] By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush
] effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA
] Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most
] Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice,
] few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power
] to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't
] suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.

] The Senate passed it with a voice vote to avoid
] individual accountability. While broadening the
] definition of "financial institution," the Bush
] administration is ramping up provisions within the 2001
] USA Patriot Act, which granted the FBI the authority to
] obtain client records from banks by merely requesting the
] records in a "National Security Letter." To get the
] records, the FBI doesn't have to appear before a judge,
] nor demonstrate "probable cause" - reason to believe that
] the targeted client is involved in criminal or terrorist
] activity. Moreover, the National Security Letters are
] attached with a gag order, preventing any financial
] institution from informing its clients that their records
] have been surrendered to the FBI. If a financial
] institution breaches the gag order, it faces criminal
] penalties. And finally, the FBI will no longer be
] required to report to Congress how often they have used
] the National Security Letters.

How the hell was this able to happen without public discourse and debate!?!?!?!

This is the first I have heard of this. We can't let our government tinker with laws that effect our civil liberties without pubic discourse. This is really, really, really, serious. Something needs to be done! This is a _BIG_ problem! The laws that protect our rights are being changed, and great lengths are being gone through to keep it secret!

If this can happen without a hitch, then anything can happen without a hitch. I think we can officially declare now, that we have lost control of our country to this current Administration, and they are in the process of destroying what has made America powerful and great, our openness. If this type of "governing" is allowed to continue, we might as well give this country a new name and flag, because its changed.

I don't believe I'm hearing about this FIFTEEN DAYS after its been signed into law.

Patriot II was signed into law under our noses...

One of the most important principles of physics, that disorder, or entropy, always increases, has been shown to be untrue.

"Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have carried out an experiment involving lasers and microscopic beads that disobeys the so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics, something many scientists had considered impossible."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Beads of doubt

Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday...

Warp2Search.Net Your Daily Tech News Service - Canada declares P2P downloading legal

Google Adds New "Search by Number" Feature...

ResearchBuzz

Officials who attended a world Internet and technology summit in Switzerland last week were unknowingly bugged, said researchers who attended the forum.
Badges assigned to attendees of the World Summit on the Information Society were affixed with radio-frequency identification chips (RFIDs), said Alberto Escudero-Pascual, Stephane Koch and George Danezis in a report issued after the conference ended Friday in Geneva

Bug devices track officials at summit - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics

Many of these rules, reflections and quotations came from my role as Chairman of the "transition team" for President Gerald R. Ford and my service as White House Chief of Staff. Others came from experiences as a U.S. Naval Aviator, a Member of Congress, Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Secretary of Defense, Presidential Middle East Envoy, business executive, Chairman of the US Ballistic Missile Threat Commission, and other experiences. These reflections and quotations have been gathered over the past 40 years.

There are many good rules here, but here is my personal selection:

1. Learn to say "I don’t know." If used when appropriate, it will be often.

2. It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.

3. Don’t divide the world into "them" and "us."

4. Keep your sense of humor.

5. If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

6. Don’t be a bottleneck.

7. Look for what's missing.

8. For every human problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.

9. Simply because a problem is shown to exist doesn’t necessarily follow that there is a solution.

10. If you develop rules, never have more than ten.

Rumsfeld's Rules

] "We can easily distort memories for the details of an
] event that you did experience," says Loftus. "And we
] can also go so far as to plant entirely false memories
] - we call them rich false memories because they are so
] detailed and so big."

I read the book that was coauthored by Elizabeth Loftus "The Myth of Repressed Memory" in my Science vrs Pseudoscience philosophy class that I took in college. I must say, it was a pretty interesting, as well as disturbing book to read. While reading it, you begin to wonder if your memories are really correct or not - and I recommend the book if you are interested in the subject, although the focus is on people "remembering" sexual abuse.

Guardian Unlimited | Life | 'We can implant entirely false memories'

Oh...so close.

InfoWorld: Delayed patch ends Microsoft's patch-free month early: December 10, 2003: By : Security

This could really have sone serious consequences against the IE team at M$ and what really bothers me is that this is isn't even difficult to reproduce. You all might want to "view source" next time you are typing your credit card in an online order form.

::A vulnerability has been identified in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to display a fake URL in the address and status bars...

Secunia - Advisories - Internet Explorer URL Spoofing Vulnerability

] Can it really be President Bush's position
] that Taiwan is not permitted to hold any
] democratic referenda on any subjects whatsoever?
]
] The president's statement today is a mistake.
] Appeasement of a dictatorship simply invites
] further attempts at intimidation. Standing with
] democratic Taiwan would secure stability in East
] Asia. Seeming to reward Beijing's bullying
] will not.

I have to say I strongly support the NeoCons on this one. Bush's comments may be to our short term diplomatic advantage, but they are so at the price of being totally illogical. Should the people of Taiwan not be able to express their views on China through a democratic process? The mind boggles and the blood boils!

NeoCons oppose Bush on Taiwan