Microsoft patents emoticons
One would think that this was a joke, but it isn't.
From
Vox:
Various organisations have criticised Microsoft for attempting to patent the creation of custom emoticons. The patent, which was published by the US patent office on Thursday, covers selecting pixels to create an emoticon image, assigning a character sequence to these pixels and reconstructing the emoticon after transmission.
Sun Open Source's the best OS on the planet and makes running it, even commercially, free, and Microsoft wants to charge per smiley face. This is but one of the many reasons why I don't do windows.
Kudos to Mona Eltahawy
The Washington Times printed
this article from a Muslim that was affected in what I think is a positive way by the London bombings. This sentiment from their community is the best answer to the current world wide problem of terrorism. (HT:Rantingprofs)
I would give you a quote but the only way to do that is to reprint the whole article so just go read it.
The Times goes for the fake
And
Rantingprofs caught them again.
Here's a Times' opinion piece that seems to be cautioning the media that images that stir the emotions will get us to focus too much on issues that, were we to look at cold statistics, might not be where the real risk lies.
So in other words we wouldn't want to distract from the American soldier body count that we print every day with the reason that those guys are over there risking their lives. We can argue about the political reasons that they were sent but giving these people a chance at a free society without the terrorists is why the guys who re-up to go back do so. If you question that, go over and talk to them when you see them in the airport or Burger King (and buy their lunch while you are there!). I have and I have always gotten the same answer.
VDH hits it on the head again
Go read
this.
Tackling subway bombers.....
The is old news now but it is as ironic today as it was 9 days ago when I read it on Wizbang. One of the failed bombers in the second London attack tries to get away and from the Sun in London:
“But the bomber tried to get away and some men — I think about three of them — tried to jump on him and stop him getting away. They were trying to hold him down but couldn’t.
“The bomber ran up the escalator — but the one that was for people coming down to the platform — and got away.”
From
Wizbang:
Yo know- We Americans consistently get belittled as being too willing to use force. And I'm not trying to insult our British friends... But (genuinely) do you see this guy getting away in New York????
Maybe my arrogant American side is showing but I wouldn't have wanted to be him for that 20 seconds before the door opened if that were here in the States. I don't know the layout of the train etc but I just think in my gut that this guy wouldn't have made it out the door except on a stretcher in this country. We would have killed the guy. I'm not saying the Brits did anything wrong - I just think it is a cultural difference. YMMV
We play American Football, they play soccer? This could happen in Boston or Montreal but certainly not NY, Chicago, Detroit,.... The British special forces are some of the most esteemed fighting men in the world. The Tornado pilots are insane and do things our pilots don't consider trying. But the average Brit lives in a culture so passive that 3 guys couldn't manage to tackle one guy and hold him down? They have no experience being aggressive so they don't know how. In the NY subway the cops would have found little pieces of him left. I would also like to see him try this in Sydney where they play Australian rules football.
