Can’t Make this Stuff Up

9 Comments

1. 

   dada on June 27, 2008 at 4:30 pm

   sort of a news bucket of the weird eh…l can dig it:

   some more from wired: Gun Camera Adds Graffiti to Other People’s Photos:

   the Image Fulgurator, half guerrilla-art stunt and half homemade-gadget awesomeness. Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the photos of strangers, but remain invisible to their eyes…

   and CCTV Busting Infra-Red Headset Makes You Invisible:

   A German art project could help the British avoid the oppressive proliferation of surveillance cameras in their country. The I-R.A.S.C is simple, consisting of a circle of infra-red LEDs mounted on a headband. The infra red is invisible to The Man, but will cause CCTV cameras to flare out over the face of the wearer, obscuring his identity and making this the digital equivalent of a hooded sweatshirt.

   This is not a production unit, but given that you’d only need a hat, a battery and a few LEDs, you could easily knock one up in the garage.

   and more on cyber-control: I’ve Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch:

   It used to be that just the entertainment industries wanted to control your computers — and televisions and iPods and everything else — to ensure that you didn’t violate any copyright rules. But now everyone else wants to get their hooks into your gear.

   OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed. The Pentagon wants a kill switch installed on airplanes, and is worried about potential enemies installing kill switches on their own equipment.

   Microsoft is doing some of the most creative thinking along these lines, with something it’s calling “Digital Manners Policies.” According to its patent application, DMP-enabled devices would accept broadcast “orders” limiting capabilities.
   .
   .
   …This is really about media companies wanting to exert their control further over your electronics. They not only want to prevent you from surreptitiously recording movies and concerts, they want your new television to enforce good “manners” on your computer, and not allow it to record any programs. They want your iPod to politely refuse to copy music to a computer other than your own. They want to enforce their legislated definition of manners: to control what you do and when you do it, and to charge you repeatedly for the privilege whenever possible.

   “Digital Manners Policies” is a marketing term. Let’s call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It’s not polite, it’s dangerous. It won’t make anyone more secure — or more polite.

   guaranteed fun for all. as the firesign theatre used to say: welcome to the future.

   • 

     BobX on June 28, 2008 at 9:22 am

     OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed.

     Except in the movie if the bus speed dropped below 55 mph. the bus exploded. Wouldn’t killing the engine in effect stop the bus, explode the bomb and kill all the hostages?

     That’s some damn fine police work.

2. 

   dada on June 27, 2008 at 4:33 pm

   and one more, just for the poetic justice of it:

   can you spell stupid…the new version is s c r u g g s…trent lott’s brother-in-law, and hot shot litigator, got 5 the hard way today for conspiring to bribe a judge:

   the basic scam…

   …after Scruggs led a $80 million settlement between State Farm and hundreds of clients, an attorney who had formerly worked with Scruggs disputed the $26.5 million chunk of that settlement to Scruggs’ law group. Scruggs wanted his money, and he and his associates decided that the best way to get it was to bribe the county judge presiding over the case, Henry Lackey. But Lackey went to the feds as soon as Scruggs’ associates made the overture. He wore a wire. And things went downhill from there…

   tpm

   the consequences:

   Richard ”Dickie” Scruggs, the attorney who built his career by taking on tobacco, asbestos and insurance companies, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for conspiring to bribe a judge.

   U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. called Scruggs’ conduct ”reprehensible” and fined him $250,000. The judge handed down the full sentence requested by prosecutors despite arguments from the defense for half that time in prison.

   tpm

   according to a commenter: “Chancellor Robert Khayat of Ole Miss wrote a letter to the judge saying he thought it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money to put such a man as Scruggs behind bars. The judge agreed. He ordered Scruggs to pay his own incarceration costs.”

   greed and hubris has a cost, although l’m sure his cut of the $26.5m fee will salve his conscience.

   • 

     idredit on June 27, 2008 at 6:19 pm

     Thanks Dada…just a little divert from same old stupid to, as you note, weird.

3. 

   dada on June 27, 2008 at 8:14 pm

   as BushCo™ buries another one.

   since the anthrax attacks of october 2001 have been effectively carted off to the dust bin of history, the DoJ has decided they’d rather settle with the guy they tried to scapegoat, rather than have public testiomony regarding the incident.

   for those with short memories, this may help:

   U.S. Settles for $5.8 Million With Scientist Accused In 2001 Anthrax Scare Attack

   Facing a massive lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department is opting to give a $5.8 million settlement to Steven Hatfill, the bio-weapons expert publicly tagged as a “person of interest” in the anthrax-in-the-mail scare from October 2001.

   The Department of Justice issued a statement this afternoon:

   By entering into this agreement, the United States does not admit to any violation of the Privacy Act and continues to deny all liability in connection with Dr. Hatfill’s claims.

   Hatfill, whose lawsuit against the New York Times was dismissed last year, will receive the lump sum of about $2.825 million and the government will also purchase for him a $3 million annuity that will pay him $150,000 each year for 20 years, DOJ said.

   Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was among the first to disclose Hatfill’s name in 2002.

   The lawsuit charged the Department of Justice with leaking his name to reporters.

   The anthrax case remains unsolved.

   tpm

   who knows what embarrising information might have been exposed to sunlight.

   nuthin’ to see here folks…move along.

   • 

     idredit on June 27, 2008 at 9:02 pm

     certainly, since this is the week of forgive and forget, the WoT,  bringing them to justice isn’t working out so well either on the other side of the pond:

     The Times, UK – Second al-Qaeda leader, ‘a studious figure’ to be freed in Britain

     Secret negotiations have taken place to arrange the release from a British jail of one of al-Qaeda’s most important operatives in Europe, The Times has learnt.

     The prisoner, who can be identified only as U, is expected to be released from the high-security wing at Long Lartin jail next week.

     Appeal Court judges ruled in April that the man, a 45-year-old Algerian veteran of al-Qaeda’s Afghan training camps, should be freed on bail. But discussions between security agencies and U’s lawyers became deadlocked over the conditions restricting his movements and whom he can meet when he leaves prison.

     The authorities are understood to have sought bail terms more stringent than the 22-hour curfew imposed on the radical cleric Abu Qatada when he was freed last week. These conditions would require U to spend all his time indoors.[.]

     But rather than prosecute U in the British courts, the authorities agreed to an extradition request from the US where one of his recruits had given detailed statements implicating him in the plot to attack Los Angeles airport.

     The informant, Ahmed Ressam, was to have been the key witness against U until he withdrew his statements in 2003. Two years later the US abandoned its extradition attempt but, rather than release or charge U, British authorities sought to deport him to Algeria. In a memo to Algiers in March 2006, officials wrote of U: “Senior position in Mujahidin training camp in Afghanistan. Direct links to Osama bin Laden and other senior AQ (al-Qaeda) figures. Involved in supporting terrorists including those involved in the planned attack on the Strasbourg Christmas Market in 2000, and an earlier plan to attack Los Angeles Airport.”

     SIAC judges later ruled that there were “credible grounds for believing each of these assertions” and rejected his appeal against deportation.

     But that decision was overturned by the Appeal Court. As with Abu Qatada, the courts ruled that if U could not be deported, there was no legitimate reason to detain him indefinitely.

     • 

       dada on June 27, 2008 at 9:26 pm

       “… a studious figure…” not an descriptive phrase one often sees associated with a “terraist”. the gwot is a very bad joke that far outlived it’s usefulness, with exception of it’s effectiveness in creating the conditions for the implementation of a fascist state. even the propaganda’s gone stale.

       have the us or the uk had a successful prosecution yet that wasn’t a slam dunk? the evidence is all tainted because of torture, renditions, etc., or it’s simply trumped up bs.

       obl is laughing his ass off…never in his wildest dreams did he contemplate the complete self-destruction that’s well on it’s way to fruition.

       fucking amazing.

4. 

   americanforliberty on June 28, 2008 at 2:54 pm

   Sen. Craig and Sen. Vetter and the marriage amendment Act is that a joke..

5. 

   idredit on June 28, 2008 at 5:10 pm

   Heh heh heh.  Do you live in North Carolina and are you one of the 10,000 who have a DMV…

   WTF?

   RALEIGH — Thanks to some text message-savvy grandchildren, North Carolina drivers whose license plates have the potentially offensive “WTF” letter combination can replace the tags for free.

   The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday the state Division of Motor Vehicles has notified nearly 10,000 holders of license plates with the letter combination.

   Officials learned last year the common acronym stands for a vulgar phrase in e-mail and cell phone text messages.

   The DMV recently realized the same letters appeared on the sample license plate on its own Web site.