Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) has become one of my favorite senators. Not only is he the bulldog chair of the Judiciary Committee, now he’s scheduled to perform a cameo role in the current Batman movie franchise. The sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins, the new movie is called The Dark Knight and is planned to be released in 2008.
Leahy has an interview in the Burlington Free Press describing his experience.
How about a paint that will make a room secure against Wi-Fi? Basically, the idea would be to keep your Wi-Fi signals (think cell phone or wireless internet) from getting out where anyone could eavesdrop on them.
EM-SEC Technologies, a company in North Carolina, has developed the paint and has successfully tested it. I don’t have info on pricing, but it’s currently available and meets National Security Administration’s (NSA) TEMPEST (Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions) requirements. Since it’s intended for corporate and government security, my bet is that it’s pretty pricey.
However, the article where I originally saw this (afterdawn.com) suggested that it could be used to jam cell phone calls in a movie theater. Just put on fresh coat of paint!
Ben & Jerry’s is recalling 250,000 pints of their Country Peach Cobbler Ice Cream. It’s a voluntary recall due to their discovery that wheat wasn’t listed in the ingredient label but is in the product. This is only a risk to those with severe sensitivity to wheat, but the company decided to recall the product.
The complete story can be found here.
This is a composite picture of Saturn taken from ‘behind’ by the Cassini spacecraft. The sun is being blocked by the planet, and so the rings are particularly vibrant.
This is a unique view of Saturn, only available from a spacecraft, like Cassini, flyng past the planet. Thanks to this perspective, they’ve already discovered two new rings, confirmed the presence of two more, and assume the rings are associated with one or more small, new moons. This will add a lot to our knowledge about planetary science.
Plus, it’s just gorgeous.
You can read more about the discoveries at The Planetary Society or go directly to the Cassini website.
I haven’t yet talked about the Day Fire that’s burning in the area. As of Tuesday, the fire was up to 85,000 acres, and was only 30% contained. Until this weekend, it was just another brush fire in the SoCal area. But then, the offshore winds picked up, the size of the fire jumped up, and the smoke poured into Santa Barbara. The satellite picture of Southern California, above, shows the location of the fire in the blue circle. We are in the yellow circle. This picture is from Tuesday, since the since the smoke from the picture on Monday (the worst day) completely obscured the coastline and all the other geographic features.
First off, the fire is burning over 30 miles away and is threatening the town of Ojai. We are in no danger, here. Over the weekend and into this week, we have been covered by the smoke and living with a snowstorm of ash. I ran stadiums on Sunday with no repercussions, but a health warning went up later on Sunday and all outdoor activities were curtailed.
As of today (Thursday), the fire size is over 100,000 acres. The winds have changed and we are clear of new smoke. However, the prediction is for the offshore winds to return this weekend, so we may experience similar conditions. Again, it’s bothersome for us, but the real concern is for the folks in Ojai. They are under the threat of evacuations.