January 2010
2 tags
December 2009
3 tags
Enough Security Theater, Already
Bruce Schneier is not the first to suggest that the security mania at airports is not ‘real’ but a form of show, but he’s one of the most credible security analysts, today. Our security systems don’t accomplish what they are theoretically supposed to do, and at huge expense: it’s theater, intended to cause an emotional response of feeling safe, without actually...
3 tags
Abdulmutallab And The Keystone Cops
Spy Agencies Failed to Collate Clues on Terror
What is clear, however, is that the center’s officials concluded that the information they had about Mr. Abdulmutallab was not worrisome enough to do anything more than add his name to the biggest — and least scrutinized — of four intelligence databases. This list includes 550,000 names, and essentially serves as holding area for cases that need...
2 tags
How Much Exercise Is Enough?
An analysis of the literature of exercise science concludes that mental health is greatly improved by as little as 20 minutes of light exercise — like walking or vacuuming — per week.
But what about physical health? Do you need to exercise five times a week for an hour to get any benefits at all?
Phys Ed: How Little Exercise Can You Get Away With?
A single MET, or Metabolic...
2 tags
2 tags
1 tag
1 tag
5 tags
Sam Sifton Remembers
- Sam Sifton, Eleven Memorable Dishes, and Not Even a Full Year
The Prime Manhattan At Prime Meats - There are a lot of people here who appear to have dressed for a Vancouver trapping expedition, attended a gallery show in Bushwick, and then had the idea to mush over to Carroll Gardens for absinthe. But this restaurant from the brilliant team behind the Frankies empire, while not even yet...
3 tags
MOURJOU - The Life and Food of an Auvergne Village →
Fascinating description of Auvergne Aligot, a potato cheese concoction, often made at weddings.
3 tags
8 tags
The Future Of Afghanistan As A Chinese Client...
China is making huge investments in Asia, Africa and South America, hoping to feed it’s growth with raw materials. Afghanistan shares a 76 km border with China, in the far west, at the end of the Wakhan Corridor, a 210 km-long neck edged by Pakistan and disputed Kashmir to the south, and Tajikistan to the north. Now, the Chinese are making infrastructure investments in Afghanistan,...
1 tag
“If we know money doesn’t buy happiness, why are we optimizing for money?”
– Peter Kramer, Facebook Has a Happiness Index Drawn From Posts, NYTimes.com
4 tags
4 tags
Yemeni Separatists Are Allied With Al Queda?
Recent airstrikes by the Yemeni mitiary have killed over 30 people in recent weeks:
Separatists threaten Yemeni govt. with armed battle
Yemeni separatist leader Tareq al-Fadhli threatens to arm his supporters while over 30 people have been killed in the latest government airstrikes on the South. Witnesses say al-Fadhli made his threats on Thursday, in response to what he called “official...
4 tags
Is Yemen the next failed state? | Elham Manea →
Interesting insights into political rivalry between Yemeni president Ali Abduallah Salih and his half brother Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, and the leadership’s ambivalence about Al Queda. Also touches on the Houthi rebellion in the north, and a separatist movement in the south. Sounds rocky.
3 tags
Next Stop: Yemen
The supposedly left-leaning NY Times are doing what I feared: first, calling for intensification of the flawed security we already have in place, which doesn’t work, and secondly, suggesting that US military activities against Al Queda in Yemen would be justified because of Abdulmutallab:
The System Failed
Additional security measures may be needed — subject to sensible evaluation. A...
3 tags
“If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly...”
– Maureen Dowd, NY Times
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
Bokeh
In photography, bokeh is the blur,[1][2] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,[3][4][5] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”[6] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—...
“Fixing the problem doesn’t mean voting out the feckless Democrats or the...”
– Lawrence Lessig (via squashed) (via marco)
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
4 tags
Is Pornography The New Junk Food?
- Mary Eberstadt, Is Food the New Sex?
As the consumption of food not only literally but also figuratively has become progressively more discriminate and thoughtful, at least in theory (if rather obviously not always in practice), the consumption of sex in various forms appears to have become the opposite for a great many people: i.e., progressively more indiscriminate and unthinking.
...
1 tag
Robotic War?
The future of war: robots and drones.
- William Falk, Should Old Articles Be Forgot
ROBOTIC WARFARE The use of drones became a central part of the American antiterrorism strategy this year, with President Obama sanctioning about 50 Predator strikes — more than George W. Bush approved in his entire second term. As Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reported earlier this year, most of the targets of...
3 tags
Michael Boyd on New TSA Alert
More Proof The 9/11 Bad Guys Are Still Winning
Instead of dealing with real security issues, aviation is being protected by a Charmin-thin charade of passenger screening, with insufficient reliance on thinking like a terrorist.
Taking blankets away from passengers an hour out of Motown ain’t going to do diddly to fix the issues that let a suspected...
5 tags
Where To Invade Next?
Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
- Peter Baker and Scott Shane, Obama Seeks to Assure Nation After Bomb Attempt
President Obama emerged from Hawaiian seclusion on Monday to reassure the American public and quell gathering criticism as a branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack on an American passenger jet on Christmas Day.
Mr. Obama vowed to track...
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
