Daily Archives: May 24, 2011
Smart Alec Computer
Obama code-named ‘smart alec’ in Britain – Yahoo! News
Scotland Yard insiders told the Sunday Times that codewords are randomly generated by computer, “but the paper wondered why officials decided to stick with them, when they could have simply had another word selected that would be less provocative,” the paper notes.
ISP: Internet Service Pirates
World’s First Pirate ISP Launches In Sweden | TorrentFreak
After taking over the supply of bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, Piratpartiet will now partner in the launch of Pirate ISP, a new broadband service that will offer anonymity to customers and provide financial support to the Party.
photo and related article via Techtree.com – Sweden’s Pirate ISP to Host Torrent Treasury
Mr. and Mrs. Smite
A Couple’s Dueling Pranks Score Big | Magazine
In the two years since Baker posted the first video, the couple’s antics—all involve revenge pranks—have garnered 17 million YouTube views and have been reposted elsewhere to the tune of a staggering 43 million views.
Greece and the Euro Zone
Is There Any Hope for Greece’s Debt Problem? – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com
City workers in Athens protesting against austerity plans on May 18.
Related articles
- Greek Worries Halt Euro’s Rally (online.wsj.com)
- Greece will have to reschedule its debts, says Vince Cable (guardian.co.uk)
FBI Poker Night
Cops Chase Terrorists, Catch Poker Players – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine
…loads of public money and two years of surveillance allowed FBI and Seattle PD investigators to nab (a) four poker players, (b) some unrelated drug dealers, and (c) an activist pressured by an undercover cop into showing up at a drug deal.
Along with the abuses to our civil liberties, there’s a fiscal angle:
Here’s a little more math about the public resources that this investigation sucked up. According to documents acquired by The Stranger, during May and June of 2008, [undercover agent] Bryan [Van Brunt] showed up to play cards at [activist/target] Rick [Wilson]‘s apartment eight times. For those eight card games (i.e., eight police shifts for Bryan), the investigation paid for 112 shifts by supporting officers…
