2016 archive
Tax Frauds 0
They pop up every year (and it’s not who you think it is).
Twits on Twitter 0
Afterthought:
Be very clear. There’s more to this than just decoding de code. There’s a presumption that if you use encryption, you must have something to hide, an assertion that a desire for privacy is inherently suspicious. (In some ways, this point of view is eerily similar to the philosophy of the Zuckerborg.)
In a snail mail world, what the cops (and the NSA and GHCQ and the FBI and their like) want would be to steam open all your envelopes and read all your mail and all your everything else without showing cause (not that lots of them aren’t already doing that just because they can).
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness takes practice.
Adam Malaby apparently stepped into the line of fire about 8:30 p.m. while attempting to photograph or record video of someone else firing a .40-caliber pistol at a makeshift shooting range in Sutton, reported the Alaska Dispatch News.
If he had shot back, no doubt he would be alive today.
No Longer Welcome 0
A long-time Maine Republican explains why she has finally chosen to–more properly, been driven to–leave the Republican Party. Here’s bit:
Details, Details 0
One of the facts seldom mentioned in the coverage of the Democratic presidential campaign is this: Even though he’s campaigning for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.
If you think this somehow doesn’t matter to persons who are grassroots members of a political party–attending boring meetings even when no election is imminent, campaigning on behalf of candidates and causes about which they may be at best lukewarm because the party chose to support them, handing out literature in the rain and making GOTV phone calls to persons who probably don’t care, sometimes supporting the lesser of two evils because the alternative is the evil of two lessers–you need to think again.
“The Word” 0
The Roanoke Times thinks it may have found “the word” that explains the resilience of Republican rule of the rural.
Methinks they are on to something. Follow the link to decide whether I am correct.
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebook is concerned that you’re not nekkid “sharing” enough.”
In The Guardian, Anna Lauren Hoffmann reports that the Zuckerborg is blaming “context collapse” (that sounds to me like one of those terms that academicians coin to fool you into thinking they have come up with something new, rather than just demonstrating a flair for the obvious, but that’s another rant). Apparently, persons are “sharing” too many cat videos and not enough secrets. Here’s a snippet:
For users confronting collapsed contexts on Facebook, the withholding of personal anecdotes and information isn’t a problem – it is a solution.
For years, Facebook’s strategy has caused regular controversies around user privacy and ethics – blunders that got people exposed, outed and emotionally manipulated along the way. Users seem to have combated the problem by taking Facebook’s own advice, as shared by Facebook’s president of communications and public policy, Elliot Schrage, in 2010: “If you’re not comfortable sharing, don’t.”
In related news, Google seems to be in a snit.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Amateur Athletics 0
Yeah.
Right.
The University of Tennessee athletic department, with an operating budget of $126.6 million, spent $18.2 million on salaries, or 14.3 percent of its budget. The University of Memphis athletic department, with an operating budget of $43.4 million, spent $11.2 million on salaries, or 25.8 percent of its budget.
Yesterday, my local rag carried an interview with ESPN commentator Jay Bilas. When asked about “amateurism,” Bilas had this to say (follow the link for the full interview):