Bruce Schneier, that pragmatic and insightful observer of the so-called security state, is interviewing Kip Hawley, the head of the Transportation Safety Administration. The interview is going up on Schneier’s blog in 5 installments. Read part 1 to start.
Kip Hawley comes out sounding almost reasonable, though Schneier demolishes most of Hawley’s points (or at least those points that don’t reduce to, “it’s secret, so just trust me”).
Fear not, folks – Elton John is here to save us from the impending degradation of culture! Because, you see, the reason there’s so much rubbish music and art about these days is because we all spend too much time on the internet. It’s a relief to know he’s worked out why his own contributions to global culture have been so unilaterally appalling over the last decade or so … though I can think of numerous artist and musician acquaintances whose work has been enhanced or expanded for the better by their use of the internet, be it for networking or acquiring new tools or ideas. Clay Shirky agrees, too – destroying limits liberates creativity, as opposed to stifling it. But it also destroys the culture that went before it … which is probably what has Sir Elton so worried.
I think I’m largely preaching to the choir when I plug the benefits of space exploration here at Futurismic, but I’m not going to let that stop me. And we’re not alone in our beliefs – the former President of India says that the vast energy resources that space technologies can exploit make the price of admission well worthwhile.
Meanwhile over at Space.com, Al Globus explains how space colonisation is a viable alternative to war (here’s a hint – resources again), and points out that repurposing the military budgets of the world into space habitats would make the necessary budgets look tiny. I agree with him entirely, but I doubt he’ll have much luck convincing the hawkish types who make decisions of that kind. Still, fingers crossed. [Image from NASA]
Remember all those RFID security hacker types trying to tell our governments that the technology would be easy to compromise? They weren’t making it up – the first proof-of-concept exploits for passport RFID are already in the bag.
Via PZ Myers: an article at Rolling Stone that looks at the sudden swing into favour of ethanol as an alternative fuel in the US … does the word ‘ subsidies’ ring any bells? There’s little doubt we need alternatives to crude oil derivatives, but we should probably be picking them on the merits of their environmental impact, rather than how much money they can make for shady business-persons … and how many votes they can garner in an election year. [Image by WayTru]
Edited for extra: the panic is over, we don’t need to switch to ethanol. A biotech start-up claims it will have created bacteria capable of making “petroleum-like fluids” within the next three to five years. Rather than voicing my opinion on the plausibility or practicality of such a solution, I’ll instead point out that Julian May posited that very idea in her 1988 novel, Intervention.