Hoarse Speak

Israel has nukes and now the PM is in hot water for admitting it. Of course this won't affect our special relationship with Israel since

1. We already knew and they've had bombs for almost 20 years
2. nuclear treaties seem to be oh so 1970s.

Yes making the world safer one atom at a time.

Because I can read what's in your wallet! The NYT writes that RFID on a credit card is a bad idea! Give'em a genius award. Kudos to the researchers who put together the $150 hacker kit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/business/23card.html

Oh yea, the companies say - but this doesn't mean our card.

See: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/10/american-sentenced-to-death-in-iraq.html

We shall see if the Military Commissions Act of 2006 will suspend Habeus Corpus (second para) for U.S. citizens.

Since the pending signing of the MCA 2006 should do just that, while we're at it, let's just throw out this pesky "Due Process" and corresponding amendments: Amendment 5 and Amendment 14 (section 1) and subject people accused of any crime to summary execution. That will take care of terrorists, corporate fraud, tax evaders, drunks, and your stupid loud neighbor that you don't like all at the same time.

What the hell are we doing?

btw, I thought the quote from The Trial was particularly nice.

Yes, that was how North Korea's bomb was described this morning on the BBC World Service.
Paraphasing:

The Russians estimated that the bomb had a yield of between 5 and 15 Kilotons. By comparison, the first nuclear bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of about 15 Kilotons. So this is a quite basic atomic device.

As I have recently finished Hiroshima by John Hershey, here's what that "quite basic" bomb did to a city of 237,000 people.

• 100,000 dead
• 62,000 of 90,000 buildings destroyed
• Hibakusha "explosion-affected survivors" who suffered long term health effects all their lives from radiation poisoning

I'm always overwhelmed by the British capability for understatement.

On Friday as part of a required field trip for the class I am taking, we went to Central Prison in Raleigh. Central Prison is a maximum security prison which includes the only Death Row and execution chamber in the state. We got to see all of it.

Our tour guides were Lieutenant W. and Sergeant B., both of whom had worked at the prison for a significant amount of time: Lt. W. had been at Central for 12 years, while Sgt. B. had been there for 20 years. Lt. W. was a woman in her late 30s - early 40s but just gave off that aura of don't mess with me. Sgt. B. was also probably in his early 40s very large man, at least 6'8", and looked like he worked out regularly - he also had a bit of a sadistic/control streak that might come out in my descriptions. The tour began first with disallowing one of the students because she had forgotten her wallet (and ID), and making another student swap shoes with the disqualified student because she was wearing sandals as opposed to close-toed shoes. The guards made us stand single file with most of the women at the front near Lt. W. who led, with the men and our professor at the back with Sgt. B..

They took us into the prison lobby first and displayed the collection of "contraband" that had been taken off of or out of prisoners - knives, razors, drugs, bullets, guns, etc.; all of which were hidden in books, cigarette packages or persons. There were also X-ray films of a couple of prisoner's stomachs with some metallic objects inside - I don't want to know what passing that might have been like. Some of the stuff seemed particularly dated, such as a 2 barrel derringer cut into a Bible, but some of the stuff seemed modern like a bunch of pills hidden in a cigarette pack.

The first real stop was the execution chamber. Central prison is the only execution location for the State of North Carolina. Four people have been executed this year the last execution occurred on August 18th. We only entered the observation room which was a triangular room about 10' on a side with 10 - 12 numbered chairs which face a large window. The window looks into what looks like a grubby doctor's examination room, something like I'd seen in the third world, in which the most prominent feature is a gurney. The condemned prisoner is allowed from 1pm to 11pm to be with his family in a very small room (a "sallyport") off the main visitation area - the only physical contact he is and has been allowed with anyone outside the Department of Corrections since his incarceration. After 11pm they are taken away and at midnight wheeled into the execution chamber strapped to the gurney. The observers are packed together in this small room, 1 member of the press is included with the victim's and prisoner's families. Apparently the window is not sound proof, so the condemned says his ritual last words while strapped to the gurney. The entire thing was profoundly creepy and clinical.

Next stop was the visitation room which was a large room with lots of doors to very small rooms - literally 6' X 6' with two stools (which were the only new thing in the place) which faced a 1" thick plexiglass window with a 2" X 12" steel grate in it through which you could speak to the prisoner you might be visiting. Prisoners are allowed 30 minutes to 1 hour per visitation depending on their behavior. Next we went into Block I which I'll write about later.

I was looking at our Chancellor's State of the University Address which he delivered on the 6th of September as part of a project I'm working on about open source and open standards at this particular public institution. He told a great joke, you can figure out who I identify with:

A man in a hot-air balloon realized that he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. "Excuse me," he shouted. "Can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman looked up and replied: "You are in a hot-air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information - and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."

"Well," said the woman, "you must be an administrator."

"I am," said the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep. And you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is that you are in exactly the same place you were before we met - but, now, somehow, it's my fault."