Dowbrigade

A U.K. teenager on trial for allegedly launching an Internet
attack on a U.S. port on Friday admitted he had never met a key figure
in the prosecution’s case–namely, his then-girlfriend–in person.

The prosecution argues that Aaron Caffrey launched a distributed denial
of service attack (DDoS) in reaction to what he perceived as criticisms
of his girlfriend, Jessica. Prosecutors have produced records, or log files,
of Internet chats that took place at the time of the attack, and which
they say prove that Caffrey had a motive to carry out the attack. Caffrey
argues that the log files were altered or planted on his computer by hackers,
who carried out the DDoS attack via his PC in order to cover
their tracks.

from
the CNetAsia

There
aren’t many Jewish ballplayers left in the major leagues, but the Red
Sox have one. Now Gabe "the Body" Kaplan can take his place alongside
all 141 other Jewish major leaguers featured in a new Collectors Edition
of Fleer Baseball Cards. 

The collection, titled somewhat unfortunately "America’s Jews in America’s
Game," is exhaustively inclusive; even players who appeared in a single
game get cards.

Personally, as a Jew and a baseball fan, I was somewhat dismayed at
the paucity of Jews in the history of the game.  Those 142 Jews
are amongst 15,650 other ballplayers of diverse religion, race and national
origin.  That’s about 0.8%

Jews in the Bigs had their heyday in the early years of the century,
when their representation in the league was actually higher than in the
general population.  As far as I am concerned, those were the days.  Jews
were everywhere in sports, even brutish ones like boxing and football,
they dominated the mob and organized crime, gambling and drugs, and Hollywood
was lousy with Jews
on both
sides
of the
cameras
who had
changed their names to avoid stereotyping and anti-semitism.

The obvious explanation is that they were at that point all immigrants
or the children of immigrants who had not yet earned enough money to
send their kids to Harvard and BU to become lawyers and doctors, and
like all hard-scrabble newcomers they had to fight their way to the top.  The
history of Israel shows, if nothing else, that Jews are vicious fighters
when their backs are to the wall.

The cards are available only through a $100 contribution to the American
Jewish Historical Society, but I’m sure they will be real popular with
collectors and Jews.  Jewish collectors will probably get multiple
sets. What really sounds interesting are the tidbits and anecdotes that
fill the back sides of the cards (due probably to the paucity of statistics
accumulated by some of the honorees).  Here’s an example:

Consider, especially, the tale of Bob Tufts, a Massachusetts native
who pitched in 27 big-league games during the early 1980s and is now
an institutional broker. When Tufts converted to Judaism during his playing
days, he was asked by the rabbi at the ceremony if he wanted to choose
a Jewish name, a traditional occurrence.

”Yes,” he quickly replied. ”Sandy Koufax.”

from
the Boston Globe

According to Hiawatha Bray, we are all missing the point in the story
about Suncomm Technologies Inc., the company which threatened
to sue a Princeton
graduate
student who published an article revealing a secret method
of disabling their anti-piracy software – by holding down the shift key.

"Maybe the music industry has finally figured it out. Unless consumers
are forced to buy computers that will not copy CDs — fat chance — it’s
impossible to completely eliminate music piracy. So instead, the industry
might be designing systems that seek to gently nudge people toward honesty,
rather than dragging them in chains toward the path of righteousness."

from
the Boston Globe

Hundreds
of thousands of people are set to pack Heathrow airport to watch the
final flight
of Concorde. Special grandstands will be built for the public to watch
the aircraft land for the last time on a commercial
flight on October 24.
250,000 people are expected to be at Heathrow
to witness Concorde’s final descent.

from Ananova

Ever wonder
what goes on behind the monestary walls? Now a group of sequesterd nuns
who have taken Vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience have gone online
to tell the world their story.

Not allowed to leave their enclosure, they believe embracing the internet
age will help them share an alternative perspective on life with the outside
world
and
have
posted
pictures, testimonials
and prayer guides.

from Poor Clares Galway