] Introducing the fashionable e-Holster® e-Zio Case
] System, a very comfortable, lightweight shoulder harness
] "carry all" case system made with durable backpack-like
] nylon materials includes an internal, wire-hiding,
] conduit system (for cellular phone headsets or stereo
] headphones) provides a new way for anyone to comfortably
] wear and protect their cellular phone, PDA, handheld PC,
] digital camera, MP3 player or other personal electronic
] device.

The dorkiest PDA harness ever....

This is worth noting. CAPS II was halted two months ago so that it could get a privacy overhall. Now its back, and there has been no privacy related improvements that I can see. Whats critical is that its mission has already expanded beyond terrorism. You will now get a general warrant check for violent crimes every time you fly.

] Only a few months ago TSA officials were issuing public
] assurances that CAPPS II would remain confined to
] searching for foreign terrorists.  Now it has been
] expanded to include domestic terrorists and violent
] criminals -- all before the program is even
] officially launched.  And the definition of
] "domestic terrorist" is being steadily expanded
] far beyond the everyday meaning, potentially encompassing
] political protesters and, if recent proposals are
] accepted, even suspects in the "war on
] drugs." And how long before the system is expanded
] to search for con-artists, drug dealers, deadbeat dads,
] and so on down the scale of wrongdoing until it becomes a
] comprehensive net for enforcing even the most obscure
] rules and regulations? 

American Civil Liberties Union : The Five Problems With CAPPS II: Why the Airline Passenger Profiling Proposal Should Be Abandoned

inignoct wrote:
] ] It's "not possible" to fix him on the
] ] liberal-conservative scale, he said. "Where I am on the
] ] political spectrum is a convenient way to avoid talking
] ] about issues."
]
] A brief article in the Washinton Post about Howard Dean...
] the quote above is my especial favorite.

Well, I've got to say this is the first interview with Dean thats made me think maybe he's not such a good idea after all.

Should countries that trade with the US have the similar human rights and environmental ideals? In general, yes. You don't do business with people who do things that you think are immoral.

Can we decide tommorow to stop doing business with everyone who doesn't conform to our exact standards. Absolutely not. This issue is way more complex then that.

1. This isn't a case of linear maturity of human rights and environmental standards. In some cases, the US is seen as the laggard. For example, the US is one of the few countries in the world where minors can be executed. Why do we assume that our standards are the bar to which everyone else ought to be held?

2. These countries are not the same as the United States, and the rules that apply here do not always make sense there. Can China have the same minimum wage law as the US? No. There are too many people there for that. Such an action would cause massive unemployment. Can India conform to the same clean air standards? No. They are in a different stage of industrialization and they cannot afford the kind of clean industry that we engage in here. If you force third world countries to obey first world emmisions standards, then those countries absolutely will not industrialize. This is well understood. Countries that industrialize have a massive increase in emmissions before those emmisions start to drop back down (as they are in the United States).

3. The economic chaos caused by such a radical action would plunge world markets into depression and damage the standard of living for everyone on the planet.

Yes, we should have standards that we expect people to meet, and we should have timeframes in which we expect them to be met, and we ought to use our weight in the marketplace to keep that progress on schedule. Furthermore, we SHOULD (and frankly, do) stop trading with countries that we beleive are acting immorally.

However, to simply stop trading with everyone who has not reached our level of sophistication and expect them to adapt overnight is to give in to the oversimplified rhetoric of the most radical socialist elements in our society.

I won't vote for that.

RE: Defining Dean (washingtonpost.com)

] "We are heartened that the court acknowledged that trade
] secret injunctions must be subject to a high level of
] First Amendment scrutiny," said David Greene, Executive
] Director of the First Amendment Project who argued the
] case on behalf of Bunner. "We are confident that, having
] looked at the facts, the Court of Appeal will remove the
] restriction on Bunner's right to republish publicly
] available information.

The EFF has a very different spin on the DVD case then the media's take.

EFF: California Supreme Court Upholds Free Speech in DVD Case

] Lam Vi Quoc negotiates his scooter through Ho Chi Minh
] City's relentless stream of pedal traffic and hangs a
] right down a crowded alley. He climbs the steep wooden
] stairs of the tiny house he shares with nine family
] members, passing by his mother, who is stooped on the
] floor of the second level preparing lunch. He ascends
] another set of even steeper steps to the third level and
] settles on a stool at a small desk, pushing aside the
] rolled-up mat he sleeps on with one of his brothers. To
] the smell of a chicken roasting on a grill in the alley
] and the clang of the next-door neighbor's metalworking
] operation, Lam turns on his Pentium 4 PC, and soon the
] screen displays Lecture 2 of Laboratory in Software
] Engineering, a course taught each semester on the campus
] of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Here," he
] says, pointing at the screen. "This is where I got the
] idea to use decoupling as a way of integrating two
] programs."

Wired 11.09: MIT Everyware

This case documents a real world use of stegonography and digital cash which allowed a blackmailer to anonymously collect payment for his victim.

[IP] blackmail / real world stego use

] This weekend, a denial-of-service attack took down the
] Web site of The SCO Group, which is caught in an
] increasingly acrimonious row with the open-source
] community over the company's legal campaign against
] Linux.

Most under reported story of the day...

Hackers cut off SCO Web site | CNET News.com

] Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced
] plans to give the public full access to all the
] corporation's programme archives.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Dyke to open up BBC archive

Dude, Moxie got Slashdotted!!

Slashdot | The Distributed Library Project

] Mars holds court in the sky this week as the Red Planet
] makes its closest approach to Earth since our ancestors
] lived in caves.
]
] "It is amazingly bright," said David Hudgins, a lecturer
] in astronomy at Rockhurst University. "You cannot
] possibly miss it."

Neoteric, I think I was right the first time...

Oh, BTW, the ancient Babylonians thought that a passing of mars like this would lead to plauges and wars.

Kansas City Star | 08/24/2003 | Red star at night is their delight