Yearly Archives: 2008

Dysfunctional Doesn’t Cover the Half of It

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

At first glance, the situation described here seems callous beyond weird: Dembot – Open Letter to James C. Mullen, CEO of Biogen.

There is a method to the madness, described here but any system which produces this outcome is worse than broken.

Posted in Science/Medicine | Comments Off on Dysfunctional Doesn’t Cover the Half of It

Your Daily Gloom

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Bruce Schneier, New Chip-and-Pin Scam in the UK:

The readers were hacked when they were were built, “either during the manufacturing process at a factory in China, or shortly after they came off the production line.” It's being called a “supply chain hack.”

Sophisticated stuff, and yet another demonstration that these all-computer security systems are full of risks.

BTW, what's it worth to rig an election?

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

TV Appearance this Evening

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It seems that I'll probably be interviewed on ABC TV's “ABC Now” program, at about 5:45pm today.

The topic is this case. Before you jump to too many conclusions, you might want to read this letter from the prosecutor.

Ok, now jump.

Update: Was on for all of several seconds, and in due course they promise to send a URL.

Posted in The Media | 2 Comments

Something to Sing About

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It's not just physicists who get rap songs.

Al_Franken_Show Paul Krugman Theme Song.

Posted in Econ & Money | 1 Comment

State GOP Starts the Sliming and Fear-Mongering

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I haven't gotten mine yet, but someone was kind enough to send me a scan of a GOP mailer that is going to houses around here claiming that Democrats want to “surrender” to terrorism. This particular copy was sent right to the heart of FL-18, Annette Taddeo's district.

The content of this thing is pretty ugly. Here's a shot of the worst page. You can click on it for a larger .pdf version of that page.

Mailer_10-12-08.jpg

This is accompanied by a smiling photo of Governor Charlie Crist, along with a message warning that terrorists want to kill us, and that we should vote for Republicans to “help keep America safe.” (You can download a .pdf of the entire mailer, if you want.)

Got that? The State GOP, which paid for this thing, and the formerly post-partisan Governor, are saying that Democrats want to surrender to terrorists. Talk about low-class smear jobs…

Does anyone actually think that Democrats want to surrender to terrorism? Most Democrats want to make an orderly exit from Iraq. So, the polls tell us, does most of the country. (And, for what it's worth, during the second Presidential debate it was Obama who took the more bellicose approach towards chasing down bin Laden, not McCain.)

It used to be that we only saw stuff like this in the last week before election day. But the GOP wants absentee ballots, and early voting starts soon, so here we go.

Posted in 9/11 & Aftermath, Florida, Politics: FL-18 | 11 Comments

Pop Culture

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It's good when your side's views infiltrate pop culture. Here's a snippet from this week's “Screen Gems” column in the Miami Herald.

Coming this week on TV and at the movies, Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod (10 p.m. Tuesday, Discovery) — I know, I know, who cares about some dog race in Alaska? Until Sarah Palin is vice president, and then the dog-racing police will come to your house and if you don't know the right answers they'll stick a cattle prod up your … Oh, sorry, I was channeling Keith Olbermann there for a second. Never mind, he's gone now.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment