Thursday's Sore Loser

Forget it, I'm not leaving. But I will do the news. Audio to follow as soon as I stop sobbing. Happy Birthday Walter Cronkite, he's 88. King Tut's tomb was discovered on this day in 1922. The Iranian Hostage Crisis began in 1979.

1. It's the day after tomorrow. The eight-nation Arctic Council is reporting that the icecaps are melting at twice the normal rate, due to global warming. The four year study will be officially released next week. Global warming isn't all bad. 25% of the Earths remaining oil and gas reserves are hidden under Arctic ice. That amphibious Hummer is looking better than ever.
2. E-voting went mostly without a hitch on Tuesday. It was the first extensive use of electronic voting machines and only about 600 glitches were reported, mostly minor according to the Verified Voting Foundation. On the other hand, the Election Protection Coalition reports over 1,000 problems, including touch screens that switched votes away from Kerry.
3. CNET reviews the electronic gadgetry used by the television networks on election night. Tim Russert replaced his whiteboard with a Fujitsu tablet PC. CBS used a 50-inch touch screen plasma monitor to swoop and zoom over electoral maps. I followed the results on the radio but I don't think NPR was using any of that stuff.
4. A brother and sister spamming team have been convicted of a felony in a Virginia court. It's the first felony conviction of spammers ever. The two sent junk email to millions of AOL customers. The jury recommended nine years in jail for the brother and fined the sister $7500.
5. The Motion Picture Association of America is preparing to follow in the RIAA's footsteps by suing movie pirates. The MPAA says it will make "a major announcement regarding illegal file sharing of motion pictures on peer-to-peer networks" this morning.
6. Microsoft and Intel are joining forces this holiday season with an advertising campaign touting "Digital Joy." The multi-million dollar campaign marks the first time the two companies have advertised together.
7. Another reason to eschew HTML email. The latest phishing scams overwrites your banking bookmark with bogus sites where they'll collect your login and password, and the email does this without any action on your part.

Listen in tomorrow at 8:35a Pacific for my weekly news commentary on KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles.