Liberty

“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” — Thomas Paine

Who wrote your encryption system?

“Never underestimate the stupidity of some of the people we have to deal with,” William A. Reinsch, Under Secretary of Commerce for the Bureau of Export Administration, said while being grilled about whether terrorists and criminals would be naive enough to use the technology being pushed by the Administration.

Survivor: China and My Idea for Next Season

I just finished watching the first episode of the latest Survivor. That is the only TV show we watch regularly, and it’s simply scary to see how these people get mixed together, and don’t kill each other. Of course, Jeff Probst and the producers use the same formula that was used back in the early days of MTV’s The Real World: put a bunch of opposites together and sit back for the fireworks. What is up with Courtney? Ugh, please get rid of her.

My idea for next season’s twist: At the start of the game, each contestant should be given half of an immunity idol, probably best to be randomly drawn after the tribes are at their camp. The other half is with someone on the opposing tribe. When someone is voted off, they take their half with them, rendering the immunity idol worthless. When the tribes finally merge, there could be as many as four hidden immunity idols, assuming the merge happens with eight players. It is also possible that there won’t be any. So the players that are vulnerable will need to hope that their counterpart will not be voted off, and that they will be able to negotiate with that person to be able to use the idol at a key point.

Of course, after the merge, finding out if your idol matches up or not will be fun. You want to keep it secret that you have a match. And since the person you match up with might have an alliance, there’s no way of knowing if they can keep the secret. And if one tribe dominates, and the merge happens 7 to 1, then the odds are pretty good that the lone tribe survivor will have a match with someone from the larger tribe. It will also be fun watching the players negotiate for the idol.

Freedom of Speech

“I have always been among those who believe that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.” –Woodrow Wilson

Excuse me?

“We have to get away from the ethos that knowledge is good, knowledge should be publicly available, that information will liberate us,” said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan.

PATRIOT Act Passage

“They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote.” –Rep. Ron Paul, TX, on how few Congresscritters saw the USA-PATRIOT Bill before voting overwhelmingly to imposed a police state

Can you do all this?

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” –Robert A. Heinlein