25 Sep 2009
Fears over 'internal' terror bomb

So how could this work? Perhaps some explosive that detonates when hit by stomach acid? Will the TSA start cramming Rolaids down passengers to slow it down?

Or will the DHS start hiring proctologists like mad? Can you imagine giving every passenger a full body cavity search before boarding?

This is going to be giving security folks some serious heartburn...

Experts are worried after it emerged that a suicide bomber who targeted a Saudi prince hid a bomb inside his body.

(link) [BBC News]

21:57 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Man downloads brain into 'e-memory'

Good grief. I though M$ Research was supposed to have some pretty smart folks, not the kind easily confused by analogy and metaphor. He's not "downloading" anything - he's keeping a journal. This is just a really big electronic diary. Nobody claims that your diary is the same as your memories - diaries may be records of your thoughts, but they are not the thoughts themselves...

"E-memory" is not "my memory". A photograph is not a memory. Nor is a recording, a transcript or a video. I don't remember photos, transcripts, recordings or videos. I remember events and things. A memory is unique unto itself, and is in fact a thing itself. It is more than the mere representation of an event - it is colored by our internal emotional feelings about the event or thing that we remember. Memories, therefore, are things unto themselves.

Things are not the same as their representations.

For the past decade, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has been moving the data from his brain onto computers -- where he knows it will be safe.

(link) [CNN.com]

16:15 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

CA City Mulls Evading the Law On Red-Light Cameras

Void Bill of RightsGosh, why don't we just makes all kinds of crime "adminstrative infractions"? Think of the money we could save on judges and courts and the like!

TechDirt is running the piece on Corona, CA, where officials are considering ignoring a California law that authorizes red-light cameras — cutting the state and the county out of their portion of the take — in order to increase the city's revenue. The story was first reported a week ago. The majority of tickets are being (automatically) issued for "California stops" before a right turn on red, which studies have shown rarely contribute to an accident. TechDirt notes the apparent unconstitutionality of what Corona proposes to do: "The problem here is that Corona is shredding the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, the right to a trial by jury. By reclassifying a moving violation... to an administrative violation... Corona is doing something really nefarious. In order to appeal an administrative citation you have to admit guilt, pay the full fine, and then apply for a hearing in front of an administrative official, not a judge in a court. The city could simply deny all hearings for administrative violations or schedule them far out in advance knowing full well that they have your money, which you had to pay before you could appeal."

(link) [Slashdot]

16:09 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link