CurtBlog

More domestic spying?

Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?  —  Salon exclusive: Two former AT&T employees say the telecom giant has maintained a secret, highly secure room in St. Louis since 2002.  Intelligence experts say it bears the earmarks of a National Security Agency operation.

Source:   Salon
Author:   Kim Zetter
Link:   http://salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/21/att_nsa…

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[Via Techmeme]

I have to admit I'm a bit of a conspiracy buff here and there. It's kinda interesting tracking through the inconsistencies around major events like the JFK assassination, Waco, etc. But ever since the events of 9/11, there have been a lot of things about that day that bugged me. Stuff just doesn't add up. Here are some examples. How does fireproof steel, solely through a building/jet fuel fire, fail after less than an hour when most of the jet fuel was expended outside the building and steel doesn't even start softening until over 2000 degrees? Did you know there is not a recorded incident of any skyscraper being brought down by fire and there have been a bunch with fires worse than the ones from the planes. When you look at Pentagon footage, where the heck is the plane? And why is the hole so small? Planes don't vaporize in a jet fuel explosion, have you ever seen a crash when that has happened, except in the movies? Speaking of that, where was the plane in PA? Again, nowhere to be seen. Just a tiny bit of wreckage here and there. And how do people make cell phone calls from the crusing altitude of a jet, even if it was flying low. You can't get reception up there. There are a lot of things from that day that don't add up. If you have had questions about these types of things, check out the documentary Loose Change on Google Video. Even if you are a total skeptic, you should at least give the first 15 minutes a watch and see if you can stop watching. There are some questions out there that the government refuses to answer and a lot of us are wondering why.  Thanks to Dale Baker for pointing this out.

Stream of one of the songs off the new MUSE album, can't wait for this.

Heard this morning that large cab companies are going to be required to have at least one hybrid vehicle in their fleet. I think this was announced at the auto show, but I missed it then. I'ts a good start, but there is no reason Chicago can't be more aggressive on this. Honestly I think all cabs should be hybrids within the next 3-5 years, that seems like a reasonable goal. And it would probably save the cab companies money and we might be able to get some federal subsidies for it. Mayor Daley says he wants Chicago to be the greenest city in the country... he's going to have to do better than this. For that matter, all our buses should be electric or hybrid as well. I would be all for some of my city taxes going to a worthwhile cause like that, if it takes some subsidizing by the city to do it I'm all for it.
And while we're at it, let's get a decent city recycling program. Looking at what's going on now (see Matt's blog), there really isn't an easy way to recycle even if you want to. The blue bag system doesn't work. We need curbside recycling containers or bins in each neighborhood. Why not give the Streets and Sanitation people something worthwhile to do, in between writing stupid tickets for street cleaning violations.

This past weekend Kristin and I were in Buffalo for our friends' Sean and Becky's wedding. Although I can't say I'm a big fan of Buffalo, we had a really good time and got to meet some cool new friends. Here are some highlights of the weekend:

• Meeting some cool people among Becky and Sean's circle. Also had a chance to get to know some people better that we already knew.
• Getting Duff's buffalo wings with Kristin. Very tasty wings, although not quite a hot as we were expecting. Excellent flavor though.
• Sharing a Friendly's Reese's Pieces sundae. We both grew up with Friendly's in the northeast and never get to have it anymore since they don't have stores around us
• Finally going to Canada and seeing Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. Rode the Maid of the Mist boat and it is pretty breathtaking being right up close to the falls.
• Visiting the Butterfly Conservatory just north of the Falls, it's quite a bit bigger than the one at the Chicago nature museum where Kristin volunteers. There should be a bunch of cool pictures up on Flickr soon. The most interesting moment was when an owl butterly decided Kristin's eyes might hold some tasty nectar and attached itself to her forehead, probing around with its .