Eideard

Political observers across New York are asking today whether Erie County Executive Chris Collins has irreparably damaged his prospects for statewide office after he compared Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Adolf Hitler and an Antichrist during a Saturday speech in Buffalo.

Collins has already apologized for what he called “a poor joke,” delivered during a speech at the county Republican Party’s annual fundraiser in the Adam’s Mark Hotel.

That’s when the county executive referred to French seer Nostradamus’ prediction that the world would experience three Antichrists in conjunction with the Apocalypse, whose origin is the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.

Collins then said it’s generally accepted that the first was Napoleon, the second Hitler, and that he was “pretty sure” the third is Silver, an orthodox Jew from Manhattan…

“He’s the former shining light of the Republican Party,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant from Manhattan who studies ethnic and religious voting patterns.

“Never mind the anti-Semitic content,” he said. “It makes him look nuts, and it doesn’t add to the discussion…

One of those attending Saturday’s dinner called the statement “unbelievable.”

“It was staggering,” said the Republican, who asked not to be identified. “It took my breath away.”

This is why spin doctors invent words like “misspoke”.

Jerks who can’t and won’t deal with society’s bigotry always have to fall back on some silly rationale to cover their buns when they let crap like this slip out.

Visitors to technology blog Gizmodo are being warned that they could have picked up more than tips about the latest must-have gadget.

According to security firm Sophos, the website was delivering advertisements “laced with malware” last week.

A statement on the Gizmodo website admits that it was tricked into running Suzuki adverts which were in fact from hackers.

It follows a similar problem on the New York Times website. Last month the New York Times’ website was targeted by a gang of hackers who purchased ad space on the site by posing as internet telephone company, Vonage.

In both cases the adverts served up fake anti-virus software – known as scareware.

Scareware attempts to convince users that their computer is infected with viruses and trojans, and tricks them into downloading “remedies” which are harmful and can be used by criminals to get at information such as credit card details.

“What is particularly audacious about this plot is that the criminals appear to have posed as legitimate representatives of Suzuki in order to plant their dangerous code on Gizmodo’s popular website,” he added.

It’s called social engineering, folks. You know that.

Remember – there is no patch for stupid.

[Susan Boyle's] new disc “I Dreamed a Dream” – out November 23 – has racked up the most pre-orders in Amazon.com history….

She became a singing phenom after her April performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on “Britain’s Got Talent” captured hearts of people around the world.

But the media and fan attention – including over 100 million views of her “Cry Me a River” video on YouTube.com – took its toll on the singer.

After finishing second in the talent competition, the songstress had a string of public outbursts and erratic behavior. She then spent five days at a psychiatric facility in June.

This marks Boyle’s first recording and includes a cover of “Wild Horses.”

Good for her.

Check out her performance of “Wild Horses” here: Wild Horses. Tell me what you think.

Related Link: The performance that got the ball rolling

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter (.pdf) to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end…”

U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer,” Holbrooke said in an interview. “We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to him.”

RTFA. The breadth and range of questions being asked publicly is an indication of the transparency gained in the last election.

Support for agreement – and disagreement – with administration policies in the region are stoked by a thoughtful political act. Again, something missing in recent years.

Try telling that to a Republican/Libertarian/No-responsibility Neocon.

Basic actions taken by everyday people can yield fast savings at low cost, according to MSU Professor Thomas Dietz and colleagues.

Cutting consumer energy waste is a good place to start, said Dietz, a professor of sociology and environmental science and policy at MSU. Household energy consumption accounts for 38 percent of carbon emissions in the United States and 8 percent of world emissions, he said.

Activities such as home weatherization, routine vehicle maintenance and opting for the clothesline instead of the dryer could cut total U.S. carbon emissions by 5 percent over just five years and 7.4 percent in 10 years, Dietz said. That’s the equivalent of France’s total carbon output, or of total emissions by the U.S. petroleum refining, steel and aluminum industries…

“We can make great progress with the technologies we already have if we pay attention to behavior – how people use the technologies they already have.”

Dietz and collaborators…didn’t base their estimates on a best-case consumer behavior scenario. Instead, they used the best available information to calculate how many families could reasonably be expected to take such measures if they were provided information, offered financial assistance and could interact with others doing so…

“I’ve seen many analyses that make wild assumptions about how hard or how easy it is to get people to change their behavior, without any basis in science,” he said. “Our analysis is based on science. We look at what has been feasible in bringing about changes in energy consumption behavior…”

“We know from a lot of research that most people, companies and governments are most likely to change behavior when they see their peers change. So someone will weatherize their houses when they see others do it, and governments are most likely to develop policies when they see other governments doing it.”

Now, the example up top is what Professor Dietz is talking about. What follows on – is that the nutball response to this involved Republicans dragging one or another conservative motorhead who said Obama is wrong – it ain’t 3-4% oil consumption reduction, it’s only 3-4% increase in gas mileage!

Point still remains that conservatives used to be conservationists – not copouts.

Chief constables will be forced to justify the legality of recording thousands of law-abiding protesters on secret nationwide databases, the government’s privacy watchdog announced today.

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said he had “genuine concerns about the ever increasing amount” of personal data held by police.

Graham’s move came after the Guardian revealed how police have developed a covert apparatus to monitor people they consider are, or could be, “domestic extremists”, a term which has no legal basis.

Photographs and personal details of thousands of activists who attend demonstrations, rallies and political meetings are being stored on the databases. Surveillance officers are given so-called “spotter cards” to identify individuals who may “instigate offences or disorder” at demonstrations.

Alan Johnson, the home secretary, was today forced to defend the police for labelling protesters “domestic extremists”. He said: “I haven’t issued any guidance [to police] on the definition of that phrase. The police know what they are doing, they know how to tackle these demonstrations, they do it very effectively…”

David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said that “an alphabet soup of agencies appears to have decided to put everyone in this country who protests about anything on a list of suspects”.

RTFA. None of this should surprise anyone in the UK or the US. Give political powers to policing bodies and – guess what? – they expand on those powers as they see fit. No rhyme or reason is required. Don’t worry – a rationale will be provided on the spot.

In case you thought there was a slight difference between Labor and Conservative, liberal and conservative – remember it was the Blair Government that handed over these freedoms in the name of safety. The Bush government did the same thing here.

The United Nations Monday named Disney character Tinker Bell an “Honorary Ambassador of Green” to help raise children’s environmental awareness.

The announcement came just before a screening at U.N. headquarters in New York of the world premiere of the Walt Disney animated film, “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.”

“We’re delighted Tinker Bell has agreed to be our Honorary Ambassador of Green,” said Kiyo Akasaka, undersecretary-general for communications and public information. “This beloved animated character can help us inspire kids and their parents to nurture nature and do what they can to take care of the environment.”

Tinker Bell rocks!

Customs officials in Norway have arrested a man who they say tried to smuggle 24 reptiles into the country by taping them to his body.

Fourteen royal pythons rolled up in socks were found taped to the man’s torso and 10 geckos held in small boxes were taped to his legs.

Officials were alerted to the illegal haul after a tarantula was found in the man’s luggage.

The 22-year-old was travelling to Kristiansand on a ferry from Denmark.

The snakes, which are not endangered, are the smallest of the python family and are not venomous.

Eeoough!

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

One of Warren Buffett’s favourite sayings about the market is: “be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy”.

When the market was fearful last September, Mr Buffett was greedy, putting $5 billion into the investment bank Goldman Sachs on exceptionally favourable terms…

He has always enjoyed himself in a falling market, which, as he sees it, provides him with the best opportunities.

As if to prove his fabled status as the most successful investor ever, Mr Buffett prints his fund’s spectacular growth record, all the way back to 1965, in the annual report of his company, Berkshire Hathaway.

It shows he has achieved an extraordinary 20.3% average annual growth in the company’s value, which – he helpfully works out – comes to a mind-boggling 336,000% over the years – 84 times that of the standard US index fund, the S&P 500…

This is a man who has not even started a business…Nor has he invented anything, or come up with a way of making businesses more profitable.

And he still lives in his native Omaha, in the mid-western state of Nebraska, 1,200 miles from the financial whizzkids on Wall Street…

He believes that if a deal needs complicated calculations before you can decide if it is right, then it probably is not. He always leaves a “margin of safety”, he says, so that if things don’t work out as he’d hoped, he does not lose money…

Detailed and fun read – even if you’re not investing for something in the future. Buffett’s commentary on the Whiz Kids who can’t think beyond the next quarter warms the cockles of my heart.

We always imagined how this might end: GeoCities would finally take down all of the animated “under construction” signs, and we’d hear one last Midi file to the tune of horns playing taps.

Instead, GeoCities will probably go down with a whimper today.

Time is up for Yahoo’s scheduled closing of perhaps the most significant virtual museum in recent history. Years ago a central meeting place for a massive chunk of American Web surfers, GeoCities will lock its doors and take millions of pages offline.

GeoCities allowed anyone to build a custom Web page for free and reserved a small amount of virtual storage to keep pictures and documents. It was perhaps the first mainstream example of an open, participatory and personal Internet.

At the turn of the century, GeoCities was nearly ubiquitous. Fathers created websites about their families; kids created sites about Pokemon; teenage girls created sites about the Backstreet Boys. Practically every facet of culture was documented and thanks to search engines, easily accessible.

All of those documents are about to disappear…

The decision to shut down GeoCities rather than keep it around for historical reference and, say, slap ads all over it is curious. Especially when you consider that the network is still among the top 200 most-trafficked sites on the Internet, according to metrics tracker Alexa.

But, then, measured, well-thought-out business decisions is not what you think of when someone says – Yahoo!