Snip from BBC: "The world's largest manufacturer of personal computers, Dell, is to recall 4.1 million of its notebook computer batteries because of a fire risk." Link, and here's the NYT report. (Thanks, tim)

Update: Some Persian speaking readers wrote in with word that the Iranian president's blog has been mentioned on television in Iran in official context -- it's real. I have no doubt now. But below the jump, reasons I thought it possible that the blog was a hoax. Look, I'd rather be foolishly skeptical than just plain foolish.

Reader Ehsan Nourbakhsh says, "It is not a hoax, the national TV has announced it, as I've heard. Also this one is a news article from ISNA news agency."

Scroll to the very bottom of this post for some insight from readers.

Link to photos and online videos shot at The Third China International Adult Toys & Reproductive Health Exhibition, in Shanghai. Images are more zany than dirty; most nudity is only plasticflesh. (Thanks, rain).

Update: Shanghaiist has some fun coverage here. (thanks, Wang Wei)

The search giant distributed legal missives to various media organizations, demanding that they cease using the word "Google" as a verb. In the last two months, that word was added to both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: in the former, as a capitalized proper noun; in the latter, as a purportedly illicit verb. Snip from an article by Stephen Foley in The Independent:

A spokesman confirmed that it had sent the letters. "We think it's important to make the distinction between using the word Google to describe using Google to search the internet, and using the word Google to describe searching the internet. It has some serious trademark issues."

But although an attempt to protect the company's trademark, the letters have raised snickers after they were leaked on to the web. Bloggers have been making fun of the examples Google's lawyers deem acceptable. They included: "Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party. Inappropriate: I googled that hottie."

Link (Thanks, Mary Beth)

I just, ah, googled some related past posts by my blog-colleage Cory Doctorow:

* Can Anyone Own Web 2.0?
* Google's trademark counsel sending out dumb lawyer-letters over "to google"
* Trademarks, an essay on OpenP2P.com by Cory.

Reader comment: George Hotelling says,

I find it interesting that Google has a problem with people using "google" as a verb, since Pontiac ran an ad telling people to "Google Pontiac" and in response Google said "We are happy that Pontiac has featured Google search in their television ad campaign."

Kalle Alm says,

Hilarious. I wrote a blog entry about just this. The fact it's listed as a verb in Japanese dictionaries. As a "godan-verb of the Iku/Yuku special class", to be precise.

Irene Delse says, says

It's ironic but not surprising that "Google" has also spawn verbs in french, italian and spanish. In each language, it means both "looking something up in Google" and "searching the Net for something".

French : googler
Italian : googolare, gugolare
Spanish : googlar, googlear, guglear

Good luck to the firm if they want to enforce their "no Google verb" policy!

"NO SNAKES OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED ON A PLANE. SNAKES ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED IN CHECKED BAGGAGE. This includes all pythons, boas, rattlesnakes, vipers, mambas, adders, and other known species of snakes.

Exception: some limited amounts of snakes may be allowed if Samuel L. Jackson is traveling; licensed snake charmers are allowed to have snakes in their check in baggage only if the name on the snake charming license matches the one passenger’s ticket; people who'se name is Snake will be allowed on board but only after full body cavity search

* Snakes purchased in the sterile area must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted onboard the aircraft.
* Passengers traveling from the U.K. to the U.S. will be subject to a more extensive screening process.

Some measures will not be visible to the public. In light of the elevated threat level, the Federal Snake Marshals Service (FSMS) will provide expanded mission coverage for flights from the United Kingdom to the United States."

Link to "Snake Threat Level Change for the Aviation Sector." (Thanks, Luke)

Previously: Liquids on a Plane

Reader comment: The Lizardman says,

I enjoyed the entry, and thought I might note that the TSA has actually banned snakes from planes for some time now. Back in 2002, I was looking into bringing along a snake I use in performances on a flight from Texas to Florida. The snake in question was an absolutely harmless rough green snake about 18 inches long - physically incapable of even biting a finger! When I called the airline I was told not to bring the snake and further referred to a local TSA contact who told me that if I even brought the snake to the airport it would cause a security shutdown of the terminal and I would be arrested. No explanation was given nor were alternatives suggested. In the end I drove to Florida for the gig and I have since found that some package carriers will transport for snakes under certain conditions - I guess their planes aren't afraid of snakes. Here's an image of the snake during the performance: jpeg link.

Airport X-ray scans of airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a 2005 Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening. So why are authorities still scanning our shoes with outdated technology incapable of spotting what it's supposed to spot? Snip from AP item:

Findings from the report, obtained by The Associated Press, did not stop the Transportation Security Administration from announcing Sunday that all airline passengers must remove their shoes and run them through X-ray machines before boarding commercial aircraft. (...)

In its April 2005 report, "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security — Phase I," the Homeland Security Department concluded that images on X-ray machines don't provide the information necessary to detect explosives. Machines used at most airports to scan hand-held luggage, purses, briefcases and shoes have not been upgraded to detect explosives since the report was issued.

Link (thanks, rich mogull)

Reader comment: Dr. Paul J. Camp says,

In World War II, the OSS used to send spies and saboteurs into occupied Europe with, among other things, knives concealed in the soles of their shoes. I doubt the trick has been forgotten, and if it is ceramic rather than metal, the knife wouldn't set off the metal detectors. You can easily obtain a ceramic knife blade at any of your higher end cooking-as-a-fashion-statement stores. Just because X-rays don't catch the terrorist-du-jour doesn't mean they are useless. Now that I've written this, the NSA will probably be listening in on all my future phone calls.

Privacy-Loving Reader says,

Time Magazine identifies the explosive that the [alleged, would-be] plane bombers were going to use: TATP, according to UK investigators.

So I typed that into Google... number one result leads to a Wikipedia story about Acetone Peroxide, aka triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, and TCAP.

Interestingly, "...TATP is used in a a toy pyrotechnic device known as a "torpedo", consisting of a twist of paper containing gravel coated with a small quantity of TATP. These are thrown onto the ground, producing a satisfying bang. These "torpedoes" are available legally in states that allow firework sales such as Louisiana and Wisconsin. They are sold illegally in the "Chinatown" districts of San Francisco and Los Angeles (California)..." (Ed note: see update below).

The fourth triacetone triperoxide Google result leads to this WikiBooks link, which actually spells out the procedure to making the stuff!

It may also have been used in the 7/7 London bombings and in Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid's shoes, and is said to be a favorite of Hamas.

All the news organizations I saw refrained from mentioning TATP but it's an open secret. The public should know so they can pressure the government to seek ways to detect it. Researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology claim to have done just that. That article also has some interesting data points on how TATP works:

"...The research team demonstrated that TATP exploded not by releasing thermal energy, but by suddenly breaking each molecule of TATP in the solid state into four molecules of gas. Although the gas is at room temperature, it has the same density as the solid, and four times as many molecules, so it has 200 times the pressure of the surrounding air. This enormous pressure – one-a-half tons per square inch – then pushes outward, creating an explosive force 80% greater than that of TNT..."

Correction/Reader Comment: Privacy-Loving Reader #2 whispers:

I would profess some expertise on the subject of TATP, as I have worked extensively with it under various contracts with the federal government. All are in the past, and well behind me- before 9/11, to be precise. However, I understand a great deal about the synthesis, handling, and testing of the compound in question.

That TATP is used in "snappers" or, as you cite from Wikipedia, "torpedos," is categorically false. The compound used in these is called silver fulminate, and the Wikipedia entry for that compound is quite accurate, noting that "Silver fulminate is used in "trick noise-makers", a popular type of novelty firework."

TATP would be of little to no use in toy noisemakers as the compound is prone to subliming, i.e.: going straight from the solid form to the gaseous form. Again, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect, stating that this compound goes from the trimeric form to the dimeric form. Instead, it simply forms vapor and disappears. From the Wikibooks page: "Storing acetone peroxide is not recommended, because it quickly sublimes." In this regard, it is the same as dry ice: it simply evaporates.

Reader sun-bin says,

I would appreciate insights from 'privacy-loving reader #2" on TATP

1) The dry-ice property means it is quite difficult to plant such bomb into check-in lugguage. (and easy to detect, just search for low temperature spots in the luggage.
2) similarly, even preparing it in airport terminal toilet is not easy. we can use (far) infrared sensor at the gate
3) if it can be detonated so easily (friction heat/etc), there is no point banning iPod and other batteries
a) one can use the eletric wire (eg short-circuiting the shaver outlet, or lights)
b) perhaps even striking 2 pieces of stones (disguised as jewel)
4) the key to detecting TATP preparation is plane is perhaps to look for coolants?

i think such discussion and analysis would help us improve the efficiency of TSA, and also eliminate the unneccesary hassles.

Privacy-Loving Reader #2 replies:

The similarity between dry ice and TATP ends with sublimation. TATP sublimes at room temperature not because it is cold, like dry ice, but because it its intrinsic properties. Its sublimation is slow, and can be reduced; I cannot comment on specifics, but Wikibooks notes the following: "But if it must be stored, it is recommended that it is stored under water and in a container without a cap with threads, as opening it could result in an explosion from crystalized [sic] acetone peroxide."

Ultimately, this is a passing fad; as with many issues, the government has to do something, and hope the problem gets better on its own. Realistically, there are tens or hundreds of ways to disrupt air travel; historically, it has been everything from the fake bomb employed by D.B. Cooper to nitroglycerin in Philippine Airlines flight 434 to Semtex in Pan Am 103. TATP is just the latest thing to get everyone all worried, until something new comes along. Then we'll hail the new detection schemes as being brilliant and effective and worry about the next problem.

Ultimately, all solutions to terrorism issues are political, not technological, as the origins are political. It took years for the British to figure this out; finally, they sat down with the IRA and said, "What the hell do you want?" The IRA had slowly progressed from blowing up people to blowing up cars to finally calling in bombs that were going to go off at 2 AM when the streets were deserted. "If you don't mind, please keep this bomb from going off. We found out killing people makes us unpopular. Thanks!"

A combination of arrests, killings, and negotiations brought the problem to a halt- not better bomb-detectors, or silliness about removing shoes before getting on planes.

Yet another reader, Alexander Ford, adds:

There's a serious misconception in the comments you recently posted by sun-bin. He seems to believe, due to PLR#2's analogy to dry ice, that because TATP sublimates it's solid phase must be very cold, which is obviously false. It's actually similar to naphthalene, the substance used in mothballs, in that it sublimates but can be a crystalline solid at room temperature.

Jim Hill says,

So it appears the Feds were anticipating that terrorists were going to bring the raw materials for acetone peroxide (acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and a bit of hydrochloric acid {I think]) and were then going to set up a laboratory where the AP would be synthesized, precipitated from solution, collected and dried before use? what was their cover story going to be - that they were making a cup o' noodles?

There are explosive compounds that exist and are used in the liquid state - Astrolite, for example (once touted as the world most powerful non-nuclear explosive) but Astrolite needs a blasting cap to set it off - otherwise it burns like charcoal lighter. Really bad smelling charcoal lighter, yes; but it won't just go boom unless it gets a high velocity shock wave propagated through it. That's why professionals like it - it is safe to handle and predictable.

What's next? Al qaeda buying up vast quantities of tincture of iodine to make nitrogen tri-iodide? Scraping the "good stuff" off of match heads? I didn't know the Anarchist's Cookbook was available in Arabic.

I was a high school chemistry geek back when it was legal.

Last week, we posted about the family of a recently deceased defendant in a lawsuit by the RIAA being given 60 days to grieve before the RIAA went on to depose the dead man's children in a renewed suit against his estate. In the intervening days, the publicity about this despicable act -- suing the family of a dead man -- has mounted. Today, an RIAA spokesperson, Jonathan Lamy, contacted me today with this statement:

Our hearts go out to the Scantleberry family for their loss. We had decided to temporarily suspend the productive settlement discussions we were having with the family. Mr. Scantleberry had admitted that the infringer was his stepson, and we were in the process settling with him shortly before his passing. Out of an abundance of sensitivity, we have elected to drop this particular case.

I wrote back to ask him this followup question:

Where was the "abundance of sensitivity" when the RIAA failed to initially drop its case against the Scantleberry family following the death of the named defendant in the case? Given that this "abundance" only materialized within 24 hours of this story hitting several large news outlets and blogs isn't it fair to say that the RIAA is demonstrating sensitivity to its public image, and not its sensitivity to the Scantleberry family?

To which he declined to further comment.

This is par for the course with the RIAA. A year ago, the RIAA contacted me to say that a takedown notice sent on their behalf to RPG Films was a forgery. When I asked if they intended to sue RPG Films for real, and whether these forgeries were common, and whether the RIAA would investigate the forgery, RIAA Director of Communications Jenni Engebretsen promised me she'd get back to me with answers. After repeated emails and phone calls, I finally took the extraordinary step of calling her from a different, borrowed phone (suspecting that she was ducking my calls) and reached her -- only to be told that the RIAA had no further comment.

The RIAA's approach to PR is much like their approach to culture in general: read-only. The RIAA issues statements like the Pope emitting a bull, and we mortals may squabble over its meaning among ourselves, but they are not available to participate in any further discussion. This is reminiscent of the RIAA's approach to things like YouTube lipsynch videos: "our songs are released to be listened to and nothing more; should you dare to make them part of your life, we will use the copyright law we bought to break you."

In next month's theatrical-release film "Man of the Year," Robin Williams plays a Jon-Stewart-like fake newscaster comedian who runs for president as a publicity stunt -- and wins. The trailer on YouTube makes this look like a hell of a movie. I'd vote for Jon Stewart, if I was an American and he was a candidate. Link (via Digg)

time cover art
jpgmag
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bad mags
suck.com
famous for 15mb
born magazine
esopus
bloodwars
magwerk
more zines

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Daoud Kuttab, an independent Palestinian journalist in Jordan (who is, btw, Christian -- and was raised in Bethlehem and Jerusalem) writes:

A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the Middle East political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements I have ever heard. The latest gems come from people like Pat Robertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Rev. John Hagee of Christians United for Israel. Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) and the Second Coming of Christ.

In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book's publication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which, as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake." With the outbreak of the war on Lebanon, he and others have called to their followers to pray for Israel, and for the continuation of the war on Lebanon. They have demanded that Israel not relent in what they call the need to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. They seem to have completely forgotten the very core of the Christian faith.

Link to free version of the op-ed that Kuttab says ran behind the NYT "Times Select" paywall under the heading, "The Line of Fire." (Ed. note: a number of BB readers who are Times Select subscribers wrote in to say that they couldn't find the essay there. I asked Kuttab, and he says it did run, as explained above. I'm not a Times Select subscriber, so I can't verify that way -- if anyone from the NYT wants to confirm, we'd welcome that, for the record. But knowing Kuttab's work and character, I don't see any reason he would misrepresent this fact, so I'm taking his word for it. Maybe the discrepancy is the result of some weird nav glitch on nytimes.com.)

Link to previous BB posts about Daoud Kuttab's work.

Scott Beale says,

Wow this is amazing, alcoholic beverage maker Bacardi totally ripped-off San Francisco’s infamous underground prankster group The Cacophony Society with their recent “Bacardi Salmon” television commerial.

Since 1994, The Cacophony Society has had their salmon running in the opposite direction during the annual Bay to Breakers 12K race through San Francisco. The salmon would enter at the mid point of the course and then spawn their way upstream. The salmon are mini-celebrities at the race and always get a huge cheer as they go by. This Cacophony event is known as Breakers to Bay and more salmon info can be found on Tribe.net, as well as photos on Flickr and video on YouTube.

So I was pretty surprised when I was sent a link to the “Bacardi Salmon” commerical. It was developed for Bacardi by the ad agency RKCR/Y&R (Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, the UK office of Young & Rubicam) , who used the production company Hungry Man, with Jim Jenkins as the director of the spot. The ad steals the entire concept of The Cacophony Society’s Breakers to Bay event, featuring salmon spawning upstream during a foot race through New York (instead of San Francisco). They make no attempt to give any credit to the event’s origins or the person who came up with the idea for the event. In fact, I shot video of the 1996 Breakers to Bay salmon running and this commerical is eerily close to my footage (which has been in circulation for ten years), even including the salmon showing up at the bar at the end.

Well I guess if you can’t come up with something orginal, you can just follow Bacardi’s lead by co-opting someone else’s idea and “run upstream” with it. Oh yeah, be sure to drink a bunch of rum first.

Link to full text of Scott's post, with several updates.

The FBI today said it has no reason to suspect terrorism ties for three Palestinian-American men arrested in Michigan and charged with "collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes." The men were stopped by authorities after buying 80 pre-paid cellphones at a Wal-Mart. Their van contained nearly a thousand such phones, and the men said they planned to re-sell them at profit.

Nearby, in Ohio, a prosecutor today said he lacked evidence to present felony terrorism charges against two more Arab-American men arrested in a similar incident last week over bulk cellphone buys. Link to AP story, via MSNBC (Thanks, Malik Mitchell).

Today's Detroit Free Press includes an interesting article on the cottage industry of buying and re-selling prepaid mobile phones -- apparently quite popular in Arab-American communities. Snip:

In Michigan, "you can talk to almost any family in the Arab-American community, and they all have some relative in the cell phone business," said Warren David, a Lebanese American from Northville. If police knew that, perhaps five Arab Americans would not have been arrested last week on terrorism charges after they bought hundreds of cell phones, said David, who recently sold his cell phone business to an Iraqi American.

"If they understood us a little more, they might not jump the gun so quickly," he said.

In Ohio on Tuesday, a store employee called police after two 20-year-old Arab-American men from Dearborn bought a large number of cell phones at a Wal-Mart. The same thing happened Friday in Caro after three Arab-American men bought 80 phones at one store. In the Ohio case, Osama Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky were just trying to make money by buying cell phones so they could sell them to a distributor for a profit, family members said.

"The two young men were engaged in a perfectly legal practice based on the most fundamental principles of our free market economy," the Abulhassan family said in an e-mail.

Link. Let's hope this frees more anti-terror resources for the *real* fight -- pounding discount hair gel distributors into submission with the mighty fists of justice.

Previously on BoingBoing:
* Van full of cellphones leads to arrest of 3 on terror charges

Reader comment: KC says,

Caro, MI is only about 1/2 hour from Decker, MI, ( Link ) which is where Terry Nichols' brother's farm was, (known to the world from the Murrah Fed. Bldg. investigation).

In other words, it's pretty rednecky. I'm sure they see Arab-Americans from time to time, because one of the largest communities of people of Middle-Eastern descent outside the Middle East is in Dearborn, only a couple of hours away ( Link, and link ). They just don't see them that often, and my guess is that not everyone up there likes it when they do.

You don't ever read about the Police Chief of Dearborn being involved in things like this.

David Newberger says:

While I was sitting in Tulsa, Oklahoma waiting for a flight yesterday I saw this whole thing unfold. I could not believe my eyes. A mere 100 feet away from the terminal the ground crew was directing in a flight and they directed it right into the fuel truck.

Link

The Longtail T is a tee-shirt with a long rear-part that covers your plumber's crack when you bend over. Link (via Long Tail)

Spelling with zombies: enter any phrase, have it spelled out in letters made from zombies. Len sez, "I created an alphabet made completely of Zombies last night, and Dan Coulter took the images from Flickr to make this nifty tool allowing you to spell with zombies." Link (Thanks, Len!)

The Wall Street Journal has an article about a blood pressure, pulse, and sweat level measuring device being tested in US airport security checkpoints. It's made by an Israeli Company with the delightful name of Suspect Detection Systems Ltd.

[T]he system is generally designed to measure physical responses to hot-button questions like "Are you planning to immigrate illegally?" or "Are you smuggling drugs."

...

More than 80% of those approached are quickly dismissed, he says. The explanations for hiding emotions often are innocent: A traveler might be stressed out from work, worried about missing a flight or sad because a relative just died. If suspicions remain, the traveler is interviewed at greater length by a screener with more specialized training. SPOT teams have identified about 100 people who were trying to smuggle drugs, use fake IDs and commit other crimes, but not terrorist acts.

...

The company's goal is to prove it can catch at least 90% of potential saboteurs -- a 10% false-negative rate -- while inconveniencing just 4% of innocent travelers.

If they really want to use this to find terrorists, they're going to have to test every single person that gets on a plane. According to the TSA, two million people fly everyday. That's 730 million people a year. Let's assume that 10 of them are terrorists. With a 4% false-positive rate and a 10% false-negative rate, that means 29 million innocent travelers are going to be detained as suspects, and one out of the 10 terrorists will still make it through security to conduct his or her dirty work. Is it worth it, or would the money be better spent preventing terrorism through intelligence work?Link

Reader comment:

Gryftir says:

I took a upper division psychology class called Deception, the Brain, and Behavior not to long ago, which covered most of the techniques for mechanical lie detection, and related fields.

No device of the type described measures sweat levels. It instead measures Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) which are changes in the skin's electrical field tied to sweat production and stress. The idea is that the conductivity of your skin changes when you sweat, and you sweat when you are stressed or anxious. Of course, that also assumes you somehow unsweat when you are anxious, then tell the truth.

Second of all, such devices are fairly easy to beat when you know how. My class covered the fact that their are things you can do to degrade such devices accuracy to 50% or below (50% is chance). They might catch some illegal immigrants and untrained drug smugglers, but terrorists can use the many physical and mental countermeasures to such devices, and can even practice taking them. They may even utilize the devices in the airports themselves for training purposes, observing which techniques get them further questioning, and which allow them to pass.

This device will do nothing more then provide a false sense of security, while remaining permeable to terrorists and inconveniencing innocent travellers.>

The Swedish Pirate Party has launched a "completely anonymous" file-sharing system intended to allow users to share files without being subject to prying eyes, whether entertainment industry enforcers, snoopy coppers, or nosy employers.

"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the Internet," says Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "If the government can check everything each citizen does, nobody can keep the government in check. The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the Internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."

Link (via Digg)

Anonymous says:

A member of the Free State Project, Russell Kanning, was arrested recently for attempting to distribute a flyer to IRS agents in his home town asking them to quit their job. The flyers contain anti-war content, criticism the Bush administration for its erosion of civil rights, and a form resignation letter addressed to President Bush, which he is asking IRS agents to sign. Kanning remains in a maximum security and will not be allowed visitors. The Free State Project recently passed 7,250 members more than 1/3 of its 20,000 person goal.

Link

How adorable is this tiny real pistol, called the SwissMiniGun? The bullets shoot out of the barrel at 426.5 f/sec. Link (Thanks, SteveO!)

If you're not a high-level politician or multimillionaire, you can't bring books or magazines on flights out of the United Kingdom. But you are still allowed to wear clothes on planes, and the rules don't say anything about forbidding clothes with text on them. So why not print books (from Project Gutenberg, or ones that have been released under a creative commons license) onto iron-on transfer paper and put them on a very long piece of cloth.

If airport security says your long strip of printed cloth doesn't count as a garment you can either wrap it around your head like a giant turban, or you can print it on a narrow scarlet sash and tell them that it's an emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League and proceed to wind it several times round the waist of your overalls, just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of your hips.

Reader comment:

Chris Knight says: Actually, at the 01sj.org conference on Saturday, a nice lady at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles demonstrated cloth specifically meant to be fed through a standard inkjet printer. The cloth has a stiff backing and is pre-treated to make the ink permanent. I was trying to think of an interesting art project using this technology (I'm currently thinking bar codes would be interesting, the resolution and clarity is good enough to support bar codes) but perhaps this would be a decent way to make something to read on the plane. I believe there are a variety of manufacturers, some of whom can produce long rolls of the stuff for continuous feeding through your favorite inkjet. Here is one.

Michael Norto (retired journalist: The AP and BBC, 1988-2004, in Haiti) says:

Heard Aug. 11, an NPR interview with Michael Chertoff, US cop of cops. The question he addresses is long-term anti-terrorist policy, the need for psychological studies of what makes "a person turn from an ordinary person to a bomber."

This is his answer:

"Clearly at the end of the day, we've got to eliminate that pool of people who are susceptible to becoming killers."

"Eliminate"? The interviewer did not ask him to elaborate.

Il a la tete de l'emploi, as one says in French.

Link

Sanrio have released an 8%-14% APR Hello Kitty Platinum Visa. Link (Thanks, IZ Reloaded!)

On Sunday, Aug 27, Londoners can attend the next installment of the London Copyfighters Drunkeen Brunch and Talking Shop. This is a monthly event wherein people interested in copyright reform, open source/free software, Creative Commons and related issues all gather in a pub, have a big friendly brunch, and then make their way to the amazing Speaker's Corner, where they give impromptu speeches about their subjects of interest. It's immense fun, and you haven't lived until you've given a speech at Speaker's Corner: if you can wow a crowd on the Corner, you can give a speech anywhere. The event is hosted by the activist Open Rights Group. Link

See also: London Copyfighters: Speak at Speaker's Corner on Mar 19!

Update: David Goodman, pictured here, sez, "Man, I wish I'd worn a cooler t-shirt. I was actually reading out a letter that I wrote to my MP about ID cards and how they're a majorly bad idea."