maxomai | Entries tagged with miscellany

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a "basic law" --- basically a constitutional amendment --- to define Israel as a "Jewish State". This move is highly controversial in Israel, as it represents an affront to Israel's Arab population (which makes up 20% of the total population), and a betrayal of the last sixty-six years of representing themselves as a secular, democratic state, to its neighbors. Unfortunately, in Washington DC, the importance of this change is lost, thanks in no small part to the Likud Party's shills. (I'm looking at you, George Will.)

Ukraine's military admits that they're helpless against pro-Russian demonstrators in the East. The clock is ticking.

As Cold War II accelerates, our access to Russia's space infrastructure is likely to disappear, as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin suggests we launch our astronauts by trampoline. The practical effect is that SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are likely to see a huge influx of cash soon, in order to speed up development of their own technologies. SpaceX in particular is likely to get a boost after a judge ordered the government to reopen bidding for classified payloads.

The mailing lists for Kali Linux --- an "offensive security"-minded Linux distribution --- were hacked by a team exploiting the Heartbleed bug. The damage is trivial, as the mailing list saw almost no traffic, but this is still embarrassing.

Excellent advice for anyone pursuing a PhD --- or anyone taking on a lot of work and feeling a lot of stress --- here.

Cold War II advances as Germany blocks $7B of defense exports to Russia, France sends jets to the Baltics, Polish separatists are demanding their own autonomous region in Ukraine, and Russian energy firm Gazprom sends Kiev a huge $11B heating bill.

Today a 16-year-ld was stabbed to death on her prom day. Authorities are looking into claims that her killer was seeking revenge for her not accepting his prom invitation. Putting the horror of this aside, there's a LOT of sexual politics to unfold here, should this in fact be the killer's motive. It's not just that, now, teenage girls have to worry about getting fucking stabbed to death in the halls of their high school if they turn down a date. It's also that our culture, going back to antiquity, accepts violence as a legitimate means to reclaim one's manhood. We seem reluctant to tackle this phenomenon, and until we do, we can count on more violence like this.

I would cheer harder for orbital solar power if the cost wasn't so hefty. Right now, solar and wind cost about $1/watt nameplate, and are better options.

Speaking of green, I'm actually all in favor of Google selling my data to electric utilities, provided they're properly anonymized. If they can predict peak load times better, they can reduce power production and save money (and in most cases fossil fuel consumption and thus carbon emissions).

SpaceX just announced that one of their booster rockets just made a soft landing. Meaning that, in principle, it can be recovered and reused.

If you caught "Portlandia" again last night, you got to see my friend Caitlin Nolan for all of five seconds and one spoken line --- she was the teenager pointing out the bad Ronald McDonald art to her dad. It's not quite the airtime that she got last week, but any Portlandia air time is worth bragging about! If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch the episode using the usual means. Or you can catch that particular sketch right here on Huffington Post.

Those photos that purport to show Russian troops in eastern Ukraine turn out to be very questionable, such that the New York Times has repudiated them.

In Syria, rebels have almost lost control of their de-facto capital in Homs. Rebels are increasingly likely to desert, and some factions are making desertion harder by sparking new fights. By all appearances, the rebellion is done. It's just a matter of how bloody the end is.

Nate Silver points out the obvious --- the polls do not favor Elizabeth Warren should she run for President in 2016 --- and the not so obvious --- that if she did run, she could force the other candidates to take more progressive positions. Details here.

This is the most thoughtful analysis I've seen so far of a certain, very controversial scene in last Sunday's Game of Thrones episode. Major spoilers, fair warning.

Oregonians have until April 30th to buy health insurance through Cover Oregon — mostly because Cover Oregon is such an incredible clusterfuck. To apply, download the form from here, fill it out, and mail it in. They'll ask you for a lot of financial details (gag). Yes, it's a project. But if you're eligible for fat subsidies or Medicare, it's probably worth it. Of course, if you already have insurance, you can skip this altogether.

Speaking of which, Cover Oregon is going to replace their site — and Portland company Metal Toad want to do that work, and keep it open source, for the low low price of $10 million. I admire their gusto, but if you ask me, the price tag will be more like $50 million once Metal Toad gets all the requirements.

ACA signups are heading to 7 million enrollees, matching the original CBO projections before people realized the website was a complete mess. In theory, this is bad news for Republican excuse-making. In practice, the Republicans have won the debate, at least for the next election cycle. Their base is convinced that Obamacare is simply a huge bribe to poor voters (whom they hate), unemployed voters (whom they hate), and disabled voters (whom they hate), to vote Democratic (which they hate). The swing voters are convinced that Obamacare can't work. Finally, Democrats mostly support Obamacare, but Democratic candidates simply don't feel like defending the law, probably because they're listening to mealy-mouthed triangulating idiots like this person. You know it's bad when the ultimate triangulator, Bill Clinton, tells you to 'nad up. Again, this goes to the Democratic and Republican campaign strategies of old: Democrats appease the base and crank the swing voter (the Obama campaigns being exceptions), while Republicans appease the swing voter and crank the base. Guess what wins?

It appears that Moscow is financially backing Hungary's far right in support of their anti-NATO, anti-EU rhetoric. I wonder how many other fascist parties are getting money from the Kremlin, and if it's anywhere near as many as got support from the United States once?

FUD from Russia; FUD from the West. (Definition of FUD)

The engineer who once defended her employer, GitHub, as an example of a startup that promotes women in a field rife with sexism, has quit GitHub — citing an internal culture rife with sexism. See also this tweet. Ouch. Of course Slashdot has a discussion.

Everyone hates Fred Phelps now, even as he's apparently dying. It's easy to forget that he was once one of the most aggressive civil rights lawyers in America.

Your credit cards are about to change. Visa is going to replace the magnetic stripe with an encrypted chip; Mastercard wants to go one step further and include a PIN. The thing is, both systems have serious security problems (2) (Both are PDFs)

From xylograph_rss comes Cthulhu Magnets.

Carrot facts. Enjoy.

Via keith418 comes word that the push for a new Cold War in the wake of Crimea seems to have petered out. One can only hope; the alternative is a global clash of ideologies, between capitalism and — capitalism? Also, check out this take-down of "serious person" David Brooks.

Buzzfeed on how Russia Today tried to sell Germany — Germany! — as a failed state. At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I've been hating on RT before hating on RT is cool, and crap like this is why.

Pussy Riot — yes, that Pussy Riot — joins the protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Sounds like white supremacists are marching all over the nation tomorrow, including downtown Portland. Anyone care to join me at the counter-demonstration?

The discussion in America isn't so much on whether to intervene in the Crimean crisis, or even how to intervene, but whether Obama is to blame. Take this as a signal of how myopic we have become as a nation.

Anyone else find it interesting that China is staying out of the Crimean crisis?

Obama nominee who defended Mumia Abu-Jamal loses Senate vote. I am utterly unsurprised by this; nobody in a close Senate election wants to be associated with a convicted[*] cop killer ([*]even if there's a lot of evidence he was railroaded).

Abby Martin, an anchor for RT, the American subsidiary of Kremlin mouthpiece Russia Today, took a stand on the air opposing Putin's invasion of Crimea. RT management then sent her off to Crimea. Whatever else you think about the Crimea crisis, this is Putin exiling a reporter for not toeing the line. Even Ray Charles could see that.

Justin Raimondo on Ukrainian fascism.

So far every red dwarf that we've examined for planets has turned up at least one planet. Part of me wonders whether this is because we live in a particularly planet-rich neighborhood of the Milky Way for some reason, or whether, on the other hand, this is just what you get with red dwarves.

So, let's review. The new Ukrainian government (in the West) is about to push for Greek-style austerity. Meanwhile, Ukraine's radical right is urging terror attacks against Russia and Russians and attacking Jewish students. I'm not saying Putin is right — his claims to have been invited in are specious at best — but do we really want to send soldiers to defend a revolution that's neoliberal at best, hard-right at worst, and arguably anti-democratic no matter what? Is that worth another European war?

Q: "Why doesn't Putin fear the West?" A: "Follow the money." More here. Thanks keith418 for the link.

Don't use credit or debit cards in Chicago taxis.

Meanwhile in 2014 polls, Grimes has a bare lead over Mitch McConnell. Wendy Davis, however, is still losing. "But polls don't matter this early," you say. Bullshit.

Bruce Schneier on how to pick a secure password.

Russian troops have seized strategic areas of the Crimean area of Ukraine (2) (3), and have promised to issue Russian passports to members of Ukraine's disbanded riot police squad. I'm surprised more Americans aren't alarmed by this.

Yes, Virginia, the government is actively engaging in COINTELPRO, and they're using social media to do it.

European engineers have deployed the first outdoor flocks of autonomous flying robots. I can actually see a lot of beneficent applications for this technology, but it will almost certainly be used to kill people soon.

Compare this doctrine of women as the "flexible, adaptive" helpmeet to the commanding man against the Chinese concepts of yin and yang, respectively.

Decoding the Voynich Manuscript (PDF) — interesting the points-of-view of both a cryptologist and a Renaissance history buff.

Reminder: My wife has an art show at Wells & Verne (Southeast Portland, Oregon) this evening. See you there?

So much to talk about....

The fight between the US/EU and Russia over Ukraine continues, with both NATO and Russia rattling sabers.

Texas's gay marriage ban has been stricken, meaning that Texas now joins Utah and Oklahoma on the list of deep red states with gay marriage bans on the ropes.

Guess who's on the front lines with Al Qaeda?

Dear President Obama: do it! DOOOOOOO IIIIIIIT!

Note to nice guys: you might think you're not getting laid because you're too nice. You're actually not getting laid because you act like this. Come on.

Justice Antonin Scalia says internment camps could happen in America again. For once, I can't disagree with him. I don't see any immediate reason why we'd have internment camps (cue whining from paranoid idiots here), but a huge disaster like 9/11 would change things. I am, actually, very surprised that we didn't have internment camps in the years after 9/11, and I would be stunned if that conversation never happened at the Bush White House. (For the record, I think Bush would have vetoed the idea. He was incompetent, not evil.)

The British Government carried out a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDOS) on supporters of Anonymous. More here. If you or I DDOS someone without their consent, we go to prison, and we do hard time.

New Deal Democrat points out that the oil choke collar may finally be relaxing. If true, that means that the proximate cause of the Great Recession is no longer a problem. That just leaves, you know, all the structural problems in the banking system.

Verizon is already taking advantage of the death of Net Neutrality, by throttling residential NetFlix traffic. Slashdot has a discussion.

navalny (in Russian) on the unfolding PR disaster that is the Sochi Olympics.

It was lopsided, one-sided, a complete blowout, and utterly pointless in the end. No, not the Super Bowl — the debate between Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and creationist demagogue Ken Ham. Nonetheless, there's actually disagreement on who won. Was it Bill Nye, or Ken Ham? This fiasco makes me pine for the days when devout Christians did real science.

RIP Joan Mondale, wife of former VP and Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale.

John Kerry offers the Palestianians a brand new reservation near Gaza, to compensate for illegal settlements and other land grabs in their present reservation on the West Bank. Neither side appears happy with this idea.

California may soon run out of drinking water. By "soon," we mean 60-120 days. But global warming is a hoax.

Tanks are a relic of 20th Century warfare that is losing its niche in the 21st Century. So why do we keep building them? A window into the politics and economics of defense spending here.

Last week — before the Super Bowl — Jon Bois ran Madden NFL 25 pitting the best possible team the game would allow against the worst possible team the game would allow. After the best possible team racked up an estimated 366 points to the worst possible team's 0, the game died a horrible death before the end of the first quarter. As it turns out, he called the best possible team the Seahawks, and the worst possible team the Broncos. Cue Twilight Zone theme music.

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!

Eighty five people own 46% of the world's wealth.

Peace is breaking out in Iran! Meanwhile, the American Conservative has this expose on the CIA's role in the Iran nuclear deal.

President Obama says the great debate over the NSA's role in national security was not worth the Snowden leaks. I think most of us would disagree.

Justin Raimondo details why Mexico may fall apart soon.

FreeBSD 10 is out now, and has lots of upgrades (2). You can download a copy here.

In 1927 a film crew took this color footage of London in 1927. World War two began twelve years later, and the Germans bombed the city soon thereafter.

We've often heard "The NSA's PRISM-style surveillance would have stopped another 9/11." Bruce Schneier puts that myth to bed here. Also, check out today's NSA Exploit of the Day on his blog.

The DEA and the Sinaloa cartel of Mexico had a sweet deal going for ten years. The Sinaloa Cartel would provide intelligence to the US on other cartels. In exchange, the US would look the other way as the Sinolas brought billions of dollars in drug profits back to Mexico. In the DEA's defense, we've made bigger deals with worse players.

How meth fuels the Syrian civil war.

CNN bloviates about Hillary Clinton's "Iowa Problem."

Steven Levy gets inside the NSA. Unsurprisingly, the NSA sees themselves as the good guys, believes they are protecting our privacy, and really hates Snowden.

The FBI is screaming like a frustrated toddler at the suggestion that their "National Security Letter" program might need more oversight

Despite what whining you might be hearing from your favorite Republican, Democrats are indeed coming to Christie's defense in the wake of "Bridgegate." Meanwhile, his opponents in the GOP are happily throwing him under the bus. Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com, meanwhile, has a more intellectual take-down of Christie here, which is not to say that I agree with him.

Meanwhile in Iraq, Fallujah locals are fighting off Al Qaeda, but also threatening to fight off the Iraqi government, effectively bidding to become their own autonomous zone a la "Kurdistan" in the north.

Ford Motor Company knows when you're breaking the law thanks to their cars' internal GPS.

Mac OS X users aren't getting security updates unless they've updated to Mavericks. Even Microsoft, which is still supporting Vista and Windows 7, isn't that bad.

Support the XRAY.FM kickstarter and help bring progressive radio back to Portland with a bang!

Obama wants to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq. As it stands, he has Congressional authorization to re-invade Iraq at will.

The US Senate is preparing to scuttle Obama's peace initiatives with Iran with a veto-proof bill imposing additional sanctions.

In 1971, a group of activists broke into a Pennsylvania FBI office and found evidence that Hoover was actively working to suppress peaceful dissent. Today, one of them came forward to explain why they did this, and to draw a parallel to Snowden's actions. Quoting her: "Democracy needs whistleblowers."

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) is retiring, which is likely to make gun rights activists cheer. Me, I'm expecting for another anti-gun candidate to fill that seat, based on both the demographics of her district and the revival of the anti-gun cause in the Democratic base. Also retiring is Rep Mike McIntyre (D-NC), a blue dog who, among other things, is a staunch opponent of Obamacare. His seat is likely to go to Republican hands.

The Insane Clown Posse and the ACLU are suing the FBI over the FBI's stupid, silly, and almost certainly illegal decision to classify ICP fans as a gang.

USA Today has apologized for plagiarizing scottbateman's Disalmanac weather map.

If you want health insurance to start January 1, the deadline has been quietly extended to midnight tomorrow (Dec 24th). The website is http://healthcare.gov.

Israel demands America stop spying on them. Maybe they should stop spying on America (2)?

Obama warns in a letter to Congress that military action in South Sudan is possible as US citizens are warned to evacuate.

Utah is back in court trying to get a stay, pending appeal, of Friday's ruling striking down that state's anti-gay-marriage language in the constitution. Edit: The bid for a stay has been denied. Utah now moves on to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Portland, Oregon was named the best American city of 2013!

Today's one-panel from Sluggy Freelance demonstrates one of the things I love about this comic. Even if you don't like the gag, you have to admit that Pete Abrams commits to the gag.

President Obama's said today the NSA is "not engaging in domestic surveillance or snooping around." I'm pretty sure that's bullshit. Meanwhile, there are claims out of Washington that the NSA's massive snooping program hasn't stopped a single attack. I'm frankly pretty sure that's bullshit, too.

Conservative antiwar activist Justin Raimondo changes his mind and supports a boycott of Israel.

Now that China has a probe looking for moon minerals, it might be time to start dividing up the Moon.

Something mysterious under Seattle has stalled the world's largest tunneling machine. They call this thing "The Object." Horror and Bizarro authors take note!

Wedding-ish purity rings: creepy-as-fuck sexism, or sexist-as-fuck creepiness?
Via keith418: Banksy's Christmas Card.

The least classy Christmas gift ever.

Three Senators are drafting new Iran sanctions in defiance of the Obama Administrations recent peace overtures. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) aren't surprises - they're both hawks - but Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is.

The Snowden NSA revelations apparently just cost Boeing a $4 billion ($4,000,000,000.00) contract to supply Brazil with fighter jets. If other American businesses are losing money for this same reason, then that might explain why one US tech leader asked the President to pardon Snowden.

Cover Oregon is asking a different contractor to step in and build the Oregon exchange. This is happening, by the way, among massive finger pointing by everyone involved, including in the linked story. The success or failure of that project will tell us whether blaming Oracle is just a part of that finger pointing, or if there were real problems.

Pussy Riot might be granted amnesty soon thanks to a bill that just passed the Duma (Russia's legislature).

Conservative news outlets are thrilled that The Drunk is now a hipster icon. Someone should tell them that hipsters are known for their horrible taste.

WSJ tech columnist Walt Mossberg writes his final column, wherein he reviews the most influential consumer electronics of the last two decades. Unsurprisingly, Apple dominates the list.

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maxomai

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Finding God in a Dog

"I'll never listen to what Slade says."

Entries tagged with miscellany

Thursday Miscellany!

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

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Friday Miscellany! (#Bridgegate, National Security Letters, #Fallujah, @XRAYFM, and more!)

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