Motley Moose – Archive

Last (ok, also first) call for Moose Meet Scotts Valley, July 7th and 14th. We are done with the California Experience, going back to the lake lifestyle, this time on Douglas Lake in Knoxville, TN. You will find us here in various shades of dishabille.

Any Moose in the Bay Area (Adept? Fog? …?) are welcome for Saturday night bonfires and bower conversations. Any other day or night up to the 17th Moose are always welcome. Email, 408 656-8732 or just show the heck up.

Same goes for Tennessee on the other end, anytime. Pontoons and BBQ in the southern summer sun!

What does the summer hold for all you other Moose out there in the world?

Consider this a sun-soaked open thread.

Mohamed Morsy has been elected President of Egypt. There was much rejoicing, and there was much angst.

Rejoicing, because something like a democratic process has now for the first time elected the political leader of Egypt. Among some of those the rejoicing is due to the simple fact of his Muslim Brotherhood party allegiance. Among others it is due to his US education, two American citizen children and arguably moderate political positions.

Angst among some because he represents the Muslim Brotherhood at all, that he is the possible harbinger of an open Gaza border over which arms flow to fire at Israel.

The game is afoot among political pundits and prognosticators. What the future holds remains uncharted.

It is summer, effectively. School is out, the sun shines, vacations and family and time outdoors occupy more than the normal amount of horizon.

Those following politics and the media closely are developing strong feelings about the election coming in November. Those (like myself) enjoined in other topics let those issues stew for later contemplation.

The Republican party and its supporters are on the warpath to retake the White House, the Democrats laying defenses to keep it. As the Out party the GOP is motivated, as the In party the Dems are perhaps more contented.

Which way will the wind blow come the end of summer, oh progosticative Moose?

I’ve known a few Moose

Who when asked to produce

Some lines of rhythmical text,

Would take it in course

To lampoon the source

Of such an achievable quext.

It passes my mind

That in order to find

A causational trigger sufficients

To stampede the Meeses

Resulting in pieces

Of contextual arts they’ve proficients,

Presented a hurdle

Less’r bloods which would curdle

But True Mooses would span with omniscience.

So lay down, you Moose

Your pens do let loose

And fire some iambic pentameter,

You’ve just let a geek,

Coke-glass’ed, outspeak

A roomful of scholars who’re apter.

Hi Mooses!

Sorry to be so unattentive lately, you remain in my heart and mind notwithstanding.

Life continues to be interesting, though news and politics do not cross my bow a lot of late (maybe that’s why…).

While working undercover using my Secret Code Name Rick Blask keeps me busy,

The Industrial Controls Systems Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ICS ISAC) will provide deeper cross-industry alerting and threat communications among critical infrastructure companies, Rick Blask, ICS-ISAC executive director told Government Security News in an interview. Blask is also the founder and chief executive officer at ICS Cybersecurity, Inc.

…having a 25th anniversary last Saturday and getting a little dog rescued by our friend Maria today keeps everything else grounded.

Colorado’s Senate has passed a bill called “First Degree Homicide Of The Unborn Child Bill”, according to njcronk on DKOS.

The stated intent of the bill is to be able to charge murderers twice for killing a pregnant woman. But such a law cannot stop there.

As LeftHandedMan says in the first comment at DKOS:

Does the Doctor and the woman both get the death penalty, or just the Doctor?

If the nurse does her job, is she guilty of second degree murder or neglegent homicide? Should she get the death penalty too? Like a getaway driver who helps a first-degree murderer get away might get in some states?

…

If a woman miscarries, is that murder or just involuntary manslaughter?

It gets both worse and, perhaps, better when you look deeper.

(Crossposted from Infosec Island)

As we wrestle through our critical infrastructure cybersecurity conundrum we talk a lot about Big Electricity, Big Oil and other Big Asset Owners.

Certainly these asset owners play a crucial part in providing the services of modern society, and keeping them secure is very important. However, these asset owners are not all – or even most – of the problem.

In the US Electric Sector, for example, there are around 3,200 utilities keeping the lights on. Less than 1% of these would be considered Big Electric companies. Drinking and waste water is supplied by over 50,000 US utilities, almost none of which are large operations. Manufacturing, Transportation, Chemical and other sectors are similarly bottom-heavy in terms of demographics.

Obviously, achieving reliable security in large facilities – and none at small ones – only moves us so far towards securing the nation.

We digressed into the evolution of mankind and our use of artifacts and theologies from pre-human times in the last open thread, so in this one we will start on that and see where we end up (educational funding?).

I’ll start with an example of how far we have evolved since we separated from our common ancestor with chimpanzee’s seven or ten million years ago:

Hi folks!

The world is rotating at a rate of once each day. Texas Fred has a friend who will be publishing tomorrow why this is Obama’s fault.

No, wait, that was yesterday. Must have been killed by Secret Government Agents before he could release the explosive news…

Newt Gingrich woos the bacon slapping constituency…

Consider this a (where did I put those pliers?) um, distractedly Open Thread.

North Korea today announced that it would freeze all nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in exchange for food aid. Under normal conditions this could only be taken as something to be handled with the most extreme skepticism (in other words “complete bullshit”).

But there’s a New Generation in charge up at the castle, and we haven’t seen much of him yet other than a hunchbacked silhouette in a window. Maybe – maybe? – Jr. does not want to live walled up in the castle forever. Maybe, just maybe, he and the rest of the crew might rather be fabulously rich instead.

CNN has this:

“Today’s announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction. We, of course, will be watching closely and judging North Korea’s new leaders by their actions,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday before the House Appropriations Committee.

In return for the moratorium on nuclear activities at this key site, the United States has agreed to a package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance to North Korea.