Bruce Schneier blogs about the reaction on the part of police to some backpacks hung on a tree. Personally, I wouldn’t argue that treating backpacks on a tree as possible bombs is an overreaction in this case. It isn’t as if we haven’t seen bombs in backpacks. Admittedly, it seems unlikely someone wanting to commit a terrorist act would hang them in a tree, but that’s a fine line to tread. However, it did bring to mind one thing that has been bothering me for the last couple of days, and that is the assumptions we make about security, rather than using something akin to common sense. If a danger fits a profile currently popular with the public, it seems to be automatic to assume any situation that comes close to that profile must be a danger. As a result, you end up not being able to leave anything unattended in Boston, take pictures of public works facilities, or put your hand near your waistband in a poor neighborhood without taking the risk it will trigger someone’s sense of danger due to a scenario they have already constructed in their head. ...

April 30th.

At least 22 people dead. Damn. Update: At least 30 people dead, according to the AP. The gunman apparently killed himself. The Collegiate Times is putting up updates. The Roanoke Times is also doing updates. Planet Blacksburg has a local perspective.

If Chris Knight was running a log on a BBS before people started logging on the Web, does it mean it was the world’s first blog (weblog), or the world’s first slog (BBSlog)? :)

Seriously, Hawkman, no one wants to see what’s under that mask. Those things have weirded me out ever since I was a kid. A giant bird is bad enough; a giant bird with an expressionless human-shaped mask is a lot worse. Thanks, DC! :| That being said, Showcase Presents: Hawkman, Vol. 1, is out, featuring the Silver Age Hawkman, Katar Hol. While I like the Golden Age Carter Hall version better, you can’t go wrong with a hero whose automatic response to danger is to pick up a mace and start whaling on it. Twenty-foot-tall dinosaur attacking? Mace. White-collar criminal absconding with the pension funds? Mace. Roaches? Turn on the light, watch them scatter, and then it’s mace time. :) ...

Apparently the University of Minnesota has turned down new men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith’s bid to hire Jimmy Williams as an assistant coach. The reasoning? …Williams was on Bill Musselman’s staff during the period of 1971 to 1975 when the program was penalized by the NCAA for a number of violations. Okay…I’m a huge fan of high standards when it comes to hiring coaches. Coaches have a lot of influence over the student-athletes under their tutelage, and their decision-making when it comes to who to recruit has an impact beyond the basketball court. ...

Yep, this is the 500th post since I started this blog back in May 2004. Wow, really shows what longevity can do for a blog. (For instance, when the owner only posts every three to four days or so, it can get the blog up to 500.) :) I was going to write something to celebrate the occasion, but then again, I’m the same person who had to go look and see when I started doing this, so I doubt it would have been any good. However, I figure I should write something so I can blog about other things and not end up celebrating my 517th post. This way all of you can be sure I’ll be able to post regularly on interesting topics such as…ah…comics, wrestling, the Internet, spam, UNC basketball players from 2005, quizzes…myself…okay, mostly just stuff that interests me. ...

You know, if this rumor is correct, and the Carolina Panthers are actually thinking about trading Kris Jenkins for any less than a first or second round pick – which they’re unlikely to be offered for an oft-injured defensive tackle – I’m going to be further convinced that they don’t get this whole “personnel” thing. They might have a lot of depth along the defensive line, but Jenkins is one of the better tackles in the NFL, and I’m not convinced they can come up with something better in the third round or lower. Besides, at one point the Panthers had a lot of depth at linebacker, and then they overpaid to keep the talented but fragile Dan Morgan, and let just-as-talented Will Witherspoon and versatile Chris Draft sign with the Rams. ...

The subject line of an email I just received (not spam): loaner mouse for photo shoot Yes, that would be a live lab mouse. It’s always the little things that surprise you when you move to a new job. :)

When Sam Zell, who has just become a major player in the newspaper industry, is making comments like these published in the Washington Post, I fear for the future of newspapers affected by this sort of ignorance: In conversations before and after a speech Zell delivered Thursday night at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, Calif., the billionaire said newspapers could not economically sustain the practice of allowing their articles, photos and other content to be used free by other Internet news aggregators. ...