I should be able to resume posting shortly.

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2009-11-30

Once upon a time, we took a look at why creating black holes in particle colliders and using them to generate energy for our power grids was fraught with problems. However, if at sometime in the future we could scale up our lasers and use them to create a black hole with a mass energy equivalent of a million tons, relativistic rocketry would be within our reach. Artificial black holes that small would evaporate away in about a century or so while radiating so much energy, they could power a spacecraft to near light speed in just a decades. Or at least that’s the big idea advanced in a paper by Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland, mathematicians with a passion for theoretical physics and inspired by science fiction novels which sought to provide exotic power sources for highly advanced alien civilizations crisscrossing the cosmos in giant spacecraft at their leisure.
Interesting ...

2009-11-29

7. Never simply dip your lower half of your body into ink in an effort to appear to be wearing pants. Please.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this story because it's pretty obvious what happened. However, in reference to the statement above, I will point out that inconceivability is the most potent weapon used against security. If no one would conceive of attempting a particular form of interference the interference will virtually always work because no one will be actively preventing it ...
Good stuff, follow the links, too ...
It's poor reasoning to assume from his pedigree that he isn't nutz, but with that said - Best of Luck on your suit ...
Always worth repeating ...
There are a variety of illustrative aspects to this story, not the least of which pertains to the uselessness of Britains gun ban, but the aspect  that I find interesting today is the fact that it is a crime to possess the above listed books. These books have been out there for decades and the information has been widely distributed. It's a genie that won't go back in the bottle. The point is that no security or close protection should be without the information described in these books because the techniques described are precisely the types of techniques that will be used against your principals by non-state actors (or state actors running false flag ops). In the same way a gun ban only hinders those who abide by the law, making possession of these books a crime also only hinders those who abide by the law ...
This really isn't appropriate. On the one hand, if St. Peters want to get into the mall security business, there are far cheaper ways to do it, and on the other hand, there are likely real crimes requiring a other-than-mall-security skill-set out there that need to be resolved ...
Of course, the question is "Are the conditions there such that any group of people in those conditions would resort to those tactics?" If not, then it would appear to be an Islamic problem. If so, then it would appear to be a desperation problem. Unfortunately, that info isn't provided so we have no way of knowing whether the reference to the Koran is valid in this case ...
Hmmm ... be able to boost the cume while also inconveniencing the maximum number of people ... what's not to like ...?

2009-11-28

Take it and like it!!! ... by the way, from now on I think it appropriate for everyone to refer to me as the Shadow Counter-interference Minister ... just sayin' ...
Sure instills a lot of confidence, don't it ...?
Tucco: "If you're going to shoot, shoot; don't talk ..."
... so his accomplice would be able to kick my face with out having to stretch out first ...
The police may look at you kinda funny while they're processing you, though ...
Hmmm ... don't assume that the answer they seem to be leading you toward is necessarily the correct answer ...

Like Behel, I’m here at the Coast Guard pier in Monterey for flight school—a training course for prospective Super Falcon pilots. Behel has a bit more flight experience than me, however: He used to fly F-4 Phantom jet fighters for the military. It’s not surprising that he was drawn to the Super Falcon, since the two craft share many of the same design principles. Long and thin, with a tapered nose, the Super Falcon has rear horizontal stabilizers, two large tail rudders and dual acrylic cockpit canopies. It also has inverted wings, which turn the aeronautic concept of lift upside down, allowing the sub to literally fly through the water. Whereas conventional subs rely on ballast, the Super Falcon descends as forward speed creates a pressure differential between the top and bottom of the wings. Free of ballast, the sub is positively buoyant, which dramati­cally increases safety. Lose power and the vessel automatically floats to the surface. 
Hmmm ... a personal sub ... Christmas IS coming, you know ...

2009-11-27

Glad they don't happen here? Yep.
I must have missed this at the time ... cool video, though ...
That would seem to be about the only applicable regard ...
Hmmm ...

2009-11-26

Gotta love it ...
It seems that ethicalism is becoming a decreasing priority in peoples lives ...
Surprise, surprise ...
And you really need to ...
Sounds like someone needs to be voted out of office ...
Coming to a law enforcement system near you ...
Could this be you ...?

2009-11-25

If the Iranians are as crazy as what we're told about them makes them sound (and I tend to doubt it but have no independent means of making a determination), it seems like a valid concern ...
Let's hope so ...
Hmmm ... interesting ...

Sounds like a bargain ...
Have I mentioned before that who you are is totally irrelevant because regardless of who you are if you've been deprived of the means to interfere with the flight you can't interfere with the flight ...?
Terroristic threatening ... really?

2009-11-23

Hmmm ... I wonder if they'll execute some upper managers over it ...
Police say that the homeowner had suffered multiple burglaries from his property, causing him to invest in an alarm system.  At about 3:30AM on Thursday, the homeowner reportedly heard the alarm go off, prompting him to grab his self defense gun and investigate, while his wife called 911.  The homeowner is said to have discovered 23 year old Brett Lee Canada using bolt cutters to break in to the homeowner's trailer, where he kept the lawn maintenance equipment used for his business.  Upon being caught in the act, the burglar lunged at the homeowner, at which point the homeowner fired in self defense, according to police.  The burglar, who has recently been arrested for stealing other lawn mowing equipment, died from the gunshot.  The homeowner, who police say will not face any charges for his lawful self defense action, was unharmed.
I sooo love it when they fight back ...
Interesting article ...

2009-11-22

If the law we followed invariably was that anyone taking illegal steps would be accountable for disobeying the law, two results would follow: (1) If the perpetrators were right about saving us from a true ticking bomb and could prove it, they would likely be acquitted, or their sentence suspended, a sort of nullification because they were demonstrably moral wrongdoers acting in an extraordinary situation. Or (2)if their self-righteous claim could not be proven to be correct, however noble their motivation, they would be guilty of violating the law and punished. They could argue self defense, good faith, whatever case they wished to make, in justification of their acts. What standards apply would be up to the presiding judge — did their acts shock the public's conscience or violate relevant statutory or international laws? The appropriate punishment would be up to judges and juries in the sentencing phase of criminal trials or the damages phase of civil trials.
Beyond that, even if they are subsequently executed, they are merely giving there life for their country and we ask idiot, 18 year-olds to do that all the time ...
Now, some may not consider AD the best directory service available to businesses, but it is the most used, and plenty of IT engineers know how to work with Group Policy. All of Microsoft's major endpoint encryption offerings--including BitLocker, BitLockerToGo, and DirectAccess--offer centralized management through Active Directory, as do Microsoft's enterprise encryption technologies. The latest updates to Windows 2008 and Windows 7 provide additional settings for administrators to configure via Group Policy. What's the downside to using Microsoft encryption technologies? In-house expertise is essential for key length, cache sizes, recovery options, and other considerations. If you support Mac OS or Linux boxes, you won't be able to leverage these technologies enterprise-wide. But Windows shops can get powerful full- and portable-disk encryption, mobile device encryption, e-mail encryption, folder and file encryption, and database encryption for free. You can't beat that price.
Leave it to MS to get in first ...
This has been my experience, as well ...

2009-11-21

Sounds like he is equating Americans with terrorists ...
Probably shouldn't ignore the fact that she's 'milf-alicious', too ...
One of each, please ... cool video ...
How sturdy is the Japan Self-Defense Force Sunglasses?  According to the product page, the lens can withstand being struck by a hard 6.5mm object travelling at 106mph.  It also won't shatter when you drop a half kilo slab of iron from 1.27 meters high.  Based on those numbers, I doubt it will really kill off speeding bullets, but you have my permission to try.  Ouch. The glasses reportedly "look super cool," apart from providing unusually sturdy performance.  It measures 16 x 15 x 4 cm, with a 2 mm thick lens, adding approximately 35 grams of weight to your face. If you break your sunglasses often, the Japan Self-Defense Force Sunglasses should prove a more durable option.  For once, you just might end up with a pair of shades that can last you more than a week of unusually clumsy abuse.  You can grab one for $317.
Hmmm ... kinda pricey ...
Keep up the good work there in North Central Idaho ...
That's easy! They were hanging out waiting for their next paycheck instead of doing their job. Remember: Today is the day, every day ...
That's nice ...
Interesting, with cool video ...
Interesting possibilities ...
Cool explosion video ..., but it's kind of hard to get a sense of size ...

2009-11-18

With all due respect, the only flaw was that everyone had to wait around for someone else with firepower to come and bust a few in his Jihadi carcass ... fix that and you'll find that you've fixed a lot of problems all over the outfit ...
The first is obviously terrorism because it was intended to force us to change our policies out of fear (and it was successful, we sacrifice our dignity and privacy for the illusion of security), whereas the second wasn't terrorism because it was just intended to kill a bunch of people ... what's so difficult to understand ...
Richard's Second Natural Law of Security: It's cheaper to be invisible than it is to be invincible.
Sounds about right ...
Yeah, and no nasty old trials or guilty verdicts were necessary ... congratulations, subject ...

Hmmm ... they seem to have left out all the numbers that would make such statements meaningful ...

2009-11-17

The murderous types just seem to like to rationalize their longing for what Nietzsche called the 'happiness of the knife' ...
Interesting ... I hadn't heard that one before ...
 
At the same federal lockup where Mohammed and the others are to be held, federal prison guard Louis Pepe was attacked in late 2000 by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a former top aide to Osama bin Laden who was awaiting trial in the embassies case. Salim surprised Pepe by using a squeezable plastic honey bear container filled with hot sauce as a kind of homemade pepper spray that temporarily blinded the guard. The inmate then took a plastic comb ground into the shape of a dagger and plunged it into Pepe's left eye. The point pierced deep into his brain, causing severe permanent injury to his sight, speech, and movement. After the attack, prosecutors say papers found in the cell showed Salim's plan had been to take hostages inside the prison and free his co-defendants. While such a "breakout" plot may sound far-fetched given the security of the federal buildings, in Salim's case the very attempt nearly killed someone.
Hmmm ... doesn't say whether they would all still be in the cage if they had successfully killed the guard ... I imagine that they would have been ...

2009-11-16

 A very cool site for those who enjoy Firefighter-related video ...
He says he is an attorney, licensed to practice in Washington, and that when he took his oath of attorney he promised to support the Constitution. Last month, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels banned guns on such city facilities as parks and community centers where children gather. Signs banning guns have since been posted at city parks. Warden said he took action because he believes the ban is illegal. He noted that the state Attorney General's Office has said so. "They know full well it's illegal, but they went ahead and did it anyway," Warden said Friday, adding that he is not a member of the National Rifle Association.He questioned the mayor's motives in announcing the ban. "How is it for public safety?" Warden said. "Are you promoting public safety if you forbid responsible, trained, intelligent people who know how to shoot a firearm from possessing one?"
Respect ...
Had another one just like it Saturday ... gotta love it ...
Cool HDR pic ...
Hmmm ...

2009-11-15

HUBO Walking! HUBO Taichi! HUBO with sword! HUBO aiming for your heart and lungs!
My suspicion is that this is more RC that cyborg ... cool video, though ...
Armor-piercing rounds for the FN are only sold to military and law enforcement personnel, said Mangan, and there are plenty of other pistols that use armor-piercing ammo. But the FN 5.7’s have a particularly notorious reputation. In the vault that day were about 45 recently seized FN 5.7 Herstals. “FN will say its stock ammunition ‘is not armor-piercing’ but we’ve done demos and it does pierce certain types of soft body armor,” said Mangan.  (A company spokesperson said in an email that the 5.7 model “is often mischaracterized as a new firearm which shoots armor-piercing ammunition. To be clear: armor piercing ammunition can be shot from any firearm; however such ammunition has been illegal for Commercial sale since 1986 and is only available to Law Enforcement and Military.”)
Rifle ammo shot at BA rated for pistol ammo will go through it but that doesn't make make it armor peircing ...

I wonder how the NYPD measures will affect the security of the citizens of NY ...
Might want to try having a trusted, hard-core neighbor respond, in exchange for you doing the same ...
It would probably help if we all admitted that we encouraged them to come here illegally so that we would have an exploitable underclass ...
Probably shouldn't give them cool names in the media ...

2009-11-12

Terrorism ... REALLY?!?
Interesting ...
Somebody's making money on the stuff ...
I do SOOO love it when they fight back ...
Patton seemed to love the French proverb "Audacity, audacity, always audacity" ...
So true ...
Why were they having to smuggle cement in ...
All citizens should be able to carry their firepower wherever they want. Clinton would have been better off making it a law that no military objective or order could be used as a defense for shooting a US citizen by milpers ...

2009-11-11

Sounds like a valid claim, all things considered ...
Hmmm ... might be good ...
Fine work, fellas ...
The process of introducing encryption into an application is a fairly complex endeavor, requiring changes to the application logic, the addition of the cryptographic services, and assumption of key management tasks. You must additionally alter the database structure to store the encrypted strings, and alter any database queries that selected/used the now-encrypted data. The approach is very flexible, enabling you to encrypt pretty much any or all data. It also can be very secure, but the sheer amount of effort to make this work scares most people off. Another misconception about cell-level encryption is it's faster because you encrypt less data. In practice, this is not correct. First, if you have sensitive data, then very seldom is it only a single row you are protecting. For example, if you have credit card numbers, then odds are you have one in every row of the table. Second, if you are running queries against encrypted data, then it is faster to decrypt that data as a whole column or table than row by row or element by element -- a lot faster. Technologies that work at the object level are more efficient in general-use cases and a heck of a lot simpler to implement.
10 Things Airports Won't Tell You
Interesting thoughts ...
And the massive jump in violent crimes against the citizens (subjects) isn't relevant ...

And the citizens don't count, so ...
When the 5.7 round was designed around the P-90, is was designed for military applications and as such has an armor piercing round. The round is not available to the public, nor is it available to individual officers or members of the military without the proper paperwork. So exactly what is the media talking about? Or is it more like hype over guns? Facts tend to mean little to nothing to liberals and the media. Lets look at a couple facts. The first one is that the FN Five Seven pistol will now be on some kind of “hit”  list for the anti gun crowd. Second, the only round that makes the 5.7 ammunition able to penetrate soft body armor is the SS 190 round. This round is not open for sale to the public, yes maybe a few boxes from years ago have drifted out, but you can’t buy it any more. Third, this pistol is really not that popular. Dealers have them for weeks at a time, some times months before they sell them. They are expensive and large, no real leather gear for daily carry  is available for the weapon and the cost of the ammo is high. Its just not a very big seller. I have go back to the range every year to re qualify, this is the first time I have seen someone show up with the Five Seven.  Hundreds of private and public officers and this was the first one who had the pistol. The pistol itself holds a 20 round magazine, not much more than a normal 9mm, which I am sure will be brought up as it was part of the ill fated Clinton assault weapons ban.

1000th post ...

This should reorient some utils toward actual flight security ...

2009-11-10

Gee, I sure hope everyone doesn't think that the weapon being used is always, or even occasionally, the weapon of choice. It almost never is. It is usually merely expedient ...
ABC News and the Telegraph (and, yes, even Brady once again, recycling the term and misleading claims they did so much to create) are once again reveling in articles shouting about the evil power contained in Major Hasan’s “cop killer” gun. But the simple fact of the matter is that there is good reason to believe that at least some of those wounded in Thursday’s shooting are alive today because of the 5.7 cartridge’s dubious capabilities. It may seem counterintuitive to many, but the high velocities that enable the Five-seveN’s .22 bullet to drive through soft body armor are thought to be mostly wasted on unarmored targets. The 5.7 is a relatively new cartridge with limited distribution and so actual “real world” ballistic performance is anecdotal at best, but high-velocity pistol bullets like the .38 Super noted earlier and the 7.62×25 Tokarev have been around almost 80 years. Their established track record is that of bullets with excellent penetration characteristics but with questionable stopping power. The 5.7 round uses a far lighter bullet at higher velocities and the high velocity gives the bullet the distinct possibility of fragmenting. But even then, a high-velocity bullet that only weighs 40 grains (as does the legal SS197SR bullet Hasan used) is at a distinct disadvantage when compared to other pistol cartridges. Instead of dumping the bullet’s energy into the body of the person shot, these high-velocity rounds typically stab a long narrow wound channel completely through a human-sized target, or they erupt into fragments that cause narrow wound channels.

2009-11-08

I find the decision to charge Sanchez with murder to be about as unreasonable as it gets. Sanchez was not an aggressor, was in a place that he had a right to be, and only used his gun to save himself from an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm. This was clearly a cut and dry self defense case. In this case, Sanchez saw a crime being committed. Apparently understanding that vigilantism is wrong and illegal, Sanchez did the right thing by calling 911 and attempting to get the criminal’s license plate number, so that he could give that information to the police. He was fully within his rights as a citizen to call 911, follow a vehicle, and report its license plate number. Note that Sanchez had a gun this whole time, but did not use it or even attempt to confront the criminals - he obeyed the law and did not try to take justice into his own hands. Upon seeing that Sanchez was recording their license plate number, the criminals then stopped their vehicle,got out, came over to Sanchez's vehicle, and began to attack him. Sanchez showed great restraint in not using his gun after one of the criminal broke his window and begin to beat him about the face. It was only when Sanchez (quite reasonably) feared for his life as the criminal tried to drag him from his truck that he fired in self defense.

I smell some folks needing voted out ...
Hmmm ...
Space life-boats?!?!? Why wasn't I informed ...
Police say that at about 11:30AM, two men jumped out of a slowly moving Ford Explorer then kicked in the front door of a home on the 4400 block of Shackleford St.  The resident, whose home had been repeatedly burglarized and vandalized by gang graffiti, grabbed his self defense gun.  The homeowner reportedly opened fire on the intruders, fatally wounding one and seriously injuring the other.  The homeowner was unharmed, and the surviving suspect was taken to a local hospital.  Police believe the same two home invaders may have been behind another burglary attempt that morning, which ended when that homeowner opened fire on the burglars and they fled in a similar-looking Ford Explorer. Criminals often work in groups, using superior numbers to overwhelm their victims.  When that happens, even the strongest unarmed victims can be overpowered by the numerically superior criminals.
Christmas is coming ...
Being a hothead is getting to be dangerous ...
What, exactly, makes the Five-Seven different from other handguns? The Five-Seven is chambered for the 5.7 x 28mm cartridge, ammunition originally developed by FN Herstal for the FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon. The P90 was conceived as a compact, powerful weapon that could be carried by aircraft crews, vehicle drivers and other troops who needed a weapon that was smaller than a carbine but larger than a pistol.
That certainly clears things up ...

2009-11-07

The most common form of combat has been the ambush. The Afghans have used this tactic for thousands of years. The availability of modern explosives has made the roadside bomb another powerful weapon for their ambushes. The prime targets for ambushes are targets that can provide the least resistance. In other words, supply convoys. Foreign troops have to devote enormous resources to protect these convoys. This has generally worked, but it means that about half the combat forces are occupied with this. Still, the effort does a lot of damage to the Taliban, for the enemy keeps trying to ambush the convoys, and American (and NATO) countermeasures (helicopter or UAV scouts, combat troops with the trucks and smart bombs always on call) have made such ambush operations higher risk than the Afghans are used to. The Russians, in the 1980s, were much easier targets. But the Russians didn't have the UAVs, and most of their troops were poorly trained conscripts.
Gotta love it ...
Helpful ...
Interesting ...

2009-11-05


Interesting ... too bad it isn't us ...
How about that ...
CIPS 2009 is not only a place for demonstrating the achievements in the development of rescue and fire safety equipment, but also a centre for sharing information, forming ideas and finding opportunities to combine efforts to counter the various threats to the public and industry. The exhibition is aimed at representatives of government bodies, the emergency services and road police departments, as well as managers of large, medium-sized and small businesses, and private individuals. CIPS provides an ideal platform for product promotion, brand development, market research, intra-industry communication between specialists, and meetings with potential customers. The exhibition will promote the development of various areas of the security industry, increased international cooperation, and improved security of the public, businesses and organisations. The exhibition will end on 7 November.
Sounds entertaining. Missed it this year, though ...
Check the legality of this stuff in your area ...

2009-11-04

Interesting point ...
I do soooo love it when they fight back ...
This is definitely a job for the private sector. With a variety of different approaches coming from a variety of different businesses, it will only be possible to compromise small sections of the cyber-structure at any one time. Interwebs, thy name is redundancy ...