Thought Flickr's

US spying in Latin america ??

Last August, the USS Virginia, first of a class of new nuclear-powered attack submarines, slipped out of its homeport in Groton, Connecticut, for a 90 day clandestine deployment in support of the global war on terrorism.

indeed!  I know that The Day is hometown booster for the submarine team, but clearly the newspaper failed to see the irony that we built a $2.4 billion submarine bristling with Cold War capabilities, and where do we send it on its first deployment: to South America to spy on cell-phone conversations.  "There's relatively little al-Qaida activity in this hemisphere, in Latin America.  There is some, and there is some fundraising that takes place for other terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and the like."

They don't call it the silent service for nothing, so we don't know whether the boat made us of its special operations capabilities to launch some covert raid on a FARC gathering in the Columbia jungles or an al Qaeda camp in the Brazilian jungles.

Undoubtedly the boat collected radar and communications signals and proved its "enhanced littoral intelligence-gathering capability," carrying onboard special eavesdropping equipment configured especially for Latin American signals and targets. Did it listen in on the governments of Venezuela or Bolivia or some other special event?

Via :WashingtonPost

So whats happening in that quarter that caused the USG to send in a $2.4B state of the art machine for a 90 day mission ??

Missing Brain Cells ?? then print some more !!

NewScience : A PRINTER that spits out ultra-fine droplets of cells instead of ink has been used to print live brain cells without causing them any apparent harm. The technique could open up the possibility of building replacement tissue cell by cell, giving doctors complete control over the tissue they graft.

The device is a variant of a conventional ink-jet printer. Instead of forcing individual droplets of ink through a needle-shaped nozzle and onto the page, the cell printer uses a powerful electric field to produce droplets just a few micrometres in diameter, far smaller than is achievable by other means.

Waaaaaa... I want my brain cells reprinted so that I can begin to behave like PeterPan :)-

Microsoft Blog Policy change

forbes reports "Brad Smith, Microsoft's top lawyer, said in an interview that it will depend on the circumstances of the shutdown as to whether the new policy means that an archive of the blog will remain available elsewhere, or that the Web blog's author will be able to continue posting information to users outside the country that ordered the blockage. Some of this, I think, we just have to recognize is evolving technology and changing law," said Smith, speaking by phone from a Microsoft-sponsored government conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

Rebecca : "Suggestion to Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Cisco, and everybody else doing internet business in China: Be as transparent and accountable as possible now. Conduct every conversation with Chinese authorities under the assumption that one day it will be on the record."

What I would like to see is that all three Corporate get together and build a reverse firewall policy which will be endorsed by the comunity at large. In this way, transprency will preveil across all governments and the internet community at large.

United we stand, divided we fall. Baby steps first. Kudos to Microsoft

RSS ADvisory Board

RSS Advisory Board, an independent organization formed in 2003 that publishes the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) specification, helps developers create RSS applications and broadens public understanding of the format .

Via :Rogers Cadenhead

Cong'rats to Randy Charles Morin who is part of the 8 member team. Hey Randy, could you make sure that Apple,Inc does their RSS thingy properly  :)-

IE7 Beta Preview Released !!

Microsoft releases the IE7 Beta Preview. Now check out to www.microsoft.com/ie and download Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview for Windows XP SP2 ! It should be there anytime now.

Some features

RSS platform  ,  Quick Tabs ,Tab Groups, Phising Filter, printing center, Delete Browsing History, Cross-domain script barriers, International Domain Name Anti-Spoofing., Fix My Settings, CSS improvements, Improved AJAX support.,OpenSearch Extensions.

This release is Beta 2 Preview and so not Beta 2, which should be released about the same time as Vista Beta 2 is released somewhere in April.

Update : Site is live

First Nations House Aboriginal Awareness Week

We are going to be in Toronto to help with the U of T's First Nations House Aboriginal Awareness Week of activities.   We will be kicking off the week with a Sunrise Ceremony on Monday, Feb. l3th at 7:00 p.m.  The location is at the east end of Hart House in a small garden area, which is right next to the Queens Park Circle.  Afterrwards there is a breakfast meal at the First Nations House.  There will be an Opening Ceremony at 9:00 a.m. with the U of T reps and the First Nations House Elders.  Afterwards we will havea Talking Circle with teachings at 10:00 - 12:00 p.m. and then there will be a lunch.

All are welcome

Chat and Cartoons !!

this is so cool. I will try it one day.

A site aptly named Chatfu has created a fun way to convert your saved chats into comic-strip style cartoons. You can simply cut-and-paste a chat session from any instant messenger or even IRC and Chatfu will "cartoonify" the dialogue, with each person getting their own cartoon character.

When you're done, you have the option of saving or deleting the chat. If you save it, you're presented with a URL that you can send to your friends so they can laugh with you.

via : BigBlueBall

Open Letter from Crazy Horse

Aho my relations:

I want to once again wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year! We have an exciting new year ahead of us filled with much work and hope. Due to your generous donations to the LPDC my legal team was able to obtain the necessary documents withheld by the FBI, as well as pay for copying costs of the documents. My legal team will be providing a legal update later.

For those of you who donated towards the travel expenses for my family to visit me during the holidays, I send you my deepest gratitude as well as that of my family. I can not find the words to express or convey to you how wonderful it was to sit with my family and enjoy my grandchildren's smiles and laughter. I hope to one day soon have the opportunity to share embraces with all of you, friends and relatives.

I have been receiving daily updates from the LPDC on all the activities and events that many of you are organizing for Feb 6, 2006. For those who are getting together in your homes to watch "Incident at Oglala," I will be there with you in spirit. I have also been told that many of you have contacted local theatres and have organized rallies and events that include viewings of "Incident at Oglala" or "Warrior." I commend you for your work and efforts in educating others about me and about the injustices and constitutional violations of my illegal incarceration. Many of you will be an Army of One, passing our brochures, holding signs, and writing letters of support. Thank you, your strength gives me strength to continue our fight for my freedom.

I ask you to please continue to support the LPDC and Legal Defense Committee with your thoughtful and generous donations. They are now comprised of an all volunteer staff. They are a dedicated team committed to my freedom, which have refused salary at this critical juncture. All donations sent to the LPDC are used for my ongoing legal campaign. We are also in dire need for funds to open a Defense Committee office near Lewisburg. There has not been a permanent office since my transfers this past year and opening an office here in Lewisburg is a high priority.

On Saturday, January 21, I was told the following message regarding Enya, a 10 year old supporter who wrote and contacted the LPDC with the following message, " I attend an all white school, and the kids make fun of me because I am Native American. On Feb 6, 2006 I am going to wear my Leonard Peltier shirt to school. Leonard Peltier is not afraid and neither am I. I am proud to be Native American." The LPDC contacted Enya and Enya proudly told them that wearing the Leonard Peltier shirt is a Badge of Honor for her.

After hearing Enya's message, I can tell you that if my incarceration has brought the feeling of encouragement and pride to our youth than I know that the 30 years of injustice I have endured behind bars have not been lost. This milestone of 30 years has forced me to look at myself introspectively. When I reflect upon the time I have been given on Mother Earth, I am often brought back to the vow I took for the survival of my people. I solidified that vow with my flesh as a Sun Dancer. As long as the Creator allows me to sacrifice so that my people may live, I will never back down. So long as Native youth like Enya rise against 500 years of oppression I will rise with
them. I ask you to stand with us in the face of this struggle.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier

Naked Conversations

Eventually I got my copies of Naked Conversations.

Yes, its six copies that I ordered. You may wonder why I did this- 6 copies ??

Let me give you a backgrounder on my thoughts. During the time Robert and Shel were blogging about Naked Converstaions, I was pretty much at times an active participant, and at other times a passive participant.

All along, I had this gut feeling that something new was emerging here. It was just not another book. The whole process took them approx  year and half from start to finish, before orders were finally shipped.

Oh, I think I was the first person to get my order in Canada. :)-

Anyhow, one fine day when I was mediating in my Tai Chi Room, something happened in my brain and I found myself the question "what am I doing to advocate to my peer group on whats happening 'out there', how can I get them on the same page, as they are not technology oriented people". Thats when the fancy idea come to my, to create a mini working group for future strategies and use Naked Converstions as the primer to jump start this process.

So the remaining 5 books, will be distributed to 5 core members. Across the next 10 months, this is my 10 step action plan for this group.

1. Read the book, end to end
2. Create a blogline Account and subsrcibe to a mininmum of 10 Feeds on any subject of thier choice and only be a silent reader.
3. Participant on thier selected Blogs via posting of comments and becoming part of the community around thier chosen sites/blogs.
4. Reality Check - Experience story telling @ month 3. Each particpate will bring to the table their own experinces.
5. Create their own Blogs on msnspace or Blogger. Each member subscribes to the other and create our own mini community.
6. Monitor the Quility of posting and content of each other and begin a discourse amongst ourselves.
7. Identity areas  within the Business house, where this type of conversations (blog) needs to be created or can happen.
8. Create a shared vision for a strategic plateau.
9. Create a business Plan for the SBU right down into 2010, inclusive of TOC,ROI Trustmodeling, etc etc.
10. Dec/06 - Present overall action plan for an inital inernal Blog strategy for the Business unit and obtain (hopefully) Executive Buy in.

Really not sure how this will play out. Or even, if the 5 members will have a passion and dedication to complete this long hual plan.

The primer for this group to introduce them to naked converstaion is in a powerpoint present .Download nakeconversations.ppt

Please take time to go through my  presentation. I welcome feedback and ideas. My count down to to unfolding the strategy is going to be  Feb 16th/06.

...and Wish me luck :)-

Whats holding back Corporate Blogging

via :BlogRevolt

Two authors of business blogging books -- Jeremy Wright and Debbie Weil -- for their thoughts on this question:

Jeremy Wright, a corporate blogging consultant and the author of Blog Marketing, named three factors holding back a stronger corporate embrace of blogging:

"First, these things take time. It never happens as fast as we imagine. Second, the software tools are in many cases still too immature for enterprise use. And third, a clear ROI (return on investment) from blogging remains to be demonstrated."

As for Debbie Weil, also a blog consultant and the author of the forthcoming The Corporate Blogging Book, she stressed the psychological roadblocks to corporate blogging:

"Fear is the single most important thing holding corporate America back from embracing blogging. Fear of being open, fear of a two-way conversation, fear of not being able to control the message, fear of the time commitment."

My two cents worth, Corporations don't like to ;

1. Air their dirty laundry in public.
2. Don' t like direct confornations within the public eye
3. Hate to lose control what they think is thier 'conversation'