Information System To Enhance Air Travel Security
It's an interesting concept. Using data mining and other technologies, this new software will create a security risk profile score for every ticket holder on every flight using things like current home address, previous addresses, credit card numbers and the like. It's certainly better than racial profiling, but I see lots of potential errors, like family members traveling together getting high profile scores.
No Room In The Lobby For Baronness Thatcher?
A
marble statue in the image of Margaret Thatcher has been made. Everything else is up for debate. It seems that the statue was designed to be placed in the House of Commons, but it can't go there
until 5 years after she dies. And at 76, she is still going strong! A solution has been proposed by
Lake Havasu City, Arizona, home of the old
London Bridge(yes, the bridge from the children's song that was falling down), who
want to display the statue until it can come home. Will the Baronness find a home in London or not?
Mother's Little Helper Is Gone From UK
First introduced in the 1960, Valium was supposed to be a cure-all drug, and made its manufacturer,
Roche, a big pile of money. But no one warned patients about its addictive qualities. It's been part of the pharmacy for people from
Robert Downey, Jr. to
Dana Plato, and was one of the stars of
Valley of the Dolls. Today, women are more likely to be given a
prescription for drugs like Prozac, Zoloft or Paxil.
Legal Motivations?
Morris and Foerster, the law firm whose partner is defending the American Taliban, John Walker Lindh, wants their name to be kept out of the proceedings. I don't know this company personally, I can only imagine that they have defended all sorts of scumbags who could pay for legal defense, but they are drawing the line here. The whole concept of defense is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, right? Murderers, rapists, and child pornographers get defense attorneys. Do they think John doesn't deserve legal representation?
RaiseTheFist Gets The Ax
In our post-September 11th world, does the First Amendment include the right to publish information about how to build bombs, or codes for hacking into the U.S. Army websites? Not according to the USA Patriot Act.
Women's Issues
An interesting opinion about
how we in west view the role of women in the Muslim world, and the realities of that world. And a scandal in the United Arab Emirate, where
women have been secretly videotaped while at the beauty salon.
-- Updated 2 February: An interesting opinion that offers
the idea that many of the Muslim women choose veils and coverings as part of their own extremist and pursh this on other women.
Plop Plop Fizz No More?
Did you know that gum Arabic, the ingredient that puts the bubbles in your Coke, is produced in the Sudan by the
Gum Arabic Company, Ltd.? Or that there was some information linking Osama bin Laden with this product? Read some interesting facts and opinions from the Index on Censorship. Check out some of the
urban legends that have arisen over this question, and some of the information that has been distributed on the Internet, including a
statement from the National Soft Drink Assocation.
