Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

A surfer received a bad gash Wednesday when a 14-foot shark bit her leg in the waters off northern California and pulled her underwater, authorities said.

Megan Halavais, 20, was paddling into the water off Salmon Creek Beach in Sonoma County around 11 a.m. when the shark attacked her from behind.

Halavais, an experienced surfer, said she got away after she hit the shark on its tail, according to sheriff’s Lt. Roger Rude.

Halavais, of Santa Rosa, was helped from the water by other surfers. She was taken to a hospital with a bite that stretched from her thigh to her calf, Rude said. She was listed in good condition.

The beach has been the site of several shark attacks in recent years, Rude said. Police believe the shark likely was a great white. They have closed the beach and warned surfers in nearby locations.

Thankfully, Megan is OK.

But, can you imagine the teeth marks – YUK!

Dallas Bar Association president Timothy W. Mountz endorses Harriet Miers for Supreme Court Justice, along with nineteen past Dallas Bar Association presidents at a news conference, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 in Dallas. In back from left to right are: Mark Shank, Molly Steele, Darrell E. Jordon and Robert A. Gwinn.

The ASSociated Press has Senators Say Miers’ Answers Inadequate.

The Borking of Harriet Miers has begun.

Except this time Robert Bork is joining the fracas.

The hearings will begin November 7th.

Flap handicaps confirmation by mid-December.

David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technoratihas State of the Blogosphere, October 2005 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth.

It is that time of the year again, and I’ve got some new information on the continued growth of the blogosphere. I made this presentation as part of my 10 minute talk at Web 2.0 on October 6, 2005. You can download the entire presentation, complete with underlying data as well, for research use, or to make part of other presentations. All I ask is that you keep attribution and the Technorati logo in a prominent place wherever the data is used.

Earlier State of the Blogosphere reports are available as well – from July 2005, from
March 2005, and from October 2004.

So, What’s New?

Well, first, the basics. The chart below shows the continued growth of the blogosphere. Technorati is now tracking 19.6 Million weblogs, and the total number of weblogs tracked continues to double about every 5 months. This trend has been consistent for at least the last 36 months. In other words, the blogosphere has doubled at least 5 times in the last 3 years. Another way of looking at it is that the blogosphere is now over 30 times as big as it was 3 years ago.

This is some phenomenal growth.

The next chart shows the number of new blogs tracked each day by Technorati. About 70,000 new weblogs are tracked every day, which is about a new weblog created each second, somewhere in the world. It also appears that blogging is taking off around the world, and not just in English. Some of the significant increases we’ve seen over the past 3 months have been due to a proliferation of chinese-speaking weblogs, both on MSN Spaces as well as on Chinese sites like blogcn.com.

Interesting statistics, especially about the growth of blogs in China.

The site includes a parody of Cruise’s appearance on “Oprah,” when he professed love for Katie Holmes.

The Los Angeles Times has Mock them using another name.

Scientology lawyers order website devoted to ridiculing Cruise to stop using domain name scienTOMogy.info.

Some things just aren’t funny — at least to the Church of Scientology.

A New Zealand-based website that says it is devoted to “exposing Tom Cruise’s moronic behavior in his relentless crusade to promote the Church of Scientology” has been ordered by church lawyers to stop using the domain name www.scienTOMogy.info.

The reason: Web surfers might confuse it with the real thing.

The site states that it has no connection with the Church of Scientologists and offers a link to the Scientology home page. Then it post links to a series of videos of Cruise talking about Scientology, including a sci-fi video parody of the actor’s infamous May television appearance on “Oprah,” in which he appears to electrocute her.

“The site is purely satirical and is for entertainment, and consists of links to other sites — it contains no fact nor claims to do so and is completely non-commercial,” the website said.

Flap is referring this to Justin Levine over at Calblog for analysis. He has a great series on The Coming Legal Superstorm Against Bloggers and the Tyranny of Copyright.

The creator of the website could not be reached by press time Tuesday. Church of Scientology attorney Helena Kobrin, a partner in Moxon & Kobrin law firm, said the letter was intended to protect the Scientology name.

“You can’t use someone else’s trademarks to promote your own agenda,” Kobrin said, adding that organizations routinely defend the integrity of their trademarks and copyrights. “Changing one letter is the trick of the infringer to try to get around the law, but the law makes it very clear that you can’t do that.”

The scienTOMogy.info website has posted an exchange with Moxon & Kobrin lawyer Ava M. Paquette, which began in September, in which Paquette warned that the Church of Scientology owns the trademark to the word Scientology.

“The fact that you have changed one letter (‘m’ instead of ‘l’) does not protect you from trademark infringement,” Paquette wrote before pointing out that infringing on a trademark could lead to a $100,000 fine. Paquette then demanded that the domain name be transferred to the Church of Scientology.

The website responded that it was using the name legally.

Flap does not know New Zealand copyright or trademark law but it seems like a simple David Vs. Golith bully story here.

You would think the rich and famous Tom Cruise’s peeps would have better things to do?

Tom Cruise, Scientology

WorldNetDaily has Sheehan thrashing ‘war hawk’ Hillary

Cindy tears into Clinton for Iraq support, compares her to radio’s Rush Limbaugh

Cindy Sheehan, the so-called “peace mom” on a crusade to end U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, is publicly blasting Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for her continued support of the ongoing conflict.

“I think she is a political animal who believes she has to be a war hawk to keep up with the big boys,” Sheehan writes in an open letter. “I would love to support Hillary for president if she would come out against the travesty in Iraq. But I don’t think she can speak out against the occupation, because she supports it. I will not make the mistake of supporting another pro-war Democrat for president again: As I won’t support a pro-war Republican.”

“I believe that the intelligent thing for Democrats to do for 2006 and 2008 would be to come out strongly and correctly against the botched, bungled, illegal, and immoral occupation of Iraq,” Sheehan added.

The open letter to Hillary is here on Michael Moore’s website.

She was granted a meeting with Sen. Clinton to discuss the war effort, but says the Democrat “apparently” didn’t listen, as the senator told a reporter for the Village Voice, “My bottom line is that I don’t want their sons to die in vain. … I don’t believe it’s smart to set a date for withdrawal. … I don’t think it’s the right time to withdraw.”

“That sounds like Rush Limbaugh to me,” Sheehan said. “That doesn’t sound like an opposition party leader speaking to me. What Sen. Clinton said after our meeting sounds exactly like the Republican Party talking points I heard from Senators Dole and McCain.”

Rush is busting a gut!

Flap will hold his breath for any Iraqi War pronouncements from Hillary.

In the meantime, Rush…….

“There’s trouble in paradise out there on the far left extreme which has become the Democrat base,” Limbaugh responded today on his national radio program.

“You don’t do this, folks. You don’t publicly as a Democrat disavow a Clinton and live to do it – well, you just don’t do it again and again without something happening. So she’s one gutsy lady or stupid, one of the two. But something’s going to happen to this woman. Something’s going to silence her.”

Rush has it RIGHT!

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding U.S. foreign policy in Iraq Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rice on Wednesday outlined a strategy for helping Iraqis clear out insurgents and build durable, national institutions as she sought to reassure jittery members of Congress about the path to peace in Iraq. Seated behind Rice are Army Lieutenant General Raymond T. Odierno, right, and Deputy Legislative Assistant Skip Sherrell.

The ASSociated Press has Rice Won’t Rule Out Force on Syria, Iran.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still serving in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against neighboring Syria and Iran.

Rice deferred to the decisions of President Bush and military commanders as Republicans and Democrats on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed her for more specifics on the U.S. strategy in Iraq.

Asked specifically whether the United States would have troops in Iraq in five or 10 years, Rice said: “I think that even to try and speculate on how many years from now there will be a certain number of American forces is not appropriate.”

An appropriate response.

Previously on Flap, California Special Election Watch: New Poll Results

A new Survey USA Poll has been released.

In an election today, 10/18/05, 3 weeks to the 11/8/05 vote, California voters approve Proposition 73, Proposition 74, Proposition 75, Proposition 76 and Proposition 77, according to an exclusive SurveyUSA poll of 613 likely voters.

Support for all 5 measures is strongly tied to approval of Governor Schwarzenegger. Those who approve of the job the Governor is doing, vote overwhelmingly “Yes” on all 5 Propositions. Those who disapprove of the job the Governor is doing oppose all 5 Propositions. Interest in ballot measures intensifies as the election approaches and ad dollars are spent to influence voters. These numbers can and should be expected to fluctuate,

Proposition 73 requires that physicians notify the parent of a pregnant minor at least 48 hours before performing an abortion. If the special election were today, and you were standing in the voting booth right now, would you vote Yes on Proposition 73? Or would you vote No?

60% Yes
38% No
2% Undecided

Proposition 74 extends the probationary period for new teachers from 2 years to 5 years, and makes it easier to dismiss teachers with unsatisfactory performance evaluations. If the special election were today, would you vote Yes on Proposition 74? Or would you vote No?

53% Yes
45% No
1% Undecided

Proposition 75 prohibits public employee unions from using union dues for political purposes without the written consent of union members. If the special election were today, would you vote Yes on Proposition 75? Or would you vote no?

56% Yes
42% No
2% Undecided

Proposition 76 limits growth in state spending so that it does not exceed recent growth in state revenues. If the special election were today, would you vote Yes on Proposition 76? Or would you vote no?

54% Yes
41% No
5% Undecided

Proposition 77 changes the way California draws boundaries for Congressional and legislative districts. District boundaries would be drawn by a panel of retired judges and approved by voters in a statewide election. If the special election were today, would you vote Yes on 77? Or would you vote no?

54% Yes
41% No
5% Undecided

This is continued good news for the Governor.

Absentee ballots have been mailed and requests for them are greater than Arnold’s last election in 2003.

Elections officials in Los Angeles County, which is home to nearly a quarter of California’s registered voters, already have sent out 445,784 absentee ballots. That’s up from 338,747 at the same point in the 2004 primary race and 350,747 in the recall.

“We’re actually running closer to the numbers we saw in the 2004 general election,” said Kristin Heffron, chief deputy registrar for Los Angeles County.

There’s a similar situation in Santa Clara County, where the 200,972 absentee ballots already mailed to voters are more than the 132,965 issued in the 2004 primary and not far behind the 232,231 mailed out for the November general election.

“I think there’s interest out there,” said Alma Rosas, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Country registrar. “It’s not like a governor’s race, with a 50 percent turnout, or the 70 percent that turns out for a presidential race, but we’re looking at a 40 to 45 percent turnout, like for a primary.”

Stay Tuned.

Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Recovery Team, California Special Election, Bear Flag League, Proposition 74, Proposition 75, Proposition 76, Proposition 77

Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page