Stuff about politics and politicians.
This is utter nonsense, as far as I can tell. There simply wouldn’t be enough volatile material to create something that would explode with any amount of force. At best it could turn someone into a walking fireball for a (very) short time, which is bad enough on an airplane, but would hardly bring it …
Continue reading ‘“Latest Movie-Plot Threat: Explosive-Dipped Clothing”’ »
It is with great sadness that I have to agree with this article. When I was growing up, we were taught that the US was the greatest nation on Earth. There was even some evidence that objectively supported it — the Manhattan project (and the fact that we were so collectively horrified at the fates …
Continue reading ‘“NSA Prism: Why I’m boycotting US cloud tech – and you should too”’ »
Bruce Schneier, the well-known security expert (warning: that’s an extremely tongue-in-cheek encryption-geekery fan-site), has a new essay on his (real) site today, and it touches on a subject that I’ve talked about before: how at some point in the near future, technology will make it possible for single individuals or small groups to cause destruction …
This is why I say that we should make no drastic changes until the science results are final. (They’re not, yet — the conclusions there could still be reversed by fresh evidence.)
Those of us who think about these things have been saying that for decades. I hope people listen soon enough for it to do humanity some good.
Ever heard of Elsevier? Unless you’re a scientist, probably not. It’s a scientific and medical publishing company, which takes science research — done by scientists it does not employ, often with public funds — and sells it at exorbitant prices to universities and libraries. The money they make at this, they keep; the original researchers …
Continue reading ‘“Elsevier’s backpedalling not stopping scientist strike”’ »
I can’t understand groups like this so-called “One Million Moms” organization. What is it about lesbians that they fear so much? Why do they let themselves fear so much? That’s a rhetorical question. I know exactly what they fear, and how it gets associated with anyone who’s different: fear-mongering politicians and religious “leaders” whose power …
Continue reading ‘“Ellen Wins: One Million Moms Group Concedes JCPenney Fight”’ »
Given the recent demise of so many juicy and useful pseudo-threats, politicians and other fearmongers are probably watching this with anticipation. After all, it’s never too early to start planning your strategy of terrifying people into giving you more money and power.
This article by Ben Hamamoto makes the case that how we see and judge authority is changing, and that the Internet could be responsible: […] with science and health, we do value a certain cold detachment. Public health organizations in the U.S. have traditionally been very careful to appear serious, probably because appearing too casual …
Oops, another perfectly good disaster scenario down the drain. Unless something like the metavirus from the novel Snow Crash appears, capable of infecting both humans and computers, I think we’re fairly safe on that front. At this rate, right-leaning politicians and other fear-mongers must be seeing a new disaster on the horizon: running out of …
Continue reading ‘“The cyber-weapons paradox: ‘They’re not that dangerous’”’ »