http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/03/friday_squid_bl_225.html

Plastination:

For several years von Hagens and his team experimented using smaller squid, and found that the fragility of the skin needed a slower replacement process than other animal specimens.

Some 1500 litres of silicone later, the plastination of the giant cephalopods was completed in January.

• 13:58 Stuck at home today. Have come down with the bug going round the office. More pills soon. fallenlondon.com/c/37698 #
• 14:34 Hmm, why has the Unite leader delivered his speech to the ITV camera after asking which was which from ITV, SKY, & BBC? #
• 14:39 Is this a union accent? The voice I just heard from the unions chief aviation chap I would never expect to hear from a cabin steward. #

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/News.aspx?NID=6450

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/03/bringing_lots_o.html

This would worry me, if the liquid ban weren't already useless.

The reporter found the security flaw in the airport's duty-free shopping system. At Schiphol airport, passengers flying to countries outside the Schengan Agreement Area can buy bottles of alcohol at duty-free shops before going through security. They are then permitted to take these bottles onto flights, provided that they have the bottles sealed at the shop.

Mr Stegeman bought a bottle, emptied it and refilled it with another liquid. After that he returned to the same shop and 'bought' the refilled bottle again. The shop sealed the bottle in a bag, allowing him to take it with him through security and onto a London-bound flight. In London, he transferred planes and carried the bottle onto a flight to Washington DC.

The flaw, of course, is the assumption that bottles bought at a duty-free shop actually come from the duty-free shop.

But note that 1) it's the same airport as underwear bomber, 2) reporter is known for trying to defeat airport security, and 3) body scanners would have made no difference.

Watch the TV program here.

From Ocado which we think are superb I just added some of my old favourite bitters, I feel I’ve been off the drugs long enough to have gotten any of that were hanging around in my system out of my body so I might as well give it a go, now I know a few things have changed in there taste a little bit (I sweat a little when eating chillies now) but I’ll be surprised if Daddy Juices as Jan calls it around Andrew has changed how I taste it apart from I bet it’s a little sharper but we’ll see Sunday

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/03/security_trade-.html

Interesting research:

Psychologist Jeremy Ginges and his colleagues identified this backfire effect in studies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2007. They interviewed both Israelis and Palestinians who possessed sacred values toward key issues such as ownership over disputed territories like the West Bank or the right of Palestinian refugees to return to villages they were forced to leave—these people viewed compromise on these issues completely unacceptable. Ginges and colleagues found that individuals offered a monetary payout to compromise their values expressed more moral outrage and were more supportive of violent opposition toward the other side. Opposition decreased, however, when the other side offered to compromise on a sacred value of its own, such as Israelis formerly renouncing their right to the West Bank or Palestinians formally recognizing Israel as a state. Ginges and Scott Atran found similar evidence of this backfire effect with Indonesian madrassah students, who expressed less willingness to compromise their belief in sharia, strict Islamic law, when offered a material incentive.

[...]

After giving their opinions on Iran’s nuclear program, all participants were asked to consider one of two deals for Iranian disarmament. Half of the participants read about a deal in which the United States would reduce military aid to Israel in exchange for Iran giving up its military program. The other half of the participants read about a deal in which the United States would reduce aid to Israel and would pay Iran $40 billion. After considering the deal, all participants predicted how much the Iranian people would support the deal and how much anger they would feel toward the deal. In line with the Palestinian-Israeli and Indonesian studies, those who considered the nuclear program a sacred value expressed less support, and more anger, when the deal included money.

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163376

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163271

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163507

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163462

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163430

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163410

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163391

http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=1022&articleid=6163303