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Friday, February 14, 2003
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Color Me Orange. Turns out that Code Orange alert was based partly on "a claim made by a captured al Qaeda member that... [Hit & Run]
A "cell operating in either Virginia or Detroit had developed a way to slip past airport scanners with dirty bombs encased in shoes, suitcases, or laptops," the detainee had explained, prompting the government to step up security and scare the bejeezus out of everyone. Then they got around to polygraphing the prisoner, and the whole tale turned out to be a lie. Now the CIA and the FBI are blaming each other for the screwup.
Of course this comes as no surprise at all. But I guess it also means that all the idiots who believe what the government tells them won't be suffocating themselves after all.
10:55:43 AM 
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Background - Afghanistan - A slice of life of Afghanistan today, and how it appears to be descending back into chaos...
[nosi News]
10:19:21 AM
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Their Barrel Runneth Over. "This is more pork with one vote than they have ever passed in their lives," says Tom Schatz, president of... [Hit & Run]
The extent of home-state spending did not sit well with everyone. Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, noted that the measure included $90,000 for the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and $750,000 for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"I'd nominate Congress for the Pork Barrel Hall of Fame, but I'm afraid the appropriators would actually try to appropriate money for it," said Mr. Flake, who said he was even more irritated that the measure was largely written by Republicans.
The Republicans in Congress are showing how they really feel about big government and fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, the same thing happened after the "Republican revolution" in 1994 and the people who vote Republican didn't catch on then. There's no reason to think the voters will remember this in the next election either.
9:23:11 AM
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What Symantec Knew But Didn't Say. Security experts are fuming about a Symantec press release indicating the company knew about the devastating Slammer worm hours before the general public did. The company shared the knowledge with select customers but kept mum with everybody else. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]
"I think this is mostly marketing hype," said security researcher Robert Ferrell. "They might have seen some of the initial traffic associated with the worm's activities, but I doubt very much that they correctly identified both the source and the true nature of that activity."
"But if they did detect and correctly interpret the signs of Slammer before anyone else and they chose not to make that information public, then they're just as responsible for the damages done by the worm as the author," Ferrell added.
"If I witness a felony but refuse to call 911 because the victim hasn't paid me money to do so, I'm technically an accessory to that crime, not to mention a really rotten citizen."
Regardless of whether the company really knew in advance or is lying for marketing reasons, this damages Symantec's credibility. Especially given the CEO's "Symantec is a security company" posturings.
8:52:10 AM
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Sergeant Red Thomas tells us how to survive chemical, biological, even nuclear attacks. [Scripting News]
Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert.
Lesson number one: In the mid 1990s there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured died.
60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical.
Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff was to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too). Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again out loud!). These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you will probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and their "Experts," make it sound.
Simple and realistic advice on what to do, with none of the hysterical media hype.
8:45:45 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
3/9/2005; 2:46:44 PM.
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