Posts from — October 2014

It got down to 50° early this morning which didn’t used to happen this early. I unplugged the AC units and turned on the heaters yesterday in anticipation of the temperature, but I’m not a happy camper.

As a result of the weather a small Mediterranean gecko got itself trapped in the sink at my Mother’s house. It came inside to stay warm, but the gecko grip didn’t seem to work well on wet porcelain, so I had to help it out with a wooden spoon. They are very good at keeping down bugs, so I’m careful not to injure them.

Not much news this weekend.

CNN reports that Marriott was fined $600,000 by FCC for blocking guests’ Wi-Fi.

Marriott was the hotel for a conference in Nashville and they blocked the ability of people at the conference to use their personal cellular ‘Hot Spots’. They claimed it was to protect the Internet and not to make money from the $1000 they charged vendors or $250 that they charged individuals to use the hotel’s WiFi [Yeah, right].

The fine was for interfering with cellular service.

There are legal ways of jamming cellular service that are used by hospitals and others with valid concerns about cellular interference with instruments and necessary equipment, but they require an FCC authorized device and prior notification. Marriott apparently ramped up the power on their WiFi system to ‘drown out’ other WiFi signals.

Tiger Devouring Its Prey

Nom, nom, nom…

[Editor: The kit is taking advantage of the adults’ greeting ritual to get as much as possible.

Friday Ark

The most significant new member is Turkey, and this is probably a reaction to ISIS moving to the Turkish border. It isn’t clear that they will be limiting themselves to an air force response, as they may decide to push ISIS away from their border.

I doubt they will be going further than about 50 kilometers inside Syria and Iraq, and are probably securing a buffer zone. It is better to blow up your neighbor’s yard than your own. This should also provide a space outside of Turkey for Kurdish fighters as Turks and Kurds ‘don’t play well together’.

Every site I check actually covered these two stories on their front pages. It has been a while since that happened.

The BBC versions are:

China issues warning over Hong Kong ‘illegal’ protests:

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned against “illegal” protests in Hong Kong, amid major pro-democracy rallies in the territory.

Mr Wang, in Washington, said the matter was an “internal affair” for China.

US counterpart John Kerry urged Hong Kong to handle the protests – seen as a challenge to Beijing – with restraint.

Analysts are saying that China is hoping to outlast the protestors rather than sending in the PLA like they did in Tiananmen Square. I think that would have been reasonable if the local authorities hadn’t tried to shut the protest down with riot police on the first day, which added another grievance to the protestors list.

__________________________

Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigns:

The head of the US Secret Service, tasked with guarding US President Barack Obama, has resigned following several high-profile security lapses.

Julia Pierson offered her resignation to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
…

Joseph Clancy, in charge of the presidential protective division of the agency, will take over as acting interim director.

Here’s what I don’t get – the overall head of the Secret Service resigns and is replaced by the guy who was actually responsible for the President’s security? Is it just me, or does this seem rather … STUPID!