The Hacktivists Strike Back

Ok, this story is a bit dated but still certainly bears telling.

Earlier this month US security firm HB Gary released the names of top ranking members of the cyber activist group Anonymous, which if you remember went to the aid of whistle blower Wikileaks when online corporations like Amazon and Paypal were threatening to drop their service and thus disrupt Wiki's flow of cash donations and shutting the whole thing down. Anonymous then launched a cyber attack and froze both big corporations until they conceded and the Wikileaks we know and love is still around today.

So, HB Gary releases some names, some possibly false, and allegedly some members of Anonymous are arrested. Here is where things get fun. Anonymous launches a counter attack and hacks the entirety of HB Gary, discovering, and subsequently releasing incriminating inter-company e-mails about HB Gary, AND some snarky tactics the Bank of America had cooked up for discrediting Wikileaks.

Why is there a Bank of America think tank devoted to pulling down Wiki? Not a hard one. To protect its profits from any damaging truths that might find its way out into the cyber universe. Why then is the FBI involved as well, proclaiming jail sentences for offending members of Anonymous?

More in depth at Dagblog, and naked security

Anonymous warns HB Gary on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryg29xssnQE

60 students per class? Rural Thailand or Detroit?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/21/detroit-schools-closing_n_826007.html

After teaching a class of 55 grade six students in a Thai "normal program," class, I decided that I never wanted to have one of my own children enrolled in a Thai school. A class that large becomes difficult to manage.

I could have spent time disciplining all the errant students that were not interested, but I would then of had little time to teach, and would have become very unpopular to boot. Ultimately I taught only to those members of the class that were interested in learning English. The others sat, for the most part quietly, and turned off.

It was one of the reasons I left Thailand, or rather, one of the reasons I returned to the west. Adequate education, smallish class sizes, ect. And here we have the same conditions back home in the States. Nice one, Detroit.

Forward Thinking Local Government Initiates New Policy

I am pleased to announce that today I was a member of a crack team involved in translating innovative local government policy:

Public policy from Muang district group


The creative policy is:

1. Do not drink soft drinks, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.
2. Do not add extra sugar to food.
3. Do not eat junk food.
4. The Health Ministry advises children to eat fruit every day.
5. Exercise for good health.


The Health and Education Ministries needs help from all Thai people for healthy children.

Children should not eat junk food. Not quite the caliber I was expecting from a lofty title like creative policy.

A Dog of High Intelligence, a Dog With Eyebrows

The Buddha is a big softy, and because he frowns upon killing them, stray dogs are a nuisance in Thailand. They hang around every Soi, or street, cheerfully knocking over rubbish bins, fornicating, chasing motorcyclist, and occasionally catching them.

If that’s not enough reason to buy a pistol, street dogs are not much to look at either. Nothing like going out for a game of tennis and spying an emaciated, mange ridden street dog that has a tail that looks like an old wrinkly sausage and a single tuft of filthy hair limping about a sand pile littered with feces.

The learning curve to life as a street dog is fairly simple. If you’re a dumb street dog, you’ve already been hit by a car and are stone dead. If you are a street dog of average intelligence, you have already been hit by a car, but perhaps you’ve survived to enjoy a life of limping around feebly on the brink of starvation. If you are a street dog of high intelligence you may look like this.

Fat and happy, sleeping outside of a 7/11, you have even convinced someone to put your make up on for you…

To P.E. or Not to Be

I co-teach physical education to grade 1 and 2. When I started two years ago we had two footballs and three basketballs. Back then, we were not allowed to use the big open field in front of school. The director had just spent a large sum of money having new grass planted, and he wasn’t about to have it used by the students.

We were fairly creative in those days so we found other places to conduct our activities. Places like the school auditorium or the outdoor basketball court which had no hoops and had been converted into a storage area for old tables and chairs. In times of desperation we used the access roads for relays, stopping the race for the occasional truck or car.

Two years later and we are down to one football, and as of today it’s missing. The field in front of school is barren of grass along the edges and the last bastion of yellowish grass is making a heroic stand against a merciless sun. Only Ajarn Franco is creative with his activities, and even he can’t be asked most of the time, and as for Ajarn Carlsberg and me, well, we’ve played football for the entire year.

Downward Momentum and Predatory Instinct of the Sixth Grade

The Thai school year breaks for summer in about a month, and teaching momentum is not so much grinding to a halt as it is coasting to a gentle stop.

Kru Kiat is normally one of my favorite Thai teachers. Although our conversations are limited by my meager command of the Thai language she is always polite, punctual, and commands respect. She is also one of the few Thai teachers I have seen that is willing to exert the effort required to control my P-6 class.

The students in p-6 are amongst the oldest and biggest in the school, and seem to believe this grants them special immunity from normal school rules. They can easily transition from a normal class of students into a rioting mob at the first sign of teacher weakness.

Today Kru Kiat casually entered her P-6 math class 10 minutes late. She sat down, opened the book and started talking at the students as they completed their assignments. I stayed in the classroom and wasted time on the internet while pretending to do work.

Ten minutes into class her cell phone rang and she stepped outside to take the call. I watched on from my desk as the students quickly began flagrantly copying each others work. A few of the boys got out of their chairs and began wondering around. The mob consciousness was probing for weakness.

Kru Kiat finished her call and returned to the room, and a degree of order was restored, but in a reduced capacity. The students were talking quietly to each other now, and some had simply closed their math books and stopped working altogether.

I looked over at Kru Kiat to gauge her reaction but she was preoccupied with her digital camera. She was clearly scrolling through her memory card looking at pictures. She kept at it for awhile and the students became more rambunctious.

With ten minutes left in the class period, Kru Kiat, still in her chair, was showing her pictures to a small crowd of students. The rest of the class was completely out of control. Jumping around, standing on chairs, and chasing one another about while seemingly taking turns slapping each other as hard as they could on the back. I tried not to look and went out for a coffee.

The Yes Man