Black holes hit cyberspace as well as outer space

Cyber-researchers say you may not need to blame your computer when your mouse icon starts spinning its gears while surfing the Internet. Rather, you may just have hit a cyber-black hole. (If you’re under 40, you don’t know a serious recession.)

Researchers looked for computers that can be reached from some, but not all, of the Internet.

“We were astounded when we did an initial four-month study and we saw how many problems there were,” Ethan Katz-Bassett told LiveScience. “It seemed infeasible that this could be happening so often. They’re definitely more common than we thought.”

If nothing else, it makes a great excuse at work, right?

“Boss, that report I had due? It got eaten in cyberspace.”

More seriously, the group of researchers has developed a map of the Internet, with the black holes, in the hopes of helping ISPs find problems, improve service and such. Because it needs the help.

“I think we would like it to be more reliable,” Katz-Bassett said. “It’s orders of magnitude less reliable than the telephone network right now. I think it should be pretty possible to get it closer.”

Your help is greatly and gratefully appreciated.

Sick of Exxon 'science' and Phil Mickelson

Another Masters, another four great days of golf, and another weekend of commercials lies from ExxonMobil, as mouthed by Phil Mickelson. The info below is largely reposted, with edits, from last year.

Make me laugh: Exxon’s Math and Science Academy.

First thought: Science is about a search for fact and truth. Don’t you have to be committed to those principles to support science?

Second thought: Don’t you actually have to understand math and science, and engineering, etc., to sponsor an academy like this?

Third thought: If you are a high school science teacher, can you in good conscience take money from Exxon for this?

Foruth thought: Here’s your list of ExxonMobil course offerings:

• Stress tensile strength of single-hull tankers. See how much collision stress single-hull oil tankers can withstand. Involves combined field trips-classroom experiments on scenic Alaskan shores
• Anthropogenic effects on seashore wildlife biology habitats. Prerequisite: Course above. Study the effects of crude oil on pristine habitats. Includes additional follow-up experiments.
• Numerical literacy and difficulty in counting to 450 parts per million. Learn how numeric literacy need not include counting up to dangerously high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• Numeric literacy and counting billions of dollars. Prerequisite: Course immediately above. Learn how counting dollars donated to science-obfuscating “think tanks” obviates the illiteracy of not being able to count to 450 parts per million.

Note: Catalogue is still under discussion and formulation. Your suggestions are welcome.

New this year, as my own personal suggestion.

Phil Mickelson, STFU.

Rate your cop along with your lawyer and teacher

That’s what RateMyCop.com lets you do. If you’re curious, here’s one of many stories about the site.

Six months ago, Gino Sesto and the site’s other founder, Rebecca Costell, began sending letters to thousands of police and sheriff’s departments around the country requesting the names and badge numbers of officers. Based on the responses and information on department Web sites, they created a database of officers from more than 500 departments in every state except Maine, Rhode Island and Alabama. The site focuses on departments in major cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta and Miami. …

Users can search for officers by name, department or state and give them up to five stars based on professionalism, fairness and overall satisfaction during an encounter.

They can also leave comments.

So far, the site has more than 140,000 officers rated. About one-third of them are from the top three states of California, Texas and Florida. It all sounds constitutional and legal, according to Peter Keane, a constitutional law professor at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and a former police commissioner. But, he has his worries.

“This site could discourage contacts between police officers and members of the public,” he said. “You want police to have encounters to investigate and solve crimes.”

And, with that and other concerns in mind, two hosting companies have already cut ties with the website, citing public safety worries.

Frankly, I think the websites are being ridiculous. And, Sesto allows users to flag comments by other users they think inappropriate. And, as for Keane’s concern that serious complaints will get drowned out by trivial ones, well, that might or might not happen. In any case, it shines the light of transparency, as imperfectly as it may shine, on another portion of government.

Hypocrisy alert – Dallas Morning News on American and FAA

The Snooze, in one of its editorials today, blames the Federal Aviation Administration for the problems that led to American Airlines grounding all of its MD-80s.

This massive disruption wouldn’t have occurred had the FAA held the airlines to inspection standards sooner. They didn’t act aggressively against Southwest, where there are allegations that FAA managers hindered other FAA inspectors from doing their jobs.

And in American’s case, the FAA issued inspection guidelines two years ago out of concern that improperly bundled wires might cause an electrical short or fire. Yet only now is this issue being addressed vigorously – and amid much confusion.

Well, if Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey can point out a Snooze editorial that has ever previously critiqued the FAA’s incestuous relationship with major airlines before the American and Southwest shit hit the fan, I’ll eat my hat.

Dick Cavett on Petraeus and Crocker

It’s too bad Dick Cavett still doesn’t have a talk show of his own, with this takedown of the speaking style and more of Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. But, his regular blog on the Times website is a good substitute.

It’s hard to imagine where you could find another pair of such sleep-inducing performers. …

As speakers, both Petraeus and Crocker are guilty of unbearable sesquipedalianism. …

If Crocker’s collection of these broken shards of verbal crockery were eliminated from his testimony, everyone there would get home at least an hour earlier.

Petraeus commits a different assault on the listener. And on the language. In addition to his own pedantic delivery, there is his turgid vocabulary. It reminds you of Copspeak, a language spoken nowhere on earth except by cops and firemen when talking to “Eyewitness News.”

Read on for much more hilarity.

News briefs – Pope disses Bush, possible quake for Cali, Tibetan terror monks?

No schedule conflict for Pope

Benedict XVI has no conflict on his schedule with a White House dinner in his honor April 19. He apparently just doesn’t want to show up. The White House continues to insist this is a dinner to honor Benedict, but, when he’s clearly declining the honor, this is a shallow lie even by White House standards.

The next “big one” about to hit West Coast?

A number of offshore earthquakes have recently been felt onshore in central Oregon. From what I’ve read, when the triple fault junction almost due west of this part of the Pacific Coast starts getting antsy, it can mean something hitting the San Andreas Fault in the not-too-distant future. And, throw out the 1989 7.1 earthquake in San Francisco. It’s been a long time since California had a real biggie.

Were Tibetan monks in an Olympic terror plot?

It’s possible, as many younger Tibetan monks, descendants of those who never went to Dharmasala in 1959, have slipped further out of the Dalai Lama’s control, and may indeed have resorted to this level of violence. On the other hand, this could all be a setup by Beijing with trumped-up charges.