Derek Plaslaiko @ Rare Form 04-04-2014



40 maps that explain the Middle East

Max Fisher in Vox:

Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today.



Daniel Simonsen on Russell Howard's Good News




Robinson Cano Surprises Yankees Fans While They're Booing Him




The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century

Matthew Yglesias in Vox:

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century is the most important economics book of the year, if not the decade. It’s also 696 pages long, translated from French, filled with methodological asides and in-depth looks at unique data, packed with allusions to 19th century novels, and generally a bit of a slog.

The good news is that there’s no advanced math, and anyone who puts in the time can read the book. But if you just want the bottom line, we have you covered.

And a more academic one at Harvard Business Review.



Deee-lite in NYC 1988

Very early Deee-lite occupying Wall street on a sunday in 1988….Shot by incomparable Hiroyuki Nakano, who later directed Groove and Power of Love videos….

That’s a facebook link. If it doesn’t work, I also have it here



It’s the End of the World as We Know It . . . and He Feels Fine

In 2012, in the nature magazine Orion, Kingsnorth began to publish a series of essays articulating his new, dark ecological vision. He set his views in opposition to what he called neo-environmentalism — the idea that, as he put it, “civilization, nature and people can only be ‘saved’ by enthusiastically embracing biotechnology, synthetic biology, nuclear power, geoengineering and anything else with the prefix ‘new’ that annoys Greenpeace.” Or as Stewart Brand, the 75-year-old “social entrepreneur” best known as the publisher of the “ Whole Earth Catalog,” has put it: “We are as gods and have to get good at it.”



Be Still My Breaking Heart

Wisdom from Dan Kaminsky:

First off, there’s been a subtle shift in the risk calculus around security vulnerabilities.  Before, we used to say:  “A flaw has been discovered.  Fix it, before it’s too late.”  In the case of Heartbleed, the presumption is that it’s already too late, that all information that could be extracted, has been extracted, and that pretty much everyone needs to execute emergency remediation procedures.



analysis of openssl freelist reuse

Pretty brutal:

About two days ago, I was poking around with OpenSSL to find a way to mitigate Heartbleed. I soon discovered that in its default config, OpenSSL ships with exploit mitigation countermeasures, and when I disabled the countermeasures, OpenSSL stopped working entirely. That sounds pretty bad, but at the time I was too frustrated to go on. Last night I returned to the scene of the crime.

See also: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/211963



How to Think Like the Dutch in a Post-Sandy World

In December 2012, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was on vacation in Berlin when he decided to detour to the Netherlands. He wanted to get a firsthand sense of the famed Dutch approach to water management. Hurricane Sandy struck six weeks before, and in the aftermath, President Obama asked him to lead a task force, whose objective was not just to rebuild but also to radically rethink the region’s infrastructure in light of climate change.

In the Netherlands, a man named Henk Ovink offered to be Donovan’s guide. Ovink was the director of the office of Spatial Planning and Water Management, meaning, essentially, that it was his job to keep the famously waterlogged country dry. As he learned about various Dutch innovations, Donovan was struck by the fact that Ovink looked at water as much in cultural as in engineering terms, which was a function of the centuries-old need of the Dutch to act together for protection.



@securityhulk

I love @securityhulk. This ssl mess is making for some lols.

EASY TO RECOVER FROM SSL BUG. JUST REVOKE PRIVATE KEYS, AND ANY DATA SENT THAT EVER TRAVEL OVER SSL SINCE BUG INTRODUCED. EASY PEASY.



Lucid Stead - Phillip K Smith III - Joshua Tree CA 2013


On the weekend of October 12th in Joshua Tree, California, artist Phillip K Smith III revealed his light based project, Lucid Stead.

Composed of mirror, LED lighting, custom built electronic equipment and Arduino programming amalgamated with a preexisting structure, this architectural intervention, at first, seems alien in context to the bleak landscape. Upon further viewing, Lucid Stead imposes a delirious, almost spiritual experience. Like the enveloping vista that changes hue as time passes, Lucid Stead transforms. In daylight the 70 year old homesteader shack, that serves as the armature of the piece, reflects and refracts the surrounding terrain like a mirage or an hallucination. As the sun tucks behind the mountains, slowly shifting, geometric color fields emerge until they hover in the desolate darkness. This transformation also adapts personal perception, realigning one’s sensory priorities. A heightened awareness of solitude and the measured pace of the environment is realized.



The A-Z of Dance




Can Free College Save American Cities?

Cassie Walker Burke in Politico Magazine:

Of course, there were big questions: Would the Promise really reverse Kalamazoo’s decline? Could this be a model for other struggling cities around the country? Or was college-for-all too much a fantasy given the entrenched realities of poverty, an unrealistic goal for a world where even getting two-thirds of the city’s kids to graduate from high school is a heavy lift? Nearly a decade—and some $50 million—later, the effects of this bold experiment in using education as a redevelopment engine are now coming into view. And though stubborn challenges remain, so too is a different Kalamazoo.



Slomo: The Man Who Skated Right Off the Grid


Article at the NYT



The great debate: Combating HFTs image

Absolutely amazing TV, William O’Brien of BATS gets into it with Brad Katsuyama of IEX live on the NYSE floor, traders stop trading, and start shouting at the TVs.

Backstory is here: The Wolf Hunters of Wall Street



Rosie Perez Soul Train




CMKY Podcast 20: Derek Plaslaiko



Stacey Pullen - Live at Movement 2013



Congo from the Cockpit

William Langewiesche in Vanity Fair:

When a country the size of Western Europe has only 300 miles of paved roads, almost anything with two wings, a tail, and an engine will do—aviation codes be damned. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where old airplanes go to die, a family of Indian immigrants has survived 50 years of dictatorship, war, and plunder, and founded a linchpin of the precarious economy: a charter outfit called Business Aviation. On the fish-for-diamonds flight, among other feats of turboprop ingenuity, William Langewiesche meets some of the continent’s most unflappable pilots.