First, a helpful piece on how to have some fun with those NSA G-men (and G-women) who are wiretapping your phone and snooping on your Internet traffic.
Also from Slate, there’s a nice article on the background of software patent legislation and what it means for the impending Blackberry case.
Finding new species is cool.
iPods! Get ‘em while they’re cheap!
This church arson mess that’s happening back home in Alabama is just shameful. I think we managed to round up some of those responsible from the last series of these a couple of years ago, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these new ones are being set by copycats. I can’t say for certain, but, based on the names of the churches and their geographical locations in my home state, I would hazard a guess that the majority of the churches burned were those with predominately African-American congregations, which means the arson could be a form of hate crime. You’d like to think, given Alabama’s history with the civil rights movement, that the current generation would be more aware of racial tensions and work to avoid things like racially-motivated crime, but, sadly, this sort of sea change is always slower in coming than we want it to be.
Also of note, this week has brought us the bizarre John McCain-Barack Obama verbal tussle. It looks to me like they’re talking past each other on the issue at hand (Congressional ethics and lobbying reform) and that they’ve conflated a difference in philosophical approach with partisanship. I’d like to think that these two guys are fairly smart, and, as moderating figures with lots of influence in their respective camps, perhaps they’ll be able to sort this one out amicably and work together to actually make some progress on what has recently become a very hot-button issue.
Finally, for the “work” portion of this post: any of y’all know how I can get my hands on a borescope/fiberscope/endoscope sort of device I could borrow for a day or two?
