Author: spunkycarol
Now Docking at Space Station Colbert
Oops: Colbert wins space station name contest- msnbc.com
Comedian Stephen Colbert won NASA’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station. After urging viewers of his Comedy Central show to submit his name to NASA’s write-in coontest, Colbert beat out NASA’s four suggested names by amassing 230,539 votes.
Diebold Admits Audit Trail Skips Deletion of Ballots
Diebold Admits Audit Logs in All Versions of Their Software Fail to Record Ballot Deletions
Even the audit log system on current versions of Premier Election Solutions’ (formerly Diebold’s) electronic voting and tabulating systems — used in some 34 states across the nation — fail to record the wholesale deletion of ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election. That’s the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier’s Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the possible decertification of Diebold/Premier’s tabulator system, GEMS v. 1.18.19.
An election system’s audit logs are meant to record all activity during the system’s actual counting of ballots, so that later examiners may determine, with certainty, whether any fraudulent or mistaken activity had occurred during the count. Diebold’s software fails to do that, as has recently been discovered by Election Integrity advocates in Humboldt County, CA, and then confirmed by the CA Secretary of State. The flaws, built into the system for more than a decade, are in serious violation of federal voting system certification standards.
Must Haves for Canada Beer Runs: Passport & Bottle Opener
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will go into effect June 1, 2009 for land and sea travel into the U.S.
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative WHTI requires U.S. and Canadian travelers to present a passport or other document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. It is a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 IRTPA.
The goal of WHTI is to facilitate entry for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors, while strengthening U.S. border security. Standard documents will enable the Department of Homeland Security to quickly and reliably identify a traveler.
The State Department has designated Saturday, March 28, 2009 as “Passport Day in the USA”:
All Department of State Passport Agencies, and many Passport Acceptance Facilities around the country, will host passport application acceptance events. U.S. citizens without a valid passport book or passport card are encouraged to apply on this day.
More passport info on the State Department travel web site.
More info on the Customs web site.
Turn Out the Lights for Earth Hour
via the Earth Hour Web Site:
Earth Hour 2009 – What Will You Be Doing?
Cuddling up with your loved ones and admiring the stars in the night sky or organising a treasure hunt in the dark? At 8:30pm on Saturday 28 March, people from all corners of the world will turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – and cast their vote for action on climate change. Anybody can participate and join together with millions of people across the globe celebrating Earth Hour.
World Water Day is Sunday, March 22
via Live Earth:
March 22nd is a very important day – World Water Day. It is an international day of observance and action to draw attention to the plight of the more than 1 billion people around the world that lack access to clean, safe drinking water.
whoa — its the human joke machine on TV4U
You know how sometimes you’ll be looking for something on the web and you end up somewhere completely unrelated to your search, and have no idea how you got there? yeah, well, that’s how i stumbled across the Morey Amsterdam show, as originally aired on the DuMont network, now being shown on TV4U
Related: History of DuMont Television Network site
Update 9:44 pm: I also discovered that the Internet Archives now contains classic tv clips
