just before i ran away at the beginning of the week, this story broke, and it’s gotten some serious legs [slashdot] since then. it seems that most of the news is about the japanese school kids [the register] that are getting chipped. it made news.com and (of course), joi got in on it too.
joi, of course, is polishing his tin foil hat, but he has little to fear, since he’s already one of the most closely monitored humans on the face of the planet….
the lesser-reported, but still widely available chipping story this week is about the mexican attorney general and several of his staff. this, also picked up on slashdot.
based solely on a meta-analysis of the slashdot coverage, chipping kids is worth 492 comments, while chipping attorneys general is only worth 284. that makes sense to me.
a lot of the comment-content seems to be that this is a big development, but i think it’s not such a big development. we saw news about chipping princes almost a year ago, and chipping school kids in america back in october.
it’s not quite the same, but worth throwing into the mix, since this seems to be “chipping week” (in contrast to “drm week”)… we’ll tag the old people too.
i’m not completely opposed to rfid – in fact, i rather like the idea of doing it backwards.
posted by roj at 12:13 am
Ten masked gunmen beat and robbed two Israeli salesmen of more than $800,000 in diamonds Thursday during a well-organized daytime robbery at a gas station, police said.
i guess that means a sequel… who’s gonna be stuck as mr. pink this time?
posted by roj at 11:51 pm
A 68-year-old man armed with a claw hammer broke up an armed robbery at a food store, forcing the robber to drop the cash and his pistol.
i’ve never said the universal problem solving toolkit is the best tool for any job, but this confirms that it is the only tool you need.
posted by roj at 9:59 pm
back in june i picked up a list of challenges and dropped it in here, but this is a dark, cold corner of the internet.
today, joi ran into that adventure at brainstorm. behold, the power of light.
the copenhagen consensus isn’t without controversy, but the issues they list are issues that affect us all. sure, there may be some differences in priorities, and that’s ok. the problem is that most of these are “off the radar” while we make big issues out of martha stewart’s sentencing possibilities and emmy nominations and constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage. i know i’m not doing enough with any of these, but maybe it’s something that i know that.
posted by roj at 4:32 pm
following up on a previous post here about two people arrested for wearing the wrong sorts of t-shirts to hear president bush speak about freedoms on july 4th, the charges have been dismissed.
A judge Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against a couple who wore anti-Bush T-shirts at a July 4 rally for the president at the state Capitol because city ordinances do not apply to Statehouse grounds.
this is clearly an oversight with huge repercussions. someone at the white house didn’t do their homework. you need state police to enforce the tresspassing laws. i think there should be an investigation. just imagine the consequences of president bush realized just how unhappy some of his “united” america is. we simply cannot have loopholes like this used by protesters. loopholes are only for the department of justice.
posted by roj at 3:34 pm
a photography workshop is being organized for august 1 at the ballard locks. i’m on the wrong side of the country for this, but the details are here.
this is inspiring because it’s a peaceful, community-organied response to this incident.
posted by roj at 5:29 am
i’m not actually a member of the idaho national guard 116th brigade combat team, but i am a patriotic american, and i know how to read. so, when the public affairs officer (pao) captain monte hibbert of the 116th brigade combat team of the idaho national guard writes in the official newsletter of the 116th brigade combat team of the idaho national guard, snakebite (volume 4, issue 4, july 2004) providing tips on handling interviews, well, i just feel it’s my patriotic duty to fall in line with the troops. so, in case you don’t read snakebite, the official newsletter of the 116th brigade combat team of the idaho national guard, here are the tips that captain monte hibbert offers for dealing with that pesky press asking pesky questions about this important war effort that is making americans safer and ridding the world of evildoers:
When answering media questions, it is very helpful to refer to current command themes in your responses. This adds continuity to the message we are portraying as a unit. The current approved themes are printed below. Please incorporate them in your communications with the media and others.
1. We are proud to now be part of the nation’s active-duty Army.
2. We have come together from many states, communities and backgrounds to prepare to help stabilize Iraq and support the Iraqi people.
3. We look forward to unifying our combat power with that of other coalition forces in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
4. Our soldiers are among the best. They are smart and disciplined and are training with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.
5. Our love, respect and deepest appreciations go out to our families and employers who continue to support us in this mission.
now that you know the approved messages, you can skip those parts and get to the rest of the story….
[a nod to ap for providing the tip that led me to snakebite]
posted by roj at 5:18 am
if it’s good enough for frat boys at yale, then it’s good enough for anyone, eh?
should i really call this torture? maybe not.
Many athletes were in DKE, and it was famous for its parties, rowdiness and hazing. Former members say that the new pledges were paddled, battered and then shown a large iron brand glowing red hot in the fireplace. They were told to turn around to be branded, and then a much smaller brand (made of a wire hanger) was substituted to burn a triangle in the small of their backs, as the large brand was dipped into water to make a heart-stopping sizzle.
it’s an old story, really, it even got press coverage in the 2000 election, but i figured i should chime in as well, inspired by ‘Doonesbury’ Artist Trudeau Skewers Bush [ap, via abcnews].
”The charge that has caused the most controversy on the Yale campus,” Mr. Weisman wrote, ”is that Delta Kappa Epsilon applied a ‘hot branding iron’ to the small of the back of its 40 new members in ceremonies two weeks ago. A photograph showing a scab in the shape of the Greek letter delta, approximately a half inch wide, appeared with the article. A former president of Delta said that the branding is done with a hot coat hanger. But the former president, George Bush, a Yale senior, said that the resulting wound is ‘only a cigarette burn.’ ” The fraternities were fined by the Yale Interfraternity Council.
it seems that president bush hasn’t learned much about doing bad things and getting sanctioned when caught, and it’s been a lesson he’s had available since the late 1960’s, at least.
posted by roj at 3:51 am
it seems that a federal court understands that you can’t just slap the term “terrorist” on anyone that does bad things….
A federal appeals court ordered a new trial Wednesday for a man accused of arson and weapons charges, ruling that prosecutors improperly inflamed a jury by calling him a terrorist a day before the first anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
perhaps there’s hope in this united states of america. perhaps.
posted by roj at 3:26 am
We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.
probably the most interesting point of contact on this story is barlow. and don’t miss the comments there.
i just want to note that i still think that the elections in spain were more influenced by the deception in the wake of the attack (blaming the local terrorists without reliable intelligence) than the attack itself.
on the one hand, i appreciate the idea that the government is planning for worst-case scenarios (something they seem to have avoided completely when it comes to iraq and cuba. the problem, of course, is that we didn’t do this three years ago, so whatever plan gets cooked up under crisis is going to have about as much credibility as everything else the administration has been cooking for these years. there will be no public debate. there will be no airing of opinions. the administration will craft a plan and execute that plan. then we will deal with the fallout for generations.
update: more here.
posted by roj at 5:44 pm