The move comes as part of a campaign that orders people to "Identify yourself!", just like when Franco was a dictator. They want pre-paid phones to be associated with the user's personal information, including name, address, and national ID numbers (the equivalent to the Social Security number in the US). The new law also requires operators to register every single call made and hold the information for a year.

The reasoning of the European Union and the retarded Spanish government is that, by doing this, they can avoid bomb attacks like the ones that happened in Madrid's train stations in March 11, 2004, where terrorist triggered bombs using cellphones, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. As if the terrorists couldn't forge identification data.

But does this make sense? Yes, bombs can be triggered with cellphones, but what difference does this make? They can be triggered by suicide bombers too, clocks, radio control, and by any other method you can think about. The fact is that there were bombs in Spain—and everywhere else—being triggered by a variety of methods before cellphones arrived. Cellphones are just one of them.

Does these irrational fears justify a campaign to control the communication of private citizens, specially when the bad guys can avoid the controls and use alternative methods to wreak havoc in society?

Paraphrasing Churchill: Do you want to die free and standing up, or live under fear and control, like in a fascist state? [El Mundo]

It's somewhat striking that the terrorists' use of BlackBerrys "caught the anti-terrorist forces by surprise." While perhaps another step forward in the sophistication of their organization, in that it it makes communication more instant than ever, it's long been reported that terrorist networks use the internet and cellphones for communication. Why wouldn't they use the same tools that millions around the world use? They don't all live in caves, you know.

That said, it doesn't make it any less scary, either. [Courier Mail via Business Sheet]

The first is the most direct, and obvious: Terrorist Asshole sends reports, pictures and other info in real-time to the other terrorists in his group. Scenario three is also fairly standard, following a soldier on Twitter and gleaning info for identity hacks and other nastiness, like on Facebook or MySpace.

But scenario two is more like terrorism enters the web 2.0 era—Terrorist Asshole is strapped with an explosive vest and uses his cellphone for tweets and taking pictures, which are constantly monitored Terrorist Bastard, who has the remote detonator for the vest. Based on the feed, Terrorist Bastard pops the vest when Terrorist Asshole reaches the target.

There's no evidence terrorists are using Twitter for this kind of ghoulishness yet—though the Army has picked up several pro-Hezbollah tweets (so they are watching you)—but this is always going to be one of the downsides of highly effective social networking tools. Terrorist cells, after all, are just another social network. [Danger Room, Image: Danger Room]

For some reason, alongside these images there was a top secret document containing details on the encrypted computer system used by MI6 agents while conducting operations abroad. Some of the other images were related to this man, Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a top al Qaeda terrorist captured by the CIA in 2007.

Apparently, the eBay bidder found the pictures after downloading his vacation photos to his computer. The Foreign Office and the police are conducting an investigation, but for now, nobody has a clue about how the camera ended up on eBay. [Daily Mail]

By studying the WTC's structural weakening and collapse, scientists can identify the needs of new steel technology in the next atomic age. Steel may truly melt at 1,150ºC, but as low as 500ºC, the iron molecules that are held strong by magnetism at cooler temperatures start to slip, Sergei "Duder" "His Dudeness" "El Dudarino" Dudarev, principal scientist at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), told BBC News. Imperfections in the metal enhance the oozing even more. The Twin Towers started to weaken when temperatures crossed the 500ºC threshold, and gave way without ever actually melting.

Today, Dudarev and others are at work on the world's first "large-scale" fusion reactor, called ITER. What the scientists need, though, is a steel that can ease past these temperatures without buckling. "We need to look at the magnetic properties of steel, [and] vary their chemical composition in a systematic way in order to get rid of this behaviour," the Dude told BBC. (No word if graphene is something that could be put to use.)

The weirdest factoid of the whole story is this: Steel's peak elasticity is reached at... 911ºC. Now that gives me the chills. [BBC News]

USB Panda Web Cam [Brando]