Dad Joke CCCLIIII

I had a chip implanted in my body.  Cool Ranch Dorito's. 

Security: not advancing at the speed of a freight train

Well, the security of the freight train, that is:

When independent security researcher Neil Smith reported a vulnerability in a comms standard used by trains to the US government in 2012, he most likely didn't expect it would take until 2025 to sort the matter out, but here we are.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued CVE-2025-1727 (CVSS v3.1 8.1) last week, specifying the issue as one of weak authentication in the end-of-train to head-of-train linking protocol - allowing an attacker to input their own braking commands and stop the train in its tracks.

Now that's pretty bad, just by itself.  This could also cause derailment.  But this part is maddening:

With a simple exploit sitting out there in the open since 2012 (if Smith discovered it, someone else might too), it seems practically negligent that someone didn't take action, but as a 2016 story from the Boston Review explains, it's not a surprise.

The article tells the story of Smith's by then four-year tussle with the AAR upon first reporting the matter to the US Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) after successfully recording telemetry data from a passing train using an SDR in 2012.

ICS-CERT went to AAR with Smith's concerns, hoping they would be open to further security testing, but that initial contact was as far as it went - and as far as the BR story was able to glimpse into the struggle.

As Smith explained on X, the Boston Review article led to some burnout on the matter until security researcher Eric Reuter gave a talk at DEFCON in 2018, presenting an independent discovery of the same issue. By 2024, ICS-CERT had restructured several times, and Smith decided to reach back out to see if they could reopen the issue.

According to Smith, AAR's infosec director saw it as a minor issue since the FRED protocol was end-of-life and slated for replacement, despite still being in use.

Translation: yeah, we sat on this for 12 years but it's all good, bro. 

All those people going on about "OMG Trump is going to gut Internet Security teams" should ask themselves just what the heck those teams have been up to for the last dozen years.

A Public Service announcement

All your drill batteries will be almost dead when you start a project.  Both will make the drill spin when you test them out, but they'll both be dead in an hour.

Follow me for more Home Improvement tips. 

Portrait of the last Roman Emperor found

Somehow I missed this last December.  It appears to have been painted during his lifetime, likely by someone who knew what he looked like.

The presence of the double-headed eagles on the figure’s garment, in combination with the other insignia, identifies the man in the image as the emperor.

Constantine XI Palaiologos’ brothers, the despotes Demetrios and Thomas, were the sponsors of the Monastery’s renovation. [Note: But they were not Emperors and the portrait is definitely an Emperor - Borepatch]

The newly discovered portrait is the last chronologically surviving portrait of an emperor in Byzantine monumental painting and the only portrait of Constantine XI Palaiologos during his brief reign (6 January 1449 – 29 May 1453).

The double eagle symbol came into common use during the last dynasty of the emperors. 

Divemedic's blog is old enough to vote

Go wish him Happy Blogiversary. 

Things I did not know, vol XCIII

A bunch of States have State Dinosaurs? 

I guess that since it's true that nobody's Life, Liberty, or Property are safe when the Legislature is in session, I have to approve of all the time that went into passing these bills. 

Free Ghislaine Maxwell

 Why is Ghislaine Maxwell in prison? She was convicted of child trafficking and procurement, but now it's time for that to be overturned. 

Jeffery Epstein now officially committed suicide for no reason at all.

And there is not now and never was a list of clients that he had created and used for the visitors to the island where no sexual abuse of minors occurred. 

So Ghislaine must not have done anything, because nothing was done, no crimes were committed, no wealthy or prominent people were involved in sexual escapades with underage girls, everyone is innocent.

Why was Jeffery Epstein even arrested? It must all have been a unfortunate mistake. He couldn't have been involved in a conspiracy or been blackmailing clients because there weren't any. He didn't even have a list to work from.

And somebody needs to really apologize to the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. 

 "The client list is sitting on my desk right now to review," 

Attorney General Pam Bondi, February 2025

What is going on in China?

Is Xi on the way out?  Lawrence has a very detailed and very interesting analysis.

And something to add in that today Xi was a no-show at the BRICs conference. 

Charles Ives - Variations on "America"

When Ives composed this in the 1890s (at age 17!), there was no official national anthem.  "My Country Tis Of Thee" was generally recognized as the de facto anthem, and Ives used it as a basis for this when he wrote it for an Independence Day celebration.

He was organist at his church, and his father didn't let him play it often since it made some of the kids there laugh.  It's a fun piece for a long Independence Day weekend. 

WW2 Submarine stuff

OldNFO posts a hilarious story about scrounging to keep the subs on patrol:

On June 11, 1942, disease, and perhaps an increasing desire not to use one’s own hand to wipe one’s nether regions, drove Lt. Cmdr. James Coe of the submarine Skipjack to send an “urgent” message to the powers that be.

Since July 1, 1941, a requisition had been submitted for 150 rolls of toilet paper to replenish the dwindling supply aboard the Skipjack. However, as the boat patrolled the Pacific, no sign of the all-important bathroom item appeared — even as other war materiel came in.

The TP was needed because crews ate very well when out at sea.  I've posted Tasting History episodes before, and this one does not disappoint.  I'd eat that in a New York minute.

When in the Course of Human Events

 

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Happy Birthday, America

I was born by God's dear Grace in an extraordinary place.  Happy Birthday to that place.

I pledge allegiance to that flag, and if that bothers you, well that's too bad.

But if you have pride and you're proud you do, we could use a some more like me and you. Glen Filthie, this means you.  You're already half way thrown out of your current place.  The air smells of freedom here ...

Aaron Tippin: Where The Stars And Stripes And The Eagle Fly

Well, if you ask me where I come from
Here's what I tell everyone
I was born by God's dear grace
In an extraordinary place
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

It's a big ol' land with countless dreams
Happiness ain't out of reach
Hard work pays off the way it should
Yeah, I've seen enough to know that we've got it good
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

There's a lady that stands in a harbor for what we believe
And there's a bell that still echoes the price that it cost to be free

I pledge allegiance to this flag
And if that bothers you, well, that's too bad
But if you got pride and you're proud you do
Hey, we could use some more like me and you
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

Yes, there's a lady that stands in a harbor for what we believe
And there's a bell that still echoes the price that it cost to be free

No, it ain't the only place on earth
But it's the only place that I prefer
To love my wife and raise my kids
Hey, the same way that my daddy did
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly 

This song sums up the current Cold Civil War here on the shores of the New World*.  It also sums up the increasing Cold War between Western Europe** and the USA under the Trump Administration.  It's a fundamental disconnect between world views - us vs. them***.

All I can say is that God spared Donald Trump last summer for a purpose.  That statement probably bothers some people.

Well, that's too bad****. 

* I only use the term to bother the Usual Suspects.

** Ibid 

*** Well, except for the European oppressed political minorities, like the AfD, Marine Le Pen, Tommy Robinson, et al.

**** Damn, this has turned into a rant.  I guess that calls for a clarification.  Maybe it's not a rant, it's a desire for a Reckoning: 

Dad Joke CCCLIII - Special Queen Of The World edition

Our birthday girl brings these:

What do you call a rabbit with fleas?  Bugs Bunny.

I bet jellyfish are sad that there are no peanut butter fish.

What do you call a bunch of birds that stick together?  Velcrows.

Dogs prepare you for babies; cats prepare you for teenagers. 

Happy Birthday to The Queen Of The World!

Although I decorated cupcakes, not a cake.  She loves cupcakes. 

 

Happy Birthday, Darlin'.

Dad Joke CCCLII

Tuna sends in another Dad Joke: I went for a run but came back after 2 minutes because I forgot something. I forgot I’m out of shape and can’t run for more than 2 minutes. 

Exploring the Way

 Paul asked, in the comments on my  Blogiversary II post, if I had stayed active in the martial arts.

Yes, Paul, I did. I have stayed with Aikido and have been promoted  beyond my own expectations. It has been and continues to be an amazing part of my life. There are many different styles of Aikido and I believe the organization I am part of is working to maintain the martial aspects of the art.

For the last five years, I have added Arnis, a Filipino stick and knife art that provides a interesting set of different skills to my practice. I have a very talented instructor, making no claims to any sort of personal mastery, but I continue to learn and only wish I had started them both when I was much younger.

 Here's a photo from the national summer camp several years ago, I'm out there in the middle being tested for promotion to the next black belt rank. The senior leadership is on the stage, my instructor is watching from the right wall. 

[Update Borepatch 1 July 2025] Let me point out that ASM826 goes to martial arts camps on the regular.  In the south.  In the summer.  Camps with no air conditioning.  Yeah, he's tougher than I am. [/Update]

 

 

And here's a group shot from camp in 2012, the year I tested for shodan.