Bob Morris @ Aug 31st 2006 13:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
An announcement from the people who brought you the award-winning publications The Electronic Intifada and Electronic Iraq.
Hopefully, we won’t have to bring you..
The site is live now, detailing the ominous news. More from PSL.
Bob Morris @ Aug 31st 2006 07:46 - Category: Climate change ;
California is taking a major first step towards reducing greenhouse emissions. This plan mandates reduction of greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2012. Sure, parts of the bill are a bit limp, but still, it does make California the first state to mandate such changes, and that’s huge.
Gov. Schwarzenegger played a deciding role here, defying his own party and the White House in doing so. He’s on a roll towards easy re-election in November too, having done everything right these past few months while the Democratic candidate, Phil Angelides, is comatose.
Bob Morris @ Aug 31st 2006 00:21 - Category: Unfiled ;
John Kerry gallops to the rescue two years too late.
(Quote from the Warner Brothers cartoon, WAV)
Bob Morris @ Aug 31st 2006 00:14 - Category: Uncategorized Tags: Venezuela;
Bob Morris @ Aug 31st 2006 00:07 - Category: Uncategorized Tags: Ubuntu;
System76 sells computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. I am deeply tired of endless Microsoft bugs, problems, patches, security holes, and the like. With the impending monstrosity called Vista arriving soon, it’s time for a change. I just ordered a quite reasonably priced System76 laptop.
Ubuntu has a thriving, enthusiastic user base. There are lots of websites with information, forums, etc on Ubuntu, which is billed as “Linux for human beings.” It has a friendly feel to it, like BBSing was in the 80’s. When’s the last time you felt that way about Windows?
Ubuntu is open source and free. It comes with loads of free software, including OpenOffice which users have told me will do most anything Microsoft Office can do. It too is free.
Amazon just released the pricing for Vista, the next generation of Windows. The upgrade for the version most people will want is $259, with minor discounts for quantity purchases. The full version is $399. Yikes. If you have an older computer, it will probably be too slow for Vista, so you’ll have to buy a new computer. A mere 512mb of RAM won’t be nearly enough either. Double yikes! Then you’ll need to get new versions of whatever anti-spyware and anti-virus programs you use, and maybe new versions of lots of other programs too. Triple yikes!
Vista has a new interface and supposedly better security, to which I say, big whoop. With Ubuntu you can choose from multiple interfaces at will, and tweak them as much as you want. The security is way better in Linux too. Like with Macs, you don’t need anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. You can also install it on older PCs and it runs just fine.
You can install Ubuntu to dual-boot on a Windows system (just don’t then install Vista because it will destroy the boot record and with it, your Ubuntu. Seriously.) and you can also run it off a CD.
My laptop will arrive in a week or so. I’ll let everyone know how it goes!
Bob Morris @ Aug 30th 2006 08:10 - Category: Anti-war ;
Ah, if you opposes their endless wars for dominance and oil, then you are somehow appeasing fascism, according to Donald Rumsfeld, whose grasp on reality appears ever more fleeting indeed.
Except, there is no definable opposition in Iraq. It’s amorphous, ever-shifting, yet clearly opposed to the US being there. Sounds mostly like folks who want the US out of their country. You would too if you lived there. The invasion of Iraq itself was based on lies, Saddam had no WMD and had nothing to do with 9/11.
But yes, the more countries the US invades, the more enemies it makes. Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Rumsfeld has presided over invading all of them, and all have been huge military and strategic blunders for the US.
He will no doubt go down as the most incompetent Secretary of Defense in history. Over 60% of the US public now oppose the war in Iraq, is he actually saying they are fascist-appeasers? Apparently. He lives on a different planet, or maybe is so delusional he’s finally comes to believe his own lies.
Then there’s his ever-more repressive actions, the shredding of constitutional rights at home, imprisoning people without trials and shipping them to other countries to be tortured, spying on citizens for no reason, and a host of other ugly, freedom-hating practices. While not a fascist, he sure seems like a wanna-be to me.
Bob Morris @ Aug 30th 2006 00:21 - Category: Anti-war ;
Why is netroots so obsessed with Lieberman? Kos, AmericaBlog, Firedoglake, C&L, etc. are posting way too much - now hold on for their crucial insights - about how Lieberman is a dweeb, turncoat, and DINO. Well duh, we already know this. Netroots needs a new riff, as they’ve long since pounded this one into the ground.
Maybe they could ask themselves, since they claim to oppose the Iraq war, why they’ve been almost universally silent about the Lebanon invasion? Too timid to challenge the Zionists? Hey, it’s all part of the same war, and with the neocons continuing to make noises about invading Iran, this needs to be stopped before it happens, not after. Ignoring the Lebanon invasion, like netroots is mostly doing, is counter-productive at best and craven at worst. Or do they only oppose those invasions that the US is currently losing, as this makes Republicans look bad and thus (supposedly) helps Democrats?
Bob Morris @ Aug 30th 2006 00:14 - Category: Unfiled ;
Protests grow against Coca-Cola and Pepsi in India
Soda giants exploiting, poisoning people
India’s people are taking issue with extremely high pesticide levels in Coke and Pepsi products; bottling plants that deplete groundwater, severely impacting the local communities; and sheer corporate arrogance on a level that recalls the days of British colonial rule.
Bob Morris @ Aug 30th 2006 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ Aug 29th 2006 08:33 - Category: Unfiled ;
From a National Hurricane Center discussion on aircraft monitoring Ernesto
“Special thanks to the government of Cuba for permitting the recon aircraft fly right up to their coastline to gather this critical weather data.”
Bob Morris @ Aug 29th 2006 00:25 - Category: Unfiled ;
Tom Lantos, the highest ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, wants aid to Lebanon frozen until the government of Lebanon does the bidding of the US. In condescending language, he said the aid should be “withheld until the Lebanese government displays responsibility.”
His action, which happened after he met with Israeli PM Olmert, was quickly endorsed by the Zionist Organization of America (”founded 1897″) so I’m guessing he doesn’t have the interests of starving Lebanese civilians who need medical supplies uppermost in his mind. Let ‘em starve and bleed to death, “they’re animals anyway”, right, Tom?
Bob Morris @ Aug 29th 2006 00:11 - Category: Unfiled ;
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have seized the streets and radio stations in Oaxaca in a protest that has now lasted for three months. The US State Department is advising Americans to think twice about going there.
And now paramilitary death squads are in Oaxaca, going after the protestors.
[tags]Oaxaca[/tags]
Bob Morris @ Aug 29th 2006 00:06 - Category: Unfiled ;
FoxMarks is an amazing FireFox add-on that keeps bookmarks in sync across multiple computers.
It’s free and simple to install. After you sync the first time it keeps bookmarks in sync on as many computers as you want, even if they run different operating systems, and you can sync manually too.
Bob Morris @ Aug 28th 2006 07:55 - Category: Unfiled ;
I recently got my Sony TX690 back from the repair place, I asked them to wipe the HD to rid me of the plague that is Vista.
– Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress
When influential early adopters react this way about Vista, the coming new version of Windows, then something is seriously and obviously wrong with it. I don’t know anyone who plans to upgrade all their computers to Vista, the general thought being, wait at least a year.
Bob Morris @ Aug 28th 2006 00:28 - Category: Unfiled ;
From The Telegraph (UK)
“We now have a situation where America is so unpopular overseas that even in countries like Egypt and Jordan our approval ratings are less than five per cent. It’s a shameful and pitiful state of affairs and I hold your British Prime Minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient.”
Bob Morris @ Aug 28th 2006 00:21 - Category: Climate change ;
Beetles are killing million of trees in the Rockies. Climate change is certainly a major cause. Temperatures are higher and droughts are worse, conditions that favor an explosion of the beetle population. Another cause is the large number of big trees, beetles like to munch on them. The lack of logging and increased fire prevention has led to the growth of dense forests.
The same conditions occur in the mountains in and around Los Angeles. Fires are never allowed to burn. Thus the vegetation and trees get more and more dense, which leads to even greater fuel and fires the next time - as well as more trees for beetles to munch on. Often the priciest housing developments are in precisely those areas too, abutting on a national or state park with lots of highly combustible vegetation close by. Were a fire to get out of control, it would be catastrophic. Forests are never allowed to burn, thus disrupting their natural cycle.
Controlled logging might help in the high mountains, but won’t in areas like the Santa Monica Mountains where there are few trees and instead lots of tinder-dry bushes and undergrowth. Except it’s not really undergrowth, as it can be several feet high.
Add climate climate to a policy (quite understandable) of never letting the fires burn, and you almost guarantee fire disasters and unwanted environmental changes.
Bob Morris @ Aug 28th 2006 00:14 - Category: Unfiled ;
As the US heads into the Labor Day weekend next weekend, things are slowing down. There’s not much happening. People are away on vacation or just zoning out. Come Sept.5, the pace will pick up again, and the madness of the midterm elections will soon be upon us. So let’s enjoy the peace while we can. For in just a few weeks it’ll be screaming politicians 24/7.
For those of you in Ernesto’s path who can not enjoy the peace, let’s hope the storm is a dud.
Bob Morris @ Aug 28th 2006 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
The MyWay.com news feed presents lots of news in a logical, easy to navigate manner. You can create your own news page with customized news, and get a free email address too.
Other powerful news feed aggregators include Topix and Memorandum.
Bob Morris @ Aug 27th 2006 10:19 - Category: Podcasts Tags: Lebanon;
Two informative podcasts from 8/25/06.
ANSWER LA Forum: People’s Victory in Lebanon
Imperialism and the “New Middle East”
Nader Abuljebain, Palestinian author and historian, National Council of Arab Americans.
History and political development of Lebanon.
mp3 (40:36, 13.4mb)
Muna Coobtee, Free Palestine Alliance, Steering Committee ANSWER LA.
Current developments in Lebanon.
mp3 (27:31, 8.91 mb)
[tags]Lebanon,Nader Abuljebain,Muna Coobtee[/tags]
Bob Morris @ Aug 27th 2006 00:18 - Category: Unfiled ;
A major scandal involving stock options has come to light in recent weeks that is causing great nervousness in corporate boardrooms and executive suites. The careers of many CEOs and other corporate chiefs are in potential jeopardy. A few may even go to jail.
In an Aug. 15 article, The Independent summed up the scandal this way: “In what amounts to systematic corruption, dozens of American companies stand accused of manipulating share options to inflate executive pay artificially, and then lying to shareholders about it.”
My wife Sue, a CPA and forensic accountant, gives an example. A conpany’s stock is $100 a share today. The company issues backdated options for an insider to buy 100,000 shares. The option price is based on a previous date when the stock price was $50 and is higher than that price. Bingo, an instant $50 a share profit times 100,000 or $5,000,000. “This is all sorts of felonies,” says Sue, both for the company and the insider, including income tax evasion.
The company issues the backdated options and makes the exercise price higher than the stock price (the stock was $50, the exercise price, $60). This cuts down the amount of taxes payable by the employee. Plus, the company can then avoid recognizing any compensation expense. Thus, they can report phony profits which keeps the stock price artifically high - as well as heaping on even more felonies.
Execs caught in this web of apparent greed and corruption could include Steve Jobs of Apple, and many others as well. Jobs got options to purchase 10 million shares at the stock’s low price of 7.44 in Jan. 2001. Do the math. If he made $10 a share, that’s 100 million. Like, he needed the money? He co-founded Apple, and as of March 6 owned 5,426,451 shares. The current price is $68.75. Thus, just for stock he currently owns, he’s worth 373 million (that’s not counting any options he has exercised.)
We have a lunatic economic system based on greed, and exploitation. All those millions plundered by executives at a multitude of companies using phony stock options was money made for them by the workers, who of course never saw a dime of it. Apple is now delinquent in their regulatory filings and could be delisted. Expect a “re-statement” of Apple profits for the years involved.
PS Al Gore is a member of the Apple board, serves on the compensation committee as well, and could get caught up in this too.
Update and clarification from Sue.
Here’s how it works: as long as stock options are issued at a strike price higher on the date of issuance than the actual market price, there is no compensation to the employee — because the employee has received nothing of value — and no compensation expense to the company — because the company has given nothing of value. The theory is that the employee will work hard for the company, the stock price will rise, and at some point be higher than the strike price of the option. At some point the employee will exercise the option, buying the shares from the company at the strike price. If the employee then sells the shares, the gain is a short- or long-term capital gain, depending on how long the shares are held. The tax rate is the lower capital gains tax rate, not the higher ordinary income rate. The benefit to the company is “incentivizing” the employee to work harder and stay employed at the company, without incurring more expense and lower the profits, hence the stock price.But the company and the employee decide to cheat. They backdate the share agreement to a date three years ago and pick a strike price higher than the then market price, but much lower than today’s market price. If done legally, the employee would recognize ordinary income and the company compensation expense.
Bob Morris @ Aug 27th 2006 00:09 - Category: Unfiled ;
Ubuntu is a version of Linux with about two million installations now. It’s billed as “Linux for human beings” and is meant to be easy to install and use. It’s free, and there’s lots of software available for it.
I’ll be trying it out sometime in the next few weeks, possibly on a System 76 laptop, as it’s made for Ubuntu and comes with it pre-installed.
I’m tired of the endless security holes, fixes, and flaws in Windows. It’s time to explore alternatives. Macs are a definite choice, however an Ubuntu laptop is considerably less expensive and I like bashing away at the command line, something you do a lot in Linux. (Yes, Macs run on a variant of Linux, but probably most Macs users don’t get up close and personal with the command line.)
Will keep everyone posted on what happens.
[tags]Ubuntu[/tags]
Bob Morris @ Aug 26th 2006 09:12 - Category: Unfiled ;
RC1 is probably the final beta version of Internet Explorer 7.0, which Microsoft plans to roll out everywhere by the end of the year.
While you wouldn’t want to install it on a mission-critical computer where IE is your main browser, it’s certainly stable enough to install elsewhere and play with. Lots of people have been using earlier versions for months now.
New features include anti-phishing, tabbed browsing, support for rss, and an instant search that defaults to Google and allows multiple search engines. It appears they’ve studied FireFox carefully indeed, as most of this has been in FireFox for quite a while.
The interface is cleaner, better organized, however there’s nothing new or startling here, nothing that will cause people to leave FireFox. I’m sort of underwhelmed actually. Basically, IE7 is nice but unspectacular.
Download IE 7 RC1. Note: It checks to see if your copy of Windows is legal and won’t download or install if you’ve been naughty.
Bob Morris @ Aug 26th 2006 08:45 - Category: Uncategorized Tags: Iran;
The UN is backing away from such measures so the neocons naturally want to ignore the UN (again). Russia opposes sanctions which would be dumb for two reasons, 1) Iran will retaliate by cutting off oil exports and 2) large amounts of trade could still flow in via the Caspian Sea and surrounding countries. But then, the neocons always have been long on bluster and short on brains.
Maybe the neocons want to insure their place in history
Nuremberg prosecutor: Bush and Saddam should both stand trial for war crimes
Condi, Rumsfeld, and Cheney too.
Bob Morris @ Aug 26th 2006 06:30 - Category: Uncategorized Tags: LAPD brutality;
This just-uploaded version is on Google video. They allow uploading larger files than YouTube (where the other versions are) thus this version is way larger and better quality than previous ones.
From the counter-protest called by ANSWERLA.org to protest a Minutemen march in Hollywood on July 8, 2006. LAPD officers clubbed two videographers to the pavement then kept clubbing them.
Watch the video on Google Video.
The three versions on YouTube have now been viewed over 16,000 times.
Bob Morris @ Aug 26th 2006 00:18 - Category: Water ;
The United Church of Canada is urging members to avoid bottled water, saying it is the “thin edge” of water privatization, part of a larger trend of huge companies controlling water resources to the detriment of everyone else. Plus, they add, municipal water is often healthier because impurities leach from the plastic bottles into the water and the bottles themselves are just more plastic clutter that ends up in garbage dumps.
Subscribe
