Blogroll addition

I just realized that I don't have a blogroll link to Flares Into Darkness which is really strange since I've been linking to him since forever because he finds all sorts of really interesting (and eclectic) stuff.  He has literally been a daily read for me for years and years, and I must have had a massive brain fart in not blogrolling him.  

Well, fixed now.  Sorry about that, Ambisinistral.

Recommended to everyone.  You know what to do.

UPDATE 28 MARCH 2025 15:24: Huh - I see that I did have him on the blogroll. 

George Foreman and boxing

The passing of George Foreman got me thinking about how boxing has changed from back in the day (1960s/1970s).  Back then we used to watch Friday Night Fights pretty regularly - that tailed off in the 1980s as we all lost interest.  It just didn't seem as exciting as it had.

There is a great podcast episode on Dan Carlin's Hardcore History about this: Boxing with Ghosts (free download and highly recommended if you ever watch Friday Night Fights). In it Dan interviews longtime sportswriter for Ring magazine Mike Silver about how boxing is really just a shadow of its former self (and why).

But in this episode Dan tells a George Foreman story that illustrates why boxing was so great in those days.  The story is from when Foreman was going for his comeback world championship in a bout against a much younger Michael Moorer.  Foreman lost each of the first 9 rounds (unanimously).  Entering the 10th round it was like a football game with a minute left when he was down 99 to nothing.  A friend of Dan's left and went to the bathroom because the "fight was over".  Then two quick punches finished Moorer off in a KO and Foreman was champ again.

There is a lot to admire in Foreman's life, but we remember just what a superb fighter he was.  Rest in peace.

Security Cats and Dogs living together

The Surveillance State is bringing people together.  In this case Apple (iOS) and Google (Android).  You will now be able to send end-to-end encrypted messages from iPhones to Android devices and vice versa.  It's kind of like what Signal and Telegram do.

You already have that capability with Apple devices sending to other Apple devices, and Android to Android.  This new capability now makes it a big, happy, (more) secure world.

You will need to go into your device settings and enable Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol.  But yay for cross vendor cooperation and interoperability.

The Few are now the None

The last of the Battle of Britain RAF pilots reports to the final muster.

Update your Firefox browser

If you are at version lower than 128, you need to update Firefox immediately or all sorts of things will break.  The crypto certificate it uses to authenticate basically everything is about to expire so pretty much everything will fail authentication.

Bad things will result.

You can find out what version you are running by going into Settings and scrolling down to the Updates section.  The current Firefox version looks to be 136, but if you are 128 or higher then you're fine.  If your version is lower than this then click on the "Check for Updates" box.

Come, the Ides of March are

Aye, but not gone.

Today is the Ides of March, the 15th of this month (each month has Ides on various dates).  While we look at the Romans as the greatest engineers and organizers until the 18th century, we then jump to the conclusion that they were rational in an Enlightenment kind of way.  They weren't.  Rather, they were kind of like a combination of Nuclear-Reactor-Brainiac and Management-By-Ouija-Board*.

The Ides themselves are a great example of this second thing.  Their months didn't really start at day 1 and count up the same way that our months do.  Well, they kind of did, but you need to break out your Ouija Board to really understand things.  The Romans didn't count forwards, they counted backwards from three fixed points in the month: the Nones (usually but not always the 5th of the month), the Ides (usually the 13th but was the 15th in March, May, July, and October), and the Kalends (the 1st of the following month).

The Ides were sacred to Jupiter, Greatest and Best, and so this was a solemn day.  Thus in Shakespeare we hear Julius Caesar warned to beware the Ides of March.  Plutarch wrote that on his last ill-fated journey to the Senate house, Caesar saw the soothsayer who had warned about the day.  Caesar joked, "The Ides of March are come;" the soothsayer is said to have replied "Aye, but not gone."  Shakespeare cribbed a lot from the ancient authors.

But not everything.  The famous quote from Shakespeare's play from the scene where the Senators are stabbing him is when he sees the young Marcus Brutus - of whom Caesar was very fond - among the attackers.  Shakespeare has Caesar speak the words Et tu, Brute?  Even you, Brutus?

Except that's not what the ancients said about that event.  Suetonius says that Caesar spoke in Greek - Kai su, teknon?  This was a very common expression among educated Romans, and was often used in various plays but Kai su is generally translated as "You too". That was the formal translation but it was commonly used as "Screw you".  "Teknon" is generally translated as "child" but also was understood as "punk".

So Julius Caesar basically was telling Brutus to get bent.  At least if you believe Suetonius.

* This is one of the things that make the ancient Romans endlessly fascinating.

Hope

 I've been thinking this for the last few weeks, but The Smallest Minority has put it to words. I couldn't say it as well, so here's a quote and a link to his recent post. 

"We’re now on Week 5 of the second Trump term and things are not slowing down. Outsiders are in charge of the DoJ, FBI, DoD, ICE…. Change is actually happening. Fraud and waste are being exposed. Spending will be curtailed, at least somewhat. The Ruling Class is no longer in control. They remain a serious threat. The Deep State still has hands on some of the levers of power, but that’s being eaten away by the Trump Administration and alternative media exposing it.

And I finally have some small measure of hope. I give a damn."

 

Caveat lacuna

Roman roads in Britannia as an underground map.

 

Dad Joke CCCL

Why did the lion eat the tight-rope walker?

He wanted a well-balanced meal.

Can we just go back to Standard Time all the time?

People seem to dislike the time changes, and so this is maybe another issue where Trump can side with the People against inertia.

Starship

So SpaceX Starship test flight 8 had the same kind of Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly as flight 7.  This is disappointing, but as The Silicon Graybeard says, space is hard. 

What I find interesting is that SpaceX sends up so many Falcon rockets that it's become normal, if not exactly boring.  But Starship is exciting, and misunderstood.  If you're a SpaceX fan, I encourage you to read that last link.

 

Tulsi Gabbard investigating UK.Gov's Apple crypto backdoor demand

Last week I posted about the Congressional request that DNI Gabbard look into the UK government's demand that Apple put an encryption backdoor into their products.   She has done so:

In a written response to members of Congress, Gabbard said this week that such a demand would violate Americans’ rights and raise concerns about a foreign government pressuring a U.S.-based technology company.

“This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties,” Gabbard told Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who had written to express their worries.

...

Gabbard has asked the heads of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies to study the U.K. demand and said she will discuss it with her British counterparts. She noted that existing agreements between the two nations prohibit either country from demanding cloud data about citizens or residents of the other.

This seems unprecedented to me - the relationship between the US and UK intelligence communities has been very close for literally decades - I have personal experience of this in the 1990s and it predates that by a lot.

Europe seems really intent on making all sorts of relationships worse.

 

The (Security) lamps are going out all across Europe

We shall not see them relit in our lifetimes:

Signal CEO Meredith Whittaker says her company will withdraw from countries that force messaging providers to allow law enforcement officials to access encrypted user data, as Sweden continues to mull such plans.

Whittaker said Signal intends to exit Sweden should its government amend existing legislation essentially mandating the end of end-to-end encryption (E2EE), an identical position it took as the UK considered its Online Safety Bill, which ultimately did pass with a controversial encryption-breaking clause, although it can only be invoked where technically feasible.

Basically the Sweden.Gov is asking Signal to get pregnant, but only a little bit pregnant.  But vulnerabilities (and that's exactly what a government mandated encryption backdoor is) don't work that way.

And from the Department of Irony, the Swedish military oppose this:

The Swedish Armed Forces routinely use Signal and are opposing the bill, saying that a backdoor could introduce vulnerabilities that could be exploited by bad actors. 

I guess this is just Exhibit 14,543,928 that Europe is fundamentally unserious about their own defense.

This follows hard on the heels of Apple turning off encryption in the UK. 

Looking at what's going on over there, it makes me think that maybe we should just cut the whole of them loose, to sink or swim on their own.  Unwilling to defend themselves, increasingly despotic to their subjects at home, maybe JD Vance is right after all that we no longer have shared values.

 

 

R.I.P. Buster Poindexter

A.k.a. David Johansen.  He hated this video but I've posted it here a ton of times just because I enjoy it so much.

He was also great as the cabbie in the film Schrooged.

Thanks for all the great stuff, David. I hope you're having a ball driving your cab.

The S.S. United States reaches Florida

There are some great video shots of the ship under tow in this video.

Congress pushes back on UK snooping

Maybe there's something in the water in Washington D.C. these days, but this is clearly A Very Good Thing Indeed:

A bipartisan, bicameral pair of lawmakers urged newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to reevaluate U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence-sharing relations with the United Kingdom in response to a report revealing that the UK secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor into encrypted iCloud backups.

The Feb. 7 report from the Washington Post says that the order issued last month demands UK law enforcement and intelligence operatives be granted worldwide, unfettered access to users’ protected cloud data. Apple customers residing in the United States would be cast into that dragnet.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Gabbard in the Thursday missive if the Trump administration was made aware of the order by stakeholders and whether the White House has understanding of the CLOUD Act, which lets U.S. law enforcement get data stored by American tech companies, even if that data is on servers outside the U.S., by using warrants or subpoenas.

“If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers, undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products,” they wrote in their letter to Gabbard.

Remember, Encryption Backdoors are a Very Bad Idea.  It's not just me saying this, it's the former Director of the UK's GCHQ (their NSA equivalent).

And well done to Congresscritters from both parties in both the House and Senate for putting some pressure on the idiots in Blimey.

What Real Diversity Is

Representative Brian Mast from Florida has five minutes to make a point and he puts it to use. The best best explanation of how diversity should work I've heard from a politician.

The DOGE website is now posting the money saved by their efforts

It still looks like a work in progress, but this likely will be pretty interesting.

Presiden't day - Best and Worst Presidents

I've posted this each President's Day for ten years but have found no reason to adjust the rankings.

It's not a real President's birthday (Lincoln's was the 12th, Washington's is the 22nd), but everyone wants a day off, so sorry Abe and George, but we're taking it today.  But in the spirit intended for the holiday, let me offer up Borepatch's bestest and worstest lists for Presidents.

Top Five:

#5: Calvin Coolidge

Nothing To Report is a fine epitaph for a President, in this day of unbridled expansion of Leviathan.

#4. Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson is perhaps the last (and first) President who exercised extra-Constitutional power in a manner that was unambiguously beneficial for the Republic (the Louisiana Purchase).  He repealed Adam's noxious Alien and Sedition Acts and pardoned those convicted under them.

#3. Grover Cleveland*. 

He didn't like the pomp and circumstance of the office, and he hated the payoffs so common then and now.  He continually vetoed pork spending (including for veterans of the War Between the States), so much so that he was defeated for re-election, but unusually won a second term later.  This quote is priceless (would that Latter Day Presidents rise so high), on vetoing a farm relief bill: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character." 

#2. Ronald Reagan

He at least tried to slow down the growth of Leviathan, the first President to do so in over half a century (see entry #5, above).  He would have reduced it further, except that his opposition to the Soviet fascist state and determination to end it cost boatloads of cash.  It also caused outrage among the home grown fascists in the Media and Universities, but was wildly popular among the general population which was (and hopefully still remains) sane.

#1. George Washington

Could have been King.  Wasn't.  Q.E.D. 

Bottom Five:

#5. John Adams.

There's no way to read the Alien and Sedition Acts as anything other than a blatant violation of the First Amendment.  It's a sad statement that the first violation of a Presidential Oath of Office was with President #2. 

#4. Woodrow Wilson.

Not only did he revive the spirit of Adams' Sedition Acts, he caused a Presidential opponent to be imprisoned under the terms of his grotesque Sedition Act of 1918.  He was Progressivism incarnate: he lied us into war, he jailed the anti-war opposition, he instituted a draft, reinstituted segregation in the Civil Service, and he was entirely soft-headed when it came to foreign policy.  The fact that Progressives love him (and hate Donald Trump) says all you need to know about them.

#3 Lyndon Johnson.

An able legislator who was able to get bills passed without having any real idea what they would do once enacted, he is responsible for more Americans living in poverty and despair than any occupant of the White House, and that says a lot.

#2. Franklin Roosevelt.

America's Mussolini - ruling extra-Constitutionally fixing wages and prices, packing the Supreme Court, and transforming the country into a bunch of takers who would sell their votes for a trifle.  He also rounded up a bunch of Americans and sent them to Concentration Camps.  But they were nice Concentration Camps - at least we're told that by his admirers.  At least Mussolini met an honorable end.

#1. Abraham Lincoln.

There's no doubt that the Constitution never would have been ratified if the States hadn't thought they could leave if they needed to.  Lincoln saw to it that 10% of the military-age male population was killed or wounded preventing that in an extra-Constitutional debacle unequaled in the Republic's history.  Along the way, he suspended Habeas Corpus, instituted the first ever draft on these shores, and jailed political opponents as he saw fit.  Needless to say, Progressives adore him.

So happy President's Day.  

* I am currently reading A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland (recommended).  I had not known that the very first First Lady to have Jackie Kennedy style glamor was his wife Frances, whom he wed in the White House itself.  Here she is in her salad days (courtesy of Wikipedia):

 

 

 

The reason that your iPhone updated its code last night

Apple patched a Zero Day bug that was being actively exploited in the wild.  I'm not a big fan of unannounced updates where I don't get a choice to approve it or not, but in this case Apple did exactly the right thing.