] Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism
] database designed to give law enforcement agencies around
] the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of
] records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Mini-TIA?

The problem with systems like this is not so much the information they have but the sort of questions you are allowed to ask them.

Asking who has brown hair and a red truck within a 20 mile radius, in the context where this is a suspect description in a murder, is a standard question that police ask all the time. Having this information more readily available is probably a good thing (unless you're an anarchist).

However, if you run a correlation which shows that people who have brown hair and red trucks are 30 percent more likely to commit murders then average, and subsiquently decide to submit people fitting that profile to additional scrutiny at airport security, you've crossed into pre-crime, and that is where the policy debate lies.

This question is going to continue to be raised. Poindexter, for all his faults, is a leader. He is way ahead of the curve. We'll see a lot more of this over the next 20 years from all kinds of directions, just as we are seeing similar techniques used in unrelated fields (Customer Relationship Management).

Objective research into the effectiveness of pre-crime, and the impact of it upon innocents, is sorely needed. Unfortunately, finding objective researchers is going to be damn near impossible. On the one side we've got arms dealers and drug smugglers, and on the other side we've got civil liberties advocates. Much like the studies on RF related cancer, the truth is probably only going to be found somewhere in the dialog between them, in an environment where both sides are given the resources they need to do the studies they want to do, and there is absolutely no political pressure to rush things into application.

U.S. Backs Florida's New Counterterrorism Database (TechNews.com)

] The Ritz Camera chain today will introduce a one-time-use
] digital camera for about the same price as a typical
] "disposable" film camera in about 100 of its stores.
] Walgreens, which was testing the camera in Madison, is
] expanding the test to all 140 Wisconsin pharmacy outlets.
] And Walt Disney World will begin selling the camera at
] its hotels and theme parks in the fall.
]
] The 2-megapixel Dakota Digital, which offers the image
] quality of a $200-$250 digital camera, doesn't have an
] LCD screen to view images, and doesn't connect to a
] computer.
]
] But users can delete their last shot if they think they
] missed it, and they can get prints back within 15 minutes
] after taking the camera in for processing, because no
] film has to be developed. A CD of digital images is
] included, so users can manipulate the files on their
] computer and share them via e-mail and Web sites.

Hmmm... $11 digital camera that "cant be interfaced to a computer"? This is screaming "HACK ME!!!"

Laughing Boy

For $11, skittish photographers can dip into digital

Hope died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said Monday.

It is a sad day, indeed, though expected due to his age.

Entertainer Bob Hope Dies at 100

] Telemarketers expanded their legal challenge to the
] government's do-not-call list, suing a second federal
] agency over the call-blocking service for consumers that
] the industry says will devastate business and cost as
] many as two million jobs.

Bullshit. If anything, the do not call list will HELP this industry by letting them target only those people that want to be called. Though I cant imagine that would be a large slice of the pie - "Please call me to pitch your wares - I LIKE being interrupted in the middle of dinner by random, faceless sales people!" Maybe they DO have reson to be concerned after all! :)

Telemarketers sue over do-not-call list

I was doing a little work on one of my computers here at the house tonight. I tried to explain to someone what the different RAID levels are and wasn't doing a very good job of it. That is when I remembered this site has a very good explaination of several different types of RAID. Well I hope this explains this RAID thing to some of you and acts as a good information point for the rest of you.

AC&NC | RAID.edu - RAID Levels

] The game was up on 25 July, as the Las Vegas
] Review-Journal finally reported what we'd been telling
] readers all along:
]
] The Hunting for Bambi video that has been sweeping the
] media in the past week or so is a hoax, city of Las Vegas
] officials said Thursday.

well crud. I am two for two on the latest internet jokes. Oh well... time moves on.

Snopes: 'Hunting for Bambi' confirmed as hoax

] In October, three nuns vandalized a nuclear missile silo
] to protest the use of weapons of war. For that act, all
] three will spend the next several years behind bars.
]
] A federal judge on Friday sentenced Jackie Hudson to 2
] 1/2 years, Ardeth Platte to almost 3 1/2 years and Carol
] Gilbert to two years and nine months. All three were
] given three years of supervised probation.
]
] U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn departed from
] sentencing guidelines Friday in punishing the women.
] While the maximum term is 30 years, the guidelines call
] for a six-year minimum term.
]
] "We're satisfied," prosecutor Robert Brown said.
]
] Hudson, 68, Gilbert, 55, and Platte, 66, were convicted
] in April of obstructing the nation's defense and damaging
] government property after cutting a fence and walking
] onto a Minuteman III silo site, swinging hammers and
] using their blood to paint a cross on the structure.
]
] Officials said the women caused at least $1,000 in
] damage.

I've heard that "the problem in this world is that the nuns stopped teaching and the fear went out of the schools." Maybe more nuns like this need to teach.

Nuns sent to prison for vandalism - Jul. 26, 2003

] Josh Pfluger and his scouting pals went into his Rockford
] garage and hammered out a shoe-scanning device now in
] daily use at O'Hare International Airport. His goal at
] the time was simply to polish off his Eagle Scout
] requirements.
]
] Looks like the project passed muster.
]
] Pfluger's homemade invention %u2014 a box with a metal
] detector that travelers step onto before they reach the
] security gate %u2014 are an optional, preliminary step to
] let passengers know whether their shoes will trigger
] alarms at the gate.
]
] That can speed up lines by tipping passengers off they
] may need to remove their shoes and send them through
] X-ray machines %u2014 and maybe even encourage people to
] leave footwear with metal eyelets behind on future trips.
]
] "It's obviously not a certified machine, but it does
] initially help in the screening process," said Monique
] Bond, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Aviation at
] O'Hare. "It's a unique idea ... giving the Boy Scouts an
] opportunity to demonstrate their merit."

Teenager's Eagle Scout project used to ease waits at O'Hare airport security

] The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who
] became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on
] the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars
] character, allege that their son was so humiliated by the
] experience that he had to get psychiatric care.
]
] The revelation is made in a lawsuit his parents have
] filed against the families of four classmates they accuse
] of maliciously turning their son into an object of
] mockery.
]
] The video of Ghyslain, a portly 15-year-old pretending he
] is wielding a double-bladed light sabre, has been
] downloaded millions of times from several Web sites,
] which dubbed him Star Wars Kid.
]
] Many other pranksters have created their own versions of
] the clip, with added video effects and sounds. One has
] him moving at fast-forward speed to goofy music from the
] Benny Hill Show. Other parodies were made with
] unflattering titles, such as Dork Clones, or mixed in
] with sounds of flatulence.
]
] In a statement of claim filed last week in their home
] town of Trois-Rivières, the Razas say that Ghyslain was
] so widely mocked at his private high school that he
] dropped out.
]
] He had to finish the session at Pavillon Arc-en-ciel, a
] ward specializing in child psychiatry at the
] Trois-Rivières Regional Hospital Centre.
]
] Ghyslain "will be under psychiatric care for an
] indefinite amount of time," the statement of claim says.

I didn't think the 4 kids should probably have been sued until I read the end of the article.

"While the video of Ghyslain's antics generated some derisive Internet comments, others felt bad and started raising money for him. One group collected more than $3,000 (U.S.), which they used to buy him an Apple iPod portable music player.

In the excerpts from Internet chats filed in court, the four appear to be plotting ways to get the gifts sent to another address so they can keep the iPod for themselves."

Little brats. Send 'em down the river.

Globetechnology

] Scientists are wrestling with individual atoms to develop
] molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots
] that travel the bloodstream ... and stain-resistant
] trousers.

Wired News: Get Ready for New 'Nano' Products