Internet security is back in the news this week. Although this time the attack doesn't appear to have been to steal credit card numbers like when they hit Target or Home Depot or to embarrass film industry executives and thwart a movie release like when Sony got hacked. No, this hack seems to have actually had a purpose.

The hacker or hackers — who self-identify as The Impact Team — stole sensitive internal client data from Avid Life Media, a Toronto-based firm that owns the online cheating site AshleyMadison.com as well as other high-brow hookup sites such as CougarLife.com and EstablishedMen.com. The former being a site where older women go to hook up with inappropriately younger men and the latter is a site where, I assume, middle aged men can hook up with strippers of all ages. Sort of like Craigslist.

Evidently the hackers were pissed off because Ashley Madison supposedly lied to their clients and charged a fee of $19 for the ability to permanently delete their personal information and/or profiles. By charging this fee they managed to net $1.7m last year alone. I love it! I guess the new revenue model for the internet is charging people to cancel their membership to your site. If so, Sarah Palin must be raking in the dough.

In a long rambling manifesto the hackers claim the "full delete" feature that Ashley Madison advertises promises "removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site," users' purchase details — including real name and address — aren't actually scrubbed from the database. Which one would think might be just the info these 37 million cheaters wanted removed. But I could be wrong.

So, I gotta ask – Ashley Madison users are upset that the site didn't hold true to its promise? Hmm.... Isn't the irony just wonderful?

The manifesto went on to state "Too bad for those men, they're cheating dirt-bags and deserve no such discretion," which leads me to believe we may have just uncovered the worlds first all female hacktivist organization. Good for you, Ladies. Excellent first move into a primarily male dominated industry.

The hookup service, whose slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair." really should consider changing that to "Life is short. So fuck it up by having an affair.", I mean, whatever happened to truth in advertising?

Anyhoo, while I was reading about this cyber-security incident I was inspired to write a bit of poetry – well, poetry may be giving me too much credit – to tell the morality lesson we should all learn here. I'm not sure if I captured it though. You tell me:

"He came from Nantucket, I should warn ya.
Spend all of your time online looking at porn, huh?
Ended up cheating on your wife...
Throwing away everything good in your life...
And that, my friend, is what we call "Karma!"

C'mon folks, haven't you figured out by now that if you are doing something on-line there is no way it should be considered private. You can count on at least the NSA, Google, probably Amazon, those a$$holes over at Bing and any teenagers in your neighborhood to be tracking your cheating butt.

Might as well set up your password as "BUSTED".

~ EJK

When scientists, after discovering a mixed bag of particles, finally were able to place them in recognizable order, they found one essential part missing. It is the particle that gives mass to every tangible thing in the universe (and maybe the multiverse): The Higgs Boson, sometimes called, "The God Particle," a term despised by Peter Higgs, from whom it derives its name.

Four years ago, an announcement was made at the LHC that the boson/particle suggested to exist by British Theoretical Scientist Peter Higgs and others, in the 1960s, in fact had been discovered. KPBS currently is carrying a remarkable retelling of that sparkling moment in world and science history.

Without the nearly ten billion-dollar, seventeen mile long, seven-story LHC, spanning the French-Swiss border, the Higgs Boson would be naught but a book-bound theory. The beauty of the LHC announcement is that Nobel Prize winner Peter Higgs was on hand to do a conservative victory lap. Considering that he was born in May of 1929 (the same month and year as this worthless writer), that was no small feat.

As noted below, the LHC exists in Europe only because we in the U.S. elected enough idiots to prevent a larger collider from being built in Texas. One of the more notable objections was that we need not spend that much money to prove something we already know. In contrast, when asked in Switzerland if the LHC was worth the cost, a spokesman responded: I don't know. Maybe not; or maybe we will find something to benefit mankind.

This is a corresponding article by this writer, at the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

December 2011

DID THE GOD PARTICLE Arrive at CHRISTMASTIME?

The Higgs Boson (whimsically nicknamed, The God Particle) is a hypothetical, massive, elementary particle. It is believed to be the agent that gives mass to the other particles and, if proven to exist, would require that science text books be re-written. For half a century, since the theory was developed, physicists steadily have been on the lookout for the Higgs boson.

Within the past few days, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, through two, separate and independent experiments, claim to have found the Higgs boson. Scientists are excited, but as trained skeptics, regard these reported findings merely interesting, as they await the flurry of similar research.

The reason the Higgs boson was dubbed The God Particle is because its discovery presumably (and mistakenly) would provide the definitive explanation of the universe's existence, resolving all the mystery surrounding dark matter and the super symmetry (or not) of the universe. These are the things that unnerve those who are unable to balance religion with science.

This brings to mind our increasingly ignorant and anti-science legislators. While they decry our continuing losses in education and trade around the world, they do not seem able to determine what it takes to maintain and improve our status quo. Back in the 1980s we were well into the construction of the Superconducting Super Collider in the Texas desert. This project would have been very much larger than the LHC mentioned above. Its completion would have brought the scientific world to our door. These momentous findings conducted on the Franco-Swiss border would have emanated from within our own shores, with all the resultant prestige and economic fallout. This is a good demonstration of how shortsightedness can lead to great national loss: Because the Super Collider project was going to cost $12 billion, Congress shit-canned it! The almost trillion they pissed away in Iraq is a sad commentary on this lack of vision – not to mention the human sacrifice!

Would that the God Particle were able to detect any mass prevalent in the brains of some of our leaders!

   
Imagecredit: Sergey Krasovskiy 

For those who are doing home teaching during this period, some kids might love to learn about a new feathered dinosaur that has just been discovered in the US southwest. They are about the shape and size of the Velociraptors, made famous by popular culture through movies like Jurassic Park.

According to the evidence and relative to the age of dinosaurs, they only existed briefly.  After less than a million years as a species, from space came a big rock.  Bang! After that mass extinction crisis, the only dinosaurs theoretically left were the ones who could fly, which this one couldn't. The ones in the oceans theoretically died off because of abrupt climate changes, hypothetically due to intense volcanic activity after the asteroid strike, causing both deep freezes and global warming with rising seas. That hypothetically destabilized the marine dinosaurs’ vital ecosystems within which they were dependent on food, reproduction and existence.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered this coelacanth, formerly only seen in fossils millions of years old, in a fisherman's catch. It was given the name Latimeria chalumnae in her honor.--Wikipedia

About 80 years ago, a fish, the Coelacanth, was discovered by Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer, a South African museum curator. This large fish, which lived with the dinosaurs back to 240 million years ago with the evolution of the first dinosaurs, and even everything that happened on the planet since 400 million years ago, close to the Cambrian explosive evolution of most land animals and larger marine lifeforms according to the fossil record, had been absolutely considered extinct after the asteroid strike. A fisherman who knew that Miss Courtenay-Latimer was looking for unusual animals in their catch, called her. "I picked away at the layers of slime to reveal the most beautiful fish I had ever seen," she recalls thinking. "It was five feet (150 cm) long, a pale mauvy blue with faint flecks of whitish spots; it had an iridescent silver-blue-green sheen all over. It was covered in hard scales, and it had four limb-like fins and a strange puppy dog tail." Since her discovery, many others have been found, even different species of it.

I’m sharing this slightly off-subject information for two reasons. As with the newly discovered fossil remains of the feathered Dineobellator notohesperus, our understandings of life on this planet prior to the asteroid strike almost 66 million years ago into the Yucatan of Mexico – which resulted in the evolution of human beings today ravaging our planet’s ecosystems into yet another extinction crisis right under our noses – is under constant and ever more focus and change with each new discovery. And also because this fish, which survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary mass extinction crisis, played an important role in the habitats of all marine dinosaurs who had ever evolved. It has survived all 5 of the known mass extinction crises. Will it survive the current one, which many geologists and biologists are calling the Anthropocene Mass Extinction Crisis, for which humans are responsible?

Anyways, the "...Dineobellator notohesperus’ tail also possessed unique characteristics. While most dromaeosaurids’ tails were straight and stiffened with rod-like structures, the tail of this dinosaur was rather flexible at its base, allowing the rest of the tail to remain stiff and act like a rudder.

“Think of what happens with a cat’s tail as it is running. While the tail itself remains straight, it is also whipping around constantly as the animal is changing direction,” Dr. Jasinski, of the University of Pennsylvania, State Museum of Pennsylvania and one of the dinosaur's discoverers.

“A stiff tail that is highly mobile at its base allows for increased agility and changes in direction, and potentially aided Dineobellator notohesperus in pursuing prey, especially in more open habitats.”

Dineobellator notohesperus provides a clearer picture of the biology of North American dromaeosaurids, especially concerning the distribution of feathers among its members.

“As we find evidence of more members possessing feathers, we believe it is likely that all the dromaeosaurids had feathers,” Dr. Jasinski said.

“The discovery also hints at some of the predatory habits of a group of iconic meat-eating dinosaurs that lived just before the extinction event that killed off all the dinosaurs that weren’t birds.” 

Click on Nature for the full peer-reviewed scientific paper on this feathered dinosaur. 

You may be wondering why dinosaurs who don’t fly would have evolved feathers. Many assume that feathers evolved for flight, but that’s not true. It theoretically happened as an accident, a mutation, within some genes, particularly “the Sox2 gene, for instance, [which] can turn on feather budding and totally inhibits scale formation.”

The research behind the evidence, including manipulating stem cell molecules for scales on alligators to form primitive proto-feathers, suggests that dinosaurs going back as far as 250 million years ago with their most ancient ancestor, the Archosaur group, had this regulator gene which would hypothetically later enable adaptation to colder climates. Feathers are better insulators than scales, and since dinosaurs were warm blooded, the pressures of a colder climate, for example, could have triggered the gene to produce these proto-feathers. The fossil record thus far indicates it happened about 150 million years ago. So when that adaptation succeeded in producing more feathered dinosaurs, the characteristic radiated out into evolutionary success, especially as the adaptation interacted with other genes that could define the ever more complex feather structures that enabled flight... and suddenly the sky was the limit, a whole new habitat from which to escape a predator attack, and from which to attack prey.  Researchers also suggest that flightless feathered dinosaurs, such as with the newly discovered Dineobellator notohesperus, were perhaps slightly better than their scaly counterparts at evading scaly predators, and to better succeed in hunting prey.

Fresno should post signs on all roads entering its county limits stating, “WARNING: LIVING IN OR JUST TRAVELLING THROUGH FRESNO POSES SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS. Fresno air is chock-full of particulate matter from trucks, cars, fireplaces, farms being tilled, pesticides, herbicides, and other agriculture chemicals, including heavy metals, and can pose serious health risks including cancer, asthma, valley fever, emphysema, and other lung and heart problems. Enter at your own risk. Pregnant women are advised to stay out.”

In Fresno, spring isn’t the cruelest season. It is just the only tolerable season. During summer it is too hot to breathe and too dusty to want to. The only escape from the misery is to travel west until one runs into the Pacific Ocean where one can smell the salt water, feel the gentle sea breeze, and swim in the cool Pacific waters. The coastal escape is about two and half hours away, and coastal housing is expensive.

Also, eventually one must return, and the return can be painful, perhaps more painful than having spent the time in Fresno. If one doesn’t know of a pleasure, one doesn’t miss the pleasure when it is gone. Only junkies miss heroin when it is gone. People who have never experienced it will never miss it. If you are trying to escape a Fresno summer, remember it could lead to an addiction and the inevitable withdrawal when returning from an apparent paradise to the purgatory named Fresno.

Where else to be during a Fresno summer.

Fall in Fresno is similar to summer but cooler. However, there is a danger in fall. Because of the coolness, the air is easier to breathe but just as dangerous. It is just a tastier poison and there are fewer escape destinations. Some travel to Yosemite or the nearby foothills and view the color change of tree leaves but soon realize Fresno fall colors can’t compete with New Hampshire or Canada. The Canadian fall is prettier and the people are nicer. Spending the money traveling to the North East may very well be worth the extra cash. If you are desperate, buy a book with nice pictures and save several thousand dollars.

Fall near Fresno but with cleaner air.

Winter isn’t particularly nice in Fresno. It is cold, and the Tule Fog frequently sneaks in to provide drivers with zero visibility. This isn’t San Francisco fog that makes things romantic and artistic looking. No, it’s more like a blinding cold steam rising from the ground. Every year cars run into each other because drivers refuse to admit they can’t see past their hood ornaments and drive 70 miles per hour down the freeway. Also, the fog holds pollution in a similar way a sponge holds water. It is often painful to take a breath.

Of course, there are winter places nearby which are enjoyable. Again, they are two or three hours away and require some cost. And again, returning to Fresno is painful. Many escape the Fresno winter by trekking to either nearby mountains, which usually are blanketed in snow, or a desert such as Death Valley or the Mohave. The starkness of deserts is fascinating and beautiful so long as it isn’t summer when the heat will kill you. Literally, heat stroke can be a killer. The snow-covered mountains are a more popular escape. Sierra Summit attracts snowboarders and skiers, and nearby snow parks are great for tobogganers and budding bobsledders.

 Mojave in winter.

Snow near Fresno.

However, I have been to the snow and feel obligated to warn you, the white stuff called snow is wet, cold, and generally not pleasant. And since I don’t like stuff that is cold, wet, and generally uncomfortable I usually venture to the desert. If God had wanted us to frolic in the white, cold, and wet, he would have made us furrier than we are. This would make us all appear to be walking Chia Pets and probably be too warm for most summers. It would also save on clothing costs, but would be hard on the fashion industry. Also, it would solve the abominable snowman question.

But as an Old Guy, I digress. Turning 65 gave me the right to digress. It is actually a requirement of Old Guys.

Even without added digressions, we have one season left: spring, Fresno’s only survivable season. It is the only season not requiring going someplace else to enjoy yourself. It could be that compared to all other Fresno seasons spring seems better, or it could be in the spring Fresno is better. I don’t know which is true, but everything Fresno is better in the spring.

Close up on the spring Blossom Trail.

That white stuff is blossoms, not snow.

The nut trees explode in pink, white, and lavender flowers. The nearby rivers and lakes begin to fill with water, and the weather moderates. Gone are the winds, cold, and fog of winter. The sauna-like heat of summer is still in the future.

This is a grape bud.

There are only grapes in this field.

In spring the grape fields begin to bloom, and the marijuana fields planted between the lines of grapes begin to be hidden by the growing grapes and are no longer visible. I am told by those in the know even Fresno pot is better in the spring.