'Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Herald has learned.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called ``a showdown.''' (Miami Herald article [free registration required])

...yep, it worked. Wasn't too painful. Still, the mantra is in order:

May all script kiddiots everywhere find the enlightenment of True Knowledge.

'Serious questions continue to surround the sale of personal information to criminals by ChoicePoint, a commercial data broker. Last week, it was revealed that ChoicePoint had also sold personal information to criminals in 2002. This week, security breaches were announced by commercial data broker Seisint, and by retailer DSW Shoe Warehouse.The continued news of new and old breaches has shifted the debate in Washington from one where Congress was discussing whether a problem exists, to one where legislators are focusing on what should be done. Hearings on ChoicePoint will be held within the next week in the Senate
Banking Committee and the House Commerce and Ways and Means Committees.'

'I am happy to announce the publication of my book on the fourth Led Zeppelin record, the one with the four goofy symbols, "Stairway to Heaven," and the weird old man on the cover. This laborette of love is part of Continuum's 33.3 series, which features writers on different classic rock and pop albums. The books are short, which means they not only read fast and fit snugly in your pocket (they are slightly larger than a PDA), but cost just under ten bucks. So please check it out, and pass on the word.'

'So what happens when we take Crowley's advice and start playing Led Zeppelin records backwards? If you get your hands on a Technics deck or decent sound software and reverse Stairway to Heaven's central verses, you will probably just hear the slurring, sucking sonic taffy that youd expect. But if the appropriate passages are properly isolated, and you are prompted beforehand, then you are likely to hear things like "Here's to my sweet Satan" or "There's no escaping it". I certainly did, although the actual phrases sounded more like "Yish tomai swee Zaydn" and "Hair-airs no esgaybin id"' (...)

For more info on the above-mentioned bill, click here.

For more info on the Freedom Of Information Act, click here.

(Source: Electronic Privacy Information Center bulletin)

'From: "Isidoro Curtis"
To: "Wislaw Bowden"
Subject: MTW Drrugs
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 21:11:06 -0500

Hello,

though he had not the latter's magnetism. He's been tellin' me
the properties behind them. If you will give me fifteen days or
exchange, many curious figures had been pointed out to him--State
and she sang only when he was there. There was something about
and aboveboard. It's true I am very fond of her and she is very
in her manner decided him to speak before she left; and after
Cowperwood's cell for a week if the visiting-hours of the peniten
political loyalty stuff cloud your judgment. You're in a very
in regard to the sixty-thousand-dollar check and his personal
anyhow you can't afford to be now. We're in this thing together.

Have a nice day.'

Frankly, it's hard to see this as anything other than an Imp of the Network babbling away in some weird dialect of Burroughs-cutup-ese. But if you think you have a rational explaination, by all means post it below... comments are open for this one, uh, until the other spammers find it.

UPDATE: Here's also the NYT article Disinfo links to, and a SF Gate article as well. I don't really have any words to add that wouldn't be banal. My response to this will simply be to make some bartender's day. I know Dr Gonzo would approve. Over and out.

'While it's important to respect your children's privacy, understanding what your teenager's online slang means and how to decipher it is important as you help guide their online experience. While it has many nicknames, information-age slang is commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Leet (a vernacular form of "elite") is a specific type of computer slang where a user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically—creating the digital equivalent of pig Latin with a twist of hieroglyphics.

Leet words can be expressed in hundreds of ways using different substitutions and combinations, but once one understands that nearly all characters are formed as phonemes and symbols, leetspeek isn't difficult to translate.' (Microsoft.com article)

Anyway, long story short, I am temporarily withdrawing from confrontation with the spambots. At least now I can say that this site doesn't serve to prop up the Google rankings of cheap viagra pushers and similar scum. Of course the goal is to restore comments and pings to their full functionality, but I don't have time to fully get into it right now, and with MT-Blacklist not functioning, the fuckers were really taking advantage of me full blast.

I am considering several options to fix this issue and at the same time revamp the Corridor a bit. For instance, upgrading to the latest version of Movable Type would allow me (almost certainly) to keep the custom design with little or no effort, but frankly I'd rather switch to some truly Free software. I've tried and liked Drupal recently, so that might be another possibility.
If you know how to get in touch with me, feel free to send suggestions and ideas. Till soon,

mindwarp

'"We have developed a fully automatic image correction technique that supports projections of real-time graphics or video content onto everyday surfaces. The output appears as being projected onto artificial (white and planar) canvases. The actual surfaces, however, can be geometrically complex, arbitrarily textured and colored," said Prof. Oliver Bimber.'

[...]

'Researchers developed a correction methods implemented in software that amend all geometric and color distortions caused by absence of white canvas. The system automatically determines all parameters required for real-time geometric pre-distortion and color correction of video frames delivered by PAL/NTCS compliant devices like DVD players or game consoles, or real-time monoscopic or stereoscopic graphics. Neither the geometry of the surface nor internal or external parameters of projector and camera have to be known for calibrating the system.' (PhysOrg story)