"The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb." -- Marshall McLuhan, 1969
Hillary's Downfall
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:15 am EDT, May 12, 2008
"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
Godwin's Law apparently applies to Democratic politics, not just Usenet...
This is truly amazing. Timball showed this to me last night... All I could think of were our future robot masters, who will force us to worship the machine gods, or devour us and turn our flesh into electrical energy. I can make out this fuzzy future with shocking clarity while watching this video.
After you watch this, be sure to watch the spoof. All class-a stuff...
Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the situation "embarrassing," and some members of Congress vow to fix it.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says "common sense" suggests Mandela should be removed. He says the issue "raises a troubling and difficult debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are not."
Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102 - New York Times
Topic: Recreation
10:19 am EDT, May 1, 2008
PARIS — Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102.
DynCorp Manager Used Armored Car To Transport Hookers in Iraq
Topic: War on Terrorism
7:27 pm EDT, Apr 29, 2008
I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor’s manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.
Hardly a demographic escapes skewering.
It looks like New York. It sounds like New York. It feels like New York. Liberty City has been so meticulously created it almost even smells like New York.
I will happily spend untold hours cruising Liberty City’s bridges and byways, hitting the clubs, grooving to the radio and running from the cops. Even when the real New York City is right outside.
I was sitting in front of my workstation today and something really strange happened. I'm not sure what to make of it...
I was working on something... I can't remember quite what it was. Somehow, almost psychically, I knew that Grand Theft Auto IV was about to hit the shelves. Then BAM! Blackout.
Next memory I can really piece together... I was staring at a an order confirmation screen on Amazon for a Playstation 3, HDMI cable, and a pre-order of Grand Theft Auto IV. I sort of watched myself hit confirm, but really had no control of it.. It really makes me uncomfortable to recount it.. It's hard to explain. I think I even signed up for Amazon Prime to save on the one-day shipping.
I mean, I buy from Amazon all the time. Why now?
Maybe Hillary Clinton and Jack Thompson are right. Maybe these games are brainwashing me. My lord, what could I go and do? Make a facetious post, and then it'd just all somehow go away?! HA. NO. NO sanity here.
Oh no.. I bought an espresso machine last week too... I see the way this is all chaining together. There will be NO productivity. This is a bad rub..
Hide the children! Folks, I'm going to sequester myself in front of an 46" 1080p screen with all the pieces of this puzzle until I figure this out..
Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries
Topic: International Relations
1:46 pm EDT, Apr 24, 2008
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attach� was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
Last week, federal, state, and local police in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas conducted a massive sweep dubbed "Operation Sudden Impact."
The operation included raids of businesses, homes, and boats; traffic roadblocks; and personal searches. They say they were looking for "terrorists." If they found any, they haven't announced it yet. They did arrest 332 people, 142 of whom they describe as "fugitives." They also issued about 1,300 traffic tickets, and according to one media account, seized "hundreds" of dollars.
...
The FBI along with hundreds of officers said they are looking for anything out of the ordinary. Agents take computers and paperwork from businesses.
"What we have found traditionally is that terrorists are involved in a number of lesser known type crimes," said Mark Luttrell, Shelby County sheriff.
There you have it. All law enforcement is anti-terrorism. The police cannot legally establish "anti-terrorism" roadblocks that essentially serve as forums for random search and seizure.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey became the first court in the nation yesterday to rule that people have an expectation of privacy when they are online, and law enforcement officials need a grand jury warrant to have access to their private information.
The unanimous seven-member court held that police do have the right to seek a user's private information when investigating a crime involving a computer, but must follow legal procedures. The court said authorities do not have to warn a suspect that they have a grand jury subpoena to obtain the information.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said: "We now hold that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy protected by Article I ... of the New Jersey Constitution, in the subscriber information they provide to Internet service providers -- just as New Jersey citizens have a privacy interest in their bank records stored by banks and telephone billing records kept by phone companies."
"This decision reflects the reality of how ordinary people normally use the internet," he said. "'It's very nice to have the court recognize that expectation is reasonable."
The Volokh Conspiracy - Ninth Circuit Allows Suspicionless Computer Searches at the Border:
Topic: Civil Liberties
3:47 pm EDT, Apr 22, 2008
The Ninth Circuit has (finally) handed down United States v. Arnold; the court ruled that there is no Fourth Amendment requirement of "reasonable suspicion" to search a laptop computer at the border.
