] At Macworld, out-of-work dot-commers pose as marauding
] clowns. The authorities are not amused.

Salon.com Technology | Send in the iKlowns

] EUPHRATES 'POISONED'
]
]
] US Marines found cyanide and mustard agents in high
] concentrations in the Euphrates River near Nassiriya in
] Iraq, television network MSNBC has reported.
]
] The network said a briefing from Marine officials was its
] source for the information.
]
] The agents were found during routine tests conducted to
] ensure the water being used is safe, MSNBC said.
]
] Neither Centcom officials in Qatar nor US military
] officials in Iraq have confirmed the MSNBC report.

And a previous story, already reported here,

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1086327,00.html

] IRAQ'S CHILLING WARNING

] Hundreds of US troops have been drafted in to reinforce Baghdad
] airport after Iraq warned it will take unconventional action
] against them tonight.
]
] Saddam Hussein's information minister said: "Tonight we will
] carry out something that is non-conventional against them, not
] military. It will be a great example to them."

Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event

] A nine-meter-tall carnivorous dinosaur probably wouldn't
] need much help establishing a ferocious reputation. But
] researchers writing in the journal Nature have discovered
] another trait of the species Majungatholus atopus that is
] sure to do just that. It seems that this dinosaur, which
] roamed Madagascar between 65 and 70 million years ago,
] was a cannibal.

It's a Dinosaur-eat-dinosaur world out there

] Where is BountyQuest when you need it? The company,
] founded in 2000 and backed by Amazon CEO
] Jeff Bezos, offered cash rewards to individuals who could
] prove or disprove a company's claim to a patent. Amazon
] itself found its patent on one-click ordering called into
] question on the site. But BountyQuest is apparently no
] more, its Web site shut down, its phones disconnected.
]
] Meanwhile, Amazon.com has filed for a patent involving
] online advertising, stoking the ire of many industry
] watchers. The company wants to stake its claim to a
] method of allocating online ad space via real-time
] auctions. But many are questioning whether this concept
] originated with Amazon, noting that the idea was
] discussed frequently during the dot-com boom.
]
] Is there anything to Amazon's claim, or is this another
] instance of the company patenting the obvious, as it did
] with affiliate programs and one-click ordering?

The Case of Amazon's Newest Patent Battle

] It provoked protests from privacy advocates and
] high-flying executives. People boycotted and bad-mouthed
] it.
]
] People from all corners hate the idea of the
] passenger-profiling system called Computer Assisted
] Passenger Pre-Screening II program, better known as CAPPS
] II.
]
] But CAPPS II is not travelers' biggest privacy threat,
] according to Edward Hasbrouck, a travel agent and author.
] CAPPS II is only one possible use -- and perhaps not the
] most invasive -- of the Transportation Security
] Administration's proposed Aviation Security Screening
] Records database.

Double plus ungood.

Traveling? Take Big Brother Along

] In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top
] the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of
] people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne
] Division who marched into town today.
]
] What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the
] Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What
] would the Americans bring?
]
] "Democracy," the man said, his voice rising to lift each
] word to greater prominence. "Whiskey. And sexy!"
]
] Around him, the crowd roared its approval. Yet when the
] first round of welcomes to American soldiers and
] journalists were exuberantly, even affectionately
] completed, the people in the crowd had a more urgent
] request than liquor. They wanted water.

Exuberant Crowd's Most Urgent Request: Water

] One of the most mysterious aspects of this highly
] mysterious war is the absence of casualties. People get
] killed in normal wars. Who is getting killed in this one?
] And where is the Iraqi army?
]
] As a percentage of those engaged, casualties represent
] less than one tenth of one per cent. For purposes of
] comparison, during the Second World War casualties in
] Bomber Command of four per cent per sortie - say 300 dead
] aircrew each 1,000 bomber raid - were thought bearable.
]
] The British death toll so far is under 30 and most of the
] victims have died in accidents. The American death toll
] is not much higher.
]
] Opponents of the war will say that, though Western
] casualties may be low, that is not true of the Iraqis.
] Perhaps but where is the proof?
]
] Although there is still a large Western press corps in
] Baghdad, television has so far succeeded in bringing us
] only the most paltry evidence of deaths inflicted among
] civilians by the coalition - three here, perhaps 17
] there, but that may have been Iraqi friendly fire. In a
] similar incident during the Bosnian war, when a Sarajevo
] market was shelled by the Serbs, 80 were killed. The
] Iraqi government announced yesterday that 1,250 civilians
] have died but provided no evidence.

Where are the casualities and the Iraqi army? - War on Iraq - smh.com.au

] Reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of World War II, Saddam
] Hussein has trained an 8,000-strong army of children to
] face coalition forces in Baghdad.
]
] In a report by the New York Daily News, Peter Singer of
] the Brookings Institution explains the children are
] considered a junior Fedayeen Saddam %u2013 the
] paramilitary forces Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
] has dubbed "death squads" for the atrocities they commit.
]
] The child army is called Ashbal Saddam, or Saddam's Lion
] Cubs, according to the report.

WorldNetDaily: Saddam trains kids to kill

What a Precious Moment.

Lord Bless the Defender of Freedom!!

] The soldier's father said the family hoped to speak with
] Jessi, as she's known at home, soon.

holy crap, that's what i'm known as at home. spelled that way too.

U.S. POW rescued in dramatic raid