October 2018

There were 22 posts published in October 2018 (this is page 1 of 3).

The Growth of Sinclair’s Conservative Media Empire | The New Yorker

Sinclair is not Fox News … it owns FCC broadcast licenses that require it to serve the public interest. Sinclair can’t spew lies and propaganda with reckless abandon the way Fox News does. Sinclair can be held accountable.

In some cases, [Sinclair] anchors have been compelled to read from scripts prepared by Sinclair. In April, 2018, dozens of newscasters across the country parroted Trump’s invectives about “fake news,” saying, “Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.” In response, Dan Rather, the former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” wrote, on Twitter, “News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn’t journalism. It’s propaganda. It’s Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.”

Source: The Growth of Sinclair’s Conservative Media Empire | The New Yorker

It Was Vulture Capitalism that Killed Sears

If you’ve been following the impending bankruptcy of America’s iconic retailer, as covered by print, broadcast, and digital media, you’ve probably encountered lots of nostalgia, and sad clucking about how dinosaurs like Sears can’t compete in the age of Amazon and specialty retail.

But most of the coverage has failed to stress the deeper story. Namely, Sears is a prime example of how hedge funds and private-equity companies take over retailers, encumber them with debt in order to pay themselves massive windfall profits, and then leave the retailer without adequate operating capital to compete. Part of the strategy is to sell off valuable real estate, the better to enrich the hedge fund, and stick the retail company with costly rental payments to occupy the space that it once owned.

Source: It Was Vulture Capitalism that Killed Sears

Tom Petty’s Biographer on the Story He Didn’t Tell – Rolling Stone

I still miss Tom Petty.

I was standing in my kitchen when I heard about Tom Petty’s death. The message came from a friend who had worked at WBCN in Boston. WBCN — that’s where, at age 12, I heard Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ first single, “Breakdown.” Tell me this isn’t true. That was the message from my friend. I’m not sure how the constellations of thought come together, but they form quickly. Just that fast, I knew Tom Petty had died. And then the street outside my window looked different.I’d thought about what this day might be like. Petty had been in the room with me (and so many of us) for more than 40 years. I could chart my life in relation to his releases. Early on, around the time of the first albums, I had the feeling that Petty was giving me better direction than the adults who came and went, mostly went, in my life. Even the losers. That alone helped.

Source: Tom Petty’s Biographer on the Story He Didn’t Tell – Rolling Stone

Russian eBay page

I’d been browsing eBay a few days back, checking out a few items I was considering buying. I left my eBay tab open though I was not logged in. Yesterday morning, I figured I would log into my eBay account and save the item I was viewing to my “wish list.” So, I clicked on the login link and was surprised to see the eBay signin page show up … in Russian!

I cannot for the life of me figure out how this happened. My browser language is not set to Russian, my eBay preferences are not set to Russian, and I did not somehow enter a Russian URL. There was no reported BGP hijack on eBay, nor would eBay necessarily reflect it if there was – the IP would not have changed from the eBay webserver’s point of view. Yet somehow it served me up a Russian page.

So, what could have happened here? Either something big happened to eBay, or something happened on my end. I did a quick nslookup to make sure I was hitting the proper site:

Non-authoritative answer:
signin.ebay.com canonical name = origin-signin.g.ebay.com.
Name: origin-signin.g.ebay.com
Address: 66.211.185.34
Name: origin-signin.g.ebay.com
Address: 66.211.181.81
Name: origin-signin.g.ebay.com
Address: 66.211.181.96
Name: origin-signin.g.ebay.com
Address: 66.211.185.47

Looks good. I checked the SSL certificate I was receiving and it checked out:

What I think happened is that my connection to eBay was rerouted temporarily through Russia, possibly through malware. Time to do some spring cleaning on my network, methinks.

Turks tell U.S. officials they have audio and video recordings that support conclusion Khashoggi was killed – The Washington Post


The Saudis are screwed.

The Turkish government has told U.S. officials that it has audio and video recordings that prove Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.

The recordings show that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate after he walked in Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding, then killed him and dismembered his body, the officials said.

The audio recording in particular provides some of the most persuasive and gruesome evidence that the Saudi team is responsible for Khashoggi’s death, the officials said.

“The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered,” said one person with knowledge of the recording who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive intelligence.

“You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic,” this person said. “You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.”

Source: Turks tell U.S. officials they have audio and video recordings that support conclusion Khashoggi was killed – The Washington Post

Dietary Supplement Could Reduce Some Chronic Symptoms of Gulf War Illness » SPH | Boston University

Nearly one-third of the US military personnel deployed in the 1991 Gulf War continue to suffer from Gulf War Illness (GWI), a set of symptoms including chronic pain, fatigue, and memory impairment. Although the exact biology of GWI remains unknown, previous research suggests it is related to neuroinflammation caused by chemical exposure during the war.

Oleoylethanolamide (OEA), which is commonly used as a weight-loss supplement, could reduce GWI symptoms, according to a new study co-authored by a School of Public Health researcher in collaboration with Roskamp Institute investigators.

Source: Dietary Supplement Could Reduce Some Chronic Symptoms of Gulf War Illness » SPH | Boston University

The extraordinary life of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen – Business Insider

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, died yesterday at the age of 65. While I dissed him in the past for being a patent troll, Allen was very much an interesting guy and did some great things with his money. I particularly enjoy the Living Computers museum in Seattle, which Allen founded and played an active role in sustaining.

Everybody knows Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, the second-richest man in the world.But Microsoft’s other cofounder, Paul Allen, only became famous outside of Seattle once he published his memoirs in 2011.

He too was rich, and his net worth was pegged at $20 billion. With his money, he invested in a lot of tech companies, real estate, and art. But he also led an over-the-top life filled with rock and roll parties, collections, yachts, and sports teams.

Allen died on Monday aged 65 after a battle with cancer. Here is a look back at his fabulous life.

Source: The extraordinary life of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen – Business Insider

He’s ‘One of Us’: The Undying Bond Between the Bible Belt and Trump – The New York Times

Here’s Exhibit A where the “Depolorables” comment lost Clinton’s presidential campaign. It’s also a path by which Democrats might claw their way back to respectability in the South.

Despite never having met him, Mr. Bledsoe said he felt a personal link and a sense of shared values with Mr. Trump.

“I don’t really look at him as a politician,” he said. “Even now, I look at him as just one of us. He doesn’t act like he’s above you, as a person.”

Source: He’s ‘One of Us’: The Undying Bond Between the Bible Belt and Trump – The New York Times

‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss – The Washington Post

Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. A new report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, the study found, and the forest’s insect-eating animals have gone missing, too.

In 2014, an international team of biologists estimated that, in the past 35 years, the abundance of invertebrates such as beetles and bees had decreased by 45 percent. In places where long-term insect data are available, mainly in Europe, insect numbers are plummeting. A study last year showed a 76 percent decrease in flying insects in the past few decades in German nature preserves.

Source: ‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss – The Washington Post

How China’s lunar relay satellite arrived in its final orbit | The Planetary Society


This is a pretty fascinating explanation of China’s lunar relay mission, Queqiao, becoming the first relay satellite to serve the far side of the moon.

After a 24-day journey, Queqiao, the relay satellite for China’s Chang’e 4 lunar mission, successfully entered its Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit. A normal mission to lunar orbit usually takes four or five days, but Queqiao took much longer due to its special orbit. Here’s a guide to the spacecraft’s long and complicated journey.

Source: How China’s lunar relay satellite arrived in its final orbit | The Planetary Society