Tuesday Morning: Some Kind of Freak

Today’s the intersection of my Gwen Stefani jag and International Women’s Day 2016. Need some more estrogen-powered music to celebrate IWD? Try this list — note and compare Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walking against more recent tunes like No Doubt’s Just A Girl.

Let’s roll…

Volkswagen shocked, SHOCKED! the EPA went public on the diesel emissions standards cheat
But by the time the EPA made public statements regarding VW, the German automaker had already known about the International Council on Clean Transportation’s research results for a year and had yet to reveal to shareholders the risk of prosecution and penalties. VW’s leadership hoped for a mild and quiet slap on the hands and enough time for a technical solution before the EPA’s disclosure:

“In the past, even in the case of so-called ‘defeat device’ infringements, a settlement was reached with other carmakers involving a manageable fine without the breach being made public,” VW argued. “And in this case, the employees of Volkswagen of America had the impression on the basis of constructive talks with the EPA that the diesel issue would not be made public unilaterally but that negotiations would continue.”

Hope somebody is looking at insider trading for any sign that VW executives were unloading stock in the period between September 2014 when ICCT’s results were published, and when the EPA went public in 2015. Wonder what penalties there are under German/EU laws for this?

USDOJ appealed last week’s ruling in Brooklyn iPhone 5S case
At the heart of this appeal is Apple’s past cooperative actions when federal law enforcement asked for assistance in unlocking iPhones. Apple, however, said past acquiescence is not consent. USDOJ has now asked for review of Judge Orenstein’s ruling.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak appeared on Conan, sided unsurprisingly with Apple
Woz admitted to having tried his hand at writing viruses for Mac, but the entire premise terrified him, compelling him to destroyed his efforts. Video of his appearance included at this link.

France to punish phonemakers for encryption, while UK’s GCHQ says it should get around encryption
A narrow body of water, a different language, and a recent terrorist attack make for very different reactions to encrypted communications. France’s Parliament voted yesterday to punish phonemakers which do not cooperate with law enforcement on unencrypting data; the bill is not yet law, subject to further parliamentary process. Meanwhile, Britain’s spy chief said he hopes methods can be developed to get around encryption without building backdoors.

Drive-by quickies

And it’s Presidential Primary Day in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, Hawaii. I may avoid social media for most of the day for this reason. Hasta pasta!

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17 replies
  1. martin says:

    quote”F-35 bomber’s latest problem: radar that must be rebooted (The Guardian) — still has to be tested for cyber security, too.”unquote

    At least you can’t accuse them of utilizing KISS technology. :)
    The F-35 isn’t the only weapon system they’re worried about.
    http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2112
    This has been a worry for a decade or more. Back somewhere around 2003, the USAF lost track of a B-52 carrying a nuclear bomb. I remember there was talk about sub-contractors who built electronics for the plane had utilized Chinese chips..to save money of course. But it was subsequently discovered there was software on the chips that wasn’t supposed to be there. But that whole story was shut down immediately.

    quote”And it’s Presidential Primary Day in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, Hawaii.”unquote
    Don’t remind me. I’m already sick of this crap. And 9 months to go. fuck.

  2. bloopie2 says:

    Nice musical selection, thank you. Hadn’t heard No Doubt before.
    .
    I suppose that if I cite “I Wanna Be Bobby’s Girl”, I will get killed? Or, “Then He Kissed Me”? “I Will Follow Him”? “My Boyfriend’s Back”? “Navy Blue”? “To Know Him Is To Love Him”? “I Want to Love Him So Bad”? “Today I Met The Boy I’m Going To Marry”? “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life”?
    .
    Somehow I sense that you were not upset when Phil Spector was convicted of murder … .
    .
    Just joshin’. :)

    • martin says:

      quote”Somehow I sense that you were not upset when Phil Spector was convicted of murder …”unquote

      BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! thanks..I needed a laugh this morning. Especially after reading about Mein Furer demanding his supporters pledge an “oath” of allegiance by promising to vote for him. Meanwhile, his Stazi security team refocuses on surveillance and ousting of protesters…

      http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/donald-trump-rally-protester-crack-down-220407

      After watching 5 minutes of this scumbag at his last rally.. I’m absolutely convinced now the entire US water system is polluted with lead. Either that, or the United States has been invaded by brain sucking alien parasites.

      • Evangelista says:

        Martin,

        “the United States has been invaded by brain sucking alien parasites.”

        Yes, in the 2000 election year and again (the second wave) in the 2004 election year, with an intended mop-up and occupation force arriving in 2008 election year.

        The last of the last of the last of them died out in 2012, from starvation, as all previous also had.

        Are you and I the only ones who noticed the invasions?

  3. blueba says:

    “USDOJ appealed last week’s ruling in Brooklyn iPhone 5S case
    At the heart of this appeal is Apple’s past cooperative actions when federal law enforcement asked for assistance in unlocking iPhones. Apple, however, said past acquiescence is not consent. USDOJ has now asked for review of Judge Orenstein’s ruling.”

    This illustrates a point I continually make, Apple is not on the “good” side of this case. Apple did as noted cooperate fully with NSA prior to Snowden, then post Snowden Apple lied repeatedly about their cooperation. Apple is a transnational corporation which has one and only one goal – profits for its “transnational elite” (oligarch) owner or owners. Apple is not a friend of anyone it is a monopolistic transnational corporation which evades taxes and pollutes the earth and has no interest in anyone’s well being.

    • Bardi says:

      blueba :

      “Apple is not a friend of anyone”

      Apple is behaving as a “good” corporation, “good” as defined by Wall Street. It is not a charity. It has brands to protect and revenue to be made within the global guidelines as made visible by the law. I may disagree with some of Apple’s actions but I realize that, as long as those actions are legal, unless I work to change the laws, I really cannot complain.

      Asking a corporation to behave with human ethics is wrong. (Considering a corporation as a person is completely wrong, just as considering a gun to be human) Corporate behavior can only be coerced through law. That is not to say that corporations cannot exhibit human ethics (caring, etc.) but that is an outlier if it is not part of their brand.

      Apple is protecting their brand and ceding to the DOJ will mean that they must cede to all governments, in particular China, a giant potential market for Apple. By removing reasonable privacy to the owner, as the DOJ is demanding, Apple will lose quite a bit.

      It is like the DOJ is unethically holding Apple hostage in this instance, as well as attempting to cover up the FBI screw up in San Bernardino County. (There is likely nothing of use on the county phone).

  4. lefty665 says:

    What probably scared Woz was how easy it was. He’s a pretty good EE.
    .
    Try looking around the Maldives for MH370. There were sightings reported by locals there at the time. The piece that was found on Reunion island is consistent with that. Don’t believe they’ll ever find anything off Australia.

  5. bloopie2 says:

    You’d think that in this day and age of pervasive surveillance, it would be hard to lose a whole big airplane. But it’s not hard. Just head out over the deep blue sea, with no communications ongoing. (Ask Amelia Earhart.) This intersection of technology and nature tells us a lot: There are many unknowns that can rise up to bite, no matter how much we plan. It will be a l-o-n-g time before we conquer Nature. My hope is that it never happens.

    • lefty665 says:

      Telemetry communications were available. Indonesian Air just decided not to pay for them. That’s why all they had was an ID squawk once an hour but with no other data. It was from those squawks that they inferred possible courses.
      .
      Here’s a tune from 1937 for International Women’s Day

      There’s a ship out on the ocean
      Just a speck against the sky
      Amelia Earhart flying sad that day

      With her partner captain Noonan
      On the second of July
      Her plane fell in the ocean far away

      Chorus
      There’s a beautiful beautiful field.
      Far away in a land that is fair.
      Happy landings to you Amelia Earhart.
      Farewell first lady of the air”

      A half and hour later
      Her SOS was heard
      The signal weak but still her heart was brave
      Over shark infested waters
      Her plane went down that night
      In the blue Pacific to a watery grave

      Chorus

      Now you have heard my story
      Of that awful tragedy
      We pray that she may fly home safe again
      In years to come those others
      Blaze a trail against the sky
      We’ll neer forget Amelia and her plane
      .
      Nobody seems to be writing that kind of stuff anymore. Intense news cycles, a flurry of tweets and it’s gone.
      .

  6. lefty665 says:

    Damned lack of formatting. It’s one thing to screw with my blather, quite another to trash Amelia Earhart. Sorry I forgot periods to force line spacing.
    .
    Chorus is 4 lines, ends with Farewell first lady of the air”

  7. lefty665 says:

    Goodfellow is a pilot. I started following his blog on MH370 early on. This Wired article is a cleaned up version of the blog. No conspiracy theories, but applies some old pilot logic that fits some of the things we do know. That makes a lot of sense to me.
    .
    It puts the crash a long way from where we’ve been looking. Like you say, to find something, you gotta look where it is. Sounds like an old Yogi Berraism.

    • jo6pac says:

      Yes I’ve read Goodfellow also and the owner of the site is in touch with him. They both put the plane near the same spot. It’s like they don’t want to find it. At this time there is an Amerikan ship setting near by and has been for a week not sure what they’re doing. Then about a month ago there was ship from China setting in almost the same spot.

      I also feel that Diego Garcia base saw this plane on the radar they have there but won’t/can’t say anything.

  8. lefty665 says:

    They’re far enough out in the middle of nowhere that you’d expect it would get their attention when something that size wandered by. The local report from the Maldives was that it was very low, dunno how radar works with that these days.

    • jo6pac says:

      Yes the plane was at 10.000ft that is were the auto-pilot try’s to keep the plane. Russian radar can see past the curvature of the earth and I would think there might be that type there.

      Oh will time to open a bottle of whine;)

  9. lefty665 says:

    Thought the Maldives reports were very low altitude like under 500 feet, same when it came back across Malaysia earlier. People came running out of their houses expecting a crash. But, that’s memory, not looking at reports. National technical means are what they are:)
    .
    Curious that we and the Chinese would have had ships sitting the same obscure place.

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