Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Harriet Miers and the Aristocrats Very tasteless. Not for the easily offended. 9:44:38 PM    comment []

Microsoft to Release 20 Versions of Windows Vista A user at Bink.nu has claimed to have come across an XML file in a beta version of Windows Vista. Which he/she decoded and came up with a list of 20 SKUs of different versions of Windows Vista. Here is the list: Windows Vista Starter Windows Vista Home Basic Windows Vista Home Premium Windows Vista Ultimate Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB Longhorn Enterprise Server (ADS) Longhorn Enterprise Server - IA64 Longhorn Standard Server Longhorn Datacenter Server Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VL Binding Service Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VLGeneric Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - DMAK Windows Vista Starter Digital Boost - OEM Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB - OEM Longhorn Enterprise Server - OEM Windows Vista Home Basic N Windows Vista Pro Standard N (Via Forever Geek.) Holy cow! 9:41:52 PM    comment []

Gee, thank God we have a pro-business Republican M... Gee, thank God we have a pro-business Republican M.B.A. president.... More than $88 billion of U.S. corporate debt is teetering on the edge of investment grade and soon may join the record amount of bonds downgraded to junk this year. Hertz Corp., the world's largest car rental firm, and radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications are among 46 companies that probably will be categorized as noninvestment grade, according to credit-rating company Standard & Poor's.... Not since the Depression of 1929 has corporate America received so many black eyes. General Motors, the world's largest automaker, Sears Holdings Corp., the biggest U.S. department store chain, and Eastman Kodak Co., the largest photography company, led 27 borrowers whose $499 billion of outstanding debt obligations suffered the ignominy of being downgraded to junk. And if history is any guide, there will be no rebound soon. "You don't see companies get downgraded and work their way up, by and large," said Greg Peters, head of U.S. credit strategy at New York-based Morgan Stanley.... --Houston Chronicle/Bloomberg News Kodak and GM and Sears are aging warhorses, but Clear Channel isn't -- what's it doing on the list? (Via No More Mister Nice Blog.) 8:32:47 PM    comment []

Cheney's Lies about Haliburton About two years ago, Dick Cheney told a national television audience, "[S]ince I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests," Cheney said. "I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years." Even at the time, the claim wasn't true. A non-partisan congressional report requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg's (D-N.J.) office showed that Cheney still has substantial financial interests in Halliburton, including lucrative deferred compensation and more than 433,000 stock options. But instead of acknowledging the ties divesting himself from his former company, Cheney denied everything. 6:25:35 PM    comment []

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Al Qaeda's Golden Opportunity The American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq has provided Al Qaeda with a new lease on life, a second generation of recruits and fighters, and a powerful outlet to expand its ideological outreach activities to Muslims worldwide. Statements by Al Qaeda top chiefs, including bin Laden, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and Seif al-Adl, portray the unfolding confrontation in Iraq as a "golden and unique opportunity" for the global jihad movement to engage and defeat the United States and spread the conflict into neighboring Arab states in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestine-Israeli theater. The global war is not going well for bin Laden, and Iraq enabled him to convince his jihadist followers that Al Qaeda is still alive and kicking despite suffering crippling operational setbacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere. 6:21:28 PM    comment []

Feeling Safer Yet? They can’t even handle a relatively minor chore like this: WASHINGTON — Despite an order from Congress, the Bush administration has not given millions of people living within 20 miles of nuclear power plants access to pills that could help protect them if they are exposed to radiation. It will be early 2006, at the earliest, before potassium iodide pills are made available to those people. Congress had ordered that the pills, which help prevent thyroid cancer, be stockpiled by mid-2003. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said it’s “outrageous” that the administration hasn’t made the pills more widely available. “Nuclear power plants are at the top of the al-Qaeda target list,” he said. “Potassium iodide is an inexpensive way to protect infants and children.” (Via Suburban Guerrilla.) 6:17:36 PM    comment []

Not Good Via Daily Kos: The U.S. economy faces utter collapse if OPEC and other oil-producing countries were to begin pricing their oil in euros rather than dollars. When Iraq tried to switch to euros in 2000, they were attacked by the USA soon thereafter. Recently, Business Week reported that oil producer, Venezuela, “has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe.” The importance of this news should not be underestimated. (Via Suburban Guerrilla.) 6:09:38 PM    comment []

Buyer's Remorse Finally, someone asks the right question: By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 8-9. (Via Suburban Guerrilla.) Steve: This is worse news for Bush, I think, even than it seems. With more than 3 years to go in his presidency, it's hard to see much good news coming out about Iraq, the economy, and continuing Republican corruption. On the other hand, it's clear that we're going to get more revelations about the lies of Iraq and other lies. I'd hate to see the guy impeached -- the Repubs did it for such as stupid thing and for no other reason than that they could -- unless they can get plenty of Republican votes behind it. Who knows, it's not impossible that that would happen. 6:09:14 PM    comment []

Godly Men to the Rescue You knew it, didn’t you? You knew the poorest people would end up paying for Katrina reconstruction: But what looked like a chance to talk up new programs is fast becoming a scramble to save the old ones. Conservatives have already used the storm for causes of their own, like suspending requirements that federal contractors have affirmative action plans and pay locally prevailing wages. And with federal costs for rebuilding the Gulf Coast estimated at up to $200 billion, Congressional Republican leaders are pushing for spending cuts, with programs like Medicaid and food stamps especially vulnerable. “We’ve had a stunning reversal in just a few weeks,” said Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal advocacy group in Washington. “We’ve gone from a situation in which we might have a long-overdue debate on deep poverty to the possibility, perhaps even the likelihood, that low-income people will be asked to bear the costs. I would find it unimaginable if it wasn’t actually happening.” (Via Suburban Guerrilla.) 9:08:21 AM    comment []

The Party of Personal Responsibility Unless you’re the recipient of some fat government contract that’s essential to national security, of course: The Energy Department paid a contractor working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project millions of dollars in incentive fees even though the company failed to meet performance requirements, the agency’s inspector general reported Thursday. Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management paid the award fees to Bechtel SAIC Co., a joint venture between the global construction company Bechtel Corp. and the information technology company Science Applications International Corp., even though the company had to take extra time to “correct poor quality work” and delivered unacceptable products, according to the report. Bechtel SAIC won the five-year, $3.2 billion contract to manage and operate the Yucca Mountain Project in February 2001. Energy is preparing Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a site to store and safely dispose of nuclear waste. (Via Suburban Guerrilla.) 9:07:49 AM    comment []

Double Open Cluster Today's APOD is the beautiful Double Cluster in Perseus. It's a beautiful, beautiful site in a small scope (too much magnification is the enemy of sites like this, so you want a big aperture at low magnification). I remember several evenings, when I was doing my sky survey in the early 90s, transfixed by this site. Stare long enough into it, and you're swimming in stars, it becomes a 3d presence, surrounding you. Under dark skies it's possible to make it out without binoculars or a scope, and I've even spotted it from my light-polluted back yard. 8:32:12 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel. Last update: 11/1/2005; 9:46:53 PM.