Risks on Friday the 13th ...

[rslade]

Happy Friday the 13th to all you professional paranoiacs out there.

I have previously mentioned some of the risks involved in living here.  In addition, the Lion's Gate Bridge is closed today, due to a "police incident."  (That probably means a jumper.)  This also means that the Ironworker's Memorial Second Narrows Bridge (and for risk fans I can recommend "Tragedy at Second Narrows," by Eric Jamieson) is completely clogged in both directions, while the Seabus has at least a two, and possibly as high as four, sailing wait.

But that isn't the risk I wanted to talk about today.

We have bears here.

(When I was a young lad at university, back before there was an Internet, my residence had a fellow from Cambridge whose family, back in The Olde Country, were terrified that he would be eaten by a bear.  So, whenever there were reports of bears in the north side communities, we helpfully cut out the stories for him to send back to his family.)

Black bears are fairly cute, and not as vicious as grizzlys.  But it is not a good idea to feed them.  It's dangerous for people, and it's dangerous for the bears, too.  (They get acclimated, and come to regard people as sources of food, and then there is trouble, and often the bears get shot.)  So there are laws, here, prohibiting people from feeding bears.

Some people do it anyway.

Now, if you are going to break the law, it might be a good idea not to post videos of you doing so on your social media account ...

[Baechle]

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@rslade wrote:

Now, if you are going to break the law, it might be a good idea not to post videos of you doing so on your social media account ...

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I thought that was best practice for criminals under 40?

[rslade]

Don't mess with Canadians ...

[rslade]

There's this thing called Defcon.  It's a conference.  Lot's of people got to it.  Security researchers, government types, academics, lawyers, and even some people who might be called ... hackers.

A lot of these people play pranks on each other.  Pranks that might be considered ... hacking.

A senior software engineer from Google (wait, Google? but I digress ...) spoke at the Blackhat conference that precedes Defcon, and stayed on for Defcon.  He was discussing the insecurity of the networks, via Twitter.

That got him barred from his hotel.

[rslade]

More overreaction?  I mean, does Vegas just not realize, after all these years, what Blackhat/Defcon is?  Are they just super paranoid after Mandalay Bay?

[rslade]

Don't mess with Canadians.  Even 95 year old cookie bakers.

So, this bear walks into her house.

“It was just after lunch,” she said. “I came in from the dining room and there he was. I said ‘what are you doing here? Get out of here.’ I didn’t push him, but I just sort of walked towards him and away he went.”

But then he came back.  (I guess the cookies were that good.)

“Well, now I was really cross with him, and I told him so. I said ‘I’m really angry with you. Go home and don’t come back.’ I guess he believed me, because as far as I know, he hasn’t been back.”

[rslade]

What I intended as a throw-away comment:

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@rslade wrote:

More overreaction?  I mean, does Vegas just not realize, after all these years, what Blackhat/Defcon is?  Are they just super paranoid after Mandalay Bay?

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... seems to have become a fairly major issue.  As could have been expected, with a huge convention attended by security specialists, a number of privacy issues are being raised.

[rslade]

Given all the wildfires, as well as a messed up jet stream and a high pressure area that has been parked here for quite a while, it's smoky here in the northwest.

A group in Spokane wants to blow the smoke into Canada.

(They say "back" to Canada, but there are some fires in Washington State as well, some of which have crossed into Canada ...)

They want everyone to get five box fans (from where?), put them on the roof, and blow ... every fuse in town?

Then there are the life safety issues of people falling off roofs, plus the fire safety issues of haywire extension cord setups ...

[rslade]

Given this is the Friday topic, I guess I should at least point to the volcanoes here ...