Because ESCHELON needs power.

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Ssssh... they'll hear!

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So how exactly is LiveJournal good for Homeland Security?

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Well, if a terrorist starts using LiveJournal, we can read their friends-only entries (read: "friend-terrorists-only entries") and know their plans.

Or we can suspend them, thereby eliminating terrorism.

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You can't suspend them unless everyone on abuse_lj_abuse agrees first. Imagine the OMG Terrorist Drama!

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Or we can suspend them, thereby eliminating terrorism.

Don't tell me LJ Abuse is that delusional! :-p

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Foil their dastardly plans. Store entries with strong encryption so the government can't read them even if it seizes the servers.:)

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Now, now. Do you really want to send Brad to Abu Ghraib [REMOVED]?

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:-) LOL.

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LJ should be giving out unlimited paid accounts to all people to entrap them into revealing their innermost secrets and help provide better background checks for any airport workers who have used LJ. "When you were 9 you wrote that you thought the shuttle fireworks were pretty when it was burning up. Do you have similar thoughts today about airliners burning up?"

Think of the national security implications and it becomes clear that Six Apart's patriotic duty is to give it all away. But it's probably a better idea to sell the accounts at ten times the usual price because the government would be buying.:)

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Actually it is.

At least the source code is.

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Huh? TSA have their own blogs now?

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Something like that, yes.

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If people stay in their homes posting to LJ, they can't travel or congregate in large numbers or otherwise present inviting targets.

(I realize that phone-posting and the like doesn't work with this theory. Shh.)

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I suppose they were thinking of the "get rid of the conventional nuclear power plants" angle. I like how they included benefits for the oil drilling industry to help discourage some people who might be unhappy about this. Clearly political thinking at work.:)

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Ah, eliminating nuclear power makes a little sense.

But now that you mention it, that oil drilling part is the part that's really stupid. Fusion power to power large drills to get oil!

Fusion power to mass-produce hampsters to run on wheels to generate power!

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"Nuclear Hamster" would be a great band name.

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I suppose they were thinking of the "get rid of the conventional nuclear power plants" angle.

It's good to know that the direction of research these days is influenced by what's going on on '24'.

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That's classified, sorry.

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I don't know nuthin', but I doubt it's you. He has five times the number of people who read him as he reads others; that's how it goes.

I'm not in his friends list, and it doesn't bother me squat. I know it's not personal; it's totally up to him who he wants on his list. (And yes, he does know me IRL.) If comments need be screened, it's really no big deal.

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Terrists just hate cheap, reliable neutron sources.

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I would have thought that this would be more trouble for homeland security? Now, terrorists wouldn't even have to smuggle an a-bomb in - they'd just buy a DIY kit to make one in a rented house after they get in.

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When I was growing up in the Soviet Union, the preface of almost every non-fiction book started with a passage about how the subject matter is good for the cause of the Communist Party and for the world proletariat, even in cookbooks and physics textbooks.

In the US, the prefaces often mention how the subject matter is good for business.

Now, I guess, we have to add homeland security...

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sclerotic_rings had the skinny on this: neutron sources are useful for some kinds of nasty-substance-detection systems.

This fusion is energy-negative, you have to put in more energy than you get out, and that's a feature not a bug.

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