Decius wrote (re):

Pro war monks?

What the hell is this world coming to?

noteworthy wrote:

How about feminist supporters of Hezbollah?

This is a friendly reminder that the end of the world is currently scheduled for August 22nd. Be there or be square! RSVP!

RE: Pro-war Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka?

When people post on any forum, whether it's a serious Mozart discussion forum, Something Awful, or PayMeToHumpThings.net, they usually act in a manner that's presentable to the outside world. Of course they do, because someone else is going to read that and they wouldn't want to look like a fruitcake in front of everybody. But behind that relatively normal exterior there are things they're wondering about and want to know, and they type these things where they think nobody will ever see them, like into search engines for example.

If you're more of a nerd than most, (and let's face it, you're reading Something Awful) you probably heard that a week or two ago AOL mistakenly released 3 months of logs from its AOL Search engine, and now the logs are all over the place online. AOL has already apologized for the error, but they shouldn't because these are some of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

Before we get down to business, let me explain what's happening in these images. One of our forum goons, xGryph, coded up a nice little search tool to let us easily look through the 2 gigabytes of logs. The big number on the left is an anonymous user ID AOL provided so advertisers or researchers or whoever's looking at the logs can track an individual account's search habits. Next to that is the search term used.

This is the most amusing collection of AOL query data I've seen yet.

The Internet Makes You Stupid

“We had a flurry of phone calls from travelers in Europe asking where they could buy our laptop cases. Some were even calling directly from Heathrow wondering if we sold the cases there at the airport,” says David Sebens, VP of sales and marketing at ZERO Halliburton.

The Salt Lake City-based company makes a line of high-end aluminum laptop cases with a shock-absorbent polyurethane foam interior. More closely resembling a portable bomb shelter than a briefcase, the bag also has an aura of geek chic that makes it popular among the techie crowd. The company, which sells thousands of the cases each year, says it has seen a spike in demand in the past week.

DAMN THE TSA! DAMN THEM TO HELL!

Decius bought a ZERO Halliburton years ago, which he almost never used. I took custody of it about a year ago. Since that time, I have truly fallen in love with it. Love. Pure love.

Not only does it fit my 17" Powerbook perfectly (few cases fit it at all), but it protects the hell out of it. The internal padding does an amazing job of absorbing sock, and the aluminum can stop anything up to a carbine round. (No, I have not tested this.)

But the best thing about it, is the fashion statement. And I'm not much one for fashion. It stands out. When you trod along kicking the Halliburton, people notice. You can watch their eyes drift down to the case. One look at it says a thousand words. Words like "bomb", "cocaine", "unmarked $20 bills", "negotiable bonds", "guns", "classified documents", "plutonium", etc.. When I plod around the campus I attend classes at, I get asked at least once a week, without fail, "what's in the case?" I have about a dozen answers. "Schemes and plans" tends to be my favorite.

Now, thanks to TSA, everyone is going to have one. It's like when your favorite band gets popular with people you hate. I feel it coming. DAMNIT.

Update: Must... fight... turning into hipster.. must.. not.. turn.. into.. hipster..

ZERO Halliburton going mainstream. NOOOOO!!!!

At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, there was a panel on “The Rehnquist Court.” No one mentioned Bush v. Gore, the most historic case of William Rehnquist’s time as chief justice, and during the Q. and A. no one asked about it. When I asked a prominent law professor about this strange omission, he told me he had been invited to participate in another Rehnquist retrospective, and was told in advance that Bush v. Gore would not be discussed.

The ruling that stopped the Florida recount and handed the presidency to George W. Bush is disappearing down the legal world’s version of the memory hole, the slot where, in George Orwell’s “1984,” government workers disposed of politically inconvenient records. The Supreme Court has not cited it once since it was decided, and when Justice Antonin Scalia, who loves to hold forth on court precedents, was asked about it at a forum earlier this year, he snapped, “Come on, get over it.”

Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named? - New York Times

"What helped the British in this case is the ability to be nimble, to be fast, to be flexible, to operate based on fast-moving information," he said. "We have to make sure our legal system allows us to do that. It's not like the 20th century, where you had time to get warrants."

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

Warrants are so 20th Century. Thats the meme of the year. Remember, the Constitution talks about Warrants, but it doesn't say you always have to have one. It just says that you can't perform an unreasonable search. If the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security thinks its reasonable, then obviously it must be. In the future, Warrants will only be required when you're searching the offices of a corporation or a public official. I'm not kidding. Mark my words.

The strategy here is to win the 2006 elections on an anti civil liberties platform.

We have to get away from this concept that we have to apply civil-liberties protections to terrorists," Peter King (R., N.Y.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee

What is a terrorist, Mr King? Who determines who is or is not a terrorist so that we know when to apply civil liberties and when not to apply them? What is a trial, Mr. King? What does a trial determine? How can you determine guilt without a trial? If you don't need a trial to determine guilt, then why have them? What is their purpose? Has the federal government ever prosecuted an innocent person? How many, exactly? Has the federal government ever spied on anyone for an inappropriate purpose? Has the federal government ever detained someone for an inappropriate purpose?

Meme of the Year: Warrants are so 20th Century

The disconnects between headline and article were just too great not to pass along. You'll forgive the sarcasm.

Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, of Multinational Force Iraq, said operations in and around Baghdad are designed to reduce murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the capital.

My, what lofty goals you have! Who needs kindergarten and women's rights when you can have a 50% reduction in the assassination rate?! Honestly!

Caldwell said the core conflict in the country has changed from an insurgency to a sectarian struggle.

In other words, the sovereign central government is firmly enmeshed in a civil war. "Keep up the good work!," says Caldwell. "Our job here is almost done."

Shiite death squads and Sunni terrorists in Baghdad are locked in a mutually reinforcing cycle of sectarian strife, Caldwell said.

If you look at my chart here, you'll see it's clear that both targeted assassinations and random violence are strongly on the rise over the last six months, and our analysts expect this trend to continue into the fourth quarter.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has launched a propaganda campaign that seeks to portray the terror group as a legitimate political organization and an alternative to the legitimate, democratically elected government of Iraq, Caldwell said.

You know, like Hamas and Hezbollah.

However, the group does not protect citizens, but kills them.

Ah, the old bait and switch. How many election cycles does it take to learn that everyone breaks their campaign promises?

Al Qaeda in Iraq is still bringing in foreign fighters to randomly kill innocent Iraqis.

If only we could get them to do something productive; we could certainly use the cheap immigrant labor. But it turns out these foreign fighters are rather lazy; they make a few killings, and then they think they're entitled to sit around all day sipping tea and reading classic literature.

The group has encouraged sectarian violence and sees it as a road to civil war.

Those fools! Here they are trying to build a road, and I've just told you we're already there! Why can't they see that?

Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink

CASTING - FEATURE FILM - "Die Hard: Reset":

Seeking:

Male - 50s, Caucasian, senior FBI agent, commanding presence, reminiscent, corporate upper management, demanding, warm, empathetic...

Male - Mid 30's, Indian/Middle Eastern, computer analyst, FBI cyber crime division, emotional...

Male - 30S, latin, computer analyst, FBI cyber crime division...

Male - 30s, Caucasian, highly skilled, master hacker, icon in the hacker world, condescending attitude, computer savvy, portly...

Female - early 20S, Caucasian, attractive, clearly intelligent, college student, resilient...

Male - 20-30S, any ethnicity, ferociously intelligent, MTV cool, urban hip, mischievous streak...

Male - 20-30S, Any ethnicity, ex-FBI, smart, straight, fit...

Submission Deadline: 08-30-2006 - - Register Today by clicking HERE NOW

If it didn't cost money, I would sign up for the casting call. Just for the amusement factor. I love the Die Hard movies... Plus, Decius and I made the soon to be famous prediction in 2000 that the next Die Hard movie would take place in a data-center.

Why does the "master hacker" always have to be fat? Most of the best hackers I know are either average build or downright skinny.

Die Hard 4: Reset (Casting Call)

Hezbollah's campaign is a clear sign of how the democratization of missile technology -- cruise missile technology, in particular -- is reshaping global realities.

"We are trying to wage war as if it still mattered that our forces are comprised of ‘the few and the large' -- a few large heavy divisions, a few large aircraft carrier battle groups -- when in fact war is migrating into the hands of the many and the small -- little distributed units. We live in an era when technology has expanded the destructive power of a small group and the individual beyond our imaginations."

The Lebanon War and the democratization of missile technology

Dragon*Con is America's largest, multi-media, popular arts convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film.

A number of MemeStreams users will be speaking at this year's DragonCon, including Elonka, Decius, and likely myself. There are, of course, a plethora of other interesting guests, including EFF attorneys, Ralph Merkle and the Liftport group. I think Palindrome and I will be helping out with Space and Science track this year. Every year is a non-stop party, filled out with hours of interesting discussion, and always some amusing shenanigans.

Welcome to Dragon*Con 2006

The power center of the axis of evil has a blog. You can post comments. :)

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