Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bits and Pieces - August 13, 2009

Busy day today, so Bits and Pieces is earlier than usual.

Someone commented yesterday on the story about the two psychologists behind the development of torture as an acceptable tool in the war on terror that it is impressive how many of the, er, people associated with the uglier practices of the Bush administration seem to be con men and worse. Today we read about more of that sort, who developed the "black sites."

I thought that Hillary Clinton's response to the young man who wanted to know what her husband thought was fair enough. The words didn't read as being out of anger, but I wasn't there to hear her voice. How would a male Secretary of State respond if someone asked what his wife thought? Probably by laughing. The contrast gives a pretty accurate measure of the sexism with which these things continue to be reported. Judith Warner considers the problem, but I think that Jonathan Capehart comes closer to getting it right.

Good-looking makeover, LA Times!

Some photos of the Perseid meteor shower, in case you missed the real thing.

Keeping flying unpleasant.

The solution to the use of cell phones while driving would be a scrambler or blocker that prevents signals from getting outside the car once the ignition is turned on. A car is already almost a Faraday cage, a shell of metal that prevents transmissions from within it, so a technical fix can't be that difficult!

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