Friday Miscellany! -- Featuring #Yahoo mail, @GovChristie, #Syria, Ross Douthat, #mifare, and @hplff

• If you use Yahoo Mail, change your passwords now. Of course, Slashdot has a discussion.


• Assad's regime has pulled out of peace talks, and now the US is accusing them of dragging their feet on turning over chemical weapons. I'm not saying it is, but it could be that Obama is building a case for war with Syria.


• A close ally of Chris Christie says the Governor knew about the Fort Lee lane closures. Thus, Christie's claims that "Bridgegate" happened behind his back are no longer plausible.


• Via keith418 comes this wonderful Slate piece, from someone who favors reproductive rights, on the conservative case, advanced by Ross Douthat and others, that reproductive freedom is dangerous. That is, and I quote, "(Douthat is) challenging the whole idea of letting women decide whether sex leads to parenthood." I disagree completely with Douthat on this and many other points, but I think it's important to understand his argument. His point of view lies at the core of the anti-abortion, anti-contraception, and anti-sex education movements we see today.


• MIFARE Classic is the basis for a lot of fare payment and toll payment systems, such as the London Underground. It also has a well-deserved reputation of being very easy to crack. How easy? So easy, you can do it with an Arduino.


• The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival kickstarter is four days old, and has already achieved 122% of its funding goal! My understanding is that the festival organizers will come out with stretch goals soon. In the meanwhile, if you want a kickstarter-only t-shirt, sweat shirt, book of short stories, Liv Rainey-Smith woodblock print, or Ann S. Koi sculpture, now's the time to back the kickstarter!

To the Moon!

An Israeli not-for-profit wants to attempt a moon landing.

There's all sorts of "there" to which I could go. Some of it involves Palestinians, Sudanese, Eritreans...