The PN9 site is up and available for your perusal. Dates, hotel info, and mailing list signup info, among other things. Pass it 'round.

PhreakNIC 9 Site Available

] "I suppose as long as the officers have had their shots
] and don't bite, I'll allow them to continue that
] technique," Moon said.

Would this really work anywhere but in Tennessee?

WPVI.com: Police Impersonate Dog - Catch Suspect

] NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Wireless Flash) -- Here's a crumb of an
] idea that turned into a success: A computer designed to
] look like a toaster.
]
] Adam Bertram, a network administrator from Nashville,
] Tennessee, has caught the computer world's attention by
] turning a four-slice toaster into a working desktop
] computer.

From this story, I got to http://www.mini-itx.com/ and fell in love with the "Falcon-ITX", a computer made with a mini-ITX board inside a model of the Millenium Falcon.

I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who thinks of these things.

NCBuy: Weird and Offbeat News Stories

] Melinda Dishman's 13-year-old daughter rarely talks about
] the hidden cameras that reportedly took pictures of her
] changing clothes in a school locker room.
]
] ''She's embarrassed. Her big concern is who has looked at
] them. She just knows it's not right,'' said Dishman,
] adding that her daughter is now acutely aware of her
] surroundings and wonders who might be watching. ''She
] doesn't take her privacy for granted.''

While I was in TN earlier this morning one of the technology coordinators told me about this story. The really disturbing part of this is that it was a middle school.

Parents demand limits for school cameras - Wednesday, 07/09/03

] The attempted robbery suspect was already subdued when
] Metro police arrived on the scene; he also was naked and
] bound with duct tape.

] The suspect, Gregory Leon Bell, 38, of Ward Street was
] arrested and charged with five counts of attempted
] aggravated robbery. He was being held in Metro Jail last
] night in lieu of $250,000 bail.

How much did he expect to get from the dollar store? But the bigger question here is why did they strip him?

Police find robbery suspect naked and bound with duct tape - Thursday, 07/10/03

] The labor union for striking workers at the Oyster Creek
] nuclear power plant met with representatives for Sens.
] Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg at the union
] headquarters here Thursday.
]
] The talks mostly centered on the union's version of
] events that led to a massive fish kill at the plant last
] year. The two-hour session came as the union begins its
] fourth week of a strike at the nation's oldest nuclear
] power plant.
]
] At the meeting, two union leaders and six power plant
] workers said on Sept. 23, 2002, that they warned
] management not to turn off pumps that cool water
] discharged from the plant into Oyster Creek.

] "We brought it up several times," said Bill Strako, a
] control room operator. "We said, 'You know, if you do
] that, you're going to violate the thermal limits.'"

] "Does it tie into the strike?" Stroup said. "Yes, it
] does in a way. Our members are the safety net for this
] plant. Now we're walking up and down Route 9 in picket
] lines. And they're bringing in people who will do
] anything they're told."

The plant workers are still striking. Its been about a month now. The outside of the plant has taken on the look of a shanty town. Tents, fires in steel drums, and at least a hundred ragged looking picketers stationed at the plant's three main entrances.. The length of rt9 that runs along the plant is sporting signs every hundred feet or so, "Don't Trust AmeriGen's Lies!", "Who is running the plant?", "Striking for saftey, not money!", etc.. Between the strikers and the heavy national guard presence, its makes for one damn surreal scene..

There has been almost no press coverage.. This is one of the few articles I have found, and I've been looking. The AC Press seems to be the only paper in the area even taking note that there is a strike going on. Of course, all the other papers in the area are Gannet. Still, I find it very strange that the workers of the oldest (and most accident prone) nuclear power plant in the United States or America are striking because they don't feel the plant is safe, and none of our local news papers give enough of a shit to cover it!

Oh the comedy of errors! Plant errors killing fish.. Working striking over saftey.. National guard soldiers accidentally shooting themselves.. At a plant with a rusted and cracked drywell that's over ten years past its design lifetime.

I gotta get the hell outta this town^H^H^H^Hcounty^H^H^H^H^H^Hstate.

AC Press | Union says members warned company before act that caused 2002 fish kill

] At least 100 dead fish were seen yesterday floating in
] the Oyster Creek by the nuclear power plant here, a
] veteran fisherman reported.
]
] Plant investigators saw four dead fish by the Route 9
] bridge that crosses the creek and another near the
] plant's property line, but officials here said the plant
] did not cause them to die.
]
] "We've checked all of our systems and we've done
] nothing," said Ernest J. Harkness, site vice president at
] the Oyster Creek plant.

] The plant was shut down since Tuesday following an
] electrical malfunction. Power generation should resume
] within the next two days, Harkness said.
]
] In December, the largest fine ever assessed on a New
] Jersey nuclear power plant for causing a fish kill --
] $372,912 -- was levied by the state Department of
] Environmental Protection against Oyster Creek.

Oh yeah.. The plant is _never_ killing the fish. Not this time, not earlier this year, not every six months this happens.

This time it was only a few hundred (or the offical number of "four"), last time it was thousands. Does this mean they are getting better?

The workers are still striking too..

Asbury Park Press | Official: Plant did not kill any fish