19 killed as Gaza clashes rage

Gaza City - Another four Palestinians died on Saturday in clashes between rival factions in Gaza, bringing to 19 the death toll in three days of bitter fighting that has torpedoed talks on forming a unity government.

Rival supporters of the ruling Hamas movement and the Fatah faction loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have fought running gun battles and fired off volleys of mortars and grenades in the densely populated streets of Gaza City since Thursday night, medics and witnesses said.

The fiercest fighting since the Islamist Hamas won parliamentary elections one year ago has also left around 50 people injured, according to medical officials.

Amid the mounting casualties, the ruling Islamists suspended long-running talks with Fatah on Friday night on forming a national unity government acceptable to Western donors.

Hamas accused the president's party of provoking the latest fighting.

Saturday's flare-up saw Mahmoud Khalil Khatib, 17, who appears to have been an innocent bystander, Ibrahim Al-Kahlut, 25, and Mohammad Khattab, 33, both officers in the national security force, killed in early morning firefights in central Gaza City, medical sources said.

Hamas had earlier launched rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force and lobbed mortars at the home of Rashid Abu Shabak, the Gaza security chief loyal to Abbas.

Grenades late on Friday hit the home of Palestinian foreign minister Mahmud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader.

The streets of Gaza City were deserted on Saturday as storekeepers shuttered up their shops and residents stayed in the relative safety of their homes.

The quiet was punctuated by occasional bursts of machine gun fire.

Among the victims were a two-year-old child who was caught in the crossfire of a firefight in the south Gaza town of Khan Yunis and a 16-year-old boy killed in Jabaliya, according to medics.

Windows Vista: Is It Time For An Upgrade Or Not?

5 days. That is all that is left of the five years that have passed since Windows XP was launched and since Microsoft announced that it would start work on Windows Vista (still named Longhorn at the time).

Actually, six years, because the OS we all know as Windows Vista was talked about for the first time in 2001. All this is history though and come Jan. 30, Windows Vista will set out on its quest to conquer customers. Is Windows Vista capable though of becoming Windows XP’s rightful successor?

From one point of view, Microsoft resembles Metallica (I hope fans of neither entity are bothered by the comparison). Both Microsoft and Metallica have been at the center of impassioned controversies and still are. Both Microsoft and Metallica are capable of being brilliant, even on a bad day. But neither Microsoft nor Metallica are able to generate the same enthusiasm they did seven years ago. They have reached a level where even if they function by way of habit they still produce hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, neither Microsoft nor Metallica can surprise anybody any longer.

At a first look, Windows Vista is superior to Windows XP from all points of view. Vista customers can actually expect several thousand new functions, Microsoft claims. Most of them are hidden underneath the hood, so to speak. One eye-catching element is the new graphical interface, dubbed Aero. It is remarkable first for its semi- transparent windows. Open several windows at once, and you can still see which other folders and documents are open beneath them. This is not exactly trailblazing in the world of operating systems, though. Transparent windows are also available in Apple's Mac OS X and with various Linux versions.

Microsoft went one step further, however, with its Flip 3D function. This positions all opened windows one behind another, slightly offset. Switching between the individual windows is somewhat easier than with XP, because the windows can be paged through using the scroll wheel, for example.

The desktop search is certain to be a major convenience. It finds objects not just based on folder or file names, but based on the contents of a document itself. Typing "Lara" into the search filter, for example, will pull up all e-mail messages and Word documents containing the word "Lara." The searching is launched as soon as the first letter is typed in.

The Windows Photo Gallery may bring joy to anyone with a large collection of digital photos on the computer. The software imports photos from a camera or scanner onto the PC, and also offers simple photo editing tools.

The Sidebar is intended to provide a quick overview. It is a collection of little programs that - presuming an internet connection is available - retrieve specific information in real time. That can be weather reports, stock quotes or sports scores, for example. These programs, known as widgets, are available for free download from Microsoft. But, according to Microsoft, the most important aspect of Windows Vista is one that is not perceived at first glance: the security has been greatly improved. Which remains to be seen and tested, but until then, we’ll take their word for it.

Vista comes with Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11 and the anti spyware software Windows Defender.

And we’re still a long way off from finishing the list, but which of the facilities mentioned above makes you jump for joy and run into the first store so that you can order Windows Vista?

How many things can you do only with or because Windows Vista and you can’t do with Windows XP and its third party applications? Not too many, at least in my opinion.

Two years ago, Windows Vista would have been a revolution. Now, it’s more of a hyperbolic finale to a prolonged agony.

Indisputably, Windows Vista will have its fans, who can’t wait to have the OS and install it on their PCs, indifferent to the fact that they need 2 GB of RAM and 256 MB RAM video.

In the end, Windows runs on 90 per cent of the world’s PCs, so Windows Vista’s destiny cannot be disastrous. Is this enough for Microsoft though? Not at all! In acerbic competition with Google and Apple, Microsoft needs Windows Vista to be “a bigger bang” and not just another Windows XP with another look. Those using Windows will certainly, within a couple of years, migrate slowly and irrevocably towards Windows Vista, because XP will become old-fashioned and Microsoft will not be willing to keep it alive forever.

Microsoft played it right this time with Windows Vista, even if it’s late by five years. The difference, considerable, between what Windows Vista promised to be and it actually is, puts extraordinary pressure on Microsoft’s following release, Windows Vienna, which has to be truly outstanding.

Windows Vienna, or whatever Microsoft eventually decides to name it, will have to be everything Vista is not at the moment, an OS that redefines the way in which we interact with our PC. Will Microsoft manage to do that?

Kidnap suspect's lawyers criticize jail

ST. LOUIS — Attorneys for kidnapping suspect Michael Devlin criticized jail security, saying a New York Post correspondent obtained a jailhouse interview with him by identifying herself as one of his friends.

The newspaper obtained the first interview with the 41-year-old pizzeria manager accused of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. Shawn, now 15, was held captive for more than four years. Ben, 13, was missing four days when both boys were found Jan. 12 at Devlin's apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood.

Devlin's attorneys, Michael Kielty and Ethan Corlija, criticized jail security after the Post published a story Sunday in which Devlin talked about being lonely but said life was good for him over the past four years.

"There was a standing order that no media was allowed in to see my client," Kielty said.

But Franklin County, Mo., Sheriff Gary Toelke released a statement late Sunday saying that security at the jail in Union was not breached. He said an inmate can accept or decline media requests, and in this case, Devlin accepted.

Kielty and Corlija said they planned to ask a judge Monday to move Devlin to a more secure facility, perhaps in St. Louis County, where he lives, or in nearby St. Charles County.

The reporter, Susannah Cahalan, told jail officials that she was a friend of Devlin's when she went for a visit around 11 a.m. Friday, Toelke said. She filled out the visiting request form and wrote "friend" in the relationship section, he said.

Still, Devlin agreed to the visit. Toelke said jail authorities don't know whether Cahalan told Devlin she was a reporter.

"It would actually not make any difference to us who she was as long as Devlin granted the interview," Toelke said.

The sheriff said that after that interview, Devlin signed a statement saying he did not want to conduct media interviews, though he already had a second meeting set up with Cahalan for Saturday. After the two met again Saturday, Devlin's attorneys issued a list of visitors allowed to see Devlin. That list excludes the media.

Kielty also said the reporter told Devlin she was writing for a university publication, not the Post.

After speaking with Post editor Col Allan, spokesman Howard Rubenstein said, "The response of the New York Post is that they stand by their published report."

Rubenstein said later, "They're not going to make any further comments."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Cahalan attends Washington University in St. Louis and used to work for the school paper. E-mail and phone messages left by the AP for a Susannah Cahalan listed as a Washington University student were not returned.

In the Post article, Devlin said his parents had not visited with him since his arrest.

"I don't know how I'm going to explain myself to my parents," Devlin said in his only public comments except for a brief court appearance on Thursday where he pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping Ben. He faces a separate kidnapping charge in the Shawn Hornbeck case.

"It's much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents," he said.

Devlin, who refused to talk to the reporter about allegations against him, is accused of taking Ben just after the boy got off a school bus Jan. 8 in Beaufort, Mo., about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis. A schoolmate's tip about a white pickup led authorities to Devlin's apartment, where they found Ben and Shawn, who had been missing since 2002 after being kidnapped while riding his bike in Richwoods, Mo.

"I guess I was relatively happy" during those four years, Devlin said.

Devlin said he "was never really interested in" romantic relationships but wouldn't say whether he was attracted to women.

"I can't talk about that because it has to do with the case," he said.

The Post said Devlin appeared downcast and red-eyed during the first interview Friday, but was smiling and more upbeat during an interview Saturday.

"I feel nothing," he said in the first interview. "I hide my emotions from other people. I hide the way I feel."

Around 2002, he started losing contact with close friends, most of whom he knew from Imo's, the pizza parlor he managed in Kirkwood.

"I guess you could say I was lonely. All my friends starting getting married and having kids," he said. "Hanging out with friends just becomes a lower priority (for them)."

Obama Smeared As Former ‘Madrassa’ Student, Possible Covert Muslim Extremist

This morning, Fox News featured a segment highlighting a right-wing report that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) attended an Islamic “madrassa” school as a 6-year-old child.

Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy pointed out that madrassas are “financed by Saudis” and “teach this Wahhabism which pretty much hates us,” then declared, “The big question is: was that on the curriculum back then?” Later, a caller to the show questioned whether Obama’s schooling means that “maybe he doesn’t consider terrorists the enemy.” Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade responded, “Well, we’ll see about that.”

The Fox hosts failed to correct the false claim that Obama is Muslim. One caller, referring to Obama, said, “I think a Muslim would be fine in the presidency, better than Hillary. At least you know what the Muslims are up to.” Anchor Gretchen Carlson responded, “We want to be clear, too, that this isn’t all Muslims, of course, we would only be concerned about the kind that want to blow us up.” Obama is Christian, a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ since 1988. Watch it:

As a child, Obama spent four years in Indonesia with his step-father, a non-practicing Muslim, and his mother. Between ages 6 and 8, Obama attended a local Muslim school in Jakarta; after that, he was enrolled in a Roman Catholic school. In his book Dreams Of My Father (p.142), Obama writes:

In Indonesia, I’d spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I’d pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended.

In his more recent book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes (p.274), “Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks.”

Think tank reports signs of possible increase in Indo-Pakistani nuclear arms race

Both India and Pakistan may be close to launching new projects that could increase the nuclear arms race in the volatile region, an influential think tank says.International Herald Tribune (AP) - VIENNA, Austria: In twin reports e-mailed to The Associated Press late Thursday, the Institute for Science and International Security noted that India appears close to more than doubling its centrifuge capacity to between 5,000-6,000 machines that produce enriched uranium. And it said satellite imagery shows that Pakistan may intend to start a new reprocessing facility "capable of separating weapons-grade plutonium out of spent reactor fuel."

No immediate Indian or Pakistani comment was available, but diplomats based in Vienna from the two countries promised to respond later in the day.

Both countries posses nuclear weapons but remain outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty. In India's case, refusal to sign that treaty has prompted criticism within the United States and abroad of Washington's decision to let America share its nuclear know-how and fuel with New Delhi.

They have fought three wars — two over the disputed territory of Kashmir — after gaining independence from Britain in 1947. However, relations between them have improved and they have held three rounds of talks since 2005, when their leaders agreed to resolve all outstanding disputes through talks.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations.

Bush won't reauthorize eavesdropping

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has decided not to renew a program of domestic spying on terrorism suspects, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Wednesday, ending an law-enforcement tactic criticized for infringing on civil liberties.

"The president has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires," Gonzales wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.

Bush has reauthorized the program every 45 days, and the current authorization is mid-cycle, a senior Justice Department official said. Gonzales said a recent secret-court approval allowed the government to act effectively without the program.

The program, adopted after the September 11 attacks, allowed the government to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without a warrant, if those wiretaps were made to track suspected al Qaeda operatives.

Critics have said the program violated the U.S. Constitution and a 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which made it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without the approval of the special surveillance court.

"Any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said a judge on the secret FISA court recently approved a government proposal allowing it to target communications into and out of the United States when probable cause exists that one person is a member of al Qaeda or an associated terrorist organization.

Saddam Hussein's top aides hanged

Two of Saddam Hussein's key aides have been hanged in Baghdad, two weeks after the chaotic execution of the former Iraqi president.

There were "no violations" this time, officials said, but Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, was decapitated as he was hanged.

He and Awad Hamad al-Bandar, a top judge under Saddam, were convicted over the killing of 148 Shias in the 1980s.

The country's president Jalal Talabani had urged their executions be delayed.

Government officials said the decapitation of Barzan was not abnormal, although it was rare for the head to be severed during hanging. One described it as "an act of God".

One of those present, public prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, told the BBC that when the trap door opened, he could only see the rope dangling.

JUDICIAL HANGING Execution intended to break the neck, not strangle 'Long drop' method developed in late 19th century Length of rope calculated using prisoner's weight Drop is usually 4ft-10ft (1.3m-3m) Too long a drop leads to decapitation

"I thought the convict Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti had escaped the noose. I shouted that he's escaped the noose, go down and look for him. I went down a few steps ahead of the others to see: I found out that his head had separated from his body."

The executions took place at 0300 (0000 GMT), apparently in the same building where Saddam Hussein was put to death on 30 December after being convicted of the same crime.

The manner of his execution has sparked controversy around the world, after unofficial mobile phone footage was released showing him being taunted and insulted in his final moments.

Iraq's Shia-dominated government pledged a full investigation. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said this time everyone present at the facility had signed a document pledging appropriate behaviour.

Correspondents say the gruesome detail about Barzan's decapitation was probably made public in order to avoid it being leaked later with accompanying allegations of mistreatment.

A member of their defence team, Issam al-Ghazzawi, told the Reuters news agency he was outraged by the execution.

"When a man is hanged, he does not lose his head," he said. "The way Barzan was executed is shameful."

The bodies of the men are to be handed over to their families within the next few days.

'Key target

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was the former Iraqi leader's half-brother and served as the head of his feared secret police, the Mukhabarat.

He was a senior figure in the Iraqi government at the time of the US-led invasion of 2003 and was a key target for capture.

During his captivity, it emerged he had cancer and a number of calls were made for his release for treatment on humanitarian grounds.

Awad Hamad al-Bandar was chief justice of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court. According to his indictment, he conducted show trials which often led to summary death sentences.

The court he headed issued death sentences against residents of the town of Dujail in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on 8 July 1982.

His lawyers argued that he had simply been following the letter of Iraqi law, as it was written at the time, and also denied that he had ordered the execution of juveniles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Alpha males forsake the trophy wife

THE allure of the trophy wife may be fading. Academics say they have found the first evidence that successful British males increasingly prefer a spouse with a high-powered job to one who stays at home with the children.

They reached their conclusion after comparing men’s incomes with the number of hours women worked. In the 1980s, the higher a man’s salary, the lower the average number of hours worked by his wife.

Now the situation has reversed. A professional man’s salary is 5.5% higher for every 1,000 hours a year worked by his wife, according to the study.

Experts welcomed the findings as evidence that male acceptance of female success is becoming widespread. But others said the burgeoning numbers of “power couples” may represent a new elite opening up a gap with the rest of the population.

“This is the first strong evidence of a turnaround in the link between wives’ hours and husbands’ earnings for any country,” said Paul Carlin, the economics professor who led the study, to be published in the journal Labour Economics. “But there is one potential downside. It could contribute to the widening income distribution gap in Britain because you are doubling up on the earning power.”

The findings suggest couples such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones or the Labour husband-and-wife ministers Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, in which the wife has a successful career in her own right, are now typical of professional classes.

The stay-at-home wife may become an endangered species, although a court case last year showed she can still fight back.

Melissa Miller won £5m from her former husband Alan, a top fund manager, in the Lords hearing. His barrister contrasted the “wife who works hard looking after the children” with Melissa, the “Harvey Nichols wife”, at which point Lady Justice Hale cut in and asked: “Which does the husband more value, the trophy wife or the workaday wife? The trophy wife, of course.”

The new findings were backed by David Rosenblatt, 44, from Liverpool, head of Genie-Tech International, a beauty treatment maker. He said being able to discuss business was an important part of his marriage to Carole, also 44, who runs the city’s OC Spa. “If you want to be successful nowadays, it is important to be in a working partnership,” said Rosenblatt.

Dan Church, 32, from Surrey, co-founder of the City headhunt-ers Hydrogen Group, said his wife Olivia Stockdale’s “drive and ambition” were what attracted him. Stockdale runs Iberian International, a property consultancy. “Some men might find it a threat, but men in general don’t expect women to give up careers any more,” said Church.

Carlin, an economics professor at Purdue University in Indi-ana, carried out his research using national data on age, earnings, education, type of job and other factors to analyse how “matching” of couples had changed over two decades.

For the early 1980s, Carlin and two academics from Swan-sea University found evidence of “assortative mating” — men marrying women with similar features such as height, education and sense of humour.

Earnings were the one area where this consistently failed to hold true. The factors blamed include the need to take time off for childbearing, discrimination at work and the convention in which a successful man’s wife often gave up her career to “sup-port” her husband. This “wage penalty” is what has changed.

The pay gap between the sexes fell from 45% in 1970 to 25% in 2002. Employment rate for married mothers was about 50% in the early 1980s but is now nearer 70%.

Anastasia de Waal, of the think tank Civitas, said Carlin’s findings were encouraging, but warned: “Concentration of high power and long hours within the same couples will concern those worried about parenting time or widening income inequality.”

How NSA access was built into Windows

Careless mistake reveals subversion of Windows by NSA.

A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.

The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.

Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used for security and encryption functions. The driver, called ADVAPI.DLL, enables and controls a range of security functions. If you use Windows, you will find it in the C:\Windows\system directory of your computer.

ADVAPI.DLL works closely with Microsoft Internet Explorer, but will only run crypographic functions that the US governments allows Microsoft to export. That information is bad enough news, from a European point of view. Now, it turns out that ADVAPI will run special programmes inserted and controlled by NSA. As yet, no-one knows what these programmes are, or what they do.

Dr Nicko van Someren reported at last year's Crypto 98 conference that he had disassembled the ADVADPI driver. He found it contained two different keys. One was used by Microsoft to control the cryptographic functions enabled in Windows, in compliance with US export regulations. But the reason for building in a second key, or who owned it, remained a mystery.

A second key

Two weeks ago, a US security company came up with conclusive evidence that the second key belongs to NSA. Like Dr van Someren, Andrew Fernandez, chief scientist with Cryptonym of Morrisville, North Carolina, had been probing the presence and significance of the two keys. Then he checked the latest Service Pack release for Windows NT4, Service Pack 5. He found that Microsoft's developers had failed to remove or "strip" the debugging symbols used to test this software before they released it. Inside the code were the labels for the two keys. One was called "KEY". The other was called "NSAKEY".

Fernandes reported his re-discovery of the two CAPI keys, and their secret meaning, to "Advances in Cryptology, Crypto'99" conference held in Santa Barbara. According to those present at the conference, Windows developers attending the conference did not deny that the "NSA" key was built into their software. But they refused to talk about what the key did, or why it had been put there without users' knowledge.

A third key?!

But according to two witnesses attending the conference, even Microsoft's top crypto programmers were astonished to learn that the version of ADVAPI.DLL shipping with Windows 2000 contains not two, but three keys. Brian LaMachia, head of CAPI development at Microsoft was "stunned" to learn of these discoveries, by outsiders. The latest discovery by Dr van Someren is based on advanced search methods which test and report on the "entropy" of programming code.

Within the Microsoft organisation, access to Windows source code is said to be highly compartmentalized, making it easy for modifications to be inserted without the knowledge of even the respective product managers.

Researchers are divided about whether the NSA key could be intended to let US government users of Windows run classified cryptosystems on their machines or whether it is intended to open up anyone's and everyone's Windows computer to intelligence gathering techniques deployed by NSA's burgeoning corps of "information warriors".

According to Fernandez of Cryptonym, the result of having the secret key inside your Windows operating system "is that it is tremendously easier for the NSA to load unauthorized security services on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security services are loaded, they can effectively compromise your entire operating system". The NSA key is contained inside all versions of Windows from Windows 95 OSR2 onwards.

"For non-American IT managers relying on Windows NT to operate highly secure data centres, this find is worrying", he added. "The US government is currently making it as difficult as possible for "strong" crypto to be used outside of the US. That they have also installed a cryptographic back-door in the world's most abundant operating system should send a strong message to foreign IT managers".

"How is an IT manager to feel when they learn that in every copy of Windows sold, Microsoft has a 'back door' for NSA - making it orders of magnitude easier for the US government to access your computer?" he asked.

Can the loophole be turned round against the snoopers?

Dr van Someren feels that the primary purpose of the NSA key inside Windows may be for legitimate US government use. But he says that there cannot be a legitimate explanation for the third key in Windows 2000 CAPI. "It looks more fishy", he said.

Fernandez believes that NSA's built-in loophole can be turned round against the snoopers. The NSA key inside CAPI can be replaced by your own key, and used to sign cryptographic security modules from overseas or unauthorised third parties, unapproved by Microsoft or the NSA. This is exactly what the US government has been trying to prevent. A demonstration "how to do it" program that replaces the NSA key can be found on Cryptonym's website.

According to one leading US cryptographer, the IT world should be thankful that the subversion of Windows by NSA has come to light before the arrival of CPUs that handles encrypted instruction sets. These would make the type of discoveries made this month impossible. "Had the next-generation CPU's with encrypted instruction sets already been deployed, we would have never found out about NSAKEY."

Advice if your checks ever get stolen: don't tell your bank

I just had one of the most frustrating phone conversations with Wells Fargo I have had in a long time.

It's not the first time, and over the past months, Wells Fargo has managed to irritate me on so many little details that I was slowly beginning to consider closing my account with them. The only thing that held me back is the annoyance that comes with such a decision, since I already have quite a few automatic deposits and withdrawals on my checking account. I'm not afraid of transferring them to a new account, but I am concerned that I might forget to transfer one, which could result in defaulting on certain payments and some bad consequences for my credit history. So I tolerated their lame online banking site, tiresome phone support and the various fees that they slap me with for no reason now and then.

Not any more.

It started innocently: I ordered new checks two weeks ago, and a few days later, I noticed a box in my mailbox as I was heading out in the morning. I made a mental note that my checks had arrived and left, but when I came back at night, the box was no longer there. I looked in the various places that I might have put it, but it didn't turn up, so at this point, I decided that the safest course of action would be to call Wells Fargo, cancel these checks and order new ones. And of course, to monitor my account for any unexpected activity until the checks get canceled.

After dialing their number, punching in my account information (hint: keep saying "banker" until the automated system transfers you to a real human) and then repeating this info to the representative, I explain my problem to the person.

"I can certainly help you with that. How many checks did you say there were in the box?"

"I didn't say, and to be honest, I don't know".

"But would you say more than six?"

Uh? Does it really matter? Fine, I'll humor them.

"Well, there were probably a few checkbooks in that package, as you probably already know, so yes, I'd say there were most likely more than six checks. Why?"

"Well, we can't cancel more than six checks".

"Excuse me?"

"We can't cancel more than six checks, sir".

Of course you can, I think, although I can definitely picture this guy using an application that was written on a mainframe twenty years ago. Right now, he must be staring at a monochrome monitor showing six text fields and having to justify this to a slowly but increasingly aggravated customer over the phone that this is meant for their own protection.

"Are you serious? When I ordered the checks, you asked me what numbers I wanted, so you know exactly the range of these checks, can't you just cancel the whole range?"

"No, sir".

Long silence as I'm shaking my head in disbelief and contemplating my next step.

"So what are my options?"

"Your best bet is to close your account and open a new one".

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, sir"

"Look, closing my checking account is a big deal. I have been a customer for eight years, and I won't do that unless you can give me a very good reason".

"I'm sorry, sir, that's the only option. It's for your protection".

"No, the best option for my protection and my comfort is for you to cancel the range of checks you just sent me".

"We can't do that, sir"

I take a deep breath. I'm that close to raising my voice, something that I rarely ever do, but reason takes over and I calm down.

"Fine. I'll just reorder new checks".

I figure that if the checks have indeed been stolen and someone starts issuing them, I can always dispute them on the basis that they won't have my signature. How naive of me...

"Very well, sir, but before we do that, I need to bring my supervisor in".

"Really? Why?"

"Because she needs to confirm with you that you are waiving protection against fraudulent checks, sir".

"What?!?"

"If you don't mind holding, sir, I'll call her right now".

Pause. I'm on hold again. I'm beginning to tap my fingers nervously on my desk, because these last words certainly left me with a very uncomfortable feeling. I have no intention of waiving anything, and I hope this supervisor has a good explanation for what's going on.

"Hello sir, my name is April and I'm the supervisor. Do I understand correctly that you are waiving your protection against your stolen checks?"

"Hello April, and no, I'm not waiving anything. I just called to notify you that checks might have been stolen, and it's not my problem if your system can't cancel more than six checks at a time. Why would I suddenly waive a protection against fraudulent checks that's always been in effect ever since checks were created?"

"Sir, by calling us, you admit that you know your checks are stolen, so if you refuse to close your account per our advice, you are now liable for any check issued"

"Are you saying that I would still be covered if I hadn't called you?"

I'll spare you the five minutes of circular arguments that followed this question, during which she carefully avoided the question. I'm not one to let go, though, so I kept repeating my question, and she finally admitted:

"Yes, I understand where you are coming from, sir, but that's the way it is"

"You do understand how ridiculous this sounds? You are basically telling me that next time my checks get stolen, I'll get better protection if I don't call you".

"I'm sorry, sir", she said, carefully avoiding the question again.

"Let me ask you a different question: if Wells Fargo cashes a check that doesn't bear my signature, how can I be liable for it?"

"You wouldn't, sir, but since you called us to notify us that your checks were stolen..."

I interrupt her, since I know exactly where this is headed again.

"Hold on. Are you saying that Wells Fargo doesn't check for signatures at all?"

This is a trick question, because everybody knows that banks and financial institutions never check for signatures, which makes some kind of perverted sense. Sure enough, she dodges the issue again and she comes back to blaming me for calling them in the first place. I decide to change tactics and see if this gets me anywhere.

"To be honest with you, should Wells Fargo ever clear a check that doesn't bear my signature, I would go to court to protect my rights".

"You wouldn't be suing Wells Fargo in this case, sir, but the vendor".

"What?!?"

"Wells Fargo is only an intermediary, we just move money around. The person you'd have to sue is the vendor who accepted the check, or the person who issued the fraudulent check".

I don't even know where to start with this one, but it's pretty clear to me that I'm no longer the only one in this conversation trying to protect my butt.

"I understand that you will never admit this, especially since we are most likely on record, but I just want to emphasize how ridiculous I think this conversation and the whole situation is".

"So, should we put your account on hold, sir?"

"Wait, are you saying there is a middle ground? Could I disable checks for my account for a little while and then restore them in the near future?"

"Mmmh... no, sir, if we put your account on hold, it will eventually be closed"

I can't say I didn't see this coming.

"How about this idea then, is it possible to just refuse to cash any checks on this account for a period of time without leading to the closure of this account?"

"No, sir. Are you willing to close your account and open a new one, sir?"

"At this point, I'm very much willing to close my account, but I won't be opening a new one with Wells Fargo".

I politely thanked her, hang up, fumed for a little while at my desk and promptly opened an account with Bank of America. At the moment, I'm making a list of all the actions I need to take to make sure I transfer all my accounting to the new account, and I'm hoping I won't forget any.

Good bye, Wells Fargo, I won't miss you.

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.

The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You'll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.

You'll also see that the history of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:

• Racism
• Fear
• Protection of Corporate Profits
• Yellow Journalism
• Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators
• Personal Career Advancement and Greed

These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.

Background

For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.

The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600's, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900's.

America's first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law "ordering" all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other "must grow" laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp -- try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements - rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.

The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp "plantations" (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton.

The Mexican Connection

In the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing's army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce.

One of the "differences" seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them.

However, the first state law outlawing marijuana did so not because of Mexicans using the drug. Oddly enough, it was because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church was not pleased and ruled against use of the drug. Since the state of Utah automatically enshrined church doctrine into law, the first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915. (Today, Senator Orrin Hatch serves as the prohibition arm of this heavily church-influenced state.)

Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the Mexican-American population.

When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927, the Butte Montana Standard reported a legislator's comment: "When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff... he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies." In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy."

Jazz and Assassins

In the eastern states, the "problem" was attributed to a combination of Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana and jazz traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became an indispensable part of the music scene, even entering the language of the black hits of the time (Louis Armstrong's "Muggles", Cab Calloway's "That Funny Reefer Man", Fats Waller's "Viper's Drag").

Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: "Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice."

Two other fear-tactic rumors started to spread: one, that Mexicans, Blacks and other foreigners were snaring white children with marijuana; and two, the story of the "assassins." Early stories of Marco Polo had told of "hasheesh-eaters" or hashashin, from which derived the term "assassin." In the original stories, these professional killers were given large doses of hashish and brought to the ruler's garden (to give them a glimpse of the paradise that awaited them upon successful completion of their mission). Then, after the effects of the drug disappeared, the assassin would fulfill his ruler's wishes with cool, calculating loyalty.

By the 1930s, the story had changed. Dr. A. E. Fossier wrote in the 1931 New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal: "Under the influence of hashish those fanatics would madly rush at their enemies, and ruthlessly massacre every one within their grasp." Within a very short time, marijuana started being linked to violent behavior.

Alcohol Prohibition and Federal Approaches to Drug Prohibition

During this time, the United States was also dealing with alcohol prohibition, which lasted from 1919 to 1933. Alcohol prohibition was extremely visible and debated at all levels, while drug laws were passed without the general public's knowledge. National alcohol prohibition happened through the mechanism of an amendment to the constitution.

Earlier (1914), the Harrison Act was passed, which provided federal tax penalties for opiates and cocaine.

The federal approach is important. It was considered at the time that the federal government did not have the constitutional power to outlaw alcohol or drugs. It is because of this that alcohol prohibition required a constitutional amendment.

At that time in our country's history, the judiciary regularly placed the tenth amendment in the path of congressional regulation of "local" affairs, and direct regulation of medical practice was considered beyond congressional power under the commerce clause (since then, both provisions have been weakened so far as to have almost no meaning).

Since drugs could not be outlawed at the federal level, the decision was made to use federal taxes as a way around the restriction. In the Harrison Act, legal uses of opiates and cocaine were taxed (supposedly as a revenue need by the federal government, which is the only way it would hold up in the courts), and those who didn't follow the law found themselves in trouble with the treasury department.

In 1930, a new division in the Treasury Department was established -- the Federal Bureau of Narcotics -- and Harry J. Anslinger was named director. This, if anything, marked the beginning of the all-out war against marijuana.

Harry J. Anslinger

Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man, and he recognized the Bureau of Narcotics as an amazing career opportunity -- a new government agency with the opportunity to define both the problem and the solution. He immediately realized that opiates and cocaine wouldn't be enough to help build his agency, so he latched on to marijuana and started to work on making it illegal at the federal level.

Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes of racism and violence to draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. Some of his quotes regarding marijuana...

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"

"You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

And he loved to pull out his own version of the "assassin" definition:

"In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs' 'hashashin' that we have the English word 'assassin.'"

Yellow Journalism

Harry Anslinger got some additional help from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons to help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second, he had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn't want to see the development of hemp paper in competition. Third, he had lost 800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he hated Mexicans. Fourth, telling lurid lies about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed causing violence) sold newspapers, making him rich.

Some samples from the San Francisco Examiner:

"Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days -- Hashish goads users to bloodlust."

"By the tons it is coming into this country -- the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms.... Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him...."

And other nationwide columns...

"Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug."

"Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES -- that is a matter of cold record."

Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.

This all set the stage for...

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

After two years of secret planning, Anslinger brought his plan to Congress -- complete with a scrapbook full of sensational Hearst editorials, stories of ax murderers who had supposedly smoked marijuana, and racial slurs.

It was a remarkably short set of hearings.

The one fly in Anslinger's ointment was the appearance by Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association.

Woodward started by slamming Harry Anslinger and the Bureau of Narcotics for distorting earlier AMA statements that had nothing to do with marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsement for Anslinger's view.

He also reproached the legislature and the Bureau for using the term marijuana in the legislation and not publicizing it as a bill about cannabis or hemp. At this point, marijuana (or marihuana) was a sensationalist word used to refer to Mexicans smoking a drug and had not been connected in most people's minds to the existing cannabis/hemp plant. Thus, many who had legitimate reasons to oppose the bill weren't even aware of it.

Woodward went on to state that the AMA was opposed to the legislation and further questioned the approach of the hearings, coming close to outright accusation of misconduct by Anslinger and the committee:

"That there is a certain amount of narcotic addiction of an objectionable character no one will deny. The newspapers have called attention to it so prominently that there must be some grounds for [their] statements [even Woodward was partially taken in by Hearst's propaganda]. It has surprised me, however, that the facts on which these statements have been based have not been brought before this committee by competent primary evidence. We are referred to newspaper publications concerning the prevalence of marihuana addiction. We are told that the use of marihuana causes crime.

But yet no one has been produced from the Bureau of Prisons to show the number of prisoners who have been found addicted to the marihuana habit. An informed inquiry shows that the Bureau of Prisons has no evidence on that point.

You have been told that school children are great users of marihuana cigarettes. No one has been summoned from the Children's Bureau to show the nature and extent of the habit, among children.

Inquiry of the Children's Bureau shows that they have had no occasion to investigate it and know nothing particularly of it.

Inquiry of the Office of Education--- and they certainly should know something of the prevalence of the habit among the school children of the country, if there is a prevalent habit--- indicates that they have had no occasion to investigate and know nothing of it.

Moreover, there is in the Treasury Department itself, the Public Health Service, with its Division of Mental Hygiene. The Division of Mental Hygiene was, in the first place, the Division of Narcotics. It was converted into the Division of Mental Hygiene, I think, about 1930. That particular Bureau has control at the present time of the narcotics farms that were created about 1929 or 1930 and came into operation a few years later. No one has been summoned from that Bureau to give evidence on that point.

Informal inquiry by me indicates that they have had no record of any marihuana of Cannabis addicts who have ever been committed to those farms.

The bureau of Public Health Service has also a division of pharmacology. If you desire evidence as to the pharmacology of Cannabis, that obviously is the place where you can get direct and primary evidence, rather than the indirect hearsay evidence."

Committee members then proceeded to attack Dr. Woodward, questioning his motives in opposing the legislation. Even the Chairman joined in:

The Chairman: If you want to advise us on legislation, you ought to come here with some constructive proposals, rather than criticism, rather than trying to throw obstacles in the way of something that the Federal Government is trying to do. It has not only an unselfish motive in this, but they have a serious responsibility.

Dr. Woodward: We cannot understand yet, Mr. Chairman, why this bill should have been prepared in secret for 2 years without any intimation, even, to the profession, that it was being prepared.

After some further bantering...

The Chairman: I would like to read a quotation from a recent editorial in the Washington Times:

The marihuana cigarette is one of the most insidious of all forms of dope, largely because of the failure of the public to understand its fatal qualities.

The Nation is almost defenseless against it, having no Federal laws to cope with it and virtually no organized campaign for combating it.

The result is tragic.

School children are the prey of peddlers who infest school neighborhoods.

High school boys and girls buy the destructive weed without knowledge of its capacity of harm, and conscienceless dealers sell it with impunity.

This is a national problem, and it must have national attention.

The fatal marihuana cigarette must be recognized as a deadly drug, and American children must be protected against it.

That is a pretty severe indictment. They say it is a national question and that it requires effective legislation. Of course, in a general way, you have responded to all of these statements; but that indicates very clearly that it is an evil of such magnitude that it is recognized by the press of the country as such.

And that was basically it. Yellow journalism won over medical science.

The committee passed the legislation on. And on the floor of the house, the entire discussion was:

Member from upstate New York: "Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?"

Speaker Rayburn: "I don't know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind."

"Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?"

Member on the committee jumps up and says: "Their Doctor Wentworth[sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent."

And on the basis of that lie, on August 2, 1937, marijuana became illegal at the federal level.

The entire coverage in the New York Times: "President Roosevelt signed today a bill to curb traffic in the narcotic, marihuana, through heavy taxes on transactions."

Anslinger as precursor to the Drug Czars

Anslinger was essentially the first Drug Czar. Even though the term didn't exist until William Bennett's position as director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy, Anslinger acted in a similar fashion. In fact, there are some amazing parallels between Anslinger and the current Drug Czar John Walters. Both had kind of a carte blanche to go around demonizing drugs and drug users. Both had resources and a large public podium for their voice to be heard and to promote their personal agenda. Both lied constantly, often when it was unnecessary. Both were racists. Both had the ear of lawmakers, and both realized that they could persuade legislators and others based on lies, particularly if they could co-opt the media into squelching or downplaying any opposition views.

Anslinger even had the ability to circumvent the First Amendment. He banned the Canadian movie "Drug Addict," a 1946 documentary that realistically depicted the drug addicts and law enforcement efforts. He even tried to get Canada to ban the movie in their own country, or failing that, to prevent U.S. citizens from seeing the movie in Canada. Canada refused. (Today, Drug Czar John Walters is trying to bully Canada into keeping harsh marijuana laws.)

Anslinger had 37 years to solidify the propaganda and stifle opposition. The lies continued the entire time (although the stories would adjust -- the 21 year old Florida boy who killed his family of five got younger each time he told it). In 1961, he looked back at his efforts:

"Much of the most irrational juvenile violence and that has written a new chapter of shame and tragedy is traceable directly to this hemp intoxication. A gang of boys tear the clothes from two school girls and rape the screaming girls, one boy after the other. A sixteen-year-old kills his entire family of five in Florida, a man in Minnesota puts a bullet through the head of a stranger on the road; in Colorado husband tries to shoot his wife, kills her grandmother instead and then kills himself. Every one of these crimes had been proceeded [sic] by the smoking of one or more marijuana "reefers." As the marijuana situation grew worse, I knew action had to be taken to get the proper legislation passed. By 1937 under my direction, the Bureau launched two important steps First, a legislative plan to seek from Congress a new law that would place marijuana and its distribution directly under federal control. Second, on radio and at major forums, such that presented annually by the New York Herald Tribune, I told the story of this evil weed of the fields and river beds and roadsides. I wrote articles for magazines; our agents gave hundreds of lectures to parents, educators, social and civic leaders. In network broadcasts I reported on the growing list of crimes, including murder and rape. I described the nature of marijuana and its close kinship to hashish. I continued to hammer at the facts.

I believe we did a thorough job, for the public was alerted and the laws to protect them were passed, both nationally and at the state level. We also brought under control the wild growing marijuana in this country. Working with local authorities, we cleaned up hundreds of acres of marijuana and we uprooted plants sprouting along the roadsides."

After Anslinger

On a break from college in the 70s, I was visiting a church in rural Illinois. There in the literature racks in the back of the church was a lurid pamphlet about the evils of marijuana -- all the old reefer madness propaganda about how it caused insanity and murder. I approached the minister and said "You can't have this in your church. It's all lies, and the church shouldn't be about promoting lies." Fortunately, my dad believed me, and he had the material removed. He didn't even know how it got there. But without me speaking up, neither he nor the other members of the church had any reason NOT to believe what the pamphlet said. The propaganda machine had been that effective.

The story since then has been a continual litany of:

• Politicians wanting to appear tough on crime and passing tougher penalties
• Constant increases in spending on law enforcement and prisons
• Racist application of drug laws
• Taxpayer funded propaganda
• Stifling of opposition speech
• Political contributions from corporations that profit from marijuana being illegal (pharmaceuticals, alcohol, etc.)

What if Saddam and George Bush Shared a Room in College?

iLaugh hosts a great collection of original cartoons. It dubs itself “the second sweetest comedy portal on earth”. The site is well built, welcoming, and easy to navigate making it a fun place to visit. More importantly, they have some great original content. My favorite is “Becoming Georgie” an animated short about a scenario in which Saddam Hussein and George Bush are college room mates. (via TeevBlogger)

Why iPhone will work, and won't?

NEW DELHI: Six long years and five generations of iPod later, Apple is back with another cool product - iPhone - which the company's Chief Executive Steve Jobs calls "Magical," "Revolutionary" and "Super-smart". And we don’t entirely disagree with him. Going by the iconic success of iPod, the 'think different' company has rolled out a near ‘complete gizmo’ which experts feel is aimed at protecting its own music player's future from the growing breed of music phones.

Though Apple occupies almost 75 per cent of the digital music player market - has set an an ambitious target for iPhone, analysts’ opinion is divided over iPhone's future. Here's why iPhone could prove to be a different ballgame for Apple than an iPod?

1. At least six more months before it hits the stores! The iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and the Asians will have to wait for at least a year.

2. Apple doesn’t have expertise in building phones. Putting together a phone with so many features is far more complex than a music player as it requires much more technical expertise to port so many radios and transistors and also ensure excellent quality in all the functions, including voice and inter-operability of standards and modes. Moreover, the competition is fierce: it is a multi-pronged battle with Microsoft Zune on one hand and Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung on the other. RIM’s Backberry and Palm too become direct competition. The phone makers already have evolved their music phones while Microsoft has the advantage of having Windowes Mobile 5.0 which gives the familiar Windows applications environment and a strong gaming capability to Zune.

Having OS X as the operating system and Safari browser for web access is definitely less attractive for a phone than say a Symbian or a Windows OS.

3. Apple has a fine retail legacy in selling iPods, but selling and thrashing out subsidized bundled deals with competing telecom network operators in different countries across the world may be a lot more challenging than that.

4. The 4 and 8 GB HDD for a phone as refined as iPhone clearly means a less memory option for so many applications and the ease of use that iPod typically provides. Then there is video, Internet, many other phone apps... And in a year's time, this memory will seem even less so.

5. The closed-from-the-back a la iPod, iPhone has a non-removable battery, not preferred by many.

6. With a growing number of 3.5G HSDPA networks globally which offer download speeds of up to 1.5 MBPS (with 3.6 MBPS, 7.2 MBPS and 14.4 MBPS download speeds going forward), iPhone may not be able to provide the experience of good video downloads.

7. Therefore there won’t be video calls either, at least not in the first generation of iPhones.

8. It has a 2 megapixel camera which is ok, but it is not enough as many medium range phones already have it these days.

9. Lack of enterprise apps and Apple's lack of expertise as well as lack of tie-ups on this front (unlike a Microsoft or Blackberry) is a disadvantage. Yahoo is not exactly the last word in Push Mail, Blackberry is! It would have been a terrific move on the part of Apple to get Blackberry Connect on its side as Microsoft and Blackberry are sworn enemies.

10. No IP telephony, which is where the world is moving to, as also proven by the recent tie-up between Nokia and Skype.

11. Only GSM version as of now. Apple does not have a CDMA variant.

12. No Mobile TV or FM

Then what makes iPhone so hot?

1. The iPod legacy and branding goodwill will fetch iPhone many readymade customers. Over the last six years, iPod has developed a strong loyalty which will definetely pay for iPhone as well.


2. Apple is also betting on iPhone's hot design and technical finesse. As pointed by analysts, iPod revolutionized the MP3 market not because it was the first (it wasn't) but because it was so easy to use.

3. A revolutionary and terrific user interface. The device has a 3.5 inch screen optimized for playing movies and television shows, but also will be a full-featured mobile phone, allowing users to switch easily between answering calls and listening to music or watching video.

4. A very cool touch screen. Unlike the other devices, which include keyboards and dedicated buttons, the iPhone is built around a touch screen and virtual buttons that change depending on the application. The phone uses a patented keyboard tech called Multi-touch.

5. Aggressive pricing. Though it may seem a bit on the higher side to some, but when compared to phones in the same genre, iPhone offers better bang for the buck, especially with so much ported on to it.

6. A damn good battery life. The battery life of the phone will allow five hours of talk time, video and browsing, and 16 hours of audio playback.

7. It has Visual Voicemail that lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to the prior messages. This revolutionary service also enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.

9. Over-the-air iTunes downloads. iPhone lets users enjoy all their iPod content, including music, audio books, audio podcasts, video podcasts, music videos, television shows, and movies. It syncs content from a user's iTunes library on his/her PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.

10. iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone that features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking through. iPhone will also work with most industry standard web mails based on IMAP and POP servers, support Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail, and most ISP mail services.

11. t employs advanced built-in sensors - an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor - that automatically enhance the user experience and extends battery life. Its built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a Web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

12. Less than half-an-inch slimmer than every other phone in the market including those from Samsung and Motorola.

China to US: No meddling in our Iran biz

BEIJING –China warned the United States on Thursday not to meddle in its trade relations with Iran after Washington expressed concern about a Chinese oil company’s planned investment in an Iranian gas field.

“We think this kind of cooperation and relationship is legitimate. Normal cooperation should not be interfered (with),” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

Asked if that meant Beijing believed the United States was interfering in its dealings with Iran, Liu said, “This is our position.”

The U.S. government expressed concern to Beijing last month about a planned investment by state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. in Iran’s Northern Pars gas field. Washington said major business dealings with Tehran were inappropriate while Iran is defying U.N. resolutions on its nuclear program.

CNOOC spokesman Liu Junshan said Thursday the company was still in talks with the Iranian side to develop the gas field and to help build liquefied natural gas facilities. He said no agreement had yet been signed, and declined to estimate the project’s value.

The Iranian Mehr news agency reported last month that the deal was worth $16 billion.

Liu’s comments came as Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Beijing. Olmert is seeking a more proactive Chinese role in pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear program.

Iran’s president has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth, and Iran is widely believed to be trying to manufacture atomic bombs — a charge it denies.

In talks with Olmert Wednesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing was firmly against nuclear weapons proliferation in Iran and wanted to see a diplomatic solution to the issue, Liu said at a press briefing.

But it is unlikely that Beijing will to bend to U.S. pressure to drop the gas deal, considering China’s growing thirst for oil and gas to fuel its economic boom.

China imported 980 million barrels of oil last year, making it the world’s third-biggest consumer of foreign oil. Its demand for natural gas is expected to rise 26 percent over the next five years.

China’s two major oil companies — China Petrochemical Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp. — are both either involved in gas projects in Iran or in talks to participate in developing gas resources.

Iran has seen the lure of its energy resources and other markets as a way to weaken the willl of U.N. Security Council members to exact harsh punishment over its nuclear program, which Tehran claims is for generating electricity.

The council, of which China is one of five permanent members, voted last month to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to abandon uranium enrichment — a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs.

Wall of Houses

Click picture to enlarge

Impossible wooden structure [pic]

Thirteen reasons to doubt the iPhone hype

The honeymoon is over for the iPhone.

It's not that we're sick of it already (well, maybe a bit), it's just time for it to answer some questions. Otherwise, it may join the Sony PS3 in the realm of "tech that looks absolutely amazing but is far too expensive for most people to even consider buying."

Apple's iPhone: A mystery wrapped in an enigma
smothered in question-mark sauce.

Here, accompanied by rambling speculation, are those questions:

1. Why no 3G compatibility? The answer might be as simple as the fact that Cingular's 3G coverage still has gaping holes outside of major U.S. cities.

The 3G question is very pertinent to those who want to stream video and audio to their phone at any time. But that requires living in an area with great 3G network coverage, and 3G will drain a battery faster than the 2.5G EDGE network.

2. Does the lack of 3G matter if the iPhone has Wi-Fi? If the user wants to only occasionally stream media or download files, the iPhone's Wi-Fi capabilities should scratch that itch...but only if you're at a Wi-Fi hot spot and not using it in the backseat of a car, on the train, or sitting on a park bench. And Wi-Fi will have just as much--probably more--of a draining effect on the iPhone's battery.

3. What's under the hood? Nobody knows for sure. According to this Information Week article, the iPhone is likely have a Samsung CPU and video processor.

If it's true, this may help explain the similarity in specs between the Samsung BlackJack and the Apple iPhone. For what it's worth, the BlackJack performed very well in our Web browsing and video tests.

4. Can you download directly from iTunes? This looks to be a big disappointment with the iPhone. Early reports, such as this iTWire interview with Apple's VP of iPod Products Greg Joswiak, say no.

From the iTWire article:

The Apple VP also quashed any speculation that the iPhone itself may house a self-contained version of iTunes. "iTunes was designed to exist on the Mac and PCs. That's where the music should live."

Don't tell me where my music should and should not live, homeboy! I want it to live on my iPhone!

Regardless of where my music wants to live, if Apple is touting the iPhone as a device that runs Mac OS X, doesn't that make the iPhone a Mac? Which brings us to the next question...

5. Just what does Apple mean by "it runs OS X"? And what do they mean by "multitasking"?During his keynote address, Steve Jobs mentioned the ability to multitask as one of Mac OS X's strong suits, as well as a reason why the operating system was chosen for the iPhone.

Given the lack of 3G compatibility, that "multitasking" must be limited to applications within Mac OS X, not "multitasking" in the sense of being able to download a file while talking on the phone. That's the kind of "multitask" that 3G networks are built to do.

Which begs the question: Who will really multitask between OS X applications on a mobile, touch screen device? At what point will anyone be simultaneously typing a document, formulating a spreadsheet, and composing a song on GarageBand on the iPhone?

Playing media content while surfing the Web is technically multitasking, but it's possible that the iPhone will only be able to perform one of its three main functions at any given time: It's either an iPod, an "Internet device," or a phone, but it may not be able to do more than one function at a time.

That doesn't sound like a big deal right now, but it could lead to an embarrassing situation if you're using your iPhone as a jukebox at a party when a call comes in.

In all probability, the iPhone will run a watered-down version of OS X, with built-in restrictions on how the operating system can be used. No full iTunes. Probably no Skype or VoIP phone calls. It may be able to run "desktop-class applications and software," as Apple's iPhone site purports, but that's not the same thing as actual desktop applications.

6. Will it actually be called the iPhone?
Not if Cisco has anything to say about it.

Will it be the iPhod? The iCell? The iThing? The iCaramba?

And will the iPhone have the same appeal with a different name? It might. After all, the name "iPod" doesn't exactly scream "music!"

7. Who's this phone for, anyway? Who can afford this thing?
This answer is simple: Paris Hilton.

The iPhone looks to be the next glamour phone, albeit one with serious potential. It's billed as a "smart phone," which brings to mind business users. At $599 for the 8GB model and $499 for the 4GB model, it's definitely priced for business users.

But as Tom Krazit and Declan McCullagh kindly point out:

1. Yahoo e-mail isn't going to cut it in the business world.
2. It's unknown which business applications will be available for the iPhone.
3. Will there be file-compatibility issues between the iPhone and Windows-centric businesses? Remember, the Vista age is almost upon us, and even next-generation Windows programs may have issues with files created in older versions.

If you add everything up, the iPhone looks like a starter smart phone for twentysomethings who just got a fat raise. It could even be compared to a touch screen Sidekick 3 Pro. At least the Sidekick has a mini-SD card slot so that you can expand its storage capacity, which brings us to...

8. Will Apple give the user any freedom? Want to know why there's no memory card slots on the iPhone, nor will there likely be a user-replaceable battery?

Because Apple doesn't want you to lay a finger on its phone without paying the piper.

Anyone who owns an iPod knows how hard it is to replace the battery, replace a dead hard drive, or fix the thing without going through Apple. Anyone who owns a Mac computer also knows how hard it is to upgrade any internal components without going through Apple. If you can figure out how to do these things yourself, you'll break the warranty. If you go through Apple, you'll probably have to give them more money in the process.

The iPhone is likely to be no different. To fix it, you'll probably have to bring it to an Apple Store. To expand it, you'll probably have to buy a new iPhone.

Note: iPhones are still expensive.

While we're on the topic of user freedom, what about the software aspect of the phone? It's unknown whether users will be able to write their own software or run third-party programs on the iPhone without breaking the warranty. It's quite possible that the iPhone's only programs will be Apple iPhone programs.

9. How much more than the unit price will the iPhone cost?As expensive as the iPhone is, it may get insanely unaffordable once you add in the monthly charges. To get the most out of the iPhone, you'll likely need a voice plan, a data plan, and possibly Cingular's own Wi-Fi plan.

Cingular has special data plans for its BlackBerry phones, and it's possible, if not likely, that the iPhone will have its own special plan prices.

But if that's not the case, be prepared to pay through the nose. If you look at the costs of Cingular's low-end voice plan (450 minutes/month for $39.99), unlimited data plan ($44.99/month), and unlimited Wi-Fi plan ($99.99/month), you may need to tack on an extra $100 to $200 per month to use your iPhone to the fullest.

Also of note: Cingular charges a $175 fee for early contract termination.

10. Is this another iLock-in strategy?The iPhone is the only phone that runs Mac OS X, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Judging from the iPod's seamless, user-friendly integration with iTunes, Apple is sure to unveil iPhone-management programs that make managing contact info and other data as painless as possible. And that might actually be the problem.

Imagine this: You buy an iPhone, you manage all your iPhone's data on your computer--contacts, music, files--and your iPhone kicks the bucket...dead battery, iPhone icon with x-ed-out eyes, whatever.

What now? Unless there are third-party programs to send your data to another phone, the easiest way--and possibly the only way--to get all that data onto another phone will be to buy another iPhone.

Note: iPhones are still expensive.

11. Just how useful is the touch screen? The iPhone user interface looks elegant, innovative, and easy-to-use, but is it the best interface for a device like this?

Whenever you do anything, the iPhone will command your full visual attention. "No buttons" may be sexy, but it also means you can't do anything without looking at the phone.

The iPhone's iPod usability may suffer even worse from the touch screen. Have you ever tried to operate an iPod while it's in your pocket? You can do it, but it's hard. The iPhone will make blind iPod-surfing downright impossible.

That said, it looks like the iPhone will eliminate accidental pocket-dialing once and for all.

12. Will early adopters be the only adopters?If the iPhone takes the world by storm, other manufacturers and carriers will borrow the iPhone's most popular features. And they'll probably offer them at a lower price.

13. What goes into a cell-phone purchase? Cell phones aren't MP3 players. Even if Apple has the sexiest phone out there, many important factors come into play when anyone buys a cell phone.

• How pleased is the user with the carrier?
• What other phones are out there?
• What will the phone primarily be used for?
• How important is it to have the "it" phone of the moment? And is price no object?

Apple seems to be banking on the last factor being the most important. But is having "it" it? If so, the iPhone may simply be iRon pyrite.

First Apple iPhone picture on the net

WOA! MOST DIGG's EVER!!!

Dear Mr. Jobs, please have your people call my people about how to get one of these things before June, you can give me a call at Metaliq www.metaliq.com/

Check out the videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcVz70PeIKo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=52iD3VdAiwc

Buy Sealand? Is it possible?

ACFI is a group of people working for the peoples right to it’s Internets. We have made progress in Ladonia and are now working on the Micronation of Sealand.

Recently it was made clear that this country is for sale. To make sure the owners will be kopimistic and that the country won’t be governed by people that do not care about it’s future, we have come up with a plan.

With the help of all the kopimists on Internets, we want to buy Sealand. Donate money and you will become a citizien.

We’ve set up a forum to discuss how the country is supposed to function.

— It should be a great place for everybody. With high-speed Internets access, no copyright laws and vip accounts to The Pirate Bay, press officer of ACFI says.

Register and let us write history together.

Plan B: If we do not get enough money required to buy the micronation of Sealand, we will try to buy another small island somwhere and claim it as our own country (prices start from USD 50 000).

What does love mean?

... An email that I recieved the other day........


A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds,

"What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her
toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got
arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6

(We need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5


"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."
Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4


"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a
contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly
gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry"

Comic Strip Artist's Kit (Redux)

Writing this blog, believe it or not, is a lot of hard work! But there are so many people who have said such nice things about the stuff I've written that it keeps me going.

Another side effect of the blog is that other artists find me. It's great to hear from students, fellow animation people, and every once in a while, a real legend in the field.

The other day I got an e-mail from Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many Disney Comic Books and created the famous "Comic Strip Artist's Kit". It was created to help beginning comic artists deal with perspective problems and other drawing difficulties. I scanned my old xeroxes a while ago. It's probably the best thing I've ever seen about practical staging and drawing for storyboards or comic books.

Anyway Carson saw it on my blog and read what nice things people had said about it and it really meant a lot to him. And he offered to send me an original copy of the handout, which is 11 x 17. I'll scan it big so you can really see it well and print it out on 11 x 17 paper if you want to. He was even nice enough to inscribe it to me and if you print it out big you can read it.

Here's the history of the handout, in Carson's own words:

I wrote and drew those sketches around 1975 and I'm so tickled to know that people still find them helpful today. It started as a slide presentation for my boss to show at the Disney meeting in Frankfurt. It went over so well that he asked me to expand on it when he returned. They printed 2000 copies and mailed it to all the Disney offices. My friend John Pomeroy asked for some to give to the animators at the studio. that was the time when the animation training program was going on. Frank Thomas saw it and used it for an animation class he was teaching at the Screen Cartoonists Guild. That's how some sketches wound up in the book that he and Ollie wrote, "the Illusion of Life".

Click to see bigger.








Hope everybody gets as much out of this as I did.

Thank you so much, Carson, for sharing this with all of us!