2016 AM roundup Archives - Page 4 of 17

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Tuesday: Tilted

July 26, 2016/14 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

I miss prosthesis and mended souls
Trample over beauty while singing their thoughts
I match them with my euphoria
When they said “Je suis plus folle que toi”

— excerpt, Tilted by Christine And The Queens

We’ve spent (and will spend) a lot of time looking at Americans this month, given the two major parties’ political conventions back to back. Yeah, we’ll look at Russia with a gimlet eye directed by media. But we could use a look away.

The artist in this video is actually Héloïse Letissier; Christine and the Queens is the stage name she and a group of transgender supporting artists use, though many of her works are solo performances. Letissier’s work isn’t confined to music alone as she also works in graphic arts. Her work frequently combines French and English lyrics with strong synthpop beat, making for wide appeal outside of France. If you like Tilted, try the mournful but earworm-y Paradis Perdus and the more hip-hoppy No Harm Is Done.

Allons-y!

Eat more cyber

Hullabaloo about hacking of DNC continues, now with more Russian (The Daily Beast) — Another security firm, ThreatConnect, says it’s definitely the Russians. Okay. Right, then.
The question,”Is the DNC Hack an Act of War?” put to Jack Goldsmith (Slate) — Assuming it’s Russian in origin, Goldsmith said the hack is “not an act of war, at least not by traditional standards. It is closer to an intelligence operation with the twist of a damaging publication of the stolen information.” But Goldsmith didn’t think there was enough evidence to say for certain this was Russia’s work in this interview published last evening.
Goldsmith on U.S. involvement in cyberwarfare and hacking preparedness (Twitter) — He included a link to his related blogpost in his tweet-storm recap. In short, we’re in it up to our eyeballs, we shouldn’t be surprised at returned fire.
President Obama issued a Presidential Policy Directive addressing U.S. Cyber Incident Coordination (WhiteHouse.gov) — Surely just a coincidence PPD-41 was issued today on the heels of alleged hacking by Russians. Note there’s an annex to this PPD with more details (which I did not see online), and sub-section V. A. “supersedes NSPD54/HSPD-23, paragraph 13, concerning the National Cyber Response Coordination Group.”

Motor mayhem

Tesla driver ‘speeding’ before Florida crash (Reuters) — IMO, the truck driver still bears some responsibility here, failed to yield to oncoming vehicle in spite of their speed. But I don’t have all the data, can’t be certain. One thing I can be more sure of: Tesla’s ‘driving-assist software’ should NOT be perceived as autopilot. If this was true autopilot, the software would have adjusted the vehicle’s speed to meet and not exceed the posted limit.
U.S. District court gives prelim approval to Volkswagen’s $15B settlement (LAT) — Settlement covers consumers’ and EPA’s suit on passenger diesels with emissions cheat devices. The deal offers car owners to choose a vehicle buy-back on 2.0L passenger diesel models. VW Group’s 3.0L models are not included in this preliminary offer.
Volkswagen owners in EU get an apology, not a check (Politico.EU) — They are NOT happy with the disparity between the $15B initial settlement offered to US passenger diesel owners and the lip service offered to EU vehicle owners.

“For the same car, in the U.S., you get a compensation, while in Europe you get an apology,” said Maroš Šefčovič, a Commission vice president overseeing energy and climate policy. “I don’t think it is fair.”

Yeah, it’s not fair, and VW’s head engineer Ulrich Eichhorn is wrong when he says EU customers aren’t damaged. Baloney–the entire EU is damaged by higher NOX and other pollutants generated by these fraudulent cars. People are sick and dying because EU’s biggest automaker is poisoning the air.

Science-y schtuff

WHO: Antibiotic resistance a bigger threat than cancer within ~30 years (Euronews) — The rise of superbugs and inadequate research is already costing tens of thousands lives each year and beaucoup money. It will only get worse if the use of antibiotics remains excessive and research doesn’t increase.
Plasma technology may extend storage life of fruits (ScienceDaily) — Plasma technology — using energy applied to a gas — can zap bacteria on surface of fruit to prevent deterioration the bacteria cause. Except it’s expensive compared to simply washing fruit with known natural antibacterial agents. Like vinegar and water. Plasma tech might be best used on soft fruits like berries which don’t handle washing very well. But still, more energy required, and any heat generated might cook the fruit. ~smh~
Better beer through yeast (Nature) — Soon-to-be-published paper will detail 150 yeast strains’ genomes in an effort to help beermakers find the perfect yeast. What happens when they find The One, though? Will we lose our excuse for sampling widely and deeply?

Longread for your next commute
Belt magazine offers a four-part series, Walking to Cleveland by Drew Philps. It’s a travelogue of sorts, documenting Philp’s journey on foot from Dearborn to Cleveland in time for the Republican National Convention. Visit the Midwest with read.

Catch you later!

Friday: The End of the World

July 22, 2016/43 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why ev’rything is the same as it was
I can’t understand, no, I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does

— excerpt, The End of the World, written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee

Jazz version of this song first released by Skeeter Davis in 1962 performed here by Postmodern Jukebox’s Scott Bradlee and band with Niia’s vocals.

A few people in my timeline have asked over the last several months, “Is this the end of the world, or does it just feel like like it?”

It’s the end of something, that’s for sure.

Z is for Zika

New York City: First baby born with brain defect attributed to Zika (The Hill) — Infant delivered with microcephaly to a mother who contracted Zika outside NYC.
Two cases of Zika in Florida may have been non-travel, non-sexual transmission (NBC News) — With one case identified in Miami-Dade and another in Broward county, Florida is checking for the possibility local mosquitoes may have been the vector of infection. They are also confirming sexual transmission is not a vector. So far there have been 15 recorded cases of infection by sexual transmission in the U.S. and one by lab accident.
Brazilian researchers found signs of Zika in non-Aedes mosquitoes (ScientificAmerican) — Researchers at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil first reported in 1Q2016 that the common Culex quinquefasciatus ‘house mosquito’ species may have been responsible for some Zika infections. In general, Culex genus are hardier and bite at night. Members of that same mosquito genus are also found widely across the U.S., unlike the Aedes species.
‘This is no way to fight an epidemic,’ says CDC’s Director (NatGeo) — What he said. The epidemic is coming, it’s just a matter of time. It’s going to happen like West Nile virus, only the results will be worse than the +47,000 cases and +1,800 deaths from WNV over 16 years.

I can’t make this clear enough to Congress: you’re playing with lives here, and it’s going to be ugly. It will affect your families if anyone is of childbearing age. I haven’t seen anything in the material I’ve read to date that says definitively studies are underway to verify transmission from Brazil’s Culex quinquefasciatus to humans. There’s a study on the most common U.S.’ Culex pipiens species which showed weak transmission capabilities, but once it’s proven quinquefasciatus can transmit, it’s just a matter of time before more effective pipiens pick up and transmit the virus, and they may already have done so based on the two cases in Florida. GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND FUND ADEQUATE RESEARCH PRONTO — or risk paying for it in increased health care and other post-birth aid for decades.

Still Brexin’ it

Johnson: “mistake-prone former journalist twice exposed for committing adultery” (IBTimes) — Wow, I missed this last week about the diplomatic cables Wikileaks leaked. Amazing how much these descriptions of Boris sound like Donald Trump. And yet PM Theresa May appointed him Foreign Secretary.
SNP’s Angus Robertson: Scotland “on the brink of independence” (The Telegraph) — Robertson, Leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons, is bucking for deputy slot to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon — consider the motive. Sturgeon has been laying groundwork for another independence referendum if there is no other way to keep Scotland in the EU.
Mild recession forecast for UK post-Brexit (Bloomberg) — No surprise whatsoever. Especially since data showing retraction in manufacturing and services spurred another drop in the pound; a potential rate decrease by Bank of England now possible to prevent further slide in growth.

Clean-up duty

Looking for MH370 in all the wrong places — for two years (IBTimes) — Bad suppositions? Or misled? Who knows, but the debris found so far now suggests the plane may have glided across the ocean in its final moments rather than plummeting nose first.
Enbridge settles $177 million for 2010 oil pipeline rupture (ICTMN) — Seems light for the largest ever oil spill inside the continental U.S., and their subsequent half-assed attempts to clean up the mess. Check the photo in the story and imagine that happening under the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Huron and Michigan. How did it take them so long not to know what had happened and where?
Broadband companies now have a real competitive threat in Google Fiber (USAToday) — It’s beginning to make a dent in some large markets where Google Fiber’s 1Gb service has already been installed. But it is slow going, don’t expect it in your neighborhood soon. You’re stuck with your existing slowpoke carriers for a while longer.
Cable lobby counters FCC pressure on set-top boxes (Ars Technica) — Sure, they’ll yield to the FCC on set-top boxes, but they won’t offer DVR service and each cable provider with 1 million subscribers or more will be responsible for their own apps. Cable lobby claims copyright issues are a concern with the DVR service; is that a faint whiff of MPAA I smell?

Beach-bound longread
Check out this piece in WIRED: David Chang’s Unified Theory of Deliciousness. I’m hungry after reading just a portion of it.

Hasta luego, mi amigas. Catch you Monday if the creek don’t rise.

Thursday: Hotter than Hell

July 21, 2016/35 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

Have a little indie synthpop if your day isn’t hot enough. The artist Dua Lipa lives in London; she originally moved to the United Kingdom in the 1990s with her parents who are Kosovar-Albanian. Imagine a UK to which artists like Lipa cannot easily immigrate.

Money, money, money

HSBC’s global head of Forex trading in London arrested at JFK on Tuesday (Bloomberg) — Mark Johnson was picked up before his flight by the feds; his counterpart, Stuart Scott, HSBC’s former head of currency trading in Europe, has also been charged with Johnson for conspiracy to manipulate currency based on insider information. The transaction on which the case is based took place in 2011, earning HSBC $8 million on a $3.1 billion deal. Gee, I wonder if these guys worked the pre- and post-Brexit fall of the pound.
Mastercard snaps up UK’s VocaLink for $920M (Businesswire) — Should probably keep a tally of UK businesses bought while pound is still down from pre-referendum highs. VocaLink gives Mastercard huge reach in payroll and household bill processing across UK and access to a substantive majority of UK consumer data.
Subzero bond yields: who’d have predicted this? (Bloomberg) — Analysis of overall trends this year, including flights to safety and their effect on the market. Still trying to wrap my head around subzero bond yields; does this make sense to pay for safekeeping without expectation of increase in value at the end? What might this do to consumption and growth?

Daily dose of cyber

Forbidden Research: fixing “leaky” cellphones (MIT Media Lab) — Electrical engineer/hacker Andrew “bunnie” Huang and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden published a paper presented at today’s MIT’s Forbidden Research event, outlining their work countering surveillance abuse by law enforcement. Journalists in particular are targets for surveillance; their cellphones “leak” all kinds of information about them and their location which airplane mode does not shield. Huang and Snowden propose a method for monitoring radio transmissions by a cellphone, including GPS, and a means for killing the transmissions. Abstract here, and the paper itself here. Very straightforward reads even for the non- to low-tech audience.
Dead man’s prints brought back from the dead (Fusion) — Law enforcement approached a Michigan State University professor Anil Jain and his PhD student Sunpreet Arora and asked them to recreate a dead man’s fingerprints in order to unlock his phone. There are few details disclosed about the case — not even which law enforcement agency made the ask — but the phone belonged to a murder victim and may contain information about his murderer. Or so the story says.
UK’s largest internet provider suffers two days of massive outages (TechRadar) — Outages have been blamed on power failures, but no additional information offered on reasons for power loss. Coincidentally, a C1 solar flare which began on July 17 caused radio disruption and aurora over the last 15-24 hours — might have made the situation worse.
France’s National Data Protection Commission says Microsoft Windows 10 operating system gathers too much personal data (Libération + BetaNews) — Surprised La Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) haven’t cuffed up Microsoft sooner given every version of Windows “phoned home” within information about its users and devices when patching and updating. Why is it Windows 10 in particular doesn’t comply with their Data Protection Act — is it the sniffing of users’ navigation data? Microsoft responded to CNIL’s complaint, not denying the claim but only saying it will work with CNIL on a solution. Right, then.

Tonight’s dinner and a movie: Jujubes and Ghostbusters. Yum. Stay cool, look after elderly neighbors and pets who need a reprieve from the heat.

Wednesday: Heat of Passion

July 20, 2016/20 Comments/in automobiles, Culture /by Rayne

Crazy stuff happens when there’s a full moon like last night’s. Crazier stuff happens under heat and pressure. Brace yourselves as the heat dome slides from the southwest to Midwest and east this week.

Hot wheels

A look at the whys behind Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal (DailyBeast) — Interesting read in which German and VW culture loom large as contributing factors behind the fraud that is ‘Clean Diesel’.
New York, Maryland, Massachusetts each file lawsuits against VW (Reuters) — Filings accuse VW of violating states’ enviromental laws. The suits claim VW’s executives knew ‘clean diesel’ technology would not meet states’ environmental standards, and that former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn knew about this failure since 2006. The suits also claim VW employees willfully tampered with evidence after they were told an order to freeze documents was impending. A DOJ criminal investigation is still underway.
VW set aside another $2.4B (BBC) — In addition to the previous $15.3B, the additional amount was set aside to address “further legal risks predominately arising in North America.” Hmm…was that about the states’ environmental lawsuits now popping up?
And yet VW’s stock price popped up because profits (TheStreet) — Uh-huh. Short-term churn, unsustainable, because VW hasn’t yet seen half of its legal exposures given the number of states’ lawsuits so far, let alone other countries’ claims. VW expects sales to lag over last year, too, not to mention all the other factors increasing market instability.
EU Competition Commission busts European truck cartel with $3.2B fine (Bloomberg) — Interesting push-pull inside this story: Scania AB, a Swedish truckmaker owned by Volkswagen, has been penalized after MAN SE, another Volkswagen subsidiary, squealed to the EU and got its $1.2B fine waived. Wonder if VW execs did the math on that in advance? Another interesting tidbit is Volvo’s reduction in production here in North America and abroad, blamed on stagnant market; this says something about consumption.
Mercedes’ self-driving buses pass 20-kilometer trip test (The Verge) — IMO, self-driving mass transport should have priority over passenger cars; there’s not much difference between a semi-autonomous bus on a scheduled route and a streetcar on a track like those in New Orleans or San Francisco, and we know they are successful. This distance test could mean a lot to cities the size of Detroit; now will U.S. transportation companies meet Mercedes’ challenge?

Miscellany

Feds seizing assets related to Malaysian theft, including Wolf of Wall Street (THR) — DOJ tracking down the $1B stolen from Malaysia; destinations of cash may suffer asset forfeiture including rights to artworks like recent pop music and films. Background on the 1MDb scandal here (not to be confused with Amazon’s subsidiary IMDb.com).
Oil bidness, part 1 — UK edition: Oil price crash plus Brexit accelerates capping of North Sea well heads (Bloomberg) — The uncertainty of UK’s future plans makes the country a good opportunity especially when the pound is low to shut down wells. It’ll only cost more to do the same when UK comes out of its funk, and the well heads must close eventually due to falling demand and a long-term glut expected. Oh, and Scotland. Don’t forget the risk of costly transition between a UK pound, the euro, and a possible Scottish pound in the future.
Oil bidness, part 2 — Russian edition: Oil price below $40/BBL will help Russia (Bloomberg) — Okay, this one made me laugh my butt off. Uh-huh, less cash is exactly what Putin wants in order to make Russia great again. Right. The real crux is and has been Russia’s access to cash for their defense (offense?), and it’s not Russia who wants less cash spent on that.
BEFORE meeting with UK’s PM May, Scotland’s FM Sturgeon suggested another indy ref vote next year (The Scotsman) — I think this is the match-up we’ll want to watch, the volley of words between Sturgeon and May as they jockey for best position. Sturgeon has the upper hand, period; she’d already had a chat with the EU about remaining in the community before May was named PM, though Spain was a sticking point (because of their own potential breakaway state, Catalonia).
Student researching WiFi brings center of Brussels to a screeching halt (Le Soir) — Good news, bad news story: Security took note of the young man wearing too long a coat for the day’s heat and halted traffic in the city’s center as counterterror teams were dispatched. Turns out the guy was just studying the city’s WiFi. Good that security wasn’t goofing off, bad that even looking odd while researching can stop a major city.

Stay cool — I’m considering popcorn for dinner at the local cineplex this evening until the sun sets and the temperature drops outside. Dinner tomorrow and Friday might be Jujubes and Good-and-Plenty.

Tuesday: Crazy

July 19, 2016/44 Comments/in Culture, Foreign Policy /by Rayne

Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you’re in control

Well, I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
Just like me

— excerpt, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Why’d I pick this song today? Oh, no reason. Just kind of popped into my head while I was reading through my aggregators.

Ahem. Anyhow…not much time again today, lot of hurry-up-and-wait stuff demanding my time.

Turkey curry buffet

Absolutely insane number of educators, ministry officials, police, more sacked by government (ConflictNews) — More than 45,500 people fired or ordered to resign, largest number of which are educators. You can call me crazy all you want, but this is the real coup underway. What the hell is Erdoğan planning to do with the people he’s cleansing from their jobs across the entire country? Nothing more yet about Erdoğan on death penalty for putschists.
RIPE Network Coordination Centre analyzed Turkey’s internet traffic volume during coup attempt (RIPE) — Looks like telcos throttled traffic independently by roughly 50%, and not a single, centralized government function. Explains the hit-or-miss quality of access reported.
Wikileaks announced they would release government emails today (Wikileaks) — However they are currently reporting attacks on their site.
Tick-tock of the coup events (The Guardian) — “It was incredibly well organised actually…It could have succeeded,” said prime minister Binali Yıldırım’s senior adviser, Cemalettin Haşimi. Sure. Right. There were so many damned holes — key being the F-16s which did not force Erdoğan’s plane out of the air away from Turkey — there’s no way it ever had a chance.
Turkey’s pressure on Kurds increasing (Guernica) — Observations by activists of the Kurdish movement struggling for self-determination under Turkey’s increasing authoritarianism.

Quick lap around the track

BREXIT: IMF cuts UK’s growth forecast (The Guardian) — Really, what the hell did the Leavers expect? Put the brain trust and creative sector into a tailspin as so many are immigrants, and ask them to sustain or expand growth? Completely unrealistic.
US-UK RELATIONS: Presser today with Johnson and Kerry (The Guardian) — You watch it. I can’t even with that lying hack Johnson — he spun more crap right to journos’s faces. And nobody takes these two to task over most recent bombings in Syria or Yemen.
ZIKA: CDC studying unusual case of UT caretaker infected by Zika (CDC.gov) — The elderly Utah man who died of Zika recently somehow infected his caretaker with the virus without sexual contact. Mosquitoes may have been involved, but UT isn’t home to known carriers Aedes aegypti and albopictus species. The deceased, however, had a viral load 100,000 times greater than the average Zika patient. What?!
EARTHQUAKES: Earthquake swarm continues in San Benito County, California (NBC Bay Area) — 24 quakes in 24 hours based on report published about two hours ago. The affected area is west of Silicon Valley and the San Andreas fault line.
POLICE REFORMS: Hire more women: one of several known solutions to police racism and abuse (Yes! Magazine) — Take note of the gender of police accused and charged with abuse and killing of unarmed civilians. Body cameras, greater diversity matching community, and openness to research also included in solutions.

That’s all I have time for now. See you tomorrow!

Monday: Magic

July 18, 2016/30 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

You want some magic this Monday to start your week? Check this short film Vorticity by Mike Olbinski. If you can launch it in full screen or cast it to a television, even better, and I hope you have decent speakers for the sound. Mike’s wife is a saint, a wholly different kind of magic off screen to support a guy who does this stuff.

Under the gun here today, too much real world stuff to check off my To Do List. Only a quick list of stuff worth looking at.

Kudos
Bravo to Michigan’s Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint Township) who filed the Families of Flint Act last week to provide $1.5 billion in relief funding for water system repairs, additional health care, monitoring and education, as well as economic development to support the struggling city. Co-sponsors include U.S. Reps. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak), Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn MI), Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield MI), and John Conyers (D-Detroit), along with 167 other House Dems.

Lean on House GOP members to do the right thing and support this bill when they are next in session in August.

Leftovers
Couple of things screwed up or left unfulfilled before Congress left town:

Some of the most important federal highways in the country stiffed on federal transportation grants (PressTelegram) — Southern California’s highways and railways include service to the two largest container ports in the U.S. at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Southern CA Dem representatives have asked Obama-appointee Anthony Foxx, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, why he stiffed them. Well, us. All of us. So much of the imported products we use every day cam through those two ports, not to mention produce shipping from southern CA to the rest of the country. Come on, Foxx. Fix this, stat.
Vaccines for Zika virus now ready for human testing (PRI) — Gee, it’d be awfully nice if GOP-led Congress had done something effective about funding for Zika research, let alone adequate funding to prevent its spread including birth control.

Quick List

Chinese group’s bid for Norway’s browser companyOpera falls through–but WAIT (Reuters) — The mobile and desktop browser were sold for $600M, while the rest of the business including Mediaworks, apps and games, and Opera TV were not sold. Terms must be completed before a 3Q2016 deadline in order to close the deal.
62 bidders qualified for 600Mhz spectrum auction, including Comcast (Ars Technica) — AT&T, T-Mobile USA, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and Dish Network’s wireless subsidiary are among the bidders.
Japan’s Softbank bid for UK-based chipmaker ARM (TechCrunch) — One of the first big deals after the Brexit crash of the pound, making the chipmaker a bargain. Wonder if Japan will keep the chipmaker where it is or move it abroad to consolidate with another tech industry holding.
Enthusiasm at ‘Women for Trump’ event palpable (@PennyRed via Twitter) — That is, if you go and shake the hand of the lone media intern in the nearly empty room, you’ll feel the excitement. Okay, perhaps ‘enthusiasm’ is too strong a word…
Erdogan continues removing elected officials as Istanbul’s Sisli district deputy mayor shot in the head (The Independent) — Political cleansing, that’s what this is, with roughly 7,000 persons now arrested or detained. That Erdogan had a list prepared of persons who would object to his unilateral enlargement of powers is obvious. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey’s status in NATO is now at risk.
Hostage standoff in Armenia enters second day (Twitter) — News about this situation remains extremely thin.
Another beautiful SpaceX launch and landing overnight (SpaceX via YouTube) — You need a little mood boost? Watch the video at the link, especially at 25:14. Totally adore the youthful energy at mission control when the Falcon reusable rocket lands sticks its landing again, this time on land.

Catch you tomorrow, gotta’ dash!

Friday: Teh Stoopid, Still Burns [UPDATE-2]

July 15, 2016/10 Comments/in Culture /by Rayne

Teh stoopid. So much, a bumper crop today. Put on your hip waders while we listen to a little ska-jazz from The Specials. [Go to bottom of post for update.]

LAST DAY OF THE MONTH
Don’t stand in front of the exit doors today at the House of Representatives. You’ve been warned.

Toobz filled with stoopid

Bankster boss canned employee with ‘soccer injury’ otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Bloomberg) — Classy. Super chill. Tells you how close this boss was with his staff.
Sure, I read the TOS, he said as he signs away his firstborn (Naked Security) — Come on now, confess. You’ve just checked the box, right? Especially on bloody Adobe updates.
Lamar sez fraud investigations squelch free speech (Ars Technica) — Sure, if you believe lying to investors for decades isn’t fraud and is protected speech. As if we needed more proof Texas’ Rep. Lamar Smith’s in the bag for Exxon. Such a damned shame he’s leading the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Be sure to wave as he runs out the door today.
UK’s PM May met today with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to preserve the Kingdom’s unity (Bloomberg) — Yeah, this must have been a bunch of malarkey; how can May promise what the Scots want, which is to remain in the EU? Does May think the Scots are stupid or what? Wish I knew the Scots’ Gaelic word for bullshit.
Old sperm more prone to genetic defects (The Guardian) — Oh gross. Reading this I learned old dude Mick Jagger is the poster boy for old sperm. Yuck. Brain bleach, stat.
Donald Trump and Mike Pence, governor of the state where a woman can be prosecuted and incarcerated for a miscarriage. Do I need to say more or even provide a link? I think not. Okay, maybe this one.

Hélas, Nice
I’ve not forgotten Nice. I can’t go there. Picking my way through French language news to read in detail about the deaths of children and teenagers is a hard limit for me. With children’s blood on its hands from wars to drone killings, the U.S. has no moral authority here. It has doubled down on its authoritarian, racist, kill-its-way-out-of-trouble approach to foreign policy. What can I write here which isn’t utter hypocrisy?

The only observations I can make are that the attackers may be ramping up, as the numbers and methodology testify. 84 dead including 10 children and teens, 52 injured and 25 on life support, all hurt or killed by a driver who was not a known terror suspect. A civilian stopped the attacker by grabbing his hands as he aimed a gun at human targets. Que Dieu soit miséricordieux sur Nice.

Smarter, kinder finish
And now to purge the taste of stupid before I start my weekend…

Look! Low wage workers can actually have a 401K and paid vacation (FastCompany) — Nail salon chains have increasingly become cesspools of borderline slave labor, mostly because clients were in the dark about the real cost of getting their manicures. ‘Starbucking’ personal service by increasing the price and improving workers’ conditions could put an end to the ugliness of getting nails done. What other service industries could benefit from such an approach?
Big food companies paying for farmers to switch to organic production (NYT) — It’s about time; the bottleneck to getting more organic foods to the market has been the risky time and expense farmers must invest before their first certified harvest. (Keep in mind that labeling organic products as such is paramount to realizing returns.)
Who knew? Jimmy Carter saved the Space Shuttle (Ars Technica) — Got a quote straight from Carter on this, too. Dig the photo of the original Star Trek cast visiting NASA.
Pet cat saves woman and family from house fire (The Guardian) — Aw. Hope little Tink gets all the fresh fish she could ever want.

That’s a wrap, have a safe and restful weekend, including all you peeps at #NN16. Back at it on Monday.

UPDATE — 2:50 p.m. EDT —

The previously-classified pages of the 9/11 report have been released, conveniently during the afternoon on a Friday smack in the middle of the summer during a general election year. Can you say ‘news dump’? Here’s a link to the document at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s site (pdf). Knock yourselves out with this beach read. Note the bit about the alleged Saudi intelligence officers, too.

UPDATE — 5:15 p.m. EDT —

An apparent coup is underway in Turkey; it began with reports of militarized road blocks about two hours ago. Social media platforms have had spotty service though landlines appear to be working. The Erdogan government initially denied a coup was in progress; media outlets in Turkey may not be accurately reporting events. Many European news outlets are still focused on Nice, France. Airports have been closed and a curfew declared. U.S. Embassy has asked U.S. citizens to shelter in place and stay indoors.

For more information about events in Turkey, here’s a selection of active Twitter feeds:
https://twitter.com/YourAnonNews
https://twitter.com/efekerem
https://twitter.com/zeynep
https://twitter.com/WashingtonPoint
https://twitter.com/Boutaina

Recent report at Aid works about Turkey’s treatment of refugees at this link.

If you have friends and family in Turkey, recommend they use Tor browser to follow news — this link in case Tor is blocked. See also this tweet from Tor about accessing social media.

Thursday: Bad Girls

July 14, 2016/14 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

One thing before I go any further…look just above these words, below this post’s title and to the right of the date of publication. See the name ‘Rayne’? That’s me, that’s my byline. Please note there are multiple contributors here at emptywheel. The entire site is eponymously named for its owner, Marcy Wheeler, whose online name and byline is the same as this blog. Check the byline on our posts if you haven’t done so in the past. You’ll note we have different voices and opinions, different writing styles. I tend to be the most open about my dislike for what the Republican Party has become since 1978, when I last toyed with being Republican. Marcy and the rest of the crew tend to be more generous or less open in their vituperation. Take note of the byline when when you read and comment, thanks.

Still indulging in female artist K-pop, choosing this video for a very specific reason…

TWO DAYS
That’s it, what’s left of today and all day tomorrow — that’s all the U.S. House will be in session for July. Outstanding job this week trashing the EPA with bullshit riders, GOP members. Way to fucking go with extending your run serving corporations ahead of the people.

Tick-tock.

BAD GIRL (UK edition)
After today’s wash list of badness, I can hardly wait to hear what comes of May’s visit on Friday to Scotland.

New UK PM Theresa May doubles down on the stupid naming Priti Patel to Dept of International Development (The Independent) — In spite (or because) of Priti Patel’s 2013 opinion that the DofID should be eliminated and focus aimed solely on trade. Patel’s been referred to as a “Tory ‘robot’.”
David Davis, named ‘Brexit Czar’, already beating drums for trade negotiations now () — taking an offensive stance on Article 50, wanting deals BEFORE executing the article, in essence extending the two-year period for negotiations. That’s not what the Lisbon Treaty specifies, though. And European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has already warned the UK the EU won’t negotiate at all before Article 50 has been filed.
May abolished the Department for Energy and Climate Change, absorbing it into the new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (The Independent) — Wow. Pure climate denialism combined with fascism. Stunning level of stupidity.
Anna Leadsom, new Environment Secretary, advocates burning everything down (The Independent) — Not really, but bloody close to that given her support for fox hunting, selling national forests, and climate change denialism.

BAD GIRL (domestic edition)

Michigan Gov. Snyder appoints former BP external affairs pro to Environmental Quality (Detroit Free Press) — In a move mimicking UK PM Theresa May’s oppositional defiance and idiocy on the environment and climate change, Snyder does the exact opposite of what’s needed to save the environment and picks someone with background in environmental damage. Keep in mind there’s an ongoing conflict about an ruptured Enbridge Energy oil pipeline* running beneath the Mackinaw Straits between two of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. [* not ruptured but at risk of rupture, and very little accountability on its operation in spite of its age and sensitivity of the water and land it travels. Enbridge is responsible for the largest inland oil leak in the U.S., near Kalamazoo MI.]

PokéGone
The list of accidents resulting from distraction by Pokémon GO grows by leaps and bounds. These are among the worst so far. Just a matter of time before a fatality occurs.

Two guys fall over a 90-foot oceanfront bluff chasing Pokémon characters (LAT) — How do you miss a cliff that high, let alone the roar of the ocean below?
Guy glances at his phone to check for Pokémon, wraps his car around a tree (Consumerist) — Wakes up in hospital, lucky to be alive. Just look at the car.
Guy falls into Prospect Park pond while chasing a Pokémon (Cosmopolitan) — Hey, do you see a pattern here, besides Pokémon?

Wheels

California regulator nixes Volkswagen’s 3.0L passenger diesel fix (Ars Technica) — No surprise to me whatsoever. I’ve said repeatedly there’s no clean diesel technology. Still isn’t. Just buy the cars back and tell consumers to buy a hybrid instead if they want clean passenger transportation.
Consumers Reports tells Tesla to eliminate “Autopilot” label on self-driving technology (Phys.org) — Too confusing to so-called drivers in spite of warnings they should pay attention to driving at all times.
New bug bounty offered by Fiat Chrysler (Naked Security) — First of its kind offered by any Detroit automakers, the bounty comes after Chrysler vehicles featuring the wireless UConnect entertainment system were hacked by white hats last year.

Keep an eye on this topic

U.S. SDNY’s Judge William Pauley ruled evidence collected by DEA using Stingrays is inadmissible (New York Law Journal) — Pauley wrote,

Absent a search warrant, the Government may not turn a citizen’s cell phone into a tracking device. Perhaps recognizing this, the Department of Justice changed its internal policies, and now requires government agents to obtain a warrant before utilizing a cellsite simulator.

I’m sure there will be more on this case in the near future.

Catch you tomorrow for the last in-session day in U.S. House.

Wednesday: Dumb Dumb [UPDATE]

July 13, 2016/23 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

Let’s change the pace today with some K-pop — a little hyper-upbeat Korean pop music influenced by hip hop. You may already be familiar with K-pop if you are familiar with insanely popular tune Gagnam Style by the artist Psy, released in 2012. But K-pop isn’t just male artists like GOT7, Shinhwa, and BIGBANG. There are quite a few all-female groups like Red Velvet featured here, Girls’ Generation, Orange Caramel, and Girls’ Day. Americans may find a retro feel to female K-pop artists’ work, not only in content and performance, but production and presentation. They make hard work look like joy. For all the visual and audio effects, there are simple, unifying messages — love is everything, and girls just want to have fun.

So much that. We could really use some love and some fun.

THREE DAYS
*head-desk* Including today, that’s all the House will spend in session this month. Flint’s 8000 lead-poisoned kids still wait.

Carla Hayden, nominee for Librarian of Congress also waits. Some chickenshit anonymous Republican senator(s) have placed a hold on her confirmation. Why? Because she’s black. Swear to gods the GOP wants to become an irrelevant footnote in history; they certainly won’t win over minority voters this way, and they’re pissing off the publishing industry at the same time. UPDATE 5:00 P.M. EST — HAYDEN CONFIRMED Huh. Wonder what clued in the chickenshit anonymous Republican senator(s) who’d placed her on hold? Whatever, now the GOP can go back to focusing their normal obstructive intransigence on SCOTUS’ nominee Merrick Garland.

Don’t forget about China

The Hague ruled in Philippines’ favor yesterday on South China Sea territorial dispute (video, SCMP) — China said it will ignore the ruling (0:30 in video).
Economic boycotts of Philippine products called for by Chinese social media (BBC) — Mangoes in particular could be affected.
But anti-ruling protests haven’t manifested in the streets (Bloomberg View) — Unlike 2012, China’s leadership may be tamping down nationalism due to recent economic volatility.
Taiwanese patrol ship sets sail for disputed territory (IndiaTVNews) — Taiwan isn’t happy about the ruling, claiming its opinion wasn’t solicited on the matter.
US bank regulator says China hacked FDIC’s computers, including chairwoman’s (Reuters) — Digital territorial waters encroached upon in 2010, 2011, 2013 according to Congressional report. Odd how 2012 is missing. Equally odd the timing of this report. (Hi blueba!)

Civil rights wronged

Cruel and unusual punishment continues on Rikers Island after four extensions granted for reforms (Village Voice) — Youths 18-21-years-old including some who are mentally ill remain locked up in solitary confinement. The glacial pace of reforms is repugnant, maintaining worse than third-world treatment. Fix this horror and quit dragging your feet, New York. You’re making this entire country look bad and worse.
Black ex-cop offers detailed analysis of race and policing (Vox) — One key problem is the propensity for 70% of police to cave into pressure from the 15% of cops who are outrageous racists — like the Milgram experiment run amok. Racists should be identified and removed from leadership positions; police departments must have open dialog about social pressure and expectations of ethical behavior in policing.

Breakit

Theresa May now UK’s prime minister (Press Association) — Kissed Hands and all, but without a true democratic mandate. Thank goodness we fought a revolution for a representative democracy (that’s snark, son).
May’s new role greeted with muted welcome and skepticism (Reuters) — Like the response from Lithuania, something-something-lemons-lemonade.
May names Boris Johnson UK’s foreign secretary (Press Association) — Oh. My. God. What. The. Fudge. Skepticism was more than warranted.
Lengthy wash list of topics to be negotiated should new PM trigger Article 50 to effect Brexit (OpenEurope) — And she’ll have to allow immigrant negotiators to work through this list because the UK doesn’t have enough of their own negotiators. Certainly can’t leave it all to that chucklehead Boris Johnson.

Cyber-oddments

Bird drone dropped out of the sky over Somalia (Atlas Obscura) — Probably not one of ours, more likely belongs to Somalia’s intelligence agency.
FCC evaluating expansion of mobile phone service into weather service bandwidth (Nature) — This has awful written all over it. Read the article; telecom signal has already interfered with critical weather information. Just, no. Telecoms can either develop new technology to work around this, or they can buy bandwidth which won’t conflict with the public’s need for timely and accurate weather information.
Self-driving feature will not be shut off on Tesla cars says Musk (InformationWeek) — In spite of several accidents known so far, self-driving application will remain on Tesla vehicles. The company will increase education outreach (which I think means teaching drivers, “Don’t trust the robot driver all the damned time.”)
Sheep doing the heavy lifting for Google on Faroe Islands (Guardian) — The Faroese were unhappy with the lack of vehicle-based scanning for Google Street View. They slapped the requisite equipment on sheep to fill the gap, proving where there’s a wool, there’s a way. Baaad joke.

Okay, that’s quite enough self-abuse for one day. It’s downhill from here, see you tomorrow!

Tuesday: Trauma

July 12, 2016/17 Comments/in Culture, Cybersecurity /by Rayne

A little neo soul, something to ease the day. If you like this bit by 20-year-old Doja Cat, check out more of her work at her YouTube channel.

FOUR DAYS
That’s all that’s left of in-session days in U.S. House this month, and nothing done yesterday to help Flint. Yet another report on Flint water crisis, this one featuring VA-Tech’s Dr. Marc Edwards on the lack of trust in water quality, governance and water science since the city’s transition back to Detroit’s water supply. But the necessity of filters means tap water is suspect; Flint residents never needed filters before the switch to Flint river water, and now much regularly take additional steps to check their filters and water quality. Just replace the damned lead pipes so they can take the filters off and they’ll trust the water system. They need assistance with speeding up pipe replacement, stat.

Oh, and deal with the collapse of property values in Flint. Who wants to buy a house there, let alone offer financing as long as the water system remains under suspicion?

Oh no, Pokémon GO
My kid has been playing this augmented reality game with his friends, driving around after dark to different ‘gyms’. We’ve had a few discussions about the application’s privacy problems as well as the game’s requirements for collecting points. This is NOT a game for kids to play by themselves without parent or guardian engagement if they aren’t old enough to drive. My son told me about running into creepy guys parked for hours late into the evening at key locations where Pokémon are found. Recipe for trouble, that.

Check privacy settings (and read the fine print in the privacy policy) if you’re playing Pokemon (BuzzFeed) — Pretty sure everybody’s heard about the app’s overbroad setting request. While you’re at it, you should check the privacy settings on all your apps as well as your mobile device’s operating system. Suggestion: Don’t use your main Gmail account to log into Pokemon GO — use a secondary account.
@arirubinstein of Slack’s product security notes a problem with tokens (GitHub) — Looks like developers at Niantic have been notified and will fix this shortly. I’d still use with care.
Goofy Pokemon stories abound already (Thrillist) — A dead body and a delivery room. What’s next?

Brexit means broken

PM David Cameron led his last cabinet meeting today (ITV) — You can actually get a ringtone for your phone based on the ditty Cameron was humming yesterday after he announced the new PM would take office on Wednesday. Must be happy with Theresa May taking over the dirty work.
Cameron made a final plug for the Trident missile site (Guardian-UK) — May’s got her work cut out selling this to the Scots if she shares Cameron’s position. The Scots may agree to keeping Trident only if the UK’s Parliament votes against proceeding with Brexit or if a second referendum is held.
Letter from 1000 lawyers said referendum vote was only advisory (The Independent) — But their legal analysis is hardly an assessment of political viability. Interesting to note the lawyers insist primary legislation must be enacted first before Article 50 can be filed with the EU.
House of Commons to debate second Brexit referendum (Evening Standard) — The House took up the matter after a petition asking for a second vote was signed by four million voters following June 23 referendum. Buyer’s remorse, that.
Meanwhile, UK researchers cut from EU projects due to uncertainty of funding (Guardian-UK) — Can’t blame the EU for this since continuity and consistency are critical in research, but holy crap, what this will do to UK’s population of researchers. Massive brain drain must be under way.
UK pressure influenced US on enforcement against HSBC (Sky News) — Interesting how this story looks from the other side of the pond. Wonder if the lead-up to Brexit also assured this outcome?

TL;BRTLA (too long, but read this later anyhow)
Especially today — now that Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton — read how women were included in the Civil Rights Act as a joke. Hah. Funny. But very sad that 51% of the population is still not accorded their creator-endowed equal rights in spite of shrewd, dogged work by Michigan’s Rep. Martha Griffiths, and folks like Ida Phillips and attorney Reese Marshall.

Didn’t have enough time to cover China. Guess you now what I’ll tackle tomorrow, see you then.