Challenger

MSNBC is carrying a story about the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Apparently the crew were alive from the point of explosion onwards, in which they slammed into the ocean at high speed - that frightens me beyond belief.

Oh Well That Just Tears It

Pope declares piracy just plain wrong, and cashes in on his words...

Prepare to Wet Yourselves

SemNews is fucking amazing.

Here's why: article.
RSS is consumed, the text is parsed for entities (countries, people, etc), actions, and more; it's all stuffed into a triple store and you can ask complicated queries like "Find everything involving the nation of Israel and Palestine and 'Aggressive' Actions".

It's a closed world system - An ontology from site B won't be the same as site A so easily, but... it's one hell of an impressive concept.

Smut & Trains

Trains.

What sticks in my craw is this: I voted for the first time in my entire life very recently, and I sure as hell didn't vote with terrorism issues in mind. I was recently heckled for taking photographs of the Adelaide Railway Station (it's a wonderful looking place) and told it wasn't legal for me to take photographs of it - "new laws" had just passed recently.

I can't find a single bit of legislation about it that precludes me from doing such. Not this one, not this media release, and none of these.

Sitting on the train, I started to think about how I would commit an act of terrorism despite the hinderance of being unable to take photographs to plan it all. Not surprisingly, it would be a piece of cake: ticket inspectors have keys to the sealed compartments which hold the driver. Provided you sit in the right cabin, it would not be astonishingly difficult to coerce the ticket inspector, and the security contractor (who is usually half asleep on the job) to open up the cabin. From there, it's dead simple: you've just nicked a train and you only have to concentrate on pacifying 3 employees & assorted other passengers.

Doing this not far from the adelaide rail terminal would allow you to cause a collision between the train and the end of platform buffer at speed, or create a siege situation which cripples a city for some time (parking a train in the wrong spot, anyone?), or even better: go galivanting about the adelaide metro system in your very own train.

Stopping me from taking photographs doesn't:
* Stop me from making a very detailed memory map of the entire building. We have people at my work who do financial valuations; they get good enough and just walk around a building, remembering all of the key points.
* Stop me from sketching it all out.
* Stop me from actually taking over a train.
* Stop me from boarding a train with explosive or biological agents at one of the outlying platforms.
* Stop me from sending a bunch of people through the station to cause minor security incidents and gauge the reaction of security forces there.
* Using a high resolution cameraphone, discreetly, to take photos on the sly.

Don't believe it would be that simple?

Read on...

MELBOURNE'S train temptress has struck again.
However police and rail officials have met to plan an end to her saucy crime spree.

The woman broke into a cabin on a peak-hour Frankston train on Tuesday night and broadcast X-rated praise of the driver to stunned commuters.

The husky-voiced intruder is believed to be the serial seductress behind a similar break-in and announcement on the Sandringham line last week.

The trespasser evaded capture by authorities on both occasions.

As her break-in broadcasts become more frequent, longer and more detailed, pressure is building for Connex to catch the profane prankster before more commuters are subject to her sexy speeches.

"There was a woman on the address system. It was very graphic about how she was going to have sex with a driver for about three minutes," said Angela, a passenger on the Frankston-bound train.

"I thought she was in cahoots with the driver."

Angela said there were families on board unhappy their children were exposed to the content.

Passengers on the trains during both incidents believed the woman was in the cabin with the driver or was a voice on a 1900 sex call.

The broadcasts are now thought to be the work of a lone female hijacking the PA system in vacant train cabins.

Police are scanning CCTV footage from stations to identify her.

Ticket inspectors have been briefed to be on the lookout for the woman.

"When the train comes to a stop at a station it is easy for them to slip out of the cab and merge with other passengers," said Connex spokesman Andrew Cassidy said.

Connex yesterday discussed the incidents with Transit Safety Division officers.

Connex has said some people are aware of a weakness that allows them to force their way into vacant cabins and hijack the PA.

They said the flaw would be fixed this year.

Article

---

Update:

Hi Daniel,

The information provided to you was incorrect. Photographs are allowed to be taken in the Adelaide Railway Station main concourse area for personal use only. Photographs are not allowed to be taken on the paid concourse area without permission from TransAdelaide's Marketing Department. A form is required to be filled out and is available from TransAdelaide's reception area located on the main concourse of the Adelaide Railway Station. The Marketing Department will determine and advise whether photographs can be taken in the paid concourse area. The Marketing Department can be contacted on 8218 2234.

Apologies for any inconvenience or misunderstanding that occurred previously.

Regards
Andrew