Atticus: Thinking out loud

Joan Rivers: National Security Threat

Renowned American war correspondent Michael Yon was pulled aside, handcuffed, and interrogated at Seattle's Sea-Tac airport. His crime? Refusing to divulge how much money he makes. Beyond silly, this is also ironic because, had the TSA agent been a bit more widely read, he or she would have known that Michael Yon is a reader-supported war correspondent who depends on small contributions to keep going from month to month.

Not to be outdone, a Continental Airlines agent in Costa Rica bumped famed comedienne Joan Rivers from the last flight back to Newark because the agent didn't like the name on Rivers' passport: "Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers." (Rosenberg was the name of Rivers' late husband.) Rivers later quipped, "“If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn’t pick Rosenberg. I’d pick Jolie or Pitt.” (h/t Michelle Malkin)

So I have to wonder: What other secret crimes and offenses can get one arrested or thrown off flights?

Aside: If you're not familiar with Michael Yon, you are missing something truly extraordinary. Spend an hour at his site; you will not come away the same.

Goodbye, roadside bandits!

One of the most blatant means of bilking the driving public -- automated speed cameras that raise billions for bureaucrats but do little for traffic safety -- may soon start disappearing, at least in the speed-camera capital of the U.S., the state of Arizona.

And their disappearance, at least in Arizona, appears to be due mostly to direct citizen action: The vast majority of people just refuse to pay them. Bear in mind that in Arizona it's brazenly obvious these cameras are pure money-makers: The tickets add no points to driver licenses, and the machines are placed in areas of maximum revenue, not low-traffic areas known for consistent high speeds. Arizonans long ago caught on to the fact that the cameras are much more about money than about safety.

Former AZ Governor Janet Napolitano -- currently serving as Obama's Stooge of Homeland Security -- was quite open about the fact that the impetus behind her decision to deploy the speedcams statewide was to cover a state budget shortfall. Arizonans, knowing that a mailed speedcam ticket is not like a regular ticket from a police officer (speedcam tickets are not issued by police; they are processed, issued, and collected by the Australian speedcam company, Redflex, which also gets a percentage cut of the fines) have struck back by simply not responding to the $182 mailed tickets. To make the special Redflex tickets legally enforceable Redflex has to follow up with a human process server within 3 months, else the ticket is void. And because the cost of a process server eats into the profit, many recipients deliberately wait it out, are never served and never pay. It's direct citizen action at work, and it's a very powerful thing.

See the full AP story in the Arizona Daily Star. Other relevant articles here (study shows speedcams do not reduce speeding), here (citizen movement against speedcams), and here (how to beat a speedcam ticket).

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and don't play one on TV. None of the above is or should be taken as legal advice of any kind. If you get a speedcam ticket, do your own research, talk with your own lawyer. And by all means come back and post what you find and how it goes.

A shortage of something you've never heard of

Ever heard of neodymium? Do you know what it is? If you do, go to the head of the class -- you're one of the few.

Neodymium is an exotic metal that is critical for the manufacture of specialized magnets and other electronic technologies, including some of the leading forms of "green" power-generation. Like vanadium and molybdenum, which in very small quantities are critical to the manufacture of some high-strength steels, neodymium has always been taken for granted. But it turns out that virtually all the world's neodymium comes from Communist China, and China is now clamping down and restricting the supply of it to the rest of the world. See story in the U.K. Independent. (Hat tip: Slashdot.org.)

Nanoyarn, metabolomics, and DNA origami

If just reading terms like "nanoyarn, "metabolomics," and "DNA origami" piques your curiosity, see this article on the top tech trends for 2010.