Posts from — December 2014

The CBC says that North Korea suffers internet outages in wake of Sony hacking attack

North Korea experienced sweeping and progressively worse internet outages extending into Monday, with one computer expert saying the country’s online access is “totally down.” The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible.

Actually, Sony could have paid a couple of guys in a basement in Romania to take down North Korea, given how centralized and limited their system is, but the US is going to hint at doing it, whether they did [probable] or not.

The State Department quote is a nice psych-out:

“We aren’t going to discuss, you know, publicly operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in anyway except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

At 5:03 PM CST the winter solstice occurs marking the longest night of the year. If everyone has been good, the days start getting longer tomorrow. Locally, the sun will rise at 6:39AM and set at 4:50PM for a total of 10 hours and 10 minutes of daylight, but tomorrow will be a whole 1 second longer.

This also marks HogsWatch, so don’t forget to put out the turnips.

This is a prime example of why you should make a list and check it twice when traveling during holidays. Following stars is all well and good, but can you tell the difference between a star and a meteorite headed directly for you?

If you are migrating home, or off on a vacation, be safe.

At 10:26AM someone at the courthouse realized that a trial would interfere with Christmas week festivities, so any outstanding cases scheduled for next week that hadn’t been settled were continued to a later date. This means that I don’t have to show up at the courthouse at 8AM on Monday, which is nice.

It would have been better if they had figured this out before I bought a suit and got a haircut, as that would have saved me a good deal of money, but I will be satisfied with not having to deal with rush hour traffic.

Treed Tiger

You looking at me!?

[Editor: Tadpole is not happy. I really need to master the video feature of my camera so you could hear him growling like a mountain lion. Two toms got into a fight and then ran right at him, so he shot to the top of the tree. After an hour he came down to this crotch and started growling. It took me a bit to realize it was him, because he growls a whole lot bigger than he actually is.]

Friday Ark

Calle Ocho [Eighth Street] is the center of the hard-line anti-Castro segment of the Cuban American community in Miami. It is aging out, and the generations born in the US are not as committed to this view of the world as their fathers and grandfathers. Many of the recent immigrants from Cuba are economic immigrants, not political.

The fifty years of the US Cuban policy has been a total failure at its primary goal – the removal of Fidel. The man still wields great power and influence on the island, now under the control of his brother. He retired for medical reasons, not pressure from the US.

Calle Ocho and Fidel torpedoed Jimmy Carter’s move to normalize relations with Cuba, but Fidel has moderated and Calle Ocho’s influence has been fading. Looking at what happened to Marco Rubio when he attempted to get a compromise immigration bill through Congress shows that the Republican Party is more concerned with the views of the Tea Party, because Calle Ocho can no longer guarantee the votes it did a decade ago.

There is too much money to be made by opening relations with Cuba for there to be serious opposition in Congress. Too many Cubans want to be able to move freely between the US and the island for the old-timers to guarantee support for the politicians who attempt to block this change in policy.

“Boldly going

where no man has gone before.”

The Wright Brothers make the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. I miss the latkes and jelly doughnuts my roommates received for the holiday at college. [Their grandmothers were afraid they wouldn’t celebrate or couldn’t get “real” food at that terrible Baptist university.] It was a great break.

One of the nice things about Hanukkah is that there are established “gifts”, so you don’t have to rack your brains about what to get: a card and gelt covers just about everyone.

General background at Wikipedia’s entry for Hanukkah and even more at Chabad’s Chanukah page.

[Note: on the Jewish calendar the day changes at sundown, not midnight.]

While I have been following the siege in Sydney, I saw this BBC story: Fare-dodging banker banned from City

A London banker who regularly avoided buying a train ticket on his commute to the City has been banned from working in the financial services industry.

BlackRock director Jonathan Paul Burrows was caught by inspectors at Cannon Street station last year and admitted to avoiding the £21.50 fare from Stonegate in East Sussex.

In total, Mr Burrows is believed to have dodged £42,550 in fares.

In Britain “the City” refers to the financial district in London, just as Wall Street is shorthand for the financial district in New York.

The financial services watchdog banned him for failing to meet the standards of professionals in the industry. The offense had nothing to do with what he did in the industry, but people who dodge fares aren’t up to the ethical standards expected.

We know members of the financial industry in the US who caused global chaos, but still have high paying jobs, and have not been penalized at all. Why don’t we expect ethical standards from the financial industry?

The lead story everywhere is the hostage situation at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. An unknown number of staff and customers have been taken hostage by a gunman. At one point a black flag with Arabic letters was held against the front window of the cafe by hostages.

The political leaders offer some advice:

“[New South Wales] Premier Mike Baird said the police and public were being “tested”, but people should go about their business as normal.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said “… I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual.”

Well, the problem is that this is in the middle of Sydney’s Central Business District and police have closed down several blocks surrounding the cafe, which means businesses in that area are closed and evacuated. Transportation routes that go through the area have been halted. It is difficult to go about your business as usual or normal if it involves anything in the cordoned off area. They have even closed and evacuated the Sydney Opera House that is a kilometer away.

The police have not been able to establish communications with the gunman in the cafe.

Update: This is the ABC live blog on the aftermath of the siege that ended in the death of two hostages and the gunman.

The BBC reports on the shutdown of the airspace over Southern England and Wales:

Friday: London airspace closed after computer failure

London airspace has been closed until 19:00 GMT after a computer failure, air traffic controllers have said.

The news was announced in a brief message on flight safety body Eurocontrol’s website.

UK air traffic controllers Nats confirmed a “technical problem” at its Swanwick control centre in Hampshire.

Today: Flight disruption: Air traffic glitch ‘not seen before’

In a statement, Nats said the number of workstations “in use” at its control centre versus “in standby” fluctuated with the demands of the traffic being controlled.

“In this instance a transition between the two states caused a failure in the system which has not been seen before,” it said.

“The failure meant that the controllers were unable to access all of the data regarding individual flight plans which significantly increases their workload.”

It turns out that the air traffic control system is at 98% of capacity, which is effectively full, so it can’t take any surges of data, like bringing more terminals on line. They have no reserve capacity and people are talking about adding another airport near London while the government is cutting positions at the current facility.

Converting the Nats system to a public-private enterprise has had the usual results of such attempts – it’s more expensive and less effective than the public system that it replaced.

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.

Bun Warmer

Do you mind!?

[Editor: Ms Underhouse taking a break on the heated cat pad – under the house, of course.]

Friday Ark

The ?news? sites are covering two extremely unusual events tonight.

The biggest story is the drenching California is getting from a ‘Pineapple Express’ which is good news, in that it will help to alleviate the drought conditions, but also bad news because the high winds are taking out power lines and the heavy rains are causing flooding. In essence they are getting months of normal rainfall in days.

I hope that people like Badtux, Jill, Ellroon, and skippy make it through the storm without major problems.

The other unusual story is that the House of Representatives actually did something that they have avoided doing and passed a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down. The bill now goes to the Senate which has been given two days to pass it and get it to the President.

The current House of Representative has done less than almost any other Congress in US history.