News – Did Bush Mean what he Said?

North America

Everyone is analyzing Bush’s inauguration speech, many a bit disquieted by the perceived scope of it. An anonymous official says that it doesn’t mark a policy change. If not, that was a heck of a lot of hot air to be blowing. Sounded to me like Bush was planning to stick it to every dictatorship and authoritarian regime in the world. A laudable goal in general, but painfully unrealistic. Not to mention that spouting off a big order like that, then not delivering on it isn’t conducive to encouraging others to listen seriously to the words of a US president.

Johnny Carson, much beloved entertainer, has passed away.

Word has it that the Pentagon is running it’s own intelligence office in an effort to break dependence on the CIA. Not necessarily a good idea if intelligence that this office finds isn’t also routed into the main intelligence community.

The northeaster US gets hit by a serious blizzard. My area caught the edge of it, getting about three inches of snow. Areas to the north got buried, some with over a foot of the white stuff.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas says that Social Security is a problem rather than a crisis. I’d agree. I find myself in the middle of this subject.. some say there is no problem, some think the world is about to end. I think that we need to make some reasonable, common sense changes to social security and other aspects of our society to stabilize social security for the future. I’m not convinced yet(as I’ve seen little of any real numbers on Bush’s plans) that these personal accounts are a good idea. For instance, what happens if someone loses their social security monies due to their investments tanking?

Middle East

A suicide bomb goes off near Iyad Allawi’s party office, wounding ten.

Elaborate security is promised for the Iraqi elections. Alright. Hopefully It will be as effective as it is elaborate.

In a just released statement, Iraqi forces have captured Abu Omar al-Kurdi, an alleged aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and blamed for 32 car bombings. There is also a note he was captured December 15th.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas believes negotiations on a ceasefire are going well. The relative quiet for the last few days is heartening, but there remains danger and the sides are predictably reluctant to take the first step. Ahh.. wait, I find this now, which says Hamas and Islamic Jihad have agreed to a ceasefire. Abbas is now seeking Israel’s addition of itself to the ceasefire.

German police arrest two men in Germany who are suspected of planning attacks in Iraq.

The US is investigating allegations that $300 million in Iraqi funds were withdraw from Iraq’s central bank and flown to Lebanon on a chartered jet. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shaalan and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi are the ones trading charges over this. Chalabi accused Shaalan of sending the cash abroad without cabinet authorization, and Shaalan threatened Chalabi with extradition to Jordan.

The US military is planning to deploy eighteen armed robots in Iraq. They amount to modified bomb disposal bots. Their downsides are a very slow speed(4 mph) and limited range of about four hours. All I’ve gotta say is that’s pretty cheap and doesn’t seem very useful to me.

Does the publishing of Osama’s writings violate his copyright? Explainer takes on this interesting and amusing question.

Asia

The area gets rocked by an earthquake, killing at least one person. Not the most heartening event to happen for them.

Eight people, believed to be North Koreans, broke into a Japanese school in Beijing, seeking asylum

Europe

Theo Jansen makes immense multi-legged walking critters designed to roam the Dutch coastline, feeding on gusts of wind.

General

Security experts say that hackers are eavesdropping on phone and e-mail conversations to find the keys to seemingly impregnable networks.

Apple’s new mini mac has been put to a variety of uses, after it’s recent introduction.

A study shows that only one in six adults can tell the difference between paid ads and unbiased search results when using a search engine. I can believe those results easily.

Today’s Papers has China’s economy overtaking ours in 20-40 years, Israel snatching up property in Jerusalem, top Shiite leaders promising to keep Iraq’s new government secular and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Man fined $100 and faces 90 days in jail because he shoveled snow

Outsourcing companies are suddenly getting sensitive to the Indian accent and feel that the Filipino accent is much more favorable to US customers. A pleasant Texas accent would end all this hand wringing.

It’s a slow news day when you report on a math teacher with a “bling-bling protractor”

Britain’s latest craze has thugs slapping strangers across the face, recording it on a videophone, posting it online

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Create an ad using sex appeal to promote a product that you normally don’t think of as sexy. Difficulty: SFW

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this tarsier in unlikely places

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: A movie sequel you’d LIKE to see