THE BUSINESS OF PIRATING

Sophisticated net surfers will have noticed that, despite my proclamations that "It can’t be done," there is a plethora of commercial movies – the kind you buy on DVD – that are available for download on the various "pirate" services, of which Kazaa is (was) the most well known.

Actually, when I say "can’t," I mean "shouldn’t" – but there is technology, both hardware and software that allows intrepid souls to "rip" (copy) DVDs off the disk and onto their computers.

And while a legal case could be made for allowing users to trade movies with friends (and, as the (more…)

THE SEARCH FOR DARK MATTER, Part One

This is Dennis “The Wizard” Turner’s initial Science column for To The Point. In addition to his weekly column on computers, we hope this is the first of many. —JW

Dark matter is usually thought of as something ‘out there.’ But we will never truly understand it unless we can bring down to earth.

If we could see dark matter, the Milky Way galaxy would look like a much different place. The familiar spiral disk, where most of the stars reside, would be shrouded by a dense haze of dark matter particles. Astronomers think the dark haze is 10 times (more…)

THE MOTHER OF ALL COVERUPS: Saddam Did Have WMD

Last week a man who had been deputy chief of Saddam Hussein’s air force claimed Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war began.

Special Republican Guard brigades loaded yellow barrels with the skull and crossbones sign on each barrel onto two airliners from which the seats had been removed, Georges Sada said. There were 56 flights in all.

"Saddam realized this time the Americans are coming," Gen. Sada told the New York Sun, one of a handful of news organizations which took note of what he had to say.

There are grounds for skepticism. Mr. Sada (more…)

THE NEW YORK TIMES LOVED STALIN, THE WASHINGTON POST LOVES AHMADINEJAD

It’s only fair that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be subject to a fawning puff piece the Washington Post. After all, Stalin’s greatest p.r. agent was a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist at the New York Times. Stalin’s guy was Walter Duranty, and Ahmadinejad’s is Karl Vick, who began his long wet kiss Wednesday with:

On the afternoon of Jan. 4, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached for the phone and got Latin America on the line. In quick succession, he chatted with President Fidel Castro of Cuba, rang up President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and, sensing yet another kindred spirit, reached (more…)

DVD MATH

You know what they say about computers – the minute the newest models come off the assembly line they’re already obsolete, because back in the lab they’ve already developed a prototype two generations ahead of the most advanced commercially available systems.

As the old saying goes, "If cars had progressed as fast as computers, we would be driving at 500 MPH in a $25 car that gets 2 million miles per gallon and seats the population of China."

This is relevant to many of us who are interested in burning DVDs because most of the computers we are using have (more…)

BYE BYE BASHAR

The Syrian-Iranian terror alliance goes back a quarter-century, when Hezbollah was created to wage terror war against American and French forces in Lebanon.

There was a neat division of labor: Syria controlled the territory, and Iran ran the organization. Hezbollah’s murderous successes are legendary, from the suicide bombings against the French and American Marine barracks to a similar operation against the American embassy, all in Beirut in 1983, to massive bombings of Jewish targets in Argentina in 1992. That alliance remains intact, and provides the base of the terror war in Iraq today.

So it should not have surprised anyone (more…)

BLACK DEMOCRAT POTS

It was no way to treat a lady. Washington Post ombudswoman Deborah Howell wrote a column praising her paper for exposing lobbyist Jack Abramoff. She was deluged with so much obscene email from outraged liberals the Post had to shut down one of its Web sites.

Mr. Abramoff pled guilty earlier this month to defrauding his clients (Indian tribes who owned casinos) and the Internal Revenue Service.

Ms. Howell’s critics were in high dudgeon over a distinction without a difference. In the 7th paragraph of her story lauding reporter Susan Schmidt, she wrote: "And (Abramoff) had made substantial contributions to (more…)