Rolling Stone on “The Great Iraq Swindle”

The Rolling Stone has a long article about the vast sums of taxpayer money pouring into the coffers of sleazy US contractors in Iraq — and how that money isn’t being used to make things better for anyone but the ultra-rich in the US.

In short, some $8.8 billion of the $12 billion proved impossible to find. “Who in their right mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone?” asked Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. “But that’s exactly what our government did.”

Because contractors were paid on cost-plus arrangements, they had a powerful incentive to spend to the hilt. The undisputed master of milking the system is KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary so ubiquitous in Iraq that soldiers even encounter its customer-survey sheets in outhouses. The company has been exposed by whistle-blowers in numerous Senate hearings for everything from double-charging taxpayers for $617,000 worth of sodas to overcharging the government 600 percent for fuel shipments. When things went wrong, KBR simply scrapped expensive gear: The company dumped 50,000 pounds of nails in the desert because they were too short, and left the Army no choice but to set fire to a supply truck that had a flat tire. “They did not have the proper wrench to change the tire,” an Iraq vet named Richard Murphy told investigators, “so the decision was made to torch the truck.”

In perhaps the ultimate example of military capitalism, KBR reportedly ran convoys of empty trucks back and forth across the insurgent-laden desert, pointlessly risking the lives of soldiers and drivers so the company could charge the taxpayer for its phantom deliveries. Truckers for KBR, knowing full well that the trips were bullshit, derisively referred to their cargo as “sailboat fuel.”

Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

US court rules that free speech trumps copyright (sometimes)

A major copyright victory — the Tenth Circuit court has ruled in favor of Larry Lessig, et al, in Golan v. Gonzales, a case about the scope of fair use. The court has acknowledged that First Amendment freedoms must be considered when copyright law is made.

This is a very big victory. The government had argued in this case, and in related cases, that the only First Amendment review of a copyright act possible was if Congress changed either fair use or erased the idea/expression dichotomy. We, by contrast, have argued consistently that in addition to those two, Eldred requires First Amendment review when Congress changes the “traditional contours of copyright protection.” In Golan, the issue is a statute that removes work from the public domain. In a related case now on cert to the Supreme Court, Kahle v. Gonzales, the issue is Congress’s change from an opt-in system of copyright to an opt-out system of copyright. That too, we have argued, is a change in a “traditional contour of copyright protection.” Under the 10th Circuit’s rule, it should merit 1st Amendment review as well.

Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

Palm Cancels the Foleo

Palm CEO Ed Colligan has posted a letter to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers on the official Palm blog. In the post, he states Palm will cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration, and will undertake efforts to focus entirely on Palm’s next-generation (Linux-based too) smartphone platform. My Take: A right move for Palm, the market is not ready for this sort of device.

(Via OSNews.)

 

Iraq: weapons focus of criminal inquiry; largest fraud ring yet?

Snip from NYT article by James Glanz and Eric Schmitt:

Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.

The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials said Monday.

Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

Microsoft WGA servers down; all XP and Vista installs being marked as counterfeit

Xeni Jardin:
BB reader David McBride says,

DRM bites again: the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage servers (which every XP and Vista install phones home to) all failed sometime earlier today.

The result? Every single Windows XP and Vista installation — except possibly those with volume license keys — is being marked as counterfeit when it tries to check in. Installations which are flagged as counterfeit switch to a “reduced functionality mode” which results in features like Aero and DirectX being disabled.

So far, the only public response from Microsoft has been indirectly via their technical support forums, where a user has posted the following snippet from an email he received from MS’s technical support address:

Thank you for your response.

I’m sorry to inform you that the Windows Genuine server might be down for few days. I have escalate the issue to our Genuine team, kindly try to validate again on Tuesday 28 Aug 2007.

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Technical Support.

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

MIT Startup Raises Multicore Bar with New 64-Core CPU

“A new startup out of MIT emerged from stealth mode today to announce that they’re shipping a 64-core processor for the embedded market. The company, called Tilera, was founded by Dr. Anat Agarwal, the MIT professor behind the famous and venerable Raw project on which Tilera’s first product, the TILE64 processor, is based. Tilera’s director of marketing, Bob Dowd, told Ars that TILE64 represents a “sea change in the computing industry”, and the company’s CEO isn’t shy about pitching the chip as the “first significant new chip architectural development in a decade”. So let’s take an initial look at what was announced about TILE64 today, with further information to follow as it becomes available.”

(Via OSNews.)

 

1994 video Cheney explaining why it’s a bad idea to invade Iraq

Mark Frauenfelder:

A reader says: “Dick Cheney in a 1994 interview explaining, quite correctly, how invading Iraq would lead to a quagmire. He even uses the word quagmire.” Of course, this was before Saddam Hussein personally flew those airliners into our buildings on 9/11/2001. That changed everything. Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

What if FDR had run his war like GWB?

I got tired of right-wingers saying, “If the media had been as hard on FDR as they are on Bush, we’d have lost World War II.” So I started wondering… What if FDR had run his war like GWB?

 

Weather station mistaken for bomb

David Pescovitz:
A bomb-squad recently blew up a “suspicious looking box” mounted to a tree near the Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Roanoke, Virgina. Turned out that the “bomb” was actually an amateur weather station placed there by an employee of the Center. From the Roanoke Times:

An employee had placed a putty-like substance around the box to make it weather proof.

The investigation is concluded and no criminal charges will be filed.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

BBC: W’s grandpappy planned fascist coup of USA

Mark Frauenfelder:Kevin says:

A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by a group of right-wing American businessmen.

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

From the “Department of Duh”

The driver was “injured but conscious”, and as police attempted to extricate him from his motor, he “clutched his laptop computer and screamed the name of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs”. A fireman later told 3 News “he believed the man had a mental illness”.

No kidding.

Read

 

Wal Mart flip flops cause nasty chemical burn

Mark Frauenfelder:

Kerry bought some flip flops for $2.44 at Wal Mart. After wearing them for a while, she noticed a tingling sensation on her feet. She immediately stopped wearing the flip flops. Soon after, her skin turned red and blistery.

When she took the matter up with Wal Mart, they told her to take it up with the Chinese manufacturer.

Apparently, Wal Mart is still selling the flip flops.

Link (Thanks, Joanna!)

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

News of a Mac OS X Worm Incites Death Threats and Intrigue

A soap opera is playing out on the mailing lists of several security newsgroups this morning, complete with people hiding behind pseudonyms, people “outing” one another and rumors of death threats against the major players. At stake? A possible worm for Apple’s Mac OS X operating system.

(Via OSNews.)

 

Simple iTunes sharing with SimplifyMedia

If you’ve ever wanted to listen to your iTunes remotely, or share your library between your friends, now you can. SimplifyMedia is a plugin for iTunes (both PC and Mac) which allows limited sharing and encrypted streaming across several computers.

Adding a friend to share is just as easy as adding a buddy in IM, cool!

(Via Download Squad.)

 

Conversations with neocons on a cruise

Mark Frauenfelder:
Johann Hari of the Independent (UK) paid $1200 to take a cruise with 500 “straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republican” readers of the conservative National Review magazine. His mission: to “find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren’t listening.”

I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, ” Of course, we need to execute some of these people,” I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. “A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country,” she says. “Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that’s what you’ll get.” She squints at the sun and smiles. ” Then things’ll change.”

Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

100kph minus 100kph

 

Gold-farmers beat ad-ban by spelling URL in dead gnomes

Cory Doctorow:

World of Warcraft has banned ads for “gold farmers” who sell virtual gold and artifacts for real money. The farmers have retailiated by slaying gnomes and arranging them on the ground to spell out the URLs of their gold-farms. Check out the video of it, complete with Benny Hill music.

Link

(via Wonderland)

(Via Boing Boing.)

 

For The Ladies: PowerBook Earrings Are Totally Geeky But Totally Classy, Too

What to do with an old PowerBook when you replace it with a shiny new Santa Rosa MacBook Pro? Make jewelry out of the power buttons, of course. While these are of the dangly, girly variety, they would make a pretty killer pair of gauges, too. [Flickr via MAKE]

(Via Gizmodo.)

 

Dell Warns of Vista Ugrade Challenges

Dell has taken the unusual step - for a PC vendor of its size - of toning down its sales pitch for Microsoft’s Vista operating system and warning businesses of the migration challenges that lie ahead for them. The step is particularly unusual because one of the issues the hardware vendor is warning business about is the extra hardware they will need to buy.

(Via OSNews.)

 

What it takes to bring you Fiji water

Xeni Jardin:

Farhad Manjoo of Salon.com’s Machinist blog says,

There have been lots of stories lately about the inefficiency and environmental damages caused by bottled water, but Charles Fishman has the definitive piece in Fast Company. You’ll never want to drink Fiji again.

The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway.

Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles’ journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation–which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.

That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze (…)

Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.

(Via Boing Boing.)