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My theory on this?
While this might be an accidental "sharing" of the database... we have many huge and frequent "mistakes" in the US. It might be a way to get all this data into a private industry database that isn't restricted by government rules to track citizens. Kind of like our private industry unaccountable mercenaries like Blackwater.
These database incidents will cease, once everyone has lost their data. Then there will be on more incentive to have these "accidents." Not that this particular accident is anything more than a stolen laptop. It's just that there seems to be a pattern of incompetence and then no downside to those who lose the data. We've had about 25% of the nations data released to private hands accidentally. Wayne Madsen used to have this data for free, but if you want to subscribe, he has been tracking these for years now; http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/categories/20070503

John Young's Cryptome site already blew the lid off this stale but frightening story about Wikipedia.

Your own fake Wikipedia article is the best way to thwart the No-Such-Agency spooks and other miscreants who secretly control Wikipedia and push their own evil agenda to the detriment of truth and knowledge.

The Wayne Madsen Report is currently the best source of out-the-spooks reportage.

Google is still the ultimate app in finding that wonderful bird that crapped on George Weasel Bush, great-grandson of the first president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and grandson of Nazi-sympathisizer and supporter, Prescott Bush.

Um, I'm sure it's a bit more work than that. Very few countries have ever been able to make a bomb.
Most all of the countries now developing weapons got the information from Pakistan... and they got it from us. Israel is also a well-known country for selling off US weapons secrets whenever we sell them something (the USSR I believe, got theirs from Israel).

And Homeland Security, actually DID put the plans for building nuclear weapons on it's web site -- until public outcry made them take it down.

You make it sound like banging two radioactive rocks together... yeah that's why everyone had to get their technology from someone else? I think only one other country besides the US ever independently developed nuclear weapons -- and even THAT is suspect. It's either been stolen, or proliferated on purpose.

The accusations of Iran having the bomb are ludicrous as well. They have (as far as anyone knows), 144 cyclotrons capable of concentrating plutonium. Running non-stop at peak performance, it would take 10 years for all of those cyclotrons working non-stop to make ONE atom bomb. It takes a lot of Uranium and a lot of work.

But the "small nuke" you mention is a very big deal right now. There were hundreds of breifcase nukes that went missing after the fall of the USSR. Many governments were concerned but it was believed that it wasn't too much of an issue, because the material necessary to arm it was about a pound of Polonium. An unstable, expensive, and hard to handle source of neutrinos that has a half-life of one year. After two years -- the briefcase nukes would disarm themselves. Despite what the News Agencies reported -- it isn't easy to acquire.

But when did we last hear about Polonium in the news? Oh yeah... the death of Lyshenko. Now I understand the press told us he was a reporter, critical of Putin .... but he was actually a weapons dealer, who was visited by a Mullah on his death bed to give him a martyrs funeral. Lyshenko was known as a go-between for the Russian/Israeli mafia (mostly in Ukraine working with separatists and Poland), and the Taliban.

NOW, you can start to worry.

You can find more detail of this on http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Wayne Madsen is maintaining a chart of data thefts of personal information. He lists 3 or 4 dozens thefts. He believes these thefts are an attempt to populate the Total Information Awareness databases.

Never ascribe to incompetence what can be explained by malice, I guess.

A chart of personal data stolen from laptops from government organizations, schools, and corporations.

"So I no longer see it as such a terrible invasion of privacy."

Really? It sets a precedent though doesnt it? Thats how these things start. When you break the law, yep you should serve your punishment indeed, but remember that 'protecting the children' is one of the main tools that politicians use for ulterior purposes.
Want to read some more about reid? http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/intelwhispers/int elmain.php

Fox guarding the hen-house come to mind?

I have a hard time with this discussion -- because there are three basic and fundamental issues here;

1) Whether right or not -- does it benefit Science to disallow discussion?
No.

2) When looked at in terms of "professional certification" I would have to say that going against a 99.9% consensus in a field would be "un-professional." It may be proven that Climate change is not occuring (not likely) but that is not the point. The meteoroligist is merely a "down line" consumer of the science. It would be like your Architect, presuming to change from 12" on center support to an 18" spacing merely because they think that the supports are strong enough. What "they think" is not the policy, and they need to address it within their professional community, and not just ad hoc, make changes to the "consensus."

So this would pretty much be like a doctor practicing Faith Healing. Only -- that is legal. And when we compare the overall success against cancer (1-2%) over all cancer's -- the faith healers may actually come out on top.

So given the "results" of weather prediction, that is where we can argue the "professional ethics."

On this point, it's a toss up. I would say that Weather forecasters don't have the liability of Engineers -- but it is very strange that Doctors have almost none, they don't even give rebates.

3) Global warming is an imperitive issue, that has consequences that could be catastrophic and immediate.
Alarmist or not -- being anti-Global warming right now might be equivalent to saying to people in a burning building; "Stay put, we should be able to put this fire out." By urging to remain with the "do nothing" corporate-sponsored apologists, a Weather forecaster who is actively dismissing Global Warming may be engaging in Propaganda. Discouraging people from their own self interest.

I don't think we have time to play around with Global Warming.
If we are wrong, we will sponsor a few green technologies, and import less oil. If we are right -- then we could still be in danger no matter what we do, but the consequences will be diminished. Ignoring global warming is seriously a high risk endeavor with no benefits. The extreme predictions of scientists, cannot account for the unknown. There are many trigger events that could accelerate changes. Things like ice fields breaking off, and allowing glaciers to move into the ocean circumvent the "melting" models and raise the ocean level just as if those glaciers in Antarctica had melted. The thawing of peramfrost in Siberia, is percolating out more Methane -- and turning pete moss fields black so they absorb more heat.

But this is the following is the biggest "alarm bell" I've heard of, and if true, would mean drastic changes in a few years, rather than a few decades;
(from http://waynemadsenreport.com/ );
January 18, 2007 -- WMR received a number of e-mails as a result of our Jan. 8 piece on methane bubbling up from the ocean floors. The ocean floor methane is turning into gaseous from methane hydrate ice form because the deep ocean is warming as a result of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions. A reader in Minnesota sent us this important amplifying information:

"Methane bubbling up from the ocean floor is a clear and present danger to shipping and even aviation. By the way, there is something like 10,000 billion tons of methane under the sea in methane hydrate deposits. Furthermore, a theory called the "Clathrate gun hypothesis" or the "Hydrate hypothesis," posits that melting methane hydrate has cause severe episodes of runaway global warming in the past. We are sitting on a bomb. Mankind's emission are the fuse, melting permafrost is the detonator, and melting oceanic methane hydrate is the bomb. Since mankind's emissions is a much larger trigger than past severe episodes, the current unfolding episode of runaway global warming will occur much more rapidly, and therefore be much, much more severe."

data theft chart: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Datathefts.php

Either we have "foreign enemies" or we don't.

Why is it I have to take my fricken' shoes off at the airport -- when I'm a US citizen who has a house, a mortgage, two kids and a wife if it is perfectly fine to have a random "Outsourced programmer" write code for a Nuclear Missile? There is no way you can protect from all the avenues of attack from a committed person. Your best shot is to make sure you are dealing with allies. I mean, sure, check my shoes -- but make sure you know who is on the plane, and even more important -- who is in charge of security in the country. I don't think my shoes are nearly as dangerous as each hour with Donald Rumsfeld in charge.

Sure code review is important. But its just as dumb as checking shoes... it's about the people. If I were a person who wanted to bring down America, I could do all manner of physical mischief -- none of it with a receipt or with email, and so none of the massive spying the government does would have any effect. Oh, and I would also vote for Republicans (too easy). Not having radiation detectors at ports is a huge issue. Disenfranchising people and making them hate you is a huge issue. Blinking lights and puffs of air in a detector booth -- not so much.

If you cannot trust the people who work on a project -- you cannot trust the project. It isn't a simple matter of bug detection. I could be coding fine, taking pictures of the screen, and sending everything to my "comrade."

But this is about profit -- the only motive right now.

And even when you solve the "outsourcing problem" we have a MAJOR ISSUE, with this; http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

October 24, 2006 -- US Air Force official's past raises eyebrows. On December 7, 2005, the US Air Force officially recognized "cyberspace" as one of its warfare domains -- along with air and outer space. In early November, Air Force officials will gather in Washington to form a new US Air Force Command -- the Air Force Cyberspace Command. It will have authority to launch wars in cyberspace. The new command is largely the brainchild of Dr. Lani Kass, director of the Air Force Cyberspace Task Force.

Kass' past has many US government computer security officials puzzled and concerned. From 1979 to 1981, Kass served as a Major in the Israeli Defense Forces. This was at a time when Israel was targeting America's most closely held secrets through its Navy spy, Jonathan Pollard. After her service in the IDF, Kass integrated into the Washington national security establishment, the private sector serving as an entree. From 1982 to1985, Kass was Director of the Russian Research Center at Booz-Allen and Hamilton, Bethesda, Md. (an odd name considering that Russia was then called the Soviet Union by every national security entity). From 1985 to 2005, Kass was Professor of Military Strategy and Operations at National War College at National Defense University in Fort McNair, Washington.

Kass previously served in the Dick Cheney Defense Department, having worked from 1992 to 1993 as Special Assistant to the Director, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J-5), Joint Staff at the Pentagon. She returned to the Pentagon under Defense Secretary William Cohen and continued to serve under Donald Rumsfeld. From 2000 to 2001, Kass was Senior Policy Adviser and Special Assistant for Strategic Initiatives to the Director, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J-5) and from January 2006 to the present, she has been the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, and Director of CSAF's Cyberspace Task Force.

Lani Kass: Israeli Defense Force veteran heading up Air Force Cyberpace warriors.

>> So, we have a White House that seems it is appropriate, to set watchdogs on our most security sensitive departments, who have questionable loyalty? Last I checked, Israel was an ally but always won of questionable loyalty. When not selling technology to China, they seem to be a bit too fair weather for me.

We have problems that go way, way beyond simple software. We have a government that is questionable. Until that is solved, all these interesting points are moot.

Online writer Wayne Madsen http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Datathefts.php has been keeping track of the recent upsurge in data thefts. He believes it's a covert program and not just some garden variety criminals.

Data Thefts have been so rampant there is likely little this article says for pointers. You can have ubersecurity skills and all it takes is the theft from your bank and everything you've done is down tubes. The article if you ask me was meant for those new to the net and did nothing to give me insight. Flame on, moderate away but lets be realistic, the article did nothing for me.

"A number of computer security experts have said the recent rash of data thefts is unprecedented in scope, method, and frequency. Some claim that the thefts appear to be coordinated and targeted at specific data types." See http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ under the June 17th heading with list of over 100 major data theft cases recently. That's an awful lot of merely sloppy guys carrying laptops home on trains, wouldn't you say?

Is somebody putting together a database on American citizens that it perhaps could not obtain legally?

Madsen, an ex-CIA analyst with history of credibility, identifies what's going on as: "part of a well-planned covert intelligence operation to obtain data on hundreds of millions of people in order to accomplish what former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) official John Poindexter was not able to bring about through his defunct (but secretly restored) Total Information Awareness (TIA) system -- the population of intelligence and surveillance databases with files on the financial, medical, employment, telecommunications, and other sensitive data of Americans and foreigners."

Gosh, if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from an all-seeing all-powerful government... Good news! The chocolate ration has been increased to 5 grams this week! - Ministry of History Adjustment... - we are now at war with Oceania. Eastasia has always been our friend...

Oh, there's NO possibility of the administration using this data to intimidate or harrass opposition, or to blackmail elected representatives. No chance there's any consolidation going on of control over the population by any means available. I believe this administration is honest and honorable, and I truly believe they mean every word of reassurance repeated on the official government TV station, FOX. It's not like anybody in the adminstration has any history of lying, or has shot anyone in the face while hunting drunk, or done cocaine or been an alcoholic. You can trust these guys. (cough Gitmo) (cough Diebold) (cough AT&T) (cough your personal data in the hands of government thugs and you can't do a thing about it so just bend over and enjoy it)