] "Ruling for the first time in its history, the
] ultra-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of
] Review today gave the green light to a Justice Department
] bid to broadly expand its powers to spy on U.S. citizens."

American Civil Liberties Union : In First-Ever Ruling, Secret Appeals Court Allows Expanded Government Spying on U.S. Citizens

] "Britain is considering a controversial scheme to implant
] surgically electronic tags in convicted paedophiles amid
] fears that the extent of the abuse of children has been
] massively underestimated."

This story is so sensationalistic I don't even know where to begin. I'm sure its bound to make the rounds on the net because its right up the net's alley and it is SO over the top. There is a kernel of truth in here somewhere, but it takes a good bit of critical thinking to remove the fluff.

First: You can rest assured that no one has developed implantable devices that can be tracked by satellite.

The reality here is that a victims group has proposed that every "sex offender" in England be "chipped" and monitored. The vast majority of the people who are classified as "sex offenders" are apparently people who've downloaded pictures of minors having sex off the internet. The organization which is responsible for dealing with sex offenders has responded that they are open to considering the idea.

This doesn't really mean anything. Being open to considering ideas doesn't mean you are going to implement them, and to be sure, there are reasons why victims groups do not write legislation.

However, this IS the first instance that I am aware of that a group has actually advocated the involuntary "chipping" of people. Its interesting in that light. This won't be the last of this.

Guardian Unlimited Observer | Politics | Surgical tags plan for sex offenders

] At the annual Comdex trade show to be held in Las Vegas
] next week, Microsoft and computer display makers will
] show off so-called "smart displays."

Microsoft is going in the right direction here. I think that these will be popular WHEN the price goes down. Right now there is no sense in sending $1,200 on a portable dumb terminal when I can get a laptop for the same amount of money. When these things cost $500, they'll take off...

ABCNEWS.com : Portable Displays for Wireless PC Work

] "Smaller Internet music broadcasters will be allowed to
] pay lower copyright royalty fees than they do now under
] legislation Congress passed on Friday.
]
] The bill, which has been sent to President Bush to be
] signed into law, mirrors an agreement worked out earlier
] by webcasters and the recording industry, which wants
] royalties for songs broadcast over the Internet."

Small Webcaster's law FINALLY makes it out of Congress.

Wired News: Congress Gives Webcasters a Break

A short snip about Schneier's new book. This is how hackers can help prevent a police state. Thinking critically about security mechanisms that control but don't secure. For example, at Defcon, John Q. Newman, an expert on identity fraud, made a very interesting case that "national ID cards" were really LESS SECURE then the existing system. They merely serve the purpose of database centralization. If there is only one card to forge, then all of the resources in the forgery community get aimed at that card, and it falls no matter how strong it is. If there are many cards to forge, resources are spread out and forgeries aren't as good. Canada is learning this the hard way with their new national birth certificate. Lets not make the same mistake.

Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: November 15, 2002

The FBI maintains a list of people who are basically not allowed to fly. There have been complaints that this list is politically motivated. Thus far, most of the people that I've seen complaining about being on this list actually ARE commiting serious crimes for political purposes. Whether or not its reasonable to be afraid of flying with someone who is burning university research farms because they oppose genetic engineering is certainly questionable, but the people in question are far from innocent. Either way, I agree with the ACLU that such a list should be a matter of public scrutiny, and there should be clear public guidelines on what it takes to get on the list. The potential for abuse is extremely high. I don't execpt that anyone on this site has been barred from flight, but its a reasonable idea to keep a note of this link in the back of your mind in case you run into someone who is.

ACLU of Washington Take Action [No Fly List Complaint Form]

A collection of 100 or so designer airline barf bags. Oh, if I could only make MemeStreams look as good as these barf bags.

:: design for chunks

this is elonka's talk on steganography from phreaknic. elonka is a bad ass cypher freak. the slides are well worth 15 minutes of your time. some reasonable thought about the likelyhood that al-q actually used stegaNography in images tO conceal Their plans for 911. jonnyx's goggled face offers clear evidence that universities that have searched for stego on the web and not found it simply have not tried hard enough. the reader is left to ponder the possible.

Elonka.Com - Steganography

In the grim future of hello kitty there is only war!

The Future is Now

Many of you have requested a full sized recommendation bookmarket. It is available at this link. Have fun...

BIG Recommend Bookmarklet