:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 2.17.2003 ::
:: Weary of... wariness? ::
From Wired: Are You Scared Stupid? Do Tell
By Michelle Delio, 02:00 AM Feb. 17, 2003 PT
"Shuck your shoes and socks at the airport as your luggage is blithely loaded onto the plane without a scan. Wait in line for the cursory backpack and bag search before entering a public building. We endure the inconveniences forced upon us in the name of national security by chanting the mantra 'It's okay if it keeps us safe.'"
"We'd like to think we're more secure than we were two years ago, that we're smarter about how to protect ourselves and our public places. But Privacy International, coalition of human rights and privacy advocacy groups, charges that security measures are getting stupider by the moment."
The group announced the Stupid Security Competition "to discover the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures."
The deadline is March 15th, and security measures deemed the most absurd will receive their dubious honor April 3rd at the Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference in New York. Nominations should be submitted to stupidsecurity@privacy.org.
"It's become a global menace. From the nightclub in Berlin that demands the home address of its patrons, to the phone company in Britain that won't let anyone pay more than fifty pounds a month from a bank account, the world has become infested with bumptious administrators competing to hinder or harass you. And often for no good reason whatever," said Privacy International in a statement.
"The sensitive and sensible folk at Privacy International have endured enough of this treatment."
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told Wired that he "hopes the contest will help raise awareness of security issues by taking a humorous poke at security blunders."
"I hope that making the Stupid Security awards an annual event will go some way to making organizations more sensitive about the effect they have on the public. But it will be a tough challenge."
posted by me
:: 2:56:00 PM [+] ::
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