Archive for July, 2006
Bush’s Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed
Bush’s Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed
In a report to be issued today, the ABA task force said that Bush has lodged more challenges to provisions of laws than all previous presidents combined.
The panel members described the development as a serious threat to the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, and they urged Congress to [...]
The Breakup of Iraq
Independent Online Edition > Middle East
Officials are now openly (well, anonymously) talking about breaking up Iraq as the only solution to the ethnic conflict. I had a feeling from the start that this would be the end result. Totalitarian despotism may be the only thing that kept them together for so long, but made things [...]
Why Teachers Have Sex With Students
YouTube - Why Teachers Have Sex With Students
Wow. This segment on MSNBC actually covers the issues fairly and responsibly. The psychologist gives cogent (if long) answers and the journalist, for the most part, actually lets him answer the question thoughtfully without resorting to the typical sensationalism (apart from covering this story at all).
According to our [...]
Programmer Blows Whistle on Voter Machine Fraud
A programmer who has worked for NASA admits he was asked by the Speaker of the Florida House to write a hidden program to "control the vote in south Florida." It looks like the video comes from a house subcommittee. The election he seems to be talking about is the 2000 race, specifically southern Florida.
watch [...]
Notes on the origin of Google Earth
Note: I’ve moved all of my Google-related posts to my professional blog.
Here’s the original article: http://www.realityprime.com/articles/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earthAnd a clarified version, more clear on this particular point, since there seems to be some misunderstanding.
Here’s the nugget for the impatient reader:
The idea of Snow Crash inspiring Google Earth is only vaguely true. To the extent it is, [...]
I.R.S. to Cut Tax Auditors
I.R.S. to Cut Tax Auditors - New York Times
So the Bushies can’t get their estate tax cut because it’s, like, anti-democratic (and I don’t mean the Democratic party). So what do they do? You guessed it. They cut enforecment of the law. Rich people, they say, should not pay so much tax. Certainly dead rich [...]
RFID is easy to clone
High-tech cloning - Reuters Newsblogs
Once again, proving the theorem that if you "encrypt" data (or not, as the case may be) and send the same code again and again, it can be copied and spoofed later. Yet another reason why RFID is poorly conceived and horribly executed. Why do we trust these people to any [...]
Evangelical Christian Terrorists?
Previously: Evangelical Christians plead for Israel
[Disclaimer: my previous post tried to make clear and I'll re-emphasize that this only applies to people who are actively trying to end the world. I'd never advocate persecuting anyone for their religious beliefs, even if I personally think they're crazy, as long as they don't harm others.] It occurred [...]
Full-time wearable gaze detector
Full-time wearable headphone gaze detector presented by DoCoMo | Innovative Communication
This is one of those geeky things I can’t pass commenting on. Gaze tracking is a very thorny problem and one of the best solutions, IMO, is sensing the muscular activity around the eyes. That seems to be how this works. I’m not sure if [...]
Crime of the future - biometric spoofing
read more | digg story
Don’t assume that just because your fingerprints are unique, they can’t be copied, storied, or spoofed in your absence. We’re relying on more and more complex security and the best approaches are still the simplest ones: the one time pad is still the best point-to-point security system, effectively reducing the problem to one [...]