View Holy Cross Hospital, Tuesday, January 6, 2015

To all old calendar readers, Merry Christmas

The therapists had me working very hard, so this will be short on originality.

Begin with this, which I suppose most of you know about, but some will not, and you all should be aware:

any other way to get rid of it besides paying the ransom? No — it appears to be technologically impossible for anyone to decr

Subject: How My Mom Got Hacked – NYTimes.com

This was sent to (my boss) yesterday and I thought you might want to be aware of it. (Cybersecurity lead), is there something we can do to protect ourselves?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/opinion/sunday/how-my-mom-got-hacked.html?emc=eta1

MY mother received the ransomnote on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It popped up on her computer screen soon after she’d discovered that all of her files had been locked. “Your files are encrypted,” it announced. “To get the key to decrypt files you have to pay 500 USD.” If my mother failed to pay within a week, the price would go up to $1,000. After that, her decryption key would be destroyed and any chance of accessing the 5,726 files on her PC — all of her data — would be lost forever.

Sincerely, CryptoWall.

CryptoWall 2.0 is the latest immunoresistant strain of a larger body of viruses known as ransomware. The virus is thought to infiltrate your computer when you click on a legitimate-looking attachment or through existing malware lurking on your hard drive, and once unleashed it instantly encrypts all your files, barring access to a single photo or tax receipt.

Everyone has the same questions when they first hear about CryptoWall:

Is there any other way to get rid of it besides paying the ransom? No — it appears to be technologically impossible for anyone to decrypt your files once CryptoWall 2.0 has locked them. (My mother had several I.T. professionals try.)

But should you really be handing money over to a bunch of criminals? According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the F.B.I. and the National White Collar Crime Center, this answer is also no. “Ransomware messages are an attempt to extort money,” one public service announcement helpfully explains. “If you have received a ransomware message do not follow payment instructions and file a complaint.” Right. But that won’t get you your files back. Which is why the Sheriff’s Office of Dickson County, Tenn., recently paid a CryptoWall ransom to unlock 72,000 autopsy reports, witness statements, crime scene photographs and other documents.

Finally, can law enforcement at least do something to stop these attacks in the future? Probably not.

The story is interesting. Have a look if you have not seen it. Then go buy a gigabit hard drive, disconnect your system from the Internet, and back up anything you would pay to recover if this happened to you. Disconnect the backup drive and put it in a safe place. Now you can reconnect to Internet. If your data – photos, manuscripts – are valuable, a bit later buy another drive and do it again a few weeks later. Now alternate doing backups with those drives…

Dr. Pournelle:

I came across the print version of this article at work, and it’s author was on NPR today.

I believe it is worth a read.

And the short answer to the question posed in the title is "the civilian leadership." (See,e.g., Vietnam)

We continue to pray for your quick and complete recovery.

God bless,

Lee

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/

"The result is a class that educates their children in private schools or at home, and all the rest."

Across the country a class of people is attempting a third way. Generally economically disadvantaged, they yet understand that a real education – vs. credentialing – will enable their children to do economically better than they have. So they seek to put their children in schools that are publicly funded but not publicly operated – i.e., charter schools. This is being strenuously resisted by our political class, members of the same class that puts their children in private schools, as their ability to maintain their membership in the political class is in part dependent on satisfying the people who operate the public schools.

Ron Fox

Charter schools are an attempt to return at least some control of local schools to parents.  The current system is that pay and the professionals  run a terrible system in which most resources are dedicated to those who get the least from it, and the Republic suffers. The professionals prosper.  No one gets fired.  Few learn much,particularly smart kids.

The results are predictably awful.  And then the kids borrow money to go to college to learn what high schools used to teach.

Regarding Bitcoin and BitStamp,Peter Glaskowsky says

The Bitstamp situation is pretty mild by comparison with what happened at Mt. Gox. It does not break new ground or raise the threat level.

Even what happened at Mt. Gox has happened at real banks many times. Banks have adopted various controls to reduce their risks, which Bitcoin repositories should study and adopt as needed, but fundamentally a bank account full of electronic Bitcoin is no more vulnerable to theft that one full of electronic dollars.

I realized something about the "fiat money" discussion. Dollars are fiat because they are backed by nothing more than a sincere promise from a sovereign government to honor them in trade.

But no single entity makes that promise for Bitcoin. In effect we’re relying on a distributed promise made by all the people who own or trade in Bitcoin. That approach has certain advantages, but also some very serious disadvantages.

. png

‘The world doesn’t need another Steve Jobs. They just want Jeff Bezos, the way he used to be.’

<http://www.fastcompany.com/3039887/under-fire>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View whatever, Monday, January 5, 2015

Another strenuous day, which is what I want. Learning to stand, sit, walk in the walker … meanwhile Mike Donahue and Roberta get the house ready while Alex and Eric are in Las Vegas working CES. Life goes on, I have my towel, the nurses here are angels, and recovery continues. It is not exciting to many, but now I can touch my little finger with my thumb and make the Spock sign with my right hand. Doesn’t sound like much, but it is something.

What recovery from a stroke means is that you must learn things all over again. What used to be an automatic act becomes a voluntary one, at least until it becomes a habit. One such action is swallowing, then swallowing without choking. I had to learn those all over again. I am learning it, but it is surprising how long it takes.

I intended to write more , but the therapists have exhausted me. That’s good but it is exhausting.

Tonight is a bit thin, but it has some interesting points

This is a full report I have not been able to examine in sufficient detail, but it contains more information on author earnings than anything I have yet seen:

authorearnings.com.

<http://authorearnings.com/reports/>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

If you are interested in self publishing I heartily recommend you read it.

The  education mess is the greatest threat to the US of all.  Here is more on what is happening

“With all this studying, the kids’ brains become rigid. They know how to take a test, but they can’t think for themselves.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/magazine/inside-a-chinese-test-prep-factory.html?_r=0>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

Is it worth going into debt – lifetime debt, becoming a bondsman – for what most colleges give? I recommend to your attention http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/learning-curve_822394.html

Jerry,

With respect to Mr. Dobbins’ quote, “With all this studying, the kids’ brains become rigid. They know how to take a test, but they can’t think for themselves,” let me add a bit.

I have done a fair amount of tutoring; in fact I brought in some spare cash while I was getting well started as an author by doing so, by then having left my space job after losing a friend aboard the Columbia disaster. And I’ve seen that thinking bit first-hand.

I will never forget the private school senior taking Algebra II and preparing for the graduation exam. With a little bit of guidance, not very much, she worked her way through setting up the problem, manipulating the equation into the needed form, and plugging and chugging the numbers, all the way down to the final bit of arithmetic, in which she had to multiply 2 x 13. I have no doubt but that any of your readers can give that result almost without thinking about it.

She reached for her calculator.

I smacked her hand away and took the calculator. "That’s basic arithmetic," I told her. "You should be able to do it in your head."

She couldn’t. She had never learned the multiplication tables. I had to sit down with her and show her how to multiply it out on paper. A senior, ready to graduate FROM AN ELITE PRIVATE SCHOOL, who could not do basic multiplication.

And that was only one example I could give you, out of my own experience.

And it’s quite apart from the substitute teaching session I did at a local public middle school, wherein two boys abruptly squared off against each other with fists raised, and I had to break it up fast, as the rest of the class was taking sides…

Or the myriad of kids who had developed test anxiety so severe that they made A’s in their homework and F’s on their tests…

On and on…

Stephanie Osborn

Interstellar Woman of Mystery

Certainly everyone can and should learn the addition and times tables, preferably up to twenty,  by second grade end.  Actually they can be learned in first; we did in St Anne’s in Memphis in 1938.  Maybe a few won’t learn the tables, as a few won’t learn to read, and now apparently the public schools can’t teach anything that all don’t learn with the worst teachers. We sow the wind

.  The result is a class that educates their children in private schools or at home, and all the rest. That is the end of the Republic

Taranto on Sony Hack and NK

http://www.wsj.com/articles/escape-from-you-nork-1420234603

Money quote:

As long as we had (Bruce Bennett, the RAND Corp.’s North Korea expert)’s ear, we asked him who he thought was behind the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. He said, contrary to much speculation, that he thought it was indeed Pyongyang. How could a country that barely has electricity—we’ve all seen those satellite photos <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140226-north-korea-satellite-photos-darkness-energy/> —pull off such a sophisticated act of sabotage? Bennett said the North Korean regime has a cadre of several thousand hackers, conscripted as schoolchildren recognized for mathematical gifts, who are based in China and carefully guarded to avoid defection

 

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/12/29/area-of-arctic-sea-ice-is-nearly-identical-to-30-years-ago/

Stephanie Osborn

Interstellar Woman of Mystery

http://www.Stephanie-Osborn.com <http://www.stephanie-osborn.com/>

 

 

‘Global Sea Ice Breaks Record High For The Day – Antarctic Sea Ice Also Breaks Record High For the Day’

And it’s SUMMER in the Antarctic!

Stephanie Osborn

Interesting.  Given the weather in the US – well North America –  what is the source of the statement that this is the hottest year ever?

I think that it is not…except for places where the data set is, uhm, "off," shall we say…

http://surfacestations.org/images/MarysvilleCA_USHCN_Site_small.jpg

A nice example of what the data stations look like. The ones in Death Valley are just as bad.

Stephanie Osborn

And yet she should know.  I have asked others. and get no good answers. One friend who ought to know says

What she said, but with considerably more detail:

http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/12/2014-a-record-warm-year-probably-not/

The running satellite data record, for comparison http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/12/uah-global-temperature-update-for-nov-2014-0-33-deg-c/

The general web site:

http://www.drroyspencer.com/

I continue to question the data that says this the hottest year ever

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View whatever, Sunday, January 04, 2015

I am attempting to get back to writing View essays, and resuming  Chaos Manor Reviews.

It will not be easy and may take some time, but I will get there.

I go home Friday, which seems a long time, but I am learning a lot – odd to learn to walk again – and the staff here is very good. There may be no better place to be after the kind of stroke I had. I advise you not to have one –Harlan Ellison says I did not get the right message from him – but if you do, get to St Josephs for treatment and then to Holy Cross for Rehab. They’re good, and as you see I can type again. I started with one finger, but am now up to two hands, not touch typing – I still look at the keyboard, not the screen –but faster than two finger for me. Painfully slow compared to what I used to do, but better than yesterday.

Alex is off to CES. When he gets home things at the house will be more stable. But we will also have Marsha and her brother Joe to help. Plan is to go home Friday as I said above.

I am now going to try to post this. I am writing in Word as usual. I will post as I usually did. Let’s see what happens, and if it Works I will have advice to the hospitalized..  So far so good I have in live writer…

OK it posted. Slow as the net in hospital is slow, but I am alive again

Things I am learning in stroke rehab

First, Hitchhiker’s Guide is correct, always know where your towel  is – amend that to never let go your old towel until they give you another.  To staff there is an infinite supply, but to you only with help from staff, who must be summoned from something they were doing. No matter how pleasant they are (and you are if you have any sense) it is better to disturb them as little as possible, and you WILL need a towel… 

{More later, this is tiring}

Big News: Six North Caucasus Insurgency Commanders Transfer Allegiance To Islamic State

I’ve wondered how far the Islamic State might actually spread. I read about inroads in Malaysia. I know Muslim populations exist in Indonesia in significant numbers and we have considerable populations in Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and India.

The actions of six North Caucasus insurgency commanders could portend a shift:

<.>

Over the past six weeks, at least three Chechen and three Daghestani commanders have retracted their oath of obedience (bayat) to Umarov’s successor as Caucasus Emirate leader, the Avar theologian Sheikh Ali Abu-Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), and pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.

How many more rank-and-file fighters have done likewise is unclear, but Kebekov’s warning of an imminent split within the insurgency ranks suggests the number is not insignificant.

</>

http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-north-caucasus-insurgency-commanders-allegiance/26773615.html

The article does not offer data on the size, strength, or disposition of the forces under the various commands mentioned; I assume we could gather this data through Google, Janes, or Stratfor and I may look into it if I don’t see someone else publish meaningful commentary within due course.

But, this is sets an precedent that could prove problematic if it becomes a trend. However, were the Islamic State to spread across a vast area, the expansion could present geopolitical opportunities.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

That was always the significant danger. Recall it was the Kurd Saladin who united Islam against the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Richard Lionheart’s time.   Success brings followers. American Black Muslim’s say that can’t happen, but they do not say it loudly. We live in dangerous times, and the end of history has not happened. Christianity is decadent and not united.

* * *

The following is as good an analysis of jihad as I know. This is the inevitable result of ISIS Caliphate success.

What, really, has changed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Broken_Hill

One Hundred Years of Jihad in Australia

by Mark Durie

Markdurie.com

<http://blog.markdurie.com/2014/12/individual-jihad-comes-to-australia.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MarkduriecomBlog+%28markdurie.com+blog%29> January 1, 2015

http://www.meforum.org/4947/one-hundred-years-of-jihad-in-australia

Share: <http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meforum.org%2F4947%2Fone-hundred-years-of-jihad-in-australia>

Be the first of your friends to like this.

Originally published under the title, "From Broken Hill to Martin Place: Individual Jihad Comes to Australia, 1915 to 2015."

Jihadist gunman Man Haron Monis, seen through a window holding a hostage during the December 15 siege at Martin Place, Sydney.

One hundred years ago today, a lethal jihad attack was staged against New Year’s Day picnickers in Broken Hill, Australia. This attack and the recent Martin Place siege, events separated by almost exactly a century, show striking similarities.

For Australians, the anxious question about the Martin Place attack, which has grabbed the attention of everyone, is whether this atrocity is but a harbinger of a further series of deadly attacks on Australian soil, or whether it will pass into memory as an exceptional one-off event, much as the 1915 New Year’s Day massacre in Broken Hill did.

The Broken Hill Massacre

On New Year’s Day, 1915, two Muslim men, Bashda Mahommed Gool and Mullah Abdullah, shot and killed four people and wounded several others before finally being killed by police. They had both come to Australia more than a decade previously.

I won’t include the rest but do go read it.  I recommend it to you as it shows the influence  of the idea of the Caliphate

Dear Jerry,

Your continued recovery is great news indeed. When you wrote (regarding

bitcoin) to the effect that -in an emergency, paper money would at least be useful for starting fires, and that should worse come to worse, .22 shells would perhaps be the best currency of all- you proved in less than a whole sentence that both your wit and your intellect have come unscathed through your recent ordeal.

From the "Department of Absurdity Department," I offer the following:this link (google offers several to the story)

www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-tsa-screening-2014-2

tells the story of TSA agents searching luggage for bitcoin…

All the best to you and yours,

Dave (in Detroit)

Heck, they probably reported finding some..  

“It’s a golden period to be a leftist in China. Xi Jinping has ushered in a fundamental change to the status quo, shattering the sky.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/world/chinas-maoists-are-revived-as-thought-police.html>

—–Roland Dobbins

‘That would seem to suggest that the FBI has determined that simply making a call while walking down a city street is enough to free federal law enforcement from its internal restrictions on digging into your phone data.’

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/01/02/senators-question-fbis-legal-reasoning-behind-cell-tower-spoofing/>

———

Roland Dobbins

 

“Two U.S. senators are questioning whether the FBI has granted itself too much leeway on when it can use decoy cellphone towers to scoop up data on the identities and locations of cellphone users. The lawmakers say the agency now says it doesn’t need a search warrant when gathering data about people milling around in public spaces.

“Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman and ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee respectively, have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson about the use of the surveillance technology called an IMSI catcher, though also referred to by the trade name “Stingray."

“Cell tower simulators work by mimicking the legitimate cell towers used by companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. They catch the signals emitted from cellphones and other mobile devices and extract insight into who owns the phone, his or her location, and other details. That’s a bit like someone setting up a big blue box, posting a United States Postal Service logo on the side, copying information from the letters fooled users deposit in it, and then soon after dumping the accumulated mail into a real mail box. No one need be the wiser.”

Does this make us more secure?  It certainly makes us less free. but that s not the fault of government. Indeed we have power to do things we never could before, even as government uses it to track us. I do not believe anyone has thought this through. After all, you do not have to use a cellphone.  If you do not, this is irrelevant.  If you do, are you less free?  As I sadi, it must be thought through.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

[A short thought from Dr. Pournelle as he continues his recovery. You can send him your support via the Well Wishing page. You might also find some of his past posts interesting; a random selection is shown on the right column. – Editor]

The Constitution Is Not a Suicide Pact

The [US] Constitution is not a suicide pact, but apparently some think it is.
Note they are having trouble trying the Boston Marathon bomber, because
everyone in the city knows he did it.  One day someone will commit a crime
on TV, everyone will see it or a rerun, and the only people eligible for the
jury will be halfwits.

Originally Anglo-Norman juries were drawn from local populations, and were
expected to know of the crime and quite possibly the defendants.