My Appointed Rounds

Arms Control Wonk on North Korea:

I close this discourse about operational confidence by noting that the United States has built a missile defense that does not work, to defend against a North Korean missile that does not work, that would carry a nuclear warhead that does not work.

Bruce Schneier reports on the latest advances in dual-use technology:

Airport Security Confiscates Rock
They already take away scissors. Can paper be far behind?

Cervantes discovers that Denny Hastert issued a press release in August about his program to stop online pedophiles:

“Recent news stories remind us that there are predators using the Internet to target children,” Hastert said.

Thers on the vagaries of American politics:

The Republican Party is entering the November elections upset that a gay Internet sex scandal is preventing them from running on the message they really wanted to present to the voters: that Torture is Good.

PZ Myers responds to the news that the self-lobotomized nonentity Stephen Baldwin is making a splash in intelligent-design circles:

We need a scientist who is willing to snort cocaine for a couple of years, sleep willy-nilly with models and any half-naked starlet with no taste, and bash himself repeatedly over the head with blunt objects until his IQ descends to perilously low Stephen Baldwin levels, all so that we can enrapture the precious skateboarding teenager bloc. Any volunteers?

Interrobang on Plan B in Canada:

Think about buying some to take home if you're here visiting, playing the casinos in Windsor, visiting Niagara Falls or Stanley Park, or skiing in the Rockies or Collingwood. Even if you wind up not needing it, you probably know someone who will, and better safe than sorry. It may be the best $40 you ever spend.

Last - and most important - an action alert from Echidne.

(Photo by CKR.)