ASSOCIATED PRESS: Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic NEW YORK (AP) — Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally. The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users. If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and […]
‘Straight Scouts’ Get Bitch Slapped By City Hall
Kudos to the Fairmount Park Commission for holding firm on the Boy Scouts thing, though one suspects there may be other issues at work, like hmmm, say, the city getting its hands on that phat building at 22nd and Winter? Well, if it’s in the pursuit of an even higher cause, the real estate angle can be overlooked. Long story short: The Boy Scouts, America’s favorite homophobic paramilitary youth group, pays $1 a year in rent on a building that should cost $200K. So it’s time to pay up or pack up, Boys. FOXNews goes there about whether city solicitor […]
FEAR OF A WOMAN: 126 Killed By Suicide Assassins
KARACHI, Pakistan — A suicide bombing in a crowd welcoming former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed at least 126 people Thursday night, shattering her celebratory procession through Pakistan’s biggest city after eight years in exile. Two explosions went off near a truck carrying Bhutto, but police and officials of her party said she was not injured and was hurried to her house. An Associated Press photo showed a dazed-looking Bhutto being helped away. Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 126 dead and 248 wounded. It was believed to be the deadliest bomb attack in Pakistan’s history. Bhutto flew home […]
COMING ATTRACTION: Thirteen Astonishing Things You Are Not Supposed To Know About…
Tune in tomorrow when Britt Daniel comes on the blog. Spoon plays the Electric Factory tomorrow night with The Ponys And DJ Dave P.
GOP: ‘Spare The Rod, Spoil The Child’
Despite votes from 44 House Republicans for an override, President Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program stands. We were aware that Bush’s veto blocked the expansion of health insurance benefits to include an additional 10 million kids, but we didn’t know this: This legislation included a measure to expand the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for the first time ever, allowing more unpaid leave for families of service members injured in combat. By vetoing this bill, President Bush rejected a recommendation made by his own Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. We urge Congress […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The three-day March on the Pentagon in October 1967 inspired Norman Mailer to write Armies of the Night and stirred many to action. While the march 40 years ago cannot be considered a turning point in the anti-war movement in the 1960s, it did serve to galvanize opposition to the Vietnam War. ALSO, Novelist Junot Diaz‘s first novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao explores the complexities of living in two cultures at once. Set in both the United States and in the Dominican Republic, the novel follows the story of Oscar Wao in prose that frequently […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Hey Bub, Wanna Buy A Boxing Ring?
$6500000 The Legendary Blue Horizon Reply to: amyb@yentis.com Date: 2007-10-18, 10:24AM EDT A multi-purpose venue located on the Avenue of the Arts. #1 Boxing Venue in the world; 3-story structure; interesting architectural details; asking price does not include boxing business; 41,440+/- sq. ft. above grade; Contains CarMichael Auditorium with clear span and high ceilings, seats 1500 people for boxing and wrestling, seats 600 in lower auditorium and 580 in balcony for concerts and also used for cabarets/parties; Blue Diamond Ballroom seats 500; Newer Roof (2005); newer boiler (2003); Zoned C-2; 400+ amp electric; Taxes $11,239; 74 x 200 Lot. Daniel […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Freak-Folk Wit Whiz’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right — these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. Hey, we know how it is — so many words to read, so little time to surf for free porn. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you, freeing up […]
D.C. IMPROV: Ladies And Germs, Arlen Specter!
INQUIRER: Specter finished second last night in a contest to determine the funniest celebrity in the nation’s capital, a charity event to benefit VH1’s Save the Music Foundation and the Institute of Musical Traditions. Most of the other performers were members of the media, so Specter stood out not only for his age — at 77 he was the oldest contestant by a good quarter-century — but for being a good sport among his famously dour and introverted congressional colleagues. Specter, looking trim and relaxed, a consoling martini nearby, said his jokes ranged from “the questionable to the highly questionable […]
VIET NOW: Baiting The Kill Zone
WASHINGTON POST: A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents. The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed. “Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy,” Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite […]
KILLADELPHIA: 4 Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
Police are investigating an attempted robbery that turned fatal this morning at a recyling company in Germantown. Police said a gunman, who posed as a customer to get inside the facility, confronted employees in a garage at Geppert Recycling in the 4500 block of Wayne Avenue. Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said that two workers were armed and that a shootout ensued. The gunman, who appeared to be in his 20s, was pronounced dead shortly after the 9:30 a.m. incident. [via the INQUIRER] At about 11:35 last night, a man was fatally shot in Olney, police said. The […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
NUTTY PROFESSOR: U.S. NOBEL GENETICIST SAYS BLACKS DUMBER THAN WHITES James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments, made ahead of his arrival in Britain today.The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.” He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.” […]
VIET NOW: Meeting Resistance
Meeting Resistance Trailer