BugMeNot.com - “Bypass Compulsory Web Registration”. Instead of having to register to read certain websites (i.e. New York Times), pick up a public login for virtually everysite from BugMeNot. Which currently holds logins for 35,036 sites.

If that doesn’t help you and you absolutely must sign up for something but don’t want to be bombarded with spam, try the Mailinator. You don’t have to sign up, you just make up any e-mail address @ Mailinator.com, go visit the site, login under the address you made up, and check the mail.

Smart Room - “Your home should be a place where you feel safe and protected. With heightened concerns about bio terrorism and other security threats, more and more Americans feel vulnerable.”

Not only can you have them build one for you but you can order plans to build one yourself!

VideoTwo Boys Reduced to Screaming Girls While Playing Doom 3 - A little over dramatic but still hilarious.

Interesting News
George Michael discovers a stalker has been living under his floor

New Sex Crimes? - Man Tries to Charge Wife for Domestic Abuse for not having sex with him for 5 consecutive days

Celebrate your first day on jury duty by getting drunk before you go - Supreme says its okay, “no different than a virus, poorly prepared food, or lack of sleep”

Saving the best for last -

Schwarzenegger outlaws sex with corpses - This ones too easy to make fun of…discuss amongst yourselves.

All great jokes start with Bush Quotes:

It’s just hard to resist reading Bush transcripts. He would have made a better comedian than a dictator.

• During his usual drivel of limiting frivolous lawsuits - “We’ve got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”
• “Let me put it to you bluntly. In a changing world, we want more people to have control over your own life.” - Northern Virginia Community College Aug. 9, 2004
• “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” -“Aug. 5, 2004 (watch the video)

In Video - In George W. Bush’s Words: Bush’s words speak louder than actions. A nice video clip from The Daily Show. I Hope to see this being the next Bush ad on TV.

Latest Image of Hurricane Ivan (via Dave):

More GMAIL invites to give out.

Let me know if you want one.

I have 3 GMAIL invites burning a hole in my inbox, if you want one let me know.

The most exciting thing about GMAIL, for me so far, is that it’s still possible to get your desired username without it being taken already. However, I just want GMAIL pop3 style, I’ll take a cut in the storage size for pop3.

I’ve been humbly invited to join the Tampa Bay Blogger Fest. Thanks to Sarah for posting the evite to me.

Event description from evite:
“This is a get together for all Tampa Bay bloggers! If you’ve got a blog then you are welcome to come. Whether you use EE, MT, TP, LJ, WP or whatever! If you blog, come on down and party! SO’s are welcome! Please RSVP. Splitsville is 21+ after 8 PM. Please note this event is for those of us over 18.”

I might make it, I wonder if any of my LJ friends are going to go?

I had a conversation with a friend of mine and she was telling me about this half-cocked plan of an anonymous gambling system based on betting on future terrorist attacks that this guy named Poindexter tried to create. I was beyond fascinated with this that I had to research just what exactly this scheme entailed and who Poindexter is.

Who is John M. Poindexter?
Truth be told, he has quite a record. He was an Admiral in the United States Navy and the National Security Advisor during the Ronald Reagan presidency. He was convicted of multiple felony counts: conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair. However, his conviction was overturned on the grounds that he had been granted immunity from prosecution as a result of his testimony before Congress.

In 2002 he had been appointed as the Director of the Pentagon’s Information Awareness Office. His duty was to gather as much information as possible about everyone into a central database run by the government. The information was to include details about travel, credit card purchases, medical history and so on and so forth. Thus, he is the brain behind the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program.

In protest against the unveiling of TIA, Matt Smith, a columnist of the San Francisco Weekly, published John Poindexter’s home address and phone number, along with the names and addresses of his next door neighbors. His actions quickly transposed into an internet meme and this information was popping up all over the internet. Shortly after his phone was disconnected.

What was Policy Analysis Market?
The Policy Analysis Market (PAM) was a proposed futures exchange developed by the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and based on an idea first proposed by Net Exchange, a research firm specializing in the development of online markets, and the Economist Intelligence Unit was also involved.

DARPA, of course, is headed by John M. Poindexter himself.

The Policy Analysis Market was a trading plan in which investors would be able to bet on political and economic events in the Middle East, such as the chance of assassinations and terrorist acts.

On PAM’s web page it had images and examples of how the trading system would be carried out. Unfortunately, that webpage has been withdrawn, BUT, thanks to Cryptome you can view the cached original version of PolicyAnalysisMarket.com.

In defense of PAM the Pentagon (who was overseeing the program) stated that it was part of a research effort “to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks.”

The U.S. government was encouraging people to bet on and make money from atrocities and terrorist attacks.

When this project was revealed at a press conference, a political uproar ensued and the Pentagon immediately cancelled PAM and a week later John M. Poindexter submitted his resignation. (A copy of Poindexter’s resignation letter [PDF format])

For a brief time the PAM website revealed that it might be back in 2004 without government ties. This brings us to….

Prediction/Idea Futures Markets
I found a few prediction markets online:
Foresight Exchange
TradeSports

There are plenty of others, some real and some not. You just have to look for them. Interesting, to say the least, but not nearly as interesting as a government funded terrorist prediction market.

It’s time for the 2003 Wil Wheaton Weblog Awards. Anti-bloggies gives out more amusing prizes, however. Maybe I’ll vote for Benny for Best Canadian Weblog. TEE HEE HEE.

BBS Mates - Get reunited with your old BBS Buddies. Oh, the days of BBS. How I miss ASCII art, door games, and those long, intimate chats with Eliza. I’m compelled to dig up my list of BBS’s I used to frequent. Most, I’m sure, are long out of commission. Unfortunately, BBS Mates is running wretchedly slow (/.’d) …perhaps I’ll have to put off getting reacquainted with L0RD OF DARKN3SS and BLACK KN1GHT until tomorrow. Anyone up for a game of PimP WarS? (haha?)

Taliban Reunited - Taliban Reunited is the simple way to find out what your old terrorist chums and captives are doing now. Praise Allah!