Thinking about starting a lucrative career in identity theft? Don’t rely on stolen backup tapes! Buy our new database containing nearly one billion Social Security Numbers, many of which are actually valid. The list includes the Social Security Numbers of:

The US President, Vice President, and cabinet members
[...]

AT&T now claims that they will deploy some kind of filtering to keep copyrighted content off their network, effectively spying for the MPAA and RIAA. No one has developed a reliable way to even identify copyrighted content, but even if that existed, how would they distinguish legitimate transfers of copyrighted content from unauthorized transfers?
It [...]

In my workplace, half of the men’s restrooms were recently closed for some sort of remodeling, and after that was completed, the other half have been closed. I finally found out why: they’ve installed Falcon 2000 Waterfree Urinals. While saving water is obviously beneficial, intuitively a waterfree urinal seems like a bad [...]

The DHS I-9 form, used by employers to report verification of employment elgibility, has expired as of 31 March 2007, and the DHS not issued a replacement. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the government cannot assess any penalty for failure to fill out the form:
Public protection
(a) Notwithstanding any [...]

A friend pointed out Natan Sharansky’s article “Leave Iraq and Brace for a Bigger Bloodbath” in the Washington Post. I don’t disagree with any of Mr. Sharansky’s facts or general reasoning, but yet clearly favor a different course of action for the US.
No one can know for sure whether President Bush’s “surge” of U.S. [...]

As the gun powder was clearing on the Virginia Tech massacre a few months ago, the gun law lobby was citing the tragedy as evidence for greater gun control. On our side we were pointing out that draconian gun laws in Blacksburg failed to disarm the perp or protect the 32 victims. Additionally there were [...]

Last night I dreamt that I lived in a place where the government was gradually taking away many of the people’s freedoms, in the supposed interest of protecting them. It started with relatively minor things, like losing the right to travel without showing papers, the right to privacy (for instance, in telephone conversations), and [...]

The TSA confiscated a clown’s makeup kit, despite that it did not contain liquids or gels, and had less than 3 oz. of greasepaint. It’s good to know that they are doing their best to eliminate the horrible threat that clowns pose to aviation. [h/t BoingBoing]

I really enjoy reading Josef Conrad. I faked my way through the classic Conrad novels we were force-fed in high school, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, getting by with Cliff’s Notes. However, as and adult I have actually read and enjoyed both novels: so much so that I have gone on to slowly [...]

Many people on the Internet have derided British high court judge Peter Openshaw for stating that he did not know what a web site is.  I thought it was great that Judge Openshaw admitted that and sought assistance; that’s what I’d hope that any judge would do when faced with a case involving concepts with [...]