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The Life of a Busker
I've been singing on the street for tips. I don't make a whole lot, I'm doing pretty good if I can pay for a Starbucks at the end of the day. Sometimes I can buy a bag of rice and a couple cans of beans to cook on my campstove.
Today wasn't looking so good. I wasn't into it mentally and was not making any tips but even so I persisted as I knew that, at the low rate I generally get tipped that random fluctuations are significant.
Then just now, behind Powells City of Books at 11th and Couch in Portland's Pearl District, some joker heckled me the ENTIRE time I was singing - all the way through all eight of my songs.
What he didn't realize is that I am from Kuro5hin.
Right then I earned nine bucks in tips; all day before that I only made $1.35. As we parted I waved my cash in his face then said "Learn to sing Sir, and we could be a duet".
U.S. Military Actions Abroad, 1798-2015
Uses of Force Abroad 1798-2015, and More from CRS
A newly updated tabulation of U.S. military actions has been prepared by the Congressional Research Service, up to and including the October 14, 2015 deployment of 90 U.S. troops to Cameroon. The CRS listing does not include covert actions, disaster relief operations or training exercises. See Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2015, October 15, 2015.
[other CRS reports listed at source]
The PDF is 38 pages.
British aid worker dies at Istanbul airport
A very strange case this one
A British Aid Worker -- the Iraq director of an organization promoting journalism in conflict zones -- was found dead in toilets in Istanbul Airport.
The official story is that she was on her way back to Erbil having attended the funeral of her predecessor (who was killed in a car bomb a couple of weeks ago). She apparently missed her connecting flight to Erbil, and was told that she'd have to buy a new ticket.
The local media say that having been told this, she burst out in tears as she didn't have the money, then go to the toilets and hang herself using her shoelaces. Last minute tickets Istanbul to Erbil on tonight's flight is about £100, or £150 for the next direct BA plane back to London.
CCTV in Istanbul airport near the toilets apparently wasn't working
IWPR stated
"Apparently the CCTV cameras in the airport that filmed her were not on, were not functioning or the tapes were not available.
"We need to get CCTV from Heathrow to find out whether she was wearing boots with laces when she left."
UK Descent into Fascism Continues Apace
The UK's descent into fascism accelerated today when Home Secretary Theresa May introduced a McCarthyist witch-hunt against "extremists" of all kinds in the public sector.
In other news, David Cameron has positioned the UK as China's best friend in the West ahead of all other countries. He had to promise never to speak to the Dalai Lama ever again though, to be best friends with China
Amnesty International and other groups concerned with human rights issues in China are expected to protest in St James' Park on Tuesday and it is expected that there will also be a pro-China protest.
18-bit RGB? My whole life has been a lie!
Recently I read a post lamenting the fact that cheaper LCDs may show only 262,144 colors (18-bit), despite 16,777,216 colors (24-bit) having been more or less the standard among various software and hardware since the '90s. Out of curiosity, I tested my own machine, and soon I was testing everything at my immediate disposal.
The methodology went like this. I took a nice photo in JPG format, reduced it to 21-bit, 18-bit, and 15-bit, and saved separate BMP files. Double checked with a hex editor to make sure the files were different. Then I viewed the files and noted which ones I could actually distinguish.
My old but awesome NEC laptop showed 21 bits on its built-in LCD and 24 bits on an external monitor. さすがだＮＥＣ！！！！
Everything else tested showed only 18 bits. Panasonic Toughbook T8. Fujitsu Lifebook S2210. WTF, guys?
Even desktop machines connected to CRT monitors were only 18-bit.
Trident 8900
Intel 855GM
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200, FX 5700, 7600GT
:(
Oh hey... I found the 'edit' button. Guess I should make a note here in the original entry that my results were not actually accurate (see later post). Oops.
Return from ISIS
The Guardian and Channel 4 News each report about a young British mother who went to the "Islamic State" to join her jihadi husband (a former Guantánamo Bay detainee) but changed her mind, describing life there as, "not my cup of tea."
The gangster mentality that she encountered amongst other women and the squalid living conditions that the jihadi wives and children had to endure were not to her liking, so she and the children fled where they were held in Syria near the Turkish border by a gang of smugglers who needed strong convincing that she wasn't an ISIS supporter.
She claims she went there to try to talk some sense into her husband, to plead with him to come home. She wants to come back to the UK, but what fate awaits her?
Last year Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and policing lead for the government's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, warned that Britons returning from Syria would be stopped at the border and face arrest.
How could anyone be so naive, at the age of 33 and having had five children? And living in the UK where we still just about have free speech and the freedom of the press? How could you possibly not know what it would be really like? How could you voluntarily take five innocent, defenceless children willingly and knowingly into a war zone?
Ready to do the Win 10 traffic analysis
I've just installed Windows 10 on an i3 laptop and am looking for suggestions on how to do an in depth traffic analysis of Windows 10 after the "stop spying" program has been used to see if its possible to "de-fang" Windows 10. The requirements will be 1.- It has to be software based as I no longer have any hardware firewalls capable of logging IP addresses, 2.- If its Linux based I'm gonna need a link to a how-to as I've never used Linux for networking, only web servers, and 3.- If it works off a stick or live CD so much the better, I really don't want to have to reinstall the OS on the test box afterwards.
Anyway I figure I'll disable the wireless and run the ethernet into a second box with 2 ethernet ports as a pass-through to do the logging. I figure it will have some sort of net connection test so merely plugging into another box won't work, but by using the second box as a bridge we should be able to capture exactly what is going out and see if its truly possible to kill Win 10 spying. The pass through box is a Phenom I quad with 4GB of RAM so it should have no issues running whatever we need to run, and all results will be published here.
So other than Wireshark any suggestions?
Fear, Islamism and Freedom of Expression
Female ex-Muslim anti-Islamist campaigner Maryam Namazie writes in the Guardian "Why I speak out against Islamism."
The article is superbly written and makes very clear points regarding the importance of the ability to criticise religion (of any kind) to facilitate social progress.
The complex situation regarding Islamism, Islam, Muslims, Muslim culture and "the Muslim Community" is outlined making clear distinctions between each, and in particular the range of opinions (and beliefs) within them. This contrasts with the (bigoted) simplistic views (pro- and anti-) presented in the Western media and which frequently leads to Islamophobic attacks against peaceful and innocent people.
What is particularly refreshing to see written in main-stream Western media is the following:
The labelling of much-needed criticism of Islamism as antisocial, even dangerous by left apologists sees dissent through the eyes of Islamists and not the many who refuse and resist. How else are we to show real solidarity with those who struggle against the theocracies we have fled from – if not through criticism? The fight against Islamism and the need for international solidarity apparently does not enter into their calculation.
In short: things will not improve unless we are free to talk.
2015: Witchcraft in the UK
The BBC has a story about children being abused, having been accused of witchcraft, in the UK in 2015.
It would appear that there are significant numbers of people who really believe in witches, witchcraft, black magic and evil spirits here in 2015.
An NSPCC spokesman said: "While the number of child abuse cases involving witchcraft is relatively small, they often include horrifying levels of cruelty.
Small children have been thrown out of their homes by ignorant, hysterical parents, and in some cases murdered.
Of course, money is involved.
...within churches there was often a financial motivation behind accusations.
"The pastor says there's a witch in this church today; looks around and points to a child.
"That means public humiliation for the family. The next step is exorcism which is not done for free. It's a money-making scam."
The Witchcraft Act 1735 appears to have been written by learned people who took the opinion that Witchcraft was an impossible crime and so it outlawed the pretence of witchcraft. The law was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951. Finally, this was replaced in 2008 by Consumer Protection Regulations.
So there you have it.
October 13, 2015: U.S. Democratic Primary Debate #1
Previously:
- August 6, 2015: U.S. Republican Primary Debate #1
- September 16, 2015: U.S. Republican Primary Debate #2
The candidates participating in the debate are Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, and Jim Webb. Larry Lessig did not make the cut. CNN coverage begins at 8:30 PM EDT, the debate begins at 9 PM EDT and ends at 11 PM EDT.
Links:
The first debate is scheduled for October 13, 2015, at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time. It will air on CNN, and will also be broadcast on radio by Westwood One [AUDIO-only should be available online via CBS Radio]. Anderson Cooper will be the moderator of the debate, with Dana Bash and Juan Carlos Lopez asking additional questions and Don Lemon presenting questions submitted by voters via Facebook.
To be invited to the debate, a candidate must have achieved an average of at least 1% in three recognized national polls released between August 1 and October 10. In addition, a candidate must either have filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission or declare that one will be filed by October 14, the day after the debate. The latter criterion would accommodate Vice President Joe Biden if he decided to enter the presidential race as late as the day of the debate.
- 2016 Democratic Presidential Nomination Polls
- The Endorsement Primary
- CNN Will Live Stream Democratic Debate in Virtual Reality and SoylentNews
- Single page candidate comparison
- OnTheIssues: Sanders, Clinton, O'Malley, Chafee, Webb
- Template at Wikipedia linking to candidate position pages
- CNN releases Democratic debate podium order
Should Vice President Biden decide to enter the race and take part in the debate, there would be a podium placed on the stage for him as well.
