• I didn’t watch the opening ceremonies of this year’s Olympic Games, so I missed this one: a sequence of “stunning fireworks” shown to television viewers included cut-aways to pre-recorded, and in some cases, computer-generated fireworks footage. Apparently the fakery was deemed acceptable because smog-limited visibility and restricted airspace made the real thing less attractive than intended. There are unexplored ethical issues here.

    • I passed an unusual sight tonight: a taxicab had apparently launched itself over a hundred feet from an intersection, over a tall curb and through a wall of landscaping to wedge itself against the front door of the Elephant Walk restaurant on Beacon Street. I have no idea how this scene transpired, but physics tells me it must have involved very high speeds. Let me offer this thought: from my experience, an alarming number of cab drivers in this neighborhood are reckless and belligerent. It’s a shame we consider that acceptable when cabbies in London pride themselves on qualities like “placid temperament.”

    • Before drawing comparisons to World War II, John McCain declared today that “Russia has used violence against Georgia to send a signal to any country that chooses to associate with the West and aspire to our shared political and economic values.” Woah there! I agree that Russia’s war with Georgia is wrong, and I agree that as a country we need to do something about it. But in this era of Vladimir Putin’s increasingly sketchy political ascendancy, the situation demands kid-glove treatment, not big talk. Let’s not forget that today’s Russia, looking more and more like the USSR of old, is perfectly capable of blowing us all to smithereens.

    • Some kids from my old dorm at MIT were forced to cancel a talk last weekend after a judge imposed a restraining order barring them from disclosing technical details of how to hack the MBTA CharlieCard system. While the prompt and public disclosure of security holes by white hats puts a burden on those who have to actually fix the problems, it saves untold costs by pre-empting attacks by actual bad guys. On top of that, the restraining order is an obvious conflict with the basic principle of free speech. I think that when the details emerge, the MBTA is going to be embarassed—their vendor probably misled them into thinking they were using real encryption. One of the few fare card systems that uses public-key cryptography (as recommended by the MIT group) is Hong Kong’s Octopus Card, and it has never been successfully hacked.

    • From yesterday’s Boston Globe: “The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines, and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne believes that eliminating environmental impact studies (currently required by the Endangered Species Act) is necessary to prevent scientists from trying to use them as “a ‘back door’ to regulate the gases blamed for global warming.” He also believes that after two decades of doing such reviews, federal agencies should know enough to do the right thing on their own. You may recall that earlier this year, with congressional approval, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to bypass all federal and state environmental laws to expedite construction on the Great Wall of Mexico. So once again, I’m left wondering: where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?