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The McLaughlin Group : Transcript
[Quote:]
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Last week John Karr confessed to the murder, but his confession has been called into question.
Question: Is the media hyping this story because of its lurid qualities? Jay Carney.
MR. CARNEY: As opposed to? Of course it’s hyping it because of its lurid qualities.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You’re crowding out stories on the environment.
MR. CARNEY: We actually are not at Time. We haven’t touched it.
Really? TIME’s website currently has FIVE articles (here, here, here, here, and here) all offering extensive coverage of John Mark Karr.
US data show one in eight Americans in poverty
[Quote:]
In the world’s biggest economy one in eight Americans and almost one in four blacks lived in poverty last year, the US Census Bureau said on Tuesday, releasing a figure virtually unchanged from 2004.
The survey also showed 15.9 per cent of the population, or 46.6 million, had no health insurance, up from 15.6 per cent in 2004 and the fifth increase in a row.
It was the first year since President George W Bush took office in 2001 that the poverty rate did not increase. As in past years, the figures showed poverty especially concentrated among blacks and Hispanics.
In all, some 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line, defined as having an annual income below around $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 for a family of four.
The last decline in poverty was in 2000, the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency, when it fell to 11.3 per cent.
Revamped AOL unveils Web-based music store
[Quote:]
AOL on Tuesday unveiled a revamped music product with a Web-based store and subscription service offering audio and video streaming, programmed radio and downloads that can be transferred to compatible digital media players.
The online division of Time Warner Inc. said AOL Music Now, part of its AOL Music service, is open to any online visitor and features more than 2.5 million songs and videos.
[..]
AOL said digital media on the service can play directly from a Web browser without the need to download a standalone software application, as with Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes service. It is also compatible with Microsoft Corp.’s PlayforSure compatible portable devices.
That last paragraph translates as “If you’re using Windows, you have an MS DRM-compliant player (Windows Media Player) installed. You therefore don’t need iTunes. It gives you DRM-cripped windows media files, and it requires that you run IE, with ActiveX and Javascript turned on.”
I tried to click on the “Try it Free for 30 days” and in all browsers I tried, I just got a totally empty page – no html at all, but sources tell me it’s one of those “enter your billing information first” semi-free deals. I was, however, able to load the page with the terms of service. It’s about 5000 words, and starts with “We may modify these Terms of Service at any time.”
Something tells me I’m not likely to be in their target group.
Security Engineering – A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems
[Quote:]
After several years of argument, I’ve persuaded my publisher to let me put my book “Security Engineering” online for free download:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html
My book draws on a lot of the experience shared in this list, and has become a standard textbook in the field.
The publishers thought for years that it was too risky to let authors put books online but they are gradually learning that this isn’t so. Putting a book online often increases its sales; more people read it and those who find it useful often go buy a copy.
ATM mistake lead to $700,000,000 credited to bank account
[Quote:]
This story happened a few days ago in Ekaterinburg city, in Ural region in Russia. One man decided to add some money to his bank account via ATM. He went to the nearest one and put 2,000 roubles (around $74). The ATM took the money and returned him a slip. Here is the photo of that slip:
The amount on the slip was 2,006,699,00 RUR (around $7,430,000). He was astonished, he has got another slip – and still the amount was the same. So he decided to go the bank and tell them about the mistake ATM made.
He arrived to the bank and told a clerk his story, also showed a slip, but the clerk was not interested in the situation. “Many strange things happen buddy? told the clerk to the 2 billion roubles account holder, “Come back please some other time, I’ve got lot of things to do right now?.
The man got offended with such a response. He went straight to the nearest ATM and started withdrawing the cash. All the day he was going from one ATM to another withdrawing the daily limit of each one. Between the withdrawals he was again putting some more millions to his account in total his balance reached 20 billion roubles ($70 million). russian man who was able to get $700 million due to atm mistake
All the money he put in big shoe boxes and afterwards took all those boxes and went again to that bank clerk. He rammed the box to the clerk desk. “What’s this? What are you doing??, asked him the clerk. “It’s money. Millions of roubles?.
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Bush Nixes Public Access to EPA Libraries
What has been termed, “positively Orwellian”, by PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, is indeed frightening.
It seems that the self-appointed “Decider”, George W. Bush, has decided to “end public access to research materials” at EPA Regional libraries without Congressional consent.
In an all out effort to impede research and public access, Bush has implemented a loosely covert operation to close down 26 technical libraries under the guise of a budgetary constraint move.
Scientists are protesting, but at least 15 of the libraries will be closed by Sept. 30, 2006.
“Public access to EPA libraries and collections will end as soon as possible”, according to a report found online at PEER, an acronym for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
All total, nearly 80,000 documents, not in digital format, are being boxed up and placed in infinite limbo status by the Bush Administration.
The scene from the Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the Ark of the Covenant was wheeled into a massive sea of identical box crates, inside an enormous warehouse, comes vividly to mind.
Read the rest here.
(via j-walk)
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Gavyn Davies does the maths
[Quote:]
By 1941-42, the allies knew that US and even British tanks had been technically superior to German Panzer tanks in combat, but they were worried about the capabilities of the new marks IV and V. More troubling, they had really very little idea of how many tanks the enemy was capable of producing in a year. Without this information, they were unsure whether any invasion of the continent on the western front could succeed.
One solution was to ask intelligence to guess the number by secretly observing the output of German factories, or by trying to count tanks on the battlefield. Both the British and the Americans tried this, but they found that the estimates returned by intelligence were contradictory and unreliable. Therefore they asked statistical intelligence to see whether the accuracy of the estimates could be improved.
The statisticians had one key piece of information, which was the serial numbers on captured mark V tanks. The statisticians believed that the Germans, being Germans, had logically numbered their tanks in the order in which they were produced. And this deduction turned out to be right. It was enough to enable them to make an estimate of the total number of tanks that had been produced up to any given moment.
The basic idea was that the highest serial number among the captured tanks could be used to calculate the overall total. The German tanks were numbered as follows: 1, 2, 3 … N, where N was the desired total number of tanks produced. Imagine that they had captured five tanks, with serial numbers 20, 31, 43, 78 and 92. They now had a sample of five, with a maximum serial number of 92. Call the sample size S and the maximum serial number M. After some experimentation with other series, the statisticians reckoned that a good estimator of the number of tanks would probably be provided by the simple equation (M-1)(S+1)/S. In the example given, this translates to (92-1)(5+1)/5, which is equal to 109.2. Therefore the estimate of tanks produced at that time would be 109
By using this formula, statisticians reportedly estimated that the Germans produced 246 tanks per month between June 1940 and September 1942. At that time, standard intelligence estimates had believed the number was far, far higher, at around 1,400. After the war, the allies captured German production records, showing that the true number of tanks produced in those three years was 245 per month, almost exactly what the statisticians had calculated, and less than one fifth of what standard intelligence had thought likely.
Emboldened, the allies attacked the western front in 1944 and overcame the Panzers on their way to Berlin. And so it was that statisticians won the war – in their own estimation, at any rate.
Maybe these statisticians could be resurrected to tell the TSA how many terrorists actually want to blow up an airplane with hair gel. Surely they have serial numbers on bottles of hair gel.
Details on the British Terrorist Arrest
[Quote:]
Details are emerging:
- There was some serious cash flow from someone, presumably someone abroad.
- There was no imminent threat.
- However, the threat was real. And it seems pretty clear that it would have bypassed all existing airport security systems.
- The conspirators were radicalized by the war in Iraq, although it is impossible to say whether they would have been otherwise radicalized without it.
- They were caught through police work, not through any broad surveillance, and were under surveillance for more than a year.
What pisses me off most is the second item. By arresting the conspirators early, the police squandered the chance to learn more about the network and arrest more of them — and to present a less flimsy case. There have been many news reports detailing how the U.S. pressured the UK government to make the arrests sooner, possibly out of political motivations. (And then Scotland Yard got annoyed at the U.S. leaking plot details to the press, hampering their case.)
My initial comments on the arrest are here. I still think that all of the new airline security measures are an overreaction (This essay makes the same point, as well as describing a 1995 terrorist plot that was remarkably similar in both materials and modus operandi — and didn’t result in a complete ban on liquids.)
As I said on a radio interview a couple of weeks ago: “We ban guns and knives, and the terrorists use box cutters. We ban box cutters and corkscrews, and they hide explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, and the terrorists use liquids. We ban liquids, and the terrorist will use something else. It’s not a fair game, because the terrorists get to see our security measures before they plan their attack.” And it’s not a game we can win. So let’s stop playing, and play a game we actually can win. The real lesson of the London arrests is that investigation and intelligence work.
from the comments section in the link:
What I don’t understand is that the alleged explosive du jour — now HMTD rather than TATP — is not merely insanely difficult to assemble in an airplane toilet, but rather basically impossible to so prepare. A homebrew recipe for HMTD is here:
http://business.fortunecity.com/executive/674/hmtd.html
Apparently in needs to be dried out, and the usable form is a dry precipitate.
So tell me again, why can’t we bring liquids onto airplanes any more?
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BPI demands action on pirate CDs
[Quote:]
UK record companies have demanded stronger action on CD piracy, saying 37m pirated CDs were sold last year.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says intellectual property crime should be “higher on the police’s agenda”.
Fine. I think it is fair to insist that the BPI first tells us exactly what crimes should be positioned lower on the priority list to make resources available.
Universal backs free music offer
[Quote:]
Vivendi Universal, the world’s biggest music group, has signed a deal to make its music catalogue available on a free legal downloads service.
Under the agreement, Spiralfrog will offer Universal’s songs online in the US and Canada.
New York-based Spiralfrog will launch its service in December and make its money by carrying adverts on the site.
Spiralfrog aims to take on market leader Apple’s iTunes service, which charges 99 cents per song in the US.
“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,” Spiralfrog Chief Executive Robin Kent said.
Rumsfeld: Terrorists manipulating media
[Quote:]
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in “manipulating the media” to influence Westerners.
“That’s the thing that keeps me up at night,” he said during a question-and-answer session with about 200 naval aviators and other Navy personnel at this flight training base for Navy and Marine pilots.
That’s the thing that keeps you up at night!?
Of all the clusterfucks that have occurred in the last six years, thousands of Americans dead, countless Iraqi and Afghan civilians…this is what bothers you?
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Doonesbury
Journalists sued over iPod story
[Quote:]
A Chinese court has frozen the personal assets of a reporter and an editor at a Shanghai newspaper after Apple iPod manufacturer Foxconn sued the pair for 30 million yuan (US$3.77 million) for allegedly damaging its reputation over reports of substandard work conditions.
Foxconn’s subsidiary in Shenzhen reportedly petitioned the city’s Intermediate People’s Court on July 10 to freeze the property of Wang You, a reporter for China Business News, and Weng Bao, an editor at the newspaper. The locked-up assets include apartments, a car and bank accounts.
The company also filed a lawsuit against the journalists, seeking 20 million yuan from Wang and 10 million yuan from Weng. The case is the biggest of its kind on the Chinese mainland in terms of the size of the compensation claim.
Foxconn is the trade name of Taiwan-based information technology manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. It is owned by Terry Guo, one of Taiwan’s richest men.
The lawsuit charges that a story written by Wang tarnished the company’s reputation.
A Fixation With Secrecy
[Quote:]
In 1971, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird punctuated his plea to Congress for more cold war appropriations with a graphic display of information that revealed the nation on guard with 54 Titan and 1,000 Minuteman nuclear missiles, plus 30 strategic bomber squadrons. In making his case, Mr. Laird exemplified the idea that a little transparency is no drawback in a democracy.
Thirty-five years later, the Bush administration, which has consistently demonstrated an extraordinary mania for secrecy, is blacking that public information out of history. That’s right: it has reclassified the number of missiles and bombers from the Nixon era as some fresh national security secret, even though historians and officials in the old Soviet Union long have had it available on their research shelves.
What strange compulsion drives such “silly secrecy,? as it is aptly described by officials of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research library at George Washington University? The archive published a report on how retroactive the administration has become in its obsession with creating secrets out of interesting information. The blacked-out missile and defense policy information dates to the 1960’s. Soviet numbers are left untouched on the open record, while the old American armada is freshly cloaked. What’s next? Classifying Civil War ironclads and cannons?
Raalte vele malen bedreigender dan Brein
PI announces the 2006 Stupid Security Competition
Iran
Guess which country gave Iran a nuclear reactor and enriched uranium?
Hint — the same country gave Iraq chemical weapons
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R-rated smokes screened
[Quote:]
Smokers and cigarette sellers are going to extraordinary levels to avoid graphic new tobacco warnings.
Retailers are displaying packets upside down so the explicit health warnings are not visible to customers.And smokers are requesting specific packs, which have statistical warnings rather than gruesome images of smoking-related illnesses.
Other are buying cheap plastic cigarette packet covers or transferring their smokes to “retro” glo-mesh containers.
The trend comes as new research shows more than half of Victorians want plain paper packaging on tobacco products.
Shocking images of gangrenous limbs, cancerous mouths and choked arteries were introduced to Victoria in March.
Are you a psychopath?
[Quote:]
At least one Australian police force is using a well-known US psychology test in an attempt to filter-out psychopaths wanting to join up, it’s been revealed today. The problem is the 567 questionnaire is so well known that it’s available on the Internet, along with recommended answers for the true and false quiz. Questions range from the predictable (“I am a very sociable person?) to the downright strange (“Evil spirits possess me at times?). Take the test yourself by following the link below.
The Herald Sun newspaper, which revealed the test today, opted not to publish details on where to find it on the Internet to protect police security. But given that the newspaper published examples of questions, which with the help of Google means you can find it in a matter of seconds, Gotcha thought we’d save you the trouble.
The questions on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index (or Inventory, as it is also known) and some recommended answers can be found here.
The test is described as “the most widely used and misused personality test in the world?. You can read more about its history on Wikipedia.
Many in New Orleans can’t afford insurance
[Quote:]
“It used to be the conversation went, ‘What’s the price? What’s the square footage? And where is it located??’ says local real estate agent Richard Jeansonne, co-owner of French Quarter Realty. “Now the conversation is, ’What’s the price? What’s the square footage? Did it flood and can I get insurance??’ he said.
And the answer to that last question is often “Sure, for over $800 a month.”
Hot fuel for you and cold cash for big oil
[Quote:]
Lesley “Lucky? Duke’s mood darkens with every drop of diesel that flows into his 2005 Freightliner big rig.
The 52-year-old independent trucker from Hertford, N.C., has just dropped off a load of potatoes and now is topping off his tank on a sweltering summer day.
He whips out a thermometer and takes the temperature of the $2.80-per-gallon fuel gushing into his truck’s tanks. The thermometer hits 80. Then 90. Finally, it stops at 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Hot? fuel is costing him the price of a good lunch today, Duke reckons, and as much as $700 a year.
It gnaws at him. Duke, you see, is one of the few Americans who realize that fuel is often sold at temperatures much hotter than the government standard of 60 degrees. It’s a standard agreed to nearly a century ago by the industry and regulators, but virtually unknown to the average consumer.
But you should understand it too — because collectively it’s costing us billions of dollars a year. An investigation by The Kansas City Star has found that at recent prices U.S. consumers are spending about $2.3 billion more for gasoline and diesel this year than they otherwise would if fuel pumps were adjusted to account for expansion of hot fuel.
[..]
While the problem may be costly to consumers, The Star’s examination reveals that it is eminently fixable. The technology exists to retrofit the nation’s filling stations to adjust the amount of fuel pumped to reflect changes in fuel temperatures.
Even so, Big Oil has argued successfully for decades that it would cost too much to retrofit the nation’s fuel pumps, particularly for independent retailers that now sell the majority of the nation’s fuel. The industry also argues that consumers simply wouldn’t understand fuel pumps that adjust for temperature change.
[..]
While the industry generally shies away from discussing the idea in this country, it has embraced temperature adjustment in Canada. The reason is simple. While hot fuel makes more money for the industry in the United States, cold fuel once cost the industry money in Canada.
The industry put a stop to its Canadian cold-fuel problem beginning in 1990. That’s when a Canadian law supported by oil companies and other gasoline marketers went into effect that permitted retailers to temperature-adjust on a voluntary basis. Supporters said the change, which meant Canadian consumers would stop catching a break on cold fuel, brought fairness to the marketplace.
SHA-1 hash function under pressure
[Quote:]
Cryptographic experts at the Crypto 2006 conference have demonstrated a modified method of attack against a reduced variant of the SHA-1 hash algorithm. The new method is an attack which, for the first time, allows at least a part of the message to be freely selected, for example as straight text. Previous approaches, for example the collision attack by Xiaoyun Wang and her team, which attracted considerable attention, were merely able to produce almost completely different hash twins of the same length, both consisting of meaningless gibberish.
AdvertisementAlthough the demonstration was restricted to the reduced SHA-1 variant in 64 steps, it can, according to the experts, also be generalised to the standard 80 step variant. This means that SHA-1 must also be considered as cracked in principle.
Words of Wisdom vs. Words From Our Sponsor
History 101, chapter 57, American Revolution
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Tylenol: Fast acting strength, protecting America from the British since 1776″
Harris Clarifies Comments on Religion
[Quote:]
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is “a lie” and God and the nation’s founding fathers did not intend the country be “a nation of secular laws.” The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected, politicians will “legislate sin,” including abortion and gay marriage.
Harris made the comments which she clarified Saturday in the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, which interviewed political candidates and asked them about religion and their positions on issues.
Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”
Well, it certainly weren’t the people in Florida, back in 2000, when Harris gave the election away.
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Van Geel sjoemelde met asbest Otapan
[Quote:]
Staatssecretaris Pieter van Geel (Milieu) heeft bewust een foute exportvergunning verleend voor het sloopschip de Otapan. Volgens Greenpeace wist het ministerie van VROM al in 2002 hoeveel asbest en andere giftige stoffen er in het schip zaten.
Dat heeft Greenpeace zondag gezegd. De Otapan heeft 54 ton asbestmateriaal aan boord. In de vergunning wordt gesproken van 1000 kilo.
Volgens Tweede Kamerlid Diederik Samsom (PvdA) heeft Van Geel daarmee een blunder begaan en “een politieke doodzonde”, omdat hij in antwoord op Kamervragen vorige week daarover “een verhaaltje verzonnen heeft”. Hij wil opheldering van de CDA-bewindsman, die vorige week erkende dat hij een vergissing heeft begaan.
En in zijn ogen is “de vergissing” ongetwijfeld dat hij betrapt is.
Neukteugels
Cane Hill, London
[Quote:]
London is a ruthless city – buildings that have served their purpose are quickly torn down and replaced – and yet Cane Hill still stands almost fifteen years after it served its last patients. Built in 1882, it was once the largest building of its type, but it now lies derelict – a magnet for explorers, vandals, …even filmmakers and artists. …
In the years since its closure it has acquired the reputation of being the ultimate abandoned asylum, the supreme embodiment of dereliction and decay. This is due mainly to the amount of equipment still on site – the extraordinary wealth of mementoes and personal information that still litter the corridors and wards – but also owes much to the asylum’s uniquely fearsome exterior. Viewed from the surrounding path, it feels more like a prison than a hospital (…..a towering monument to Victorian bleakness and austerity…)
(many beautiful pictures in the link)
Ancient Mummy Found in Mongolia
[Quote:]
The spectacular find of the frozen remains of a Scythian warrior in Mongolia by an international team of archeologists could shed new light on ancient life. Some of those findings will be the subject of a major exhibition in Berlin next year.
Scientists in Berlin this week gave their first major press conference about the spectacular discovery of a frozen mummy in Mongolia’s Altai mountains. The frozen corpse, embedded in permafrost, is considered one of the greatest archeological finds since climbers came across the mummified remains of Ötzi, the ice man, in an alpine glacier. The corpse of the Scythian warrior could help provide clues about how people lived 2,500 years ago and about what illnesses they suffered.
The Most Incredible Knife
[Quote:]
Here are all 85 tools included in Giant Knife, Version 1.0:
1. 2.5? 60% Serrated locking blade
2. Nail file, nail cleaner
3. Corkscrew
4. Adjustable pliers with wire crimper and cutter
5. Removable screwdriver bit adapter
6. 2.5? Blade for Official World Scout Knife
7. Spring-loaded, locking needle-nose pliers with wire cutter
8. Removable screwdriver bit holder
9. Phillips head screwdriver bit 0
10. Phillips head screwdriver bit 1
11. Phillips head screwdriver bit 2
12. Flat head screwdriver bit 0.5 mm x 3.5 mm
13. Flat head screwdriver bit 0.6 mm x 4.0 mm
14. Flat head screwdriver bit 1.0 mm x 6.5 mm
15. Magnetized recessed bit holder
16. Double-cut wood saw with ruler (inch & cm)
17. Bike chain rivet setter, removable 5m allen wrench, screwdriver for slotted and Phillips head screws
18. Removable tool for adjusting bike spokes, 10m hexagonal key for nuts
19. Removable 4mm curved allen wrench with Phillips head screwdriver
20. Removable 10mm hexagonal key
21. Patented locking Phillips head screwdriver
22. Universal wrench
23. Laser pointer with 300 ft. range
24. 1.65? Clip point utility blade
25. Metal saw, metal file
26. 4 mm allen wrench
27. 2.5? blade
28. Fine metal file with precision screwdriver
29. Double-cut wood saw
30. Cupped cigar cutter with double-honed edges
31. 12/20-Gauge choke tube tool
32. Watch caseback opening tool
33. Snap shackle
34. Telescopic pointer
35. Compass, straight edge, ruler (in./cm)
36. Mineral crystal magnifier with precision screwdriver
37. 2.4? Springless scissors with serrated, self-sharpening design
38. Shortix key
39. Flashlight
40. Fish scaler, hook disgorger, line guide
41. Micro tool holder
42. Micro tool adapter
43. Micro scraper-straight
44. Reamer
45. Fine fork for watch spring bars
46. Pin punch 1.2 mm
47. Pin punch .8 mm
48. Round needle file
49. Removable tool holder with expandable receptacle
50. Removable tool holder
51. Multi-purpose screwdriver
52. Flat Phillips head screwdriver
53. Flat head screwdriver bit 0.5 mm x 3.5 mm
54. Spring loaded, locking flat nose nose-pliers with wire cutter
55. Phillips head screwdriver bit 0
56. Phillips head screwdriver bit 1
57. Phillips head screwdriver bit 2
58. Flat head screwdriver bit 0.5 mm x 3.5 mm
59. Flat head screwdriver bit 0.6 mm x 4.0 mm
60. Flat head screwdriver bit 1.0 mm x 6.5 mm
61. Can opener
62. Phillips head screwdriver
63. 2.5? Clip point blade
64. Golf club face cleaner
65. 2.4? Round tip blade
66. Patented locking screwdriver, cap lifter, can opener
67. Golf shoe spike wrench
68. Golf divot repair tool
69. Micro straight-curved
70. Special tool holder
71. Phillips head screwdriver 1.5mm
72. Screwdriver 1.2 mm
73. Screwdriver .8 mm
74. Mineral crystal magnifier, fork for watch spring bars, small ruler
75. Removable screwdriver bit holder
76. Magnetized recessed bit holder
77. Tire tread gauge
78. Reamer/awl
79. Patented locking screwdriver, cap lifter, wire stripper
80. Special Key
81. Toothpick
82. Tweezers
83. Adapter
84. Key ring
85. Second key ring
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Well, it is the Time. I actually hate them these days for being the spineless scum they are.
So, it just figures they lie.