Blake Shelton - Don't Make Me

This is one of the saddest songs I know, and one of Blake's best.



Don't Make Me (Songwriters: Marla Cannon-Goodman, Deanna Bryant, Dave Berg)

Girl, when I look at you,
you look through me like I'm not even there.
I'm trying not to give up
to be strong but I'm afraid to say I'm scared.

I can't find the place your heart is hiding.
I'm no quitter, but Im tired of fighting.

Baby, I love you, don't wanna lose you,
don't make me let you go.
Took such a long time for me to find you,
don't make me let you go.

Baby, I'm begging please
and I'm down here on my knees.
I don't want to have to set you free.
Dont make me.

What if when I'm long gone
it dawns on you, you just might want me back.
Let me make myself clear
if I leave here, it's done I'm gone that's that.

You carry my love around like its a heavy burden.
Well, I'm about to take it back, are you sure it's worth it?

Baby, I love you, don't wanna lose you,
don't make me let you go.
Took such a long time for me to find you,
don't make me let you go.

Baby, I'm begging please
and I'm down here on my knees.
I don't want to have to set you free.
Dont make me.

Dont make me

stop loving you.
Stop needing you

Nasty Adobe Flash bugs being exploited

Flash, of course, is the technology that drives most Internet video like Youtube.  It's now officially the Borepatch most Lousiest Insecure Crapware™ ever:

Another exploited zero-day vulnerability has been uncovered and patched in Adobe Flash, 24 hours after a second flaw in the popular web trinket was found being used in attack kits.

Adobe is examining yesterday's zero day, picked up by French researcher Kafeine who spotted it after analysing a version of the popular Angler exploit kit.

The vulnerability affected Flash Player versions up to 15.0.0.223 and the latest 16.0.0.257.

The latest zero-day, now fixed in a rare emergency patch for Windows, Mac and Linux, was being used by attackers to circumvent memory randomisation mitigations in Windows.

Yup, this means everyone needs to upgrade, even Linux nerds like me.  You can upgrade for free here.

Oh, and it seems that targeted malware is being served up via porn sites.  Not that you'd ever browse for feelthy pixels, of course, but pass it on to your friends that do.

I'm really glad I moved to Georgia

This picture is from Framingham, MA - the town next to the old Chez Borepatch when we lived up in Yankeeland:

Ugh.  Good luck to all my readers up there.

Deflategate - the Patriots did not cheat

Interesting science experiment:

An experiment performed by a team at Carnegie Mellon provides empirical support for the Patriots’ claim to have done nothing unusual. The Carnegie experimentalists inflated a batch of footballs to 12.5 psi at a room temperature of 75°F, then let the balls equalize to a new ambient temperature of 50°F, resulting in an average pressure drop of 1.8 psi. (They also wet the leather balls to simulate the rainy conditions of the game, surmising that this might allow stretching that would reduce air pressure in the ball, but this seems likely to be a minor factor.)

It seems that the cooler temperature on the field caused some of the water vapor in the ball to condense, reducing the pressure.  This implies that what happened at the Patriots-Colts game happens all the time - any maybe even more for very cold stadiums like Green Bay.  I'd guess that in sub freezing temperatures players fingers start to lose some feeling and so the situation isn't as noticeable.

"Hottest year ever" record relied on data adjustments

The recent announcement by NASA that 2014 was (maybe, kinda sorta) the hottest year on record relied on a big heat wave in South America for the record high global temperature reported.  But if you look at South America, you see a very large part of it is Amazon rain forest where there are precisely zero surface stations reporting temperatures to NASA and the other databases.

As a matter of fact, it boils down to three stations that are used to "infill" data to the bulk of the continent.  There's quite some interesting adjustments being made to the data from those stations:

As we so often see, older temperatures are adjusted downwards and recent temperatures are adjusted upwards:

So we find that a large chunk of [NASA's] hottest year is centred around a large chunk of South America, where there is little actual data, and where the data that does exist has been adjusted out of all relation to reality.

Other than that, it's awesome.

Pwn the drone

Who would have seen this coming?

Hacker Rahul Sasi has found and exploited a backdoor in Parrot AR Drones that allows the flying machines to be remotely hijacked.

The Citrix engineer developed what he said was the first malware dubbed Maldrone which exploited a new backdoor in the drones.

Sasi (@fb1h2s) said the backdoor could be exploited for Parrot drones within wireless range.

It seems that the developers didn't think about security when they wrote the software.  This is my shocked face.

U. S. Weapons Systems vulnerable

Oh good grief:

An annual report released by the Pentagon's chief weapons tester indicates that a majority of the government's weapons programs contain “significant vulnerabilities.”

Many of the bugs stem from outdated and unpatched software, said Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation for the Department of Defense, in his 366-page report released on Jan. 20.

Due to the evolving threat landscape and upgraded cybercriminal techniques it is “likely that the determined cyber adversaries can acquire a foothold in most (Department of Defense) networks” and could even “degrade important DoD missions when and if they chose to,” Gilomore said. While program managers resolved previous issues discovered in recent years, this year's report has uncovered a slew of new vulnerabilities.

Stalin would have had them shot.  This is basic blocking and tackling, and the Department of freakin' Defense seemingly isn't up to it.

Just how powerful is government health care?

It is so powerful, it can force even Canada to stop being nice:

An elderly couple that has called Canada home for years is now under orders to leave the country, so they won't be a burden to the health-care system.

Michael and Janet Hollingsworth decided to move to Canada from Britain, after visiting their daughter in Saskatchewan in 2006 and 2007.

In 2012, they settled in Havelock, N.B., where they quickly grew to love their new community.

...

But now they may have to leave.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Michael's kidneys failed, and when they re-applied for a new visitor's visa, they were denied.

"(On) Christmas Eve, we received it in the mail stating that because of his health and everything else they wouldn't grant us a visitor's visa and we were to leave Canada immediately," Janet said.

If the government pays, this sort of thing is probably inevitable.  Way to go, "compassionate" Canada!

Bootnote: I only snark at Canada because so many people up there like to tell us how backwards and uncompassionate we are because we don't (yet) have national health care.  Sure, our system has problems (as they so often point out).  But if "Government is the things we choose to do together" then all y'all are choosing to throw an old, sick man out of your country because he's old and sick.  Not nice.  There's quite a difference between a sin of omission and a sin of commission.

(via)

Al Gore: this Soviet plan for high-density cities is awesome

And it will only cost $90 Trillion!

To stop climate change, Al Gore wants to spend a mere $90 trillion rebuilding all of the world’s cities so that everyone is living in such high-density neighborhoods that they don’t need cars. While a few curmudgeonly types might think that $90 trillion sounds like a lot of money, it really isn’t, say Gore and former Mexico president Filipe Calderon. After all, the world is probably going to spend the $90 trillion on something in the next few years anyway, so what’s wrong with spending it on this?

Gore made the proposal at an economics conference in Davos, Switzerland attended by billionaires who fly in on private jets so they can tell other people they need to get used to consuming less. Of course, neither Gore nor the other millionaires and billionaires at the conference expect to be stuck living in a high-density apartment any time soon.

This reminds the Antiplanner of The Ideal Communist City, the 1965 book that is now available for free download thanks to a group called Agenda 21 Today. In order to avoid the sprawl and traffic congestion found in those inefficient western cities, the book proposed that the Soviet Union build cities of high-density apartments allocating “not more than 225 square feet per person” to each apartment.


Click on the image to read a review of this book.

That’s exactly what the soviets did, with the result that Moscow today is the perfect smart-growth city: high densities throughout surrounded by a rural countryside.

So how'd that work out for the Soviets?  And how will today's young urban hipsters react?

As it turns out, a recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders finds that even most millennials don’t want to be stuck in cities for their entire lives, the way most Soviet comrades were. While some may say the home builders are biased, they have a strong economic interest in finding out what kind of housing people are willing to pay for, so they are no more biased to the suburbs than the market as a whole.

I can't imagine what a disaster that man would have been as President.  He lives in Cloud Cuckooland.

Walmart must have started blue light specials or something

Boy, I'm glad I moved to Georgia

It looks like New England is going to get pasted:

Serious impacts from Winter Storm Juno are expected in Boston and the surrounding area early this week. A blizzard warning has been issued for the city of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, with much as 2 feet of snow being forecast.

...

"We're anticipating a really serious event here," said Peter Judge, spokesperson for Massachusetts Emergency Management, in an interview with The Weather Channel. "We're going to work hard to reach out to folks and make sure they understand the severity of this event."

...

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is on standby to co-ordinate support for coastal evacuations if necessary. The agency says that it is also ready to assist stranded drivers, provide shelters, and coordinate debris removal and utility restoration.

"This is [a] dangerous and life-threatening storm and mariners should return to port by Monday afternoon," the release said.

Airlines cancelled nearly 2,000 flights for Monday by 5 a.m. as the storm takes aim at the North East Travelers to check with their airlines before heading to Boston Logan International Airport by Massachusetts Port Authority officials because airlines are cancelling flights ahead of the storm and delays are likely.

I did my time up there.  Happy not to need this anymore.

Good luck to everyone still up there.

Keep your eye on Greece

Daniel Hannan says that the danger is not that Greece leaves the Euro and its economy collapses, but rather that it leaves the Euro and its economy thrives - setting an example for Spain and Italy.  The question then is what will the EU do to buy off and/or intimidate Greece's new government?

What do you call a four wheel motorcycle?

A "car"



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I'm (not) Batman

Extra nerd points if you heard Sheldon's voice say that.




From Atlanta Custom Baggers. Seen at the motorcycle show. I liked this one better:



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Off to the motorcycle show

Going to look at more stuff I can't afford.

I think I'm in love

Yeah, baby!



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Tailgate

Outdoor kitchen for the win.



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Going to the RV show today

That will be a new experience, but looks like it will be fun.  Pictures later.

OK, surgery it is then

Collar bone not healing, so surgery will be February 12.  Should have done it 2 months ago.  Bah.

2014: One of the coldest years in the last 10,000

Great overview of many of the flaws in the "2014 was the hottest year EVAH" press release from NASA.  This is a great introduction to the problems in the science and you should RTWT, but it ends with this excellent summary:

Evidence keeps contradicting the major assumptions of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) hypothesis. As T.H. Huxley (1825 – 1895) said,

The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

The problem is the facts keep piling up and the AGW proponents keep ignoring, diverting, or stick-handling (hockey terminology), their way round them. We know the science is wrong because the IPCC projections are wrong. Normal science requires re-examination of the hypothesis and its assumptions. The IPCC removed this option when they set out to prove the hypothesis. It put them on a treadmill of fixing the results, especially the temperature record.

I think it's time to start referring to this as the "Democrat's War On Science" ...