"Why can't I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun and listen to the arguments? If a gun is so important to us on the street or someone's home, why can't I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun? I'm not gonna shoot anyone. But, I have a right to that gun," Daley said.

That's a good question, but not for any of the reasons you mean ...

The capability to return enormous volumes of data enables these instruments to view Mars at unprecedented spatial resolutions. Half the planet has been covered at 20 feet per pixel, and nearly one per cent of the planet has been observed at one foot per pixel, sharp enough to discern objects the size of a desk. The radar, provided by Italy, has looked beneath the surface in 6,500 observing strips, sampling about half the planet.

Some cool pics ...

The flypast - the closest ever - will allow scientists to measure deep inside the 17 mile wide, potato-shaped moon to see just what it is made of. Phobos, thought to be an asteroid captured by Mars's gravity, has an unusual low orbit that is taking it spiralling slowly towards an impact. That led to US President Dwight Eisenhower being briefed in 1960 that it could be a space station launched by an advanced Martian civilisation.

New images of the Earth's moon show over 600 million metric tons of water ice are present in the moon's north pole craters.

Let's go ...

Computer scientists say they've discovered a "severe vulnerability" in the world's most widely used software encryption package that allows them to retrieve a machine's secret cryptographic key. The bug in the OpenSSL cryptographic library is significant because the open-source package is used to protect sensitive data in countless applications and operating systems throughout the world. Although the attack technique is difficult to carry out, it could eventually be applied to a wide variety of devices, particularly media players and smartphones with anti-copying mechanisms.

Serving with about 140 men, confined inside a submerged vessel for extended periods of time, is quite an experience. There are things that are said and that take place on board that would not be compatible with women. There are times when you have weapons drills at all hours and are barely able to make it to your duty station fully clothed, sometimes in just your underwear. I can just imagine a woman trying to get to her station, trying to get dressed on the run with men gawking. I cannot imagine women being on a Trident submarine submerged for 60 to 70 days, living in close quarters with men. I don't care who they are. 

I can imagine women not wanting to serve on a sub, and I can imagine men not wanting women to serve on a sub, but I can't imagine women not actually being able to pull it off ...

An Ogletown man who was assessed a $19.02 penalty for paying his New Castle County sewer bill one day late was arrested after a tirade he was having with the cashier ended with the remark, “maybe somebody should fly a plane into this building.”

It doesn't really sound like a threat ... more like an allusion to how despicable and infuriating their policies are and the effect those policies may potentially have on people who are trapped by the fact of what is probably a government-enforced monopoly ...

Vance’s lawyer, Larry Wilder of Jeffersonville, said after the trial that a key issue is whether Indiana law allows a casino to enter into a legal contract with a patron who is drunk. “He had at least seven drinks in 160 minutes. He remembers borrowing the first $20,000, but not the last $55,000,” Wilder said. Two casino employees testified that Vance signed seven credit markers — similar to two-party checks drawn on his bank account — between about 8:30 p.m. and 12:47 a.m.

It doesn't say whether he had established a line of credit or, if he had, how large a limit he had arranged for ...

During the initial chaos of the collapse of society most of the population will be caught off guard and unarmed. In the panic people will turn on each other to get the supplies they need to stay alive. If you don’t have access beforehand to a firearm, getting one may be tough. Being unarmed may prove fatal, so what do you do? You need to find something you can use in a pinch as a temporary weapon until you can get you’re hands on a firearm or other suitable weapon such as an axe or crossbow.

Pinned down at dawn in a kill zone and running low on ammunition, the company-sized patrol made an urgent plea from a remote spot in eastern Afghanistan: Send help. Then they made it again. And again. And again. Nearly two hours after the initial call for help, helicopter air support arrived — but not before the unit took heavy casualties. The delay occurred because Army officers back at the tactical operations center refused to send help and failed to notify higher commands that they had troops in trouble. In the end, three Marines, a Navy corpsman and a soldier were dead, along with eight Afghan troops and an interpreter.

Philippines watch

Police looking into the ambush-slay of jueteng scandal witness Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor have a video clip showing armed men a few minutes before the killing. Senior Supt. Raul Petrasanta, police chief, said the 15-second footage is being examined by analysts tapped by Task Force Mayor. “Four men in motorcycles (were) tailing the victims’ vehicle. This may be a big help for us to identify the assailants,” he said. But Petrasanta said the images captured by a closed circuit television camera along MIA Road failed to record the Sunday shooting of the Volvo sedan (RRR 666) driven by Mayor, 54, with two relatives on board in front of Park and Fly around 4 a.m. in Pasay City.

“[A]n objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements, dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis during a week-long festival,” ruled the three-judge panel serving on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

NASA is planning to investigate making inflatable space-station modules to make roomier, lighter, cheaper-to-launch spacecraft, it reveals in its budget proposal released on 22 February. We look into the technologies involved.

Virgin Galactic, the company founded by Richard Branson to commercialize Rutan's spacecraft designs, is sometimes dinged by critics as technically irrelevant. They say that suborbital hops above the atmosphere are a sideshow distraction compared to the real challange of getting humans into orbit. But Rutan argues that, from a technical point of view, flying tens of thousands of passengers over 10-to-12 years will do two things: mature safety systems, making spaceflight much cheaper; and reduce costs dramatically.

Super Talent has announced the SuperCrypt line of secure portable storage, which are available in capacities up to 256GB and offer up to 240 MB/s transfer rates, with either 128-bit ECB (SuperCrypt) or 256-bit XTS (SuperCrypt Pro) encryption.

I wonder if they had to pay for the Crypt Keeper  graphics ...

BlackBerry has gained a reputation in the mobile space during the past decade or so as the "most secure" handheld device and mobile platform available. That's largely due to RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) software for corporate e-mail deployments, which has earned high-level security certifications from some of the world's most demanding information-security organizations, including the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Canada's Communication Security Establishment (CSE); and the U.K.'s Communications Electronic Security Group (CESG), among others. That's all fine and good for corporations looking to secure infrastructure and resources associated with their BlackBerry deployments. But no amount of security certifications can make up for an uninformed and/or careless BlackBerry user.

"Certainly, we should not confine ourselves to developing just one new model. After the fifth-generation fighter jet, we must think and get down to work on a next-generation, long-range aviation complex -- our new strategic missile carrier," Putin told Cabinet officials in Moscow, Reuters reported. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was left with a fleet of deteriorating though still dangerous Tupolev Tu-95MS turboprop strategic bombers and "Bear" missile platforms. The country also possesses a smaller number of the more advanced Tupolev Tu-160 jet bombers, which are the largest warplanes to be built by any nation to date.

Google will roll out a number of security enhancements to Gmail this week, and perhaps as early as Tuesday, says a source with knowledge of the new features. The changes are specifically designed to cut down on phishing and hacking attacks on Gmail accounts.

The SSL was a nice touch. It still isn't Hushmail, but what is ...?

The officer then used his pepper spray on the passenger. Moments later, he managed to get the man off the train and onto the platform, where they struggled for several minutes before the passenger ran away. Other officers then arrested him. Leaird said the pepper spray didn’t reach any other passengers, and there was no need to decontaminate the train.Just four days after that incident, a fare inspector called an officer to deal with a passenger who refused to produce a ticket.“This person has been arrested multiple times, including resisting arrest, Leaird said.Surveillance video shows the officer taking the passenger off the train and then, the man taking a swing at him. The officer pulled his gun.

The officers appear to be VERY self-disciplined in the video ...

Inside the Palms’ Key West ballroom, organizers have recreated some of California’s most infamous crimes using evidence, photos and videos from the scenes. Guests will able to inspect the bullet-riddled getaway car from the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout between police and two heavily armed men. Mannequins have been outfitted with the weapons and body armor used by the men and shell casings line the floor of the display.

I probably won't make it over, but it sounds very interesting ...

The VA incident prompted the Office of Management and Budget to require the U.S. government to deploy encryption on laptops and strong authentication on all remote access. Encryption is becoming mandatory outside the government. In Nevada, businesses may not transfer the "personal information of a customer" without "encryption to ensure the security of the electronic transmission." And in Massachusetts, a new law requires monitoring and encryption of all portable devices for "all persons that own, license, store or maintain personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth."

Philippines Watch

With all the police checkpoints set up for the election period, specifically targeting loose firearms, gunmen managed to ambush a whistle-blower early last Sunday in Pasay City. Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor is best remembered for telling the Senate in 2005 that President Arroyo’s son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, collected jueteng payoffs from him through bagmen. Mikey Arroyo denied the allegations, and the story faded from the headlines.

A new security system pairs data from 18 surveillance cameras supplied by United Alarm with facial and image recognition software from 3VR, and ties teller-station video directly to the transactions being conducted at the time. Picture this: Someone presents a bad check at a teller station in a particular branch. Once it's identified as fraudulent, investigators can isolate the video image by searching on the transaction amount or number, grab the biometric identifying characteristics of the perpetrator, and search video from all the bank's branches to see if he or she'd been in before, and under what circumstances. All that data can be packaged and given over to law enforcement for use in investigation and prosecution.

Surveillance video shows there was a short altercation and struggle as the clerk tried to defend himself with a knife he had picked up and hidden behind his back. Five to 10 seconds later, the robber shot the clerk, and the clerk called 911 himself after the suspect fled the scene. Video footage doesn't show whether the suspect fled on foot or in a car. York County Coroner Sabrina Gast said 22-year-old Malek Salem died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Philippine gunban arrest count

POLICE arrested on Sunday a candidate for municipal councilor in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, for violating the election gun ban, bringing to more than 1,000 the number of violators who were arrested since it was imposed on January 10. George Lemi Sr., 57, an incumbent barangay chairman and confidential agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea), of Magsaysay, Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, was arrested by Tagudin policemen. Reports reaching the National Election Monitoring and Action Center (Nemac) in Camp Crame said Lemi is running for a seat in the Sangguniang Bayan of Tagudin, ILocos Sur.

Either they really need guns, their pols are really dumb or this is all a big smoke screen for a revolution (for want of a better term) ...

"It is a cat-and mouse game between the two sides," said Eric Hutchins, a Lockheed cyber intelligence analyst. "They're constantly trying to develop new ways of attacking us and we're constantly trying to develop new ways of defending us."

All invincibility-oriented security follows this pattern ...

TSA officials would not detail what kind of explosives can be detected. But, they say it's possible a traveler who's been to a gun range or even handled certain medications could be detained. "You can be assured that person will receive additional security scrutiny," says Koshetz. TSA officials say they don't expect the swabbing to delay lines or increase travel times for passengers. The entire process usually takes less than a minute and can be accomplished while people are already standing in line at a security checkpoint.

A new Massachusetts law aimed at protecting personal information went into effect on Monday, and it could ultimately require financial advisors to boost their security measures to protect client data. The law, Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00, establishes minimum standards for safeguarding personal information contained in both paper and electronic records. The law applies to any business or entity that owns or licenses, receives, stores, maintains, processes or otherwise has access to personal information.

The Utah legislature is considering a bill that is meant to encourage concealed carry in private businesses. Under Utah law, a private business can restrict those who carry concealed on their property by either posting a sign that firearms are prohibited or by informing their employees that carry a concealed firearm is not allowed. Traditionally, if someone where to come onto the private property, pull a firearm and injure someone, the private property owner could be held liable for the injury. Under H.B.380 a private employer would be held liable for the actions of one of its employees that pulls a firearm.

Looting broke out in parts of the country, including in Concepcion in central coastal Chile, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) from the earthquake's epicenter. Desperate residents scrounged for water and supplies inside empty and damaged supermarkets. On Sunday morning, authorities used tear gas and water cannons to disperse looters in some areas.

Hmmm ... odd use of the term 'looting' ...

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s  (MDA) airborne laser successfully shot down its first ballistic missile recently over Ventura, Calif.  The airborne laser “successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic missile” and “the entire engagement occurred within two minutes of the target missile launch.” The laser system, called an “Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB)” is being developed by the Boeing Corporation and the MDA and is essentially a “modified 747 jumbo jet” with a “higher-energy laser” attached to the nose of the plane.

Security-camera video shows the moment the 8.8 magnitude quake hit Chile. A tsunami warning was issued the next day for Hawaii, but the waves that arrived we not large enough to be a threat.

Interesting ...

On February 25, the NASA New Horizons mission finally reached one of the major milestones of its flight – namely exceeding half the distance to its target, the dwarf planet Pluto. The spacecraft, which is one of the few being propelled by a cylindrical radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG, carries with it 11 kilograms (24 pounds) of plutonium-238 oxide pellets, which will provide the spacecraft with sufficient power until it reaches its destination. This particular probe is the fastest artificial device in the Universe, 16.26 kilometers per second, or 36,373 miles per hour. This will allow it to arrive in the orbit of Pluto by 2015, by the target is so far away that it will take a total of 9 years until it is reached, Space reports.

With identity theft and privacy concerns on the rise, more companies and individual users are looking towards data encryption to help protect their sensitive data. Way back in August of 2007, Legit Reviews had our first look at Corsair’s answer to portable data security with their Flash Padlock USB thumb drive and now we are getting a crack at its successor, the Flash Padlock 2. The unique thing about these drives is that they are unlocked on the drives themselves instead of using password entry software that limits computing platforms and leaves it vulnerable to numerous software hacks. All this for a mere $55!

Light to non-existent posting until March 2 due to looming deadlines

India’s plans for the 2010 Commonwealth Games include roof-top snipers, food tasters for the athletes and their families, and the closing of schools and courts to cut traffic, officials said Monday. “We’re quite determined to provide a safe and secure games,” Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said at a press conference in New Delhi.

Police said Greg Denny, 37, of Hemet, went to Cherriebelle Hibbard's home on Jan. 15, handcuffed her at gunpoint and forced her husband, who is his cousin, to buy a plane ticket. He then used a fake badge to get through security at Lindberg Field Airport and put her on a plane to her home country, where she remains, according to a police report. Denny was arrested three days later, after his cousin Craig Hibbard realized that he was not a U.S. marshal. Riverside County District Attorney spokesman John Hall said prosecutors have not decided whether he will face charges, which could be state or federal. In his letter, the congressman quoted TSA spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino as saying that Denny "apparently followed the law enforcement procedures." "If TSA screening officers followed guidelines, then the existing procedure is fundamentally flawed," Issa wrote. "On the other hand, if TSA agents did not adhere to procedure, then the officers suffer from either a lack of training or extreme complacency."

In the meantime, Olympic security officers have been instructed that they are authorized to physically use force to defend themselves or others when necessary. To prepare them, tunnel guards are undergoing two to three hours of training with law enforcement in verbal de-escalation skills and self-defense.

That should solve the problem ...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell disagrees with those who claim President Obama has endangered U.S. security. "To suggest that somehow we have become much less safer because of the actions of the administration, I don't think that's borne out by the facts," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." Powell also defends the policies of the Bush administration in which he served, and notes that Obama has continued most of Bush’s security measures.

The couriers pedaled through downtown at high speed on a chase that traversed sidewalks and busy streets, said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith. Eventually, one of the messengers was able to grab the thief's shirt and pull him to the ground. The man then took off on foot and the couriers reclaimed the bike. "This was a wild, high-speed bicycle chase through crowded streets of the Jewelry Mart," Smith said. "We are now looking for a 30-year-old man with a torn shirt, a possibly sprained ankle, as well as road rash."

Gotta love it ...

“The drug traffickers ambushed them,” he said. “It was a particularly brutal attack. They fired on the three patrol boats with guns and mortars. All three boats were destroyed.” The police source said that 12 bodies had been recovered, but that three were missing. He also confirmed that the head of the anti-narcotics squad, Lt Khin Maung Yee, was among the dead.

They don't mess around there in Burma, do they ...?

Police officers in the Bronx burst in on a man who was beating his mother with a frying pan Sunday night and fatally shot him, the police said.

It’s supposed to be a tranquil place; a peaceful vantage point on a troubled world. But these days the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) spend as much time looking nervously over their shoulders as they do gazing at Earth, fearful of the growing amounts of man-made detritus hurtling erratically through orbit. Several times over the past few years the orbiting platform has been forced to use its boosters to avoid a possible collision. Most dramatically, in March 2009, its crew had to take refuge in the attached Soyuz return craft when a chunk of debris from a US launcher passed within a mile of the fragile structure.

Bruce Schneier, a Minnesotabased security expert and author, and other critics say many of the measures, including the most recent ones implemented after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, are simply adopted to create a sense of security that something is being done in response to these new threats, but actually do very little to enhance safety. "This is a stupid game and we should stop doing it," Mr. Schneier said.

Released on January 19, the new PGP Desktop 10.0 product brings new support for Windows 7, MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and two flavors of Linux: Ubuntu and Red Hat. The software also works on Windows Vista, XP, and 2000, earlier editions of Mac OS, and Windows Mobile and BlackBerry phones, said Karthik Krishnan, senior director of product management, in a briefing for Betanews. Version 10 also adds greater ease of use and new capabilities not provided by the Bitlocker feature in Windows 7 and Vista, for instance, according to Krishnan. For example, if you lose your encryption password, you can now retrieve it by successfully answering Q&A challenges incorporated into the desktop software.

I don't know whether I like the sound of that or not ... I guess if your managing data for a large group it would be necessary ...

The DataTraveler 5000 meets FIPS 140-2 level 2 certification for transportation of classified materials and level 3 certification is pending. It goes the extra mile with a 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption scheme. They’ve also included the XTS cipher ECC algorithms that meets Suite B standards required by the US Department of Defense. This is being marketed as a device for government agencies, and it’s pretty hardcore. After 10 “intrusion attempts” (which we hope isn’t just a mistyped password), the the drive locks down and destroys the encryption key. The case of the thumb drive is a sealed titanium-coated steel body that’s tamper-proof and waterproof.

Back in 1987 when there was a rash of robberies and killings of tourists in Florida, the state authorized Carrying a Concealed Weapon (CCW) law, in hopes that it would discourage shootings in restaurants and public places. To the dismay of those who advocate stricter gun laws, the CCW law resulted in random shootings plummeting. The possibility of someone carrying a gun in the local McDonald’s discouraged those who might have been tempted to shoot the place up.

"What really is it that draws a young person being raised in the United States to want to go and be at a camp in Yemen and then come back to the United States with the idea of committing harm within the United States?" Napolitano asked without citing specific cases. "Where in that person's formulation is there an opportunity to break that cycle?" 

As a general rule, they just want to TALK about it because they've hit that magical age when pissing off their parents is what they need to do to convince themselves that they are discrete adults. If we were really interested in solving this particular problem (along with a lot of other related problems) we would make the age of majority match the age of biological maturity ...

A Mission Impossible-style memory stick that self-destructs its data if stolen has been developed by a Wallingford inventor. Norman Shaw, 57, of Market Place, designed and built the Security Guardian in a bid to help safeguard the 50 million items of personal data that go missing in Britain each year. The device automatically deletes files when lost or stolen and an inbuilt GPS tracking device can pinpoint its exact whereabouts anywhere in the world to within 30 yards.

The Israeli government has a long history of hunting down its enemies, as it did, famously, with members of Black September, the Palestinian terrorist group that killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

Let's not forget Nazis ...

“So a senior member of the government has just discovered that playing with toy guns breeds violence. Following the same line of thought, the minister should also ban play stations, the Wii and all other video games with guns where you can shoot down and kill thousands at the press of a button.

I think it's safe to assume that they'll get around to it ...

The report -- which Brent Layton is in the process of reading thoroughly -- detailed virtually everything that happened in the Sept. 8 ambush. It tells how James Layton was shot by insurgents who wore flak jackets, Afghanistan army gear and carried recoil-less rifles -- as he tended to a wounded soldier.

Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence firm specializing in international risk management, said the rhetoric in Stack's rant clearly matches the USA Patriot Act's definition of terrorism: a criminal act that is intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping." "When you fly an airplane into a federal building to kill people, that's how you define terrorism," said Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican whose district includes Austin. "It sounds like it to me."

I can't picture anyone raised American thinking that Stack's chosen course of action could do anything more than draw peoples attention to his manifesto, and he says as much in the manifesto ... Essentially, by doing a splashy suicide, he writes what would otherwise be a digital manifesto in blood ...

For Politics Daily, I reached out to three U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts to analyze the killing, which has generated worldwide headlines and could lead to more violence in the Middle East. One expert is a former deep-cover operative, another is a terrorism expert, and the third worked in counterintelligence and also has experience as a crime investigator. Their speculation about who is responsible is based on press reports of the assassination and their combined decades of covert experience. All the U.S. experts, who still have working ties to our intelligence community, agreed that, as one of them put it, the killing looks like "classic tradecraft" for Israel.

'Un-named experts' should probably be assumed to mean that it's all lies ...

The police say it started with a dispute over the treatment of a woman on the street.  When the bank security officer was called in to help, shots rang out and he was struck. The Central District in Baltimore at night on weekends is a bustling place and at 2 a.m. after the bars let out, a couple leaving a club were headed to their parked car in front of Bank of America when a group of men made advances toward her.  The man sought out the bank's security officer, James Ball, for help. "One of the suspects went into his vehicle, pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots.  We believe he was trying to strike our intended victim and our security guard tried to intervene and was subsequently hit and killed," said Anthony Guglielmi.

Today's the day, every day ...

The robber made off with Grizzle’s platinum ring valued at $21,000, her wedding band, her $350 purse and its contents valued at more than $400, according to the report.

Richard's Second Law: It's cheaper to be invisible than it is to be invincible.

For more than seven years, South Bay resident Eric Drew has been fighting two tough battles: one to stay alive in the face of a deadly disease, and the other to make sure that if he survived, he would still have his identity.

Three short comments neatly characterize the missing case of a San Diego area family, Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, (32, 37 or 43?), and their two young children, Gianna, 4, and Joseph, 3. A San Diego Sheriff's Office spokesman, Lt. Dennis Brugos, said recently: "It's an absolute mystery," and "At this point there is nothing that jumps out." Family members have said, "Quite out of character."

Interesting ...

The idea of flying tourists into space goes back to the 1980s, when NASA and the Space Transportation Association appointed a panel to examine the possibilities. I was a member of their steering committee. The panel concluded that there was a viable market for space tourism — if launchers and spacecraft of suitable safety and reliability could be developed. Several companies are now chasing that goal. The leader among them is Virgin Galactic, a company that brought together Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur who founded Virgin Airways, and Burt Rutan, designer of record-breaking, innovative aircraft.

And then there was the outrage that the assassins had used Western European passports, as opposed to someone else’s, as if the problem, primarily, was one of etiquette. (What is the right nationality to wear to an assassination?)

Computer and flash memory products manufacturer, Corsair Memory, Inc. announces Flash Padlock 2 secure USB flash drive with 256-bit AES encryption and a rugged rubber enclosure. This new drive features with user-definable personal identification number or PIN (4-10 digit) which can be entered using the drive’s integrated numeric keypad.

A nuclear submarine fire at the Zvezdochka shipyard in north Russia's Arkhangelsk Region was put out at 05:58 a.m. Moscow time (02:58 GMT) on Saturday, according to a company source. Local authorities said the fire had started in the hold of the third compartment of the K-480 Ak Bars nuclear submarine being scrapped on Friday at about 02:45 p.m. (11:45 GMT). None of almost 70 people involved in the firefighting operation has been injured.

After 9/11, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes. That point was driven home with chilling force on Thursday when a Texas man with a grudge against the IRS crashed his single-engine plane into an office building in a fiery suicide attack. One person inside the building was also killed. "It's a big gap," said R. William Johnstone, an aviation security consultant and former staff member of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. "It wouldn't take much, even a minor incident involving two simultaneously attacking planes, to inflict enough damage to set off alarm bells and do some serious harm to the economy and national psyche." 

It goes without saying that an airliner pilot couldn't do the same thing despite the air marshals and searches. How do we know. Because they don't mention it in the article ...

Security forces in Ivory Coast opened fire on hundreds of protesters in southwestern Gagnoa town Friday, killing an undisclosed number of people and wounding others, hospital sources said. An opposition politician at the march estimated the number of dead at five but there was no independent confirmation. The violence is the latest in a spate of demonstrations in the world's top cocoa grower since President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government and the electoral commission a week ago, after a row over voter registration. 

Hmmm ... I wonder why they don't mention whose security force they're referring to. The force obviously isn't that interested in the security of the protesters ...

The Orange County Sheriff's Department called the suspect the most prolific bank robber in Orange County history. He was given the moniker because in some of the heists, he used blue paper for demand notes. Investigators say his demand notes usually read, "large bills quickly." The so-called "Blue Note Bandit" is suspected in a string of as many as 15 robberies over the last two months, mainly in south and central Orange County. 

Giving a anonymous serial criminal a public moniker is a double-edged sword, security-wise. It reduces the invisibility of the criminal but also reduces the invisibility of the jurisdiction assigned to catch the criminal ...

In many serious injury cases the insurance company that represents the defendant will hire a private investigator to follow you and secretly video you going about your normal daily activities.

It's been a case of car owners against the city. But on Thursday, the car owners scored big. Surveillance video shows a New York City sanitation truck plowing snow, as well as plowing into a dozen cars in Manhattan. It happened on West 110th Street between Broadway and Columbus during last week's big snow storm. "Now I'm livid," resident Grant Held said. "I want to see justice." Surveillance video from Held's builiding on West 110th street showed the sanitation truck approaching and smashes into his car.

According to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department, Juan Gabriel Gonzalez, 29, forced his way into Brother’s Market by cutting a hole into the roof, and was caught on tape collecting cash and other items throughout the building as smoke began to accumulate. Gonzalez, who is from the Lindsay and Visalia area, was alone inside the store. An autopsy conducted Thursday revealed the cause of his death as smoke inhalation, but lab results are still pending.

Twenty more violators of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) imposed total gun ban were arrested by combined police and military authorities during checkpoint operations in various parts of the country on Wednesday. Reports from the National Election Monitoring and Action Center (NEMAC) showed that the latest 20 violators were composed of 18 civilians, a government employee and an active personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). NEMAC reports said the latest violators yielded 16 firearms, composed of 13 low-powered and three high-powered guns; eight different kinds of bladed weapons and 118 various types of explosive devices.

Comelec appears to be seizing power in the Philippines ... odd that no one in the MSM is talking about it ...

Six soldiers were reportedly wounded after alleged members of the New People's Army ambushed a military truck in Sorsogon province Thursday, a military spokesman said. In a text message, 9th Infantry Division spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc said that at 11 a.m., around six NPA rebels ambushed the truck loaded with 30 soldiers who were involved in a tree-planting ceremony in Barangay (village) Montecarmelo, Castilla town. Five soldiers were wounded after the truck crashed into bushy ravine near the roadside, Cabunoc said.

Yeah ... a tree-planting ceremony ... that's the ticket ...

The spacecraft are now leaving our solar system, having travelled for over 30 years. They are still doing valuable work and have just made a discovery concerning the outer edge of the magnetic influence of our sun. It has been a revelation to scientists, but that is somewhat complex magnetic physics dealing with words like 'heliosphere' and 'heliosheath'. These craft have established a few records, one of which is that they are now the third and forth satellites to leave the solar system. The first two were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which were launched in 1972 and 1973. The two Voyagers were launched just days apart, in 1977, and have turned out to be among the most successful space adventures ever. In the case of the Pioneers, they each carried a small metal plaque with a message from us earthlings to any intelligent being who might find the spacecraft out in space one day. The plaques were designed with a mathematical code that intelligent beings would be able to crack.

It doesn't seem nearly that long ago ... must be some sort of time dilation ...

No legal definition exists for them. While a refugee who fits the strict definition given by the Geneva Convention is, at least in principle, provided some legal protection, such as the right to food and shelter and the freedom to practice his religion, an internally displaced person is virtually invisible, his story never told, and his rights nonexistent. A United Nations report “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement” defines internally displaced persons (IDP) as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.”

The tendentious semantics that surround the word terrorism have infected much debate about counterterrorism, and have involved other words in that debate. Probably the leading example is the perennial question of “Is it crime, or is it war?” None of the enormous verbiage devoted to that question has shed any light on, or advanced public understanding of, the nature of terrorism or how to deal with it. Of course terrorism is criminal; it involves actions such as killing or assaulting innocent people, which are covered by ordinary criminal statutes whether or not there are any laws specifically defining terrorist crimes. And if the use of military force is one of the tools available for countering terrorism — and it is — then one can choose to call it war as well. The application of either or both of these labels, or any other label, does absolutely nothing to resolve the issues of ethics and practical effectiveness, and not only of legality, raised by such difficult questions as how to handle detained terrorist suspects and whether to conduct targeted killings of terrorists still at large. Labels cannot substitute for analysis and principled discussion.

"I receive a text from my daughter saying, 'Dad, these girls are going to jump me at lunch, I'm afraid and I can't take this anymore,'" Gerard said. Michael Gerard said right after that text message, he rushed to the school."And all I was met with is, 'Well you can go downstairs and check on her and make sure she's safe,'" Gerard said. "All their remedy was, was 'just don't go outside.'"Gerard said he wasn't allowed to speak to school administrators and ended up leaving."Seventeen minutes from the time I left the school, my daughter got jumped," Gerard said.

Russell says Yates was alone on the lower deck of the riverboat casino when something happened and he ended up in the Ohio River. Yates was reportedly disabled and used a wheelchair. Russell says Harrah's employees noticed something was wrong when they apparently saw Yates on the casino's security video. Harrah's workers found his body in the water and rushed the man to the hospital, but it was too late.

A robber catches a beatdown from grandma, and it was all caught on tape. A 75-year-old woman jumps into action during a robbery. It happened at a Massachusetts convenience store after a man tried to steal money from the cash register. Granny started taking swings with anything she could get her hands on, including the price scanner.

The technique wasn't particularly effective, but she certainly gets an E for effort ... the baddy's own mom will be laughing at him from now on ...

From the series of targeted killings carried out in response to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich to a spree of car bombings and sniper attacks in recent years, "the Israelis have never really stopped assassinations," Baer said. "They've just gotten better at it." Here are some of the most elaborate operations attributed to the Israelis and their secretive spy force, Mossad, in press accounts -- even though the government has disavowed involvement in almost every instance. 

Interesting list ...

I’d like to think I fall somewhere in between pundits calling for an all out military strike on Iran and those who seem think a nuclear armed Iran would be a good thing.  A military strike would be irresponsible and probably impractical, but I have to take contention with the idea that Iran having the bomb wouldn’t threaten American lives.  Even with short and medium range delivery capabilities, which Iran has, there are numerous American military targets in Iraq and Afghanistan that would possibly be threatened.

So far, joining that particular club has had a calming influence ... knowing that you could easily become a smoking glass crater if you screw up has that effect ...

Israel can also not overlook the fact that Pakistan’s military is a match to its own. The PAF pilots surprised Israeli Air Force, when flying mostly Russian aircraft they shot down several relatively superior Israeli aircraft in air combat in the 1973 Arab Israel war, shattering the invincibility myth of Israeli pilots who believed themselves to be too superior in skill and technology. The Pakistanis happened to be assigned to Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces on training missions when the war broke out and, unknown to the Israelis then, they incognito undertook combat missions.

Don't kid yourself ...

CNET tech news blogger Chris Matyszczyk contends that Buzz is the latest example of  imperfect technology desgined to bend consumer behavior to suit the business goals of tech giants. "It is in the financial interests of Facebook and Google to have as much information made public as possible," says Matyszcyk, a creative director who advises major coporations on marketing and content creation. "The gaucheness with which both Facebook and now Google Buzz have gone about such a noble, selfless pursuit of their future is quite staggering."

The Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a boy allegedly forced to take off his leg braces during screening at Philadelphia International Airport. Bob Thomas, a Camden, N.J., police officer, says it happened in March when he and his wife were flying to Orlando, Fla., with their 4-year-old son, Ryan. The boy wears leg braces because he is developmentally delayed. Thomas says a screener told the family the boy had to take off his braces. The case was featured in a column in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The couple, who run a home-based bookkeeping, accounting and computer programming business, have been customers of Citizens Financial, which is based in Illinois, for 30 years. They maintained personal and business checking accounts with the bank as well as a $30,000 home equity line of credit, which was linked to the business checking account. [The judge's ruling indicates the credit line was $50,000, but the plantiffs' lawyers say this is incorrect.] In February 2007, someone with a different IP address than the couple gained access to Marsha Shames-Yeakel’s online banking account using her user name and password and initiated an electronic transfer of $26,500 from the couple’s home equity line of credit to her business account. the money was then transferred through a bank in Hawaii to a bank in Austria. The Austrian bank refused to return the money, and Citizens Financial insisted that the couple be liable for the funds and began billing them for it. when they refused to pay, the bank reported them as delinquent to the national credit reporting agencies and threatened to foreclose on their home.

Hmmm ... this should be interesting. What's the point of putting your money in a bank that isn't able to keep it secure ...

A Senate committee approved a bill to clarify Utah firearms laws and allow gun owners to display and threaten to use their guns in self-defense. The panel passed the bill on Tuesday, despite Democrats who voiced concern that the bill might increase violence.

As long as the quality of the violence increases as well, I'm all for it ...

Law enforcement officials shot holes Thursday in a proposal that would give citizens more legal leeway to defend themselves with a gun, saying it was unnecessary and would increase shootings. “We have enough people in the state killing each other. This will make it easier,” Howard County Attorney Bob Sivick said. “I don’t think that’s good public policy.” Sivick and a deputy chief of the Omaha Police Department both testified in opposition to the measure, LB889, introduced by State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial. Proponents of the bill, which included the National Rifle Association, said current state law might force people who killed someone in self-defense on their own property or car to defend themselves again against manslaughter or murder charges or against a civil lawsuit.

Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement officials need to be part of the dialogue in Washington when it comes to formulating counterterrorism policies. Currently, they are allowed to comment on proposed federal policies, but they not invited to the discussions when the policies are being hashed out, he said.

Perhaps a casino security boss or two ...

Philippines police are preparing to file charges against political warlords throughout the country to control violence in the run-up to the presidential elections in May. They are cracking down on at least one hundred armies allegedly maintained by politicians. Police commandos are scouring the island province of Masbate in the central Philippines for private political armies in an effort to control electoral violence.

I don't suppose cracking down on them is expected to affect how many votes they get ...

Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt Tuesday after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander last month in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs. The case — as presented by Dubai authorities — rings of clockwork espionage and detailed planning that included suspects riding the same elevator as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was slain in an ambush-style attack in a luxury hotel room that took no more than 10 minutes. But questions emerged about the list of suspects after Dubai authorities released pictures, names and passport photos identifying them as six Britons, three Irish and one each from France and Germany. Ireland said the three alleged Irish citizens on the wanted list do not exist. In Germany, officials said the passport number give by Dubai for the lone German suspect is either incomplete or wrong.

Sounds vaguely old-school ...

United Launch Alliance is taking a wait-and-see approach in deciding how to pursue the medium-class launch market after it phases out the stalwart Delta 2 rocket family. "We're waiting for the market to shape up," said Michael Gass, ULA president and CEO. "So the major driver is what's going to be the size of the market." The company operates the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle fleet, made up of the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rocket families, for a broad range of U.S. military, NASA and commercial payloads. But current schedules call for ULA's smallest rocket, the Delta 2, to be retired in late 2011. The Delta 2 has long been a favorite booster for medium-class Earth observatories, planetary exploration probes and military satellites.

We "artificial people" are totally vulnerable to the pass-through metal detectors. They give you an authentic-looking little card at the hospital with dates and surgeons which you are to present to the appropriate authority before you pass through. They won't even look at it — nor should they. It could be counterfeit, after all. But at least it might be a clue that you don't have to be held at gunpoint through the ordeal. As the machine gongs you as a potential master assassin, the feds swarm — just like on the docks in Gloucester. "Please do not move, sir. Step over here." A series of humiliating pats, rolldowns, wandings and scrutiny ensues. Humiliating, because everyone who passes by looks at you as a pathetic troublemaker — which, of course, I am. But I am not a hijacker! "Mommy, is he a bad man?" a little girl asks as I sit in the glass cage in front of every passing passenger. "Don't look, dear," she answers. When he asks me if these are my shoes, I say, "No, those are," and touch my boots on the table. Omigod, I thought they were going to arrest me right then and there. "Sir, you have violated federal regulations. We will now have to rescreen everything in sequence."

The real intentions of the suspect were not immediately clear but the possession of knives clearly states he was planning some terrorist act, sources said. The flight after brief delay was allowed to leave for Birmingham, sources added.

Yup, that definitely proves it, alright ...

Funny ...

Colorado residents are exercising their Second Amendment rights in record numbers. Gun sales surged to a new high before President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. One year later, gun sales surpassed the record set in 2008, despite the recession's strong grip.

TAMPA - Shooting spree suspect Andre Watkins' brother was the hit man in the high-profile slaying of an NFL star's pregnant girlfriend, Watkins' attorney confirmed. Van Brett Watkins, 49, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder following the November 1999 shooting of Cherica Adams, girlfriend of former Carolina Panthers receiver Rae Carruth. Adams' unborn child survived the shooting but has significant disabilities.

Hmmm ... the family that slays together, and all that I guess ...

"At least 20 jawans of Eastern Frontiers Rifles (EFR) have been killed in the attack at the Silda camp and the condition of two is stated to be very critical," district magistrate N S Nigam told PTI from Midnapore. The Maoists launched another attack on a CRPF camp at Dharampur in the district tonight. A group of 40 armed Maoists attacked the camp around 8.30 pm in Lalgarh engaging the jawans in an exchange of fire. Nigam said at least 100 Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons came on motorcycles and four-wheelers, exploded landmines near the Silda camp before barging inside with a volley of fire around 5.30 pm. There were 51 EFR jawans and officers in the camp when the attack took place, sources said. The attack took most of the jawans by surprise as they were either "whiling away their time in the camp or busy in the kitchen cooking", a senior police officer said. 

Sometimes I wonder if they're just making this stuff up ... anyway, today's the day, every day, fellas ...

The Washington Times reports that, "it was a rough week for gun rights in colorado. First, Colorado State University voted to ban concealed firearms on campus. Then, the University of Colrado went a few steps further and cracked down on another nefarious threat: Nerf guns." University campus security officials banned students' plans for a 'human vs. zombies' game, since the players wanted to utilize the poular orange-and-green toy weaponry. The University of Colorado has already banned simulated guns, which include those that shoot spongy Nerf balls. A nationwide craze on college campuses, the game involves 'zombie' students trying to eliminate 'human' students by socking them with Nerf balls or socks. The moment a 'human' has been tagged, he becomes a zombie and is forced to wear a bandana around his head.

If college were always this fun, everyone would go ...

"You're on the 405. It's afternoon rush hour in July. And then...an 8-point-5. You feel the freeway shaking under your car... What do you do now?" asked veteran LA firefighter/disaster preparedness expert Kevin Mason of a suddenly quiet group.

Bend waaaaayyyy over ...

The Soviet Golf-II sub, the K-129, sank in 1968 in the Pacific, northwest of Hawaii, in circumstances that have never been explained. It was carrying three ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. According to the newly-released papers, despite the difficulties of reaching the vessel some three miles down, Richard Nixon ordered the creation of a task force to bring it to the surface. The project was nearly cancelled due to soaring costs and concern that it might damage improving US-Soviet relations. However, a portion of the sub was eventually winched to the surface by the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a specially-designed salvage ship using a unique lifting cradle.

A generation or two ago, eyebrows hardly may have been raised at the notion that a dad's job included taking his son out back and teaching him how to throw a proper punch. But with seismic societal shifts on everything from spanking to schoolyard tiffs, some dads say arming Junior with the proper fist and block is not on their parenting to-do lists.

It will either be the parents that teach them about violence or it will be the police. I think they're better off learning about it from the parents ...

"I'm angry about what they did to me," Steward-Baker said about the group of young people charged with attacking and robbing her. "And the police officers [who] could have prevented it and the security guards could have prevented it."

It would likely be more productive to be mad at yourself (and your parents) for having gotten to the age of fifteen without having developed the minimal martial arts skill it would have taken to have defeated your foes, yourself ...