Tour de France -- Major Blow -- Many of the Top Riders Have Been Suspended or Have Withdrawn

Many of the top riders in this year's Tour de France have either withdrawn or have been suspended due to connections with a doping doctor. It's unfortunate that the cycling world has come to this, where mere association with nefarious characters causes the top cyclists to remove themselves from the world's most famous bike race.

It looks like possibly the top 5 finishers from last year's Tour will not be starting this year's Tour (including, of course, retired 7-time champion Lance Armstrong).

Computer Security: Personal Data Losses Have a Common Thread

Baseline Security has a short piece on the 4 things that companies who lose customer or client data have in common.

Rush Limbaugh Held for Possession of Viagra without a Prescription

Rush Limbaugh continues to have problems with law enforcement and possession of drugs without prescriptions or with dubiously obtained prescriptions (i.e., "doctor shopping") -- he apparently was returning from the Dominican Republic when his luggage was searched at the Palm Beach International Airport and law enforcement agents found a bottle of Viagra with his doctor's name as the patient.

Now, this brings up some interesting questions:

-- Does Rush Limbaugh have erectile dysfunction?
-- Does Rush Limbaugh always skirt the legal system when it comes to drugs? What about other matters? Does he drive drunk? Does he steal? Does he embezzle?
-- How many other laws has Limbaugh broken? Law enforcement is not perfect and therefore one has to assume if they've caught him 8 times, hypothetically, then he's done something illegal more often than that.
-- What does this mean for the doctors involved? Apparently, one of his doctors was listed as the patient and another of his doctors was listed as the prescribing doctor. Shouldn't BOTH of them be prosecuted, too?

Schwarzenegger denies Bush troop request - Yahoo! News

California Governor stands up to the Bush administration. It's about time the Terminator took on the Decider!

Can't Stand the Heat?

How many of us stay at work longer just to catch a break from this dreadful heat? I know a lot of people where I work, who normally cut out on Fridays a little early, are still here.

Senate Panel Releases Abramoff Report -- Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist Implicated

In The Color of Money, there's a great line from one 9-ball player to another, "It's like a nightmare, isn't it? It just keeps getting worse and worse...Doesn't it?"

This could be said to Jack Abramoff's friends and co-conspirators today. Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, Bob Ney, and others have all been called out in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee report published today about the Indian gaming shenanigans that Abramoff et al took part in.

Senator Rick Santorum Finds Old Crap, Makes Ass of Himself

Bob Cesca, over at the Huffington Post, has written a great story on that dumbass from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum. In it, he exposes Senator Santorum's idiotic claim that WMDs were found in Iraq.

Santorum forgot to say that the weapons were impotent. Maybe he's hiding something?

The Next Cheap Thing -- Thin Client Computing May Be Making a Comeback

NComputing is reviving a '90s concept with a device that could give PC access to the masses -- thin clients, only 10 years later.

50% of companies had data loss in past 12 months

Over half of all companies doing business in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors have experienced data breaches that potentially exposed their intellectual property or customer information, a new research report shows.

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Librarian disciplined for upholding Constitution

Hasbrouck Heights (NJ) Library Director Michele Reutty is under fire for following the 4th amendment and not giving private info to the police without a subpoena. She faces a 30 day suspension without pay.

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Guy arrested for using free WiFi without buying something

A Vancouver, WA coffee shop called the cops on a guy who had been mooching their free wireless over a three month period without buying anything. Fair game or foul play?

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Can a guy be arrested for stealing something that's "free?" I think he could be arrested for loitering or trespassing, but not stealing. You cannot steal something that's free; if you can, then it's not free, is it?

Yahoo Email Problems

Why can't these guys scale up?

CNET News.com is reporting that Yahoo! is having network issues preventing email from being delivered to Yahoo account users.

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Plant Mates with Itself

Gives new meaning to "Go F*&k yourself."

Read more here.

REVISITED: Words I Hate

Being in the corporate world, I hear a lot of words that I term are "corporate-speak." There are a few words that I would really rather never have to hear again. In no specific order, here they are (sure to be added to) --

1. "Proactive" Stupid word. Redundant. Excessive. The proper term is "active."
2. "Prioritize" Put "ize" on anything and corporate bafoons take to it like maggots on shit.
3. "Productionalize" Ditto.
4. "Layoff" If you've been "laid off," you just got bent over and fired.
5. "Offline" as in, "Let's talk about this offline." You never hear this while someone's online, so I am not sure what the @#*!$ they're talking about. You mean "Let's talk about this later?"
6. "Right size" You've just been laid off, er, fired.
7. "Ping me" I'm not a freakin' submarine, nor am I a computer network, so shut the eff up.
8. "Grow" when "increase" is meant. As in "grow revenue." Revenue is not a plant that one just plants, waters, feeds, and harvests. It's similar, I guess, but not the same. So, use "increase" when that's what you mean, okay?
9. "Going forward" What? You mean "from now on?"

Do you have any words you just despise? If so, please ping me :)
Here's a better list -- The Encyclopedia of Business Cliches by Seth Godin

Nestle Buys Jenny Craig

Nestle is buying Jenny Craig. Is this to kill its product line (a la Microsoft "buying out" companies who are competitors just to kill their products) or is there something more to this?

Hmmm...is there a cross-selling opportunity here? What dieter doesn't DIE(t) FOR chocolate? ("With every Jenny Craig meal, you get a FREE chocolate bar!!")

The Next Jimmy Hoffa?

United Auto Workers' President, Ron Gettelfinger, chides the Bush administration over manufacturers declaring bankruptcy and removing retirement and other benefits that the UAW has won over many decades.

Is he the next Jimmy Hoffa?

Full story here.

Tom DeLay is History

To all my conservative friends, I give you my condolences for Tom DeLay's departure from the House of Representatives. I do believe that today is his last day, and as I write this, I see him on Hardball. This country never ceases to amaze me. Tom DeLay rose to power in one of the most esteemed public offices and he has absolutely zero public speaking ability and no charisma.

How did this come about? He must have some really good shit on people because his public politicking skills are nil.

Amazing. He is sure to write a manuscript or two (no doubt ghost-written, if his writing skills are anywhere near his speaking skills) about his rise, and perhaps his fall. It will be interesting how history remembers him.

For now, he is best known as a former bug killer who just happened to wield a mighty sword on the Hill.

Good riddance, Tom.