October 2013

There were 49 posts published in October 2013 (this is page 3 of 5).

Cheap Thoughts: laundry list

Where did we get the phrase “laundry list,” and how did this phrase gain the meaning of “a long and often tedious list of items?” I mean, I know what a laundry list literally is, but there were other lists long before before laundry lists. How did a list of laundry become the go-to list when trying to describe a long list? Is it the alliteration?

Doesn’t it seem weird to be at the office and referring to laundry when describing a list of items, especially when most people wash their own laundry?

Shutdown leaves poor hungry

Yesterday, Ligon Middle School’s PTA sent an email to parents titled “Donations needed:”

About 40 of our students who receive free lunch have fallen through a Federal crack and have lost their lunches for about a week. If anyone would like to donate, Mrs. Avery in student services is collecting money to cover their lunch.

Out of all the train wrecks this federal shutdown has caused, it’s this one that makes me the angriest. The morons in charge of the House of Representatives are playing a political game while kids who depend on the government for their lunches are going hungry. Oh, and the NSA contractors are still getting their $200k salaries, drone strikes are continuing, and some of our … uh, enlightened Congressional representatives refuse to give up their pay.

Real people are being hurt by this stunt and many more real people will be hurt if those who have held our government hostage succeed in pushing the United States to default. Voters will not forget this. I know I won’t.

Update 10:26: Ligon parents have done what House Republicans can’t do and paid for the kids’ lunches. Hooray!

We would like to thank everyone for their generous contributions to the lunch money fund. Ligon families are the best. We currently have enough money to cover the needed lunches.

Roy Cooper: the real deal?

So Roy Cooper is lining up to challenge Pat McCrory for the governorship in 2016. He’s the most popular politician in the state, which explains why the NC GOP is going all-out to attack him.

Yet he’s still a mystery to me. What does he believe in? Why is he just now speaking out on important issues when he passed up the chance on others in the past? Is he simply going with which way the wind is blowing? Or is he for real?

I know I was impressed watching him work a room but there’s more to leadership than shaking hands. I look forward to learning more about this man and his vision for North Carolina.

Your D-Link router may have a backdoor

Another example that if you don’t own the source code to your software, you can’t be fully sure what it does.

A curious computer security professional published findings Saturday that deconstructed the firmware code for some D-Link router devices and discovered a backdoor built directly into the code. By changing the user-agent in a web browser to “xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide,” a user could bypass the security on the device and get online or control the higher functions of the router.

via Your D-Link router may have a backdoor | The Raw Story.

Why Android SSL was downgraded from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5 in late 2010

An Android developer has uncovered convincing evidence that Google inexplicably and deliberately dumbed-down Android’s SSL security.

“The change from the strong OpenSSL cipher list to a hardcoded one starting with weak ciphers is either a sign of horrible ignorance, security incompetence or a clever disguise for an NSA-influenced manipulation – you decide!”

Android is using the combination of horribly broken RC4 and MD5 as the first default cipher on all SSL connections. This impacts all apps that did not care enough to change the list of enabled ciphers (i.e. almost all existing apps). This post investigates why RC4-MD5 is the default cipher, and why it replaced better ciphers which were in use prior to the Android 2.3 release in December 2010.

via Why Android SSL was downgraded from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5 in late 2010.

Fairness First – for fair redistricting

Earlier this week I was surprised to find a lengthy rant posted by one of my Republican friends on his Facebook page. My friend’s diatribe included allegations of treason against serving government officials. These types of allegations are often tossed around by so-called Tea Party “patriots” but my friend is nothing of the sort. He’s a well-spoken, thoughful, moderate Republican and the target of his wrath is Republican Speaker John Boehner. Boehner drew my friend’s ire for his reckless commandeering of the federal government.

A slew of comments grew out my friend’s post, from both sides of the aisle. I’d been pondering lately how we got into this political mess, too, so I weighed in with this:

In my opinion the center will continue to be ignored as long as gerrymandering guarantees the safety of extremist politicians. To fix the system we must demand fair redistricting. Currently few politicians have to worry about the wrath of voters. That has to change.

Continue reading →

Waking Up Tired? Blame Electricity

Fascinating.

Our internal clocks are drifting out of sync, and indoor lighting may be to blame. A new study suggests that just a few days in the great outdoors puts us back in tune with the solar cycle, and reconnecting with the sun could make us less drowsy.

Electricity has given us the freedom to choose our bedtimes; staying up after dark is as easy as flipping a light switch. But we pay a price for this luxury, says integrative physiologist Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who led the new study. People with later bedtimes and wake times are exposed to more artificial light and less sunlight, he says, which means their bodies aren’t getting the natural cues humans once relied on.

via Waking Up Tired? Blame Electricity | Science/AAAS | News.

Time to get moving on public transportation

R-Line-BikeOnBus
As I was weaving my way along East Raleigh streets taking my daughter to school this week, I realized what was missing from Raleigh streets: frequent, reliable public transportation. No offense to Capital Area Transit which is doing the best with what it has, but this city has taken a half-assed approach to public transportation for far too long. It has to start with the top: city leaders must be committed to making this happen. That includes proper planning and funding.

Truly great cities have great public transportation. Heck, even Charlotte has great public transportation. Raleigh strives to be a destination city but we don’t have the basic amenity of workable public transportation.

Raleigh (as well as Wake County) needs to get on the bus and improve its public transportation or it will be left hopelessly (and possibly irredeemably) behind. I’m hopeful the city council and new city manager Ruffin Hall can make this happen.

BBC News – Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

We’re getting closer to nuclear fusion energy!

Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.

Harnessing fusion – the process that powers the Sun – could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.

But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive. Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility NIF could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world’s most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel – the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

via BBC News – Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab.

On letters from climate-change deniers – latimes.com

And those scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a body made up of the world’s top climate scientists — said it was 95% certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn’t whether this evidence exists clearly, it does but what this evidence means for us.

Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published. Saying “there’s no sign humans have caused climate change” is not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy.

via On letters from climate-change deniers – latimes.com.