Friday, December 03, 2010
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Camden Plays Politics
Something stinks to high heaven in Camden:
CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) – Camden City Council, as expected, voted Thursday to lay off almost 400 workers, half of them police officers and firefighters, to bridge a $26.5 million deficit.
That’s about a quarter of the city’s entire work force.
Five members of City Council voted unanimously to approve the layoff plan — two other members were absent. The cuts take effect in mid-January.
Exactly how many city workers will be affected is still an open question, although nearly half the city’s police and a third of the firefighters are slated to go.
So... You've got to cut a quarter of your work force. So why not cut 25% across the board? Cut the DMV 25%, cut the school building fund, the road crews, the health inspectors, police, and fire, all 25%? Why cut 50% of Police and 33% of Fire?
Oh, wait:
When it was over, Council president Frank Moran suggested they’re not to blame.
“We didn’t put a price tag on public safety. Unfortunately, the governor of the State of New Jersey put that price tag on it,” he said at the packed Council meeting.
That price tag is $69 million, in transitional aid. Moran suggested that Camden residents should vent to Governor Chris Christie.
Now it makes sense. The Camden City Council doesn't mind endangering lives to score political points.
Stuxnet
You may have seen this (read the whole thing) already, but in case you haven't:
After penetrating the Windows 7 operating system, the code then targeted the “frequency converters” that ran the centrifuges. To do that it used specifications from the manufacturers of the converters. One was Vacon, a Finnish Company, and the other Fararo Paya, an Iranian company. What surprises experts at this step is that the Iranian company was so secret that not even the IAEA knew about it.
--The worm also knew that the complex control system that ran the centrifuges was built by Siemens, the German manufacturer, and -- remarkably -- how that system worked as well and how to mask its activities from it.
--Masking itself from the plant's security and other systems, the worm then ordered the centrifuges to rotate extremely fast, and then to slow down precipitously. This damaged the converter, the centrifuges and the bearings, and it corrupted the uranium in the tubes. It also left Iranian nuclear engineers wondering what was wrong, as computer checks showed no malfunctions in the operating system.
Estimates are that this went on for more than a year, leaving the Iranian program in chaos. And as it did, the worm grew and adapted throughout the system. As new worms entered the system, they would meet and adapt and become increasingly sophisticated.
How clever, to muck stuff up, but not break it completely. If you destroy everything, you run the risk of them starting over from scratch. But by only breaking it a little at a time, you keep them busy trying to fix the old system; which remains infected. Genius.
Even better, now the Iranian scientists needed to fix the system have started exploding. I would so like to think that our CIA had a hand in this, but I doubt our fearless leader would have authorized it. How would he have had the time? He's been darned busy running a car company, ruining healthcare, and supporting the whole teetering house of cards with unemployment benefits. Thank goodness the Mossad didn't wait for him to get back from vacation. I hope and expect they have more tricks up their sleeves.
For our part, well, maybe we can help by firing off a couple of strongly worded cables.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Daniel Foster Win
I like the way Daniel Foster describes Thomas Friedman's work:
The latest — and thus, by definition, worst — Thomas Friedman column is a real beaut. It starts with a Friedman trademark: a gimmicky premise that orthogonally engages a major news story while 1) missing everything important about it and 2) turning it into a delivery vehicle for old saws that manage to be both so evil and so banal that it’s a wonder Hannah Arendt didn’t write a book about them.
Beauty.
I won't read a Thomas Friedman column unless there's someone nearby to receive the inevitable 'you won't believe this'.
Gang Shooting
How stupid are gang shootings? A sad waste, but a familiar story:
ST. LOUIS - Two mourners were killed and at least one other wounded today when gunfire erupted outside a funeral home.
Chief Dan Isom said the shootings at the Reliable Funeral Home in Midtown are the product "of an ongoing feud between gangs in St. Louis."
Isom said no shots were fired inside the funeral home, but "we do know there were shots being fired right outside of the funeral."
But what grabbed my eye was the name of the funeral home. "The Reliable Funeral Home" Ummm, ok, but how could a funeral home be unreliable? Do the unreliable ones forget to bury the people? "Oh man, not again. I'm sorry guys, we'll get right on it. Uncle Bob will be buried by Tuesday. I promise this time."
I'm not in marketing, but it seems to me that funeral homes should be Eternal Rest, Gates of Heaven, or Peaceful Gardens. Reliable should be for plumbing companies, auto repair shops, or Pest Control Outfits.
Maybe I should go into marketing. I'll call my company: Real Good Names Public Relations.
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