Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
This is just creepy: David Kelly, the British scientist named as the possible source for some of the disputed Iraq intelligence, has been found dead in the woods.
Accident? Or “accident”? Too soon to tell.
One minor change to the site design here — I moved my shot of the Seattle skyline that I use over at The Long Letter to this weblog also. Even when that’s the only change, replacing that garish green with the black and white skyline gives a very different feel to the page. I like it. It’s a return to the cool blue/grey combination that I keep returning to.
Bright neon lime green just wasn’t “me”, anyway. ;)
Two pieces of news broke in one day yesterday.
Item one: “Microsoft acknowledged a critical vulnerability Wednesday in nearly all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software…[which] could allow hackers to seize control of a victim’s Windows computer over the Internet, stealing data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mails.”
Item two: “The Homeland Security Department has chosen Microsoft Corp. as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday. …perhaps most important to Homeland Security’s mission to get agencies communicating more easily, Microsoft will provide the standard e-mail software for the entire department.”
I loved Jeffrey Zeldman’s summary:
Let’s see what the government might have chosen in its effort to protect American lives from ruthless, technologically sophisticated terrorists:
- UNIX, Linux
- Inexpensive or free.
- Requires some user knowledge.
- Practically invulnerable to attack.
- Mac OS
- Costs money.
- Easy to use.
- Practically invulnerable to attack.
- Windows
- Costs money.
- Easy to use.
- Can be hacked by a squirrel monkey, thus is wide open to attack.
- Produced by a company the Department of Justice found guilty of criminally abusing its monopoly power — a finding that is supposed to result in punishment, not in fat contracts bankrolled by taxpayers.
To the bureaucratic mind, the choice was obvious.
Sounds safe and secure to me.
Here’s something cool: The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has posted a study of the most literate cities in America. Seattle got number two!
The top 10:
(via Brian)
Two more quick links worth browsing, then I think I’m done with politics for the evening — there’s only so much bile I can choke back in one sitting, after all.
Incidentally, both of these come from Len, who I’ve been finding a lot of good stuff through lately. I seriously considered putting him in my recommended links post the other night — the only reason I didn’t is that he’s a bit more Dean-centric (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), while the three I chose are more wide-ranging. He’s still definitely worth checking on a regular basis.
Anyway. Two stories: first up, one about what Prairie deemed the “Passing Judgement on Poor Women With Bastard Children Act“. Secondly, more of Bush’s prior supporters are realizing that, to quote some old famous dead guy, “something smells rotten in Denmark…“.
Ari Fleischer’s replacement, Scott McClellan, must be hating his life right about now. Go read through this transcript from a press conference that Tom Tomorrow posted.
Here’s something amusing — given the fluid nature of the ‘net, it may not last for terribly long, but it works for now:
For future reference, as of 7/17/2003, the result is Howard Dean’s campaign homepage. :)
(via Mathew Gross)
Be careful what you read in public:
“The FBI is here,”Mom tells me over the phone. Immediately I can see my mom with her back to a couple of Matrix-like figures in black suits and opaque sunglasses, her hand covering the mouthpiece like Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder. This must be a joke, I think. But it’s not, because Mom isn’t that funny.
“The who?” I say.
“Two FBI agents. They say you’re not in trouble, they just want to talk. They want to come to the store.”
[…]
Trippi’s partner speaks up: “Any reading material? Papers?” I don’t think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: “I’ll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that’s why we’re here, just checking it out. Like I said, there’s no problem. We’d just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can’t, then you may have a problem. And you don’t want that.”
You don’t want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?
[…]
Special Agent Trippi didn’t return calls from CL. But Special Agent Joe Paris, Atlanta field office spokesman, stressed that specific FBI investigations are confidential. He wouldn’t confirm or deny the Schultz interview.
“In this post-911 era, it is the absolute responsibility of the FBI to follow through on any tips of potential terrorist activity,” Paris says. “Are people going to take exception and be inconvenienced by this at times? Oh, yeah. … A certain amount of convenience is going to be offset by an increase in security.”
Welcome to America, ~~2003~~ 1984.
(via Tom Tomorrow and Len)
Something else for my reading list, courtesy of Thousand Faced Moon, who I found by wandering through TypePad’s list of recently updated TypePad blogs:
I’m impatiently waiting for Simon & Schuster to get off their butts and publish Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Felaheen in the States. You’d think a science fiction series set in the Near East would be pretty darn topical these days, but the second book in the sequence, Effendi was only published here by Simon & Schuster in February. Bastards. Fortunately Ziesing gives me my fix when I need it.