It is official. It is now impossible for us to care any less about the Super Bowl (or, as some are calling it, “The Pot Bowl”) than we do now.
But we still have this week’s TMQ to get through after the jump…
TMQ Watch: January 21, 2014.
January 24th, 2014I heartily endorse this event or product. (#10 in a series)
January 22nd, 2014Remember I wrote a while back about the raffle for Bonnie? Matt Rodgers, the guy behind the Echo Sling, was nice enough to donate several of them to the raffle, and to the Squeak or Treat raffle the great and good Erin Palette was running as well.
And I was lucky enough to win one.
Which has been sitting on the gun cabinet since early November, for various uninteresting reasons. (If you want to say “because you’re slow and lazy”, well, that’s a pretty good summary.)
I actually went to install mine last night, and discovered something that would make the late Col. Cooper cry; none of my current long guns has sling swivels installed. (That’s stretching the truth just a bit; my sporterized M1917 Enfield does have sling swivels. However, it lacks sights; I’ve been saving my pennies to put some good glass on it.) I would have sworn one of my two 10/22s had swivels. Or failing that, the Marlin I bought as a car gun. Or some other gun from the arsenal. But noooooooooooooooo! Apparently, this is something to add to the “things I need to fix” list.
So I can’t bring you a review of the Echo Sling, because I can’t review it, because I’m not set up to review it. Yet.
So why am I writing about it and endorsing it, when I haven’t actually used it yet? Reason one: reliable sources say it is an excellent product. And I believe them.
Reason two: because Matt Rodgers deserves some sort of “thank you” for his donations. So call this a long overdue “thank you, Matt”.
Reason three: word through the gun blogger grapevine is that Echo Sling is struggling a bit at the moment, and I’d like for them to hang around until I can pick up at least two or three more Echo Slings. So this is my small way of helping out someone who’s a good guy. (If he wasn’t a good guy, would he have pitched in for Bonnie?)
Look at it this way: the Echo Sling is only $22 – $23 shipped to your freaking door. For that little money, how can you not at least take a flyer on one? You’ve probably spent that much money on a bad lunch, and I promise you the Echo Sling is much more satisfying.
Especially since the Echo Sling is engineered to withstand German Shepherds.
I’ll provide a comprehensive review once I’m able to get it set up and running on one of my long guns, but for now, consider this an official WCD endorsement.
Random notes: January 22, 2014.
January 22nd, 2014You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!
He is the walrus, goo goo a joub.
Is Gary Kasparov trying to buy the presidency of the World Chess Federation?
“Leong” is Ignatius Leong, who lives in Singapore and is the current general secretary of the federation. He serves under the current president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also running for re-election to the federation presidency. Kasparov’s spokespeople say that draft contract has been superseded. But if Kasparov is trying to buy the office, would that be a bad thing? In the last election
(“Karpov” is Anatoly Karpov. You know, the former world champion and the Karpov who played Kasparov.)
And this is interesting:
So he’s an ex-politician who went into chess?
Ilyumzhinov was also tight buddies with the late unlamented Muammar Qaddafi.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! Part deux.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas acknowledged Tuesday that a taxpayer-funded project to install a security system in a converted garage at his home involved improvements “over and above” that job, but said he reimbursed the county for the upgrades.
The Times had disclosed that county-paid crews worked at the supervisor’s Leimert Park home for a week and replaced the garage’s interior walls, installed electrical wiring and equipment, and put in appliances, including a wall-mounted air conditioner and heater and a television.
How the Statesman got scooped on the Wendy Davis story. (No paywall.)
Obit watch: January 21, 2014.
January 21st, 2014John Dobson, inventor of the Dobsonian telescope design.
(The LAT obit is nice, but it doesn’t really give a sense of what the Dobsonian design is or how it works. Here’s the Wikipedia entry, if you’re curious.)
(And Dobson sounds like someone I would have very much liked to have had coffee with. A monk who allegedly got kicked out of the monastery because of his obsession with observational astronomy and telescope building? I bet he’d have been a lot of fun to talk to.)
Noted classical conductor Claudio Abbado. LAT.
Edited to add: Sorry, just ran across this one while reading the local news. Noted Texas songwriter Steven Fromholz passed away on Sunday. Various reports indicate that he died in a hunting accident:
…Fromholz, who lives in the area, and his girlfriend were going to hunt feral hogs. A rifle was in a case but unzipped at the bottom. The gun was being transferred from one vehicle to another.
Ariste says Fromholz grabbed the handle, the gun partly fell, hit the ground and discharged.
The Stateman reports it was a shotgun, not a rifle.
EtA2: Added link to non-paywalled Statesman blog entry.
Random notes: January 18, 2014.
January 18th, 2014Obit watch: Larry Monroe, former KUT-FM DJ. Yes, it was radio – worse yet, public radio. But I liked pretty much everything Monroe did for the station. I drove home from South Austin many Thursday nights listening to the “Phil Music” show, back when KUT broadcast city council meetings. (This was a long time ago, in another country. It was called “Phil Music” because it began with Monroe playing music while the council members were in private session and/or there were gaps in the broadcast; in other words, “fill music”.)
I don’t care much for golf. But, by way of Jimbo, one of the more interesting things I’ve read so far this year: Grantland writer discovers a woman who’s invented a revolutionary putter, and starts working on a story about her. Then things get weird.
Edited to add: adding link to MetaFilter discussion of the story above.
You could hear the music on the AM radio…
January 17th, 2014When was the last time you listened to the radio?
Actually, I still do, mostly when I’m driving around with Mom and Jeff Ward is on. If I’m alone in my own car, though, radio has become to me something like a buggy whip.
But there are some people who still need buggy whips, such as the Amish. And there are some people who still need radios. Like Federal prisoners.
But what makes this New Yorker piece more interesting to me is…the SRF-39FP is actually a pretty good radio. It uses one AA battery, will run for 40 hours, and:
I almost want to pick one up. (I checked; there aren’t any listed on eBay right now.)
(By way of the newsycombinator Twitter feed.)
Crossing the streams again.
January 17th, 2014You know what I want?
A 3D printed chocolate gun that shoots.
(Yeah, I know: Hershey’s chocolate probably won’t be able to withstand the chamber pressure of even a .22LR round. But if a man can’t dream, what’s Heaven for?)
Obit watch: January 17, 2014.
January 17th, 2014For the record: Russell Johnson. NYT. LAT. A/V Club.
(You know, I may not be terribly observant. But it never clicked with me that he was in “This Island Earth”, which I have seen (in the MST3K version)).
Dave Madden. NYT. LAT. A/V Club.
(“The Partridge Family were neither partridges, nor a family. Discuss.”)
And, though I have never been a big fan of The Wizard of Oz, I do want to link to the A/V Club’s obit for Ruth Robinson Duccini, the last surviving female Munchkin. Jerry Maren, according to reports, is the last surviving Munchkin.
Today’s update from the Department of Things That Make You Go “Hmmmmmmmmmmm”.
January 16th, 2014I found a couple of interesting little tidbits while going through the “Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report”. Before I begin, disclaimer and explainer: keep in mind that I am a contractor for Cisco. However, the 2014 Report is not a Cisco internal document, but is available to the public. You can download it here, though you do have to enter your name and an email address.
Things that I found interesting:
Ninety-nine percent of all mobile malware in 2013 targeted Android devices. Android users also have the highest encounter rate (71 percent) with all forms of web-delivered malware.
You. Don’t. Say.
Spam volume was on a downward trend worldwide in 2013. However, while the overall volume may have decreased, the proportion of maliciously intended spam remained constant.
So we’re winning? Maybe?
Of all the web-based threats that undermine security, vulnerabilities in the Java programming language continue to be the most frequently exploited target by online criminals, according to Cisco data.
More:
Data from Sourcefire, now part of Cisco, also shows that Java exploits make up the vast majority (91 percent) of indicators of compromise (IoCs) that are monitored by Sourcefire’s FireAMP solution for advanced malware analysis and protection (Figure 12).
So should you disable Java? I think Borepatch would probably say “yes”. But this is also interesting:
90 percent of Cisco customers use a version of the Java 7 Runtime Environment, the most current version of the program. This is good from a security standpoint, since this version is likely to offer greater protection against vulnerabilities…
…However, Cisco TRAC/SIO research also shows that 76 percent of enterprises using Cisco solutions are also using the Java 6 Runtime Environment, in addition to Java 7.
JRE6 has been end-of-lifed and is no longer supported. I’m thinking the best practice here is:
A. Carefully evaluate your need for Java.
II. If you do need it, use the most current version.
At 43.8 percent, Andr/Qdplugin-A was the most frequently encountered mobile malware, according to Cisco TRAC/SIO research. Typical encounters were through repackaged copies of legitimate apps distributed through unofficial marketplaces.
“unofficial marketplaces”. You. Don’t. Say.
There’s a lot more in the report, including a brief discussion of Wireshark and Python tools for doing data analysis. I do commend it to your attention, even though my bias here is obvious.
Edited to add: left out one I intended to include.
In a recent project reviewing Domain Name Service (DNS) lookups originating from inside corporate networks, Cisco threat intelligence experts found that in every case, organizations showed evidence that their networks had been misused or compromised.
For example, 100 percent of the business networks analyzed by Cisco had traffic going to websites that host malware, while 92 percent show traffic to webpages without content, which typically host malicious activity. Ninety-six percent of the networks reviewed showed traffic to hijacked servers.
TMQ watch: January 14, 2014.
January 16th, 2014The playoffs have not been good to us. Our Saints are out. Our Packers are out. San Francisco is still standing. On the other hand, San Diego is gone, which means an end to the stupid “San Diego is destined to win the Super Bowl because they played Philadelphia in the opening game” meme. And our Patriots are still standing.
But enough about us. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Obit watch: January 15, 2014.
January 15th, 2014Neal Barrett, Jr., one of the great Texas SF writers.
Madeline Arakawa Gins, of Arakawa and Gins fame.
Gins was 72. Arakawa passed away in 2010 at the age of 73.
Edited to add: the Statesman published an obituary for Mr. Barrett. Bad news: it is behind the paywall and thus unlinkable.
Bread blogging: experiment #1
January 14th, 2014This requires some background.
One of my Christmas presents was a box of smoked meat from Goode Company Barbecue in Houston. The meat itself has been very good so far. But included with the meat was a loaf of Goode Company’s Jalepeno Cheddar bread.
I was warned in advance: “This stuff is addictive. You’ll find yourself eating the whole loaf in one sitting.” Well, I wasn’t quite that bad (it took two sittings to finish the loaf), but it is very very good bread. I wouldn’t put it at the “crack cocaine” level; that’s reserved for Caramel deLites (or Samoas, depending on which part of the country you’re in). It is even better if you toast it and spread some of Trader Joe’s Pub Cheese on the toast, but that’s a digression.
(And by the way, Girl Scout cookie season is upon us again.)
Anyway, after I finished the loaf, I found myself saying the following: “Hey! I have a bread machine! How hard could it be to replicate their bread?”
Fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior.
January 14th, 2014Donavan Raynold Hunt, aka “Tanka 2”, is in custody.
Mr. Hunt was involved in an incident last November at a place called the “Quantum Lounge”. (The Statesman does not note if there are any cats in the Quantum Lounge, nor does it mention the living or dead status of said cats, nor does it give a position for said establishment. I think we can safely assume it has zero momentum.)
Anyway, Mr. Hunt was performing with his musical group, “Da Young Outlawz”, when they got into a dispute with some other folks.
“hit in the butt”? Are the Statesman writers and editors ten year olds? Couldn’t they have found a better word than “butt”? Perhaps “upper part of the thigh” as a homage to Robert B. Parker
But “in the butt”, Bob? Really?
Kelly Thomas.
January 14th, 2014Since I’ve started thinking seriously (as a grown-up adult, not a child) about criminal justice issues, I’ve maintained certain positions.
One of those positions is that the verdict of a jury deserves a certain amount of deference. Yes, I may disagree with the verdict the jury returns. But: they were there in the courtroom. I was not. They watched all the testimony in person. I did not. They were able to see subtle cues of tone and inflection. I was not. At best, what I am basing my judgment on is what I read in the newspaper or saw on TV. These things are subject to conscious and unconscious bias, as well as errors and omissions. How can I question the verdict a jury returns without all the information they had access to? George Zimmerman or OJ Simpson, I’ve always thought the jury should be respected.
But I’m having trouble reconciling that with the acquittals of Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli in the beating death of Kelly Thomas. (Previously. Also previously and graphic image warning.)
How does a jury return a verdict that says hitting a man in the face twenty times with a Taser is okay? How does a jury return a verdict that says telling a man “See these fists? They’re getting ready to [expletive] you up.” and then beating him until he can’t breathe and his blood is pooling on the sidewalk is not, at the very least, involuntary manslaughter? What evidence did they see that we did not?
And is it a compromise of my principles that I’m hoping the Justice Department indicts Ramos and Cicinelli?
Fiat justitia ruat caelum. But what is justice in this case?
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! watch (#7 in a series)
January 13th, 2014In some haste, because I’m out and about. But: as previously announced, and as everyone expected, Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, former city manager of Bell, has pled guilty to “filing a false tax return and conspiring to file a false tax return”.
Also as expected, Rizzo has agreed to “cooperate with federal authorities”, which is generally being interpreted to mean he’s going to roll on his former subordinate, Angela Spaccia, once she’s actually charged. (Tax charges against her are expected, but have not been filed yet.)
Also as previously discussed, it is expected that Rizzo’s sentence (which could be “up to eight years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine on the tax case”, though I am not a lawyer and am not clear if that’s within the federal sentencing guidelines) will be served concurrently with the twelve years he’s already serving on the other corruption charges he’s pled to. I’d like to see him serve more time, but this is still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.