In League With the Devil. How the NSA is Giving Organized Crime a Cyber-Leg Up
It was all done in the name of national security and who can argue with that? Certainly not organized crime. From The Economist: Many cryptographic systems in use on the…
The Mound of Sound
Throwing Down the Gauntlet – "Rational" People Will Be Convinced By the Science – IPCC
There are encouraging signs that, this time, climate scientists are coming prepared for a fight against the forces of denialism. You can tell the Fossil Fuelers and the rest of…
Pope Franky Spanks the Vatican
Pope Francis continues to rock the Vatican. Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic Church had grown “obsessed” with preaching about…
Are We Medicating Ourselves to Death?
A report from the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) wades into the tens of thousands of lives claimed in America each year from overuse of antibiotics. Each year in…
Tony Abbott’s Australia Will Have Nothing to Do With Climate Commission
Australia has just come through its hottest twelve months on record in time to sweep into power Tony Abbott’s wonky coalition government. And, true to form, Tony’s been busy doing…
Whenever I See the Gathering Clouds of Nihilism, It’s Strangelove For Me.
At times it can seem that, as a species, we’re backsliding. Egalitarianism seems to be in rout. The drive for equality has stalled and is quietly reversing. We now focus…
Tories Handed a Little RoboCall ComeUppance.
The Tories, being the pricks that they are, thought they’d teach the petitioner/plaintiffs a lesson in the Robo-Call case. Not content on skulking away with their small, tactical, “trench warfare”…
New Study Finds Guns Kill
A study published in the American Journal of Medicine refutes the common American myth that high levels of gun ownership make countries safer. Well, duh. Guns do not make a…
One Reason the IPCC Estimates Regularly Fall Short.
Why has the IPCC repeatedly failed to anticipate the onset and severity of climate change impacts? IPCC reports, with a very few exceptions, routinely understate impacts. A study, published in…
Lockheed – Arm Twister Extraordinaire?
What Lockheed wants, Lockheed intends to get especially when it comes to the F-35 stealth light attack bomber. Last week the company tried to stiffen spines here in Canada by…
When "Biblical" Becomes Normal
The word being bandied about now to describe Colorado’s raging flash floods is “Biblical”. That’s a step up from “once a century”but some are saying “new normal” might be more…
Dutch Trim F-35 Order
At the outset the Netherlands was expected to buy 85 of Lockheed’s light attack stealth bomber, the F-35. For a nation not much larger in area than Vancouver Island that…
The Rock Begat the Club Begat the F-35
The first guy, the one who wielded a rock, was all but invincible until the second guy figured out how to tie a stick to a rock and turn it…
Petro-Statehood and Flooding Are a Bad Mix
Saudi Arabia doesn’t flood. Ditto for Kuwait, Iraq or Iran. No floods. Alberta floods and we should consider what that means. Fortunately Colorado is giving us the answers we need.…
The Hitler Pictures Hitler Wanted Destroyed
After his release from prison, Adolf Hitler practised the gestures that would become a feature of his public speeches. A helper photographed them for Hitler to study. The Fuhrer thought…
The Return of the McMansion
Back in the late 80s I fled my old Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood in Vancouver’s west side. It had been a community of small but really neat little bungalows with single…
Tony Abbott’s Ongoing Woman Problem
That’s “woman”, singular. As in the only woman – the one and only – appointed by Tony Abbott to his 19-person (oh, to hell with it, 19-man) cabinet. When you…
Boris Slams Wind Farm "Disease"
London mayor and presumptive future Tory leader, Boris Johnson, loves nukes and fracked gas but decidedly does not love wind power. The senior Tory said turning to a new generation…
Nothing to See Here. Just Another Crazy Guy With an Arsenal of Guns
He heard voices in his head. He was receiving treatment through the Veterans Administration for mental problems. Police officials were aware of him through two shooting incidents. Hmm – we’ve…