Banning photographers at accidents is a mistake

In the old days, the main danger of an accident was a rubber-necker (someone slowing way down to look at an accident). These days, the cell phone sniper is a much bigger danger, as people try to use their cell phones to grab an amazingly gory or dramatic picture of an accident scene. So, it is no surprise that some lawmakers want to ban photographs at car accidents. After all, isn't that the best way to force people to do the right thing, and spare families the trauma of seeing pictures of injured loved ones?

Nope. The fact is this law will be essentially unenforceable... except for cases where law already exist - where someone endangers someone else to get the shot by driving dangerously or getting in the way of emergency responders. And if anyone tries to enforce it, they are more likely to take energy away from the wounded in favor of punishing the stupid.

Let Free Speech win in this case. Forget these well-meaning, but foolish laws.

Loyalists & Protesters unify to defend Egypt's museum

During a rebellion/revolution/riot/unrest, there are always debates over whether the crowds defying the government are thugs or heroes. And, as in the American revolution, sometimes the line between the two is a fuzzy one. For those wondering about the protesters in Egypt - and the police - there is an indication that both sides are full of men and women of conscience, as they worked together to defend the Egyptian museum from would-be looters. Even amidst societal chaos, they found common ground on true universal priorities.

When fire broke out on Friday night at the ruling party's headquarters, Khaled Youssef, an Egyptian film director who has made movies critical of government policies, issued an urgent call on the Al Arabiya television channel: "I am calling on the Egyptian army to head instantly to the Egyptian Museum. There is a fire right next to it in the party headquarters," he said in a report relayed by Reuters.

As the fire raged, would-be thieves started entering the grounds surrounding the museum, The Associated Press reported. But other young men, some armed with truncheons taken from the police, formed a protective human chain outside the museum's main gates. "I'm standing here to defend and to protect our national treasure," one of the men, a 40-year-old engineer named Farid Saad, told AP.

AP quoted 26-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim as saying that it was important to guard the museum because it has "5,000 years of our history. If they steal it, we'll never find it again."

Free Anti-Phishing Protection

I posted this to Twitter already, but it seemed worth re-posting here. This article is a good explanation of what OpenDNS is and how it can be used to reduce the risk of phishing (i.e. fraudsters luring you to a fake site that looks like a real one in order to harvest personal info).

I installed Open DNS to our Airport this morning, and I must say it is MUCH faster than the DNS servers offered by our ISP as well.