When Willie Nelson covers your song, it becomes his. Sorry, Eddie. Paul Simon already knew.
In Closing: want; poor babies; history lesson; definitions; dumb questions; biometric database; maybe salt isn’t the devil; reasons; files; and just for fun, how many people have your name. There’s another Bridget Magnus in Canada, but I’m apparently unique in the US.
I can’t quite get my head around the crazy this week. Ted Cruz announced his Veep running mate today — despite the facts that a) that usually is reserved for actual nominees and b) that usually gets done so as to shore up alliances and produce the strongest overall ticket. And who was his pick? A retired General maybe? A well-liked Governor, perhaps? Wait, no, maybe a member of Bush’s cabinet?
Nope. Failed candidate, failed CEO, and barely passed the Turing test: Carly Fiorina. See, picking a veep is something you do to make your ticket more likable, not less. But I suppose this is what desperation looks like.
Meanwhile, one of the Koch Brothers has gotten disgusted with the clowns coming out of the circus they’ve been funding. As the supposed Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” More accurate in this case: “Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.”
In Closing: a couple items on the job prospects of the Millennials and others; who am I kidding, I’m not gonna write a whole post about Harriet Tubman; Juice; British notice reality of a trade agreement; Judge points out the actual meaning of “in plain sight’; and oops.
Over a million dollars of tax money later, the Feds found somebody to crack one iPhone. And what did they find? As predicted, nothing of value.
That isn’t stopping the Feds from trying to make you less secure (not that you are terribly secure now). After all, the location of a ticking time bomb might someday be in somebody’s phone! The bill on the table has been called “technically illiterate,” “unworkable,” and “a firing offense.” You might want to take a minute to remind your Senators and Representatives that you vote.
In other news, a meddling judge said that the FBI can’t get around the need for an actual warrant by just hacking suspected perps. Let’s hear it for meddling judges.
Just a reminder, folks: 
In Closing: a mighty suspicious coincidence; power shopping; the piano; and a double dose of Prince.
Or, “Oh Nicky”
This brave dog is Nicky. Nicky was shot and killed in the line of duty here in Las Vegas. This made the national news. So a few days went by, and some people started to wonder how come the criminal hadn’t been charged with capital murder of a police officer (I don’t know if K-9 units count, but I did hear some people ask), or even animal cruelty. It turns out that the shot was fired by a cop: Nicky was killed by “friendly fire.”
Now, when I heard that I was even more sad. But I also remembered this old post from 6 years ago. It took 7 cops 81 shots to kill one bad guy? I really don’t have a problem with cops shooting bad guys now and again, but they should actually hit what they fire at!
Just maybe Vegas cops need to spend some time on the freaking firing range learning to hit their targets.
In Closing: Lawmakers are really trying to make encryption worthless (thus killing the tech industry in America, promoting identity theft and other cybercrimes, and not really doing jack about terrorists); Google doesn’t trust anybody; the sad truth about all those jobs being created; the neighborhood you live in influences how much activity you get; and sugar.
So, now that the FBI has found a gracious way to get themselves out of the Apple Mess, now what?
Why, we blame Brussels on encryption without any evidence that it was used, of course!
Oh yeah, and we can clamp down on prepaid phones too. After all, aren’t those only used by criminals and cheating spouses? Well, and people trying to get out of abusive situations. And whistleblowers. And homeless people trying to establish a phone number where potential employers can reach them without it being obviously a homeless shelter. Heck, the very idea that “they” want to crack down on them makes me want to buy a whole bunch of them.
In Closing: Things that are bad for children; The Emperor; and sunlight is a great disinfectant.
Hey folks. Post server update, things are starting to get back to normal around here. BlogHer ads are running again. No luck setting up an appropriate header image that doesn’t obliterate text. Blogroll will be updated relatively soon, as it did not survive the transition. Posting as been light here because of a school blog project (which I will probably repost over here). In the meantime, please enjoy some delicious Shorties.
Shut them all down!: The resignation of Boehner might make a government shutdown more likely (because there’s not a grown-up to reign in the crazies), unless it doesn’t. Here’s somebody who knows more about economics than I do talking about what will happen if they actually do shut it all down.
On Poverty: It’s hard to consider the future when today is a pressing issue.
On Jobs and Wages: So here’s some information on job creation during various Presidential administrations. Also, it looks like Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has been a success… unless of course there isn’t actually enough data yet to tell. And let’s add some wisdom on tax cuts and jobs and wages.
Student Loans: Defaults are just a symptom of the real problems.
A brief guide to vaccinations: Written by a real doctor.
As if I don’t have enough to worry about: the FCC can can operating systems they don’t like?
Uber making up more of their own rules: National Labor Relation Board (you remember, which some Republicans want to scrap?) vs Fine Print.
The NSA: Oh no, I haven’t forgotten about them and neither should you.
So much for biometric security: 56,000,000 fingerprint records “lost” and potentially in the hands of Bad Guys? You know, unlike a credit card number, you can’t just apply for a new fingerprint! Mr. Cringely puts it best: Game Over.
Gee, imagine that: Fruits and vegetables are good for your mind as well as your body. Remember, the Government’s MyPlate recommendations can be briefly summarized as “half your plate should be fruits and veggies.” (The Food Pyramid? That old thing was torn down years ago!)
I’m not Catholic Either: But I pretty much agree. I will never agree with Pope Francis about everything, but in my opinion he’s still the best Pope we’ve had in my lifetime.
Something Every Person Needs to Know: Be on the lookout for people who are trying to manipulate you. Especially when it comes to intimate relationships. And salesmen.
Tama: Stationmaster Tama has passed away; she is survived by her assistant Nitama. She has been celebrated by pretty much the entire town.
It’s good to be the King CEO: Their wages have gone up, while those of the worker have not.
Another Brick in the Wall: Maybe what we need is a different kind of education.
Top People: Thanks to Ira for this link to the Treasures of the United States Army.
On Identity Theft: Protect yourself. And don’t use “password” as a password.
What do you mean you aren’t ready for Hillary?: No, I will never be ready for Hillary, thanks for asking.
And Finally: A Lifetime Movie I’d like to see.
Since getting home from Texas last week, I’ve had a hard time getting motivated to write anything. I promise to get back on track soon. In the meantime, please enjoy some NSA and spying on Americans links, on the Post Office, our Vice President getting cheeky, crows solving problems, stuff I have been saying for years, sex workers, Mustangs, resume tips, a good point about antibiotic resistance, reverse Robin Hood, and many thanks to Comrade Misfit for introducing me to Wednesday.
The incident in Paris is already being used as an excuse to take away what little privacy (and other rights) remain in the world, despite the fact that privacy is a necessary feature of security. In the meantime, bulk data will continue to be collected by both the government and various corporations (who of course, can sell that information to the government without anybody having technically violated the 4th or 5th Amendments). Nor is the NSA the only agency collecting information; the DEA is doing it too. Are they at least sharing nicely, or are We The Taxpayers paying to collect all this stuff twice?
Now, don’t forget for one minute that the President is proposing laws that crack down on “hackers”. Those laws would make a dizzying array of normal and sometimes necessary activities illegal. That’s on top of the undead CISPA cyber”security” bill. Oh yeah, and that nasty old TPP that would make corporate rights more important that national rights.
At what point does Joe Average get fed up? Congress is doing the opposite of what he wants almost every chance they get. And thanks to rigged Congressional districts, all of our political voices are diluted. Further even though the amount of money made in our nation per person is near a record high, Joe Average has very little to show for it. What happens now?
In Closing: why you can’t have hot and cold running municipal internet; misinformation; how dare you be a crime victim; brother, can you spare a bridge; some of us would like our sons to know this stuff too; backfire; denial; take the money and run.
So, let’s get started. No particular order here.
The NSA is apparently tracking a lot of information about where people are based on their cell phones. I’m not sure whether this makes it better or worse, but this appears to be a big deal overseas, where Bad Guys might want to follow American spies “case officers.”
More and more people of note are publicly saying that “surveillance” of personal data is wrong, and that would include what the NSA’s been up to. In fact, 8 major American tech companies have asked the Feds to please stop already. Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that they stand to lose money. Security experts have already said they can no longer trust Intel’s crypto technology, and that means companies that actually need secure data have to migrate off systems that use it — potentially migrate off Intel hardware altogether.
I think the Feds honestly want to catch some terrorists. Even though the job is tough. Even though so far, they’ve had to manufacture terrorists in order to actually catch one. Of course maybe if they stopped playing World Of Warcraft it would be easier.
Despite all this controversy, it looks like the Government wants to do as much as possible to make it look like they are making changes, while in fact changing as little as possible.
In Closing: Some thoughts on the minimum wage and the wages of workers in general (and lookie here, education turns out not to be a magic bullet); Duhpartment of Research says keeping your body healthy might keep your mind healthy; food lies; shadow inventory is a crock; funny how you have to have money for taxes to matter; the stimulus did work, but not like you can tell; good analogy; about time.