Cyrus Farivar

So three points on the Arabic Assassin story. 1) Clearly, this guy isn’t all that bright if he thinks that as a Palestinian-American his rapping about terrorism isn’t going to raise any red flags. Oh, and he’s a baggage screener, too? In the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston? Yeah, no red flags at all. (That being said, what exactly is an intercontinental airport?) 2) He does have a point that he’s not the first to write crazy lyrics for…

In case you’re not a journalist/journalism geek, you may have missed that Matt Cooper talked to Karl Rove on “double super secret background”. The Daily Show’s Stephen Colbert explained the other night what, exactly, that means: Double super secret background: “Just like regular background but with no tagbacks, frontsies or backsies, taken to infinity plus one on opposite day, circle circle dot dot now you’ve got a cootie shot. It was first pioneered by Edward R. Murrow.” – Stephen Colbert…

02:00 AM Jul. 16, 2005 PT Wired News by Cyrus Farivar Imagine eating food that was cooked using natural gas generated from your own human waste. Thousands of prisoners in Rwanda don’t have to imagine it — they live it. Prisoners’ feces is converted into combustible “biogas,” or methane gas that can be used for cooking. It has reduced by 60 percent the annual wood-fuel costs which would otherwise reach near $1 million, according to Silas Lwakabamba, rector of the…

Let’s say you’re like the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA, where my parents and I are staying this weekend. And let’s say that even though your guests are paying a bunch to stay at your hotel that you’re charging them $10 for 24 hrs of WiFi access. When you’re deciding what third party businesses to put in the lobby of your hotel (Starbucks, etc) — you might not want to put a business (say, Panera Bread) that prides themself on…

SF Chron, via Slashdot : I did another LexisNexis search for Valerie E. Wilson in Washington, D.C. This confirmed she lives at the same address as Joseph C. Wilson. It also took me the next step. “Former name: Plame, Valerie E.” I now had the identity of a covert CIA agent (who was using her maiden name as part of her cover as an energy-industry analyst working for a firm called Brewster Jennings & Associates, now known to be a…

I write this from the Soho Tea and Coffee, famous for its late hours, being near Dupont Circle, and free WiFi, natch. I’m staring out at P St. where the water is running down the street and flowing into 22nd St., and the thunder is pounding, and when it does loud enough, the six people in here with laptops kick up their heads and start paying attention to what’s happening around them. I’m here this weekend for a family wedding…

So when I’m not a journalist, I occasionally moonlight as a web designer. This started way back in 1997, when I worked on the Ch‰teau de Bossey webpage when I was 15 and living in Switzerland. (My Aunt Heidi was the director of Bossey at the time.) My design for that page was so good that they haven’t changed it in eight years — ok, either that, or they’re lazy. My latest web design gig is for Mark Kohut, a…

NYT: WASHINGTON, July 13 – President Bush said today that his nominee for the Supreme Court may be someone who has never sat on the bench before. “Would I be willing to consider people who had never been a judge?” Mr. Bush said. “And the answer is, ‘You bet.’ “

Muslims are speaking out against terrorism to anyone who will listen and from the comments: UK Fatwa to Call Bombers Unbelievers, If Proved Muslims: CAIRO, July 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) Ð BritainÕs top Muslim scholars are drafting a fatwa stripping those behind the grisly London blasts, if proved Muslims, from the right to call themselves Muslims, a leading British newspaper said Sunday, July 10. Signed by dozens of prominent Muslim bodies, mosques, Islamic scholars and community groups, the religious edict will…

White House Press Conference, July 11, 2005, 10:06 am Pacific: Q Does the President stand by his pledge to fire anyone involved in the leak of a name of a CIA operative? MR. McCLELLAN: Terry, I appreciate your question. I think your question is being asked relating to some reports that are in reference to an ongoing criminal investigation. The criminal investigation that you reference is something that continues at this point. And as I’ve previously stated, while that investigation…