Posts from — December 2013

The CNN version of a current law suit against the NSA hoovering:

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of metadata — phone records of the time and numbers called without any disclosure of content — apparently violates privacy rights.

His preliminary ruling favored five plaintiffs challenging the practice, but Leon limited the decision only to their cases.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” said Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.”

Leon’s ruling said the “plaintiffs in this case have also shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits of a Fourth Amendment claim,” adding “as such, they too have adequately demonstrated irreparable injury.”

The government will surely appeal, but at least one Federal judge seems to have read the Constitution and believes that it means what it says in the Fourth Amendment.

The judge notes that the government has not shown credible evidence that the bulk collection actually does anything useful.

If this was effective, there would have been no Boston Marathon bombing. It is really that simple. It doesn’t work because there is too much data and there is no targeting.

Part of what has been tying me up for a couple of weeks is looking for a replacement for a failed faucet stem in a shower. This stem is probably 50 years old and almost all of the reliable local hardware stores have been killed off when the ‘big boxes’ arrived.

I took all of the measurements and a picture of the part and went on the ‘Net to get a part number. After all of that, I think it’s time for someone to buy some rulers for the people who write the specifications for plumbing parts, because they are not on the same continent as ‘accurate’. Let me just say that no one has ever made a shower faucet stem with an overall length of 55 inches. There are sites who do make an effort by photographing samples on ¼-inch graph paper that are really useful.

As this was an older part, I found it and bought it at ACE Hardware, the small store with an amazing collection of actual hardware.

Yesterday we tied the high record for the date, 77° F, then late last night/early this morning the wind shifted and the temperature dropped 30°. It was cold on Friday, record tying warmth on Saturday, and cold on Sunday.

We now have a bipolar climate on the Gulf Coast that can’t decide what it’s going to do.

The CBC reports that China lands rover on the moon

China on Saturday successfully carried out the world’s first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, state media said, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.

The unmanned Chang’e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down on Earth’s nearest neighbor following a 12-minute landing process.

The probe carried a six-wheeled moon rover called “Yutu,” or “Jade Rabbit,” the goddess’ pet. After landing Saturday evening on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon, the rover was slated to separate from the Chang’e eight hours later and embark on a three-month scientific exploration.

I wish them luck and hope they discover a lot of new things about our nearest neighbor. It’s comforting that at least some people think discovery is important.

Update from the BBC – Jade Rabbit has ‘hopped’ out of Chang’e’s ‘lap’ and is playing on the lunar surface. The Chinese have estimated a three month mission for Jade Rabbit and a year for Chang’e, but US experience on Mars shows that a much longer life is very possible.

Atrios forgets in his mini-rant about social welfare and the GDP, that more than two-thirds of the US GDP is based on consumption. Any money that the poor get is spent to survive, not stuffed into mattresses.

Food stamps and unemployment checks help the economy by providing demand in the absence of people with jobs. The 1% don’t actually generate much demand when compared to the 99% buying groceries.

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.]

Excise on Ice

Zzz…Brrr…Zzz…

[Editor: Another cold spell and Excise has been in rabbit mode all day. None of the outside cats have come out. If it’s clear, it’s cold. When it warms up, it rains.]

Friday Ark

This is Saint Lucia’s Day for Scandinavians.

It features special treats that are handed out by a girl wearing a crown of candles, Lucia coming from the Latin for light, LUX.

Saint Lucia was an early Christian martyr from Syracuse on Sicily, but her official feast day, December 13, fit perfectly with the local pagan celebration of the Lussi on December 13, which was the Winter Solstice at the time. Yep, more cover to continue the fun mid-winter celebrations by pretending they are associated with Christianity to get the Church off everyone’s case.

The BBC reports that Iceland jails former Kaupthing bank bosses:

Four former bosses from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing have been sentenced to between three and five years in prison.

They are the former chief executive, the chairman of the board, one of the majority owners and the chief executive of the Luxembourg branch.

They were accused of hiding the fact that a Qatari investor bought a stake in the firm with money lent – illegally – by the bank itself.

Kaupthing collapsed in 2008 under the weight of huge debts.

Iceland covered the insured deposits to the legal limit, but refused to pay for all of the losses and let the banks go bankrupt. Then they filed criminal charges against the bankers.

The Europeans wanted the people of Iceland to cover all of the losses of the depositors, but the people of Iceland voted against that. They didn’t share in the profits, so they had no interest in covering the losses.

What Iceland did is called capitalism. Risk is the ‘invisible hand’. The banks engaged in risky behavior and reality caught up with them. It is pretty stupid to privatize the profits and socialize the risks. 😈

And I have been busy with Real Life™, as happens from time to time. It is the curse of the blogging class.

The BBC mentioned something I heard in the car – Ukraine violence: US considers sanctions. When I heard the NPR report my first reaction was what makes this any different than what the NYPD did to the Occupy movement in New York? It is hypocrisy to talk about the right to assemble and demonstrate in Kiev after you have ignored it in NYC, Oakland, et al. If you are going to impose sanctions, what about Bahrain?

CNN covered the Mandela memorial ‘selfie’:

Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt made headlines after snapping a selfie of herself nestled in between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama at Mandela’s memorial service on Tuesday.

From the picture accompanying the article I got the impression that Zero was going to hear about his conduct from his wife.

The Repubs are venting their rage over Zero shaking hands with Raul Castro. Mr. Mandela had good relations with Cuba and support from the Castros, so it would have been rather churlish not to shake hands.

I guess Zero should have taken lessons on how to conduct himself at solemn events from a Republican.

Our current US government, every branch, is a collection of fools and knaves. The latest budget deal just about guarantees a repeat of the 1937 recession, for exactly the same reason.

They already sliced $5 Billion out of food stamps, and now they are going to let the extended unemployment benefits expire at the end of the year, both of which have/will reduce demand, and cause more unemployment.

This deal requires Federal workers and the military to pay more into their retirement accounts, effectively cutting their pay, and providing another decrease in overall demand.

The basic problem is a lack of demand for products and services, and the government is acting to reduce it even further.

While I’m covering the ignorance of the government I would like to point out the origin of the social safety net. It did not arise from the socialist movement, it came from the military-industrial complex in the late 19^th century, pushed primarily by Otto Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Chancellor of the German Reich.

The Iron law of wages asserts that real wages always tend, in the long run, toward the minimum wage necessary to sustain the life of the worker. While trying to determine that level it has a tendency to spend more time below than above that level, like the Federal minimum wage. Otto discovered he couldn’t field a decent parade, much less a respectable army from the German workers, as only about 1 in 10 was in good enough shape to turn into cannon fodder. He got health care and later unemployment insurance enacted so he could go to war if necessary. The British government picked up the concept for the same reason.

The socialists adopted the concepts, but they arose from national security concerns, not ‘bleeding-heart liberals’. If we attempted to institute the draft again in the US, we would be faced with the same situation as Otto.

In his last comment before wandering out into the wilderness for a few weeks to clear his mind and recharge, Kryten mentioned a holiday promotion by SoftMaker.

If you go to their “Load and Help” 2013 site and download free software until Christmas Eve the company will donate money to charity. The rate is € 0.10 [about 14¢ US] per download.

They have an office suite, FreeOffice, available for Windows and Linux boxes, and some Holiday fonts for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

You provide a name, e-mail address, and country, so they can send you the registration details.

It is marketing, of course, but not as obnoxious as the last thing I bought on-line showing up in an ad at half the sites I visit. [I bought it, you tools! I don’t need to see it again, OK?!]

Channeling the Grinch, the conservative prime minister of Australia has threatened to keep the Parliament in session through Christmas if they don’t pass his legislative agenda.

Mr. Abbott did not win a majority in recent elections, so I don’t think this is going to be the threat he thinks it is, but it is certainly a useful bit for the ‘loyal opposition’ to talk about with their constituents.

Via Avedon Carol, a collection of wonderful pictures of real snowflakes.

Because the Republicans have gone totally ‘Hoover’ and are attempting to out-source the social safety net to Scrooge & Marley, I’ve made the decision that my entire Christmas list will be C2C, i.e. cash to charities. Because of what happened to the WIC program under the shutdown, and the food stamp program November 1^st I’m sending to groups that feed children on a continuing basis. It makes no sense to me to give people good Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners when the need is there year round. This should be covered under ‘promoting the General Welfare’, but some people don’t seem to be able to read anything that doesn’t directly benefit themselves.

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The seventy-second anniversary of “a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will be a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that normally features local survivors of the attack. Obviously there are fewer of them every year.

They have their own license plates, but few can still drive: