The Aerie

180 Hours

Hey y'all. I know and understand that you've stopped checking for updates here. I get it. Haven't updated in forever for two reasons. First, I started writing a big entry about online cameras, and it has stood in the way of subsequent posts. I'll finish it eventually, but I have to stop letting it clog up my other posts.

Second reason is that I'm in the middle of my third consecutive 60 hour work-week. Things at work have gotten totally crazy, so I simply haven't had time to post (or to bathe, for that matter - I'm pretty ripe!)

HOWEVER.... I wanted to post really quick to announce that I'm one of the finalists in noted security expert Bruce Schneier's Third Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest.

Most government security programs are focused on what Schneier calls "movie plot threats," unlikely but flamboyant possible attacks. For example, ever since 9/11 we've been taking off our shoes and discarding our liquids at the airport in order to prevent another shoe bomber or liquid bomb attempt. Never mind that neither of those attempts worked, and one of them wasn't even real. The inconvenient and expensive measures aimed at preventing this very small group of possible attacks are usually unlikely to prevent them, to say nothing of preventing much more mundane and likely attacks (such as a bomb slipped onto the plane by cleaning crew).

Anyway my entry this year was the DNA Adulteratometer, a small device that detects if someone has spit in your soup. It's meant to address the fear that someone has peed in the company coffee pot. More broadly, the fallacious entry addresses the insecurity and fear inherent in the growing class and ethnic divide between the (mostly white) ultra-rich and the (frequently ethnic) workers and servants upon whom they depend for their lifestyle.

Be sure you visit Bruce Schneier's website, review all the entries, and then vote for mine! Everyone who does so receives a FREE DNA Adulteratometer, as soon as they are invented and manufactured...

And be sure to purchase one of Bruce Schneier's fine security books while you're there. They make great Mother's Day gifts!

Posted by Albatross at May 8, 2008 9:44 AM | TrackBack