2020 archive
Antisocial Distancing 0
Florida Man tries to jump the line at the dollar store.
You’ve Been Zoomed 0
If you have been using the Zoom app to work or school from home, or even just to talk with friends, you should know that El Reg reports that it’s even less secure than previously reported. Here’s a snippet from the latest (emphasis added):
When reports emerged that Zoom Meetings are not actually end-to-end encrypted encrypted, Zoom responded that it wasn’t using the commonly accepted definition of the term.
“While we never intended to deceive any of our customers, we recognize that there is a discrepancy between the commonly accepted definition of end-to-end encryption and how we were using it,” the company said in a blog post.
If you have been Zooming, you owe it to yourself to read the rest. Then pick up a landline.
Aside:
Zoom’s mealy-mouthing is positively staggering.
The Other Epidemic 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of The Roanoke Times describes the symptoms and suggests precautions.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Well, this case of politeness sure takes the (cheese)cake.
Grifters of God 0
The Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell comments on the who-shot-john in Florida over whether or not churches should be subject to shut-down orders in these viral times. He starts out with the story of the mega-church pastor who got arrested for ignoring a shut-down order.
That wasn’t even the nuttiest part of the story.
No, that honor went to the pastor’s rationale for why he claimed his congregants they were safe — because he spent $100,000 on some sort of magical electronic system to “neutralize” the virus.
“We have brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place,” the pastor said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “If someone walks through the door, it kills everything on them. If they sneeze, it shoots it down at a 100 mph. It’ll neutralize it in split-seconds.”
I know the Lord blessed us with brains. It’s a shame some of his followers opt not to use them.
Follow the link for the rest.
Lies and Lying Liars 0
David Evans, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, discusses the corrosive effects of lies on the polity and explores why lying has become pervasive. Here’s a snippet from his introductory passage:
But a “post truth era” is dangerous for any society. Lies are like high valence chemical ions, that zip around and clump together into “us against them” groups. And we become polarized. We become that “house divided against itself” that Lincoln warned us against. How did we get this way? What can we do about it?
A Notion of Immigrants 0
In The Seattle Times, Danny Westneat argues that the spread of the coronavirus has stripped the mask from the United States’s hypocritical treatment of immigrants. A snippet:
Many migrant workers are now being given letters — papers, if you will — that grant them special license to violate stay-at-home orders so they can freely go to work to pick vegetables and fruit.
I commend the article to your attention.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another responsible gun owner (sic) ensures that a child is exposed to politeness at a young age.
A 4-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed himself in south suburban Thornton. . . .
Police in Thornton said the boy was in the basement of his home by himself when he found the gun and fired it.
Truth in Labeling 0
At the Tampa Bay Times, Stephen Buckley, citing John M. Barry’s research, looks back at how news of the 1918 flue epidemic was covered and reminds us that reporting facts is not being alarmist. Here’s a bit:
In North Carolina, some newspapers would not publish the names of the dead.
One newspaper in Phoenix declined to write about influenza deaths there, or anywhere else. The paper, Barry writes, “was utterly silent, saying nothing about influenza anyplace in the country until the news was such that it could no longer keep silent.”