Tabloid Edition

Fort Hood victims list

There is as yet no definitive Fort Hood victims list but one newspaper has been scouring the stories as they appear in hte national media and has been able to compile this non-exhaustive Fort Hood victims list:

Killed

Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron — formerly of Spokane, Wash., — was a physician's assistant who was working on the post as a contracted civilian

Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Plymouth, Ind.

Reservist John Gaffaney, 56, of Serra Messa, Calif.

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Tipton, Okla.

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis.

Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah, was killed.

Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Ill.

Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis.

Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago. She was pregnant.

Military physician assistant Juanita Warman, 55, of Pittsburgh

Spc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn.

Wounded

Chief Warrant Officer Chris Birmingham of Eclectic, Ala., was shot three times.

Sgt. Patrick Blue III, 23, of Belcourt, N.D., was hit in the side by bullet fragments during the attack

Amber Bahr, 19, of Random Lake, Wis., was shot in the stomach.

Keara Bono Torkelson, 21, of Ostego, Mo., was shot in the back left shoulder.

Alan Carroll, 20, of Bridgewater, N.J., was shot three times.

U.S. Army Reserve Dorothy “Dorrie” Carskadon of Rockford, Ill., was critically injured.

Staff Sgt. Joy Clark, 27, of Des Moines suffered a gunshot wound

Spc. Matthew Cook, 30, of Binghamton, N.Y., was shot in the abdomen

Staff Sgt. Chad Davis of Eufaula, Ala., was wounded.

Pvt. Joey Foster, 21, of Ogden, Utah, was shot in the hip

Cpl. Nathan Hewitt, 26, of West Lafayette, Ind.

Justin Johnson, 21, of Punta Gorda, Fla., was shot in the chest and leg.

Staff. Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, of Richmond County, N.C., was shot multiple times.

Shawn Manning, 33, formerly of Redman, Ore., was shot six times

Army 2nd Lt. Brandy Mason, of Monessen, was wounded.

Reserve Spc. Grant Moxon, 23, of Lodi, Wis., was shot in the leg.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, of Killeen is the Fort Hood civilian police officer who was shot multiple times by the suspect.

Warrant Officer Christopher Royal of Elmore County, Ala., was shot three times.

Maj. Randy Royer of Dothan, Ala., was shot.

Pvt. Raymondo “Ray” Saucedo, 26, of Greenville, Mich., had a bullet graze his arm.

George Stratton III, 18, of Post Falls, Idaho, was shot in the shoulder.

Patrick Zeigler, 28, of Orange County, Fla., was critically wounded.

You can see that there are problems with this method of course: 13 people were reported as killed and there are only 11 dead on this list. But its a good piece of work by the San Antonio Express and the best we're likely to get until the military releases the definitive Fort Hood victims list.

Allahu Akbar

So, this Allahu Akbar (or Allahu Akhbar sometimes) phrase: who says it, when where and why?

The short answer is that it's the Arab phrase for "God is the Greatest". It's said a number of times in Muslim nations. It can simply be an expression of joy, a part of prayers or an expression of faith. In fact, as this article shows, Allahu Akbar can even save your life:

Allahu Akbar can also be used as a fast and colloquial manner of converting to Islam. The simple repetition of the phrase three times, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" is taken by most Islamic jurists as being sufficient expression of the core Islamic beliefs that those who say it are now Muslim. Traditionally (and perhaps anecdotally) those who say this either in battle or afterwards when captured will be deemed to have converted, become part of the Ummah (the Islamic community) and thus no longer be considered as enemies.

Neda video

You might recall the Neda video from a few months back, the shocking video footage of a young woman, Neda Soltani, dying after she had been shot in the heart during a pro-democracy demonstration in Iran.

There's an article hosting the video and explaining what was going on with the Neda video here:

Neda Agha Sultan (her name is variously given as Neda Soltani, Neda Sultan, Neda Agha Soltan, Neda Agha Sultan, the differences coming from a combination of the different languages of Farsi and English and tha fact that they don't use the same alphabet) was the young woman shot dead during the demonstrations over the Iranian electoral fraud of last week.

There was a video taken of her death: showing the ubiquity of camera phones around the world. And, of course, the Neda Agha Sultan video was immediately loaded into Facebook, YouTube and all of the other social media. It's a textbook example of how the world has changed technologically since Tiananmen, since the Berlin Wall fell.

But do be aware that this is extremely disturbing: Neda Sultan really is dying in this video, this is not a reconstruction.

Click through any of the links to see the Neda video.

Carrie Prejean's sex tape

Oh my, this is most amusing, the story over Carrie Prejean's sex tape.

The basic story is that, as you will remember, Carrie Prejean was thrown off the Miss California pageant for having less than PC views on gay marriage. So she then sued the pageant organisers for, well, not quite sure what. Damage to reputation perhaps? Anyway, she wanted a million dollars, a nice round sum.

The pagenat organisers then sued Carrie Prejean for the money they had spent on getting her a boob job before the pageant: money she had not repaid. We might call this two nice round sums.

So far, so normal, lawyers shouting at each other. But then the sex tape surfaces and, well, Ms. Prejean finds it very difficult indeed. If you want to find out what happens next the full story of the Carrie Prejean sex tape is at that link.

Get yer T shirts 'ere!

Yes, sadly, I do still have a drawer full of 10 year old t-shirts. Ones actually that I still wear. That bar in California: heck, that awful bar in Moscow: yes, I still advertise them this decade later.

No, of course they don't go on hangers, they just get washed and put in the drawer. And then, when morning comes, one or other of them adorns my body for the day.

Which is of course why I really should do something, get some funny t shirts for a change.And, at the moment, with 50% off (meaning only $7.50 a shirt) and 12 different styles to choose from, I should be clicking though that link just as perhaps you should be.

Or we should be, as it were.

Sarah de Herdt pictures

Sarah de Herdt is a Blegian sprinter and body builder who also likes posing for what we might call extremely interesting pictures.

Here is the picture that Sarah De Herdt uses on her Facebook page:

 

Here is a Sarah De Herdt picture that is a little more revealing: but still of course clothed.

 

And if you follow this Sarah De Herdt link you'll be able to find a much larger selection of Sarah De Herdt pictures.

Sarah de Herdt pictures

Sarah de Herdt is a Blegian sprinter and body builder who also likes posing for what we might call extremely interesting pictures.

Here is the picture that Sarah De Herdt uses on her Facebook page:

 

Here is a Sarah De Herdt picture that is a little more revealing: but still of course clothed.

 

And if you follow this Sarah De Herdt link you'll be able to find a much larger selection of Sarah De Herdt pictures.

Nicholas Cage is broke

Nicholas Cage is broke, so goes the romour. Although it's not really all that accurate to say that Nicholas Cage is broke or bankrupt: debt heavy might be a better description.

Cage's problem was that he had a bad business manager, one who put him into a lot of investments that didn't work out. OK, this can happen to anyone: but much more important was that Cage's manager didn't keep back the money that would be needed to pay taxes on Cage's film earnings.

So Uncle Sam is now after Nicholas Cage for north of $6 million. And that, of course, has got to hurt. Cage is also suing that manager for $20 million although how much he'll get out of that is anyone's guess.

On the other side, Cage has been liqudating his property portfolio. He sold two places in my home town of Bath, in England, and got around £6 million ($9 million) for the two and also get a hefty cheque for his Bavarian castle just a few months back. The one thing we don't know of course is what sort of mortgages he had on those places.

But then the real thing that's going to stop Nicholas Cage from going broke is that he can pick up $10 million a movie still ($5 million after taxes) so Uncle Sam simply ain't gonna bankrupt him. They'll simply smile weetly and say "Get acting guy!" and wait for their check.

So how's that tour going

I haven't been, as you might imagine, following Britney Spears' Circus Tour with all that much attention. The spring in the US, summer in europe (how old style that sounds!) and then the fall again in the US wasn't it?

The new album is (just about to come?) out, the single 3 has been around a few weeks. So, umm, anyone know how the tour has been doing?

Is it the biggest grossing tour of the year already? Or is that someone else?

One for those fall evenings

This is a little technology that I'd not come across before: the fire pit. Now that I have come across it it seems to blindingly obvious: but then that's they way with all good ideas, they are obvious once someone has pointed them out to you.

What we've actually got here in this outdoor fire pit is something of a cross between the technology of the wood buring fireplace, the BBQ and the plain old simple camp fire. In another way you can think of it as a technological advance on that simple camp fire set upon the ground and as the precursor to both the indoor fireplace and that BBQ.

For the point about an outdoor fire pit is that we are indeed looking for radiant heat from it (which is one reason it's made from cast iron, throws that heat around beautifully): so the design is rather different from the BBQ where we are looking for cooking (ie, contained) heat. But the fire pit is for outdoor use, so we're not about to build it into the fabric of a building like a fireplace. Umm, this is all getting a little complex, isn't it? What we're really got here is a fire, that you can use outside, which you can move around, but which isn't going to scorch a hole in the deck or the patio. Pretty cool, hunh?

Where we are this is indeed pretty cool: at this time of the year (yes, thankfully, we are well south of the snow belt, by design) the nights draw in pretty early but they're not freezing cold, There's still the desire to relax outside with a beverage or two to wind down after the busy day: but it's just that fraction too cold to be really comfortable.

So here is our answer: load up the fire pit, get the flames going and enjoy that evening chill out period without actually having to physically chill. As the evening wears along of course we can move inside and use the same fuel for the real fireplace: but we've had our bit of fresh air into the bargain.

In fact, so cool that you'll have to excuse me while I do off and order one: sitting on the deck watching the winter sun go down never seemed like quite so much fun.

The sale of the Burlington Northern

So Warren Buffett's just bought the Burlington Northern....interesting indeed. For two very different reasons.

The first is that this generation's pre-eminent capitalist obviously sees railroads as a profit making business. Indeed, one that makes sufficient profit to make him wish to own one. That's such a difference from the way that all of the European countries run their railroads, all either government owned or highly subsidised so as to make us think that one of the two of them must have it wrong.

The second is that, well, we've just got the biggest capitalist of this generation taking over the Burlington Northern. All we need now is for him to rename it the Buffett Railroad and we're set for a rerun of Atlas Shrugged: although who is going to play the Dagny part is as yet unknown.

Getting those freebies

We all know that companies sometimes give out freebies, free samples of this and that.

But where do we find those things? We can't simply write off to every company in the country and ask if they've got anything they'd like to give us for free now, can we? Well, we could I suppose but it wouldn't be a very effective use of our time.

Fortunately, there is one place that has done this: they have the full list of all those things that we can indeed get as free stuff. Worth clicking through to see what is available: fancy some free Chips Ahoy Cookies? Free Gatorade?

There's also a section of student freebies and yes, they've got a free newsletter as well so you can get the information passively as well as ctively go looking for it each day.

It's well worth checking out: why wouldn't you want people to send you things for free?

Tim Burton's "9"

Here's the trailer for Tim Burton's new movie, "9".

So, which webhost should you use?

I think we're all pretty much up with the idea that we need to have a presence on the web these days, yes? There's no real way that a business can survive without offering at least information to potential customers...we do all understand that I think?

The next question though is what is it that we're going to do on hte web? Simply point out that we exist and work in a particular location? Or are we going to offer a service to current customers? Enable them to search for manuals, book in for support? Or are we going to go further and offer to sell products over the web?

Once we've decided how the web fits into our business model (or perhaps how we fit our business model to the web) then we can make the next set of decisions about who to use for web hosting. And this is important and it's worth visiting the WebHostingGeeks site at that link to see what they can do to help. For the different business models will mean that we're looking for different things in a web host.

We might want cheap and cheerful, or perhaps lots of free tools, or perhaps reliability is most important, or security, perhaps even bandwidth. If we're going to sell directly then we would want to see the best ecommerce hosting packages for example, not the best email servers. If we're to use the web more for marketing, then the position would be reversed.

It's a very useful website and recommended if you're looking to place your business on the web.

Curry cures cancer

Curry cures cancer: or if we're to be accurate, one part of one of the spices in one type of curry can cure one type of cancer.

Not nearly so exciting that way of course, but that does seem to be more like the truth of the matter.

The spice turmeric is what gives certain curries their distinctive deep yellow colour. One part of that is curcumin and it's been found that this molecule can kill certain cancers cells simply on contact.

So, mine's a Balti then I think....