Sleepless in Midland

Fox Friday 11-30-18 -- White Winged Doves gobble up dry dog food

This first pair of photos shows Mama calling for Junior.

Mama calling out, "Dinner time!" Then Junior shows up for chow.

The cats and canines didn't care that much for the dry dog food that was on the buffet a few days later.

But the White-Winged Doves sure did!

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2:34 PM 11/29/2018

It's getting to be too easy to get phished

It used to be easy to spot fake URLs. But Krebsonsecurity.com tells us we need to be careful. We know that already, but wait til you see Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock. Dang.

But it's not just about the padlock. There are scam URLs that look almost identical to the real ones. The example he provides shows a screen shot of a website that appears to be a login screen for Bilbox, a cryptocurrency exchange. He invites visitors to click on the screen shot and try to spot a clue that it's fake.  Here's a closeup to make it easy.

The "i" in Bilbox is the "ỉ" from the Vietnamese alphabet which has a dot at the top different from the "i" in the English alphabet. Therefore, it's a different website than the one the user expected.

Be wary.

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4:33 PM 11/28/2018

Is this bear market pause on stocks over yet?

It's fun to think of the stock market as a sports event. But with money in the game it's not much fun to see your side lose. On the other hand, there will always be buyers and sellers, and the most fun to be had is when buyers bid up the prices.

Anyway, investor sentiment is often a good indicator. When prices go up too much and buyers keep bidding them up -- i.e., when investor sentiment gets too high -- that's the time to be cautious. The opposite is true, too. When investors are in a panic to dump their stocks, that's often a good time to buy.

Mark Hulbert's sentiment index was always a good one to watch. But these days it costs money to see that index. Nevertheless, others attempt to gauge investor sentiment, and the one on the right hand side of this post was found at money.cnn.com called Fear & Greed Index.

Currently it's showing an 18 which they say is "extreme fear." That can be a good sign for investors.

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2:50 PM 11/27/2018

Comedy Wildlife Photo contest displays 2018 winning photos

As an amateur wildlife photographer with my backyard trail cam, the fox photos I get look very tame compared to the photos on display at comedywildlifephoto.com. Here's a link to the page displaying the 2018 winners.

This snow diving bear photo was a finalist but otherwise not a winner. Check out all the photos at the hyperlink above. If you've ever admired wildlife photos, you'll want to see them.

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2:26 PM 11/25/2018

Fuel rioters in France are opposed to the idea that drivers should finance a battle against global warming

France isn't full blown socialist but is a hybrid mix of socialism and capitalism. The CIA World Factbook describes it this way, "France's leaders remain committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that mitigate economic inequality."

A good example of that is the high tax assessed against diesel and gasoline, "which the government says are to fund eco-friendly projects and reduce greenhouse gas emissions." So the government wants drivers to fund a battle against global warming.

If residents in quasi socialist France are rebelling against an expensive program based on dubious evidence of human caused global warming, imagine how Americans would react to a similar situation.

With so many Americans now claiming to favor a socialism they can't even define, this hybrid mix would probably be the result if they get their way.

The problem with socialism is that someone has to pay for it either voluntarily or by force. Rebellious Americans might be inclined to react as the French are doing to attempts to tax away their hard earned money to fund socialist experiments.

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2:21 PM 11/24/2018

Fox Friday 11-23-18 -- jumping the fence

At one time I thought about planting some cacti at the base of that fence to discourage any human intruder. But the foxes take that route, and I want them to hang around and wouldn't want them to get hung up in cactus.

Anyway, I love seeing them jump that fence. They are quite agile.

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2:29 PM 11/22/2018

In defense of Chief Justice Roberts -- maybe he was merely saying what he thought the federal judiciary should be

The federal judiciary should be independent of politics. But it isn't. Justice John Roberts in his highly public statement may have been chiding other judges, not Donald Trump. Roberts' comment can be found HERE. To wit:

Normally restrained Chief Justice John Roberts took issue on Wednesday with President Donald Trump's characterization of a federal judge who ruled against his administration as an "Obama judge." 

"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Roberts said in a statement. "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."

"That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."

Roberts issued the statement in response to a request from The Associated Press after Trump's comments about the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco, who on Monday blocked the Trump administration's effort to keep migrants trying to enter the U.S. from applying for asylum.

Unfortunately, there are too many Federal Judges who think we have a "living constitution" -- a constitution like a rubber band to be stretched to fit whatever the popular view happens to be. It's hard to be a constitutionalist. The jurist has to know the constitution and be current on all the precedent about the issue. Adherents to the "living constitution" theory need only have read the opinion pages of two or three national newspapers.

Chief Justice Roberts has to know that there are too many "living constitution" judges on the bench and too many judges who will indeed rule for or against a sitting president's policies based on politics. And giving Roberts the full benefit of the doubt, he could have been trying to diplomatically point out to them that they are doing it wrong. We all want Justices who will look at the law, not at the litigants. They call that blind justice.

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1:58 PM 11/22/2018

Comity, togetherness, full bellies, and pleasant times. Ah, Thanksgiving!

There are so many things for which to be thankful -- primarily that we were lucky enough to have been born in the U.S. For a clue of why we are lucky, ask a few of those people clamoring to get in.

Meanwhile, for an inspiring list of reasons to be thankful, see Ben Shapiro's article: The Ungrateful Nation. The title is misleading. Americans are indeed grateful, and he gives plenty of reasons why.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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4:03 PM 11/21/2018

At the grocery store -- Shop defensively this holiday season

The prudent shopper will always shop defensively, but it's perhaps more important during the busy times, like pre-Thanksgiving.

There is always the threat of a dangerous bacterium, like the potential for e.coli in Romaine lettuce the CDC warned us about.

For the frugal shopper, there's also the threat of paying more for the groceries than is actually owed. Here's a case in point.

You'll notice the label on the side of this avocado spread advertising 50% off. The fine print on the label explains to the cashier how to give the discounted price to the customer. But the modern system of bar code readers allow the cashier to ring up products very fast, and it's easy for a cashier to accidentally ignore such a label. Also, it might be tempting to a cashier in a hurry to intentionally ignore the label.

As it happened, I paid full price for the avocado spread when I bought it yesterday. The issues was resolved today at the store's service center. But doesn't it seem as though the mistakes always favor the merchant and not the customer? One has to wonder, if that was the plan, how that plan would actually be implemented. But it does seem that way.

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11:36 AM 11/21/2018

No More Monsieur Nice Guy - Europe gets tough with potential terrorists

It seemed that for too long a time Europe didn't really have the heart to fight terrorism. If it was a fight they didn't want, that was understandable. But as the old saying goes, you might not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

Anyway, it was interesting to read this article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal: Europe to Terrorists: It’s No More Monsieur Nice Guy. (I love that title!) Here's an alternate link if you can't get through to that one.

Among the procedures that are becoming routine are prosecutions of people who planned to run off to join a jihadist group. And it's easier now to shut down radical mosques and deport imams. (Whew, imagine the uproar if that happened in the U.S.) Furthermore, there's an increased willingness to use military force against jihadist groups outside Europe.

A few years ago the French citizenry were having spasms over allegations of atrocities by French soldiers in Algeria. So there may be a change of heart under way.

In any event, it's interesting news on the terror front.

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4:19 PM 11/19/2018

Incoming Democrats are big on the break-the-bank Medicare for all scheme

So far, no one with mathematical smarts has come up with a way that the "Medicare for all" scheme could actually work without bankrupting the U.S. government. But that hasn't stopped Democrats. In fact, Paulina Firozi tells us this The Health 202: Progressive Democrats ready to push 'Medicare for all' with new House leadership:

During the 2018 campaign, about two-thirds of the incoming House Democratic class supported a big change to the U.S. health care system in the form of a "Medicare-for-all" program; a Medicare buy-in option for all; or an expansion of Social Security, according to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Specifically looking at Medicare-for-all, the PCCC says 26 out of 60 incoming Democrats from races that have been called so far supported such a policy. That means they back a system in which all health-care bills are paid for by one entity -- in this case, the federal government.

Statisticians have been telling us for years that Medicare will eventually go broke, and the end time seems to get closer each time one of them gets his/her opinion quoted by the msm. So it's currently a problem in need of a fix. Expanding it certainly won't do that.

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3:13 PM 11/18/2018

IRS uses sneaky switch to raise taxes

The recent tax cut law reduced the tax bite on many people. But the law also required the IRS to implement a slower moving measure of inflation. The IRS has put it in effect, and the result will be a slower growing standard deduction. So tax payers using the standard deduction will pay a higher tax for a longer period than they would under the old rules.

This comes to us by way of wsj.com: Trump Tax Cut to Be Eroded Next Year by Inflation Switch (titled "New Calculus on Inflation Erodes Tax Cut" in the print edition). Alternate link.

It seems a bit sneaky. But at least it was the lawmakers who wrote it, not the IRS doing it on its own.

Meanwhile, some good news: As predicted, GOP tax cuts prompt record tax revenues. Unfortunately, the government is still in the red as spending is still outpacing revenue. And worse, no one seems to care.

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2:07 PM 11/17/2018

Pit bull grabs baby -- when was the last time you saw a headline starting like this which had a happy ending?

Well, hold on to your hats. Here's one: Pit bull grabs baby by diaper, saves her from fire. To wit:

Monday, June 11, 2018
STOCKTON, California --
Man's best friend is being hailed as a hero by one family in Stockton, California.

Sasha, the family's pit bull, started barking and alerted the family to the fire spreading from their neighbor's home.

As soon as Latana Chai opened the door, Sasha sprang into action to make sure the smallest member of the family was safe.

"I ran into the room and I see Sasha, she has my baby like by the diaper, just dragging her off the bed trying to get her to safety," said Chai.

Pit Bulls have a terrible reputation, but here's at least one that made a damn good pet.

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2:38 PM 11/17/2018

Fox Friday 11-16-18

Rare (near) daylight sighting.

 
Camera clock time is still set on DST so it was a hour ahead of actual time. Cats grazed on the chicken scraps all night, so there probably wasn't much food left. But we got a nice photo of Old Crooked tail.

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1:29 PM 11/15/2018

Two expensive cars that were totaled by insurance company because of tiny little matter

Here are two almost unbelievable stories about expensive cars that were totaled by seemingly minor damage.

First up: Here's How A Corvette Was Totaled Because Of One Inch Of Damage. It was a 2017 Corvette with which the owner drove over an unavoidable obstacle on the freeway. BUMP! From the article:

I had it inspected at Karl Chevrolet the next day and from a quick look, there didn’t seem to be any serious damage. We took it in to Karl’s for repair a few weeks later and we were told the frame strike caused a small crack, less than an inch and a half long and they were having difficulty finding a replacement part.

A few days later, the shop told us the part is not available from Chevrolet and the car would be totaled. ...

The insurance company finally came to the same conclusion on the frame part being unavailable, and declared it a total loss. We were surprised that after all of this, they gave us a fair offer and had a check to us for the car the very next day.

The insurance company took the hit. But it seems like a bad business practice for a vehicle manufacturer to put irreplaceable parts in vulnerable places on expensive cars.

Second: This Lotus Elise Was Totaled Thanks to One Microscopic Bumper Crack. It wasn't exactly microscopic, but it didn't look like a scratch that would total a car. Nonetheless, from the article:

We spoke to Philip Kingston, the previous owner, to see whether it was this damage alone that totaled out the car, and he confirmed that yes, it was. His body shop came back with a $19,000 repair estimate, so his insurance ended up buying the car from him for more than $33,000. New clamshells can cost more than $5000, and that's before labor to install it, which is notoriously expensive. That rare bronze paint was also an issue. Remember, an entirely new clamshell had to be painted, so a lot of material was needed.

Another insurance company took a hit. Don't you know insurance on those vehicles must cost a fortune?

Owning an exotic car could be a dream come true. But under certain circumstances, it could become a nightmare.

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2:29 PM 11/14/2018

Texas politics could be going the way of Arizona

Texas Democrats have been plotting the blue wave for years, and they came close this past election in the race for Texas Senator. Handsome, likable mouthpiece of lefty politics, Beto O'Rourke, almost knocked Ted Cruz out of a senate seat. But Cruz won by less than 3% of the votes. And while that's a win, the margin is probably enough to pump more fuel and enthusiasm into the Texas Democrat wave making machine.

The lesson from Arizona is instructive. Monica Showalter asks and answers the question: How could Arizona elect someone like Kyrsten Sinema? Among other reasons, she says this:

And there's also the broad trend: Colorado, the most populous mountain state, has done a lot of going blue as outsiders moved in and urbanization happened. It's quite likely that demographically, Arizona may be following the same pattern.

Texas is experiencing that phenomenon, too. The newcomers may be voting for the same types of politicians running the states they left behind without realizing that those politicians were probably the cause of the conditions that they were so eager to leave.

Whatever the cause, one of these days there's going to be a serious move in the Texas legislature to establish a state income tax. That will be a tell. Texas voters will have pushed the state to the blue line.

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1:52 PM 11/13/2018

OK, but can she cook? Do the dishes? -- man marries hologram

When that old love bug bites, there's nothing you can do about it. So this Japanese guy married a fictional Hatsune Miku who is available only in the form of a hologram.

See Crazy in love? The Japanese man 'married' to a hologram. He said he would never marry a real - he calls them 3D - woman.

In Japan, that wouldn't be entirely unusual nowadays. While in 1980, only one in 50 men had never married by the age of 50, that figure is now one in four. ...

Two-dimensional characters can't cheat, age or die, he points out. "I'm not seeking these in real women. It's impossible."

I wonder why he didn't consider a robotic sex doll?

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2:49 PM 11/12/2018

chips in credit cards didn't cut fraud that much

The suggestion for this post comes to us by way of a post at boingboing which relies heavily on an item at Geminiadvisory titled Card Fraud on the Rise, Despite National EMV Adoption from last May.

While the chips on our credit cards may help, they certainly don't prevent fraud at the point of sale -- called "card-present fraud." Here are the key findings from Geminiadvisory:

- 60 million US payment cards have been compromised in the past 12 months.

- 45.8 million or 75% are Card-Present (CP) records and were stolen at the point-of-sale devices, while only 25% were compromised in online breaches.
- 90% of the CP compromised US payment cards were EMV enabled.
- The US leads the rest of the world in the total amount of compromised EMV payment cards by a massive 37.3 million records.
- Financially motivated threat groups are still exploiting the lack of merchant EMV compliance.
- An imminent shift from card-present to card-not-present fraud is already evident with a 14% increase in payment cards stolen through e-commerce breaches in the past 12 months.

And there's this:

Based on the proprietary Gemini Advisory telemetry data collected from various dark-web sources over several years, we have determined that in the past 12 months at least 60 million US cards were compromised. Of those, 75% or 45.8 million were CP records, likely compromised through card-sniffing and point-of-sale (POS) breaches of businesses such as Saks, Lord & Taylor, Jason’s Deli, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Forever 21, and Whole Foods. To break it down even further, 90% or 41.6 million of those records were EMV chip-enabled.

The card-present fraud is committed by malware, skimmers, or shimmers. Krebsonsecurity has a pretty good explanation of how the old skimmers worked. See Pro-Grade Point-of-Sale Skimmer They wouldn't work on a chipped card, but the newer version -- "shimmer" -- would.

What's a Shimmer? Here's the definition provided at Credit Card Glossary:

A paper-thin, card-size shim containing an embedded microchip and flash storage is inserted into the “dip and wait” card slot of an ATM or gas pump payment terminal that's indoors or outdoors. There it resides unseen to intercept data off your credit or debit card’s EMV chip for fraudsters. The intercepted data is used to create a magnetic stripe version of the card that can be used in payment terminals that haven't been updated with EMV chip technology.

The old saw still holds true: Deception, by definition, is always one step ahead of detection. So be aware.

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2:15 PM 11/11/2018

Meaning of the word Socialism is evolving

The meaning of words isn't constant. Looking at words' meaning a few years ago and comparing them with today's usage demonstrates how many have changed. The word "sex" for example. At one time it meant whether a person was male or female. No longer. Now the word most commonly used is "gender."

"Socialism" is another. In the old days it meant government ownership or control of the means of production. Now it means something a little bit more kindly to a large segment of our population. Gallop presents some poll results at The Meaning of "Socialism" to Americans Today comparing 1949 with 2018.

These are the top three. Note how much change has occurred over the decades. And that's with all the access to news about Venezuela and other countries that have tried socialism and transformed into sh*t hole countries.

What Is Your Understanding of the Term "Socialism"?

	2018	1949
	Sep 4-12	Sep 3-8
	%	%
Equality - equal standing for everybody, all equal in rights, equal in distribution	23	12
Government ownership or control, government ownership of utilities, everything controlled by the government, state control of business	17	34
Benefits and services - social services free, medicine for all	10	2

I suppose it's a good thing that government control or ownership of business has dropped. Maybe more capitalism will eventually creep into the predominate understanding of socialism.

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2:23 PM 11/10/2018

Elizabeth Warren and Beto O'Rourke should compare DNA tests -- Warren could be more Mexican than Beto

We hear leftists complain about culture appropriation. They're referring to everyday things like food dishes which may have originated in some other country. But it's not a problem when politicians do it to advance their careers or enhance their images.

Elizabeth Warren claimed to be Native American for advancement to a more prestigious job. Beto O'Rourke did it to increase his take of Hispanic votes in the recent race for U.S. Senate.

Wouldn't it be amusing to see whether O'Rourke or Warren had the higher percentage of DNA to their claimed ancestral heritage? Especially so if they showed Warren to have more South American DNA than O'Rourke. After all, the details of Warren's test revealed that the results were compared with South Americans.

Warren's DNA saga recalls the 1936 movie Show Boat in which one drop of African American blood was sufficient to make a person an African American. By that standard, she's an Indian.

Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke is being groomed for a presidential run. Maybe the two of them will have reason for a racial face off.

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2:06 PM 11/8/2018

A most disappointed loser in local election

Article in the morning paper set out the vote counts in some of the elections that took place 11/6/2018, and one result stuck out. In a three person race for trustee in one of the school districts in Midland, Texas, none of them got 50% of the vote, so the top two vote will have a runoff.

According to reported results, the front runner got 2,438 votes. The next one down received 1,942 votes. The number three vote getter received 1,941 -- that's one vote difference between number two and number three.

One measly vote away from the runoff. He has to be one of the most disappointed candidate in the whole country today.

Trustee, District 5, Midland ISD
	TOTAL VOTES	percent	EARLY VOTING	ELECTION DAY
Heidi Kirk	2,438	38.57	1,839	599
John Trischitti III	1,941	30.71	1,628	313
Thomas Wolfmueller	1,942	30.72	1,563	379
Total	6,321		5,030	1,291

Dang. Missed it by that much.

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1:42 PM 11/7/2018

A most disappointed loser in local election - lost chance to be in run off by 1 vote

Article in the morning paper set out the vote counts in some of the elections that took place 11/6/2018, and one result stuck out. In a three person race for trustee in one of the school districts in Midland, Texas, none of them got 50% of the vote, so the top two vote will have a runoff.

According to reported results, the front runner got 2,438 votes. The next one down received 1,942 votes. The number three vote getter received 1,941 -- that's one vote difference between number two and number three.

Dang. One measly vote away from the runoff. He has to be one of the most disappointed candidate in the whole country today.

Trustee, District 5, Midland ISD

Trustee, District 5, Midland ISD
	TOTAL VOTES	percent	EARLY VOTING	ELECTION DAY
Heidi Kirk	2,438	38.57	1,839	599
John Trischitti III	1,941	30.71	1,628	313
Thomas Wolfmueller	1,942	30.72	1,563	379
Total	6,321		5,030	1,291

 

Missed it by that much.

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1:42 PM 11/7/2018

Moderate drinking might help prevent dementia

The other day we talked about that shot of whiskey at the end of a busy day. One doesn't have to look too hard to find articles out there telling us alcohol is bad for our health. Well, the good news is that a drink probably won't kill us. And here's more good news.

'Moderate' drinking may be a brain buffer:

The study, which followed 9,000 British adults for over two decades, found that both heavier drinkers and abstainers had a higher dementia risk than moderate drinkers. ...

People who were nondrinkers in middle age were 47 percent more likely to eventually be diagnosed with dementia, versus moderate drinkers, the findings showed.

Meanwhile, when people drank beyond moderate levels, their risk of dementia rose in tandem with their alcohol intake.

Among people who had more than a drink per day, dementia risk rose by 17 percent with every additional 7 units of alcohol they downed per week.

They defined moderate as 14 "units" of alcohol per week. The "unit" is a measurement used in the U.K. A unit of 80 proof whiskey (40% alcohol), is equivalent to 25ml or 0.85 oz. So 14 units of whiskey would be slightly under 12 ounces.

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2:32 PM 11/6/2018

Irony alert -- One of Beto's arrests was for climbing over a wall

Here's something no one seems to have noticed. Beto O'Rourke was arrested years ago for, get this, climbing over a wall. That's quite an irony given that Beto is sure to oppose Trump's proposed border wall.

The excerpt below from a politifact item about the O'Rourke's arrest record tells us about that wall incident, although to be fair to him, the article calls it a "fence." Beto O'Rourke arrested in 1990s for burglary and DWI:

"Some 20 years ago, I was charged with driving under the influence and, during my college years, I jumped a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso which resulted in a burglary charge," O'Rourke said. "I was not convicted of either.

"Both incidents were due to poor judgement and I have no excuse for my behavior then. However, since then, I have used my opportunities to serve my community and my state. I'm grateful for the second chance and believe that we all deserve second chances."

"We all deserve second chances." Would that include Brett Kavanaugh had he actually been guilty of the claim against him?

By the end of Tuesday we'll know whether O'Rourke could climb the wall of worry that Ted Cruz voters have about another Schumer minion in the Senate. In any event, Beto is the new poster child for an ambitious Democrat groomed by the party for higher office. We haven't heard the last from him.

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2:13 PM 11/5/2018

A shot of whiskey makes a perfect end to a busy day.

But oh my, there sure are a lot of good selections available. My current favorite is Devil's River Bourbon, but given the large selection and the fact that I'm a newcomer to the pursuit of fine bourbon, that could change overnight. One I would like to try is Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey made by Santa Fe Spirits, but currently the closest retailer where it's available is a hundred miles from here. And sadly, Texas lawmakers have not seen fit to allow shipping liquor to or within the state -- probably a holdover from the days of prohibition.

Meanwhile, let's indulge in some trivia. Mentalfloss has a beginner's guide to the topic in What’s the Difference Between Scotch, Whiskey and Bourbon?:

The Federal Standards of Identity for Bourbon stipulate what is and what isn’t bourbon. For a whiskey to call itself bourbon, its mash, the mixture of grains from which the product is distilled, must contain at least 51% corn. (The rest of the mash is usually filled out with malted barley and either rye or wheat.) The mash must be distilled at 160 proof or less, put into the barrel at 125 proof or less, and it must not contain any additives. The distillate must be aged in a new charred oak barrel. (Most often these barrels are white oak, but they can be any variety of oak.) ...

The main difference between scotch and whisky is geographic, but also ingredients and spellings. Scotch is whisky made in Scotland, while bourbon is whiskey made in the U.S.A, generally Kentucky. Scotch is made mostly from malted barley, while bourbon is distilled from corn. If you’re in England and ask for a whisky, you’ll get Scotch. But in Ireland, you’ll get Irish whiskey (yep, they spell it differently for a little colour). On this side of the pond, we have our own local color, too. The difference between Tennessee Whiskey, like Jack Daniel’s, for example, and Bourbon is that after the spirit is distilled, Tennessee Whiskey is filtered through sugar-maple charcoal. This filtering, known as the Lincoln County Process, is what distinguishes Tennessee Whiskey from your average Bourbon, like Jim Beam. The name, Bourbon, comes from an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky.

On top of these types of whiskey, we also have Rye, which can refer either to American rye whiskey, which must be distilled from at least 51 percent rye or Canadian whisky, which may or may not actually include any rye in its production process.

So generally, Scotch is whiskey made in Scotland. Irish Whiskey is made in Ireland. Bourbon was originally identified with whiskey made in Bourbon County, Kentucky, but it can be made anywhere in the U.S. There are even a few bourbon distilleries in Texas.

And there are plenty of customers for it -- look for sales to skyrocket on Monday before the midterm elections. See Poll: Democrats Are Stress-Eating More, Drinking Republicans Under the Table Due to Midterm Election Stress.

Coming up: Artificial whiskey.

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1:59 PM 11/4/2018

Marco Rubio's bill to lock in Daylight Saving all year -- slim chance it passes

Last Spring, around the time we had to Spring Forward with our clocks, the Florida legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill which would request the U.S. Congress to authorize Daylight Saving Time all year for Florida. That would have eliminated the annoying twice a year clock change Floridians had to endure.

Marco Rubio presented a bill in the U.S. Senate to implement it and put the principle in effect for the entire U.S. in S. 2537: Sunshine Protection Act of 2018.

The bill went nowhere.

The above linked govtrack.us site tells us it has a 3% chance of passing. What a shame.

Oh I know that using government time is optional for each individual. But being out of sync with those around us is too big a price to pay.

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6:51 AM 11/3/2018

Fox Friday 11-2-18 -- fox in the fog

I thought this sight of a fox's bright eyes in the fog was stunning. Looks like headlights. Actually, it's the infrared light from the camera reflecting off his retina.

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3:58 PM 11/2/2018

Which is worse - gov worker visits 9,000 porn sites or spreading malware on gov network?

Two wrongs definitely didn't make right in this government worker's case. From the OIG Report:

We found that - redacted - knowingly used U.S. Government computer systems to access unauthorized internet web pages. We also found that those unauthorized pages hosted malware. The malware was downloaded to - redacted - Government laptop,which then exploited the USGS ' network. Our digital forensic examination revealed that - redacted - had an extensive history of visiting adult pornography websites. Many of the 9,000 web pages - redacted - visited routed through websites that originated in Russia and contained malware. Our analysis confirmed that many of the pornographic images were subsequently saved to an unauthorized USB device and personal Android cell phone connected to - redacted - Government issued computer. We found that - redacted - personal cell phone was also infected with malware.

This came to us by way of Sophos' NakedSecurity at Gov worker visits 9k porn sites without protection, spreads infection. Among the protections recommended by Sophos is their own web filter.

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10:50 AM 11/1/2018

Alabama Supreme Court Justice calls it a logical fallacy -- fetus is living for one purpose but not for another

The problem became apparent to those of us who had never thought of it before when prosecutors began to call the killing of a fetus by someone other than his/her mother, "murder." However, it's been perfectly legal for the mother to do it herself since 1973.

An Alabama Supreme Court Justice took notice of the problem. See Alabama Justice Argues That Fetal Homicide Ruling Mandates Challenge to Roe:

According to Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker, it is a “logical fallacy” for the government to consider a fetus a person when pursuing a homicide conviction, but not in the case of a woman wanting to terminate her pregnancy through an abortion.

It's not clear which of the Logical Fallacies this falls under. But there is a definite inconsistency. Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually provide us with some logical reasoning for the contradiction, because overturning Roe v. Wade seems highly unrealistic.

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2:42 PM 10/31/2018