LAX “security”

Qantas Airways chairman Margaret Jackson was detained and frisked at LAX last year: She said her briefcase had contained detailed plans of a new aircraft, including cross-section diagrams showing seat layouts, Australian newspaper the Herald Sun newspaper reported Wednesday. “The guy said ‘Why have you got all of this?’,” she said. “And I said, ‘I’m …

security screeners don’t

Bruce Schneier brings more bad news about US airport “security”: It seems like every time someone tests airport security, airport security fails. In tests between November 2001 and February 2002, screeners missed 70 percent of knives, 30 percent of guns and 60 percent of (fake) bombs. And recently (see also this), testers were able to …

The presidential power grab

The Boston Globe has a fascinating article on what Bush’s refusal to veto bills really means: Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation’s sponsors to signing …

how to think about security

Security is all about tradeoffs. Bruce Schneier has five steps you need to take when making a security-related decision: What problem does the security measure solve? How well does the security measure solve the problem? What other security problems does the measure cause? What are the costs of the security measure? Given the answers to …

How did Stephen Colbert get away with it?

Such a brilliant performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner: But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works: the president makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell check and go …

pave save the internet

MoveOn is organizing a net neutrality awareness campaign. Sign the petition to the US Congress asking for meaningful and enforceable network neutrality: I signed this petition, along with 250,000 others so far. This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes next week. When you sign, you’ll be kept informed of …