One morning in 1971 Cheyenne sent a 'ten bells' signal through the Emergency Broadcast System ordering stations to shutdown, with the confirmation code of "HATEFULNESS". By all indications, this was a national emergency, perhaps a nuclear strike. The EBS sent these messages through AP teletype machines, connected at 50 baud, about 66 words per minute. Importantly, although there was relative panic among those who received the EBS alert, only one followed procedure. Was the EBS just another 'duck and cover' for national emergencies? This was back when some media (TV, radio) signed off at night. So what would've happened if the Soviets decided to strike at 3am? With no global, persistent, all-monitoring media (and a glassy-eyed population consuming it), the EBS was left ringing ten bells to a few scared AP machine operators. Gone are the days of the familiar EBS test tone, in 1997 the EBS became the Emergency Alert System, which last year Bush ordered DHS to upgrade. Remember folks, sometimes the flash will come without warning, so duck and cover.

In the consistently great Make Magazine this month George Dyson writes "Physicists love explosions. We owe our nulcear predicament to a quirk of human nature." And he contines about Theodore Taylor, one of the atomic bomb makers of the 50's, and proponent of nuclear driven spacecraft. "Taylor held up a small parabolic mirror and lit a cigarette with an atomic bomb. The fireball was 12 miles away." If there is modern hysteria about liquid explosives on planes, you have to wonder if the hysteria isn't misplaced. In the 50's Taylor "...tried to find out what was the smallest bomb you could produce... it was never built in those years, it certainly has been since then. It was a full implosion bomb that you could hold in one hand that was about 6 inches in diameter." Carry that onto a plane? No, you'd probably put something like that in a shipping container. I'm going to start a company selling Red Herring.

It seems the overwhelming amount of human religion, Nationalism, and behavior in general, is directed to this: we're right and you're wrong. I'm starting yet another new religion where, in fact, everyone is wrong. Instead of getting your ego stoked and fervor engorged by a belief in your rightness, imagine righteous orgs like Hezbollah, the Israelis or the US, wake up one day hit by the profound revelation -- universally pummeling revelation -- that they're wrong. Everyone is a member of this new religion, whether they know it or not; although Wrongism does not exclude someone else from being right, this person can never be you. I'm a firm believer that the end of stupidity starts with doubt, although I could be mistaken. Selah.

More is better. From The Data Quality Act to SIPRNET, a large apparatus handles information. Except at the top.

I can't believe I hadn't seen this, that everyone hasn't seen this. Few things could be so close to the interior of modern American warfare than Errol Morris's interview shot in 2000 of Robert McNamara, "the best and the brightest", former Defense Secretary, talking about the cornerstone moments of the cold war and the foundation of the mire of Vietnam. Most importantly, this is an old man looking back at his part in the fire bombing of Tokyo, working with Curtis LeMey, Kennedy, Johnson -- an interior view of big business war, of MBA war, of algebraic morality (is, in fact, all morality just an assessment of what is a lesser evil). Apparently, very few things have changed.

On the train this morning I stood next to a guy who was playing an over-the-shoulder shooter on his PSP with the volume way up. No headphones. Shootin' people on the train with nice graphics, great display screen, excellent sound effects. Not like I couldn't watch. And you know, I just sort of got to wondering, does this guy work for the postoffice, you know, is there some built up aggression there he needs to shoot enemy soldiers on the train during rush hour? Or are people simply just warrior monkeys stuck in a demilitarized zone struggling to restrain the urge to fight? In that kind of mad scientist way, I wonder if he's hardwiring his brain to specialize in shooting. Perhaps he could put those skills to use here.

If it wasn't clear enough that the US was lied to about the reasons for an Iraq war, James Bamford's piece in Rolling Stone, The Man Who Sold The War, makes it stupidly clear. Behind the bad intelligence about WMDs was Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, who lied about Saddam's "terrifying cache of WMDs". Bamford claims that behind this and other intelligence manipulation in relation to the 'Iraq situation' is John Rendon, perhaps a modern day out-sourced spook with top secret CIA clearence who comes off as clean and corporate, and is excellent in spin. I call shenanigans.

"Domestic military operations", "to detect and neutralize espionage", "Combatant Commands", are all militaristic terms usually applied for operations against an enemy. Or, in the case of the Counterintelligence Field Activity agency, in the US homeland. Citizen, you really need to prove your vigilence and loyalty to the state, perhaps this little enamel button will help. Can I interest you in an armband? The DOD created CFA three years ago and is now giving it more power, without a congressional hearing. Oh, there's a file on you, maybe it's just not paper anymore. [and here]