Tales of Ordinary Madness

Tim Zewe shuffled off this mortal coil yesterday, May 2nd 2009. I had only recently been back in contact with Tim again through Facebook. I had hoped to see him and his soon-to-be-wife Christina on one of my trips to Erie in the near future. We had some catching up to do. I found this post on his blog called “Why I Suck at Baseball” and I think it sums Tim up better than I ever could (at least the Tim I knew from so many years ago), and it seems like a fitting tribute:

6 zero days (one of them remotely exploitable).

http://digit-labs.org/

Apple has yet to release a patch for any of them. Come on Apple.

Afghan women pelted with stones during rape law protest

Afghan women protesting against a new law that severely undermines women’s rights were pelted with stones in the country’s capital Wednesday, say reports.

About 300 mostly young women gathered in Kabul to show their opposition to a recently passed law that forbids women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and requires them to get a male relative’s permission to leave the house.

Here are some of the auditions for the upcoming National Organization for Marriage commercial. These people are actors, not doctors, and not Massachusetts parents.

When I was at SANS Orlando, I realized that the gap between GREAT Information security and good Information security people is big. Recently, I learned that the gap between good security people and bad security people is GIGANTIC.

Thank you, that is all.

From the 2004 Sourcefire calendar.

The intelligence community has publicly stated its assessment that nations, including Russia and China, have the technical capabilities to target and disrupt elements of the U.S. information infrastructure, or to use that infrastructure to collect intelligence and other kinds of information. Nation states and criminal groups target our government and private sector information networks in order to gain competitive advantage in the commercial sector, as well as in the area of security. Terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah have expressed the desire to use cyber means to target the United States. Criminal elements continue to show a growing and alarming sophistication in technical capability and targeting, and today operate a pervasive, mature economy in illicit cyber capabilities and services that are made available to anybody who is willing to pay.

The reality is that cyber attacks aren’t decreasing. They are increasing in frequency, sophistication, and scope and this has major implications for our national and economic security. So, how do we protect ourselves from malicious activity whether it is criminal in nature, whether it is an extension of state power, whether it is government or commercial espionage, or whether it is routine hacking by people who are interested in showing their cyber hacking skills to their friends. The answer is a comprehensive cybersecurity initiative.

Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at the Chamber of Commerce on Cybersecurity October 14th 2008.

Out of the 13 countries in Western Europe, the number that have a lower infant mortality rate than the United States : 13

That have a higher life expectancy than the US (for both men and women): 13

That have a lower murder rate: 13

That have a lower poverty rate: 11

Hearing conservative politicians use Western Europe as a cautionary tale against developing social programs: Priceless

This was “borrowed” from http://www.theseminal.com/2009/02/06/another-mastercard-commercial-id-like-to-see/ Western Europe in this case is defined as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Swtizerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain.

This great comic is from http://russellsteapot.com/comics/2007/Dra-Til-Helvete.html