"This virus tricks the user with an old psychological tactic called reverse psychology. Apparently the curiosity created by the message has been too much for thousands of users," said anti-virus researcher Bob Atibop. According to Atibop, this isn't the first time reverse psychology has been used. In 1998, the "Don't Pee on Your Keyboard" worm caused a flood of damage.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 10:32 PM

Some 150,000 Irish children passed through the institutions, a mix of work camps and boarding schools, from the early 20th century through the 1990's, and 20,000 are alive today. More than 3,500 adults have applied for hearings at a court-run inquiry that was set up two years ago to investigate claims of abuse, and also simply to provide a sympathetic forum for people to tell their stories.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 08:04 PM

Keep this in mind: In December I was invited to testify at the first Senate Commerce Committee hearing regarding the Enron collapse. I attribute this honor not to the fact that I have any particular insight, but that people in the highest reaches of our government value what the entire Motley Fool community has to say, and are interested in the things that individual investors in American businesses are thinking.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 07:19 PM

Mr Downer's spokesman said the address would have been inappropriate because it could have been interpreted by China as official recognition for the Dalai Lama as head of Tibet's government in exile.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 07:15 PM

``In fact,'' she said, ``we found that he became quite reluctant to move his arm to the reach command once the cursor was introduced into the game. Apparently it was easier just to think about reaching.''

Posted by at January 31, 2002 06:42 PM

Britain called for the suspension because of President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on political opposition and the media. But the Commonwealth's secretary-general, Don McKinnon, says cutting Zimbabwe off would leave the international community with less influence over President Mugabe.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 01:57 PM

Saying he was in Mexico on business, Eggleton claimed he mistakenly waited to share the information with the prime minister upon his return to Canada.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 01:56 PM

According to the Chronicle, the White House, which acknowledged that aspects of the Lay memo resembled parts of the energy plan formulated by a Cheney-led task force, would not say whether the three-page memo was included in the notes Cheney refuses to make public.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 01:54 PM

The latest e-mail reiterated that "if America will not meet our demands we will kill Daniel" and "this cycle will continue and no American journalist could enter Pakistan."

Posted by at January 31, 2002 01:09 PM

My birthday is on Monday, and I really could use one of these.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 12:10 PM

Vivendi picked Moncton to make its way into private water management in Canada -- unsurprising as Vivendi is based in France, and Moncton is one of the larger French-English cities in bilingual New Brunswick. I was asked for a quick word on how to research Vivendi and what I thought.

The quickest way to find corporate dirt on the net is to search "companyname sucks" -- as in "Vivendi sucks". Not all protest sites identify themselves with "sucks", but an awful lot do. There was a vivendiuniversalsucks.com web site but it was taken away from its creator and given to Vivendi in a controversial decision by WIPO (the body governing, among other things, who has the right to use a given domain name). This is unfortunate, since "sucks" sites tend to attract a wide range of negative comment on a corporation. It's quite normal for that corporation to try to shut down a "sucks" -- the odd thing here is that WIPO, with its usual flair for random judgements, granted it.

So we're stuck with more conventional sources (Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist). The Economist has some excellent articles on Vivendi but unfortunately, they're now in the archives, and cost about $3 USD to retrieve. That's not an unreasonable charge, but it's unsuitable for a fishing expedition.

Besides, this is one of those scenes where it doesn't matter if Vivendi is charming and talented most of the time -- because "most of the time" is not an acceptable answer to "is my water safe to drink?" So while this article from Business Mexico about their positive privatization experience is interesting, what we really need to see is the downside -- the problems in Africa and South America:

There have been striking examples of private sector failures. When Cochabama, Bolivia, turned over its water system to a private consortium led by engineering giant Bechtel, water prices increased so dramatically that riots broke out. A 17-year-old boy was killed, and thousands were injured in clashes with police. Water services were returned to public control.
After water was privatized in Puerto Rico in 1995, poor communities complained that they had no water while water giant Vivendi supplied tourist resorts and U.S. military bases with as much water as they could consume.
In Argentina, when the French company Generale de Eaux got a contract for water delivery, prices doubled and quality deteriorated. The company was forced to pull out when people refused to pay their bills.

waterindustry.org does have some good information. I would expect Environment News to have good information as well but it has surprisingly little. Global water privatization is an issue that does not seem to be getting its due airtime in North America, however.

My take on all this:

The question is not, "should water management be privatized" -- the question is "how can the public enforce fair management on whomever is in charge of the water?" Walkerton -- the little town in Ontario where seven people died of e.coli poisoning amid government cutbacks and mind bogglingly lax water care -- has shown that government can't be trusted to keep water safe.

It doesn't matter if the water is managed by a government chimpanzee or a corporate baboon as long as the result is clean, safe water with equitable distribution and fair prices.

A contract with Vivendi must must restrict how Vivendi is permitted to raise the price, include regular public evaluations of infrastructure and water quality, establish a substantial emergency/good-conduct fund which a public water management body can draw on for repairs should Vivendi be found in breach of standards, and most of all, the contract should be terminable at the city's discretion with very little notice.

If Vivendi finds those terms inconvenient, tough. It's a competitive world and somebody else will be happy to make the money and provide you with some security. I would not accept corporate water control with anything less than the above restrictions, as corporations have no natural incentive to behave well -- they can only be provided with financial ones.

Corporations like to make money. They will make it any way they can. The only way to control them is to make it economically unfeasible for them to do anything but behave themselves, and make behaving themselves have enough payoff to be worth doing. That there is money in water management has already been established. Vivendi wants money -- so the best way to control Vivendi is to make it easy to take money away from it. Other cities have failed by not making it easy enough to take money away from Vivendi when it misbehaved -- so make the good conduct fund a big fat one, Moncton.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 10:15 AM

The Moscow software firm faces $2.25 million in fines if convicted of breaking the law, enacted in 2000 to bar the creation or distribution of technology that can be used to circumvent copyright protections.

Posted by at January 31, 2002 08:31 AM

Posted by at January 31, 2002 05:15 AM

``We would have strongly preferred to avoid litigation in connection with this matter,'' Walker wrote. ``But given the request by the four Senate committee chairmen and subcommittee chairmen, our rights to this information and the important principal and precedents involved, GAO will take the steps necessary to file suit in United States District Court.''

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:15 PM

Two students have been suspended from Juneau-Douglas High School after being in a group that unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed the school last week.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 01:44 PM

If Enron received no special deals from the Cheney task force, that is at least in part because the task force recommendations have not been enacted by Congress as the Senate is now in opposition to many of its proposals. The task force's 105-point plan was premised on the declaration of an "energy crisis," which, to the extent it ever existed, has now passed as energy prices have fallen sharply since the spring of 2001.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 12:16 PM

New York's first attempt to remember the twin towers collapsed on January 18th amid the sort of racial politicking people once hoped had disappeared on September 11th. The idea was for a big statue outside the fire department's headquarters in Brooklyn modeled on the famous photograph of three firemen raising the stars and stripes amid the rubble of the World Trade Centre°with one small difference: two of the (white) firemen would become a black and a Latino. Many in the 94%-white fire department objected.

Err, why wouldn't the statue be of the actual guys who raised the damn flag?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 12:07 PM

Finance Minister Gary Collins said the pay cut is symbolic. "It's not about a lot of money," he said. "It is to try and send a message that we're going to take a certain amount of the burden personally."
Ms. MacPhail, who is the leader of the New Democrats, called the Liberals' voluntary pay cuts an "empty gesture," saying she and Ms. Kwan wouldn't participate.
"This ridiculous small gesture is a gimmick, as far as I'm concerned," she said. "No one in B.C. should have to donate money to Gordon Campbell so he can spend it wildly on tax breaks for the rich."
Mr. Collins retorted: "If the NDP members don't want to help contribute to clean up the mess they created over the last decade, either financially or by showing some leadership, that's their call."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:42 AM

Poet Sarah Jones said she was surprised by the ruling, because she wrote the song as a criticism of the degradation of women in hip-hop. Her lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, asks the court to overturn the FCC ruling and seeks an injunction against a $7,000 fine imposed on KBOO-FM of Portland, Ore., for airing the song.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:40 AM

"[ . . . ] there was no explanation of how a trio of middle-aged western boozers had acquired proficiency in C-4 plastic explosives, a skill we now know was part of the regular curriculum at al-Qaeda training camps."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:38 AM

"It is amazing that Bush, officially and in a combative tone, describes ... Iran, Iraq and North Korea as terrorists," state television reported him telling a gathering of journalists from Muslim countries. "It is possible that Americans will cheer Bush as the congressmen did, but we will not be threatened by such aggressive language."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:36 AM

Microsoft is already planning a future in which you will rent its software as a set of services over the Internet. Microsoft will then monitor your computing activities and charge you for them. Essential services will be dependent on databases that store much of your private information at Microsoft data centers and run your transactions through them. The only way to stop this is to restore competition in operating systems, office applications, and Internet applications now.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:34 AM

Also like many others, he was deemed deportable early in his detention and agreed to leave the U.S., only to remain in jail without any word of release. Other complaints ring familiar to attorneys and advocates who have been monitoring the situation of detainees. Baloch has charged that he was kept from contacting lawyers and Canadian officials. It took them and his family nearly two months to track him down, since he had been apprehended without notice to anyone and since, according to the habeas petition, the jail on occasion flatly denied that Baloch was being held there. A Voice request to visit Baloch, with his lawyers' support, was passed from the prison to the Justice Department, which turned it down.
Canadian government spokesman Reynald Doiron says the U.S. government forwarded him a copy of a waiver Baloch signed soon after his arrest, limiting Canada's ability to intervene on his behalf. "Now, was he under stress or duress? I don't know," says Doiron.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:54 AM

Mr Milosevic, who has previously rejected the court's legitimacy, said the trial was "an attempt to turn the victim into the culprit."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:34 AM

Diplomats say it would have to have been a significant meeting for the opposition leader to come out of her home. She did not even attend the Martyr's Day ceremony last year which marks her father's assassination.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:27 AM

"Ikeja mortuary is filled; they have started to use other government facilities," he said. "It's a disaster. We did not anticipate it would rise to this level."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:25 AM

Suspicion is now focused on the cleric, Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, who had ties with Muslim groups in the United States and who has disappeared from sight. He has a home in Rawalpindi and is described as the guardian of a mystical shrine in Lahore, Pakistan.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:19 AM

Mark Palmer, an Enron spokesman, said the commercial shredding was a routine matter. The materials destroyed by a private company, Shredco, included items like payroll runs, old personnel records, performance reviews, medical records and other items that he called "sensitive employee documents."

Shredco didn't notice the public's interest in Enron documents?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:13 AM

'°ÆIf you look at the systems of other countries,°Ø°Ø [Prince Abdullah] said, °Æ°Æyou see a lot of people who are beholden to whoever put them in office, whether that°Øs a company or a group,°Ø°Ø he said. °Æ°ÆI°Øm not trying to be critical of elections, but what may work for you may not work for us. Look at the stalemate in Florida in your own elections. Elections may not be the most efficient way. The objective is to have good government which improves the lot of its people.°Ø°Ø

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:00 AM

"There is no justification for maintaining the current distinctions between same-sex and heterosexual conjugal unions in the light of current understandings of the state's interests in marriage," the study says.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:24 AM

Guy Chevrette, 62, and Jacques Brassard, 61, announced yesterday that they were quitting politics immediately. Both were disappointed by what they concluded to be a deliberate effort to encourage them to step aside to make way for a younger cabinet.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:21 AM

These cards are not some made-up form of "reality entertainment" - these guys are real...in someways, people may not even share this much about themselves with close friends. We asked everyone a whole bunch of funny, odd, and plain old cool questions about their lives, likes and experiences.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:21 AM

The closest thing to a universal rule is that most men like a woman who's comfortable with her body, whatever her body happens to look like. Similarly, most men are pretty frustrated about women who reject their bodies. Given a choice between a supermodel who always feels fat and the chubby lady who feels sexy, most men will take the chubbette in real life, where it counts.

Zat so, fellas?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:12 AM

Two scientists who were adept at discovering fundamental equations and especially perceptive about the role of mathematics in science were Albert Einstein and the almost comparably brilliant theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. Neither was a mathematician per se, but both were remarkable in their ability to write down new equations that were as fecund as the greatest poetry. And both were captivated by the belief that the fundamental equations of physics must be beautiful.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:03 AM

"They totally ambushed us with snowballs," one reporter said, recounting his approach to high school students who might have known Amy Gehring.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 07:17 AM

Peter Blake, one of the world's most successful yachtsmen, who was killed by armed pirates in the Amazon last month, tried to defend himself against his attackers but died after his rifle jammed, a court heard yesterday.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 06:29 AM

Ottawa argues it was merely matching subsidies that Brazil provides to support Embraer SA, Bombardier's biggest rival.
But even if it ultimately loses at the trade body, politicians and bureaucrats hinted Ottawa still won't back down.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 04:57 PM

A man who covered his mouth with a towel stormed into the Saito-Moroyama outlet of Family Mart in the Nagase district of Moroyama shortly before 10 p.m. Monday. He threatened an 18-year-old part-time employee with a tree branch, and demanded money. "I'm a robber. Give me money," the man was quoted as saying.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 03:59 PM

The proposal put forward by the former head of the government's disbanded pardons commission, Anatoly Pristavkin, would free thousands of women by extending an amnesty approved in November by the State Duma lower house of parliament. That pardon freed roughly 23,000 women and children under 16, but included only women who were pregnant, disabled, over 50 or single mothers.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 03:16 PM

Witnesses said a crowd of 750,000 to one million people was jamming the city centre in support of opposition presidential candidate Marc Ravalomanana, who alleges the December election was rigged.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 02:53 PM

Noelle Bush was picked up by police at a Walgreens store and charged with fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance, a jail spokesman said. Police said she was attempting to obtain Xanax, which is used to treat anxiety disorder. The drug can make users feel drowsy and dizzy as it reduces nervousness and tension.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 02:50 PM

Postal Service spokesman Gerry Kreienkamp said that there is a certain irony to the fact that the agency has sealed a marketing deal with Microsoft while the Justice Department and state attorneys general are locked in settlement talks with the software company over antitrust charges, but said there is no conflict.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 02:06 PM

At as little as $50 a chip, Cantion is striving to be the low-cost leader (its microfabricated chips are designed to be thrown away after each use). By designing the modules to link to a doctor's PDA or computer, the company saves further on expensive instrumentation.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 01:54 PM

"There's a book called How to Build a Better Beowulf that's 230 pages long and tells you how to set up clusters with Linux," Dauger said. "We have a one-page manual (PDF) that shows you how to do it on PowerMacs. We've had high school students do it. We've had junior high school students do it. We even had a sixth grader in Hawaii do it."

Posted by at January 29, 2002 01:46 PM

Interior Minister Prince Nayef told the official Saudi Press Agency that of the 158 Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners being held at the Guantanamo Bay camp, 100 are Saudis.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 01:34 PM

Prime Minister Jean Chrtien said Canada expects the U.S. will treat the prisoners humanely. He added that a preliminary agreement said the U.S. would respect international law, but the details still have to be worked out.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 01:32 PM

The CAC concluded that this 15-year-old boy had his reputation tarnished, and was suspended from school for using 35mm film canisters to store his fishing lures. °ƒThis tells us that the drug dog needs a new nose, and Newport City Police officers need to get a life and a new job they can handle,°± commented CAC founder Leonard Browning.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 12:57 PM

Goofy looking site that actually has a number of links to interesting Taliban-related material.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 12:45 PM

The president's initial decision about the captives was apparently made on advice from Attorney General John Ashcroft who, a senior administration official said today, "didn't think about the world reaction." Mr. Ashcroft has held to his position, and appears to be supported by Vice President Dick Cheney. It is unclear what advice Mr. Bush received from Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:37 AM

Senior government officials acknowledge Canada may well give up "some" sovereignty by further integrating with the U.S. military. But they worry that the alternative might be worse: to have the U.S. act on its own, putting NORAD or any new command structure for North America strictly under U.S. control.

The dog generating all that crap also has all the guns.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:24 AM

"We're very much committed to (Kyoto), but we have to make sure we have a clear understanding before we ratify it." Dhaliwal noted the U.S. generates 25 per cent of global greenhouse gases.

In other words: we're committed to less dog crap on sidewalks, but we haven't yet decided to stop our dogs from crapping on the sidewalks, especially because there's this one big dog doing a fair bit of crapping all by himself. How's that again?

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:21 AM

A court official said the court dropped the most serious charges against 38-year-old Li Guangqiang, who had faced the death penalty. It convicted him of "illegal business operations" and sentenced him to less than the maximum of 5 years for smuggling more than 30,000 Bibles for use by members of a fundamentalist sect called the Shouters.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:19 AM

The move against TV-6 confirmed a pattern that has been taking shape since Putin assumed office just under two years ago. Engaging and even ingratiating overseas, he can be implacable at home, determined to build a political system where you question or embarrass the state at your peril. NTV learned this to its cost last year, and TV-6 became a prime target when it adopted the same stridently critical approach to Kremlin policies. Since Putin endorsed the war against terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks, the West has been mostly silent about Putin's continued crackdown on the media and in Chechnya.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:15 AM

Ms. Parrish, like MP Carolyn Bennett, criticized Mr. Chrtien's recent cabinet shuffle, suggesting the image of six white males sworn in simultaneously as new secretaries of state speaks volumes about where women stand in Ottawa.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 10:00 AM

The statue is truly larger than life, standing seven feet tall and weighing a hefty two tons of Carrara marble. By all accounts, it successfully captures the unflinching resolve and imperious character of its subject, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (plus handbag).

Posted by at January 29, 2002 07:17 AM

"Marriage is indissoluble... it doesn't make any sense to talk about the 'imposition' of human law, because it should reflect and protect natural and divine law."

You know what? He's right. Marriage is a religious construct that is improperly codified into the state. Marriage should give no innate benefits whatsoever, because it is a purely religious affirmation that a couple of people are going to live together. No man-made law should assume or perpetuate that, because it unfairly values the regulations of one church over another. Let legal marriage be abolished -- consigned to the same level of lovely, family-based ritual as baptism and bat mitzvah -- and all partnerships and child care agreements be set out in a concise standardized contractual agreement between as many people of whatever gender or race as desire to be involved, with tribunals to judge whether the agreement (which would involve ensuring certain minimum levels of support for children and certain minimum standards of conduct) has been observed. You can't force someone to be spiritual -- you can't force someone to keep a promise to love -- the state should never oblige such a thing, which belongs strictly in the province of the individual.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 07:10 AM

In the 500 or so words allotted, altaboy was able to lay out several clear and compelling reasons to consider WestJet as an investment. But don't bother scouring the exchanges for it if you live in the U.S., it's only available on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Posted by at January 29, 2002 06:53 AM

Article 9 of the current Constitution which dates back to 1921 reads: "Every law requires the approval of the Prince in order to gain legal validity." In the revised article of the government's draft a second sentence is added: "If there is no approval within six months, it is considered as turned down." The Constitutional Commission of Parliament had suggested to allow the possibility of a plebiscite in those cases in which the Prince refused his approval. A majority in a national vote should then suffice for a law to gain legal validity. However, this "overruling regulation" would not apply to law which dealt with the legal standing of the Prince.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:08 PM

A Treasury Board report distributed to all government departments advises that travel reports and hospitality expenses of cabinet ministers and political staff are no longer public information.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:47 PM

Google does not allow pop-up ads of any kind on our site. We find them annoying. So why do they occasionally appear when you search on Google?

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:27 PM

Czerwonka says staffing shortages are to blame, but that the problem only occurs sporadically; the last time being on New Year's Day.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:01 PM

Posted by at January 28, 2002 11:09 AM

"There is needlessly, I think, a lot of tossing out the coffee cups. They are becoming an eyesore," says Gillan.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 10:08 AM

"The secretary of state has requested that you reconsider that decision," White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote yesterday in a memo to Mr. Bush. "Specifically, he has asked that you conclude that GPW [Geneva Convention II on the Treatment of Prisoners of War] does apply to both al Qaeda and the Taliban. I understand, however, that he would agree that al Qaeda and Taliban fighters could be determined not to be prisoners of war (POWs) but only on a case-by-case basis following individual hearings before a military board."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:45 AM

Possible Portrait of the Anthrax Perpetrator

• Insider in US biodefense, doctoral degree in a relevant branch of biology
• Middle-aged American
• Experienced and skilled in working with hazardous pathogens, including anthrax, and avoiding contamination
• Works for a CIA contractor in Washington, DC area
• Has up-to-date vaccination with anthrax vaccine
• Has clearance for access to classified information
• Worked in USAMRIID laboratory in the past, in some capacity, and has access now
• Knows Bill Patrick and has probably learned a thing or two about weaponization from him, informally
• Has had training or experience in covering evidence
• May have had an UNSCOM connection
• Has had a dispute with a government agency
• Has a private location where the materials for the attack were accumulated and prepared
• Worked on the letters alone or with peripheral encouragement and assistance
• Fits FBI profile
• Has the necessary expertise, access and a past history indicating appropriate capabilities and temperament
• Has been questioned by FBI

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:43 AM

...foreign-exchange speculators often seem to trade at least as much on psychology as on economic analysis, and the government of Prime Minister Jean Chrtien actually seemed to welcome a lower dollar.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:20 AM

The defence is compiling a mountain of newspaper clippings and radio transcripts about Operation Printemps 2001, last spring's police sweep. More than 100 people were arrested as suspects in the gang's drug-distribution and money-laundering networks.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:17 AM

In any ranking of Canadian prime ministers, there is Sir John A. Macdonald and there are the others. But Robert Borden is among the great ones, not only because of his resolute wartime leadership, but his continuous and persistent assertion of Canadian sovereignty.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:12 AM

[Dr. Carolyn Bennett] noted that there was only one woman ° Susan Whelan ° among the 10 new members of cabinet. And she told the reporter that the image of six men lined up to become secretaries of state sent the wrong message to Canadian women because the new group was dominated by "white male faces."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:10 AM

Power shutdowns have become increasingly common in Russia as Unified Energy Systems tries to collect unpaid bills from government agencies, including the military.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:04 AM

U.S. special forces on Monday stormed a hospital where al-Qaida gunmen had barricaded themselves for nearly two months and had threatened to blow up the facility if anyone tried to remove them.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:02 AM

Today, United Poultry Concerns' President, Karen Davis, called Larry Brayman, the Director of Corporate Affairs for CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's franchises, to inquire whether the "nuggets" ad will be removed, as UPC, other animal advocacy groups, and many California and non-California residents have requested. Mr. Brayman said the company plans to continue running the ad, which shows men poking around the body of a live chickens, looking for the bird's "nuggets." The ad implies an anal search of the chicken's body and is completely offensive. It models itself on scenes of gang rape and on a medical examination of one's body that no one would consent to have publicly aired.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:00 AM

"Anyone who insinuates that I dye my hair insinuates that I always lie," Mr Schroeder is reported to have said.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:58 AM

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to give employees 60 days notice before mass layoffs or a plant closing, was originally intended to help blue-collar workers deal with plant shutdowns. Now, laid-off tech workers are finding out that it can apply to them as well, and they're taking action.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:57 AM

As he left Kabul on the weekend, Karzai told reporters that he intends to press for a larger multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. He wants more troops, as well as a promise that the soldiers will stay on past June °© when Karzai's temporary administration is replaced by a government chosen by a grand council.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:56 AM

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:53 AM

Angela Migally, a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, said the war on terrorism had "a chilling effect" on donations to Palestinian causes. She said that her group at Penn wanted to contribute to a charity that said it built playgrounds in Bethlehem but that students feared the foundation might turn up on a list of terrorist fronts and that contributors might draw unwelcome attention.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:50 AM

The Canadian Association of Journalists and the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists, in a joint submission to all parliamentarians released on the weekend, decried actions of the media giant as "a disturbing pattern of censorship and repression of dissenting views."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:39 AM

Mr. Yunas said he had found a piece of paper showing an American flag on the windshield of one of the compound's destroyed trucks. Large letters on the paper read, "God Bless America," and in one corner, someone had written: "Have a nice day. From Damage, Inc."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:36 AM

It is still unclear whether the helicopter, carrying General Mikhail Rudchenko - the man in charge of security in southern Russia - exploded in mid-air or crashed on landing north-west of the capital, Grozny.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:34 AM

Gates could probably buy Haiti without a mortgage, but he isn°Øt looking to rescue a particular country. His goal is to bridge the most fundamental gap separating the poor countries of the world from the rich ones: the gap in human health. His manner doesn°Øt betray a lot of softhearted emotion; he rocks slightly as he talks, using eye contact only as punctuation. He speaks more freely of strategies than goals, and seems more moved by numbers than by anecdotes. But the numbers are daunting and he knows them by heart. Infections that can be prevented or treated for pennies are killing 11 million people every year. Two billion lack access to basic, low-cost medicine, such as penicillin. As U.S. life expectancy approaches 80, some 27 countries have yet to achieve life expectancies of 50.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:31 AM

This site is designed to keep you informed about our efforts to stop this transaction. It includes the independent analysis of our financial advisor, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, LLC, press releases and the latest SEC filings. If you have any questions please call our proxy solicitor, MacKenzie Partners, Incorporated, at 1-800-322-2885.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:14 AM

This letter may be as a surprise since it is coming from someone you may have not met before. My name is Kenneth Lay, and I was the chairman of the world's largest energy trading company on paper. However, I have now resigned that position so as to become a civil advisor to the Nigerian National Petroleum Ministry (N.N.P.M.) and make you aware of a situation here in Nigeria with which your assistance could be vital.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 07:01 AM

A compilation of 555 numbers from movies, television and radio.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:58 AM

...last November [Ashcroft] and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson staged a major event in the Great Hall, to announce their plans for restructuring the Justice Department to address the new challenge of fighting terrorism. Many papers the next day used a photo of the attorney general with ° you guessed it ° Minnie Lou and that breast right over his shoulder.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:56 AM

> Lindgren wrote some 30 books and several plays, many of which have been made into films, television series, radio shows and cartoons.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:03 AM

Ottawa's Rideau canal, the world's longest outdoor skating rink, is the consistency of a daiquiri. It is the first time in 32 years that the five-mile-long canal has not opened by mid January.

I saw the "ice sculptures" yesterday. They looked like a snowplow left them.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:55 AM

"We have been very successful in making bio-gas from pig waste, so our next step is to try it on human beings," Piyasvasti Amranand, head of Thailand's energy policy office, told Reuters.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:49 AM

Neuroscientist Jean Decety of France's Institut de la Sant et de la Recherche Mdicale and a visiting professor at the University of Washington's Center for Mind, Brain & Learning heads up the study along with and developmental psychologist Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the center. "This work is important because imitation is a natural procedure. We don't learn to imitate. It is part of our biological nature and we are born to imitate," said Decety. "A 3-year-old feels empathy and will pat another child on the shoulder or comfort his mom when she's crying," Meltzoff said. "We believe empathy has roots early in life. It may be linked to imitation, which we know babies do from a very early age."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:47 AM

The missiles struck an open area under Palestinian control where a cemetery and agricultural fields are located, the security sources said. Four Israeli tanks then proceeded 200 meters (yards) into Palestinian-ruled territory, they said.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 07:01 PM

The conference also stressed the need to set up a focal point for women's national councils of Africa. Kenya was nominated to take up the challenge and to co-ordinate the resultant activities as yet another way forward.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:58 PM

Witnesses arriving from Coriolei district 80 kilometres south of Mogadishu said 15 people had been killed and another 20 wounded in fighting between farmers and cattle herders who normally get along. Hundreds of families have fled four villages that were burned in the fighting.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:51 PM

In a highly unusual move, Tiffany & Co.'s sole Toronto store suspended sales in mid-December. Peoples Jewellers followed suit on Jan. 1, after the diary of a former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden revealed al-Qaeda had dealings in tanzanite.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:22 PM

According to an opinion poll by ROMIR-Gallup International, 26 percent of the Muscovites polled said they viewed the conflict over TV6 as an economic dispute. Only 15 percent of those polled regarded the conflict as the Kremlin's onslaught on press freedom.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:15 PM

A spokesman for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, says a scholar hasn't been punished for plagiarism in China for at least six years. "This case has gotten a lot of attention, not because the problem is getting worse, but because the press situation is opening up, letting the public know the truth," says the spokesman, who did not give his name.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:13 PM

"He was discovered inside a vehicle parked between two medians," police spokeswoman Pat Whitty said. "A suicide note was found at the scene. There was no sign of foul play. Inside his wallet was an ID indicating he was an employee of Enron."

Or as the charming and brilliant Fred Lapides says, remember that the guy from Enron who killed hiself had to resort to a bullet because he was too big to fit into the shredder.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 06:03 PM

Ashcroft said both Canadians were born in Tunisia, but now hold Canadian passports. The two were last seen living in the Montreal area. He said law enforcement officials are not sure where either man is now, but he encouraged anyone who knows to call the FBI or the nearest U.S. consulate.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 05:41 PM

Hollywood has whitewashed much from Nash's life; besides working to dodge the Korean War draft out of fears that it would hurt his career, Nash fathered an illegitimate son whom he refused to help care for, despite the fact that his own circumstances were far better than those of the child's mother. The woman he married, Alicia Larde, is portrayed in the film as the one and only love of Nash's life; no mention is made of their 1963 divorce. (Nearly forty years later, the couple remarried.) To read Nasar's biography is to discover fascinating episodes like Nash's stint in Europe, when he attempted several times to renounce his American citizenship and obtain political asylum, and his encounters with fellow patient and Pulitzer prizewinning poet Robert Lowell in a Massachusetts mental hospital.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 04:05 PM

Before his death in 4 B.C., Herod suffered an array of symptoms - intense itching, painful intestinal problems, breathlessness, fever, swelling in the feet, convulsions and, finally, gangrene of the genitalia.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 04:02 PM

The Sydney woman, who moved to Western Australia three weeks ago, said the unwanted calls began in July last year and she later found out her number was listed for a service offering acts like the "Dirty Doctor" and "Cowboy Elvis."

Posted by at January 26, 2002 03:16 PM

Iritani mentioned that the meat would be "more healthy" than normal pork, although it was too early to say whether it could be considered as healthy as spinach.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 03:11 PM

I just realized another problem with Blogger Pro -- for group blogs, the bill is footed by whomever created the blog. But, dear darling Fred Lapides -- a sweet man but technically rather undeveloped -- has two blogs created and set up by the saintly Dr. Menlo. I imagine there are other cases where it's inappropriate for the blog creator to have to foot the entire bill.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 03:07 PM

This has some nice features, though frankly, I wouldn't pay for it unless it was to give back to Ev after he's given so much to us, etc -- because I don't like the posting limits of 100k per month and $3 per additional 100k. It's not just because I'm broke (which I am) or because the Canadian dollar is worth about 60 cents US, meaning Blogger is near twice as expensive for me (which it is), as that I find when I know I have a limit, I'm more conservative -- and that does not work well for me, I need to be able to wave my wild tail where it pleases.

The one-size-fits-all approach seems like a bad business model since it means those who post a lot -- and consume the most resources -- will not pay. A small ($20 for 100k, $2 per extra 10k), medium ($35 for 250k, $3.50 per extra 25k) and large ($50 for 500k, most relevant for group blogs, $5 per extra 100k -- best value!) plan would probably generate more revenue.

Ev's stated he's going to raise the price on Blogger Pro to $50/year sometime soon. As much as I like Blogger, Greymatter's not too shabby -- it's good enough for that kid from Star Trek.

I had intended to, grudgingly, scrape the Blogger Pro bucks from somewhere when the rumour was it would cost $30/year and before I heard about the posting limits.

Posted by at January 26, 2002 02:58 PM

Few details were immediately available, but authorities are treating Baxter's death as a suicide. He had been shot in the head.

How entertainingly convenient! Everybody break out yr conspiracy theory guides!

Posted by at January 25, 2002 01:11 PM

"Hello Mr. Lastman? This is Maurice Boucher," says Mr. Audette, during the interview, broadcast last night on CKMF.
"Hi," Mr. Lastman responds.
"But you can call me "Mom," it's my nickname," Mr. Audette continues.

Posted by at January 25, 2002 11:46 AM

"They are not going to steal explosives from a military base," Albright said. "They are going out and then going to a grocery store, a pharmacy, a medical supply store, and buying chemicals and then making them themselves. So it was a group that was being taught to be self-reliant."

Posted by at January 25, 2002 08:57 AM

The Rove associates say the recommendation, which Enron accepted, was intended to keep Mr. Reed's allegiance to the Bush campaign without putting him on the Bush payroll. Mr. Bush, they say, was then developing his "compassionate conservativism" message and did not want to be linked too closely to Mr. Reed, who had just stepped down as executive director of the Christian Coalition, an organization of committed religious conservatives.

Posted by at January 25, 2002 02:17 AM

MEPs on the parliament's petitions committee, defying suggestions that they were trying to harmonise rules made in the kingdom of heaven, said they would investigate Mr Owen's case.

Posted by at January 25, 2002 02:03 AM

The insurgents made their move, a defeat for the House Republican leadership, on the second day of the new Congressional session, collecting the final signatures needed on a petition to send the bill to the floor. They said their quest to ban the unlimited contributions to the political parties known as soft money had been revived by the collapse of the energy trading giant, Enron, and the tales of how the company spread nearly $6 million in campaign donations across Washington since 1989. More than half of the contributions were soft money.

Posted by at January 25, 2002 01:09 AM

1. Open an email window to microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov (with a subject of 'Microsoft Settlement').
2. Read through some of the many comprehensive resources on this case and the Tunney Act proceedings:
   • Dan Kegel's excellent collection of resources (mirror is here).
3. Pick your favorite problem with the proposed judgement. One is fine; hopefully a lot of people will be doing this.
4. Compose a simple, polite, email describing the problem and how you feel about it.
5. Send the email, and if you like, bcc (important do not cc) us at tunney@codeweavers.com.
6. [Optional, but nice] Print your letter out (maybe reformat it a little), and mail it to:
   
   Renata B. Hesse
   Antitrust Division
   U.S. Department of Justice
   601 D Street NW
   Suite 1200
   Washington, DC 20530-0001

Posted by at January 24, 2002 11:11 PM

"These journalists applied for tourists visas only because they had no other choice to cover the news. We ask the government to give them accreditation and let them work freely" said Robert Mnard, RSF General Secretary. "With presidential elections due in March we fear that Zimbabwe is hardening its stance against the local and international press" added Mr. Mnard.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 11:02 PM

Mr Lamptey writes: "HIV/Aids is likely to surpass the Black Death as the worst pandemic ever, as without access to drugs, most of the 40m people living with HIV will die.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 11:01 PM

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 10:22 PM

"He was very Canadian in the sense that he didn't bask in the public spotlight. Instead, he shuffled in the public spotlight."

Posted by at January 24, 2002 07:59 PM

Geetee should contact Holly about the status of the Hypercube using an alternate email address.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 07:38 PM

Gzowski became a fixture in Canadian homes during his career on CBC Radio. For three hours most mornings, Gzowksi brought Canadians a steady diet of news, music and conversation about their country. Many Canadian writers and musicians credited Gzowski with launching their careers.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 05:46 PM

My software is not compatible with you.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 02:44 PM

Laid-off staffers of the collapsed energy trader Enron got some more sour news in their severance checks last month. Though they'd already lost an estimated $1 billion on their 401(k) plans, that didn't stop the bankrupt company from deducting a final contribution for the retirement accounts.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 07:53 AM

"There's an aging population out there," said Sun Youth executive director Sid Stevens. "This problem has to be addressed. We've had phone calls from seniors who have been victimized and didn't call police because they are too terrified."

Posted by at January 24, 2002 07:17 AM

Here are the representation figures, and as you can see, someone in Nunavut has roughly 4.3 votes to every vote cast in Vancouver, Toronto or Calgary.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 07:00 AM

Back in 1995, Nixon was kicked out of a [Vancouver Rape Relief] training group for peer counsellors by a shelter representative who discovered that Nixon had not always been female. A transsexual woman, who had gender reassignment surgery in 1990, Nixon, though born biologically male, has lived as a female for more than 20 years.

Much of this article is noise, but the underlying story is quite interesting. It's a pity the author wastes so much space on her own pseudo-poetic musings.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 06:58 AM

Asserting that Mr. Bush did not suddenly bring up the anecdote about his mother-in-law, Mr. Bartlett said he first heard the president mention it at a private meeting of the White House economic team on Jan. 10. He also said that had the response been orchestrated, there would have been no need for Ms. Hughes to call him at the White House from West Virginia to seek more details about Ms. Welch's $8,000 Enron investment.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 06:52 AM

Lay will remain on the board of directors but will retire as an employee, which entitles him to a lifetime pension of $475,000 per year, according to Enron's 2001 proxy statement. That presumes Lay is credited for service through age 65.
The multiple criminal, congressional and U.S. regulatory investigations into Enron's stunning collapse are taking much of Lay's time and making it "difficult to fully concentrate on what is most important to Enron's stakeholders," he said.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 06:49 AM

Looking inward and outward at the same time, the new Canadian vanguard gathers currency because of vague similarities to other alienated indie films with international appeal. While retaining regional characteristics, what makes them hip is that they aren't typically "Canadian" (that is, typified by documentary realism, identity insecurity, technological determinism, insufferable boredom).

Posted by at January 24, 2002 04:48 AM

Posted by at January 24, 2002 04:36 AM

They removed and stored the creatures' ovaries in liquid nitrogen, then successfully transplanted them into rats that were genetically identical.
Although the transplanted ovaries were less efficient after freezing, more than half ovulated normally and one recipient became pregnant.
Lead researcher Professor Roger Gosden, of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said that if the technique could one day be applied to humans, it would offer an option to women and children who would otherwise be sterilized by chemotherapy.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 04:35 AM

No questions are asked and the weapons are exchanged for tools such as ploughs, bicycles and sewing machines, with the arms being disabled by the Christian Council of Mozambique and then passed on to the Maputo, Mozambique-based Nucleo de Arte association.

Posted by at January 24, 2002 03:54 AM

The complaints now before us seek to apply s. 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act to communication via the Internet. It is alleged that by posting material to the Zundelsite, the Respondent, Ernst Zndel, caused repeated telephonic communication that was likely to expose Jews to hatred or contempt. We are therefore asked to determine whether it is a discriminatory practice to post material on a Website if the material is likely to expose a person to hatred or contempt. What limits, if any, are to be applied to repeated communication of hate messages via the Internet? Finally, if applied to the Internet, is this a permissible restriction on freedom of speech under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Posted by at January 23, 2002 09:07 PM

``Mr. Duncan should not be punished for exercising his constitutional rights,'' Giuffra wrote, citing instances during the investigations of Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater in which witnesses invoking the Fifth Amendment were not compelled to appear.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 08:45 PM

The revised bill would allow foreigners to be accredited "for the purpose of covering a specific event over a limited period of time," provided they observe other still restrictive clauses in the bill.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:27 PM

One of the operatives in Indonesia, a Pakistani, was deported 10 days ago by Indonesian authorities to Egypt, where he is wanted for immigration violations and is also being questioned by American law enforcement officials, a senior Bush administration official said. The man, Hafiz Mohammed Sasa Iqbal, has been linked by American intelligence to the attempt by the so-called shoe bomber to blow up the American Airlines jet from Paris to Miami.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:26 PM

...Libya will be obliged to pay financial compensations for the victims of the Lockerbie incident.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:25 PM

``Terrorists groups from Xinjiang province were operating in Afghanistan under the command of al-Qaeda,'' Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told reporters in Beijing. ``They were not there alone for the cause of Afghanistan. The program was to use the soil of Afghanistan for their own purposes.''

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:17 PM

The proposal would only protect nature in defined zones of special environmental interest and green groups could not bring cases against companies themselves -- both fatal weaknesses in the proposal, Ferrigno said.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:15 PM

Officials say the temporary halt is not linked to the recent wave of criticism of the prisoners' treatment - the base simply cannot accomodate the several hundred prisoners still being held by the US military in Afghanistan.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 07:12 PM

Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. °ƒI don°Øt have any whisky,°± may be a fact but it is not a truth.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 06:40 PM

CYBER-GRIPERS PUBLISH Web sites with complaints about corporate behavior, often using a creative form of the company’s name combined with the word “sucks.” Harvilla is so worried cyber-gripers might become extinct that he is heading a group called the "Free Speech Center," which will dole out clever “sucks.com” variations — such as Company.comsucks.net — to anyone who wants one.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 06:16 PM

...Albert Angel, whose company, ICN, runs 900 services for the Weather Channel and state lotteries, among others, says customers can refuse to pay 900 bills, insisting they didn't make the calls. Often, he said, denial sets in when spouses see bills from psychic or sex lines.
Under the law, their telephone service cannot be taken away if they refuse to pay; the worst that can happen is that their phones would be blocked from making 900 calls in the future.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 06:05 PM

The investors suing Idealab--including Dell USA, T. Rowe Price Science & Technology fund and Moore Global Investments Ltd.--say there is little for the incubator to do and it could easily operate on a $1-million annual budget. Instead, Idealab maintains offices in Pasadena, Silicon Valley, Boston and London and recently doubled the salaries of Gross and Goodstein.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 05:53 PM

The cells seem to grow indefinitely in culture, like ESCs. Some cell lines have been growing for almost two years and have kept their characteristics, with no signs of ageing, she says.
Given the right conditions, MAPCs can turn into a myriad of tissue types: muscle, cartilage, bone, liver and different types of neurons and brain cells. Crucially, using a technique called retroviral marking, Verfaillie has shown that the descendants of a single cell can turn into all these different cell types - a key experiment in proving that MAPCs are truly versatile.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 05:43 PM

This will be nothing less than the ultimate intelligence-gathering tool. And we intend to construct it, at no cost, exclusively for the use of the federal government.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 05:41 PM

The computer industry's most famous garage tinkerer said he believes the time is right to develop a new class of consumer electronics to take advantage of advances in satellite tracking, wireless networks and more powerful computer chips.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 05:40 PM

But it was the murder of Mr. Ly that brought the confluence of gangs and computer games ° once the province of harmless nerds ° to a dangerous level.
"That was a wake-up call," said Bruce A. Broadwater, 60, who has been the mayor of Garden Grove for eight years. "We suddenly thought, What's going on here? Are these cafes places where hoodlums hang out, like pool halls in the old days?"

Posted by at January 23, 2002 11:16 AM

The disclosure from al-Libi marked the latest example in what U.S. officials characterize as an intelligence windfall from al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, documents, videotapes and other material seized in Afghanistan. U.S. officials say information learned in Afghanistan has helped thwart possible attacks in Singapore and Bosnia.

Posted by at January 23, 2002 10:51 AM