary instructions. Limited amounts of RAM make things even worse, forcing the CPU to page instructions in and out. In other words a) the code is better than my computer can handle, and b) I can see the writing on the wall and I realize that the days of this PC are numbered. I want to get another 2 years out of this one if I can, because by that point the next generation of CPUs will be on the market in large enough quantities to be affordable, and from what I have read they are going to utterly outclass even today’s best Quad Core chips.
Shopping for a new PC? Buy the biggest and fastest CPU you can afford with the largest on board cache you can find and load the system down with as much fast RAM as it will take. You can always go get another hard drive later on. You can always go get the next generation video card later on too. It is almost always less expensive to buy the RAM with the PC than from the aftermarket, but that can change, so keep your eyes open. Those last two statements applies to folks shopping for a desktop system. If you’re looking for a notebook, fill it with RAM from the factory, and the best video card. Those machines can be very difficult to take apart for doing owner upgrades.
I’m slightly annoyed at Firefox. Any program running on your PC can access information about your system. I’m not talking spy stuff, I mean the program can find out what kind of CPU you have, how much RAM, what BIOS version, etc. Just a few lines of code could determine whether the new version of FF would be a blessing or a curse. But no. I got the same “We strongly urge you to update to the latest version of Firefox for security reasons” message everyone else did. Those lines of code weren’t in the installation package either, and they should have been. “We’re sorry, your PC is not able to support this version. You need at least this for a CPU and at least that for RAM. Installation terminated.” sure would have saved me some headaches.
I just uninstalled Firefox 4.0.1 and put in the older Firefox 3.6.17. Version 4.0.1 was a total pig on my older, slower PC. Worse than being slow, every two or three minutes it would feel the need to take over my hard drive and churn away for several minutes at a time doing something; during that time I could do NOTHING at all with the PC. Even closing the damn thing took 5 minutes. Downloads were slow as heck too. And I could never get rid of the extra “Welcome to 4.0.1” tab whenever I loaded the thing. I gather this version no longer uses the prefs.js file.
Frog all that.
Buh bye little piggy, roast in hell.
But it fought me. There was no entry for Mozilla 4 in the Windows Add/Remove Software thingy in the Control Panel, only one for 3.6.4, which didn’t function. Using the Firefox Helper.exe application didn’t work - it wouldn’t even run! So I deleted the whole Mozilla directory structure, then used my tune up software to clean out the Registry entries and shortcuts. And yet somehow, the newly installed older version managed to come up the very first time with all my bookmarks, which I had exported to a .html file, but never specified to be used. So I guess other parts of the program hide in other places. I really don’t care, as long as this version doesn’t make a pig of itself.
Thanks to Roger for the 3.6.17 link.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/25/2011 at 04:36 PM
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace •
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Permalink • Oh Yes he Did
The Obamas visited Westminster Abbey yesterday and signed the guestbook:
It is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage, and common sacrifice.
Barack Obama
24 May 2008
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/05/president_obama_has_no_idea_wh.html
Posted by Drew458
on 05/25/2011 at 03:45 PM
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • america. damned if we do and damned anyway
I wouldn’t normally post the entire column but in this case ....
In fact, I often get frustrated when I read this fellow. So why do I read him? Coz I’m not smart.
Just so our readers know, the name Gary McKinnon will come up in this article. I’ve avoided the issue because I didn’t have anything to contribute to the story, and because I don’t find any sympathy for the jerk.
It must be said that the agreement re. extradition we have with the Brits appear to be quite one sided. And most Brits aren’t happy about it. Which you can not fault them on. However, every single damn time his name comes up, it’s always mentioned that the fruit cake has what I call Asparagus syndrome.
OK, I’m making fun of his condition. It’s actually Asperger’s syndrome, whatever the hell that is. Every time his story is told here, it’s mentioned he’ll kill himself if extradited to some cruel American prison. Yeah well, the jerk should have thought of that when he hacked into Pentagon computers. They claim he was only there looking for little green men. Ppl from Mars, space travelers. Uh huh. He’s 45, lives with mommy and is actually a very bright man. And when he hacked those puters, he was doing more then looking for evidence of space ships landing in Nv. in the 50’s. He also left very well written and very articulate anti war diatribes along with the usual anti Bush BS. In other words ... he had a less innocent agenda then his current apologists claim. Brits want him tried here in the UK.
Americans believe they’ll lean in his favor and not punish the grown baby. Brits believe Americans won’t give him a fair trial and seek revenge for the impressive embarrassment he caused, not to mention the million dollar damage claim.
It is most likely very true that the extradition treaty is one sided in American favor, which I don’t understand. Why would the Brits sign on to such a treaty?
I don’t pretend to know but would like to. But what I am sure of is, our side dropped the security ball and so far we haven’t heard a word I’m aware of that anyone has been brought up on some charge. But I’m also certain that Gary ‘asparagus’ McKinnon damn well knew exactly what he was up to and thought he’d never be found out or if he was, wouldn’t be prosecuted. And I don’t really believe he’d try and kill himself. But if he should try, I wish him good luck and much success.
And as usual there is this.
Cameron wouldn’t find it hard to keep quiet about either, but he is surrounded by boat-rockers in his own party and Lib Dems who think McKinnon, Guantanamo Bay and Private Manning are all disgraceful U.S. abuses of power.
So you can see why I sometimes find things a bit frustrating. Now I’ll share it with you.
Obama: It’s wham bam and thank you ma’am
By PETER MCKAYAccompanied by an entourage of 1,500 — from chefs to sharp-shooters — President Barack Obama is in London for a two-day state visit. Security alone is said to be costing £10 million.
Obama will address the Lords and Commons. The Queen will give him a banquet at Buckingham Palace.
No 10’s chatelaine, Samantha Cameron, and First Lady Michelle Obama will co-host a barbecue — weather permitting.What’s it all for? Usually, the outcomes of these visits — the justification for them — are fixed in advance. So what might we expect to hear before Obama leaves on Thursday for France, his next port of call.
According to U.S. elder statesman Henry Kissinger, Britain’s leading role in the Libya action has improved Obama’s opinion of David Cameron. Obama arrives here ‘with a more positive attitude of restoring the high degree of confidentiality and trust that existed previously’.So what can we get out of it? We’d prefer the U.S. to play a more positive role in the military action against Gaddafi — not leave it to the U.S.’s partners in Nato.
We’ve stretched the UN resolution justifying our military action against Gaddafi almost to breaking point, and he’s still there. We need America’s help to finish him off.
But Obama has just assured Americans — in a letter to Congress — that the U.S. has ‘limited’ objectives in Libya. Meaning, he won’t help us much more than he’s already doing.
( According to a report I heard last night, the USA is footing 75% of the NATO bill in this little adventure, and you folks will be interested to learn that according to the so called freedom fighters in Libya, many of them think it’s the French who get most of the credit for trying to free them from Gaddafi.)
Our side complains that the effectiveness of our campaign against Gaddafi is hampered by a lack of U.S. leadership. According to one news report yesterday, U.S. diplomats respond by saying Britain is ‘a skittish and unpredictable ally’.Doesn’t exactly sound as if the high degree of trust and confidentiality that existed between us previously is fully restored, does it? Americans seem to have learned more than we have in Iraq and Afghanistan — that it’s easier invading a country than organising a fair system of government there afterwards.
They took one look at fractured, tribal Libya — home to many of their Al Qaeda enemies — and told us: ‘You have a go this time, friends. We’ll keep a watching brief in case it all goes pear-shaped.’David Cameron might enjoy a personal boost from the visit if he can persuade Obama not to extradite British computer hacker Gary McKinnon, 45, to America for trial.
The hacker is said to be a fragile character who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and might not survive the brutal U.S. prison system.
Cameron has said McKinnon should be tried in Britain. What’s the chance of that? U.S. presidents have the power to pardon alleged criminals, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder — backed by seven judges — insists McKinnon ‘must be held accountable for the crimes he committed’, which, says Holder, cost £1 million (isn’t it marvellous how such round figures are arrived at?).Obama would prefer members of Cameron’s Coalition to keep quiet about the continuing existence of America’s Guantanamo Bay prison camp, despite his promise to close it, and the cruel, year-long solitary confinement of 23-year-old Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of supplying the secret Government cables to WikiLeaks.
Cameron wouldn’t find it hard to keep quiet about either, but he is surrounded by boat-rockers in his own party and Lib Dems who think McKinnon, Guantanamo Bay and Private Manning are all disgraceful U.S. abuses of power.
Even if they do keep quiet, gay campaigner Peter Tatchell, who once tried to make a citizen’s arrest of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe — accusing him of torturing homosexuals — plans a London demonstration aimed at demonising Obama over his treatment of Manning, who, he says, ‘revealed war crimes’.
Obama doesn’t have to give us anything, of course. He knows that merely visiting Britain boosts our Government and head of state, the Queen. Cameron and co can pretend the ‘special relationship’ still exists. The Crown takes comfort in being honoured by the head of a former colony that chose to fight us for its independence.
The President’s state visit here, followed by France, will provide upbeat media coverage at home and valuable video that his re-election team will use to persuade U.S. voters in 2012 that Obama is loved and respected by leaders world-wide.
So it’s wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. As always.
The five pm news is on and I’ve been listening to Obama on Libya. Of course, the Brit PM has been on that subject and the buzz word is civilians.
Sure, this incursion into someone’s civil war is all about protecting civies. But seem quite apparent now with the bombing of Tripoli and now the new threat of choppers to go in close and personal, that civilians will die there as well. So I guess the bottom line then is, some civilians are more worthy of life then others.
Want a huge laff? An American living here since the age of nine, has just made the claim that Carter was a very smart president. He’s an adult now, and how he came to that opinion I have no idea. Carter smart?
Posted by peiper
on 05/25/2011 at 10:32 AM
Filed Under: • UK • USA •
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Permalink • Church doubles congregation … could this be why?
ok ... While I think it’s a cute story, I don’t think the church actually went out looking for a cute blonde vicar. One must understand that this newspaper (DM, Damn Mail, or Daily Mail) does take some license with headlines and thrust of some articles. But they’re fun and we miss Brit papers when we’re visiting home.
Never mind hymn.. look at her! Church doubles congregation by hiring blonde 29-year-old vicarBy PAUL HARRIS
Last updated at 9:25 AM on 25th May 2011
And it came to pass that the people did flock to the local church in great number.
And the number grew each week. And soon, it became a multitude.
And here they did sit in the vaulted Victorian majesty of St Mary The Virgin, in a leafy land known as Caterham, Surrey.
They had come to hear the Word of the Lord. And more particularly, it seems, to take a peek at the new curate as she spake the Word unto them.
For lo! The latest arrival at St Mary’s was a rather foxy young blonde with a comely smile and a degree in theology from Cambridge.
And whatever it was that Stephanie ‘Steph’ Nadarajah brought to the masses, the Word quickly spread.
In six months since taking up her new ministry, the 29 year-old former NHS manager has seen Sunday congregations double in size from an average 75 to a respectable 150 plus.
Not to mention seeing a few heads turning as she travels the parish in her curate’s garb. ‘The first time I walked down the street in Caterham in a dog collar I was so embarrassed,’ she admits.
‘I thought if anyone spoke to me I would just hand it over and say: “You’re right, I’m not who I claim to be – I picked it out of the wardrobe.” But if people look and say: “Goodness me, that’s not what I expected,” and listen to what I say, then that’s great.’
And her impact on the good folk of Caterham? ‘You’re always treading a fine line between using the person that you are, and what God has given you to do good things in his name – and not to attract all the attention yourself and for it to become a sort of personality cult.’
Steph, who is married to a management consultant she has known since her schooldays, says she does get some ‘shocked looks’ when she tells locals she is the new curate. But one convert praised her yesterday as being ‘just what we need to blow out the cobwebs – a bit of feminine vibrancy’.
The Rev Nadarajah, as she is formally known, took a ‘massive drop’ in salary when she chose the cloth over her high-flying job commissioning work for the health service – but says she couldn’t be happier.
She held various management posts in the NHS before working as a pastoral assistant in Putney, South-West London.
In common with many churches, St Mary’s was enduring a gradual decline in congregations. Then along came Steph. It couldn’t quite be classed as a miracle, but the pews started to fill again. The Rev Nadarajah herself described it as ‘thriving’. Likewise, contributions to a fund to raise £80,000 for a new church hall began to swell.
Caterham, whose alumni include presenter Angus Deayton, boasts an association with model Katie Price, who has a home in a nearby village. St Mary’s was built in 1866 to accommodate a growing population attracted by the expansion of the railways.
Steph is a far more modern thinker – she has a Facebook page, keeps fit by running, enjoys fine wine and loves shopping. And yes, she is only too aware of what TV’s Vicar of Dibley had done for women in the church. ‘It’s mentioned all the time,’ she said.
‘It did a lot for women’s ministry in making it acceptable for women to be ordained. But let’s make it more ordinary.’
Parishioner Andrew Spencer, 52, welcomed her arrival: ‘It’s great to see an attractive young lady at the church,’ he said. ‘She’s not just a pretty face though – she’s intelligent and a great listener.’
Posted by peiper
on 05/25/2011 at 09:46 AM
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Permalink • new science of space archaeology … and what a find. WOW!
Take a look at this ...
Really high WOW factor. Am I right Drew?
Wouldn’t you think they’d have found em all after all this time. What will technology find next?
For me, just the idea that they found anything, it could only have been a simple toy unearthed, and I’d find it exciting.
Seventeen lost pyramids among thousands of buried Egyptian settlements pinpointed by infrared satellite imagesBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:39 PM on 25th May 2011
* More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements found
* Findings are a major boost to relatively new science of space archaeologyA satellite survey of Egypt has uncovered lost treasures including 17 pyramids and more than 1,000 tombs.
Three thousand ancient settlements have also been located by scientists who studied infrared images which allowed them to see underground buildings.
Astounded researchers on the ground have already confirmed that two of the pyramids exist - and they believe there are thousands more unknown sites in the region.
Lead researcher Dr Sarah Parcak, from the University of Alabama, told the BBC: ‘I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the “a-ha” moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we’d found.
‘I couldn’t believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt.’
Buildings in ancient Egypt were constructed out of mud brick - the material is dense, allowing satellites orbiting 435miles above Earth to photograph the outlines of structures invisible to the human eye.
The cameras on the satellites are so powerful that they can precisely image objects on Earth that are less than one metre in diameter.
The researchers’ findings are a major boost to the relatively new science of space archaeology.
Their most promising excavations are taking place in Tanis, where they are uncovering a 3,000-year-old house.
Excitingly, the outline of the house exactly matches the shape seen on the satellite images.
Such a high level of accuracy has impressed the Egyptian government, which now plans to use the technology to identify and protect its colossal heritage in the future.
Dr Parcak believes that there are many more buildings buried deeper than those already spotted, the most likely location being under the banks of the River Nile.
She said: ‘These are just the sites close to the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt.
‘This is just the beginning of this kind of work.’
She added: ‘Indiana Jones is old school, we’ve moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford.’
Dr Parcak and her team’s findings form the basis of the documentary Egypt’s Lost Cities, which airs on BBC1 on May 30.
I sure hope I’ll be able to see that on our pc the day after. Awesome find. For those knocked out by this sort of thing, check out BBC1 (TV). You might be able to see the program.
Posted by peiper
on 05/25/2011 at 09:04 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Archeology / Anthropology •
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Permalink • More Vlad Taltos,
This quote is from the eleventh book, Jhegaala.
“Sit down,” I told him. He did, looking at me. I couldn’t identify all the emotions that passed over his face, but he was, at least, upset. That could mean anything.
He sat down and folded his hands in his lap. “What is it you wish of me, Lord Merss?”
“You talk, I listen.”
“Talk about...”
“History, Father. Not so ancient history.”
“History of—?”
“When a Count and a Baron went to war over whether peasants would be working land, or working in a paper mill.”
His eyebrows went up. “You would seem to know a great deal about it already.”
“You mean, more than those who believe stories of demons being summoned, and the ultimate war of good and evil, and barons who bathe in the blood of virgins?”
“Well, yes.” He smiled a little. “Didn’t quite buy that, eh?”
“I don’t believe in virgins.”
“Yes, I guess that is a bit hard to take, isn’t it?”
I don’t believe in virgins either. An easily curable disease.
Posted by Christopher
on 05/25/2011 at 09:23 AM
Filed Under: • Literature •
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Permalink • Still Not Working
That’s the proper thing to say, isn’t it? Any war any US president gets us involved in that isn’t done, won, and over in 3 months is another Vietnam, right? An endless quagmire with no possibility of victory ever? A pointless military money pit? Don’t blame me; I’m just following established journalistic precedents.
Without any real discussion with the legislature or the American people, Obama started bombing Libya March 19th. It’s almost June. So it’s not quite 90 days, but “only” 66, yet there is no end game in sight, and no exit strategy carved in stone. I’m pretty sure there isn’t even any congressional approval yet; this is Obama’s personal military action. And it’s a pointless one at that; he’s not trying to be “gutsy” and take down Gadhaffi. He’s not feeding arms to the Libyan rebels so that they can win and “free” their country. He’s not even making sure the US Navy is leading the way; some euro-dude somewhere is literally calling the shots, and US forces are doing the grunt work. Our guys aren’t even paid mercenaries; the Libya adventure has cost the US taxpayer nearly a billion dollars at this point. And like Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, it’s become part of the new normal so quickly that it’s barely even news any more. Nothing to see here, move along. But in 3 weeks will things have changed one whit?
NATO warplanes pounded Tripoli for a second day, raising military pressure on Muammar Gaddafi while diplomatic efforts mounted to force his departure.
Six loud explosions rocked Tripoli late on Tuesday within 10 minutes, following powerful strikes 24 hours earlier, including one on Gaddafi’s compound, that Libyan officials said killed 19 people and state television blamed on “colonialist crusaders.”
A NATO official said the alliance hit a vehicle storage bunker, a missile storage and maintenance site and a command- and-control site on the outskirts of Tripoli. Government targets around the Western rebel outpost of Misrata had also been hit.
“We were quite active in the past 24 hours and will continue to be so,” the official said. “Striking fighting units and people trying to give the orders is having the desired effect.”
Libyan news agency Jana says NATO hit a telecommunications station in Zlitan overnight, causing “material and human casualties losses” west of Misrata.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague dismissed fears that Western states were being drawn into an Iraq-style conflict. “It’s very different from Iraq because of course in the case of Iraq there were very large numbers of ground forces deployed from Western nations,” Hague told BBC Radio on Wednesday.
France, Britain and the United States are leading the air strikes, which began on March 19 after the U.N. Security Council authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces as he sought to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule.
The three countries say they will keep up the campaign until Gaddafi leaves power. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that the NATO bombing campaign was making progress and should achieve its objectives within months.
Sure it will. It’s been months already. Last time I looked, Libya had about 5 cities. The rebels seem to be in control of at least 2 of them. The rest of the country is sand. Empty. Desert. Bedouins and Tauregs; random rare nomads on camels. There is nothing there. How long does it take to blow up nothing? Look, if you want old Mohmar gone, take him out. Oh, it’s against US policy? Here’s your solution: this Zuma guy from Africa is coming to visit Gadhaffi next week. Put a tracking buy on him. Slave a satellite for a couple days. When he’s actually meeting with the sand rat, mark the location, then use your spy satellite and some high altitude UAVs to follow every vehicle that leaves that meeting. And have NATO drop a bomb on each one 10 minutes later. Odds are pretty good you’ll get him, with plausible deniability.
What happens to Libya once Mohmar is wall splatter? Who knows? Who cares? Not Obama. But at that point he can make a claim for another round of gutsy non-spiking of another football, and we can stop pissing away tax money by the ship load.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/25/2011 at 08:10 AM
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Military •
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Permalink • Tuesday - May 24, 2011
A Home Run For Uncle Beni
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in front of Congress today. If you didn’t hear his speech, here is the link. 46 minutes and some seconds, and worth every moment.
Of the 300 million Arabs in the middle east and North Africa only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. Now, I want you to stop for a second and think about that. Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one half of one percent are truly free. And they’re all citizens of Israel.
Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East; Israel is what is right about the Middle East.
I like his style. He gave a relaxed talk, like a visit from your favorite uncle. But he made all sorts of great points, didn’t stumble over a word, and gave the media about 200 really good quotes.
And he goes on to politely send Obama to the woodshed. And points out his own military service and his own personal losses to terrorism, and highlights the peace agreements that Israel has made in the past that have brought stability to the region. And he calls for a Palestinian State, but he calls for it from a position of strength, and points out that it’s been duplicity and failure at the other end of the table that has kept such a peace from sticking. For generations.
He sounds like a leader, not a liar.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/24/2011 at 09:08 PM
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Permalink • Gratuitous Newsity
What a sad life ...
Here we go again. Troubled Child™ Linday Lohan is at it again. This is now two days in a row she’s managed to “accidentally” flash her bits and pieces in public to keep her name out there. You would have thought that her nearly fatal drug addiction and various run ins with the law would be enough, but oh no.
And I could have sworn the last I’d heard of her, she was supposed to be doing 6 months in jail. What happened there? Oh, she’s too good for jail, so she got community service instead. Yeah, that was it. So she went to a shelter to feed the homeless, and made news - serious news! - for showing up not wearing a bra. I am not kidding. The UK’s Daily Mail ran a piece with a boob expert ( I think it was a bra fitter from Marks & Spenser ) yattering on and on about how all this bouncing about all free and pokey was going to give her issues with gravity in the near future. The UK Sun had the nippy pics.
Alas, the future is upon us. Yesterday’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during a ‘modeling shoot’ made that all too plain. What was perfect and perky at 16 is quickly becoming a waistline accessory. And all the “we only do proper news” news sites run the story, and merely link to the Sun, which doesn’t pretend to be any better, and runs the pics.
And here we go again. Oh noes, Lindsay goes swimming in the ocean and her bikini top falls off! Giggle giggle, oopsie, wardrobe malfunction! Yeah, and the photographers were right there, managing to capture things in their razor sharp high resolution glory. Or lack thereof. Meh, I’d still give her an 8.5, but mostly because it looks like the blond dye is starting to wash out and her lovely natural dark red locks are starting to emerge again. Girl has hair, I’ll grant her that.
Lindsay Lohan suffered another wardrobe malfunction yesterday when a crashing wave removed her bikini top as she cooled off in the Miami surf. And despite clutching her arms across her chest, she could not stop her assets spilling out. The troubled actress, who’s currently serving 480 hours community service for stealing a necklace, gasped when she was struck by the wall of water.
NSFW PHOTOS AT THESUN.CO.UK
But she continued to merrily splash around nonetheless.
No doubt her jaw-dropping displays have gone down a storm with beady-eyed male bathers, but I’m not sure this is what the judge had in mind for her community service sentence.
Still, the freckly actress won’t be doing her hopes of landing more adult movie roles any harm with ‘incidents’ like these.
Next up she’s starring alongside JOHN TRAVOLTA and AL PACINO in Gotti: Three Generations, based on the life and crimes of notorious mafia boss John Gotti.
Let’s hope she makes the breast of it…
I don’t think she has much acting talent, and I hate her voice. Maybe she knows this too, and all her self worth is wrapped up in being a scag? Oh that makes sense. So I’m guessing her desire to stay in the limelight will eventually lead her to the porno industry, though I doubt by that point that even the expert soft-focus photographers at X-Art will be able to make her look good.
Seems a shame, but the porn world can always use another doped out fire crotch. For about a year.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/24/2011 at 03:13 PM
Filed Under: • Hollywood •
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Permalink • Late But Still Crowder
Little Stevie took extra time to make this “week’s” video, going on a big old road trip. Let’s hope it was worth it.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/24/2011 at 03:09 PM
Filed Under: • Humor • Politics •
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Permalink • kitten attacks scariest object in its world
you might enjoy this. hope so coz we did here. funny.
Posted by peiper
on 05/24/2011 at 01:29 PM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • eye candy
So much more then mere eye candy. A Goddess. A real Goddess!
KATE UPTON
Posted by peiper
on 05/24/2011 at 11:15 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •
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Permalink • especially for those interested in antiquity and history and mystery
W O W !!!!
Take a look at this!
And even if it turned out to be a 13th century forgery, so what? Look at the art and the writing. And here’s an extra link, no text. Just the gallery with lots more photos. WOW.
http://voynichcentral.com/gallery/albums.php
The Voynich Manuscript: will we ever be able to read this book?
A 15th-century manuscript is written in a language that has baffled every expert. Is it just a brilliant hoax, or will someone eventually decipher its meaning, asks Michael Day
Somewhere deep inside the bowels of Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library – the Ivy League institution’s own cemetery of lost books – lies a tome that experts have studied for centuries, but which has yet to be understood by a single soul.
The book has no known author or official title; Yale librarians simply refer to it as manuscript MS 408. But thanks to its peculiar language, symbols and diagrams – often strangely familiar, but insistently elusive in meaning – it has intrigued and frustrated anthropologists, linguists and mathematicians for centuries: even the elite cryptologists at the US National Security Agency drew a blank, after they spent years trying to decode it in the 1950s. And the time that some researchers have dedicated to the problem seems all the more remarkable given the possibility that, for all the complexity and consistency of the script it contains, it could simply be an elaborate hoax.
Written in an as yet undecipherable language, with unknown letters or “glyphs” arranged into a form of seemingly consistent but unintelligible syntax, the book is commonly referred to as the Voynich manuscript, after the Polish-American bookseller Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired it in 1912. Its history, however, begins long before.
Although the earliest suggested owner is Rudolf II, the 16th-century emperor of Bohemia, the first that we know of for sure is Georg Baresch, a 17th-century alchemist from Prague, who was so perplexed by the book that he sent it to Jesuit scholars in the hope that they might translate it.
They failed, but they did pass it on to the Roman Jesuit University, from where it was whisked away to Frascati, near Rome, in 1870 to keep it safe from Vittorio Emanuele’s marauding soldiers. It was bought by Voynich, and then donated to Yale in 1969.Recently, however, experts have arrived at what – in Voynich terms, at least – must count as a significant breakthrough: while we still don’t understand a word, at least we know how old it is. Carbon-dating by scientists at the University of Arizona has allowed them to declare that the manuscript was prepared from animal skin in the early 1400s – making it roughly 100 years older than previously thought.
The tests were done after Yale finally allowed the scientists to snip off tiny pieces from four different pages, selected at random. “The results seem to show quite clearly that the parchment for the book is from the early 1400s, between 1404 and 1438,” says Dr Greg Hodgins, who works in the physics and anthropology departments at the University of Arizona. “And the fact that all four sections were dated to the same time appears to discount suggestions that the manuscript was added to over a period of many years or centuries.”
These results only show when the parchment for the book was obtained, not when it was written. However, previous ink analysis done by the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago suggests that it was placed on the parchment while it was relatively fresh.
“By coming up with such a narrow time frame, we’ve effectively eliminated most of the theories about who wrote it,” says Dr Hodgins. “The carbon-dating result also allows us to focus on what kind of scientific knowledge and encryption was around in this period.”
Professor Gonzalo Rubio, a specialist in ancient languages at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees that the carbon-dating result is significant. “This shows us that it’s not a forgery,” he says. “It wasn’t written by Voynich himself, as some people suspected. It’s a genuine artifact from the early 15th century.” It also, he points out, eliminates the popular theory that the book was created by the noted 13th-century polymath Roger Bacon.
Most theories about the book’s meaning are inevitably informed by its illustrations, says Prof Rubio. These pictures, drawn in various shades of green, brown, yellow, blue, and red ink, are – like the script used in the manuscript’s 240 remaining pages – unique. Yet while the words cannot be read, the illustrations provide a clue about the nature of the book. They suggest that the book was a scientific text, mostly an illustrated herbal manual with some additional sections on astronomy, biology and pharmaceuticals. The script itself is widely believed to be about alchemy, the medieval science with metaphysical and magical overtones, whose practitioners sought ways to turn base metals into gold.
But what of the language it is written in? Some of the glyphs resemble Latin letters, suggesting a Voynich “alphabet” of around 20-30 different characters. These are arranged into word-like blocks up to 10 letters long, with a total word count of around 35,000. However, some scores of pages are thought to be missing.
Many researchers have speculated that the strange alphabet was used to hide information that might have been heretical, suggesting that it was produced by transforming a European language through a cipher. But simple ciphers of the type used in the 15th century would almost certainly have been cracked by now.
Posted by peiper
on 05/24/2011 at 10:44 AM
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Permalink • law and disorder but damn little justice
Things never change except the lame excuses. And a jury that can be so dumb as to buy the argument of diminished responsibility.
There’s a couple of bothersome stories left over from a day ago.
In one case a 15 year old thick lipped jungle bunny stone cold killer, who blew away a young woman for £200 and also to impress da boyz in de hood. Typical I guess. Another case of the white man’s burden cept there’s a gang of the brutish sub human black bastards. Given life which is doubtful what he’ll serve, the judge referred to him a child. Child? At 15, even in my far off innocent days 15 was no child. Yeah I know. In the eyes of the law yadda,yadda. We all know the law’s pretty much an ass.
The other story is really one for the books though. This concerns a white killer who isn’t any better then the black gang mentioned above.
Here’s another creep who planned the killing of his wife. He’d already threatened her with a knife, and she was frightened enough to hire a bodyguard and start divorce proceedings.
Well, he decided he had to kill her and so went out and went to the trouble of digging a grave AND, even going so far as to make a coffin lined with heavy plastic so it wouldn’t leak. He buried her in a place authorities say nobody but he would ever find. And it was only found because he led the cops there.
Now that’s a lot of planning folks. Seems to me he knew exactly what he was doing. Ah but the jury in their infinite stupidity or else naive beyond belief, bought into the old manslaughter due to diminished responsibility ploy. He didn’t use the knife after all btw. He decided on a hammer instead.
The article doesn’t state where the bodyguard was or if she’d dispensed with the service. Read all the story for yourself.
Diminished responsibility indeed. In a pig’s eye. Another killer with another excuse to justify a cold blooded killing. At some point you all know damn well some shrink will declare that his shrunken mental state is restored to normal and his responsibility is clear to go. What he deserves is a death in the very same manner he gave his wife. No hope of that however.
British Airways pilot who dug grave in park cleared of murdering his wifeRobert Brown, a British Airways pilot who dug a grave in a park weeks before killing his wife Joanna was today cleared of her murder.
By Victoria Ward, Nigel Bunyan and Andrew Hough 11:39AM BST 24 May 2011
Brown, 47, killed his wife in a hammer attack on the doorstep of her sprawling, mock-Tudor mansion near Ascot, following a costly divorce battle.
He wrapped her blood-soaked body in plastic sheeting and buried her in a carefully constructed plastic coffin he had lowered into a quiet corner of a park several weeks earlier.Yesterday, a jury cleared Brown of murder. He had earlier admitted manslaughter by means of diminshed responsibility claiming he was suffering extreme stress during the divorce. He was also convicted of preventing a coroner from holding an inquest by disposing of a body.
During his eight-day trial, Reading Crown Court heard claims that the airline captain had become consumed with greed, desperate to win a large slice of his wife’s fortune, despite having signed a pre-nuptial agreement which prevented him from doing so.
It was claimed he had dismissed Mrs Brown’s offer of a £500,000 settlement and wanted her £3 million house in Ascot, Berks.
And then we have the sad case of bongo-bongo- bongo I don’t wanna leave the Congo and we all wish your ancestors hadn’t.
This is the worst part about slavery. We’re now stuck with them. Millions of em just breeding like fuckin flies.
Teenage hitman, 15, who was caught on CCTV gunning down innocent mother is jailed for life
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 24th May 2011* Half-brother convicted of murder of lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce in 2006
* Cousin given life sentence over shooting of Lee Subaran in 2004
* Judge lifts order granting him anonymityA teenage hitman who was caught on CCTV shooting a young mother dead was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years at the Old Bailey today.
Santre Sanchez Gayle, 15, was paid just £200 to carry out the murder of Gulistan Subasi – a fee he used to buy a gold Dolce and Gabbana beanie hat.
The boy, known by the street name Riot, will spend at least two decades behind bars after being convicted of the cold-blooded murder, described by a Judge Stephen Kramer as ‘an efficient, ruthless and calculated execution’.
There was sobbing from the public gallery as the killers were taken down to begin their sentences.
Judge told Gayle that his ‘youth and immaturity’ were factors in the crime.But he added: ‘Anyone seeing the short but telling CCTV clip of the shooting cannot but be struck by the chillingly deliberate and cold-blooded way in which you went about your business.’
The judge described Gayle as a low-level cannabis dealer who expected to be paid £2,000 for the murder but was short-changed and only paid £200.
‘You were an easily-led, immature youngster, who, if money was involved, was capable of violence out of loyalty, having cynically been used by others.
‘You shot and killed Gulistan for money, and at the bidding of an older man who you were trying to impress.’
The judge said it was not possible to say who was behind the killing or who recruited Billy to find someone to carry it out.
Miss Subasi had been staying with her mother at the time and was about to celebrate the birthday of her young child.
The judge told her killers: ‘You have deprived a mother of a much-loved daughter and a son of his mother.’
Idiot judges just love the sound of their own voices. Why is he telling these darkies what they already know? Does he think they have the capacity to care?
In yesterday’s edition of this article, the 15 yr old was bragging about what he’d done, and telling friends that he left no telling evidence behind. And as for ‘youngster,’ I don’t think that has anything to do with it. At any age this thug was merely reverting to type. I shouldn’t say reverting cos that infers he may not have always been that way. But of course he was. You only have to look at he and his sub species friends to see that. Their natural habitat is not the streets of a civilized country but running half naked through a jungle somewhere eating raw meat.
There’s yet another story of a father and son stabbed while trying to help someone being attacked by a gang, but I’ll leave things with this tired subject that’s much beloved by critics of the American penal system, and why the hell do they care anyway?
What I have posted here is very much edited. The original article has more to do with things relating to the UK then the USA.
But the subject of America jailing it’s citizens as though every single miscreant were actually an American is maddening. I think these ppl paint if not an incorrect picture then certainly one that is slanted. Read her for yourself and see.
The Right has learnt to play the game of magpie politicsAs Barack Obama lands in Britain, on both sides of the Atlantic traditional Left-wing issues are being hijacked , says Mary Riddell.
Today, the leader of the free world will sweep into London behind the twin shield of a bomb-proofed Cadillac and the aura of glory conferred on him by Osama bin Laden’s execution. As Barack Obama told the American people after the killing: “We can do these things not just because of wealth and power, but because of who we are: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Mr Obama’s discussions with David Cameron will centre on how that prospectus can prevail across the planet. Back in the US, however, the president’s claims to be the guardian of universal liberty strike a hollow note. As the 2.4 million citizens serving time could testify, the land of the free is the most punitive developed nation on Earth.
One American adult in 100 is behind bars, rising to one in nine among young black men. The quadrupling of incarceration since 1970 cannot be explained by the brutishness of Americans, who are marginally less criminally inclined, though slightly more homicidal, than the English, or by the success of harsh sentencing: violent offences have risen for four decades.
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a presidential hopeful. It would be hardly more startling to discover that Attila the Hun was an early advocate of the Human Rights Act than to learn that Mr Gingrich is now the US’s leading prison reformer. Among the other campaigners who bear no discernible resemblance to Elizabeth Fry is Grover Norquist, an architect of thumb-in-your-eye Republicanism who wants the state “shrunk down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”.
The US’s radical Rightists have not transmogrified into angels of mercy. Their fiscally driven mission is based on the $68 billion cost of maintaining a corrections system where inmate numbers are increasing 13 times faster than the general population. As Mr Gingrich wrote recently: “These facts should trouble every American.” More imprisonment, as he added, does not mean less crime. Those states, such as New York, that have jailed fewer people have also seen offences drop. With the majority of convicts reoffending, it is time, in Mr Gingrich’s opinion, to shut some prisons and rely on “more humane, effective alternatives”.
Barack Obama will this week visit a Europe where the Left is on the run. Its leading figures have sleepwalked to obliteration – or perp-walked, in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn – and their resurrection will be made harder by today’s magpie politics, in which the Right steals the traditional causes of the Left.
Last week, Henry Kissinger, a Cold War veteran, flew into Britain to make the case for global nuclear disarmament. As Dr Kissinger told me, he is “confident” of progress on an issue on which the parliamentary Left, which long ago burnt its CND cards, has little to say.
No matter what the lady says here, seems to me that the UK can do with a few more prisons if they aren’t gonna bring back the rack and rope.
Posted by peiper
on 05/24/2011 at 08:13 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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