Fidget Spin THIS

Did you know that we're using Windows XP in almost every power plant? A security expert says 'we're just hoping for the best'.

Watching the Internet of Things and the Power Plant Debacle is like watching a train crash in incredibly slow motion. I desperately want to be wrong about this but nothing seems to have changed.

Manufacturers refuse to learn. With every generation of technology there are faults. These faults need to be catalogued so they can be eliminated for the next generation. We've had PCs since the 80s, yet many things in many fields come out and fail to learn simple lessons. The most egregious these days is Internet of Things devices. It's bad enough that people are ok with appliance and light bulbs phoning home, but the security implications are staggering.

Add all of this knowledge to everything from government to huge utilities to small businesses, who are not updating their technology and failing to patch it if they have. They're sitting ducks. Windows XP is dead and has not been supported for quite a while. This was no surprise - Microsoft announces end-of-life long before the date arrives. There have been quite a few versions of Windows since XP, all of which were apparently ignored. While I don't feel sorry for most businesses that get hit, when we're talking hospitals and electric utilities, it can affect us all.

End of periodic rant.

• A Swedish minister said that reducing the number of cars on the road is a gender issue because their prevalence in Swedish cities results in men taking space away from women. Somewhere, unknown to most, is a book called Feminism: The Stupid Rationale Guide.

If you haven't lately, make sure to check for updates on your android phone. There are a number of nasties floating around and you always want to have the latest patch. One of the reasons for the nasties is crapware uploaded to Google Play that misses their detection and is installed on phones. Please only install android software from the Play store or an appropriate third party. When you're deciding whether to install or not, check the software description and reviews carefully. Look for grammar mistakes and obvious fake reviews.

Which brings us to the latest android ransomware. It threatens to send your internet history and private pics to all your friends if you don't pay. I don't know about you, but my friends would die of boredom reading my internet history (if it weren't deleted as soon as the browser closed). My pictures are largely of Marshall, and aside from the Modern Transsexuals site, I don't surf anywhere interesting.

• Because engagement parties, pre-engagement parties, wedding showers, baby showers, weddings, baby naming, and parties for the sake of parties, the Committee On Bilking Friends, Family, and Others, has released its latest mandated celebration: the gender reveal party. Our understanding is that this event is to reveal the gender of the baby, not the whatever the mother identifies as this week. As for the gender of the father or what he identifies as, who gives a rat's ass? Parties are exclusively for women.

If you've ever worked remotely, this list will be spot-on. If you haven't, it will merely be amusing.

• According to Symantec's research, 84% of people will connect to any wifi that's free and strong enough, carrying out their daily activities, including financial transactions, email, and accessing adult content. Don't be one of the 84%, please.

Marshall Update: His operation/biopsy was postponed a few days because his output wasn't what it should be. Short diet change should fix this. Pain meds, because he's whining a bit for no apparent reason. The mass occasionally bleeds, so the furniture and the parents now have dried blood in weird places. He managed to tip over some paperwork, which is now stained from water after his pool visits, plus dried blood.

• Another Aviation Scientist tried to open the door on a Delta plane recently. The hero was a flight attendant, who hit him over the head with a champagne bottle. The plane burst into applause and Delta charged her for the bottle.

Mrs. lefty asked who ate the trash. Marshall said it was the Russians. CNN backed him.

Speaking of Mrs. lefty, she just called to tell me there was a 'moo cow' out in the middle of the street, in a shopping center. They've been getting loose a lot lately, just not in PA. She said it was prancing around. It took a few minutes to figure out it was some dude in a cow suit, doing a promo for Chik Filet.

• The data of at least six million Verizon users has leaked online. Verizon says it's ok - none of the information was stolen. After the initial report, it took Verizon only nine days to fix the leak. Verizon stated that this was due to "human error" and that no loss or or theft of customer information occurred. Further, they maintain that only six million records were exposed, not fourteen million, as the firm that discovered the 'human error' stated.
• Taking Verizon at its word, there were six million records exposed to the entire internet, because a third party vendor misconfigured a server in THE CLOUD. But no data was stolen. Not a single person saw one bit of the data, because they had to have the specific url of the misconfigured cloud server.
• This is obviously why Verizon Wireless users pay more for their accounts. You don't get this kind of service with lower-priced carriers.

Tomato plant research has produced something interesting: when caterpillars start eating leaves, the plant releases a chemical that sets the caterpillars on each other.  Kinda like politics.

• Part of the slow motion mass casualty collision that is facial recognition is happening now in airports. It is allegedly for foreigners leaving the country, per Congress and sped up by a Trump executive order. Well, yes, all scans are deleted after 14 days and yes, you can allegedly opt-out, this information goes to our good friends at DHS/CBP.

Noted constitutional scholar and part-time telephone pole, Rosie O'Donnell states "I don't care if you want to hunt. I don't care if you think it's your right. I say sorry. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison." No doubt all of her bodyguards are unarmed too. I need to find a job where I can get paid very well to say Stupid Shit<tm>. Several of my readers might state that this blog is that job but I must correct them; I don't get paid for this.

That's a Lot of Medicine for A Dog

One million Chinese-made devices have been hacked for massive internet attacks. This illustrates two things: avoid Chinese-made junk. And this is yet another example of Things To Come.

• There's a very interesting article on Delta's power outage in August. It claims that the problem was more of a cyber attack than a power outage. It makes good points. It also backs up what I've been saying about the event: it was not what they claimed. I stated that there had to be Serious Backups and Redundancies because this was Incredibly Important Infrastructure (and there was). This is not a good thing, especially combined with the fiber cuts in California and the ongoing probing of the power grid.

Kim K was robbed at gunpoint in France. She begged for her life, but more importantly, that the thieves not ruin her makeup or take a bad picture of her.

• October 3: the birthday of Saint Stevie Ray Vaughan. He would have been 62.

The Supreme Court has neglected to hear mobster Whitey "The Bulge" Bulger's appeal for killing eleven people. Whitey, 87, will have to spend the rest of his life in prison. His 100 year sentence will allow good-behavior probation in 5 years. Don't you wish, one day, to be as cool as Whitey and have a nickname like The Bulge? Maybe not so much ordering 11 people dead, but maybe knowing you could. The reason for the appeal was that Whitey claims to only have killed ten people, not eleven, hence his bid to have the entire case thrown out.

In case you're curious, the only parts of the above paragraph that are true are his conviction and life in prison.

• Three people who studied unusual states of matter have won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Well, it's not quite Obama's Peace Prize but it will have to do.

The only thing better than a presidential debate is a vice-presidential debate. If you don't believe me, watch it. In the interests of mental health, I'd avoid it. Update: Bill Weld, the libertarian candidate, isn't allowed to debate, like Gary Johnson, the presidential candidate.

But wait - what is this??? Trump's VP candidate, Pence, has a signature line is that he is "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order." Uh-oh. I don't care what he wants to do in his spare time but this is a potential violation of the First Amendment.

• Don't ask how I know but my Bluetooth earphones at work reach into the bathroom. When I say the meeting is shit, I mean it.

Amnesty International has accused the world's wealthiest nations of shirking responsibility towards refugees, saying they host the fewest and do the least. No word yet from Amnesty on terrorist refugees.

• According to a study by 'Girlguiding,' girls in the UK are markedly less confident about their looks than they were five years ago.  No word yet on whether Girlguiding studies parents teaching self-esteem. I'm not particularly attractive but that's the way I am and I'm not likely to slit a wrist because I don't look like something from GQ (or MTV).

It's a good thing for Julian Assange that the embassy hasn't suffered a collapse into its own footprint. Yet.

• Marshall the cocker continues his health issues and our bid to cure him. He loves his new food - it's even better than cat food, and he LOVES cat food. He flatly refused the dry stuff, preferring to be hungry. The wet stuff is his favorite. The newer wet stuff causes diarrhea, His meds were no problem, as we put them in peanut butter. Now he's refusing the peanut butter, so he doesn't get breakfast until he's hungry enough to eat his meds. We really need to get him a dog but the wife is not happy with that idea and I like sleeping in my own bed.

Today's joke: a government worker makes it to his desk on time and performs his job.

Thank you. I'm available for children's parties.

• I know stats are the lifeblood of everything, so you'll want to know that 8 people accessed the blog yesterday. Cumulative stats (of who knows when - I don't have a need to know) are that the largest amount are from Poland, use Chrome and run linux. What does this mean? How the hell should I know - I'm just sharing info.

Are you ready for the Buzzword of the Day?

Bromosexual: a friendship between a straight man and a gay man.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Along with Buzzword of the Day, I give you Important Test of the Day.

At the Paris Motor Show, a BBC reporter tested cup holders in a range of cars.

Because, you know... this can be the tipping point in the decision of which super car to buy.

• If any of you are in the path of Hurricane Matthew, I need you to remain alive. Please be safe.

Special Non-Olympic Edition

Since this is the non-Olympic edition, I'll open with an Olympic-related matter.
Notice some of the athletes appearing with what looks like pepperonis on their backs? This is called fire cupping. In brief, a large baby food jar gets its air evacuated by a small flame and stuch onto a person's back. This provides relief for all sorts of maladies, fibromyalgia and fascia disorders among them. The vacuum in the jar helps pull at the skin and other layers, ultimately causing those pepperonis.

We at ThermionicEmissions are amused by this, as Mrs lefty had this treatment about twenty years ago, Don't we sound like hipsters? The only issue was visiting a hospital at the time, when the staff asked her if she was being abused because they had never heard of it. We're an interesting household.

• Up to 900 million android phones are at risk due to a flaw in Qualcomm chips. The bug has been fixed but your phone carrier has to do whatever phone carriers do to it before they send it to your phone. Breaking my heart, this is the bad part of android. But, as we say here, at least it's not an iDevice.

Why is it that women complain when people comment on a tv host's wardrobe but it's ok to publicly grope male athletes?

• There's a young guy at work who answers his phone "FBI." It's heartwarming to see a younger version of me, opening his trap inappropriately, without regard. He will go far (if he's not fired on the way).

Thinking of purchasing a new, computer-controlled car? Jeep was just hacked, allowing acceleration, brake slamming, and turning the wheel at any speed from outside the car.

• The dog continues his grief over his missing cat. We tried some sort of scent that's supposed to remind him of his mother. We're having some difficulty determining if it works, as we can only use it when we're not in the house. As he's still barking at the door when we leave, I'm thinking no. Next step: pharmaceuticals. It's only a matter of time until we're all on the same meds. The vet is talking Ativan.

AIRLINE NEWS:

So Delta experienced a 'power outage', which took down the entire airline on Monday. The power outage quickly morphed into a 'computer outage' and very limited functionality was restored by the afternoon. One day later, they're still pretty messed up.

Once again, I need to point out that there's a serious problem with aviation these days.  This is approximately the fourth airline that has had computer issues in the last year. What kind of infrastructure do our airlines have?  Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration are pretty important are pretty important functions. Important functions require all sorts of important infrastructure. I'm talking about basic things like at least two sources of power, at least two paths to the internet, at least two data centers, with automatic failover to the second one, reliable backups with functional (and tested) restore, a whole buncha spare parts onsite...  are you getting the idea? If I, in my various jobs, did not have these things, I'd be out on the street the first time there was a power outage (or a computer outage). I have heard from insiders that some of the airline infrastructure is old because the bean counters emphasize profits over equipment.

One article I read stated that this might be a human issue. I'd hope that a human could not take down an entire airline by himself, regardless of what he did to the computer. Yesterday it emerged that their power company said there was an outage, but Delta's equipment failed to switch over to a different provider.

Before any significant news came out, we were assured that this wasn't hacking. This is precisely the same M.O. when there's a shooting: "We don't have any details, but it's not terrorism." I'm not saying that Delta was hacked, but after at least four airline outages, do you think any of the airlines or the FEDERAL Aviation Association would admit to a hacking? Perhaps there were four separate instances of computer outages....I certainly don't know. Decide for yourself.

• I hate like hell to descend to the depths of tabloidism, but here is a small collection of Leonardo DiCaprio's dating stall. Any of us could have a wonderful time with his rejects.

An Indian political activist is ending a 16-year fast.

16 years.

Fast.

As a result, the laws of medicine will be reinstated and thousands of women will want a copy of the regimen. It will become the most attempted diet of all time.

• A Philippine lawmaker wants to ban Donald Trump from the country. Like him or hate him, he sure generates headlines. I'm amused that he gets so much response from people outside of his own country. Meanwhile, democrats also want to ban Trump from the country.

Led Zeppelin has lost a legal bid to recoup almost $800,000 in legal fees from the recent lawsuit. The judge refused because the suit wasn't frivolous. The law is the law but let $800,000 in legal fees soak in.

• At the Olympics, Rowing in Rio was cancelled because the water kept eating through the bottom of the boats. No reschedule dates have been mentioned.

Today's Faceyspaces news: Facebook will now bypass your desktop browser's adblocker. FB and Google own 64% of the digital ad market - do the math.  So if you need yet another reason to dump FB, here it is. I get the feeling it won't matter to many- except my fine readers here.

• Bernie Sanders just bought his third luxury home, at a cost of $600 million. After he asked nicely, they allowed him to pay for it with a check from the Hillary for President campaign.