“The HSE assessed its cybersecurity maturity rating as low,” PWC wrote. “For example, they do not have a CISO or a Security Operations Center established.”

PWC also estimates that efforts to build up the HSE’s cybersecurity program to the point where it can rapidly detect and respond to intrusions are likely to cost “a multiple of the HSE’s current capital and operation expenditure in these areas over several years.” //

“The term ‘Security Maturity’ refers to the street smarts of an individual or organization, and this maturity generally comes from making plenty of mistakes, getting hacked a lot, and hopefully learning from each incident, measuring response times, and improving.

Let me say up front that all organizations get hacked. Even ones that are doing everything right from a security perspective get hacked probably every day if they’re big enough. By hacked I mean someone within the organization falls for a phishing scam, or clicks a malicious link and downloads malware. Because let’s face it, it only takes one screw up for the hackers to get a foothold in the network.

Now this is in itself isn’t bad. Unless you don’t have the capability to detect it and respond quickly. And if you can’t do that, you run the serious risk of having a small incident metastasize into a much larger problem.

Think of it like the medical concept of the ‘Golden Hour:’ That short window of time directly following a traumatic injury like a stroke or heart attack in which life-saving medicine and attention is likely to be most effective. The same concept holds true in cybersecurity, and it’s exactly why so many organizations these days are placing more of their resources into incident response, instead of just prevention.”

The story begins on an Evergreen International Airlines Boeing 747-100, registered N475EV. The aircraft had recently been converted to a freighter for the use of charter operator Evergreen. On 12th December 1991, the plane was flying from Newark to Tokyo, with a stop in Anchorage, when the crew noticed a failure warning on the inertial navigation system (INS).

The flight was carrying six crew and cruising at 31,000ft over the province of Ontario. Upon noticing the INS warning, the crew rechecked their instruments and noticed a shocking change. The 747 had banked 90 degrees to the right and was descending at an angle of 30-35 degrees.

This uncontrolled descent caused the aircraft to accelerate rapidly and fall over 10,000 feet before the pilots could regain control. The 747 stabilized at 22,500ft before the crew landed safely in Duluth, Minnesota.

All eyes were on what caused the 747 to act this way. The answer was a 3x15ft hole in the forward section of the right-wing. The panels from the gaping hole caused damage to the flaps and the horizontal tail sections. However, it was unclear if the hole was a result of, or cause of, the 747s rapid descent.

The result of this rapid descent was the 747-100 exceeding its maximum speed limit of Mach 0.92. Official reports suggest the aircraft reached at least 0.98 Mach during its descent. However, some reports indicate the plane reached speeds as high as Mach 1.25, well beyond the supersonic limit.

While the NTSB initially did not confirm speeds higher than 0.92, Boeing has made statements to the effect in the past. In the Chicago Times in 1992, a spokesperson said,

“Original flight tests of 747s conducted in 1969 and 1970 took 747-100 models to speeds of Mach 0.99. In addition, Boeing knows one case in which a 747 operated by Evergreen International made an emergency descent at speeds that exceeded Mach 1.”

Clive Irving highlights in an article on HistoryNet that Brown, head of the program’s configuration group, solved both of these issues seamlessly for Sutter. He looked at dozens of configurations before placing two standard cargo pallets side by side and drew a circle around them. This move created a vast cargo hold and a main deck just under 20 feet in width. Additionally, to solve the evacuation issue, he drew two aisles. These simple but effective moves pushed the direction of the cabin in the right direction, assisting the birth of the commercial widebody.

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut during U.S. President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy last week after a map in her slide presentation showed Taiwan in a different color to China, which claims the island as its own.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Friday's slide show by Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang caused consternation among U.S. officials after the map appeared in her video feed for about a minute.

Peznt Journalist
@PezntJournalist
Irony @ The Summit for Democracy 12/10

1. Taiwan minister's map shows Taiwan separate from China
2. Video feed is cut when it comes back to her
3. "Any opinions expressed by individuals on this panel are those of the individual, and do not necessarily reflect the views US gov't"

2:38 PM · Dec 13, 2021 //

Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
The Chinese Communist Party no longer needs to censor our friend Taiwan.

Why?

The Biden admin does it for them. 🤡🤡🤡
Michael Sobolik
@michaelsobolik
WHAT?

The White House cut the video feed of Taiwan’s Digital Minister during the Summit of Democracies.

Why?

Because Audrey Tang’s slide show displayed 🇹🇼 in a different color than 🇨🇳

This is insane. https://reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/curious-case-map-disappearing-taiwan-minister-us-democracy-summit-2021-12-12/
9:13 PM · Dec 12, 2021

A studio’s first concern when bringing something from the past into the present is to listen to what the fans have to say about it. They won’t please everyone, but it’ll at least give them a very good starting point to build off from. These are the people who know this property better than anyone else. You don’t go jumping out of planes without experts first showing you the ins and outs, and you don’t recreate properties without the experts doing the same.

Calling fans “toxic” or other deriding labels is a surefire way to have your recreation live in infamy and eventually forgotten. Studios need the fans more than they know. They’re the ones with all the passion for the project.

H.R. 5305, the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act , requires that the DHS secretary submit a written report 60 days after the enacted date that breaks down how many Afghans are in the country. The breakdown must include how many evacuees are at U.S. overseas bases or nonmilitary holding areas abroad, as well as the number of lawful permanent residents, SIV holders, SIV applicants, nonimmigrant visa holders, and refugee referrals.

The Biden team blew all that off. So one has to ask: why? They have lied from the outset about the people that they evacuated, and they continue to try to obscure the nature of the people they evacuated.

According to reports, Biden himself ordered them to evacuate “Afghans at risk” and “Families with women and children” — people who didn’t even have to have helped the U.S. or who hadn’t been previously vetted — to fill up the planes. The Congressional requirement would make them have to explain all that and how many were security concerns.

A RAMSA Power Control Unit distributes the power to all the components and ensures the switched pieces get turned on and off in order.

• RAMSA WU-L61

2 bookshelf/floor speakers with 4 internal speakers and built-in subwoofer amp.

• Infinity OVTR-1

Selector and amplifier for the home theater system.

• Onkyo TX-8511

Bahmni is an easy to use, complete, open source Hospital Information System (HIS) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that aims to meet the needs of low resource environments by leveraging a tapestry of existing open source products. Bahmni is an OpenMRS Distro. Website: http://www.bahmni.org

This project is an independent fork of Firefox, with the primary goals of privacy, security and user freedom.

LibreWolf is designed to increase protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including a few security improvements. This is achieved through our privacy and security oriented settings and patches. LibreWolf also aims to remove all the telemetry, data collection and annoyances, as well as disabling anti-freedom features like DRM.

Businesses are simply not in the business of fair dealing. Those prioritizing their own concerns are simply doing what the law or the software license allows. The problem is not payment; it is permission – many popular open-source licenses are extremely permissive while lacking the reciprocity requirements of copyleft licenses. Licenses like the Apache license and the MIT license offer a lot and ask very little.

"Open source maintainers create massive amounts of value and capture almost none of it," said Feross Aboukhadijeh, an open-source developer who runs Socket, in an email to The Register. "Many of the most important open source projects that power the Fortune 500 are maintained by volunteers in their spare time, after work hours.

"The software industry needs to find a way to help maintainers start capturing at least a portion of the value they create so they can continue to write new features, fix bugs, improve documentation, and most importantly, fix critical security issues in a timely manner.

Aboukhadijeh added that the Log4j incident also illustrates how almost no company using open-source code in their applications bothers to review it.

"At the end of the day, companies are responsible for ensuring the code they ship to production is safe, secure, and reliable," he said.

The wings program was launched in 2004 to promote the nascent commercial launch industry and the first recipient was Scaled Composites’ test pilot Mike Melvill, who rode SpaceShipOne to the edge of space in 2004. To qualify for the pin, one had to reach 50 miles in altitude. Just after Bezos launched with his brother and some Amazon employees in and autonomously operated Blue Origin in July, the FAA decided to tighten the qualifications for the pin by requiring that those receiving it actually do something to contribute to the safe completion of the flight (other than pay for it). In abandoning the program altogether, the FAA has also thrown out those restrictions and anyone who got weightless in 2021 and applied for the wings will get them.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has slammed California’s plan for homeowners who use solar panels in their homes. The proposal calls for a discounted rate for excess power sold into the grid, as well as a monthly utility charge of $8 per kW to cover the cost of maintaining the state’s power infrastructure. Musk noted that the idea, which essentially penalizes sustainable energy, is “insane.” //

With battery storage systems, the PUC noted that excess power generated by solar panels could be held in reserve by the homeowners themselves instead of being sold back to the grid. The PUC also argued that the current system essentially translates to a multi-billion subsidy for wealthy homeowners that other utility ratepayers are paying for. //

According to the PUC, a review of its policy has revealed that its current systems are not cost-effective since homeowners with no solar panels are shouldered with the price of maintaining the grid. Unfortunately, most of the said ratepayers were from lower-income households. And considering that ratepayers from the state spent about $3 billion a year to support net metering, PUC Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves noted that the funds are better used elsewhere.

I recently asked Shaesta Waiz what the most effective thing an instructor did for her was. In 2017, Waiz piloted a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 around the world by herself, earning the title of the youngest woman ever to complete that feat. I was caught off guard by what she offered in response, because it wasn’t anything technical.

Instead, she said that leading up to her record-breaking flight, the instructor who helped her prepare the best “treated her like a professional.”

Waiz explained that it was clear that it was her vision to complete that arduous task, so instead of the instructor being the one to dominate the tone of training, he empowered her by letting her have a say in the priorities of training each day, which he followed with objective feedback after each flight.

They agreed that he wouldn’t try to hand-hold her during the training, because, ultimately, he wouldn’t be present as she embarked on her trip. So, it was especially important that he allowed her to figure things out when she made some errors in flight.

“You’re the pilot in command. If you make an error, I’m going to wait a bit to let you figure it out, because I know you know what to do,” Waiz said her instructor told her.

So, therein lies the universal truth to take away, regardless of the learner’s status or the lesson’s flight profile. //

To make it all cohesive, I provided students with the necessary notes and training aids for the entire course in the first lesson. It allowed me to hold them accountable for our goals. The ultimate principle I shared with each student was that the course was a gradual transfer of flight controls. I’d say, “At the start, I’ll be doing all the talking; at the end, you’ll be doing all the talking.”

Instructors can cultivate trust and a safe learning environment by setting the tone from the start. If students are aware of what is expected of them, they will more likely meet expectations, and complete training efficiently. Direction on what to study is a bonus too. At the end of the day, the main job instructors have is to cultivate decision-makers.

100 year old sealed bottle of J.H. Rogers & Co Limestone Whisky, Maysville, KY
Made Spring 1912 bottled Fall 1923. Pre Prohibition. Bottled during Prohibition. //

Interesting bottles...hard fact about selling older whiskies is that nearly all collectors will only buy bottle that are 'viable' to drink.

Bottles with 'cloudy' whisky, or ones that are below the shoulder level of the bottle are not worth very much.

From the looks of your photo, you may have 3-4 that would be considered 'viable' bottles....worth between
$100-$250. (The rest would sell for about $40-$50) //

Update on 100 Year Old Sealed Bottle Of Whisky, Made Spring 1912 Bottled Fall 1923

James from Maryland swung by my place in Ohio to purchase my bottle. After telling the history of my bottle it turns it likely came from the same source shown here by Flyfisherman. A long forgotten prohibition horde discovered during a building rehab near Cincinnati about 10 years ago. My father lived next door to a family selling individual bottles for $6.00 a piece as fun curiosities.

My deal with James was the sale of my bottle along with a sample tasting of some other vintage Whisky. The two of us sat on my back patio and spent a few moments enjoying that exact same batch of whisky from another bottle of the Cincinnati horde that had a weak cork. Tasting Bourbon from 1923 is something everyone should have on their bucket list.

A very enjoyable and memorable transaction with a man who knows more about the History of vintage whisky than anyone I am ever likely to meet again.

Thank You James

But wait, should we believe it?

An artificial intelligence warning AI researchers about the dangers of AI sounds like the setup of a delightful B movie, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

A professor and a fellow at the University of Oxford came face to face with that reality when they invited an AI to participate in a debate at the Oxford Union on, you guessed it, the ethics of AI. Specifically, as Dr. Alex Connock and Professor Andrew Stephen explain in the Conversation, the prompt was "This house believes that AI will never be ethical." The AI, it seems, agreed. //

So what should we make of this apparent warning from the silicon realm? Thankfully, not too much. That's because the AI also argued the counterpoint: "AI will be ethical."

"When I look at the way the tech world is going, I see a clear path to a future where AI is used to create something that is better than the best human beings," it continued.

The machines, it would appear, aren't ready to take over quite yet.

Not all airlines follow this sequential pattern. Some are more scattered – and of course, it is not as easy when fleets keep changing. And some airlines have taken a more light-hearted approach. Icelandic airline WOW Air, for example, chose a lovely family series for some of its A320s and A321s – with registrations TF-SIS. TF-BRO. TF-MOM, TF-DAD, TF-KID, and TF-SON (TF is, of course, the prefix code for Iceland).

Time Magazine isn’t exactly known for being a news outlet with a lot of love for the good guy. It often awards its “Person of the Year” title to people who are in vogue on the left.

This is the magazine that declared Adolf Hitler was the winner in 1938, then named Joseph Stalin the winner the very next year. In 2011, they named “the protester” the person of the year, and then Greta Thunberg in 2019. To be sure, they’ve put their fair share of Republicans on the cover for the award, but they do it with pretty much all presidents, and being on the cover doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be kind.

But this year they actually made the right decision, and while I would say it was the obvious choice, Time doesn’t always go with who they should.

This year it’s Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and in this day and age, I’m more than thrilled to see this as their decision. //

This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars. //

What I like is that for the first time in a long time, the “Person of the Year” is someone who is someone who is taking us forward, not backward and that the person doing it is just as weird and human as you are. Musk is the richest man in the world, he’s the CEO of companies that are breaking ground in futuristic tech, but he’s just as liable to fire off a tweet containing an anti-woke meme as he is to create a reusable rocket.

Too often I’m looking around and see people suggest that regression is the way to a better life. They say that sending people into space is a bad idea when we have people in need here on Earth. They push failed governmental systems as the way to achieve a better life. Hell, they even continue to bring back old properties and slap new coats of paint on them.

JERUSALEM, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Israeli researchers said on Saturday they found that a three-shot course of the Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine provided significant protection against the new Omicron variant.

The findings were similar to those presented by BioNTech and Pfizer earlier in the week, which were an early signal that booster shots could be key to protect against infection from the newly identified variant.

The study, carried out by Sheba Medical Center and the Health Ministry's Central Virology Laboratory, compared the blood of 20 people who had received two vaccine doses 5-6 months earlier to the same number of individuals who had received a booster a month before.

Here’s a Fun Number of the Day. I just ran a Web search for “how many federal agencies are there” — and the Internet extruded the number FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX (456).

Which may or may not be even close to enough. Behold Wikipedia’s “list of federal agencies in the United States.” Which offers the following hilarious explanation of government’s explanation:

“Legislative definitions of a federal agency are varied, and even contradictory. The official United States Government Manual offers no definition.

“While the Administrative Procedure Act definition of ‘agency’ applies to most executive branch agencies, Congress may define an agency however it chooses in enabling legislation, and subsequent litigation, often involving the Freedom of Information Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act.

“These further cloud attempts to enumerate a list of agencies.”

So government bureaucrats are incapable of defining what they’re building and expanding. But they’re building and expanding all of it anyway. //

“In 1900, there (were) 11 million Americans employed on farms – and 2,900 employed by the USDA. A century later there are 3 million employed on farms – and 105,000 employed by the USDA.” //

Because government does nothing better than redundancy and waste.