Category Archives: History

History, Poetry, Security

Don’t Move by Phantogram

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A pair of school friends from the rural countryside of upstate New York (near the old race track south of Lake George) have turned simple synth sounds serendipitously into an international music career.

Here’s “Don’t Move” from Phantogram‘s Nightlife EP released by barsuk records:

I’m not your nervous feeling
Each time we say goodnight
You picture buildings burning to the ground
From a basement in the street light
I’m not your drinking problem
A hole is in the sky
It’s not your heart that you’ve been thinking of,
Just the feeling like you’re gonna die

Chorus

I’m not your paranoia
When someone’s at the door
Vision fangs clawing out the throat of a body rising through the floor

I’m not your fortune teller
I’m not your spinning head
I’ll never make you uncomfortable too
This is starting to fuck with my head

All you know how to do is shake shake
Keep your body still
Keep your body still
All you do is shake shake shake
Keep your body still
Keep your body still

Don’t you realize you’re fine
Why can’t you see that you’re fine
You know that you’re still alive
You know that you’re still alive
Why don’t you know you’re alive
Don’t you know you’re alive
Buried in the sky

During times of unemployment and tough career-choices, especially in rural America, their story is an inspiration. They have managed to avoid the pressure for relocation to the big city to be discovered. Information technology not only brought easy access to information but also helped them gain fans quickly and reach a global audience. Hopefully they are not the exception but rather evidence of new rules being written.

In their music I sense a late 1980s revival of etherial melodies and lilting voices over prominent drum beats along the lines of Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kate Bush…at the same time I can’t help but notice that Josh Carter captures perfectly the look and feel of the disenfranchised artists of late 1950s New York. Both periods are known for strong counterculture and youthful escape from the broken rules and fallen dreams of a prior generation. Interesting mashup.


James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg in Howl

Here’s the acoustic version of their single “When I’m Small”:

Lucy’s underground,
She’s got a mouth to feed
Am I underground,
Or am I in between

Lucy’s underground,
She’s got a mouse to feed
Am I underground,
Or am I in too deep

Show me love,
You’ve got your hand on the button now
Sure enough,
You’ve got your hand on the button now

Lucy’s underground,
She’s never coming back
Am I still alive,
Or has the light gone black

Take me underground,
Take me all the way
Bring me to fire,
Throw me in the flames

So show me love,
You’ve got your hands on the button now
Sure enough,
You’ve got your hand on the button now

I’d rather die,
I’d rather die,
Than to be with you

…and here’s the polished version as produced by barsuk records.

Food, History, Security

Paul Ryan and the Great Irish Potato Famine

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John Kelly, author of “The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People“, has posted a fascinating look at VP candidate Paul Ryan’s policy on public welfare by looking back at the Irish Famine.

It started in 1845 and before it was over more than one million men, women, and children would die and another two million would flee the country. Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the worst disasters in the nineteenth century—it claimed twice as many lives as the American Civil War.

Kelly points out that Ryan claims a direct Irish heritage, yet the VP candidate’s views are diametrically opposed to his own family’s story of survival. Ryan is compared with British who wanted to decimate the poor during famine.

…between 1845 and 1850, repeated crop failures reduced the population of Ireland by a third. But crop failure wasn’t what caused the worst of it: a government economic philosophy called “Moralism” and speeches made in Parliament that are almost word-for-word like Ryan’s own speeches about his Republican budget are what made the famine catastrophic, causing needless deaths.

Kelly later manages to drive the comparison home by bringing up widely and easily discredited Ayn Rand, Ryan’s choice of favorite author.

Back in mid-19th century Parliament, [Charles Trevelyan, the British official who oversaw famine relief] wasn’t alone, just as Ryan and Romney aren’t now. Sir Randoph Routh, the head of the Irish Relief Commission, was such a fervent crusader for the free market that not even mass starvation and mass death failed to shake his belief. When a starving delegation from famine-struck County Mayo visited Routh’s office, he presented his guests not with food, but instead with a copy of Edmund Burke’s pamphlet Details on Scarcity, in which Burke explains how market forces deliver food more efficiently than the government. In Routh’s enthusiastic gifting of Burke’s book are shades of Ryan’s fervent profferings, for years, of the works of Ayn Rand. (To be fair, Ryan didn’t give copies of Atlas Shrugged to any starving peasants.)

Just as well that Ryan didn’t hand out Ayn Rand’s work since it turns out her views actually contradict his stated religious beliefs.

Memorial in Dublin, Ireland to victims of the Famine:

Famine Memorial
Photo Source: Society of Environmental Journalists, 3rd Place, Outstanding Photography — National Geographic, Jim Richardson

History, Security

This Day in History: 1863 Quantrill Raid on Lawrence

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Painting of William Clarke Quantrill’s 1863 “offensive defense” raid from Missouri on Lawrence, Kansas that targeted civilians. Some called it warfare tactics that targeted anti-slavery/abolitionist Jayhawkers. Source: LJworld

General Thomas Ewing, commander of the District of the Border, issued General Order No. 11 after Quantrill’s raid, which sent soldiers into four counties of western Missouri to impose order on the population and destroy the “bushwhacker” network (support for militant rebels, either for or against slavery).

Quantrill was known for surprise attacks, fraud, disregard for authority and targeting civilians. He led men like Jesse James on ruthless campaigns in Texas and “Bleeding” Kansas until Confederate forces had no choice but to try and detain him. He escaped arrest through corruption and sympathy. Eventually he was shot by Union special forces in 1865 while threatening to kill the President and died in hospital. I’ll post more details later this year.

History, Security

Android is Winning (Still)

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First, in terms of disclosure, let me just get out of the way that I don’t prefer Android or iOS. They’re both too centrally managed for my taste. Call me a deviant hacking anti-communist if you must but I’m a fan of Linux on my handset, which is why I keep buying the awesome Nokia N9 and building/flashing it on my own.

Going to South Korea? Well pop a local South Korean telcom firmware on your N9 and look like a native with all those cool feature “defaults”. When you get home replace it with a Northern European vanilla firmware that’s as clean and clear as the icy waters of Trondheim. That’s the N9. Unlocked as unlocked can be, by default.

The closest thing on Android is the Cyanogenmod. A while ago I made a small business out of buying and reselling Android phones that wiped, replaced the firmware and opened up. It wasn’t for the money but rather for the liberation of the phones and their users (for comparison I also used to pull bicycles out of dumpsters, refurbish them and then leave them on the street to get more people riding). The Motorola Defy was my favorite to set free but even Cyanogenmod didn’t feel big and open enough compared to straight Linux.

At least Cyanogenmod exists. Liberating an Apple phone has been a sordid and messy game that has little upside other than showmanship and to refute Jobs. The Apple icon shifted from admitting to being a fan of stealing ideas to viciously threatening anyone who tried to “steal” his. It’s odd, especially when you consider that his highly-successful OSX is a BSD variant.

That being said, it wasn’t hard for me to predict that Android would eat Apple in the market. Earlier this year I mentioned “iOS struggles against Linux phones” but here’s what I said in October of 2010 when it looked clear that Google would rocket past Apple

iPhone losing OS fight

Today, here’s what TC says the real experts think.

The latest numbers are in: Android is on top, followed by iOS in a distant second.

This word comes from Gartner, a top research firm for these sorts of things. Overall, within the last quarter, Android outsold iOS devices nearly three to one while capturing 64% of the worldwide market share. Samsung was the top dog accounting for 90M handset sales.

There is no denying Android’s dominance anymore. There is no way even the most rabid Apple fanboy can deny that iOS is in second place now. Android is winning.

While so many others were talking about how iOS made them “feel” special the platform was just too proprietary to be a long-term bet. People may as well been telling me that the iSeries and OS400 were going to take over the world. Microsoft Windows and all that. Battle impact? Yes, of course. QSECOFR was a great thing. Long-term war victory? No.

The fact is that economics and politics in history indicate the majority of people eventually choose freedom over specific functionality. As much as some apologize for and say this or that “brilliant” dictatorship could have kept going (e.g. Mussolini made the trains run on time)…information likes to be free and Android at least allows for commodity hardware, which is far more free than iOS. And yes, RIP RIM.

Kirby Ferguson explains better than I ever have (or probably ever will) some of the dynamics behind why Android is winning…

Updated to add Aug 15, 2012: Even though Apple’s iOS lags in the market behind Android, Imperva reports that it is far more discussed by attackers (as reported in The Reg).

Hacker Growth

Updated to add Oct 25, 2015: Current phone Unix install base by version shows this blog wasn’t far off in its prediction of Android dominance.

Mobile Phone Unix Install Base

A side consideration here is that China committed to a universal accessory standard for phones to tamper down landfill growth (e.g. charger upgrade because different connector). That would obviously sway them towards open because better for the environment. Now ask me why Tesla opened all their patents when China was looking for electric vehicle platforms (e.g. chargers) for the world’s largest fleets.