Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 781 posts filed in Musings (this is page 11 of 79).

Nothing spotted by planes searching remote patch of Indian Ocean for missing Malaysian jet | CTV News

The continuing search for signs of Malaysian flight MH370 remind us of two things: it’s a big ocean out there and there is plenty of debris in that ocean.

Search planes scoured a remote patch of the Indian Ocean but came back empty-handed Friday after a 10-hour mission looking for any sign of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, another disappointing day in one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries.

Australian officials pledged to continue the search for two large objects spotted by a satellite earlier this week, which had raised hopes that the two-week hunt for the Boeing 777 that disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board was nearing a breakthrough.

But Australia’s acting prime minister, Warren Truss, tamped down expectations.

“Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating — it may have slipped to the bottom,” he said. “It’s also certain that any debris or other material would have moved a significant distance over that time, potentially hundreds of kilometres.”

via Nothing spotted by planes searching remote patch of Indian Ocean for missing Malaysian jet | CTV News.

McCrory thinks taxes stifle startups

Gov. McCrory just came back from Silicon Valley with supposed tips about how to foster startups.

Says the Governor:

“Our tax code is not conducive to the first-round investors for venture capital, for high-risk, first-round investors,” he says. “If they make an investment, they often move (the startup) to a no-tax state, with the profits. That means we lose that money and we lose that sweat equity. We want that money to be reinvested in North Carolina.”

Oh really? Venture capitalists are seriously going to uproot the founders of their investments and risk losing them just so they can save a few bucks on their taxes? I have been deeply involved in startups for over 20 years and I have never heard of this happening to a North Carolina startup.
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Russia and Putin

I sure wish America could wag its finger at Russia’s Vladimir Putin and shame him into withdrawing his forces from Crimea (and, perhaps, Ukraine). Sadly, America has squandered any moral authority it once had regarding invading countries on the flimsiest of pretexts thanks to our misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus we are now faced with the biggest foreign affairs crisis in decades with few options.

The European Union is addicted to Russian fossil fuels and will stop short of angering Russia for fear of having these fuel supplies cut. That doesn’t leave the West with many diplomatic tools.

The only way to get Russia’s attention is through the pocketbook. Perhaps Putin’s own pocketbook would be a good place to start. I’ve long suspected the new Russia is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Russian mafia. I believe Putin is thoroughly corrupt and has long been helping himself to Russian riches. I remember watching an Al Jazeera documentary that hinted at the massive wealth Putin has been quietly amassing during his presidency.
His wealth has been rumored to be in the tens of billions, with some claiming that he may be the world’s richest man. Putin’s massive new Black Sea residence, dubbed “Putin’s Palace,” belies the image Putin has cultivated of being a man of the people.

The world needs to treat Putin as the gangster he is, and target the sources (and locations) of his wealth. Perhaps there is still time to rescue the Russian people from having their country subjugated by mobsters like Putin.

Air Force nuke crew failings are worse than reported | The Salt Lake Tribune

Knowing what I know about nuclear mishaps from reading Eric Schlosser’s book Command and Control, I find the lack of integrity of those entrusted with our nation’s nuclear force absolutely terrifying.

The Air Force initially called the overall March inspection outcome at Minot a "success," reflecting the fact that the 91st Missile Wing as a whole was rated "satisfactory." But after The Associated Press learned in May about the "marginal" performance in the missile operations sector of the inspection, the service disclosed that 19 officers had been forced to surrender their launch authority in April because of performance and attitude problems. That was an unprecedented mass sidelining of launch control officers, reflecting what the 91st’s deputy operations commander at the time, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, called "rot" in the force.

Until now, however, it was not publicly known that of 11 crews tested on a launch simulator for the inspection, three were rated Q3, or "unqualified," which the Air Force defines as demonstrating "an unacceptable level of safety, performance or knowledge." Five of the 11 earned a top rating and three got a second-tier rating.

via Air Force nuke crew failings are worse than reported | The Salt Lake Tribune.

Oakwood files bogus DMCA takedown notice

I sympathize with neighborhood listserver moderators. I know what they deal with, having moderated a handful of East Raleigh neighborhood lists for several years. It’s not easy keeping certain topics from exposing strong opinions and blowing up into a major snit. This is especially true with the listserver of a nearby neighborhood, Historic Oakwood, full of very passionate citizens.

Recently it came to light that someone was reposting snippets from this neighborhood’s listserver onto a Twitter called OakwoodListserv. The listserver moderator complained that the account violated the listserver’s terms of use and so the account should be removed. These terms, adopted in October 2013, prohibit reposting list content in other forums without the author’s permission.

These rules are prudent and understandable. Listserver moderators have the right to regulate what goes on on their lists and to expect list members to abide by certain standards. I get that because I’ve done it myself for years. I’ve regretfully had to kick certain members off my lists because they couldn’t behave.

It’s what I didn’t know until today that gives me pause. On March 4th, someone representing the neighborhood filed a DMCA complaint against the mocking Twitter account, claiming copyright infringement. Twitter subsequently deleted the account and there would be no trace of it today save for the DMCA abuse-tracking website Chilling Effects. Here’s the complaint as posted by Chilling Effects:

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Putin’s real fear

Russia has occupied the Ukrainian province of Crimea for over two weeks now. So far nothing’s seemingly able to stop Putin from taking over the whole country. Certainly the war-weary U.S. is not up for taking on yet another armed conflict, and the Ukrainian military is barely holding out.

As the sun soared over my head this afternoon, I realized the one thing that could pull the plug on Putin’s military adventures: the spread of renewable energy. Russia’s military, while formidable in comparison to Ukraine’s, is not Russia’s real strength. Russia’s real strength is the country’s economic might. As the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to Europe [PDF], Putin knows he can get away with just about anything. All it takes is for Putin to merely threaten to withhold these energy sales and the European Union will cave.

Don’t believe me? How else can you explain why a secret briefing document spotted in the hands of an advisor on the way into #10 Downing Street states that the UK will oppose economic sanctions on Russia for it’s Ukraine escapades? Not only are we not talking about a military response but even something as tame as economic sanctions are off the table.

But one thing can shift the advantage to the EU: renewable energy. If the EU invests in solar, wind, and hydro energy it could make natural gas an afterthought and sap Russia of much-needed funds. Renewable energy shifts power from giant energy companies like Gazprom to local control.

Energy independence is what keeps Vladimir Putin up at night because the energy card is really the only card he has to play.

N&O spreads flawed password advice

Courtesy Davide Restivo

Courtesy Davide Restivo


In today’s Connect section of the News and Observer, reporter John Bordsen asked a panel of technology experts about how to protect oneself from online hackers. I have a few beefs with this article which I’ll describe here.

The first is from Dr. Magdy Attia, dean of the College of STEM at Charlotte’s Johnson C. Smith University:

Change your passwords and make them long. “Your password should be changed every month or every two months – and make it hard to guess,” Attia said. “Some people use kids’ names, birthdates or whatever. But there are software packages that can scan a large number of passwords to find out what can work. A hacker can use these tools to scan for possibilities.”

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Energy cost of snow days

You know, if I were a local reporter on the energy beat, I’d think it’d be very interesting to study how last week’s snow days affected our community’s energy usage. Did a near-week of school days cause our area to use more or less electricity and/or natural gas? Did our local businesses burn energy to heat and light mostly-empty offices during this time? What about the gasoline saved from all the school buses that weren’t running? Or the commutes that didn’t take place? How about the fleet of municipal utility trucks that constantly worked to clear our roads?

Unlike hurricanes and ice storms, last week’s snow caused relatively little damage to our electricity infrastructure. I think this makes an ideal situation to study because one can essentially rule out downed power lines as the cause of energy savings (if any). I’d love to see a breakdown of the energy costs of this recent break.

Coca-cola ad causes some heads to explode

I didn’t watch the Superbowl yesterday because professional football kind of bores me. Last night’s blowout of Denver by Seattle makes my choice seem justified. Plus, what does it say when all anyone wants to talk about is the Super Bowl TV commercials?

Apparently Coca-cola struck a nerve in some when they had the audacity to air a commercial with brown-skinned people singing America the Beautiful. Yes, even this patriotic song by Katherine Lee Bates and Samuel A. Ward is causing some conservatives to flip out. Why? Who the hell knows?

I’ve been seeing responses on the Desert Storm Veterans Facebook page that just make me want to smack my head.

Here’s one pic from Facebook that’s been making the rounds:
"Hey Coke! No American Solider [sic] has ever served his Country so that we could hear America the Beautiful in another language during our Superbowl! Big Mistake.. big, big Mistake!"
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Validating email alerts about school closures

I just got this emailed alert (allegedly) from Wake County Public Schools, announcing that school was closed tomorrow (we have an inch of snow tonight with another six possible by daybreak):

From: notify at …
Subject: Wake Schools Closed Wed, Jan 29
To: notify at …
Reply-To: webadmin at …

All Wake County Public School System schools will be closed on Wednesday, January 29, due to inclement weather. Athletic and extracurricular events are also canceled. The safety of our students, parents and staff remains our top priority.

Make-up dates for this missed day of instruction will be announced as soon as possible.

(I’ve replaced the wcpss.net domain in the above email addresses to thwart spammers)
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