17 Nov 2006
Gay penguin book shakes up Ill. school

The book is based on a true story - but I guess truth is the first casualty when politics gets involved.

AP - A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents who worry about the book's availability to children — and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

07:51 /Politics | 3 comments | permanent link

Borland tools buyer MIA

Well, we'll have Delphi and C++ Builder for a while longer, I guess. But how much longer is anyone's guess.

Borland Software will retain control of its tools operation after failing to find a buyer during an eight-month search.

(link) [The Register]

07:48 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

British Secure Passports Cracked

Un-freaking-believable!Just how stupid can some people be when implementing security in a software product:

The Home Office has adopted a very high encryption technology called 3DES - that is, to a military-level data-encryption standard times three. So they are using strong cryptography to prevent conversations between the passport and the reader being eavesdropped, but they are then breaking one of the fundamental principles of encryption by using non-secret information actually published in the passport to create a 'secret key'. That is the equivalent of installing a solid steel front door to your house and then putting the key under the mat.

...or placing Post-It™ notes on your monitor with all your banking passwords written down so you won't forget them.

And since these passports conform to standards by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 2003, you can bet that nearly any nations "new and improved" secure passports will be as easily compromised.

Morons.

Three million Britons have been issued with the new hi-tech passport, designed to frustrate terrorists and fraudsters. So why did Steve Boggan and a friendly computer expert find it so easy to break the security codes?

(link) [The Guardian]

via Slashdot

07:46 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Hide-washing improves beef safety

Of course, if the poor critters weren't confined in a feedlot with 100,000 of their cousins, they probably wouldn't be all covered with manure. And the manure that did clump around their tails wouldn't be all full of E. coli O157:H7, either. But let's pressure wash the carcass! That'd be easier than doing things right. And cheaper, too.

A practical, effective cattle-washing system that reduces levels of pathogens on cattle hides, lessening the likelihood the pathogens will get onto the meat and be consumed by humans, has been developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Clay Center, Neb.

(link) [ The Prairie Star]

07:35 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link