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mmroden commented on the diary post NYT: White House Tells Media It was Ready to Risk War with Pakistan by Scarecrow.
So, then, what? As others have said, there’s probably some chess going on here. I’m willing to bet that there’s saber rattling going on in the background by the various Pakistanis that were upset by this. I’m also willing to bet that portions of the military brass knew where OBL was; they do have a [...]
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mmroden commented on the diary post NYT: White House Tells Media It was Ready to Risk War with Pakistan by Scarecrow.
I’m wondering what you would have them do. During the Bush era, when the White House presented a completely unified front and never answered questions beyond the talking point responses, they were vilified for not being transparent enough and not really answering questions. Now there are some inconsistencies in the story, presumably determined by White [...]
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mmroden commented on the blog post Defeating the Porno Scanners with Simple Pancake Shapes
Your assumption about objects hidden in the pancake are incorrect. Depending on the composition of the object, they might still be detectable. The paper was actually very careful not to make such claims, because they are not supported, and, in the face of it, not necessary, given the severity of the original claim.
There are worse things than something hidden in there, though– instead of reading the Slashdot analysis, take a look at the Ars Technica one (http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/12/imaging-specialists-tsa-scanners-can-miss-underwear-bombs.ars). In general, their science reporting will be far superior to Slashdot’s, and to anyone else’s that I’ve found. The comments can be very illustrative as well, as there can be multiple domain experts commenting on the article. For instance, this article: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/12/a-tale-of-an-ingenious-experiment-with-a-dubious-interpretation.ars was followed by several comments explaining how a particular antibiotic worked and why E. Coli resistance wasn’t as big of a deal as it sounds.
