Someone wrote:
] Huh?

I promise I can build a comprehensive argument that a policy of sending trouble makers to people who engage in torture is a violation of several treaties on human rights, and if it involves American citizens is directly unconstitutional. Furthermore, there are few things which can be more offensive to our ideal of civil liberties then a policy such as this.

The thing that makes this case so stark is that we aren't even talking about a trouble maker. We're (as far as I've been able to tell) talking about a guy who once got someone that we suspect of being linked to troublemakers to cosign on a lease. Thats all that it seems like they had on him.

Should we investigate that? Yes. Should we have done it this way? No. This is not an investigation, this is sending someone to die a prolonged and horrible death at the hands of people who will not and cannot provide us with useful information (how do you trust the government of Syria to report clearly to you on their interrogation?) simply because it creates an atmosphere of fear.

In the United States we do not employ torture because it is cruel and unusual. Because it violates the very essence of our Constitution. In the United States we have due process because when we do punish people they ought to actually be guilty. This case is an absolutely perfect example of why you have due process. Because if you don't have due process you harm innocent people. When your system of justice meters out punishments arbitrarily upon the innocent it is no different in its effects then the criminals it intends to control!

Now it is not at all clear that such an executive order exists, and if it exists it is not at all clear that it applies to U.S. citizens. People, recently in particular, are fond of making the case that the constitution does not apply to citizens of other countries. There are obviously limits to that argument. How can you build a nation based on the ideas about rights, about equality, about the pursuit of happiness, while simultaneously engaging in, for example, the ethnic cleansing of a people? The fact is that you cannot. The fact is that it is possible to engage it activity which is so far beyond the pale, so completely malicious to the values that our system of government is supposed to uphold, that it is impossible for any thinking person, and indeed any court of law, to stomach the argument that one can engage in such an activity legally as long as the victims don't have green cards.

A formal administration policy which orders our border police to hand people, on the slightest suspicion, over to a government with which we do not maintain any kind of regular relations, such that they may be tortured to death, for no other reason then to spread fear, in particular when so many other options exist, is just such a policy.

I pray that when, and if, the truth comes to light here, that it does not remotely resemble the situation which I have just described.

RE: Bush Administration policy directly connected to torture case?

"The nanoshells are designed to absorb near infrared light and convert that light to heat," explains Jennifer West, who led the study at Rice University, Houston, Texas. This is possible because the body's normal tissues are "essentially transparent" to NIR.

sounds pretty cool...

Gold 'nano-bullets' shoot down tumours

] Host Identity Protocol [3] (HIP) defines a mechanism that
] decouples the transport layer from the internetworking
] layer, and introduces a new Host Identity namespace. When
] a host uses HIP, the transport layer sockets and IPsec
] Security Associations are not bound to IP addresses but
] to Host Identifiers. This document specifies how the
] mapping from Host Identifiers to IP addresses can be
] extended from a static one-to-one mapping into a dynamic
] one-to-many mapping. This enables end-host mobility and
] multi-homing.

Abaddon and I spent some time last summer working on a protocl called Adaptive Addressing Protocol (AAP). It was an attempt to make Mobile IP less silly by allowing hosts to change their IP addresses without dropping connections. It did so by associating connections with a unique identifier, secured by a Diffie Hellman key exchange. Last night, Jeremy points me at this. This is APP, basically. Its amazing how close our designs are. Its also *really* frustrating. We were going to have a working demo this weekend for Phreaknic.

I'm going to read through this stuff and see if there are any design decisions that we made that might be of value to this working group. Having said that, its worth memeing this documentation. This is the right answer for mobile IP and it will probably be the answer we end up with for multihoming of small networks because deploying something like this is less expensive then renumbering the internet geographically.

Host Identity Protocol

...and we'll kill animals to prove it

damn, people love them some fonts I guess...I've never felt so strongly about a font before as to kill animals to prove it...

We Love Comic Sans (the font)

Unlike traditional typefaces, which reuse the same forms for multiple letters -- such as b and d, or p and q -- the Read Regular typeface makes each letter significantly unique so that dyslexics can more easily distinguish one character from another. Additionally, Read Regular features simplified forms and extended openings in letters like c and e.

did you see the link to the comic sans page...omg...

New Typeface to Help Dyslexics

Called "Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness," the council's report concerns present and future interventions intended not to restore health but rather to alter genetic inheritance, to enhance mind or body, or to extend life span beyond its natural limits.

I am very afraid that this chicken little act will scare the west away from leading this technolegy. Our dominance in the modern world is very closely tied to the fact that we have been a leader in development of emerging technologies (computing, nuclear weapons/power, communications). If we deside now to stunt our technological growth in the areas of bio-tech I fear the coming decades will see the west's power go the way of babylon (once the scientific capitol of the world).

The power (economic and military) held by the west today is a result of past generations mastry of emerging technologies. If we choose to for-go this revolution others will take our place. When others control this (china, korea, france, japan) what role will the united states play in the world.

Not all the world is America, this technology will come into being, are we going to master it, or will others use it to master us?

One more note on regulation, if our regulation is too tight in the beginning science will be moved to other nations. When this technology is control by other nations how then will we regulate its growth. I am in favor of regulation, but in this early time, if we regulate too strictly we will find that when this technology comes to fruition our regulatory bodies will be impotent.

Bush's Advisers on Biotechnology Express Concern on Its Use

] "He pointed out a relatively remote baseball diamond that
] was enclosed in a chain-link fence," Neel recalled in an
] interview with Salon. "I could see these people behind
] the fence, with their faces up against it, and their
] hands on the wire." (The ACLU posted photos of the
] demonstrators and supporters at that event on its Web
] site.) "It looked more like a concentration camp than a
] free speech area to me, so I said, 'I'm not going in
] there. I thought the whole country was a free speech
] area.'" The detective asked Neel, 66, to go to the area
] six or eight times, and when he politely refused, he
] handcuffed and arrested the retired steelworker on a
] charge of disorderly conduct. When Neel's sister argued
] against his arrest, she was cuffed and hauled off as
] well. The two spent the president's visit in a firehouse
] that was serving as Secret Service and police
] headquarters for the event.
]
] It appears that the Neels' experience is not unique. Late
] last month, on Sept. 23, the American Civil Liberties
] Union filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Philadelphia
] against the Secret Service, alleging that the agency, a
] unit of the new Homeland Security Department charged with
] protecting the president, vice president and other key
] government officials, instituted a policy in the months
] even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of instructing
] local police to cordon off protesters from the president
] and Vice President Dick Cheney. Plaintiffs include the
] National Organization for Women, ACORN, USA Action and
] United for Justice, and groups and individuals who have
] been penned up during presidential visits, or arrested
] for refusing to go into a "free speech area," in places
] ranging from California to New Mexico, Missouri,
] Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina and elsewhere in
] Pennsylvania.

'I thought the whole country was a free speech zone.'

Cute flash.

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

]Buying stolen properties, pimpin hoes, building crack houses and
]projects, paying protection fees and getting car jacked are some of
]the elements of the game. Not dope enough?...If you don't have the
]money that you own to the loan shark you might just land yourself
]in da Emergency Room.

aah yeah...

ghettopoly

well the parts they didnt censor are pretty damn scary...so Im really worried about the parts they removed...

why again does this need to be censored, if they're going to spend tax payers money on something that is broken, why are we spending tax payers money to cover it up...

--Abaddon

Highly redacted SAIC report on Diebold security