Clearing the desk.

A few stray notes and scraps I’ve been saving. Sorry, but we all have to empty drawers from time to time.

** Every time I think about the Supreme Court, I get irritated, thinking about one of the most preposterously obnoxious trolls of recent years — the time the National Review bitched about Sonia Sotomayor daring to pronounce her name the way she feels like pronouncing it. Why can’t she be more ‘murrican? A few of the viler blogs referred to her thereafter as Sodameyer.

I know it was just baiting, but keep that in mind when some winger whines about whoever the president ends up nominating.

** Kate had a friend over when she was home a few weekends ago, and they made a nest on the couch to watch “Six Feet Under.” Kate got up to make popcorn, and her friend popped up behind her. “In a popcorn popper? I have to see this!” she said. Nineteen years, and she’d never seen popcorn prepared in a home popper. And so another generation got to see this in action:

popcornpopper

My siblings are in their 60s now. This was a gift from our Aunt Charlene when they were preschoolers.

** Jeb! has a monogrammed gun. I am not in the least surprised.

** Tonight may be the first night since we cut the cable cord that I regret it, because it’s… the Westminster Dog Show! Someone tell me how it went.

Everyone else, get through your Wednesday however you can.

Posted at 12:17 am in Same ol' same ol' |
 

56 responses to “Clearing the desk.”

  1. alex said on February 16, 2016 at 9:47 pm

    I cut the cable cord for the TV but not the computer, and my bill has recently gotten almost as bad as it used to be for both. I guess the only thing to do is change providers again.

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  2. basset said on February 16, 2016 at 9:47 pm

    Nance, you can stream it:

    Tue 2/16 Live @ 8 pm – 11 pm ET / (east coast live stream) Delayed 8pm – 11 pm PT (west coast live stream only)
    http://www.wkclive.com

    Terrier group’s just starting. Some questionable decisions so far… Borzoi won the hound group, Samoyed the working. funniest thing tonight so far was a Leonberger trying to eat the pocket off his handler’s coat while they were trotting around the ring, he wanted those treats! English bulldog for non-sporting and German shepherd for herding I wouldn’t argue with, shih tzu won toy but that’s not a dog.

    And that’s your stove? I figured you’d have at least a Jenn-Air, or is that an auxiliary burner down in the basement?

    The popcorn I remember from my pre-microwave youth was made in a disposable foil skillet with a foil cover that puffed up as the corn cooked. Doughnuts were fried canned biscuits with holes punched in the middle and sugar and cinnamon on top.

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  3. adrianne said on February 16, 2016 at 10:01 pm

    Sonia from da Bronx? We love her here in New York! Before Nini kicked the mortal shuffle, four out of nine justices on SCOTUS were from New York City. Now it’s just the gals.

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  4. basset said on February 16, 2016 at 10:56 pm

    German shorthair best of show, Borzoi second.

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  5. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 12:52 am

    We like Jiffypop better than microwaved popcorn. It makes the right amount for two people and no pan to clean.

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  6. Dexter said on February 17, 2016 at 1:18 am

    Recorded and paused one hour in…mighty fine dogs in the lineup for sure. All I know is that the German Shepherd was the favorite in the betting pools.

    I turn the radio on in the bathroom as I floss & brush before I finally hit the hay in the wee hours, and I tune in the trucker channel from Cincinnati. Of course the only callers that get past the screener are drawlin’ working class repuggs who love Cruz and/or Trump. You would think every damn one of USA big rig drivers worships whatever repugg is being ballyhooed. The other night one of them shocked me and even though I just tune it for a bit of hillbilly levity, well, this guy was quoting something he had heard where someone had simply called Michelle Obama “fine”. And this trucker started in on how she warn’t “fine” A-tall, why, she looked like the gorilla in a book he was reading to his kids. Then for good measure he made a couple other claims as to how she was the ugliest First Lady ever, and added a few more “monkey-face” slurs. The host just let this cretin have his way and never added a disclaimer. I guess he must have agreed. I know there are plenty of racist bastards around, but I think this example should get the radio show host at least a stern reprimand, and that phone screener must be replaced for the sake of human decency.

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  7. Hattie said on February 17, 2016 at 2:21 am

    Oh, that aluminum that you can’t get clean. Anyway, I don’t make popcorn any more, because it sticks in my craw.

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  8. ROGirl said on February 17, 2016 at 5:54 am

    Uno’s back and he stole the show. If he were running for president he would probably beat Trump, although I hope he’s a Democrat.

    http://www.nytimes.com/live/2016-westminster-dog-show/uno-former-best-of-show-beagle-ejected/

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  9. Jenine said on February 17, 2016 at 7:28 am

    I just made popcorn on the stove last night. I use a big pot with a lid. I try to cook something else after the popcorn to use up the oil. Last night it was ground turkey for tacos.

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  10. Dorothy said on February 17, 2016 at 8:00 am

    We have a terrific microwaveable bowl for making popcorn. Uses no oil and tastes wonderful – it’s air popped. We melt butter in a different container and pour it on top. We aren’t dummies, after all.

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  11. beb said on February 17, 2016 at 8:04 am

    You’ve got an electric popper sitting on an electric stove. How redundant.

    We got new neighbors this fall. They came with a big German Shepherd (I don’t think there are small German Shepherds. He barked us for a week, then fell in love it us, standing up on the chair link fence (which he could do easily) to be petted. Man, did he love to be petted. But his owners quickly irritated my wife, who’s a softie for animals. They left him out without shelter during rain or snow. At times he was chained to a clothes line pole but it seemed like he was never given water. My wife phoned the Humane Society once and that seemed to prompt the owner to get a shelter. One for a medium sized dog, hardly one big enough for a Shepherd. They’re keeping him chained up all the time now, which may be good for people on the street (not that I ever saw the dog even try to jump his fence) but we kind of miss the change to pet him.

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  12. Jolene said on February 17, 2016 at 8:13 am

    After many years of use, I killed a popper much like Nancy’s. Now, I’m using this one, which appears to work the same way as Dorothy’s. Works with or without oil, makes lots of fluffy popcorn that tastes so much better than packaged microwave popcorn, and goes into the dishwasher. Also cheap. Can’t beat it.

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  13. Joe K said on February 17, 2016 at 8:19 am

    Mom used to save bacon grease.
    Used the grease when we popped corn in our cast iron skillet,pour in a paper grocery bag, salt and real melted butter shake and enjoy.
    Pure heaven.
    Pilot Joe

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  14. Icarus said on February 17, 2016 at 8:24 am

    Well it didn’t take long. Conservative and Republican lover John Kass wrote a column advocating we wait until November and let the people decide on the Scalia’s replacement. he actually argues that the founding forefathers anticipated this and built in a cooling off period for people’s emotions.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-supreme-court-scalia-kass-0217-20160216-column.html

    I was able to read the column but not comment because it’s behind a paywall. I’d be my mortgage that if we had a sitting Republican in the white house and a Supreme Court Vacancy this column would insist we had an obligation to fill the position before the election.

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  15. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 8:31 am

    I put nutritional yeast on popcorn instead of butter. It gives it the taste that I remember movie theater popcorn having when I was a kid.

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  16. LindaG said on February 17, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Garry Wills in The New York Review of Books:

    http://tinyurl.com/zod73vl

    “And Senator Ted Cruz, the presidential candidate, Senate Judiciary Committee member, and self-styled guardian of the Constitution, wrote on Twitter, “We owe it to him, [Scalia] & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement.” That is, we owe it to the archetypal originalist, where the Constitution is concerned, to ignore and defy the original Constitution.”

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  17. nancy said on February 17, 2016 at 8:45 am

    You know what they say in Chicago about John Kass? “The K is silent.”

    Also, that stove was more or less brand new when we moved in, and while I have been spending my adulthood suffering with electric stoves, to this date I lack the financial balls to pitch a perfectly good one and buy new. On the kitchen remodel, yes. But not yet.

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  18. Suzanne said on February 17, 2016 at 9:43 am

    I read Sotomayor’s autobiography last year. Her story is very inspiring and I would recommend it as required reading in high school. She is the embodiment of grit and hard work. I would love to meet her someday!

    I bought a corn popping stove top popper a number of years ago, but rarely use it. I usually just make microwave corn when I make it, which isn’t often.

    And that Jeb! gun tweet thing. What was somebody thinking? The reply tweets are hilarious.

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  19. Icarus said on February 17, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Thoughts? I think he should get a state holiday that later becomes a national holiday but we don’t necessarily need to close schools and government services on this date.

    http://wgntv.com/2016/02/17/next-illinois-government-holiday-could-be-obamas-birthday/

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  20. basset said on February 17, 2016 at 10:33 am

    we changed from electric to gas awhile back, neither kind seems to be flood-proof though.

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  21. Sue said on February 17, 2016 at 10:46 am

    This is our popper of choice. We’ve had it for years and have given several for gifts.
    http://www.whirleypopshop.com/stovetop-poppers.html

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  22. Andrea said on February 17, 2016 at 11:13 am

    Sue, we have the same popper, have had it since 1993. Works fine.

    Jeb! smacks of desperation. I agree with those who interpret it as a suicide threat.

    Today our Governor will present a budget for Illinois’ next fiscal year, when we are in our 8th month of no budget in FY16. We are totally down the rabbit hole here these days.

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  23. Bitter Scribe said on February 17, 2016 at 11:19 am

    The only way that tweet by Exclamation Point could have been any weirder is if it had been a bullet, not a gun, with his name on it.

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  24. Charlotte said on February 17, 2016 at 11:23 am

    I love the dog show — sad to miss it this year (cord cutter) but glad to see they’re streaming it.

    No popcorn here — my four years in the San Jose cube farm, where the stink of (free) microwave popcorn waves across the floor every day at 3pm killed popcorn for me forever.

    And may my (thankfully temporary) experience of being mostly housebound on crutches for 2 weeks after this ankle surgery turn me into an advocate for curb cuts, handicapped parking, and any other mobility aids anyone might need. It’s bringing out the former-Catholic in me, trying to offer up my crankiness and frustration to better social services.

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  25. john (not mccain) said on February 17, 2016 at 11:26 am

    And I’m sure if the American people elect Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton as the next president the teathugs will be pleased as punch to acknowledge that mandate by confirming whoever is selected for the SC with no dissent.

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  26. Bitter Scribe said on February 17, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Every time I think of Kass polluting the space in the Tribune that used to be claimed by the great Mike Royko, my stomach writhes.

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  27. Bitter Scribe said on February 17, 2016 at 12:08 pm

    I”d be interested to know how microwave popcorn is doing in terms of sales. Sure it’s convenient, but the stuff they put in it is so nasty that it actually causes long-term lung damage to workers in the plants where it’s packaged.

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  28. Scout said on February 17, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    The best tweet mocking Jeb! was from Christopher Hayes: “Please clap.”

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  29. Connie said on February 17, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    Charlotte said: his ankle surgery turn me into an advocate for curb cuts, handicapped parking, and any other mobility aids anyone might need. It’s bringing out the former-Catholic in me, trying to offer up my crankiness and frustration to better social services.

    For the last year I have been in and out of wheelchair and orthotic boots. I’m with you. Just finding the curb cut from the parking lot to the building can be hard. It’s not in the middle, it’s down by the end. Or it’s behind the handicapped parking place and thus blocked by a truck. Or the hair salon next to the store you are going to put out a bench and there is no longer enough width for a wheel chair, so back out (roll out) to the curb cut and find the other one if there is one. Tomorrow I am sending my medical footwear/brace in for adjustments, and will get it back Tuesday so I will be in the wheel chair until then. Wanna race? I’ve gotten pretty fast.

    I have just passed my one year anniversary of hospital, disability leave, wheelchair, orthotic boots, medical shoe and brace….. The work to be done on my brace will allow me to remove the brace and wear just the shoes on the rare occasion I need to do a little walking in my home. Like going to the bathroom at night.

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  30. Connie said on February 17, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    Ted Cruz Pledges Not to Provide Gluten-Free Meals to the Military. http://time.com/4225884/ted-cruz-military-gluten-free-meals/?xid=fbshare
    Or in other words, f you soldier with celiac. Ted thinks it is political correctness rather than an illness.

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  31. alex said on February 17, 2016 at 12:40 pm

    I’ve never understood how they could ban cigarettes in the workplace while continuing to allow microwave popcorn, which is even more noxious. And some workplaces allow those god-awful aromatherapy candles which smell just like tomcat piss.

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  32. brian stouder said on February 17, 2016 at 2:03 pm

    Alex – in the past year, there was a mass-evacuation of one of our high schools (Snider!) because of a fire alarm…and down a ways into the story it indicated the alarm was triggered by a “comfort candle” on a desk of one of the administrators in the office…!

    Made me wonder just what quantity of fumes the thing must have produced, in order to trigger an alarm

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  33. Dexter said on February 17, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    Pilot Joe, you were brought up right. Bacon grease popcorn trumps coconut oil, even. Sometimes when I was at a friend’s house, my cousin who stayed there would get the grease can and make an entire paper grocery bag full of that good stuff and we’d pile about eight of us into my Ford and head to the Hi-Vue or Tri-Hi (later called Auburn-Garrett ) drive-in movie. We’d pass that big bag of popcorn front and back and by the end of the third movie we’d almost have it gone, but we never ran out. Those guys would steal a few cans of Black Label beer from the old man’s stash. With popcorn, I always preferred Seven -Up or Coca Cola.

    Gawd-damn…I am so tired of hearing HRC barking like a dog…it’s the sound -bite that won’t give up the ghost, Shee-ittt.

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  34. Connie said on February 17, 2016 at 2:41 pm

    My Dutch grandmothers called bacon grease Speck. Old Dutch canister sets occasionally seen at Holland area antique malls will often include a canister for speck.

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  35. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 2:53 pm

    When I was a kid my mother kept bacon grease in a creamery crock on the stovetop. This was in Miami, FL where it was always hot and humid and we didn’t have air conditioning. I would think that would be dangerous not to keep it refrigerated. I don’t remember ever seeing her use it. Little Bird uses bacon grease for lots of stuff, kept in the refrigerator of course. I don’t know that she’s ever tried it in making popcorn though.

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  36. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    I have been reading that questions are being raised about who paid for Scalia’s trip to the expensive resort in West Texas where he died. The resort is owned by a billionaire who has a business in Houston. There were 40 people in the group that were staying there and questions are being asked (on the Internet of course) who they were. Also Scalia arrived in a chartered jet. Pilot Joe should know how much that costs. I’m more curious than outraged that wealthy people pop for stuff like this for SCOTUS justices. RBG vacations in Santa Fe every year. I think I said that she stays at the same place each time, the house of a friend. I would love to see her sometime while she’s here.

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  37. brian stouder said on February 17, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    Dex – the righties apparently LOVE the dog-comparison (presumably because it’s a faux-clever way to dismiss her as a barking bitch, I suppose) –

    but I’ll take her over the Donald’s “You’re a LIAR!” accusations; or Cruz’s faux-morality politics, when it comes to his apocalyptic “kill the gays” and “kill the Jews” brand of fascist/religious followers; or Rubio’s pretensions

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  38. Jolene said on February 17, 2016 at 4:05 pm

    In the original, that clip of HRC yipping was part of a good story and was, I thought, both amusing and charming in a minor way. I’m happy not to have seen what the creative geniuses of the Internet have done with it.

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  39. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 5:03 pm

    Sherri, wondering where you stand on the Apple/FBI on the iPhone encryption situation?

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  40. Sherri said on February 17, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    On the side of Apple, not the FBI. The FBI says “it’s just for this one phone, and they’re terrorists!”. A back door is never just for one phone, and the definition of terrorist is completely malleable. They want to get the contacts of the terrorist; is knowing a terrorist the same thing as being a terrorist? The FBI has been a little quick to blur that line, and quick to charge people with lying to the FBI if they can’t find anything else.

    If Apple does this for the FBI, should they also do it for the UK? Germany? What about China, which immediately asked for the same thing, and who has called protesters in Hong Kong terrorists?

    Here’s the ACLU’s statement on the issue: https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-fbi-effort-force-apple-unlock-iphone

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  41. Charlotte said on February 17, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    Connie I’m in complete awe of you — I’m a very whiny patient and hugely grateful that this is temporary. Was messaging with a friend who broke his leg in the Nepalese earthquake, and we’re both grumpy, but then reminded one another about our mutual friend who has been in a chair since 1990 when his car crashed coming home from leading a river trip on the Grand Canyon. But yes, small town, and I hate city council meetings, but promise to go show up for mobility and access issues from now on.

    ON the other hand, anyone needs cheering up for anything, James Corden’s Carpool Kareoke videos are a treasure. He’s losing his mind with joy with Stevie Wonder as I watch …

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  42. Sherri said on February 17, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    Chris Soghoian, the Principal Technologist for the ACLU (and someone I got to have dinner with last week with a small group of ACLU supporters), says on Twitter that the FBI is really more interested in setting a legal precedent than getting Apple to hack the phone for them. If the FBI hacks the phone themselves (which they might be able to do anyway), they don’t get the legal precedent of using a law from the 1700’s to force technology companies to give them back doors.

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  43. MichaelG said on February 17, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    Never heard of bacon grease popcorn. I remember when I was married to my first wife a zillion years ago and living in Berkeley we used to make up a huge bag of popcorn, get a jug of wine, hop into the old VW and head for the Alameda drive-in.

    Deborah @36, those sure are some good questions. I’m also not sure why the lack of any real examination of Scalia’s body and why no autopsy, what else can one be but suspicious?

    As I understand it, the FBI wants Apple’s software key to unlock phones in general. They are not simply asking Apple to open that one particular phone for them. I don’t know that I would object so strongly to the latter but I don’t like the former.

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  44. Connie said on February 17, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    I have been plenty whiny. But you know, I have a foot, and in another couple of months I should be in just a medical shoe. Tomorrow through Tuesday in the wheelchair while the brace is refabricated. Could have done it in three next week, but on days that included an evening meeting and an out of town location morning meeting. Instead it is three days in my office and a weekend at home.

    I sat through several hours of meetings today on exciting topics like specifications for security cameras and alarms, keycard unlocking systems, video projection systems, video monitors in lieu of projection systems, and the wiring for all, and the conduit size for such, overhead speaker systems, auditorium microphone speaker systems. My favorite thing was learning that an employee entrance key card system can be programmed so that authorized cards unlocking the employee entrance automatically disarm the alarm panel.

    I did tell you that I am building a new library, right?

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  45. beb said on February 17, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    I’ve read that the model of iPhone the FBI wants hacked as a feature that deletes all data after ten incorrect log-in attempts. So the FBI can’t pursue their usual brute force approach to cracking the password.

    I’m also with Apple in this case. Creating a backdoor for just this one phone never ends with it being used on just that one phone.

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  46. basset said on February 17, 2016 at 6:18 pm

    Sitting in the Dunkin Donuts in the Nashville downtown bus station right now. Confused-looking, pretty much out of it guy a couple chairs down is talking to himself, laughing, making seemingly random noises and once in awhile singing along with the radio for a few bars. Not the tune, the backup parts. “Bring me a higher love…” Nailing them, too. Hey, in this town you never know.

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  47. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    Speaking of pizza as we were a few days ago, I tried making my favorite, mozzarella with tomato slices and fresh basil on TJs dough. Well, I completely ruined the pizza stone. I put way to much cheese on and during the baking it ran off and burned onto the stone, solid. What a mess, I’m surprised I didn’t set off the smoke alarm. Little Bird is out of town or she would have done a much better job. I had to open lots of windows. Thank goodness we’re having mild temps.

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  48. Sherri said on February 17, 2016 at 6:49 pm

    The iPhone the FBI wants Apple to hack is an iPhone 5c. On modern iPhones, the data on the phone is encrypted with your passcode and a hardware key on your phone; Apple doesn’t have the key and can’t decrypt your data. Another feature is that after 10 failures to type in your passcode correctly, the phone wipes all the data on your phone. This is an obvious win for the consumer; we have a lot of personal data on our phones, and if we lose them, we don’t want someone being able to access it. Companies are also happy; employees have company data on the phone, and they don’t want competitors getting that data.

    What the FBI wants Apple to do is write a version of iOS that turns off this feature, that allows the passcode to be entered electronically (rather than by hand), and eliminates the delay built in between attempts, so the FBI can try simply guessing the passcode. The FBI could probably write this code themselves, but your phone (normally) doesn’t take modifications to the operating system from just anybody. The operating system code has to be “signed” by Apple with their digital key before it will accept it. The FBI wants Apple to sign the code with their digital key.

    There are two other interesting technical things about this case. One is that if the shooter had had a 5s, this whole situation would be moot. The 5s, and all phones with TouchID, doesn’t just have a hardware key baked in at manufacture. It has a separate chip that handles the encryption and the authentication, and the operating system isn’t involved, not in the passcode limit, not in the delays, none of it. IPhones with TouchID are the most secure smartphones you can buy. That’s not to say that they are invulnerable, but they are the best out there. The data stored on your iPhone is encrypted, messages exchanged through iMessage (not through SMS), connections through FaceTime: all are encrypted, and not even Apple can decrypt them, even under court order.

    The other is that Android has none of these features: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/543161/why-google-trailing-apple-on-encryption-support-is-a-human-rights-issue/

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  49. Jolene said on February 17, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    MichaelG, according to this WaPo article, the justice of the peace who signed Scalia’s death certificate determined that no autopsy was needed after consulting with U.S. marshals on the scene, who told her there was no evidence of foul play, and Scalia’s physician, who confirmed a history of heart disease and other chronic ailments. He had recently been judged too weak to withstand surgery to repair an injured shoulder.

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  50. Dexter said on February 17, 2016 at 7:57 pm

    Drive-in movie tales…sorry if for some reason I may be repeating: High school soph year, summertime, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” playing. Intermission, and a car I recognized from hometown seemed like a bee-hive. A classmate’s fourteen year old sister turned out to be a nymphomaniac, or else she just really liked sex, and there was a long train of guys. Now none of the guys were probably more than 15, 16, and I didn’t even know what had been going on until the next day , hanging out around the drugstore, listening to the bragging, as boys do. I was a couple months shy of 15, and I remember I had to think about what had happened, and I was bothered by it. As a kid, it just seemed sick and wrong. For a while I just denied it really happened. Then my older brother told me the girl’s 16 year old brother regularly bragged about having intercourse with his sister. I don’t mean this got me down, but I was beginning to see the wicked ways of the world.
    So it was 34 years later, the Wauseon, Ohio drive in movie. I had not been to a drive-in for decades. I wanted to go one time in my VW microbus. My wife and young granddaughter were along. One row ahead, off to the right, an empty parking slot. Two kids threw down a blanket . I could not see them and my granddaughter could not see them, but my wife riding shotgun could. Going at it, she later told me, right there in the dark in the damn drive-in theater. She told me she didn’t want to make a fuss or anything, and since our view was blocked, she averted her eyes and soon it was over and done with. And I guess that’s what people did at the drive-in movie. Some, anyway.

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  51. MichaelG said on February 17, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    I know, Jolene. I read this the other day. Thing is, the JP is not a doctor and never saw Scalia’s body in person. A U.S. marshal who is not a doctor either but who is subject to orders from above told her that there was nothing to see with Scalia’s body and she took his word and signed off. Also there was some stuff about the regular JP not being available to sign so the JP who did sign was brought in as a substitute. Scalia’s personal doctor was also not on site and did not examine the body. This could all be perfectly innocent but it does raise questions among those who have nasty suspicious minds. And no, I’m not suggesting that Obama had him killed. This is certainly turning into an entertaining year.

    It appears that Tail Gunner Ted is now in the lead.

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  52. basset said on February 17, 2016 at 9:27 pm

    Drive-in movie… in Greene County some time after “Easy Rider” was released, long enough for a print to make its way down the food chain to a little drive-in along 231 south of Bloomfield. I was at the concession counter buying popcorn with my back toward the screen when the whole place just exploded in cheering, hollering, horns honking and so forth. Turned around and saw the end of the scene where Fonda or Hopper or one of the good guys anyway got shot off his bike by some redneck. Whole different point of view around there.

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  53. Deborah said on February 17, 2016 at 9:40 pm

    Thanks Sherri, you have explained it better than anything I’ve read so far.

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  54. alex said on February 17, 2016 at 9:48 pm

    Dex, I remember as a grade-schooler having an older kid explaining the drive-in movies to me. The reason they had space aliens and deep-sea monsters and slasher films was that girls couldn’t stand to see this stuff and once you got them into the theater they could be cajoled into just about anything that didn’t involve watching the film. But I can’t remember any scenes in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World so bad they’d be worthy of tuning out to that extent.

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  55. Dexter said on February 18, 2016 at 12:34 am

    basset, I saw ‘Easy Rider’ twice on the silver screen. The first time I rode a San Antonio, Texas city bus a helluva ways for a matinee in late 1969. Sparse crowd, no crowd reaction to the murders, just filing out in stunned silence. Next time was at the Fort Ord, California post theater about four months later, with a few buddies, and the one I remember was Jerry Gonzalez from LA. He was totally freaked out by the shotgun killings, vowing to never venture to anywhere near places like Louisiana and Mississippi. He took it seriously, as if it was a documentary. Well, Dennis Hopper was responsible for the tone of that scene. He used it to illustrate the “us against them” theme, not just freaks and hippies against the government’s oppressive laws (such as harsh weed laws)but even long-haired males vs. short-haired “straights”.

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  56. Charlotte said on February 18, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    Deborah — I use a piece of parchment paper under the pizza dough. Keeps it from sticking to the stone, makes it easy to slide in and out of the oven.

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