The US spites it's face again - Castro and Katrina

Cuba finished 2nd in the World Baseball Classic. This normally would mean that the Cubans would have received 7% of the profits. Castro said he wanted to donate the money from the World Baseball Classic to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
But U.S. officials say Cuba isn't getting any prize money, in accordance with the 1962 U.S. trade embargo.

Talk about sour grapes! Hasn't this Castro-hatefest gone on long enough? The USA has made up with war criminals easier - and earlier - than this!
Another chance lost for America to prove they can be big about things.
At this rate, I'm going to start thinking that they can't be big about things.

Better a Refugee than a Pensioner

This is in fact a forwarded message I received, but it seems to fit the format.

"Do not apply for your old age pension. Apply to be a refugee instead.
It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890.00 and each can get an additional $580.00 in social assistance for a total of $2,470.00.
This compares very well to a single pensioner who, after contributing to the growth and development of Canada for 40 or 50 years, can only receive a monthly maximum of $1,012.00 in old age pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement. Maybe our pensioners should apply as refugees! Let's send this thought to as many Canadians as we can and maybe we can get the refugees cut back to $1,012.00 and the pensioners up to $2,470.00 , so they can enjoy the money they were forced to submit to the Canadian government for those 40 to 50 years."

Pentagon developing cyborg bugs.

The Pentagon's defense scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.
This is the latest brainstorm from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has a budget of $2 billion, and a mandate to keep US military technology ahead of rivals.

Well, now we know where some of the budget's $8 trillion is going.

Cloning the pancreas/Saving the Great Lakes

Two stories today.

First, good news for diabetics. Scientists are on the threshold of cloning pancreatic cells. This could mean that a simple operation could restore a diabetic's ability to produce insulin. Expect in in a few years.

The bad news is, the Bush government has cut funding for a cleanup of the Great Lakes. Somehow, that 2.8 trillion dollar budget couldn't squeeze out enough to help the environment.

The Boomer, the Bad, and the Bush.

"In order to win the war on terror, we've got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East," Bush told a meeting of the National Newspaper Association in Washington.

Good luck finding one. I think they've all been implicated one way or another, from Morocco (the Spanish bombings) to Iran.
Thanks to CNN for the info.

Milosevec commits suicide.
People seem to think that the death, having disrupted his trial, will have repercussions. Why? Goering did the same thing during his trial. They just went on to the next defendant.
Anyway, I guess Milo felt he had nothing to lose. What's one more mortal sin, after all?

Also, farewell to Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Canadian hockey legend.

Canadian Website to correct America's opinion of Canada

The Canadian Embassy in Washington is preparing Connect2Canada, an Internet site primarily that will provide weekly news highlights from Canada, Canadian positions on top issues, statistics and what U.S. journalists are saying about Canada.
Allow me to help with some of the news for Americans.
From the Globe and Mail:
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday the power to make cabinet appointments lies with his office and he won't turn relinquish it despite the threat of a pending inquiry by Canada's ethics czar into a former Liberal's move to the Tories' ranks."
"Canada won't “cut and run” from Afghanistan, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and there's no need for a House of Commons debate that could potentially sap the morale of troops overseas."

See, America? We're just like you in so many ways.

The Bonobo are becoming extinct

The bonobos are dying out.
The bonobo, or pan paniscus, is native only to the vast rain forest in the Congo, living high off the ground in treetop nests. As few as 5,000 may now remain, down from an estimated 100,000 in 1984.
You know what bonobo are, although you probably think of them as chimpanzees.
True chimps, though, are big, often mean, primates. The movie and TV industry prefer to use the smaller, more friendly bonobos.
Tarzan's Cheetah was a bonobo. So are all the chimps you see wearing clothes and doing things in commercials, movies, and TV series.
The Congolese consider them delicious. And they don't believe all the hype about them being endangered.

Shows what a lack of education in the environment will get you.

Cyberlibel - watch what you say.

Cyberlibel is the newest wrinkle in the evolution of blogs.
From now on, people who post defaming entries on their weblogs will face legal action.
From the Globe and Mail -
"Whatever the readership, libel lawyers and technology watchers say as more people use the Internet, the number of people getting in trouble for electronic words whether on websites and blogs, e-mails or electronic bulletin boards is also rising."
Also -
"The technology may be new but the law isn't.
“It's as though this person was putting up flyers or putting them under people's doors,” said Toronto lawyer David Potts, who specializes in the fast-growing field known as “cyberlibel.”
“It seems new because it's out in the ether, but cyberlibel is just a form of information warfare.”
Marc-Andre Blanchard of Gowling Lafleur Henderson said such cases are more prevalent, particularly in labour law, where collective agreements may make it difficult for a company to sue an employee they consider to be slandering them.
But that doesn't prevent disciplinary action.
“It's more and more common in labour relations,” Mr. Blanchard said, noting that many of the cases go unpublicized because the processes are rarely public."

Hopefully, I won't get into trouble for quoting the Globe and Mail.
But can you imagine what's going to happen to most of the American political blogs?

Diebold defrauds California; whistleblower arrested

Stephen Heller, a whistleblower in Los Angeles, is in legal trouble,
Stephen Heller is alleged to have exposed documents in Jan. & Feb. 2004 which prove that Diebold was using illegal, uncertified software in California voting machines, and that Diebold's California attorneys (the powerful international law firm Jones Day) had told them they were in breach of the law for using uncertified software.
The documentss Heller is accused of exposing show that Diebold and their attorneys, Jones Day, conspired to mislead the California secretary of state, and that the lie they told was material, and resulted directly in the disenfranchisement of voters. Another document demonstrates that Diebold lied to the secretary of state when it represented that certain problems with its software were "fixed", when they were not fixed. The documents show that Diebold had been advised by Jones Day that what it had been doing with its uncertified software was illegal, and that Jones Day advised Diebold that it was subject to criminal prosecution. According to Bev Harris, author of the book Black Box Voting, the docs "provided evidence that the Jones Day law firm was helping Diebold to cover up the fact that they were installing uncertified software which, as it turns out, caused thousands of voters to be unable to vote just weeks later."
Diebold was knowingly defrauding the state of California.
Nonetheless, it is Heller who is being prosecuted by the District Attorney, on three felony charges. Diebold and Jones Day have not been charged.
In fact, Heller's lawyer believes the 2 year wait to file charges was due to the then-impending 2004 election, and that Diebold and their attorneys didn't want the information to be made public in the lead up to the election.

Thanks to The Huffington Post and Who Hijacked Our Country for the info.