Some Old Dude

Do you get the feeling that somebody is watching what you every time you surf the web? It’s not paranoia. More and more we are being watched by our ISP’s and various government agencies, and even our neighbors, if we have an open wifi connection.

Enter FreeNet: A service that has been around for several years providing a degree of anonymity, Now they offer Darknet: A service that allows you to connect only to your friends.

From the Freenet website:
Share, Chat, Browse. Anonymously. On the Free Network.

Freenet is free software which lets you anonymously share files, browse and publish “freesites” (web sites accessible only through Freenet) and chat on forums, without fear of censorship. Freenet is decentralised to make it less vulnerable to attack, and if used in “darknet” mode, where users only connect to their friends, is very difficult to detect.

The latest software version hides the identities of Freenet users, any online environment, and the fact that someone is using Freenet at all.

I’m sure that everybody’s favorite uncle has some way of finding out if you use this service. But I’m equally certain that it will be difficult for them to sort out all the users except by keyword search. Then even the NSA will have problems dealing with the traffic hundreds of thousands of users.

It may not be perfect but it gives us a shot at privacy online.

These photos and story are by Sergy Dolya who recently traveled by Airbus on Emirates. Unfortunately for most of the English speaking world his journal is in Russian. Stop by. Look at his photos and use a service liked Google language tools to give you a good enough translation to understand what he’s saying.

This is a translation of the first paragraph of his profile from Livejournal:
I travel a lot and take pictures. In their reports, I’m trying to tell about the country so that you have the impression that you were there with me. I do not miss small details and do not publish the standard tourist shots. I’m not writing guide to countries and share with you my impressions. Often they do not necessarily represent the official opinion – do not judge strictly

Business and economy class passengers access the plane through different jet bridges and stay on separate floors during the entire flight.

Now this is what I call First Class.

If you get thirsty or want a snack, head to the back of the plane:

I posted these photos to give you an impression of what one of these planes is like. For more photos of this and other subjects go to sergydolya.livejournal.com

Here’s a bit more data on the A380:
14 first-class seats, 76 business-class seats and 396 economy-class seats are located on board. A 7-hour flight is serviced by 27 crew members:

2 pilots
4 head stewards
4 first-class stewards
8 business-class stewards
8 economy-class stewards
1 bathhouse attendant, responsible for the showers

2 additional pilots and 1 extra bathhouse attendant are additionally employed for 14-hour long flights, making it a total of 30 crew members.

Wing span – 80 meters. Fuel stock – 240 tons. The minimum distance for an aircraft trailing an A380 is 11 km. Even Boeing 747 risks being overthrown in air if coming closer to this massive giant.

Engine noise can surprisingly be heard very faintly. The only thing interrupting the silence is the ventilation system on the ceiling.

To counter Sarah Palin’s book of things misremembered, Bookshop Santa Cruz is selling Sarah Palin’s Just Plain Nutz

“Our bag of nuts is an honest one ounce, is also good for you, and won’t cause you to feel compelled to go out and shoot a moose. Sarah’s new book of fictions is none of those things,” says Bookshop owner Casey Coonerty Protti. “We felt we needed to strike a balance.”

They’re giving away a free bag with each purchase of Palin’s book. However, at only $3.98 a bag and $2.50 shipping for one or two bags, these are not only a great deal, you won’t have to explain to your friends how come you bought her book.

In 1995, when Newt Gingrich was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year, Bookshop Santa Cruz sold each copy of his book Contract With America with a custom-made barf bag.

I just watched an ad for Jamaica. It showed a beautiful peaceful place. –Isn’t it amazing what the local chamber of commerce expect us to swallow. –Correction: It was an ad for Delta airlines.

I enjoy Jamaica, but I’ve been there a number of times and I have friends who live there. In addition I’ve got pretty good survival instincts.

This is the part they don’t tell you:
If you leave the resort areas these are things you will discover.
Verbal harassment of light skinned people is the norm, as is extortion.
Jamaica has an incredibly high murder rate.
If it’s not nailed-down, it will be stolen.
If you are gay you will find that it’s not only illegal there is a type of music that encourages people to kill homosexuals.
If you are a single female it is assumed that you are there for the foreign service -rent-a-rasta- and it is also assumed that no doesn’t mean no.
And so on.

From the BBC:
The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said.

Intake levels are currently 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men.

A 16% increase would mean that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day, equivalent to an average sized cheeseburger.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was a “dangerous assumption” to say that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day.

“This is not a green light to eat yourself silly,” he said. —Killjoy.

Since no two people metabolize food the same way these numbers are just guidelines anyway. –But it sure sounds good to be able to have an extra cheeseburger every day.