In December 1994, Islamic extremists hijacked Air France flight 8969 in Algiers, killed 3 hostages and threatened to kill more if their demands were not met. The French government pressured the Algerian government to let the plane leave Algiers and land in Marseille. Once there, the hijackers requested a heavy refuel and permission to leave […]
In May 2003, Bill Clinton delivered a fantastic commencement speech at Syracuse University, where he urged students to consider the difference between the headlines – what’s in the news – and the trend lines – what’s really happening in the world: The trend line is, we are growing more interdependent. We cannot escape each other. […]
I’m visiting family in France, which some people like to call the “land of cheese-eating surrender monkeys.” In only a few days, I’ll be returning to the US, which other people like to call “the real rogue state.” I’m tired of these charades, prejudices, and awful exaggerations. Saddam has been captured. From this, writers like […]
I just returned from 2 days at the National Institute of Standards and Technology where we discussed eVoting. I wasn’t expecting much from this conference, but to my surprise I learned a tremendous amount. Most importantly, I got a nice wake-up call: we technologists don’t necessarily have the answers just because we can think logically. […]