Aboard a Cargo Colossus - The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/business/international/aboard-a-cargo-colossus-maersks-new-container-ships.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

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Of course, owning a gun is not a responsibility that everyone should assume. Most guns kept in the home will never be used for self-defense. They are, in fact, more likely to be used by an unstable person to threaten family members or to commit suicide. However, it seems to me that there is nothing irrational about judging oneself to be psychologically stable and fully committed to the safe handling and ethical use of firearms—if, indeed, one is.[1]

Of course, owning a gun is not a responsibility that everyone should assume. Most guns kept in the home will never be used for self-defense. They are, in fact, more likely to be used by an unstable person to threaten family members or to commit suicide. However, it seems to me that there is nothing irrational about judging oneself to be psychologically stable and fully committed to the safe handling and ethical use of firearms—if, indeed, one is.[1]

—The Riddle of the Gun : Sam Harris

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Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms.

Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms.

—What’s Inside America’s Banks? - Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisinger - The Atlantic

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Guess what, compatriots? The gap between the richest and the poorest among us is now wider than it has been since we all nose-dived into the Great Depression. So GQ sent Jon Ronson on a journey into the secret financial lives of six different people on the ladder, from a guy washing dishes for 200 bucks a week in Miami to a self-storage gazillionaire. What he found are some surprising truths about class, money, and making it in America

Guess what, compatriots? The gap between the richest and the poorest among us is now wider than it has been since we all nose-dived into the Great Depression. So GQ sent Jon Ronson on a journey into the secret financial lives of six different people on the ladder, from a guy washing dishes for 200 bucks a week in Miami to a self-storage gazillionaire. What he found are some surprising truths about class, money, and making it in America

—The Surprising Truths About Income Inequality in America: Big Issues: GQ

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You may have read about my concept of “core gifts”; the places of deepest sensitivity, tenderness and passion within us. These are the places of our greatest capacity to love and create—and they are also the places where most of us have been profoundly hurt. These gifts are strands of potential greatness within us, and when we express them we feel most alive and empowered–or most frighteningly vulnerable. Core gifts are not the same as strengths and talents. In fact, sometimes they feel like our greatest weaknesses.

You may have read about my concept of “core gifts”; the places of deepest sensitivity, tenderness and passion within us. These are the places of our greatest capacity to love and create—and they are also the places where most of us have been profoundly hurt. These gifts are strands of potential greatness within us, and when we express them we feel most alive and empowered–or most frighteningly vulnerable. Core gifts are not the same as strengths and talents. In fact, sometimes they feel like our greatest weaknesses.

—How To Find Your Core Gifts In Your Greatest Challenges | Psychology Today

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Now that Discovery is safely delivered to the Smithsonian, I think I can tell the story of how we nearly lost her in July of 2005, and how well-intentioned, highly motivated, hard-working, smart people can miss the most obvious.

Now that Discovery is safely delivered to the Smithsonian, I think I can tell the story of how we nearly lost her in July of 2005, and how well-intentioned, highly motivated, hard-working, smart people can miss the most obvious.

—How We Nearly Lost Discovery

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Recognizable by her signature vivid-pink locks, Fried (or Ladyada, as she is known on the internet) is one of the dominant forces behind the maker movement–a legion of do-it-yourself-minded folks who create cool things by tweaking everyday technology. Last year New York City-based Adafruit did a booming $10 million trade in sales of DIY open-source electronic hardware kits, so-called because project designs are free and publicly accessible, and customers are encouraged to modify or “hack” the final product. In addition to MintyBoost ($19.50), the online catalog includes in-house designs like the iNecklace ($75), a pendant shaped like an Apple gadget’s “on” button, complete with a pulsing LED light; and third-party products that have earned the “Adafruit seal of approval,” like the MaKey MaKey ($49.95), a device that can turn any object that conducts electricity–a coin, cat, banana–into a functioning touchpad or keyboard.

Recognizable by her signature vivid-pink locks, Fried (or Ladyada, as she is known on the internet) is one of the dominant forces behind the maker movement–a legion of do-it-yourself-minded folks who create cool things by tweaking everyday technology. Last year New York City-based Adafruit did a booming $10 million trade in sales of DIY open-source electronic hardware kits, so-called because project designs are free and publicly accessible, and customers are encouraged to modify or “hack” the final product. In addition to MintyBoost ($19.50), the online catalog includes in-house designs like the iNecklace ($75), a pendant shaped like an Apple gadget’s “on” button, complete with a pulsing LED light; and third-party products that have earned the “Adafruit seal of approval,” like the MaKey MaKey ($49.95), a device that can turn any object that conducts electricity–a coin, cat, banana–into a functioning touchpad or keyboard.

—Entrepreneur of 2012: Limor Fried | Entrepreneur.com

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Ever since learning about the Rubber Room and Blast Room deep below launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center I had been hopeful that I would one day get to photograph this mysterious remnant of the Apollo Program. I had seen very few photos of this room online and by talking to friends at KSC I seemed to have confirmed that access to this underground bunker had been very limited over the years. Following the end of the Shuttle Program and safing of the launch pads, access has become a little bit easier. There are two Rubber and Blast Rooms built to identical blueprints, one under launch pad 39A and another under 39B. Just recently, the rooms under 39B were closed off due to concerns from peeling lead based paints, which were commonly used during the era. Luckily for me, due to a different contractor building launch pad 39A, the Rubber and Blast Rooms were painted using non-lead based paint and is in much better shape allowing for the occasional visit. I would finally get the chance to enter the Rubber Room for an assignment with SpaceflightNow.

Ever since learning about the Rubber Room and Blast Room deep below launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center I had been hopeful that I would one day get to photograph this mysterious remnant of the Apollo Program. I had seen very few photos of this room online and by talking to friends at KSC I seemed to have confirmed that access to this underground bunker had been very limited over the years. Following the end of the Shuttle Program and safing of the launch pads, access has become a little bit easier. There are two Rubber and Blast Rooms built to identical blueprints, one under launch pad 39A and another under 39B. Just recently, the rooms under 39B were closed off due to concerns from peeling lead based paints, which were commonly used during the era. Luckily for me, due to a different contractor building launch pad 39A, the Rubber and Blast Rooms were painted using non-lead based paint and is in much better shape allowing for the occasional visit. I would finally get the chance to enter the Rubber Room for an assignment with SpaceflightNow.

—Inside NASA’s Mysterious Rubber Room «

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A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger. In writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one simple truth: Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. But that realization was only the beginning, for then I had to ask: What does a democracy look like that enables citizens to have a real voice in securing life’s essentials? Does it exist anywhere? Is it possible or a pipe dream? With hunger on the rise here in the United States-one in 10 of us is now turning to food stamps-these questions take on new urgency.

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.
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This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty. It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security. To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire. The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.

This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty. It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security. To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire. The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.

—Transcript: Ron Paul’s farewell address to Congress | WashingtonExaminer.com

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You think about what long.sh does for a minute, and breathe a sigh of relief. The output is written to a file, so you don’t care about terminal output. This means you can use disown. How does this little shell built-in let your jobs finish even when you kill the parent process (the shell inside the ssh connection)?

You think about what long.sh does for a minute, and breathe a sigh of relief. The output is written to a file, so you don’t care about terminal output. This means you can use disown. How does this little shell built-in let your jobs finish even when you kill the parent process (the shell inside the ssh connection)?

—disown, zombie children, and the uninterruptible sleep (Ksplice Blog)

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I’m going to take it as read that the idea of space colonization isn’t unfamiliar; domed cities on Mars, orbiting cylindrical space habitats a la J. D. Bernal or Gerard K. O'Neill, that sort of thing. Generation ships that take hundreds of years to ferry colonists out to other star systems where — as we are now discovering — there are profusions of planets to explore.

I’m going to take it as read that the idea of space colonization isn’t unfamiliar; domed cities on Mars, orbiting cylindrical space habitats a la J. D. Bernal or Gerard K. O'Neill, that sort of thing. Generation ships that take hundreds of years to ferry colonists out to other star systems where — as we are now discovering — there are profusions of planets to explore.

—Charlie’s Diary: The High Frontier, Redux

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Man-computer symbiosis is an expected development in cooperative interaction between men and electronic computers. It will involve very close coupling between the human and the electronic members of the partnership. The main aims are 1) to let computers facilitate formulative thinking as they now facilitate the solution of formulated problems, and 2) to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs. In the anticipated symbiotic partnership, men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking. Preliminary analyses indicate that the symbiotic partnership will perform intellectual operations much more effectively than man alone can perform them. Prerequisites for the achievement of the effective, cooperative association include developments in computer time sharing, in memory components, in memory organization, in programming languages, and in input and output equipment.

Man-computer symbiosis is an expected development in cooperative interaction between men and electronic computers. It will involve very close coupling between the human and the electronic members of the partnership. The main aims are 1) to let computers facilitate formulative thinking as they now facilitate the solution of formulated problems, and 2) to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs. In the anticipated symbiotic partnership, men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking. Preliminary analyses indicate that the symbiotic partnership will perform intellectual operations much more effectively than man alone can perform them. Prerequisites for the achievement of the effective, cooperative association include developments in computer time sharing, in memory components, in memory organization, in programming languages, and in input and output equipment.

—Man-Computer Symbiosis

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I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that’s too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.

I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that’s too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.

—I, Pencil

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Suleyman Ergun: There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you’ve got 100 kilos of heroin in the trunk of your car. Just to be near it, to smell it. Driving along at 120 mph in France somewhere and thinking: “I know what I’ve got in the car.” Police stopping beside you. A gun under my seat. Wouldn’t think twice about shooting them. Taking the risk. At the end of the day that’s why I became a drug dealer. Not the money or the power, but the buzz.

Suleyman Ergun: There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you’ve got 100 kilos of heroin in the trunk of your car. Just to be near it, to smell it. Driving along at 120 mph in France somewhere and thinking: “I know what I’ve got in the car.” Police stopping beside you. A gun under my seat. Wouldn’t think twice about shooting them. Taking the risk. At the end of the day that’s why I became a drug dealer. Not the money or the power, but the buzz.

—The (ex) Biggest Heroin Dealer in the Whole Wide World

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What Thompson had on the PDP-7 was a system, but not really an operating system. So during the summer of 1969, Thompson began implementing the paper file system, which Ritchie liked to refer to as the “chalk file system,” since it emerged from countless discussions at chalkboards in the Computing Science Research Center.

What Thompson had on the PDP-7 was a system, but not really an operating system. So during the summer of 1969, Thompson began implementing the paper file system, which Ritchie liked to refer to as the “chalk file system,” since it emerged from countless discussions at chalkboards in the Computing Science Research Center.

—The Creation of the UNIX* Operating System: The UNIX system begins to take shape

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The TTY subsystem is central to the design of Linux, and UNIX in general. Unfortunately, its importance is often overlooked, and it is difficult to find good introductory articles about it. I believe that a basic understanding of TTYs in Linux is essential for the developer and the advanced user. Beware, though: What you are about to see is not particularly elegant. In fact, the TTY subsystem — while quite functional from a user’s point of view — is a twisty little mess of special cases. To understand how this came to be, we have to go back in time.

The TTY subsystem is central to the design of Linux, and UNIX in general. Unfortunately, its importance is often overlooked, and it is difficult to find good introductory articles about it. I believe that a basic understanding of TTYs in Linux is essential for the developer and the advanced user.
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I spent the better part of the last decade at different startups and web companies, but one of my recent consulting gigs led me to a Fortune 500 company. I’ve done work at large enterprises before, but I really did forget what it’s like and it amounted to a rather jarring experience. I’ve entered a deep and dark world of enterprise architecture, frameworks, meaningless acronyms and a cesspool of “enterprise” software where it seems to breed and reproduce uncontrollably. It’s a place with abstraction at every layer, except anywhere that’s relevant.

I spent the better part of the last decade at different startups and web companies, but one of my recent consulting gigs led me to a Fortune 500 company. I’ve done work at large enterprises before, but I really did forget what it’s like and it amounted to a rather jarring experience. I’ve entered a deep and dark world of enterprise architecture, frameworks, meaningless acronyms and a cesspool of “enterprise” software where it seems to breed and reproduce uncontrollably. It’s a place with abstraction at every layer, except anywhere that’s relevant.

—Where IT goes to die » Mind End | Mind End

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Having successfully disregarded the Constitutional requirement to reapportion the House, Congress then put our government on the path to oligarchy by passing the “Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929” which established that, henceforth, the size of the House would be permanently fixed at “the then existing number of Representatives”. The “then existing number” being a verbose and inconspicuous way to specify 435.

Having successfully disregarded the Constitutional requirement to reapportion the House, Congress then put our government on the path to oligarchy by passing the “Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929” which established that, henceforth, the size of the House would be permanently fixed at “the then existing number of Representatives”. The “then existing number” being a verbose and inconspicuous way to specify 435.

—thirty-thousand.org - Why 435?

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vividly remembers the moment he became rich. At the time, in late 2008, he was $40,000 in debt and living in a modest San Francisco apartment, having just spent more than three years meticulously refining his video game, Braid—an innovative time-warping platformer (think Super Mario Bros. meets Borges), whose $200,000 development Blow funded himself. Although Braid had been released, to lavish praise from the video-game press, on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service that August, Blow didn’t see a cent from the game until one autumn day when he sat down at a café in the city’s Mission distri

vividly remembers the moment he became rich. At the time, in late 2008, he was $40,000 in debt and living in a modest San Francisco apartment, having just spent more than three years meticulously refining his video game, Braid—an innovative time-warping platformer (think Super Mario Bros. meets Borges), whose $200,000 development Blow funded himself. Although Braid had been released, to lavish praise from the video-game press, on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service that August, Blow didn’t see a cent from the game until one autumn day when he sat down at a café in the city’s Mission distri

—The Most Dangerous Gamer - Magazine - The Atlantic

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Vaughan Pratt presented “Top Down Operator Precedence” at the first annual Principles of Programming Languages Symposium in Boston in 1973. In the paper Pratt described a parsing technique that combines the best properties of Recursive Descent and Floyd’s Operator Precedence. It is easy to use. It feels a lot like Recursive Descent, but with the need for less code and with significantly better performance. He claimed the technique is simple to understand, trivial to implement, easy to use, extremely efficient, and very flexible. It is dynamic, providing support for truly extensible languages.

Vaughan Pratt presented “Top Down Operator Precedence” at the first annual Principles of Programming Languages Symposium in Boston in 1973. In the paper Pratt described a parsing technique that combines the best properties of Recursive Descent and Floyd’s Operator Precedence. It is easy to use. It feels a lot like Recursive Descent, but with the need for less code and with significantly better performance. He claimed the technique is simple to understand, trivial to implement, easy to use, extremely efficient, and very flexible. It is dynamic, providing support for truly extensible languages.

—Top Down Operator Precedence

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Inside the computer’s world, there is only data. That which is not data, does not exist. Although all data is in essence just a sequence of bits1, and is thus fundamentally alike, every piece of data plays its own role. In JavaScript’s system, most of this data is neatly separated into things called values. Every value has a type, which determines the kind of role it can play. There are six basic types of values: Numbers, strings, booleans, objects, functions, and undefined values.

Inside the computer’s world, there is only data. That which is not data, does not exist. Although all data is in essence just a sequence of bits1, and is thus fundamentally alike, every piece of data plays its own role. In JavaScript’s system, most of this data is neatly separated into things called values. Every value has a type, which determines the kind of role it can play. There are six basic types of values: Numbers, strings, booleans, objects, functions, and undefined values.

—Basic JavaScript: values, variables, and control flow – Eloquent JavaScript

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Reading the papers or glancing at the television, one could have got the impression that His Holiness the Pope was the accepted moral tutor for the entire world, instead of the leader of a traditionalist sect that calls its ostensibly celibate and virginal officials by parental names like “Father” and “Mother” and opposes almost every kind of sexual expression while making allowances and excuses for adult-infant penetration.

Reading the papers or glancing at the television, one could have got the impression that His Holiness the Pope was the accepted moral tutor for the entire world, instead of the leader of a traditionalist sect that calls its ostensibly celibate and virginal officials by parental names like “Father” and “Mother” and opposes almost every kind of sexual expression while making allowances and excuses for adult-infant penetration.

—Council for Secular Humanism

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te on street corners about decades-old high school football games, and conduct midday business meetings over plates of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and banana pudding. What sets Marshall apart from its neighbors is a red-hot patent docket. Four years ago, 32 patent lawsuits were filed in the Federal Eastern District of Texas, which includes Tyler, Texarkana and Marshall. This year, an estimated 234 cases will be filed in the district, a majority of them in Marshall. What’s behind the rush to file patent lawsuits here? A combination of quick trials and plaintiff-friendly juries, many lawyers say. Patent cases are heard faster in Marshall than in many other courts. And while only a small number of cases make it to trial — roughly 5 percent — patent holders win 78 percent of the time, compared with an average of 59 percent n

te on street corners about decades-old high school football games, and conduct midday business meetings over plates of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and banana pudding. What sets Marshall apart from its neighbors is a red-hot patent docket. Four years ago, 32 patent lawsuits were filed in the Federal Eastern District of Texas, which includes Tyler, Texarkana and Marshall. This year, an estimated 234 cases will be filed in the district, a majority of them in Marshall. What’s behind the rush to file patent lawsuits here? A combination of quick trials and plaintiff-friendly juries, many lawyers say. Patent cases are heard faster in Marshall than in many other courts. And while only a small number of cases make it to trial — roughly 5 percent — patent holders win 78 percent of the time, compared with an average of 59 percent n

—So Small a Town, So Many Patent Suits - New York Times

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System D is a slang phrase pirated from French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean. The French have a word that they often use to describe particularly effective and motivated people. They call them débrouillards. To say a man is a débrouillard is to tell people how resourceful and ingenious he is. The former French colonies have sculpted this word to their own social and economic reality. They say that inventive, self-starting, entrepreneurial merchants who are doing business on their own, without registering or being regulated by the bureaucracy and, for the most part, without paying taxes, are part of “l'economie de la débrouillardise.” Or, sweetened for street use, “Systeme D.” This essentially translates as the ingenuity e

System D is a slang phrase pirated from French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean. The French have a word that they often use to describe particularly effective and motivated people. They call them débrouillards. To say a man is a débrouillard is to tell people how resourceful and ingenious he is. The former French colonies have sculpted this word to their own social and economic reality. They say that inventive, self-starting, entrepreneurial merchants who are doing business on their own, without registering or being regulated by the bureaucracy and, for the most part, without paying taxes, are part of “l'economie de la débrouillardise.” Or, sweetened for street use, “Systeme D.” This essentially translates as the ingenuity e

—The Shadow Superpower - By Robert Neuwirth | Foreign Policy

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Year Without a Summer (also known as the Poverty Year, Year There Was No Summer, and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death[1]) was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F),[2] resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.[3][4] It is believed that the anom

Year Without a Summer (also known as the Poverty Year, Year There Was No Summer, and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death[1]) was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F),[2] resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.[3][4] It is believed that the anom

—Year Without a Summer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Iron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for photosynthesis in all plants. It is highly insoluble in sea water and is often the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth. Large

Iron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for photosynthesis in all plants. It is highly insoluble in sea water and is often the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth. Large

—Iron fertilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The "Guess Two Thirds of the Average" game

There is a room full of people, and each is asked to choose a number between zero and one hundred. The winner is the person who chooses the number which is two thirds of the average of everyone else’s numbers combined.
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But a new pipe was installed, the dirt was back in the hole, and our toilet was back on its best behavior. It was one of my favorite days ever. Thirty years later in San Francisco when my toilet blew up again. This time, I didn’t participate in the repair process. I just called my landlord, left a check on the kitchen counter, and went to work. When I got home, the mess was cleaned up and the problem was solved.

But a new pipe was installed, the dirt was back in the hole, and our toilet was back on its best behavior. It was one of my favorite days ever. Thirty years later in San Francisco when my toilet blew up again. This time, I didn’t participate in the repair process. I just called my landlord, left a check on the kitchen counter, and went to work. When I got home, the mess was cleaned up and the problem was solved.

—Mike Rowe Senate Testimony : Dirty Jobs : Discovery Channel

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ipation of the end of the world, which started to come their way on February 28, 1993. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, exercising its mandate to “regulate” firearms, refused all invitations from cult leader David Koresh to inspect his licensed firearms. The A.T.F. instead opted for fun. More than 100 A.T.F. agents, without proper warrants, attacked the church’s compound while, overhead, at least one A.T.F. helicopter fired at the roof of the main building. Six Branch Davidians were killed that day. Four A.T.F. agents were shot dead, by friendly fire, it was thought. There was a standoff. Followed by a 51-day siege in which loud music was played 24 hours a day outside the compound. Then electricity was turned off. Food was denied the children. Meanwhile, the Media were briefed regularly on the evils of David Koresh. Apparently, he was making and selling crystal meth; he was also—what else in these sick times?—not a Man of God but a Pedophile. The new attorney general, Janet Reno, then got tough. On April 19 she ordered the F.B.I. to finish up what the A.T.F. had begun. In defiance of the Posse Comitatus Act (a basi

ipation of the end of the world, which started to come their way on February 28, 1993. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, exercising its mandate to “regulate” firearms, refused all invitations from cult leader David Koresh to inspect his licensed firearms. The A.T.F. instead opted for fun. More than 100 A.T.F. agents, without proper warrants, attacked the church’s compound while, overhead, at least one A.T.F. helicopter fired at the roof of the main building. Six Branch Davidians were killed that day. Four A.T.F. agents were shot dead, by friendly fire, it was thought. There was a standoff. Followed by a 51-day siege in which loud music was played 24 hours a day outside the compound. Then electricity was turned off. Food was denied the children. Meanwhile, the Media were briefed regularly on the evils of David Koresh. Apparently, he was making and selling crystal meth; he was also—what else in these sick times?—not a Man of God but a Pedophile. The new attorney general, Janet Reno, then got tough. On April 19 she ordered the F.B.I. to finish up what the A.T.F. had begun. In defiance of the Posse Comitatus Act (a basi

—The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh | Politics | Vanity Fair

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VB-76 (sometimes referred to as UZB-76, but recently MDZhB[1]) is the call sign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM suppressed lower sideband). It is known among radio listeners by the nickname The Buzzer. It features a short, monotonous buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.[2] On rare occasions,

VB-76 (sometimes referred to as UZB-76, but recently MDZhB[1]) is the call sign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM suppressed lower sideband). It is known among radio listeners by the nickname The Buzzer. It features a short, monotonous buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.[2] On rare occasions,

—UVB-76 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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en there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using 14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized how much money they were also saving because of economic incentives approv

en there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using 14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized how much money they were also saving because of economic incentives approv

—Harvard Gazette: Academic turns city into a social experiment

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wn as LETSystems are locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprises that provide a community information service and record transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally created LETS Credits.[1] In some places, e.g. Toronto, the scheme has been called the Local Employment an

wn as LETSystems are locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprises that provide a community information service and record transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally created LETS Credits.[1] In some places, e.g. Toronto, the scheme has been called the Local Employment an

—Local Exchange Trading Systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The AppleCrate II is made from 17 Enhanced Apple //e main boards. (Fifteen of these boards were obtained in the same eBay auction that netted the eight unenhanced boards for the original AppleCrate.) Because they are enhanced ROMs, the original NadaNet boot ROM code would no

The AppleCrate II is made from 17 Enhanced Apple //e main boards. (Fifteen of these boards were obtained in the same eBay auction that netted the eight unenhanced boards for the original AppleCrate.) Because they are enhanced ROMs, the original NadaNet boot ROM code would no

—AppleCrate II: A New Apple II-Based Parallel Computer

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he DOJ’s inspector general’s office performed an audit of cybersecurity staff at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. The audit examined 10 of the FBI’s 56 field offices, which are designed to respond to cyberthreats. Of the 36 agents examined, 23 proved basically competent, but 13 “lacked the networking and counterintelligence expertise to investigate national security intrusion cases.” The report complains that some of that incompetence isn’t even the agents’ fault – it’s the fault of the FBI leade

he DOJ’s inspector general’s office performed an audit of cybersecurity staff at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. The audit examined 10 of the FBI’s 56 field offices, which are designed to respond to cyberthreats. Of the 36 agents examined, 23 proved basically competent, but 13 “lacked the networking and counterintelligence expertise to investigate national security intrusion cases.” The report complains that some of that incompetence isn’t even the agents’ fault – it’s the fault of the FBI leade

—DailyTech - U.S. Gov’t Study: Over a Third of FBI Cyber-Crime Agents are Incompetent

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Prediction #958281

Apple has $65 billion in shortterm funds, and has said they want to buy larger, established companies instead of smaller companies that are mostly talent acquisitions.

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e’s keeping most of the juicy bits to himself but he did tell us that the improvement he achieved were due to multiple changes in the process. He tweaked the software to use a more precise curing time, the resin formula has been improved, the ability to isolate pixels without hardening resin around them has been stepped up, and

e’s keeping most of the juicy bits to himself but he did tell us that the improvement he achieved were due to multiple changes in the process. He tweaked the software to use a more precise curing time, the resin formula has been improved, the ability to isolate pixels without hardening resin around them has been stepped up, and

—Make: Online | Homebrew Liquid Resin 3D Printer Gets Resolution Boost

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I wrote the above a while ago, and I do feel like that much of the time. At other times, though, I feel less hateful. I know my parents honestly believe the crap they believe in. I know that my mom, at least, loved me very much and tried her best. One reason I put this off for so long is because I know how much pain it will cause her. She has been sad since she found out I wasn’t “saved”, since she believes I’m going to Hell, which is not a sadness for which I am responsible. That was never going to change, and presumably she believes the state of my physical body is much less important than the state of my soul. Still, I cannot intellectually justify t

I wrote the above a while ago, and I do feel like that much of the time.
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eems to be an exception to this general security consciousness. This is because pacman uses neither a signed package list nor signed packages when upgrading or installing new software. The only check pacman makes on the integrity of a software package is that the package’s md5 checksum matches the checksum listed for that package in the package list. This makes exploiting an Arch system almost trivial provided an attacker is able to place themselves between the Arch system and the Arch package repository. For those unfamiliar with why package signing is so important to the security of a Linux system, I will outline the simple steps an attacker would have to take to gain root privileges on an Arch system using only this flaw in pacman. To be clear, unless you completely trust every network you’ve ever updated your Arch system on, you’ve potentially been 0wned. Subverting an Arch Package: Making alterations to an Arch package (at least well enough for pacman not to throw up errors) is EXTREMELY simple. I was lazy and simply opened my chosen package (gzip) up in file-roller and editted the “.INSTALL” file. I chose to alter the gzip package because it’s in the core repository which virtually everyone will be using, it’s a very small package, its functionality almost never changes (it’s nearly 20 years old), and it already contains a “.INSTALL” file to alter.

eems to be an exception to this general security consciousness. This is because pacman uses neither a signed package list nor signed packages when upgrading or installing new software. The only check pacman makes on the integrity of a software package is that the package’s md5 checksum matches the checksum listed for that package in the package list. This makes exploiting an Arch system almost trivial provided an attacker is able to place themselves between the Arch system and the Arch package repository. For those unfamiliar with why package signing is so important to the security of a Linux system, I will outline the simple steps an attacker would have to take to gain root privileges on an Arch system using only this flaw in pacman. To be clear, unless you completely trust every network you’ve ever updated your Arch system on, you’ve potentially been 0wned. Subverting an Arch Package: Making alterations to an Arch package (at least well enough for pacman not to throw up errors) is EXTREMELY simple. I was lazy and simply opened my chosen package (gzip) up in file-roller and editted the “.INSTALL” file. I chose to alter the gzip package because it’s in the core repository which virtually everyone will be using, it’s a very small package, its functionality almost never changes (it’s nearly 20 years old), and it already contains a “.INSTALL” file to alter.

—0wning Arch: Why Package Signing Is Important « F1ngersCr0ssed

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to be true". What has prevented and prohibited anyone from creating such a laptop, before, when the benefits and cost savings are so blatantly obvious? The answer is clear: the monopoly situation on Operating Systems. When there is only one dominant Operating System, which only runs on x86-compatible hardware, it is very difficult to justify the creation of a laptop based around hardware that is incapable of running that dominant OS! So what has changed?

to be true". What has prevented and prohibited anyone from creating such a laptop,
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From Paul Eggert (2001-03-06), following a tip by Markus Kuhn: Pam Belluck reported in the New York Times (2001-01-31) that the Indiana Legislature is considering a bill to adopt DST statewide. Her article mentioned Vevay, whose post office observes a different time zone from Danner’s Hardware across the street. I love this one about the cranky Portuguese prime minister: Martin Bruckmann (1996-02-29) reports via Peter Ilieve that Portugal is re

From Paul Eggert (2001-03-06), following a tip by Markus Kuhn: Pam Belluck reported in the New York Times (2001-01-31) that the Indiana Legislature is considering a bill to adopt DST statewide. Her article mentioned Vevay, whose post office observes a different
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Adrian Hands (my father) wrote the patch above to improve the usability of gnome for himself and others. You see my dad was suffering from ALS and his hands were so crippled he could no longer use a keyboard. Thus we used a Darci usb morse code keyboard emulator to help him type. Even the morse code device was a struggle as the sensitivity adjustment and positioning of the nice two paddled key would fall out of whack. I rigged up a pvc cage that wrapped around his knee and fixed remote switches to the cage so that he could use the remaining strength in his legs to operate the Darci morse code device. He used this last bit of body movement to write this patch. Here is a photo of him using it: https://picasaweb.google.com/HandsAdrian/ShotwellConnect#5549467460761802914 My father passed away yesterday. I went back through my email to find our last correspondence (he was in India for treatment, and I live in Raleigh). I would like to share the email with you.

Adrian Hands (my father) wrote the patch above to improve the usability of
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writing redo, I’ve had a chance to start writing a few more shell scripts that aim for maximum portability, and from there, I’ve learned some really cool tricks that I haven’t seen documented elsewhere. Here are a few. 1. Removing prefixes and suffixes This is a super common requirement. For example, given a *.c filename, you wa

writing redo, I’ve had a chance to start writing a few more shell scripts that aim for maximum portability, and from there, I’ve learned some really cool tricks that I haven’t seen documented elsewhere. Here are a few. 1. Removing prefixes and suffixes This is a super common requirement. For example, given a *.c filename, you wa

—apenwarr - Business is Programming

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ile ones. But Partners in Health says the product, which it calls Nourimanba, is safe. When I visited one of the charity’s outpatient clinics in July, 1-year-old Elorky Decena was silent and listless as a nurse hooked a scale over the clinic’s doorway and put him in an attached harness. A month before, he was found to have severe acute malnutrition, a condition characterized by extreme stunting and wasting that afflicts an estimated 20 million children worldwide. The nurse announced that he had gained more than four pounds on a diet of

ile ones. But Partners in Health says the product, which it calls Nourimanba, is safe. When I visited one of the charity’s outpatient clinics in July, 1-year-old Elorky Decena was silent and listless as a nurse hooked a scale over the clinic’s doorway and put him in an attached harness. A month before, he was found to have severe acute malnutrition, a condition characterized by extreme stunting and wasting that afflicts an estimated 20 million children worldwide. The nurse announced that he had gained more than four pounds on a diet of

— Could a Peanut Paste Called Plumpy’nut End Malnutrition? - NYTimes.com

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A fusion center is a terrorism prevention and response center, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007. The fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from their partners in the private sector.[1][2] They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice, US Military and state and local level government. As of July 2009, the Department of Homeland Security recognized at least seventy-two fusion centers.[3] Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster. State and local police departments provide both space and resources for the majority of fusion centers. The analysts working there can be drawn from DHS, local police, or the private sector. A number of fusion centers operate tip hotlines and also

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Irony

A cigarette hanging out the driver side windows of a smart car in Padingtons traffic.

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Rice is the number one cereal in the human diet, supplying humanity with 23% or its calories[9] . Slightly more maize is produced globally (791 vs. 659 million megatonnes in 2007), but while 40-80% (61% average) of maize is fed to animals less than one percent of rice is used as animal feed.

Rice is the number one cereal in the human diet, supplying humanity with 23% or its calories[9] . Slightly more maize is produced globally (791 vs. 659 million megatonnes in 2007), but while 40-80% (61% average) of maize is fed to animals less than one percent of rice is used as animal feed.

—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_rice#Rice_is_an_important_world_crop

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no title

1:05 in: “If he (Obama) is such a student of history, doesn’t he know…”

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What if...

What if McCain had won the ‘08 election, and Iran (not our friends, Israel) had attacked and killed a bunch of peacekeepers on a ship full of humanitarian supplies… how long do you think before he extended the War on Terror to include the next member on the Axis of Evil list?

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The right of citizens of the United States to use and enjoy air, water, wildlife, and other renewable resources determined by the Congress to be common property shall not be impaired, nor shall such use impair their availability for the use of future generations.

The right of citizens of the United States to use and enjoy air, water, wildlife, and other renewable resources determined by the Congress to be common property shall not be impaired, nor shall such use impair their availability for the use of future generations.

—Walt Bresette

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Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyze so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.

Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyze so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.

—Dr. A.R. Dykes, British Institution of Structural Engineers, 1976.

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I wonder why

``` I wonder why. I wonder why. I wonder why I wonder, I wonder why I wonder why, I wonder why I wonder!

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