June 22, 2003

DRIVE-BY: Wrapping Up the News of the Day

Midday Scan / Sunday, June 22, 2003

Yes, it's the same old song, but it seems so different since Yasser's been gone. Doesn't it?

Quartet resolute on Mideast peace
Israelis kill top Hamas member in West Bank

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Representatives of the so-called Mideast quartet presented a united front Sunday in support of the road map for peace in the Middle East, despite an increase in violence in the region.

"We have to keep moving forward," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters after meeting with leaders from the United Nations, the European Union and Russia as a World Economic Forum was getting under way on the shores of the Dead Sea.

A roadmap that leads straight to the shores of the Dead Sea? Haven't we been through this movie before?


Time to ramp up opium and marijuana production yet again in Afghanistan and Mexico.

US to Drop Limits on Drug Imports by Poor Countries

VOA News

22 Jun 2003, 15:01 UTC
The United States has agreed to ease restrictions that limit the ability of poorer nations to import patented drugs used to treat life-threatening diseases.

Such as boredom, ennui, and a crawling need for a shot of dope.


D-oh News of the Day, Week, Month, Year...

Amazon.com wild about Harry Potter
Web bookseller gets 1.3 million advance orders
Puh-lease! Wake us when it is all over. In fact, 1.3 million orders seems a bit light

to us. After all, you are dealing with Internet users and Internet users are known for their passion for fantasy and science fiction if not for the breadth of their wardrobes.

Which reminds us. Why are we still lolling about in our pajamas and ratty bathrobes at noon?


Yet Another Big BO Surprise Nobody Saw Coming.

'Hulk' Turns Box Office Green with $63 Mln Bow

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - That's fairly Incredible.

"The Hulk" became the latest comic book hero to open at No. 1 at the North American box office, selling about $62.6 million worth of tickets in its first three days of release, its distributor, Universal Pictures, said on Sunday.

However, the opening for the jolly green giant falls far behind that of Marvel Comics stablemate "Spider-Man," which set a three-day opening record of $114.8 million last year. It also trails the most recent Marvel entry, "X2: X-Men United," which opened with $85.6 million last month. Among all films to open so far this year, "The Hulk" ranks at No. 5.

The film, reportedly budgeted at more than $150 million, was directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, who scored an international hit with his last project, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Okay, okay... money equals must-see movie. We get it. We get it. But what's this about Hulk and a Green Bow? Tie? Bustle? Just the facts, please.


Instapundit Posting Pace Plugs Up Internet

Mysterious Net traffic spurs code hunt
By Robert Lemos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Worm? Trojan? Attack tool? Network administrators and security experts continue to search for the cause of an increasing amount of odd data that has been detected on the Internet.

Security software firm Internet Security Systems (ISS) on Thursday declared victory, saying that a new hacker tool that scans for paths into public networks was responsible. But many other security professionals--including those at Intrusec, the company that originally tracked down the hard-to-find code--believe that ISS jumped the gun.

The real culprit likely is still out there, said David J. Meltzer, founder and chief technology officer of Roswell, Ga.-based Intrusec.

"It is possible that (the tool's code) is causing some of this traffic," Meltzer said. However, he added, key differences between the data that was captured by security professionals and data created by the code suggest that the hacker tool isn't the original culprit. "That would leave us to believe that there is something out there that is creating the (data) packets that isn't this Trojan."

However, the security researcher hastened to add that the traffic seen by network administrators isn't ominous. It merely has piqued the curiosity of quite a few researchers.

Pleading emails from ATT, UUNET, and other backbone services to pundit-at-instapundit.com went unanswered as usual and were forwarded to andrew-at-andrewsullivan.com before being redirected to lileks-at-lileks.com who promptly sent them on to fark.com where they were Photoshopped into oblivion.

Posted by Van der Leun at June 22, 2003 11:58 AM
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