All right kids here is your Hump Day post. As always the rules apply. No peen, vag, or girlie nips. Violators will be banished to the Tempe casual encounters section on Craig’s List. You have been warned. Here are some cuties from the BBC show Survivors to get you going.
Here is Max Beesley. I want to do some really bad things to him.
This is Phillip Rhys. The fact that he exists makes me really happy.
For you kids who like girls, this is Zoe Tapper.
Try and remain calm.
Today, Crasstalk is thrilled to present a conversation with Indiana Democratic Representative Terri Austin (IN-37). Rep. Austin was one of two Democratic legislators who remained at the Statehouse to object to any legislative business occurring without a quorum. A leading voice in education, mass transit and transportation, Rep. Austin has spent the last two weeks traveling back and forth from the Indiana Statehouse to Urbana, Illinois, where the remaining Democratic caucus members have been since the standoff began.
As they enter their third week of boycotting the Indiana House of Representatives, Indiana Democratic legislators are facing enormous pressure from all sides. On one side, there are calls for them to come to the Legislature and go back to work. On the other, countless Hoosier workers and teachers who have rallied day after day, numbering in the thousands each time, to show their support for the Democrats’ stand. What is happening in Indiana is different than what is occurring in Ohio and Wisconsin. However, there are also common themes threaded through each states’ stand off. For many, the events in Indiana and across the country represent no less than a battle for the future of the American working class. Are unions a thing of the past? Do public employees deserve collective bargaining? These are just a few of the questions raised by this situation.
Indiana Democrats released the following statement about the boycott.
On Tuesday, February 22, 2011, House Democrats used their constitutional obligation to prevent quorum on the House floor to stop a radical agenda that was a direct attack on working Hoosiers and our public schools. We left for Illinois to give the thousands of Hoosier workers, teachers, and families a real voice at the State House. Our decision was to send a message to Republicans that we were serious about our concerns. Some say we should come back and do our job. We believe that fighting on behalf of thousands of Hoosier students, workers, and families is our job. To sit in the chamber and simply vote no was not enough.
Before focusing on the substance of why Democratic legislators left the state, I want to ask you about the tactic of walking out or boycotting the legislature. Some have suggested that this is not an appropriate way for a minority party to block legislation. How do you respond to this criticism?
Rep. Austin:
I have great respect for our legislative institution and its rules. The tactic of quorum-busting—causing a quorum to be prevented from meeting—has been used in legislative bodies by minorities seeking to block the adoption of some measure they oppose. Quorum-busting has been used for centuries. For instance, during his time in the state legislature, Abraham Lincoln, leapt out of a first story window (the doors of the Capitol had been locked to prevent legislators from fleeing) in a failed attempt to prevent a quorum from being present.
To remain out of the House chamber should be used rarely and done only after careful consideration. We know that Speaker Bosma and other House Republicans understand this, because when in the minority, they used this Constitutionally-granted ability in 2001 and 2004.
Both Republican and Democratic members have participated in walkouts that have stopped legislative action. However, in the recent past, members have not left the state. Why did the Democrats feel they needed to leave the state?
Rep. Austin:
The decision to leave the state was made after careful deliberation. There was significant concern that the Speaker of the House or the Governor would use the powers of arrest to compel attendance. The only way to ensure that this would not happen was to relocate to a region where the powers of arrest were not recognized. It also gave us uninterrupted time to review, discuss and debate the various pieces of legislation we were concerned about and to develop proposed amendments to the bills. We believe that the legislature works best when a spirit of bipartisanship and compromise is present.
Indiana House members initially left the state to stop Right to Work legislation 
from passing. Why is the Democratic Caucus opposed to RtW?
Rep. Austin:
The decision to break a quorum was not just about Right To Work. Over the last couple of weeks the barrage of controversial and critical bills, put on the calendar at the last minute, hampered the ability of legislators and the public to understand the details of these bills much less consider their long-term consequences. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
The RTW bill was scheduled on the very last morning for committee hearings. The hearing was held in less than ideal conditions. There were hundreds of people who traveled to the statehouse to testify regarding the bill. Many could not even hear the testimony because the hearing room only held about 50 people. Others were forced to stand outside in the hallway or throughout the building. 92 people who signed up to testify were not given an opportunity to testify.
It is important to note that there was conflicting testimony on the positive impact of RtW legislation in other states. Dr. Gordon Lafer, an Associate Professor at the University of Oregon indicated that all of the most recent scientific studies show that RTW has zero impact on job growth. In fact, only one state, Oklahoma, has adopted Right To Work over the past 25 years. One problem with basing public policy decisions on what happened in 1970 and 1980 is that we live in a fundamentally different economy today.
Something this important should not be determined in a 90 minute committee hearing where Hoosiers were denied an opportunity to hear the testimony or offer their thoughts and opinions as citizens.
I think you can see from this example and news reports of the session that legislators and the public were not fully educated on several bills that were moving like a runaway freight train. Although the “Right to Work” (RTW) bill has been depicted as the primary reason for the “time out”, it was a whole list of concerns. This time out has given the public and legislators the time to learn about the content of these bills. As can be noted by the thousands of citizens who have demonstrated at the statehouse and rallied in their communities, the public is becoming more aware of these issues, and they are speaking up. The focus of this time-out should not be the absence of the House members but the potentially damaging impact of these bills.
Almost immediately after the Democrats left, Republican leaders pledged not to advance the RTW legislation. But, the Democrats did not come back. Why?
Rep. Austin:
As explained above, there were other pieces of legislation that would have had a drastic impact on Hoosier families and children attending public schools. Democrats’ decision to remain out of the statehouse allows time for the bills to be fully examined, amendments developed, the public to be informed and their voices to be heard. The Democrats have consistently expressed a desire to work in a spirit of compromise and negotiation. Efforts to do just that have been rebuked and refused by the House leadership. Republicans have said there is no negotiating, their agenda will pass. Their rhetoric and unwillingness to compromise have forced us to fight from Illinois – our only means left to defend the jobs of working people in Indiana and the education of Hoosier children.
This session began with a great hope of working with our colleagues across the aisle to develop a plan for job creation, move our public schools to the front of the class and draft a fiscally responsible state budget. Speaker Bosma started this session saying it was a “new day” in the House chamber, and he was going to seek a new level of bi-partisanship. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the complete opposite. This session has seen only 29 percent of the votes be cast in a bipartisan manner. Normally, 80-90 percent of the votes in a session are bipartisan.
Please understand that House Democrats did not cross our arms and say “no” to everything that was proposed by our Republican colleagues. Even if we disagreed on a bill, positive and compromising alternatives were offered to improve and/or moderate the consequences if we felt they were harmful to our districts and our constituents. Most times those ideas, offered in good faith, were summarily dismissed Our kids’ education and our families’ wages shouldn’t be the victim of partisanship. Hoosier families deserve better than that.
Do Democrats have a list of specific bills that they want to negotiate on before agreeing to come back? If so, can you briefly explain what they are?
Rep. Austin:
There is no list of “demands” as has been suggested. However, several bills impacting public education and the future of the middle class in Indiana are of great concern. HB 1003 creates a voucher program that sends public tax dollars to private schools for a select number of children. HB 1479 allows for the immediate state takeover of 212 schools and gives the State Board of Education the authority to appoint a for-profit management company to run the school. Other legislation impacts individuals’ rights to voluntarily have association dues or fees paid from their paycheck. Others greatly restrict employees’ ability to work with management regarding areas of mutual concern. Many of the bills will drive down Hoosier wages and benefits. Hoosiers already earn only 85 cents on the dollar as compared to the U.S. average. The Republican proposals have been proven in other states to lower wages by $5,500 a year on average.
These are just some of the bills that many legislators feel will be harmful to their communities.
Are the Democrats asking for specific legislative changes to be agreed to before you will come back or are you asking for an opportunity through open debate and proposed amendments to change them once you do come back?
Rep. Austin:
The Democrats are willing to work with everyone in a spirit of compromise. Negotiations are never successful when one party or the other draws a line in the sand. It is important to keep the lines of communication open and for both parties to come to the table with respect and a willingness to listen.
The Crasstalk community includes people from all 50 states. It seems that the same legislation Indiana Democrats are objecting to is also being proposed in other states, notably Wisconsin and Ohio. Are Democratic legislators talking across states and coming up with a larger strategy to counteract what seems to be a nationwide Republican effort?
Rep. Austin:
I am not aware that talks with other Democratic legislators are going on to develop a strategy. I do know that the communications that have taken place are more about supporting each other’s efforts and comparing different pieces of legislation across state lines.
Are you personally concerned about any political fallout from the Democrats’ boycott? Why or why not?
Rep. Austin:
At some point, you have to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of the consequences. I was elected by the people of the district to try and make their lives better and to be their voice in state government. Many of the pieces of legislation would not have a positive impact on the families and children that I represent. I believe that Hoosier families are worth fighting for.
Last question. Many people who will read this are not Hoosiers and may have never been to Indiana. As an elected representative of Hoosier residents, what is the one thing you would most like them to know about Indiana?
Rep. Austin:
It’s a wonderful place to grow up and to work. Yes, we face some challenges but also we have many positives that make us attractive to young people, families and entrepreneurs. I had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan and Japan several years ago as a part of a state delegation. When we met with business leaders who talked about why they brought their companies to Indiana, they indicated two things that set us apart: our Hoosier work ethic and the excellent education their children received. Unfortunately, some leaders forget to tell people the things they are doing well before they tell them why we need to do things differently.
For More Information
Indiana House Democrats Fighting for Hoosier Families Facebook page.
Just SIT (Support Indiana Teachers) Facebook page.
So you want to learn more about vegetarianism/veganism? Or you don’t, but this article came up and you’re procrastinating at work/school/life so you’ll read it anyway? Good enough! This is meant to be kind of a brief intro to what this stuff is all about, and will respond to some of the main questions that generally come up in this topic. If there’s a particular area of vegetarianism/veganism (veg*nism) that you would like to know more about, let me know! I love talking about this stuff.
The Basics
A vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat. They may still consume dairy, eggs, and possibly fish (but fish is really a meat). Vegetarians have been around forever!
A vegan is often defined as someone who “begins with vegetarianism and brings it to its logical conclusion.” Vegans attempt to consume nothing that originally came from an animal. This includes clothing, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, and of course, food. The term was coined by Donald Watson, an Englishman who founded the British Vegan Society in 1944.
But Why?
If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you’ll know that the question everyone asks you (along with the protein question) is “Why did you decide to become a veg*n?” People go veg for a variety of different reasons. The main ones:
For the animals
There is nothing “circle of life” about our modern production of meat. Animals are kept in terrible conditions for the sole purpose of being killed. This is generally where all the ethical arguments against eating animals live. Many people believe that there is no such thing as “humanely-killed” meat. Additionally, the principle of not using animals for our own gain (this can be extended to circuses, rodeos, and even pets) is often used in reasoning against using honey, pearls, and other things that we generally think of as not harmful to the animals.
For personal health
Eating more plants and fewer animals has been linked to lower cholesterol, higher fiber, lower rates of cancer, diabetes, h
eart disease, osteoporosis, and a host of other health issues. For more info on this, see The China Study.
For the environment
Factory farming is incredibly damaging to the environment. Livestock’s Long Shadow (pdf file), published by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization in 2006, details the many harmful impacts that raising livestock has for the environment. One of the more interesting facts: all factors involved, livestock contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation.
ZOMG where do you get your protein?
I figure we’ll just tackle this one right off the bat. First of all, you probably don’t need as much protein as you think you need. The average American consumes about double the protein his or her body actually needs. (Source) So let’s just relax about that. The general formula to determine how much protein you need per day is your body weight times 0.36. So a 140-pound person would need about 50 grams of protein per day. Obviously if you’re an athlete and/or a pregnant or breastfeeding woman you’ll need more. Veg*ns can get protein from legumes, grains like rice and quinoa (kee-nwah), tofu, nuts, and non-dairy milks. However, it is true that while all meats offer complete proteins (they have the 9 essential amino acids which cannot be produced by our bodies), most vegetarian sources do not. Quinoa is one of the only plants that is a complete protein.
Aside from eating quinoa all day (which wouldn’t be the worst thing), us veg*ns can use what are called complementary proteins- where one source is missing an amino acid or two, another one has it, and when eaten together or during the same day, they complement each other. We already form complementary proteins in many of the foods we commonly eat: rice and beans, falafel in a whole wheat pita, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, cornbread and beans. Basically legumes + grains is a good way to go.
.jpg "Rice grains (IRRI)")
Some Random Nutrition Notes
Hopefully I’ll get to do a later post on veg nutrition, but for now a few brief things. Being vegan does not necessarily mean eating healthier. A lot of junk food is vegan (and delicious). But that’s not really what veganism is all about, so in between bags of Tings, have a leaf or something.
Even if you’re not looking to go veg, a good guideline for healthier eating is to eat the food as close to how it naturally is as possible. This means eating corn on the cob, not corn nuts. Using rolled or steel-cut oats rather than the instant oatmeal. Basically, when you go food shopping, you should look for food that has five or fewer ingredients listed, or better yet, just one! This way you can better ensure that you’re getting the most nutrition and the least processing possible in your foods. Now, I can’t ignore the cost issues here- it’s fucked up that buying junk food is less expensive than buying broccoli or something, but if you can try to eat more whole foods without going broke, it’s absolutely worth it for your body. Former Jezebel readers beware, but legumes seriously are the shit in this regard. They are cheap and incredibly nutritious. This doesn’t mean eating lentils for every meal every day, but maybe buy a bag of beans instead of that chicken breast. The larger societal and governmental issues of our food system can’t really be addressed right here, but I’ll include some links for those of you who want to read more on this (Food Inc. also addresses this issue).
So that about wraps this up. Do you have a particular food/meal you’d like to share with the group? Good books, articles, films, etc.? Let us know in the comments!
But I want to know more!
Complementary proteins
Sources of protein
Wikipedia on Veganism
Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine protein info
Vegan Action
Vegans of Color
Racism & Speciesism
Mark Bittman, Food Matters (lots of good information)
Compassionate Cooks
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Good morning and welcome. Hope you are rested or at least have something good to regret. Let the rocker girls get you going today.
Damn. Maybe we should have put this in the Hump Day post. Have a sassy day.
Author’s note: Baconcat loves Gothic horror. He loves it for the atmosphere and the over the top lurid descriptions (oh, the Victorians, what wonderful hypocrite prudes they were!). However, if you don’t, you’ll probably want to skip this one.
Okay, you’ve been forewarned.
The blast of the train’s steam whistle ripped through the snowstorm and told Hannah she had guessed correctly. The sound emanated no more than 30 yards directly in front of her. The snowfall was so thick that when she fled her house only a few minutes ago she was forced to lay trust in only her feet to guide her to the train station. But her feet had run true, taking steps they had taken perhaps a thousand times before. Now, with only a few more steps she would be aboard the train and free of her dreadful pursuers. She wondered, if only for a moment, if she had truly been able to escape them. But if she had heard the whistle, they heard the whistle. Were she to make the train though, there would be safety in numbers.
How horrible the demons that forced her from her home had been! She imagined her pursuers’ blackened hands grasping at her, the greasy flesh falling off in terrible chunks, the sooty tallow leaving streaked stains on her dress. So nightmarish was this thought that she failed to see the step to the train platform and fell over it, almost spilling the little money purse clutched desperately in her hand. ’30 dollars.’ she whispered instinctively, as if by speaking it aloud she guaranteed its safety. 30 dollars was not much, but it would be enough for her to start a new life in Cleveland, maybe even Chicago. It was all her father had to his name. All of his savings, and yet only five minutes ago he had pressed it so willingly and firmly into her hand while he shuttled her out back door of the only home she had ever known.
“Just please go, child!” he said while pushing her reluctant body out into the cold night. He hadn’t even had time to tell her he loved her before the mob knocked down the front door. “Just go!” he cried as he ran to bar the kitchen door and buy his only child a few more precious seconds to flee. Just then, in the moment the front door had fallen, she’d seen the demons again leading the charge; Their burnt faces turned in a permanent toothy death smile, their white bones peeking through the torn and scarred skin as they forced their way through the house and slammed against the kitchen door. Hannah took one last look at her father mustering all the strength his 58 year old frame could manage to hold back the door, and then she turned and stumbled blindly into the raging storm.
The whistle blew again as Hannah ran down the platform, racing for the train. As she boarded the train, she heard the desperate cries of her pursuers. They too had reached the platform, but devil be damned, they were too late! The train was already pulling out of the station. Even if they got aboard, they couldn’t hurt her here; not on a train, not with all the passengers for witnesses. In the town she may be a pariah, but here on a train full of strangers, she was an unknown damsel in distress. The demons could not touch her here.
She found her way into the cabin and fell into the first available seat. Even though the seats were the uncomfortable wood and wrought iron benches of coach class, the cabin was warm, being heated by the coal fired oven, and she was so tired and relieved to be free of them that she drifted into a dream filled sleep.
Her sweet, departed mother came to mind first. She had been so beautiful! While she was alive all had been well in their small town. Her father had been happy then, for he considered himself the luckiest man alive. Having reached 40 with no mate, he had resigned himself to a life of solitude. Yet, when he met Hannah’s mother on a supply trip to Boston, he knew within an instant that he would marry her. It didn’t matter that she was a poor immigrant daughter and he a successful shopkeeper, nor that he was twice her age. After only a day, he offered her work in his general store. She agreed and took the long carriage ride back with him without a second thought. By the time they arrived in his small town, they were in love. They were married in a short ceremony and within a year, Hannah arrived.
“Next stop Garvey.”
Perhaps Hannah had always had the gift. Perhaps not, but what is certain is that her first recollection of the ability was her mother’s death. Hannah had seen the mark on her mother that day. It was clear as day to Hannah, the dark blue band across her mother’s neck. Not knowing what it was, the premonition confused her. Here was her mother in her Sunday best, and yet she was caked in mud. Being only four, she asked her mother why she would wear muddy clothing to go to church? Her mother thought Hannah was playing a child’s game with her and scolded her. She remembered that; her mother had been cross with her. And yet, her mother was sweet-natured, and not one to hold a grudge. By the time service ended, she had forgiven Hannah, even though the child still insisted that she was wearing soiled clothes.
For three days Hannah watched her mother come downstairs wearing clothing caked in mud. And each time there was the same deep blue band across her neck. For three days she would ask her mother why she wore muddy clothes and for three days her mother sighed and her father told her it was not polite to make fun. It wasn’t until the 4th day that the visions made sense. That was the day Mr. Watkin’s carriage became unbuckled and rolled free down the hill. Her mother never even saw it. It pushed her into the mud in the middle of the street and the wagon wheel passed right over her neck. From there on in, father believed in her visions. How could he not? Was the bruise of the wagon wheel not exactly where Hannah had shown him?
The loss was hard on both of them, but they had each other, and together they survived. Her father was sad, but he was kind and loving. And though he had lost his wife, he had her daughter. Life began to return to normal.
“Next stop Wickham Green.”
For a while, things settled in again. But then the war between the states broke out and Hannah began seeing them again. For the week before he left to join the union, Parson Williams’ boy had a deep gash down the length of his neck. He was killed by a cavalryman in a skirmish. Joseph and Ira Collins had multiple bullet holes in their Sunday best. They were both killed at Pickett’s charge. Ambrose Mueller was missing a head. And when she saw Clinton Smith, or what was left of him, the sight was so terrifying that she screamed every time he came into her father’s store.
Her father had always liked Clinton and felt it was his duty to tell him of his daughter’s premonition. Clinton was so terrified that he fled the draft and ran away to New York City. He was blown to pieces by a naval cannon during the draft riots of ‘63.
From then on out things deteriorated in the village. Clinton’s mother believed it was Hannah who had killed her son through some sort of magic and she spread the story Clinton had told her throughout the town. Hannah’s father laughed at first, but as she kept predicting and people kept dying, it became harder and harder to laugh.
“Next Stop Ashtabula, Ohio.”
The war ended, as all wars do, and if things didn’t exactly return to normal, they at least became less hostile. But even without war, accidents happen: threshers break, carriages flip, horses panic, guns explode. Hannah kept them to herself, sharing only the occasional comment for her father. “Old Schaeffer is going to die soon.” Most importantly Hannah resigned herself to the fate of not being able to change the outcomes. After all, they died if she said nothing and they died if she warned them. She became used to the sights of the mangled bodies. None of them were that terrible, and more importantly, they had a sort of benevolent peace to them. If she envisioned farmer Schaeffer with a broken neck, he was still farmer Schaeffer, he still spoke kindly words to her on Sunday, even if they came out of a very sideways head.
But a full 11 years after the war she saw a horrible vision, one altogether worse than Clinton Smith. In fact, it had been so horrible that when the two demons (for there was no other word for them) entered the Church on that cold morning, she fainted dead away.
Hannah rustled in her sleep as the train left the station. Though she tried to push the memory of the demons from her mind, she could not. They were townspeople no doubt, but so badly burnt that they were unrecognizable. When they walked into the church that morning, she saw the greasy black stains they left in their wake, she saw the flesh drip and fall off their legs. And their eyes, their hideous eyes were vacant of eyeballs, black and oozing, and yet, because this was only a vision, they still seemed to look at you, though they had nothing to look with.
Fainting in the church was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back. While Hannah recuperated at home, a mob formed. When she awoke that night, she heard the voice of Bill Tilghman talking in the hall outside her room.
“No, you’ve got to go now, James. They won’t wait two weeks.”
“But she’s my daughter!”
“They are coming tonight. They are coming and they are going burn her! That scene in the church- it- well, it was enough.”
It was during their preparations to leave that the mob had come. Her mind drifted back to the purse. ’30 dollars.’ Se mumbled as she clutched the purse in her sleep.
“Just please go.” Her father’s last words.
And again in her dream she saw the faces of the two as they barged through her father’s door. Two evil skulls the color of onyx. Two scarred and burnt men with hate in their hearts and black deeds on their minds. She had escaped them. Even if they were here on the train now, they could not hurt her. She had escaped them. She had escaped.
The train jostled as it slowly pushed through the snowfall and inched its way across the bridge. The conductor, not expecting the quake shifted clumsily and bumped into Hannah. Perhaps to cover his mistake, he asked her for her ticket. Hannah awoke and as she wiped the sleep from her eyes she looked up to him. His face was completely sheared off and in its place a grisly mask of blood and muscle remained. He put his hand forward and she could see it was badly burnt, so burnt that it was barely recognizable. Hannah shrieked, causing the passengers in the cabin to turn to look at her. Their faces were all burnt too. Some were without heads. Others had heads, but were contorted in the most unnatural way. She covered her eyes to hide the hideous sight, but the sights still came through, as if her hands were not there. She pulled them down from her eyes and saw that they too were burnt, so badly destroyed that only charred bones existed where once there had been flesh and blood.
Suddenly Hannah understood the meaning of the visions.
She let out a bloodcurdling scream but it was drowned out by the blast of the steam whistle on the number 2 engine. The events foretold in her vision were already in motion, and past the point of no return. Three cars up, the first engine had just passed over the broken bridge trestle causing it to give way. The engineer of the second engine gave one final blast of the steam whistle as it uncoupled from the lead engine and plunged into the abyss below. From the other side of the bridge, the #1 Engineer could only weep and stare on helplessly as each car, in turn, plunged off the gap, down into the burning wreckage below.
-Baconcat
Hey gang. Hope you had a wonderful day and are getting some rest, or at least having another drink. I am going to leave you tonight with some nice classics from The Mills Brothers.
If you every tell anyone about The Grand Inquisitor’s sappy, sentimental side she will have to take you out. Have a wonderful night, friends. See you in the morning.
Hacking is usually an ‘underground’ sport, something nerdy Eastern Europeans do in their mother’s basements. The only time a hacker would come together to meet another hacker would be on an IRC channel. Not so anymore, with conventions like Defcon, Blackhat, and CanSecWest.
CanSecWest has an interesting contest. A hacking contest. The targets are the most common browsers: IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. A new feature this year is the addition of smartphone hacking: Apple iOS, Windows Phone 7, Google Android, and BlackBerry OS. In total there is $125,000 in cash prizes. Another cool aspect of the competition: if you hack the computer running the target browser, you get to keep the laptop.
Like any good contest, there are the favorites. Charlie Miller, a software analyst from Baltimore has won the contest 3 times before. In 2009 Miller took down Safari running on an Apple in 10 seconds! He scored $10,000 and a laptop for his troubles. “Nils” (The contest allows anonymous entries) – a German computer science student, won last year, cracking Firefox, Safari, and Chrome in less than 10 minutes. In 2009, Nils broke the encryption for IE 8 the day before it was released, netting a new Sony laptop and $5k. George Hotz, the 21 year old who broke the Playstation 3’s copy protection (not to mention being the first person to ever jailbreak the iPhone) will be competing this year.
The biggest challenge this year is Google’s Chrome browser. Chrome runs in a ‘sandbox’ mode in Windows (basically insulating bugs in Chrome from affecting the underlying Windows system.) Google has put up $20,000 if someone can break Chrome’s sandbox mode in the first day.
Contests like this just aren’t cool in the computer security world. They provide vendors with information on how to improve the security of their products. When someone hacks a browser/device they also share technical information on how they did it with the contest organizers, TippingPoint. Details on the hacks aren’t released to the public until the vendor has time to fix the bug.
Pwn2Own runs during the CanSecWest conference, being held in Vancouver CA between March 9-11 2011.
A-do a-yuh appreciate alluson’s alliteration?
Programming Notes:
Are we okay with Perez links? I know generally people think of him as pretty scummy and I actually stopped visiting after the will.i.am situation, but he’s all about the love and light these days and his posts are noticeably less caustic.
Also: Thank you ALL for the encouraging and kind comments on my first gossip post. Seriously, you really made my day. I was very nervous about how it would be perceived and you guys were sweeter than pie. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
For my fellow gossip-lovers: Right now, the following people have expressed interest in gossip roundups: EthologyNerd, GtCosita, bboston88, and ihatediamonds. If I forgot you, let me know in the comments. If anyone else wants be a gossip-whore too, chime in the comments. Originally, EthologyNerd and I were going to try some sort of collaborative effort, but if we have enough people, then perhaps we can each take a day. Here is my suggestion (pending editors okaying), and you guys let me know: Everyone picks day that works, that person starts the post by 12pm. If I don’t see something started by then, I’ll start one. If I don’t start one within that time, someone else can pick it up. Submit to pending by 5:30-6pm at the latest. If someone can’t do their day, they say something in the Open Threads and someone else can pick it up. Thoughts? Editors, do we like this?
In an interview with the BBC out yesterday, the former half-term Governor of Alaska, failed Vice Presidential Candidate and mother of the most embarrassing Dancing With The Stars contestant ever, remarked that the rumor that she did not know Africa was a continent (and not a country) was a fabrication by “jerk” staffers.
Next, she’ll be suing Tina Fey for impersonating her during the infamous Katie Couric interview.
Sarah, wouldn’t it be simpler to just read a book once in a while?
Link: BBC.
Why hello there Crasstalk. Hope you are getting through it so far and are ready to relax for a bit. We had some wonderful posts go up today, so please look around and repost us to your social media thingies (hint, hint). It will make the Grand Inquisitor love you more than she already does (if that is possible).
Here’s some Strangers with Candy love to start off your evening.
Have a great night.
