Quotulatiousness

December 13, 2010

The latest twist of fate in an already twisted season

Filed under: Football — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:51

John Holler has a few thoughts on the bizarre trainwreck of a season the Vikings are experiencing:

The Vikings season has been filled with more twists and turns than a “I wouldn’t take that” mountain road shortcut. Throughout it all, the dysfunctional Vikings family had a home. Until Sunday morning. When the roof caved in on the Metrodome, it might have caved in on the craziest season in recent memory for the Vikings.

Not only are the Vikings not going to be hosting the Giants on Monday night — Detroit gets that free privilege, which begs the question what sort of fan is going to show up in Detroit to watch two teams they don’t like? — but there are significant questions as to what to do next Monday when the Vikings are scheduled to host the football world for the Monday Night Football largesse. Initial word out of TCF Bank Stadium is that the field has been put to bed — ice-encrusted mothballing if you will — and that not only wasn’t it an option for tonight, but it may well not be an option for next Monday either.

Yesterday’s games upset a lot of post-season calculations for other teams in the NFC North:

The Vikings could have been eliminated from postseason contention with a win by the Green Bay Packers Sunday, but both the Packers and Bears got beat. Chicago got pounded at home by the Patriots in a wind-swept smackdown and the Packers, who lost QB Aaron Rodgers in the second quarter, scored just three points in a 7-3 loss at Detroit. Vikings fans denied watching their own team play got both games on TV…well, sort of. The Patriots-Bears game became such a laugher that the powers that be in New York deemed it better to send most of the country that was watching the game to a “more competitive” game — the Dolphins-Jets 10-6 yawner. As such, a win tonight would put the Vikings back into the “still alive” fringe of the playoff bracket tables.

If they win tonight’s game, they’ll move out of the “mostly dead” category. They still won’t be really “alive” in playoff contention without a massively unlikely combination of lucky outcomes in other games.

Sunday’s loss by the Packers could be the death knell for their own playoff hopes. Unless the Vikings can knock off the Giants tonight, the Packers will be behind whichever team (New York or Philadelphia) doesn’t win the division and at a current tie-breaker disadvantage with Tampa Bay in the Packers’ search for a wild card spot. Making matters worse, their final three games are at New England, currently the hottest team in the league, at home against the Giants and at home against Chicago. They must win two of those three at a minimum to make the playoffs and may well need all three.

As hard as it may be for most of them to stomach, the Packers and their fans need to become Vikings fans really quick. Green Bay’s best shot at getting to the playoffs may well end up being winning the division. There is a very good chance that the NFC North will produce just one playoff team. The Bears’ closing schedule has games at Minnesota, vs. the suddenly-desperate Jets at Soldier Field and at Green Bay. If the Vikings can knock the Giants down into a tie with Green Bay at 8-5 and beat the Bears next week, the Packers would level the playing field in terms of tie-breaker advantages in the division and the conference. At it currently stands, from head-to-head to division record to conference record, Chicago holds every edge on the Packers. Green Bay’s loss to Detroit was devastating, so, just as the Vikings have become desperate for a 20-game domino effect to happen in the next three weeks to make the playoffs, the Packers may have just about as significant a hill to climb, leaving them hoping the Vikings play as well as they can and Green Bay’s season sweep comes into play.

Update: Mike Tanier gets in on the act:

Tired of building vinegar-and-baking-soda volcanoes for your children’s science projects? Recreate the collapse of the Metrodome roof instead.

Materials needed: green construction paper, some wooden dowels, a paper towel, about 500 artificial sweetener packets, and a cellphone. Glue some wooden dowels to green construction paper. Moisten a paper towel and fasten it to the top of the dowels. Then puncture it slightly and keep dumping artificial sweetener on or near the puncture spot until the roof gives way. Once the “field” is covered in white powder, use the cellphone to send a series of text messages from Brett Favre to explain how the Midwestern blizzard and the breathtaking footage of a major architectural landmark caving in is really just a backdrop for his personal saga.

The impossible balance of security and utility

Filed under: Military, Technology — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:35

Strategy Page looks at the mechanic that PFC Bradley Manning is reported to have used to grab copies of all the information now being released by WikiLeaks:

A bit late, the U.S. military has finally forbidden the use of all removable media (thumb drives, read/write DVD and CD drives, diskettes, memory cards and portable hard drives) from SIPRNet. Thumb drives had earlier been banned. The motivation for this latest action was Wikileaks, which obtained hundreds of thousands of secret American military and diplomatic documents from a U.S. soldier (PFC Bradley Manning). As an intel specialist, Manning had a security clearance and access to SIPRNet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network). This was a private Department of Defense network established in 1991, using Internet technology and able to handle classified (secret) documents. But Manning got access to a computer with a writable CD drive, and was able to copy all those classified documents to a CD (marked as containing Lady Gaga tracks) and walk out of his workplace with it. The big error here was having PCs available with writable media. You need some PCs with these devices, but they should be few, and carefully monitored. Normally, you would not need to copy anything off SIPRNet. Most of the time, if you want to share something, it’s with someone else on SIPRNet, so you can just email it to them, or tell them what it is so they can call it up themselves. A network like SIPRNet usually (in many corporations, and some government agencies) has software that monitors who accesses, and copies, documents, and reports any action that meets certain standards (of possibly being harmful). SIPRNet did not have these controls in place, and still does not on over a third of the PCs connected.

Just like their civilian counterparts, soldiers have been very eager to get and keep connected, both for personal and professional reasons. Data not shared can’t be useful.

For the last decade, the Pentagon has had increasing security problems with its internal Internet networks. The Department of Defense has two private Internets (using Internet technology, but not connected to the public Internet). NIPRNet is unclassified, but not accessible to the public Internet. SIPRNet is classified, and all traffic is encrypted. You can send secret stuff via SIPRNet. However, some computers connected to SIPRNet have been infected with computer viruses. The Pentagon was alarmed at first, because the computers only used SIPRNet. As a result, they did not have any anti-virus software installed. It turned out that worm type hackware was the cause of infection, and was installed when someone used a memory stick or CD, containing the worm, to work and, well, you know the rest.

[. . .]

It’s easy for troops to be doing something on SIPRNET, then switch to the Internet, and forget that they are now on an unsecure network. Warnings about that sort of thing have not cured the problem. The Internet is too useful for the troops, especially for discussing technical and tactical matters with other soldiers. The army has tried to control the problem by monitoring military accounts (those ending in .mil), but the troops quickly got hip to that, and opened another account from Yahoo or Google, for their more casual web surfing, and for discussions with other troops. The Internet has been a major benefit for combat soldiers, enabling them to share first hand information quickly, and accurately. That’s why the troops were warned that the enemy is actively searching for anything G.I.s post, and this stuff has been found at terrorist web sites, and on captured enemy laptops. In reality, information spreads among terrorists much more slowly than among American troops. But if soldiers discuss tactics and techniques in an open venue, including posting pictures and videos, the enemy will eventually find and download it. The terrorists could speed up this process if they could get the right hackware inside American military computers.

Slow motion train wreck

Filed under: Railways, Randomness — Tags: — Nicholas @ 09:06

H/T to Craig Zeni for the link.

Aha! A new conspiracy theory

Filed under: Britain, Law, Politics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 08:27

Following up to this post, Chris Greaves offers both a link, and a theory to explain the link.

The prince’s office also declined to comment, but stressed that the royal couple did not seek medical help after Thursday’s altercation.

Officials are assessing royal security after the attack on Charles and Camilla, whose Rolls-Royce strayed into the path of protesters against tuition fee hikes.

They hit the car with sticks, fists and bottles and chanted “Off with their heads” before the vehicle pushed its way through the crowd and drove off.

One casualty of the review may be the classic Rolls-Royce Phantom VI the couple were using, a gift to the Queen on her Silver Jubilee in 1977. The 33-year-old limousine does not have bulletproof windows or other modern protection features.

So what’s the conspiracy theory, you ask? Here you go:

Liz Windsor: (Thinks) How to get rid of Camela?
(later) I know, I’ll give her a Rolls Royce whose windows are not bullet-proof.
Heh heh.

December 12, 2010

Vikings-Giants game moved to Detroit after Metrodome roof failure

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 19:38

It’s kinda remarkable to watch:

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;brand=foxsports&#038;from=foxsports_en-us_videocentral&#038;vid=ca15cffb-3b66-49a0-84ca-20ed0a175567" target="_new" title="NFL on FOX: Metrodome collapse">Video: NFL on FOX: Metrodome collapse</a>

The game will be moved to Detroit’s Ford Field as the repairs to the Metrodome will take at least a week, and the other venue in Minneapolis can’t be made ready in time.

December 11, 2010

“They came close to drawing their guns on protesters, who were heard to chant ‘off with their heads'”

Filed under: Britain, Law, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:39

The close call reported earlier now seems to have been even closer:

Officers guarding the royal couple were using radios on a different channel from those patrolling Thursday’s student riots, meaning they received no warning that protesters were blocking their route.

As a result, dozens of thugs subjected the convoy to an attack in which the Duchess was jabbed in the ribs with a stick through an open car window as the couple were being driven to the Royal Variety Performance.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, praised armed protection officers for showing “very real restraint”, suggesting that they came close to drawing their guns on protesters, who were heard to chant “off with their heads”.

I’m pretty far from being a staunch royalist, but this incident was an “own goal” on the part of the protesters. There are many ways to express your concern and anger, but attacking innocent bystanders will usually lose you the public support you might otherwise be able to depend on. Attacking members of the royal family — who don’t have a constitutional role in setting government policy — is just plain stupid.

H/T to Chris Greaves for the link.

Update: Chris followed up with this observation.

[. . .] just between you and me I was struck by the parallels between the accounts of Charles & Camel, and the minute-by-minute goof-ups of Archduke Wossit and his morgantic wife; the chauffeur taking a wrong turn on the way back from the town hall, the poor security in place, etc.

Any would-be republicans should be blessing their luck that this turned out to be less harmful than the Sarajevo incident in 1914. Had any harm come to the Prince of Wales, British public opinion would (based on past events) have swung heavily in favour of the royal family. Prince Charles is perhaps the least well-liked royal at the moment, but if he’d been “martyred” by the mob, do you think there’d be any hope for getting rid of the monarchy for at least another generation?

December 10, 2010

US Army to equip troops with XM-25 manpack artillery by 2014

Filed under: Military, Technology, USA, Weapons — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:50

The XM-25, which The Register refers to as a Judge Dredd smartgun will be provided to front-line troops by 2014:

The US Army has confirmed plans to equip every infantry squad and special-forces team by 2014 with an XM-25 Judge Dredd style computer smartgun able to hit enemies hiding around corners or behind rocks etc.

The XM-25 has been widely covered in the media recently, despite the fact that the last piece of actual news regarding the futuristic weapon — that it would at long last be put in the hands of US combat troops, in Afghanistan — came back in October, as we here on the Reg crazy-guns desk reported at the time (getting the tip from the Soldier Systems blog). However we also mentioned it about six weeks later in our widely-read Thanksgiving crazy-guns-o-the-future feature — and shortly thereafter the XM-25’s Afghan deployment decision was in all the mainstream outlets as “news”.

The Economist: “America … should learn from its mistakes in the past decade and stick to its own rules”

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Law, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:23

A very good column in The Economist seems to cover the issues quite well:

BIG crimes deserve tough responses. In any country the theft and publication of 250,000 secret government documents would deserve punishment. If the leak costs lives, let alone the careers and trust that have already perished amid the WikiLeaks disclosures, the case for action is even stronger.

[. . .]

For the American government, prosecution, not persecution, offers the best chance of limiting the damage and deterring future thefts. The blustering calls for the assassination of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder now in custody in London awaiting extradition to Sweden on faintly mysterious charges of sexual assault, look both weak and repellent. If Mr Assange has broken American law, it is there that he should stand trial, just like Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the stolen documents. If not, it may be some consolation that the cables so far reveal a largely flattering picture of America’s diplomats: conscientious, cool-headed, well-informed, perceptive and on occasion eloquent.

[. . .]

If America sticks to those standards now it will display a strength and sanity that contrasts with the shrill absolutism and cyber-vandalism of the WikiLeaks partisans. Calling Mr Assange a terrorist, for example, is deeply counterproductive. His cyber-troops do not fly planes into buildings, throw acid at schoolgirls or murder apostates. Indeed, the few genuine similarities between WikiLeaks and the Taliban — its elusiveness and its wide base of support — argue against ill-judged attacks that merely broaden that support. After a week of clumsy American-inspired attempts to shut WikiLeaks down, it is now hosted on more than 700 servers around the world.

The big danger is that America is provoked into bending or breaking its own rules, straining alliances, eroding credibility and — because it will not be able to muzzle WikiLeaks — ultimately seeming impotent. In recent years America has promoted the internet as a menace to foreign censorship. That sounds tinny now. So did its joy of hosting next year’s World Press Freedom Day this week. Chinese and Russian glee at American discomfort are a sure sign of such missteps.

H/T to John Perry Barlow for the link.

Update: This certainly matches what I expected Julian Assange’s personality to be like:

Defectors include Daniel Domscheit-Berg, otherwise known as Daniel Schmitt, who made a high-profile exit from WikiLeaks in September, and Herbert Snorrason, an Icelandic student. Both resigned in September. Snorrason is quoted as telling Assange, in an online chat log acquired by WiReD:

And you’re not even fulfilling your role as a leader right now. A leader communicates and cultivates trust in himself. You are doing the exact opposite. You behave like some kind of emperor or slave trader.

Snorrason’s departure was fomented by this declaration from Assange:

I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier and all the rest. If you have a problem with me, piss off.

And he did.

The people behind the original Doctor Who

Filed under: Britain, History, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:08

A photo set on the BBC Archive shows some of the folks who made the original Doctor Who series:

Also from BBC Archives, the Radio Times review of the first episode:

Also of interest, the original notes on creating a BBC science fiction series.

December 9, 2010

The Two Scotts say thumbs down on the Vikings

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 12:51

Not surprisingly, the two Scotts think that the Giants are going to win their matchup with Minnesota on Sunday:

New York Giants (minus 2.5) at Minnesota

Reid: Favre is listed as questionable for Sunday after being knocked out of last week’s game on his first passing attempt. Of course, no one really expects the Vikings to bring Brett’s crusade for 300 straight starts to an end — so Tarvaris Jackson has, once again, been sent out to pick up smokes. In a sad effort to convince the coaches he was ready, Jackson even pretended last week to be Favre by tossing three interceptions. No luck. This streak ends at season’s end or with Jenn Sterger moving into Favre’s bungalow. Pick: New York.

Feschuk: Brett Favre is having an annus way more horribilis than that one the Queen had. With Dong-gate now in the hands of the Commissioner, it’s worth reflecting on the details of the poorly understood NFL Code of Conduct policy. Exactly what does it demand of players like Favre? Here are a few excerpts of note:

     * Players are expected to report ON TIME for all meetings, scrimmages and police lineups.
     * Mandatory snickering in the huddle when the quarterback calls for a “two-minute drill.”
     * If you’re buying prostitutes, make sure you bring enough for the whole team.
     * When getting dressed for a public appearance, players are asked to remember that the penis goes on the inside.

Pick: New York.

Bruce Schneier on the WikiLeaks situation

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Media, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 07:48

Bruce Schneier has some useful observations about the ongoing WikiLeaks document release:

4. This has little to do with WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is just a website. The real story is that “least trusted person” who decided to violate his security clearance and make these cables public. In the 1970s he would have mailed them to a newspaper. Today he uses WikiLeaks. Tomorrow he will have his choice of a dozen similar websites. If WikiLeaks didn’t exist, he could have put them up on BitTorrent.

5. I think the government is learning what the music and movie industries were forced to learn years ago: it’s easy to copy and distribute digital files. That’s what’s different between the 1970s and today. Amassing and releasing that many documents was hard in the paper and photocopier era; it’s trivial in the Internet era. And just as the music and movie industries are going to have to change their business models for the Internet era, governments are going to have to change their secrecy models. I don’t know what those new models will be, but they will be different.

Preview of The Guild: Vork

Filed under: Gaming, Media — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 00:54

Guild fans will be interested to see the first five pages of the The Guild: Vork at PopCandy:

As you may know, I’m a huge fan of The Guild, the funny, imaginative, geeky, gleeful and addictive web series created by Felicia Day. If you’ve seen one episode, chances are you’ve seen them all. (And bonus: The talented Wil Wheaton added some spark to the last two seasons.)

It makes sense that The Guild would branch out to comics, since much of its audience probably consists of comic-book fans. On Dec. 22 Dark Horse will issue The Guild: Vork, a story written by Day and Jeff Lewis (the actor who plays Vork in the series).

I offered you a preview of the Guild covers a few months ago. Now hold your breath, because I have the first six pages of Vork right here

QotD: Ontario’s “restrictive, puritanical, liquor laws”

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Cancon, Law, Liberty, Quotations, Wine — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:20

Later in the trip we were at a Napa Valley winery. During our winery tour, the guide mentioned that if we filled out an order form we could have a case of wine delivered to home or office. Then she stopped, looked at my friend and me, and said, “Oh wait, not to Ontario. You guys are worse than Utah.” She proceeded to list all the countries they ship to, two of which have majority Muslim populations. But Ontario was too much trouble, so they gave up trying. We could buy the wine and bring it over the border ourselves, but if it were to be shipped across the border it would clearly be illegal.

Our restrictive, puritanical, liquor laws are not just limited to restricting products or preventing private stores from selling alcohol. On our trip it became a running joke to point out things that were banned in Ontario. Happy hour is illegal in Ontario. I pointed to a seasonal winter beer in at a convenience store with a cartoon picture of Santa Claus on the label and noted it would be banned in Ontario. There is cheap beer across the U.S. because of intense competition, but Ontario has a price floor of $1.07 per bottle.

So I pose the question that I was asked in the bar in San Francisco. Why are we so puritanical when it comes to alcohol?

Hugh MacIntyre, “Ontario’s liberalism dies at the brewery door”, National Post, 2010-12-08

A step closer to private space travel

Filed under: Space, Technology — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:01

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was successfully launched into orbit:

Judging by the excited faces of SpaceX employees after the live webcast, everything went perfectly. Dragon, the world’s first orbital space capsule built by the private sector, will now orbit the planet a few times over the next couple of hours before splashing down in the Pacific.

It is a small but significant milestone. The unmanned demonstration mission wants to prove that Dragon is able to deliver crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The reason for all the excitement is that the working capsule really points the world firmly in the direction of greater involvement by the private sector in providing trips to space. More competition means lower prices. Lower prices mean better access. After the retirement of the shuttle, Dragon would be able to deliver crew and cargo to the ISS on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.

Here’s hoping that NASA won’t succeed in choking off/crowding out other private launch efforts.

More information (including some graphics) at the BBC website.

December 8, 2010

Contrast US military’s “DADT” policy with Canadian policy

Filed under: Cancon, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:44

The US military has been struggling with their “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy for the last few years. Not every military has the same concerns: the Canadian Forces have reportedly introduced dress rules for transsexuals and transvestites in the military:

As U.S. politicians continue to debate whether to let gays serve openly in the American military, the Canadian Forces have issued a new policy detailing how the organization should accommodate transsexual and transvestite troops specifically. Soldiers, sailors and air force personnel who change their sex or sexual identity have a right to privacy and respect around that decision, but must conform to the dress code of their “target” gender, says the supplementary chapter of a military administration manual.

A gay-rights advocate hailed development of the guidelines as a progressive approach to people whose gender issues can trigger life-threatening psychological troubles.

Cherie MacLeod, executive director of PFLAG Canada, a sexual orientation-related support group, said she has helped a number of Forces members undergoing sex changes, surgery the military now funds.

I’m quite surprised that the armed forces were willing to introduce this policy without being forced into it by court action or human rights tribunal activity. There are one or two members of the armed forces who transition every year, according to a DND spokesperson, and it has paid for the costs involved since 1998.

Changing sex is difficult for someone in civilian life, but it must be exponentially harder in a self-consciously “macho” environment like the military.

I expect the conservative bloggers will have a field day with this announcement.

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