The backstory: the award is given to entertainers or other celebrities by the Veterans Foundation. This was filmed at the 2002 award ceremony.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Honoring a Veteran...
Reader Jim M. passed this along:
The backstory: the award is given to entertainers or other celebrities by the Veterans Foundation. This was filmed at the 2002 award ceremony.
The backstory: the award is given to entertainers or other celebrities by the Veterans Foundation. This was filmed at the 2002 award ceremony.
The Infinite Monkey Cage...
Paul H. passes along this interesting looking podcast, from the BBC: a humorous science series called The Infinite Monkey Cage. Humor and science – that's a combination you don't often see!
One Boy USO...
Simon M. also passed along this heartwarming story. This reminds me of airport scenes I've witnessed in various places, almost entirely in this country's south...
Christmas Shopping...
Reader Simon M. passes along this holiday season joke:
A married couple had been out Christmas shopping at the mall for most of the afternoon. Suddenly, the wife realized that her husband had "disappeared". The somewhat irate spouse called her husband's cell phone and demanded: "Where ARE you"???
Her husband responds by saying: "Darling, you remember that jewelry shop where you saw that diamond necklace that you totally fell in love with, and remember how I told you I didn't have much money at the time but said, 'Baby, it'll be yours one day'?"
Wife, with a smile in her voice, blushing: "Yes I remember that, my love."
Husband: "Well, I'm in the pub next to that place."
Sovereign Keys...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published their proposal for sovereign keys, intended to fix a number of well-known problems with current standards for Internet security (especially HTTPS, the secure web). This page has a high-level overview that is not particularly technical...
Cyberwar?
Not so long ago, news leaked out about an apparently very successful cyber-attack against Iran. This attack used a virus to attack the centrifuges Iran was using to isolate weapons-grade radioactive material. The perpetrators are widely believed to be some combination of the U.S. and Israel.
Now the Iranians have somehow captured an American stealthy drone. According to this Iranian engineer, they did it by interfering with GPS signals in such a way as to trick the drone into landing where the Iranians wanted it to. This article talks about skeptics of the purported technology. I'm skeptical on another front: I don't want to believe our military is stupid enough to not put an inertial guidance system on the drone (these don't depend on any external systems like GPS).
But put the skepticism aside for the moment. If these stories are both real, then we are witnessing the first real cyberwar, with both sides engaged. The way this is unfolding makes complete sense to me: clever people on both sides identify points of vulnerability and devise ways to attack them. In both cases, the attack design is quite complex and represents an engineering feat in its own right. The cost of entry for such attacks is well within the range of just about any nation-state (though countries with a culture of innovation are advantaged), making it a very attractive “weapon” for smaller countries.
Here's a detailed report on an attack against the U.S. in 2008.
This will be interesting to watch evolve...
Now the Iranians have somehow captured an American stealthy drone. According to this Iranian engineer, they did it by interfering with GPS signals in such a way as to trick the drone into landing where the Iranians wanted it to. This article talks about skeptics of the purported technology. I'm skeptical on another front: I don't want to believe our military is stupid enough to not put an inertial guidance system on the drone (these don't depend on any external systems like GPS).
But put the skepticism aside for the moment. If these stories are both real, then we are witnessing the first real cyberwar, with both sides engaged. The way this is unfolding makes complete sense to me: clever people on both sides identify points of vulnerability and devise ways to attack them. In both cases, the attack design is quite complex and represents an engineering feat in its own right. The cost of entry for such attacks is well within the range of just about any nation-state (though countries with a culture of innovation are advantaged), making it a very attractive “weapon” for smaller countries.
Here's a detailed report on an attack against the U.S. in 2008.
This will be interesting to watch evolve...
Salton Sea...
The Salton Sea, only about an hour's drive east of my home, has long fascinated me. It's man-made, the result of an accident early in the 20th century that sent the Colorado River pouring into the (then) Salton Sink (a dry ancient lake bed). It's been slowly shrinking ever since the “leak” was fixed, as there's no natural source of water to sustain it. As it evaporates, minerals and salts in the water are concentrated to the point where most forms of water life can't live in it. Here's a collection of photos and videos showing the Salton Sea today.
The part about this that fascinates me is this: there are lots of people, many part of environmental movements, who don't realize that the Salton Sea is man-made and who think mankind is responsible for the current decline of the sea. I have seen documentaries, advertisements, and even demonstrations based on this rather clear – but very widespread – misunderstanding. If we (mankind) were actually going to put things “right” (e.g., back the way they were), then we'd find a way to pump all the water out of there and return it to a dry lake bed.
But the Salton Sea is now a prime piece of real estate for migratory birds, who were quick to take advantage of this inland sea suddenly appearing in the middle of the desert. So now the Salton Sea is the subject of debate even within the well-informed parts of the environmental movements. Should we return it to it's original dry lake bed status? Or should we artificially sustain the new migratory bird habitat?
The part about this that fascinates me is this: there are lots of people, many part of environmental movements, who don't realize that the Salton Sea is man-made and who think mankind is responsible for the current decline of the sea. I have seen documentaries, advertisements, and even demonstrations based on this rather clear – but very widespread – misunderstanding. If we (mankind) were actually going to put things “right” (e.g., back the way they were), then we'd find a way to pump all the water out of there and return it to a dry lake bed.
But the Salton Sea is now a prime piece of real estate for migratory birds, who were quick to take advantage of this inland sea suddenly appearing in the middle of the desert. So now the Salton Sea is the subject of debate even within the well-informed parts of the environmental movements. Should we return it to it's original dry lake bed status? Or should we artificially sustain the new migratory bird habitat?
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