Posts from — September 2013

When first we practice to deceive!

The BBC reports on the latest press release of Al-Qaeda’s current CEO, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawarhiri compliments individuals on their local efforts, and urges more ‘lone-wolf’ attacks on US soil and boycotts to harm the US economy.

He should just chill out because Alexander the Geek is destroying swaths of US industry with his benighted tactics in the War on [insert noun here]™.

Having already made US Internet service providers anathema to foreign companies, and made US hardware very undesirable, he is now rampaging through on-line commerce and credit cards.

Badtux has an extremely justified ‘I told you so’ on NSA ‘man-in-the-middle’ intercepts that totally negate the value of the SSL certificate system and the little padlock in your address bar.

Mother Jones, the source of the graphic, reported on the corruption of the Certificate Authority system based of more of the PowerPoint slides from Snowden. [It is bad enough that they did it, but making it part of a presentation is frankly unbalanced.]

Steve Bates notes that NSA is also plundering VISA credit card records.

When you look at all they have done, and what the impact will be on the US tech industry and compare it to the single, verified incident that they can show was discovered by the system [the infamous $9K donation by a cab driver in San Diego] you have to conclude that this is a total disaster for the nation. The tech companies need to march on Washington and force Congress to deal with this out-of-control mess.

Position: 27.0N 43.3W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Stationary.
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1005 mb ↑.

Currently about 1215 miles [1955 km] Southwest of the Azores.

The storm lost its tropical characteristics over the weekend but has reformed.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 23.7N 99.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 5 mph [ 7 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 30 mph [ 45 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1007 mb ↑.

Currently about 10 miles [ 15 km] West of Ciudad Victoria, Mexico.

The storm weakened to a Tropical Storm just prior to landfall at La Pesca at 7AM CDT [1200 UTC].

The double hit on Mexico of Manuel on the Pacific Coast and Ingrid on the Gulf Coast are dumping up to two feet of rain on areas in a belt across that country that will result in flash floods and mudslides.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Día de la Independencia
Estados Unidos Mexicanos

¡Viva México!

Some background on 16 de Septiembre and El Grito de Dolores.

The Day of His Noodly Appendage

The holiest of holidays for Pastafarians, is of course the birthday of His Most Holy Prophet, Marco Polo (b. Sept 15, 1254), who brought the word of his Noodly Appendage back from the East. As Talk Like A Pirate Day falls on September 19th, this five-day period constitutes Holy Pasta Week, during which spaghetti is consumed liberally. With a nice Chianti until the last day when it’s grog for all.

Position: 23.1N 96.5W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [290°] near 6 mph [ 9 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 15 miles [ 30 km].
Minimum central pressure: 989 mb ↑.

Currently about 110 miles [ 175 km] Northeast of Tampico, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo to La Pesca.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for La Pesca North to Bahia Algodones.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo South to Tuxpan and La Pesca North to Rio San Fernando.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Modulator, the web site that hosts the Friday Ark has been infested with a Kryptik trojan. I clicked on it today and my shields went up and sirens went off.

It looks like it is in one of the scripts in the upper corner of the of the left sidebar.

It wasn’t there yesterday, so I assume that someone got hacked and doesn’t know it yet.

Position: 22.0N 95.0W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [335°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 85 mph [140 kph].
Wind Gusts: 95 mph [150 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 90 miles [150 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 986 mb ↑.

Currently about 185 miles [ 300 km] East of Tampico, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo to La Pesca.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for La Pesca North to Bahia Algodones.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo South to Tuxpan and La Pesca North to Rio San Fernando.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

CBS is reporting that The Scooter Store is no more.

This scam did an obscene amount of advertising on cable television channels that were targeted at seniors. After I heard the first ad, I told my Mother it was a scam to get money from Medicare and other insurance companies.

After a while my Mother automatically changed channel or muted the television if one of their ads came on while I was at her house. She didn’t want to set me off about what con artists they were.

Finally they got investigated, knocked off the Medicare vendor list, and have gone bankrupt.

There are a lot of people zipping around in electric wheelchairs that would be better off using a walker and getting some exercise.

Position: 24.8N 33.0W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 185 miles [295 km].
Minimum central pressure: 999 mb ↑.

Currently about 840 miles [1355 km] Northwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 42.0N 64.0W [ 4PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [025°] near 35 mph [55 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1004 mb ↓.

Currently about 320 miles [ 515 km] East of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The storm has degenerated into low pressure area. This is the final advisory from the NHC.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 19.3N 95.2W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Stationary.
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 70 mph [110 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 80 miles [130 km].
Minimum central pressure: 993 mb.

Currently about 65 miles [ 105 km] East of Veracruz, Mexico.

The storm is still parked in the Bay of Campeche. A Hurricane Hunter mission has found the storm to be stronger than thought.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Coatzacoalcos to Cabo Rojo.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo to La Pesca.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Quivering in Anticipation

Purrrrrr …

[Editor: Alas a cell phone shot of Froggie and the Hermit warming up for dinner. The low light made for a slow shutter speed and the blurring.]

Yes, it’s Friday the 13^th again. The 13^th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the week, so get over it. It’s only valid in in English and Portuguese speaking countries, so go visit a Spanish-speaking neighborhood for the day.

If you want to blame someone, it’s the calendar of Pope Gregory XIII that created this imbalance. [He obviously didn’t have a problem with the number on any day.]