Why in another fifty years, they may get to use the front door?

'Kuwaiti Women Take Part in First Election'

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti women voted and ran as candidates for the first time Tuesday in a municipal election in the country's capital. The vote to fill a seat in the city's Municipal Council came almost a year after parliament passed a bill enfranchising women and enabling them to run for office.

Men and women voted separately to conform with Islamic traditions. The voting was organized so that a woman could vote without speaking to a man except for the judge who checked her name on the register and presented her with a ballot. Women — most of them covered by a head-to-toe black abaya robe_ chatted in small groups, sometimes drinking coffee and eating sweets, in the segregated section of the polling stations.

Women candidates were disadvantaged, both by prejudice and tradition, such as the fact that no female faces adorned the huge electoral posters plastered outside polling stations. It would be considered indecent for a woman candidate to advertise her face.



I click you, you click me, we both click too easily.

'Yahoo Implicated In Spyware Click Fraud'

Advertisers who expect their Overture ad campaigns to run with certain Yahoo Searches may be surprised to find their ads running in syndicated spyware applications that render each impression as an ad click the advertiser must pay.

When that click is paid, according to spyware researcher Ben Edelman, Yahoo and the spyware vendor split the revenue. Edelman has followed up his August 2005 research into spyware receiving payments from Yahoo's Overture by noting an increase in this possible syndication fraud.

"In my August syndication fraud examples, an advertiser only pays Yahoo if a user clicks the advertiser's ad. Not so for three of today's examples. Here, spyware completely fakes a click -- causing Yahoo to charge an advertiser a "pay-per-click" fee, even though no user actually clicked on any pay-per-click link. This is "click fraud."



Thank G*d

'Jessica Alba Forgives Playboy Over Dispute'

LOS ANGELES - Jessica Alba's dispute with Playboy is over. The 24-year-actress has dropped her demand that the magazine pull its March issue after receiving a letter of apology from founder Hugh Hefner.

Alba was upset because she had not agreed to be on the cover and she worried it may have led readers to believe she appears nude or partially nude in the magazine. "I appreciate Mr. Hefner's acknowledgment of the distress caused by Playboy's actions, and I'm happy to put this unfortunate event behind me."



Get well

'Paperweight Severs Calif. Teacher's Hand'

VENTURA, Calif. - A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug. The 5-inch-long shell exploded Monday while Robert Colla was teaching 20 to 25 students at an adult education class.

Part of Colla's right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso. No one else was injured. He was reported in stable condition at a hospital. The teacher slammed the shell down in an attempt to kill something that was buzzing or crawling across the desk.



Clooney anounces he's proud to be a member of 'Hollywood'. The rest of the world starts buying "Suicide for Dummies." Sales are brisk.

Jessica Simpson is set to star in a movie remake of 'Baywatch'

The actress will play a sexy lifeguard in the film version of the hit 90s
show, which turned Pamela Anderson into a star. The 'Newlyweds' beauty may even copy Pamela's famous slow-motion running in the movie. Jessica apparently won't have any problem flaunting her curves in one of the skimpy red swimsuits worn by the film's lifeguards - because she loves her breasts.

The blonde star - who recently split from husband Nick Lachey after three
years of marriage - recently said she thinks her boobs are wonderful and
insists she wouldn't do a thing to change her perfect mammaries.
She said: "I have amazing boobs. They're just perfect."

And no, I didn't make that one up (truth is stranger than satire).



Wait, don't do it (Kill yourself that is).

'Hilton considered for Mother Theresa Role'

British web site Life Style Extra is reporting that Indian director T. Rajeevnath will be taking a trip across the world to try to convince socialite-turned-actress Paris Hilton to star in his feature biopic of the late humanitarian Mother Theresa.

Rajeevnath's people have reportedly been in contact with Hilton's camp to set up a meeting when Rajeevnath arrives in the States. According to Life Style Extra, Rajeevnath will be bringing along various photos of Hilton that have been altered to make her appear more like Mother Theresa, who died back in 1997.

"The pictures will be my strength when I speak to Paris," Rajeevnath told the web site. "She has expressed delight that I have short-listed her to play the role. This will make our meeting easier." Rajeevnath hopes to begin shooting his Mother Theresa film early next year with a budget of about $11 million.

Now aren't you glad you didn't pull the pin on that grenade?



BlogsNow offline

'BlogsNow will be offline for at least a couple of days'

I rather like BlogsNow, its simplicity, its linearity. Its seeming randomness. Somewhat like Topix. It doesn't reek of the same old same old circular top to bottom linkage. The same blogs writing and linking about the same topics, to each other. The vibe I always get from Memeorandum. Who you are linking to, rather than what is being discussed. Very interesting is this little stat, included in their offline notification:

From February 2004 to May 2005 BlogsNow Version '1' found 7 Million blogs. The current database collected 30 Million weblogs since May 2005. A number that can be misleading: Only 5 Million have posted more than two times, and 'only' two million did so during the last thirty days.

So, of the thirty million indexed on Technorati, significantly less than two million are actually working functioning blogs.



Great example .....*ssholes

'Brooklyn Hassidim riot after arrest'

Hundreds of Hasidic Jews surrounded a Brooklyn police station Tuesday night, chanting "No justice - no peace," lighting bonfires, and eventually torching a police car.

They were protesting the arrest of Arthur Schick, owner of Schick's Bakery, who was pulled over for talking on his cellular phone while driving. According to police, Schick became uncooperative and was arrested. Two men who intervened as he was being put into a police van were also arrested.

News of the arrests spread quickly through the tight-knit Hassidic community, and residents took to the streets to protest. Protesters created two large bonfires out of discarded cardboard, and later torched a police car.



And here you thought I was joking when I said workers in the Red Light would soon be wearing burkhas.


'Danish TV Seeks Forgiveness with Veiled Anchor Woman'

Copenhagen - Harshly criticized for the cartoon crisis, the Danish government continues its "image repairing" activities in the eyes of the Muslims.

Danish state channel DR2 employed a Muslim woman that practices wearing the headscarf to present a TV program in the frame of "respect towards different thoughts and beliefs." Palestinian-origin Asmaa Abdulhamid, in the eight-week program, will host a different guest every week together with Danish journalist Adam Holm and ask questions in accordance with her beliefs.

DR2 explained the basic goal of the program "Adam and Asmaa" is "respecting different thoughts" and said the cartoon crisis openly displayed the importance of dialogue and tolerance between the East and the West. Via http://www.iris.org.il/blog/



6:48 a.m. (Snicker, it's not just for breakfast anymore).

'Angry French scribe claims 'Syriana' plagiarized'

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - A French screenwriter living in Jordan has sued Warner Bros. Pictures, George Clooney's production company and writer-director Stephen Gaghan, alleging that their film "Syriana" plagiarized entire scenes and characters from a script she wrote several years ago.

Stephanie Vergniault (is suing) the filmmakers for 2 million euros ($2.4 million) and damages. Executives at Warner Bros. said they were aware of the case but declined comment. "I live in a part of the world where we have no access to the latest films, and I would never have seen 'Syriana' if a friend of mine based in Los Angeles hadn't alerted me," Vergniault said.

"I saw the film entirely by accident, and I'm still in a state of shock that someone of the caliber of Stephen Gaghan could stoop so low. At least 15 to 20 scenes of the film -- the characters and how they develop, creative elements, the entire structure -- has been lifted directly from my script. I couldn't stop screaming when I first saw the film in a movie hall in L.A. First I thought I was going crazy, seeing my work on the screen, and then, when I realized what had happened, I was furious." Via The Mudville Gazette's April 05, 2006, Dawn Patrol.



8:00 a.m.

'ARE YOU READY FOR HIZBOLLAH'S PREEMPTIVE TERROR?'

Excellent piece in CTB from Walid Phares (highly recommended). Longer than many blog entries, but most certainly worthwhile. Giving an of the moment global perspective on Iran, Hizbollah, jihad and America as target. Basic premise? It makes no difference what our course of action regards Iran is [in spite of the kindergarteners over at the WashPost crying the don't do it blues (pre-empt Iran)]. All of global jihad's terror operations are CURRENTLY in the pipeleine. Planned, packaged, and ready to go. I've always said another strike is on its way, the only question being ..... the day and number of victims?

The machine is moving. It all depends on when and how will the Mullahs, in consultation with their Jihadi allies, unleash the wrath onto the Kuffars (infidels). Short of a change in Western posture on a nuclear Iran, the collision is bound to happen.

The calculations of the strategy planners from Tehran to Beirut’s southern suburbs are very meticulous and above all, very patient. As in the cold war era, it is all about brinkmanship. We say make sure the Iranian regime won’t pull a surprise attack on unexpected targets. Don’t let the Khumeinist Jihadis duplicate 9/11.



8:30 a.m.: Susan Sarandon farts in jar, holds it aloft and loudly proclaims: "Smell me!"

'Sarandon wants monitoring for U.S. elections'

..... the 2004 vote was so fraudulent that we need international oversight — like troubled third-world countries do. “I believe our next election should be monitored by international entities, just like it happened in Haiti and Iraq,” Sarandon told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo (according to our translator). “The last one was an embarrassment. Everybody knew there was fraud, but nothing was done about it.

If it's all the same to you Suzy, I'll pass (Thanks anyway).