This is so cool. It may not be accurate, but it is soooo cool.

AGW_hockey_stick_graph_big.gif (GIF Image, 1102×742 pixels).

Good article about Congress as the home of show trials. But this quote is a gem.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for saving the earth; it’s the only planet known to have bourbon

via A decline in Prius envy | The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment.

Charles Stross is a good Scot. He writes science fiction, he used to be able to hack, and he travels. He also understands principles. Since he writes better than me… Go and read it, I can wait.

Here’s the rub: security is a state of mind, not a procedure. Procedures can't cope with attackers, because they're inflexible. If you search passengers for guns, someone will carry a knife. If you search for knives, someone will sew themselves a set of underwear full of PETN. And so on. To deal with a threat — say, someone who wants to attack your air travel infrastructure — you must look for the attacker, not their tools, because they can change their tools at will to exploit weaknesses in your procedure for identifying tools.

via Charlie’s Diary.

What Charles is comparing is the US versus the rest of the world on getting through an airport.

In most of Europe and Asia, you book in, and you go through a security screen and immigration  with your bag. When you get to the gate your bags are screened.

Multiple, parallel methods.

In the US, Auckland (which is horrible — I’d rather fly directly from Christchurch or Dunedin to Australia) there are many flights going through one or two screeners and people doing rote searches. Clearly bored. Not interacting with the tourists.

He was worried about the risks of the queues. My issue is “why?”

I’ve two suggestions.

1.  NZ and Oz are islands with a large agricultural industries. We have to screen for contraband such as pests. We got used to using multiple Xray machines DECADES ago. Plus dogs walking around — because we cannot afford to lose our exports.

2.  In much of the world Tourism is a big industry. The tourist experience begins on the plane, and on landing first impressions count. It does not take much to teach staff to smile. It takes a little more to teach staff to interact and observe. (Which is what Israel does — and they are the experts on security).

The US? Had some good times there… (though travelling through upper Georgia with my Kiwi Chinese ex was interesting). But there an assumption that it is a privilege to have people arrive in officialdom, not a realisation that people can go somewhere else…

And there are consequences. I set my flights up to Avoid the USA. I do not go to learned conferences in the US. It’s not worth the hassle. And it is probably safer.

This is the second post today about the idiocy of hollywood. In addition to annoying DVD ads, if this is right. we will not be able to use analog to watch blu-ray using component audio.

Which is another reason not to get a goddam blu ray device in the first place. Or to use pirated disks.

Even existing Blu-ray players, even the one you may have sitting underneath your TV right now, will be affected, thanks to a lovely little piece of technology.After January 1, 2011, the producers of Blu-ray disks will be able to include an “Image Constraint Token” with any Blu-ray disk which will disable HD over component video, limiting it to a 480i/576i resolution – even though your player is perfectly capable, and bought well before the cut-off date. They want to ensure that HD content only runs through HDMI.In their provisions, the AACS LA actually refers to all this as the “Analog Sunset”.What makes this so much more incredibly frustrating than it already sounds is that this won't prevent copying of Blu-ray discs in any possible way, since AACS has already been cracked wide open long ago, and has been spread across the internet. In other words, this nonsense only affects normal consumers, who will see that their expensive Blu-ray players, connected over component video contrary to popular belief, HDMI doesn't have to be better than component, will suddenly start playing SD content. It's doubly frustrating for countries like my own, where personal backups are perfectly legal.

via 2010: Analog Sunset, the End of Component Video.

I like the comment from the professional installers webside:

We make no bones about calling out Hollywood studios on their ignorance, anti-market practices and general thick-headedness. These AACS rules are especially frustrating because they, like those FBI and anti-piracy warnings on discs, only affect users intending to legally copy software to a local hard drive. The AACS rules will have absolutely zero effect on actual piracy since the Blu-ray Disc’s AACS/BD+ system has already been broken and spread far and wide across the Internet.

Anyone can copy a BD disc and play it back over analogue outputs.

You just can’t do it legally. And there’s the rub.

Well, I am reaching the point where I am ignoring hollywood. As a fairly patriotic New Zealander, I despise Helengrad (Wellington) where Weka lives: the movie industry is in bed with at least one criminal organisation, promoted by Tom Cruise etc, and they are making any audio or videophile’s life hell. All those lovely burr-brown DACs we use to turn things into analog (which always has higher quality) — useless.

Folks, Go Galt. Ignore Blu Ray. By second hand disks. Don’t go to movies, Starve the beast until there is some humility, or Hollywood dissolves into multiple movie centres, producing smaller, local product.