Month: <span>September 2001</span>

In Database Nation, Simson Garfinkel writes: “The terrorist of tomorrow is the irrational terrorist. This new terrorist does not particularly want to change the enemy’s mind. Instead, he ‘sees the sheer physical annihilation of the enemy as a productive result,’ says Louis Rene Beres, a professor of political science at Purdue University… These new terrorists frequently aren’t interested in negotiation, don’t rationally consider the long-term consequences of their actions, and frequently aren’t even concerned with their own survival–in fact, they may actively work towards their own death. ‘An irrational terrorist might simply be an insane group that sees mass death as a desirable end from an ecological point of view,’ says Beres. ‘Or an irrational terrorist might see an act of terror and loss of life as causing some other political event.'”

“‘If somebody wants to do it, you can’t stop them,’ says [Kathleen C. Bailey, a former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.] ‘If it is a terrorist group, you may be able to infiltrate them. But if it is a single individual, it is going to be extraordinarily hard to know in advance what that individual is doing in their garage, closet, or basement… There are no emissions. With current technology, we have no way of sniffing out who is making anthrax in their basement.’… Even if Congress burned the Constitution and turned the U.S. into a police state, it could not eliminate the bioterrorism threat. ‘Do you really think that you could catch the individual who wants to terrorize the population by making biological weapons? How are you going to know?'”

Important points, in my opinion.

[via A Boy and His Basement]
2:32:32 AM  

Doug Bedell: “While traditional media provided most of the world with news of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new form of war zone coverage took shape on the World Wide Web…” [via JD Lasica]
2:17:23 AM  

I agree with Flangy: A bigger mixer is always better, and CodeWarrior dishes out a big-ol’-can-o-whoopass on Visual Studio 6. 😉
2:09:32 AM  

The Motley Fool Reduces Staff.
2:02:35 AM  

AP: Holy War Has Funds, Bin Laden Says. Bin Ladin: “Freezing of the assets or accounts of al-Qaida or any other jihad (holy war) organization won’t make any difference… By the grace of God, al-Qaida has got three alternate financial systems, which are separate and independent…”
2:01:35 AM  

Wired: It’s Teleportation — For Real. “‘A teleportation machine would be like a fax machine, except that it would work on three-dimensional objects as well as documents. It would produce an exact copy rather than an approximate facsimile, and it would destroy the original in the process of scanning it,’ wrote quantum teleportation pioneer Charles Bennett.”
1:56:51 AM  

Salon: Get educated. “For those hungry to learn more about the crisis facing the U.S., a reading list.”
1:53:30 AM  

Dictionary.com Word of the Day: frangible.
1:48:13 AM  

Jake's Brainpan

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National Writers Union press release: National Writers Union Reveals New York Times Blacklist. “The New York Times has created an internal blacklist that directs editors throughout the paper not to hire writers who won a historic decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, according to an internal memo obtained by the National Writers Union.” [via Oliver Wrede. See also Tasini vs. The New York Times
.]

9:43:35 PM  

Apple: Seybold Gallery [via All OS X]
9:38:34 PM  

Reuters: Continental Says Execs Won’t Take Pay.
9:34:50 PM  

CNET: Free wireless Net access for the masses. “Community groups are extending Net access through the 802.11b wireless standard, generating a phenomenon reminiscent of the Napster craze.”
9:34:25 PM  

Here’s a link for Doc: God Angrily clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule: “Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.”
9:32:04 PM  

Welcome to Afghanistan, a land not conquered since Alexander the Great. “As fighting terrain, it is an absolute nightmare. It’s a natural fortress. You can’t get very far with vehicles; you get bogged down and the passes are too steep. The Russians had a bloody awful time. They really got stuck. It’s one thing to put in your infantry, but you’ve got to keep them within range of your artillery and your mortars. With bad mountain passes, this is almost impossible.”
3:46:21 AM  

Jim DeRogatis: What’s up with Generation Y?.
3:44:09 AM  

Joshuah Allen: “The sealing of the Iran and Pakistan borders seen in this light was a very good move, because the ‘flow’ of smuggled goods is directly proportional to the ‘flow’ of cash into Al Quaeda and Taliban coffers. On the other hand, attempts to control the flow of smuggled goods that fuel an insatiable public demand seem uncannily familiar…”
3:42:41 AM  

Bill Gertz: Bin Laden terror group tries to acquire chemical arms. “There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. A CIA spokesman declined to comment. But a U.S. official said contacts between bin Laden and the Russian mafia, and efforts to obtain materials used to make weapons of mass destruction, could not be ruled out because of Afghanistan’s porous borders.”
3:38:02 AM  

Reuters: Hong Kong Stocks End Higher. “The market took its cue from gains on Wall Street and in Europe but analysts said investor sentiment remained fragile amid fears that the global economy could tip into a prolonged recession and uncertainty over the timing and extent of U.S. military reprisals for attacks on New York and the Pentagon.”
3:35:22 AM  

The Onion: “In the wake of the recent national tragedy, President Bush is urging Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, and other singers to resist the urge to record mawkish, insipid all-star tribute ballads. ‘To America’s recording artists, I just want to say, please, there has already been enough suffering’…”
3:33:41 AM  

Jake's Brainpan

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Dave linked to this essay by Carl Sagan yesterday, but it’s well worth linking to again: Reflections on a Mote of Dust. “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity — in all this vastness — there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.”
1:37:56 PM  

First, Gartner research group recommends that companies “immediately” replace IIS with a more secure application, and up comes the spin: “Redmond is telling its sales channel that a rewrite of IIS is underway for version 6.0.” Hmmm…

Joel Spolsky has a few things to say about re-writing software: “Completely rewriting it would just introduce another set of bugs that would take another few years to find. Chances are that nobody on the current IIS team even remembers the bugs they fixed five years ago, even if they were on the team that long ago…”
1:32:55 PM  

CNET: Napster reaches settlement with publishers. “As part of the deal, Napster has agreed to pay $26 million to settle its ongoing legal disputes with music publishers and songwriters. That doesn’t mean the lawsuit troubles as a whole will disappear–record labels are continuing with their own litigation, which still threatens Napster with even more substantial legal damages.”
1:24:54 PM  

Press Release: Al Qaeda to cut at least 5,000 jobs. [Humor]
1:23:33 PM  

Humor: Got Napalm?
1:19:29 PM  

Jake's Brainpan

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