Dear Mr. McBrien,

Thank you for contacting me with your opposition to H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011. In order to make sound voting decisions, I need to hear from the constituents in the Fifth Congressional District. I appreciate you taking the time to contact me with your thoughts on this issue, as I know how important it is to you.

Over the past decade, cyber attacks have and continue to, harm and threaten the security of the U.S. government and many private sector businesses. In the past five years, cyber attacks on the federal government are up 680%. It is expected that individuals in China, Russia, and Iran are using cyber attacks against the U.S. government, American companies, and American citizens daily.

In response, on November 30, 2011, Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) introduced H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) of 2011, which was passed in the House of Representative on April 27, 2012 by a vote of 248-168, and now awaits action in the Senate. This legislation creates a voluntary system whereby the U.S. government and private-sector entities can share information with one another about potential cyber attacks that are about to take place in order to prevent them from occurring and protecting that entities’ security. This voluntary sharing of information will help prevent further attacks by understanding who and where the attacks are coming from and how to protect against them.

It is important to understand that CISPA does not give any new or additional power to the state, local, federal government, or the intelligence community to direct or control the internet or cyber security or block websites. It also specifically prohibits the government from soliciting information from the private sector or compelling a private company to share any information even if it relates to a cyber security threat, and authorizes only the sharing of cyber security threat information that directly pertains to a cyber threat to a system or network or for the purposes of national security. Recently, the Heritage Foundation came out in strong support of CISPA. Please be assured that should this legislation come back to the House Floor for a Concurrence vote, I will keep the thoughts and views you have expressed to me in mind.

It is my great honor to serve as your Member of Congress and it is my number one priority to represent you and the best interests of the Fifth Congressional District. Please do not hesitate to call, write, or e-mail me in the future with any of your concerns or questions. For federal-related issues, you may reach my Washington, D.C. office by phone at (202) 225-6405, or my District office at (800) 541-6446 for constituent services. I encourage you to visit my website at http://latta.house.gov where you can sign up for my e-newsletter and text message updates. The website also provides links to my YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr pages, as well as my blog, the Latta Letter, all of which will help bring my work in Washington, D.C. home to you.

Sincerely,

Bob Latta

Member of Congress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fYYPN0BdBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5aozojXx6c

A quick watch of this video makes it quite clear; Bob Latta doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about when it comes to the internet. Yet as one of 28 members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, he is an important legislator on that very subject. Congressman Latta is also one of 23 members of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. This subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes: Interstate and foreign commerce, including all trade matters within the jurisdiction of the full committee; Regulation of commercial practices (the FTC), including sports-related matters; Consumer affairs and consumer protection, including privacy matters generally; Consumer product safety (the CPSC); Product liability; Motor vehicle safety; and, Regulation of travel, tourism, and time.

Mr. Latta is a co-sponsor of CISPA.

CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act), is a bill currently going through the House which aims “To provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes.”

While there are supporters of the bill among the technology community, I cannot find many who believe this is a good bill. It’s primary objective is the sharing of information related to ‘cybersecurity’ among private entities (corporations) and government. It doesn’t sound bad up front… but the bills definitions of ‘cyber threat’ and ‘cybersecurity’ are simply too broad, and I can see it easily being abused.

‘(2) CYBER THREAT INFORMATION- The term ‘cyber threat information’ means information directly pertaining to a vulnerability of, or threat to, a system or network of a government or private entity, including information pertaining to the protection of a system or network from–
‘(A) efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy such system or network; or
‘(B) theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.

‘(5) CYBERSECURITY PURPOSE- The term ‘cybersecurity purpose’ means the purpose of ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of, or safeguarding, a system or network, including protecting a system or network from–
‘(A) efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy such system or network; or
‘(B) theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.

The bill does not require corporations (such as say, Facebook) to provide cyber security information to the government or any other corporation. It simply ‘encourages’ it.

The problem I foresee is this. Hackers such as Anonymous or Lulzsec, and groups such as Wikileaks are the target of this legislation. I think that is obvious. Unfortunately, what our legislators, including Mr. Latta, fail to recognize is that these hackers will always be a step ahead. They know what they’re doing. You don’t. If the government and various corporate entities begin sharing vast troves of ‘cyber threat’ information amongst each other, the information of millions of American citizens will be stockpiled in numerous locations leaving them far more unprotected. This bill will actually cause more problems than it prevents.

Further bills in congress, such as the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (a far worse and duplicitously titled bill), would further stockpile our personal and private information to include such information as every website we have visited in the last year. This bill would require our internet service providers (ISP’s) to retain records for one year including the IP addresses assigned to corresponding customers. This information cannot be compelled to be given by anyone but the government. But wait! CISPA would then allow the government to share that information with any ‘cybersecurity provider’ they want to.

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web, HTML, http, and the first web browser has this to say on the subject, ““[It] is threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere, because what happens in America tends to affect people all over the world. Even though the SOPA and PIPA acts were stopped by huge public outcry, it’s staggering how quickly the U.S. government has come back with a new, different, threat to the rights of its citizens.”

When will it stop? What happened to the fourth amendment? These bills, following so quickly after SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA make it clear that the government is intent on creating a cyber police state. It needs to stop. I encourage everyone to write to their representatives and demand an end to these horrible bills that infringe on our rights. Unfortunately, it seems apparent to me that Mr. Latta’s lack of knowledge on the technological front has caused him to completely fail to notice that he is failing to protect the privacy of US Citizens, failing completely in his duties on both the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. I certainly hope it’s his lack of knowledge on the subject. That, at least, can be fixed.

Read more:

• HR 3523: CISPA. OpenCongress.
• Legislators to vote on controversial CISPA bill despite online protests. Fox News.
• EFF opposes CISPA on Hackers and Founders Panel. EFF.
• Opposition grows to CISPA ‘Big Brother’ cybersecurity bill. CNET.

Mr. Diamandis has co-founded a new organization, Planetary Resources, with Eric Anderson whom he also works with at the X Prize Foundation and Space Adventures. Just what does this company intend to do? We don’t know yet. They’re saving this for an unveiling next week. On April 18th, they published the following press release:

Join visionary Peter H. Diamandis, M.D.; leading commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson; former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki; and planetary scientist & veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones, Ph.D. on Tuesday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m. PDT in Seattle, or via webcast, as they unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity’s prosperity.

Supported by an impressive investor and advisor group, including Google’s Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Microsoft’s former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram; and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr., the company will overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources’.

The news conference will be held at the Museum of Flight in Seattle on Tuesday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m. PDT and available online via webcast.

I don’t know about you, but it sounds like asteroid mining to me. Not convinced? Check out this TED talk by Peter Diamandis. With an impressive group of investors, I expect amazing things from this venture. Either way, look for more information next week.

Rick Santorum Wants to Outlaw Birth Control

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country… Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

Links

• Rick Santorum is coming for your birth control. Salon.com.

Rick Santorum is an Exemplary Example of a Corrupt Politician.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) rated Senator Santorum as one of ‘The Most Corrupt Members of Congress’ two years in a row, in 2005 and 2006.

According to Wikipedia, Santorum racked up a $67,000 bill for the Pennsylvania school district his children went to by having them attend the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, while they didn’t even live in the district. He then refused to pay the bill, which was eventually settled by the state Department of Education.

After losing re-election to congress in 2006, Santorum suddenly became wealthy, working for as many as seven different employers offering him six digit compensation for ‘consulting services’.

Links

• Rick Santorum: Top-tier on Most Corrupt Member of Congress list 2 years running. The Examiner.
• Rick Santorum, ‘Stealth Lobbyist’. ABC News.

Rick Santorum is Anti-Education.

Barack Obama supposedly encourages all children to go to college. Do I agree? No, I don’t. Many people simply aren’t cut out for college, and frankly, I believe the current and past efforts to promote everyone going to college lessen the benefits of college for those who should go. But this is a facet of public education in America failing throughout the spectrum, not simply in post-secondary education.

Rick Santorum starts off great, pretty much agreeing with all of my points above.

“I have seven kids. Maybe they’ll all go to college. But, if one of my kids wants to go and be an auto mechanic, good for him. That’s a good-paying job – using your hands and using your mind. This is the kind of, the kind of snobbery that we see from those who think they know how to run our lives. Rise up America. Defend your own freedoms.”

But as with most of his otherwise seemingly informed and benign views, he takes it further, to radical extremes. Not only should every child not go to college, but “the left” has set up the American college system as a means to indoctrinate our children and turn them into atheists. It is Obama’s “elitest snobbery” that causes him to say all children should go to college, according to Santorum. See the videos below for the context and content of what Santorum is saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw9J9g_mxG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c65WNw84HRY

I can’t even find any instance where Obama says that all children should go to college. The closest I’ve found is this quote, from the NY Times article linked below:

“It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.”

Links

• Rick Santorum: Left uses college for “indoctrination”. CBS News.
• Rick Santorum Says The Left Uses Colleges For ‘Indoctrination’. Huffington Post.
• Video: Rick Santorum Says Obama Wants to Indoctrinate Kids in College. Opposing Views.
• Rick Santorum’s Anti-College Rant. NY Times.

Rick Santorum is Homophobic.

This is probably the most well-documented of Rick Santorum’s issues, and one he proudly wears as something of a badge of honor. Many American’s agree with him. But Rick Santorum takes it to wild extremes. The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

During an interview with the Associated press in 2003, Santorum was asked his views on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Santorum said the priests were engaged in “a basic homosexual relationship”, and remarked, “I have a problem with homosexual acts”. He stated that marriage was “one thing”, a relationship between a man and a woman, in “every society” in history, and so far as he knew it had never included homosexuality in any society. Then, juxtaposing same-sex marriage with the notion of marriage based on pedophilia or bestiality, he commented that “not to pick on homosexuality”, marriage was not any of those things.

Whether you believe homosexuality is a problem or not, I think we can probably all agree that it is considerably different from pedophilia and bestiality. Santorum is equating them to the same level. I think that is a serious issue. Our next President needs to view homosexuals as people in a relationship he might not agree with, not as people having sex with animals or raping children. And to take the leap that legalizing gay marriage is the equivalent of allowing someone to marry his dog is absurd, outlandish, and repulsive.

In a discussion on whether or not he would outlaw homosexuality, Santorum says:

“And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery.”

Reading between the lines, without saying it directly, Santorum is saying that yes, he would outlaw homosexuality, as well as adultery. I certainly don’t think it’s proper to cheat on my wife, and it’s something I would never do. But I certainly don’t think it should be a criminal offense. My biggest issue with Rick Santorum is the way he spreads hatred, and this is a primary example.

Links

• How Rick Santorum Is Bringing Homophobia Right into Our Home. Huffington Post.
• Rick Santorum’s Top Ten Most-Offensive Anti-Gay Comments. The New Civil Rights Movement.
• Rick Santorum Defends Interview Linking Homosexuality To ‘Man On Dog’ Sex.. Huffington Post.

Rick Santorum is Racist.

You may have heard of this one. “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money…” Santorum, of course, denies saying this. He says he stumbled over his words and said, “bluh”. Personally, I believe he did both. He was thinking “black people” and at the last second tried to stop, coming out with something along the lines of “bluh”. But it seems to me this man is a racist. See the video below and make your own decision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz-XfZrkbvY

Links

• Santorum’s Racist Welfare Rant: ‘I Don’t Want To Make Black People’s Lives Better’ With Taxpayer Money. Think Progress.
• Rick Santorum singles out black people at Iowa event. Washington Post.
• Why Santorum’s Comment Isn’t Racist: It means that the Republican presidential contender is afraid to really talk about race.. The Root.

Rick Santorum Doesn’t Care About Health Costs, and He is a Jerk About It.

You might think the health care industry has a right to set drug costs based on what the free market will pay. Rick Santorum certainly does. But the fact is, not everyone has insurance, not everyone can afford expensive prescription drugs. How this should be dealt with is a real issue that should be debated until we can find an answer, whether it be government subsidized health care, limits to the amount of free market mark-up costs drug companies are allowed to set, or mandating insurance for all American’s and limiting the insurance companies ability to refuse coverage or demand extreme monthly premiums, something needs to be done. I don’t see how we can simply allow poor people to suffer or die because they can’t afford health care.

According to Rick Santorum, drug costs can be as high as the drug company wants to set them because ““People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad. But paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it.” Clearly, all poor American’s who need drugs have decided to forego those drugs and purchase an iPad instead, in Santorum’s mind. It isn’t Santorum’s position on this issue that bothers me. It is a legitmate position held by many Americans. What really bothers me is that he is being such a jerk about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZckdWWcdco

The clip starts at around 35 seconds in.

Links

• Santorum: If you can pay $900 for iPad, you don’t need health care help. Global Post.
• Rick Santorum Tells Mom With Sick Child To Stop Whining About Million Dollar Medicine Price. Addicting Info.
• Rick Santorum Tells Sick Kid Market Should Set Drug Prices. ABC News.
• Santorum Tells Sick Kid Not To Complain About $1 Million Drug Costs Because People Pay $900 For An iPad. Think Progress.

Rick Santorum Stands Against American’s Right to Privacy.

The right to privacy is something I am certainly accustomed to. I believe most Americans are. What I do in my own home is my business, and the government has no right sticking its nose in my business. Rick Santorum disagrees.

“It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn’t exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution.”

According to Wikipedia:

In June 2011, Santorum said he would continue to “fight very strongly against libertarian influence within the Republican party and the conservative movement.”[131] In an NPR interview in the summer of 2005, Santorum discussed what he called the “libertarianish right,” saying “they have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do. Government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulation low and that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues, you know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world, and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone…”

These quotes disgusts me. Absolutely and completely. Rick Santorum is absolutely not a small government conservative. His goal seems to be a theological police state, much like Iran. Only rather than an Islamic Republic, he wants to turn us into a Christian Republic.

Links

• Op-Ed: Rick Santorum doesn’t believe in the right to privacy. Is his wife still entitled to it?. Pittsburgh City Paper.
• Paul says Santorum ‘confused’ over privacy. UPI.
• Excerpt from Santorum interview. USA Today.

Rick Santorum Hasn’t Read the Constitution

Updated February 26, 2012

So, I can’t honestly tell you he hasn’t read the constitution. But I can tell you he didn’t care to pay attention to what it says. The First Amendment contains some fairly broad and sweeping language. One piece of that is the Freedom of Religion.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Rick Santorum said. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

Clearly he hasn’t read the establishment clause. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” I think that is pretty clear.

Links

• Santorum Presses Culture Wars Attack. Washington Post.
• Establishment Clause. Wikipedia.

Whether you agree with my distaste for Rick Santorum or not, I certainly hope everyone who votes will make an informed decision. Don’t vote for this guy simply because Mitt Romney is a Mormon and Newt Gingrich cheated on his wives. And by the way, I’m voting Ron Paul.

The Charity Engine is a recent development on the long running services provided by BOINC (The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). BOINC uses the CPU processing capability of internet connected computers to process data for a variety of scientific causes that cannot afford to rent time on supercomputers. It was originally developed for use by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). It has since been used for research on a variety of causes as diverse as mathematics, medicine, molecular biology, climatology, and astrophysics.

The Charity Engine takes things a step further, using the same software base. Rather than simply choosing a variety of causes you wish to support, the Charity Engine rents out your CPU power to anyone who will pay, and then divides those profits to donate them to charity and to encourage users to join by giving it away as a prize via a lottery of users based on your production. As you run the Charity Engine, you rack up credits for the amount of CPU usage your computer provides the network, which are then used in the lottery. In addition to those who will pay for the CPU power, the Charity Engine also devotes a small portion of the CPU power to those aforementioned projects on BOINC.

For more information, go to The Charity Engine – How it Works.

Sign up for the Charity Engine and put your computer to work for charity. Use the invite code FRIEND.

In addition to finally posting a new post, I have also gotten around to updating my WordPress Plugin, WP SimpleWeather. That is the primary purpose of this post.

WP SimpleWeather Version 0.2.2

For anyone who might feel the need to update to the latest version, I would like to apologize. Version 0.2.1 of the plugin saw me add in some functionality to allow for a clean uninstall of the plugin. My intentions were good. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, and set it to perform this clean uninstall upon deactivation, rather than explicitly on uninstall. So, when you update the plugin, you will lose all related settings. I’m sorry. But this won’t happen again. I’ve fixed it in version 0.2.2, and it will not remove the settings on deactivation, but only on uninstall.

At the request of Thomas Nielsen, I have added the capability to change the metric units for windspeed from km/h to m/s. This isn’t a big update at all. Unfortunately, it took a fair amount of time due to my recent lack of time. I had to relearn my own plugin. It felt a bit strange. Any way, I hope you enjoy it. If there are any issues at all, please let me know.

This story is tragic and moving. If you don’t enjoy nature, or deeper thoughts concerning the human condition, then perhaps this story isn’t for you. ‘Into the Wild’ is the story of the life and death of Christopher McCandless. And no, that wasn’t a spoiler. Both the book and the film make it immediately apparent that the main character dies at the end. Perhaps character isn’t the right word for it, as this is a true story. The lead role?

After graduating from college, McCandless gives all of his savings away to a charity and hits the road, hitching rides from strangers, sneaking aboard moving trains, or simply walking alongside the road. He goes west in search of something that cannot be found easily in the business of daily life. He is in search of things that are often found in the solitude of nature. He is in search of himself.

McCandless goes through some truly amazing adventures, experiencing fantastic locations that many people never see. And despite his relative solitude throughout his trek about America as ‘Alexander Supertramp’, McCandless makes some extraordinary friendships and truly has a strong effect on the people he interacted with.

This book made me yearn for the adventure found in travel, but it also made me appreciate the friends and family that I have. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Matt’s Rating:

Now, I generally don’t post anything at all personal here on my blog, but I felt that I should put a little something on here to a) excuse my recent absence, and b) let you know about some of the fine folks who made my wedding day great.

The wedding was held at Parkview Christian Church, here in Findlay, Ohio. It’s the church that my family and I have been attending since I was a wee lad. Great place. The great room, where normal Sunday services are held, is just way too big for the amount of people we had attending my wedding, so we had it in the foyer. It worked out quite well… not too big, not too small. Pretty much the perfect size for the crowd we had. Neil Norheim, the Senior Minister at Parkview, married us. Good man.

After the wedding, we made our way over to The Elks Lodge, here in Findlay as well. It wasn’t my first choice for the reception, but it worked out quite well. The ball room there is a good looking joint, and there was a stage in the room where the DJ could set up to get things rocking at the party.

Speaking of the DJ, the music at the reception was provided by MY Mobile DJ Service. Matthew Young, the DJ, did a fantastic job, and I highly recommend anyone looking for a DJ in or around Findlay look him up.

And last, but certainly not least, check out the initial pictures taken by our photographer, Randa, from RJK Photography. We don’t have all of the photos yet, but what I’ve seen so far looks great. I can’t wait to see them all.