Monday News Bucket

14 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on November 12, 2007 at 7:08 am

   to start the week: NYT

   Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in 1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark, she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google, then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees. She was offered the part-time job, which started out at $450 a week but included a pile of Google stock options that she figured might never be worth a penny.

   After five years of kneading engineers’ backs, Ms. Brown retired, cashing in most of her stock options, which were worth millions of dollars. To her delight, the shares she held onto have continued to balloon in value.

   “I’m happy I saved enough stock for a rainy day, and lately it’s been pouring,” said Ms. Brown, 52, who now lives in a 3,000-square-foot house in Nevada, gets her own massages at least once a week and has a private Pilates instructor. She has traveled the world to oversee a charitable foundation she started with her Google wealth and has written a book, still unpublished, “Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.”

   I love it when someone who’s down on their luck and going through hard times has one thng happen that helps them rise above it all.  And of course, I’m not even going to mention how surprised I am that Google kept climbing even after the $300 mark – my bad.

2. 

   CabinGirl on November 12, 2007 at 7:15 am

   Here’s an interesting story about it’s connection to about Firefox: NYT

   Only a couple of years ago, Firefox was the little browser that could — an open-source program created by thousands of contributors around the world without the benefit of a giant company like Microsoft to finance it.

   Since then, Firefox, which has prospered under the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has grown to be the largest rival to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, with 15 to 20 percent of the browser market worldwide and higher percentages in Europe and among technology devotees. It is the most popular alternative browser since Netscape, with about three times as many users as Apple’s Safari.

   Part of Firefox’s appeal was its origins as a nonprofit venture, a people-powered revolution involving the most basic Internet technology, the Web browser. Also, because the core code was open, Firefox could tap into developers’ creativity; they are encouraged to soup up the browser, whether by blocking ads from commercial Web sites, a popular add-on, or by creating “skins” to customize the browser’s appearance.

   But in trying to build on this success, the Mozilla Foundation has come to resemble an investor-backed Silicon Valley start-up more than a scrappy collaborative underdog. Siobhan O’Mahony, an assistant professor at the School of Management of the University of California, Davis, calls Mozilla “the first corporate open-source project.”

   What’s the Google connection, you ask?

   Looming over Mozilla’s future, however, is its close connection with Google, which has been writing most of the checks that finance the Firefox project through its royalty contract.

   When the connection with Google was revealed more than a year ago, the question on popular tech Web sites like Slashdot.org was whether Mozilla was acting as a proxy in Google’s larger war with Microsoft and others.

   • 

     dada on November 12, 2007 at 10:54 am

     

     they’re not finished, by a long shot. new target: mobile telecoms, inter-net, wifi accessible open source system…meet Android…where’s my Gphone?

     google, most likely with members of this alliance, is, in all likelihood, going to be bidding on a very promising and lucrative piece of the wireless bandwidth spectrum that’s opening up next year.

     they’ve already cut a deal with sprint-nextel to provide web search, email, instant messaging, etc., for the nationwide WiMax network they’re building.

     lots of info out there, and at&t, verizon, et al are more than a little worried…as well as micro$oft and apple…and they should be.

     this is going to be a fun one to watch.

     [disclaimer: l do not work for google or any of it’s many subsidiaries…although l wish l did.]

     lTMF’sA

     

3. 

   CabinGirl on November 12, 2007 at 7:23 am

   is working about as well in Florida as it does in Texas: PRNewswire

   Florida students at risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections

   Florida has the 6th highest rate of teen pregnancy and 2nd highest rate of annual HIV infection

   …The majority of teachers surveyed by the University of Florida — 87 percent — acknowledged that sex education, in some form, took place in their schools. However, they noted it was not accessible to all students, was often afforded little time, occurred late in the students’ academic careers, had little to no uniformity in curriculum and who was teaching it, and had no standards for training or quality assurance.

   “Teachers who responded to the survey indicated that students were most likely to receive sexuality education in 9th or 10th grade, which is too late,” said Adrienne Kimmell, Executive Director of the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. “What is equally, if not more troubling, is that last year, Florida received $10,700,147 in federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs when our young people need comprehensive sex education programs that provide medically accurate information about abstinence and condoms and other forms of birth control.”

   I guess the proponents of abstinence-only think that HIV is a suitable punishment for the “crime” of premarital sex?  What is wrong with these people?

   It’s like that “Christian” woman on 60 Minutes last night, sitting in her church and wishing the state of Tennessee would carry out the death sentence given to the severely schizophrenic man who had killed her sister over 20 years ago, and being unaware of the irony of it.  Since when is revenge a Christian value?

   • 

     boran2 on November 12, 2007 at 8:31 am

     Religion is now customizable, kind of like a web browser.

4. 

   CabinGirl on November 12, 2007 at 9:28 am

   SFGate

   High-ranking California politicians and Bay Area residents angry about their oil-splattered beaches demanded answers Friday to why the Coast Guard took so long to notify the public of this week’s huge ship-fuel spill and how the sludgy mess was allowed to spread so far.

   Coast Guard officials acknowledged they had erred in waiting more than four hours on Wednesday to issue an advisory that 58,000 gallons – not just 140 – had spewed into the water after a ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower, but they insisted their response was appropriate.

   California’s two U.S. senators, San Francisco’s congresswoman, a host of state legislators and residents up and down the damaged coastline were not buying it.

   But that’s not the only problem:

   Kathleen O’Leary, who lives in Fairfax, was so disconcerted by the response in her area that her voice shook.

   “The rangers are doing their best, but the people who have all the major equipment just didn’t show up,” she lamented. “I’m really upset at the response of the Coast Guard. It’s a very disjointed effort. Abysmal.”

   She said she has seen oil in Stinson Beach, Bolinas Lagoon and the adjacent Audubon Canyon Ranch area – but no wildlife rescue crews and only two cleanup workers.

   Clearly, cleanup is not a priority; see this report from firedoglake about what they’re doing with the volunteers who want to help clean up.

   • 

     Gaianne on November 13, 2007 at 1:02 am

     The new concept is forbidding people to help with a disaster while (somehow managing to be) doing nothing themselves.  

     It’s part of the New World Order.  

     You might also call it softening up the public to submit to destruction quietly.

5. 

   idredit on November 12, 2007 at 9:56 am

   As some analysts sip the P, that the war in Iraq is going better, The ‘Bush and Mush Show’ indicts the planning of the “War on Terror”- a  misnomer in applellation:

   From Jim Lobe

   “Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf’s latest “coup” last weekend, combined with the continuing threat of a Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan and the looming probability of war between US-backed Ethiopia and Eritrea, have added to the growing impression that Washington has ever more become hostage to forces and personalities far beyond its control or understanding.

   The fact that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reduced to making urgent telephone appeals to heads of state to heed Washington’s wishes – in Turkey’s case not to invade Kurdistan; in Musharraf’s not to declare a state of emergency – has only underlined just how impotent and unprepared the world’s sole superpower appears to have become.”

   Lobe does dream. So how well are things going in Iraq?  Nir Rosen finds (via Steve Clemons)

   “Meet Ameriya Knights” – Abu Abed: US’s new ally against al-Qaida.

   Money quote:

   “The Americans lost hope with an Iraqi government that is both sectarian and dominated by militias, so they are paying for locals to fight al-Qaida. It will create a series of warlords.

   It’s like someone who brought cats to fight rats, found himself with too many cats and brought dogs to fight the cats. Now they need elephants.

   Freaking doomed. BUT we know where elecphants can be found. Concerned Citizens Jonah, Rudy, should step up to it.

    

   • 

     hens teeth on November 12, 2007 at 3:00 pm

     I’m still trying to figure out how Musharraf can have a coup on himself.

6. 

   dada on November 12, 2007 at 12:56 pm

   where the future arms race is happening, thanks to our feckless leaders:

   Pentagon wants to create space vehicle to fire missiles anywhere on Earth

   Buried in the 621-page House-Senate conference report on the Defense Department appropriations bill — and page A19 of Monday’s Washington Post, is a $100 million request to enhance space warfare.
   .
   .
   “The new program, dubbed Falcon, for ‘Force Application and Launch from CONUS,’ centers on a small-launch-vehicle concept of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,” veteran intelligence reporter Walter Pincus reveals in today’s paper. “The agency describes Falcon as a ‘a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload at a distance of 9,000 nautical miles from [the continental United States] in less than two hours.‘”
   .
   .
   rawstory

   so much for the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, eh.

   Article IV

   States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.

   the Union of Concerned Scientists is adamantly opposed to this move, as well.

   but, in all probability, we’ll just have to add another one to BushCo™’s list of abrogated treaties…along with the demoRATs help.

   lTMF’sA

   

7. 

   dada on November 12, 2007 at 1:10 pm

   space tourism’s expensive, but the latest fad in the earthbound variety looks interesting: debauchery tourism…who knew?…l doubt the church lady will approve.

   It is a far cry from the civilised city break, relaxing package holiday by the beach, or wholesome trekking trip in the mountains. Inspired by tales of the hedonistic getaways enjoyed by celebrities, the latest fashion for twenty- and thirtysomething holidaymakers is “debauchery tourism” – or debaucherism – according to a global travel trends report released today.
   .
   .
   “Even as travellers age they will continue to embrace travel as an opportunity to revisit their hedonistic youth and to spend lavishly, enjoying their leisure time to the full,”…

   Guardian UK

   lose those winter doldrums…call your travel agent today!

   lTMF’sA

   

8. 

   diane101 on November 12, 2007 at 9:27 pm

   Hello, I am trying to post a link to an article and totally forgot the code, can someone help me…

   • 

     dada on November 12, 2007 at 9:57 pm

     short hand, auto format version:

       [ title hereURL ]

     close brackts, voila! hello

     good to see ya!

     lTMF’sA

     

   • 

     CabinGirl on November 13, 2007 at 7:02 am

     or < a href=”insert URL here” >LINK< /a >

     (take out the spaces inside the <>)