Hyper-photos: Jean-François Rauzier attempts to create the most detailed images in the world.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by mea

Rauzier takes an hour or two photographing his subject from every angle “like a scanner.” Then the real work begins: days and nights with Photoshop, stretching, bending and multiplying hundreds, even thousands, of images and blending them seamlessly. Since the light changes as he shoots, matching colors presents another challenge. He takes additional liberties with the images, duplicating sections in symmetrical ways to create elegantly surrealist landscapes.

via Hyper-photos: Jean-François Rauzier attempts to create the most detailed images in the world..

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Intelligence effort named citizens, not terrorists

Posted on October 3, 2012 by mea

The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.

via Intelligence effort named citizens, not terrorists.

Despite that, Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That’s because, whether or not it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.

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Aircraft Carriers in Space

Posted on September 30, 2012 by mea

Battlestar Galactica has other issues. One thing I have never understood is why the humans didn’t lose halfway through the first episode. If information moves at the speed of light, and one side has a tactically useful FTL [faster-than-light] drive to make very small jumps, then there is no reason why the Cylons couldn’t jump close enough and go, “Oh, there the Colonials are three light minutes away, I can see where they are, but they won’t see me for three minutes?” C.J. Cherryh’s novels address this a bit with the idea of “longscan,” where you predict where they are going to be, but you might not know for some period of time what they actually did.

via Aircraft Carriers in Space – By Michael Peck | Foreign Policy.

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Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets

Posted on September 26, 2012 by mea

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.

via Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets – Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq – Navy Times.

It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention.

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Sept. 11 memorial: Does the World Trade Center site really need so much security?

Posted on September 11, 2012 by mea

Once at the memorial you must go through a metal detector and your belongings must be X-rayed. Officers will inspect your ticket—that invulnerable document you nearly left on your printer—at least five times. One will draw a blue line on it; 40 yards (and around a dozen security cameras) later, another officer will shout at you if your ticket and its blue line are not visible. Eventually you’ll reach the memorial itself, where there are more officers and no bathrooms. You’re allowed to take photographs anywhere outside the security screening area—in theory if not always in practice.

via Sept. 11 memorial: Does the World Trade Center site really need so much security? – Slate Magazine.

I talked to Bruce Schneier, a leading thinker on security and the man who coined the term “security theater” to describe measures that are visible or intrusive but also pointless or ineffective. Schneier responded to a description of the memorial’s visible security with a pointed question: Is the memorial to the victims—or to our collective stupidity?

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