By James Niccolai
August 27, 2008

Fujitsu is developing an eight-core version of its Sparc64 processor, which should give a performance boost to the Sparc Enterprise Servers that Fujitsu jointly develops with Sun Microsystems Inc.

Fujitsu's Takumi Maruyama mentioned the chip briefly at the end of a presentation on Tuesday at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto, Calif., but he provided few details, including when the processor will ship. It will succeed the four-core Sparc64 VII processor released in servers from Fujitsu and Sun in July. The Sparc Enterprise Servers use Fujitsu's chips and Sun's Solaris 10 operating system.

The companies develop the systems together but market and sell them separately. The eight-core processor is code-named Venus and will be manufactured using a 45-nanometer process, Maruyama said, a step up from the 65-nanometer process used for the quad-core Sparc64 VII.

It will have an embedded memory controller and offer peak throughput of 128GFLOPS, he said, noting that it is being designed for the age of "petascale computing." "I hope I can tell you more about it at Hot Chips next year," Maruyama said.

By Aharon Etengoff
27 August 2008, 4:51 PM

ADOBE HAS announced the official release of its Photoshop Express beta. The new application allows users to easily edit and upload photos to social networks such as Facebook. Express also offers 2 free gigabytes of online storage, slideshow capabilities and photo embedding for blogs.

According to Doug Mack of Adobe, “Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you’re at home, school or on the road.” Surprisingly, the Photoshop Express beta is currently available for download by US residents only. Indeed, the Adobe website notes that users may experience “slow performance if accessed outside of the US.” However, future plans include support for other languages and countries.

by Matthew Miller
August 27th, 2008 @ 2:00 pm

In early 2007 DataViz released Documents To Go for WM Smartphone (non-touch screen devices which was essential since these devices were unable to create documents at the time.

Today, DataViz announced their new Windows Mobile touch screen product so that they now have the application for many mobile operating systems (except for the iPhone and S60 platforms). I personally use the native Office mobile products on most of my Windows Mobile devices, but I do like to use the full SoftMaker Office on the HTC Advantage so I can see where this full featured application from DataViz can serve well for many people in enterprise applications.

DataViz includes a native PDF viewer, password protected support for Word and Excel and their excellent InTact technology for successful format retention. They are also going to release a version optimized for high resolution displays like those seen on the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. It is also very reasonably priced at US$29.99.

by Robert Vamosi
August 27, 2008 1:33 PM PDT

Don't count Internet Explorer out just yet. On Wednesday, Microsoft released the second public beta for Internet Explorer 8. If anything, this release brings IE up to par with alternative browsers such as Opera, Apple's Safari, and Mozilla's Firefox in terms of security and features.

It also pushes Microsoft a little ahead of the competition. The user interface hasn't changed much since Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, except to add a Security pull-down menu between Page and Tools on the main toolbar. In addition to blocking phishing sites, IE 8 now highlights the main domain of any Web site you visit. Thus if you think you are on eBay's site and something other than ebay.com is highlighted, chances are you are on the wrong Web site.

IE 8 also contains a cross-site scripting filter, one of the first in a mainstream browser. Cross-site scripting allows an attacker to execute script on a user's browser without them knowing. When the IE 8 filter finds a Web page with a cross-site scripting request, it changes the content on the page with a notice. Users are not presented with an option; IE simply blocks the malicious script from executing and then displays the rest of the page.

In another feature, known as InPrivate, Microsoft allows the user to suspend caching functions while you surf. The scenarios for using InPrivate include when you're using someone else's computer, like for instance, when you need to buy a gift for a loved one without ruining the surprise, or when you're at an Internet kiosk and don't want the next person to know which Web site you visited.

By David Chartier
August 27, 2008 - 02:01PM CT

As if social media wasn't already, well, social enough, a relatively new open protocol for securely sharing information between web sites, called OAuth, has received a major boost for broad adoption. Developed collectively by a variety of web giants and independent experts, every party involved has signed a covenant not to sue anyone who uses OAuth in a product.

Until OAuth, there wasn't much of a standard for allowing websites to exchange information or users to move their data from one site to another. The tools that sites like LinkedIn and Twitter have employed for sniffing your Gmail contacts for friends who may already use their services often require entering your Google credentials into a non-Google site.

While many of these sites may arguably be trustworthy, a number of efforts collectively called "data portability initiatives" have launched to solve the problems of how to let users move their data between services, and grant secure access in the process. OAuth is just such an initiative, and it has had the developmental backing of individuals and employees of companies like Google, AOL, Yahoo, Twitter, Pownce, Six Apart, Blaine Cook (formerly of Twitter, now at Yahoo), and Mark Atwood.

Conceived in November 2006 with a 1.0 draft formalized nearly a year later, OAuth has been incorporated very recently by a handful of companies, with Google contributing to the movement by adding OAuth to all of its APIs last month. Yahoo also incorporated OAuth this month for the launch of Fire Eagle, its location-aware data arbitration service for social applications and services.

Publisher's Description:

cFosSpeed is a high-performance network driver for DSL modems and routers. Highlights of this program include Traffic Shaping, For DSL modems and routers, Fully compatible with conventional PPPoE drivers, Automatic router detection, Self-calibrating, Highly responsive when used with online games and Peer-to-Peer networks like eMule or Kazaa, and Freely configurable priority classes.

Released: August 26, 2008
Publisher: cFos
License: Shareware; $11.00 to buy
OS Support: Windows 2000/2003/2008/Vista/XP

Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) increases download speeds by up to 300 percent. It searches for mirror sites that most effectively serve your downloads through multiserver connections for optimal utilization of dial-up or broadband connections. DAP automatically recovers from shutdowns, lost connections, and other errors. DAP is fully integrated into Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Opera, and offers a toolbar for Internet Explorer with a links catcher and a highlighter. DAP features auto-hang-up after download, proxy settings, scheduling, and a unique AlwaysResume service. New features in DAP 7.2 include a self explanatory Configuration Wizard for optimal settings, a graphic Bandwidth Controller for a convenience bandwidth allocation; and a dynamic Info pane with various services such as: Reviews service. DAP offers a multilingual support, including German, Dutch, French, Chinese (traditional), Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Italian.

This software is ad-supported and may install components that use your Internet connection to serve ads or track your Web surfing habits.

A pro version is available without ads.

Author: SpeedBit Ltd.
Date: 2008-08-26
Size: 6.89 MB
License: Adware
Requires: Win All

Publisher's Description:

n-Track Studio allows to use your computer as a complete recording studio. You can record and playback a virtually unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks, depending on your computerâ??s speed. Realtime Audio effects can be added to each track, to the master, group or aux channels non-destructively: you can adjust the effect settings and listen to the result in real time. Besides its native effects (Reverb, Compression, EQ, Echo, Auto volume, Pitch Shift and Chorus) the program also supports third party DirectX and VST 2.0 plug-ins. The program works with any standard or multichannel 16 and 24 bit soundcards at sampling frequencies up to 192 Khz.

Latest Changes:

* Realtime crossfade between parts overlapped in timeline, crossfade option in timeline popup menu [New feature]
* RMS Level meters, with RMS+Peak option and support for K-System metering [New feature] Allows for more accurate metering of audio loudness and enables monitoring using Bob Katz K-System, with presets for K-12, K-14 and K-20)
* Signal Path View window [New feature] (Shows a realtime representation of the routing of audio signals in the audio engine, enables to intuitively alter signal routing parameters and connections)
* Support for Wave64 file format [New feature] (Support for wave files that have length that exceeds the 2 Gb limitation of regular .wav files, using either .wav or .w64 extensions)
* The program no longer requires Microsft .NET to be installed and the 'Enable Microsoft .Net' setting in Preferences/Option can be disabled so that n-Track will not use .NET even if it is installed on the computer (a few UI features will be then disabled s
* Duplicate waveform dragging while holding down Windows key [New feature]
* Per part volume knob in part properties box (that appears double clicking on waveform). Volume adjustment is visually to waveform [New feature]
* Dragging a waveform beyond the end loops the wave file [New feature]
* Angled edges of waveform frame, more angled when waveform end is open or looped [New feature]
* Volume Envelopes: "Click adds node" toggle option to avoid inadvertedly adding envelope nodes. When "Click adds node" is disabled "Add node" must be selected from popup menu [New feature]
* Volume Envelopes: when "Click adds node" is disabled mouse drags envelope segments
* Volume Envelopes: set selected node to Maximum, Center, Minimum context menu commands [New Feature]
* Volume Envelopes: text entering of selected node value [New Feature]
* Fixed Mixdown dialog box asking twice if you want to overwrite destination file [Bug fix]
* Fixed mixer stripe selection toolbar and mixer buttons not updating when skin is changed [Bug fix]

Released: August 26, 2008
Publisher: Flavio Antonioli
License: Shareware; $45.00 to buy
OS Support: Windows 2000/2003/9x/XP

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver

The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver contains support for the following Intel® Chipsets:

· Intel® G31 Express Chipset
· Intel® G33 Express Chipset
· Intel® G35 Express Chipset
· Intel® G965 Express Chipset
· Intel® Q33 Express Chipset
· Intel® Q35 Express Chipset
· Intel® Q963 Express Chipset
· Intel® Q965 Express Chipset
· Mobile Intel® GL960 Express Chipset
· Mobile Intel® GLE960 Express Chipset
· Mobile Intel® GM965 Express Chipset
· Mobile Intel® GME965 Express Chipset

Author: Intel Corp.
Date: 2008-08-26
Size: 19.8 MB
License: Freeware
Requires: Vista

Publisher's Description:

ZoneAlarm includes five interlocking security services that deliver easy-to-use, comprehensive protection. Unlike any other security utility, it incorporates a firewall, Application Control, an Internet Lock, dynamically assigned Security Levels and Zones. Combined, these elements yield the strongest security possible.

Released: August 25, 2008
Publisher: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
License: Shareware; $39.95 to buy
Limitations: Yes; 15 day timeout
OS Support: Windows 2000/Vista/XP
Uninstaller?: Yes

by Elinor Mills
August 20, 2008 1:06 PM PDT

A security researcher has unearthed evidence via Google and its Chinese counterpart that supports claims that several Chinese gymnasts are younger than they should be for competing. The New York Times was probably the first to report about digital evidence that the Chinese athletes are underage.

"Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He (Kexin) and Jiang (Yuyuan) may be as young as 14--two years below the Olympic limit," stated the Times article, posted about three weeks ago.

Then last week, the Associated Press found evidence of its own--a Xinhua state news agency report listing He's age as 13 just nine months before the Olympics began. The AP saved a copy of the Web page, which it said could not be accessed later in the day. This week security researcher "Stryde Hax" detailed his findings about discrepancies in the gymnasts' ages that he found via his own Internet searches.

The data he gathered bolsters the claims made by the Times and the AP. Stryde, who says he is a consultant at security firm Intrepidus Group, wrote on Tuesday about how he searched Chinese Web sites for Excel spreadsheets containing "He Kexin" and "1994," which is her alleged birthday, according to some of the uncovered Internet evidence.

By Gregg Keizer
August 12, 2008

Security researchers today disputed claims that a well-known Russian hacker-hosting network is responsible for cyberattacks against sites belonging to Georgia, the former Soviet republic that has been battling Russian military forces since Friday.

Rather than blame the notorious Russian Business Network -- as researcher Jart Armin did over the weekend -- other researchers said today that it appears that the attacks originated from a "hacker militia" of Russian botnet herders and volunteers.

"They mobilize themselves without a need for a central location to do so, distribute the targets, discuss the attack approaches, come up with a plan on the coordination, and you have everyone participating," Bulgarian security researcher Dancho Danchev said in an instant messaging interview early today.

Danchev and others have found evidence that points to a self-starting militia composed of volunteer hackers and cybercriminals who control large-scale bots, or collections of previously-compromised computers, as being behind the escalating attacks that have knocked Georgian sites offline.

By Peter Bright
August 11, 2008 - 07:30AM CT

One of the papers presented at the Black Hat USA 2008 security conference was an analysis a number of the protection mechanisms built into Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that are designed to make it harder to convert software bugs into security flaws.

How to Impress Girls with Browser Memory Protection Bypasses, authored by security researchers Mark Dowd at IBM and Alexander Sotirov at VMware, presented a number of attacks against Vista's various security features in isolation, and then attacks that could disable multiple protections all together. Put together, the result is that Vista's mitigation mechanisms are circumvented, making buggy software exploitable.

The security features being bypassed are all intended to minimize the impact of buffer overflows. Buffer overflows are a particular kind of programming error that occur when a program attempts to store too much data in the buffer allocated for the data. This causes anything following the buffer to be overwritten. Buffer overflows are exploitable when it's possible to insert arbitrary executable code into a process and then make that code run.

If an attacker can do this then the attacker has gained the ability to do whatever he likes to the victim's computer. This kind of flaw is quite a common one, especially in the programming languages C and C++. Many high-profile software flaws have been of this type, from the Morris worm of the 1980s to the Code Red worm of 2001, and more recently the animated cursor vulnerability.

by Robert Vamosi
August 7, 2008 1:13 PM PDT

LAS VEGAS--How confident are you when using your laptop at a conference? For years, a group called Wall of Sheep has been showing attendees of Defcon when their network connections are insecure. The Wall of Sheep board has been a fixture at Defcon, Black Hat's sister conference set to begin tomorrow at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.

The board displays the names (with some identifying information obscured) of those connecting to the Internet in insecure ways. The idea is both meant to shame and educate users on best practices. "If the 'Best of the Best' in security can be hacked, think of the average users," said Riverside, a member of Aries Security, a group that maintains the Wall of Sheep.

For most of the year, the individual members (of which there are about seven) are scattered across the country, working in security at various companies. But for two weeks they come together in Las Vegas to plan and mount their equipment, though not without glitches. On Thursday, Riverside was addressing some hardware failures in a conference room at Caesars Palace.

"We have redundancy," he said. In the back of the room were various boxes and other electronic equipment and wires. In the past they've used their own equipment, although this year they're starting to get donations. "We're vendor agnostic," said Riverside, adding that they are using Windows, Mac, and various flavors of Linux.

By John Markoff
August 5, 2008 10:30 PM PDT

A criminal gang is using software tools normally reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government networks with programs that steal passwords and other information, a security researcher has found.

The new form of attack indicates that little progress has been made in defusing the threat of botnets, networks of infected computers that criminals use to send spam, steal passwords, and do other forms of damage, according to computer security investigators. Several security experts say that although attacks against network administrators are not new, the systematic use of administrative software to spread malicious software has not been widely seen until now.

The gang was identified publicly in May by Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks, a computer security firm in Atlanta. Stewart, who has determined that the gang is based in Russia, was able to locate a central program controlling as many as 100,000 infected computers across the Internet. The program was running at a commercial Internet hosting computer center in Wisconsin.

Stewart alerted a federal law enforcement agency that he declined to identify, and he said that it was investigating the matter. Although the original command program was shut down, the gang immediately reconstituted the system, he said, moving the control program to another computer in the Ukraine, beyond the reach of law enforcement in the United States.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

CHICAGO — Bernie Mac, an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian, died suddenly Saturday at age 50 of complications from pneumonia. The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005.

He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease. "Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family's privacy be respected.

Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama. Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

The performance earned him a rebuke from Obama's campaign. But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer. "Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show." Mac started his comedy career at age 8, with a standup performance at a church dinner. In 1977, at age 20, he took that act to comedy clubs in Chicago.

August 10, 2008 @ 3:31 CST

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis.

The cause of death was not immediately known. In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

By Nate Anderson
July 22, 2008 - 12:06PM CT

Now that the EU plan to retroactively add 45 years of copyright protection to old sound recordings looks set to keep the work of the 50s and 60s locked up for another half century, resistance is solidifying. Yesterday, a group of independent academics from across Western Europe signed a letter to the Times arguing that the new plan would only pad the pockets of "record companies, aging rock stars or, increasingly, artists' estates.

It does nothing for innovation and creativity." And that's one of the more pleasant things being said about the idea. The academics are all experts in intellectual property or copyright law, and they trash the EU's assertion that no outside expertise was needed before formulating the plan. That's ludicrous, say the learned doctors, since the data filed with the EU came in large part from the recording industry.

Not surprisingly, the data showed that prices wouldn't rise, that artists would make more money, and "that the record industry will invest in discovering new talents, as if exclusive rights for 50 years had not provided an opportunity to earn returns." The professors questioned these assertions. They point out that independent outside evidence against the plan already exists major forms like the UK's Gowers review of intellectual property, but the EU seems to have ignored much of this in favor of Big Content's far-reaching claims.

If the goal is to make sure that artists have enough money to live on, the solution shouldn't be extending copyright but going after "unreasonably exploitative contracts during the existing term" and taking a look at "remuneration during the performer’s lifetime, not 95 years." The UK's Open Rights Group has some strong words of its own for the plan, which it sees as more of a rights grab than an attempt to help poverty-stricken musicians.

by Greg Sandoval
July 21, 2008 12:14 PM PDT

Hollywood can celebrate that pirated copies of this year's hit films aren't showing up on major Internet sites. Too bad for the studios' enforcement efforts that some can still be found on smaller sites. At the same time that the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, was drawing record audiences (the movie is estimated to have earned more than $155 million over the weekend), several copies of the film was available online.

A half hour after returning home from watching the film on Saturday night, I got home to find my colleague, Elinor Mills, has sent me a link that apparently originated at VideoEmbedder.com. Sure enough, a grainy and dark copy of the hit film was available for viewing and for download. It was still up on Sunday but could not be accessed on Monday. Finding newly released movies is nothing new. In the past, it was easy to find them at Google Video and other video-sharing sites.

Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, was posted to the Web even before it had debuted in theaters. Following the appearance of Sicko on the Web, some argued that movies posted to the Internet can help boost interest in a film. Back then, Google Video was loaded with full-length films and TV shows. The site is now focused more on shorter videos even while there is no limit on duration.

What this illustrates is the coming storm bearing down on the film industry. The size of movie files used to be too large to allow them to be streamed or downloaded easily. That's changing rapidly. The time to download big movie files is speeding up and streaming technology has also improved. The simple fact is it's getting easier to share movie files.

By Nate Anderson
July 18, 2008 - 06:00AM CT

Dutch academic Dr. Johan Pouwelse knows BitTorrent well, having spent a year of his life examining its inner workings. Now, as part of the EU-funded P2P-Next team, Pouwelse and his researchers have been entrusted with €19 million, and what the EU wants in return is nothing less than a "4th-generation" peer-to-peer system that will one day be tasked with replacing over-the-air television broadcasts.

P2P-Next is the largest publicly-funded team in the world working on such technology (though plenty of researchers at Microsoft, IBM, and countless tiny startups are also racing to deliver a better P2P experience), and today the team launched a trial program designed to test its progress to date. What sets the project apart from the traditional BitTorrent architecture is its focus not on downloadable video, but on live streaming.

Current BitTorrent implementations, focused as they are on offering easy access to downloadable content, aren't well suited to delivering live streaming TV across the Internet, but Pouwelse is convinced that this is the future. There's "no doubt that TV will come through the Internet in a few years," he told Ars earlier this week. Obviously, deployment of such a system depends on consumer electronics firms and broadcasters, but Pouwelse's job is to make sure that the technology is ready when they are.

Currently, streaming solutions like YouTube and Hulu are generally based on a server model; this doesn't scale well without inflicting massive bandwidth costs on the broadcaster. Downloadable video, already being experimented with by the BBC and NBC, can use P2P for distribution, but is only suited to after-the-fact viewing.

August 17, 2008

BEIJING — Michael Phelps locked arms with his three teammates, as though they were in a football huddle calling a play, then hugged each one of them. It took a team to make him the grandest of Olympic champions. And one last big push from Phelps himself.

Going hard right to the end of a mesmerizing nine days in Beijing, Phelps helped the Americans come from behind Sunday in a race they've never lost at the Olympics, cheering from the deck as Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Phelps' history-making eighth gold medal of these games.

"Everything was accomplished," he said. "I will have the medals forever." Phelps sure did his part to win No. 8, eclipsing Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Aaron Peirsol got the Americans off to the lead in the backstroke, but Brendan Hansen — a major disappointment in this Olympic year — slowed them down with only the third-fastest breaststroke leg.

By the time Phelps dived in for the butterfly, the U.S. was trailing Australia and Japan. That's when he really went to work. With his long arms whirling across the water like propellers, Phelps caught the two guys ahead of him on the return lap and passed off to Lezak a lead of less than a second for the freestyle.

August 15, 2005

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia. Tamara Urushadze took a bullet to her left arm in the flashpoint town of Gori as Russian forces continued their illegal occupation.

Bravely, or foolishly, the 32-year-old brunette continued her report after a few moments as other journalists and aid workers dashed for cover. Siege-town Gori has become a deadly 'sniper's alley' with citizens at the mercy of rampaging militiamen - believed to be from the breakaway republic South Ossetia - looting and firing guns, some drunkenly.

On Sunday video footage caught reporters from two Turkish stations ducking and saying their last prayers as they were fired upon by Russian snipers. One of the journalists was hit in the eye but his injuries are reportedly not thought to be life-threatening. 'Friends, I got hit on the head,' the journalist, Levent Ozturk shouts in the video. 'I am OK now, but in a few minutes ... .' The four journalists begin reciting a Muslim last prayer.

Then they wave through the shattered sunroof of their truck and shout 'Press! Press!' in English. All the journalists, from Turkish networks NTV and Kanal Turk, were safely back in Turkey by yesterday. The Kremlin stands accused of turning a blind eye to renegades bent on 'ethnic cleansing' in revenge for Georgia's ill-conceived invasion of South Ossetia last Friday.

By Chris Chase
Aug 12, 2008 9:23 am EDT

Spain's Olympic basketball team posed for an advertisement prior to the Games which appears to show all its players slanting their eyes, a move that could offend its Olympic hosts in Beijing. The ads, for a Spanish courier company, appeared in the Spanish-language newspaper La Marca.

As the uproar over the picture has grown today, more information about the advertising shot has come to light. The ad was sponsored by a Spanish courier company, Seur. Spain's team, ironically, also is sponsored by Li-Ning Footwear, a Chinese company founded by Li Ning, the final torchbearer who was hoisted along the top of Beijing National Stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremony finale.

The Spanish-language paper El Mundo has a piece debating whether the ad was racist that basically calls out the British press for trying to smear Spain's good name. But they miss the point. Whether the picture was made in good fun is irrelevant. It was a ridiculous idea that was bound to upset a lot of people. It's baffling that nobody involved in the picture -- from the photographers to the players -- even seemed to consider that this ad would be looked at negatively.

Did it not occur to somebody that it might not be a good idea to mock a large portion of the continent before the world's largest athletic competition that, by the way, happens to take place on that continent. Were they not aware of an invention called "the Internet" that allows pictures taken in Spain to be transmitted all over the world for the eyes of everyone?

August 15, 2008

Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use.

"Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an insult to international efforts to avoid a global humanitarian disaster of the kind caused by landmines." Human Rights Watch said Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008.

Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens, Human Rights Watch said. Dutch journalist Stan Storimans was among the dead. Israeli journalist Zadok Yehezkeli was seriously wounded and evacuated to Israel for treatment after surgery in Tbilisi. An armored vehicle from the Reuters news agency was perforated with shrapnel from the attack.

This is the first known use of cluster munitions since 2006, during Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions or bomblets. They cause unacceptable humanitarian harm in two ways. First, their broad-area effect kills and injures civilians indiscriminately during strikes. Second, many submunitions do not explode, becoming de facto landmines that cause civilian casualties for months or years to come.

August 14, 2008

WASHINGTON — Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The secret comes out Thursday — all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.