"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam" - I will find a way or I will make one.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Seeing the forest through the trees
You know it seems like it was yesterday, but really this took place about ten years ago. I was working for Clorox at the time and was fairly heavy into "tech" stuff. I got a call from a friend who asked me for my US mail address, to which I was dumbfounded. I sort of paused and started running through my head US address... US address... WTF is that? Could she mean IMAP, POP? She wanted to send me something so it couldn't be SMTP, what was she talking about. As I asked what the hell a US mail address was it hit me. What a dork. lol
Like the MTV ad I mentioned previously illustrates, we're living in dark times. I could honestly care less what the governor does with his personal time and personal bank account, if he's not abusing tax dollars for his entertainment, then that is his business. It is the simple fact that the government is spying on us and keeping tabs on our spending habits that scares me.
When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, law-enforcement agencies hailed it as a powerful tool to help track down the confederates of Osama bin Laden. No one expected it would end up helping to snag the likes of Eliot Spitzer. The odd connection between the antiterror law and Spitzer's trysts with call girls illustrates how laws enacted for one purpose often end up being used very differently once they're on the books.
The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the Treasury Department authority to demand more information from banks about their customers' financial transactions. Congress wanted to help the Feds identify terrorist money launderers. But Treasury went further. It issued stringent new regulations that required banks themselves to look for unusual transactions (such as odd patterns of cash withdrawals or wire transfers) and submit SARs—Suspicious Activity Reports—to the government. Facing potentially stiff penalties if they didn't comply, banks and other financial institutions installed sophisticated software to detect anomalies among millions of daily transactions. They began ranking the risk levels of their customers—on a scale of zero to 100—based on complex formulas that included the credit rating, assets and profession of the account holder.
Another element of the formulas: whether an account holder was a "politically exposed person." At first focused on potentially crooked foreign officials, the PEP lists expanded to include many U.S. politicians and public officials who were conceivably vulnerable to corruption.
The new scrutiny resulted in an explosion of SARs, from 204,915 in 2001 to 1.23 million last year. The data, stored in an IRS computer in Detroit, are accessible by law-enforcement agencies nationwide. "Terrorism has virtually nothing to do with it," says Peter Djinis, a former top Treasury lawyer. "The vast majority of SARs filed today involve garden-variety forms of white-collar crime." Federal prosecutors around the country routinely scour the SARs for potential leads.
One of those leads led to Spitzer. Last summer New York's North Fork Bank, where Spitzer had an account, filed a SAR about unusual money transfers he had made, say law-enforcement and industry sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the probe. One of the sources tells NEWSWEEK that Spitzer wasn't flagged because of his public position. Instead, the governor called attention to himself by asking the bank to transfer money in someone else's name. (A North Fork spokesperson says the bank does not discuss its customers.) The SAR was not itself evidence that Spitzer had committed a crime. But it made the Feds curious enough to follow the money.
Kite-Assisted Cargo Ship Successfully Completes Maiden Voyage
Back in December, we told you of a new company called Skysails that was reintroducing the concept of harnessing the wind on the open seas to save fuel for cargo ships. For its maiden voyage, it would travel from Germany to Venezuela, the United States and Norway under the assistance of a $725,000 computer-controlled kite. Now, after two months, the trip has been achieved — and according to all those involved, a complete success. From the article,
“With that [trip] we impressively validated the original expectations we had for the system“, was how SkySails managing director Stephan Wrage assessed the first practical trials aboard the Beluga ship. “In the future, depending on the route and weather conditions, we’ll be able to post fuel savings of between 10% and 35% using wind power.”
During its time at sea, the kite-assisted ship traveled a total of 11,952 nautical miles. During the time that the kite was deployed — which lasted anywhere from a few minutes to up to 8 hours — it pulled the ship with up to 5 tons of power at force 5 winds — a relief of more than 20% on the ship’s engines. Projected onto an entire day, this performance by the “Beluga SkySails” represents savings of about 2.5 tons of fuel and more than $1,000 a day.
As this is just the initial stage of a pilot program expected to last 12 months, company officials are gearing up for more ambitious testing in future trips. A kite that is twice the size of the original will soon be deployed for double the energy productions and cost savings. The Beluga shipping company is even considering passing on these savings to the crew as an incentive. Nice!
For more on this successful voyage — the future plans for kite-assisted ships, jump here.
Instead of reaching for a phone, she should have been reaching for a shotgun
I don't know about you, but 1) I've called 911 and gotten a busy signal and 2) even if you got someone, you think it might take more than 1 minute for help to arrive?
Why is it people feel that their personal safety and well being should be someone else's responsibility? Without a doubt it is a horrible thing that happened here, something that could have been prevented if she had a firearm and knew how to use it; and at the very least she could have fought back.
A woman made a 911 call from her suburban mansion to report an attempted break-in, but her pleas were interrupted by gunshots, then silence: She had been shot to death.
The woman told the dispatcher late Wednesday morning that someone was trying to break into her home in upscale West Covina, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Dan Rosenberg said.
"Deputies heard gunshots followed by silence and an open phone line," he said.
Investigators combed the neighborhood Thursday outside the three-story house with a tennis court, pool and four-car garage. Investigators examined the opening mechanism of the driveway's black iron gates, and later a repairman worked on the gates.
The victim was identified as Hsiao Hsu, 45, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Hernandez.
Sheriff's deputies responding to the call entered the home and found the victim. She was pronounced dead at the scene. One or more males were reported seen running away from the house, the Sheriff's Department said.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune carried a report describing a man who came to the scene about an hour after the shooting and asked deputies, "Is my wife OK? Did you find the guy?"
The man collapsed and cried out, "No! No! No! She just called me, you lie," the newspaper said. A patrol car drove the man away.
A KABC-TV report showed an investigator in the neighborhood examining what appeared to be a handgun under a shrub.
The house is east of Los Angeles in an unincorporated area where many homes stand well back from roads, with tall hedges and gates. Horses stood quietly in a corral at one neighborhood home Thursday.
A neighbor said a couple recently occupied the home, described on real estate Web sites as being nearly 6,000 square feet and having recently sold for more than $2 million.
"They moved in only about six months ago. I've only seen them drive in and out," said Ronald Wheeler, 57, who lives across the street.
Irene and Jesus Marquez, who live nearby, said the family has two children.
"They were really nice, good people," said Irene Marquez.
Funny, some might see it is a realistic depiction of a possible future, while it is in fact the present state of affairs. Warrantless wiretaps, reading of our postal mail, filtering email, no knock raids based on pretty much any sort of tip from just about anyone. I mean, coffee shops have been given instructions to report people based on what they are reading! So some $7 an hour high schooler sees me reading "Mohammed: The Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion" and only notices the main title "Mohammed" and next thing I know the FBI is calling me. Dark days indeed.
This album was quietly released online this weekend and it has had a massive response. NIN fans you know what to do, go BUY a copy of it which you can download. Get it via Amazon mp3 download for $5, or on the NIN.com website. For $10 + shipping, I ordered the 2 disc hardcopy which will ship in April I think and a link to the high quality download of the full album as well as the images that go along with it.
Other than the free download, the $5 download and the $10 2-Disc album + download, a very sweet limited edition package and a deluxe edition package were made available as well. Unfortunately the 2500 signed limited edition packages sold out already.
I've probably watched too much Star Trek over the years and while I'd like to believe that the majority of people out there instantly get the aural imagery of Patrick Stewart's voice as Captain Picard, as I do, whenever they hear a monologue starting with "captain's log...", I have a feeling I'm relegated to the minority of the general populace on that one, but don't mention that to the Trekkies. But hey, the tie-in isn't just there for the Trek fans, a real quick little bit of association, six degrees of separation or whatever you'd like to call it ties things together neatly just the same. I named my kayak the Pequod after the whaling ship in Moby Dick and Patrick Stewart played Ahab in the 1998 TV movie of Moby Dick, which I unfortunately never did get to see.
The Pequod is an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15; the 15 in the title is also the designation of length as she's a 15 foot vessel. While her actual dimensions are an excellent touring length of 15'5", she's a bit on the "portly" side as far as kayaks are concerned at 28.5" wide, but that provides her with excellent overall stability and the ability to carry a massive 450lb overall load with a good deal of available space in both the large rear tankwell and the spacious front hatch. With the large hatch and tankwell, excellent load carrying capacity and stability, all I had to do was toss in a fishing pole and this sit on top was the perfect kayak for me.
Make no mistake, she's no racing skeg by any means, but she is indeed a pretty fast kayak once you've got her going, plus I'm a huge fan of the SOT (Sit On Top) design. I'd gone on a few rafting and canoing trips over the years and as someone who really enjoys getting out and away from the crazy life in the urban sprawl, I had always carried a secret lust for a kayak or canoe of my own for not only day trips, but weekend overnighters and eventually week-long river camping expeditions. As luck would have it, late last year it turned out that the perfect kayak for me was just on the horizon.
As winter approached last season, I happened to be perusing the REI outlet website looking for hiking/camping gear when I stumbled into the water sports section. When I saw the specs and price on the Prowler 15 "seconds" (which turned out to be nothing more than some black scuff marks which I wiped off the day I brought her home) they had listed, I did some research of user reviews and confirmed that it was indeed the ship I had been waiting for. With the price being less than half of the regular cost it and with the ability to not pay shipping by having it trucked to the local REI made this more than just a great deal and the money I saved on the overall price paid for things like a PFD and paddle.
I remember when I first picked her up, what a fiasco that was. I showed up with my Jeep Cherokee with the plan to just throw her on the factory rack upside down and lash her down well with rope. After a lot of pressure and persuading from the local REI staff I purchased some foam blocks to cradle the yak right side up on the roof (still in the cardboard and plastic wrapping), turning out to be a total mistake, which lead to a somewhat eventful ride home that was both unpleasant and unnerving to say the least. I of course found some amusement when it came time to move the yak again to our new house as loading it on the roof of the Cherokee with a couple pool noodles on the crossbars and simply lashing it down proved to be an extremely stable (and essentially free) method of transportation.
With the Cherokee on the way out and the Rover being the new mode of transportation I had to look into commercial carriers and settled on the Thule system. Strong and stable, it carries the yak well, though the overall height does make it a little bit of a challenge to load and unload however I'm working out a system fashioned out of PVC pipes to resolve that issue, so I'll hopefully have more on that topic later.
Finally a warm weekend was in sight while rain clouds were not so it was time to get her out on the water. With wife in hand, we headed for the local lake to get in some boating and fishing time, but alas as we arrived quite early, the kayak rental shop was not yet open. The bait shop however did have canoes and paddle boats for rent and while my recommendation was to go with the canoe, my wife wanted to try a paddle boat. Big, stable and unfortunately insanely slow, she did still have a great time on the water. I'd never actually ridden one of those myself and I knew they were slow, but I had no idea just how slow. Though she was pedaling away and likely going as fast as the boat could take her, a few gentle paddle strokes had me surging 15, then 20 then 30 yards away. I slowed my pace so we could stay near each other and even tried attaching her to my yak so I could tow her for a bit, but that was just too much work. After unhooking I decided to paddle out a ways and see what was ahead, before coming back I hooked up my rod & line so I could troll as I returned. Staying by her side I eyeballed her paddle boat a bit closer and while not the greatest watercraft out there, it certainly looked like it would also be fun. There was a large platform on the back that the dog could sit on and it was designed for two, I'll have to keep that in mind for future play around trips.
While fishing as the day progressed, the Northwesterly winds started to pick up and I realized just how much I was going to need to make some sort of drift anchor. No problem, just added that to the list of things I'd like to add/design/buy for the yak, that and a sail. It sure would have been nice to take advantage of that wind on the return trip to the docks. Make that 10001 things you can do with PVC pipe, design is in progress. Anyway, all in all it was a great day out and I was glad to get a chance to do a little fishing, even if the only thing I actually got was wet. :)
