NOW will they agree to screen passengers for jihadist sympathies?
From the Associated Press, via Yahoo:Oh, it should be clear.... unless apologists are trying to obfuscate it.WASHINGTON – U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.
One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
The passenger was being questioned Friday evening.
Both of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
The motive of the Christmas Day attack was not immediately clear.
Surah 7: "How many a township have We destroyed! As a raid by night, or while they slept at noon, Our terror came unto them. 4-5"
Bukhari, Vol. 4 book 52 verse 220: "Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror...."
¶ 12/25/2009 07:31:00 PM 2 comments
Security through obscurity
Security through obscurity, isn't. And in other news, water is wet, fire is hot, and it's impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so inventive. I'll just let the Associated Press tell this bit of the story about Predator drones:The problem, he said, is that when the drones were first being developed they were using commercial equipment, which as time goes on could become vulnerable to intercepts.I hope that the memos to superiors about vulnerabilities are now being reviewed, and a few high-ranking officers' careers are about to end in abrupt retirements. And maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.
The Predator, also currently used in the hunt for al-Qaida and other militants in Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere, can fly for hours remotely controlled by pilots thousands of miles away. It can fly armed or unarmed, and is part of a growing arsenal of such craft that includes the Reaper and Raven as well as a new, high-tech video sensor system called the Gorgon Stare, being installed on Reapers.
The military has known about the vulnerability for more than a decade, but assumed adversaries would not be able to exploit it.
Labels: computer security, government incompetence
¶ 12/17/2009 08:56:00 PM 0 comments
Thermodynamics bleg
I'm looking for properties tables (enthalpy, entropy, Cp, Cv, that stuff) for carbon dioxide in the range of 5-30 MPa and up to 1400°C. The NIST data that I've got only goes up to 1100 K (823 C) which is well short of what I need.Does anyone know where I can find this, either on-line or in print?
¶ 12/07/2009 03:04:00 PM 0 comments
