Notice!

I probably won't be posting for the next two weeks, until at least September 15. Project deadlines loom ...

If we are going to use the argument, I could just as easily say I don’t feel safe with people who can bench 2-3 times my body weight being on campus. After all, it wouldn’t take much for them to wreck me, now would it?

Homeland Security said on Thursday that it performed approximately 1,000 laptop searches from October 1, 2008 through August 11, 2009. One way to protect yourself from these searches is to use whole-disk encryption from a company like PGP and make sure your laptop is completely powered down when crossing the border.

This will stop them from seeing your files but it won't stop them from holding onto your machine. If you must travel, you might want to look at using VPN technology on a cheapo netbook (along with running CCleaner and Eraser at military-grade shred-level.) If they hang onto your machine for longer than it takes to open it and verify that it's a computer and not a munition storage device, the chances are good that they'll break it for you when they realize that you haven't left them anything to look at. Having that capability routinely in place may go along way toward proving that you were framed if they decide to put a present on your machine and then arrest you. It should be clear to everyone that searching people's electronic devices at the border has no positive effect on anyone's security because the whole process is completely circumventable, and only serves as security theater with the added benefit to the ego-challenged of making it easy to victimize innocent people. Anyone that supports this kind of thing needs to be returned to the private sector.

Pittsburgh's short-lived ban on assault weapons, quashed by the General Assembly in 1994, is still on the city's books, and it may get new life under legislation driven by next month's G-20 summit.

I'd like to see all of Pittsburgh's citizens 'open carry' during the entire G-20. The people planning the security seem to be saying "Hey, I bet this is a good enough reason to trot out our gun-ban agenda." Maybe this whole group will be gone after the next election cycle.

Defense attorney Rich McGee painted Holmes as a diligent security guard who got behind Villegas’ car to try to prevent him from driving away drunk. He said Villegas used his Saturn Ion as “a battering ram,” pushing Holmes out of his way by backing the car up and striking him. Holmes believed he was about to be run over as Villegas finished backing out of his parking spot, according to McGee.

Hmmm ... I don't think positioning yourself so that someone can't get away without going through you and then killing them when they try to leave anyway qualifies as self-defense. On the plus side, this argument usually works for the police, so I'd give him about a 50:50 chance of getting acquitted.

Simply stopping bullets isn't good enough anymore for police body armor.Vests packed with high-tech fabrics and diamond-hard plates must withstand abuse that includes 10 days of tumbling in a dryer heated to 150 degrees at 80 percent humidity, according to National Institute of Justice standards developed with input from O'Hara-based Mine Safety Appliances.

However, in our never ending quest to Find Mr/Mrs Right, the one under-discussed, over looked and “it can’t happen to me” aspect of being on the dating scene is your personal security. Ive partnered with Intelius.com, a company that provides “DateCheck”, a background check to vet out and look for possible redflags in your potential mate.

Radio Encryptor allows high quality, secure transmission of voice and data over analog AM, FM, PM or SSB radio links (HF/VHF/UHF). Its small size makes it the ideal encryption device for both personal handheld radio equipment, and built-in mobile solutions, such as in vehicles or on ships.

Hmmm ...

To be sure, no one is condoning the use of torture. The original interpretation of torture was extreme measures that could cause death or serious injury to a suspect. No reasonable person would condone such conduct. But now torture includes humiliating a suspect, loud noises such as blasting heavy metal music, sleep deprivation or having suspects stand in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time. The liberal reaction to the treatment of terrorists should be juxtaposed with US government treatment of American citizens during the administration of their hero, President Bill Clinton.

I think that anything beyond giving them a sandwich and telling them that their role in the conflict is over should be considered torture. So much of our success in the world has come in the form of the citizens of our enemy countries looking the other way, providing info at risk to themselves, slipping a loaf of bread to our boys when they're on the run behind enemy lines and generally hoping that we win. They don't do that because we torture their sons. They do it because they believe that the best thing that can happen to their sons is that they be captured alive by our guys. Short-sightedness has made that a much tougher sell these days ...

Suffredini raised some eyebrows when, at a public hearing last month, he declared flatly that the plan is to de-orbit the station in 2016. He addressed his comments to a panel chaired by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine that is charged by the Obama administration with reviewing the entire human spaceflight program. Everything is on the table — missions, goals, rocket design. And right there in the mix is this big, fancy space laboratory circling the Earth from 220 miles up. The cost of the station is both a liability and, paradoxically, a virtue. A figure commonly associated with the ISS is that it will ultimately cost the United States and its international partners about $100 billion. That may add to the political pressure to keep the space laboratory intact and in orbit rather than seeing it plunging back to Earth so soon after completion. "If we've spent a hundred billion dollars, I don't think we want to shut it down in 2015," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) told Augustine's committee.

Some interesting background info, too ...

Great Britain has long been held as the shining example of what can be accomplished via gun control. Handgun ownership is all but unheard of and rifles and shotguns are tightly controlled and citizens require a "good reason" to be issued a permit to own one. Historically, self-defense has not been considered a good enough reason. Now, the Daily Mail reports that while law abiding citizens have been nearly universally disarmed, the criminals have not and flaunt their power. According to the Mail, "the level of violent crime in Britain has risen by 70 per cent. Gun crime is up by more than half and there are more than 100 serious knife crimes each day, with fatal stabbings having reached the highest level on record."

Seattle’s officially lame-duck Mayor Greg Nickels and the District of Columbia’s delegate-for-life Eleanor Holmes-Norton have something in common that has already gotten one in a lot of trouble and the other may be asking for some. Both seem to believe that constitutional rights can be suspended. Nickels lost the gun owner vote in Seattle and has now lost his job, coming in third in the primary election last week, because he’s spent the last 14 months waging a quiet war on gun rights and Washington State’s model preemption statute. He had threatened to ban all firearms, including those legally carried by citizens licensed to pack concealed handguns, not to mention the growing cadre of citizens who carry openly, from city property by executive order. Advised that he lacked the authority, he promised to do it, anyway.

Gotta love it ...

Some may say that open carrying is a bit of a stunt, but if it is, it is a stunt with a purpose. That purpose is twofold: first, to assert one's right to gun ownership and the means to potentially protecting his or her own life, and second, to inform other members of the public that they have the same rights and do not need to be fearful of law-abiding citizens with guns.

If you are using a GSM phone (AT&T or T-Mobile in the U.S.), you likely have a few more months before it will be easy for practically anyone to spy on your communications. Security researcher Karsten Nohl is launching an open-source, distributed computing project designed to crack the encryption used on GSM phones and compile it into a code book that can be used to decode conversations and any data that gets sent to and from the phone.

Crunchy, but interesting ...

Unlike with software-based encryption schemes, there's no delay associated with locking or unlocking the Ammo. In fact, the process was instantaneous no matter how much data was on the 160GB drive I used when testing the enclosure. More importantly, locking and unlocking really couldn't be simpler. There are no passwords to remember, no software to install, and nothing else that might otherwise confuse your mother. An LED on the magazine even switches between red and green to indicate whether the drive is in a locked state. Encryption doesn't slow the Ammo's transfer rates, either. With an unpartitioned drive inside the magazine, HD Tach measured sustained read and write speeds of 33 and 31MB/s, respectively. Those transfer rates held up with real-world file transfers to and from the drive, as well. 33MB/s still isn't all that quick, relatively speaking, but it's as good as we've seen from an external USB storage device.

Kinds cool, but the RFID is a weak point ...

On Tuesday Cornell informed more than 45,000 current and former members of the University community that their sensitive personal information — including name and social security number — had been exposed when a University-owned laptop was stolen earlier this month.

There really isn't any good excuse for this kind of thing ...

A Winnipeg mother has sent her bullied son to learn kick-boxing and given him a green light to "kick the snot out of" his alleged tormentor when school starts next month. The mother, who asked not to be named, said a bully has been tormenting her son for years. "He's now taking kick-boxing and feeling very good about himself. It's about time he took a stand and stood up for himself," said the boy's mother.

Make sure the liability insurance is paid up ...

There has been an infamously asked question that has gone around for quite some time, when you go out hunting, or when you decide to carry a concealed weapon for self protection, how much ammo do you need to carry? Or how many magazines/speed loaders should you carry.

Uhhh ... one round more than you will actually need ...?

An insecure wifi network is an open invitation to hackers to sneak into your computer, upload viruses, malware, steal your personal data and make a hell of your computer. Securing your wifi network isn’t that difficult. Here are simple steps in securing your Wifi network. You can access all these settings via your router’s administrator panel(refer to your router manual if you need to know how to access administrator panel of your router)

Some cool launch pics ...

Had one of the first women who Davis attacked shot him in self defense, it is very likely that the subsequent victims would never have been through the terrible experience of having an intruder violate the sanctity of their homes and their bodies. If Davis had been killed, he certainly would not have been able to go on and victimize another person. Had he merely been shot and wounded, Davis very well could have been swiftly captured by police when he sought medical attention, instead of spending the next few years raping more women.

Unless you’re some sort of deranged, hammer wielding nonce, who attacks poor defenseless girls to get his jollies, I’m going to assume if you clump someone over the canister with a hammer, they’ve probably done a little bit more to deserve it than scratch your motor. In a situation where you’re fighting for your life, burying a brick layer’s hammer into an attacker skull is a reasonable response.

Too right ...

These rulings, and countless others, make clear that the police do not have a legal duty to protect a citizen, even when that citizen has done everything in their power to summon the police for help. Nor are the above cases just isolated incidents. Taking Chicago as an example, police couldn't respond to over 1,200 emergency calls last year, simply due to a lack of available cop cars. Given these facts, it strikes me as particularly unwise to rely upon the police as one's only means of defense against criminals.

Let's save the word "terrorism" for things that actually are terrorism.

So desu, ne ...

Florida passed its “stand your ground” law out of recognition that the old law favored criminals at the expense of their innocent victims. When the law may impose a severe penalty upon crime victims who defend themselves against criminals, those victims will hesitate to act. Those crime victims who thoroughly know the law will stop to double and triple check whether their self defense action will perfectly meet the law’s intricate requirements for justified self defense. Those crime victims that don’t know the law will also hesitate, often not shooting when they should, out of fear that they might end up prosecuted for murder. That hesitation gives the ruthless criminal, who doesn’t care about the law or the victim’s life, an opportunity to harm that victim.

I wish the other states would catch up a little quicker ...

One of the major problems that has existed within the emergency response community is differences in the frequency bands. One department may have older technology, or a new proprietary system that will not work with a neighboring department, making communications between the two departments next to impossible without additional radios or other equipment.

With no fanfare the spacecraft that NASA is pinning the future of the entire manned spaceflight program on arrived by truck at the Army's range located between Las Cruces and Alamogordo.

I'm glad we're talking about going back to the moon and on to the planets ...

In the end Bush defenders are arguing the issue is moot since the terror level was not raised. I would argue to the contrary. The terror level was raised and lowered many other times throughout the Bush era and numerous other security decisions were made at "suspect" political times. The final decision in this instance was against raising the level but who knows what other situations occurred where politics may have influenced national security policy.

The fear of Uncle Sam seizing guns has been constant since the election of President Obama. Although the administration has not introduced any gun-control measures and national gun rights have, in fact, expanded since Mr. Obama took office, there’s an ongoing insistence – fueled by National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre and others – that the Democratic leadership is itching to take away gun rights.

Hmmm ...

It is true that there has recently been a spike in the number of criminals shot by their would-be victims. However it is wrong to say that those armed would-be victims “took the law into their own hands.” Taking the law into one’s own hands is vigilantism. It is where a citizen takes it upon themselves to seek out a suspected criminal, and punish that criminal for a crime that has already been completed, out of a desire for vengeance. Vigilantism is wrong and illegal, because it often results in innocent people being punished in terrible and inhumane ways.

Every day, as Washingtonians go about their overt lives, the FBI, CIA, Capitol Police, Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service stage covert dramas in and around the capital where they train. Officials say the scenarios help agents and officers integrate the intellectual, physical and emotional aspects of classroom instruction. Most exercises are performed inside restricted compounds. But they also unfold in public parks, suburban golf clubs and downtown transit stations.

Hmmm ...

If your email is this tied up with your identity, it is important to protect it. When you use your email address to sign up for services or profiles, you are adding another avenue to attack your account. How do you quarantine an email?

In another news interview, the man told a reporter that he is "absolutely totally opposed to health care in this way in this manner, stealing it from people. I don't think that's appropriate," he said. One YouTube blogger suggested that the man was actually an "ACORN activist" posing as a right-wing gun nut. But there was no evidence to support that claim, and in a separate YouTube video, the man espoused clearly conservative views, not only about health care, but about Second Amendment rights. "It seems to me like the most violent places in the country are the places that have the strictest gun laws," the man said, citing Washington, DC as an example. "DC is a very violent place, and they're the worst on guns," he said

Also ...

The armed protesters weren’t a “cause for concern,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters today. “There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally,” he said. “Those laws don’t change when the president comes to your state or locality.”

As reported, early Thursday morning, the man was near 1st and Clark in Milwaukee, WI when a 19 year old and a 17 year old approach and threatened his life with a gun, as part of a robbery attempt. The would-be victim was armed, and fired one shot, which killed one robber, 17 year old Kevin Ollie. At this point, that robber unintentionally shot his 19 year old accomplice, who survived and is in police custody. The robbery victim was unharmed.

Hmmm [but with big toothy grin it comes out more Hnnn] ...

An international company announced plans to launch a commercial space venture using spacecraft designed for a once classified Russian space program. Excalibur Almaz Limited plans to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013 with updated 1970's era Reusable Return Vehicles, designed for flying to the USSR's top-secret Almaz space station. Excalibur Alamaz's press release said they would be "taking a big leap beyond the sub-orbital flight market targeted by most other private space companies."

This should be good ...

The chase was real, with speeds surpassing 100 mph on the hilly streets of San Francisco. Steve McQueen teamed up with stunt driver extraordinaire Bill Hickman, and the other cars in the scene were driven by eight of the best stunt drivers around to create an epic high speed chase for the ages.

Yup ...

As reported, 4 armed robbers entered the Kaplan Brother Blue Flame Corporation, a restaurant-supply business, and announced that they were going to commit a robbery. One of the criminals then drew a handgun, and began to pistol whip an employee. The 72 year old owner of the Harlem business grabbed his shotgun and opened fire in self defense. Two of the robber were killed, and the other two were injured. The two surviving robbers fled, but police quickly apprehended a pair of suspects with gunshot wounds.

Don't mess with the old codgers ... especially the armed ones ...

Late last year, hackers breached the data systems of Heartland Payment Systems in the US, which processes 100 million card transaction a month from Visa and MasterCard. It has cost the firm $32m so far in fines and repayments to its customers.

Milwaukee, WI Mayor Tom Barrett was leaving the WI state fair on Saturday night when he heard a woman scream for help. Barrett began calling 911, at which point the suspect turned on Barrett and began beating him with a metal pipe. The suspect then fled, and Barrett was taken to a local hospital. Barrett was listed in stable condition at the hospital, and police are seeking the suspect. The woman was unharmed. I would like to start by offering my best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mayor Barrett. His willingness to come to the aid of a stranger, and endanger his life in doing so, should be commended.

It will be interesting to see how this affects him. It's possible that his politics will force him to say otherwise but typically anyone that finds that they actually do have the walendas to go for it will see the wisdom of having like-minded folk heavily armed.

A survey released by Internet security firm Trend Micro today found that smartphone users are more worried about losing their phones or the personal data on them is more alarming than the threat of Web infections or phishing software.

Hmmm ...

Over the years, Miguel Caballero has gained international recognition for fusing bulletproof technology and fashion. His distinctly chic yet discreetly armored designs have been worn by public leaders, celebrities, and corporate executives across the globe. From Italian leather jackets to Polo t-shirts, each article is made with hi-tech textiles and finished with fine design details for the style yet security conscious client.

What does security mean to you? It's disappointing so little attention has been paid to the national security strategy. It's a chance to redefine the terms of the debate.

See the video to the right ...

The creator of REVAT says it's the only self-defense tactic that can protect someone from an attacker no matter how big or small the victim is. "They can actually apply the REVAT techniques in any situation no matter where they are and what the guy looks like, how strong he is. If there are two guys or five guys attacking all of this doesn't matter," said instructor Ingo Weigel.

Hmmm ... looks like Wing Chun ...

Animal MacYoung's site ...

So, I hope you can now see that circumstances can change the situation where use of violence, which would not have been right, now becomes a moral thing to do. This is not based upon your trying to justify your actions, but upon the actions of the person who chose to initiate force against you. Once he does that your response is not an attack, although it may include the use of force. He initiated the force; you responded. He attacked, you reacted. The given circumstances dictate whether the violence which ensues is an "attack" or not. Force? Yes. Violence? Yes. Attack? No. Because YOU did not "start it". That is the key.

It’s no surprise that most college students are indifferent when it comes to their personal and information security. When you are in your late teens or early twenties, you feel a sense of invincibility. However, once you have a few years under your belt, you begin to mature and gradually realize the world isn’t all about keg parties and raves. Hopefully if all goes well, you adopt some wisdom by the time you’re 30.

Interesting stats ...

Chandra’s contribution to the image shows the energy intensity of the X-rays. The lowest energy X-rays are colored red, such as those in the cooler inner material which is surrounded by higher energy blue blast wave. Orange shows the highest energy X-rays. Hubble added optical details in red, green and blue including all the stars in the image. The separate contributions can be seen below, Chandra on the left and Hubble on the right.

Cool ...

And the reason is simple: These tough battles are helping them separate politicians who are merely strong supporters of gun rights and those who are 100 percent allies.

Nearly 2 million warrants worth more than $340 million are outstanding in the Houston area, and in most cases they're not for hard-core criminals. They're for average residents who haven't settled minor traffic and ordinance citations. The class C misdemeanor offenses, punishable by fines only, can be resolved by showing up at a municipal or justice of the peace court to answer the charge. But when people fail to comply with the law, judges are forced to issue warrants for their arrest.

Hmmm ...

"He tried to run away but he was then arrested," Khalaf said. "He is now in Iraqi police custody and he will be tried under Iraqi law, which could result in execution."

How very unfortunate ...

Good password advice from Bruce ...

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday. Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

I bet it you regularly use all the items to the right, they are gone ...

One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside. As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble. In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm. When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.

I wonder if the Brits ever imagined that it would come to this ...

"Yes, the United States will confront Al Qaeda aggressively wherever it exists, so that it enjoys no safe haven," Brennan said. "But describing our efforts as a global war only plays into the warped narrative that Al Qaeda propagates. It plays into the misleading and dangerous notion that the US is somehow in conflict with the rest of the world."

Because Saturn’s main rings, A, B, C and D, are a scant 30 feet thick, Cassini’s cameras can’t even see them edge on, which makes it tough to spot anything sticking out from them. The equinox is the only time these objects will be plainly visible.

Fairly cool pic ...

Around 10:30AM on Friday, a 911 caller reported an armed robbery at a store on the 3000 block of Gulf Street in Beaumont, TX. The store owner stated that an armed robber who was dressed in black entered his store and threatened him with a handgun, before leaving the store with the stolen money. The store owner grabbed his gun, and went into the parking lot to get the robber's license plate. At this point, the robber saw the owner and pointed a gun at him again. The store owner then fired at the robber. The store owner and witnesses believe the robber was hit in the arm. Neither the store owner nor any bystanders were harmed, and the robber fled in a green convertible Ford Mustang. Police later found the getaway car, along with the suspect's bloody clothing, and are investigating further.

What's the hammer in this case? Purely combative arts like modern military systems. Things like Krav Maga, Systema, or MCMAP. Those arts are designed for a single purpose, eliminate an enemy combatant as efficiently as possible. That's why they're trained in by the Israeli Defense Forces, Spetsnaz and Marine Corps, respectively. Both MMA and traditional martial arts have their places, but why argue over what is best for self-defense without including arts that were specifically designed for modern self-defense?

Invariably, it comes down to how effective the individual combatant has made himself against the strategies and techniques used by the opponent. If you behave in a manner that prevents others from wanting to hit you, it's a win in my book.

This morning, a new Guinness World record was set as 33 thousand, 9 hundred and 96 people performed taichi at the National Stadium. The rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm of people who turned out to celebrate the anniversary of the Beijing Olympics.

Hmmm ...

ABC News, hardly the most objective of content providers, continues its tradition of giving gungrabbers a megaphone. This time, it's an unidentified "senior Mexican official," whatever that means.

Now, don’t get me wrong – these classes can provide benefits for a person who wants to get in shape. (Remember, the term “in shape” is relative to the activity a person is training for. Training is activity-specific – e.g., marathon runners should not expect to improve their race times by training in an aerobic-type kickboxing workout routine). I teach these types of classes, too. These classes can provide beneficial repetition practice for performance of the various physical techniques and movements that may be used in self defense situations. However, there is a huge difference between simply performing movement patterns of strikes, blocks, evasion techniques, etc. in the non-threatening environment of a fitness studio versus the high stress situation of a real attack on the street.

If you don't have the truth on your side, just make things up as you go. That seems to be the motto of the gun control movement. Misleading facts, skewed statistics, and outright lies are the meat and potatoes of their efforts to nudge public opinion in their favor.

NASA engineers have finished testing a new ion-propulsion system for earth-orbiting and interplanetary spacecraft. The system is more powerful and fuel-efficient than its predecessors, enabling it to travel farther than ever before.

Jonathan Campos was on suicide watch when he apparently stuffed toilet paper in his mouth and suffocated Friday.

I can't see that working ...

Abstract. Web users are shown an invalid certificate warning when their browser cannot validate the identity of the websites they are visiting. While these warnings often appear in benign situations, they can also signal a man-in-the-middle attack. We conducted a survey of over 400 Internet users to examine their reactions to and understanding of current SSL warnings. We then designed two new warnings using warnings science principles and lessons learned from the survey. We evaluated warnings used in three popular web browsers and our two warnings in a 100-participant, between-subjects laboratory study. Our warnings performed significantly better than existing warnings, but far too many participants exhibited dangerous behavior in all warning conditions. Our results suggest that, while warnings can be improved, a better approach may be to minimize the use of SSL warnings altogether by blocking users from making unsafe connections and eliminating warnings in benign situations.

This is true of security in general. Any time there is an uptick in false alarms, get ready to be attacked.

(via Bruce)

This case is interesting due to the many factors involved. Was McClanahan's attempt at a citizen's arrest proper or should he have let Eads escape unharmed to burglarize or rob another home? Did McClanahan know his neighbor wasn't at home at the time or was he fearful her life may have been in danger? Did Eads escalate the situation into a justifiable self-defense situation when he tried to take McClanahan's gun? Did his willingness to attack an armed man demonstrate a danger to the public by allowing him to escape? The bottom line is that these questions will need to be answered by a jury, yet it was the criminal who was harmed and not an innocent civilian. To me, that is a check in the win column.

We may need to adjust the laws a little more in favor of the defender ...

Does a liability insurer have a duty to defend its insured if the insured deliberately commits assault and battery in self-defense? According to the Supreme Court of California, the answer is no, because the act of having to defend oneself does not fall within the policy's coverage of an "accident."

I imagine it sucks paying someone that attacked you because their attack failed ...

Mmmm ... tasty!

Computer security is a famously murky world that tends to generate alarmist headlines--like the ones about Apple's vulnerabilities from last week. Defcon 2009 has just finished, and lived up to this reputation in many, surprising, ways. We've rounded up some of the best worst most interesting bits of news.

It must suck to do computer security full time ...

A federal grand jury indicted 51-year-old Carlen Joe Kirby Jr. this week after drawing the attention of Transportation Security Administration officers on May 8 by putting the empty pistol magazine on a table at a security checkpoint. Kirby identified himself as a federal agent working for the State Department and provided identification. He was told he could not bring the clip through security and he said he would give it to his sister, who had dropped him off.

[Facepalm] ...

For nearly three decades, Nigeria has tolerated a nearly constant buzz of violence as one religious or tribal group after another has sought to use bloodshed and terror to make the government listen to its demands. At times, as many as five low-level insurgencies have been going on simultaneously. From the start of his presidency two years ago, Mr. Yar'Adua has sought to construct a government of national unity. Having failed at that, he may finally have decided enough is a enough.

Interesting ...

Police foiled a suicide plot in Australia on Tuesday, arresting four men suspected of links to a Somali Islamic extremist group who were allegedly planning commando-style attacks on at least one army base, senior officers said. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the plot was a "sober reminder" that terrorists are still a threat to Australia, which has drawn the ire of extremist groups for sending troops to join the US-led campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some 400 officers from state and national security services took part in 19 pre-dawn raids on properties in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, and arrested four men.

Hmmph ...

A tool bag lost by a spacewalking astronaut last year met its fiery demise in Earth's atmosphere Monday after months circling ever closer to the planet. The $100,000 tool bag plunged toward Earth and burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center tracking it and more than 19,000 other pieces of space junk in orbit today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "Based on its size and composition, we expect the object to completely burn up before hitting the Earth," center officials said in a statement.

It's kind of cool that they were able to keep track of it ... after they lost it ...

Assault weapons are readily available in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Weak gun laws in the northern New England states allow criminals easy access to these military-style weapons.

Which they then take to Boston to use because the folks in Vermont, NH and Maine are heavily armed and will kill them if they pull their stunts there.

An especially tragic case shows that effective self defense often requires a gun. On October 20th, 2008, KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly was found unconscious and severely beaten in her own home, with every bone in her face broken. Days later, she died without ever regaining consciousness. A police investigation determined that she was robbed and sexually assaulted by her attacker. Police believe that she was the victim of a random home invasion robbery. It was also revealed that she apparently broke her hand while trying to fight off the attacker, in a commendable but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at self defense. A suspect was later arrested and is awaiting trial.

At the very least it shows that hitting people with your hands is only a good idea if your hands are genetically adequate for the task. Mine aren't so, as Bill Wallace used to say, I use my hands to push people away so I can kick them. Actually, the Yang 'classic' Tai Chi form is well suited to knee and elbow incorporation and you can definitely hit a lot harder without risking self-injury using knees and elbows than you can using your fists.

Demand for the latter is prompting a surge of interest in the wares of a small Toronto custom bag manufacturer named Trevor Owen Ltd. Inquiries about its pandemic body bags are pouring in from as far away as the Sultanate of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula. TREVOR OWEN recently shipped several thousand of the thick plastic bags – sewn in its Scarborough factory and touted for their ability to “prevent leakage and seepage of bodily fluids” – to Alberta. It is bidding on a contract to supply Ohio with 12,500 of the white woven polyethylene pandemic bags.

Better stock up, now ...

Lefkow came home the evening of Feb. 28, 2005, to find her husband, Michael Lefkow, 64, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, shot to death in the basement. Bart Ross, an electrician whose medical malpractice suit had been dismissed by Lefkow, killed himself two weeks later and left a note confessing to the crime. DNA evidence and spent shells confirmed Ross was the killer. Lefkow said she was surprised to hear from an expert from the U.S. Marshals Service that a home security system could cost as little as $100. She said she and her husband had looked into buying a system but understood it would cost several thousand dollars. "We just didn't do it," she said. She said judges must make up their minds that "for the sake of my family, for the sake of myself, I just have to do it."

The article doesn't say how the crime was executed so there is no way to know, based on the story, whether an alarm system would have made any difference. Assuming that a '$100 alarm system' had been in place, it would likely have only benefited her family if they had been armed and ready to go once the alarm started going off. The alarm going off itself won't protect anyone from someone that is there specifically to kill you.

Money isn't NASA's only problem, but it has been its biggest problem for decades. NASA is one of the most successful agencies in history, providing the best return on investment of any government agency in my lifetime. My main concerns with NASA's plans going forward include the decision to ground the space shuttle, the woefully inadequate funding for the last several decades and the absence of a space program that will restore the sense of wonder and adventure to space exploration that we knew in the 1960s.

"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost," he said during his inauguration. "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."

Only if you resist the temptation to suck all the profit out ...

Other officers say arming everybody makes it harder for them to tell the good guys from the bad guys. “And when you have multiple people potential pulling out guns, that's gonna totally go against our training and potentially create a chaos that we may not be prepared to handle," said a police officer in the audience.

The only configuration that will actually work in the 'Columbine' scenario is to have armed 'good guys' on hand and ready to go. That means teachers and students. Perhaps you need to change your training to accommodate the effective configuration.

The subcommittee also recommended that NASA establish fueling depots in space. “You can now do much larger missions with the same size booster” by launching an empty spacecraft and fueling it in orbit, said Jeff Greason, chief executive of XCOR Aerospace and a panel member. “It really is a game changer.”

I'll say ...

LAS VEGAS--Showing off technology that James Bond would love, two researchers at Defcon on Friday demonstrated tools that allow people to eavesdrop on video conference calls and intercept surveillance camera video. An attacker needs to be in the same building as the victims to carry out the man-in-the-middle attacks over the network. The free UCSniff tool, available in Linux and Windows versions, offers a slick graphical user interface for sniffing video, said Jason Ostrom, director of the Viper Lab at Sipera Systems. The tool basically tricks the voice-over-IP network carrying the video into sending the data packets to the attacker's computer, he said.

Interesting lists ...