Category Archives: Security

Energy, History, Security

Tall Tales of Texans

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I have been stuck arguing with a friend from Texas about government. He is a big fan of less regulation, less government, less interference…the usual vapid tall tales of woe you can expect from stereotypical Texans.

I have just been trying to convince him, in my best Kansan conservative fashion, that his position is actually very anti-graft yet pro-regulation. In fact, as he complained about the manner in which legislators are able to spend money, I asked him “so, it seems you think they need more guidance, perhaps some regulation, on the allocation of funds?” Even more ironic is the fact that he is working with companies to help them navigate security regulations — he is making a living consulting with companies on how to abide by data protection regulations, and he is a hardliner at that.

My revelation of these contradictions to him seemed to have slowed things down a little, but then he countered with the argument that a legislator stealing money should not be considered corrupt if they do it in the open. Er, curve ball. I actually think he means that no one should be accused of breaking the law if they say they do not recognize the laws they are breaking, or there is “insufficient” evidence as determined by the accused. Hmmm, who does that remind me of…?

The logical twists and turns he has taken in order to find a way to argue against government makes me think his eventual position will be more like an overly salted pretzel rather than the well seasoned meal he thinks he is serving.

If I remember correctly, the last time I saw him he tried to convince me that the US was actually winning the Vietnam War but were defeated by liberals at home. More recently he has tried to suggest that there is no conclusive evidence that cigarettes cause cancer, based on the premise that a lack of absolute certainty means scientific proof is inherently insufficient. He said this means we must accept prejudice as a natural condition and stop trying to make it seem like a bad thing. I told him that empiricism is certainly no proof that prejudice is natural, but rather the opposite when coupled with a value system, and to try and spin the two into a meaningless blend was to take a painfully shallow position. What possible point could someone have in trying to claim the word “prejudice” as a positive and natural human condition?

Alas, the one thing we seem to agree on is that diesel is the future transportation energy source of choice.

And that says a lot to me, given the distance of opinion we have on everything else.

Poetry, Security

Darfur is a Casualty

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by Mr Mohammed Adam Qarad, an interpreter for the AU/UN

Worry nights about poor babies
whose life on the ground resources
Still waiting for the cloud raining
cleans starvation conflict boiling
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur to North Sky

Music of Darfur drums noising
not only for singing and dancing
neither for harvest nor collecting
only for chairs politicians are fighting
also for diet many people are suffering
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur for North Sky

Darfur is a great mother of men
she paid for now and then
but nature of life is often
loses hand of generous thieving smile
wonderful world beautiful people exile!
and the robust case which is alive
When do we build responsible life?
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur to North Sky

Posted on the Soldier of Africa blog.

Security

Piracy because there is no alternative?

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Ha ha, Dvorak is a funny guy. I’ve been reading his column on and off for as long as I can remember, but this dilemma really takes the cake for philosophical computer humor:

Wow. This is a new chicken-and-egg conundrum. Is piracy high because users have no alternative? Or is there no alternative to piracy because there is so much piracy?

I have visited many parts of the world over the years where the locals moaned about having to pirate a product because nobody would sell it to them legitimately. And I have always believed that in some particularly underserved areas around the world, such as Southeast Asia, software piracy is tolerated to keep Linux from gaining a foothold. It never ends.

Conspiracy. It just goes to show that Microsoft’s success is often made from making others look bad (in an exaggerated fashion, of course) more than achieving something admirable itself. Competition does not always work best in the absence of (an agreed set of) rules for engagement.

Sometimes when I hear people argue that competition brings out the best in people, I ask “are you a fan of sports?” If they say yes, I ask how their preferred activities would play without referees and judges to measure success fairly. If they say no…well, I ask what they mean by “the best”.

How’s that for food for discussion, John?

Energy, Security

Furniture Safety and the South Carolina Disaster

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American furniture products should be in the spotlight again following the South Carolina fire that killed nine of Charleston’s best.

In 1993 American fire marshals were already campaigning to improve furniture fire safety. However, by 2000, little progress had been made and a law firm in South Carolina called Foster and Foster wrote an advisory called “Flammable Upholstered Furniture: Is there a deadly time bomb in your couch?”

Robert P. Foster has brought legal action against a maker of upholstered furniture causing injury and death under product liability theories of strict liability, negligence, and warranty. “Its excessive flammability makes it an unreasonably dangerous product well beyond the reasonable expectations of the ordinary consumer.”

[…]

The primary flammability culprit is polyurethane foam, the seating cushioning core that shares some of the same combustion properties as kerosene and gasoline. It is a petroleum based product sometimes called solid gasoline

Fast forward to this morning when people are discussing similar conditions under which a “fire tornado” whipped through a Carolina warehouse stuffed to the brim with furniture for a giant sale.

Bloomburg’s report shows that while presence of a sprinkler system could be significant factor, the quantity of “solid gasoline” is also important:

The one-story building had no sprinklers, said Mike Parrotta, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters-South Carolina.

“It appeared they were having a closeout sale, so it’s likely they were overstocked and the fire load was greater than normal,” Parrotta said.

Firefighters are professionals, not just ordinary consumers, but would they have acted differently if they had been looking at a warehouse of gasoline in front of them rather than furniture?

Furniture does not have to be made with solid gasoline, obviously. When I used to work on furniture repair I always saw cotton and burlap padding as easier to work with and more comfortable. I found nothing more unpleasant than working on toxic foam-based products. The furniture industry is driven by a very different set of values, however, as flammability and toxicity of furniture is not regulated in America and remains a significant source of risk:

For three decades, most upholstered furniture and mattresses sold in America have contained flexible polyurethane foam, the plastic material that was used as soundproofing around The Station nightclub stage. It’s found in couches, love seats, chairs, recliners, mattresses, mattress pads and mattress toppers, pillows, carpet cushioning and many other places.

More than 2 billion pounds of foam enters the U.S. market every year.

Foam is comfortable and comparatively cheap — and once ignited, it can be lethal. Mattress, bedding and upholstered furniture fires killed almost 30,000 Americans from 1980 to 1998, the latest year for which National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) data are available. Another 95,655 people were injured.

From 1980 to 1998, mattress and bedding fires killed 12,712 Americans, according to the NFPA — 10 times more than all those killed by tornadoes and hurricanes combined.

Almost 4,000 people killed a year, and that’s old news. By 2002 the number was up to almost 5,000 people killed a year, according to a FAQ by firemarshals.org:

If furniture manufacturers made some small, inexpensive changes to the materials they use, they could save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of serious injuries every year.

They also point out that empirical evidence of success is easy to find:

California is the only state with fire safety regulations for upholstered furniture sold for use in homes. According to the California Bureau of Home Furnishings there was a 25% drop in deaths involving upholstered furniture after these standards were put into place in the 1970s.

The UK also has regulations for furniture. In addition “upholstery in airplanes, hotels, nursing homes, hospitals and even prisons is required to be fire resistant.” But consumer products outside California are left unregulated. The firemarshals.org FAQ does a nice job putting it in perspective:

It’s a funny thing about competition. The auto industry said airbags were unaffordable. The mattress industry said that fire safety standards would add hundreds of dollars to the price of each mattress. Consumers are still buying lots of cars and mattresses.

Perhaps the unfortunate death of the firefighters will bring the federal government to its senses. Nine brave men lost their lives trying to save others. There is no country to invade, no foreigners to blame, but here is a clear case where America’s national security (one less vulnerability in every home) could be improved by a simple stroke of the pen.