Here's a solid (a little bit technical) recap…

…of the past week's events related to the SolarWinds cyber event, attributed in Trumplandia to a Russian "attack." (Maybe it is, but then…)

The SolarWinds cyberattack: The hack, the victims, and what we know

Unconfirmed media reports have also cited sources linking the attacks to APT29 (aka Cozy Bear), a state-sponsored hacking group associated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Researchers, including FireEye, Microsoft, or Volexity, have not attributed these attacks to APT29 at this time.

 

4º this morning; I don't even want to look

Sometimes a guy just feels old

We’re Never Going Back to the 1950s

 Since 2010, 33 million households have either cut the cord or never signed up for cable TV in the first place. The traditional cable bundle is slowly dying…

 Wait. Traditional? For most of the people alive today, I have to remind myself, it probably is. But not for a time traveler from the 1930's like myself. The first time I even saw a TV set, as far as I can recall, I was in junior high school and the 1950s was still a year away. It was the mid 50s before my family even owned a TV set, never mind a "cable bundle." 

I did have a cable bundle for a few years in the early 90s, back when CNN was a news station and not the 24-hour reality show it is today. Now, the closest I come to a "bundle" is when I subscribe to Hulu for a couple of months each year to watch college football. This year's subscription ends Monday.

This is sadly hilarious

Hacked networks will need to be burned ‘down to the ground’

"Agencies will often have to conduct sensitive government business on Signal, WhatsApp and other encrypted smartphone apps," notes the Associated Press.

Signal, WhatsApp and other encrypted smartphone apps [such as Apple Messenges — Ed.] are the very apps many in the U.S. Administration and Congress have been clamoring to reign in, require backdoors to, or even downright ban on grounds of national security and law enforcement. (WhatsApp, being owned by Facebook, is a little wobbly to begin with.) The fact they might now be necessary for conducting sensitive government business is nigh on to priceless, a little glitter of levity in an otherwise overwhelmingly sad tale.

Are you paying attention, FBI?

Somehow this seems like a story that just writes itself

Man Who Sued Parents for Getting Rid of $29K Porn Collection Wins Lawsuit

David Werking said while briefly living with his parents after a divorce, they discarded $29,000 worth of films and magazines

Ooops, lost me there

Female extremists in QAnon and ISIS are on the rise. We need a new strategy to combat them.

More generally, QAnon women are using social media with soft pastel hues to disseminate the conspiracy throughout North America and internationally.

A lot of assumptions here—some of them may be true

 

With Trump silent, reprisals for hacks may fall to Biden

 

"To be sure, it’s not uncommon for administrations to refrain from leveling public accusations of blame for hacks until they’ve accumulated enough evidence. Here, U.S. officials say they only recently became aware of devastating breaches at multiple government agencies in which foreign intelligence agents rooted around undetected for as much as nine months. But Trump’s response, or lack thereof, is being closely watched because of his preoccupation with a fruitless effort to overturn the results of last month’s election and because of his refusal to publicly acknowledge that Russian hackers interfered in the 2016 presidential election in his favor."

Yesterday

Pandemic statistics, mostly grim, some not so

 A Pandemic Atlas from APNews

Americans’ spending on groceries, compared to January: down 2.7 percent

Total sales of alcoholic beverages during the pandemic: $62.5 billion, up 21.8 percent

 

May the door hit his backside

Pence prepares to oversee Trump’s loss — and then leave town

So, it did

So…wait a minute…

Small, quiet crickets turn leaves into megaphones to blare their mating call

Some male crickets make their own megaphones by cutting wing-sized holes into the center of leaves. With their bodies stuck halfway through this vegetative speaker, male Oecanthus henryi crickets can more than double the volume of their calls…

…it's the quiet ones that are making all the noise?

Fun is where you find it (especially in Wisconsin)

Wisconsin motorist pulled over for driving car covered in Christmas lights

A state trooper credited the driver for his creativity, but warned him it is against state law to drive with the festive lights display.

Who, exactly, are these "experts" I keep hearing about?

What music do dogs love? Here’s what experts recommend you play for your pet

“Genres such as reggae and soft rock usually have a slower tempo, which some dogs may find more relaxing,” he says.

Beethoven gets a mention, but no Bach. 

Well, it does seem like a small price to pay

California judge extends strip-club exemption from lockdown

 The judge noted that Pacers International Showgirls and Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club operated for five weeks during the pandemic under their own safety measures, which included keeping strippers 15 feet (4.6 meters) from tables, allowing no more than one stripper per stage and requiring them and other employees to wear masks.

If you want to try your luck guessing the gender of the judge I'll give you a little hint: His first name is Joel. 

Just too much money to ignore, maybe

Facebook pauses political ad ban for Georgia runoffs

I'm not sure what the reason was for banning political ads in the first place, but pausing a ban sounds like a finagle. Gotta say.

Awwww

Facebook slams iOS privacy changes in full-page newspaper ads

Make that to go

Murder suspect escapes prison transport van that stopped at McDonald’s

The best part of this story:

Taylor, who is wanted for a murder in East Chicago, Indiana, was wearing a belly chain with handcuffs, along with a leg brace when he slipped from the van… 

The driver of the van tried to catch Taylor after he fled, according to surveillance footage obtained by authorities.

The guy was just a really slow driver. 

Not to be outdone…

Revealed: China suspected of spying on Americans via Caribbean phone networks

 Miller said that he found that in 2018 China had conducted the highest number of apparent surveillance attacks against US mobile phone subscribers over 3G and 4G networks. He said the vast majority of these apparent attacks were routed through a state-owned telecoms operator, China Unicom, which he said pointed in very high likelihood to a state-sponsored espionage campaign.

 Take that, Russia!

I traveled to Europe on this ship in 1958: She was grand

SS United States: The mighty ship that broke all the records -- then was left to rust

 The SS United States held -- and, incredibly, still holds today -- the fastest transatlantic speed record for a liner, and possessed a secret double identity.

The Information Age

Adobe publishes research study on disinformation

 "Manipulated content is everywhere, and it’s eroding trust in everything"

Who would have guessed?

China Peddles Falsehoods to Obscure Origin of Covid Pandemic

 The party also appears eager to muddy the waters as the World Health Organization begins an investigation into the question of how the virus jumped from animals to humans, a critical inquiry that experts say is the best hope to avoid another pandemic. China, which has greatly expanded its influence in the W.H.O. in recent years, has tightly controlled the effort by designating Chinese scientists to lead key parts of the investigation.

The Electoral College meeting is not the only news to watch this week

Endangered-species decision expected on beloved butterfly

Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species.

The "digital" part of this paragraph may be true…

Outsourcing Disinformation

While the details of this case are intriguing, in many ways Smaat’s Twitter network is illustrative of the new normal: a disinformation campaign linked to a digital marketing firm. We are increasingly seeing state actors outsourcing their disinformation operations to these companies.

 …but the rest of it has been going on to my certain knowledge since at least the 1960's, major U.S. public relations and lobbying firms representing the interests of some of the most malevolent dictators and nation states in the world, 

There's really no way to tote up the effects.

Too much togetherness is a thing

Amazon Sidewalk is coming – and not everyone will be happy

Nonetheless, it’s likely to raise concerns among both users and security advocates alike. Having a second network running, which has access to your home internet, and which you have only marginal control over seems like a recipe for potential disaster.

Abraham Lincoln's Doctor's dog

 It's a line from an old joke about a writer who found out the best-selling books at his local bookstore were books about Abraham Lincoln, books about doctors, and books about dogs. So he wrote a book entitled…etc., etc.

I just wanted to see what would happen if I write it here.

Carry on.

Too bad

Too bad fog bathing is not a thing, We have plenty of fog this morning (did you watch the Army-Navy game yesterday? Like that), and sun bathing is totally out of the question.

(It's about 45º, so a little chilly for sun bathing anyway, but still a little sun now and then would be a happy event,)

Humbug

‘Naughty’ llama promptly eats zoo’s handcrafted Christmas wreaths