] President Bush is set to endorse using nuclear power to
] explore Mars and open up the outer Solar System.
]
] He is expected to back the US space agency's recent nuclear
] propulsion initiative, Project Prometheus, either in his
] State of the Union speech, due on 28 January, or later this
] year when he submits his 2004 budget to Congress.
]
] It is believed he will give the initiative $1bn over five
] years, arguing that nuclear propulsion represents an
] essential technology for the manned and unmanned exploration
] of space.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nasa to go nuclear

] Many questions remain about Iraq's nuclear, chemical and
] biological weapons programs and arsenal — and it is Iraq's
] obligation to provide answers. It is failing in spectacular
] fashion. By both its actions and its inactions, Iraq is
] proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but that
] it is a nation with something to hide. Iraq is still treating
] inspections as a game. It should know that time is running out.

Condoleezza Rice NYTime OpEd peice.

Why We Know Iraq Is Lying

] The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted unanimously to slap
] restrictions on a controversial Pentagon data-mining
] program that critics say would amount to a domestic
] spying apparatus.

Senate limits Pentagon 'snooping' plan - Tech News - CNET.com

] To reward those who can attract a paying audience, and
] the firms that support them, much shorter copyrights
] would be enough. The 14-year term of the original
] 18th-century British and American copyright laws,
] renewable once, might be a good place to start.

The economist presents a radical copyright proposal.

Economist.com | Copyrights

] Rosen, 44, seems to have planted herself squarely in the
] path of inevitable technological change. In fact, she's
] far from naive: She knows downloadable music is the
] format of the future.

An interview with Hillary Rosen

Wired 11.02: Hating Hilary

Needless to say, the ability for any keyholder to obtain system-wide access represents a serious potential threat to the security of master-keyed installations. Individuals and institutions that depend on such locks to protect their safety and property should be aware of these risks and consider alternatives to eliminate or reduce their exposure to this threat.

Matt Blaze is at it again ... this paper has a Markus Kuhn / Ross Anderson flavor to it. (There is a news article in today's NYT about this paper.)

Master-Keyed Lock Vulnerability

] Proponents of the machines assert that any invasion of
] privacy is not alarming because there's not much privacy
] left to invade. Grocery stores already track customers'
] personal information with loyalty cards, for example.

Bars in Northern California start collecting your detailed personal information in the process of doing an age check. The arguement above is particularly disturbing.

SacTicket // Nightlife // Taking license

] This anti-SUV fervor strikes me as a classic geek assault
] on jock culture. Here are the geeks: thoughtful, socially
] and environmentally conscious. They understand that only
] spiritually shallow people could possibly get pleasure
] from a motor vehicle. Then there are those jocks. They
] cruise through life infuriatingly unaware of how morally
] inferior they are to the geeks. They make money, become
] popular, play golf and have homes that are too large. And
] they're happy! For all the wrong reasons! And so every
] few years the geeks pick on some feature of jock life
] (McMansions, corporations, fraternities, country clubs)
] and get all worked up about it. And you know what? The
] jocks don't care! They just keep being happy. The geeks
] write, protest and fume. The jocks go to St. Croix.

I am geek and I hate the whole anti-SUV thing. I own an SUV. I love my SUV. It gets better fuel milage then my previous car. It served my old office car pool very well. It also serves my friends interests very well, as I'm always moving stuff for them that they can't fit in their cars.

I particularly love it when I hear bitching about my SUV from someone who drives an older car that gets less then 12 mpg. How bout that as an outlet for you eco angst, bitch about people who have old cars! Couldn't afford a new car? You suck! Needed cargo space? You suck!

I wish people would at least get specific with their bitching, and limit it to vehicles that fall into that under 20 mpg class, which is not limited to SUVs.

If there was HEV version of my vehicle, I would have bought it. Sorry, I needed cargo space. I didn't mean to shit on anyone's eco parade.

WSJ.com - The Scarlet SUV

] Some people think it's more important to give a big
] campaign contribution than to vote…that it's "the
] American way" to buy access and influence with big
] money…that it's OK if public policy is sold to the
] highest bidder. Some even think that the only real
] democracy is in the marketplace, where we all
] supposedly vote with our dollars.
]
] Well, we at Public Campaign disagree, and we believe
] so do a lot of other Americans. Which is why we
] created the "State of the Union" poster. Because we
] wanted to use one picture to say what a thousand words
] couldn't say about the union of big money and Washington.

State of the Union: Congress Meets Wall Street

Rosen wants to go after ISPs in the RIAA's ongoing war against technology.

Wired News: RIAA's Rosen Sets Sights on ISPs