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Tech: Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File: “The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Another feature of the HOSTS file is it’s ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, as long the the entry exists.
You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, cookies, web bugs, and even most hijackers. This is accomplished by blocking the Server that supplies these little gems. Example - the following entry 127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net blocks all files supplied by the DoubleClick Server to the web page you are viewing. This also prevents the server from tracking your movements.”

Tech: Resources: Ad Blocking Resources includes a list of several hundred websites that you can import into Internet Explorer’s restricted site list. This can help keep spyware of your computer. The file is available here.

USA: CNN.com - Edwards revives memories of Florida 2000 - Jul 18, 2004: “‘We will get voters registered, we will get voters mobilized, we will get voters to the polls!’ Edwards said during a campaign stop at Orlando’s St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church. ‘We’re going to make sure that all those voters that go to the polls and cast their votes, that [their] votes are counted this time.’”

USA: CNN.com - Meat hook dangling craze mystifies police - Jul 18, 2004: “A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said on Sunday that the Monroe County sheriff’s office and Coast Guard were called on July 12 to the sandbar off Whale Harbor in Islamorada [Florida] where locals say wild behavior is becoming a tradition. They found that five young people had erected a bamboo tripod and hung meat hooks from it. A young woman, her feet brushing the surface of the shallow water, dangled from the frame, hooks embedded firmly in her shoulders.”

USA: UNITED STATES: Military families applaud Fahrenheit 9/11: “Natalie Sorton, a 25-year-old moderate Republican and wife of an infantryman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, where Fort Bragg is, that the movie changed her opinion of the war in Iraq. “All this movie did was open my eyes a little more to what’s really going on”, she said. “I think this is definitely going to have an impact on the election. I’m glad I’m a voter.” Moore portrayed soldiers accurately as doing what they were told, Sorton said.
Greg Rohwer-Selken, 33, of Ames, Iowa, whose wife, Karol, is serving in the National Guard in Iraq, was moved to tears and told Time magazine: “It really made me question why she has to be over there.”
In conservative Indiana County, Pennsylvania, Eric Blank told the Indiana Gazette: “I have not felt this angry toward an administration ever. I wanted Clinton yanked from office, but I think Bush should go to jail.”“