Waking Up Orwell: On the lamm with WIRED's Evan Ratliff

WHOIS Evan Ratliff?

THIS WEEK ON WAKING UP ORWELL 
On the lamm with WIRED's Evan Ratliff


AUDIO::: TAX RELIEF SPECIAL: The Story of evading a WIRED identity 


BTC - For Tax Day only, we are switching from our regular formatted programming to bring you a special talk with Evan Ratliff, a co-editor for WIRED Magazine who created an assignment to disappear with strategic aims to not be found. WIRED's sponsored contest had escalating tiers of money for the digital bounty hunter who could track down and catch Ratliff in his remote locations. 


Evan was in and out of disguises for the duration of his extended assignment. He toured with a band, became a semi-granola hippie and even adopted a disguise as balding stereotype in a suit to evade getting "caught" for prize money. He shares a very unique story of how he did his best to evade being actively identified by those who tracked him down with arcane and creative digital clues. Relax, as much as you can, in this moderately paranoid yet entertaining tale of public evasion. 


ABOUT EVAN RATLIFF

Ratliff is a freelance journalist whose writing appears in Wired magazine, The New Yorker, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Outside, Discover, Men’s Journal, New York, and many other publications. A contributing editor for Wired, he is the co-author of Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World (HarperCollins, 2005), about innovation and counterterrorism. A former fellow at both the International Reporting Project and the Japan Foreign Press Center, he has reported from Russia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Brazil, and elsewhere on science and technology, the environment, terrorism, politics, and transnational crime.

IN OTHER NEWS: 


Senators Raise Privacy Concerns About Body Scanner Technology 
c/o EPIC

Three United States Senators have written a letter to Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security, urging the Department to reconsider the whole body scanners currently planned for U.S. airports. Senators Collins (R-ME), Kyl (R-AZ), and Chambliss (R-GA) encouraged Secretary Napolitano to consider "auto-detection" devices instead of human screeners to address privacy concerns. The Senators noted that the current technology allows airport officials to "view detailed images of passengers’ bodies" and also that other systems could "save the government and airports money on physical space for screening." 

Restrictive Immigration Policies Confound Security 
c/o Cato FLOGGER Jim Harper


Shuttering GITMO, not this week but "as quickly as we can" says AG Holder


Senator Leahy seems to be pushing for more Patriot Act oversights


TRACKING WINOS: Winemakers pitched on RFID to ward off "fraudulent wines"


Wikileaks Collateral Murder video - if you haevn't seen it yet.


A speed camera causes an accident


PARAMILITARY BACON ALERT ... according to microblogger Tracy Ward, the Kansas City Police Department is seeking to stock up parts of the city with ShotSpotter misery.

"KCPD and Councilwoman Cathy Jolly are seeking federal taxpayer money ($2 million) to turn Emanuel Cleaver's porkulus project "KC Green Impact Zone" into something that more closely resembles the Baghdad "Green Zone" with a new surveillance system from ShotSpotter."  Hearsay?  We'll be looking for the details in the days to come.