"Barrett was passing through Union Station from Whitby, clad in his 85-pound scale armour, when he was "thrown into a bench" and held at gunpoint while the police dumped out his backpack and rifled through its contents... Barrett is "champion of Twilight Peak" and weapons safety officer for a 15th century role-playing game called AMTGARD."

Another black eye for the Toronto police department... More...

LARPing The Toronto Train System

When presented with unwelcome scientific evidence, it seems, in a desperate attempt to retain some consistency in their world view, people would rather conclude that science in general is broken. This is an interesting finding. But I'm not sure it makes me very happy.

When the scientific evidence is unwelcome, people try to reason it away | Comment is free | The Guardian

This comic fucking nails it. I'm referencing this in every online debate for the foreseeable.

24 Types of Libertarians | The Big Picture

A boat captain working to rescue sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico says he has seen BP ships burning sea turtles and other wildlife alive.

This is going to become a textbook item in corporate PR classes.

Is BP burning sea turtles alive?

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution's Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit "the right to keep and bear arms," advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

Writing for the court in a case involving restrictive laws in Chicago and one of its suburbs, Justice Samuel Alito said that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."

The only justice who got this right was Thomas.

Justices extend gun owner rights nationwide.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Third Depression - NYTimes.com

Steven Bellovin

People often suggest that adding strong identification to the Internet will solve many security problems. Strong, useful identification isn't possible and wouldn't solve the security issue; trying to have it will create privacy problems.

Agree.

The problem with security in cyberspace is that exploits target bugs in software to make them do things the designers didn't intend. Authoritarians have this fantasy that if they can just design a system that requires everybody to be tracked and tagged they'll be able to arrest those dirt bags who commit crimes on the Internet. One problem with this idea is the assumption that the identity system will be any less prone to software bugs then any other part of the infrastructure. It won't be, so it won't work. Another problem is the idea that you can actually manage an identity system for everybody in the entire world. You can't.

This, much like the ill considered efforts at "whois accuracy," will only serve to make it easier to target, arrest, or sue people who aren't intentionally out to commit crimes but for some reason run afowl of well heeled interests.

The secret is that some of the supporters of these systems know this, and thats exactly what they want. Other supporters don't care - they stand to benefit financially from these requirements regardless of how effective they are.

Bellovin RE: The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

Howard Schmidt:

Today, I am pleased to announce the latest step in moving our Nation forward in securing our cyberspace with the release of the draft National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This first draft of NSTIC was developed in collaboration with key government agencies, business leaders and privacy advocates. What has emerged is a blueprint to reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities and improve online privacy protections through the use of trusted digital identities.

No longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services.

We seek to enable a future where individuals can voluntarily choose to obtain a secure, interoperable, and privacy-enhancing credential (e.g., a smart identity card, a digital certificate on their cell phone, etc) from a variety of service providers -- both public and private -- to authenticate themselves online ...

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

The same people who brought you these horrible changes — rising wealth discrepancy, massive unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure – have now further institutionalized the policies that will keep the causes of these problems firmly in place.

Its quite another thing entirely to have this sort of stuff said to you by a professional wall street economist.

Wall Street Reform: Politicians Lie, Media Applauds, America Suffers | The Big Picture

Fed watchers say Mr Bernanke and his close allies at the Board in Washington are worried by signs that the US recovery is running out of steam.

"We're heading towards a double-dip recession," said Chris Whalen, a former Fed official and now head of Institutional Risk Analystics.

"We are now walking on deflationary quicksand," said Albert Edwards from Societe Generale.

Ben Bernanke needs fresh monetary blitz as US recovery falters - Telegraph