,----
| The Fall of the House of Saud
|
| Americans have long considered Saudi Arabia the one constant in the
| Arab Middle East?a source of cheap oil, political stability, and
| lucrative business relationships. But the government is also deeply
| corrupt, and gives succor to terrorism. Now, a former CIA operative
| argues, the Saudi royal family is on the verge of collapse?and much of
| the global economy could collapse with it
`----

This story is only available in the May issue print version. I picked
up a copy and read it in a coffee shop this morning. It's truly
arresting.

The Atlantic | May 2003 | Table of Contents

This is an excellent time travelling experience for city rats.

Vertigo...Then and Now

Mmmm. Military chow. Sometimes I actually miss that SOS. One year
friend of mine, a retired Army Major, took me to a mess hall in the Presidio
for my birthday. Mmmm.

quoted:
===

Natick, Mass. -- Despite military chow's lousy reputation, many products that Northern California grocery shoppers buy every day have come from innovations created for the battlefield.

M&Ms were invented so World War II fighters could enjoy chocolate that didn't melt in the heat of the Pacific. Similarly, tins of processed Velveeta cheese and Spam became prominent parts of the American diet after thousands of World War II soldiers survived on the processed food.

Freeze-dried coffee and soup mixes, chopped and formed meat and lightweight backpacker entrees all have come from military needs. So did something called "retort packaging," a heat and water process much like canning that keeps plastic pouches of food shelf-stable for years. Even McDonald's boneless McRib sandwich came from technology developed by the Department of Defense's Combat Feeding Directorate.

Right at home in the market / How M&Ms, Spam and Velveeta made it to the table

Here is an excellently written technical reference for
the subversion version control system. Aside from
the fact that subversion is cool, this book is notable
for it's presentation and style. I would have it that
more technical references were written in this manner.

Subversion: The Definitive Guide

,----
| We establish a fund in current time. You make a small
| contribution to the fund, and in a few hundred years
| that small amount grows to a very large amount. From
| that fund, moneys will be taken and used to retrieve
| you, perhaps seconds after you join, perhaps even
| moments before your recorded death, perhaps some
| other point in your lifetime. Further, the fund may
| even pay to have you "rejuvenated" medically
| (assuming this is scientifically possible at that
| time,) and support you financially for a number of
| years. (Note: Retrieving you just before the moment
| of death is just one possible scenario, but one that
| would....
| [. . .]
| Our fee is only $10, of which a percentage is placed
| into the fund, to grow and earn interest, and the
| rest is used to pay for overhead in running the
| website, covering legal fees, paying for your
| certificate, and maintaining the database of members.
| [. . .]
| As long as the interest earned out paces inflation
| and taxes, the money will eventually build to where
| the costs of retrieving, rejuvenating and supporting
| you are fully covered. For example, if you make a
| one-time only deposit of just a single dollar, at
| only 5% interest compounded yearly, in five hundred
| years that single dollar will grow to
| $39,323,261,827.22 (That's 39 BILLION with a "B"
| dollars!) Please note that we hope to earn 5%
| interest above taxes and inflation, which is very
| possible, even in today's economy (Tax lien
| certificates, for example, return 16% or better.) If
| we make 5% above taxes and inflation, then it would
| be like having $39 billion in today's money.
`----

step1: invest $10
step2: travel in time
step3: profit ???

The Time Travel Fund[tm]

He was goofing around, and there's only one way to interpret that kind of behaviour just seconds before announcing war on Iraq: the man is an idiot.

...

I've seen the footage they're talking about. It's not the hair combing, it's the antics. I watched as he sat there trying to practice his serious face and asking if it was good or not. It was pretty sickening.

George's little antics

Do you love words? This site is all about burgeoning usage.

The Word Spy

] The search is on for more than $US6 billion ($10 billion)
] that the United States believes Saddam Hussein and his
] inner circle have stashed around the globe.
]
] "Today we launched a financial offensive against the
] regime of Saddam Hussein," said the US Treasury
] Secretary, John Snow.

Here is an opportunity for Govenor Davis. A sum of $6Bn would neatly wipe out California's deficit.

US hunts regime's hidden billions

,----
| Roogle is a search engine for what is called a
| "RSS Feed". An RSS Feed is an XML tagged file
| which allows a website, news site or blog
| (actually any site) to provide to the world a
| list of its current contents. RSS feeds can
| contain all kinds of information from news to
| blog / weblog posts to stock quotes and more
`----

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but here is a search engine which searches RSS feeds. Nice.

Roogle :: RSS Search Engine

AAHHH-HA-HA--HA-HA OOOOO-HO-HO-HO-HO

SMRT People