
• Beef, chicken, or terror?: For years now, the Department of Homeland Security has been using its Automated Targeting System (ATS to friends) to record international travelers' habits—they're scored on everything from motor vehicle records to the kind of meals they order. It's the freeware version of the privacy-violating CAPPS II program, which Congress killed in '04.
• "Aspirational Threat": The U.S. government has warned that an Al Qaeda website has threatened an attack on online banks. The report refers to the threat as an "aspirational threat," but we like to think of it as a "sequel" to the 2004 warnings against "financial institutions" that seemed to pop up right around the Presidential elections.
• Straight to YouTube: Morgan Freeman is releasing his new film, 10 Items Or Less via Clickstar, the online film download company he has set up with Intel. 10 Items is an slim, 84-minute indie film about making indie films, starring Freeman as an actor trying to rekindle his career with an indie film.
• Greedy like a FOX: Dealbreaker picks up on the fact that former FOX Interactive honcho Ross Levinsohn didn't so much quit after bringing MySpace into the News Corp. fold as he was fired for allegedly raising a "half a billion-dollar roll-up fund" for his own side projects (according to Red Herring). Looks like the "Midnight Rider" may have gotten a ride after all.