FanWing

I had pointed out Totally Absurd Inventions to a friend and commented specifically on the Paddle Wheel Plane .

He replied with this -- the FanWing. The PWP was only a drawing -- FanWing has actually video clips.

Hurricane Charley Gallery

DigitalGlobe Delivers Before and After Satellite Imagery of Florida Gulf Coast Following Hurricane Charley Destruction

Justice Department Censors Supreme Court Quote

Claiming "national security", this regime's Dept. of Inustice blocked out a portion of the Supreme Court's decision in a case brought by the ACLU:

"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."

Just who the hell do these people think they are, anyway!?

How Long Can the Country Stay Scared?

Written by noted security consultant Bruce Schneier and printed in the "Minneapolis Star-Tribune" on this date.

The DHS's threat warnings have been vague, indeterminate, and unspecific. The threat index goes from yellow to orange and back again, although no one is entirely sure what either level means. We've been warned that the terrorists might use helicopters, scuba gear, even cheap prescription drugs from Canada. New York and Washington, D.C., were put on high alert one day, and the next day told that the alert was based on information years old. The careful wording of these alerts allows them not to require any sound, confirmed, accurate intelligence information, while at the same time guaranteeing hysterical media coverage. This headline-grabbing stuff might make for good movie plots, but it doesn't make us safer....

The DHS's incessant warnings against any and every possible method of terrorist attack has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with politics. In 2002, Republican strategist Karl Rove instructed Republican legislators to make terrorism the mainstay of their campaign. Study after study has shown that Americans worried about terrorism are more likely to vote Republican. Strength in the face of the terrorist threat is the basis of Bush's reelection campaign.

Now read my post on 8/5/04 titled "Terror Alerts & GB2's Popularity".

On This Date in History

Birthdates
1882 Samuel Goldwyn pioneer film maker/producer (MGM)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969)
1908 Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], Butte Mont, actress (Martha Raye Show)
1910 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1942 Daryl Dragon Pasadena Calif, keyboardist (Capt & Tennille)
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld NYC, actress (Dobie Gillis, Wild in Country)
1949 Barbara Bach [Goldbach], Queens NY, actress (Spy Who Loved Me)
1950 Charles Fleischer Wash DC, comedian (Roger Rabbit)
1952 Pee-wee Herman aka Paul Reubens, actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
1952 2old4this, Grafton ND, legend and visionary
1959 Gerhard Berger formula-1 racer (Italian Grand Prix-1988)
1961 "Downtown" Julie Brown TV host (Club MTV, Inside Edition)
1963 Patty Duffek Woodland Hills Calif, playmate (May, 1984)

Deaths
1967 Brian Epstein Beatles' manager, dies
1971 Bennett Cerf (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitarist, dies in a helicopter crash at 35

On this day...
1783 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900 m altitude
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war
1937 George E.T. Eyston sets world auto speed record at 345.49 MPH
1939 Erich Warsitz makes 1st jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)
1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
1950 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line"
1962 Mariner 2 launched; 1st probe to fly by Venus
1984 President Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project
1985 20th Space Shuttle Mission (51-I)-Discovery 6-launched

Programs Broken by XP SP2

This is the official list, from Micro$oft. It has only 37 programs on it, including Norton Anti-Virus and the AOL toolbar (that won't effect too many millions). The unofficial list runs to over 200 programs. The numbers are growing while you read this.

Bottom Line: If you have been paying attention you aren't using XP anyway, but if you still do, don't rush out and pick up SP2. But you probably aren't listening to this either.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Spotlight

Saddled with XP? Fearing to use SP2, yet afraid not? The folks at Tech Republic are collecting tales of woe and the solutions others have found. Good stuff, before and after.

Epson Lied

6.9 grams
4 channels
full carbon
no servo's
no swashplate
InfraRed control

This machine was announced almost a year ago. Check out the video. The Hamster is cuter than the bored Japanese chick.

Epson Announces World's Lightest Micro-Flying Robot

Turning once again to its micromechatronics technology, Epson has redefined the state of the art with its µFR-II micro-flying robot—the world's new lightest and most advanced microrobot, which also features Bluetooth wireless control and independent flight*2. The µFR-II will be on display at the Emerging Technology Fair, part of the Future Creation Fair that runs from August 27 to 30 at the Tokyo International Forum.

Check out the video (1.03M, 40 seconds, WMV).

Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive

From the September issue of The Atlantic Monthly :

On the night before Kabul fell, Taliban officials were fleeing the city in trucks teetering with their personal effects. The looter who sold me the computers figured that al-Qaeda had fled as well, so he crawled over a brick wall surrounding the house that served as the group's office. Finding nobody inside, he took the two computers, which he had discovered in a room on the building's second floor. On the door of the room, he said, was the name of Muhammad Atef—al-Qaeda's military commander and a key planner of 9/11. Each day, he said, Atef would walk into the office carrying the laptop in its black case. The looter knew he had something good.

This is very interesting stuff -- gives some insight into the internals of al-Qaeda.

The Surf At Work Page

This guide discusses a way an employee or student can securely access the Internet while at work or school, and also get around some common firewall restrictions that prevent you from using most networked programs.

This material describes how to use free software to create a secure communications channel between two Windows PCs. This channel uses encrypted packets, so if your employer is listening in on the transmission he will get only garbage. Route the traffic through port 80 and it will probably go completely undetected.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

A White House with a clear determination to draw paranoid conclusions from ambiguous data has finally gone over the top. It has now implied that the al-Qaeda computer geek arrested last month in Pakistan was involved in a plot to destabilize the USA around election time.

Chicken Little must certainly be running our current regime. Read the article and follow the many links.

Terror Alerts & GB2's Popularity

There are a few things that are quite evident from the chart:

- Whenever his ratings dip, there's a new terror alert.

- Every terror alert is followed by a slight uptick of Bush approval ratings.

- As we approach the 2004 elections, the number and frequency of terror alerts keeps growing, to the point that they collapse in the graphic. At the same time, Bush's ratings are lower than ever.

Read the full commentary by clicking HERE .

A Promise Falls in the Forest

A federal court recently ruled that website privacy policies aren't binding, because nobody reads them. The implications are far reaching for contract law and the Internet.

This came just in time! I was about to waste my time and develop a privacy policy for a business's web site.

International Flight Aborted -- Bomb on Board

Perhaps you recall the UA flight out of Australia bound for Los Angeles on the 27th of July. It made news because they had a bomb threat and returned to Sydney. I don't recall hearing any more details. Until now:

Ninety minutes after taking off from Sydney Airport, a flight attendant on a United Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles found an airsickness bag - presumably unused - in a lavatory with the letters "BOB" written on it.

The flight attendant decided that the letters stood for "Bomb On Board" and immediately alerted the captain, who decided the risk was serious enough to turn the plane around and land back in Sydney.

In classic "Catch-22" style, this pilot and air crew were praised for their prompt action that resulted in the delay of their passengers and an additional $100,000 emergency landing fee to UA. "BOB" is common flight attendant jargon for "babe on board". There is but one explanation for the sudden leap one flight attendant made to decide it was "bomb on board", and why the pilot would agree with that conclusion. FUD Rules.

Sanity and security must not be mutually exclusive.