Female Polar Bears

The Associated Press tells a story of polar bears who refused to mate.

After careful and scientific study over three years, the zoo finally figured out the problem:

Puzzled Japanese zookeepers have cleared up a mystery over a lack of chemistry between a couple of polar bears as both turn out to be female, a Japanese zoo said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kyodo News via Kushiro Municipal Zoo)

Here is a photo of Tsuyoshi (named after the baseball player), the four-year-old “male” polar bear at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in northern Japan.

Look at those eyes. Female, right?

Can’t you see her purse?

Apparently polar bears are so hairy when they are young it is difficult to know their gender. The bears were believed to be male at 3 months, but found to be female at 3 years. Perhaps the check could have been performed at 1 year?

The zoo has decided to keep Tsuyoshi and leave her name as well (supposedly due to public popularity). Her “brother”, adopted by another zoo, also turned out to be female.

Pirate Confusion Continues

Pirates are notorious for having shifting and disguised identities, which makes catching or even confronting them a major problem. The story of the pirate ship destroyed by the Indian Navy is a good example of the problem:

The alleged pirate ship that was blasted out of the water by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden last week was actually a legitimate Thai fishing trawler that had been seized by pirates earlier in the day, the boat’s owner said Wednesday.

The hijacking of the Ekawat Nava 5 far out at sea; its apparent and immediate conversion to a “mother ship” for the pirates; the gunfight that led to its fiery nighttime sinking; and the harrowing tale of a lone surviving crewman illustrate the dangers and the legal undertow that surround many of the recent hijackings in East African waters.

The story covers the legal issues on the high seas as well as the firefight between the pirates and the Indian Navy that destroyed a private vessel and killed the crew, but did not harm the pirates.

Thanksgiving

Thoughts from another year

Personally, I always think of the holiday in terms of a President who wanted a united nation to rise above its years of discontent and discord in order to notice the bounty of good deeds done even under the duress of civil war — to recognize and therefore seek a common humanitarian purpose.

And from Oyate:

Myth #11: Thanksgiving is a happy time.

Fact: For many Indian people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

Tragic, but on the other hand the holiday was meant by President Lincoln to be a time of coming together — for opposing parties even within the same family to sit around the table and feel whole again. It could be a perfect occasion to bury differences and celebrate common ground.

PCI DSS Requirement 10.7 History

Several people have asked me about the change history of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In a nutshell, change has been minor.

The exception in the latest version (DSS 1.2) is Requirement 6, which added significant changes to web application security.

Requirement 10.7 provides a good example of the subtlety found in most other areas:

Requirement 10.7:

DSS 1.0 DSS 1.1 DSS 1.2
An audit history usually covers a period of at least one year, with a minimum of 3 months available online. Retain audit trail history for at least one year, with a minimum of three months online availability. Retain audit trail history for at least one year, with a minimum of three months immediately available for analysis (for example, online, archived, or restorable from back-up).