Letter Never Sent

Good story via. The federal government is gearing up to build 330 pounds of plutonium, which will be used to power spy devices. Maybe sonar listening posts or underwater tracking devices in the ocean around Japan and China? Or tiny satellites? Who knows.

Federal and private experts unconnected to the project said the new plutonium would probably power devices for conducting espionage on land and under the sea. Even if no formal plans now exist to use the plutonium in space for military purposes, these experts said that the material could be used by the military to power compact spy satellites that would be hard for adversaries to track, evade or destroy.

New Yorker: TYSON’S CORNER:

In the sweaty aftermath, Tyson was gracious to his opponent and stayed around to browse his own psyche one last time. “I’m a peasant,” he said. “At one point, I thought life was about acquiring things. Life is totally about losing everything.”

Via metafilter, the Department of Justice is changing how it enforces laws governing adult material on the web. From Wired, “Under penalty of federal prison terms, new interpretations of existing regulations would require sites that feature photographs or videos of sexual activity to keep records confirming that performers are of legal age.” I guess this means that anyone who has a website featuring adult material must keep complete records of any person depicted. I’m curious how this will effect the adult industry as adult media is treated essentially as a commodity.

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Lunch line, uploaded by letterneversent at 23 Jun ‘05, 1.46pm PST with nokia 3220.

Getting a sandwich.

In reading about the Supreme Court decision to support local powers of eminent domain I found myself in the somewhat unusual position of agreeing with the more conservative members of the court like Scalia. Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes (via robotwisdom):

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What do we really ever know about history? What do we know about what’s happening today? How should we act when we have no way of knowing the ripples each action causes?

Winston Churchill, 1936:

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Courtesy of my personalized google page.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
- George Bernard Shaw

How are businesses going to equip themselves to deal with problems like this? Human error will always be the weakest point. ID thieves search ultimate pot of gold - databases:

In by far the largest caper reported to date, intruders recently cracked into the systems used by Atlanta-based payments processor CardSystems Solutions. The take: 40 million account records for holders of MasterCard, Visa USA, American Express and Discover cards.

A California privacy law that requires businesses and agencies to disclose thefts of personal data has heightened awareness of the issue. But the record theft underscores concern that the pace of identity theft appears to be accelerating, security experts and law enforcement officials say.

I like to sit back and think of all the tiny moments and events that make up my day:

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On my way from work I stopped to pick up my brother from where he works and we went swimming out at Town Lake below the damn near Red Bud Isle. Red Bud Isle is a park where they allow dogs to run off the leash so there were all types of dogs and dog people there. The water looked swift and chilly. The only people swimming were tan scruffy types with week old beards and blurry tattoos clutching Lone Star tall boys as their cut-offs drizzled onto the rocks and roots of the tree-lined banks. Since I was unprepared to go swimming we stopped at Target and bought a pair of cheap black trunks. I found a hidden spot in the bushes and changed out of my work clothes and we ran off to find the rope swing.

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