August 31, 2006
Frank Lloyd Wright's Kaufmann Residence in Half Life 2
Video: Frank Lloyd Wright's Kaufmann Residence (Fallingwater) in Half Life 2:
August 25, 2006
American Apparel Store in Second Life Taken Hostage in Fight for Voting Rights
Interesting: A few weeks ago, the American Apparel Store in Second Life Taken Hostage in Fight for Voting Rights:
Following the lack of any progress towards introducting [sic] citizens voting rights to Second Life the SLLA began in-world military operations.
The SLLA selected as its first target the American Apparel Store in SL. Volunteers from the SLLA have been posted to the store and are preventing SL residents from buying any goods from this vendor.
The SLLA has no complaint with American Apparel but is seeking to introduce voting rights to Second Life. We hope that American Apparel will join us in putting pressure on Linden Labs to do this. The SLLA can then stop our attacks against customers using their store.
Interesting, I went to the virtual store, and no one was there. I wonder how they prevented people from buying goods?
August 23, 2006
Terrorist Hunting Permit
Terrorist Hunting Permit, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Yes, really.
August 16, 2006
Where is the President?
Where is the President? Map of Camp David
I recently read an article by the Washington Post concerning the lack of journalists covering the Executive Branch, especially the President and Vice President when they are travelling.
To wit:
On one of the scariest days yet in the five-year battle with terrorists, President Bush prepared to make a speech to reassure the American people. But the White House press corps was 1,000 miles away in Texas.
Bush had left his ranch vacation and jetted north for a scheduled closed-door fundraiser. No press plane accompanied him. And so when news broke that Britain had broken up a major terrorist plot, the only ones there to convey the president's reaction were a handful of local reporters and a few pool journalists who ride in the back of Air Force One.
Because of increased expenses, and the constant budget cutting, combined with this administration's seemingly natural state of high secrecy, the pack of journalists who travel with the highest members of the Executive Branch are dwindling; so much so, that major events - such as the beginning of the Israel-Lebanon war - are covered by a skeleton crew of journalists.
In one frightening remark, the press actually "lost" Vice President Cheney:
Bush is not the only one to find ways of escaping much public notice as he flies around the country. Vice President Cheney manages to leave Washington for days, and sometimes weeks, at a time without public announcement. Few in the capital even knew he was in Texas in February, for instance, until he accidentally shot a companion while hunting quail. And he has been in Jackson, Wyo., since July 29 without any national news media mentioning it.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide found out Cheney was there only because it spotted his plane and the radar dish that serves an anti-missile battery that protects his house when he's in town. "In the past, they've been kind of weird about it," said Thomas Dewell, the paper's co-editor. "They'd say, 'His airplane's here and the missile base is here, but we can't tell you if he's here.' " This time, he said, Cheney's office confirmed his presence when asked.
Well, here's a suggestion to the major press organizations: why don't combine signal intelligence (especially traffic intelligence) and the FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR), especially the VIP TFR's to pinpoint where he will be? It is all there, secondary information which is needed for safe and effective flights. Information I totally stumbled upon, and thought was cool. If the FAA's TFR lists isn't pretty enough for you, you could always check out Runway Finder which is a Google Maps-Flight Chart mashup. It shows all sorts of TFR's (especially due to fire out west) and also shows which airports are using VFR, MVFR, or IFR rules.
Where is the Vice President? Map of Jackson Hole, WY.
I'm sure someone could write a screen scraper to read this and send email whenever certain keywords are present. Such as "Jackson Hole" and "Presidential Event" are found in the TFR. It took me all five minutes to figure out via Runway Finder that the President will be at Camp David in 18 hours and that Vice President Cheney will be in Jackson Hole in 2 hours.
This just goes to show that no matter how secretive an Executive can be, there will always be secondary intelligence available to third parties, regardless of intent.
August 10, 2006
Bush seeks political gains from foiled plot
Bush seeks political gains from foiled plot :
US President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot to hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, Bush and his aides have tried to shift the national political debate from that conflict to the broader and more popular global war on terrorism ahead of November 7 congressional elections....
His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism, knowing what Democrats didn't: News of the plot could soon break....
Bush aides on Thursday fought the notion that they had exploited their knowledge of the coming British raid to hit Democrats, saying the trigger had been the defeat of Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut by an anti-war political novice....
Snow said Bush first learned in detail about the plot on Friday, and received two detailed briefings on it on Saturday and Sunday, as well as had two conversations about it with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
But a senior White House official said that the British government had not launched its raid until well after Cheney held a highly unusual conference call with reporters to attack the Democrats as weak against terrorism....
On Wednesday, Cheney had suggested that Democrats believe "that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict and be safe here at home, which clearly we know we won't, we can't, be," he said.
While some Democrats have opposed some steps in the war on terrorism, and more and more are calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, no major figures in the party have called for a wholesale retreat in the broader conflict.
But Bush's Republicans hoped the raid would yield political gains....
"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won't "look as appealing" under the circumstances.
Just remember that: the Bush Administration and the GOP are thrilled about this.
Also remember that this shows, clearly, that the Bush Administration's disregard of law enforcement as an anti-terror weapon.
The President, Vice President, and the Republican Congress, have failed you America.
August 1, 2006
Save the Internet
Sweater Girl, Peter Pan, and Tron Guy sing for net neutrality:
So awesome! For more info, see Tron Guy and Peter Pan guy via Wikipedia (but no Sweater Girl). I agree with Waxy: no Mahir, Star Wars Kid, and Numa Numa?