OnePeople buy when there’s blood in the streets

Tombland perfectly captures the happy horror of clown faced pork luncheon meat in this photo. Click link for complete image. Link (via Vegan.com )

(Image: Olga Shvetz)

Dune fans rejoice: you can now indulge your dreams of soaring over Arrakeen toward the shield wall by constructing your own mini-ornithopter. You could even put a little mouse inside it!

Build an Ornithopter [Metacafe via Make]

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Desktops

Fashion designer Paul Smith poses during a portrait session at his London store before the Gian Paolo Barbieri private view on April 22, 2008 in London, England. Paul Smith will be hosting the first London exhibition of work by photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri at their store on Albemarle Street W1 from April 23rd-3rd May. By Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

A blast of common sense and good judgment from the Financial Times:

Mr Obama has fought a brilliant campaign, out-organising his opponent, raising more money, and convincing undecided Democrats as well as the country at large that he was more likeable, more straightforward and more worthy of trust.

On form, he is a spell-binding orator and holds arena-sized audiences in thrall. He is given to airy exhortations, it is true, but genuinely seeks consensus and has cross-party appeal.

Note the "genuinely". This is obvious to anyone not blinkered. He is not perfect; and not a savior. But he is the best thing to happen to the Democrats in a very long time, and sometimes it takes an outsider like the FT to see it. Among the most perceptive of his critics, I'd put Dowd and Noonan. Maureen:

Obama has to prove to Americans that, despite his exotic background and multicultural looks, he shares or at least respects their values and understands why they would be upset about his associations with the Rev. Wright and an ex-Weatherman.

Peggy:

Sen. Obama seems honestly surprised by the furor his the-poor-cling-to-God-and-guns remarks elicited, and if one considers his background—intense marginalization followed by the establishment's embrace—this is understandable. He was only caught speaking the secret language of America's elite, and what he said was not meant as a putdown. It was an explanation aimed at ameliorating the elites' anger toward and impatience with normal people. It's a way of explaining them, of saying, "You have to remember they're not comfortable and educated like us, they're vulnerable and so we must try to understand them and feel sympathy for and solidarity with them." You could say this at any high-class dinner party in America and not cause a ruffle. But America is not a high-class dinner party.

The smartest critiques of Obama get the sincerity of his ambition, while noting his flaws and greenness. The dumbest critiques miss the point entirely. In general: I trust the Irish-Catholic women to get these things right. At least, that's what my mother taught me.

(Photo: Scott Morgan/Getty.)

From Sarah - "Your recent "Seen On The Streets of LA" made me think of this picture I took last year in Naples. Spero che vi piace! Thanks for your site"

In March 2008 seven artists were given unrestricted access to Dandenong's historic Grenda's bus depot in Australia prior to its demolition. You can see the full documentation here. The work above was created by Robbie Rowlands.

OAKLAND, California -- Linux programmer Hans Reiser is the victim of police "shading" and "one of the great screw jobs" perpetrated by his wife, who the open source developer is accused of killing, his attorney, William DuBois, told jurors during his second day of closing arguments here Thursday.

"He's charged with a crime he did not commit," DuBois said.

Speaking to the 12 jurors and two alternatives who have been seated since Nov. 6, DuBois for the second day likened his client to a duckbill platypus, a strange-looking mammal -- a "genetic mistake" -- that was projected to jurors on a large monitor.

"I just know this is one of the great screw jobs of what happened to Hans Reiser," DuBois said. "It's easy to screw a platypus."

DuBois said Nina Reiser left the country, probably to Russia, where the couple met in 1998 when the defendant was overseas hiring computer programmers. Prosecutors claim she would never have voluntarily abandoned her two children. DuBois told jurors Nina Reiser left as part of a plot that eventually resulted in her Russian mother winning custody of the children, who are now living in Russia, DuBois said.

"I don't know anything about what her contacts are," DuBois said, suggesting she is secretly monitoring her children. Nina Reiser's mother testified that she has not seen or heard from her daughter since she disappeared Sept. 3, 2006.

Nina Reiser, at age 31, vanished after dropping off the two children, a boy now 8 and girl now 6, at her husband's house in the Oakland hills that day. The defendant testified that his wife, who was divorcing him, abandoned their children after he accused her of embezzling from his software company Namesys.

DuBois also suggested that Reiser looks so guilty that he is innocent. The defendant hosed out the inside of his car and threw away the passenger seat.

"He wouldn???t take a garden hose and fill it with a ton of water and take the passenger seat out of his car just to throw people off the track," DuBois said.

He said the prosecution's theory calls for "putting your children in the position of viewing you kill their mother. Even for a platypus, that one's hard to say." DuBois later added, "Blood flying around the air could have attracted the kids' attention."

Also, DuBois said, the police were out to get him from day one.

"There's a shading there. Sometimes those shadings can mean the difference between life and death," DuBois said.

He said the police lied when they testified that when they searched the defendant's fanny pack weeks after his wife disappeared, his cellphone battery was removed.

The police took a picture of the phone from its front face.

"There's the picture of the cellphone, the only picture of the cellphone. There's no battery out," DuBois said.

(A person with a powerless mobile phone cannot be traced via cellphone towers.  Nina Reiser's cellphone was found in her abandoned minivan, which police said also had its battery removed.)

He also suggested that prosecutor Paul Hora wants people to think that his client is Scott Peterson, who is on death row for killing his wife in a highly publicized trial.

"Hans Reiser is just another Peterson?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

In his closing argument, Hora told jurors that "You know he killed her."

DuBois also faulted Oakland police for not investigating the several men seeking sex on Craigslist, whose posting Nina Reiser was browsing before she vanished.

"The government took the easy way out," DuBois said.

DuBois wondered aloud why the prosecution did not call Sean Sturgeon to the stand. Sturgeon was Hans Reiser's best friend and eventually had an affair with Nina Reiser. "He has the word 'rage,' not tattooed, carved in his arm," DuBois said.

DuBois said Sturgeon is "a jilted lover" because Nina Reiser, before she vanished, said she was planning on marrying not Sturgeon but another man. "And he's the guy who has 'rage' carved in his arm," DuBois repeated.

Sturgeon has confessed to killing eight people and has never been charged, though the jury has not been permitted to hear that.

UPDATE

After the lunch break, defense attorney DuBois kept on the theme that the authorities cannot be trusted and that the evidence doesn't convict his client.

"That's what I was talking about when I said, there's a tendency ??? for the police to let's just say push it a little bit when it comes to putting together cases," DuBois said.

He said the Oakland Police Department's investigation exhibited a "prosecution bias."

"You see the world through those glasses, through the bias of your belief that the person you are investigating is guilty," DuBois said.

He read a part of a recent Associated Press story that 17 men have been released from prison recently because they were falsely convicted in Dallas County, Texas. He said the nation's leaders weren't to be trusted as he referenced then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's comments that presaged the Iraq invasion five years ago.

"There's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," DuBois said.

Regarding blood found on a pillar inside the defendant's Oakland hills house, he repeated the defendant's testimony that Nina recently suffered a nosebleed and had cut her finger there.

"They are all reasonably inferable for the source of blood on the pillar," he said.

He added that it was usual for blood to be inside everybody's house.

"If you think about it and look around your own house, you will find that you will find deposits of that nature," he told jurors.

Many jurors sat stone-faced or with their arms crossed. Only one juror took notes. Another was chewing gum. The defendant, who is jailed without bail, often glanced toward the jury to his left when he thought his attorney was making a favorable point.

Regarding blood found on a sleeping bag cover inside the defendant's car, it's impossible to know when or how it ended up on it, DuBois said. "There's no way to tell how long the DNA had been on the sleeping bag cover," he said.

"And there's no way to tell how it got there."

That the defendant had some $9,000 in cash and his passport in his possession ahead of his Oct. 10, 2006 arrest does not prove anything, the defense lawyer said.

"The idea of suggesting of withdrawing money and caring it around is indicative of guilt is somewhat ludicrous," DuBois said.

When Nina Reiser's van was discovered, it had her purse inside. DuBois suggested that when Nina dropped off the kids, she brought her purse when she came inside.

"While your carrying a body around your shoulder, you also got the purse?" a sarcastic DuBois asked.

Testimony is breaking for the day. DuBois is expected to conclude his closing arguments Monday. Trial is dark Friday.

THREAT LEVEL is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage.

Sketches by Wired.com's Norman Quebedeau.

See Also:

• Reiser Defense Blasts Prosecution; Geek Defense Re-Deployed
• Reiser Prosecutor Tells Jurors: 'You Know He Killed Her'
• Prosecutor on Hans Reiser Defense: 'You've Got to Be Kidding Me'
• Prosecutor Tells Jurors 'Nina is Dead' and Hans Reiser 'Killed Her'
• Prosecutor on Hans Reiser Defense: 'You've Got to Be Kidding Me'
• Reiser Hard Drives Don't Map to Murder
• Testimony Concludes: Reiser Decries Murder Case as 'Silly ...
• Jury Can Consider Lesser 'Manslaughter' Verdict, Reiser Judge Rules

OAKLAND, California -- Linux programmer Hans Reiser is the victim of police "shading" and "one of the great screw jobs" perpetrated by his wife, who the open source developer is accused of killing, his attorney, William DuBois, told jurors during his second day of closing arguments here Thursday.

"He's charged with a crime he did not commit," DuBois said.

Speaking to the 12 jurors and two alternatives who have been seated since Nov. 6, DuBois for the second day likened his client to a duckbill platypus, a strange-looking mammal -- a "genetic mistake" -- that was projected to jurors on a large monitor.

"I just know this is one of the great screw jobs of what happened to Hans Reiser," DuBois said. "It's easy to screw a platypus."

DuBois said Nina Reiser left the country, probably to Russia, where the couple met in 1998 when the defendant was overseas hiring computer programmers. Prosecutors claim she would never have voluntarily abandoned her two children. DuBois told jurors Nina Reiser left as part of a plot that eventually resulted in her Russian mother winning custody of the children, who are now living in Russia, DuBois said.

"I don't know anything about what her contacts are," DuBois said, suggesting she is secretly monitoring her children. Nina Reiser's mother testified that she has not seen or heard from her daughter since she disappeared Sept. 3, 2006.

Nina Reiser, at age 31, vanished after dropping off the two children, a boy now 8 and girl now 6, at her husband's house in the Oakland hills that day. The defendant testified that his wife, who was divorcing him, abandoned their children after he accused her of embezzling from his software company Namesys.

DuBois also suggested that Reiser looks so guilty that he is innocent. The defendant hosed out the inside of his car and threw away the passenger seat.

"He wouldn’t take a garden hose and fill it with a ton of water and take the passenger seat out of his car just to throw people off the track," DuBois said.

He said the prosecution's theory calls for "putting your children in the position of viewing you kill their mother. Even for a platypus, that one's hard to say." DuBois later added, "Blood flying around the air could have attracted the kids' attention."

Also, DuBois said, the police were out to get him from day one.

"There's a shading there. Sometimes those shadings can mean the difference between life and death," DuBois said.

He said the police lied when they testified that when they searched the defendant's fanny pack weeks after his wife disappeared, his cellphone battery was removed.

The police took a picture of the phone from its front face.

"There's the picture of the cellphone, the only picture of the cellphone. There's no battery out," DuBois said.

(A person with a powerless mobile phone cannot be traced via cellphone towers.  Nina Reiser's cellphone was found in her abandoned minivan, which police said also had its battery removed.)

He also suggested that prosecutor Paul Hora wants people to think that his client is Scott Peterson, who is on death row for killing his wife in a highly publicized trial.

"Hans Reiser is just another Peterson?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

In his closing argument, Hora told jurors that "You know he killed her."

DuBois also faulted Oakland police for not investigating the several men seeking sex on Craigslist, whose posting Nina Reiser was browsing before she vanished.

"The government took the easy way out," DuBois said.

DuBois wondered aloud why the prosecution did not call Sean Sturgeon to the stand. Sturgeon was Hans Reiser's best friend and eventually had an affair with Nina Reiser. "He has the word 'rage,' not tattooed, carved in his arm," DuBois said.

DuBois said Sturgeon is "a jilted lover" because Nina Reiser, before she vanished, said she was planning on marrying not Sturgeon but another man. "And he's the guy who has 'rage' carved in his arm," DuBois repeated.

Sturgeon has confessed to killing eight people and has never been charged, though the jury has not been permitted to hear that.

UPDATE

After the lunch break, defense attorney DuBois kept on the theme that the authorities cannot be trusted and that the evidence doesn't convict his client.

"That's what I was talking about when I said, there's a tendency … for the police to let's just say push it a little bit when it comes to putting together cases," DuBois said.

He said the Oakland Police Department's investigation exhibited a "prosecution bias."

"You see the world through those glasses, through the bias of your belief that the person you are investigating is guilty," DuBois said.

He read a part of a recent Associated Press story that 17 men have been released from prison recently because they were falsely convicted in Dallas County, Texas. He said the nation's leaders weren't to be trusted as he referenced then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's comments that presaged the Iraq invasion five years ago.

"There's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," DuBois said.

Regarding blood found on a pillar inside the defendant's Oakland hills house, he repeated the defendant's testimony that Nina recently suffered a nosebleed and had cut her finger there.

"They are all reasonably inferable for the source of blood on the pillar," he said.

He added that it was usual for blood to be inside everybody's house.

"If you think about it and look around your own house, you will find that you will find deposits of that nature," he told jurors.

Many jurors sat stone-faced or with their arms crossed. Only one juror took notes. Another was chewing gum. The defendant, who is jailed without bail, often glanced toward the jury to his left when he thought his attorney was making a favorable point.

Regarding blood found on a sleeping bag cover inside the defendant's car, it's impossible to know when or how it ended up on it, DuBois said. "There's no way to tell how long the DNA had been on the sleeping bag cover," he said.

"And there's no way to tell how it got there."

That the defendant had some $9,000 in cash and his passport in his possession ahead of his Oct. 10, 2006 arrest does not prove anything, the defense lawyer said.

"The idea of suggesting of withdrawing money and caring it around is indicative of guilt is somewhat ludicrous," DuBois said.

When Nina Reiser's van was discovered, it had her purse inside. DuBois suggested that when Nina dropped off the kids, she brought her purse when she came inside.

"While your carrying a body around your shoulder, you also got the purse?" a sarcastic DuBois asked.

Testimony is breaking for the day. DuBois is expected to conclude his closing arguments Monday. Trial is dark Friday.

THREAT LEVEL is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage.

Sketches by Wired.com's Norman Quebedeau.

See Also:

• Reiser Defense Blasts Prosecution; Geek Defense Re-Deployed
• Reiser Prosecutor Tells Jurors: 'You Know He Killed Her'
• Prosecutor on Hans Reiser Defense: 'You've Got to Be Kidding Me'
• Prosecutor Tells Jurors 'Nina is Dead' and Hans Reiser 'Killed Her'
• Prosecutor on Hans Reiser Defense: 'You've Got to Be Kidding Me'
• Reiser Hard Drives Don't Map to Murder
• Testimony Concludes: Reiser Decries Murder Case as 'Silly ...
• Jury Can Consider Lesser 'Manslaughter' Verdict, Reiser Judge Rules

Six Maasai warriors ran in the London Marathon today. 24-year-old Isaya Maasai, is their chief, and you can read his diary at the Guardian website.

The horses that go around were amazing and we couldn't believe how fast. We rode a real horse for the first time too. It is amazing that people can talk to them, tell them where to go and they do it.

I miss meat and blood very much. Not vegetables because they are food for a woman. There is milk here but blood is better because it gives energy. English tea with sugar is good and we tried Coco Pops, but the nicest food is croissants.

Link (via Arbroath)

Link (via Sean Bonner)