Friday, April 9, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Looking for David Levine in Venice, CA

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:56 PM PDT

Tonight in Venice, California, I ran into an incredibly nice and very distraught man who was looking for his 40-year-old schizophrenic son, who has disappeared somewhere in the vicinity. He was handing out these fliers and had moved into the neighborhood to search. I debated whether to take one and put it on Boing Boing, thinking, "Well, I can't do it for everyone." But then I realized that this didn't mean, "I can't ever do it." If you see David Levine, please ask him to call his parents.

Malcolm McLaren, in Memoriam: Buffalo Gals

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:36 PM PDT

NYT ethicist: OK to pirate ebooks once you've bought the hardcover

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:15 PM PDT

Randy Cohen, author of the New York Times's The Ethicist column, was asked to venture an opinion on whether it's OK to download a pirate ebook after you've bought the hardcover. He says it's ethical, even if it's illegal:
An illegal download is -- to use an ugly word -- illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical. Author and publisher are entitled to be paid for their work, and by purchasing the hardcover, you did so. Your subsequent downloading is akin to buying a CD, then copying it to your iPod.

Buying a book or a piece of music should be regarded as a license to enjoy it on any platform. Sadly, the anachronistic conventions of bookselling and copyright law lag the technology. Thus you've violated the publishing company's legal right to control the distribution of its intellectual property, but you've done no harm or so little as to meet my threshold of acceptability.

E-Book Dodge (Thanks, Rob!)
Previously:


Now that Apple is publishing newspapers, can newspapers cover Apple?

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:11 PM PDT

Dan Gillmor sez, "News organizations are joining the Apple ecosystem. Is this dangerous for journalism? Conflicts of interest? And where's the transparency from organizations that demand it from others?"
By appearing on stage at the Apple event and by launching an iPad app that the Times wants to monetize in every possible way -- an app from which Apple will likely make money as well -- the Times is becoming more of a business partner with a company it covers incessantly. And when Apple promoted the Times so visibly before the in-store selling date of the iPad, given the millions of people who visit Apple's home page each month, it was giving the Times a huge boost.

Apple's website is, by any standard, a media property; all institutional websites -- just as all blogs, for that matter -- are media properties in this world where boundaries are becoming less easy to discern. So I found myself wondering: Did the Times pay for this fabulous product placement? Or did Steve Jobs (I'm assuming he at least approved this) decide to associate Apple with an undeniably great news brand in this extremely out-front manner -- well beyond the routine way that Jobs and other Apple executives have shown the Times on conference screens over the years as they demonstrated new products?

I've asked the newspaper's spokesman this question. So far he has not responded.

Complicating Relationships in Media: Apple, NY Times Dealings Raise Questions (Thanks, Dan!)
Previously:


Minister for Digital Britain thinks an IP address is an "Intellectual Property address"

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:11 PM PDT


From the you'd-have-to-laugh-or-you'd-have-to-shoot-yourself department:

The Right Honourable Stephen Timms is the UK's "Minister for Digital Britain." He's the guy behind the Digital Economy Bill, which makes the US DMCA look good by comparison. Seriously, this is some terrible, terrible lawmaking.

Here's what appears to be a letter the DigiMini sent to another MP, explaining why the Digital Economy Bill needs to go forward. It reads, in part, "Copyright owners are currently able to go on-line (sic), look for material to which they hold the copyright and identify unauthorised sources for that material. They can then seek to download a copy of that material and in so doing capture information about the source including the Intellectual Property (IP) address..."

If this letter is genuine (and it seems to be), it means that the guy who's in charge of Britain's digital future thinks that the "IP" in "IP address" stands for "Intellectual Property."

The Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP doesn't know what an IP address is (Thanks, JP!)

Previously:


Crop Circles, Part Deux: Alien Glyphs, Human Myths, Blogging Bliss

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 09:05 PM PDT

Wikipedia Commons C C4 Crop Circles Swirl-3 My previous post about crop circles could be considered, among other things, as a social science test of the role of belief systems in the manipulation of memes and factual data. One of the meta-questions that interest me has to do with the spontaneous rejection of new or unpopular ideas, even in the supposedly open, free and consciousness-enhancing environment of the web.

It seems that what was "forbidden science" in academia is also forbidden in cyberspace.

The specific hypothesis offered--that crop circles are the result of a U.K. defense electronics
development project--only elicited 19 responses discussing the facts or arguing for or against the
idea itself. Among the other 40 responses while the thread was open, 15 asserted their authors' strongly-held
pre-existing belief (the circles MUST be made by Aliens or by hoaxers), 14 simply expressed
a flat rejection with no arguments, and fully 11 responses can only be described as
cyber-bullying: personal insults, whose authors did not even bother to refer to the subject
of the post. What does that say for the ability of new web-based media to support intelligent
debate on controversial scientific issues, censored or strongly discouraged in the
scientific environment?
 


The kindest response was typically expressed as "this has to be a joke."
 


So let me take things a bit further and explain why the hypothesis is not
a joke but a logical result from observation and from the process of asking the
right questions.
 


If we begin with questions like "Could this be done by Aliens?" or "What is
the message of the Glyphs?" as most people have done we can only get
into endless arguments based on personal bias or belief. But what are the
relevant questions?
 


Early in the history of English crop circles, a French lab listed three critical issues:


(1) does the phenomenon change over time and if so, in what way?


(2) what exactly happens to the plants when they are flattened?


(3) is there something special about the sites?


 
This led to a formal program of field collection (investigators with precise instructions
sent to gather samples) and the results were presented at various conferences,
notably at a meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Denver (photo below) and
the following year at Stanford University (on August 8, 1990) where I introduced a
presentation by Jean-Jacques Velasco, a researcher with CNES. The data he
offered was as conveniently ignored as it was straightforward:
 


(1) the phenomenon began with single circles that English and U.S. weather
scientists first tried to explain as atmospheric vortices. Soon there were
multiple circles in various geometric combinations, and in following years
the designs became increasingly complex, leading to the idea that we were
witnessing a classic, step-by-step program of technology development--not
an atmospheric anomaly but not some sort of paranormal effect either.



(2) Given that SOME of the patterns were obviously man-made hoaxes, it was
possible to compare the effect on the plants in genuine versus bogus patterns.
Under the microscope the results were clear: if you push a board across a wheat
field to flatten it, you will break the stalks between nodes because the nodes
are thicker and stronger. But in the unexplained, complex patterns the nodes
themselves were exploded, often keeping the fibers intact.
Conclusion: something was coupling energy into the plants in the form of
heat (as one of the respondents to my first post actually stated). Therefore the idea
of a beam weapon is indeed one of the scenarios to consider.
 


(3) The crop circles are close to ancient megalithic sites, which excites the curiosity
of New Age tourists from America, but they are even closer to the most highly
classified military electronics labs in Britain. In fact the roads to some of the fields
run between two high fences behind which defense companies are doing research,
and Army helicopters routinely patrol the area.
 


Answering these three basic questions does not tell us what the beam consists of,
or why it is being developed. It does support the notion that the crop circles are
a technological development designed to calibrate a novel type of focused energy
weapon, since the resolution can be elegantly measured on the ground within the
thickness of a single stalk of wheat. While the tests could presumably be
conducted in remote areas, there must be some distance constraint that dictates
that initial experiments have to be close to the emitting labs.


Images Valleeecircllll




Atmospheric physicist Dr. Joachim Kuettner of University Corporation for Atmospheric Research discussing the
Crop circle problem with Dr. Jacques Vallee and Jean-Jacques Velasco of Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales
at a meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in 1989 in Denver.


 


I can take no credit for any of this: several groups were involved in the same
research as the French lab and their findings were similarly published
many years ago, including microscope photographs of the plants with exploded
nodes. Labs in the U.S. (Department of Agriculture, M.I.T. etc.) repeated the
tests with the same results. Yet public opinion and scientific opinion ignored
the new evidence and continued to reject any notion that disturbed their
comfortable, pre-conceived beliefs.

This does leave several issues unanswered: Who are the hoaxers and what is
their exact role in the charade? How does the technology work to actually make
the designs? Could it be directed from space or simply from an aerial platform? And
why would anyone develop such a beam in the first place?
 

I don't claim to have complete answers, but my own hypothesis is that the beams
are produced from a hovering, low observable device. I will discuss these points in my
next post. Regarding the last question -- "why would anyone develop
such a beam?" -- I leave you with yet another intriguing article from New Scientist
(issue of 23 July 2009, article by David Hambling): 

Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky


The Pentagon's enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft.

"The device is an extension of its controversial Active Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee. The ADS was unveiled in 2001, but it has not been deployed owing to legal issues and safety fears.



But of course, one can think of many other interesting applications, in the lethal category.




Previously:

UK ISP TalkTalk will not obey Digital Economy Bill disconnection orders

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:44 PM PDT

Now that the Digital Economy Bill has passed -- without full debate, despite widespread public outrage -- the stage is set for big corporate copyright holders to begin sending ISPs ordering them to disconnect customers who are believed to infringe copyright. ISPs are expected to cave and shut off entire families from their lifeline to the digital society on the say-so of these entertainment industry bullies.

But one ISP, TalkTalk, is refusing to go along with the la. They say that "if we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rightsholders we'll see them in court."

After the election we will resume highlighting the substantial dangers inherent in the proposals and that the hoped for benefits in legitimate sales will not materialise as filesharers will simply switch to other undetectable methods to get content for free.

In the meantime we stand by our pledges to our customers:

* Unless we are served with a court order we will never surrender a customer's details to rightsholders. We are the only major ISP to have taken this stance and we will maintain it.

* If we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rightsholders we'll see them in court.

Bravo TalkTalk. Many ISPs signed open letters to government objecting to the Digital Economy Bill's disconnection and web-censorship proposals. I wonder if they'll join TalkTalk in making this pledge.

Digital Economy Bill - it's a wash up (Thanks, JohnCJ!)

Previously:


Teacher gives McDonalds application to students that flunk math test

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 05:36 PM PDT

Repository 1039911 2986517

No idea if this is real or not, but it is an insult to all McDonald employees who use integral calculus to do their job.

Angry meat supplier steals steaks from people's plates

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:00 PM PDT

In another strange case of misguided anger, a meat supplier in Germany started grabbing steaks off of customers' plates because the restaurant couldn't pay him cash up front. The police came, but found no grounds to arrest him on and left.

Japanese people have special seaweed-digesting bacteria in their guts

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 04:43 PM PDT

A new study published in Nature has found that Japanese people have a special bacteria in their guts that allows us to digest seaweed:
The new study, published in Nature, reveals that these gut bacteria engaged in a gene swap, grabbing algae-digesting genes from marine bacteria that live on red algae like nori, the seaweed used to wrap sushi. The marine bacteria traveled on the seaweed into human digestive systems, where the crucial genes were transferred to bacteria in the gut.
I wonder if this really translates to Japanese people being able to eat more sushi than Americans can, as this article suggests. I certainly remember chomping on packets of seaweed for snacks when I was a kid — do you know any non-Japanese people who did the same and were not able to stomach it?

via Discover (Thanks, Bryan G!)

Pillows inspired by science textbook illustrations

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 03:45 PM PDT

Geology_pillow_RGB_72.jpg

I love these pillows by designer Heather Lin, right down to the "Figure 2" text. They're available in "Botany" and "Anatomy" versions as well. Definitely the first time I've ever found myself tempted by a $176 pillow (sale price! through Earth Day only!).

Beer bottles reblown into drinking glasses in the Boing Boing Bazaar

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 03:42 PM PDT

201004081535-1

New in the Boing Boing Bazaar:

Glassblower Nick Paul of Chicago drinks beer. (Hopefully, he has some friends who help him out with it, from time to time.) Then he takes the empty bottles and blows out their necks to make flat-sided tumblers. Then, in a stroke of packaging/marketing/recycling genius, he puts them back in their original six-packaging and sells them through his online storefront, Windy City Glass.
Beer bottles reblown into drinking glasses (Via Make: Online)

Previously:


Apple to developers: don't even think in Flash, bucko

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 05:37 PM PDT

The latest revision of Apple's developer licensing agreement explicitly prohibits the use of third-party software to develop for the iPhone. [Daring Fireball]

Such software lets developers use programming languages that they already know, including easy-to-learn ones like Unity Script. It also lets developers create apps that will run on multiple platforms. The big target here is clearly Adobe -- though Flash itself won't run on the iPhone, the latest version of Adobe's development suite can also spit out a non-Flash version of your app that will.

As an occasional developer, the prospect of this is enormously frustrating. It feels like we're being told not to 'port' stuff to the iPhone without learning a new language and writing it again from scratch. To make a version that'll also run on Windows, Linux and even Mac, for example, means redoing it with both Apple's and Adobe's (or Unity's, etc) programming tools— ok for big companies and other large teams, but not for bedroom coder types. (I'll admit I haven't used the new Flash suite, so it might be the case that you have to substantially redo it for each platform anyway. But even then, you can still make all of them in the same language)

I've also spent the last week working on a feature on how the iPad's innovative design helps, rather than hinders, certain creative endeavors. But it's easy to see why people whose creative endeavor is development will remain unimpressed: Apple has very specific plans for them.

Joel Johnson suggests that kiboshing the translation of existing code to the iPhone ("Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited.") may interest the FTC. [Gizmodo]

Update: As irritating as it is to me, personally, here's one good reason Apple might want to prevent widespread use of 'meta' cross-platform development tools -- it encourages crummy development practices that ignore the unique capabilities of each platform. As an Amstrad CPC owner many moons ago, among the major disappointments of my early life were crappy ports that failed to take advantage of that machine's superiority to rival platforms. But still, isn't that a smackdown to be delivered by the AppStore approvers on the front lines, rather than by adhesive contracts?

The first rule about Poodle Blanket is that you don't ask about Poodle Blanket

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:02 PM PDT

Awesome: Our secret plans for how to handle a confrontation with the Soviet Union over West Berlin were called "Poodle Blanket". Less-than-awesome: Despite the fact that Berlin is now united and the Soviet Union no longer exists, the Department of Defense continues to insist on keeping the details of Poodle Blanket under wraps. The National Security Archive at George Washington University—which made the first FOIA request for Poodle Blanket (just can't say that enough) documents back in 1992—has an interesting post asking why Poodle Blanket (Poodle Blanket, Poodle Blanket, Poodle Blanket!) is still classified material. (Via Ulrich Boser)

Beautiful volcano photography

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 03:12 PM PDT

volcanoaurora.jpg

What's better than a volcano? A volcano with the Northern Lights behind it.

Photographer Albert Jakobsson took this awesome shot of Iceland's Eyjafjajokull (gesundheit) volcano. In the full series of photos, you can see Icelanders entertaining themselves by hanging out and roasting hot dogs on the glowing embers of the active, but "lazy", volcano.

(Via, Nerd Heroine)

Survey results: Americans insist on government benefits but don't want to pay for them

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 02:31 PM PDT

201004081407

The Economist asked Americans: "What is the best way to cut the deficit?"

5% said, "increase taxes."

62% said, "reduce government spending."

OK, said The Economist. "Here is a list of things the federal government spends money on. Which things should the government spend less on?"

As you can see in the chart above, over two-thirds of Americans don't want to reduce spending on anything single category, except foreign aid. And as Mother Jones points out, foreign aid represents less than 1% of America's total spending.

Beyond that, there were only four areas that even a quarter of the population was willing to cut: mass transit, agriculture, housing, and the environment. At a rough guess, these areas account for about 3% of the federal budget. You could slash their budgets by a third and still barely make a dent in federal spending.

Party on!

Apple: the iPhone walled garden is to keep porn out

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 01:42 PM PDT

The new version of the iPhone operating system was announced today, bringing multitasking to the latest model of the handset and, later this year, to the iPad. One particular moment from the question-and-answer session stood out, quoted here from Gizmodo:
Q: Are there any plans for you to run unsigned applications, like on Android?
A: There is a porn store for Android to go to. You can download them, your kids can download them. That's a place we don't want to go. We're not going to go there.
It reads like an easy answer, to avoid explaining competitive objectives that some may find disconcerting. Bear in mind, however, that Apple recently removed most adult apps from the AppStore, except for mild stuff from established, predictable publishers like Playboy. Idiosyncratic! Maybe. But even if we accept that companies just want to control their products, what are we to think if these products (including 'open source' copycats where devs are kept in larger cages) are successful enough to become a common medium for art, news, commerce and speech itself? A DMCA-shaped unfree-speech zone is fast becoming the hottest and most profitable place to make cultural and creative investments. Moreover, if Apple takes its position here seriously, why wouldn't it ultimately wish to clean up other things that your kids might download from--such as the web itself?

Your road trip just got a whole lot more delicious

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:04 PM PDT

sollys1.jpgThe name may not come tripping off the tongue, but the Southern Foodways Alliance's Oral History Interactive Map is a great tool for planning your spring road trip, especially if your spring road trip revolves around food. And whose doesn't, when you come right down to it? And even if yours doesn't, how much McDonald's can you eat? That much? Really? Wow. But wouldn't you rather generate a complete route map with turn-by-turn directions to places like Car-Lot BBQ in Winfield, AL, where owner Kyle Guin makes his barbecue "the same way Daddy did it," or Solly's Hot Tamales in Vicksburg, MS, where Jewel McCain (above) describes her chili filling this way:
It's ground beef with six different spices in it, and it has the rendered grease from beef fat or kidney fat that we use in there, so they're not really health-conscious food. But they're good to eat and people don't care, they eat them anyhow.
Sure you would. The quotes, by the way, are taken from the extensive oral histories that annotate each stop on the SFA's map. Extensive oral histories. Now stop at Burger King. I dare you. (Via Serious Eats.)

Steampunk hotrod: Ratrod!

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 11:56 AM PDT


Steampunk Workshop features the stellar Steam Trunk Industries Ratrod: a Big-Daddy-Roth-looking hotrod with steampunk accents and enormous character.

Steam Trunk Industries Ratrod! (Thanks, Jake!)

Previously:


Soul Train dancing to Curtis Mayfield

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:05 PM PDT



TuneUp's Gabe Adiv has been deep into the vintage Soul Train offered on-demand by his cable provider. Inspired to share the boogie, he found this great moment on YouTube. Here are the Soul Train dancers in 1971 getting down to Curtis Mayfield's "Get Down."

Malcolm McLaren, RIP

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 12:18 PM PDT

Images Uploads Malcom Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls, countercultural impresario, and record producer, has died.
"Malcolm McLaren dies aged 64" (via Dangerous Minds)

Aleister Crowley in Life

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 12:20 PM PDT

Thelemamamamama
In his heyday last century, he was called the wickedest man in the world. He called himself The Beast 666. His hedonism, debauchery, mountaineering, drug use, and knowledge of the occult was likely unmatched by any man of his era. He influenced countless artists, writers, and musicians, from Jimmy Page, Kenneth Anger, and Robert Anton Wilson to David Bowie, Alan Moore, and John Whiteside Parsons, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where Xeni happens to be visiting this afternoon. Today is a special Crowley anniversary too! On this day 106 years ago, Crowley was in Egypt taking dictation from either his subconscious, or a messenger of the god Horus named Aiwass. The resulting text was Crowley's most famous work, The Book of The Law, containing his oft-repeated rule-of-thumb: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Love him or hate him, Crowley not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk. To celebrate the Aiwass anniversary, Life has published a gallery of images related to Crowley's remarkable life. Above, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and filmmaker Kenneth Anger at Anger's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily. The opening of the Book of the Law:
Crowleyeyeyeeyey "Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
The unveiling of the company of heaven.
Every man and woman is a star.
Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!"
Aleister Crowley: Wicked (Thanks, Ben Cosgrove!)

Haiku sent to Glenn Beck

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 11:01 AM PDT

beck-ku.jpgSome of these haiku sent to Fox News personality Glenn Beck are funny and touching. Related: last year, Glenn Beck earned $32 million, and you didn't. (via Glenn Fleishman and Farai Chideya)

Arkansas teen files charges against mother for harassing him on Facebook

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:51 AM PDT

A 16 year old boy in Arkansas, angered by "slanderous posts" his mother made on his Facebook page, has filed harassment charges. It's fair to say that they both sound batshit insane.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to start tweeting

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:47 AM PDT

"So that everything works well, we need someone to handle it. We are currently working on this project."—A Kremlin spokesperson, announcing that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev (or a ghost-tweeter) will soon begin speaking the 140. In Soviet Russia, Twitter tweets you!

East Timor's first bloodthirsty female dictator a step forward for women

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:29 AM PDT

"For years we were terrified and oppressed by men. Finally, now we can be terrified and oppressed by one of our own." (The Onion, thanks Susannah Breslin)

Plunder Funnel!

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:25 AM PDT

"How would you like to be wallowing up to your eye sockets in filthy lucre?!?! PLUNDER FUNNEL is a sure-fire money-making factory that will teach how to cannibalize any human relationships and turning it into cold hard cash." Video, and more on Consumerist (thanks, Ben Popken).

Pixels, by Patrick Jean

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 08:47 AM PDT

Correcting the ignorant UK Members of Parliament who "debated" the Digital Economy Bill

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 05:33 AM PDT

Stef sez, "As we all know, the UK Digital Economy Bill passed last night. Watching the debates, one of the things that shocked me was the repeated displays of ignorance of the technical and copyright issues by MPs on all sides. The Second, and Third readings are now online at TheyWorkForYou.com. I thought it might be good to use the annotations features to correct some of the more glaring and bizarre howlers. The annotated debates will stand as a record of this sad democratic failure. Remember to keep it polite and technical - MPs are professionally inured to plain abuse - We, the internet, clearly have a job of education to do."

Here's Mark Todd, Labour MP for South Derbyshire, explaining why you should have your Internet connection cut off without even a written notice:

Is my hon. Friend sure that a postal delivery will suffice? Many people may have chosen to form a contract with an ISP at some stage before moving, and may not have seen any particular reason to notify the ISP of a change of address.
Yes, the last time I moved, I simply had the movers run a private fiber loop from my old premises to the new place. It took most of the day and they had to dig up nearly all of central London, but it was lots easier, ultimately, than notifying my ISP of my change of address.

Previously:


Congressman: Air Marshals cost $200 million per arrest

Posted: 08 Apr 2010 05:29 AM PDT

Paleoconservative Republican Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. has called for the abolition of the Air Marshal Service, arguing that more air marshals have been arrested since 9/11 (for crimes like smuggling explosives, domestic violence, drunk driving and human trafficking) than the number of people arrested by the marshals. The $860 million spent on the service amounts to about 4.2 arrests per year, at a cost of $200 million per arrest.
Professor Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania wrote last year about the money feeding frenzy of the war on terror. And he wrote this: "Nearly 7 years after September 11, 2001,'' he wrote this last year, "what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response? Why, absent any evidence of a serious terror threat, is a war to on terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding? The fundamental answer is that al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system."

"For a multitude of politicians, interest groups and professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, grant, and contract proposals.''

Duncan Blasts "Useless" Air Marshal Service (via Schneier)
Previously:


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