US Soldier Guilty Plea for Murders in Afghanistan

Al Jazeera has two stories that are unrelated but probably should be juxtaposed. First, the story of US soldiers who killed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. Morlock told the judge, Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks, that he and the other soldiers began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009. To make the killings appear justified, the … Continue reading US Soldier Guilty Plea for Murders in Afghanistan

GE Mark 1 Reactor Safety Design and Fukushima

Robert Reich brings up whether GE was cutting corners with security controls within the Mark 1 Reactor, but he does not address why and how regulators failed to stop a 90% failure calculation from widespread adoption. Did they accept compensating controls? Liability offset? Low probability of melt? The New York Times reports that G.E. marketed … Continue reading GE Mark 1 Reactor Safety Design and Fukushima

Get a Free Hotel Room — Key Management Failure

Plastic hotel “key cards” with a mag-stripe are notoriously unreliable (at least 5% failure rate). They can easily be demagnetized and stop working, even by proximity to cell-phones and small fashion magnets (unlike payment cards, which are more resilient). I run mag-stripe payment card security tests and the hotel cards that sometimes use to calibrate … Continue reading Get a Free Hotel Room — Key Management Failure