] IT IS TRUE, as national security adviser Condoleezza Rice
] told the Sept. 11 commission, that "bold and
] comprehensive changes are sometimes only possible in the
] wake of catastrophic events." Yet it is also true that
] the kind of far-reaching overhaul of the nation's
] intelligence community recommended by the commission
] requires careful deliberation. A rush to reform driven by
] the election calendar could yield an ill-considered
] system that would take years to fix. Better to go more
] slowly and get it right -- especially considering that
] the changes will be made in the heat of battle, as the
] latest warnings serve to remind.

[ Good article detailing the way the commission report is being handled by both sides... which is to say, not so well. Notes that while Bush is paying lip service to the NID concept from the report, the reality of his proposal misses most key points, and does little more than recast the DCI role slightly. Meanwhile, Kerry is yammering about foot dragging essentially. Not that he has much of a choice... calling for a slower, more calculated approach would be an instant "soft on security" attack fest.

I call for a National Deep Breath... lets not enshrine any more busted processes. We've got plenty of those, it would seem. -k]

Rush to Reorganize (washingtonpost.com)

] The state of suspended animation that astronauts enter
] during long-haul space flights is a staple of
] science-fiction movies. But now the European Space Agency
] (ESA) wants to turn it into reality.
]
]
] Agency staff are planning future research into the
] possibility of inducing a hibernation-like state in
] humans. "We are not sure whether it is possible," says
] Marco Biggiogera, an expert on hibernation mechanisms at
] the University of Pavia, Italy, who is advising ESA. "But
] it's not crazy."

news@nature.com - Could astronauts sleep their way to the stars?

] AAA, the nation's largest auto club, would support
] requiring black boxes only if protections were in place
] to ensure the data are used just for safety research and
] can't be traced to specific drivers, spokesman Mantill
] Williams said.
]
]
] The highway safety agency says between 65 percent and 90
] percent of 2004 vehicles have some sort of recording
] ability. About 15 percent of vehicles have data
] recorders. Different models collect different amounts of
] data. Some record nothing more than how fast a vehicle
] sped up or slowed down, while others collect a range of
] information about the driver's actions and the condition
] of a vehicle's mechanical systems.

[ I didn't know that many cars did this. Does yours?

Anyway, I think it's a reasonable idea if designed with the right privacy protections. Of course... seems like the black box would be hackable since it probably has to take data from the ECU, which we all know can be replaced and toyed with. -k]

Safety officials recommend requiring `black boxes' for passenger vehicles

] Sahni, 21, said he believes he was singled out because of
] his appearance. At one point during the searches, he
] said, an agent told him: "I don't want you pulling an Uzi
] from your turban."
] ...
] Both Sahni and Shawaf said it is clear to them that Sahni
] was singled out because of his appearance.
]
] For one thing, they said, only Sahni, whose family is
] originally from India, was searched and questioned while
] Shawaf, a Muslim from Saudi Arabia who dresses and wears
] his hair in Western style, was not. And if the pictures
] were the issue, they said, why would the agents focus on
] Sahni when the camera belonged to his friend Khotkar, an
] Australian of Indian Hindu descent?

[ You'd think the secret service would realize that appearances can be decieving. Seriously... a terrorist must look like this or that? What the fuck? I have no problem with security, but i do have problems with illogic and foolishness. -k]

Boston.com / News / Local / Mass. / Sikh student detained by Secret Service

...locks you in deeper. Want to buy a different portable music player next time you buy one? I hope you don't mind throwing away 5 years of songs you bought on iTunes, because they aren't going to work with anything else.

[ Not precicely. I burn all my iTunes tracks to CD and re-rip them in unprotected format. This is 100% within the terms and gives me a nice backup copy of the album too. You can say, that this is too much of a PITA for you to want to bother with, but it's the surefire legal way to not get locked in. I do worry a bit about the encoding losses, but i figure we're still a fuckton better off than we were with, say, tapes, or records, in terms of maintenance issues, and i gain a little convenience. That being said, i still don't buy much from iTunes. Only things that spark a sudden interest and need to be bought immediately for the most part. Anyway. iTunes isn't the right answer, but it's the right answer for right now, sometimes. -k]

Every Song you buy on iTunes...

After a legal battle ends in compromise, an anti-war billboard was finally unveiled in Times Square Monday.

Next to a 105-foot dove painted with the stars and stripes, the ad on the Conde Nast building says: “Democracy Is Best Taught By Example, Not War.” The anti-war group had originally wanted to use the image of a bomb, but it was forced to change to a dove after the billboard owner clear channel refused to put up the ad.

[ Overall this might be a better billboard anyway. That ticker is new to me though... interesting tack. -k]

Anti-War Billboard Unveiled Over Times Square

] Because nanoscience is such a young field, the panelists
] didn%u2019t have a well-trodden path to follow to their
] current positions. While each took a different, often
] circuitous route, they were all able to agree that there
] are certain skills that are key to a successful career in
] nanotech and also a successful scientific career in
] general.

C&EN: CAREER & EMPLOYMENT WHAT IT TAKES TO WORK IN NANOTECH

] I.B.M. plans to announce today that it is contributing
] more than half a million lines of its software code,
] valued at $85 million, to an open source software group.
]
] The move is one of the largest transfers ever of
] proprietary code to free software, and I.B.M. is making
] the code contribution to try to help make it easier and
] more appealing for software developers to write
] applications in the Java programming language.

The New York Times : Technology : In Competitive Move, I.B.M. Puts Code in Public Domain

] But CrimeThinc continued to ask attendees to deface the
] Republican National Committee Web sites, to launch denial
] of service attacks against their servers, to harass
] delegates in the street, to prevent buses carrying
] delegates from running, and so on. "By any means
] necessary," he said.

This is not hacking, this isn't protesting, this is anarchy, and these jackasses deserve the brutality they get.
...
These are those people you just wish would get the hell off your side.

[ Hear hear. I'm all for activism, but this childish crap only diminishes the validity of the progressive left in this country. I disagree with the Republicans about as much as it's possible to, and as such i'm not about to give them reasons to discredit my standpoint.

I like the quote from the Defcon guy who had to handle the situation :
"We got the call for trouble in the room. The gentleman, I was told, was preaching sedition. I knew that we had to take some steps quickly preventing that. Defcon is definitely for free speech, definitely for legal civil disobedience. But not anarchy, not psychopathic destruction of property." -k]

CrimeThinc @ Defcon: Cause chaos at the RNC

] John Kerry and John Edwards have released a book
] outlining their plan to make America stronger at home and
] respected in the world. Together, they will ensure
] America is secure, that all Americans have the
] opportunity to fulfill their potential, and that families
] are strong and have the support they need.

[ For those who, like me, have been looking for details, this may be your answer. It's 236 pages (though small pages), and I haven't read it yet... i certainly plan to, but i'd prefer to find a hard copy. Anyway, fyi. -k]

John Kerry for President - Our Plan for America