Two Atlanta-area men in federal custody as part of a terrorism probe discussed possible locations for a U.S. attack, including military bases and oil refineries, according court documents unsealed Friday.

The U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta on Thursday unsealed an indictment against Georgia Tech student Syed Ahmed, 21.

Ehsanul Sadequee, 19, was arrested this week in Bangladesh and handed over to the FBI. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on a charge of making false statements during an interview with an FBI agent.

The FBI affidavit also says agents found two CD-ROMs in the lining of Sadequee's suitcase when he was leaving the United States. One disc contained pornography and the other was encrypted with a code the FBI was unable to crack, according to the affidavit.

I think its interesting that they were flat out arrested in the usual way instead of under an enemy combatant designation or some other habeas loophole. One is an American citizen. Not guilty pleas are also very interesting. That would not be possible under an "alternative" detention strategy.

CNN.com - FBI: Georgia men talked of U.S. terror plan

Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday.

Boing Boing: Bush administration wants mandatory website labeling

Few at eBay initially saw reason to fear Google, say people at the company, in part because of a 2003 study it commissioned from McKinsey & Co. McKinsey concluded that Google wouldn’t use its search capabilities to break into e-commerce. That made Google a manageable threat, say people familiar with the study. EBay’s dependence on Google increased as it shifted ad dollars to online ads from traditional media throughout 2004.

I think McKinsey reports should come with a statutory warning. Why? These are the same people who told AT&T back in the day, that mobile phones will be a niche market.

GigaOM : » In McKinsey We Trust.. oh oh

The world’s first sports car phone with alcohol Breathalyzer has gotten tremendous popularity in Korea. The cell phone by LG was a big hit from the beginning mainly because its outward appearance of a sports. Equipped with an alcohol measurement sensor, the LG-SD410, LG-KP4100, and LG-LP4100 have sold over 200,000 in the four months that it has been available, and is still selling around 1500 per day.

Having an alcohol measurement device attached to something like a cell phone is nothing but brilliant, especially among younger crowds who regularly drink after work or school and like to party. To use the sensor an intoxicated individual simply opens the phone and blows on the sensor, the LCD will tell you whether your level of alcohol in your blood is safe to drive.

Bloody Koreans are too smart! I thought of this while drunk dialing last night: a breathalyzer that will not let you talk on the phone if you are drunk: you can only call a taxi, alcoholics anonymous, a suicide hotline, or 911. Everyone thought it was a novel and original idea. But they've alreay done this and its selling like hotcakes.

I think a phone attachment could still work, though, a little thing that goes in the charge plug/data cable jack.

LG Cell Phone with Breathalyzer gaining popularity

The following images of stamps from around the world are a window into the computer's history. They immortalize key players in its evolution and honor the inventions themselves.

Indonesia has a stamp celebrating (?) the y2k bug!

Wired News: Computers on Stamps

A self-taught British "computer nerd" who brought a vital US naval base to its knees could be subjected to torture and detained indefinitely if a "vengeful" US Government extradite him, a court has heard.

This is obviously not going to happen, but at the same time, its interesting to hear this arguement made. Its not impossible for this to occur, due to the stupid system they've setup for dealing enemy combatents. If its not impossible this court has to consider it.

There is, however, some reality to the idea that the U.S. is seeking "administrative revenge" against this person for demonstrating that their security is weak. He apparently found that they had 5000 machines sitting out on the internet with no administrative passwords. He rifled through them but he didn't break them. Unfortunately, the computer fraud laws in the US are designed to enable "administrative revenge" by putting people like this in a position where they may face decades in prison. That really doesn't make any sense.

UK suspect argues against extradition to the US on torture grounds.

* John Rapley argues that the future of international relations will be a lot like the Middle Ages.

Some sunshine on a cloudy day...

Try a Google search for "John Rapley" "middle ages" "foreignaffairs"

In the Next Issue of Foreign Affairs

New York City's police department is placing 500 surveillance cameras throughout the city, at a cost of $9 million, in an effort to prevent crime and terrorism.

Give up your liberty so you'll be able to see pictures of what the suicide bombers looked like on TV.

Boing Boing: NYPD installing lots of surveillance cams -- but don't snap back.

Much of their analysis strikes us as solid -- but the rebellion is problematic nonetheless. It threatens the essential democratic principle of military subordination to civilian control -- the more so because a couple of the officers claim they are speaking for some still on active duty.

If they are successful in forcing Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation, they will set an ugly precedent. Will future defense secretaries have to worry about potential rebellions by their brass, and will they start to choose commanders according to calculations of political loyalty?

At the same time, David Broder says:

Seeing these senior officers take this public stand is unprecedented; even in Vietnam, with all the misgivings among the fighting men, we saw no such open defiance.

Rumsfeld and President Bush insist that the manpower and strategy have been exactly what the commanders in the field thought best, but now general after general is speaking out to challenge that claim. The situation cries out for serious congressional oversight and examination; hearings are needed as soon as Congress returns. These charges have to be answered convincingly -- or Rumsfeld has to go.

The Generals' Revolt

The U.S. Census Bureau, due to issues related to the separation of church and state, does not ask questions related to faith or religion on the decennial census. Accordingly, there are few sources of comprehensive data on church membership and religious affiliation for the United States. Perhaps the leading organization to address this gap is the Glenmary Research Center, which publishes Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000. The following series of county-level choropleth maps, which reveals the distribution of the larger and more regionally concentrated church bodies, draws on this resource. The maps are in GIF format.

Some of this data is quite suprising...

Map Gallery of Religion in the United States