While I absolutely love and adore my Kindle, there is an associated moment of dread.

OK, it’s a moment of annoyance.

It’s that moment when, prior to takeoff, a flight attendant taps me on the shoulder and asks me to turn the thing off. Not just the wireless, but the whole damn device, as though it’s going to bring down the airplane if left on. The claim always seems ridiculous — the amount of power being used by a Kindle is miniscule; there’s no way it creates enough interference to cause any problems on the airplane.

Or so I believe. Lacking any of that stuff that we call proof, all I can do is meekly turn the thing off and stare sadly out the window.

Until now. Tests have been carried out, and there is no way my Kindle could cause the airplane to malfunction. In fact, it is even less dangerous than devices that are allowed. (Those devices are allowed because they are not dangerous at all).

So, next time I am asked to turn off my Kindle, prior to meekly turning it off, I will ask why. And jot down the answer, and plot the letter I will later write while staring sadly out the window.

Never cross a flight attendant on an airplane. That’s just bad news.

Photo of Corsair fighter firing on Okinawa, from Wikipedia. By U.S. Marine Corps, 1945.
Webcomic is Scenes From a Multiverse, by Jonathan Rosenberg.

For those who may be unaware, there’s a group that calls itself LulzSec that has been hacking up a storm lately (most famously targeting PBS) for, well, the LULZ.

Here at the Big Bad Blog, we have been scratching our heads trying to figure out what to make of them. After reading this article by Patrick Gray, we think that we will just co-opt his position:

So for the last ten years I’ve been working in media, trying to raise awareness of the idea that maybe, just maybe, using insecure computers to hold your secrets, conduct your commerce and run your infrastructure is a shitty idea.

No one who mattered listened.

…

So why do we like LulzSec?

“I told you so.”

That’s why.

We aren’t security professionals here at the Big Bad Blog, but that resonates. Because we are sufficiently technically literate to say — at least now that LulzSec has turned on the light — well, yeah, obviously.

Furthermore, this reflects the truth about how we treat our society’s insecurities beyond the computer: The security theatre that we witness at airports, for example. We all know that it does nothing to keep us safe, but governments just keep making more grand, visible gestures, rather than taking any steps to make flight more secure.

Photographers being harassed for taking photos in public places, as a “counter-terrorism measure”. The Patriot Act in the USA.

All these things smell the same. It’s a shame that LulzSec-style graffiti about Tupac in New Zealand doesn’t exist in these contexts, and there is no similar loud, visible way to demonstrate what is masquerading as security all around us every day.

Image by Frankie Eiknarf.
Webcomic is Invisible Bread, by Justin Boyd.

We are flying home in less than a week. Unless we aren’t.

Because of this:

World, you work in mysterious ways.

Photo of a plane flying by the Grimsvotn eruption by Olafur Sigurjonsson. Found at The Big Picture.

We just now realised that this is a Friday the 13th. We apologise for the lack of gore in today’s morning coffee. We should have planned ahead. Instead, we realise this only after having picked out an entirely gore-free Friday coffee.

In news that everybody has already doubtlessly already seen, but for which we would feel remiss should it not appear in this space, Steven Slater knows how to quit a job.

(Hobbiton, once the pride of New Zealand the Shire, is now overrun with sheep.)

I am so happy that Edgar Allan Poe has joined twitter: I have stared with dread into the craggy sockets of the abyss & marveled at its resemblance to Facebook.

More on how your initials impact your life. Children who have a first name that start with an “A” have a tendency to outperform those with a first initial “D” in school. The theory is that we live up to our initials. We will experiment with this for my baby. She will have awesome initials. FAST, and encourage her to be a runner? LOOT, and encourage her to be a bank robber? We will see.