It’s Friday, and you know what that means: time to clear out the links. These are all news articles that caught my eye for one reason or another during the week:
- Changes In The Park. One of my hobbies is history, and particularly, the history of various cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and St. Louis. In St. Louis, one of the most interesting places is Forest Park, so I read with interest this week that the St. Louis Zoo has purchased the former St. Louis Hospital land. There are a number of interesting things about this if one knows the history of the park, particularly how the park used to butt up against the hospital until US 40 was built; how it is the zoo that is buying the land, and how they plan to connect it.
- Geneaology Security Risks. When one thinks about geneology, one rarely thinks about security. However, there are quite a few risks, from exposing PII such as birthdays to seemingly innocuous information such as cities of birth, mother’s maiden names, and such that are now used for security questions. Often, people publish family trees without even considering this; in any case, it is a hard balance to determine the right approach to take. So it caught my eye when I saw an article about how hackers had discovered an authentication flaw at ancestry.com that might expose personal information. It will be interesting to see how Ancestry responds.
- Weather Forecasting on TV. Weather forecasting on TV goes in cycles. In the early 70s, we had the bimbo era: the cute weathergirls who didn’t know what they were doing (often parodied). Sometimes this led to real news credentials, such as Kelley Lange who was once on KNBC-LA. Then we had the meterologist era with folks like Dr. George Fishbeck (and to a lesser extent, Johnny Mountain). We’ve swung back to the weathergirls these days, but they supposedly have AMS credentials now. So it caught my eye when there was an article about a weatherman alleging sexual discrimination when he couldn’t get a job at KCBS-2 or KCAL-9.
- Pink Slime. Pink slime, otherwise known as processed beef trimmings that get added to ground meat, has been in the news of late as the most recent food horror. Mercury News has an interesting article from a reporter to tried to find out what pink slime tastes like. He was able to identify two packages of ground meat: one with, and one without (organic, which won’t have pink slime). He then did a taste test. This whole “pink slime” controversy makes me think my mother was right: Don’t buy pre-packaged ground meat. Pick your cuts of meat, and ask the butcher to grind them for you (and use the bones for stock). Now to just find a supermarket that still has on-premises butchers.
- Positive Things from Facebook. You may think Facebook is all bad. Think again. Even in the worse there may be a shred of good. The NY Times is reporting how Facebook is responsible for toning down the excesses of spring break in Key West FL. Specifically, students are now aware that employers search Facebook for drunken pictures of them, and so they aren’t partying to excess in venues where their picture might be taken… which given the ubiquity of cell phone cameras, is anywhere.
- Business Cards. Are they dead yet? The LA Times seems to be saying they are, but then again, I’ve seen articles saying they aren’t. If you’ve read this far, show me you exist by letting me know your opinion on business cards. Do you find them valuable? Do you have them and hand them out?
- Rocketmaker for Sale. Lastly, United Technologies has put Rocketdyne up for sale. Rocketdyne manufactured the engines for the space program, as well as engines for little things like EELV. They are based in the West San Fernando Valley (I often ride my bike by their Northridge office), and they once did testing in Chatsworth.
Music: String Along (Kingston Trio): This Morning, This Evening, So Soon
