Category: Things that matter

RIP Mr. Wizard

Sad news for the sci-geek world – Mr. Wizard has died.

Don Herbert, better known to generations of TV viewers as Mr. Wizard, died yesterday at the age of 89. The cause was multiple myeloma. From the 1950s through to the 80s, Herbert brought science to the small screen in a way that captured imaginations and sent many children down the path towards a scientific career. His ability to make his material approachable to the public makes his passing a great loss for the scientific community.

. . .

Herbert’s work occupied a key place in science education. It helped demonstrate how science could provide an explanation when common sense failed, and it was able to do so in a way that was both exciting and approachable. Science was not only fun, but useful, and something everyone could do. He didn’t make the big, complicated findings of modern science any easier for the public to understand, but he sent children down the path to understanding them by making it seem worth the effort. His efforts targeted kids at the ages we are increasingly realizing are essential for establishing a scientific understanding.

Mr. Wizard, you’ll be missed. I remember watching so many shows.

[tags]Mr. Wizard passes on, RIP Mr. Wizard[/tags]

Unintelligent filtering – Internet filtering is stupid, bad, dangerous, and worthless

Yesterday at work, I saw an article over at Ars Technica that I wanted to read. It was a news update on the substitute teacher who was convicted of showing porn to students after the spyware infected class PC started showing porn pop-up images. If you aren’t already familiar with the story, there are a large number of articles on the story’s beginning and evolution over at boingboing. I had already read some about the latest in the story – Ms. Amero has been granted a new trial in place of the sentencing she was supposed to receive today – but wanted to read the Ars Technica take on this simply because I respect the authors at Ars and value their views.

Rather than getting to read the full Ars story, however, I get the following block page (Click ‘More’ for image – click the image for a larger view).

Continue reading “Unintelligent filtering – Internet filtering is stupid, bad, dangerous, and worthless”

The JFK plot

I know there has been plenty of news lately about the plot to blow up JFK airport, but I haven’t bothered writing anything about it. I have had someone contact me to ask me why, since I’ve covered a number of other terrorist plots or physical security issues in the past. The main reason is that this planned attack just wasn’t very feasible, nor was the attack likely to have had any success.

Safeguards in the fuel delivery grid greatly limit the amount of damage that can be done by intentional or accidental explosion/destruction/burning of any section of the fuel system. Additionally, jet fuel contains additives specifically designed to reduce the chance of explosion, increase the difficulty of catastrophic fire, and minimize spread of flames in general. Yes, the stuff burns, but it actually does not burn well enough to have very much of a chance of the spectacular destruction it seems the attackers had in mind.

Though Mr. Defreitas had lived in Brooklyn and Queens, he told the informant that his resentment of the United States hardened into hatred during his years as a cargo worker at the airport.

“He saw military parts being shipped to Israel, including missiles, that would be used to kill Muslims,” the complaint read. Mr. Defreitas, who was secretly recorded by the informant, complained bitterly that he “wanted to do something” and that “Muslims always incur the wrath of the world while Jews get a pass.”

Mr. Defreitas envisioned “the destruction of the whole of Kennedy” and theorized that because of underground pipes, “part of Queens would explode.” He boasted that in addition to a huge of loss of life – “even the twin towers can’t touch it,” he said – the attack would devastate the United States economy and strike a deep symbolic blow against a national icon, President John F. Kennedy, officials said.

Sure, it sounds scary and stuff, but the explosion he dreamed of just wasn’t going to happen. And given how much I’ve written about improbable attacks and the over-reaction of Americans to these things, I was planning on giving this incident a pass. I’m tired of wasting my time detailing the weaknesses of bad, weak, improbable and infeasible threats. You’ll note that I’ve not even taken the time to provide links backing up my claims on infeasibility and difficulty of any success. That’s because the whole plot was so ludicrously bad that I don’t want to waste more of my time pointing out specifics. You can spend a few minutes online and easily find reputable sources supporting what I’ve stated above. If you disagree, please post it in the comments and I’ll be glad to expand on the topic. But unless someone really thinks this attack was worth worrying about, I’m not going to waste more time on it. That is, unless the government does something else stupid to strip away our freedoms as a result. Then, you can be sure I’ll come back to bitch about the poor job our government is doing.

[tags]JFK explosion plot too infeasible to even waste time debunking it[/tags]

More work by the Bush administration to protect Americans


The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Thank goodness we’ve got government leaders who will allow the industry self-regulation they’ve long called suggested is best for us. Or, and this is just a theory I and other folks have (and hey, we might all just be deluded conspiracy theorists, so consider that before believing this suggestion), it might be government protecting big business to the detriment of citizens and small business alike.

A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal – effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out.

. . .

The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn’t have the authority to restrict it.

I’m not saying I buy the Agriculture Department argument, but felt it should be pointed out for those that do believe it.

[tags]Bush administration opposed to comprehensive mad cow testing[/tags]

For all those that complain of high gas prices

Soooooo, right here’s the problem.

Like many holiday travelers, Ron Evenhaim isn’t going to let rising gasoline prices curtail his plans for a weekend getaway.

Evenhaim rented a 40-foot diesel RV to take his family of five on the 300-mile round trip from his home in suburban Los Angeles to Lake Isabella in the Tehachapi Mountains.

. . .

An AP-Ipsos poll showed that nearly half the country says gas prices are causing a “serious hardship,” but fewer people than last year are reducing their driving, trimming other expenses or curtailing vacation plans due to higher energy costs.

“Ummmm, yeah. That thar gas pricing shore is hurtin’ us. We can’t not hardly afford tuh keep takin’ both cars tuh th’ bingo game every Thursday…”

Maybe – just maybe – people need to consider cutting back on how much driving they do? I know it’s a wacky idea, but it just might help. Seems like gas prices hurting the pocketbook might lead to some changes in driving practices. But not in America.

[tags]On high gas prices, Americans hurting from high gas prices but not cutting back on driving[/tags]

Democrats failing in legislative role

Over at Daily Kos, there is a good post from late last week on how Democrats are failing in their duties as the legislative branch by not forcing President Bush, via the Iraq war funding bill, to start some actual end-of-war planning in the near future.

There are too many suspects to pin this rap directly on any particular one of them, but there has been no shortage of Democrats who have apparently had great difficulty in finding any other way of framing the Iraq appropriations situation than as a choice between funding or “abandoning” the troops. Specifically, that by not allowing the president to essentially write the legislation himself, Democrats were somehow not living up to the responsibilities of governance.

. . .

But what this says is that today we let Congressional Republicans write our country’s Iraq funding policy. Think about how amazing that is for a moment. This president has already reduced Congress to a cipher. Under Republicans, it became little more than a Politburo, approving only legislation that garnered the support of a majority of its then-majority, and even then suffering to see that legislation negated by signing statements. And now, after the American people stripped the Congressional Republicans of what little power this president permitted them to have, they still are ultimately the authors of the enabling legislation that pretties up Bush’s fiat.

. . .

Consider that the main point of contention — indeed the only point of contention — between what Congress has already passed and what Bush will accept has nothing but nothing but nothing to do with the funding. It’s definitionally impossible for that to be the case, because every version of the supplemental either house has passed has had more funding in it than the president requested. What Bush and his apologists object to is accountability accompanying that funding.

President Bush got the same bill back except for the accountability requirements. The commentary following the article is also interesting. Some point out the failings of Pelosi and crew. Some point out how misleading the story is. Some think the article doesn’t cover deeply enough the failings the Democratic congress have had thus far. It is one story that I think any interested in politics can appreciate.

[tags]Daily Kos on the war-bill failings of the Democrats[/tags]

President Bush declassifies what we already knew as justification for letting more Americans die in Iraq

I suppose realizing that Americans are generally tired of his bad presidency and bad Iraq war handling, President Bush has declassified intelligence stating that terrorists still want to attack America (an unsurprising bit of Intel for us) and that they plan to use Iraq as a haven to plan the attacks.

President Bush, outlining repeated foiled plots by al Qaeda to attack the United States since the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, today described a select piece of once-classified information to support his argument that terrorists hope to make Iraq a “safe haven” for planning new attacks on the U.S.

“Al Qaeda leaders have repeatedly made it clear that they intend to strike our country again,” Bush said in a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy. “There is a reason that these and other plots have thus far not exceeded. Since Sept. 11, we have taken bold action at home and abroad to keep our people safe.

“Now, in 2007, we are in a pivotal moment in this battle,” the president said. “Our security depends on helping the Iraqis succeed in defeating al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Continue reading on for my rant.

Continue reading “President Bush declassifies what we already knew as justification for letting more Americans die in Iraq”

Olbermann explains how our government has failed us

All around, our government has failed us on its handling of the Iraq war according to Keith Olbermann. Of course, many will dismiss him as a left-wing nut spouting nonsense. Given Gallup polling that shows roughly 60% of Americans want a deadline set for withdrawal from Iraq, it’s hard to legitimately dismiss this rant as not representative of a large and growing portion of the American public’s beliefs. And while I’ve supported President Bush’s troop surge plan (although I’ve called it insufficient in scope), I’m losing faith in the situation, too. To me, Olbermann’s rant hits dead-on the reality of how Democrats have failed us on our involvement with Iraq by backing down on the troop withdrawal requirement in funding continued war efforts.

A Special Comment about the Democrats’ deal with President Bush to continue financing this unspeakable war in Iraq-and to do so on his terms:

This is, in fact, a comment about… betrayal.

Few men or women elected in our history-whether executive or legislative, state or national-have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:

Get us out of Iraq.

Yet after six months of preparation and execution-half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this:

  • The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president-if not the worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history-who happily blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages to his asinine demand, that the Democrats “give the troops their money”;
  • The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;
  • The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
  • The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions-Stop The War-have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.

Olbermann’s rant goes on far beyond what I have quoted above, and it is one of the best monologues on our government’s failures of late that I have seen. This story is one of my most highly recommended reads that I’ve ever taken the time to post.  The link includes a video to go with the transcript.
President Bush has decided to keep letting Americans die in Iraq, and rather than taking control and righting this executive abuse, our Congress has folded. I’m sure fear of losing votes motivated this for the Democrats, which is exactly why they deserve to lose our votes – we need purposeful leadership in our Federal government right now, and it is nowhere to be seen. The sad reality is, though, the current Republicans in office have mostly lost any right to our votes as well by supporting President Bush’s ongoing removal of freedoms in America, meaning we are left with few or no incumbents who deserve to remain in office.

I’m afraid the Democrats have just cost themselves the majority in the next election. The Republicans have spent six years supporting the Executive office in stripping away so much of what makes America great and a world leader, therefore proving they should not hold a majority. This means that I can already see the next election will absolutely suck for Congressional positions and for the President. There is no worthy leadership right now in the White House nor Congress. Our politicians have failed us far more than normal, and have done so for varying reasons – incapacity to see anything other than a moronic “Stay the course” farce, unwillingness to stand up to an abusive President, fear of losing personal and party power, lack of understanding of what constituency wants, and so on. I honestly pray that in the next year, some actual leadership emerges in either party and we start seeing a way to a more sane nation. And I thank Keith Olbermann for his rant that got me to open and make my own mini-rant.

[tags]Keith Olbermann calls out Democrats for failing America, Olbermann rant on Iraq war failures by Executive and Legislative branches[/tags]

Shirt with redacted number

This is a gift that really few folks currently would understand outside the geek community, but I want it. The motion picture industry has been aggressively targetting bloggers and other manner of web site operators who have published the secret magic numbers needed to allow otherwise unauthorized software and hardware to decode and display high definition video from HD-DVDs. Of course, their actions have made the number spread more quickly than it probably would have otherwise. Since I am a follower of the law, I will not publish the number here. However, I would like to link to this cool shirt that ThinkGeek has for sale and mention to my viewers that this would make a great gift for me.

magic_numbers.jpg

Meeting notes from a recent hypothetical meeting in the AACS-LA* office.

Lessons Learned:

  1. When trying to keep a secret, serving people legal notice re: its existence slightly less than effective. Possibly deploy ninjas next time?
  2. Members of online communities object to posts being removed. Ask owners of affected sites to replace posts with smiley face emoticons.
  3. Allowing lawyers to create public relations policy = bad idea.
  4. “Cease and Desist” kinda does the opposite.

Action items:

  1. See what other numbers we can get. Check on availability of 0 and 1 as vital part of circumvention technology.
  2. DMCA not working: investigate banning computers?
  3. Appeal to the kids. Introduce “Ernie the Encryption Key!”
  4. Expire the key. They can’t possibly crack it again, can they?

No, I won’t tell you what the number is that the motion picture industry is trying to protect. I do think option 1 under the Lessons Learned will serve the company well in the future, though – don’t you?

[tags]Perfect gift for the geek in your life, The shirt the motion picture industry doesn’t want you to have[/tags]

Kantor on Brambleton Veterinary Hospital

I’m not normally one who links to other sites and articles just to give links, but I really can’t help but respond to Andrew Kantor’s request for links back to his story on poor service and Brambleton Veterinary Hospital nor his follow-up article from the day after. And when he has even more troubles with a veterinarian from the hospital and has to write more, well, I just have to let both my readers know about it.

If you live in Roanoke, Virginia, I strongly urge you to avoid the Brambleton Veterinary Hospital in Southwest Roanoke County. The staff there is incredibly unprofessional, and it makes me worry about the quality of care the animals receive.

(If you don’t live in Southwest Virginia, ignore this post. Or, if you’re feeling kindly, link to it. That’ll push it up on Google. 🙂

We have been customers of Brambleton Veterinary Hospital for more than two years with our three dogs and two cats. We’ve always paid our bills immediately and never had a problem. We’ve also brought in injured strays to them, as well as animals we’ve fostered for the local SPCA.

. . .

We have been customers of Brambleton Veterinary Hospital for more than two years with our three dogs and two cats. We’ve always paid our bills immediately and never had a problem. We’ve also brought in injured strays to them, as well as animals we’ve fostered for the local SPCA.

So there you have it. A recommendation on which veterinary hospital to avoid.

[tags]Kantor’s troubles with Brambleton Veterinary Hospital[/tags]

More signs of PATRIOT act abuse

It seems like I’m the only one who cares about this, but I keep posting it to remind people how much our government has been abusing unnecessary powers granted by a bad law in response the the September 11th attack. As the subject title indicates, I’m talking about PATRIOT act abuse here. In particular, here’s the details on a news program which reviews some specific instances of illegal monitoring, data mining, and spying on American citizens.

“So many people in America think this does not affect them. They’ve been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that’s wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs,” former CIA senior attorney Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front, airing Tuesday, May 15, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings) and available for viewing after broadcast at www.pbs.org/frontline .

. . .

President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans: The FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree, and they have even been assigning suspicion ratings to anyone who travels across a U.S. border.

. . .

Although the president told the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to known Al Qaeda agents or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA cast its net far more widely. AT&T technician Mark Klein inadvertently discovered that the whole flow of Internet traffic in several AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the NSA, a charge indirectly substantiated by John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the official legal memos legitimizing the president’s warrantless wiretapping program. Yoo told FRONTLINE: “The government needs to have access to international communications so that it can try to find communications that are coming into the country where Al Qaeda’s trying to send messages to cell members in the country. In order to do that, it does have to have access to communication networks.”

Spying on the Home Front also looks at a massive FBI data sweep in December 2003. On a tip that Al Qaeda “might have an interest in Las Vegas” around New Year’s 2004, the FBI demanded records from all hotels, airlines, rental car agencies, casinos and other businesses on every person who visited Las Vegas in the run-up to the holiday. Stephen Sprouse and Kristin Douglas of Kansas City, Missouri, object to being caught in the FBI dragnet in Las Vegas just because they happened to get married there at the wrong moment. Says Douglas, “I’m sure that the government does a lot of things that I don’t know about, and I’ve always been OK with that–until I found out that I was included.”

And there is a lot more to the article. I will not be home to watch or record the program (and my wife has filled the DVR with Star Trek episodes…), but thanks to the great wonder that is the Internet, I’ll be downloading it and watching it later. (via Tingilinde)

[tags]Reviewing more PATRIOT act abuse, Looking inside government agency’s abuses of the PATRIOT act[/tags]

Recording industry presses Congress to raise royalty rates for standard radio

Very recently, I wrote about the announced spike in royalty rates for Internet-based radio stations. After Congress stepped in to delay or even prevent this, the Recording Industry came back with a solution that is clearly designed only to insure evenness in application of the proposed new royalty rates.

As a means of eliminating the appearance of disparity between the performance royalties about to be charged to US Internet streaming music providers such as AOL Radio and Pandora, and what terrestrial broadcasters pay for the same privilege – which, for that category, is currently zero – lobbyists representing the recording industry, according to Billboard magazine, are pressuring Congress to resolve this problem by extending essentially the same sharply higher performance royalty rates imposed on Internet radio to all broadcasters.

If such a measure were to become law, an industry which once had the problem of overcoming the appearance of paying off radio broadcasters to increase the airplay for their songs — a practice known as “payola” — would begin charging broadcasters in all media for the privilege of having their songs played.

I can think of no more effective way to reduce your consumer audience, eliminate as many redistributors as possible, and alienate the vast majority of your customer base than to not only overcharge the providers for the online audience but to also raise your rates to existing terrestrial providers by two orders of magnitude. It appears that Recording Industry executives really are trying to eliminate their industry and make themselves irrelevant even more quickly than the Internet is already doing.

[tags]Recording Industry presses Congress to raise terrestrial broadcast royalty rates 100 fold[/tags]