One of the jihadist Web sites cautioned its readers to "Beware of Google!!!" with specific warnings about its relatively new product Google Toolbar...

The posting advised Internet cafe users to set up a proxy -- a software program that erases digital footsteps such as Web addresses or other identifiable information -- before Web surfing...

"This kind of tradecraft is essential to survival," Hoffman said.

And now, your moment of zen....

"From a jihadist perspective, they are absolutely right. They should avoid Google like the plague," Brandt said.

Terrorists' Web Chatter Shows Concern About Internet Privacy

From the EFF:

We've just updated our Unintended Consequences report (also available as a print-friendly PDF), which collects reported cases of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA being used not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. In the seven years since the DMCA was enacted, this has grown into quite a list:

* Blackboard Threatens Security Researchers

Billy and Virgil are both noted in the report thanks to Blackboard:

In April 2003, educational software company Blackboard Inc. used a DMCA threat to stop the presentation of research on security vulnerabilities in its products at the InterzOne II conference in Atlanta. Students Billy Hoffman and Virgil Griffith were scheduled to present their research on security flaws in the Blackboard ID card system used by university campus security systems but were blocked shortly before the talk by a cease-and-desist letter invoking the DMCA.

Blackboard obtained a temporary restraining order against the students and the conference organizers at a secret "ex parte" hearing the day before the conference began, giving the students and conference organizer no opportunity to appear in court or challenge the order before the scheduled presentation. Despite the rhetoric in its initial cease and desist letter, Blackboard's lawsuit did not mention the DMCA. The invocation in the original cease-and-desist letter, however, underscores the way the statute has been used to chill security research.

Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA

Scientists find evidence of a perpetual evolutionary battle in the mind. The process, they suspect, is the key to individuality.

Brain's Darwin Machine - Los Angeles Times

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

"Iran has joined countries with nuclear technology," he said.

"Iran has put into operation the first unit of 164 centrifuges, has injected (uranium) gas and has reached industrial production," Rafsanjani was quoted by the agency as saying. The interview was also carried by the Iranian Student News Agency.

"We should expand the work of these machines to achieve a full industrial line. We need dozens of these units (sets of 164 centrifuges) to achieve a uranium enrichment facility," he said.

I don't think it would be inaccurate to say that the shit is actively hitting the fan and splattering all over the place. There is brinksmanship going on, on a very large scale. This weekend we had the Hersh article, which was clearly released with US approval, flaunting that we are waving around the big (nuclear) stick. We have Saudi Arabia, who has long been terrified by the possibility of a Shiite presence in the south of Iraq unified with Iran, announcing it will join the nuclear club if Iran does. We have Iran doing military exercises displaying it (thinks it) can shut down the Strait of Hormuz, while claiming it has missile technology that can evade our detection capability. Meanwhile, we have the US forces doing mock bombing runs across Iran. We have disclosure of all kinds of things, including intelligence activities inside Iran. And all of this, leading up to (and clearly driven by) talks with Iran about Iraq.

What an unbelievable fucking mess! Not only all this, but at the helms of the two ships colliding in the night, we have Bush who believes he is being guided by God, and Ahmadinejad who believes it's his destiny to pull the next Caliph out of a well (or something along those lines). The Sunni/Shiite spat in Iraq will look like an inconvenient argument if we wind up in a situation where Iran seriously threatens the Saudis. I could envision a ramp-up occurring depending on how things play out in the near term. The worst case scenario for the Middle East looks pretty damn bad these days.

CNN.com - Ahmadinejad: Iran has enriched uranium

It sounds eerily like the Cold War - and that is no mistake.

The "Long War" is the name Washington is using to rebrand the new world conflict, this time against terrorism.

The War on Terror has been re-branded again. I like this one much better than the "struggle against violent extremism". "The Long War" could stick.

And now, your moment of zen:

"I'm an artillery officer, and I can't fire cannons at the internet," he says, referring to what he sees as one of the key weapons of the modern age.

BBC | Planning the US 'Long War' on terror

Kuwaiti researcher Abdullah al-Nufaisi told a seminar in Doha, Qatar, that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program, the Middle East Newsline reported.

He said Saudi scientists were urging the government to launch a nuclear project, but had not yet received approval from the ruling family.

Riyadh denies any intention to establish a nuclear energy program, but Gulf sources told the Middle East Newsline Saudi officials have been discussing a nuclear research and development program -- and that the program would be aided by Pakistan and other Riyadh allies.

"Saudi Arabia will not watch as its neighbors develop nuclear weapons," a Gulf source said. "It's a matter of time until a Saudi nuclear program begins."

Not acceptable.

UPI - Saudi Arabia may join nuclear club

"The question of how economics is taught in France, both at the bottom and at the top of the educational pyramid, is at the heart of the current crisis," said Jean-Pierre Boisivon, director of the Enterprise Institute, a company-financed institute that sponsors the internship program for economics teachers that Scache took part in.

This is the most intelligent analysis of the protests in France that I've seen thus far. The students are doing exactly what they have been taught to do.

Economics, French-style - Europe - International Herald Tribune

In our ever-more-polarized political debate, it appears that it is now wrong to ever change your mind, even if empirical evidence from the real world suggests you ought to.

I find this a strange and disturbing conclusion.

This kind of polarization affects a range of other complex issues as well: You can't be a good Republican if you think there may be something to global warming, or a good Democrat if you support school choice or private Social Security accounts. Political debate has become a spectator sport in which people root for their team and cheer when it scores points, without asking whether they chose the right side. Instead of trying to defend sharply polarized positions taken more than three years ago, it would be far better if people could actually take aboard new information and think about how their earlier commitments, honestly undertaken, actually jibe with reality — even if this does on occasion require changing your mind.

Why shouldn't I change my mind?

Seymour Hersh checks in on the Iran situation in The New Yorker. There is a heavy emphasis on American usage of tactical nuclear weapons, particularly the newer bunker busting designs. There is a fair amount of information in this article about what many of the players are thinking.

This is one of those articles that leaves you feeling uncomfortable.

THE IRAN PLANS: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?

The Lazy Drinker quite simply is a computer controlled mixed cocktail dispensing device. It's designed to hold 16 ingredients and multiple units can be chained together to get more. By using a series of pressurized valves, the ingredients are mixed automatically by your computer perfectly every time. With a database of over 5000 drinks, you'll have plenty to choose from.

The Lazy Drinker comes assembled in a cooler or as a do-it-yourself kit which can be installed in any manner you desire. Requiring only a Co2 tank and a PC with a serial port, the Lazydrinker can be set up anywhere: from a portable dispensing unit, to a bartop installed unit, to a refrigerator mounted unit, the possibilities are endless.

One of these must make an appearance PhreakNIC next year.

The Lazydrinker