Richard Hell in the New York Times...

CBGB’S shuts down this weekend.

It was a private world. We dreamed it up. It flowered out of our imaginations.

How often do you get to do that?

CBGB’s was like a big playhouse, site of conspiracies, orgies, delirium, refuge, boredom, meanness, jealousy, kindness, but most of all youth.

God loves CBGB’s.

I will always remember the line that Sunshine Flipside once opened a show at CBGB's with. "Hello everyone, we're here to fuck it up for everyone!"

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

The fate of the world hangs in the balance in this explosive action thriller. Brace yourself for nonstop action and chilling suspense, because there's no turning back in this pulse-pounding sequel that takes you Behind Enemy Lines for another adrenaline-fueled adventure! When a team of U.S. Navy SEALs is assigned to destroy a North Korean missile site and avert a possible nuclear strike, failure is not an option. But the mission is abruptly aborted, stranding four soldiers in enemy territory. Now, in order to survive, they must defeat the rebel forces that threaten their lives, their allies and the entire free world!

Where the hell did this come from?

Nevermind, I have a general idea..

This sequel has not even shown up yet if you query for the brand. The movie's IMDB listing is the only thing on the map! Odds are, that will not be the case by the time you get a chance to click that link, given a TV ad campaign has kicked off...

Direct to DVD.. No one cared, up till a few days ago... Real good timing for the folks who made this one...

Behind Enemy Lines: Axis of Evil (2006)

If the Ninth Circuit does agree with Judge Pregerson that computer searches are "non routine," there's a decent chance that this case would be the first computer search and seizure case to get to the Supreme Court.

Sweet! I find the prospect of random laptop searches at borders to be offensive to the idea of a free society on many levels. Finally, someone has argued, and a court has accepted the arguement, that this isn't Constitutional. Now, we'll get to find out if the higher courts agree. Its on!

The Volokh Conspiracy - District Court Holds That Border Searches of Computers Require Reasonable Suspicion:

The dude gets points for putting his web server on port 2006. The dude does not get points for using a light blue tint to indicate "no senate race."

Election 2006: Senate and House Races Updated Daily

This is another excellent post from the ArmsControlWonk about the (likely) failure of the DPRK nuke test. The entire post is suggested reading, but I must single out this snip as the most funny thing I've heard so far today:

I close this discourse about operational confidence by noting that the United States has built a missile defense that does not work, to defend against a North Korean missile that does not work, that would carry a nuclear warhead that does not work.

This is all very postmodern.

Hahahaha!!

ArmsControlWonk: So, like, why didn't it work?

Here's a link to the Google Calendar Dagmar put up for the Phreaknic 10 presentation schedule.

For those who are into iCal, there is also a calendar feed available.

Dagmar will be updating the schedule when he hears of any changes or additions.

Phreaknic 10 Presentation Schedule

In an article titled "Al Qaeda finds new partner: Salafist group finds limited success in native Algeria" (The Washington Post, October 5, 2006) by Craig Whitlock, Western sources, including French and American, assert that the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (originally a local Algerian group) has become global by joining with al Qaeda. While the article is very interesting and informative, the analysis of the International Salafi movement by Western sources and expertise shows a continuous misunderstanding of Jihadism and its strategies. For in the essence of the article there is an assertion that the Algerian Salafists were restricted to fight their Government for "local" reasons, but it was U.S. intervention in the region that "compelled" the Combat Salafists to join al Qaeda worldwide. This assertion and other little informed debates taking place in the U.S. these days are committing an analytical sin: Projecting onto the Jihadists an alien thinking, most likely because of the pressures of American politics.

This article by Walid Phares in the Counterterrorism Blog is highly suggested reading.

Counterterrorism Blog: The Continued Misunderstanding of the Salafi Jihad Threat

Here's video of Clint Curtis, a former programmer for Yang Enterprises (YEI) in Florida, testifying under oath that Representative Tom Feeney asked him to write a voting machine program to rig elections.

I'm not exactly sure what the deal is here, but this rabbit hole seems very, very deep, and I find it strange that I haven't heard any of this before given all of the drama about voting machines. This is either a crazy partisan conspiracy theory or its one of the worst corruption stories in this country's history. I haven't found any details that are, one their face, disprovable. On the other hand, the main story is being carried by blogs that seem a bit sensational and partisan. As they say, a broken clock is right twice a day... Anyone got any good information on this?

Update: Apparently Bev Harris isn't impressed. I don't think she understands the technical issues. However, her observation that there is no evidence is correct.

Boing Boing: Video testimony of vote machine whistleblower

This post about Iran/DPRK ties appears on the Counterterrorism Blog this morning:

Iran likely has at its disposal the same technology and blueprints that North Korea possesses. Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has admitted to supplying nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya through a black market. His claim has been supported by international investigators, who found that Chinese nuclear designs that were probably supplied to Pakistan in the 1980s were later sold to Libya by Pakistani-led smugglers. Former UN arms inspector David Albright has been quoted as saying, "You have to almost conclude [that the Chinese design] went to Iran and . . . North Korea." Iran thus has blueprints for nuclear weapons technology that has been successful tested by two other countries, Pakistan and North Korea.

If the international community's reaction to the North Korean test is weak, that will further encourage Iran. As former Indian intelligence chief B. Raman stated on this week's installment of the always excellent Global Crisis Watch podcast:

Iran is watching how the international community is going to react to North Korea. . . . So the international community must be prepared for the possibility that North Korea is going to carry out a test and we must tailor our response and we must be ready with a basket of sanctions against North Korea. And the moment that it carries out that test those sanctions must be imposed so the message goes to North Korea as well as Iran. And once we take that first step what are the other options that are available for the international community we can discuss later. But if we defer and if we do not do anything immediately and if we go on discussing more and more with various groups and all, ultimately North Korea, Iran and Pakistan also -- the jihadi elements there -- they are going to get the wrong message, thinking the international community is weak, the international community will not act against them.

Moreover, close cooperation between North Korea and Iran in the past provides additional reason for concern. I previously blogged about a late 2005 Iranian purchase of eighteen disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea. Israel's intelligence chief reported that Iran received these missiles in late April of this year. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Intelligence reports uncovered in mid-2005 "accuse North Korea of secretly helping Iran develop its nuclear program." Reuters reported this August that both countries are cooperating on the development of long-range ballistic missiles. In fact, Iranian delegates were reportedly present when North Korea test-fired seven ballistic missiles in Japan's direction on July 5. North Korean experts are reportedly helping to bolster fortifications at Iranian nuclear facilities "in anticipation of possible preemptive strikes."

This is not a comprehensive account of the two countries' cooperation; even a surface-level examination reveals their ties. When a country successfully tests a nuclear weapon, that changes everything. Here, North Korea's test certainly changes the contours of the global war on terror.

Counterterrorism Blog: North Korea/Iran Cooperation Shows Implications of Nuclear Test

North Korea's nuclear test on Monday might have been a "mini-nuke" explosion possibly as low as one kiloton, comparable to some small tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, scientists said on Monday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.2 magnitude quake in North Korea at 10:35 local time (0135 GMT) on Monday, confirming a similar report from South Korea.

Gary Gibson, senior seismologist at Australia's Seismology Research Center, said a 4.2 magnitude quake would be the result of a one kiloton explosion.

"It depends on how the thing is set off. There is not a perfect correlation between magnitude and the yield and depends to some extent on the rock type they set it off in," he said.

"It is a relatively small nuclear test."

A U.S. intelligence source agreed that a preliminary examination of the data did not indicate a large blast or a series of explosions. But the source stressed that analysts were still working toward a definitive evaluation.

Nuclear analyst Andrew Davies, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said if the North Korean test yield was only a kiloton, Pyongyang may be disappointed.

"A kiloton is a very low yield and would tend to suggest, I would have thought, that the device was not all they hoped it would be," Davies told Reuters.

"If a nuclear, plutonium bomb fizzles, you can still get one or two kilotons quite easily. You still get a significant energy release. But an efficient device will give you more like 20 (kilotons)."

A source in Beijing who is close to the North Korean regime said Pyongyang had detonated a neutron bomb, designed to release larger amounts of deadly radiation than other nuclear weapons. There was no immediate confirmation of the claim.

Neutron bomb? That doesn't sound right...

Reuters | N.Korea nuke test relatively small: scientists