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Political Irony

Alan nails the coffin shut with railroad spikes.

I Shall Think No More Forever.

Herbert H. Thompson, a security strategistin New York, writes on just how easy it is to get access to your bank account, email, and identity, recounting his hack of a friend named “Kim”.

In Kim’s case some of that information came from a blog, but it could just as easily have come from a MySpace page, a sibling’s blog (speaking of their birthday, mom’s name, etcetera) or from any number of places online.

Queue a check of all my information. I also found the information mining via inference rather clever. Maybe an attacker can’t see your browsing history, but looking at your cache (specifically CSS files) gives just as good of information.

How I Stole Someone’s Identity: Scientific American.

This farce has gone on long enough. The damage this mayor is doing goes beyond Detroit, affecting the reputation and stature of the entire state. Governor Granholm, remove the mayor now.

Mr. White, testified that he suffered a fractured hip after being shoved into his partner by Mr. Kilpatrick, who played football in college. Mr. White also said that Mr. Kilpatrick, who is black, had criticized his partner for working on the case and told her that as a black woman, “You shouldn’t even be riding in a car with a guy named White.”

Notice that this is in the New York Times. We’re a laughing stock. The time has come to end this parade of arrogance.

Detroit Mayor Charged With Assaulting Officer – NYTimes.com.

Phil Plait, the force behind Bad Astronomy, has accepted the position of President of the JREF Board of Directors, taking over for its namesake James Randi. Randi will continue and chairman of the board.

Good to see that the debunking of the foolish will continue for many years to come (psychics, paranormal communication, and moon hoaxers beware). If you think you actually are a psychic or some such nonesense, prove it and a million bucks are yours.

Randi’s big shoes to Phil | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine.

As if the JC Penny’s ad featuing the total composting of The Breakfast Club wasn’t enough for you, the newest rumor has it that Judd Apatow and crew (Seth Rogen, etc..) might remake Ghostbusters.

Can an actual remake of The Breakfast Club be far behind? Come on John Hughes, give Uwe Boll and call!

Seriously, this is what Rupert Murdoch is going to do to the Wall Street Journal?

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

…

“I won’t vote for any beanpole guy,” another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

What? WHAT?! This cannot be in the (formerly) well-respected Wall Street Journal. This cannot be an actual issue in the election for the President of the United States. Shame on Amy Chozick, shame on the WSJ for running this yellow journalism. And shame on us for ever allowing something like this to get traction.

If you think this is anywhere near to being a consideration for who you should vote for, you’re an idiot. Sure, you should consider the health of the candidate, but make it real health concerns, not someone’s height. If anything, maybe we shouldn’t vote for the guy who would become the oldest sitting President, if elected. Maybe the WSJ’s efforts would have been better spent talking about potential Vice Presidential candidates.

Better yet, let’s weigh the candidates on issues, ask them the hard questions (and demand answers), pin them down on positions we’ve allowed them to squirm away from with double-speak.

But this kind of crap is beneath the WSJ. Or, at least it was until Murdoch and Co. took over. It appears now, voters will have to wade through another Fox News-like medium to get to real stories.

Update: It just gets better and better. The “source” for the earth-shattering story about whether Obama is too fit to be elected? A Yahoo message board response (Google cache of the thread). Read the non-cached version for the deserved mockery and derision that follows.

Too Fit to Be President? – WSJ.com.

So, seems that, after using them as an example of a bad idea, Delicious went and fixed themselves up with a new website design. And it’s great! Very clean, very functional, and no more idiotic URL. Well done, Yahoo, well done.