frost

[Correction]: While you were out...

WaPo:

After more than eight months in limbo, a bill that would criminalize the exercise of mendacious to obtain the telephone records of individual citizens passed the Senate late Friday.

The Senate approved the anti-pretexting bill by a vocalize vote. The Domiciliate passed it in April. It now goes to the Ashen Domiciliate for approval.

"Stealing someone´s individual phone records is a criminal act that can now be prosecuted," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lead sponsor of the proposal in the Senate. "Phone information and call logs should be protected with the same safeguards as financial data or medical records."

The issue became big news late last summer following revelations that investigators working for executives at Hewlett-Packard Co. used deception to obtain phone numbers of board members and reporters in an effort to track down news leaks.

But...

This legislation would pre-empt pending investigations in at least 10 states into whether telecommunications companies violated the privacy rights of their customers by providing sensitive personal information about their telephone calls to the National Security Agency.

[...]

S. 2389 both preempts stronger state privacy laws and would eliminate the rights of independent state agencies to investigate pretexting and the facilitation of warrantless spying by telecommunications companies.

But don´t worry! Because...

Section 2(b)(2) of the bill exempts from privacy protection "lawful" actions by intelligence agencies.

So everything´s cool!

However, it does nothing to establish a regime by which the lawfulness of those actions could be tested. And, because those actions are conducted secretly, the effect of this provision is unclear.

D´oh!

Just thought you should know.

Obviously, so long as the "administration" keeps insisting the NSA surveillance and domestic intelligence programs are "lawful," the dispute remains in "he said, she said" mode, despite the fact that the claims to "lawfulness" are based entirely in a doctrine most of America thought was discredited decades ago:

FROST:  So what in a sense, you´re saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it´s in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly....

By the way, just because I can´t resist it, let´s take a look at where Nixon went after that ellipsis:

NIXON:  Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president´s decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they´re in an impossible position.

FROST: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there´s no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don´t know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president´s judgment?

NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA´s covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI´s covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don´t know whether it can be done today or not.

Recognize any of the thinking there? And I don´t just mean the stuff that´s coming from the Bush gang. I mean the residual stump of the checks and balances system that Nixon suggests are all that´s legitimately left to Congress by way of controlling an executive who believes in this doctrine. That is, you have one, single "accountability moment" -- a presidential reelection campaign -- and after that, the "power of the purse."

It´s not their guys telling us that those are our options any more. It´s our guys.

Talk about your Overton windows.

Of course, while the "power of the purse" is constitutional, its manifestation is statutory. And an executive who believes that these extraordinary powers -- "inherent powers," if you will -- are derived from the Constitution, would have no difficulty in claiming the right to trump the prohibitions of Congressional appropriations bills, since they´re mere statutes.

We may be about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Really want to freak out? Read the exciting conclusion of the interview for yourself.

[CORRECTION:] Here´s the scoop: John Aravosis of Americablog points out that the Post story is, perhaps, a bit too easy to misread, though there´s now no doubt that´s just what I did.

Dig:

The American Civil Liberties Union said the proposed bill would pre-empt its legal challenges in at least 10 states to the government´s use of individual telephone records in its anti-terrorism investigations.

Ah, but which bill is "the proposed bill?"

The Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee passed different versions of a pretexting bill and were unable to reach a compromise.

The Senate Commerce bill contained language that would have pre-empted state laws on pretexting. That drew objections from consumer groups, who worried state laws that were tougher on pretexters would be invalidated.

What happened here is that the Domiciliate passed a bill without state law preemption, the Senate Commerce Committee passed one with preemption, and the Senate Judiciary Committee passed one identical to the Domiciliate, that is, without preemption. Then, the full Senate passed neither one, instead adopting the Domiciliate bill. Without preemption.

Lesson (besides "learn to read"): Learn and carefully observe the byzantine workings of Congressional procedure, especially as Democrats take over in the majority!

So it appears the ACLU´s litigation is preserved. Thanks for the tip, John!

And it´s a good thing those suits are preserved. Because the bill takes care to preserve this exception:

(g) Nonapplicability to Law Enforcement Agencies- This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or political subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States.

Now, that´s no radical change to the state of the law. "Lawfully authorized" law enforcement activity has always had access to this sort of information. The state suits will set about the task of determining whether or not the NSA´s use of the information is, in fact, "lawfully authorized."

Which is to say that they will meet the "state secrets" privilege head on, and quite possibly land us right back at square one. But at least we´ll all get to see it happen.

NSAwarrantless surveillancedomestic spyingtelecomprivacy [SHOW]

Lessons from nursing for nannies.
Supernanny is a word full with possibilities. It can convey to mind adventures with Mary Poppins, the fresh routines of TV problem-solver Jo Frost, or an interfering old biddy who bullies you and your children into submission. British Choice Minister Tony Blair had the Frost model in mind?he cited her show?when he announced last month that his government would send "dedicated parenting experts" to the aid of families in 77 poor areas of the country. He promised not to step in with "normal family life." But he pointed out that, "Life isn´t normal if you´ve got 12-year-olds out each and all night drinking and creating nuisance on the street with their parents not knowing or even caring."

[more ...]

family [SHOW]

Mars quiet has irrigate?
David Pescovitz: At 1pm Eastern (10am Pacific), NASA will denote a "significant find on Mars." Not likely that it´s brief green men but rather evidence that irrigate may still be artesian on the planet´s surface. The discovery is based on photos taken from the Mars Global Surveyor. From the Day-to-day Mail:

NASA researchers have attested the formation of new craters on the plant´s surface and found bright, light-coloured deposits in gullies that were not present in previous photos.

They concluded the deposits - possibly mud, salt or frost - were left there when irrigate recently cascaded through the channels.

In another photo a number of gullies on a crater wall can be clearly seen. The scientists believe that they may have been formed in relatively recent Martian history by erosion caused by artesian, liquid irrigate.

Link to Day-to-day Mail article, Link to NASA TV (Shhhh, Jason Tester!)

UPDATE: Here´s NASA´s Mission News page about the new evidence of irrigate on Mars. Link

[SHOW]

WoW 2.0.1 Patch up Arrives

World of Warcraft patch 2.0.1, highborn "Before the Storm", goes live today! One of the largest patches to date, the update sees a metric ass-ton of changes to the most democratic MMORPG in the world. Highlights let in new talents over the get on attended by a complete talent point reimbursement for all players, the much anticipated looking for group tool, which allows you to look for a group down to a specific quest, new PVP arenas for group on group battles, and a complete revamp of the Honor System that relegates all of those hard won rank titles into tags over the players´ heads. This patch paves the way for The Burning Crusade, due out January 16th.

Thanks to the Blizzard downloader I´ve already 478 of the 498 MB download completed, which means by the time I get home from work today I should be ready to rock on my 60 undead mage, once I respec him completely to frost so he can summon his new water elemental.

Since the WoW website gets hit so hard on days like this, I´ll go ahead and post the full patch notes after the jump.

World of Warcraft Client Patch "Before the Storm" (12/5/2006)

Looking for Group Interface Tool

A new Looking For Group tool designed to assist players in finding groups for instanced dungeons and quests will now be available. This interface gives players the option to be added to a pool of other players also looking for a group, as a means to expedite the process. In addition, players will also be able to search for additional members in situations where they have a group and are simply looking to find more players. For a complete overview of this new interface, please take a moment and read the information contained on our comprehensive Looking for Group preview.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/lookingforgroup.html

General

* All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this let ins the 41-point talents. Several new abilities have also been added for all classes.
* All pets will now receive a percentage of their master´s armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
* Low-level spells cast by high-level players will receive smaller bonuses from +healing and +spell damage.
* HoTs, DoTs, and channeled spells have been re-balanced to receive a more appropriate (higher) percentage of +spell damage and +healing.
* HoTs from different sources will now stack (i.e. multiple druids can cast the Rejuvenation spell on 1 target).
* New item property "Resilience" has been introduced. Resilience reduces your chance to be the victim of a critical strike, and reduces the amount of damage critical strikes do to you.
* Weapon Skill now does the following:
o Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing.
o The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
* When casting a buff on a low level target, the appropriate rank of the buff will automatically be applied.
* In PvP, Crowd Control effects will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
* Players will no longer lose faction when under the influence of "Mind Control" or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap.
* Several improvements have been made to the Macintosh client, including support for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8 or higher.

PvP

* Honor System Revamp
o Current honor totals have been reset.
o Players may display their highest lifetime rank title (accessible from character sheet).
o Honor points earned each day may now be spent as a form of currency.
o Check the PvP tab of your character sheet to see your honor information.
o PvP rewards are no longer unique.
* Marks of Honor earned from battlegrounds are no longer turned in for reputation or honor. They are now used in addition to honor points in order to purchase rewards.
* Two New Arenas are now available in three different modes.
o 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches
o Players may queue up at Goblin NPC´s in Stormwind, Ironforge,
o Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Gadgetzan

Druids

* The talent "Swiftmend" will now let in bonus healing from the talents "Improved Rejuvenation" and "Empowered Rejuvenation".
* "Omen of Clarity´s" duration has been increased to 30 min.

Hunters

* Traps can be set while in combat, but require a 2 second arming time.
* "Auto shot" will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee range while in combat with target.
* 1 Agility will now grant 1 Ranged Attack Power.
* "Auto shot" is now reset when casting Aimed Shot.
* "The Beast Within´s" Bonus damage caused has been reduced to 10%, but now also reduces the mana cost of all spells by 20%.
* Freezing Traps will now cancel combat when cast.

Mages

* "Frost Nova" (Water Elemental Spell) has now been renamed "Freeze".

Shaman

* Shaman with the appropriate talent spec are now able to dual-wield.
o Self-weapon buffs such as Windfury Weapon can be applied to both main and off-hand weapons.
* Rockbiter´s weapon functionality has been changed. It is now a damage proc instead of a flat attack power bonus.
* Windfury Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon enchantments will only benefit the weapon with the enchantment on it.

Warlocks

* The range of "Drain Life" and "Drain Mana" spells have been increased.

Warriors

* Rage generation from dealing damage has been normalized.
o All Rage awards are averaged with our expected rage per swing (adjusted for weapon speed).

Items

* The "Far Sight" effect has changed so that the camera now zooms in to a distant location, rather than instantly showing the distant view. This also affects the items: Ultra-Spectropic Vision Goggles, the Ornate Spyglass, and the Hunter ability "Eagle Eye."
* Spells can now require either a totem item or a totem category item to cast a spell. This means that the Enchanting Rods now count as all of the lower level enchanting rods as well, so you only need a single enchanting rod instead of all six. This also means that "Finkle´s Skinner" now counts as a Skinning Knife. Several weapons that are picks have been flagged as counting as a Mining pick as well.
* Items that give bonuses, such as critical strike percentage, have been modified to adhere to a combat rating system.
* All current items will provide the exact same benefit from ratings at level 60 as they provided before the ratings system.
* Thrown weapon items no longer stack, but use durability instead. One unit of durability is lost per throw, and these items can be repaired.
* The tool tip for the Great Staff of the Guardian now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
* Items that are useable from player inventory with a cooldown will now update the cooldown in real-time.
* Players will no longer be able to sell the "Blue Skeletal Horse" to vendors.
* The damage Proc from the item "Misplaced Servo Arm" will no longer break the Rogue ability "Gouge".
* The "Skull of Impending Doom" has been changed and will now increase run speed by 60% for 10 seconds, but deals damage equal to 60% of your maximum health and drains 60% of your maximum mana for over 10 seconds.
* The Backfire effect on the "Net-O-Matic" will no longer break on damage.

Professions

* All of the profession-made items that have been created up to now have been given proper stats based on the current expansion item level progression table.
* Most of the items made by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithing have had their creation time reduced. Now the cap on time required to make an item in those professions is based on quality and level.
o New Max times required.
+ Level 31+ Green Items at least 8 sec
+ Level 31+ Blue Items at least 15 sec
+ Level 31+ Purple Items at least 25 sec
* Skill level now determines what items you can disenchant.
o Skill 1= Level 1-20
o Skill 25= Level 20-25
o Skill 50= Level 25-30
o Skill 75= Level 30-35
o Skill 100= Level 35-40
o Skill 125= Level 40-45
o Skill 150= Level 45-50
o Skill 175= Level 50-55
o Skill 200= Level 55-60
o Skill 225= Level 60-65
* Players will no longer lose an item when attempting to disenchant on a boat when the loading screen appears.

User Interface

* Meeting Stone gossip options have been removed from Innkeepers in preparation for the new LFG system.
* LFG/LFM UI
o Tips have been added to Loading Screen tips and new player tips
o Meeting Stones now function similar to a Warlock Summon spell.
+ Players select party member to be summoned and right click the stone. A second party member then clicks the portal to summon.
* Enchanting UI has been vastly improved.
* Raid UI now supports frame for Main Tank.
* Spell Alert (Enemy Cast bar)
o Defaults to off
o Enabled through Interface Options
o Displays targeted enemy´s cast bar when they are casting.
o May also be displayed with "V" key functionality.
* Auto-loot may be enabled with just one click in the Interface Options.
* Character sheet UI now displays more precise melee, ranged, and spell stats.
* Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be fed in one of your action bars.
* Semi-charged items can no longer be placed in the Auction House.
* A knowledge base has been added to the in-game UI.
o Searchable database of FAQ´s and common support issues.
* Keyrings have been expanded to hold more key-type items and will now size dynamically for the number of keys in possession.
* The Hunter ability, "Mend Pet," will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
* Players will now be able to disable ability messages in the floating combat text.
* Players will now be able to scroll down their ignore list if it extends beyond one page.
* The tooltips for the Show Dispellable Debuffs and Show Castable Buffs options will now specify they only apply to raid pullout groups.
* Significant changes have been made to User Interface customization.
o For specific details, please visit http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=36975623&sid=1.

Bugs

* The Rend Blackhand arena event in Upper Blackrock Spire will now properly reset after a wipe.
* Players will no longer resurrect with low mana and health if they died and released on a Zeppelin or Ship.
* Fixed an issue where effects with 100% chance to be applied were being resisted.
* Fixed an issue where high level players were not being properly credited the right amount of faction reputation.
* Party members will now be properly credited for completing the "Dead Man´s Plea" quest when a totem or pet gets the killing blow on Baron Rivendare.
* Slowing abilities and spells will no longer decrease the speed of a player when traveling by Gryphon.
* Fixed an issue where players were re-taining talent based abilities even after re-training.
* Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell "Shadowburn" was improperly consuming two Soul Shards.
* Fixed an issue where players were unable to click on anything if they had any add-ons installed.
* Fixed an issue where players were able to use "Mana Burn" on mobs and players without mana.
* Fixed an issue where spells that proc while a player was standing would not proc if they were sitting or lying down.
* Fixed many interface overlapping graphic issues.
* Fixed an issue where Seal of Justice (Rank 2) will now refresh with melee strikes.
* Blood Elf mobs in Azshara will now have the correct model.
* Fixed an issue where a spell with two procs would be reflected and one of the procs would still hit the player that reflected the spell.
* Fixed an issue that was putting Hunters back into combat when they have the "Spirit Bond" Talent or have the Cryptstalker set bonus.
* Fixed an issue where players were being awarded the wrong item when double looting a corpse under the master loot option.
* Fixed an issue where players interrupted while casting would have a longer cast time than normal.
* Fixed an issue where players could not see enchants when inspecting another player.
* Fixed an issue where extra attacks from "Windfury Weapon" would not proc "Flurry" when they crit.
* Fixed an issue where players that were killed in freezing traps would be stuck there until releasing.
* Fixed an issue where Warlocks were able to despawn a pet to gain a free "Soul Shard"in the Battlegrounds.
* Warrior "Shield Slam" and "Shield Bash" will no longer trigger a proc from an equipped weapon.
* Fixed an issue where players were able to consume a Mana Emerald at full mana.
* The totem, "Wrath of Air," will no longer be useable in "Ghost Wolf" form.
* Fixed an issue where Warrior "Battle Shout" was causing too much threat.
* Fixed an issue where computers with ATi video cards were sometimes having problems when displaying a certain texture.
* Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell "Death Coil" gained double the benefit from the talent "Shadow Mastery".
* Player pets will no longer attack CC´ed targets while in Passive mode.
* "Prayer of Spirit" will no longer cast on the user if there is no other target selected.
* "Lightning Shield" will now have the appropriate cool-down time between uses.
* Fixed an issue where materials were being consumed if a player logged out before an enchantment had finished being applied.
* The Hunter, "Auto Shot," ability will no longer activate on resurrection.
* Fixed a bug where "Inner Focus" was not being consumed when using "Mind Soothe."
* Fixed a bug where Rogues were able to use the ability "Ghostly Strike" when not facing their target.
* Warlock pet dismiss sounds will now play properly.
* Fixed an issue where Fist weapons were sheathing improperly.
* Bags will no longer overlap the Bank UI when the game window is resized.
* Players will no longer be able to whisper to enemy players in Battlegrounds.
* The Skeletal Gryphon ride for the Eastern Plaguelands PvP event will now fly at its correct speed.
* Players will no longer be able to jump onto the top of the Dun Baldar Fortress in Alterac Valley and get behind the terrain to attack other players.
* Shapeshifting will now break "Nogginfogger Elixir" effect.
* You will no longer die when Feign Death is finished channeling.
* "Scatter Shot" will now properly do damage even if the target is immune to the confuse effect.
* "Aspect of the Cheetah" will now properly trigger with absorbed damage.
* Casting a lower rank polymorph on a target that is already under the effect of a higher rank will cause an error message and not consume mana.
* The talent, "Master of Elements," will now properly proc off of totems.
* Players will no longer be attacked by same faction guards when using mind control on an enemy player to attack.
* "Vanish" will now properly un-target the Rogue from the attacker when the attacker is in the same party.
* The talent, "Improved Chain Heal," will now properly add to the base healing done.
* "Healing Wave" Ranks 11 and 12 will now benefit from the Shaman talent, "Healing Way."
* "Improved Curse of Agony" will now properly increase the base and spell power.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they take a flight path.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they are dead at the end of a Battleground match.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they enter an Arena.
* Casting "Dark Pact" after exiting combat will no longer put you back in combat.
* The tool tip for the "Great Staff of the Guardian" now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
* Several Chest spawns in Dustwallow Marsh will now properly spawn above ground.
* Items that can give +Stamina/Intellect from random suffixes will now properly apply while dead.
* "Beastmaster´s Gloves" will now give the proper 2% crit chance for Hunter pets.
* Fixed a bug where you can end up with overlapping bags after resizing the window.
* Various graphical errors will be noticeable while viewing maps.

Mac

* Added support for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8 or higher. Depending on hardware, scene and graphical settings, this can raise frame rates up to a factor of 2X.
* Improved video hardware detection and default settings, especially with Intel video.
* Vertex Animation Shaders have been disabled for systems with Intel video.
* Improved iTunes key-binding feature for smoothness and track name display.
* Fixed a bug where Tutorial Tips would not be marked as viewed correctly on PowerPC Macs.
* Fixed a rare crash bug in the audio code.
* Improved support for Weather Shaders.
* Added support for changing the mouse sensitivity in WoW. Previously, the Mac version ignored the value from the slider in the Interface Options dialog.

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Now that´s a lot of patch notes. I´ll see you folks in game. Send Rande a whisper on Ysera if Blizzard manages to keep the servers from exploding! Michael Fahey

World of Warcraft 2.0.1 Patch Notes [World of Warcraft.com]
Download the patch from Strategy Informer here.

Burning CrusadePatchPvpWorld of WarcraftWoW [SHOW]