A couple years ago I wrote about skirts and driving in Uganda. Women were banned from dressing a certain way because they were said to be distracting drivers. Apparently the Czech Republic did not get the same results from their study.

The Huffington Post has posted pictures (of course) in a story called Cardboard Police In Miniskirts Slow Traffic

Authorities say that life-sized cardboards of female police officers in miniskirts placed alongside roads have managed to slow down speeding drivers in several central Czech towns.

There is snow on the ground and she is wearing a miniskirt? Obviously a decoy. Ah, but there I go thinking again. I forgot for a minute what the Ugandan ethics and integrity minister said about risk.

“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.

The Czech might say that is exactly what is right with a miniskirt. Uganda just should have required a police vest and hat be worn with a miniskirt; they then would have been able to use attention from the drivers to prompt them to use caution.

The Lebanese Army, after a tip from Hezbullah militants, believes a spy device found near Beirut is Israeli

The Lebanese Army said Wednesday it had uncovered two Israeli spy installations in mountainous areas near Beirut and the Bekaa Valley — one on Sannine mountain and another on Barouk mountain.

How did they know it was from Israel?

The photos released Thursday show a device bearing the words “mini cloud” in Hebrew, along with the name of the manufacturer – “Beam Systems Israel Ltd.” – in English.

Oh, did it also have a business card taped on the outside? Seriously, though, if someone were to take the trouble of making a covert network listening device with extended range and battery life, why would they leave obvious signs of origin? It would be one thing to catch Israel in the act of spying, by altering the device and monitoring its outbound or uplink connections. Pointing to a label on a rock in the desert seems incredibly low-tech and offers little more than a clue.

Reported in the Summit County Citizens Voice

Wolf Creek ski patrol director Scott Kay was wearing an Avalung breathing device when he was killed by a soft snow avalanche on Nov. 22, but was not able to deploy the Avalung before he was buried, according to a technical report posted by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. According to the CAIC report, the mouthpiece was still secured in the shoulder pack of the harness when Kay was uncovered by rescue workers.

[…]

OSHA officials and the U.S. Forest Service are conducting separate reviews of the accident. John Healy, area director for the federal agency, said there’s no official timeline for the investigation, but that it must be completed within six months. According to Healy, there are no specific federal safety regulations relating to avalanche control work.

Instead, OSHA will use accepted industry standards and best practices as the yardstick to determine whether Kay was unnecessarily exposed to risk under the agency’s “general duty” clause.

Experts like Hans Rosling say intelligent things about measuring progress and security by looking at education and health, but there are many days when I feel like progress should be measured by Internet access. The latest study shows the U.S. ranks 25th in the world for Internet connection speed

nearly half of all U.S. residents’ Internet connections fall below the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s minimum definition of broadband, at 4 megabits per second download

Well, at least they have education and health going for them…oh, uh, wait a minute.

Someone should turn the study into a comparison of defensive capability for cyberwar. That might turn things around in a hurry.