Instead of prosecuting elite computer hackers, the US government should recruit them to launch cyber-attacks against Islamist terrorists and other foes, according to a leading military thinker and government adviser.
The brilliance of hacking experts could be put to use on behalf of the US in the same way as German rocket scientists were enlisted after the second world war, said John Arquilla, a professor of defence analysis at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in an interview with the Guardian.
He said that the US had fallen behind in the cyber race and needed to set up a “new Bletchley Park” of computer whizzes and codecrackers to detect, track and disrupt enemy networks. “If this was being done, the war on terror would be over,” he said …
Many dabbled in illegal or questionable acts but the US, he noted, had turned Wernher von Braun, Hitler’s top scientist, into an American hero after putting him to work on US rockets and space programmes.
Would you want to sit in a course by a fellow who actually makes such a comparison with a straight face?
Rhetorical. It would be fun to sit in back and hoot, though.
Anyhoo, it’s just a little bit difficult for our limited mind to see similarities between the guy who used concentration camp slave labor in WWII to build his V2 rockets to bombard London, the chief architect of the Saturn V and — “hackers.”
Standards for the technical help have been so watered-down.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun!
Note: To my knowledge, no hackers have ever employed concentration camp labor or launched ballistic missiles at one of the biggest cities in the world.
On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional jet became stuck in asphalt that had softened in 100-degree temperatures, and a subway train derailed after the heat stretched the track so far that it kinked — inserting a sharp angle into a stretch that was supposed to be straight. In East Texas, heat and drought have had a startling effect on the clay-rich soils under highways, which “just shrink like crazy,??? leading to “horrendous cracking,??? said Tom Scullion, senior research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. In Northeastern and Midwestern states, he said, unusually high heat is causing highway sections to expand beyond their design limits, press against each other and “pop up,??? creating jarring and even hazardous speed bumps.
Excessive warmth and dryness are threatening other parts of the grid as well. In the Chicago area, a twin-unit nuclear plant had to get special permission to keep operating this month because the pond it uses for cooling water rose to 102 degrees; its license to operate allows it to go only to 100. According to the Midwest Independent System Operator, the grid operator for the region, a different power plant had had to shut because the body of water from which it draws its cooling water had dropped so low that the intake pipe became high and dry; another had to cut back generation because cooling water was too warm.
Nature, global warming — or hackers and armies of Chinese cyberwarriors just raring to bring down the nation through Internet attacks on the “infrastructure”?
National security experts with tunnel vision — priceless.
1. Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting’s #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.
2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.
3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)
4. Can’t speak in a fake, southern, “black preacher voice” when necessary.
5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School…and by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.
6. Doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too square for today’s America?
7. Represents an America of “yesterday”, where people believed in God, went to Church, didn’t screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!
8. Has a family of five great sons….and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. But of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that “choice” deserves America’s scorn.
9. Oh yes…..he’s a MORMON. We need to be very afraid of that very strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.
10. And one more point…..pundits say because of his wealth, he can’t relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that’s because he made that money HIMSELF…..as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn’t understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable [sic] to Americans.
Readers know I believe in failure, sodomy, promiscuous sex, cigars, going to the liquor store daily, taking many naps, cheap malt beverages, free pornography, no goin’ to meetin’, drinking before noon and stealing. Among other things.
Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the last increase in the federal minimum wage. For the last three years, while the prices of gas and milk have risen steadily and the richest 1% have enjoyed huge tax breaks, the federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $7.25 an hour, which amounts to just $15,080 a year — as long as you get paid for any time you take off. That’s more than $7,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of four. As a result, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has slowly eroded — in just three years, its real value has sunk to $6.77 per hour, a nearly 50-cent drop.
The Bush tax cuts, which are simply the perquisite of the moment for the 1%, allow for the richest to prosper at the expense of middle-class and low-income workers. While CEOs make millions and their corporations make billions as part of a so-called economic recovery, the majority of Americans are struggling to make ends meet. This struggle is exacerbated by the low federal minimum wage. As middle-class jobs are increasingly replaced by low-wage work, however, this is the economic reality for a growing number of Americans.
Unless Congress raises the federal minimum wage, economic security for workers in low-wage jobs, the fastest-growing sector, will disappear. It is incumbent on members of Congress to raise the federal minimum wage …
We can still be relaxed and comfortable, but mentally prepared and more tuned in to our surroundings. Be prepared to stop evil in its tracks and live.
On Twitter, this week, according to the Seattle newspaper:
“We pray for all victims & loved ones of demonshooter in CO & we SALUTE the brave warriors who saves lives IF only they would hav [sic] had a good gun,??? Nugent declared.
It is at best questionable whether a shootout in a darkened theater would have saved lives or upped the casualty count.
Nugent, on Glenn Beck’s radio show, yesterday:
NUGENT: But dear God in heaven, doing nothing is not an option. Training, having a firearm to neutralize an evil gun maniac is a way to go, and we train for that. And I wish I would have been in the theater that day.
“Heed these words, my disciples: When the crowd has not machine guns, it cannot protect itself from evil carrying a machine gun and a Glock.??? — Chapter 2, The Compleat Sayings of American Jesus.
Not everyone who owns a gun can possibly be so ill in the head. It’s a pity they lack the nerve to make changes at the NRA.
The budding Afghan air force was supposed to receive $355 million worth of planes custom-made for fighting guerrillas well ahead of the U.S. withdrawal in 2014. Equipped with machine guns, missiles and bombs, those reliable, rugged turboprop aircraft are cheaper to operate and easier to maintain than fighter jets …
The Afghans won’t get the planes on time. The Air Force initially awarded a contract to a U.S. company to supply Brazilian-designed planes. But it canceled the contract after a Kansas-based plane maker filed suit to block it, and the Air Force decided the contract had insufficient documentation. The Kansas congressional delegation also lobbied hard against the Brazilian plane …
Air power is essential for policing Afghanistan, a mountainous land with forbidding terrain, harsh weather and few roads. Recent events have underscored its importance in quelling the insurgency. When the Taliban staged attacks in Kabul and across the country in April, Afghan security forces managed to end the assault thanks to U.S. air support.
The country’s previous occupiers knew this well: As the Soviets withdrew in 1989, they left to the Afghans over 400 military aircraft, including over 200 Soviet-made fighter jets. Remnants of that defunct air force—rusting supersonic Su-22 attack planes, bullet-perforated Mi-6 heavy lift helicopters—now litter the boneyard of Shindand, the hub of the Afghan air force near the Iranian border.
Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqi, the top Afghan air force commander at Shindand, likes to bring young Afghan trainees here for a history lesson. The scrap heap, he says, is a reminder of “what a strong air force we had” before the base was battered by Afghanistan’s civil war, and before its runway was cratered by U.S. bombs during the 2001 campaign to oust the Taliban.
Read the whole thing if only for the astonishing levels of bullshit and cognitive dissonance.
What made the United States think Afghanistan could have an air force? It’s not even a functioning country. On both sides, people with so little sense they couldn’t pour piss from a boot with the instructions printed on the heel.
Forty seven million Americans on food stamps and we’re trying to buy an air force for the crooked semi-government of Kabul.
Mr Bezos does not have an obvious deputy, but former employees say its most influential senior executives are fearsomely smart. The unified way they repeat Mr Bezos’s mantras suggests they are so well drilled that the company could tick over without him for a while.
[Mr Bezos] said he was focused on customer needs that were not going to change, because he could plan for them. “I know for a fact that 10 years from now customers will still want low prices. I know for a fact that they will still want fast delivery. I know they will still want selection.???
Amazon says it “obsesses??? over doing what is best for customers. But coddling them seems to depend on stretching its employees.
According to an investigation last year by the Morning Call, a Pennsylvania newspaper, workers at local warehouses said they endured punishing productivity targets and temperatures that soared above 38C in the summer, while Amazon parked ambulances outside to treat people with heat stress.
Federal regulators that received complaints from some employees recommended that Amazon take several steps to reduce the risks, the newspaper said.
Amazon says its safety record cannot be portrayed accurately with anecdotes …
Fearsomely smart. And making life more miserable for everyone except Mr. Bezos and the people who buy lotsa stuff through the mail, one day at a time.
And this, the press-release trivial profile on the Presto and E la Carte, the innovative business for eliminating the poorest paid wait staff at the most generic restaurants, because — y’know — people who earn less than minimum wage and get tips already take away too much profit.
E La Carte knows that waiting too long in a restaurant can leave customers with a bad taste in their mouths, regardless of the chef’s best efforts …
“It’s so fast, so easy to order and pay,??? said Rajat Suri, CEO and founder of E La Carte …
E La Carte has already received $5 million in funding from investors including SV Angel and Lightbank, and Suri said he plans to continue focusing on the casual dining experience rather than replace the interactions between waiters and customers in high-end restaurants.
Appropriately, written by an intern at the San Francisco Chronicle. Interns work for free, just for the privilege of it. Cuz they wouldn’t work at all for corporate America were it any other way.
Iranian nuclear facilities have been struck by a musical cyber virus, according to an e-mail believed to have been sent by an Iranian scientist to a Finnish digital security firm.
Mikko Hypponen, a chief researcher at the F-Secure firm, posted the e-mail on the company’s blog. According to the message, the Natanz and Fordo nuclear facilities have been hit with the virus, which plays the heavy metal song “Thunderstruck,” by AC/DC …
Other than playing songs, the malware has shut down computer systems and disabled Siemens hardware.
Viruses which play music randomly for the annoyance of it aren’t new.
Since the cat is out of the bag on who is writing and spreading computer viruses in Iran, there’s no actual incentive not to do these kinds of things. In fact, a DD Blog No-Prize for the first reader who spies a story in which a pundit or expert congratulates our men on the psychological brilliance and audacity of it.
I’ve yet to see any newspapers contemplate what the near total destruction of Penn State’s football program will do the school and the economy of the region.
Beaver Stadium is one of the largest outdoor football venues in the world. And now it is stuck with a team that will be less and less capable of filling it.
From an old Harrisburg Patriot News article I pulled an estimate of what a family of three spends on a Saturday spent at State College and in Beaver Stadium.
$476.30 This was in 2010. Gas prices are higher now, so let’s jigger up to an even five hundred for gas, and then subtract assuming most of the fuel cost will be distributed at the local start point. Final tally — $465.00 — modestly.
On a standard banner game day, attendance = 110,000
Divide by 3: 3666
3666 x $465.00 = $17,050,000
When attendance dwindles to 66 percent — $11,253,000
Fifty percent — $8,525,000.
Keep in mind I’m reasoning the cost of running the gigantic facility will remain about the same.
Nonsense, say the Penn State loyal. We’ll never forsake our team!
Oh yes they will.
At least four years wandering the wilderness with lousy, if any TV contracts at home and a team that will be about as good as … UCLA.
The lost money on game days in State College, over the course of at least half a decade, will cripple the local economy and the school. Penn State lived by football and Joe Paterno. Austerity is coming.
Penn State will be wondering what the heck it can do with Beaver Stadium, now that it looks like one of the construction marvels of the world, stuck in the middle of nowhere, its reason for being knee-capped.
Can it do the world’s biggest Easter Egg roll? Sunday craft and antiques fairs?
U2, Brad Paisley or Lady Gaga will probably not be planning stops in State College.
DENVER – Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie massacre as buyers express fears about both personal safety and anti-gun lawmakers who might use the shooting to seek new weapons restrictions.
In Colorado, the site of Friday’s shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior.
Dick Rutan, owner of Gunners Den in suburban Arvada, Colo., said requests for concealed-weapon training certification “are off the hook …”
“It’s not uncommon for us to see spikes in requests for concealed pistol licenses when there’s a significant gun-related tragedy,” said Sgt. Cindi West of the King County sheriff’s office in Washington state.
“Heed these words, my disciples: When the crowd has not machine guns, it cannot protect itself from evil carrying a machine gun and a Glock.??? — Chapter 2, The Compleat Sayings of American Jesus.
Wayne Allyn Root, former Libertarian vice-presidential nominee, is author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution With God, Guns, Gold, Gambling & Tax Cuts??? (Wiley, 2009).
President Obama is presiding over a new civil war. This war pits rich against poor, taxpayers versus tax-takers and unions against the private sector. Voters across this country who get checks from the government will vote for Mr. Obama to keep the checks coming, regardless of race. They want to be taken care of by government, from cradle to grave …
I was Mr. Obama’s college classmate.
I experienced the views of my fellow Columbia radicals back in 1979-83. Virtually everyone I knew at Columbia called himself a Marxist or socialist. My classmates openly embraced the idea of “bringing down the system,??? meaning capitalism. They openly hated the wealthy (even though most of them came from wealthy families). They openly hated President Reagan and often called him “the devil.??? They cheered and actually gave a standing ovation when they heard he’d been shot in an assassination attempt. This is where Mr. Obama comes from …
