Sunday, May 29, 2011
Hacking in the U.S.A
[ed. Government definitions of cyber terrorism here:]
by Kim Zetter
If you want to see a top Pentagon official squirm, tune into CNBC’s cyberwar documentary Thursday night, and watch Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn face an uncomfortably direct question about the Stuxnet worm.
In “CodeWars: America’s Cyber Threat,” correspondent Melissa Lee asks Lynn outright: “Was the U.S. involved in any way in the development of Stuxnet?”
Lynn’s response is long enough that an inattentive viewer might not notice that it doesn’t answer the question.
“The challenges of Stuxnet, as I said, what it shows you is the difficulty of any, any attribution and it’s something that we’re still looking at, it’s hard to get into any kind of comment on that until we’ve finished our examination,” Lynn replies.
“But sir, I’m not asking you if you think another country was involved,” Lee presses. “I’m asking you if the U.S. was involved. If the Department of Defense was involved.”
“And this is not something that we’re going to be able to answer at this point,” Lynn finally says.
The sophisticated Stuxnet worm was released on systems in Iran in June 2009 and again in March and April 2010, and was designed to specifically target programmable logic controllers used in industrial control systems made by Siemens. The worm was programmed to launch its attack only on Siemens systems that had a specific configuration — a configuration believed to exist at Iran’s Natanz plant, where weapons-grade uranium is being enriched.
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by Kim Zetter
If you want to see a top Pentagon official squirm, tune into CNBC’s cyberwar documentary Thursday night, and watch Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn face an uncomfortably direct question about the Stuxnet worm.
In “CodeWars: America’s Cyber Threat,” correspondent Melissa Lee asks Lynn outright: “Was the U.S. involved in any way in the development of Stuxnet?” Lynn’s response is long enough that an inattentive viewer might not notice that it doesn’t answer the question.
“The challenges of Stuxnet, as I said, what it shows you is the difficulty of any, any attribution and it’s something that we’re still looking at, it’s hard to get into any kind of comment on that until we’ve finished our examination,” Lynn replies.
“But sir, I’m not asking you if you think another country was involved,” Lee presses. “I’m asking you if the U.S. was involved. If the Department of Defense was involved.”
“And this is not something that we’re going to be able to answer at this point,” Lynn finally says.
The sophisticated Stuxnet worm was released on systems in Iran in June 2009 and again in March and April 2010, and was designed to specifically target programmable logic controllers used in industrial control systems made by Siemens. The worm was programmed to launch its attack only on Siemens systems that had a specific configuration — a configuration believed to exist at Iran’s Natanz plant, where weapons-grade uranium is being enriched.
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Solar Farms of Le Mées, France
The energy company Efinity opened two new solar-power farms in Le Mées in north-central France this month. They're huge. Together they occupy 89 acres, generating enough electricity for 9,000 families. They were also designed with the landscape in mind. The panels were installed without concrete foundations, which means when their 20-year lifespan is over and they're removed, there will be healthy land left behind, and grasses are being planted so sheep can graze among them.
But what's most remarkable about these solar farms is that they're really aesthetically pleasing. Set on the rolling hills, they look like some sort of Frank Gehry installation. Carbon aside, they're just much nicer to look at than a coal plant.
Pieces of a Man
by James Fallows
The music I most associate with my first stage of living in Washington, in the Watergate era of the 1970s when I was working for the Washington Monthly, was the voice and poetry of Gil Scott-Heron, who was then in his early-/mid-20s. When I think of sitting and sweating in the non-airconditioned Washington Monthly office late on stifling DC nights, I think as well of Gil Scott-Heron's immediately recognizable voice in the background, on the radio. To me it was the theme music of that time. Of course this was a voice you stopped and listened to, rather than half-noticing as background effect.
He really was a beautiful singer, in addition to his poetry -- and his political influence, which has been most discussed on the occasion of his death. The only drawback of his being so well known for 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' is that his singing doesn't sound so great on that song. I preferred ones like this, which certainly is political in its own way:
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The music I most associate with my first stage of living in Washington, in the Watergate era of the 1970s when I was working for the Washington Monthly, was the voice and poetry of Gil Scott-Heron, who was then in his early-/mid-20s. When I think of sitting and sweating in the non-airconditioned Washington Monthly office late on stifling DC nights, I think as well of Gil Scott-Heron's immediately recognizable voice in the background, on the radio. To me it was the theme music of that time. Of course this was a voice you stopped and listened to, rather than half-noticing as background effect.
He really was a beautiful singer, in addition to his poetry -- and his political influence, which has been most discussed on the occasion of his death. The only drawback of his being so well known for 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' is that his singing doesn't sound so great on that song. I preferred ones like this, which certainly is political in its own way:
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Girlie-Man
by Lawrence Bush
Long-term marriages rank with fools, barflies and traveling salesmen as a classic butt of American jokes.
I married her 60 years ago, and right away I knew it was a mistake!
Their punch lines testify to nagging, sniping, dissatisfaction and the loss of romance. Their baseline assumption is that a lengthy marriage is sexless or, at best, sexually worn out.
Darling, do you remember the first time we made love?
-- Hell, I can't remember the last time!
These days, there's a new rack of clever, grim headlines for comedians to invent:
"Maria & Arnold: Terminated!"
"IMF head sits in jail, waiting for a bail-out"
Meanwhile, I'm sitting at home, practicing my punditry and wondering why it is that after 36 years with the same woman -- with whom I have made love more than 3,000 times -- there's nothing I'd like better right now than to go into the next room to strip off her clothes.
Long-term marriages rank with fools, barflies and traveling salesmen as a classic butt of American jokes.
I married her 60 years ago, and right away I knew it was a mistake!
Their punch lines testify to nagging, sniping, dissatisfaction and the loss of romance. Their baseline assumption is that a lengthy marriage is sexless or, at best, sexually worn out.Darling, do you remember the first time we made love?
-- Hell, I can't remember the last time!
These days, there's a new rack of clever, grim headlines for comedians to invent:
"Maria & Arnold: Terminated!"
"IMF head sits in jail, waiting for a bail-out"
Meanwhile, I'm sitting at home, practicing my punditry and wondering why it is that after 36 years with the same woman -- with whom I have made love more than 3,000 times -- there's nothing I'd like better right now than to go into the next room to strip off her clothes.
How to Care for Your Mother
by Annie Murphy Paul
Combining personal narrative with practical advice, as Jane Gross does in “A Bittersweet Season,” is a tricky business. A reader swept up in a story is apt to resent the intrusion of brass tacks. And a reader looking for how-tos will have little use for the details of an author’s own tale. Particularly perilous are the transitions between the instructional and the essayistic — passages reminiscent of the fraught moments in Broadway musicals when ordinary speech must lift into song. There is the actor, speaking his lines; suddenly he leans on his pitchfork, squints into the distance and breaks into a soaring rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”
Or, in this case, “Pore Jud Is Daid.” Gross, a former reporter for The New York Times who wrote pioneering stories about AIDS and autism, here takes on a subject she knows from experience: the trials of caring for an aging parent. She mixes an account of her mother’s difficult last years with a “hard-earned list of tips” on eldercare. Her chronicle of her mother’s decline is intimate and affecting, and her advice to readers is insightful — but the shifts between the two are often far from smooth.
The story part begins just over a decade ago, when Gross’s mother, Estelle, a widow in her mid-80s, becomes too frail to live alone in her Florida apartment. Gross recognizes it’s time for her mother to undertake a “reverse migration,” a move back north to be near Gross and her brother. But she is unprepared for the burdens and crises that follow her mother’s relocation to an assisted-living facility in New York: the plaintive (or demanding) phone calls, the late-night emergency-room visits, the medical tests that stretch into all-day ordeals. Most painful for Gross is seeing Estelle, a proud and private woman, frustrated by her growing infirmity. In a tiny, telling scene, the author observes her mother trying to remove her socks: “She resisted assistance in taking them off, but watching her struggle both saddened and annoyed me.”
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Combining personal narrative with practical advice, as Jane Gross does in “A Bittersweet Season,” is a tricky business. A reader swept up in a story is apt to resent the intrusion of brass tacks. And a reader looking for how-tos will have little use for the details of an author’s own tale. Particularly perilous are the transitions between the instructional and the essayistic — passages reminiscent of the fraught moments in Broadway musicals when ordinary speech must lift into song. There is the actor, speaking his lines; suddenly he leans on his pitchfork, squints into the distance and breaks into a soaring rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”
Or, in this case, “Pore Jud Is Daid.” Gross, a former reporter for The New York Times who wrote pioneering stories about AIDS and autism, here takes on a subject she knows from experience: the trials of caring for an aging parent. She mixes an account of her mother’s difficult last years with a “hard-earned list of tips” on eldercare. Her chronicle of her mother’s decline is intimate and affecting, and her advice to readers is insightful — but the shifts between the two are often far from smooth. The story part begins just over a decade ago, when Gross’s mother, Estelle, a widow in her mid-80s, becomes too frail to live alone in her Florida apartment. Gross recognizes it’s time for her mother to undertake a “reverse migration,” a move back north to be near Gross and her brother. But she is unprepared for the burdens and crises that follow her mother’s relocation to an assisted-living facility in New York: the plaintive (or demanding) phone calls, the late-night emergency-room visits, the medical tests that stretch into all-day ordeals. Most painful for Gross is seeing Estelle, a proud and private woman, frustrated by her growing infirmity. In a tiny, telling scene, the author observes her mother trying to remove her socks: “She resisted assistance in taking them off, but watching her struggle both saddened and annoyed me.”
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U.S. Declines to Protect Bluefin Tuna
by Felicity Barringer
The Obama administration said on Friday that it had declined to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, whose numbers have declined precipitously because of overfishing on both sides of the ocean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the fish, whose fatty flesh is prized by sushi aficionados, would be classified as a species of concern, however, effectively placing bluefin on a watch list as the agency awaits new data on the impact of a stricter international management regimen.
“The future of this species relies on sound international management,” said Larry Robinson, NOAA’s assistant secretary for conservation and management. The agency’s scientists are also continuing to assess the effect of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on bluefin spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said, and the agency will revisit its decision by early 2013.
Mr. Robinson said the bluefin tuna did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act because it was “not likely to become extinct.”
The decision drew sharp criticism from the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Arizona that filed the petition requesting endangered species protection. “The Obama administration is kowtowing to the fears of the U.S. fishing industry instead of following the science on this,” said Kieran Suckling, the center’s executive director.
Several other environmental groups have questioned the wisdom of unilaterally listing the bluefin tuna as an endangered species, saying that coordinated international action is preferable.
Read more:
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The Obama administration said on Friday that it had declined to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, whose numbers have declined precipitously because of overfishing on both sides of the ocean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the fish, whose fatty flesh is prized by sushi aficionados, would be classified as a species of concern, however, effectively placing bluefin on a watch list as the agency awaits new data on the impact of a stricter international management regimen.
“The future of this species relies on sound international management,” said Larry Robinson, NOAA’s assistant secretary for conservation and management. The agency’s scientists are also continuing to assess the effect of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on bluefin spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said, and the agency will revisit its decision by early 2013.Mr. Robinson said the bluefin tuna did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act because it was “not likely to become extinct.”
The decision drew sharp criticism from the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Arizona that filed the petition requesting endangered species protection. “The Obama administration is kowtowing to the fears of the U.S. fishing industry instead of following the science on this,” said Kieran Suckling, the center’s executive director.
Several other environmental groups have questioned the wisdom of unilaterally listing the bluefin tuna as an endangered species, saying that coordinated international action is preferable.
Read more:
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Won't Get Fooled Again
by Simon Garfield
Rock music in 2011 is not quite what it was in the mid-1960s. For one thing, it is full of challenging coincidences, such as the one reported by Pete Townshend in a recent e-mail. “I was supposed to be sailing in the St Barth’s Bucket Race on March 24th,” he wrote. That’s right: the writer of “My Generation”, “Substitute” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” now spends part of his time as a yachtsman in the Caribbean. “This was arranged last August,” he added. “In a challenging coincidence Roger Daltrey will be performing ‘Tommy’ on that very day for Teenage Cancer [Trust] at the Royal Albert Hall.”
Rock music in 2011 is not quite what it was in the mid-1960s. For one thing, it is full of challenging coincidences, such as the one reported by Pete Townshend in a recent e-mail. “I was supposed to be sailing in the St Barth’s Bucket Race on March 24th,” he wrote. That’s right: the writer of “My Generation”, “Substitute” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” now spends part of his time as a yachtsman in the Caribbean. “This was arranged last August,” he added. “In a challenging coincidence Roger Daltrey will be performing ‘Tommy’ on that very day for Teenage Cancer [Trust] at the Royal Albert Hall.”
More than most rock stars, Townshend notices what is going on in the world, and he felt he was meeting the challenge in the only decent way he could. “In these straitened and tragic times I have decided I have to do something useful rather than try to enjoy myself on a yacht while so many people are in trouble, and I am going to see Roger today at his rehearsal studio to offer my services in some way. I hope I will be able to perform with him, possibly sing ‘Acid Queen’ as I did when The Who played at Woodstock.”Daltrey wasn’t sure. He had already announced that “Tommy” would be played by a new bunch of musicians, which meant no place for Townshend on his own rock opera about the “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who turned out to be both a mean pinball player and a misappropriated seer, a concept that has sold 20m records. “I offered to perform,” Townshend wrote the next day, “but Roger and I agreed in the end that it might be best for him to do his show alone, just to properly test the new model…” Later, he expanded. “Our manager Bill [Curbishley] says that this is a safe place for this experiment. Like doing a run-through in our living room. I know Roger is nervous, but I went to his rehearsal yesterday and his musicians are superb, calm, and will provide the musical support he needs.”
I wondered if I was a silent witness to the break-up of one of rock’s greatest bands. But the following day, at 6.46am, this landed: “Dear Simon, Roger changed his mind. He has now agreed I can walk on and play ‘Acid Queen’ solo. Things change every day at the moment. He is extremely distracted, and of course very busy as usual at this time. – Pete”
Four hours later, this: “I’m definitely back on again. Doing ‘Acid Queen’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’...come if you can.”
A week or two earlier I had spent a few hours at Townshend’s home in Richmond, discussing the world of a rock star in the late afternoon of an explosive career. The conversations had ranged from his attitude towards fans (“there is something very strange about them”), his time as an editor at Faber & Faber (“I don’t think P.D. James liked me at all”) and his current reading matter, a horticultural monthly (“I subscribe to the idea that as you get older you should try to make a garden”). We also discussed his arrest in 2003 for giving his credit card details to an online company that traded in indecent photographs. But we began by talking about the memoir he has been working on for years.
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Saturday, May 28, 2011
Saturday Night Mix
[ed. SNM will be going on a brief hiatus for the summer. I'll try to post individual videos when I come across something interesting; in the mean time here are some Flight of the Conchords.]
Ukulele Songs
A few weeks ago, Eddie Vedder released a video for the song “Longing to Belong” from his new album, a second solo full-length, Ukulele Songs. The video fittingly captures Eddie amidst a Hawaiian landscape, of which he spends quite a bit of his time (I would know this because I ran into him at a hotel there and my stalker husband gained that intel from one of the hotel staff).
Anyway, if you head over to NPR, you can listen to Ukulele Songs in full, for free, as NPR is wont to do.
The songs found on Vedder’s new album are selections from more than a decade of writing on the instrument. While the majority of the album is a calm, nostalgic, melody-inspired affair, the album does open up with Pearl Jam’s propulsive “Can’t Keep.” Either way, the overall sound of Ukulele Songs shows us a softer Eddie Vedder, featuring songs drenched in sadness about the breakup of his first marriage, while others speak to the joy and serenity of his second one.
And just when you think an entire album of songs featuring Eddie Vedder and his ukulele might be just a bit too spare, we get some backup vocals from the likes of Glen Hansard on “Sleepless Nights” and Cat Power on 1920′s-inspired “Tonight You Belong to Me.”
You could probably buy your mom this record for her summer layouts by the pool. Or you could buy it for yourself, because it’s actually quite lovely.
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Anyway, if you head over to NPR, you can listen to Ukulele Songs in full, for free, as NPR is wont to do.
The songs found on Vedder’s new album are selections from more than a decade of writing on the instrument. While the majority of the album is a calm, nostalgic, melody-inspired affair, the album does open up with Pearl Jam’s propulsive “Can’t Keep.” Either way, the overall sound of Ukulele Songs shows us a softer Eddie Vedder, featuring songs drenched in sadness about the breakup of his first marriage, while others speak to the joy and serenity of his second one.And just when you think an entire album of songs featuring Eddie Vedder and his ukulele might be just a bit too spare, we get some backup vocals from the likes of Glen Hansard on “Sleepless Nights” and Cat Power on 1920′s-inspired “Tonight You Belong to Me.”
You could probably buy your mom this record for her summer layouts by the pool. Or you could buy it for yourself, because it’s actually quite lovely.
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Courtney Comes Clean
[ed. Wow. You don't read many interviews like this. Sounds like there's still a lot of denial going on.]
by Maer Roshan
Last September Courtney Love was scheduled to headline a large concert to benefit the recovery community. Intrigued by the prospect of her performing before thousands of recovering addicts and drunks, I asked her if she'd agree to an interview about her hard-won sobriety. Much to my surprise, she did.
Love was scheduled to perform at Randall's Island Park at 11 a.m. Much to the consternation of the event’s organizers, she showed up three hours late. Apparently her hairdresser was tardy, her make-up artist was a mess, and she needed a jacuzzi dip to calm her frayed nerves. She then spent an hour and a half picking out an appropriate outfit and trying on dozens of shoes. So by the time her car arrived at the park, the crowd of 10,000 had thinned out to about 50 stragglers and die-hard fans, one of whom suffered a heart attack at the exact moment Love emerged from her limo. (Courtney has that kind of effect on people.) As an ambulance rushed over to save the stricken fan, the singer trekked blithely across the expansive grass lawn. “Where is everybody?” she shrieked, trying to stay balanced on her sharp stiletto heels. “Wasn't this supposed to be some massive event!”
Informed that most of the audience had long departed, she smiled sadly and beckoned the remnants of the crowd into a make-shift V.I.P. tent backstage. There, for well over an hour, she delivered a flawless performance, capped off by a rollicking cover of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Afterwards she patiently signed autographs and sat for an hour-long interview with a documentary team to discuss her struggle with recovery. As she was leaving, a teenage boy who had nearly died of a heroin overdose months earlier approached her for a few private words. She wrapped her arms around him and talked to him for 20 minutes. When she left she was almost in tears.
That, in a nutshell, is Courtney Love—a mad, maddening presence who has managed, through sheer will and raw talent, to stake out a place at the forefront of pop culture for over two decades. At an age (46) when many of her contemporaries are playing reunion shows, she has managed to remain as raucous and relevant as ever, a multi-talented performer who has made impressive inroads in movies, fashion and music.
The following interview links a series of taped conversations that occurred over the past eight months. No doubt many will shudder at the notion of a recovery-oriented website prominently featuring a celebrity who has been a poster girl for drug abuse. But for all that, she may be a perfect poster child for recovery as well. There is something undeniably admirable about her free-wheeling honesty about her struggle with sobriety, and her determined optimism after every fall that this time things will turn out differently. Role model or not, her rocky road to recovery should resonate with many of our readers. We're sure you'll let us know, either way.
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by Maer RoshanLast September Courtney Love was scheduled to headline a large concert to benefit the recovery community. Intrigued by the prospect of her performing before thousands of recovering addicts and drunks, I asked her if she'd agree to an interview about her hard-won sobriety. Much to my surprise, she did.
Love was scheduled to perform at Randall's Island Park at 11 a.m. Much to the consternation of the event’s organizers, she showed up three hours late. Apparently her hairdresser was tardy, her make-up artist was a mess, and she needed a jacuzzi dip to calm her frayed nerves. She then spent an hour and a half picking out an appropriate outfit and trying on dozens of shoes. So by the time her car arrived at the park, the crowd of 10,000 had thinned out to about 50 stragglers and die-hard fans, one of whom suffered a heart attack at the exact moment Love emerged from her limo. (Courtney has that kind of effect on people.) As an ambulance rushed over to save the stricken fan, the singer trekked blithely across the expansive grass lawn. “Where is everybody?” she shrieked, trying to stay balanced on her sharp stiletto heels. “Wasn't this supposed to be some massive event!”
Informed that most of the audience had long departed, she smiled sadly and beckoned the remnants of the crowd into a make-shift V.I.P. tent backstage. There, for well over an hour, she delivered a flawless performance, capped off by a rollicking cover of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Afterwards she patiently signed autographs and sat for an hour-long interview with a documentary team to discuss her struggle with recovery. As she was leaving, a teenage boy who had nearly died of a heroin overdose months earlier approached her for a few private words. She wrapped her arms around him and talked to him for 20 minutes. When she left she was almost in tears.
That, in a nutshell, is Courtney Love—a mad, maddening presence who has managed, through sheer will and raw talent, to stake out a place at the forefront of pop culture for over two decades. At an age (46) when many of her contemporaries are playing reunion shows, she has managed to remain as raucous and relevant as ever, a multi-talented performer who has made impressive inroads in movies, fashion and music.
The following interview links a series of taped conversations that occurred over the past eight months. No doubt many will shudder at the notion of a recovery-oriented website prominently featuring a celebrity who has been a poster girl for drug abuse. But for all that, she may be a perfect poster child for recovery as well. There is something undeniably admirable about her free-wheeling honesty about her struggle with sobriety, and her determined optimism after every fall that this time things will turn out differently. Role model or not, her rocky road to recovery should resonate with many of our readers. We're sure you'll let us know, either way.
Read more:
v
Why Not Let the Dead Pay for Medicare?
by Kevin Drum
So here's an idea: why not reform Medicare by means testing it? Conservatives should love this idea.
So here's an idea: why not reform Medicare by means testing it? Conservatives should love this idea.
Here's how it works. Basically, we leave Medicare alone. Oh, we can still go ahead with some of the obvious reforms. Comparative effectiveness research is a no-brainer for anyone who's not part of the Republican leadership. Ditto for some of the delivery reforms on the table. Or allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prices. It would be great if that stuff works. But if it doesn't, then people will need to pay more for their care. So why not have dead people pay? They don't need the money any more, after all.So Medicare stays roughly the same, but every time you receive medical care you also get a bill. You don't have to pay it, though. It's just there for accounting purposes. When you die, the bill gets paid out of your estate. If your estate is small or nonexistent, you've gotten lots of free medical care. If it's large, you'll pay for it all. If you're somewhere in between, you'll end up paying for part of the care you've received.
Obviously this gives people incentives to spend all their money before they die. That's fine. I suspect they wouldn't end up spending as much as you'd think. What it does mean, though, is that Medicare has first claim on their estate, not their kids. But that seems fair, doesn't it?
Do you want to make sure to credit estates with all the Medicare taxes that have been paid over the years? Fine. Do you want to exempt a certain smallish amount to account for genuine family heirlooms? Fine. Do you want to pass laws making sure that estates can't be transferred to other people or trusts in order to evade this rule? Or regulate the use of reverse mortgages? Or make special rules for heirs who are minors? Fine, fine, and fine. Whatever.
But I'll bet this would raise a fair amount of money. What's more, that Medicare bill, with its continuously increasing grand total, would give people a pretty good sense of just how much medical care they're really getting. And it wouldn't impoverish the elderly with means testing while they were living. It would come solely from dead people, who have taken advantage of Medicare while they were alive and have no use for their money after they're dead. So what's not to like?
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