Much faster but more vulnerable? What are they trying to say?

It reads as though the Times believes that "PerezHilton" could be lurking somewhere in the microcircuitry of the client computers, waiting to intercept ftp'd files ... and that sending one E-mail with an attachment (to a single long list of CCs) is somehow much slower than ftp'ing that same attachment to an equally long list of computers one by one ...

A fairly detailed description of the day's events here.  "Detailed", of course, not always meaning accurate.

Long [the cop who killed Strickland] mistook the hammering of the ram for the blast of a gun and opened fire, David said.

Taking that at face value, Long thought he heard somebody somewhere shooting something in some direction, so he killed the nearest non-cop with no more reason to think that said non-cop was armed.

Long was indicted.  

A former New Hanover County sheriff's deputy was charged with second-degree murder Monday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager accused of stealing PlayStation 3 video game systems.

Then he wasn't.  

However, the foreman of the grand jury, who checked the box on the paperwork that called for Long to be indicted, later announced that the jury had found Long not guilty and that he accidentally checked the wrong box.

Now he might be.

New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said this morning that the sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a Durham teen Dec. 1 could still be charged with a crime.

Wars and torture and the demeaning of human life are not the only noteable 'achievements' of the insane bush administration and their equally insane supporters:

New publishing rules restrict scientists
By JOHN HEILPRIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy.

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
...
At the Environmental Protection Agency, scientists and advocacy groups alike are worried about closing libraries that contain tens of thousands of agency documents and research studies. "It now appears that EPA officials are dismantling what it likely one of our country's comprehensive and accessible collections of environmental materials," four Democrats who are in line to head House committees wrote EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson two weeks ago.

Democrats about to take control of Congress have investigations into reports by The New York Times and other news organizations that the Bush administration tried to censor government scientists researching global warming at NASA and the Commerce Department.

TEHRAN: Partial results from elections held Friday suggest that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suffered a major setback a year after his election.

The victory of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over an extremist candidate and spiritual mentor of Ahmadinejad's gave one strong indication that voters favored more moderate policies.

Iran bloggers test regime's tolerance

TEHRAN : By day, Alireza Samiei covers banking and insurance for an industry newspaper. By night, he writes a daring online blog about Iran's social and political ills.
...
Samiei, 27, is among the growing ranks of Iranian bloggers who are relentlessly pushing the boundaries of free expression, making Farsi one of the 10 most popular languages for blogs. The bloggers are testing just how much political and social dissent the nation's rulers will tolerate on the Internet.

The authorities are pushing back.

Elliot Abrams and others at the National Security Council in Bush's White House have intervened to stop the publication of an op-ed in the New York Times by Flynt Leverett. Leverett himself served in the National Security Council until not so long ago.

For Leverett's criticism of Bush administration Middle East policy and its mishandling of Iran since January of 2002, see this interview at Eurasia.net. He advocates US talks with Iran.

From Leverett's statement:

' Until last week, the Publication Review Board had never sought to remove or change a single word in any of my drafts, including in all of my publications about the Bush administration's handling of Iran policy. However, last week, the White House inserted itself into the prepublication review process for an op-ed on the administration's bungling of the Iran portfolio that I had prepared for the New York Times, blocking publication of the piece on the grounds that it would reveal classified information.

This claim is false and, I have come to believe, fabricated by White House officials to silence an established critic of the administration's foreign policy incompetence at a moment when the White House is working hard to fend off political pressure to take a different approach to Iran and the Middle East more generally.

Juan Cole

 He has written numerous books, manuscripts, working papers, and many dozens upon dozens of some of the most important public policy op-ed commentary on American engagement in the Middle East and has always dutifully submitted his materials to the CIA's review process. Never -- not even once -- has been a word or item changed in anything submitted

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, has been conscious occasionally and remains in ``critical but stable'' condition as he recovers from brain surgery, said his spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher.

"He has been conscious at times," Fisher said. "That's when he is opening up his eyes and responding to voice commands and touch. But he is being sedated so he can rest and heal."
...
Last week officials said that Johnson has weakness on his right side and will need physical therapy.