President Bush Tries to Solve the “Other Middle East” Peace Problem - Washington Post

France is Rioting…again, but things are getting better. - New York Times

YouTube + CNN + Republicans = 42? Time Magazine Does Math - Time

We don’t suck…as much oil…as we thought we do! Oil price drops nearly $3 per barrel - Bloomberg.com

Kayne West, Evel Knievel settle dispute, without Kayne getting his ass whooped - BBC 

Just yesterday I was telling Kenton Shelley about how Verizon limits cell phone usage. This limiting factor was one of the primary reasons I abandoned the big V two years ago in favor of the much more open Cingular/AT&T.

Today, Verizon stunned pretty much everyone with the announcement that they were going to drastically open up their network. This new Verizon turns the cell phone provider into something much closer in appearance to a traditional, modern phone company.

All applications, operating systems, and runtime environments are supported so long as the devices connect properly to Verizon’s CDMA network (they can make use of either the company’s cellular and PCS bandwidth). - Ars Technica

Verizon’s official statement is that they are just trying to keep up with the changing wireless world and the changing wireless customer (true), one must contrast this change to the same Verizon that attempted to sue the FCC over forced openness in the upcoming 700mhz spectrum bid (realist), and the flutter or commotion caused by Googles Android/Open Handset Alliance announcments (bitter realist).

For more read here: TheStreet.com, Ars Technica

Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison for conspiring to violate the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Wyatt, 83, pleaded guilty last month in federal court in Manhattan to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Under the terms of his plea deal, he could have been sentenced to up to a year behind bars.

Now that’s one hell of a headline.

Source: NYDailyNews

According to an article over at Ars Technica, phishing - the act of sending emails or hosting web pages that impersonate the the identity of another institution for the purpose of theft - actually hurts the reputation of the spoofed institution. And it does so by no small margins. Out of the surveyed sample, banks suffered the worst with a 41% hit, while social networking sites chalked up hurt feelings from nearly a third of all respondants.

This has to be terrible news for MySpace. I personally have helped several MySpace users clear up pages that had been phished away from the users.

Many of us grew up with Bill Nye, so called Science Guy (a less jarring alternative to Beakman). He was harmless, he was on television, and to a young nerd, he was f-ing brilliant. Nowadays, Bill Nye is frequent guest on television, last seen on America’s Most Smartest Model (VH1’s show to make all of us with IQs over room temperature feel good).

But, if you ask Bill Nye’s ex-wife were she last saw him, it’d probably be in court. Of perhaps peering through his windows at night. So, when science couldn’t get the ex off of his back, Nye turned to the courts. After all, the woman tried to kill his plants. That’s just uncalled for.

Not long ago, Sony released the Reader. It sucked. More recently, Sony released the new, shiny version of the Reader, which features ePaper and one hell of a sexy design.

Not to be outdone in the combination of the technology and books, Amazon has released the Kindle. Uglier than the Reader, but networked over a cell connection (and done so for free). View a video of it here.

Neither have color. The Sony design is much more “Open” (and we all know that Open = Good) while the Amazon design is more “Connected” (and we all know that Connected = Good). These two need to mate and have a child, preferably one out of wedlock, and one that sells for less than $100.

Wired Magazine is running a lengthy feature about one of the three services that appeared in the market in the past two weeks that all offer a revolutionary new service - they’ll provide you, the customer, with a copy of your own genetic code.

That’s right, spit into a tube, cough up a grand, find out everything you never wanted to know about yourself.

Read more on Wired.

Or buy now!

Burma’s Junta decides that a three-party talk would seem to offer the wrong idea about just how the ruling party feels about democracy. I guess the message is not just no, but “hell no, we won’t go!”

Pat Robertson says Giulianni is an “acceptable” candidate for President. Wait, religious right thinks that a pro-gay, pro-abortion candidate is acceptable?

A student opens fire at a Finnish high school, killing eight and wounding himself. This is the first school shooting in Finland’s history, a nation with the third largest gun owning population in the world.

Wall Street Watchers were a bit disappointed today, oil did not reach the much vaunted $100 a barrel mark. For the record, the price of oil in March 2002 was around $25 a barrel, the price of oil during the oil shortage in the 1970s was around $15. (These prices are not adjusted for inflation.)

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he likes the US and is thankful for the liberation of France from the Nazis. All jokes aside, it was rather touching.

The WGA - Writer’s Guild of America - went on strike yesterday.

Shortly after the strike started, Leno and Conan announced they would be airing reruns until the shows come back. Stewart and Colbert showed reruns as well.

We told you this was going to happen last week. You would have known that if read Shots on a regular basis.

Last week we were all witness to CNN’s Planet in Peril two night event, not the mention all the green imagery on the cable news giant. The entire event did so much to save the planet that the Best Week Ever was awarded to no other than Anderson Cooper. We’ve heard that sales of tight black t-shirts blew through the roof.

Now, not to be out down, MSNBC and NBC Universal have come up with the awesome phrase “Green is Universal” (You see what they did there? They worked the parent company’s name into the slogan. It’s clever…admit it…).

Unlike CNN, which merely did a two night special, NBC has sent the hosts of the Today show “to the far corners of the earth” (apparnently some people failed a couple of classes in high school), died the peacock’s feather’s green, and worked recycling and conservation into the backdrop or plot of their primetime shows. Genius!

Or not.

So far this week, there’s been a hippie planting trees on Chuck, and Dan was recycling on Journeyman. I’m sure something heroic was done on Heros, but I don’t actually watch that.

You’d have to ask Mumah.