Thursday, July 20, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Everything I Need to Know I Learned Watching Burn Notice #3
1) International conferences attract spies for the same reason hotel bars attract hookers - you can do business and drink for free.
2) Any high security function is going to have a lot of oversight, a lot of meetings, a lot of bureaucrats checking up on each other. In all the confusion of a big event, it's easy for another bureaucrat to just show up. The important things is to disappear before anyone can ask questions.
3) If they do decide to ask questions, you have to hope you're in a building with a lot of hallways, a good service basement...and plenty of exits.
4) Sometimes making an escape is just about being willing to do what the guys chasing you won't - like jump off a building.
5) Convincing a bully to back down is usually just a matter of showing you're not afraid of him. Of course some bullies have guys with .357 magnums - then you change tactics.
6) When faced with a superior force, you can do 2 things: you can retreat quietly or you can attack with as much fanfare as possible.
7) Once they send guys to kill you, you're past the "I won't tell" stage.
8) Outfitting a safe house is about 2 things: you need to know if someone's coming and you need to know how the folks you're protecting are going to get out of there if they do.
9) A $35 outdoor floodlight has a decent motion detector on it. Wire that to a cell phone and you've got a remote alarm system that will call you if there's trouble.
10) Threaten any serious criminal organization and they're going to do one of two things: they'll send someone to make a deal or they'll send someone to make a corpse. Either way, you've got something to work with.
11) When you go on the run, the first thing you do is lay down tracks in the opposite direction. But that only works if the bad guys find the trail and believe it's for real - which means selling it. You need to put on a little show, make them feel clever. If you make somebody work to get a piece of information, they'll believe it that much more because it was hard to get.
12) Approaching a spy in the middle of a job gives you a lot of leverage. They're playing a delicate game and the last thing they want is someone coming in and smashing their delicate game with a brick.
13) Basic rule of bodyguarding: never fight with the protectee around...mostly because if they happen to catch a stray bullet, you just lost your job.
14) Modern technology has made it possible to do sophisticated surveillance with stuff from your local electronics store.
15) Faking surveillance footage has come a long way. It used to be u
you'd spend days slaving over a VHS tape with a razor blade. Now it's a few hours on a computer.
16) A drug cartel is a business. If killing a witness to protect a valued employee from jail time is the best way to keep making money, they'll do that. If it looks like that employee is testifying to the FBI, then they're just as happy to leave the witness alone and take care of the problem another way.
2) Any high security function is going to have a lot of oversight, a lot of meetings, a lot of bureaucrats checking up on each other. In all the confusion of a big event, it's easy for another bureaucrat to just show up. The important things is to disappear before anyone can ask questions.
3) If they do decide to ask questions, you have to hope you're in a building with a lot of hallways, a good service basement...and plenty of exits.
4) Sometimes making an escape is just about being willing to do what the guys chasing you won't - like jump off a building.
5) Convincing a bully to back down is usually just a matter of showing you're not afraid of him. Of course some bullies have guys with .357 magnums - then you change tactics.
6) When faced with a superior force, you can do 2 things: you can retreat quietly or you can attack with as much fanfare as possible.
7) Once they send guys to kill you, you're past the "I won't tell" stage.
8) Outfitting a safe house is about 2 things: you need to know if someone's coming and you need to know how the folks you're protecting are going to get out of there if they do.
9) A $35 outdoor floodlight has a decent motion detector on it. Wire that to a cell phone and you've got a remote alarm system that will call you if there's trouble.
10) Threaten any serious criminal organization and they're going to do one of two things: they'll send someone to make a deal or they'll send someone to make a corpse. Either way, you've got something to work with.
11) When you go on the run, the first thing you do is lay down tracks in the opposite direction. But that only works if the bad guys find the trail and believe it's for real - which means selling it. You need to put on a little show, make them feel clever. If you make somebody work to get a piece of information, they'll believe it that much more because it was hard to get.
12) Approaching a spy in the middle of a job gives you a lot of leverage. They're playing a delicate game and the last thing they want is someone coming in and smashing their delicate game with a brick.
13) Basic rule of bodyguarding: never fight with the protectee around...mostly because if they happen to catch a stray bullet, you just lost your job.
14) Modern technology has made it possible to do sophisticated surveillance with stuff from your local electronics store.
15) Faking surveillance footage has come a long way. It used to be u
you'd spend days slaving over a VHS tape with a razor blade. Now it's a few hours on a computer.
16) A drug cartel is a business. If killing a witness to protect a valued employee from jail time is the best way to keep making money, they'll do that. If it looks like that employee is testifying to the FBI, then they're just as happy to leave the witness alone and take care of the problem another way.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
I swear to Christmas, I turn my back for like ONE second and I come outside to this. He got up on the table and couldn't get down! I had to pick up all hundred something pounds of him. (Of course I took his picture first, because seriously who wouldn't?) He was very relieved and grateful to be back on solid ground.
via IFTTT
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Thursday, December 05, 2019
Tuesday, December 03, 2019
The Carpool Line
As an anarchist, I'm anti authority by nature and choice. I believe the world would be a much better and safer place if we could all just cooperate and be kind. But I'm human. So very human.
I help with carpool every morning at my grandchildren's school. It's basically opening car doors and keeping the line moving. It's like an awkward, early morning ballet. The vast majority of families actively help by ensuring their kids are ready to hop out, already unbuckled, bookbags and lunchboxes in hand. For those kids who have special needs (or who just need some extra attention when getting out), there's some space by the door where there are student volunteers to help - or where the parent can get out and help without holding up the line. It works when we work together. Again, the vast majority of families cooperate.
But not everyone. Which brings me to The Man In The Hummer. Every morning, he stops in the middle of the line, gets out of said hummer, and s-l-o-w-l-y extracts his child. He's not oblivious to the fact that he's holding up everyone else - he makes it painfully clear to everyone around him that he doesn't care. When asked to cooperate he simply slows down even more, as if making a point that no one else matters but him.
What do we do as anarchists when someone insists on acting selfishly or refuses to cooperate with others? My first reaction is to just seethe - not at the obvious ruination of the generally smooth running carpool ballet, but at his proud disregard for everyone else.
I'd likely vote him off the island if that were an option. But there aren't really many realistic options here.
We can theorize all day long about how there won't be asshats in an anarchist society, but we live in this society...and let's face it there are always going to be asshats. Theres no magic formula for turning an asshat into a person who puts others first. (If there was, I'd have found it. Trust me on that one.)
So, we can examine our own motives and reactions. Would I be quite so put out if he drove a different car? If he pretended (just a little) to care about the people he inconveniences? Maybe, who knows?
These types of petty irritations and how we react to them can show us how and where we need to develop ourselves. So, since I get massively irritated and even pissed off at people sporting trappings of affluence who act like they own the world and that everyone works for them - what should I do about that? What can I do - actually do - with myself to change my reactions in a way that will benefit everyone?
I have no freaking idea. But it's something to think about since I don't want to turn into The Petty Tyrant Of The Carpool. That wouldn't be very effective, and it would make me the jackass. It would be like Cartman screaming "Respect mah authoritah!"
Maybe there's a little Cartman in all of us - even in anarchists.
I help with carpool every morning at my grandchildren's school. It's basically opening car doors and keeping the line moving. It's like an awkward, early morning ballet. The vast majority of families actively help by ensuring their kids are ready to hop out, already unbuckled, bookbags and lunchboxes in hand. For those kids who have special needs (or who just need some extra attention when getting out), there's some space by the door where there are student volunteers to help - or where the parent can get out and help without holding up the line. It works when we work together. Again, the vast majority of families cooperate.
But not everyone. Which brings me to The Man In The Hummer. Every morning, he stops in the middle of the line, gets out of said hummer, and s-l-o-w-l-y extracts his child. He's not oblivious to the fact that he's holding up everyone else - he makes it painfully clear to everyone around him that he doesn't care. When asked to cooperate he simply slows down even more, as if making a point that no one else matters but him.
What do we do as anarchists when someone insists on acting selfishly or refuses to cooperate with others? My first reaction is to just seethe - not at the obvious ruination of the generally smooth running carpool ballet, but at his proud disregard for everyone else.
I'd likely vote him off the island if that were an option. But there aren't really many realistic options here.
We can theorize all day long about how there won't be asshats in an anarchist society, but we live in this society...and let's face it there are always going to be asshats. Theres no magic formula for turning an asshat into a person who puts others first. (If there was, I'd have found it. Trust me on that one.)
So, we can examine our own motives and reactions. Would I be quite so put out if he drove a different car? If he pretended (just a little) to care about the people he inconveniences? Maybe, who knows?
These types of petty irritations and how we react to them can show us how and where we need to develop ourselves. So, since I get massively irritated and even pissed off at people sporting trappings of affluence who act like they own the world and that everyone works for them - what should I do about that? What can I do - actually do - with myself to change my reactions in a way that will benefit everyone?
I have no freaking idea. But it's something to think about since I don't want to turn into The Petty Tyrant Of The Carpool. That wouldn't be very effective, and it would make me the jackass. It would be like Cartman screaming "Respect mah authoritah!"
Maybe there's a little Cartman in all of us - even in anarchists.
Monday, November 25, 2019
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Wednesday, October 09, 2019
Monday, October 07, 2019
Sunday, October 06, 2019
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