Those who know me know I have a problems with the notion of security through obscurity — the idea that one can achieve some measure of real security by hiding the item or knowledge which needs to be protected. As a security measure, obscurity has been around since man first hid from a predator. It [...]
Last week Citizen Lab released a kind of everyman guide to circumventing Internet censorship. The guide is by no means exhaustive, but offers some well known and simple methods for bypassing Internet content control systems used by some of the most repressive governments in the world. It has been said that we now live in [...]
Despondent over the lack of of action against the Burmese dictators recent murder and repression, an activist group in Thailand has organized women to send their underwear to the Burmese government offices and embassies. The Panties for Peace protest is designed to first keep the ever saddening plight of Burma in the minds [...]
There are days when my mind just can’t keep up with the insipid reasoning of the rightwing. I generally try to avoid engaging the poorly reasoned ramblings of the bloviating pundit class. But just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in.
Over at the conservative site, townhall.com, Dinesh D’Souza announced that [...]
It is often a sad fact of life that people who shine with brilliant insight at one moment remain imprisoned by their dark prejudices throughout their lives. Such is the fate of Dr. James Watson. In 1962 Dr. Watson won the Nobel Prize for his work on the discovery of the DNA [...]
Usually, I pay little to no attention to the ravings of Ann Coulter. She’s crass, vapid, and incendiary: she is the Andrew Dice Clay of punditry. However, this week she instigated one of her patented kerfuffles when she was interviewed on CNBC and I couldn’t resist commenting. Ann declared that Jews are good people that [...]
Congratulations to President Mr. Gore on being the recipient of this years Nobel Peace Prize. Though snarkly derided by the right wing pundits, the award of this prize to Mr. Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change demonstrates that there is a different heralded path for our world. One which is not based [...]
