Archive for 2018

BILL, PLEASE JUST APOLOGIZE TO HER FACE AND THEN, FOR GOD’S SAKE, SHUT UP: That’s the growing chorus among worried Democrats, according to LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst. Wonder what Nina Burleigh thinks about all this now?

OSPREYS OVER NEW MEXICO: Two CV-22 Ospreys conduct a rescue exercise during an air show at Cannon Air Force Base.

ONCE MORE OUT OF THE BREACH: 92 million MyHeritage users had their data quietly swiped. “Company learned of the attack when a security researcher sent a data file.”

Email addresses and hashed passwords of more than 92 million MyHeritage users were exposed in a cybersecurity breach on October 26, 2017, the popular genealogy company reported Monday, June 4, 2018.

MyHeritage said that it only learned of the breach earlier that day—more than seven months after the fact—when an unidentified “security researcher” sent the company’s chief information security officer a message. The researcher said they had found a file containing users’ data on a private server and passed a copy of the file along.

MyHeritage, which allows users to set up family trees and probe their DNA for clues about their ancestry, promptly reported the breach in a blog post.

But:

So far, MyHeritage is optimistic that the breach’s damage was limited. The company said that it seems as though email addresses were the only data affected and no evidence suggests that the data was used for any nefarious purpose. It also noted that it doesn’t store credit card information, relying on third-party billing companies. And other sensitive information, such as DNA data and family trees, are stored separately from email addresses and have extra layers of security.

That’s a relief.

HOW MUCH CAFFEINE DO YOU NEED AND WHEN DO YOU NEED IT? ASK THE U.S. ARMY: The Army has a new algorithm that supposedly “determines ideal caffeine dosage and timing for alertness.”

Compared to the original dosing strategies used in the studies, the U.S. Army’s algorithm identified strategies that enhanced neurobehavioral performance by up to 64 percent, or reduced caffeine consumption by up to 65 percent. According to the authors, these results suggest that the algorithm can tailor the timing and amount of caffeine to the particular sleep/wake schedule of each study condition to maximize its benefits.

I link, you read and decide. Meanwhile, I’ll have another cup.

ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL: Keith Ellison’s Last-Minute Move Throws Minnesota Politics Into Chaos.

“It’s a shitshow,” said one Democratic strategist in the state of Ellison’s decision Tuesday.

In the governor’s race, Tim Walz, who in 2016 managed to win a rural district that Donald Trump also carried, was far ahead in fundraising and had won many straw polls. But last week, the party unexpectedly backed Erin Murphy, a more progressive woman from the Twin Cities, over Walz — setting up a contested primary between Walz and, at the last minute, current attorney general Lori Swanson, who jumped into the race.

Ellison used Swanson’s entry into the governor’s race to announce his plans to run for state attorney general, setting up a competitive primary there, as well.

Minnesota Democrats were hoping to come out of the state’s convention — part of a complicated nominating process that comes before the August primary — with the party’s biggest races settled and primaries uncontested. Instead, they got something of a frenzy, with unexpected endorsements and late entries mucking up the race for both governor and state AG — developments that are likely to suck precious money and energy out of the state’s half-dozen other important races.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer party.

THAT WOULD BE NICE: F-35 Defects Must Be Fixed Before Full-Production, GAO Says.

The production decision would commit the U.S. to building 77 or more of the Lockheed Martin Corp. aircraft per year over the next 12 years, up from 70 this year. Output would peak at 105 aircraft in 2023 at an annual cost of $13.4 billion and stay at that rate for six years. That makes it imperative for the Pentagon to fix the deficiencies before a decision about production — the most profitable phase for Lockheed — is made, the report said.

The troubled $406.5 billion F-35 is a next-generation fighter scheduled to end its 17-year-old development phase this year. Starting in September, the program is supposed to proceed to intense combat testing that’s likely to take a year, an exercise that is already at least 12 months late. Combat testing is necessary before the plane can be approved for full-rate production.

Over the past year, the Pentagon “has made progress in completing the F-35 development program,” GAO said. “However, in its rush to cross the finish line, the program has made some decisions that are likely to affect aircraft performance and reliability and maintainability for years to come.”

As anyone who has ever done any serious home improvements can tell you, getting it right the first time is cheaper and easier than retrofitting.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: SJW Disney’s Soylo* Could Lose $50 Million, or Even $80 Million.

The film is projected to stall out at $400 million total global ticket sales, making it the weakest performer of any Soy Wars movie.

Also, it was very expensive — firing the original directors Lord and Miller after they had already shot 70-85% of the film, and then bringing in Ron Howard to re-shoot the same material all over again, might have ballooned the movie’s costs to $250 – 300 million, and that doesn’t even include prints and marketing, which generally equals the cost of the actual film. So the total cost would be $500 to $600 million, using that rule.

Given the huge cost of this film, though, prints and marketing probably cost less.

Still — something north of $400 million, surely.

I really hope that a Hollywood journalist is writing up the full train wreck that happened to Solo and its predecessor, increasingly “woke” Kathleen Kennedy-era Star Wars movies. In the hands of the right author, there’s a book worthy of Julie Salamon’s The Devil’s Candy, which brilliantly explored how the perfect storm of hubris, PC, bad screenwriting and bad casting destroyed the movie version of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities.

 

* Classical reference.