Various and Sundry

ThinkProgress - a known left-wing blog site - is getting back on its high horse over global warming. I've been chatting back and forth with my dad about this very topic this week, so these articles really caught my intention. In the first case, Mary Matalin told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she thinks that global warming is a global conspiracy. In the second article, the Vice Chair at GM agrees, calling it a dirty word.

What I find most interesting is this: we're having the coldest winter on record in about 40 years. Thus, it's really hard to make a compelling argument to people questioning the truth and reality of global warming, because they look at the weather and say "it's colder than it's been in decades - how does that jive with global warming?" Phil Brennan has a lengthy article out this week talking about this cold winter, and the return of the polar ice caps. Also, NOAA released a study confirming Bjorn Lomborg's conclusions that the reason for increased costs from hurricane damage on the coasts is because of increased wealth and population, not because storms are stronger.

The Republicans continued to play the role of crybaby this week on FISA reform. The reform is clearly not needed, and the morons are trying to turn it to political advantage, but they're not succeeding. It's quite ironic that they complain about the Protect America Act not being extended with telecom immunity, but at the same time refused to vote for, or support, an extension of the as-is bill without the telecom immunity. What this all really lines up to is that the Republicans seem to know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the telecoms are guilty, as is the Bush administration. Thus, they apparently think this is a do-or-die component of legislation. My only hope is that one of the first things Obama does after being sworn into office as President will be to direct the FBI and Justice Department to arrest Bush, Chenney, Rumsefield, Gonzales, Rice, etc., for treason.

The other thing I hope he would do is authorize the release of data on the warrantless wiretapping scandal so that those whose rights have been violated can sue the offenders. This week the Supreme Court refused the ACLU's class action suit on the grounds that no harm can be demonstrated. We're now basically at an impasse where civilians have no way to find out if their rights have been infringed. The responsibility now falls to Congress, but we've already seen that Bush and Chenney believe that they are above the law, refusing to allow anybody of consequence to testify. Anyway...

In related politically cynical news, I've just completed a quick read of Naomi Wolf's The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. In it, she discusses her belief that, under the Bush administration, we have been quickly shifting to a fascist government. She outlines the 10 key aspects of change that are the hallmarks of a shift to fascism, backing it up with anecdotal evidence that these shifts are occurring. Much of her information seems to be correct, though there were a couple cases where she used known bad data (specifically, the Princeton prof who believed he was but on the no-fly list because of his criticism of the government - it has later been believed to be something else - good coverage here). She says on p29:

"All dictators invoke an external threat; develop a paramilitary force; create a secret prison system; surveil ordinary citizens; arbitrarily detain and release them; harass citizens' groups; target writers, entertainers, and other key individuals for dissenting; intimidate the press; recast dissent as 'treason' and criticism as 'espionage'; and eventually subvert the rule of law."

If you're like me, you read that list and mentally think "check, check, check, check..." on pretty much every single one of those attributes. D'oh.

In information security news, I found a couple interesting items today. First, UK hotel chain City Inn will be putting iMacs in their rooms in London and Manchester. Sure, this sounds cool, but consider this: there are cameras and microphones built into those computers, as well as their being networked with Internet access. Who's going to assure that these computers aren't being hacked? Unlike business center computers, where there is at least a little oversight capability, these units will be sitting in hotel rooms, behind closed doors, where nobody can watch. What I would be most concerned about is that someone would hack one, enabling them to remotely turn on audio and video so as to watch and record people in their hotel rooms. If I see one, I think my inclination will be to cover it when not in use. You might want to do the same.

The second item of interest is that the good ol' hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow has released an "exploit search engine" called Goolag. You can use Goolag to perform a Google search that will identify sites that are vulnerable to a specific vulnerability, presumably based on server or code attributes. It's a rather interesting tool that reduces to script kiddie level what was already possible.

Lastly, in the cool technology department, it seems that KITT may not be too far in the future after all. See, the latest incarnation of KITT relies on nanotechnology to protect, reconfigure, etc., its exterior. Apparently Italian researchers have developed a special windshield that makes use of nanotechnology to eliminate the need for windshield wipers, automatically removing water and dirt. Pretty cool stuff. :)