July, 2009 archive
Movietime 0
They really do not make them like they used to, when they did not have CGI to cover up for lousy plots, bad writing, incompetent direction, and celebutard actors.
Old News 0
at least for those who paid attention:
The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information.
Most intelligence officials interviewed “had difficulty citing specific instances” when the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said..
Heck, when they had good intelligence data, they didn’t have the intelligence to use it. More data did not bring more intelligence.
It was never about national security. It was about power.
Illegitimate power.
Afterthought: John Yoo comes in for special mention. But I bet I’ll still have his columns to ignore in the Philadelphia Shrinkquirer.
Poltergeist 0
All joking aside, if you can watch this and take it seriously, you have not grounds for deridiing this:
They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said.
The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.
Bad Pennies . . . 0
keep turning up.
But they must know what they are doing. After all, they wear nice suits, look good in meetings, and write elegant emails.
Dustbiters 0
Sample institution about which consumers should be able to make their own decisions without a financial consumer protection agency.
Because, natch, financiers are so trustworthy and have only their fiduciary duty in mind.
Bank of Wyoming, Thermopolis, Wyoming, ain’t no more.
By my count, that’s 53 dustbiters this year. The FDIC is maintaining their two banks a week average.
Where They Fall 0
Graphing the wingnuttery. Click the chart for the explication:
Foxes in the Henhouse 0
Reading an article about the opposition of plutocrats and Republicans to the proposal for a department of financial consumer protection, I came upon this gem of a quote:
And over the past decade, since the repeal of Glass-Steagall was sneaked through the Congress in the middle of the night, individuals have demonstrated just how much competence at making financial decisions under the influence of fast-talking three-piece-suited banksters?
These folks are more interested in protecting the Greenwich, Conn., McMansions of their corporate masters than they are in protecting consumers from predatory Masters of the Universe.
Gag me with a spoon.
Vineland 0
It’s not just a large island in the North Atlantic any more.
The outages are symptoms of what evidently has been a breakout year for the region’s vegetation.
The harvest of growth – and it’s not just the vines – is the product of a near-perfect recipe concocted by nature: generous and consistent rains mixed with gently warmed soil.
The Price of Virtue 2
In the case of Senator Ensign the porker, who hoists his ensign in the wrong places while attacking others who do the same (and do it with a lot less expenditure), it was a lot.
Steve elucidates (be sure to read the first comment).
The Entitlement Society (Updated) 0
It’s like the captain of the Exxon Valdez giving himself a raise because, well, he could have hit a bigger rock.
The troubled insurance giant has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage.
Addendum, Later that Same Morning:
In related news, Citigroup, which knows something about worthlessness, says
“Zero equity” = Worthless. That’s truly bonus-worthy.
Seen on the Street, Reader Contribution Dept. 2
The reader wondered how this ever made it past the censors at the DMV:
SIP Phone 0
500@ekiga.net works.
520@ekiga.com does not.
Damn computers. Expect you to be able to read and rite.
Cybergeddon 0
Cyber Hysteria is more like it.
A simple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack does not the end of the world make. As I commented elsewhere yesterday, it’s pretty much an electronic version of what happens to the Jersey Turnpike on Memorial Day weekend: more traffic shows up than the road can handle.
No one is screaming that the NJT is suffering a traffic attack and that
The! World! Is! Coming! To! An! End!
unless large numbers of computer security consultants get fat contracts to tell persons to use firewalls and keep their operating systems’ patches up-to-date.
DickDestiny lays out the scenario:
North Korea: We’ll make a handful of your websites load slow!
South Korea: Just wait! Once we get our electromagnetic pulse bomb to work at a range of greater than ten yards …
North Korea: Your EMP-bomb building scientists have nothing on our selfless warriors. They can can modify a five-year-old computer virus as well as Internet script kiddies or maybe even a little better! Tomorrow we strike your Imperialist puppet-master pigdogs at dol.gov as another example that you are powerless! Powerless!
South Korea: Our electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bombs, if exploded, will jam and damage your defence systems! Then you will not be able to rewrite more computer viruses!
North Korea: Tomorrow we will inflict more merciless retribution and pounding on your decadent overlords as well as make the website of your evil Ministry of Agriculture to load slow, if maybe at all. At least five people will be made to work overtime!
Honestly, this cyberwar stuff is FUD to the nth power logarithmically compounded. Before losing their heads over it in public, persons should research how networks work.
Some folks will point to the recent unpleasantness between Russia and Georgia, where a DDOS thought to have originated in Russia overwhelmed the Georgian government’s servers. But the plain fact is that had nothing to do with why Russia defeated Georgia in the field.
Russia defeated Georgia in the field because Russia had overwhelming military superiority, not because they had overwhelming pinging superiority.
Read Dick Destiny and Vmyths to protect against the hysteria.
And, please, make it go away so we can worry about real stuff.
Twits on Twitter 0
My freshman comp professor, who was a conceited arrogant jerk with the morals of a tomcat (sorry, Fluffy), but otherwise an excellent teacher, kept returning throughout the year to the theme that art was “bringing order out of chaos.”
Back in the 60’s, there was a modern “artist” who would lay a large canvas in his driveway, drive through various colors of paint (oil-based–Latex hadn’t come along yet), then drive his car randomly over the canvas.
I’m not making this up; I saw him on the black-and-white telly vision in between the test patterns. No one could make that up.
His working definition of art was, I reckon, “bringing money out of chaos.”
People paid real money for his vehicular meanderings. Lots of it. I guess it had “investment value.” Sort of like Care Bears.
Then came “performance art”–sort of like the car thing, but without a permanent record.
Now comes “Twitter art.”
Seminal Research 0
(There’s a short ad at the beginning.)
A scientist writing in the Guardian has skeptical commentary here.