Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Airport luggage inspectors policing thoughtcrime. A traveller flying to San Diego from Seattle found his luggage had been opened by the Federal Transport Security Authority, who had left behind a note telling him so, on which was scrawled "DONT APPRECIATE YOUR ANTI-AMERICAN ATTITUDE" -- a reference to the "No Iraq War" signs he'd picked up in a shop in Seattle. So, the Feds are not only inspecting our bags -- and invading our privacy -- to ensure that they are bomb-free; they're now taking it upon themselves to chastise us for our political beliefs? What the hell does keeping bombs off airplanes have to do with winkling out protest signs? Nothing like a little thoughtcrime policing to undermine the entire mission and credibility of the TSA. Of course, the TSA is maintaining that this wasn't the work of an inspector -- rather, someone at the airport cut the security-seal left behind by the inspector, defaced the "You have been inspected" card, and replaced the seal, all without being caught by the TSA itself (wow, that gives me a lot of confidence in the TSA's ability to secure the nation's airports!). Nico Melendez, western regional spokesman for the TSA, said the note in Goldberg's luggage will be investigated, but he said there's no proof that a TSA employee wrote it. "It's a leap to say it was a TSA screener," Melendez said. But Goldberg said, "It seems a little far-fetched to think people are running around the airport writing messages on TSA literature and slipping them into people's bags." Link Discuss (via Interesting People) [Boing Boing Blog] 7:01:52 AM    comment []

Monday, March 17, 2003

Presidential Candidate Howard Dean has a weblog. During the last mid-term elections, we had Tara Sue Grubb (a libertarian candidate for Congress), and now we have a presidential candidate with a weblog.   He's also using MeetUp, which is an Internet service that makes it easy for people to organize meetings.  It's good to see politicians discover the power of the web.  Maybe, as more of them understand its power of communication, our politicians won't be so readily inclined to pass laws that seem so riduculous to those of us that use the Internet extensively. [Ernie the Attorney] 7:16:16 AM    comment []

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Iraqi drone revealed. There had been a lot of furor about a supposed drone, capable of spraying biological or chemical weapons over U.S. troops, which was discovered in Iraq recently, and which the Hans Blix didn't mention in his U.N. report, but burried in a big report. Sounded like a smoking gun, and Colin Powell presented it as being very dangerous. But here you see it on the picture. It is essentially a large model airplane, which is controlled from somebody on the ground who has it within visual range. Meaning, it wouldn't be able to move more than max 5 kilometers or so around. And it doesn't exactly have room for any fancy weapons. Another embarrassing non-story. Story here [Ming the Mechanic] 6:39:54 AM    comment []

Monday, March 03, 2003

Surveillance of U.N. Security Council. An article in The Observer has caused quite a stir. It reveals NSA plans for surveillance, including intercepting phone calls and e-mails, of UN delegates in New York. Of curse the delegates from the countries that are likely to not agree with the U.S. position. The Observer had at first posted an e-mail purported to be from a top NSA official, but which used British spelling and date format. They still insist that it is authentic, but that they at first had 'translated' it for a British audience, and now they changed it back. That's a bit fishy, of course. I'd like to see the real message with its headers. Regardless, I'm sure that something like that is going on. [Ming the Mechanic] 6:55:43 AM    comment []

Saturday, March 01, 2003

Online gallery of leaflets dropped on Iraq by US military. Online gallery of infowar leaflets dropped on Iraq by US forces during the past few months. This one (apparently aimed at Iraqi cable repair technicians) says, "Military fiber optic cables are tools used by Saddam and his regime to suppress the Iraqi people. Military fiber optic cables have been targeted for destruction. Repairing them places your life at risk." "Unsubscribe" instructions are not included. Link Discuss (thanks, Steve) [Boing Boing Blog] 7:33:22 AM    comment []

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Product Placement Ads in Washington?. WP: The great duct tape conspiracy?. Interesting WP story stating that 46% of all duct tape sold in the USA is manufactured by an Ohio-based company whose founder donated over $100,000 in the 2000 election campaign cycle to the Republican National Committee and other GOP committees. His son, John Kahl, who became CEO after his father stepped down shortly after the election, told CNBC last week that "we're seeing a doubling and tripling of our sales, particularly in certain metro markets and around the coasts and borders." The plant has "gone to a 24/7 operation, which is about a 40 percent increase" over this time last year, Kahl said. The company had more than $300 million in sales in 2001. And Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge keeps pushing the product. "You may want to have a safe shelter for four or six hours," he told PBS's Jim Lehrer on Wednesday, "until . . . the chemical plume moves on." So "you may need that duct tape." Link to Washington Post story (stupid, annoying registration survey required), Discuss (via strangelove) [Boing Boing Blog] I took all this with a grain of salt until my eyes happened upon something I'd printed out a month or so ago that was still sitting on my desk. It was an article about the criminalization of TiVo and the heavily theorized "Product Placement" solution to the problem of people skipping commercials. So I chuckled a bit, then turned back and re-read this and the pit of my stomach sank into nausea. Great. We've got product placement ads during terrorist alert briefings. My brain goes into hyperbolic mode at this (ok, BACK into hyperbolic mode) and I can see members of congress wearing suits with the labels still on the left sleeves, giving speeches with shiny white teeth and toothpaste tubes sitting "incidentally" on the podium... Press conferences ending with "Thank you for your understanding, but I think the staff and I are going to Olive Garden!" Great. Just Great. [The Universal Church Of Cosmic Uncertainty] 5:46:37 PM    comment []

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Something Military Happening in Boston???. Something Military Happening in Boston??? I just heard from a friend who was driving on Storrow Drive in Boston and he told me that he saw "20 to 30 soldiers in fatigues going over one of the foot bridges crossing the Charles River with weapoons in hand -- not slung but actually out".  Anyone local know anything?  George W taking out those Harvard Liberals perhaps? [The FuzzyBlog!] 5:20:47 PM    comment []

Security you can hear at home. Iraqwar.info: Listen to DC combat air patrols. Here's the audio. The background is utter silence broken by aircraft chatter. Here's what I've heard in the last two minutes: Fourfivetwo? Cccccchh. Hrrlwwlenken. Cccchhwelcome. Tower to Tinker? CccchNrdlschoolbreak. Nordabout onefiveseven. Number two complete and we are swapping raids. Fivefourtwo. Thirtyfourfortyfive grwonswor five rrgon slowly please. Information window parameters. You're going to have to ree ... the background noise. What I have is about six x instrumentation window parameters appear to be over water. Fiveonefive ronseddiwood look attem. Confirm Ron. He's workin those parameters and is lookn ta fixem. Fourfivetwo disconnect. Five two would be out low to the south. Leh. Tooz um twentyone thousand. No that's fine. Yellowjackets twofour oh. Ccch linproceedem. Y'know they have the miniDVD players inna make me one of them so you can listen to your CDs while you play around. Maybe I'll do that. Steel flow guages and my eyeballs are getting fried cuz it's so late. Onefortytwo twothousand climbing to four thousand nnrndr roll. Rrrn. Makes me feel safer already. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 5:13:07 PM    comment []

how many kurds died?. After some morning conversation with my inlaws about Iraq, I decided to do some research on Saddam. I find it difficult to believe that I've never seen much visual proof of the 1.4 million Saddam alledgedly killed. Mind you even one person is too many in my book, but google came up with an interesting article from World Net Daily   "Having looked at all of the evidence that was available to us, we find it impossible to confirm the State Department's claim that gas was used in this instance. " The article was originally published in 1998 and again in october 2001 after 9-11 and accurately predicts more:   "I continue to make inquiry into the situation in Iraq, as it is likely to brew up into another crisis one of these days when the U.N. has no choice but to conclude that Iraq is not hiding any weapons of mass destruction - or if they are, they are so well hidden that nobody is going to find them." Pointers to Saddam atrocities are appreciated. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] 5:07:59 PM    comment []