Verizon's FIOS finally coming to Washington DC

Despite being surrounded by some of the first communities in the country to get FIOS, and a relatively dense population core crying out for FIOS to be rolled out in the District proper, Verizon was dragging their feet for the last few years about rolling out the high speed service to DC residents. Well that wait is no more.

The District and Verizon Communications have reached an agreement to bring the company’s FiOS high-speed Internet service to the city.

Eric Richardson, director of D.C. Office of Cable Television, said the agreement requires approval by the mayor’s office and the D.C. Council, a process he said could be completed by the end of the year. Richardson said negotiations took nine months, less time than it has taken the District to work out previous cable franchise agreements.

As FIOS is a tv delivery platform, it often runs afoul of monopolistic cable tv agreements that cities have established with ‘cable’ companies. Whether or not these rollouts are done within the franchise agreements that exist (likely) or the result of total deregulation of the cable / Internet providing rules (ha) is yet to be established, but it doesn’t seem likely Verizon is going in anyplace where they don’t have a few regulatory barriers to entry in place already to prevent competitors.

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High School Graduate Donna Dustin Murdered in 1973 + 35th High School Reunion in 2008 = New leads?

There is no statute of limitations on murder, so police will be showing up at the Bowie High School’s Class of 1973 to talk about the night one of their graduates disappeared, only later to be found in a local swamp. Donna Dustin was celebrating her recent graduation when things turned a bit ugly.

The next time Donna was seen, later that day at around 10:30 a.m., she was a corpse, beaten savagely to death off Meyers Station Road near Bowie Race Track, an after-hours hangout for local teens. Her body was found on the Anne Arundel side of the woods.

David Cordle, an investigator with Anne Arundel County’s State’s Attorney’s Office, will speak at the reunion, asking attendees to tell him anything they saw or heard about Donna that Nov. 17.

Reunions, Mr. Cordle said, “bring a lot of people together who normally don’t come together. If you ask (them) the right questions, maybe you’ll get the kind of answers you need.”

I doubt we’ll see someone stand up and confess, but you never know what people have thought or said over the years thinking they were safe and far away from a tragic murder scene. DNA evidence is far more refined than it was 35 years ago.

But here’s an interesting stat on life in the suburbs of the big city. Of the 700 or so graduates, 39 have died.

“Three were murdered, three committed suicide and others died in car crashes, overdosed or died of alcoholism. Three died while waiting for transplants or after getting transplants, three from breast cancer and three from AIDS,” Ms. Nusser said.

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Deliveryman arrested in Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo drug raid case

Police in Maryland have arrested the deliveryman in the SWAT team radio on a Maryland mayor’s house. Police broke down the door of the mayor’s home, shot his dogs, and held the mayor and his wife as ‘persons of interest’ after a 32lb box of pot was intercepted by drug sniffing dogs in transit. Police had no reason to suspect the mayor or his wife (who the package was addressed to) but went ahead with a ‘no knock’ search and seizure (despite not having a warrant for a no knock search).

Half a dozen deliveries were found to be carrying contraband, to a tune of about $3.6 million dollars. Despite this police have yet to exonerate the mayor, calling him ‘likely an innocent bystander’ but not entirely sure.

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Olympics Opening Ceremony parade not in alphabetical order, USA right in the middle

UPDATE: Torch / cauldron ablaze in AMAZING lighting ceremony (must see tv tonight). Games underway!

Hints are coming out that the opening ceremony parade will not be in alphabetical order as it has been in the past, but rather in ’stroke count’ order based on the Chinese characters. For example, Australia has 15 strokes to the Chinese character for Australia, and as such, they will be entering toward the end, position 203. Greece will still be first and the host country China will be last, but in between we could see quite a mishmash for people hoping to turn in during the middle or end and find the countries they were hoping for.

For Americans this means you are going to have to tune in about halfway through the opening ceremony parade to catch the US entry. The US will be entering in position 140, right after Syria and right before the Virgin Islands.

So, you really want the whole list? Ok…this will be long…

1 Greece (GRE) 希腊
2 Guinea (GUI) 几内亚
3 Guinea-Bissau (GBS) 几内亚比绍
4 Turkey (TUR) 土耳其
5 Turkmenistan (TKM) 土库曼斯坦
6 Yemen (YEM) 也门
7 Maldives (MDV) 马尔代夫
8 Malta (MLT) 马耳他
9 Madagascar (MAD) 马达加斯加
10 Malaysia (MAS) 马来西亚
11 Mali (MLI) 马里
12 Malawi (MAW) 马拉维
13 FYR Macedonia (MKD) 马其顿
14 Marshall Islands (MHL) 马绍尔群岛
15 Cayman Islands (CAY) 开曼群岛
16 Bhutan (BHU) 不丹
17 Ecuador (ECU) 厄瓜多尔
18 Eritrea (ERI) 厄立特里亚
19 Jamaica (JAM) 牙买加
20 Belgium (BEL) 比利时
21 Vanuatu (VAN) 瓦努阿图
22 Israel (ISR) 以色列
23 Japan (JPN) 日本
24 Chinese Taipei (TPE) 中华台北
25 Central African Republic (CAF) 中非
26 Hong Kong, China (HKG) 中国香港
27 Gambia (GAM) 冈比亚
28 Benin (BEN) 贝宁
29 Mauritius (MRI) 毛里求斯
30 Mauritania (MTN) 毛里塔尼亚
31 Denmark (DEN) 丹麦
32 Uganda (UGA) 乌干达
33 Ukraine (UKR) 乌克兰
34 Uruguay (URU) 乌拉圭
35 Uzbekistan (UZB) 乌兹别克斯坦
36 Brunei (BRU) 文莱
37 Barbados (BAR) 巴巴多斯
38 Papua New Guinea (PNG) 巴布亚新几内亚
39 Brazil (BRA) 巴西
40 Paraguay (PAR) 巴拉圭
41 Bahrain (BRN) 巴林
42 Bahamas (BAH) 巴哈马
43 Panama (PAN) 巴拿马
44 Pakistan (PAK) 巴基斯坦
45 Palestine (PLE) 巴勒斯坦
46 Cuba (CUB) 古巴
47 Burkina Faso (BUR) 布基纳法索
48 Burundi (BDI) 布隆迪
49 Timor-Leste (TLS) 东帝汶
50 Qatar (QAT) 卡塔尔
51 Rwanda (RWA) 卢旺达
52 Luxembourg (LUX) 卢森堡
53 Chad (CHA) 乍得
54 Belarus (BLR) 白俄罗斯
55 India (IND) 印度
56 Indonesia (INA) 印度尼西亚
57 Lithuania (LTU) 立陶宛
58 Niger (NIG) 尼日尔
59 Nigeria (NGR) 尼日利亚
60 Nicaragua (NCA) 尼加拉瓜
61 Nepal (NEP) 尼泊尔
62 Ghana (GHA) 加纳
63 Canada (CAN) 加拿大
64 Gabon (GAB) 加蓬
65 San Marino (SMR) 圣马力诺
66 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (VIN) 圣文森特和格林纳丁斯
67 Saint Lucia (LCA) 圣卢西亚
68 São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) 圣多美和普林西比
69 Saint Kitts and Nevis (SKN) 圣基茨和尼维斯
70 Guyana (GUY) 圭亚那
71 Djibouti (DJI) 吉布提
72 Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) 吉尔吉斯斯坦
73 Laos (LAO) 老挝
74 Armenia (ARM) 亚美尼亚
75 Spain (ESP) 西班牙
76 Bermuda (BER) 百慕大
77 Liechtenstein (LIE) 列支敦士登
78 Congo (CGO) 刚果
79 DR Congo (COD) 刚果
80 Iraq (IRQ) 伊拉克
81 Iran (IRI) 伊朗
82 Guatemala (GUA) 危地马拉
83 Hungary (HUN) 匈牙利
84 Dominican Republic (DOM) 多米尼加共和国
85 Dominica (DMA) 多米尼克
86 Togo (TOG) 多哥
87 Iceland (ISL) 冰岛
88 Guam (GUM) 关岛
89 Angola (ANG) 安哥拉
90 Antigua and Barbuda (ANT) 安提瓜和巴布达
91 Andorra (AND) 安道尔
92 Tonga (TGA) 汤加
93 Jordan (JOR) 约旦
94 Equatorial Guinea (GEQ) 赤道几内亚
95 Finland (FIN) 芬兰
96 Croatia (CRO) 克罗地亚
97 Sudan (SUD) 苏丹
98 Suriname (SUR) 苏里南
99 Libya (LBA) 利比亚
100 Liberia (LBR) 利比里亚
101 Belize (BIZ) 伯利兹
102 Cape Verde (CPV) 佛得角
103 Cook Islands (COK) 库克群岛
104 Saudi Arabia (KSA) 沙特
105 Algeria (ALG) 阿尔及利亚
106 Albania (ALB) 阿尔巴尼亚
107 United Arab Emirates (UAE) 阿拉伯联合酋长国
108 Argentina (ARG) 阿根廷
109 Oman (OMA) 阿曼
110 Aruba (ARU) 阿鲁巴
111 Afghanistan (AFG) 阿富汗
112 Azerbaijan (AZE) 阿塞拜疆
113 Namibia (NAM) 纳米比亚
114 Tanzania (TAN) 坦桑尼亚
115 Latvia (LAT) 拉脱维亚
116 Great Britain (GBR) 英国
117 British Virgin Islands (IVB) 英属维尔京群岛
118 Kenya (KEN) 肯尼亚
119 Romania (ROU) 罗马尼亚
120 Palau (PLW) 帕劳
121 Tuvalu (TUV) 图瓦卢
122 Venezuela (VEN) 委内瑞拉
123 Solomon Islands (SOL) 所罗门群岛
124 France (FRA) 法国
125 Poland (POL) 波兰
126 Puerto Rico (PUR) 波多黎各
127 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) 波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那
128 Bangladesh (BAN) 孟加拉国
129 Bolivia (BOL) 玻利维亚
130 Norway (NOR) 挪威
131 South Africa (RSA) 南非共和国
132 Cambodia (CAM) 柬埔寨
133 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 哈萨克斯坦
134 Kuwait (KUW) 科威特
135 Côte d’Ivoire (CIV) 科特迪瓦
136 Comoros (COM) 葛摩
137 Bulgaria (BUL) 保加利亚
138 Russia (RUS) 俄罗斯
139 Syria (SYR) 叙利亚
140 United States (USA) 美国
141 Virgin Islands (ISV) 美属维尔京群岛
142 American Samoa (ASA) 美属萨摩亚
143 Honduras (HON) 洪都拉斯
144 Zimbabwe (ZIM) 津巴布韦
145 Tunisia (TUN) 突尼斯
146 Thailand (THA) 泰国
147 Egypt (EGY) 埃及
148 Ethiopia (ETH) 埃塞俄比亚
149 Lesotho (LES) 莱索托
150 Mozambique (MOZ) 莫桑比克
151 Netherlands (NED) 荷兰
152 Netherlands Antilles (AHO) 荷属安的列斯
153 Grenada (GRN) 格林纳达
154 Georgia (GEO) 格鲁吉亚
155 Somalia (SOM) 索马里
156 Colombia (COL) 哥伦比亚
157 Costa Rica (CRC) 哥斯达黎加
158 Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) 特立尼达和多巴哥
159 Peru (PER) 秘鲁
160 Ireland (IRL) 爱尔兰
161 Estonia (EST) 爱沙尼亚
162 Haiti (HAI) 海地
163 Czech Republic (CZE) 捷克
164 Kiribati (KIR) 基里巴斯
165 Philippines (PHI) 菲律宾
166 El Salvador (ESA) 萨尔瓦多
167 Samoa (SAM) 萨摩亚
168 Micronesia (FSM) 密克罗尼西亚联邦
169 Tajikistan (TJK) 塔吉克斯坦
170 Vietnam (VIE) 越南
171 Botswana (BOT) 博茨瓦纳
172 Sri Lanka (SRI) 斯里兰卡
173 Swaziland (SWZ) 斯威士兰
174 Slovenia (SLO) 斯洛文尼亚
175 Slovakia (SVK) 斯洛伐克
176 Portugal (POR) 葡萄牙
177 South Korea (KOR) 韩国
178 North Korea (PRK) 朝鲜
179 Fiji (FIJ) 斐济
180 Cameroon (CMR) 喀麦隆
181 Montenegro (MNE) 黑山
182 Chile (CHI) 智利
183 Austria (AUT) 奥地利
184 Myanmar (MYA) 缅甸
185 Switzerland (SUI) 瑞士
186 Sweden (SWE) 瑞典
187 Nauru (NRU) 瑙鲁
188 Mongolia (MGL) 蒙古
189 Singapore (SIN) 新加坡
190 New Zealand (NZL) 新西兰
191 Italy (ITA) 意大利
192 Senegal (SEN) 塞内加尔
193 Serbia (SRB) 塞尔维亚
194 Seychelles (SEY) 塞舌尔
195 Sierra Leone (SLE) 塞拉利昂
196 Cyprus (CYP) 塞浦路斯
197 Mexico (MEX) 墨西哥
198 Lebanon (LIB) 黎巴嫩
199 Germany (GER) 德国
200 Moldova (MDA) 摩尔多瓦
201 Monaco (MON) 摩纳哥
202 Morocco (MAR) 摩洛哥
203 Australia (AUS) 澳大利亚
204 Zambia (ZAM) 赞比亚
205 China (CHN) 中国
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Arrests made in the General Mohammad Suleiman assassination

London-based Asharq al-Awsat is reporting several arrests (aka ‘the usual suspects’) in the assassination of Mohammad Suleiman, the Syrian military general with ties to Hizbollah (though Hizbollah spokesman are saying ‘Suleiman who?’). As Syria is struggling to admit that he was actually killed, I think it may be awhile before we hear any official confirmation.

Meanwhile the Tehran Times is saying Israel did it (as if you expected something different)?

Here’s my question of the day. A sniper, on a yacht, with wave action taking him up and down, manages to get off 4 hits on a target? We’re talking Bourne Identity caliber or better (or are the seas perfectly calm down around Tartous?) . NOTE: Initial reports said he was shot in Cairo but now it appears he was shot in Syria in the port city of Tartous.

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Hong Kong – Macau Bridge gets funding boost

China, Macau and Hong Kong have come to some agreements on the proposed Hong Kong – Macau Bridge. The HK Standard is writing that the final agreements on who is going to pay what bit of the approximately $3 billion in costs has been hammered out recently.

Guangdong and the central government will put 7 billion yuan (HK$8 billion) toward the 37.45 billion yuan bill, Hong Kong 6.75 billion yuan and Macau 1.98 billion yuan, according to Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam- kuen, who unveiled financing details during the 11th Hong Kong- Guangdong Cooperation Joint Conference with provincial governor Huang Huahua.

The remaining 21.72 billion yuan for the project will come from loans.

However, neither Tsang nor Huang revealed further details of the loan plan. Tsang said work will start no later than 2010.

Kind of a bummer because I really liked taking the hydrofoils from Hong Kong over to the gambling dens of inequity, but maybe they’ll still run for those who want to enter Macau from the sea.

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Lopez Lomong, a "Lost Boy" of Sudan, to carry the flag for the USA in Beijing

Lopez Lomong, a former child prisoner-of-war in Sudan and recently naturalized US citizen will have the honor of carrying the US flag into the Birds’ nest stadium in Beijing on Friday. Lomong is running in the 1,500 meters and was given that honor after a vote by all of the US Olympic team captains. He was kidnapped as a boy during a stupid civil war and spent 10 years in a Kenyan prison camp before coming to the US in 2001. Here’s a nice piece on his naturalization ceremony.

“The American flag means everything in my life – everything that describes me, coming from another country and going through all of the stages that I have to become a U.S. citizen,” Lomong said. “This is another amazing step for me in celebrating being an American. Seeing my fellow Americans coming behind me (in the Opening Ceremony) and supporting me will be a great honor – the highest honor. It’s just a happy day. I don’t even have the words to describe how happy I am.”

And in case you are wondering, here is the previous list

U.S. OLYMPIC FLAG BEARERS
Year U.S. Flag Bearer (Sport)
1908 Ralph Rose (Athletics)
1912 George V. Bonhag (Athletics)
1920 Patrick J. McDonald (Athletics)
1924 Patrick J. McDonald (Athletics)
1928 Lemuel (Bud) C. Houser (Athletics)
1932 F. Morgan Taylor (Athletics)
1936 Alfred A. Jochim (Gymnastics)
1948 Ralph C. Craig (Yachting)
1952 Norman C. Armitage (Fencing)
1956 Norman C. Armitage (Fencing)
#Warren B. Wofford (Equestrian)
1960 Rafer L. Johnson (Athletics)
1964 William Parry O’Brien (Athletics)
1968 Janice Lee Romary (Fencing)
1972 Olga Fikotova Connolly (Athletics)
1976 Gary W. Hall (Swimming)
1980 USA did not attend
1984 Edward Burke (Athletics)
1988 Evelyn Ashford (Athletics)
1992 Francie Larrieu Smith (Athletics)
1996 Bruce Baumgartner (Wrestling)
2000 Cliff Meidl (Canoe/Kayak)
2004 Dawn Staley (Basketball)
2008 Lopez Lomong (Athletics)

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Coups and Earthquake Updates of the Day

On the basic assumption that Americans care only about world news at it relates ‘coups and earthquakes’, or more recently, coups, earthquakes and hostages, I thought I’d give an update of the world news today.

* There was a coup in Mauritania today, but as most of you haven’t the slightest clue where that is it really isn’t news.

* The three US hostages seized by the FARC and rescued by the Colombian military are going to take a cross country ride to raise attention to the plight of other hostages still being held down there. But as most Americans didn’t even know they were hostages until they were released I’m not sure how successful they will be.

So in news most Americans are interested in–Paris Hilton has made an election video in response to McCain’s ‘celebrity’ video of Obama and the insinuation that Obama is an empty suit (like Paris Hilton). You be the judge if this response is really a counter, or just proof positive of that fact.

(yes, there is satire in this post).

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die
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Europe howls at US execution of Mexican national. Mexico yawns.

The Houston Chronicle has pretty interesting article about the Texas execution of Jose Medellin for the rape and murder of two girls in Texas in 1993. Most of Mexico right now is focused on the kidnapping of 14-year-old Fernando Marti, so much so that the execution was almost a distraction, while in Europe and in the International Court of something or another there have been demands that the US halt the execution and review the case. (For those who are wondering why, when you are arrested in a foreign country you are supposed to be allowed to talk with the embassy/consulate, an option which Mr. Medellin was apparently not given. Of course the Embassy folks can’t do much more than basically say ‘you’ve been very very bad and don’t bend over to pick up the soap’ but it’s the principle of the thing).

Crime in Mexico is not getting much better, so much so that advocates for the death penalty in Mexico are starting to get their voice. Of course that would mean the death sentence would be handed out by the pearly clean and non-corrupt Mexican judiciary. Maybe not.

Bonus: Is Mexico a “failed state” ? Read for yourself.

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How to watch the Olympics online.

This year will see far more streams and other resources for folks wanting to catch the Olympics online. Some are legal, and many many more are not.

The first and easiest way, for an American, is to logon to NBC or MSNBC’s Olympic site and simply click the ‘Video’ section. NBC is showing 2,400 hours of coverage online (starting today with Women’s Soccer, eventhough the opening ceremony is still 48 hours away). To watch online will require the Microsoft program Silverlight (free) which works on Windows and Mac (not sure about the LINUX version just yet).

Youtube will have some Olympic coverage for folks in Africa and South America.

Then there is the option of http://www.myp2p.eu. These are peer to peer TV program links, requiring you to download Sopcast or TVAnts. It will be interesting to see how long these sites stay online and whether their feeds get interfered with by the authorities.

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