From SecurityFocus.com comes the best news I’ve heard all day:
Federal prosecutors formally dropped charges
this month against an amateur astronomer who exposed a buried
surveillance network surrounding the Air Force’s mysterious “Area 51″
air base in Nevada.
…
In a deal with the government last January, Clark agreed to enter a
one-year term of “pretrial diversion” — a kind of probation — and to
either locate and return the lost device, or make financial restitution
to the Air Force. “He paid for the missing sensor, and complied with
the conditions of his pretrial diversion and the case was dismissed,”
says Natalie Collins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in
Las Vegas.
That’s cool and all, that they would let him simply repay them for the
sensor and do pre-trial diversion, since that saves everyone involved
some serious time and money. And I’m all for people finding
government activity where it’s not supposed to be – namely, Clark’s
discovery that there were sensors on public land frequented by hikers,
tourists, etc., and that any one of them might have stepped in the
wrong place and ended up in just as much trouble. That said, the
part that makes me so happy is this:
Clark’s emancipation from government scrutiny comes well in time for
Area 51′s unofficial 50th anniversary campout, planned for Memorial Day
weekend, and likely to draw tourists, UFOlogists, and exotic aircraft
buffs from all over. They’ll celebrate with “a campfire with live
music” outside the base’s main gate, according to the event website. “Be sure to respect the Area 51 boundaries,” the site suggests. “If you see the warning signs you have gone too far.”
A camping trip to Area 51? That is rad!
(more…)
So, I’m addicted to The Poor Man.
But his site is down, and I don’t just mean unreachable, I mean his
domain name is unresolvable. By random chance, does anyone
reading this know what’s up with him? I’m jonesing. (more…)
Man. We went for sushi last night. And sushi ruled.
I hate a Dynamite roll and a Volcano roll. The Boyf partook of a
California roll and a Samurai roll. I had a Manhattan (up – I
figured between the weather and the drink, everything would balance out
to it being roughly akin to on the rocks), he a beer with a name I
can’t pronounce. Good friends, good food, good conversation, etc.
Mr. Pink Eyes and I talked comic books briefly. He and I ended up
making almost identical purchases from Chapel Hill Comics when we were
at NEVERMORE. I highly recommend The Walking Dead series of
TPB’s, whereas Mr. Pink Eyes’ opinion of Invincible was that it’s got
its moments but it’s probably much better later in the series.
I don’t really have any politics to discuss today because I can’t
handle real news at the moment. Funny, it turns out neither can
the Bush Administration, so they have to make their own
by hiring conservative columnists to shill for Bush programs in return
for taxpayer money. My favorite so far, to be honest, is the most
recent – a wingnut named McManus whose syndicated column (in which he
pushed Bush’s “marriage initiative” in return for a heap of
cash). His column’s title? “Ethics & Religion.”
Ethics & religion, indeed – as in, abandon each all ye who enter here.
Ugh. I just can’t discuss it. I can’t I can’t I
can’t. Deep in my soul, in my darkest moments, my inner
schizophrenic whimpers about how it’s the rest of the world that’s gone
crazy, it must be. If everyone else were sane then the whole
BushCo team would be in shackles in federal, fuck-me-in-the-ass prison.
(Update: many thanks to apostropher, from whom I stole the links above.) (more…)