Posts from — August 2006

First They Came For the Nail Clippers….:
So can someone tell me where the madness is going to end? My back of the envelope says about as many people die in the US every month in highway accidents than have died in all our domestic terrorist incidents in the last 50 years. Untold numbers of people in the US are eating themselves to death and dying of heart disease, diabetes, etc. — I think that number is something like 750,000 people a year? Even with all the terrorist bombings of planes over the years, it is still safer to travel by plane than it is to drive to the airport, and it is even safer to fly than to walk!
At some point, we’re going to have to accept that there is a difference between real security and Potemkin security (or Security Theater as Bruce Schneier likes to call it), and a difference between realistic threats and uninteresting threats. I’m happy that the police caught these folks even if their plot seems very sketchy, but could we please have some sense of proportion?

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yes, when are they going to realize that ’security’ isn’t about the masses, and their need to feel comfortable with the appearance of security, nor is it an after-the-fact reaction to security. security is knowing that if one of the .00000001% of the people who have something in mind that will harm many people, they will be interdicted.

Dehydration a worry for some travelers – Yahoo! News:
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is allowing passengers to carry on essential nonprescription medicines, such as insulin, as well as baby formula and breast milk for infants. But Ensure is not permitted, said Christopher White, a

TSA spokesman.
“While we understand these restrictions may cause inconveniences for some passengers, it is important to aviation security that we limit the exceptions,” he said.

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let me be very clear…. these restrictions are complete and utter bullshit. they are reactionary and have no real basis to add to the security of a flight. if there is concern that a few people were going to mix liquids to make an explosive or other device, and you arrested those people, then restricting people after the fact, will not make things more secure. the capacity for a person bent on creating an explosion in an airplane is diminished slightly, true, but it is not alleviated through this measure. in the end, the tsa is just being silly if they think this does anything other than inconvenience and endanger passenger far beyond the initial threat, especially from a utilitarian perspective.

SwissMiniGun Armes Miniature Miniature Arms:
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careful… you’ll put your eye out kid.

Designed Objects: New Craft – Future Voices (conference):
New Craft – Future Voices (conference)
New Craft – Future Voices is an international conference and exhibition organised to encourage debate surrounding the future of craft. It seeks to expose and articulate craft issues currently being investigated via doctoral research, post-doctoral research and craft practitioners, and to document new ways of questioning and disseminating the dialogue of craft practice.New Craft – Future Voices will explore the relation between skills, intellect and culture within the individual vision of crafts practitioners.Key Dates of the Conference:17 July, 2006 First call for abstracts28 September, 2006 Deadline for submission of abstracts26 October, 2006 Notification of acceptance of abstracts Call for Papers01 February, 2007 Deadline for submission of full papers

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this looks interesting.

Domesday Book goes online:
he National Archives at Kew has put online the entire Domesday Book, the great survey of England commissioned by King William in 1086, 20 years after the Norman conquest. Archivists hope the website will increase knowledge of one of the greatest relics of medieval England
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the doomsday book is a cool little bit of history.

Grad School Writing Rules:
Terri’s Tips for Successful Graduate School Writing

1. Use simple language to communicate complex ideas. Follow this one rule and you’ll be shocked at how much rigour your thinking gains.*

2. Have a damn good reason for any sentence longer than 30 words. If that sentence can be broken into two, do it.
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Terri’s 10 tips to better grad school writing.

“Nancy Drew addicts don’t get sent to rehab”:
Good quote of the day from CNet, about the contention that young people become video game “addicts.” [Link]

“If a little girl spent hours reading Nancy Drew books, no one would send her to a book addiction clinic, because people perceive books as nutritional,” said Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association.
Full story here.
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gamers do get sent to rehab…..

BookMooch:
At the meeting he told me about BookMooch which just launched today.

BookMooch is very cool.
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yep, it is cool

Welcome to Pottersville: Enough is Enough:
Yeah, I’m talking to you, the one shaking half-naked by the phone that you can barely see through the 8-ball hemorrhages in both eyes, fearfully debating whether to call that rape crisis hot line or battered womens’ shelter or whatever balm that could be provided courtesy of your damned liberal democrat lawmakers.

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this is an essay paralleling the treatment of an american ideal with a battered wife. It is a bit tough, but an interesting parallel. The question that this brings to my mind…. is the typical one ‘Just how does the current administration convince the population that what they are doing are actually good for the population?’ It has a good deal to do with the modern reaganite mythology of america. But it is a myth, ’small government’, ‘free enterprise’, ‘christian nation’, ‘evil world’, ‘nebulous and hidden enemies’…. they are all fictions that cover disturbing truths about what the real policies are.