New Zealand Man Buys US Intelligence On MP3 Player

Sydney Morning Herald

A New Zealand man has found confidential United States military files on an MP3 player he bought at an op shop in the US.

Chris Ogle, 29, from Whangarei, bought the player from an Oklahoma thrift shop for $NZ18 ($A14.50), and found the files when he hooked it up to his computer, TV One News reported on Monday night.

The 60 files on the player contained the names and personal details of American soldiers, including ones who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There was also information about equipment deployed to bases and a mission briefing.

"The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be," Ogle said.

Victoria University strategic studies director Peter Cozens said one of the first rules of military endeavour was to not give the opposition information that could compromise your position.

"This is just slack administrative procedures which are indeed a cause of embarrassment. It's the sort of thing which ought not really be in the public domain, he said.

Ogle said the player never worked as a music player and he would hand it over to the US Defence Department if asked.


Well this just about sums up the past couple years of military intel. Let's keep important files on a MP3 player and then sell it to a pawn shop in the middle of Oklahoma. This guy Ogle better make a pretty penny off of this, even though the military doesn't seem to care that he has this material. I guess no one fears the Kiwi's.

Reptile becomes a father, at 111

From BBC


A rare New Zealand reptile has become a father, possibly for the first time, at the age of 111.

The keepers of Henry, a tuatara, had thought he was past his prime - especially after showing no interest in females during 40 years in captivity.

But he mated with 80-year-old Mildred last July and 11 of the eggs she produced have now hatched.

Henry's keepers have put his newfound vigour down to a recent operation to remove a tumour from his bottom.

'Love story'

Henry arrived at Southland Museum in the South Island city of Invercargill in 1970 and, his keepers say, soon became overweight and idle.


I have done lots of eggs before but these are just special because they are Henry's
Lindsay Hazley
Museum curator

He was known for his foul temper and had a tendency to attack other tuatara - forcing the museum to keep him in solitary confinement for many years.

But since his operation, Museum tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley said he had had a "major personality transplant".

"I have done lots of eggs before but these are just special because they are Henry's," Mr Hazley told the Southland Times.

Tuatara, which are found only in New Zealand, are sometimes referred to as "living fossils".

They are the only surviving members of a family of species which walked the Earth with the dinosaurs more than 200 million years ago.

The museum now has about 70 of the rare creatures, and Mr Hazley is hopeful that Henry might provide more offspring in the future.

He lives with three female tuatara "in great harmony", said Mr Hazley, and described the hatching of the eggs as "the completion of a love story".

This little guy is still spreading his seed at 111 years old? That is pretty impressive. I mean I have a hard enough time trying to do that at the age of 25. Maybe it gets easier with age? But I would have to seduce a much younger woman at that age. I mean there aren't any 111 year old women giving birth. Could you image having sex with some who is about 80 years your junior? That would be a miracle, let alone getting her pregnant. It is official that this reptile is now a hero of mine and I will strive to match not only years on this earth but his sexual conquests as well.

I Hate The Fox Robot

There are only a few things that I really hate about football season. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, the New York Giants, Mike Styp and the dumb ass robot on Fox. It is so annoying and it might be the my most hated thing about football season. I like that Conan shares my opinion.

Nothing Like Singing Fish

Singing fish. What is funnier?

"Rheingold Cowboy" - Travis Mcgee

This is a very special video I am posting today. This video is the culmination of some very hard work done by yours truly, Joy Zaccaria and of course the writer and singer of this brilliant song, Travis Mcgee.

Rheingold Cowboy - a work of art.

Happy MLK Day...

One of the greatest speeches of all time. I am personally looking forward to hearing another one tomorrow.

New York Is Now Jealous Of Both Boston and Philly

Forget Boston, we have new city to hate

From NY Daily News

No matter where a New York fan turns these days, a vulgar scent of cheesesteak taints the atmosphere and distorts the schedule of sports events on our flat-screen televisions. Philadelphia is the new Boston, suddenly. Maybe not as prim and haughty, but every bit as dangerous and much, much sneakier.

The Phillies have leap-frogged and embarrassed the Mets for two straight Septembers, riding Jimmy Rollins' back-page boasts all the way to a championship. The Eagles knocked off the Giants twice at the Meadowlands this season, the second time decisively.

The Flyers are battling the Rangers and Devils atop the Atlantic Division. The Sixers are mediocre, at best, but that only means they will be jockeying with the Knicks for key draft position. No doubt the expansion Philadelphia franchise will win the MLS title before the Red Bulls.

And still, we hear the whining from down there. It is now winning whining, which is much worse than losing whining. We miss the jeering. Where is the jeering?

"Trashy people from either Philadelphia or the Southern region of New Jersey," is how Urbandictionary.com defines Eagles fans. "They claim they are the most loyal fans in the NFL. ... ONLY when their team is on the brink of a (soon to be a failure) Super Bowl Run. But as soon as their team loses, they disown their team and bash them to pieces."

The problem is, there has been no need for bashing anyone to pieces lately in Philly. There are only these big victories down there in what looks like a farmer's market filled with new stadiums. We were so busy worrying about Boston all these years, we failed to spot Ryan Howard and Donovan McNabb advancing from the south.

We should have seen this coming as far back as 1790, when Philadelphia stole our designation as nation's capital on a lark. After World War I, Philly politicians made a futile legislative and propaganda effort to divert steamship commerce from our ports, claiming we were overcrowded.

"The advantages of New York do not need to be advertised," The New York Times opined in 1918, about Philly's assault. "But not even New York is strong enough to be indifferent to diversion of trade by edict, and wrong notions, and facts which are not facts."

The sixth-biggest city in America was cunning then, and is still slyer now. The town which might have given Boo Radley his name has launched one stealth attack after another these past couple of years.

We search, but find no overt venom spewed toward New York, not like on the Boston airwaves. The Philly fan blogs are generally filled with straight analysis, a dash of pessimism and little braggadocio. Philadelphians want us to believe they are so down on themselves, on everything and everybody, they don't really have a specific grudge against New York.

"I don't think there's an overriding animus toward New York from Philadelphia," insists Bob Ford, a sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Philadelphians hate the whole world. North Philadelphia doesn't like South Philly , which doesn't like The Main Line, which doesn't think anyone else exists.

"Everyone hates Boston, because they're stuck up. We can't say New York is stuck up. Before the Phillies won, there wasn't a championship since 1983. There would have been great pleasure if the local teams were beating Tulsa for a title. And for sheer civic joy, the fans would have enjoyed it five times more if it had been Dallas instead of the Giants on Sunday."

So Philly refuses to recognize its own role as our new nemesis - which only makes the city that much more annoying.

Boston? Boston is so yesterday around here, and far too Yankee-centric. The Red Sox were a wild-card team last season, nothing more. They've lost Manny, the poster child for anti-pinstriped imagery.

Besides, the Yanks killed them in the offseason. Brad Penny for one year? That's not even trying.

The Patriots lost to the Jets in New England and didn't make the playoffs. The Bruins are in a different division. The Celtics are irrelevant to the Knicks or Nets at the moment, playing in their own little two-team league with the Lakers.

Philadelphia would love us to remain focused on Boston, to forget the increasing threat it presents on the athletic fields.

"We are sort of related," Ford insists. "We share New Jersey, a slow cousin we both have to look out for."