Words Sometimes Arn't Enough

If you have read my blog for a while you know I've attempted to warn you about the security of your wireless network. Here are the suggestions I've recommended in the past

• Instead of WEP encryption, use WPA with a pseudorandom 63 char pass phrase.
• Chose a pseudorandom SSID, and turn the SSID broadcast off.
• Employ MAC address filtering.
• Update the firmware on our wireless router

But sometimes words aren’t enough to get people to change their ways. If I haven’t made an impression on you, try watching this video…

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WPA
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In 50 years we will be doomed!

I read two things recently; the first makes some dire predictions about our future.

The natural health of planet Earth has declined by about 30 percent since 1970, according to new calculations from the World Wildlife Fund.
It's an impossible — and dangerous — trend, the fund's experts say.
Impossible because at current rates, humanity is using up the planet's resources so fast that by 2050 — when the human population will have grown by an additional half to 9 billion — we will need two Earths to meet the demand.

It is funny that I happened to revisit a great science fiction book that made some bold if not frightening predictions about our current time. 30 years ago Arthur C. Clarke wrote this in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

The population of the world was now six billion—a third of them in the Chinese Empire. Laws had been passed in some authoritarian societies limiting families to two children, but their enforcement had proved impracticable. As a result, food was short in every country; even the United States had meatless days, and widespread famine was predicted within fifteen years, despite the heroic efforts to farm the sea and to develop synthetic foods.

That should put the first statement into perspective. 30 years ago, alarmists were making claims that by 2001 we would be in dire straits today. But the fact is that farms have never been more productive. Don’t listen to those that would have us live as if we were in the third world.

Will we reach 9 billion? I’m sure we will; will we all stave to death? Don’t count on it! Never discount human ingenuity and advancement. We won’t all starve to death in 2050. Farms will be even more productive in 50 years than they are now. Technology will provide new and innovative techniques for farming and land use. It won’t just be the US that benefits either. The whole world will benefit. I expect that in 2050 my grandchildren will read the following headline. “In 2100 the World’s population will reach 12 billion. Widespread famine is expected!”


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Arthur C. Clarke
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Pomegranates

My favorite fruit, Pomegranates are back in season! I’ve been waiting all year for these to come back, and now the wait is over. Not only do pomegranates taste great, they are fun to eat and are very good for you.

One pomegranate delivers 40% of an adult's daily vitamin C requirement. It is also a rich source of folic acid and of antioxidants. Pomegranates are high in polyphenols. The most abundant polyphenols in pomegranate are hydrolysable tannins, particularly punicalagins, which have been shown in many peer-reviewed research publications to be the antioxidant responsible for the free-radical scavenging ability of pomegranate juice.

If you have never eaten one, you have from now until the end of January to get one; don't miss out!


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Political Rhetoric

Over the past few months I’ve been reading one of my wife’s college text books, The Origins of the American Constitution. Among the private correspondence of the Founding Fathers, it also contains the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. I’ve been drawn to the Anti-Federalist wittings of The Federal Farmer. Here is a quote that seems apropos given the climate of this current election season.

They will urge a thousand pretences to answer their purposes on both sides. When we want a man to change his condition, we describe it as miserable, wretched, and despised; and draw a pleasing picture of that which we would have him assume. And when we wish the contrary, we reverse our descriptions. Whenever a clamor is raised, and idle men get to work, it is highly necessary to examine facts carefully, and without unreasonably suspecting men of falshood, to examine, and enquire attentively, under what impressions they act. It is too often the case in political concerns, that men state facts not as they are, but as they wish them to be; and almost every man, by calling to mind past scenes, will find this to be true. – The Federal Farmer, October 8th, 1787

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Political Rhetoric

TU Football

Last night I attended my first TU football game. I’ve been to several TU basketball games at the Lloyd Noble Center, but I’ve never made it to a football game for some reason.

I’m glad I finally decided to go because I had a really good time. Tulsa outscored the University of Sothern Mississippi 20 to 6. ESPN televised the game in HD! For some great video highlights check out ESPN's review of the game.







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Tulsa University
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