The day after the London “terror alert,” Aaron was scheduled to fly home to Los Angeles from Heathrow. This is his story.
Category Archives: Aside
Sunil Kumar Verma, 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his modest home on the evening of 26 July. He was wearing his favourite T-shirt. It said in bold relief “No more Bhopals”.
Banning box cutters since 9/11, or taking off our shoes since Richard Reid, has not made us any safer. And a long-term prohibition against liquid carry-ons won’t make us safer, either. It’s not just that there are ways around the rules, it’s that focusing on tactics is a losing proposition, says security expert Bruce Schneier.
Only Turkey ranks lower than the United States when it comes to public acceptance of evolution, according to a 20 year study of 34 countries. “[I]t makes about as much sense for politicians to oppose evolution in their campaigns as it is for them to advocate that the Earth is flat and promise to pass legislation saying so if elected to office.”
“The software that runs the US space shuttle never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved.”
A twofer: Today’s The Show with Ze Frank also offers a spot-on and very grounded take on this most recent terrorism threat and what we, as Americans, should do about it. Watch.
William Saletan’s response to the foiled British terrorist plot, “The liquid world,” is the best expression I’ve found so far of just the things I’ve been thinking (and, occasionally, saying) pretty much since 9/11. The world is different, and there are a few ways to respond. Sometimes, you have to make the tough choice and embrace the chaos, because that is the only solution. This essay is important, please read it.
Guess what? The TSA bans on liquids and gels is probably completely ineffective at stopping terrorists from getting bomb-making materials aboard plains. Admittedly, the new rules do make it harder by forcing the terrorist to bring along a child, but the practice of dumping all of the potentially explosive liquids into big trash bins in the middle of crowded airport checkpoints isn’t exactly the brightest idea either…
AOL apologizes for their idiotic decision to release the “anonymized” search queries of half a million useres. And there aren’t laws against these sorts of things…why?
The Seattle P-I review of the _Eureka_ pilot is about right, but I, at least, like to give shows a few episodes to find their footing before heaping on the criticism.
Coudal Partners offers a viral video response to Agency.com’s viral Subway video pitch. Its, like, so many levels of meta…
Agency.com did, err…something viral, and stuff. I really can’t explain it, or what the point of it is, except its something about trying to get the Subway advertising account by releasing a video about trying to get the Subway advertising account on YouTube. WTF?
Three levels deep: Bill McGeveran makes some good points about Dahlia Lithwick’s piece about Robert Steinbuch’s lawsuit against Jessica Cutler, the infamous “Washingtonette” blogger who revealed details of her sex life with Capitol Hill staffers on her blog, which then got picked up by Wonkette and became a Beltway scandal.
Sysadmin jobs are starting to go to India. Don’t worry, in 3 years they’ll be bringing them back in-house again.
Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self — I know its in The Onion, but I’m not sure if its a joke…
Cato points to an AP story which reveals that the prevalence of outlets for fake IDs in Iraq is saving lives by allowing people to mask their tribal affiliation from those who engage in sectarian violence. But I thought that centralized, tamper-proof, top-down, biometrics-enabled national ID cards were the only answer to all of our security problems!
Wikipedia’s article on the serial comma is interesting, succinct, and well researched. And you can see where I stand on the debate.
The 1898 luxury tax on long-distance telephone service imposed to help fund the Spanish-American War has finally been repealed, just a few days shy of 108 years since the Treaty of Paris.
U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration. Freedom is slavery. Yay!