Don't worry, it's not real

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I haven't gotten around to making a module on digital imaging, but when I do, I'll definitely be covering the issue of fake photos and how to spot them. For now, here's a link with some tips.

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After my blog radio interview this last Thursday, the interviewer, who's also a writer for Blogcritic Magazine, posted a transcript on their webpage here.

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Child gets foot stuck in escalator due to the Croc brand shoes she was wearing. Most disturbing is this:

CPSC is aware of 77 entrapment incidents since January 2006, with about half resulting in injury. All but two of the incidents involved popular soft-sided flexible clogs and slides.

What the hell is the Consumer Product and Safety Commission doing if they know about this problem and aren't doing anything about it? Of course, if the current head of the CPSC is as bad as the one Bush nominated last time, this is hardly a shock.

AT&T

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AT&T has an exclusive contract with the Department of Defense and is therefore the "cheapest" provider military families can use to contact loved ones in the Middle East. But using the phone cards is more than just a hassle. Though AT&T advertises a very low rate, the actual charges are far more than nearly any other option available since the calls rarely go through and minutes are charged whether they do or not.

At least one military wife found that spending $3 per minute with her cell-phone was cheaper in the long run.

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McCain, like Bush would support warrantless wiretaps and telco immunity.

The Article II citation is key, since it refers to President Bush's longstanding arguments that the president has nearly unlimited powers during a time of war. The administration's analysis went so far as to say the Fourth Amendment did not apply inside the United States in the fight against terrorism, in one legal opinion from 2001.

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By putting tons of cameras at different angles on an airplane and carefully inspecting everyone's faces and movements, the EU hopes to identify terrorists before they strike.

There's only a few problems to work out:

1. There's no way to know what a terrorist looks like
2. Removing privacy with no gain is a vast waste of money and resources
3. Mass surveillance hurts everyone and doesn't actually work.

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A great report has just been released by Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering - CASPIAN. It's 47 pages of frequently asked questions along with detailed, well researched responses to each.

From their press release:

The report reveals how news outlets like Time Magazine, Business Week, and the RFID Journal were used as unwitting pawns in a VeriChip scheme to spread misinformation about the cancer studies. Since research linking the product to cancer first surfaced last year, each of these publications has repeated misstatements from VeriChip company executives, in many cases printing the inaccurate statements verbatim and unchallenged.

Good thing non-profit companies are watching or else this sort of skulduggery would go unnoticed.

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This Thursday, I'll be doing an interview on Techtips blog radio. You can listen or call in to talk with me about Identity Theft issues. Link here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/bc/TechTips/2008/06/05/How-to-avoid-becoming-an-ID-Theft-victim

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It seems that wearing a t-shirt with a gun on it is grounds for a ban from flying. I know there's "always two sides", but this is just plain stupid.

China has history, but the recent part isn't so good.

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The Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal search and seizure made it into the U.S. Constitution precisely because its drafters understood that the power to snoop is addictive. Even if we happen to trust in the good intentions of the snoopers, the nature of any government can change rapidly — which is why the Constitution places limits on the tools available to any regime. But the drafters could never have imagined the commercial pressures at play today. The global homeland-security business is now worth an estimated $200 billion — more than Hollywood and the music industry combined. Any sector of that size inevitably takes on its own momentum. New markets must be found — which, in the Big Brother business, means an endless procession of new enemies and new emergencies: crime, immigration, terrorism.

We're in very real danger of what they have over there being implemented here. And it's already begun.