July 1, 2013

Dog on course at TDF Stage 2

Oy...

You'd think just about everyone would have gotten the memo by now.

You just don't want to meet the world cycling champion this way:

July 1, 2013

Benjamin Franklin's Codes and Ciphers

This is an interesting timeline of codes and ciphers used by Benjamin Franklin.

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~room4me/america/code/frankli2.htm

Cryptology was, of course, essential in those days, because there was no secure form of long distance communication. Unless you could afford your own couriers to send single messages (who could still be captured or otherwise waylaid) letters were carried by traders and other travelers who were going in the direction of your addressee. These would be exchanged at various points, such as inns and taverns in order to route them to their destinations.

All of the founders had a keen interest in codes and ciphers, since they never would have assumed that any correspondence was physically secure from being read by any number of people along the way.

June 25, 2013

CAPTURED!!! They got him!

http://m.washingtonpost.com/local/red-panda-missing-at-national-zoo/2013/06/24/350e8b4c-dcdd-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html



Panda-crazy Washington went to Code Red, from the Twitteropolis to the streets of Adams Morgan, where Rusty was nabbed.

“Crated and captured!” a zoo spokeswoman announced a little after 2 p.m.

The zoo tweeted a picture of a thirsty-looking Rusty safely back behind mesh, taking a drink from a water bottle. He was reported to be in good health in the zoo’s animal hospital Monday evening.

June 22, 2013

"she freely admitted to using the N-word"

I don't know much about this story or the context of the deposition, but I saw that line in an article about Paula Deen - who barely registered on my "who is she" meter.

Anyway.... when you are being deposed under oath and asked a question, unless the answer would incriminate you, you have to answer the question and you have to do so truthfully.

So, whatever one makes of what she said or what it means, it wasn't "freely admitted".

Whatever else she may be, she's apparently honest.

June 19, 2013

Do you know where your shit goes?

For those of you who do not have your own septic system, but are hooked into a sewer system...

Serious question:

Do you know, as you sit here right now, where your shit goes after you flush the toilet?

And I mean specifically, so that if I handed you a map, you could point to a spot on it and say, "My shit goes here!"

And, if you do know, do you know how it gets there? How many other people's shit goes there? And what happens to it there?

June 8, 2013

The Phone Company

I'm pissed they stiffed me on the discount for adding the NSA to my friends and family calling plan.

June 8, 2013

You Can't Say Our Government Doesn't Listen To The People

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

People are always whining about being ignored by the government, and then they pitch a fit when they find out the government is paying pretty close attention.

June 8, 2013

Abortion Challenge In Kangaroo Court

How would a kangaroo court rule on Roe v. Wade?

Kangaroos are marsupials.

June 7, 2013

Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979) - No warrant required for call metadata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_v._Maryland

Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979),[1] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required. The pen register was installed on telephone company property at the telephone company's central offices. In the Majority opinion, Justice Blackmun rejected the idea that the installation and use of a pen registry constitutes a violation of the "legitimate expectation of privacy" since the numbers would be available to and recorded by the phone company anyway.
Background

In Katz v. United States (1967), the United States Supreme Court established its "reasonable expectation of privacy" test. It overturned Olmstead v. United States and held that wiretaps were unconstitutional searches, because there was a reasonable expectation that the communication would be private. The government was then required to get a warrant to execute a wiretap.

In Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that a pen register is not a search because the "petitioner voluntarily conveyed numerical information to the telephone company." Since the defendant had disclosed the dialed numbers to the telephone company so they could connect his call, he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the numbers he dialed. The court did not distinguish between disclosing the numbers to a human operator or just the automatic equipment used by the telephone company.

June 7, 2013

USA Today 5/11/2006 - "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls"

I don't understand why they won't let me post this in Latest Breaking News...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.