CARNIVAL of the VANITIES-The Anniversary Edition

The Carnival of the Vanities is up and back to its roots where it started one year ago. Many thanks to Bigwig. Happy Anniversary!

MOONSHINE IN LATVIA

When products are too expensive for the citizens to purchase through legal outlets, black markets arise. This is such a story.

Anything for a cheap drink

Latvian police said in early August that they had discovered a kilometre-long plastic pipe running from Russia to Latvia that was funneling illegally brewed spirits. Such moonshine, which is commonly purchased in the countryside across the Baltic states, is much less expensive than anything sold in Latvian stores. It is also far cheaper to make in Russia then in Latvia, so the black-marketeers involved stood to make a hefty profit.

The meticulously laid tubing was first spotted by Russian soldiers, who then tippled off their counterparts across the border. The Latvians then traced the makeshift pipeline to an outlet behind a cottage woodpile near Vilaka, in the northwest corner of Latvia. One Latvian resident was arrested on 3 August, though it wasn't clear if Russian officials also detained and charged anyone. Other spirit-carrying pipes have been found around the Baltics in the past, but never one so long. European Union officials fear that similar kinds of smuggling from Russia could increase after the Baltics, as expected, join the EU next year.

Illegally distilled liquor is seen as a major health hazard in the region. Not only is the purely distilled substance extremely potent in its own right, but producers sometimes mix potentially lethal methanol into the brew either by mistake or to give the alcohol more kick. In 2001, 68 Estonian people died in a matter of a few weeks after drinking black-market alcohol that proved to have been heavily laced with methanol.

Just one of many stories filtering out of the former Soviet Union to shake one's head about.

BAD DOPE IN CANADA

[via Yahoo!] The Canadian government now deals dope to its citizens and the marijuana they grow and sell is making the buyers angry. Apparently, the product is being sold in 1-ounce bags for $195 and the customers are returning them for a refund. They claim it's not as good as the stuff on the street.

"It's totally unsuitable for human consumption," said Jim Wakeford, 58, an AIDS patient in Gibsons, British Columbia.

In addition to selling the stuff, the government is providing cushy places to use the drugs. In Vancouver they inaugurated:

. . . North America's first government-authorized drug-injection site Monday. The controversial government-funded project will give users injection kits and allow them to shoot up under nurse supervision.

Drug users sometimes use dirty needles and water from puddles to shoot up. Now, addicts wanting to use the new facility will be ushered into a brightly lit room lined on one side by open, mirrored booths where they can inject drugs.

After finishing, they will be taken to a "chill-out room," where they can receive counseling and peer referrals.

I am hoping that they are successful in their programs. Canada might lure drug users from other countries such as the US and then have additional subjects to monitor for their liberal drug programs while the US would have fewer drug users. It's a win-win situation.

DATING TIPS FOR THE BLIND

Dan Nephin, AP writer, reports on an aspect of life of which many people are oblivious. Dating when blind.

When Lauren Halbert was 16 years old and new to dating, she thought that having a handsome guy on her arm was what it was all about.

Then she lost virtually all of her sight - and nearly her life - in a car crash almost two years ago. Life and dating haven't looked the same since.

For one thing, physical appearances no longer mean anything; it's who a person is on the inside that counts to her now, said Halbert, 18, of Weatherford, Texas.

"They might look hot as anything" and treat you poorly, said Halbert, one of three dozen people who attended a seminar on dating for the blind and visually impaired at the American Council of the Blind's annual convention in Pittsburgh.

Lynn Cooper, motivational speaker and seminar leader, discussed the general barriers that must be overcome when a blind person dates and also provided specific guidance.

Blind or visually impaired people might want to bring along a trusted seeing friend on a first date, Cooper said. The friend can later tell them how the date went based on visual cues.

A seeing friend or family member can also help a blind or visually impaired person select an outfit that projects the right personality.

My mind conjures up all kinds of scenarios when I think of the problems a blind person has in dating.

THE NANNY CONGRESS

Karen MacPherson of the Toledo Blade reports on the latest from the Nanny Congress.

Alarmed by the nation's rising rate of childhood obesity, Congress is considering bills designed to wean American children from junk food and inspire them to get physically fit.

One bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R., Tenn.) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D., N.M.) would take a big-picture approach by focusing on obesity in children and their parents.

These lawmakers, both in the House and Senate, would target federal funds to better educate health professionals about obesity, encourage state and local programs for healthy eating and physical fitness, and boost federal research on eating problems.

Don't let anyone be deceived. This is just another step towards a fat tax.

ELECTRICAL GRID IS VULNERABLE TO HACKERS

Jim Krane, AP Technology writer, has put together this piece for InformationWeek detailing some of the reasons why the electrical grid is becoming increasingly more vulnerable to computer hacking.

Since last month's Northeast blackout, utilities have accelerated plans to automate the electric grid, replacing aging monitoring systems with digital switches and other high-tech gear.

But those very improvements are making the electricity supply vulnerable to a different kind of peril: computer viruses and hackers who could black out substations, cities, or entire states.

Researchers working for the U.S., Canadian, and British governments have already sniffed out "back doors" in the digital relays and control-room technology that increasingly direct electricity flow in North America.[and]

"I know enough about where the holes are," said Eric Byres, a cybersecurity researcher for critical infrastructure at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. "My team and I could shut down the grid. Not the whole North American grid, but a state, sure."

Interjecting, shutting down the grid in one state would dramatically impact the ability to supply power in adjacent states, possibly causing a cascade of shutdowns. Continuing:

The Blaster worm that flummoxed an estimated half-million computers around the world last month might have exacerbated utilities' problems during the August blackout, bringing down--or perhaps blocking communications--on computers used to monitor the grid, said Joe Weiss, a utility control system expert.

"It didn't cause what happened, but it could've exacerbated what happened," said Weiss, with Kema Consulting in Cupertino, Calif. The blackout followed the Aug. 11 Blaster outbreak by just three days.

The Ohio utility that is the chief focus of the blackout investigation, FirstEnergy Corp., is investigating whether the Blaster worm might have caused computer trouble that was described on telephone transcripts as hampering its response to multiple power line failures.

I'm sure the experts are immersed in the problem. Having been one of the population affected by the August 14th blackout, this issue is of interest to me. It seems logical that an event of the blackout's magnitude probably had many contributing causal factors. I believe inadequate maintenance, inadequate procedures and training, along with unanticipated equipment failures, were also contributing factors. Yet, somehow I can't shake the notion that computer hooliganism may have been a major factor.

Read the whole informative article here.

IRAQ DEPLOYMENT MAY HURT FIJI ISLAND TOURISM

This story came from the Marianas Variety newspaper which is published in Guam.

A leading Fiji hotelier has warned that the involvement of Fiji troops in Iraq will impact negatively on the country's tourist industry, its biggest source of income.

The managing director of the Shangri-La chain in Fiji and a senior executive of the Fiji Hotel Association, Radike Qereqeretabua, said the deployment could destroy the economic growth expectations of the nation.

Qereqeretabua said with the prevailing mood of Iraq and its fanatical allies, any foreigner under the United Nations umbrella may be regarded as invaders and generate reprisals against their countries.

I think this senior executive has flawed logic, but, nonetheless, it appears that the country of Fiji has citizens who don't think they should support the UN when it's too hard.

INTERNET SPAMMER FINED $250,000

(Dayton, OH) Here's a story by Jim DeBrosse reporting for the Dayton Daily News. It concerns a judgment in the State of Washington on an Internet spammer living in Ohio.

Charles F. Childs, Dayton's premier bulk e-mailer, has lost a $250,000 lawsuit filed by a determined anti-spammer in Washington, where tough state laws ban unsolicited e-mail.

Nigel Featherston, 57, of Redmond, Wash., now must try to collect from Childs and business partner Linda Lightfoot.

�What's the possibility of getting money from a rock?� Childs said Thursday. "Mr. Featherston has just as much chance of getting money out of me."

Featherston spent $10,000 for an attorney and private investigator in his quest against Childs, Lightfoot and their corporate personae: Universal Direct, Mega Direct, Mega Success and Ultra Trim 2002.

He said he would enforce his King County Superior Court judgment, issued last week, even though that will cost him thousands more.

The Washington anti-spam law, enacted in 1988, fines spammers $500 for each unsolicited e-mail. Pretty hefty. I wonder if it will catch on in other states.

As for collecting judgments from out-of-state, that used to be a problem with deadbeat dads evading payment by crossing into another state. So many states complained that Congress passed legislation to allow deadbeats to be arrested anywhere.

POLICE SEEK APPROVAL TO BE BRIBED

Check out this story from the Cincinnati Enquirer about a suburb just across the Ohio River in Kentucky.

Ludlow Police Department officials asked the Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney in June to approve an idea that would have the state offering reduced sentences to suspected drug dealers in exchange for cash donations to the police department, county attorney Bill Crockett said Saturday.

Crockett said he immediately rejected the idea, but confirmed that a Ludlow police officer still tried to pursue the idea even after Crockett's office advised against it.

"When the idea was brought to me, I advised the department that it can't be done, that we can work toward resolving the cases, but not (like that)," Crockett said.

When asked if the idea was illegal or just bad policy, Crockett said: "Both. It's illegal and it would look bad. There is just no basis in the Kentucky revised statute to achieve what they wanted to do."

I spilled my coffee when I read this piece. Cash donations to the police in exchange for getting out of jail! ! ! Holy Christ! What were these protectors of the public thinking?

[Update - 9/16/03] The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the Ludlow City Council is considering policy changes regarding investigations conducted by the police.

The policy changes are in response to claims that a Ludlow police detective improperly sought cash payments in exchange for reduced sentences for people charged in a drug investigation. Several Kenton Circuit Court judges asked state police to investigate the matter last week.

Kentucky State Police confirmed Monday they have begun investigating unnamed Kenton County public officials in connection with letters seeking thousands of dollars as part of plea negotiations.

The Kentucky State Police Special Investigations Unit received an undisclosed complaint regarding the case, but will not provide details. The investigation continues.

AUGUST 14th BLACKOUT INVESTIGATION UPDATE

An analysis of hundreds of pages of telephone transcripts and interviews has revealed that two grid operators and two utilities had failures of critical systems due to significant computer malfunctions that prevented them from getting real-time data in the hours before last month's massive blackout.

The peculiar coincidence raises questions about how such similar misfortune struck separate entities on the same hot day, a day that left parts of eight states and Ontario without power.

"It certainly sounds suspicious," said California cyber-security expert Fred Cohen, a consultant to the U.S. government on national security issues and the inventor of the first computer virus. . . [and]. . .

The blackout hit the same week that the viruslike worm Blaster crippled an estimated 700,000 computers worldwide, noted Steve Sundermeier, vice president of Central Command Inc., a Medina-based anti-virus firm.

Blaster attacked Microsoft operating systems. Utilities' control centers largely rely on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems, known as SCADA networks, which typically run on Microsoft Windows.

The idea that a computer virus was at least partially responsible for the blackout was suggested by Bigwig and mentioned in a previous post of mine.

Read the rest of the story here.

ANOTHER "JACKASS" INSPIRED CRIME

(Columbus, OH) Collin Gaffney, of suburban Gahanna, 13, has been sentenced by Franklin County Juvenile Court to one year of probation and ordered to serve 60 hours of community service for throwing scalding water on Shaka Townsend, a sleeping friend. Inspired by "Jackass: The Movie," a film version of the defunct MTV television show that featured stupid and dangerous behavior, Gaffney got a plea deal where the delinquency assault charge was reduced from a second-degree felony to a fifth- degree felony.

Collin Gaffney, 13-years-old, a convicted felon, and he's got his name in the paper.

I wonder if anyone is keeping a database of the jackass incidents that have occurred. It might be difficult but I think worthwhile. If so, any trial lawyer could go after MTV with a class action suit. And, probably win. Wait a minute. What am I thinking? Trial lawyers and MTV are bastions of liberalism and, therefore, kissing cousins.

There's more here.

TELEMARKETER FINED for "DO NOT CALL" VIOLATIONS

The Morning Call of Allentown, PA, reports:

State Attorney General Mike Fisher announced Friday that First Financial Mortgage Group Inc., based in Tamarac, Fla., will pay $5,000 in civil penalties for violating Pennsylvania's ''Do Not Call'' registry.

There's more here.

NEW BLOG SHOWCASE

My vote for the New Blog Showcase is Remembering 9/11 at Jim Lynch's Blog.

TERRORIST ALERT IN SAUDI ARABIA

I picked this post off of Mahmood's Den. It indicates that there exists some undercurrent of unrest in Saudi Arabia by citizens that want the Saud family to get rid of the extremists. This may be unachievable. The Saud family, as I understand, is populated with some of the extremists.

Immediately you enter Saudi Arabia from the Bahrain/Saudi causeway you notice the heightened state of alert that the security forces are at. There are multiple manned check-points. Fortunately they didn't delay traffic that much. The sneaky thing about those check-points is that they are doubled up as speed traps as well! Fortunately I wasn't nabbed. The "etiquette of the road" in Saudi as is with other countries I guess is that the traffic from the other side warn you by constantly flashing their headlights for about 2km from the check-point, hence everyone just went at or below the speed limit!

I was only in Riyadh for a couple of hours for two meetings, so I didn't get a chance to speak to a lot of people, but from the people who I did speak with, they are well aware of this heightened security issue and the collective opinion amongst them is to rid Saudi of these extremists once and for all. They seem to enjoy no sympathy at least from the educated and business classes. While I was in Riyadh apparently there was a general terror alert going on, which explained the inordinate security measures I encountered.

This is one more indication of how firecracker hot the Middle East is.

Of note is that Mahmood's Den andOscar Jr. Was Herehave the same URL. Also of note is that Oscar Jr. has compilations of links to blogs around the US (by state) and around the world (by country). I've frequently used his site as a reference source to contact people. It's a worthy endeavor which he expands as new blogs present themselves. I'd suggest everybody visit and get listed.

[Update:] Mahmood's Den is an entirely different site from Oscar Jr. I apologize for the error.

CATHERINE DONKERS APPEALS CONVICTION

The story continues. The breast feeding driver, Catherine Donkers, and her husband, Brad Barnhill, have filed papers to appeal the August 8th ruling of Portage County Judge David Martell. In the verdict, she was found guilty of driving without a valid operator's license, failure to comply with a police officer's request, and violation of the Ohio child-restraint law. Donkers was found not guilty of child endangerment.

The appeal filed by Donkers and Barnhill is contending that she had inadequate representation at her trial and, therefore, the verdict was not just nor fair. The basis of the appeal is curious since Donkers represented herself after she fired her court-appointed lawyer. It seems she's saying that the ruling should be overturned because she's inadequately prepared to represent herself. If she wins the appeal, it appears that she could claim the same upon conviction in a retrial.

I have been following this story since the beginning and my previous posts are 8/8/03, 8/7/03, 8/6/03, 8/4/03, 6/26/03, 6/21/03.

HOW TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT

For those people who don't understand the basics of political correctness, the following can help fill gaps in their knowledge.

Q: WHAT IS P.C.?

PC stands for Politically Correct. We of the Politically Correct philosophy believe in increasing a tolerance for a DIVERSITY of cultures, race, gender, ideology and alternate lifestyles. Political Correctness is the only social and morally acceptable outlook. Anyone who disagrees with this philosophy is bigoted, biased, sexist, and/or closed-minded.

Q: WHY SHOULD I BE PC?

Being PC is fun. PCism is not just an attitude, it is a way of life! PC offers the satisfaction of knowing that you are undoing the social evils of centuries of oppression.

Q: I AM A WHITE MALE. CAN I STILL BE PC?

Sure. You just have to feel very guilty.

Q: WHY?

If you are a white male, your ancestors were responsible for practically every injustice in the world- slavery, war, genocide and plaid sportscoats. That means that YOU are partially responsible for these atrocities. Now it is time to balance the scales of justice for the descendants of those individuals whose ancestors your ancestors pushed down.

Q: HOW?

It's simple. You've got to be careful what you say, what you think, and what you do. You just don't want to offend anyone.

Q: YOU MEAN I SHOULD GUARD AGAINST OFFENDING ANYONE?

That's right. Being offensive is destructive, and will not make the world a harmonious utopia, like in John Lennon's IMAGINE.

Q: HOW ELSE CAN I BE PC?

Oh, there are lots of ways. For example, why buy regular ice cream when you can buy "Rain Forest Crunch?" Segrega..whoops..separate all of your garbage into different containers: glass, metal, white paper, blue paper, plastic, etc. Make sure that all your make-up has not been tested on animals. Try to find at least sixty ways to use your water; when you take a shower, brush your teeth at the same time. Then don't let the water go down the drain, use it to irrigate your lawn. Or better yet, replace your lawn with a vegetable garden. Don't use aerosol. And by all means, don't burn or deface our flag. Remember, as a citizen of Canada, your living in God's country.

There's more valuable information here.

[Hat tip to Elegance Against Ignorance.]

WOMAN MOLESTS BOY, GETS ONE YEAR

For the UK Telegraph, Richard Savill reports this story of a woman convicted of serial child molestation.

A woman of 36 who had sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy was jailed for a year yesterday.

The judge told Amanda James she was "truly a predator" after she was found guilty of indecently assaulting Mathew Adlam.

The court was told they had a two-year affair during which James had an abortion.

James, a mother of four, had a previous conviction for indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy.

This case shows that child molesters are not always men. I think it also shows that women face considerably more lenient punishment than men in similar circumstances. If this happened in the US, the molester would have been designated a "sexual predator" also.

ROADKILL COOKOFF

It's time for all to mark their calendar. The 13th Annual Roadkill Cookoff will be held the weekend of September 27th in Marlinton, WV. The Program states that:

The event, one of many activities that go on during Marlinton's Autumn Harvest Festival, is actually a cleverly disguised wild game cook-off. The rules actually stipulate only that the main ingredient be an animal commonly found dead along the side of the road. However, the rules go on to stress that the judges would prefer the cooks not use real roadkill, and in fact will deduct points for gravel and other foreign objects found in the fare.

Nothing sends the message of quality like gravel-free roadkill. Mmm . . . Mmm!

BEST AUTOGRAPH SIGNERS

According to an annual report in Autograph Collector Magazine, the ten best people to approach to get an autograph are:

Colin Farrell, Kate Bosworth, Asia Argento, Jennifer Love Hewitt, LeAnn Rimes, The Osbournes, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, Kelly Hu and Jessica Simpson.

The ten best people to avoid, according to the magazine, are:

Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Orlando Bloom, Shannon Elizabeth, Janet Jackson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eric Bana, Hugh Jackman and Christina Aguilera.

The criteria used for inclusion on the lists are the experiences of dozens of knowledgeable collectors.

The reason that I'm posting this is to formally acknowledge and document the fact that I'm culturally deprived (or challenged?). Of the twenty people listed, I have never heard of half.

INS NOT INTERESTED IN ALIENS

This story, out of Macedonia, OH, I found disturbing.

A vagrant found behind a Macedonia Commons store Aug. 25 turned out to be an alien.

Officers on routine patrol discovered the homeless man sleeping in a box outside Play It Again Sports. The man admitted he was not a legal American citizen.

Police called Immigration and Naturalization Services, who said that being in the country illegally is not illegal. INS agents said they would not pick up the man unless the city had charges against him.

The man said he wanted to go to Cleveland, so officers have (sic) him a ride to a bus station in Oakwood.

HUH!

I can't express my outrage sufficiently.