Palau

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, washed the t-shirt 23 times, threw the t-shirt in the ragbag, now I'm polishing furniture with it.

Yes Virginia, Superheroes Do Exist

Fans are slans!, General goshdarned cuteness
Published on

Give those baddies hell, Atom Electron Boy:

The Make-A-Wish Foundation made 13-year-old Erik Martin’s superhero dream a reality with a giant city-wide role playing scenario that incorporated all of Seattle. With the help of the Seattle Sounders, Spider-Man and a DeLorean, Electron Boy saved the day.

[…]

Martin, who is living with liver cancer, always wanted to be a superhero, and the people of Seattle, along with the Make-A-Wish foundation were more than happy to make that fantasy a reality for one perfect day.

On April 30th, Martin woke up to a desperate phone call from Spider-Man, the only other super that knows his superhero identity as Electron Boy. The Seattle Sounders had been taken hostage by Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy, and they needed his help! Electron Boy suited up and rode out to Qwest Field via DeLorean on a shut down road with a police motorcycle escort. And that’s just the start of his day.

After Electron Boy freed the Sounders, much to the joy of his awaiting fans, Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy struck again! This time, they threatened to plummet all of Seattle into darkness. So it was back on the road again for Electron Boy. After saving a few civilian hostages, along with finishing up a few other heroic deeds, his wild chase landed Electron Boy at the Space Needle

Full story and more pics...

Bobbing For Kittens

Kittens!
Published on


Tampa Bay Examiner:

With a gun in one hand and a sack of bobcat kittens in the other, an Alabama hunter proudly plopped the newborns down on the counter and asked the veterinary assistant to raise them up for him so he could give them to his kids as pets.

The vet tech was stunned, but quickly recomposed herself to tell the hunter she would do it for him so as to rescue the babies from such an awful fate. She immediately began scouring the Internet for an expert in rehab and release.

[…]

Big Cat Rescuer, Merrill Kramer, called on Rick Chaboudy, CEO of Suncoast Animal League in Palm Harbor, FL and he said he thought he had a good candidate. Her name was Bobbi because of her half tail and she had given birth to 6 kittens of her own and then adopted two more. He found foster parents for all but two of the kittens and brought Bobbi and her brood over to see what she thought of diversifying her family.

[…]

Bobbi turned out to be a dream come true for three little orphaned bobcats though. She immediately pulled them in close to nurse and began to bathe them. The little bobcat babies were so startled that they hissed at her!

She ignored their resistance and just kept on loving on them. Once they figured out that this strange smelling “bobcat” mom had the real deal to offer at her breasts, they were in love too. Full Story…

First Muslim women elected to British parliament

Anti-war, Bloody Lawyers, Feminism, Socialism, UK elections, UK politics, Women
Published on

Via TwoCircles.net:

London : Shabana Mahmood and Yasmin Qureshi have become the first Muslim women to be elected to the British parliament after successfully defending Labour seats.

Mahmood successfully increased the majority of former International Development Secretary Clare Short, who has retired from parliament, from under 7,000 votes to more than 10,000 in Birmingham Ladywood in central England.

The Oxford University-educated barrister saw off challenges from two other Muslim candidate, Ayoub Khan representing the Liberal Democrats and Nusrat Ghani, who was standing for the Tories.

I see some things never change.

The announcement of her success came as Qureshi, who is also a lawyer, won by a reduced majority of more than 8,600 in the Bolton South East constituency in north-west England.

Not another bloody lawyer – like they didn’t cause enough damage already.

Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob is seen as having an outside chance of capturing Birmingham Hall Green, which has boundary changes with the adjacent Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where she came second at the last elections with 27.5% of the vote.

Salma Yaqoob didn’t win but came second:

Despite being written off by the media I came second, polling over 12,000 votes. It is a fantastic achievement and testimony to a desire for a political alternative to the parties of bombing and big business. It is clear that many people’s fear of a Tory government boosted the Labour vote, puncturing the Lib Dem bubble but also squeezing my vote as well.

Not a win, but a good result nonetheless. And if any proposed LibDem/A.N.Other coalition falls apart, she can stand again.

A Hung Impalement

Election Skullduggery, UK elections, UK politics
Published on

Conservative
264 +81 36.8
Labour
204 -74 28.1
Liberal Democrat
40 -7 22.6

* Prediction
* 535 of 650 seats declared

There were sit ins and near riots when poll stations closed their doors to queueing electors and Gordon Brown is refusing to resign and looks likely to be squatting in No 10 despite having no mandate.

What a bloody mess.

Some good news:

Peter Kellner says BNP may lose “some or all” of their seats on Barking and Dagenham Council

Greens get first MP

Mark Steel on Twitter:

Resigned now, to living under a return to feudal rule, under a system of barons with an obligation to tend the chickens of a twat from Eton

Hey You, Get Off Of My Cloud

Civil liberties, Culture, Internet, IT is not magic pixie dust, Life under Capitalism
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Why I don’t do Facebook, reason No. umpty-three…

When it comes to personal data security I’ve always been paranoid, and with good reason. From Techcrunch:

You’ve got to hand it to Facebook. They certainly know how to do security — not.

Today I was tipped off that there is a major security flaw in the social networking site that, with just a few mouse clicks, enables any user to view the live chats of their ‘friends’. Using what sounds like a simple trick, a user can also access their friends’ latest pending friend-requests and which friends they share in common. That’s a lot of potentially sensitive information.

Unbelievable I thought, until I just tested the exploit for myself.

And guess what? It works.

The irony is that the exploit is enabled by they way that Facebook lets you preview your own privacy settings. In other words, a privacy feature contains a flaw that lets others view private information if they are aware of the exploit.

I know Facebook wants us to share more information and open up, but I’m not sure that this is quite what they had in mind.

Video…

Oooh, I dunno, I wouldn’t put it past them, especially with the current requirements placed ISP’s and social networking companies to provide information to security organisations – how better to datamine friends and associates of someone under suspicion, no warrant required?

, “…in future finding out other people’s secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules”.
Sir David Omand, former Whitehall intelligence and security co-ordinator February 2009

I was having this very conversation with my son yesterday, apropos of Charlie Stross’ article on cloud computing and Steve Jobs’ long term strategy for the development of Apple as a data handler.

My son and his iPhone-toting friends may consider me an old fart for being firmly in the open-source using, roll your own cloud tendency, but being what might be considered a political dissident in a vicious neoliberal society I’ve got good reason to be paranoid. And this from someone who read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson as a teenager and loved it. Now he’s happy just to hand over his data to any old Tomasina, Dick or Harret. Feh, where did I go wrong as a parent?

This latest piece of Facebookery just goes to prove me right and him wrong. Let some corporation have control over my personal details? Not a hope in hell.