Blue Crab Boulevard

Just about every post I have made here in the last week has been done from my laptop computer running Ubuntu 7.10, I wrote right after I first tried it out that I thought people would be impressed. One week on, I still think so. Don't get me wrong, there are a few drawbacks from a Microsoft Windows OS - like no DVD movie player. But I really don't use that all that often anyway and it is not missed. What it does do is give you a "work" computer, rather than an "entertainment" computer right out of the box.

At the moment I have four separate workspaces or desktops I can use with a click of a button. (There are two set up right out of the box). I have a full office suite, photo editing, games and media playing. Flash player and Java need to be installed (simple, just click the package manager). The system interfaces with Palm Pilots as-is, no fooling with things to make it work. I set up the email to work with my website in a very short time.

Seriously, if you have an older computer sitting around that you are not using, throw a spare drive in it and install this program (or if you don't do hardware and have disks to restore your old system if you don't like Ubuntu, wipe the drive and install this OS.)

All of this is not to dismiss other Linux systems, BTW. This one happens to work pretty well for me. Other people might find other systems fit their needs better.

Here's a thought. Let the market decide on health care costs and value of services. Better yet - give consumers a way to compare prices and decide for themselves exactly what they need. Sound good? Meet Carol.

PLYMOUTH, Minn. - You can buy almost anything online these days, but try shopping the Internet for an MRI, strep throat test or even an annual physical exam and you'll run into roadblocks.
 
A new Twin Cities company called Carol is trying to change that with a Web site that gives consumers a "care marketplace" to search for medical services, compare quality and price and make appointments.

Carol joins an effort to transform the U.S. health care system by putting consumers in charge and letting the market do its work.

"We want to let consumers define value," said Tony Miller, Carol's founder and chief executive officer. "We don't have care competition in the marketplace today."

The free site, which went live in January, generates revenue from health care providers who become "tenants" on the site. When a consumer sets up an appointment with a clinic or doctor on Carol.com, the provider pays the site a fee.

While limited to about 30 providers in the Twin Cities area at its launch, the company is adding others and plans to serve a second U.S. market sometime this year, Miller said.

Now the usual statists are raising heck about this, complaining that this kind of market-driven approach shouldn't be allowed when they think the state should regulate.

But this exact, same approach is touted as good for consumers in auto insurance and just about any other product, commodity and service. See Amazon.com or Progressive Insurance for example.

Why would it not work for health care? Because the government isn't running it? Oh, please. Do you trust the government to make decisions for your health care? Really?

Here's Carol.com. Go see what they are doing. It's a good concept with real potential.

The Red Queen will need a whole new deck after this debacle. Just a few days ago, Maine was being predicted as a Hillary Clinton win. Instead, it is another blowout for Obama. MSNBC calls Maine for Obama.  

AUGUSTA, Maine - Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic Party's Maine caucuses on Sunday, grabbing a majority of delegates as the state's Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings.

With 70 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama had 57 percent of the vote, while Clinton had 42 percent.

It is not quite the two to one defeats she was handed yesterday, but it is another blow to an already staggering campaign. I think she's going to need a new flamingo - the game just changed.

To Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's arm that was linked into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up and there stood the Queen in front of them, with her arms folded, frowning like a thunderstorm!

"Now, I give you fair warning," shouted the Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke, "either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time. Take your choice!" The Duchess took her choice, and was gone in a moment.

"Let's go on with the game," the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet-ground.All the time they were playing, the Queen never left off quarreling with the other players and shouting, "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" By the end of half an hour or so, all the players, except the King, the Queen and Alice, were in custody of the soldiers and under sentence of execution.

(Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

And the heads begin to roll in camp Clinton. One day after the disastrous losses by two to one margins in four races, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, has fallen on her sword for the campaign and resigned.  

Patti Solis Doyle announced that she is stepping down as the campaign manager for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y., ABC News has learned that this afternoon.

In a note she sent to her staff, Solis Doyle announced that this week Maggie Williams, Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady, "will begin to assume the duties of campaign manager." Solis Doyle said she would remain as a senior adviser to the campaign.

Solis Doyle, who has been with Clinton she was first lady of Arkansas, noted that "this has already been the longest Presidential campaign in the history of our nation, and one that has required enormous sacrifices from all of us and our families."

She wrote that she has been "proud to manage this campaign, and prouder still to call Hillary my friend for more than sixteen years. I know that she will make a great President."

The announcement came one day after Clinton's opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., swept four primary contests — Nebraska, Washington state, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands — and two days before the so-called "Potomac Primary" of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., where Clinton's campaign says they do not expect her to fare well.

There will, I suspect, be a number of other people resigning to "spend more time with their families" in short order. The drubbings Clinton took are very bad for her - she no longer looks inevitable. In fact, she is now beginning to look desperate. 

Well, back to the croquet-ground.

Three 13-year old girls have been cited with "hurling missiles" in a junior high school lunchroom. The weapon of choice?

French fries.

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Three 13-year-old girls accused of throwing french fries during lunchtime at their school were cited for "hurling missiles," an adult infraction covered by city ordinances.

The principal of Laramie Junior High and a police officer had warned students during an assembly the day before the french fries' launch that if they threw food, they had to suffer the consequences, Police Chief Bob Deutsch said. The warning came after school officials had heard rumors of an impending food fight.

"They saw it as really the planning of a riot, when you think about it," Deutsch said.

The girls decided to test the warning, he said.

"It wasn't a spontaneous thing — a couple of kids giggling, throwing a french fry at each other," Deutsch said. "They intended on getting everybody involved in this and starting something that no doubt would have the potential of getting out of control."

Of course, there is much uproar about the citations and very little about the deployment of ketchup-seeking missiles. Even the ACLU is getting into it - but that may have more to do with the fact that they are already on the warpath against the Laramie school system over police in schools.

We don't recommend french fries for food fighting, by the way. Insufficient splash. 

…Give the rest a bad name. A Florida lawyer has been charged with assault after she shook the hand of a prosecutor so vigorously that the assistant US attorney was almost thrown to the ground.

A Florida lawyer has been charged with assault for over-vigorously shaking the hand of a fellow attorney.

Kathy Brewer Rentas, 49, shook the hand of Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Keene so hard her arm was nearly ripped out of its socket, a court official said.

Moments before, Ms Keene successfully prosecuted Ms Brewer Rentas' husband.

Anthony Rentas was accused of violating the terms of a probation order for supplying cocaine, and sentenced to 90 days of house arrest.

After the hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mrs Brewer Rentas insisted on shaking the prosecuting lawyer's hand.

In shaking it, she nearly floored Ms Keene with the vigour of her hand-action.

A court security officer witnessed the "handshake". Brewer Rentas faces up to a year in prison if convicted. We have managed to obtain video of a law school class practicing exchanging friendly greetings.

British athletes hoping to compete at the Beijing Olympics will be required to sign a contract forbidding them from speaking out about China's himan rights record. The British press is outraged and is comparing it to the 1936 Berlin games when the British team was required to give a Nazi salute.

British athletes will be banned from competing in this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing if they criticise China's totalitarian regime.

The gagging order has been imposed by the British Olympic Association. Competitors who break the rule will not travel to the games or, if they are already in China, will be put on the next plane home.

It means sportsmen and women will be unable to raise concerns about China's human rights record or its occupation of Tibet.

Critics accused the BOA of bowing to political pressure and said the move raised the spectre of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which passed off without protest and were hailed as a propaganda coup for the Nazi regime.

Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, British competitors have been asked to sign contracts including a pledge "not to comment on any politically sensitive issues".

However, this year's contracts will, for the first time, explicitly refer competitors to Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, which "provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other areas".

The BOA denied suppressing athletes' comments. But a spokesman said it would be wrong for athletes to use the Games as a soap box.

"Clearly what we are not trying to do is suppress comment or debate from our athletes. If an individual is asked a direct question and makes a response that's fine."

The clause was designed to prevent organised protests like those at the 1968 games in Mexico City, he said.

But the BOA's decision is in contrast to other countries, including the United States and Australia, where athletes will be free to speak out about China should they wish to do so.  

Thank heavens other countries are not following the British "example."

The Daily Mail reports on the results of a passionate encounter between a randy cad of a goat and a sheep. They've produced a "geep." (I suppose they had to settle on that since "shoat" was already taken.)

Leaping into the air, she looks like something from the funny farm.

But this curious creature is making scientists do a double-take. Meet Lisa the geep… a cross between a goat and a sheep.

She was born after an unscheduled amorous encounter on the farm of Klaus Exsternbrink, in Schwerte, in northern Germany's Ruhr Valley. One of his young billy goats leapt over a fence and had a passionate liaison with a ewe.

The result a month ago was Lisa - resembling a lamb in shape and stature, but with the colouring and agile back legs of a goat.

Her mother seems unfazed by her unusual offspring and has raised her happily so far.

Now Lisa is booked into a specialist animal medical school in Hanover for genetic tests to determine her hybrid status. "These whims of nature are extremely rare," said the school's Professor Karl-Heinz Waldmann.

They have pictures. It could just be a really, really ugly sheep or maybe it really is a crossbreed. There have been reports of odd crossbreeds before that didn't pan out. But the sheep and the goat are in the same family and subfamily, so this one is a little more likely to be real.

Real ugly, too. 

British authorities are rushing to evacuate two oil platforms off the northern coast of Scotland after a woman claimed to have planted "a device" on one of the platforms. Explosives experts are on alert and the Special Boat Service is reportedly on the way to the rigs.

A full scale security alert has been sparked by a bomb threat on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland and 14 helicopters have been deployed to airlift more than 539 people to safety.

It was believed the security scare was triggered by a woman on board a "floating hotel" next to the rigs, which are 115 miles north-east of Aberdeen, who claimed to have planted a "device".

A Royal Navy bomb disposal unit was reportedly on stand-by and 14 RAF and civilian helicopters have been sent to evacuate the all the staff.

Sources have said that the woman made a verbal bomb threat and was not acting on behalf of any organisation.

The Safe Scandinavia and neighbouring Britannia rig were being emptied of all staff, which could be up to 700 people.

The Special Boat Service was also on the way to the rigs. Based in Poole, Dorset, the SBS is a special forces unit like the SAS and specialises in operations at sea, along coastlines and on river networks.

Bosses on the oil rig called the coastguard on the mainland just before 9.20am and a rapid evacuation plan was put in place.

Sources said 76 of the 539 workers have been evacuated by helicopter.

The alert was sounded on an accommodation platform attached to the Britannia rig by a bridge.

All of the workers escaped across onto the main rig and are now being moved on to helicopters.

The helicopter rescue is being coordinated by a plane flying near the rig.

The RAF Kinloss spokesman said: "We are responding at the request of the coastguard and police to a report of a security incident.

"This is not a fire, escape of gas, anything like that. It's just precautionary measures being put in place."  

It would be a very bad place to be should a bomb go off. This is about all the detail I have on this at the moment. No word on the woman's motives as of yet. Only that the woman made remarks that sparked the evacuation.  

UPDATE: Reuters is now reporting that no device was found and that personnel are returning to the platforms. The incident is not considered terrorism-related - but I'm sure there were quite a lot of people in terror this morning. it has to be scary as heck to be in that situation.

The operation began after a worker reported a "possible suspicious device" on the platform, the gas field's operator said. Officials later said the scare at the Britannia gas field turned out to be a false alarm.

Safe Scandinavia is a "floating hotel" for around 500 workers, linked by a bridge to the Britannia gas platform, 210 km (130 miles) northeast of the Scottish city of Aberdeen.

"A thorough search…has revealed nothing suspicious and it has now been deemed safe for workers to return to normal operations," Britannia Operator Ltd said in a statement.

"All those involved in the incident are safe and unhurt and the installations are secure," it added.

Production from the Britannia field was shut down as a precaution following the security alert, said Muriel Roberts, a spokeswoman for the operating company.

"We'll be restarting as soon as possible and get back to normal just as soon as we can," she said.

How bad is the situation if the UN's own internal audits show massive waste and fraud in the UN's operations in Sudan? Well, they say that tens of millions of dollars have been wasted and that UN officials have been steering contracts to cronies, so I'm guessing that the situation is actually even worse than they are letting on.

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has wasted tens of millions of dollars in its peacekeeping operations in Sudan over the past three years, according to the findings of U.N. auditors examining the financial practices of the global body's overseas missions.

U.N. officers in Sudan have squandered millions by renting warehouses that were never used, booking blocks of hotel rooms that were never filled, and losing thousands of food rations to theft and spoilage, according to several internal audits by the U.N. Office for International Oversight Services. One U.N. purchasing agent has been accused of steering a $589,000 contract for airport runway lights to a company that helped his wife obtain a student visa, while two senior procurement officials from the United States and New Zealand have been charged by a U.N. panel with misconduct for not complying with rules designed to prevent corruption.

The U.N. procurement division "did not have the necessary capacity and expertise to handle the large magnitude of procurement actions" in Sudan, particularly during the early phases of the mission, according to a confidential October 2006 audit obtained by The Washington Post. Investigators also detected "a number of potential fraud indicators and cases of mismanagement and waste."

The internal United Nations audits provide a rare glimpse into the messy business of assembling a massive multinational expeditionary force in a war-torn nation. They also highlight the Bush administration's struggles to make progress on its top Africa initiative: ending a decades-long civil war between Sudan's Islamic government and southern rebels, and halting the mass killing of civilians in the country's southern region of Darfur.

U.N. peacekeeping officials maintain that the auditors' allegations are overblown, and that they neglect the difficulties of launching a major operation in a nation with few roads and a government hostile to foreigners. "This is seen as a witch hunt that is not warranted given the fluidity and complexity of that mission," said one U.N. official who served in Sudan, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigations.  

Kofi Annan's legacy lives on, complete with denials that there is any corruption issued by bureaucrats who are not supposed to be talking to the press. And despite the track record of massive incompetence and corruption, there are still people who demand that the UN be allowed to handle even bigger and more complex things.

A certain definition of insanity comes to mind here.