Author Archive for: Rayne
About Rayne
Blogger since 2002, political activist since 2003, geek since birth. Opinions informed by mixed-race, multi-ethnic, cis-female condition, further shaped by kind friends of all persuasions. Sci-tech frenemy, wannabe artist, decent cook, determined author, successful troublemaker. Mother of invention and two excessively smart-assed young adult kids. Attended School of Hard Knocks; Rather Unfortunate Smallish Private Business School in Midwest; Affordable Mid-State Community College w/evening classes. Self-employed at Tiny Consulting Business; previously at Large-ish Chemical Company with HQ in Midwest in multiple marginalizing corporate drone roles, and at Rather Big IT Service Provider as a project manager, preceded by a motley assortment of gigs before the gig economy was a thing. Blogging experience includes a personal blog at the original blogs.salon.com, managing editor for a state-based news site, and a stint at Firedoglake before landing here at emptywheel as technology’s less-virginal-but-still-accursed Cassandra.
Entries by Rayne
BBC’s Adam Curtis’ Fluck Up
/9 Comments/in Press and Media/by RayneEvery once in a while there’s an opinion piece so grossly naive, horribly uninformed, or passively apologetic that it deserves pushback. BBC’s Adam Curtis’ blog post, WHAT THE FLUCK [sic], is such a piece. Read it for yourself. I’m still scratching my head about this overlong, winding post that ultimately says, “…Maybe today we are being […]
Information Monopoly Defines the Deep State
/16 Comments/in Cybersecurity/by RayneThe last decade witnessed the rise of deep state — an entity not clearly delineated that ultimately controls the military-industrial complex, establishing its own operational policy and practice outside the view of the public in order to maintain its control. Citizens believe that the state is what they see, the evidence of their government at […]
Stuxnet and the Poisons that Open Your Eyes
/9 Comments/in Cybersecurity/by RaynePlaywright August Strindberg wrote, “…There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes.” We’ve been blinded for decades by complacency and stupidity, as well as our trust. Most Americans still naively believe that our government acts responsibly and effectively as a whole (though not necessarily its individual parts). By effectively, I mean […]
You Were Warned: Cybersecurity Expert Edition — Now with Space Stations
/10 Comments/in Cybersecurity/by RayneOver the last handful of days breathless reports may have crossed your media streams about Stuxnet infecting the International Space Station. The reports were conflations or misinterpretations of cybersecurity expert Eugene Kaspersky’s recent comments before the Australian Press Club in Canberra. Here’s an excerpt from his remarks, which you can enjoy in full in the […]
Science in the ‘National Interest’: What About Everything Else? [UPDATE]
/17 Comments/in Science/by RayneThe Republican-led House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21), wants the National Science Foundation’s grants to be evaluated based on the “national interest.” Bring it, boneheads. By all means let’s try that standard against EVERYTHING on which we spend federal money. How many television and radio stations, licensing publicly-owned […]
The Stalker Outside Your Window: The NSA and a Belated Horror Story
/10 Comments/in Cybersecurity/by RayneIt’s a shame Halloween has already come and gone. The reaction to Monday’s Washington Post The Switch blogpost reminds of a particularly scary horror story, in which a young woman alone in a home receives vicious, threatening calls. There’s a sense of security vested in the idea that the caller is outside the house and […]
Angry Mom and First Principles: What is the Nature of a Broken Lock?
/21 Comments/in Cybersecurity, Intelligence/by RayneThis won’t be a cool, calm, collected post like Marcy writes, because it’s me, the angry mom. You might even have seen me Tuesday afternoon in the school parking lot waiting to pick up a kid after sports practice. I was the one gripping the steering wheel too tightly while shouting, “BULLSHIT!” at the top […]
Last Week’s Blizzard, This Week’s Hell
/10 Comments/in Congress/by RayneDid you know there was a blizzard last week? I’ll admit I didn’t. Never saw a peep about it across several Twitter and internet news feeds until today. Between 28 and 60 inches of snow fell across parts of South Dakota late last week in a freakishly early snow storm, the white stuff accumulating rapidly […]
Badly Broken: We Are Walter White
/16 Comments/in Climate Change, Congress, Culture, Drug War, Health Policy/by RayneI’ll bet tonight’s blog traffic will drop sharply, and explode on Twitter — and at 9:00 p.m. EDT exactly. That’s when the last episode of AMC’s Breaking Bad will air, following a 61-hour marathon of all preceding episodes from the last five years. A friend expressed concern and astonishment at the public’s investment in this […]