Monthly Archives: January 2015

Invest in Pitchfork Futures

The Gaurdian:

With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences. At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.

This fear that the unwashed masses will soon rise up and overthrow their betters is a reoccurring theme with the ultra rich. It never happens though. Why? As Marco Rubio famously said, “We have never been a nation of haves and have-nots. We are a nation of haves and soon-to-haves, of people who have made it and people who will make it. And that’s who we need to remain.” As long as that lie keeps getting believed, the 1% will remain safe on their piles of money.

FBI Snatch Attack

From the Silk Road trial:

As soon as Ulbricht was distracted, another agent grabbed the open computer and gave it to Kiernan, who is an FBI computer specialist. Kiernan spent the next three hours doing “triage” on the machine. Without allowing it to go idle, and thus become encrypted, he took photographs, went through the browser history, and ultimately handed it off to another agent who imaged the hard drive.

So the FBI grabbed the laptop, shoved a mouse jiggler into the USB port and began to photograph the screens while simultaneously arresting Ulbricht. Good. Clever. Maybe b cause I was a a wannabe script kiddie (I never did anything) reading alt.2600 and alt.cypherpunks back in the day, but I read this and immediately thought about ways to make a deadman switch to foil the snatch attack.

Tutankhamun Mask “Fixed”

Sometime last year, the beard on King Tut’s famous mask came off broken off and then was quickly repaired using “a quick drying, irreversible material”. Apparently, some sort of epoxy.

Jackie Rodriguez, a tourist who witnessed the repair work on the beard in late August, provided a photo to The Associated Press showing a museum employee holding it in place as the glue sets. “The whole job did look slapstick,” she said. “It was disconcerting given the procedure occurred in front of a large crowd and seemingly without the proper tools.”

Update Sat Jan 24 11:58:55 PST 2015: German restorer, Christian Eckmann, said in a press conference today, that the mask can properly be restored.

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In Its Dock, Dread Roomba Waits Dreaming

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It amuses me to no end that my son is afraid of the Roomba. He has always been afraid of it. Watching it. Jumping onto the couch and watching it. Following it from room to room, while staying a safe distance away. Standing on my feet when it gets too close. It is this fear that inspired me to put a face on it.

One time while playing, he knocked it from its dock, causing it backup and repeated try to redock.

Roomba wakes up!
You’ve disturbed it from its slumber.
Yeah!
Now it must wander… feeding. Feeding a hunger that can never be sated.
Yeah!

At the same time though, I try to explain to him that everything is fine. It can’t eat him. It’s dumb and can’t see so it bumps into things. That you can turn it on and off by pressing the button on top. You can send it away and make it go back home by pressing another button on the top. He knows this, and he’s proud when he presses the button and makes it return to the dock, but at the same time, he won’t do it on his own. He needs encouragement.

Previously