No Surprise Here: Three Strikes Law Creates Opportunity For Encrypted VPN Services In France
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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No Surprise Here: Three Strikes Law Creates Opportunity For Encrypted VPN Services In France
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
No Surprise Here: Three Strikes Law Creates Opportunity For Encrypted VPN Services In France
[Source: News]
posted by 77767 @ 6:16 PM,
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The other Susan Boyle
PrintEmailPDF The global success of the Britain's Got Talent star has had an unlikely impact on one unassuming Texas artist. Stuart Jeffries hears how
There is, you might think, room in the world for only one Susan Boyle. But you would be wrong. The American artist, Susan K Boyle, was living her quiet, unassuming life in the pretty hill country of Kerrville, Texas, when a friend sent her an email.
"It was a link to Susan Boyle's YouTube performance a few days after her audition," recalls Susan K. "I thought she was wonderful - what a beautiful voice and what a compelling story. But I thought it was just an interesting coincidence, nothing more."
Except that back in 2002, Susan K Boyle had set up a website, susanboyle.com, to display her artworks. That site had been rusting in cyberspace for a couple of years - until the Britain's Got Talent finalist sudenly came to the global consciousness last month, and something rather strange happened. "A journalist called me and said, 'Do you know your site is getting 1,800 hits per hour?' I had no idea - I hadn't upgraded the site for a couple of years." Yesterday, she calculated the cumulative total of hits to be more than 172,000.
Susan K's website shows her figurative line drawings and head studies in oil. Like her namesake, she has got talent, though not the sort to irrigate Simon Cowell or Amanda Holden's tear ducts.
And then the madness, as it does in such cases, began in earnest. "A couple of Susan Boyle fans emailed me to say they thought I sang beautifully. Another thought I sang beautifully and liked my artwork! Among the emails were inquiries for price quotes on a couple of my art pieces. However, I have had no sales as a result of this. Yet."
So is Susan K expecting a surge of sales as a result of the sudden celebrity of an unglamorous though sweet-voiced woman who lives on the other side of the Atlantic? "That would be too weird, wouldn't it?"
Next, she started getting calls and emails from people wanting to buy her website's domain name. "One guy, within a minute, had increased his offer from $100 to $500,000. I'm not sure how serious he was, but that sort of thing is very strange to happen to someone like me." She consulted a company called Sedo that sells domain names and, following their advice, has now put her web address up for sale for a cool $25,000. She hasn't sold it. Yet. (She has moved her artwork display, though, to sboyleart.com).
Surely she'll be rooting for her namesake to win tomorrow night's final? "I haven't heard the other finalists, so I can't say." Admirably diplomatic - but Susan K now has a pecuniary interest in the other Susan's success. According to Sedo's director of business development, Nora Nanayakkara: "The value of the domain name really depends on the sustainability of Susan Boyle's popularity."
I ask if Susan K's life story is as heart-rending as her namesake's. "I don't know much about her biography," she replies. I'm thinking of the fact that the 46-year-old singer from West Lothian claimed - apparently as a joke - never to have been kissed, at least until Piers Morgan made her life story even more harrowing by kissing her backstage last week. "Oh, I've been kissed," Susan K replies finally.
The 64-year-old from Kerrville is an art major who has drawn and painted throughout her life, while working mostly in the airline industry. "I was a stewardess, as they were called in the 60s, for PanAm. I left just before Lockerbie [the PanAm crash in 1988]."
In addition to Susan K's new website, her work can be seen in a show called Turning Point at the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas, from 6 June. She is understandably eager for the media circus (ie me calling her at the prearranged time of 7.30am from London) to move on, so she can walk her "lovely old dog" and then get back to her art.
After the interview, she sends me a disarming email: "Please be kind to me in your article. Another outfit in the UK wrote about me yesterday and made me sound stupid AND greedy - and they hadn't even spoken with me!! Egads!"
For the record, Susan K Boyle is neither of those things (and I'm always a sucker for a woman who exclaims "egads"). She is, like her namesake, a breath of fresh air. The last thing the "other" Susan Boyle says sounds sweet coming down the line to this celeb-crazy nation. "I am an artist and am happiest in my studio working on my art. I don't deserve, or want, fame".
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: International News]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: Sun News]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: 11 Alive News]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: Cnn News]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: News Station]
The other Susan Boyle
[Source: News 2]
posted by 77767 @ 5:15 PM,
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The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
PrintEmailPDF The Dish was all over yesterday's big story - the assassination of George Tiller by a crazed Christianist. We traced O'Reilly's troubling rhetoric here, here, and here, and readers checked my reaction here. We chronicled the disturbing role of Operation Rescue here, here, and here, and commentary from the far right here, here, here. A noteworthy voice on the far-right was Robert P. George, who struck the perfect chord. We also aired personal accounts of abortion here and here.
A traumatic Sunday, to say the least. For the right approach to religion, listen to Bob Wright.
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: International News]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Stock News]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Boston News]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Nascar News]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Kenosha News]
The Weekend Wrap: The Tiller Assassination
[Source: Online News]
posted by 77767 @ 5:08 PM,
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60 Turned Away Because Of HIV
PrintEmailPDF An AIDS conference scheduled for this week in Washington, DC, will not have 60 participants - Canadians who could not enter the US because they have HIV and didn't realize that they still had to jump through several hoops to get a temporary waiver:
As many as 60 Canadians had been turned away from the U.S. border in spite of "stated U.S. policy that foreigners living with HIV would no longer be barred from entering the country." However, even though Congress acted to repeal the law that keeps HIV+ visitors out, relevant U.S. Department of Health & Human Services regulations have not been revised, and HIV+ visitors are still not allowed to enter the country... "The 60 Canadians had planned to attend the North American Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit in Washington, D.C. from June 2 to June 5."
The situation echoes a recent incident in which a Cuban unsuccessfully sought to remain in the U.S. under a 1966 American law that provides for permanent U.S. residency for those who emigrate to American shores from Cuba. But in the case of Raul Hernandez, the long-standing law was superceded by the ban on HIV+ foreigners, even though Hernandez had been living in Arlington, Virginia, reported The Southern Voice in a May 20 article.
The Obama administration seems unable or unwilling to expedite this. People with HIV outside America need to know that there has been no change and the discrimination against the HIV-positive continues despite the law change and despite the change in administration. Travelers beware. They can and will detain you or turn you back.
60 Turned Away Because Of HIV
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
60 Turned Away Because Of HIV
[Source: Spanish News]
60 Turned Away Because Of HIV
[Source: Nascar News]
60 Turned Away Because Of HIV
[Source: News Weekly]
posted by 77767 @ 5:06 PM,
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Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
PrintEmailPDF According to CNN, the aide -- who still works for Tancredo -- has ties to fringe racist groups.
Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
[Source: 11 Alive News]
Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
[Source: Home News]
Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
[Source: Sun News]
Tancredo aide assaulted woman, used racist epithet
[Source: World News]
posted by 77767 @ 4:13 PM,
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Set Your DVR
PrintEmailPDF Howard Kurtz previews a two-part prime-time series -- Inside the Obama White House -- airing on NBC tomorrow and Wednesday "that so far has produced 150 hours of tape.
Said host Brian Williams: "There's stuff we've never seen of how the White House operates. We were pretty stunned at how much we were able to record and how natural events seemed to be."
Set Your DVR
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Set Your DVR
[Source: Mexico News]
Set Your DVR
[Source: Home News]
Set Your DVR
[Source: Market News]
Set Your DVR
[Source: Cbs News]
posted by 77767 @ 3:44 PM,
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