Month: August 2005

Kelo backlash: Missouri mulls eminent domain

A task force begins meeting in Missouri to discuss reforming eminent domain[*1] laws, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Kelo v. New London decision.

Gov. Matt Blunt appointed the task force on June 28, five days after the Supreme Court upheld the condemnation of 15 properties in New London, Conn. That city is trying to make way for a private development including a marina, new residences and shops aimed at economic revitalization.

White House picks head chef

First woman selected as President’s head chef[*1] :

Cristeta Comerford was chosen from hundreds of applicants to head the executive kitchen. A naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines, she will be the first woman and first minority to hold the post.

Comerford has been an assistant chef at the White House for 10 years. She worked under former executive chef Walter Scheib III, who resigned in February.

Iran smuggling roadside bombs into Iraq

An NBC News story reports that Iran is apparently smuggling roadside bombs into Iraq[*1] .

Intelligence officials believe the high-explosives were shipped into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary guard or the terrorist group Hezbollah, but are convinced it could not have happened without the full consent of the Iranian government.

The only way out of this whole terrorism mess may be to go forward. I don’t think going back is an option.

Morning Whip, August 4, 2005

#10: Mommy, there’s a python under our dishwasher
#9: A day in network security
#8: Bolton finds your lack of faith . . . disturbing
#7: Mozilla goes corporate
#6: Red Sox 8, Royals 5
#5: NASA finally realizes the Space Shuttle is an X-plane
#4: Beta blockers may suppress memory
#3: The gloating of the blogosphere
#2: Koreans clone dog
#1: Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet

Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet

Latest case: Greenlighting[*1] .

Greenlighting was a roughly three-day-long attempted internet hoax launched by Something Awful users on the evening of July 2, 2005, primarily as references to the greenlighter message board or as postings on said board. The hoax referred to a new sexual practice in which men and women wore green shirts with the collars turned up, and had sexual relations with whomever turned the collars down. In truth, no such sexual practice has taken place on any notable scale. The practice was invented in an attempt to imitate the success of the Toothing hoax of 2004.

Previously on “Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet:” Toothing.

Toothing is a media hoax which claimed that Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones or PDAs were being used to arrange sexual encounters.

It appears that toothing started around March 2004, in the form of a fake forum designed by Ste Curran, then Editor at Large at games magazine Edge. On April 4, 2005, the creator of the forum admitted that the whole thing was a hoax.

Toothing was described as the possibility to leverage the ability of a Bluetooth device to ‘discover’ other enabled devices within a radius of around 30 feet (10 meters). Having discovered another device, the expression toothing? would normally be sent as an initial greeting.

Amusingly, “toothing” was apparently shown on a CSI Miami[*2] episode. As if I need another reason to dislike the CSI/Law & Order TV show genre.

Speaking of reasons, story via Reason’s Hit and Run[*3]

C

The gloating of the blogosphere

Environmental Republican[*1] is entertained by the Ohio Congressional special election results:

Paul Hackett–a former Marine in Iraq–ran in the special election in Ohio for the House. Mr. Hackett appealed to the mainstream of his party by calling President Bush a “son of a *censored*” among other classy things. He stuck with this strategy until he figured out that it wouldn’t work. Once that reality hit him, he decided to use that “son of a *censored*” Bush in his final, strongly Republican-looking ad.

. . .

By my count, this makes Kos zero for sixteen when backing candidates. If I was a Democrat running in an election, the first thing I would do is call Kos and ask him to never mention my name on his site.

Via Little Green Footballs,[*2] who applies the term “Daily Kos Kiss Of Death[*3] ” to the above noted phenomenon.