I decided that using my random thoughts blog to blog about hockey would hurt my cool and hip image.
So I have a new hockey blog:
http://eastmeetswest.krung.net
Sometimes, I will cross post ..
New blog
Leave a reply
Author Archives: specialk
Elie Wiesel Fund Ripped Off by Madoff
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081224/ts_alt_afp/usfinancefraudwieselfoundation
How terribly sad, that the Elie Wiesel Fund was wiped out by Bernie.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost more than 15 million dollars — nearly all of its assets — in the alleged fraud scheme run by Wall Street baron Bernard Madoff, the fund said Wednesday.
“We are writing to inform you that the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity had 15.2 million dollars under management with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities,” said the foundation, which aims to combat anti-Semitism, on its website.
“This represented substantially all of the Foundation’s assets,” it said.
“We are deeply saddened and distressed that we, along with many others, have been the victims of what may be one of the largest investment frauds in history.”
The statement added that the foundation “remains committed to carrying on the lifelong work of our founder, Elie Wiesel. We shall not be deterred from our mission to combat indifference, intolerance, and injustice around the world.”
Wiesel, 80, a Nobel laureate and prolific author who survived the Holocaust, created the foundation some 20 years ago to foster international dialogue and youth programs to teach tolerance.
He is among dozens of wealthy Jews to have lost substantial amounts of money in Madoff’s scheme.
Prosecutors say Madoff confessed to losing upwards of 50 billion dollars over years of running a pyramid scheme, where new investors were secretly fleeced to pay returns to earlier investors.
The 70-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market and a mainstay of the powerful American Jewish community is currently free on bail of 10 million dollars as police continue their probe.
Obama says he won’t be smoking in White House – Yahoo! News
Obama says he won’t be smoking in White House – Yahoo! News
Holy shit.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked on a U.S. talkshow on Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking.
In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.
Appearing on NBC’s "Meet the Press" program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC’s Barbara Walters.
Not that it matters one way or the other, but the fact that this was not covered in any part of the mainstream press is amazing! Not that it changes anything, but you would think somewhere somehow it would have been mentioned.
Ironically Hillary’s smoking ban makes it impossible for him to smoke in the White House. Question, does he have to exit the White House grounds? Is there a special presidential smoking area?
Ah the humor.
Book Review: Life o Pi – Yann Martel
Far too much digital ink (with over 1800 reviews at amazon.com) has been spent on criticism and analysis fo this book. As a statement about religion, the book is deeply flawed. As a statement about our need to construct stories to deal with the terrible deeds we need to do to survive it endures well.
As a deconstructionist novel, Mr. Martel will love my reaction to his polemic:
What the author intends is irrelevant. What the books says is irrelevant. All that matters is my point of view. And my point of view is that it is a wonderful tale.
Privacy and Cell Phones
Nude pics in phone lost at McDonald’s get online
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Here’s some food for thought: If you have nude photos of your wife on your cell phone, hang onto it.
Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson after he left his phone behind at a McDonald’s restaurant and the photos ended up online. Now he and his wife, Tina, are suing the McDonald’s Corp., the franchise owner and the store manager.
The suit was filed Friday and seeks a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment and the cost of having to move to a new home.
The suit says that Phillip Sherman left the phone the Fayetteville store in July and that employees promised to secure it until he returned.
Manager Aaron Brummley declined to comment, and other company officials didn’t return messages.
D’oh.
With 8 GB of storage, a reasonably good camera, and a desire to photograph everything for posterity, this is going to be happening a lot more frequently than we would like.
I believe being able to remotely wipe a phone of all contents is going to be a key feature of cell phone’s going forward.
And sooner rather than later, folks are going to learn the value of encryption and strong passwords.
I wonder if we’ll see biometrics make it into phones?
You may experience several problems after you install an automatic update for Word 2007 on a Windows Vista-based computer
Remove
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice12.0WordData
Hard reset of E71
Type *#7370# from the standby screen while your phone is on.
It will ask for the lock code which is 12345 unless you have previously changed it. Make sure you do this right, because if you do it too many times the wrong way you can lock up your phone.
Favourite Price Quote ever
Obviously it would be great, but they don’t really hang conference titles in this rink. They raise Stanley Cup banners.
-Carey Price about the possibility of finishing first in the east
I continue to love this kid’s attitude
Reign ends for ‘King of the Hill’ – CNN.com
Reign ends for ‘King of the Hill’ – CNN.com
How sad. The one television show that portrayed someone whose belief system was other than the liberal theology is pulled from the air.
A show about a functional family goes away.
However, the television show about the dysfunctional family portrayed in American Dad, endures.
Feeling Old
4-6 year old kid shows up at my door for trick-or-treating wearing a bobba-fett costume.
So I go:
Cool boba-fett costume
kid says:
Jengo fett
Man, when I was a kid there was no stinking jengo fett….