Author, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil will be our guest for In Depth on November 5th (LIVE Noon-3pm ET). Mr. Kurzweil is the author of several books on the subject of artificial intelligence, including "The Age of Intelligent Machines," "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence," and his latest, "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." His companies have made major breakthroughs in print, sound and speech recognition technologies. As a result of his work, he was awarded the 1999 National Medal of Technology by President Clinton.

There does not appear to be an easy way to link to where the streaming video for this is on C-SPAN. At the time of this posting, it's linked off the main page. I'm guessing it will be in the search database tomorrow.

C-SPAN Book TV - In Depth with Ray Kurzweil

The Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced a combative Saddam Hussein and two other defendants to death by hanging for a brutal crackdown in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail.

There will be automatic appeals for the four who were sentenced to death and life in prison.

CNN International is reporting that the appeals court judge is not held to any sort of time frame, but they are not being very clear about what that means. The vibe I'm getting from it, is that the appeals process will go fairly quickly. By Iraqi law, upon the verdict being upheld, the execution must occur within thirty days.

This begs a few questions.. Will the hanging be done in public? Will cameras be allowed?

Update: The article has been revised since I posted it.

Within 10 days, the court will forward the cases of Hussein and three other defendants to the appellate chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal. Appeals of death penalties and life sentences are automatic.

Within 20 days after the appeals are made, the prosecution and the defense must submit their documents to the appellate chamber.

A court official told The Associated Press the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging - CNN.com

THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.

The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.

“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.

I continue to wonder when the Doomsday Clock is going to be advanced...

Their most recent statement doesn't even mention Iran. Strange...

Six Arab states join rush to go nuclear

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

The full article is due to come out in the December issue of Vanity Fair. Read the quotes on page 2 & 3 of this article...

Update: A number of people quoted are unhappy about it. Apparently, they were promised nothing having to do with this article was going to be released ahead of the mid-term election.

Neo Culpa: Politics & Power

An interesting way of watching to focus of history change.

US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud - Chirag Mehta : chir.ag

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will probably be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney's office by Friday.

Knowingly voting in the wrong precinct is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Anderson said a letter was sent to Coulter on March 27 requesting that she clarify her address for the voting records "or face the possibility of her voter registration being rescinded." Three more letters were sent to Coulter and her attorney, but she has yet to respond with the information requested, Anderson said.

In July, Anderson said, he received a letter from Coulter's attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez D'Clouet. The letter said the attorney would only discuss the matter in person or by telephone because, he complained, Anderson had given details to the media. Anderson said the matter had to be discussed in writing.

Ann Coulter is the ultimate troll. I personally think she should just ditch the whole "serious columnist" thing and start a comedy career. I would go see her preform. It would be fun to listen to her rant, and I would laugh my ass off. She and Vile could preform together. Vile would blow her off the stage by being even more of a rabid conservative. It would be a hoot..

I only wish that the next time Ann Coulter appears on Fox News, she suddenly declares that she is not to be taken seriously, that anyone who has taken her seriously is an idiot, and that she is purely an entertainer. But I know that's not going to happen. I think the only way I could be more entertained, would be if Ann Coulter wound up in federal prison for a year or two, then did that after getting out.

Ann Coulter to be prosicuted? We can only hope..

Soghoian claims that he wanted to demonstrate the vulnerability. You could argue that he went about it in a stupid way, but I don't think what he did is substantively worse than what I wrote in 2003. Or what Schumer described in 2005. Why is it that the person who demonstrates the vulnerability is vilified while the person who describes it is ignored? Or, even worse, the organization that causes it is ignored? Why are we shooting the messenger instead of discussing the problem?

The way to fix it is equally obvious: Verify the accuracy of the boarding passes at the security checkpoints. If passengers had to scan their boarding passes as they went through screening, the computer could verify that the boarding pass already matched to the photo ID also matched the data in the computer. Close the authentication triangle and the vulnerability disappears.

The problem is real, and the Department of Homeland Security and TSA should either fix the security or scrap the system. What we've got now is the worst security system of all: one that annoys everyone who is innocent while failing to catch the guilty.

Bruce Schneier has chimed in on TSAGATE. This essay can be found on his weblog or published in Wired. The message coming out of the security community seems to unanimously contain the same basic ideas: The TSA needs to fix the problem and not shoot the messenger.

Schneier on Security: Forge Your Own Boarding Pass

Richard Haass, author of The Opportunity and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, has written the lead article for the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs.

The age of US dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun. It will be shaped by new actors and new forces competing for influence, and to master it, Washington will have to rely more on diplomacy than on military might.

Although the basic features of this fifth era of the modern Middle East are largely unattractive, this should not be a cause for fatalism. Much is a matter of degree.

It is important to recognize that there are no quick or easy solutions to the problems the new era poses. The Middle East will remain a troubled and troubling part of the world for decades to come. It is all enough to make one nostalgic for the old Middle East.

The New Middle East | Richard N. Haass | Foreign Affairs

Congressman Markey, thank you for taking the time to look closer at this situation, and to hear the voice of the security community.

“On Friday I urged the Bush Administration to ‘apprehend’ and shut down whoever had created a new website that enabled persons without a plane ticket to easily fake a boarding pass and use it to clear security, gain access to the boarding area and potentially to the cabin of a passenger plane. Subsequently I learned that the person responsible was a student at Indiana University, Christopher Soghoian, who intended no harm but, rather, intended to provide a public service by warning that this long-standing loophole could be easily exploited. The website has now apparently been shut down.

“Under the circumstances, any legal consequences for this student must take into account his intent to perform a public service, to publicize a problem as a way of getting it fixed. He picked a lousy way of doing it, but he should not go to jail for his bad judgment. Better yet, the Department of Homeland Security should put him to work showing public officials how easily our security can be compromised.

“It remains a fact that fake boarding passes can be easily created and the integration of terrorist watch lists with boarding security is still woefully inadequate. The best outcome of Mr. Soghoian’s ill-considered demonstration would be for the Department of Homeland Security to close these loopholes immediately."

MARKEY: DON'T ARREST STUDENT, USE HIM TO FIX LOOPHOLES

The section of law relevant to the fake boarding pass site:

Sec. 1540.103 Fraud and intentional falsification of records.

No person may make, or cause to be made, any of the following:

(a) Any fraudulent or intentionally false statement in any application for any security program, access medium, or identification medium, or any amendment thereto, under this subchapter.

(b) Any fraudulent or intentionally false entry in any record or report that is kept, made, or used to show compliance with this subchapter, or exercise any privileges under this subchapter.

(c) Any reproduction or alteration, for fraudulent purpose, of any report, record, security program, access medium, or identification medium issued under this subchapter.

The process as according to Senator Charles Schumer's February 13, 2005 press release:

1. Joe Terror (whose name is on the terrorist watch list) buys a ticket online in the name of Joe Thompson using a stolen credit card. Joe Thompson is not listed on the terrorist watch list.

2. Joe Terror then prints his “Joe Thompson” boarding pass at home, and then electronically alters it (either by scanning or altering the original image, depending on the airline system and the technology he uses at home) to create a second almost identical boarding pass under the name Joe Terror, his name.

3. Joe Terror then goes to the airport and goes through security with his real ID and the FAKE boarding pass. The name and face match his real drivers license. The airport employee matches the name and face to the real ID.

4. The TSA guard at the magnetometer checks to make sure that the boarding pass looks legitimate as Joe Terror goes through. He/she does not scan it into the system, so there is still no hint that the name on the fake boarding pass is not the same as the name on the reservation.

5. Joe Terror then goes through the gate into his plane using the real Joe Thompson boarding pass for the gate’s computer scanner. He is not asked for ID again to match the name on the scanner, so the fact that he does not have an ID with that name does not matter. [Since Joe Thompson doesn’t actually exist it does not coincide with a name on the terrorist watch list] Joe Terror boards the plane, no questions asked.

Media coverage other than Senator Schumer's press release:

* Bruce Schneier (2003): Link
* Sen. Charles Schumer (2005): Link
* Andy Bowers, Slate.com (2005): Link
* Jacob Appelbaum (2005): Link