Iraq war dead “graph” on college lawn, in flags

Xeni Jardin:

Here are photographs of a display on the grounds of Reed College, in Portland, OR. The uploader, "KK," explains, "Each white flag represents six dead Iraqis since the beginning of the war, and each red flag represents a dead US serviceman. Statistics come from the Lancet survey of Iraqi mortality since 2003, published October 2006." Link to photo set. (thanks, Jake Appelbaum)

Reader comment: Andrew Wallace says,

I took several panoramic shots of the red and white flags at Reed. They were amazing. Here is one on Flickr:

Also a version in a java app: Link.

(Via Boing Boing.)

(Pic) A cartoon illustration of digg & other social media sites

Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, and Slashdot drawn as cartoon characters.

(Via digg.)

Gonzales Lied Under Oath, Said All Bush-Appointed Attorneys Would Be ‘Senate-Confirmed’

A little-noticed provision slipped into the Patriot Act in 2005 allows the President to appoint “interim” U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period of time, without Senate confirmation. On Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the administration never intended to take advantage of it:

GONZALES: And so let me publicly sort of preempt perhaps a question you’re going to ask me, and that is: I am fully committed, as the administration’s fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.

I think a United States attorney who I view as the leader, law enforcement leader, my representative in the community — I think he has greater imprimatur of authority, if in fact that person’s been confirmed by the Senate.

But in mid-December, an e-mail by Gonzales’s chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson (who resigned yesterday), showed that the Justice Department clearly intended to skirt the Senate altogether and use the Patriot Act provision to appoint U.S. attorneys that would serve until the end of Bush’s term:

There is some risk that we’ll lose the authority, but if we don’t ever exercise it then what’s the point of having it?

Gonzales also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department was “working with home state senators to get U.S. attorneys nominated.” But as the Washington Post notes, e-mails show that “as early as last August,” Justice officials “discussed bypassing the two Democratic senators in Arkansas, who normally would have had input into the appointment.”

UPDATE: Also on Jan. 18, Gonzales stated, “I think I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it.”

(Via Think Progress.)

White House acknowledges Rove played a role

in the U.S. attorney firings. “The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors as House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.”

(Via Think Progress.)

Vista activation crack #2 auto-renews the 30 day grace period

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Strike three two for Vista's product activation system: the latest Vista activation workaround is called "Timerstop t2a" which works by automatically renewing the 30 day grace period before the user has to "activate" their presumably legit copy of Windows. Besides the obviously malicious undertone to these kind of utilities, we're certain that there are a whole lot of legitimate Vista owners out there that would prefer to go through this admittedly complex process rather than attempt the normal activation procedure. Just like with DRM, anti-piracy PSAs before movies, and heck, even excessive surveillance, innocent people tend not to like it when they're treated as suspects. The lesson for Microsoft is that when people want to pirate software, they will: even in the face of increasingly complex activation systems. A pity then that Redmond's fired up photocopiers technically can't copy a function that -- purposely -- doesn't exist in Mac OS X.

Read | Permalink

(Via Engadget.)

Set your clocks one hour ahead tonight!

Before you go to bed tonight in the U.S., make sure you set your clocks ahead one hour; you know, spring forward, fall back, daylight savings, etc. You might also want to update your PC since this is a new thing; last year, daylight savings was on April 2. One less hour of sleep, dammit. — Wendy Boswell

When Does Daylight Time Begin and End? [U.S. Naval Observatory]

(Via Lifehacker.)

Widget Watch: Mooninites

This is a fun friday afternoon post before heading out to see 300.  Now, I want to warn everyone in Boston before hand…don’t freak out…this is just a widget.  It is not a terrorist attack on your Mac.

This cool little widget lets your gaphitti your own Dashboard with either Err or ignignokt, the Mooninites from the hilarious Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim.

You can adjust the blinking of the LED or make them into their cartoon show versions, as well as switch between SFW and NSFW versions of the characters.

Click Here to download

(Via Apple Gazette.)

Pork Report Exposes $4 Million ‘Polar Express To Nowhere’

Yesterday, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released the “Pig Book,” its annual compilation of all the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. This year’s edition contained some welcome news: “thanks to voter outrage and a one-year moratorium imposed by Democrats after taking over Congress,” the “number and cost of pork-barrel projects is way down” after years of record pork-barrel spending.

But the news was not all good. CAGW found that in last year’s defense spending bill, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) included $209,900,000 for projects in his state. The level of spending represented “an increase of 127 percent over the $92,425,000 for Alaska in the fiscal 2006 defense bill.” Stevens is no stranger to pork — he championed the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” and is one the Senate’s most prolific earmarkers. One egregious pork request from Stevens could be called the “Polar Express to Nowhere”:

$4,000,000 for the Northern Line Extension … The Northern Line Extension will provide a direct route from North Pole (pop. 1,778 in 2005) to Delta Junction (pop. 840 in 2000), which is a whopping 82.1 mile drive on one highway between the two villages … The Alaska Railroad Corporation said, “The proposed rail line would provide freight and potentially passenger rail services serving commercial interests and communities in or near the project corridor.”

For a sense of the metropolises that are the “communities in or near the project corridor,” here is a map of the area via Google:

Stevens is no fan of CAGW or their reports. “All they are is a bunch of psychopaths,” he said in 1999. “They are idiots.”

(Via Think Progress.)