ajft

From Bruce Schneir's Schneier on Security, possibly one of the best articles I've ever read on the increasing harassment of anyone who dares to wield a camera in a public place:

... The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography. ...

Thank you Bruce.

Another trip through Canberra airport, once more I'm selected for the “random” additional security checks. I think I've worked it out though, on a Sunday evening there's so little to for the security staff to do that their “random” person selector picks every third person, and anyone who stands out in the slightest gets picked on.

At least this time they were civil about the whole deal, although I am puzzled about one aspect of the whole metal-detector thing. I walked into the airport wearing shoes, socks, jeans, underpants, a belt, tee-shirt, fleece vest, fleece jacket and a hat. For some reason I have to remove the hat and it has to go through the metal detector seperately. I guess I prefer it to be my hat to my underpants…

OK, so there was a bad collision in the Burnley tunnel last Friday. Yes, there are no emergency lanes or emergency bays in the tunnel, and yes, the speed limit is 80km/hr — except for the majority of the time when I seem to go through and its been reduced to 60 or even 40.

But come on people, the amount of crap we've seen in the papers for the last few days about "a disaster waiting to happen" is complete bollocks. Every bloody motorist in Melbourne is a disaster waiting to happen, they don't need a special tunnel for them to be stupid and drive too close together too quickly!

Amazingly, on Saturday as we drove in stop-start traffic to get off the freeway before the closed tunnel. There was a semi-trailer in front inching its way along, us, also stationary, then a largish gap and another semi-trailer with the driver slowing as he approached. So what happens? Typical idiot comes flying up the closed-off lane to overtake as many people as possible and swerves into the gap between the bumper of the truck and the back of our car! Semi-trailer driver had to brake hard to avoid flattening Mr Important in his 4WD. Um, wasn't it idiot antics like that that caused the crash in the first place?

An odd letter appeared in the mail yesterday, two very brief paragraphs:

I refer to your recent enquiry to South East Water regarding your account for the above property.

My what? I've no idea what they're on about, the other paragraph merely asks me to telephone between 1pm and 5:30pm Monday to Friday. Unless....

Of course, how stupid of me! My recent enquiry was the telephone call I made to South East Water in May, six months ago reporting that I thought the water meter was faulty!

I rang and was told “we have tried to contact you,” when I asked how and when, they changed the subject. I asked again, and was ignored. Apparently I have to make an appointment with the meter replacement crew since it was reported that “access is difficult.” No idea what that is for since the meter is a metre from the footpath, and anyone except the fattest of aussie tradesmen should be able to walk between the car and the fence. Then I asked if it was likely that I would have to move the car so that they could jackhammer the old meter out of the driveway, that was when the problem started ... you see it's forbidden by law to concrete it in, apparently, so along with all the other idiot things that happened to the house before we bought it, concreting the meter in was one of them.

I am now expected to un-concrete the meter and then arrange an appointment with the meter replacement crew. When I asked how, I was told it's not their problem....

So I get to jack-hammer a water meter out of a concrete slab, and if I break the water pipes I get to pay for the damages and for the emergency call out, not to mention paying for the jack-hammer!

Last week the gas meter was replaced, this week they want to do the water meter, maybe next week we'll get the trifecta and the electricity company will call....

“Post 9/11” I have flown within Australia several times and internationally three times. Internationally, I've been to airports in the UK, Switzerland, Italy, China and Vietnam and have had various levels of security checks at variou airports. Within Australia I've flown through Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs and Canberra. At only one place have I ever had any hassles, that is Canberra airport. It doesn't seem to be a one-off either, it seems that every time I fly through Canberra airport the security staff are the rudest, most obnoxious, most determined to puff up their chests and egos and find some trivial item that must be confiscated because it's in the rules. When questioned, we get the stock answer: “We're just following orders...”

Today was no exception; Canberra airport checkin, for the first time in five years I've had to take off my belt — the same belt I've worn every time at every airport. Yet again I was chosen for a random explosives test — three trips out of Canberra airport, three selections for the bomb-wipe. This time they decided to confiscate Jo's nail-file! The damn thing was 8cm long and she's had it for twenty years, its been in her toiletry bag for twenty years, it's been through the metal detectors any number of times. It was allowed through onto the aircraft leaving New York a week after September 11! But no, mister puffed-up shirt Canberra airport security thug must confiscate this deadly implement.

Perhaps these idiots should walk ten metres past their all-powerful metal detectors and have a look in the airport bar — the airport bar that sells glass bottles of beer that you can take onto the aircraft. Perhaps the security thugs should check up on how many people in the world have been assaulted, threatened and injured with broken bottles versus how many are attacked with nail files. If the nail file is a weapon then so is the headphone cable for an iPod, the nice pointy steel pen and pencil that everyone carries, or the battery in everything from phones to MP3 players to laptop computers....

Perhaps the idiots need to step down their attitude and ridiculous theatrics.

I've written off to the managers of the Arintji café and Federation Square to ask them what the hell they are on about, the following made bugger all sense at the time — just another example of the mindless rules that seem to be increasing all the time, generally waved off with the all-powerful word “security” wafted over them to ward off evil spirits. I wonder what bizarre explanation they'll be able to offer.

Jo and I sat down for a late lunch and a beer at one of the cafés in Federation Square. We heard that Mountain Goat Hightail Ale was available, so ordered two and a few snacks.

The beers duly arrived, two bottles, and since its such a flavoursome beer we asked for glasses, the better to savour the smells and tastes. The conversation became somewat Dada-esque:

“Can we have glasses for the beers please?”

“We can't bring glasses outside”

“What about those glasses of wine, that glass of water, and these beers in glass bottles?”

“Sorry, but we're not allowed to give you glasses outside.”

“That is ridiculous, you've already given us glass bottles, and you've given those people glass glasses. What do you do with wine?”

“Those are the rules, they have told us we can't bring glasses outside.”

“Look, the beer tastes much better from a glass, surely we can drink it from glasses.”

“Ok, but security will tell us off if they see them!”

So there you have it, straight from the Stalinist Russia school of rules and security. No rationale, no explanation. These are the rules and they are policing them.

We did get our glasses, and the Goat tasted much better for it; we also received forks in a glass with the snacks! At eight bucks a bottle, I'm sure Arintji can afford to pay for the extra washing up, and I shall wait with bated breath for their responses to my letter of enquiry....

From now on I think I'll stick to drinking goat from the tap, somewhere pleasant like at the brewery or the GB in Richmond where it costs half as much!

Almost half an hour on the phone to Bigpond/Telstra trying (unsuccessfully) to change the billing address for my broadband connection to go to Monash.

The online form has a number of small, fixed-length fields and no conceivable abbreviation of Rm 232, Bldg 28, ITS Division, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton 3800, Vic. can be made to fit in the small, fixed length fields.

The Bigpond telephone staff tried, but finally admitted that they too were confronted by "the new billing system" with its small, fixed-length, fields and could not change the address. They transferred me to Telstra, who they explained could enable "single billing" of broadband and phone service, but then split this and send the broadband to a different address!

Telstra staff reviewed "the notes attached to the account" and stated that while they could change the billing address for the phone account, they couldn't do anything about the broadband. They transferred me back to a Bigpond billing consultant.

The Bigpond billing consultant stated that I'd initially ended up with sales staff, but promised to work it out. He tried several ways, but eventually admitted that he was confronted by the same small fixed-length fields and could not make the supplied address or any variation fit.

The only other option I was presented with was to receive email bills, but these cannot be sent to any address other than my bigpond one "for security reasons". So I now have to receive my bills at my Bigpond email address, automatically forward these to my Monash email address, then manually forward them each month to the administration staff to be paid!

From both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, the latest motorised moron to be caught attacking people with a car as a weapon:

A man has been charged after allegedly trying to run down a group of cyclists in a road rage incident in Sydney's south.

An argument broke out after the 50-year-old man allegedly almost hit a group of about 20 cyclists on General Holmes Drive in Brighton-Le-Sands shortly before 6am AEDT yesterday as he drove out of a service station, police said.

The man then allegedly drove up behind the group and across three lanes of traffic, narrowly missing the lead cyclist.

The Rockdale man will face Downing Centre Local Court on March 17 charged with dangerous and negligent driving.

Chris Sutton, a champion Australian cyclist riding professionally in France, and an off-duty police officer were believed to have been among the group from the St George Cycling Club.

....

So he not only tries to attack twenty people at once, but picks on a professional racer and police officer! I guess for once the cyclist will have a few witnesses. Shame about the number of times its one-on-one and the police then refuse to take any action.

Courtesy of The Age:

A woman was bitten by a lion at Melbourne Zoo after slipping her hand inside the enclosure to get a flower, the zoo confirmed today.

It is the second time in the past month that an animal has injured a visitor at the zoo.

The incident has prompted a review of perimeter security around the lion enclosure, with electric fencing to be installed to prevent lions getting close to the barrier.

Um, how about putting up an electric fence on the outside to prevent the idiots putting their hands INTO THE LION CAGE? Sheesh!