To understand Iraq, we need to know more than the headlines and the sound bites. We need to hear what people there have to say and what they think is happening. Well here’s part of that puzzle. If you care at all about what’s happening in the world, you need to watch this video:
Incensed? Outraged? Well, you probably should be. A lot of what’s going on in Iraq with private contractors is still coming to the surface. I didn’t know that one of the big reasons for poor soldier retention is contractor presence in Iraq, I didn’t even know about the contractors. If you find yourself looking for more information, the rest of the documentary can be found “here”:http://iraqforsale.org/ and of course there’s the new award-winning book from Jeremy Scahill, “Blackwater”:http://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary/dp/1560259795.
Via “Truthdig”:http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070510_legal_stealing/
Category Archives: Original Duenos
Curiosity kills, and robs banks too
Just a few days ago outside the Australian city of Perth, two 16 year-old girls strangled a third girl with speaker wire, burying the body under the house. As if the facts themselves weren’t disturbing in themselves, the motive for the killing seems to be no more than curiosity. Saying that killing their victim Eliza Jane Davis, “felt right,” the two confessed killers apparently wanted to find out whether they would feel guilty. The answer? They don’t. They’ve both been sentenced to life sentences by the Australian court, more at “the BBC”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6639027.stm.
On a less violent but just as strange note, two months ago in an affluent suburb of Atlanta, two 19 year-old women (pictured above) robbed a Bank of America branch. The pair is alleged to have threatened to the teller with a note and then taken their ill-gotten gains on a shopping spree. I found this story through a “personal blog”:http://janabean.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-did-i-miss-hearing-about-this.html but would love to know if there is any more evidence of this or other “Girls Gone Wild, in a Criminal Way” stories out there. Comment if you know anything.
Save Money – Stop Junk Mail
Although most us all love getting snail mail, some can be dangerous when it comes to “ID theft”:http://duenos.net/article/156/UseProtectionAgainstIDThieves. Pre-approved credit card offers that come through the mail are one of the most deadly weapons ID thieves have against you. After a crook fills in your information (a lot easy to get than you think), they check the box that will have the card sent to another address (most likely theirs). Now they’ve got control of your credit and you don’t know it. Let’s hope at the very least you shred your unwanted offers, but a thief worth their salt can intercept it before it comes your way. A simple solution to protect yourself is visiting “optoutprescreen.com”:https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi and follow the instructions to take yourself off mailing lists. Keep in mind you can reverse it, but if you still want to apply for a credit card, simply go to “creditcards.com”:http://www.creditcards.com/ for the best and safest offerings available. Thanks to “Frank W. Abagnale”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_W._Abagnale and “his book”:http://www.amazon.com/Art-Steal-Yourself-Business-Americas/dp/0767906845/ref=sr_1_3/102-7252975-2802553?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178756189&sr=1-3 for this and other tips.
And try the following links if you’re tired of: “telemarketing”:https://www.donotcall.gov/register/Reg.aspx, “other junk mail”:https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing, and “SPAM”:http://www.spamcop.net/.
Fun with electricity
“Peter Terren”:http://tesladownunder.com/aboutme.htm from Australia clearly has no fear of electricity. Like Ben Franklin with his kite, Terren plays with homemade “Tesla coils”:http://tesladownunder.com/Tesla_coils_intro.htm and “rail guns”:http://tesladownunder.com/Rail_gun.htm like they’re, well, play-things. Also worth checking out are his experiments with far-too-powerful “can crushers”:http://tesladownunder.com/CanCrushing.htm and lots of cool “lasers”:http://tesladownunder.com/Lasers_%20HeNe_YAG.htm.
The above photo was taken by Terren of he and his son sitting in his Hyundai under a homemade 5-kilowatt Tesla Coil. The car and its jolting accessory are profiled “here”:http://spectrum.ieee.org/may07/5053
The Infamous Hangover
When you’ve had too much fun (or just enough), the consequences can be painful. Never fear the “hangover”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover is here to teach you a lesson you won’t forget, until next Friday night. This well researched “pdf”:http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-1/54-60.pdf details the causes, mechanisms, symptoms, and prevention techniques for the big H. Sorry to say, moderation and abstinence are ubiquitously documented to be the most effective. However, your night out isn’t shot yet, “hangoverreview.com”:http://www.hangoverreview.com has put together this “extensive list”:http://www.hangoverreview.com/hangover_products/ of 52 treatment products. Unfortunately these guys aren’t hiring. If you want a quick go-to guide for hangovers without too much medical jargon, this “howstuffworks.com article”:http://health.howstuffworks.com/hangover.htm is complete and professional, but still best read _before_ the booze begins. Another good prevention technique is to check out “gettingsmashed.com”:http://www.gettingsmashed.com/index.php for pictures, videos, and other forms of black mail these regretful souls wished never existed.
If you have a drinking problem, please visit “AA’s website”:http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/ for help.
Virtual dog walking
I’ve never understood video games like DDR or those interactive boxing games, but here’s one even that crowd might balk at. Apparently Tokyo arcade goers latest challenge is taking their dogs for walks. In this simulation, gamers must control walking pace and keep a sharp lookout for perilous-puppy hazards like other dogs and seductive hydrants.
Photo and story from “CityM.org”:http://citym.org/blog/archives/2006/04/dogwalking_vide_1.html.
Thousands pose nude for photo
17 to 18 thousand people turned out in Mexico City the other day to take their kit off and pose for the world’s largest nude photo shoot. The photographer, Spencer Tunick, had previously taken similar pictures in Barcelona with 7,000 people posing. The throng posed in a number of configurations including this one with the entire naked crowd saluting the Mexican flag.
More at the “Daily Mail”:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=453166&in_page_id=1811.
Killer Apps for Mac – UnRarX
http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html. Just like most of the *Killer Apps for Mac*, this is free so there's no harm in heading over to the "UnRarX website":http://unrarx.com/, downloading it and trying it. It's helped me out of quite a few jams.
Previously featured on *Killer Apps for Mac*: "Adium":http://duenos.net/article/129/killer-apps-for-mac-adium, "Sidenote":http://duenos.net/article/111/killer-apps-for-mac-sidenote, "Darwiin Remote":http://duenos.net/article/193/KillerAppsforMacDarwiinRemote, "Mac Pilot":http://duenos.net/article/174/KillerAppsforMacMacPilot, "Disk Inventory X":http://duenos.net/article/163/KillerAppsforMacDiskInventoryX, "Tangerine":http://duenos.net/article/150/KillerAppsforMacTangerine, "SizzlingKeys":http://duenos.net/article/119/killer-apps-for-mac-sizzlingkeys, "Vienna Reader":http://duenos.net/article/204/KillerAppsforMacViennaReader, "VLC Player":http://duenos.net/article/228/, "App Zapper":http://duenos.net/article/231/, and "TV Shows":http://duenos.net/article/232/.
Retro Robots Recorded
It’s a miracle how social networking can lead to such wonderful treasures as those killer robot pictures above. I followed a link trail from one of my “Last.fm”:http://last.fm neighbours and somehow ended up at “LeSophie’s Flickr stream”:http://flickr.com/photos/25168809@N00/. The highlight of the stream was this “set”:http://flickr.com/photos/25168809@N00/sets/72157600033291647/ featuring retro robot pictures taken with a digital SLR through an old Kodak Dualflex camera viewfinder. That’s why each of these super-sweet robot pictures lies within that retro-looking frame and has a grain to it.
These pictures are so cool that LeSophie ended up turning them into “greeting cards”:http://lesophie.blogspot.com/2007/03/greetings.html for friends. I’ve never wanted to be someone’s friend so much.
Albino Hedgehog
Only one in ten-thousand hedgehogs are born truly albino, with red eyes and completely white skin. Because of the rarity of it, and because it’s so darn cute in a creepy “I could steal your soul” kind of way, here it is.
This particular hedgehog is 11-weeks old from “Bank Mill Nurseries”:http://www.bankmillnurseries.co.uk and was recently “profiled”:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=452760&in_page_id=1770 in the Daily Mail.