Author: Bill Ruhsam

In a bit of conversation a few weeks ago, a person related their plan to deploy tripwires in all of their outgoing email to cause the NSA headaches if they happen to be monitoring for certain phrases or words. She would include words such as bomb, missile, nuclear, radioactive, radioisotope, dirty bomb, terrorist, etc., in order to swamp their filters with junk.

I immediately thought, “Good! Teach those rotten do-badders a lesson if they try to break the law and spy on Americans.” However, then I got to thinking: Is this against the law? Is it the right way to protest the President’s obvious flouting of our democratic ideals? Would it actually do any good?

Here is some commentary (in the comments, mostly), which might shed some light on the topic, although some of it is a bit lowbrow. Personally, I think whether or not you believe it is right (or legal), it will be 99.9% ineffective.

Assume for a moment that there is some email wiretapping going on. How much email flows back and forth every second? It’s got to be in the hundreds of megabytes. No one has the ability to visually scan that much email. Therefore we get to the filter/datamining approach. How much email every second contains words or phrases that are innocuous in context–”I’m gonna kill my father for showing up drunk,” “She is the bomb,” “Y’all want to go to the quarry this weekend and blast things with guns?”–but would probably trip a dumb filter’s protocols? I’m sure it’s plenty. Too much to be looked at, again, by the budget-strapped agency that is the NSA (every gov’t agency is strapped).

Therefore, we get to the point of smart filters. The only way I can think that this sort of datamining approach to work would be for the filters to know when something isn’t critical because of the context it is in. This scenario would invalidate the email tripwire described above and merely make your signature line look weird.

So, in the first two cases, I think they would not be able to scan that much email with or without any deliberate insertions, and in the third, they wouldn’t see it anyway.

Personally, I think Bush is off his rocker and should face some serious inquiries regarding these wiretapping revelations. But also, I don’t think a personalized NSA-Bomb of this nature would have much effect, either positive or negative, on our country’s intelligence organs.

Again, for thorough commentary, see this link

Today’s NY Times has an article entitled Florida Wildlife Park’s Lions Lose Some Freedom to Roam, by Abby Goodnough. It concerns a safari park that is near and dear to my childhood memories, despite only one visit.  I remember driving through the park with my parents and sisters listening to this lioness asthsmatically hack like there was no tomorrow.

The story of that trip doesn’t end until we get lost on the way home and end up in Yeehaw Junction, Florida. Yes, that is a real placename.

But that is getting aside from the real story, which is people not following common sense rules.  Such as… 

If you followed the rules – windows up, doors locked, absolutely no pets or convertibles – you could motor among packs of the fearsome creatures at Lion Country Safari, a drive-through wildlife preserve whose residents occasionally dislodged bumpers and gnawed on side-view mirrors.

But in November, Lion Country Safari enclosed its 14 African lions in a tall chain-link fence to keep rule-breaking visitors from becoming lunch. Too many were opening their car windows and occasionally even doors, a park official said, making the threat of lawsuits too great for the small attraction.

Ahhh, people.

Today I received a solicitation from the National Society of Professional Engineers concerning my membership—I’m not a member—and exhorting me to contemplate the benefits of association with their august group.

Here is a quote from the beginning of the cover letter:

Dear William:

Nothing says “professional engineer” like the PE license.

Ummm, duh? I’m at a loss for words. Truly. But wait, there’s more.

Nothing says “professional engineer” like the PE license. Why? Because in a profession so affected by rapid changes in technology, techniques, and ethical issues, a demonstrated commitment to staying ahead of the curve is a pledge of excellence to a prospective client or employer.

I won’t go on.

If you can translate that last sentence into something that makes sense, please tell me what it means.